In Which Autumn is a Muppet, a Porcelancer, and a Chef.

Ok, remember this picture of Autumn? It's from April 2008 so she was about 11 months old. So, yes, she's always been...unique.

You know how my friend Matt has done a few drawings of Autumn? Well, check this out:

I laughed so hard when I saw this. Autumn did, too. She giggled and told Mike he had to see the silly picture of her when she was a baby. Matt did some other pictures but I want to save those for their own post. The Porcelancer rides again! Oh, man. I can't wait. I have to at least post this one.

I love it!

Ahem. /stops squeeing at the cute.

So, to continue my post from last week, Mike and Autumn have a new papa/monkey pastime.


They have been making protein bars together! They actually taste pretty good for something that looks like, well, you saw the picture. It's a fun opportunity for them to do something messy yet healthy together. Autumn is bad about getting everything she touches in her hair so when I realized how messy it was going to be, I halted preparations and tied back her hair. I also put her apron on her.


Sigh. I think it's time to make her a new apron because she's about to outgrow this one. I already have to make her some new headbands because they don't tie around her head easily anymore. Back to the cooking:


They have made the bars two or three times, I think, and Autumn gets excited every time. It's a huge pain to clean off her hands, though. I suggested that Mike use some gloves. He got me some boxes of gloves from Costco to use for certain cooking jobs. I have raging eczema so it's been a huge help (especially when juicing lemons, oh, boy, does that hurt) plus it makes cleanup from messy, messy jobs so much easier (we won't talk about how I've only used 1/4 of a box!).


This is the finished product, by the way. When it's rolled in flax seed and then flattened, it's not quite so horrifying looking!


So cute.

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter! Travel safely, for those who are traveling.

(Visit passing pinwheels! Click here to see the new stuff in the Etsy shop plus some other projects!)

So many tutus...

Today we've got a grab bag of pictures! Oh, by the way, be sure to stop by the other blog! I've got photos of my new hair cut and some other fun things I've been up to--including power tools! For now...first up: Autumn and her "spyglass," as she is calling it. It's actually a kaleidoscope but I'm concerned the neighbors might think she's really spying! She did tell me the other day she could see the "ay-bors" kitchen light on but no one was at the table...


Late last month, Laura Breeden took some photos of Autumn. She's getting her photography business off the ground and Tamara thought Autumn might make a good subject. I'm not so sure that ended up being the case but we did get some pretty pictures!


We really missed the beautiful blooming by about a week or two. Unfortunately, that was a soggy, brown weekend. Poor Autumn's blanket hasn't quite recovered, haha.


Such a sweet giggle.


But this is really how she was most of the time...not into it at all.


Funny enough, my favorite pictures are the ones of Autumn pouring out her "tea" and not actually posing or anything.


Laura asked me to let Autumn dress herself and, oh, boy, did she. That's three tutus and some boots. At one point there were wings.


I actually have some fun photos of Mike "cooking" with Autumn but I think I'm going to save those for their own post because they are pretty funny. Oh, man, I also just realized I've got some hilarious mobile photos. I might have to do a mid-week post. We'll see...either way, look forward to it! :D But just to pique your interest:


Bahahahaha.

trying something new

Old dogs can learn new tricks! This is my first attempt at blogging on my tablet. Mike has voted that I'll hate it but it's worth a try...my computer doesn't like that summer came early and sounds like a jet engine every time I turn it on, haha.

This was a crazy week! Autumn had spring break and Tyler was in town so we had lots of events planned. The week went great but ended with a bang. Poor Miss Autumn spent Friday night throwing up all night. Until 3am. We joked with Mike's parents that they kept her healthy until she was home with us. :) Poor thing is feeling much better. Enough better that she's chafing against her tummy protecting diet.

Aaaanyway. Our first big trip was the zoo! We got to see these guys:


This is what Tyler thought...


And this is what Autumn thought. She said that she didn't mind the dinosaurs but thought the roaring was too loud.


It was pretty warm out so most of the animals were just chilling out. I love the lens Mike got me for Christmas because it makes it so easy to get shots like this. I mean,this is totally a Molly expression.


And how adorable is this guy? He sat way up in his tree staring right down at us.


I always enjoy the meerkats and take too many pictures of them :)


This is for Mike. He loves goats.


Autumn wasn't overly impressed with the cow smell.


These two...they crack me up. Autumn played princess most of this trip and rode in her royal carriage aka the wagon. So this is a rare photo of her actually standing.


The china exhibit is so fun. I like the otters almost as much as the meerkats. They weren't very active but for real they are just as cute sleeping.


If you read the latest post on my other blog (passingpinwhels.com!), this is the kind of monkey Autumn looked like when she was a baby.


Mike's parents got a nice picture with Autumn and Tyler...


My mom and I? We got this...Autumn trying to choke hold us and devour our brains.


We also went to the children's museum. There was much fishing...


And Cathy and Samuel got to come! The kids scattered after this,haha, so I have almost no photos of them all together.


Autumn spent some time "bein' a mama" in a her-sized grocery store.


And then she climbed the giant cat tree thingie. A lot. And when she got out 2-ish hours later, she said, "I don't think I can go that high." And didn't believe me when I told her she did, in fact go that high.


Right before heading out, Autumn wanted to try out the fire truck and police vehicles. First up, the motorcycle!


And then it was Tyler's turn.


I giggled at this photo but it was really terrible quality so I fiddled with it a bit.


I giggled at this one, too...isn't Tyler wearing such a Boppa expression? When Autumn saw this she said, "we're police and Tyler is my partner!"


This is what Hudson thought about all of it. :)


Me, too! I think it's bedtime...

(Incidentally, Mike was right, blogging on the tablet...I might be too wordy for it!)

In which mama has too much fun with photoshop and Autumn just has fun

We've had a rather interesting week. It's been just ridiculously warm here. I'm not complaining but I am rather sad that we didn't get any big snows. Although...this is Memphis so we could get a huge snow, like, next week and then it'll be 80 degrees. Anyway, I learned how to make our bushes round! I'm super proud of myself, you just have no idea. They are a touch wonky and the one on the left is downright awful because it's bald on one side but I took off what must have been several years of growth so I'm pretty pleased. I'll keep working on them now that I kind of know what to do! I just have to get around to all the other round bushes now!

I also got my hair cut! It's really fun and cute. My mom did a fantastic job but I completely forgot to take a picture before I went to this new aikido class today--it's basically a black belt preparation class and it was super fun. My various incisions didn't care for it, though. :( And my hair didn't quite survive all the rolling and falling. Next week!


The weather was so nice we got to go to My Big Backyard with Autumn's friend Josh, his mom Mimi, and his sister Aurora. We had a blast. I love all the different play areas. The kids built things for a while. They built fortresses first.


Then they played store. So funny. They almost look like they ought to be in the old west. Hang on...


Ha! I win at photoshop.


Autumn got brave for a bit and ventured to the loft of this little playhouse. I was pretty surprised she stuck her head out for my to get a photo. It didn't last very long.


She got kind of scared and Josh's mom helped her down. I'm not really sure how it came about but Autumn somehow or another decided to be brave and went back up. She did a great job! Way to face your fears!


She still doesn't look overly sure about all this...


Before lunch, Autumn and Josh discovered a hill to roll down. They were pretty funny and covered in hay by the time they were done. Autumn also lost a ponytail holder and wasn't happy about it but stuff like that just happens sometimes when you're having so much fun!


I don't know why but I really love this photo. She's got such a great look on her face and her eyes are so neat. I wish I had color change eyes like Mike and Autumn, haha!


Aaaaand, now we're happy.


I got some really cute photos of the two of them together. I posted this one to facebook and Will made the observation that Josh looks like Naruto.


And yes, yes he does.

I should stop with the photoshop, shouldn't I? Yes. Yes, I should.


Of course, they had to entertain the baby. However...


That rapidly turned into entertaining themselves.


For once I actually remembered to bring fish and bird food. It was SO FUNNY. Autumn was just standing there with this piece of bread and this goose swam right up to her and snatched it out of her hand! It nibbled her finger a bit in the process. She stood there in shock for a moment and then turned around all big-eyed, "MAMA THAT GOOSE JUST BIT MY FINGER." She recovered pretty well, much better than I might have suspected.


The pretty swan might have had something to do with it. She actually tried to get the swan to eat from her hand but the swan was a bit too smart for that.


By the time they were done feeding and chasing the geese and ducks (and fish--man, the fish were kind of crazy looking, fighting over the bread), they were all tired out. None more than Miss Aurora who just passed right out. I would, too! Sunshine, a breeze, getting strolled in a soft chair. Now that is the life.


Oh, yeah! Here's me and Autumn. This is pre-haircut. :) As you can see, IT WAS TIME.

(ps, don't forget to visit my other blog! This week I wrote about cinnamon rolls. MMmmm.)