cayden & ethan

(& yes, you need volume here. cayden's laughter is quite infectious.)

so, about five people will find this video interesting, but, since those five people will love it, i have to share it. cayden and ethan (his cousin) just being boys playing around on the beanbag. and no, there's nothing in the corner that they both keep putting their heads in. they're both just weird like that. anyone else think that cayden likes his older cousin? yeah, that's what i thought too!

new fabrics!

um, you guys? hawthorne threads is, like, the best fabric shop ever! not only do they have tons and tons of beautiful things to browse through, but their prices are pretty much unbeatable. and can i tell you that i placed an order on tuesday afternoon (for five and a half yards of different fabrics, no less) and that i got my order yesterday? that's like day and a half shipping.

i'm. in. love.

and the fabrics i got are to die for. i can't wait to start making more diaper clutches, more wet bags and more bibs. and also? a new little item. for your purse or diaper bag. it's a small pouch that can hold pacifiers. or diaper creams/medicine. or, you know, if you're like me and need your point and click with you AT ALL TIMES, it should slide into this pouch too. and without a doubt, some of these little pouches will match the other pieces. so you should probably just buy one of everything.


oh, and moddiapercakes was so very kind to feature one of my wet bags in a purple treasury! check out all the cool little purple things. i'm loving that elephant for sure.

wordless wednesday: discovering the joys of sidewalk chalk

for the love of all things ketchup

doesn't everyone eat like this?

this kid takes after his daddy. loves ketchup. LOVES IT. sure, he might have chicken fingers and fries to dip in it, but what does he dip? his finger. always his finger. unless we put all his food on the pile of ketchup, he'll sit there and just dip his finger.

another thing he's doing right now (you'll see it at about 12 seconds in), pulling his food forward in his mouth and chewing with his front teeth. & for some reason it causes this hilarious thing to happen with his mouth and eyebrows.

to sum things up: if you're ever at our house and have a pile of ketchup on your plate, watch out for our kids fingers. cause they'll be in it. (oh, and in retrospect, buying a white high chair may have been a bad idea. cleaning ketchup off it? not so much fun.)

playing in the creek

when it's this hot, feet in the creek are a must!

on saturday, we woke up and headed to the local farmers market. it was hot. like, so hot that i had sweat running down my back just from breathing. really. it was that hot.

(hey, did i mention it was hot?)

anyway, we picked up several great things: tomatoes, purple hull peas, okra and some homemade pickles. those pickles? are to die for. & they have a little kick. at $6 a jar, they were a little pricey. so i won't be getting those every time we go. but still, a nice little treat.

the farmers market that we went to is located right off a creek. and there's this great waterfall and all this room for wading in the water. since it was so hot, we thought we'd let cayden try it out. we kept thinking he would totally fall in, but he held his balance really well. and while we were standing there, a couple with their cute dog loaded their canoe in the creek and off they went. and now we're dreaming of getting a canoe for our little family and cruising down the creek.

i think that would be a ton of fun. you know, until said canoe tips over and we fall in. but that's what life jackets are for, right?

keep your things dry

with these new wet bags in the etsy shop! after much talk and a few delays, here are three options for a 10" x 10" wet bag. perfect for storing soiled cloth diapers, wet swimsuits or even a lunch on the go. be on the lookout for more choices sometime in the near future!

it's a zoo in there!

this print? i want to eat. it's just that cute.

ok, so there's not really a zoo anywhere. except for maybe in the etsy shop where i've listed a new diaper clutch and matching bib. snatch them up before they're gone, ok?

in the garden

picking beans, helping daddy & trying out cucumber - straight from the garden

cayden's granna and poppa have a nice little garden in their yard. jeremy took cayden up to visit while i stayed home and had a girls night a couple of weekends ago. jeremy left his camera there, so we're just now getting these photos, and they're just so cute not to share!

possibly one of my favorites of all time

from the sounds of it, cayden had a great time visiting. granna had made him some cupcakes because she knows how much he loves them. and while you have your shirt off to eat some cupcakes, you may as well, you know, play in all the tupperware!

really enjoying this fort thing!

and granna and poppa have the BEST couches for making forts! two couches equals lots of pillows. i'm thinking we need a couch without all the pillows attached just for this very thing! (he got to enjoy a pillow fort at nana and pop's with his cousin ethan once, too!)

allaboo

yeah, i know that's not a word.

but when you tell your son "i love you" every morning and this morning he responds with "allaboo"...

well? it makes this mama's heart melt. & i'm pretty sure his daddy's heart melted just a little bit too. big sighs. what an awesome, awesome experience. this having a kid thing.

photo credit here

six cats

yep. six cats. that would be the amount that we have in our home. yeah, i know. it's a lot. but there's a story, you see. before jeremy and i were married, i had two: jade and nya. and jeremy had one: storm. we get married. and we have three cats.

should be end of story. but it's not.


fast forward a year or so, and we're at our local pet shop where they're having adoption day. and well, whisper kind of fell into our laps. we didn't NEED another cat, but we felt like he needed us. and it didn't hurt that he was absolutely gorgeous either.

cats number five and six... kind of adopted us. they were strays in our neighborhood. we fed them. they stayed. end of story. ringu and xedo were outside cats so no big deal. well, until xedo got into some poison and became an inside cat. (he's got lesions on his brain and can't walk in a straight line. if we'd kept him outside, he'd most likely be gone by now. no way to defend himself and whatnot.) so, then we moved, and tried putting ringu back outside. she simply won't have it.

so now all six are indoor cats. and that's fine. cause they entertain us quite often.

they like to chase birds. on the tv screen.

and, if you tie a string to a fan blade and turn said fan on? literally hours of entertainment. hilarious!

and since most everyone visiting these links IS a pet lover, check out my pet silhouettes listed in the etsy shop! you might recognize one of those kitties as our xedo!

this is a blog hop! be sure to check out all the other great pets in the links below!

decision-making

oh, the making of decisions. i'm usually really bad at it. like, so bad, that bad doesn't really even do it justice. if we're going out to dinner, i can never (ever) decide where we're going. i almost always make jeremy pick.

(which honestly? doesn't do us much good. because jeremy always comes back with "wherever is fine. i'm not picky. i'll eat anything." which then puts me back in charge of the decision and i just get frustrated. and it goes on and on.)

and wow was that a tangent or what? and it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand really. cause you see, we received our second time home-buyers check in the mail yesterday. and even though i knew what i should do with that money, there were still all these ideas floating around in my head.

what i really wanted to do with it was pay down enough on my car so that we could buy me a newer car (with no negative equity hanging over our heads) that doesn't cost as much on upkeep. i even went so far as to pick out my new car this morning (a 2008 nissan rogue; just a bit bigger than what i currently drive; more storage, more room for kids; but it's still a 4 cylinder so it wouldn't eat up gas). i even sent the link to jeremy.

his response? "maybe."

and then? i just so happened to get on facebook where i saw one of my friends was celebrating paying off some major debt. & i stopped. and actually thought about things. about how if we paid this car off and just kept driving it... how that would allow us to pay off our (admittedly) stupid credit card. which would in turn, free up some mega-cash to add to our savings stash. which would mean that we could possibly have another kid sometime in the next few years without having to stress about money (not to mention ANOTHER kid in daycare).

and you know what? driving my 2003 sedan didn't sound so bad any more. and having money set aside in an emergency fund just in case something does goes wrong with this car? kind of a relief to think about. and? even if something did go wrong with this car, even if i add up the worst possibilities (short of needing a new car)? it would still be cheaper in the long run than buying a new (used) car.

sure, i'll need a new(er) car eventually. this one has almost 95k miles on it. & thankfully, it still runs perfectly. but i'm guessing that it will wear out at some point. but guess what? we might even have money saved up by then to (gasp!) pay for the new(er) car with cash.

and i like the way that thought makes me feel.

(edited to add: as soon as i hit publish, i had an email in my inbox. it was from nissan. i think someone's trying to play a mean joke on me. stupid nissan.)

14 months (one year, two months)

new to this world cayden

my dearest cayden -

fourteen months. fourteen months! when you get older and people tell you that time only gets faster the older you get, believe them, ok? cause it's true. these last fourteen months with you have flown by. and while i've loved every single minute of them, i truly wish that i could slow time down just a bit.

but i'm going to do what i can and just enjoy these precious moments with you. your little brain is really working hard. you're starting to understand and say more words. mama, dada, bye-bye, more, doc! (which is hot, but sound like doc) and ball are just a few that you've got mastered. your signing skills are awesome. i think "all done" is my favorite that you sign. mostly because you get kind of spastic with it. & just last night you added saying "more" to your signing. it's seriously just amazing watching you learning these things.

you've recently discovered that you're a monkey. seriously. i should climb these drums to get into the window sill where i could possibly climb onto that chair? sure! why not? you've also learned to climb down from things. which i presume means that it's only a matter of time before you master the leg swing and you'll be out of your crib. (btw, when do you convert those things?)

you give the best open-mouthed kisses i've ever seen. and you're back to blowing kisses like they're going out of style. you still don't say "hi!" to people. but you will say "bye-bye" and wave at them. even if you just met them.

you're a brave little guy. & show absolutely no fear of anything yet. which is good and bad. good because i don't want you to be afraid of things. but bad, because if we lose track of you for one second, you could be in some serious trouble.

you still love wrestling with daddy. & think it's hilarious to just fall on him with your entire body. no worries to what you might hit. on either of you. and you still give me the best "welcome home" hugs that have ever lived.

cayden, all this is to simply say that i love you. and i'm amazed by you. and i'm just so very grateful for this gift that has been given to us.

i could eat you to pieces, i love you so.

if only he'd kept it on

this hat with the blonde curls sticking out the back? dead. except he wouldn't keep it on. bummer.

editing to add this photo to paper mama's photo challenge. you can read more about the challenge here & also be sure to check out all the other participants. lots of cuties floating around for sure!

& i love this photo for so many reasons. cayden with that hat on is just priceless. and those curls sticking out the back of it? sigh. so yes, definitely one of my recent favorites! if you want to submit your own entry, just click on the button below:

helping daddy

scrub-a-dub-dub

our dishwasher is currently unavailable. as in, the last time we used it, the water didn't drain out properly. jeremy called the "people" on monday and they can't get out to see us until next tuesday. so things are happening the old-fashioned way at our house at the moment. & as two people who haven't hand-washed dishes in um, forever, this is quite an ordeal.

when i got home from work yesterday afternoon, i got my usual afternoon hug from cayden. & he's pretty wet.

me: "why is he wet?"
j: "oh, i forgot. look at these photos."

and well, these photos are just too cute and completely make up for the fact that cayden was wet. cause see, he was helping to wash his own cups. (after jeremy had washed them first.)

::swoon:: so in love. with both of my boys.

bye-bye. mwah!

eating a little food

i luvs the chik'n nuggets!

we tried chik'n nuggets with cayden last night. to say that he kind of loved them would be an understatement. & the bright green peas? just like corn: one. at. a. time.

the funny thing though? every single time that he would take a bite of his nugget, he would sit it beside his plate. not on it. this photo shows the closest to the plate it got. otherwise, it sat off in lalaland until i put it back on his plate. then he'd see it again. and ta-da, the process started over.

we gave him a fork to try out last night too. he understands it, he really does. he just doesn't get how to use it. he'd pick up a single pea in one hand, the fork in the other. then he would (pretend) place the pea on the fork and then just stuff the pea in his mouth. sometimes he followed that move with the fork, but most times not. so he understands it. but he doesn't get it.

we were cracking up. repeatedly.

trying to find time

proud to have figured out that zipper thing

first? my newest sewing exploration! it's a wet bag. perfect for soiled cloth diapers. & if you don't cloth diaper? perfect for wet swimsuits in a suitcase. or for soiled clothes while out running errands. this particular size is small enough (at about 10 by 10 inches) that you could even use it for a lunch bag. but honestly? that material is just a little too cute to stick in those work refrigerators cause they get pretty nasty.

the problem i'm having is finding time to sew more of these lovely bags. and that is because i have no schedule in the evenings. which must change so that i can make the most of my time. & that also has to include exercising cause this mama has got to get things in gear. i'm falling apart!

here's what i'm hoping to get my afternoon routine to look like:
6ish > get home
6-6:30ish > go for walk/run around the 'hood with jeremy & cayden
6:30-7ish > eat dinner
7-7:30ish > playtime/bathtime
7:30ish > bedtime for cayden
7:30-8 > jillian michaels 30 day shred
8-10ish > sew?

i mean, is that even doable? or should i not worry about an afternoon schedule? advice? tell me i'm crazy? anything?

a boy & his bear

morning cup & a good snuggle

y'all? all of a sudden, cayden is attached to this bear like whoa. i mean, he tries to pull it through his crib slats when he's outside of it (he still doesn't quite realize that it won't work - no matter how hard he pulls). & this morning, he took it all over the house with him.

i still have the bear i had as a kid. and yes, it looks really rough. it actually sits on a shelf in cayden's room. i obviously loved my bear. like, a lot. & it looks like cayden might follow in my footsteps here.

but i don't really care. cause honestly? it's probably one of the most adorable things. ever.

say "cheese"

cheese!

for weeks, maybe even months, we've had a cheese grin popping up from time-to-time. and it has to be one of the cutest things i've ever seen. the problem we had was catching it on camera.

last night, cayden was in ultimate cheese mode. at the dinner table. so i do apologize for the food in his mouth. but he squints his eyes up just so, and then shows you practically every tooth in his head. and if you cheese grin back at him, he does it even bigger.

(and i cannot get over that gap in his front teeth! it just kills me it's so stinkin' cute.)

and while i think it's pretty funny, cayden thinks it's hilarious. which makes me laugh harder. which, in turn, makes the cheese grin even more pronounced. gah! i love our cheesy kid.

playing a little diddy

it didn't sound so great, but it sure was cute

cupcakes!

don't even think about touching my cupcake

cayden has had a cupcake once in his life (ok, twice). and that was at his birthday party. which was maybe a month and a half ago? (as a side note, time, could you please slow down?) so i wouldn't think that he would necessarily remember what it was exactly.

there's another one. right. there.

these things are just so good!

anyway, his nana made red, white and blue cupcakes for the fourth. we had them over at my grandmother's house. nana plopped one down in front of cayden, and before his great aunt julie could get his t-shirt off, he'd grabbed the thing. icing side up. no worries, it seems as though he remembered exactly what that sugary goodness was.

lexie and ethan getting down with their cupcakes

the shirt was finally off and he dug in. quite literally. ethan and lexie enjoyed theirs too, but not with quite the same vigor as our little guy. when will cupcake photos stop being so fun? i'm hoping never.

fourth of july

getting ready to watch the fireworks

we had a terrific long holiday weekend. we drove up to tennessee on saturday morning and didn't get back until yesterday evening. lots of family time. & watching all the kids interact together was awesome. we went to see eclipse (it's the first time i've paid for it, mind you) and i got completely pissed off that they were still showing the paranormal activity 2 trailer. not cool.

but how good does the new narnia and harry potter look? gah! so excited!

jeremy let cayden pick out one firework – oh, look, it has a ball on it

some other weekend highlights include:
• playing at the pool
• eating cupcakes at my grandmother's house (that's a whole other series of photos right there!)
• buying fireworks
• eating some crazy-good home-cooked and home-grown vegetables (hello hyphens!)
• watching ellis poop on justin's foot (oh, come on! it was seriously funny!)

sparkler fun & ethan throwing his to the ground

• having ethan throw his sparkler in the grass because it "burned him" (it didn't)
• watching all the kids in awe of the fireworks
• hearing cayden say "woah" for the first time because we all did (his is much cuter)
• loving my little guy throwing his head back every time a new firework took off for the sky

one happy mama with her baby

• trying to console lily (the older dog who's terrified of fireworks)
• just being around family and enjoying this holiday for the second time in a row

we're all hoping my parents will be back in alabama sometime next year. but if they're not, i know where we'll most likely all go for the fourth again. i mean, you can't beat great fireworks from their back porch. & no traffic. it's perfect, really.

date night

on our way to meet friends & sadly, the only photo from the night

on saturday evening, my parents watched cayden while we went out meet up with some friends in nashville at the flying saucer. i wish i had more photos from the evening to share.

they would've included photos of lee beth's apartment. she lives in the icon. which has to be one of the coolest buildings i've ever been in. super modern interiors. plus two gyms. and two pools. one of which is on the ninth floor rooftop which has an incredible view of downtown nashville. gorgeous. and she saw gwyneth paltrow doing yoga in one of the workout rooms one time. which means that chris martin wasn't far behind.

but i digress. every time we go back to nashville, i want to move there. it's such a fun city with this vibrance for life that you can feel almost anywhere. downtown birmingham? yeah, it's lame. super lame compared to nashville. and while i could totally see myself living in lee beth's place, it's not a family home, you know? i mean, i guess we could stick cayden in one of the closets, but that's probably not the best way to go ...

... and then we get back to our home. in the middle of nowhere, alabama. and i fall in love with it all over again. but now? i'm ready to completely redecorate. who wants to help me pay for it?

two sweet kiddos

cayden with his cousin, lexie

sandwiches? yeah, sandwiches.

see what happens when you give design nerds sandwiches to bring?

jeremy: "cayden has a 4th of july party on july 2. i signed us up for sandwiches."
me: gives jeremy the look
jeremy: "don't look at me that way. that was the last thing on the list."

really? sandwiches. i mean, how in the world do you make sandwiches 4th of july festive? i guess i could have colored something a mean blue or red. but how appetizing is that? yeah, it's not. so we settled for turkey and muenster sandwiches. fancy cheese!

and? target to the rescue! they had these cute little sandwich-size bags that came in? you guessed it! red & blue. jeremy got all excited about decorating them with iron-ons and everything. (mind you, this was last night. planning ahead here, right? um, no.) we get home with the bags and i pull them out. they feel pretty plastic-y to me.

me: "babe, i don't think we can use the iron on these."
jeremy: (takes bag and feels it) "sure we can. it's just like those cloth grocery bags we have."
me: "um, ok."

we've printed out our stars and i take the bags upstairs to start the ironing process. at 9. at night. i lay the first star on the bag, plop the iron down and make the first slide across the iron-on. except that the iron doesn't move. for real. it's stuck to the bag. that felt an awful lot like plastic.

yep, that bag is plastic

and now? we need a new iron. and we were short one bag. oh well. it was a learning experience for sure. and we laughed. and we were still giggling about our idiocy this morning. ah, good times.

new fabrics (& new ideas)

pretty new fabrics!

guys, i just ordered a few fat quarters of new fabric to try something new. wet bags anyone? give me a few weeks to get kinks all worked out, ok? afterward, i'm hoping that i'll have a great new item to add to the hugs & kisses shop. and aren't these fabrics adorable?

i'm also having another thought for a new item. the problem? i currently have no idea how to make it. so i have to sit down and figure out the logistics. if i figure it out, i'll share. otherwise, this one's being kept to myself for just a bit longer.

(and as an aside, flickr's moved some things around and i had the hardest time finding the link to my photo. please stop changing things just when i figure them all out, ok?)

eclipse & girlfriends

me and several of my girlfriends from work ventured out to the theatre last night. to see what else? eclipse. these girls are some fun company and we had a really great time. we behaved like teenagers (not overly annoying, but overly tweeting, photographing and giggling). at least we didn't walk in like that one group of middle-aged women wearing their "team" shirts. or, you know, we weren't a 50ish year old woman going around and asking people what team they were. and then lecturing said people on how they should be more like edward and treat their wives more like bella. no lie. there was a lady doing this. it's, um, fiction lady.

tara, beth & me w/our cups. & mj, who decided she was team cookies. & whitney hiding in backgrounds.

eclipse though? actually pretty decent. no awards coming their way, mind you (and mtv does not count), but definitely the best of them so far. the screenplay was much better written. & it seemed as though the actors had some better direction (again, still not brilliant). overall? i really enjoyed it. i had a few problems with some of the details but won't go into it in case someone is reading that wants to see it and hasn't.

team edward. all. the. way. he sparkles, ya know?