Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day at Lake Martin with the entire Chandler family.  One of our favorite things about living in Birmingham is being 1 1/2 hours from the lake.  I think as soon as we turn off Hwy 280 onto the back roads, our minds turn to mush (good mush).  I can completely turn my brain off for the entire time that we are at the lake - 1 day or an entire week.

My family can really make me laugh - lots of people with a really good sense of humor.  I feel like I was laughing the entire weekend.  The food was so good. My brother cooks the best Boston Butt I have ever had.  And... Luke and I learned how to do a low-country boil.  Great ready friends, we are going to attempt one ourselves before the summer is over and you are all invited!

The best part of the day to me is from 4-6.  Charlotte Anne has just woken up from a huge nap, we get a little snack to hold us until dinner and we head out on a long boat ride.  CA can't decide if dancing in the boat or watching the water is more fun.  Either way, I have no complaint because she is usually beaming the entire time.   Thank goodness she didn't freak out with the life jacket.  I think all of our "practice" wearing it paid off!!

Beach Time

We took Charlotte Anne to the beach for the 1st time - it was actually L and my first time to the FL/AL beach for vacation in 10 years.  We are so thankful for L's parents generous gift - a really great week in Orange Beach!

Top 10 things about the beach (from CA's POV):

10. I looked super cute in my new swimsuit.  My mom's smocking addiction has reached new levels and she even had my swimsuit smocked.

9. I love steamed shrimp.  I can eat more than my mom.

8. The sand and ocean are my new best friends.  I really couldn't care less if anyone else was around when the sand and ocean are near.

7. Sun block isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to me.  It takes a few minutes and my daddy never gets it in my eyes.

6. The beach makes me sleepy, but my mommy loves when I take 3 hour naps.
5. Olivia (the pig) is the best show EVER.  I watched it for a total of 10 hours - 5 hours to the beach and 5 hours back home.
4. A shovel and bucket can make any day better.
3. I am pretty sure I will be swimming by the end of the summer.
2. I have a great family - I LOVE playing with all of my cousins, eating my dan-momma's yummy food, and looking at the boats with d-daddy!
1. I can't wait to go back!!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Charlotte Anne promised to give me at least 1 smiling picture. Thank goodness she followed through! Luke took some great pictures at the botanic gardens of our sweet 15 (almost) month old!

Charlotte Anne is starting to say her favorite words and she can answer a few questions. Her favorites are...

1. What does a kitty cat say: Meow... but for some reason she always sticks out her tongue. Someone in our family must do that, but nobody will own up to it.

2. What does a gorilla say: she says "ooo ooo aah aah" and taps her chest

3. What does a doggy say: "woof woof"... too easy as she hears it 1000 times a day

4. What does a chicken say: She makes a little chucking noise (this is mommy's favorite)

5. What does the horse say: "Nay" Always the same, always louder than the rest

She loves music, but only likes to twirl in circles to "dance". We do itsy bitsy spider, baa baa black sheep, Jesus loves the little children and the frog song at least once an hour. Luke is very partial to the frog song (even though he thinks I made it up).

Bunny is 100% Charlotte Anne's favorite thing/person. I am starting to think it is genetic because I had a very abnormal and somewhat unhealthy attachment to Monk Monk (the bear). Bunny can calm CA faster than anything. Sometimes I see her talking to him and trying to brush his hair or feed him cheerios.

Today is Charlotte Anne's 15 month check-up. So, we are excited to see her progress and crossing our fingers that she is no longer in the 120th percentile on height.

Speedo

Charlotte Anne refuses to take off her life jacket. She screams every time I take it off... so... I just let her wear it around. I thought kids were suppose to hate these things?? I am sure the second we get to the lake she is not going to want anything to do with it. However, for now, it is our clothing accessory must.

SOD




5478 Brantford - our 1st home. It looked so different by the time we moved... it is really funny to look back at these pictures from 2007!



                                                       For those of you who know this house... how strange to see it without the ivy??!!??

Look at those cute puppies.. .just a few months old!!

Luke and I are in the process of renovating our 2nd home. The funny thing is that we said we would NEVER do this again after the first house. However, we didn't listen to ourselves, and now we are back at it. In the new house there are a lot of things we can't do ourselves... we like to blame the baby, but we really just are over painting, hanging sheet rock and crown molding. One thing we simply can't seem to farm out is laying sod. There is something really fun about it and it is pretty easy!In Memphis we transformed our front yard from a mess of cactus and strange shrubs to a great grassy area. You can see from the pictures above that Luke's 25 yr old self was really having fun on the bobcat. We laugh about it now because we laid our entire front yard with sod and we didn't have an irrigation system... meaning, we had to move the stationary sprinkler around all day (yes, we took turns coming home from work to move the sprinkler). We promised each other that the next house would have the bet sprinkler system we could afford!!

Now, 5 years later, we are still sodding... this time on a little bigger scale, but it is still fun. Our neighbors - for sure - think we are nuts. We can't do the entire yard ourselves, so we are having fun with the bits and pieces we can do!! We have successfully put down 4 pallets of sod and we have about 2 1/2 more to go!

Look at all of those sprinklers... finally!!

Mommy's Makeup

Oh no. We have officially entered a new stage.... hello toddler.

Charlotte Anne is a really easy-to-please little girl.  She will look at her books and play with her stuffed animals for hours. I thought we really had this under control.... that was until she found my makeup.  Within about 3 seconds, she was hooked and all of my expensive brushes were in her mouth.

I wanted to grab them all away, but I saw just how happy she was "brushing" Don Juan and Osa's "hair" with them and painting in the tub with them. So... I'll get over it and I won't be putting any blush on for the next 2-3 years.

Just Add Water

In our little girl's eyes... water makes EVERYTHING better! I am almost positive that, if we let her - she would play outside in the water all day long. She really doesn't discriminate either - sprinklers, water play toys, the hose, a cup of water... she loves it all. I got so tired of changing her clothes 2-4 times a day that we got her an iPlay water/sun top. It is way to big, but she doesn't care and she kept it on with the sunglasses for hours! We did have to sacrifice a few non-water toys (sorry Mr. Bear) to play with until we collect some more water friendly things.

This makes me excited to get to the pool, lake, beach this summer!! I hope that all of this prep will make her love swimming!! And - if not - we will just stick to playing with the hose!

Don't worry... only a tiny little bit was coming out! :)

Pond

The fished were keep in this little tub while the pond was being cleaned

When L and I moved into the new house, there was a pond outside with 4 fish. The waterfall had the most beautiful sound - so peaceful to hear every time you walk outside. However, I knew it was only a matter of time before our 3 dogs killed those fish. We realized that we can shut the pond off from the dogs, so the fish could live in peace. Neither L nor I planned on keeping these fish or the pond. Just seemed like a mess. However, after about 3 months, we realized that we were completely hooked. Charlotte Anne LOVES feeding these little guys every day. I have some strange attachment (go figure) to the fish too.

So, it was settled... we were keeping the pond. Then, the pump broke. This wasn't a fixable break... it was BROKEN beyond repair... seriously?? So, we were panicked... not wanting to spend money, but not wanting our fish to die either. Luke put a 6 year old fish tank pump in the pond to keep the fish alive for a week until we could get some help. L started calling around and people wanted $1000 to clean the pond and even more for a pump. My fond affection of the fish was quickly evaporating. I've got too many things on my wish list to spend $1500 on some fish. Thank goodness I have a resourceful husband because he found a new pump on line for $200 and a guy to clean the pond for $250... it was still expensive, but nothing like we thought we had to pay!! Yea!!!!

No, we can actually see the fish in the pond (I didn't even know it was dirty until it was cleaned) and the fish. Charlotte Anne has learned to really through the food in the middle of the pond so the fish will get it! We have loving named our fish: Nemo, Pedro, Speedy and Rocket ship.

This was probably 1/3 of the junk pulled out of the bottom of the pond.

Chandler Easter

On Easter we went to church and then met up with my side of the family for an Easter Egg hunt and lunch. It was a great time - thanks to my brother and sis-in-law for hosting! Charlotte Anne didn't was having so much fun that she wouldn't even think about a morning nap. When we got home, she slept from 2-5! :)

So thankful for such a special day!

Charlotte Anne's cousins... Emy, Mac and Woodson - all 6 yrs old

Me, my mom and Charlotte Anne

All of the grandkids on my side - ages 17 to 1



K's entire family - all 14 of us!



Hannah, Chandler and Charlotte Anne



K's entire family - all 14 of us!



Hannah, Chandler and Charlotte Anne

homemade


Everyone knows that I am not much of a cook. I like to cook and I make a huge breakfast (eggs, grits, toast, muffins or something like this) at least 5 days week. However, at night, L and I like a small dinner.  If I cooked a salad, meal and dessert, I think we would take 1 bite and be finished.  So, that definitely takes the fun out of it.

BUT, in the new house, I have been making / testing out some great new recipes.  Poor L has had to suffer through some bad choices (jalapenos, chicken salad and guacamole don't mix on a sandwich... I learned my lesson).  However, he has also had some really good food to make up for it!

For Easter brunch with the Chandler family, I made a homemade caramel cake and strawberry cupcakes.  I was determined that it would be fresh, so I got up at 5:15 to start this cake.  I think there were like 20 ingredients and I made a mess, but it was really sooo good!  It was ready to go at 8:45... with 15 minutes to spare for me to get completely ready for church! :)

100% from scratch caramel cake and homemade icing. I got up at 5:15 am to make this fresh for Easter!



Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Easter Bunny

We really didn't feel the need for the Easter Bunny to visit our house this year... Charlotte Anne thinks every day is a holiday and it just as happy getting a cookie as any present. However, my neighbor has an Easter basket company... so, Charlotte Anne got a Mickey Mouse themed basket.... it couldn't have been more her. She was beyond happy - really just beside herself with boots, a book and a little Minnie. I started feeling guilty that we almost missed out on this by not having something for her!

Though both Luke and I dread going to Disney World... our little princess is already obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She can barely say "mama", but she can clearly say Donald Duck. :)

Easter Egg Hunt

L's family has an Easter Egg hunt every year and this was Charlotte Anne's first time to participate. I thought she might just stand there... but she caught on fast... especially after she realized that there were prizes in the eggs. L's mom does great eggs... full of whistles, balloons and candy!
Charlotte Anne getting loves of love from the girls - her aunts, grandmother and great-grandmothers (and her cousin, Jake)!



PInterest Table

I talked Luke into making me a table I saw on Pinterest. I don't think he took me seriously until we walked out of Lowe's with the wood. Then, it sat in our garage for a month because we aren't exactly at the "projects for fun" stage of fixing up this house. However, on Sunday afternoon, Luke made my table. It is pretty simple and these pictures don't really do it justice, but it looks so great and the whole thing cost $25! :)
I thought I would use another trick I saw on Pinerest for making new wood look old - wool cloths and apple cider vinegar. After putting on more than triple to suggested amount, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED. I either screwed up the 1 of the 2 steps or this doesn't really work.

Instead of having an aged wood look, we painted the table beige (using left over wall paint) and then painted a grey/blue over the beige (another wall color left over). Luke sanded the table and with bits of the beige coming through the blue/great, it looks awesome! Super thankful for a handy husband.

Home Sweet Home

I have been home for 2 straight weeks and it has been amazing!! The best part is that I have no plans to leave until at least June!!! Yea!!! I LOVE BEING HOME! Charlotte Anne and I have had the best time and it is amazing how much you can get done around the house when you are actually here!! Yea for sweet friends who have included me in their lives and helped me feel like Birmingham was the smart move! We are still working on the house everyday and in the yard for hours each Saturday... and it has been so great. I'm sure we will get to the point where yard and house work is a chore... but for now, it is what we do for fun!

Happy Birthday Doc

Happy Birthday Doc! We loved celebrating 66 with you!

Southland in the Spring

What a fun and relaxing morning at L's parent's cabin. We love to be outside and we are so thankful for a daughter who also loves doing anything outside. The top 2 - and really only 2 - thing we hated about Memphis... too far from the cabin and too far from Lake Martin. Our goal this summer and fall is to take advantage of being less than 90 minutes away from both!! Yippee!!

Mrs. Myra's

The first thing anyone says when they find out where we live is ask if we have tried Mrs. Myra's BBQ. I think it is about 5 miles from our house and, it seems, everyone in Birmingham loves it. So, after 6 months of being here, we finally went. We just spent the last 6 1/2 years in Memphis, so I am expecting The Commissary, Corkeys, Central BBQ or something similar. Needless to say, Mrs. Myra's isn't Memphis BBQ. However, it was good and the white sauce was something new. The people there were so nice and when they found out it was our first time into the store, they wouldn't let us order until we had a sampler platter of everything on the menu. Charlotte Anne had her first ribs and loved it. They even gave her a bowl of green beans for free, which she ate 1/2 and the other 1/2 ended up on their floor. :)

Thanks, Mrs Myra's. We miss you Commissary. I never liked Corkeys, but I kinda miss you too.

Mrs. Clean

Bath time is awesome. I think we have more toys in the tub than we have in the playroom. She reads her water books, plays with her little animals and chews on all of the letters. I let her play in the tub for 20 minutes yesterday and her little hands and toes wrinkled. She couldn't get over it and kept looking at them until it got back to normal. Maybe I went a little overboard, but she really loves being in that water! It makes me excited about going to the lake and pool this summer!! Yea!!

Daddy Time

One thing is for sure... She is NEVER sad to see her daddy. He really makes her smile when he walks into the room... not so much the reaction I get, but I can't complain!! So happy to see this sweet relationship grow!

I guess I should go ahead and warn everyone that this hat is going to be a constant theme during the summer. I am petrified of the sun and don't want one drop on my little girl. Sorry Charlie, get use to being ultra pale... one day you will thank me.

New Car Seat!

We didn't have the guts to put it in our car... especially after the pediatrician told us that there is no excuse to move from the backwards sitting seat for another few months... Ugh. So, we installed the new seat in my mom's car and Charlotte Anne loved it. It was so fun to turn around and have her looking at me as we ran errands. Of course that means she cries now when we try to put her back in the bucket / pumpkin seat, but we can survive a few more months. Even if her leg are all squished up.

Hello Privacy

OUR WINDOW COVERS ARE FINALLY HERE!!! I have been waiting since November 29th for these plantation shutters and they were installed last Thursday!!! Normally there isn't much exciting about getting shutters, BUT when 2 of your largest windows are in 1. The master bath (and you can see, right by the shower and toilet and 2. In my closet... the excitement level REALLY jumps up! We had been, again, the disgrace to the neighborhood with pillow cases and garbage bags in the windows, but now we can hold our head high... or at least get dressed in peace. They look great - Hunter Douglass is who made them and we would definitely recommend them!! Now, off to saving to put them in the rest of the house!

Dog Sitting

As many of you know, while we were in Memphis we did a lot of dog sitting. We loved it - we love dogs and the extra income was a nice bonus! My family went on vacation last week and we offered to keep 3 extra dogs at our house... yes, that makes a total of 6 dogs. They ranged from 5 months to 11 years, 4 lbs to 96 lbs.

Shockingly (probably the most surprised were Luke and me), it wasn't too bad. All of the dogs got along - not one fight. And, Charlotte Anne was 100% entertained by all of the action. After playing outside with all 6 for about an hour, she was exhausted. She saw one of my parent's dogs, Oppie, taking a break, so she plopped down right by them. Such a hard life!