Five on Friday

1.  My very best friend, Mary, is coming into town this weekend.  I'm so excited to see her, as it has been way to long since we've hung out together.  We've planned some shopping, pool time, and maybe even a pedicure!

2.  Today starts the beginning of vacation week #2!  I have 11 days off work!  I do have 2 OT shifts that I picked up, but the rest of the time is going to be spent cleaning/organizing the garage, laying out by the pool, and playing outside with Anniston.  I am also hosting 2 little family get togethers.  It's going to be a fun and productive week!

3.  I ordered these cubes for my house yesterday! They have tons of fabrics to choose from at a reasonable price.  One is for a "chair" for my kitchen desk, and the other I decided to order for my den as extra seating (and because they just happened to have a fabric that matched my color scheme!)

4.  Anniston has really learned how to say and use the word "please."  The other morning, I was heating up some oatmeal for her but she apparently didn't want to wait.  So she grabs some fruit snancks, holds it up to me, and says, "Peeas!"  I'm so proud that that she knows when to use the word on her own without me prompting her every time. 

5.  I found out a couple of weeks ago that Flashdance the musical is coming to The Orpheum this fall.  I couldn't be more excited.  An 80's dancing movie?  What's not to love about that?  It just happens to be showing during my 3rd vacation week of the year, so I am definitely going to plan that in somehow!

Sassy Shopper

Allie and I thought it would be fun to take Anniston to one of our local upscale strip malls one morning and get some cute pics of her "shopping."  You know- a little "Rodeo Drive" photo shoot.  Every girl needs one of those, right?

We honestly didn't know how well they would turn out- she is a very active 19 month old, afterall.  Getting her to stand still and do as we say doesn't really go over so well, you know?  Shockingly, we got some pretty fabulous pictures.  See for yourself:

just doing a little window shopping...



oh my!  look at all those good deals!



A lot of people have asked how we got her to pose for the camera.  Ha!  There was no "posing" to it- we gave her the props we wanted her to use and let her run free!  She LOVED the shopping bags and boxes.  She would pile on the bags and situate the boxes to suite her and off she went with her prissy walk! It was pure luck to capture some of these expressions.  Well, that and a pretty fabulous photographer who just happens to be my sister!  I think these are some of my favorite photos Allie has taken.  The artistry is magnificent.  I feel so lucky to have her as my sister!

I will leave you with one more.  We were joking to each other as Allie was snapping pics about the episode of Friends where they play the game about who knows each other the best.  After Rachel comes in from the store, Ross guesses that she has a box of half eaten cookies in her bag.  To which she replies, "I'm so not impressed.  Everybody snacks when they shop."  And yes, we are die hard Friends fans in case you were wondering or thought we were weird.  Anyhoo, I love how this next pic turned out:

Hey Baby, I'm Sorry. Let's Do "Hugs"

I just had to post about Anniston's use of those 3 phrases lately.  It is just too cute not to document because I'm sure it won't last long!

When I come home from work, or when Anniston gets up in the morning or for a nap, I always say to her, "Hey Baby."  Then I give her a hug or a kiss on the cheek.  I didn't even realize I did this so much until one day Anniston randomly comes up to me and says "hey baby."  It's so funny how she picks up on small little phrases and such that you don't even realize you say so much!  It's now become our "thing."  So far, she only says it to me, I guess because I'm the only one who says it to her.  Now when I say it to her she will grin and say it back.  I love how it's our special thing only between us:)

She has also started saying "I'm sorry."  Most of the time, she slightly misuses the phrase.  She will bump into something or hit her head on something and immediately says I'm sorry.  She will drop something on the floor and say I'm sorry.  It's adorable.  I tell her she doesn't have to say I'm sorry to the door when she runs into it but so far, she thinks she does. 

I'd prefer her to say it to me when I lay her down to change her diaper and she starts kicking me (thinking it's funny.)  But no.  Instead, I have to get on to her and tell her "No" (which she does not like.)  At all.  Almost immediately after I say no with my don't-mess-with-me look she reaches up to throw her arms around my neck and says "hugs!"  She is so sensitive when someone tells her no, especially when I say it and she thinks I'm mad at her.  She wants reassurance that I'm not and I guess hugs are her way of saying I'm sorry. 

The "hugs" game gets played at other times, too.  She will be playing with something or reading a book and will run over to me saying "hugs, hugs" right before she throws her arms around my neck.  Then she will do the same to Brandon.  Oh, and also Ruby.  She never leaves Ruby out:)  I personally love the hugs game.  I will take a hug or a kiss from my baby any time I can get it.  I know it won't be long before she is 13 and it will be totally uncool to play the hugs game:(

Sunroom on a Budget

When we first moved into this house in January, the sunroom was pretty low on the decorating priority list.  It was the middle of winter and we rarely went out there.  Then spring came and I thought about how much we would enjoy it during coming summer months.  It would be perfect for family gatherings and swim parties.  So it got bumped up on the list of house decorating projects. 


I had a vision of what I wanted the overall style to be so I just needed to find the pieces I wanted at a reasonable price.  I didn't want to spend a ton of money- it is just the sunroom after all.  I didn't want to worry about us sitting on the furniture in wet bathing suits while we were taking a break from the pool.  I wanted Anniston to be able to have friends over when she gets older and them all hang out in there while cooling off from the hot sun.  So yeah, I wanted to go semi-cheapo!


The first item we purchased for this room was the furniture set from Lowe's.  It is from the Allen + Roth collection and it was very affordable.  The cushions are both removable and washable, which is a plus when you have a small child! I was able to choose the cushion color (great bonus) and I chose a neutral in case I ever wanted to change up the color scheme in the future. 


Since I went with neutral cushions, I really wanted a bright pop of color in the rug. Let me tell you- the rug was not a quick and easy decison.  At all.  Apparently, I was an indecisive crazy person judging by the way rugs came and went through our house.  At least that's what the hubs told me:)  I think he was being a little dramatic- the rug that is here to stay is only the third rug I bought. 


Let me first show you the ones that were total fails:

I ordered this rug from Ballard at a pretty good price.  I think it was around $250.  The color on the internet showed a more citrus/lime green.  When I recieved it, turns out it was more of a camo green.  The entire color scheme just looked boring to me.  Not at all how I envisioned my bright, cheery sunroom to look.  So it went back.  By the way- yes, that is Annie playing in her little car over in the corner.  Hard to get a shot of the room without her or Ruby somehow ending up in the picture!

This was purchase #2 from Pottery Barn.  While I really loved the colors, I just couldn't decide about the stripe.  I also wasn't too crazy about the material.  It didn't stay in place and the edges kept rolling up.  At that price, I wanted to be in loooove.  And I just wasn't. 


While shopping at Target one day I stumbled across a pretty green outdoor rug that I really liked.  I really had wanted to bring out green in the rug because the curtains and the walls were already blue.  The best part about this Target rug?  A whopping $119 for an 8x10.  Umm, yes, please!

And I LOOOOOVED it!  After all the ordering and sending back, I ended up with a rug that I found down the street for half the price.  Maybe the husband was right.  I might be a little crazy!  Granted the pattern and style may be a bit trendy, but hey, for $119 who cares if I want to change or update it in a couple of years?  So here is where I am at now:

Major progress, right?  I'm not quite done yet, though.  I still have a shelving unit from IKEA coming that will go on the far wall beside the sofa.  Annie's little table and chairs are currently at my dad's house awaiting a fresh coat of yellow paint.  And I'm currently on the hunt for some cute baskets and colorful beach towels to style the white chest with.  I'm also considering getting a large live plant but you may never see pics of that unless I can figure out how to keep it alive for more than a month. 

List of items:

Loveseat, chairs, and coffee table- Allen + Roth via Lowes

Decorative pillows- Pottery Barn

Green rug- Target

White chest- Marshalls

Small bench- Homegoods

Curtains- left from previous owners of the house (Score!)

Linking up with Serenity Now

Anniston- 18 months

I just realized I had this post written and ready to go.....and then I forgot all about it!  Oh well, better late than never!


My little Annie has the sweetest personality- she will give hugs and kisses freely and loves to stroke your hair when she gets tired or sleepy.  Sometimes, she will come barreling at me, full force, to throw her arms around me with the biggest hug.  Gotta love it.

That being said, she can get pretty fiesty and stubborn, too.  She will occasionally pitch little fits here and there when I tell her "no" or she doesn't get her way.  They never last more than a minute or so.  Once she realizes I'm not going to give her what she wants she will stop and move on.  There have been a couple of times she will get mad because I say "no" and she will stomp her feet really quickly and scrunch her face up.  Brandon and I try to keep a straight face but sometimes it's hard:)

She is becoming so much of a girly girl.  I have a small drawer that I keep some of my old and cheap costume jewelry and I let her have free access to it while I'm getting ready in the mornings.  She will stack 5 or 6 bracelets on and walk around with her arm held up because she knows they will fall off if she puts her arm down.  She can even say "bracelet" but it sounds more like "bace it."  Too cute.  She loves to put on necklaces, too, and will get upset sometimes if I try to take them off before she is ready.  What can I say?  This girl loves her jewelry!

We all know she loves to dance.  This girl seriously has a new move every week.  I don't want to wish her life away but I cannot wait until she can start dance classes.  She will have so much fun!  Brandon also plays soccer with her.  Well, really he just kicks the ball around with her.  But she can kick it right back to him!  And then she claps for herself:)  She definitely doesn't have any self confidence issues so far:)

She loves to read.  More specifically, she loves to point to every picture on a page and have me tell her what it is.  One night, I was half doing that and half watching TV.  Apparently I didn't respond fast enough once she pointed at something on the page.  She started fussing and tapping me on the chest until I turned my attention back to the book.  Note to self:  when she points, you must respond in a timely manner:)  Quickly.

As far as eating is concerned, she is all over the place.  One day she is hungry as can be and nothing will fill her up, and the next day it's hard to get her to eat much of anything!  For the most part she does good though.

Her favorites:
Milk- 2%
Strawberries
Yogurt
Turkey
Cereal bars
Oatmeal
Animal crackers
Mac n Cheese
Rice Krispie Treats (specially made for Anniston by her Kay Kay:)  We even sent her this picture one day asking if she would make more for Annie.

Stats:  Weight- 29.7 lbs  Height- 31 1/2"
I am also happy to report that her sleeping is FANTASTIC right now.  The best it's ever been. (Knock on wood!)  I have no idea what happened, but one week she just started sleeping past her 5 am wake up time and pretty much has been ever since.  She was doing great throughout the night, but would just wake up at the crack of dawn and be ready to start her day.  Brandon and I had gotten used to it pretty well, but it sure is nice to sleep later.  She goes down between 7:30 and 8 pm and will generally sleep until 6-7 am.  Some mornings she has even slept until 7:30 or 8 am!  I love not seeing 5 am anymore!!!

Anniston has really taken off with her vocabulary.  She can say (or attempt to say) almost any word I say. The most common words she says on her own are:

Mommy
Da Da
Ruby (and sometimes she will point to other dogs in books or on TV and call them Ruby too!)
Cracker
Paci
ABC
Bye Bye
Hey
No
Elmo
Abby (the character from Sesame Street)
Ball
Kay Kay
Poppy
Allie
Mimi
Shoes
Ice

I put A's hair in pigtails and a ponytail for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  She looked so stinking cute I could hardly contain myself.  She loves for me to fix her hair so she sits still really well.  Her hair has the cutest curls in it and I love it!

And she loves to show you her belly button:

I want Anniston to stay this way forever sometimes.  We have so much fun and she is at such a cute age.  I want to document as much as I can right now so I have it to look back on and remember just how much fun we had!

Things I'm Loving

(1)  I'm loving "girl time" with Anniston.  Yesterday we attempted to paint her toenails.  I had purchases some Piggy Paint (nail polish safe for kids) awhile back and was waiting on the perfect opportunity to break it out.  Since it was raining most of the afternoon, yesterday seemed like the perfect time for a little mommy-daughter pedicure.  Or half pedicure...  Ok, really only 3 toes made it out with nail polish on them.  Regardless, Anniston had fun playing with all the nail polish. 

(2)  I cannot express how much I love the St. Tropez bronzing lotion.  I've never been a fan of self tanners, mainly because I haven't found one that doesn't streak or look orange.  Since I quit tanning in a booth years ago, I've mainly stuck to mystic tans.  Problem now is, I don't have time to go on a regular basis.  I've heard the rave reviews on the St. Tropez so I thought I'd give it a go.  I watched two You Tube videos on how to apply to that I could make sure I got the most bang for my buck out of this product.  I did a happy dance after I used it for the first time- no streaking and a natural looking color.  This is what I will be using all summer long!

(3)  Sugar Cookies.  I'm normally not a sweets person, but I had to break down this past week and buy some.  You know- the really soft, crumble in your mouth kind?  Oh yeah.  Unfortunately, this is what the container looked like as of last night:

For the record, I did share with my (many) technicians at work and the hubs.  I did NOT eat all of those!

(4)  I'm loving that my living room decorating project is coming along!  I have a color scheme, chairs, and curtains picked out.  I was on the hunt for decorative throw pillows on Monday and was pleasantly surprised to find almost all of them at Target!  I found one from Pier 1 also.  Yippee for budget friendly pillows.  I'm going with a deep blue and mustard yellow color scheme.  Apparently that is popular right now because Target had everything in those colors!  I cannot wait for this room to come together!

(5) Lastly, I'm loving seeing my little girl learn new things.  In the last few days we have gotten out her picture books, and instead of her ususal point-to-everything-and-you-tell-me-what-it-is game, I have turned the tables and had her tell me where something is.  She knew almost everything I asked!  And some of them were quite random things!  She was pretty proud of herself too when she got it right:)  This is one of my favorite pics from this past week of Poppy reading to Anniston.

Linking up for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Our Weekend

After working so hard all week long, I was so ready for some time off with my family.  It was beautiful weather this weekend, thank goodness, because all Anniston wants to do is go "outside."  She grabs my finger and pulls me toward the back door repeatedly saying "outside."

Friday evening we pushed her around in her pink car and played with some bubbles.  She loves trying to catch them.

Then she fell down and scraped up both of her knees.  They started bleeding so inside we went to get her cleaned up.  I felt so bad for her!

We hit up Target Saturday morning for our groceries and house essentials.  Have I ever mentioned that I absolutely HATE going to the grocery store?  With a passion.  So I buy all that I can at our weekly Target runs and whatever else I need that I can't get there, I make Brandon go get at Kroger.  Crazy, I know. 

Then we played outside on her playground, splashed around in her water table, and did a little swinging in her new swing.

I have no idea what she is doing here.  Being silly, I guess.  She loves being outside so much that she giggles and acts silly because she is having so much fun. 

After nap, it was hot enough that a dip in the pool was in order.  Annie was all too excited to get in her swim attire and pose for the camera:

After a yummy dinner at Mellow Mushroom and a visit from Aunt Allie, we were all exhausted from the day. 

I ended up working on Sunday so that my partner could watch the Grizzlies game (but I got an awesome deal out of the trade and got Tuesday off work.)  I still had plenty of play time with Anniston that morning before work, though. 

My mom and dad came in town to spend some time with her so that Brandon could do a few much needed things around the house.  Of course we played outside even more. 

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Then it was time to come in and eat lunch. We have been practicing with her utensils and she is doing really well with them.



After lunch it was time for me to head to work. She played hard and had so much fun with Poppy and Kay Kay.  Now (since I swapped days) I get both today and tomorrow off work!  Today is dedicated to my gazillion errands I have and tomorrow is dedicated to spending time doing whatever Anniston wants to do. 

Mother's Day and the Great Outdoors

It is FINALLY warming up here in West TN.  I thought spring weather would never come.  To celebrate, we spent a LOT of time outside this weekend.  Anniston loves playing outside so much and her temper roars to life when I tell her it's time to go back inside. 

On Friday we made an early morning Target run because I had promised Anniston I would buy her her very first Barbie.  She loves the one her babysitter has, so it was a must.  I got her a princess one, complete with a full head of long, blonde hair.  Of course, the hair is Anniston's favorite part:) 

After nap, we headed outside to put to play with her new water table.  She loves it!  She loves gathering up all her buckets and cups and splashing the water all over the place.  She gets drenched while doing it, but she doesn't seem to mind!

Saturday morning, my mom, dad, grandmother and Allie and Brandon all came over for a little Mother's Day visit. Anniston's new swing came in and my dad helped put it on her existing swing set.  She cried like we were doing something awful to her the first time she got in it.

I think it was just the fact that it was something new and that we were all standing around watching her.  She swings on her existing swings just fine- it's us that can barely manage swinging her and holding on to her at the same time!  She finally got in it and had so much fun letting Poppy swing her.  Over and over and over.  With her sunglasses on- because, you know, the sun was totally in her eyes:)

Later that afternoon it was warm enough for a quick dip in the pool!  Brandon had heated it to a really comfortable temperature and it felt so nice!  Annie had a blast!  I can't wait for hot summer days when we can spend it cooling off in our pool!  It's going to be a great summer!

Sunday morning we went to church with Brandon's mom, Nana, and sister and her family to celebrate Mother's Day.  Afterwards, we had a fantastic brunch and Anniston enjoyed getting to play with her twin cousins, Mary Beth and Neely.  She thinks she is as big as they are and tries to do everything they do!

I feel so lucky that I got to spend my Mother's Day with the best husband and little girl in the world!  That in itself is the best Mother's Day gift of all!

House Pics: Anniston's Bathroom

When we moved into this house, I was so excited that Anniston would now have her own bathroom.  It's really going to be the "kids" bathroom (eventually) so I knew that I wanted to keep the decor in here gender neutral. The best part about this bathroom?  It's right off the main hall upstairs and is not connected to any bedroom.  LOVE that! And we still have another bathroom off the playroom for guests.  Total win!

The bathroom was already painted a sky blue color and I kind of liked it- so I just went with it and planned the decor around that.  The result?  A very bright, colorful, and fun kids bathroom!

Towels:  Target
Chalkboard jars:  Michaels
Wall art:  Prints-Etsy, Frames-Hobby Lobby
Shower curtain:  Kate Spade

I love, love how this turned out!  It's so fun and colorful.  I still want to get Anniston a little red step stool so she can reach the sink to brush her teeth!  Other than that, this room is DONE!