Kitchen Remodel

Hooray! I have finally accomplished everything in my kitchen that I've wanted to get done (except mastering cooking/baking). Over the last month, I painted the walls "jovial orange", changed out the hardware on the cabinets, sewed and hung new valances, painted the curtain rods, and repurposed things in my house so the decor above the cabinets looks presentable. Last, but not least, Scott and I finally got the kitchen table and chairs we've been wanting. Take a look. Isn't it beautiful? On to the living room and dining room :)

BEFORE: (remember we got the floors redone last fall)

AFTER:

The only other things we have in mind for the kitchen are granite counter tops and a new light fixture over the island.

Giddy Up

What started out as a "runway" photo shoot turned into a sitting photo shoot because the poor, little man's legs are too big to walk in cowboy boots. . .

Happy Birthday Sofia

We went to Shanna's house for dinner last night to celebrate Sofia's 4th birthday. She is so precious. She is excited to be "foi" years old. She got a Disney Princess bike helmet and pads and a Cinderella ball to replace her "Dowa" ball from her Uncle Scottie and Aunt Rissa. Again with the pictures, I don't have a single one of the family gathering, but I took some cute ones of Beckham wearing his new hand-me-down cowboy hat when we got home. Thanks Ollie!

Our Quiet Child

Beckham has never been the baby that squeals at the top of his lungs with excitement or talks loud nonstop. He has always been a quiet baby, entertaining himself with activities like reading, building blocks, or playing with his cars. If anything, his toys are loud, not him. Thus, he doesn't know what to do when he gets around kids that are loud or want to rough-house. He doesn't really let us rough-house him. He likes to be cuddled and kissed instead. (I've made the mistake of tossing him on the sofa before which resulted in many tears.) The reason I say all of this is to preface us going to our next door neighbor's house for a play date. This is how it went:
I'm hoping he'll get used to it so he and Zachary can be BFF's.

Later that day, I caught him sneaking into the office with his guitar. He sat in the chair that Daddy sits in when he plays his guitar and jammed away:

"Ketchup"

We've made an earth-shattering discovery! Beckham loves ketchup. He won't eat a piece of meat now unless it's dipped in "Heinz 57" first (but at least he'll eat his meat). Hugging the bottle:

Sweet Home Alabama

Now that I don't work Sundays, Scott will have more of a chance of coming with us to Alabama to visit Nana and the rest of the family. But since it had been November since I last saw my Nana, Beckham and I went over on a weekday. She just ate him up. He had a blast playing with the "car" she got for him and running around her house investigating. He loves her globe and obsessed over closing her front door. We spent the afternoon there, ate some lunch, shared stories, and visited a minute with Aunt Earlene. At one point, I got Beckham to say "Nannies". I wish we made it over more often. I love spending time with my Nana.
Beckham went without a nap while we were there, so this is what he looked like before we even pulled out of Nana's neighborhood.

"Eeow"

As we all know, my sweet cat Olivia is 14-1/2 years old and typically sticks to her little corner of the house. Well, Beckham is fascinated with her and says "eeow" all day in hopes that I'll bring her downstairs to play. She absolutely adores the attention he gives her, despite his lack of gentle touches:

Notice his atrocious haircut. Since he throws such beautiful fits when I pay money to have it cut (which I did again a few weeks ago), I decided to try cutting it myself. He threw just as big a fit for me as he does at Great Clips, but this bad haircut was free. The one I payed for a few weeks ago didn't even look like the scissors or clippers had seen his head. I get an "A" for effort, right?

Spring Fever

We finished off the cold weather with some indoor forts (which Beckham enjoyed having me build so he could destroy them).Then the weather turned warmer. So warm that we had to pull out the shorts. We spent some good times out in the yard. Scott prepped his garden for the new plants he'll be putting in soon. We took Becks on some long wagon rides, pushed him around the yard on his tricycle, and hit the park a couple times. As of March 1st, my work schedule changed from Saturday and Sunday nights to Friday and Saturday nights. Scott and I have been thrilled with this so far, since with the sacrifice of my sleep on Sundays, we can spend the day together as a family. This has been wonderful, since we don't really have the opportunity during the week.

Scott didn't want me to take this picture since he was looking so hot at the time, bedhead and all.

I know its a horrible picture, but at least all 3 of us are in it (its our goal to take more family pics).

Beckham had fun playing in the back of Daddy's truck. He even muttered something that sounded like "Steelers" when he pointed to this sticker.

Darn If It Wasn't "In Like A Lion"

The first day of March was a slight change in pace from all the rain we had been having. Mother Nature decided to throw a curve ball and make it snow. So it did, buckets of it. We packed up the car that morning to drive to Snellville in the lovely weather, with Mary Jo crying on the other end of the phone because she didn't want us in a car accident (but we were celebrating her birthday and insisted on coming). Our yard had an inch or so of snow when we left Kennesaw. By the time we got to Snellville, the snowflakes were the size of golf balls. We didn't really get out and play in the snow, besides the walk from the car to the house- it was real icy and more slushy than anything. This might have been due to the temperature never dropping below 34. We spent the day at Mom & Dad's snuggled up next to the fireplace. We had a delicious dinner of crab cakes and steak and Amanda's homemade desserts. We headed home before it got dark in order to avoid a car accident. Low and behold, the snow stopped, the sun came out (while it was setting), and there was no longer any white around us about half way home. We live an hour north of Mom & Dad, so this mystery of leaving 4 inches of snow for a town with no evidence it had even had snowfall dumbfounded us. We were mostly sad because we hadn't taken any pictures of Beckham in the snow. Who knows, maybe Mother Nature will throw another curve ball (highly unlikely).

The Rest of February

We stayed pretty busy the second half of February. I left off around Valentine's Day and Katie & Austin's wedding. Since then, we have been to the baby shower of a dear, old friend Kristi (Holland) David. She looks so precious, but you wouldn't know by my pictures since I apparently can only take pictures of my son. Leave it to me to see a friend whom I haven't seen in 1-1/2 years and not take a single picture of/with her. But didn't Beckham look cute?

We also spent some good quality time at my sister's. Beckham loves playing with Ollie and Sofia. They talk to each other on the "pone" all the time. Sofia had fun pulling Beckham around in her wagon. Little did the little prince know that he would be getting a wagon of his very own the next week.

And I have to throw this picture of my sister trying on the boys' baseball helmet. . .
We also had a play date with Harrison and Emily at the same time. You can tell Emily has 2 older brothers- girl really knows how to stick up for herself :)
The very last day of February, we drove over to Shanna's to visit with family friends who were in town for a rained-out soccer tournament. Maureen was our next-door neighbor and babysitter when we lived in Michigan (we moved to Georgia in '82 if that gives you any idea how long we've known them). It was so great to see Maureen & Brett and their son, Aiden (Hannah stayed home for a rockin' concert). But, again with the no-pictures of friends I haven't seen in forever!! They're gorgeous and haven't changed since their wedding day 15ish years ago (just to give you an idea of what they look like).

"Button"

For so long, Scott and I made a big deal about Beckham's belly-button. We were constantly asking him "where's your belly button, Beckham?" and he would obediently lift his shirt up and show us with a big smile on his face. Well, I'm not sure whether it was the constant annoyance by us or of his own doing, but he now not only sucks his left-hand fingers all the time (which I find endearing), but he keeps his right hand in his belly-button. He even gets upset if he can't get to it (like when he's wearing a onesie), though he has figured out he can wriggle his hand up the leg of his onesie to get to it.