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March 31, 2006

Happy Birthday Baby!

Julia is one!! We survived the first year, phew. So long to bottles, rear facing car seats and frequent doctors visits. Bring on the walking, sibling rivalry and tantrums!!

Julia really has been such a joy to us and we're so thankful for her.
Happy Birthday Julia Ann!

Posted by JennR at 11:17 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 22, 2006

Progress

I have tried to take this shot once a month since Julia was born (which will be a year next Friday) and once I get organized I'd love to hunt back through our digital pictures to see all of them or I could design something that displayed them all. Wow, that would be cool. Hmmm, something else to distract me from the other things I should be working on.

Speaking of things to be working on:

My latest focus has been smocking their Easter dresses. Lizzie's is getting close to finished, I need to add buds (or french knots) to the green vine and some flowers. That's after I finish the blue part of course. I'm hoping to start Julia's this weekend. My goal is to finish the smocking by the first weekend in April so there is plenty of time to sew them together.

My other project is to finish our office which we have started to redo. We took a trip down to Atlanta to shop at Ikea almost two weeks ago. That place was crazy, especially on a Saturday. It was totally overwhelming for me since we were shopping for an entire new office. Plus we were lucky enough to have the priviledge of taking both girls. Actually, Julia was pretty much off our hands since we went with the Goseys and they carried her in a back pack the entire time! What a help. My one and only complaint about Ikea was their lack of restrooms. There was ONE on the showroom floor. For a place to market themselves as kid friendly and to have one restroom that you had to hike to everytime your two year old said they need to go potty was a pain. It didn't help that we didn't really know the lay out of the store and would get lost each time but we did survive the FIVE hours we spent there and scored some great stuff for our office. I think these 2 pictures of Lizzie's finger paintings will be my favorite part of the office.

They aren't on the wall yet and the office is not finished yet, we have (really just me since its my stuff) lots of organizing to do and we got the wrong set of cabinets so we'll have to return those this weekend on our way to Augusta. But its coming along, the walls are a true sky blue and the desks are red. It's very bold and I'll admit I was too chicken to get it but Andy insisted. I'm such a chicken when it comes to color, thank goodness he insisted because I know I'll end up loving it. Most of my designs have pretty muted colors so using really saturated colors don't appeal to me, but it does work.

In order to love it though, I've got to first clean it. I just extended Lizzie's TV time to include a Barney episode so I better make the most of it.

Posted by JennR at 10:07 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

March 9, 2006

Another sicko

We spent this morning at the Dr since Lizzie has had a temp since yesterday afternoon. We had been treating it and were able to get it to come down but when she woke up it was 104.6 so I called and went in. 104.6 to me is alarming but apparently its just her body's response to fighting a virus. They did all sorts of tests and really didn't find much of anything. Since we were able to get her to respond to the motrin and were able to bring the fever down, we probably could have just continued to treat it with that and tylinol and saved ourselves a trip. At least I'll know for next time. This is like the bi polar virus, extreme highs and lows. Once the motrin kicked in this morning she was perfectly fine and was really happy at the Dr, although being stuck in an exam room with a 2 year old for 2 1/2 hours (waiting for her to pee so we could get a urine sample) was like being stuck in a walk-in-closet with someone on speed. She was all over the place.
But right now she has fallen asleep on the couch watching Blues Clues and is definitely not feeling so well. Poor thing. I tried to move her to her bed but she insists on staying in the living room, I guess I'll just have to plant myself down next to her and smock. I mean if I was doing laundry or cleaning the house then I wouldn't be able to be right there if she needed me, right? LOL
We're both pretty tired from our long morning. It's a good day to take it easy.

In Julia news: we are continually amazed at the amount of food this child can consume. Last night she ate a bowl of brown rice mixed with some food I was serving the rest of the family and 2 chopped and steamed carrots and then she was still hungry and ate her sister's ENTIRE cheese sandwich that she didn't want. She would stay in her high chair all night! She turns 1 in a few weeks and I was excited about not buying formula anymore, but table food for this linebacker might be more expensive. LOL
I think if we could have started table foods at 4 months then she would have never been failure to thrive. She sure isn't anymore!

How big is Julia? Sooooo Big!!

Posted by JennR at 1:59 PM | TrackBack

March 7, 2006

They got my attitude!

It's so much fun as a mother to watch your kids grow and to see family resemblances in them. I hear all the time that the girls look just like Andy so I looked through my pictures and tried to compare them with the girls. I definitely passed down my expressions and my personality, but they look a lot like Andy's side of the family. Especially their Uncle Jamie, which is kind of funny. I don't think at a young age they look a lot like Andy but Lizzie looks like his toddler pictures (I don't have any to post).

That's Julia on the left and me on the right, she really looks like her father.

These are pictures of me when I was a toddler, I have definitely seen those looks on Lizzie! What is up with my hair?

This picture is of my sister and I, it always makes me laugh. My mom used to take all our pictures so I'm sure that present is just a prop. This picture is so indicative of our personalities, she is white knuckling that present just as much as I am but continues to maintain the perfect smile.

I have had the challenge lately of the girls not really getting along. Lizzie was unware of her sister's presence on the beginning but as Julia gets more mobile she is getting into her sister's things and is NOW disrupting Lizzie's world. If Julia is crawling towards a toy that Lizzie is playing with Lizzie will box her out. I'm having a hard time not telling Lizzie just to leave her sister alone and pick another toy, that's the easy way out. But that won't teach them to be together. I do my best to teach Lizzie not to aggrivate Julia and they can correctly and nicely play together. Yesterday she took all of Julia's toys from her and went and hid them, she is really testing her limits with her sister lately.
Oh man, she is so much like me I am in such trouble!

Posted by JennR at 10:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 6, 2006

Bargain books at Bi-Lo

Yesterday I stumbled upon some great book deals. I was picking up a few things at bi-lo before dinner and they had a bargain bin out with books that were 75% off and then an additional 50% off. So of course the digging began. I got some great decorating books; this one for $2.75, this one for $1.50, and this one for $2.40. I came home so excited. Even if I get one good idea from them it was worth it. I also got Lizzie a Clifford sticker book for $1 and a cookbook called The complete pregnancy cookbook ($1.50)- BUT THAT IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT! LOL, I thought it looked really healthy and could have some good recipes. We are very content with our two girls. . .for now! Heehee!
I love a good deal and at bi-lo of all places, made my whole night. Hmmm, maybe I need to liven up my life a bit!

Posted by JennR at 3:12 PM | TrackBack

March 1, 2006

the perils of kitchen remodeling

I've wanted to repaint our kitchen cupboards for a while now. I have a pretty small kitchen so it's not a huge undertaking. I saw on TLC someone redoing theirs and using something called liquid sander. So while we were at Home Depot last weekend I picked up 2 bottles thinking that during nap time I could wipe down small sections at a time and then prime them. That was before I read the fine print.
On the side of the bottle (not even in large red type) it read:

"WARNING: Using this product will expose you to a chemical which is known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm."

Cancer? Reproductive harm? Ummm, I don't want any of those things!
Now I'm scared to use it, rightfully so. I can't decide if this is a warning for folks who would be exposed to it everyday or if its for one time users. I've never read a warning like that, why would they even sell it. Surely its for long time users. Man, I'm losing my easy way out!!!

Posted by JennR at 2:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack