Doughnut Party!

On Friday, we celebrated G's 4th birthday with her preschool class. I made her a princess crown applique' shirt for her to wear.

(We went with the princess theme for her school party.)
Her class sang her "Happy Birthday" and her teacher gave her a special birthday crown to wear.

We purchased yummy Krispie Kreme chocolate & sprinkled covered doughnuts and brought orange juice to drink!
Her class really enjoyed their doughnuts!

G Turns 4!

G turned 4 years old last Thursday. It was such a bittersweet day as I realize that she is just growing so much and becoming a fabulous little girl. DJ and I woke up a little early (at least for me) on Thursday morning and set up a little party for her. She had a birthday cinnamon roll on her special plate, and her party hat that she wore at her 1st birthday.
She typically wakes us up in the morning, so she was not to thrilled that we woke her up! But, this is her very first picture as a 4 year old!
Once she remembered that it was her birthday, she sat up in bed and was just so happy! We sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
For some reason, she jumped out of bed after we sang to her and went to her growth chart to see if she had grown overnight.
She blew out her 4 birthday candles as we sang "Happy Birthday" to her again.
We just gave her a birthday card and saved all of her gifts for her party. But, she loved her card because it sang the "Bippity boppity boo" song from Cinderella.

Sadly, Thursdays are my busy days at work, so I took the girls off to school and went about my day. G did take her birthday card to show all of her friends though.

I picked her up from school and took her to Krispy Kreme so she could pick out doughnuts for her class party that we would have on Friday. She was excited to watch the doughnuts being made and picked out chocolate with sprinkles.

We were in the car at 3:55 CST, and I realized that it was 4:55 eastern time; the time that she was born. It made me sad to realize that it had been 4 years and 1 minute that she was born, and all of the emotions from her birth just flooded back to me. It's not only celebrating her birthday, but celebrating the day that I become a mom, that we became parents, and that our lives would be forever changed.

We headed to pick up MC and went home until DJ got off work, then we took her to her favorite restaurant for a birthday dinner.

We went to Olive Garden, and she had to wear her party hat! She was thrilled to enjoy their breadsticks!
Here's G with her daddy at OG.
And G and I together.
And G with MC. I love how she loves her.
After dinner, we went to Cherry Berry and got G birthday yogurt. She insisted on sitting in their red cherry chairs!

It was such a fun day to celebrate with just the three of us. She was so happy to be 4. She was so happy to play with her friends at school and show them her card and it was such a special treat for us to take her out to eat and to get ice cream. I love making these memories with the girls, and I hope that they'll remember these memories that we're making.

Happy Birthday G!

Treasure Map Game

G is having a Pirate themed birthday party this weekend, and I have been trying to think of games that we could play.

I had first come up with a "Walk the Plank" where we would purchase a large plank of wood that would act as a balance beam for the kids to pretend they were walking the plank off a ship. But, that would mean that we would have to purchase a large piece of wood and set it in the middle of our living room floor and people would have to walk around. Plus, what if a kid fell off?

I then found a Pin the Eyepatch on the pirate type game, but in a way, I didn't want to do that either, because we had the same type game at her Minnie Mouse party.

But, it's the week of her party and I hadn't really come up with anything. I was near a Party City, so I figured I would just go ahead and purchase the eyepatch game, but all they had was a pin the treasure chest on the map game, and I honestly thought it was lame, and I didn't want to spend $5.00 on it.

So, the picture above is what I came up with. I went to the dollar store and purchased brown packaging paper. I unrolled it to the size I wanted and tore the edges. Next, I went into google images and searched for pictures that would be on a treasure map- palm trees, totem poles, an island, pirate ship, etc. I printed out the images and cut them to size. I glued them around the paper. With a sharpie marker I wrote "start" and then drew dash lines that would be followed, with a big red 'x' in the middle. (I'm also going to add a compass, but it's not pictured yet. I'll also print out treasure chests on card stock paper and put tape on the back of those.

So, in essence, we're playing the 'pin the treasure chest on the map game' but it only cost $1.00 Plus, it's going to serve as our pirate dress up back drop, so it'll have more than one use at the party!

My girls....

My two girls have been so much fun lately. I enjoyed taking Monday off and spending the day with just MC while G was at preschool.

MC turned 8 months yesterday (Tuesday) and I'm having to face the reality that she is getting bigger and closer to one year old every single day.
She is just full of smiles and giggles lately, and she is army crawling all over the house. She loves her baby food, and I just started her on formula one time a day. I have zero milk stash in the freezer and DJ and I are leaving the girls with my parents in a few weeks. So, I'm in the process of trying to get plenty of my milk stored for her while i'm gone. I hope that once I'm back, we'll continue breastfeeding as we are now.
I absolutely love her eyes; they are just so big, and we get so many compliments on them.
Here she is side ways crawling around our living room.
And finally, a picture with G! She's just a wonderful big sister. She loves playing with MC and crawling around and talking to her.

G turns 4 years old tomorrow. I'm finding it hard to believe that she's going to be four. G loves anything princess. She also loves Tinkerbell, My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake. She enjoys going to preschool every day. I think it's her most favorite part of her days; she even asks to go on the weekends! She enjoys watching movies, and right now her favorite movie is Monsters Inc. I think she watched it 6 times this past weekend!

And, how can I not leave you with this cutie picture of MC.... I swear that I don't prefer taking pics of MC over G. I think it just so happens that MC is easier to photograph right now because she's still fairly "still" for me, while G just wants to dance around.

What a Week...

This week has been full of ups and downs. I had Monday off, thanks to Mr. MLK and those politicians who thought we should have a day off because of him. I was looking forward to staying home with the girls and finishing up all of my last minute things to get us ready for the week.

MC was fussy on Monday, and Monday night was a disaster. She was up at least twice for around an hour screaming at the top of her lungs and nothing would soothe her. I decided that we would need to go to the doctor on Tuesday to get her checked out.

That meant that my Tuesday morning was cancelled, and I was suppose to start at a new headstart. Of course, MC had her 2nd ear infection and we were given another prescription. I dropped her off with her daddy, so I could see a home health patient, and then picked her back up.

DJ has been a big help this week- he's taken G to preschool one day and he's picked her up twice.
He brought home this, um, "box" this weekend and G decided that she needed it for a fairy house. What sort of parent would I be if I didn't let her have her fairy house, so, she has it. I'm thinking we may decorate it with construction paper, stickers, and sequins to make it a little um, more girly.
G and MC have been playing more together, and MC is army crawling all over the place! It's fun to watch them play together, and G really is trying to be helpful.

Although, MC ended up sitting in my bathroom sink twice this week while I get dressed and this morning she fell and bumped her cheek which led to a crazy amount of crying!

I feel like my house is chaos every morning, and we don't even leave our house until 8:30 and I know most people are at work by then. I know I need to wake up earlier, but as I told DJ, if I woke up earlier, I'd never sleep!

Yesterday, one of my good friends came home and we just sat and visited for an hour. It was so nice to have good grown up conversation, and I'm so happy that I've met an amazing friend here!

Today was my busy day at work, seeing Headstart kids, going to a meeting, and then driving south of town to seeing another kid. I was so exhausted, that I thought it would do me good to run and tan just to relax for a bit. I ended up falling asleep in the tanning bed, which just made things worse for me.

G threw a fit when I picked her up from preschool, and she ended up loosing t.v. privileges for the night. I was so glad when DJ called and said he was coming home early. I fed MC and put her down for a nap, and I lied down myself on the couch and took one.

DJ made soup & grilled cheese for dinner and I felt much better when I woke up.

I'm so glad that tomorrow is Friday. I have a few kids to see and a home health visit and then i'll be done until Tuesday! I think i'm going to love having 3 day weekends!

On Saturday, i'm having lunch with the coaches wives as we say good bye to two of the ladies that will be moving. It's going to be nice to be able to officially tell them good-bye because that never happens in the coaching world. But, i'm also going to enjoy a lunch without kids!

Do It Yourself: Pirate Party Invitations

G's 4th birthday is pirate theme. I went back and forth as to what kind of invitations I wanted for her shin-dig. I was going to order some custom made photo-type invitations, and then I began to scroll through Etsy one evening. I found the cutest pirate invitations, and decided that I would be able to make them myself.

Materials:

Scrapbook Paper

Resume' Paper (or other printer paper with a darker finish)

Printer

Glue dots or stick of glue

Paper cuter

Ink Pad
I purchased a black and creme stripe scrapbook paper (pardon the picture quality, my flash was off, and I did not notice, so everything looks yellow). Using the paper cuter, I cut it down to a 4x6 piece.

Next, I went into my Word program and typed up the invitation. I was able to turn the document horizontally and make it into two columns. I copy and pasted the wording onto the 2nd column, and printed. I was able to use less paper this way, and both columns were a 4x6 size. (I used resume' paper because I had it lying around.)

I found the picture from googling for pirate images. I copy and pasted an image on to the invitation. Once, they were printed, I tore around the sides and made into a ball to give it an 'old treasure map' kind of look.
I used this ^^^^^ ink pad that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. You can also purchase this from a scrapbook store. After you tear your paper and roll it up, unroll it and lay onto a scrap piece. Rub the ink pad over the edges to give it a burnt look. You can also rub it on the middle of the paper in order to make the paper look even older. The ink will be darker on the spots where it creased from being rolled into the ball.

I considered using a lighter and just burning the edges of the paper. I'm glad the scrapbook store lady recommended the ink pad to me. It was much safer and I've been able to use it for other projects for her party.
Next, glue your printed and aged invite onto your 4x6 scrapbook paper.

I was able to purchase brown 4x6 envelopes from Hobby Lobby- just look in the card making section.

The project cost around $25.00. It would have been cheaper, if I had the paper cutter myself. That was around $7.00 for a cheap one. You can also just use a ruler, and make straight lines on the back of your scrapbook paper and cut.

I love the way these turned out! They'll be going out this week to her classmates at school and in the mail as well. Invitations are the way to perfect way to give a hint to all the fun your guests will have in store for them at your party! So, make sure you give them that glimpse!

Weight Loss Progress: 9 weeks

It's been about 9 weeks since I began working out and attempting to blog about my progress. To see my first entry and my "before" photos check out this blog post.

I have to be honest, that I am not working out as much as I had originally planned, and there are several reasons for that. I started my 2nd job the first of December, which has taken time to get use to and to figure out an accurate schedule for each day, as well as trying to get back to MC to feed her at 2. There are several days where I feed her and then I work out. However, we are having some problems with the sitter saying that she is hungry. There are days where she is distracted while i'm feeding her and she doesn't eat well, and there are other days where I think she is just tired, so she is fussing, and her sitter mistakes it for hunger.

We were also busy around the holidays and were out of the town the week after Christmas, along with the following weekend.

I was able to get to the gym one time this week.

I am trying to cook dinner at home and to cook more healthy meals. However, my lunches are not great because i'm on the run. I eat Subway at least once a week, but other days consist of Sonic and McDonalds. All of which is hindering my progress. I was able to take my lunch one day this week (a turkey sandwich and pita chips) and I plan on doing this more often.

I am also moving to a new Headstart building this week, so I'll be seeing more changes to my work schedule. With this new change, I plan on working 4 days a week and having Monday off. Which, will give me a chance to take MC to her sitters for about an hour on Mondays, so I can work out. Thankfully, her sitter is about 2 miles from my gym.

I have continued with the couch to 5K program, although I am just now on week 5. I also manage to get in 300 abdominal exercises (with a mixture of the balance ball and floor) followed by a 1 minute plank while i'm at the gym.

My next goals are to add in lunges (which I hate) and begin my arm exercises again. Although, I should probably work on actually getting to the gym more often before I fit those in!

But, despite my lack of time (or my excuses) here's my progress thus far:
I feel like my waist is moving inward, however I still have "love handles" and "back fat" along my bra line.
I weighed myself while I was at my in-laws last week (because we do not own a scale) and I was down about 7 lbs, which I was shocked to find out! I am wearing a size 6 or 8 jean, depending on the brand.

I have also started eating the Chobani yogurt, and I highly recommend the pineapple and strawberry! Those are my favorite!

Hanging Out

MC and I have been hanging out today.... DJ joined my brother in the duck woods for the first time ever and he took G to my mom's house for the weekend. Leaving MC and I to hang out and enjoy quality time! I have to be honest, I was looking forward to this weekend all week! It's been a long time since I've had just a baby to take care of without a 3 year old demanding my time as well.

MC is 7 1/2 months old. She's sitting up like a pro now (which still makes me kind of sad). I pulled out a "new" toy for her, which she enjoyed banging on.
She has also been army crawling for a few weeks now, so I tried to get a few pictures of her and how big she is getting! Yes, we've stayed in our pj's day, and it's been great!
I'm glad I caught her at a happy moment, because she's been fairly fussy today.
She received her Sophie for Christmas and enjoys chewing on it!

I had to get my camera out of the car in order to take the photos above, and I realized I had a few pictures that I hadn't posted.
We made brownies a few weeks ago and G had to help. Really, I think she just wanted to lick the spoon.
We also had our first snow in Oklahoma this week. Thankfully, it didn't snow much and we were still able to get out and go about our day with the snow melting by that afternoon. Which, I find as perfect.

Weekend Wrap-Up

{I have zero pictures from this weekend, but I needed to document for myself our past weekend. }

DJ decided a few weeks ago that he would love to visit his dad, step-mom, and make it over to see his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. We decided around Christmas time, that this past weekend was the perfect weekend to go. Mind you, we had only been back a week from Dallas.

Thursday night DJ worked a basketball game here in T-town while I washed clothes, picked up the house, and packed for the girls and myself. He and I both worked a half day on Friday, picked the girls up from their daycares and got on the road, only about 30 minutes behind scheduled.

Thankfully, the girls slept for the first hour in the car and G is a fabulous traveler; I think because she never had the choice and we would make the 12 hour drive every summer to visit our parents. Unfortunately, MC is not a good traveler, and she never has been. I think I can count one time where we have made it to my parents house without having to stop (and it's only 3 1/2 hours away.) I also need to make a mental note here to pack a bottle, or bring my hand pump, so I can have some way to feed MC rather than leaning over the carseat.... use your imagination here folks.

We finally made it to his parents, where we had a fantastic dinner and were able to watch the Razorbacks play in the Cotton Bowl (Pig Sooie!)

DJ was an amazing husband that let me sleep in until 10:00 Saturday morning! I think that was the most fabulous thing ever, as I have not done that in such a very long time! Our Saturday was pretty lazy- DJ went to visit his high school and their "new" gym. (It was built about two years ago, but he hadn't had a chance to see it yet.) And we kicked the ball around with Gretchen outside.

I spent Saturday evening planning G's birthday party... and the past few years I've had birthday themed posts throughout the month of January, but i'm not sure i'm going to have time for that this month, but i'm super excited about her party! And, I will at least post those details.

We left Sunday morning to head to his sisters town about an hour away. Again, G did great in the car, and MC left us all ready to escape! We met for lunch and then went back to their house.

I was so excited to have some free mommy time, where I got to meet and catch up with one of my college friends (who was also our matron of honor) that I hadn't seen in TWO years- entirely too long if you ask me! We had such a blast catching up, and it was refreshing to have some time away, to gossip, and to catch up- we needed that!

Sunday evening we watched our Alma Mater, Arkansas State, take on NIU in the GoDaddy.com bowl- it was their first bowl game in 6 years (their last bowl game, DJ and I were actually with them on our honeymoon!) Sadly, ASU lost, but I was excited for NIU, because one of our old coaching friends coaches there.

Today, we got up and drove around our old college campus. We quickly realized that it had completely changed and we were super lost! Our GPS suggested that we travel through Conway then back up through the state, rather than across the top of the state and through Missouri. It gave us the perfect chance to meet with my mom for lunch, and my grandma surprised us as well!

After lunch, G again did great in the car, but once we stopped for a little break, MC cried pretty much (off and on) for the next hour and a half. Again, this is where I should have had some sort of bottle.

I'm glad to be home. It was a great weekend, and I'm glad we were able to squeeze time in to see so many important people. I have decided though, that we do not need to travel (as a family) again until March, and hopefully we can stick with that because we do love to get away!

DJ is leaving this weekend to go duck hunting with my brother. He wanted to go last year, but he was caught in the middle of his job transition to TU. But, my grandma had the best idea at lunch today that G join him and he could drop her off at my mom's house for the weekend! G was super excited about the idea, and I have to admit, i'm excited too! This will be my first weekend with just MC, and I have so many things that I want to get done, that I just can't do with a 3 year old running around. I'm looking forward to some snuggle time with MC and to some me-time!

So, let's pray that this week goes fast, very, very fast!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

G's preschool had a birthday party for Jesus rather than a typical Christmas party. The teacher asked for cupcakes, party hats, party games, and favor bags. The kids also got to wear their pi's. G decided to wear her Minnie Mouse pi's that her Nana bought her.
They also made their reindeer food to sprinkle on their yards to feed Santa's reindeer.
And, they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.
One of their party favors were these glow in the dark glasses.
I kept MC home that day, so she and I could both go to G's party. MC also wore her matching Disney jammies.
Santa even made a visit, and surprisingly, G was the first to greet him!
He took a picture with their class.
And G told him (again) that she wanted a four wheeler for Christmas. Thankfully, all these Santa's told her that it was a mighty big gift for such a little girl!

Christmas Eve

Only a few weeks late! Here are our photos from Christmas Eve day.... the girls and I stayed home in the morning while DJ, being the typical man, went to run some errands and finish up Christmas shopping!I had to get some cutsie photos of Miss MC on her very first Christmas and on the day she turned 7 months old. My mom made the bloomers above last year for HPA, but we weren't able to sell them, so I saved them for MC.
And, I put an obscenely large bow on her head to take a few photos! I made the bow last year for G.

That afternoon we headed to a Christmas Eve show at one of the churches we have been visiting.
We dressed the girls in their Christmas dresses. And, this was about a good of a picture as I got! At least they are both smiling!
Here's one of the three of us before we left for church...... My necklace is a Dr. Bloom's chewable jewelry that was technically one of MC's Christmas gifts- we just opened it early!

After church, MC came home and took a nap and DJ, G, and I went outside to "feed the reindeer". G made the reindeer food at her class Christmas party with oatmeal and sprinkles.
She did an excellent job of spreading it over our entire lawn- last year she walked outside and just dumped it out all in one spot!
I told DJ that it was nice to not have to bundle up and walk on top of snow in order to feed the reindeer this year! I will say though, that my favorite memory from last Christmas, apart from having my parents there, was walking out of Christmas eve service to falling snow, but I do love these warmer temperatures!
MC spent some quality time with her daddy that night.
And, then we put the girls in their Christmas pi's from their Gee (my mom) and attempted a few pictures!

After we were able to get this picture, G started to misbehave. It honestly started at dinner time, but then it escalated, this may be my worst memory of this past Christmas, because I eventually decided that G was tired and just needed to go to bed. She lost her privileges of getting a Christmas story read to her and lost her privileges of setting out cookies for Santa. Obviously, she was in a lot of trouble.

After we sent her to bed, DJ and I just looked at each other feeling awfully guilty. We decided that we would simply try a "time out" period and start over again. I went in to her room and told her I called Santa and that he really wanted her to set out his cookies. So, I told her that if she stayed in her room until the timer went off that she could get up and set out his cookies. I think that 5 minutes was the quietest that I have ever seen her!
After her time out was over, she was much better behaved, and we set out the cookies.
And, you have to excuse this out of place picture~ but here's our tree after Santa visited!
After we set out the cookies, G said good-bye to our elf, Sally.

She then was able to watch a video that Santa had emailed to me. (It was one I found online where you can place in your child's name and a few of their pictures from the year.) Santa specifically told her that she needed to do a better job listening and obeying her parents and that she was on the nice list this year. I don't think I'll ever forget the look of surprise and excitement on her face as she ended up on the nice list after all! Santa also told her to go straight to bed, and as soon as the video was over she got off the couch and marched straight to bed without saying a word to DJ or myself. After that, we didn't hear a peep as she soon fell fast asleep. So, despite the difficulties of the evening, it turned out to be a memorable one!

The girls went to bed and by 9:00 Santa had visited and we were ready for bed! I remember last year, we were up until almost midnight playing Santa, so it was nice to be done early!
Here are our stockings all trimmed and full! Sally our elf made the snowflakes for us on her last night here. I purchased our stockings from Lillian Vernon. Typically, they are on sale after Christmas.

I hope y'all had a great Christmas Eve and I'm sorry for being so delayed in my posting of Christmas pictures!