1st 3rd birthday

Today we had the first of two birthday parties for D'Laney. She's turning 3, THREE!! I can't believe it, and I'm doing my best not to think about it. I just can't handle it. With Brynna turning 8 months yesterday (more about that tomorrow) and all the changing and growing that she's doing daily, I'm just having a little bit of trouble dealing with my firstborn now considered a pre-schooler!
We had a fabulous princess party for D'Laney with my side of the family. We'll celebrate again with Cameron's side while we're on vacation with them next weekend, on her actual birthday. The party was complete with tiaras, big diamond rings, and beautiful princess dress, and a castle cake made by yours truly. The cake turned out a lot better than I thought it would, so I was pretty proud of it! I have friends who are very talented when it comes to cake making, and their stuff looks very professional. My cakes are about as far from professional as they could be, but I love making them myself for my loved ones, however homemade they may look.
I'm just going to post the link to my facebook page for all the pictures, but here's my Princess D'Laney and her wonderful daddy.

What a mess...

And I'm not just talking about my house. Actually, it's rather spic and span right now, except for the laundry. (I'm choosing to believe it's done, too.)
No, the mess has been pretty much everything else around here. Some of it has been good, some not so good.
The good mess is our wreck of a back yard. We've torn down 63% of the buggy shed, otherwise known as the garage, and we're just waiting for a weekend where Cameron can bring some heavy equipment home from the yard to get it finished, and pray no neighborhood kids walk through and the whole thing collapses. This past weekend we tore down the backyard fence, which was buried about 4 inches and the post were cemented into their holes. So now we have a small, waterless mote protecting our backyard from cats and hoodlums roaming the alley. Cameron plans to start rebuilding the fence tonight and hopefully get the garage torn down this weekend.
The bad mess has been our Internet service. It's been pretty sketchy over the last two years, but I fully believe in supporting small town businesses, so I let it slide. However, after 2 weeks of almost no service, I had enough. I cancelled and switched to a major provider. We got everything going and set an installation date. That came and went. After 2 days I called to see what the problem was, and after an hour and a half on the phone, we finally got it all set. As of yesterday, I now have even faster service, plus a brand new home phone line. That isn't working. So I'll be on the phone again as soon as my cell charges. Ugh! It's been almost a month dealing with the internet problems, and who knows how long it'll take to get the phone going.
Going without internet for a short time shouldn't turn my life upside down, but it sure seems like it does. I can't birthday shop (it's much easier looking online and then going to the store for something specific,) I've missed a couple of emails that I really needed, and I haven't had a way to check on bills, etc. So frustrating!
Ahh, that feels so much better. I love having this to rant on. My husband loves it, too, saves him from having to hear it. Again.
I'll post later today or tomorrow on what my sweet little girls are up to (hint: a lot!)

something new every day!

It's been a big month for Brynna.
She turned 6 months old!
Her first little tooth poked through, quickly followed by another, and two more will be crowding their way in over the next few days.
She has started sitting up by herself. She skipped tripoding and sits very straight, although she falls backwards often.
And biggest of all, since we hit the 6 mo. mark, she had her first taste of something other than momma! We started rice cereal last night, and she did really well! She acted like she liked it for a couple of bites, but then decided it wasn't so great. I think the cereal might have gotten cold though, so we'll try it again tonight and make sure it stays warm. Daddy did pretty good too, for a little while. His ultra sensitive gag reflex did kick in, though, so momma had to take over.

6 months one way, half a year the other

However you want to look at it, my baby is growing way too fast!
~12 1/2 lbs. (80%)
~24 inches (60%)
~on her knees rocking, but doesn't move yet
~doesn't really need to, that kid can roll across our big living room before you can blink!
~if she would be still, she could sit up, but she's too busy reaching for something, anything, or craning her neck to watch her silly sister
~has two teeth that have broken through, the bottom left and top right. I've never known a kid that has teethed in that order, it's going to look so funny when they come down further! And the companion teeth don't look like they're coming anytime soon. Teething has been a little more difficult for Brynna than it was for D'Laney. She's been fussy, run some very low grade fever, and wants momma to hold her all day long. But she's going through all of this 3 months sooner than D'Laney did. I have to admit that I'm a little bit sad about the teeth. She's my last baby, and the sweet little gummy grins aren't going to be around much longer.
~she's learned to blow raspberries with her tongue, and does so 90% of the time she's awake. Combined with the insane amount of drool from the teething, and anything within a 2 foot radius is going to get soaked.
~still sucks her thumb, and I love it.
~she is such a happy baby. She smiles constantly, and she'll kinda giggle, but we canNOT get that child to laugh. I think she's going to be kinda serious and a little shy, which should balance her crazy sister out nicely. But I wish she would laugh at us, it's always such a sweet sound.
~we'll start rice cereal when daddy gets home later this week.
~Keva will take 6mo. pics for us next week. So excited! Hopefully she'll sit up a little better for her.

We've been pretty busy around here. Camp is next week, and packing for two kids is hard! Getting all the clothes together is easy, but finding things to entertain an almost 3 year old (!) and a 6 month old is the hard part. I have plenty of water toys, but it'll get too hot for even that, so I also have to pack movies, books, puzzles, coloring stuff, etc. to keep them occupied in the cool camper. I have to pack a lot of food, too. Not just for D'Laney, but with my food allergies, it's hard to eat a lot of what comes out of the cook shack. My mom and sister came and stayed with me this weekend to help get some stuff ready, so I'm almost ready! The only things left to do are last minute things, like buying groceries and packing toiletries. So excited!!

I drank the Kool-Aid

I've never really been one to follow trends. I resist things, due to pure stubbornness, simply because it's popular. Texting, wedge shoes, even this blog, were things that I didn't want to have anything to do with, and now they're a part of my every day life. You can add two more things to that list.

I kinda have a thing for *ahemtwilightahem*

What was that? Didn't catch that?

I said TWILIGHT!

I know, I know, I'm a little embarrassed. And it's really not a thing. Cameron and I finally watched the movies a couple weeks ago, and they were pretty good. So I decided that since Cameron was going to be out of town for a while and I might actually have time, I'd read the books. And I did, all four in about a week and a half. And my house might have suffered. And D'Laney might have watched a tiny bit more TV so that I could read during the day. I really don't know if it was the material, or if I was just wrapped up in reading again. I so love to read, and I haven't done much of it in the last 3 years. I'm not a fanatic now, I certainly won't be at any midnight showings of Eclipse or wait in line at all. But I might try to find a sitter and see it in the theatre. I might even try to drag my husband to it. He'll never admit it, but I think he enjoyed the movies just as much as I did (he watched them both twice.) I know the reasons that I enjoyed the stories had nothing to do with all the supernatural mumbo jumbo. I liked the fact that the kids weren't drinking, smoking, messing around, etc. It was so refreshing!

My other new thing, which definitely IS a thing, is Glee! I wasn't purposely avoiding this like I was Twilight, I just hadn't had a chance to watch it yet. Oh my word almighty, I am beyond hooked now! (It's not lost on me, however, that it is chocked full of the aforementioned things that I don't like, and then some!) I watched one episode last week, and then spent the next couple of days watching every episode they have online. I've always like musicals, and to do songs that are current! Love it! The singing and the dancing... the whole thing makes me happy.

PS: the whole "drank the koolaid thing" cult comparison was totally intended... some folks are still crazy.

Playroom

A few weeks ago, I decided to completely rearrange the two main rooms downstairs. The smaller room we used as a living room, and the larger room had our office stuff, D'Laney's toys, and our big dining table, with no chairs. So I decided to store the big table, move the living room into the big room, and make the smaller room just a playroom. It's how we should have done things to begin with.

My sister paints things for the girls, and I used a couple of them for the colors in the room. Black, hot pink, and silver. There aren't many options to impliment the color scheme. I'm not repainting because of resale value, so really the only things I can do are add things on the walls, which I have, and change the curtains to black and get a slip cover for the little loveseat, both of which I still need to do.


I usually keep her little table on the other side of the loveseat, but D'Laney likes it in the middle of the room so that she's not stuck in a corner.


That blue loveseat has made the rounds in my family. It (and it's matching couch) is my grandmother's, and she's had them since before I was born. They've made their way to my aunt's, back to grandmother's, back to the aunt's, then to my parents, back to grandmother, etc. My brother has had them, my sister, and now we have the loveseat. It's like a great, worn out pair of jeans. The second we got it into the playroom and I sat down, I just sighed in comfort. They've really held up well all these years.


Bulletin board and some pictures.




Cadye's works of art. I have more ordered.


That treadmill doesn't get much use, lol. And that is my favorite picture of D'Laney. She was 6 months old, almost the same age as Brynna. Man, those two look nothing alike! I'm excited to get Brynna's 6 month pictures made next month and get one hung up beside this one.

Fancy Nancy

A sweet couple at church gave D'Laney this book this morning. I'm totally in love with this little girl! There are 27 other books in the series, and I can't wait to get more for D'Laney and Brynna. If you have little girls, I highly recommend these books!