BREAKING NEWS

This is my baby sleeping....


This is my baby sleeping.... NOT in my house!

That's right. Lily Ann is spending her first night away from us tonight. **insert tears**

Her Grandma and Granddaddy watched her today while we went to Chattanooga for some touristy fun. I thought we would be back late so I decided (to quote my mother) 'make her dreams come true' by letting Lily stay the night with them. She has waited anxiously for this moment so even though we got back to town around 7, I am letting her stay.

We had dinner with the Rookie and Sara tonight and are about to go to sleep. So far, I've made it through the day/night without tears. Lucas is much more upbeat (either that or trying to keep me from a break down) and is charting this as a milestone of Lily's growth. :(

I miss my daughter!

To make matters worse, they are dog sitting Rafa. So I don't have my little puppy to distract me.

Rafa sleeping at Grandma and Granddaddy's house

I miss you, Lily and Rafa!

P.S. Thank you, Grandma and Granddaddy, for keeping me updated with photos. It helps..... a little.

Birthdays

We had two birthdays this week!

Monday, we celebrated my dad's birthday by eating some Mexican food! What better way to celebrate any occasion? He and Lucas participated in Happy Hour! I'm ready for Lily Ann to arrive so I can participate in the occasional Happy Hour, as well! He followed up dinner with a free birthday shot of tequila! Oh my goodness! Too much for my poor daddy I think!


I followed Monday's Mexican with leftovers for lunch on Tuesday and Mexican again on Wednesday night. Hey.... I'm pregnant. I can do what I want. ;)

Tuesday was our little Rafa's 2nd Birthday! He wasn't spoiled with a party all his own and doggy cupcakes like last year. Sorry, Rafa. Momma's been a little busy lately. But we did give him lots of loving, lots of cookies, and one of his favorite big bones which he scarfed down pretty quickly for such a small dog.


Birthdays are fun! And in less than 2 weeks ~ we'll have a big birthday to celebrate!

Alabama's Winter Wonderland

First of all, I have to say.....

ROLL TIDE!!!

2010 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

AND 4 IN A ROW for the BEST Conference in the Nation!



Now on to the other exciting event in Alabama.....

SNOW!!!!

On my way to work Thursday morning:

Playing with the puppy in the snow Thursday evening:

On my way to work this morning:

And flurries are falling! At 17 degrees with a windchill of 6 degrees, I'm sure it'll stick!

Schools are closed and some roads are shut down, but we're still working (which is good because I have quite a bit to get done). Hopefully I'll scoot out a little early so the roads won't be too bad.

I'm ready to get this weekend started! We are doing lots of fun stuff like more work on the bathroom and final baby preparations!!

P.S. Another bonus of pregnancy: I always have the upperhand in a snowball fight! I got the husband good, but he didn't return fire. Instead, he got the puppy good! Seeing an 8 pound dog get pelted by a snowball is quite hilarious! Poor puppy! Rafa didn't know what to do with the white stuff but he enjoyed chasing his tennis ball around in it!
P.P.S. I left my camera at work so these were taken on my iPhone... not the best quality but they get the job done.

P.P.P.S. Please ignore the Christmas decorations. They are coming down tomorrow, regardless of how cold it is.

I Am 'Sew' Cool

(obviously not true judging by the fact that I actually used that as the title for this post)

I think I'm really getting into this sewing thing. I'm just on my first project but I feel an addiction coming on. I just need to find some place with cheaper fabric to support my addiction. Hancocks can be quite expensive!

So I set to work last night to finish off these cute little baby overalls. See, here I am cutting out thread after I forgot to put the presser foot down for about the hundredth time. I'm going to get it. Really. Mom suggested I put a sign on the machine that says "Put the Presser Foot Down!" Haha!


But I got it! Hopefully all those little things will become habit eventually.


But it helps to have someone there showing you the ropes...


Nooooo. Not Rafa. Haha! My Mom! Thank, Mom, for teaching me your skills. One day I'll get it! Haha!

And so we have a nearly complete pair of overalls!!


I say nearly b/c we still have to sew in the snaps on the crotch.... so don't look to closely!


Aren't they just the cutest thing? After we find out boy or girl, we might embellish a little more. Meaning if it is a girl it has got to have some bows and/or lace. Haha!


And while I had the camera out, I thought I'd snag a picture of Rafa and his new 'do. Don't make fun of him too much. It was our first time to try our hand at grooming! And it is hot! He likes the short hair for the summer!


::::And Answers to the Questions I Received on Sewing::::

I am by no means knowledgeable about sewing yet but a few of you asked some questions and I'll answer what I know.

• I have a Brother sewing machine (think it's this one). It is just basic but it is lightweight and has whatever I should need. I even sewed button holes with it on my very first day of sewing. Super easy!!
• Yes, my parents got me a cute little monogrammed bag to hold my machine and also a matching bag to hold all my supplies. But since I plan on using it a lot now, we have a home for it that is out of the way in our living room.
• I haven't looked for any video tutorials, but you know there are video tutorials for everything out there. I am sure there are some good ones for sewing! I have Mom to teach me, so not sure if this is really easy or I have a good teacher (or both), but it seems like something you could definitely teach yourself.
• Threading the needle - Mom taught me to cut the thread before trying to thread it into the needle - gives you a sharper point on the thread. Try it!!
  

Fun-Filled Weekend

.... with no photos. I need to do better job about this whole picture taking thing.

My Mom came over Saturday and gave me my first sewing lesson!! We went to the fabric store and found several patterns and some material to work with. I picked out some gender neutral corduroy to make these cute little overalls and a jacket. Then, I got scared to mess up the corduroy on my first attempt at sewing so we bought some cotton fabric for the first go around.

Let me just tell you - I love sewing! It is so much fun!! We got everything finished except for the snaps between the legs (for easy diaper changing) and the little leg bands at the bottom to finish it up. But the top of the little overalls are so cute with a pocket and buttons! I'm so proud.

We were planning on finishing up Sunday morning - when I was going to take a pic - but realized we needed snap tape and no one around here has it. So we'll probably have to order it online or sew in little snaps individually. When we finish it up I'll definitely get a picture.

Just for kicks, here is a photo of me opening up my birthday present from my parents...

(Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

Later Saturday night we met up with some of Lucas's old college friends who were visiting from out of town. We ate some delicious Mexican (my favorite) and then visited a little longer at a patio bar (so no smoke for the baby). We stayed out til almost 1:00 a.m. I couldn't believe I made it! Needless to say, I slept in Sunday morning.

On Sunday we decided to experiment with dog grooming since Rafa's groomers didn't have an opening for 3 weeks. Poor thing needed a hair cut! So off to PetSmart to buy all the tools and then we gave it our best shot. I'm not sure how successful we were but at least he is feeling better now I would imagine. I'll get a shot of our work on here soon. Definitely don't want to forget this. Haha!

Go Fetch!

We had a great weekend (despite the 6 hours of yard work Saturday morning) and I wanted to tell you all about it on Monday - but that pesky thing called work got in the way. I've been really busy and haven't blogged since Friday (Note: I'm going to ignore the 1100+ unread blog posts in my reader).

And I don't have much time now - I'm off to play tennis for the third night in a row and Wednesdays are Mexican nights with friends! But I wanted to share some cute pictures of our little Rafa from this weekend.

We went to watch our friend - The Rookie (he has been wanting a tag since forever ago and I keep telling him he'll get one but never pull though... today is your lucky day, BC) - play tennis. We took Rafa along to watch...

He was being a good boy and cheering The Rookie on!After we watched a while, we took Rafa over to the ballfields to play fetch.
Rafa loves getting off his leash and running all over the place. Crazy dog!!
Problem is - he doesn't always bring the ball back....

He had a lot of fun but was definitely ready for some rest and relaxation afterward...

What a life!

More photos from Rafa's photo shoot....

The Linares Family

So, I am thinking Rafa should be the spokes-dog for Penn.....

...he really loves his tennis balls

SUPER Dog!

Thanks again, Melissa!! These are all so wonderful!

Our Family Photo

Off to eat lunch with my mom. More photos later....

The cutest dog ever

He really is. And I have the proof to show for it. Look at these awesome photos and you won't be able to deny it.

Here are just a few of my faves from our shoot with Melissa:

My absolute favorite. I want to get this one blown up on a canvas. Yes, I want a large canvas of my dog to hang in our house. You gotta problem with that? haha!!

Staring at a tennis ball or his bag of treats no doubt

One of the few where his tongue isn't just hanging out of his mouth. Haha!

Waiting for us to throw the tennis ball....

and he's off! Looks a little evil here.

Again - some treats have caught his attention!

I love this one! He is so beautiful!

This one is funny. When you walk up to him he'll roll over for you to scratch his belly. I think he is asking Melissa to scratch his belly here. Haha!

Such a good boy!

Our little rabbit

On the run... as usual.

This is his best Jacob impersonation. Doesn't he look like a little wolf. Or maybe a raccoon. Haha! Big difference.

These are my faves from only about 1/3 of the photos. She is still processing and loading them as she finishes. I am so excited to see the rest!

Thank you, Melissa!!! I really can't thank you enough for capturing our little boy!!

More photos to come...