Spring at the Zoo

Ok, so we have a membership to Zoo Atlanta. I bought it last summer for Stella's 1st birthday. We really enjoyed it this past summer and fall, but haven't been in a few months due to a busy schedule and/or crappy weather. When I found out how awesome the weather was supposed to be Monday and Tuesday I knew we had to go.  

Monday started out a little rough-Stella woke up in a bad mood which is so unlike her. It's typical for her to wake up moody after a nap, but never in the morning. She's usually the happiest little ray of sunshine. I was scared. I'd had this perfect day planned out in my mind and was afraid of what might happen. Apparently she was hangry. It happens a lot. Once she got some breakfast in her, she did a complete 180.  

I packed a lunch which I've never done but it was so worth it. Not only are we saving money, but I don't have to stand in line while we are both starving. The main eating area was pretty crowded and they didn't have the umbrellas out which meant we would have been sweating two minutes into eating lunch. I decided to look for a place to eat in the shade. We sat under an umbrella at one of the restaurants that's still closed for the season. It was lovely. Just us and another family or two. Nice and quiet. And she actually ate since she didn't have the distractions of all of the other kids running around.

This guy/gal was passed out and snoring!

We gave the choo-choo another shot and she loved it!  I dressed us in our shamrock attire since it was just the day before and I wasn't sure if we'd be out on St. Patrick's Day.

One of my favorites of us!

I brought her VHC backpack/leash along just to give it a try. Towards the end of the trip she asked to wear it so I put it on her and she walked herself!  On the walk back to the car, I actually walked her just to see how she'd do and it went ok. I definitely don't see myself using this a lot, but it was nice to navigate the parking lot and sidewalk with since I'd parked on the street.

Eeeee......Her little heart dotted panties are showing. So cute. She did really good-no accidents!

As a mom you have good days and bad days and everything in between. I remember a really bad day I had with Stella when she was three weeks old. Just the worst. This day was the opposite of that. It was perfection. She literally didn't fuss, whine or whimper one.single.time. I hope I remember this day forever. 

Valentine's Weekend

Donald, Stella & I headed down to South Georgia on Wednesday afternoon. We are trying to buy a vacation house at the beach and the plan was for Donald and his dad to go down Thursday to see a few places  and do a little fishing. Stella and I would stay in Sylvester to visit with family and friends. We met Donald's parents and brother at El Vaquero for supper. They've been going here on Wednesday nights off and on (mostly on) since we started dating. Stella wasn't interested in really sitting down since she'd just sat in the truck for three hours but she did eat good and not fuss too much so supper went ok. 

We headed to Don and Wanda's to spend the night and because Stella had napped late she stayed awake for the trip home and got to play with Nini and Grandaddy for a bit before crashing after 10 pm. 

The next morning we all had pancakes and bacon before saying goodbye to Grandaddy and Daddy until Sunday. 

Mid morning, Aunt Ginger brought over cousins Emily, Asher and Ivy to play with Stella. Nini fixed a yummy lunch of baked ham, creamed corn, white acre peas and biscuits and Jell-O. afterwards Stella napped. She went down surprisingly without a fight and it didn't take long at all for the fairy dust to sink in and works it magic. 

She woke up and I dressed her in one of her favorite outfits-her handmade puppy dog dress from Aunt Ginger. I'd scheduled a photo session for the four grand babies to give to Nini and Grandaddy for their anniversary in May. So we did that, then headed over to The Bratcher's for supper. We basically drove West on highway 32 for 15 miles or so and got to witness a breathtaking sunset. We definitely don't see them like this in Atlanta. There was one bright star (planet ?) visible above the fields and this perfect color gradient in the sky. I pulled over to snap this and take it in. 

We spent another night at D & W's, enjoyed ham and biscuits for breakfast, packed up my rental (Wanda's car since D drove us down in his truck) and headed to visit Nina. 

We then swung by Jessie's to say hello and headed out to Lollypop's for lunch and to hang out the remainder of the day. 

Stella wanted Lolly and Pop to play on the see saw with her so they did. 

Stella was so happy to see the Moo's and feed them a couple of apples. 

Saturday, I prepared a cran-apple crisp and firecrackers for a small family get together at Grandpa's. We arrived around five, took a short drive on the golf cart and walked down to the pond. 

We peeled some of the bark off of the birch tree and Stella enjoyed crumpling it up and throwing it in the pond. 

We enjoyed BBQ sandwiches, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, roasted sweet potatoes, macaroni salad and deviled eggs. For dessert we had my crisp and vanilla ice cream, brownies (which Stella also enjoyed) and someone brought an assortment of cheesecakes. 

Stella and her Great Grandpa. 

After dinner, Instead of the traditional bonfire, We lit a tree trunk on fire that was surrounded by hundreds of pine cones. Someone noticed the trunk looked like a heart which was appropriate with it being Valentine's Day. 

Donald came back Sunday with good news. He'd found a place in Mexico Beach! We headed back to Atlanta Sunday night after visiting with Mema and Papa with our fingers crossed that a beach home is in our future.

Our Little Boy

As Stella ran around her room with her shirt around/over her head, Donald and I both agreed she looked like a little boy. 

So meet our son. The one with a pot belly (as best seen in the blurry 1st picture) and camouflage pants. The one who refuses to bathe lately. The one who I can barely get clothes on these days. The son who likes to check out his poop and then wave "Hi/Bye Poopy!" The one who last weekend took a handful of leaves and shoved that fistful up Aunt Jessica's tailpipe and came back with a sooty black hand and arm and pretty much ruined the pink top that goes with the camo pants. 

Hudson's Woodland shower

Saturday, February 8th, our small group of friends got the honor of celebrating another baby who was due to join our group in March.  All of the guys went to SPSU together and were in the fraternity together. All of the girls are friends and we have kids together from 15 months to 7 years old. Some of them now play softball together so I named our group The Softball Wives Club.

The Green Family decided on Hudson for their second little boy. Tiffany went with the popular woodland theme in his nursery so we did that for the shower. 

I think everything I purchased came from Hobby Lobby. Other stuff I had at home.

I bought three pieces of scrapbook paper to make the banner. The little bits of leftover paper became his last name and we hung it from the chandelier in the dining room. 

Ok, let's talk food.  Tiffany really liked an Aztec print for his bedding so to play off of that, we decided to do Mexican food for the couples shower. 

Can we just jump to dessert first?!?!  

We had Mexican chili chocolate cupcakes made by Britany. I love to decorate and have themed stuff (and I totally want a Woodland nursery for our next child) so I immediately jumped on decor. 

I made s'more pops as a take home for our guests although most were consumed in-house.  Simply just a marshmallow dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers. I added a bit of cinnamon and chipotle chili powder to the chocolate for a spicy Mexican twist.

I also found the cutest Woodland themed cookie cutters at IKEA, so I made sugar cookies for those rare individuals who don't like chocolate (like me and Britany). Isn't it funny the two folks who don't like chocolate, made stuff with chocolate? I couldn't NOT make the s'more pops though. They were really easy and cheap to make. Plus, adorable! And, hello......when you think of outdoors, don't you go to campfires and s'mores?

 I provided the cute little chevron printed paper sacks so the guests could grab cookies or the pops for a little treat later.

The birch wrapped candles, stick shelf, wooden bird and log drawer (made by a friend of the family about 20 something years ago) was all mine. The tree cross section was purchased from HL. I just inverted a plain white bowl for height.

The plain wooden acorn and trees also came from HL. I originally planned to paint them, then decided against it, really liking their natural color. 

So I am NOT a cookie decorator! Included in the Woodland set-fox, moose, bear, hedgehog, snail (totally thought it was a whale until I confessed to D I had no idea) and squirrel. I had the acorn cookie cutters so I did a few of those. I meant to bake and ice them the night before the party, but that didn't happen. I had planned everything else out well, this just didn't work out. So I iced some completely, but knew they wouldn't set in time. I started outlining and then thought I'd just do the initials of all of the kids on the cookies. Whatever. They were yummy and the kids didn't care. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the adults didn't either-they were eaten.

The yummy cupcakes-Donald had two! Plus good ole vanilla with sprinkles in background. 

Ok, so now on to the real food. Our group loves to get together for birthdays, to celebrate and engagement or baby or just because. Everyone is super awesome about sharing the work which is great.

Kim brought chicken tortilla soup and the fixins'. 
Melissa brought the ever popular 7-layer dip and pork for carnitas.
Britany made the cupcakes and Mexican rice.
Kelsey brought the shells and tortillas, toppings for tacos and the drinks.
Laura made the meat for the tacos, Mexican slaw, queso and chips.
I made a spicy skillet corn (ok, technically Donald fixed it), the cookies & s'more pops and the winter sangria.

The winter sangria had just a crisp and fruity white wine (from Aldi), club soda, clementines, apples, sugar, apple juice and a few stalks of rosemary from the garden. It was supposed to have frozen cranberries for a pop of color and to drive home the winter aspect (red and green), but they got left in the freezer at home. Oh well, still delicious and refreshing. 

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I picked up this initial cork board with no real idea of what I wanted to do with it. I just knew I had a 40% off coupon and I'd figure it out later. Since I'm the closet friend to Tiffany and our kids play together a lot, I knew it'd be easy for me to run to the store or grab Landon for a play date. So then I thought of coupons. I went back to HL and purchased a tag punch on sale and made coupons for Tiffany to redeem. 

I did things like:
*a free meal 
*a play date at either house
*watch Landon & straighten the house or do laundry-whatever she needed
*a grocery run

I found this light teal arrow print fabric at HL and just HAD to buy a yard. Again, not knowing what for, but I remembered there were arrow prints in some of the framed artwork in Hudson's nursery. I used the fuse-able tape and an iron to "hem" the edges and ended up using it as just part of the decor by the presents.  

Tiffany got a teacher who she works with to make a pillow case out of the fabric and another teacher monogrammed HRG on it. I'm so glad she is able to actually use it!

On a trip to TJ Maxx/Marshalls, I found this gray and coral arrow printed bag on clearance for $7. So Hudson's gift went in it.  Since Hudson is The Green's second boy, they had a lot of stuff already. So we just did an essentials shower-wipes, diapers, shampoo, lotion, etc.

Here is the big brother, Landon. Isn't he gorgeous? And those curls. Total heartbreaker. Although, he's kind of taken. By Stella. Most days that is. Sometimes she plays a little hard to get.

Look at this happy boy-Mr. Ethan.

So Tiffany and I took a canvas painting class together this past Fall. We noticed some of the other canvases decorating the wall and I'm pretty sure she commented on this one below. Fast forward to December and I got an email from the business saying they were having a canvas sale. I show up, buy 4 canvases and intended on giving The Greens this one for Christmas. But then I decided to wait until the shower. This canvas shows three birds under the tree and a tiny one up in the tree-for their newest arrival.  

The Green Family: Soon-to-be party of 4

Here's the gorgeous Momma-to-be. Not completely barefoot and pregnant, but definitely shoe-less. I didn't even notice that when I took the pictures. 

So here's our kids. I never realized we had equal girls and boys until I took this.  Of course mine is the least cooperative. She looks half asleep with her thumb in her mouth. 

Bennett, Grayson, Lily, Stella, Izzy, Sophie, Ethan and Landon.

I think the best one is the last one. 

*Some of the picture quality isn't top notch. I'd forgotten to charge my DSLR so I was forced to snap pictures of the food with my iphone while it charged. If I had waited, then I wouldn't have had pictures of the food if you catch my drift.