our sweet little angel

sleeping so peacefully...

ice! - a charlie brown christmas

we went to ice! last year. it was the grinch then, and very cool. but everyone has a special place in their heart for the charlie brown christmas, right? it was very fun and very cold. (how cold do you think it is in here? one. ok, ok. after a little googling, it's apparently kept at sixteen degrees in there. much better than one? uh, no.)

anyway, a few photos documenting the day:

santa!

we were in tennessee this weekend visiting with nana and pop. nana had let us know that the franklin santa was already at the mall, and that there probably wouldn't be much of a line yet. so we all decided to tackle the big event.


as we were standing in line, cayden started getting a little fussy - it was time to eat and we had left the bottle in the car. i started to get a little worried that he wouldn't do so good with santa, so we asked rachel and justin if we could go first.

he was a pro though! just a happy little fella. after we had his photo taken, we got ethan and lexie in on the fun (nana wanted one photo with all the grandkids in it). all three of them did great and we got one with all three of them smiling (i'll have to get that one from nana).

overall, a great first santa experience. no worries, i totally expect a meltdown next year.

six months old

new moon

yes, like many others in the blogging world, i'm writing about new moon. it comes out this friday, but guess who gets to see it tonight? that's right. me! a dear friend at work was able to score some advance screening passes, and i got two of them for me and jeremy. i feel like our entire office will be there tonight... and you know what? that could be fun too. the showing it at 7:30, but i'm riding with a friend to the theatre right after work. we were told to get there an hour early for the line; we're thinking we'll be as close to the front as possible. i mean really, free tickets or not, who wants to sit at the very front of the theatre? not me. here's hoping we get a decent place in line, and ok seats. yay!

cayden's first christmas

jeremy and i are both really excited about all the upcoming holidays. i know cayden won't remember these first few years, but it should be a good time for us all experiencing them as a family for the first time. i set out on a mission to find a baby's first christmas ornament for him, and found the most adorable thing ever on etsy. i got it from this shop; if you're looking for adorable hand-made ornaments, then take a look.

on his hat, it'll say: Cayden's
on the little heart: 2009
and, on the banner at the bottom: First Christmas

cute, right?

trying out bananas

last week, night two of avocados was a BIG, FAT FAIL. he wouldn't even open his mouth to try them out. that's ok. we'll save what was frozen and try it out again in a couple of weeks. tonight, we decided to try bananas. we have a couple that were on the verge of needing to be thrown out, so we mushed half of one up (and froze the rest for future meals). it was, um, interesting to say the least. i think the bananas must've hit all the different tastes. and even after swallowing it, he would occasionally get a shiver. too cute. and laugh out loud funny.

a new experience

cayden's been sitting up fairly well these last couple of weeks, so we decided to see how he'd do in a shopping cart. we ventured out to tj maxx to find the kiddo a winter coat. their carts are a little bit smaller than the normal cart (read: about half the width of normal ones), so we felt ok trying it out. and he did pretty good. about half-way through, you could tell he was getting tired of holding himself up... walking him around the store took care of that though...

(and yes, we were the parents who whipped out a camera in the store to document his very first ride in a shopping cart. we're cool like that.)

finally!

after almost six long months, i was able to meet papa rip! yay! and he got to my house just in time to feed me. my great-granny allen also came over (momma didn't do a great job with photos, did she?). anyway, we all hung out for a while. and i slept most of the time. i guess i do that a lot. i'll grow out of it one day though.

either way, i'm looking forward to seeing papa rip more over the next week. he's silly. just like daddy...

first real food

i kept going over lists to see what a good first food would be for an almost six month baby. i read that avocado was a good one to try out, and easy for both baby and parents - it doesn't have to be cooked first! we mashed one up last night to see how cayden would do with it. i was impressed. his first reaction was pretty much as expected, but overall, he handled it well. we'll try the avocado again for three more nights and then move on to something else (maybe bananas!). everything i've read says to try a food for at least three days; if the baby is going to be allergic to it, it would show up by then. maybe tmi, but i'm interested to see how this affects his poop. weird, right?

maybe i did feel bad

but i definitely feel better now. for real, i wasn't being as loud as usual, but these last few mornings, i've been talking up a storm. i think momma and daddy realized that maybe i did feel a little bad... but now that dr. c gave me some good medicine, i'm back to talking all. the. time. yay!

unfortunately, momma and daddy are now a little under the weather. they have gross snotty noses and keep sneezing all the time. i kind of woke up with a snotty nose myself this morning. momma wasn't happy about that.

say a little prayer that we all get better soon. it's no fun being sick.

a small update

our sweet little thing has had a cough for the past couple of weeks. he hasn't run a fever with it, so we thought we were ok not putting a call into the doctor. when he woke up with the cough on monday morning (starting week 3), we decided it was time to put a call in...

... the nurse definitely wanted to see him; thought it might be pneumonia. not good.

so jeremy took cayden in to see dr. c yesterday and thankfully, no pneumonia. instead, he has a double ear infection. um, what? shouldn't he cry more, or at least be more upset? yeah, he wasn't... but we started his amoxicillin last night and drank it up like a pro. here's hoping that nasty cough makes its way out of here and that his ear infection clears right up...

(he weighed in at 16 pounds and 4 ounces yesterday. we'll know more on his stats dec. 1 as that's when his six month appointment is. gah! six months?)

tex mex chili

so last week, i tweeted about needing a new chili recipe, and foodista came to the rescue with this recipe. we went shopping yesterday and got all of the ingredients. i started the crockpot around 1ish and we ate at about 5:30. delicious. for real. it's a little on the spicy side (just the right kind of burn, not oh-my-goodness-i-can't-eat-this). it'll be added into our rotation every so often now.

we substituted a few things (morningstar crumbles for the pound of ground meat) and left a few things out (celery - mostly because i never eat the rest of it when we buy it, and rotten celery is just plain gross; and the can of tomatoes - neither of us are big fans of chunky cooked tomatoes). definitely try it out sometime... we topped it with mozzarella cheese, fritos and sour cream.

roll tide!

saturday's tailgate was a blast. cayden did great! a couple of his naps were cut short, but otherwise, he was as happy as could be. we hung out with good friends and ran into a few others. all in all, a great day. beautiful weather and a win against lsu. whew!

too cool for school

be still, my heart

we're going tailgating tomorrow. in tuscaloosa. one of my most favorite places ever. the last time we went to tuscaloosa was also the day we found out we were pregnant with cayden (sept. '09). so it's even more special to us now. i went to ua and loved every. single. minute. i had an awesome college experience, and was lucky enough to meet (and marry!) someone who has loved 'bama since he was a little lad. and we're excited to start sharing our love of 'bama with the little man.

roll tide, 'bama. beat those silly tigers! (but please let us run into someone who's cooking some authentic gumbo along the way. k, thanks.)

wave

ok, so, being 30 years old (yes, there, i said it), one would think that you would no longer be having issues with your skin. not. true. seriously, some days i feel like i should 15 or so with this skin. and it's true, i don't have the best skin routine out there. i go to bed more days than not with makeup still in place (not a huge crime as it's usually only powder and mascara, but still!).

i decided last week that i needed to change things up. i've wanted one of these neutrogena wave things for almost a year. really. i just didn't want to spend the money (and, it's not all that pricey to begin with). i convinced myself to spend the money, and i have to say, i'm not disappointed at all.

it advertises that you'll notice your skin feeling softer and smoother in just one use. false advertising? not so much! my face really did feel super-soft, and you can see all your make-up on the little pad. i've been using it for right at a week now, and i really feel like my skin is softer and smoother. true, it could be in my head... but i thought i'd share anyway.

so there it is... if you're looking for something new, give it a try. i haven't been disappointed with it yet. (and no, neutrogena didn't pay me for this review. i wish!)

psa: keep your cars locked

hey guys, i found this blog quite some time ago. unfortunately, it was one of those blogs i found because of a horrible incident that happened to a beautiful family. (on the upside? sheye is a wonderful photographer and i've found lots of inspiration looking at how she shoots everything.)

you can read her blog to get the full story, but the summary of it is that her beautiful daughter, ava, went out to their car on a warm summer day, closed the door and couldn't get back out. the heat inside the car was too much for their three year old daughter, and they lost her shortly thereafter. it's a heartbreaking story, but one that i feel very drawn to.

so please, anyone with small children who think it might be fun to go play in their cars, please take a look at ava's story and ava's rules. and spread it around so that everyone can be aware...

hair woes

so, a couple of years ago, i cut my hair like this:



it was cute, and i had a sort of love/hate relationship with it. it was the shortest i'd ever cut it. fast forward to now, and my hair is the longest it's been in quite some time. my ponytail is even long (ok people, it's obviously not super-long, but to me, it's gotten there).

anyway, i'm fighting with myself on whether or not to cut it all off again. maybe not quite as drastic as last time, but something in between. i promised myself i'd give it until the new year, and then if i'm still itching to cut it, i can. right now that itch is really strong.

any thoughts? like it better longer? or shorter? anything?
(bueller... bueller...)

omg.

two words: stella mccartney
two more words: baby gap

seriously? i couldn't be any more excited about this. sure, the prices aren't super-friendly for pieces that i'll be replacing every few months, but who cares? this stuff is gorgeous. the band jacket for the boys is adorable. and the tulle skirt for the girls? i die. (i could possibly make something like that... maybe.)

either way, i think cayden will have at least one piece from this collection. oh, and i can't help but notice the cute redheads they've used in the photos. love them.

who knew?

we took this video a couple weeks ago (i'm so lazy getting things posted sometimes!)... but who knew that a tape measure could be so funny? silly boy.

happy halloweenie!

we went over to rachel's neighborhood to trick-or-treat. best neighborhood ever. sidewalks and street lights = perfect neighborhood. unfortunately, some of their neighbors aren't so great. well, maybe they are great... but yelling at their kids wasn't cool. either way, it didn't darken our mood. ethan was having a blast and cayden fell asleep half-way through. good times...





(isn't cayden the cutest fireman ever? i love how his reflectors made him "glow" in his photos.)

watch me roll

wait for it... wait for it. ta-da!



(he's been able to do this for a couple of weeks now; we were just able to catch it on video. the problem with this new-found talent is that he forgets that he can roll from tummy to back. we're being woken up multiple times a night now because he's gotten "stuck" on his belly. we're hoping he'll re-learn the tummy to back roll soon!)

for granna!

hey granna! here i am in my boo-jammies that you got for me. my big 'ole noggin almost didn't fit into the cute pumpkin hat, but momma and daddy made it work anyway. sorry i look a little upset in the first photo... i was tired and hungry and momma and daddy just kept taking my picture. hope you like them!

a visit to momma's office

on friday, daddy picked me up from school early and took me to momma's office. there were lots of kids there trick-or-treating. momma and her friends at work had decorated their area into a spooky scene. there was lots of fog around too... making it hard to see, breathe and take photos. momma and daddy managed to snap a couple that weren't too bad...