Carrots

I give a carrot to Sydney. Parker steals it.

































Makes faces at it.

































Gives it back to Syd (aww).















Takes it from Syd and gets a bite too.



Gross.

Happy 14 months sweet babe! A post about her past month to follow soon!

JCPenney Saga

We needed a new couch for upstairs. Nothing expensive seeing as how we have a baby who puts her snotty nose and drooly mouth all over it. Nothing cheap as we don't want it to fall apart. So that landed us at JCP.

We found the perfect couch. Perfect size, super comfy, and a nice sleeper in it. The sleeper was a must for out of town guests!

We waited over a month for the custom order. The first couch was delivered with a small hole it in, most likely compliments of the delivery company. Couch two was constructed horribly, compliments of whatever company JCP goes through for this couch. The cushions were stiff and you could see gaps in the back of the couch. Then when we pulled the sleeper out it ripped the armrests. So back it went. The third time it never got delivered--the delivery company called to say something happened to it during shipping. The fourth couch was the same as the second, minus the sleeper ripping the couch.

Four times is not a charm. The couch is being returned on Saturday.

So now we're out of a couch and I don't want to head out to try to find one again. We're sort of picky and it took us multiple trips to multiple stores to find this one that we loved. Maybe no couch is a good look, right?!

The Monster At The End of This Book

The Hungry Caterpillar is old news. The Monster At The End of This Book has now taken center stage. Growing up, this was one of my favorite books. I had a lot of other favorite Little Golden Books but this Grover one made me giggle every single time. And now it's Parker's favorite book. We read to her every day--at least ten books, many times a lot more than that (no exageration)--but this is the book she always goes for and wants read over and over. It's a lot of fun reading books that I remember reading growing up!

































Don't mind Paker being read to while in her high chair. She is OBSESSED with this thing. If we keep it upright rather than folding it up she walks to it and asks to be put in it.



Only one more day of work this week for me then it's off for a four day weekend! I'll be getting in plenty of snuggle time with my baby and oh, probably couch shopping seeing as how we're on our third, technically fourth couch and still not satisfied. I'll save that story for tomorrow.

Santa

The long weekend was nice and well needed. Friday was a lot of fun—lunch was delicious, the movie was okay (not nearly as good as Valentines Day but I’m still glad that I saw it and that I got to have an Icee, yum!), Toys R Us made me realize how freaking annoying stores are this time of year and I will not be venturing out again any time soon since we have a wonderful invention called online shopping, and some Iowans found out that stealing credit card information from a Michigan couple and trying to use it to rack up a huge balance at the casino just won’t get by the credit card companies.

Saturday we woke up at 8:36am and on Sunday it was 8:07am. That’s right, Parker slept in. Two days in a row. But of course I woke up at 6am on Sunday and couldn’t fall back asleep. Damn internal alarm clock!

Sunday was the much anticipated trip to see Santa. Parker must run on my schedule because when we have to get somewhere on time she’s always fashionably late. In an ideal world we would have been at the mall at 8am. But since sleeping was more important we didn’t end up at Somerset until 9:45am.

Somerset is just a few miles away from our house and it’s quite the fancy pants mall. They have your normal stores like The Limited, Express, and Macy’s but also have stores on the other end of the money spectrum like Saks, Neiman Marcus, Tiffany, and Louis Vuitton to name a few. If you are into style and fashion this is the mall to be at. You seriously could just sit and people watch the entire day away seeing as how everyone is dressed to the nines in designer duds.

We planned to sign in to see Santa and shop for a bit while waiting. However, when they told us that our time slot was 6:45PM—PM!—we decided to head back home and wait out the nine hours. Keep in mind that the time slots are 3 minutes each so that is a lot of people trying to see if they’re on the naughty or nice list. Apparently people were in line hours before Santa’s shop even opened trying to get an early spot. Sheer craziness.

The wait was all worth it though to see how happy Parker was when it was her turn to sit on his lap. Oh wait…

Ta-Da!

I feel most accomplished.



Better, no?















Full time job. Full time mama. Part time handy-woman. I sort of do it all ;)



I'm proud to say that I did most of the project myself, less the sanding (which is not to be taken lightly--it's hard work!), hanging the doors back up (which is also surprisingly difficult) and drilling the hardware on--thanks hon!

The two pull out drawers aren't done yet. I have special order hardware that's on it's way. I'll update when it's here! I'll be doing the half bath next, then shopping for a new mirror for the upstairs bath, figuring out a game plan for the counter and sink, then painting.

All in all this was a great way to update the old. It was affordable, got the job done exactly as I imagined, and didn't create excess waste as buying new cabinets would have.

I ended up not going with paint at Sherwin Williams. They didn't have a dark enough brown and while I'm sure they could have mixed up something perfect for me, their paint wasn't on sale so it was $56 a gallon. That's right, $56. Our whole house is painted in SW (minus our foyer, the painters used Benjamin Moore) but usually their stuff is on sale. So I passed that up and went with Valspar at Lowes for $30/gallon. Much better. I've used their paint once before and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and and this time it was the same thing.

I also switched the hardware that I had. It was just overly trendy for what I was after. I still love it but it just didn't fit with the overall vibe. Maybe in another life!

It will be time for bed soon so we can get up and see Santa tomorrow. Somerset makes seeing Santa most efficient by having you sign up for a time slot versus standing in line. I'm glad we're able to bypass the annoying thing of standing in a line for Lord knows how long to see a person that Parker will cry over.

I haven't worn Parker in a couple months since she prefers to run around now but I was motivated by some mamas I saw in Whole Foods this week with their toddlers on their backs in their Ergos. So I got out my Ergo manual, got Parker on my back, and around the house we went. She wasn't a fan. This lasted about five minutes while we were out today and after that it was Parker on the ground running around. She's much too energetic to keep cooped up now!
































While Parker is over being worn, I'm hoping that she will one day soon wear her "day-dee" aka baby. I love this thing--an Ergo for baby dolls!

Busy as Usual!

This week flew by. December through April is always crazy busy at work—everyone is trying to get trades and distributions done by year end and then it’s all about cost basis for the next four months. The financial world should stop operations the day following the tax filing deadline because those who lived through another tax season deserve a reward!

Even though December is a mad house at Morgan I will be taking a lot of time off—starting with tomorrow! And I’m very excited because Kris and I will be having a day date while Parker is at daycare. We’re going out to lunch at Brio, then to see the debut of New Year’s Eve. Brio has the most amazing Lobster Bisque that will ever touch your lips. The rest of the menu is fabulous too. It was a toss up between Brio and Ocean Prime, which is one of Cameron Mitchell’s nicer restaurants (and home of the Truffle Mac n Cheese that I will be replicating in the near future), but Brio pulled through in the end.

New Year’s Eve has the potential to be very good. The cast is unbeatable—Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, and Halle Berry to name a few. It’s directed by the same man who produced Valentines Day a couple years ago and while the plots seem similar I don’t care. I loved Valentines Day and I’m sure I’ll love New Year’s Eve too.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend! We’ll be off to the wonderful Somerset to do some quick shopping and to see Santa. I'll have the bathroom cabinets done this weekend. Next up will be getting everything ready to paint it a fun, bright, toddler approved color! I painted this room a light green a couple years ago but it's time for something different now.

Parker throwing the ball to Sydney is below. She also was grabbing sticks from the yard, giving them to Sydney, and laughing like crazy when Sydney took them. They both have so much fun playing together. Our girl has an arm on her!

Downtown Eats and Lights

Time for another week after a great weekend!

Friday we didn’t do too much since we were saving all the fun for Saturday. That night we went to downtown Rochester to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants—the Rochester Mills Brewing Company. The food there is great and they brew their own beer so you can’t go wrong with that! Parker loved the food too—she had some of my Muenster Cheese Soup and my Lobster Mac n Cheese. I kept the lobster for myself though :) The steamed broccoli ended up on the ground, courtesy of the little miss.

During the meal Parker and a girl at the next table kept looking at each other. We met the parents and got the girls down to play together. Parker and Connelly had an absolute blast. Parker was running around with her hands in the air literally yelling with excitement. The restaurant is always busy and loud so you couldn’t even hear the girls. Not that anyone would have minded thought because everyone in our section was cracking up at the little ones.

After the meal we went to check out the amazing light display on Main Street. I left my camera at home (shocking) but here’s a picture from the web. It’s so cool to see blocks and blocks of small businesses all lit up. One of the side streets was filled with tents of small businesses from out of town and one of the tents had Santa. Parker wouldn’t even get close to him and cried the second we saw him. I could have called that. We’re going to Somerset this weekend for Santa so I’ll be sure to post pictures of Parker freaking out.










Parker typically prefers to be held but as we walked the streets to ooh and aah over the lights Parker wanted nothing to do with being in our arms. So Kris got one hand, I got the other, and we slowly made it down Main Street. I will never forget Parker looking up at us, grinning ear to ear, so proud that she was walking in between mama and dada. It was a combination of seeing all the sights and feeling like a big girl for walking on the sidewalks that made her so unbelievably happy. It’s funny how kids make people act differently. If I was walking super slow on a busy sidewalk I’m sure I would get some rude glares. All we got from those passing by was smiles and comments on how adorable Parker was :)

In cabinet news I have them painted and ready for Polycrilic. They look SO good! I’m actually really surprised at how great they turned out. I’ll be posting pics soon!

Messy faces on babies are so cute. Why, I don’t know but they are. I had to post all 37 of the pictures because I couldn’t choose just one! Up until a few months ago I don’t think that I ever had a pancake in my life. But I eat them now on the weekends because I’m able to make them super healthy—wheat flour instead of white, honey instead of sugar, and I add in wheat germ, fruits, and rolled oats. I like them just as much as Parker does!