Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Caroline's First Halloween

As I get older I like Halloween more.  This year we went crazy at the salon with spider webs across the ceiling, bats flying out of registers, and ghosts galore!  It was so much fun decorating and I really liked hearing the reactions from our clients. Really wish I took a picture, but I totally forgot. 


This was my little bean's first Halloween, and believe or not, I didn't know what she was going to be until the 31st!  First a ladybug, but the costume was too tight on her little chubby booty.  But luckily, my wonderful Aunt Jackie had just bought her an adorable pink kitty outfit.  So she was the cutest little cat ever!  My mom told me to draw whiskers on her and it made the outfit. 

Ethel Edith

My sisters & I have started a new side business.  We love to go junking & repurpose furniture into new treasures for our own homes, and have been doing it for years.  We have recently decided that we have so much fun that we should do it together as a business.  Our mom, Janie, used to do this exact same thing and has passed the gene onto us!

Our store is proudly named Ethel Edith in honor of our Grandma, Ethel Edith "Toots".  Please check out and follow our blog & etsy shop.  We're very excited to share with you as we find new treasures!  We expect to have a spring show in 2010 so stay tuned!

Monday, September 28, 2009

love love love

it's that time of year again. time for jeans and sweatshirts, pumpkins and mums. i love fall so much. it's, what i believe, as the most beautiful time of year. the trees are gorgeous, the weather is wonderful, and the smells are delicious. yum, hot apple pie. i'm making some for our after dinner treat, aka: dessert. i hate to bake though, so i have store bought crusts and a jar of apples that my grandma toots prepared. you can't argue that an 85 year old woman can't make some great apples for pie! i have her recipe for crusts, but i feel like have a huge vat of crisco to make pies once in awhile is pointless. once caroline is old enough to help, then i'll make crusts. i love that memory with my mom. we always got to make the extra crust in to a mini pies inside a jar lid. it was awesome. i have so many crafty memories with my mom, i can't wait to make them with caroline.


speaking of crafty-ness. i am missing it badly. i am surrounded by so many artsy and crafty people, it's bringing me down. not really, but i do really miss it. i wish i had an extra room where i could set everything out all the time. that is the only thing that holds me back. i don't want to drag everything out, to put it all up in a hour once the baby needs attention. caroline is not the reason for my lack of crafting, i mean my friend jillian is rocking out headbands left and right with a 2 month old. maybe it's lack of space and time, but mostly space. i am inspired by numerous things, but just can't seem to express them through art. casey is making beautiful necklaces and jillian amazing headbands. i just can't craft like that. i'm more of a paper person, not scrapbooking(though i do love that), but more of layering and mod-podge and glitter and ribbons. i like weird things like, fairy jars and cigar box houses. i guess i need to stick to that craft. the things i love vs. things i could sell for money. i just need time and space. anyone have any to spare?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Meet Miss Caroline JoAnn




Born August 20th, 2009 at 1:19am. She was 8lbs 8oz and 21 3/4 in long.

She's absolutely perfect. She looks like her daddy from the nose up and mommy from the nose down. She is beautiful and we're so blessed to have such a precious baby girl.

She is doing wonderful at night. She sleeps 2 1/2 to 3 hours. She eats, poops, and goes right back to sleep in her crib.

Kylie went back to work today, we are both sad, but so far so good.

Well time to feed her and get her ready for her day of company.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

the final countdown

7 days left til miss caroline is due. i can't believe it has gone by so fast. it seems like it was christmas day yesterday, and now time is beginning to drag. i am so ready to have her here and to be "basketball" less. i live for the day to move freely again :) it's so worth it though. she's going to be healthy and beautiful, i just know it.

this has been a super busy week. i'll give you a run down-

monday: got up and cleaned the house, then went to the dr. i was hoping for really great news like"you're dilated to a 4 and we want to induce you tomorrow!" but that was a huge DREAM. still dilated to 1, but 80% effaced. so that was a bonus, plus i LOST one pound! amazing, i know.

tuesday: went to work from 10-2 for my last day. i decided i didn't want to work to much longer incase my water would break. i just didn't want "oh half your head is hilited and my water is all over the floor. plus, how nasty? after that i came home. i tried to nap with kylie but failed. so i went over and helped abbie. we went to family dollar and walmart to get curtain rods. we ate chinese, went to my parents, then back to her trailer to hang TONS of curtains. long day, but fun.

wednesday: got up, went to the bank, then headed to decatur for our ultrasound. i was super excited to see her face in possible 3D. unfortunately, she's huge so that didn't really happen. at our ultrasound, we discovered caroline is a monster baby. haha. she is measuring at 40 weeks even though she's only 39. that's right 8lbs 11oz. her head is 12cm and is 42 weeks developed. nice huh? luckily they're not usually accurate and can be off a pound. after the ultrasound we went to eat at olive garden. it took forever. we were there for almost a hour. when we were finally done there we had to rush home to meet with our lawyer at 2:30. so we made it to the lawyer's office on time, then had to wait 15 mins before we even got to talk with her. we had to do a very adult chore yesterday and get WILLS! yikes. it went really well. we got wills and power of attorney's set up in like 15mins. a VERY expensive 15mins and paperwork, but it had to be done. now if something were to happen to us, everything is taken care of for caroline and her future siblings. after that we had to go to the courthouse to get paperwork signed for our new rental property. unfortunately the person who signs, wasn't there and we had to contact him privately and go to his house. it was bizarre. then to walmart to get random hygiene things that you can't purchase at aldi. then we were home for 20 mins then off to annie's house to babysit my nephew everett. aubrie went to VBS, so we just had the little man. he was crazy like any other 2 year old boy. we went on a long gator ride, then had vanilla wafer snack before mom got home. it was a SUPER LONG day.

today: went to the shop to meet the girls for lunch. ate at the new mexican resturant. it was delicious and pretty fast! then went back to the shops so they could un-mom hair me. i have been growing and trying to be natural. then i decided that was boring and not me. so we colored it funky and cut the back off. it needed it cut, it was getting mullet-ish. once the front starts growing better then i'll let the back grow. now i'm home. my husband is napping on the couch and i've been surfing the web.

this is a really long blog. congratulations if you read it all. please pray for me in my upcoming weeks of new motherhood. i'm hoping she gets here next week, otherwise it's really 14 days away.

Friday, July 24, 2009

36 down..4 to go!


i can't believe how fast this pregnancy has flown by! it's seems like just yesterday we were sharing our exciting news with our family, now we're just four(five at most) short weeks away from meeting our little girl. me and kylie lay in bed at night and try and decide what we think she will look like. i hope she has his pretty eyes and lots of hair, he hopes for my eyes and red curly hair. we pretty much expect her to have the other one's features. i'm sure we'll be blown away with what God has given us. she will be more beautiful than we could ever dream. i'm so excited to meet the little bean that stomps my ribs everyday. i think she brusied me internally actually. i have a sore spot under my chest, its not red or irritated on the outside but if you push on it some it really hurts. she's a hardcore chick already! with her upcoming arrival i feel like we have so many things to do. her nursery has been ready for months and her hospital bag packed for a month. it just seems like there is so much to do still. i have a shopping list of little things i'll need after she arrives plus a list of "to dos." i need to shop before i can pack our bag for the hospital, i have to buy birthday presents for kolby and everett(if i don't do it asap, they might not get any!) we have to install her car seat, we have to meet with a lawyer to set up our will, meet with our insurance agent to up our life insurance, kylie has to get things set up for work with health insurance for her, plus talk about getting his time off when she gets here, and in the midst of it all we bought a moblie home that's moving in august 3rd! so i've had to deal with the trailer company, the bank, insurance, had to call julie for a dig number, plus we have to prepare our lot so it can be moved by the 3rd. it's somewhat stressful, but will totally be worth it in the end. we didn't think we would get the trailer so fast, but we are. it will probably sit for awhile until we have time to work on it. it has to have a few soft spots in the floor fixed, new carpet everywhere and painted. so totally won't be doing that before caroline gets here, and not too soon after. it will be a work in progress but it will be worth it once we get it rented out. kylie has wanted to get rental property for awhile now and this was just too good of a deal to pass up, plus we talked them down $1700 on the price. talk about party bonus! :) our plan is to have this trailer plus 2 more when we build a house, that way our trailers pay for our mortgage. eventually we'll have more trailers and a 1/3 of the trailer park, but that is years down the line. i'm so happy my parents took a risk when they were my age and bought a trailer park. it's really been a great thing for them and now us girls are starting to benefit from it. they are great parents, we're very blessed. well this is getting ridiculous but its 3 am and i can't sleep so i just keep rambling. i've been up since 1:30 and i think i will stay up til kylie wakes up in a hour. he really would enjoy some cinnamon rolls for breakfast instead of his usual poptart, so i think i'll surprise him. goodnight.

Friday, May 22, 2009

13 weeks and counting

i'm officially 27 weeks and 1 day along. i feel great...but very HOT! the weather has heated up and i'm totally feeling it. i've never really been a sweater, but my belly is where i'm sweating the most. caroline is growing and getting much bigger. i still was picturing her as a little bean until the other day when i felt her hitting me in two different places. then i was shocked at how big she actually is. She's roughly 14" long and 2 1/2 pounds! She's getting to be quite frisky in there too! next week i enter my 3rd trimester. everyone says it's the worst, i'm hoping not though. my entire pregnancy has been great. my only complaint is the heartburn and frequent urination...and being hot. so, THREE complaints, that's not too bad, right?! my doctor was a little concerned with my weight gain a few weeks ago and told me to watch my diet. so i started watching what i ate and making changes in my diet and walking a mile each night. i went back to the dr. and lost 1 pound! i was very pleased...he didn't even comment. i go back on the 1st for a check up and glucose test. i've kinda slipped on watching what i eat, so i'm trying to pull myself back together before the 1st. i'm not trying to loose weight, just trying to choose an apple over an ice cream sandwich. hopefully i'm doing good. i really don't want to gain more than 35-40 pounds, but we'll see. my shower is next saturday and i'm SUPER excited for it. i can't wait to get everything and finish her little room.

on another note:
my sister is getting married in 2 weeks! she's the last one left. we are all pumped. it's going to be a very small ceremony and reception. they're getting married at a very cute little church by my parents house, then the reception is in my parents shed. it's very country and totally abbie...she's always been the biggest tomboy out of all three of us! it's going to be beautiful, i just know it. lots of wild flowers and simple things. no bridal party at all, just them. her only request was that i wear a dress to show off my belly. i didn't think i would find one that would flatter both my belly and my booty, but i DID! i tried it on and it wasn't big enough, so i had to order it online, but i got it and it fits me pretty good. i still have room for 2 weeks worth of growing. hopefully it works out great! i'm so excited for the big day. and it's starting early, so we don't have to be nervous and stressed till 4pm like most weddings.

well this is gotten way longer than expected and i need to take my walk.