YoYo!!!

Alaina LOVES yogurt; I mean really loves yogurt. Today, at the grocery store, she was yelling for "yoyo" as we put yogurt into our cart. Since Alaina is cutting more molars right now (seriously, do they EVER stop getting teeth?) that is one of the only things I can get our picky eater to eat. That, and M&Ms. So, for now, she can have as much yogurt as she wants. 

Favorites

 Here are just a few of our favorite things...

Swinging!

Eating pasta while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (and holding a Mickey figurine).

I guess Joey and Phoebe's favorites are each other because in a 2,600 square foot house they are sitting on top of each other on an 80 degree day.

New and Improved Paint

We repainted our living room, kitchen, hallway, and dining room this past weekend; the original brown paint color we chose was a little too dark for our taste, so we lightened it up just a bit. Here are a couple of pictures of the new color.

Before... slightly darker.

After... slightly lighter.

It isn't much of a change, but it's just enough to make a difference. It doesn't feel too dark in here. It is always hard to get an accurate picture of a paint color, but this is a much warmer tan than brown.

Before... darker again.

After... lighter again (plus, now with Joey!)

After (no before to compare to)
 

We are in the process of ordering wallpaper for an accent wall in the dining room (I know... I NEVER thought I would wallpaper, but I'm pretty excited about it) so I'll share more on that room later.

A Few Days of Alaina

This past weekend we painted our downstairs (living room, kitchen, hallway, and dining room) again so I didn't have a lot of time to post... pictures of the new paint coming soon! Anyway, Alaina did a lot of cute things the past few days so I thought I would share what she's been up to. 

  

Guess what she's after... could it be, the phone?

Coloring in her highchair... side saddle.

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse wearing her Easter hat, jammies, and eating a waffle.

Found Daddy's "hat" from his business trip to New Orleans.

Pretty in Pink (and Cranes are Cool!)

Today, when I picked Alaina up at Stephanie's house, she was all smiles about her feet. She wore her new flip-flops today and Stephanie painted her toenails to match her new sandals. She keep saying "foot" and "nails" because she was so excited about her new toenail polish. She wanted to be just like mommy and Ms. Stephanie. 

Alaina on our front porch (in her new pink Adirondack Chair) admiring her new sandals and her painted toenails. 

As Alaina would say... "pretty". 

After such a girly afternoon, we decided to check out the construction going on across the street from us. Alaina climbed into her car and "drove" the 100 feet to the end of our street to check out the crane. She was memorized by the construction equipment and finally shifted her focus from her feet to the crane. I'm glad Alaina is so well rounded. :-)

 Alaina in her ride checking out all the construction.

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.