make-shift baby gate

Ugh! Excuse the blurriness of this pic!

Anyway, these black ottomans have now become our make-shift baby gate for the little hallway area. The hall, by the front door, is usually where we drop all of our things (like my purse, shopping bags, mail, etc...) I guess this would be considered our "hot spot" as some people call their areas. So anyway, Jenna used to like going over there to see what she could get herself into. But not anymore! So far this is working well! And yes, the dogs can go around it or jump over it. Max just happened to be standing by her when I was taking the picture and I thought it was cute that they were together (as they usually are.)

Live Laugh Love

When we first moved here, we got a "Welcome to the neighborhood" kit in the mail with lots of coupons to local stores around here. One of them was a $10 gift certificate to Hallmark and I almost forgot about it! So, anyway, I went and I was originally looking for something for Halloween but I couldn't find anything, but I did find this live, laugh, love little cutie. So, I thought I could just use it as a fall decoration.

And see the shelf? JM and I went to Target also last week and found these on clearance so we picked up a couple. Now, I just have to figure out what else to put on it.

Anyway, also our hallmark has tons of cute things so if you haven't been you should go look!

Blabla is having a dinosaur!

OH, to have the imagination of a child.

JM took pictures of one of his co-resident and his little 4 year old girl today. After the photography session, the guys started talking and I started playing with the little girl. (Jenna was napping.) I think I must have forgotten how cute kid's that age can be. She was building towers and making Jenna's little stuffed animals beds with the blocks and then she decided to stick the dinosaur under the BlaBla doll's little skirt. I though it was cute! It's just another thing I can't wait to see what Jenna does!

Saturday @ the park

We met up a local park for a fun little cookout tonight. Another one of the things I love about living here is that there are so many neat parks all around. They will definitely come in handy when Jenna gets old enough to run around and play!

These first two pictures were just so cute that I just had to post.

I had an idea for a picture that JM's other photography friends tried to take of us. I just wanted us from behind walking and holding Jenna's hands on the bridge. (Yes, she's really not old enough, but we tried anyway.) The funny thing is that her pants started falling down and they got it in pictures! It was so funny! This little outfit is one that I got from Gap's mega clearance sale and its really for next year but I figured it was still so hot today that maybe she could go ahead and wear it anyway!

The other little girl we were with started jumping up and down right here. Jenna was trying to imitate her and she kept trying so hard to jump and it was so funny!

And as we were leaving, I noticed the guys were pushing the strollers with bags inside of them and not the kids. I thought it was funny to watch so I had to get a picture.

Our Fun Friday

We started our Friday off by meeting a small playgroup at the farm.

The goat is trying to eat Jenna's clothes!


We bottlefed the baby goats - something we didn't do the last time we came. They got really close to us and almost pushed us down but it didn't even seem to scare Jenna at all! I think she was really liking the baby goats! And they were really cute!

Then we came home and Jenna took a 3 hour + nap. I think that may be the longest she's ever napped. At 5:00 when Daddy came home, JM and I both went in to her room to wake her up! (So anyway, YAY for working at the VA to get home at 5) we went to eat at California Pizza Kitchen (YUMMY!) and then walked around the area a bit. And of course, Jenna loves waterfalls and such, so she was really anxious to go see this water display.

There was a lawn area with all these pretty different colored chairs. I think they would make for a neat photography prop so I had to go test them out. :)

Anyway, it was a fun Friday! Hope yall have a good weekend!

Playgroup @ the park

I just think this picture is so cute because she is actually looking at me - without me calling her name or saying anything to her. I guess all of those photography sessions are paying off. :)

Anyway, Jenna and I've been quite the busy little bees lately. Since moving here, I've joined 2 moms meetup groups, the local MOMS club, and we still do Gymboree classes (with gymboree still being our favorite activity). So, we've been averaging doing 3-4 things a week. Some of yall probably think I'm crazy, or that we are on playgroup overload, but we are enjoying it. I'm still really trying to find my place here and figure out which group suits us best, but at the same time we're also enjoying having a lot of different options for things to do during the week and it's always nice to meet new people. Jenna's having fun and that's all that really matters. :)

JM's newest love

Ok, and I admit it's pretty neat too. :)

My little Halloween decor

I've never really decorated much for Halloween but now that Jenna is here I definitely want to do more holiday stuff. I got these little cuties at Target for 1.99 each. Target has a ton of cute Halloween stuff now and I can't wait for it to go on sale so I can get a lot more!

JM's latest project

I've seen these pictures in a lot of gift magazines and they all seem to run about $150 and up. (Isn't that crazy??) I told JM he could make one and I think he actually liked my idea! I like it!

Here is an example from Uncommon Goods.

Sunday shopping - Before and after!

We went to the Zona Rosa shopping area today. (It's the one where we went out to eat with JM's old boss.) I wasn't in much of a picture taking mood today, but I can't resist taking photos of Jenna. I thought these were cute because when we first got there, we ate outside at TomFooleries and she was so happy. Well after a bit of walking around, she finally went to sleep in her stroller. So, that's why I titled this before and after!

Oh, and Baby Gap had a ton of markdowns that started today! I got lots of cute things for next spring. I even picked up two cute dresses that were marked down to 3.97. I'm thinking we are done with Gymbo for awhile and on to Baby gap! If you haven't looked lately, they have a ton of cute stuff and the sale is definitely worth checking out!

Saturday Plaza Art fair

We spent Saturday afternoon with a few friends at the Plaza's Art fair. The place was insanely packed and finding a parking space and navigating through the street that was actually open was insane! But, after that, I thought it was really neat. Lots of neat artsy stuff that I could have blown thousands of dollars on!

Jenna got her first balloon - I wasn't even going to get her one, but some nice kid just handed me one, so of course I took it. I tied it on her stroller and she played with it every second after that.
This booth was one of my favorites! I love the bright and funky colors. And they kind of remind me of Melissa's art. This lady was charging between $400-700 for these (although I'm not sure how much the little squares were.)

I also liked these quilts. There was another one that had black and white triangles instead of the square pattern in the middle. I wanted to take a picture of that one but then I saw the "no photography" sign, so I decided I should probably stop. This lady was also charging between $400-$700 for these too. (That must be a popular price range!)

And outside the Apple store, they had a chalk walk on the sidewalk area so while waiting for JM (Can you guess where he was?) I decided to have a little fun too. And, of course, JMH now has double the meaning. (Too bad, the next kid will probably get left out! - just kidding of course!)

My HORRIBLE traumatic pet store visit today

***This is very sad and I almost blogged a picture of a dead animal, but then again, I thought I'd spare you all that. Although, yes, I did take a picture in the store. Anyway, on to my story...

JM is doing a research project so I went out for a little while to kill some time with Jenna today. We went into this pet store and after this I swear I don't know if I'll ever be able to go into another pet store again. And let me just preface this too by saying, I watched Oprah and Lisa Ling's puppy mill story a while back and I knew I could never buy another pet store puppy, but now I don't even want to visit one again. It was that bad.

• This pet store has a monkey swinging around in the cage in the middle of the store. Even though, I don't agree with this, this was the LEAST of it.
• So, after the monkey, I went to show Jenna the puppies. There were a ton of people in there and the man worker that was behind the wall getting the pups out to show people started snapping at a very barking pup. He said, "What's your problem?" UGH - well, his problem is that he's been behind a small cage probably his whole life and there are a ton of people and he wants out!! This made me just want to buy that certain dog and take him home, but not for the $649 price tag.
• And then I thought I'd go let Jenna look at the lizards - well we never made it to the lizards, instead we saw rabbits. And very sadly, I am pretty sure one of the rabbits in the cage was DEAD. (This is what I snapped a pic of) There were 2 white rabbits in one cage, one lying there as stiff as could be with his eyes half open and the other one smelling it and probably wondering why the dead one wasn't moving.

Now, I really wish there was someone I could call and complain to. But, I'm sure this is a privately operated store, so who exactly would I call? And, if you happen to live in the KC area and want to know which store I'm talking about so you won't ever visit, just let me know. This place seriously needs to be closed down. It has made me so sad that I had to come blog about it!!!

Ok, hopefully, I'll be back today with a happier post!

Yippee Fazoli's!

If you happen to follow JM's blog, you might know that I gave him a daily challenge of this week to blog a photo every day. So, he also gave me a challenge to cook something every night. (And when I mean "cook", I mean not eating out....) Anyway, since he failed his portion, I told him that it means that I shouldn't have to "cook." (And like he can really argue with that...) So off to Fazoli's we went! :)

What was I thinking??

So, I found these marker thingys and I thought it would be fun for Jenna and something new to do. Seriously, what was I thinking? She really didn't have a clue and she just wanted to eat it. So, she stuck it her mouth and I constantly took it out. After a cycle of that for a few minutes and her getting mad that I was taking it away from her mouth, the "art" time was over. Oh, and the blue lines you see on the paper are from me trying to show her what to do. Yep, I can just see all of the experienced mommies out there just laughing at me now. So, I think we will put these away and try again many months later. :)

My little bottle flinger

I know it's kind of a busy picture to look at - but see the yellow bottle and the blue strap. Well, that is one of my favorite things now. It's like a bottle on a leash. Both sides velcro and I use it in the carseat, in restaurant high chairs, and in shopping carts! We should have gotten this a long time ago!

Anyway, she loves (or loved) to throw bottles and it gets super annoying. Now at least they don't go too far. And if you are wondering, we got it at Once Upon a Child. JM actually went in with me last week and he's the one who found it. Seriously, a great buy. :)

TV tonight...

I love TV. And tonight while seeing what is recorded, I realize there are 3 shows!!!

1. Big Brother finale - I really hope that Dan wins. I really liked him from the beginning. I hope that Keesha wins the America's Choice money and I'm hoping she wins just to make April mad. I'm so glad that it got down to Dan and Memphis though! This season was much better than last season's so I'm kind of sad that it's over.

2. The Biggest Loser - JM and I watched together last season and I'm hoping we can get into it again this one. I haven't watched every season, but I really liked the last one.

3. And I confess...I'm watching 90210. I watched the first one and now I have to know what's going to happen. I don't think it's going to be nearly as good as the original one, but once again, I still want to know whats going to happen. I really want to know who Kelly's baby daddy is going to be - I'm thinking Dylan, but who knows?

OH, and in just a few short weeks, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Desperate Housewives, and The Amazing Race will be back. YAY! Did I say how much I love tv??

So, are you watching any of these? Any thoughts?

Jenna's 10 month Jenna bear pic

Again, I can't believe she's another month older! It's getting so hard to take these photos of her - she just wants to play with the bear and throw it around.

As of 10 months, Jenna is

• cruising the furniture
• stood up on her own unassisted a couple of times for about 1 second this weekend
• has almost 7 teeth!
• I think she knows the word "doggy" and has even tried to say it.
• eating more and more solid foods - still seems to enjoy about anything that enters her mouth.
• loves being social
  
  
  

Our weekend trip

We had a really good weekend visiting JM's family. Jenna enjoyed playing with her little cousin. I really don't have too many interesting pictures, but here are a few anyway.


Apparently, squinty eyes run in the fam.

This was the view from our hotel suite. We stayed on the 15th floor.

JM documenting another day in our lives.

Jenna had the biggest meal of her life on Sunday. She had bread, cheerios, a little bit of mashed potatoes, and we even cut up a little bit of mac and cheese for her. She ate a ton!!!