This Little Piggie Wears Pink

Tonight, Elizabeth opened my drawer in the bathroom where I keep my fingernail polish. She seemed especially drawn to the bright pink. And since she doesn't put her feet in her mouth, I figured she was old enough for her first pedicure. (so to speak!) I asked her if she wanted Mama to paint her toenails pink & she whole-heartedly replied, "Uh-huh!"

She actually sat still and let me do it, too! Then she helped me blow on them for a minute before she toddled off, a little more precarious than before.

She kept stopping and looking at her toes and she would walk with her toes pulled up or curled under like she knew something was different. It was so cute!

I can't wait to see her face tomorrow when she sees they're still pink!

Belly Shot: 7.5 Weeks

Going at Break Neck Speed!

OK, I know I am so behind! It will all make sense soon! Here's just a touch of what's gone on since I last blogged:

Finished the tile in the mech room, kids bathroom, and one of the closets. There's David checking out the bathroom tile.

We got the second half of the laminate flooring to the house & unloaded it. Picked out & ordered the wood burning stove. Picked out & had delivered the vanity cabinets, tops, and matching mirrors for both bathrooms. (and found them all on clearance, saving a TON of money!) We've been to lots of tile/flooring stores trying to agree on and get all the tile we need for the master bath floor & shower. And we purchased the remaining cattle troughs that we'll be using for the back retaining wall. Electricians got all the lights & fans up. The wood stove we went with didn't require as large a floor space as the first one, so Dad adjusted the hearth and designed a new floor. Refrigerator/freezer and range were delivered today and the cabinet man says one more week before the cabinets are ready... which will cause a delay on the flooring.

We did a lot of clean-up (because apparently nobody can clean up their own mess) and Grandpa has been helping with haul-off and dirt work outside the house. His tractor & Mr. Nick's trailer have been a great help for work on the retaining walls, dirt work and clean-up! Grandma's babysitting has been invaluable as well, freeing me up to work at the house in the mornings.

OK... now we'll backtrack to a couple of weekends ago... I forgot to post any photos from the carnival at the Old Settler's Reunion! So here are some of my favorite photos from that:

Of course, we had to have a funnel cake. David wouldn't even try it, but Elizabeth loved it! The white stuff on her face is powdered sugar from her first funnel cake! We wore out before the fiddle contest.

This past weekend Grandma & I took off to enjoy a wonderful weekend at the Women of Faith Conference! We had a great time at the conference, hotel and dining out! Here we are Saturday before we left the conference:

Sunday was promotion day at church & all of us had new classes to attend! David's class was HUGE, so I wonder if they're going to need to break his age into another class (there's already 2 classes of 4 yo's) and we stopped by Elizabeth's former class to let them know that she was walking! They were very excited to hear it & sad that she was promoting to the next class.

I should be blogging...

I know. I should be blogging. But I'm tired. I missed Muffin Tin Monday and Tiny Talk Tuesday and I'm doubtful that I'll get to Wordless Wednesday, though that one would be easy.

Today I tiled the mechanical room (the little room for the a/c, water heater, breaker box, water manifold, etc) and got the bathroom ready to tile tomorrow. Mr. Builder fired our electrician so a new pair started today. They accomplished more today than I've ever seen the other guy do, so that's good. We unloaded about half of the laminate flooring and Dad unloaded the shower tile while I was tiling the mech room. It's so exciting to be in the "final stages"! I'll try to get some photos tomorrow to show you.

My Baby is Walking

Elephant Parade

Tuesday evening, we went with MawMaw, Aunt Marlene, Hunter, Logan, Curt, Suzanne, Alex, Grana & Papa to see the Elephant Parade in Sundance Square.


David was hot, tired & hungry.



Elizabeth was hot, tired & hungry, too, but she L-O-V-E-D it!!! (This is her sign for "elephant" - her hand is the trunk.)





All the kids seemed happier after a stop at McD's on the way home. They ate good & played hard. Dad & Curt think they're still short enough to get inside the playground tubes.

The Kids

Upon getting back in the car, my generation had a walk down memory lane regarding the McD's playground when we were little. Anybody else remember this?(sorry, I couldn't find an actual photo of an old McD's playground)

See more photos from the evening on Flickr.

Tiny Talk Tuesday in the Clouds

As we were leaving the house yesterday evening, David said, "What's that cloud doing?" I looked into the sky & didn't see anything spectacular happening, so I guessed rather dully, "Hanging around in the sky?"

"Is that cloud being Saturn? It has rings around it!"

I still didn't get it, but Dad spotted the cloud & confirmed that it did look like Saturn. Yes, I was being dull, but I finally found it myself. Can you see it?


And here they are earlier that afternoon singing together in the car: (forgot I was taking video when I turned my camera sideways!)

Elizabeth sings something that sounds like Where Is Thumbkin / Are You Sleeping / Frère Jacques, cuter than you've ever heard it before! : )

See what other cute, adorable & funny things are being said this week at Not Before 7 for Tiny Talk Tuesday.

We've Been Painting!

MawMaw has been a big help with the kids lately, so we decided to paint a picture for her. David was happy to comply since MawMaw's bedroom just happens to be the same color as Wingo from the movie, Cars.

First, he drew some pretty lines and hard marks with oil pastels. Then he watercolored over it. The oil pastels resist the water and stay vivid. When he had finished he asked me to trace his hand on it. Look closely to see the blue outline of his hand. Tracing with watercolor on wet paper is not that easy!

He was quite proud of his work, especially when we framed it. And he was proud to present it to MawMaw yesterday when he & EBees went over there for another overnight.

While they were hanging out over there, I got some work done to the bathroom. I'm using tinted texture paint and literally doing a hand texture. When the sheet rock & texture guy saw that I was really using my bare hands, he was amazed... either that or thought I was crazy. Who knows.



Mr. Builder saw the painted walls for the first time this morning. Immediately he called Dad's cell phone to say, "Has she seen this??? Is this really what she wanted?" It's very yellow. It's very bright. I figure if I'm going to be in my laundry room ironing and washing poop out of diapers, the room should be a happy color. This makes me happy!

He was also shocked by how dark the master bedroom was. But that was correct too, and that makes Dad happy.

Just wait 'till he sees the yellow going into the kitchen, the green in the living room and the red ceiling fan I picked out tonight! : )

I can't wait to live in my house of color!!!

Tiny Talk Tuesday: The 18-month Old

Tiny Talk Tuesday is usually all about things David has said, but today I'm marveling at Elizabeth! There is absolutely no comparison between my two children. At 18-months old, David was starting speech therapy because he wasn't talking. So I've been trying to count the words that Elizabeth uses now at 18-months, and I've lost count. Have you heard all these?

milk, cup, dink or gink (drink), fish (goldfish), berry (strawberry), bar (fruit bar), nana (banana), apple, eat, I ont ice (I want ice), more thank you, peas (please), hello, nite-nite, bye-bye (Grana), Mama, Daddy, Da-Did, Ah-Ma, Ah-Pa, MawMaw, NaNaPapa, Ah Jana, Ah Wee, Bubba, Grover, Elmo, Boz BALL!!!, block, truck, bubble, dolly, baby, doggie, cat, duck, bird, cow, MOO!!! shoes, shirt, bath, GO!, eye, nose, mouth, ear, button (belly)

And she's stringing it all together into phrases & short sentences:
Wh sat? (What's that?) Nite nite, Da-did. Where go? (just after she's hidden something!)

There's probably more that she's said, but I just can't keep up with it all. It's such a joy to hear her talking (for now!), especially after coming through a late talker first. She gets so excited about everything, too. She is just so funny and wonderful and I'm glad she's mine!

I wasn't planning on TTT-ing David's words today, but this one... well, you'll see. David was in the shower tonight when I started to smell something familiar. A sweet, fruity smell. My shampoo!!! I pulled back the curtain to find him sitting there with my previously full, jumbo-sized pump bottle of shampoo, turned upside down, pumping away. I calmly asked, "David, what are you doing with my shampoo?"

He stood up, stroked his chin like a great thinker and replied, "Hmmm... I'm using my imagination."

It took all I had to hold back the giggles as I told him never to touch Mom's shampoo again. Then I picked up the now empty bottle and my shoulders dropped. Guess now I'm stuck with dandruff shampoo or baby shampoo.

Hear more Tiny Talk by clicking over to Not Before 7.

Back to School Giveaways

Don't miss the exciting Back to School Giveaways over at 5 Minutes for Mom! You've got until August 12 to enter to win some exciting prizes! Check the link above to see what's up for grabs so far.

I was confused by the instructions on how to enter these giveaways, so hopefully with this entry, I've covered all my bases!

My Man Likes Wings

I've been buying the pre-packaged buffalo wings for my darling, when suddenly I realized that I could probably make them cheaper. So, I got a package of wings, a bottle of buffalo sauce, and added some extra Cholula & Julio's, cuz' baby likes 'em hot. And for a fraction of the cost, I heard some of my favorite words...

Me: So, how'd they turn out? (I don't like buffalo sauce or wings)

Dad: Good. (smacking & licking fingers)

Me: How are they compared to the packaged ones?

Dad: Yours are better. (more smacking & finger licking)

There ya go! Next time I'm going to try making my own buffalo sauce!

And speaking of Dad, this man never ceases to amaze me. He taught himself how to be an architect when he was in Jr. High. Last year, he taught himself how to use CAD software so he could actually draw the blueprints for our house himself. Now, he's taught himself how to be a mason so he can build a stone retaining wall and a brick hearth for the house. Meanwhile, he's saved us thousands of dollars by doing this work himself. I guess saving 5 bucks on buffalo wings is the least I could do, huh? : )

Love you, Babe...

Brick hearth started today, mortar was still wet.

Muffin Tin Monday

It's time again for another themed, "Muffin Tin Monday!" This week's theme was PARTY! My first thought was a tin with ice cream, sprinkles & M&M's.... but I really didn't want to give my kids that much sugar! So, I finally came up with a muffin tin meal that David didn't mind eating!

David got a 3-cheese & pepperoni build-your-own-pizza PIZZA PARTY TIN! And he actually tried it! Clockwise from top left: American sliced cheese, homemade pizza sauce (with yellow squash, carrots, onion, tomatoes & garlic snuck in & blended so it couldn't be picked out!), Parmesan cheese, Colby-jack cheese, turkey pepperoni, and corn tortilla crusts.

Elizabeth's tin didn't have a party theme, but she made it into a party anyway!

Visit Sycamore Stirrings throughout the week to see all the other muffin tin parties this week. I'm sure we're in for some very creative entries!

Amazing Transformation

This is the claw foot tub that was in Dad's great-grandmother's house. It's been sitting upside down in Grana's yard for, I don't know, a few years? When the family decided we could use it in our new house, I was ecstatic! I had been telling Alan I wanted one, but we didn't think we'd be able to afford it. In this photo, Dad was measuring it to make sure it would fit on the floor plan. This photo was taken in November 2007.

This week we took the tub to be refinished. I was totally and utterly amazed when I saw the transformation!


It's beautiful! The outside & feet (not pictured) were just primed and we'll paint them to match the bathroom. (not yellow!)