Here's to thinking you have it rough, then you see the poor lady at the grocery store pushing one cart filled with food, the older child hanging on to the end of the cart and then pulling another cart from behind with two infants in car seats. That's a feat.

Charity has asked me to let everyone know that she has updated her blog. Hop on over there and check her out.

Buy Me!

Hey there! Mad Town Macs are cleaning house! Anyone interested in the above playset?

Click here for better pictures, dimensions, etc. There's a cargo net climbing area on the other side that my picture doesn't show. Vance only used it for 2 seasons. We took it apart and stored it inside during the winter months, so it's in pretty good condition. The major flaw is that the movers broke the telescope off during the move last summer and we forgot to include it in our list of damaged articles. I just checked and you can order a replacement telescope and bolt for $5.45.

It retails for $259.00, we'll take $75.oo. Anyone interested???

Flag Cake

Here's the cake we made for July 4th. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe, but I first found it from The Pioneer Woman. I first mentioned The Pioneer Woman back in May about her (and Bakerella's) cake pops. She has a great blog, takes great pictures, and makes great food. I've been cooking my way through her recipes lately.

This cake and icing has an embarrassing amount of butter and cream cheese. It's extremely rich and I should have halved the recipe. All you need is a piece the size of a postage stamp. (This means I have half the cake in my freezer.) The icing is too sweet for me, but perfect for Justin. Everyone else seemed to really like it too, so I guess it was a hit.

Will I make it again? Maybe. In full-flag-form? Probably not. I can see using the cake recipe for cupcakes or something like that. Or even using the icing recipe again on another cake because Justin loved it so much. I'm a chocolate fan. Desert, for me, isn't complete until there's chocolate. That's what's wrong with this cake - no chocolate.

Hope everyone had a great Fourth.

Having consumed my weight in butter, cream cheese, and sour cream over the weekend, I'm feeling the need to detox and exercise.

Vance slept in this morning, which was nice. Our power went out around 3:45 AM here. I know this because everything started beeping when it happened. Baby monitor, phone, house alarm, Vance. Being the light sleeper that he is, he was concerned that his night light wasn't working anymore. I explained what was going on, made him go potty, then put him back in bed. Maybe I should get him up every morning at that time to go potty. Maybe he'd sleep in more often. Hmm....

In honor of Independence Day, we freed the deck balusters from their curly q attachments. We should have done this last summer, I just didn't realize how easy of a fix it was. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the last one was taken off. Looks so much better with them off.

Happy Fourth of July

Here's Vance on his first Fourth of July, circa 2005. He was just over a month old and very happy to be wearing this get up.

Vaughn is 14 Months

Vaughn is 14 months old today. Here's a quick rundown of what she's up to:

• Trying to talk more. Says "Sh, Sh" for shoes, "Dis" for this, "Dada", "Hewo", and "Hi", you know, that kind of stuff.
• Points a lot. Especially when we're at stores and she sees new stuff all around.
• Likes to do things by herself. Meal times are a struggle and messy.
• Eats with her left hand, but does most other things with her right.
• Weighing in at 28.5 lbs. Haven't measured her, but I think she's thinning out. Her size 6 diapers are beginning to get looser.
• Still loves to do anything that Vance does.
• When she gets up, before leaving her crib, she holds up each item in her bed and says something like, "aaahhhh". Look at my blanket! Aaahhhh. Look at my baby! Aaaaahhh.
• Then we mosey on over to the window, open the blinds, look outside, and she makes the same "aaahhhh" sound.
• Loves playing peekaboo.
• Has a fascination with Vance's underwear. I'm guessing it's the characters on the buns.
• We bought her a new dress and new shoes yesterday. She was so excited to put them on and show them off. Justin noticed this behavior and commented how cute it was. (He grew up with 3 brothers. I'm sure none of which ever got excited over clothing.) I see lots of new dresses in her future.
• Vance took this picture of her. I think it's the best one I have of her.

Vaughn has Fast Feet

We taught Vance to do Fast Feet out of complete boredom. I'm not sure if we even have video of it. He was just a little guy, willing to do anything to please his parents, and we took advantage. (Fast Feet opened the door to so many silly baby-crowd-pleasing tricks. My favorite was Surprise!)

Turns out, Vaughn is self-taught and unleashed the fury of her own Fast Feet for the very first time tonight. We were upstairs playing and it was a good thing the camera was nearby.

I know I promised house pictures. I had planned to do Before and After master bathroom pics, but this seemed more important. And anyways, I need to take the After pics and I didn't want to disturb a jet-lagged Justin who went to bed very early tonight.

It's strange living somewhere that fireworks are legal. Striped tents serving as make-shift firework stores are everywhere around here.

Phew! Another India trip down for Justin. We pick him up this morning and couldn't be any more excited about it. Was another hard trip for everyone. This was the first time that Vaughn recognized Justin on Skype. Kind of like Pavlov, when she heard the computer "ring" she'd start saying, "Dada, Dada!" Was really cute, but kind of a pain because she just wanted to touch the computer screen when he was on. Yogurt fingerprints on my screen is not a good thing.

The house is stocked with all of Justin's favorite foods. On his next trip I'll have him weigh in before he leaves and again when he gets back to see how much weight he loses while away. Two people he traveled with got really sick this time. Everyone is always super careful about what they eat, but sometimes it can't be avoided. We're looking forward to eating and relaxing all weekend long!

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On top of that excitement, Vance has another playdate today. His little friend is coming over here this afternoon. This will be a lot for Vance in one day, he may blow a gasket by dinnertime.

Vaughn's 14th tooth poked through yesterday. Bottom, left side, canine. Despite the crankiness, We met Sarah and Samuel at the park while Vance was in school. We then went to the grocery store, ate lunch, picked Vance up, nap time for Vaughn, and Vance and I made cookies. After dinner I took two cranky kids to Super Wal-Mart. Holy smokes, it was a long day.

I think tomorrow is the anniversary of when we moved in to this house. Can't believe it's been one year and that we still have the old people's nasty curtains hanging in our bedroom. Fantastic. It's been awhile since I've shared before and after shots of improvements we've done around here. I'll try to do one today.

Make it a great day!