Adding a Little Color

On Sunday, Harry and I (and Alaina - who napped through most of the project) decided to renovate our half bath downstairs. While it's not the most exciting room in the house, it is one that almost every visitor will see. So, without any further ado, here is our improved power room.

 We started by replacing the builder grade mirror (yuck) with a new mirror from Marshall's. We also replaced the builder installed light and moved the hand towel rack from over the light switch/electrical outlet to next to the mirror.

We also painted the bathroom... "tangerine" up top and white down below. We are planning on adding a chair rail this next weekend. The art work that we moved from our last house works out well in this small space. Our "Orangina" poster was sort of our inspiration and prints that we purchased on our honeymoon in St. Thomas now hang above the privy (yeah, we're fancy like that) and next to the doorway.

In addition to the chair rail, this next weekend we plan on repainting our living room/kitchen a shade (or two) a lighter tan this weekend. It's going to be a big project, again, but I look forward to having a downstairs that is just a little brighter.

Coloring and Bug Catching

This was Alaina this morning. She set up her own coloring station at the kitchen table, complete with paper, crayons, an Easter Bunny toy, crackers, and juice (sounds pretty nice to me). Then, she went to work.

Hard at work.

Our first attempt at "smile". Maybe a little too much?

Smile Alaina!

After coloring (and some breakfast) Alaina went on a bug hunt. The net and cage full of fake bugs was a party favor from Luke's birthday party; it was a bug theme. She scattered bugs on the floor and then caught them and put them in the cage (and in her mouth). Needless to say, Alaina is enjoying her morning.

Alaina's Room

This past weekend Harry and I finally finished decorating Alaina's room (for now). We hung her new curtains, shades, and the shelves Harry made for her. I love the way everything turned out. 

The view of her room from the door.

The shelves Harry made... little a shelves for our little A. 

A better view of her curtains; just what I was looking for!

Happy Easter!

Our little family had a great time yesterday celebrating Easter. We started the day with an Easter Egg hunt (yes, the bunny visited us), went to church, and had lunch with Harry's family. It was a wonderful Easter. 

The Easter Bunny came!

Some unusual hiding spots. 

 

 

Alaina hunting Easter Eggs. 

Alaina, putting Easter Egg money in her piggy bank.

The best family picture we could get. 

Happy Birthday Luke!

This past weekend, Harry, Alaina, and I traveled to Fayetteville, NC to celebrate my nephew, Luke's fifth birthday. I can't believe Luke is five years old; my sister was living in Fayetteville (before a 3 year move to Arizona) at the time Luke was born. I spent the whole week before his birth with my sister and my niece (my brother-in-law was away with army business) during my spring break and we had hoped Luke would arrive before my spring break was over. Luckily, Luke came early and we were able to meet him at the end of my spring break. It is a time I remember fondly. 

Luke opted for a "bug" themed birthday party. We arrived just as the party started so we didn't get any party pictures but we did get plenty of pictures of the cousins playing together. 

 The 4 cousins.... Madison, Alaina, Luke, and Alex

 Madison and Alaina enjoyed some girl time together. 

 

 

  The birthday boy enjoying his new toy.

Food, Flower, or Fashion?

Stephanie gave Alaina a flower from her garden last week and Alaina couldn't decide what to do with it. She decided to make it a little bit of everything. In the end, she gave it to Harry as a birthday gift.

Alaina's Little House

Santa brought Alaina a doll house this year for Christmas. She hasn't played with it too much until recently. Now, she opens the house and tries to "sit" on the furniture or in the tub or on the potty. I tried to get a picture of her doing this tonight, but by the time I got the camera, she was actually playing with the doll family. It was so cute.

Alaina was fresh out of the bath and enjoying her bedtime snack. 

This is one happy little girl.

Too Many Toys?

Is there ever such a thing as too many toys?

Alaina doesn't think so... she adds more and more toys to her crib every day.

Seeing Clearly

Today, Alaina's glasses came in! Harry and I were both able to take her to pick them up and get them fitted. She did end up bending the glasses even before we left the eye doctor, but it was an easy fix. I have a feeling she and I will visit the eye doctor a lot in the next few months. 

Her glasses and her super-cute glasses case. 

Yes, she needs to wear her glasses while driving. :-)

 Taking them off; at least she is being careful and not ripping them off. 

On a side note, across the street from our neighborhood is a pony farm. One of the ponies had a baby last month and it was the cutest thing! Harry captured a picture of the baby with the mother... if you have never seen a baby pony, you don't realize how tiny and adorable they are.

In this picture, the little guy (or girl) is getting bigger, but he/she is still pretty cute. We can't wait to take Alaina across the street to meet the ponies.

Glasses

On Tuesday, I took Alaina to the ophthalmologist to have her vision checked. We had noticed that she was crossing her eyes and the ophthalmologist told us that she is farsighted and she was crossing her eyes to help bring things into focus. After the initial shock of her needing glasses wore off, we set out to find glasses small enough for a 17 month old. It was not easy. Most places don't carry toddler glasses. Finally, we found out about Horizon Eye Care off Sharon Amity Road in Charlotte. They had a whole store of toddler glasses at reasonable prices. We picked out Alaina's first pair of glasses today. I tried to get a picture of her wearing them, but she was pretty tired after trying on so many different pairs so a picture of the glasses alone is what I settled for. 

They are a pretty blue/purple with a design on the temples (Disney Princess Glasses!). I had originally thought we would get pink glasses for Alaina, but these looked so nice on her. We are now waiting on her lenses and then we will go in for a fitting. We are also going to have cable temples put on the glasses. If anybody out there is like us and needs help finding glasses for their toddler, check out this link. It was really helpful. 

Paint, Paint, and More Paint

 This past weekend, Harry and I painted another room in our house... the office. We painted it the same color as our living room/kitchen accent wall and I LOVE how it turned out.

The view from the dining room/entry way. 

Alaina sneaked in for a picture. 

Alaina loves to watch the construction across the street from the window. 

While I'm posting about paint, I figured I would share the color we painted the living room, dining room, and entry way. We love the accent wall, but we think the brown is a little too dark. We were going for more of a tan and this just wasn't what we were expecting. We may end up painting it a bit lighter in the future. 

Spending Time with Grandma and Grandpa

This past weekend Harry, Alaina, and I headed to south Charlotte to spend some time with Harry's parents. We stopped for lunch at Pinky's Westside Grill on the way and our picky little eater ate fried pickles for the first time!

Then, it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's farm. 

 

Alaina must have had a great time, because she fell asleep on the car ride home less than a mile from their house.

On an unrelated note, I made a chicken pot pie for dinner and it turned out so pretty I had to take a picture! It was as good as it looks.

 

Park Time

It was a beautiful day in Charlotte so we took Alaina to one of our neighborhood parks to play after work. She had a blast and came home one tired baby.

Happy Valentine's Day

All Alaina

Alaina was just too cute today for us not to take a lot of pictures and share them with you. 

First, check out her newest trick...

 Alaina now plugs her ears to stop sound. She LOVES to do this while eating. She started doing this earlier in the week and I would say her name and she would laugh. It's really cute, now; we'll see how we feel about it when she starts plugging her ears when we need her to listen.

Then, just after dinner, Harry and Alaina had daddy/daughter hair salon time. I put Alaina's hair in a pony tail after her second nap, but Alaina and Harry decided that hair bows were also needed. This is what they did...

Alaina and Tank

Alaina has always loved dogs. Her first loves were Jasmine (Jazzy) and Frannie at her first nanny's house. She has found a new puppy love at her new nanny's house... Tank. Here they are hanging out together.

Tank is pretty taken with Alaina, too. He waits for her at the door each morning and walks her out in the afternoon (I think it's because she brings him crackers every day).