Woody and Toy Story - Kaleb's First Favorite Movie

We have a new trend over here at Casa de Verde. 

And theres a snake in his boots. 

Yup, my Dad got Kaleb a Sheriff Woody doll shortly after his birthday and hes been dragging him around ever since.

I thought Kaleb should know more about the man behind the badge, so I showed him the movie Toy Story...

He watched the ENTIRE MOVIE. He has never even come close to that kind of attention span before!

I don't know how thrilled I am about it, but it does come in handy. :D

Oh, and he has a Woody sippy cup too.

He'll hold Woody over his shoulder and pat his bottom, like we do to Kaleb when its bed/nap time.

And Kaleb will hold Woody tight, especially when watching Toy Story.

Kisses for Woody.

Kaleb also likes to take Woody's hat off and try to put it back on again.

Now, you may remember Kaleb being attached to a certain sock monkey... well he still is. Monkey is for bed time and church. Woody is for play time.

I miss nursing

Is that weird?
I don't think it is, but I'm still unsure.

Most moms I talk to to say they're glad to finally have the freedom, to not be bitten by their little milk vampires anymore.

and, though Kaleb never bit me, it is nice to have the freedom of not nursing.

But I still miss it.

I miss needing nothing other than my own body to calm, sooth and feed my son.
I miss him holding me tight and cuddling as he fed. I mean, lets be honest, he is not at all interested in cuddling right now.

Maybe its all part of me resisting (however slightly) him growing up.
I am so proud of my son. I love watching him discover his world and all the things in it.

Hes making decisions now.
My baby is making decisions.

Hes choosing when he wants more and when hes all done.
He knows what books he wants to hear at bedtime.
He decides when he wants to take a bath (which is whenever I ask him, but still)

I'm glad we weaned. It was the right time.
But I see the last small remnant of my baby slipping away.
In his place there is a curious, intelligent, independent and saucy toddler sneaking up.

I also feel unneeded.
Is it coincidence that weaning coincided with Kaleb's "Daddy" phase?
When he was an infant and cried when ever his dad (or anyone besides me) held him, in order to comfort Blake, I told him it was because I was Kalbe's food source. He didn't want me, he wanted lunch.

I didn't think it was actually true.

Now EVERYTHING is "Dada". He even carries around a picture of Blake (when he, Blake, is at work) and says "Dada!" most of the day.

I miss being #1.
And, alright, I'll admit it, I think I deserve to be #1 always. (until he falls in love, of course)

I carried him for 9 months! I fell in love with him when he was the size of my pinky. When Blake would occasionally forget he even existed. Not to mention the struggle of bringing him into this world.

I love him so much.
So completely.
I am a little bitter about being second fiddle to Blake.
(but I guess, if I have to be second to anyone, it should be him)

I expected that with girls, but not my boy.

So, now I have no milk, hardly any cuddles and all the baby weight in the world...

I guess I also have a strong, healthy, so smart toddler who, if I'm lucky, will give me a kiss or two and let me hold his bottle while he drinks.

A New Patio and Kaleb's First BBQ

What I thought was going to be a complete DIY/Paitio furniture overhaul turned into a lazy Saturday where we just bought a new patio set and a BBQ for good measure.

It was pretty awesome.

We had to christen our new patio.

Blake made us a yummy dinner on our new toy

Best chicken ever

My only contribution - the Ceaser Salad

Asparagus wrapped in Bacon. Thank you Disney Land's Bengal Barbecue!

From Blake's Soda Stream he got for Father's Day

It was so nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the summer evening! I think my boys had a good time. :D

In case you were wondering how to make your mouth water (don't let its simplicity fool you)

Chicken Recipe:

• Cut up full chicken
• Add about 4 cups of vinegar to a bowl 
• Mix in 1/2 cup to 1 cup of salt until dissolved
• Place chicken in bowl and let soak for about a minute
• Remove and place on hot grill
• Cook about 30 min or until done
• Eat the best chicken ever 

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus Recipe:

• Soak your skewers in water so they won’t accidentally catch on fire when you grill them.
• While they are soaking, cut the asparagus in the chunks about the width of your bacon
• Wrap some bacon around each chunk, making sure some overlap. The overlap is where you’ll want to skewer through so the bacon doesn’t fall off easily.
• Put the skewers on your grill and flip occasionally to cook the bacon to crispy golden brown.
  • TIP: Use tongs to pick up the entire skewer so all chunks are turned at the same time, otherwise some chunks may not turn if you simply try to turn the skewer.

You're welcome.

Kaleb is 8 months old

He is growing faster than I can track it!

He is super busy too...

• In one month he went from rolling around, to army crawl to full on baby crawl.
• He calls for me (nanannana)... that may also mean "feed me"
• He call for Blake (dadadada)... that may also mean "play!"
• He can clap his hands, but only when he decides. You can't really make him start.
• He pulling himself up. We even had to lower the crib because I was afraid he was going to topple out!
• Hes trying bits of food from Mommy and Daddy's plates. Its a hit or miss.
• At Grandma and Grandpa Green's house, we learned that he loves to gnaw on chicken bones (striped clean first, of course)
• He learned the baby sign for Milk, but he only does it while hes eating and wont do it to ask for milk.
• He has NO teeth. Zero. But I can totally see the bottom two just below the surface of his gums. They're ready.
• We're still facinated by him. Many nights, when Blake comes home from work, we'll all pile on the bed and watch him climb, clap and yell 

Though I sometimes miss my little ball of squishy, and sometimes look forward to having conversations with my son, I am COMPLETELY enjoying the stage we're in now. My little crawler, yeller, cuddly big baby boy. 

Painted Paper Doilies : I Love Our "Us"

I felt crafty.
I was also inspired by all the Pinterest amazingness, I thought I'd try to create my own little project. (though I'm sure someone else somewhere has done something like this)

I used grey, green and brown acrylic paint.
(I just bought the cheapest kind)

I bought regular paper doilies in two sizes and painted with my handy little roller

I tried out different positions for the doilies on my blank 12x12 canvas

I also got large silver letters from the scrap booking aisle at Michael's 

Placed the letters in their position before I stuck them on

I had to tape the large doilies around the corners of the canvas, but used spray adhesive for the rest of them
and used spray Modge Podge to give it a glossy look.

Doesn't it look lovely on our Television cabinet?

Heres a closer look. I let the canvas lay over night on its face, that flattened out any doily curling.

Michaels was having a HUGE canvas sale, packs of 7 and 10 for $15 and less depending on the size. I'm unsure if its still going on, but I also made our kitchen wall canvases with them
(I'll blog about that little project next.)

A Succulent Porch is a Pretty Porch

Our bare porch was not pleasing to me.

However, I have a brown thumb (despite my last name)

Enter the succulent.

Hello ascetically pleasing porch! 

Some of my tools

corner plant shelf

I like this little rose-ish guy

This one looks promising too.

BABY PLANTER!

the guardians of the garden! I want to name them but I dont know what.
Any ideas?

 So much better. :D

Becky made us curtains! ...I helped...

I wanted curtains for our living room, but had no idea how to make them.

Becky knew how to make them.

We started a project.

After I chose fabric, Becky showed me how to measure out how much we needed and how to cut the fabric.

The she pinned the sides.

I pinned one side.

Then she Ironed the curtains.

I ironed one side.

Then we had a curtain rod fiasco.

But then it was OK.

THEN she added little strips of fabric to hold back the curtain when it was open.

Here is the smaller window. 

And the larger window.

Here is the little fabric strip.

Little pieces of Velcro were added because Becky is amazing.

She also attached two pieces of fabric together to create the large curtains. 

Becky! The designer and creator of  my lovely curtains.
This image was stolen from her blog,  http://quinnandbecky.blogspot.com/
Isn't she a lovely preg-o?

So,  now Becky's gone and I'm trying to recreate her method to make curtains for our bedroom.
I miss her.

Our first wedding, post Kaleb

This past Saturday was our very fist wedding since we had our little one.

It was also the absolute longest I've been away from him.

Thank goodness it was an awesome wedding.

Just look at this bride.

Also, thank goodness it was also Genreal Conference weekend because Mom, Becky and Freesia were all there to take care of my boy. (Dad, Quinn and Jordan were there too, but... you know.)

Everything turned out fine. Kaleb had a good time over all, but still refuses to eat from a bottle and only nibbled on his baby food, so he was starved by the time I got home.

Hopefully he's more bottle receptive this Saturday when we shoot in San Diego. :(

Becky's Detailed Dr. Seuss Themed Baby Shower: One fish, two fish, red fish, new fish.

As Becky and I were walking one morning, we realized that she would be leaving soon. Moving quite a ways away so Quinn could work and be ridiculously successful.

So, we decided to have a baby shower the very next weekend.

And I decided to plan it. :D

I honestly don't know if I stepped on Quinn's or Becky's mom's toes, but they didn't object so I went a little baby shower crazy. 

I had one week and a million ideas. 

Cathy (Becky's mom) and Mamma Green were both fabulous. Cathy going shopping with me and ironing out the details of location (as the shower would be held in her home) and Mamma Green staying up crazy late with me finishing the final craft touches and boiling eggs. 

But I must say, everything went off with out a hitch and all the details were well worth it!

A welcome sign for the guests on the Tucker's front door.

Becky and Quinn's baby pictures along with a little Dr. Seuss-ish (I hope) poem. 

Advice cards for Becky.

Sign the wish/guest book for the baby!

I made it from stickers, cut outs and a scrap book (I'll post details later)

We had Dr. Seuss books all over. They had a Jamba Juice gift card in them and doubled as our  prizes.

More Seuss goodness.

Decorations like this were all over the walls. 

The Menu itself was also inspired by the good doctor.

Aren't they lovely? Simple deviled eggs and lots of green food coloring. We blended the yolks with mustard, mayo and some spices. Then put the mixture in a freezer bag with the food coloring until it was even and lovely. When it came time to put the yolks back in the eggs, we cut the corner off the bag and Becky's sister piped them beautifully in place.

Becky's mother got up extra early to make our delicious ham.

I created these candy wrappers and Mom and I cut and glued them on the candy bars.

I also made these water bottle labels.  Super simple.

Glue stick wouldn't work here, so Blake hot glued these bad boys. 

Do you remember in Cat in the Hat how the bossy gold fish ends up in a tea pot? Yeah, that's what this is. Gold fish crackers in one of Becky's Mom's tea pots.

Mama Green made DELICIOUS funeral potatoes. I renamed them "Lorax Whiskers" to stay in theme. :D

Cat-in-the-hat-punch. AKA: Crystal Light.

Didn't Becky's mom do a lovely job setting up this table? I love that pitcher... jug... spigot thing. What do you call that thing?

And then there was the cake.

Holy cow this cake.

The entire time I was planning, I knew I wanted the cake to be the center of the table. It had to be awesome. There was a couple different bakers I thought of, but as soon as I connected with Pam Lemon, I knew she would nail it.

She is super talented and owns an in home bakery called Sweet Lemonade Cake Pops.

Pam also provided that super cute cake stand

How perfect is this cake? SO PERFECT!

I absolutely loved it! Wanna know the best part? It was Funfetti cake and frosting inside the HOMEMADE fondant. 

The whole table!

Becky's dad went early in the morning to pick up about 20 balloons that morning. It really was a team effort.

Then we started playing the shower games!
Or first was the TP game.
It went like this: Try and guess how many squares of TP fit around Becky's big baby belly.

It was 10! (Isn't she lovely?)

The second game was the "Baby name game"
Everybody wrote down as many names that started with B or Q in two minutes.

it was a two way tie so Becky listened to the names and chose her favorite.
Here is our amazing baker, Pam Lemon reading off her 18 names.

Becky chose Pam's name "Babette".
But I seriously doubt she'll name her son that.
well... maybe.

Then it was present time!

Dr. Seuss

little pants

baby basics

books

wipes

secrets

onsies

BECKY!

Julianna eating some cake.

Green sisters (and Kaleb)

Becky and her mommy.

Planning the shower was seriously one of most fun things I've done in a while
(time consuming and all encompassing, but totally fun)

We love you, new little baby Green. 
We cannot wait to meet you. 
You are so lucky to have such an awesome mom, dad, grandmas and family.

(If you LOVE the printables you can get the updated version at http://www.printablepartydesigns.co/product/dr-seuss-1-fish-2-fish-new-fish-baby-shower-printable-package-turquoise-red. There were are few things I created - the poems and the baby look a like- but feel free to copy the text if you'd like, just let me know how your shower goes!)