Florida....very long post:)

So I have been a bad blogger.

At least that's what my dad informed me when he pointed out that I had not posted Florida pictures yet (apparently on my last post I promised that I would post Florida pictures very soon for the grandparents). Since that post both grandparents have seen the Florida pics in person....but I will carry out and post anyway.

Quick update....lots has happened since my last post. Our computer has crashed and we are on to a new one (which mostly accounts for the delay in my posts) and we are now the proud owners of a computer complete with Windows Vista...I swear I'm about to jump on the Mac bandwagon, the "king of pop" has passed, Governor Sanford has apparently found his "soul mate" in Argentina...but don't worry, he promised to try and fall back in love with his wife, my position at the university has come to close and I am now a (tempory) stay-at-home mom.

On to Florida....

I now know the moment of panic that every parent feels when their child begins to cry on a flight. On the return flight from Florida we had not even taken off when Olivia started really letting loose with her cries. She was hungry. And sometimes I want to cry too when I'm hungry. Fortunately for us she ate and then fell asleep about 10 minutes in and slept for the rest of it. I asked my brother Stephen what he would have done if she had screamed nonstop for the whole trip. He said that he would calmly get his ipod out and listen to it as loud as he could. Thank you for your support and help Uncle Steve. My main concern with flying was that it would hurt her ears. And not for a second did she act like anything was bothering her. I did force either the pacifier or bottle in her mouth though the whole time we were going up and again when we came back down.


Welcome to Disney World Stephen...we are so glad you are excited to be here!

Olivia, on the other hand, is thrilled to be here. It makes no difference to her that we only slept for about 5 hours...she is ready to go.

She is soooo excited about Animal Kingdom! Please note the disney themed onesie and hairbow.

Not loving Animal Kingdom.

And she's back. She remembered that Disney is the happiest place on earth.

Best part about our hotel? You can "check out" a goldfish for the night. True story.

The one requirement for your checked out fish was that they must be taken downstairs at 11am and 7pm for feedings. I wonder how many goldfish don't make it back to that counter? And would I have been liable if something had happened to it?

Family self portrait take 1...

And 2....

And we're done...

Even at Olivia's young age we have committed to not be the parents who buy anything in sight and whatever their child demands. But you need to know that her eyes lit up when she saw baby Simba. She squealed, smiled and Simba provided us with quite a break.

So this was technically taken after the trip. But look....her first pair of shoes!!!


I will say that vacationing will never be the same as it used to be. It's amazing what a difference a tiny 14lb little girl can make! So yes, it was different. But not bad. We were so glad to have Stephen with us. He is a brave soul to travel with all of us...and he even acted like he had fun:)

So for those of you that might be considering traveling with a small one....here are some tips for you...

1. FYI....even though children need sunscreen...be aware that they might rub it into their sensitive eyes. Here is an example....the first day when we were heading to the pool I coated Olivia down with sunscreen. I mean I covered her naked body with it so that even if her little swimsuit were to move then the sun could still not burn her. In doing that I also covered her face and hands. Well, by the time I get to the lobby with her to meet Shawn and Stephen she has red splotches all over her face and her right eye was almost completely closed and watering terribly. OH I panicked!!! I ran back up to the room with her and washed her face and hands with a washcloth and it almost immediately went away. She was not the least bit bothered by this. But I felt absolutely horrible.

2. No matter how late babies go to bed...they somehow still wake up at the same time in the morning. For example, we tragically did not get to our hotel the first night until 1am. I naively thought she would just sleep the whole time we were traveling and then we would just transition her into bed at the hotel. No. She was up. But the best part is.....she was STILL awake the next morning at like 6am

3. Small children may not share your thrill at all times for Disney World, the pool, ocean, etc.

We had a great time though! We completely messed up any routine that she had and she kept her game face on (for the most part). And while she was a good little flier. I will admit that it made both Shawn and I wonder if we had been a little ambitious in our Europe trip. So we might be cutting out one of the places we were planning to go while we are there.

Show us where you live Friday!

Grandparents.....I will be posting soon about our Florida trip!

So Kelly at Kelly's Korner is doing Show Us Where You Live Friday again. Today's room is Laundry Room/Playroom/Bonus Room....whichever you choose. Unfortunately our laundry "room" is actually a laundry closet. If we ever build I will have the biggest laundry room ever in it:) We have no playroom yet...although technically every room in our house seems to be a playroom and is covered with Olivia's "play gear". So I opted to showcase the bonus room. When we bought this house a few months ago this is the ONLY room that we did not paint...or do much of anything to. But we have really enjoyed it. It's upstairs and has been perfect for my parents/in-laws/and anyone else that comes to visit. There is a full bathroom and a ton of closet space. So when we do have guests we don't have to trip over each other and they don't have to be bothered by my precious child if she were to happen to wake up during the night....which she would never do:)


This is our bonus room and what you see when you come off the stairwell. I laugh now b/c when Shawn and I first saw the headboard on this bed and the nightstand sitting at a sidewalk sale that Pier One was having....we frantically called my mom asking if $125 for both pieces was good. Ha! It was our first furniture purchase together right before we got married. The rug came from Urban Outfitters and is much cuter up close.

This is a random little shelf I refinished and stuck random things on. Told ya we didn't do much up here!
TV corner. The nesting tables it is sitting on are great and I got them for $10!!!

This is the hallway area that leads to the bathroom and the doors off of it are huge storage closets that we love!!!
Bathroom...nothing special...but it works! And is great for our guests!!!

After doing this post I've decided I might put a little more effort in this area of our house:)

Florida Bound!!!

I opted out of Kelly's home tour today b/c the room for today was....bathrooms. And I decided that my bathrooms are not worth posting:)

But the great news of the days is we are Florida bound after work!!! You would literally think we have never been anywhere by our excitement. But since I got pregnant last May and we decided in July to move...there has not been much time for travels. So needless to say we are very excited. It's also Olivia's first plane ride...we wanted to break her in gently before taking her to Europe in July:) Here's hoping that she loves to fly!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. And we will have lots of pics to post after our trip.


This one is kindov blurry b/c I took it with my phone. She is definitely in the grabbing, touching, eating your face stage!

I

Travelling + Baby = LOTS OF BABY GEAR

OK. So I knew when we had our baby that it would mean additional tacky...I mean sweet....stuff all over our house. I knew it would mean car seats, bouncer, swing, bumbo seat, bassinet, extra laundry, etc, etc. And I admit that it has even exceeded my expectations. What I didn't think about was the travelling. As you know we are travelers. We love to travel and knew we would introduce baby O to it very soon in her life. We are starting small by taking a trip to Orlando later this week. We got super cheap tickets on Southwest. And we are flying direct from Nashville to Orlando. So even with the worst case scenario....it will only be an hour and a half in the air. But as I started organizing this trip in my head last week I realize....even with all of the baby stuff we have laying around the house....it's not enough!!! We needed a bag for our stroller, a bag for the car seat so we can check it, an umbrella stroller, a parasol for her umbrella stroller....you like how I threw that last one in? That was definitely optional. I will discuss this more below. So I frantically get on babiesrus.com (thankfully I still had gift cards from baby presents) and start ordering. The thing that bothers me about this is that Shawn and I are minimalists when it comes to travelling. We haven't even checked a bag in a couple of years. I'm thinking those days might be coming to a close:)

So nevertheless...I have ordered baby gear, planned out feeding on the plane in my head, and think we are ready to go!!!

Back to the parasol....I got a really great Maclaren umbrella stroller at a place called Surplus City. Maclaren strollers are great and REALLY expensive. Let's just say I got this one for very cheap. So I got on their website to look at stroller accessories and what do I see???? Baby parasols for the stroller! I got very excited and decided I def needed one but postponed buying it for a few days. So when I actually go to buy it I guess every other mom in the US did too. They were all back ordered and out of stock. I panicked. You know how you want something...but then when it becomes almost unachievable you want it even more??? That is what happened. Here's how bad it was. I frantically leave work and run home to get a better look at the colors on the stroller b/c I found one parasol that was in stock. It was in crimson and I needed to make sure it would match. Now let me tell you that just the week before I had completely reprimanded my sister for wanting to leave work early b/c she was panicked about trying to buy a dress that was flying off the racks. And now I have done the same thing. So I ordered the crimson. Only to get an email from the company that night saying...."We are sorry but we are out of crimson. However, we have black if you would like to order that." Are you kidding me? Of course I want black. It's basic and will match anything. Why was that not an option in the first place!?!

And there is some logic to the parasol. We have opted to go to Orlando/Disney World in the middle of June. We may be crazy but that is the choice we have made. If I think that the sun is getting to her or she is too hot it will be a miserable day. So I'm hoping the parasol will solve that problem....and it's cute.

Oh, one more crazy thing I have done. I have craftily "made" (actually my mother-in-law did) a onesie into a Disney world outfit and am having a bow made to match. What is wrong with me and how did this happen???? Just kidding...I love it all!

Happy travels this summer!!!

Weekend

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We did and it was, as always, too short. I've put up a few pics...enjoy!!!

This was actually Thursday night but we are going to act like this is when the weekend started. Because....it was our 4 year anniversary!!! Time definitely flies when you are having fun (cheesy, I know). But we do have fun. Shawn's parents came over Thursday night and watched Olivia while we went out to dinner. We went to Tom's Grille and had a great date and fantastic food!

Flash forward to Friday afternoon. You wouldn't think this girl just got 3 shots would you??? Well, she did and she was excellent. Of course there were a few tears...but nothing like the 2 month shots. She has cute brown leggings that go with the shirt (thanks to our great friend Amy Hedger)...but due to the shots we opted not to put them back on:)

Saturday was a big day for Olivia. Shawn had to work all day at orientation. So we went to visit at lunch. It was nap time when we got there but she kept her game face on and allowed us to pass her from person to person before she passed out on Cheryl.

For anyone that knows me well I'm not a big bow person and normally don't do bows/headbands at all. Well, I finally found a couple of headbands that aren't too tragic and most of her bows can clip into them. These sunglasses also (kindov) fit her head for the first time ever. We are ready to go walking!

My baby is going to be sitting on her own soon!!!

Big news of the weekend???? Swimming pool! Some genius invented a blow-up pool with a sun canopy that only cost $15!!! So we got it set up and decided to introduce her to the world of swimming pools. Yes, we own a swimsuit. But, only one thus far and it is in the laundry to be washed for Florida. I'm working on buying another:) And yes, she has sunscreen on.

She didn't know what to think about it at first but seemed to be loving it by the end!
It's looking good for Florida.

And the diaper is officially off. Bless her heart it was so water logged that it weighed about half her body weight.


And to end the weekend....a McDonald's milkshake for my girl!!!
Just kidding....don't get crazy:) The story is that Shawn went to get Sonic slushes for us at Happy Hour. Why did they tell him....oh we are completely out of stuff to make slushes with. What??? That is their bread and butter so I'm thinking the buyer needs to get it together. So he opted for milkshakes from McDonald's. Well she literally grabbed it from our hands and started chewing on it. I know....the germs. But it made for a great picture. Do you think she's trying to tell us something???

Show us where you live Friday: Offices!!!

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner hosts "show us where you live Friday" every week. This week the room is offices. So here goes!

Ok, this is the view from the door. We love our office but don't use it nearly as much as we should. However, you can see the edge of the ironing board in this pic...it gets utilized for ironing every morning!!! We also refer to this as our travel room. All the stuff we pick up on our trips usually gets displayed in this room. The loveseat was a cheapy from Big Lots. But since it hardly gets used it serves the purpose well!
The ugly corner...ha! This is the computer desk that is usually covered with junk as well as cords. It also houses our travel books/guides collection.I love this shelf! I bought it from a bookstore going out of business for $11!!! I painted it apple green and put a glaze over it and added the trim around the edges.

Lower half of the shelf.

Upper half. My favorite pic of us from our wedding is on top. And see the robins egg blue candlestick? I randomly found it in Germany somewhere and absolutely love it. Don't ask me why. But I have considered designing a whole room in our house around it!!!

I occasionally get creative ideas and this was one of them. We were constantly saving plane ticket stubs, museum entrance tickets, etc, etc from our trips but not knowing what to do with them. So I bought a cheapo frame and started glueing them to the mat and put a sealer over it. I love it b/c I can look and remember all of the places we have visited.

Awesome lamp I found at Trees n Trends! I loved it and mom surprised me with it at Christmas.

I bought this map for Shawn before we ever got married. Sadly enough we couldn't afford to get it framed until like 3 years ago! And even at Hobby Lobby's 50% off custom framing it was still expensive! By the way....the color on the wall is Faded Clay from Lowes and the picture doesn't do it justice. I had it in my old house and I still love it!