Catch-up & Pigtails

(Even though Abby is claiming to be the "loser of bloggerville", I think I could give her a good run for her money these days with my blogging frequency, or lack thereof.)

It seems as though so much has been going on lately, yet nothing at all.  Or at least nothing interesting enough to blog about.  But in true Lori fashion, I will try.  (And I even threw in a whole new blog look for those of you still not brave enough to try out Google Reader despite my best efforts to convince you otherwise.)

And rather than one huge post about the awesomeness that is Eason life these days, I'll spare you the details and try to post several much smaller posts over the next few days.  Try being the operative word here.

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Now I suspect that my daughter is like other 19 month old girls out there (gah! 19 months?!) in that she HATES having her hair brushed, combed or even messed with.  She is a fan of the bow if you consider that it's just So.Much.Fun.to take it in and out of her own hair and not actually leave it there for any extended period of time.  This past Sunday before church, I was feeling particularly brave creative, so I decided to grace the world with the awesomeness that is Olivia's first pigtails.  This was no easy feat, I tell you.  There was screaming, crying, and gnashing of teeth.  And Olivia was pretty upset too. But in the end, we made it out alive and the plethora of comments we received at church and throughout the day were well worth it, in my opinion. (Seriously? What mom doesn't like to be told just how cute! and old! and precious! their child looks?)

Exhibit A:

I realize the picture is rather grainy, but hey, you take what you can get on a Sunday morning at 8:20 when you're trying to make it out of the house to arrive at church--10 minutes away--by 8:30.

Exhibit B:

By this point she had totally caught on to the fact that I thought she was cute. I call this pose: SASSY!

Exhibit C:

Even with this ridiculously un-cute face she's making while saying "CHEESE" in her biggest voice, still... the piggies? Love them.

Spoons, Cupcakes & Cupid

Our small group had plans to celebrate Valentine's Day together with our kiddos (one night early) at Spoons' Family Valentine's Dinner.  If you live in the area, hopefully you know what and where Spoons is.  If not, well... bless your heart (and check out the website!).

Ebby Lee decided to get sick all over her poor mama at the last minute, so we missed the Slaughters dearly, but we still had a great time with the Endsleys and enjoyed some super yummy food.  Instead of a regular dinner menu, this special event was a buffet of meatloaf (one of the best I've ever had), chicken tetrazzini, chicken fried steak, chicken fingers, macaroni & cheese, fried okra, mashed potatos, green beans and Spoons signature salads.  Not to mention there was cupcake decorating and live music!

Caroline, such an easy-going, now one year old little girl.

All the materials necessary to create the perfect Valentine's cupcake:

Hard at work...

YUMM-O!

Olivia decided to eat her [undecorated (I know, mean Mommy)] cupcake with a knife.  Good one, Liv!

Carter took this picture.  He thoroughly enjoyed dancing and tapping his feet to the tunes.

The best picture of four under three I could get.

Hope everyone else had a Happy Valentine's Day as well! (Thanks again for my flowers, honey! Sorry I forgot to take a picture for the blog.)

Snow. Snow? Snow!

Have I ever mentioned that I'm not much of a snow person?  Well, I'm not.  I mean, as a kid living in Texas, you come to love the occasional ice sheets that give you an unexpected day off from school, but the kind of snow in which you can play for hours, make snow ice cream and build snowmen the size of actual humans?  Un.Heard.Of. Until last week, that is.  And even now as a mom to small children, I still don't love the ice snow, if I'm being completely honest.  I'm glad it showed up, gave us a little time to play and take some photos, but honestly? I'm happy it's gone and even happier that we're expecting 60 degree temps by the end of the week.

I was only able to snap a couple of pics of the kiddos because they did all their fun snow activities with Daddy while I was at work and since I keep the camera in my purse, well...

Someone remind me of this next photo in July when the kids are begging me to play outside on their swingset mmkay?

Slush. Definitely made for a fun commute Friday morning.

Because it's pretty, that's why.

It took this tree 10 months to recover from the last big snow we had.  I'm guessing this time will be longer.

Doesn't your head lean just a little bit to the right just looking at this one?

Thanks for the snow, God.  Really.  It was fun to feel like we had an actual Winter here in Texas this year.  Now bring on the heat!

The one where craigslist and I become BFFs

Seriously, craigslist just HAS to be the greatest thing ever invented (created?).  My new BFF, as I shall now refer to it.

I posted an ad for Olivia's old crib on craigslist this morning at 10 am.  By 10:06, I had one person saying she wanted it and was coming to buy it tonight.  Within the next hour, I had 6 (six!) other people emailing me saying that they wanted it.  Perhaps I under-priced.  Ah well, I'm not greedy.  I'll just be happy to get rid of it in exchange for some quick cash.

And though I haven't sold the toy box yet, I do have one person measuring their closet to see if it will fit, in which case she will buy it.  If not, I will consign it next month.  It will sell.

But back to my best friend... I mean, really, who wouldn't love a system where you get to post items you wish to get rid of only to have someone COME PICK IT UP FROM YOUR HOUSE and give you moolah.  There are some things I'd pay someone else just to haul away after I'm done with it, but thanks to my new BFF, I don't have to.  Instead, they come get it from me and pay me to do so!

And don't even get me started on browsing CL for items I'D like to buy.  It's like a giant online garage sale... except the seller can't shoot you a look for raising your eyebrow at the crap they think people will actually pay money for and you don't have to get up early on Saturday to shop!

Dear Mr. Craig, 

I don't know you personally, but I *heart* your list.  Please keep it up.

Love, 
Your BFF