Article for all my oboe parents (and anyone else interested)

This is a great article about private lessons from an economists point of view. I hope this helps make sense of why I don't offer make up lessons on a regular basis.

I'm smiling!

First blackberries of the season...

I bought Blair this blackberry bush for Father's day two years ago. When I bought it, it was about a foot tall and didn't have any berries the first season. He is so proud of this thing and has tended to it as much as he tends to the dog: caring for the new springs, putting out the plastic owl to make sure no bugs or animals get to it, and checking on it every day to see what kind of progress it is making. Here's a picture of the first berries of the summer...

Twinkle Twinkle...almost

Mia is really into singing and ready lately, and she's ALMOST got twinkle twinkle down...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Babypix Photography photos of Hannah...

My good friend Stacey came over last week and took some pictures of Hannah. She is AMAZING, I can't believe her talent! We had a blast and I'm SO thankful to have such a good friend that is also a photographer. You should check out her website, it's http://www.babypixphotography.com/. Enjoy!

Mia's hand, Hannah's foot....

Big sis, notice the black eye from banging the coffee table that week. Oh to be a toddler...

My two girls...

Here are Hannah and Mia at the same age in the same outfit. Amazing to me how different they are...

Hannah Grace

Mia Katherine

Hannah's "Hollywood Birth Story"

Labor in Hollywood is always pictured as quick, painful, and clean. Their makeup is always on, hair done, and baby comes out looking angelic. Any woman that has had a baby knows this is far from reality. The true reality of labor is that it takes a long time, it's progressive and it's not pretty.

Hannah had a Hollywood labor, and here's her timeline...

8:00am: Started having some contractions, nothing big.

12:00pm: Mexican food with Blair and Mia

2:00pm: Nap. Contractions have gone away by now.

6:00pm: Make dinner, contractions are back and are very mild.

8:00pm: Put Mia down for bed, contractions are a little stronger.

9:30pm: Call doctor to tell her that contractions are 8 minutes apart, but are still not very strong. Doctor tells me to drink some water, take a bath, and get some rest.

10:00pm: Take a shower, this is where it went downhill...

10:10pm: Call Blair from upstairs and tell him to pack bags and call babysitter. Contractions are strong and closer together. Blair packs his bag and grabs camera.

10:30pm: Babysitter arrives, contractions are 2 minutes apart and strong. We drive to hospital...

10:40pm: Arrive at hospital in screaming agony. Blair parks in emergency entrance. Wheelchair boy wheels me through the halls as quickly as he could to get to the fourth floor labor and delivery.

10:45pm: Check into room, nurses are hooking up chords, one asks me to get off wheelchair to check to see how dialated I was. I was 9cm. She asks me to get in the bed quickly, this baby was coming. Blair had run down to park the car.

11:00pm: Doctor arrives, water breaks...

11:33pm: After a very intense and painful 33 minutes, Hannah Grace is born!

I guess you could say I was in labor for about an hour and a half. Compared to Mia's labor, I was hoping that I could have the experience of driving to the hospital in anticipation...we certainly got our wish. I think I was in complete shock for the next 12 hours after. Now that we're home, can't believe we have the privilage of raising two precious girls. God is to good to us.

My Cheese-a-holic...

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but we've been a bit busy. We made the discovery that Mia LOVES cheese as you can see, and this is her reaction almost every time we offer it to her. Sorry it's taken so long to post!

NYC!

Blair and I took a fun trip to NYC over Christmas! We haven't been on a "trip" since our honeymoon and had a great time. This was also our first trip without Mia and intentionally before baby #2 gets here. I had forgotten what it's like to NOT have a child around 24 hours! Here are some of the highlights...

Blair meeting "Rupert" of the Hello Deli (see Dave letterman)

The Deli, we had yummy hot cocoa since it was FREEZING!
Blair scored tickets to the Letterman show, we had a blast.

We got "upgraded" to the second row, mostly due to our good looks:)

Since we weren't there for New Years, we had to take the pix...

Saw "Wicked" on broadway. I loved it, Blair hated it. Shocking.

Museum of natural history t-rex, amazing!

Check out that head!

We saw Jaimie Fox on both Letterman and Goodmorning America, he was awesome!

Blair also scored tickets to be a part of the studio audience of GMA.

Here's our great sign that got national airtime for 5 seconds!

9-11 firestation across from ground zero.

Ground Zero, very strange to see it in person...

Blair infront of GW statue where the Declaration of Independance was signed

Tiffany's, yes it really IS all it's cracked up to be.

I felt like Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama!

NY Stock exchange golden bull statue...

Staten Island Ferry with Lady Liberty in the background.

New Curtains...

Between three of us who were sick, I still managed to finish the first of many house projects before baby J #2 comes: curtains for the dining room. With some coaching from my sewing mentor, Lee Anne, I am really happy with how these turned out!

This is what we're doing today, playdate with sweet Ella joy while her

mommy has yet another doctors appointment for her knee!

More photos of more projects coming soon. Next up, living room curtain!

Getting on my "nesting" mojo!

I've got the bug. I don't know if it's pregnancy hormones or just the boredom of being locked in the house during the winter, but I'm in major "nesting mode." I'm throwing my good friend, Melanie, a wedding shower in two weeks and my small group leader, Debbie, gave us her piano. Both of those things have given me motivation to make some changes to our living room which has looked basically the same for the past five years.

Don't get me wrong, I like our set up, furniture and "stuff." I just want some new life in our living (and bedroom) spaces. I bought two adorable lamps today for 50% off at Hancock fabrics for our bedroom. One of our lamps was broken and I was never in love with them. These only cost $15/each, not bad. Here's what's on the docket for this week:

1. Make two curtains for dining area windows. (I already bought some cute red/gold diamond printed fabric from Hancock fabrics for 50% off).

2. Move Debbie's piano (acutally, this is Blair's job).

3. Make curtain for large living area window (already picked out the fabric, waiting to see if I follow through on #1 first before investing in more fabric. It's supposed to snow this week, good excuse to get cracking to combat the stir-crazies).

4. Move furnature around (this is going to be hard, especially for the hubby since he loves the set up. We have a small living space, but have a few ideas for fitting in the piano and not changing the flow of the room).

When all this is done, I get to move on to our bedroom which is in dire need of a facelift as well. My way-too-crafty-and-cute-sister-in-law redid their bedding and curtains which made a HUGE difference (though everything she touches turns to gold). She's my sewing and decorating idol. Her house makes you want to throw up a little, it's that adorable AND organized (sidenote - we ironically both posted about running around the house and her title was "rub a dub dub, six men in a tub." She IS a school librarian, but common, can I have an ounce of that creativity?). I already bought some new frames from Kohls for our wedding picture and bridal protrait on clearance. they look great with the new lamps. I love seeing progress, I just need the patience to watch it all come together. Will post pictures with the progress this week...

The dumbest new tradition in our family...

So when our brother-in-law joined the family four years ago, he introduced us to this tradition that has long lived in the Porter family: running around the house on the first snow. The day after Christmas, we had our "first snow" and were told that this is something we have to do. I can see how this might be fun at a small house, but Blair's parents house is rather wide and large. I wouldn't say this was a fun experience, but it was sure memorable! Here are the highlights:

Just before the "run" on the porch.

Notice our feet are already cold...

Mia and I only made it ten feet until we turned around.

It was so cold, I peed my pants!
Here's Brad and Lee Anne rounding the corner. Yes, she's crying from the pain.

My hot hubby, this didn't even phase him.

Even Grammy got into it, she is way too happy at this point!

Warming up our feet in the bathtub, priceless! Mia is not so sure.

The Baby Doll

Mia's new fascination is with her "baby." The timing has come great considering there will be a real live human baby here in four months. Grammy bought this for her over Christmas, great timing!

Protein Bars...

My good friend Ali gave me this great recipe for protein bars that are super easy and yummy:

Mix in kitchenaid on low:
2 cups oats
1 cut peanut butter or almond butter
1 cup sunflower seeds (not in shells)
1 cup seseme seeds (I didn't have these, used chopped walnuts)
3/4 cup honey
1 cup chocolate chips

Put in a greased 9 X 13 pan, freeze for 20 minutes, cut into bars, and store in individually wrapped foils. Store in freezer.

FYI I think these would be yummy with just about any types of nut that you have. I would have added cranberries or raisins if i had them. This is a great breakfast to send your husband out the door with! Also a great mid afternoon snack for a preggo woman....

Yummy Crockpot applesauce...

Just made THIS awesome crockpot applesauce recipie for Mia. I tripled the apples (used a 3lb bag) and doubled the other ingredients. So yummy and so easy, great for everyone!