Christmas Cutie

Why is it that when I try to take a decent picture of my child, I get this cheesey face?

When she was little, I always got the cutest pics. Now that she's older, it's fake smiles all the time!

But she looked so cute in her Christmas outfit the other day, I just had to take a few.

Maybe we'll grow out of this stage soon? I have more Christmas pics in another outfit that I took with my mom behind me making her smile for real. SO much better!

I'll put editing them on my list of things "to do" before her sister arrives and hopefully post them soon!

Hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did!

Carie

School Days

We were getting ready for school this morning, and I turn around and see this sweet pose! Luckily, my camera was close by, so I just HAD to take a pic!

And this is her waiting "patiently" while I took another one.

There's just something so sweet about a preschooler ready for her school day! Hope you all had a great one!

Carie

Fall, finally

Hooray for Fall! Our high today was in the 70's. Our low for the last few weeks hadn't reached that point! It's fantastic! I have the windows open and the AC off. It's great! Now my Fall decorations don't feel so out of place! Speaking of Fall, I spent my entire afternoon filling a bow order for a client. I LOVE that she just requests things for seasons. It lets me be a little more creative. This first one is just Fall colors. I did one with all of the ribbon colors reversed for my little girl too. A girl can NEVER have too many bows!

And this flower bow can just be worn in her hair, on a headband, or on a hat. Of course, I reversed the petal colors and Kayt got one of those too!

I'm so excited for this season! I made Halloween and Christmas bows today too so I could ship them all to her at once, but I'll save those for another post. Hope you're enjoying the season!

Carie

Wooo Pig Sooie!

I figured a post with some Razorback fun in it was appropriate for today! Last Saturday, we went to a baby shower for one of my husband's best friends and his wife. They are expecting twin boys. (On a side note, she got put in the hospital on Wednesday at 30 weeks because she was already having contractions. They got them stopped and got the boys a steroid shot, but please keep them in your prayers. Those boys need to stay in there as long as possible!) Okay, back to happier things! I decided since we are all Razorback fans, that the boys needed a little Razorback in their lives. So, I made diaper cakes that are all about those Hogs! Here are some of the pics!

This is the front of diaper cake #1. I just put their monogram on them in reverse colors. They can decide which boy gets which things.

Side view of cake #1.

Here is cake #2.

Side view of #2 plus and Emma's nose for added effect. She stuck it in there at the last second, and I didn't think to take another picture. The cakes were identical but with opposite colors.

Speaking of those Hogs. We watched the game at the shower (I told you we were avid Hog fans around here) and I can't believe we let Georgia come back and tie the game in the 4th quarter! Thank goodness for that Mallet pass in the end so we could be #10 this week facing #1 Alabama. Come on Hogs! Let's take 'em down! Woo Pig!

Carie

Bowling Baby

A couple times a year, Steve's company hosts a gathering where employees can bring their families out. Last Friday, it was bowling. Kaythlen had never been before, and she was SO excited. I wish I had taken a picture of her before she started. She had the cutest tutu on made by turtle.feathers. Hard to bowl with it on, though, so off it came. We put up the bumpers, got her a 6 lb. ball, and she was set. They turn off the lights so everything glows, which she was mesmerized by. She thought it was amazing! That, coupled with the loud music, and she was in heaven. This first picture is my absolute favorite! Who doesn't love a baby with her rear in the air trying to get the ball down the lane?

Here she is watching her ball go. Which we did. For long periods of time. On occasion, I thought it was never going to make it. But she HAD to do it all by herself!

Here is her first score. I didn't think a 55 was too bad for a 4-year-old who did it by herself!

For the second game, her score went up to 69. Sadly, she'd have probably beat me if I'd been playing! She cant wait to try this again!

Carie

Learning

My fabulous friend, Emily, taught me fabulous things about my new camera this weekend. Hope to have some new pictures and posts up and coming soon!

Carie

Officially the Worst!

I've decided that I seriously must be the worst blogger ever! I'd like to say I have excuses . . . my computer crashed (which it did), I don't know how to use my new camera (which I don't), etc. Never fear! I'm going to visit my bestie/roommate from college over Labor Day weekend. She just happens to be a professional photographer, so maybe I can make some progress on the whole camera end of it! And we have our old desktop working for now. I'm not sure what programs it is capable of handling, but we shall see. I have all kinds of news to share, but its no fun to share without pictures! Hope to be back with you soon!

Carie

Surprise!

So....this picture is horrible, but it's the best one I got. As you can probably tell by the addition to my blog, we are PREGNANT!

I had a scare last Tuesday at my check-up when they couldn't find the heartbeat. Not okay! But they snuck me in for an ultrasound to double-check everything, and all is well. The baby refused to give us a good picture. It kept showing us it's backside. When it would finally turn over, it put it's hands over it's face. I don't have a scanner, and I totally forgot to scan ultrasound pics when I was at my parent's this weekend, so I'll have to post those later! This baby was not quite as planned as Kayt was, but we are very excited and can't wait to meet him/her! They will schedule the ultrasound to discover the sex of the baby at my next appointment. I have my own opinion, but we'll see if I'm right or not then! Until then, we are just hoping for healthy, happy, and growing!

Carie

Wonderful World of Disney

The day school got out and I was done with therapy, we loaded up the vehicle and headed out! We were on our way to Disney World. My fabulous best friend and her family were already there. They got a 4-bedroom condo and invited us to join them, sans payment on the room. We could have never gone without them! So many thank-you's! We drove to Birmingham, spent the night with friends, then loaded up and made the long trek to Orlando. Kaythlen loved it! Although, she was as happy with the pool at the condo as she was with Disney World. We did the Magic Kingdom one day. She's only 3, so we didn't think she'd get a big kick out of all the parks. This one, though, was special!

Let me just say that if we had not bought this stroller, the day would have been miserable. She loved not having to walk, and spent 3/4 of her day in it! Lifesaver!

We got there just in time to see the opening show in front of Cinderella's castle.

Doesn't "Uncle" Joedy look delighted! Ha!

Of course, you HAVE to ride Dumbo!

Kaythlen enjoyed the carousel.

Kate and I didn't mind it either.

The girls had a front-row view for the parade.

This is how they looked by the end of the day! And I looked worse, thus no pictures of me at the end! It was a fabulous day and we got a lot of princess pictures. Those will come soon!

Carie

Recital 2010

Kaythlen has had a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with dance this year. We made her stick it out. She loved the recital part, so I guess it was worth it in the end. We will find a new dance studio for next year (although Steve says we're taking a year off). Either way, here are some pics from the good times.

Reagan and Kayt at rehearsal.

Hope, one of her best friends from school, and Kayt. They just HAD to pose with Hope's character brushes.

Madeline, Maddie, Hope, and Kayt. This was before their tap dance.

Time for tap! My pictures were not coming out well, and it got even more hectic from here with costume changes, so this is all I got. I ordered the video since I spent the entire recital backstage. It just came in, so I'll let you know how it came out!

Carie

Mommy and Daddy

I'm so behind on blogging. Guess the end of the school year and vacation will do that to you! Here are some pics from last month of Kayt all dressed up with Mom and Dad.

Kayt was too busy showing me her flower to pose with Dad.

Again, still loving the gardenia she picked.

We finally got her distracted enough to look away from the flower at the camera! There will be many more pics to come in the future since Steve got me a new toy! More on that in a later post!

Carie

Teacher Appreciation

I'm a little late in posting this, but last week was teacher appreciation week. I got a late start, but from Tuesday on I did something for Kayt's teachers. They have been a blessing to us and she has learned SO much from them! This was the gift we made for them on Friday. We got the plain, wooden frame and added the heart, bug, and I made the bows to go on them. Kayt even painted the hearts for the frames by herself. Both her teachers call her Kay-t-bug, so I figured a "love" bug frame would be appropriate.

This is the one we made Mrs. Stacy.

This one was for Mrs. Leslie. It's purple. I have no idea why it looks blue in this picture. Her favorite color is purple so Kayt INSISTED that we paint it purple.

I was pretty impressed with us. What did you do for your teachers last week?

Carie

Mother's Day Weekend

This weekend was extremely relaxing. So relaxing, in fact, that I didn't do any of my weekend house cleaning. I know, I know. Yuck! I'll just have to be extra busy for the next night or two after work. Saturday Kaythlen and I slept late (for us) and spent the morning picking up and just hanging out. Then we went to buy flowers for our pots out front and to Chick-Fil-A (her favorite place) for lunch. Steve met us for lunch and we took Kayt to the park. She LOVES to feed the ducks (aka-geese).

Here she is in action. We'll definitely have to build up her pitching arm!

This "little" guy got so close I had to take the big pieces of bread away from Kaythlen for fear of losing a finger! He was afraid of nothing! He was great at catching bread in his mouth when I threw it to him, though. Once I got him away from Kayt, we became good buddies.

There was one swan in the entire bunch.

Then we headed to her second favorite part of the park. She would run to the stairs, climb up, and slide down repeatedly. She took a really good nap!

She rode the duck too. She's not thrilled with swings. Steve said she was fine with them the last time we went. Must be a "Mommy' thing.

Today, after church and brunch, we met up with my bestie and her kiddo for some retail therapy! Steve was forced to come along, but he was a trooper! All in all, a great Mommy's Day! Hope yours' were too!

Carie

Show us your life, baby names

Steve and I had baby names picked out before we even got married. Since my new last name is boring (aka-common) we wanted something to set our baby girl apart. Steve gets flagged every time we try to fly because there are a million people with his name. But we also wanted it to have family meaning. Kaythlen is an adaptation from my mom's middle name, Kathleen. Kathleen was too normal, so we put a spin on it. We changed one letter and got her first name. Then we got the bright idea to do the same thing for his mom. Steve's mom's name is Merilla. So, we changed a few letters and got Meriley.

Kaythlen Meriley

We have a boy name and a girl name picked out if we have another child. Both, again, are different but have family meaning. We'll just let God decide if and when that should happen.

Carie

Awesome Giveaway!

I've been following Jenna here for a few months now! She is having a fabulous giveaway on her giveaway blog (found here) so you should definitely go check it out! Let me know what you think!

Carie

Sneak Peak

Our second costume came in today! This is Kayt's gymnastics costume. We don't quite have they physique for gymnastics, but I think this costume is MUCH better than her ballet/tap costume.

The pics are a little better. I made her stop doing dance moves. hehe

Pose #2.

I think she looks like she's up to something in this one!

My sweet angel! Hope you all had a great day!

Carie

Busy Bees

We have been busy "remodeling" our front yard. Our house has been stuck in builder mode since we moved in (yard-wise). We've had plans for it, but lacked the money. Something spurred Steve into action this Spring, and so I ran with it! He'd already started before I thought to take a "before" picture, so I'm stuck with merely the "now" and will soon take a "finished" pic!

No, this is not ALL we did. This is a pic for my mom so she can see the replacement gardenia bushes Steve got me for the ones that failed (um, I killed).

The major addition is the garden around the bench, which wraps all the way around the house.

We moved the birdbath so it would stand out more. It was in the bigger bed to the left.

This is how it wraps around. The brick wall is a bit overwhelming. We plan on adding a trellis or two with vines growing up until the azaleas take over.

Please disregard the tire marks Steve left. He brought in great soil (we had nothing but clay). Unfortunately, it had rained the day before so the grass was not as forgiving as it would normally have been. So, what do you think of the progress we have made so far?

Carie