Tripp's Room

As you look through these pics remember that I haven't taken down Kaylen pictures yet or added Tripp's wall decor. The furniture is in place and painted. So all we have left to do are the walls and a rug. We even cleaned out the closet in this room which still had boxes from the move in it. We found a lot of things we had been missing! ha! The room is really long and so we are leaving a full size bed in there... for our guests (aka my parents). I also think it will be nice for the nighttime feedings... I will just get in that bed! Well, let me know what you think so far! I am going to try to post more today... I have a lot to post on.

Days of Dress Up

Princess Kaylen and her Kitty. She loves to play in her dress up clothes. She has started calling Allen a prince. It is so stinking cute!

This is Kaylen's outfit of choice and she has her "Hannah Ontana" doll. This little gal has quite a loud voice... and I am referring to Hannah Ontana. When you push her belly button she sings the same song over and over again. Kaylen loves it and will dance and sing along. A star in the making...

Furniture Change Up

This first piece is Tripp's changing table. Sorry there isn't a before to go along with it. It used to be Kaylen's and it was Cherry. Now it is black. The attached items are a preview of his room decor. As soon as I hang the curtain rod, I will show you the window treatments. I still need to paint the bed and then put it all together. I have extra furniture in there that needs a new home. It will get there... eventually!

This is Kaylen's new nightstand. I still need a new handle for the bottom drawer but that is a minor detail.

Here is her new dresser. I think it looks so good in the room. Very shabby chic. It goes with the look of her room so much more than her previous dresser. I am so glad we switched it up. She loves the pink knobs. The coolest part about it is that this was Allen's great granpa's or something like that. So it has been in his family for a really long time. Also, please notice the contact paper that was put on the top of the dresser some time in the 70's. It was almost impossible to get off. I didn't think it was ever going anywhere but with lots of sanding it finally disappeared. I still need to paint her bed as well. It is a 4 poster bed and I can't wait for it to all be completed.

Gatlinburg Preview

We had a great time in Gatlinburg. The trip down was not all that great since I was the second in our group of three to get a speeding ticket. Bottom line is that I was speeding... and I got caught. My fault. Anyway, moving on... We got there and settled in to our place the first day. I immediately started to feel bad upon arrival... it didn't dawn on me until the second day that I was staying in a log cabin completely made of pine and I am allergic to pine. That explains it! But the cabin was beautiful. There were three floors and both the balconies overlooked the man-made ski slope. We could watch the skiers come down the mountain while relaxing in our hot tub. (Well, I just dipped my feet in while everyone else enjoyed a dip. I must say... I froze but my company was great! Friday we got up and went tubing. Jonah loved it. He was the only one of the kids who did. Kaylen and Rylie weren't so sure about how fun the event actually was. The adults all enjoyed it and we just took turns watching the kids so that everyone could tube. After tubing the guys went skiing and the kids went back to the cabin. That night the girls went out and the husbands stayed home with the kids. It was nice for the three of us to get some hang time in. We walked the strip and found the best cd's of children's songs like Jesus Loves Me with their names substituted in. Kaylen's fav is Jesus Loves the Little Children. I can't even begin to describe how many syllables it takes Kaylen to say Children. What a little southerner! Anyway, Saturday was jam-packed with a morning at the Aquarium and an afternoon at the Dixie Stampede. The kids loved everything we did this day. Sunday we ate at a pancake house and went to the outlets. Here is a video of Kaylen enjoying the pre-show at the Dixie Stampede:



More pictures to come!!!

Headed to Gatlinburg...

I know, I haven't posted in a while. I have been ultra busy lately. We are leaving for Gatlinburg in the morning with the Foxes and the Carlisle's. I am sooo excited for this trip. I know that Kaylen is going to have the best time ever! She is always asking if Jonah or Rylie can play with her so 4 days of having them around is going to be heaven for her. Some things on the agenda: 1. If snow still exists (i know, doubtful but we are hopeful) we will let the kids go tubing. I found a snowbib for $5 at Marshall's... yahoo!!! 2. We are looking into a Petting Zoo that has pony rides. 3. The aquarium. 4. an indoor waterpark. (I know, the thought of me in a bathing suit scares me too... but it's for the kids!) 5. maybe a dinner show and I am sure much, much more! We are all staying in a big house together so this should be tons of fun all around.

Kaylen was cracking me up last night so I thought I would share one quick story. We have a washcloth that looks like a duck (think puppet). His name is Quacker. So Quacker is allowed to nibble K's arms, legs and toes but not bite because we don't bite. (This really does make getting her clean easier). Last night we had some bubbles come up in the water and so Quacker (a.k.a. mommy) asked what that was. She explained that it was the tooter monster. So Quacker asked her who that was and she said it was the monster that comes out of her booty. ahhh... kids.

Well, I will be back next week with lots of pictures and stories. Have a great weekend!!!

Crafty Ideas for Kids

I am about to enter craft overload. I have so many things I want to do and if I don't get all of Kaylen and Tripp's furniture painted, these project ideas will never leave my head. A while back I made a t-shirt for Kaylen that had a bird on it. I gave her 4 options and she chose the one she wanted. It really did turn out cute and was extremely easy to do. So I have been thinking of doing more. This made me want to share where I get my inspiration from. http://www.rosenberryrooms.com I love this site. Of course their stuff is extremely expensive but for ideas... the images are great! (Ashley, I saw a lot of really cute, shabby chic bunnies) Here are some of the ones I am thinking of creating something with:

These 5 images are onsie/nightgown and burp cloth ideas I have for Tripp.






These next 4 our for Kaylen:
The dog is a t-shirt idea... She and Muggs have become great buddies at home. (well, she likes him but I am not so sure how he feels about her)

The next two images I was thinking of recreating on canvas for her room. She loves to dance and we are about to look in to putting her in dance classes. I can't decide which one. I think I lean more towards the one of the girl in puppy dog ears facing away from us. What do you think?


This is also a t-shirt idea.



Anyway, the site is cool and I get a lot of inspiration from it... thought I would share!!!

Update

My pictures for this post are above. I have been working on this photobook for Kaylen for weeks now. It was a ton of work and I am not always happy with all of the design elements but it is what it is... done. I really hate her birthday page. I did that a long time ago and didn't have any good embellishments or papers. In hindsight I might have written more often but this is a learning process. I am about to do a San Fran book from our trip last summer. I am making this one all about the images. Totally on a black background. Clean. Crisp. Easy.

I have entered into quite a busy time right now. (Hence the lack of posts)Last weekend was a leadership retreat with our church and it was nice to be in on the goings on and things to come. I love our church and think we are doing some pretty amazing things. This weekend is the High School Retreat - very different than the weekend before. We will be staying in cabins (they are really nice though), having campfires, low ropes course, horseback riding (canceled due to soggy ground), and end of the night devo's from me at 11:45 pm! Oh, and I am leading an art project. I really hope it goes okay because I don't know that I want to be leading anything. Oh well. I am going to put it in God's hands that all will go well. It should be a fun and jam-packed weekend. I am already tired from a late night at a Gaither Vocal Band Concert?!?! Who knew it would still be going strong at 10:30?!? I don't know what time it was actually over because we left so that I could get my toddler in bed by 11pm. I would have never thought that a concert that started at 7 would last so long! Especially one that the average attendee age was roughly 77.

Some things Kaylen has been doing. She has been surprising me lately. Some things she looks at and can read. Like her towel said I (heart) Daddy and she asked me, "Mommy, why does my towel say I love Daddy?" That shocked my socks off! Not only did she read the word Daddy but she inferred that the heart meant love. Smart gal! And lately when I read she wants me to show her where the words are coming from. So I have to put my finger under where I am reading at. She is following along! I know, I am a momma and so that is why I am so proud of my little one but I wanted to write about those things on here so that I wouldn't forget when she's older. Oh, and she went to a UAH basketball game with her grandparents and ended up dancing center court, by herself, to the music. We got many calls and texts telling us about it. Alle said he wished he could have seen it and I reminded him that if we were there he would have never allowed it to happen. He agreed. She is such a sweetheart right now. Very much in to being a helper and is so loving. At night she will ask me to pray for her school. So I do and here is how it goes: Lord, please help Kaylen to obey her teachers (I will)and to share with her friends (I do that. I will) and to obey her Mamaw and Papaw and Mommy and Daddy (I will. I do that, Mommy. I will)... you get the point. But she specifically wants me to pray for those things and wants to let me know that she will do that. It is too cute. We have been pretty successful with the new sleep routine. She is doing great with going to bed in her own bed and comes in our room during the night about 50% of the time.

Everyone have a good weekend... see you back here next week! Oh, let me know what you think about K's book.

What is with all of the upcoming boys?!?!

Okay...I am going to keep a running tally of all the babies I know of that are due out this summer. So far, I don't know of one girl! Surly one will creep into the mix. I will just update this as more people find out.

List so far:
Christy (co-worker): Boy
Me: Boy
Kyllie (previous neighborhood friend): Boy
Connie(friend): Boy
Amy(friend): just had a boy
Ashley (previous neighborhood friend): GIRL!!! :)
Whitley (5th cousin and close friend): Boy
Tara (co-worker): BOY
Updated due to the girls coming out of the woodworks:
Ange (college friend): girl
Jess N (college roommate): ?????
Leslie (old trainer): girl
Michelle R (college friend): girl
Tiffany (previous neighborhood friend): girl

I am sure I am forgetting someone. If you can think of others who are expecting... add them to the list! This is sort of a fun survey.

Dance!

Kaylen is so into dancing these days. Here is a sampling of her most recent moves:

Kaylen is 3!!! Happy Birthday!

We had a Snowflake birthday this year. I really didn't get great pictures of it - sadly. I do have lots of video so all is not lost. My camera battery died and so I charged it briefly and that didn't really work. It took pictures but they were blurry because my camera was running slow. Anyway... this is what I do have to show you:



A few highlights from the day: We had 4 little friends - Rylie, Jonah, Andrew, and Andrew. There were also some younger babies in attendance - Jack and Joseph (making his debut for me). We had lots of family there as well. My aunt and her kids even came from Memphis. It was a great success. The kids created snow globes and then played in the "snow" pit. I had bubble makers running and a big pit full of packing peanuts. There were snowflakes everywhere and my garage will be forever glittered. I think it really adds something anyway. I had lots of help from family members all week and this wouldn't have happened without all of them. Some of them took all my Christmas decorations down and put them away and others cleaned, cooked, and decorated. Also a big thank you to Snow White, Cinderella and Ariel. Those three made it to the party and made my little girl's day! I will say that I am already planning to not have her party at my house next year. I think every other year of ridiculous planning is a good idea. It was all worth it and my little princess had a blast. That's all that matters! Love you, Kaylen!

Random Christmas

In the first two images we are having Christmas openings with different families. Kaylen just wanted to open presents. She honestly didn't care all that much what was inside. She just liked to open them. Allen and I (as well as many other family members) let her open all of our gifts as well.


I did one sewing project over the break (that was long overdue). I finally made curtains for the downstairs living room and eat-in areas. I went simple but I think they do their job.


This last shot is just a cute one of Kaylen modeling one of her gifts. Our families got so much for Kaylen. She has more toys than I have room for in my house. I have got to get organized!!!!

Christmas Morning

Kaylen loved everything but her stocking was her favorite. Thus all the pictures of her with it. She took each and every item out one at a time. It felt like Mary Poppin's bag as she s-l-o-w-l-y got everything out. She kept her stocking in tact with some added articles until I put all Christmas decorations away. I had to put it up when she wasn't looking! The little things!



This video is funny because it is a sampling of things she got for Christmas... a shirt, vest, no pants, and a crown. She is dancing so much these days. This isn't anywhere near what she can do. I will have to work on capturing some of her real dance moves and showing you later.

Christmas Eve Activities

We made cookies for Santa as a family after we got back from church. It was really fun because Kaylen could really get involved with everything. She had the best time. Here she is cutting out her basic shapes.

Next we made the icing and Kaylen and her daddy licked the beaters.

She can do it all by herself, Daddy!

She let me know what she wanted to tell Santa in her letter to him. So here is the finished product from all of that. I may have taken over a bit on the icing. I am still not brave enough to give her full reign with something so messy.

And after all of that... here is all that Santa left for Kaylen! She must have been a really good girl this year!

Christmas Pics

I know this is so late but I am playing catch up. It took us a while to get presents wrapped this year. And I dont get on my computer when I am not at school. So there will be many posts today. Here is our tree and gifts all ready for Christmas!


The last of the decorations to be organized. This is always Allen's thing. He arranges the nativity scene. I think it is either because he was actually there and remembers where everyone was or that he is totally OCD about things like that. You decide! ;)

This next picture is of the outdoor playhouse that Santa dropped off for us early so that we could put it together for him. We started early in the day but since we live in Seattle all of the sudden... it started raining. So I had to drag those heavy boxes and Allen had to carry that basic structure in to the garage. I will attest to the heaviness of the cedar wood.

This picture needs an explanation. I asked Allen to give me a visual of how he thought our progress was going. ha! I will say we were up until 4:45 am finishing up. ugh!

Here we all are about to go to church. I love Kaylen's face in this picture!

Survey says:

Someone asked the name... yes I am sharing... and yes we do know. So I thought I would share on here. Jeffry Allen Wilson III (obviously I didn't have much input on this) Allen really wants to name this baby after his dad and I am fine with that. So there you go. We will be calling him Tripp Wilson. I do like that very much. Very athletic sounding, I think. ;)

Opryland Pictures

These sunglasses were a big hit all weekend. She wanted to wear them inside, outside, daytime, night time... all the time! This was on our trip to Nashville... and also the only time my flash worked. :(

She always loves a ride on the Merry-Go-Round!

Okay... her lips are so pink in this pic because of horrible lighting. This was also right after her tango with the pavement so that bottom lip is rather fat. We were practicing for our Santa picture and I was really afraid that this is what we were going to get. Her lip felt funny so she was smiling oddly. Thankfully she got over it for the real thing.

This picture is illegal. I got in trouble for taking a picture inside the little area. She looks like she was trying to get away but she wasn't. She was just getting up in his lap.

This pic was extremely dark from not having a flash. Shocker! But it was the only family shot we got all weekend... so it will have to do!

Opryland

Most of you know that we go to Opryland Hotel every year during the Christmas season. We do this with Allen's parents and his aunt and uncle. It is one of my favorite trips because I can get most of my Christmas shopping done in one weekend... in theory. It is starting to shape up as more of a fiasco each year. I still do love going and look forward to it. My poor daughter is going to have nightmares about the place! Here's the story:

We get there on Saturday and head straight for the Louise Mandrel Dinner Show. It was really nice. Calm and pleasant. We head for our rooms and get some shut eye. The next day we get up, do breakfast and head to the mall. I got lots of shopping done during this time but my feet and legs were absolutely killing me by the end (2:30ish). So we head for our trek back to the hotel (we walk back and forth between the mall and the hotel because parking is a nightmare otherwise). Kaylen is sooo tired and we are going to see Santa at the hotel so I don't want her to fall asleep. We held her for a while and then let her walk. She was skipping and dancing to some music... started going a little too fast... and you guessed it... ate concrete. This is her third year to go to Opryland and her third bloody lip! And do you remember the part where we were headed for Santa pictures? Oh well... memories! :)

I must say that incident didn't deter her from enjoying Santa. We went to the room, got cleaned up and changed into our Santa attire and went to the "North Pole". She happened to be the only one visiting him at 4 on Sunday (what we were hoping for). So she went up to see him and she was soooo excited. She told him that she wanted a big playhouse for outside (she is actually getting one... we have been feeding her ideas for weeks). Santa said he would have to take it apart to fit it on the sleigh and put it together at her house. She said, "Otay". Then she told him she wanted a princess library. Anyway, she was in awe. She hugged him and at the end she said, "I wud u, Fanta" Melt my heart!!! He said, " I love you too, Cinderella". He had been calling her that because he told her she looked like a princess. Anyway, I got a little misty-eyed. She even smiled so pretty for the shot and we got a good one, despite the fat lip! I have to say that was the definite highlight of the trip for me.

We went to dinner that night and then Allen and I stayed at the mall to do a little last minute shopping. Kaylen spends one night with us and one with Jeff and Aline. This was their night. Apparently, she had caught a little virus at some point because she woke up at 3 am puking. Then she woke up again in the morning, with the same misfortune. So then Allen went and bathed her and brought her over to me and we got her ready and went to breakfast. She couldn't hang with us so Allen took her back to the room and we brought his food to him. We packed up and checked out. While we were in the lobby trying to get some bill issues settled, she threw up again... all over the floor in the lobby. There was a guy sitting right beside us and I told him how sorry I was and how I wouldn't blame him if he wanted to move. He didn't. I would have! Anyway, she slept the majority of the way home (with a brief stop at Build-A-Bear... even a sickness couldn't keep her away and she made a Hello Kitty).

Okay...so Muggsley got his yearly shots while being boarded at the vet. He has never had any problems with having his rabies and distempo parvo (or whatever they call that) shots together. This time was different... we got him home, a little while later we let him outside and we didn't notice he looked any different. When he came back inside... it was like Hitch. His face was all swollen and splotchy as was the rest of his body. His mouth looked like hooch. I wish I would have taken pictures. It was nuts! So we had to take him to the vet again and they gave him a few shots to help with the swelling and discomfort. Poor guy! He is better now.

I am personally exhausted because I have an issue with not being able to fall asleep until everyone is in bed. I know, my problem. I can't help it. I really don't think about the fact that Allen is still awake but I can not, no matter how hard I try, fall asleep until he is in the bed. And even then, it takes a while. Anyway, his bedtime last night... 12:40!!!!!!! What in the world?!?!? So then I was so mad at him for being so unthoughtful that I couldn't sleep... I saw 1:30 last night. Of course he was sound asleep when I left the house. I did make him get up for a bit but he was back snoozing before you knew it! So if I am cranky today... it is because I am severely sleep deprived!

Pictures to come tomorrow but with a warning... my flash is messed up on my camera... don't know what the problem is but I am sooo sad!

My Doctor's Visit

Yesterday I went for my 4 month check up and it was a little odd to me. I laid down to listen to the baby's heartbeat and the tech had an extremely hard time finding a heartbeat at all. I mean at least 5 minutes. She started searching, couldn't find anything. Got more jelly, searched some more... still nothing. Finally decided to switch machines, still nothing. By this time I was beginning to accept the fact that I had lost the baby. She got more jelly and continued to search. She finally found the heartbeat... any guesses where? Right on my right hip bone. So am i literally carrying my baby in my butt?!?!?! Only kidding but is that not an odd placement for a baby? I guess a baby can be anywhere but that can't be normal. Here is the heartbeat progression(8weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks): 164, 155, 141. What are the predictions for my little hide-n-seeker? Speaking of that, I scheduled my anatomy scan for Jan. 5 at 11am! One month away!! My sister will be in town so she will get to come with us. If you think about it, I have been really nervous that something isn't right with this baby... don't know why... but just pray that I will have peace.

Christmassey Kaylen

Kaylen is really getting into the Christmas Season. She is so excited about hearing about baby Jesus, Santa Clause and all of the Christmas songs. It has really been fun. The only thing she isn't excited about is Christmas decorations. I haven't had her say she likes them yet. Any time I ask if any of the decorations are pretty she says no! Oh well. I absolutely love her Christmas dress this year. She looks so grown up! Thanks to her Aunt Christy (she gets her a Christmas dress every year)for her beautiful dress this year!
Oh, and she would not look at the camera or smile for any of the pics this year... for our Christmas card family pic we took about 100 shots before we got one that worked! And these individuals were about the same for her. UGH! Most of the time she wants a pic of her taken and she smiles perfectly but not that day! I thought Allen was going to come unglued! He was getting so mad at her and then he would yell at her and say things like, "If you don't look at the camera and smile I am going to spank you!" Then she would start crying and we would have to stop everything and comfort her into a happy mood again. It was a rollercoaster! I just kept laughing because he was getting so frustrated and the more upset he got, the worse she got. It really was quite classic. Anyway, I am not posting my card pic... you will have to wait until they come in the mail!! :)

Christmas Decor

I am nowhere near done decorating my house for Christmas. It has been a crazy week and I caught a bug yesterday that kept me in the bed so sick all day yesterday. Anyway, here is where we are right now: