One and a half

Alabama, you are 18 months today (or yesterday actually!). You are so sweet and special to us and I want to make sure we remember each moment of these passing days! This is what you're up to at a year and a half big girl!!

- You have 10 teeth!

- You eat everything! (well, not everything, but you know, EVERYTHING!) ha

-You still drink one bottle at night.

-You are starting to eat with a spoon/fork by yourself.

- Most days, you sound like a broken record! ha! Daddy, Mimi, Poppa, Mama, Kah Kah...... over and over!

-You can say so many words now, it's like you learn a new one every few days. So I will remember, these are the ones you say very well and consistently. Mama, Daddy, Mimi, Poppa, Kah Kah(Aunt Katie), ball, bottle, juice, shoes, no-no, yeah, uh-uh, me, hey, bye, cheese, uh-oh, Ju-Ju (Aunt Judy), pee-pee, choo-choo, beep-beep. Still no sentences yet.

-You also still have many signs that you communicate with. This is a picture of you wanting your passy! (you made that sign up by yourself!)

- You have the most beautiful curls in your hair!

- You sleep 10 hours a night and usually take one 2 hour nap. Of course, that is never a sure thing as our days are never the same!

-It was definitely much easier to shop with you when you were only one half a year! ha! Now, we pretty much have a one store limit. You want to get out of the buggy or stroller, scream loudly, throw things down, must eat at all times, etc. So embarassing!!! ha! I always dreamed of having a baby to take shopping so I hope this is going to get better soon!

-You love to go with Mimi!!

-You remember and recognize so many things that it's amazing to me! Like when you see a white car, you think it's Aunt Katie's.

- We are working on the whining you've been doing lately. We have to stop and say "No whining, tell me what you want."

-You love to play with your babies, the ball, the kitchen set at Leslie's house, your car, and also to play outside!

-You have become very opinionated about what you eat or even sometimes what you wear!

-You give great kisses!!! I could kiss and hug you all day! I love you, Alabama the Beautiful!!!

Topiaries

On Saturday, while Alabama napped I had a little time to do a few projects I've had on my list. I have come to the conclusion that I am a very impulsive crafter and will be much more likely to complete something if Ihave all materials on hand rather than if I have to go buy one or more items. (I'm the same way with recipes, too!)

So, I had seen several topiaries made on different blogs in the past few weeks and I had a few items I knew I could use to make mine. First, I had these milk glass vases that are part of a set from Adam's grandmother. I've tried to use them before in different ways, but they never looked quite right but I knew they would be perfect for this! Also, I had some wiffle balls I bought at the dollar tree that I had planned to make into balls using a tecnique I saw where you remove the "moss" from these moss rocks (shown on the tray) and then attach it to the balls. I never got around to that but when I found a blog where they had used the reindeer moss to make the topiaries, I knew this was the route for me!

I just took the wiffle balls and hot glued the reindeer moss all over. Then I trimmed the moss of any stray pieces with scissors (like giving a haircut). Then I went outside and picked out two sticks that were pretty straight and cut them to size with scissors. I positioned them into the vase with floral foam and then put hot glue on the top of the stick and stuck it through one of the holes in the wiffle ball all the way to the top of the ball. I covered the foam with more of the moss. I love how they turned out!!! (You could use any type of ball or a floral foam ball for the topiary, this is just what I had on hand to use!)

I'm linking to Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my 28th (I am having a hard time typing that!ha) birthday on Friday. I had a very fun day. First, Alabama and I headed to my favorite Goodwill and found a few goodies. Then we met my friend Phylandria, who I haven't seen in forever at the Chop House for lunch. I had a steak and sweet potato that was really good! We went to school together at Augusta State. We've got to get together more often!

Then, we went home and did a few things around the house before we rode with Mama to meet everyone at Cracker Barrell. I love that place! Adam, Alabama, Maxine, Jerry, Mama, Daddy, Alicia, Audra, Nana, Ralph, Bo, Kathie and Jenna all came to celebrate with me! It was good of course, but they wouldn't sell me the whole Coca-Cola cake they had so I had to go to the Evans location to buy one after we left. So we all came back to the house to have some cake and ice cream. I think we finally went to bed around 2! ha!

It was so fun to wear matching dresses all day! Every one thought it was so cute!

I'm saving the money I got for my birthday to buy a new DSLR camera! I can't wait!

Saturday, Adam took me to some yard sales (which was a bust probably b/c we were late leaving) and to the new Goodwill at Furys Ferry rd. It was packed!!! I found a neat book there that I will post about later on. We came home and Alabama napped while I worked on some projects (yay!) and Adam cut grass. I can't wait to put up some pictures of the cute topiaries I made.

Today, I went to church with this beautiful girl! I love my church and church family! I couldn't think of a better place to be on Sunday! Afterwards, we came home and Nana brought cubed steak casserroll, peas, and green beans for lunch and I made pear cobbler. yummy!!!

Sunday Funnies

Alabama is so funny and has us laughing all the time! Here are a few things we've cracked up over lately......

- She loves to wear shoes all the time. I bought a pair of pink cowboy boots the other day for her but they are still a size too big....do you think that has stopped her??? No! ha! She wants to wear them whenever she sees them. She raises her whole leg and says it so funny like "shoosh."

-Last week, Adam was running her bath water and stepped out to go get a drink of water. He told her to follow him out. A few seconds later, I hear a "splash" in the bathroom.....the girl has climbed in the tub with a shirt, diaper, and said cowboy boots on!!!!! Crazy girl!!!


- She has loved to play with babies since she was very little. The new thing she does is put them to sleep all day long. She lays them down on the couch, floor, anywhere really and says "shh" and sometimes covers them up. This is a baby she wrapped in a napkin and she put to sleep on our dog Sassy's bed! ha!


- The new Cabbage Patch doll that she got on the trip talks and cries. It makes several sounds over and over. One thing it says that she picked up on very quickly is "a yeah, a yeah". So now that baby's name is "Yeah Yeah"! haha! (As in "Where's Yeah Yeah?" and then she goes to get the baby!)


-My sister, Audra Kate is Aunt Katie to Alabama. Well, we thought it might be easier to say Kay Kay so that's what I've been calling her. Last week, Alabama started calling her Kah Kah (like a crow- ha!) And I think she knows she's saying it her own way, too!


-She has began to tell me that she has to go "pee-pee" throughout the day. Usually, I take her to her potty and she sits and reads her bath book. Sometime she goes, sometimes she doesn't (or has already went in her diaper). I'm not 'trying' to potty train her, but if she's doing it herself, then I'm excited. Anyway, the funny part is the way she says pee-pee, she whispers it like it's a secret. It's also the same way she says 'poppa'. So funny.

Day 3 and 4

Day 3 of Helen was a very interesting day! Since it rained/stormed Thursday and Friday, it left no day but Saturday for "tubing the Hooch!" We ate breakfast at the Lodge buffet (where they had the most amazing blueberry scones!) and then headed to Helen. In our naievity, we were excited! We arrived at the "waterpark" and had to wait in line to buy our tickets. We bought the tickets where we could tube then come back and go to the waterpark. We got our arm bands, and stood in line to get onto the bus.

They day was making a turn for the worse about this time....ha! It was really hot but nothing compared to when we got on this pink bus and had to STAND UP and hold a baby, crammed in like we were coming across the border or something! It was ALMOST comical! I did have a nice lady ask if I wanted her seat, but the look of the person sitting next to her made me decide I'd take my chances standing! When we finally arrived at the drop off point, we were so ready to be off that bus and start tubing! We tethered together and I held Alabama in my lap. (Note to readers: Do not attempt this yourself!) It started out okay, but we soon (and I mean very soon) hit some rocks and had to use the one stick we bought to share to get out. This may have been the first of fifty! ha! I really was expecting a lazy river kind of experience. hahaha! Who was it that told me this? Adam? Hmmmm....Anyway, it was a long, crowded, and tiring ride and I would probably never do it again. But hey, now I know! When we finally arrived at the end, we had to walk a block to the "waterpark that wasn't much of a waterpark" so we could play there a while. Although all we really wanted to do was go home and take a nap, but hey we were going to get our money's worth, dang it! ha! Adam did get me to go down the slide with him and Alabama did have fun playing in the water (which is all she wanted to do in the river!) When we got back to the lodge, we took a quick shower, got Alabama to sleep and Adam and I went by ourselves to a few shops that I'd seen on the way to Cleveland. I only bought one thing (a shelf I hung in my new office corner) but we did got to McD (I was having withdrawls!) and got a Diet Coke and a Frappe! We got back just in time to do a Superwoman change and I got the the Awards Banquet just in time! There was a neat speaker who told all about the Unicoi park. It was neat and hopefully we will go back one day and see some more of it. These are members of the Augusta chapter,

Chris and Sheila and this is Alicia and her friend, Valerie. After I made a quick exit/escape from the banquet, we were ready to go to Helen. First stop, Hansel and Gretel Candy Shop where I bought some delicious fudge and got Alabama a big sucker for being such a good girl! She of course had to have it right away so we walked through town with her eating/dripping sucker on Adam's head. Everyone thought it was the curest thing ever! ha! We had planned on the Cafe International but they were closed. So after searching forever (we didn't want to have another situation like Paul's) we finally gave up and went to Huddle House. We sat down then used the restroom then played with the sugar packets, and still no waitress to get our order! As we were talking about leaving, the waitress who was leaving her shift came over and explained they had to finish the registers before they could change shifts and that she would get our drink orders. When she said they only had Pepsi...... we were outta there! ha! We ended up having Mexican and Alabama learned a new way to get more rice on the floor than in her mouth! Adam told us that you have to have bad/crazy stuff happen because that's what you remember years later, not if it goes perfect ....I guess we've got our good share of memories from Helen! ha!

The last day, we ate breakfast at the lodge and packed the car and headed to the Outlets!!!!! I was super excited because we were going to the Pottery Barn outlet, Restoration Hardware, and the Gymboree Outlet. It wasn't as much fun as I had envisioned because we had a baby with baby upset stomach/diaper rash and who was tired and the PB outlet wasn't quite as amazing as I had imagined. I did find a cute outfit at Gymboree and also got three things for myself at Lane Bryant that I love. I never buy things for me much so it was a great treat! Hope I didn't bore/confuse you too much! I'm so glad that we got to take a vacation and am especially glad that for the first time ever, we used all cash that my great husband worked extra hard to make and also had all the money in the budget to be on track when we got home. That made it even better!

It felt so good to be home especially since it was like coming home to a new home because we had just rearranged our house before we left! More pictures of that to come! I love it!

Day 2

On Friday, we went to an opening meeting that morning and then had a leadership training class me and Daddy signed up for also. We learned that he is a "thinker" and I am a "feeler". ha! It's really hard to say actually because you see that you are parts of all the categories.

Anyway, then we had our awards luncheon where I received a President's Award for our chapter!

Here is Mama and Daddy sitting at the head table since he's a Board member. They wouldn't associate with us common people! ha!

After the luncheon, Alicia, Audra, Mama, Adam, Alabama, and I headed to Cleveland to visit the Babyland General Hospital (Cabbage Patch Kids). They have a new location and it is much bigger than the old one! This is Alabama with her CPK she got for Christmas, Syndey Sage. It was really nice. As I imagined, Alabama just LOVED all the babies! I think she picked up every baby there! ha! She is dancing with the one that was wearing a tutu!We watched a baby being "born" by Mother Cabbage. The "nurse" wasn't that great, but it's still a neat thing.

"One of these babies is not like the other; one of them just doesn't belong!" ha!

My first CPK's name is Mary Rose and I brought her with me to see if they would fix her arm that is coming loose. They said they only repair original soft faced dolls, not mass produced ones. They baby in the 2nd picture above is "Stephanie" and I cut her pigtails when I was little so now she has bald spots so I was hoping they would fix her, too. Oh, well. We looked around a while and Alicia bought Alabama a newborn that cries/laughs/coos. She's really cute and has a passy, too! Her name is Dimple! ha! She wanted to buy her one of the ones that they hand make but I told her to wait until Alabama is older and can remember it. As soon as we got in the car, we got "Dimple" out of the box and Alabama played with her all the way back. Alabama wanted to try out the babies passy! ha!

It was a fun trip but we had to get back quickly so we would have time to go eat before the auction. We ate at Paul's on the river and I would NOT recommend it. It was highly over priced and it was nothing wonderful. We'll know next time! Day 3 to come!

Helen 2010- Day 1

**** Lots of unnecessary details ahead that you probably will not care about! ha!*****
This past week, we went on a family trip to Helen, Ga. If you've never been, it's a cute little "Alpine Village" where everthing looks like you're in the Swiss Alps. It's very cute but also very touristy. I prefer beautiful mountain scenery/quiet of nature to tourist traps and cliche shops.

We went for this year's Georgia Council of the Blind convention. It was my first time going to the convention. We stayed at the Unicoi State Park which I learned has the most amenities of any state park (but still no swimming pool!) and it was pretty nice. A little on the 70's style, but still nice. We shared a room with Alicia and Audra since they had "lofts" in the rooms so we could save money. Adam and I slept in the loft which is just two mattesses on the floor!! ha!
We left home around 11:30 on Thursday and arrived in Helen about 4 hours later. It was a long ride but Alabama slept a good bit of the way there.

We had a "Welcome Cookout" when we got there so we had hamburgers/hotdogs and fries but the hayride was cancelled because a storm was coming. This was defnintely a mountain type of storm. Huge lightning/thunder and rain. It was an awesome display of God's power! The lights went out for about 45 minutes in the lodge. I thought that was pretty funny that the lights were out for a blind convention. ha! I guess it didn't really bother them at all! While the lights were out, Adam, Alicia, Alabama and I (just realized that everybody's an "A" except me and Mama. ha!) went to town and to the Betty's Country store (which is now an IGA) and to the toy store. We had to buy some milk and a couple other things and we bought a little sock monkey at the toy store because I felt really bad for the lady who was showing us EVERYTHING in the store and I wanted to purchase something from her. After that we went back to the lodge and got Alabama a bath and to sleep and then we waited on Audra to arrive (she came in our car after work and had all our luggage with her). She finally got there and we laughed forever while we told her about the people we encountered at the cookout. haha! I would tell you, but you really had to be there and know these people! ha! I'll do another post about the next day.