Luke gets a haircut!

Tea for Two!

Last Friday, Luke had his VERY FIRST PLAYDATE!!! It was so much fun to watch him interact with Ms. Emma (isn't she so cute?!) The mommies had some much needed conversation and a yummy lunch with a Great dessert and the babies played. Here is a sweet picture of Luke showing Emma that the balls go in the busy ball machine! She wanted to hold onto the two that she had found and Luke couldn't stand it... he kept taking them from her and we kept secretly making sure that Emma had 2 to play with. Emma brought over her Dora doll (which LUKE loved) and she taught Luke to say Dada (finally), and Uh-oh. We are hoping that this is the beginning of many sweet afternoons for these two!

Why Didn't You Tell Me Wednesday?

Why didn't you tell me that I WOULD NEVER SLEEP AGAIN!?

I talked to Mamaw this morning (it is her Birthday) and we always have the best conversations! She is so fun and she is so chatty. I love to ask her about things from her past. Today we were talking about all sorts of things and we somehow got around to talking about the lack of sleep a mom endures with a baby. This was fresh in my mind because we had a rough night around here. When Luke was a newborn, he SLEPT! Then all of a sudden he started waking and wanting to be fed every 1.5 hours.... Then he started sleeping for a good stretch at night. He had his first cold around Christmas and it has been a battle ever since. Today he woke up at 5:45AM after a long, long night. Around 1AM he wanted to PLAY!!! I thought I would lose my mind. Mamaw laughed and told me about one of her sons who would not sleep in anything but his "buggy" and when she would nod off and stop rocking the "buggy" he would wake up "wailing".

Anyway, I have just decided to accept the fact that my child is just not one that will SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT (kuddos to all of you who are blessed with children who will). We have tried all sorts of things, all sorts of methods, and it just isn't meant to be for me to sleep THROUGH THE NIGHT. It has gotten better... we definitely do not wake up ever hour anymore and for that, I am VERY thankful. I was just looking back over the past couple of years (pregnancy included) and I am amazed at how little sleep I have been able to function on. Those who know me, know that I LOVE to sleep, I always have. Ever since I was a little baby, I have just LOVED my sleep. I am not a morning person, I am a napper. I believe that when I prayed and prayed for a baby and pleaded with God that I would do just about anything, He decided that I would have to give up my sleep! ha!

A birthday!

I spent my morning making THIS! It is the most chocolatey cake I could concoct. It actually turned out great considering there was no formal recipe. I just put in every type of chocolate that I could think of. The cake is a chocolate fudge box mix with dark chocolate pudding, sour cream, and Ghiradelli dark chocolate mixed in. Then I made a chocolate ganache and poured that in between each of the three layers and on the top before I iced it with Hershey's chocolate icing!

Looks like the Birthday Boy enjoyed his Chocolate OVERLOAD!

We went to lunch at Calypso Cafe in Nashville....

And then we went to the ZOO! (it was so very hot and I snuck this picture while we were waiting for our water from the concession stand)

The meerkats were one of the FEW animals that were braving the heat to hang out

After we stopped off at Phonolux, Luke passed out in the car on the way home (this was the ONLY nap he had all day!)

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to the BESTEST husband EVER!

New manual camera shoot!

Up until recently, I have been having horrible results with the manual settings on my camera. I have been practicing every day lately. Well yesterday, Luke went over to the window and it was so cute and I quickly grabbed my camera and ta-da!!! I think it turned out awesome. I shot with low ISO and my 50mm fixed lens (which I am trying to use more often now).

Fun Friday....

Not much going on over here today except for the fact that tonight is PAPA MURPHY's night and I am so super excited!!! I wanted to share a few recent pictures of Luke! Hope you have a great weekend!

Things I love Thursdays....

I have the worst time keeping my stainless steel sink all nice and shiny. I am constantly wiping it clean and scrubbing it with a sponge, but a few weeks ago I picked up some of this stuff and let me tell you, it is SO AMAZING. It smells great and my sink is so shiny that I can see myself in it!

Why Didn't You Tell Me Wednesday?

Why didn't you tell me....

...that one day, I would wake up and realize that MY THIGHS touch. (and NO, that is not me in the above picture)... It is driving me bananas. If it were fall and I were to somehow get myself into my corduroy pants, I think that the friction from walking out of the house to my car would land me in the E.R. because I would have started a fire and obtained serious burns.
Granted, this business did not just start overnight, as much as I would like to think that the "extra baby weight" around my middle has migrated down to my thighs due to mother nature's evil sense of humor and some help from gravity, I blame nursing and my constant hunger during that time!
I have since started working out (last week) and I have greatly modified my eating habits. I am hoping that I will be back to "normal" again in a few months. In the meantime, all of my lounge pants seem to be generating large amounts of pilling in the upper thigh section-- they will probably not last much longer without some intervention. Wish me luck!