12's, 12's, and more 12's

Well, Drew has been working 12 hour shifts for the last couple of weeks and through the weekend. Trying to keep busy, the kids and I went to Houston from Saturday to Tuesday to see my friend Paula, and her kids (Archer and Ezra) that are the same ages as Carson and Taylor. We had a great time, hung out and chatted, went to the park, the zoo, Taylor and Archer tormented each other (no not really), and we got to see a little bit of Houston!

Drew has the next 4 days off for Memorial day, except he has to go in a little while on Sunday.. then back to 12's until who knows when. They are really killing them with these exercises.. and me too! He's working day shift, so he's gone before the kids get up, and doesn't get home until they are in bed, or almost in bed.

Lets see, a few milestones.... Carson finally cut his two bottom teeth, he is army crawling, but we are still struggling with sitting up on his own. The mommy in me is of course worried, but the Dr. says he's okay, and he CAN sit up.. he will sit up on his own in the bath tub and splash around, but unless he has something right in front of him on the floor, he doesn't sit for long, and he still falls over. He also has started eating regular food with us, not all of it, but mild things like spaghetti, potatoes, bits of fruit, meat. He's doing really well with it, and loves it!

What else, he likes to growl at us now, and he says Dadadadadada, and sings. He loves to look at his reflection. They've both had colds for a bit now, and Carson ended up with an ear infection, so we are treating him for that. We are hoping the symptoms go away soon so he (we) can have a good nights sleep!

Okay, lets see what we have here. This is the newest addition to our furniture. A utility bar for our appliances that we use on a daily (or almost daily) basis. Our counters were always so full that we had just a tiny working space so wanted to get something to put our big appliances out of the way, but still easily accessible. My Dad has this same bar, and thought it would work perfect... and it does! We love it!


Drew and his kidlets.
Oh yeah, I also decided to try my hand at making some cute clothes for Taylor. Yeah, yeah.. I know.. I need another hobby like I need a hole in my head... too late!!! I'm having so much fun making stuff. I'm finally getting the hang of this sewing thing a LITTLE. I love the boutique style clothes, but they are SO expensive. I can make these at a small fraction of the price... and a little time on my part.
Modeling for me.
This is a knot apron dress, one of these by a company called Matilda Jane runs about $68!! Crazy huh....




With a matching headband that you can barely see.
Love this fabric!

Taylor was having a luau day for her Mom's Day Out program. I was looking for Hawaiian themed clothes in her closet, but couldn't find anything so I made her one! She actually picked out the fabric herself (out of about 6 different patterns), she said, "this one Mama, like it!" We had a painting day (outdoors), by the time we were done there was paint on EVERYTHING. She had a lot of fun though. She painted on the last piece of my old background paper. Which reminds me, when Drew is off this crazy schedule I need to take some more studio type pics!




Sooo, I accidentally gave Carson a haircut. Yep. I was going to trim his little long wispy hairs and the guard I grabbed apparently was REALLY short, it looked much longer than I thought it was going to be. Instead of doing a little test area, I just ran it straight down the middle of his head, which was followed by a huge gasp and an "oops". I must admit, I was terribly upset that I inadvertently cut his hair, but now it has grown on me... in fact, we are planning to give him another "trim" here pretty soon! This was right after the incident, and he's happy as a clam!



Eating his first spaghetti dinner, not by gerber.



Playing in their room.




These were at our last music class, well for two weeks anyway, we start the fall session next week!

Hiding scarves.
Carson and Baylor (she is about a month younger than him, and lives across the street from us!)
Martha, Boston and Baylor
Alaina, and Scout (Alaina is the music teachers daughter).
Colby and his Mommy
Dancing to music


We were enjoying being outside a couple of weeks ago and I was snapping photos. I think this was one of the first times Carson was in the actual grass. Poor kid, it was warm, so he was just in a diaper and he had a pretty good rash by the time we went inside.
Picking weeds with Dad
I did not pose these, they were just sitting the same ways..
You can see his teeth cut through here! They are through a lot more now!
Thought this was a funny face!
Taylor, modeling a headband for my friend's Etsy shop!
I love this face!

Visiting our friends. Taylor and Archer.
Carson and Ezra
The closest we got to All 4 of them in a photo at once.


There are more from our Houston trip, but blogger is acting up and not letting me upload so I will try again later. I also have some videos to share, but I need to charge the camcorder battery first!

Well, off to do some more projects and stay up too late!

Love to you all!

More photos!

Yeah, I'm a slacker. I was intending on heading in to the craft room to upload photos and do some crafting but all of a sudden I got the deep cleaning bug and set to work. Next thing I know it was 11pm! Figured I better get in bed since this morning was my morning to get up. :)

It's 10:45 now and I'm just getting started, but it's Thursday! The night I attempt to watch Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice in between tending to children who are fighting sleep. I think I'm asking for DVR for Mother's Day (hint, hint, babe ;) ).

Anyway, on with the photos!

We finally finished our front yard! We finally decided what we wanted to do with it, spent a couple of weekends at nurseries and planning where and what we wanted to put places.

This is when we came home with our first load of plants! Drew got to work right away. :)

These got a little mixed up, but this was the following weekend. We wanted a smallish tree for the corner but couldn't decide. We thought we wanted a japanese maple, or a crepe myrtle, but at the nursery we fell in love with this Snowball Viburnum and had to have it! Of course the blooms fell off within a week or so, it was at the end of it's blooming period. We could possibly have more in the fall, but if not we'll see them again in the spring!
Mostly finished, I haven't taken a photo yet, but we did put two small white Azalea plants in front of the three windows.


Carson was hanging out in his chair for a few minutes while we were doing a bit of the gardening!



Taylor was helping organize my pots I had gotten for a project!

Here is my finished project, it's actually in the back yard.. I made one on either side of the fireplace and they are different. This one is mostly purples, the other one is yellows, oranges, and reds.Taylor got bored with gardening and decided to go for a drive. She's spent the last couple of weeks with a dirty face. She LOVES to be outdoors and playing in the dirt! You should see the bath water at night!


This was at a birthday bash for our playgroup. Remembered to grab my camera this time. Once she gets comfortable she likes to climb the stairs and go down slides. It takes her a while though.
Eating cupcakes.
This is Miss Bella. She's so cute! She's a couple of months older than Carson.

I love this picture of Taylor getting ready to come down the slide. She has such wild hair, but the sun behind it looks ethereal to me. Our beautiful baby girl!
Carson hangin' out on the floor playing with the piano. Poor little dude, as I've been processing these I realized he's not been in too many lately! He's forever in the carrier on my chest, not with me, or sleeping when I have the two hands to take the photos! I'll have to fix that!


Grandma Ivy and Grandpa Ron came to visit us, and I got a few photos while they were here as well! I still have more on our little camera that I have to get off but here's these for now.

Grandma holding Carson and playing with Taylor.
Getting a squeeze!

Grandpa and Drew installing the rain gutters.
Just before they left. First it was just Taylor, Carson was asleep.
Then Drew came out, sporting his PJ pants as usual.
We did the switcheroo so I could get in the photo too!

While we were doing that, Carson woke up so we got one last one with him in it as well!Whew!! That's those for now. I still have more from the Air Show, and my visit to the Duck Pond! I don't know if I will get to those tomorrow, but I will try. I have a long to do list when the kids are sleeping so I need to hack away at that a bit as well.

Hope everyone is having a great week! TGIF (almost)!