I ask this...

So what would you do if you saw this in your window ledge amidst a HUMONGO web?
Next... what would you do if you saw 30 to 50 of these cute Brown widow eggsacs on your porch and in between your double hurricane windows?
And lastly... what would you do if you saw these hatch into these little fellows in those same double windows right before your very eyes?

Honestly... I almost peed my pants, and then went to get Chris to kill them... quickly!

Dear Baby, Please Stop Making Mommy Semi-Sick

Geez, who's running this blog?!! Has it really been 3 months?? Craziness!! Gee, I hope everyone is still reading.

So, if you haven't heard we have some news...
We're pregnant with Baby Hall #2!!
We are super excited!!! (Thus the numerous exclamation marks :D)
Chris is hoping for twins... so we can name the Barnaby and Bailey.... hmmm... yeah...
we'll see if that happens.

More posts to come... I promise!!!

For Celiece....

My sister-in-law Celiece asked me, well I would say forever ago, to post a picture of the quilt I made for our bedspread with the help of my very patient Grandma :D So here it is Celiece, I am sorry it took so long!I'm still need to make a couple more pillowcases in the black damask fabric, but I just love the colors!! I don't have a picture of the other side, but it's a really pretty white fabric, which is nice because I can use both sides.

Here our some more pictures of our house... well mainly Gabriel's room.

These are the boxes I just got for his diaper table... they are cute as well as SO useful :D

Don't you just love this crate? My dad found it for me when he was here visiting the time before last... though I will not say where he acquired it...

This is one of the latest thrift shop finds. My mom found some other wonderful wooden toys (one of them is next to the rocking catepillar... it is so much fun because you can use all five sides plus Gabriel just loves it, thank you for finding it Mommy!) and the cutest rocking chair, but I don't have the pictures of all of them yet. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the thrift store here!!! This catepillar I got for 10 dollars and the wooden toy only 4!
Well I have tons more pictures to upload, but that'll have to be it for the day. Soon I'll bring out all the bug pictures I've been collecting, they are HUGE here in the south!

Lots of Love-
Eliza

Gabriel and his new fantastic word :D

He finally is learning some words!! Yay! I heard this one for the first time when he had knocked over a pile of books on our bedroom nightstand... he now uses it constantly!! Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the men in my life!
To my amazing Daddy who is one of the most caring, sweet and loving men you will ever meet!
To Chris who is the most wonderful husband and father!
and to Gabriel, future father :D Hopefully you will be as willing to sweep for your wife as you are for you mom!

Presenting: Part Artsy Photography

When my parents came to visit in March we walked through this market in Charleston where they sell things like candles, bags, sunglasses... you know you're basic vendor wares. Something that I saw there that I fell in love with were these photographs of simple things in Charleston like doors, food, gas lamps, and people. My parents were so nice to give me 3 pictures of the doors that I absolutely love! But, thinking about it I realized maybe it would be fun (and a little less expensive) to try and see what I could get from my little camera... so here are my trying-to-be-artsy photos :D

I have no idea what this pot-thing actually is, but it was at Fort Sumter... I know that much!
Can you guess what this is?

Another one at Fort Sumter... I actually really liked how this one turned out!
Mmmmm.... cupcakes :D


Gabriel and a mop... random, but you have to admit it is oh so cute!!
Well that wraps up this weeks edition of Part Artsy Photography :D Seriously though, I'm starting to really enjoy taking pictures... it makes you really appreciate all the beautiful things that surround you and that we've been blessed with. I've realized now whenever I'm in one of those moods I just grab my camera and take pictures of things I'm grateful for... little boy, the hubby, our home, our fun back yard, and of course cupcakes.

Lots of love-
Eliza

Wanted: New show for Monday Nights

This last week I was getting so excited to see one of my favorite shows...
I've always loved Jon and Kate plus 8 because there are not a lot of family friendly shows you can watch on television. For me it was something that I could watch that I didn't have to change the channel, and I loved seeing the ups and downs of parenting.

Monday night I put the little boy to bed, do a few chores, and then finally sit down to watch the season premiere. To my disappointment, it was kind of like watching one of these:Yeah, pretty painful to watch... and not like "the Office" painful where you can laugh at the awkwardness, but just sad, really sad. I just can't imagine where the rest of the season can go.

So needless to say there will be no more Jon and Kate plus 8 for me... which actually works out for the best, maybe I can use that 30 minutes towards working on that food storage closet :D

A long time coming...

Yes I need to practice this whole picture uploading, don't know where to start typing, confusion thing... but I have sadly been neglecting our poor blog!! No posts for couple of months... I am sorry to say I am ashamed of myself, I apologize. But on the up and up I have some lovely pictures for you guys... everyone say YAY!!! :D

Above is us at Chris' graduation from bootcamp... I just love Gabriel's expression: Who is this guy?! :D But we are so proud of Chris and the hard work he did!
You have to love the mossy trees!! Aren't they cool?
My loving parents came to visit us a month ago and we had a blast!! I'm so grateful I have such wonderful parents, they are truly amazing. This was outside of the building for tours to Fort Sumter. Gabriel just loved that fountain!
Above us we have the South Carolina beaches... they are fun but they can get oh so crowded! And below us we have Chris and Gabriel at Easter time. Chris is looking spiffy in his Navy uniform :D So funny story about this egg hunt. There were about 5 kagillion kids and parents and only like 2 eggs (okay yes I am exaggerating) But seriously it's not to far off! They had different sections for the different ages and 1-3 year olds had their parents help. So here is the conversation I hear from one of the mothers after the egg hunt is done.

Mother: Wow, that went fast! I don't think a lot of people got eggs this year.
Father: (glances in the basket his wife is holding) Oh yeah?
Mother: Yeah... they really need to put more eggs out there, I think some kids only got one... it's kind of sad.
Son: Mommy didn't we get eggs?
Mother: Sshhh!!!
Eliza:(silently glances over to the other woman's basket to reveal she had 20 eggs all to herself... yes my friends, she was the elusive EGG-HOG-A-MOMMA!!!)
This is our little weed patch outside that floods everytime it rains, which makes for a wonderful pond... if only we had some fish!
Gabriel looking cute :D

We have to keep ourselves entertained during the hurricane season... yes folks that's right HURRICANE SEASON! Luckily, me and Gabriel both love that South Carolina rain so I guess it works out okay :D

Will keep posting... hopefully more often :D
With love- Eliza

So I guess the last one was a bust...

I had an amazing amount of people that didn't believe that Gabriel looked
more like me than he did Chris... so I decided to re-do it. Okay okay you guys were right! :D

And a Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!!!

Today, Gabriel and I had so much fun going out to Red Robin and the Sweet Tooth Fairy with some of my best friends. It was great fun and the sweets from the Sweet Tooth Fairy were absolutely amazing! We just love the way they decorated their store as well, it is just too adorable.

This was my Valentine's present to myself :D I'm trying to finish my quilt and when I saw this fabric I absolutely fell in love with it! So cute!
Me and my cousins, Emily and Jessica, had a little Valentin's Par-tay a couple weeks back... We watched a fun movie, and did some cute decorations for Valentine's. Yeah, we're pretty silly :D Spirit fingers!

This is my Christmas tree but I haven't taken it down yet so we decorated it! The chain is actually a countdown chain until Chris is home (12 more days!! :D) and then there's some roses at the top.
These are some cute boxes we made. I just love stackable boxes!! Each of us girls took one to decorate and keep for ourselves. It actually only took some scrapbooking paper, ribbon and some rhinestones... they came out so cute!

I'm trying to break into cupcake making ... this is just a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I really like trying to experiment with some designs with chocolate, so this one has some simple hearts that I just did with melted chocolate chips. I really want to do a lemon cake with a lemon curd filling so if you know some good recipes (for ANY cake, filling or frosting) let me know!!

Love- Eliza

In the Navy!

So in case everyone hasn't heard (my family, sadly, has had to hear me rant for a couple weeks now... I'm sorry for being a basketcase all!), Chris joined the Navy a few months ago and has just been waiting for his time to go to bootcamp. Gabriel and I were so lucky to have several months with him before he went, but time just flew! The time finally came and Chris left for boot camp on the 5th of January. We miss him, but know he is going to do awesome!

In a few weeks we'll have one of these in the family! Hopefully it will be my husband instead of a random stranger...

Ain't this the truth!! Well I guess this really wouldn't apply because women are allowed in the Navy now... but I still think it's cute!



I get to get my sailor kiss!!! I've only loved this picture forever! I think I'll opt for a different outfit though... I don't think I could work the nurse look!