Our first ever movie night!

Andrew & I had been talking about planning a family movie night for a few weeks. We are both big movie watchers (or at least we used to be, in our pre-kid/tiny baby days), so we are excited to be able to sit and watch movies with Delaney when she is old enough. We decided to give it a go last Friday night, with a movie we thought Delaney would like and something we sort of wanted to see too - since we weren't expecting her to last the entire length of the movie.

We chose the Lorax. I had no idea what it was about, only that it was new and a Dr. Suess adaptation.

From here

 We started out the night with a yummy taco dinner courtesy of our awesome in-house chef. We love tacos!

After the movie, we all put our jammies on, got Delaney her milk, and piled up on the couch together. It was bliss for this mommy. I could not be happier anywhere than on the couch snuggled up with my loves.

Delaney thoroughly enjoyed the movie for about 30 minutes, then she was ready to get up and moving. Since it was bedtime, we went ahead and paused the movie, put her to bed, then came back to finish it. Andrew said it was a pretty good movie. You'll have to take his word for it, as I fell asleep about 30 minutes after Delaney did. Guess all that cuddling did me in. Overall, movie night was a success, and we look forward to doing it again - just one of many fun family traditions that we are starting!

CFA Kids' Night.

Last week, Delaney & I had a little mommy daughter date night to Chick Fil A. We'd never been to the Kids' Night festivities before, but I saw a flyer about it at school that week and decided it might be fun. After I picked her up that night, we had to go to Wal-Mart for a few quick things. She was so well behaved, so afterwards I asked if she'd like to get some chicken nuggets and ice cream - you can imagine I got a good response! So off we went.

It was a huge success! Delaney loved watching all the kids (although she didn't go into the play area...I am just not fond of those things). There was plenty to do though. We ate, met the cow, and waited in line for a balloon animal from the highly celebrated "Anthony the Balloon Kid." Delaney decided (with literally no help from me) in line that she wanted a white tiger, and that's what she asked for and got. I was so proud that she used her manners, saying please and thank you, which was a lot more than you could say for a lot of the much older kids there!

Here are some pictures from our grand adventure. I love Mommy & Delaney nights!

Delaneyisms.

I'm constantly telling family and coworkers all of the funny things Delaney says and does, immediately followed by: I should really write some of these down, I'll never remember them!

So, in an effort of documentation, and hopefully a little something to make you laugh, I present to you Delaneyisms.

(Reciting prayers line by line after Daddy at bedtime)
Daddy: I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Delaney: I pray the Yord my soul to cake.
Every night...cake! I love it.

(On our way home after work)
Mommy: Do you want Daddy to read you the book?
Delaney: No, Mommy read it.
Mommy: Do you want Daddy to rock you tonight?
Delaney: No, Mommy rock you.
Mommy: Daddy will give you a bath and Mommy will rock you.
Delaney: Oh, that's typical.
Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up.

(Watching NFL)
Delaney: Is that Go Titans on TV?
Yes, yes it is. Even if the Titans aren't on TV, gotta work on the diehard fanism now.

(Playing with my little wooden calendar on my desk at work)
Delaney: Let me put these emails into my inbox (putting the blocks into the calendar).
Umm...tech family much?

(In the car)
Mommy: Do you want to turn your tunes on?
Delaney: Yes, that will calm Delaney down.
Still working on those pronouns.

(Every.Single.Morning. on our way out the door, to our precious kitty, along with a giant hug and kiss)
Delaney: I need to say goodbye to Callaway!! Callaway, I love you! See you later al-gator! After while croc-a-dile! See you soon bad-boon!
Grandpa taught her that last one. Baboon, badboon. Tomayto, Tomahto, right?

(Looking at the Shutterfly photobook that came in the mail this week)
Delaney: Mommy! Mommy! Is that a book of Delaney?
Books + Photos of Herself = Happy Clam.

(Reading her newest book from Dolly Parton, I Am a Rainbow)
Words should be: Then I see red, I'm angry like a bear.
Delaney: Then I see a red bear. Don't make me angry!

Life with Delaney is a roller coaster of fun, crazy antics, and a "terrible two" moments too. It is an awesome challenge living with a toddler, but what a blessing! We love our hilarious little girl!

WW: Less Than 100 Days til Christmas!

It's fall, ya'll.

Have I already used that phrase on this blog this fall season? Probably. I'm kind of obsessed with it. In a healthy way, obviously. I showed you guys some photos of my fall decor, and I think I mentioned that once I got everything up this year, it just didn't seem like quite enough. So, I took my happy self right down to Joann's and got a few more things to spruce us up. Here are the results of the day.

I moved all of my ceramic pumpkins/squash/various fall things to the mantle this year, as that's about the only place in the house that's safe from curious toddler hands. I purchased everything to make a pennant banner to add here, it just hasn't happened yet...

That left my kitchen table empty, and I also have two new dining area shelves since I last decorated, so I needed a few new items there. I bought a couple of cute things, and had an idea in mind from Pinterest that I just had to make:

Aren't they adorable? I really love them. I linked to the original pin above, but to be honest I never actually read it, I just bought some styrofoam cones and yarn and went to town. That point might be underscored by the fact I just realized I did the colors differently. Whatever, that's what makes it DIY. If any guests in my house come over to insult my candy corns, maybe I should re-think my guest situation in the first place, am I right? I overlapped the yarn quite a bit because I wanted sort of a messy, casual look. These were such a breeze to do, I got them all 3 done in about 30 minutes time, and that was with Delaney "helping" me sort the yarn.

Here are my shelves in all their autumn glory now, with acorn, little twine balls, and new fall flower from Joann's, and candy corns by yours truly.

What do you think? Do you decorate your house for fall? Halloween? I am lazy and just do fall, then I am good to go until Thanksgiving. Do you have any decorating ideas for me? Please share!

WW: Animal Lover.

Grandparents' Day Gift: The Reveal.

Saturday evening, we hosted a cookout at our house for Delaney's grandparents to celebrate Grandparents' Day. It was a fun night of laughing and yummy good (thanks to my hubby for grilling - and I actually cooked two sides, can you believe it?) We are so thankful to have both sets of our parents close by to spend lots of time with Delaney and develop great relationships with her. She loves each of them dearly and all four have a special relationship with her. We had a great time!

As I told you yesterday, we made some fun presents that Delaney handed out Saturday night. Here is the big reveal! Everyone loved the gifts. We love you Grannie, Pop, Grandma & Grandpa!!

Grandparents' Day Gift - The Tutorial (of Sorts.)

As most moms do, I like giving picture gifts of Delaney to her grandparents for holidays. Fun for me, and something I know they will enjoy. This year, now that Delaney is a little older and can get in on the fun, I thought it would be a fun idea to pick up some frames that she could fingerpaint and use some pictures from her two year shoot by Paul Wharton.

This was a blast! By the way, I use the word "tutorial" loosely in this title, as I'm fairly certain most of my readers understand how to have a child fingerpaint a frame and stick a picture in it. A more aptly titled post would be "Grandparents' Day Gift - Pictures of My Cute Kid Painting." But tutorial sounds exciting and like you might actually learn something, right?

Right.

Moving on, I picked up two unfinished picture frames at Wal-Mart, and actually got my two prints there too, as I needed them sooner than Shutterfly would deliver. (Side note: You can pick up Shutterfly prints at Target, but only glossy, and this gal prefers matte for framing.) We already had our fantastic Crayola washable finger paint. Next up was stripping down Delaney, protecting the table, and letting her have at it!

She was a little hesitant at first, being the neat and tidy girl she (sometimes) is...

 

 Using a different finger for each color here. Daddy had to help a little to get her going.

Now the artist is at work. Check out this masterpiece in the making!

 

 The face says it all. I die of cuteness.

After the artist was in the bath, I let these babies dry in the garage, and after using a paint pen to write a little note on the back of each, we sanded the sides down a little and then threw a few coats of poly on these to make sure they wouldn't trap dust. Rustoleum won out for a very important reason - it was sitting on the garage shelf already, as its what we used on our DIY kitchen table.

A shot of the drying process. As you can see, its very important to have high quality tools, like a Pampers box drying rack for your art.

 

Here are the finished products. Don't they look great? See how much Delaney's grandparents loved them on the reveal post tomorrow!

Why I haven't been blogging.

I was doing SO great at posting a blog every day and really getting back into it.

And then.

Then, an amazing thing happened, and I will never be the same. Ok, that might be a tad dramatic.

From Here

In a completely random conversation last weekend, I mentioned to Andrew that we should see if this show was On Demand on Comcast. We'd probably like it, I guessed. I hadn't seen the movie, and we never watched when it was on, but it seemed like our kind of thing. Plus, Suits just went off the air and our fall shows aren't on yet, so we are in an awful blank DVR rut. So, we looked it up one night and there it was. All five glorious seasons of it. So we watched one. We loved it.

We watched another. Then another. The next night, we watched more. Repeat, repeat.

This. Show. Is. Awesome.

I really can't get enough of it, and Andrew loves it too, which is a huge plus when we find shows we both love. We have hurried to do all our chores after Delaney goes to bed so we could watch every night this week, and I can assure you we've stayed up way past our bedtimes a couple of nights to watch "just one more."

If you love football and you love the South, you'll probably love this show. I love all the relationships in it, especially Coach and Mrs. Taylor. It isn't very often on TV you see a great, loving marriage like that. They have fights and squabbles sure, but they are so supportive and loving to each other, it makes me smile watching them interact. And don't even get me started on all the drama in this show. I couldn't love it more.

PLEASE don't tell me what happens, because we are still in Season 1. That said, I would already highly recommend this show!! I might just watch it all weekend long...ok, I can't sit still that long, but you get the idea. I love it. Did I already mention that? Oh, well.

Any other FNL fans out there? What other shows did you instantly fall in love with?

WW: Whoo's Ready for Fall?

Weekend & Labor Day Fun.

Did everyone have a good Labor Day weekend? I took the lack of work seriously and did no work or blogging! I did get a lot done around the house, and that was a great feeling!

We had a pretty lazy weekend, but somehow accomplished a lot too. I guess, to me, a lazy weekend means staying at home, and we did a lot of that. The weather wasn't pretty, so it was easy to stay inside.

Andrew & I started off the weekend festitivies on Friday night with some yummy bruschetta.

Saturday, we stayed home most of the morning and worked around the house and played. I got out all my fall decorations and got them displayed - YAY! Then we did our grocery shopping and Wal-Marting (we really know how to live it up on the holiday weekend!) Saturday night, Delaney & I played hooky from the church Fish Fry to go to Rainforest Cafe with our friends Nicki and Grace! Both the girls loved the fish tanks and the butterflies, but Grace was not so sure about the gorillas we were sat next to. Every 10-12 minutes, they started moving, making noises, etc., and about twice while we were there we got a "thunderstorm," complete with lighting and thunder (no rain, thankfully!) None of us had ever been there, so it was a brand new experience! Delaney absolutely loved it, she kept looking and around saying "Look at that! Look over there!" It was a pretty cool place. We will definitely go back again!

Sunday we had church and then went out for a quick family lunch, just the 3 of us. Andrew spent the afternoon pressure washing the back of the house and our deck. He just about got finished before a storm came in and SOAKED him!! Poor hubby. But he will get a chance to finish it up next weekend, and it looks so wonderful! I just love nice, clean things!! I worked on deep cleaning the house and doing a few of those chores that you always put to the back of the list. Sunday night, we went to my parents' house for a yummy dinner (they were nice enough to cook and we happily obliged since we'd been working all day!) and I got to come home and Skype with my bestie, and even see my sweet niece and her brand new hair cut for a few minutes. I love and miss them so much, I really don't know what we did before Skype. It is so much easier to keep up now!

Monday morning we did a little shopping (Delaney & I went to JoAnn's, Andrew went to Best Buy), and I got the things I needed for a few extra fall projects to add to my decorations at home. We hurried home and got ready for a fun afternoon at my inlaws' house, celebrating Great Grandpa's 85th Birthday. There were several of us there, and we had a yummy meal, us girls watched Dirty Dancing, and lots of laughs and fellowship as always.

Our family had a blessed, safe weekend and I hope yours did too!