Shower cake

Here's the cake I baked for the shower for the baby that I gifted yesterday's cardigan. The request was for a strawberry cake inspired by CakeWrecks. I think this did the trick. :-)



The shower was lovely, and a good time was had by all! Can't wait to meet the little one (and finally learn the name - they're not telling yet)!

FO: Baby Cardi

This is a little baby cardigan I knit for my friend Renee in our knitting group. She's having a baby girl sometime in the next few weeks! It's the Springtime Baby Cardi on Ravelry, knit in Berocco Vintage.

I'm really into baby clothes right now; I guess that's just the mode I'm in! The next project I'll start will be another baby sweater, I think, but for Penny this time!

Cutting the cord?

Here's a quick one for Friday: we're thinking about getting rid of cable. Eeek!

It's so expensive, and there's so much available on the internets these days, that it really could be a great thing for us. I read a few personal finance blogs, and when people are trying to cut corners, the first thing to go (after the Starbucks habit, maybe) is cable/satellite TV. It'll save us over $100 a month. We'd keep our Netflix account and just watch everything else through the computer.

Have you kicked the habit or considered it? I'm weighing the pros and cons and interested to hear what other people have to say. We're always looking for good ways to stretch our budget.

Catching up

What's new with everyone? I've been a little out of the loop with blogging, but I'm still here. A trip out of town for work, plus an extra day due to flight problems, a busy weekend, and lots of work this week have really put a cramp in my blogging style! Here's what's been going on:

- I attended the An Event Apart conference in Atlanta, GA. It's all about web design. I met a bunch of great people in the industry and heard talks from a lot of people who are doing awesome things on the web. So fun! Spent a few days away from Penny for the first time, but she was all smiles when I got back!

- Spent an extra night in Atlanta due to my flight being canceled. Yuck! Stayed in about the worst hotel I have ever stayed in (dirty, cigarette holes in the comforters, missing power button on the TV???). Thank goodness I was only there for four hours (and slept the whole time!).

- Had a lot of family time this weekend. Spent time with my mom, some quality time with Penny, and made a homemade New York style cheesecake for my brother-in-law Jeff's birthday. Topped off with Father's Day Sunday (Cory's first!) I got him a new fan, a "World's Best Dad" mug (cheesy, but cute), and lunch anywhere he wanted to go (he chose Swanky's). Then we all met at my mom's for Father's Day/Jeff's birthday dinner.

I've got more to blog about, but I need to wait for the pictures! I'm going to make a baby shower cake this weekend, and I'm almost finished with another knitting project.

Just so I don't leave you without a picture:

Wordless Wednesday

A day in the life

I don't know if there is such a thing as an average day, but here is a full day in my life! Thursday, June 9th, 2011.

7:00. I wake up to my iPhone. Time to get up!


Listen to the monitor. Sometimes I swear Penny hears my alarm. Today, I hear a single peep, but no crying. Then silence. She's been doing so well with sleep, so about half the time I don't even have to feed her before work! It makes me a little sad that I don't get to see her before work, but the one time I made the mistake of checking on her, she totally woke up. Blame it on having an old house with creaky doors and floors.


I make myself some breakfast, two frozen blueberry waffles and some hot tea. I turn on the TV and watch A Baby Story while I eat. I was going to watch Saved by the Bell but it was one of the old ones with Miss Bliss and I'm not into it today.


7:30 rolls around and I brush my teeth, get dressed, and put on some makeup. I hear another peep, but then nothing. I have a feeling she might wake up early today.


All ready! I hurry up and leave because I'm always afraid Penny will wake up right when I need to leave. It's easier to leave her without seeing her (and her seeing me).


8:00. Time for work! I won't go into detail here because I don't want to blog about work. Computer stuff, basically.


11:00 I start getting hungry, so I go ahead and eat lunch. Meant to take a picture, but I didn't remember until I was done! Cheese sandwich on an onion roll and some pasta salad. Carb-y lunch but we're trying to save money and that's what we had. I do a little Googling on my lunch break and find out all the construction going on in a shopping center near my house is for a new CVS. Kind of a boring development but it could be worse. I also call Cory to check in. Penny's happy and sleeping. She did wake up early today though!

After lunch, it's back to work. At 2:00, Cory sends me a text with this picture:

Asleep in the Bumbo. She must have been having so much fun she wore herself out.

5:00. Time to go home! Looks like I left my hot tea in the cupholder this morning instead of bringing it into work. Oops! It's still hot, but not really in a good way anymore. Haha.


This is what greets me when I come home:


Cory sets about making dinner, which is parmesan noodles and garlic bread. I eat dinner while nursing and then Penny gets a bottle (she's using a big bottle now!).

After dinner, Penny has some playtime and I get a little knitting in. She's really starting to grab toys now! It makes her look so much more independent.


A little after 8:00, Kim, Jeff and Katie come over. Kim and I get in a nighttime run (so much cooler than right after work in the sweltering heat). It wasn't pretty, so no pictures - sorry!

When we get back, we all hang out for a little while and then they go home. Cory and I put Penny to bed around 10, and then watch a little TV before showering and going to bed. Last thing I do is get a screen capture to remember what time I turned the lights out to go to sleep:


Good night!

Weekend at Nonie's

Penny and I had a great time at my mom's this past weekend. Cory and Jeff went with some buddies on a white water rafting trip, so Kim and I decided it would be a great weekend to stay at our mom's and have that garage sale we've been meaning to have. It was great to get rid of some things, make a little money, and spend quality time with the girls!


We started off Friday with the guys heading off on their trip and me heading off to work. Kim kindly took a vacation day to stay home with Katie and Penny. I know Penny had fun because Kim was sending me pictures, like this cute one above here. When I got off work, we got everyone in the car and headed south to Mom's house, Kim with the kids and me with the SUV full of stuff. I don't know who was more uncomfortable, Kim with two antsy kids, or me driving with a mattress on my shoulder! We made it, though, had a yummy dinner, and set about sorting, tagging, and setting up everything to sell the next day.

Bright and early the next morning (5:30!), we woke up and starting putting everything out on the driveway. We got quite the early crowd, since it was going to reach almost 100 degrees later that day. I had to run up and feed Penny around 8, and she made this lovely face as she fell asleep:


I crept back downstairs to help with the sale, but it didn't last long. Penny hung out with us most of the rest of that morning, but she slept and it wasn't too hot, since it was early. We sold quite a few things, which was great! We didn't sell this guy, though - too bad!

We cleaned up (it was so HOT outside, but we did it!) and I think it took all the energy out of us. By the time we finally got to eat dinner, it was about 9pm. After that, Kim and Katie headed back home, but not before Katie worked on a puzzle with us, and showed us how to eat an ice cream cone:


Penny and I slept over one more night at my mom's. I was greeted by this smiling face in the morning!


We had a lovely, relaxed day with Nonie, visiting, working on the puzzle, and I did a little knitting. It was nice to have the quality time together. We got home Sunday afternoon just in time to see Daddy! It was a great weekend!

Three months

Our sweet Penny turned three months old on June 2nd. This month went by so quickly! She really started smiling a lot and showing us her sweet personality.


Her two month checkup went so well. She's gaining weight and growing strong. She was always great at holding her head up, but now she's a pro, and is constantly pushing with her legs to stand up on our laps. She almost always prefers to be sitting up or standing instead of laying down.


This was also the month she really started sleeping through the night! She's done so well, generally waking up once to eat and going back to sleep, but this month she started sleeping from 9 or 10 at night to anywhere from 5:30 to even 9:30! It made me a little sad that I didn't always get to see her in the morning, but it's allowing me to push back my wake up time and get a little more sleep, so I can see some benefit. :-)


We've started to use the Bumbo seat with her more often, and get her used to the idea of sitting up on her own. She's also really started to notice the TV, uh oh! She's become so alert and aware of her surroundings. She's constantly looking around.


It's been a great month. We're so proud of our little sweetie girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Penny's first baseball game

Last Tuesday, 5/31, we took Penny to her first baseball game! My work invited all of us and our families to go to a Redbirds game, and I figured why not? It was at night, so we didn't have to worry about sun exposure, which helped a lot.


Penny was so well behaved, which was a miracle considering how hot it was (90s). Poor thing probably got a little dehydrated. She was sweaty for sure. We fed her more often than usual, and that kept her happy. We wore her to and from the game in the Snugli (like a Baby Bjorn), and had her on our laps the rest of the time. My biggest fear was looking out for foul balls, but we were fine! The Redbirds even won the game. We all had a great time (though I will never wear jeans to a game in that heat again)!

Memorial Day weekend

Better late than never, right? I kept putting off blogging about our Memorial Day weekend because it was a long one. I took off work Friday and Tuesday, so we spent a long weekend in Louisiana with Cory's family. Thursday afternoon, Cory and Penny swung by my work to pick me up, and we were on our way!


We had packed sandwiches for us, and bottles for Penny, so we only had to stop once for gas on the way. Penny was great as usual, and slept most of the time. We got there a little after 11pm and hung out for a little while before going to bed.


Friday, we got up and put Penny in a cute outfit (a Katie hand-me-down), and went to eat lunch at Izzo's, one of our favorite burrito places and a usual stop for us when we visit. On the way back we got snowballs (like snow cones but the ice is super fine, like snow). Mine was coconut flavored with soft serve vanilla ice cream in the middle. Delicious!


Later that night, we went to La Fonda, where the food was good as usual, and the service was odd and slow (also as usual). A family tradition.


The next day was Cory's cousin's wedding. It was at the nearby church which had recently been renovated - so pretty! My friend Christy was in the wedding and it was great to see her and her mom. Penny wore a dress that I had originally bought for Katie, and that Katie wore to our wedding two years ago.


Later, we had dinner with our friends Adrian and Jessica, and they came over and visited with us and Penny after we ate. Then, we put the baby to bed and got to go out! We met some friends at one of our old college bars for a few drinks. We stayed and visited until almost 2am. It was great. That was definitely a Sunday morning I was glad to hand the baby over to MawMaw and go back to bed! Really, though, we are so lucky that Penny is sleeping through the night. Being an early riser is okay if you've had some continuous sleep. :-)


Sunday was a lazy day for us. I think we had lunch around the house and then Cory's mom, Penny, and I went to Target. I also got in a little work on this:


That night we went to Parrain's for dinner, which was just okay, but reminded me I want to try to recreate their cole slaw. It is just a little sweet, but mustardy and peppery, and it has peanuts in it! That plus their huge onion rings might have been my favorite part of the meal. :-) We also went to visit Cory's grandparents at their house. It was great to see them and visit for a while.

Monday was Memorial Day, so we mostly ate and visited with people. We had lunch at La Carreta (Cory's family loves Mexican food, for sure!), and then went to meet Cory's godmother. Cory had not seen her in a long time, and she had never met me or Penny. Then, Christy came over to see Penny. Once she left, we took Penny to our friend Matt's parents' house so she could meet them. We ended the night with a cookout and some yummy food!

Tuesday was hard. We had to leave early because we had things to do when we got back home. We had breakfast and then packed up the car. I think Cory's mom didn't want to let go of Penny! We had such a great time, it was really hard to leave. We are so glad our little girl is such a great traveler, though!