My Big Girl!

So, this is probably way too many pictures of a simple bunk bed… but, what  can I say, my big girl is growing up!

Since this house is considerably smaller than our old one, the bedrooms are smaller, too (duh).  To save space, we decided to borrow the bunk beds my brother and sister used, which also happen to be the bunk beds my grandma’s dad made for my aunts and uncles to sleep in when they were young!  How cool is that? 

Anyway, so we finally got them put together, and they don’t have mattresses yet (they are not a standard size, so we just ordered foam mattresses, which will be fine for the girls when they’re so little), but we put Laney’s air mattress on the top bunk so she could start sleeping in her bed. 

So, here’s her first night on the top bunk!

Learning to climb up by herself. 

We really wanted her to do it on her own so she was comfortable.  She was scared at first, but in a day or two, she was getting in and out on her own.  It helps that the bunks are not too tall, so it’s not a long way to the ground. 

Listening to her bedtime story!  (See, the top bunk is only 4 feet off the ground or so, perfect for two little girls)

 

She was SOOO excited to be sleeping on the top bunk!

 

All tucked in and ready for sleep!

She has been doing remarkably well… sleeping on the floor was getting harder, because she was eye level with all of her toys, and that’s a lot of temptation for a little girl who doesn’t like to take naps!!  Josh and I were a little (or a lot) nervous the first few nights, worried that she’d fall off, but we haven’t even had any near misses.  And the first couple of nights that she woke up to go to the bathroom and wasn’t comfortable climbing down were a little rough (believe it or not, we hadn’t missed the screaming “I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!” in the middle of the night).  But, since then, she’s learned to climb down, so she gets herself up in the middle of the night, and it’s all good!

Now we just have to get the real mattresses, and some new bedding for them (I’m looking at this set, or this set).  I like the flowers, but Laney and Josh both like the polka dots.  So, we’ll see what is left and on sale towards the end of the summer!! :)  Not sure when we’ll move A from the pack and play onto the bottom bunk… probably going to give her another month or two.  But, for now, Laney is thrilled! 

Father’s Day Present

I promise this isn’t turning into a diy/project blog… mostly ‘cause Josh would kill me if I kept doing projects! :)  But I’ve had a lot of free time, so I’ve been making myself useful!  And, one of those ways, was by making a Father’s Day present for my dad.

See, when Josh & I came to look at houses in April, we saw these shelves in our realtor’s office, and I thought my dad would like them.  They were simple, just dark wood with some reader’s digest condensed books attached to them.  So, we thought we’d try making some for Father’s Day…

I started with two 2 1/2 ft 1x6’s and some red mahogany stain that I already had.  I stained both boards, and learned that staining is not my strong suit! And that we need some sawhorses…

 

See the giant white spot on the one on the left… yeah, like I said, stain not my strong suit.

While I stained, Josh and the girls enjoyed the beautiful weather! :)

  Once the board were stained, I gave them awhile to dry, and then got the rest of the stuff together. 

A stack of 8 Reader’s Digest books (totally worthless as books, but neat looking… thus perfect for making into a bookshelf!).  I went for a blue scheme, shocking, I know!

I found mine at an antique store in Glendale.  One booth had a giant tub of them for $1 each… except that when I went to get them they were half off, score!  I messed up, though, and accidentally got one with red on the spine instead of blue.  It looked totally out of place, so I set off to find a replacement.  That involved about an hour going through the biggest antique mall I’ve ever seen (Peddler’s Mall here in Etown), which was NOT a sacrifice- look at tons of random stuff during a kid-free hour?  Yes, please!  Anyway, these books are fairly common, and not really worth much, so they’re not expensive!

You’ll also four 6 inch L brackets.  We got our’s at Lowes, and then I spray painted them oil rubbed bronze (almost as shocking as the blue theme), because I figured they’d stand out less against the dark wood.  And I forgot a picture, but not too interesting- four L brackets, lay them out, spray paint them, let them dry. 

We also used screws (obviously), which we had leftover from the fence project.  And, I highly recommend a doting husband to do the muscle work! :) 

So, the first two books were pretty simple.  I held the book down, while Josh put the screws through.  We repeated for the second side of the first shelf, flipped it upside down, and the books fell off.  Yeah… not cool. 

Turns out, the first two books we grabbed were the thinnest, so the screw went through both and into the wood.  All of the rest of them, not so much.  So we improvised- we used shorter screws to attach the first book, and then used the longer screws to attach the second.  We put the shorter screws perpendicular to where the L bracket would go so we wouldn’t run into each other. 

Repeat, times 2, and we were done.  The finished product ended up looking like this:  

And, what was Miss E. doing while we were working?  She was making friends with the little boy next door.  She’s definitely her father’s daughter!! :)

So, there was another attempt of mine at being crafty and DIYing something… I learned I’m not very good at staining, but I think they turned out alright.  They’re not really made for holding heavy things, but they look cool.  We sent them back to MO with James and Ruth after their visit this week, and Dad seems to like them, so we’ll call that a success!

A Update

And by A, I mean Audrey... :) I realized with Laney, at about this age, that once I stopped doing the weekly posts on the baby blog, I missed having a record of what she was doing. So, I thought I'd do a quick update on Miss A., with a few extras thrown in...

She is about 15 months now, and walking really well, and into EVERYTHING! She's starting to talk, and I get the feeling that she will just explode with words in the next few months. She says Dada, Hi, Mama (sometimes), Thank you (which is adorable) and, my personal favorite- Mine! She's learned it from Laney, b/c every time Audrey has something of Laney's, Laney grabs it and says "MINE!" So, now, whenever A wants something, she says "Mine, Mine, Mine." She sounds like the gulls from Finding Nemo (only cuter). The Thank You is pretty adorable, too. I'm not sure where she picked that up, but she says it whenever someone gives something to her. Pretty cute as well!

A is still pretty much a beast, she loves to eat. Her favorite is bananas, but she'll pretty much eat anything I put in front of her, as long as there's a lot of it! She also loves to read, and be read to (as long as the book is short). She absolutely TORTURES Truman. He is her absolute favorite, and it is the funniest thing to see her walk across the living room and throw herself on top of him. I think it's funny... I'm not sure Truman agrees. She is really lovable, she loves to snuggle and will run all out across the room and just fling herself onto my legs to give me a hug. She's also started kissing, which is mostly putting her face against something and making a big "MWAH" sound. And she loves to play with dolls- carries them around, kisses them, puts them in chairs, wraps them up in blankets. Amazing how little girls will just do that naturally.

Audrey's other favorite things include climbing everything, sitting in chairs, and loving on any animal she can find! We look down the hallway a lot to see her sitting in the big rocking chair in their room, rocking back and forth, totally proud of herself. She even climbed up on the table the other day. It does tend to get her in trouble, since getting up is a lot easier than getting down! :) She's getting better, though... and it's still funny to see her with a big ol' grin on her face! A few pictures of her escapades:

Totally proud of herself for climbing into the rocking chair!

Reading a book on Laney's air mattress... A loved when it was on the floor!

Two of her favorite things: A chair to climb in and out of, and a puppy dog to love on!

A's other new trick is animal noises... Check these out...

(So, she makes that funny face at the beginning b/c my camera has an orange light right after you push the shutter button, and usually it's followed by a flash! Guess she was preparing for it...)

So, we were trying to get her to learn the cat noise, because she was already doing the "woof, woof" for a dog. She kept not doing it, and then once when I was trying Truman walked through the room and meowed (and, if you know Truman, you know how he "talks"). Well, she just up and imitated him, and ended up with a cat noise that sounds a lot more like a cat! Now she just walks around doing that, and it never gets old. It's pretty realistic!!

And there's the A update... I can't wait until her talking really takes off. Of course, then I'll have two little girls who never stop talking!! :)

P.S. I forgot to add that the other big news for Audrey is that we have broken the binky habit. We were hopeful that not having a binky all the time would help her ears, because there is some research that links binkies and ear infections. So at the end of May/beginning of June we took her binkies away. She only has them now for nap and bedtime... I think we both miss them, but she really does pretty well without them. And maybe that's why she's suddenly so much more verbal!!

Mirror Redo

Well, we continue to survive and settle in here in KY!  Unpacking is going pretty well, we are really down to just figuring out what to do with our bathroom stuff (hello, going from 2 bathrooms to 1 is quite the challenge!) and everything will have a place.  With Josh back this week, we are working on hanging pictures and making the place really feel like a home.  So, I promise, as soon as the house looks presentable, I will post some pictures.  Well, and as soon as we have internet at home… which we still don’t have, which is not cool at all and making me a little crazy!  Right now we are all at the church office, the girls are running amok and Josh and I are using the wireless! 

Anyway, so, I don’t have finished house pictures.  But I did do one fun project this week while Josh was gone, and I thought I’d share.

See, I went to Dad’s auction the day before we moved (which was not a good plan, definitely ended up having to pack a lot more to bring here that night!).  Anyway, I saw this mirror that I thought would look good in the girls’ room. 

Well, when it came time to bid on the mirrors, the white one got paired up with a gold one I wasn’t a huge fan of, but both of them sold for $2, so I bought it anyway, and ended up with this mirror as well:

One of the things I loved about my old kitchen, was that standing at the sink you could look out of a window.  Made doing the dishes (not my favorite) a little less painful.  But this house didn’t have that, because that wall goes to the bathroom!  So, you’re just staring at this blank wall.  Not so interesting.

I thought it would be a good place for a mirror, to kind of bounce some light around.  I mean, it wouldn’t be looking at the backyard, but at least it wouldn’t be staring at a blank wall, either!  So I covered the mirror inside the frame (thus the  cardboard and painters tape in the first picture) and busted out the oil rubbed bronze spray paint!  A couple of minutes in the carport during the girls’ nap, and I had this:

It took several touch ups to get all of the edges and corners, and I left it outside to dry for a day or two because I really hate the smell of spray paint, but pretty soon I pulled out the cardboard, and it was ready to hang!

A little measuring and a nail later, and at least there was some light bouncing around the kitchen!

 

It’s not perfect, it’s a little small for the space, but for a $1 mirror and some leftover spray paint, it’s not too bad! 

And, just for a few updates on how everyone else is handling the move, they seem to be settling right in!

Laney is already busting out the princess dresses,

And Isa is already busting out of the fence!

We think she pushed the corner of the gate out enough to squeeze through.  It was storming pretty heavily, so I imagine she was highly motivated by fear!  Judging from the muddy paw prints all over the back door, she definitely was interested in getting IN the house, not running away!  Thankfully, there is a gate on the other end of the carport from the previous owners, so she couldn’t get anywhere.  Looks like we’ll be buying a latch for the bottom of the gate, too! :)

Sunday we ran about half an hour south to a town called Glendale to take Daddy to lunch at a good restaurant there, and to pick something up an antique mall next door.  The restaurant was closed (major bummer), but the girls got to play on the wooden train at the antique store, so they were happy! 

 

We really are settling in pretty well, we got to go to church as a family again, and that was really nice.  Except for the part where Laney stuck cheerios up her nose during morning worship… but, oh well!  I’m excited to have most of the unpacking done, and to get to hang pictures and really make our house feel like our home!  I will be sure to share pictures when it’s closer to done and when we have internet again! 

Made It

Well, the girls and I officially live in Kentucky now! This is going to be a very brief update, and there aren't a lot of pictures, but just wanted to let everyone know that we were alive! :)

We left Sunday after church and lunch with the family. I'm not even going to say that leaving wasn't hard, b/c it really was. It's still hard to know/believe that I'm really not going to be going "home" to Columbia, because home is now Elizabethtown!

Anyway, as far as the trip, it went pretty well. This was what I imagined the girls would do all the way here:

(Please ignore the precariously perched junk in the back of the van... we needed Charlie the Packer to help us! But, isn't that a cute basket?! Found it for like $7 at Hobby Lobby to put in the new buffet to keep my tablecloths and napkins confined)

And it looked like they might, but both were awake before we hit St. Louis. Not part of the plan! I was worried it was going to be a horrible trip, but really they were both pretty good. Laney watched movies, A fell back asleep a couple of times, and with a stop or two at rest areas so they could run for a minute or two, they were really pretty happy. And, man, was Daddy happy to see us!!

So, we spent Monday and Tuesday kind of getting settled and, of course, unpacking. And trying to find our stuff, b/c it was everywhere! Actually, Monday I also had a job interview, with Woodland Elementary School. It was a really interesting interview, because it was done like speed dating- there were 7 of us, and we spent 5-10 minutes with a person, and then moved to the next. It was actually a pretty relaxing way to interview because there wasn't this whole group of people staring at me, just one other person to talk to. Anyway, I think I would like the school; I liked everyone I met, it seemed like a nice school, and it was only about 10 minutes from home. BUT, there were 87 applicants (not all interviewed, though, so I guess I made it through the first round), so obviously there's a lot of interest in teaching jobs. But, God's taken care of everything else in this move, so there's no reason to think He won't take care of this, too.

Anyway, we also had to make some trips to Walmart, b/c the girls and I needed more than a bachelor's pantry (hello, we cannot survive on chili and hot dogs alone!). Oh, the joys of a family trip to Walmart...

A, being a goof in the WM checkout line.

Laney had already been carried screaming from the store by her daddy b/c of a massive fit when told she was not getting a treat b/c of the SEVERAL massive fits she'd thrown throughout the store. Not sure Daddy was as excited to see us by the time this trip was over... not sure where she gets that crazy fit throwing at Walmart thing... (hush, Ellen)

Speaking of not so happy to see us... Truman has informed me that he was a lot happier when the children were not living in the house. Can't imagine why...

So, that's about it. We're settling in, although Josh has abandoned us already... he left Wednesday morning for Ichthus, a giant Christian concert in Lousiville. He won't be back until Sunday morning at church, so it's just the girls and I for now, trying to figure out how to get all of our stuff to fit in our new house! I am starting to feel confident that most of the rooms will fit... except the bathroom. Going from two full sized vanities to a vanity that is barely wider than the sink... yeah, I'm going to have to be really creative! And it does sometimes feel like the girls and I are sitting on top of each other... makes me rethink all those years of living in a house this size with SIX people growing up... but we'll settle in. I do like our house, and I think it will be a good house for us. The new privacy fence looks great (thanks, Charlie & Corey), and there are some little projects that we can do that will help the whole place look better. And I've already had a few chances to bust out the oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, so I'm pretty happy about that! :)

I promise to post more pictures when I have something to take pictures of, and when I have wireless to use to post them (I'm at Panera right now while the girls are at VBS... which has been a lifesaver. Never thought I'd enjoy 2.5 childless hours so much). Just wanted to let everyone know that we made it, that we're settling in, and that we appreciate all of the prayers headed our way!

Kenny & Angela’s Wedding: The Big Day!

Typically, early June is a good time for an outdoor wedding… it’s usually pretty nice weather, no rain, not too hot… Kenny said that, last year on the first weekend of June, it was 70 degrees outside. This year, just in time for their wedding, MO decided to inflict 95+ degree heat and a zillion cicadas on poor Kenny & Angela! It was so hot at the rehearsal that I told Josh we were going to have to go buy me a dress, because I couldn’t handle the thought of wearing my black pants and heels to the wedding! And it takes a lot to get me in a dress, so you know it must have been bad! :)

But, heat and cicadas aside, it was still a beautiful wedding, and better sunny than raining! :)

Laney, pre-ceremony.

I highly recommend some form of bribery for young flower girls… although, not Nerds, because they were much too loud during the ceremony! She also got to pick on “extra-special” treat for after the wedding… she picked Strawberry Whoppers (my girl), and they proved to be quite the motivator!

Kenny and his dad, all dressed up and getting the video camera all set up.

They were definitely thinking ahead- they provided bottled water along with the programs, which Angela made into fans using free paint sticks from Home Depot painted white (genius!)

Some of the ushers, and Josh. Kenny & the best man wore tuxes, but the ushers wore just simple black pants, white shirt, black tie. It looked nice without being so expensive for them!

Laney was thrilled when she actually got her flower girl basket. She was officially ready to go then!

Always have to get a shot of the hair when a girl’s all dressed up! I just threw her hair up in a bun and clipped the flower on… thought it turned out pretty good, actually!

Daddy, walking with Laney to line up. We figured since he was dressed to match the wedding party, he should be the one to help Laney.

They looked awful sweet together!

As expected, though Laney did really well practicing, once it came time to actually walk down the aisle with all of those people staring at her, she wasn’t ok with Josh leaving her. But she did a great job of walking down the aisle with Daddy holding her hand. And it was quite sweet. I can’t wait to see the actual photographer’s pictures, since I was on the other side and couldn’t really see them.

Once the wedding was over, it was party time! We all headed back to Kenny’s parents’ house for the reception. Still really hot, but we had fun anyway!

Hot and sweaty flower girl… but she seemed relieved to be able to relax!

Of course, Miss A was there, too, also sporting a dress made by Ellen!

Their cake topper was so cool, I meant to take a picture of it and forgot. They took a picture of Kenny proposing to Angie, and cut out just the two of them and somehow mounted or printed it on plastic, and that was the cake topper. Sounds a little strange, I know, but it looked really neat, and was a sweet, personal touch. They had a small cake, and then lots of cupcakes!

Miss A was a fan of the cupcakes!

They did all of the traditional reception things- cut the cake (they went the smashing route, and she got it good and up his nose- I imagine he’ll be smelling icing for weeks), did the daughter/son dances, the first dance, the bouquet toss, etc. I try really hard at weddings to not get in the way of the actual photographer, so I didn’t take too many pictures of the festivities. The funniest thing, was Laney during the bouquet toss and the garter toss… when Angela got up on the dance floor, she absolutely INSISTED that she had to stand right next to her. She wouldn’t go stand with everyone else to try to catch the bouquet and, when I tried to get her to, she looked at me and said “I’m the FLOWER GIRL, I’m supposed to stand by the BRIDE!” Guess maybe we did a little too much verbal rehearsing of her flower girl job… :)

Standing by the BRIDE during the bouquet toss… notice the sweaty red face! She’d been playing hard, even in a fancy dress!

I did take a picture of the garter toss, mostly because it was hilarious. Before he went after the garter, Kenny shoved his shirt sleeve full of random things (a brush, a screwdriver, a carabiner, etc.) and kept pulling those from her skirt instead of the garter. It was pretty funny!

After the wedding reception traditions were out of the way, it was time to dance and have a good time. And, everyone did!

Laney spent a lot of time playing with these two cute little boys… probably an indicator of the years to come!

Daddy and A busted a move!

Although she played some, and ate a little, mostly Laney DANCED! She was impossible to keep off of the dance floor.

She flew…

She boogied with a friend…

She twirled, of course!

And she always remembered to hold up her princess dress when she was done dancing! :)

But the most fun, of course, was dancing with Daddy… absolutely precious!

So, see, that’s why I had to do separate posts for the rehearsal and the wedding! Too many great pictures to share!

Really, we had a great time… we got to visit with some people we hadn’t seen since high school, and reconnect with old friends. And it was so awesome and so much fun to see Laney running amok in her dress, feeling like such a grown up princess, but still totally willing to be a kid and run off into the woods and play with kids she didn’t know and dance like a crazy person. I often wish for her complete and total lack of self-consciousness!

Beautiful wedding, beautiful bride, beautiful flower girl… now for a beautiful marriage! Congratulations, Kenny & Angela! So glad we got to be a part of your day!

Kenny & Angela’s Wedding: Rehearsal

So, Laney had an exciting first this weekend… being a flower girl in a wedding!  I guess, technically, it wasn’t her first, because she was in Josh’s sister’s wedding, but she was only 6 weeks old at the time, so I’m pretty sure she didn’t get the whole excitement of the event!  In fact, she was mostly just a cranky monster that day, and we were all very grateful that she fell asleep before the wedding and slept through the whole thing.  But, that’s a different story!  For this wedding, Laney was very excited, and we’d be talking for weeks about how she was going to walk down the aisle, stand with Angela, smile for the pictures, etc. etc.  I figured the more prepared she was, the less chance of a crazy mid-aisle meltdown! 

Let me back up a bit, though… Laney was the flower girl for Kenny & Angela… Kenny and Josh have been friends for YEARS (since 1987, according to the engraved glass that Kenny gave Josh at the rehearsal).  I was a little worried that Laney wouldn’t cooperate, since she didn’t really know Kenny that well, but we went to a bridal shower for Angela, and since Angela got to wear a veil at the shower, Laney was hooked! :)  Ellen made her dress, so that helped, too- Laney was absolutely thrilled at all of the dress fittings.  So, things were looking up as far as the whole tantrum-less flower girl was concerned!

Friday we headed to the rehearsal.  They got married at the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial on the trail.  It was a beautiful spot, but, man, was it hot! 

The bride and groom… ready for rehearsal!

Maybe it was the heat, or the excessive cicada noises, or maybe it was all of the strangers, but the rehearsal did not start off so well for the flower girl!

She was not happy about anything!

And got about 2 feet down the aisle before throwing herself to the ground (and whacking her sister when A came to “play”).  Awesome.  I never knew how stressful it was to be the Mother of the Flower Girl!

The minister said it was really important to NOT force her to do anything, and whatever she chose to do would be fine.  So we let her stand with Angela in the “line up,” instead of by the maid of honor.  And, I thought I would capitalize on her love of picking flowers- I picked a bloom off a bush and let her carry it down the aisle (note to self: next time make sure to bring a practice basket to rehersal!).  That worked MUCH better.  She walked down the aisle by herself, and even stood there through the whole rehearsal.  Success!

Daddy and A after the rehearsal was over!

After the rehearsal, we went to Kenny’s parents’ house for the rehearsal dinner (Shakespeare’s, awesome.), and then the whole group pitched in to help get the place ready for the reception the next night.  Kenny & Angela kept everything about the wedding and the reception very simple, which I loved.  They didn’t want to go into a lot of debt for it, so they did a lot themselves (with help from friends and family, of course), worked with what they had, and kept it simple.  Love that it was way more about the MARRIAGE than the WEDDING!  I think that is something that a lot of couples forget as they face the craziness that is wedding planning- the wedding lasts for a day, the marriage lasts MUCH longer!

One major job: putting up paper globes.  They strung these along the white lights that went back and forth across the carport the tables were in.  The lanterns and the lights both really dressed up the carport!

They even diy-ed their own dance floor, and painted it to match the wedding colors.  That paint tray was an absolute magnet for the kids running around! :)

As was the dance floor once it was finished!

So, there’s the rehearsal… I would put the wedding on the same post, but then it’d be like 25 pictures, and no one has that kind of time! :)  But I’ll put up another post with those.  For now, my advice to future Mothers of the 3 yo Flower Girl: bring a basket to rehearsal, and expect a fit the first time down the aisle! :)