Girls Weekend

Rusty went out of town for his annual guy's trip to Florida.  We missed him but it gave me a few days off work with just the girls.  I loved having some great quality time with them!

Thursday night, Caitlin had her softball assessments.  Here she is waiting in line to bat.

Friday, Alaina and I went to Macaroni Grill with Kara for her birthday.  We went early enough to be safe from the impending storms.

On Thursday, Alaina found Caitlin's old Dora sprinkler in the garage and decided she needed to carry it everywhere with her.  She wouldn't go ANYWHERE without it.  She even slept with it.  Seriously, how to you cuddle with that?  But she loves it.  Here she is watching Dora with Dora.

Friday, we had some terrible weather.  I'm not that big of a weather freak.  I don't normally get nervous about it but everyone on Facebook was worried and I read that storm chasers were in TN for the impending doom.  So Friday after our lunch, we stayed at home glued to the TV.  Caitlin and I were supposed to go to the rodeo that night, but I just didn't feel comfortable leaving a babysitter at home with Alaina during the storms, even though they were mostly gone by then. 

I was very thankful that Smyrna seemed to be missed by the storms.

So Caitlin and I went to the rodeo Saturday night.  She was as happy as she could be.  She got a new cowboy hat and some yummy food and watched all the fun.  She would not let me get one serious smiling picture so you get to see lots of goofy ones instead.

Sadly, once all the animals came in the arena, her allergies went berserk.  She started sneezing immediately and was miserable the whole time.  I hate that she seems to be allergic to the things she loves the most - horses, dogs, cats, etc.  I am hoping she will outgrow it one day.

Saturday, we went to Walmart.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I voluntarily went into a Walmart to shop . . . ON A SATURDAY!  I wanted to get some magnets for a craft and I wanted to see if I could get a stuffed Dora for Alaina so she would turn loose of the sprinkler Dora.

So off we went to hell, I mean Walmart.  We found a Dora she seemed to like and found these cute little PJs.  I was very hopeful about the stuffed Dora but when we got back to the car, she still wanted the sprinkler Dora.  She was not going to let me replace it.  So stuffed Dora will be going back to Wally World.  Luckily, when Rusty got home, he was able to unscrew the Dora figure off the sprinkler so it will be much easier for Alaina to carry her around.

On Saturday, we set up the play tent that Alaina got for Christmas in the bonus room and the girls played and watched some cartoons from the tent.

Here they are pretending to be asleep.

We were so glad for daddy to get home on Sunday.  Even though we had a lot of fun, we still missed him and it felt better once he was back home with us!

Addicted

I am totally addicted to Scramble with Friends.  At any given time, I have about 15 games going with people.  I like it because it is quick and people can't cheat.  And I'm pretty decent at it.

Yesterday, I had my highest score ever!!  1082!!



Silhouette FAIL

I was so excited after my successful vinyl project that I now wanted to try making some iron on designs.  I created some St Patrick's Day designs and some baby onesies designs to make for gifts.  I printed them in the printer and loaded them in the Silhouette to cut out.  I went to the kitchen for something and this is what I found when I came back.  FAIL!!  I followed the limited directions I had so I now I need to figure out what was wrong.  :(  I was so excited to make some cute little custom shirts for the girls.  Maybe next week.

Silhouette WIN

I got my Silhouette SD machine last year for a Mother's Day/Birthday gift.  It was overwhelming to learn and it honestly took almost a year for me to make the time and learn it.  I LOVE it because I can create my own designs using Photoshop and then use it to create custom vinyl, iron ons, temporary tattoos, paper crafts, etc.

I love the vinyl sayings so I had to try my own.  This was my first attempt for my house.  I started simple - just our last name and the year we were married.  You feed the vinyl into the machine and it does all the cutting.  You then peel the vinyl off.

I had to use a knife to get the more intricate pieces.

Here it is ready to go.

I put it in the hallway over some of the pictures.

I LOVE how it turned out!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Caitlin is a snooze alarm type of girl.  Every morning I go in early and "try" to get her up.  She will always say, "Five more minutes".  And I come back in 5-10 minutes.  This morning I go in to "wake" her.  I ask if she needs five minutes.  She immediately gets out of bed.  I turn to walk out of the room and she falls on the floor.  I say, "Caitlin what happened?"  She doesn't answer.  I say, "Do you need a few more minutes?"  As she drags herself back towards the bed she says, "yeah I think a few more minutes would be good".  Crazy girl!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls LOVED getting Valentines in the mail from all the grandparents yesterday.  Thank you for sending the cards and the goodies.  They each loved them!!

These are the goodies we (meaning I) made for Caitlin's class.  She didn't want to do the easy dipped marshmallows again.  She wanted to do cake pops.  I vetoed that and instead tried oreo truffle pops.  I wasn't sure how they would fare on a stick, but I think they did pretty good.  She was excited about handing them out, at least.

"I Want Self"

Alaina is a very picky eater.  So when she wants to eat something healthy, we have to take advantage of the opportunity.  Saturday, she wanted to eat some yogurt.  And she wanted to do it all by herself.  I had just gotten her out of the bath, so I thought it was perfect.  She wouldn't get it all over her clothes.

Every time I tried to help her, she would say. "I want self!"

She did pretty good.  Only dropped it on her belly a few times.

Later that day, we went to Menchie's.  She was SO excited.  She ran in screaming, "Menchie."  She liked the free 3D glasses they gave her.

Also, she recently had her 2 year checkup.  She was 85% in height and 51% for weight.

Getting things done . . .

I had a productive Saturday.  I cleaned out my closet recently and finally logged everything and took it all to Goodwill.  7 bags of clothes and a basket full of shoes.

I ordered these vinyl sayings probably TWO years ago.  I couldn't figure out how to hang them.  It was very frustrating.  Well, I finally tried again and for some reason had no problem.  I'm glad I didn't get frustrated and throw them away.  I love how they turned out.  This one is over our front doow.

And this one is in my studio.

I also reorganized my props and backdrops.  Love it!

The new fort

This is what Caitlin's bed looks like 99% of the time.  It was SO frustrating for me.  All I wanted was her bed to look nice.  But she loved sleeping like this.  She stole Alaina's toy turtle that lights up and shoot star constellations on the ceiling (thanks Becky!) and now sleeps like this each night.

So a permanent solution had to be found.

Thanks to Google, I found an easy solution.  A tension rod and a twin sheet and Voila! 

She LOVES it because it can stay up permanently.  I LOVE it because it is so neat.

I do think I need a more sturdy tension rod, though.  This one bows in the middle.

Yummy!

So I made two new recipes to take to Emily's for the Superbowl get together.  They both turned out SO good!!  So I thought I would share.  Your welcome!

Garlic Chicken Puffs
Ingredients:
* 4 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
* 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
* ½ cups Cooked, Shredded Chicken
* 2 cans (8 Oz. Can) Refrigerator Crescent Rolls

Instructions:
Mix cream cheese, garlic and chicken until well blended.

Unroll crescent rolls and cut each triangle into 2 triangles. (When you unroll the crescent rolls, 2 triangles are attached, making a big square. You can just cut from there, following the perforation for one cut, and make another cut from the other corners, giving you 4 little triangles.)

Place 1 teaspoon of chicken mixture on the center of each triangle and fold the corners in over the creamy mixture.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 11-14 minutes.

Cookies n Cream Cheesecakes 

42 Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped

2 pounds (32 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275°. Line standard muffin pans with liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each liner.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed using an electric mixer. Gradually add the sugar, beating until combined. Beat in vanilla.

Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving. Best served really cold! You can garnish with fresh whipped cream and crumbled Oreos if desired.

Makes 30 cheesecakes.

Studio Fun

Someone is a little obsessed with my studio.  Every time we go in there, Alaina says "Pictures" in her cute little way.  So I've been using her as my guinea pig trying out some new settings.

I bought a few pieces of fabric to simulate some wallpaper walls.  A cheap fix but I like how it turned out!

And here's some of Caitlin . . .

Drastic times call for drastic measures!

We are tired of getting Alaina up from bed and finding her diaper off!  She has figured out how to undress herself and likes to do that at naptime or when she wakes in the mornings.

So we are now at the point of duct taping her diaper on (and needing to focus on potty training).

I know it looks like we are torturing her with the duct tape.  She just didn't want to lay down so I could take a picture.  (Just another form of torture, I guess).  I know - mom of the year!

She's definitely TWO

 Last night, we went to CiCi's Pizza for some dinner with the Sutherlands. The girls like to play in the little arcade after they are done eating and we always sit where we can see them.  After about 15 minutes of them playing, Caitlin runs over to me and says that she lifted Alaina up to see the basketballs (in the Pop-a-Shot game) and then she climbed in and wouldn't come out.
 

Where you see her here is where you shoot the basketballs into.  She had crawled under where the basketballs come out and got into the game.  You couldn't just grab her out - we had to coax her back under.  I tried being upset about it, but then each time I looked at her in her little jail, I just laughed.