Bebe Shower

I hosted a baby shower last night for my friend Katie. She is having a girl, hence the pink and brown galore.

I hung up onesies in the front window.

These topiaries were kind of an afterthought. I had everything made for the shower and decided I couldn't resist making some of these with my leftover paper. Little did I know they would require the purchase of a mini saw and a late night trip to the store to get different types of pins that wouldn't kill my fingers. I finished the topiaries at 1am the evening before the shower, but I was happy with the result. They added a nice touch and a bunch of the ladies even gathered around while I gave them step by step instructions on how to make them.

My most proud accomplishment was that I sewed for the first time ever. I knew these nursing covers/hooter hiders were easy to make, so I ventured out and bought a teeny, cheap little sewing machine and went to town. Of course I had to have thorough instructions from my mom, but I did it. Now Troy can't give me a hard time about not being able to hem his pants. Because I bet I could do it.

I got to use my little cupcake stand again, and, you guessed it, displayed pink and brown cupcakes and toppers.

Just beverages, I know, but don't they look pretty?

My friend Yuki made the darling mommy-to-be an amazing diaper cake.

I am so grateful for the ladies that helped pull off this shower.

Uh Oh

Blake got caught turning on rap music. I've watched this clip about 20 times. It just doesn't get old.

Spring Projects

Every once and awhile, I get into crazy project mode beyond the typical amount of projects that I usually have. With some spring weather finally arriving, I undertook many tasks this week. I filled every hour of every day with work, and I realized after several days that I hadn't checked my email or blog for almost a week. It is incredibly rare for me to not check these things at least once a day, but I love that I have something to show for my world wide web absence.

I made some canvases to hang in our dining room. We had an empty wall that needed to be filled, and I would much rather create my own art than spend mucho dollars. These were so easy. I just covered canvases with coordinating fabrics, and voilà.

Blake helped me make some spring sugar cookies, which for the first time in 3 years (ever since I've lived at a high altitude) actually turned out. Even though they are just cookies, it was a huge feat to actually bake a batch that I didn't have to throw away.
I also made some Easter buckets for the ladies I visit teach. Target's dollar spot provided the buckets, and everything looks cuter when wrapped in clear cellophane.
I wanted to do something for my parents for watching Blake for a month while I did my yoga teacher training. I remembered how my mom always commented on how much she loved the watercolor painting I did for our house. So, I painted them a similar watercolor, only using more earth tones that would fit their home better . Don't worry, I didn't do this all in one week. I'm not superwoman. I only finished it this week. Now I just have to figure out how to ship it since I painted on nice heavyweight watercolor paper that will not bend or roll.
And last, but by no means least, I tackled some major spring cleaning projects. I spent three days washing all of our windows inside and out, pulling weeds, raking the yard, dusting lofty places that I'm pretty sure have never been dusted, spraying the dirt off of our siding, moving around furniture, and cleaning indoor light fixtures. Our dishwasher also broke (which is thankfully getting fixed tomorrow), which left me with hours of washing dishes by hand.

However, my most noteworthy accomplishment was cleaning our mini-blinds row by row by row. I seriously now loathe looking at anything that even resembles some sort of window blind. Again, in several of the windows, it looked like the mini-blinds had probably never been dusted or cleaned. And our house is 17 years old. One tool that aided in this process was the use of this microfiber cleaning glove. If you are going to be attempting this project anytime soon, I would recommend the glove for at least partial sanity.
After all this, I complain about being exhausted and about how I haven't sat down all week, but the truth is, I feel completely wonderful about myself when I have been productive. It must be a disease I have. I am so grateful for the energy that I have been given, for a toddler that has begun to entertain himself more and more, and for easy access to Home Depot.

Dance Championships

I had the privilege of attending the U.S. National Amateur Dancesport Championships on Saturday. Dancers from around the country came to compete for the top amateur titles in Latin, Standard, American, Smooth and Rhythm dance. I was there for seven hours, and that was only a small fraction of the three day long competition. The choreography was top notch, and so were the dresses. There is a lot of glitz and glamour that comes with ballroom dancing.

My awesome sister-in-law Tricia competed as well. She took a Latin dance course at BYU this semester and a requirement for the class was to dance in this competition. The BYU students only competed against each other, but BYU has one of the largest dance programs in the country. Having never taken a dance class before in her life, Tricia soared above the eliminations into the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. She made it into the top 6 couples of 125 couples that competed in her Beginning Latin division. Isn't she sassy dancing the samba?

Fifteen Months

It has been a while since I've done a true update on Blake. He is fifteen months old already. 

There are only three more months until Blake goes to nursery at church. Not that that is incredibly significant with our current 1pm church time, which allows for many cranky overtired toddlers, but regardless, Blake is growing up.

He is a riot these days. His favorite word is "uh-oh," which he repeats incessantly like a little parrot a million times a day. It is the first thing I hear over the monitor in the morning. It is what he tells people in the check-out lane of the grocery store. I don't mind because it is fun to hear his little voice.
Blake is a little sweetheart when he wants to be. He knows what it means to give kisses. I was having an emotional day (those post-weaning hormonal imbalances are killer) the other day and he came up to me and smacked two little kisses right on my lips. How could that not make me smile? He also gives kisses when asked to his daddy, babies in books, and his stuffed animals.
His favorite activity is to relocate items in our house. In the past week, I have found Troy's keys and cuff links in the silverware tray of the dishwasher, the downstairs remote control in the upstairs bathroom drawer, a pen in the paper feed tray of the printer, Troy's library card underneath the rug, a DVD we were missing in between the couch cushions, my camera in the lost and found at church (Blake pulled it out of my bag and it was left under the bench), refrigerator magnets in a kitchen cupboard, measuring spoons in Blake's dresser drawer, and a box of nerds leftover from Halloween behind the TV.

Blake begs all day long to play in the fridge. If he is across the room and he hears it open, he rushes over to get into the shelves. He cries and bangs on the door if I shut it before he can get to it. I usually don't let him play inside the fridge because someone in our household gets upset about the energy lost by leaving the door open. However, from time to time, Blake gets there fast enough. If I am trying to make dinner and would rather not have a whiny toddler clinging onto my leg, I sometimes let him have a few minutes in his favorite spot. 
Who knew that Blake would have some eyelashes? I don't know where he got them from because both Troy's and mine are almost non-existent.

Blake's favorite toy of all time is still the cell phone. The cell phone is what bribed him to crawl. It is what he destroyed during his drooly, chew-on-everything phase. Now, it is what he uses as a mode of communication. He has to say "hi" to everyone I talk to, and he usually hangs up on them in the process. He also carries around items like cameras and remote controls and holds them up to his ear as if they are cell phones.