the little princess diaries

a work in progress.

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000-06:00

These two are the reason I get up and walk out the door every morning. Scary faces, toe-biting and all. When I was younger, all I could think about was being a stay-at-home-mom. Yes, I went to college. Yes, I had plans for my career. Still... my plan all along was to put the career on hold and rock the babies all day long. I never even considered that God had a different plan in mind for me.

The circumstances don't really matter, but my husband decided to pursue his own business and that meant I was the "reliable job" for awhile. I honestly didn't mind. He was following his dream, spending the days outside, working hard with his best friends and making his way in the world. It was a joy to see him so happy. We didn't have children yet and I worked for a wonderful company at a job that I loved. Life was good. Fast forward almost six years and we are in such a different place. This economy isn't kind to small-business owners and we decided the lack of stability was suffocating us. For almost a year, Josh has been working from home for a company that he LOVES and I'm still employed! I'm at a different firm than I was then and it's hard to imagine our lives any other way.

Could we afford for me to stay at home with the girls? Maybe. We could sacrifice the extras, put a little less into our savings account each month and spend an awful lot of time at home together (remember, SD works in the bedroom!). Here's the problem: I think I'm a better mommy because I work. I am fortunate enough to have the very best child care scenario. Sophie is cared for by my aunt along with several other children who she loves. She is in someone's home, it is much more affordable than traditional daycare and she is LOVED. She is snuggled and cuddled and gets to eat greasy Jack's biscuits for breakfast sometimes. She talks about my aunt & uncle constantly and cannot get enough of her sweet little friends. I almost think by keeping her home with me I would be robbing her of such rich little friendships. I know she's only 22 months old, but I can see the rewards already and I know from experience with Ella what a difference this made in her. Ella attends a full-day preK program at our local Elementary school and is growing and stretching in ways I can't even believe. They are both turning out just fine -- more than fine, really -- and I haven't missed a thing.

I remember worrying when I took Ella to "school" that very first day after my maternity leave. I couldn't believe I was going to miss her rolling over and her first words and her first step. You know what? I didn't. I saw it all for the first time, the first time I saw it. Even if it had happened before, nothing is as wonderful as the first time YOU witness it for yourself. I don't once remember thinking I had missed something.

Logistically, my job is hard. As much as I love and as rewarding as it is, it can be stressful sometimes. There are times when I work through the weekends and other times I'm out of town for a week or even more. While I'm only 30 miles or so from home, it's an almost hour commute on the worst stretch of highway in Alabama. People dread this drive and I get questions all the time about how I manage it. Josh even says if our roles were reversed we would move closer into town. What I am about to say might sound selfish and strange, but secretly... I enjoy that hour's commute. I spend almost two hours a day in the car by myself. I control the radio station, the temperature and the direction. I'm not wiping noses or fannies or answering questions. Don't get me wrong -- I love all of those things, but a girl needs some time to herself sometimes. These two hours a day keep me sane. I can pray and sing and talk to my best friend on the phone uninterrupted. Sometimes... I call home and talk to the girls. If I think about those hours and how they add up across a week, I can start to panic, to worry about what I'm missing. On my morning commute, they are still snuggled in their beds fast asleep. Just as I'm pulling into my office they are getting ready, eating breakfast and singing silly songs in the car with their daddy. I know that these are important moments they get to spend together. In the afternoons while I'm making the trek back home, they are gardening outside with my mom, reading together, making cookies and playing dominoes. What is better than an afternoon at your grandmother's house?

My girls aren't missing out on anything. They know how much I love them and that because I work we have more food in the pantry, and swirly-twirly party dresses and fancy birthday parties. We can take summer vacations and save for a trip to Disney and sometimes give in to impulse. The time we are apart during the day makes our time together so much sweeter. We are homebodies and spend a lot of time together. Are there things we can improve on? Absolutely. It's a work in progress. But, when I really think about what I want out of life and the direction I believe God is calling us as a family, I know that being a working mom is working just fine for us.

I'm linking up with Kelly today, so if you are a working mom, be sure and stop by to make some new friends!

My Little Artist

2012-02-08T21:28:00.000-06:00

Tuesday night Ella's school invited the parents to come for an art show. Each student, grades pre-K through 5th, had a piece of art displayed in the halls of the school. Every grade had a different theme and Ella's class made collages. Her's was called "Fireworks".

She is such a worry wart and had talked to me all week about being nervous that she wouldn't win. Fortunately, each student gets an award on their piece and hers was Michelangelo's Award for Artistic Greatness. She was pleased as punch.

The older grades did have ribbons for first through sixth place and honorable mention, but luckily Ella's class didn't participate in awards. I'm glad she got to escape the winning/losing battle for one more year.

We had such a good time walking the halls of her school together and luckily we only had to fish Sophie out of the boys bathroom once!

Project 365: Week Five

2012-02-06T12:56:00.002-06:00

Yes, I know this is a day late, but did you know that the Super Bowl was yesterday? Between church, afternoon naps, running, cleaning my house and heading out for a party I never even sat down to the computer! I'm gonna go with "a day late is WAY better than never"... right?

This week, I'm not only linking up with Laura at Between the Lines, but I followed along with Fat Mum Slim's February Photo of the Day. I thought about doing separate photos for each link up, but I'm not that creative or that organized. I hope you can deal!

Sunday, January 29 (Day 29): We took a family outing to the grocery store. This is part of our new get
organized / meal planning / couponing plan. SD got to help pick out groceries AND see how expensive
they are and the girls got to ride in the infamous race car buggy. I consider this a win for everybody!

Monday, January 30 (Day 30): We celebrated SD's birthday at my parents' house. The birthday boy / girl
ALWAYS gets to pick their favorite meal. We had pot roast and snuggled our sweet daddy. (And it would
seem that at least one member of my family is wearing Bama gear at least one day a week. Go figure)

Tuesday, January 31 (Day 31): What I wanted to capture this day was Sophie's super cute coat that I picked
up at Tar-jay for $9 on Monday night. Instead, she pitched a royal fit about the lack of an iPhone in her hand.

Wednesday, February 1 (Day 32): I camped out at the dining room table after dinner out with my family.
I got caught up on design orders, sucked down a to-go cup of sweet tea and worked on the blog update.

#febphotoaday photo prompt: your view today

Thursday, February 2 (Day 33): We took my car in for the dreaded tire replacement and I

worked from home since I didn't have a ride. Eating breakfast and lunch with my husband

and having the dog warm my feet all day was great. The $725 I spent, was not so great.

#febphotoaday photo prompt: words

Friday, February 3 (Day 34): I managed to get up early enough to paint my fingernails before work

on Friday. The color is pretty, the nails... not so much. This momma NEEDS a manicure big time!

#febphotoaday photo prompt: hands

Saturday, February 4 (Day 35): A friend invited me to run a 5K with her in 8 weeks. This was an

excellent motivator to get back to the gym pronto. The girl in this photo is a stranger. I haven't seen her

since she stopped eating good and exercising in October. Shame on her. Since this photo was taken,

I got new snazzy running shoes and lost three pounds. I hope she won't be a stranger anymore!

#febphotoaday photo prompt: a stranger

Don't forget to visit Laura and see what everyone else was up to last week. And visit Fat Mum Slim if you want to join in the #febphotoaday craze! See you soon, friends.

the Family Circus

2012-02-04T22:35:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday, just like the last weekend of every January, we loaded up and headed downtown for the circus. We are always lucky to get tickets from my in-laws for Christmas and it never disappoints. It's funny to me how we can go the entire year without mentioning it, but as Christmas nears every year Ella asks when it is and if we're going. Since Sophie is almost two (and still free!) we decided to take her along this year. I was certain that she would be entranced because of the animals and would sit completely still. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she is WILD. She did enjoy it a lot, especially when the elephants were in the ring, most of the small animal acts or when there was a parade with lots going on. She was less than impressed with the individual acts (trapeze, acrobats, etc.) and got really antsy. We had to apologize to the family in front of us for the flailing and we took a walk around the arena, but all in all it was a huge success. Now, lets let the photos tell the story!

let's chat

2012-02-02T06:00:00.001-06:00

You know how it is when I get a bee in my bonnet, right? Once I started thinking about a re-design, I couldn't stop. I had several hours to myself, two nights in a row, and I started playing around with the graphics. Once last night about 10 o'clock, Josh walked through and I was grinning ear to ear. He came around and saw me tweaking some code and called me a geek on his way back to bed!

I'm not completely finished -- the font on the family page doesn't translate as well as I thought it would and the photograph of our house in the header is a little rough. I didn't notice until Josh pointed it out, that it was taken pre-metal roof and looks heinous!! Unfortunately, all of the recent photos are in the dead of winter, it's snowing or the bushes are too tall to see the porch. I'll have to save that update for a pretty spring day, but it isn't a deal breaker for now.

As far as navigation goes, I eliminated a bunch of sidebar items that were rarely used and moved the followers / prior posts / labels to the bottom of the blog. I added some new fonts for my post-titles and dates and a pretty little "pin it" button for underneath the posts. I'm sure I'll find something else to change, but for now... I'm happy. I never felt like the previous design was ME and this pretty pink business definitely is!

And since I cannot bear to type a post without pictures, here a few on our way out the door for Josh's Birthday on Tuesday. She couldn't resist posing for pics in her new snazzy shoes.

Y'all know Ella loves her fashion! I hit the jackpot over the weekend at Target for the girls and she wanted to show off. I got her THREE pairs of shoes for $5 each and Sophie a cute pair of boots for $6. The leopard print sweater was about $4, I think, and I got them both some leggings and cardis for school. I doubt I spent sixty bucks total and they racked up. The polka dotsy socks are from Gap, on clearance thankyouverymuch, and she got some other cute striped ones, too. These were purchased right alongside those shirts I bought for Josh. You know? The ones that didn't fit.

More coherent posting tomorrow, I promise!

2012-02-01T17:32:00.002-06:00

January: Recapped

2012-02-01T06:00:00.002-06:00

Well, friends, I'm pretty impressed with myself. I cannot believe that I managed to take a single photograph every day of the month. Yes, I realize it isn't that difficult to carry your phone around and take a crappy picture, but since I've been in a blogging/picture taking funk for the last six months I would say this was a monumental task accomplished!

I'm really happy with my little calendar for the month. I really wanted the images to be clickable so you could view them full sized, but that is pretty time consuming and I didn't quite get to it. Maybe next month. When I decided to create one for each month of the year I didn't really have an idea in mind for what I would do with them all. Maybe I'll print them for a scrapbook or make a photobook or something. Any ideas?

Aside from Project 365, my blog was pretty lackluster this month. I don't know what has gotten into me! I promise there are good things in store. I'm noticing that the "followers" of LPD have grown and I find it funny that it happened in my worst month ever. I'm kind of itching for a new blog design around here (I know, I know... it hasn't been that long) and I'm trying to encourage myself to set up a regular blogging schedule to keep me on track. Are there any kinds of posts you would like to see more of? Anything you miss? Any questions you want me to answer while I'm bored out of my gourd?

Now, about those revolutions. Let's see how well I did for the month of January, shall we?

I bought the first gift of 2012. Even though Josh's real birthday present was this, I hated for him not to have a little something to open. I picked him up a few shirts from GAP over the weekend. When he opened them, I argued with him about what size he is. He was right and the shirts were too small. Wife fail. They're going back today.
Meal planning has helped exponentially. We've been to the grocery store as a family and spent Sunday afternoons couponing, making lists and deciding on meals for the week. We are still eating out way too much (mostly fast food - yuck!), but we're making improvements.
Early bath time is awesome, the laundry is currently caught up and my house is "almost" clean.
All the bills for January were paid timely and I kept up with my checkbook on a regular basis. Again, we spent too much money on food, but we stayed within our overall budget.
I bought three things for myself this month instead of two, but that should be considered a huge success. I bought a winter jacket, new pumps for work and a cute sweater for Bama games. SD totally gave me a pass on that last one.
I already told you I ordered 3 gifts each for the girls for Christmas this year, so that's going well.
I read three books this month (The Millennium Series -- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Girl who Played with Fire and Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest) and they were fantastic. I'm currently looking for at least two books for February... any suggestions?

The things I didn't do so well with were using my Life Planner, getting back into the gym and blogging. Those are all things I plan to excel in this month! In fact, I have two more cute posts for tomorrow and Friday so come back soon.

Project 365: Week Four

2012-01-29T13:06:00.002-06:00

This week of Project: 365 was much more "people" driven. I took fewer pictures of places and things and many more pictures of the girls. I managed to get several pictures of Ella this week, which really makes me happy. My calendar for this month is filling up and I can't wait to share it with you on Wednesday. I have loved making a photo calendar and I'm already working on the design for next month's!

Sunday, January 22: I'm sure Ella was off watching "big girl shows", but Sophie and I snuggled

up on the couch to watch football with daddy. At 21 months, this girl already loves football!

Monday, January 23: After baths, I found Sophie on the couch with Ella "reading" Little House

in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy. We LOVE reading about Laura Ingalls before bed at night.

Tuesday, January 24: Ella was less than pleased about our selection for dinner this night.

I doubt she was really happy about this photo either, but the face was too cute not to document.

Wednesday, January 25: I was home sick and got to see my sweet girls on the way to school.

Josh gets them ready and drops them off long after I leave for work most days, so this was a treat!

Thursday, January 26: Sophie got a little truck in her Burger King happy meal and was in love.

Friday, January 27: I had a date night with my best friend, Ryan. After spending way too much

money at the mall, we ate Olive Garden for dinner and shopped at Target until they kicked us out.

Saturday, January 28: It was circus day! Ella was happy as a lark with her red nose on.

Thanks for stopping by again this week. Don't forget to visit Laura at Between the Lines to check out week four of Project 365.

everyone.

2012-01-27T15:19:00.001-06:00

That is the answer to the question I asked Josh on Wednesday afternoon.

"Guess who likes brownie mix?"

Everyone.

Just ask Sophie.

tuesday.

2012-01-25T06:00:00.003-06:00

January is one of those months where nothing special happens. We are recovering from football season, from December, from the excessive spending around the holidays. We stay in, snuggled up watching movies, working puzzles and playing tea party. The girls go to bed early and we stay up late, reading or talking. Work is busy and stressful, design work is starting to pick back up again and we are finally getting back into a routine three weeks after school started.

This is what a typical January Tuesday night looks like.

Sophie insists on eating yogurt while we cook dinner. She is obsessed with sitting in her chair, wearing a bib and feeding herself. She is getting really good at it, but sometimes uses her fingers to dig the last few bits out of the container. I wish I could tell you how she pronounces yogurt. It's sort of like odent or odunt, but said as a single syllable. Does that even make sense? She has the sweetest little language and I find myself so sad as she starts saying things right. Just this week she started saying baby instead of baden. Sad.

Ella pretty much cried from the moment I picked her up. She was furious about the dinner selection and tried her hardest to negotiate cereal. I don't usually force the girls to eat things that they don't like. We save those for after they're in bed or offer them an alternative. I am not, however, letting her eat cereal just because she doesn't want something on a given day. Saying you don't like something doesn't make it so. Especially when we've seen you go back for seconds only a few short weeks ago. She cried so hard that she passed out on the couch for an hour. You know what happens when big isn't watching? Little steals the lip balm from her backpack (and mom notices how dirty her kitchen floors are!).

While Ella cried and complained about everything last night, Sophie couldn't have been happier. She loved the yogurt, had two helpings of dinner, played tea party in the living room and danced a little to "baby rock" (Baby by Justin Beiber). When I offered up a bubble bath, she went nuts! This is her admiring her ponytail in the mirror. Apparently, Heidi was fixing ponies for the bit girls and Sophie insisted she join in the fun. She looked like Pebbles Flintstone!

Nothing makes this girl happier that bubbles and cups in the bathtub.

Well, maybe her Dora toothbrush and a little of big sister's toothpaste.

Thanks to Daylight Savings, both girls were tucked in by 7 o'clock and no one was the wiser. SD walked across the street for a basketball game and I managed to actually sit down at the computer for more than 5 minutes at one time. I deem it a huge success that I managed to upload images, schedule this blog post, check Facebook and take a peek at Pinterest all in the same sitting. Now if only I could find a cute red dress that didn't cost $100, I could call it a day!

Yay, Alabama!

2012-01-24T06:00:00.001-06:00

I thought maybe it was time for a blog post. You know, one that involves actual pictures taken with a camera and not a phone. Remember those?

It isn't every day that SD {sweet daddy, for those of you just visiting} takes center stage. As you know, two weeks ago he was in New Orleans for the BCS National Championship game. He's been asking me for a week why I haven't posted his pictures yet, especially considering that I hounded him about taking a camera! I doubt I could have convinced him to write this post, but he did manage to supply lots of good text messages. I was afraid he would get bored with me quick sending him constant messages to see where he was and what he was doing, but we actually managed to talk for most of the night. Along with some pictures and a video here is how the conversation went...

January 9, 2012

Josh at 10:33 a.m. -- "U should have come... I doubt I get in. We coulda just watched in a bar..."

Kristin at 10:33 a.m. -- "Don't say that... I might get teary eyed. I am SICK that I didn't come."

Josh at 3:55 p.m. -- "Just put 10 dollars in the penny slot. Cashed out for 150!!! Woooooo!!!"

Kristin at 3:56 p.m. -- "Wooo for you. Your ticket budget just increased!"

Kristin at 6:42 p.m. --"Where are you?"

Josh at 6:42 p.m. --"At the dome. Searching for a ticket."

Kristin at 7:08 pm. -- "Your 3 best girls say RTR!"

Josh at 7:32 p.m. -- "I'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spent $$$ tho. 150 more than I had. Haha."

Kristin at 7:45 p.m. -- "They (my family) want to know where your ticket is..."

Josh at 8:23 p.m. -- "Right in front of LSU cheerleaders. Tenth row. LSU fans everywhere. Haha."

Josh at 8:48 p.m. -- "This is so awesome!!!! Wish you were here...I am sitting with [LSU] players' parents. They're not happy about me here. Haha. May watch second half in the courtyard Bama side so I can cheer."

Kristin at 9:44 p.m. -- "You better bring me a stadium cup!!!"

Josh at 9:44 p.m. -- "Holding it in my hand now."

Kristin at 9:46 p.m. -- "I <3 Jeremy Shelley :)."

Kristin at 9:47 p.m. -- "Are you still sitting with the honey badger's momma?"

Josh at 9:48 p.m. -- "Nah. I'm on the Bama side. But on the concourse."

Josh at 10:14 p.m. -- "Just high fived and Roll Tided Marcel Dareus!"

Kristin at 10:16 p.m. -- "Be careful tonight... people will be looking for a fight. And video Rammer Jammer!! And get somebody to take your pic inside and don't lose your ticket. I'll frame it for your birthday!"

Kristin at 10:32 p.m. -- "Give em hell, Alabama!"

Josh at 11:02 p.m. -- "Woooooooooo!!!!!!"

I gave him a pretty hard time about how the pictures he took with the camera are all beautiful, but that there isn't a single one of him! He got a few with his phone but the quality is terrible. He pretty much made fun of me and said that taking a picture in the dome was the last thing he was thinking of. WE JUST WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! So... phone pic it is.

As completely and ridiculously jealous as I am that I wasn't there and foregoing the fact that we COULD NOT have afforded two of those tickets, I am so glad he was there. I'm glad that even though he sat by himself, he got to celebrate with his second favorite person in the world. He seriously didn't stop talking about it for days. We ordered fresh copies of the newspaper and have a stack of fun memorabilia to frame. We even watched the game again on TV later in the week so that he could see it from another perspective.

And my favorite picture of the game? LSU gear on sale... the morning after. Roll Tide.

And just in case you didn't hear it over Nick's post game interview, here is my husband cheering at the top of his lungs. Hang on through the fight song 'cause this Rammer Jammer is worth it. Pardon the squeals and dirty words.

Project 365: Week Three

2012-01-22T12:31:00.001-06:00

I did it!! Three whole weeks of taking and posting at least one picture every day. This week was less exciting than some, but there was lots of yummy food involved. You'll also notice that Ella is pretty elusive when it comes to photographs. I didn't catch her a single time this week!

Sunday, January 15 - We ate dinner at Huddle House after church. I had french toast!

Monday, January 16 - I caught Beemer snoozing sitting up on my way out to work!

Tuesday, January 17 - We stayed up late and watched a movie after the girls were in

bed. I usually like SJP, but we both hated this movie. It was all we could do to finish it!

Wednesday, January 18 - I went to Billy's with a friend for lunch. I don't look at the menu. It is always

Billy's Chicken sandwich with cheese and onion straws. Wanna know the best part? WHITE BBQ SAUCE!

Thursday, January 19 - Josh & Ella went to the high school basketball game.

Sophie & I stayed home, ate Burger King and watched cartoons. She's a ham.

Friday, January 20 - Date night! We had Chick-fil-A and I smuggled my extra large sweet tea

into the movie theater. We had free tickets from a snafu several months ago and we saw The Girl with

the Dragon Tattoo. It wasn't as good as the books, but I really enjoyed it. Even if it was a lot graphic.

Saturday, January 21 - I cooked hamburger steak, shoepeg corn and smashed

potatoes for dinner. Terrible picture, fantastic dinner. Two little girls helped me

cook and we sat together at the table for the first time all week!

Thanks for stopping by again this week. Don't forget to visit Between the Lines to check out week three of Project 365.

reVolutions.

2012-01-21T20:16:00.006-06:00

I saw on a blog several weeks ago, someone refer to their goals for this year as revolutions instead of resolutions and it really struck a chord with me. I think so often we make these lofty goals that we know we don't have a hope or a prayer of sticking with and then we feel guilty for the rest of the year for not "following through". Instead of starting fresh or getting back in the swing of things, we push the commitment off and procrastinate until another year brings with it the chance for a fresh start. I know that my goals always have to do with health, fitness and finances and I feel ridiculous listing them out for you to read, when if I looked back at last year it would be the same sad list. Josh & I have been talking about some goals for this year and some areas that we'd like to really work on. I'm hoping that together, we can achieve so much more than when I take on a project by myself.

So here we go, three weeks into 2012, my New Year's Revolutions!

We have declared 2012 as the "year of gifts". While that might sound sad and materialistic, it is really far from it. When we read Love Languages together during our pre-marital counseling, it was no surprise to me (or my then fiance) that one my primary languages was giving/receiving gifts. It isn't about the money invested or hoarding of things, so much as I love knowing I was thought of and that someone carefully selected something with me in mind and I love even more finding gifts for other people. You know how your momma always says "it's the thought that counts"? Well, that couldn't be more true. SD and I are bad about declaring a holiday gift-free or buying a house gift or family gift instead of carefully selecting something for one another. I love shopping for gifts and the anticipation of giving and we've been missing out on that for a long time. We decided that this year we would give gifts for Valentine's Day, our anniversary, birthdays and Christmas. We aren't setting or comparing budgets, we aren't asking "did you buy me a gift for this holiday?", we are just buying each other something we know they would love.

We need to be more organized. And I don't mean some sort of filing system or color-coded labels. If you had visited my house before I had children, it would have been clean and everything in it had a home. While some of that suffered after Ella was born, I managed to stay on top of things pretty well. If I'm being honest, that all kind of fell apart after the second child. Now I find myself exhausted after dinner and hoping that bedtime would hurry up so that I can relax for a few minutes and read a book, or have an adult conversation with my husband. We avoid laundry like it's the plague and our kitchen rarely gets cleaned the same day we cook something. It's both embarrassing and unnecessary. We've decided that we let ourselves get lazy last year and we are done. Josh thinks we need a laminated sign that says "the year of organization" to hang up so we can't ignore it. I can't help but laugh just thinking about how nice that would look! Here are few things we are trying to do to keep our home better organized and our lives less cluttered:

Folding and putting away laundry as it's done -- I'm having a hard time typing this since we currently have about four loads that need to be folded, but we have to start somewhere. Ella is responsible for getting the girls' basket to the laundry room when it's full and Josh generally keeps it rolling throughout the day while he's at home working. That means I have to take some responsibility for the length of its stay on our floor after being dried. I'm hoping to spend 30 minutes or so each night folding while I watch television. Even though I don't want to do it every day, I know if I would spend a few minutes each night that it wouldn't pile up and ruin my Saturday morning.
Whoever cooks dinner gets a reprieve from cleaning the kitchen and the other spouse makes sure it's all cleaned up before the next day. Josh pointed out last night (when he wouldn't clean on my schedule) that the cleaner should get to do it on their own terms, so I'm going to try not to dictate when cleans, as long as he does!
Meal planning. For the last two weeks, we've sat down over the weekend and planned our meals for the week before I head to the grocery store. Monday night we cook. Tuesday night is a crock pot meal because Josh usually works late and that gives me some time for other chores if I don't have to cook right when I walk in the door. Wednesday night we fend for ourselves -- Ella spends the night with my parents, Josh takes Sophie to the Grill for a daddy/daughter date night and I usually grab Chipotle or Panera Bread on my way to Bible study. Thursday nights is dance and we usually do something easy. I might pick up pizza from Little Caesar's or we'll cook a hamburger or tacos. Friday night we cook and then we leave the weekend open for dinner out or a little spontaneity.
Grocery shopping on Sunday (or Saturday) afternoons while the girls are napping has been great the last few weeks. As much as I hate to do this on the weekends, my Monday night shopping trips weren't working. For starters, it means I'm late getting home one night a week and the girls lunches are a little sad on Mondays. I also hate sending supplies to Sophie's caregiver mid-week. Meal planning really helps keep my grocery budget under control and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of couponing this month.
Early bath times for the girls make a huge difference in our night. When we put it off until after dinner, the night feels rushed, there isn't as much family time and we don't all get to eat together. Tuesday night, the girls hopped in the shower as soon as we got home while I finished up dinner and Josh worked. By the time they were fresh and clean, he was done for the day and dinner was on the table. We were able to eat as a family, spend some time playing hide and go seek and then read before bedtime. It also guarantees everyone is tucked in on time!

Another area I'm really working on is our budget. I don't just mean I'm trying to "spend less and save more", but that I'm going to be more diligent about keeping up with our finances. We might not have any more money, but I at least want to be aware of what we have. I made a nifty little budget form when Josh got his new job last year, but I rarely even look at it. On Monday night, I spent three hours updating my checkbook register and writing checks. The last time I had even looked at our bank balance was the day before I flew to NYC. For whatever reason, thinking about money gives me heart palpitations. This year, I'm going to be more deliberate about our finances. I am going to transfer money into our savings account once a month for Disney World. I'm going to update my register, balance my checkbook and pay bills once a week. We are going to *hopefully* pay my car off early and start looking for a new family vehicle for Josh to drive now that he doesn't need a big truck. I'm going to pay off my two remaining credit cards and learn to live debt free. I am not going to have an anxiety attack thinking about the stack of paper on my desk. As long as I stay on top of it, there is nothing to panic about.

Bible study. I hope you realize that this list isn't in any particular order. If it were, this would be number one. I am striving for nightly devotions with Ella before bed. She has a precious book she received for her birthday last year and after only a few nights, I am already seeing a difference in our nightly routine. She is starting to recognize that God can speak to her through books and scripture and some of the devotions have really applied to situations in her life right now. I am also hoping to spend more time in the Word myself. I have always struggled with daily reading, but my small group is really helping me to conquer that. This year, I am leading a ten week study of Crazy Love and the obligation of leading my group is keeping me accountable. While I might not be reading lengthy passages each day, I am spending many days preparing for our sessions and even more time thinking about what God wants me to say. I am hoping the study will strengthen friendships, help me to better understand God's crazy love for me and revolutionize my prayer life.

Now. Those are the major things I want to focus on in 2012. It isn't a list of goals to check off, but some areas of my life that need revolution. I know I'm not going to look back in 2013 and laugh at this list. It isn't unmanageable or scary and because these things are vital for my sanity and survival, I'm hoping I won't completely flake out. And just in case you did want to see a list of "not as life-changing" goals I've made for myself this year. Here is a list of things we can check things off:

1. Limit my shopping/spending to one or two things for myself each month and nothing more. No more buying things just because they are on sale or because I feel like shopping. Save that money for more important things. Instead, buy pieces that will last longer and that I won't get tired of. So far this month, I bought a new pair of pumps for work and a winter coat. Neither were overpriced or frivolous and I didn't have buyer's remorse. I am done shopping for January. Done.

2. Buy at least one Christmas gift for each girl every month in 2012. Since we are going to Disney World for Christmas (shhhhh, it's a secret!) I want to be done shopping when December 1st rolls around. I want to be able to use the money we normally set aside for gifts to help fund a trip of a lifetime for our girls. I don't want to be stressed about how to pay for the trip and buy gifts the month of December. In fact, I've already bought them each 3 things! I got them both a really pretty winter coat for next year and I picked up two Disney movies for them each. If you aren't already a member of the Disney Movie Club, it is a great way to keep up with what movies are currently out of the vault and they are always offering great deals.

3. Use my life-planner. Write down appointments and events, make weekly grocery lists and monthly action lists. Lists keep me on track and I didn't make nearly enough of them last year.

4. Organize the clothes the girls have outgrown by size and season. Stop tossing them into bins and ignoring them. That will only make me scream later down the road.

5. Better organize our holiday bins and mark them for content. Be thinking about Christmas decorations and projects throughout the year so that I'm not overwhelmed in December. Repurpose decor we already own in new ways and add some outdoor decorations this year.

6. Go on at least one weekend getaway with my husband and leave the girls behind. NYC was so much fun last year and traveling together is so good for your relationship. We are already making plans to go to Dallas for the Bama game this year, so we're well on our way towards checking this one off.

7. Begin planning a big anniversary trip with my husband. This is our tenth anniversary and because of Disney, we won't really be celebrating it in style. We're thinking of celebrating close to home and starting to save for a big trip for #11. I'd like to have a destination and a budget in mind before the year was over. Any unused Disney money can be funneled here. I'm thinking European vacation... sounds nice, right?

8. Read more GOOD books. My goal is two books per month and I'm taking recommendations if you have one. I just finished reading the Millennium series, and although it was extremely graph and hard to read in some places, I really enjoyed it.

9. Get back into the gym on a regular basis. Last year I did so good working out on my lunch break and I want to keep that up this year. A busy fall at work and then the holidays got me out of the routine, but I already have my bag packed for Monday. I really, really want to wear a two piece bathing suit one more summer!

10. Blog a few days each week. I'm not making promises to be here every day, but I hate that 2011 isn't nearly as well-documented as the several years before it. I can do better than this!

Okay. That's it. No pictures, just a long list of things I really need to work on. Maybe I'll recap at the end of each month and let you know how things are going!

Project 365: Week Two

2012-01-15T19:20:00.001-06:00

So, my pictures aren't that great this week. I'll be honest... it was rough. Our sweet daddy was in New Orleans celebrating just a little bit, I was SLAMMED at work preparing for an out of town project and my children were a little crazy. I did manage to snap at least one image every day, but that's about the only thing I did this week. My house is a wreck, I worked ten hours on Saturday and I'm gearing up for several weeks of travel at work. Maybe next week will be a little more exciting!

Sunday, January 8: Sophie would not go to sleep, instead we stayed up late and watched The Help.

Monday, January 9: We had a watch party and did some major celebrating. Roll Tide Roll!

Tuesday, January 10: My girls tried to sleep together. It lasted about 15 minutes.

Wednesday, January 11: I "facilitated" my first Bible Study this week. Crazy Love rocks!

Thursday, January 12: Sophie was up at six a.m. for an early morning color sesh.

Friday, January 13: SD and I watched the game on TV... again.

Saturday, January 14: I had to work a long day, but the upside was this CFA sausage biscuit. Yummy!

Be sure to stop by and visit Between the Lines and check out week two of Project 365. Enjoy!

roll tide.

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Let me be honest... I'm sad to be in Birmingham today. My cutey-patootie husband set out yesterday morning for New Orleans and I. AM. JEALOUS. I've been saying all season that I was going no matter what, but I'm finding myself at a desk today wishing I wasn't. When we lost to LSU in November, we booked plane tickets to NYC and never looked back. Then, in the next few weeks things miraculously fell into place for Bama and we wound up back in the big game. I don't regret going to the city one little bit, but our plan all along had been to buy national championship tickets for Christmas this year. A combination of things kept me home and I sad as I am not to be by his side there is nothing I can do about it. Believe it or not, I am SO thrilled that Josh is there and I hope we pull off a fantastic win tonight and that he has the (second best) time of his life.

Since I couldn't be there, I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures from football season over the course of the blog. I hope you enjoy.

At our last Championship win for the 2009 season, I was very much pregnant with Sophie and and Ella was such a little thing!

In 2010, we officially became season ticket holders and I couldn't wait to see my littles all dressed up.

Here we our in Bryant Denny Stadium -- our nice red seats with arm rests and a roof. Thank you, Lord!

October of 2010 brought one of many home games SD went to without me while the girls and I watched with his parents and our friends. We might have had to stay at home, but that didn't keep us from getting decked out in our crimson & white and cheering on the Tide!

In November of 2010, we took Ella to her very first Alabama game. She was such a trooper, even though it was cold! We saw Denny Chimes, had frozen yogurt and watched the boys come into the stadium. There were many rounds of "Yay, Alabama"!

Later that month, I saw my very first Iron Bowl in person and it was so much fun! We might not have won the game, but it didn't stop us from having a very good time.

September 3, 2011 will forever be known as "the day I tore the tickets"!

Before we knew it, it was time to take Ella back to Tuscaloosa. She got her first face tattoo and had a blast, as usual.

Here we are at the first LSU game. Man, I can show some school spirit. This one CLEARLY didn't turn out how we hoped, but I'm crossing my fingers for a better outcome this go round.

I sent SD to NOLA armed with a digital camera and strict orders to take lots of pictures. I might not be there with him, but that does not mean it doesn't need to be documented for posterity. We're still not sure he'll even get into the game, but I'm guessing he'll be cheering for his team inside or out of the stadium, having a great time.

Roll Tide, friends. I'm hoping I can post again tonight with an even bigger RTR.

Project 365: Week One

2012-01-08T13:14:00.000-06:00

It's funny how I found myself here today. I decided at the end of last year that I wanted to take one photograph every day in 2012. My plan was to use my phone (this will help since it's always with me) and blog them at the end of each month. I think it's been established that I'm addicted to Instagram, so I thought it would be a fun way to collect vintage looking images of my family throughout the year. I created a fun little illustrated calendar with my photos included and I've been inserting my images for each day.

Then today, two of my blog friends posted their first week of Project 365, along with a link for a week one round up and I decided I might as well join in! I'll blog the completed calendar at the end of each month, just as I'd planned, but the weekly posts will help keep me accountable.

Sunday, January 1: two little girls were enjoying their new play room VERY much

Monday, January 2: this little booger kept hiding in the curtains

Tuesday, January 3: Back to work after eleven days off and back to the gym after a 3 month hiatus

Wednesday, January 4: Sophie enjoys a bubble bath and plays "peep eye" around the camera

Thursday, January 5: Ella goes back to dance and is thrilled to see Kynnedi & Natalie

(sorry, Angela -- Kynnedi's eyes are always closed when I take a picture!)

Friday, January 6: I had to work late and wound up in gridlock. Daggers.

Saturday, January 7: shopping with Gran & Ella brought me a fun new hat and scarf

Be sure to stop by and visit Between the Lines and check out everyone's first week of documenting 2012. Enjoy!

The Day After Aftermath

2012-01-06T20:07:00.006-06:00

The day after Christmas is one of the days I look forward to most. There is still a Christmas tree and there isn't anywhere to go or do that you don't want to. There is candy for breakfast and you can wear your pjs and strew your toys all over the house without getting into trouble. Don't get me wrong, I love the excitement and magic of Christmas morning, but the relaxation of the aftermath is pretty fantastic.

A few years ago we started celebrating with my parents the evening after Christmas. This year, they came over bright and early to deliver a very special gift for the girls. There was a TON of squealing and jumping up and down and cheering when this Hello Kitty paper came off.

I think Josh was a little upset that the jumping capacity won't allow us to participate. Heck, I'm kind of sad about that myself. This mini trampoline, however, is the perfect size for our littles and will be great for many years before we have to consider upgrading.

Since there was rain in the forecast and the trampoline was small enough, we decided to put it together on our porch so that the girls could really enjoy it while we were home for the next few days. BEST. DECISION. EVER. And in the interest of full disclosure, it's still there... on our porch where the swing should be.

We had two very excited helpers who helped sort pieces and empty tools onto the ground and generally confuse everyone who was really participating!

They weren't really interested in waiting until it was put together. As soon as Soph realized what it was she was climbing on every chance she got.

We convinced the girls to let us get in for a few minutes to snag a family photo op. Do you know how hard that is on a bouncy surface when there are two girls who REALLY want to jump?

Let's just say that the photo below was the last happy moment before the "incident" occurred. See that smile on Ella's face? And the one on mommy's face? Yeah, they didn't last very long. Here's what went down: there was an unnecessary reaction to our lingering presence on the trampoline, then some bodily harm BY the child., there might have been some yelling, a set of parents locked outside, a set of horribly embarrassed grandparents standing witness and a little more screaming. It ended with an announcement of "no jumping today." Hmmm. Let's just leave it at that.

After a heart to heart, some crying and an apology we fixed lunch and piled on the couch to watch a movie that Ella got in her stocking. Let's just say that there is nothing like sour cream & onion Pringles and an animal movie to soothe the soul and make everything better. We finished off the day with presents and a snack supper in front of the fireplace at Garan's. Since the girls got their big present that morning, they had a few small gifts and an awesome stocking to dig into, plus a lovely little surprise from KCory.

Y'all, the squeal that occurred when this Bieber CD was opened was almost as loud as the one from the morning arrival of the trampoline. This girl was in heaven. She & her sister might have had a little dance party to Baby over and over and over. She & this boombox might need to spend the night at Auntie K's asap!

As always, it was a wonderful time with my family and we stuffed ourselves on veggie soup, cheeseball & crackers, pigs in a blanket and all manner of sweet treats. The boys watched football and I may or may not have fallen asleep in the floor in front of the fireplace. THAT is Christmas, friends.

Our "Merry Christmas" Morning

2012-01-03T20:11:00.004-06:00

WARNING: This post is a photograph overload... I couldn't make a decision and loved them all too much. Bear with me!

When we last left off, this is what things looked like around here. For whatever reason, after the girls went to bed on Christmas Eve I started to panic about what my photos would look like. I hate using the flash, I was worried about things being blurry without it, my video camera would be on the tripod so that was out. I think I just like to worry in general. I decided I should shoot Christmas morning in manual mode. For the first time. I sat down with my camera manual and figured it out. Sort of. Granted, many of these have a smidge of blur and they are far from perfect -- they are MUCH brighter and prettier than any of our previous Christmas celebrations. So, I'm trying to have no regrets and just go with it. Now on to the big day!

I woke up at 5:30. I made coffee, pigs in a blanket and sausage balls. I took some pictures of the loot and checked my camera one more time. I put new batteries in the video camera, I fixed Beemer a treat so she wouldn't bother us all morning and then I waited. Finally, at 7 o'clock I was done waiting. I woke up Josh first and then the girls. We brushed hair and added bows (last year's bed head was disastrous!) and started videoing. Christmas. WAS. ON.

The first thing Sophie did was sit down on her four-wheeler and push the button. She knew just what to do and waited for no one. Including mommy's camera. I'm sad there isn't a better shot, but this is what it looked like. A blurry Sophie whirring around the room on her pretty pink quad. She doesn't know how to steer, so she rides until she runs into something and then shouts UH-OH at the top of her lungs. It's pretty awesome.

In true Ella fashion, after she surveyed the unwrapped goods, she headed straight for her stocking. There were pretty pink earbuds, sparkly flats, Miss Mismatch socks, a movie, stickers and tons of Reese's peanut butter cups. Santa certainly knows the way to this girl's heart!

Sophie couldn't believe she had finally been given the green light to open gifts. She squealed and smiled and gasped with every shred of the paper. She didn't care what was inside -- clothes, toys, sippy cups -- it was all exciting and she tried out every single thing.

It's beginning to look like Christmas to me! Notice, neither child sat in their chair. Oh well... if nothing else, it looked super cute!

I can't believe that I didn't get Ella to turn her jewelry box around or get a picture of the treasure around her neck. The only thing she requested from our trip to NYC was an apple necklace (the Big Apple, you know), but we couldn't find one anywhere! Thanks to our friend etsy and expressed shipping, we managed to snag this one a mere days before Christmas. To say that she was thrilled is a huge understatement. It's barely left her sight since the moment it was unboxed.

Sophie finally spotted her stocking and found a zig zag sock monkey, a new sippy cup, plastic animals and a stash of M&Ms. Yummy!

Ella loves these Scribbles & Nibbles disposable placemats -- they are similar to those you find at restaurants that she loves to color with her daddy. She also got some pretty cute Barbie clothes from her little sister.

Sophie quickly blew through her Dora stickers. She insisted on putting every single one "one her belly!". We still have a lot to learn about stickers.

And for the sake of remembering, here is what the girls got for Christmas...

{Sophie} from Santa: hot pink quad, baby umbrella stroller, iPhone apptivity case and a full stocking; from Ella: a new coloring book from the Santa shop at school; from Mom & Dad: a new Corelle doll from FAO Schwartz in NYC, Little People surfer truck and several new outfits.

{Ella} from Santa: Mobigo, two games and carrying case, the entire Junie B. Jones book set, the Little House on the Prairie books and a full stocking; from Sophie: Barbie clothes; from Mom & Dad: apple necklace, two 100 piece puzzles from FAO Schwartz, the pad of disposable placemats, a new jacket for school, a headband and several new outfits.

We were almost done opening gifts when Ella thought to check the cookie plate. At first she was a little disappointed when she thought Santa hadn't read or taken her letter. She grabbed it up only to find that Santa left her a little note in it's place. How sweet!

Santa thought he was SO smart bringing Sophie this little gadget! It lets her play with mommy's iPhone without access to the home key. I can start an application, or importantly her her "see Sophie Kae" and she can't mess anything up. Word to the wise... it's a pain in the rump to open and close and if the screen locks, you have to take it out to unlock it since you've blocked access to the home key. Parenting/Santa FAIL.

Next up was some breakfast time, testing out new art supplies by Ella and some more mess making by Sophie Kae. I just took pictures of it all and enjoying see my littles so happy.

I can't help but share this funny, even though the picture reveals how ridiculous I am sometimes. Last year our girls slept late and we had family walk in the front door just as we are video taping the girls entrance into the room. The video is hilarious because you can barely see their reaction for the door swinging open. The left and came back later and we got plenty of good video, but just in case, we left a note for our friends and family this year. And lucky for us, it was in the trash before any visitors came by!

After plenty of time to enjoy our toys, we got all dressed up and headed out to church on Christmas morning. I couldn't think of anywhere I would rather be to celebrate the birth of our Savior and surprised myself by thinking just how wonderful it was for Christmas to fall on a Sunday. It was wonderful to celebrate in His house. There was a huge crowd and the service was so special. Our minister of music played this video and I couldn't help but tear up - AMAZING!

We rounded out the day with my crazy family. There were about 30 of us, eating the best food, playing cards, sitting around the fire and napping. It was wonderful. I don't think we got home until after 10 o'clock that night and if I hadn't been so tired we would have stayed even later. I won a rousing game of Shanghai and managed to plow through multiple plates of yummy food while I was at it.

Ella managed to find her way back to pajamas and even learned how to play Speed. She was so excited to know a big girl game of cards and actually did quite well. Sophie was just thrilled to be sporting her cowgirl boots again and opening more gifts. She got some Little People, a Mrs. Potato Head and some Christmas books.

This was such a wonderful Christmas and I cannot imagine it getting much better. I know that every year brings more and more to celebrate as our children grow and learn more about the true reason for the season. The anticipation builds and there is even more to be excited about. For now, it is family and magic and singing Happy Birthday, Jesus. It's identifying the characters in the nativity scene and waiting for Santa to make his delivery. It is enjoying my girls while they are young, getting excited with them and doing everything in my power to preserve the magic just a little bit longer.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours. I hope it was just as blessed and wonderful as ours was!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2012-01-03T06:00:00.001-06:00

When Scout came to visit on the morning of Christmas Eve he left the girls a note, so they knew to expect a little surprise from him when we got home from Nana's and Communion later in the evening. True to his word, Scout was on the living room buffet with a pretty package for the girls.

Can you tell they were excited?

On top of the gift was a silver key just for Santa so that he could let himself in since we don't have any working fire places in our home. It took some discussion to determine just what the key was for, but Ella was really excited once we all talked about it. She was puzzled that it wouldn't fit in the front door, but decided that it must mean when Santa touched the key it was magically transformed. We were all about the magic of Christmas this year.

They also got some really pretty Christmas pjs (from Hanna Andersson that I adore!) from Scout this year. They couldn't wait to get into them.

But first, we needed a good scrub in the tub! What is better than a bubble bath right before Santa makes his big delivery?

Then it was time for a last minute letter to Santa Claus. Trust me when I tell you that I teared up big time while she wrote this one. Just in case you're having trouble, it says "Dear Santa, I hope you bring me lots of good toys! Have a good flight and take care of Scout. Love, Ella & Sophie". She had to have a little spelling help, but wrote it all out herself.

Next up was cookies, chocolate milk, a last minute Norad tracking of Santa himself and our annual viewing of A Christmas Story.

SD & I checked the living room again just before we piled into bed and were so excited to see that Santa's delivery had been made. The red chairs were gifts last year, but Ella & I decided to sit them out so that Santa Claus would know just where to leave everything and the girls would have a comfy place to sit and open gifts. Didn't Santa do a great job?

Christmas at Nana's

2012-01-02T19:15:00.001-06:00

On Christmas Eve, we always celebrate with Josh's parents. His mom cooks the BEST lunch -- country cooked ham, chicken & dressing, macaroni & cheese, lots of veggies that I avoid on principal, rolls and lots of homemade desserts. We all pretty much stalk the kitchen until the dressing is out of the oven and then eat way too much.

This year, Ella wasn't feeling well and we knew she had an ear infection in at least one ear. We were waiting to hear back from the nurse, but I felt sure we would be traveling into town to the after hours clinic at some point in the afternoon. We ate quickly and opened gifts early so that she wouldn't miss any of the important parts of the day.

We knew that Sophie was going to be fun at Christmas this year. At twenty months old, she's the perfect age to open her own gifts and understand that they were for her, but she isn't old enough to be picky about what she receives or to compare her gifts with the other girls.

She got a pretty Barbie doll like her older sister and cousin, awesome pink suede cowgirl boots, a cute outfit and a new Lovie that she's already named Tuck.

What we weren't prepared for is how much fun Ella would be this year. She was over-the-moon happy with every gift she got this year and we lost count of how many times she said, "OH! It's just what I always wanted!"

I loved these next few shots while she realized she was opening a gorgeous pair of real cowgirl boots. Y'all, they are beautiful. So much so, that I've already asked SD if I can have a pair just like them!

How cute are these three cousins in their pretty new boots?

2011 in Pictures

2011-12-31T10:21:00.001-06:00

In January, we saw the elephants walk into town, made our annual appearance on the front row at the Barnum & Bailey circus, saw Sophie turn nine months old, learned to ride our big girl bike and enjoyed Sophie's first "snow"!

In February, I learned to be really honest, we enjoyed an Alumni baseball game at our alma mater, you were introduced to Sophie's french fry and we gave this room a major overhaul.

In March, we took our first trip to IKEA, moved to a new URL, took my favorite family pictures ever, celebrated Beemer's eighth birthday and took our first ride on the boat.

In April we celebrated someone's first birthday, ate lots of spaghetti, we dedicated Sophie to the Lord before our church and mourned with our state over a deadly tornado.

With May came Mother's Day and some unconventional gifts, we finally started posting about Easter {the hunting, dyeing and celebrating} and started enjoying pool life again.

June is always one of my favorite months! We had a play date with our favorite friends, gave you a tour around camp, and spend a lot of time at the beach.

There was some singing in the rain when July found us, we celebrated our nations birthday and had our first Krispy Kreme donuts.

In August, I celebrated my ninth wedding anniversary, started big-girl school, ran around with some cows and tried to vlog which turned out to be a half an hour long!

September was a really fun month. It was finally football season and I made a big mistake, we had a spectacular mermaid party and we welcomed our daddy back home!

In October, we had a family weenie roast, Ella's dance class performed at school and we spent a lazy Sunday at the park.

November brought trips to the pumpkin patch, jack-o-lanterns and lots of candy. Sophie got her very first haircut, we had a fabulous time in Tuscaloosa and had a very happy Thanksgiving with our family.

Wow, December went by fast -- this might have been my favorite one ever! We met Santa Claus, picked out our pretty tree and SD & I took a wonderful trip to New York City for Christmas. And of course, we celebrated a wonderful Christmas with our family of four.

We have had such a wonderful year and as always, we are so thankful that you are here to read and really appreciate all of the kind comments and emails you send our way each week. If you want to see our yearly picture posts from the past, click here for 2009 and here for 2010. My how we've grown!

Catch him if you can!

2011-12-30T13:39:00.001-06:00

The night before Christmas Eve, we were cleaning house, wrapping presents and eating pizza as a family when we heard sirens. I did a double-take and realized that they didn't sound like warning sirens and that Santa Clause must be in the neighborhood! We went out on the porch and could see him a good ways in the distance making his way towards our house. When we realized that his entourage was going to miss our house (we are only one of a few which face the road and he took the street behind us instead), we started grabbing mittens and boots and threw ourselves in the car. A few neighborhoods away... we found him.

Sophie held onto Josh so tight, but both girls were excited to see him so close to Christmas!

Two Big Girls

2011-12-30T09:39:00.001-06:00

Yes, I know I should be sharing photos from our Christmas celebrations, but I'm not quite there yet. I thought instead I would share what we worked all day on yesterday. When we woke up, Sophie had a nursery and by the time we went to bed, it was all gussied up as a play room. We moved the kitchen and baby dolls into her room and added a comfy chair for reading and where mommy could watch the comings and goings.

Bonus points for not having to walk through the room of a sleeping baby to go to the restroom! And giant fail for not realizing that a bath towel was creeping out of that door before I took these pictures. Meet Tuck, Sophie's Christmas lovie. She has never been attached to anything before now, but Nana & Grandpa gave her this sweet light up one that she calls Tuck and carries everywhere. The little blue wagon is from IKEA, courtesy of our favs K and Cory.

The kitchen fits perfectly on the hearth with room to spare for the little highchairs. I'm going to be adding wooden chairs for the girls to use around the little green table and this kitchen set up will be perfect!

And now for the sleeping room. Yesterday, Ella had it all to herself, but she's pretty excited about sharing it with her little sister. Ultimately, we want them sharing a bed. I know that seems a little strange to go from having their own rooms to sharing a bed, but both of my girls are cuddlers. And as good as they sleep in their own little beds, they sleep MUCH better when they are snuggled up with someone else.

We have a beautiful green, iron, full-sized bed that we'll be transitioning to this space in the next few weeks. I thought it might be a good idea to get them on a schedule and get used to each other before making the big step of putting Soph in a big girl bed.

So for now, Sophie's crib is tucked inside the door and she slept pretty good there last night. Ella spent the night away from home, so today will be the first night together!

What used to be Ella's closet, now holds all of her clothes, plus Sophie's hanging clothes. I still need to pick up some shoe pockets and get those organized a little better, but it's already more functional.

The biggest change was in Sophie's closet. It wasn't functional at all because all of Sophie's clothes hung in front of the shelving. We made the most of it, but it was difficult, at best. Now that her clothes are gone, we have a great place for games, puzzles and toys. I used some baskets we had on hand to corral baby dolls and smaller toys and we hung a bulletin board in the back to hang up their artwork.

I am trying not to be sad about the nursery being gone, but this is so much more practical and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I was afraid the "play" room would be a hodge podge and look thrown together, but I couldn't be more pleased. And just in case you need a refresher on what the rooms looked like before, you can read about them here!

What Christmas Looked Like

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-06:00

I had big plans to go overboard with the Christmas decorations this year. I made a schedule for the blog in December to keep myself on track and I found a bunch of really cute ideas on Pinterest. Remind me next year not to take a vacation in December and then wonder why I don't have enough time to get it all done! We barely managed to secure the list of must-haves for underneath our tree, so things like unnecessary live garlands over the arch just had to wait. I even considered doing some decorating on Monday, after the fact, but we were so exhausted that it never materialized. It seems a little silly to add decorations on the 28th, so I'm going to file these really good ideas away for next year.

I did have some pretty sweet vignettes to share with you, though...

Merry Christmas, blog friends!

the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-12-28T12:50:00.002-06:00

Since you guys seem to like the "real" posts the most, I thought I'd start there with our Christmas recap. For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, you might have already seen an abbreviated version, but this still shouldn't disappoint.

Let me start by saying we had a fabulous Christmas and we are still very much enjoying our wilted Christmas tree and lazy days at home together. I'm off work until next Tuesday and even though Josh is working (locked in the bedroom while we have fun without him), it's nice to eat breakfast and lunch with him and have a few moments throughout the day as he takes a break. The girls got everything they wished for this Christmas and it is still strewn all over the living room floor. This is the only week of the year when piles of toys and evergreen needles don't seem to bother me. I don't care when the laundry piles up or the girls skip naps. Instead, I enjoy snuggling on the couch underneath well worn quilts and blankets. We eat snacks for dinner and make yummy breakfasts every morning. We just might find ourselves taking a shower and putting on clean pajamas, but then again... we just might not!

Now for the bad. On Thursday I left work on time to find a flat tire on my car. Frustrated isn't the right word. Oh how I wished I had noticed earlier in the day, because now I was stuck in the parking deck waiting on assistance while the cold rain fell and traffic on the expressway started to back up. The bright side to the saga was that the CAPS guys who changed my tire were bragging about their mad skills and rehashing their experiences of the day for one another while I waited. It was clearly all for me and it was all I could do not to laugh out loud. Thankfully, traffic wasn't terrible and I made it home in record time. We had pizza for dinner and Ella & I made a late night run to Publix and Walmart for groceries and a few last minute gifts. Josh took Sophie to the doctor earlier in the day to make sure she didn't have an ear infection before the holidays so we wouldn't have to worry about spending any time at the pediatrician's office. Foreshadowing, you say?

Friday, we were back to good. We cleaned house, baked and wrapped presents. We watched movies and ate junk food and sat around looking at our tree. Ella complained late in the afternoon about an ear ache, but we ignored it because she said it was fine only thirty minutes later. Fast forward ten hours and she was getting up from her bed, screaming because of her ear. We barely survived the night, having her scream about her ear all night and refuse to sleep anywhere but the couch. We finally found some numbing drops and she settled in for an eight hour respite.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and we were late to lunch with Josh's parents. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I could not get it all together and get us out the door on time. I had spent the morning trying to reach a nurse at our doctor's office and we kept playing phone tag. I finally resorted to the after hours line and after realizing that they couldn't call us in antibiotics without seeing us in person, we scheduled an afternoon appointment. The appointment was right in the middle of Christmas. She & I left early and waited for almost two hours to be told we had an ear infection and receive the prescription. Ella looked at me with a straight face and said, "You mean I was right? We didn't have to come to the doctor?" I wish! We made it back in time to snuggle our grandparents for a few more minutes before heading out to communion. Communion at our church is my absolute favorite moment of the holiday season. I love being in the candlelit sanctuary with my family. I love seeing good friends just moments before the celebrate the best day of the year. Everyone is so joyful and full of excitement. It is the best thirty minutes of the year. We hurried home and wrote Santa a letter, arranged cookies on a plate and snuggled in for our annual viewing of A Christmas Story. I'm thrilled that Ella is finally old enough to laugh through it with us. My second favorite moment of the year occurred when Josh and I flung ourselves into bed at midnight, exhausted, but grinning ear to ear at the goodies nestled under our pretty tree.

Christmas was a great day. There were a few meltdowns, but that is hard to avoid at 5 years and 20 months. We had a lazy morning at home, enjoyed a wonderful service at church and then cooked enough for a small army before heading out to celebrate with my family. We ate and played cards, we watched little girls dance in their cowgirl boots and open more presents, we fixed a third and fourth plate and complained when the fudge disappeared. We stayed late and watched football and came home just in time to tuck the littles in bed.

Monday my parents brought over their gift for the girls. The coolest mini-trampoline that is big enough for the both of them, but small enough to fit on our porch while it's cold and rainy. We were planning to spend the day enjoying their gift before heading to my parents house for dinner and stockings, but things got a bit derailed. We had our first major disciplinary problem out of Ella and she wasn't allowed to jump the rest of the day. I felt horrible and it seemed harsh, but I'm learning how to be a better mother and sometimes sticking to my guns is the way to go. I also learned that it worked.

Tuesday, oh Tuesday. I woke up at 3:50 a.m. to baby squeals and when I opened the nursery door I almost fell over. Sophie had thrown up milk and Christmas candy everywhere. After calling in reinforcements, we stripped the bed and gave her a bath and finally all fell back asleep in our bed. We were right to assume it wasn't a virus... just a case of too much candy on a sensitive stomach. Two hours later, she woke up with a raging temperature and we instantly knew. Another ear infection. We ran to the pediatrician, grabbed a prescription and headed back home. We are trying a new medicine, but if this one doesn't work we might be headed for tubes in the near future. We can pretty much diagnose the infections ourselves at this point.

So far today has won the award for the least amount of drama. Everyone is feeling better, there aren't any fevers and we have avoided any disciplinary action so far. Ella & I have been watching movies on the couch all day, Josh just went back to work after lunch and Sophie is sleeping quietly in her room. I'm uploading images from the weekend and trying my best to ignore the housework that is beginning to pile up around me. I'm trying hard not to think about the fact that my tree is dying and should probably be removed from our home even though I'm not ready. I think I'll just eat some peanut butter fudge instead. Pictures tomorrow, friends.

What about a phone dump to tide you over?

{sweet friends at their first ever Nutcracker ballet * the view of our tree from my bed}

{my stinky flat tire * two sweet girls and their Christmas cowgirl boots}

{Ella's trip to the after hours clinic}

{the viewing of A Christmas Story * I managed to catch Santa on the tracker app while he was in town!}

{the Christmas morning yule log video * baking with mommy}

Merry CHRISTmas from the Fields'

2011-12-24T19:23:00.001-06:00

Everyone at the Rock House is wishing you a wonderfully Merry Christmas and hoping you are celebrating with us the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

{our Christmas card, 2011}

{back}

And just in case you needed a cute fix today, here is Ella's sweet video from last Christmas.

the real story.

2011-12-21T20:18:00.001-06:00

Lest you think NYC was all fun and games, I thought I'd share a few behind the scenes details, including my favorite picture of the hubs all week. THIS is Josh - silly and goofy with a huge smile on his face. We make fun of each other constantly and laugh a lot - this moment was no different. We are sitting on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan outside of Duane Reade (kind of like Walgreens). This was about thirty minutes after we visited the 9|11 Memorial and it was about 36* outside. Josh has no shoe on because he HAD to have an ace bandage stat.

Among other notable details to mention (some via SD's many colorful Facebook statuses)...

Thursday, 4:30 p.m. --The plan was that he would meet me at Grand Central Station after taking the TRAIN from Tuckahoe. After some unforeseen work-related issues, he found himself DRIVING to the Waldorf to drop off a colleague. This means he was in a rental car in New York City and trying to find me so that we could make a 7 o'clock reservation at Ground Zero. He was working in Connecticut that day and left the office at 4:30. My cell phone battery was severely depleted after a long day of traveling and lots of filming at Strawberry Fields. I was afraid to wander too from from GCS since I had no idea how long he would be. We decided I would turn my phone off and call him after thirty minutes to see where we were. In the meantime, I was enjoying a cup of coffee and a good book when approached by a very dirty man with the largest can of beer I've ever seen. He asked me for a dollar for the Subway, but I legitimately didn't have one. I carried some emergency cash, but I didn't want to flash it in the middle of the train station. He was rude and could barely stand up and it took forever to scare him off. Fast forward fifteen minutes and he approaches me again to say, "Have I already asked you?" When I try to get rid of him again, he asks the gentleman on the bench next to me to scoot down so we can sit together?!?! I tell the nice man next to me to stay and the beggar finally leaves. After seeing him coming for me a third time, I went to the second floor of the train station to wait for Josh - who finally calls me to say that he's a block away and I need to hurry. I find myself running down the street with WAY too many people, on the phone with my husband, weaving in and out of shoppers, trying to catch him at the light before it changes. I know I haven't made it when I begin to hear the horns blaring for him to move. Thankfully I catch up with him and we find a parking garage and pay $26 to leave the car. It is 6:45 and we are at least 45 minutes from our destination, so we abandon the plan and head for Times Square. Instead of spending our first night at the 9|11 Memorial followed by a yummy Italian dinner at a highly recommended restaurant, we're in the busiest block in NYC waiting in line to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. The upside? I've seen my husband for the first time since arriving and we are both giddy to be starting our vacation... failed plans or not.

Friday, 11 p.m. -- We are finally at the hotel after a day of walking and sightseeing and ready to check in (we had a separate reservation for the weekend since it wasn't part of Josh's business trip). Not only is there a hopping party at the hotel bar, with loud music to boot, but they cannot find our reservation. It would appear Hotels.com did not fax our reservation information to the actual hotel and after being on hold, waiting for a fax that never came, talking with a hotels.com representative, yelling at that representative's supervisor and securing a significant nightly discount and a voucher for our next stay, we finally checked in. Did I mention that I was finally able to give this speech to someone? It was only fitting since we'd visited his favorite coffee shop earlier in the day.

Also hilarious, was the conversation we witnessed at the hotel check-in counter while we waited:

Patron: Do you offer a government rate at this hotel?

Hotel: Yes, it is $129 a night.

P: Is that the best you can do?

H: Yes, that is the government rate.

P: Is that for one bed or two?
H: Two, sir, a King sized bed.

P: Is that the smallest bed?

H: No, sir. It's the largest bed.

Now this entire conversation occurs while the man shifts his eyes from side to side and looks genuinely scary. We considered the possibility of a random act of violence. When we left him at the counter he was counting quarters to cover the cost of his tiny King sized bed.

Saturday, 11:00 a.m. -- Josh & I have both managed to hurt our right ankles. Mine is tolerable, but he is in pain. We find a shoe repair shop and buy and insert for his shoe, but he can't tell if it helps. Instead, we take breaks throughout the day to eat and rest. It's quite comical how ridiculous we are and we laugh at each other (and ourselves) all day.

Facebook status from Josh, 12:14 p.m. --To the subway ticket agent "My metro card isn't working" the agent, "do you know why it isn't working?", me "would I be standing here if I did?".

Saturday, 5:30 p.m. -- We are verbally berated for being in the way as a New Yorker screams at tourists for preventing him from being on-time to work. There was nowhere to walk in front of Rockefeller Center and as a "non-tourist", shouldn't he have known better than to walk right there during the busiest weekend of the season?

Not ten minutes later we witness a fender bender between a car and a cab. The driver of the car gets out of the car screaming at the cab driver to get out of the cab. We were certain it would break out into a fight and were worried for the man's safety. Josh was praying it didn't escalate because he didn't want to get involved, but wouldn't want the man to be assaulted. Thankfully, a lady nearby grabbed a cop around the corner and it was all in his hands.

Facebook status from Josh, 4:51 p.m. -- "Santa Clause stands for human rights." At least that's what the lady from Amnesty International was yelling at Grand Central Station.

Facebook status from Josh, Sunday, 6:44 a.m. -- The guy on the train "ma'am, could you please lower your voice?" The lady talking loudly "I paid my own ticket, if you want to train somebody, have your own kids. I'm not your kid". The guy "I'm just asking you to please lower your voice". The even louder lady "you are only asking this because of my language!"

In his defense, she really was screaming and it was so early in the morning. They yelled at each other for what seemed like an hour before someone finally grabbed the conductor to break it up. We laughed a lot during this train ride.

Sunday, 10:00 a.m. -- We find a Duane Reade so that Josh can grab an ace bandage because the insert isn't helping and I've just made him walk about 10 blocks to take a picture with the Merrill Lynch bull. There may or may not have been an obscene photograph of him and the bull's backside that I cannot share with you!

I am not lying when I tell you that we had the BEST time on our trip, but where Josh & I go, funny things will follow. I can't say I expected anything less.

farewell.

2011-12-19T19:50:00.000-06:00

On Sunday, we knew we were flying home, but we tried to squeeze as many things in our short day as we possibly could. That included packing our bags for the airport, checking out of our hotel, taking the train to the city, getting some Christmas shopping done and visiting the 9|11 Memorial in lower Manhattan.

This was probably the coldest day we spent in NYC -- the high was 38 degrees. We bundled up as best we could, but it was windy and the city is still in the shadows at 9 o'clock, so we were freezing!

Part of the reason the memorial requires tickets is because the Trade Center is still under construction. In addition to the museum, several office buildings are still in progress, as well as other parts of the business center.

The pools themselves are gorgeous. Even knowing what we were going to see could not prepare us for the emotion of being there in person... watching the water pour over the walls, tracing the names on the pools' ledge.

The museum's exterior is already finished, despite the construction going on inside. We could peer through the windows and see the steel braces from the World Trade Center buildings, but they were incredibly difficult to photograph. It was so neat to see those supporting the new museum -- I can't wait to go back when it's finished.

I think one of the things I found the most reverent about the memorial's design is that you can no longer step within the buildings' footprints. It is almost as if it is hallowed ground.

You can also leave mementos on the names themselves and they are collected at the end of the day and will someday be displayed at the museum. I was surprised to see this pendant on one of the names and can't imagine what it's like for a loved one to visit and see the names of people they knew.

I was sad that it was so cold because I didn't feel like 45 minutes was enough time to invest in something so important.

We walked back to the subway and passed Trinity Church's St. Paul's Chapel across the street from Ground Zero. This little church has survived so much history. It is beautiful to see nestled in the space between skyscrapers.

We stopped at Starbuck's to warm up and drink some hot chocolate before walking down Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church and finally made our way back to Battery Park to see the Merrill Lynch charging bull.

And even though it was absolutely CRAZY, we headed right back to mid-town in an attempt to capture that ever elusive photograph of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Although you either had to pay for a family photograph or skate on the ice rink to get the full front and center shot, I did manage a much better view than the evening before. I was excited, too, to see it both at night and during the day. I wish we'd had time to ice skate, but we were exhausted and still needed to shop and eat lunch before heading back to LaGuardia.

It was such a whirlwind trip and I'm sure there was much more we would have loved to fit into our trip, but it really was the best possible Christmas present I could imagine. Spending four days of uninterrupted time with my husband, no schedule and endless things to do was heavenly. I know it will probably be awhile before we can sneak away (or afford a trip!) like this again, so we really did enjoy every single moment.

the BEST day {part 2}

2011-12-16T15:25:00.000-06:00

After seeing the islands Saturday morning, we boarded the subway and headed for Madison Square Park. Josh really wanted to see the Flatiron Building (sorry for the weird lighting)...

and I really wanted to each a late lunch at the Shake Shake.

Y'all! I am NOT kidding when I tell you this is the best cheeseburger and fries I have ever had. They had the first fountain DP we had seen all week, the hamburgers were cooked to order and the cheese on those fries was melty, cheddar-jack goodness. I'm serious. I'm still dreaming about it and Josh has already told me he's definitely taking the hour commute to eat there next time he's in town for work!

It's hard to tell from this picture, but next to the tree is a man we lovingly referred to as Coach. He had his hair in a top knot and was doing tai chi in the park. With a sword. Priceless.

After lunch, we boarded the subway again for the Brooklyn Bridge. All morning we had been seeing people dressed up as Santa Claus and other festive characters all over lower Manhattan. We didn't really think much of it until we came up out of the subway tunnel near City Hall and saw this. This picture doesn't do it justice. The block was full of Santas and every direction you looked the were pouring down the streets. I'd venture to guess they numbered in the four digits. They were happy and singing Christmas carols and flat out hilarious. It wasn't until hours later that we saw this.

The Brooklyn Bridge was gorgeous. We took the walking path to the halfway point and then came back. I would have loved to walked the rest of the way to shop and eat, but we. were. exhausted.

Then we had the brilliant idea to head to Midtown and see the Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Not sure if you remember or not, but it was SATURDAY. I've never seen so many people in one city block and these are the only two pictures I snapped. I was otherwise too busy fighting for my personal space and yelling at people for pushing and shoving.

After almost witnessing a murder attributed to road rage between a very large man and a taxi driver, we took respite at St. Patrick's. Gorgeous. I'm sad we couldn't stay for the evening mass, but it was nice just sitting on a pew and watching patrons visit tombs of the saints and light candles.

Our plan for Saturday evening had always been to watch the Heisman ceremony from Times Square and cheer Trent Richardson on, but we could do nothing but hop the train back to Tuckahoe and crawl back to our hotel room. We were in our pajamas indulging on room service by 6:30 that night. We are old and boring!

the BEST day {part 1}

2011-12-15T20:23:00.001-06:00

...alternately titled, "the one with all the pictures"! We took so many pictures this day that I'm going to have to split it up into two posts! I knew that seeing the Statue of Liberty would be cool, but I had no idea that I would love it as much as I did. We took a ferry cruise from Battery Park at 9 o'clock on Saturday morning. After standing in line and clearing security, we were statue bound. It a gorgeous day, cold and crisp, not a cloud in the sky. The water was choppy and I prayed the whole way there that I wouldn't throw up.

When I stepped out onto the deck of the boat and saw her, I was amazed. I told Josh I was a little emotional. Knowing that throngs of immigrants sailed into the harbor, unsure of their future, greeted by such a magnificent creature was hard to wrap my mind around.

The monument itself is closed for construction this season as the parks & recreation departments do some interior renovations. While I was sad not to peer out from her crown, I was still honored and thrilled to be standing at her feet.

The picture below... the one WITHOUT the statue in it is something of a joke. I took a picture of another couple and in return they took one of us. We couldn't stop laughing when we saw it. The Statue of Liberty was NOWHERE to be found! I'm convinced he didn't even look at what he was snapping.

The view of the city, the bridges and Brooklyn from Liberty island were amazing.

This is our ferry ship and the view once we boarded it again for Ellis Island.

I was kind of sad to bid her farewell, but the pictures that Josh snapped from the bow (the water was too choppy, so I stayed inside) are incredible. You can see here how small we are in comparison and the construction equipment nearby.

And if you look right in the middle of the photo below, you can see the only image I have of the Empire State Building from the outside!

Ellis Island was also unbelievably gorgeous. You can read more about the island here, if you'd like some history.

We were able to walk around and view the baggage rooms, dormitories and inquisition areas of the facility. There were original passports, boarding documents and money from countries all over the world. I wished we had done some family research before our trip because for $5, you could run searches for your relatives and print out the records from their admission to Ellis Island.

On our way back to the city, we decided to sit on the top deck of the boat and it was COLD! We still had lots to see this day, so check back tomorrow for lots more images.

trains, parks, lights & pizza

2011-12-14T10:27:00.001-06:00

As much as I would have loved for us to stay in the city, Josh was working a short 30 minute train-ride away and we decided to keep the rental car and hotel room and commute each day. Although we didn't have the luxury of dropping off shopping bags or catching an afternoon nap, it was significantly less expensive and we didn't have to deal with the hassle of packing up our room or returning the car mid-week.

We started off our mornings, bright and early, in the heated waiting booths of the train station. It was just across the street from Josh's office (where we could park the car) in the cute little town of Tuckahoe. It cost us around $18 round trip (per person) each day to travel and the train was a fun experience. There were 8 to 10 stops between us and Grand Central, depending on the day of the week and what time we were traveling.

Because Thursday was so exhausting (a story for later in the week!), we slept late and made our way to the city just before lunch. We started out on the Upper West Side at "Monk's" Restaurant, made famous in the greatest show of all time... Seinfeld. This was pretty high up on our list of sights to see, even though it isn't the quintessential NYC tourist hot spot. We opted not to eat lunch there, since the restaurant is really small and looks nothing like the sound-stage used to film.

Instead, we found Mel's Burger Bar right on Broadway and were able to dig right in. I hate that I don't have more pictures, but it was clearly NOT a tourist-y kind of place and SD made fun of me every time I reached for the camera! The walls were painted in chalk-board paint with pretty hamburger illustrations and the menus drawn on the wall. I loved the electric sign in the back and tried to covertly snap a pic when he wasn't watching. Although we would find a much better burger later in the week, as far as atmosphere goes, this was definitely my favorite!

We were only a few blocks above Central Park, so we decided to brave it and walk all the way back to midtown. Central Park is big... really big, but we had such a good time. We sat down a few times to look at the map, rest and enjoy some snacks, but mostly we just explored the west side of the park and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

One of my favorite spots (besides Strawberry Fields) was the Shakespeare Garden and Belvedere Tower. They were so unexpected and beautiful, despite the winter landscape.

Later in the day, we made our way to the Empire State Building (I'm not sure why I have ZERO pictures from outside the building) with plans of catching the view at sunset. We were proud of ourselves for timing it right and were hoping not to wait in line for hours. We didn't have tickets yet, and unfortunately, bought a silly package deal that was overpriced and included a ridiculous "ride" on the way up. I wanted to vomit... not only from the $65 that we could have saved, but from the simulated roller coaster narrated by Kevin Bacon.

Unfortunately, we made it to the top just after sunset, but were rewarded with beautiful sparkling lights from 86 floors up. It was hard to capture in photographs, especially when we wanted to be in them, but I've never seen something so pretty!

To finish off the night, we took a walk down Broadway, through Times Square to John's Pizzeria. We had to wait, but this meal was well worth it. We had root beer, garlic bread and pizza until we could barely waddle back to the train station.

31 Years Ago

2011-12-13T09:45:00.000-06:00

For as long as I can remember, I've been a Beatles fan. More specifically, a Lennon fan. My dad and I used to listen to their music together when I was a girl. I have the albums on disk and on vinyl. For my sixteenth birthday, my mom won tickets to a Beatles tribute band concert and I could not have been happier. I visited London (would still like to visit Liverpool) when I was 14 and loved seeing the memorabilia everywhere and walking where they walked. And I've always wanted to visit the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park and see the Dakota, where Lennon lived in NYC until his death in 1980.

Even though Josh isn't really a Beatles fan (gasp), he knew I really wanted to go and we'd planned to spend Saturday in Central Park and the Upper West Side. It was a little more than a week from our trip, when doing some research that I realized I was flying into New York on December 8th. I decided to rearrange my plans a little and visit the memorial on the thirty-first anniversary of his death. After flying into LaGuardia, I took a cab to Central Park West and 72nd street, home of the Dakota.

The building was a lot larger than I expected, and beautiful. I felt so silly walking up to the front door to take pictures, but as I rounded the corner and saw the crowd of people I realized that I wasn't the only one clamoring for a look.

After a now-famous photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz that landed John & Yoko on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, they went to the recording studio for the afternoon. On their way out, John signed an autograph for the man who would come back later in the day and shoot him in the entry way of his famous apartment building. Just across the street from his apartment, in Central Park, is a memorial and children's garden dedicated to John. This is what I found when I got there...

I am so glad that I went on the anniversary -- it was so neat to see so many people celebrating and singing his songs. There were flowers and mementos on the memorial and families were standing all around the circle singing and laughing. I bet I stayed for an hour and a half and even though I was all alone in the big city, I can't think of a better way to start my trip.

Since I didn't have anyone to take my picture, SD snapped one of me the next day when we were walking through Central Park.

Here are a few of the videos I shot while I was there...

Come Together

Something in the Way

Day Tripper

The Big Apple

2011-12-12T18:55:00.000-06:00

Josh & I on Liberty Island - Manhattan on the left, Brooklyn on the right

I know I've mentioned it before, but one of the "perks" of Josh's new job is that he gets to do a fair amount of traveling. And not just to out of the way places like Phoenix or Bridgeport, but fun places like San Diego, Los Angeles and New York City. We've talking about me going with him several times over the last year, but it's been mostly talk. We had planned a trip for Washington DC for the first of next year, but then something else happened.

About six weeks ago, he was scheduled for a trip into NYC for the first week of December and our wheels started turning. While it isn't like us to spend a lot of money on a big trip with no notice, we couldn't help but think about spending a week in the city during the Christmas holidays... especially with only one plane ticket to purchase. The stars aligned and we managed to pull off babysitters, a decent flight and lots of fun plans. With only three weeks to go our mini-vacay was booked; we opted to spend four days in the city together as a Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!

I can honestly say this is one of the best trips I've ever taken. It is the first time we've been anywhere, just the two of us, since the girls were born and it felt like a second honeymoon. We walked more miles than I care to count, saw things I never thought I would see, ate the BEST cheeseburgers I have ever had and laughed more than I have in a very long time. We didn't disagree about pretty much anything and it was nice to spend four carefree days in the city. I'll confess that I didn't worry about anything while we were gone. I knew the girls were well cared for, the house had some visitors to watch over it and the bills and checkbook could wait patiently at home. Our only agenda was some much needed time with each other and lots of Christmas shopping. We pretty much crossed it all off of our list.

Top row: Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, Mel's Burger Bar on the Upper East Side, me & SD on the 86th floor of The Empire State Building. Bottom row: Lady Liberty as seen from Liberty Island and sunset over Manhattan en route to LaGuardia airport.

Silly Little Elf

2011-12-12T06:00:00.002-06:00

I've been trying to remember to take a picture of Scout each day so that we could look back and see what he's been up to. The girls love racing to find him each morning and even Sophie has been far more excited about him than I expected. I'm thrilled that we abide by the "no touching" rule, so I never have to wonder where he is at bedtime. I did, unfortunately, discover what happens when you move him before your children are asleep for the night and won't be making that mistake again this year. There were many tears while we tried to convince Ella he was definitely coming back the next day!

Here are the places he's been since his arrival on our breakfast table...

{on top of the Advent calendar * hanging out with the shepherds in Bethlehem}

{leaving messages on the bathroom mirror * snuggling in Sophie's birthday crown}

{rolling Ella's bedroom while she spent the night with Gran}

{corralling the makeup brushes on the bathroom counter * sleeping in Ella's bed}

{peeking in the front door from the wreath * taking a bubble bath}

In case you didn't know, SD & I have been enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City for the past four days and cannot wait to get our hands on our little bitties. They have been having a great time with their grandmother's and Scout has been at the North Pole, checking in with Santa and working on some very special Christmas gifts. We are excited to see where he'll make his appearance tomorrow and I'm sure the girls will go nuts when they find out he's back!

A Breakfast Surprise

2011-12-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

The Sunday after Thanksgiving seemed as good a day as any for Scout to make his appearance. Ella had been asking for days when he might come, but I was dreading finding something for him to do for 30 days in a row! It just so happened, that Scout didn't care anything about my concerns and made his appearance bright and early on Sunday morning. He wrote the girls a sweet note and even left them a card for a response.

He was pretty industrious this year and had the dining room table all decorated for Christmas. There were sausage balls, pigs-in-a-blanket and snow-covered donuts for breakfast (he completely forgot to set out the hot chocolate and marshmallows -- oops!). The girls were so excited to see his little surprise and I decided this breakfast might be the perfect way to welcome the holiday season each year.

Christmas Tree Hunting

2011-12-09T06:00:00.001-06:00

The morning after Thanksgiving we headed off to the Christmas Tree Tent. If you've been reading awhile, then you'll remember that we decided to make memories last year and cut our on tree down with the girls. It was cold and miserable and Ella hated it. Not only was the experience lackluster (except for the awesome photographs), but the tree was a disaster and died and we later had to replace it with a fake one! We all decided that we deserved a redo and we headed back to our favorite striped tent.

But first, we had our annual pancake breakfast at IHOP. Ella had 5 pancakes and Soph ate almost as much of my french toast as I did. Daddy wouldn't let us bring the big camera in and it was all I could do to get him to smile for a few Instagram pics. He is not a fan of taking photographs at a restaurant!

We were lucky ducks and it took us all of ten minutes to find the perfect tree. Just like always, SD & I are sure it's our best tree ever. And ever better than that... it's still alive!

And just because it's my favorite picture of the whole day... here is my little helper straightening out the garland!

Oh Christmas Tree!

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

Well, here she is in all her glory. After such a disaster with the tree last year, I am happy to report that we got a BEAUTY this year! We went back to our beloved tree tent and picked the prettiest Frasier Fir we could find. She is 7.5 feet of fantastic smelling, gorgeous green needles and so far the girls have stayed far enough away that the tree is alive and intact. This is a blessing, friends.

I think some of my favorite parts of the tree are the star and the burlap ribbon. Last year was the first year we hung the morovian lantern above the tree and I don't know if I'll ever go back. We got that as a wedding gift almost ten years ago and it's still one of my favorite things. I just put a cup hook in the ceiling and stuffed it with a short strand of lights -- it really makes the room when the lights are down low! The burlap was a 10 inch roll that I purchased at the craft store to replace the glittery mesh I normally use. I really wanted it to be more homespun and I'm really happy with how it looks.

The real star of the show, however, is that beautiful tree skirt! I was really worried that it wouldn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but I could not be happier. After reading this post over at Miss Mustard Seed, I knew I wanted to try it. It was crazy because literally the next day, I began to see pins on Pinterest of very similar skirts. I usually just pile antique quilts under the tree, but I've been dreaming of a real tree skirt for awhile. Two canvas drop cloths, 25 sticks of hot glue, 18 hours of football watching and $36 later... I'm in love.

I don't really do a "theme" tree, we just use all of the ornaments we've collected over the years. These include wedding gifts, ornaments from trips we've taken, things the girls have made and keepsakes from my tree growing up. I love the eclectic look of all the different colors and materials.

This little spot tickles me every time... nothing says "Ella" like Hello Kitty and Reese's Cups!

And even though they aren't the greatest pictures, I had to share a few iPhone snaps from the morning we decorated our tree. These two girlies were very proud! Be sure to visit tomorrow when I'll share photographs from our annual IHOP breakfast and tree hunt.

Wanna see more pretty Christmas trees? Be sure to visit Megan at Honey We're Home and join the Christmas Cheer linky!

We've got a Screamer!

2011-12-07T13:31:00.001-06:00

I was smart this year. I had no desire to wait in long lines to see Santa Claus with my overly dramatic 5 year old or my squirmy, silly 19 month old. Instead, I left home at the end of the third quarter of the Iron Bowl and decided to see the big guy while everyone else was at home cheering (or scowling, depending on your team). I was nice this year. I let my hubby take BOTH tickets to the game, while I cheered from home and braved the mall with two crazy little children.

Ella was really excited to talk with Santa this year and had really been practicing what she was going to ask him for. She decided that she didn't need (or have any room for) toys this year and wanted clothes, shoes and books instead. She knew she wanted to ask him for the entire Junie B. Jones collection and couldn't wait to see him! Since Sophie had no concept of who Santa even was, we've been talking him up for months. She's seen pictures and cartoons and Christmas ornaments. She can pick him out of a line-up and tell you that he says, "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!" Even still, there was no way to prepare her for seeing him in person.

We arrived to his mall visit to find zero people in line. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to have avoided the mass confusion from last year, but this gave me no time to mentally prepare myself or the girls for what was about to happen. Ella hopped up in his lap immediately and Sophie waved and smiled. Good, great, no tears. She shook his hand and said "ho ho ho" and even blew him a kiss. Then... I sat her in his lap and for a lack of a better expression, all hell broke loose. I was secretly thrilled inside because I LOVE screaming Santa pictures. I'm kind of sad they didn't both cry!? Does that make me a horrible mother?

In true Sophie fashion, as soon as I picked her up, she waved at him and smiled again. And just in case you'd like to see it all for yourself...

rivalry.

2011-11-30T06:45:00.002-06:00

I'm guessing you know there was this little game on Saturday. One that people in Alabama talk about for 365 days, only to start talking about again. Well, the fact of the matter is... we won. I didn't get to go this year, but SD did and not only did he sneak on the field after the game, but he met David Pollack and Trent Richardson and snapped a picture of his beloved Erin Andrews. All's fair in love and football, right?

A few weekends ago we celebrated the birthday of our little friend Madeline. She had a pretty awesome tailgate rivalry party where all of her friends wore their Alabama/Auburn gear and partied it up at the playground. It was so fabulous, in fact, that I am totally bookmarking this idea for an Ella party in the future!

Kraft & Twine Advent Calendar

2011-11-29T01:53:00.002-06:00

I've been saying for years we were going to have an advent calendar for the girls in the days leading up to Christmas, but this is the first year I've actually made it happen. Not only do I think it's fun for them to have some little gift to look forward to each day, but it's a wonderful way to remember the real reason for the season and have a daily reminder of God's perfect grace.

I'm been brainstorming for several weeks about what to do, when I saw this pin on Pinterest. Although it wasn't an advent calendar at all, it certainly pushed me in the right direction, design-wise.

Source: 100layercake.com via Kristin on Pinterest

Ella & I went shopping a few weekends ago and picked up clothespins, bakers twine and kraft paper lunch sacks. We spent some time on the dollar aisle and grabbed twenty-five days worth of tiny treats, to be alternated between she and her sister.

I used a set of stencils that belonged to my dad as a young man and a red Crayola marker to draw numbers on each of our lunch sacks. I could have used stickers or painted them on, but this was easy to do, made them uniform and I love the shape of these numbers.

Next up were a spool of bakers twine to hang the sacks, some scissors for trimming and thumbtacks to hang the twine from. I used a large black frame that's been standing in my laundry room for at least six months. It measures about 30 inches across and about 50 inches tall. I bought it for another project (involving the hundreds of Instagram photos we've accumulated) that has yet to come to fruition.

The toys we bought were really inexpensive items that the girls are always begging for in the clearance section. For Ella (5), we got tiny notepads, princess pens, stickers and playing cards. Sophie (20 months) got Christmas socks, wooden ornaments for the tree and a little baby doll that she couldn't live without. There are 12 items for each girl and something for them to share on Christmas Day.

I alternated the items in the paper sacks (Ella's on odd days and Sophie's on even ones) and clipped them to the twine that I stretched across the frame and secured with thumb tacks. The rows aren't all the same distance from one another because some items were small and others were much larger. We propped the frame up on a piece of furniture that was relocated thanks to the arrival of our Christmas tree. As much as I wanted to lean it on the floor, Soph is much too active these days for that much temptation.

I could not be happier with how it turned out and the girls can't wait until Thursday to open their first treasure. The plan is to read a few verses from the Bible each day of December so that we can recite the Christmas story by the end of the month (remember last year?). Once we've practiced our verses, they have the pleasure of opening that day's gift. They are already so excited about getting started and it seems our elf, Scout, was pretty excited about it too!

I'm linking up with Cassie at {Hi Sugarplum!} today, so be sure to check out all the other fun Christmas crafts. Ironically enough, she posted about Advent Calendars yesterday and did a round up with lots of other neat ideas. Be sure to check them out!

Insta-Thanks

2011-11-28T06:00:00.001-06:00

Our Thanksgiving was so wonderful and I was so busy enjoying the day with my little helpers that the camera was never by my side. Instead, I decided to give you a little recap with Instagram photos instead. I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours!

{kitchen helpers * big girl bed * early morning cartoons * sausage balls}

{Macy's Thanksgiving Parade * silly girl * chocolate chewy bars * my full plate}

{feeding herself * post-lunch football * plenty of leftovers * afternoon campfire}

{girl time * playing outside * snuggling by the fire with mommy * impromptu family photoshoot}

Believe it or not, Ella was in attendance, but she's so independent these days and spent the majority of her day outside with the big kids!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T16:43:00.001-06:00

from my CRAZY big family to yours!

we peaked early.

2011-11-22T11:14:00.001-06:00

Let me go ahead and assure you that I'll be highly embarrassed by some of these pictures. At the same time, I can't bring myself to hide the fun we had because of a few poor judgment calls! The title of this post has nothing to do with our performance on the field that day. Instead, we found ourselves quite funny at six o'clock in the morning, our humor was spot on and we had way too much fun by the time we reached T-town. By contrast, at around 10:45 we were ready for a nap. We peaked early...

The boys started out with a rousing game of football outside Justin's apartment. He lives on Wallace Wade, a stone's throw from Bryant-Denny Stadium and the perfect spot to tailgate. Thank goodness he doesn't mind when we crash his place for game day. I have NO idea what we'll do when he graduates.

The boys befriended this kid, a sophomore in high-school, and dubbed him the Honey Badger. K & I couldn't even look at him without laughing out loud.

Our lovely hosts, Justin & Laura.

SD & I took over the kitchen almost immediately and began whipping up yummy hamburgers for breakfast or lunch or snack.

There may have been some cheering involved.

Did I mention that we moved some furniture?

K & I hardly ever get pics of the two of us and the boys faught over who was a better photographer. I'll let you be the judge...

These photos are a tribute to the couple who full-on made out on Justin's porch at the AU/UT game the week before. We could not get over how "handsy" they were and could barely walk outside without covering our eyes. Josh & I couldn't resist cracking Cory up by walking out and giving him a show! I promise, we don't usually maul each other in public ;).

This was Cory's best shot of the day...

closely followed by this one.

Just so you know... the guy in the birthday hat in the background did NOT have a shirt on under that jersey. It was all skin and scary body hair. Just sayin'.

This may or may not be me standing on a cement barricade cheering for the Tide.

There was a surplus of fountain Dr. Pepper, RV toilet paper,

and sliced cheese.

There was also a spectacular live performance of our favorite commercial... video evidence can be found here!

There are no words.

Then we found these fellas on the quad.

And they managed to find the Big Guy himself!

I've never seen so many people outside of BDS!

Wanna see some of our neighbors? First up... guy with scary pink hair-piece.

Next up, dirty word jersey guy. We love him. He gets so excited and tries to fire everyone up.

He's even easier to spot from behind, although this might present a problem once my girls can read!

These two guys disinfected every square inch of their seats with anti-bacterial wipes before they sat down. I desperately wanted to germify them again when they got up during half time. Seriously?

And see this guy here? He didn't even have a ticket and managed to squeeze himself in the game. Hi, Chris!

Can you say ROLL...

TIDE

So we didn't win the game... from the looks of the polls this week it might not even matter. And win or lose, this was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had at a football game. So, Roll Tide anyway!

And lest you think we left anything out, here is a link to the entire album.

32 things...

2011-11-20T21:07:00.001-06:00

I loved about my birthday.

That at 7:30 on Friday night, I was sitting in a theater with my best friend of 32 years watching a movie made for teenagers.
That we laughed until we cried and tried hard not to go home when it was over.
That we talked about all of the "middle-aged" women who were there... only to realize the teenagers were probably saying that same thing about us!
On our way to Chick-fil-A last night, in the dark, Sophie said "Happy Birthday to Momma", completely unprompted.
A late-night texting conversation with Ryan last night re-hashing how much fun we had on Saturday. The second-hardest I've laughed in awhile.
At 12:02 this morning, Sophie cried out and SD grabbed her up and snuggled her in bed with us.
I got to sleep in this morning. 8 o'clock on a Sunday is heavenly.
I ate blueberry muffins and an ice cold, canned DP in bed this morning with my three favorite people.
Ella made me two puppets out of paper lunch sacks and had her daddy help wrap them.
An early morning text message from a good friend.
They wore frilly smocked dresses to church this morning and E didn't complain about looking like a baby.
Being asked out on a date at church this morning.
A great day in God's house; singing "He knows MY name" on my birthday!
Having Ella count up from 32 to how old we'll be next and making her stop when she got to 39.
Seeing friends in the parking lot of the grocery store after church and laughing really hard about getting older.
A perfect family photo after church.
Being around the table with my parents, sister & BIL and my sweet family.
Fried chicken and starches for lunch... not a green veggie in sight.
Watching Sophie attempt to eat with a spoon by herself and shake her head no when peas & macaroni wound up in her mouth together.
Ella singing Justin "Beaver" at the dining room table.
West Elm measuring cups from K, even though she wasn't supposed to buy me a present.
Pretty earrings from my parents. The birthday cash is always a plus.
Sitting at the counter while my mom cleaned up after lunch. I miss those moments being at home.
Sophie eating Ella's chapstick.
My dad falling asleep on the couch after lunch.
A two and a half hour nap with my hubby this afternoon and two children that managed to sleep even longer than we did.
A Nana who volunteered to watch the girls during dinner AND for soft, furry Alabama pajamas.
For bread and goat cheese, caesar salads and sugared pecans on my ice cream.
Riding in a quiet car with my husband and talking about our day.
Two new books that are waiting by my bedside.
The promise of a new show on our DVR at bedtime.
For a ridiculous number of facebook posts and comments today. That is quite possibly the best part about having an account.

And while we're at it, why not one to grow on... knowing that two weeks from this very moment, I'll be on a plane flying home from NYC with my very favorite person.

mullet, meet bob.

2011-11-18T15:03:00.002-06:00

On a whim last Friday, I decided that Sophie needed a haircut. It's her first "real" haircut, second only if you count the time Josh trimmed the pieces behind her ears! I couldn't bring myself to cut it and was quite enamored with her cutie-patooty pig tails. But, let's be honest... it was a bit of a mullet and was starting to be a bit embarrassing.

This is what we started with. And really? Brittany brushed it out nice for the before picture, so you can't even tell how funny it looks. You can always scroll back to the pumpkin carving post if you want a reminder.

I called SD to make sure he didn't mind and just as I had suspected, he let out a "Thank God!".

She did such a good job and sat in the big-girl Hello Kitty chair like a champ. She kept saying "ow, ow" but I'm pretty sure that's because she watches me fix Ella's hair in the morning, who is super tender-headed and complains the entire time. Five minutes and a sticky sucker later, we were left with this.

I cannot believe I waited so long to do this! I was so anxious in the beginning, but once she made the first cut I took a deep sigh of relief. I have dreamed of a baby bob since before having littles, but Ella's curly hair is too pretty to chop off. Instead, I have a tiny little thing with the CUTEST pixie haircut and she is as proud as can be. She's been showing off her "air-cut" for a week now and grins every time you asked her about it.

And in the spirit of Friday's phone dump, which would have consisted of three sad little photos, here are two great shots of her super cute new 'do!

an owl and ice cream.

2011-11-16T21:00:00.000-06:00

pumpkin guts.

2011-11-15T21:34:00.001-06:00

Not long after church on Sunday evening, both girls were ready to dig into our pumpkins... very eager to help.

They were not sure what they thought about the pumpkin guts.

And certainly did NOT want to touch it or help in any way!

Ella wanted to carve a face this year and picked a pattern out on the web.

She even had a hand carving it herself!

Didn't it turn out spooky and perfect?

to the pumpkin patch.

2011-11-14T19:39:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know it's November the 14th... just a little over a week away from Thanksgiving. In the interest of full disclosure I think it's only right that we recap Halloween first. What do you say?

We were kind of late to the Halloween celebration this year. I don't know what is up with 2011, but I feel behind on just about everything. By the time I start thinking about a holiday it's practically over and we haven't even enjoyed it. Halloween was nothing different. We DID go to the pumpkin patch... the day before the big day! We loaded up after church that Sunday afternoon and spent a few hours enjoying the beautiful day. We ended up with three pretty pumpkins and two whiny girls. What's better, right?

First up, the corn maze!

It didn't take us long to cut through the side of the corn field. Our girls were not made to last very long in stressful situations. Instead, we headed over to the cotton walk.

Sophie was the only one interested in the hay bales. Her daddy just wanted to poke fun at her big bow! In hindsight, it might have been a teeny-weeny too big. BUT, in my defense, it was the smallest one that matched her outfit.

Just what is the pumpkin patch without a petting zoo?

There was some climbing...

and some swinging...

and some attempts at a pretty picture. I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen and settled for a fun day instead. Better to preserve good attitudes that to press for everyone to cooperate.

We didn't forget the most important part. We loaded up on a big red trailer and headed out to pick out our pumpkins. That's where the pictures stop because who can manage two girls, three pumpkins, a diaper bag and a camera?

Shutter Happy Winner!

2011-11-12T08:03:00.002-06:00

Using Random.org, LPP selected a winner for the Shutter Happy giveaway this morning and lucky number 8, Megan Lytton, is the winner. Aren't you excited for her? Megan, if you'll email me by clicking the contact button in the sidebar, I'll forward you the promo code for your free holiday cards!

Congratulations from two little princesses!

friday phone dump: two in a row

2011-11-11T06:22:00.000-06:00

I promise I haven't abandoned you on purpose. After a week of no blogging, an insane game against LSU, a Sunday afternoon at Disney on Ice and a few hours of work... a MAJOR stomach virus swept through our household and we have been in bed for the last four days. I have taken so many pictures over the last two weeks, made a long list of wonderful posts I'm planning for December and booked a very exciting mini-vacay for me and the hubs. I have lots to share and after a marathon editing/uploading session this evening, I will be posting up a storm. For now, let's enjoy another phone dump while you forgive me for posting two in a row!

{we "think" she's feeling better ** mommy acting a bit ridiculous in Tuscaloosa}

{spending Sunday afternoon at Disney on Ice with my best BIG girl}

{Sophie was kidding... she's really sick ** guess what? so is Mommy!}

{I lost 4.5 pounds while hugging the potty ** no, really... I'm feeling better this time}

{hundreds of coloring books and boxes for Operation Christmas Child, courtesy of

Vincent Elementary School's leadership team and my small group Bible study -- yay!!}

**Don't forget that the Shutterfly "Shutter Happy" giveaway for 25 free holiday cards ends tonight at Midnight CST. Be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win. I'll announce the winner bright and early tomorrow morning!**

Let's have a Friday photo dump, shall we?

2011-11-04T20:51:00.001-05:00

{washing fall/winter clothes ** almost finished with Ella's costume!}

{lunch at Over Easy ** Sophie & her shoe stash}

{carving pumpkins ** time to trick or treat}

{sunrise at work ** Sophie & her coloring book}

{what I did during the media fast ** Ella practicing her numbers}

{SD being ridiculous at the sporting goods store ** Beemer's truck obsession}

{first Christmas craft of the year ** bacon & grits for dinner}

Shutter Happy

2011-11-03T20:53:00.003-05:00

It's that time again! Can I just tell you how excited I am that Christmas is just around the corner? Now that Halloween is behind us, all I can think about is decorating the rock house and making preparations for the holidays. I'm already working on Christmas crafts and dreaming up new ways to deck the halls. The princesses are picking out pretty pink ornaments and dreaming about the day our elf makes his first visit from the North Pole. Can you believe there are only 51 days to go?!

The first thing I'm tasking myself with this year is Christmas cards. I am determined to beat the rush and start checking things off of my to-do list! As much as I love designing my own cards each year, Shutterfly has some beautiful ones to choose from and they make it so easy. I have ordered cards, invitations and stationery in the past and they do NOT disappoint. The paper is beautiful, the designs are modern and timeless and the process couldn't be easier. Don't believe me? Then see for yourself...

Who doesn't love chevron? Pair it with an ombre color scheme and fun fonts and you are right on trend!

Merry Bright Zigzag

I love the aqua and red color-scheme of this one and the fun cut out font is so whimsical.

Bright Holly Jolly

If you've been around here for long, you know I love simple typography on a photograph. This is probably my favorite card from their holiday selection, even though it is so simple!

Oh So Wonderful

Need some more ideas? These are a few more non-traditional Christmas card ideas that I love... bold ikat print, lots of negative space and even a little Christmas wish from your favorite furry friend!

I was trying to make your Christmas card shopping a little easier, but there are so many great designs to choose from that you might find yourself having a hard time deciding which card is right for you. Most of the holiday cards are currently on sale, but what if you could get them even cheaper? Shutterfly is offering one Little Princess Diaries reader 25 complimentary Christmas cards this season!

Here’s how to enter:

PRIZE: A promo code from Shutterfly for 25 free holiday cards of your choice.
TO ENTER: Comment on this post and tell me your favorite LPD post of all time. While you're at it, why not share what card you're hoping to purchase!
GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Friday, November 11th at midnight CST
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
DETAILS: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. You must not have blogged about the Shutterfly giveaway or been the recipient of free holiday cards in connection with the current blogger promotion. The winner will be selected randomly and announced here next weekend. Start stalking the blog early that Saturday morning for the big announcement. Good luck…

Just in case you were wondering, I wasn’t compensated in any way for hosting this giveaway. The Little Princess Diaries was the recipient of the promo code as a part of Shutterfly's Christmas blogging promotion. The little princesses and I just wanted to share our reward with someone else this holiday season!

I want to say thanks to Shutterfly for sharing the love AND for letting me post a little later than anticipated because of my media fast. What better way to reward you for enduring seven days of silence than a Little Princess giveaway!?

Unfaithful

2011-10-26T22:03:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you've picked up {especially if you watched the vlogs} that I attend a weekly Bible study/fellowship time with a group of local girls. These are women that even six months ago I might not have classified as my "friends", but today I could not imagine living life without them. I have learned more about myself and my relationships and my heavenly Father since June that I might have ever known before. He is teaching us and growing us and forcing us to think outside of the box.

We started by reading The Purpose Driven Life which helps you to evaluate yourself and what you are called to do as a Christian. Then we read Outlive Your Life where we learned how we fit into the world and how we can and should make a difference in what is going on around us. Currently, we are reading Living on the Edge: Dare to Experience True Spirituality by Chip Ingram. It is a book about Romans Chapter 12 and how to be the Christian that Paul describes there. It is challenging and is making me re-evaluate my relationships and how I respond to God.

Perhaps the thing that spoke to me the most this week was from Chapter 8. Chip is talking about marital intimacy and how your relationship cannot thrive when one partner is unfaithful. He says, "No relationship can be sustained when one member of the relationship pretends to be devoted to their mate while secretly living a double life. We can tolerate any number of imperfections in our spouses; but there is one area where we draw a line in the sand... 'No Other Lovers!'" Umm, wow. He goes on to say that when God tells us not to be conformed to the world that what he's doing is "...giving us a command concerning spiritual fidelity." I won't lie and tell you that it didn't sting to read those words in black and white. We're only two weeks in and I'm already learning so much about how poorly I'm following His commands for my life. I'm letting worldly things consume so much of my time, that I'm not only ignoring my responsibilities to my husband and children, but I'm ignoring my commitment to Christ.

As a Bible study group, we have committed to a media fast beginning tomorrow. We didn't set specific guidelines on how long we would fast or how restrictive it would be, because each of us have different vices and are in different places in our spiritual walk. I am so convicted about the amount of time I spend in thoughtless pursuit of information that I am cutting out all forms of social media. I won't be blogging or reading blogs, I won't be on Facebook or Pinterest and I will be greatly reducing the amount of time I spend texting and emailing, with the exception of work-related conversations. I'm not watching television or movies and I will only be listening to Christian radio. I'm not telling you my plans so that you can pat me on the back and congratulate me on my efforts, but so I can be held accountable and so you'll know that I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I don't know if I can make it 24 hours, much less 7 days. I am, however, looking forward to a life unplugged. I plan to work around the house, get some things organized, spend time in the Word and in prayer, play with my children, read a good book and spend some uninterrupted time with SD. I'm nervous, but excited to see how God will use this "quiet" time over the next week. If you are a believer, please pray with me that God would change my thinking and that I can become spiritually faithful to him. If you aren't a believer, I'm praying that this challenge would open your hearts and mind to the Christ who loves you and wants so badly to be a part of your life.

Below are some scriptures which really spoke to me during this week's study and which I'll be working towards memorizing in my "quiet" time. All scriptures are from the NLT translation, emphasis added by me.

Romans 12:1-2 "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

Phillipians 4:8 "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

1 John 2:15-16 "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving of physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world."

James 4:4 "You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."

I'll be back next Wednesday with a full report and, hopefully, lots of cute Halloween pictures!

Bama v UT

2011-10-23T16:24:00.001-05:00

Saturday was a LOT of fun.

I was particularly fond of my gameday outfit... which is always a plus!

I drove to Tuscaloosa by myself and it was a nice, QUIET drive.

We tailgated at my cousin's on-campus apartment, just moments from Bryant-Denny.

I had fried cheese from the end-zone concession stand and a very large Coke.

There was a fighter jet flyover just after the national anthem that was awesome.

The pilots were in stadium later in the night and unbuttoned their jumpsuits to reveal Bama tees.

After a frustrating first half, the boys redeemed themselves and SD starting

shaking his keys at the UT fans. It was time for them to head home!

We sang a rousing' round of Rammer Jammer after the game.

{Please forgive my squealing at the end... the iPhone is notorious for magnifying my already ridiculous volume}

I rode home with K and attempted to give SD directions to my car.

It took us over two hours to cross 2.7 miles and reach the interstate.

We ate Arby's in the car at midnight and laughed until we cried.

We watched countless youtube videos and recounted funny stories.

We pulled into the drive at 2:30 this morning and fell into bed.

AND we get to do it all again in two short weeks. Roll Tide.

what today looks like...

2011-10-22T10:57:00.001-05:00

Our SD is already in Tuscaloosa this morning. We had a lazy morning and watched some Spongebob while we ate our breakfast. Both girls were up at 7 o'clock this morning {this is sleeping late} and believe it or not, that made 13.5 hours for Sophie! She fell asleep at 5:30 last night for a "nap" and never woke up.

If you look closely, you can see my Watermelon coffee mug :)

I folded a trillion loads of laundry, drank two yummy cups of coffee and watched a few movies this morning.

The girls built a make-shift fort behind Sophie's dollhouse and made her piggy bank squeal with some spare change.

I planned my gameday outfit... new skinnies, red turtleneck and my puffy vest. I'm definitely taking a scarf and my fingerless gloves for today. It is perfect football weather!

I thought about working on Ella's Halloween costume for a bit, but it never happened.

This is Ella's new hamper which she is pretty impressed with. I picked it up at a yard sale a few weeks ago for $20. It reminded me so much of these from Serena & Lily that are way outside of my price range!

Speaking of that yard sale... I got this really cool brass pineapple that I keep matches in and this great solid wood dresser for the dining room. I debated painting it, but after living with it for a month I really like the stain. It matches our floors pretty perfectly and is a nice change of pace from all the other painted furniture around here. We filled it with stationery and craft supplies. Now Ella has easy access to her things, but Sophie can't really wrangle the drawers quite yet... thank goodness!

See those pretty botanical prints? I found a site on-line where you can download them for free {copyright + royalty free} and just printed them on cardstock at Kinko's for less than a dollar each. I framed them in the white IKEA Ribba frames we used for SK's birthday pictures and called it a day. I really love how they look above the dresser.

I bought a Groop Deal several months ago for a gallery wrapped canvas and somehow managed to forget about it. I finally ordered our family portrait last week and we are in LOVE with it. Now to decide where to hang it. Concrete walls don't make for quick decisions.

That just about covers what's going on around here. I think I'll eat some cold pizza, drop the girls off with their Garan and head down to Tuscaloosa. It's time to track down my hubby and get my game day on. Roll Tide!

How is this for random?

2011-10-21T18:20:00.000-05:00

Why don't you watch this little film before reading ahead. I'll bet you're pretty surprised to see how it ends!

So, I realize that I don't usually post about restaurants or healthy eating or organic farming on a regular basis. Around here we're usually talking about princesses and tea parties and football. When I tell you something about Chipotle, it's generally within the context of "guess what lucky girl ate a burrito for lunch today?" kind of thing. Well... I randomly stumbled across these three videos on the interwebs this afternoon and found them incredibly intriguing. The the two below because it is the perfect example of turning a tiny little dream into a revolutionary idea. The first is a bit more philosophical, incredibly beautiful and beyond though provoking. If you don't have 13 more minutes and aren't interested in the business behind my favorite Mexican restaurant, you can skip this one, but I was too impressed not to share.

Is it weird...

2011-10-17T19:23:00.000-05:00

that we have family weenie roasts? If it is, I am SO glad we're weird. My parents have a rock fire pit in the back yard with big tree stumps to sit on. We had chili and potato soup and giant sticks to roast weenies and marshmallows. Revelation of the night? Roasted marshmallows are sticky... just ask Sophie!

phone dump friday: beverly hills

2011-10-14T12:34:00.000-05:00

This week's phone dump is a little different! I didn't take nearly as many pictures this week {and some of the ones I did I'm not ready to share yet}, so I decided to post some of my favorite images that SD sent me from Beverly Hills and surrounding sites. Pretty, no?

Rodeo Cowgirl

2011-10-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

This week, Ella got to enjoy her very first fall festival as a student. As luck would have it her dance class also performed in the rodeo themed show and did a tap dance from her first year as a dancer. It was beyond adorable to see them line up and dance for their friends - she was so excited knowing they were watching her. I was more excited about the fact that the booths were running out of candy and goldfish while my little one was strutting her stuff!

{Campbell, Natalie, Ali, Ella, Ella, Kynnedi and Paige}

And just in case you were wondering how well Sophie's lip was healing... Here she is bouncing away in the moonwalk, oblivious to the gaping hole in her face. You would never have known she was four years younger than the other participants. She was running, turning flips and squealing at the top of her lungs!

Little Nugget

2011-10-11T20:21:00.003-05:00

Since I'm not doing monthly posts now that Sophie is one, I decided maybe we should do a little update on what's going on in her world. It would probably make more sense to wait for Friday since she'll be officially 18 months old, but what's a few days, right? She was too sweet today and I couldn't wait to write about her.

First up, stats...

She weighed right at 21.5 pounds yesterday at the emergency clinic, but I'm not sure how tall she is. We have an 18 month well baby visit next week, so I'll be interested to see how she measures up.
I still think of her as tall and skinny, but she is finally filling out. She has a round little belly and long legs. She can wear 12 months tops and dresses, but is in 18 months pants for sure. We have a few things for fall that are 24 months and I was surprised to see how well they fit.
She is still wearing a size 3 diaper and I doubt we make it to a 4. Ella wore a size 3 until she was potty trained at 2.5 years old and Sophie is significantly smaller than her at this age.

Sophie loves to eat. LOVES. As soon as she is up for the morning, she is reaching for her high-chair. Her favorite snacks are bananas, fruit pouches, applesauce, yogurt and goldfish. She loves her milk, but will occasionally take some water if she's really thirsty. Juice? You can forget it. She isn't interested in anything "flavored". She is by far my best eater. She will try anything once and usually likes it. So far, the only things I can think of snubbed by Sophie are rice, raisins, strawberries and watermelon.

She loves to play with her toys and books. Her favorites right now are a Fisher Price princess castle and a sweet baby doll. She wraps her up in a blanket, feeds her a cup and pushes her around in the stroller. We discovered this week that Sophie likes taking a ride in the stroller herself sometimes!

We've also discovered just how tough she is. She was so brave at the doctor yesterday and barely cried when she was hurt. She just wants to get back in the action and is always climbing onto something. I'm kind of surprised we made it to almost 18 months before our first "emergency"!

Her language is vastly improving. She still has a funny voice and pronounces the "eee" sound with an "n" at the end of it, but she asks for things by name, tells us what she wants and can pretty much communicate whenever necessary. I've been trying to keep a running list of all that she has been saying and this is the most comprehensive one I can come up with. Hang on... it's long!

FAMILY (I know you won't care about most of these): mamma, daddin (daddy), ebba (ella), beemer, pocky (poppy), nine (garan), K, Cory, mom-mom (granmom), pop, Heidin (Heidi), Jojo (Joel), Jared, Justin, Heather, Phillip, Karson, Kalli, Kassidy, Heath, Susan, Jessica, Halin (Haley), Mollin (Molly), Hopie, Jay, Nana, Granpa, Bull-Bull, Caycie, Bebba (Bella)

FRIENDS AT SCHOOL: Ca-nine (Caroline), Mad-nine (Madeline), May Kate (Maley Kate), Macy, Preston, Carsen, Addn Grace (Addy Grace)

MEALTIME: pup (cup), ma (more), non-non (gone gone), cha (chair), nana (banana), sandwich, chips, pish (fish), chicken, fenfies (french fries), bite, up (which means done at mealtimes), uh-oh (if her tray gets too messy), pizza, donut, fruit loop

Now for all the random things she says in no particular order... door, outside, swing swing, pool, babin (baby), princess, book, ball, wagon, blocks, Dora, backpack, pone (phone), night night, tacin (paci), hairbow, bow, hair, nose, eyes, mouth, cheeks, knees, legs, belly, belly button (which sounds like blatherblather), hiney, toes, teeth, toothbrush, water, bathtub, spoon, farmer, cows, bed, diaper, bag, Bible, Jesus, boo boo, mama's truck, daddin's truck, nine's truck, k's truck, car, slide, up, no no, mecine (medicine), action (lotion), brush, scat cat (when somebody sneezes), shoes, shoes on, clothes on, 'jamas on, I love you, bye bye, hello, light, trash, socks, airplane, ice cream, go, dance, jump, hand (as in, hold it), taddel (towel -- interchangeable with blanket), bird, dog, cat.

It is unbelievably hard to believe she's a whole year and a half old! It's weird to be thinking about "big girls" things in the same thought as Sophie. I don't want her to be two or to be old enough for Disney World or to be sassy and not want to snuggle her mommy. It is such a fine line between loving her as a baby and daydreaming about the little person she's becoming. She surprises me and makes me laugh out loud every single day. She has the biggest sense of humor and is ALWAYS into something. She likes to climb, is a daredevil and never slows down. The last 18 months of my life have been THE best. Being a mommy to two little bits is my favorite. They are so happy and so am I.

{and just as an afterthought... hello, welcome and THANK YOU to all of the new followers! I've been watching recently
and it seems there is someone new everyday. I really appreciate the kind comments and emails and love to visit your blogs, too.
I'm always flattered that you stick around and enjoy reading stories about the rock house and our little princesses!!}