You know me so well...

Thank you walmart for combining two of my favorite things. Your cupcakes & PEEPS! Ahhhh.... This is perfection, this is, heaven. ;)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

A New First...

So, my new friend Linda came over today for me to teach her how to cut her sons hair. The sweet mom I am, I stuffed Evan in his room & closed the gate so he wouldn't tromp thought the hair & get underfoot. He was fine in his room for the most part (there was a tired whine here and there) when suddenly I heard him jumping on something like his trampoline only his trampoline wasn't in his room.... Linda went to investigate & I decided it was probably his step stool & just sounded weird. Well, it wasn't a step stool but was something Ilve heard him jump on thousands of times but just didn't think it was possible... It was his bed!!!! He was INSIDE his crib, obviously somehow had crawled in. I couldn't believe it (yet obviously it's completely believable), lol, so I did what any mother of a daredevil would do & asked him to get in again. Ha ha ha ha! He was on the table by his bed (a foot plus off the ground) & lifted himself up & over the side (getting himself a little stuck & started to totally giggle!). I gave him a little nudge and he flipped in! He could have been hurt landing on his head but somehow he was totally fine & got right up & started bouncing again. Lol. I tell you, this kid is a mess! :)
Another thing he did that I do not think is cool is for the first time ever I saw him be possessive of his things with linda's son. Evan pushed him away from his toy! Pushed him! (not like a shove but like a walking 'let's keep the line moving folks, nothing to see here' push). Thankfully her son was sweet and knows how to take turns. I will need to teach Evan this now that it is a problem :/. (it was still kind cute though, sorry 'd'.)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Dear Camellia Bush,

(the one in my yard)

(the one i gave the friend. gorgeous!)

Thank you for blooming this year, I really needed to see you beautiful flower of almost 2 years of hiding from us. I thought I might not ever partake of your glory again but here you are with 2 blooms today (shared you with a friend.) & lots of buds ready to see the sun! I'm so excited! I love you camillia! Xoxo - Lila

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia for more information about this beautiful plant!

At the park

(that's our friend Marrion holding Evan & swinging)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Baaa ha ha ha ha ha ha....

Sometimes garbage looks good on you. ;)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Officially...

RETIRED. (playing taps)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

The lone brown shoe

While in california, I went to the converse outlet & bought Evan some brown size 6's that he'd have to wait to wear. I anticipated the day & finally it came, 2 weeks ago we could no longer fit his fat little feet in his size 5's so we brought the c's down from the alter from wence they were perched. I care way more about them that Evan obviously but we both loved them! They actually fit his formentioned fat topped feet & only come off WHEN he pulls them off. Here inlies the problem... Saturday after work Evan and took to shopping at The Avenue (local outdoor mall). He was in his stroller & doing well with his shoes till Barnes & Noble. Luckily I caught him in the act of removing the shoe but somewhere between there, our next stop at world market & walking back towards Old Navy to our car by Belk... That little rascal lost his shoe!!! I did a drive by our walking path & went IN W.M., called B&N all to no luck. I am sad, many happy memories we to be made in his brown converse :(.... So I went to j.c. Penney & bought him black ones for 19.99 ( I had a g.c). They are awesome but not his brown ones ;*(. I miss you brownie!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Playground cutie

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Neeeeew caseworker....

So, this morning at the ungoshly hour of 730ish, our house phone rang. I don't answer the house phone often as despite signing up for the non telemarketing thingamajig, they still squeak through. So, as I pryed my eyeball open from it's very sleepiness, I noticed it said "Indianapolis, Indiana" just before I quickly picked it up then hung up (so not to wake my baby but too late) on, 'the telemarketer'. Then I shot up and said, "That could be our new caseworker!" lol Thankfully he called right back.
We had a GREAT conversation and do feel the blessings of not giving up. He also called yesterday afternoon and left a message at the house (which I didn't know till a few minutes ago). That means, HE tried to call US, TWICE in a 24 hour period! I feel spoiled!! lol ;) he he. Anyway, he listened, he talked he layed it out there. I told him any tedious tasks he assigns will help us feel like we going in the right direction while he gets acclimated to Tennessee Adoptions and his new families he will be working with. It feels like it did when we started to work with Matt Watson in the beginning and that is really a great feeling. We will get to meet him to get our "Home Study" updated, in about 2 weeks (same week my sister Jenalyn and family are coming to visit but before they get here). We are grateful he is willing to come from Indiana to help us, it is so refreshing. We are praying for him to be able to get the Tennessee licensure he's requesting and for him to have ease in getting acclimated quickly with the Tennessee families he is now representing. Ahhhhhh....... It really does feel like a breath of fresh air, just in time for spring. Perfect timing. Thank you for all our kind words, thoughts and prayers. For those of you not aware of the process, although this is good news, the next steps are a little slow to getting ourselves actually 'Approved' for our next Adoption but stay with us, we know it is this way and understand it. When we are "Approved" I will post that and we can all start sending the word out more that we are 'looking for our next child' to join our family. xoxo

The morning after...

The carnage.... :D lol!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

'Cat eats T.P....'

(the bait. i put this out tonight and will show you how it looks in the morning. i GUARANTEE it will be shredded. :) he he he)

The 'innocent' kitty Oliver. I woke him up from his nap to document for the blog.

Since my friend Jacqui mentioned it, it is HIGH time for a blog post about our crazy cat Oliver and his T.P. shredding habits. :) We found Oliver as a kitten mewing at our back door, a after we moved back to Tennessee and in our house. He was the cutest kitten & has been a great adult cat (until Evan started walking that is but that's another post). So as he got bigger we would periodically find our toilet paper shredded to pieces on the roll till he started doing it EVERY day soo... We took the empty roll & wrote: 'START: CAT EATS T.P. CHECK UNDER SINK' :) lol. It's a crowd pleaser & I hope you love it too. He he he.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Adoption Process Revision

So, I feel alright about the intensity in which I pursue the things I love and believe in. I recently blogged about the adoption process whoas. When our caseworker upset me during Evan's adoption, I really admit how out of control of the situation I felt. I had to continually check with my Heavenly Father as to what to do next cause my natural reaction was horrible. I wanted to yell at him and say 'how dare you treat me this way' but instead would discuss my feelings with Michael and pray, pray, PRAY to feel the spirit until I did again. I'm sure Satan would have LOVED if I would have given up and not got to be a mother and not given Evan the parents he has. He worked really hard on me. THIS time, with the newest caseworker Robin, not returning our phone calls, I have been very calm compared. I did not feel anger this time but did feel frustration and know it's ok, as long as I don't let it overwhelm me. Since this new adventure, trying to contact Robin to renew our Adoption information, I have been praying for us to be successful in getting our paper work in. It seemed the forces were fighting against us in such an unfair way. Well... Sunday a friend/angel (MM) shed some light on the situation! We were told that as of this past Friday, "Robin" doesn't' work for the Atlanta Agency anymore! Not only that, apparently, it seems that we will now be represented by LDS Family Services in Indiana! Wow. We have not been directly told by our agency yet but when we contact them this week (hopefully), it would be great if we could get our information forwarded where it needs to go so we don't waste any time. :) We are so excited about the thought of adding to our family, we do not want to waste time looking for our child and again enlisting all of you to help us. Let's hope this information will help us on our way... soon!

I colored my hair this week & kept meaning to take pictures when I styled it well... Wouldn't you know the day I styled it, it's cloudy & rainy so you can't even see the red in the color. :/ oh well, at least you can see % finally have given myself blonde panels again after not having them for over 2 years.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Random Photos from the Month (or so)

Bought Evan this drum set for $20.00 and couldn't resist. It was totally worth it, he totally started playing right away as you saw in the video of another post but I'll post a better video on this one. In the video, he even starts trying the bass drum at the end.



Current obsession: watching DVD's of Baby Einstein while sitting or rocking in his chair. he he he. I love all these new things!



This is his hint to me that he's tired. Grabbed his blanket and sucking on his finger. melting heart...

First Sloppy Joe. lol.

Do you want a balloon? :) (playing at the Chop Shop while waiting for his friend Serif to get a Haircut)

Playing kitchen with our friend Taylor. He looks like he loves her.

Playing house with Emma (our babysitter/friend Rachel's Daughter)

Adoption frustrations

Our family is gearing up to be put back in the Adoption pool. We are feeling pulled to it again and are really motivated. We are attempting to continue with LDS Family Services but have now called and left a message for our new caseworker 3 times with no response. I cannot begin to express to you how disappointing and frustrating it is to get no response from the people who are assigned and (will be) paid to help you. We want our family to grow and Adoption is the only way for us to do that because of Infertility. Not only do we feel it's in the Lord's hands as to whether we get to have more children in our home, it is also up to our caseworkers and agency to do the right thing. I am sad to say we have had bad feelings towards the handling of Evan's Adoption process (left it out of the blog for fear that it could be misinterpreted but it was a bad time) but since his finalization it has been the pure bliss it should have been since he took his first breath. It felt bad to have those feelings and for me, it has taken me this long to let them go or to even document them in this way. I don't want to repeat that process but it is difficult to leave our agency cause we can't afford to go to another. Part of me doesn't want them to get away with ignoring us as they may do it to others. I've been really reflecting on it lately and feel this challenge was possibly even given to me, to learn from but also to push myself to confront this situation in a constructive way. Part of this post is to let you know what is going on. It feels good to type it and let some of that sadness from those old feelings go. We are praying for our agency to respond to us and for us to be patient with them but also for an adoption situation to arise when the time is right. We would love for any of you that would like to, to join us. (we also have a friend named Hallie trying to add to their family through adoption if you don't mind to add her name to you prayer). We feel blessed to have so many friends who love us and support us through our Adoption's. Hopefully we will get to have more children. Thank you for reading. xoxo

Who wants to jam? :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Fanny

Get your minds out of the gutter! ;) lol
Recently mike got busted while on his watch, evan tore up a similar type fan as shown. He vowed to replace it when I challenged hi to be able to find that kind 'just anywhere'. He came through! After a hint from me that he may find one at world market he admitted he already ordered a dozen from oriental trading company. Lol! This is the box they came in. It's huge for the tiny little box of fans. The best part is that the fans are independence day themed!!! Lol

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Curiosity got the leprechan?

Lol! Am I mean or what for capturing this? He he he

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

My secret...

Fresh Effects Invisible Solid in Cucumber Aloe! I am not kidding! I have wanted to blog about this a long time ago but just keep talking about boring ol' evan! ;) he he he. Anyway. If anyone reading this has deodorant challenges or excessive sweating (yes I just admitted "I" sweat!) you will appreciate this post....

I don't know why but in the past 10 years, I have had a horrible time sweating! To the point where I would NEVER raise my arms for the possibility of a sweat mark or STAIN! (EWE!!) Let me say as a hairstylist who blow dry's hair all day long, this is NOT ideal. So over the years, I have tried may different Antiperspirants INCLUDING a prescription deodorant (which worked but it stung to apply and I didn't feel like it was healthy). Anyway, about a year ago? or maybe even before Evan was born, I was deodorant hopping, many times after only using it 3 times and knowing it wasn't working, when I came across this:

I love it cause It smells good, does not get on my clothes, it is the best working over the counter Antiperspirant I've ever used AND it still works for me! With that said, it may stop working next week because of Murphy's law, but I will enjoy it till then. I hope this post put a smile on your face. I plan to try to post more 'consumer report' items in the future, stay tuned. :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Elder Wutkee Mission report

I have been honored to be mentioned in my friend Chesney's Blog. My brother Isaac is serving a mission in Ft. Worth TX for our church, Teaching what we believe and inviting those he teaches to be baptised. "Elders" as the boy missionaries are called, serve for 2 years without seeing family, dating, going to movies, reading news papers, watching t.v. or etc, just serving the Lord, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While on their mission, they stay in one town for only 2-4 months before transferring to another town generally. His first area he was appointed to, just happened to be in our good friend (originally from Nashville) Chesney's town of Denton TX!! So she took a picture of him and blogged it for me and my family. We love you Chesnut! xoxo.
http://chesneyc.blogspot.com/2010/03/post-just-for-my-friend-lila.html

(mom, feel free to forward this to the family that doesn't read this blog -everyone, lol)

Part 3 video

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Part 2

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Can't keep his clothes on part 1

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Newwwww rug! :)

Evan's new car rug from old time pottery. Only $9.99! Heeeee loves it! 
When I was a kid we made the BEST car tracks with chalk on a huge chalkboard my parents got from somewhere. We also made tracks in the carpet that were pretty sweet. My older sister and I & my 2 younger brothers played with matchbox cars all the time. I still have vivid memories of 'being invited to each others mansions for a party'. We would even chalk parking lots in our driveways for the guests to our parties. Lol. Those were the good ol' days. Hopefully my son will love cars & will let me play too? ;)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Favorites

michael texting me 3 times in 1 hour to let me know, he's gonna "play basketball longer", "will leave in 10 minutes" and "just left". :) glad you are mine sweetie. thank you for caring about us to know where you are every moment. :) we love you. xoxo

Cleaning up the leaves from fall

Finally! :) lol

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Spring = Play dates

My friends Michelle and Jeff brought their son Serif down for a haircut and play date yesterday. :) I love seeing them all and it's fun to see Serif's changes since he and Evan are only a couple weeks apart in age. I have posted about these two toddlers before so here is another of them together. Thanks Michelle for the pictures! My very favorite is the bottom one...

I told Jeff and Michelle about Evan's quad so I brought it to see if Serif would like to try it. What do you think? LOL. ;) He loved it. He was totally smiling like... "Look what I'm doing mom and dad." At the end I put Evan on the back and Serif rode them together a few feet. It's so cute! I just love watching these boys grow up and seeing what new things they want to show us each day. Love these kiddos!

Saturday

Michael and I went to his brother's house in Nashville on Saturday to help put some furniture together. We kept Evan near by but as the parts needed to be scattered around the floor, it was inevitable that he would get in the way. We may have already been cleaned up or close to it and I don't even remember what he did exactly but I think he kept doing something I said not to do (like trying to turn the satellite on and off). I said, "Do you want to go to time out?" He literally froze, looking at me then mumbled and grumbled (seriously) as he walked over to their attic door, turned his back to it (meanwhile we have no idea what he's doing but we're watching him) and slid his booty against it to the ground! He put HIMSELF in "time out"! :D lol. It was priceless. We were all lifting our jaws off the floor and trying not to let him see us laughing. What a little sweetheart. I just love that little guy.