Penicillin is NOT cool.

We have discovered the very hard way that my poor child is allergic to penicillin. We all had been fighting off colds - on and off - for about a month and Ella had suffered the worst. We finally threw up our hands and decided to give her an antibiotic. Amoxicillin. Bad idea. I freaked out when we got up yesterday morning and she had pink dots all over the place that were spreading rapidly. By the time we got to Dr. Irle's, it was covering her face and it had even spread to her palms. She was totally itchy. Dr. Irle (the poor guy) - after enduring my child screaming at him for 10 minutes (she has doctor and photographer issues) - suggested we run a CBC and make sure it was nothing viral. Eric ran over to the office from work and his eyes widened when he saw her for the first time in a few hours. It totally eased our minds when the results came back negative for anything viral. The only thing to be assumed at this time is that it was the penicillin. We started her on steroids and Benadryl yesterday and I hope this makes it better, although it's definitely worse on her face today. You can tell a difference from the picture I took at the top of this post at 1:00 yesterday and these pics at the bottom at 5:30 yesterday. I feel so bad for her because I'm sure that she is so uncomfortable - but the sweetheart really isn't complaining much at all. She looks so happy for being in such a miserable condition.

What I have been doing...and not doing.

Okay, so I have not blogged in forever. I have not even visited this blog in weeks. I should be ashamed of myself for ever starting a blog in the first place, knowing I wouldn't keep it up. But today is atonement day (as far as blogging goes). So, here is what I have been up to, as told in corney, hokey pictures.

First, and foremost, I have been packing for Disney World. We leave tomorrow, but it feels like I have been packing forever. It is so different traveling with kids - it seems like we're taking the whole house with us. And I keep remembering things that I have forgotten every day...does that make any sense? I am so tired of having half-packed suitcases scattered in our bedroom, but I don't have to worry about it after today...unless I forget something...

Eric and I went to a friend's wedding in Atlanta Saturday...had lots of fun...just sad that I did not get a picture of the beautiful bride...

Bad hair night...

Oh yeah - we also went to IKEA!!! Doesn't Eric look happy to be there? I was more excited about Ikea than the wedding or spending the night away from the kids in a fancy hotel (well, maybe not that). I. AM. SUCH. A. NERD...Ikea was really cool, though and we did come back with a cute chair for the sitting area in the kitchen...

I have been drinking way too much of this...

And not playing nearly enough of this...

I have reattached this hussie's wings at least 7,394 times since I last blogged. I hate this doll...

I have been listening to this A LOT...

I have been wasting time doing WAY too much of this...but I love flair...I really need a life...

I have also been wasting time reading this...again...for the third time...I am in love with a fictional vampire...again, I really really need a life...

I have been doing a little of this, but not enough to keep up. This is my least favorite chore in the world...

Hey, is that a treadmill?! How did this get on this post, because I have not been doing that at all...

And now I have to get back to my real life because I have a ton of stuff to do before we leave in the morning! The next post will undoubtedly be about Disney World.

The Happiest Place on Earth

I can't believe I haven't blogged about Disney World yet. We are going on September 9th for six days of wonderful family happiness (and probably a few meltdowns and come-aparts). We are all very excited, but most of all, Ella, the princess of the family, is pumped. At some point, every day, she says "I can't wait to go to Disney World!!!" We told her a little too soon, I think. She's only 3 and each of her days are like years. Anyway, it's still, like, 30 something days until the trip and I've already been packing for a month. The last time we went was on our honeymoon and I'm quickly finding out that going with kids is a whole new world (pun intended).

We will be staying at Pop Century Resort. We picked it because it's at the "value" price and it supposedly has better pools. Whatever. We just wanted the convenience of the Disney bus transport system and since we are flying, we did not want to rent a car. Speaking of flying, we are super nervous about putting a 3 year old and an 18 month old on a plane...okay, we're freaking out. This is my biggest worry because it's not like you can say "excuse me, Mr. Pilot, sir, can you pull over? My kids are wigging out about this plane thing." I just hope since it's a small plane headed straight to Orlando, that it will be full of other kids that are louder and more obnoxious than our kids. We can just hope. More Disney stuff later...

A Post for Nester

OK...I know this is not a decorating blog (you can barely even call it a blog anymore since all I do is read other peoples' blogs instead of blogging on mine). Anywho. I was reading the Nester (my fave) this morning and she posted an idea that was right up my alley. I must try it. Although I am more like the Nester in that I am probably not patient enough to cut all that styrofoam in straight lines. I actually did a project similar to this a few months back, but I hid all the styrofoam in shadowboxes. I have a thing for shadowboxes. It's sort of like a secret romance. When Eric leaves for work, I walk around the house and give all my little shadowboxes kisses. I just paused to think about how much I love my shadowboxes and how many more projects I should do with them. I'm so weird...but I don't really kiss the shadowboxes.

I took these pics weeks ago for the IDHTBPTBB post on Nesting Place, but never linked them on her blog. I'm such a slacker. Sorry Nester. Please forgive me. Here they are now. The pics are blurry because I refuse to use a flash, but by camera is not all fancy. Workin' on that.

I just picked out scrapbook papers at Hobby Lobby and snagged the boxes at 50% off and got to stickin'. I used styroboard or what ever they call it and mounted a couple of layers on top of some old linen curtains that were way too short for our current house (this was almost a year ago before I got hooked on the Nester, so I had to use those pesky scissors).

I liked the ones in the living room so much, I did some a week later for the dining room. I glued mini Christmas ornaments into these. These have to be the smallest barn stars ever. I just noticed on Chatting with the Sky that Emily (Nester's sister - get with it, people) has the same bookshelf as me except hers does not have a unsightly scratch on the top from being moved too many times. I won't say where we got it in case she is ashamed of K Mart Martha Stewart furniture. Oops. Mine was a gift from my parents and I couldn't be prouder. It's an awesome piece.

Can you spot any more shadowboxes? Please don't laugh at this wall. This was before I figured out to use sticky stuff on the back of the frames to keep them all straight. After all, as Nester says..."It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!"

Blog Stoppage

I promise I'm going to blog again one day. I'm so bad at this. Flaky people should not be allowed to have blogs. Until then, enjoy the goofy pictures.

Eric - standing on our neighbors' rooftops.

Redneck ways of staying cool - the classic...sprinkler on the lawn...with clothes still on...sitting when we're tired of running.

We call this "Redneck swimming pool" - water hose on the trampoline. Man, I can't wait for that inground pool.

"Green is for Boys"

So... I got sick of the red kitchen. Actually, I never liked it it in the first place, but I was 5 months pregnant when I painted it and still had 3 rooms to paint before Addi was born after moving into a new house. It took three days to paint the 4 to 5 awful burnt red coats that looked so chic on the tiny paint chip. I kept thinking to myself "it will look better after the next coat."

Sigh....it never looked any better after the second coat, so I was wasting my time. Anyway once I was done, I painted our bedroom, Ella's bedroom, and Addison's nursery. Ella's and Addi's rooms both have stripes. Yikes!

I was completely burned out and 9 months pregnant after all of that. Oh yeah, and after Addison was born, I painted the foyer (also with stripes) and the dining room that both have 10 foot ceilings. That was fun. In case you are wondering where Eric was during all of this, he was absent for most of it. He hates painting. It's his one thing, so I usually let him off the hook. He does most of the yard work, does most of the other handy projects, and he's a great poopy diaper changer. I did make him help a little with the girls' rooms (I was 8 and half months pregnant painting the nursery in multicolor stripes...what was I thinking?).

Anywho. Back to the kitchen. I was looking at paint chips (about a billion of them) before painting, and Ella comes in with a "whatcha doin'?" and I said "Mommy really wants a green kitchen." and she said "no, Mommy, green is for boys."

Where do they get this stuff? Well, I picked out a color that, of course, was beautiful on that tiny little 2 inch paint chip called Balsam. Doesn't that sound lovely? It didn't turn out so lovely. It would be if I had white glass-front cabinetry, a white tile backsplash, marble countertops, and stainless steel appliances. In other words, the color is very pretty against white, but my brownish/green laminate countertops, and black appliances, not so much.

I am disappointed, but anything is better than that red. Eventually we will tile the backsplash and get granite in here and then maybe it will work. Until then, we're living with it, just like the red. It wasn't so bad...

A Beachy Good Time

Ahhhh...

We are definitely a beach family that does not live close enough to the beach. Thank goodness we are lucky enough to have relatives who do. Danny and Patti (Eric's parents for those who don't know - but I'm sure all two of our readers know who Dan and Pat are) are always so gracious to let us come and take over their house and give up their beds and refrigerator and food and sleep and... well, you get the point. We always have an awesome time when we visit and this time (we visited last week) was no exception. The picture above is Mobile Bay at sunset. So peaceful. That is just steps from the from their front door. A few hundred yards on the other side of the house is the beach. So jealous. Ella learned to fish with her new pole that Grandma and Grandpa got her. It has the Disney Princesses on it, of course. She loves it, although she hasn't caught a fish yet (I put a pic of that on yesterday's post). I didn't get too many good pictures because I "pulled a Holly" and was saving my tiny photo card memory for the beach and never took the camera. Oops.

I did get some of Addi's first few steps...

YAY! Addison is walking! I also got some pics on the boat...

We did spend lots of time on the beach, too, but I have no pictures to prove it. The girls love the sand and water; it really is a shame we don't live closer to a beach. Addison ate her weight in sand and drank half her weight in saltwater and of course Ella still claims the beach to be her favorite place on Earth (that might change when we go to Disney World) so she was in heaven. Dan and Pat also treated us to an awesome day at Waterville. We had lots of fun even though Ella pretty much reserved herself to the same two foot duckie slide for most of the day. Eric and I rode all the big waterslides and discovered that we're too old for waterslides. The same day we went to Lulu's for dinner and the kids got all sandy and wet, so that was a success. Addison did not even come close to sleeping through the night for the whole four nights - even the day we went to the water park and Lulu's back to back without a nap. She got up five times that night. That's another post all by itself. We still had lots of fun and always look forward to the next visit. Poor Dan and Pat are probably still recovering.

Happy Birthday Tami!

We would like to wish Tami Thomas a very happy birthday. To the woman who takes care of, like, 20 kids and makes cakes for people from scratch just because she's nice, and volunteers for all kinds of shenanigans, (we hear about this stuff from Patti) we hope you have a wonderful day. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Eric!

It's Eric's 29th birthday today! They grow up so fast.

Here he is posing for a GQ spread.

We still have not figured out what he's trying to do in this picture, but I'll send it to GQ anyway and see how much they offer.




We hope you have a great birthday, Daddy. We love you so much.
Thank you for being the best Daddy and husband ever.

Children Left to Their Own Devices

My kids are nuts! I know it's not just my kids (I hope), but I'm continually surprised every day by the messes the girls make when left alone for a mere 30 seconds while I go and pee or, God forbid, doing something like watering the flowers and leave them for a whole 3 minutes. This is how we use TP in our house most of the time now.

No, we are not complete heathens, but anyone who has had a toddler knows that they are fascinated by seeing the paper come off the roll. Addison has mastered this so that she can completely unroll a new roll in 20 seconds flat.

A few days ago, I thought I would snag a shower after Ella got up at 6:30, but before Addison awoke (usually at 7:30), so while Ella watched Noggin, er, I mean, memorized and recited the Gettysburg Address, I moved the baby monitor in the bathroom and prepared for a shower. Well, low and behold, I get the water temperature perfect, get undressed and get my hair wet, and Addison starts screaming. Ella, of course, runs into the bathroom to tell me and I send her into Addi's room to entertain her while I dry off, redress myself and give up my dream of showering before 11:00 am. I figure all is going well when I immediately hear giggling coming from the baby monitor. When I get to the nursery this is what I see...

...which is sweet. She had climbed into the crib to hug and kiss her sister good morning. A first. Awwwww! But upon closer inspection of the situation..."Ella...what's on your arms?"

"Mommy, I'm a tiger! ROARRRR!!!"

"And see my hands? Are they be-a-u-ti-tul?" (that's not a misspell, that's how she says it.) See below how Addison is in awe? She thinks to herself "there's so much more that I can do beyond the realm of toilet paper!"

I swear on my Moose Tracks Chocolate ice cream this child was left alone for under 3 minutes. She wanted to be a tattooed tiger, so she made it happen...quickly. What am I gonna do with these girls?

Happy Birthday, Lettie!

My BFF Lettie was born 28 years ago today people! Sorry, I don't have a picture of her to post, but trust me, she's really pretty (just ask Ella), and sweet, a great wife and mommy, and an awesome friend. We here at Keep up with the Richards wish her a lovely day. Hope it's great Lettie!

Rednecks and Hot Air Balloons

It's Alabama Jubilee time, folks. For you native Decaturites, you know that Memorial Day weekend means funnel cakes, rednecks, and hot air balloons. We went to Pointe Mallard for the balloon glow on Saturday and actually had lots of fun. Well, Ella, Addison and I had fun; poor Eric suffered from horrible allergies all evening even after taking lots of allergy medication. He still soldiered on and we got to go inside a blown up balloon (the balloon, not the basket - very cool), Ella took her first pony ride, which she loved, and Addison became a one-baby welcoming committee to anyone stepping within fifteen feet of our blanket (hilarious). The navy blue one below was the was we went in - can you see the people going in and out? Someone got proposed to in there. Sweet.

We finally met up with Kellie, Bob and Landon and played for a while. At dusk, and 30 minutes after, we heard (too many times) the announcer/M.C. Guy's amplified screams for the balloon pilots to light up the balloons all at the same time. If you've been before, you know the shout of "1...2...3...GLOW!"

After getting no successful pictures of that action, we packed up the wagon and trekked back to the car. All in all, a fun time was had by all and anytime spent outdoors is better than time in.....but poor Eric is still sneezing.