Gamers

Around this time last year Justin and I had our first encounter with a Nintendo Wii. It was a big hit. I would beat him at basketball and he would school me in yard darts. We had tons of fun just playing the basic games. After that first night it seems as though every person we know has bought into the Wii fad. One person would buy one, rave about it, and then the next person would go out and buy one. We have spent many a night with friends playing Mario Kart or Dance Revolution and every time, it never fails, someone always tries to convince Justin and I to get one. He would be all for it but I always say something like "we don't have enough money" or "I think it would get old". It was all a cover.

Justin and I are addicted to games. Last Friday night we had burgers and games at our house; The Wickes brought their game system, ECLG brought their extra controllers, and the Blounts brought Super Mario Brothers. After dinner everyone except Erin and I played a card game called Guts. In order to keep ourselves from falling asleep Erin read a magazine and I gave Mario Brothers a shot (huge mistake)...2 hours later my eyes are watering and my thumb had a new callus. Because they were scared I might bite everyone decided to leave their Wii equipment. Once we were alone Justin joined in and we ended up playing till 3 o'clock in the morning. We couldn't stop. With the progress we made on Friday, and sporadic playing through the rest of the weekend, we were able to conquer Super Mario Brothers in just 10 hours.

Conquering Mario Brother's was a wonderful experience for Justin and I.  We learned new things about each other...like Justin will sacrifice my life (well, actually Toad's) in a heart beat if it means he gets to conquer the world. I am choosing to tell myself that he would act completely different in the real, non-Mario, world.

So, in conclusion, Justin and I will not be buying a Wii. We are maniacs when it comes to completing games and will sacrifice both time and sleep for the glory of winning.

Random Roundup

1. "momma, momma, momma" Haley is now saying momma. I am so excited. I waited patiently while she learned dada, uh-oh, bye, and ball all the while tying my very best to not get my feelings hurt. I mean seriously, "ball", I am so much more important than an inanimate object, right?!? Unfortunately it was no use...I was crushed inside. On the bright side, none of that matters any longer. "momma, momma, momma!"

2. We tried a new recipe this week that I was quite pleased with. It was super easy (which is always important to me), really cheap to make (ingredients you probably already have around), and it was yummy (I love all Mexican food). I hate to sound like a broken record but I got the recipe from a blog I follow. Eventually I hope that all the creative ideas I read about are going to inspire me...I want to make original dishes...yet I like to follow recipes..and I don't really like weird ingredients...what a conundrum. Ha.

Here is the recipe for Mexican Casserole.

3. I had stamp club this week. Not postal stamp...rubber stamp. Good times as usual. We made two super cute cards. I love that this club gives me a chance to get out of the house by myself and spend some time with fellow crafters. Unfortunately this week left Justin to man bath night all by himself. Around 7:30, right in the middle of visiting with the girls, I received this text from my husband...

" Never giving a bath again. Everything was fine and when I turned around to grab the towel she stood up and slipped. Bit her tongue. Blood. Crying. She is Fine."

In the end everything was fine. By the time I got home Haley was peacefully sleeping and Justin had stopped crying. The only permanent damage is that Haley will now have to deal with jokes and nicknames from her peers about her forked tongue. Haha. Only kidding.

Asleep at the Meal

I love this photo of Haley. It perfectly sums up her life at the moment. She is just so busy learning, playing, and trying new things. She is into everything and loving every minute of it. She is so busy that once I actually get her to sit still and eat lunch she ends up ...

Homemade

I am currently all about homemade gifts. I love the way it feels to give someone something I made with my own two hands and to see their excitement (hopefully). In the beginning I thought it was also going to be a great way to conserve money however craft supplies have become somewhat of an addiction for me. I can't stop...I have boxes and bags and drawers full of stuff: fabric, glitter, socks, buttons, glue, paint, clothespins, tulle, wood, paper, etc, etc, etc. I have become a craft supply hoarder!!! Help! I am calling all of my friends and family to have birthdays, get married, have a baby, graduate, buy a new home, anything to help me deplinish my stock. HELP ME!

Thanks to a baby cousin on the way I was able to make a dent in my stash last week. I made a sock monster (who lended up looking a lot like a rabbit), a taggie blanket, and some blocks that spelled out the new baby name.

I think they all turned out pretty cute and looked even better incorporated into the diaper cake that my sister and I collaborated on. She provided the adorable burp cloths, the personalized wipe case, and the little baseball cap.  

I think the parents to be were quite pleased. Perhaps not so much for the homemade gifts as for the 100 diapers that they now have to unroll. Ha.

The Oaks of Southdown

When Justin and I moved into our home a little over two years ago the name of our subdivision was a complete after thought and something we never even really considered about until just recently. About a month ago our wonderful HOA updated our neighborhood entrance...

At some point some person sat down and decided that planting two new palm trees at the entrance to The Oaks was a good idea. I agree that something had to be done but was a tree synonymous with sun and sand the best idea we could come up with. The trees that had been there, two beautiful old oak trees (hence the name of the neighborhood), were unfortunately lost during Ike and had never been replaced. The update is quite pretty with all the new flowers and landscaping but it just doesn't seem to fit. Maybe I will try and sneak over in the middle of the night and do a little graffiti update myself.

On the bright side the trees make me chuckle every time I drive by.

Random Roundup

1. Following with the gross theme I have had going for a few weeks...I had my first dental cleaning in three years on Tuesday. It is so ridiculous that it took me this long considering I actually like having my teeth cleaned. It all started in the beginning of my pregnancy. I didn't have a current dentist and therefore would need to have xrays taken anywhere I tried to go. I put it off for 9 months I an effort to protect little fetus Haley from the big bad outside world. Once Haley was born I immediately made an appointment with a local dentist for a cleaning. That guy turned out to be a quack. He said I needed to have some kind of deep cleaning that was going to cost me almost $800. He was out of his mind if he thought I might actually go through with it. For the next several months I was so frustrated with the situation that I just kept putting it off. Eventually, after my teeth began to grow fur, I decided I had to do something. I suckered my husband into getting copies of my xrays from the quack and got a second opinion. To wrap this up quickly I just had my teeth cleaned, plus some work done, for $80.00....and I have my next 6 month cleaning scheduled for September. Yea for no cavities!

1.a. The only draw back to my new destist office is that the dental hygenist has really large boobs and kept rubbing them on my face as she cleaned my teeth. So ackward!! On the plus side I am sure Justin's dental hygiene will improve greatly.

2. This weekend we attended a baby shower for my cousin Blake and his wife Amanda who are expecting their first son in July. The shower was at my parents house so once again we packed up the car and headed to Geronimo.To make the trip a little more interesting this time around we carpooled with CELG!!! Let's just say that four adults and three kids in car seats does not allow for much personal space in a Tahoe. Which is really weird because I always think it is so roomly when it is just Haley and I tooting around. Ha. In the end we all survived the trip and managed to not get in any fights. Phew.

3. Over the course of the week I did quite a few little craft projects: a sock monster, a tag blanket, some personalized blocks, etc.. They were all components to a diaper cake that Erin I made for previously mentioned baby shower. I don't want to toot my own horn but I think they turned out pretty cute. I will have a more detailed post later this week showing the finished products.

4. Who uses the word toot this many times (twice seems like alot for the word toot) in one post?!?! Apparently it must be my favorite word.

5. Haley added a new word to her vocabulary this week...."toot". Hahaha. Just kidding. She is saying "ball". It is the cutest word yet cause she does this crazy mouth pucker thing when she says it. She kind of pushes her lips out and up. I will have to try and get a pic. Oh, and she is walking. She can take about 4-5 steps in a row now all by herself. It is pretty sporadic and still not too often so I have decided to classify it as just semi-walking. My mommy instincts are tellnig me that we are within weeks of full on walking.

Check out the video below for footage of Haley semi-walking and her gnarly wipeout! Ouch!

The Buskirk Peach Tree - 2010

Some of you may remember back when this little blog began 2 1/2 years ago: Justin and I were newlyweds and we were just moving into our current home. At that time a lot of my posts revolved around our precious little peach tree. Neither Justin or I had any prior experience with fruit trees and we were both a little in awe...this amazing plant is going to create bountiful fresh fruit for us. That is not exactly how things unfolded.

That first year we watched one (seriously, just one) sweet fruit grow and grow and grow. About a week before time to harvest the unthinkable happened...some hungry, greedy, selfish bird ate it. I still think about it and have to shake my head in disgust.

Last year was basically the same. Haley was a newborn and we were so wrapped up in our new family that we neglected the little peach tree. I don't think a single flower got pollenated. I felt sad but at the same time wasn't ready to set Haley down long enough to do any kind of yard work. She was so gosh darn cute!

This year I set out to make things right by the peach tree. When the first signs of blossums started showing up in early March I went into gardener mode. In order to turn those blossums into delicious peaches I knew I needed pollenators and in order to get pollenators around the tree I needed something to attract them to our yard. As you have heard in my previous posts our yard has been a little lack luster lately and definately did not offer the enticments I needed. Instead of importing fragrant flowers to place in the yard I decided to play wet nurse to Mother nature and set out sugar water (thanks dad for the tip)...I think I used enough to attract every honey bee in the Houston metro area. It seemed a little silly going out there and refilling the sugar water every other day but I kept at it. And good thing I did....

It might be hard to see in the previous pics but the peach tree is loaded down with little baby peaches. Too many for that pesky bird to ruin for sure. The branches are already starting to sag and it is still early in the developement of the peaches. Not sure how we are going to solve that one just yet but I am sure we can figure it out. I will keep you guys posted on the progress and hopefully have some fruit to share at harvest time. Everything is right in the Buskirk yard at this moment!