The Toothless Wonder and Sprinkler Adventures

This little girl has lost 8 teeth. 8! She pulled the 8th out all by herself when she was supposed to be sleeping. "Moooooooom!!! I just pulled my tooth out. I was just wiggling it 60 times and on number 60 it just popped right out!!!!" Her wallet is getting pretty thick from all her tooth fairy money, but she can't find anything that she wants enough to spend her own money on.

These were taken on a rare warm day we had a couple weeks ago, so warm that the kids wanted to break out the sprinkler. Apparently Evan thought it wasn't quite warm enough or was getting too wet so he went and got his wind breaker. (As you can see, they were also playing with chalk.)

This little baby thought the sprinkler was so interesting, until it got her all wet. She just stood there getting wet and then suddenly broke down crying.

Such a sweet, dirty face!

Love, love, love.

Bday #33

What a great birthday I had. I could tell J and Amz were cooking up some plans, and Amz was so excited and was doing a count down. That girl likes to sleep in, but there she was, in our room before 7 am. When I barely opened my eyes she said sweetly "Happy birthday Mommy!" J.Paul got up with her and shortly thereafter I heard him get Camryn, so I went back to sleep. Happy day! When I got up at 8:30, they were busy making me waffles (from scratch) for breakfast. We had a yummy breakfast, and I opened my cards and gifts. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out until it was time for our date.

We are big fans of the show Top Chef, so we decided that for my birthday we would go eat at one of the top chef's restaurants, as there are several in Chicago. We decided on Girl and the Goat, the new restaurant of Stephanie Izard, winner of season 3 (I think). I tried to make reservations, but there were none available until the end of June. I read on the website that they also take walk ins so we decided to take our chances and went early. We were told it would be an hour 15 min. wait. After about 1 1/2 hrs., we were shown to our table. Luckily it was worth the wait. I like food, and this food was delicious. First we had beet bread. I wish I could remember all the fancy names with all the ways things were prepared, but I don't. Then we had these delicious green beans. I never knew green beans could taste so delicious.

Then we had the baby octopus. This was my least favorite, but still tasty.

We then had confit goat belly with crab and lobster meat. Very delicious (but I forgot to take a picture of that one.) Our last dish was roasted pig face. Yes I said pig face. When reading the reviews before going everyone was saying that the green beans and pig face were a must. I told J.Paul since he is a more adventurous eater than I and thought he might be interested in trying it. After our waitress resolved some concerns ("No it's not a whole face staring at you") we decided to try. Basically the meat was cheek meat. It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. You break the yolk of the egg on top and mix everything all together. It was really good.

We weren't too intersted in the desert options and decided to instead head over to Ghirardelli's and get a brownie sundae. Good decision.

Sunday was of course Mother's day so more presents and cards. Lucky me! What a sweet little family I have. J.Paul said that he thought and planned more about my bday this year than he ever has. It is sooo nice to have him done with school...

An Escape from the Arctic

We were able to go home for Easter to visit with family. It was so nice to go where it was actually spring weather. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves doing things like dying eggs with cousins...

Hunting for eggs with cousins (several different times)...

Seeing what the easter bunny brought on Easter morning. He brought Amzie an outfit for her doll and a purse...

He brought Camryn a Thinga Ma Jig and a puzzle...


And he brought Evan an Iron Man (which was found at WalMart for only $5!) and sidewalk chalk.

This is the girls all ready for church. Evan was still getting ready. Luckily my MIL took this pic because I didn't get any. I may have to recreate it some upcoming Sunday and get some pics.


And of course Evan got plenty of Wii time in with Grandpa.

Also, not pictured was plenty of good food and good times at Nana's, burgers at Chad and Kristy's and an awesome afternoon I spent with my mom and Mamaw eating our favorite fajita taco salad and going to see Jane Eyre, which was a wonderful movie. All 3 of us love the book and thought the movie did it justice.


Lastly, these are the Easter buckets/tool boxes that Grandma and Grandpa spent a lot of time making for the kids. The kids loved putting Easter stuff in them and have since loved wagging them around and filling them with lots of "awesome junk".

Evan's new setup

Back in the summer we took Evan out of his toddler bed and got him this twin sized bed. I saw a bed a lot like this in the PB Kids catalog and loved it. My MIL found this bed at a thrift store. It was painted white with sea creatures painted on it. She helped me paint it a glossy red. I ordered this fabric (Rocket Scientist by Keri Beyer for In the Beginning Fabrics) online a long time ago. When my mom came for a week in January she helped me get going on this project. She helped with the duvet and bed skirt. Just this week, I finally finished the decorative pillows and VIOLA! Evan's got himself an awesome rocket bed!

For this pillow I free-handed a rocket from red denim, sewed on some buttons, bonded it onto the fabric, then blanket stictched around the edges with embroirdery floss. Then I stitched some exhaust coming out of the bottom. My MIL gave me a couple of her old pillows to re-use. On this one I took it completely apart, even down to the cording, then made a bias-cut cover and covered the cord. On the one behind this, I just bought some red cord. That was much easier.

He likes his bed.

He even has rocket pajamas for his rocket bed.

Thanks to Nana and Grandma for your help!

A year of Camryn

birth day.

3 weeks.

4 weeks {limeblossomphotograpy}

4 weeks {limeblossomphotography}

2 months.

3 months.

4 months {limeblossomphotography}

4 months in her blessing gown {limeblossomphotography}

4 months in her blessing gown {limeblossomphotography}

4 months (at Daddy's graduation).

6 months (4th of July).

7 months.

9 months.

halloween.

11 months (sledding).

her favorite thing.

i'm one!

happy 1st birthday.

you're welcome. :)

While I was out...

Fast forward to March 2011. A few major events have happened while I wasn't blogging...

Camryn Gail was born January 27, 2010. She is such a sweetheart.

(Lovely photo taken by the very talented Shanda)

After 4 long, hard years J.Paul graduated from University of Tennessee School of Dentistry.

He was then commissioned as an officer in the Navy.



We moved to the Chicago area for J.Paul to do a one-year residency in advanced general dentistry. We are really enjoying our time here (except for the everlasting winter...).

Evan turns 3

Evan had a very Thomas-ey birthday. We celebrated at Nanna and Poppy's house with the cousins. He got lots of cool presents, including some Cars and Thomas stuff, his two favorite things.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream. J.Paul and I made a combined effort on the cake.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.

Happy Birthday big boy! I can't believe you're three!