A Perfect 10

Happy 10 Months Gracie Girl!!!

To commemorate this month's birthday we decided to write our top ten favorite things about our 10 month old...

# 10. Her love of feeding herself. She loves banana chunks, Gerber puffs, toast with cheese melted on top, garden burgers (torn into pieces), peas, carrots, cheese slices, waffles, pancakes, tiny pear pieces, black beans, and chicken. Mommy still feeds her applesauce and it's still her all time favorite, along with Yo Baby yogurt.

# 9. The way she throws her sippy cup on the floor and wants NOTHING to do with it.

# 8. The way she babbles "da..da..da..daaaaaa" all day long.

# 7. She is fascinated with doors...she'll swing them back and forth, back and forth, back and forth forever.

# 6. After finishing swinging the doors, she'll head for the door stops...they are TERRIFIC noise makers ya know!

# 5. Cruising around the furniture and only holding on with ONE hand :)

# 4. It's looking like Miss Gracyn will be our climber, she was up in the dishwasher the other night lickety-split.

# 3. Her cooing smile

# 2. When she squeezes between the couch and our in-tables to get out of her baby gated area in the living room! How she figured out to go through there I'll never know...did Cade teach her to do that...hmmmmm.

# 1. The way she snuggles on my shoulder and twirls her fingers through my hair when I lay her down at naps and at night time. It is the sweetest thing...

You've come a long way baby girl and

we love every minute with you.

Full, Fluffy, Ragamuffin-y

I completed my first ragamuffin garland for the playroom last week!! The idea was inspired by The Nester. Since it's for the playroom, I made it more of a "boyish" garland with "take me out to the ball game" ribbon, plaids, stripes, denim, and stars! It even has some little treasures hidden within! I added pics of the kids and it's complete and hanging now! All this to say...I would LOVE to show you a picture, but alas my camera is still stranded in Dallas. Hopefully it will be back here on Friday night via my Mom and I can post some photos then! So, till Friday...I have to leave you hanging!

Feels Like Fall Y'all

This GoRgEoUs weather we are having has got me in the mood for fall!! I pulled out all of our fall decorations last weekend and have really enjoyed decorating the house with all the rich harvest colors of autumn. So many things have changed this week at our house along with the weather...warm jammies are being worn, soup for dinner, jackets on in the mornings, nightly walks being taken BEFORE 8:00 p.m. (b/c we don't sweat to death anymore), and JEANS are actually being worn! Of all the seasons, fall and spring tie as my favorites. I love sunny, but cool days. It's been really fun to sit outside on my swing and watch Cade play in the yard for longer than 15 minutes at a time. Just the other day we spent almost an hour on the patio, playing cars, golf, and baseball together during Gracie's morning nap. Ohhhh, so happy to see you Fall :)

Looks like Fall...

I made an arrangement for our mantle with berries, pheasant feathers, fall leaves and sunflowers to match our family picture. Bought everything last week at Hobby Lobby. They were running a half off special on florals/fall, so my grand total for all the pieces was less than $40! Those pictures did kinda turn out dark, so I'll try to post more soon.

Now, if I would have remembered my camera...I would have some wonderful pictures to show of a 50th Birthday party and Gigi's favorite reading buddy!!! I am so mad at myself for forgetting the camera-s. Both of them were in the same bag! ACK, I think my brain went out the birth canal with my children!!!! Hopefully it will find it's way home soon from Dallas and I can post more pictures. Till then, I guess I'll work on a few more fall projects for the house!

Fun Fridays...my favorite things

My favorite thing is sitting on my front porch...err...walkway, I guess you would call it! AND it's something I made! A monogrammed flower pot for my fall mums!!! I can't remember where I saw this idea, I just saved the picture in my favorites "craft" file and pulled it up last weekend. This entire project takes about 45 minutes to complete so if your feeling crafty give it a shot!

You'll need a galvanized steel bucket (mine is from home depot), a black paint pen (Michael's), an decorative fall ribbon ($1.99 @ Michael's), a pot of beautiful fall mums, and a single sheet of white card stock. The first thing you need to do is print out your monogram on the computer. Choose a font that you like in the largest size that will fit on a piece of card stock and print it out. Then use an exact-o knife to cut out the letter on top of a piece of cardboard or anything thick really will do so that the knife won't hurt your counter tops or carpet...YIKES. Then "bubble" some tape to fit on the back of your letter and attach it to your pot. Trace around the letter with your black paint pen, removing the card stock letter when finished. Color in the inside of the monogram and attach your ribbon with a hot glue gun....and finito...a fun, fall monogrammed mum planter for your porch! It's just that simple. I am planning on tying a piece of ribbon around the top at Christmas and using it as a planter for my poinsettias as well. Honestly you could use it in every season by tying a different color ribbon on the top! I am all about simple these days and that's why this quick, fun project is my new favorite thing!

Bloglines...heard of it?

If you know me at all, then you know I LOVE to be organized! Weekly schedules, menu planning, and To Do lists are imbeded into my programming!!! I stumbled across a neat little gem that helps me keep even my blog surfing organized! This little site will help you keep track of ALL, that's right ALL the blogs you follow! Bloglines is a quick and easy way to check and see if the blogs you read have been updated. If they appear in BOLD print, that means that a new post is ready for you to read! I saved the link in my favorites file, which really makes it handy. Just click on the title above to get started. Or you can click here. Once you register (it's free) just click on the tab "FEEDS" and you can add all the links you like! It has saved me so much time.

Casita de Alaniz looks forward to being on your list of faves :)

Now why didn't I think of something like this?

Our Morning In Pictures

You know those mornings that everything just falls into place? The mornings where Mommy wakes up ready to go because she actually got in bed on time, the kids both slept soundly until 7:30 a.m., and you pig out on a breakfast consisting of eggs, english muffins, bacon, yogurt, and a piping hot cup of decaf coffee (for the mommy...not the minors)! Well this was one of those mornings. Don't get me wrong we have plenty of crazy, hectic, rushing around, "where's your other shoe" mornings, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when mornings are slow and easy! Cade is at such a neat age where we can sit and talk in the mornings at the breakfast table. He asks about what we're going to do today, where we're going to go, what's for lunch...you know the usual 3 year old questions. Something funny about him is that he always notices the weather. On most mornings he'll declare, "Wow Mommy, it looks like a beautiful day." I am looking forward to many more easy, fun, fall mornings with these two sweet faces!!! Go ahead, sneak a peek...

Her favorite toy to carry around, a giraffe finger puppet

Sporting the Alfalfa bed head look - HA!

Sweet Brother
Singing...Joshua fought the battle of Jericho song...Gracyn likes when the walls come tumbling down

Gracyn wants a kiss :)Brother happily obliges

Who could resist those cheeks?

Chores done...check!

Off to a great start...

What's an ideal morning look like at your house?

Now I know why they call it, pain...t

The time has come for the "builder beige" to go!! While we've lived in our current home for a little over 2 years now, the only rooms that have seen paint are the kids. Cade's red and navy stripes about wore us out because of the texturing on our walls, but we pulled through (with the help of my in-laws, thanks) and it turned out wonderful.

Found this vintage train clock at Hobby Lobby

on clearance for $7.99!

Ticking R/R crossing signal = LOVE to my 3 year old

Gracyn's room was a breeze to paint because the chocolate color on the bottom covered any pink that might have made it's way down there! The little girl inside me loves this color combination and I think it turned out girly, sophisticated, but sweet all the same! Princess Gracie loves her digs... But the rest of the house has been a little neglected paint wise....until NOW! We are in the process of picking paint colors for the living room, breakfast area, kitchen, master bdrm, master bath and guest bathroom! WHEW...I am overwhelmed just writing all those areas down! Picking paint colors has proven to be quite the chore due to the fact that a lot of our areas are very open to each other. While I'd like to just paint it all the same for SIMPLICITY sake, I'd really like to do something special in the living room and then have the breakfast area/kitchen be a coordinating color! To start small Steve and I decided to paint the laundry room ourselves and give it a little face lift. I wanted a cooler color in there since the house colors we've mainly been choosing from have been on the warm side. BUT, I wanted it to be a warm-cool color (does that even make sense?), not so bright or stark that it would offend my eyes while doing oodles of laundry for 4 people! So off we head to Sherwin Williams to have a look! I chose a blue gray color, called Oyster Bay. We started painting in there around 8:15 and finished up with 2 coats around 10:40 p.m. It looks wonderful! I love the soft muted color of the blue and I love the way it looks with our dark walnut cabinetry! It's welcoming AND cozy all at the same time. Here is a photo of the finished paint job and my new favorite thing....the laundry room!
Steve and I completed the wall with a vintage window pane that we converted into a cork message board and key ring! Gotta give a big thanks to our friends the Locklins' for GIVING me the window and a shout out to my favorite handy man, my hubby for "re purposing" it for me! It's one of those beautiful things in your home that makes you smile each time you walk by!

Now if I could just pick a color for the OTHER 5 rooms we'll be in business....but the laundry room make-over has definitely got us motivated!

Adorable Giveaway at Grosgrain!

Kathleen, mother, blogger, and seamstress extraordinaire over at Grosgrain, is GIVING away clothes hand over foot, pretty much! Check out her newest outfit, in the Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top Giveaway! Your link to her post is your entry in the giveaway. Click above to enter!

Conversations with a 3 year old

Cade was practicing bouncing his basketball(with one hand, as he likes to point out)on the back porch the other day when we had this little conversation. He likes for me to count how many times he can bounce at one time...
Becky- 33, 34, 35, 36...WOW Cade! You made it all the way to 36 this time, that's great! How did you get so good?
Cade- Mommy, I've been practicing since I was 100 months old...didn't you know?

We are sitting on the couch flipping through the new Land of Nod catalogue and he spots a rug with streets on it that you can drive toy cars on.
C- Mommy, can we get that fun rug for my room?
B- I don't know, let's see how much it costs
B- Oh, no I don't think so it's kinda expensive. I don't think we can afford that!
C- Sure we can Mom, Daddy has 'bout...80 coins.

Watching a commercial on t.v.
Cade- Daddy what do you like to call that place?
Daddy- What place?
Cade- You know "McDiggies"
Daddy- What?
Cade- What do you like to call "McDiggies"
Daddy- Oh, you mean Mickey D's?
Cade- Yeah that's what you call it

On a walk around the neighborhood the other night...
B- Hey look Cade, there's a frog over there on the curb!
C- Oh he's so cute Mommy, I love frogs
C- Mommy, did you know he's the "Papa" frog?
B- No I didn't know that. How can you tell?
C- 'Cause his skin's all wrinkly

You keep us in stitches little man!!!

Labor Day

3 day weekends are so much fun! My parents came down this weekend so that the guys could go dove hunting and the girls could go to Salado. Saturday morning Mom and I headed to Salado to shop with every other Central Texas woman within a 20 mile radius of the town! Despite the crowded downtown, we set out on foot and made it to all of our favorite places: Main Street Place, Magnolia's, Charlotte's and Horsefeathers! We both found some SALE goodies at Main Street and I found a set of jar at Horsefeathers for my kitchen so it was a successful trip! We got lots of walking in AND found some great deals. Can't wait till you come back down Mom, I'm looking forward to our next girls day trip!

Steve and Dad headed out for the dove lease late Sunday returning Monday afternoon, tired but happy that the dove were out in full force in Hamilton, TX.

A snapshot of the weary hunters...

Enjoying the patio

Playing "tennis" with Daddy and YES, he's wearing jammies...long story!

Cade swam in his pool on Labor Day, played "tennis" and hit baseballs with Daddy! He's getting really good at his batting! He will still bat both left handed and right handed, but seems to favor his left. We may have a lefty on our hands! We started him out hitting baseballs off his tee, but now he likes for us to pitch to him, "like on the wii" he says!

Check out our home run hitter...