This is this site that is so funny I laughed till my sides hurt looking at it. It's called People of Wal-Mart and all the pictures were paparazzi style shots taken of real people inside Wal-Mart stores. Go have a laugh or two if you've got nothing better to do!

As of October 28th, Marin is 6 months old! I can't believe that our baby is half a year old already. The months fly by, even if the days drag on sometimes. :) Before Marin was born, I'd always told Matthew that a 6 month old baby was my favorite age and I still stand by my statement. We are really enjoying watching him grow up and he's a ton of fun right now. He loves to laugh and play and I swear I don't know how his little cheeks don't hurt he smiles so much. Everyone always asks us, "Is he always this happy?" And the truthful answer is YES. That little boy is always, always in a good mood unless something is "wrong". If he's hungry, tired, or just plain bored he'll let you know. But most of the time, he's such a good, happy baby and we love him to pieces.

Of course I'm biased, but I think he's the cutest baby I've ever seen and he gets cuter to me every day. I love watching him change every day. There is always something new going on with him, whether it being a new sound he can make or a new way to be mobile (read get into stuff. ha.ha.). The cooler fall weather has made me start thinking about spending the holidays with him. I think that Christmas especially will be a lot more fun this year, since we plan on actually having a tree. ha. ha. We had a tree when we first got married but quickly grew tired of messing with it when it was "just us". But I'm pretty sure it is a crime in all 50 states not to put up a Christmas tree if you have a child in your house. :)

The other fabuloso news of the day is that we got a brand new Wal-Mart less than 3 miles from our house. Whoo-Hoo! Man I love Wal-Mart! We went and checked it out today and it is really nice. It is a lot more spacious than most Wal-Marts I've been to. Granted it doesn't have valet parking like one of the ones in another part of Nashville, but maybe I can write corporate about that. ha.ha. Seriously, one of Nashville's Wal-Marts has valet parking. Lucky. :)

Marin's Exersaucer continues to be one of his favorite toys. He loves chewing on all the different animal toys attached to it. Speaking of toys, we've started rotating Marin's car seat toy on a daily basis. Car seat toy, you may ask? Well, Marin likes to have something to play with in his car seat on car rides. We used to put Cowboy (his most favorite) toy in there all the time. But we got to thinking that maybe it would be a better idea to rotate the toys in case something ever happened to BFF Cowboy. So today he took Mr. Frog (a stuffed frog given to him by Tara & Carrie at his baby shower before he was born). He has even taken to giving his stuffed animals kisses if you ask him to. The only animals I've gotten him to kiss so far are his elephant that Mimi got him and Mr. Frog. He has also started to kiss his Dada and I quite often. He's such an affectionate little thing. Speaking of Dada, he says that word about a million times a day now but he only uses it towards Matthew, so I think he's gotten the concept that Dada is Dada. He will call to Matthew if Matthew isn't in the room and when Matthew walks in his little face just lights up with the biggest smile ever! Who do you think is jealous? Yep, Mama! But we're working on that one. ha.ha.

Hello there. I hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. Mine has been pretty good, but LONG. Yesterday was great though. Marin and I spent some time in retail therapy and all was well. :) Matthew has been gone all weekend. He went to Virginia to take Lexi to her (hopeful) new home. She is currently staying with a good friend of ours that we refer to as Lexi's "Uncle Andre". He is Dad to greyhounds George & Lisa and says that he doesn't need a third. I can't say that I blame him. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I hope he decides to keep her permanently instead of just fostering her. :) Lexi LOVES him and his dog George. This is her first time meeting Lisa (who coincidentally is her 2nd cousin) and they seem to be getting along just fine so far. I'll keep you updated!

Taking care of a baby by yourself is TOUGH. Yesterday Marin took it easy on me and was a good boy. Today, he's driving me wild. I just got him out of his bath, got him dressed in some of his Halloween themed finery and no sooner did I lift him off the changing table that he spit up a combo of carrots and curdled milk all over his shirt, his bib, and my shirt. Nice. Just what I needed. So I decided to just strip him down to his diaper and put him in his play yard while I took a shower. I got all cleaned up and as I'm drying off I can smell the unmistakable smell of yet more spit up. That's. Just. Grand. As icing on the cake, he is now asleep, lying in a small pool of the orange puke. He's been a bear today and hasn't napped so instead of digging him out of the play yard for yet another bath, I just moved him over in the corner to a "clean" spot. ha.ha. I know, I'm wrong, huh? ha.ha. Hopefully I will have at least an hour of peace and quiet before I have to wake him up for a bath and a meal.

Matthew is on his way home now as we speak, after driving 850 miles yesterday. Yikes! He is about 2 hours from home now and I can't wait for him to get back! I'm sure he's looking forward to get back so he can finally rest. I'm looking forward to him getting back so I can pawn Marin off on him. :)

I came across a list on Budget Travel that is a "must see" list of places to visit with your kids. Here are the places that made the cut.

1. The Grand Canyon
2. New York City (The Statue Of Liberty)
3. Colonial Williamsburg, VA
4. Washington, D.C. (The Lincoln Memorial)
5. Niagara Falls
6. Gettysburg, PA
7. San Antonio, TX (The Alamo)
8. Hawaii (Pearl Harbor)
9. Monticello, VA
10. Orlando, FL (Walt Disney World)

Having been to 5 of the 10 places, I can tell you that I don't think most kids would agree that the list is the end all be all of places to see in the USA. Some of the places are pretty kid friendly, the others no so much. I'm betting that Walt Disney World tops the list for pretty much any kid you ask. ha.ha.

Brooks Campbell arrived at 7:28 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 13th! Happy Birthday Brooks! Best wishes to the entire family, especially to new Mom Tara & Dad Phillip! We got to see him at the hospital and he is just beautiful!

Tomorrow is THE day for Tara & Phillip, our good friends. THE day that they become a family of three! (Insert lots of squealing, jumping up and down, and general celebrating). :)

I am so excited for them! I can't wait to meet Brooks! We got to hang out with them the other night at the Preds game and I can assure you that they are READY to get this show on the road! Brooks seems to have other ideas, but the little dude has no choice in the matter now. :)

She is being induced at 8 am on 10-13 (tomorrow) so Brooks is coming out whether he likes it or not. ha.ha. Please be thinking of them and hope that Tara has a quick and easy delivery and that she doesn't kill Phillip. :)

Check back later for updates!!!

I thought this was a most interesting article on the custom of tipping in the US. For those of you that are interested, check it out.

If you enjoy this article, a mandatory 20% service fee will be collected because I let you read it off my blog. :)

Today has been absolutely gorgeous. Marin and I took about an hour long walk before we had to come back home because it was too hot! Yes, that's right! Too hot! I just LOVE warm weather, especially when it is a welcomed treat after a rainy, cool start to fall.

Marin is asleep now. He always has a big time on his walks---greeting the neighbors, watching passing cars, studying trees and clouds. When we get home, he always falls immediately asleep. I think the way babies develop is really cool. They are busy, busy, busy and then just as abruptly fall asleep after an activity. That is because during sleep is when they process what they have just seen. An experience such as a walk that may be relaxing to a parent is an action packed learning experience for a baby. They are so easily stimulated. That is why a toy that may seem "boring" to an older child is tons of fun for an infant. It doesn't take much to occupy them or make them happy.

You can't tell it as much in his photos on his blog, as you can in person, but Marin is getting sooooo big! He is really tall. His feet are nearing the end of his infant carrier car seat. Uh-oh, time to upgrade! I will be glad when we don't have to lug that carrier around with us anymore, but while heavy as heck, it is convenient not to have to wake him if we are getting in and out of the car a lot. We've sorta-kinda picked out his next car seat, but since it will make good blog fodder, I won't spoil it yet. :) We just want to "visit" the seat in the actual store to test drive it in our car. Yep, a lot of places will let you take a display model out to your car to see if the seat fits well in it. I thought that was pretty cool.

Speaking of babies, it is baby central around here these days. There is Marin (age 5 months), our directly next door neighbor's son (age 3 months), and 5 other little boys under 2 years old that I can see their houses from my front porch. Plus, we have lots more babies on the way! A lady across the street from us is being induced with her 2nd child this coming Monday, our other directly next door neighbor is due in early November with a son, and our good friends Tara & Phillip of course who are due ANY time now! If their little dude doesn't make his own appearance by Oct. 13th, she will be induced that morning! Did you see a pattern with the babies? Yep, ALL boys! I will let you know if our across the street neighbor has a girl. It will be a miracle if she does. I don't know anyone with a girl baby!

There are a lot of things that go on from time to time that keep us from fully enjoying our time with Marin. It seems like it is "always something" as the saying goes. I'll give you some examples.

First off, this drama with our dog has gotten wayyyy out of hand. We thought we had found the perfect home for her (and still do think that) but petty adoption group politics that really piss me off to say the least, has gotten in the way. That's all I can really say about that. But it doubly pisses me off that we've spent the last 2 evenings worrying about it.

Things like chores. It seems that any time we sit down just to breathe, the dryer beeps, Marin's bottles need making, or again, the dog needs something. All of these are necessary things to take care of. But, it just seems that life so to speak gets in the way of us either just resting for 5 seconds or playing with Marin. Just this afternoon, he was crying on his blanket in the floor because I was having to empty the trash and sweep up the ungodly pile of dog hair that has accumulated in our living room. He doesn't like to sit alone (even within eye sight) for more than 5 seconds. This causes a serious meltdown. While it is sweet that he likes to hang out with us so much, you have to do stuff around the house at some point. It is just prioritizing what is necessary and what can wait, since all of it takes away from time with the little guy.

I guess my whole point is, try to enjoy your family (whether that be your spouse, your kids, or any other relatives or friends). People are the most important things in life. Try to enjoy spending time with those you love and really being there with them too---not being distracted by phones or computers or tv. Just spend some quality time together. My little guy is asleep, so I finally get 5 minutes to myself to blog. :) I figure one of these days, he's not going to want to hang out with his Mama. Until then, I hope to spend as much time with him as I can.

Yep, I sure do. Mine is currently rolling around like a mad man in the living room floor, squealing and laughing with his Da-Da. We've both tried rocking him to sleep, with little success. So, now we've resorted to letting him (hopefully) wear himself out playing. He's been fed, diapered, and dressed in his zoo animal themed jammies but he sure ain't sleepin!

I thought that Birmingham Alabama Cakes would be the best name for this post, in case I got hits from Google searches that way. For those of you who are confused, ha.ha., let me explain.

I've sang the praises of my sister-in-law Leann, who makes awesome looking cakes, for the past couple months now. I'm thrilled to report that she has officially decided to go into part-time business for herself! Yeah Leann!

If anyone is looking for a cake for any occasion and you live in the Birmingham, AL area she's your gal! Just take a look at her blog to see her cakes.