My big girl

got her first haircut today.
She's been so excited, it's been all she could talk about for the past week -- as you can tell by her blurry excited little toes.

Now my child no longer looks homeless, but I can't get over how grown up she is.
{Sigh}
Look at those little side swiped bangs.

Mr. Postman...

should be delivering these to your door soon!

Remember this little giveaway?
Well, I finally got my big bad self to the post office. The prizes have been done for weeks...why is it so hard to get to the post office? Oh yeah, maybe because my 2 year old thinks the stamps I buy there are stickers and that the packaging materials with Mickey Mouse on them are her birthday presents.

Hope you winners enjoy! I had a lot of fun sewing for ya.

Christmas in July

I just finished my first set of Christmas presents.

Yeah yeah, it's July, but have I told you I've had a lot of time on my hands lately? I've been doing a lot of reading {any good book suggestions would be appreciated} and a lot of sewing. I figured, why not get a jump on Christmas, right? With the baby coming in November I'm thinkin' I won't have a lot of time to make gifts and such, and homemade gifts are my fave.

Wanna know what else is my new fave?
Kiddo aprons with matching chef hats.

Pretty darn adorable if I do say so myself.

I really want to get Mckinlay a play kitchen this year. And know that she has the apron and hat, it's pretty much a done deal.

Wanna make one too?
chef hat
apron

Now to decided which one to keep and which one to give away....

Who wants to go with me?

Ty would rather die a million deaths than go to this.
{I think it's a dislike for Julie Andrews.
He feels the same about The Sound of Music.}
But plays are so much better than movies!

There's no convincing.It's playing now through August 9th and I really wanna go!

I have a super comfy air mattress calling your name, so come visit me and we'll go together, OK?

"My favorite and my best!"

The weather said today was gonna be a yuckie weather day. We needed a plan, so I decided it was high time we had a tea party. We've been reading a lot of books about tea parties and Mckinlay was pretty excited about the idea.

She woke up saying,
"We get to have my tea party today?"

We spent the morning preparing. We showered and painted nails. Then we went to the store to get a "sparkley drink" and a special treat. We came home and got all our party food ready then went up stairs to "get fancy". Mckinlay choose my outfit and accessories and then we did our make up.

As we walked down the stairs to have out party Mckinlay says, "You look so beautiful Mommy!" Trust, me I did.
{Sidenote: I just KNEW someone was going to stop by our house, which never happens might I add, while I was dressed so lovely, green eyeshadow and "Grandma Hallstrom" orange/red lips. I was right. Luckily we had just finished out party and I had at least wiped off the lipstick already. Figures, right!?}

We had a yummy "tea" complete with finger sandwiches, fruit and lots of yummy treats. Don't worry, there was plenty of saying "cheers!" and clinking our fancy glasses of Sunkist Orange tea, I mean soda.
BTW, when did Sunkist start having caffeine in it!? Didn't realize that 'til it was too late. I might be regretting this tea party come later today!
"This tea is so good. Can I have more?"
She drank a lot.

All through the morning while we were prepping for the party Mckinlay kept saying "This is so fun!" But best of all was the chocolate moose cups. Right after I snapped the picture of her eating it she says:

"This is my favorite and my best."


Well babe, you are my favorite and my best.

It's a "double mallow day!"

1) Ty passed the Medical Boards!!!
Thank you to everyone who prayed and prayed that he would just pass!

Not only did he pass, but he did really well!
{And we were so nervous...}

That's my boy.

2) My {not so} little brother got his mission call!

Louisiana, Baton Rouge Mission
{Hooray for the deep south and the bayou!}
He reports to the MTC on October 7.
So excited for you Tyler!

And all of this good news happened on Maddle's birthday!
{Happy birthday Maddle!!!}

Mustache anyone?

Art supplies are on sale this week at Target.
We picked some up yesterday.
{Can't imagine why we'd be out of paint!?}

Today we spent the morning doing this:

{click to enlarge}

As usual was sent out a batch of drawings and painting to lucky recipients. If anyone can get me "Barbie Rapunzel's" address, I'd be much obliged.

Baby Eli.

Meet our new nephew.

What a doll.

We love you Brennan, Alli and Addy and are so excited to meet him!
Hooray that we live so close!

2 1/2 today.

This morning, while I was making breakfast, the little girlins found the birthday candles. She is obsessed with birthdays. Every time we see anything she wants {from Popsicle, to princess balloons, to rubber gloves, to toys} she says "Get those for my birthday?" If I get her all the things I've said "OK" to, we're gonna have to move to a bigger house. Anyway, so as she asked if we could use the candles for her birthday, I realized today is her 1/2 birthday!

So we had a 1/2 birthday party.

It's all she could talk about.
"Is it time for my party now?"

She pulled out a bag of "magic ribbons" so she could "get ready for my party!"

We had a lot of fun.

Happy 1/2 birthday to my little babe!
Where has the time gone!?

When you leave the house at 5am...

you call your wife at 6 am and ask her to run you a matching shoe.

At first, "the good Dr." thought one of his legs was suddenly shorter than the other,
then he realized he was wearing two different shoes.

I really should have taken a side view of these shoes, because the black hospital shoes have a slight heal on them. I can't stop giggling thinking about him hobbling around the hospital.

{Maybe I should stop blogging about it, and hurray and run him the shoe already!?}

What we do when it's raining buckets.

It all started out innocently enough...

Then she decided she was done with hand and foot prints and wanted to move on to something bigger and better.


She did it once, then I had her recreate it.
Maybe I shouldn't have encouraged her.

The final work of art.

Actually, one of many. She had enough paint on her to make several prints. Then she kept reapplying...

And you wonder why she paints in her "nakie-noodies."