Babies are like onions....

My kid is weird. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, she's starting to have a word explosion. So, you would think she would be all about saying the basics...yes, no, doggie, kitty, eat, this, that...

Nope. She's following up her debut of the word "Cracker" (which comes out sounding like a cross between someone who is hearing-impaired and someone who just had oral surgery) with another goody:

SHREK.

*Shrug*

Adorable

I love these! I can think of two little girls who have hair that just begs to be adorned by some new pretties.

If you are interested, you can enter a contest to win some.

Sod v. Seed

That's our big decision for the week.

The idea of having someone come and lay down sod (or even doing it ourselves to save money) is very appealing....I mean...insta-lawn! But, our budget for the whole backyard effort is tight, and even though sod isn't *that* expensive, the upfront cost is lots more than that of seeding.

Thoughts?

Another Great One

I just love, love, love that exhausted but contented feeling you get on a Sunday night, after a thoroughly great, action-packed weekend. We had another one of those.

Saturday morning, my mom came over and watched the girls so that I could run a bunch of errands without them. What a treat! I got so much done, in such a short amount of time. Then, we all went out for lunch. Later, our friends came over, and all the kids had a blast together. I love that they're getting big enough to really be able to amuse themselves without us. We ended up having Margaritas and ordering pizza, so the rest of Saturday night is a bit of a blur, but I'm pretty sure I had a really good time. ;)

Yesterday, we took a hike at Huber Woods. Sadie did great, and even Eden was able to walk along for some good stretches. The highlight was seeing five deer come charging past us on the trail.

We did a little bit of work in the yard and after dinner, went in search of the ice cream truck (we found it!) and ended the day sitting out on our front steps eating treats. :) and, as seems to be the pattern after these busy weekends, both kids passed out well before dark. All in all, another really nice weekend.

Very Cool

I think that since I have owned a digital camera (just since 2005), I have probably taken more photos than I did in all the years leading up to then. It is just so easy to snap away, and as a result, I end up with so many great photos.

The downside, though, is that I rarely print them out. As a result, except for the professional portraits I have of the girls, our house is pretty bare of any photos from the past two years.

So, I was pretty intrigued when I heard about the digital photo frame. I have to say...this is such a cool idea. Basically, you can load photos that you have on your memory card right to the digital frame and showcase photos and movies on your walls, in the same way you would a printed out photo. What is really cool about this is that you can load montages, movies, or just swap out images as easily as inserting a memory card into a drive. This way, you don't have to belabor the decision about which single item to display...you can display them all. They also play sound, which is really nice for movies, or for putting music to montages.

I'm already eyeing up our walls to try to figure out which one would work best.

Sometimes I Don't Like My Job

...and then I think of the poor men from the tree service company who, at this very moment, are out in our yard, working in the pouring rain. And, somehow sitting in my cozy, dry office doesn't seem so bad.

As an aside....yippee! With the tree removal started, it is official -- our backyard renovation project is officially (if soggily) underway!!!!

House of Mouse

Prior to having kids, Evan and I traveled to a lot of really amazing places...British Columbia, San Francisco, Paris, Barcelona, Belize. I always have the travel bug and was usually ready to find cheap airline tickets and head off to somewhere distant and alluring, regardless of whether I had made hotel reservations in advance.

Well, now that we have kids, something in my brain has completely changed, and I'm obsessed with going to Disney World. That's it...not Europe, not the tropics...just Disney. Of course, now that we have kids, we have less disposable income to spend on our travels, and we're less flexible as to the kinds of accommodations we are willing to stay in. So, obviously, the need to do a lot of research and planning up front is key. And, I have to admit, once I started looking into all of the different options with regard to a trip to WDW, I started to get a little overwhelmed.

I found this site, HotelReservations.com , which is pretty cool. First of all, I have to say that just from looking up hotels in Orlando, it seems as though the rates they offer are awesome! Very competitive, and they offer a number of really good, Internet-only specials. The hotels are all rated, and have pictures of the listings, which I think it is important. Since the $$ we'll pay for a hotel or resort will eat up a big part of our overall trip budget, it is nice to see that you can stay at a quality place for a competitive rate. The site offers other info, too like flight information, rental cars, and vacation packages. It really does make planning the trip feel more manageable.

And who knows? Since the site has information on hotels for destinations all over the world, maybe I'll get the urge to expand our travels beyond the House of Mouse to somewhere more exotic. Just maybe.