contact with the spoon

After a month of trying rice cereal every few days he FINALLY is eating it!!! Basically at his 5 month birthday he started actually eating it.
Can you tell he wants more?
Not the cleanest eater...
...but we love this messy boy

red velvet love

Since Vday was on Sunday I was feeling the love for the Primary kids and wanted to bring cupcakes (I am the Primary Secretary), so my kitchen was a bakery on Saturday before. I have been loving the red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from Canvas Cafe here in Marietta and wanted to make a version of those. Here's how they turned out!
I used the red velvet cupcake recipe from the well known Magnolia Bakery in NYC found at epicurious.com and the cream cheese frosting from the also famous Sprinkles Cupcakes in LA found here.
I added clear sugar sprinkles to the top and used Wilton's Candy melts in red to create the hearts on top. I just piped the melted candy using a baggie onto wax paper.
And I must say these were delicous. I had one a day for a few days (had to keep a few for myself).
The ones I brought to primary I packaged up like this. I hope everyone enjoyed them as much as me.

be mine grandma

Dear grandma,
thanks for the $5 in my valentine card and the sweet shirt you gave me. The ladies really do love me ;)
Love, Cooper

10 times

This is just one of 10 snowstorms we've had this season in the south! I can't even believe it myself but you can see it is actually snowing. Too bad its only for one day.

weather delay

My mom sent this package on February 2nd, Express 2-day mail. She was so worried it had gotten lost and kept calling everyday asking if the mail had come yet, did I get my package? I kept having to tell her no. I wasn't too worried though, it was the week a bunch of storms were smothered over the U.S. and I figured it was held up. Well, a week late it showed up on my doorstep looking like this. It survived the roadtrip mom! Here are the pics I said I'd post.

thanks aunt kandis

This post is for aunt kandis who gave Cooper this polo at my baby shower last July. It was the first time he wore it and it might be my new favorite shirt on him.

first bites

I started Cooper on cereal at about 4.5 months because all the cues were there to start trying. This is how it played out...

uneventful january

January came and went with not much to show but this boy growing like a champ. He was 16 lbs 4 oz at his 4 month appt.

4 months makes one cute boy

A little photoshoot with my little man (mostly to get pics to the gparents).

'CRIBS' - Cooper's Pad

I've been meaning to post Cooper's room for a bit and am finally getting around to it. Come on in!
This is the inspiration for the room - DwellStudio Transportation Crib Bedding - but I wasn't about to shell out $400 for crib bedding alone! So I sought out the look for less.
This is how I recreated the look.
I used FLOR tiles for a rug - finally got the colors to match up after three tries. I really liked the stripes from the inspiration room and wanted to keep that element.
The light is the Knappa Pendant lamp from IKEA, interesting fun shape.
The crib is a hand-me-down from the in-laws, I loved the white and the simple lines. The sheets are DwellStudio, I got the chocolate dots and the gray squares. And his friends are the UglyDolls.
I found some robot illustrations from istockphoto.com and printed them out in frames on the wall to mimic the square idea from the crib bumper inspiration.
The changing dresser is the Malm 3-drawer from IKEA that we added handles to. I bought the changing pad which happened to fit perfectly on top and I made my own pad cover from a free tutorial online.
The ABC poster above the changing area is from Robin Rosenthal.
The shelving bins I found at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond, the futon we picked up from Urban Outfitters a few years back (for guests) and the pillow from TJ Maxx.
And this is the beginning of Cooper's book collection, which is evergrowing. Thanks for taking a peek!

rip passat, hello pilot

My first car I bought (a 2000 Passat in '03) was costing us an arm and a leg every year in expensive fixes so after putting another grand into it in November we put it up for sale and sold it in 5 days on craigslist - which then left us a single car family sporting Steve's 96' Nissan Sentra as the family sedan for a month. Although it can be done, only having one car, it is nice being able to have two again.
It came down to a Nissan Pathfinder or a Honda Pilot and the winning choice for the new mobile was a Honda Pilot. It was so much bigger inside. We got a killer deal on a lease turn in and got an '06 Honda Pilot EXL. Hello sweet ride. Glad to have you join us.