Steve Jobs knew exactly what he was doing...

The anniversary of my 29th birthday...

Dinner at Dish... Raspberry Bey-bey... One hour on the ice... A busy, fun birthday Monday!

Bibliotheca

Parkin

Taking advantage of the great weather while it lasts!

Laissez Les Bon Temps!

Happy Fat Tuesday! We celebrated this morning with a king cake for breakfast. Alex got the baby in his piece, so we named him the Mardi Gras king of our house for today.

Kitchen 5.0

It just wouldn't be a normal month at our home if we weren't doing or thinking about some kind of project. I decided at the beginning of the year that I wanted to repaint our kitchen cabinets...again...for the second time in six years. Back in 2006, while in the clutches of full on Nesting Syndrome, I painted our stained cabinets an off-white. It looked great, but over the years, showed some wear and tear, and didn't hold up as well as I had thought.  Because our kitchen gets Southern Exposure, I thought we could go dark with the cabinets and not have it darken the kitchen too much. And as everyone with kids knows, dark hides dirt! Originally I was thinking black, but when I got a paint chip and held it up to the wall, it just looked too extreme. I went to a dark brown, espresso color instead. Last time I went with semi-gloss, which was a mistake, because it doesn't hold well over years of use, and cabinets get used alot. This time we went with high-gloss latex, which meant we had to do a separate primer coat. We also used small 3 inch foam roller brushes for cabinets instead of regular brushes. The paint went on much smoother. It took three coats of the paint on the doors to get the right coverage. We are really pleased with how it looks. I'm still debating whether or not to get a clear lacquer coat for the outside of the doors...stay tuned! Additionally, we took out the quarter round trim underneath the cabinets and covered the wood baseboards with self-adhesive vinyl trim in a dark brown. This will hold up much better than painted wood trim from vacuum cleaners, mops and scrub brushes. If we ever get our basement finished, I think I want to have that same kind of trim used down there.



Yikes! The new cabinets really illustrate a "dire" need for a new wine fridge to replace the never used trash compactor! :) You might think we would be done with the kitchen, but alas, we are not. We are waiting for a new table we ordered to go with the window seat nook that was built this past summer. Then we should be done messing with the kitchen for awhile!

10 Months

We celebrated yesterday by going to the park for a bit. She is standing, cruising like crazy, eating regular food, and likes to hold large pieces in her hand while she nibbles from them, drinks out of sippy cups (although she's very particular about what kind she will use), babbles, says "mama", "dada", "hi" and tries to imitate our speech. She keeps us on our toes and brings us joy!

By the way, this photo was taken with my phone. I found the best camera app and I can now edit photos as I take them. So yes, I have been a bit obsessed with using it!

How did it get to this?

I'm a day early, but I can't believe this kid will be 10 months old tomorrow!

More skating fun

It was nearly 50 degrees yesterday and we took advantage of it at the rink!

Lots of heart

Happy Valentine's Day! Our newest little cupid, Miss G, is getting so big. When she was born, one of the first things I noticed was the birth mark on her forehead. Her brother had the "stork bite" mark on the back of his neck like I did. She had that as well, plus another one or two on her head. We joked that instead of getting bit by the stork, she got mauled.

I don't even really notice it that much anymore, but every so often I find myself looking at it and smiling. Because I've always thought it looked like a heart (or more accurately, the Smashing Pumpkins heart logo, but I digress). It makes it that much sweeter to think of that little heart that she wears on her forehead as a symbol of how much she is loved, how much she was hoped and dreamed for.

As she gets older and it continues to fade and grow fainter, I'll still remember that little heart and what it represents. Even better, one day when she enters those trying preteen years, I can look forward to it making the occasional appearance when she gets mad at her old mom! Happy Valentine's Day to my two little sweethearts!

Blades of Glory

In typical Alex style, he befriended this kid about 30 seconds after we arrived...

Thanks to a Groupon offer, I signed Alex up for ice skating lessons at Brenton Skating Plaza downtown. First of all, what a great idea this has been for the city! I've been to the Metro Ice Arena before, but it's your basic, boring ice skating rink. This one is outdoors and located right by the Des Moines River. You get a nice view of downtown and can skate under the stars.

Alex did a great job (I was really surprised because I was convinced that he would be a wall-hugger like his dad when it comes to skating), and most importantly, he had a lot of fun.

 

We hit Zombie Burger after our lesson

Two years ago, I took him ice skating with his cousins, and it was basically Misery, Inc. He was done after I drug him around the rink a few times, and could not stand up on his skates at all. I know that they have walker-like devices to help the really wee ones start skating, but none were available then, so it was, in the words of Slap Shot, "Too much, too soon!"

But of course, I was a total liar about it on this blog:

"Alex's cousins from Chicago are in town this weekend and we decided to take the boys ice skating. Cal and Mac have gone a few times before, but this was Alex's first time. He did a great job and enjoyed it...most of the time!"

Let's take a quick look back:

January 2010: "You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame, you know."



New sport: ice dragging

Of course, no post would be complete without a picture of The G!



Basket Case

Last night, I found this little stinker in our bed. It's not the first time he's taken a snooze in that laundry basket. Sweet dreams, little prince...

Circa December 2006...

Dennis Hopper cake

On Tuesday, Alex came down with his first ever ear infection. Because of my awesome parenting skills in somehow mananging to keep him from getting an ear infection in over five years, I decided to celebrate with a cake. Or, it was really to cheer up our poor little guy. I saw on dirty, addictive, time-suck Pinterest a recipe for a blue velvet cake and knew that I had to make it.
  

Kind of like eating the Cookie Monster, no?

Now, I love red velvet cake. It's one of those fun kind of cakes to make, and it always looks cool. I had to try to the blue velvet version, and it didn't disappoint. It's basically the exact same ingredients as a red velvet, but with blue food coloring in place of the red. And, as an added bonus, after eating it, you'll notice an interesting side effect...and it's not the ability to use the F word as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb, drink Pabst Blue Ribbon or listen to Roy Orbison songs.