We got Boo-ed!!

"Boo!" Bags

Don't you just love the fall? The air cools, you can finally wear a jacket, it smells like football season :) one of my favorite parts of fall is Halloween - the candy truly is the best part (any time I can buy a jumbo bag of Reece's Peanut Butter cups and people don't judge me, I'm in!) but now that we have a little boy in our home, Halloween has taken on a whole new life for us. We sing "Monster Mash" and "Ghost Busters" in the car and I am so excited to help build up this fun holiday in his little world.

Last weekend, while visiting Tammy a little package arrived at her door. A huge smile came across her face and as she brought the package in, she giddily said "hah! We got Boo-ed!" I was a bit dumbfounded, because I had no idea what she was talking about so she went on to explain the process of Boo-ing at Halloween.

1. Late at night a neighbor knocks on your door and leaves a "treat" for you.
2. You're supposed to make 2 treats and deliver them to 2 other neighbors within 24 hours.
On the package is a fun poem about the boo-gift and why it is there, in addition, there is a photo copied picture of a "boo" ghost that you put in your door to ward off other boo-ers from repeating your house.

The hope is to spread fall fun around the neighborhood and build up the fun of Halloween.

It was so fun to watch Tammy and Chris get giddy about their late night delivery, and trying not to get caught! We shopped and found fun treats to put in the boo bags and I was SO inspired - I thought, I have got to do this!!!

So, I went a little nuts and made more than 2 - actually I made 8! I thought, this will give us a fun head start and hopefully we'll have little boo-ghosts popping up all over the neighborhood!

Happy Halloween everyone! Yay for Boo's!

Charlotte's on the move!

Go!

Beach races!

Our happy place

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Travis Wants...

This morning over breakfast Travis told Jason:

"I. want. go. coast."

Me too, buddy! Me too.

Happy Monday! :)

xoxo, CB

Travis is in heaven

Travis hates haircuts. Cry.

18 months!

Here's the latest photo shoot of Travis on his 18 month birthday.  

He is wiggly, so many of these are out of focus, but I think they're a lot of fun!

Love you, CB. 

How to Upholster

This loveseat has been in our family since the 80's - best thing about it is that it pulls out into a twin bed!  

Since Tammy knew we have been on the hunt for furniture, she gave it to us (thanks Tam!)  The fabric wasn't my favorite and I knew I wanted to re-upholster it, but it was such overwhelming thought - I've never upholstered anything and I didn't know where to start.  I was so afraid to even attempt it that I had come to grips with falling in love with the purple leaf couch as it was.  Thank goodness my neighbor Ramie came to the rescue.  She is one of the most talented up-cyclers I've ever meet - she can sew, paint, antique... she can make things you wouldn't think are pretty just amazing.  I have learned SO much from her!  

So a few weeks ago we started with a roll of donated fabric (thanks, Mom!!), a sewing machine, a lot of thread, patience and pure giddy excitement to see it transform!   I am going to walk you through what we did, but truly, if you do this, your method will probably be totally different.  Luckily the frame on this loveseat was pretty easy to work with (square, not round!) - It was a great piece to learn on.  

Step 1: 

Fit the arms. 

We fit the arms on the opposite side that they would actually go on.  The fabric was inside-out and we pinned up the sides as if we were taking in a pair of pants - lots and lots of pins!

Step 2: 

Once the top of the arm was roughed in we added a line of piping to the front of the arm. 

Here is what it looked like when we were working on both arms at the same time.  The right arm (looking at the photo) doesn't have the piping yet, nor was it pinned... 

Step 3: 

Cut the back piece of fabric.

Ramie flipped the arms right side out once they were all sewn to see how they would fit.  We cut one solid piece on the back of the couch to recover it and dry fitted the fabrics together. 

Step 4:
Add the front fabric to the arms.

Here is an up-close picture of how the arm looked before we put the fronts on the arms. 

Here is the after.  

We had some puckering at the top and had to come back and hand sew the top to make sure everything came out straight and tight.  

Just because I couldn't help but get excited about how it was going to look, I roughed in the pieces again. 

Step 5: 

Cut the front foot fabric piece.  

This was the point where I was SO excited to get it all together.  We could really see how it was going to look once it was finished. 

Step 6: 

Flip the fabric inside out and pin the front foot fabric to the arms.  Sew together. 

Step 7:

Staple the arms and foot fabric to the bottom frame of the couch. 

I did a terrible part taking pictures at this point! I was so excited to get it finished that I forgot to snap some shots. 

Once we had the arms and foot piece stapled down, we wanted to dry fit the back and frame out how we were going to attach it.  Here's what that looked like... 

Step 8:

Staple and tack down the back fabric. 

Here's how it looked when it was all finished. 

Step 9:

Then I made the back pillow. 

Here is the pillow all inside out - I just made a box pillow and added piping on the outer rim of each of the large pieces. 

I made sure it fit before I stuffed it... 

Super sneeky stuffing tip: I used a cheap old body pillow as the major part of stuffing for the pillow - it didn't fill it out entirely so it had to be stuffed with extra filling. 

Step 10:

Make a box pillow for the seat. 

 Same process...

Ta Da! There it is... finished! 

It probably took us close to 10 hours to recover the couch, but it turned out awesome for our first crack at upholstery.  I definitely will try it again (soon? maybe not, but it was fun!)

Go do something you think you couldn't and tell me about it! 

Can't wait to hear your story...

xoxo, CB. 

it's a process...

It's been so long since I've written, I almost don't know where to start.

I missed you little laptop - you, with your sticky letters and sometimes, well let's be honest, often times of frustration.  You are not the zippy little lady you once were, and your keypad gets stuck and I have thoughts of throwing you across my living room every time I power you up, but... I missed you, and if I'm a very good girl, I should get back to writing.

This little online diary has been an amazing thing in my life.

It has served as a virtual scrapbook and has let me ... just ... let it out.  More than anything, it has helped me document many of the fun and scary and honest parts of being a new mother that works full time.  I got away from writing because I questioned how public I should make my life.  I still question if I am being naive by sharing so much, but after a few months of meddling over it, I have decided that this is who I am.  I am open.  I like to make friends with complete strangers.  I could talk to a brick wall.  I want to make people smile and this is just another way for me to do that.

It is always interesting to me where these posts take themselves.  I start with a blank page, and I get to think through what is relevant to me right now.  I type, and away we go... off to another story.   Another chapter in my itty bitty life.

So, what's new now?

Jason is in the thick of his summer travel season, which means I get Travis all to myself a bit more these days :) I love the one-on-one time but it is definitely not easy.  I believe there is no such thing as balance... balance is a process.  It is a strategic method for making choices.

Can I travel to another city and back in time to drop off and pick up my kid from school without getting at $50 late fee and still do a good job at work or do I take him with me?
Can I make a fancy dinner or should I whip out the hamburger helper?
Can I find time to go to the gym or should I workout by doing bench presses and squats with Travis as my 25 pound weight?
Can I unload the groceries before he wakes up in the car seat or do I just grab the cold stuff and get the rest later?
Can I shower this morning or would I rather hit snooze until 5:45am?

For me, it's all about choices.

Our life as a duo vs. a trio is a bit more go-go-go:
I get up at 5:30 to get ready before he wakes up at 6:30, get him dressed, read a book or two, scramble some eggs (thank heavens for those chickens), try to get him to eat yogurt, watch him melt down as he cries for "milk, milk, milk... apple juice! no... milk, apple juice!"
... get him off to school and back to the office early enough to get my work day going.  I pick him up at night, try to make dinner early enough that he doesn't completely fall asleep or work him self into a tizzy before I feed him, off to the bath, read a book, read another book, okay... one more book, share some snuggles and prayers, and he's out by 8.

From 5:30-6:30am and from 8-11pm, I have time to myself.

Tonight I watched the So You Think You Can Dance episode that was on my DVR - geez those people are talented.   And I did laundry, and a load of dishes and ate an entire roll of Thin Mints instead of eating dinner.  I know you're extremely jealous of my oh-so-fancy life. ;)

I can say as a new-ish mom, there are a lot of things I miss from my pre-baby days; fancy dinners, happy hours with friends, finding time to workout or run or bike, cooking extravagant meals, late nights with the neighbors... but there has never been anything in my life more worth it then being a mom.  Kids have a way of filling up your heart more than you ever thought was possible.  He runs around in a little diaper and socks and I think, "how did I get so lucky? he is so darn cute"... and he sees me and toddle runs to give me a big squeezie hug - you know the one - the full on leg wrapping, tiny fingers poking into your back, head on shoulder heaven... then 3 seconds later he pinches the dickens out of my arm fat and I struggle not to strangle him... it is amazing how entertaining my life actually is now.  I can't stop smiling.    

I thank God that I have been blessed with an amazing husband and a career I love and that our family is so helpful and central to our lives.  T and I went to San Antonio yesterday and my sister-in-law, grandmother-in-law and mother-in-law all played and loved on him while I was at work.  He was so happy, which was amazing because it made our 19 hour day so much fun.

Am I tired? yes, all the time.
Is it worth it? you better believe it.

I find comfort that I'm not the only person in the world that has done this and by-golly, I CAN.  And I choose to enjoy all the crazy that is an almost 18 month old.

Ask me how I'm doing in 6 months when the terrible 2's are in full force.  I'm off to bed now.  Missed you all - I'll try to be better about getting back into the swing of the FE&L bloggo-world.

xoxo, CB 

Tractor trouble

MILESTONE!

Big boy milestone: Travis is blowing his nose.  I know this is no big deal to 98% of people out there, but we've been working on it forever and finally, it just clicked.  He's got a runny nose, we bring the tissue and say blow and HE DOES!
proud mom. xoxo, CB

Seeing the Travis Letter "Victory or Death" on its 177th anniversary

A Rockport Weekend

Well, it's been almost a month since my last post!  GOOD HEAVENS! 

I've been busy - yep... I say that a lot.  It's true.  

Since then I have traveled to all these places:

San Antonio, Texas

Orange County, California

Dallas, Texas

Denver, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado

Rockport, Texas

...and tomorrow I go to College Station for 2 days!

That's in the last 30 days.
I live out of a suitcase! 

... and next week, I go back to Colorado and then to Tahoe, California!

Regardless, I missed blogging.  I love to write and it is so nice to be able to share life as it seems to fly by.  It is my way to slow it down, just a little bit, and to be able to go back and remember all the things I know I'd forget otherwise! 

Here's the latest; last weekend Jason, Travis and I took a road trip down to Rockport.  It was the last weekend of duck season and the boys had to get their last hunt in.  The wives and kids tagged along this time and I looooved being down there.  January at the coast is new for me, and I can not wait to get back there.  The weather was absolutely perfect - 65 degrees with an ocean breeze, lots of sunshine and refreshing humidity.  

Oh, I loved it.

We still have dreams of owning a little cottage and I'm excited because I found some that might have potential.  

We shall see... nothing purchased yet, but I do love to dream about it.  

I feel blessed to have such great friends.  Brett and Jason have been best friends since 6th grade (I think!) and Jill and I were college roommates.  They are amazing friends and I feel so at home with them.  

Here is Jackson, showing off his wet T-shirt!

Jill and Bertie (and little baby girl in her belly) 

We even got a bonus: Brett's parents, Tim & Diane were at their cabin too.  I loved being able to walk down the street and just talk and catch up with them.  To be able to walk out the door with a cup of coffee, smell the coastal air and walk 45 seconds over to a friends house.  Dreamy. 

 One day... one day. 

I must say, there are few things cuter in life than a baby in a diaper.  

Travis couldn't decide if he liked the water as much this time... there wasn't crazy splashing like last time, but he would giggle and run, then look up at you like "why did I get wet? wait, pick me up!"  He's definitely going through an attached stage these days.  Sweet moody kid. :) 

Lauren, Kaitlyn, Kristi and Les came to the coast on Saturday and just helped to make it a perfect weekend.  

Next up: Story time from Orange County! Sisters, nephews, nieces, brothers-in-law, dad, aunts, uncles, cousins... did I forget any? Family, Family, Family!

Until then, sweet dreams. 

xoxo, Cyndy

...Christmas Day

Ahhhh, Christmas Day.  

Confession:  I feel that opening all the gifts on Christmas Eve makes Christmas Day somewhat anticlimactic.  Is that bad?  

What was exciting was that SANTA arrived on Christmas Day and he brought an ALL TERRAIN RADIO FLYER WAGON.  

That's right, you have to say it with a biiiiiggggg excited deeep voice.  

The ALL TERRAIN RADIO FLYER WAGON. 

I love it!

Luckily, I am not the only one that loves it. 

Then we were off to the old tree to play...

After our outdoor fun, it was off to the family feast.  There were 24 people at the Bagley house for lunch!

MawMaw and Sue loving on the babies (Travis and Emma)

Two types of turkey - smoked (OH MY!) and baked... 2 hams, corn casserole, gravy, green bean casserole, jello, shredded carrots, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, rolls, olives, pickles... what did I forget, asparagus.  What else? geez, so much food. Oh, and we haven't even talked about dessert.  SO MUCH FOOD. 

Priceless. She's so cute.

Kristi's family came to lunch...

 The kids got their marching orders to eat first...

Ohhhh, our bellies were soooo full... 

Love you all, each and every one.

xoxo, Cyndy