My Little Spelunker

"Get in the cave daddy...get in the cave!" That's Alexandra's favorite phrase as of late. All weekend long we've been building caves - between the glider and the ottomon, between the couch and the coffee table, over her crib, even just laying in the bed. (Wait, is it laying or lying? I can NEVER keep those two straight!)

Caves, forts, tents - why do children have that fascination? Is it the feeling of comfort we all crave? Or perhaps it's more of an independence thing - this is my own little place.

Wherever you are right now, I hope it's comfortable, I hope it's where you feel safe and cozy.

Peek-A-Boo - I See You!

May your week be blessed!
Cheers!
Dee Dee

Tag I'm It!

Well, I'm starting to feel like a full fledged blogger now. Dolly over at "From My Cherry Heart" has tagged me. It's my first tag - yay! I am new to all of this so I'll give it a try.

I am supposed to share 7 random facts about myself. Hmmmmmm...

1 - I have a birthmark on my back that is shaped like a bat - the flying kind, not the baseball kind
2 - I was born on February 27 (2/27) at 2:27 p.m.
3 - I LOVE asparagus - and yes, my pee smells funny after I eat it!!!
4 - My guilty pleasure??? 70's soft rock - Air Supply, Barry Manilow, Brandy You're a Fine Girl - all the good stuff!
5 - I was a member of the INXS fan club when I was in middle school.
6 - I bartended at Alan Jackson's house for an event he was hosting for his neighbors and staff
(yes, this is really true!)
7 - I love to read cookbooks - actually READ them, like an entire cookbook in one sitting.

Wow - that was hard. It took much longer than I thought it would, too. Well, I'm signing off for now. I've got to get working on my Vintage Heart Swap...something else I'll tell you all about soon.

Cheers!
Dee Dee

Chopsticks, Fancy Jammies, and Birthday Parties

Alexandra Stone can eat with chopsticks. Yep, that's right, I said chopsticks.

Last night we took her to Pei Wei, which is PF Chang's version of fast food. It's really not very fast... you have to wait forever to get a seat because they are always so darned busy. Anyway, on the tables, they have these canisters of wrapped chopsticks. She thought they were straws and just had to have one. Well, much to her dismay, it was not a straw. So to save the day, I decided to show off my chopstick skills. She loved that. So she decided to try it. She took the ends that were still fused together, dug into her lo-mein, and scooped up a big ol' bite. I laughed my fanny off! I mean, where there's a will there's a way! The girl is very resourceful - a mini McGyver if you ask me.

Last night she got to wear her new jammies (we call them jammy jams). They are too cute. Leopard and Pink and VERY sassy.

Today was Kaylea Arnold's birthday party. Kaylea and Alexandra are best friends. They have been to daycare together ever since Kaylea started (she's 3 months younger than Alexandra). She's actually a new year's eve baby, but her party was today. She was a premie by about 6 weeks, but she's actually a little bigger (and has A LOT more hair) than Allee. They had so much fun today and were very fun to watch.

All in all it has been a very entertaining weekend.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the amazing ladies who have stopped by to say Hello by way of the Vintage Nest. It has been so much fun to meet all of you!

Cheers!

Where Does the Time Go?

Is it just me, or is it that the older I get, the faster time marches on. This week has FLOWN by. New Year's Day seems like a month ago, not a few days ago.

Do you know the saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions?" Well friends, I think I might be in need of some ice water!!! I had really good intentions of getting a lot of things done this week, but none of them seemed to materialize.

I INTENDED to:
-Clean out my closet and put everything back on my new huggable hangers
-Take down my Christmas Tree
-Do a few loads of laundry (keep in mind I have a two year old and a husband who works outside!)

I DID Manage to:
-Go shopping on New Year's Day - by myself I might add!
-Clean my master bathroom - yes, my husband took a picture of our clean bathroom. He even said "in case you want to blog about it" - the man knows me well!
-Keep Alexandra's room and the common areas of the house clean - ok, so clean might not be the correct word - it's more like "acceptable"

I will say that I had a great day of bargain hunting on New Year's Day. I LOVE after Christmas sales - especially on Christmas decorations. 75 to 80% off gets me really excited.

I love/collect snowman items, and I found this adorable snowman sled for $3 - yes, that's right, $3.


I also bought some really cool wrapping paper. It was 50% off, so I paid $1.50 for it. The cool thing is that it really doesn't look very "Christmasy" to me. It could be valentines, or any other special occassion. It has a very vintage design. Let me know what you think!

I was able to grab a few other bargains that I'm proud of, but you'll just have to wait to see what I bring out for Christmas 2008.

Cheers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just look at that face! I can't help but smile when I see that face.

Brandt came home from work early, and with MAJOR brownie points I might add. He stopped at our local winery and picked up a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the New Year!!! Way to go Brandt!!! The lady at the winery says it compares to Dom Perignon...we'll see about that.

There is a homemade lasagna in the oven, too. So let's see...incredibly cute daughter, husband brings home champagne (he's pretty cute too ;-), Italian food in the oven. I'd say those are the beginnings of very good year.

I wish for each of you a healthy, happy, prosperous, and PEACEFUL 2008.

Love Always!
Dee Dee

Out with the Old...In with the New

We are blessed, there's no doubt about it. And when it comes to Alexandra, well...
To say that Santa was good to her is an understatement! Yesterday I spent a good part of the day cleaning out her bedroom so we could make room for all of the goodies Santa brought.

I filled an entire contractor grade lawn and leaf bag (I mean the big daddy) with baby clothes. (Don't worry, I saved A LOT - I didn't even get rid of HALF of what we had). Brandt took that bag of clothes to a local charity yesterday afternoon. Hopefully someone will feel just as blessed as we did when we received all of those clothes.

And then there was the toys...toys, toys, and more toys. We just HAD to make room. So again, I went through the toy box(ES)! and got rid of a lot of junk (you know, the stuff like happy meal toys - ugh!). I put the really nice "baby" toys in a rubbermaid box. For those of you who have never seen our house, we are running out of storage space, so where that rubbermaid box will go is anyone's guess. But at least Alexandra has room for now.

My room will be next! Mom gave me those Huggable Hangers (the ones on HSN) - which I'd been eyeing for months - so my closet is getting a New Year's makeover too. Yippee!
I am off on Monday, so I have a feeling I know what I'll be doing during Alexandra's nap ;-)

Christmas Eve

This is a pic of Brandt and me at church on Christmas Eve. Alexandra was not cooperative about being in the picture. She wanted "Mr. Mike" to hold her!