Espresso

How did I survive so long without coffee in my life?!  I drank coffee in college out of necessity, but gave it up once I left school.  Once I got pregnant with Anna-Banana I made sure to steer clear of the stuff, and it stayed that way through my pregnancy with Daniel and nursing him.  Man, I'm glad I didn't know what I was missing!  I am now a bonafide espresso addict.  I couldn't have my homemade latte yesterday morning, and it messed up my whole day!  Anyway, back on track today. 

I'm insanely excited because soon, I'll be blogging on my amazing 27" iMac!  It's a custom configuration, so it's going to take a bit :/ but it will be here soon.  The plan is for the beast of an iMac I'm getting to be my work/school computer.  I've never had a super nice computer (my college laptop was supposed to be nice, but it died on my regularly). 

I feel like I've reached a good place photography wise.  I'm definitely consistently taking way more good pictures than bad, and that is really nice for me.  I'm getting the hang of it.  I just started a new photography class, and I don't feel like the person whose work isn't quite up to snuff this time around. 

We had snow last week...in Augusta!  It didn't last long, but it was beautiful.  We made our first snowman (or as Anna insisted, Snow Anna).  Snow Anna survived for about two hours before the sun melted her head right off her little body.  I took some pictures of the aftermath.  I have this picture of the candy that made up her face all melted on the ground next to the remnant of her head.  Is that sick?  Maybe I'll post some pictures later.

Pretty Purple Toenails.

We're still trying to nail down the last bit of potty training Anna at our house.  She still wears a diaper when she goes down for her nap and a bedtime.  Well, we've found that positive reinforcement is the way to go with Anna ;)  This girl LOVES nail polish.  She lights up when you talk about painting her nails.  She managed to make it through her nap without using her diaper yesterday, so I painted her nails bright purple with a purple and blue glitter over the top.  You wouldn't believe how proud she was.  At night, we made the mistake of putting her in footie pajamas at bedtime and about two hours after she went down she woke up and asked us to come up so she could go potty.  It turns out, she just REALLY wanted to see her pretty toenails.  She asked her daddy to put her in different pajamas that didn't cover her toes.  I painted my toenails to match hers today, and we both had to wear skirts and sandals just so everyone could see how cute they were. 

Sorry, that was probably mostly nonsense, but I think that it's so cute how special a little thing like painting her toenails makes her feel.  I remember feeling that way when I was little too ;)  I'm grateful that I have a sweet girly-girl to be silly with!

Life as I know it...

is about to change.  Oh man, life is going to get much more hectic and crazy here for a while.  It appears that we're moving back to California in about two months.  We'll be there for six or seven months and then we will be moving to Germany.  We have been hoping/praying for this, but thought that it wasn't exactly a possibility.  It definitely took me by surprise.  We've really enjoyed being in Augusta.  I'm going to miss all of my amazing friends and taking my kids to the great pool at the Y this summer.  I hope we make it back here some day to visit.  I'll keep everyone posted when I know more about what's going on.  If you're a praying person, we could definitely use your prayers! 

Fun With Food

I thought I'd make a post about some of the fun things I've made.  I'll probably do some food posts with recipes, etc soon.  This was a mini apple pie I made a few weeks ago.

 

Another picture of the apple pie because I love how they turned out.  How cute is the little leaf on the top?!  I got it and four other leaf pastry cutters at Williams Sonoma (one of my favorite stores!).

Valentine's Day cookies.  I know that they were a little early, but I was craving some good sugar cookies!  This was the first time I used royal icing on sugar cookies.  

How Do They Do It?!

So, I love all things Martha Stewart.  She's creative, articulate and seems to be the queen of details.  I can write off the fact that I can't be Martha, because she doesn't have any children at home, she doesn't have a husband, she's not in college (again!), etc.  Her life is all about being creative, and mine is really all about my family, so I do what I can, but I'll never be Martha.  THEN, I stumble upon Ree Drummond (AKA Pioneer Woman).  Ok, so PW has four children (whom she home-schools!), has a blog, writes cookbooks, does photography, and the list goes on and on.  Maybe it's because my kids are both pretty young and require a lot of attention, but I have to wonder, how does she do all of that and stay sane?! 
http://thepioneerwoman.com/

She's my new favorite (I still love you Bakerella) because she seems so honest and she shares some of my strange neuroses ;).  She has a very well-rounded blog because she covers just about everything.  I wish I could spend a week with her so I could see how she does it all!

Things I Like...

Today has been another rough day. I got the kids ready, out the door and in the van, just to find out that our battery was/is dead. When it rains, it pours ;) Anyway, I'm trying to look on the bright side of things, so I decided to post a blog of things that I like instead of venting further!






I love long dresses, and I love purple. This one is a win-win from JCrew.






This skirt is from Anthropologie. I love the overlay and you can't really go wrong with an A-line skirt.

I'm finding myself really drawn to yellows lately (green is still my favorite). I really like this particular shade of yellow and this dress is cute. From Anthropologie.

This one is from JCrew and I think it's pretty cute. Ann Taylor Loft has a similar dress right now and I also really like it.


This Anthropologie dress is cute and summery. It reminds me of dresses I wore as a kid :)


Anthropologie (are you sensing a trend?) Another cute sundress.


LOVE this apron from Anthropologie. So, so cute.


Dish towel from Anthropologie. Sadly, they're not selling the SUPER cute Matryoshka measuring cups, otherwise those would have made the cut!

Yep, I'm a cliche.

Today was definitely "one of those days." The kids decided that it was against their better judgment to take a nap (oh man, were they wrong!). Tantrums were frequent and ugly. There are days when the best option seems to be to ship them off to their grandparents so that I can regain what is left of my sanity. I realize there's not much to salvage, but I'd love to do just that! One of my best friends told me that she loved how honest I was about my children. I will never be one of those moms who constantly says things like, "Oh, my children never misbehave! They are perfect little angels." Don't get me wrong, I think that my kids are the most amazing children who ever walked this earth, but they have melt-downs and freak-outs just like EVERY other toddler and sometimes it jeopardizes my sanity ;).

I've found that I have become a one-woman-cliche-spewing machine. I am constantly saying things like (the DREADED) "Because I said so!" and "Why don't you worry about eating your food, and I'LL worry about your brother?" Yep, that is me. I used to be somewhat eloquent. Gone are those days, apparently.

Today wasn't all bad. The kids were playing around in Anna's room this morning. She was throwing a bouncy ball and yelling "BASEBALL!" repeatedly, and for some reason that combination made Daniel laugh uncontrollably! I just about lost it laughing. All of the stress and nonsense of the day might have been worth it just for that fifteen minutes of bliss. None of us could stop laughing.