Birthday Cheeks

Samantha is turning ONE tomorrow!!!! I just cannot believe it, it really is true that kids grow to fast. She is such a funny baby, so independent and assertive which I'm sure will not be so cute in a few years ;) She is also the happiest and most smiley baby I have ever met, even when she is upset a smile is never more than seconds away. She is a busy, busy baby, always playing or crawling and of course talking up a storm. Lately she has become very clingy and "stranger danger" is in full effect, she still looooves to talk to random people and flirt but now she is a lot more shy and I cannot dare hand her over to someone else (other than Mommy and Grandma of course). I totally love this, I know it's bad, but she has never been much of a cuddler and she is always on the move so it is sweet when she wants me and only me to hold her (yes I'm selfish I know). Anyway, here are some fun facts about baby (oops I mean big girl) cheeks at age one:

-Weighs in at 19.5 lbs

-Loves her sippy cup and is using it so well.

-Shakes her head no constantly, she doesn't know what it means, but thinks its sooo funny.

-Will pull up on anything, anywhere, anytime.

-Hates walking, so she just doesn't lol

-Loves veggies and anything spicy.

-Eats whatever we eat, and she is not picky at all.

-Addicted to Gerber puffs and baby mum mums.

-Still all cheeks.

-Will have 15 minutes "conversations" with me in the car from her car seat.

-Loves to be sung to, always calms her down, always has.

-Only takes a paci for nap time and bedtime.

-Dropping things to get you pick them up is her new fave game.

-Defiantly knows the word "no" and obey very well.

-Can feed herself, and that's the only way she prefers to eat ;)

-She can now hold her own bottle.

-Hardy ever cries or fusses, and is always smiling and laughing.

-Obsessed with car keys.

-Loves gymboree class.

-Her best friend is Ayden.

I could go on forever :) Samantha is a sweet sweet angel, I love her to pieces and Uncle Matt is just plain head over heels. She is the light of her mommies life and makes her so happy, they are the sweetest little family and I am so honored to be a part of their lives. The past year has been wild and crazy to say the least but I wouldn't change a thing and I am so happy to have gotten the chance to help Samantha grow. Here's to another fabulous year!

Her party is next weekend, a cupcake themed cookout in the backyard with all of her and Mommies friends. I have planned the whole thing and I am so excited to see how it turns out. I am not the most creative person so I went to Etsy for inspiration and here is what I have come up with:

The adorable outfit that Samantha will be wearing, complete with "Sam" bloomers.

These go into each cupcake.

This will hang on the front door.

This is the centerpeice for the food table.

Confetti to e sprinkled on the cake table and food table.

Adorable hats for Samantha and her friends.

These paper balls will be lime green and light pink and will hang from the patio ceiling.

This banner will hang on the patio, and the green will be a brighter green.

These are the favor tags for the goodies bags that Samantha will be giving to her little guests.

I will post party pictures as soon as possible ;)

Ahhhhhhh carpet

Finally after 4 weeks of waiting and storing all of our furniture in the garage...WE HAVE NEW CARPET!!!!!! It was installed this morning and I couldn't be more thrilled and relieved.

On Saturday we prepped for the carpet, finishing painting and replacing baseboards from the closet leak, etc. Sunday we set off 8 "bug bombs" in order to get rid of my little carpet beetle friends and I began washing ALL of our clothing and bedding, yes all of it. Currently I have washed, dried and folded 10 full loads. I am estimating about 10-15 more before I am completely done. By the way we had to leave the house with both animals for an entire FOUR hours after the "bombs", driving around with a cat and dog for 4 hours is interesting to say the least ;) Tonight we will start moving the furniture back in, starting with our bedroom of course. I am so happy to finally have our room set up so that I can start decorating.

Somehow this weekend we also managed to have a night out with our good friend Liz... here are some photos of our fabulous new carpet, our 4 hour excursion with the fur babies and our night out in Dallas.

Master Bedroom

Master closet...notice the pretty new wooden rods, yeah we made those ;)

Guest room

Oscar and Bauer sleeping on my lap in the car...I swear the cat is not aware that he is indeed a cat.

Yep, four hours of this

Ridiculous...I'm sure the drive thru people thought we were nuts

The novelty wore of quick ;)

Me and Liz at the Candleroom

Apparently I make this face when I take photos...thanks guys

Hey my arms are short, and there was wine involved

The rock?

Bad week house update

Finally some good news...

The leak ended up being pretty easy to fix. The incredibly smart people who previously owned my house put a fancy new whirlpool bath tub in the guest bathroom and "forgot" to caulk around the fixtures. Meaning that every time someone showers or bathes a small amount of water drips behind the tub and into my master bedroom closet. Awesome. Luckily it was a quick fix and it was even covered on our home warranty! If you don't have a home warranty...I suggest you get one.

My creepy crawly little insect friends are indeed NOT termites. We had two (yes 2) pest companies come out to take a look and both said with all certainty that we do not have termites. The little bugs are most likely carpet beetle larvae, which is just as disgusting as it sounds. Carpet beetles eat carpet (duh) but also pet hair, clothing or any sort of organic fiber. I completely blame the previous owners (shocker) because everything I read about carpet beetles tells me that they live in places that aren't cleaned or vacuumed much and homes that have pets, they had 2 dogs and a cat. From what I can tell they NEVER cleaned or vacuumed, you should see the amount of pet hair we vacuumed and steamed up when we moved in. Still, I am more than trilled that they are not termites as termites are expensive to remove and can do a lot of damage. However, carpet beetles are a pain in my you know what to get rid of. We have to wash or dry clean ALL of our clothes and bedding, including things in drawers and other closets in the house. We also have to remove the old carpet (gladly) and set off bug "bombs" in every room of the house, which means that I have to find somewhere for myself, my husband, our cat and our dog to go for FOUR HOURS this weekend...anyone up for 4 house guests?

All in all this is great news. Way better than how I thought my little closet discovery was going to turn out, and a lot cheaper. Finally we will have our new carpet put in and our furniture returned. Thank god. Unfortunately Lady Gaga has taken over my husbands life for the next 3 days (he works at the arena in Dallas and coordinates concerts etc) so we will have to wait until next week for the carpet. If I have learned anything at all these past few months it's patience, so I will wait, and I'm ok with that ;)

To those of you who read and comment or do so on facebook or via real life: Thank you for all the kind words and support last week. Things were rough and you all cheered me up :) xoxoxox

My new do

Those of you who know me know that I have NEVER had short hair, well not since birth anyway. I mostly keep it long because it is super curly and I never dug the "Felicity, post hair cut" look, Keri Russell has made me deathly afraid of a short haircut. However after growing my hair ridiculously long for my wedding I became fed up with the weight and heat and bulk of my long curly hair...so I decided to cut it. I have been talking about "the cut" since before the wedding but I don't think anyone actually believed I would really go through with it. Well I did :) I waited a few extra months to make sure that I had enough for locks of love, and of course waited until I was able to travel to Houston (I will never again let anyone cut my hair except my good friend and stylist Suleiman). Suli ended up cutting off a 12 inch pony tail for locks of love and then about 2 more inches to style my hair, so for those of you counting that makes FOURTEEN INCHES!!! Ok enough talk...

First a few recent pics of my long long hair:

Now for the haircut pictures:

This is at my parents right before going to the salon...please excuse the no makeup tired look

Waiting for Suleiman...kinda nervous at this point

This is the 12 inch pony tail cut...EEEKKK

Suli working his magic!

Love the back!

My new cut, and my locks of love donation

My mom really wanted to capture Matt's reaction...well done Mom ;)

Later that night, all dressed up b/c we had a wedding to attend.

The final product, makeup and all.

No good very bad WEEK

As if finding a disgusting mess under my carpets wasn't enough drama for one week here is the list of awful things that have followed:

1. Car broken into Sunday night, GPS stolen.
2. Last night found water leak in master bedroom closet, the floor, wall, baseboards carpet, all soaked.
3. Termites found enjoying the soaking wet wood from said water leak.
4. Having to delay the carpet install in order to fix leak and termite infestation first.
5. Speeding ticket received today while rushing home to meet the Termite Inspector.

I know that there are a lot worse things in the world but I still cannot help feeling a little depressed about it all. Don't get me wrong I still love my house and life is pretty darn good overall but I'm allowed to have a pity party every now and again aren't I? I mean we have been putting so much hard work into fixing up our house not to mention money and just when it feels like we are finally making some progress we get a big fat slap in the face (in the form of water and tiny wood eating insects). The stolen GPS and speeding ticket just add to the ridiculousness that is my life right now. I can only manage to laugh at those two right now. I think if I don't laugh I will cry...not that I haven't already done so.


Please say a little prayer for us today if you don't mind. I am really hoping this latest fiasco doesn't end up costing us a fortune.


I will spare you the pictures of our nasty water logged closet with insect residents. Instead I will leave you all with a picture of baby cheeks that is sure to put a smile on any one's face...maybe even mine :)

Just in case

This post is just in case any of you out there consider keeping the carpet that was there when you moved in, even if it "looks pretty good"....


I swear from the surface our beige colored frieze carpet looks perfectly fine, it's even a pretty popular design and neutral so goes with most decor. I considered saving the money and not replacing it, I mean we only have it in the 3 bedrooms anyway and 2 of them are hardly used. Then on a whim we decided (OK Matt decided) to pull up the corner in just one room to have a look...WE WERE HORRIFIED! Dirt, dust, and stains galore, even a cat hairball! So gross! "Just pulling up one corner" turned into rapidly ripping the carpet and pad out of all 3 bedrooms (while gagging) and doing a massive bleach clean of the concrete underneath. Needless to say, the new carpet is being installed on Friday.

Keep in mind when you look at the photos that we STEAM CLEANED all the carpets before we moved in...they were just THAT dirty. ew.

View at your own risk:

Umm yeah...that's a hairball

I swear they NEVER vacuumed

There are just no words...

Who needs to potty train your dog? Just let em go on the floor

The entry way to my bedroom. nice.

Just in case you weren't grossed out enough...

Annnnnd, I just threw up in my mouth a little

Ok the last few are just to further prove my point ;)

AWESOME.