abigail's birthday some more

non iphone photos from abigail's birthday

em's friday night bbq

friday night as a rehearsal dinner of sorts for em's wedding, we had dinner at a wonderful and fun bbq place. and here are pictures.

baby girl and her uncle wally

see that head of curly hair?  that belongs to my sister.  somehow the curly gene ran out by the time i came around because the eldest got that and as the youngest i got... well, well all know what my hair looks like.

emmy's friends from college

baby girl was in heaven

with marianne, lucy, and catherine

fun fact: i wore marianne's wedding dress when i got married.

my last full day

last night i started freaking out that since my flight is friday, thursday would be my last full day.  so i set my alarm and woke up at 7:30 this morning to shower and dress and eat by 8 30 so mom and i could get in some good quality time together organizing before baby girl got up.  we organized for a few hours and then whipped baby girl out of her crib, threw some clothes on her, and handed her a granola bar to eat in the car. we hit up homegoods and target for baskets and organizing stuff and were on our way home by 12:30!  i couldn't even believe how much we'd accomplished in one morning.  nap time was spent putting everything in place.  it all looks so good.  someday i'm going to have to break down and spend the money on pretty and quality storage baskets like that.  in the meantime i'll keep up my excellent cardboard box improv skills.

another time i'll have to post pictures of all of the projects we've tackled but here are just a few from dad's computer software shelves and the laundry room/closet .

before

after

after

with these shelves, i tried to make things more streamlined and less of an eye sore but without making things too difficult for dad to see or get to.  this really didn't take long at all because, for dad, everything was organized and he knew where to find it all... it was just a matter of hiding it from view.  steal some magazine files from the basement, buy a few boxes and BAM... less terrible.  mom is so excited.

last night i was reading this blog post on one of my favorite blogs and got the itch to organize mom's laundry room.  i sent mom a link to the post and told her to just scan the pictures and let me do the rest.  she got the itch too and the both of us had a fun morning re-configuring things to make this area a little nicer and more functional.

before

after

after

even the "after" has a lot going on that will thin out with time but it's a vast improvement having similar cleaning items all corralled together in baskets and bins that are easy to pull out when you're looking for something.  that way your goo gone doesn't get lost in the back of the top shelf!

while we were at target i got a fierce need for mellowcreme pumpkins.  and then ate my weight in sugar, unknown ingredients, and artificial colors.  sorry baby in utero... i hope your SAT scores don't suffer as a result of my indulgence.

and then we woke baby up at 5 30 to head over to liza's house for dinner!  it was delicious and oh so fun!  thanks for hosting, liza!  

i wore my hair curly today for the first time in a year and told mom to make sure she got a sibling picture of our matching hair.  well... buddy and liza seemed to have forgotten their curly hair today.

trying to get a good picture of skye and will and baby girl proved difficult.

"stand still and hold hands and look at the camera and smile!" yielded this gem.

the paparazzi.  

i'm so so so excited to get home and see my honey tomorrow but i'm also just so sad to leave my parents'.  it feels like i've been here forever and that colorado life is so long ago and so far away but it also feels like this trip has absolutely flown by.  like it feels like yesterday was monday.  i'm so confused that tomorrow is friday.  who wants to come pack for me?  i'll pack my clothes if you pack all of my childhood junk my parents want out of the house.

any takers?

happy birthday mother!

happy birthday to my amazing mother!!!  

we celebrated with more organizing (tons of organizing), dinner with walter and liza and jeff and their kids, stickers, milky way ice cream (have i mentioned that every post since i got here?!), stickers ten times over, and more organizing.  and since my camera went missing tonight during all of the action, these are the only shots i have from today.  i'll have to steal my mom's memory card to get pictures from this trip and maybe liza would be so generous as to email me some of her's from tonight!  

before picture of mom's desk.  although typically the computer keyboard isn't under a stack of papers.  she was mid-organizing.

the organized games and puzzles shelves

the organized toy shelves (with just a few toys missing)

gift wrapping supplies... labeled.

bags and tissue paper... labeled.

just a few of the many stickers that went around tonight.  buddy (walter), mom, dad, baby girl, and i all had at least ten stickers on us at any given point during the night.  same stickers, they just circulated.  and are currently residing on my parents bedroom door.  i'm amazed at the longevity of their tack.

before... after still to come.

no gum necessary

tonight i had to cut baby girl's hair a tiny bit.

last night we got home late and she was the most tired i've seen her maybe ever.  then we had to wake her up early for church this morning.  so during lunch she's begging for a nap which isn't uncommon but i still knew she was tired from the travel.  normal naptime is 2 but i had her down by 1:30.  at 6:15 i still hadn't heard a peep from her so i finally went up to her room to make sure she was still alive (anyone else do that when their kid takes a super long nap?  i swear i can't be the only one) and i heard her in her crib just happily playing away.  i got her out because it had been almost FIVE HOURS and saw that she had the most ridiculous knot in her hair.  she likes to twirl her hair with her finger... especially when she's tired.  i think this must be a recessive trait in our family because my brother got it too... although he doesn't limit the hair twirling to when he's tired.  so i tried working it out with my fingers.  and i kept doing that while we played outside for two hours and then i decided i'd have to be done with conditioner so before bed i gave her a long bath (yeay for the beach because my baby went from dreading and crying during baths to begging for them and crying when i tell her it's time to get out!  crossing my fingers this lasts...) and let her play in the water while i massaged that knot with conditioner FOUR times.  it got better but not all the way.  so i got her out, dried her off,

and clipped out that little knot.

and that is the story of baby's first unofficial haircut.

and to liza: it's true that baby girl hadn't napped when we left your house after the zoo but i put her down for a nap when we got home and she slept for a few hours until i woke her up.  late nap better than no nap!

notes to prompt me later

we're in north carolina!  atlanta flew by and i'm sad we're not going to be back til september.... but WE'RE AT THE BEACH!!!

thursday was a bundle of fun.  it involved sleeping in (as was the case every day this week... yeay for a jett lagged baby!), running errands with mom - costco!!!- , ditching a sleeping baby to go play at sarah's house, delicious waffle dinner at my brother walter's new house with his beautiful wife and my mom, dad, sister liza, and baby girl.  waffles with cinnamon, butter, syrup, whipped cream, and tons of special costco peach mango orange preserves... well, that's just heavenly.  and even though i was too full and nauseous to move, somehow i got home to put baby girl to bed and made it over to lynell's by 9:30.  ish... i was a little late.  hung out with lynell, diana, tarin, and weed til after midnight before calling it a night and heading to the car.  and then weed and i didn't drive away til after 2am.  so much fun.  if only my dear friend rachel had been there.  those girls were my life in highschool... and as far as lisa and diana go... they were my life in.... well, my whole life.  since birth do we never part.  k, i need to go to bed.

friday was excellent as well.  errands, staining the floor and a nasty smelling house, nap time, picnic lunch at the chamblee airport park, aunt jane arrived, made french toast bake in the garage, and picked honey up from the airport at 11 30.  for the fifth time this week didn't get to bed til after 2 am... or 3.

today we drove to the beach.  and baby girl did not sleep for a single second of it so this is officially her first day of her life that she has ever gone without a nap... like was awake for 12 hours straight!  the car ride was pretty good considering it was like sitting next to an add octopus in a carseat.  having so much fun with everyone at the beach already and baby girl looooved jumping waves and getting her clothes all wet.  no pictures of it because i was too busy enjoying the moment but it was sooo worth it.  perfection with sand.

official posts with pictures to come.  maybe.  but don't hold your breath.

can this count for three days of journaling?  i know i'm cheating.

ps- on page 350 or something and i'm absolutely loving atlas shrugged.

cinco de maycock take dos

k, let's try this again.  let me know if the pictures work!  and if that's successful i'll go through the pain of moving over the text and captions.  woohoo.

a whole bunch of pictures taken between 8 am and noon.  to make up for the fact that i never got my camera out after that.  whoops.

as we sent him off to the temple.  last shot before he became a married man!

with the proud parents.

headed to the temple

meeting up with mom and em and darren

so happily engaged.  they're such a gorgeous couple.

picture time after the sealing!

 

my loves

 

 

 

 

with granny and liza

sisters and new sister in law!

siblings!

emmy and me with the great sara snow!

seriously.  i can't get enough.

with my honey!

sara snow!

my precious little girl 

my camera has been broken since that one week i kept letting baby play with it so the battery compartment is held together by duct tape and can be annoying.  and i wanted to be in the moment instead of constantly behind the camera.  sooo, i'm counting on picture sharing to get all of the good pictures from the day.  because this is pretty much all i have.  ;-)  anyways, it was excellent.