let the countdown begin...

georgia's first birthday is days away. 10 to be exact. so what better time for
a countdown.
a favorite picture from the last year.
a top ten list of things i've learned in the last 355 days.

and to top it all off when we've reached number 1...
a giveaway. a really good one at that. {more to follow about that so stay tuned}

so here we go...

lesson #10

there was no need to waste all that time wondering when she'd sleep. or eat. or get teeth. or drop a feeding. etc. etc. etc. this whole world works on a good night's rest and 3 meals a day. period. and everyone gets there at some point. even little people.

our weekend away

we are just returning from a very special holiday weekend at the lake. so in no particular order...

the whole clan. all 17 of us.

it rained like crazy for the first 3 days so we had to find other things to keep us amused. wii rockband delivered. please notice harold's face during his 'roxanne' chorus AND that my sister had to take off her house slipper to play the drums. we are some serious about wii rockband!

then it was my brother's turn to take the mic. he sang a beastie boys hit. if you know my brother then you know why harold is laughing so hard he's crying.

and here's sweet walker ready to fish with her fleece one-piece pjs, her stuffed panda bear and leather flip flops. she makes me want to be 4 again.

and these two. busy busy. always up to something. just look at that face on my child.

and us
and here is kristie {my sister} and courtney {sister-in-law} and me {taking the picture} while we are stuck in the middle of the lake in the POURING rain. we kept trying to ski during the rain breaks, but we got caught in the middle of this one

not for long though. hello from yours truly :)

and have ya'll ever had pinch me cake? if not, the recipe is on the side. do yourself a favor and make it soon.
and don't yall play naked foosball around your house????

here are the night fishers. i am WAY too impatient for fished. plus the worms are gross and the fish stink.

but max on the other hand is quite the little pro. he caught a fish everyday we were there.

and georgia LOVED the water. loved it. it was freezing and she didn't care one bit. she stayed in this little float for a least an hour. would have stayed longer if i would've let her. i'm so glad she's not afraid of the water. that will make for very fun lake trips ahead.

and if pinch me cake wasn't enough {or the other 100 things we had to choose from} we made homemade ice cream too. but it was for a special occasion...

we just so happened to be celebrating my sister's 40th birthday too. happy bday dana!

3 of my favorite people

and another one of my favorites. on her first ever boat ride.

and getting lots of love from all her aunts

and is she not just the cutest thing ever. gosh.

so that's all folks. hope you enjoyed your weekend as well. be back soon.

yesterday was a good day...

on a time crunch again this morning but wanted to post about yesterday. georgia had her first trip to the zoo and her first trip to the pool {the real one}. don't have pool pics but thought i'd show you her favorite part of the zoo...the water feature in the children's area.
she looked for a long time debating whether or not she wanted to participate.

finally she got up the nerve and wondered over there to see what that water thing was all about.

she found out all right.

i had a soaking wet little baby on my hands. she just laughed and laughed and kept going back through. it was good times! the weather was perfect too. i wonder if Heaven will be 70 degrees, sunny with a slight breeze. surely right???

and to top the day off right...i had a first as well. see all this:

my friends dede and sherry use coupons and save TONS on groceries each week. and while i admired their effort i really didn't think i had the time/patience/energy to really get in to it. well...i'm a convert! last night in the checkout line my total was over 74.00. BUT using coupons and the publix bogo {buy one, get one free} i got all those groceries for 29.63! my savings were over 45 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can you believe it? i still can't.

there are lots of websites that make it easy to coordinate the deals with coupons. one of them is www.once-upon-a-coupon.com another is www.fiddledeedeemom.com

okay, i've spent 13 more minutes than i expected here so i gotta run. love from bham....

well hello...

remember us? we'll all here and doing great. our season is wrapping up at work so there is LOTS of work to be done right now AND spring is here so there is LOTS of playing to do as well. which leaves less and less time for inside activities {aka blogging} but bear with me. got some good stuff coming up :)

until then, enjoy the pics from the last days:

{lots of playing outside}

{notice the two top teeth breaking through}

{the neighborhood pool opens tomorrow. hooray! so we had a trial run }

{ silly glasses girl }

{bye bye for now. be back soon with recipes, crafts & more}

the quilt

i wish i could explain to you guys how excited i was on friday when i saw the box from ticche & bea. it has taken me 6 months to get the courage up to cut some of georgia's baby clothes to send off for the quilt but i finally did it and sent them off late last month. of course i saved most of the 'important' outfits, but there was lots to choose from when i started cutting. anyway, i cut out 24 6"x6" pieces of her clothes, her bedding, her blankets...stuffed them in an envelope and waited {not so patiently} for the result.

i had tears in my eyes when i opened the box friday morning. there was all my baby's clothes AND my memories sewn together for me to look at, touch & appreciate for ever and ever. being able to see this quilt and be reminded of the early days without having to dig in a box in the attic makes all the pain i had cutting up her clothes so worth it! i really cannot begin to tell you how great this is, so see for yourself...


amazing huh?! all of you with kids I really recommend doing the same thing. i won the chance for them to make it for me, but i would have spent 75.00 for this quilt ANYDAY! if you cut the clothes and mail it to them, they'll sew it and send it back to you for that price. or you can buy a kit for 35.00 and sew it yourself. i have slept with this quilt every night since it came. don't call me weird either. i just love looking at it and touching it. i couldn't really appreciate those first days at the time, but boy can i ever now.

so here's the site http://www.ticcheandbea.com/ visit their website for more info. super nice folks over there with great products.

happy hump day. i'm off to bed. at 7:21 pm i might add. we have early starts 'round here ;)

phew.

i don't think i've been online more than 5 minutes since last friday. been busy around here. we're working on our guest room, had all the mother's day festivities and my friend tricia has been here since saturday so we've had lots of hanging out to do.

the guest room is coming along good. we've decided to re-do the whole room completely and i can't wait to share it once we're done. so we've been painting this weekend and the fabric came yesterday for the headboard. it's going to be good. AND i'm doing it on a major budget so more to come 'bout that...

and mother's day was great. everyday being a mother is great. it really is. harold asked where i wanted to go for lunch on sunday and i said home. i wanted to cook him {and tricia and ginger and georgia} a good meal. as i prepared the food i kept thinking to myself, this is exactly what this day is about. it's what my mom always did and i couldn't think of another place i wanted to be than my house, cooking for the people i love. i did let harold do the dishes though ;() and monday tricia and i spend the morning at the spa while harold kept georgia. again, it's been a great couple of days.

and know what is even better????

this arrived on my doorstep friday morning.

remember that quilt i won using georgia's baby clothes. it is finished and oh. my. goodness. i'll have a whole post about it this week so stay tuned.

happy day to you all...

lack of words but NO lack of action :)

just so you know...none of these pictures are staged. i've learned to keep my camera handy because this little one is into everything. i love it. i really, really do. so forgive me for the lack of posts this week. been kinda busy. so here you go. see for yourself...

this child of mine loves {LOVES} to climb in, out or on something. especially cabinets...

and she likes helping clean up. we're hoping this stage lasts a while...

and she likes chewing on shoes which i'm hoping doesn't last too much longer...

and she likes her privacy...

did i mention climbing in cabinets...

and i thought she liked her bunny until i found him in the toilet...

and she likes her daddy's briefcase. or my purse. or anything else she can rummage through...

and throwing stuff in our bathtub...

and my favorite. most of the days she spends just walking around talking that little head off. she's pretty animated as you can tell in the picture. we are in for some fun times around here.

hope you're having fun 'round there. love from bham...

Make It Monday - Finger Puppets

I love felt. LOVE IT. You can do some many things with it and it's super cheap. Like a quarter {yes, .25 cents} cheap. Which I love even more. So I decided to make some finger puppets out of some felt I have here {can get at HobbyLobby or Wal-Mart} to help me tell Georgia the story of Noah's Ark. I had seen some of these at a store and all the animals were there along with Noah and his wife but I couldn't find God or the rainbow. So I decided to make them myself to emphasize the most beautiful part of the story - God's promise to Noah and the rainbow he sends as a reminder.

So here we go. Start with your sheets of felt and a Mark-B-Gone pen.

Place your finger on the felt you are going to use at the main body of the puppet. I chose to use tan and cream colored felt for mine. Anyway, when you have enough to slip your finger inside mark with the pen the width and length you need. Allow a little extra for the sewing room.

Cut the square out and then use that as a template for the other squares. Cut as many as you'll need to make the puppets.

Okay, when you have the pieces cut, then you just sew or glue them together leaving the bottom open for your finger. I sewed them to save time but you could glue them just as easily.

So here's the finished puppets ready to be turned inside out. I just trimmed the extra before I did it.And just stick your finger inside the open end and start working it's way up to the top. Be careful though not to bust the seams.

And here's your blank canvas. Ready to be adorned with whatever you decide you want your puppets to be. You could do animals, shapes, colors, or whatever. Just start cutting the felt and see what happens.So here's my finished product. We have Noah, The Ark, God & the Rainbow. I'm going to have to apologize to Noah when I see him in Glory one day. I'm sure he's much more attractive in person. And God. Don't you just love Him?!

So there you go. This project cost me less than 2.00 and less than 2 hours of time. Well worth don't you think???

Happy Monday to you all. Love from bham. And from God himself :)

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
Genesis 9