Homemaker - noun. home-mak-er, A person who manages the household of his or her own family, esp. as a principal occupation.

Thanks to extra time and Misha's Christmas present (photo printer, zing!) I finally finished my bedroom project to make it more family oriented and less like a blank slate. We finally painted over the bright orange and white, it gave the room a much warmer feel with our blue and brown but for a long time the walls just sat bare. I got a bunch of Ikea clip frames and the cutest material from there as well and just put some stuff together. Mom and Xander helped me lay the pattern and nail the walls. I just hung the picture frames before I had the rest of the pictures and there it sat for a month or two, but like I said, I finally finished and I'm super happy with the final product.
Xander grabbed his toy hammer to help hang pictures. The next two pictures were taken on my phone, sorry about the quality, or lack thereof.
Once I finished hanging, most of the frames sat empty for too long. I am a procrastinator.
Finished work, sorry for the unmade bed.
A close up of the pictures. I really like all of Ikea's material, it was hard to just pick one, I wish I could sew or make something with their pretty fabric, maybe that's my next thing...I'll figure it out.

Filler - noun. fill-er, A thing or substance used to fill a gap, cavity, or the like.

A lazy rest of the week after Christmas, nice time with the family and hanging in the 'hood. This is just a short post with a couple pictures to take a couple minutes of your time. Not much to say other than the house should be being cleaned right now and instead I'm posting pictures of my adorable family online. Enjoy.
Xander and Papa's favorite local spot is Tasty-Yo, frozen yogurt with toppings of your choice. Xander HAD to have gummy bears on his so we made up for them with strawberries and kiwi, he liked it all.
He's just so ridiculously cute.
A beautiful shot of me and Anna eating our Christmas dinner...so flattering, especially the hole in my sock.

Yuletide - adj. yule-tide, Of or pertaining to the Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!! We had an awesome time at home in Charlotte with our little family and a couple of friends too. I missed the snow and have made the Unbreakable Vow that I will be in Minnesota for Christmas next year, you can hold me to it, or I WILL DIE. It's very serious business. Xander got a lot of presents and all in all December was a very profitable month for him. He's very patient about opening presents and was up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Christmas morning ready to open them as he was promised. He got a skateboard just like Tony Hawks, he's already bruising himself all over the house. Caleb and I aren't the best at waiting for presents so most of our gifts were already opened before Christmas morning, which is fine with us, we have more fun watching X open his. My belly is getting bigger and we're all getting ready to meet the newest member of our family, only a month to go!!
Riding in the Cabrio, we're starting to look for new cars and are all very exciting to have four doors!
Big belly on Christmas day, still in my pj's and no make-up, so don't look too close.
Already a pro.
Even Flooper got a gift, she's getting better at unwrapping.
Got a 'cycle' to add to his collection.
Hanging out at Dolce for Nod's birthday party...sometimes you just gotta put your feet up...look at that belly.

On the Town - idiom. In quest of entertainment in a city's nightclubs, bars, etc.; out to have a good time.

Still managing to get out a bit here and there, even if I'm exhausted by 10:30 and I'm ready to go home, at least I saw people and had some conversations over the two-year-old level. Our friend Nod had a CD release party at a local restaurant and Caleb and I ventured into the freezing weather to support him, I even wore one of his NOD Original T-shirts, which barely stretched over the belly. Looking forward to some quiet family Christmas time in the next week, will post some pictures of Xander's awesome newly renovated room and Christmas presents.

Productive - adj. pro-duc-tive, Having the power of producing; generative; creative: a productive effort.

I had such a good time putting together my display for the NoDa All Arts Market this year. Granted I waited until the total last minute and was already worn out from this pregnancy and having Xander and Caleb to deal with, but I managed to get it all done and leave the market with only one window and a bunch of great stuff. After I set up and hung out at the market selling it wasn't really about the money any more. I felt good actually doing something again, don't tell Caleb but I might make a habit out of it. So here are some pictures of the windows I brought to the show and a couple pictures from the show itself. I also made a couple more contacts for additional windows, which will be helpful since I've practically run out.
There you have it. All Arts Market 2009, keep in touch for more windows!!

Beauty - noun. beau-ty, The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind.

I just need everyone to take a moment and see how blessed I am to have the most beautiful little boy. It's so fun to see him growing and learning and see his personality come alive. He's got so much of his father in him, it makes me love him that much more. Here you are, take a minute and bask in the greatness that is Xander.




I just love these two, and soon I'll be lucky enough to have three of them!

Propaganda - noun. prop-a-gan-da, The particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement.

Misha and I took a walk around the neighborhood this very hot morning and started to see random 'art' posted around. Some nailed others drilled into light poles. We went on a scavenger hunts of sorts and took pictures of those we found. This is why I love Charlotte and especially NoDa.
Shepard Fairey knock-off.
Whoever did this art is probably really sexy and has a gorgeous wife.
More Shepard stuff.
This is one of my favorite pieces in NoDa. It's on my favorite brick wall that's been painted and re-painted. I hope no one ever covers it up.
I don't know what this means.
I like this one, probably my favorite...unless they're making fun of NoDa, if that's the case I hate them.
I like this too.

Absence - noun. ab-sence, period of being away: failure to attend or appear when expected.

I still love you. I'm sorry I've ignored you. I believe I'm back. I'll catch you up on my two months of me being AWOL:

-I'm married
-I'm pregnant
-I haven't been alone in my house with my husband since either of those two things happened.

That's about it.

Let's all forget about me ignoring you and never speak of it again.

My garden is being fruitful, no pun intended, it's more like veggieful, since I've got banana peppers coming out of my rear. I took it upon myself to pickle my banana peppers since I've never done it and I'm not going to eat them raw. Caleb did a great job of documenting my progress, and this is how it went.
Choppy chop.
Stuff.
Vinegar and water and salt.
Boil the cans for a while, set them on the cupboard and 'pop' the little lids just seal themselves. I felt a weird sense of accomplishment, in a housewife kind of way. Look how frugal and womanly I am, I canned something. I am planning on pickling a friend's jalapeno's sometime this week.

Bliss - noun. Supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment: wedded bliss.

Way too much to do to be blogging so I'm just doing a nice short one to get you by. The wedding was a success and a great time was had by all! I loved every second of my wedding WEEK! Thursday party and TBS show and Friday gallery crawl and Saturday wedding, just so much time spent with family and friends I wish we could do it all the time, except I'm so TIRED and the house looks like a tornado went through it. Most everyone leaves tomorrow, which will be sad but refreshing in a the-house-is-actually-quiet-and-empty sort of way. Here are just a couple wedding pictures while you wait for what will probably be the worlds largest post...
This photo was randomly featured on Buzznet: http://www.buzznet.com/featured/?id=54721161, pretty cool...

Family - noun. fam-i-ly, All those persons considered as descendants of a common progenitor.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last week. The wedding is getting SO close and people are starting to show up, with Misha being the first. She flew in early Sunday morning, more like late Saturday night and we've been going ever since. Church on Sunday and the usual hot-spot Dolce Vita for wine with friends. X and K are so cute together, X will make such a good brother someday, he's sweet and nice and love to kiss K. Enjoy pictures...
Xander about to have beans and rice at Fat Burrito after I got a much needed haircut.
Xander loves this car/cart at Earth Fare, I love going there and sampling ALL of the soups, yep, I'm that person.
Misha and Xander, about to eat brunch at the Crepe Cellar, our newest addition in the NoDa restaurant scene.
This is a classic. Misha got herself trapped by giving X a taste of ketchup, then all he wanted was more...
Friends meet up at Dolce.
Ashley getting her practice in with baby Kea's.
Crystal (Muffin) joined us for a glass of wine before heading to the airport, duty calls...
Kelly and Misha being cute.
Xander singing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' for everyone.
X is so sweet to his little cousin, he loves to give kisses and put the baby-paci in K's mouth.
Time to cuddle.
In awe of the little baby.
Kea's enjoys the attention while X watches tv.