Justin Lee – Happy 29th.

My darling husband turns 29 today, so I thought I would post a little something about how wonderful he is. He is not perfect, I can list several things I dislike about him, but my “like” list is quite a bit longer.

1. He’s tall and handsome. He has pretty blue eyes and a perfect nose.

2. He’s smart. The man has his PhD in Chemistry. In CHEMISTRY people. You remember that subject that you hated in college? He is a DOCTOR of that.

3. He knows everything. Literally. Everything. It bothers me as much as it bothers you, but it’s true.

4. He knows how to DO everything. Again. Really. He can build night tables from scraps of wood. He can install automatic sprinkler systems. He can pour concrete. He can construct stairs. He can rebuild a couch (yes, a broken frame on a couch, he opened it up, repaired it, good as new), He can cook, and I don’t mean he can barbeque a hamburger, although he does that too, I mean that he can make seafood pasta with a cream sauce.

5. No matter how much he fights it, in the end, he always lets me put my cold feet on his legs when we get in bed.

6. He takes care of gross things. The hair in the drain. The totally putrefied potato buried deep in the potato bag deep under the sink that had somehow liquefied into 100% nastiness…yeah, he took care of that for me.

That’s a hefty list of good things, but remember, not everything is good.

1. Neither of us are good at backing down. Which tends to cause arguments at times.

2. His belly button collects lint. I’m sorry Justin, it had to be mentioned, it’s weird.

3. He doesn’t do laundry. Actually, this could be on the good list, cause he folds things wrong, so I wouldn’t want him to do it anyway.

We have been through a lot in our years together, and there is no one that I would rather have spent that time with. He supported me in the hardest time of my life, those first couple of months after Thad was born. He encouraged me and gave me confidence. He is an awesome dad, always helpful and loving to our son. He really is my best friend. I love you Justin, Happy Birthday.

 

Spring? Is that You?

Birthday Project

Before Thad was born, I did a bunch of pictures for his room, which in general has a black and white theme. The pictures all have black and white frames, but are pictures of some of my favorite books when I was a kid: Ferdinand, Corduroy, Cat in the Hat, Peter Rabbit, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and my favorite, but less well known, A Good Fish DInner. 

   

They are done in various media, water color, ink, and painted tissue paper (that’s how Eric Carle does all of his illustrations, a cool tutorial can be found HERE).

I was actually in the middle of the Cat in the Hat drawing (that one is ink) when my sister called and asked if I could do a couple of pictures for her of (coincidently) the Cat in the Hat. She was working on decorating Ashlyn’s bathroom (I know, la-ti-da, she was not even a year old at the time) in a cat in the hat theme. So, I made another copy of the same Cat in the Hat picture, as well as this one.

Ashlyn is now big enough to actually USE her bathroom, so I thought a cool idea for her birthday gift would be to paint a stool in the same Cat in the Hat theme. I got a little wooden stool from Michaels, and Justin prepped it for me by filling the screw holes, sanding it smooth and priming it. I put on several coats of white paint and finished it with a water proof lacquer before decopaging a cut out picture from my copy of the actual book. The project turned out cute, and I am told she uses it a lot in their current adventure in potty-training. (Yikes)

1st, 2nd, and 3rd FIRST Birthdays!

My sweet little boy turned one on March 30th. No longer a baby. Actually, it doesn’t make me sad, it makes me excited! I can’t wait for him to keep growing and developing and becoming a little person. He has a definite personality and his own opinions. Up until about a month or so ago, I was still feeling like full days alone with him were tough, and I was feeling worn down by the time Justin got home. Now I truly look forward to each day that I get with him. Maybe I’m a little slow on the mom-band-wagon, I don’t know, but that’s the way it has been with us. We’re getting into our groove though.

My sister had the great idea to rent a house on the beach as a combo celebration of Thad’s first, and my niece’s second birthdays. It was a great way to spend some family time in a relaxed setting, while doing something special too. We went to the aquarium, walked on the beach, and spent some fun time together. Mom and Dad even volunteered to watch the kids one of the evenings, so we could go out to dinner with my siblings and their spouses. We talked about making it a annual birthday location, which I think would be really fun. I was inspired by my friend Bethany’s awesome cupcakes that she has made for her boys birthday’s from the book Hello, Cupcake!. Keeping with the aquarium theme, I made penguin and shark cupcakes. The penguins turned out great, the sharks were a little trickier, but everyone thought they were cool and tasted good, so I considered it a success!  

Thad’s second, first birthday was on his ACTUAL birthday. It was on a Wednesday, so we just had some of Justin’s local family over for dinner and birthday cake. This time, I made a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting.

 

Thad’s third and final first birthday was with Justin’s side of the family at his parent’s house. His sister made the trip down with us. We decided to make the move and turn Thad’s carseat forward after a little car-sick incident on the way there. Let just say that windy, dark roads, a full tummy, and sitting backwards when you are tired does not make a pleasant combination. Poor boy. But, we made it there okay, he caught a second wind and made his typical ruckus the rest of the weekend. He has gotten GREAT at sleeping other places. Sleeps though the night no problem and goes down for naps without a fuss. Has made weekend traveling much less stressful for me.

We got to visit Grandma and Grandpa’s many animals (cats, dogs, chickens and horses, the latter 2 were a little scary to Thad), and be cowboys in the country. Grandma made a scrumptious lemon and raspberry cake. (Thad has had NO problem adapting to these birthday sweets, which he really hasn’t had at all before, go figure).