BLOW!!!!!!

I can not believe it, but Ethan turned two today! We had a birthday with my parents on Sunday and I wasn't even thinking about it, till my sister called and said what are you doing for Ethan's birthday? "WHO'S" oh ya today is his real birthday. SO with Seth back in town we hit the road for chucky cheese.

singing a "Yo Gabba Gabba" song.

He's singing:

Keep trying, keep trying,Don't give up, Don't give up

So CUTE!!!!

Blow Ethan Blow! He was scared of getting burned...good boy!!!

Then he dove in face first

Rainbow icing face...

Remember the chucky cheese robot characters rockin out on the stage...well Ethan was cuttin the RUG...and Seth....

This is the solution to the crib stripper, so far so good. It's like the chastity belt on "The princess Bride" hehehe

NEED MORE STICKS!!!!

Ok so I admit, I am a marathon decorator...usually. We have moved 10 times, yes TEN TIMES in 7 years and each time I have unpacked and fully decorated our place with-in one week.....that means pictures hung and all.

Then we move to Texas. A new start for us, an end for our old decor, it ran the good race, it fought a good fight, but in the end it's just plain old outdated....ode to forest green and Burgundy!

So two months into our new house adventure, I finally hung my first thing. It's actually is an oldie, BUT GOODIE! It looks great over the mantle and I can't seem to find a replacement, so give three cheers for what as become known as the "iron swirly thingy"

The other pieces you may recognize from a former post were I scored on some 50% off global bizarre Tar-Jay goods!

This mantle came together like this:

Put vase on shelf, step back stare....adjust, add a piece, step back stare....take away a piece, step back....stare....idea to stomp around in the dark backyard and collect sticks at 10 at night....stomp, stomp stomp.....put sticks in vase....step back, stare.....this went on for two hours and the above is the result....STILL NOT SURE!!!

Just for kicks lets get the before:

************************************************************************

My next victim was the art niche. I've never had one of these....a new challenge. It was higher than it was wide, so what to fill the height??? I had no picture...hmmmm. I thought about the shell bowl, ok that works and the 2 large glass vase...hmmm I think I have some planter pebbles and glass rocks in my craft box....that would look good in them....hmmmm it would look good with....NEED MORE STICKS!!!! Bugs, snakes, the dark...nothing can stop a decorator on a mission for sticks.....

Tah Duh, what do ya think?

A Ryan phunny

Me: "Ryan look at the flowers along the road, they are called Wild Flowers b/c they grow wild beside the road " (texas blue bonnets are everywhere right now)

Ryan: Why because they cross the street to get to the other side? That's WILD!

Me: (huh? Think think think)..oh they cross the street so they are "wild flowers" hahahahah

Ryan: fake laugh, that was a joke mommy just kidding :)

The rents have left the building.....so what to do?

So long fare well.....it was soooo nice to see my parents! I got up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to take them to the airport. (Don't be sad, me and Ethan went back to bed and slept till 9 a.m.

YOU WILL BE MISSED!!!

ANYWAY, since they've left I decided to do laudry all day and catch up on my DVR that is almost full!!!

Ethan went down for his nap at the normal time, but it didn't surprise me that it took him a while to fall asleep since he slept till 9...Ethan is a stripper. He gets bored in his crib and proceeds to strip down butt naked. I have to check on him till I know he asleep to make sure he has his diaper on for obvious reasons. Today I cheked on him twice and then I THOUGHT I was in the STRIP-FREE ZONE

I WAS SORELY WORNG!!!! Have you ever heard of cow pies? You may know where I'm going with this...At 4 p.m. I hear him whine, I open the door and see chocolate tracks leading to a oval shapped cow pie, AKA Ethan pie. PEEEEE-EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! Gross! The prissy self in me wanted to run screaming in refusal to deal with such a sight, but the mamma in me prevailed and simply lifted my friendly pooper into the tub, scrubbed his hiney( and yes scrubbed, you know what food does when it sits in fresh air) and then lifted the sheets, carried them to the potty, peeled of the "Ethan pie", plooped into the comode*****************FLUSH**************************

Spray and wash and a HEAVY DUTY cycle later, we have fresh buns and fresh sheets.

What else is new? Oh Ryan asked me if I got in trouble when I was a kid. I should've lied, but I said, yes, except I had to sit in time out for 30min. to 1 hr. with my face facing the wall! So you are lucky b/c you only have to sit in time out for 5 minutes. He said but you are 30 yrs. old so thats ok! There was more explaining....gotta love these lazy days!

Easter Sunday and More

I had so many pixs, I thought I better do a collage!

A beautiful, sunny day at the best PARK!

As you know now, I've been trying to take my parents to all the beautiful outdoor hot spots in Austin. There is a natural spring pool in Austin called Barton Springs. It's 70 degrees year round! There is also a amazing kids park there with train too boot! Here are some snap shots

" You look sixteens years old grandma!"

My mom comes downstairs all glamed up looking cute...Ryan looks at her and said, "you look sixteens year old, grandma!" I hope I have a grandson who says that to me when I;m old enough to qualify for the seniors discount! :) We are ready for the Rickin ski party show at Sea World! Ryan LOVED sea world! Especially the log ride we waited for an hour to see. It was 60 minutes waiting, but Ryan was a good sport and didn't complain. It was so fun and he can't wait to go back to ride it again!

What is Easter without yummy sugar cookies. It took all morning to mix, roll, cut-out and bake. Then it took about 15 minutes for the kids to ice and EAT RIGHT AWAY!!!

My favorite birthday present this year! Thanks Amy, who knows ME! She knows this is my favorite candy EVER and was knowing I can't buy in Austin was thoughtful enough to send me some for my birthday! Thanks so much Mammy!

Here's a story: (sung to Brady Bunch)

Of a fuddy-duddy grandpa

Who loves his grandkids a whole lot

He came to Austin to see them

And be my Mr. Fix-IT

Peaking on Ethan..."Hi Ethan, oh your sooo BIG-BOY!"

"Yes, hello!"

Seth loves to vacuum, if you know him at all, you know this about him. I bought him a vacuum for his birthday. Little Ethan is looking more like Seth everyday! Plus, when Seth is done vacuuming, he leaves it on for Ethan and he continues just like his ol pops...

The overture

I will call this juncture in our home the overture. This is beacuse although I have all new flooring and paint, the house is a blank canvas as of know to which I hope to add furniture and decorations...but as of now here is the results of 2 1/2 weeks of HE-ll!

This is the new entertainment unit, the only peice of furniture we have purchased, and Seth new big "A" T.V. which he soooo deserves. He never buys for himself, nothing, so he is really happy with his new toys...

The new wood floor!!!

Our carpenter added chair rail to the dining room for $30 bucks! Go Miguel Go!

You can see the new tile floor here, and in the backround...this is the old forest green farmhouse table that I spent hours taping, priming, painting and then antiquing (you would be so proud Rachel, I wiped the brown paint with a rag and it tunrned out soooo good!)I still have yet to paint the cabinets, but I WILL! My mommy is here today yah!

I built legs for the mantle and painted it and here is the new tile too!

My mommy is here and I am so excited, a great end to all this hard work getting house together! A week of eating too much, playing too much and parting!

More Time for ryhming!

1) Blow up a balloon

2)Let go and watch the balloon zoom around in circles till it spews all the air out.

3) Giggle our heads off

It is the most beautiful day here. I can not be stressed out at all! The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and it is 74. Life could seriously not get better! I have so much to be grateful for! This truley is a beautiful world heavenly father has created for us! I LOVE AUSTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hairzilla no more

Ethan has GREAT bedhead. It is so cute. You see he hasn't had a real hair-cut in over a year. His hair is thick, and long in the back. All I do is run the scissors across the back of his head to DE-MULLET him. Well this is how he woke up today....

It's as though a huge frizz ball landed on his head and attached itself.

This thing may even be worthy of a name....fuzzy wuzzy was a shapoopie? Then I enlisted him into baby boot camp...at Great Clips. He was so good! He sat there and scrunched up his nose and lifted his shoulders and lowed his head as if he were a turtle pulling it's head into it's shell. But he never cried or squirmed to get free. He just sat there all scrunched up. Ryan was giggling hysterically the entire time, but Ethan was not embarrassed nor effected by this outburst of emotion from his older brother.

Mamma soooo proud of her cute little guy!!!

Tile my World!

The wood floors are done and the backsplash is on it's way...this is hard work.

Ever since my good dear friend, Rachel introduced me to the Veggie Tale Silly Songs, one of the names we call Ryan is Cebu. I went in to get my camera to take pictures of the tile and Ryan pronounced, " Stay Here, watch me exercise to my song!" So the remix of the song Cebu (Veggie Tales) comes on and Ryan starts to well, see below...

(This is our wayyyy messy room where we have been eating, playing, watching t.v., everything for the past 7 days. ) Everything should be done by wednesday! Then I have to paint my head of:cabinets, light box, office door, fire-place mantle, and shoe molding......whew....

Out with the OLD, in with the NEW

PJ's, hoopies, pajamies, jammies,whatever you call them. I have the cheapest pj's you can wear...the free kind, the kind you steal from sisters, ex-boyfriends, friends, and husbands. They are cheap (free) and very very soft, loose and over-all comforable...the way they should be. The negative for my hubby is that they are "freekin U-G-L-Y!!!!" Well, now that I am WAYYYYY past the point of boyfriends and slumber parties oppurtunities to steal tee-shirts and swishy pants, my beloved pj's are becoming holy and the pants are are waiting for a flood. I have NEVER purchased pajamas. This is the RESULT:

(No, folks, this is not a halloween picture)

This is my favorite shirt. It's ultra soft cotton and loose fit make my sleepy world. Once upon a time this shirt was popular. Other shirts wanted to be this shirt. It was worn by one very fine Sr. soccor player. All the girls thought this shirt's owner was very fine wearing this FILA navy strip. It was flying high. But every shirt has it's day and then it's borrowed by one Lisa Adams and NEVER returned!!!! These pants are soft and loose, but they don't ride up in the middle of the night. YOU THINK I"M KIDDING!!! THESE are my jammies!!!! There are several people out there, some of which are reading this blog that can vogue for this. Tell them Rachel, Amy, Michele, Seth, mom and dad and others...

LOCK UP YOUR JAMMIES, I'M RUNNING LOW!!!

One small step for Lisa, One huge step for her friends and family...I purchase my first pair of PJ's. Tar-jay had a clearance on their christmas flannel pj's. They were only $4.00. I see them and think, "Why not, Seth is threatening to make the wholes in my jammies bigger if I don't buy some" So they are covered with reindeer, but this is a HUGE improvement over the above...

I actually liked them!

(Warning, this picture has not been altered for dramatic approach. This is me when I rolled out of bed this morning, bad breath and bed head and all.)

This is Lisa Cochran and I approve this message........................

Just an update on the floors

YOU'RE FIRED!!!

Ok, remember the dude you saw in the picture below taking of the tile around the fireplace...ya well, he was over an hour late everyday, got two days behind schedule and to top it of was doing a really really bad job. I couldn't sleep after the second day I was so worried. So I woke Seth (a scary thing to do, kinda like waking a sleeping bear) and told him I think we should put a stop payment on our 50% deposit check and let him go! Seth agreed and wed. morning he pulled up in our driveway, his saw everything on the pavement and Seth told him it was not working out. He took it a lot better than we thought. So we are out three days and loads of stress. I gotta find someone who can do the job in the next 4 days and do it for my cheap price. That means me calling every contractor I had worked with in the past that I liked and asked them if they did any flooring or they knew anyone who did. This is the result. Miguel can lay my wood floors, but it needs to be demo'd first. Another contractor that would lay tile for me at too much will demo the floor for me, and I'm having the brother in-law of the painter Julio, lay my tile and backsplash. Miguel, Martine, and Julio. Mi tres amigos are coming through for me at the last mintue! I know they will do a good job. So my enteryway is being jackhammers right know and my house is a dust ball. I tried to take a pic and look what happened...

I am so glad for this mess though, because it means progress is being made.

Today is my dad's bithday. What a wonderful man he is. Dilligent, humble, sweet, funny(yes, dad you can be really really funny), generous, hard working...there are any good adjectives! This man is the best grandfather too. Do you know a man that will walk in circles for hours with a fussy baby because he likes too! Or a man that will sit on the ground and play with little kids for hours! I am so lucky to be his daughter. Can't wait to see you next week! Love ya Dad!

You are 25, halfway to 50 and I LUV YA!

Isn't she beautiful!!!! I can not beleive 25 years has passed! I literally remember when you were born! I was soooooo excited to go to the hospital to see my new baby sister. They wheeled you out and you were soooo little ad cute. My 4 year old brain thought, "I get to watch her grow up"...and that I did...into a lovely, kind, charming, talented, smart, funny beautiful gal ! I am soooo lucky to have you as a sister and miss you like crazy! Have a wonderful time in Florida and give yourself a "wowy hug" from me!

Happy Birthday!

Demolition Derby

This is not the kitchen, this is a picture of our entryway, just in case you need a cold one on your way in the house-see the chair on the right...no more forest green...i'm painting them the color I'm painting the cabinets (antique white) with rubbed bronze door pulls...

That's a LOT of wood!

We are putting hardwood in entry, office, dining and great room. Porc tile in kitchen only. (It's a texas thing to have tile)

No more green backsplash!!

I did it, I did it, I built legs for my mantle with the help of my handy dandy Miguel the carpenter, Im going to paint the same color white

Knock Knock. Who's there?No more ugly green tile around fireplace, that's who!

Ode to the old Living Room....welcome our new office doors! Just needs some paint!