Brainstorming Session

Well, my brainstorming session tonight with Claudia and Renee went very well and we were able to make a ton of decisions regarding all of the elements for her invitation designs, now we just need to get paper samples and get started! :) We had some wine while we perused countless options for invitations, pocketfolds, paper and envelopes online and also discussed some great ideas for her programs, menus and favor labels among other things. I am super excited to be able to create all of these elements for her special day and know that everything will turn out awesome! Between all of this and all of the other projects I have on my plate right now I will be quite the busy bee this next month....oh, and David's going to love me especially when he is being my designated "cutter" and cutting hundreds of pocketfold inserts, ha! Gotta love having a hubby to help when some major manpower is needed, hahahaha!!! Anywho....I'm off to bed because I have a long day and weekend ahead of me.

Long, long, long day.................

Today has been a doozy I tell ya, first I overslept, then I felt like crap and wanted to crawl back into bed, then I try to leave for work and my car won't start, argh! When your day starts like that I would advise you to go ahead and follow your instinct....CRAWL BACK INTO BED, ha! Well, I actually couldn't do that, but luckily David was able to get my car started and off to work I went. I checked my car at lunch per David's request, and unfortunately it would not start yet again, so....David came and put a new battery in the Murano and it *seems* to have done the trick! I guess the true test will be when I go to leave the house in the morning, hmmm....fingers crossed that the problem was solved and will not require any other maintenance or anything. Other than that, not much going on today. I have just been incredibly busy and haven't / will likely not have too much time to update the blog as regularly as I have been...I will do my best though. :)

Tomorrow night I have a real treat planned as Claudia is in town from Germany again and she and Renee will be coming over to the casa to work on selecting invitation designs, paper, pocket folds, etc. I cannot wait to hang out with the girls and get things started with Claudia's invitations as we are on a tight timeline to get them out in the next month or so.....

Caught Red-Handed....

Yep, now Hudson has moved on to bigger and better stunts....this is him trying to pull a MacGyver on us in order to escape out of the house and go play in the yard, ha! Good thing we keep both locks locked at all times, but even still, he is feverishly trying to figure those out too! Geesh, he is one clever little boy!

Tuesday, July 29th - Quote of the Day

Noggin Addict....

Hudson's new addiction is Noggin and he is starting to really become more and more interested in all of the different shows that they play. Right now he seems to really enjoy Blues Clues, Pinky Dinky Doo, Franklin, The Backyardigans, Yo Gabba Gabba (just to name a few) and most recently the Wonder Pets, ha! Where they come up with some of this stuff I'll never know!!! Anyways, I don't want him to watch TOO much TV, but it seems like he is responding well to these shows and they all seem to have pretty good content behind some of the wacky stuff....I'm just really glad he's finally starting to have an interest in watching anything besides Cars!!! Here's a few pics of him lounging on our bed one night last week watching the Wonder Pets...please excuse the un-made bed and mess...this is life with a toddler. :)

Sunday, July 27th - Quote of the Day

Check Your Head...

Right before David left for work today I was upstairs getting ready to bring Hudson up to watch some Word World and heard David laughing hysterically downstairs so I decided that I had to go see what all the commotion was about....well, this is what I saw!!!!

Ummmm.....yeah, I don't think Hudson really understands the concept of a backpack, lol!!!! Not that he could carry that thing anyways, it's gigantic! Hahahahahaha!!!!!!

Long Weekend...

It's not quite over yet, but I definitely could use a bit longer of a weekend that's for sure! It seems like it is getting more and more difficult to get all of the things we want and need to do each weekend done these days as there is just been so much going on in general along with our normal errands, etc. and the fact that I have been feverishly working on design projects most nights and weekends in order to try to catch up with current orders. In all honesty, I feel like I truly need a vacation again, ha! In any case, we had another great weekend and now I am just trying to get ready for another long week. David is working tonight and the next two nights, so it might prove to be a bit challenging for me to get a lot accomplished in the evenings being home alone with the little man.

Yesterday, we had a full day starting with picking Marcia up so that we could go buy a couple of bridal shower gifts and run a few errands. We had initially planned on only being gone a couple of hours, but as I suspected would happen, we ended up not getting home until around 5 p.m. We went to Crate and Barrel to get gifts for Kasey and John's (Kasey is David's cousin that is getting married in September) shower that we actually went to today and then went to lunch at Mi Cocina which of course, was delicious as always. After lunch, we went to Target to do some shopping and ended up with a basket full of goodies and Hudson was spoiled a bit a usual. Marcia bought Hudson some new Hot Wheels and a Cars book which he seems to really enjoy and we got him a Cars themed backpack that he is going to use when he goes to stay the night or visit at Nana Marcia's house and when he goes to my mom's during the week. When we were done at Target we brought Marcia back to her house and dropped Hudson off as well as Marcia had agreed to have Hudson spend the night so that David and I could get a night off and go out to see a movie.

After we left Marcia's we went back to our house for a couple of hours and then headed out to the theater to see the Dark Knight. The movie was REALLY good, a bit long, but overall, I truly enjoyed it. Heath Ledger's performance was absolutely AMAZING and I was pleasantly relieved that the movie turned out to be pretty much worth all of the hype surrounding it. Heath's performance in itself made the movie, so even some of the stuff that was less than desirable I was able to overlook. I was a bit sad during parts of the movie knowing that this was Heath Ledger's last performance and told David after the movie that it was a wonderful and memorable performance, but that what made me most sad was that his last role was one that was so demented and disturbing....it was kind of eerie watching him onscreen, but I tried to get past that and just enjoy the amazing performance that he gave. All in all, I would highly recommend the movie for anyone who is a fan of the Batman movies or Heath Ledger.

We didn't get home from the movies until super late and then stayed up a while longer putting together a new racetrack / play table that we had ordered online for Hudson earlier this week. David picked it up right before we left for the movies and we wanted to have it all setup and put together for when we brought Hudson home today. So, to say the least, I didn't get to bed until 2 am and David was still watching TV when I went to sleep, but I was hell-a tired and couldn't wait for him to come to bed any longer.

We slept in this morning and then David went to pick up Hudson while I got ready for the day and started working on some of my orders. When Hudson got home we played for a while with his new racetrack table thing and he LOVED it!!! He was too cute playing with all of the cars on it and kept squealing at the top of his lungs acting all giddy and excited about his new toy! :) Marcia showed up a short time later and it was off to the bridal shower! We had a great time at the shower and there seemed to be a really great turn out. Kasey (the bride-to-be) looked beautiful, as always, and it was just a nice relaxing get together. We had to split from the party a little early as David had to work tonight and we had a long drive home from Richardson so we left around 4:15 and headed back to Desoto. Once we got back to the house, Marcia hung out for a few minutes and then went on home since David was needing to get ready to leave for work. We had an EARLY dinner and then David headed out to go to work for the evening around 6:15. Now, I have Hudson fed and everything ready for tomorrow to start the work week, so as soon as I am able to get him to go to bed in the next hour or so then I am just going to catch up on emails and work on orders again for the rest of the evening. Whew! I just want to know when everything will slow down again??? I know we likely won't see any relief for a while now as we have something planned almost every weekend over the next couple of months!!! Yikes! I so cannot wait for the next time I can take a REAL vacation...although, I might be old and decrepit by then, ha!

Here are a few pics of Hudson with his new racetrack table.

Saturday, July 26th - Quote of the Day

Date Night...Woo Hoo!!!

We are going on date night tonight, woo hoo!!! I've got to go get ready, but Marcia has Hudson for the evening and we are going to go out to dinner (I *think*) and then out to see The Dark Knight!!! CANNOT.WAIT!!!

Of course, I will have to post a review of the movie later. :)

Once Upon A Potty.....

So, we think it is about that time to start trying to potty train Hudson and boy-oh-boy am I SO not ready for this!!! We haven't started trying to train him yet, but have been talking about it a lot lately and have decided that the best thing to do would be to just go for it since he is starting to show some signs that he *might* be ready to start this lovely new experience. He has already become fascinated with the "Once Upon a Potty" book that my mom has at her house and has been having her read it to him constantly this past week. I didn't buy the book myself, as it was one of the many, many books that my sister, Karen, had brought to my mom's house for Hudson to read when he is there. Well, when I first saw it and read it I personally thought it was pretty ridiculous and disgusting in parts, but I totally understand the concept and figure, hey, if it works then I can get past the lovely illustrations of poo-poo and wee-wee, lol! In any case, Hudson knows what the book is referring to and my mom actually asked him yesterday if he wanted to go use the potty and what did he do???? He didn't go to the bathroom, but he did go to a huge stack of books on the hearth of the fireplace and dug all the way to the bottom of the stack to pull out the "Once Upon a Potty" book because he knew that it was about going to the potty!!! He picked up on that pretty quick actually, I know that the real thing won't be such a walk in the park though. In any case, I am a little nervous about the whole thing, okay, truly I am horrified, but I know that he will learn in his own time and that we will just have to be VERY PATIENT. This is one thing that we have heard a lot already. Now we need to purchase a training potty and get started!!! If anyone has any good tips for me, feel free to send them my way as I am sure that we will need all the help that we can get!! :)

For those of you who are not familiar with the "Once Upon a Potty" book, here is a lovely video version that I found on YouTube....I think it is pretty freaking hilarious and like I said, a little....well, let's just say interesting in parts, but whatever.....if it helps get Hudson out of the diapers, onto the potty and into big boy undies then I am a-okay with it! :) Oh, and just so you know, my favorite disgusting part is about the hole that makes poo!!!! lol!!!!

Thursday, July 24th - Quote of the Day

Random Pics of the Week --- Shopping at Target

Just a few pics that I took of Hudson after we completed our shopping trip at Target. I couldn't resist taking a couple of shots of him gripping to his new Hot Wheels for dear life, ha! He is SUCH a little boy! He looks kind of suspiscious or something doesn't he??? I think he's just paranoid that someone might take his beloved cars away......

Wednesday, July 23rd - Quote of the Day

Knick-Knack Paddywack.....

Charlotte bought herself a brand new Mac!!! Yes, oh yes, I finally did it a few weeks ago and having been dying to post about my new love, but the office has been a madhouse lately because I have just been so incredibly busy! David was a total dear and actually cleaned it up for me and so I finally got to take a couple of pics of my modest work space. It is very plain and blah for now, but give me a little time and hopefully, I can add some artwork on the walls, office accessories, etc. and have a cute little studio of sorts. Anyways, I LOVE my Mac and actually decided on the big-ole mama-jama 24" desktop and am SO glad I went with the larger size! I haven't been able to actually use it much yet as I am still slowly moving all of my design files, graphics, Photoshop presets, fonts, etc. over from my laptop, but I am hoping to have everything switched within the next couple of weeks! Next, I need to get a bookshelf and some other accessories for the space just to help organize everything, but what I've got going on at the moment works okay for the time being. In any case, this is one bad-a@# machine and I am so, so, so very glad that I made the investment. Oh, and one of my favorite things on the Mac that is a lot of fun is the PhotoBooth...check it out if you've never seen it...it's a riot!

My new favorite gadget!

Another view of desk area #1

Tuesday, July 22nd - Quote of the Day

Monday, July 21st - Quote of the Day

Everywhere I Go....

This is one of Hudson's absolute favorites!! He loves watching Noggin' and loves Moose A. Moose and Zee....he'll pretty much stop anything he is doing to watch them in the breaks between shows. Too cute!!! I find myself humming and singing these songs too, this one is AWESOME. My favorite part is buttons are the belliest, ha!!

Shake That Bootie!!

As promised....a very short clip of Hudson shaking his groove thing to the mariachi band at lunch yesterday, ha! This is my first video post, as I always forget to ever use the video option on my camera and I even have a nice camcorder and never use it either, but I vow to start doing do immediately! So, watch out! There will be many, many more videos to come! :)

Sunday, July 20th - Quote of the Day

Fun in the Park!!!

Today we met three of my friends from high school at a local park with all of our kiddos and hung out for the first time together in years!!! David, Hudson and myself met Tara and her daughter - Dakota, Jesse and her son - Ayden, and Kelly and her husband - Andy and their son - Caden. We had a great time hanging out and playing with the kids and then went out to lunch for some yummy mexican food. I hadn't seen Jesse since shortly after high school and she lives in Maine now, so I likely won't see her again for a while. :( We all were best buds in school and Kelly and I actually were roommates for about a year and a half right after we graduated from high school...good times, ha! To think back of all of the crazy things we've done together and how we basically all grew up together is pretty amazing...we were all pretty close all the way from junior high until after high school and of course, David and I have been together so long he knows all of them very well too. Kelly actually lived down the street from David when they were growing up, so they've known each other longer than I've even known Kelly! Tara and I have seen each other the most and actually usually get together every few months for a girls night out...so I know we'll be going out again next month! :) We've all known each other for-evah and it wasn't difficult to just pick right back up where we left off! Anyways, it was an awesome day and hopefully, we won't wait as long next time to hang out.

Hudson in the train

Jesse and her precious little Ayden

David and Ayden

Ayden was such a cutie with the bluest eyes ever!

Jesse and Kelly

Tara, Dakota and Hudson

Andy and Caden

Kelly and Caden

David chasing Hudson, ha!

David and Kelly

Hudson and Caden playing ball

Hudson stole Caden's ball :(

Hudson insisted on having some of his daddy's Dr. Pepper and of course, David relented and let him have some....this boy does not need any caffeine!

Kelly and Tara

Tara and Ayden

Tara and Ayden

Dakota - such a cute little girl and way well-behaved too!

Jesse and Ayden

Dakota and Tara at lunch - Dakota was a little upset about something???

Kelly, Andy and Caden

Caden and Dakota playing with the maracas

The mariachi band was playing live and the kids LOVED it!

Caden was so cute and sweet - he has the brownest eyes and LONG eyelashes. Such a cutie!

Miss Dakota looking sassy!

Hudson listening to the mariachi band - oh yes, he boogied his little bootie off too and I have a video to prove it!!! I will post it later. :)

David being silly with Hudson

Group shots --- the guys stood out and took them for us.

Thanks David and Andy, ya'll are the best!