No No Momma!

So Kinsley thinks she's SOOO funny. When she's not supposed to do something i'll go "Ah AH!" and well, now she does too. It took a little prodding to get it on film but here ya go.

But even when she's "talking back" how can you be mad at this angel?

Nom Nom Nom!
Merry Christmas Eve!

FIRST Ponytail, sort of

Here's Kinsley and her FIRST attempt at a Ponytail! I think it's flippin adorable!

Chris has informed me that Kinsley does not like it... I informed him that "Kinsley" can deal with it.

Now here's my smart girl showing off some of her awesome skills!

Sorry it's sideways... i don't know how to get it to flip. God i love her!

God is so amazing.

So we've always heard that God has a time for everything and we don't always understand what he does and why but, we're to trust it's for the better. That's Really REALLY hard to do sometimes but this Christmas season I've been reminded why it's SO important to trust that he REALLY DOES know what's best for us and that everything will happen, just in HIS time, not necessarily ours.

See i have two friends that are best friends. They wanted to get pregnant at the same time so their kids could grow up together. They both went off the pill at the same time and started "trying" to get pregnant at the same time. Well, as you might have guessed, one got pregnant and the other one didn't. Everyone was optimistic, because these things take time and Friend B (we'll call her) will get pregnant eventually. Well Friend A gave birth to a beautiful baby, while Friend B was still not having any success. Friend B finally went in for fertility treatments, IVF, the whole shebang. Nothing.

Friend A's baby was getting close to two so they thought a sibling was due, so off they went to make one. Got pregnant RIGHT.AWAY. Again! YEA! Friend B... still going through rounds of IVF, the babies just weren't sticking. But, then, Friend A lost her baby. No reason, just the baby stopped growing early on and she miscarried. She was sad, trying to trust in God but it was so hard to understand because she KNEW she could carry a child to full term, she has proof of that in Child 1.

So while Friend A recovered and then started to try to get pregnant again, Friend B decided they were going to start the adoption process, after 5 unsuccessful rounds of IVF. Friend A got pregnant again, Friend B waited. Friend A found out the sex, Friend B waited.

Friend A is due the last day of this year. Friend B just got a call. A mother picked her and her husband to be the parents of the baby she can't take care of!

Today Friend B is holding a baby that was born days ago, and today the mother will sign over custody of the baby to Friend B and her husband. She will bring her baby home before the end of the year. Friend A will have her baby (most likely) before the end of the year.

So you see, God had a plan... it just wasn't in our time. These two best friends will get to experience having their children grow up close in age with each other. They will get to help and support each other. They will get to live out their dream, albeit in a different way at a different point in life... but they are living it, finally, together.

So trust and believe in God, ESPECIALLY in the time of his son's birth. He has a plan for you, he may not reveal it today or tomorrow, but he DOES have a plan for you.

I would be scared too of a fat...

Man in a red suit wanted to hold me?!?! So Wednesday last week Santa came to Kinsley's school! Well i already told you THAT story here, but here are the pictures of the second time Kinsley sat on Santa's lap!

This is my favorite one... she's looking at her teachers like "WTF people!"

 "okay so those teachers won't help me... will you?"

 "Yep i still don't like you... you're creepy looking"

We went to the mall on Saturday for that Santa. She did much better with him but as you can guess, still not the biggest fan! lol.

the cleaning lady...

Is apparently ME?!?! I know, who knew right? Yeah so I'm supposed to be the cleaning lady, in addition to the Mom, the contract specialist, the daycare dropper and picker upper, the wife, the dog carer, the laundry lady, the best friend, the good neighbor, oh and the cook.

I love EVERYTHING i do... individually. But it's flipping hard to do it ALL, ALL of the time. And i hate it that i can't and so often times i give up before i can even start. That and i drown my miseries in buying things for anyone and everyone. I think i feel if i buy this for this moment or place then all the other things i'm NOT doing will be camouflaged some how. hmmm

So here's my typical day:
-530ish (sometimes earlier, sometimes later) get up and get ready... oh and Kinsley is bound to wake up then for her bottle, so throw that in the mix. Get HER ready. Get my coffee made, our meals for the day into their designated lunch boxes, give the dogs a treat and out the door hopefully no later then 625.
- 630 drop of K at school drive to work and hopefully arrive before 730.
-730 to 4 work and use my lunch hour to go to the gym downstairs.
-4 leave work and pick up k at daycare somewhere between 445 and 5.
-somewhere between 5 and 515 get home to dogs jumping on me, Kinsley clinging to me, my arms full of bags... blah blah blah.
-so now i try to keep Kinsley happy, try to maybe play with her, feed the dogs, take them out, switch the laundry, get dinner ready no later then 6 and pick up what i can.
-6ish is dinner time. After dinner (often Chris isn't home) so then i take K upstairs and do the bath, bottle, book, bed routine... all this ends somewhere around 645-715, depending on 103984 factors.

TYPICALLY by 7 I'm sort of free, maybe to do something. So on my "to do" list.

-clean up the kitchen
-make coffee for the next day
-make sure there's laundry that's clean, even if it's not folded and put away
-pick up
-get the mail
-check some email
-MAYBE watch a show on the DVR since i'm running on fumes by this point.
-give the hubs some marital privileges.
-shower/bathe and go to bed.

I LIKE to be in bed by 9, normally won't happen until 10... and reading a chapter or two from a book would be nice too.

here's what else i would like to do
-clean my floors
-have everything put away
-vacuum
-dust
-fold and put away laundry
-actually follow through with marital privileges
-love the dogs (rather then despise the fact that they are in my house causing me more work)
-take said despised dogs on a walk so they are happier

Do you see where this is going? I know part of my problem is that i am NOT organized. I try to be, i know how to get there (briefly) but once i walk in that door and i have a clingy/crying baby, two dogs barking and jumping on me to feed them and let them out, A dinner screaming to be cooked, and heels begging to be released from my feet... it's all i can do to just get that done. I really just don't know where to put everything, how to organize it so that it stays that way. I mean what do i get rid of? I'm not a pack rat, i don't like keeping things just to keep it. But there's stuff EVERYWHERE! And please don't recommend flylady to me... she's crap... i don't care about polishing my kitchen sink, i just want to see it and know that it's not clogged.

This baby Language is something else!

So often times when we're playing with Kinsley we're constantly asking her to say "Mamma" or "Dada". Sometimes when she's signing she'll say "All done". and randomly she'll say Up. But that's pretty much the extent of her vocabulary. It's those random times that crack me up. The times where she says something that is so utterly appropriate for the situation, yet we just KNOW it was a miracle of jumbled baby gab coming together to make it SOUND like she was really saying something.

Like last night. She had finished eating her dinner and had signed "All Done" and "thank you" (because we always say thank you for our food once we're done eating) and something fell or something happened to make Cowboy ask a question along the lines of "what was that" and i swear ya'll it sounded just like Kinsley said "I did it"! Cowboy and I died in a fit of giggles. These moments happen all the time and NEVER when we prompt them.

Kinsley is 1 year and 16 days old and floors us with her moments every day.

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

Hey Ya'll, so remember when i was telling you about shutterfly and their super awesome christmas cards??? Well here is ours from them!

Awesome right? I just love them! I've received SO many compliments and since Kinsley is changing so fast it was so much fun to put her progression inside of it! Plus she just takes so many good pictures i don't know how i would have ever picked just one or two to share. I'm so happy with how these came out and will totally be using shutterfly again next year! Fast, cheap, and awesome! Just the way i like it!

These boots are made for walking

So Kinsley is out growing her Size 3 shoes AND she's gotten some pretty awesome clothes for her birthday, so this morning i attempted to put them all together. Not sure if it "works" but she looks pretty darn cute!

I'm thinking i should have gone with a different shoe choice but whateve~

 They are so flipping cute! No?

Love it! AND i got them 40% off! Oh  yea!
Dang i wish i was a cute as my daughter!

Damn Daycare!

So Santa visited my daughters daycare yesterday. I knew ahead of time that i needed to be there at 415 to witness this. They said he would be there at 430 but arrive at 415. Check, got it. I left work 30 minutes early and WHAM wrecks everywhere, you would have thought it was snowing or raining... THEN at least i would have known to leave even earlier. But no, nothing to predict this surge of completely incapable drivers so early in the rush hour. So after it took me 15 minutes to go TWO EXITS i called the daycare, for my sake and the sake of any other parents in the same predicament.

Me: "Hi, it's Breedwoman (name changed to protect the innocent, i have no idea why), OMG Traffic is TERRIBLE, is there any way to delay Santa."

Twit that answered the phone/runs the place/ruined my day: "Well i already got the call that he'll be here in about 25 minutes" (for the record that would put him getting there at 4:10... yea so 5 minutes early and 20 minutes before the "sit down").

Me: Oh no, I'm trying my best to get there! And I'm sure some other parents are too!

Hussy (OKay she's very nice, to my face... but OMG!): Well we'll walk him around and see what we can do.

Me: OKay! I'm trying to get there! I'm coming!

So i may or may not have broken numerous traffic laws by driving in the HOV lane with only me in the car and speeding my tail off, I refuse to say if i did these things. I got there at 4:19, jog into the daycare and they tell me the "news"
"OH NO! you JUST missed Kinsley!"

Are.you.f-ing.serious?!?!? I JUST missed her? Oh and i did, JUST miss it. They had Kinsley's class go first since they are the youngest. The next age group was just going. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! I CALLED YOU!!! You couldn't just let her wait?!?!? She wouldn't care if she didn't go at the same time as all of her classmates, she's ONE! You KNEW i was coming! You KNEW i wanted to see it! I wanted to witness the first time she freaked out seeing this huge Fat man in a red suit and fake beard for the first time!

So yeah, I'm PISSED off at her daycare. The daycare i do so much for. The daycare i buy donuts for, purchase books for, bring in gifts/meals/other stuff ON TOP of paying a freaking mortgage payment to! Yeah they just put a big ole BA HUMBUG up my ass!

We're international!

hey Ya'll, i have readers in OTHER COUNTRIES! For reals... i mean it could have been an accidental page load but WHOO WHOO! That's 4 accidental page loads from TWO European countries! So if you ARE, in fact, my international reader, HI! Thanks! Welcome! Have a glass of sweet tea and a piece of apple pie!

Speaking of international... i am NEVER not reminded of that fact that I'm a Southern Woman living in the north! I mean my last post alone is proof of that. Eyeliner, during the daytime, AT WORK! Unheard of you daytime, street walking, hussy! Yes it's true, unless you're throwing it on like a regular Marilyn Manson fan, it really just isn't done here so much.

Further proof? I feel the need to apologize when i don't make something from scratch (i have used a store bought pie crust, you ever tell anyone that fact i will deny it to my last breath) for a holiday party, yet everyone else will show up with their item still in the grocery store bag (Imagine, they don't even try to put it in their own Tupperware container to try to pretend that they made it)! One example of the south at its best... my good friend and neighbor (also from the south) brought cole slaw to my daughters birthday party and I know for a fact it was from Harris Teeter because I asked her to get it... yep, brought it to my house in a glass bowl... honey, they do not sell slaw in glass bowls! LOVE IT!

Lastly, when i was in the dollar store yesterday there was a Mom with two infants, one in a car seat, one strapped to her screaming for release. She had both babies and no less then 3 bags to carry... and I was the only one to offer to help her! After she sized up that i wasn't a baby snatcher she politely declined... while everyone else tried to ignore the fact that she was even there... AMAZING.

Teething Hell!

See that nose, that was this morning...

 See that smile sheer pissed off face of my toddler? yeah that was last night... in the middle of a teething hell episode.

This is what teething hell looks like. It's not pretty. It sucks. Her gums are HUGE, have been for a while. Because now we're waiting for molars. Seriously i'm about to become an oral surgeon! Get this damn tooth THROUGH! I don't know how much more of this i can take. Because EVERY.TIME. my kid is cutting a tooth her sinuses go haywire. I don't care what any "professional" says, teething causes runny noses, etc. It only/always happens when a tooth is coming in! No fever, just a nose full of nasty snot. Molar snot is the worst because it stays around longer since molars are a BITCH to come through.

please pray for us and that this will be over before Christmas!

Feel fat... so i look fat...

Have you let yourself get to the point where you look in the mirror and you don't like what you see so you just don't take the time you used to to look good? I'm not talking about that one time a month where you get dolled up... i'm talking about the other 30 days where you put on a t-shirt because it's less form fitting and you think it'll camouflage the rolls better. Where you spend less and less time with your hair using "lack of time" as an excuse. Where you don't put on your eye liner because there isn't anything special about today... well guess what? I've decided that TODAY IS SPECIAL. And tomorrow is Special and Friday, and Saturday...

You get it. Today is special because I will be looking in the mirror and my Sexy Northern Cowboy will be looking at me. Today is special because i have an awesome daughter and work with great people. Do i wish i were thirty pounds lighter? Hell yea! Is wearing t-shirts, putting my hair back, and not wearing my signature eyeliner going to make that fact go away? No! It's just going to keep me feeling bad about myself, so then i'll keep eating GOBS of food that i shouldn't and I'll keep being lazy and not meet my goal to jog the entire Cherry Blossom Run.

So i'm here to challenge you! Put on your heels, fix your hair, and smile that your eyeliner will always fit! You might not be going anywhere "special" but look good for your laundry, or your pet, or just yourself. Because if you keep waiting for "then" to happen you'll never wear your eyeliner again.

Today... a year ago

I talked about my darling Kinsley's little smile and face. And today was no exception. Despite the fact that cut her nose while trying to dig out wipe off all of her boogers, she still has the cutest face. She makes me Swoon!

Know what else makes me Swoon? A free gym. That's right kids... there's a FREE (as in NO MONEY) gym in the basement of my new building! I'm not kidding you! It has treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines, A SAUNA! LIES you say? No it's true! I just enjoyed my first torture training session for the 10 mile Cherry Blossom Run in April. Now I'm REALLY screwed since i really won't have an excuse since i can go down at lunch time and get some running in... don't have to go outside, or come in early, or wait until after work. I guess this is God's idea of a cruel joke helping me.

Anthropologie

One of my favorite blogs to read is having an Anthropologie gift card giveaway... My heart is swooning. I never win giveaways but I always enter because you can't win unless you try right?

Oh to win the giveaway! It would mean i could get something like this:
 So simple and versatile!

This... so comfy yet cute!~

Omg I'm getting a hot flash from the excitement!

I just died

I could get my summer/spring wardrobe ready!

Or i could get a new apron! YEAH, THAT is an apron! Oh i can just see myself baking now!

Or how about new measuring cups!

Or wouldn't this just look Fab in the kitchen holding my dish towels, etc?

OR new door knobs on the cabinets! SWOON!

OR new bowls!

Oh my lovelies... if only i could win this one time!

Terracotta Poo

So if you're a Mom (or Dad) you see a progression of your childs poo as they get older. You'll never forget certain milestones either. Like the first blowout, the first solid poo, the constipated poo, the poo seeds, the corn poo and the Terracotta poo. Wait, the terra-whata poo??? Yep the Terracotta poo. The day after Kinsley turned One she had a HORRENDOUS poo diaper. When i opened that bad boy up, screamed at the hubs that i couldn't breathe and then regained my composure, I say a big mushy pile of terracotta poo. I just thought WOW, we need to work on her diet. Days for junk has not done her poo good. I cleaned her up and by the end of the day her poo was starting to look normal again. Eh, fluke.

That is until the next day when MY poo did the same thing. And that's when i realized. Red icing gives you Terracotta Poo! Kinsley's birthday cake was a RED Elmo head. I ate a cupcake the next day that was red.

So yeah, ever want to freak out your spouse? Feed your kid red food coloring and then let nature take its course and make them change the poo diaper the next day!

I WANT A CHRISTMAS TREE!

This past Sunday (like a week ago) we went and chopped down our Christmas tree. Ever since we bought our house Chris and I have been chopping down a tree (well except for that one year when it was raining and the boyscouts charged us an arm and a leg but it's for a good cause right?) and we couldn't wait to do it with our little ankle bitter!

We tried to get a picture of her next to their sign... yeah, maybe next year.
"It's so cold but this is SOOO much fun Momma!"

"Wait for me Daddy, I'm going to tell you which one to cut!"

"Hmmm there's so many!"

"Are you getting it Daddy? Do you need my help?"

"Yep, good job. I like it."

"No Daddy I'm a big girl, i want to walk!"

Merry Christmas!~

12 months, wow that was fast!

WOAH! I know you blinked and month just FLEW by and here are the 12 month sticker shots... never, judge me... so i changed the bow and sticker and it's the same day. Enjoy the pictures and quit complaining!

Here is Kinsley doing what she does best... eating everything she gets in her hands.
Playing with the ever present babydoll... and a FANTASTIC shot of the most awesome birthday bow EVER, made by the one and only Princess Couture Designs (link on the left).

Bow change... why not. "Mom, this is not a PCD bow! I can't wear it!"

"I'm going to pull this out as soon as you turn around so just turn already"

"There you go, take this trash and get me my PCD bow ASAP!"

** the reviews of the products are my own sad sense of humor and were not (for obvious reasons) purchased by anyone... Kinsley simple just prefers to wear Princess Couture Design bows... the kid has good taste***

I am 11 months old

Hi I'm a big girl... I'm 11 months old....

And NO my Mom didn't just throw this sticker on and pretend it was my 11th month birthday for sake of the sticker photos

I really AM 11 months old.

I won't be a year old until tomorrow... shhhhh

Whatever, i mean you ARE seeing how out of control active this kid is right? I'm lucky i got these even done! Go ahead judge me!

Scrub a dub dub

This Baby is trying to get OUT of the tub!
Kinsley has been VERY difficult to bathe lately. She is walking ALL OVER the tub. Standing when we're trying to rinse her hair and now even trying to get OUT of the tub. Not because she doesn't LOVE her baths, but because she thinks it's funny.
"Hey Momma, put that thing down and help me out over here"

"Peace Daddy-o, i'm done with this bathing thing"

"Haha, I'm SOOO funny"

Yeah SOOO FUNNY kinsley... now get your little soapy tail back in there and get rinsed off!

No i REALLY did throw a baby shower!

Okay so i WAS waiting for more "professional" looking photos for ya'll to REALLY do justice to the awesomeness that i created... but i'm not sure when that will happen so you will have to make due with my sad photography skills. Maybe if you squint it'll help?

Here's part of the food table before the food arrived... Bandanas used for napkins!
Here's the totally awesome and first ever diaper cake i made! Oh and you'll notice the lables a made for food. They were blank until people got there because it was a "country potluck"

Gotta love some gifts... this table was OVERFLOWING once everyone showed up! So happy for the future Momma to be!

Sign hung in wrong place but whatever. "Chuck Wagon" sign for food. Also made a "Carter Scott" sign for Momma to be to keep.

I had cake stands and mini haybales to help the food be on different elevations for a nicer effect adn to fit more on the table!

The smaller jars were people's "thank you" gifts... Homemade cobbler!

The larger jars are cookies in a jar, used as prizes for the games. I put the instructions for finishing the cookies on the back of the large cream circle.

This is where i had the "thank you notes" for the guest to write their address on for the Momma to be so that she wouldn't have to find everyones address... the doggie bank is to help the little man get his savings started and his to keep.

A blurry shot of the kitchen (not ready yet). The Jars in the middle are for everyone to drink out of. I tied lables on the jars for the guest to write their names on so everyone would know who's drink is theirs.

Coffee and Tea station

If/When i get better pictures i'll let you know... until then... squint!