Party Planning

I have been having so much fun getting ready for our little lady's first birthday!! We decided to have an ocean theme since we will be at Bebe and Poppy's pool. August birthdays and pools go hand in hand right?? Anyway, with the help of my cricuit and a Life is a Beach cartridge I came up with these:



I also made the invitations, but forgot to take any pictures of them :(
With the help of my Brother sewing machine and some perfect fabric from Hobby Lobby, I made this for Lylah to wear when she is eating cake and opening presents.

I'm also going to put some purple fish on the polka dot part. So cute!!
Finally, here are some of the books we'll be reading next week to get ready for the big day!!

My dad is helping me with the food and I can't WAIT to post about it after the party. We have some fun ideas! So, am I going overboard? Probably, but anyone who knows me knows that I think birthdays are very important and deserve the proper celebration!!

My little peach

Monday we finally got around to going to the orchard close to our house to get a bag of peaches....and next week we'll go again. Me and my little peach love fresh summer peaches!!

Making the Most of it.

This summer has been an absolute joy. I can't even begin to explain how much I have enjoyed every moment spent with my little lady. I can honestly say that we have made the most of our summer together. I vowed to have fun with Lylah every minute I could this summer and that we have! We have had family vacations, field trips, craft time, library time, outside time, not to mention lots of inside playing and snuggling!! This often meant that laundry still went undone and the house was still a mess, but oh so worth it! Well, even though we only have 8 more days of summer vacation, and I'm busy planning a birthday party and for a new school year (during naps of course) that doesn't mean we are slowing down on our fun!! Here is what we'll be up to these last few days :)

Today: A trip to an orchard here in the Grove
Tuesday: Lylah will be a the sitter during the day as I welcome our new kindergartners, but when I pick her up we are thinking about having family pool night :)
Wednesday: We will spend our last time this summer at Kirby Babies story time.
Thursday: We are going to spend some time with Mrs. Bethany
Friday: We have a lunch date planned with Mrs. Kristy and then we are going to go to a park if its not too hot.
Saturday: We are going to go to the Farmers Market.
Sunday: I have open house at school, but after I get home we are going to have a cookout
Monday: Our last day of summer break big fun day!! We are having chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and then going to the lake in the afternoon!

Maybe I'm a little obsessive, but I really want to enjoy every moment and for me that means I have to be a planner :)

Field Trip #8: An afternoon at the beach

Our last field trip actually prompted the idea for field trip #8. When I found out that Lake Cumberland did not have an actual beach with sand I knew that Lylah and I needed to take a trip to Barren River Lake so that she could play with her sand toys from Bebe and Poppy. Why hadn't I thought of that before?! We had a great time!! Lylah didn't really know how to play with sand toys, but she did enjoy watching mama use the shovel to pick up sand and then dump it out as well as fill buckets and such. She also had fun watching the big kids swim. Lylah was a BIG fan of the lake itself. She liked to watch it, walk in the water, and she even let me lean her head back several times!! I guess she is just going to be more of a country girl and enjoy rivers and lakes more than pools (at least for now). We really did have a good time and I was surprised how easy it seemed taking her all alone. We had a picnic lunch and then headed down to the beach, when we were all finished we headed back up to the car without any major mishaps. I think we may even try to squeeze in one more trip to the beach before I go back to school!! I also have one or two more field trips in mind, but lets face it, summer is fading fast so we'll have to see what we can get to.

Push toy $10, fun evening with my lady...priceless

So today was gloooomy around here, but this evening the clouds parted, leading to a beautiful evening. The clouds must have parted in my mind as well because I got my best mama idea yet! You see, Lylah loves to play with her push toy, but our house is not the greatest place to have maximal fun with said toy. Anyway, Lylah was getting big time frustrated with the fact that she would take just a few steps and hit a dead end. We don't have a driveway or a carport and we live on main street in our little town so the obvious options for more space were out. Then came the idea, I took Lylah right down the street to our local doctor's office parking lot and let her walk to her hearts content! That she did. She must have walked 10 miles over in the parking lot smiling and jabbering the whole way. I was thrilled watching her have so much fun. We have had a lot of adventures this summer, but none of them have gotten this kind of reaction from my little lady. At one point I thought that I really needed some pictures of the moment and we raced home to grab the camera. Lylah cried the WHOLE way!! She walked close to an hour around the parking lot. She splashed in a few puddles and picked up some sticks and leaves along the way, but mostly she just walked and walked. We were playing a game where she would bump into me with her little toy and I would make a funny noise. We were both just laughing and then came the sweetest moment of mamahood so far. Lylah leaned right up and gave this mama a kiss. I'm going to admit it, I cried a little. This was not the first time I have gotten mama kisses, but this was the first time that those kisses seemed to say, "thanks for the fun mama". Precious. Thanks for sharing my little memory with me now for the fun part:

Field Trip # 7: Weekend with the fam

Our 7th field trip has been long in the making! The purpose of this weekend was to spend time together and have fun in honor of dad's 50th birthday. We had a great time. We stayed in a cabin on Lake Cumberland. The cabin we stayed in was beautiful as was the lake. We played games and ate lots of ice cream cake (dad's recipe, my favorite!!). We even got to go to a little hatchery which was interesting to me and fun for Lylah too. The museum that went with the hatchery was free and had some fun fish and animals (real and stuffed :) )We even had a little picnic!! Like I said, it was a great time for everyone!!

I think this little lady may be ready to come to school with me in a couple of weeks. Sure would make the transition back a little easier...

11 months

Lylah turned 11 months old this past week! I have enjoyed being home with her this whole month and have gotten to watch her learn and change so much!! Some of the major things I've seen this month:

signing "more" "water" "all done" and "milk"
being silly and trying to make people laugh
giving kisses
calling Nathan, "dada"
crawling
pulling up like CRAZY
taking steps (first on July 3rd)
eating "grown up food"

I'm sure there are tons more. Her hair is getting longer and lighter is one comment she gets a lot. Of course to me she is just as beautiful as that first day I saw her.

I love me some fluffy baby buns!

I would have NEVER thought I would use cloth diapers, but I'm sooooo glad I do. If you are considering it too, then give it a try because there is nothing cuter than a fluffy polka dotted baby bottom!

Field trip #6: Road trip for the girls

Field trip #6 took us to Indianapolis with our friends Beth and Mikayla. We left early Thursday morning so that the girls could nap on the road. That didn't exactly go how we planned, but we arrived in Indy and went straight to the Children's Museum. We had about three hours to play, explore, and learn with our little ladies! I wondered if it would be a lot different from the last time Lylah went since she could crawl now. I thought maybe she would be overwhelmed by the people, and just watch them rather than crawl around. I was wrong, Lylah must have crawled 50 miles in that 3 short hours. It was so fun to watch both of the girls play and interact with the different exhibits and each other. If you have children and you have never been to Indy for the museum then you SHOULD go!!!

Anyway, after the museum we had dinner and then went back to the hotel. We rigged up a great way to have the girls sleep w/o too much light for Mikayla (who is used to sleeping in the dark) and too little of light for Lylah (who sleeps with a night light). After getting our plan together we watched the girls play. It was precious. Mikayla didn't want to leave Lylah out on anything and that was good since Lylah seemed to study Mikayla's every move. It was definitely the most I have ever seen two babies their ages interact. After some play time the girls went to sleep like a charm!! I'm sure it was the lamp in the closet that did the trick and not the lack of naps and day filled with fun! :)

The next morning we did some shopping and dressed up like cows for some free chicken. We were making it home in record time when we hit the mother of all traffic jams. If you have never been in a traffic jam with two overly tired babies at dinner time then you should certainly consider it....Needless to say we were worn out after the 2 hours it took to get out of the jam. Beth did a great job manning the car while I tried to man the babies. Even though it was crazy being stuck in traffic that long, I think it adds to the story we will one day share with the girls. To say it was a great trip is really an understatement, but some things just can't be summed up in a blog post. Here are some pictures of some of our fun!

Mama-daughter crafting

My new craft room is now all moved in and functioning!! It is wonderful, I'll blog more about that later though. I couldn't resist getting in there for a fun craft with my little one!! Here is what we did:
First we dressed in our red, white, and blue and then read two patriotic books I had gotten a while back from the Mighty Dollar (great store for board books!).

Then we danced to a fun CD with kids singing patriotic songs. Lylah's favorite: Yankee Doodle!

Next, while Lylah was still dancing, I used my CRICUT to cut out some stars(red, white, and blue) in different sizes. I stuck some glue dots on the big star so that Lylah could put them on easier. Just a note, next time I'll put the glue dots on the pieces Lylah will be sticking that way she can put them wherever she wants to.

By this time Lylah was ready for a nap, and Nathan had gotten home from work, so Daddy read his little lady one of her books again. Meanwhile, I taped a piece of ribbon to the back of our art and made a new hair bow.

Finally, after a good nap, Lylah posed with our projects!! So cute!

We will definately be having more craft time together! Lylah really did a great job and with only a little help. She takes after her mama I guess!

Field Trip #5: Vacation in the Smoky's

We had a GREAT time on our fifth field trip. We stayed in a cabin in the Smoky Mtns. Lylah had so much fun exploring the cabin. She crawled all over the place! We also enjoyed a couple of hikes and a nature walk as well as the Aquarium and some shopping. I could go on and on about how cute Lylah was around the water fall, touching them with just one finger. I love sharing outside time with my little lady!! Lylah also really enjoyed the aquarium. It was super crowded, but lots of fun! The other highlight of the trip was the Old Mill Restaurant! YUMMY! Lylah loved watching and talking with everyone at the other tables. She also LOVED the corn chowder and mashed potatoes. Other than watching Lylah react to the sites, Nathan and I enjoyed reading and relaxing on the deck when Lylah was napping, and making some fun meals in the evenings. Here are some photo highlights as well.