Mini-Adirondack

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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!!