This Weekend We...

This weekend we...

• had an impromptu pizza party
• fed the ducks
• made a big breakfast
• went to the park to sit on a blanket and enjoy the sun
• did about five loads of dishes
• painted three rooms in our house (or rather one giant room containing the kitchen, eat in area, and living room and fourteen foot ceilings)
• caught up with friends 
• had an family date night out for Mexican food
• found the perfect mirror for our guest bath--and it was waaaay under budget! 
• sang tons of songs with little miss
• went to church
• cleaned the floors and behind the refrigerator (yikes!)
• picked up a few supplies for a special trip we are taking soon
• made lasagna from scratch
• hosted family game night
• won (T) and lost (me) a game of Scrabble 
• watched a movie 

What did you do this weekend? tackle projects?  Relax?  A little of both? 

Over the Weekend

We had family in from out of town this weekend for a birthday celebration.  It was loads of fun, but one of the highlights of the weekend was that my sister and I got to go to the Dallas Museum of Art for the opening weekend of the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit.  It's only making two stops in the US (Dallas and San Francisco) and four total stops in the world so this was our chance (no San Fran vacation planned this year!).  

There was no photography allowed in the exhibit but we did snap this pic (via the ol iPhone) outside the exhibit.  

It was a great way to avoid the malls and to get the chance to connect.

They Say It's Your Birthday

As I mentioned already, we had a pretty great weekend.  We celebrated my birthday over the weekend.  My little sister requested vacation time from work over a year ago for my birthday and arrived in town on Thursday of last week.  I love it when she visits.  She and T had gotten together months ago and decided to throw me a pool party and invited our family and friends on Saturday.  It rained for the first time in a loooong time the night before and the whole day was cloudy.  Which would ruin a normal person's pool party but considering we live in Texas and it has been sweltering hot we actually enjoyed hanging by the pool enjoying the cool, grey day.  

Me and my sis

There were balloons at my party which somebody really loved!

And guess who got to debut their new sunglasses?!

My brother and his niece (taken with my NEW camera lens! Yippee!)

On Sunday, after church we had a family brunch at Le Peep with our family that had come to town.  My french toast was to die for and the company was the best!

This past year of my life has been full of lots of excitement, changes and adventure.  We settled into our new house we bought in Indy and made it feel like ours, found out I was pregnant, I left a job and vocation I loved dearly to move across country 9 months pregnant, sold a house, bought another, welcomed our sweet little miss into the world and I embraced being a stay at home mom.  I normally prefer quiet, low key birthdays, to big extravaganzas.  But this year it was especially nice to close this year of my life out and welcome this next year with a low key, but fun filled weekend surrounded by the people I love.  

When it comes to birthdays do you prefer a big and wild party or quiet and low key? Or does it depend on the year? 

Weekend In Pictures

Happy Monday! We had an amazing weekend!  I will share more in a post later but here are some of the highlights in pictures! 

Pretty flowers from our garden

Lunch with the girls at Pei Wei

Scored ourselves and cute pair of baby sunglasses for the little miss

Someone celebrated a big milestone :)

Still loving our books

Family brunch at Le Peep 

Facials and movie night with the little sis

Over the Weekend

This weekend was pretty chill.  Since our week was crazy hectic, we tried to be as low key as possible to recover and get some family time in.  I don't know about you but after having an adventure I really enjoy having some home-body time.  Lots of disc golf, laughter, early bed times, meals shared with family and of course, laundry.

Little miss tried out her Bumbo seat this weekend as you can see by her just chillin'.  She thinks she is a big girl and can sit up, but she can't just yet.  For now though I think we will skip the Bumbo and enjoy that her favorite place is sitting on our laps checking out all the action.

How was your weekend?

Over the Weekend

Happy belated Fourth of July!  We had a great weekend, here's what we did...

My sister K came into town for the holiday and to visit the little miss.  What I love most about her visits is the laid back vibe her visits have whenever she comes town.  She is family that feels like family and not like a guest, so we spend a lot of our time making home cooked meals, catching up and just relaxing.  This time I had a little competition in the "chatting and catching up" department as the little miss wanted to talk her ear off and show her all her new tricks.

 I also love K because we have similar styles of cooking and similar tastes, but she always reminds me of stuff I know how to do but have forgotten, so her visits always jump start my cooking a bit. 

Sunday we made plans with the rest of the family here for a day at the pool and a cookout to celebrate the holiday.  Little miss debuted her ladybug swim suit with the red tutu and I was brave enough to snap some pics of the two of us together (and apparently brave enough to share them on the interwebs).

Little miss even got a little dip in the pool while the pool was still in the shade.  Don't worry we were super safe.  All you can see in this picture is the little cutie in her suit, but there were like 5 people surrounding her and my uncle kept a very close eye.  In fact he kept saying "watch out her cheek is 3 inches from the water!" It was very sweet.  

She loved the swim time, especially since the pool was bathtub warm.  Since I grew up around and with pools I just really love being able to slowly introduce the little miss to swimming so that she will be safe and love this activity as she grows up.  T, K and I loved the swim time because it was a great way to stretch our muscles in the heat playing volleyball, swimming laps and just goofing around.  

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and having fun not doing much of anything.  I am super excited for this week on the ol blog.  I have a few little projects to share in the kitchen and a few crafties to share as well, so check back a little later!

How was your holiday weekend?

Over the Weekend

Good morning!  It's Monday and I don't know about you but I am ready to tackle this week and knock several things off the ol' to-do list!  I also think I am energized for the week because our weekend was so fun.  

Friday I got the weekend off to an early start with my friend Jane who was in town for the weekend.  She bravely agreed to load up the little miss and go to Ikea and to lunch.  It was so fun and aside from the little miss hooting her way through the home decor section we did pretty awesome on our little trip.  I got some long, black picture ledges I was going to use for the office, but they are too long so I think I might give them a try in the eat in kitchen area.  I also got a cute little vase.  On Friday night T and little miss and I hung out with family and ordered pizza and watched the US Open (we are a family full of golf nerds!) and tried to avoid the heat (can you tell that's a theme here these days?!).

Early Saturday, before the heat got too unbearable, I left T and the little miss alone to have some daddy-daughter time while Jane and I met back up to go to Trade Days in McKinney, TX.  Jane was on the hunt for a big metal star for her back porch and I was on the hunt for some vintage glass pieces to plant a few plants in an put around the house and a funnel cake.  I ended up finding a glass bowl with three cute little legs, a metal hook for the closet to hang purses on and the coolest drawer pulls (and no funnel cake).  

I also got this cute succulent to plant in my bowl for $2 at the flea market--way cheaper than you can find them at the lawn and garden store.  And way healthier looking.  In fact I wish I had gotten a few more.  Ah well, there is always next month!

I don't exactly know what I am going to do with these pulls yet, but they had so much personality for $1 I couldn't pass them up.  

The rest of Saturday, T, little miss and I spend blissfully vegging out and enjoying each other's company with nowhere to be.  

Sunday was T's first Father's Day.  Little miss and I woke up and tried to let T sleep in, but he wanted to get up and hang with us.  So I made coffee and breakfast for him while Adelaide entertained him with her cuteness.  At breakfast we had him open his gift and cards from us.    

This picture is from earlier in the week--Adelaide and T watch the Texas Ranger games together.  I even got her a little headband to wear that matches her onesie that she can wear to the park to see games next season.  

In the afternoon we trekked over to Fort Worth to be a part of the ordination service for our friend Jackie.  The service was beautiful and little miss was an absolute doll for the whole hour and a half ordeal.  

Afterwards we grabbed some Mexican food with our friends that were in attendance at the service before heading home.  It was so good to get caught up and for little miss to meet some of the people that are so important to us.  Here she is with our friend Ryan.  She wore her tutu for the occasion, because nothing says "I celebrate this special day with you" like a tutu.  

It was a great weekend with the perfect balance of fun and adventure and relaxation.  How was your weekend?

Over the Weekend

Our weekend was for the most part nice and relaxing.  How was yours?

On Friday we went out on a family date to Fuzzy's Tacos.  I love their shrimp salad with house dressing and we both love their queso.  Yum!  Little miss made the perfect third wheel to our date smiling at us and looking around the whole time.  

Saturday we hung by the pool and cooked out (that seems to be what we do every weekend!) and watched the Rangers play.  Sunday we just hung around the house and rested and of course caught the Mavs game.

This week I have some really exciting stuff to share.  My Tuesday Crafties this week will come with a tutorial (yea!).  I have made a few updates to the nursery I will share with y'all and by request I have finally written a post about how we have sleep trained out sweet little miss.  And maybe there will be a few more things I share.  Who knows!

Over the Weekend

Happy Monday!  I hope your week is off to a good start. Mine is I have a nice little week planned with the little miss with plenty of naps (for her) and some projects (for me).  

This weekend was pretty laid back.  It has gotten hot here and these three little Indiana transplants are still working to get re-acclimated to the Texas heat.  So we did a lot of this all weekend:

Friday a dear friend was in town for a surprise visit and he got to meet Adelaide and we all got the chance to grab a beer and catch up on he and his cute little family.  On Saturday we did take a mini-trip over to historic downtown Grapevine, TX to grab lunch with some family.  Of course, yours truly didn't snag any photos but that's ok.

Sunday was filled with more relaxing and a few errands.  We are keeping our adventures pretty low key around here these days while we do a little sleep training and while we try to dodge the heat.  

How was your weekend?  

Over the Weekend

Happy Tuesday!  I hope you had an fun and relaxing holiday weekend!  I know we did! 

On Saturday we started off by putting the baby down for her morning nap and tackling our overgrown yard.  It has been really rainy here, so the grass was high and the shrubs out of control.  T tackled the lawn while I weeded and tended to the shrubs.  Then I decided to join other countless Americans that keep our health system running on holiday weekends--no I didn't get in a drunk accident at the lake.  I manage to wound myself doing yard work.  So we took a little family trip to the local ER, where I got patched up.  Since they said I couldn't do yard work the rest of the weekend T finished up the yard (and it looks GREAT!)

After cleaning up from yard work we headed over to the family's to swim, cookout and just hang.  Little miss's cousins Will and Sam were in from out of town and so she got a lot of attention from her 2 1/2 year old cousin Sam.  He kept running across the room and saying "I want to hug the baby!" Then he would hug her feet and run off again (Side note, Sam hugs feet because his amazing momma taught him not to touch babies hands or faces, which is super thoughtful).  And of course Adelaide saved her biggest, gummiest grins for Sam.  For dinner the guys grilled the most delicious steaks and we sat around and enjoy each other's company.  

Sunday after going to church we came home and put the little miss down for a nap and this momma got some much needed time by herself.  Then we headed back over to our family's for more time by the pool and this time fajitas on the grill for dinner--yum!  After dinner we all hung by the pool in the cool evening air.  Little miss was per usual an absolutely wonderful little guest and totally happy to hang out with everyone.  

On Monday we decided to pack up and go on a little mini-adventures and take little miss over to Fort Worth to eat at the Star Cafe in the Fort Worth Stockyards.  The food as usual was tasty but the real reason we headed over was so little miss could see Betty again and meet Don.  They own the Star Cafe but they are also dear friends of T and I's and we want the little miss to hang with them as often as she can.  And as with the rest of the weekend she was a total doll and won the hearts of not only Don and Betty but everyone at the Star Cafe.   

We took a little cruise up Main Street in the Stockyards while little miss let the breeze blow through her hairs and take in the sights.  Then we headed back home where we relaxed, napped and soaked up the last of the long weekend together as a family.  I even got a few things done off my list from last week.  

How was your holiday weekend?

Halloween

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!  We had a wonderful evening.  We took a long walk late in the afternoon, then came home and make hot tea and cider, grab our Halloween candy and a book and sat on the front porch until the trick-or-treaters came along.  It was fun too because all of our neighbors did the same thing and we have some cool neighbors.  So we all hung out and talked and oohed and awwwed over the cute little kiddos in thier costumes.

Once it got dark and the trick-or-treating crowd transitioned into teens and adults in street clothes carrying trash sacks, we packed it up and brought our pumpkins inside to carve.  One of the things I will never understand about this holiday is how absurd it looks from a food stand point.  We Americans, set perfectly good food out on our front porches to rot, which encouraging our kids to go door to door collecting items that are basically chemicals and sugar.  Baffles me, but anyhow.  My favorite part of Halloween is gutting all of our pumpkins and pulling the seeds out and roasting them.  Its such a yummy treat we only get once a year!  One year, we went a got a dozen of left over pumpkins the church was just going to toss in the dumpster after the Pumpkin Patch and gutted every single one for the seeds!  This year we just had the ones from our front steps though so we took them into to carve while we watched the Wizard of Oz. 

After we had gutted and carved our largest pumpkins, I had an idea.  I asked T if we could put Ranger in a pumpkin.  T was pretty apprehensive at first and worried Ranger would be mad, but after a little coaxing, he agreed.*  Ranger was actually pretty non-challant about the whole thing.  He just sort of hung out until we were done snapping pics.  And the only thing that got messy were his paws.

Oh, and if you are interested in how we roast our seeds here's the basic idea:

Pumpkins seeds cleaned and patted dry

Melted butter (just enough to coat the seeds very lighly)

Wostishire Sauce (same as butter--just enough to lightly coat)

Preheat oven to 350 lay seeds out in a roasting pan and place in oven.  Roast for about 20 minutes, checking every 10 minutes and turning and moving with a spatula, or until golden brown.

Lay on a towel to cool and salt to preference. 

On the whole it was a great Halloween!  How was your Halloween?

*Basically by "a little bit of coaxing" I explained to T that it was either Ranger this year or the baby the next, but that I needed to get putting the dog and or baby in a carved out fruit or veggitable out of my system after seeing this YouTube video. Hehe!

Over the Weekend

I can't believe November is already here! Part of the reason October has flow by so quickly is that we have had three weekends in a row of houseguest.  Two weekends ago (I am late in posting this--oops!) my brother B and his girlfriend A came up from Oklahoma to visit.  They got here on Wednesday night sort of late.  Thursday I had to work but they met T at work to grab lunch and I think just re-charged from the draining drive up here.  That evening we hung out and made dinner. 

Over dinner the idea came up that we should go to Chicago on Friday.  Friday is my day off from work and T has hardly taken much vacation time this year, so we could go with B and A who had never been to Chicago.  I actually had never really been either, only to a conference in the suburbs a few years back.  So we all agreed that it would be a fun day trip.

Early Friday we hopped in the car a drove the 3 hours up to Chi-town.  Spent the morning at the Crate and Barrel Outlet (I had wanted to go to look at thier baby furniture line--that was super underwhelming, but I did get the dishes I had been wanting for fraction of what I would have paid in store full price.  So not a total bust).  By lunch time we headed into the city to go to Wrigglyville to see the staduim and eat at Lucky's. 

 

After lunch we decided that we wanted to at least drive down Lakeshore Drive to see the city.  When we got down there, as soon as I saw Navy Pier I wanted to go there and everyone else was really flexible and cool and agreed that we should go check it out!  Yippee!

While we were exploring the Pier we decided that it woudl be fun to go in the ferris wheel.  Ok, now let me tell you I was as gun-ho as the rest of the gang about it.  I have never been on a ferris wheel and thought it would be a fun adventure, especially since this one looked really tall and sturdy.  However, I have never been on one because I am afraid of heights.  Oh well!  It was fun (even if I was a bit nervous).

On the way home from Chicago we stopped at a the dairy store of one of the largest dairy farms in Indiana a got some cheese (everyone else go milk shakes but I am going to be honest, me and ice cream don't mix since I got pregnant).  Then we made it home in time to watch the Ranger's game against the Yankees.

Handi-Indiana

A few weekends back, husband wanted to watch the World Cup with some friends.  I didn't mind, as in the winter he has a group of guys he gathers with on Saturday mornings to watch Premire League soccer (I think that's right, honey, let me know if I totally botched that) at a local soccer pub, the Chatham Tap, not too far from the house.  However, I didn't feel like hanging with the guys to watch soccer.  Earlier that morning we had gone to our local record shop to poke around and I saw a poster for the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Downtown Indy.

As I have already mentioned here at Pretty as the Morning, I love me some arts festivals.  Its the food, the music, the atomosphere and the chance to see new stuff--it just does something to clear my head and get my creativity going.  Plus there are always cool people to meet.  I had never been to a INDIEana event (I heard from a friend they do several around the metro) so I headed over the the Handicraft Exchange to poke around for a bit.

And let me tell you it was TOTALLY worth it!   The sellers there were AMAZING!  So many great letterpress art work, handmade bags and jewelry!  It was amazing--I texted my soccer watching hubs that I had died and gone to Etsy heaven! I found this great necklace I want to post about later from Pear and Peacock.  Super cool!  Plus the people watching was prime (per usual with these events).  The main exhibit hall inside the Harrison Center was pretty crowded.  Ok, it was packed shoulder to shoulder, so I would hope that next year they space it out a better for all the foot traffic so you can actually stop to look at things with out feeling smooshed. 

But on the whole it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning not watching soccer!