Another year....

Today I am 27....way too close to 30!!  Gosh it seems like yesterday I was a little college freshman.  I have really had to do some growing up since then!  This morning one of the best people ever took me and Lilly out for breakfast.  Just what I needed.  Love, love you Michelle!  I can not believe where I am in my life right now.  My beautiful baby, my Lord, it amazes me every single day that this little lady grew inside me and now is such a little pistol.  I am thankful, so thankful, for what I have.  I never thought at 27 that I would be married with a two year old, but I wouldn't want it any other way.  I'm proud of myself too, so happy birthday to me!  At 27, I must say that I have so many loves, people who genuinely love me.  This year i've decided is going to be great, hopefully the best yet.  I love you all....

Change of heart.

I have decided not to go private for now.  I just really don't think it's necessary at this point, may change my mind again though, I have been known to do that.

On another note, I have finished my Fall wreath and garland.  I think it looks great!  I found this orange and white polka dot ribbon at Hobby Lobby in the Halloween stuff and I am obsessed with it!!  How adorable!  I snagged up three rolls and would really put bows all over my house if I could.   Also, the ribbon in the garland with the pumpkins on it is from the Dollar Tree!  Great find!  I have started working on my planters but they will be awhile since I don't want to buy pumpkins right now.  Here's some pics....

I think it looks really good!  The D is actually a taupe, it looks silver, but it's not.  Can't do silver for fall in my opinion.  I love it!!!   My sister is hopefully making me a fab Halloween wreath for my birthday so I can swap this one for that for a while.  Now yesterday it was so cool and breezy, perfect weather....today mid-80s.  What a tease!  All you OSU fans go snag this ribbon....how cute for football parties!

New moment.

I have always feared, being a mom, that I will forget all of these moments that I long to keep forever.  There are so many, every single day it seems like, I know I will forget so many, and that's one of the reason's why I blog....to remember.  I just had one of those moments with Lilly that I pray I will always remember.  She was just sitting next to me on the couch, all snuggly in her jammies, with wet hair and she smelled like a little angel.  We were just sitting watching a little Blue's Clues and she looked over at me and winked and just said "mommmmmmyyyyyyyyyyy."  I wish I could describe it better, but the look on that sweet little face just melted my heart.  Then she told me about her day at school and what she did and what she ate today.  She just looked like a little piece of heaven, so sweet, so innocent.  She was clinging onto her blankie and had her sippy and was just sitting there having this conversation with me.   My little two year old....can't believe it.  Tonight we just hung out with our neighbors and it was just nice catching up.  Our neighbor who we don't know that well brought out her little yellow lab pup named Sophie, so cute.  Lilly looooooooves puppies!  Then our other neighbors came out with their two girls, who are much older than Lilly, but tonight I was watching and I felt like Lilly was almost one of the big girls.  She has always seemed so little, but they were talking to each other, understanding each other.....she will be their age before I know it!  Here's some pics from this evening.  I just bought her this dress at TJ Max today and it is enormous on her!  Maybe it is mismarked, but she insisted on wearing, with the boots of course....

Can't forget her backpack!  These are the best for toddlers because they are so tiny!  She looooves it!

Chasing Dottie, which resulted in....

The boo boo.....

So we sprinkled our boo boo with Dora's magic juice (neosporin) and she got two Dora band aids.

Then we pouted for a while and got some mommy love on the kitchen floor.  Can't you tell she's thrilled, pitiful face....

Then we got all cute again, and got tough and went back out!

And we were happy!

Hump day....

Today I woke up with a splitting headache and a crabby baby, hopefully neither of us is getting all these bugs that are going around.  However, today is going to be such a fun day because it is this big man's 2nd birthday....

Happy birthday Ryder Man!!  We love you, especially your lover lady Lilly poo....

I still can not believe all our babes are turning two!   Where has the time gone, I feel like it's slipping away from me so quickly.  Lilly has been very difficult lately with the terrible twos, but each day she gives me that love that I cherish.  Hopefully her party invites are going to be in today so we can start planning for that!  This big man is going to Chucky Cheese tonight and is having a little party on Saturday as well.  Of course we wouldn't miss either for the world!

On a totally random note, my cousin's girlfriend Lauren has introduced me to probably the greatest invention to women's clothing yet.  Ladies, I am talking about the "jegging."  Yes, that is the actual word for this little piece of Heaven, but here is a pic of my new best friend....

I have these in black and I am about to get them in denim.  They are basically jean leggings, hence the jegging.  That means they have an elastic waistband, but still have the cute pockets of a jean.  Could these not be more perfect for football season with all the dips and fatty foods we put into our bodies?  If I were you, I would run to Forever 21 and pay the $19.50 for these wonders.  Such a steal!  Oh, and they stretch out a lot, so go a size smaller.

Oh Fall, how I love you!

Today in North Texas folks, it was 65 degrees!  Yes, it did rain for half the day and it was quite gloomy, but it gave me a little taste of the upcoming beauty that is fall!  Fall is my most favorite time of the year by far!  It is kind of a small obsession for me actually.  I love Halloween, I love costumes, I love the colors, the candy, the turkey, the smells....ok now im hungry....anyways, I love, LOVE it all!!!  However, since Clint and I have only been married three years, we have yet to really build a huge collection of holiday decor for each season.  Of course we have a lot for Christmas, we got married on New Years Eve so we got a lot of ornaments and holiday goodies.  Today, Clint went up to the attic and there was just one lonely bin that was labeled FALL.  Booooooooorrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggggggggg.  I have put up the stuff we already have but frankly, I really want it to look like fall puked all over my house.  Is that wrong?  NO!  Now that we have Lilly girl, I really want to get her excited too.  Growing up my parents would have huge Halloween parties with scary music and food and candy, also some fun for the adults with special beverages, HA!  I can not wait for those kind of parties in my house.  Lilly is obviously too little and really doesn't have a friend base per say, so this year is going to be low key.  We have already started the tradition of eating Chili before the dads take the kiddos out trick or treating.  The mommies stay behind and pass out treats....awwww, cant wait.

OK, so I wanted to show you my outside decor from last year.  I have some great ideas for this year, which I will share too.  I'm not crazy about last year.  I liked the garland around the door, but that's about it.  I have had my hot pink and lime green peonies up since April I believe, so I ripped those down with joy.  Here's 2008....

Ummmm, Blah blah, need some adjusting that's for sure.  I'm thinking of putting in some leopard ribbon to the garland and adding this to the wreath...

Adorable!  I thought I would do the "D" in black and white toile to match my black and white damask pillows on my outdoor bench.  If that doesn't work, which is likely to happen, it will maybe be gold?  I have two white urns on my front door that I usually fill with pumpkins and big leaves and put bows around, but this year maybe this....

Maybe do something with xmas lights instead.  As for this huge space next to my door, this is what I did last year...

OK, awful pic.  I swear it was way cuter than this pic with the dying mums and all.  I jazzed it up a whole lot after this but I liked the finished product.  I thought it would be cute to take foam balls, all different sizes and put fake mums in them.  Kind of like "mum orbs" make sense?  i thought with reds, oranges, and yellows that would look super cute.

So, have I blabbed enough about my love and obsession?  I will take pics of Molly's Fall 2009, no worries!  Oh, and Pixi bought Lilly her Halloween costume.  Wouldn't be my first pic, but Lilly is obsessed.  As long as she's happy....

Just found this....besides the fact that Lilly is Emma's mini-me, look how fun!!  Is it wrong that 20 years later i'm still making similar outfits like this for my daughter?  No, I didn't think so either.  Maybe we should get Lilly's hair cut like this, that would be frightening scary similar.  Even Clint's grandmother, bless her heart - she's so dear, who doesn't even know Emma thinks it's uncanny.  I'll take it, Emma was one cute kiddo!

P-U Lilly's got some stiiiiiiiiinky piggies, and other fun stuff.

Lilly thinks she is absolutely HILARIOUS when I ask her to smell her piggies and I make a big deal about how stinky they are!  It is too, too cute!!!  Here are some pics..

Is she not the cutest!!!???  Let me tell you, sometimes her cute little mary janes do give her some pretty stiiiiiinky piggies!!  HA!!
This weekend we traveled north to go through the mighty Arbuckles to take our Lilly to Arbuckle Wilderness.  We thought, hey, it's a nice day, lets go up there and give Lilly a new zoo experience.  Clint  and I also got to stop at our favorite catfish place ever too, so it was definitely a great day for all!

Of course, we forgot our camera.  So all we had were our lousy iphone cameras.  Still, look at the sweet daddy love this little girl has!  We were stopped looking at the rhinos so we let her crawl over and play driver.  She thought that was pretty much the deal.

So Lilly's new fav animal are rhinos.  You would think that with her love of bunnies she may lean toward something soft and fuzzy, not a yucky rhino, but whatever.  Daddy got her a little stuffed one that she is now attached to.  When you ask her to say rhino, she responds in this weird, frankly very frightening growl, "RRRHHHIIIINNNOOO!!!!"  It's pretty scary, its like from the pits of her stomach.  Maybe she thinks they growl like a tiger, it's hilarious!

She clearly wanted back into the driver's seat.....it was a great day!

Tonight for dinner I made creamy taco salad, turned out super yummy and Clint even liked it!  He's more of a meat eater, not so much for greens but he liked this one a lot.  Here's a shortened version of the recipe.

1 pound ground turkey meat, browned
1 taco seasoning pack, follow directions on pack
1/2 bottle fat free thousand island dressing (it's pretty sweet, I used about 1/4 bottle)
1 can drained and rinsed light red kidney beans

Cook the turkey and add the taco seasoning and water as directed.  Add the beans and dressing and let simmer for a few minutes.  Top with all your fav taco salad stuff....tomato, avocado, cheese....etc.

***You can also use beef or chicken.  I've never liked ground turkey in taco salad but decided to give it another go and this was great.  Can't wait for the leftovers tomorrow!  YUM!

My baby bunny.

My precious baby bunny.  I can't believe that you are already 23 months old.  Where has by baby gone?  You love your bunny towel, big bunny, little bunny....you are such a sweetie with all your bunny love.  I found these pics, I love them all.  Here you are at 4 months....

And at 8 months...

Look at those sweet piggies...

And at 23 months, my little ball of energy.

I'm so excited for your second birthday, but my goodness you are growing up too fast.  You have so many people who LOVE you, we can't wait to watch you grow and grow and grow.....and hopefully every step will include all your bunny love.  :-)

Going private.

As of next week I am taking my blog private.  I hate to do this because I think I connect with a lot of moms out there who love sharing stories and having support of each other.  However, it is necessary.  I am giving it until next Friday.  If you like my blog, whether I know you or not, please email me in my profile and I will add you.
Again, I think this is the best thing to do for my family.

I found this quote, which means a lot to me today.

"Give me, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give me an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give me an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside."
-Thomas Aquinas

Photos for Pixi!!

Since Pixi's birthday was on the 13th, my sister, Lilly and I all decided to take some super cute pics to show her how much we love her and how she is the best pixi ever!!  She loved them and they really turned out beautiful!  I must say, that it is going to be difficult to get a good family pic this year because Lilly is constantly moving and busy!  She was all over the place just enjoying the sunshine and cool air!  I loved this outfit I made her, some of Pixi's favorite colors!  Here are a few that I love and i'm going to frame in our house!

Simply precious of our little angel baby!  I can not believe that Lilly is almost 2!!  We are planning a small birthday party with a few friends and family coming up soon.  Should be fun!  It is such an amazing miracle every day how much this little life has brought such huge blessings.  She really is such a doll and finally, we are getting a hold on these terrible, terrible twos.  We still have our moments but thankfully I have great people in my life who understand what it is like to have a two year old!  Challenging but so amazing.  Love this age!!
I'll post later with updates from last weekend when I get some pics.  I think this weekend, Clint, Lilly and I are going to spend some good quality time together.  We have both been out of town for work and baby showers, parties, etc.  It will be nice to relax and spend time all together again!  Doesn't the fair open soon?  Lilly would love that!!

Congrats!!

This is my cousin Jason, and his wonderful wife Michelle, who just happens to be a dear friend of mine as well.  I love these two with all my heart and I could not be happier to share the news that they are expecting their first little baby love!  Michelle is holding Lilly when she was a week old, but isn't she a natural?  And Jason, so attentive....ahhh, love these two!   I am thinking boy, but a healthy boy or girl is top.  Congrats you two, you will make great parents and I can't wait to see how wonderful this journey will be!

Mother's Day Out!

This morning was Lilly's first day of "school" and it started off a little rocky.  She new something was up when I woke her up at 8, which I never do, and she got a little fussy and clingy.  We loaded up and got to school where it was a chaotic mess and all the kids were screaming and being handed off to their teachers.  I handed Lilly over and stood there and minute and they told me to go and hurry at it.  I felt awful!!!  It's kind of like ripping off a band aid, better to just do it quick!  So anyways I dropped her off and headed to the gym, came home and showered, then did a little shopping.  Oh, it was nice.  No fits, no snacks, no whining, it was nice taking my time and browsing.  Sooooo nice....

Here's all her stuff in the car ready to go!  

Last night we made this cute little poster for her to hang in her classroom.  The teachers just want you to do it in case they get a little sad.  We even included a pic of her lover man!

So....the end result?  She did PERFECT!!!!  Her teachers said she was one of the best in the class and was a ton of fun.  She even napped for 45 min!  Crazy, I know, considering this is the child who may have the worst case of stranger danger/ separation anxiety i've ever seen!  I'm so proud and think she is really going to love it.  Maybe at Winter break she could even move to two days a week if someone drops.  I must admit that this is kind of bittersweet for me.  I realized last night that although this is just MDO, she will always be in school from now on.  Every year she will be moving up and eventually will be five days a week.  It's so exciting, but also kind of heartbreaking that my baby is getting so big.  Such a little lady!