Starting my own business

In my post the other day about our office renovation I mentioned that I'm starting my own business. A few of you have asked about that so I thought I'd just link you back here for more info.

The office reveal!

Well I've been wanting to redo our office for months! It was ugly and a mess and just really not functional for us. My wise husband said we had to wait until we got our tax refund back so I waited (not always patiently) and waited and I'm glad I did.

Two weekends ago we painted and picked out furniture. And just this past weekend we put things on the wall and took care of the finishing touches, so to speak. For the week in between we disagreed on how to decorate and what colors to use for accents, but finally we were able to come to an agreement that we're both very happy with. If you know us well you might be surprised to see how modern it is. I'll confess I'm surprised too because that's not what I usually gravitate toward, but I took a chance on Jeremy's ideas and it paid off.

So here he is painting the ceiling...

There used to be shelves above my desk, but we took them down before I thought to take pictures.

Ta da! A pretty, freshly painted, organized and highly functional office! I like to call it "the IKEA special" because pretty much everything is from Ikea - desks, printer cart, chairs, wall file, shelves, cubby bookcase and the fabric that we put on canvases and hung on the wall.

We got a cubby bookcase that has tons of storage space so we're still figuring out how best to use it, but we're well on our way. And we painted the walls a very pale gray that I think turned out really nice. It's subtle and neutral and great!

Especially since I'm starting up my own business it feels really good to have a nice, organized space that I can walk into and feel motivated and ready to work. Thank you, tax return money!

Happy 1st Birthday, Lola!

My dear sweet, darling girl.... you are ONE today!

At 6:00 AM on March 9, 2010 I was largely pregnant with you.

And at 12:49 PM we got to meet you and see your beautiful face!

You wasted no time in stealing our hearts. Since the day you were born you have been nothing but sweetness and joy. Okay, maybe not EVERY moment, but pretty close. Almost without exception everyone who spends time with you tells us how sweet-natured, happy and smiley you are.

You are getting to be a big girl now. Not so much a baby anymore, which makes mommy a little sad at times. I will miss the cute little baby things you do.

Like the time you were playing in the living room and you literally just put your head down on the floor and passed out asleep.

And the way you scooted everywhere on your bottom rather than learning to crawl.

And your yummy, chubby cheeks! I could kiss them all day long!

You aren't taking any steps on your own yet, but for the past few weeks you've been pulling yourself up to standing by the furniture. You've gotten very good at it, but it seems like you sometimes don't know what to do once you get up there.

You don't have many words yet. You say "ba" for "bye" and if we ask for a kiss you put your hand up to your mouth as if to blow a kiss. You make other sounds like "da" and "ga" and "ma" but they still seem to be just jabber rather than real words.

We are beginning to wonder if you might be really easy to discipline like your mommy was. If you're going after something and we tell you "no" you usually stop right away and just start crying.

You really like when we put sunglasses on you. You'll sit there just looking at us with a silly little smirk on your face, as if you know you're super cute.

You have six teeth now and no more patience for pureed foods of any kind. I can occasionally get a little spooned foods into you, like oatmeal or cottage cheese, but for the most part you definitely prefer anything that you can feed to yourself with your fingers. You eat lots of banana, Cheerios, graham crackers, apples, peaches, pears, dried prunes, avocado, lunch meat, turkey hot dogs, cooked carrots, potatoes, bread, cheese, pancakes, toast. I'm not sure if there's anything that you don't like right now. This morning mommy had a piece of coffee cake and you were very quick to scoot over, open your mouth and say "ahhhh" and beg me for bites. You loved it!

We are SO happy to be your parents, and your big sister loves you SO much (even if she does steal toys from you all day long)! Happy birthday, Lola!