Lately

I have been meaning to jot a few things down that I want to remember.
Ben is a year and a couple weeks. He is fascinated with fans. Every time we enter a room, he points at the ceiling as if to say, "Where's the fan?" He also loves wheels and water. He can sign "more" and understand my signing for other things like "bath," "orange", "walk." He plays a pretty good peek-a-boo too. I really should post a video of that..Adorable!

His favorite foods are turkey, chicken, oranges, pears, blueberries, and bananas in that order. He dislikes babysitters and church nurseries.

At the Little Gym, when it is explore the gym time, and ALL the other kids go and play and roll and the mats and walk around, Ben goes straight for the knobs on the equipment. Today he actually unscrewed the knob and handed it to me, which freaked me out thinking the entire gym was going to come crashing down. I was assured this would not happen.

When Ben meets a new friend, he will either pull their hair or stick a finger in their mouth. Nice. He loves sleep like his mommy.

He's giving us around 13 hours at night and will take a 2 hour nap at 1:00, or no nap at all depending on what we do that day. If he even gets as little as a 10 minute nap in the car on the way home FOR nap time, forget it.

Our favorite activity at the moment is riding our bikes with Ben. We got a Croozer trailer for him, so he gets to settle in and enjoy the breeze while mama works her tail off. it can be a pretty good workout, especially if there is wind.

These are pictures from the day we experienced our first "poop disaster." Little did I know when dressing him in such a cute outfit that hours later they would be ruined, and he would be strapped in his car seat NAKED due to the mess. Two things I learned from that experience: ALWAYS have an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag AND never leave your husband to change a dirty diaper in the back of the car without bringing your phone in the restaurant.



Those are my snippets for this week!

Have a good one my friends!

My kid is 1!!!

Yesterday something very special happened. My baby boy turned ONE. This year has been so full; full of love, newness, learning, change, adaption, growth. Ben is one of God's ways of teaching us who we are and who we NEED to be. Plenty of mother's could second that.
A year in the life of a mother goes by really fast...I mean it ZOOMS. I remember the day we brought him home like it was yesterday. I was thinking that may be a reason why mothers are always "mothers." They always see their children as the babies they once were. We "baby" our babies because we love them and want to keep them safe. That is one thing that I am learning right now with Ben. I have to let go. By let go, I mean I have to literally let go of his hand and let him try to walk by himself. It's hard to do. There is a part of me who really gets excited about the next thing that he will be doing, but there is also this part of me who wants him to stay just how he is right at this moment. Next year we'll have to let him go to preschool, and let him go to his first sleepover at Grammy's house. Throughout his little life, we will have to let go, and it all starts with these first few steps.







Ben has experienced a lot in 365 days. He has gone on two vacations to Denver, CO and The Cayman Islands. He has visited our ranch many times throughout the year. His first ranch trip was way back in May when we had our Family Reunion. He has gone to Austin to visit his Aunt Julie and Gina a few times too! Some things we look forward doing this next year are going to the Houston Zoo, taking some swimming lessons, learning to walk, taking another family vacation to a beach somewhere (suggestions welcome), drinking whole milk, eating with utensils, saying DADA. Now he says, MAMA, BABA, and Hi, but no DADA. Poor Will. We will say DADA and he will immediately say MAMA and smile, as if he knows and it's a big joke.
I am so excited to celebrate B and this oh so special milestone along with some friends ad family this weekend.

A LITTLE VIDEO FROM MY PHONE:

Daddio's been baking!

My dad never ceases to amaze me with the plethora of hobbies and interests he has. He will become interested in something, and then that will be his thing until he has exhausted it. Right now, he is dabbling in a few things, but baking is making it's way to the top of the list. Last week he sent me this picture, titled "Daddio's been baking!"


My response: "When can we come over?"

This picture doesn't do this German's Chocolate Cake justice. It was AMAZING. Perfectly moist. He toasted the pecans for the icing and everything. What a gourmet!

Another memorable creation this past holiday season was his fruit cake. Actually, it was Alton Brown's fruit cake, and if you've seen that episode, you would be mad to try to make it. I mean, there were SO many steps! Yet, my dad took on the challenge and came out victorious. I had never had fruit cake, and I was okay with that. But after trying this recipe, I am now a lover of the stuff. One of the steps was to pour brandy over the entire cake every few hours to keep it ultra moist.

Come on!

I think why baking and my dad go so well together is the organization required to turn out a superb product.
My dad is a compulsively organized person. (I DEFINITELY take more after my mom in this arena). He enjoys getting everything all measured out and in place before starting. He does what The Food Network Star's crews do to prepare for the shows. And then, he takes pleasure in cleaning as he goes. This, I can relate to. I cannot stand having a messy kitchen.
My mom is one blessed gal to have a dessert chef as a husband.

Lately, when he's not baking, he is organizing ALL of Mozart's symphonies and listening to them IN ORDER as he runs on the treadmill everyday, creating his own website, or kicking my butt at Word's With Friends.

(After uploading this picture, I realized I need more pictures of my dad).

A mighty good man indeed!

love, september

I ordered my soon-to-be ONE year old a Birthday banner from Beth over at her Etsy shop, Love, September.

It is SO ADORABLE, I just had to sing her praises! Beth was so pleasant to work with, incredibly talented and so kind. I even got to hand pick what fabrics I wanted to use for the banner. I thought I'de give her a shout out here to help spread the good news!
Here are some of the other creations from Love, September:

We call Ben "Button" sometimes, so I thought this would be incredibly cute in his new playroom.

I LOVE THIS!!

I was considering making a quilt when I graduated college with all my old sorority t-shirts. So glad I didn't do that now that I realize how lame that would have been. BUT what better way to get the most out of old baby clothes than incorporating them into a qulit like this. It wuld be fantastic to hang on a wall!
(Don't worry, Julie and Gina, I will save some for you guys too! :)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone. We will be doing a little yard work if the weather permits this weekend, right babe? :)

love.

I love you, Will!

I am dedicating this blog to my sweet husband. If you know Will, you know how silly and witty he is. That is his legacy...a goofball.

Well, I am here to tell the world that there is WAY more to this man than his jokes.
I have been noticing that he has been really in tune to me, and Ben, and the house, and his job, and his relationships. I was driving in the car this morning just reminiscing of the weekend. It made me smile. He just really hit the ball out of the park last week, to use a lame metaphor. He hung three curtains for me without me even having to ask. On Valentines Day, he had an adorable arrangement of goodies waiting for me in the living room. We enjoyed some good conversation and time with our family of three. One of the things I noticed was we didn't leave the house a lot during the day. We usually are eager to rush out the door in the mornings and go do something. Sometimes we will leave and not even know where we are going until we get there. This is partly due to the fact that Ben likes to go-go-go. But, I think one thing that made this weekend so wonderful was we intentionally slowed down our thinking, didn't act impulsively, and just soaked up every ounce of togetherness. It's hard to explain an amazing weekend and why it was amazing. No one really cares about all the details anyway. So, they will be mine to keep.


Thank you Will for being you.


These Days:

I am learning PHOTOSHOP and ILLUSTRATOR.And, with those newly acquired skills, I am working on a birthday banner for B!

I made this delicious chocolate cake from the cookbook of Ina Garten

GET THE RECIPE!!!

I have Ben's playroom nearly finished.


Now I must tackle his closet. I'm aiming for this:


I am going to start collecting letters everywhere I may find them, so I can do something like this:

LOVE IT!! I have never been a 'collector" of anything, so I think this will be a fun project.

AND...We are going to a small group at a neighbor's house tonight and every Tuesday thereafter. This will be our first time in a couples small group, so we are really excited. 'Lola' will be playing with Ben during this time, and I am hoping that they will become pals! :)

Crate and Barrel Coffee Table for Sale!!!

We bought this awesome C&B coffee table a little over a year ago.

Now, we are sadly having to part with it to make a move to an upholstered ottoman. A safer choice for the kid really.

Anyway, if you are interested in a good as new coffee table from Crate and Barrel at a great price ($179), just shoot me an email.

I can be reached at lefash@gmail.com

You can check out dimensions and specifications on the C&B website, here.

can i throw someone a baby shower please?

Because I would like to make this...


ADORABLE CAKELET!

Click here to learn how to do it yourself.