Around here lately...

Well, it's September! The unofficial start to fall & a regular routine. I have no clue what I'm going to do when I have children who will go off to school. Routine + fancy school supplies + back to school clothes = I lose my mind. Anyway! I'm kind of pumped that fall is here. A little sad that summer flew by so fast, but meh...I guess I'm over it. Upward & onward!

We've been taking advantage of our local farmer's market. Only two more months left (sniff, sniff)! Man, are we going to miss all these great fruits & veggies come winter. It's so easy to feed Emme when we've got so much fresh stuff on hand.

 

 

And no trip to the farmer's market is complete without a stop to listen to whatever musician is playing that day. In this case it was a fiddler (who's been there the last 2 weeks). We take our live music very seriously! Either that or she's totally unimpressed.

 

 



 

 

Lately, we've spent every last waking hour saying the word NO. Like, 9,291 times a day. Seriously, you think I'm joking. This child is going to grow up thinking mommy only knows one word! Some days I get to the point where it's just easier to remove a problem all together...

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, seriously. I had pretty much had it that day. And this was all before 9:30 a.m. Good thing she's so cute, it's hard to resist this face!

 



 

We celebrated the last weekend of summer at the wedding of the husband's childhood friend. The husband was also in the wedding, so it was a busy weekend of rehearsals, celebrating, brunches, etc. The wedding was so much fun & just gorge. In this day & age of Pinterest, it's hard for weddings not to be!

 

 

 

 

 

That weekend was also our first overnight away from Emme (thanks to my mom who babysat)! The wedding was local, and we stayed only 15 minutes from our house. But ahhh....it was awesome. I was totally looking forward to catching up on sleep. But we're parents, so you just automatically wake up at 7:00 a.m....baby or no baby. And we didn't get to bed until late since we were some of the last people to leave the wedding. We danced all night like we were 21 years old (and then woke up the next morning to find out that--surprise!--we are in fact, not 21 years old). We practically had to be escorted out of the place.

 

 

 

And while we were out celebrating, this girl was busy turning 10 months! I took this pic a few days late, but getting her to sit still for any sort of picture these days is just impossible. She's over it.

 



 

 

It's hard to believe I've already begun to plan her first birthday party! I know every mama says it, but when did this happen? It seems like just yesterday she was born!

 

 

I hosted a play date for Emme & her "friends" this past weekend. These girls are going to be the bestest of friends when they get older (because their parents told them so)!

 

 



 

 

Emme was kind of over the whole play date thing shortly after it began. I guess that's the hard thing about hosting in your own home...it's the same old toys & tricks. Eh. Anyway, she and baby Brynn are the same size & Emme has a whole 5 months on her! I swear, she is such a little peanut. She had on 9 month jeans that day, and they were sagging off of her. If she wasn't wearing diapers, she'd be sporting major plumber's crack. 

 

We also broke out the Bills gear for the season home opener! My girlfriend gave us this outfit (so cute, right?), and I figured we should wear it now...because our excitement for the team will likely fade by game two. And wouldn't you know, they lost to the Patriots that day! They were winning for most of the game too. The husband was running around the house declaring that the Bills were this year's "team of destiny". And by the time I had come home from a Wegman's run, they had lost (evidently they were no longer a "team of destiny"). Oh well, you win some, you lose some. And if you're from Buffalo, you continue to hold onto hope...because this.just.might.be.the.year. Or something like that.

 

 

Emme also started with a new sitter last week! I'm officially back to work four days a week, and home with her every Friday. I'm a little sad about the transition, but this is a great thing for both of us. She gets to socialize 2 days a week (she's with my mom the other 2 days), and I get to go to work and do adult things like, working without interruptions & having adult conversations and blogging. See? A win-win for everyone!

 

I also think I mentioned it in my last post, but I'm just about finished with Emme's playroom! You should know better than to expect I'll post pictures when I say I will (soon, I promise!), but just a few more finishing touches, and this room will be 100% Emme's. Which is pretty awesome since she already loves it in there. And it's pretty much a worry free zone (for the most part), since she can't get into too much trouble in there (it keeps her away from touching the dvd player 800 times a day). We just need to get a baby gate to keep her from escaping, and then mommy can happily (or so they say) tend to the laundry and/or other assorted house chores. You take your pick.

 

So bye, bye for now (says Emme in the new playroom)!

 



Oh, um...

....hi blog! Nice to see you again.

It seems I took a bit of a blog sabbatical. I guess that's to be expected when you're busy enjoying the summer and chasing after a 10 month old who does.not.stop. Um, like ever. And yeah, our house should have been baby proofed ages ago.

So anyway, I'm back! It's hard to believe the summer is almost over. We just got back from our annual trip to Cape May where we learned a cold, hard lesson that vacations are no longer about working on your tan & reading the latest US Weekly. No, no it's not, my friends. Vacations are now all about occupying your baby on the beach (while she gets sand in every imaginable crevice), still trying to honor a nap schedule, and eating dinner at 5:00 sharp in an effort to be in bed by 7:30 (parents included!). And to think next year we'll be chasing a toddler down the beach. Hold onto your swim trunks folks!

the baby tent that we used all of an hour...and then it took 17 hours to figure out how to fold it up

 

 

yep, we carted ourselves to the beach everyday with that thing behind me...all 827 lbs. of baby gear

 

 

 

first day at the beach...meh (meltdown to ensue in 5, 4, 3....)

 

 

playing in the town fountains was WAY more fun (and a daily must-do)

 

 

 

 

lobster salad sammies at the Lobster House (touché)

 

 

second day at the beach, much more successful...that, and we got her to keep a hat on...finally.

 

 

 

 

for the record, I hadn't even noticed him.

 

 

 

 

day 3: beach living is easy

 

 

 

 

 

And...because I couldn't go without including this pic from this past weekend at the husband's family cabin....

 

 

 

OMG. What in the world?? She looks like a toddler in this picture!! I can barely believe my girl is almost a year. I know, I know, every mother says that. But seriously, I still can't believe it! Miss thing & her eight (yes EIGHT!) teeth. She polished off a steak last night.

Just kidding (obvs)!

In other news, I've been working on Emme's playroom. It's coming along, and we are SO freaking happy to have a place to contain all of the toys! Not to mention the room is adjacent to the living room, so it could not be more perfect. I never thought I'd be that person who required a toy/playroom in our next house. But would you look at that, I've become her. I'll share progress pics soon!

Or in 4 months, or whatever.

 

 

New kitchen floors!

So we got new kitchen floors. Almost 4 years post kitchen remodel (but who's counting?). Whew. So now that that embarrassing admission is out of the way...

We finally got around to having the floors replaced 3 weeks ago. It was one of those moments of "why didn't we do this sooner"?! We're so, so happy with how they look. And naturally, I meant to share photos sooner, but life just got the best of us. We spent some time at Lake Chatauqua for the 4th where this cute face enjoyed the water & two boat rides for the first time in her life.

 

 

I'm kind of obsessed with her. That's why I don't blog much. I'm sure you understand.

Anyway, we just got the 'ol bill for the floors, so I figured that was an excellent reminder to finally share pics of our kitchen, alright already.

Lest you forget (or have blocked from memory) the beauty that was the before....

 

 

Mmmm...tasty. I have no idea why our realtor insisted we have these updated before listing our house.

  

So anyway, what was supposed to be a 2-day job, turned into a 3-day job (raise your hand if you naively believed the flooring sales guy when he tells you it will only take two days....ME! ME!). The contractors worked their tails off while they were here. Which I suppose makes it easier to cope with the fact that I took a day off of work to accommodate the new schedule. Because I would have been uber ticked had they been sitting around & picking their noses the entire time.

 

Day one: the old floors come out & the subfloors are in! This seemed to be the most time consuming part of their job. And to think that the husband wanted to do the demo (this is after talking him down from doing the ENTIRE job himself...of which he has zero experience in the tiling department, btw). Yeah, ain't nobody got time for that.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Proof that I was too lazy to move the fridge when we painted, oh....3.5 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

By the way--things still look the same back there. Hello my name is: LAZY.

 

 



 

 

While all of that was going on, the rest of our house was looking a little something like this...

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

I have no idea why I was so stressed out for 3 days. Because, feeding a baby next to a stove in the dining room is totally normal.

 

 

Day two: tile is in! Woot, woot!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, down the hall, someone was perfecting her crawling skills when she should have been napping.

 

 

 

 

We've since lowered the crib after we discovered that she also figured out how to grab the monitor & play with it in her crib. Never a dull moment around here...the baby proofing has begun!

 

 

Day three: a new crew came back to grout, install thresholds, & moldings--a supposed 2-hour job that turned into an all day event. Again, I guess I can't be too upset as they continued to work their hind ends off. Those, my friends, are the types of contractors I love to work with...the one's who you don't have to babysit, who do their job, do it right, clean up after themselves & then get the hell out.

 

 

 

 

 



And here ya go...official "after" shots of the kitchen...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

It's almost impossible to take pictures of this space, since it's enclosed and small (but this should give you an idea, right?). I also didn't bother to remove the crap from the fridge or clean up the counters before taking these pictures. Styled shots aren't our reality folks! The bottles, box of Cheerios & vitamins is our everyday life. Although, true story--our pantry really is that tidy & and organized on a daily basis. And that's saying a lot since a certain someone--cough, husband, cough--never puts anything away.

 

So there you have it, the kitchen! Now what project can we start working on next? 

 

Oh, by the way

We have grass.

 

 

Lest you forgot how awesome it looked before...

 

 

 

 

And because I'm bragging, check out the entire yard! 

 

 

 

Looking good yard, looking good. Not that I'm enjoying the fact that it rains every day, but dear mother nature...our lawn thanks you.

 

 

Also, I need a new camera. For reals. Or my Iphone needs a new operator.

 

 

The end.