All By Ourselves

This past Memorial Day weekend, a few girls from my rockin' small group at church decided to take a trip to the Frisco/Dallas, TX area.  We had to get approval from all the hubbys to make sure our children would be taken care of and surprisingly, we got the okay to go.  I was actually really surprised that we actually went.  Sometimes girls trips usually get talked about, but never happen.  Not this time!

There were 5 of us with 2 babies. We loaded up in a mini-van and headed out of town.  Once down there we hit IKEA and Sam Moon.  I could have spent all my time in both, but we only had half a day.  I was hoping to buy more accessories for my house, but didn't find as much as I thought at IKEA.

Sunday we were lazy and skipped church (don't tell anyone) and went shopping at the Allen Outlet Stores...all day.  We went the entire way around the loop of stores and shopped til we dropped.  I swore to myself that I would never buy anything from Coach because it's so expensive, but I found this little number for...$20!!!  It's a little wristlet and perfect!!  This picture just doesn't do it justice on how cute it really is.

After the outlets, we went to Home Goods/TJ Maxx.  I was thoroughly dissapointed with Home Goods.  I thought they would have way better prices and instead was just the "home" section of TJ Maxx blown up to a whole store.  So sad.

Monday we checked out of the hotel and went to the mall.  Not much shopping there though and soon we were on the road back to OKC.

We had a good time, stayed up way too late talking, got some time to bond, hated on our hotel staff who were so rude to us, didn't take any pictures and took turns with the babies.  My friend Tara and I might have even come up with a good money making idea...you'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks friends for an awesome time!  Who's in for next year?!

Part 2

Part 2 started right after Part 1 (duh) and we were on the road to Grove, OK for Justin's cousin's wedding.  It was a 3 hour ride and a perfect time for a nap.

 Stephanie was just beautiful.  I saw her walk down the aisle and then let Justin sit and enjoy it as I raced around with Haylie.  She was not about to sit still any longer.

 At the reception with Great-Grandma Cornell.

Love this girl!!

Part 1

I used to be so good at blogging - especially right after an important event happened.  Well, last Saturday we had a whirl-wind of a day and Part 1 started out with my sweet niece's 1st birthday party.  We were only there for about 15 minutes of the party because of Part 2, but we got to at least see her for a little bit!!

My sister did a phenomenal job with the party.  And delicious party favors too!

Happy 1st birthday sweet Evie (a week late)! I can't believe you are already one.  Love you and that blue twizzler face!!

I'm finally cooling off.  And not just because it's 95 degrees outside and it still technically the morning...it's because today we were going to have a fun morning with our friends Erin & Liesel at the zoo...and it turned out to be a scream fest.  I love my little girl to pieces but she can be so frustrating.  My first mistake was letting her out of the stroller because she kept whining.  She wanted to walk, but not at our pace so it made it unbearably slow.  She got tired, so she wanted me to carry her.  I try to put her back in the stroller but alas, that's when the tantrum began.  So, to avoid looking like the crappiest mother of the year, I carried her to keep her quiet.  Finally my arms are burning from her weight and I am sweating in places that shouldn't sweat.  I try to wrestle her back in the stroller.  Her world comes crashing down and she loses it.  Screaming, crying, thrashing, hitting, you name it.  Some woman in too loud pants walked by and casually commented, "they never want to go back in once they get out of the stroller."  Thanks lady.  You just keep walking.

Since we were at the furthest point from the exit, we had to endure the screaming and crying all the way back to the entrance.  I got several looks, but honestly, I just kept walking and acted like nothing was going on.  She finally fell asleep as we were leaving.

I know she was tired, and she was probably hot.  But she wouldn't drink her water or just lay back to relax.  I basically have no idea how to handle this and/or discipline in public.  It might help to figure it out since this happens almost every single time we go out and do something fun.  I don't want to be scared of my child's tantrums but at the same time I don't want her to ruin all the fun things we could be doing with friends.

You know you have some advice.  I'm askin' for it.

Heaven

Has anyone read this book?  Let's just say I got the book on Tuesday and I finished it today.  That's right, 2 days.  It's not a long book, but it is very captivating.  In case you haven't heard about it, it's about a 4 year old who gets very sick and he later tells his family that he has experienced Heaven.  It's powerful; it's moving.  It makes you want to believe everything this 4 year old says.  That he met Jesus as soon as he went up into Heaven.  That he was able to meet his sister who was miscarried before he was even born.  He also met his Pop who died a decade before he was born.  I can't even go into all the details about this book because it's simply amazing and you should read it for yourself.  Did it really happen?  I don't know.  But I want to believe that it did.  Because now I can get a glimpse of what Heaven might really be like - from the best way possible.  Like a child.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” - Mark 10:15 

Take me out to the ball game

 We got to enjoy a ball game this past weekend when we went to the Bricktown Ballpark to watch Mark Harmon and his baseball team play against another local team.  Mark Harmon is the star of NCIS and is apparently pretty popular.  It was fun to see a bunch of old(er) men play baseball, but the cooler fact was that the proceeds went in part to the Ronald McDonald house, where my mom works.

 Mark Harmon in all his baseball glory...bright blue shoes?!

The cool girls wear hats...Haylie...

 It was Haylie's first experience at a baseball game and she was less than excited.  She wanted to just eat her yogurt melts and wimper.  That girl is so silly.   

Jackpot!

I have something to say just so I can drive my father in law crazy...

Best Garage Sale Find...EVER!!!

I found this sweet chair and ottoman that is just perfect for Haylie!  It's actually a rocker.  She's going to love it since she wants to sit in every chair possible.  Now she finally has her own that isn't a carseat or high chair.

Saturday we had quite the adventure garage sale-ing.  My mom and I went to quite a few with some pretty good finds (like a lady who let me fill a bag for $5), but alas at one sale we accidentally locked the keys in the car.  She has OnStar, but for some reason they weren't able to unlock remotely so we had to wait for "Auto Rescue."  45 minutes later he came...thankfully the sale across the street had some hotdogs to curb our hunger.  We got to people watch and bask in the sunlight.  Needless to say, after that we made sure we left the windows a little down and had the keys with us...ya know, just in case.

A Bathroom to Be Proud Of

Remember the before pictures that I thought already looked so much better after we did a little wall paper removal?  (This is the jungle themed bath in that post)  Well, now that we have completely re-done the whole thing, I see now it's a MAJOR improvement!  We still have a few things to do, like find a mirror, shower curtain, etc., but that's cosmetic and I want to make sure I find something I love. 

This bathroom was a lot more work than what we anticipated, but honestly it all paid off.  And I'm pumped to have a brand new toilet.  It just feels...clean.  Justin is a renovation-er and can pretty much do any project. 

Won't he be excited that the master bathroom is awaiting his renovation touch!

Phases of Haylie

Haylie's interests and chaos-ness change practically every day.  She has amplified her tornado antics and leaves a wide path of destruction wherever she goes.  She is very into my iPhone and I can't use it without her getting upset that it's not her turn.  I basically have to run to the closet to check any text messages or emails when she's awake.

 She's also really into sitting in/climbing on chairs.  If there is a chair around, she will be backing up into it and parkin' it.  Many times she misses, but she doesn't seem to mind.

 And last, she is so into the laptop.  She thinks she is big time stuff pressing all the buttons.  I foresee a future blogger.

I wish I could say she is working on lots of words, but she is silent but deadly in that she just points or hits or motions to what she wants and she usually gets it.  Her big word is "cat" and she just randomly yells it throughout the day.  I love this phase though - each one gets better and better.

Gotta Love Lifejackets

This past weekend we went to the lake for the first time in 2011.  My SIL does a good job breaking it down here.  We had a good time. We stayed up too late talking and making fun of Justin while he slept on the couch.  We went garage sale-ing in the big town of Lincoln, MO.  We went to Wal-mart every day for a chance to get out of the cabin.  We went to Treasure Island and played with big neighborhood dogs.  We watched Double Dream Hands a few times over.  And we played the Wii that Justin surprised me with for Mother's Day!!  But most of all, we chased Haylie around in her hilarious life-jacket.  She bee-lines for the water so this helped my sanity.

She's beautiful, even with a big foam ring around her neck.

Thanks Brei for the pictures.  Because I'm a super mom and forgot the camera.

Weekend in Review

It's Tuesday and I'm just now recovering from the whirlwind of a weekend we had.  It all started at 5:30 on Friday when Haylie decided to scream herself awake, thus me leaping from the bed to go see what in the world was wrong.  She immediately goes back to sleep once she realizes she is okay and I go back to bed...to just lay there.  I should have just turned on the royal wedding and watched, but I laid there for over an hour before getting up.  Besides, I had a garage sale to put together.

I will always do a Friday sale now.  We had the best day ever and people were coming from start to finish.  I said we were only open 8-12...but we stayed open til about 2:30 because we had lots of people.  Over $1200 between 7 families for Friday and Saturday.  Yep, I'd call that a success.  Saturday was more slow, but we still made some good bargains and got rid of a lot of crap stuff.  Only one big car load to the local Goodwill.

Sunday.  Another day of getting up at 5:30 (third day in a row), but this time it's to cheer on the hubby at the OKC Memorial Marathon.  He is running the full.  I am a pretty supportive wife, but there were times during his training season when I was not on the "I'm going to go run for 4 hours on a Saturday" bandwagon.  Regardless, it was pouring down rain and horrible conditions.  But he DID IT!!  His goal time was 4 hours.  His actual race time was 3 hours 58 minutes.  Way to go!!!  It always give me such inspiration and I think to myself - next year I'm going to participate.  Then the next year rolls around and I'm still sitting on the couch.  Maybe next year.