February in a nutshell

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love making special dinners for holidays, so this year this is what we had:

chocolate and cheese fondue

 strawberries, marshmallows, fruit, pretzels, and bread to dip into the fondue; sweetheart buddies (I found a website that all sorts of "muddy" buddies flavors!  YUM!)

 Love Potion #9

 Valentine suckers - a kiss for you on Valentine's Day! Pucker up!

 Callie turns 3!

She pulled out a baby carrier and was so excited she threw her arms up and yelled Hooray!

 

Callie with her stash - a Sophia the 1st umbrella, baby carrier and Baby Alive, and a Dora backpack!

Callie's birthday party with family

  

 I saw this cake on Pinterest and had heard that it was pretty easy to make from sister-in-law who makes cakes, so I thought I would try it out!  I think it turned out really good - very forgiving and easy to hide your "mistakes"!  And beautiful too!

 Grandma, Ada, Tyler and Isaiah

 Callie, Scarlet, Aunt Staci, Harrison and Morgan

Callie got her OWN chapstick!  Now she doesn't have to use mine!

 

 This is a typical occurrence at our house lately!

 

TREE DAMAGE

 

We had a HUGE wind storm that blew down a rotting limb in our front yard.  I knew it was going to fall soon because it was already damaged.  Love the shade the tree gives the front yard, so I really don't want to cut it down.

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

We enjoyed LOTS of snow days!  Callie actually got out and enjoyed playing in the snow this year.   As she was making a snow angel, she flung snow in her eyes, so she started crying.  Otherwise, she loved rolling around in the snow!

 Little Miss Mommy

 One of Callie's favorite things to do - walk around in my shoes!  Now if she could just help me get all the things done I need to do too. ;)

One year older and wiser too!

I can't believe I only have one more year until I turn 40!  I don't feel that old at all! (OK, sometimes I do ;)   )  I hope to make the most of it and enjoy each day, whether it is good or not. 

My dad and I have always celebrated together since our birthdays are so close.  Lookin' good, Dad!

Together, we are 106 years old!  I have lots of pictures of the two of us and a cake. :)

 

Before a roller derby bout (meet) that one of my friend's played in, we all got together to celebrate my birthday.  It was a fun girls' night out with a yummy cake and ice cream!  I have some great friends and love hanging out with them!  My friend, Amy, on the right, has this thing with not being able to keep her eyes open during a picture if a flash is used, so we always have to try multiple times to get one with her eyes open!  She is so fun and full of life and always is a blast to be around.  Thanks girls for the fun evening!  It was nice to be remembered and "celebrated". :)

My grandma's birthday is in August too, so we get to celebrate a lot!  One more year and she'll be 90!  She is such a sweet lady.  Glad we get to see her a bit more often than before.  Keep on chuggin' along, Grandma!  We love you!

Happy Birthday to my oh so lovable Callie!

 I can't believe little little brown-eyed beauty is TWO years old!!! Gosh, how time has flown by.  She is just such a joy (most of the time) to have in our family.  We love Callie so so much!  She was SOOO excited to wear her "new" Sunday dress (it was Morgan's) and it was just uncanny how much she looked like Morgan in it! De ja vu!

 She woke up so happy (she got to sleep in her big girl bed for the first time the night before) and ready for the day, like she knew it was a special day for her.

After church she opened her presents.  She was trying to be sneaky before we actually let her start opening them. :)

 New sheets for her bed and a baby doll high chair! Here she is anxiously waiting for Kent to put the high chair together so she can play with it.  She was getting a little antsy waiting!

I think that smile says it all - she LOVES her new toy!

 

I made cupcakes to bring to our friend's house later on and she was so excited to try one.  Of course, she only likes the frosting, but who can blame her - the frosting is the best part!

 

We are so blessed to have Callie in our family.  She definitely has a mind of her own, but she gives the sweetest, most genuine hugs and kisses ever.  She loves to dance to music and especially loves to listen to Morgan's MP3 player with her.  She loves doing whatever her older brothers and sister are doing, or at least attempt to!  We do "secret handshakes" at night and now she holds her hands out for "5" and her fists out to "pound it".  She does SO GOOD at sleeping in her big girl bed and loves reading lots of books in her bed before naptime and bedtime.  She loves to color and help with chores - especially washing dishes with lots of bubbles!  She is very petite, the smallest of all of them by about 2 pounds and 3 inches, but she is a strong one (per the doctor and nurses!).  She weighs 19.8 pounds and is 31 inches tall.  She loves hanging out wherever I am and loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I get ready in the morning.  Minnie Mouse has kind of been her theme this birthday.  She is a pretty good eater, but doesn't eat huge amounts of anything.  She loves pb and honey sandwiches, spaghetti, pizza,  black beans, green beans, mac and cheese, rice, little smokies, the white part of a fried egg, apples, strawberries, and her milk/Pediasure mixture.  As well as anything snacky or sweet of course!  She sort of went from not saying anything to saying 2-3 word sentences in a matter of a few weeks!  I love hearing her talk and expressing herself.  She has now stayed in nursery by herself, at least part of the time, for two weeks in a row!  2 must have been the magic number!  That sure has made Kent's time at church much easier!  She is really starting to grow up and isn't a little baby anymore!  But that is OK.  I am really enjoying having her as my little buddy during the day.  We have loads of fun going to open gym, library story time, play group, running errands and occasionally meeting Kent for lunch.  What a lucky girl!  Enjoy your year of being TWO, little miss Callie!  We sure do love you!!!!

A new look!

So Kent's aunt and uncle gave this hutch to us about 6 or 7 years ago.  From the beginning I wanted to update it but for some reason Kent wanted to hold on to the look of it since it had been passed down to "him".  I think he thought it was treasured family heirloom passed down from generation to generation or something.  After asking his aunt, she said she had just bought it at some garage sale for $75.  But Kent had some kind of attachment to it and still didn't want me to do anything about it.  Why a guy cared about what a hutch looked like, is still kind of a mystery to me.  When we asked all his brothers if they would care whether their wives painted and updated a piece of furniture, they all said they could care less.  It was kind of a sore subject between us and I think he was just being stubborn, BUT I won't go into all that. :)  Anyway, once we bought a house with a fence and he was able to get another dog, he FINALLY agreed to letting me update this piece of furniture that had HUGE potential!  So, I used some of my birthday money to buy the paint and new knobs and handles for it.  Here is the before (it also used to have glass paneled doors  on the two upper sides that I took off a while ago so I was able to showcase things better):

 

Look at those spindles! I tried rearranging and adding things to see how I wanted it to look after I painted it all.

After A LOT of puddying in old holes and re-drilling new holes (b/c it was so old they didn't make pull handles that size anymore!) priming, painting, touching up, and adding the new hardware - it was finally finished!!  I am TOTALLY in love with it!

 

My friend recently repainted and added new knobs to a buffet she bought at a garage sale and used all different knobs.  I LOVED the idea, so I copied it!

Look! No more spindles!!!

 I have an old, mid century style, long, low dresser that a friend of mine from college gave us when Tyler was just a baby that I am also going to paint black and add the same/similiar knobs to.  The two pieces of furniture are totally different styles, but I think the black and the knobs will tie them both together nicely.  It was perfect to use as a baby changing table with lots of room for baby clothes, diapers, AND blankets/burp cloths, BUT since we are done having kids and we didn't have room for it in the kids' rooms, I moved it downstairs to give us lots more storage for "stuff".

The rest of my birthday money went to updating the decor in the family room that will match our NEW FURNITURE AND PILLOWS that we are getting next week!  Once I get it all put together, I will post pictures!