Happy Easter

Grandma made her an Easter dress with a little Easter bunny apron. Adorable. I think she can wear her dress through most of the summer. She's a little shorty, not that that's likely to change, but she's due another growth spurt so then it will be perfect. This year was much different than her first Easter, mostly because she's older than a month! She loved digging through her basket and pulling out the goodies "What's that?" "What's this?" are her new favorite questions. Once you answer her, you then get a long follow up but she's not quite articulating everything yet. Still, she's got a lot to say. We also ventured out to the playground for her first ride in the swings. She was a little cautious but quickly started giggling. The slides? Not so much. She'll have to work up to those. She was constantly putting her breaks on with her tennis shoes. Next year, egg dying and the Easter egg hunt. Can't wait! Hope you had a fantastic holiday.

RZ Overload

My outfit today caused a little more attention than I would've thought. It's making me feel a little like I've been off my game. My dress was a maternity favorite with the stretch tummy. It was great pre baby, during baby and back to post baby. Maybe it was the leopard cardi with the cheetah cuff and owl ring that pushed it over the top?

The best was coming home to this little girl who was beyond excited to see me. The best.

Mind Blown

So Jonathan Adler has a line for JCP called Happy Chic. I knew they were making all the changes to be trendy and down with all the super cool kids but I never expected them to really mean it. I love, love, love Jonathan Adler and tried to justify the $350 elephant lamp for Sophy's room but couldn't really do it.  I also love his partner Simon Doonan who was (is?) the creative director for Barney's and while I hate Barney's as elitist assholes - even more so than Neiman Marcus and that's saying something. He has fantastic style and an amazing spirit. His window displays were incredibly.

Uhm, anyway back to Jonathan Adler. He's got some very cool pieces at pretty reasonable prices with the JCP line and I picked a few favorites as window shopping.

Love this little bird pillow. Super cute for kids or just a whimsical accent.

I will admit that this couch is a fantasy more than anything practical in our house. Those wooden legs seem less than sturdy for all the real life flopping that goes on in our house. Also, it seems un-conducive to partially gnawed on bunny crackers and snot that would get wiped on it. But I love it for my dream house that is cleaned by elves that also stock the pantry and cook dinner.

This vase is also awesome. I love the black and white stripe in nearly all schemes since it screams "I'm fun damn it!" at you regardless of how snooty you may be striving.

This is also causing further decorating angst for my downstairs main living spaces (I won't even acknowledge the upstairs). I've wanted to repaint since we did it and it came out much darker than I liked. Rolland was thrilled since he would love to live in a cave without light at all. I'm still contemplating white to brighten it up and allow for multiple accessory swap outs. This is unlikely since I refuse to ever get to such a pitiful state and I kind of hate to paint.

Sidenote: I just finished watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills followed with a Justified chaser and that's not a TV leap the body should normally make. Although that Andy Cohen smack down to Adrienne Maloof would've been Harlan approved.  I'm going to bed to sleep it off. But, Deputy Marshall Tim is quickly gaining super fans.

Chinese Lantern Festival

I was looking through my camera at the photos for our Seattle trip and found all of these... plus 100 more from New Year's Day. We went with some friends to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Fair Park.
It was amazing! It was also freezing but we bundled that baby up and headed out.

We started off at Angry Dog where I did indeed have said dog. Tasty. Then back in the car to hit the park. A friend had posted the groupon offer on Facebook so we had pre-purchased tickets at half off but honestly, it was so worth it at full price. A few days earlier we had seen the Chiluly exhibit at the arboretum for the evening tour and it was really disappointing. This exceeded my expectations. Highly, highly recommend it.

This dragon is made of dishes. Incredible!

Little cutie mixing her animals here. Last minute Target purchase for a good hat with her panda coat also a Target purchase when she was still in utero. She also had gloves not pictured since this was actually us packing it in not heading out.

He should guard our house. Loved the Foo dogs.

Heading in and a very well bundled baby as promised.

Sophy and Daddy ready to head back home.

Super cute, and mittened, baby waving to her fans.

Warning: adorableness overload with this cutie! Seriously, she is this cute all the time. It makes my heartache.

I took a gazillion photos trying to get just the right shot of the Cotton Bowl. This was my favorite.

I think the longhorns and lotus flowers sort of sum it up.

Fantastic! Honestly, I still rave about it, you know 4 months later so that's a pretty big endorsement.

Next up Seattle! I promise!

Back in the routine

Or at least working on it. We went on a quick trip to Seattle for an early birthday. The weather and the food were fantastic and the Chiluly experience was incredible. It may have been my favorite place on the trip. It deserves its own post for sure.

The downside was missing my little chickadee. Her grump face sums it up. She had an awesome time with Granny and Aunt Anita while Mommy missed her like crazy. I like to think she's been especially snugly.

Dedicated Seattle post soon but I do have to publicly confess to finally watching the final Twilight movie for the plane ride. Solid "not bad" with a side of "coulda been worse". Kind of perfect in flight entertainment.

Baby Mermaid

Last week was another busy week but we managed to get in a swimming lesson, her first, on Saturday. There's not much teaching going on but it's awesome to see that she's as much of a water baby as I was/am. She's a brave little girl who loves it all and was more than willing to try anything. The only thing she didn't like was learning how to climb out. Go figure.

Cutest little water baby ever.

This shot is one of my new all time favorite pics. Rolland took the initial photo and I made it all pretty and fancy via Picfx.

Sidenote: Photostream is fantastic and we'll never be able to get rid of apple now. They are fiendish in their sucking you in.

Anyway, Picfx is my new favorite app that adds all kinds of super cool effects. My goto's are Marshmallow, Bokeh hearts and the vignette framing. I end up layering about 9 of them and start losing track. Given how my days have been going, I need this bit of artistic accomplishment as a sign of great achievement.

Tasty BBQ Goodness

A couple of weekends ago we ventured down to Bishop Arts on a beautiful early spring Sunday. We got some tasty goodness and enjoyed strolling with people lookey looing. Sophy enjoyed it lots.

First Birthday Bash

We had Sophy's first birthday party on Saturday and it was fantastic. Lovely and sweet with kids playing and laughing. Adults able to catch up while keeping an eye on the little guys. Kind of perfect. I wish we had family closer that could have celebrated but I'm happy we've made friends that are family too. Awesome day for everyone.

Except for the cake. The cake was gorgeous and I couldn't have been happier. Everyone thought it was yummy and sooo adorable but the birthday girl wasn't having it. She was happier with her guacamole and olives on her actual birthday followed by a cheese plate. I can't say that I'm too unhappy she isn't a fan of the sugar. We've got that sugar fiend business ahead of us and for now, I'm happy to provide a cake of of the guac and olives. Black. Sliced not whole.

Can't wait to see what the next year brings.