Mattie turns 6!

Our little Mattie-girl turned six years old on the sixth of this month.  Unbelievable.  Will my heart ever make peace with the passage of time?  I think no. 

Her birthday was on a Tuesday, and then we had her party that following Saturday.  But, these pictures are completely backwards and all jumbled up and I'm too tired to fix them....which sort of makes them a metaphor for my life.

This is what ended up being the cakes for Mattie's party. 

Not what I had originally planned, but does a party ever come off without a hitch?  The ones I throw certainly don't.  Mattie originally wanted a "rainbow" themed party, and the cake idea that we agreed upon was to have cupcakes frosted in a rainbow of colors, and then arrange those cupcakes in a rainbow shape.  This was completely doable and even easy in my mind, and it would've ended up looking something like this (picture via pinterest):

 But the day before the party she told me she decided she hated that idea and instead wanted an actual cake with a rainbow made out of frosting.  Long story short, I burned the cake the night before the party, and it had to go in the trash, and I ended up at Walmart at 7:00am and had to buy 3 of their bakery cakes and come home and paint the rainbows on them myself, finishing *just* before we had to leave to get to the party.  So, so, so very typical of my life!

Mattie had her heart set on having her birthday party at our local gym's swimming pool.  It is a great party spot, but not the cheapest, so we told her we would do this, but the party was her gift from us (mean parents, ha!), and she was all for it!  I went really light (weak!) on decorations and just had a banner from The Dollar Tree and tableware in rainbow colors...she loved it! 

The present table....we are currently working through writing thank you notes for this haul of gifts:

Mattie opening:

Group pic of all the kids at the party.  We were thankful for a great turnout and so many friends there!

Blowing out SIX candles....I can't get over it. 

I took this picture because in all the hustle and bustle of slicing and handing out cake to 20+ kids, I lost track of Presley for a second....when I looked up, she had found a spot at the table right in the middle of Mattie's friends.  She thinks all of Mattie's friends are her friends too....and they are all very sweet to her:

OK, now back up a few days to the actual day of Mattie's birthday, which was Tuesday, March 6th.  I wanted to do something fun for her so that her actual day felt special to her, so after she fell asleep the night before her birthday, I hung baloons in her doorway , and in the doorway leading into our living room, and above our kitchen table.  I cannot say enough how easy this way but what a HUGE deal it was to her....she thought it was the greatest thing ever and felt very special when she woke up...goal acheived!  I will now have to do this for Presley in October, and for both girls birthdays from now on, that's how much they loved it. 

We had spaghetti at my parent's house that night,and I made her a little cake to have there.  Here's a pic of her blowing out six candles....we were Face-Timing w/ my sister at the time, so she actually took the pic:

Mattie's party invite:

And here's my six year old.  So, so proud of what a precious girl she is.  Hands down the smartest, cutest, funniest, sweetest, most adorable six year old I've ever known, and to think she belongs to me just blows my mind.  Blessed, blessed mama am I.

Valentine's Day 2012

The girls had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday....lots of fun, sweets, and partying, which is what makes all kids happy, right? Here some pics of our festivities.

I saw this Valentine idea of Pinterest a while back and thought it was so cute and thought I'd give it a try. This was SO, SO super easy and cheap (about $2.50 for the prints and $2 for the suckers), and Mattie absolutely loved them. I was kinda thinking they were the cutest thing ever, and then I started seeing all this backlash on blogs and facebook about mom's who do too much on holidays to make themselves look better, and you should let your kid do their own valentine's, and blah blah blah. To all that chatter I say, this is the fun part of being a mom to me. Did Mattie hand make these all by herself? No. Did she help? Yes. When I told her the idea, did she love it, and then when she saw the finished product, did she say "best valentine's ever, mom!"? YES! So, whatever....we liked them. Mattie would hand out signed headshots of herself if it were up to her, so this was kind of a version of that.

On Sunday, we decorated a box for Mattie to take to school for all her Valentine's to go in. Lots of fun, and I let her pull out whatever she wanted to use from my craft stash, and I expected it to look pretty hodge-podgy, but she's got some decor ability about her, I think!

I had to take a picture of the card Mattie made for her teacher because I thought it was so sweet. We have been blessed with what is the absolute best Kindergarten teacher to ever walk the planet, and Mattie absolutely adores her:

The inside is what I thought was so precious, ha!:

These are the cookies I made for her class party...another Pinterest inspiration:

I ended up having to take Presley with me to Mattie's class party. Not my ideal situation, but it turned out OK. Mattie was so thrilled to have her there, and Presley felt like such a big girl. She begs me to take her in Mattie's school ALL the time, and she knows Mattie's teacher, so she felt like she was one of the students for an hour yesterday.

We finished our day with daddy bringing home balloons and candy for both girls, and we had a very routine, nothing-fancy dinner, BUT, I turned off the kitchen lights, and we lit candles on the table, so we had what Mattie calls a "Candle-Night Dinner". And daddy did bathtime even though it wasn't his turn, which is about the most romantic thing I could have asked for. Hope everyone enjoyed Valentine's Day!

Pocahontas

Last week Mattie participated in her school's History Parade. I was the proudest mama ever! This was not a required activity, completely voluntary, but Mattie really wanted to do it, and she could not have performed better. She really suprises me sometimes because she can be so shy and bashful, but give her an opportunity to get on a stage, and she's all over it!

We debated long and hard about what character from history she should portray, and finally we decided upon Pocahontas. Mattie loves Pocahontas and we had a Native American costume that I was able to alter to fit her, so this worked perfect!

Next we had to come up with a "speech". Mattie is my first child to go to kindergarten, and I have never been to the History Parade before, so I had no idea exactly how much of a "speech" we should prepare for her. Should it be long, should it be short....I had not idea! So I wrote up a brief Pocahontas life summary and we set about memorizing it over the next week.

On the day of the History Parade, Mattie was nervous, but she had an awesome costume and she knew her speech inside and out, so I kept reminding her of those things, and she ended up doing SO GOOD!

Here's my little Indian girl:


Mattie was about the sixth child to go in the parade, and every kid before her just got up on stage, and said who they were, and walked off. No speeches! I worried for a second that Mattie would panic and do the same, but she walked up and did her whole speech, and I almost levitated out of my chair I was so proud!

Here is her speech, which I'm putting here mainly so I can remember it:

Hi, My name is Pochahontas.
I was born in Virginia in 1595.
When I was a young girl, settlers came to my area.
A man named John Smith was taken prisoner by my people.
But I saved his life!
After that I visited Jamestown frequently, and became friends with the settlers there,
and there was peace during this time.
Later, I moved to England, and I died there with small pox in 1617.

Obviously, there is much more to Pochantas' life, but we were trying to hit the high points!

Here is Mattie on stage:

So, the History Parade is actually a competition, and they give awards by class in several different categories, and then the top performers from each class are invited to participate in the History Parade showcase at the end of the week at The Arts Center. Mattie won all the awards for Kindergarten (best speech, best costume, most creative, best essay) and she was asked to participate in the showcase!

Here she is that Friday on the big stage:

She had to go very first, but she rocked her speech again!

I was so impressed with ALL the kids that did the history parade. Tons of talented kids at her school, and lots of really, really good performances. We love our school!

Flashback Friday

I've seen this on a couple other blogs, and thought I'd do it too. These pictures are a "flashback" to 2008...nearly 4 years ago. This is Mattie as a 2yr old...she's about 27months here, which is about what Presley is now. I love looking back at pictures of Mattie and comparing them to Presley now. They are so different!

Big blue eyes!

Mattie had SO much more hair than Presley has. Presley's is just now reaching her shoulders, and at this point Mattie had already had several haircuts, and it was still down her back:

Happy little 2yr old!

Christmas!

I finally got Christmas pictures uploaded!

 

We had the best, most wonderful, most blessed Christmas ever.  Family, blessings, happiness, togetherness…all the things that Christmas should bring abounded for us, and I hope for many more Christmas just like it!

 

We did our first Christmas gathering at my in-laws…so fun!   The girls got some great presents, and we had a fun time together.

 

Mattie loves Barbie movies, and she got two that night…happy girl!

Presley got the cutest pair of “blinged” Converse shoes.  She loved them and had to put them on immediately.  They’ve gotten lots of wear since Christmas!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to the Christmas Eve service at church.  We never miss it, and for me, it’s the perfect way to really get your mind and heart focused on Christ at Christmastime.   I didn’t get any pictures before, but afterwards we came back to my parents house, along with my in-laws, and had a wonderful time together eating and letting the kids entertain us!

 

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew always come at Christmas, and to say my girls adore their cousin may be a slight understatement.  They absolutely love him, rightfully so, because he is precious and sweet.   He is five years older than Mattie, but they get along so good, and he is such a good big cousin to her. 

 

Here they are being silly.  Christmas Eve had all the kids particularly amped up:

I really wanted to get some good pictures of the cousins while they were together, but this turned into mission impossible.  I have about 150 outtake pictures of the three of them in front of the Christmas tree and either someone is giggling, someone’s eyes are shut, or someone is getting up to run away in ALL of them! 

 

I also tried to get a good picture of my mom with her grandkids (my dad, like Mattie, felt the need to immediately get into his PJ’s after dinner, so he was not camera ready).  We got lots of outtakes from that as well. 

 

Here is Presley wanting Jolie (the Goldendoodle) in the picture:

Finally get all the kids wrangled, and Presley won’t quit loving on the dog:

 

Finally, success!  Mimi and her grands:

Presley was watching me while I edited these pictures, and she wanted to know why she has her finger out in the picture above.  She kept saying “What I saying, mom?  What I saying?”, and she finally answered herself and said “I saying ‘no cwib fo’ a bed, Mom’”.  Which, no she wasn’t, but how cute is that?

 

Presley is one of the most loving little people I’ve ever known.  She loves everybody, and I have never seen her be mean to anybody (except Mattie, on occasion).  As much as she loves people, she also loves animals, and she is particularly dog (and cat) obsessed.  My brother’s family always brings their dog, and Presley LOVES her…we joke that this is her favorite cousin:

Diamond is a golden retriever that they got from a shelter, and she’s sweet as can be. 

PJ-clad Mattie and daddy:

My precious and adorable nephew who gets more handsome and photogenic every year:

So we finally get home on Christmas Eve, and Mattie puts out the reindeer food:

And then we put out cookies for Santa.  I wanted a cute picture of the girls in their Christmas pj’s by the cookies for Santa, but Presley threw a huge fit that we wouldn’t let her eat Santa’s cookies, so this is the pic I got….memories!:

 

I love, love, love playing Santa after the girl’s go to bed.  We have been parents now for six Christmases and I really cannot remember what the fun was in this holiday before we had kids.  We turn on The Christmas Story marathon (thank you, TBS), and start putting together Santa stuff, and stuffing stockings.  This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas to spend with Matthew…love it!

 

Awesome daddy working hard on the baby doll bed:

Santa has been here!

This is Mattie’s side….she got an Easy Bake Oven and a Nintendo DS (on the arm of the couch):

This is little Presley’s side.  All during Christmas, anytime we would ask Presley what she wanted Santa to bring, she would say “COOKIES!!”, every single time.  We got the biggest kick out of this, and I knew Santa would bring something else, but he better deliver on the cookies too.  So she got a sweet bed for her baby dolls, but notice the oreos (her fave) on the arm of the chair:

 

Just waking up to see what Santa brought….please notice me in the mirror reflection because that is the only photographic evidence that I was even around on Christmas day.  I’ve got to get better about handing the camera to someone else every now and then!

 

Love this….Mattie amazed that Santa actually ate the cookies and drank the milk:

 

Tearing into presents!  I wish I had a video of Presley opening this baby doll….she kept saying “ohhhhhhh!  oh, oh, ohhhhhhhh!!”…so cute!

 

Santa brought the cookies, and she immediately tore into them!  Happy girl:

Operation for Mattie…big hit:

Presley was pretty uninterested in opening gifts once she realized her stocking had candy in it:

Helping sister open:

SMURFS!!:

Mattie is a textbook Choco-holic….loves, loves, loves Chocolate.  Sour and sweet candy like skittles, starburst, etc….she can take it or leave it, but she loves some chocolate.  So Santa always brings her a huge, 1lb Hershey Bar, and this is her when she pulled it out of her stocking:

 

We spent Christmas lunch at my parents, and the girls got more fun stuff there as well. 

Mattie has a Bitty Baby that Presley is kind of in love with, so Presley got her very own Bitty Baby from Mimi and Poppa:

Loving her new baby:

Mattie also got a new baby doll that she’s holding in this picture.  It’s very realistic looking, and she is in love with it. 

 

Presley got a penguin named “Eric” that is from the Happy Feet Two movie….he sings and dances, and she has loved it…I need to video her dancing with it:

We have another Christmas tradition I love, which is to go to the movies on Christmas night.  We have done this for many, many years now.  Some years I’ve missed because of having Christmas gatherings on Matthew’s side of the family, and every other year my sister misses b/c she does Christmas with her in-laws.  But every Christmas, my dad and whoever else can go, goes to the movies on Christmas Day.  This year it was just me, my dad, and my brother.  We saw Mission Impossible 4, and while I fought hard for us to go see Sherlock Holmes instead, I really enjoyed this movie.  Totally not something I would have ever picked (I don’t think I’ve seen any of the other MI movies), but this was pretty good. 

 

A few days after Christmas, Matthew and the girls, and I loaded up and went to spend several days with my sister and brother-in-law in Memphis since they didn’t get to spend Christmas with us.  We had tons of fun, but I didn’t take one single picture.  Angela and I shopped till we dropped….I think we went to every Target in the greater Memphis area, and we hit some great after Christmas sales.  We rang in the new year with them, and then it was back home to start the new year!  I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did!

 

I'm pretty sure no one even bothers clicking over here anymore since I am the world's most inconsistent and irregular blogger, but I'm going to do my best to jump back in to updating this ole blog regularly. I have wanted to post so many times, but just haven't done it for one of several reasons:

-My computer is old and slow, and sometimes does not cooperate with Blogger, and I end up frustrated when trying to post.

-It takes forever to upload pictures.

-I had a hugely, incredibly busy fall and Christmas season with sewing orders. A blessing...but just about every other area of my life was neglected during Nov. and Dec.

-My darling youngest child keeps me ON MY TOES all day long, and when she goes to bed at night, I collapse like I've just finished a marathon. Or in a manner I would assume one would collapse in if one were to finish a marathon.

-My precious first-born also keeps me busy, but mostly with activities, not with toddler shenanigans like her sister. We had a busy fall with that girl!

So, I thought I'd throw out a few pictures and a list, and go from there. Shall we?

THINGS I'M HAPPY ABOUT OR LOOKING FORWARD TO OR JUST THINGS IN GENERAL:

-Starting a new spring bible study at church. We are doing Beth Moore's newest, which is "James: Mercy Triumphs". Excited!

-Mattie turns 6 in March. Perhaps I shouldn't include it under this list...maybe I should start a new list called THINGS I CANNOT BELIEVE AND ALMOST REFUSE TO ACCEPT BECAUSE IF IT WERE UP TO ME SHE WOULD STAY 5 FOREVER. Because that's how I feel about that.

-I did some major cleaning out right after Christmas while my girls were at my in-laws and took a HUGE load to Goodwill. It was much needed and my home feels so much more un-cluttered. I have huge aspirations of keeping it that way, and doing even more de-cluttering in 2012.

-Around the time Mattie was 2, I started running. Not fast, and not incredibly far, but I did do it pretty regularly, and even got up early in the mornings to do it (!). I did a couple of local 5k's and it was something I enjoyed. Matthew runs too, and it was something that we enjoyed together, even though we never really ran together (if that makes sense). BUT, when I became pregnant with Presley, I stopped and I have never started back. I've made a few attempts, but never stuck with it. I am determined 2012 is the year I hit the streets again. I've been walking everyday this week, and I'm thinking of starting Couch to 5k next week. I've heard great things, and it would give me a program to follow rather than just running my heart out. So I'm thinking a spring 5K might be on my list of to-do's.

-Matthew and I are trying to do some healthy eating, and after 3 days, I'm already so over it! We had a bingeful Christmas and both of us basically ate or drank anything that came within reach the entire month of December, and I can't speak for him, but my jeans are not just snug, they're almost inappropriately tight. SO, I'm trying to stick with it. For the sake of those who have to see me in my jeans.

-Around Thanksgiving, or maybe a little before, we went from the status of "Potty Training" with Presley to "Potty Trained". It has been my experience with both girls that at some point, something just clicks with them, and the accidents and headaches of potty training suddenly cease, and they are all the sudden potty trained. I am so proud of her for being such an easy one to train, and oh the joys of not buying diapers or worrying about messes anymore. She is sleeping in pull-ups still, but we are going on week 3 of waking up dry, so I'm thinking I'm not buying anymore of those either. Glory!

-I went through a severe Pinterest addiction a few months ago, and I think I have finally leveled out to being a normal user. Seriously...it's too addicting! But I have done SO MANY projects I have found on there. Maybe I should share some here??

-I have seriously considered deleting my Facebook profile. If my business page wasn't connected to it, and I didn't have several groups that I'm a part of on there, I probably would. I feel like Facebook has made me feel differently, and in some cases negatively, about people that I would have liked otherwise had I not been subjected to their lame or ignorant or negative or self-inflating posts. Can anyone relate to that? Has anyone ever deleted their profile and survived? Do tell.

-Matthew and I have a no-gift policy for Christmas. We like to focus our energy, efforts, and dollars on our girls, and that is enough gift for both of us. This year, however, he surprised me (truly surprised me) with a Kindle. This mama reads a ton, and he knows I have lusted after the Kindle for a long time. I got the Kindle Touch and I love it! I was in the middle of a real book at Christmas that I just finished, so I have yet to actually use it, but I'm planning to start something new on the Kindle tonight.

-Tomorrow is my 11th anniversary. And the Razorbacks are playing in the Cotton Bowl tomorrow night, so I think I know how my anniversary will be spent : )

On to some pictures!

I looked for some Thanksgiving pictures, but it appears I didn't take a single picture at Thanksgiving. So on to Christmas!

As I said, I was insanely busy during Christmas with sewing orders, so I never got around to making my own children a Christmas dress, but I did whip up these quick little skirts to match their scotty dog sweaters and this is what they wore to our Christmas Eve service. Way cute!

I had big intentions of getting family pictures made this fall in order to have one for a Christmas card, and it just never happened. BUT I STILL WANTED MY CHRISTMAS CARD! So, I invested in a $12 tripod from Walmart, enlisted my mother to help (by pushing the shutter release button), and basically took them myself. We got about 150 throw-away shots, but I did get a few keepers and one good one for the card. Success!

Here are my girls being sweet:

My precious, blue-eyed baby:


My little mess of a child:

This was our card:

I did the girls shirts super quick right before we went to do these pictures from an idea I saw on...Pinterest! It's just ribbon ironed on in different lengths to look like a Christmas tree with a button on top. Super easy, super cheap because I already had all the ribbon and the tees, and we got so many compliments on these shirts.

I think that's all for now. I may try to post some more Christmas pictures tomorrow!