What happens if your birthdays peak at 2?

Ruby had the best day today on her second birthday. Grandma and Papa were her to great her in the morning and give her a Mrs. Potato Head doll. Apparently, the potato head body is no longer sufficient for storage of all potato head's wordly possessions. Therefore, she comes with a carrying case for her overzealous wardrobe. After that, we headed to our traditional Sunday morning hangouts, a bakery and the zoo with some friends! Ruby has developed a fascination for butterflies so we decided to theme the day around them.






Mommy and Daddy actually got in a picture together!


Then a thunderstorm drove us home to a conveniently themed rain present from Grandma.


Papa thinks it is never to early to teach girls about tools and fixing trucks.



After all that, who wouldn't want to lie on the floor and watch the rain fall with her grandma?


After all those presents, it was time to go over to a friend's house and do some home improvement. Ruby enjoyed her imitation of Jacob Marley using chains and electrical cable as much as her other presents.


A butterfly cake courtesy of her cooking mama and cooking grandma was delicious. Its jaunty pirate eye is a result of Ruby's over enthusiasm to eat the gumdrop eyes.



One of the presents I was excited about was a stuffed turtle that projects stars on the ceiling of her room. I'll see if I can get a good picture of it sometime. Ruby, Jamey and I took a nice lie down in her room as she went to sleep and watched her starry ceiling.

HGTV Taylor Style

Sorry for the two month lag, but its time for some home improvement pictures! I wish I had before shots of the kitchen but let me set the stage since I do not. Our kitchen had nice double ovens and a stove top when we moved in but overall I would give it a low grade. The tile on the floor was also used for the back splash was also used for the counter top. The tile was a pedestrian light beige color and the cabinets white. Everything smeared together with no real contrast or style. Plus grout was horrible to clean for the counter tops.

Observe our changes!

We picked a granite that is predominately black with iridescent blue highlights.



Back splash is tumbled marble in a brick pattern with glazed ceramic tile highlights that pick up the stainless steel in the over really well.

Voila!