This Looks Familiar...

Welcome to the Construction Zone...

 Now that we aren't having our small group over for Sunday evenings anymore, we decided to go ahead and demo our guest bathroom.  This is the first on a long list of renovations.  Hopefully it will go smooth since we've done two other bathrooms in our past.

 I wanted to see how hard it would be to chisel the tile up ourselves.  This is how far I got before I threw in the towel and told Justin to go rent the jackhammer.

 The result of the jackhammer...dust everywhere but the floor is up in an hour!

 Tile is down in the shower and walls are taken out!  We have to figure out how to take the old grout and stuff off the sides of the tub since we are not replacing that.  Any ideas?

Already looks better.  How long do you think it will take?  Justin's estimation was 1 week.  I'm thinking more like a month. Home projects + Cornells never equals fast, they always take 3x's longer than what we think.  We'll eventually get it done though...here's to a new bathroom!!

What a Day!

I feel like I've been hit with a truck, backed up over and then hit again.  I'm not exactly sure why today was so crazy, but it was.  Haylie would not nap.  I tried everything I could think of - and much to my dismay would still be screaming at the top of her lungs until she was foaming at the mouth.  At one point we got in the car and just drove around to see if that would stop the madness.  Once she got home she was happy and talking and probably wondering why we went somewhere in the car and never got out.  I'm just glad today is over with.

I'm also hoping that tomorrow will bring less poopy diapers.  H is a "regular" girl and will go like clockwork twice a day.  Tuesday I changed 6 poopy diapers and today was 4.  This can't be good.  Maybe the shrieking and the pooping have something in common.  I'm sure I'll realize whats going on once she's all better.  That's usually what happens.

I'm pretty slow on a lot of things, especially when it comes to parenting.  My mom and sister always give me a hard time that you have to be pretty blunt with me to pick up what your hinting about...and I'm completely lost when it comes to diciphering a 14 month old and what she wants. 

So I'm sitting here watching bad commercials and boring TV and I'm just glad to have an hour of vegging out without a cranky baby.  It's much needed...and tomorrow is another day!

Five Things

My friend Mandy saw on another blog the idea to write about five things around your house that make you happy.  I'm always on the lookout for new things to blog about, so I decided to join in the fun!  Here are my five things in the order that they uploaded.

#1: Couch Pillows

Random, I know.  But, I'm such a matchy-matchy person and hardly ever use different textures and colors so these pillows are kind of out of the norm for me, but they bring such a nice texture to my living room.  I'm proud that I stepped out of my comfort zone and it looks so good (in my humble opinion!)

#2: Framed Pictures of Haylie

These pictures were actually taken by Mandy!  I found a great deal on frames, an even better deal on mats, and voila!  I created these beauties.  I love that I can look over from my bed now and always see my happy, smiley girl. 

 
#3: Haylie's Shopping Cart

This makes me happy because it makes my baby girl so happy.  She was given this by her Mimi and Umpy for her 1st birthday.  Who knew that it would provide her hours of entertainment and mobility and she would be so content with walking back and forth, back and forth?

#4: Fur-Fur

If you know me at all, you know that I adore cats.  Well, my cat Caramel is definitely no exception.  I have never met a sweeter, gentler cat who loves to cuddle.  It makes me so happy to lay down for a nap or watch TV on the couch and have her come sit with me.  She may not be the prettiest cat, but she is definitely my favorite!

#5: Kitchen Wall Art

I could sit and look at this piece of art for hours.  I think it is beautiful and fits in my kitchen SO well.  When I first put it up, if I was having a bad day, I would literally come in my kitchen, sit and just look at this.  Call me crazy (because of staring at the wall or because you think its ugly)...either way, it makes me happy!

If you want to join in the fun, go over to Mandy's blog!

Topsy Turvy

I've been trying for a week to get Haylie to walk while I had the camera out.  She either thinks its uncessessary to document this huge stage in life, is camera shy or just isn't interested in walking much still.  I'm going with the third option.  I finally got a little help today when Justin got home.  She flounders around still as she is flying toward her goal, but it still counts. 

Progression

A Story of Haylie's Afternoon

 "Oh, I'm having so much fun!  I love making out with the dishwasher."

 5 seconds later...

"I'm so sad and I don't even know why so I'm just going to sit here and cry my face off."

The End.

Facebook Parenting

I don't know how parents ever survived being parents before the era of the internet.  I always joked when H was really little how I would like a manual for knowing what to do.  My clever father-in-law told me that the manual was the Good Book (aka Bible), which of course is the ultimate.  But what about things like, when should I stop doing _____ or when should I start doing _____ or how would I go about _____?  Simple questions that I just don't know about since I'm a first time parent, but can now easily ask 100 of my friends and instantly get parenting feedback.  Love it. 

So, thanks Facebook for helping me get through the first + year of Haylie's life.  I had no clue what I was doing and thanks to social networking, I can now get lots of advice (some I listen to and some I completely ignore - but thanks anyway) and not worry about completely screwing up my baby.  I'll try not to abuse my status updates with all my questions.

"A Great Place to Break Down"

 These two pictures have nothing in common except for the fact that Haylie and I are wearing the same hat.  I can't even come up with something clever to say to relate the two.  So, continuing on...

  The other night Justin and I went to Flatire Burger in Edmond.  I've never been and have wanted to go for awhile now.  We went and I LOVED it!  I had a delicious cheeseburger and definitely saved room for dessert.  We ordered the s'mores and they hit the spot.  I was thinking about them for the rest of the night and can't wait to go back just to get them.  Definitely recommend this place for a fun evening!

Steps & Haircuts

My wonderful Aunt Barbara came down this weekend to watch my cousins and they stopped by for a visit!  I love it when she comes down from Enid.  My aunt does hair for a living and has done my hair on numerous occasions.  She is always prepared with her scissors in case anyone is in need of a new style.  So this weekend, Haylie got her first hair cut!!  Thankfully it was not the mohawk that Justin has been dreaming about, it was just a trim.

 Haylie actually sat pretty well and let Aunt Barbara trim away. 

In other big girl news this weekend, Haylie took about 5 steps on her own on Friday night!  We were over at my sister and bro in law's house hanging out with them and my parents when she just walked like it was no big deal.  When I realized what had just happened I pretty much burst into tears.  I was not expecting her to do that at all so it caught me way off guard.  This was a big milestone weekend for Haylie - first big girl steps and first haircut!  Whew.  We need to recover from all this excitement!

Take 1

Take 2

I Resolve...

I never really do New Years resolutions.  I just hate setting the bar and then feeling guilty for when that bar comes crashing down.  So this year, I'm not going to make any resolutions (besides, it's a week after the new year, I'm already failing).  I think I'm just going to write down some ideas that maybe I'll try to work on throughout the year.

1. Try to talk less and listen more.  I tend to talk a lot, especially when I feel like there is too much silence and don't want to feel awkward.  I also say things all the time that later I think back on and wonder why in the world I said that.

2. Do more fun, creative things with Haylie. So far, she has enjoyed just playing with her toys by herself, but she's at the point where I think she would love to go to the playground more or be just be outside or doing more big kid things. 

3. Communicate better. I've been working on this, especially with the hubby, and it seems like we get a long so much better.  Less frustration when he doesn't "read my mind."

That's all I'm going to list so far.  I don't want to get ahead of myself and I'm definitely not going to say "Lose weight" because that's too cliche and I love chocolate too much.

Bathtime and Bears

Cousin Evie & Haylie taking a bath together at Mimi's house

 Crazy Hair Haylie

 Haylie now prefers (strongly) to keep her bear with her after she wakes up.  Bear now eats most meals and snacks in her close proximity.  Wait, is that bear holding her water?

New Year's Eve

This year we decided to try out downtown for New Years Eve.  I have heard it is crazy busy and tons of people, but we knew some friends were playing at the Skirvin Hotel so we decided to try it out.  We dropped the baby off at Grandma's house and off we went. 

We picked up our friend Allison and went to Tokyo Japanese for some delicious sushi.  You can't take a baby to eat sushi, so that's where we like to go when we have a wonderful babysitter.  You can tell I am old because at 10 pm, I was fighting off sleep.  Off we went to downtown in search of parking (Allison let us use her work parking spot thankfully.)  It was FREEZING cold, but we made it to the Hotel.  We listened to music and talked with a lot of friends that we saw down there!  We ran outside at 11:57 to see the ball drop rise and then ran back inside  at 12:02 to keep from loosing any appendages due to frost bite.

Music courtesy of Grant Stevens and Chris Vincent

The Morgans

Pretty chandelier

Allicat and Erin

Sorry for the grainy photos.  I forgot our crappy camera.  Which probably wouldn't have taken any better photos, now that I think about it.

Happy 2011!!

Velcro Socks

It all started back in Lindsborg when we went to the first restaurant for lunch.  While I was in the bathroom changing Haylie's diaper, apparently the waitress spilled Justin's beef noodle soup all over my jacket.  I had just washed it in prep for the trip, but that's okay.  No harm, no foul.  After we got home, I put my jacket in the wash with some other things.  This past Saturday, I got it out and wanted to go shopping at Ross.  While walking in, I was fiddling with my jacket and felt something odd on the front.  It was a black sock stuck to the velco.  I was on the phone with my sister so I told her what I found and said, "Whew!  Glad I found that before someone saw me."  Went into the store and walked all around.  I noticed a few people looking at me funny, but just thought nothing really of it.  When I got home, I took off my jacket and found this:

Haylie's pink sock stuck to the top velcro of my jacket.

Lesson learned.  Always check for little baby socks.