Meg & Bryant's Birthday Bash

This weekend we had another Williams fam jam in honor of Reed's siblings' birthdays.

With four cousins in attendance - all under the age of four - we had a busy, yet fun-filled weekend to say the least.

Chappell enjoyed playing with some random baby in the mirror.



"Hi, friend."



Loved playing with Brody & Will's dump trucks...



Cousin Will, cool as a cucumber, just hangin' on the deck at Limes...



Danielle & Mary Parker at Limes...



Two cuties - cousins and best friends...



Have you ever tried to get four kids to smile all at once?? It's harder than you'd think.



Chappell and her Daddy...



MP with Emmy & Buddy...



Cheese!



I wish I had the energy to make this a good, descriptive post - but I just don't!
It's Monday and I'm still hurtin' from this weekend. Luckily, my mom came over to visit today and picked up the slack. It was great to have a little help around the house... moms are great-- she even did my laundry!
Huge treat: I got to run a couple errands by myself! I can't remember the last time that happened...

Again, I apologize for this post. I was up most of the night feeling sick... hopefully I'll be back to my obsessive blogging-self later.

I love it

When Chappy wears our old dresses. Some of them are so old-school... a few were my mom's. This one might have been hers. Mom?
It's just cool.

Where I've Been

In case you are wondering, or even care...

I've been working for my sister. For free. But it's coooo because someday I'll be reimbursed... and hopefully with a kickin' wardrobe. Just jokes. I could care less if she ever pays me, I'm enjoying it.
So, between taking care of my child, helpin' a sista out and running various errands (& maintaining order in my home)... I've been pretty busy.


Tomorrow my mother-in-law & sister-in-law are coming to town, then we're all heading over to Bay Point for the weekend.
Should be fun. The whole Williams clan will be there, so I'll be sure to take a lot of pics.

Adios!

PS: I just published a new post, but it's showing up as if I posted it Tuesday. SO, if you want to read it, ya can.

2 Things to Share

Most importantly, Chappell got her second tooth today! Her lower right central incisor.

And,

Smitten by Smith can now be purchased online!

Check out: www.smittenbysmith.com

Buy some clothes. You deserve it.

New Craft

OK.

I love smocked children's clothes. However, as many of you madres know, they are rather expensive... and since babies and kids grow so quickly... it's hard to rationalize spending $100 on each and every outfit. And as sad as it is, baby shower gifts don't last forever!

SO, I've decided it's time to learn to smock & sew.

I really have no idea where to start. All I know is, my mother-in-law is an incredible seamstress and smocker extraordinaire. Obviously, so is my sister (not at smocking, but sewing). Smith gave me her hand-me-down Singer sewing machine (only 2 years old!) when she moved on to the big dog Baby Lock. For those of you like me, who don't sew- a Baby Lock is pretty much the Mercedes of sewing machines. From what I've heard, anywho.

I opened the sewing machine box last night, and I can honestly say I'm a little overwhelmed. I have a friend who knows how to sew and she is coming over on Thursday, so I'm hoping she can show me the basics.

Last night, I went to a smocking website (http://www.thechildrenscornerstore.com/) and ordered some supplies. Again, I have no clue what I'm doing. I ordered some smocking plates that I would like to use... someday.

This afternoon Chappy and I ventured over to Michael's in Destin to purchase some "floss." I think that's the term for string in the smocking world.

Luckily, I'm going to see Reed's mother, Emily, for the next two weekends-- hopefully I can get her to help me!

This will be a work in progress, I am sure.

Best Cab Ride Ever

Umm, I thought this was pretty funny.
Annie, one of my high school friends in attendance at our "reunion" last weekend, just e-mailed me this pic:
Our cab driver had a bucket of instruments for us to play.
What a brilliant idea... but on the other hand, completely idiotic...
(I think) I see where she's coming from... keep adult passengers (most likely under the influence of alcohol) occupied with seemingly juvenile activity for duration of car ride...

However, is losing your sanity and/or mind worth it??
I will keep this (philosophical & life-changing) post in mind when choosing Chappell's toys...

Mark your Calendars, P-cola Peeps!

Smitten by Smith enters the Blogosphere!

My sister Smith has started a blog.

She's telling the tale of how Smitten came to be. It's going to get interesting... starting a business at 23 is no small task.

www.smittenbysmith.blogspot.com

Read, "follow," and comment to show yo love.

High School Gals Reunion & more

Monday fatigue, check.
Moldy coffee maker, check...

Why do I always forget to clean out the coffee maker? Especially when I need it most? Who knows, oh the irony...
Speaking of coffee makers, I need to get Marlee's Keurig... it's a nifty single cup coffee maker. That would be perfecto and would solve all of my problems.

We spent our weekend in Grayton Beach with all of my high school gal pals and their significant others. We shopped around, some hung at the beach (not me, surprised?)... and the guys played golf at Camp Creek.

*Chappelina decided that she didn't want to hang out with her dumb parents and spent the weekend at Bay Point with Buddy & Emily instead.

Mary Carolyn arrived Thursday afternoon around 5 o'clock. After unloading all of our stuff (and Chaps de-pearling MC's pearl necklace), MC and I headed over to the Caliza Restaurant at Alys Beach for dinner. Reed (again: best father/husband ever), took Chappell to Hurricane Oyster Bar for daddy/daughter date night so we could have a girls-only dinner.
The atmosphere at the Caliza restaurant (and pool) is incredible. It doesn't seem possible that you are in fact in the panhandle of Florida. It looks/feels like the Mediterranean.

Later Thursday night and throughout Friday, the rest of the gang trickled in. It's funny.
Things never change with this group. We can go months & months without getting together and the dynamics's always the same. It's so comfortable - I love that.

You know the drill. Friday night, Reed cooked a low country shrimp boil for the group. Followed by Catchphrase. Good times.
Saturday night, we all went to Stinky's Fish Camp for dinner. It seems that Stinky's is becoming our favorite go-to place for large groups. It's casual dining, isn't too quiet - and the food's awesome. And whoosh - their fried green tomatoes w/ crawfish on top... incredible!

Sunday we were so excited to pick Chappell up from her grandparents. I really miss her when she's away over night. I know it's something we need to do once in a while, but I hate being away from her.
When we picked her up... we had another poop situation on our hands...
I will leave you begging for more...
ha

Holy bleeeeeeeep

Since my post earlier today, my eight month old ( + 11 days) has been pulling up on anything and everything.
This includes an antique dresser in our bedroom. She's been trying to open the drawers all day.
I think my life changed today.

... and she crawled out of the room again

... bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

My kid's stinkin' hilarious

Chappy has a little cold. Or congestion from teething. Who knows.
So, for the past day or so I've been torturing my child with a can of Simply Saline and a big green bulb syringe. I must say, the combo is genius. I won't go into detail.
She gets so mad that I have to pin her little arms down while she kicks and screams and flails her head from left to right. Then, two minutes later when she realizes that she is breathing clearly... something clicks in her little brain and she's not mad at me anymore.

Two funny things (to me, at least):

1) Yesterday afternoon we were playing with toys on the floor in our bedroom.
All of a sudden, Chappell turns around (360), and crawls right through the door... back into the den... straight to the TV. I forgot to turn off Sesame Street and apparently I'm not cool like Elmo.

2) A few minutes ago, Chappell pulled up on a piece of furniture! She went after a bottle of sunscreen that was on top of an ottoman. Why haven't I baby proofed? What am I waiting for?
I just can't seem to accept that this *toddler thing is happening right before my eyes!

* I understand that Chappell is not a toddler. We have a few months.

Back to Bama

I say this almost every Monday - but - what a weekend!
This glorious weekend, we went back to Birmingham (for the 1st time) for JuJu and David's wedding. We had a lot to do, and a lot of people to see... needless to say, the trip was a whirlwind...

We left Santa Rosa around 11 o'clock on Friday. Much to our surprise, Chappell did extremely well on the drive up. I brought an arsenal of toys in anticipation... as she played... we kept on a-drivin', and we only stopped once. Is that child abuse? She seemed happy so we didn't feel the need to stop. Her cheery attitude finally faded, however, about 20 minutes south of Birmingham. So we decided to make a pit stop at the Summit - and Banana Republic brought her back to life!

After our quick trip to the Summit, we headed over to Marlee's house. Marlee is one of my dear KD friends from Alabama. She has a six month old baby girl, Eleanor... we have a lot in common these days.
Chappell and Eleanor ate a lovely dinner of squash and fruit together. Chappell loved Marla's home grown sun flowers. Like most things, she wanted to eat them.

Eleanor loved her new hat from Miss Chappy.

Some of my favorite peeps (Heather, Mags, Caitlin, Russell & her fam, Hunter, Wes, Stuart & Anna Belle, Charla & Andrew) came over to Marlee and William's for a cook out. Blue cheese burgers... um, yum!

Chappy and Baby Julia had some quality bonding time before Chappell had to turn in for the night. They shared toys, a quilt, and even a bottle.

On Saturday, we visited Reed's cousin Ginna and her family. Ginna took some adorable pictures of Chappy with her cousins, Rhett, Buddy & Laura Lacy.
*As soon as I download the pictures I will post them.

After our visit with the Gardners, we decided to hit up one of our most favorite places for lunch: Nabeels. It's about a block away from our old house, and I can't tell you how many times Reed and I went there. Ugh... it's too sad to think about.

Since we were meeting a few of our friends at Nabeels, and were running a little early, we decided to drive by our old house... I snapped this picture through the window, then decided I should take another one, sans glass. As I held the camera up to my face, the current owners walked out the front door and caught me red handed. It was a little awkward. I'm secretly glad it happened, anyways, because I got to go inside. I realized that I miss that house, and I really, REALLY miss my chandelier.
PS: I think the house misses me and my cute window boxes. :(

Here are a few pics from Nabeels. ReeRee AKA Daddy thought that Chappell would enjoy chewing on a (seedless) lemon...

and she did, until it got in her eyes. Poor baybay!

Hunter Chapman joined us for lunch - and I finally got to meet baby Sims! He's such a sweet baby... he slept through almost the entire lunch. How I miss those days...

When we got back to the house, Chappell took a nap. When she woke up, she had a play date with Marlee's golden retriever, Jayber. He licked her head until her hair was soaking wet. Although it was icky to watch, I didn't intervene because she was cracking up the entire time.

She loved that dog!

I mean... this is pure bliss. I'm a little sad to say it, but I think dogs are in our future. The entire time, Reed kept saying, "I can't wait to get her a dog."
Perfect.

Eleanor woke up from her nap and the babies held hands...

Look at Chappell's face. My mom says she looks like Reed when I get "on to him." Ahahah, she's so right. I should add, however, that this isn't often.

Saturday night, we went to JuJu and David's wedding. JuJu, you looked incredible and the reception was beautiful! We had a great time. I don't have any pictures, because I would've looked like I was a part of the photography crew with my dad's big ole' camera bag.
After the reception, we headed back to Marlee's, and hit the hay.
Sunday, we were all ready to to pack it up and drive home when we saw that tropical storm Claudette would be hitting our house around 4 pm. Since we didn't think we would make it home before the storm hit, we decided to spend the night with Reed's parents in Ozark. Although unexpected, we had a good time. We drove to Dothan Sunday night for dinner with Bryant and Danielle.
Here are some pictures from Sunday night at Bryant and Danielle's new casa in Dothan.

Chappell and Emmy...

Mary Parker and Buddy...

Brody playing some kick ball (?)...

A little floor time for the girls...

All in all - Great weekend.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry. I miss B-ham and our friends so much!

Emily's Onesie Couture

Today was Chappell's first official modeling gig!
My friend Emily recently decided to start a little side business, Onesie Couture. She makes adorable onesies and matching burp cloths -- yesterday I received a call saying that we could have a free onesie if Chaps would model for a few pictures. It was our (Chappell's) pleasure.
Here's Chappell in the Kate Spade onesie:

Shleepy Shleepy

I'm falling asleep as I type...

but...

I'm about 99% positive that Chappy will be getting her second tooth within the next 24 hours.  48 hours, max?  But then again, you never know... whenever I think I have this whole parenting "thing" figured out, C throws me another curve ball.  Reed, I bet you're diggin' the baseball analogy...

Poor thing's been droolin' like a faucet... and I can see tooth numero dos (lower right central incisor - ha!) just barely beneath the surface.  

I really shouldn't complain - Chappellina has been quite a trooper throughout the entire teething process.  Poor, poor thing... I meant to give her a dose of Tylenol before bed last night (Monday)- and of course I forgot.  I'm an idiot.  For the first time in over four months (literally), she kept waking up - tossing, turning and moaning.  We finally decided to sneak into her room to give her some medicine around 10 o'clock.  After that, she was fine.  

SO, all things considered, Chappell did quite well at her 8 month photo shoot.  She was quite the diva... lots of over the shoulder action.  She can work a camera.

I can't wait to see the proofs.  

For Re while we're gone...

Weekend Recap

Ahh, Monday.

We had such a great weekend! Liz and Taylor arrived Thursday night around 7:45. They were shocked that it took them less than 3 hours to get here from Montgomery, AL. Hopefully this means they will come back soon.

Friday (while Taylor & Reed were hard at work), Liz and I shopped around Rosemary and Santa Rosa Beach. Around noon, we met ReeRee for lunch at George's in Alys Beach. It was my first trip to George's, and I think I will have to add it to our "go-to" restaurant list.

Before dinner Liz and I made (what was supposed to be) a quick trip to Wine World in Sandestin. It was my first trip to W.W. - and I was impressed. They had my favorite wine in stock (which can be hard to find), so they're top notch in my book. PS, I made Reed aware of this as soon as I got home, so there are no excuses... for special occasions, of course.
While at W.W., Liz and I opted to give the wine sampling "carousels" a try. The wine carousel is a magical machine. You prepay at the register and they give you a credit card, of sorts. You simply swipe the card and press the button that corresponds with the wine you want to try. You can sample as many wines as you want... until your card runs out of money. I first saw this incredible machine on an episode of Samantha Brown... you know, the girl from the Travel Channell? Anywho, we thought this was quite fun.

For dinner, (Friday night) Reed cooked six filets O' grouper, Greek style. I think he calls it Athenian Grouper... but I might be making this up. It's really good, and seems to be pretty easy. I will post his recipe soon. Our friends JuJu and David joined us for dinner, and a wonderful time was had by all!

Saturday began w/ a much needed trip to Another Broken Egg at Baytowne Wharf (in Sandestin). The place is good -- but we were less than pleased with the 45 minute wait. Not cool. Already feeling a little under the weather from the night before, I was almost certain that I was going to die. One heaping serving of Eggs Benedict and two Advils later, I was ready for more shopping with my partna in crime.
Lizzy and I hit some pretty cool spots while Reed and Taylor stayed home with Chappy. Smiths Antiques, KiKi Risa, Saks Off 5th, Restoration Hardware Clearance Center, and Scavengers to name a few. It was hard to restrain myself...
You know what else was hard to restrain myself from? Setting the outlets on fire. Sometimes I cannot stand the tourists around here.
*I didn't really want to set the outlets on fire. Maybe just trip a few people?

Saturday night we got a babysitter for Miss Chappy and had a night out on the town. If any of you are ever down in this area, you should check out Basmatis. They don't appear to have a website, so I cannot include a link. I'm sure many of you have been there... it's been around for years, but MAN, it's delish. I'm a lover of all things Asian (food-wise), so this is one of my favorite places. We made a quick trip to Bud and Alley's and called it a night.

What a fun & relaxing weekend! Chappell bonded with Taylor and Liz immediately - it was hilarious, she really had a thing for Taylor. We now refer to T as "the baby whisperer," and Chappell is very sad that he's gone.

Tomorrow we are off to P-cola. I have a haircut and Chappell has her 8 month photo shoot with Cook Images.

PS: Yesterday was Chappy's 8 month birthday-- Happy Birthday, Chappell!

Nap Time D-Rama

SO, we all know from the (adorable) pictures a few posts ago that Miss Chappell has become quite mobile.

She is crawling now and can go from lying down to sitting in about two seconds flat. I thought this was pretty awesome, and was oh-so proud, until I realized the problems this progression and new-found (word?) mobility has caused.
I must tell you that nap time has become quite a challenge around here.
This is a problem, because I love nap time. It's my alone time. It's when I check e-mail, clean, or just sit by myself... the list goes on and on.
Now that Chappell can sit up on her own, this little gal has realized that she doesn't have to nap when I put her down.
And unless she is really, really tired - she usually chooses to play.

So, in response to this new development, a new routine has evolved.

It goes like this:
1) Put Chappell in crib. Offer lovie. For those of you who aren't parents or just don't know, a lovie is basically a small blanket with a stuffed animal's head attached to the corner. Weird concept, I know.
2) Cover her body with thin receiving blanket (I'm still paranoid), rub her head and leave.
3) 15 minutes go by. I watch the monitor as she plays and talks up a storm. I'm serious, A STORM.
4) Return to room, place Chappell on her back.
5) REPEAT

This is driving me crazy. It used to be so easy. I'd put her down... and off to dreamland/ville she'd go. Thankfully, this is just a daytime issue. This has been going on for a few days now and I'm not sure what the best action is to take. Leave her up there to play until she crashes?

Advice is welcome on this one. Help a girl out.


*Ironically, as I finish this post, baby G is finally fast asleep.
* Also wanted to note that Chaps ate green beans w/ rice today for the first time. She didn't seem to mind them. Finally, a green veggie!

Blam's a Dram

I just wanted to put up more pics of me w/ Liz because I'm so so excited to see one of my bestest friends tomorrow.

I think I sound like a twelve year old going on about BFFs & such. But, (I think) you know what I mean. Friendships change and evolve with each stage of life. I'm very thankful to have a small handful of people that I know I can call anytime - day or night.
Anywho, can you tell I'm excited?

Once again, I was too lazy to get out the scanner... that old piece of junk is going to rot in my closet.

Ahh, serious night. That really feels like forever ago. Weird.

Fiji Dome. Liz, I'm really not sure what you are doing.

The day of my wedding... on the floor before hair/makeup. Looks like a few of us had too much fun at the rehearsal dinner.

I love that crazed face you make sometimes. And look at Waltrix asleep in the chair. Lordy.

I think this was before a ball in Mobile.

Why am I drinking that? It really ruins the picture...

Olden days make me smile :)

Getting Excited

This morning I woke up to "mama mama mama mama" on the monitor.
I know I've said it before, and I know I'll say it again - but this stage really is the best. She literally does something new every day.

SO, I'm super-duper-pumped about my BFF Bloom coming to stay with me this weekend. Lizzie and T-Dub (I guess he has a real name, Taylor) are coming Thursday night, and staying through the weekend. This makes me SO happy. We found a babysitter for Saturday night - uh oh, it might get craZay.
I love living closer to my family, but it's been really hard being away from all of my close friends... so visits like this are a must!