I'll be back

Just a quick little jot...Tyler is on holiday for the next two weeks so we're all going to be laying low...I would like to think I will be able to find a few moments to post but if I don't, oh well. Since Tyler is getting ready to leave on another six month deployment, my main focus is squeezing in as much family time as possible.

Our Christmas was wonderful. Isabella was full of giggles and candy-cane coated smiles...she has not stopped playing with her new kitchen, and every day she bakes a batch of beautiful cupcakes for me. Thank you to all of our sweet relatives who made Christmas so magical for us this year! I still have a pile of boxes that need to be mailed off, which I will need to do a little bit at a time...(the shipping rates from Hawaii are breathtaking!)

Happy New year to everyone! I'm leaving you with a picture from this time last year...my sweet little pumpkin head:) How much difference a year can make!

What Christmas Eve is all about

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

It's just so much fun!

Bustling about the house was never so wonderful! I've been busy making merry of all my holiday projects...I still have much to do to get my Christmas goody boxes ready for the Grands and Great-Grands. I used yet another totally awesome idea from Ms. Saucy...I'm sorry Saucy...I would'nt copy you so much if you weren't such a magnificent genius! Check out the Marshmallow skewer idea that I nabbed off her sight...totally wonderful! I'm slipping a few of these big daddies into each box...I tied my little baggies up with whatever piece of Christmas cheer I could find, a miniture christmas ornament, jingle bells...teeny tiny wreaths...ooh it just got me all excited! sending cheer boxes is really my "thang"

Another thing I am poking into each box are these masterpieces made by The Bella...I opted to make a garland out of mine...but for all the Grands I made funky little Christmas ornaments out of them.

Those crocheted cupcakes I ordered off of Etsy came in today!!! I am head over heels in love with them, I cannot wait to see how they look coming out of her little pink oven...Oh, and just so you know, these are not my attempts at artsy photos...I was just trying to get good, non/blurry pictures before my camera battery died... close ups seems to work best when the warning light starts blinking. I'm no photographer...but I do try to work it with my point-and-click :)

I love all of this so much. This is by far the most fun I have ever had at Christmas time...there is just something absolutely magical about having a child in the house at Christmas...her excitement is intoxicating, her enthusiasm over every little thing we do together just makes me beam. My friends have all pegged me ridiculously sappy, and tend to roll their eyes a bit...but I cannot help but gush over sloppy hand print santas and messy toddler cookies...I feel sad for anybody who doesn't know the joy of a toddler dumping the entire contents of a bowl of sugar on the counter and immidiately exclamining "Oh wow....YAY!"

10 things

I love how SouleMama sometimes has lists of things she is loving that particular day...so I decided to make one of my own.

Tyler had to go to the ship at 6 am today...so instead of waking the baby up at 5:45 I opted to just cozy up and make it a stay-at-home day and let Tyler just take the car. So the first thing on my list is...

1. Days where Isabella and I hang out at home together in our jammies :)

2. The way she immediately goes to the Fridge in the morning and starts rearranging her magnets.



3. The clever idea I got from Saucy to fill a jar full of Christmas candy-canes...so cute!



4. A chance to work on Isabella's hand-print Rudolphs and Santas.



5. An ice-cold Diet Coke

6. THIS smile.



7. These cozy flannel Ralph Lauren sheets I found for Isabella's bed that only cost $11!!!



8. Watching Isabella learning her shapes and colors with chart that she and I made out of scrap poster board and velcro. ( why does it keep saying I spelled velcro wrong?! )



9. These little, yummy cupcake toppers I got for a couple of special, cupcake-enthusiast mommies I know.
;-) ;-)



10. This little sneak peak of the goody box I am sending to my bestest in Japan.

honolulu zoo

During the rainy season in Hawaii you take your umbrella with you everywhere you go unless you want to look like you just stepped out of the shower...I'm just making a wild guess here but in the last four days I bet we have gotten at least ten inches of rain. So, when we woke up today to sunny skies and chirpy birds we decided to take advantage of it!

Isabella has recently developed a fascination with Elephants. She carries her toy elephant around the house, uses her little arm as a trunk and imitates them whenever she sees one. I have been waiting for a good chance to take her to the Zoo to see them in person and today was just that day!

As soon as we got there our little Miss Independent insisted on forgoing her stroller or any suggestions of hand-holding and instead lead us around the zoo pointing her little finger the entire time saying "look! see?" We had so much fun laughing at the Chimpanzees biting their nails, the peacocks wandering around poofing out their tail-feathers, petting the pigs, eating a giant shave-ice ( then spilling it all over Tyler's lap-oops! ) and watching the giant Hippos, who despite their magnificent girth, are surprisingly graceful in the water.

Watching Isabella was so amazing to me...In one short year she has transformed from a little baby still on a bottle to a whirling dirvish of a toddler who opens doors, wants to go potty on the big potty and who more often than not is teaching me about life. We've already been through one deployment and by the time this next one is over my baby will be two years old! I tried my best to relish and savor every second she was running those little Keds from one end of the zoo to the other...if this is how fast just one year went by...how quickly is she going to be thirteen and locking me out of her room?

By the time the afternoon was over, we had one blue-stained lap, a couple of skinned toddler knees and a very sweaty momma...but we sure had ourselves a great afternoon!

bustling about

That's exactly what I have been doing this past week! which is why my posts have been a wee bit sporadic lately. Not only did I have finals for school but Holiday boxes are getting mailed out soon so I have been busy baking goodies and tucking away trinkets here and there...I've also been plugging away at my Christmas cards which I am already behind on...yikes! and do you like my kitchen counter? yeah, these days it pretty much stays heavily laden with my craft supplies, I have big plans for suncatchers and hand-print Rudolphs made by The Bella herself! I finally got Isabella to sit still long enough for a Christmas picture tonight and I hope to have ALL my cards mailed out tomorrow...whew!
I did manged to get all of my Christmas shopping done and now I'm just getting it all wrapped up...like my funky black and white theme? I saw that wrapping paper while I was in Tennessee and I loved it so much that I bought them and then had to carry them onto the airplane in Tyler's baseball bat bag! (along with a giant ceramic cupcake that I also HAD to have for my kitchen counter) that made for an interesting, oblong, and slightly bulgy looking bundle.

I'm so excited for Christmas Eve!...I'm excited for when Tyler and I are putting together Isabella's pink play kitchen and stuffing her stocking...I can't wait to show ya'll the adorable Crocheted cupcakes I ordered for her from Etsy! man oh man...I love Etsy!


In the midst of all the chaos I have found immense peace in hearing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reigndeer playing in the background and my toddler running to and fro with traces of Christmas cookie on her face and tinsel stuck to her little feet...yes, life is good.

Stolen moments...

So these days, my wiggly, busy girl only has a few minutes to spare for dear old mum...I have resolved myself to taking what I can get. When she and her daddy ran out to the grocery store this evening...she waved goodbye to me the entire walk out the door, gleefully calling out "bye-bye, cya, Ok!" I was relishing just a few minutes of "alone-ness" so I cranked up my Christmas tunes and began my gingerbread...as soon as those two got home Isabella walked up to my little apron hanger and began tugging on the vintage cherry apron my mom made for me a couple of years back...it swallowed her whole but she was ready to bake! I pulled a chair up to the counter for her and I didn't even have to show her what to do with the cookie cutter, she just went right to work. Of course, she was done in less than five minutes...but that gave me just enough time to boss my dear hubby into grabbing the camera and sneaking a few pictures. It's just not Christmas until you have gingerbread cookies complete with little toddler sized finger holes...oh but she does love to poke her fingers into the dough...Mmm...those will be for me! :)

as promised

Here are a couple of sneaky peekies at what I've been working on...I still have much to do....like glittering my freshly bleached bottle brush trees...and putting the finishing touches on my sugar coated Christmas houses...

I feel so happy flitting about putting finishing touches here and there...Tyler will be home tomorrow evening and we will celebrate his birthday, decorate our tree, and then take our family Christmas pictures. This will be our fourth Christmas together! every year I cannot help but think about our first Christmas and smile...newlyweds, broke as a joke, hardly a stick of furniture...but by golly, we had ourselves a big fat pine and we decked her out! That particular year, Tyler spent all his money on a pair of cowboy boots for me...bless his little ol' pea pickin' heart...I wore those boots until one of the soles fell off!

This year is especially exciting since Isabella is a little bit more aware of what is going on...I think she has sensed the excitement in the air...I ask her if she wants something for Christmas, it doesn't matter what it is, I could point at a GI Joe and she would nod that little red head and say "yee-uh" I wonder who has more fun with Christmas...the parents or the children? my guess is definitely the parents!

Well, I'm off to glitter some trees and decorate my mantle...tbs is playing Sleepless in Seattle!

one tree down, one more to go

Run ladies....Run. Wal-Mart has 6.5 ft. white Christmas trees on sale for $40! I snagged the last one at my local Wal-Mart tonight! Uhm...Hubsy does'nt know this yet...so...if you're reading this dear Hubsy...(Insert my best sheepish grin here)

So this is my pink, candy-themed Christmas tree in my kitchen/dining square (that's what we call them in the military housing community...they're too small to deserve the phrase "dining room") I will continue to peruse the dollar stores and other such venues fo cheap, pink clutter to fill my white tree...Oh, but I do love a cluttered tree :)

My main tree still waits patiently in the living room, his naked little boughs will have to wait to be decked until Tyler gets home next week. We bought her at the Military Christmas tree stand on Sunday and boy-oh-boy does she smell good! we had plans to get her all decorated up that evening since Tyler left for a week the following morning...but unfortunately I got ahold of some bad crab and whoo-whee!...guys, there aint nothin like food poisoning from bad crab. I was out of order for a while, but I'm back and kicking and ready to deck my Hawaiian halls with a vengeance!

My house is still in an uproarous state, we're talking tissue paper and rubbermaid boxes galore...I hate that I'm getting things out so late this year...I usually like to have it all done right after Thanksgiving for ultimate Christmas enjoyment...but hey, what can ya do? that bad crab is a killer. More pictures coming soon...better ones too...my point and clicker is starting to wear out...I think it's time for a grown-up camera...hmm...Ho Ho Ho?

Tag, I'm it!

My momma tagged me, so now I must list 6 things about myself and then tag 6 other people...hmm...

1. I adore baking, decorating and making my humble little home...but you already knew that :)

2. I am extremely committed to the ones I love, probably to a fault.

3. Playing with my daughter and watching her kissing her daddy and giggling and goofing off makes me the happiest person in the world.

4. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason-everything.

5. I get a high when I find a treasure at a junk store. Especially if the treasure is pink.

6. I continuously fail miserably to be the christian I want to be, but I try anyways. I let others think and say what they may, but it really doesn't matter what others think does it? as long as we always strive to do the right thing.

home again, home again, jiggity jig

After my visit with the families It's wonderful to be home! I'm bustling about trying to put up my Christmas decorations and I cannot wait to show you some pictures. But first of all, you MUST check out the fur wreath tutorial over at The Nesting Place
It is absolutely to die for and I'm working on one of my own right now. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will be back soon with a post with pictures, I promise!

November

After quickly throwing on sweaters, Isabella and I walked down to the mailbox with Lovie tonight. It was right at dusk, so everything was that deep shade of navy blue. As we were walking the sounds and smells of November surrounded us and wrapped their chilly arms around us like a hug. Just smelling the cold wet leaves and feeling the nip in the air against my cheeks took me straight back to when I was a kid. (was that really just a few short years ago?!)

Playing outside until it was too dark to see anymore, I would make my way back to the house with my pants soaked around the bottom with evening dew and a set of chapped cheeks and lips. The house would be warm and full of dinner smells, the dog would be wondering around, hoping for spills, and my sisters would be bustling about gossipping, helping, bickering...There would nearly always be a general to-do about how filthy I was and how I smelled like cow pasture...but then Daddy would walk in from work and there would be no time to fool with it. The fire would crackle and pop away in the background as we ate and discussed Christmas ideas or school activities...Later in the evening before bed, mom would rub lanolin on my chapped face, I still remember the sticky texture on my face and the thick oily smell...the next day my freshly healed face would be ready for another long, chilly evening of play.

As I held Isabella's warm, squirmy little body while we walked, I wondered what childhood memories she would be longing for eighteen, twenty years down the road. Would she see home the way I see it? as her safe haven, the fondest time of her life? I hope so...I strive for as much. Maybe in twenty years, she'll be holding a little squirmy body of her own, and I'll be walking behind her, snapping pictures, relishing a moment, holding on to a memory for dear life.

My life lately

An overflowing suitcase, A toddler who curls her own hair and wears Victoria's Secret perfume, and A big black dog nose in the middle of everything I do.

I promise to take better care of my little blog...It's been a crazy month.

What's in your carry-on?

"What's in your carry-on?"

I'm a'leavin' for the hills ya'll! Going home for a little visit that is... I can not WAIT to see family, and eat at Chick Filet!...and go to a Target!...but lemme tell ya, I'm dreading that 18 hour ordeal that I must go through in order to get there.

I have neglected my little bloglet...sorry about that, but this week and last week were filled with finals...i'm finally done!...for now that is...there will be more. Oh, the drudgery...(this is where my therapist would chime in encouraging me to use my posative self talk and focus on my accomplishments) Focus on my tasks at hand, that's what I need to do! I need to do laundry, organize, pack and get myself in order before embarking upon my 10 hour plane ride home...I leave in two days...yikes!

I have flown (or is it flew? flied?!) with Isabella all by myself many times...I have pretty much been through every embarassing airplane scenerio you can think of...right down to the cranky ritzy-titzy woman flipping up her sleep mask to glare at me and ask if I "couldn't give that baby something to quiet 'it' down?!" believe me lady, I tried that! efforts in futility come to mind.

If you ever find yourself about to fly alone with a toddler for about eh...all together, 18 hours? and you need to know what to include in your carry-on, Well i'm the woman for the job!

This picture is just kind of an example...the real deal carry-on will include many, many more snacks and a laptop.

Ok, so here's THE list...so far.

Travel neck pillow
Fuzzy pink blanket (airplane blankets are the pits)
Child leash, yeah! I put my kid on a leash, if you don't like it, then spend sometime with my child. You'll love it then.
Benadryl (reccommended by her pediatrician)
Tylanol (just in case)
Band-aids, ever cut your finger on the overhead container? hurts.
Lysol, airplane bathrooms, 'nuff said
Hand sanitizer, see above
travel toothbrush and toothpaste, I can't stand to have fuzzy teeth
P-J's for Bella to change into
He favorite books
A million diapers
A million diapers for me...(did I seriously just take a picture of tampons? sorry guys...)
Wallet
Cell phone
iPod
Snickers-Energy!
Color Wonder coloring book and drawing pad (a beautiful invention!)
Color Wonder crayons...markers
Hand lotion and a teensy tiny bottle of parfum (we hate airplan smell)
Laptop
A dvd of Isabella's very favorite cartoons
PLENTY of wipes
Diaper changing pad
Eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, chapstick...etc...

Ok...so far that's it. Am I missing something? Any ideas?

This face makes me happy

Eating Cream of Wheat before bed, in the midst of a madhouse of painting this gleeful little face is all it takes to put my world in order and set my mind at peace. One of those rare occasions where she completely cooperated with me and allowed me to take her pictures, she even included an added bonus of her silly spoon trick...what a happy face! After looking at these pictures I'm amazed at how much she has grown just since my last batch of pictures! she looks so much more like a toddler every day :( Why can't she just stay my little baby forever?