Good Times

Look what Mike got me for my birthday:

From september 2008

Nah, I'm just kidding. He really got me this (although he did get me the thermometer just not as a birfday gift). And before people start emailing him and chastising him (yes, this has happened), I did ask for it. Well, I also asked for flowers and copious amounts of chocolate but I will forgive because GUESS WHAT? Mike left the house to go to the zoo.

::faints::

Yes, my friends, Mike ventured forth into the sun just because I asked him to. And, because there were:



GOATS! lol...goats are kind of one of his things. Autumn didn't like them quite so much.


But that's okay cause it makes for a cute photo. We also got a family photo.


If you look closely, you can see my hand and shoe and Autumn's body. We set up our camera to take the photo on a timer and just as it flashed, this kid pounced in front of us and prepared to jump in the hole...but WE WERE THERE. So it didn't go so well.

That area was pretty neat though, we got to see a sea lion play. Three of them, actually. They were all very social and cute. Speaking of social and cute, we didn't get to see the otters. T_T I was sad.


We finally did get a good photo. A zoo employee saw me setting up my camera and offered to take this:


I am slightly embarrassed that Mike and I matched that day. It was purely unintentional.

Anyway, it was fun and THANK YOU MIKE for taking us.

Oh, if you want to see more photos from the trip, you can click here.

The Mommy Curse

Autumn doesn't talk much. Real talking, I mean. This is her entire repertoire of real (or just recognizable) words:

Heyyy/Heyyo
Wassat?? (whispered)
UH-ooooh
Mowwy
Meow
Arf

She does, however, jabber all. day. long. I'm guessing it is cosmic revenge for the talkative child I was (am). Here's another day in the life of autumn.

Birthdays and other stuffs

September is a big birthday month. Today is Nanny's and tomorrow is Ryan's. Later this month, my sister Valerie and I turn one year older. Crazy stuff!

Look what I made nanny. It's a pincushion!

From Projects

From Projects

And, while I am talking about Nanny, she, Boppa and my grandmother have been teaching me how to garden. I didn't kill much this year! haha...as a matter of fact, look at this:

From september 2008

Not bad! It looks even prettier today because the roses have bloomed some more. I am improving...last year I killed everything in that box but some phlox.

Oh, and tomorrow we are having a garage sale along with a couple other families. If you want, come buy stuff or just come visit! You can see miss monkey doing stuff like this:

From september 2008

WEARING HER MONKEY BACKPACK AND DRINKING SOME STARBUCKS GREEN TEA FRAP.

You can go home now, Murphy.

So, guess what? I was driving home from kali when some dude's freaking exhaust pipe fell off his car. I couldn't miss it because of cars around me. After I realized that something was wrong, I got off the interstate, made it to a gas station and this is what I saw:

From september 2008

I had forgotten to leave the carseat with Mike but fortunately Donnie was nearby and was able to help me out. Plus it was dark and I was glad to have someone I knew because I just didn't feel like getting robbed or something. :/

From september 2008

So, now I have a donut on the car and a tire with about 6 holes in it in the trunk.

An exciting morning so far...

So yeah, fun morning today. When I woke up and went to get Autumn for her diaper change I went in and found her like this (you can see more pics of her after clicking on this one):

Quasimodo Effect

How did this happen, you ask? Well I had told her the night before to stop throwing her food on the floor and she just wouldn't listen. So I had to smack some...

No no. Apparently she got bitten by a mosquito right on her eyelid while we were outside in the yard late yesterday afternoon. But the doctor is pretty sure she's going to be just fine after a little benadryl and some hydrocortizone cream. Thankfully it hasn't been hurting her or anything as she's been acting perfectly normal all day so far.

But man, it was just about the most pitiful thing I've seen in quite some time. Poor little quasimodo...

Grodiness

Apparently Autumn has been watching her Aunt Lauren or Uncle Ryan eating sometime recently because she seems to be following in their footsteps as far as table manners go...

I would advise you to not listen to the horrible sounds too loudly if you're about to eat.

More Shameless Self Promotion

So, I've been learning to sew for the last, um, 6 or so months. I started pretty small--baby leg warmers, an apron, stuff like that. Well, about a month or so ago, I was looking at some fabric online and ran across this yoga monkey fabric and absolutely had to buy it for Andi's daughter Sophia (andi owns a yoga studio). I got it in my head that I would make something for Sophia's birthday which was the 14th so I got a "sew easy" pattern and asked Nanny to teach me to read it. HA. HA. IT WAS SO HARD. lol. I might have bit off more than I could chew but Nanny is an awesome teacher so I not only finished it, but I am pretty impressed with myself.

Now--gaze upon my first real sewing project, the glorious result of 4 days of long hours of staring at an incomprehensible (sew easy, my foot) pattern, sewing, doing it wrong, picking it apart, sewing again, having to make up a section because the pattern's version looked stupid, learning to make button loops off the internet, and so on. Ta da!






Yay! I am hoping to get a photo of Sophia in the outfit soon...Andi just told me that Sophia wore the outfit to her birthday party and I AM SO EXCITED about that!

Here's my second brag...I made Autumn a dress! I took a smocking class at a shop called Lace Cottage back in May. After practicing a little, I got started on a little bishop dress. Here it is after I finished smocking it and Nanny started showing me how to assemble it:


And here it is on Autumn today! It's a little big but that's definitely better than a little small, right?


Next I am going to work on something a little less traditional for her...a smocked dress made from electric blue houndstooth...it is super soft!