Cutest little models - even if they did ruin two of the products

More to come.. I'm saving the real gems for my site.. stay tuned!

Valentine's Day fun 2010

Loving the sprinkles and chocolate -
she turned her nose up at the cream cheese frosting.. what?!?!

He, however, did not. Got milk?

I couldn't get this kid in from the snow.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Does this count?

Soon, peeps, soon. I promise. I have much to say (when don't I) but t-shirts and life are taking up too much of my time right now.

Ps - Loaded TONS of holiday pics on my picasa account for those who are closely related and don't mind looking through hundreds of photos of my kids/neice/family.

Halloween Eve - Fun for Everyone

The resemblance is uncanny, don't you think?

Cuteness Score = 10

With a little help from my friend, Photoshop, I love this picture of all the kiddos at the pumpkin patch. The only one missing is Miss Rachel since I somehow don't have a picture of her standing by the fence. If anyone has one, let me know and through the magic of computers, we'll have all five of them.

On another note, thanks for all the dress me help this past week. I've actually had three separate people comment on the fact that I look like I've been losing weight. Given that I've done nothing but gain weight the past few months, I can only attribute their comments to my dressing style. So, I owe you all. Muchas Gracias. Here's one of my new looks:

Except, add leggings, flats and about 40 pounds.

And there was NEVER a question....

I picked up Bridget's weekly school sheet on Friday, reviewed my usual favorite, "funny things children say", section only to find this gem (click on image to view largest):


To clarify, the spilled beer incident happened AFTER I picked her up as I was not drinking at the school nor were any of her teachers.

We interrupt this 6-part series that is so far only a 2-part series, but that we're still hoping will make it to a 4-part series, to bring you this...

Molina keeps a close eye on baby Pujols as the possibility
of a ball theft is very real and very imminent.

Maybe if I close my eyes baby Pujols will go away and
I can keep the glove and ball all to myself.

Whatever, I still have the glove AND pinka and you're not getting either one of those EVER.

Molina is in position and ready for the pitch.

It's a strike!

Baby Pujols says, "put me in coach, I'm ready to play!"

Let's Play Ball!!!!
Go Redbirds!

SIDE NOTE FOR @strongrhetoric Notice PURPLE couch in background. Jealous, aren't you?

Part II - The part where I get two days behind cause I can't stay on task

Belize - Our friends are back in action


The "private" beach on Belize - tpd's back is not in good shape this day, especially after the crazy, local speed racer bumpy boat ride to get to this private Belizian island.

We made fun of him a LOT at this point... mmmm... Belikin.

Pretty Scenery - you can see some boats in the background.

Pretty water, I couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

tpd assures he is in the BACK of the boat for the ride back to the mainland. it was actually really cool being in the back and we even saw a big manatee.
the water color here is simply unbeliezable.

Kicking back after a day on the private island with some Belize brews and food.

Friends rebounded, a couple of knock off Coach purses and good local brews.
An all-around good day, you gotta Belize me!

The first installment sponsored by Mr. Honduras *UPDATED*

TFASNA is kicking off a 6-part series this week entitled, this time last week. In this week long series we'll take a look at what yours truly was doing, well...uh.. this time last week. This first installment is being published a little bit past press time due to airline issues and bedtimes, but without further ado, I present this time last week (last Monday)

Our First Day in Paradise - Roatán, Honduras:

Conversations in Paradise go something like this:
"there's a sailboat."
"yup."

Recipe for true Paradise:

• One part beautiful beach setting with loads of palm trees and ocean breezes
• Two parts local island beer (you gotta go local, it should be international law)
• Three parts - and the secret ingredient to paradise- bacon cheese fries (in HONDURAS can you believe it?)!!!!
• Mix the above ingredients together or enjoy them separately, it doesn't matter you're in Paradise now, mon.
  

Photos of Paradise courtesy of idiot photographers.

This photo illustrates a major problem with asking another tourist to take your photo on a gorgeous roadside stop overlooking lush landscape and panoramic views. BECAUSE I REALLY JUST WANT TO SEE US AND SOME POWER LINES LADY. (PS - I will also blame my traveling companions for this bad photo since they could not accompany us off the boat this day due to some health/boat virus issues.)

Down from the hills overlooking the gorgeous views, aforementioned tourist offers to take our photo again. I gently give her a few instructions this time and, well, you can see this one turned out a little better. ps - giant boat in background is where we are headed back to in the photo and where our traveling friends are camped out while Aimee is fighting a nasty 24 hour bug. In fact, I'm sure Deadlines & Naptimes this time last week memory wouldn't be quite as enjoyable as ours, but she rebounded like the trooper she is and we missed them much this day!

Aaaahhh, beachy beach.

And finally, I bring you "Mr. Honduras"that's what someone called him and it stuck, but he is not in any way shape or form representative of the awesome, gracious locals that actually live in Honduras. See that mom and her two girls? She would not let them turn around at all - can you tell by the look on their faces? Anyway, good ole' Mr. H...yes, he was popular with the locals and tourists alike. ps - you gotta enlarge this photo for full effect

Stay tuned for Part II coming soon....

What happens when I let her pick out her own clothes?

She repays me by channeling Cindy Lauder? Not cool Bridgey - oh,and the red/pink/purple combo was just about more than I could take. At some point during the day I believe I told my 2 y/o I was having a hard time looking at her...

At least she's patriotic, right?

From Polaroid to iPhone, I guess some things never change

When I was around 3, I was fascinated by my parent's Polaroid camera. On at least one occasion there is a long standing family story about me going up to the camera, pushing the button and taking a picture of myself. When dad confronted me about taking pictures of myself asking, "Erin, did you push the button on the camera?" Without thinking it all the way through, what with only being 3 and all, I confidently answered no. That would have been great save for the whole POLAROID picture part of it... you know the tangible photographic evidence that was simultaneously spitting out of the camera. It would only be 30-45 seconds before my squished up little face would start to appear on that flimsy polaroid film and I would be completely busted.

Flash some 30 years later to last Friday. I got a little bored waiting for tpd to return home from a seemingly never-ending happy hour with some co-blowoffworkonfridayers. So when the St. Louis February weather was warm enough to sit on my deck and enjoy a cold brew, what else could I do but to take pictures of myself with my way cool iPhone (ps - that's a rhetorical question)...

In the beginning, things were going great and I was getting some killer Facebook profile shots, don't you agree? The lighting, the freshly washed hair, the 18 ounce Schlafly glass... it was a Social Network profile photo dream come true...

But, just when I think taking pictures of myself can't get any better, an all-too-familiar cigarette smoke smell and barking little rat dog sound snapped me out of my iPhone photo shoot...

Internal dialogue running through my head will be brought to you courtesy of Italics... Maybe she didn't see you holding the phone way out in front of you and tilting your head in that no-double-chin sort of way... Surely the shutter snap sound you recently adjusted to the highest volume can't carry that far. Don't turn around. Don't. Turn. Around. And then.... I turned around.

I saw the puffs of smoke before I saw her. Dammit - she's outside smoking...dammit she totally saw the whole thing. Drop your phone, hide it, put it down now, you moron. She probably didn't see it or even if she did she didn't know what it was, right, RIGHT?!

"Hi!" I call out in such a self-assured, confident sort of way, that surely she won't know I was taking pics of myself (that same stunt I had tried to pull on my dad - at least this time the evidence was safely hidden IN my phone).

"New phone?" She answers back. Dammit, dammit - she totally knows what was going down just now who are you kidding... just come clean, idiot, make a joke, chill the eff out, everyone takes pics of themselves, right, RIGHT?!

"Um, oh yeah, I just got the new iPhone (so not true) and I was just sorta playing with it... you know, taking a few pics of the dog and what not..." I say back to her. Dammit, dammit - who says what not? Why did you just say that to her? Is 'what not' the new word for "myself'" cause SHE KNOWS that's what you were doing. Now she thinks you're a complete idiot, pack it up, go inside and for the love of god, STOP TRYING TO OVERCOMPENSATE BY TAKING MORE PICTURES OF THE DOG NOW, you're starting to freak him out, too...

Sorry Brogan, I had no right to drag you down with me.

The bottom line, I blame all of this debacle on tpd. Long withstanding issues of photographing myself aside, had he not been late, I could have made him take the pictures of me (yes, I do that, too) and then it wouldn't have looked quite so weird. So, yup fault = husband. Husband FAIL.

ps - I'd ask you all to tell me that you do this too, but you won't will you? No one does this, do they? Go ahead, tell me, I can take it.

R.I.P. Snowy 1/31/09 - 1/31/09

Yesterday was a ridiculously perfect day for building a snowman. The weather was warm enough to spend more than 10 minutes outside and thus the snow was the perfect big ball rolling consistency (that's what she said).

So, we got to work:

Actually, I got to work, since mostly all Bridget wanted was to lay in the snow and look cute. (Insert a lot of hard work from yours truly here as Bridget laid in the snow and tpd carried in the obscene amount of household items purchased from Sam's only hours prior) and then... TA DA.... "Snowy" the snowperson was born...




Snowy wasn't just any snow person, he was a freaking monster big snowperson with a big snowperson heart to match. However, he was missing a few necessities like, oh you know.. eyes and nose and a pipe to immediately start tarring up those virgin snow lungs. So, we obliged and brought Snowy to "life"....

Bridget was finally thoroughly impressed with my hard work and quickly warmed up to Snowy - amazing for her considering she's usually so freaked out by strangers, but not Snowy. They were fast friends.

Oh, how mighty and strong you were, Snowy, standing there so happy and stoic with broom in your little stick hand.

Snowy spent the beginning of his life doing what snowpeople do - chillin' with his corn cob pipe and watching the world through his eyes made out of coal... life was good for Snowy...for a few hours....

We quickly learned however, that what may be a "perfect" day for snowperson building, may not actually be the perfect day for snowperson living. Something unexpected totally expected happened as time passed... those nice temperatures got even nicer, so nice in fact that entire beings made out of snow didn't "stand" a chance.

The blow to the head was so severe, his eyes even popped out of his head.
Oh, Snowy, the humanity of it all!

I'd like to tell you that no snowpeople were harmed in the making of this blog entry, but that would be a lie. Because one was. One very special snowperson suffered TSBI (traumatic snow-brain injury) and was never really the same snowperson again...

I did learn a valuable lesson from Snowy, however. It is definitely best NOT to talk about snowpeople in relation to human emotions. Using terms like "bring him to life" and "let's name him Snowy" will only result in 2 year-old lifetime trauma when said "friend" ultimately meets a snowy demise on the corner of your step.

We'll miss you Snowy, but we know you're in a better, colder place in that big snow playground in the sky.

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby

For a while now (8 months or so), Shane has struggled to find his own personal style.
He was initially a fan of the traditional, straight laced, comb over:

But then, between months 4-6 really got into a whole skater dude phase:


More recently, feeling a little rebellious, he experimented with this look:


And, finally after being inspired, settled on this one:
For some reason, he thinks this one gives him the most respect.