Wednesday, December 21, 2011

3-party Saturday

Our 3-party Saturday turned into a two party Saturday because Van had to work most of the day. I just didn't want to do 3 by myself with a napless baby. So we stayed home for the middle party.

The first stop was a birthday party for our sweet new friend Evie. It was fun meeting their family and celebrating a sweet girl.



The second party (which we opted out of) was a birthday party for our little friend Romey. While we didn't go, I did have the honor of making the birthday cake. It was a lot of fun to make and I was very pleased with how it turned out.



The third party was our community group Christmas party. K stayed with my mom, so we got to be childless for the night. We had a great game of Dirty Santa complete with a light-up caroler. It was quite creepy looking. Great job Parker! It went home with Josh (a college student), and he already had plans for whose room it would grace first. After the present exchange we had a bonfire where we lost all of the young-uns (hard to swallow that I am one of the oldies) and the oldies sat around talking for a while. It was a nice relaxing time.



I tried to get some Christmas pictures

Sooo, I've been on pinterest and found some cute ideas for taking pictures of kiddos, of course I had to try to get some of my baby. As a side note, a lot of people talk about how pinterest is sucking all of their time, but I must admit that it saves me time. I used to spent time browsing blog after blog for ideas, but now pinterest has put it all in one nice, neat place for me. So for me pinterest is a time saver.

Here are a few of my favorites...






I don't know if you can tell, but I got a new camera. I'm trying to figure out how to use it, but in the meantime, I'm taking approximately 200 pictures a day in hopes of getting a good one.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

A 2-party Saturday


Last Saturday started with the bad hair day and bath. It was necessary that she look her best because we were about to spend the day at parties. (well, at parties and driving to parties)

First on the agenda was our Bethany adoption group Christmas party hosted by the Addisons. It was a good time of food, fellowship, and a book swap. The rest of the group headed to a parade, but we had to head to our second party--what can I say, we are in high demand.

Enjoy the pictures and please note the hair. I thought it looked exceptionally good that day.







We left Arlington to head to Holly Springs for an engagement party. No pictures from there. It was dark. This coming Saturday is a 3-party Saturday, gotta love the holidays!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A failed hair attempt and the bath that followed


Has anyone noticed how clever I am at titling these posts? Just wondering...

You may remember coils from a few months ago. They were adorable, and we got so many compliments on them that I just knew we had to do them again. We had several events this past weekend, so I figured that would be the perfect time. There is no point in spending an hour on her hair if no one is going to see it, right?

So, Friday afternoon after she woke up from her nap we got started. She really did great and didn't cry until the very end. Even then it was only because she was tired of sitting in the bumbo. How I will do her hair when she outgrows the bumbo, I'm a little concerned about. One of my hair blog ladies actually bought a styling chair for their house; like a beauty shop chair, really! I digress... She was doing great, but VERY wiggly, which was making it harder. AND her hair is significantly longer than the last time I did it. AND I'm pretty sure the ends need a trim because they are incredibly frizzy and not curly like the rest of her hair (I'm not ready to cut her hair yet though so that is the end of that discussion). As I was doing it I knew that it wasn't looking like I wanted it to, but I held out hope that once it was all done it would magically look great. There also seemed to be a problem with those frizzy ends, they wouldn't make a nice coil, they just kind of stuck out at the end, but I just globbed a bunch of product on it and forced it to curl. In the end it wasn't what I had dreamed, but it didn't look awful.


At least not yet. The next morning, those ends that I had "forced" to curl had usurped the product and were sticking out everywhere, not to mention the frizz. It looked BAD! K didn't mind too much though, because that just meant she got an extra bath. Don't worry I didn't shampoo her hair again, just used conditioner so that it didn't hurt when I took the coils out. I don't think I'll be trying those again anytime soon. Stay tuned though, to see how her hair ended up for the weekend. It was SUPER easy and pretty adorable, although she's pretty adorable anyway.


Enjoy the pics of our little splasher. She loves her bath!


Saturday, December 3, 2011

A Fayetteville Visit


We headed over to Fayetteville for the AR/TN game with the fam. It was baby girl's first trip to Van's very most favorite place. He had fun showing her around and showing her off.


Although I think pushing a stroller around campus was a little weird for him. What can I say, his life has changed since he lived there...




Oh and in case you were wondering, the Hogs won...big time!

Thankful--Nov. 30

A few random things I'm thankful for:

  • our community group
  • our dog, even though he sheds all over my house, I wouldn't trade him
  • the doctor who MADE Van stay home from work when he was sick, if only the doctor could make him actually rest
  • friends who challenge me to be more thoughtful and intentional just by hanging out with them (ahem, Kat, ahem)
  • A warm house in the cold.
  • The little bit of snow that was fun to watch fall, but didn't make a mess.
  • Neighborhood kids that come by just to say hi.
  • Friends who make adorable adoption announcements--Petit Four Prints

Thankful--Nov. 29

I'm thankful for dates nights with my husband, and I'm thankful he makes them a priority!

Thankful--Nov. 28

I am thankful for friends who will watch my baby. My friend, Sarah, and I do a baby swap every week. I watch both babies one day, she watches them the other so that we have time to run errands or just have a little time to ourselves. It is so great to be able to leave my girl with someone who loves her. Thanks Sarah!

Thankful--Nov. 27

I am thankful for our church home Fellowship Memphis.

Thankful--Nov. 26

Christmas trees and good return policies.

Last year the middle strand of lights went out on our pre-lit Christmas tree, so we decided that it would be the perfect time to start getting real trees. However, when we really began to think about all of the work a real tree entails, we decided it was more trouble than its worth until Karis can enjoy it.


We went shopping for a new tree. After a few stops we settled on one and brought it home to get it put up.


I took lots of pictures of our girl with her first Christmas tree, only this one didn't turn out to be hers.


She seemed concerned about how it was going to become a tree.


Once we got it up we found a problem, the middle strand of lights was out on this one too. The problem with this is that not only would we have to get the thing back into the tiny box it came in, but it was 8:00 at night (very close to closing time) and raining like crazy. We really wanted to get our tree together though.

Van worked for probably and hour to try and get those crazy lights to work (K went to bed) and then finally decided to just take it back. He took it back and returned with an unlit tree; we have learned our lesson on the pre-lit variety, at least this way its easy to replace if a strand goes out. We got it put together and then called it a night.

Van spent a lot of time on Sunday putting on the lights (apparently the lights are the man's job in his family, and who am I to argue!), and we put on the ornaments--my favorite part! I love that ornaments are a yearly walk down memory lane. That's why I like for trees to just be traditional and not perfect, I just want it to be about the family time and memories.


We finally finished it on Monday when I put on some ribbon and Van and K added the star. I'm considering adding some garland with lettering on it, but that would require me finishing a project, so probably not.



I am thankful for Christmas trees and the memories and warmth that they bring to a home. Just one more reason why this time of year is so magical.