The Unwritten

Adele, through a 2 year old...

2012-01-25T15:50:00.000-06:00

So, a couple of days ago we were driving along when Kennady decided to break out in song. What song you might ask? Adele's song, "Someone Like You" is the answer. For your viewing pleasure & for video proof that she's always wanted to be a singer when she auditions for American Idol in 13 years, I just so happened to catch a bit of it on video. Ignore the horrible key changes & riffs & appreciate with another mother (who knows this too well) that this little lady proves that nothing is missed in the midst of a 2-year-old.

They.Hear.Everything. :)

The REAL words:

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."

Now, Kennady's version:

P.S. Prior to this episode, I knew that she knew a couple of the words, but didn't know she had it in her to nail her solo so well. Ohhh, how I love her so.

Cookie Exchange Goodness

2012-01-11T10:53:00.000-06:00

After we returned from our trip to Vegas, the spouses of our squadron had a big ornament & cookie exchange Christmas party. It was my first ever cookie exchange to be a part of & I had such a good time. There were at least 30 women in attendance that all brought at least 2 dozen homemade cookies each. That makes a total of 600+ cookies, ya'll! Nothing about that could be a bad thing, right?! Well, okay...if we're really going to answer that question, the answer would be yes...there is everything wrong with a collection of 14,000 calories (pure guesstimation of course) sitting on a table for all in attendance to collect whatever their gluttonous hearts desired. We were all given a cute Christmas bag to fill up with at least one of every cookie presented. There were still quite a few leftover after we all finished grab-bagging & man were there some YUMMY cookies! Amazingly enough, not even ONE set of cookies was the same as the others. We had 30 completely different cookies and recipes presented which made it even cooler.

Can we say a little OVERKILL, but beautiful all the same? :)

I made Peanut Butter Blossoms & have to admit, I thought they were the BEST peanut butter cookie I have ever had. It may have helped that instead of the regular chocolate kiss, I use the white/milk chocolate swirl Kisses instead or that they were rolled in pure sugar previous to baking. Still, they were SOOO good. I actually made twice as much dough as I needed (accidentally on purpose ;)) & still have the other half calling my name in the freezer. I have put off making them yet seeing as how they are the total opposite of what I NEED right now, as I'm trying to recover from this cookie exchange party & all of the other calories I took in over the Holidays. I thought I would share the recipe with you because it was just.that.good.

Peanut Butter Blossoms (Cookie Exchange Quantity...7 Dozen...eek!)

1/2: cup granulated sugar

1: cup packed brown sugar

1: cup creamy peanut butter

1: cup butter or margarine, softened

2: eggs

3: cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1 1/2: teaspoons baking soda

1: teaspoon baking powder

: Additional granulated sugar (about 2 tablespoons)

About 7 dozen Hershey's® Kisses® Brand milk chocolates

1Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda and baking powder.
2Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in additional granulated sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
3Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Here they are in all of their beauty: MMMM, MMMMM, MMMMMMMM...

Have you had these or are you willing to try to make them? I wouldn't blame you if you did. They're pretty irresistible. :) Sidenote: the amount can be adjusted via the Betty Crocker website to fit your needs. Happy Baking!

Feelin' Lucky...

2012-01-01T18:45:00.000-06:00

Whew! I have a bit of posting to do to catch you all up on our crazy adventures this past month. Chad & I heard through the air force base grapevine that there was a plane flying to Las Vegas for a 4-day trip. It just so happened to be conveniently scheduled for the same weekend that our friends from Little Rock, the Webbs, would be there for a graduation celebration. It was perfect timing, really spontaneous, quite cheap for a Vegas trip, & we had a babysitter (my momma) all set up; so off we went & it was a blast! We stayed at the Flamingo again & still love it's location. It's perfectly situated for easy access to everything we like to do and see.

We had a wonderful dinner before the Jabbawockeez show at Cabo Wabo near the entrance of Planet Hollywood. Our friend Laura was our waitress, so that was an extra-cool bonus. She was also the awesome photographer who snapped this photo for us!

Cassandra & I stopped getting our groove on for a second at Rok to snap a pic. So fun hanging out with her again!

Chad & I had a lot of alone time, got to eat some good food, see some fun shows, & spend some quality time with our friends in the city of lights! We saw the Vegas! Variety Show at Planet Hollywood & the Jabbawockeez, winners of America's Best Dance Crew, at the Monte Carlo. Both were fun and exciting shows with music and dancing. We also got to meet up with Chad's best friend from college, Joey, & his wife Laura who are temporarily (6 months) living there. We had a couple of late-night Blueberry Hill Cafe snacks with them & it was so great to catch up on each other's lives. We walked A LOT, shopped through the awesome shoppes at Caesars Palace, explored the new City Center hotels & shops, gambled at Bill's Gambling Hall, went to the Rok club at New York, New York & really enjoyed our trip. It was a great getaway & we can now say that we have traveled 'Space A' on a C-130. It was a very laid back experience & one that I would definitely do again...especially since it's FREE! :)

More to come on how we have spent the last 3 weeks of December 2011!

I Scream, You Scream!

2011-12-06T14:49:00.000-06:00

My sweet girl turned 2 this weekend & we celebrated in the best way possible...with an ICE CREAM BIRTHDAY PARTY! She was so excited about this party, she was talking about it for 3 weeks before it even happened. It was definitely a successful evening with friends & family, paint, presents & sweets. I realized later in the weekend that all of her special birthday treats all had sprinkles involved. Lucky girl! ha.

Her real birthday was on Friday the 2nd, so we started out the morning by surprising her with a room full of helium balloons. She LOVED that. I heard her say over the monitor, "ooooooh, pretty balloons!" before I even got to her room. As I went in & started talking to her she was all revved up & knew that it was her birthday. The excitement was too cute! We went to get her a birthday donut, chocolate covered with sprinkles of course, & it was delicious & hot off the rack. Yumm-Y! She liked the topping best...if that's not obvious. :)

We then went and met daddy for lunch at Red Robin. She had her favorite food for lunch...Mac-y Cheese! She thought it was great, especially when we topped it off with some frozen yogurt at Nikki's Swirl Shop. You pay by the ounce and can have endless toppings, so we loaded it up with her favorites (all of which she calls Nim-a-nims...Reese's Pieces, chocolate chips, M&M's, & a little toffee for mommy. It was very tasty & once again, she was a happy girl!

When she woke up from her nap, daddy got home. Mimi showed up from out of town soon after & we all went out to eat at Szechuan, an awesome family-style Chinese restaurant. It was so yummy & Kennady sang the Birthday Song to our waitress every time she came to the table. The old lady was getting a kick out of it. Right before we left, the waiting staff gathered around to sing her their special Birthday song & she ate it up. It was so cute. When we got back to the house, she got to eat some chocolate & practiced blowing out her candles. She did it like a pro!

When Saturday rolled around, we had a whole slew of people coming in town for the big event! Her party was from 5:00-7:00pm so that everyone could have time to get here. Car by car, everyone showed up & was ready to watch some football & party. We started out with a pow-wow in the living room, then headed out to the garage where the kids got to go nuts sponge-painting our BuildADreamPlayhouse Ice Cream Truck. They had a blast getting all dirty (with washable paint of course!) & decorating it to their own delights. It was fun, a bit messy, & super entertaining for the little (& big) ones. We then came in to wash up, light the candles, & build ice cream sundaes. It was all delicious, homemade goodness. Present opening followed once we had indulged & she really enjoyed getting all kinds of new toys (implied?, ha). What a great evening of celebrating our little angel & her first two years. She is so special to us & makes our lives more fun every day.

Happy Birthday Kenna-Bug!

My Baby Turned Toddler...

2011-12-01T23:07:00.000-06:00

December 2nd, 2009 was the most wonderful & joyous day of our lives. That's the day that God decided to give our angel Kennady to us. From that day on, our lives have been so rich. The beauty of motherhood has been everything I expected it to be, because of her. She has taught me a new level of patience, to be a super-multitasker, to be more thoughtful, to love with my whole heart, to smile all day long, to forgive quickly, to laugh with everything in me & to always, always be prepared for anything...oh yea, and to dance like no one is watching!

The most fun I've had has been watching this little mind take on such big things. From learning to cry for things to bossing mommy around these days, the growth is phenomenal. I can't believe she is old enough to speak in full sentences, use logic & reason, & memorize most anything I throw at her. Their brains really are like sponges that never get completely soaked. It's so cool & she has such a bright future ahead of her.

Kennady is the sweetest little girl who packs quite a 'knuckle sandwich' (thank you, daddy, for that). I remember when she first got here & she loved on me by nestling up to my chest. After her first birthday, she laid on my shoulder but sweetly picked it up- kissed my forehead for no other reason but to show me she loves me back- & laid her head back down again. Now as she turns two, she can say "I love you, Mommy"- give me endless eskimo & butterfly kisses- and deliver the best smooches & loving hugs I've ever had. She is my sweet little genius & I am so proud of her. We cannot wait to experience the rest of our lives watching her grow into a generous, loving, & mature little lady someday. What a blessing this little face has been to the lives of all who have met her.

Her one year after a cake induced comatose...ha.

An eager heart & mind...

Ready to spread cheer to all who will let her...

Touching lives with that tender heart...

We love you Kenna-Bug! Happy, Happy 2nd Birthday, my sweet baby girl!

She's Alive!!

2011-10-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

Whew! So sorry for the absence, as usual. It's been a whirlwind of fun and excitement around these parts lately. Starting with the ending of September, we had a birthday party for my bestie, Elya. Two weeks later, it was my birthday weekend & I threw a Couples Pampered Chef party for my closest friends & family. It was the first time I've ever hosted such a party and we had so much fun. It was quite a success too! We now have many of the fun products that I've wanted to have for my kitchen & have already broken them in! I would definitely encourage you to throw own if you never have. My family came in for the party & to celebrate my birthday. It was great, though I don't know how excited I am about being 27....eeek! :-)

Since then, I have been working feverishly on Halloween costumes for my little family. For the 2nd year in a row, we have thrown a big Halloween party for our family & friends. We had it last night and it was sooo much fun! For the first time ever, I went all out on my costume (so did the hubs) with full face makeup, a crazy persona, & a nutty outfit. Some of our friends didn't even recognize me at first glance. I guess that's how you know if your costume was a success or not! Ha. So.Much.Fun. Here is a picture reel of some of the fun & goodies:

Our crazy Alice in Wonderland family:

Witch's hats & Cake Eyeballs

Pretzel & Marshmallow Bones & 'Eat Me' Cupcakes:

Our fun 'Drink Me' potion votives:

Fun pic with the besties, Elya & Crystal:

A couple of weeks ago, we had our family pictures taken by our friends at Cozart Photography. We have used them for all of our professional pictures since we first took our maternity pictures (technically they took my big family pictures before that too!). We have so much fun during shoots with them because they play along with us, put up with our crazy ideas, & always capture just what we want. They're awesome & I would recommend them to anyone in San Angelo's vicinity. You can see our photo sneak peek here.

Now, I have several other things to look forward to. My father is turning 70 this coming weekend & my brother is turning 30 the weekend after that, so my family has decided to throw a huge combined party for the both of them in my hometown. It's going to be a big dance with food & family & friends...we can't wait!

For the month of November, Chad & I are hosting for our weekly Married Couples Bible Study. It's a group of our best church friends & so much fun to share in the joys & challenges of marriage with others who completely understand what it's all about. We're so happy & excited to have them over every week this month. Definitely keeps my homemaker self in check too...at least every Wednesday! haha.

In the beginning of December, the spouses of Dyess are hosting a Holiday Bazaar that features all at-home businesses & crafts. I have decided to have a booth selling fun tutu dresses, wreaths, & bows for little girls. I am sharing the booth with my best friend from Lubbock, Nicole, & it's going to be a blast. I'm really hoping to make a little moo-lah in the process too, so fingers crossed! I have SOOO much work ahead of me this next month to get ready for it, so bring on some time management & organizational skills because I'm gonna need them. And maybe even a little patience too. Ha. If you do any kind of cool crafting, feel free to contact me for more information. You don't have to be a Dyess spouse to feature your work & run a booth. There are still a few openings!

That same weekend is going to be Kennady's 2nd birthday & I can't believe it. My little girl isn't little anymore. She's a mini-human that can speak in full sentences, puts things together, use logic, ask for things she wants with charm, & play for hours on end without tiring. What a joy she is. She seriously makes me laugh ALL DAY LONG & I would never want to do anything but what I'm doing & that's raising my baby girl. I got a small jumpstart on her birthday party plans this summer, but I still have a little more to do for it in this next couple of weeks. It's going to have an ice cream theme & be so fun!

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll try my best to not be such a bad blogger. I told you we've been busy!! :-)

Jewelry Hanger

2011-10-07T15:16:00.001-05:00

I took inspiration for a jewelry hanger from something I saw on Pinterest (surprise, surprise!) & ended up making one for $4. I couldn't believe how lucky I got finding what I needed, but that's what the wonderful store of Ikea will do for you! I found the towel rack for $1.99 & 20 'S' hooks for $2. So cheap and easy & I love that I can actually see all of them as I'm leaving my closet. I have found myself accessorizing even more than before. LOVE that Ikea!

Hung so pretty...

After I got the rod hung, I couldn't help but figure out a way to display my earrings too, so I added some jute yarn to the wall with push tacks & hung them all side by side.

Here's the finished product! You should try making one yourself!

Have you found any new and fun storage solutions lately?

'Thankful' Banner

2011-09-30T21:51:00.000-05:00

Last week as part of my bestie's birthday gift, I made a banner that reads 'Thankful' for her mantle this Thanksgiving season. She really liked it and said as soon as she got home that she had it hung. I have to admit, it turned out super cute and I have another one on my to-do list for my own mantle. I just cut equal rectangles out of burlap, printed fun letters with black ink onto colored card stock, stacked those onto festive scrapbook paper, and went to work on them with my squiggly scissors. After adding a little hot glue to build the layers, the letters were done and ready for stringing with my leather twine. I can't wait to get all of the Fall decorations out, but because we are throwing our annual Halloween party, first thing's first & it's all ghouls and ghosts around here. I hope you like it!

What are your Fall plans...skip straight to Fall decor or take your time & set-up a little fun with Halloween first? I'd love to hear!

Blog Vomit

2011-09-29T22:13:00.001-05:00

I have really slacked again, so here we go with bullets since most of you reading don't care too much for the details...am I right? I probably am, so here we go!

*We had an absolute BLAST at the Great Wolf Lodge. I have never seen so many smiles, splashes, & happy slide rides in my life. This little girl WORE the slides OUT!! She was SOOO big and surprised us with her tenacity. We will definitely be returning for future family trips because it was totally worth it! We got to finish out our trip visiting the outlets & spending several fun hours looking around Ikea. It was a fabulous weekend.

*Last weekend we went to Lake LBJ with my best friend Nicole to visit her dad at his lake house. My mom volunteered to take care of Kennady so we have a little more free reign and it was glorious. We didn't do much but swim, sea-doo, rope swing, watch football, sit on the dock, & ride the boat. It was such a fun, laid-back weekend and we really needed it. When we got back Sunday afternoon, we started prepping for a surprise birthday party at our house for my best friend Elya. I made some cake balls that were delicious. Here's a quick recipe for you to add to your collection:

1 cup dry cake mix of any flavor
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tbsp. vanilla

1. Mix the ingredients together; put in freezer for about 5 minutes; pull them out; roll into 1" balls; refreeze for 5 minutes.
2. Heat 3 blocks of Vanilla or Chocolate almond bark in a small bowl; dip the balls to coat; place on wax paper until they harden.
3. CONSUME!!! They are soooo easy and you (not your hips) will be glad you made them. :-)

The Coffee & Sweets birthday party was a success & I think she really enjoyed herself. Happy Birthday again Elya!

*I never updated you on the fence, but it is UP & beautiful! We are so happy to have a little more privacy, pretty trees to look at, & a beautiful yard of grass coming in more every day. I thought I would be at least 60 before I was happy about watching the grass grow, but no...it happened at a young 26 (for at least 10 more days at least :-)).

*Yes, that's right. My 27th birthday is coming up on October 9th & I'll be honest...I'm indifferent about this one. I know I'm getting older, but I'd appreciate it if that number would just quit going up so quickly. Seriously, it's getting out of hand and WAY too close, too fast to the big 3-0. I guess time flies while you're having fun because my last 15 years sure passed in a hurry!! I don't know what my plans are for celebrating this year, but I'm sure something will come about sooner or later.

*I'm throwing my first Pampered Chef party the Saturday of my birthday weekend and I'm really excited about it. It's going to be a couples party with grilling & some fun kitchen prep, so it will be a fun change up to have men around during one of these parties. We're looking forward to it. Feel free to visit this site to browse the newest catalog & place an order or let me know what you're interested in & we will get you anything you need.

*Besides all of this, my house is slowly being taken over by all things Halloween. Ghosts, mice, glitter, banners, spider webs, wreaths...they're all over the place. We have our 2nd annual Halloween Party coming up & I'm soooo excited to host again. It was a blast last year and this year should be even better. I have a lot of work ahead of me though, both in getting our costumes together & going all out on decorations, so just call me crafty Kelly for the next couple of weeks! I'll be becoming best friends with my hot glue gun & scissors if you need to find me. :)

*I think that's enough 'catch-up the blog' vomit for now. Hope you feel better now...I know I do.

BOO! Candy

2011-09-17T13:39:00.002-05:00

I was inspired by this on Pinterest the other day, & decided to do my own version...for $6!!

I saw these candle holders at the Dollar Tree & paired them with the votive candleholders with a little hot glue & voila! New candy dishes were born. It was super easy & only took about 10 minutes.

I added some jute around the groove in the glass & cut B-O-O letters out of cardstock & tied them on. It turned out cute, I think.

Plus, the candy is practically gone already, 4 days later. Ha. I put Reese's Pieces, the Autumn Mix, & original Candy Corn in the dishes & let me tell ya, they are delicious together! So hard to stop eating them once you start. Can't wait for Fall!

West Texas Fair & Rodeo

2011-09-16T00:28:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the last opportunity that our little family had to experience the stock show, rodeo, & fair that is in town. As a result, we randomly decided that we would go munch on some nasty-for-us food & jump in some rain puddles at the fairgrounds. Kennady ate up the whole experience. She had belly laughs while petting the donkeys at the petting zoo, huge smiles on the rides, giggles as she ate her first bite of funnel cake, & so much FUN overall!! She was taking in all of the lights, activity, stuffed animals, kiddos, & noise & hung in there until almost 10 o'clock tonight. We rode the Bear Affair as a family, the Jumbo Elephants, the mini-train (which she repeatedly referred to as 'the dinosaur train' from PBS), & she rode The Doodle Bug all by herself!

At the Petting Zoo:

Walking the fairgrounds with daddy:

On her first ride ALL BY HERSELF!:

Spinning in the Bear Affair ride with mommy & daddy:

Arms up & WHEEEEE on the Jumbo Elephants:

Aboard the 'Dinosaur Train'....Choo-Choo!!

As you can see through the pictures, we had such a great time! After a fresh-squeezed lemonade, a ~~fatty~~ delicious funnel cake, & Chad's favorite candied apple, we are officially over our allowed family calorie count by oh, maybe 3000. Ha. Oh well, life only happens once & calories will be burned through nonstop swimming for 2 consecutive days at the Great Wolf Lodge (read below).

I LOVE my little family. The End.

Goin' to the Lodge...

2011-09-15T22:46:00.001-05:00

Man am I excited about this coming weekend! Chad & I decided to take an impromptu trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX with a couple we really like, the Kopers & their 3 kiddos! This will be our first trip to the lodge, though we always ~~sang along to~~ saw the commercials for it when we lived in North Carolina. Kennady has been too small for it until now, so we can't wait to see the fun she has. Not to mention that my husband turns into a very mature 5 year old boy when he gets to climb through watery nets & when jumbo water guns are in reach. And don't even get me started on how much he loves when the huge 1,000 gallon bucket of water pours out over his head. It's fun to watch & it's a blast to play at waterparks, so we're stoked! We figure since we missed out on a Schlitterbahn trip this year, we deserve a little last minute, swimmy fun as the summer comes to a close. And we are so happy that the Kopers decided to jump on our spontaneous wagon & go with us. We have yet to take a family trip with other families, so yay for firsts all the way around. They are veterans to the Great Wolf, so we also have someone to show us the ropes (bonus!). Excuse the lack of posting until we return on Sunday. We leave early in the morning so that we can take full advantage of the 2 days at the waterpark. I also have plans to hit up the outlets at Grapevine Mills & Ikea in Frisco. CAN'T WAIT!! Come on tomorrow!! :-) I hope everyone has a fun and blessed weekend!

This is a pic of the pajama party before story time down in the lobby right before bed. Can't wait!

Costume Central

2011-09-07T13:48:00.006-05:00

MY goodness. Looking back on the last 5 years of pictures, I just realized how many theme & costume parties my family has had, both to celebrate birthdays and for Halloween. So, I have decided to share some pictures and ideas with you to aid in coming up with something for this Halloween. Maybe some of the outfits, which are mostly homemade, will inspire you & give you something fun to think about. We had such a fun time at each one of these parties & I hope that this coming Halloween brings you a fun night of tricking & treating.

The Flintstones & Rubbles (all friends in 2005) -

Costumes made of felt, leather, & fuzzy fabrics. All were handmade & super EASY! (p.s. I made Bam-Bam's outfit & it turns out his 'cheeks' were a bit larger than I thought...ha. Sorry for the peep show!)

70's party thrown by the baseball team of Angelo State University in 2005

(Can I have my skinny, pre-baby body back, please?!)

Halloween Bash 2006 HOT WOMEN

CREATIVE MEN

My favorites were Lieutenant Dangle from Reno 911, Where's Waldo? (who tried his best to make it into EVERY picture...hilarious) & Russell Simmons (though the shorts were SHORT ENOUGH!) :).

Me & the Hubs had a free photo session at JCPenney, so we decided to use it on Halloween night & they captured this pic. It's a fun thing to have! :)

My brother's 25th Pirate Birthday Surprise Party (2006)

(the party that I think kicked off my family's obsession with playing dress-up, ha)

My dad's 66th Hillbilly Birthday Party (2006)

(click to enlarge, but be warned that your first

reaction may be "WHOA, that is TRASHY"! Ha.) So fun!

My brother, Batman's 26th SuperHero Birthday Party

I found my Turtle shell at a thrift store & made the rest for Michelangelo (who just so happened to be my favorite ninja turtle growing up) & we had a blast. I am with Batman, a Powerpuff Girl, Poison Ivy, & my sis the Pajama Hero!

Halloween Party 2007

Santa & his Elf (handmade felt costume), a Rocker who was Hot For Teacher, & of course Smurfette & Papa Smurf.

My sis' 30th Birthday (2009) celebrated in true 80's fashion. We went out for a night

of karaoke & rocked our socks off like this IN PUBLIC. So funny. :)

My 25th Birthday Toga Celebration (2009) with the whole family!

I was thrown a Mad Hatter Birthday Party last year by my dear friends & we wore anything striped or kind of wacky. Gotta love our awesome headbands!

My sweet whimsical cake by Crystal (pictured above). So cool!

First Annual Sellers Halloween Bash 2010

The creative Twister Board!

My brother Edward Scissorhands (cutting my hair, ha)

A cute little twist to Beauty & the Geek

Ken & Barbie, so creative!

Tourists...funny, funny stuff!

Our pirate family photo with our favorite Parrot Kennady!

As you can tell, there are very few dull moments when you're around my family & friends. We all love to spend time together & celebrate in the wackiest ways we can think of. I just hope that we keep the fun parties rolling! I hope this got you thinking a little more about how you might decorate yourself or your family this year! I have already started racking my brain for a fun and

interesting (or unusual) family costume this year. If you have any fun ideas for our sweet threesome, PLEASE share! :-)

Gamecock Banner

2011-08-30T23:40:00.001-05:00

Let me be clear from the beginning. I went to a Division II school called Angelo State University which just so happens to be in my hometown of San Angelo, Texas. I received a full-ride scholarship upon my high school graduation & thought that I would be a dummy to not accept it. I had a wonderful 4 years there & wouldn't trade my college experience for anything. It was perfect for me. I know how deep college colors run in the students that attend them and it's great to have pride & hope in your school & athletic departments.

With that said, there are a couple of things, voluntary or involuntary, that happen naturally upon getting married. One of these things is the expectation to adopt endless amounts of support & excitement over all things football & college mascot. My husband went to school at the University of South Carolina. Their mascot is the Gamecock, & if you aren't quite sure what a gamecock is, it is a fighting rooster that is usually shortened to 'fighting cock'.

Now, as most men do, my husband loves to deck himself out in Gamecock gear when at all possible. I thought he only owned collegiate t-shirts/hoodies & had nothing else in his closet when we first started dating. His habit of wearing such clothing almost caused my best friend to tell me 'heck no, he's not the one' just because during her first impression of him, he was wearing a shirt & backwards hat that said COCKS across the front. She gave him the benefit of the doubt and later asked me concernedly, "why is he wearing a shirt with that on it?!". I giggled and told her it was his mascot and she was dumbfounded at why a college would choose such a thing to represent them. My answer, "it's just as good as any I guess & if you think about it, the inappropriate t-shirt & bumper sticker slogans are endless. " Ha.

Since we started dating, we have seen several home games in South Carolina & have been there to cheer them on through the good and the bad. The baseball team is so talented that they have won the College World Series two years in a row. That's a feat, for sure! Once again, we were right there glued to our t.v. through every pitch. It's fun to have faith in a team & I'm glad we've had the opportunity to see these teams in action.

Over the past 5.5 years, I have become a big USC Gamecock fan. I have purchased several pieces of Gamecock paraphernalia for my closet now too. We look forward to the fall with anticipation as the football season kicks off & this year I wanted to do something special to decorate and pep us up. I saw this super cute mantel banner on My Blessed Life last spring & thought it would be fun to attempt for my sporty mantel. I also made this before my hubby returned from his training in AR so he would be surprised and happy about it when he got home.This is how it turned out:

I really like how the different prints on the papers turned out.

The flag in the middle is a scrap from one of Chad's something-or-others that

he cut the emblem off of, so I found it a new home.

The football paper makes me happy. I underestimated how long this process would take for 11 letters. It took a full naptime for the little lady (about 3 hours), lots of patience, about 17 glue sticks, & a small scissor blister from having to cut the letters out by hand (because I don't have a Silhouette or Cricut machine and YES, I am jealous of you who do...birthday gift from someone??...

it's coming up in October so ya might wanna start saving, ha).

A picture of our family at last year's game, our Gamecock garden gnome & Kennady's Carolina teddy bear she got from Uncle Chris for Christmas last year adorn the rest of the mantel.

The hubby was super pumped about my decor & is soooo excited that this weekend kicks off the season! Let's go Gamecocks!! :)

I want to know, which team/school do you support & how do you prep for the football season?!

Fence Me In (why don't ya?!)

2011-08-30T16:35:00.001-05:00

We have BIG plans around here, people. BIG PLANS! These plans include the addition of all things YARDY. Yes, I made that word up because I couldn't think of anything better. We have been living in our new house since April of 2010. So after doing some math, you may see that we have been here for a great 15 months. As a result of deployments, TDY's, & the challenge of saving money, we have chosen to wait until now to improve our newly built home, more specifically the yard & fence. What I didn't realize until now is the process of events that has to happen in a specific order for it all to 'come together' just right. So, if you wonder what we've been up to since the party a couple of weekends ago, this is what we've been doing.

We live on an acre which is 43,560 square feet to be exact. That's a lot of space, ya'll. We have staked out the corners, done the math, calculated materials & have them scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. We've picked out 3 lovely Cedar Elm trees from a tree farm down the road & are so excited about getting them put in. The Dig Tess (not a typo) people have been called and scheduled to come mark our cable, water, & utility lines to prevent any digging problems. My family is coming in this Thursday evening to spend the Labor Day weekend with us doing true, manly labor by building our fence. Luckily, we have an agreement to pay them in beer & food, so we are saving a bundle & everyone is still happy with us (thanks fam!)! We then had to get the dirt guy in line to build the yard up & potentially erect a retaining wall for us across the front of our house right before our waterway(ditch) begins. On top of that, we have the irrigation guy in line to hook us up with some organized water squirters (yay for extremely high water bills!!). So, to sum all of that up, we have:

*Dig Tess coming between now & Thurs. at noon.
*Trees delivered & planted Thursday afternoon.
*Family arriving Thursday evening & working through Monday to build a fence.
*Dirt dumped and spread on Friday.
*Irrigation & retaining wall installation next Tuesday.
*Grass seed blown in during the coming weeks.

Can we say, INSANE?! (and EXPENSIVE?!)
My goodness, this stuff has already drained me just thinking about it and it really hasn't even started yet. It will feel so great to have it all done & to see the finished product in just a week from now! We can't wait and I will definitely be posting pictures as the process takes place.

When we moved in, there were already two Live Oak trees planted in the front yard. Unfortunately they ended up dying (super sucks) and they have been 'deadly decorating' our front landscape ever since. I am happy to say that they have officially been chopped down (as of yesterday) & I have all kinds of fun project ideas that I plan on using the trees & pieces for. I will keep you updated with those as I eventually get them done. It's awesome to be able to make something out of nothing, right?! Wish us luck!

Angry Birds Birthday Bash

2011-08-25T11:53:00.003-05:00

Hello All!
I am happy to report that my hubby's surprise Angry Bird birthday party went off without a hitch! My family came into town & we had a lot of friends attend & it couldn't have been better. I think he really enjoyed himself and was very appreciative that everyone worked hard to gather for his birthday. He has been deployed for the summers of '08, '09, & '10 & was temporary duty in AR this whole summer, so needless to say, it's been AWHILE since he has been able to celebrate his birthday in style like the rest of us have. Later he told me that it's been since his 18th birthday that he's had a real party. Kinda sad considering he's a very young (hehe) 34 already!

I really worked hard on decorations for this party. I chose the Angry Bird theme since he has loves playing it & it's so 'in' right now. My birds, in my opinion, turned out so.darn.cute. I chose to mix two different methods that I found online to make them. I took inspiration from Martha Stewart's PomPoms & used the printable Angry Birds faces template found at The Party Animal.

For the cupcake toppers & bottoms, I used the free printable found on Your LifEvents. So awesome how these turned out & using them saved me time on making a fancier cake. I mean, who doesn't love a cupcake, after all?!

Here are my lovely angry pompom birds:

The Green Pig:

Blue Bird:

White Bird:

Red Bird:

Black & Yellow Birds:

My little lady enjoying her newest tissue paper friends post-party. She thought they were so funny!

A little extra decoration...made of wrapped curtain rod boxes & jute:

My birthday boy hubby in front of my homemade banner:

I made this banner with cardstock, curvy scissors, jute, a glue stick, printed letters from Word, & the Angry Bird prints found on a 'how to draw' Angry Birds website.

I took the picture before straightening the letters out...silly me. :)

An easy front door box & balloon decoration:

Me & the man in front of his banner:

The 'spread' sponsored by the yellow bird:

One more added craft that I thought of one day in the shower...don't act like some of your best ideas don't come to you while you're washing your hair, ha. I created this print in Word, printed it & framed it for the viewing pleasure of my guests. I thought it was a cute play on words. :)

It was a great party & the Angry Birds brought so much personality to the evening. I got him the t-shirt for $10 at JCPenney & he said he was going to wear it to bed that night. Ha. Great times, fun crafts, good theme parties. Gotta love it!

Happy Birthday hubs! :)

Hubby Returns

2011-08-18T00:04:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to express my happiness over the home return of the hubs. He gets here tomorrow, which happens to be his birthday, & I CANNOT wait to have him in my arms again. Getting a queen size bed to yourself is totally overrated after the first couple days of sprawling out. Believe me, it gets colder and colder as the days pass.

I am so proud of him and the extreme amount of dedication & persistence that going through J-school called for. He is a shining example of someone who is focused & goal-oriented. We have so much to be thankful for and one of those things is definitely having a husband/daddy that loves us more than anything & is sickened by the separation that the Air Force occasionally forces upon us as a family. We always make it through though & I'm glad that tomorrow, our world goes back to normal which I feel is PERFECT. He is my knight in musty C-130 flight suits...and I LOVE him so.

Hubby, congrats on finishing your Master's & officially becoming a C-130J Pilot over the summer. I don't know how you do it, but it's wonderful to be holding your hand while you do. And Happy Early Birthday, hot boy! :)

Is that WATER I see?

2011-08-15T23:01:00.000-05:00

As many of you may know, the weather conditions in Texas this year have been dryer than my cracked heels on a sandal-wearing day. Seriously, moisture can be found NOWHERE. What little moisture that was present in our lakes, ponds, and rivers is no longer. It has officially evaporated in the 60+ consecutive days of 100+ temperatures and we were all thinking that hell had made itself known within the Texas borders. It is HOT here. But luckily, as everyone always says..."at least it's a DRY heat!". Ha. Dry heat my butt. As soon as I walk outside, there's not much 'dry' about me. Sweat everywhere, ya'll. Gross, I know.

Luckily, God decided to answer some prayers that were probably more like beg sessions. The houses were shifting, the ground was breaking, the fish were dying, the bugs were coming indoor, the cattle were dying of thirst, & my goodness, don't get me started on the dust storms. A couple of days ago, moisture fell from the Heavens and completely renewed our land, cleansed our souls (not a stretch), and provided a much-needed relief from the heat. The ground was soaked, the air was cool, & for the first time in MONTHS, there were water puddles and that wonderful smell of rain was so breathable. You could see a huge difference in everyone's attitude & we were all so thankful for the refreshment. A total of 5 inches fell in my hometown of San Angelo (that's more in two days than in 8 months). We received a good 2+ inches here in A-town and the ground is still wet in places. Hallelujah & thank you Lord for that rain. We don't want to be greedy, but any more that you can spare, we WILL TAKE IT! :-)

After the second day of raining, we walked outside to see a gushing line of water escaping from a pipe near our water meter. We live on an acre, so our meter is far from our house and halfway between ours and the neighbor's home. My super nice neighbor tried to turn our water off and failed because what we thought was a problem with my meter turned out to be a huge leak in one of the main pipes leading to our meters. Luckily that turned out to not be our problem or else we would have been charged for all of that water. NO thanks! It was running for hours before it was noticed & things were double muddy to prove it. After about 6 calls, I got a couple of water pros to come out for service and we were without water for 4 hours that night. I have to give them credit because they were out there in the dark with a tractor digging and sealing until midnight & voila, it was all fixed. They did leave a huge mess though, so I may have to get on someone for that.

On a lighter and happier note, Chad is returning this Thursday from his AR training and we are so excited! I cannot wait to have him home again so life can return back to normal. It's been six months since we have lived in our own home together and this has been a long-awaited return. Thursday just so happens to be his birthday, so WHAT A PRESENT! Speaking of present, I have some shopping to do, though I have NO IDEA what I'm going to get him. If anyone has any good ideas for gifts, I'd love to hear them, ASAP! Ha.

Besides that, I don't have much else other than this little anecdote. The other day when I was deep cleaning our very dusty and dirty house, I came across what looked like a curled up scorpion along the baseboard in my bedroom (freaky!!). Turns out it must have been sleeping, because as soon as I touched it to throw it away with a thick wad of toilet paper, it came a'crawling toward me. NOT COOL. I quickly got a high heel (useful for killing critters, ya know) and squealed my way through stabbing it to death. I even scared Kennady with my squealing, so for that I feel bad. But for the stabbing, not so much. It was officially dead after a triple check and it quickly went swimming down my toilet forever. Problem solved with just a little bit of trauma to both mommy and baby. For the record if it's not obvious, I.Hate.Scorpions. THE END.

Bloys Campmeeting

2011-08-15T09:48:00.002-05:00

I have a lot to catch you all up on, but I'm going to have to start with one thing at a time (to save you from having to suffer through the longest blog post EVER). I will start with what is one of my favorite experiences ever... Bloys Campmeeting.

Our trip to West Texas was so great. I was a little scared that all of the traveling recently would drive my little lady (or myself) to insanity. She was a trooper as usual though & we made it there on Wednesday and stayed until Sunday afternoon. I'll give you a quick, small back-story as to what campmeeting is and why it is so important to me. It started 122 years ago (no, that is not a typo) by Dr. W.B. Bloys (my best friend Nicole's great-great grandfather) in a mountain cove located between Ft. Davis & Valentine, Texas. Back in the horse-drawn carriage days, the cattle ranchers would have the preacher/pastor/priest travel to their ranches a couple of times a year to hear the gospel. As it was difficult to travel back then, they decided to have an annual campmeeting where all of the surrounding ranch families would gather for a week of worship, teachings, & fellowship. From the days of tents, horse-drawn carriages, & a gathering of approximately 47 people, blossomed a tin cabin campground, an attendance of around 2000 people, & a holy experience like no other.

I have been going with Nicole & her family since I was 5. Because of a family reunion in Washington, D.C. and mine and Chad's honeymoon, I have had to miss 2 since then. This year marked my 20th year of attendance & it was just as special as ever. Some of the most wonderful things about campmeeting are getting to see the same families every year. The children have grown a year older and inches to boot. There is no tv or Internet which allows for some amazing naps, book reading, or anything else that soothes you. Sitting on the balcony in a Papasan chair while the rain clinks down onto the tin roof carrying a cool breeze might be one of my favorite things to do, ever. At campmeeting, the conversation is always sincere and sometimes deep. Laying underneath the west Texas sky is unreal. In one evening, we laid back and saw at least 30 shooting stars. The Milky Way is so bright and beautiful you feel like you are in it (which technically, we are). But still, the quietest moments, the darkest nights, & the cleanest air are just a few of the things that I appreciate so much out there. Even the smell of dirt and mustiness get me giddy there. It is impossible not to see the beauty of our God and his works when you are surrounded by a nature that speaks & sunsets that light up the mountain skies. You can feel God's presence & the worship is some of the best & most intimate I've ever experienced. To say it in a few short words, I.Love.Campmeeting.

Nicole & I used to cry in the car as we drove away because back then, a year felt like an eternity and there were so many special things we didn't want to leave out there. I had my first real kiss there (At church camp, yes. Don't judge me. Ha.) with someone who is still one of my best friends (pic below, hehe). I climbed my first mountain & went through my first bat cave there. I had my first major water balloon fights out there & some of those were epic. Every year, I come closer to Jesus while being out there & it is so refreshing.

I am so thankful and excited for Kennady and that I get to share the experience with her. She got to mingle with other kids, play in the dirt, blow bubbles, swing her little heart out, & enjoy all things that make being there special. It was so fun & I think if we continue to attend, it will become one of her favorite experiences too.

This link shows a picture taken from the bat cave down to about a quarter of the campgrounds. The rest are a couple of pictures from this year. It brings warm and fuzzies to my heart to see these pictures and to remember the memories. I am so thankful that my best friend and her family were so thoughtful so many years ago, to include me on an experience so special & to continue to invite me every year. It's truly something I could never repay them for.

Just a swingin'.

One of my new favorite pictures.

Silly little princess.

Besties...that's Nicole on the right of course.

Precious little cowgirl in the making.

So sweet. That's all for now. I'll be back soon to continue playing catch-up!

Tequila turned Classy...

2011-08-13T00:44:00.001-05:00

All of the craft blogs I've been following have really helped me to look at objects, furniture pieces, and scraps of all things wooden, paper, or fabric in a different light these days. My mind will go nuts with ideas when I see stuff that resembles any of the great and creative works I've found on websites and Pinterest. It's exciting and fun to know that there are no boundaries to creativity. So, I am proud to say that I actually came up with something creative to upcycle ALL.BY.MYSELF. Yes, it's true. I'm a fan of it, but feel free to let me know what YOU think!

My family has a huge reunion at the lake every summer where we all pile into one house, sleep almost on top of each other (not in an incest-y way, but in a 'we can't seem to find a reasonably priced/large home big enough to sleep 26 people' kind of way), jam out with guitars & sing terribly at the tops of our lungs, all while drinking a little drink. One of my brothers is a big fan of Patron Tequila. He brings a handle of it every year and it's always a hit. When the bottle finally ran dry (ok, it really didn't take THAT long...there were 16 of-age people present after all...), I decided it was a really cool bottle. With a little sticker-picking and glue-removal, I thought 'this could be super cute'. Almost like something that could be seen at Pottery Barn...minus the Patron inscription of course. :)

Here is my new flower vase in all of its glory. By the way, did I mention it was free to me? Even more AWESOME.

The Bottle BEFORE

The Bottle AFTER

So bright & fun!

Tequila turned classy!

Well, that's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping by!

I've linked up to Tatertots & Jello, a place that steals the majority of my weekend as I thumb through fun and creative projects!

Mini-Adirondack

2011-07-29T14:30:00.000-05:00

I came across this precious little Adirondack chair at Lowe's for right under $10 & just had to get it. I initially was focused on using it as a prop for my 18-month old's summer photo shoot. I chose coral because it's girly & so 'in' right now (haha) AND it complimented her lime-green swimsuit which is also oh.so.cute. She LOVES this chair & our pictures turned out

beyond precious, thanks to our friends at Cozart Photography.

She looks like such a big girl!

I decided to add a little more pizazz to the chair by adding on some simply cute glitter stickers by Stickabilities from the scrapbook department of Hobby Lobby. Kennady loved having her name on the chair so much (sarcasm intended) that she decided to peel them off one by one while mommy wasn't looking one afternoon...so, to prevent such a disaster from happening again, on the second round I plan to seal it somehow. I'm looking for suggestions from you fellow crafters for a product that would seal stickers to plastic really well. In the meantime, it's still so.stinkin.cute. This is what it looked like after a little love & before little monkey fingers went to work on messing it up.

For a very reasonable $13, you too could have this sweet little chair

personalized & lookin' chic for your little one. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 4 Years to my Hubby...

2011-07-27T22:25:00.012-05:00

I can't believe that myself and the Captain (I've never called him that, so I just giggled while typing that, ha) are already at the 4, yes FOUR year anniversary mark. It is unreal how time flies when you're having fun. And yes, even after four years of marriage, I can still say that we are having TONS of fun. We've had our ups and downs over these years, with most of the downs stemming from physical separation from each other due to the very nature of being in the Air Force. When we actually get time together, we try our best to take in every minute & spend it doing stuff that enrich or fulfill us.

This anniversary will be the 2nd that we have spent together because of 3 consecutive summer deployments. Luckily, I visited him while he was deployed to Germany & we were blessed enough to spend our special date in Paris.

We LOVE to travel, so over the past 4 years, we have traveled the U.S. from New York stretching the entire east coast, covered the complete southeast, & stretched all the way west to Las Vegas, Nevada...mostly done by driving. Time spent in Germany, France, & Switzerland gave us some of the best memories we've ever created and the cruises to the caribbean make me all warm and cozy to think back to. We've visited family & friends, settled into a new home, brought a beautiful baby girl into the world, & can't be more thankful for every bit of it.

I married the most handsome, thoughtful, intelligent, loving man I have ever known. I am so lucky that he allows me to be a stay-at-home mom to our sweet Kennady & honestly wouldn't have it any other way. We have dreams for our future, to grow our family, & to continue to nag each other to no end, because that's what we do. That's how we like it & neither one of us would change a thing (well, he probably would but I'm gonna act like I'm really not

that bad of a nagger, ha).

You two are my favorite...

Thank you, Chad, for being the best husband, father, and provider for our little family. You are what every girl dreams about having someday...and I was lucky that my someday came on July 28, 2007. Happy Anniversary babe! I love you more with every day that passes.

Sweet Daddy Realization...

2011-07-26T18:08:00.003-05:00

So sorry again for my lack of posting. How boring am I...seriously. I haven't forgotten about you, I've just been crazy busy driving through 7 of our lovely 50 states. I am happy to say I am finally taking a moment to sit down and take a breath. In a quick couple of sentences, this is what we have been up to.

Kennady & I traveled by car to GA for Chad's cousin's wonderful wedding. It was beautiful and Kennady had a blast tearing up the dance floor and coloring with the girls. We got back to AR and 2 days later we headed by airplane down to Texas to visit my aunt from Alaska. She comes down to visit every summer and we had a laid-back blast with her by going swimming, eating, making desserts, shopping, & playing games. We then made our way to another wedding, this time in Addison, TX near Dallas. It was my best friend's little brother's wedding and it was beautiful. The chapel was gorgeous & the reception was a great time of catching up with friends we haven't seen for months and some good eats. Chad & I made it a 3 day weekend and spent our extra time by getting a pedicure (I did, anyways :)), shopping at the Frisco mall, & chillin' with some of our besties from A-town. I got to top things off with a wonderful stroll through Ikea which is such a fun store to walk through. If you've never been to one and enjoy anything related to home decor & organization, you will be in heaven. Although you must allow at least a 2 hour window to be able to really see the place in it's entirety. It's amazing. I didn't get much, but I did find some super-cute fabrics for really cheap and that makes me happy. We drove home yesterday and it is really good to be settled again.

Last night while we were watching tv, Kennady thought it to be a good idea to climb on top of the hotel coffee table to get attention. Chad & I always think it's kind of funny when she pulls stunts like that, but we're always scared someday she's going to hurt herself. It was kind of a sweet moment when she started to jump off into her daddy's arms. On about the 6th very trusting fall, Chad heard himself say, "I guess it's my job to catch you." This statement hit him, as he realized that that really is how a great father-daughter relationship can and should be. Daddy's are special people. They love unconditionally, they provide all things necessary for happy living, they kiss boo-boos & protect their little lady from all things evil, & are always there to catch their little girls under all circumstances. It was a good moment of realization that brought just a little bit of magic to a really silly sequence of events.

I promise more posts will come soon...pinky promise. :)

Over to GA...

2011-07-05T14:01:00.002-05:00

Well, in the past week or so, we have found a lot to be a part of. My friend Cassandra celebrated her birthday on the 4th, so on Saturday night, we had a cookout, dessert, & awesome hangout time with friends. All of us 'oldies' with babies stayed up talking until midnight (that's late to still be out and about) after we all got our kiddos to sleep in pack'n plays. It was a night of great conversation & stuffing our faces; can't be mad about that. :)

Sunday rolled around & we slept in until 10:15...AWESOME Kennady, good work! :) It was a much-needed night of rest. We relaxed during the day and found ourselves at a friend of a friend's house for an early 4th of July celebration. They had briskets, burgers, hot dogs, & FIREWORKS GALORE. $1200 worth of firework fun, to be exact. It was quite the show, though we were ready to hang ourselves while the roll of 1000 firecrackers took 5 non-stop CRACKING minutes to pop off. Sounded like the machine guns from The Godfather. It was great hanging out & surviving the heat with the crew again though. What a great firework show too!

Yesterday, the real July 4th, was a completely lazy day for us. We didn't get out of our pajamas until 6pm when we decided to go swimming downstairs. Ha. Don't judge us. Ridiculous, I know, but we had a busy weekend. ;) They also offered us ice cream & warm M&M cookies downstairs in celebration, so we had ourselves some yummy dessert after swimming. Kennady was a huge fan.

The other day I learned how to shir using material and my sewing machine. I made Kennady a high-waisted skirt & accidentally made myself a shirt as I (too late) realized that I had mis-cut my material. I have never really thought about making myself clothes, but maybe that would be fun someday. It's way easier and more fun to make them in small sizes for Kennady, but the occasional piece might be nice. Or sometimes I could just rely on my occasional stupidity to give myself something new to wear. That seemed to work this time. Ha.

Tomorrow, Kennady & I are hopping in the car and pointing our vehicle towards Georgia. Chad's cousin Travis is getting married Friday night, so we are going to join in on the festivities. Unfortunately, Chad is stuck staying here as they scheduled him for something on Friday & left us going without him. I considered not going at all, but we have promised his family for months that they would get to see Kennady at the wedding, & because a couple of them haven't seen her since Christmas, I deemed it a necessity that they see her NOW. So much happens between months 12 & 19. She is a little human now that speaks words, makes small sentences, dances, runs, talks non-stop, giggles, sings, throws tantrums & all kinds of fun things. They need to see this & get to love on her too, so we're headed that way until probably Saturday. It should be a lot of fun seeing as how we will get to be a part of the rehearsal dinner, bachelorette party, & wedding. I am sure to have pictures galore when we return. I will try my best to keep you updated while I am there, too.

Well, that's all for now. Hope your 4th of July was spent with friends & family & that we all remember that freedom doesn't come free. Thank you to all of the military members & people who have given all that they could give for our rights to be had and may God continue to bless the U.S.A.!

Whirlwind of Bullets

2011-06-29T09:37:00.007-05:00

Whew! This past month (has it been that long?!) has really flown by. To catch you up as quickly as possible, here is what we have been up to:

*Kennady & I traveled to Texas to see my family for 2 weeks. We had a challenging trip seeing as how it all started out on the wrong day. I was 100% convinced by my own memory that our plane was to take off on a Thursday. Upon delivering myself, a 52-pound suitcase, an overactive 18-month old baby, an overflowing & 10-pound baby bag & a mini-backpack of toys & snacks, we arrived at the airport...on a Thursday. Upon attempting to check-in at the kiosk, the computer nicely informed me that I could not check-in more than 24 hours before my flight & that I should 'see an attendant'. I almost threw up. It was hot, I was sweaty, Kennady wanted to be anywhere but with me, & all I could think was...there's NO WAY I did this to myself. Could I really have been this blonde?! UGH. After we figured out that my flight really was on Friday, K & I loaded up again & stomped out of the airport, called the hubs, & were taken for $2 for our 'temporary' parking. Why don't you just add a little salt to my wound, haha. JK, but seriously. It was a rough & frustrating morning.

*Friday morning rolled around & our flight out of Little Rock was delayed by an hour. SERIOUSLY?! Wouldn't be all that bad of a thing except that our layover in Dallas was only 40 minutes. There goes the uneventful day of flight I had hoped for. Now, I had to decide if I wanted to accept a 7-hour layover in Dallas before the last flight went out, or if having my mom drive 4 hours to get us would be better. I chose the latter. My mom came to pick us up in Dallas & annoyingly enough, we got home only 30 minutes earlier than the airplane would have, mostly because of a baggage issue. Needless to say, I was exhausted when we finally arrived to SA, but we were there and that was all that mattered.

*That Saturday, one of my best friends growing up, Julie, got married to one of my brother's good friends from high school, Dustin. It was a beautiful ranch wedding at sunset & she looked stunning. It was a huge party and I got to see several people that I haven't seen since high school. After a night of eating Outback, dancing, socializing, & enjoying the band, we finally wished them well & headed home. It was a great night. Thank you to all of you who offered up your advice on which dress I should wear. I finally decided on the nude colored one & finally bought myself a pair of precious cowgirl boots to go with it. I think it turned out pretty cute, even though my tan was lacking. :) I had a blast in the dress so I guess that's really all that matters. hehe. Sorry it's sideways, I couldn't fix it. :)

*A couple of Wednesdays ago, we got Kennady's 18-month pictures done with our friends Slade & Laura at Cozart Photography. She was in such a great mood & was such a trooper through the 3 outfit changes that mommy made her do & they captured so many amazing pictures. I don't know how they do it, but they always seem to get her at her best (believe me, being at her best is a challenge these days). To see her sneak peek, go here. Thank ya'll so much for being so great!

*The Friday after our photo shoot, I was doing my Insanity workout in my parent's living room. I had been pretty tired from the increase of intensity in the workouts for the week & decided to take it easy for the day by doing the ab workout. It's still pretty intense, but I thought it would be good to ease off a little bit to allow my body to recover some. One of the exercises was to jump up with your knees tucked & to come down and repeat for as many as you could do. After a couple of my jumps, I came down and landed by accidentally hitting one foot before the other. I felt a sharp pain in my lower back & immediately knew it was bad. I have a history of back problems, so when something like that happens again, you just know it's going to be bad. I tried to stretch it out to no avail. Because it was almost 5 o'clock on a Friday & most chiropractors don't work weekends, I had a pain-filled weekend to work through. By Sunday, I was walking crooked, heating & icing as much as possible, & having a lot of trouble sitting comfortably. I was lucky enough to get an emergency chiropractic appointment Monday morning & walked out of his office straight & feeling so much relief. That following Wednesday, I got a massage that really

brought me back to normal. It is so miserable to have a hurt back & I'm still treating it with care,

in fear that I may hurt it again if I make a wrong move.

*Even though I was in pain, I was coaxed into joining my brothers, niece, nephew, hubs, & father for our

annual Father's Day Golf game in Eden. Every year we head out there, spend 7 or 8 hours playing one

drawn-out game of 18 holes, & really enjoy playing. I obviously didn't swing any clubs that day,but

I did make a couple of good putts on the green. I was merely there for the socializing, cart driving,

& heckling skills. It was a good time even with the stints of occasional back pain. P.S. Happy late Father's

Day to all of my favorite men. :)

*Monday morning while I was at the doctor, Chad & Kennady were on the way to her 18-month

check-up. She now weighs 23 pounds (you would think it was more by the look of those rubberband

hands & thighs :)), is 31 1/2 inches long, & growing perfectly. We are way beyond the expectations for

cognition & definitely in performance points, which always makes mommy happy. hehe.

That evening, we got to spend a bit of time with our sweet neighbors & their 3-year-old that is missing the heck out of her Baby Kennady. We had a blast catching up with them & swimming in the pool. After that, our friends the Schmidts came over to see us. We chatted & caught up with them for a couple of hours & really enjoyed seeing them and being in our own house again. It was awesome, but really made us miss home even more. :)

*We spent our days in San Angelo swimming at my parent's community pool, playing Joker with the fam, eating out, getting ice cream & shopping. Last Thursday through Sunday, the annual Robertson Rendezvous family reunion came around. We went to Lake LBJ and rented a beautiful house right on the Llano River. There were 26 of us all under one roof. It's always a little bit of crazy, but so much fun to spend some real time with each other. There was great fishing, cool & clean water, an awesome dock, a kiddie pool, a river float & some of the best family dinners we've ever had. With this bunch, there are always LATE nights (early mornings) of singing, hanging out, jumping off docks, & alcohol consumption. Some of those most likely shouldn't be mixed, but it makes for some fun and unforgettable memories. This is the third year for this reunion & none of us wanted to leave & we already can't wait for next year. It was that good. :)

*Now, we are back in Arkansas, looking forward to a couple more weeks of fun before Chad's cousin Travis gets married in Georgia next weekend. We are really looking forward to seeing and celebrating with the Sellers clan.

Well, that's all I have time for for now. Hope you feel a little caught up. :)

Insane in the Membrane...

2011-06-06T16:48:00.003-05:00

That's what I am these days...INSANE (with Sean T.). I am going to take this next couple of seconds to brag on myself for the first time in a long while. For as long as I can remember in my adult life, I have started and stopped several workout regimens, never really seeing any results and always quitting because of either laziness, pregnancy (which should not be an excuse), or inconvenience. I know I am not alone in this & that this happens to a lot of people. This time around, I wanted to be serious & actually see if results would come after actually sticking with it like the trainers want you to.

I started the Insanity workout regimen (Google it if you're curious) soon after we got to Arkansas. It's a 9-week program of really insanely intense workouts for 45-minutes a day. I am halfway through week 5 & haven't missed a day yet (other than the 'off' Sundays that are scheduled). It hasn't been easy, that's for sure. Most of the time I have to force myself to get my butt off of the couch during Kennady's naps because it's the only time I have to myself...which is also why it's a challenge to do it then. I don't get a whole lot of time to myself to surf the web, craft, nap, be lazy, bake, etc. without a little monkey being at my feet, so sometimes I want nothing more than to not have to workout. I've decided that results never came from inactivity & because I really feel that my body is getting stronger & what was flabby before has tightened up a bit, I have been really focused on fitting the workouts in. A couple of times she has woken up prematurely & I have had to bounce around my little lady. She always laughs at me when I sprint in place & do mountain climbers. For some reason, she thinks they're hilarious...maybe it's just that I look hilarious attempting them...either way, she makes me happy. :)

I haven't seemed to lose any weight thus far, but that's probably a result of my diet not changing. If I could find the strength to do both the workouts & eat right (whatever that means these days), I would probably see some weight loss, but I'm happy with tightening up. After all, I've been this weight for 4 years now, so I might as well be happy at it. I am actually planning on sporting the bikini again this year & I can see the beginning of a six pack again, so I'm a happy girl. If only I could figure out a way to get rid of the last bit of baby flub on my belly, then I'd be good to go! Well, I could stand to shrink my love handles too, but I'm hoping the second half of this video challenge will have me working on that. Anywho, that's the end of me tooting my own 'finally kept with it' workout horn. My 'before' pictures are so extremely gross & embarrassing that I don't think I'd ever be comfortable posting them...unless I just look like a total beast when I'm done...then the 'before' pics wouldn't matter anymore. We'll see how this thing pans out & I'll keep ya posted. :)

By the way, if you've been struggling to get going with a workout regimen of your own, these three words come across the screen before every workout and I finally thought about them yesterday. DECIDE. COMMIT. SUCCEED. That's all you have to do. Once you decide to make a change and commit yourself to it, you're very likely to see results & succeed in whatever endeavor you choose. Good luck in whatever it is that presents itself to you! :)

Memorial Weekend

2011-05-31T15:34:00.004-05:00

This might be a boring post, but I've been told that something is better than nothing, so here goes nothing.

We had a great, and challenging, 4-day Memorial Day weekend. It started with a wonderful Friday where we slept in, went out and shopped a bit, babysat another sweet 18-month-old Lauren, played in the Wigglin' Waterpillar sprinkler with the little ladies, bathed up & cuddled on the couch while we watched the So You Think You Can Dance premier. It was a great night with two really sweet little girls. It gave me a taste of what having twins would be like...CRAZY. ha.

Then, Saturday morning rolled around. It was supposed to be a fun morning where the three of us ran a 5K together for the Rock-N-Stroll run as part of the Little Rock Riverfest weekend. But instead- dun, dun, dun...the THROW UP BUG bit us. Well, to be more specific, bit my little Kennady. She threw up in the carseat just as we rounded the first corner after leaving the house. This led to a quick bath, change of clothes, & a reattempt to stick with our initial plan. As we got about a mile from the house, round two of chunking came along. At that point, we cut our losses and decided our day wasn't going to be anything like we had planned. With an immediate turn-around, we got her changed up again & decided to cuddle it out. We spent the whole day catering to our sad little tummy girl. We also had to cancel our date night to see Pat Green, Charlie Daniels Band, & a couple of others at the Riverfest. Turns out that might have been a God-send seeing as someone was shot there that night. Freaky, much?! I believe so. I can look at things like her being sick and see that it was probably a blessing in disguise. Sometimes you just can't know when or how the crazies are going to come out in these bigger cities (not to say that the small ones are much better). Either way, we had an alright Saturday when all was said and done...at least we did as soon as I got that nasty curdled milk smell out of the house & off all things that just happened to get in her way.

Sunday rolled around & we woke ourselves up with a great breakfast at IHOP. It was yummy & Kennady LOVED the whipped cream they put on her smiley-face pancake. We have been struggling to get her to eat this last couple of days, but haven't been too pushy since she was getting over the bug. We packed up our house in about an hour and a half & moved over to the Residence Inn where we were much closer to civilization & all things shopping. :) I'm a happier camper now. I think Kennady has been struggling a bit with the transition though. She's been whinier & fussier than ever before...at least I'm hoping it ends & it's a symptom of the transition. We saw some live music at the Riverfest in the afternoon, walked about 2 miles, dipped our own Krispie Kreme doughnut in chocolate & sprinkles, had frozen lemonade, let Kennady play & run through the water-spray park & finally headed home. It was a good time & I was happy we got to get at least a little bit of enjoyment out of our $60 investment in tickets...& that no one shot at us of course.

Monday was uneventful. Chad gave me a baby break & I went & got my toes made purdy. I got an awesome color which I now wish I would have taken note of. It's like an electric coral color & super-summery. It was really nice to sit in a massage chair (for an hour and a half because I was there FOREVER) relaxing while reading up on artsy blogs on Chad's iPad. We found a couple of good sales at the mall & perused several of the craft stores (thanks for going hubby). I bought a couple of things & began work on my precious barley wreath (Tatertots & Jello) knock-off. I think it turned out super-cute & I will definitely make some more in the future.

Happy Memorial Day to all of our troops, both past & present. And may we all remember that freedom doesn't come free.

Well, that's all we've been up to. Just in case you fell asleep, here is your alarm...AAGGHH!!AAGGHH!!AAGGHH!!

Crafty Thoughts...

2011-05-26T15:23:00.007-05:00

Lately, I have come across several fun and super-cute crafts that I really want to find the time to make sometime in the near future. Being in LR has really provided me with some time to myself, seeing as how I don't have my own home to clean closets out, mow the yard, organize the attic, etc. So, I'm taking advantage & Google searching, finding fun sites, & thrifty but adorable crafts for the home & for gifts. Here are just a few that I have found that get me a little giddy inside:

This is one of the most creative 'upcycle' projects I've ever seen. I wish things & ideas like this popped into my head randomly. This is a vintage suitcase turned cozy-chair. This girl at See Kate Sew got the suitcase for $3 at a thrift store...talk about a steal! I would love to try something like this someday, but I don't know if I need another chair right now. Plus it's kind of a 'bigger' project. It's so stinkin' cute though.

This is a really sweet & delicate banner that would look so cute on my mantle. As all of you creative minds know, this could say anything you wanted it to. The tutorial for it can be found at My Blessed Life. You probably wouldn't have guessed that you only need 5 materials & that cute paperback is scrapbook pieces, huh?! So easy and cute.

This one, I found today via The Frugal Girl's website. The woman labels this Framed Chalkboard as a wedding gift, but I think it would be cute for anyone, especially high school grads. Super cute, because I LOVE this frame. I probably would have left it a mirror for my home, but the chalkboard is super creative. A little love-note from your hubby left on a chalkboard only makes the morning better, right?! Alright, I know it would most likely be the other way around, seeing as how I am usually the last to get in bed & the more thoughtful note leaver, but hey...a girl can dream, can't she?!

The cutest thing ever might be this Burlap Wreath. I'm a little hesitant to post this one as I'm thinking about making such things as presents for my favorite people. I'm sure you would still be excited/shocked/overwhelmingly happy to receive one as a gift even if you read this, right?! We will have to see how easy/hard they are to make and go from there. A tutorial for this cutie can be found on Tatertots & Jello. C.U.T.E. stuff, lady!!

Another one from the My Blessed Life site is this tiered plate server that can be done for under $5!! Can't beat that! I think I might make one for every season, but then I'd have to find somewhere to store them...oh well, what crafter can actually ever find somewhere to put all of their crafts, anyways?! It doesn't seem to make them stop making stuff, so I guess I'll figure that one out. That's what the attic in the off-season is for, right?! I might even throw a few more parties, just to show them off! ha. Like I need another reason to have friends over for a good time, but whatever. I'll rationalize my crafty-craziness in whatever way I choose. :)

Well, those are just a few of the fun things I've wanted to delve into these days. We'll see how much I can find time for, afford, & get home from this place. If you're bored this summer, maybe you should try a few too! :)

Consider us cultured...

2011-05-21T21:47:00.003-05:00

Little Rock has proven to be quite the place to be for festivals & springtime fun. The past two weekends, we have experienced the Jewish Food Festival & a Greek Food Festival. We went to the Jewish Festival with the Webb's after church & it was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, we were nearby the river at the River Market, & we were hungry which was a GOOD thing. We had beef kebab plates with salad & pita bread with hummus, add on a kosher hot dog for the hubs. It was yummy stuff. For dessert, Chad bought some homemade macaroons & because I don't do coconut, I got myself some homemade chocolate & almond biscotti. Kennady was a huge fan of the cookies too. To see pictures of these events, check out our Facebook page because you all know I'm too lazy to post pics in multiple places by now. :) We hung out after eating & decided to head home for naptime with full bellies. The music was fun to listen to, too!

At the Greek Food Festival yesterday, it was wet & humid from the rain Friday night, but that didn't stop our bellies from filling back up. We ate a Greek Chicken platter with a Greek Salad & new potatoes. It was de-lish. Then, Chad took himself back to his Germany days & HAD TO have a chicken kebab, so that was also consumed. We topped our lunch off with an assortment of Greek cookies which included Baklava, Ginger Snap thingy, a traditional wedding cookie, & a Greek cannoli. It was another successful and yummy festival luncheon. We hung out for a little while and shopped the Greek novelties, but didn't buy anything. The 'shows' started about 30 minutes after we left & we would have stayed, but I wanted to visit the Whole Foods store before we had to head home for K's naptime.

On the way home, we discovered a place called Burns Park that had ALL kinds of stuff. It's a huge 1,700 acre park with 2 18-hole golf courses, 17 soccer fields, a mini theme park called Funland, a BMX course, endless hiking and biking trails, a playground, & a river that runs through it. :) I'm sure I left a couple of things off, but you get the gist. We let the lil bit play on the playground for a little while & finally headed home. It was a beautiful day. I think one day that we are here, we may check out what Funland has to offer us & might even get the jogging stroller out to check out a couple of those trails. The trees and woody areas here are so pretty.

This coming Memorial Day weekend is going to be a good time. We are going to experience the Little Rock Riverfest, which is a huge party & concert series for families. There are so many people that are going to be playing on 6 different stages, to include Pat Green, Johnny Cooper, REO Speedwagon, Nelly, & many more. To see all of the awesome and crazy events going down at the Riverfest next weekend, check it out here. We are considering doing the Rock-N-Stroll 5K race with Kennady & will definitely be there for some concerts, good food, and fun activities. Hopefully the weather holds out and we get to have a fun-filled and super busy weekend! :) And give proper thanks to all of the current troops & military families for all that they do to protect and serve our wonderful country. And to all of the veterans out there, we wouldn't be here where we are today without you. Thank you.

Hallelujah, the stress is lifted!

2011-05-16T14:32:00.005-05:00

I want to be the first to announce and congratulate my intellectual man-of-a-husband, as he has officially completed his Master's program this past weekend & has earned a MBA. HALLELUJAH!!! My sweet hubby has been STRESSED out, my friends. Not for just a couple of weeks, but it's been months. He has had so much on his plate including, but not limited to, Instructor school, 3 Master's classes, being flight commander at the 40AS at Dyess, J-school for the C-130, being out of state & in foreign territory, raising a 1 1/2 year old, & being the supportive & helpful husband he is. That's a lot going on, people!! So much, that a case of stress-induced Alopecia, where your hair falls out in a circular area & takes a while to grow back, has taken hold of his noggin. Poor guy. These courses that he has been in, both professionally & educationally, are all going to pay off for us as promotion boards come up. I am so proud of him for keeping everything together, for powering through, and for setting such an awesome example for Kennady. I know she doesn't realize anything right now, but one day she will understand the amazing character that it takes to have so many things going on & still be able to care for a family as he does. Kennady LOVES her 'daddy' & for good reason. He is like SUPERMAN & this supportive wife is so happy to have ONE LESS THING on his plate.

The biggest of congratulations & the best wishes for hair regrowth go out to the smartest and most good-looking man I know...Captain Donald Chad Douglas Sellers. :) You're my hero.

What to wear, what to wear...

2011-05-13T14:40:00.006-05:00

I have a wedding to attend in Texas the weekend of June 11th & because I either haven't seen many of the people that should be in attendance in several years (like maybe 8...when we graduated high school) or I haven't seen them since the magnificent arrival of Kennady, I want to look good. Everybody knows what I'm feeling. We've all sat back and set dates to 'get thin', clear up your face, or get tan by when you know you're going to see people who have no idea what your life has dealt you in the recent past. I want to feel confident, look cute but not overdressed, & be comfortable. Asking too much? Maybe, but that's what I want so that's what I hope to get.

I say I want to be comfortable and not overdressed because it is going to be an outside wedding at a ranch in mid-June in Texas. All of that being said, either way I'm going to be sweating & probably need short heels (for the outside, chasing after a 1.5 year old factor). I assume many girls will probably wear dresses with boots, but I've never thought that I could pull that look off very well. Maybe I need a new pair of boots...yea, that could be it. But, really, I just want to find a cute and mediocrely-priced dress that fits all of the above criteria. My friend Elya got me addicted to following a blog by a fashionable girl named Kendi. I have yet to take on her challenge of the 30 for 30, but one day, I think it would be fun to do. One of her sponsors is the Spotted Moth store & at their site, I found these two cute dresses & I'm asking for your feedback. I realize they are super-similar in style, but I wanted to know which one went over best with you guys. The website is giving an extra 30% off discount on an entire sale ending today, so I was thinking about taking the plunge and just choosing one. No pressure, but please comment soon. :)

This one seems casual enough, but still super-cute. Shoe help though, please?

This one is a bit more dressy, but a better color for my skin tone...unless I luck upon getting ridiculously tan in the next 3 weeks. That's doubtful, but I'm hopeful. :)
Your thoughts, por favor?

Oh yeah, to keep myself accountable (because I plan to keep it going), I wanted to tell ya'll that I have done really well this week with my workouts. Starting last Saturday, I ran & did some sprints on the track & Mon., Tues., Thurs., & today I have been doing Insanity workouts with the very ripped Sean T. My calves are more sore than I can ever remember them being & it's been tough to keep it going, but I'm feeling stronger everyday and that's the whole point, right?! That part feels good. That's all on that note. :)

B8-I23-N35-G48-O72...BINGO!! BINGO!!

2011-05-11T00:02:00.003-05:00

Tonight was a fun and interesting night. It was one I will never forget. The night I lost my Bingo Hall virginity. And it was epic.

My friend Cassandra & a new friend Amanda all went out to dinner, sans kiddos (hallelujah!), at Casa Mexicana where we indulged ourselves with fajitas & a couple of margaritas....EACH. They weren't those little wussy ones either so we were feeling p-r-etty giggly & excited going over to the bingo hall across the street.

Well, we walk in, are directed to where we needed to obtain our 'hard packs' (a.k.a. game sheet stacks) & our free Dauber (a.k.a. ink blotter) for being first-timers. Woo-hoo! We just arrived & already 'won' something!! Well, we got something for free...almost the same thing, right?! Anywho...we're happy and obnoxious to all of the people already present and enthralled in a (come to find out) somewhat serious game of Bingo. So, we are lucky enough to find seats by a sweet African-American woman by the name of Lovely, and that's exactly what she was.

She tutored us on the different games & helped us along on our first Bingo journey. She was a professional Bingo-er. She had 24 games going at the same time, while we were only playing a measly 6. Yet, she would still occasionally notice when one of us missed a number and was sweet enough to Dab our spots for us. Then, we quickly caught on and were on a roll. About 7 of 15 games in, Cassandra was lucky enough to win one. She was looking at the monitor & the next number comes up so that people like Lovely who play so many cards at once can stay a little ahead of the game. The announcer then announces the number on the screen & THEN it's okay to yell Bingo if you have it. Well, she was excited as she saw the last number she needed pop up on the screen & prematurely yelled it out. Lovely then sweetly put her hand on Cass' shoulder and said "you can't yell that yet..." as we all gave it a good giggle & our cheeks turned red. As soon as the announcer got "I-22" out, Cass took full advantage of her luck & yelled it out again with valor. We were so excited for her and couldn't stop giggling until the people finally stopped looking our direction. The 'money-man' came over and paid her her winnings. It was great, or at least that's what all 3 of us thought.

Turns out the veterans of this bingo hall had a different feeling & so did Lovely. Since Cassandra won on a little '1-game piece', we think Lovely got a little jealous that she hadn't won anything yet. She didn't talk anymore. She didn't help Dab anymore. And she overall was a bit more reserved & concentrated on her bazillion game sheets. Amanda & I kept our hopes up to maybe get lucky & win one, but to no avail. I think that satisfied Lovely a bit. It's unreal the amount of money some people will pay for these games in hopes of barely doubling their money. Nuts, people... just nuts! Well, we had a good time anyway. Next time we go, we'll know to carry ourselves with a cooler demeanor and not be so 'kid's first time to the ice cream shop' excited.

Overall, we had a great time & are now just a little more cultured. I guess we have to go back...my pink Dauber still has plenty of ink!! :)

p.s. I did get pictures, but I'm too tired to post them right now. And I think I might leave that up to Cassandra once I get them to her. She's good at that. :)

Word Vomit & Moose-heads

2011-05-09T23:28:00.002-05:00

My goodness...where to start?! I guess we will begin with 'we have been busy', again. I promise I don't skip out on blogging because I don't care about ya'll, it's just that I'm lazy & tired & busy. Sometimes it's just more fun to just sit back & watch t.v. while holding your hubby's hand. We all know holding hands is hard while your typing, and if you haven't ever tried it, well, there's a lot of logistics & wrong letter-hitting that goes into it. On another note...

Hubs, K-bug, & I are all temporarily relocated to the Natural State. And if you're no longer familiar with useless 5th grade U.S. trivia, we're in Arkansas. We have rented a home from a single man who is in the Air Force & who came to AR from a tour in Alaska. He lives in a log cabin house which he calls the Moose Lodge & has filled it to the brim with dead-animal memorabilia of many different types. He has stuffed/mounted ducks, a HUGE moose-head, 3 bear skins & even duck wishbones hanging from his chandelier...OVER THE KITCHEN TABLE. Gross, much?! Well, the house is truly beautiful in it's own way. Not to say that a woman's touch wouldn't be accepted and appreciated. It is made of solid wood, has a wrap-around porch, 2 sweet Golden Retrievers (Aly & Rusty), & a very natural setting where we are surrounded by woods & cozily set back from the road & all other civilization. We have made ourselves pretty comfortable here & Kennady is LOVING the puppies. She barks ('ruf-ruf') regularly and randomly thoughout the day. While we have been here, we have played outside, gone to the park, gone to church, eaten sno-cones (K loves her Ice ('Ishe')), & gone shopping. It's been fun so far, but we have been told to visit the fresh market on the river & to visit The Wonder Place for kiddos before we leave, so we'll definitely have to find some time to fit those in.

And just to throw things off, I'm going to bullet the rest of this post:

*I have decided to focus on getting fit for summer so I ran on Saturday & did an Insanity workout today....I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a 'sore' day. But it felt good to get my butt off of the couch.

* I also laid out today in hopes of gaining a little bit of color in all of my extremities. My stomach & legs always have the hardest time getting tan, so I'm going to try my best to at least achieve a basic tan before the real summer hits. We'll see how that goes.

* There is a HUGE moose head dangling over my own head right now...kinda freaks me out a bit. Maybe I'll shift to the right on the couch just in case his 400 pound head decides to drop.

* Happy belated Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers out there. Your stories & experiences as mothers has helped me many a time as we all go through very similar things & often need each other's help. You are all so good at being a mother and I hope your day was made special.

* Chad bought me a real Coach purse when he was in Las Vegas with his brother. I was really appreciative, but ended up sending it back for a couple of reasons. 1. It was the newest seasonal pink flowery one & I felt its design was a bit limiting for use. 2. I only carry fake ones so that I don't feel bad when I get it dirty, spill K's drink in it, let a yogurt raisin melt in the bottom of it, etc. 3. I never go anywhere or do anything WITHOUT Kennady, so there weren't many instances in which I thought I would get much use out of it. 4. I would never carry a real one with little miss sticky fingers/miss tear things up around. It would be a wasted investment in 3.0 seconds if she got a hold of it. 5. I want to use the money he spent to buy something I've wanted for a while now...a new camera. A nice one...one that captures things in motion & presents things in their true beauty. Any suggestions, throw 'em at me! And that's it for my 'for 3 very short days, I owned a real Coach purse' story. The end.

* In the past couple of nights, Chad & I have taken advantage of an early 'ny=ny' time for Kennady and have capitalized on it with cuddle-on-the-couch with a Redbox movie time. We saw Black Swan (kinda freaky, but interesting), Love & Other Drugs (cute love story, but lots of Anne Hathaway nakedness), & Casino Jack (which we barely got a 3rd of the way through before we returned it). It's been fun. Gotta love those $1 a night rentals...unless you're like us & drag it out for 4 or 5 days...but hey, they have to make their money off of somebody right?! Let it be us, I guess.

* It's bedtime. :) Ny- Ny.

'Eventful' is an Understatement

2011-04-27T14:35:00.003-05:00

Whew!! What a whirlwind of events that have gone down in the past 2 weeks! We have been going-going-going since I last posted & we have had so much fun!

The first weekend, we were in Fort Worth in prep for the Warrior Dash. We had a group of 11 people competing together which was comprised of 9 girls and 2 boys. We all had a blast dressing up in our 80's garb & decided to start and complete the course as one unit, so it was a really good time. The Dash wasn't exactly what I had expected & was definitely not as intimidating as I had made it out to be, but it was really fun challenging myself with some new physical obstacles that I had never done before. Don't get me wrong, it was still challenging in it's own little ways, but I really didn't have any trouble getting through it. Maybe that says something for my hidden abilities to 'just get through it', because we all know I didn't train a lick for this thing (or that half-marathon we somehow survived). We got all kinds of dirty & smelled a little funny when we got back to the hotel, but it was a blast. We finished in 50 minutes, which isn't by any means a 'competitive time', but we enjoyed ourselves as we stuck together, went through the obstacles all together, & sang 80's jams at the top of our lungs while we ran. Some pretty awesome pics were taken, but I have yet to post them. Apologies. :)

From there, Kennady & I left for Orlando on Sunday & had a stinkin' blast with Nana & Pop-Pop. We did everything from playing at the park, to going to Downtown Disney, eating at a wine bar, petting puppies, swimming in their pool, & best of all, spending a whole day at the beautiful beach of St. Petersburg. It was too much fun. Kennady LOVED the waves & playing in the sand. Her biggest focus was attempting to push her new rainbow stroller into the ocean. She never made it all of the way because we stopped her, but she sure tried over and over and over. More precious pics can be seen here. We were there until Friday when we flew back & met up with Chad in Dallas.

From Dallas, we drove to San Angelo by way of Abilene to pick up a few Easter weekend essentials we had left behind. We spent the weekend with my family, playing Joker (our latest favorite family board game) & pitching washers, & celebrating Easter in full traditional style. We colored boiled eggs & dyed them hot pink, made Rice Krispie treats with M&M's, had an Easter picnic at the park, & found eggs in our Easter basket that the bunny left at the back door of Mimi & Paw-Paw's house. She had a blast and was really good at finding and shaking the eggs (to make sure there was something in it worth having, lol). Church was really good Sunday morning & Kennady actually behaved herself enough to remain in the sanctuary the whole time. I also found out that one of my best friends & her husband (whom I 'set up' some 5 years ago) are pregnant & I am so happy for them! Very. Good. Day.

Saturday night I said 'Happy Jesus' Resurrection Day' to my sister to which she quickly responded..."Thank God He Did!!" I know it's a cheesy joke & we were probably delirious as it was about 1:00am, but we thought it was HILARIOUS. I'll leave you with that & the statement that Our God is an Awesome God. Happy belated Easter everyone!

Mickey Mouse, please!

2011-04-14T18:58:00.002-05:00

Last night my hubby spoke to his parents (who haven't seen Kennady in person since Christmas when unfortunately she was sick) & they all came to the realization that the 3 of us probably wouldn't be able to get to Florida until late August (because of Chad's upcoming J-school training in AR). So, after a quick phone conversation to see when they were available & a little bit of logistics talk, I bought a ticket for Kennady & I to visit Nana & Pop-Pop in Orlando this coming week. Chad will be with his brother in Las Vegas to celebrate Chris' college graduation & Chad's upcoming Master's graduation, so we will be playing with Mickey Mouse while hubs is gambling our savings away (jk...he better not!! :)).

Soooo, now I must wrap my brain around the idea of a crazy Warrior Dash weekend directly followed by a 6-day trip to the beautiful and fun state of Florida. I'm not gonna lie & say that I'm not nervous to tackle traveling with a 16-month-old by myself. All she wants to do these days is go (run) in every direction she's not supposed to. Keeping up with her while keeping up with a stroller & carry-on bags, etc. is already zapping me of energy just thinking about it & we are still 3 days from flying. Ha. My anxiety is so high that while at Wal-Mart today, I actually (for a very quick second) considered purchasing a leash for my child. You know, one of those leashes that they creatively mask with a soft & fluffy monkey or dog. They only add the plush animal so that the parents that buy them feel like they aren't treating their children like pets. I have seen children at the zoo with them on & they were being laughed at by other kids behind them. It was sad. Anyways, I didn't buy one, but I have to admit, the idea of her being 'attached' to me did make me feel a slight bit of relief.

Then, I snapped out of it & decided I'm a good enough parent to manage it all & control my baby at the same time. Please pray that we have safe & uneventful travels...& that she's a well-behaved little lady. Flights with a child on your lap are always challenging., so please, wish me luck!

Dash to become a Warrior

2011-04-13T13:48:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! As you might have assumed from my previous posts, I have been working out frivolously & getting my body prepped for what's going to prove to be a very treacherous & physically demanding experience this weekend, the Warrior Dash...MU-hahahah...I'm a liar. I haven't done a thing...except for my nightly 100 crunches prior to going to bed, but that's not going to help me at all when it comes to bear-crawling, rope climbing, tire trekking, haystack climbing or hiking. AHHHHH. I'm so nervous! Check this out...wouldn't YOU be?!

It's going to be a lot of fun though, or at least that's how I'm talking myself into competing/participating in such a crazy and challenging obstacle course. If I hadn't already paid & committed to a team, I would probably choose not to put myself through this. Ha. I think I am a little bit intimidated since I have seen some of the obstacles on their site, but I'm sure at the end when I'm jumping over the ring of fire, I'll be so happy that I participated & finished yet another physical challenge. Plus, even though we are competing as a group, we don't have to stick together the whole time, so if need be, Chad & I can go at our own pace and just finish the thing. That's the part I'm looking forward to...a nice run/obstacle course experience to share with my beloved hubby. Fun stuff.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that since costumes are highly encouraged at this event, our group has decided to go dressed in 80's attire...if anyone knows me, you would know that that's one of the best and most desired themes for this lady. It's going to be wild & so much fun. I haven't had a theme party in like 6 months which is far too long. :)

Well, that's all I have for now. Wish us luck & hopefully I don't die on this course. If I do, it's been nice, Blogger. :)

Daydreamin'

2011-04-03T23:15:00.003-05:00

This is my 'goal picture' for this summer. This picture was taken in the Spring of 2005 at a 70's theme party in college (so much fun, by the way). When I'm working out or thinking back to my 'feelin' hot' days, I think of this picture. Rock hard abs, a slight tan, & a young & confident spirit to go with it. Those were the days that I would love to see again. And yes, MAYBE I was sucking in and flexing at the same time in this picture...but there's no reason to judge me. :) I guess I'll go continue to daydream my abdominals back into shape...Adios.

Bennie!...and the Jets

2011-04-01T22:21:00.003-05:00

So sorry for this post being all one continuous paragraph...if anyone knows how to fix this when Blogger refuses to insert breaks, I would love to know! Thanks! This post is for anyone who saw American Idol on Wednesday night and has had Elton John's Bennie & the Jets in your head ever since like I have. Just like the famous scene on 27 Dresses where Katherine Heigl & James Marsden are making up and blurbing words to this song, I have found myself doing the same these past couple of days. So, just in case you are like me, Katherine, & James, I decided to post the lyrics to the song so we could all see how silly they really are: Hey Kids, shake it loose together The spotlight's hitting something That's been known to change the weather We'll kill the fatted calf tonight So stick around You're gonna hear electric music Solid walls of sound (Refrain) Say, Candy & Ronnie, have you seen them yet they're so spaced out, Bennie & the Jets Oh, but they're weird and their wonderful Oh, Bennie, she's really keen She's got electric boots, a mohair suit You know I read it in a magazine B-B-B-Bennie & the Jets Hey kids, plug into the faithless Maybe they're blinded But Bennie makes them ageless We shall survive, let us take ourselves along Where we fight Our parents out in the streets To find who's right and who's wrong (Refrain) I have realized after reading the words that I have been SOOOO off in what I say. Haha. If I didn't change it every time I hear the song, I would try to write my version down for you, but I just have no idea what I say. I'm great at the chorus, though those are often made up words too. Anyways, totally boring post, but NOW YOU (and I) KNOW. B-B-B-Bennie & the Jets (begin piano solo)...:)

I Butt I Can :)

2011-03-29T21:55:00.007-05:00

As I sat back and watched tonight's episode of The Biggest Loser (while chomping on a HUGE Valentine's Hershey Kiss, thank you hubby), I began to comtemplate what it would take inside of me to make me push myself to my true limits in the gym like they do on the show. I remember some REALLY challenging and miserable volleyball and soccer practices back in my super-athlete days, some of which I have tried to push out of my memory. Of course the miserable ones were the ones that made me stronger, but still, BAD memories. Ha. I know B0b & Jillian would both easily break me, and I'm really not sure I would ever want to give them the opportunity to do so. But, it still makes me ponder how much it would take and if my inner-strength would shine in those moments. I have about 12 pounds that I would LOVE to lose. I have been stuck at my current weight for going on 2 1/2 years now (of course, including but disregarding prego time). These 12 pounds would put me at the same weight that I was when I graduated college & also at the most healthy weight for my height and build. This feat is taunting me and is on my mind every day. The only thing holding me back from getting this weight off is myself. I realize that. I know I am so capable of getting to the place I want to be, but I have never had the self-motivation and full determination that it takes to truly get after it and make things happen. I did the calculation & losing 12 pounds is the equivalent of burning and/or eliminating 42,000 calories. Just a tip, never, ever, do such a calculation because WHOA, that sounds beyond daunting. Luckily, and probably a direct result of chasing a one-year-old around, I have managed to get back to my pre-baby weight minus 2 pounds. That was a happy day for me. This year, I have really been trying, note the 'trying', to focus more on me than I have in the past year. Once you have a baby, it is very easy to focus all of your attention on their needs while yours get pushed to the wayside. Chad & I competed in our first half-marathon this February and really enjoyed the experience. In 3 weeks, we are competing (for fun) in an ultimate 3.24 mile run & obstacle course with a group of friends. The run is known as the Warrior Dash & looks like so much fun, but a huge challenge too. These are things that I can train for & because we are considering the addition of another child sometime next year (God willing), I want to take this time to really get myself back to what I want to be...comfortable & happy in my own skin. Truthfully, I want to put my one-piece from last year away and be able to comfortably and confidently rock a bikini again this summer (stretch marks and all)! I guess I'm going to have to focus my efforts, get my butt off of the couch, & tape Bob & Jillian's voices yelling at me while I workout. A little everyday gets you one step closer, right? Well, that's all of my workout word-vomit for now. I'll keep you posted on my accomplishments...or not. :) I'm going to head to bed and picture myself skinny...yea, that should work. (Sorry this post is all one paragraph...for some reason Blogger is preventing me from having breaks between my paragraphs...annoying.)

Peevish

2011-03-24T22:31:00.002-05:00

I always think that hearing other people's pet peeves is fun, because most of the time I have the same or similar ones. These are just a few that I thought about yesterday & today that drive me bonkers (<--insert Aussie accent here :) :

1. How when I use Pine Sol to clean the bathroom it always makes me have the sniffles. Out of nowhere my nose starts running & that is so annoying. It has always done that to my mom, too. Weird.
2. When hubby leaves the toothpaste on the bathroom counter with no cap on it. Ugh.
3. Weeds & how they grow naturally...can you tell that spring has hit?...my lawn can.
4. How ridiculously SLLOOOWWW my Dell laptop is on an everyday basis. Using Chad's Mac in comparison to this Dell is the difference of a roadrunner and an inchworm...patience-testing & once again, RIDICULOUS is what this computer is.
5. That the first 3 singers last night on my DVR playback of American Idol were all jacked up with echoey words & mouths moving behind the sound. I could jump through the tv when that happens. Grrr...
6. TV & radio commercials...thank God for DVR & iPods. (ironic that I have a Marketing Degree & said this? Ha.)
7. That outdoor malls have pull-only doors when walking in from the outside...now that I have a stroller & a child constantly refusing to keep her hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, these are sooo annoying. I know it's for fire safety, but still...
8. When other people, especially complete strangers, suggest to me how to raise my child...I'm obviously doing fine on my own or else she wouldn't be alive and happy right now. I would appreciate if you kept your ridiculous thoughts and advice to yourself or share with someone who really DOES need the help (like maybe the parents of the 3+ year olds with pacifiers or those who allow their children to walk through the grocery store without shoes...gross!) My baby doesn't get her independence from just anybody, that's right. :) (By the way, I totally appreciate the advice & words of wisdom from you ladies...I am often desperate for it! Just had to clarify.)
9. How cut flowers die so quickly. Something so beautiful shouldn't have to wilt and lose life so fast. I still love them though.
10. Dust & how quickly it settles. Nothing worse than dusting and 20 minutes later seeing more dust. To a housewife, that is frustrating. Ha.

Ok, I think 10 is enough. I would LOVE to hear some of yours. Have fun and hit me with them! :)

Parrots & Sponges

2011-03-24T00:02:00.002-05:00

For Halloween this past fall, we dressed Kennady up as a parrot & carried her around dressed as her pirate parents. It was super-cute & she was such a trooper (seeing as how she was sick through that holiday). And how EXTREMELY fitting that Parrot costume is right now at 15 1/2 months! Kennady is copying, quoting, peeping, & attempting any and every word we throw at her (and that she overhears). I have never seen a baby that picks up words and their meanings so quickly & actually remembers them for the coming days. Yes, I do quiz her on a daily basis, but she really is amazing at rhetoric. I know I'm her mother & of course I'm going to brag on her, but seriously, she amazes me more and more everyday. Maybe it's a product of all that fish oil I took during pregnancy...or maybe she just gets it from genetics...yea, that's what it is! It's gotta be. :)

We are to the point where what we say COULD get us into trouble, so there's a lot of word watching going on around these parts (not that we speak inappropriately on a regular basis or anything, but even words like 'crap' of 'hate' could be picked up by this little sponge). It makes having friends & family in the same room as her a very interesting time when she's really paying attention. I have realized that I definitely have a talker on my hands. She grabs the attention of anyone around her with her 'hi's', 'byes", kiss-blowing, & smiles. What a handful she can be, but she definitely spreads joy to the world (and her parents), and for that, I am most grateful.

Also, have I told you how crunk she is? We have managed to teach her to shake her booty, drop it like it's hot (bending her knees while dancing), to do 'knuckles', and to throw her own personal gang sign which we call the 'snow flurry'. We have one very troublesome future coming to us...ha. But she is so precious that teaching her the tricks is so totally worth it! I'll try my best to get a great video of her doing her 'tricks' to share...it's priceless.

I'm headed to bed for the night & just realized it's 12:25am and my bed sheets are in the dryer...GRIPES! :(

Technology Age

2011-03-22T22:44:00.002-05:00

Most often, I leave my laptop closed, up high on a shelf, or completely put away to prevent little miss button pusher from messing things up. Tonight though, I decided to leave my laptop open and at the little monkey's level, sit back, & see what she would do. I noticed when she realized that it was available to her & it was like a huge beacon of happiness for her as she approached it. As she made her way over to it, she kept looking over her shoulder back at me to see if I was going to stop her. She always does that when she knows she's about to do something she's not supposed to. I just looked away and let her go at it. The following is the list of what was open and occurring on my computer when I returned to it:
- She had opened a Toolbar Google Search, a POP-UP option that I never knew existed.
- She successfully opened the Excel program (which anyone who knows me and my husband well knows that I HATE Excel & my hubby is the spreadsheet ringleader of this family operation); so I'm guessing she's going to be more like her daddy in that respect.
- Blogger had been set up by her to do a new post, but she never landed her cursor in the text box to get her writing on or I would be sharing her words of wisdom with you right now.
- When I logged back on, the Internet websites had been blown up to reflect at 1000%, so the fonts were at about 150 point, which made it completely impossible to see anything but a couple of letters per page. It took me a second to get that one fixed, because well, I had never used the magnifying glass located at the bottom right corner of my computer screen & frankly didn't even know it existed. Go ahead & check yours out. It'll be a great tool for me when I'm old and can't see the writing on the screen.

So, what I learned from my baby-on-computer experience tonight was that just in case technology really is born into children these days, I better not allow her any more free reign or if I do, I may never get my computer back to how it's supposed to be. She had a good time 'breaking mommy's law' though, so yay for her. :)

Shooting Bullets

2011-03-21T23:55:00.004-05:00

Oh, how I love to default to the trusty old bullets. It seems I have let another 5 weeks pass since the last post, so for the 4 of you (ha) that actually keep up with my very occasional nonsense, here is a quick catch-up of what we've been up to:

*I took Kennady to the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo again this year & it was a lot of fun. My mom & I made her an outfit that was precious on her, as you can imagine (which you're going to have to, because I'm too lazy to upload pictures...sorry, ha!). She enjoyed petting the goats in the showroom & walked her little boots off before we went into the arena. During the rodeo, she was across the laps of myself, my sister, my mother, & my niece the whole time...back and forth, back and forth. After a little bit of cotton candy (I know, that's ridiculous), totally annoying the people both in front & in back of us, & the funky bull-riding music she liked to dance to, she was WORN OUT! That didn't keep the crazy lady from staying up another hour and a half when we got home...sometimes I wonder where these little ones get their endless energy (and would love to tap into that if I could!).

*We trekked up to Arkansas to visit the hubby while he is at Instructor School. There, we were fortunate enough to visit our great friends, the Webb's, & their sweet & beautiful new addition, Vivian. We went swimming at the extended stay hotel & had a blast riding up and down the elevators everyday (Kennady's favorite things). The only reason we left was because:

*My brother & sister-in-law had their first baby two Wednesdays ago! Our family was so excited to welcome a new baby girl, Liv Jett, to the world! She is wonderful, healthy, & such a sweetie. I was lucky enough to spend about 10 days with them, so my baby fix has been temporarily fulfilled! I LOVE ME SOME BABIES! And I am so excited to be an aunt again! :)

*Within this past week, I have managed to wean Kennady from the bottle...well, let me clarify...the nipple. Ha. I have been worried for a couple of months about the process of weaning my baby girl from her most precious & beloved bottle (ya'll realize that was her second word after 'Mama' & it has been her absolute favorite since), & finally decided that it was time to attack the issue while I was around my family & had excessive backup for distraction during her fits. Amazingly, she handled the transition very well because of a fabulous suggestion made by our friend Leah at Keeping up with the Kopers. She had suggested a bottle that was designed with interchangeable suckers, one being a nipple & the other a sippy-cup 'nipple' so that you can slowly switch between the two and hope they don't notice. ha. Well, she noticed, but she finally realized the sippy-nipple was the only one she was going to get anymore & eventually got over it. Just when things were going so well and we were about 6 days into the process, we were at the mall where another sweet baby had its bottle & was drinking it proudly while laying back in his stroller...she quickly started to bolt over to the little boy in her Runing Frankenstein sort of way while yelling 'bottle, bottle' just as I caught her and quickly apologized to the parents for my child's unannounced attack on their beloved. It was quite a sight. Yay for my stress being relieved though. (Sorry for the excessive 'nippling'...oops, there I go again.)

*I finally did some blog-remodeling tonight...thank goodness, right? That whole uncentered picture without words & mismatched everything was driving me nuts. With a new background, changed fonts & text colors, & a new and improved blog-name, I think we are good to go for a while. I decided to shorten the name from 'Drench Yourself in Words Unspoken' to 'The Unwritten' to save your eyes & my fingers some work...so, you're welcome! :) Also, it's a more grown-up version of this blog because well, I am all of 26 and that's almost ancient...HA...Just kidding. But seriously, it's a classier name. :) A couple of weeks ago, I had made a couple of changes in attempt to update my pictures & change the background that I was getting oh-so-tired of, only to end up with a mess that I couldn't figure out how to undo. I used to use scrapblog to create the cute background scrapbook pages with pictures, etc, until I couldn't remember what order to do what & my computer wouldn't save my scrap as a jpeg (or if it did, I couldn't find it)...so I gave up & made the 4 readers of mine (by the way, I appreciate your time) live with it all jumbled up and crazy for 2 or 3 weeks. Did you know I deleted 5 widgets that weren't even doing anything?! Oh, you don't care??...I should have known...

Well, on that note, consider yourselves all caught up...or at least partially. :)

A few things we LOVE

2011-02-09T17:25:00.008-06:00

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (or just because I thought it would be nice to share with you), I have chosen a couple of things that Chad & I have really fallen in love with since Christmas. These are a collection of things both bought for ourselves & given to us from others.

The first, was a birthday present from me to Chad. This is what it was:

It's a Cuisinart 1/2 quart Ice Cream & Yogurt Maker that has changed every philosophy we have ever had about ice cream. We are definitely ice cream lovers, my husband even more so than me. The process is so easy & it only takes 20 minutes for the machine to make a 1/2 quart. After a couple hours of additional freezing, you can enjoy some of the yummiest, creamiest, most delicious ice cream you've ever had. We have been very happy with this purchase. So much so that we are giving one to our good friends for a wedding gift & gave my bro-in-law one for Christmas. Because come on, who doesn't love some good ice cream, right?! This product could be yours for only $60 at the nearest Williams-Sonoma. I think this was the best gift I've ever surprised Chad with. He may have been slightly skeptical at first, but he is obsessed now.

The next thing on our list is:

Chad finally SOLD me on getting a MacBook Pro when he told me how cool the photo & video storage and editing software was. His other laptop died during one of his deployments so getting a new computer was a must. We have really enjoyed the capabilities of the MacBook, though I am still learning a couple of the differences between it and my PC. One day (hopefully soon), I can have my own MacBook. Good purchase for sure!

Now, ladies...if you are active & have yet to discover the sports bra from heaven (notice the 5 stars, haha), then here it is:

Made by Under Armour, this bra is sooooo good. I got one for Christmas from my mom. My best friend, Elya, is the one that discovered it initially, right before we ran our Marathon Relay. She raved about how well it held the ladies in & how it takes away the 'bounce' that happens when running & exercising. It's AWESOME. If you work out regularly, then the $50 hit doesn't hurt as bad...I'm telling you...coming from a woman with D boobs, you'll be impressed. They can be found at Academy for $45, I believe...which saving money is always better.

The last thing on my list is the gift I received from Elya & her hubby John for Christmas. It was a year subscription to:

There are so many fun and creative projects & inspirations in the RealSimple magazine. It also has a lot of fun products to buy that are perfect for entertaining & making parties even better. If you haven't ever spent time with this magazine, you should snatch one up at the store & check it out. I've never been given a subscription to a magazine as a gift, but it's a really cool idea! I can't wait to pick a couple of spring & summer projects to fill my time!

Well, that's where my list ends. Share with me a few of your favorite things! :)

Date Night- What, What!

2011-02-07T12:36:00.002-06:00

I have one of the bestest besties in the world & her and her husband gave Chad & I a gift when he returned from his last deployment (in October). This gift is something that two young and new parents don't get very often...and that is a nice, relaxing dinner at a yummy restaurant where we don't have to worry about high chairs (& babies climbing out of them), or Cheerios & other small pieces of food being thrown about (leaving an embarrassing mess surrounding said high chair), or disrupting the 'nice and relaxing' dinner that our table neighbors are TRYING to enjoy (but are having trouble because the loud baby next door wants to say 'hi' to them 14 million times)...Tonight will be different, my friends. They gave us a gift card for dinner at Outback & also a gift card to the best movie theatre in town. When was the last time we got to go see a movie in theatre you might ask?? "I can't even remember" would be the answer to that one. So, in other words, we are very thankful to our friends who have provided a night of fun, freedom, & relaxed hubby-wifey time (which is much-needed since Chad will be gone for Valentine's Day & a while after that). Whew! We're excited. Oh yea, I forgot to mention they're giving us free & trustworthy childcare....Saints is what they are, I tell ya!!!...:) Now, I have to go figure out which chick flick I'm going to coax Chad into watching tonight! Woo-hoo! :)

Cupid's Delivery...

2011-02-04T13:07:00.005-06:00

I saw these super cute tiny mailboxes in the dollar section of Target right after Christmas & snatched one up so we could have a little fun with Kennady for Valentine's Day. I decided to put the mailbox on her dresser & have 'Cupid' come and leave her something sweet every evening after dinner. I can say, "Kennady...you wanna go check your mailbox?!" and she reaches for her room & leads us right to it. It's UNREAL what she comprehends...such a big girl. (sorry it's sideways, couldn't get it to turn).

She loves it and she will like it even more next year when she can have more than a small piece of chocolate & gets toys & conversation hearts too. It's fun! :) We LOOOOVEE this baby girl...

Happy early Valentine's Day everyone! :)

She's a Rambler...

2011-01-25T22:39:00.002-06:00

As usual, I don't have many organized thoughts, but I know I'm a pretty good rambler, so here goes nothing...

Chad & I are highly considering the purchase of a Dreadmill...oh, I'm sorry, there was a typo...what I meant to say was a Treadmill. Oh, how much I LOOOOVE running on a treadmill...HA. How this came about...well, we are both participating in a half-marathon in 25 very short days & he has noticed how hard it has been for me to train under our current lifestyle. I can use the base gym which has a small 'mommy & kids' area, but there are only 2 treadmills in there and Kennady likes to climb on all of the bigger kid toys which makes me a nervous wreck while I'm TRYING to get a workout in. Plus, running 4 or 5 miles takes me an hour or a little less and that is a LONG time for a 13 1/2 month old to sit and play with unfamiliar toys in an unfamiliar environment...and don't even get me started on if there are other instigating kids to mess with! Anywho, we figure we will use it a lot more conveniently if we have one in our home...and only time will tell on that one. :) Any suggestions of good ones for minimal money??

One of our baby monitor's battery died & I need to find a place that will replace it. I was thinking maybe one of those Battery Plus stores, but I've never been into one, so we shall see what comes of that.

My brother and sis-in-law's baby shower is this coming Saturday and I am so excited about it. I am a hostess for it and I can't wait to have everyone together and to see all of the fun stuff she gets! I made her a super cute bow hanger for baby girl Liv, but I have to wait to post a picture of it until after the shower. You guys are gonna like it. :)

I got some killer deals today at Ross & Old Navy. Ross had to really cute sleepers, one fleece and one cotton, each on clearance for $2.50. DEAL!! These are Carter's brand which usually range between $16 and $20, so I thought that was a steal! I also found a pair of cute gray flats (duh, she's a baby :)) with a cute pink bow on them for only $1.50 and IN HER SIZE too, which is a miracle these days. For some reason, no matter which size of shoe we seem to be in, it seems that they are often out of it. Never fails, right?! Then, Old Navy had some super-soft fleece sleepers on sale for $1.99, so I bought the only one in her size and was excited about it. This baby may have nothing to wear for clothes during the day, but she will be styling while she is at home, asleep, not being seen by anyone else but me and daddy...but whatever. They were well-priced and I WIN...end of shopping story. (Though I would love to make a side-note that The Children's Place just really hasn't been doing much for me lately...I REALLY wish we had a Gymboree & a Baby Gap because I would be going crazy all up in there if we did...:))

I went to play bunko on base with the spouses group tonight and out of only 8 people playing, 5 won money, but ask me....were you one of the five, Kelly?? The answer is NO. As usual, I played a mediocre game that left me with my hands empty and a $5 hole in my pocket...ha. Oh well, I guess it was worth the time I got to laugh and mess with the other ladies. I'm just gonna have to change my strategy somehow I guess.

We filed our taxes the other day and both had a huge smile on our faces for the rest of the day. It's going to be a good tax year for us and we are happy about that. It seems that money just gets away from you sometimes, and we are happy to put it back where it belongs. Plus, we get to buy the dreadmill (potentially) with some of our return...yippee!! :)

I have noticed that although baby girl is still the most beautiful and photogenic baby I have ever encountered, that since her first birthday, I have really started to suck at keeping up with taking her picture. I don't know what it is (maybe that her daddy is home and I don't feel so obligated to get it on film), but we have just been lazy camera people lately. Her 1 year memory book is going to suffer because of me.....ha. Maybe I'll rectify the situation these next couple of days...:)

I think I am coming down with another head cold and I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. It's the mucous that only fills your sinuses when you lay down at night (which leads to needing nose spray), makes your throat sore from drainage, & causes that stupidly annoying chest tickle that forces the deep cough. Sudafed is my friend these days, along with some Afrin, & hot tea. Still, I want it to go away for GOOD!

Friday night Chad, myself, & most of my family are going to go two-steppin' (for the first time in FOREVER) at Graham's to see Jack Ingram play (he is a 3rd cousin to me). I have seen him in concert several times before, but it's been a good while and I am excited to hear some good country music while dancing with my hubby and my pops. It should be a lot of fun! And only $10!! WOO-HOO!!

Well, I think that's it for tonight. Goodnight moon! :)

More thoughts...

2011-01-11T21:59:00.002-06:00

I thought of a couple more things:

*Kennady is walking really well...just not very consistently. She still feels & knows that scooting her booty gets her there faster! It's cute to watch her take her little grandpa steps though! :)

*After a year of living in this wonderful house, Chad & I have finally got the garage cleaned out enough to fit both vehicles into it. That is a HUGE accomplishment for us. Only a couple of touch-up & organization things to finish up this weekend and it will be perfect! Yay!

*We transitioned from formula to whole milk at the one-year mark and that was yet another very successful transition with her. About two days after the switch, she was fine to have it all of the time. She is so good to me. Now, I just have to figure out how to get her transitioned from the bottle to the sippy cup and I am SOOO nervous about it. The doc said they like the babies to be done with the bottle at about 15 months...that's only about 7 weeks from now. I know that every baby has their own schedule and nothing is in stone, but I would like to get it done and out of the way sooner than later (much like the pacifier), but she LOVES LOVES LOVES that bottle. Any suggestions from those who have had success or terror transitioning stories?! Everything helps! :)

*Chad & I are going to be spending quite a bit of time in Arkansas in these next 6 months and I'm feeling anxious about it. It bothers me that even though he is in the states (which is so much better than him being deployed), that we still can't just live our lives like we like to and on our own terms...I know, it's the AF life and we both signed up for it, but I had to vent for just a second. :) Moving on...

*I am highly considering doing something called the Warrior Dash with a group of other spouses from the squadron. I would definitely have to get really serious in training because it looks to be something that is ridiculously brutal & difficult on the body. The idea of doing it is taunting me, so I think I might just have to give in to my gut, sign up, and face it & have a blast doing it! It would be so much fun. Check it out here: www.warriordash.com

*Well, I'm headed to bed so I will add more later. Goodnight! :)

The worst ever...

2011-01-10T13:44:00.002-06:00

Me at being a blogger, that is. It's embarrassing that it has taken me 5 months to come back to this. In the past 5 months, so much has happened that it would be impossible for me to catch you up without a novel, so I'll try my best to crunch it up into a quicker bullet post:

*Operation No More Paci went off without a hitch! I did it cold turkey and she seemed to miss it at first, but the bottle became her replacement and that worked fine. Two days later, she acted as if nothing happened and went along being her happy, sweet self. Whew! 9 months proved to be a good time to cut out the paci...note to self for our next kiddo. :)

*Kennady began speaking so well. She can now say "Mama, Dada, Bottle, Bye-Bye, Hi, Mwah, Lala, & More". (that's all I can think of right now anyways)

*She eats everything we eat & plays for hours a day. She loves to swing in her swing outside, ride in her wagon, & play with all of her crazy toys.

*We have finally reached the point where she sleeps for 10-13 hours a night and it is GLORIOUS!!

*Chad came home from his deployment in late October & it was so nice to have him home. It was a little challenging for Kennady, but we have returned to normalcy & we are hoping no more deployments are in our NEAR future.

*We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas, did a lot of traveling, & have really enjoyed our house here...especially the fireplace this winter.

*I was so sad to take down our Christmas decorations...my house seems so boring now! Anyone else have this problem?! haha. Now I need to go buy some new curtains, pillows, mantle decor, etc. Taking down Christmas is no cheap task!

*Chad & I are signed up to run a half-marathon in Austin in late Feb. I haven't been doing very well training lately, so I'm really having to jump on the training wagon ASAP.

*I am happy to report that I am under my pre-baby weight & I have high hopes of making that even better this spring. Maybe I'll be in shape enough to put away the mommy one-piece & jump back into that bikini again, before I get to old to be able to, haha. We'll see! Wish me luck!

Well, that's obviously not everything that has happened in 5 months, but I'm tired of thinking, so I'll come back to this some other time. I also want to take this naptime opportunity to read up on the last month or so of all of your blogs, so adios for now! :)

Operation: No More Paci

2010-09-08T14:25:00.002-05:00

Well, my title gives it all away. I have decided to break my young lady from her obsession and need for what I have always referred to as her "best friend". I have never liked any of the nicknames for pacifiers that are out there, so that's what I chose. We are so thankful that she has even taken one up to this point, especially with the 4 flights we have been on and the really long road trips that wouldn't have been near as successful as they were had we not had the support and lovability of the pacifier to get us through them. I'm not trying to break her cold turkey, but I am hoping to be able to do it in a rather short amount of time. So far, she has gone almost 24 hours without needing or asking for it (though I thought her crying stint before her nap was for the paci, so I tried it and that still didn't do the trick...turns out she wanted some milk...who knew!? :) ha.) She then still didn't take it after her bottle like she usually does and still had no trouble falling right to sleep. I think initially, if she 'asks' for it, I'm going to allow her her buddy to nap with. Then, hopefully we will get to where we just don't need or want it anymore. Though, I'm a little nervous that she will attempt thievery when she's at Mom's Day Out, but hopefully not. :) I'll have it in her bag for the sake of the caretakers just in case she decides to get handy.

Speaking of, our first experience of Mom's Day Out was yesterday and she did SOOOO well. There are 8 kids in her class, the Puppies. :) Five are boys and 3 are girls. They each have their own high chair and crib and the two very experienced ladies that take care of them are sooo sweet. They have activities and lunch, diapertime, storytime, and most importantly, naptime. She was happily playing on the floor with the other kiddos when I walked up and when she saw me, her face totally lit up. It was so sweet. I got a lot done while she was gone and when she goes tomorrow, I'm going to treat myself to some coffee with the other wives, maybe a mani/pedi, and lunch to say farewell to some of the wives that are about to PCS. It should be fun!

Well, that's all for now! Be back soon, I hope! :)

The itch to write...

2010-09-02T00:18:00.002-05:00

Well, ya'll all gave me the itch to post something, even though it doesn't have much direction or much of a point. Here is our plan for the next couple of days:
* Pick up my new (used) jogging stroller from the bike shop since they had to patch up one of the tires before I could use it.
*Get my run on at the gym and participate in Body Pump with a friend.
*Meet the teacher for Kennady's Mom's Day Out is tomorrow evening at the church and I am excited to see what it's going to be like for her while she's having fun, giving mommy a little chunk of time to get a couple of things done during the week.
*Football season officially kicks off tomorrow night and we will be at a friend's house watching the SEC and the Gamecocks get off to a great start against Mississippi State! Go Gamecocks!
*This weekend, we are headed to SA-town to spend time with the family over the long holiday weekend and in the meantime, will be celebrating the 30th birthday of my oldest nephew (I know, sounds crazy) by eating dinner at Cheddar's and singing karaoke at W&T's. It should be a really good time!
*My brother just recently got signed on to the SAFD and I am so proud of him! This is very exciting news for him and his wife who are expecting their first child in March!! Talk about having your life enriched from many angles at the same time! We are so proud of you Adam!
*I am so happy to be able to say that my hubby will be joining us again in just a short 7 weeks! We can do anything for 7 weeks, right?!
*Yesterday was another 'welcome to mommyhood' first when Kennady starting tooting in the bathtub while she was playing. Mommy thought it was hilarious, so I grabbed the camera like any other mom would do. As I was filming, I saw things go from playful toots to 'oh no, you better not push young lady' very quickly...too quickly actually, and because I was so entertained by her popping performance, I was rewarded with poop in the tub. And yes, I got the WHOLE thing on film. Daddy happened to call right after all of this drama took place and couldn't help but laugh his head off. Probably because he wasn't the one gathering poop remnants with toilet paper out of the bathtub while baby girl sat on the bath mat laughing like nothing ever happened. He thinks that the video will be a great blackmailing piece when she gets older...he said, 'we might even pull it out during her wedding slide show', haha. NO WAY DADDY, but I see that you might be onto something. haha. It was an experience to say the least. And it all started out with a couple of harmless toots. :)

That's just proof that horror stories that you always hear from 'other moms' could eventually happen to you....lesson learned. That's all for now. :)

OMG

2010-08-25T22:13:00.002-05:00

Well hello again, everyone. Here is the latest in crazy Kelly news. My best friend Elya and I have been talking recently about how we have wanted something physical to work towards so that maybe we would get our butts in gear and start getting healthier. She honestly doesn't have any reason or need to get healthier, it's really more like she gets super bored at the gym doing the same things over and over and is tired of it. So, per our discussion, we turned to the idea of participating in a marathon that is going on here in A-town on Oct. 30th. Turns out there is a 4 person relay option that allows you to run the marathon as a team. The first runner runs 5 miles, the second 6 miles, the third 7 miles, and the fourth finishes it out with 8 miles. This all came together rather quickly as we asked our husbands if they were in with us on this deal and they both agreed that it would be a good, healthy fun. So, as of yesterday, we are officially all paid up and registered to help the cause in Abilene's Marathoning for Miracles. It benefits the Children's Miracle Network and one of the local children's hospitals here in town. Since we only have a short 8 1/2 weeks to train, I have been feverishly searching for a jogging stroller that works well and is cheaper than $300. I may have a lead on one from Craig's List, so we shall see. Besides that, we have just been enjoying our time here at home and I occasionally get some stuff done around the house, but not that often. haha. Anyways, if you are interested or know anybody that might be interested in participating or would just like to check out what there is to see about the marathon, go to this website: http://www.ehendrick.org/cmn/marathon/ . Please feel free to keep me accountable on my training by asking me questions or badgering me on occasion...I need it! :)

P.S. Did I mention that I have NEVER been a successful long distance runner, well except for during my 11 years of soccer playing, but seriously, I have never been able to run for long before getting ridiculously winded and ready to quit. This should make for a very interesting experience. Wish me luck and diligence! :)

so behind, it's embarrassing...

2010-08-18T23:16:00.002-05:00

Well Hello! And no we did not fall off the face of the planet. ha. But, we have been super duper busy and never at our own house, so it's been a challenge to try and keep up with everything. I'm lucky if I get to sign on to the computer sometime during the day and most of the time I attempt to keep up with everyone by reading Facebook statuses...sad, I know, but don't act like you don't do it too. :)

Our trip to Orlando went off without a hitch! Kennady was sooooo well-behaved on both plane rides and we had so much fun with her other grandparents! They really showed us around and we did all kinds of stuff while we were there. One day, we spent at the Magic Kingdom and that was a hot and humid good time! She was really a trooper through the heat and we got to see and ride some fun stuff. We also spent an afternoon in Winter Park, a sweet and quaint little town outside of Orlando with shops and eateries and what nots. And of course, we hit up some shopping at their fabulous outlets...duh! :) We also spent some time at a little place called Celebration which is also super cute and has the best apple dumpling dessert ever!! It was delicious....I'm drooling just thinking about it. We were so happy to spend that time with Grandma Carol and Pop!

When we got back, we had a couple of days to 'rest (figuratively speaking)' before we headed to west Texas for our annual campmeeting. It's an annual family reunion/church retreat for the ranch families of west Texas. It's a time to spend together in fellowship and to praise God together in the beautiful Davis Mountains. It's was my 18th time to go and Kennady's first and we look forward to many more in the future.

Upon our return from that, we spent a couple of days in SA-town with my family before heading home, only to turn around that next weekend to go to Georgetown with my sister-in-law to be her company while she did hair for a wedding there. We had a chilled weekend going out to dinner and shopping at the outlets, Ikea, and Babies 'R Us then we headed home. So, now that we are here and getting to sleep in our own beds again (thank God), we are happy to relax and soak up what little is left of the summer.

We have officially hit the halfway point with this separation, so we can all praise the Lord for that! Congrats to Shaunna and Blake on their new addition news and I can't wait to read up on all of you guys and what you have been up to! Maybe I can get on here more often now that things have slowed down a bit. Hope all is well! :)

What a bad blogger...

2010-07-20T10:53:00.002-05:00

Well, as usual I have been really bad about blogging, but really good at keeping up with the rest of your summers! :)

We have had some awesome stuff go on this past little while. We spent about a week in SA with my family because my aunt came down from Alaska to visit. It was such a great week. Kennady had her first Schlitterbahn Waterpark experience and it was a blast. She really loved the waves in the falling water from the waterfalls. If she could play in the rain all day, she would. It's the cutest thing.

We've also had some visitors these past few days. My sis-in-law came in on Sunday to slumber party with us and we went to eat at Cracker Barrel, came home to watch Sex & the City 1 the movie, girl talked, and then we hit the sack. The next morning we hit up Target and ate at the Fil-A & then she headed out. It was short, but really fun having her stay. Then, my sis came in yesterday and stayed last night and we had delicious burgers at a place called Lucy's & watched 27 Dresses for the ump-teenth time until it got so late that we passed out. It's been so fun having these mid-week slumber parties! Sure makes the days go by faster!

My mom, Kennady, and I are all headed out to see the in-law grandparents in Orlando this week. We are so excited to go play with Mickey and Minnie and all the princesses! It's going to be so much fun. I'm really hoping that Little Miss continues her successful plane ride streak and is well-behaved. We bought a whole new set of fun toys that she's going to get on the plane, so maybe that will distract her for the 2 1/2 hours. We can cross our fingers at least! I will be sure to blog once we get back next week so you can see all the fun she had!

Besides that, we don't have much else going on right now! I hope the rest of your summer is kickin'! :)

A low-key but Happy 4th!

2010-07-04T00:16:00.003-05:00

Happy Independence Day everyone! I hope you are all having safe and festive celebrations with family and friends. This year has been pretty low-key, but fun all the same. My parents came in to visit and to help out with a little more around the house. We grilled steaks this evening and finished it off with hot tubbing while the neighbors all around us set off their fireworks. It was really cool, but hot at the same time...;) hehehe.

My aunt from Alaska is coming to visit on Tuesday, but REALLY coming to visit me and KENNADY this coming Thursday. We are planning to have a women's lunch (g-ma, mom, aunt, sis, myself, and Kenna) at my house followed by a relaxing day of hanging out before they head back to SA-town and my sister stays to slumber party. We, too, plan on visiting SA-town for a couple of days during Becky's stay and we also have plans to try a second time to go to Schlitterbahn. It better not get flooded this time around. :) We love that place & I know Kennady is looking forward to all of the water fun!

I had a pretty big scare on Friday. I pulled away from my house and realized that I hadn't seen my wallet so far during the day. I stopped the car and checked everywhere that I could. Upon not finding it, I then turned around and went back home to do a more thorough inspection since it was pouring rain outside. Upon not finding it still, I checked inside my house with no luck there either. UGH, it is SOOOO frustrating when you know you have something, but can't figure out where the heck you put it. So, I called some friends that I had hung out with the night before to see if maybe I left it at their house or they had picked it up for me or something, but no luck there either. Now, I'm getting a little scared. Losing your personal belongings like that must be one of the WORST things ever. Trying to get all of your ID's replaced, credit cards, gift cards, etc. is the pits. I was starting to get pretty frustrated with myself as the rain continued to pour (nothing like adding more gloom to the already gloomy), so I decided to make a quick trip over to the house I was at the night before because I know how clumsy I can be (the last time I THOUGHT I had had it with me). Upon my arrival, I see something in the grass near the curb where I put Kennady in her carseat. HOLY CRAP!?! Could that really be my green, snakeskin wallet there in the grass, or is it a mirage made by my desperate eyes? OMG! It was seriously still sitting in the grass, untouched and soaking wet...but I didn't care! I was so happy to see it, I could have cried! WHEW! That was a close one! All was salvageable since most everything important in it is plastic or laminated. Thank GOD!! I was so happy. At that point, it could rain all it wanted...:)

Well, I don't have much more! Just wanted to wish all a Happy 4th of July Celebration!

2010-06-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the extensive absence! Things have been CRAZY around here! We have been really busy spending time with the 40th spouses, having activities almost daily to help the time pass by. It's been a lot of fun getting to know the other women of the squadron. It's really helpful to have people around you that know exactly what separation is like and that can help you fill in the gaps while the men are gone.

This past week, I got a couple more house-related things done thanks to my helpful mother. She came to visit and to help watch Kennady while I tried to get some outside stuff handled. I think I got a little bit of heat exhaustion though last week and caught a 4 day fever that messed me up a bit. It was NOT fun, but my mommy helped out a lot and let me and my body catch up to itself. Then, last night I took Kennady's temperature and it was 101 degrees. BOO! And, she's covered in a head to toe rash that we now know is Roseola. It's a disease that goes around during the summer months that consists of fever and a rash that both go away on their own over time. Poor little baby. We cuddled for 6 or the 9 sleeping hours last night because being held is the only thing that made her feel good. She's so sweet and her cuddles make me happy. I really hope she breaks this fever soon and goes back to her normal, smiley self.

Also, I have been asked and have decided to take over the fundraising chair for the spouses of the 40th. I don't know if any of you have good fundraising ideas that you think a group of married with children women would like to do, but if you do, PLEASE SHARE! Any idea is a good one! Thanks!

Kennady is 7 months old tomorrow...NUTS! I can't believe we are already that far along in her life. She is a champ at sitting up, has gotten up on all fours but just rocks forward, and talks like she's speaking in sentences. She's beginning to dislike her carseat, but enjoys looking out the windows at everything flying by. She's still the most smiley, friendly, joyous baby I've ever seen. She is definitely the best thing I've ever done :).

We are so proud of the USC Gamecock Men's Baseball team for winning the College World Series!! The biggest title the school has ever held! Go Cocks! :)

Elya, John, and a group of people from the college ministry and I all got together and played some court volleyball the other night. It was so much fun. I love that sport!! I have really missed playing and being in that 'team' atmosphere. I really thought that I would be super-duper sore today, but so far, so good. Maybe this 25 year old really isn't as 'old' as she feels sometimes, haha.

We had plans to go back to Lake LBJ for the 4th with my friend Nicole, but those plans fell through, so now my parents are going to come and visit me and we're going to have a laid back weekend of fun. There's a big fireworks display Saturday night and I'm sure we'll find some kind of trouble to get into here! It should be fun!

Well, I guess that's all! Talk to ya again soon....or so I hope! :) Happy early 4th of July everyone!! Be SAFE!

Enough for Bullets:

2010-06-14T22:56:00.002-05:00

*Well, the dreadful day has now come and gone. Now, Kennady and I have the summer to spend some serious one-on-one time together. Though, we definitely *miss daddy already.
*I am sitting here typing this as the rain comes pouring down and the lightning continues to go crazy. This storm is NUTS...and flooding my 'yards'!! Ha. Good thing we never got around to dirt and grass!
*I have a list of things to accomplish this deployment that maybe I will elaborate on in a different post...COMING SOON.
*This past week was so much fun. Tuesday night we got Kennady's 6 month pictures done with the Cozart's and they turned out SOOO good. We have such a sweet and photogenic baby...she's just beautiful if I may say so myself. :) To see the goods, go to photography.cozart.org. Thanks Slade and Laura!
*I am eating Sugar Babies right now against all dentist recommendations! And they are soooo good. :)
*I have watched 6 recorded shows today...sad?
*This weekend is Father's Day! Kennady & I went out and bought daddy something for being such an amazing papa. He's gonna like it. I will disclose after it has been received on the other end.
*Wednesday, my family packed up and headed down to New Braunfels for what was supposed to be a Schlitterbahn trip. Well, God decided to rain on that parade and flooded the NB area, causing the park to close for the day. Sooo, we had to improvise and decided to spend the day at Fiesta Texas instead. It was kinda yucky outside, but we went in to ride anyways and it worked out perfectly that no one else wanted to go to Fiesta that day. The parking remained practically empty all day, so we walked right up to every ride and hopped right on with no waits. It was AWESOME. We then went and spent the second half of the day at the water park that they have. It was a lot of fun and refreshingly cool after being in the humidity all morning. It was a blast. To see pics, check out my facebook album.
*Thursday through Sunday, my side of the family had our second annual Robertson Rendezvous family reunion at Lake LBJ. There were 24 people in all...it was all of my siblings and their families. What a blast we had! Late night boat rides, fishing, washers, guitar playing, and swimming allllll day. Also, we had 3 newbie babies there and we all had a blast passing them around! They were SOOO cute together! :) Can't wait for next summer!
*Well, that's all I have in me for now. I enjoy reading up on everyone else's summers so far! Keep on keepin' on! :)

Busy as bees!

2010-05-17T11:26:00.003-05:00

Whew! We have been living in a really fun and exciting whirlwind lately! With Chad's approaching deployment comes the necessity and interest in coming to see us SOONER than previously planned for family and friends. We are unfortunately approaching June 15th quite quickly and we are definitely staying busy in the meantime (which makes the time fly...boo, but we are happy to be busy...catch 22, I guess). This past weekend, some of our best friends, Dom & Shannon, came from Del Rio to visit us. The just moved there from Little Rock, AR to become instructor pilots for the Air Force and are scheduled to get married June 26th in New Mexico. Chad was supposed to be the best man in the wedding, but because of this crazy sucky deployment, he has had to pass up the opportunity for the second best friend of his in a row. It's very unfortunate because we would LOVE to be part of their special day. We had a really enjoyable weekend with them though.

Coming this weekend, we have Chad's brother and a girl friend of his. They are coming Fri.-Mon. and we have plans to make a trip to SA-town on Sunday. The following weekend, Chad's parents and sister are coming Fri.-Mon. also. That next weekend, we are hoping to go to SA-town to get my hair done and to get Kennady's 6th month pictures taken by the Cozarts (hopefully :)). That next Wednesday, my family is going to Schlitterbahn for the day and then Thursday through Sunday, we have the annual Robertson Family Reunion at Lake LBJ in Kingsland. SOOO much going on it's crazy! Then, 2 days later, Chad deploys. Everything up until that day is fabulously fun and exciting, but no one likes a looming deployment. Bleh.

On a Kennady note, we think she is starting to teeth. There are moments when she just burst into a loud whiny cry that sounds like something is hurting her. Then we use Baby Orajel or Tylenol and things get better. She is also rolling over on her own, starting to push up into crawling position, talking in 'words' instead of coos, about to start real baby food, and being as giggly and happy as ever. She is sooo sweet.

Chad & I have vowed to start a new workout routine called Insanity and that is just what it is. It's a lot of high-intensity circuits workouts that last for short spurts of time (that feel like forever) with little rest. Yesterday was our first day and I am already SOOO SORE. I did realize though that prior to yesterday, the last time I had really worked out or done anything athletic was over a year ago, pre-pregnancy. It's going to be a painful 60 days, but hopefully we learn to stick to it and see some results.

Today I went to lunch with our commander's wife, the D.O.'s wife, and another spouse at Zookini's. They were really easy to get along with ladies and I really look forward to getting to know some of the other spouses at this base. Last time in NC, I didn't really do much to get involved with the other spouses, but I plan on changing that at this base. It is always so much more fun when you have one or several networks of friends to do things with. Plus, it helps to have women around that know and understand what it feels like during a deployment. We will see how the next couple of events goes, but I am hopeful that there are several spouses that I may get along well with.

I bought a rug to go underneath our dining room table today from Pier 1. I love that store. Although I very rarely purchase anything from there, it's a great store to waste time walking around in. I usually find good presents there for people too, so it's fun.

Well, I must get along to whatever is next on the agenda. I'm sure there's a list of about 50 things I have to do by this weekend laying around here somewhere. Hope all is well! (Shaunna, you and Addi are in my thoughts and prayers! I hope she gets better soon!)

Happy Late Mother's Day!

2010-05-10T11:57:00.003-05:00

It seems as though I haven't been quite as 'on top of things' as my fellow bloggers, but I will send my celebrations out a day late anyways; so Happy Mother's Day to my sweet friends and family who have been so lucky to have had a child or are in waiting for the best thing that will ever happen to them in their lives! Being a mom is all that I hoped it would be and more. A true angel is what Kennady is. I am thankful every day for her and the wonderful addition she has been to our family. She fills my heart up on a daily basis and I honestly couldn't imagine loving anyone or anything more than I love her. I hope everyone's Mother's Day was filled with love, appreciation, and celebration for all of the hard work and dedication that being the mom we all want to be takes on a daily basis. Love to all & thank you baby girl for brightening my world even more and for making me the happiest mommy in the world! :)

Count your blessings daily! :)

the 'goings on'...

2010-05-05T22:59:00.002-05:00

Well, we have been quite the busy bees agaon...but it's been a lot of fun. This past weekend, I went to church to help cook a meal for the college students with my friends and it was a lot of fun. Kennady got passed around to about 15 different people (or more) throughout the evening and spread her smiles and happiness with everyone. It was a great time....then she got a major de-germing rub-down. So what, mommy is paranoid. :) We went back to the church Monday night also to help out with a finals week Pancake Dinner that they did for the college students too, and that also was a good time. We're really loving being back involved with the church again. And there are so many great people we have met and enjoy spending time with, it's just awesome.

On the homefront, we are feverishly working on getting the yardwork done and completed before Chad potentially leaves us this summer....yes, that's right....another dreaded deployment is upon us (BOOOOOO!). Once again, for the third summer (yes I said THIRD!!) in a row, my husband will be stuck overseas, this time in Kuwait. This is deployment number 5 for us (insert throw-up action here). It's quite frustrating, but we have tried to move past the negativity, though there is more than ever now that little Kennady is here. It breaks my heart to think about all of the growth and fun stuff he is going to miss (insert tears and heartbreak here). Ugh.

Moving on. This weekend is going to be a really crazy one for us! Saturday brings our second go at the garage sale (a little mishap in the newspaper advertisement last weekend (no address was listed)) caused us to need to go at it again. So, I will be doing that at a friend's house from 7-noon, then we have a graduation party for my bestie Elya who is graduating with her Master's in Psychology from 5-8pm, and then we have a block party to go to that is being hosted by our closest neighbors in our new neighborhood from 6:30-?. It's safe to say it's going to be a crazy day! BUSY BUSY, but a lot of fun, I'm sure! Then, Sunday morning after church, we are headed to SA-town to spend Mother's Day with the family. Nuts I tell ya! :)

I have been shopping-shopping for all kinds of fun stuff for the house. Mostly decor-related things. It's been a lot of fun. I'm what some would call a Frugalista, so it's like a game to me to find the best place to buy something for the best price. I have to admit, I've found some pretty awesome deals lately and I'm proud of it! :)

I got my first bouquet of Mother's Day flowers today in the mail from my sister, sis-in-law, and mommy. It was a beautiful set of bright tulips and they are really pretty. So sweet. I LOVE me some fresh flowers! And still to this day, it's surreal to me that I'm a mommy...but it's the sweetest thing in the world. :)

Well, that's most of all the babbles I have available for now. Hope you're having a great week! Now it's on to catching up on my blog readings!! :)

P.S. Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

What to do with myself...

2010-04-22T13:30:00.002-05:00

Well, here we are. Not finished unpacking because we are just TIRED of it. I have baby girl all day and nothing else really to do with myself. I would like to get involved somewhere with other mommies, but don't really know where to start. I have also considered picking up a true hobby like sewing cute things that I could potentially sell to bring in some dough. There are several intramural sports going on at the base that spouses are allowed to get involved with, so I would love to pick up volleyball or soccer. I have REALLY REALLY missed playing sports these past 3 years. Now, I have a chance again. Very exciting. I have looked into a couple of temporary daycare options to see if picking up a small part-time job would be feasible for me. Haven't had all that much luck thus far. I honestly don't even know if there are many part-time jobs out there these days. I figure with this being such a college town, that most of the non-serious jobs are probably taken by the youngins'. I will keep looking though. I still have a lot of decorating to do, but can't seem to get all that motivated for that either. We have a lot of yardwork to be done, which will probably cost a good penny, so I'm trying to monitor the expenses.

We are going to San Angelo this weekend to spend some time with the family. We haven't been there in about a month it feels, so we thought it would be a good idea. Grams is just dying to see her little Kennady, I'm sure! Good news on the hair-front...she's starting to sprout some roots! Her head up until now has been pretty smooth with peach fuzz, but I'm glad to say that we are actually seeing some hair arrive! Yay! Before we know it, I'll be french braiding a full head of hair! :) Well, I guess that's it for now. Adios, baby beckons. :)

Cereal & Allergies...

2010-04-15T15:03:00.002-05:00

We have come to the point of needing more sleep during the night...mommy has anyways :). We are still doing 3 or so feedings, which is kind of weird being that we have had better sleeping patterns than this before...so I feel a little bit like we have gone backwards. I already give her an extra ounce per midnight feeding than she eats throughout the day, but it hasn't seemed to suffice. I have had many suggestions from other mommies (which I greatly appreciate) and have decided to start with the addition of cereal to her diet. I just recently gave it to her by spoon for the first time ever. She started out okay, swallowed probably about 30 percent, and then ended up getting frustrated and REALLY hungry so I made her regular bottle and mixed the cereal that I had already prepared in with her milk. It seemed to work pretty well and went through the nipple like I had hoped. She has been down for a nap for about 2 hours now. Hmmmm, maybe we have found a solution?! We shall see and continue to hope. I also like to bathe her in the morning so that I have a fresh, clean, smell-good baby all day long, but I suppose I could also attempt the warm bath at night instead. I would like to introduce one at a time though so that I can know which one has what effect. I will keep you posted. :)

On another note, it turns out that I am ridiculously and miserably allergic to this new house. Well, it's not the house, but the fields of Cedar trees behind it. I have attempted taking Allegra (usually the most effective medicine for my allergies) every day of the past 2 weeks or so, and it only works temporarily. The annoying thing is that I haven't had any allergies in about 2 years. Could it be because I was in a different state with a lot different vegetation? Probably. But now I am happily back in my favorite state, dying from the allergies that make this place HOME. I think it's bad enough that I'm going to have to go to an Ear, Nose, Throat, and Allergy clinic here in the near future. Speaking of, I should probably go make that call. Ugh.

"I am proud to be a Texan, where at least I feel I'm HOME!" (said to the tune of "Proud to be an American). In the last 2 days, I applied for a new Texas driver's license (because my real estate license of NC that I never used MADE me change my residency, buttheads!) and I also got new Texas tags for our Tahoe. Now, both of our vehicles are Texas tagged and happy about it! :)

My best friend Nicole is coming to visit us this weekend from Lubbock! I am so very excited. It has been since right after Christmas since we've seen her and that's a LONG time...especially in infant days! She's going to be blown away at how much Kennady has changed in the past 3 1/2 months. It's going to be a blast for the three of us (me, Nicole, & Elya) to get to hang out like old times and to play with the little lady. She is such an entertainer! Good stuff. :)

We have come to a small standstill when it comes to moving in. We have about 15 totes to still go through, but we are making do just fine without whatever is in those totes, so I'm thinking the procrastination can continue for at least a little while longer. I'm pooped in this regard. Plus it's rainy outside and that doesn't help me want to get anything accomplished. So, on the couch and on Blogger is where I am. It makes me happy.

Hope your weeks are going well! :)

back so soon?

2010-04-12T16:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, I realize it has been another almost 2 weeks since my last post, but we've been a busy bunch! We have pretty much gotten all moved into our house now. Since we moved in, my parents have visited to help us move a couple more things in and to hang the blinds in all of the windows (because waking up with the sun is WAYYY overrated!) :). This past weekend, my mom, sister, Taylor, brother and sis-in-law came to see us in two separate trips. We got some more stuff done in the house with them here, so that was good. Just having a babysitter for even the smallest part of the day is the biggest help!

What we have left to complete the house:

purchase curtain rods and hang them
find rugs for the living room and dining room
follow up rug purchase with pillows and curtains to complement
find more frames and hang pictures throughout
make appts. for dirt and grading service
make arrangements to have friends and family help with sprinkler system and fence installation
get Bermuda grass seed blown in

I just bought my swimsuit for the summer. It is a one-piece from Target that is really cute. I honestly can't remember the last time I put on a one-piece bathing suit. It might have been when I was about 11 or so. Crazy! I have definitely come to terms with being a mommy and being unwilling to show my tummy at its current state. Ha. It looks cute on me either way though and it's black and ruched on the sides, so it's 'slimming'. :) Yay.

I also ordered Kennady a noise machine for her room. It is SOOO quiet in her room that it even drives ME crazy. Ha. I figured that if she is anything like her mommy and daddy (which she definitely is in many other aspects), then she would love and appreciate the sound of a fan, white noise, rain, or waves while she sleeps. Maybe it will result in a little longer sleeping spurts?? We shall see.

I just got Kennady's nursery finished with all of her furniture, hung her curtain, and hung the decorations on the walls. It feels good to have her own space and to be able to see all of her stuff altogether. It's all been in pieces for the past several months. It's amazing how much stuff a 4 month old can accummulate. Seriously...:)

Well, that's all I really have for now. My best friend Nicole is coming into town to visit us this weekend, so that will be fun! She hasn't seen Kenna since she was 3 1/2 weeks old right after Christmas. She has changed SOOO much since then! She won't even be able to believe it, probably.

Hope all is well with everyone! Have a great week!

CLOSING today!!

2010-03-31T12:33:00.004-05:00

OMG! It is officially 'closing on the house' day and we couldn't be MORE excited! We are slowly getting back to a more normal, permanent, stable lifestyle and it feels fabulous. It's like a huge burden has been lifted, though having our condo in NC still on our stressors is getting kind of old. It'd be super-duper if it would be erased from our lives for good sometime soon, but we're going to hang in there and keep the faith that something productive will happen with it in the near future. But, OMG! We are buying our house today!! :)Woo-hoo!

I will be honest and say that we are going to miss being roomies with my bestie Elya and her husband John. It has been a lot of fun seeing them everyday, cooking and eating dinners together, and getting some short breaks from the little lady with E-time (where Elya plays with her for about an hour each day). We will have to figure out some way to meet up and keep some of these dinner dates going in the future. It's been a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of our house from the outside:

We will be turning our own key to this place after just a few hours of signing hundreds of papers...it's going to be a good time! haha. Can't wait!

Holy Moly, double awarded! :)

2010-03-22T22:27:00.003-05:00

"The Honest Scrap award comes with a caveat or two. First, you have to tell your readers ten things about you they may not know, but that are true. Second, you have to tag 10 people with the award. Third, let all the people you've given the award to know that they've gotten it (comment on their blogs or something). And finally, make sure you link back to the person who awarded you."

I was given this award by Cassandra and Chelsey, so here are my 'things':

1. I just recently bought myself my very first 'smartphone'. Prior to now, I had the basic flip phone that pretty much came free with a contract renewal. It made calls, set alarms, took pictures, and sent texts. That was pretty much it, but I was very happy with it for many years. I would consider myself a mediocrely-tech-savvy person...definitely not someone who has to have the latest gadget as soon as it comes out though. I got the Droid Eris (the girly version of the Droid), and I love it! It has so much info, so many games and abilities, and is pretty much my little handheld computer. I use it so much! Consider me a convert. :)

2. Along with my husband, I have become quite a fan of bottled Coca-Colas (the Mexican kind made with real sugar cane) and bottled Dublin Dr. Peppers (also made with real cane sugar). We ordered a case of them from Dublin and they were worth it! :) You can find the Mexican cokes on the Mexican food aisle at Wal-Mart (or at Sam's for wayyy cheaper). :) We may be addicts, but we are really trying to cut back on this evil habit. Ha.

3. I never thought I could love something as much as I love my Kennady. I've always heard parents say that, but seriously...somehow I can love her more and more every day that passes. It's easy and unconditional.

4. I am about to pee myself over how happy and exciting it is to think that Chad, Kennady, and I are all going to be in our own HOME (something which many of you probably take for granted...we have been practically 'homeless' nomads for the past year+ and it is SOOO getting OLD!). It's going to be amazing to have a place that feels and really is HOME to us, with friends and family all around us, like it's supposed to be! Yay!

5. Chad and I have pondered and think that we deserve a little relaxation and added happiness, and therefore have decided to purchase a hot tub for ourselves (and anyone that ever comes to visit too, of course :)). We went to look at the spas yesterday and my heart got all giddy. Gotta love a hot tub! :)

6. We are considering becoming Sam's Club members since we can get diapers, wipes, and formula for a lot cheaper than at Target and Wal-Mart. We will probably start buying meats and some freezable things in bulk too, so I think it will pay off! That's exciting!

7. I, on occasion, have really strong desires to be on a cruise ship. It's a fun vacation and a great way to 'get away' and have a blast. We hope to go on another sometime with some friends or family this time. We think it would be crazy fun!

8. I hope that this summer is filled with fun stuff like trips to the park, river floats, home gardening, small shopping trips to San Antonio or Dallas, tanning, lake fun, and crafts. I can't wait for the warmer weather to stick around and for the wind to subside...seriously, GO AWAY WIND! :)

9. I have considered starting a couple of businesses. Not really seriously, but I have a few ideas for them. Some include sewing cute baby things and selling them, others include wedding planning/coordination with friends, and starting a school for ladies that teach small things that we should all know, even if our mothers weren't able to teach us them. Such as basic sewing, cooking, formal dancing, etiquette, how to dress a table, etc. Very Martha Stewart-ish, but it would be a lot of fun!

10. I think I may finally become a coffee drinker. Lord knows that based on how my dentist visits (yes, that was plural) went last week, that I don't need to add anything else to my reportoire that would have negative and lasting effects on my teeth, but it does taste good. I am still a wussy coffee drinker that only really ever drinks it when someone else brews a pot and I still add 2 creamers and like 3 sugars, but maybe one day I will become less of a wuss. It does taste REALLY good with all of those goodies in there though. :)

Well, that was my ten. I would tag people, but I'm really not good at that, so I hope you enjoyed! Talk to ya later! :)

Updates, much needed...

2010-03-16T23:30:00.002-05:00

Well, we are all still alive and kickin, though you wouldn't be able to tell from my blog. Hopefully there are a couple of people out there that are still willing to read up on me to see what's happening and haven't lost ALL faith in my inability to find time for blogging. Man, has life been a slight rollercoaster this past month. Chad, Kennady, and I all made our move to Texas (praise the Lord!), and have been happily and gratefully living with my best friend Elya and her husband John in our new town for the past 3 weeks or so. Thank God for gracious and loving best friends, cuz otherwise, we would seriously be homeless or extremely uncomfortable in a hotel somewhere with no kitchen...bleh! We are so blessed by them.

During our stay, we have been tearing up the A-town roads in hopes of finding a house to make our home. The process has been an up and down one that has taken a little longer than expected, but we think we have come to a conclusion at this point, hence why I have a minute to take to catch you up on all of this. We went under 'option' on a house that turned out to be a lemon that was going to need WAY too much work, time, and money to fix so we passed on that one and decided to tear up the streets again. After seeing about 25 more houses, we had still only found 2 that met our criteria and that we would really consider moving into. A little dishearted, we decided to go to a Parade of Homes that went on last weekend and saw 16 new and beautiful homes in which we really enjoyed ourselves, looking at and seeing different floor plans, and speaking to the builders. When we finished there, we considered the idea of building over a 4-6 month period and were all gun-ho for that. Then, we had a small epiphany. We remembered that one of the houses featured and just finished last week was in our price range and that it was close to meeting the 'everything we wanted' criteria, so we went to see it again. We were awe-struck again and decided to put a bid on it. As of today at 5:30, Chad & I are currently under contract for a beautiful, brand new house that we CANNOT wait to get into! Now, the process is in the hands of the banks and we have a small window of time (potentially 20-45 days, give or take) to hang in there before we finally get to have a HOME of our own again! We are so excited! :)

On another note, the Cozarts took Kennady's 3-month pictures a couple of weekends ago and they turned out SUPER-CUTE! Though, I am having the hardest time choosing which ones I want in what sizes, etc. But, I guess having a photogenic baby is not the 'terrible' thing I make it sound like it is, so really I'm having fun. :)

Today and tomorrow I have dentist meetings and I HATE the dentist. Please pray for me. The amount of work I need done is ridiculous. Turns out pregnancy did not agree with my teeth. Boo.

There really isn't a whole lot more I can think of that I need to say right now, so I hope that someone is out there, reading this blog so that I am more motivated to post in the future, haha. :) Hopefully I will be able to post the cutest and most giggly video ever, featuring miss Kennady soon. She just lights up our lives. :) Goodnight all!

Sweet updates...

2010-02-03T16:33:00.002-06:00

Sorry for my absence...again. But I really haven't felt all that inspired to write about anything lately. We are almost done here in Alabama...only 2 days left and then we can be on our way back to Fayetteville to finish things up there. WOO HOO! Then, my brother and sis-in-law are coming to visit us and we are all going to the beach for 4 days. It's gonna be awesome! Soon after that, Kennady and I will be boarding a plane for a ONE-WAY trip home to Texas. YAY...I will never have to go to Fayetteville, NC ever again!!

On a baby note, I took Kennady in for her 2-month appointment this morning. She got her first round of shots (it was 6 shots) which were luckily all combined into ONE! Thank God! I thought I was going to have to restrain her for six different needle pricks. Man was I relieved to hear it was only one big shot. She did pretty well...she gave me the frowny upset face as soon as the needle went into her thigh and then turned red while she wailed for about 3 or 4 minutes. She settled down really well though and then we were on our way. She weighs 10 pounds 4 ounces, is 22 1/2 inches long, and is growing healthy and like a weed. Hopefully the shots don't cause fussiness and a fever like I've been told they might.

I won the Amazon.com $100 gift card from 2 posts below. That was so awesome!! I never win anything!! Thanks for the suggestion to enter Cassandra! Love ya! :)

Hope all is good elsewhere. Have a great rest of the week.

Tutu anyone?!

2010-02-01T15:58:00.002-06:00

There is a sweet giveaway going on at etsymom.com. StrawberrieRose is giving away one of her many precious tutus for one lucky follower. Check out the details here by Feb. 3rd and enter for your chance to win!

100 bucks?

2010-01-25T10:08:00.002-06:00

I thought I would try this out. Would you like to win a $100 from Amazon.com? If so, visit this link:
http://www.fantabulouslyfrugal.com/2010/01/reminder-enter-to-win-100-amazon-gift.html
Maybe one of us will get lucky! :)

Back to reality...

2010-01-24T17:01:00.002-06:00

Well, I am officially back in Alabama from my 10 day vacation to Atlanta. What a great time Kennady & I had! We stayed with Chad's cousins, Lisa & Jeff, and their 2 little girls, Emma (5) & Landry (4). They are very precious, sassy little things and so much fun to be around. Lisa & Jeff were awesome too, seeing as they have extensive training in child-rearing and newborn baby care, meaning that I actually got to take a break here and there. There is only so much baby holding you can do before every muscle in your arm, shoulder, and back is in pain and seeking relief. It was nice to hand her off once in a while. Plus, they got to enjoy some baby snuggles of their own, and who doesn't want that?! :)

While we were there, we did a lot of fun stuff. Most of it was done with just Lisa, Kennady, & I, seeing as how Jeff works during the day and the girls are in preschool. Landry's 4th birthday was this past Monday, so they had a Sweet & Sassy party for her at the cutest little girl's salon I've ever seen. They do hair, manis & pedis, makeup, Princess dress-up, all with a little runway for them to show off their look. About 12 little princesses had a great time at the party...and the cupcakes were yummy! :) We ended last weekend by going to see the play Annie at the Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta. It was sooo good and those little girls are so stinkin' talented. I had little miss Landry on my lap the whole time, so we had fun. From the popcorn eating, to the Sprite sipping, to the sing-alongs, we really enjoyed ourselves. We spent the rest of the week shopping at the outlets, tearing up the mall, at another kid's birthday party, doing Zumba, eating Mexican food, playing Uno, walking through Ikea, & playing with the kiddos. It was a great time and a much-needed break away from this place in Alabama.

Lisa & Jeff are so awesome that they provided me with my first night's sleep without Kennady since she was born. They watched her and fed her through the night so that I could have an uninterrupted night's sleep and it was awesome. Of course, I still woke up quite a few times throughout the night (because that's what mommies do), but it was still great to REST. They did it for us again when Chad got there & we both slept like little babies. It was fabulous and they are AWESOME.

Good Kennady news: She has officially slept through the night for 3 nights in a row. It started with 8 straight hours Thursday night, then 8 1/2 Friday night, then 9 1/2 Saturday night, and what a blessing that is! We are so proud of her and are really hoping that since it's been 3 nights in a row that it's not a fluke. Ha. We shall see if this good fortune continues! She is such a wonderful and sweet baby. We love playing with her throughout the day and hearing her sweet little coos. She has started to smile a bit more & stays awake better throughout the day (unless it's rainy, she likes to drift in and out a lot...kinda like her mommy ;)). Her hair is becoming more noticeable and looks like it might be a light brown color. It's all still baby hair though, so there's no telling! Her neck is so strong and she likes to stand up a lot. She is ticklish on her tummy and her feet & doesn't like the lights to be on after 11:00pm when she is tired. She likes to takes warmer baths and hates to be naked. She has her favorite pacifier and will tell us when she wants it or when she drops it and needs it back. What a sweet and beautiful blessing she is.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I will try to upload a video of one of our latest 'talks'. :) Hope everyone had a great weekend! :)

Chick-Fil-A Addict...

2010-01-13T10:53:00.002-06:00

So, I believe that Chad & I need to experience an intervention when it comes to the infamous and delicious Chick-Fil-A and how much we eat it. I can honestly say that we eat there between 1 and 3 times a week...whether it be for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I will also admit that I am SUPER-BORING and absolutely unhealthy with my orders...it's either a chicken biscuit with a sweet tea for breakfast, a number 1 sandwich OR a number 5 with an 8-pack and a sweet tea for lunch, and two polynesian sauces (each 100 calories each) with both lunch meals. I swear it's the 'crack' they put in their chicken that keeps drawing us back. If you don't know why their chicken is so much more delicious than everyone else's, it's because they use powdered sugar in their chicken batter and they fry the chicks up in peanut oil instead of that other yucky stuff. MMM, MM delicious. We are so bad, that Chad bought a $20 gift card during the Christmas season just so he could get a Free 2010 calendar with the food coupons at the bottom. We then used the gift card on our next visit. FAT KIDS :). Just thought I would get that guilty pleasure off my chest. Whew...I feel better...and so does my tummy roll. Hehe.

Life as Nomads...

2010-01-11T15:53:00.002-06:00

Well, Chad, Kennady, & I have been in place here in Alabama for a little over a week now. Chad is currently in officer school here for another 4 weeks or so. All is well, except for the ridiculously cold temperatures outside. We are in the south...it's not supposed to be this cold in the south. ha. I think the average high for the past week was near 30 degrees. Not fun and definitely not great temperatures to take a 5 week old baby out in. So, we have been quite bored. I would really appreciate some warmer temperatures and the ability to go outside, feel a little warmth on my face from the sun, and getting to stroll around with Kennady. Maybe an increase in temps is on the horizon?

I have an appointment set up for Kennady and the pediatrician tomorrow morning. It was supposed to be a 4-week checkup, but it has snowballed over into a 6-week checkup. We have been in transit so much lately that it has been near impossible to get her in anywhere over the holidays. Luckily, I finally found one that accepts new patients and Tricare Standard. What a job that was! I can't wait to see what she weighs tomorrow! I know she's definitely a growing girl...she's already graduated out of her newborn clothes and is moving on to 0-3 month stuff. Way fun!

I haven't mentioned how much of an angel this little baby girl is lately. She is such a good and enjoyable baby. We have officially figured out her different noises, coos, and cries and what they all mean. It's so awesome how babies have their own language and make it known to their parents. I can honestly say she only gives us a real cry about 3 times a day or so, and all it means is that she's decided her tummy is hungry. She also has some games she likes to play with her pacifier. She'll have it, knock it out with her own hand, coo at us, and watch us come running. haha. It's funny and cute until you have gotten up to replace it for the 18th time in 20 minutes. haha. She really is the most precious and beautiful baby I have ever seen, held, or cared for. We love her so much and I am truly blessed to not have to go to work or leave her with someone else during the day. Being a housewife really isn't all that bad at all. It's a lot of work, but it's wonderful. :)

This coming weekend, we are all going to visit some family in Atlanta. We are very excited...not only to get out of this town for a little while, but for them to meet Kennady and to be on a little teeny-tiny 'vacation'. Monday is a holiday (MLK's Birthday), so a 3-day weekend is always awesome! I've also decided to stay there in Atlanta for the rest of that week to give Chad a chance to really focus on his school & Master's class for a while. One can only concentrate so much when there is a whiny and bored wife and baby in the room with you, so we're going to give him a small break and allow him a good amount of time to catch up, stay on top of things, or get ahead with all of his work. Plus, Kennady and I will really enjoy the company of Chad's cousins Lisa & Jeff and their two beautiful girls Emma (5 yrs old) and Landry (4 yrs old). It is sure to be a good time.

Well, I guess that's all that's going on with us right now. Be back soon. Hope everyone survived another Monday! :)

Whew! So much to catch up on...

2009-12-31T12:18:00.002-06:00

Well, obviously we've been quite the busy little family this holiday season. We started out by attacking our first long road trip with a newborn Wednesday of last week. We rode from Fayetteville, NC to Orlando, FL...an 8 1/2 hour trek that only took us 9 1/2 hours. It was awesome. Kennady was a champ and pretty much slept the whole day, minus the feedings and changings. We were very pleased at how well it went. We got to Orlando and stayed with Chad's parents for 3 days, including Christmas & had a wonderful Christmas day. As you can imagine, Kenna came away with a slew of presents from the grandparents & her auntie & uncle. Oh, how the Christmas tides have shifted! :) It was great fun. Too bad she actually slept through the WHOLE thing. hah.

On Sunday, we hopped on a plane and flew here to Texas. Once again, our little lady was a fabulous traveler. In four hours of flying, we only heard her squawk-cry probably twice. And her cry is so cute, I'm pretty sure no one had any bad ju-ju to throw our way. We have been spending the last 4 days with my family, having another Christmas and hanging out. For New Year's, I think it's going to be a family game night with champagne and pizza, ha. What a combo! :)

Yesterday, Chad, myself, my mom, & Kennady spent the day in Abilene looking for potential houses for us to buy. We got to walk through a good 12 houses or so and accomplished a couple of good things. We haven't quite found one just yet, but it was just a preliminary look for the most part anyways. We were mostly using that trip to give us a more clear idea about what is available at different price points, while scoping out some different neighborhoods that we may or may not want to live in at the same time. It was a very productive day & we can't wait to go back in February with a 'going to buy' attitude. It's going to be great.

Monday was just 'one of those days'. As a new mother, I have been doing a really good job of being prepared when we go places, with everything Kenna might need from A to Z in her diaper bag. Well, Tuesday we went to lunch at McAlister's with my fam and ended up spending the whole day in town at my sister's house playing Mariokart on my niece's new Wii. Then, we had planned to go to Rosa's (duh) for dinner at about 7:00pm. Well, about 6:45pm, Kennady decides she's hungry & mommy realizes we had been gone so long that day that we were now out of formula packets (we are feeding boob & formula for those who may be confused a little later in this post) in the diaper bag. So, we made a quick trip home to get some (annoying) and postponed dinner for a little while. THEN, we are at Rosa's eating happily & getting ready to leave when she gets a little fussy because of a VERY dirty diaper. Well, Rosa's wasn't all that busy being that it was a Monday night & the bathrooms always smell like rotten eggs, so we decided to change her right there in a corner booth where no one was around. As I get this nasty diaper off of her, I go digging in the bag for a clean diapee, and dun, dun, dun, there are NONE to be found. UGH!!! Why didn't mama check to see if we were out of any of our other supplies too you might ask?? Well, I was asking myself the same thing as my daughter's business is out in public and she is on the brink of having a meltdown, being that she hates to be naked & the outfit she had on got a bit soiled too. This is where improvisation comes into play. I didn't have anything else to do but to stick a maxi-pad on the inside of her onesie and hope that she decided to stay clean until we got home 15 minutes later. Luckily, I had a new and clean outfit to put her in, but still...a maxi on a 3 1/2 week old baby...poor girl, haha. Thank God we made it home without any hitches. A little bit later my friend Nicole and I were hanging out; she's feeding Kenna from a bottle while I was pumping in my parent's tv room with the doors closed. All of a sudden, my 9-year-old niece Taylor opens the pocket doors, sees me hooked up to this crazy udder-sucking machine, turns her head in confusion (like a puppy who heard a funny noise), and gently closes the doors back without a word. About 3 minutes later, my mom and sister walk in laughing at how Taylor's face was glazed over with confusion when she came back into their room. Cue the 'breastfeeding & the crazy machine' conversation here. Ha. I didn't even consider the possibility of her walking in. Had I thought about that, I would have taken the liberties to explain to her what I was doing (or about to do) before she walked in and shocked herself. It was too cute and as you would imagine, she was as bashful about it as a 9-year-old little girl would be. Clarification, it wasn't the breastfeeding that got her...she knows all about that...it was the pump that threw her for a serious loop. Too funny and maybe what I might consider as strike 3 for that day. It just seemed like it wouldn't end, haha. Good stuff.

Well, I guess that's all I really have for now. I really hope that everyone had a very blessed and Merry Christmas with your family and friends. Happy early New Year's to everybody! May safety and happiness blanket everyone as we welcome 2010!

Getting back to normal...

2009-12-12T15:59:00.002-06:00

Man, what an ordeal having a baby is on the body! It sure is a wonderfully amazing and beautiful process, but the aftermath is ROUGH. You quickly go from being very pregnant, having gotten used to not seeing your toes, & peeing every 4 1/2 minutes, to being able to bend over, sleeping only on your sides, & having to take twice the time to climb stairs, to so many other things. Then, you push a little baby out and then it starts a whole new slew of things to recover from. Beginning of course with the 'downstairs' going back to normal (being uncomfortable for 8 days afterwards), the ability to lay on your stomach again (even though it feels like you are doing wrong since you haven't been able to for so long), your ankles and legs finally deflate and you can see bones again, the stomach still cramps a bit on occasion as your cervix continues to contract, hormones are swinging up and down constantly, & don't even get me started on the feeling of engorgement (boobs are like rocks & FULL to the gushing milk point). Ha. Did I really say above that this was a beautiful and amazing process???? :-P

God really did do some amazing stuff when He created us women. Our bodies are a marvel that I will never be able to fully understand in their entirety. Luckily, all of the 'beauties' of pregnancy really do eventually return to 'normal' and soon, I will feel completely human again, with no more soreness and the ability to do so many things that I haven't been able to do for several months now. I'm quite surprised that I still haven't had a glass of champagne or a margarita (though doing either of those is still quite tricky with pumping & finding time for it). What I really want is a hot tub...in the backyard I don't currently have. That would be great.

Well, things are good here because every day that passes is another day closer to being back to normal. Chad goes back to work this coming Monday so next week should be quite an interesting transition. I don't doubt my abilities, I just know how wonderful it has been to be able to double-team this thing thus far. Pray that we can both get some good sleep and some good stuff done while daddy isn't here. Then, in a couple of weeks, we are headed down to Orlando for a couple of days, including Christmas day, then we fly over to Texas to see my family for about a week, & then we are expected to be in place in Alabama by the 5th of January for SOS (Chad's 5 week schooling). THEN, a couple of weeks later, we MOVE TO TEXAS for good! WOO-Hoo! We can't wait!

Please keep us in your prayers as we attempt the somewhat impossible and drag this new little baby here, there, and everywhere this disease-infested holiday season. I know, we're crazy, but we're hoping for the best. Be back soon with whatever else comes to mind! :)

Kennady Baye is finally here to stay!

2009-12-08T11:49:00.002-06:00

Well, as all of you very well know by now, we have happily and successfully introduced our little girl Kennady Baye into this world! She was born on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, weighing in at 6 pounds 7 ounces, & measuring 18 1/2 inches long. She has been beautiful and sweet ever since she arrived. We are obviously back home and busy getting into whatever routine we can that works for all of us and our sleep schedules. I think figuring out feeding patterns, amounts, sleeping rhythms, and diaper changing schedules is probably the most challenging part of the first 5 or 6 days with a new baby. We have officially gotten more comfortable with how we are handling things and she seems to be happy about it too.

My labor was quite miserable...not gonna lie or sugar coat it. 18 hours later though, we were holding our newest treasure. I'm still recovering, but getting closer to feeling like myself with every day that passes. We've been lucky enough to have my mommy stay longer than we expected to help us out with this first week with baby. It's been wonderful for all 4 of us! Unfortunately, she's heading back home on Thursday. We are so blessed to have had her here for so long...

We had our first pediatrician appointment yesterday and found out that she has already gained 6 ounces! That's an ounce a day! Looks like she's really taking to momma's sweet milk! :) We can't help but look at her everyday and say how gorgeous she is. It's amazing that we could make something that is so perfect. Thank you God for a happy and healthy baby!

If you haven't gotten to see some of Kennady's pictures, here is a link to her on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046887&id=54100340&l=24ffa2577d

Bowen Reed Robertson

2009-11-19T19:36:00.003-06:00

I am so happy to announce the birth of our newest nephew, Bowen Reed Robertson. Mommy Rachel & baby boy are doing great! He was born yesterday the 19th around 1:00pm, weighed in at exactly 8 pounds, & was 20 1/4 inches long. I just received a picture of him on my phone and he is a beauty! Congrats to brother Randy & sis-in-law Rachel! Love them & can't wait to hold him! :)

Babies, Babies everywhere...

2009-11-19T08:13:00.002-06:00

It was awesome when Chad & I announced that we were pregnant to find out soon after that my older brother Randy & his wife Rachel were also pregnant! Not only that, but we have the EXACT same due date. CRAZINESS! We must have gone to the same bar-b-que is what the family keeps saying, ha. This baby is their second child. Their first boy is named Ethan and is 5 years old (he's precious). She started her progression about 2 1/2 weeks ago & has been quite miserable ever since. We got excited about a week ago as they went to the hospital, only to find out it was false labor (boo). But, I found out yesterday that her doctor has given her the option to induce this morning & she has taken the offer. At first she had said no, that she would just let nature run it's course. But, I know she's been super uncomfortable so I don't blame her for wanting to get it done & get him here! His name is going to be Bowen Reed & I can't wait to see that precious little face. Here is a picture of Rachel & Ethan at Halloween:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30744176&id=1071926079#/photo.php?pid=30744175&id=1071926079&fbid=1233400909781
We are so excited for them & can't wait to hear the good news! Please say a quick prayer for their healths & comfort. Thanks! :)

Success...

2009-11-18T10:16:00.002-06:00

We officially got our Christmas tree up & beautiful last Saturday. Since then, I have also finished our Christmas shopping for both of our families this season (woo-hoo)! All of the presents are beautifully wrapped and adorning our floor underneath our purdy tree. All we have left are a couple of gifts for each other & also some fun stuff for little Kenna. Ahhhhh, it feels good.

On another exciting note, my mommy is set to arrive here this coming Saturday! She is going to be here for 2 full weeks and we are super-excited about that. Honestly, I'm quite excited that she will be a relief to my obsessive cleaning & 'nesting'. It's going to be so nice to have her here once Kennady makes her debut, too. She's an amazing cook (hence why she is in charge of making & serving Thanksgiving for all of our visitors), she's great at cleaning as she goes, and most of all, she knows so much about loving and caring for babies. Can't wait til the weekend gets here!

Only 6 days 'til our due date, ya'll! It's crazy exciting! We can't wait for her to be here (I know, I sound like a broken record, but seriously). Chad wanted me to start jumping up and down yesterday to coax her into getting here earlier, haha. I know, she will come when she wants to & if she's anything like her mother, she'll probably hang in there as long as possible because we love ourselves some warm, cuddly sleep! Ha. Please continue to pray for us. Both of our healths & an easy (ha), successful labor day (whenever it may be).

If I haven't filled you in yet, we have several visitors coming to see us next week. Mom is Saturday, my best friends Nicole & Kyla & bro-in-law Chris are coming on Tuesday (her due date), sis-in-law Cathy is coming on Wednesday, & my sis Laura is going to be here on Thanksgiving Day. We are 'planning' on having Thanksgiving dinner as we usually would, secretly hoping that she has either come by then or decides to on that day. :) We shall see how it all works out pretty soon! Visitors are fabulous & we can't wait for them to all arrive! :)

Storage...dun,dun,dun...

2009-11-14T08:44:00.003-06:00

Well, we have decided to wake up this morning and get a move on things! We are about to eat some Chick-fil-a & head over to the dreaded storage building to reorganize and pick out some of the things we can't live without this winter...some of which just happens to be pretty & decorative for Christmas! :) I am so excited to get the tree up. Thanks for all of the support!

Now, wish my poor husband luck with getting in there and rearranging everything BY HIMSELF. I really do feel bad for him and wish I could be of more help. This 'can't lift anything over 20 pounds thing' is soon to be over though, come another 10 or so days!! (woo-hoo!) Ya'll have a great Saturday! :)

Christmas already...:)

2009-11-12T09:53:00.002-06:00

So, do you people think I am crazy if I go ahead and dig out all of our Christmas decorations and put them up this coming weekend?! I realize it will only be Nov. 14th; but we also have a baby about to be here, we both love the homey feel that the Christmas tree brings to the beginning of winter, & we are having Thanksgiving at our house with family and friends & I think they will appreciate it, too. Are those good enough reasons to go ahead and pull it all out and put it all up? I will admit, I am a little afraid that if we don't do it right now, we won't do it at all this season (after Kennady gets here), mostly because we may be doing a little traveling at some point in there & life is going to be hectic enough with our sweet little lady!

I'm really trying to rally some of your support, so help me out! Maybe if all of you believe it's a great idea, I can get my hubby to the disastrous storage unit this weekend! It's such a mess there that we avoid going at all costs...but this is important and fun :). Come on Christmas! :)

Belly Dancing Video...by ME :)

2009-11-04T14:19:00.002-06:00

Well, I did exactly what I said I was going to do yesterday and vegged out and lazed about all.day.long. It was great. HGTV kept me entertained, but so did this little lady in my belly! I decided to get the camera out to see if I could capture just a little bit of the crazy movement that was going on inside my tummy. It turned out pretty cool. She was VERY active during Color Splash, ha. Just thought I would share! (it's about a minute long, so hang in there.)

Eh...

2009-11-03T11:53:00.002-06:00

I don't know if it is just that I can't decide what to do today, or if it's one of those 'rut' days where you just wanna lay around and do NOTHING. I can think of about 15 things that I COULD do, but just don't wanna. So, I think HGTV is going to be my entertaining friend today. Design to Sell, The Unsellables, Design on a Dime, Color Splash, & Spice Up My Kitchen all have a follower today. :) Maybe soon I'll make myself & Kenna something for lunch.

P.S. We have officially made it to Week 37 so we have a happy, full-term baby in my belly! Miss Kennady can arrive anytime she feels like it now! Come on down & meet your parents little lady! :)

MJ will live forever...

2009-11-01T08:39:00.002-06:00

Chad & I went and saw Michael Jackson's "This Is It" movie yesterday. It was really enjoyable if you liked his music and if you enjoy watching some amazing dancers do their thing. It's almost 2 full hours of his preparations with his crew for their proposed upcoming world tour. He was an amazing artist and was very 'hands on' with everything he did. And it's very hard to believe that he still had those moves & vocals at 50 years old!

When we got to the theater, a woman was waiting for (prego here) to get out of the car so she could get into hers. She had a cool 'Michael Jackson: This is it" t-shirt on, so I complimented her on it. She then asked if we were going to see the movie and we said yes. At that point she said she had an extra ticket and graciously gave it to us. So sweet of her! And it saved us $10!! :) The movie was good and I'm glad we saw it. It's only in theaters for another week & a half, so if you're interested you better go check it out (though they will definitely have it on dvd for collector's pretty soon).

We did absolutely nothing last night for Halloween. Never had even one person knock on our door either (which is good because we didn't have candy to give them, ha). Chad made himself a pumpkin pie & I made myself a key lime pie. Good stuff, but totally boring compared the party pics I've seen so far! ha. That's okay, next year will be a blast with our little Kenna Bear! :)

Fun Day w/Hubs

2009-10-28T20:32:00.002-05:00

It's funny how we find enjoyment is the small, everyday things. We woke up this morning and hit up the Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. They do a weekly 'free breakfast item' on Wednesdays and this morning's was free chicken biscuits...MY FAVORITE! It's awesome. I think every Fil-A should do this!

We then made our way to the mall to check out a 'ring setting event' that a woman had told us about. Since we have been looking for a setting for the Tanzanite, we thought we should give it a good shake. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything worth getting. Oh well, we shall keep looking!

We walked around the mall for a little while longer and ended up in American Eagle. Chad bought himself a nice sweater (that looks hott on him :)) & I bought myself two really cute tank tops (for next summer of course) for $3.95 each. Seriously couldn't pass that up. Plus, we got 20% off for buying 3 things and saved ourselves $7. Not bad. If you need to buy anything from AE, I think their 20% any 3 things sale is going on through the weekend :). It's a good deal.

From there, we went and browsed the wonderful things of Pier 1 Imports. I love that store. I very rarely buy anything from there, but I love to look. Kirkland's is the same thing. I can't wait to be in a new house for me to decorate! It's exciting! :) Chad & I eventually made it over to the kitchen/plate section & I saw him start playing with some kitchen timers for baking. As I continued browsing, he came over to me and said, 'we need to leave in 3 minutes'. I had no idea why he had been so specific until we walked out of the store 2 1/2 minutes later. He then proceeded to tell me that he had set about 7 of the timers to go off in 10 minutes, 9 minutes, 8 minutes, etc. with the first one going off in 3 minutes. Haha. I can only imagine how extremely obnoxious all of those timers going off a minute apart from each other must have been for everyone in the store. My husband is such a KID. I personally thought it was hilarious. Hopefully they don't remember who we are so that I can continue to enjoy my browsing sessions at the Pier in the future. :)

We then went to the first jeweler that we had checked out last Friday to remind ourselves of what they had to choose from. It was fun, but again, we decided to step back and give looking for a setting a small break. Gotta get this thing just right.

Before we headed home, we picked up a pepperoni and jalapeno pizza from the best pizza place in town. We ordered a medium, but they messed it up and accidentally made us a large instead. They only made us pay for the medium though, so we got some free pizza! Woo-hoo! :) Fat kids love them some free pizza. haha.

He had to go into work this afternoon so he could fly tonight. Hence, why I'm actually finding time to blog. I'm home alone & bored. haha. While he's been gone, I made a trip to Babies 'R Us and bought Kenna a pack & play playard. It's super cute and going to be very functional for us in all of our travels. Great for the grandparent's house! :)

That's pretty much the majority of what I did today. So far, it's been great! I just realized (because the bottle is sitting right next to me) that Chad & I have gone through 120 Tums (two big containers of them) since he got home 5 weeks ago. Talk about some serious heartburn! His is present most of the time & I'm hoping mine disappears when Kenna finally gets here. They work well though, plus they provide you with Calcium. :)

Well kids, I guess that's all for now. Sorry it was rather boring, but that's all I got. :) Better than nothing, right?! Hope everyone had a good Wednesday!

DONE!!! :)

2009-10-25T20:11:00.003-05:00

I officially finished Kenna's bassinet makeover today! It took me a LOT of work on this thing...and though it may look pretty easy from the outside, there's really another 3 pieces that aren't showing that had to be done and attached too. I'm quite impressed with myself on this project. It was quite a challenging one to take on for my second project with a sewing machine EVER. Chad & I are both really happy about how it turned out. And, though it's not perfect nor anywhere near perfect (luckily, you all can't see the small flaws from there :)), I think Kennady will really like it. Either way, I know it's wayyyy better than how it started! :) Check out this link to see the before & after pics:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31320161&l=a7bb873222&id=54100340

Now, I think I'm done sewing for a little while. Gotta let the brain juices rest for a bit. Maybe Christmas shopping is my next mission...OHHH DARN....! :) Hope all had a great weekend!

P.S. For some reason, blogger refuses to even react to me when I push the 'upload image' button. It allows me to do video, but no pictures. It's about to drive me crazy. Anyone else having this problem or know how to fix it?!

La-Di-Da...

2009-10-25T08:48:00.002-05:00

Well, first of all, I would like you to look to the right of this post at that crazy floating baby to notice that we are only 30 sweet days away from little Kenna's arrival!! We are so anxious! :)

When Chad came home from work early on Friday, we went out to go mess around town & to grab some dinner at the Olive Garden. Before we went to eat, he took me to a really nice jewelry store & surprised me with the prettiest stone I have ever seen. Turns out, while he was in Africa, he met a contact that helped him get his hands on some Tanzanite. If you don't know what Tanzanite is, it is an increasingly rare gemstone that is mined in Tanzania, Africa. When it comes out of the ground, it is a greenish-yellow color. But after it's treated and shaped, it turns into the prettiest of blues...and for a really good one, it turns a shade of purple. Well, for my 25th birthday & more importantly, as a 'thank you for having my baby' gift, Chad gave this gem to me to have set into a ring or pendant or whatever I want. I decided a ring since I could where it & show off Kennady's stone daily that way. We looked around at everything the store had, including through all of their magazines & found a beautiful setting for it. I haven't decided if it is for sure the one I'm going to go with because we are going to get it custom-made, but it's very exciting. My husband is so good to me. What a thoughtful & loving man he is. We don't spoil ourselves with expensive things very often, but it's nice to do every once in a while. Here is a picture of the beautiful 2.36 carat princess-cut Tanzanite...I love it! :) For some reason, my blogger picture uploader refuses to do anything...I guess you will have to go to the link to see it again. Sorry! :)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31318036&l=90953cf412&id=54100340

For the last couple of weeks, the wives from the guys Chad was on a crew with this last deployment have been trying to get a dinner date put together. Finally, we found a weekend when everyone could meet up. There were four couples & we ate homemade tacos for dinner. They were good. Chad also made his famous cherry pie for dessert. It was a hit & delicious! It was really nice to socialize with some people from around here. Sometimes we get so caught up and comfortable in our everyday lives that we don't reach out very much. There were four super-cute kids there too, so it was a good time.

I think I might spend the good part of either today or tomorrow trying to get our hospital bag together...just in case. I have read through the suggestions that 'What to Expect' gives, so that can get me started. But, I was wondering if any of you mommies have any suggestions on what I will want (for sure) in the room with me for pre-& post-delivery, for entertainment, or for comfort? Feel free to share.

We got a little surprise yesterday at about 11:00am. Chad & I were just getting done with our breakfast in our pj's & he was running himself a hot bath when all of a sudden our front door starts to unlock from the outside. Chad luckily noticed & got to spit out 'hold on just a second while we get a little more decent' before some people walked in. To explain this intrusion, I will tell you that we still have a realtor's box on our door handle for those that want to come and see it. It has the key in it & they thought it was still 'vacant' from the deployment time, so they just started to walk in. Luckily, I had disarmed the house alarm after I got up or else they would have had a really big, loud, and obnoxious entrance. Anywho, we got some clothes on real fast & walked out of the house for about 5 minutes while they toured the place. Of course, since we didn't know they were coming, the house looked 'lived in' & was sort of a mess, but it could have been a LOT worse! We don't know if anything will come of the 'showing', but it was nice to actually have someone over to look at it. Maybe God has something in store...??

It's a cloudy day outside, we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, & I'm getting close to being done with this bassinet project. The end may be near today! Yay! I'll keep you posted. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Sewing again...

2009-10-23T10:45:00.002-05:00

I don't have a lot to say, but I just thought I would let you guys know I'm still working hard on my sewing projects! I officially taught myself how to 'gather' and sew material so that it ruffles yesterday, so that was fun. I'm currently working on the bassinet makeover and it's looking very cute so far! I'll post before and after pics when I'm done.

Chad & I went on a tour of the hospital that we are delivering at this last Tuesday. It's a nice facility with really nice delivery suites. We got to see the nursery with all of the sweet new babies, the recovery rooms, & learned the process of our day when labor hits. Now we know where to park, how to get upstairs the fastest way, and that there are parking spaces for those already in labor in front of the hospital...just in case we need them. Good stuff.

Wednesday night we went to a breastfeeding class to learn all about it! Yes, I made Chad go with! I was instructed by many women that the husband should be there too so that they know what is expected of them & they also gain a better understanding of what's going on, how important it is, & the little tricks that I will surely need his help with in the beginning. It was very informational & though I was apprehensive about breastfeeding in the beginning of this pregnancy, I am now excited and ready to at least give it a good shake. If for whatever reason it doesn't go well, then I will be okay with that, but we're at least gonna try.

Welp, I'm trying to catch up on all of my Thursday night shows, so Private Practice here I come! :) Then on to sewing again. Also, YAY FOR FRIDAY! Hubs & I are dating it up tonight! :) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Texas-bound & lovin' it!

2009-10-20T11:11:00.002-05:00

Forgive my lack of posting lately. I feel like all I really have going on is this beautiful growing baby in my belly...and there's only so much I can say or blog about that won't bore you all. Ha.

But, Chad & I found out the best news ever yesterday! As many of you have probably already noticed on Facebook, we found out that we have received official orders to be restationed to Dyess AFB in Abilene! This is so great for us. We have been waiting and hoping to get this news for a couple of months now. It's our #1 pick for location, as my whole family lives right down the road about an hour and 20 minutes away. We also have some fam in Flower Mound which isn't far away either! Not to mention, that just being back in my homeland of Texas (the greatest state there is!) will be so refreshing & happy. Our report no later date is currently February 27th, so we just have a short 4 months left here in NC!

With that wonderfully short timeline, comes a couple more stresses for us. We have had our house listed on the market since late February. So far, we've had the equivalent of about 6 or 7 people that have come to look at it. We get good feedback from people every time it's shown, but we haven't had any biters at all...not even any nibbles. It's pretty frustrating because there are 8 other condos IN OUR COMPLEX ALONE that are either for sale or rent right now. We own this place so it's going to be a huge burden on us if we have to go to Texas still owning it...and trying to find a new house with a new loan all at the same time. Not to mention, our little girl is going to be here in a very short 5 weeks from today...if not sooner. Moving with a 3 month old will definitely be a challenging obstacle, but we're ready to take it on. I have tried my best to not stress over this house thing. We aren't against attempting to rent it out, but that's not a very attractive option either, considering we will be a good 5 states away and unable to monitor what happens here. Please, if you don't mind, think about sticking these little issues into your prayers at night for us. God has worked everything out in mine and Chad's existence just perfectly up until now, and I have full faith that He will continue to do so with this. But it never hurts to have your struggles and worries lifted up by your friends.

So, good news & worrisome news, but overall, the best thing that could possibly happen at this point in our lives! Texas, we're coming home to you! :)

Sewing Machine...that's what I am!

2009-10-12T21:06:00.004-05:00

This past Saturday, I finally gave into my inner-desire to purchase a real-life grown-up woman's sewing machine. It's a Brother LX-3125 Beginner sewster. It is the perfect machine for my skill level, because I have grown up watching my mother sew us bedding, outfits, & costume after costume. It was always so much fun to watch her create something neat out of a square piece of fabric. I've been everything from a genie, a witch, Raggedy Ann, a California raisin, all the way to Wilma Flintstone (and many things in between). She is currently working on Kennady's bedding for her crib & I am so excited about it. Now, I have a whole other appreciation for the hard work she is putting in! Sewing is definitely a trial & error process...especially when you don't have mommy right by your side to instruct you & prevent errors before they are made. I think she will probably leave me with quite a list of "do's & don't's" while she's here in November. It would be nice to not have to pay what Chad & I refer to as 'the stupid tax' when doing some of these projects. It would sure save a lot of time too!

After about 14 good hours of work, I managed to produce my very first product from the Brother LX-3125. Bear in mind that this is my first time to really use a sewing machine in it's entirety all by myself, so my finished piece is not perfect, but it's going to work and function just fine...and it looks pretty. :)

Chad & I were lucky enough to have a family from our squadron GIVE us their baby swing & bassinet for FREE. They are done building their family, so they didn't have any more use for them, so we gladly accepted their offering. I'm not a huge fan of Pooh & Friends (plus a few milk stains), so I decided that I would re-make the seat cover for the swing. My next project will be to re-make the dust ruffle & sheets for the bassinet. It's also going to be a challenging one, but fun. Plus, I figure...how judgmental can a baby really be about how good my construction is? haha. I'm sure Kenna will be take it pretty easy on me. ;)

Follow this link to see the BEFORE & AFTER pics of Kenna's swing & to see the awesome machine that made it all happen!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31299983&l=c58e8e9d9c&id=54100340

Hello 2-5!

2009-10-09T13:53:00.002-05:00

Well, today is my 25th birthday & I am taking it well. Though I did just realize that I'm a quarter of a century old, and that sounds terrible. Haha. At least I can feel good about what I've done up to now. I have graduated college, moved 5 states away from my family, gotten married, survived 4 deployments with my husband, & most importantly, we are soon to welcome our first little baby girl into the world. Life is gooooood at 25!

We have some plans to go out for dinner tonight & then we are going to see Couples Retreat, the new movie with Vince Vaughn. It looks really funny. Then, we are going to delve into the deliciousness of a strawberry double-layer cake with buttercream icing that my fabulous husband made for me last night. It's gonna be super-yummy! I've gotten a lot of fun and thoughtful birthday calls and texts today. It's been great so far...can't wait 'til tonight! :)

Home...

2009-10-06T14:18:00.002-05:00

Well, we are here. Back to NC, back to life lived together in our own home, back to normalcy. It feels nice. But, there are a lot of things we have to do to get ready for the next 6 weeks and that's quite overwhelming.

We had a great time in Texas & a VERY long ride home, but we made it. Orlando was beautiful & a lot of fun. Last weekend we were in Columbia, SC for the USC Gamecock football game with the whole Sellers clan. It was a good time and a lot of fun spending time with everyone. We tailgated for 6 hours before the game started, so things got a little crazy.

I went to the doc yesterday for my 33 weeks check-up. Everything is still looking great. I have gained about 17 pounds now which is right on where I should be. Kennady is super-duper active these days, making it difficult to sleep at night. It seems she stays asleep throughout the day, only to play during the night. I guess she's getting me used to the sleep schedule she's probably going to have when she finally gets here. Ha. The doc recommended that I go ahead and get a flu shot, just to be safe, so I did. It was my first one ever, so I didn't realize it would make my shoulder so sore. I tried sleeping on that side last night & didn't like it. Hopefully the soreness will subside by tonight. Kenna is approximately 4 pounds and around 19 inches long at this point. And as she grows, Chad & I just get more and more excited for her arrival. We can't wait (but will :)) for her to be here!

Sorry this is a boring post, but I guess it's better than nothing, right? I'll come back to this later. Gotta get something productive done before the hubby gets home. :)

Today is the day!

2009-09-22T00:10:00.002-05:00

What a wonderful day today is going to be! It starts out with an 8:00am morning prenatal massage, goes to a fun mani-pedi date with my grandmother, the Tahoe's oil gets changed at a discounted rate (cuz Tuesday is 'ladies' day'), & most importantly, my wonderful hubby returns to my arms again! And as if all of that wasn't good enough...we're going to Taco Tuesday at Rosa's for dinner to top the evening off right...it's a fabulous day! :)

Now, I have to go to sleep so all of the festivities can get here even faster! :) Good night, moon!

The 'To Do' List is daunting...

2009-09-16T00:00:00.003-05:00

Well, my hubby is officially getting on a plane as I am typing this, to return his cute little butt to the states. It's going to take them a couple of days to get back here, but the trek has begun! Woo-hoo! :)

Since he is soon to be here, I have quite a few things on my list to get done prior to him doing so. Like to hear it, here it goes:

*Service the Tahoe from everything including: getting the oil changed, getting the tires check, armor-all-ing the entire inside, & vacuuming & washing it to make it look like new again.

* Begin the bumper pad/sheets/pillow making process with my beloved mommy, the seamstress for Kennady. :) We have some serious work to knock out this weekend! :)

* Pack all of my ridiculous belongings & pray that they fit into the car. I haven't worn some of the clothes I brought with me in like 3 months. I'm kinda sad I even brought them. Just more to pack! Ugh!

* Gather baby belongings & pack them tightly. I figure it will be like a baby Christmas at our house when we 'unpack' all of our fun toys for Kennady! We are so blessed!

* Get another prenatal massage done on Friday evening after work...yum.

* Get my 'locks highlighted, trimmed, & styled this Saturday...I love salon days.

* Treat myself to a mani-pedi in prep for our maternity pictures...and for my wonderful returning hubby to enjoy too, of course ;)! It's really for you babe, I promise. Hehe.

* Turn Chad's 2nd cell phone back on (yes, he is a brat and has 2...don't ask ;)).

* Get our mail forwarded back to NC...(I forgot what day I set it to stop coming to TX...hmm).

* Write a couple more thank you notes to a few gift-givers I appreciate so much!

I know that isn't all, but I'm actually starting to fall asleep thinking about how much I have to do in the next 6 days. It's daunting, but so exciting! I'll come back to this later with more, I'm sure! :) Good night for now...

The 30-weeker...only 10 more to go! :)

You're so Crafty...:)

2009-09-13T01:28:00.002-05:00

Mom & I had some fun today. First, we went to a baby shower for a girl we know who is expecting a sweet little surprise (they aren't finding out the sex) in October. It was fun to watch someone else get to open and enjoy all kinds of fun baby stuff!

We then grabbed some lunch at McAlister's (yum) & hit up Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Ross, & Wally-World for some fun fabric, ribbon, & burp cloths. I then came home & started to paint Chad's 'welcome home' sign that I always have present at the airport with me when he gets here (mostly because I know it embarrasses him & I like to make them, ha). He tends to smile through it & 'appreciates' them as best he can. Hehe. It's so sweet. The one I made this time is so cute, though I can't post pictures just in case he actually reads this thing. It would be shocking if he did, but it would also be the one time he decides to, cuz that's just how these things go sometimes. I'll be sure to post pics after he gets to see it though.

I haven't QUITE decided on Ken(n)ady's (name spelling or) bedding/room decor just yet, but I'm thinking it will probably just all come together. Mom & I are going to make a bumper pad & some crib sheets out of some cute material we found today, but I still need to go out and purchase the extra pieces to go with it. I'm leaning towards an understated 'beachy' theme in it's simplistic form...not cheesy in other words. Lots of blue, red, brown, beige, & some yellow. Kind of sounds weird on paper, but I'll eventually post some pictures of the quilt that is the inspiration & of how it turns out. If all fails, it's really just the functionality of it that matters, right?! I mean...seriously. :)

Well, I guess that's all for now. I wanna give a shout out to the Big Man above for all of the much appreciated & refreshing rain He has sent down to us these past 4 days! I love it! :)

What's on the mind these days...

2009-09-10T23:25:00.003-05:00

Well, numero uno would have to be the glorious return of my wonderful hubby in just about 11 days. He actually gets to the states in 7 days, but I won't get to see him until a little after that. Can't wait for him to be here though...and he still hasn't really 'seen' prego belly now that it has turned pregnant. Ha. He's gonna love it! :)

I have been feverishly searching for creative and out-of-the-box maternity picture ideas/poses to do for when the Cozart's take our picture in a couple weeks. There are some cute ones that I've found that I will probably 'steal', but I am totally open to any suggestions you may have!

Sissy-in-law hairdresser K.K. is going to color my hair next weekend, so I've been trying to figure out what we should do with it so that it's low-maintenance (and by that I mean that I won't have to go get it done by anyone until after Kenady is born in November). You all know I love being a blonde, though my 'root' color (some call that their 'natural' color, haha) is really a darker ash blonde...almost light brown. I'm thinking I might go with that color all over and then have her do some fun lowlights with blonde & other fun colors(so the new growth is hidden underneath). What do you guys think? Shall I be brave and go 'brunette' again? It's been a while...

Here I am about 3 years ago with my darker locks. Tell me your honest opinion of what you think I should do. I figured holding a baby girl would give you all a good idea of what I will look like come November, haha. That's our little cousin Landry when she was about 7 months old. So cute!

Besides that stuff, I am soon (probably this weekend) to paint Chad a 'welcome home' sign like I always do...but this one's gonna be super-cute! I hope it turns out...I'll share pics of it with you after he gets home.

I guess that's all I really have. Not much happening around these parts. I suppose I could start the packing process (cuz everyone knows I hate it). There's a lot of packing to do, that's for sure! Adios for now! :)

Premium Meme Award

2009-09-07T22:44:00.003-05:00

I got this blog award from my friend Shyanne. I have to list 7 traits about myself and pass this award onto 7 other friends.

1. I am an avid and self-trained shopper and bargain finder, though thankfully (says our pocket books), I'm not a compulsive spender. I enjoy browsing the stores so I know what they have for times when I need specific items & have to know where to go to find them. It's a healthy habit, but sometimes hard on the feet & most of the time hard to keep the hubby interested & by my side throughout the shopping trip. As he says, "she has to touch everything in the store...", lol. Sometimes that's true. ;)
2. I love to spend time with my family, doing all things from just sitting around, dancing, playing washers, eating, having game-nights, or staying up until 3:00am like last night throwing down some serious Spades.
3. I think I was put on this earth to be a mommy (that's not the only thing, but definitely the most important one from now on! :)). I can't wait 'til she's here & in our arms.
4. I have a love for all pictures & picture-related projects. Photography is definitely something I enjoy & can spend hours working on at a time.
5. I enjoy classy events like dinners, dances, weddings, & reunions. Something about dolling up is enjoyable & girly...which I look forward to, on occasion. :)
6. Traveling is a major part of mine & Chad's life. We love to see new things, visit new places, & make lasting & special memories everywhere life leads us.
7. I am a sucker for all things chocolate or sugary...& I have the cavities to prove it. Ha.

I am going to tag: Cassandra, Emily, Laura, Leah, Courtney, Sarah M., & Sarah L.

I win!

2009-09-06T15:06:00.002-05:00

I found out a couple days ago that I won the free session of picture-taking from Cozart Photography & I'm SOOO excited about it. For one, I never win anything, so it feels good to break that streak...and for two, I have been toying with the idea of getting maternity pictures done while we are still here in Texas, so this works out perfectly! I wouldn't want anyone else but Laura & Slade to take them for me (or you too, Cassandra...but you're in AR, ugh! ha.) Even though I'll probably post some of the pictures on here, getting maternity pictures is a slightly more personal process than any regular photo shoot, so I like that I'm so comfortable with them. It'll make for a fun experience & daddy Chad will be here to share in it with me! Yay! That's all I have for now! If you haven't already, check out their most recent work on their Cozart Photography site.

Thanks Laura & Slade! :)

Heaven Awaits Me...

2009-09-03T23:34:00.002-05:00

I'm not talking about the Heaven we all know exists above, but the heaven that I am taken to when a professionally trained & strong set of hands set themselves to rubbing out & readjusting every muscle in my body. And that's what I get to enjoy after work tomorrow evening. I finally made myself a much-needed and desperately deserved (haha) massage appointment & I CANNOT wait for 6:00 tomorrow to roll around. This will of course be my first prenatal massage, so I'm a little interested to see how the methods & techniques will be different from the traditional deep tissue ones that I love so much. Either way, it's going to be 90 minutes of pure bliss. YAY!

I just laughed at myself because I looked down & saw a mosquito (not cool!) trying to 'get me' through my shirt. So, I lightly smacked my belly to kill the darned thing (and missed it unfortunately). I guess that was one of the first of millions of times I'm going to 'swat away' anything that tries to 'get' my little Kenady. My motherly instincts have set in, ya'll. :) Ha.

p.s. I just KILLED the stupid mosquito...Mother prevails! :)

Craziness...

2009-09-02T11:22:00.002-05:00

Well, I have not quite bounced back from my 'not keeping up with this thing' bad habit, but I'm trying.

This past Thursday I drove to Abilene to see my bestie Elya & her husband John. I got to spend the night with them & have some good, quality time sitting on the back porch with El that night. Friday, she went to work for the day, so I slept in, played on the computer, went to Kohl's to see what I could find, & refilled my sweet tea at Chick-Fil-A twice. :) I also went driving around for a little bit to browse at some housing developments. I ironically found myself looming around the Country Club by accident & was LOVING me some of those crazy-beautiful houses...of course. :) Some of us just have really good taste. Though, the pocket book probably won't be liking that flavor when next spring eventually rolls around. So, I kept driving. Once Elya got off of work, we packed up the car and headed our pretty little hiney's up to Lubbock to surprise our 3rd musketeer bestie, Nicole. She had NO IDEA we were coming...it was awesome. We planned it all to where her and her sister Kyla would be at a hibachi grill restaurant & that we would walk in and shock the crap out of her. It worked! She was ecstatic to see us. It had been since '04 since we had made that trip together, so it was a much-needed one. We ate some yummy food, headed home & just chilled for the evening catching up on life and girl chats. It was refreshing.

Saturday we woke up late, grabbed some lunch at the Olive Garden, went shopping at World Market & the Super Target, & watched Serendipity at the house. For dinner we grabbed a pizza & some beverages & headed to the awesome drive-in theater they have there. It's $6 a person, but you get 2 movies & a fun experience, so it's a great deal. We saw the Time Traveler's Wife & the next one that came on was District 9 (which is some creepy movie about giant grasshopper-looking aliens that invade the world & are forced into quarantine by the government) that WE DID NOT stick around for. It lasted a whole 5 minutes before I asked "why are we still here?" & got the quick response of "we have no idea...", so we packed it up and headed home. We played the Wii for a couple of hours & then sat and talked until 4:45 in the morning. CRAZY! Me & Kenady haven't been up that late in I don't know how long! So, needless to say, Sunday morning rolled around and we didn't get up until about 11:30...though it would have been 2:00pm if I was in complete control, haha. We grabbed a quick lunch at McAlister's before we headed back to Abilene. Upon our return, Elya & I decided we should go drive around for a little while again to find a couple more attractive neighborhoods (to make my silly habit of real estate searching much easier), so we did. Then, I dropped her off at church & hit the road back home to SA-town. It was an awesome and relaxing weekend with my ladies. I love them so much!

I had my 28-week appointment with the doc yesterday. Everything is right on track. I have only gained about 14 pounds from my post-throwing-up weight, but I have been told that's not the one I go by. My grandma (who was a registered nurse & has delivered 1,000's of babies) said that I'm supposed to go by my weight before I lost the pounds during the first trimester. So, I guess I've really only gained about 9 pounds to this point. They are beginning to feel like they are packing on though, so I will most likely be in the perfect range of 25-30 pounds gained by the time Kena makes her debut. Appointments will now start occurring every 2 weeks instead of every 4, so that's kind of fun. That means we're getting CLOSER!! :) The only crappy part of the appt. yesterday was that they took my blood to check for Anemia. I hate needles. Therefore, I wasn't very happy about that. But, I was a big girl and I got good results back saying my blood count was normal & all of that fabulous jazz.

Kenady has been doing some SERIOUS gymnastics, boxing, or soccer playing in there lately. I can feel her totally change positions. Either her shoulder or her butt will push out on my stomach & I can watch it go by. It's so weird, but cool! She's at 2.5 pounds & about 15 inches long from head to toe. We are already so smitten by her too!

I had a dental cleaning this morning. I TOTALLY dread the dentist too, so I wasn't all that thrilled to go. The cleaning was great though & my teeth feel all fresh and new. There were a couple problem teeth (which I ALWAYS expect, because I have never gone and left without at least 1 cavity...bad genes, not my fault) so that totally stinks. Plus, they can't do the 'work' on them until after Kennady is here, so it will be at least Christmas, if not next spring when I get to get them done. Yippee.

Well, I have some errands to run, so I'll try to keep this posting thing up to par. Thanks for reading! Hope everyone survives hump day! Adios!

Watch out for Bullets!

2009-08-27T00:35:00.002-05:00

I thought this bullet post would be fitting for tonight to catch you up on what's happenin' in our world lately:

* I bought a ticket for my hubby to come & see me in Texas upon his return to the States & if all goes well & as planned, he should be back in my arms in just a short 29 days from now! Woo-hoo! :) <-- Happy Wife!
* I have my next baby belly appointment on Sept. 4th which is coming up soon! Yay! (I only wish they did another ultrasound so I could see my sweet girl again...:( she's so pretty. )
* My time lately has been filled with 4-hour work spurts & memory book updates. I'm really trying my best to get a hold & control of all that is going on in our lives & man is it tough to keep up! Hah.
* My most recent project to tackle has been our 2-year overdue Wedding Album...IT WILL BE FINISHED BEFORE CHAD GETS HOME...(or at least that's what I'm telling myself :)).
* We are planning on going to a USC Gamecock football game the first weekend in October & hubs is SOOO stoked about it. I've been searching for a maternity Gamecock shirt that I like, but I'm having trouble finding one. Maybe I'll just have to get creative & make one happen on my own! I love that football season has already kicked off again! The fall is fabulous.
* I have officially decided to commit myself to the nearest addiction house to receive help overcoming my habits to eat at Rosa's 3+ times a week. Chad has pointed out to me (from evidence left on our debit card statement) that I may have issues...but I really think it's just him being homesick for some homemade tortillas & yummy frijoles! Ha. If Kenady comes out looking even a slight bit of Mexican, I know exactly what to blame. :)
* I finally figured out by doing a simple Google search last night how to successfully delete 'cookies' off of my computer & like magic, the system works so much faster! It's awesome!
* I am guilty of jumping the gun & getting online to search housing in A-town already, even though we haven't completely received our full & definite orders from there just yet. Haha. But, it's so fun to look! :) Can we tell how excited we are to get back to Tejas, the land of everything wonderful?!
* I have a new great-nephew that is due to pop out of his momma & into this world verrrry soon. He's due Sept. 3rd, but I don't know if he will wait that long. I can't wait to meet little Sutton! :)
* I'm considering doing a super-cute and colorful Beach-themed room for little Kenady. I have some really cute and fun ideas, but may need to make some bedding myself. I guess I should probably get on that while I'm here with my quasi-seamstress of a mommy & her lean, mean sewing machine.
* Hubs is stuck in Africa for another 5 or 6 days where the communication is shotty & calls come rather sparingly & I don't like it. (insert pout face here)
* I can't believe that baby-countdowner to my right is sitting at less that 90 days now. CRAZY, but so extremely exciting! :)

I guess that's all of my ramblish (rambling & gibberish mixed) for now. I hope everyone is having a fantabulous week thus far! :)