BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Happy Birthday to "mom", "Linda", "GG"!!!  Hope it was a great one!
Love,
E, Carmel, and MQ

Praise Baby

It's been such a great morning.  I woke up this morning to a text from our sweet babysitter wondering if I was going in to work at the normal time.  I couldn't figure out why she was asking this until I took a quick look outside.  Snow!  Another morning waking up to the white stuff.  My dad called shortly after I woke up to tell me to enjoy my morning because he can cover the morning by himself.  Patients tend to cancel when just a few flurries come down.  D Price knows how much I love my mornings with MQ.  I feel so blessed to have a dad (and partner) who knows that I will always put my husband and kids before my work.  Again...I love my job (and I don't think I could ever be a stay-at-home mom!), but I love being a mommy much more!  Just staying in bed a little longer with that sweet little smiley girl snuggled up against me was priceless.  Eric left extra early this morning for his mens group, so it was just me and MQ.

She loves her Christmas gift from her cuzzies.  They gave her the Praise Baby dvd, and she has been watching it for an hour this morning.  It is the SWEETEST thing I've ever heard or seen....and she absolutely loves it!  It is just a dvd that shows images of different babies, animals, shapes, and colors with worship songs playing in the background.  Last night I had a dental implant meeting after work, so E was with her for a few hours by himself.  He said she watched the dvd 3 times!  It's a 30 minute video!  I'm telling you...if you don't have it, get it!  Babies love it!

You might be wondering why there is a big football trophy in the middle of the table in the picture above???  That's because we attended E's flag football championship celebration on Sunday night.  Yep...they take it very seriously...as you can tell with the trophy presentation!  We decided to go to Incredible Dave's (thanks for organizing Sara!) since half of us have little ones now.  It was crazy...kids and babies everywhere!  The food was mediocre, but the games and seeing everyone was great!  MQ met one of her future buddies, Aaron.  He wasn't too interested in her (yet!).

Not much else has gone on around here.  We are taking MQ to another UofL game tonight.  I know people probably think we are crazy for taking a 5 month old to all of these night games, keeping her up past her bed time...but oh well, we're taking her anyways!  She's pretty easy, and it saves us from having to bother with getting (and paying) a babysitter.

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!  I'm going to go love on this sweet baby girl before I go in to work for a little bit!

Questions Answered...

I'm thrilled and honored that so many people have inquired about the chair in MQ's room.  I'm thrilled because that was definitely my focal point when I started thinking about the nursery.  So here's the long version of how we ended up with this chair.   Remember...we didn't know if we were having a little Mary Quin or a little Hank (our boy name, after E's grandfather), so I  had to be fairly neutral in the color scheme.  I saw this fabric several years ago and fell in love with it.  I could picture it in a colorful family room or on a sun porch.  It just seemed so happy, and it has all the colors in it that I love!  You almost have to see it in person to appreciate all of the colors...orange, green, coral, blue, yellow, red....lots and lots of colors.  At the time I had roommates (I love you girls!!!...and miss our long walks and talks), so my house was full of stuff from all three of us.  This fabric wouldn't really "go" anywhere.  Plus, I didn't have a nice family room or sun porch to use it in (and I still don't because I still live in the same teeny tiny house!).  So I forgot about the fabric and moved on with my life.  

Then....I became pregnant.  While thinking about what I wanted to do with the nursery, these little goldfish popped in my head.  I knew the fabric was a Thibaut fabric, so I started flipping through book after book of Thibaut.  There it was...in the Sweet Life Thibaut fabric and wallpaper book.  One problem....it was ex-pen-sive!...but I didn't care.  One way or another that was going to be mine.  Now I just needed to find the perfect "chunky", comfy chair to upholster with this fun fabric.  I stopped by the thrift store on my way home from work one day...and there she was!  A huge, chunky, red chair in tip top condition for $35.00.  Sold!  I called E and had made him come pick it up right then and there, or else they were going to put it back out for people to buy. 

I then needed to buy the fabric.  Well, it was around this time last year, which means lots of NFL football games on our t.v. and lots of checking fantasy football scores.  Eric was so excited last year because he won his fantasy football league.  I, on the other hand, was just glad that fantasy football was over...until he told me what the winnings were.  Let's just say it was A LOT more than I anticipated, and Eric said I could have the money for whatever I wanted to buy.  Well that was a no-brainer....the fishbowl fabric!  So I ordered it, had the chair recovered, and voila...here it is...

It is in the room with:

-a white bed (a floor model on sale from Kiddie Kastle)

-white bedding with green piping (Pottery Barn)

-a white chest (kind of shown it this picture) that D Price bought for us at some cool, old furniture store here in town...it's my favorite piece in the room!  My parents walked into this store one day and saw all of these neat pieces of white-washed furniture that they thought Mere and I would love.  So my dad "made a deal" with the owner and bought every piece in the store.  If you know my dad, you'll appreciate this!  This particular little chest (with a cool old flip mirror on it) sat in my garage for almost 2 years waiting to have a place in our house.  

-a chest of drawers (from the same thrift store that I found the chair) that I painted green

-an orange (the actual color is Kumquat) rocker/glider from Pottery Barn.  

-window treatments were made by my sweet mother-in-law and her friend, Marcia.  They were actually just a large green panel from PB that we cut and tied up with orange ribbon to make the window treatments.    

-and the walls are Alaskan Blue (from Porter Paint)

There...there's the whole scoop on MQ's room.  I'm sorry if you have absolutely no interest in knowing all of this, but I had several people ask me so I thought this would be the best way to answer everyone!  Which brings me to this...sorry if I didn't email you or facebook message you back!  Hopefully you will see this and have your question answered.  If not, just ask!  And...don't be shy...you can leave comments on the blog here.  That way I'll be more efficient in answering the same question that multiple people may have :)

Cardinals, and Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!!

It's been a week of football and basketball around our house.  It seems like E has had some type of game on the tv every minute that we've been home.  Even MQ watches the games...seriously!  Last Friday night we decided to go to a St. X basketball game.  Never would I have imagined that high school basketball games would be what our Friday nights consisted of....but they do, I guess!  E's friends, Mark and Kevin, are the coaches for St. X, so Eric likes to go out and support them every once in a while.  We sat right next to the "student section", and let's just say...it was entertaining to watch those high schoolers mix and mingle!  It brought me back to my own high school days!  I guess we'll be there before we know it with MQ...ugghh, I don't want to think about that!!!  

Yesterday we decided to venture out to the UofL game.  We took MQ with us, even though it was right smack dab in the middle of her morning nap time (yep...the game was at 11:00!!!...a bit early for a basketball game, don't ya think?).  Well, let's just say that 95% of the game was pretty boring (sorry Kyle!), so MQ actually napped for an hour of it.  We were down by 18 with less that six minutes left in the game.  People slowly started leaving, as it looked like we were about to get blown out.  Then Louisville decided to turn it on and ended up outscoring Marquette 24-5 in the final 5:44, with Preston Knowles hitting four 3 pointers, and Kyle Kuric making the game-winning lay up!  Ps...don't think that I knew these stats on my own...I had to look them up (or ask Eric!).  I have to brag for a minute on #14...Kyle Kuric!  He is a super nice guy, and my dad and I have had the chance to get to know him and his family as they have recently become patients (kinda...), and he is dating a friend of mine from high school (who is currently studying to become a dentist herself).  Ps...I got his permission to post this by the way :).... Gotta respect HIPAA laws!  This game was a true testament of what "not giving up" means.  I'm so proud of them!!  Check this video out...and cheer extra hard for Kyle during the next game!




This is MQ at the Yum Center opening several weeks ago.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera at the game yesterday.  I forget my camera every time we take her to a UofL game...dang it!  At least she can say she was there for the opening of the Yum Center, right?  We kind of wish she could have seen the good 'ole Freedom Hall, since that is where E and I grew up watching UofL games.  Some of my fondest memories with my dad are at those UofL basketball games.  Hopefully MQ will say the same about her memories of going to games with us.

This next video is the sole reason why I'm a Bears fan (besides my husband making me watch them every Sunday or Monday night!).  If you don't laugh at this, you have a lousy sense of humor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d32OeqbYbHg


You'll have to just go to YouTube yourself to see this...it wouldn't let me post it on here for some reason. Well...I better get off of the computer. The Bears are playing!  

So....Go Bears and Go Cards and Go Tigers!!!

Just a Few Things...

oops...just realized some mistakes in my spelling here....let me know if there are more  :)

I've been needing to get MQ some new clothes since she's growing out of her 3-6 month clothes so fast.  I just can't justify spending tons of money on new clothes that she can't wear after 6 weeks.  I feel guilty buying myself clothes that I know I'll probably get a year or two out of, much less a 5 month old who will only wear (not where!) the stuff a couple times before it's all too small.  To fix this problem I've decided to check the consignment shops around town first....and here are a couple things that I brought home.  The little shoes (aren't they just adorably sweet?!!!)  still had the tag on them...never even worn and I think I paid $7.00 for them!  The little red dress was $9.00!  Just can't beat those prices, right?  Call it gross, cheap, or disgusting to "recycle" children's clothing....I like to think of it as (not was!) being frugal!

And...only because a couple of people have asked where I have gotten these next two things, I've decided to just put it on here.  First...these boots.  Let's just say (especially after just telling you that I'm too cheap to buy new clothes for my baby) these darn boots WEREN'T cheap...but they have been darn worth it!  They are Luchesse boots and E bought them for me for Christmas (and anniversary) from some western store here in town (not sure of the name...).  The sales lady sold him on them by telling him that Luchesse is the only brand of boots that are still made in the U.S., and if you know my husband at all...he likes that kind of stuff.  Whatever the case may be....I love them!

If my brother (Walker...or Matt) saw this next post, they would really make fun of me!  Actually Chuck (what I sometimes call Walker...he hates it!) has already made fun of me for buying this necklace, but now he's really going to make fun of me for putting it on my blog!  Oh well...here it is.  Meredith and I saw this one day when we were out shopping, and I thought it was too cute!    It's from Dandelion (a cute little store here in town), but the designer is from California.  I love it because unless someone is standing really close to you it's not so noticeable on your neck.  If you get one, though, DON'T sleep with it.   It's bendable, and you'll wake up the next morning with it all stretched out!

I told Walker that I'm going to get one with "Eric" on it too...wouldn't that be cute?  I'M TOTALLY KIDDING!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!
xoxo

Snow Day!!!

I woke up yesterday morning to get MQ out of bed (which, by the way, is my FAVORITE thing to do....she's so stinkin happy in the morning!) and this is what I see.....SNOW!!

The schools were closed and kids were outside playing everywhere.  It took me back to the days that my mom would pack us all up in the blue Mazda van with our sleds and snow gear and take us sledding.  Afterwards she'd drive through good 'ole White Castle to get us hot chocolates...yum!  It didn't matter that the snow day meant we'd be in school till the middle of June.  We didn't care!

MQ had her warm hat on for the snow day...

This is what the park looked like as I was driving home from work (yes...I still had to work)

Hopefully their parents were nice enough to drive them to Whitey's to get a hot chocolate!


Happy Snow Day!

I'm Still Here!

It's been a little difficult these days to sit down and put my thoughts down on this blog.  A lot has happened since I last updated...like Christmas and New Years!  It was an awesome first Christmas for MQ.  Let's just say that Santa was good at the grandparents house....not so much at our house.  We couldn't justify spending tons of money on things that she could care less about right now.  We had one little gift for her to open, and then we were off to our parents homes.

Christmas Eve was great, too.  We went to church, then to his parents, then to mine.  Busy, busy day.  Let's just say...no naps that day!  His parents house was relaxing and low key with just our little family.  All of E's siblings were smitten with MQ.  They just passed her from one person to the next...so sweet!  My parents house was a little different.  There were 50 million people there (not really....probably about 25 or so) and things got a little rowdy with an intense game of Catch Phrase.  My aunt, Kathy, was in town from Atlanta and always seems to make things so much fun!  It was a combination of the Price's, Hennessy's, Garcia's, and Willard's....and 5 kiddos under the age of 6.  Eric and I arrived just in time for my favorite part.....the prayer, where all 50 million of us gathered around in the kitchen while different people took turns reading the Christmas story from the bible.  Christmas Eve is my mom's favorite!  She says that she will be hosting Christmas Eve dinner until she can't physically do it anymore.  I love her love for Christmas!

These are the only pics I took on my camera.  I took lots more on my dad's fancy little camera, but don't have access to that right now...sorry, these will have to do.

Christmas morning we headed over to my parents house for a yummy breakfast and to open gifts from D Price and Tassie's Santa.  The little girls were so darn cute!  And....the triplets (you know, the twins + MQ) were all dressed alike without even planning it! 

We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus while the little ones put baby Jesus in his manger.  By the way...that nativity was my mom's anniversary gift from my dad.  They went to the Holy Land this past summer with a group from church and my mom fell in love with this nativity scene from Israel.  Each piece is hand-carved to perfection.  My dad somehow with his sneaky ways had this shipped home and he saved it to give to her in September for their 35th wedding anniversary.  Then...he had also bought each of us a "mini" version for our own nativities.  How special, right?!  By the way...you can check out some amazing pictures from their Israel trip here on my sweet friend's blog.  Savannah took some awesome photos...and you can spot my parents in a couple of them :)   Check out Savannah's blog too... you'll love it!

We then moved on over to E's parents house...where Santa visited as well.  I finally finished the needlepoint ornaments, and my mom and Linda loved them!  I have to admit...I was kinda proud of those suckers!!  Needlepoint takes forever, so I might have to find a new craft to work on.  My mom bought a fancy little sewing machine with all the bells and whistles and my goal is to learn how to use it this year.  Well...MQ is screaming her little head off trying to fall asleep.  Better go check on that little rascal!

Happy 2011!!!!  E and I are excited to see what God has in store for this coming year.  I'm trying to remind myself every day to live in the moment, and to not wish my days away.  I want to cherish every minute I have with all of the people that I love!