fourteen

fourteen years ago today, my life changed forever. i may have lost a part of my youth, but i gained the most rewarding (and challenging) experience i could have ever imagined! happy 14th birthday to my daughter alanna. i love you ♥

1997 - one year old

2005

2006 - 10 years old

2007

2008

2009

2010

it's crazy how much she has grown in just these past 5 years since we've lived in nc. she has become a beautiful young lady. thank you to my parents for all of your love and support with helping me raise her. to my sweet husband for always accepting her as if she were yours... and for putting up with us, haha! to dan & vicky for your love and encouragement. and to malcolm for taking a beating once in a while (they like to play rough). i know he loves to have her as a big sister... most of the time :)

fun-filled saturday

this past weekend was pretty nice. on saturday afternoon we drove to durham for the escapism film festival where we saw The Muppet Movie. i've loved it since i was a kid, and which danny knew, so he suggested that we all go. what a sweet husband i have! alanna saw it when she was pretty little, so she didn't really remember everything. and danny had not seen it since he was younger, so i don't think he was expecting much, but he surprisingly really liked it. especially the jokes about hare krishna. malcolm i think was bored, haha.

he was more excited about the bounce house outside, than the movie.

look how little he is compared to the rest of the kids waiting

but he held his own. he was just as wild and crazy as they were.

the carolina theater is such a gem.

the weather was really nice, and the sky was so bright and beautiful. i loved how it was reflecting off this building across the street from the theater.

after the movie, we hit ninth street for some frozen treats

malcolm got rasberry sorbetto this time

but he was more interested in eating my mexican chocolate soy ice cream
(i don't blame him, it was delicious!)

after that we headed to danny's parents house for dinner. they surprised alanna with a pre-birthday cake, and an amazing birthday gift that she was so excited to receive! i will post more about it early next week. vicky makes the best vegan pistachio cake with pistachio icing, it is seriously coma inducing. we all loved it.

malcolm helped her blow out the candles

they also surprised malcolm with some new iron man toys. he had so much fun running around and fake blasting everyone (and everything), and shooting the missiles out. he is really into super heroes right now, thanks to danny and his love for all things marvel.

this face kills me, this is what he looks like when he is busy blasting me :)

thanks again dan & vicky, for everything! ...wait, maybe not everything. malcolm was blasting me in the face sunday morning, before i had even gotten out of bed! he is a maniac with that thing! haha :)

friday favorite: carl pops up

i recently saw this board book in the children's section at borders, and then again at books-a-million while they were having their store closing sale. i know this book, "good dog, carl" is a classic, but i'm not sure if the board version is a new edition, or if i just never noticed it until now? either way it reminded me of a book i found at our local used book store last year, which i just absolutely love. so today i chose: carl pops up by alexandra day, which is the pop-up version.

from the description on borders.com: "The book that introduced Carl, the babysitting Rottweiler, to his adoring fans. Carl leads his infant mistress on a wordless romp through the house, causing chaos and destruction, but managing to restore order just before Mother returns home."

i snagged our copy for $6 (which was paid for with in-store credit, score!) it looks like it is out of print, and all of the brand new copies online sell for $50+. but there are tons of used copies on ebay and amazon, for much less. ours had a few minor tears, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little glue.

"look after the baby, carl. i'll be back shortly."

looks like there are many, many more "carl" books from the same author, so i will have to check them out. have any of you ever read them? or have you ever even heard of this one? i think it is lovely :)

contest

today i entered malcolm in a contest for best DIY halloween costume.

here is his costume, in case you weren't reading my blog last october. it was pretty easy for me to put together, it just required some creativity! i think the travelocity gnome would be proud :)

friday favorite: the monster at the end of this book

oh my goodness, i can't believe that it has been over three months since i made one of these posts. what a slacker i am. and even worse than that is the fact that our house still isn't 100% put away. ugh. i feel like i am drowning in the clutter that has nowhere to go. but we are slowly getting it right, and we love this place, so all is well.

anyway, onto the book. today i chose: the monster at the end of this book starring lovable, furry old grover. i've always been a big fan of (mid to late 80's) sesame street and jim henson, and i remember loving this book as a child. i was recently reminded of it by my friend bethany and her blog post about children's books that she loved when she was a kid (thanks b!) so when we hit up the big store-closing sale at our local books-a-million, i was on a mission to find this specific title, and i found one! it's a nice hardcover "big little golden book" copy, and i scored it for only $4.50, yippee!

malcolm had never seen this book before, so he was pretty excited when we sat down to read it. boy was he on the edge of his seat the whole time! it was so funny the way he reacted to each page, and towards the end he clung to me like he was really scared that there was an actual monster on the last page. i had to explain to him what the ending meant a few times, but then after he understood who the monster really was, we both laughed about it. i think he really enjoyed it.

as we were reading, this book popped into my head. oh how i loved that story as well, and strange how i haven't thought about it in so long. crazy how one thing can bring up such fond memories of something else! it looks like it is out of print, and i can't seem to find any new copies online, that aren't a bazillion dollars. so mom, if you happen to find my old copy of it, please send it our way :)

i hope you enjoy reading my book posts. i'm glad to be back at it, and i will do my best not to miss any more fridays. wishing you an awesome weekend.

lake johnson

since the weather is starting to turn, i have a feeling we will be spending lots of time here. we love this lake. the path around it is paved, and half of it is nice and level, which is perfect for me to ride malcolm along. his weeride makes it a little harder to pedal than normal, and since i just have a beach cruiser (one speed), it is really hard for me to go up hills with him in his seat. but as long as we avoid any steep inclines, we have a great time riding. alanna likes riding too. and danny loves the path for running. on saturday we went and danny ran 6 miles. oh, and of course, we love to see the ducks and geese (and turtles)!

this guy totally bit me on my finger and malcolm on his arm! (we were trying to pet his back, haha)

thanks mom!

we love you! and i'm sure malcolm will enjoy reading this with me :)

(i tried to get him to smile for these photos, but he is stubborn, so instead he looks miserable, haha!)

holy cucumbers!

proof that alanna has been seriously neglecting her garden since school started:

this morning malcolm and i found two of the biggest cucumbers i have ever seen, hiding in the rosemary bush. i kept saying "holy moly!", while i was pulling back branches to get to them, and malcolm kept repeating me. it was pretty funny.

the only things to really come of our little pot garden, was cucumbers, a few cherry tomatoes, and a giant basil bush. the larger tomatoes all had worm holes. and the zucchini and squash plants died before they ever produced anything. but boy oh boy, did we get a lot of cucumbers! at one point we had about 20 of them in our fridge. we've been giving them away to anyone who will take them... including the guy who replaced our water heater, haha!