Peeks

Day 17

2012-02-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

T-Bone loves Tetris...

even when we're supposed to be asleep in bed.

Day 16

2012-02-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

She loves babies.

Every day she asks me when I'm going to have a baby in my tummy.

She tells me she wants a sister first and then a brother.

Today she said, "Spread out this blanket on the floor and wrap me up like baby Jesus."

So random!

Day 15

2012-02-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

We love our new used car.

We've been a one car family for so long that I'm not gonna know what to do with a vehicle of my own! Just kidding. I know exactly what to do.

Day 14

2012-02-14T13:42:00.001-05:00

She loves singing cards, especially Taylor Swift ones.

Day 13

2012-02-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

We loved the circus.

Day 12

2012-02-12T19:59:00.001-05:00

I love my hairstylist.

Day 10

2012-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

Day 9

2012-02-09T06:41:00.000-05:00

Day 8

2012-02-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

I love school time.

I was listening to 3 other moms at gymnastics yesterday saying that their daughters (who are all at least 6 months older than Sweet Cheeks) still don't know all of their letters. It made me feel like a pretty awesome mom that Sweet Cheeks knows all her letters and their sounds and that she can write them too. There. I'm done bragging. Oh wait...can I brag about one more thing really quick? Then I'll be done. For all my mormon family and friends...Sweet Cheeks, who just started in the Sunbeam class, stood up in primary on Sunday and recited the 1st Article of Faith by herself.

"We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

Day 7

2012-02-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

I love when Sweet Cheeks is cooperative. :)

She was awesome at the dentist today. Come to find out, she has princess teeth.

What an accomplishment!

Day 6

2012-02-06T08:10:00.001-05:00

Goodbyes.

("Daddy is like Flynn Rider and I'm like Rapunzel.")

Day 5

2012-02-05T07:15:00.000-05:00

I love that she loves music.

She gets so excited when she recognizes a song and can sing to it.

Day 4

2012-02-04T07:27:00.000-05:00

Fairy Fruit Loops

Day 3

2012-02-03T06:46:00.000-05:00

I love these curls.

Day 2

2012-02-02T07:20:00.000-05:00

I love that Sweet Cheeks comes into my bedroom at 7:01am every morning to tell me, "Mommy, it's morning time."

Day 1

2012-02-01T09:03:00.000-05:00

It's the month of love again, and I'm going to post something that I love every day this month.

I love that T-Bone takes Sugar out in the morning so that I don't have to.

What to Write...What to Write...

2012-01-23T15:12:00.000-05:00

For the last month I didn't think it would be all that interesting to write about how I'm finally back on track with my daily/monthly/quarterly chore chart that I keep for myself, or how I'm menu planning again, or how I'm back to exercising everyday, or how I'm actually following the home school preschool schedule that I made to do with Sweet Cheeks.

See? Boring, right? You're already scrolling down, looking for something funny.

But that's been our life the last few weeks.

I've got a few sewing projects in the works: another scripture bag for another niece turning 8 in March, a purse that I'm in desperate need of, because I'm still carrying that cute bag that I bought last spring to use "just for the summer", a baby quilt, and a memory quilt for an amazing woman that lost her husband (to give to their daughter).

Sweet Cheeks is now out of the nursery at church, and is in the Sunbeam class for children that will turn 4 sometime this year. She loves that! She's still loving gymnastics every week. This morning we went to visit the preschool that she'll be attending starting this fall, and we're excited about that. I won't tell you about 2 weeks ago when I called the school just to get information, and then I cried when I got off the phone.

I mean what will I do when my daily entertainment goes off to school? Even if it is only for 3 hours?

A couple days ago she walked in the door, threw herself across the arm of the couch, and said to me, "Take off my boots, Woman!"

No, T-Bone does NOT talk to me like that. She hears her cousin say that to her mom. See what I'm dealing with here? My weird niece is teaching my weird daughter all kinds of lovely things. :) But I just keep reminding myself that I taught my younger siblings all kinds of lovely things, so this is just payback.

This afternoon I was walking through the living room while Sweet Cheeks was watching her rest time movie, and she says, "Mommy look at this. I can put my lollipop in my belly button."

Not only does my daughter know her ABC's and 123's, she can put her lollipop stick in her belly button.

Now that is talent right there, folks. Talent. And look how good she is at recreating this weird moment for the camera.

Can I Paint A Rainbow?

2012-01-16T14:21:00.002-05:00

So I guess Sweet Cheeks is one of those artists that makes you really think deep about the painting. She came to me earlier and said, "Can I paint a rainbow?"

This is her version of a rainbow. I'm still in deep thought. What does it all mean?

8 is Great!

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy 8th Birthday to one of the most entertaining people we know, our niece!

She will be baptized a member of our church on Sunday afternoon.

I made her a scripture bag to carry her fancy new scriptures.

Educating Sweet Cheeks

2012-01-06T11:13:00.000-05:00

Sweet Cheeks got a pretty awesome doll house for Christmas. The problem we found though, is that there are not awesome doll families for sale out there. Santa decided to go with the least of all the evils and give Sweet Cheeks a doll family that's not only cute, but educational too.

Meet Jessica. She's pregnant.

Jessica thinks her maternity capris are really comfy the way that they go over her belly.

Jessica wanted to pose for one last belly shot before she went in to have the baby.

She waits patiently in the hospital bed for the doctor to get there.

"Hello Jessica. I'm Dr. Beast. Just relax. This won't hurt a bit."

Dr. Beast snaps off Jessica's stomach,

and sets it to the side.

Jessica is still looking great, smiling, and she can't wait to see her new baby.

*Side note from Keeks- I always thought babies were supposed to be like this in your belly. But Jessica has shown us that since your belly can actually just easily snap off, that the baby can be in any position it wants to be.*

Dr. Beast lets Jessica hold the baby while he flips her post-baby belly around.

Jessica thinks, "Having babies is a breeze! I'll be back in a bathing suit this afternoon."

Dr. Beast removes his surgical clothes, and goes out to congratulate the father.

Jessica is already posing for post-baby pictures.

Just look how happy this new mom is.

And now Sweet Cheeks knows exactly how babies are born. Thank goodness for educational toys like this.

Watch My Hair Grow

2012-01-05T04:08:00.001-05:00

I love doing this post each year.

Watch her hair grow from January to December 2011.

I trimmed up the back a couple times throughout the year while we waited for the front to grow. I love that little girl with the pretty blonde curls!

Look here for the 2010 version.

Look here for the 2009 version.

Going Coastal Quilt

2011-12-31T17:53:00.001-05:00

The gift I'm the most proud of giving this year was the throw-size quilt that T-Bone and I made for one of his brothers and his wife. I can't take all the credit. T-Bone did almost all of the cutting for me. The line of fabric is Going Coastal by Michael Miller.

The squares are 8"x8".

This is the first time I've ever machine quilted a quilt. I used 2" painters tape to keep my lines straight. That gave me 36 lines in each direction, which was about 70 lines too many. :) Actually, next time I'll know not to do a big quilt with the lines so close together if I want to keep what little sanity I have left.

I used the red sea star fabric for the backing and the binding.

It really turned out to be a beautiful quilt, and gave me the confidence to try again, but with maybe some slightly different techniques. Thanks Bri and Lissa for being my guinea pigs! :)

Christmas

2011-12-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

First things first. A huge SHOUT OUT to my computer geek brother-in-law for ridding my computer of a nasty virus. I can finally update the blog. :)

This Christmas was awesome. We strung it out over 3 days with 3 families, and really enjoyed ourselves. We especially enjoyed watching the magic of it all through the eyes of a 3 year old.

My mom and stepdad stayed with us Thursday and Friday. It wasn't nearly long enough.

My dad and stepmom and 2 brothers came over for the day Christmas Eve. Good food and good times, even though my dad conned me into sewing a 4 hour project for him. I was pretty proud of my genius design and production of his big ol' airplane seat cushion cover. It is a removable cover for connected back and seat cushions with a fold-up-and-carry-with-a-handle design.

We spent Christmas morning as a family, just the 3 of us. We went to church, and then spent Christmas afternoon with T-Bone's whole clan. That's always chaos! But it's fun chaos!

My most exciting gifts from our 3 day Christmas were a couple attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer, several awesome serving dishes, and my favorite husband hooked me up with a fancy schmancy Singer Serger. So now I've got a new sewing toy to learn how to use. :)

T-Bone's big gifts were some exercise equipment, a hunting knife for skinning poor innocent deer, and a gun safe to safely store the guns that he shoots the poor innocent deer with.

Now for the person you really want to see, Sweet Cheeks. All of our extended family gave her Barbies or Barbie-size princess dolls. After being threatened on a daily basis that her elf on the shelf, Chippy, was going to tell Santa to put her on the naughty list ("NOOOO!!"), she made it to Christmas, and all her dreams came true.

On Christmas Eve Santa stopped by our place. Sweet Cheeks was unbelievable. She just went right up to him, and was IN LOVE with him. She told me the next day, "Next time I want Santa to stay at our house for a really long time!"

Christmas morning was a hit. She loved all the goodies in her stocking.

She got a doll family. I have a whole other blog post coming about the mom in the family.

Sweet Cheeks felt it necessary to pick off the gift tag on each gift and then she could unwrap it. Weird kid.

She asked for her own dumbbells so she could exercise with us. She has this whole workout routine that she does, heavy breathing and all. Cracks. Me. Up.

Sweet Cheeks heard her crazy cousin ask Santa for an iPad, so she started asking for one too. We got her the kid version. Er, I mean Santa got her the kid version.

Then all her dreams (and my own for that matter) came true when she opened up the awesomest dollhouse in the history of awesome dollhouses. Santa picked this sweet thing up at Costco for a steal, and it included the furniture. She has to use a stool to reach the top.

Gymnastics Awards

2011-12-20T20:36:00.001-05:00

Today was awards day at gymnastics. Sweet Cheeks really loves her teacher, Ms. Julie. She looks forward to class every week, and has learned so much.

On the trampoline she does jump tucks, straddle jumps, scissor kicks, and is very close to doing seat drops.

On the bars she does a front support and forward roll.

She can do a possum hang,

and a birdie perch from the lower bar and then grab the upper bar and swing out.

She does all kinds of things on the balance beam.

And finally, the award ceremony at the end! TaDa! Yay Sweet Cheeks!

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer Is Singing Loudly For All To Hear

2011-12-16T12:54:00.001-05:00

Sweet Cheeks has been all about some Christmas music morning,

noon, and night this month.

This is for everyone out there that just sees the shy side of her.

And for the rest of you too. :)

I Laughed Because...

2011-12-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

#1-- The sweet down syndrome boy at Costco who was totally flirting with me. He was probably 10 or 11 and thought I was sooo hot. He did the whole finger guns pointing and winking thing a few times while he was talking to me. I think I blushed. T-Bone wasn't even kind of jealous though. He kept encouraging the boy in each aisle that we would pass each other! That kid made my day.

#2-- Sweet Cheeks said, "Are we going to Grandma's house today? You know, Marci?"

#3-- At the doctor yesterday, the nurse said, "Who named you?" I was caught off-guard, because my whole life I've heard, "Where is your name from?", not "Who named you?" So after fumbling for a second, I was able to spit out a version of my standard answer, "My dad used to live in Finland, and it's a popular name there." She told me that when she saw my name, she thought I might be the daughter of a doctor in NY that she used to work with. She said in a thick NY accent, "I used to work with a Dr. Keeks. That was her real first name. We called her Dr. Keeks, because you know in NY we only call people by their first name." (I'm sure that's NOT a generalization...at all. I'm sure.)

#4-- Sweet Cheeks told me that we only had 10 days left until Christmas, and we needed to get our snowsuits ready, because the snowflakes will fall down everywhere on Christmas.

#5-- Sweet Cheeks keeps telling me that she was born in a manger. That's not exactly how I remember it happening...
#6-- And the last piece of 3 year old wisdom that Sweet Cheeks gave me is this: "When I eat candy canes it makes me smarter."

The Dreams That You Wish Will Come True

2011-12-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

Saturday we went to see Disney on Ice.

It was like a dream come true.

And I'm not talking about Sweet Cheeks' dreams, because she had no clue that this awesomeness even existed.

She asked for "that colorful ice-cream."

We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

The first segment of the show was The Princess and the Frog. It was well done.

The second part was Cinderella, which we all loved!

They saved the best, Tangled, for last. Rapunzel and Flynn Rider were so awesome. Not only could they skate, they twirled and flew up high in the air in yellow sheets that were supposed to be Rapunzel's hair. I didn't get any clear pictures of that, dang it! The highlight though, was Maximus the horse. Talk about a talented horse! I don't know how the person who skates as the back legs of the horse doesn't have a broken back from doing all that while bent over.

For the finale, all of the Disney princesses and princes came out in their "happily ever after" attire.

And here's the blurry proof that Sweet Cheeks really loved it!

Santa

2011-12-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

It's been more than a week ago, but we went to visit Santa at our local municipal center. We were babysitting our niece that night, so she went with us, list in hand.

We got out of the truck, and Sweet Cheeks said, "Where is the snow?"

She thought we had driven to the North Pole to see Santa.

When the girls had their turn on Santa's lap, Sweet Cheeks completely froze and forgot to say any of the things we had been practicing all day. But she made major strides this year by not crying!

Our almost 8-yr old niece on the other hand gave him her list filled with celebrity t-shirts, a trumpet (so she can wake her parents up in the morning), and pepper spray.

Santa read the list and said, "PEPPER SPRAY?!"

We walked out with free candy canes, free pictures and happy kids.

The Cutest Sheep You Ever Saw

2011-12-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

4 Bags

2011-12-08T14:46:00.001-05:00

I made and sold (or bartered) 4 bags recently.

I wanted to keep this first one for myself! Oh well...

This pattern was a new one for me. Lots of interfacing and fleece lining to make it sturdy. My lovely ironing assistant cut my time in half, and got to see just how much goes into making something that at first glance seems like it would take no time at all.

This bag is nice and big. It stands 28" tall and is about 18" wide.

3 big pockets inside.

Same pattern, different fabric.

I had the outside of this bag cut out already.

I challenged myself, and figured out how to add a lining to it, because the pattern just calls for an unfinished inside. I also made a cardboard base with a removable cover.

My fourth time making this bag. It was already cut out, and just needed to be sewn. Quick and easy!

Reason #27 Sugar Should Not Lick You

2011-12-07T07:51:00.001-05:00

If you ever ever look at a cute little beagle puppy and want to take it home to be your very own sweet-faced dog, please, I beg you for the love of all that is good in your life, please talk to me first.

I can't decide if Sugar is a hunting dog or a vulture. That dang dog got out of the house on Monday, took off through the field and into the woods. She came back with a deer leg, and growled at me when I took it away from her. Oh that thing was rancid! Smelled so so bad!

I kept her outside all day and had to stay on "shovel up and get rid of her barf" duty so that she wouldn't keep eating it and getting sick. This all happened while I had a friend and her kids over, so I won major cool points for the way I handled a nasty situation. HaHa!

This just goes to show that dogs are animals, not surrogate children!

Animals I tell you!

Helloooo December!

2011-12-01T19:30:00.001-05:00

I love decorating for Christmas, and I love the
willing helpers I had Sunday afternoon.

Last year I scooped up a bunch of red, silver, and white decorations 75% off after Christmas. I filled glass containers I already had to go on the mantel.

I made these Christmas stockings last year with leftover fabric from my Christmas tree skirt. We hung star ornaments on the stockings to tag them.

More ornaments in glass on the kitchen table along with big sparkly snowflakes.

Monday night we went out to buy our Christmas tree, and when we got home there was a package on our front porch. It was addressed to Sweet Cheeks from Santa at the North Pole. Check out the video below of her opening her package.

Sweet Cheeks named our elf Chippy. She watched the movie last week and used the same name as the elf in the movie. So, Chippy watches Sweet Cheeks all day and then each night after she's asleep he flies back to Santa and gives him a report on if she's being good or bad. Several times a day Sweet Cheeks hears, "Chippy is watching you. Do you want him to tell Santa that you're _____ (insert "not listening", "being rude", etc.)?" Then each morning Sweet Cheeks wakes up and has to find Chippy's new sitting place for the day. She loves it.

We decorated the tree Tuesday night.

They had to stand on a stool to reach the top.

Isn't she a beaut?

Today I used the rest of the leftover fabric to make removable pillow covers.

Sweet Cheeks and I also made our Countdown to Christmas chain, and hung it on her clip rail in her room. We do a different Christmas-related activity each day until Christmas. We stole the idea from here. It's only December 1st, and the month is looking fun already!

Questions

2011-11-29T21:44:00.001-05:00

The guy helping us at the Christmas tree lot last night had an earring in each ear. Sweet Cheeks noticed it and said, "Huh? A boy with earrings?! A BOY WITH EARRINGS?!!"

Then today at lunch she pointed to the people at the table across from ours and loudly asked, "Why are those people black?" I smiled and said, "That's just the way Heavenly Father made them."

I was caught off-guard both times, but never embarrassed. I've actually had this on my mind since Sunday when I was talking to the primary children at church about how we should be kind to everyone even if they look different or talk different than we do. I kept playing out in my mind what I would say if Sweet Cheeks were ever to ask me a question within earshot of someone that looked different than us. I think that helped me to respond quickly and in a way that didn't make her or the people who heard her uncomfortable. That was my hope anyway...

Thanksgiving Adventure

2011-11-28T21:45:00.001-05:00

We started last Wednesday morning exhausted from being up all night with a puking kid.

I didn't know whether to pack to leave that night for my mom's or not. Sweet Cheeks threw up for the last time at 9am and so around lunchtime, I started packing. She was feeling well enough to do flips off the couch, so I figured we were ok to drive 3 hours that night.

Around 8:00 Wednesday night, the battery indicator light lit up on the dash of our 1998 long-ago-paid-for-and-we-plan-to-keep-it-until-almost-forever-truck. We figured we were ok since the truck was already running. That's what T-Bone told me anyway. WRONG! Around 8:30 our panel lights and headlights dimmed until they were almost off. We couldn't see where we were driving on the dark highway, and so we pulled off still an hour and fifteen minutes from my mom's house. The battery and alternator were dead.

After several phone calls and waiting 2 hours on the dark highway, the tow truck finally picked us up. We ended up at an auto parts store where we left the truck until Friday morning when they opened after the Thanksgiving holiday, and T-Bone replaced the battery and the alternator himself.

This Thanksgiving I was thankful for being kept safe, a mom and stepdad who kindly drove late at night to pick us up and then drove T-Bone back again to fix the truck, a husband who is handy, and a kid who thought the whole thing was an adventure.

Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious. I forgot to take pictures, but it was one of the best meals my mom has ever made.

Friday afternoon we ventured out to a few stores and picked up a few deals on work clothes for T-Bone. Then my mom took us to a Christmas light show. Sweet Cheeks now thinks that all Christmas lights should flash to the beat of the music. At the end of the lights display there was a carnival tent that had animals, a train ride, ugly things for sale and Santa Claus, who my child avoided.

It was a fun night that will be remembered by these lousy pictures. Thanks for a fun time mom!

"Ready For A Trip" by Sweet Cheeks

2011-11-23T13:15:00.001-05:00

When getting ready for a trip you should ALWAYS...

#1- Barf 8 times the night before you leave. It will leave you looking this good the day of your trip.

And #2- Pack as many hair accessories as possible. You just never know what you'll need for 3 days.

Warm and Comfy

2011-11-17T19:51:00.001-05:00

Sweet Cheeks has been asking for a robe for a while now.

I think my love of being warm and comfy has rubbed off on her.

Well, her wish came true last week, and look how happy she is now, and warm and comfy.

Ice Skating

2011-11-14T20:28:00.001-05:00

T-Bone and I went on a late anniversary celebration date on Saturday afternoon.

We almost had the place to ourselves. There was only a mom and 3 kids and then a young couple there.

Hello lots of time to laugh and make fools of ourselves! But what's new, really?

Quick Make A Sad Face!

2011-11-13T22:33:00.001-05:00

Totally unrelated to this picture...
Today Sweet Cheeks had to ride home with her cousin, Aunt and Uncle while T-Bone and I stayed after church for meetings. When I finally got there to pick her up, one of the first things she said to me was, "Mommy, I did ask Aunt Dar-see if I could unbuckle before we were in the driveway and she did let me. Yeah, it was awesome!"

Autumn Tanning

2011-11-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

Old habits die hard.

Sugar will always find the only sliver of sunlight coming into the house and lay there.

Crashed

2011-11-07T13:52:00.000-05:00

Fact: Sweet Cheeks doesn't nap anymore.

Fact: Sweet Cheeks especially doesn't nap in front of the tv.

Fact: The end of Daylight Savings Time + waking up at 5am just to irritate your sleepy parents + running with Mommy + sitting on Mommy's lap while she mows the yard will make you tired--tired enough to throw all your other facts out the window and come inside and fall asleep in front of the tv for an afternoon nap.

12

2011-11-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

Some great things come in dozens.

Doughnuts

Roses

Days of Christmas

and...

Years that we've been married now.

Happy Anniversary to us!

(picture taken in June 2011)

What Did You Said?

2011-11-02T14:30:00.000-04:00

Me: Here's some medicine for your owee.

Sweet Cheeks: Thank you Mommy. Now it will feel better in no time!

(Looking at the man and his truck that just pulled into the

parking space beside us...)

Sweet Cheeks: Mommy that BIG boy have a LITTLE truck!

Me: Oh, I'm sure he would love for you to tell him that. (then I laugh to myself)
We get out of the car.
Sweet Cheeks: (looks at truck again) Aww...It's just so CUTE!

We go inside, and she sees the man across the room and points.
Sweet Cheeks: MOMMY THAT'S THE BIG BOY WITH THE LITTLE TRUCK!

Halloween

2011-11-01T20:03:00.000-04:00

So T-Bone and I have been having a "discussion" about who pronounces the word Halloween the right way. He says hal-oh-ween. I say hol-oh-ween. Every time I say it that way he says, "Holla Hol-oh-ween!"

We also disagree on pajamas. He says puh-jam-uz. I say puh-jom-uz. The dictionary is no help, because it says you can pronounce both words either way. Is this just an east coast vs. west coast thing?

Anywho...I will always love him for acting as a very still manakin so I could braid the Rapunzel wig for Sweet Cheeks to wear for Hol-oh-ween.

I made cupcakes for the cake walk at our church trunk-or-treat Saturday night.

Rapunzel

Cousins: Cute witch, Rapunzel, and Monster baby

Look how excited he was to get candy.

Just thrilled to get her face painted. :)

Around her normal bedtime when we still hadn't gone trunk-or-treating for candy, she refused to get her picture taken. Luckily Batman was cooperative.

Our truck.

Sunday night we carved pumpkins. By "we" I mean T-Bone, Sweet Cheeks, and my mom. Someone had to keep clean hands to take pictures. :)

And this is where our pictures of Hol-oh-ween end, because it poured rain, and we skipped trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. It all worked in our favor though, because Sweet Cheeks never knew the difference and we still have tons of candy. Our sweet neighbor even brought candy and a Wendy's Frosty coupon book to Sweet Cheeks today since she didn't go by to get it last night. Now that's service right there!

For the Birds

2011-10-29T08:22:00.000-04:00

Sweet Cheeks and T-Bone made a birdhouse when we went camping a couple weeks ago.

She painted it last week.

She started painting with yellow and blue, then she sat back, put her index finger on her lips and said, "Hmm...sumfing is missing. What is it? Oh I know! PINK ON TOP!"

That's a true story.

The back of the finished product.

The front of the birdhouse is blue so the bluebirds will know that this is their new home.

Fall Outside

2011-10-27T11:54:00.001-04:00

The weather has been too nice not to be outside the last few days.

Riding the scooter is serious business.

These 2 were cracking each other up in the back seat on the way to and from the park yesterday.

Even Queen Sugar just wants to be outside.

Baby Hats

2011-10-24T09:46:00.001-04:00

I finished sewing these three cute 0-3 month size knit hats Thursday night for T-Bone to give to his co-worker that's about to have a baby girl. Since I had to take the pictures in the evening, the lighting isn't great. But I really loved how the hats turned out.

State Fair 2011

2011-10-22T10:09:00.000-04:00

We lasted 5 1/2 hours at the state fair this year.

There were lots of animals to pet, feed, and look at. It was also here where Sweet Cheeks learned about where baby animals get their milk from. She thought it was so funny! We're saving the conversation about where human babies get their milk from for later. :)

Sweet Cheeks loved the pony ride.

We thought we would continue our long-standing tradition of taking a bad picture in front of the giant vegetables.

In 2009 I was really happy.

In 2010 we couldn't get the camera in focus or Sweet Cheeks to look at the camera.

And this year I decided to have one eye rolled back in my head and a crazy half smile that really needed covering-up (it was that bad) while Sweet Cheeks had a melt down because she didn't want her picture taken, and some old stranger lady thought she could calm Sweet Cheeks down. That was fun!

Then Sweet Cheeks said she wanted us to pay $2 so she could learn to milk a cow. She was still recovering from the melt down and didn't realize that "learning to milk a cow" meant you were supposed to actually touch the cow. She sat just like this, stone-faced the entire time. We laughed, picked up our little carton of milk, and laughed some more on our way out of the building.

I told Sweet Cheeks that ice cream can fix all problems in life. She accepted the challenge, and it turns out I was right.

The ferris wheel made us all smile.

The funniest part of the day was after the ferris wheel Sweet Cheeks asked to go on the dragon roller coaster. We had been watching it while we waited to get on the ferris wheel. Knowing how our child is still scared of swings and the slide at the playground, we didn't think this would turn out well. Our exact words were, "That ride is fast. Mommy and Daddy are too big go with you. You will be scared." She didn't care. She just wanted to go.

This is her right before the ride started, like "what's the big deal?"

This is her after the ride started. See the other children smiling?

I know it's mean to laugh at your own kid, but her faces were so hilarious!

She totally toughed it out, and never cried. We were so proud. Then we laughed some more every time we pictured her face while she was holding on for dear life. :) She got off the ride and said, "I don't want to go on any more scary rides."

She went 4-wheeling through the jungle with Daddy.

The swings were a big hit too.

Second best story of the day was while we were waiting for this train ride Sweet Cheeks and I were first in line and these 3 other kids ran up to the gate and tried to weasel their way in front of us. I knew the gate opened out towards us and since their parents obviously weren't doing anything about their kids pushing us, I pulled them all back so the guy could open the gate for me and Sweet Cheeks to go first. Then she and I made a bee line for the first train so all her dreams could come true and she could "dwive the twain". Just as we were lifting our feet to step into the first train, one of those weaselly little kids pushed Sweet Cheeks out of the way and started to climb in herself. I tapped her on the shoulder and said, "HEY WE WERE GETTING IN THERE! Go find another train." She looked at me like, "Huh? What did I do?" I spent the whole train ride pretending to have fun with Sweet Cheeks, but really preparing myself to be confronted by that kid's parents when the ride was over. Turns out all of my "You need to teach your kid some manners" prepared lines were unnecessary, because the kid ran out the gate in front of us to her oblivious parents and they started speaking whatever Scandinavian language it is that they speak as they hurried to the next ride. Crisis averted. :)

The fair food we ate this year was a bad steak and cheese (the meat was barely even tan-colored and it was liquid yellow cheese poured on top--EWW!!), french fries, popcorn. roasted corn (best food of the day), ice cream, a frozen chocolate and nut covered banana, mini doughnuts, and lots of lemonade and soda.

We had the BEST time this year, and came home still laughing about our day.

Camping

2011-10-18T08:48:00.000-04:00

Guess who took their kid on her first camp out ever and forgot the camera?

Thank goodness for bad camera phones.

We went with people from our old church congregation, which also included T-Bone's parents, his youngest brother and his wife, and one niece and one nephew. It was great to catch up with longtime friends and just enjoy the outdoors. Sweet Cheeks loved it and can't wait to go again.

She was absolutely exhausted and fell alseep almost immediately after getting in the truck.

Riding Anna & Easy

2011-10-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

Monday was my niece's last day of fall break, before going back to school. So my sister-in-law and I took the girls to our friend's house to ride Anna & Easy. The girls did awesome.

She's smiling with her tongue out, of course. And look at those little legs!

She made 2 loops, and was ready to play in the dirt with Coy-Man while her cousin took her turn.

My niece was riding like a pro. She circled her horse both ways, backed it up, walked, and trotted. She's got the horse-riding bug.

I was making some terrible face in ever picture of me that day, so here's proof that I was rode without showing any of those awful faces. I trotted and learned to lope. Loping is faster than trotting, but it feels smoother. Me likee. Thanks Tam!

Jolley Good Time

2011-10-10T17:53:00.001-04:00

We went to an awesome pirate-themed corn maze on Saturday.

My mom was in town, and we had T-Bone's sister and her daughter with us too.

Hay Bale Pirate Ship

There were all kinds of games and activities. This was called Funky Pumpkin. There were different stations around the farm where you would add face parts to your pumpkin page.

There is a mini maze for the little kiddos. Look how excited she was!

My mom, the puzzle game queen, figured out the tree trunk hop puzzle.

In the kid's corn maze, you had to find 4 different stations, and get a different color paint on 4 of your fingers.

I sent my mom in the corn box with Sweet Cheeks so that she could get all the diseases in there. I had to stay healthy so I could take care of them when they get sick from it. :)

The adult corn maze had 27 stations to find. We didn't last that long. They say it takes about 90 minutes.

The kids loved the hay ride. Apparently Sweet Cheeks thought it was hilarious. Good times out there! It's not a pumpkin farm, but they had nice pumpkins for sale. We got 3 large and 1 small, so we're all stocked up for the fall.

Kids Museum

2011-10-08T15:02:00.000-04:00

Last week we went to our local kids museum. That place was awesome!

Sweet Cheeks learned how to drive a car,

and a boat.

Then she got in an accident, and ended up on a stretcher in the ambulance.

She was so inspired by the people that took care of her, that she decided to become an EMT,

and a fireman.

She got hungry after work and went shopping at the grocery store.

She wasn't all that impressed with the produce selection, so she just planted her own garden.

While she was waiting for her crops to grow she took a vacation, and ended up on a pirate ship.

She was starting to get sea sick, so she looked for some dry land.

Once on land, she and her cousin painted with marbles. (Genius idea by the way!)

The painting got a little boring, so she headed back to the beach with her cousin and uncle, and hit the waves.

This wave really shook her up.

The weather turned cold, and the ocean froze. Everyone thought it would be fun to ice skate and play hockey.

Sweet Cheeks and Daddy got in some good practice time for their upcoming figure skating competition.

They got tired of the cold, and headed to the field for a mean game of soccer. Look at that kick!

The girls turned into a monkey and a lion,

and then did some cage dancing, kid-friendly of course.

They were getting tired of all their travels, and decided to build a home and settle down.

No home is complete without some foam jewelry decorations,

and a dog house. Sweet Cheeks got hungry again and ate the dog food.

What a fun place!

1 1/2"

2011-10-05T22:45:00.000-04:00

I cut 1 1/2" off of my goofy kid's hair today.

It was constantly tangled and not fun for either one of us to fix.

Problem solved.

I told her to say, "cheese", but instead she said, "cheese poop". Why is everything poop?! It probably doesn't help that I laugh, does it?

I Love Amortization Charts

2011-10-02T08:47:00.000-04:00

If there is a small book on my book shelf, it somehow vanishes.

What? I'm just reading my Mortgage Payment Handbook.

Our Bodies

2011-09-30T12:16:00.000-04:00

Caution: If reading about parents teaching their children about their bodies makes you uncomfortable, just stop reading now. :)

After that fun little conversation Sweet Cheeks and I had the other day about her baby boy cousin's private parts, I thought it was time to teach her a little more about our bodies.

We started school time with a flashlight, and used it to spotlight different body parts. I would shine the light somewhere and she would have to say what body part it was. She loved this. Once we got to the end of the game, I shined the light between her legs, and she giggled and said, "that's my bum." I knew that's what she would say, because as a girl with no brothers around, it's been easy not to have to distinguish between her front and back when we're talking about washing her during a bath or whatever. So then I said, "No, your bum is in the back and we're going to call this in the front your private." (We'll teach proper body part names in another year or two.) So then I said, "Girls have a private that looks like yours, and boys have a private that looks like baby Henry's." Between giggles she said, "Eww! I don't like boy's privates. They stick out!" I smiled, but really wanted to laugh my head off when I was explaining to her that it's not gross, and that's just the way that Heavenly Father made our bodies.

Next we talked about how it's important to keep our bodies clean, and we played a game where she had to pick different toiletry items out of a bag, and then tell me what they were for. There was soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste, tissues, nail clippers, a comb, and toilet paper. When she got to the toilet paper, she could not stop with the giggles. She yelled, "This is to wipe my BUTT!"

More giggling and hilarity!

She just thought this was all too hilarious. I love three year old humor! I mean this kid inserts the words "pee" or "poop" into any song that she doesn't think is funny enough.

Then we used playdoh and a gingerbread man cookie cutter to make a body and add some parts and clothes to it. I have got to get some shoes like that!

Last we talked about hand prints and fingerprints and then made some with finger paints.

Now that we've had that fun morning, we'll be going back to learning about letters, numbers, animals, and other not non-stop-giggles topics. :)

Houston

2011-09-29T14:48:00.003-04:00

Hey folks, T-Bone here. A few weeks ago I was asked to do a couple days of contract work in Houston. I went a couple days early and hung out with some friends of ours from our time at Auburn University. Keeks stayed home with Sweet Cheeks for the 4 days I was gone and cried, because she was missing out on awesome times.

We took an afternoon trip to Galveston. These are some of the many boulders and rocks that cover parts of Galveston Beach. If you look closely you can see small towers of rocks that people have built. I'm not sure why! Anyone know?

The 3 boys dodged waves crashing against the rocks.

We had a tasty dinner at Whataburger. Yum!

The best thing about being friends with a rocket scientist who contracts for NASA is that he can take you to the places that the tourists don't get to go.

The halls of the Johnson Space Center are lined with photos documenting the history of the space program.

The space station mission control is manned 24/7, hence the reason people were there while we were looking around at midnight. The shuttle mission control is closed, because there are no more shuttle missions from the US.

This is the old mission control used for missions like Apollo 13.

Do I really have to give a caption for this picture?

The entrance to the shuttle mission simulator.

This is the real deal y'all. It's the shuttle simulator that the astronauts train in. The guy that let us go in said, "just don't touch the switches", meaning they actually work.

This is the space station simulator for the U.S. section of the space station. This is just one of many sections that the astronauts are trained in.

A space station hatch.

Thanks for showing me an awesome time Mana & Annette. Sorry that your redbox contest picture was rejected due to you "breaking the rules" of the contest.

Besties

2011-09-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Princess Sweet Cheeks shares her princess duties with her faithful sidekick, Sugar.

Notice the pearl necklace.

Sugar liked it so much that she slept in it all night long.

Oops!

My favorite thing that Sweet Cheeks said to me today:

Sweet Cheeks- You not a grown up, right?

Me- I am a grown up.

Sweet Cheeks- Oh, you don't look like a grown up.

Me- Tell me more.

My favorite thing that Sweet Cheeks said to me last week:

(talking about her 5 month old cousin, who she has obviously watched

get a diaper change)

Sweet Cheeks- Henry has a funny bum.

Me- What do you mean?

Sweet Cheeks- He have something sticking out of his bum.

Yeah, we haven't exactly had the conversation about boy parts and girl parts.

And here we go...

This Is All Just Happening So Fast...

2011-09-23T08:26:00.002-04:00

They are both just barely 3 and doing this already.

All I'm sayin' is she better get that look off her face before she turns 16.

Or else!

Gifts

2011-09-21T12:06:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I made a birthday gift for my sister and a baby gift for a friend.

Here they be.

Up first, my sister's reversible purse/tote bag or whatevertheheck you wanna call it.

And then I made an infant seat cover from this pattern for a friend from Nashville. I used a couple of the fabrics from the new Michael Miller Citron Gray line. Love. Them.

This is a view of the inside fabric that folds back over the handle when you need access to your beautiful baby.

The handles velcro around the infant seat handle to keep the blanket up like a tent.

The Sprinkler

2011-09-19T20:20:00.002-04:00

The other day Sweet Cheeks surprised us and busted out "the sprinkler" dance move. It's just one of many she's learned from her cousin.

Next up? The robot.

Long Week

2011-09-18T20:50:00.000-04:00

We spent 4 days last week painting for T-Bone's grandma. Don't anybody else get any bright ideas, because we ain't offering our services. I can't remember the last time I was so tired and sore. I'm weak sauce. By the time we got back home Friday, all that was left to do was catch up on playing with Sweet Cheeks' cousin,

and sleep and sleep until 5:45am the next morning (that wasn't nearly long enough to recover) when we had to take T-Bone to the airport for a quick trip to Houston to save the world.

I spent yesterday afternoon at my house with 2 of my sistas (in-law) and their kids. I thought it would be a good idea to try to get a sewing project cut out for my sister-in-law who's been bugging me for like 2 years to make something for her :) , make dinner rolls and soup from scratch, pop 2 batches of popcorn for the kids and make sure they had all the parts they needed for whatever costumes they were wearing at the moment, and engage in pleasant conversation all at the same time. I'm a walking testimony of why it's not a good idea to entertain people and work on projects at the same time. I'm no good at it. My mind goes blank. I'm talking white sheet of paper blank. I'm a horrible conversation maker during those times and it takes me twice as long to get anything done. Sooo...here's a warning next time you come to my house to work on a project together...expect me to be a little weird and crazy. At least I can take the first step and admit that I have a problem. :)

I promised myself that I would take a break from playing supergirl last night and today. I left the dishes and the toys everywhere and caught up on sleep and Netflix last night and then after church today. Of course that little break from my OCD ended tonight when we got the house picked up before Sweet Cheeks' bedtime. :)

Now I can really relax.

Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands

2011-09-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning Sweet Cheeks asked me if she could put on my shoes. I didn't feel like cleaning up the tornado that she leaves in my closet when she does that, so I said no. She walked over to the mirror, looked into it and said, "Can I wear Mommy's shoes?" Then she went in the closet, where her daddy was putting on his shoes and said, "The mirror said that I can wear Mommy's shoes."

Um...no!

Our budding artist.

Then once we got to church, Sweet Cheeks asked if she could go sit with her aunt in the pew in front of us. Her daddy said she could go as soon as we drank the sacrament water. She reached down picked up her sippy cup and said, "I'll just drink my own water", and then started toward her aunt.

Um...no!

Our budding artist's concentration tongue.

10 Years

2011-09-11T15:22:00.000-04:00

Has it really been 10 years since September 11, 2001? It seems like yesterday, but forever ago at the same time.

I was working at the state legislature at the time in the bill typing department. My office did all the editing for the lawyers who wrote the bills for the state senators and representatives. We called our office the dungeon, because we were below street level, and it looked like the sad office with the flickering fluorescent lights that Tom Hanks worked in in the movie Joe Versus the Volcano. We didn't have a tv, and being in the basement we were the last in the building to find out what had happened, because everyone had a hard time peeling themselves away from the tv screens upstairs.

Once the news was passed on to us, we went upstairs to see for ourselves. It was awful. It looked like a movie, but it was live tv--live tv that turned into unbelievable slow motion life. One of the many things that I saw that morning that brought tears to my eyes, were the people forced to choose between burning to death or jumping to their death, and they chose to jump. I could only imagine a tiny portion of the fear they were actually experiencing.

Like everyone else in the country, all I wanted was to go home to my family. I thought it was an injustice that there I was working in a government building that could be a target for terrorism as well, and I was being forced to stay at work.

Now I see how selfish I was. At least I had a home and family to be able to go home to.

For a long time after that day, I can remember keeping a news website open on my work computer all day. I would refresh the website way too many times a day, just so I could make sure that all was right in the world.

Time passed, as it has a habit of doing, and as a country we were able to feel mostly safe again. That is in thanks to the men and women who serve this country, and to their families who support them.

My cousin and her family took us to ground zero in June 2002, less than a year after that tragic day. I have never had a feeling like I had there. It's too difficult to describe. But I saw pictures of the new 9/11 memorial and am looking forward to returning to see something so beautiful where I only saw devastation before. I love the idea of the waterfalls, because who can't feel peaceful near a waterfall?

Play House Play

2011-09-09T09:48:00.000-04:00

Ding Dong!

Um, yeah, hi. Could I get a hamburger with pickles and mustard please?

Ok great! I'm starving!

I...

need...

food...

I'm...

dying...

here...

please...

Who Am I Raising?

2011-09-07T22:52:00.000-04:00

I like to think that I'm teaching Sweet Cheeks to
become a strong, confident woman.

But yesterday after I told her that she and I needed to wait in the truck while daddy went into the post office, she noticed a woman coming out of the post office and she said, "Why that woman go in the post office? Women are supposed to wait in the car while their daddy's go in the post office."

I mean, I was just trying to save us the hassle of unbuckling car seats and seat belts, and now I've got a daughter trying to send us back to
pre-women's suffrage times!

Our Boring Life

2011-09-02T16:34:00.002-04:00

I haven't felt like I've had anything really interesting to blog about lately. Things have been pretty boring. So here are some updates on our boringness.

T-Bone started a new job a few weeks ago. It is only 2 days a week to start, but will be full-time no later than November. He's working with an ENT & Audiology practice about 30 minutes away from our house. (For local people, he's working near a hospital whose name rhymes with Tex.) We're really happy with the location, because we were thinking he was going to end up working much further away. Anyway, the place is awesome. They do pilates at lunch. Yes, pilates. HaHa! The ENT and head audiologist (husband and wife) have one of those never-ending current pools in their office along with a full bathroom, shower included. T-Bone is enjoying his pilates workouts (I still smile when I think about it) and I guess he likes the work that he's doing with patients. :)

I got on a riding lawn mower again this week for the first time since I was a teenager. My family used to live in Maryland on 2.5 acres, and being a teenager anxious to drive anything, I did a lot of the mowing. Now I live on 1 acre with T-Bone and Sweet Cheeks. We have...let me count...zero trees on our property, so it's a lot of mowing. I mowed while T-Bone did the weed-eating, edging, and blowing. We're a well-oiled machine around here, I tell ya.

(Our yard backs up to a soy field. Yes, we're both wearing ear protection care of Dr. T-Bone.)

Hurricane Irene was kind of a bust where we live. We had a lot of rain and wind. We even lost power for 3 hours and had several trees down in our neighborhood. But I mean other than our tomato plants getting knocked over, it was kind of lame. The build up of excitement before a hurricane around here is almost too much to handle. I don't know why it is that we get so excited and actually hope that it hits us. There's something wrong with that, isn't there? We watched the radar for 4 days waiting to see if we were going to get pounded. Then...we only got the boring old edge of the hurricane.

I think our sweet potato plant was happy to see the tomato plants go. Look how big this one plant is. I was going to plant more, but I think this one plant will give us all the sweet potatoes we'll need this fall. But then again, we've never grown em before, so maybe I'm mistaken. I'll let ya know.

Sweet Cheeks started her next session of gymnastics. She's the old pro in the class now. Everyone else is new. It was so cool to see her take a leadership role. The confidence was just spilling out of her. I loved it!

I'm not the only one who's been doing a lot of hair lately. Sweet Cheeks likes to use a natural hair color, like toy eggplant while she wears her princess gloves to color her daddy's hair.

After doing her daddy's hair, she took some time to "read" him a book. I know you won't understand everything she says, but you'll hear "Once upon a time", about someone named "pooh-who", "a mean witch lived in a tall tower", "see it", "it's scary", "a mean lion", and "and amen".

Sweet Cheeks begs to do school time every day. Three or four days a week she gets her wish. This is how it goes. I set up 6 stations, one at each chair at the table. Then she rotates chairs and works on each activity.

She is familiar with most of the activities now, so I can do dishes or cook while she does her thing.

Today she also made playdoh snakes and snowmen to go with her "S" activities.

She almost always only wants to color with pink crayons and markers. I really have to encourage her to branch out.

After her activities at the table I'll usually get out a few (of several) educational puzzles or games. We also get books at the library to go along with the letters she works on for the week, and we read those.

Please don't think this is to brag, because I'm not trying to act like I'm supermom. We can't afford pre-school this year, and no one around here does joy school, so this is what we do. I'm lucky if I can drag it out for an hour. She spends the rest of the day just being a kid, which is exactly what she should be doing. She's got a great imagination and plays "pwetend" all the time.

That about sums up our boringness. If you're looking for a boring time, call us!

I'm Famous

2011-08-30T12:16:00.000-04:00

An email that I sent several months ago was featured on MoneySavingMom.com today. Some of the comments from people made me laugh. People can really be haters sometimes!

Here is the link.

What A Day

2011-08-29T20:21:00.000-04:00

We started the day with a giant goose egg. Note to Sweet Cheeks: It's not a great idea to run through the house with a shirt over your head.

We squeezed in way too many errands.

Then we finished the day with crazy hair, a storm, and finally, a rainbow.

Brushes

2011-08-26T14:24:00.000-04:00

There's nothing more flattering than your kid wanting to be like you.

I did hair most of the day on Wednesday, and Sweet Cheeks thought that Cinderella needed her roots touched up too.

This summer two of our favorite shady porch activities have been drawing with sidewalk chalk and water painting. All you need for water painting is a bowl of water and a paint brush to paint the cement. Your canvas will dry quickly and you can paint all over again.

Shrimpin'

2011-08-25T06:25:00.000-04:00

We went shrimping this week with my mom and stepdad on a friend's boat.

Sweet Cheeks was pretty excited about her first "boat wide".

T-Bone walked out in the squish-between-your-toes mud to cast a net for a while.

Not much luck there, so we tried a few more places, but just threw the nets from the boat. Apparently the trick to a good throw is to hold part of the net in your mouth. Gross! But it works...

AAAHHH!!! THERE'S A GIANT HAND HOLDING A GIANT SHRIMP IN THE SKY ABOVE THOSE HOUSES!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!

Sweet Cheeks and her PawPaw enjoyed the ride home after catching all of about 12 shrimp. We had heavy rains the night before, which they say makes for less than awesome shrimping. Whoever "they" are were right. Oh well...we still had fun on the boat.

Heavenly Conversation

2011-08-24T12:11:00.000-04:00

Another conversation I couldn't resist recording:

Sweet Cheeks: Where is my boo-boo on my elbow that I got when we were running on the street?

Me: It's gone now. I guess Heavenly Father made it all better.

Sweet Cheeks: Where is Heavenly Father?

Me: He lives up in Heaven.

Sweet Cheeks: (Goes to window and looks up at the sky and squints) I can't see him up there.

Me: Well, we can't see him up there, but we can pray to him and talk with him.

Sweet Cheeks: Oh. That nice. He a nice guy. He have a mustache right here (points to top lip).

QRSTUV

2011-08-21T22:43:00.000-04:00

When she's at our house, our niece frequently asks us for I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. She spells it so that Sweet Cheeks doesn't know what she's asking for.

The other day Sweet Cheeks came into the kitchen and said, "Can I have some Q-R-S-T-U-V?" When we asked her what that was she said, "It's ice cream."

Table, Chairs, Planter, and Bags

2011-08-19T14:10:00.000-04:00

Our kitchen table top just went from this ugly, water damaged pine-color:

To this awesome grey:

We left the black paint alone on the table legs and chairs. To the table top T-Bone applied 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of grey paint, and 4 coats of polyurethane, sanding between each coat to make it super smooth.

Even in our poor afternoon lighting you can see that the old chair covers (on the right) needed to be replaced.

I looked high and low, and for way too long for a fabric for the chair cushions that had some grey and some green. No luck. I did find this outdoor fabric (which I decided was a must in order to easily clean up spills and messes off the chair) that came in black and white or green and white. I opted for the green and white so that I could add a splash of color to my really white kitchen.

Almost immediately after recovering the chairs, I thought we'd made a mistake. At some times of the day the lighting made the grey on the table and the green on the chairs look awful together. I could have kicked myself. I was this close to going and buying that black and white version of the outdoor fabric and recovering the chairs again when my sister in law helped me realize that I just needed some green and white on the table. Duh! I took a yellow planter I already had, emptied my ivy plant (yes, it's real!) out of it and into a bowl, and then sprayed glossy white paint on the planter, waited for it to dry, put my ivy plant (yes, it's real!) back in it, and...TaDa! Green and white on the table! So my plant looks fake (it's real though, if you didn't know), but I love the white planter much better than the old yellow.

Now I'm loving all the gray, black, green and white together. It looks especially nice with our solid white dishes on the table too.

I spent a day last week sewing 2 new grocery bags. I love them so much that I don't know if I can promise to only use them as grocery bags. I used washable outdoor fabric so that I can keep the bacteria at bay by using Lysol wipes on them or throwing them in the wash after carrying food in them. The bottom of the bag even has a removable sleeve for cardboard so that you can throw away the card board if it gets wet.

I love these bags. I love the details. I love that I learned a couple new (to me) sewing techniques too. Here is the tutorial if you want to make your own.

Apparently I Can't Count

2011-08-17T14:40:00.000-04:00

Remember last week when I blogged about Sweet Cheeks finishing up her last week of the summer gymnastics session? Um...yeah...it had only been 9 weeks, not 10. Oops! So, really yesterday was her last day. The parents were invited into the gym to take pictures and cheer on their kids. It was so fun!

As usual, she used her tongue to concentrate on her flamingo walk on the balance beam.

She couldn't hold herself up like this at the beginning of the summer. She would also stay in this exact stiff-as-a-board position while her teacher, Ms. Sam flipped her around the bar. (Notice the 3 bandaids she had from our walk the other morning when she was trying to become one with the road.)

Now she bends and flips on her own.

No she wasn't sticking her tongue out at me. I think she never developed the muscle to hold that thing in her mouth. :)

Finally, a half smile. Stephanie, you better quit wrinkling your nose at me!

With assistance, the kids climb up onto the lower bar, reach for the top bar, and then swing out and drop down. Sweet Cheeks wouldn't do any of this by herself at the beginning of the summer.

And as you can see, she's gotten brave.

There still isn't much bravery on the rope swing. She will swing a little, but not very high.

At the end of class there was a little awards ceremony. Each kid got an award and a ribbon to hold up while we all clapped for them. I just loved seeing the pride on each of their faces. Too too cute!

She starts the fall session in 2 weeks. I told her that she was going to have a new teacher at her next class, Ms. Juli, because Ms. Sam couldn't teach her class anymore since she starts school in a couple weeks. Sweet Cheeks asked, "Do you think Ms. Sam will be brave at her school?"

If she's anything like you, Sweet Cheeks, she will be.

I Spent The Weekend...

2011-08-15T11:12:00.000-04:00

with 2 awesome girls doing this:

and looking at this:

That water was amazing. And that picture was taken with my phone, so it doesn't even do it justice! Now that I'm home again I don't want to stop hugging and kissing Sweet Cheeks. Oh and I guess T-Bone too. :)

Adios Gymnastics

2011-08-09T21:58:00.000-04:00

Sweet Cheeks finished her 10 week summer session of gymnastics today. I can't believe the things she accomplished in 10 weeks. She built her physical muscles, getting stronger each week. That was amazing to see. But the thing we were most proud of was how she responded to her teacher pushing her beyond her comfort zone. She never told her teacher she wouldn't do something, and she always tried her best. She went from scared stiff to strong and confident. We're proud of you sweet girl!

Aladdin

2011-08-05T09:11:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to see my oldest niece in her community teens and kids theater production of Aladdin. It was a really cute show. And of course, she was really cute too!

She's A Lady

2011-08-04T09:25:00.000-04:00

There are some conversations we've had lately that I never imagined I would be having with a 3 year old.

(Dressed up as a ballerina)

Sweet Cheeks: Mommy, can you see my boobs? (thank you older cousins for teaching her that!)

Me: You don't even have boobs.

Sweet Cheeks: I DO HAVE BOOBS!

(Taking a bath, she loves how long and straight her hair is when it's wet.)

Sweet Cheeks: My hair is sooo long. It comes down to my armpits. Look, I have hairy armpits. Let me see your hairy armpits, Mommy.

Me: I don't have hairy armpits! Eww!

Sweet Cheeks: I like hairy armpits. Do you like hairy armpits, Mommy?

Me: Eww! No I don't like hairy armpits. Gross!

Sweet Cheeks: I like hairy armpits! I do like them!

Birthday Partyin' Partyin' Yeah!

2011-08-03T09:39:00.000-04:00

T-Bone's sister invited us over for dinner last Tuesday night, the night before my birthday, and I walked into a small surprise party and dinner that she and T-Bone had set up for me. I really was surprised. The dinner was complete with princess table cloth, cups, and light-up pin for me to wear. I loved it! My birthday the next day was really nice too. Bojangles bo berry biscuits, chillin' at the pool, and lots of people wishing me a happy day.

As was the case last year, it was difficult for Sweet Cheeks to transition from Mommy's birthday to her own birthday two days later. I would say, "Happy Birthday" to her and she would reply, "Happy Birthday to you, Mommy!"

We blew up 50 balloons the night before her birthday and filled her bedroom floor with them. That was a fun surprise to wake up to! Actually she woke up crying, because she had a little cold coming on, and so after some mommy loves, she got down on the floor and played with her balloons.

We had breakfast and then Sweet Cheeks got to open her presents. We got her several small presents this year, knowing that she would love them all in spite of their cost, and that we were paying for a party, and that she was going to get the hook-up from the rest of our family. :)

The concentration tongue helped her to open her presents.

*In my best Bob Barker voice*...A new toothpaste!

My good friend from Nashville, Marissa, did it again this year. She is a magician with her knitting needles. Last year it was turtles. This year it was a dino and a dino hat. How cute are they?! I'm a sucker for a thoughtful gift, and she has suckered me right in the last 2 years.

My sister made her the cutest hair clips, which I took video of, but forgot to take pictures. Oops!

T-Bone helped me make the party favors for the next day. Fish soap. Are they not the cutest?! I got the idea here. One thing the directions failed to mention is that you don't want to use the normal size party favor bags. Go to the cake decorating section and get the really small treat bags. And don't get the kind of bag that has the folded, expandable sides. Think small here. But how cool is it that you just melt glycerin, pour it in the bag, push the fish down into it, stick the bag in a bowl of ice water, the glycerin hardens into a bar of soap, you give it to a kid, they tear away the bag to reveal their bar of fishy soap, and then they're happy for the rest of their bath-taking lives, or until the soap is gone?

Nana and PawPaw got to our house late Friday afternoon. We enjoyed a birthday dinner at Lonestar complete with huge brownie & ice cream desserts for each of us birthday girls. Then we came home for presents from Nana & PawPaw. Sweet Cheeks loves her new princess guitar. She's already a pro.

Saturday evening we had Sweet Cheeks' birthday pool party. We got the hook-up from our neighbor, who runs the local country club pool, and rented it to us for our party Saturday night. It was 104 degrees that day, and I bet the water was 85 or 90 degrees. It was not cool, but still better than sitting in the heat of the night.

See that skinny dude in the green t-shirt? That's my skinny dad. And he can still swim more than a lap of the pool under water.

Sweet Cheeks had to take a pool-side Cheetos and Caprisun break.

I originally wanted to do an ice cream sundae party, but then came up with the idea for an ice cream sandwich cake. So easy, and no plates or utensils required! Last year was the doughnut cake, and this year was ice cream sandwiches. I better start thinking of another stackable dessert cake idea for next year!

Sweet Cheeks loved all of her gifts. She got pretty clothes, Tinkerbell fairies, a princess activity book, a couple dolls, slap bracelets, and the fixins for her princess transformation.

She got a pewter (I think?) wand engraved with "princess lyla". She has been casting magic spells on us. "Loopty-do and loopty-do. Turn you in a hula hoop!" I'm not exactly sure, but I think I'm a hula hoop now.

We made it home from the party just minutes before a really bad storm hit us. Good timing, right? Sweet Cheeks took all her presents out of their packages and made her final transformation into Rapunzel. It was her dream come true.

And a very happy birthday to you, Princess Lyla Sweet Cheeks Rapunzel!

Latest Projects

2011-07-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

We're still praying for T-Bone to find a job.

In the mean time, we're still staying busy with plenty of projects.

The deck on the back of our house was really nasty. I didn't realize just how nasty it was until we were given some free deck stain and a friend's power washer to use.

See how gray and dirty the dry part of the deck is on the right?

The left side is the power washed side and the right side is the dirty side. I mean that looked like brand new wood after it was washed!

T-Bone spent several hours brushing the rails. I spent a couple myself.

We used a sprayer to get the stain on the floor boards, but then had to use the brush to spread it all out. That went really fast, thankfully, because see how we were in a race to get it done before the sun came over the house and would have been beating down on us. That was a 100 degree day, but it was bearable in the shade of the morning.

Didn't the color turn out nice? Me likee.

We had one of our nieces stay with us last week. I decided to have her help me make a recipe for some liquid hand soap that I had been wanting to make. I had all the ingredients, 1 bar of soap grated, 10 cups of water and 1 Tbsp. liquid glycerin. Um...yeah...I don't know if the soap I used just wasn't the same kind as what the person used that I got the recipe from or what, but it was a BUST. That stuff felt like snot, and I'm sorry, but I don't wash my hands with snot, even if it does smell good and was free!

We joined a produce co-op this summer. We pay $10 each week and get a ton of fruits and veggies from the wholesale section of the farmer's market. It was our turn to pick up for everyone last Saturday. While we were there we also got ourselves a bushel of peaches. We didn't feel like canning this year, so we froze them. We ended up with 12 quart size bags of peeled, sliced peaches. Yum!

Our dishwasher stopped working a few days ago, and that thing was a beast anyway. We had to yell to hear each other when it was running. Our landlord bought us a new one, and T-Bone installed it yesterday (with the help of his handy flashlight holder).

I got the fabric to recover the kitchen chairs with. So, maybe that will be my next project...

Our Baby Turns 3 Today

2011-07-29T00:50:00.000-04:00

I know she's not technically a baby, but she's still my baby.

Three years old?

Time goes by too quickly.

Good thing we have eternity together. :)

Cautious

2011-07-24T20:02:00.000-04:00

Did you know that Cautious is Sweet Cheeks' middle name?

She doesn't have a dare devil bone in her body, which is nice a lot of the time.

But then when we want her to do things like jump off the side of the pool to us or even just bob her head under water...forget it! We've forced her to do certain things so she can see how fun they are, but she never thinks it's fun. No amount of bribery works either. It's just going to take time I guess. Oh and watching other kids do stuff, because she does eventually want to jump off the diving board like the other kids as long as her head doesn't go under water. What's weird is that the girl will hang out under the water slide with water dumping on her head, but try to get her to dunk her head under the surface of the water, and you're committing a real crime. Funny kid! Hey, at least I don't have to worry about her hurting herself 99% of the time. :)

Live Entertainment

2011-07-20T17:25:00.000-04:00

When T-Bone does the dishes, he insists on live entertainment.

This time it was our niece serenading him with a song she wrote about a restaurant she just opened in Sweet Cheeks' room, "Eat at Hungry Buffaloes".

She really wanted some customers.

Don't you want to eat there?

We went to a minor league baseball game the other night with some friends.

We had a great time.

Sweet Cheeks had a great time until I told her on the way to the bathroom that after she went potty we would go see the mascot. Um, yeah she was terrified the entire time we were in the bathroom that the mascot was going to come in there and get her. That was fun!

After the potty fight I still had her go up to the mascot and get him to sign her baseball glove. She wouldn't even high-five him. She just clung to me for dear life. We took our signed baseball glove and baseball park food back to our seats, she danced and cheered with her friends, and forgot all about the possibility of a giant catfish getting her. The game was a blowout. Our boys won 12-2.

It's Not About the Money, Money, Money

2011-07-17T14:23:00.001-04:00

We finally got our above ground pool installed on Friday.

Singer

2011-07-16T14:57:00.003-04:00

Our Sweet Cheeks loves to sing.

We have to sing 2 songs of her choice every night at bedtime.

She opens her hymn book during our church service and "sings" the hymns.

She loves to sing "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window", "Old McDonald", "I Had A Little Rooster", and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while her PawPaw plays guitar.

There must be music playing in the truck. Sometimes she asks for "Lala's songs" and other times she asks for "Mommy, Daddy, and Lala's songs".

She even listens to the words to the songs on the radio, as scary as that is.

She'll ask me what something is if she doesn't know the word they just said in the song, for instance "beer". HaHa! Oh, there are going to be some fun times ahead...

Her favorite is Tay-wah Ift. (Taylor Swift)

This is a video I spliced together of her singing "Mean". The first segment was 3 weeks ago at my sister-in-law's house after she had just learned the chorus. She asks to listen to the song multiple times a day, and you can see in the second segment that she knows it better now. Oh it makes me laugh everytime!

And this is her putting her Woody doll to bed. What a good mommy.

Beach Trippin'

2011-07-15T14:26:00.001-04:00

We took a road trip with T-Bone's sister and her daughter down to my mom and stepdad's house at the beach last week.

There was:

Sun,

Sand,

Water,

Late Nights Playing Rummikub and Nertz,

Too Much Dessert,

and Lots of Love and Laughing.

How spoiled are these 3? They are each watching a different movie.

Gymnastics

2011-07-14T14:24:00.000-04:00

Sweet Cheeks is doing really well in her gymnastics class. She just finished her 5th week and has 5 more to go for the summer session. The pictures are from her last 2 classes. Almost all of the pictures are taken through the window of the waiting area, so there's a glare. For the pictures taken without a glare, I snuck right inside the gym door. I completely ignored the sign on the door to the gym telling the parents to stay out so that they aren't a distraction to their kid. I thought I was being so sly. The second time I snuck in to take pictures Sweet Cheeks saw me and started waving across the room. Busted! I hurried out as fast as I could and I haven't broken the rules since. Bad mommy! But I mean really, don't those people get that I need pictures of my kid for the blog? HaHa!

This is the forward roll down the wedge mat that she never would do for me, but does it for her teacher every time.

She's getting stronger with every class.

We call this SPLAT!

We've Been Busy Inside

2011-07-07T19:41:00.000-04:00

We still have a long way to go inside the house to get it like we want it. Like I've mentioned before, we are renting, so we haven't painted the walls. It's kind of a bummer living with boring old builder's paint on the walls, so I've tried to add color where I can. I've got more plans to keep coloring up our place too. We gotta get some life up in here!

We sold all of our living room furniture a couple years ago while we were living the nomad life. That meant we had to come up with some new (to us) stuff. I had an idea of what I wanted, and I found it on the IKEA website, but thought I would check craigslist first. Somehow we managed to get exactly what we wanted: a barely used chair, love seat and couch all from the same line of furniture. The crazy part is that all three pieces are less than a year old and they were all three from different sellers and they were all being sold for 1/2 of the original price. That's a deal right there. Before you judge my choice of having white furniture, just know that the whole reason I wanted this line of furniture is because all of the covers come off and are machine washable.

See why I wanted to add color inside the house? Boring walls with gray and white furniture. So, I busted out a stack of coordinating 1/2 yard cuts of fabric that I had and recovered 5 pillows I already had for the living room. I've got a real thing for gray, white, black, turquoise and grellow (green/yellow) right now. One of the pillows was already black, so I made some tattered flowers and sewed those to the pillow.

The colors in this picture aren't as true to life as the one above, but it gives you a better size perspective.

Here's a close-up of the tattered flowers I made.

For the mantel we spray painted a dark metallic framed mirror that we've had since early in our marriage. It's a glossy white now. We had the picture, the shells (from our time living at the beach) and the glass pieces already. I bought the bamboo (it's real) and the candles & candle holders at IKEA when we were there in May.

As you can see, our fireplace is in the weirdest possible place for trying to decorate: on the corner of a wall. Around the corner, and going into the dining/kitchen area, I put up a fabric covered board to hold pictures, invitations, and mementos that we want to see, but maybe not frame and hang up. That board was in Sweet Cheeks' original nursery above her dresser when we lived in Nashville.

On the other side of the dining/kitchen area is absolute my favorite thing in our home. It has so much meaning and it's easy to lose track of time when I find myself staring at it. I call it our gallery. We took frames that we already had, picked up a few at IKEA, and a bunch at Goodwill, and then spray painted them all glossy white. There are all different sizes and textures.

This display case was one of my Goodwill finds for $1.50. It's filled with all the sand dollars we found while we lived at the beach.

These medallions are from the half marathon we ran when we lived in Auburn, Alabama. These are special, because I will never ever be crazy enough to attempt that again. Ever.

This is a napkin from our wedding reception.

This picture is from our trip to Hawaii back in 2002. The hearts in the frame used to be pink. Thank goodness for white paint.

This Q was purchased in Nashville at Hobby Lobby on the clearance rack, because really how many people want to buy the letter Q? It used to be a rust color.

This was a great metallic frame that we've had for years, but I love the texture even more now that it's white. And of course that's my favorite picture ever of me and Sweet Cheeks. She was 5 days old and I was still feeling my long-time "I want to be a mommy" broken heart healing with each second she spent laying with her heart pressed to mine.

This is a straight-on view from the kitchen. The chandelier is hideous, but I'm dealing.

We didn't have to do much to the kitchen. This is what it looked like when we moved in. Can you say WHITE?

The only things I would change would be a new counter and the brass knobs. Lucky for us, T-Bone's brother that installs cabinets had a box of brushed nickel knobs that he just gave us, so we switched those out.

I put some chalk board vinyl labels on these jars, and used some of Sweet Cheeks' chalk to write on them. They sit next to the stove.

I'm not showing a new picture of the entire kitchen, because I'm still working on it. I just ordered swatches of fabric from an online fabric store to see if that's what I want to use for the small valances I plan to make for the windows and for recovering the dining room chairs.

T-Bone currently has the table out in his shed getting it's makeover. It got water damage from a leaky AC duct while it was in his parent's garage.

We were given this rocking chair in Alabama when some friends couldn't fit it in their moving truck. It's going to get some glossy black paint and live in the corner in the living room for now.

We haven't done much to the master bedroom & bathroom. We hung a few pictures, and then did this small display over the tall dresser. We made this picture back before Christmas. It's decoupaged onto mdf that we painted black. That is the temple we were married in. I still need to buy a candle for the yellow stand.

In our bathroom we hung this candle holder thing (that's the official name for it) above the tub.

Since I can't stand taking baths, Sweet Cheeks takes advantage of the candle holder thing and uses it for romantic baths with her My Little Ponies and other tub toys.

Our office is pretty boring. No pictures of it, but we've got 2 matching desks, book cases, and a table for my sewing. It's functional and all the furniture and picture frames are black. It's got a great closet too.

In the small hall between the office and Sweet Cheeks' bedroom I've got a closet full of her "school time" stuff and other crafty things that she and I do together. I hung this cork board for her to hang whatever she wants on it.

I'm not completely done in her room, so I didn't take pictures of everything. But we did make these clip rails for her to hang pictures on. They are 8 ft. long 1"x2" boards that we glued mini clothes pins to and then painted it all white. For her name, I used black scrapbook size card stock that I already had and then printed the letters on white card stock and trimmed it to size. The ribbon banner was from a friend who threw me a baby shower and used that as a decoration.

So...

That's it for now.

We're still working, so expect more updates as we get em done.

Get Closer Tour

2011-07-05T08:43:00.001-04:00

The last weekend of June we went to see these 2 lovely long-haired guys in concert, Jake Owen and Keith Urban. We had not been to a concert together since we moved away from Nashville in 2009, so it was a good night with good music. We miss you Nashville!

Happy July 4th

2011-07-04T14:53:00.000-04:00

Sweet Cheeks models the shirt I made for her.

Thank you to all the men and women who have served, and those who presently serve our country and make this such a great place to live.

God Bless America!

We've Been Busy Outside

2011-07-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

Since moving in on April 15th, we've worked on project after project to get the house like we want it. We still have a long way to go, but it's been rewarding so far. Yes, we're renting, but we do plan to buy it at some point, so that's why we're making it look like we want. The house sits on an acre of land, and guess how many trees there are? Zero. So, if we do buy it, we'll be planting trees for sure. Our neighbors have tons of trees, but our lot doesn't. Boo!!

Here is the outside of the house before.

And here is the outside of the house now. We'd like to add rocking chairs at some point.

I really love red, white and blue in the summer, because I'm kind of patriotic like that. :)

T-Bone trimmed the heck out of the bushes. Look back at the "before" picture to see how over-grown they were. He also dug out a clean edge between the grass and mulch area, cleaned out all the junk and debris from around the bushes, laid down newspaper as a weed blocker, and then put down mulch.

I didn't take pictures of the sidewalk and long driveway, but he edged those up really nice so there are no weeds or grass hanging over anymore.

The next few things we did weren't our first choice, but we're trying to be frugal during T-Bone's job change, and we need our home to be functional at the same time. So, first we don't have a garage to keep lawn care stuff, tools, our freezer, etc., so we had to get creative. We put our freezer in the laundry room where the dryer would normally go. We bought a barely-used washing machine off craigslist, and it sits next to the freezer, and works perfectly. At some point we plan to pay cash for a new stackable washer/dryer. In the mean time, I'm drying our clothes inside on drying racks and hangers, and I'm drying our towels, sheets, and blankets outside on the clothesline T-Bone put up. I just add a little fabric softener to keep everything soft.

We built a metal shed. And by "we" I really mean "we". It was a miserable 95 degrees that day and it took us all day to sweat our brains out and get it up. And like I said earlier, metal wasn't our first choice, but it fit our budget and it works, so there ya go!

T-Bone built a 4'x4' garden box. We've planted 3 tomato plants and a hot pepper plant that just finished giving us hot peppers, and so we replaced it with a sweet potato plant to harvest in the fall. We plan to add 5 more garden boxes this fall to have for next spring. We keep an empty ice-cream bucket in the kitchen for all of our produce scraps, and then take it out to the compost pile every night. We're getting a pretty good compost pile going that we'll use next spring too.

(Due to some recent storms, and the weight of our tomato plants, they had to be reinforced with those orange ties your see. The chicken wire is to keep the neighbor's darn cat from using our garden as a litter box.)

Basil on the deck

While we're working outside, Sweet Cheeks stays busy too with all of her hand-me-down toys. She really got the hook up!

The jeep needs a new battery, but I'm kind of happy about how slow it goes right now. :)

The kids love using the sidewalk chalk too.

So, that's it right now for the outside of the house. Next up: Inside.

Fresh Tomato Tart

2011-06-30T15:36:00.000-04:00

I know I've shared this recipe before, but it really is our favorite summer dinner recipe and pretty much the whole reason that we grow tomatoes and basil. You might as well not make much else to go with with it, because you're gonna want to eat the whole thing.

I need to work on my food-picture-taking skills. :)

Fresh Tomato Tart

1 Refrigerated Pie Crust thawed at room temp. for 10-15 min.

2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese

3 Tbsp. Fresh Chopped Basil

3-4 Medium Tomatoes Sliced (peeling is optional, but we like it better peeled)

1 1/2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Move your oven rack to the lowest level and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll the pie crust out into your pie plate and either trim the edges or fold them over and press them down. Prick the pie crust bottom and sides with a fork to prevent air bubbles during baking. Bake pie crust for 5 minutes. Place cheese in bottom of pie crust and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. of basil. Arrange the tomato slices to fill the remainder of the pie crust. Next brush the olive oil on the tomatoes, and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place pie pan on a baking sheet and bake on lowest level rack for 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining tbsp. of basil, and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Flag Shirts & Bag

2011-06-28T14:10:00.000-04:00

I made 5 of these shirts last week. They're so cute I can hardly stand it! I got the idea here. Once again, the project took more time than I thought it would. I used an old t-shirt for the ruffled stripes so that I didn't have to worry about the red bleeding onto the white shirt when it was washed. I washed the blue fabric that I've had since at least 1996, before I used it too. :) So, the only things I had to buy for this project were the shirts and the star buttons, which made for an inexpensive, but thoughtful gift.

I got a request to make another scripture bag just like this one I made for my niece, except I used a hot pink button for this one. Oh, and I forgot to take any pictures. Man! That pink button really made the bag that much cuter too.

Yee Haw

2011-06-27T17:08:00.000-04:00

We went out to a friend's house one evening last week, and...

Hold on.

I need to interrupt this story to tell another related story.

Before we left to go to said friend's house, I asked Sweet Cheeks if she was going to ride our friend's horses. She said, "No. Daddy can ride the horse and be a cowboy. I will take off my hat (motions as if she's taking off a cowboy hat) and say, "YEE HAW!"

Ok, back to my original story.

...had dinner and the kids rode horses.

But, while we were waiting for the kids to ride, the women and children were in the back yard and all of a sudden my sister-in-law, who was standing like 5 feet away from me started screaming. It was like a horror movie scream. Then she ran. I was looking all around trying to figure out what the heck she was screaming about. I had this flashback to that time I was snorkeling with T-Bone and he turned around and started swimming away really really really fast, and I was like, "What the heck is he swimming away so fast from? Maybe I should swim away really really really fast." Turns out it was a stingray, and it was right after the whole Steve Irwin thing, and anyway...

So my sister-in-law couldn't even talk. She could only scream, which made us scream, "WHAT? WHAT IS IT?!!!" Time was standing still while I scanned the yard looking for something, anything. Then when words finally came back to her mouth, she said, "Don't you see that?!"

And again we were like, "WHAT? WHAT IS IT?!!!"

It took her what seemed like a lifetime to tell us it was a snake.

I froze. We had 5 kids and a couple dogs scattered in the yard and I still didn't see the snake. Well, we finally saw it in the grass, rounded up the kids while one of the dogs chased the snake over by a tree, and then ran for dear life to the front of the house to get the guys.

T-Bone and my brother-in-law came running first, and we followed to show them where it was. Then our friend came running out of the house with a shotgun. The funny thing is that he's this tough as nails cowboy dude, but he's as scared of snakes as I am, and he didn't care that it was only a black snake, which is actually kind of a good snake, because they eat other snakes and rodents, he wanted that thing gone! He and I see eye to eye when it comes to snakes. Kill 'em all!

So, he shot the snake.

Then T-Bone picked it up by the tail,

and they cut the head off just to be sure. You can never kill a snake too many times.

Once all that business was taken care of, we got to the fun part--the kids riding the horses.

One of our nieces rode first.

Then another niece rode second.

I could NOT believe my eyes when Sweet Cheeks got on that horse without one fearful look. She rode like a champ, and loved every minute of it.

So guess where we'll be going again sometime soon?

Don't miss the cute videos below!

Click here to see video of Sweet Cheeks riding the horse.

Click here for Sweet Cheeks' post-ride interview.

Yeah, I'm That Mom

2011-06-21T22:55:00.000-04:00

We signed Sweet Cheeks up for gymnastics, and we were all really excited for her to go and have fun learning some new stuff. The class for her age group (up to 3 1/2 years old) required a parent to be in the class and then it was basically just a free-for-all for 55 minutes. The kids can play on any of the equipment with their parents or go in the bouncy house, which my scaredy-cat refused to do. I figured if there was no instruction, then I would make sure to teach Sweet Cheeks whatever I could. I spent the first 2 classes trying to get her to jump on the trampoline without me or do a forward roll down the big wedge mat or do a flip over the bottom uneven bar. Fat chance! She refused to do anything but walk on the balance beam, hang on the bottom uneven bar, or go on the trampoline holding tight to my hand. Then there were the 37 times I had to explain to her why she had to stay with me and she couldn't go with the older class.

After 2 of those ~~torture free play sessions~~ classes, I took a chance and emailed the owner to see if even though Sweet Cheeks was 7 months too young for the next class level up (according to the class descriptions on their website), if there was anyway that she could join that class. I didn't want to be that mom that was like, "Oh my kid needs to be an exception to the rule, because she's soooo advanced." The thing is that she's not advanced skill wise. She really is hesitant to do things. It's nice not to have a dare devil sometimes, but in this case it's a little frustrating. I just knew that she was eager to learn, and it wasn't me she wanted teaching her.

Anyway...the owner was all for it as long as she would be ok without me.

We went this morning and I pumped her up before class, telling her all about how her teacher had a blonde ponytail like Mommy, and she was going to learn lots of new things and have so much fun with her new teacher and her big kid class. She was excited. I was excited, but nervous that maybe she really was too young to be moving up a class level.

I sat there in the waiting area and as I watched through the big windows into the gym, I literally had to choke back tears so I wouldn't look like a complete freak, as I watched her do everything that her teacher asked the class to do. She did all those things for the teacher that I mentioned earlier she wouldn't do for me. I was such a happy, proud mama.

So yes, I was that mom that asked for my kid to have an exception made for her.

But my instincts turned out to be right on.

Then I was that mom who watched proudly as my kid pushed through her fears and did everything her teacher asked her to do. I'm still laughing at how stiff she was flipping around the uneven bar. HaHa! She was straight as a board and her eyes were about to pop out of her head. But she did it!

(This picture was taken through a window, so it's not that great, but I'm hoping to get more next week.)

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T12:25:00.000-04:00

I want to wish my husband, dad, father-in-law, and stepdad all a very

Happy Father's Day!

I'm pretty blessed to have such amazing men in my life.

**************

We spent Saturday morning with my family to celebrate Father's Day. We cooked breakfast and then we gave my dad a gift that I'm pretty proud of, not only because I made it, but because my dad actually smiled when he saw it. He's got a job now that requires a lot of travel, and I thought what better way to find your black suitcase in the mix of everyone else's black suitcases, than to have a bright green luggage tag attached to it. Plus, I'm secretly hoping that he'll think of me and how much I love him every time he sees it. :)

(The pictures were taken at night, so the lighting and clarity isn't all that great.)

I'm considering making my motto in life, "That was more difficult than I thought it would be." I swear I come up with all these ideas of things to sew or home improvement projects and I think they'll be a breeze. Ha! They never are. Cutting, ironing and sewing all those little folds on that luggage tag was killer. The cool thing about getting myself into these messes though, is that I always learn something while I'm trying to get myself out of the mess. Like this time, I learned how to lower the feed dogs on my sewing machine so that I could sew through 8 layers of fabric. Thank goodness for the sewing machine manual that I have to reference regularly.

I still don't have those decorative pillow covers done. I came up with another project that I need/want to do first. Then I have a paying project to do next. Then pillow covers. Factor in everyday life things that have to get done, and WHEW!

In other news...

T-Bone has a job interview this Wednesday now that his contract is over with the traveling job.

While it's been so fun to have him home more than not the last several months, I think we're all ready to move past living in limbo.

Yesterday evening we loaded Sweet Cheeks and our niece into the wagon, and as we started walking down the driveway and 2 houses over to have dinner with T-Bone's sister and her husband, I just got this huge smile on my face. It was like one of those slow motion moments where your brain is like a camera capturing pictures and feelings. I thought about how I could have a jillion things to feel sorry about for myself, but in that moment all I could feel was HAPPY. Sweet Cheeks has a playmate in her cousin that she loves and who loves her. We were walking to have dinner with people that we love and who love us and it just felt good. We can do that any time that we want to. I said out loud, "I love our life. I love our life!"

Overcoming My Issues

2011-06-17T14:34:00.000-04:00

Some would call me a neat freak (at times). I prefer to call myself a disliker of messes or a preventer of messes. This is not to be confused with being a germaphobe, because that I am not. I don't know why germs don't bother me as much as a mess does. Why is it that I will go to great lengths to avoid hand sanitizer? Weird, I know. I'm probably making some of you freak out right now, because I don't like hand sanitizer or any harsh chemicals for that matter. I'm a plain ol' soap & water or if that's not around use a baby wipe kind of girl. I guess I have some kind of aversion to chemicals. I wasn't raised that way. My mom loves her some bleach, pine sol and lysol (not mixed together...that would be bad). But I digress...

Back to my aversion to messes.

I am just now starting to let Sweet Cheeks use markers. Only washable ones though. I was really hoping to make it another year or so just using crayons, but apparently they're too boring.

When we were up in D.C. last month, we made a long stop at IKEA (love that place), and this is one of the things we got. Well, to be honest, my mom got it. Thanks Mom! Anyway, it's a chalkboard on one side, white board on the other, and a roll of paper hangs in the middle to be stretched up and over one side to color on.

It's basically a dream come true for Sweet Cheeks.

It's basically almost a worst nightmare for me.

There is chalk.

There is chalk dust.

There are markers.

I know that she needs to be a kid, so I'm slowly working through my insanity.

She has no idea about the paints or the play-doh in the school/craft closet.

I'm working up to that.

Deep breath in...and exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

So Much For Making My Bed...And Other Randomness

2011-06-12T21:37:00.001-04:00

Click here to see video of our little monkey.

Sweet Cheeks asked me to put some of my shoes on her this morning so she could play in them, and when I told her no, she frowned and yelled, "1....2....Now!" I wanted to laugh, but I held my composure, told her that she doesn't get to yell at me, and then I made her ask me again with a "please", and I put the shoes on her. Kids!

We got pictures hung up in almost every room of our house last week. That made me happy. I'm planning a blog of a picture tour of our new house for you. I still have a few things to do first, like finish making new covers for our decorative couch pillows.

We've been doing Insanity workouts for 3 weeks now. I'm feeling great. I still crave and then eat ice cream everyday. What's that about?

I have liked a lot of the places that we've lived, but I really love it here. Please, Lord, let us stay.

I went to try to give blood yesterday at a Red Cross blood drive at our church. I was getting pretty worked up on the way there, and already starting to feel like I could possibly faint. I wasn't that torn up when I found out I didn't meet the weight requirement. Darn. :)

The other morning Sweet Cheeks was crying in her bed. I asked her what was wrong and she cried, "I want a baby." I thought to myself, "I know how you feel."

I've had a tickle on the top of one of my toes all day today that feels like maybe a hair tickling it. There's no hair on it. Maybe it's a nerve. So weird.

I got the hiccups 3 times this afternoon/evening. My hiccups involve my entire body, like from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. They are life-altering.

We ate pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for dinner. I like when my dinner seems like dessert.

Playin' Ball

2011-06-09T15:47:00.000-04:00

Our niece has been playing softball, and we've gone to a few of her games. It's good times. Makes me think back to those days of my own spent on the field.

It's fun to watch the differences between the girls. Some are so serious and competitive, and some are just in LaLa Land out there just for the heck of it. They all make me smile though.

Sweet Cheeks loves to cheer for her cousin. We love to cheer for her too, but she gives us the "you're embarrassing me!" look when we cheer for her.

Speaking of cheering, the cheers that the girls yell from the dugout are actually new to me (I thought I'd heard 'em all), and they are cute and clever.

Here she is in all her glory.

Fish & Fowl

2011-06-08T14:43:00.000-04:00

T-Bone and our brother-in-law who lives 2 doors down from us have been trying to figure out every possible thing we need to do be self-sufficient. They have plans for a zip line between our houses. Nevermind the family that lives in the house between us. If the zipline doesn't work out, they're considering a tunnel.

They went fishing this morning with the girls, and stocked up on fish.

T-Bone swears that Sweet Cheeks reeled in both of the fish that she caught all by herself. I'm still in disbelief, but he says that he has other people who will back him up.

The big catch of the day went to the brother-in-law.

They loaded this girl up in the truck for some meat to freeze. Just kidding. That's gross. They were just being real men and pulling it out of the middle of the road. It's still gross.

They helped each other plant gardens.

They are planning to start drilling for oil out back, and said that

they'll just keep drilling until they hit the jackpot.

In the mean time, they built a chicken coop with assistance from Sweet Cheeks, the professional.

It went in our brother-in-law's back yard since he paid for it. :)

Here's the door on the back of the coop that we will lift to steal the eggs early in the morning before our brother-in-law wakes up.

There's a Bantam rooster and 3 Bantam hens.

There's no telling what these guys will come up with next for their self-sufficiency quest. I'm just hoping it doesn't involve any more farm animals or digging (unless it's for a pool).

Twin Gifts

2011-06-07T21:00:00.000-04:00

My over-achiever friend, Sara, had her twins last week. (Love you Sara!) She over-achieved two precious little girls. She even managed to get them different birthdays, with one being born June 1st at 11:55pm and the other being born June 2nd at 12:05am. How awesome is that?!

Anyway, I did not over-achieve in the gift giving department like I was hoping to, but our move has really thrown me for a loop. Project after project after project.

I royally failed at a nursing cover clip thingy I was trying to make and also some knit hats. Next time...

Here's what I didn't fail at making:

1 diaper/wipes case

4 burp cloths

2 sets of car seat strap covers

2 matching reversible bibs