My Little Librarian

When we arrived home from visiting Kingwood, we had a surprise waiting for us. Robby built Charlotte her very own bookshelf! He is so talented out in the woodshop : ) Our house is full of books....mostly Robby's but Charlotte's collection is building as well. Char & I usually try to read for 15 minutes a day. She went through a phase where we wouldn't make it past page 1 before she wanted to get a different book. Thankfully, we are back to a longer attention span that usually lasts through an entire book in one sitting.

Some of her favorites right now are:

Pat the Bunny
Goodnight Moon
Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
How Do I Love You?
Dictionary & Thesaurus (hand held size off of Daddy's shelf)

We love the new bookshelf! I had my eye on one from Pottery Barn Kids but Robby's handcrafted one beats it by an immeasurable amount : )







Thanks Rob! You are always so thoughtful & take such good care of your girls. We love you!

Bringing Fall to Florida

There are days where I miss the cool crisp air in (some parts of) Texas even though I am definitely a warm weather kinda girl. That being said, I decided that we needed a little more fall in the house this year to make us feel like we are in a cooler climate, the best of both worlds, warm outside but makes you feel like it's not!

Added decor to The Valentine Nest: "Give Thanks" Pennant Banner & Pillow Covers

The banner was really fun & simple to make although it would not have been simple if we were missing my Grandmother Alene's embroidery machine. My mom and I programmed the machine to do each of the letters in corduroy then we cut around them & ironed them on to the individual pennants. This took approximately 13 minutes per letter times 20.....we kept ourselves busy while the machine did all the work! Just for the record, one letter is made up of approximately 1300 individual stitches....crazy!

Here is the finished product:

I have been debating for SO long on what fabric to cover our pillows on the couch with. I feel as though I have solved the problem....at least for now. My mom taught me how to put a zipper in & make covers that can be switched out. Now that I have a fall set of 5 pillows, my goal is to make a winter set & then a set that can be used for the rest of the year or, if I get really ambitious, I can make a Spring & Summer set too!

Over all, the fall makeover cost about $35 which I think is a steal of a deal considering a fall pillow from Pier One or Target would go for around $18 each! I am loving the brown fabric the most & the orange is growing on me. The banner is slowly growing on Robby....he kept saying "a banner? in the house?" Anyway, I am always game for a new project and feel like I am getting the hang of sewing & troubleshooting my hand me down machine.

Welcome Fall...anytime you want to come, we are ready for you down here in Sunny Florida!

Now I know my ABC's....

Well she doesn't know them yet but now we have fun a way to learn them! I will let you all know upfront that I first saw the idea on a friends blog & I knew right away that I wanted to make a set for Charlotte. Unfortunately, I did not properly calculate how much money or time they would take...anything for my little Charlotte though! I am thankful that I had my mom to tag team the project with. The list of items used: a Moda Layer Cake (10x10 stack of adorable fabric), quilt batting for the middle & corduroy for the back, a chalk pencil to trace the pattern & of course, a sewing machine. I am super happy with the finished project & hope that these provide hours of fun & learning for Charlotte & any brothers or sisters she may have someday :)

Completed set with an extra "T" so we can spell "Charlotte"

Numbers 0-9 with an extra 1 so we can count to 20

Side view
and the goose checking out number 5

Levi & Charlotte

As I mentioned before, we enjoyed having my good friend Jocelyn & her son Levi come to visit us while we were in Kingwood. Levi was born 10 days after Charlotte & it has been so fun to have them close together in age even though we live far apart. Each visit is more & more exciting as they begin to interact with each other. Jocelyn is such a good mommy with a very busy boy on her hands! Our husbands get along amazingly well as they have much in common such as beer brewing, guns, woodworking & loving the Lord, their wives & their children. We definitely wish we lived in the same city but love visiting one another.

Here is the adorable pair through the past year:

Litte Red Raiders at 3 months old

6 months old in downtown Celebration, Fl

almost 1 at Charlotte's birthday party in Dallas

14 months old in Kingwood

happy mommies, happy babies

and just for kicks....a picture of us at one of my bridal showers back in the college days

We love you Boyer family! Can't wait to see you again!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Another trip to Kingwood to visit the family has come and gone! For 2010, we made one trip in the dead of winter, where we were confined to the great indoors, one in the middle of spring with gorgeous weather & then this trip at the very beginning of fall. Sadly enough, Charlotte has really never seen a leaf on the ground minus once a couple weeks ago. She loved each and every leaf she picked up & wanted to carry them inside, take them in the car & eat them of course!

Charlotte with one of her many leaves in the most adorable new outfit made for her by Grandma Susan. Then the picture below.....me and my chickadee on the front porch. I love her smile....and her thighs ; )



With our one story house, Charlotte has not encountered any stairs thus far. She was a professional stair climber within about 5 minutes and wanted to go up & down & up & down! I fell down these hard wooden stairs as a child so it made me a little nervous but she did great with supervision!

Grandma, Charlotte & Grandpa

Uncle Scott came to spend the weekend with us. He always makes me & Charlotte laugh alot.

One sweet part of our visit was enjoying time with a couple of best buddies from college. Jocelyn, Cheryl & I lived in the dorms together freshman year at Texas Tech then Cheryl & I went on to be roommates until we each married. The three of us went to nursing school together, were in each others weddings and are now in the beginnings of motherhood. The Lord is good to provide such special women to walk through life with. Jocelyn & her son Levi came down from north Texas while Cheryl & brand new baby Noah live only a few streets away from my mom & dad. We loved catching up with each other & letting our big babies check out the little baby : ) There will be another post soon featuring Levi & Charlotte.

Here we are with the kiddos....

Charlotte had a blast playing outside on my parents street. With the giant trees in the Livable Forest, we had lots of shade....and lots of mosquitos. As I have mentioned before, Charlotte loves playing in water. We were not planning on playing in the sprinkler but she couldn't resist & I couldn't say no : )

My brother Kyle gave Charlotte this Texas Tech onesie before she was even born....it looked so huge and I couldn't even imagine her fitting into it : ) She fills it out quite nicely at 23 pounds...

Oh how we love our family & Texas! We are always looking forward to our next visit. The best part was that I kidnapped my mom & brought her back to spend another week with me! This was a necessity to finish all the crafty projects we started ; )

Grammy & Pops

I am definitely a little bit late on writing this post but, I could not pass up the opportunity to share this lovely picture! Jeannine & Bob, aka Grammy & Pops, Mom & Dad to Robby, spent a week in Orlando earlier this month. They of course came to meet baby Karis but enjoyed seeing the rest of us as well. We ate dinner with them every night, did a little shopping, a little running through fountains & lots of chatting. I love watching any grandparents with their grandchildren but it is even more special when your child is the grandchild : )

Bob is so sweet on them it's ridiculous! We say that it was a good thing that he had boys or he would have been in big trouble!

Thanks for coming to visit & please know you are welcome any time!

14 months old!

Little Charlotte Grace is 14 months old today! She is a little ball of energy leaving a minuscule amount of time for snuggling with mommy unfortunately but she is such a joy to be around & quite entertaining to say the least. This has been an exciting month for Charlotte as she gladly welcomed her new title as "Big Cousin" to Karis. Other than one outburst of screaming and trying to hit Kare Bear, she seems to absolutely adore her. She got the hang of walking by 2 weeks into her second year of life & moved to running fairly quickly. She is keeping me ON MY TOES all day long...and I love it : )

Speaking of running, here she is in her new running shoes

and a glimpse of how we start our day:





Libby & London are her two babies. London was given to Char by my parents & is actually from London, hence the name ; ) & Libby was her first birthday gift from us. She really loves hugging them in the morning, taking them for a stroller ride, giving them kisses & patting them. The interaction frequently includes grabbing the dolls out of the stroller by their pigtails, slamming the stroller into the wall causing the dolls to fly out & dropping them from the crib to the ground. Don't worry, we closely monitor when it is a real baby.

Char at 14 months:

• happy as can be 99.9% of the time
• loves to run from 1 toy to the next
• still eats like a horse
• correctly identifies her head, hair, ears, nose, mouth, eyes, toes & belly.....when you ask where her eyes are, she bats them : )
• loves to wear shoes & attempts to put them on herself
• likes to put her finger up her nose while sucking her thumb
• follows directions fairly well such as "Do not touch," "Leave Bennett alone," "Bring mommy your baby," "Pick out a book" & "Sit down on your bottom"
• a little OCD on closing doors when we enter a room or she comes into the kitchen & a cabinet door is open
• still licks the glass every now & then
• can stack 4 of her nesting cups on top of each other
• says mama & dada consistently but "talks" non stop
• when you say "Charlotte, how big is God?" She spreads her hands out really big over her head
• when you tell her to jump she crouches down then stands up quickly & throws her arms up in the air
• likes to spin in circles....I think Bennett taught her that one : )
• loves to play peek a boo behind the coffee table
• sometimes does the sounds for a dog & an elephant
• plays happily in her crib by herself for 45 minutes every afternoon
• current favorite books: Las Palabras- this book was given to Charlotte by her friend Matilda. It has all kinds of things in & out of the house labeled in Spanish....she is seriously
  hooked on this book! She has also been carrying around her Daddy's pocket sized Dictionary & Thesaurus
• attempts to do the Itsy Bitsy Spider motions
• loves playing in water, the bath tub, pool or a splash pad
• still TOOTHLESS!
• sleeps from 7:30pm to 8am with 2 naps during the day
• eats 3 meals & a snack
• weighs 23 pounds

the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini

Charlotte Grace is a delight! Each passing month our love for her & thankfulness to the one who gave her to us grows deeper.

Bella Blue

Here is Bella

Bella also responds to many other names such as: Bella Girl, Belle, Belle Belle, Tinkle belle, Bella Bella Blue Dog, Old Beller, Bella from Hella, Blue Bell, Blue, Sisters (which pairs nicely with Budders) Discount Dog & bad dog...just to name a few

I mentioned in the previous post that we got Bennett first. Robby drove from Lubbock to Rowlett, a good 6 hours to pick out a dog for us. He picked up Bennett, went to his parents house & sent me a picture of our sweet little puppy...it seemed to be all said & done. Within an hour, the breeder called Robby back and asked if we would be interested in the female puppy. Robby said probably not but that he would call me. I BEGGED for her...I said that I couldn't imagine just having one, it would be so fun with two, they could be pals, I would take care of them....sounds like a small child doesn't it? Robby's response: Really? You do know that they will run from you and pee in separate corners of the room right? We can't afford it. We DO NOT NEED TWO dogs! So, he gave me an ultimatum....he said for me to call her back and if we could get her only if we could get her for a certain price....a price which he believed to be unattainable. Within minutes, I was calling him back to let him know he could pick her up first thing in the morning & that we were getting her for even less than what our limit was! He was dumbfounded : ) So he arrived home to Lubbock the next afternoon with our two little bundles of joy ; ) 8 pounds each...Just like Charlotte.

Bella has given us a ridiculous run for our money over the past five & a half years. She spends time like this at least once a year if not more often.

Her injuries/illnesses have included:

• multiple cuts on her legs requiring stitches from tearing around the yard like a maniac
• a large gash on her head from the time she escaped from our tent in the middle of the night while we were camping. She proceeded to run through the woods in pitch black chasing after a raccoon
• UTI's out the wazoo when she was a puppy
• awful mites & skin irritations which required extra special (and expensive) shampoo & baths at the vet plus a food change to hypoallergenic
• a growth on her lip (if dogs have lips) that had to be removed
• a tear in her cruciate ligament, the equivalent of an ACL, this will cost us a mere $2,500 if we choose to have a full knee replacement. Hahaha.....says Robby, his response was to have them amputate it & he would whittle her a new one

One of my favorite stories about Bella is when she first wore the collar pictured above. I was at work & called Robby on the way home. He said that he put the collar on her and she had been standing completely still for 2 hours. Once I was home, she got a little braver and started walking down the hallway as we cheered her on. Unfortunately she misjudged how wide she was and hit the door frame making a loud noise. From then on, she walked backwards throughout the house to prevent that awful situation from ever occurring again : )

Here she is doing what she loves most, playing outside

Bella Blue is a special dog in so many ways. She loves to run more than any other dog I know and she can run super fast. She loves to play fetch with a tennis ball & will play for as long as you will throw it even in the Florida heat. She really likes to be alone, especially away from Bennett. Sometimes we joke saying that Bella probably frequently wonders why she ended up with him out of all the dogs in the litter : ) She loves water, playing in the hose, getting a bath, standing next to the tub when someone else is bathing etc. This dog loves to watch Planet Earth videos, anything on Animal Planet & the US Open. We have a few claw marks on the top of the stand below the TV from her trying to get closer. She will seriously sit still for a full hour watching with us. Bella hates change. She barks like crazy when something is out of place such as a vase moved from the counter onto the table or the stroller in the entryway. She is a little unsure of newcomers but warms up quickly. She hyperventilates anytime she has to ride in the truck. She bites her nails. She licks her front legs until they are, squeaky clean....really, they squeak. She cleans Bennett like monkeys clean each other. She has a distinct three howl pattern when it is time to go potty.

Out of the two of them, we thought for sure Bennett would be better dog with kids but Bella has proven us wrong. She is so gentle & playful but never too rough. She lets Charlotte push her over & lay on top of her : )

Very random picture I know but I really like it.

Her eyes used to be blue but changed to this pretty color after puppy hood

We have agreed that this will be the picture featured at Bella's funeral someday. We call her left
ear that always sticks up her blinker : ) Doesn't she look happy?

Speaking for us & Bennett....life would not be the same without Old Beller!

Bennett the Brave

I do write quite a bit on sweet Charlotte & thought the dogs deserved a little attention...& to be honest, not just on the blog : )

Here is Bennett

Bennett also responds to many other names such as: Benny, Benny Boy, Benners, Buddy, Betty, Budders, Bunny, Bunners, White paw, Old man, Good dog...just to name a few.

He was the first of the two dogs we got. They are from the same litter and when Rob went to pick out a dog for us, he chose the one that was least obnoxious....my my my was Bennett on his best behavior! This is by far the most needy dog whose love language is 100% physical touch. He wants to be right next to me all the time : ) He cries when he spends more than 1 minute on the porch looking inside with a sad face. He loves to run & chase Bella around & he loves to chase his tail. He loves to play with kids & he loves to be scratched. He routinely climbs into Robby's lap even though he weighs more than 80 pounds. He hates taking a bath & looks like Eeyore when waiting for his turn. He hates when Charlotte sneaks up on him & he absolutely hates to be separated from us or Bella. If you happen to be nursing a baby under a cover or laying under a blanket and move at all, Bennett cannot resist poking his nose against whatever just moved. We blame this on the time that his cousin "Chocolate" a miniature pinscher spent a week with us hiding under a blanket growling at Bennett.....he must think Chocolate has returned : ) He has zero personal space and assumes everyone would like to be licked.

He keeps us laughing with his loud yawns which we think is where Charlotte learned how to add a sound effect to her yawn. I wish this was a video but a picture must suffice for now.

Bennett also loves to lick the dirty dishes while I am loading the dishwasher. This usually does not bother me.....until last night. We were in the kitchen & I of course was loading the dishwasher with Bennett performing the pre-wash cycle when all of the sudden he jerked backward & his leash got caught on the bottom rack of the dishwasher pulling it onto the floor. Bennett was trying to get away as fast as he could but unfortunately the rack was hooked to him and he dragged it about 8 feet across the kitchen floor. WOW! It was loud and felt like slow motion. Only one bowl broke believe it or not! Poor Bennett...it really frightened him. I laughed right away.....Robby was not laughing at all : )

We love Bennett. He has turned out to be a great dog over all even if he can be a little crazy! We do think that we might enjoy being a one dog family someday but can't imagine how boring our house would be without our Benny Boy. Keep watch......Bella Girl will be featured next : )