The past 2 Weeks

So life has been busy the past few weeks.  I had a large bridal show for my company a couple of weekends ago, and it literally took all of my time.  It is over now, and I am feeling like we are getting back to normal.  The bridal show was crazy busy, and we had a lot of prospective clients.  Fingers crossed that it becomes a success! If you know someone getting married this year, please send them here to learn more about the package we are promoting.

Recently we have attended 2 parties at Caleb's preschool.  The first was a pj and pizza party, and the second was his Valentines party.  He is so cute with his little friends, and I just love watching him interact.

We have been attending a local open gym at a gymnastics location near us every Wednesday.  The kids LOVE it!! Last week it randomly started snowing before we left home so afterward, the kids enjoyed having a snowball fight. Caleb was such a typical male in this picture.  We asked them to pose and as Presley was smiling he threw a snowball in her face.  Kinlee loved this as well, but would not stay put for a picture.

We have spent a lot of time with this little family lately. The kids love each other so much.

We also had a boy play date with friends yesterday.  The boys enjoyed playing super heroes and fighting off monsters while little miss preferred to sit and "talk" with the mamas.

Last weekend was my birthday and my husband surprised me with the best present ever!! He took me to dinner at Chuy's (my choice) Friday night, and then we headed to a local hotel for a relaxing staycation.  I was able to stay in bed ALL DAY Saturday, watch Pretty Little Liars on Netflix, sleep, and eat room service!! It was heavenly!!

The kids loved visiting baby Logan for the first time. I loved getting in some sweet newborn snuggles.  Please remember to keep his twin Landon in your prayers, as he is still in the hospital.

This was the last picture of Caleb with his beloved binky.  He gave it up about two weeks ago for good!

We spent Kinlee's actual birthday at the Museum. The kids had a blast as usual!

Mckinlee's Party Part 2

Mckinlee 2 Years Old

My sweet Mckinlee,

Today is your 2nd birthday.  You are already 2 whole years old.  I step back while watching you play and wonder how so much time has passed since you were born.  I swear you were just my sweet, brand new baby yesterday.  You bring me so much joy, and I hate that the years of your "babyhood" are slipping by so quickly.  I wish with everything in me that I could keep you tiny enough to sit in my lap for forever, yet I dream daily of the woman you will one day be.  Motherhood is tricky like that.  You will always be my baby, and it hurts me to watch you grow, but at the same time that growth brings me so much excitement.  It is so exciting to watch you come alive.  The real you. The you that has always been there waiting patiently to make her debut.  Gone are the sweet innocent baby days, and here are the wild, testing, hilarious toddler days.  You are so amazing, you really really are. You my sweet one could move mountains.  God gave you a spit fire personality that I am positive will take you places in this world.  You are the perfect mix of feisty and sweet.  You have a way of standing your ground, and really fighting for what you want. Though this is testing at times, I know that it is a great quality. It assures me that you will always fight for what you believe in which is so important. That quality combined with the loving heart you have is a magical combination.  You are one in a million Mckinlee, and I am so honored and proud to call you my daughter.  

Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of having a daughter.  You my tink, are my dream come true.  Through you I get to fulfill my life dream of being a mother to a little girl.  It brings me so much happiness to watch you slowly transition into womanhood.  I love the way you like to put on your "face" while I am doing my makeup.  I crack up at the faces you make in the background as you pretend to put on your eye makeup just like mommy.  My heart literally melts when you ask for a bow for your hair, and watching you twirl in circles when you put on a new outfit makes me smile so big my cheeks hurt.  Through you sweet baby I am experiencing a relationship that I was not fortunate enough to experience, a mother daughter one.  You are my light, and I pray that we will always be close.  I promise you that I will do everything in my power to build you up throughout life.  I will always be here for you to talk, cry with, shop with, run away with on bad days, and dream with.  I will be the person always cheering and supporting you wherever your life leads.  You my sweet girl mean so much to me. It is truly a privilege to be a mother to you and Caleb, and one that I thank God for a thousand times a day.

I know that all to soon you will be all grown up, and that before I know it I will be writing your three year post.  However, right now there are so many memories of you that I want to write in black and white so that I can always remember who you were at 2 years of age.  I do not know that my writing will do the memories justice, but it is my prayer that one day years from now, when you and I may be having a bad day,  that I can look back on this blog entry and smile and remember my sweet baby girl.  After all, you will always be my baby. My sweet, beautiful, feisty  hilarious baby girl who literally stole my heart the moment I saw you.  

Mckinlee at 2 years you wake in the morning calling for me, and when I step to your bed you bounce with excitement.  You reach up your tiny little arms and say "Mommy, I want you" (I want you is all slurred together in the cutest of toddler jabber), and as I lift you, you fall into the bend of my shoulder and rest your head.  I melt every time.  You see, no matter how many times you may have waken me the night before, or how hard the previous day was, I am always ecstatic to see you in the morning, and excited to begin my day with you.  You jabber from the moment I get you out of bed.  You literally never stop talking.  You will practice basically every word of your vocabulary in a melodic form as if you were a composer of words.  It is so cute.  I always want to remember your sweet innocence, and how you love to be naked.  It cracks us up when you have to go potty.  No matter what room you are in, when the urge hits, you drop your pants to your ankles and slowly waddle to the bathroom yelling "Mommy potty".  There is nothing cuter than your wrinkly butt penguin walking across the living room.  It makes me smile.  You are such a ham at this age, and you love to put on a show.  Whether you are dancing, singing, or spinning in circles you like all eyes to be on you.  I love that.  Maybe one day we will see your name in lights?  You love and are annoyed by your brother equally.  You two play so well together, are so compassionate to one another, and fight like cats and dogs at the same time.  He is special though sweet girl.  He will forever be your rock, and will be there one day when your dad and I will no longer be able to.  His relationship is one to forever cherish and hold close. You love to face time with Paw, and your eyes light up so big that they twinkle when you first see his face on the screen. I love that, and I am thankful for technology.  You stand your ground as I mentioned before, and often times you can be very bratty.  However, you look up with those big blue eyes and say "Love you", or run and snuggle me, and melt my heart once again.  It saddens me to discipline you, and it is so hard to when you pull out your tricks, but always know that I discipline because I love you.  You are getting braver and braver about being away from me, and you have been staying in the church nursery throughout services.  I am so proud of you for that.  You are such a little mama.  You love to play with babies.  It amazes me to watch the maternal instinct come out.  You are so sweet with your babies, and so loving. You will make a wonderful mother some day.  Your favorite animals are dogs and quack quacks as you call them.  You are still so tiny, like so so tiny.  It makes you growing up a little easier on my heart because you still look like my baby for now.  I love all 20 lbs of you!! I love that when you are scared or hurt you want me, and I love that I can fix that hurt within moments. I know that one day it will not be so easy to fix, and so I cherish and cling to the moments when mommy is the solution to the problem.  Oh how I wish I could protect you from every hurt and fear in the unpredictable world.  Your favorite show is Dora, you love peanut butter more than any other food, and you copy your brothers every move at this age.  You are stunningly gorgeous.  Every where we go people stop and tell me how beautiful you are. Your blue eyes, and blond curly locks are breathtaking.  It is my prayer that you will be just as beautiful inwardly and you are externally in life.  

Mckinlee, you seriously have my heart.  I pray daily for the girl you are growing into, and the woman that you will one day become.  I pray that God gives you the strength to stand up for what you believe in, the gentleness and compassion to always be there for others, the privilege of one day becoming a mother, and that God will forever be first and foremost in your life.  For now however, I will hold you, kiss your boo boo's, play with you, and tuck you in.  You are my baby today, and that I will never take for granted.  Lets slow down on the growing up okay?

I love you,
Mommy

Mckinlee's 2-Tu Fabulous Birthday Party (Decor)

This past Friday we celebrated bundle's 2nd birthday.  She is not technically 2 until  Wednesday so I am holding onto my last few days of calling her my 1 year old.  This year we did things a little different and planned a party at a location other than a home.  I have had the theme (2-Tu Fabulous) picked out since before she was born.  I always dreamed of it being over the top girly, but since we were having it at a location outside of our home, and since most of her friends are boys plans changed a little bit.

We had the party at Otterville, and I booked the fire truck room.  The fire truck room is huge, and it has 2 real fire trucks in it.  The kids are allowed to dress up like firemen, and play with the lights, drive the trucks etc.  I knew it would be a huge hit.  I did not want to give up my 2-Tu theme, even though the location was a bit boyish.  I decided to go with a teal and red color scheme to pull it all together and I loved how it turned out.  I decorated very minimally since it was on location this year.

The room had 3 rectangle kids tables, and I knew that I wanted to cover them all, and make centerpieces.  I bought 3 white flat sheets from Wal Mart for 4 dollars a piece and used those as the tablecloths.  Very cheap way to have floor length linens for a kids table.  I then purchased 3 yards of teal tulle to use as an overlay.  We did not need the full 3 yards, so we used the excess for the runner on the adult table, and food table. (The teal was a lot more noticeable in person, than in photographs)

The centerpieces for the kids table were inspired by this pin.  The pin did not come with directions so my mother in law and I just winged it.  I purchased a few rolls of tulle from Hobby Lobby for 1.50 a piece, 2 Styrofoam cones, and we used left over ribbon from Caleb's 2nd birthday.  I thought the end result was very cute.  We went into it blind not knowing what to expect, and I loved the way they turned out.

The end of the kids table was devoted to gifts and favor bags. I purchased the red basket at Target in their dollar section.  It needed a little fluff so it was tu-tu-fied.  The favor bags were left over from Caleb's 2nd birthday, and the tags were compliments of this pin, and matched her invites.

The adult table was kept very simplistic as well.  It's centerpiece was the cupcake stand, that we tu-tu-fied as well.  I loved how this came out!!! It is going to look so bare when we remove all the tulle.

We used leftover teal and red tulle to create a runner to add a little extra girly fluff to the tables.

The table cloths were actually plastic table cloths.  I always hate how the cheap plastic ones are not floor length, but my mother in law came up with a brilliant idea. For each table we used 2 $1.00 plastic table cloths.  We lined them up on the table until they hit the floor on each side, and we then used double sided tape to connect them.  Badda Bing Badda Boom, cheap, floor length table cloths.

(Kinlee's red tutu was at the end of this table in the pic. It was not part of the table decor) 

That was the extent of the party decor.  It was simple, in theme, and coordinated well with the fire truck room.