Giveaway

My friend Hillary over at The Other Mama is having a birthday week full of giveaways! Today she is giving away the Let's Make Dinner Collection from Homemade Gourmet. Instead of linking all the websites, why don't you just head over to her Birthday Bash - Day 1 - Homemade Gourmet Giveaway post and read all about it and comment to win! Or just read about it. I need all the chances to win I can get. I can't believe I'm fostering competition!

A Baby Shower

On August 8, I had a baby shower for my cousin, Anna, at my house. It was the first time I'd ever had any official party with invitations at my house. It was a lot of fun! Anna got great gifts for baby Elle. I can't wait for Sipsey to have a girl cousin to play with (would y'all prefer that I write "for Sipsey to have a girl cousin with whom to play?" I didn't think so. Just know that I know that I am using incorrect grammar). And we live so close to each other, I know that these girls will get lots of playtime. We already crash Anna's house too often, just so we can get out of our own!

The wreath Mom made when Sipsey was born.

The food! The space in the back right of the photo was reserved for the breakfast casserole. It was all yummy!

The cute invitation

Me, Aunt Donna (Anna's mom), and Anna

Anna, me, and Lauren Jernigan, who is expecting in December right around Sipsey's birthday (and Christmas)

Sipsey and Margaret Anne checking each other out.

Benjamin Beck, PhD

On August 11, Ben gave his public defense to receive his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pathology. The week before that, he had his private defense, where he presents to his committee members all the data he has collected over his four years in the program. They then tell him whether or not he has done enough research to finish and they said he did (it's got to be good research too)! He also had to publish a paper in a scientific journal, which was accepted just in time for him to go ahead with his defense. Anyone can come to the public defense to listen and ask questions. Many faculty show up to ask questions to stump you to see if you really know your stuff. Ben answered all questions with ease! His next step is to complete a post-doctoral fellowship in another lab for about 2 years. He started that position today! No rest for the weary!

The title of Ben's dissertation

Ben and his mentor, Dr. Lopez, who is an awesome guy and loves to take us out to eat and drink, especially at Rojo

He's finished!

Dressy Bessy

If you grew up in the early 70's, perhaps you owned a Dressy Bessy doll. I, on the other hand, did not grow up in the 70's :), and did not have the pleasure of learning to button and unbutton, buckle and unbuckle, zip and unzip, strap and unstrap, and tie and untie on such a cute doll. Sipsey loves to do everything herself, especially putting on her shoes, which she can do very well (they are Velcro). She has not mastered dressing herself yet, but she sure wishes she could. I came across this doll while reading The Pioneer Woman's blog. The Dressy Bessy post can acutally be found under the Home and Garden section of her website.

Dressy Bessy has hairbows that tie, a watch with a Velcro strap, shoes with Velcro straps, and a coat with huge buttons with surprises underneath.

She even has a kitty that lives in her front pocket and can attach to her wrist.

After unbuttoning, unbuckling and unzipping, we find a bear (I think). Sipsey zipped and unzipped and took the bear in and out about 500 times in a row.

These photos are courtesy of Pioneer Woman. You can read her funny story about Dressy Bessy here. I bought Sipsey's from ebay. They don't currently make this anymore, but there were several new at full price on Amazon, which is about $24.99. I paid about $15.00 with shipping for a used on ebay. She LOVES this doll! It causes a little frustration at first, but I taught her how to say "help" when she is having a hard time with something and it acutally worked! She will get very frustrated with a task and turn to me and say, "hep" no matter what the task is. It truly has reduced the number of tantrums in our house! I think there is male counterpart to Dressy Bessy called Dapper Dan, so those of you with boys can get in on the action as well, that is, if your husbands don't mind you buying a doll for your sons!

If you don't read The Pioneer Woman, you are definitely missing out. She is a multi-talented mom and wife living on a cattle ranch with her husband and four children whom she homeschools. She cooks, she blogs, she takes amazing photos and has informative photography tutorials! She has also written an online autobiography called Black Heels to Tractor Wheels which is amazing. I read it as she wrote it, so she would finish a chapter and leave us all hanging for the conclusion. If you haven't read it, you don't have to wait for the next installment! I promise you will not get up from your computer.

Hopefully I will return soon with pictures of Sipsey. I have been busy sewing, so blogging has taken a back seat. Have a great weekend!

McWane Your Brain

Last month we went to the McWane Center with Sipsey's friend, Natalie, and her parents. It was the grand opening of the Shark and Ray Touch Tank so there was a huge sandbox outside that the kids could dig in and find seashells and shark teeth! Sipsey even got to wear a hula skirt. Then inside, there was a huge indoor playground for the little kids and cool science exhibits for the big kids (and the dads)! Sipsey and I went back to the McWane Center today with her friend Anna June and Anna June's mommy, Laura. I don't have pictures from today but here are the ones from July.

Watching the balls go around and around.

Wish we had one of these at home!

Hawaiian girl

Ben freaked out when Sipsey started playing at the splash table. I think I did smell a little chlorine to kill the germs, but it's still kind of gross. Her time there was short-lived.

Ben teaching Sipsey about the fish.

This is about the only picture I got of these girls where you could somewhat see both of their faces. They were busy-busy!