6 months

Question:
How can he be half a year old already?

Answer:
Because to a sleep-deprived Mommy one day can feel like one week. And one week fly by in one minute.
Confused?
Me too.
Constantly.

Question:
How did I miss that he has DOUBLE ear infections?

Answer:
Because he is the quite possibly the sweetest, most laid-back baby ever.
And he never whines.
Or fusses.
I adore him. And I feel like a total jerk for not noticing his pain.

Question:
Will he ever stop sleeping in his CAR SEAT or will he be sleeping in a papasan chair at 16?

Answer:
hmmm...
I'm afraid that if I were consulting the Magic 8 Ball, the answer would be something like, "Outlook not good".

Question:
How can such a cute little guy sound like this?

Answer:
Because he is exactly.like.his.daddy.

The stats:
ear infections: 2
shots: 3
pounds: 16.7
percentiles:
50% for weight
25-50% for height. (give it up for being average! WOO HOO!)
100% for cuteness.

chahlie bit my fingah.

I KNOW you've seen this:

It's everywhere.

In fact, it's had over a million trillion gazillion (give or take a few) hits.

Which, incidentally, is the exact number of times that someone has quoted this video to David and me after hearing that our little one's name is Charlie.

Instead of choosing to be annoyed by it, we've embraced it.
We've even taught Avery to do it... because, honestly, it's really fun to make your kids do cute stuff.

Avery and her little friend Faith were hamming it up at our house the other night and I thought it would be the perfect time to get her to show off her amaaaazing English accent.

Just so you know, I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about after she says "Chahlie bit my fingah", but it's funny.

Enjoy.

(this one's for you, Kodi!)

lampapalooza!

I love bloggy carnivals.

As you can tell by my lack of blogging, I've been totally uninspired this week. Nester's bloggy carnival was just the push I needed to get me movin' again.

This is Avery's room.

I found her tiny chandelier a few years ago on clearance at Lowe's.
It was a banged up, dusty, floor model. And silver.
Eww.

I had to have it. It needed me.

I took off the crystals, cleaned it up a bit, and spray painted it a flat cream color.
All for $30.
Yup. $30.
One of my proudest shopping moments. Ever.

I have a little nightlight for Avery's room that I made from one of those night light kits from Hobby Lobby.

It was seriously easy peasy to do: I just cut a square of fabric to fit the shade, stuck it on the self adhesive lamp shade, and embellished with a little bit of fringe.

It's been loved on a bit by Avery, but it still works like a charm.
Total cost: $6.00

Lastly, I found an idea somewhere on the internet to create a lampshade cover for that sweet little milk glass lamp I just bought. Since I can't sew yet, I enlisted the help of my super-sewer friend Kris.

As luck would have it, when I was ready to make it, I couldn't find the tutorial again. So - my friend Kris helped made it for me.

Didn't she do a great job? Cutie, cute, cute.

She told me that you make it the same way you make a drawstring skirt.
Whatever that means.
I just nodded like I knew what she was talking about...

Anywhoo...I hot-glued the edges of the slipcover to the lampshade for a cleaner look, but you could just leave it hanging there too. Either would be too cute.

There are some grrreat ideas out there in bloggy land.
Check out Nester's blog for more inspiration!

craftin' with the sis

My little sister Katharine came over the other night to do some crafting. She's graduating from High School and wanted to make a gift for her friend and future roomie.

Katharine's idea was to scrapbook and decoupage a plain wooden wastebasket for her friend's room.

I'm not really a scrapbooker, but I'm learning.
I can cut, glue, decoupage, and distress all day long, but figuring out layouts and whatnot kinda make my head hurt.
I enlisted the help of a scrapbooking magazine for ideas - which turned out to be a very smart decision.

We had a blast working on it. Katharine's got a really great eye and is pretty craftilicious.

We did a little painting, a little tracing, a little pasting, a LOT of re-arranging, and a little decoupaging.
Side One:

Another view:

It may not be earth shatteringly creative, but it was really fun to put together.

I also made a matching picture frame to go along with the wastebasket:

I think it turned out cute... except for the fact that I put the paper on UPSIDE DOWN.
Genius.

I did something a little different to the paper flower than I normally do and distressed it a bit using my handy dandy distress ink.

The sister that crafts together...

I'm seeing more nights like this in our future! Fun, fun, fun!

I'm all thrifty and stuff.

One of my favorite things to do is to flip through the pages of Home Decor magazines and dream. I love this magazine. Everything in it is pretty, pretty, pretty.


I'm also obsessed with reading Home Decor Blogs.
This chick is so gifted it's not even funny. I want a house like hers when I grow up.

Another fun blog to read is Thrifty Decor Chick. Sarah is so funny and - for lack of a better word - thrifty. She seems to have lots of luck finding hidden gems at garage sales and Goodwill and transforming them into something lovely for her home. So, with Sarah and her amazing good luck in mind, I decided to go for it.

I went to Goodwill last week.

I'll be honest with you, it kinda creeped me out.
From the minute I walked in, I felt like my skin was crawling with cooties.

I didn't have any luck finding something cute to paint, repurpose or decoupage. I did, however, find not one, not two, but THREE of these creepy things:

YIKES.

Just remembering it gives me the willies.
Sincerely.

There was also an unexplainable...odor.
Just a random odor.
A Random, freaky odor.

As I forced myself to feign nonchalant perusal, the thought crossed my mind, "Whoa. Glad I'm not pregnant. This could be ugly."

And it almost did when I saw the BRAS for sale.
What the What?!?

I struggled internally with my snobbery for a little bit, but eventually came to the realization that Goodwill just isn't my thing.
If I wasn't sure about it before, I definitely am now.
Definitely.

After my Goodwill...experience... I decided to try another route: Estate Sales.

My friend Maribeth is an Estate Sale veteran. She's been going to Estate Sales since she was a little girl with her thrifty Momma. She introduced me to a website you can go to called www.estatesales.net that lists Estate Sales in your area with pictures.

The pictures are - in my estimation- completely vital.

I've found that Estate Sales can be a little icky too, so looking at the pictures ahead of time helps in determining if a particular one will be a little too icky.

Estate Sales have turned out to be much kinder to me than Goodwill.

Last month I found this:

and this for Avery's room:

I also found this:

and decided to do this:

and hope to make it look like this:

or this:

I also scored a fun Ball jar at an antique store and added some vintage spools of thread that I found at an Estate Sale this month:

And who can resist the sweetest little milk glass lamp for Avery's room? Not me.

My favorite find is this adorable antique rocking chair that I got for $30.
Shut it.

Now I just have to decide to paint or not to paint. What do you think?

My feelings about Estate Sales are mixed. I find them completely fascinating but a little sad as well. It's weird to wander through a stranger's house and dig through their worldly possessions.

You can learn a lot about someone by looking at the stuff they left behind.
I've seen old photographs, wedding dresses, love notes and report cards for sale at Estate Sales.
Personal stuff.
Stuff that once upon a time, someone really cared about.
Stuff that was treasured and saved for years before being sold to strangers for pennies.

I find myself wanting to buy all the old photographs just to rescue them...'cause somebody needs to care about little Suzy's first haircut.

If you're a Christian, it's impossible to go to an Estate Sale and not consider the finality of life. It reminds you that all the stuff you treasure is just...stuff. It's not what really matters and it won't go with you when you leave this earth. One day, someone's going to be haggling over all that stuff that you valued.

And you won't even care.

Just a thought, though: you might want to have somebody trash the medical seats for you before you go, cause evidently, even Goodwill doesn't need any more of those.

Here's the Rundown -
Estate Sales: yes
Garage Sales: maybe
Consignment Sales: sure
Ebay: absolutely
Goodwill: Nope. No way. No how.

baby plaque

I just have to say that my church is awesome. Seriously awesome.

I've "heard" (not experienced. definitely not.) that most minister's wives feel an amazing amount of pressure to meet unrealistic expectations.

I'm beyond blessed to be in a place where the staff and church members embrace my role in David's ministry as help-mate to him and mother to our children. I never feel the pressure to be the "perfect minister's wife."

I'm not expected to sing on the worship team ('cause no one wants bleeding eardrums), or work in the nursery every week. No one is annoyed that I can't be at every Women's Ministry function or lead the Children's Choir. They aren't shooting me disapproving glances when I come in late to church with baby puke on my shirt. I can just be David's wife and Charlie and Avery's mommy.

That's freedom, y'all.
Serious freedom.

Because they give me the freedom to be who I am, I feel the freedom to volunteer when I feel God wants me to, not when others want me to.

And that, my friends, is why we are never leaving.
I hope.
(Maybe I should talk to God about that first, huh?)

Anyway -
All that verbosity (not a word. I'm sure of it) leads me to this: I volunteered to help the Preschool Director with our first Family Blessings Brunch (a brunch for the families of babies born in the last year).

When Charlie was born, someone gave me a precious little plaque from a little ebay store called The Gingham Grove. After a little investigation I thought, "hmm... I can make that."

We thought it would make the perfect keepsake for the families to take with them after the brunch.
Since we've had 20+ babies in the last year, I had 20 + plaques to make.

Stuff I used:
8 x8 wood squares from Hobby Lobby
acrylic paint
sponge brush
fine grit sand paper
medium grit sand paper
drill
gingham ribbon
Distress Ink in Walnut Stain
scrapbook paper
paper cutter or scissors
computer & printer

What I did:
1. I bought the wood at Hobby Lobby.
2. Brushed on acryllic paint with a sponge brush.
(I painted several layers to get a good heavy coat on it so that the sanding looked cool.)
3. I sanded the painted plaque using a medium grit sand paper
4. After that, I used my handy Distress Ink in Walnut Stain to stain the edges just.a.bit.
5. Then I sanded some more.
6. I had David drill 2 holes in the top of the plaque for the ribbon hanger
7. I found a verse I liked and printed it on scrapbook paper with my computer printer.
8. I cut the verse into 5 x 5 inch squares with my paper cutter and mod podged the verse onto the plaque.
9. Then...I sanded.

viola:

The girls had pink ones and the boys were blue.
Original, right?
If you want to purchase one, you can go to The Gingham Grove Ebay store.
or you can just make your own.
Whichever.

don't leave home without her

First of all, thanks for the sweet comments on my last post. I really do feel better now! Taking that crazy thing off my blog has made me feel like a new woman.

I realized that I wrote "this blog is for our family", but I truly love the new bloggy friends who've stumbled into my life through it. I feel connected to so many of you now. I love to hear your comments and read about what's going on in your lives.

Although we can't go grab a coffee and chat in person, I feel like I have very real relationships with many of you through our blogs. I love that.

So - keep on reading...as long as you want! I'll keep on reading your blogs too. You are always, always, welcome, my sweet friends.
____________

Ok - so I promised to explain a little about MyBecca...
Here she is:

She's Dora's replacement and Avery's current BFF.
Poor Dora got a little used and abused and Avery's on to bigger and better things now.

Looking at that poor Dora doll makes me think about The Velveteen Rabbit.
Which, honestly, makes me want to cry a little on the inside.
Just a bit, though...'cause that's kind of a weird thing to do.

MyBecca is named after Avery’s favorite character from her Children’s Bible: Rebecca.

I'm not really sure why the story of Rebecca is Avery's favorite, but I have a little theory:
Rebecca gets married to Isaac in the story...and for some unexplained reason, Avery is obsessed with getting married these days.

It seems that she's not really picky about who she will marry, but just that she'll get to do it.
Somedays, she wants to marry mommy.
Somedays, it's daddy.
Sometimes, it's Bay Chahlie (a.k.a. baby charlie)
and even sometimes, it's her little friend Miller.

It’s a new trend that I’m not sure I like that much.
Even in the backwoods, marriage isn’t acceptable until at least 12. I was hoping we at least had a couple of more years to worry about that business.
It's kinda freaking me out a little bit.

MyBecca was a gift to Avery at Christmas. Once upon a time, she had lovely, nicely groomed hair.

photo from www.fisher-price.com

Not so much anymore.

Oh wait...here's the back.

It's really essential to view all angles to truly appreciate the magnificently large bouffant on this little doll.

I’m soooo grateful for MyBecca. She's been a good influence on Avery. For now, she seems content to twirl MyBecca’s hair instead of her own, and her hair is actually starting to grow in a little.
Which, honestly, makes me want to cry a little on the inside.

For that reason, we keep close tabs on the Becster.

the final countdown

Oh vacation... sweet vacation...I miss you so.
You were so fabulous - and so good to me.
Now you're gone. Gone, gone, gone.
Break. My. Heart.

In an effort to hang on to beautiful, wonderful, fabulous vacation for as long as I can, I thought I'd post the highlights from our last few days.

Here’s Avery and "MyBecca" (more on her tomorrow) watching David perform a little surgery on the DVD player at the condo after Miller convinced us that the reason the DVD player was not working was because,

“Maybe domebody put doo (2) DBD’s in dere”.

He said it with such sincerity and conviction that it made it hard to know if he actually saw someone shove 2 DVD’s in there at once, or if he was just trying to help us brainstorm possible options.

After my CD player’s ill-fated rendezvous with a penny, we weren’t taking any chances.

Thankfully, we discovered that there was only one DVD in the player after all.

Final Diagnosis: The DVD player must turned ON before it will work. Crazy, complicated, contraption.

Here's a picture of the kiddos eating their lunch on the balcony, where they were served a very fine meal of cheetos (or as Avery calls them "cheetahs") and sandwiches sans crust.
Fancy. Very Fancy.

Avery loves Miller and Carter. She would open her eyes in the morning and say, "MillahCatah" and go to sleep at night saying, "MillahCatah".

Seeing her interact socially with others her age is incredibly interesting. And pretty darn funny, too.

Case in point:
Avery and 4 year-old Carter playing “hospital”.

Carter told Avery to put the baby doll in her tummy, then she told her that they needed to go to the hospital to have the baby.
Next to each other.

I have to say that I’m really glad that real births aren’t like that. I’m not sure that’s the kind of thing that friends should really do together.
Shoe shopping? Yes.
Double Wedding? Maybe,
Birthing a child? No.

Another favorite game of the week was “Choo Choo” train.

Then there was this game:

Apparently, the object of the game was to yank squirt toys out of each other's hands while screaming bloody murder in a teeny, tiny, pool.

I personally love this game the best. Can you guess what it’s called?

It’s the Slide-on-your-rear-in–the-sand-while-making-sand-angels Game
A.k.a.: The-Get-Sand-in-every-crevice-of-your-body Game.

Despite Avery's new found tolerance for sand, we still found ourselves hanging out at the pool quite a bit.

She would say, “Eleven, twelve, Mother’s Day!” before jumping from the edge of the pool into her Daddy’s arms.
We’re not really sure why she added “Mother’s Day” before jumping, but whatever.

While watching them together, I had this flashback to summer vacation in the pool with my Daddy. There’s something really special about seeing your child do the same things that you did as a little girl. It makes my heart happy.

Here’s a picture of something that didn’t happen to me when I was a little girl:

This really large Heron flew over the swimming pool, landed near the deep end, took a drink of water, and then flew off again.

I was told later that his name is George. The residents of the condo feed him Chicken Legs. Evidently, he’s practically tame. There’s even a paper mache statue in the office of George with a chicken leg in his beak.

Yep. You heard me right. A paper mache heron with a chicken leg in his beak.
Niiice.

Anyway - after hearing that story, Maribeth said, “Huh. Isn’t there something really wrong about feeding a bird to another bird?”.

Isn’t it ironic, Don’t cha think?

Something else I found ironic this:

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, you are viewing a picture of yet another restaurant where we were placed far, far, away from any other patrons. This time, instead of being in the "back room", we were seated in the "upstairs room".
Seriously.
Do you like how we are conveniently placed near the restroom?
AND a creepy fish thingy?
Lovely.
What's with Florida and the fish decor? Ugh.

Here's a few insanely cute pictures of my family (I put them in the middle of the post, because by this time, you're already invested and have no choice but to view the cuteness. Mwaha hahaha...):



The Malahy’s headed home a day early, so David and I took Avery and Charlie to an outdoor mall with a great little play area on our last day of vacation.






AND I'm done.
Sadly.

Now back to reality.