The Grand Unveiling

After having several friends, family members, and colleagues pour over my new site it's finally ready to be seen!

A few issues still to be worked out though:

1) I'll be adding a splash page in the next month so watch for it!

2) As it stands now I'm still not googleable (<---- LOOK! A NEW WORD!) I'm working on it and I'm pretty sure the splash page will help (thanks Lyndsay for that tip!) 3) I don't believe my contact page is working properly even after going through the steps suggested by my web host. I certainly don't want to miss out on anyone's messages so email me directly if you use the contact page and don't hear from me. Address is in the sidebar of this blog as well as after you fill out the contact form on the site. Thanks for looking!!!

ERIN COBB PHOTGRAPHY

Samantha, avert your eyes

The following photos just might violate the unspoken agreement (vows, even) that Samantha and I have to never, ever have another friend in life. Much less let our daughters have a friend. For the girls who were due four days apart, born within 22 days of each other, spent most waking moments of their first 20 months of life in each other's company, yes, that would be sheer blasphemy.

So, Sam, head on over to the POTD and just skip this post. Pretend it never existed. Oh, and stop crying already. =)

Sarah had a friend over to play today. They helped baked cookies, played outside, wrestled and giggled on the bed while watching Strawberry Shortcake, played People Toys, and enjoyed the water table. What could be better than that for a 2 and 3 year old?



Love that I can sit on our couch and see this from the window...



Samantha (I'm addressing you again because I know you didn't listen to me; you never do) you should know that even though Sarah might have slightly betrayed Caroline today we did look through the first haircut slideshow about a zillion times after dinner. That is one cute Kiki you've got on your hands.

And now a little flashback, just to prove our loyalty. (Caroline and Sarah, early 2007)

sarah's salve

There's a mysterious purple plant in our backyard that Sarah has taking a particular liking too. (It's actually probably not mysterious at all but my knowledge of plants ends at grass, roses, and dandelions) She discovered it while we were out weeding one day and she now migrates to it everytime we head to the backyard. Her routine is to break the leaf open and dab the juice onto a very particular spot on her forehead. Not sure if she's experimenting with some natural form of toddler makeup or trying to maintain her perfect baby skin. Whatever it is though it seems to be working...check out this complexion!






not sure which version of this one I like better so you get both!

overheard

This post is as much for me as it is for you. I don't want to forget these little tidbits from today at JoJo and Papa's house:

1. While eating her breakfast this morning Sarah glanced over and noticed her Papa's package of chewing tobacco sitting on the couch. Quoting her JoJo from the day before she exclaimed: "Nasty!"

2. Sitting in G.G.'s rehab room (G.G. is one of Sarah's dear great-grandmother's) Sarah was enjoying a snack of Dr. Pepper and Oreos. She kept saying in a slightly hushed, confused-sounding voice, "more JoJoPapa" while staring intently at the Dr. Pepper. Apparently "Dr. Pepper" didn't make sense in her head as the name of a beverage so it must have been called "JoJoPapa".

3. Upon pulling into the driveway of our house back in Huntsville this evening our usually new-house-lovin' Pi'bear let out shrieks and wails of "NO NEW HOOOOUUUUSE!!! RIVERHOOOOUUUSE!!!"

I guess she's already looking forward to her next spendanight.

picture day

Today is "Fursday"...aka "school day" around our house. And this is a particularly special school day since it marks Sarah's first official picture day. Would you believe she's NEVER had a photo professionally done by anyone but me? The girl's been gypped!

So today is her big chance to bring on the smiles for a professional but judging from the practice ones she was showing us at the breakfast table today, I'm not holding out hopes for a winner. Her "smile" these days is pretty hilarious!

But you guys know me and I couldn't get her all dressed up without snapping a few shots of my own. That and the fact that I had my gestational diabetes test this morning so I needed to take my mind off of the fasting I had to do.

(Little FYI for those of you shopping mommies out there - I picked up this outfit at gymboree this week. They have an additional 20% off of any of their sale things and if you get their coupons in the mail you probably got another 20% off coupon...you can use BOTH! Children's Place is having a 30% off of their sale prices sale too. Stock up!)

more from the beach

Besides my book club weekend I had another treat while down at the beach - getting to watch my niece Lily for four days! She's nine months now (WHERE does the time go???) and sweeter than ever. She bear crawls all over the place and keeps a grin plastered on her face just about 24 hours a day. Love that girl.

Sarah had quite a time practicing big sisterhood. Every other minute she alternated between being hopelessly smitten with Lily and exasperated by her babyness. That Pi'bears definitely tried my patience with her shouts of "no!no!no!", taking toys from Lily, and the way she would find Lily's favorite toy and follow her around playing with it. Ugh. Is this seriously what I'm in for? God help me.

There were definitely some shining moments of sharing though...

At the end of one of our babysitting days I loaded Sarah up, grabbed some Chick-fil-A ("chickapay") and headed to the beach for a picnic. A couple of seagulls took notice of us and in my ongoing motherly quest to make all experiences educational and thrilling I decided to toss a few scraps of my sandwich to the birds, figuring Sarah would be delighed. Um, bad idea. Especially at the beginning of our picnic. We ended up dining among 100+ squawking rats with wings. So lovely. Learning something new everyday, right?

Another thing I learned that day is that I have a loooong way to go with my evening beach photography. Did get this shot that I love though...

Coming soon: a house update! with pictures!

heart friends

I've heard that the Inuit people have a hundred words for snow. That in their land snow can be so different from hour to hour, day to day, that there must be more than one way to describe each type of snow. Maybe that's all a bunch of junk but I really do like the idea because it's how I feel about friends. "Friend" just doesn't seem like an adequate descriptor for the girl you occasionally have lunch with, the other mommies in your playgroup, the older lady from church you get a birthday card from without fail, and the women you empty your heart to within five minutes of walking in the door. How can "friend" work for all of that?

I've taken to describing my friends in different ways and the best thing I can think to call my book club girls is "heart friends". They know me. They accept me. They love me. They're not afraid to tell me when I'm full of, well, IT. I miss them more than I can put into words. I miss who I am when I'm with them. Six of us just spent the weekend together and I'd write more about it if I weren't already getting choked up for missing them. A few pictures will have to suffice.

Brandy, Susie, and Jodi - you'll get more details on the portal!

















Even though our sweet baby A is featured in several of these shots, this was actually a baby-free weekend (for the most part!). And being that five of the six of us are mommies of under two year olds that's no small feat. Which means a HUGE SHOUT OUT has to go to our husbands for making this happen. Collectively they rebooked tickets, were stranded in airports, kept multiple children, missed important meetings, drove hours with babies in the car, and (most importantly!) went without their incredibly hot wives for 72 hours. Check out that first picture again. I mean, come on, that couldn't have been easy. =)

Miss you girls.

getting there

Somewhere in all the boxes and piles we've found a small slice of "normal".

Dinner together...(check out her corn on the cob(b) style!)





Making messes... (she was threatened with not getting to go to Mrs. Mandy's house if this wasn't all cleaned up and, buddy, it was done in under 30 seconds!)



snack time during Sesame Street...



We still have a long way to go with the house but I'm trying to just relax, breathe deep and tell myself that it WILL get done. Eventually. In the meantime, I still have a baby to grow and a toddler to raise. And that's the most important thing, right?

on why it never hurts to ask

We're in our new house (hooray!) and beginning the long, laborious process of digging out from under all the boxes. I've been MIA for a few days because the cable company had originally said they couldn't get our service (meaning cable, internet AND phone) switched over until the 13th. I thought Brent might keel over and die when I told him that since it would mean missing who knows how many college football games. I wasn't really sure how I was going to handle the whole thing either. Luddites we are not.

Now I realize that cable companies are not known for their stellar customer service but I've got to give a shout out to ours (KNOLOGY, BABY!) because when I called back last week to ask if I could get on a waiting list in case there were any cancellations between now and our appointment they politely said they would make note of that and then THEY CALLED YESTERDAY! I was totally floored. Seriouly, customer service from a cable company? Yes, my friends, it's true. Granted the guy was here for five hours yesterday and our long distance still doesn't work today but we ended up only missing one Auburn game and one edition of Big Brother. I'll take it!

And that is why it never hurts to ask (sweetly, I might add, and throwing in as many "I appreciate that"s as you can)

So now, a few shots of that Pi'bear playing "Rosie" in our new front yard.





would you check out the hair on this child...it's a mess!