Battle of the sexes

Last month Isaiah and I celebrated our birthdays with a camo theme.  Jeff gave me a big bouquet of pretty flowers and as bright and colorful as they were they just couldn't balance out the camouflage.

It's every woman's dream is to celebrate her birthday with camouflage.

That really is what you want though when you share your birthday with the sweetest boy on the planet!

Madison tried jumping in at the last second to blow out a few of his candles for him but she was a little too late.  So much love!

We bought a wood stove last month too since the house has doubled in size and the pellet stove doesn't quite cut it anymore.  It's a dream come true for Jeff.  At first I wasn't too excited about having another stove in the house because they always look like they belong on a train or in a man's hunting shack deep in the woods or used for repelling women but I went along with the idea and started looking for a stove I like.  Turns out they only exist in Europe and cost an arm and a leg.  So we agreed on the simplest looking American made stove we could find and then I went to work trying to figure out a way to pretty it up.

Our first fire.

I figured we needed a visual distraction from the newest train like unit in the house and decided on cement tiles.  I've loved them since I first laid eyes on them.  They're so unique and beautiful they're more like art!  You know how you're not supposed to overwhelm newborns with too much color and light because it overwhelms their senses?  That's what happens to me when I'm fabric shopping or hunting for the perfect tiles.  I love them ALL...to the point that my head starts spinning and I feel like I'm going to have a stroke or something.  Let me tell you, it was one of the hardest decisions of my life.  I felt like the bachelorette and I had to eliminate all kinds of gorgeous tiles from the competition.  

Wouldn't it be nice if that's really as hard as life ever got?  I finally settled on these beauties and Jeff and I got to work installing them.  They're a little trickier to work with than normal tiles but easier than we expected them to be.

Ahhh.  Now I actually love it!  (And so does Jeff.  Win, win!)

My sister's bridal shower is coming up this weekend so between coats of paint and chop sawing (I've learned how to use many a power tool lately) I've been baking things like these adorable French macarons.  I can't wait for her shower!  I told my other sister I'm going to be lost and sad once the shower is over and Jeff wonders if I'm actually doing all this for Erin or for myself.  Hmmm...both.  It's too much fun not to enjoy the whole process.

This is the current state of the room we're having the shower in in 5 days so I need to get crackin'!