Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Famous Craft-off!

Alright! I'm finally getting around to this--

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me, made with tons of love just for you! It might be a card, goodies, or you might be surprised what you get! Give it a try! The catch? You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a lovely little treat for themselves! Have Fun! Ready........Set............Go!

Amber's note: Feel free to make requests. If you're reading this, you probably already know the kind of stuff I'm good at, or capable of.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Amazing cake



This is by far the most amazing cake anyone has ever made for me. My sister-in-law Hyde and niece Shayna made it. All of it. Yes, those flowers are handmade. By her.

Happy birthday to me! (Last month - sorry for the delayed picture.)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I love Olivia's shirt:


And she is, again, very cute.


Carmen pooped through two of her St. Patty's day outfits by the time I started taking pictures. She also threw up on mine.

And here's a special St. Patrick's Day message from Olivia, featuring my first, untrained efforts on Adobe Premier:


Have a pinchless day! (We love you, Brook!)

Some pics

Here are some belated pics from our recent visits:



Carmen with Auntie Heather



Olivia eating yogurt with Grandpa Roper



Olivia with Aaron, one of her favorite cousins

And here:


Carmen having some tummy time

My little girls are growing up too fast.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Pictureless post

I find that nowadays I hold off blogging sometimes because I feel like I need a picture in there, especially since the most relevant and exciting things in my life are my quickly growing and photogenic tiny tots. However, I think that a pictureless blog post is better than no blog post at all, so I am no longer going to let lack of pictures hinder my updating.

So, my help has finally run out. That is, we finally reached the end of a month-long stream of familial visits from my mom, Steven's sister, and my dad. Tomorrow begins the reality of having to get up all night for a tiny baby, then having to get up on time to take care of a toddler.

Mom, Heather, and Dad, it sure was nice having you here to help. And play with us. And install towel bars and fix our shower and garage door and other stuff.

In other news, I'm finally getting around to filing our taxes. No, I did not procrastinate: I had to wait until the beginning of February for all our forms to get here, and by that time we had other things to worry about. This year, we only have to file income tax in TWO states, because TA DAAA! We live in Texas! I say "only" because for the past several years, I have braved some of the most convoluted tax situations that two remarkably boring people like us could possibly have: multiple states, multiple jobs, multiple independant income, student garbage, etc. And I do it all by my little self, without an accountant, a service, or even a box! La de dah, look how smart I am!

Anyway, next year we anticipate having NO state income taxes to work through, plus another deduction (thanks, Carmen!) And since President Obama will undoubtably deliver that tax cut for my 95 percent of the population by then, in spite of that multi-trillion-dollar stimulus package funded by "the government," I'm looking forward to Texas Taxes 2009.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

More Carmen

Some quick updates:

My mom went home Saturday. It was wonderful having her here - fun to just be around her, and great to have her help with the girls. Olivia especially loved spending time with Grandma and making her sing songs over and over again. It's Thursday, and she still talks about Grandma.


Three generations picture. Olivia and I are tied for worst hair here.

So, I'll admit that when Carmen was first born, I wondered if she was going to be as pretty as Olivia. As some of you may remember, Olivia was just a beautiful, beautiful newborn - as she's gotten older, she's remained beautiful. Plus, she's so fun and smart and sweet that she's become my Platonic idea of a child. I worried about that, because I don't want Carmen to feel inferior just because she's not exactly like her.

But, I don't think we have anything to worry about.




L'amour est enfant de boheme - look at that olive skin.

She's also quite the sweetie. She's a good sleeper, an even better eater, and a good cuddler to boot. We're all in love.



And, in the tradition of Olivia, she sleeps with her head on sideways.

I'm sure life could be better right now. But I don't know how.