The Eison Family: In List Mode

I am in serious list mode getting ready for this coming weekend. I have list for grocery trips, list for cleaning, list for party supplies, guest list, etc. I even have a list of what I am doing everyday this week after work! It may seem like I am stressed out but not really. Lists are just the way I organize. This post has lots of pictures and it covers a lot of subjects. I figured a list format was the only way to get in all about our weekend.

1. Wedding Showers-check, check, one more to go
Emma and I attended a wedding shower at my mom's school on Friday afternoon for my sister. Courtney got some awesome stuff. Here she is holding part of her everyday dishes. Overall, Emma behaved pretty well at the shower. She tried stealing one of the bows off of a gift but she gave it back...she was just practicing for the b'day! On Saturday night we went to a couple's shower for Courtney and Gaines. I didn't take any pictures but it was a great time and again, they got some great stuff.

Emma and CC after the shower

The setup for Friday's shower

2. Familiar Friday-check, back on track
We got back to normal with some Friday night dining with Zed and Lindsay on the patio of El Porton. Luckily, we got there earlier enough to grab a seat on the patio-that place get busy on Friday nights! Emma tolerated our visiting for about an hour and half and then we had to take the party to our backyard. She was ready to go to bed so we went home, put her to bed, and hung out our new unfinished patio with Zed and Lindsay. More about our patio next...

3. Our Yard Project-almost complete

Saturday was looking bad! We woke up and it was raining. We had a half finished patio in our backyard and gravel in the driveway. One way or another this has to be taken care of this week. I mean this is not something that can be stuffed in a closet and hidden from our guest (oh, and I would never do that! NOT ME) So we decided rain or shine this had to be done. I ventured to Home Depot only to get way overwhelmed and called Bradley to see if he could come to Home Depot with me. Good thing I did because I could have never loaded all of the paving stones and many bags of mulch that we ended up with. So, 44 paving stones, 6 bags of mulch and potting soil, and 4 flats of flowers later we went from this...

to this! Not to bad, huh? It could use some more flowers, but I want to see how much the ground cover I got spreads out. I am going to add some tiki torches for the party and I actually already have chairs up on the patio now.

I also added this new border to the garden

and my cilantro is starting to sprout! I am probably most excited about the cilantro and jalapenos that I planted. I plan on using these when I make salsa this summer. I will post my salsa recipe soon. Lindsay got it for me (it is a variation of the Flying Saucer's recipe) and I love it!

4. My First Mother's Day-check

Bradley went out of his way to make sure I had a great Mother's Day! I have actually known what I was getting for about two weeks. Bradley is horrible about keeping secrets so he had to give me my present the day he brought it home. I was determined not to use it until Mother's Day! We go through this same deal at ChristmaS. He is always asking if I want to open one present before Christmas. Anyway, he knows I have been wanting some Tory Burch Reva's for so long-so that is what he got me. I broke down and wore them Saturday night to Courtney's shower!

I love, love, love them! In case you don't know I am slightly obsessed with shoes! I have two hanging shoe racks full of shoes. Actually, my shoe obsession had died down for a while when I was pregnant. I couldn't find a lot of cute, comfortable shoes so I wasn't buying so many. Well I have picked back up and when I went to straight up my room last night I discovered I didn't have enough places for all of my shoes. I went though and threw out the ones that would never be wore again and found spots for all of my lovely new finds.

Emma spent the night with MiMi and Daddy Mac on Saturday night because me and Bradley went to the wedding shower. So I actually didn't get to see Emma on Mother's Day until lunch time. But when I saw her she made it all worth it because she gave me a big kiss! This is big because she doesn't really give a lot of kisses so it made we feel really good!

We had a Mother's Day Crawfish/Shrimp boil at my parents house. The crawfish were really good and we had so many that we sat there and peeled them all and took some home so we could make another meal out of them. I feel some of Paula Dean's Crawfish Fettuccine coming next week!

5. Growing Up-check :(

Since we had to move Emma's carseat from my parents car back to mine we decided to go ahead and let her face forward. She is already over the 20 pounds mark and only a few days away from 1 year. She loved it and laughed the whole way home.

6. Party Preparations-in the works

Most everything is getting done for the party. The house has to be cleaned this week but after that, I will start the little bit of decorating I will do. I finished up the gift bags for the kids coming to the party. I still need to find some table clothes and that will be all that I don't have. Besides picking up the cake and some balloons on Saturday we are well on our way.