Cutest and Sweetest

That's our most common nickname for CB. And Anj captured his fun personality while she was here. Wish I were as talented with a camera as she is. Luckily, we're related so CB is well-documented. And yes, I am a very proud mama. :) Check it here.

ABC

A- Attached or single: attached- although that seems like it's a negative thing, like I'm bound with chains

B- Best Friend: Trav, my fam, Hymes, Cassie, and now Charlie Boy, my all-time hangout partner

C-Cake or Pie: pie, but if crisp were an option, i'd say that instead

D-Day: every other Saturday when I'm not working. We get to run together and shop and hang.

E- Essential Item: Mascara

F-Favorite Color: pink, although green is creeping up there lately

G-Gummi Bears or Worms: yum, love gummis: Haribo gummy bears (right Doge?), sour patch kids, sour fruit salad, love all gummies

H-Home town: Fres-Yes, Cali

I-Indulgences: long runs on the river, spa days, shopping

J- January or July?: definitely July, I am not a fan of winter

K-Kids: 1 little charlie boy miracle

L-Life is incomplete without: family, friends, happiness

M- Marriage Date: 24 April 2004

N-Number of Siblings: 4- 3 sisters and 1 bro

O- Oranges or Apples: apples w peanut butter, yum

P- Phobias or Fears: loss of a family member

Q- Quote: "When in situations of stress, we wonder if there is anymore in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows us perfectly, placed us here to succeed." Elder Neal A Maxwell

R- Reason To Smile: CB's smiles

S- Season: Spring and Summer: swimming, sunshine, runs outside, flowers

T- Tag Four: Lis, Bean, Doge, Jess

U- Unknown fact about me: I like the smell of E coli growing on a plate

V- Very Favorite Store: hm... if I had no financial budget, I'd say armani exchange, club monaco, nordy, shopbop

W- Worst Habit: judgmental

X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I'd rather have neither, but ultrasounds aren't bad

Y-Your favorite food: Thai, Indian, vegetarian

Z: Zodiac Sign: Aries

No Machine Needed

Right before CB was born we went to this fabulous fabric store, Cynthia East, and bought fabric to make curtains. CB was born the next day so the project obviously got put on hold. Now, almost 5 months later, the project is completed! Hallelujah. And I must say, I'm quite pleased. Part of the delay was due to the fact that somehow in the move from North Carolina to Little Rock, the knee lever for my antique sewing machine got lost. I have no idea how. It has a spot in the case and is anchored there very securely, but you can't put anything past movers, I guess. So I've been searching on ebay for the knee lever, contacted the company, etc... but to no avail. Sad. My mom's old sewing machine from college might have seen its last ride.

Luckily for me, some genius invented Stitch Witchery. The name explains it all. It's this crazy mesh netting stuff that can be steamed to fabric and it binds it so you don't have to sew. It's used for quick hems. So I decided to give it a try because its only cons are that sometimes it doesn't hold in the wash. But how many times will I be washing these curtains anyways? Then I found some great trim at Cynthia East to make a little tie back (hand-stitched the ends and used adhesive velcro). Now our house is coming together, just in time for us to enjoy before we might have to move...

Long Nights, Nice Days

This past week Beth & Anj were here visiting and we had so much fun. CB loved hanging out with Grandma and Auntie Anj (to be pronounced like "Aunge" like a Brit would say orange). And Anj took some fab photos with her newly-discovered skills as a photographer (to be posted at a later date). I think CB knew they were here and wanted to spend as much time with them as he could because his naps were short and his night sleep was short as well. And the second Beth left, he slept for over 2 hours for his nap. All that fun just wore him out, I guess. Last night was the best night yet. He went to bed at 6:30pm and slept until 4:30am. I fed him and then he slept until 6:30! Hurray! Then he was dunzo. I guess 12 hours is long enough. :) He was laying in his bed with his arms sprawled just waiting for someone to get him out. We were cracking up.

True Southerners

This month, as in previous months, the basket was divine. It was filled with blueberries, blackberries, cheese, milk, spring mix greens, lamb (I think yuck, but Trav feels like he's eating like a king), strawberry vinaigrette, beets (I looove roasted beets and they were all different colors and shapes, not just the normal deep red round beets), lemon cucumbers (very cute and tasty), mustard greens, and collard greens. I had never eaten nor prepared collards, so I researched a bit and got a recipe from my friend. It was actually a recipe for Swiss chard, which is what I thought I had, but I substituted collards and cooked them for longer and it was divine! And now we can officially call ourselves Southerners.

Sweetest

How much do I love this photo? And how much more do I love this baby boy?

Such a sweetie.

We heart Dallas

We had a fabulous weekend trip to Dallas a bit ago! It was filled with shopping galore and great food.





We swam at the hotel and CB loved to splash around.


some of the goods

Tasty Treats

So every afternoon when CB is napping, I get the afternoon snack attack. It's around 3 pm when I just need a little pick-me-up and a little burst of energy and protein. Well, I found the perfect snack and everyone should try them. The best way is to eat a 1:1 ratio of raisins and almonds. They sell them at our Sam's. Hopefully they sell them at yours too. :)




They're a little salty, a little sweet, and dark chocolate. What could be more divine? But they're just dusted with cocoa powder so they're not super indulgent. And almonds are a great powerhouse food, so they're somewhat healthier than some snacks you could eat. Yum.

Free Dough-nits

In case anyone's a big Krispy Kreme fan, just thought I'd let you know that...


which means that anyone can get a free dough-nit. And since we lived in Winston-Salem--the birthplace of the Krispy Kreme--we might have to head over and get one.

Extra! Extra!

How did I not hear about Yves Saint Laurent dying until today? It's already been 3 days that I should have been mourning the loss of this fashion genius...


a fab collection with an awesome purple grass-like runway

Sure Wish...

Sometimes I sure wish I was a European. Every cool gadget I see is always made in Europe. Especially fab baby things. And if I was European, I could buy them at my local store for much less money (due to the weakling dollar) and no shipping costs. Dreamy. Check out some of my latest faves:



a super sweet, cute, and compact bath, (that could later be used as a storage bin)

this amazing high chair (it even has a pneumatic lift device! what quality),

this convenient and compact stroller (which we actually do own) that connects to the car seat below,

and the world's best car seat (we had to buy the US version because of the safety differences. Travis said, "Europeans don't even have speed limits and their babies are fine in the European version". But we still bought the American one even though it's not as cool).

Charlie Kitty

So here's a great story that I am still thinking about. When we decided to start a bedtime routine, we decided that reading stories would definitely be part of it. We shortly realized that we don't have very many books for babies. Some of them have too many words and not bright enough pictures and CB gets fidgety. So I started looking on ebay to find lots of books to make our nightly ritual a little more entertaining (mostly for me and Travis). I found a book called Busy Feet. My family will recognize it because it is one of the Little Golden Books that my grandparents own. And just for the sentimental value, I had to also own it. So I bid on it and won it for a great price. Then I noticed that the seller would combine shipping on other items he was selling so I decided to check out his other books. There was one called Charlie. It's about a little alley cat that wants to have a home. I wanted it for 3 reasons: it looked cute, I sometimes call Charlie Kitty because he likes to scratch me and the couch, and what kid wouldn't love a book with their name as the title. So I started bidding on it. I told the seller I was bidding on this book so I would pay for both when both auctions ended. He said that worked fine.

The bidding started at $0.99 and obviously other peeps had the same idea because the bidding war began. The seller contacted me and said he didn't anticipate the price getting so high and if I won it, he wouldn't charge any shipping. I emailed back and said I was bidding on it because we just had a new baby named Charlie and I thought it looked like a cute book. But when it got up to like $13, I decided it just wasn't worth it. A used Little Golden Book for $13 seemed a little steep, even with combined shipping. So I found one on amazon for much less and bought that one instead.

Anyways, I didn't think about it again and yesterday I got the Busy Feet book in the mail. The seller, who goes by DAD, enclosed an extra little book and this sweet note. Can you believe it? What a nice man. I guess I assume he's a man since he goes by DAD. Now I want to buy everything he sells just to show him my gratitude. And from that I decided it's the little things that make someone's day.