Chocolate Chip Boy

Emerson loves chocolate chips. Like loves loves them. He may or may not have consumed a whole bag of chocolate chips over the past 1.5 months since we've been back in Mississippi. He asks for them before every meal. And after every meal. They're all he wants to eat some days.

Exhibit A -

Bribery during a long flight home

I thought it would be fun to make some chocolate chip cookies together and assumed he would love the cookies because they have chocolate chips in them. Boy, was I wrong.

It certainly started out all right.  I gathered all the ingredients beforehand so his role in the cookie-making would be interactive.  He loved adding the ingredients and watching the dough mix.  He was thoroughly enthralled in the process.  

 But once we came to the chocolate chip part of the dough, he was of no more help to me.  He and the chocolate chip bag were inseparable.

Oh, what fun he had while I kept working.  He enjoyed some of the final product, but didn't even finish one fresh-out-of-the-oven cookie.  Crazy boy.

Husband Appreciation Day

Bet you didn't know there was a Husband Appreciation Day.  Well there is.  And it's today.

Happy Husband Appreciation Day to Will!!

I don't brag too much about either of my sweet boys, but today is the day for bragging.  You probably know a lot of great things about Will, because he is so so great.  But let me share with you a few of the things you may not know. 

• Will shares everything.  He is more concerned with my happiness than with his own and will give me anything at the drop of a hat.  Last weekend, he even let me have the last bite of the best fried shrimp he had ever tasted.  And he pushed it on me, wanting me to have the same joy in it that he did.  He never tries to keep things for himself, but rather shares with everyone hoping it'll make them as happy as he.
• Muscles.  Will has muscles underneath that handsome business casual. He has impressive back muscles and arm muscles, and his legs are like tree trunks.  Tell me that's not hot.
• He always reminds me to pray at night.  We take turns saying our evening prayer.  Even when I'm almost asleep after a tiring day, he'll gently remind me it's my turn to pray.  And I'll mumble out a barely-recognizable quick prayer, but he'll say 'thanks, love. go to sleep now' and snuggle me. 
• Fatherhood fits him well.  I don't know if you've noticed at all, but Emerson looks like Will, particularly in stature.  I'm so glad Emerson got Will's good looks and build.  They make quite the handsome pair, those two.  Will is fantastic when he plays with Emerson.  They play chase, and hop-on-pop, and fall down on the bed and just giggle together.  Emerson adores his daddy.  Will is great at bath time, and dinner time, and bedtime, and pretty much all the other times.  He is such a marvelous father and example to our little one.  
• Will knows how to work.  I can probably attribute this to his amazing parents who are such good examples of hard workers themselves (sheesh, take a break you guys!).  Will works until the job is done, and then stays to make sure there isn't anything else that needs finishing.  His big strong muscles (see above) come in handy regularly when he is working, but he is just as good at wiping down the toilet as well.  I'm so blessed to have a man that wants to work and provide for our family. 
• He's a human calculator.  I can ask him any math problem and he can do it in his head and spit out an answer like Matilda.  That's impressive no matter how old you are.
• Every night, Will cleans the dishes.  He reasons that I made dinner, so he should clean it up.  Um, in what universe can someone make a mess and not clean it up??  In ours :)  He insists 'no go play with your boy while I clean this up.'  Doesn't that just make you smile?  

Pretty much Sir William rocks.  Will is fantastic and excels in everything.  I appreciate all he does for me, and I am thankful every day for his choosing me as his wife.  He will make a great physical therapist.  He already is a great dad.  

And he has forever been and always will be my best friend. 

.3 miles away...

...lies the beach. I mapped it and it's only .3 miles from my front door to the beach. In just 10 minutes, we can have loads of free fun. So we do. We go to the beach at least weekly, sometimes more than that depending on the weather. This day it was overcast but calm.













Emerson could play in the sand all day. 

The water? Not so much.



E & I are going back and forth getting water to play in the sand.

Hung Up About Pics

In an effort to fill the empty space above my bed, I have created a picture wall.  Not only does this prevent me from having to go buy big pieces (heaven forbid I have to go shopping for decor!) to fill the space adequately, but also uses all of my smaller pictures since I'm out of wall space for in my small apartment.  Make sense?  In sum, the space is filled and all my frames are put to good use.

First I played with all my frames on my bed for a few days to see what arrangement I liked best.  Then I used newspaper to match the size of each frame and taped it to the wall (you like the stickers?) for a better visual.  

The next part was pure genius.  Ok, I copied the idea from a DIY blog I follow where they did a whole hallway of picture wall-ness.  Basically, I just marked on the newspaper where the hole should go and then hammered the nail through the paper before removing it.  Foolproof method minus a ton of measuring and hoping, hoping, hoping we measured right.  We didn't even have to adjust any of the frames after they were hung.  It was so slick.  Like butter. 

My trusty hammer man ducking out of the way so I
can get a full view before deciding it's finality.

I love the final result.  The whole process took a few weeks because I was really indecisive about the placing of the frames.  I must have changed the newspapers on the wall a hundred times before I settled on this arrangement.  I even took pictures I had already hung elsewhere in the house and repositioned them here.  Poor Will dealt with a newspaper wall for a couple weeks at least.  And the frame at the bottom needs some photos put in it.  I still have the manufacturer's piece of paper in there.  And now for some up-close-and-personal shots.

The 9-tile square frame is a compilation of some wedding photos.  This was a Christmas gift from my mom last year.  We love it!  It's a great piece to have throughout the years.  The colored strips of paper on the left are a few of the chains from the chain I made counting down my separation from Will.  The numbers on the strips don't have any special meaning.  I just picked some that would look good together.  One of my favorite gifts is the frame at the top of this photo holding four pictures of women.  This was my Mother's Day gift from my mom last year.  It is four generations of mothers: myself, my mom, Grammie (mom's mom), and Grandma Wood (Grammie's mom).  It's something I'll treasure for a long, long time.

This word art is something I created as a motto of sorts for our family.  I'll keep tweaking it as time goes on - maybe pick different fonts, change the color as my color-scheme changes, etc.  I love the subtle subway-art feel and the variety the words bring to the wall collage.  The picture of Emerson was taken during his 1-year photo shoot.  He scowled and scowled for the entire shoot, giving us only one smile for the last shot taken (shot #86 - that means 85 scowls before that).  We purchased the smile and this scowl because we couldn't resist not buying at least one scowl.  This is definitely one of my favorite photos of E.

The temple picture in the upper left hand corner is something I made at a relief society activity a couple years ago.  Patty and her brilliant creativity came up with this simple way to decorate the photo and then framed it for me.  The other photo of Emerson was taken when he was about 6 months old.  It's another favorite photo of him.  Now for a full view shot:

The only downer is that the frames don't exactly match my bed set, bedding, other furniture, or really anything in the room.  I'm overlooking that, though, because I love the picture wall and hope to one day match my stuff to the frames I've accumulated rather than try to match to my already mismatched newlywed furniture we still have.  I'm sure I'll change out the pictures as time goes on.  I'll for sure try to get it all matched better.  Someday it will actually be aesthetically balanced and matching. For now, I'm trying to make a house a home with what I have, and for now, I love it.

my thumb, the green one

i've never really planted anything of my own.  i tried to start some seeds in an egg carton last year.  then one day, i put them outside on the hood of our truck for some sunlight.  the wind blew them off and they got ran over by a car.  bye bye seeds.

well i decided to try again since i now have a nice balcony that will help with the whole sunlight thing while keeping them safe from vehicular death.  this time i bought some that were already started.  i potted them and then prayed they would make it through the rain storms and massive amounts of wind.  literally. the plants were in my prayers more than once.  they have done so well and are blossoming nicely.  i have 2 tomato plants, 2 cherry tomato plants, an okra plant, a cucumber plant.  i also wanted some fresh herbs because i don't like buying them for ridiculous prices and love using them in my cooking.  i picked basil and cilantro.  basil because it's so versatile and common and cilantro because it's my favorite.

 from left to right: tomato, cucumber & okra, basil, cilantro

they have all been doing really well.  the only issue is that the cilantro seems to have convinced some aphids to make a home there which really grosses me out. so standby for an update regarding whether i decide to treat for pests or just trash it altogether. any suggestions to help with my decision?

the basil is delicious and has already enhanced some meals.  can't wait to get some tomatoes, cucumber, and okra in a few weeks/months!