Haircuts

Today Todd and I decided it was time for them to get some haircuts. We went down to our favorite Great Clips location and the guys got their haircut. As you can see from the pictures Sam had a lot of hair. The guys look great now. :) Sophia had a good time even though she didn't get her hair cut.

Marissa Noe Photography

The beautiful photos that you are looking at above were done by my friend Marissa Noe. She has a photography business and we knew we wanted her to do our pictures. :) As you can see from the few above she has a great eye and works well with kids. She was very patient with us too as Sam did not want to cooperate at all. Several cookies and lots of chasing later she was able to get some pictures for us today at the park.

If you are interested in learning more about Marissa and her photography rates check out her website at: http://www.missnoeitall.typepad.com/photography/

4 Things

Sophia is now back to eating regularly. In fact we have no tried the last of the veggies and will be starting fruits tomorrow. :) Yeah!!!!

Sophia no has two teeth on the bottom. The second one which I've been feeling for awhile has finally emerged and is visible to everyone else.

Sophia is on the move. She rolls, pulls herself along, and does whatever is necessary to get to where she wants to be. No official crawling yet, but she sure is working hard.

Sophia is a chatterbox. The girl says Mama and Dada without problem. She even says it to the right person. :) She's working on saying a million other things too. The girl talks nonstop.

With all of these new developments I'm wondering when my little baby turned into such a big girl. It's like all of a sudden she's no longer a baby but has become a toddler even though she turns 1 in June.

What's my decorating style?

I took this decorating quiz on sproost.com to find out what my style is and this is what it came up based on my responses from looking and responding to a few pictures.

50% Traditonal Country
25% Zen Style
25% Nantucket Style

Traditional Country

Even if your backyard isn't acres of farmland and you don't actually have a cow out in the barn, your house sure brings you back to a time when that was the case for many.

You love spaces that feel casual and lived in. Furniture is practical and comfortable, and yet at the same time its very stylish. The best part of country style is how much it highlights collection and found objects. Antiques here, garage sale finds there and Aunt Milly's hand-me-downs throughout. Unique items that used to serve very practical purposes are now on display, and their history seems to permeate the home. Each space in the home seems to invite friends and family to come in and stay a while. There is a true sense of home felt throughout.

Zen Style

Goodbye clutter, hello clean! For the Zen style, unlike other contemporary design, the amount of natural materials keep spaces from feeling cold and sterile. Zen style mixes rustic with chic, so there's an incredible level of ease and sophistication about the space.

Plants and greenery are very important in helping achieve the warm and natural feel of the space. Whenever possible, natural lighting is used in spaces to help create openness in the space.

Nantucket Style

Oh how you love the beach! Who doesn't, right? And so your dream home is either perched in your favorite beach town, or you've brought that favorite beach town into your house.

Your art and accessories speak directly to the activities that are found at the beach. Pieces of driftwood you found here, pictures or paintings of the amazing views there. Things that remind you of the coast - surf boards or fishing boats - are found throughout the house. The feeling of the seaside is both abstract and literal in the design of your space. The fabrics are natural, cottons and linens and are light in color and touch. Much of the furniture is wood or wood framed (the lighter the better, think driftwood!) and wicker, when done right, is a must.

And since your true inspiration is the sea, the colors and textures in your home are the same that you would find at your favorite beach: white, light beiges and grays of the sand and driftwood, a variety of blues for the ocean and sky, and greens and vibrant blues of the sea glass� but the key is white! Your space should feel light and airy and give off the mood one has when at the beach: laid back!

Your furniture is comfortable and the layout is cozy. The more it reminds you of actually sitting on the warm sand, the better! And what do you do at the beach? Hang out with family and friends - and your home is just an extension of this play place. And though the space is filled with large white furniture, it somehow manages to feel both durable and casual

For those of you that have been to my home what do you think of this? Do you think this reflects my style?

Crafting

Last night I got the chance to go out and have dinner with a friend. Before dinner I had time to stop at Walmart and check out the clearance goodies. Seems like everything in Walmart is on clearance at the moment. Anyways I stopped by the valentines stuff to see what they had. I wasn't interested in the candy or the stuffed animals, but I did find some Cars valentine cards. A pack of 6 that was 75% off. I couldn't resist. Sam loves watching Cars and I knew that I could do something with the cards so today I made him his very own Cars memory cards. They are actually very large cards. I glued them shut and was going to use laminating paper, but since I didn't have any I just used lots of packing tape to seel them up and laminate them. The end result are 6 cards that Sam and I can play a quick game of memory with. All in all I'm pretty pleased and my little guy cant stop asking me to play with him.

Painting

I decided that since Sam loves coloring and drawing so much that it was time to try some painting. I bought a four pack of finger paints and put Sam in one of his daddy's old work shirts and let him have at it. At first he wasn't sure about it, but quickly changed his mind. He doesn't like stuff on his hands so I gave him a foam brush that I use for some of my crafts and let him paint with that. He had a great time and made us three paintings. I only got a picture of one of them. I'll try and remember to take pictures of the other two later on.

My Valentines Day Gift

Better late than never huh? Because of Todd's work schedule he doesn't have much time off to do any shopping. I was beyond bummed when I didn't get anything for Valentines Day on Valentines day. Todd even had to work late so I didn't see him but briefly that morning before he left for work.

As it turned out his gift hadn't gotten here and was sitting somewhere in a post office even though Amazon.com said I should have received it. I got Todd the movie 'Fight Club'. Yeah nothing says I love you like a good action flick. lol. Anyways that came in the mail today and we are hoping to watch it later after the kids go to bed.

Anyways we headed out today so Todd could pick out my gift. Odd I know but I was okay with it since that meant we would all get a chance to get out of the house for a little bit as a family. We hit a couple of different stores but he couldn't find what he was looking for. Finally at Target he found the fondue pot that I had put on my wish list. What a sweetie. I'm looking forward to trying it out and getting to make something yummy. We bought some chocholate so we may be trying that out first. :)

After thinking my husband had forgotten all about valentines day he pulled through and got me a very cool gift (which was something that I actually wanted too!!).

If anyone has any cool Fondue recipes or knows of a good site to check out let me know. I'm excited about my new Kitchen toy. :)

Deals at Target

Target usually has some good deals, but today when we went out we checked out the Valentines day stuff that they have left over. Everything was 75% so we were able to get a few new things for Sophia. Grand total price for a cute dress, new shirt, and a hoodie jacket was only $6.47. They had lots of cute girls clothes and though I was tempted to buy more (even though most everything was going to be way to big for a long time) I didn't. So if you've got a little girl I would go and check out your local Target for some awesome deals on some post valentines day clothes.

Oh and they do have candy and stuff on sale too so if you need some sugar. I didn't get anything though since Todd just got me two big bags of candy hearts a few days ago at Kroger for cheap.

Playing

We love to play, not as much as we love watching tv, but we do enjoy making a good mess.

Sam is doing pretty well too. We've decided not to rush the potty training thing after several very hard and frustrating days. I'm sorry but I don't do well with having to clean potty messes off our carpet. In any event we are trying to talk to Sam about going to the potty, letting him read potty books, and such to help get him interested.

His moods seem to be better to since I've set a regular meal schedule. Though he doesn't always eat at least I'm a little more aware of what kinds of foods he's getting and not getting during. We were heavy on the carbs, but since I've tried to do more whole grains and have some variety of meals he seems to be eating better sorta and feeling better. I'm also extending his bed time out a little bit to avoid lots of screaming and crying because he doesn't want to go to bed yet. I have to admit that is harder for me since I'm the one who is usually ready for him to go to bed by 6:30 or 7.

Some of Sam's favorite things right now are:

Watching the Disney Movie Cars
Reading any and every book he can get his hands on
Brushing his teeth 400 times a day
Sharing his toys with his sister
Coloring and drawing pictures
Taking Showers in the morning
Reading in bed to himself at the end of the day
Dancing like a crazy man

Watch out Mozart

Sophia loves playing with the little piano as you can see from the pictures above. We bought that little piano for Sam for his first birthday and now Sophia is enjoying it too. She loves to bang on the keys and watch it light up and hear the little songs and stuff. She also loves using her Bumbo for this too since she tends to get a little too excited and fall over without it.

As you can see too from the pictures above she has one tooth that is visible to the eye. So cute. :) There are many others poking through but haven't made their appearance yet. Because of her teething issues she's decided that she doesn't want to eat her cereal or any of her veggies. It's kinda frustrating since she only wants a bottle. I'm wondering at what point I should try and give her a sippy cup. Anyone have any ideas on this? All in all little miss is doing good and is happy.

Cheeseball 1 and 2

As you can see from the pictures above we are alive and well. Today is a beautiful day and we have the windows open and enjoying the fresh air. I can't believe it was not that long ago that we had no power and there was ice and snow everywhere. Since the snow has left us we've also moved on to other things as well.

Sam is in the process of potty training. It's possibly the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life (and that includes giving birth lol). We have only really been at it for a few days, but already I am realizing this takes more patience than I have. Wish us luck as we continue on this process. Other than that Sam has also decided he no longer wants to eat any veggies at all. It makes meal time very frustrating. He's also gotten to be the expert on pushing my buttons and seeing how much he can get away with. Everyday is an adventure when you have a toddler thats for sure.

Sophia is doing great. She is starting to sit up more and more. Still have to prop her up a lot to get her to sit up to begin with, but she's working hard at staying up. She's also working extra hard on learning to crawl. She is constantly up on her knees and rocking back and forth. She's so smart and has already figured out that if she crawls she can keep up better with Sam. lol. Sophia has also gotten to expand her food options. She's now tried all the cereals (she's not a fan of Barley) and has gotten to eat carrots, peas, and squash. She's doing well with those and we are taking it slow with each though I'm sure she is ready for something more when it comes to her cereal in the morning. I'm sure she'll love fruit when we get to it.