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...

Happy Birthday Mr. Wonderful

Today was my wonderful hubby's birthday and although I won't tell you how old he, I will say it's older than me! I only like to tease him about that because he had a tendency to tease me about how young I am. This of course was years ago when being told you were young wasn't a good thing. And I mean years ago...I've known him for over 12 years now and am beyond thrilled to be able to say that. I couldn't ask for a better husband or a better father for my children. He adores us and we do our best to show him we feel the same way about him.

Just today when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday he decided he wanted to take the girls to the science museum. So we loaded up the car, braved the holiday crowd and had an incredible morning together. Then this afternoon just the two of us headed out so he could do a little birthday shopping and what did he buy? Something for Kinsley of course. Then we headed to dinner and back to the house to snuggle with the girls for the evening. Just one of the reasons I love him...birthdays are always a day where you get to do anything you want without question and he decided to haul us around trying to make everyone else happy.

Pure love...

Happy Birthday darling...

3 Months

My littlest baby is three months old today and I want to cry. She has changed so much since she was born and really in just the past two weeks seems to have made remarkable progress. I am amazed at how much control she has over her head and especially her hands. She loves her toys and can pick them up and put them right where she wants them...which is usually her mouth. She will sit up (with the assistance of her boppy pillow) and just watch everything going on around her. She most definitely thinks she is as big as everyone else. Especially her big sister. Whenever Kinsley is in sight Kaitlyn starts rocking back and forth, kicking her feet and flailing her arms trying her very hardest to get up and play with her. If, by chance, Kinsley doesn't stop to play with her, she will yell at her until she comes back and then just gives her the biggest smile. She is by far the happiest baby I have ever been around. She wakes up in the mornings smiling and cooing, it absolutely melts my heart. She is an absolute ham and attention hog already and loves to be the center of attention. Life is certainly good...

Isn't it always the way

I was just starting to feel like my regular self again and am almost completely healed up from surgery (no thanks to the medical staff) and then I get this ridiculous head cold. Seriously? That's always the way it works though isn't it? I don't know how mamas can avoid getting whatever germs their children have picked up, I know I never can anyway. So I've been taking a break from any big crafting projects for a couple of days. I was afraid to cut into any beautiful fabric or try any complex designs while hopped up on Dayquil. Instead I've been finishing up loose ends...handsewing openings closed, stuffing some felt food, adding ribbons to baby booties and all that sort of thing. I had intended to show you some of those things but, of course, the batteries in the camera died. See how my week is going? The only batteries lying around are the cheapy ones for the kiddo's toys and they won't even turn my camera on. And to be perfectly honest with you I just don't feel like driving into town just to get batteries. I know, that's lazy but I'm blaming the cold. But since I hate to post without a picture you'll just have to get by with the last project I finished before my head became stuffed with cottonballs...