Makes My Monday

I woke up this morning with one (perfectly good) cell phone and will be going to bed with an entirely different one. All thanks to my dear son who so sweetly brought me a little present today -- a dripping wet iPhone -- with the biggest smile on his face. He decided to give it a bath in the doggie bowl. I didn't even get mad and didn't cry -- though the thought crossed my mind. I could only be mad at myself for not paying close attention to what he was doing. Thirty minutes after "the bath," water was still pouring forth from the insides. We decided it was toast. And despite his busy day, hubby went to the Apple store during his lunch break and got me a new one. Yep, my hubby totally Makes My Monday.

My New (ad)Venture

I am launching a new blog for the kids shirts and baby gifts I've been making. A few months ago, I got an embroidery machine to try my hand at appliqueing and monogramming. I figured, as much as I like to buy cute clothes for Britton, I could make them much more affordably and enjoy a creative outlet as well. It has been a lot of fun! So, without further ado, check out ... www.kidstitches.blogspot.com

Here are few things I've done...

What to Wear

Here are a few of Britton's favorite "wearing" things, of late.


Britton loves wearing his Daddy's shoes. Or his own shoes. Or trying to chew on my shoes. (Gross, I know. I think he only does it because I overreact every time I catch him doing it.) He does like wearing his baby Keens, too, and tries to put them on all by himself.


Wearing his sunglasses.


Wearing a winter coat from last year (it's a 9 month coat that still fits!). It is super soft and he loves to walk around with the hood up.

Fun times, as always with this little one, around here. I will post pictures soon of his new playroom downstairs!

Britton's First Haircut

Britton's hair has been a bit unruly lately. For example...


But the precious little curls all over the back of his head have made us reluctant to cut his hair. But we finally decided we had to do something about the front, so we took him to get it cut.

Before the stylist could get to us, we had plenty of time to ...

Read books.


Play chase.


Lay down in the middle of the floor.

When the finalist saw us, he kept saying "She is so cute. Look at her! She is adorable." ;o) Yep, that's why we're here.

Finally, it was time. I snapped pictures and tried to hide my horror as I watched him take a big chunk out of Britton's bangs.


But B had no clue what was going on. Thankfully, the whole thing only lasted about two minutes.


All over and rubbing the hair out of his eyes.


Getting the hair blown off.

After a few days to get used to it, I think it will end up looking pretty good and be less mullett-y as the days go on!



(Note: It isn't as mullett-y in real life as it looks in this picture!)

Makes My Monday

I realized I totally forgot to put a Makes My Monday post up last Monday after I declared I would be doing it as a regular 'feature.' Oops.

Anyway, knowing that Fall is almost here totally Makes My Monday ...

The other day we tried on some Fall/Winter clothes that we have to see what fit. Here is Britton sporting hand-me-downs from his cousin Will and a pumpkin shirt I made for him. It wont be long ... I can already smell the Pumpkin Spice candle burning!

The Tickle Monster

Secretly (or not so secretly) he loves it!

A Dirt Road.

The cabin in Mentone had a lot of dirt roads for exploring.


And this little guy loved exploring.

Talking Heads

See for yourself what fun we had ...

The Chattanooga Aquarium

We made it up to Chattanooga to go to the Aquarium one day while we were in Mentone. We opted for the quick tour as Britton, who was on steroids for his allergies the whole vacation, was a little bit more ... erm ... difficult than his norm. The pictures won't show the meltdowns he had ... like when he screamed his head off through the entire butterfly exhibit. Which, speaking of, why do they have a butterfly exhibit at an Aquarium anyway? Britton wasn't a fan.

He did, however, love getting to pet the baby sharks and stingrays. Maybe his undoing was that, this, his favorite thing was at the very beginning. Everything was downhill after this.



Wait for it, wait for it...


There it goes. He loved seeing them swim by.


Enamored by the little yellow fish.


He did not want to leave the stingray tank and being one with the big kids.








He was too busy staring at the kid next to him to notice the SHARK.


A ginormous spider crab.

Makes My Monday

I am going to try (for the first time) a regular blog feature ...


This little gap-toothed smile definitely Makes My Monday!

Mini-Vacay in Mentone

When we found out our friend, Afshin Ziafat, was speaking in Chattanooga last weekend, we booked some time with him and his wife, Meredith, at our friends' mountain house on Signal Mountain in Mentone. It was as charming and beautiful as everyone told us it would be! And we had some great couple time with Afshin & Meredith -- mostly sitting on the back deck watching the sunsets and playing our fair share of gin rummy and Cranium's Whoonu (so fun!).


Danny & Sheen. Friends since college ... 19 years.


Meredith and me on the back deck.


Meredith and the monkey.


The cabin we stayed in belongs to a sweet family in our church who were generous to share it with us.


One of the sunsets we saw from the deck. The little white building is actually the church where Danny stood before the floor of Presbytery to be questioned and approved for ordination (of all places a tiny church in Mentone). Britton was still in the NICU back then!


We can never get a decent family pic anymore!


Britton loved Sheen.


Sheen & Meredith.


Somehow, Britton conned Sheen into giving him his iPhone (or maybe he just took it). Britton loves iPhones.


The crow's nest on the back deck.



This trip was actually our second annual summer gathering. We met up last summer when Sheen was speaking at a camp in Chattanooga. Here we were a year ago: