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Monday, February 27, 2012

This Little Piggy

Did you have pets when you were growing up? My brother and I did! We had one of pretty much everything! We loooooooved animals and we loved having pets. Having pets is a wonderful experience for children (usually the parents have to help too!) 

Well when Honey and I were visiting the Pine Mountain AnimalSafari recently we checked out the bunny den and had the following conversation:

Me: Awww look at these sweet little bunnies!

Honey: Uh-huh

Me: They are so cute! I had a bunny rabbit when I was a little girl... You know what Baby? If we have a little girl she is going to want a bunny rabbit too.

Honey: Hmmm… I don’t think we'll need any bunny rabbits Love.

Me: Well she’s going to want one...and you’re probably going to get her one.

Honey: Ah, I don’t think so.

Me: Um-hum, ok.

Well it wasn’t but an hour later and you won’t believe what animal won my Honey’s heart. This little, baby animal:


Honey followed this little baby piggy, completely enthralled! I just sat back and watched. I watched him fall in love with that baby piggy. He talked about what the pig was doing, he took pictures, he thought that little piggy was the cutest little thing ever!!

When we left I simply said, “No bunny huh? I would have had no trouble carrying a pig home on my lap if I’d wanted to today. And you think you’re not getting a bunny??”

Apparently he loves baby animals. Who knew?!


Friday, February 24, 2012

Drive Thru Animal Safari


You know those times in life when you are laughing so hard you’re crying at something so unbelievably fun and unreal at the same time? And somewhere in that moment you take a step back and think, I want to remember this moment forever?

I had one of those recently at the most unlikely of places – a drive-through Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia. If you ever find yourself in south-central-ish Georgia, do whatever you can to go to this place! It is some kinda fun!

To be honest I really thought it was going to be touristy and hokey. Plus I love animals of all types, shapes and sizes and don’t support animal exploitation. (More on why I don’t visit the circus some other time…) But after seeing the website and getting recommendations from friends, Honey and I decided to check it out when we were nearby visiting Callaway Gardens for our Valentine's Weekend.

I thought we would drive our own car through the safari but we were quickly informed of the damage the animals could cause with their hooves and horns (Reeeeeeally? So what kinda animals you got in there anyway, I’m thinking.) The safari provided us with a car. This car:  


Oh trust me it gets better!

We had a good laugh about the car, then we snatched up our brown bag filled with animal food we had purchased and away we went.

We were immediately swarmed by Zebra, American Buffalo (um, huge, large creatures), Texas Longhorn Steer, various Cattle and a bunch of Elk. Let me define what I mean by swarmed: we had our windows down because we wanted to get a good look at everything so these HUGE creatures just come to your car and stick their head INSIDE your car hoping you’ll hand over the bag of food! Oh yes, a large, horned
bison head was essentially in my lap!! Meanwhile Honey and I are freaking out! Honey is frantically trying to get the windows rolled up so we don’t soon have animal extra passengers and I am scrambling to throw handfuls of food out of the window to distract them from maybe nibbling on us! Once we were saved by the car windows and food we laughed – and laughed – and laughed! 

These pictures demonstrate my "view"!

The trip continued like this. See, the thing is that the windows are smeared from animal slobber so you can’t see out of them. As we’re driving along, we’d put our windows down to see the animals. Then sometimes Honey would want to show me something so we’d both be looking out of his window. We’d be so intensely watching and talking about something that I completely forgot my window was totally down. Next thing I know I feel hot breath on my neck. I’d slowly turn and be nose-to-nose with an elk or a steer or a lama and it was a frantic scramble to throw food again! Honey had warned me not to throw so much food as we needed to ration it for the trip. All rationing ability went out the window (literally) each time an animal snuck up on me!

Here is some more of what we saw:











In all honesty, the animals were very well cared for, certainly NOT hungry, and had plenty of shelter, water and land to meet their needs. It really was a neat experience – not to mention filled with unexpected hilarity! 

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Valentine's Weekend Surprise

My husband is so romantic! Of course you will never hear him say that – and if you know him you’re thinking, “Honey? Your Honey??”  Yes I know… my sports-watching, beer-drinking, gun-shooting, helicopter-flying, fish-gutting Honey is a total romantic!

This Valentine’s is not only our very first married Valentine’s Day but our last Valentine’s Day as a family of two. To celebrate that my romantic – ok are you sick of hearing romantic? Then don’t read on…!! – Honey booked a weekend get-a-way for two at the Lodge and Spa at Callaway Gardens in South Georgia.

If you have not been to Callaway Gardens, GO. Seriously, you need to go there. (hint, hint for all husbands!) It is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!

Not only did Honey book a weekend there he also managed to secretly plan a couples massage – prenatal for me ofcourse – for us one morning. Ahhhhhhhh…

So to recap the weekend – 

We stayed here:

We swam here:

We had nightcaps by the fire here:

We had a massage here:

We looked like this:

And when we weren’t getting a massage, we looked like this:

It was such a wonderfully romantic fun weekend that we will remember forever as our first married Valentine’s Day weekend!  THANK YOU HONEY! I LOVE YOU!

all lodge photos courtesy of the Callaway Gardens Lodge and Spa website

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Homemade Valentine's Present

I surprised my husband with a homemade valentine’s gift this year! I was excited to try out a craft I originally found on Pintrest. Yes, I actually did something on Pintrest! While I changed the “how-to” a bit, the end result was the same and Honey loved it!

You might have seen the idea floating around Pintrest already: putting the yrics to "your song" on an over sized canvas. I first saw the idea from The Steen Style. Our song is “Then” by Brad Paisley and if you’ve read our First Date Review or our Love Story, then you might already know that this song tells our story in only 3-minutes… something I can never accomplish!

Here’s my finished product:

Here's what I used:

  • 30x40 canvas ($30 but found a 40% off coupon online, score!)
  • 1 can of Krylon Brushed Metallic spray paint in Carmel Latte with a satin finish
  • 1 white paint pen with a medium tip
All purchased from Hobby Lobby.

First I made a template for the lyrics using Power Point. (This was the same idea that "The Steen Style" author used but I was not able to download the template she provided so I made my own!)

Making my own template was so easy I almost thought I had missed a step! Using Microsoft PowerPoint, in portrait (to match the canvas) not landscape, I placed a single text box on the slide and then typed all the lyrics in the box. I played with the font size until the lyrics fit just inside the text box. The finished product looked like a miniature version of what I wanted the canvas to look like! (If I knew how to upload a ppt doc to the blog I'd do it!)

Next I called Kinko’s and asked them to print the file onto a 30x40 sheet of paper. They asked me to email the file to them and told me I could pick it up in 20 minutes! Whoa, how’s that for service?!

Once I had the printed template in my hand, I was ready to get busy!

I spray painted the canvas using almost the entire can to get the color I wanted! While it was drying I prepared the template. I trimmed off the edges and centered it over my freshly painted canvas. Since I wanted to use the template as a guide while I wrote the lyrics on the canvas, I moved the template down so that it was no longer centered but instead was shifted south by one row.


I used painters tape to hold the template in place and started writing the lyrics directly onto the canvas with my white paint pen. After I finished each row, I folded the template under to make room for the next row of lyrics. Using the template helped me to make sure I didn’t write too large or too small!


I surprised Honey with this homemade gift when we celebrated Valentine’s Day!
We have a couple of options as to where to hang it, more to come on that…






Monday, February 20, 2012

Twenty-Two Weeks... Really?

How can I be 22 weeks already? It still seems like we just found out!  

I have been wondering if my bump is the right size. To be halfway there it sure does seem little bitty! I am wearing maternity clothes because my belly is poking out but if you didn’t know me you would think I was just carrying around a little extra holiday weight!  

(This of course makes me want to wear a shirt that screams I AM PREGNANT just in case anyone was wondering!)

However my doctor confirmed that my bump is measuring right where it should! He also commented that thanks to my CrossFit routine my stomach muscles are holding that bump in a little it.  

(This makes me want to wear a shirt that says I AM PREGNANT AND I AM STRONG!)

My doctor also said to enjoy it because at my next appointment I’ll be wondering where my feet are!

16 Weeks



22 Weeks

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Weekend in Pictures

**Cute Children Alert**

My brother and his wife have the cutest little boy and baby girl – am I’m not just saying that because they are my niece and nephew. Honest. You’ve seen my husband’s sister’s girls here and you know they are adorable. So you might say I’m used to be surrounded by such cuteness!

My brother and his family came to stay with me this weekend and I thought I’d let you see for yourself just how precious their little ones are. Here is our weekend in pictures…

Good Morning!

Sweet girl
The computer mouse was his phone

Ready for bed
Trying on Daddy's shoes
We love our little nephew and niece!
What weekend in pictures would be complete without our babies?

Sweet Daphne Doodle
Cash watching for cats...
In his favorite napping spot - under the bed!

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