Christmas Eve

Finally getting caught up on blogging . . . sorry for long delay . . . so without further ado . . .

Harley, Biscuit and I spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house.  Basically, it was Christmas Morning . . . Take 1.  =)  We opened presents, ate yummy eggs benedict (a family tradition) for breakfast, cooed at the baby and enjoyed each other.  We spent most the day in jammmies . . . minus getting out for a bit to enjoy the beautiful Christmas decorations @ The Preserve.

Here are some of my favorites from Christmas Eve. . .

Getting onto her alaphabet train for the first time . . . it's a hit!!

Climbing on Mommy in between opening presents

Investigating her presents . . .

Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting us . . . =)

Next stop . . . Christmas Morning @ home

PITA Bookshelves are DONE-ZO!!!!!!!!!!

This whole bookshelf project has been a total PITA [pain-in-the-ass].  Seriously.  Like, I'm not AT ALL KIDDING.

Here's where we started . . . [and for some reason this is the blurriest picture in the whole world]

Our landlord [at work] owns a Christmas Shop that has gone out of business.  He was selling fixtures and I got the total "brain-i-ac" idea to buy these shelves, refinish them, prime them and paint them white for our living room. 

I figured . . . how hard could this be, right? 

Why do I continously do this to myself???!!!!  I always think a home improvement project is 500% simplier and will take about 5% of the time it ALWAYS ends up taking . . .

In future home improvements projects, I'll be better about documenting the progress.  The thought of documenting my progress crossed my mind several times during this project but, honestly, I was just too pissed throughout most of this to stop and take pictures since it took 4 . . . count it . . . 4 . . . weekends to finish these bad boys.  I guess I didn't want to re-live some of the memories  =)

Needless to say . . . I have a new respect for anyone who refinishes furniture.  I also don't see myself doing this again . . . EVER.

Why, do you ask, was it one of the most un-fun things ever??

I didn't count on 2 coats of primer being necessary . . . which, when I look back on, was pretty dumb of me . . . the back of the bookshelves was very DARK blue. . .

I also didn't get the hang of the sander right away . . . so when I was smoothing out the front bottom panel and front top panel, I actually made quite a divet on both shelves and on both panels.  It was SUPER noticiable.  I mean . . . we had valleys all over both shelves and both panels.  At least I was consistent and jacked up both shelves.  =)

Hubby suggested that we use some wood filler to even it back out.  Turns out . . . we needed A LOT of wood filler . . . so after a trip to Lowe's for more and several hours for it to dry . . . sanding re-commenced.  Wood filler worked like a charm.  Those wood filler people are freaking geniuses!!!!!!

We FINALLY were ready to paint . . . and this step, believe it or not, took a lot less time than I thought.  I thought we would be painting for a few hours and it was really only took about 45 minutes for both shelves.  SCORE!!!!  This usually NEVER happens in home-improvement-land so I was beyond THIRLLED!!!!!!

And the last insult to injury . . . just when we thought we were ready to put the actual shelves into the bookcases and start getting all of our crap up out of the floor before Biscuit chewed on all of it . . . we looked and realized that the small front side of the shelf [that would be visible when looking at the bookshelf] needed another coat of paint.  Son of a . . . .

So we painted, waited about an hour . . . and then were able to put up the shelves.  I guess looking at the bright side, at least we still had paint!!  =)  That would have been terrible to run out . . .   

So here are those bad boys . . . in all their semi-gloss glory . . . resting in their new home on either side of the fireplace . . . right side of the fireplace . . .

And left side of the fireplace . . .





Like I said, there was a lot more involved with these than I initially thought . . . but they are done!!! WAHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 And I can FINALLY park in the garage again.  =)  WAHOOO times 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I've got left to do is to arrange everything on the shelves . . . I'm a little bit of a copy-cat . . . I like to look through the Pottery Barn magazines to see how they've got everything arranged on their bookshelves. . . then I use my non-Pottery-Barn accessories and do my best copy-catting.  I'll follow-up with a post once I've got it looking "Pottery-Barn-Esque"  =)

Christmas Open-House

I love Christmas and Christmas decorations!!!  =)  I'm still working on accumulating decorations . . . get a few more every year . . . but I wanted to give you a tour of what our casa looks like all decked out for Christmas.

So, come on in . . . just be careful not to step on the baby . . .

Here's our mantle . . . waiting for Santa . . . even got Santa's milk mug and cookie plate ready [just have to keep it out of Biscuit's reach]

And our living room Christmas tree . . . decked out mostly in ornaments from my childhood  =)

I love nativities . . . and so here's a close-up of one of the nativities I have sitting on our mantle.  



And the other nativity on our mantle . . . 

And the nativity on one of the bookshelves . . . [sidenote: post on bookshelves coming soon!!]

The Christmas tree in our dining room . . . "the fancy one" . . . with all purple and gold ornaments [It TOTALLY slipped my mind that these are LSU colors when I was accumulating the ornaments. . . so this is a total FAIL from a Bama fan standpoint.]

Our dining room table . . . 

Our kitchen nook . . . aka: where Ada eats  =)

We did not get around to the outside this year . . . but we have B-I-G plans for next year . . . so stay tuned!!  =)

I'll leave you with one more pic of Biscuit . . . just because she is so dang cute!!!  =)  This was at about 4:00AM on a weekday . . . Mommy and Daddy weren't exactly thrilled to be up, but Biscuit sure was!!  =)



Merry Christmas (a little early) from our home to yours . . .



Biscuit STANDS!!!!!

Biscuit STOOD UP ON HER OWN this morning . . .

I walked out of the living room, where she was playing on the floor, because I needed to get some socks to put on those cute little baby feet before she left with Daddy for school.  I came back into the living room and, lo and behold, I saw this . . .

I was THRILLED that I actually had my camera nearby and actually had the battery charged so that I could capture this "first" on film . . .

I'm so excited for her, but I don't know if I'm quite ready for this . . . I was just getting used to her "military crawling" . . .

Celebrating US!! =)

Harley and I just celebrated 4 years as "The Campbells" on December 1st . . . A lot has happened in 4 years . . . Just a random sampling . . .

2 houses                                                         
1 adopted outside kitty
2 new jobs (1 for each of us)                         
1 bathroom remodel
1 new baby                                                    
6 beach trips
1 new car                                                       
4 Cinco de Mayo Parties
6 different paint projects                               
1 bad haircut (Lynn)
8 states visited                                               
1 lawnmower (how is this thing still going?!?)
1 Bama National Championship                   
3 gas grills
5 weddings attended                                   
84 hosta


"What do you want to be married to me for anyhow?"
"So I can kiss you anytime I want."
~Sweet Home Alabama

Happy Anniversary Baby.  I love you. 

Halloween Part Deux

It's December . . . counting down to Santa . . . and what better to do that than to look at Halloween pics, right??  =)  Yup, I'm behind . . . forgive me . . . going to blame this on being too busy . . .

Without further ado . . . I give you Biscuit as Big Al . . . I'll narrate the photo-shoot for you . . .


Me:  Ada, look, its a pumpkin.  Can Daddy get your picture with the pumpkin?

Ada: Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba . . . [ignores Mommy's pleas and grabs pumpkin]

[Daddy, this is a pumpkin.  It is awesome.  Also, are you checking out these huge ears I've got on.  Why did Mommy do this to me??  Ah well, I'll smile.  She seems pretty into this whole Halloween costume.]



Ada: [You guys are still taking pictures?  Really??  Ok, but I'm going to need some nanners here soon.]

Ada: [Yay!!  I like this view so much more . . . and this pumpkin really helps me with the whole sitting-up-on-my-own thing I've been perfecting here lately . . . ]

Ada:  [I just saw the kitty!!!  And Mommy is over there too!!  And by the way . . . I wonder why I'm the only one around here dressed up like an elephant . . . ]

Ada:  [Daddy, I'm starting to get a little toasty . . . and I may have just made stinks . . . and I would really like it if you would let me hold the camera.]



Ada: Ummmm-BA!!!! [I told you guys . . . waiting for the BCS results is just stressing me out.  Can someone please get me some nanners???]



All this in a matter of about 50 seconds!!  =)

Stay tuned . . . Holiday open house with pics coming up!!!  =)

Racking up on Wrecks

So, to all of those of you that have attempted to keep score, add another tally mark to the wreck column.  I believe that brings the current tally to:

     Wrecks - 5; Avalon - 0

I'd like to preface all of this by saying, this was, again, not my fault.  Although it wasn't my fault, I'm starting to wonder where I picked up this bad car karma.  Seriously.

Let me fill you in . . .

1.  I am minding my own business, backing out of my driveway and BAM - hello, retaining wall.  Ok, this was definitely my fault, [boo-hiss] but the rest of these weren't . . .

2.  I am enjoying a beautiful Friday afternoon on my way home from work, [and out before 5:00 . . . yeah . . . didn't realize how fast I could go from winning to losing] yielding to on-coming traffic and waiting to turn right when BAM, re-ended.  She had insurance.  Car is repaired.  Life continues.

3.  I am beginning another work week on a dismal and cloudy Monday morning.  I'm stopped at a red light waiting for the signal to change and minding my own beeswax.  I happen to glance up and see major-moron coming at me, not braking at all, yapping on his cell phone and BAM, re-ended.  Again.  Seriously.  Throw in my first ambulance ride and you have wreck ^ 3.  Neck is ok.  He had insurance.  Car is repaired.  Life continues.

4.  Hubby and I have just endured the most boring parenthood-preparedness class from 8:00AM to 5:00PM on a SATURDAY.  Yes.  SATURDAY.  I am 7 months pregnant and starving [of course].  We are on our way to my parents house to chow down and visit with my sis and bro-in-law who are in town.  We slow down, see random-civic who needs a break, let them pass and wait for traffic.  Man-in-expensive-SUV is not paying attention and BAM, we are rear-ended and get pushed forward to hit random-civic.  Bummer.  So hungry and it is just sinking in that food will be delayed when B-A-M, we are hit AGAIN by Man-in-expensive-SUV who was hit by breaking-the-light-ginormous-truck and we are pushed back into random-civic.  Cue the tears.  I'm preggers and it occurs to me that food is even further away now that we are in a 4 car pile up.  Preggers and baby are ok.  Food is given to Preggers.  Car is repaired. Life continues.

5.  And to the present . . . again, minding my own beeswax, headed into the parking lot to pick up Biscuit from school when BAM, I am side-swiped by speeding black chevy truck about 75% of the way through my turn and then am hit on the hood and roof of my car with random flying mailbox.  Yes.  You read that right . . . random flying mailbox. Shoulder and wrist are both x-rayed and ok.  I opted out of the ambulance ride and just let the hubby take me.  Car is being repaired . . . and was surprisingly not totaled. 

Needless to say . . . I'm a little gun-shy about driving.  Let's just say that if you offer to come pick me up, I won't turn you down!   =)

Can anyone beat my # of wrecks??  Surely someone out that plays "bumper cars" as much as me, right?!?  =)