The Townsends: August 2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Surprise!

Last week Tracy invited me out to dinner for Friday night. She had all kinds of tricks up her sleeve and little white lies she told me to explain why she was on my side of town, why it would be easier to pick me up even though I lived out of the way, etc. When we arrived at the wine bar some of my friends were there for a surprise pre-30th birthday night out (my actual 30th bday is 9/9)! After the surprise set in the first thing I said of course was "I don't have my camera!" followed by "I would have dressed a little nicer" Ha! Luckily Amber had her camera so all was right with my world. ;)

One of the little schemers Liz and me (I asked her on Friday what she was doing over the weekend and she avoided answering me and now I know why)

Liz, me, Tracy & Pig

Amber, Angela, Liz and me

The girls! They were all so sweet to come!

After we left the wine bar we headed across the street to hang out some more.

Here's the secret planner and me. She's the BEST! :)

Pig, Angela and Liz

This is how it usually goes on a night out. Half of the pictures are of everyone else and half the pictures are of Liz. The girl is entertaining! I have lots of pics of her from Friday night but I'm going to choose not to put them on here. ;) She's pretty funny.

Thank you girls so much for a great night out!! Y'all are the BEST! And you actually managed to surprise ME!! It's not easy to do since I like to know every detail about everything I'm doing. Ha!

Monday, August 23, 2010

1st Blogiversary!

Today is the one year anniversary of me starting this blog! I don't know if blogiversary is a real word or not but I'm saying it. :) I've had so much fun updating the blog and enjoy it more than I thought I would. It's so much fun for me to look back at past entries and see what we were doing or looked like. Leah's really the only one who's changed her appearance much but it's still fun. :)

So, for my blogiversary I figured I'd share my top 10 blog posts in order of date.

1. Ok, so we might be a tad obsessed...

I love this post because it's Leah introduction and just lots of pictures of the pretty girl right after she was born.

2. Time Well Wasted!

This post shows some of the things I love. Brad Paisley and my friends. :) We always have such a good time together and I think this post shows that.

3. Show Us Your Life - Fall Decorations

I like this post because I LOVE fall decor so I was happy to get to show some of mine. :)

4. B-b-b-b-bb-b-b-b-b-b-b-bb-b-b-GO BAYSIDE!

I love this post because it was such a fun night and we had so much fun getting our costumes together!

5. Christmas Tour Of Homes

Same reason as #3

6. Christmas Week Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

This one was a four-parter. I love these posts because it shows exactly how crazy and busy that week is and we love it! We get to see almost EVERYONE on all sides of the family!! Some can't make it and we're sad but we get to see most everyone. :)

7. Simple Pleasures

I love this post because it reminds me of all the good in my life. :)

8. Neil Diamond

Do you really need a reason to love this post?! ;) Austin did such an awesome job!

9. Show Us Your Life - Proposals

I just love this story :)

10. Happy 1st Birthday Leah Shay!

I love this post because it shows Leah through out her 1st year. I love that little girl SOOO much!

So, there you have it! One year down of memories and many more to come! :)
I wonder how many of the 13,175 hits I've gotten have been me... Ha!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Fun day with Leah

Saturday I babysat Leah at my house for a few hours while Tracy had a bridal shower to attend. It's funny because I have absolutely NOTHING "baby" in my house. No toys, no high chair or bumbo seat. Nothing. So, it was lunch time and I didn't know where I should feed Leah because she feeds herself now.

We ended up on the kitchen floor because it was easiest to clean and she can't see the table if she's sitting in a regular chair.

This pic is blurry but I think it's so funny.

Leah really getting into the whole "free eating" thing. Not exactly the same as being strapped into a high chair.

And then she took off crawling FAST and left little ravioli hand prints on my floor and carpet. Ha!

So, that was the end of the floor eating. We moved to the counter next.

After a major wipe down of both Leah and the kitchen (and my hair that now had ravioli sauce in it) and a change of clothes she wanted some milk. But she didn't want to feed herself so I fed her the milk while she stood on her own the ENTIRE time! :) Such a big girl! And a little high maintenance... ;)

Silly Leah

Katie came by for about 30 minutes and for some reason Leah was NOT happy about having visitors! This was her the entire time. She wouldn't let me put her down. It was so strange but I guess Leah just wanted Leah & Aunt Kelly time.

Awe, sweet baby girl

And this was taken about one minute after Katie left. Silly little Leah.

See, I told you I don't have any baby stuff. Leah's favorite toys at my house are the remote and pill bottle. She LOVED shaking that thing! And I LOVE child proof caps! ;)

We ended the afternoon with some stacking. She's very particular about stacking stuff, I think she's super smart. :)

Things I learned from this baby sitting experience.

1. Get something for the baby to sit in if they are coming during a meal.

2. Pill bottles and remotes work fine but have some baby toys at the house as backup.

3. Once the baby figures out they are free, they WILL take off very quickly no matter how messy their hands are and you will end up with a BIG mess to clean up.

4. Peek-a-boo and dancing usually will turn a mood around in your favor.

We had a great time!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Leah's Kitchen

Back in the spring I ran across a few blogs that had "night stand kitchens" so that gave me the idea of what we could give Leah for her birthday. We drove around a few weekends checking out garage sales for night stands and came across a huge neighborhood wide garage sale in May where we found this beauty for $7.50!

Right away I got destructive :)

See! I did some "real" work!

Austin starting on the sink

The sink is in and drawers are out! The sink is a dog bowl and the faucet is from the house when we moved in that we replaced.

The first coat of paint is on! The black is for the oven.

The surface of the counter is a granite spray that we sprayed on and then sanded to make smooth.

A better look at the counter top. Up close it really looks like granite!

Back is on and it's starting to look like a kitchen!

A few weeks later, this is what we had! Austin did all the constructing and I did all the painting.

The burners are black spray painted wooden base balls from Michael's. The top part is just silver spray painted popsicle sticks.

I missed a few steps in the pictures but here is the finished product! I painted everything on it myself. To give it a "homemade look" ya know. Ha! Just kidding, I'm not the best painter but I think it all turned out ok.

Salt and pepper shakers

I sewed the curtains and towel to match. We attached the "L" onto the back part with velcro instead of glue in case they have another girl and her name doesn't start with an "L".

Leah's List on the chalk board. One day she'll get chalk, just not quite yet though. ;)

The oven! We just spray painted it black and Austin attached the door with hinges and a magnet.

LOVE the pots and pans! So cute! I got those at IKEA.

So, there you have it! Those are the secrets behind the kitchen. Three months of sweat, hard work and fun is over and now the fun is all Leah's!

Leah's 1st Birthday Party!

Saturday was Leah's 1st birthday party. It was a blast! The birthday girl wasn't so sure about all the people there but I think she had a good time. :)

Leah's door sign