20 Months!

Taylor is 20 months old!

8-1-2012 (You like Sydney's Wacky Day outfit in the background?)

Her accomplishments this month include:

• New words!  "Sure", "Yes, sir", "Big Bird", "backpack", "Dora" (more like "Do-da), "potty", "sit", "Big Bird", "Cookie" (as in, Monster, mostly), "boo!" (she loves to scare us), "Parker".
• She's really repeating most of the words we say, so it's getting hard to document all her "firsts"!  But, the words above are the ones she says regularly.
• She has totally gotten into Sesame Street, which, secretly, I am loving!!!  Most of the time, when we watched TV, it was for Sydney's shows (Dora, Diego, Super Why, Little Einstein's, etc).  I was sad that Taylor never got to watch Sesame Street.  I started putting it on this summer, and Taylor loves it!  Sydney is actually getting back into it, too. 
• Climbing down the stairs... mostly backwards.
• Using her spoon and fork really well!
• Starting to sing her "ABCs"!  She'll sing, "A...B...C..." in the right tune, and then will repeat "ABC" over and over. :)
• Starting to sing "E-I-E-I-O".
• She's learned to slide under the gate at the top of the stairs (thanks to our 2 year-old neighbor who showed her that trick!) and walk down the stairs.  SCARY!
• We pulled out the little potty, just for her to see it and get used to seeing it.  We haven't been very consistent with having her sit on it.  She prefers to sit on it and read, fully clothed.
• She loves to watch the Lion King in the car, and everytime she gets in her car seat, she points to the tv and says, "Roar!"
• She loves giving kisses.
• She is really loving to "read" books. 

Here are some pictures from this month!

Summer Recap

Well, folks... the time is here.  Time to go back to school.  Yes, tomorrow.  (I know, you just probably yelled out a loud, "WHAT??"  I feel the same way.)

So, I'd like to recap my summer for you... mainly to help me feel productive.  Looking back, I feel like I had a wonderful summer.  I think I put too much stress on myself to get things done while entertaining/teaching my two little ones... only to realize that they just want to run, play, and laugh.  And they can do that anywhere, as long as they are together.  I'm also proud of myself, because I really tried to become Susie Homemaker... I had dinner ready when Stephen got home, I had the house mostly cleaned/tidied, I ran errands and did laundry and the kids survived. 

This is all especially good because, I won't sugarcoat it... I have been utterly EXHAUSTED!

OK, here's our summer 2012 recap:

• Set up the baby's nursery.

• Set up and organized Taylor's big girl room (including painting the walls, buying the comforter, bed skirt, etc., decorating the room, getting bed rails for her big girl bed, and starting to move things over).

• Organized all my crafts (which were in the drawers in Taylor's new room) and sorted them into containers.  Sweet hubby built some shelves in the garage to keep them on.

• Went to the mountain house twice.

• Went to south GA once.
• Went to Florida once... for a day!

• Visited lots of local places, like the aquarium, Chuck E. Cheese, Loganville toddler park, pools, bouncy places, and the Yellow River Game Ranch.

• I have read 6.5 books since Memorial Day (for all of you who know me, that is really something!)
• I tried out a bunch of new recipes- both dinners and desserts.  Some I liked, some I didn't.  Lots of them were either casseroles or crock pot dishes (in hopes to find easy things we liked that I could cook while I'm back at work!).  I'm glad I tried out some new stuff.  I actually made homemade lasagna (I'm usually too lazy and buy Stouffers!) and it was really good!

Blueberry cobbler, made from scratch!

Pralines... didn't look quite as good as the ones I've had, but they had the same great taste!

• Sold tons of baby clothes on eBay.
• Did a bunch of crafts.

Making ice cream- it actually tasted good!

Crafts from a neighborhood playdate.

• Did a mondo-cleaning of our house.  (Though you definitely can't tell anymore :(  )
• Bought a new car.

• Booked Sydney's birthday party.  This year, I'm due right around her b-day, so we're hiring out.
• Ended the summer with 3/4 the family getting the stomach bug!  Boo!  (I am the sole survivor... KNOCK ON WOOD.  Must be those prenatal vitamins.)
• Even managed to do some work here and there, preparing for the upcoming school year.

SO sad to say summer is over, but I am about to start my 8th year of teaching (hard to believe!), and I know it will be good to be back in a routine.  And, this year, I don't have a classroom to decorate and get ready!  How weird is that?

Bye, bye summer... see you next year!

What we've been up to...

Being cute.

Getting big.  (29 weeks!)

Decorating.  You like?

Stayin' cool.

Partying it up.

This girl ain't scared.

My little daredevil.

Cheese!

Trading Spaces

As my summer is quickly approaching its end, I'm trying to make sure I have Taylor's "big girl" room and Parker's nursery ready.  At least, as much as possible.

My dilemma was, with Taylor's new room, that we didn't want to have to repaint it.  It was this dark greenish/brown color, and I completely dreaded the thought of painting that room again (how many coats would it take??).  I tried my best to match a comforter to the wall color, but I just couldn't wrap my head around how to accessorize a room with such a strong, dark, non-girly wall color.

This is what it looked like before:

Bleh.

So, we sucked it up.  Yep.  We painted it.  And to my surprise (!!!), the paint + primer that we used only required one coat!  What what??? 

It's funny, now knowing that we painted the walls, I could've picked any comforter out there and gone with any wall color.  But, since the comforter was already washed and on the bed, I don't think Kohl's would allow me to return it.  I'm kind of glad that we are using this comforter, because it requires me to think about colors I don't really use around the house.  If you know me, you know that blue seems to win around my house, and this comforter had more greens/purples/browns in it.

So, we picked purple for the wall color!  It's called Dusty Lavender, and it's definitely purple, but also quite soothing.  And definitely girly.  It helped all the little accessories I purchased/made for the room flow much better.

We'll get a different lamp, and I'm thinking about spraypainting the frames on the wall to be cream.  That will have to wait, though.  No motivation for that right now!

We have also bought the bed rails for her bed, but we're probably going to postpone moving her into this room until about August.  As much as it makes me sleep better at night knowing she's safe in her crib, Stephen pointed out tonight that she is just as likely to climb out of it any day... she is our little daredevil.

Ok, onto Parker's room!  We didn't have too much to do for his room.  Stephen painted over the beautiful mural my mom had done (sniff, sniff):

Before.

After. :(

I have gotten a few wall hangings and painted the letters for Parker to hang.  I got a bed skirt, and we'll continue to use the brown crib sheet, brown diaper table cover, and brown hamper.  I'm still keeping an eye out for more things to hang on the wall- but, I haven't had too much luck.  For now, I'm just keeping up things that I had in Taylor's room!

Some family friends got Parker the cool activity mat... it matches well! (plus, it helps entertain his sisters.)

My mom is going to try to transform the lampshade from Taylor's room into one that goes with Parker's room.  Here is what Taylor's was like:

Mom is going to try to take off the ruffle and add blue and/or green ribbon to the top and bottom.  We'll see how easy that is.  If not, we'll keep an eye out for other lampshades.

Those green pieces of art will be replaced, just not sure with what.

That is it for the rooms for now!  Even though Parker still has to cook for ~11 more weeks, it's nice to know that his room is basically ready for him.

Aquarium

Stephen took the day off this Thursday, and we four ventured to the Georgia Aquarium!  I've been there a few times already, but I must say that it was so much more enlightening with the girls.  I don't know if it's because we really got to make a big deal out of all the different sea animals, or the fact that we did all the extra fun stuff (dolphin show, 3D movie, etc), but it was a really good time.  Taylor normally naps from about 11:30-1, but we didn't leave until 1:30.  She did great- we ditched the stroller after the first area of the aquarium and she kept right up!  She definitely crashed within 2 minutes of us getting in the car.

Here are some pics from our day!

Typical... the girls fighting over daddy's attention.  (Mommy who?)