Who, me? Did what?

My littlest Raegan is giving me a run for my money. She is the sweetest, most precious little girl and for documentation sake, she just turned 18 months old yesterday. To balance her sweetness, she can throw fits with the best of them, climb a mean rock wall and has no fear of sliding down any slide, no matter the height.

She loves:
Ernie and Elmo
Sporting any kind of shoe - after putting any one of her 6 pairs on, she proudly squeals "OOOoooooooo"
Her blankies - yes 2. One used to be a travel blankie and the other one stayed in her crib, but now she enjoys both equally and wants them with her.
Her pacifier
SWEETS!!!! She has a serious addiction and does not discriminate.
Her "Bubby" - AKA Big Brother Logan
Abby - my parents little Corgi puppy - She squeals her name better than no other
Playing outside, especially in the water table - We have a small plastic Ernie that she loves to play at the water table with. She throws him, walks away and then comes running back yelling "Ernie, where are you?". Once he's found she squeals "There you are". It's hilarious!

Words:
She can repeat most anything we ask her to and usually will repeat whatever the last word was that we just spoke. Some of the cutest words she can say are: rose, church, Ernie and phrases: "I did it", "Where are you?", "Happy, happy birthday to you (the Sprout Happy Birthday song)". Her current favorite song to sing besides Happy Happy Birthday to you is the Alphabet. We can often hear her on the monitor after I've put her down for a nap or for the night singing herself to sleep.

Raegan loves getting bites off of my plate. I haven't eaten a full bowl of my own cereal since she's been old enough to eat. She comes and nestles in by my legs, looks at me ever so sweetly and says "bite?" in the way only she can. She also much prefers to eat the food off of my plate even if she has been served the exact same thing. It's almost like eating with seagulls surrounding me constantly begging for food.

Raegan has a very mischievous side to herself as well.  She gets in to absolutely EVERYTHING she shouldn't. Her favorite past time is grabbing my cell phone with lightning speed and within seconds she's pushed so many buttons which usually have resulted in her sending text messages and even making phone calls. I've come to find out that she has also been deleting text messages that I haven't even read yet. She loves getting in the desk drawer and pulling out the Sharpie markers and ink pens as if they were placed there just for her. Here is the most recent damage:

Still trying to figure out exactly how to get this up. I'm dealing with wooden train tracks, ceramic tile and laminate flooring. I figure the wool rug has no hope at all so I'm not even going to try. Google here I come for some answers. Something tells me I'm about to invest in Mr. Clean scrubbing pads.

Today, I took the kids to Target to get a birthday gift for one of Logan's classmates (Is it me, or does everyone find it difficult to shop for other peoples kids? I find it SUPER stressful.) as well as some MUCH needed allergy medicine. After a hellacious shopping trip with multiple games of in the cart, out of the cart, fits thrown, Raegan walking in the exact opposite direction 37 times, her sucking on Logan's root beer like it was crack cocaine and a conversation with a pharmacist while all those around me huffed, puffed and rolled their eyes while my children ran in circles handing me about 7 or 8 bottles of Lightning McQueen Bubble Bath, I finally made it to the check out line. I'd thought I had seen it all when, after loading my items at the register, I look up to find this sweet face...

Eating straight through the wrapper of a Rolo package. Evidence...

I could not believe my eyes. I looked down at the floor thinking I'd see the foil as well as some of the wrapper. Nope! She ate it. She managed to eat about 2 before I was able to grab them, pay for them (Target can thank me) and head out on our merry way.

While taking pictures of the Rolo wrapper for the blog Raegan just came running in yelling "Bite... bite!!!". Her super hero power is being able to smell chocolate from miles away. She got it from me. What more can I say.

Happy 18 months my sweet Raegan Marie. You are a beautiful blessing and bring us more joy than we could possibly imagine!

Always my sweet nephew

I'll never forget the day. I was a freshman in college and my thoughtful boyfriend Scott had just walked me to my dorm. I made my way up to my room and there was a message on the answering machine for me. My sister had just given birth to the first boy of the next generation in our family. It was February 4th. I jumped up, ran as quickly as I could down the stairs, out the door and about a half a block through campus until I caught up with Scott to give him the news. I was so excited. We hugged and he kissed me on my cheek (which was scandalous given the fact that we were at a Christian university and any form of PDA other than hand holding was prohibited). I couldn't wait to get home that next weekend to meet my precious, new nephew.

Austin and I have shared a special relationship throughout his 15 years of life on this earth, as has he and Scott. I loved spending time with him as he was growing up, whether it was playing hide and seek, going to the pumpkin patch, giving him piggy back rides while I whinnied through the house with him giggling on my back or reading him books to help him fall asleep at night. He has always been so dear to my heart.

Last summer Austin moved to Texas to live with his dad. Given that we have always lived about 2 hours away from each other, I didn't know how much it would affect me to have him so far away or how much I would miss him.

Austin came for a visit this weekend as he is on spring break from school. He was only here for the day as he will be travelling up to spend the rest of his time with his mom, brothers and sister. It has been a wonderful day of catching up, playing games and just being together. As I left him tonight I was overcome with emotion of how much I miss him. I wish he wasn't so far away and that we could see him more regularly and that he could be a part of our lives as well as our kids lives.

I've always found it amazing how babies and kids just seem to know who their family is no matter how much time has past. Logan and Raegan both took right to their cousin and gave him lots of love and hugs.

Raegan giving Austin some sweet hugs

Austin and Logan

Raegan thought Austin was pretty great. She spent most of her time with him flirting.

Me and Raegan with Aus. Get a load of Raegan's pose. She is a ham!

Austin, I don't even know if you read this blog but just in case. You are dearly and deeply loved and missed. You will ALWAYS have a home here and are welcome anytime! Please, please come back soon. You are growing in to quite a wonderful and handsome young man. We are here for you no matter what. Don't forget it.

All my love,

Aunt Erin



Impromtu

I LOVE impromtu days! They are good for the soul. Well, my soul at least.  Today started out with meeting up with my family at a property that my sister and her family are buying. Have I mentioned that a wonderful truck-load of my family are moving to my city? If you had asked me a year ago if my parents, aunt, uncle, sister, brother in law, 2 nephews and my niece would be within a 10 mile radius from my home within the year, I would have told you you were crazy and that it was an absolute improbablitiy. God sure had different plans.

Anywho, I got to meet the snuggliest and most handsome addition to our family this morning.

Isn't he just absolutely precious? It made my day to kiss his cheeks and feed him his bottle. I love the thought of getting to watch him and his big brother grow up. Get here soon Joshua; before you grow out of this precious, squishy, infant stage.

After taking in my sisters new palace, we lunched at Panera and then invited my sister in law and her 2 fun kiddos over for a spur of the moment play date.  I usually plan play dates out carefully so I can make sure my house has been vacuumed, dishes washed or at least put in to the dishwasher and the house in some semblence of order.  How free it was to just say "Come on over!", knowing full well my house was a hot mess, but not having the time to fret and worry over every speck of dirt on the kitchen floor. Spending time with those we love is SO much more important. Our play date turned in to a fun shopping trip for hair supplies, which then turned in to eating dinner out together. My brother joined us and we got to eat for FREE. Does a day get any better than that? I don't think so.

I saw an awesome and fun OPI nail polish on Pinterest a few weeks ago and have been dreaming of owning it ever since. 

Source: google.com via Erin on Pinterest

While at the professional beauty supply store this afternoon I decided to see if they had it.  Since my mommy brain couldn't remember the exact name of the color, I picked one that I thought looked close. It's called Road House Blues by OPI. I'm SO excited to put it on. Hopefully tomorrow.

It's pretty close, don'tchya think?

Photo courtesy of: http://lauraslacquers.blogspot.com/2011/08/opi-roadhouse-blues.html

Decking the Halls for St. Patty's Day

I know I'm about a year or so behind, but, I've FINALLY figured out what Pinterest is and how to use it. Oy! I know. Anyway, I am LOVING it.  I've been wanting to do some new crafts lately and needed inspiration. I had just taken down my Valentine's decorations and everything was looking a bit depressing.  I thought "what's the next holiday?", oh yeah, St. Patricks Day.  Let's break out the shamrocks. 

My first "pin" and craft project was this fun, free printable found here . Quick and super cute!  I even found a fun, simple frame at my local JoAnn Fabrics for 70% off. 

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

Thanks to the girls at

Here is the printable on my mantel.

The next craft idea I came across was going to allow me to get my hands dirty and I was excited. 

Source: thecsiproject.com via Erin on Pinterest

Thanks to this fun blog for the idea

Alas, mine didn't turn out quite as elegant, BUT, it was a lot of fun to make, I like how it turned out and it fed my crafty need. My craft store also did not have the lucky horse shoes, so I just left them off.

*Also, if you make this wreath be aware that it is VERY side heavy and will NOT hang straight.  I affixed some old fashioned sticky tack to the back, lower portion of my wreath and it stuck to the door helping it to hang straight.

Last but not least, I wanted to get my 4 1/2 year old involved.  Mommy can't have all the fun.  I found this idea on Pinterest.

Source: lestout.com via Erin on Pinterest

Who knew you could do that with a green pepper?  Well... apparently the gal who thought of it. (Smile!) Linda Dunbar is her name and you can find her link here.  She has some other really cute ideas for St. Patrick's Day crafts with your kiddos.

I was shopping one day at the grocery store and they had a 5 pack of green peppers on sale.  Bonus!  I grabbed a bag and after we got the littlest down for a nap Logan and I got to work.  We decided not only to do a 3 "leaf" shamrock but to do a 4 "leaf" clover as well.  Thankfully our peppers complied.  I used white card stock paper and some green acrylic paint. 

I'm thinking of cutting them out, mounting them on some nice cardstock, patterned scrapbook paper layered with burlap and string them together for a garland of sorts.  I'll be sure to post pics if I ever get around to actually doing it.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing how we're getting ready for St. Patrick's Day.  Erin Go Bragh!