this and that

I'm glad you guys enjoy my little 'this and that' posts.  Sometimes they really are the most fun to write.  All of the mess that has been swirling around in my brain gets to plop out for all to see.  Clears my head and helps me find solutions to random problems all at the same time.  Not too mention they find a place for other random tidbits and photos that don't really need an entire post on their own.

I apologize that this randomness is coming to you later in the day, I opted to eat ice cream (frozen yogurt) and watch the Sing Off last night as opposed to being productive.  Mature, I know.  And sorry if this offends anyone but I am so over Afro Blue.  Seriously.  Bring the Yellow Jackets back, or Vocal Point, or heck even Delilah.  They weren't going to win but were WAY more entertaining.  In my opinion of course.  Moving on...

::  First up, of course, the winner of the My Memories Suite giveaway...

Congrats!  Get me your contact information and I will give you a code to download your software!

::  My child.  Oh my goodness.  Seriously, I wish you all could see her in action.  (I am being a very biased proud mama right now, but whatever)  She is so smart and so funny.  Yes, she is exhausting and literally threw a hysterical crying five minute fit because the cat sat on my lap (we are screwed when we have another kid).  But this morning she carefully navigated through a large group of kids at the gym saying "Eh-SCUSE me guys.  Excuse me.  Excuse me guys" the whole way.  And at breakfast this morning she told me my toast looked like a dinosaur after I'd taken a few bites.  Yesterday she deemed the park the jungle.

Also, she is 100% into being my little helper right now.  I was trying to clean the kitchen while she finished her breakfast this morning, and she freaked out, "Get down help mommy clean!  All done with breakfast.  Get down help mommy clean!"  So cute.  She also has to put her toys away before moving onto something else.  Definitely a good thing, but not something I was enforcing or anything.  Last night when I said it was time for bath she started to go, but turned around and started putting all her toys away.  I was amazed.

::  Today during lunch I randomly decided I think I want to paint my kitchen table blue.  I think we spent $300 on the table at Crate and Barrel four years ago, and the top has definitely seen better days.  I know I need to do something about it, so today I thought, why not blue?  I'm in the mood to bring in more color to my house, get rid of the sea of dark brown.  But I'm not sure I would love a blue table in there.  What are your thoughts?  I found one semi inspiration photo on pinterest...

photo on the left via here, photo on the right is my dining room!

::  We had some family photos taken yesterday by the lovely Adrienne Maples.  I can't wait to see them, and I can't wait to get started on our holiday cards!  I swear I will NOT wait until the last minute this year (our cards may have gone out around New Years last year, whatever).  But I suppose I'm already pushing it aren't I?  Thanks to my little Elevated Envelope experience (did I ever mention Tara picked mine as one of her favorites?  See the post here...) I really want to do something fun on the outside as well as the inside.  In theory I could get started, but I feel like I need to pick a photo first...

::  My house smells like chili.  Because there is chili in the crockpot.  My house doesn't randomly smell like chili... maybe this time around I'll actually remember to take a picture of it and share the recipe.  I also have a recipe for crockpot beef stew that I need to pass along.  My love for my crockpot is becoming absurd, you have no idea.  If you want to leave me your absolute favorite crockpot recipe I would be happy to peek at it!  :)

:: Is there seriously no one in the KC area that would do the Great Santa 5K Run with me on December 4th?  Please?  Please?!?!?  I know, I could just go by myself, but that isn't a ton of fun.  I don't necessarily want to drag Christopher and Ryann out there (although it does say they will have the best race breakfast in town... hmm...).  It is just a 5K.  You know you want to!

::  Some pictures that I want to share... Ryann is the happiest and goofiest when she is eating.  Not too mention she is sitting still.  So I tend to have lots of pictures of her at the table...

ryann, in the future I might suggest refraining from that look...

I suppose I should actually get some work done.  A little boy's sock monkey birthday party printables need my attention!  Have a good one :o).