After a hard day's work

Things parents make their kids do....

Do I really have to put my left arm out so I look like the teddy bear?

Wall Art

My enemies will never find me on this wall. Oh wait, my head.

I'm 4 (weeks) now!

Hmm....that is interesting. This is the first blue outfit I've worn.

For Kids Only

I can't wait to be able to go and play on these....um I mean Lauren can't wait. :) The playgrounds are covered here because it gets so hot from the sun.


Some foliage near the playground.

Doll or Cat?

Mom, how embarrassing! I'm not a doll! I'm a cat. Can't you see that?

Sport Sedan to Minivan?

Our car is slowly turning into a family car. First the car seat, then a baby mirror so we can see Lauren from our rear view mirror. Hopefully it won't become one of those cars that has toys thrown all over the place, half eaten food on the floor, etc. And definitely no minivan no matter how convenient they may be.

Things to come...

It wasn't me.


They fall for it everytime. Heh, heh, heh....

Different levels of hunger

I'm hungry.


I'm hungry now so you better wake up!

Winner!

Won again.

BINGO!

It's that time again. The Saab needed a oil change so I always schedule them for Fridays when they play bingo. I won a calculator this round.

I'm ready to be swaddled now

Invasion of the Lizards

There seems to be two lizards living in our backyard. We've spotted them a dozen or so times already. Sometimes they are even doing pushups.


We aren't the only ones who have spotted them as well.

Easiest way to exercise

Lauren's first walk around the neighborhood although she didn't really do any walking.


Lauren's second walk. Not a bad way to travel.


Saguaro Cactus in bloom.




Lauren relaxing after her exhausting walk this morning.

What's all the crying about?

Hopefully Chester and Riley don't decide to make this their new Cat bed.

Pink bug

If only I were a two week old, I'd be able to reach that.

Baby Girl

After 40 weeks, Lauren was born on Saturday, May 19th at 10:05 am exactly on her due date. Her stats are 6 lbs 7 ounces and 19.5 inches long. They also measure her head and chest but that's a little too private to post. :)

We are still adjusting to our new little gift. We've been tracking her bowel movements and feedings and I'm in the process of setting up control charts. Just kidding.


Here's Lauren in Christy's arms.


Here's Lauren posing for her hospital pictures.


We weren't the only ones waiting anxiously for the baby. Picture courtesy of Grandma Pennie.


We would have stayed a little longer in the hospital but we didn't want to get hit with a late checkout charge. :) Who could blame us for wanting to stay longer? Adjustable bed, luxurious robes, daily room service....

The Ultimate in Luxury

Private jet, Limo, Spa, personal chef....a garage door that opens during a power outage. That's right. Don't you just hate not being able to open your garage door no matter what. Okay, I know what you are thinking. We really didn't need this but for $10 more, why not. Plus the garage door button has a built in motion sensor to turn on the light too. Again, we didn't need this since we have one already hooked up to the lights but I'm a sucker for a good deal.

Here's our old broken one that died before the weekend.

Our new one is a belt drive system that supposedly is super quiet. It's pretty quiet but the garage door is still noisy. You can see the huge honking backup battery mounted to the ceiling. It's kind of ugly and the new models have the battery built into the unit but heh, that's the price you pay for bargain luxury.

Glow stick

One final project before my skills become those of changing diapers and swaddling. Here you can see our cable outlet is in the upper part of our niche. This would be great if our TV were up there but it's not so instead we have an ugly cable going up to it. So what should have been quick job turned out to be a few hours.


Here I cut out a new opening for the cable outlet. Unfortunately there was a 2x4 blocking the path. Since I wasn't sure if there was another one above it, I decided to cut a peek hole in the bottom of the niche shelf. That had another stud so I couldn't see anything. My neighbor loaned me this really cool glow stick that is a really flexible fiberglass rod that you use to snake wires through walls. You can see it sticking out of the wall. This thing was really cool.


Since I couldn't snake the cable through the stud (it even had a hole drilled through it), I had to cut open another hole so I could feed it through.


Here you can see the repaired hole before texture and paint and the new outlet on the bottom. Granted this wasn't really needed but I need to get in as many projects as I can before I learn those new skills.

Earth Day

Here are our free compact florescent lightbulbs from Home Depot. They were giving them away today because of Earth Day. I just love getting free stuff.

Expecting mother

We aren't the only ones expecting.

Cost cutting

You have to wonder if the person packing this said, "You guys are going to lunch now? Just let me finish this." Seriously, why even bother putting any filler if you are only going to put a little. I am glad that they didn't fill the box with foam peanuts though. The baby tub is made of plastic so it probably didn't even need any. It's pretty big but fits in our tub with ease. Originally I thought you would wash the newborn by the kitchen sink but this thing is a little too big. We got this Eurobath by Primo at Babiesrus.com.

A little toast with your butter

Nothing like teaching your kids to eat healthy. You can buy this at Babystyle.

Have pack n play, will travel....

Another new addition to the home. Here's our new pack n play from Graco. We got it from albeebaby.com. I have a feeling I'll be using the changing pad part of it more than anything else. Also, I'm not really sure how much we'll be packing this thing to go anywhere. Hopefully tearing it down and setting it back up will be a lot faster than putting it together.

Still Motion

Solar System at Pottery Barn Kids.

If you are ever in Pottery Barn Kids take a look at the solar system mobile.  The planets aren't in the right order and don't accurately depict the solar system.  The designer must have failed Earth Science.  

I don't remember this as a kid.

We definitely won't be buying this book.  

Happy Easter!

One of the many bunnies in our area. This one just outside the window.


Photo of mexican primrose in our garden. These look really nice when they are flowering, otherwise they look like weeds. We've tried to kill most of these in our yard.


Allergies anyone?


These birds are very loud and they eat other bird's eggs.


Dead lantana.


Finally got around to replacing our dead lantana. It only took 2 years.

I hope we aren't missing a piece.

Ikea has modern design, low prices, and a million parts so you can build your own furniture. Dressers are probably the worst for having lots of parts.


Here you can see the 6 drawer dresser. The plan is to use this as the changing station. Only took us 2 hrs or so to build it.