greatest hits

1) a trip to the bounce-house with ben and his best girls.

his crush on this spunky, gun-toting toddler is still fully intact.

although his affections often lean toward this younger, tow-headed stunner.

i must say, ben has impeccable taste in women.  much like his father :)

2) walking in on ben doing his business while reading the latest rolling stone.  once again, just like his father.

 3) a trip to the heard nature museum in mckinney to walk amongst dinosaurs (ben's fantasy).

 posing.

 exploring.

roaring.

 posing, again.  thanks for being a sport, big guy.

4) delicious family dinner for kristie's birthday, then date night to see true grit.  it lives up to the hype, go see it.

5) a marathon trip to ikea.  found curtain fabric for nursery=success.  cubby bookshelves=fail.  sold out.

6) virus from hell.  ben getting sick is not one of my greatest hits, but as you know, illness is the only way we can cuddle around here without the use of force/bribery/bartering.

we are on day 3 of camp coughs-a-lot.  ben is feeling much better, but i couldn't bear to send him to school with a cough that still sounds like a large dying animal.  i don't know how much more dora/curious george/sesame street/mary poppins we can stand around here.  might be time to get out of the house.

until next time,
xoxoxo

this and that

* i really need to come up with a clever name for these posts where i cram all of the internet goodies i have my eyes on.  but i am still too tired for that.  good news: ben is feeling a bit better today.  bad news: his cough still sounds like a seal.  we are on day two of our movie marathon.  mary poppins is singing to him as i blog away.

• i was recently introduced to the blog, little bee (thanks, marli).  i love, love, love bloggers who are honest and FUNNY.  she recently coined the term thankles, which if you are familiar with cankles, you can already imagine what it means.  she is very pregnant and is trying to keep a sense of humor about her body.  read it for a laugh.
• reason #2,459 to visit nyc.  this public art installation features 38 giant pink and red roses all along park avenue.  photo via.

• this quote:   She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them & give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.

~ Toni Morrison

(appropriate considering my best friend just delivered hot chocolate to me and my sick child.  quote found here.)

• i want/need/love all of these things for my home.

found here.

and here.

• my music twin recently recommended the new amos lee.  this song is a goodie.

and this song never gets old, even if it's over 6 minutes long.  honestly i am impressed by anyone who can remember all the lyrics to any song, much less a 6 minute one.

that's all for now.  enjoy!

i am so tired...

{preface: my child is siiiiiick.  so sick that he couldn't sleep last night due to a fever that refused to break.  good news: it's not the flu.  bad news: he is miserable.  it is so pitiful that it will break your heart right in two.}

i am so tired that:

• the idea of taking a nap is laughable because it wouldn't be enough.
• i am tempted to google if children can die of a high fever resulting from one parent's inability to get him to swallow a fever-reducer.
• i bawled like a baby because ben refused to swallow the only medicine that can potentially break his fever.   for a split second we were both crying on the bathroom floor like two fever-ridden toddlers.  except that i have no fever.  and i am thirty-one.  not my finest moment.
• i then remembered that his daddy magically talked him into swallowing his medicine this morning.
• i cried even more, convinced that chris is obviously the better parent.  i tend to think this regularly.  he's that good.
• i called him as if he could magically make ben take his medicine over the phone from the office.
• i laughed when i remembered the compliment chris gave me last night when he said that i have been an "easy" pregnant lady. meaning fewer hormonal, crazy, crying fits than last time.  i wonder if my phone calls today have changed his mind. {love you, babe}
• i am praying that oprah is good today.  because if i'm not napping, oprah better be good.
• i feel like a schmuck for whining when i remember that my sister-in-law recently battled the stomach flu simultaneously with her husband and three children all while being snowed in for an entire week.
• i am tempted to fly away to mexico.  and this time, ben can tag along.  the sun and ocean will do his body good.  and i am sure the margaritas will help me take a nap.  oh wait---i'm pregnant.  nevermind.
• i wish norah jones was my very best friend, so that i could call her up and explain the kind of day we've had.  being the good friend that she is, she would jump in her car, excited by an opportunity to help her friend, drive way too fast over to my house and sing ben and i to sleep with a beautiful lullaby.  hours later we would wake up well and rested.  oh, and while we were sleeping, she would have made dinner for my family and left it in the oven to stay warm.  she is sweet like that.  which is why we are best friends, obviously.
• there it is (as promised), the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• the end.

Azure Ray - Don't Leave My Mind

i am loving this song right now. kxt keeps playing it and it even popped up on last night's episode of parenthood (which plays incredibly good music, by the way). enjoy.

nursery ideas

i love to decorate.  we have filled every inch of our small(ish) house with things that reflect who we are.  we are at the point where we have to carefully select something to get rid of if we want to add anything new to our home.  and by get rid of, i mean shove into our garage.  it's rare that i get the opportunity to decorate an entire space from scratch.  but we are having a baby!!!!   which means he needs a cute room to call his own.  don't think i haven't been thinking about this since before i was pregnant.  we currently have a crib, a dresser, and a rug.  the rest is a blank slate.  woot!

here are some ideas i have swimming around in this crazy brain of mine:

{click on each caption for product info}

a wall of shelves filled with baskets full of toys and books.

this fabric for curtains and/or crib skirt.

some (or all) of these prints clustered together.

c for crosby.

cute.

love this.

please go check out these photographs.  i want them all.

i cannot get enough of this entire series.

i see a trip to ikea in my near future (aka after payday)

to be continued....

greatest hits (back on track)

after this week's greatest hits, i am once again back to doing the bulk of my blogging on my day off. (which makes this routine-loving lady feel much better).  i hope everyone has had a good week.  mine was nothing to complain about.

reasons i am happy this week:

1) this ponytail.  i feel perky just looking at it.

 2) my order from this etsy shop arrived and it's oh-so beautiful.

 3) these new pillows my mom made for us.  next up, new curtains.

 4) a three-year old's birthday party at a fire station.  icing on the cake: they got a call while we were there and zoomed off with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

 5) quality time between ben and his great-grandfather.

 6) making art. 

(he's "tracing" his foot, in case you are wondering)

 7) good 2 go taco reopened less than three minutes from our house.  i won't even tell you how many times we have eaten there since they opened last friday.  let's just say the number falls between 2 and 5.  it's just so good.

{image via this awesome dallas foodie blog i just discovered while looking for this image}

8) 40% all sale items at the gap. all of this for $30.

9) lunch with dad, chris and big ben at my favorite restaurant.  mmmmmmmm, shrimp salad.

until next time,

xoxoxo.

peace

the time is always right to do what is right.

~martin luther king, jr.

i stole this fair and square from a friend on facebook.

{no photo credit}

i know these people, for real

via

o.k., so that's not entirely true, but it sure is funny.  don't get in between me, my morning coffee, and my pretend internet friends before ben wakes up for the day, just sayin'.

i actually have a few internet friends that i know in real life.  (real life?!?!?!)  i devoutly read my friend julie's blog and my sister-in-law karin's blog so i can keep up with everything that is going on in their kiddos lives.  this is especially important considering we live far away from our incredibly adorable, rapidly growing nieces and nephew. these two moms are extremely talented in journaling the development of their achingly cute kids online for my voyeuristic pleasure.  keep up the good work, girls.

then there are these three: chelsey, marli and miyan.  they are young, beautiful, smart, ambitious, fun (i know this from experience), and not yet mommies.  they blog about what inspires them: yoga, their careers, travel, fashion.  i stalk their blogs, and you should, too.  reading them will make you instantly cooler.

introducing:

a great big canvas

this is my sister chelsey.  she is one of the coolest kids i know, and i have known her a loooooong time.   she takes such pride in her career, which is so evident in her blog. and isn't she pretty?

chase simplicity

meet chelsey's friend, marli.  her 'dear future husband' posts are not to be missed.  and i always look forward to see what is on her running playlist.  she loves texas country AND lil wayne.  gotta love that.

fly far

meet miyan (another friend of my sister's).  several years ago she packed up and moved across the world.  she blogs about her new country, her new man, food and fashion.  and she has the best hair in blogland.  you'll see.

try reading these while enjoying your morning coffee.  and know that i'll be doing the same.

be my honey-pie

i have heard people rave about the band the weepies, but honestly i don't know the first thing about them.  i came across this sweet video today.  it makes me want to learn more about this band, and then make out with my husband.  so sweet.

greatest hits- new years edition

this is what 2011 has looked like thus far:

1) our annual new year's eve eve celebration at bass hall with robert earl keen.  each year we buy better seats and this year we ended up on the 6th row.  this is not his typical beer-drinkin', foot-stompin', kickin' and twirlin' kind of show.  each year his encore consists of an acoustic cover of this billy joe shaver song played beautifully by his band in a traditional blue-grass formation.  here is a boot-leg clip of this years encore that i was lucky enough to find on youtube.

2) a growing baby bump.  pardon the gym clothes.  (btw, the belly has grown substantially since this picture was taken).

3) dress-up.  cuteness.

4) new years eve in.  since ben, we have traded the over-priced drinks, sparkly outfits and cab rides home for a home-cooked dinner, wine (but not this year) and a movie on the couch.  spaghetti carbonara (this incredibly easy and super indulgent recipe found here.  please make this pasta, you will thank me).  this year we spiced things up by making smores in our new fire pit, and then watching crazy heart.  happy new year, indeed.

5) a tiny aggie came over to cheer on our boys against lsu.  it didn't work, but the snuggles made up for the loss.

6) celebrating marcy's birthday over brunch at the all good cafe.  more pancakes.

7) SNOW!!!

now that the holidays are over, hopefully my greatest hits will jump right back on track.  i hope 2011 is all you imagine it will be and more.  thanks for being here.


until next time,
xoxoxo

to my friends and family...

{found at this etsy shop.  this artist obviously has children AND a sense of humor.  it's hard to have one without the other.}

i am not really sure how i feel about new year's resolutions.  some years i make them, other years i do not.  some years i keep them, other years they are merely a suggestion or i just ignore them completely.  this year i choose to make goals instead of resolutions because there seems to be less commitment that way (which makes possible failure seem less guilt-inducing **for lack of a better word**)

so folks, here they are:

goal #1: work on above mentioned bitchiness problem.  i am halfway through this hormonal roller-coaster ride called pregnancy.  and regretfully i spent the first half of it worried, grumpy, and/or crying (ha).  and did i say worried?  yep.  now, it's obvious i am pregnant, i know who my sweet baby is and i can feel him move and grow.  i promise to enjoy him and the last half of this beautiful/crazy/unbelievable experience with as few tears as possible (unless they are happy tears...those don't count).

goal#2: to enjoy my little boy for the last few months he has as an only child.  although parenting him has been especially challenging in the past few months, he is such a vibrant, energetic, imaginative, kind little boy.  i feel like we are finally out of the weeds with this whole terrible two business.  knock on wood.

goal #3: get in better shape.  i have grown to love going to the gym and as a result i started this pregnancy 15 lbs. lighter than my last.  i have managed to keep working out during this pregnancy, and thank god because something has to offset the amount of pure crap i have been eating for the past 5 months.  crosby seems to love pancakes, donuts, and cane's chicken tenders.  sigh.

i have a few other plans for this year which i'll reveal once they are in motion ;) overall, i am hopeful for 2011.  chris and i were looking back on the past couple of years and realized that they were filled with a lot of grief (as well as happiness).  which sadly i think is one of those realities that go hand-in-hand with adulthood.  so 2011 may be the best year ever, or it may not.  but i do know that we have a lot to look forward to and i am incredibly excited to see how it all turns out.

what are some of your resolutions/goals?  i would love to know.

i am leaving you with a picture that makes me smile.

p.s.  if you have made it to the end of this post, congratulations!  it is a bit long-winded.  sorry:)  i have noticed that i have a lot more traffic on this blog than i do number of followers.  so if you are here, thank you for reading and welcome!  please leave me a comment, i would love to know who you are.  happy new year!

dreamboat

well, helloooooo there, ryan gosling.

photos found here.

you are welcome.

i. cannot. wait.