Love them. I just do. These two are the sweetest, friendliest couple. Seriously. Besides my two redheaded nephews, cutest redheaded baby. Period. Oh, and this girl can cook and sew like nobody’s business. She’s like the second coming of Ree. You know, The Pioneer Woman. These three are truly a go-with-the-flow kinda family, and you can tell in everyone of their photos. Don’t they just ooze cuteness?

These were, of course, taken before xmas for holiday cards. Even for what seemed like a split second shoot the moments captured that morning are some of my all time favs.

This is where Baby C decided she was just about done with taking photos, and was letting it be known.

Wow. That was a giant weekend of NOTHING for me. If you consider nothing a blinding, mind numbing, I can’t even function to care for my own child, trip to the minor med (but only at night) migraine nothing.

Wednesday evening I felt my standard “a weather front is coming through” sinus headache coming on so I took some Advil and hit the hay. Thursday I woke up thinking I wasn’t going to make it though the day. This bad boy of a sinus headache, we’ll call him Karl for kicks, had intensified. Derek had a dentist appointment that morning so I told him to give me a call once he was done to see if I needed him to come home.

I guess I should tell you a bit about my sinus headaches. They are intense. I am like a human barometer. I can tell you if it’s going to rain or if a low pressure front will move though the city I am in typically within a 24-48 hour window. My more severe sinus headaches, in my not-at-home working days, required me to take a sick day because I just couldn’t function. Now that I have no sick days as a SAHM I rely on the availability on my super busy husband to take a day off from his job and take care of Squishy Baby.

Now back to Karl. On Thursday afternoon I decided to pop a couple advil and take a nap while the kiddo napped. Karl no-likie. Luckily, Gray decided to take a 5 HOUR nap that day. I know right?! Derek arrived home around 4:30pm and Karl was rockin’ out full force on my brain-hole. I stayed in bed the remainder of the evening. Derek even slept on the couch to make my night a bit easier.

Here’s a peak at what my windows looked like for about 5 days.

Yup, them my good bath towels blockin’ out that ole sunshine.

Friday morning it was ON! Oh, I forgot to mention that all night long this stupid sinus headache was morphing into a full-blown migraine, and kept waking me up every 2 hours or so. Not cool, Karl. When the alarm when off Friday morning Karl was large and in charge. Derek called into work for the day off and began life as a single daddy, and nurse to my pending doom.

For whatever reason I could only sleep on my sides. I couldn’t sit up, walk, see any form of light, even the normal smell of my husband made me want to blow chunks. Gross, I know. That night my in-laws picked up Gray and kept him over night so Derek could take me to the minor med. By this point, taking a swig of water made me do what my husband’s musk almost made me do a few hours before. Ugh! I told Derek I would try going to the doctor, but only at night. Even the light from the screen of his cell phone made Karl put on his clogging shoes and dance a little ditty on my eyeballs AND brain.

After the peps at the minor med put two shots in my tush, three prescriptions in my hands my husband’s hands, and sent me on my not so merry way I was home and back in bed still hating Karl. Needless to say things slowly started getting less painful, but weren’t even remotely tolerable until Monday morning. I was in a black hole for days on end. No phone, no computer, no TV…I mean nothing.

So that’s where I’ve been.

The good news is my boys had a blast together. My sweet hubs to pics and videos of the two of them hanging out so I could see what they were up to while I was having my brain abused. They had a blast with stickers. Of course a fit or two occurred. I mean that’s a given.

They did a little gaming.

They played in the back yard. Gray even did a little yard work. I can’t wait till this “fun game” actually works in our favor.

They went to the zoo Sunday morning since going to church was out of the question for us. The zoo is super close to our house, and we have a annual family pass so it was really easy for Derek to get home to me if I needed him. Church…not so much. Sorry God. Next week.

Dang, that kid is even cuter than a panda.

And as always…Grayson took a ton of self portraits of himself with Derek’s iPhone.

I just have to say, there is no way I could have taken care of that sweet little butterball while enduring the pain I was in. I am so thankful to have this amazing man in my life that is there for me when I fall, or when I just can’t stand at all. I love you, Derek. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking care of not only me everyday, but our little guy too. You totally win the Husband of the Year award.

Now that the holidays are over I can breathe again and finally get around to post about some of the shoots I went on in October, November, and December. Yay!

Meet, Cari and Scott. They are new to the south, but fitting right in. Cari is as sweet as can be, and Scott (once you break him from his shell and talk about biking or the Oregon Ducks) is just as fun loving as his wife. Originally, we had intended to shoot their session in a cotton field, but we missed the harvest. Don’t worry they were able to get a few shots in a cotton field when they ran out to one for a quick session with a friend one day. I’d never thought to shoot in a cotton field. Such a cute idea. Cari I now blame you for getting that thought stuck in my head. I dream about cotton now, and can’t wait for the fall so I can go take some cotton pickin’ pictures. I had to. I’m sorry.

Anywho, we found a suitable location, and captured some sweet moments. Here’s a few of my favorites.

The pesky town square decorated the barn all harvesty. Is that a word? Harvesty? Oh well. I could have lived without the corn stalks in the shot, but what are ya’ gonna do? I do however love the light in this one.

Look at this girl jumping right on into the southern culture, and sporting her a pair of cowboy boots.

If you are a fan of Bella Vita and/or Itty Bitty Bella you might recognize Cari from shopping there. If not, go there and shop. You won’t regret it. The shops are awesome!

Grayson is always messing with light switches, handles, knobs, buttons, and other various “non-toys” around the house. If you have or have ever had a toddler you know what I mean when I say they would much rather play with anything BUT their toys. After our laptops and tv being turned off during use, by a toddler who will remain nameless *cough* Grayson *cough*, we thought that maybe if we built him a little table with “non-toys” on it he just might play with it.

Off to Home Depot we went in search for the cheapest dodads and whatsadoodles we could find. Oh, and some wood too.

To be honest it turned out to be a bit more that we had expected. Who knew a basic door stop was almost $3.50? I sure didn’t. The total cost of the table came out around $50, but that is because we had to buy the majority of the items for our table. For many of you out there I bet you have lots of this stuff lying around in the garage. Especially if you are a DIYer and have done some updates to fixtures and/or furniture in the past. Go did through your husbands workshop and see what he has just lying around, or better yet…Grandpa’s workshop. Grandpas always have random things like this.

As soon as we got home Derek got to work. He was so excited about making Gray this table. It was so cute.

For some items that would normally sit behind a faceplate in a wall Derek had to drill/cut holes in the wood to drop those pieces in.

For the top and bottom of the table we used MDF since it’s much smoother than plywood. Here’s a view from underneath.

You’ll probably want to clip the wires hanging down from the doorbell. Since nothing is connect to any kind of circuit we were comfortable leaving the underside exposed. Grayson doesn’t even notice that items are exposed underneath. If you are nervous about your child hurting themselves on the objects protruding below you can always tape over it with duct tape or glue/screw scrap wood over the holes.

We used scrap wood we found at my in-law’s house for the legs. After adding the legs Derek felt that the table wasn’t sturdy enough so he decided to add the remaining MDF to the bottom. After the table was assembled I had Derek sand all the edges and corners to dull them a bit, and the legs to dull them and ensure there were no fragments hanging about that could lead to a nasty splinter. I don’t even want to attempt getting a splinter out of a squirmy 1yr old’s finger. The kid barley lets me touch them to clip his nails.

We tried to find various household type items to put on the table. We wanted Gray to not only to have fun (and not destroy our house), but to also learn how different objects work.

Gray’s Gadget Table includes…

~ doorbell (not a working one)

~ door stopper

~ toggle switch

~ two rope ties (to loop/wrap rope around)

~ door latch

~ door chain lock

~ light switch

~ drawer pull w/ a spring link to latch on & off (attached by rope)

~ water on/off valve

~ phone & internet access outlet plate

~ dresser handles

IMPORTANT :: As for the phone/ethernet cords, you should either securely attach a short version of each cord to the table either by staple gun or other method, or only give them the cords to play with under adult supervision. We take Gray’s away when he is done playing or if we have to leave the room. You know, so he doesn’t wrap it around his neck and somehow manage to cut off his airway. 

Look at those chunky little legs in his New Balances. So presh!

I wanted to paint the wood to give it a more finished look, and Derek wanted to leave it natural for a more manly look. I let him win. Did you see that, Sweetie? I LET you win. Since we left the wood au naturale we gave the table some personalization by using cheap little stick-on house letters people use to put their last name on their mailbox with or something.

No matter how hard you might work at keeping your child entertained with unique and off the wall playthings they still have the attention span of a nat, and will wander off to play with something else eventually.

This is his iPod touch. We don’t let him play with our iPhones. Grayson likes to throw things, and I’m quite certain my phone would instantaneously become a projectile. (His iPod touch is a free one that I got years ago when I purchased my MacBook Pro. We so did not spend that much money on something he might break within 6.2 seconds of being placed in his hands.)

He and his daddy send each other emails. With assistance, of course. It’s so cute.

Here’s a view of the entire toddler table from the top.

The table was a hit. No, he doesn’t play with it 24/7, but what kid would. We just like having the option of a practical toy. Plus, you gotta admit…it is kinda manly. We left some room in case we think of something new to add. Any suggestions? Has anyone else built something like this for your kid? What did you put on yours?

P.S. – I still have dreams of painting this bad boy. Sounds like a perfect project for when Derek is at work and can’t stop me.

I’m linking up with Someday Crafts on Whatever Goes Wednesday, It’s Overflowing! on Overflowing with Creativity, Wicked Awesome Wednesday.

I was snapping a few pics in the bathroom, for something I’ll tell you about later, and then I heard it….silence. That is never a good sound when Grayson is up wandering the house. I was letting him roam/play for a few more minutes before I put him down for a nap. Bad idea. Very. Bad. Idea.

I yelled for Grayson. As if he would answer me. Silly me. I put down the camera and scurried on into the kitchen. I didn’t see him, so I headed to the pantry. He loves shutting himself in our pantry. He rearranges my spices and canned goods at least 3 times a day. He also likes to take my canned goods and stack them into a tower and then topple them over. Crazy kid.

I heard a rummbeling coming from behind the door so I opened it. Only to find he was treating himself to a pre-nap snack.

BUSTED!!!!!

He had nabbed one of the little chip baggies, and figured out how to open it. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite figure out how to get the chips from the bag to his mouth. Looks like the chips made a little pit stop on the floor first. I’m so glad that I just steam mopped in there a couple of days ago.

Oh, and please don’t judge my pantry. It was totally organized before Grayson was born and since has become a wasteland for things that just don’t have any other place in our kitchen. I promise I am in the process of figuring out some new organization tactics for it. It’s scary in there.

I strapped Gray into the highchair the other evening in an attempt to trim his hair. I use a spray bottle to wet his hair before I begin trimming. The keys and various other objects I gave him entertained him for the 1st few minutes, and then he caught a glimpse of the spray bottle. If letting him play with the spray bottle would keep him from moving his head as I moved sharp pointy scissors around it than so be it.

At first it was no big thing, and then he figured out how to make it spray water. Most children hate water being splashed, sprayed or poured on their face. Not my kid. This child sprayed water in his face (for fun) for almost 10 minutes. No. Joke.

Did you catch the part where he told the spray bottle “No No”? It’s around 34 seconds in. He turned his head to look at me and I guess his tiny hands have a mind of their own and pressed the trigger and sprayed him. Hehe. He even would hand me the spray bottle, because he wanted me to spray water in his face.

Oh the things kids find entertaining. We finally made him stop, because it looked like his little eyes were turning red. I emptied the spray bottle and now he walks around the house and “tries” to spray water in his face. Crazy kid.

Grayson got to spend this afternoon with two of his favorite people, Jeremy and Rachel. Jeremy and Rachel are two of our very close friends, and lovers of G-man. Due to the holiday season, Jeremy being in a Doctoral program, and Jeremy and Rachel being out of town we haven’t been able to do much with them this past month. Which is really odd for us four.

Rachel offered to take Gray for the afternoon on Sunday so Derek and I could catch a movie, and so they could get in some much needed time together. After our movie we met up with Rachel, Jeremy, and Gray for dinner, and they told us about their afternoon.

Grayson LOVES their cats, Madison and McLean. He seem to love the cat tower even more though. That’s Jeremy standing next to Grayson. Jeremy is at least 6ft tall. That should give you some idea of how tall that cat tower is. Looks like I know what to get the kid for his birthday.

After pretending he was a cat, and probably torturing their cats the three of them headed to the park.

Grayson has never really played on a “real” playground. My friend Meghan and I attempted to take our boys to a playground once, but it was so crowded with big kids our little ones didn’t stand a chance. The ones around my house are less than awesome. He has been on a slide once, but it was in our friend Bobbie’s backyard.

Well, he got to go on the slide again, and as you can see…he loved it! Rachel said he kept going down head first. Every. Time. It cracked me up. This is totally Grayson. Boy to the bone. I have a strong feeling I should start loading up on band-aids now.

I can’t wait to take him myself. Look how tiny he seems next to the playground.

I’m so glad Gray got to hang our with his big people buddies today. After playing all morning in sunday school and all afternoon with these two that poor baby was so tired he couldn’t see straight by the end of the evening. I have a feeling he’ll sleep magnificent tonight.

Thanks for watching him you guys. Sorry if he wore you out. At least you now know why we have increasing dark circles under our eyes.