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!

Season's Greetings!

I am so happy it's officially the Christmas season! The holiday decor, the festive music, the wonderful food....I love it all! But my favorite, favorite, favorite thing about Christmas....opening my mailbox everyday and seeing all the precious Christmas cards. I love seeing how families change through the years, and I love that most people these days go with photo cards. I'm thrilled to get a Christmas card, no matter what style, but the photo cards are everyone's favorite at my house!

Matthew and I have been married ten years, and I *think* we have done a photo card every year since we've gotten married. In our early years they featured us with our dogs, and now the dogs have been kicked off the card to make room for the kiddos. Christmas photo card options have come a LONG way in recent years. We had a great card last year, but I think my very favorite Christmas card we have ever done was 2009 when it was a combo Christmas card/Birth announcement following Presley's birth. I loved that card and we got ton's and ton's of compliments on it. Not only was it just so precious and sweet, the quality was exceptional. I designed the card at tinyprints.com, and I was BEYOND pleased with the experience and product. I was able to pick a template, add my own photos, and then even change some of the text and add to it a bit to make it exactly how I wanted it. One of the best things, in my opinion, is they have a professional designer review your card before printing it. In my case, the Tiny Prints designer actually contacted me over a small grammar issue via email before printing. How awesome is that?

So this year, I am definitely going with Tiny Prints again for our cards. We are scheduled to do our photos next weekend, and I'm already eyeing several designs. I feel like I need to see the picture before I can make a final selection, but I know what I'm leaning towards. Tiny Prints has an amazing selection of holiday cards that you can find here:
http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm

One of the best things about their website is it's so easy to narrow down their huge selection of cards to find exactly what you're looking for. There are so many awesome choices, and there is something to please everyone, I'm sure! Here are some of my favorites:

I love the non-traditional colors on this, and the bold "Merry Christmas" message:

This one is kind of simple and classic, and that appeals to me. I love the full-bleed photo cards...ours last year was like that, and I think it makes a huge statement as opposed to a collage, although those are fun too:

I LOVE this colorful card...I'm obsessed with chevron stripes, and the back of this card is to-die-for!! I love the rainbow colors too:


So cute!
If you haven't already made a Christmas card decision, go here and be amazed at the quality and design that Tiny Prints has to offer. You will NOT be disappointed!

A Party for Presley

About two months ago, maybe more, we began to talk to Presley about her upcoming birthday, telling her things like "you're going to be two!", "you're going to be a big girl!", "you're going to get to have a party!", all of which made her very excited. And at some point in those discussions, I asked Presley what kind of party she wanted to have, not really expecting her to understand what I meant or to have any idea how to answer. Well, she immediately answered "A CANDY party!", and she has stuck with that exclamation ever since. I tried to talk her into other ideas like a Mickey party, or an Olivia party, but she wasn't having it. We have talked about her candy party for months, and I have never seen a child this young so excited for THEIR own party. She talked for weeks about who all she wanted to be there, what all she wanted to have (candy, cakes, cupcakes, and more candy), and all this was done with pure excitement and joy. I really don't remember Mattie being that excited about her 2nd birthday party. But Presley was over the moon!

Truth be told, I toyed with the idea of not even doing a party. My thinking was that we did a fairly big party last year, and maybe we'd take a year off this year, and then do a party next year when she turns 3 and she could invite some friends. So much for that! I'm so glad we did go ahead and celebrate this sweet girl...she deserves it!

And just because I can't help looking and comparing how much difference a year makes, here she is at her 1st birthday.

These pictures are very out of order, but I'm not fixing it.

Here is Presley and her cutie pie friend Dylan:

Presley after blowing out her candles:

Miss Priss finally got some of her own dress up stuff so she can quit stealing sisters:

And she was blessed with two Furr-Real toy cats that purr and move when you pet them. She LOVES!

She was very uninterested in her presents...I kind of had to make her stop and open them all. Very unlike her sister who loses all ability to control herself around a pile of presents:

I caught her doing this several times....swiping candy off the table. The girl loves some candy!

Here is my little miss looking so grown. I made her little outfit and love how it looks on her:

This is the cheapest party I have ever put together, but it still turned out pretty cute. I spent around $25 all total for everything, including invites and postage. The biggest expense was the ingredients I bought to make the frosting for the cake and cupcakes.

I had planned to only make cupcakes, but the day before Presley kept talking about "my cake". I told her "you mean your cupcake", and she was not having it. She insisted on having a cake, so I had to throw this together last minute!

I found a lady on Etsy who designed these cupcake toppers and an invite for me for $8, and I printed them both out at home and made them. Too easy and gotta love CHEAP! And I have learned the secret to pretty cupcakes with nice, neat piped icing is to make your own icing. Much better and holds up much better to being piped on.

I displayed several of her pictures in frames I got at the dollar store and painted with paints I had:

And all the candy jars I had or bought at Goodwill, and all the candy came from The Dollar Tree:

The only thing I forgot was a present for Presley. Yes, I'm the mama who didn't take a present to her own child's birthday party!

It was so fun to do this party and see how happy it made Presley. Her favorite part was having all her family there in one spot. She talked for weeks about everybody coming, and everyday she'd talk and talk about it and name someone and ask me if they were coming..."Gigi coming to my pah-tay??" "Nana coming to my pah-tay?", and on and on and on....and she did this for WEEKS! So, I was thrilled that everyone got to be there. Except Mattie....she came down with fever and a sore throat the day before and was still running fever the day of, so I had to make her miss it. She was SO devestated....OH how she cried. She had looked forward to the party as much as Presley had and she had helped me plan and get ready for it, so I just hated for her to not go.

Seeing Presley have a party has got Mattie's mind working on what she wants her next party to be, and she has got some big ideas! Lord, give me strength!