PAINTING WITH A TWIST...AND SOME WINE

Last night we had a girls night to celebrate my friend Tracy's birthday. We decided to switch things up and doing one of those painting classes where you go and all do the same painting and drink wine. It was so much fun!
I do have to say I am seriously unartistic. It can be the simplest task and I will mess it up. I try and blame it on my left handedness. So it is funny in this picture that we are smiling and the instructor is down there working on my painting.



Sorry for the blurry picture but I had to include the one of all our paintings. It was so fun to see how they all turned out. As poorly as I thought I did, I woke up this morning I kind of liked my painting. I definitely want to do this again.

After the class was over we were leaving i.e getting kicked out ha...and it was POURING so we ended up sitting on the patio for an hour or two talking and finishing our wine and letting my hair frizz.

BAD BLOGGER! BAD

I know I have been a horrible blogger. Kenny and I have been busy plus I need to try and take a break from technology/social media. I have a problem these days where I am staring at my computer 24/7. Before when I was in a office all day I did all my work and web surfing there and when I came home I hardly even opened my laptop. But now that I am working from home I am having a hard time drawing a line as to when the COMPUTER NEEDS TO BE SHUT!!!

It is something Kenny and I have talked about and both need to work on. I will start posting again regularly. I love keeping this blog up to date and I know our family checks it often for updates on Kenny and I and to get peeks at Elle. So since it has been a while here are some pictures for the family and friends to get their fix.
Won't be long before she really will be riding her furry sister around.

Aunt Annie and Elle hanging out in their most patriotic colors to watch the USA Women's World Cup game.

We had Elle's 6 month photo shoot (pics to come) so we put this little robe on while we waited on the photographer.

We went to lunch afterward the photo shoot and she was worn out!

And Kenny and I are so thrilled that Elle is really starting to belly laugh. I took this video last night and it just cracks me up.

I HAVE TO DISAGREE

I started thinking about this article tonight while I snuggled my freshly bathed daughter, giving her her bedtime bottle. This my favorite part of the day. She smells so delicious and she is so tired that she drinks her bottle quickly and usually falls asleep in my arms allowing me to place her in the crib, give her kisses and then tiptoe out of her nursery.

I remember reading this article right around the time I had returned back to work. The article basically says that parents exaggerate the joy that having children brings them to make them feel better about the financial cost of having children.

A study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that parents create rosy pictures of parental joy as a way to justify the huge investment that kids require.

Six months in, I cannot even imagine this to be true. In the last six months Elle has brought so much joy to our lives that it is even hard to describe. I find myself tearing up all the time out of happiness and love. I find myself smiling ALL THE TIME because I know she is watching me and I look at her for even a second she will smile back at me with her open mouth grin that she does. There is so much laughter in a house with a baby. Whether it is Kenny's reaction to something gross (ahem) that she has done. Or we have found yet another way to get her to do her rare belly laughs. Or she hits another milestone that we have been working so hard for her to hit. The only word that can describe it is joy.
And no amount of money, (though children ARE expensive) would EVER outweigh the amount of happiness that Elle has brought us in the six months that she has been in our life.

So bring on the tutitions and the clothes and the diapers and the cars and the ballet lessons. It is so incredibly worth it!!

FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND

Our little family had a great long weekend of hanging out, watching the Casey Anthony trial closing arguments, a movie date and then a Fourth of July BBQ with friends. It was one of the weekends that did not seem to fly by. It went by slowly.

On Saturday, Kenny and I just hung out around the house and then we grilled out that night. After we ate we all loaded up and went to Cheffie's for some gelato. I love their gelato. I was telling someone the other day that when you have a baby you can't have any spontaneous dessert runs. We put Elle down no later than 8 pm so if a YoLo urge strikes you can't really go out and get it. So Saturday night we planned on eating early so I could get my fix.

On Sunday, we watched the closing arguments for the Casey Anthony trial in the morning. Then my lovely sister was gracious enough to babysit for us so Kenny and I could have a date. We are so lucky to have her in the same city. We went to brunch at Bronte in the Davis Kidd bookstore and then we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Kenny loves those movies. I thought the third one was horrible but this one was much better.
This one had gorgeous mermaids. And I have to say the whole mermaid storyline made me really enjoy the movie. After our date which was heavenly, (Man! We miss going to the movies so much) we came home and Kenny grilled out BBQ baby back ribs and grilled corn. It was delicious.

This weekend I also made my first round of baby food. I made carrots and sweet potatoes. I calculated that I saved around $15 dollars compared to the price of jarred organic baby food and it is better for her to. Score!


Monday afternoon to celebrate the holiday we went to our friend's parent's house to have a potluck celebration and then go see fireworks. There was so much food. And so many kids and adults. It was a lot of fun. Elle was so busy watching everyone she ended up falling asleep in our arms at one point so we let her nap in the car seat. Once it got dark someone had bought a bunch of bottle rockets and sparklers so all the kids (with parents) were having fun shooting those.

And do not get excited. I am NOT four months pregnant as it might appear in this picture. I need to not arch my back and poke out my food belly in such a way.

After the party we were all supposed to go and watch a firework show but Elle was up past her bedtime and honestly Kenny and I were a little beat so we decided to call it a night.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend as well!!