Brynna is a big girl!

Brynna has been trying to climb out of her crib for a few weeks now, so saturday, we took the crib down to the toddler bed. She's pretty young still, just 17 months, but I didn't think she would have a problem with it. And we certainly didn't want her to succeed in crawling out of the full crib and hurting herself. We just put her in bed, close the door and leave her. We did put the baby gate up outside her closed door, just in case she was able to open it. She hasn't quite mastered going down the stairs yet, especially in the dark.
At night, she has done perfectly. She'll sit in bed and talk to herself for a little while, and she might get out and roam her room for a few minutes, but she'll crawl back in and go to sleep pretty quickly. The first morning she was up at 6:30 (yikes!) but the next morning she slept to her normal 8:30, 9ish. Naptime, though, has been more of a challenge. Sunday and monday, it has taken a couple of hours for her to finally fall asleep. She's not sitting in there crying, she just plays. Today, though, she went right to sleep. I figured it wouldn't take longer than 3 days for her to figure things out, looks like I was right. It's a good thing we put the baby gate up, too, because that little stinker figured out her door knob first thing! She opened the door and was yelling, not crying or upset, just yelling for her Daddy. I don't know why my girls always think Daddy will help them out in situations like that, he never does!
It took D'Laney a little bit longer to get to where she'd stay in bed. I'd find her asleep in the middle of the floor or right in front of the baby gate. This only lasted about two weeks, but I thought Brynna would catch on much sooner.


My big girl!


She doesn't sleep with that pillow. D'Laney just thought she needed one.

Bow holders

I've been meaning to make these for a while. Like since D'Laney was born. Yep, I'm on top of things!
I bought some cheap wooden frames from the dollar store, took out the glass and backing, and spray painted them the same blue that's in the flower painting on the wall in D'Laney's room (previous post.) Then I just hot-glued ribbon inside them.
Now why did that take me almost 4 years to get done?! Well, if you know me at all, that question answers itself. I had the paint, ribbon, and glue. I just had to drive 2 blocks to the dollar store on a day where I needed out of the house for a few minutes.
I'm chock full of ideas for all sorts of things. Execution is my problem. But I'm getting better, and the finished products are so fun, it's certainly motivation.

D'Laney's bedroom

When we moved in to this house, the room that we put D'Laney in had a really cute purple swirl paint job. That is, it was cute if you like purple. I don't. I don't know why, but for some reason I have always despised the color, absolutely hate it. Since D'Laney's bedding was black and red and ladybugs, I had intended to paint the room to match her bedding, but I never got around to it. When we were expecting Brynna and moved D'Laney out of the nursery furniture, I bought yet another Ladybug bedding set, this time for a full size bed. Both sets of bedding clashed horribly with the purple swirls. So a few weeks ago, I decided to forgo painting the room and embrace the purple, and bought bedding that complimented it, instead of matching it. I just don't think I could have handled that much purple.

Right next to the door, these little flowers had been painted on the wall. I took cues from it when it came to the bedding.

I happened to already have blue sheets the same color as the flower pots. I pulled yellow from the faces, pink from the petals, and threw in some green.


I decided to go with solids, because I like simple, but also so that each of the pieces could be used separately with different schemes. I got the down blanket, shams, skirt, and accent pillows from Target.


The letters for her name were already green, matching some trim in her Ladybug bedding. They fit in with the new stuff pretty well.


We still have lots of Laney-bug's through out her room.


I absolutely love this little ceramic ladybug night light. I hope that it is something D'Laney always has in her room.


This little nook is where the girls read. I'd love to say that all the books are always neatly lined up on the book shelf and the large stuffed animals line up neatly as well, but I don't like to lie.

Prom Proposal

My train of thought is hardly a straight train track. It's more like those twisty overpasses that criss and cross and spiral like spaghetti.
Follow if you dare:
My mom is the junior class sponsor, and had prom friday night. Her house has leftover cake, glitter, and mardi gras masks scattered throughout.
I loved all the proms I went to, they were so much fun!
Glee's prom episode was pretty good. It also introduced me to the term "prom proposal."
Cameron's twin cousins are seniors and the popular thing in their group of friends was who could outdo the next guy when asking their girls to the prom. There was a post-it in a fish bowl, a cookie cake, and I can't remember the rest, but they were good.
That poor kid in the news who was banned from his prom for a creative "prom proposal," but he was later allowed to go.
So, I got to thinking about prom proposals. I just had sweet guys call and ask, simple. Do you have a good story? Let's hear it!!
Me and my bff's our senior year. A great night!!

Allergies

I went to a new doctor about my allergies last month. This doc is a chiropractor, nutritionist, acupuncturist, and holistic doc. He's busy!
He ran a lot of tests on me, and determined that I was allergic to all fruit, most veggies, all nuts, and shellfish. I knew all that. He also determined that I'm allergic to all soy products, refined sugar, MSG (which I think everyone should avoid anyway), and milk. Milk! I drink milk all the time, I love milk! I told him that I've been drinking milk my whole life, to which he replied, you've had allergies your whole life! He pointed out there is a major difference between a lactose intolerance and an allergy.
So I have a whole new diet. And by that, I mean that I can eat even less than I could before, which is pretty much nothing! Do you know what's left after you take out sugar, milk, and soy? Not much, that's what!
I can eat any kind of meat, potatoes, eggs, green beans, whole grains(ugh!), butter, and some cheeses. That's it!
To substitute milk, I can have rice milk. I haven't drank it straight yet, but I've cooked with it, and eaten cereal with it, and it's not bad. I've been drinking Sprite Zero to wean myself off of carbonation, but it has aspartame, which isn't good for anybody. I've found sugar free syrup, which tastes the same, and sugar free cookies, which do NOT taste the same. It's a learning process. I'm going to buy a bread maker and start making my own bread, subbing in the rice milk and stevia, but using regular flour. I just hate wheat, and I'm having a hard time choking it down.
Hopefully, after a while, I can start integrating some of these things back into my diet, slowly, with a lot of trial and error, I'm sure.
The other tests he ran confirmed that I'm allergic to pretty much anything that grows, dust, mold, etc. He found problems with my ovaries, probably cysts, and some adrenal gland issues. He also did some blood work and found that my blood is sticky, would be the best way that I could describe it. My red blood cells don't float freely, which means that they aren't functioning properly by getting oxygen to the rest of my body. They're not clotting, which could be really dangerous. Just sticky. It explains why I'm so tired all the time.
So. To fix ALL THAT, I'm on a series of supplements and drops. I take 34 pills broken up over 4 times a day. I take 15 drops under my tongue 4 times a day as well. And, of course, the adjustment to my diet. I really think it's working. Besides the almost 15 pounds I've lost so far since I don't eat (that's a nice little perk.) Unless the wind is blowing really hard or one of my neighbors is mowing, I really don't have much allergy trouble during the day. I still have some trouble first thing in the morning, that's always been the worst time of day for me, but it's not every day now. Over time, I should be able to cut back on the pills and drops, and maybe be able to eat a little more, like I said. But if not, if I have to jump through all these hoops for the rest of my life, I think I would. I've been miserable pretty much every single day of my life, and I think I've finally found what's going to help me. It's expensive, all these pills, and holistic medicine isn't covered by insurance, but I think it's worth the expense, for now. We'll see how long I feel that way :)
The only think lacking now is a little bit of energy. I don't know if I need to get more exercise, more sleep, or if I need to eat more. My body is getting very little fuel right now. I'm sure it's a combination of all three.

These are all my pills, sorted and stored. I have to sit and sort once a week, which is a pain. This little thing is actually for jewelry making, but it works pretty well.

Let me back up a little

I have about two months worth of catching up to do. And not just any months, March and April, two of the busiest months of the year for us. So here we go!
~Our sixth anniversary was March 12, and Cameron got me a spa day at a ritzy salon in Midland. While the girls were in Iraan, I got a massage, a facial, a brow sugaring (totally awesome, look it up!)and a mani-pedi! He did a great job, it was awesome! For supper, we went to a great Italian restaurant. It's the closest to the food we had while we were in Rome for our honeymoon. We realized that, by accident, we had eaten Italian for almost every anniversary so far.
~The next weekend, for my birthday, we went to Gruene for the weekend. We love it down there. I like all the eclectic shops, though I wouldn't buy 90% of the stuff in them. I just like looking. We ate at the Gristmill, and saw Roger Creager saturday night at Gruene Hall. Cameron and I were front and center. I literally could have held his microphone for him! My love for Roger predates my love for Cameron, but we hadn't seen him since before we had kids. It was a great little vacation.
~When we picked up the girls on the way home, we picked up Allie, too. After the first traumatic day, I'm happy to say that Allie is fitting in nicely around here. Cameron rigged up part of the old fence, so she now has half of the yard to roam, instead of just that little pen. She's growing so fast! It seems like she's twice the size she was when we brought her home! She's really a good puppy, but we're having trouble with her biting and jumping when she's excited. It's just puppy playing, but the girls don't like it. They try so hard to be brave, but they're still a little scared of her. Especially Brynna. She's so funny, she yells at Allie, calls her by name and holds out her hand for her to come, but as soon as Allie starts heading her way, Brynna sprints back to me and climbs straight up my legs. D'Laney is a little better with her, but doesn't like the jumping.
~We've been doing a lot of work on the backyard. Cameron poured a sidewalk that leads to the dumpster, and we have the new garage/patio marked off. We still have to tear down the old garage, but we're having a hard time finding the equipment. Tearing it down isn't the problem, but hauling the old wood off is. Our little dump isn't open on the weekends, and Cameron has been too busy to take any time off during the week. I'm afraid we're just going to have to hire someone to get it done.
~We've been to baseball games, soccer games, and track meets this spring. I love that my girls are growing up around sports and competition.
~Are you still there? I know, it's a boring post!
~We spent Easter in Angelo. I loved, loved, loved the dresses I found for the girls! They were beautiful! I tried making Bakerella's cake pops, and they tasted pretty good, but they didn't look all that great. And it was an all day process! I definitely learned a lot for the next time I try to tackle them.
~Brynna had a well baby check up, and got a gold star! She weighed 20 pounds, and is just under 30 inches tall, both putting her in the 25%. Dr P was very impressed with her vocabulary and her signing. She got two shots, and did pretty well with them.
~It's been a busy time in our prayer lives as well. Fires have ravaged the Concho Valley, coming within a few miles of my parents' place, both of my mom's parents have spent some time in the hospital, and baby Harper made her grand debut and spent a few weeks in the NICU in Lubbock. I'm happy to say MamaDeere and PapaDeere are both home and doing much better. Harper is also home for the time being, but will soon have to return to the hospital for major heart surgery.
~I went to a new doctor about my allergies. I'll post more about it later, but let me assure you, all these hoops that I'm having to jump through sure better be worth it! I think they will be, it's just really hard to tell right now because of these horrible winds that we've had.
~We're kid free again this weekend. Cameron's mother was in town thursday, and took the girls home with her. We'll pick them up sunday when we go down there for mother's day and Cameron's brother's birthday.
~I guess that's about it. I'm sure only a couple of you are still with me! You know, I started this post about 3 weeks ago. I'm just still in a bit of the blogging blahs. I love reading other blogs, I just haven't really been up to posting myself. I wish there were some sort of technology that could take down what I blog in my head, cause I could keep up with that really well. I blog while I'm driving all the time, but by the time I get home, I've either forgotten, or simply don't feel like typing it all out.
~I'll try to get some pics on here later today, ok, Cadye? You can quit texting me that I need to update now!

Update: Allie is home!!

Yesterday was awful. It would have been bad anyway, but I was super sick from allergies and super emotional from, well, I was just super hormonal.
Around 7 last night, we got a knock on the door, and there were our NEXT DOOR neighbors. One was holding the flier I had made, and the other was holding Allie! When they were leaving for work yesterday morning, Allie was trying to get into their garage. Since she didn't have a tag and they didn't know who she belonged to, they were just going to hold on to her for a day or two and see if they could find her home. They had no idea she belonged to us! They said, we haven't seen her out in the yard with y'all, and I said, well, we just brought her home last night!
D'Laney was so glad to have her home, and Allie seemed to be glad to see D'Laney. After getting her situated in the bathroom, the girls and I headed to town at 8:30 last night (bad momma!) to get all the essentials for her that I had intended on getting earlier in the day. She now has her collar and leash, toys, and food and water bowls that didn't come out of our kitchen. I didn't have all that before we got her because she was a surprise for the girls, and I wanted D'Laney to be able to help pick her stuff out. I couldn't find any tags for her, but I'm going to try to find something cute and unique for them anyway.
Allie slept in the downstairs bathroom last night, and only cried for about 15 minutes, then was quiet for most of the night. When we got up this morning, the bathroom had ZERO puddles in it! No mess at all, aside from the food she had knocked out of her bowl. D'Laney took her into the front yard and she did her business right away. I think maybe this puppy is already house broken! Too bad she won't be spending much time actually IN the house!
I "fixed" her outside pen today. Can you say redneck?!

It is standard dog kennel, which she climbed out of, with a storm door on top, to keep her in and let the sunlight through. There is a pipe preventing the storm door from butting up next to the fence, so there is a box, anchored by bricks, and an old "for sale" sign on either side of the pipe to close any gaps. The long box and wooden fence are to break the wind and keep her from digging out.
It's worked so far. She's been in there for the better part of the afternoon, and she'll start yapping every now and then, but for the most part, she seems fine.
So we're happy at the Holifield house today! Now I just need to get to the housework that I was too distraught to do yesterday. Boo!