Loving this weather!!

Oh fall, how we love you. The weather has been absolutely beautiful this week and we are making the most of it. This is the weather we've been looking forward to all summer. Cool enough to wear jeans and long sleeves and be comfortable, cool enough to spend all day outside. Yesterday we hit the park with memaw and pepaw (my grandparents) and I think everyone had a great time. They have a great park here and there is plenty for kids of all ages to play on which is nice. A lot of the big parks don't have toys that Kinsley can really play on and enjoy, especially since she's a little scared sometimes. But these toys are perfect and even the 'big kids' played too.

Even Kaitlyn had a great time even though you can't tell from this picture. She loves to be outside and look at everything. And it was the perfect day for it. They also have a nice rose garden that Kinsley could hardly leave without picking all the flowers. We did give in a let her pick one, shhh...don't tell. But I really can't blame her, some of the roses were just beautiful.

And I'm not usually a big fan of roses but those colors were too much to resist. They also had a HUGE willow tree that Kinsley was immediatly smitten with. She wanted to know if we could live in it like fairies. So cute!! Of course I had to play along, doesn't that sound like the most fun?

So we spent a good deal of time running around and being fairies. It was adorable to see her use her imagination so much and get so excited. And I couldn't believe how huge the tree was...

I would love to live somewhere with a huge tree like this in the back yard to play under all the time. That would be a dream come true. Someday hopefully.

4 Months and a Baby Shower

Sounds like a good title for a bad sitcom right? Don't worry, Im not writing a show, that's just what Saturday was for us. It was my cousin Anndrea's baby shower and Kaitlyn's 4 month birthday. What a super fun day, and it's why there was no blogging happening last week. We spent all week feverishly working (when we weren't shopping) on the shower gifts. Which of course neither of us thought to take any pictures of before we gave it to her. Thankfully she promised to take pictures for us once she gets them put to good use. We made the crib bumpers and skirt to match her theme. They turned out really, really cute but I can say with 100% certainty that I won't be doing that again...ever. It was tiring but worth it because she loved it and we love her. I also made her a burp cloth with the same fabric, some crocheted bird rattles, and a tiny little crocheted hat. I so wish I had taken some pictures. But don't worry I'll keep asking politely (read harassing) her until we get some.

The party was a blast and the decorations were adorable. I wish I had thought to take some more pictures of the decoration but I didn't get to take many pictures at all. But it's more than okay because I got to spend most of the party playing with the adorable miss Lili.

Isn't she just the cutest little thing? And she's an absolute sweetie. This was the best we could get the three girls to pose together. Really it's pretty good considering we were working with an 8 month old, 4 month old and almost 3 year old. I'm pretty impressed. And don't worry, Kinsley isn't actually choking Kaitlyn-promise.

Here's a couple pics of the mama-to-be...



Posing with the super talented Jordy (who happens to be the mama of the adorable miss Lili). She did such a great job with the party, everyone had a great time. Especially this little girl.



She ate lots of cake and ran around like a crazy nut. The party was at the dance studio downtown so she loved the wall of mirrors, entertained herself quite well.





And yes we had to bring every single one of those balloons home with us after the party was over. She's had a blast with them for days. It's the simple things in life.

And my darling little Kaitlyn was four months old. Yes, you heard me right...FOUR MONTHS! It's ridiculous really. She is getting so big and such a little personality already.

She is the happiest baby I have ever been around. She wakes up full of smiles and is really starting to laugh at a lot more. She has also started sucking on two fingers and drooling everywhere. She loves kisses and loves to listen to music. She's starting to get more and more interested in toys and playing and loves to look at herself in the mirror and growl at herself. Seriously, she growls. It's the funniest thing ever. She refuses to lay down for more than 2 minutes unless she is sleeping and insists on being part of everything that goes on in the house.

Hey whatcha doin? Can you tell she's getting much harder to photograph? She doesn't sit still and wants to eat the camera every time she sees it. It's been a wild four months and I know the best is yet to come. So much love for these two crazy girls.

Oh and aren't their dresses beyond adorable? We found them the day before the party at a yard sale for $5 each. It was meant to be, they were a good deal, the right sizes and matched the colors of the party. Love it!

Flower Girl

I have so many things I want to blog about. Felt food, toys for the girls, custom order I've been working on, gifts for next weekend's baby shower... The list goes on and on, but yesterdays wedding pictures pushed right to the front of the list.

Rocky's cousin got married yesterday and Kinsley was the flower girl. It was a beautiful ceremony and the bride was absolutely lovely. Kinsley has been so excited about dressing up like a princess and being in this wedding. She's been talking about it for weeks now. She was also looking forward to "marrying that little boy", it was really very cute. Even with all of her excitement I was still a bit nervous about how she would do when we actually got there. She doesn't deal well with crowds or strangers so the drive to the rehearsal was spent talking about how fun and exciting everything would be, hoping it would help. She did exactly as I thought she would when the rehearsal started. She took two steps towards the wedding party, and away from me, and bawled. She was too scared to stand with them unless I was standing right next to her. She was so sad. She liked the little ring bearer though, but who wouldn't he was such a cutie.

So they went on with the rehearsal and the bridesmaids kept talking to her and telling her how beautiful she was and eventually she started to warm up to them. I also resorted to that oldest of parenting tricks, bribery. And yes, I am proud of it. I had stopped at Target and bought a new Snow White doll just incase I needed it. Thankfully the doll, making friends with the "big princesses" and having to help the little boy all added up to her being ready to be a princess. They ran through the ceremony again and she did pretty well. It was looking up for the actual ceremony...

The next morning she woke up ready to get married so we were optimistic. I walked with her to her starting place and stood with her until it was time for her to make her entrance. I think my presence was unnecessary though because she stuck right by her "princess friend" and was ready to go. It was beyond adorable. The young pair walked out to "You Make Me Feel So Young" and little Jackson started dancing away. Kinsley did a teriffic job and stood right next to the bridesmaids until the ceremony was finished. I was so proud of her, and so was she. So now get ready for an overload of cuteness...

If you'll notice in all the pictures her basket it still full of flower petals. Since she walked out holding hand with Jackson she didn't have a hand left to toss her flowers. A fact that she was less than thrilled with after the ceremony had ended, so she walked back up to the front and started tossing them out afterwards. It was adorable. And then there was Kinsley's favorite part, her shoes...

How flippin cute are those? Love them. And of course we can't leave out little Miss Kaitlyn.

Felt Food = Fun Times

Believe it or not I actually have been doing some crafting lately. The problem is that I haven't been working on anything that I can show you. I've been working a few custom orders for the shop, halloween costumes, and gifts for a baby shower next weekend. Unfortunately nothing's finished so there isn't much to see. But in between working on all those big projects I've been working on some small crochet projects and some more food for Kinsley so I'd have something to share. (Besides a picture of my mounting laundry pile)

We are big fans of playing kitchen around here. Kinsley's play kitchen is probably her favorite toy and it gets played with each and every single day. Just come to our house and Kinsley will immediately set to work making you some wonderful food, whether you want it or not. She's always requesting new items for her kitchen and I'm happy to oblige. Until it comes time to pick up the nine thousand pieces of food she has "cooked" with that day. I am beginning to rethink making all of this for her, but it's so much fun I can't help myself. So instead we're learning to *not* take everything out of the kitchen at one time. It's a work in progress... Regardless I keep right on making pretend food. Afterall, what's a few thousand toys to pick up when you're having fun?

Everyonce in a while when daddy's home we like to order pizza and have a picnic and it's always fun so of course we had to add pizza to our felt foods. I went with a cheese pizza because Kinsley only likes meatballs on her pizza and I couldn't get them to look right so cheese it is. I still think it's pretty cute even if it's a little boring. I tried to get her to let me add pepperoni, or peppers or mushrooms but she said "no way". Oh well. This was the first time I've used the sewing machine to make the felt food instead of doing it by hand. I thought I'd like it because it would be so much faster but I found that the felt had a tendency to pull and stretch and I didn't like it nearly as much as I thought I would. Guess it's back to hand sewing for me.

Then I had to make some ravioli while I was thinking pizza-Italian-pasta. Kinsley isn't a big fan of ravioli in real life but she thought the felt version was cool. And it was great because they are super simple and work up in absolutely no time. That's a definite plus.

Although I have noticed that it doesn't get cooked quite as often as some of her other foods. Maybe that's a sign. The crocheted ice cream cones were a big hit, but that's for another day. :)

Bento Madness

Okay it's official...I'm addicted to Bento Boxes. I've been researching them and looking at pictures of them for a while now trying to decide what the best one to get would be when I had a frisbee to the forehead type moment. I found a blog post on Another Lunch about the different styles of Bento Boxes and what she liked/disliked about them when she mentioned the Sassy box. Here comes the frisbee...I *have* that box. In fact I've had it for well over a year now. I bought it when Kinsley was little bitty to pack lunches or snacks for her if someone was going to watch her during meal times. It was perfect because it has three interior containers with individual lids but as she got bigger I stopped using it and it had been sitting in the back of one of the kitchen cabinets until today.

Needless to say I was so excited to see all of her posts about lunches and snacks specifically using the Sassy Box. I immediately went to the kitchen and got to work making my first Bento lunch. This is absolutely perfect for Kinsley because this is exactly how she likes to eat. She loves to have what we call a "variety plate" and we typically use the little plastic plates with the divided sections. The great thing about the box is that it can be made ahead of time and put in the refrigerator or taken along on an outing.

I could hardly wait for her to wake up from her nap so I could see what she thought. Thankfully she was THRILLED with her special lunch and insisted that her dinner was also in the "benbo". Now don't judge my box too harshly, afterall it was my very first attempt and I had to go with what i had on hand in the kitchen already. I have so many more great ideas for future boxes though. I just need to make a trip to the store.

Today she had baby carrots with ranch to dip, blueberries and a ham and cheese sandwich cut into a number two. There are actually two sandwiches stacked on top of one another. Dinner was very much the same (at her request) except in place of the sandwich was ham cubes and cheese stars. So much fun.

And not only am I obsessed, she is too. She's already talking about what she wants in her box for breakfast tomorrow. Not to mention that she sat with me and looked through the blog at the other lunch combos and has requested foods that normally she wouldn't eat. This might be the best thing to ever happen to meal time at our house.

Except that I now want a box for myself and all the cute little accessories that go with them. The picks and mini forks are too cute to resist. This might be bad...

And this is why I don't sleep...

I'm sitting here at the computer reading the latest musings from The Pioneer Woman and thinking that we need to be friends and then feeling silly for thinking that but then thinking that it's not completely ridiculous since she doesn't live that far away and I am a nice girl and all, when I hear it. The sound that jerks me out of a sound sleep all too often, the hubby jumping out of bed, yelling and barking orders. This wouldn't be so strange if he were still in the Army, it wasn't the middle of the night and he was actually awake and talking to someone but none of those things are true. He hasn't been in the Army for several years now, it is in fact the middle of the night but wait...he isn't alone. It's that final thought that had me up and sprinting across the house with my heart pounding. You see we're still visiting my parents and as such are sharing a room with our littlest baby, who's sound asleep...in her travel bed...in the floor. Panic does not even begin to describe my feeling as I race to the bedroom (who knew I could run so fast). Thankfully he's still on his side of the room and she is still sound asleep. Sigh. So now I've retreated back to the living room realizing that I will now be awake until I have fully calmed down and am again relaxed enough to sleep. Guess I'll go see who else in blogland needs to be my friend...Night all

Mini Vacay Week

Whew. That's really the only way to describe the past week or so. We (hubby, the girls and I) came down with mom & dad to help them unload all their stuff into their new house. Well hubby unloaded, I stayed in the house with the girls. Hey someone had to do it. It worked out really nicely for us since their new house is about 15 minutes away from where hubby has been working this past month so we (the girls and I) decided to stay for the week. It's been great for us to get to see each other every night since we hadn't seen him at all in a couple weeks and we've had a really great time. We decided to turn the free time we've had together into a little mini vacation and hit some of the touristy (is that a word) attractions around here.

First stop was the Omniplex, which I think is now called the Oklahoma Science Museum. Neither hubby or I had been since we were kids and were both excited to take Kinsley and see what she thought of it.

A lot had changed, of course, since we had last visited but there were still some of the old faves in action. It was surprising to see what exhibits sparked her curiosity and which ones sent her running. She loved to play with the "dirt". We kept telling her it was sand but she insisted it was dirt. Mostly she loved sweeping it off the table which is very much her nature. She likes things to be lined up and tidy so that wasn't too surprising. She was intrigued by the picture it made though and that led us to the next activity...

She got to make a huge piece of artwork for her room. She was so proud of herself picking out the colors she wanted, the design she liked and moving the table to make it appear. She even signed her name when she was done. Sure it was only a 'K' and an 'I' but I was so proud of her. She loved the water table experiments and the big tractor they had for the kids to sit in. She is such a country girl, never mind these are things she does at home all the time. That's probably why she liked them so much, they were familiar. She hated the science show and we ended up having to leave before it was even half over. They were doing experiments with fire and explosions and her chicken side came out in a hurry. She loved the indoor playground and the model trains though. Her favorite was definitely the sand table though, I can't even count the number of times we went back to it. It was a fun morning but probably an outing better suited to the over 5 crowd.

Our next stop was the Oklahoma City Zoo. We knew this would be a big hit since she loves the zoo at home. Again neither of us had been in years but it was every bit as wonderful as we remembered. I was immediately impressed when right inside the gate was a lovely room outfitted specifically for nursing mothers. That is definitely a new addition but it was incredible. It was roomy, clean and nicely decorated. Major brownie points to them on this one. One thing we had both forgotten was how much more natural this zoo is than many others. Yes there is a lot of fencing and of course concrete pathways but there is a ridiculous amount of greenery and you just feel closer and more connected to everything. The first wildlife we saw was this beautiful peacock and her adorable babies wandering around.

They were so cute. It was a lovely overcast day so the temperature was perfect and all of the animals were out for show. The petting zoo was a big hit and she loved the little pig they had in the barn. She didn't like the exhibits with the alligators and hippos because they smelled but she loved the monkeys, big cats and having her picture taken with the various statues around.



She also thought it was great to feed the ducks and catfish in the pond and a little squirrel decided to befriend her in order to con her out of some of her cheerios.

He was cute though.

My favorite was the big Grizzly. They have bears at the zoo at home but they are forever away from you and rarely out and about. This one was happily laying around posing for pictures.

I told you Kinsley loved the monkeys right? They were the only animals that SHE insisted on taking a picture of...

She's becoming quite the little photographer. Pretty good for a 2 year old I'd say. It was so much fun and we did go to a couple other museums this week too but I'll leave that for another day. This has already turned into the longest blog post ever. And no we didn't leave Kaitlyn behind but she was a little doll and pretty much slept through both places. But just so she isn't left out of the fun...