What A Difference

I've been busy looking for furniture for our new room.
We needed something to hold my printer, sewing machine, and craft supplies.
I looked at lowboys, buffets, dressers, desks....nothing "did it" for me.
We needed something very sturdy because my printer is about 200 pounds....well it feels like it anyway..
Mary gave me the great idea to make a table skirt for our desk and paint the top to coordinate with the fabric.
My mom got the desk in '91 from Wood You and painted it to match my 2nd grade bedroom. The desk has been four different colors and has followed me everywhere I have lived. It's the best desk and it's so well made. I knew I didn't want to get rid of the desk, but its original form wasn't going to work in our new hip workspace.


Before


After

I'm going to have the printer on top and will hide my sewing machine and other craft supplies underneath the skirt.
I think it's the perfect solution!

Fun Things

Mary called me around 5 pm this evening to let me know that Miss Mandy's was finally open and that she wanted me to meet her there. Camp had just finished dinner so I threw him in the car and we were off.....I made it out of the house in record time!
Miss Mandy's is my favorite store in Tallahassee. She moved locations and has been closed for a few weeks. I've been so excited to see her new store (more space and better location). The new store is adorable, no surprise there! I was also excited to view her table inventory. We are in the market for the perfect sewing/craft table and I figured Miss Mandy's would be a good bet.


There were several choices....I love this one, but don't think I want white.


I like this one too, but might be too dining roomy and it probably would not fit through the doorway to downstairs.
We did find a black one that might be a winner.....I'm going to have to sleep on it though. I don't know if black was what I wanted either....decisions, decisions!



We had one of our favorite summer suppers tonight, Chicken Pasta Salad.
Adam was able to do his favorite thing in the whole wide world.....GRILL (on the Weber, of course!)
It was such a refreshing and tasty meal. We served it with breadsticks and Simply Lemonade with Raspberry........YUMMY!
Here's what we put in the pasta salad tonight....

Chicken Pasta Salad

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts marinated in Italian dressing, grilled
• box of bowtie pasta, cooked according to package
• Good Seasons dressing mix, prepared
• cherry tomatoes
• black and green olives
• carrots
• bell pepper
• onion
• feta cheese
  

Mary has been a dinner guest quite frequently these past few weeks.
We always have lots of leftovers and why not share with her? :) She's great company too!
She ran to Publix for us and picked up some extra veggies for the pasta salad, dessert, and this tasty beverage. I didn't even know this flavor was available! Let me be the first to tell you that it is fantastic!

I'll leave you with this picture of Camp.

This sweet boy never ceases to amaze me!

Happy Wednesday!

Sippy Cup Fun

Camp's having fun learning to use his sippy cup.


I fill it water and add a splash of OJ. He loves it!


We had Shepherd's Pie for dinner last night. (surprise, surprise)
Adam requested it and I love it because it's tasty and easy to make!
It's a great Camp meal too! I like when he can join us for dinner and eat what we eat.

Cupcake Date

Mary, Holly, Sally Kate, Camp, and I headed to Tallahassee's newest cupcake shop.
Lucy & Leo's Cupcakery features a cupcake only menu.
Some of the featured flavors were margarita, chocolate peanut butter, and red velvet.
Of course I got a box of each flavor to bring home.
I had to taste test them all...that's what I do!
I enjoyed a chocolate peanut butter at the bakery and would have to give it about a B-.
The icing was YUM-O.....but the chocolate cake? Not so much.
Adam and I had the red velvet this evening and I was even less impressed. Red velvet is usually my favorite. Adam said I could make a better cupcake. (yay for me, but not for the cupcakery!)
I feel like if you are going to only sell cupcakes, you need to blow your consumers out of the water....it needs to be the best cupcake anyone has ever tasted!
I'd like to think that they're still working the kinks out during their first week of business, but I have to say that The Cake Shop is still the queen of cupcakes.
It's hard to improve on perfection.....



Lucy & Leo's decor is absolutely adorable.
This colorful upholstered sofa and aqua walls made for a great photo op.

*Update* Adam and I enjoyed a carrot cupcake this morning and we both thought it was pretty darn good....there is hope! :)

Transformation (Almost) Complete

For the past three months or so, Adam and I have been discussing some room transformations in our house. We never used our formal living room and hated the fact that such a nice room was going unused. Our original plan was to get a new sofa and other living room furniture and turn the formal living room into our main living room. Well, that would have been great, but then we would have never used our downstairs room (which was our main living area). And since Camp has taken over what used to be my office, we were in need of a work area for the grown ups.

That's where Danielle Heller came in.....she gave us the great idea to use the furniture from downstairs and bring it in the formal living room. Our downstairs room could then become an office/craft/laundry room. One of the downfalls of our house during "My House is Worth What?" was that our laundry room was in the main living area of the house. Problem solved! We would have a fun area for me to sew, blog, craft, and do laundry. Adam would have a nice comfy area to play the guitar and work on bids/plans.

After lots of begging and pleading from the girls, Micah and Adam started the transformation.

(I wasn't here when the couch was delivered two years ago and I guess it was mighty tough for the professional movers to get it through the door. They told Adam that it wasn't going to fit and Adam told them that his wife would have a conniption if it didn't so they better try harder! Well, it did fit and the movers told Adam that the couch would never leave that room....so needless to say, Adam was pretty worried that this couch moving session was going to leave us all very disappointed. You see, our doorways were built in 1941 and they are teeny. Our original leather couch did not fit through these doors and we had to order our current leather couch from Pottery Barn's "small space" collection.....hence my conniption fit if the new couch wouldn't have fit!)

They did a great job taking the door of the hinges.

In between snapping photos, I was doing a happy dance!!! I was soooo excited that the couch was out with limited struggle!

Working their way to the front door!

Sweet Mary, who is the other brains behind this transformation, leading the boys to their destination!

(those black side tables are for sale....FYI)

Ahhhh......a sigh of relief from everyone.

We are all loving this new setup and are very thankful for sweet friends with great ideas and strong muscles. :)

We are waiting on a media stand, pictures, and frames and then our new living room should be complete!

Our next plan of action is to design the downstairs.

It feels like we have a brand new house with all of the rearranging!

Camp loves this new space......more room to play!

And now Camp's playroom is a real playroom!

No more sewing machine or guitar cases!

He's getting into everything!

And I love that he has the space to do it in now!

4th of July Fun

We started our beach getaway on Wednesday. Camp and I headed down to the Byrdnest with Chandler and Trip. Mama Byrd came down Thursday afternoon. We had such a great time......very relaxing.




On Friday, Camp and I drove to Apalach to meet Mary, Holly, Sally Kate, and one of my favorite bloggers, Hillary. It was my first time meeting Hillary and I liked her as much in real life as I like her on her blog! :)

We had a tasty lunch at The Owl Cafe. I love their crab dip.

After lunch we headed to The Green Door for a little shopping. There were so many cute things. I loved all of the paintings. They were so fun and colorful!

Friday evening, Camp and I headed on over to Cape San Blas to spend the rest of the weekend at the Lions Paw. Adam was waiting at the house for us and we were so happy to see him!!! He was so excited to see us too.

We spent some of Saturday on the beach. It was so extremely hot and NOT breezy so I couldn't take much of it. I was thankful for Camp's 2 hour nap that gave me an excuse to stay in the house and watch TV. :)

We were able to get one family portrait before the camera battery died. I was so sad because I couldn't find the charger anywhere!!! I found out later that I left the battery charger along with my cell phone charger at the Byrdnest. :(

Atleast we got this one. It's pretty cute.....and it shows off Camp's 4th outfit that I ordered for him before he was born!!

On Sunday, Lollie & Popsie stayed up at the house while Camp napped so Adam and I could enjoy some beach time alone. We spent the whole time in the ocean and had a blast.

We had such a wonderful 4th week and hope you did too!!!

39 Weeks and 3 Days

That's how long I was pregnant with Camp. And that is how old he is today.

I had lots of people tell me that I would miss being pregnant and miss having Camp all to myself....feeling his kicks, hiccups, and rolls.

I thought those people were crazy.

Why the heck would I miss having Camp in my belly? I'd be able to hold him and kiss him and love on him. Wasn't that so much better than being pregnant?

Well, pregnancy amnesia has hit me and I do miss being pregnant. Feeling him roll around and kick me was so very special. Something only I could feel. It was such a wonderful feeling.

And that first kick of every morning was always so reassuring that everything was still ok.

My pregnancy with Camp was pretty uneventful...the usual discomfort and the extreme heat of being pregnant in the summer were really my only complaints. But I do have to say that I really like having Camp outside of my belly for everyone to enjoy! :)

Camp had his 9 month check up today with Dr. Elzie.

Here are his stats:

Height- 29 1/2"- 85%

Weight- 19 pounds, 5 ounces - 30% (he's gained 12 pounds exactly since birth!)

Head Circumference- 18.2" - 80%

This was an exciting appointment because he didn't have any vaccinations. I think those shots hurt me more than they hurt him! They did check his iron levels and pricked his toe not once, but twice!! The first time the iron level was low so they checked it again and it was perfect! They said sometimes the alcohol swab can interfere with the readings. But both times, Camp didn't even flinch! He was such a big boy.

Dr. Elzie went over the foods we should avoid and gave us the ok on dairy and meat. Camp's experimenting with lots of new foods. He's discovered Goldfish and loves them. Today he tried Craisins and we just introduced YoBaby yogurt and deli meat chicken the other day. He hasn't turned anything down yet!! Yesterday he had his first taste of cheese pizza and ate almost an entire piece! He's remembering that pizza from my first trimester when I "craved" it alllllll of the time!

Sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office is always an experience. I feel like I have to sanitize my entire body after I leave. Today Adam and I saw a 4 year old try to bite her mother and then precede to tell her that she hated her. Oooohh man.....good times!

Grandpa's Visit

My dad came in town today and took us all out to lunch!
Trip has spent the past week in Pennsylvania with my dad and Meri.
My dad and Trip took a cross country road trip back down to Tallahassee and my dad was able to spend a few hours with us.
My dad hadn't seen Camp in 5 months so he really enjoyed spending some time with him.

My dad was so surprised at how much Camp looks like me as a baby.

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Daddy aka Grandpa (that's still so weird for me to call him that!!)

Lunch Date

Camp and I had our first lunch date alone last week.

We had the very best time.

We went to Atlanta Bread where I ordered my usual chicken salad sandwich and Camp enjoyed a fruit cup.

It was such a sweet time doing something out of the ordinary. We might have to make this a part of our weekly routine.

I think Camp enjoyed it just as much as I did!

9 Months

9 months


8 months


7 months


6 months


5 months


4 months


3 months


2 months


1 month


1 week

ALL ABOUT CAMP - - 9 MONTHS

• First of all, let me just say that this little buddy is getting cuter and funnier by the day. Adam and I are more in love with Camp now than ever!! This is such a fun, fun stage!!
• He waves to everything....including the fan. ;)
  
• He's still a dancing machine.
  
• Understands a lot of what we say...kicks, smells the flowers, "How big is Camper? So BIG!", etc.
  
• He is a major flirt!!! I can't take the kid anywhere! :) Haha....he smiles to everyone and we have people stop us all the time while we are out. We always get "What a happy baby!" and "Is he always this good?" We also get "He's the cutest baby I've ever seen" and "What a beautiful baby" Ohhhh yeah we're proud!
  
• He still just scoots around....I'm doubting that he'll ever really crawl because he's so mobile with his scooting. He pushes off with his left foot and leaves his right foot in the air. It's the silliest army crawl, but it gets him where he needs to go!
  
• He wakes up between 7 and 7:30 and still goes to bed at 8pm.
  
• He gets 6 oz. of formula 4 times a day (every 4 hours). The weaning process went well with only a few days of discomfort for me.
  
• Still in 9-12 months clothes and size 3 diapers.
  

9 MONTH BLOOPERS

These little photo sessions are getting a lot harder!! Camp doesn't want to sit still and cooperate. :)

I promise to be back in full force now! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

*Special thanks to my mom and Fred for the loaner laptop and camera!!