All About My Sweet P

As my due date approaches, less than 11 weeks to go, I'm trying to take in every moment with my little Sweet P that I can.

We shop, picnic, meet daddy to feed the ducks and just enjoy our time together.





She's a lot like her momma, in many ways.

She has been inherited my inability to sit still when music comes on, love of laughter and a serious love for donuts.



She's also a lot like her daddy.

She thrives in the cold, she has the most gorgeous eyes and isn't afraid to get a little dirty.



She loves to be outside and she recently got to walk our little dog for the first time. The kid oozes joy!




She oozes joy a lot and is getting big so fast. We tried piggie-tails for the first time, she insists on doing most things by herself, she can rock massive headbands, neon and sunglasses - at the same time, she loves to color and she's getting more and more independent every day.

All of a sudden, my little sweet P turned into a full-out child.



She's a riot to be around and although I will miss our time together just the 3 of us, I'm pretty excited to watch her continue to grow and become an awesome big sister.

We love you little Sweet P.

Top Posts in 2011

I have enjoyed other people's posts about their top 5 posts from the previous year so I decided to do that here. I just based it on most page views for posts made in 2011, though, some of the most viewed pages were from 2010 posts.

Anyway, here are the top 5...

5. I Think I Did It



Maybe it's the coffee ice cubes or the fact that a ton of people are looking for a perfect iced coffee recipe, but either way, this post made it to the top five. I feel kind of bad because I am going to share something this week that will make this post obsolete. Seriously, folks, stay tuned.

4. P is for... (part 2)



I would like to think it's my clever "Princess and the Pea" cake that got all the page views but it probably has more to do with the super cute dollhouse, pillow and quilt that were given to my P.

3. P is for... (part 1)




This makes me happy to be in the top five because I'm usually not a crafty gal. I busted out all my secret skills on this party and it seems that people liked it, thank you pinterest.

2. Homemade Pizza Balls

Say hello to my favorite snack recipe for 2011. Those babies were so good. I have made them several times since and have no plans to stop. The Nathan's ball is my fave.

1. Maybe a Tad Biased



Maybe it's the too-cute-for-words pictures my sister took of my P or the subtle announcement at the end that made this the top 2011 post but in all honesty, I'm quite certain it's the fact that my sister linked up to the news. Most page views in one day goes to this post as well. Thanks, sister.

Hope you enjoyed at least one of those!

What I Learned

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, mainly because I never can keep them. Last year I made a resolution to make our bed every morning. *gasp!* It's true, I have a terrible habit of not making the bed. I probably made it about a month before I failed. I have gotten better, though. I guess that's the point anyway, to continually improve.

So this isn't a "what I'm going to do in 2012" post, more of a mindset I want to have.

See, the other day Sweet P reminded me of something. We were doing a simple, mundane task, the laundry. Here's the thing, the very sound of the buzzer going off on our dryer makes me annoyed. There is never an end to laundry, it just keeps coming. I wash, dry, fold and put away and start the whole process over. It never ends. That's probably my biggest pet peeve.

Anyway, Sweet P was helping me put clothes in the washer and was having an absolute blast!



She wasn't thinking about the next load, or the load after that, she was just having fun throwing the clothes in (and taking them back out) and pushing the buttons.

She lives in the moment.

Sure, it's kind of the only way she knows to live but it's still a good lesson. A lesson I want to carry forward in 2012, to live in the moment and to enjoy it, no matter how simple or mundane it may seem.

So, I hope you have a very happy New Year's Eve and cheers to an awesome 2012!!

Christmas Vacation

Howdy folks! I hope you all had a great Christmas! Here's a little recap of some of our Christmas vacation in photos.



I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for a little while but I'll be back.

Until then, have a great week!!

A Visit to See Santa

I know I said I'd post week 3 of our Advent activities today but we're having a bit of a situation at the house so hopefully I'll get it up later.

Until then, Sweet P's visit to see Santa. This was her second visit to see the Bass Pro Shops Santa - we took her last year too.

She was excited as we stood in line. She even waved to the reindeer and Santa.



Then it came her turn to sit on his lap. Although there were no tears, she was obviously not too thrilled about the situation.



And here's her picture from last year's visit.



Tonight, we're baking Christmas cookies and decorating them. Wish us luck!

Winterfest 2011

Or Embrace the Camera - Winterfest Edition (with Emily).

Or, How to Wear Out your Child

Any of those titles work for today's post.

The BOK Center, in downtown Tulsa, puts on Winterfest every year. I don't know how long they've been doing it but it's a pretty big hit. They have live music, an outdoor ice skating rink, food vendors and a gigantic Christmas tree. It's really pretty at night but it's also pretty fun during the day.

Last Saturday the weather was gorgeous so we took Sweet P down to check it out. So, this pregnant lady not going to ice skate, the husband has ice skated once and hated it and there was no way we were going to attempt getting a 16 month old to wear skates - if they even had her size!

So what do you do? Well, aside from people-watching and just being out and about?

You pose for some pictures and laugh when you come home to notice the wipe-out in the background...



You find the hill next to the stage with live music and have a dance party.





You get lots of kisses.



And you watch your husband and daughter run/slide up and down the giant hill until they're both about ready to collapse!



Oh, and don't forget about getting a family picture next to the gigantic Christmas tree!



You can find out more about it here.

Advent Week 1 in Review

We started an new  Christmas tradition last year with Sweet P and decided to continue it this year. We have an Advent calendar house-like-thing that has little door to open each night.



So we decided to fill each door with a variety of activities to do, Bible verses to read, movies to watch, songs to sing and dance to and food to eat to open each night.

Here's the first seven days:















I'm curious, what traditions do you have or Christmas treats you always make?

The Stache Party

So last week was my dad's birthday and my sister and I worked up a little party to celebrate his many years of life!

I originally saw this photo collage on pinterest and wanted to do it for dad. I didn't even know it came from MS at the time! Have I mentioned how much I love her?

Anyway, my mom pulled some photos together for me and I took pictures of each one with my phone, converted them all to black and white and added a border, then printed them for the backdrop at our swanky venue.

Looking back on dad's pictures, one thing that popped out was his mustache. He's had one my entire life so I thought I would be fun to incorporate the stache into the party decor. Thus, the theme was born.



My sister and I made treats for the party. Lots of mini cupcakes came out of my oven and a few didn't make it to the party - a girl has to taste-test. I used Bakerella's cookies and cream icing recipe (with butter, not shortening) and added some crushed Oreo's to a little of the chocolate batter (in a box) as well as the vanilla batter (also from a box). Folks, I may never make  a standard cupcake again. Those things were delicious. The cookies even kept their crunch.



Anyway, my sister made a variety of fancy treats like peanut butter bites, rolo pretzels and sugar cookies. They were all so tasty. She also cut out mini mustaches and the number 60 so we could top the treats. I think the party table came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!



My sister probably got tons of cute party pics so while she was doing her thing, I chased her kids around trying to get them to pose with mustaches with me for a little photo booth fun.

Side note - do you have the pocketbooth app?

photo from itunes

No!? Go get it now. If you do, you know how much fun that thing is, especially at parties AND parties that have mustaches on sticks!

Anyway, here are just a few of the photo booth pics - there's a whole lot more.



Oh, and the swanky setting? We had it at none other than Jim's Coney Island. I've mentioned it on this blog before and some know it by "Never on Sunday's" but I basically grew up there. I've even ran into my Dad at Jim's a time or two. It was the perfect setting: laid back, the smell of chili dogs and Greek food and just classy enough to not get stares from the other patrons as we ran around covered in fake mustaches!

I hope dad had as much fun at the party than we did planning it!

In Case You Missed It

OSU beat OU.

Way to go Cowboys!

We had a little good luck charm during the first part of the game, but after she went to bed, we kept her enthusiasm alive by repeatedly playing this:

Oh How We Love Fall

Happy Thursday!

CrazyJoy =

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Sorry this is late. I've been in and out, enjoying a few Black Friday traditions, eating, decorating and even grabbed a quick nap. It's been a great couple of days!

Anna posted the new crazyjoy challenge word earlier today so I hoped you checked it out. If not, here you go.



I'll see you Monday where I'll post my photo for the challenge.

Until then, here are some new photos over the last few days...






The collages were made with the diptic app using instagram photos from my phone library. I guess I should mention that I'm a little obsessed with Instagram (free) and Diptic (only 99 cents).

Tomato Theif

Up until last week, my grandpa still had red, homegrown tomatoes from his garden. He sent me home with a huge sack full of them and several sacks of green tomatoes to ripen indoors.

Sweet P (who LOVES tomatoes) found the bowl of ripe, red ones on the table and this is what I walked in on:



I grabbed my camera to get a picture so I could show her grandpa while the husband cleaned her up.



She's a goofy girl.