Operation 1st Birthday

The guest list has been created. The theme has been nailed down.Operation 1st Birthday commences. Look for this in a mailbox near you.

The Joy of Refrigerator Magnets

Today's blog post is about two things:

1. Magnets are fun

2. I need to clean under my fridge

That is all.

Zoo Trip

This was not Tillie's first trip to the zoo. It was her third. The first time we went with my family when she was 4ish months. She pretty much just stared blankly and slept while my Dad carried her around the entire time. He later told me that was one of the best days of his whole life. And then my heart proceeded to melt:)

 The second time was for a concert for which we have no pictures so as far as Brett is concerned, it may as well have not even happened. But it wasn't that fun and we left early anyway. Determined to force/nurture the love of the zoo into our little girl, we brought her back again for the 3rd time in her short little life. This time was SO much more fun! She waved and pointed and smiled and laughed. It is amazing to watch her look all around and see her eyes light up when she finally spots the lion, or tiger, or bear. This girl is a tried and true animal lover.

This beaver was so funny swimming up and down. He was putting on a little show just for us!

 The polar bears were being lazy, but oh so cute.

 

 We stopped in the elephant house for snacks because it was so cold! I forgot what November felt like. But thankfully everyone else remembered and they stayed home. We had almost the whole place to ourselves!

Snuggle break:)

 She was not really a fan of the giant bear at the gift shop. I can kind of understand why. He is well, giant.

 

 He will grow on her.

 And of course when she got excited over this lion toy at Target the next day, I had to oblige. Gotta commemorate the special day. After all, you only have a third trip to the zoo once:)

Let there be light!

I have this thing with mason jars. I love them. A lot. My brother in-law John is a recycle truck man...driver? Anyway, he is always giving his family and friends good finds and for me, it's cool glass bottles and jars. I have quite the collection these days.

Back to the light...Ever since we moved into our 1960 house, I have been giving the fluorescent light in the kitchen the stink eye. I hate that thing. I found an example of a light fixture that had been made with mason jars on a blog a long time ago. They were making a knock off of a pottery barn light that looked like this.I really wish I could find my inspiration pic again, but now it exists only in my memory:( Anyway, I was in love and have been thinking about it ever since. However, our poor house was not blessed with tall ceilings and the hanging lights just wouldn't work. Brett and I came up with a design of our own and my uber handy husband created this.

 He built the box from old subfloor wood found under our house. He sanded it down with an angle grinder and stained it to match everything else in our house that we stain. I think it's called walnut something...Then we hung it just a few inches down from the ceiling with a chain on both ends. I love that is has added dimension without being too low for my 6'3'' man to walk under.

I definitely gave him the side eye when he said he wanted to mix clear jars with blue ones, but I gotta say, I'm kinda lovin' it.

And because I totally forgot to take before pics or during pics for that matter, here is one from the real estate listing from when we bought our house. The kitchen is one of the only rooms in the house that looks suprisingly similar to when we moved in. So here is the before, in all it's florescent glory.

Baby's first camping trip

Confession...this trip may have happened 3 weeks ago, but hey, I'm busy and just now getting around to the pictures. We had been wanting to go camping all summer long, but it just didn't happen. Right before school started back up for me, we finally went as a closure to the summer. We decided to go to Lost Lake and now we know why it's called that...because it's really freaking far away. But it is beautiful and so worth the drive!

I took this from the car window on the way up.

 They have this awesome sasquatch at the general store. 

 See? Huge, right? And she balanced up there all by herself. Good baby...

 Now, let's play a game called "where's Shelby?" See her?

 We hiked the 3.2 mile loop around the lake both days. It was beautiful!

 Rolling out of bed.

 We realized that this was probably Tillie's first exposure to fire. She was mesmerized.

 No more pics mom!

 I think we finally wore her out:)

 Our favorite camping specialty...hobo dinners! He's so proud:)

 Brett woke up before the sun the day that we left and went on a super steep hike to see this view at sunrise. He says it was worth it. I stayed in bed:)

I say Baby's first camping trip was a success!

Welcome to Paradise

One of my favorite philosophers, the great Willy Wonka, says that if you want to view paradise, you simply look around and view it. This blog will be just that. We are a family of four (Mom, Dad, babe and border collie) slowing down to notice the beauty all around us. If you think this will mostly consist of pictures of the cutest baby in the world and our furry beast, then...you are correct. (said in Billy Madison's creepy voice, keep your clothes on people).

We love to do things around our house, so we may share some DIY things, crafts, new recipes and the like. Mostly, we want to capture all the moments that may go forgotten if they aren't written down. And let's face it, there just is not enough room in the scrapbook. My only follower may be my mother-in-law, "Hi Mopsy!" and that is ok:) This is by us and for us, but if you want to read along, we would love to have you! WARNING: There will probably be a lot of these :) :) :) and some of these!!! I will try to keep the LOL's to a minimum.

There you have it. Our first blog post. I say "our" as if Brett is in on this, but he is sleeping on the floor next to me and probably won't ever write a post at all. I will leave you with a pic of this cutie patootie who turned 8 months 2 days ago.