we took the girls swimming at my parents house over the weekend. lucy has literally only been in the pool two times this year...and is already swimming! can you believe it? we are shocked. i took her out one day with her floaties on and let go and she barely noticed. she did freak out a bit when she did notice. but since then, she's like a fish. she always yells out "i nemo, i nemo." and ryan is nemo's daddy. hilarious. she is doing amazing, already moving her arms and kicking her legs. of course, olive is not doing as well...she's pretty lazy. she just hangs out and watches everyone, looks hot in her swimsuit, gets her tan on...and enjoys her bottle. check out the flickr set.

okay, so i don't think it's a shock to anyone that we are the biggest procrastinators in the world. we just have to finally decide "we are going to do this right now" and not stop until we do. like taking pictures of olive...yeah, we'll do it later. whatever. with that said, we finally hung up our pictures in our house!!! this is not just a couple month procrastination...it's been since we moved from paducah in november 2007...yeah. in our old house, we just hung pictures up on the nails that were already in the walls...which our landlord thought was a great feature. "I just thought i'd leave all the random nails so you guys could use them"...really...no...annoying and crappy.

since we were having people over for the cookout, and since we'd had these frames sitting around the house for months now...no one really wanting to make the decisions as to what photos go where...we finally did it! that is lucy's favorite phrase from Dora, which is supposed to be "we did it" but she says "i did it." after a long emotional process, we finally decided on this layout and got them up. now we no longer have big blank white walls. they look great and make such a big difference in the room. we need a little lamp in this corner because it does get a little dark...but we may have to just talk about it for a year until we go back to ikea and then settle on yet another hanging lamp...i'll keep you updated.

i had a chance to photograph some of my favorite people this weekend down at the river, rob, stephanie, michael, jack, lily, and averi. there are more to come, but this was one of my favorites so far. all four kiddos were great!

over the past few days, i've been reminded of one of my favorite books when i was little called, "where did the baby go." it's an old golden book, if you remember those, and is a story of a little girl. she is about 2 years old and she finds a picture of a baby wearing a big floppy hat. she keeps asking her mommy where the baby is and i think her mom tells her that she's in the house somewhere. she looks all over the house till she finds that big floppy hat and puts it on and looks in the mirror. she then realizes that the baby in the picture is her...and she's just growing up. and of course, every time it makes me cry. so here's my baby lucy...one of my favorite pictures i took in the hospital. wow, how she has changed...



so that's how i've felt with lucy's birthday, which was yesterday. i've just realized that she's not my baby anymore...she's growing up. and as excited i am to watch her grow up...i'm just as sad. it feels like it was just yesterday that we were at the hospital in paducah, welcoming our first baby girl. this year has literally flown by. i am constantly reminded of how big she is, like yesterday at the park when this little girl told lucy, "i am a big girl, you are not a big girl." to which lucy replied " i a big girl." hilarious. she is constantly coming out with all these new big words and sentences. i'm amazed everyday at what she can do on her own. i want her to be strong and independent...and she definitely is. i know she has her moments...but she makes me proud everyday.

we have had a crazy fun birthday weekend. sunday was her birthday party, and she had a blast. she's still going out on the porch saying "my party." like she expects everyone to show back up instantly. i made her a ladybug cake, as you can see from my previous post, and she loved it. all her cousins and grandparents were there, and we thank you all for all of the gifts! monday, her actual birthday, we had lunch at the rivermarket, and went to the park when daddy got off work. she had so much fun climbing and sliding and swinging. she would not let us take her picture. every time we would call her name to take her picture, she would yell "no" and refuse to look. so...we had to be creative with the pictures. however, i think they turned out pretty good. at least we all had fun! that's what matters. so happy birthday my sweet lucy lu. i love you!

here are a few pictures. to see more, click here. and please go read ryan's blog.

let's just say that i have quite the creative aspirations, but not always the time, experience, or motivation to achieve them. however, i always do what i can to find the cheapest and easiest way to do everything. some may call me a cheapskate, some may call me lazy...i'm not going to argue with you. when you have two kids all in your business all day and trying to "help," you just gotta make things work.

this year for lucy's birthday, i was determined to make a ladybug cake. i was trying to steer clear of the elmo and dora themes, and do something more creative. i saw this cake company on "the early show" that did a cake i liked, and decided to buy the book. but i couldn't find it anywhere, so i went to their website and voila...they had all the directions right there on their blog and all the recipes on the website. however, of course, it was still a little too complicated for my taste, although i'm sure anyone reading this would have been able to do it. seriously, i don't just have "unsalted butter" and "meringue whipping" sitting around in my house. i've got boxed cake mixes and frosting in a can...that's what i call realistic. so, after all my hard work, it turned out great. i told ryan i was going to blog about how i made it, because i was so proud of how it turned out. but even more proud of how easy i made it. so, most of you will not care one bit, and that's fine. but i know there's someone out there who's dying to make a ladybug (or anything else that's round) cake, and you are a "cheap and easy" person, like myself. so here you go...



Ingredients:
2 Chocolate cake mixes (and all the stuff that goes in them)
2 cans Vanilla frosting
1 can Chocolate frosting
food coloring

You will need:
9" round pan
9" Glass Pyrex bowl
Ziplock bags

Directions:
1. Mix up your two cake mixes. I did them separately because i didn't want to screw anything up, although i'm sure it doesn't matter. Pour mix into your 9" round pan and your Pyrex bowl. Make sure you spray them good with cooking spray! Put them in the oven, and obviously, the bowl cake will take almost double the time of the flat cake. So just keep an eye on them.

Sidenote: don't google "pyrex oven safe," you will read dozens of stories of pyrex bowls blowing up in people's faces and scarring them for life...and debate whether or not you should do it...risking your life, or more importantly, your cake. And then you'll realize it's worth it and just close your eyes while you're taking it out of the oven...just in case. I actually have experienced this one time...it was quite scary and did spray shards of glass all over my apartment for years to come, i'm glad we moved. I figure the odds of that happening to me twice are pretty low...

2. After your cakes have cooled, cut off the uneven part on top of the flat cake, making it level. Put a layer of chocolate frosting on it. Then level off your bowl cake. I found the easiest way to do this is to pop it out on a plate, flat part on bottom, and cut level with the plate, since the plate dips down anyway, and then flip it back into the bowl. That's probably a duh thing to most people, but it took me a while to figure out how i was going to do it. I used a big bread knife to cut across the cakes...this was very helpful. Then put your evened out bowl cake on your iced flat cake. And there you have it.

3. Now, for one of the MOST HELPFUL TIPS i never knew...a crumb coat. So just do a whole coating of vanilla icing over the entire cake. Doesn't matter what it looks like, but it will give you a better surface for your final icing. Now, put it in the fridge over night or for a few hours.

4. When you take it out of the fridge, use a paper towel, or whatever you choose, and smooth out your lumps to make it more smooth all the way around. It should be a pretty solid layer of icing and won't be all sticky and go everywhere since it's been in the fridge for awhile.

5. Color your icing. Mix in your food coloring with your icing to get whatever color you want. I did hot pink and black. For the black, i started with chocolate icing and just added blue and green till it wasn't so brown. Be careful not to put too much that it tastes funny. But apparently you can buy black food coloring...again, not something i regularly have in my house.

6. Ice your cake! The most fun part, except for little people who come along and stick their little fingers in it. I sort of made my design on the cake with a knife before i started icing, so i wouldn't get so off. Pink icing first. Then for the second MOST HELPFUL TIP i never knew: Cut a strip of paper or cardstock, and lightly drag it across the cake to smooth out the icing! SO helpful, it helps get rid of all the messy icing strokes. Put it in the fridge for a bit before you apply the black icing. Then, after your pink icing has set for a little bit, put on the black.

7. For all your bordering needs, put your icing in a ziplock bag and cut off a tiny hole at the end...and there you have your fancy icing tools! Remember what i said about CHEAP! i told you. then you can use as many as you need and just trash them when you're done...and it cost you nothing.

8. Remember to put the cake in the fridge after each step. It just helps the icing not all mix together. Then add your black dots and your eyes. Then mix up your green grass icing and make your grass. Oh yeah, don't forget your candle antenna...so cute!

Now, see...wasn't that easy and cheap! and super cute! lucy loved her cake, and i must admit, it did hurt a little to cut into it. But it was pretty good. I mean, seriously how hard is it to screw up a cake mix. well, if anyone could do it, it would be me!

Now, if i can just figure out how to make this look like an olive for Olive's birthday in november...

so, thanks to my wonderful iphone, i actually get to take pictures of the girls when i don't normally have my camera. maybe soon, i will have some back-up (ryan) and we can go out and take real pictures so olive won't grow up thinking we didn't love her. so here's a recap of the past couple of weeks.



picture explanations:
1. olive wearing lucy's tutu...which lucy demanded she wear, and then pulled it off of her.
2. lucy wanted to be like mommy, so we made her a sling for her baby...and she wore it around for quite a while.
3. our new ride.
4. aunt ann got lucy a new black baby doll...which lucy calls "baby johnny," just like ann's boyfriend, johnny. hysterical! it's even funnier when she takes it out in public and people try to point it out all quietly to others they're with.

lucy is loving playing outside now that it's beautiful outside. she's very unlike her mother...since i am quite the inside girl. i found lucy trying to put a bug in her mouth today...i would NEVER do that, much less touch a bug. it's hard to get her to come inside these days. we went to the zoo on monday with holly, allie grace, and annie. we all had a great time! but the best part was our new ride. a wonderful friend has passed along her double stroller to us!!! so excited...it is fabulous! i'm ready to start walking and being able to take them out more.

ryan has been extremely busy with the Kairos weekend at the prison, last week, and this weekend is ONE. ONE is a leadership conference that he has started at camp formosa and leads and heads up and all that stuff. so he has been extremely busy these past few weeks, and we have not seen much of each other. i'm ready for it to be here, because it will be great...but then ready for it to be over and return to normal life! we have also had some great contacts of our church that we will be planting in little rock. ryan has had some very promising meetings here lately and things are getting more and more exciting! for more about our church, read the eikon blog.

olive had her check up this week and the doctor said she was on the "petite" side...hahaha. i thought that was hilarious, since that doesn't really fit in to our family. she got her shots and started cutting her first tooth all on the same day! it's been a busy week!

well, that's all for now. some kid is screaming...i guess i should go see who it is...

I finally found some time to get a few shots of olive when lucy was visiting the grandparents the other day. as you can see, she is a big smiler and is just so freaking happy! i also threw in a shot of the girls from the other day when we were outside in their little coats..so cute.

if you want to see more, you can find them on my flickr page.

so yeah, i haven't blogged now in over a month. i am just not good at this. when i do have things to say, i don't have time to blog about them. so i am now on twitter, so you can follow me on there if you like my sarcastic comments or thoughts on potty-training. so i just thought i'd give you a rundown of what's been going on in our lives lately. a lot has changed. and i got an iPhone, so you will have pictures along with your blogging pleasure!

1. we have moved! we moved the beginning of march, across town to the quapaw quarter. we love it! we have a nice yard for lucy to play with her "elmo bubbles." lucy and olive have started sharing a room, which is going fairly well. lucy sleeps a lot better in this house anyway, so they don't bother each other much.

2. lucy is doing great with potty-training. she's almost mastered it! yeah for being a big girl. she got some elmo panties, i had to use that word because ryan thinks it's gross. he will only use the word underwear, which lucy can't say. so she loves wearing them and saying "elmo panties." (just had to throw that in there again.) she is also saying so much! she's repeating everything you say (not always a good thing) and putting together words. she has grown up a lot over the past month. i mean, she'll be 2 in may...what happened! we're trying to break her of the pacifier right now. yeah, it's way past time...i know. she's about got her room all set up. the other day she had a tea party...with her ugly dinosaur. i'm glad to know she loves everyone...



3. olive is growing as well. she's 4 months old now. she is so pretty and just so sweet. she's laughing now and playing with toys. she can pull out her pacifier and tries to put it back in. one of these photos is her when she got it back in by herself...upside down. she is still so good...sleeping through the night and just generally being quiet and not causing any problems. lucy got a little bored the other night and decided to decorate olive with the laundry...at least it was clean!



4. we went to the zoo this past week with my parents and ashten. lucy loves animals, so she had a blast...except when she just got so sleepy and turned into a little monster. other than that, it was great. i carried olive the whole time, which was fun! shocking...we both got a little sunburned...me and my pasty white kids!



5. this weekend we had some friends come visit from paducah. my friends beth and terri, that i used to work with came to visit us for the first time. i wish the weather had been better, but we had fun shopping and hanging out...minus a little puking incident in the car...haha.

well, that's all for now. i'll hopefully be back soon with more updates. and maybe more pictures!

so yeah, basically i'm going to give a re-cap of the past week or two since i don't actually have time to blog and post photos and all that crap that people actually like. things have been a little crazy. i thought last week would be a nice calm week and i may be able to catch up on a few things around here...whatever. i need an assistant.

1. lucy is still not being nice to her cousins who stay here a few days a week. again, she's an angel at church, but not at home. especially when i'm feeding olive and she knows i can't get up and do anything about it.

2. lucy puked in ann's car! yeah...while ann was driving and it was gross. poor ann, she is definitely never going to have kids after being around ours. she's always a part of lucy's puking incidents. lucy and olive both got sick last week. right before ryan and i were supposed to go out of town for once. both running a fever, but magically went away and we were able to leave.

3. ryan and i went to dallas for the weekend...alone. our first night away from olive. we went to the fabulous IKEA, which is...fabulous. we made it a two-day event so we could do a walk through and get some ideas and then go back. over all, i think we were there for about 4-5 hours. it was great. we got some cool stuff for us and for the girls. plus we just enjoyed our time alone...dinners alone. where i got to order whatever i wanted because i didn't have to share it with a squirmy, loud-talking 20-month old. did i mention the weekend was great.

my favorite part was the sign i saw that just said "welcome ya'll," and had a woman with a cowboy hat on. you could imagine the extreme southern accent she used to say "welcome ya'll." so i said it all weekend. the most random part...ryan saw his bus driver from middle school at an applebee's in texas somewhere. his name was columbus tuggle...i just thought that was an awesome name.

4. ryan bought another western shirt...yeah. at a real western store. again, he needs an intervention, please pray for him. it actually has embroidered roses on it...enough said.

5. long car trips. so we haven't had too many long car trips since we moved back from kentucky. a couple of things to note. trying to use a breast pump while on the dallas expressway...not fun. not only do your risk flashing everyone who passes you, slamming on the brakes to take a big curvy exit...not fun. so i advise against it, in case you were wondering. secondly, listening to podcasts while driving...good. listening to a podcast about how cannibalism works, while in the middle of freaking nowhere with possibly no cell phone signal (near gurdon, ar, that town has always creeped me out a little)...kind of scary and makes you sick to your stomach. and makes you think you're going to break down on the side of the road and be chased down by the guy from texas chainsaw massacre...and i don't run, i fall down (just ask ryan). so i wouldn't last long...maybe not such a bad thing. (note: we don't normally listen to podcasts about such morbid things...but we were bored and the other ones in the series weren't so weird).

6. back to reality of crying, hungry babies and one who insists on sitting in my lap while i type this entire blog. but we did miss them terrible.

7. we're moving! we found a house not too far from here. we are super excited about it..just not looking forward to the moving process. i just realized that lucy will have lived in 3 houses before she is two. wow. but this is a house all to ourselves! we're excited. anyone up for moving furniture...

so yes, it is confirmed..lucy is as funny as her mother. well, at least almost as funny. for those of you who aren't around me daily and get to experience my sarcastic sense of humor...you're probably a better person. and for those of you who are around me, ryan and andrea, they know that i am, indeed, the funniest person in the world. they've told me that, so i have to believe it. but on to more important things...like lucy.

lucy is cracking us up lately. i was inspired tonight after her most recent comedy routine. ryan, olive, and i were sitting on the couch just hanging out. and apparently we weren't giving lucy enough attention, so she put a blanket over her head and just began walking around like normal. this resulted in her running right smack into the wall and falling over crap in the floor. all the while with her giggling underneath and saying "uh-oh," while taking some pretty good spills. we were laughing so hard because it went on forever until she would find her way over to us. then she insisted on sitting in ryan's lap for quite sometime with this thick blanket over her head. okay, so maybe it's not that funny to you...but just picture it, and you'll laugh.

her most recent obsession is, of course, elmo. i thought we could avoid the elmo thing, but i was wrong. in fact, thanks to grandma byrd, we now have an elmo shirt which is way to big for her, but she wants to wear it all the time. in fact, it's actually got food and crap all over it, but she won't let me take it off of her. so she's been wearing it for about 2 days now. we've actually started calling her elmo sometimes and she thinks it's hilarious.

lucy is also potty-training, which is fun...yeah. i will not post photos of her on the potty like her father did on his blog. it's going slowly, but she's getting the hang of it. she has also started picking up several new words, which is scary. i just know any day now she'll break out with "crap." oh well, it's bound to happen. i guess it could be worse.

just tonight though she almost made ryan cry. he was putting her to bed and she was going around saying "night night," and then she said "love you olive, love you mommy." but then when he was laying her down he whispered in her ear "i love you lucy," and she whispered back "i love you daddy." and then all the times you want to yell at her or put her in her naughty spot are just forgotten.

she is a sweet little girl, or at least that's what they tell me when i pick her up from the nursery every week. it at least makes me feel special when i go to pick her up and she screams "mommy, mommy." and she has got the most hilarious smile with all her teeth, she gets so excited she just grins from ear to ear. it is so sweet. she has also started helping me in the kitchen, which is funny in itself because i don't cook that much. but she loves to pull a chair up to the counter and stand up in it and she what she can get into. the other night, i was gone and ryan hadn't heard her in a little while. so he went in the kitchen and she was up on her stool that she had pushed in there, at the sink pretending to wash the dishes. which is also funny because i don't do dishes either...at least maybe she will! she is getting so big so fast, it makes me sad. i was washing her hair the other night, and i realized that she has little girl hair now...not baby hair. she is such a big girl...