Bye-bye blonde locks!

Poor Stone. I had let his hair get too long so that he was looking shaggy. So, we took him to get his hair cut last night. This is not his first hair cut; we had a friend who cuts hair come over to the house back in December. Since then, I had trimmed it once, but this time, we needed a professional. I'm sorry to say that I did not get one picture of the whole ordeal... he cried and screamed the entire time! I really didn't think he'd freak out, but I guess I was wrong. It took both of us to help the lady: Kevin held him on his lap and I helped hold his head still, so his hair would look half-way decent. So, here is a before and after picture. They aren't the best pictures--- you have to see him in person to get the full effect, but you can tell his blonde locks are gone! How sad!

Do we look like Christians?

A few weeks ago, Kevin surprised me by taking me downtown to spend the night at a hotel and take a break from the stress of moving and to give us a "night off" away from our little one. We actually haven't done this since Stone was 2 months old! So, not only was it a nice little reprieve, but it was fun to enjoy downtown Greenville (which, if you haven't spent much time down there, you should go and check it out!).

Anyway, we walked down Main Street and put our names in for a short wait at one of the restaurants. We decided to sit outside, since it was nice weather. As we talked and do what I call, "people watch," we noticed that there were a lot of young people walking around (by young people, I mean high schoolers and college-aged kids... wow, you know you're getting old when you refer to high schoolers and college people as "kids"). Two girls particularly caught our attention. They were dressed alike: flat shoes, denim skirts that were mid-calf, a button-up shirt and denim jacket. They passed by us once, then again. On the second time past us, Kevin noticed that they had something in their hands: from what we could tell, it was probably a small Bible and some tracks. We figured out that they were witnessing and probably attended a certain local university (won't name names here, but I'm sure people can guess). We watched them cross Main and go talk to another couple who were sitting over there. What got me was that they passed by us twice and didn't even give us a second glance. I mean, do we look that religious or that "Christian?" I was kind of offended!! However, this experience did remind me to not judge folks by what they look like, not that I think some people look more Christian than others! Has this ever happened to anyone?? If so, share your story!

New Cake

I just made this cake for a friend's daughter's birthday. I have to say that my first attempt (about a year ago) using this cake pan was not as near as good as today's effort. Hope you like it Jen!

Oktoberfest 2007!!!

Since my friend Beth had one of these cool blingybobs on her website, I thought it'd be fun to have one of my own. Besides, it's never too early to begin celebrating your birthday, right??!!


Get your own countdown at BlingyBlob.com

Cake Gallery

So, I try my hand at decorating cakes. It's fun and it allows a bit of creativity to emerge. I am no professional, but I've heard my cakes taste pretty good too.... Here's the ones I've made so far (descriptions are below the cake).

This is still my favorite creation (that I came up with all on my own!). It's a birthday cake, obviously with a Hawaiian theme, but it's made out of cupcakes. Yeah, that's right, cupcakes. It was fun to make and "wowed" everyone at the party. The seashells are candy molds and the "sand" is just crushed graham crackers.


This was another fav of mine.. my niece Mercy's 1st birthday cake. Her birthday is near the 4th of July, so her mom had a patriotic themed birthday. Very fun!


Yet another fav of mine and my first attempt at decorating a chocolate chip cookie. It was for my sister Kerri's graduation (Master of Social Work degree) and her birthday all combined in one. She came to visit us (while in Birmingham at the time) and it was a great visit. She loves dolphins, so thus the theme. I put sparkle dust on the ocean water for added affect.


This is a new favorite of mine. These two pictures are for a friend's daughter's first birthday back in Feb. The little cake was Emma's "smash" cake. The bigger one was by far the most complex one I've decorated because it had so many colors. I used a plate from the decorations as my guide. The best part about it was that Kendra and John loved it!


My first cake for a baby shower. I loved doing this one cause it was all white (which meant when I messed something up, it was super easy to fix!) I had to track down my sister-in-law's sister-in-law (have fun figuring out that one) to ask for a picture of it because I forgot to take my own picture of it. Duh!


Just a fun cookie for my sister-in-law. I kept it simple and festive, but boy was it good!


My little one's big birthday cake. I don't know why I made it so big. Oh yeah, so we could eat on it forever! It wasn't quite what I wanted to do, but it matched the decorations anyway.


The cookie-cake for Father's Day 2006, dedicated to my hubby and my brother-in-law Jason.


Another yummy cookie cake for a friend in my Mom to Mom group who is expecting in about a week or so. So we welcome little Oli!


These two cakes were for a Valentine's Party for our Sunday School class. I just kept them simple, using candy molds for the little hearts and a glaze for the topping.


I like this one too cause it's different. It's a cowboy/western theme that was intended to go to a church gathering. This was the "practice" cake and we enjoyed eating it too!


My brother-in-law Jason is a huge Alabama football fan. So, I made this cake for his birthday last April. This was an interesting experiment, since when I tried to color the icing brown and it didn't work, I had to go to plan B: use traditional out-of-the-can chocolate icing so the football would look like a football and not some icky goo!


Mother's Day 2006--the colors didn't quite turn out as planned, but everyone like it anyway.

Here's another fun one for my sister-in-law's birthday this past January. I confess that when I don't have a specific pattern/design to look at, my creativity lacks! But, the best thing about this cake was that it was 2 layers; one chocolate and one yellow. Yum!


Another fav of mine... I made this for a lady in the church we attended in Birmingham. Her teenage son was going to spend the summer as a missionary in Brazil, and she was having a send-off party and needed a cake. She wanted something jungle-ish and this is what I came up with. She requested the verse at the top which is "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." Romans 10:15. The animals are plastic and the palm trees on the sides of the cake are candy molds.



Just a simple birthday cake for the spouse of a lady I worked with at the church in Birmingham. Again, I kept it simple and festive.

The boy likes sand!

After visiting the beach last September, it was apparent that Stone didn't like sand. Ever time we put him in it, he grimaced and wanted out of it. However, it's amazing what a few months will do! Today, along with Gini and cousin Mercy, we went to a local park to play and enjoy the sunshine. To my amazement, Stone discovered the sand pits and started swiping his hands through it and then picking up shovels and digging in it. He had fun exploring the entire park and wore me out (I just followed wherever he went). He also conquered the slide (another big feat since he didn't even like Mercy's little slide she has at her house), the swing, and rode a neat contraption with Mercy. All, I might add, while burning up (I didn't quite pay attention to the weather forcast, so we were a little bit over dressed to be in 75 degree weather). His little cheaks were red hot! But he didn't seem to mind and also didn't mind that he had a dirty diaper (yeah, i'm a bad mom to not take time to change it, but i knew that would be a drama not worth the fight). Fun day!

Burhds

For those of you who don't speak "toddlerese," 'burhds' translates into "birds." Stone had great breakthrough in his speech yesterday! We had gotten out of the car and had put him down on the driveway. He looked over across the yard, pointed, and clearly said "buhrds." I was so excited and praised him repeatedly--I don't think he knew what the big deal was. Especially since I don't remember specifically teaching him that word!

Then, later that day as we sat down for dinner, he heard the neighbor's dogs barking. He pointed to the window and said, "dog." Again, I got so excited and he just looked at me like I was crazy! I know most of you are thinking, "what's the big deal?" For me, it is a big deal even though these are not his first words because now, he is really linking words to objects and naming them. Before, he would say words and some he knew, but others I think he was just repeating. Also, it's been very hard for me to not compare him to his cousin Mercy, who is only 3 months older than him, but extremely verbal (she was saying 2 word sentences shortly after turning 1 and now can say long sentences and repeat almost any word you give her, including 'encyclopedia.') I know you're not supposed to compare children, and I have had to really work hard on not doing that, but still, when you are around her, you're amazed at her vocabulary. I was just trying to be happy that Stone was saying "dadda" and "mamma." But then, I got to a point where I was wondering why he wasn't speaking more. As I've said before about him, " I guess he's just holding out on us!"

Finally, before going to bed, Kevin picked him up and Stone pointed to Kevin's eye and said, "eye." He likes this word a lot and usually points to your nose and mouth and says "eye" too, but this time, he just said eye to Kevin's eye. Cool deal. Who knew--our kid can talk!

I lOVE me some yogurt!

Somewhere in the past few days, Stone has learned how to feed himself with a spoon. Fun times! Tonight, he tackled yogurt. YUM!

Let it snow....

No, it's not snowing here in SC, but I'm sure it's probably still snowing somewhere in WV. I know I'm crazy, but I'm a big fan of snow! I grew up in WV, so we got used to it and ever since moving away from home, I've missed it. Besides, what's Christmas without snow? And "snow days" meant no school!! And you could make snowmen, snow angels, go sledding and afterwards come inside for hot chocolate with marshmallows. Oh, to have snow!

Here are a few pics from our visit to see my parents during the first of Feb. Stone didn't like the snow too much. Then again, he didn't like sand when we went to the beach and didn't like grass the first time he was in it. I figure he'll like it some day, maybe when he's older and can make snowmen and snow angels, and go sledding and miss school because of it!

Cold Spaghetti, Cold Spaghetti

My first attempt at a slide show! What better way to show off my little one enjoying spaghetti? These were take this past January and although it wasn't his first time enjoying the food, this was his first time getting his hands into it and having a blast. (Notice how he likes to use his hair as a napkin.) Thanks Kendra and Beth for the inspiration of slide shows on your blogspots!!

Mom2Mom

Just had to blog about our Mom to Mom dinner we had last night--what a blast! I had no idea we'd be there for 3 and a half hours! I guess when you get a bunch of women together in a room without kids and husbands, that's what they do!! It was a great time of fellowship---I always feel we never have enough time to just chat and catch up at our weekly meetings, so this was a great, unhurried time. Plus, we also surprised Amy with a baby shower (she is due with her second child in just a few weeks.) We actually made her cry! (See pics below.) It was fun planning a surprise for her, it was fun chatting our lips off, and it was fun eating all the yummy food! A big shout-out to Ms. Kay for hosting! I just love her! Ms. Kay is our "mentor" mom. She's almost 71, going on about 30 because she has such a youthfulness, delightful, and sweet spirit about her. She gives of herself each week--sharing stories of things she did as a young mother (good and bad) and encourages us beyond belief. She is also undeniably one of the funniest people I have ever met--she keeps us laughing to tears each week with some story that could only happen to her. Love her!

Our other mentor, Lin, has not been able to join us as often as she did last semester due to her work schedule. Which makes us miss her even more. She too is such a wonderfully sweet person who cares so much about all of us. I know she prays for us all the time. She too, shares stories (the good, the bad and the ugly) of her life as a young mother. Thankfully for us (the younger moms) we know that Kay and Lin must have been great moms, or their kids would have turned out bad!

As for the other moms in our group, I love, enjoy and appreciate each one of them too. Each person is so unique, yet we all connect on so many levels. I know this sounds so cheesy and unemotional because it's written instead of spoken, but I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone. Being part of this group has been a lifesaver for me since we moved here. Hope we can do this again sometime.....