baby byrds

max ryan byrd

2010-07-28T23:33:00.002-05:00

so, i had a kid last month...yeah, and i'm just now blogging about it. you try living with 3 kids 3 and under, and see how it works out for you.

Max Ryan Byrd was born June 8, 2010 at 1:16 pm. this was, by far, the best delivery of all three...except for the fact that he weighed 9 lbs, 3 oz. yes, that's right. to all of you who had the pleasure of listening to me whine and complain during the last few months of my pregnancy...that's why. i had to be induced, because although i was convinced he would come early...he did not. so he came on his actual due date.

i just wanted to share a few photos of my sweet little man. and he is so sweet! he looks just like ryan, which is funny to me because i feel like i have a "mini me" of ryan hanging out with me all day...like he's a little spy or something. so far, he sleeps all night (most every night), and has done so since he was about a week old. overall, he's a pretty great little boy...and pretty cute. anyway, here's a few photos. and there are more to come, if i can find time to take some :)

i've become one of "those" people...

2010-02-28T09:50:00.006-06:00

so, i've stated from day one that i do not consider myself a "blogger." in fact, i told mr. ryan byrd that i would be terrible at this...and i've delivered. as you will notice, my last post was september 5, 2009!! yeah, i know. so now, i'm trying to take it back and get going again. now, this still may mean i only post once a month, but that's better than nothing.

so much has happened in our lives over the past several months, it's hard to back track and recap everything. so i'm not even going to try. instead, here is an update on EVERYTHING going on in our lives...

• most importantly, we are having a little boy in a couple of months! it's official that Max Ryan Byrd will be joining us soon, but not soon enough! i don't really know what to do with a boy, so i guess we'll just figure it out as we go along. i mean, he can wear pink, can't he?

• our church, that we've been planning the past two years has finally started! we are so excited about the start of EIKON, and everyone that is on this whole journey with us. we have made some wonderful friends and are so excited about the future of our church.

• my etsy business, BabyByrds, has really taken off and done better than i every expected it to. seriously, i can hardly keep up with the orders coming in! i'm being featured in several blogs this month and next and am doing several giveaways. it's so exciting that i'm actually making some sort of living at this. i'm also doing some freelance design work for my previous employer in kentucky. so, all in all, i stay pretty busy. just trying to find time to work on all of these things is almost impossible!

• i am also excited to announce that my friend, cara beth, and i have finally started our own business!!! it's been a long time coming...but we did it. studio|2B is our new project, which offers wedding planning services and photography. we are so excited about the possibilities that are to come. so if you need pictures or have a wedding to be planned...email me at christen@studiotwob.com.

okay, so i promise i will get better at the blogging thing. while i'm at it, i should probably take a few pictures of my children. i mean, they are growing up...and i'm slacking...

my baby byrds...

2009-09-05T00:12:00.003-05:00

as promised...here's a blog about the girls. miss lucy and miss olive are growing up so fast! we've had such a good summer, and though we don't go to school (or work, for that matter) i still feel like we should by school supplies, new backpacks, and new shoes right now...but we won't. so here's a not so quick re-cap.

1. OLIVE is now 9 months. (i know, can you believe it!) in the past months she has started crawling really fast..and gets faster when she knows she's going somewhere she's not supposed to. i am blaming her friend nate for telling her about the little caps on the base of the toilet and how fun they are to put in your mouth (GROSS!!!) and play with...thanks nate. btw, baby gates are from hell. i am so tired of them already and they've only been up for a few weeks. at least i'm not really pregnant and trying to step over them like last year.

olive also now has 5 1/2 teeth. that's right...three and a half on top and two on bottom. she's an excellent biter. i'm thinking of getting one of those step counter things...but have it changed to count how many times i say "what did you put in your mouth" in a day. oh wow...it's insane...lucy was not this bad. she is also, pulling up on everything. she'd rather stand at the coffee table all day and dance than do anything else. she's so funny. she's started waving and trying to blow kisses, and even doing this weird winking thing. she is also making lots of sounds...which mostly sound like "mama," of course :)

we had a little scare last week when olive woke up, trying to breathe, was kinda purple, face swollen. and i totally freaked out. it was about 11 at night, so we woke up lucy and ran out the door to the ER. by the time we got there, of course, she was mostly fine...but she was barely breathing...and i wasn't going anywhere till we found out why. so after a fun night in the ER with two sleepy girls (and a sleepy daddy, who fell asleep at one point) we found out she had croup. which is usually taken care of in a steamy bathroom or by going outside. that would have been a lot cheaper than the bill... jk, she had to take a steroid to reduce the swelling of her airways. so it's all okay. and she was better off than the guy who came in who had just been stabbed...wah, wahhh.

2. LUCY is as crazy as ever. she's totally obsessed with the grinch and watches it maybe once a day or at least once every two days. yeah...it's a problem. her new favorite things to do are: stealing olive's pacifier, eating desitin (well, that's not new), not want to sleep in her bed....you know, the usual. her most recent favorite sayings are "i need that," as in "i need olive's pacifier i just stole from her." and "I want take it," for when she grabs anything in site to take in the car with her every time we go somewhere, or when she needs to pick up 5 sticks to take with her in the car. apparently she's a very needy and greedy child... not really. she really is sweet. she is picking up on everything and saying so much.

she loves going to library storytime, a small cherry lemonade from sonic, and long walks at the park. ha. she is very adventurous, meaning she's taken off up the climbing things at the park...and i've got to crawl up in there and get her down. not fun or pretty. or she'll just hang on the bars and i have to rush over, while holding olive, and save her from crashing to the ground...she is very brave. and i cannot even express how much she loves dressing up. i know she gets it from her aunt ann. it is absolutely ridiculous.

3. I am currently staying busy with the girls. And with my etsy stuff. I am coming up with new ideas and actually making a little money at it...not bad. i've also done a few cakes here lately. i really enjoy it, even though i have A LOT to learn. I'm enjoying figuring out how to do all this fun stuff...and they taste pretty good too! sad note...prepare yourself...don't cry...my iphone is dying. and very slow and painful death, well, at least for me. it has gone crazy and will only work when it wants and then just randomly shuts off all the time. it's so frustrating. i think lucy is having a hard time with it as well..she had at least 10 games she loved to play on it...

most exciting right now...i am getting ready to start a new business with one of my dear friends, cara beth. i am not going to give too much away just yet...but our website should be up in the next couple of weeks! we've already got business cards and all...super exciting.

4. RYAN is really busy with all the new church stuff. we've had our first few gatherings and are planning for this month. he did a fabulous job designing the website and i am so proud of him. we have a lot of exciting things happening with the church and are so excited about the people who are coming on board with us. it's so great to actually have others who share our vision for what we moved here 2 years ago to do.

he also is the best husband ever (i meant to blog about this, but haven't had time) because he planned a surprise anniversary trip for us! we celebrated 6 years on august 16, and we went to eureka springs for the night and had a great time! it's so nice to get away and spend time together...which we never get to do. we had a great room at the basin hotel (which is apparently haunted...we didn't see any ghosts though, i was disappointed), and spent the day walking around taking pictures and going into quirky little shops. it was a much needed break from life.

well, that's all for now. i will post some pictures soon...i promise. a little at a time, please. i would add a few iphone pics...but again, my phone is dead.

more etsy...

2009-09-04T22:10:00.004-05:00

I'm back...yeah, i know. I've been so behind on my blog. trust me, i know. however, i have been busy! you know, two little girls named lucy and olive. my real baby byrds. and cakes, and etsy, and new etsy ideas...i'm about to explode! i have new pictures of the girls i need to get up here soon, don't worry, they're still here. they are the reason i can't find time to blog...about them. anyway...

so please take a few minutes and check out my new etsy pieces. I'm really excited about them! I had three orders within the first 30 minutes they were up! i am getting the girls and myself ready to start going back to church for women's bible study mornings. i work in childcare and they get to go socialize with other little people...which they love. as i was thinking about getting back into the routine of things and being there by 8 am, three mornings a week...and them possibly having different teachers every day...i got this brilliant idea!

we've had moms in the past bring a chicken scratch little note about "what to do with my kid if he freaks out"...which we never find, or can't read it, or whatever. so i thought about creating a simple, easy to access way of letting caregivers know what the heck to do with my kid. i mean, it can get a little hairy with 10 babies, or 16 two year olds. i've created a diaper bag tag with your child's name on one side...and "directions" on the other side...brilliant! why didn't i think of this sooner. the "direction" cards are interchangeable and can be switched out depending on when and where your baby is that day. there are 12 different designs and the colors can be changed to match your diaper bag. you can also request custom orders. and, shipping is FREE!!!

these are great gifts for new moms or yourself! you can let your nursery worker or daycare teacher know if your little one is teething, potty-training, has a special blanket, or has an allergy...anything you want.

Click here to order.

Etsy!!!

2009-08-06T12:22:00.004-05:00

I'm excited to announce that I have started up a babybyrds etsy shop! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's an online place for people to sell their handmade crafts and designs. I have been working on several designs for quite a while now and i finally have them up for sale. I have several designs in the works and hope to add them soon, so check back often. Feel free to email me if you have and order, you don't just have to order through etsy. christen@christenbyrd.com

A while back i designed these LOVE letters for my sister. I had so many compliments...it made me start thinking about this whole etsy thing. I hung them up in her new apartment, and I just love them!

These are a few of my children's series. Each design is meant to be customized to your child's name. And if you have any other animal or character requests...I can make a custom one for you!

please help if you can...

2009-08-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

today my blog is dedicated to my friend rob. (please forgive me if i get some of the details wrong, rob...i'm not up on all the medical jargon:) it is hard for me to even approach this subject without getting emotional sometimes...but here goes. rob and stephanie toon are some of our very best and closest friends, not to mention family, and leaders in our new church. they have four beautiful kids, michael, jack, lily and averi, who are some of lucy's favorite people! over a year ago rob was diagnosed with leukemia, and underwent all kinds of chemo treatment to get rid of it...which he did...until around december. they found out it was back and started the search for a donor so rob could get a bone marrow transplant. they've found a match and he has already had one transplant, a few weeks ago. however, it didn't work, due to a viral infection. after a few very rough days for rob and steph, they finally got word that the donor was willing to donate again. this is very time sensitive and has to happen immediately. they are currently having people donating white blood cells to hold him over until the transplant. hopefully everything will work this time. they will get more cells this time and the viral infection should be gone, so they can do what they need to do. this transplant will take place august 11.

i must mention that this whole process is taking place in houston. which means that their kids are back home with stephanie's parents in bryant, ar. on top of the sadness of not getting to see their kids for months, stephanie is not able to work so she can be with rob in houston. thus...no income. this is obviously a very stressful situation for everyone involved...rob and steph, the kids, grandparents...you get the idea. and now that rob has to have another transplant, their stay has been extended into mid november at least. the whole situation just makes me sad...

i am asking anyone who reads my blog...to help, if you can. here's how:

1. please pray for this family and rob's transplant and recovery.
2. if you live in houston, rob may need more people to donate blood for him before or after his transplant. he needs more white blood cells. i'm not sure when, but if you are interested in giving, let me know and i can get you the details.
3. if you would like to donate any money, i know they would greatly appreciate it.

thanks for reading this and helping in anyway possible. rob and stephanie mean so much to us. we are hoping to go visit sometime soon and maybe even donate some of our blood, if they need it. which terrifies ryan...ha. you can keep up with rob on his blog. please email me if you have any questions about anything or want to help, christen@christenbyrd.com. here is a picture of their family i took right before they left for houston.

my husband

2009-07-31T11:08:00.004-05:00

for those of you who do not know, ryan is an amazing writer. let's be honest...what is he not good at? okay, i know i could come up with something, but i won't. he is an advertising art director at arkansas business publishing group, and was recently asked to write a little piece for little rock soirée. i have heard this story many times, yet i was so drawn in while reading it...i've read it maybe 4 times now. i know you will enjoy it too. and i'm so proud of him! also, check out ryan's blog.

HELLO STRANGER

BY RYAN BYRD

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The city is full of strangers. Well, maybe not strangers, but people waiting to cross paths. To engage. To enter the other.

So it was with Charlie. A Jesus-like figure. Not the triumphant Jesus, but the frail, broken Jesus. Scruff beard, gaunt, but with a focused look about him—like a man on a mission.

Beyond the occasional sputtering car or the screechy pack of girls chasing the lone neighborhood boy, our little midtown community was still, waiting for its break from normalcy. From my front porch, I observed this strange figure, this break from normalcy, who—sweeping his wiry broom through the nearly-clean sidewalk in front of our home—looked like the type my wife warned about: “You keep talking to people like that and I’m gonna find you dead one day.”

I approached.

Like a low man’s scepter, he hoisted his broom in the air pointing toward our house, “It’s Charlie. Like the Peanuts kid. I used to jam here.”

“Come again?”

“The name’s Charlie. Yeah, this house, you live there? (Never ceasing for a response.) We used to sit up ‘til we couldn’t sit up no more, just jammin’. There’s soul in them walls. And probably a couple tears. And maybe a couple spilled beers,” he concluded.

I baited his most-assuredly tall tale, sure to only grow taller.

“Sounds like quite the time you had. Did you used to live here?”

“No, no, no. I ain’t got no place. Not since the band broke up down in New Orleans. Nah, I used to come jam here. Hell, we coulda been somethin’, but we just liked to jam and have a couple of beers. Phil played the guitar, and I played that old piano he had. Phil’s brother, Mark, would slap his leg or beat on whatever the hell we had layin’ around just so we had somethin’ to keep the beat. I ain’t never stepped back in that house since maybe ‘88. I’ll tell you, that old piano could play, and I knew how to play it. I ain’t never forgot that old thing.”

Little did my new friend know, but that old, dusty piano of Phil’s still sat in our living room, just waiting to be reunited with its supposed long-lost homeless messiah named Charlie. So, I couldn’t help but to—like Satan testing Jesus in the wilderness—invite him in so I could shake the proverbial finger, showing Charlie just how tangled his tale was woven.

Abandoning his dutiful quest on the sidewalk, Charlie skipped behind me, up the steps and through the doors. We rounded the corner and faced the piano. I turned, “Here she is. Is this what you remember?”

In that moment, Charlie changed from a dirtied storyteller into a beaming prodigal, newly reunited with his father. Without saying a word, the worldly Jesus-man opened the hinged piano cover and began to play.

With tears in his eyes, his broken and calloused fingers glided over the keys, playing the most sweet and palpable bluesy riffs, as if Ray Charles himself had inhabited the diminutive body and hands of this new friend.

That day, in my own home, I was the stranger, quietly observing two old friends renewing their bond.

I simply sat. And listened. And believed.

Charlie was a stranger, in a city full of strangers. On that day, though, Charlie and I crossed paths. Jesus-like. Not the broken, frail Jesus, but the triumphant Jesus. Like a man on a mission.

summertime in the city

2009-07-22T00:29:00.004-05:00

so yeah, it's been a month since my last blog. lucy has grown about a foot, olive is now 8 months old, we've started re-potty training. been a little busy. you know, with two kids. anyway, i still can't properly collect all my thoughts, so here's a bunch of pictures to recap the last month. please go see all the pictures...click here.

olive and lucy having an art day...always messy...always fun.

lucy caught in a moment of coloring on her paper...not herself...rare.

this quickly turned violent and there was crying...shocking.

lucy and her friend cash at the fountain down by the river...so cute.

i thought they looked like they were clicking their heels like they were in a movie...they aren't that coordinated.

lucy got a cupcake after lunch at the rivermarket.

she's finally brave enough to run through the fountain...and get sprayed in the face.

my view...so sweet.

the olive...just chillin.

father's day...

2009-06-22T00:31:00.003-05:00

so, i'm not much of a sappy person...okay, maybe i am, but not publicly. but today was a special for ryan (or so i hope it was). we (and by we, i mean me...lucy just ate icing all morning) made ryan breakfast in bed, went to church, and we went to lunch at carino's, and they didn't royally screw up his order. although, i wish it would have been like that one time we went to carino's in lexington, and our waiter was dressed as A.C. Slater (for halloween), in his wrestling unitard thing and curly mullet wig. but nobody knew who he was supposed to be, except for us, and we died laughing...that would have been a great father's day...

anyway, lucy and olive are so lucky to have such a wonderful daddy. i don't tell him enough...but he's pretty great. i think the best thing here lately is when ryan puts lucy to bed at night in her big girl bed. he tells her a story about a little girl named lucy and what all she did that day, and how she gets in her big girl bed every night and goes to sleep. she gets so excited and is so into it, and then goes on to sleep...usually. it's great. i wish i could have that effect on her...but i don't. all day i've been telling her to say "happy father's day," and i don't think she realizes what that's about, since she doesn't even say the word "father." whatever. she did good though.

we tried to take a few pictures this afternoon...almost complete disaster. lucy just absolutely hates having her picture taken, and will just run from the camera if she sees it. ryan and olive behaved perfectly...and lucy just ran around like a crazy person. so here's a few of what i got. you can kind of get the feel of how things went by the first picture...yeah. to see more, click here.

somebody stop me....

2009-06-22T00:13:00.003-05:00

for father's day, i decided to keep it classy. i made ryan a cake, as you can see. a very small cake because he's not much of a cake person. but i am, and have a current obsession with cakes...so that's what he got. lucy and olive also made him a picture of a flower made from their hand and foot prints...they are so creative...i wonder where they get it. but, overall, i think the apple cake won.

ainsley & austin

2009-06-19T00:03:00.002-05:00

this afternoon i had the chance to photograph one of my best friend's kiddos, ainsley and austin. my friend jennifer is visiting from houston and had a few minutes to swing by and let me torture her children. poor austin was not really into having his picture made, but he pulled through and they turned out so cute. here are some of my favorites! to see more, click here.

my latest obsession...

2009-06-15T13:42:00.003-05:00

this weekend my parents had a party for my sister. she just graduated as a doctor of audiology, from uams. she will be moving (i'm sad) to shreveport, la in july to start her new career. so, we had a graduation/farewell party with our friends from cabot, and i decided i wanted to make the cake. so yeah, i was tempted just to make another ladybug cake...but i thought that might not be appropriate. so i was brave and decided to go with a two-tiered cake. and for my first "big girl" cake...it thought it turned out pretty good! i still have a A LOT to learn but i really enjoyed making it and am kind of hoping for another reason to make another cake soon... so, if you need a cake...give me a call!

swimming and sonic drinks...mmm...

2009-06-10T16:05:00.003-05:00

we took the girls swimming at my parents house over the weekend. lucy has literally only been in the pool two times this year...and is already swimming! can you believe it? we are shocked. i took her out one day with her floaties on and let go and she barely noticed. she did freak out a bit when she did notice. but since then, she's like a fish. she always yells out "i nemo, i nemo." and ryan is nemo's daddy. hilarious. she is doing amazing, already moving her arms and kicking her legs. of course, olive is not doing as well...she's pretty lazy. she just hangs out and watches everyone, looks hot in her swimsuit, gets her tan on...and enjoys her bottle. check out the flickr set.

we did it, we did it!

2009-06-10T15:31:00.002-05:00

okay, so i don't think it's a shock to anyone that we are the biggest procrastinators in the world. we just have to finally decide "we are going to do this right now" and not stop until we do. like taking pictures of olive...yeah, we'll do it later. whatever. with that said, we finally hung up our pictures in our house!!! this is not just a couple month procrastination...it's been since we moved from paducah in november 2007...yeah. in our old house, we just hung pictures up on the nails that were already in the walls...which our landlord thought was a great feature. "I just thought i'd leave all the random nails so you guys could use them"...really...no...annoying and crappy.

since we were having people over for the cookout, and since we'd had these frames sitting around the house for months now...no one really wanting to make the decisions as to what photos go where...we finally did it! that is lucy's favorite phrase from Dora, which is supposed to be "we did it" but she says "i did it." after a long emotional process, we finally decided on this layout and got them up. now we no longer have big blank white walls. they look great and make such a big difference in the room. we need a little lamp in this corner because it does get a little dark...but we may have to just talk about it for a year until we go back to ikea and then settle on yet another hanging lamp...i'll keep you updated.

toon family

2009-06-08T14:53:00.003-05:00

i had a chance to photograph some of my favorite people this weekend down at the river, rob, stephanie, michael, jack, lily, and averi. there are more to come, but this was one of my favorites so far. all four kiddos were great!

where did the baby go...

2009-05-19T15:34:00.002-05:00

over the past few days, i've been reminded of one of my favorite books when i was little called, "where did the baby go." it's an old golden book, if you remember those, and is a story of a little girl. she is about 2 years old and she finds a picture of a baby wearing a big floppy hat. she keeps asking her mommy where the baby is and i think her mom tells her that she's in the house somewhere. she looks all over the house till she finds that big floppy hat and puts it on and looks in the mirror. she then realizes that the baby in the picture is her...and she's just growing up. and of course, every time it makes me cry. so here's my baby lucy...one of my favorite pictures i took in the hospital. wow, how she has changed...

so that's how i've felt with lucy's birthday, which was yesterday. i've just realized that she's not my baby anymore...she's growing up. and as excited i am to watch her grow up...i'm just as sad. it feels like it was just yesterday that we were at the hospital in paducah, welcoming our first baby girl. this year has literally flown by. i am constantly reminded of how big she is, like yesterday at the park when this little girl told lucy, "i am a big girl, you are not a big girl." to which lucy replied " i a big girl." hilarious. she is constantly coming out with all these new big words and sentences. i'm amazed everyday at what she can do on her own. i want her to be strong and independent...and she definitely is. i know she has her moments...but she makes me proud everyday.

we have had a crazy fun birthday weekend. sunday was her birthday party, and she had a blast. she's still going out on the porch saying "my party." like she expects everyone to show back up instantly. i made her a ladybug cake, as you can see from my previous post, and she loved it. all her cousins and grandparents were there, and we thank you all for all of the gifts! monday, her actual birthday, we had lunch at the rivermarket, and went to the park when daddy got off work. she had so much fun climbing and sliding and swinging. she would not let us take her picture. every time we would call her name to take her picture, she would yell "no" and refuse to look. so...we had to be creative with the pictures. however, i think they turned out pretty good. at least we all had fun! that's what matters. so happy birthday my sweet lucy lu. i love you!

here are a few pictures. to see more, click here. and please go read ryan's blog.

cheap and easy...wait, that doesn't sound right...

2009-05-18T15:40:00.003-05:00

let's just say that i have quite the creative aspirations, but not always the time, experience, or motivation to achieve them. however, i always do what i can to find the cheapest and easiest way to do everything. some may call me a cheapskate, some may call me lazy...i'm not going to argue with you. when you have two kids all in your business all day and trying to "help," you just gotta make things work.

this year for lucy's birthday, i was determined to make a ladybug cake. i was trying to steer clear of the elmo and dora themes, and do something more creative. i saw this cake company on "the early show" that did a cake i liked, and decided to buy the book. but i couldn't find it anywhere, so i went to their website and voila...they had all the directions right there on their blog and all the recipes on the website. however, of course, it was still a little too complicated for my taste, although i'm sure anyone reading this would have been able to do it. seriously, i don't just have "unsalted butter" and "meringue whipping" sitting around in my house. i've got boxed cake mixes and frosting in a can...that's what i call realistic. so, after all my hard work, it turned out great. i told ryan i was going to blog about how i made it, because i was so proud of how it turned out. but even more proud of how easy i made it. so, most of you will not care one bit, and that's fine. but i know there's someone out there who's dying to make a ladybug (or anything else that's round) cake, and you are a "cheap and easy" person, like myself. so here you go...

Ingredients:
2 Chocolate cake mixes (and all the stuff that goes in them)
2 cans Vanilla frosting
1 can Chocolate frosting
food coloring

You will need:
9" round pan
9" Glass Pyrex bowl
Ziplock bags

Directions:
1. Mix up your two cake mixes. I did them separately because i didn't want to screw anything up, although i'm sure it doesn't matter. Pour mix into your 9" round pan and your Pyrex bowl. Make sure you spray them good with cooking spray! Put them in the oven, and obviously, the bowl cake will take almost double the time of the flat cake. So just keep an eye on them.

Sidenote: don't google "pyrex oven safe," you will read dozens of stories of pyrex bowls blowing up in people's faces and scarring them for life...and debate whether or not you should do it...risking your life, or more importantly, your cake. And then you'll realize it's worth it and just close your eyes while you're taking it out of the oven...just in case. I actually have experienced this one time...it was quite scary and did spray shards of glass all over my apartment for years to come, i'm glad we moved. I figure the odds of that happening to me twice are pretty low...

2. After your cakes have cooled, cut off the uneven part on top of the flat cake, making it level. Put a layer of chocolate frosting on it. Then level off your bowl cake. I found the easiest way to do this is to pop it out on a plate, flat part on bottom, and cut level with the plate, since the plate dips down anyway, and then flip it back into the bowl. That's probably a duh thing to most people, but it took me a while to figure out how i was going to do it. I used a big bread knife to cut across the cakes...this was very helpful. Then put your evened out bowl cake on your iced flat cake. And there you have it.

3. Now, for one of the MOST HELPFUL TIPS i never knew...a crumb coat. So just do a whole coating of vanilla icing over the entire cake. Doesn't matter what it looks like, but it will give you a better surface for your final icing. Now, put it in the fridge over night or for a few hours.

4. When you take it out of the fridge, use a paper towel, or whatever you choose, and smooth out your lumps to make it more smooth all the way around. It should be a pretty solid layer of icing and won't be all sticky and go everywhere since it's been in the fridge for awhile.

5. Color your icing. Mix in your food coloring with your icing to get whatever color you want. I did hot pink and black. For the black, i started with chocolate icing and just added blue and green till it wasn't so brown. Be careful not to put too much that it tastes funny. But apparently you can buy black food coloring...again, not something i regularly have in my house.

6. Ice your cake! The most fun part, except for little people who come along and stick their little fingers in it. I sort of made my design on the cake with a knife before i started icing, so i wouldn't get so off. Pink icing first. Then for the second MOST HELPFUL TIP i never knew: Cut a strip of paper or cardstock, and lightly drag it across the cake to smooth out the icing! SO helpful, it helps get rid of all the messy icing strokes. Put it in the fridge for a bit before you apply the black icing. Then, after your pink icing has set for a little bit, put on the black.

7. For all your bordering needs, put your icing in a ziplock bag and cut off a tiny hole at the end...and there you have your fancy icing tools! Remember what i said about CHEAP! i told you. then you can use as many as you need and just trash them when you're done...and it cost you nothing.

8. Remember to put the cake in the fridge after each step. It just helps the icing not all mix together. Then add your black dots and your eyes. Then mix up your green grass icing and make your grass. Oh yeah, don't forget your candle antenna...so cute!

Now, see...wasn't that easy and cheap! and super cute! lucy loved her cake, and i must admit, it did hurt a little to cut into it. But it was pretty good. I mean, seriously how hard is it to screw up a cake mix. well, if anyone could do it, it would be me!

Now, if i can just figure out how to make this look like an olive for Olive's birthday in november...

iphone review...

2009-04-23T14:25:00.003-05:00

so, thanks to my wonderful iphone, i actually get to take pictures of the girls when i don't normally have my camera. maybe soon, i will have some back-up (ryan) and we can go out and take real pictures so olive won't grow up thinking we didn't love her. so here's a recap of the past couple of weeks.

picture explanations:
1. olive wearing lucy's tutu...which lucy demanded she wear, and then pulled it off of her.
2. lucy wanted to be like mommy, so we made her a sling for her baby...and she wore it around for quite a while.
3. our new ride.
4. aunt ann got lucy a new black baby doll...which lucy calls "baby johnny," just like ann's boyfriend, johnny. hysterical! it's even funnier when she takes it out in public and people try to point it out all quietly to others they're with.

lucy is loving playing outside now that it's beautiful outside. she's very unlike her mother...since i am quite the inside girl. i found lucy trying to put a bug in her mouth today...i would NEVER do that, much less touch a bug. it's hard to get her to come inside these days. we went to the zoo on monday with holly, allie grace, and annie. we all had a great time! but the best part was our new ride. a wonderful friend has passed along her double stroller to us!!! so excited...it is fabulous! i'm ready to start walking and being able to take them out more.

ryan has been extremely busy with the Kairos weekend at the prison, last week, and this weekend is ONE. ONE is a leadership conference that he has started at camp formosa and leads and heads up and all that stuff. so he has been extremely busy these past few weeks, and we have not seen much of each other. i'm ready for it to be here, because it will be great...but then ready for it to be over and return to normal life! we have also had some great contacts of our church that we will be planting in little rock. ryan has had some very promising meetings here lately and things are getting more and more exciting! for more about our church, read the eikon blog.

olive had her check up this week and the doctor said she was on the "petite" side...hahaha. i thought that was hilarious, since that doesn't really fit in to our family. she got her shots and started cutting her first tooth all on the same day! it's been a busy week!

well, that's all for now. some kid is screaming...i guess i should go see who it is...

the olive...

2009-04-02T09:46:00.003-05:00

I finally found some time to get a few shots of olive when lucy was visiting the grandparents the other day. as you can see, she is a big smiler and is just so freaking happy! i also threw in a shot of the girls from the other day when we were outside in their little coats..so cute.

if you want to see more, you can find them on my flickr page.

...and we're back

2009-03-30T11:40:00.010-05:00

so yeah, i haven't blogged now in over a month. i am just not good at this. when i do have things to say, i don't have time to blog about them. so i am now on twitter, so you can follow me on there if you like my sarcastic comments or thoughts on potty-training. so i just thought i'd give you a rundown of what's been going on in our lives lately. a lot has changed. and i got an iPhone, so you will have pictures along with your blogging pleasure!

1. we have moved! we moved the beginning of march, across town to the quapaw quarter. we love it! we have a nice yard for lucy to play with her "elmo bubbles." lucy and olive have started sharing a room, which is going fairly well. lucy sleeps a lot better in this house anyway, so they don't bother each other much.

2. lucy is doing great with potty-training. she's almost mastered it! yeah for being a big girl. she got some elmo panties, i had to use that word because ryan thinks it's gross. he will only use the word underwear, which lucy can't say. so she loves wearing them and saying "elmo panties." (just had to throw that in there again.) she is also saying so much! she's repeating everything you say (not always a good thing) and putting together words. she has grown up a lot over the past month. i mean, she'll be 2 in may...what happened! we're trying to break her of the pacifier right now. yeah, it's way past time...i know. she's about got her room all set up. the other day she had a tea party...with her ugly dinosaur. i'm glad to know she loves everyone...

3. olive is growing as well. she's 4 months old now. she is so pretty and just so sweet. she's laughing now and playing with toys. she can pull out her pacifier and tries to put it back in. one of these photos is her when she got it back in by herself...upside down. she is still so good...sleeping through the night and just generally being quiet and not causing any problems. lucy got a little bored the other night and decided to decorate olive with the laundry...at least it was clean!

4. we went to the zoo this past week with my parents and ashten. lucy loves animals, so she had a blast...except when she just got so sleepy and turned into a little monster. other than that, it was great. i carried olive the whole time, which was fun! shocking...we both got a little sunburned...me and my pasty white kids!

5. this weekend we had some friends come visit from paducah. my friends beth and terri, that i used to work with came to visit us for the first time. i wish the weather had been better, but we had fun shopping and hanging out...minus a little puking incident in the car...haha.

well, that's all for now. i'll hopefully be back soon with more updates. and maybe more pictures!

slow down...please!

2009-02-16T20:32:00.004-06:00

so yeah, basically i'm going to give a re-cap of the past week or two since i don't actually have time to blog and post photos and all that crap that people actually like. things have been a little crazy. i thought last week would be a nice calm week and i may be able to catch up on a few things around here...whatever. i need an assistant.

1. lucy is still not being nice to her cousins who stay here a few days a week. again, she's an angel at church, but not at home. especially when i'm feeding olive and she knows i can't get up and do anything about it.

2. lucy puked in ann's car! yeah...while ann was driving and it was gross. poor ann, she is definitely never going to have kids after being around ours. she's always a part of lucy's puking incidents. lucy and olive both got sick last week. right before ryan and i were supposed to go out of town for once. both running a fever, but magically went away and we were able to leave.

3. ryan and i went to dallas for the weekend...alone. our first night away from olive. we went to the fabulous IKEA, which is...fabulous. we made it a two-day event so we could do a walk through and get some ideas and then go back. over all, i think we were there for about 4-5 hours. it was great. we got some cool stuff for us and for the girls. plus we just enjoyed our time alone...dinners alone. where i got to order whatever i wanted because i didn't have to share it with a squirmy, loud-talking 20-month old. did i mention the weekend was great.

my favorite part was the sign i saw that just said "welcome ya'll," and had a woman with a cowboy hat on. you could imagine the extreme southern accent she used to say "welcome ya'll." so i said it all weekend. the most random part...ryan saw his bus driver from middle school at an applebee's in texas somewhere. his name was columbus tuggle...i just thought that was an awesome name.

4. ryan bought another western shirt...yeah. at a real western store. again, he needs an intervention, please pray for him. it actually has embroidered roses on it...enough said.

5. long car trips. so we haven't had too many long car trips since we moved back from kentucky. a couple of things to note. trying to use a breast pump while on the dallas expressway...not fun. not only do your risk flashing everyone who passes you, slamming on the brakes to take a big curvy exit...not fun. so i advise against it, in case you were wondering. secondly, listening to podcasts while driving...good. listening to a podcast about how cannibalism works, while in the middle of freaking nowhere with possibly no cell phone signal (near gurdon, ar, that town has always creeped me out a little)...kind of scary and makes you sick to your stomach. and makes you think you're going to break down on the side of the road and be chased down by the guy from texas chainsaw massacre...and i don't run, i fall down (just ask ryan). so i wouldn't last long...maybe not such a bad thing. (note: we don't normally listen to podcasts about such morbid things...but we were bored and the other ones in the series weren't so weird).

6. back to reality of crying, hungry babies and one who insists on sitting in my lap while i type this entire blog. but we did miss them terrible.

7. we're moving! we found a house not too far from here. we are super excited about it..just not looking forward to the moving process. i just realized that lucy will have lived in 3 houses before she is two. wow. but this is a house all to ourselves! we're excited. anyone up for moving furniture...

cheap entertainment...

2009-01-29T22:52:00.002-06:00

so yes, it is confirmed..lucy is as funny as her mother. well, at least almost as funny. for those of you who aren't around me daily and get to experience my sarcastic sense of humor...you're probably a better person. and for those of you who are around me, ryan and andrea, they know that i am, indeed, the funniest person in the world. they've told me that, so i have to believe it. but on to more important things...like lucy.

lucy is cracking us up lately. i was inspired tonight after her most recent comedy routine. ryan, olive, and i were sitting on the couch just hanging out. and apparently we weren't giving lucy enough attention, so she put a blanket over her head and just began walking around like normal. this resulted in her running right smack into the wall and falling over crap in the floor. all the while with her giggling underneath and saying "uh-oh," while taking some pretty good spills. we were laughing so hard because it went on forever until she would find her way over to us. then she insisted on sitting in ryan's lap for quite sometime with this thick blanket over her head. okay, so maybe it's not that funny to you...but just picture it, and you'll laugh.

her most recent obsession is, of course, elmo. i thought we could avoid the elmo thing, but i was wrong. in fact, thanks to grandma byrd, we now have an elmo shirt which is way to big for her, but she wants to wear it all the time. in fact, it's actually got food and crap all over it, but she won't let me take it off of her. so she's been wearing it for about 2 days now. we've actually started calling her elmo sometimes and she thinks it's hilarious.

lucy is also potty-training, which is fun...yeah. i will not post photos of her on the potty like her father did on his blog. it's going slowly, but she's getting the hang of it. she has also started picking up several new words, which is scary. i just know any day now she'll break out with "crap." oh well, it's bound to happen. i guess it could be worse.

just tonight though she almost made ryan cry. he was putting her to bed and she was going around saying "night night," and then she said "love you olive, love you mommy." but then when he was laying her down he whispered in her ear "i love you lucy," and she whispered back "i love you daddy." and then all the times you want to yell at her or put her in her naughty spot are just forgotten.

she is a sweet little girl, or at least that's what they tell me when i pick her up from the nursery every week. it at least makes me feel special when i go to pick her up and she screams "mommy, mommy." and she has got the most hilarious smile with all her teeth, she gets so excited she just grins from ear to ear. it is so sweet. she has also started helping me in the kitchen, which is funny in itself because i don't cook that much. but she loves to pull a chair up to the counter and stand up in it and she what she can get into. the other night, i was gone and ryan hadn't heard her in a little while. so he went in the kitchen and she was up on her stool that she had pushed in there, at the sink pretending to wash the dishes. which is also funny because i don't do dishes either...at least maybe she will! she is getting so big so fast, it makes me sad. i was washing her hair the other night, and i realized that she has little girl hair now...not baby hair. she is such a big girl...

cousins...

2009-01-09T14:28:00.002-06:00

let me fill everyone in on what's been going on with us these days. well, it's mainly what's been going on with our friends. basically, our good friend rob found out last month that his cancer is back. he found out last spring that he had leukemia and underwent months of chemo and all that fun crap to get rid of it...and he did. but it decided to come back and he has started chemo again at uams and is currently living there for a while, thus being away from his wonderful family. let me say that rob's wife, stephanie, is ryan's cousin and needless to say we are all very close and they are some of our best friends. and they have four beautiful children. jack, lily, and averi have started staying at our house a few days a week, and are terrorized by lucy. today lucy was gone to my parents and i had a chance to take a few pictures of the kids. i know steph was wanting to get some pictures of them, and well, i know rob...you are really missing them. while they are not the best pictures i have every taken b/c i was holding olive most of the time i was taking them b/c she was just not cooperating....they are cute and just them. i must say that i tried for about 2 seconds to get a picture of all three of them together and then i gave up on that idea. so here they are, go to my flickr page page to see the rest!

christmas

2009-01-06T12:48:00.005-06:00

yes, you all know that i am quite the procrastinator. which is why i'm just now putting up our christmas pictures. well, i've been a little busy. anyway, here's a few of our pictures, but as always, check out my flickr page for all of them.

olive, olive, we love olive...

2008-12-29T20:31:00.004-06:00

the other day, we finally got out of the house to have some family fun. ryan had to work his whole break and we didn't get much time to do anything. so our outing was to consist of going to several places to shop. however, it ended up being pizza hut, and the best buy parking lot. yeah, we finally made it out to eat lunch (at 3:00) then ryan and lucy went to best buy while i fed olive in the car (btw, between 2 car seats without flashing anyone). so, ryan and lucy finished up their trip, and while i was changing olive's diaper...she pooped all in my lap. yeah, so basically, i was squeezed between the car seats covered in poop with a screaming baby and lucy hitting me and olive in the head b/c she was so close...why not. so we stopped at walmart for ryan to run in and get a few things we needed...again, still covered in poop. while he was in walmart, lucy and i sang "olive, olive, we love olive," to keep her from getting upset. except for lucy doesn't really say olive, she says something that sounds like "ah-yiv, ah-yiv, ah-yiv," over and over again, as loud as she can. so now whenever olive gets upset and lucy actually notices, she sings "ah-yiv, ah-yiv, ah-yiv." and sometimes it actually does help...

here are a few recent pictures i took of miss olive today. today she started actually smiling consistently, like she's doing it on purpose...and it's not just gas. she looks like she has such a personality in these pictures. the rest of them are on my flickr page. she's so laid back, as you can tell from the pictures. she's just fitting right in with all of us. lucy is not as violent with her anymore, even though she has had her moments. they tend to come in spurts where she hits everyone on the head though, not just olive.