~These are the moments~

I am learning as a parent there are little moments in life that are worth pausing for.

As sad as it may seem sometimes it is just plain hard to stop folding the mounds of laundry, and sweeping the crumbs off the floor to admire the beauty of our children doing something .....or nothing. 

I know that one day I will miss these little feet that pitter patter across the house to wake me from my deep slumber.

I will miss the sweet little voice that ask for juice or milk a million times a day. 

I will miss wiping the little nose that seems to constantly run between the months of Dec and Feb!

I will miss the sweet little voice that sings praise and worship songs in the back seat of the car.

And I will for sure miss our crazy little bedtime routine that Ava has come up with!! .....it goes a little something like this....~butterflies, noses, kisses, hugs, sweets ( where she rubs our cheeks) , ears ( where she pulls our ears) and foreheads  ( where we rub our  foreheads together) ....and then kisses again! Whew!.....yes she does this everynight and has done so for about 1year or so! I am determined to get it on video one day soon to savor as a sweet memory. 

I will for sure miss watching these little hands put puzzles together.

 

I suppose I might even miss walking into Ava's room and finding surprises like this! 

Oh the joys of parenting!

Coming Along........

So like I said in a previous post, we are updating our kitchen cabinets. I will be honest with you, I am not sure if it is worth all of the work. Although I LOVE the results, it has been a long process and we are only half way done. Now mind you we have been working on it off and on, so maybe that is why we are not finished yet. It have a hang up about my kitchen being completely torn apart and no being able to cook. So we are doing sections at a time.

Now I am envisioning a white bead board backsplash, and some sort of granite countertops in the {hopefully} near future. Okay....I will admit after looking at the picture, it has been totally worth all of the elbow grease that the hubby and I have put into these beauties. And I must add, that most of the elbow grease has been my amazing and talented husbands.

Another thing that is coming right along in our household is this little dude.

 

Meet Blue. I know I know he is pretty adorable! I realized that I have not blogged about this little fellow, and he is completely blog worthy. I mean who can resist this face;

We have enjoyed adding this little guy to the family. My best friend Jalah is a breeder for these fabulous dogs. He is a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. Yes he looks like a fur ball that would leave dog hair ALL OVER THE PLACE ( pet peeve of mine!) .....BUT he happens to not SHED! Love it!  He seriously has been the sweetest and easiest puppy that we have ever had!

And for those of you that I left hanging about this picture:

 

Okay I will tell you now. I went to a wonderful auction on Saturday and scored a shelf very similar to this one. I have had this photo bookmarked on my computer forever, because I love everything about it, especially the shelf. I love having pictures in my house and this provides the space to have lots of frames.  I will say that mine is wood and perhaps a little longer than this one.....swoon~~. You will have to wait to see pics of it because it is still sitting in my garage at the moment. I promise I will post pictures after we find a way to hang this monster on the wall. 

I hope you all are having a lovely day! 

Lil' Cuties!

I found these little cuties while wandering around World Market the other day! Please tell me I am not the only one that does that...... wanders around stores just "looking."

When I saw these I just thought of all of the endless possibilities I could do with them. And really who can resist a cute little chalkboard thingy!

I am quite aware that I could have made these. But priced at $3.99 for 2...........I would rather just buy them and save my creative juices for something else.

 This was Ava's rendition of Mommy's creation. Love it! What can I say she is starting young.

And I have some very exciting news! .......Okay I will give you a hint. It has to do with the picture below and an auction......stay tuned.

 

Happy Birthday {DaDdy}

Happy Birthday to the most amazing husband that a woman could ask for, and to the most amazing Daddy that any little girl would be lucky to have! You make us sooo happy!

You are the best company to have ......even when deer hunting!

You are our beloved fryer of our turkeys

You are the best partner to have ......especially when competing in the Diamond Dash.

You have the best shoulders to ride on!

You do the BEST gorilla dance at Rainforest Cafe!

We love you sooo much and we hope your day is as special as you are to us!!! Thanks for making our days complete! 

David,I love you so very much and I hope we will have many more birthdays to celebrate. I pray many blessings over your life for this next year. I love you.  ~Kayla

*We had to celebrate Daddy's birthday last night and this weekend since he as the the fire station working hard for us today!!

Craftiness

I have been on a quest lately to make Ava's hair accessories. I am learning as a mommy with a little girl, you can never have enough bows, headbands and clips!...........mainly because you will end up losing half of the ones you own. And because her little wardrobe is everchanging ....you will always need the right accessory to go with these new outfits!!! .......it is so tough being a girl!


I found a tutorial a while back to make these cute little flowers and I can't remember where I found it. I re-vamped it a little to make it smaller or larger and I played with the folds a bit to come up with the look that I like.

One of the main reasons I love making these is because they are quick and easy to make! ( and cheap!) I am all about crafts and DIY projects, but I will often weigh the benefits of making something versus buying something, based on how much time it will take to make it and how much all of the supplies will cost. I had all of these made in less than 45min. It is also a easy enough project, that interuptions by a certain sweet little 3yr old do not mess with my train of thought too much!!!

I am learning that Ava is a natural crafter.....:) She loves to sit along side me a make something similar to what mommy happens to be making. I really and truly adore this, but alot of crafts invole the glue gun.................that is why I let my 3yr old play with glue guns!!! Opps I just outed myself.

 

I found this handy dandy little glue gun that does not get super duper hot! She still has to be very careful. She has managed to touch some of the glue as she is working, and it has not seemed to bother her too much. I know that must sound terrible, but really I have touched the glue that comes out of this glue gun and I would consider it "a warm glue gun" rather than a "hot glue gun." 

She stayed so content working right beside me and she had a HUGE sense of accomplishment when she was done! 

I must say it turned out pretty cute!!! Mommy made a little finishing touch with the flower on top!! She got to wear her little masterpiece to school today for show and tell. And trust me she was all smiles!

My sweet Ava Joy mommy loves your little crafty hands and your creative little mind more than you will ever know! I hope you will continue to want to work right along side me in the years to come creating beautiful little masterpieces and memories. How much fun will that be!!! Love, Momma

Blessings!

Kayla

{Baking a Mess}

Hello all. It seems we have had a case of the lazy days these past few days, and I fear that today will probably not be any more productive since it is cold and rainy out side. 

Yesterday I did however manage to let Ava do some baking with me. She {LOVES} to get in the kitchen and cook with me. I am trying to be better about this, and ignore the added  time it takes and the piles of flour that end up on the floor when she is helping me! 

Please excuse the missing cabinet doors in the background! They are currently recieveing a little overhaul! ......I am forever grateful for cabinet doors since I am living without them right now. They hide all of my junk very nicely. Although I would LOVE to have a few areas of open cabinetry to display some kitchen lovelies!

Yummy! I have finally found the best easy bread recipe! This is just a mix and throw together recipe. Love it for something quick and easy. Ava and David gobbled it right up with some homemade strawberry jam! ......I unfortunately got a "taste!".......I have yet to figure out why I cook things like this while I am eating no carbs. 

On another exciting note.......I will give you a sneak peak of our cabinets. They hubby and I have been working our fingers to the bone on our cabinets. I think we finally achieved the desired technique. What do you think?? Really I am seeking feedback on the cabinets! I did not realize how scary this process would be. The picture is not that great, but the after is Parchment ( off white) distressed look. As much as I {LOVE} stark white cabinets, I did not feel that they would have flowed very well with the rest of my house since my kitchen is open to my living area.

(The honey oak is the before)

Okay well I am off to maybe do some laundry! ......or maybe not?

{Sweet} DReAmS

Hello folks! Wow! What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. We had such a sweet December getting to see lots of family and friends. We have been off all week as a family, and it has been so nice to stay put and just be together. We only did one really productive thing while we were off, and that was paint and redo parts of Ava's room. ( more on that in another post)

 As I sit here reflecting on this past year, and thinking about what this next year may possibly hold for us as a family, and me individually, I feel encouraged, scared, and confused.

I feel encouraged knowing that no matter what we may endure this year God will see us through it. I also feel encouraged to know that the one thing I know for sure is,  I want my relationship with Him to grow into something more beautiful and intimate than I could ever imagine. At church this morning the pastor was talking about "resolutions." He said that as Christians our resolution should be " to know God and to make Him known." ........Yes it sounds plain and simple, but as I sat and thought about it, in the deepest depths of my soul there are parts of me that the Lord has not traveled to, and there is so much about my Heavenly Father that I have yet to discover. So this next year I will seek; purposefully pursue GOD and his love and mercy for me.

On another note I have a few sweet dreams about this next year. For those who know me personally or have followed my blog, you know I spend lots of time at various garage sales, estate sales and auctions. It is an addiction really. At these places I am surrounded by lots of very talented antique dealers and shop owners. It is a passion that I have found and {I love it.} I have always frequented these sales with the intent of purchasing something for my own house ( or my sisters house since it is a little harder for her to attend these sales.) I usually have my sweet mom right beside me .....shes my junkin' partner in crime. I always see lots and lots of things that are wonderful but I have no spot for them in my own house.....so I go on a "buyers diet" and don't buy them........BUT that is just it, there may not be room for these things in my house ......but somewhere in someone elses home it is the perfect piece!!!! Do you get where I am going with this yet???........So what if.....just dream with me here for a minute......I became one of those really cool junkin' people that we all read about on blogs who buys and sells stuff! I mean really I went to an auction yesterday and I passed up some really great deals that I could have bought and resold.......to be honest with you I have had this dream for a loooonnnnggggg time......i have just been too scared and intimidated to do anything with it. I mean really I could never be a cool as Miss Mustard Seed!!!! { Love} that lady...talk about super talented.

With all of that said, maybe, just maybe, this is the year to do something with this passion of mine!

 And all in all, I know it is not my timing or will that will make this happen, this has to be in the Lord's perfect timing and will for me. And you know what that is okay with me!!


And since I have this pet peeve of mine that I dislike blogs with no pictures in them......I will leave you with some pics of our sweet December.

Many blessings to you and yours in 2011.......now I am off to bed to have visions of painted dressers, vintage clocks, and piles of "junk" dance through my head.

Papa ( my grandpa) me and Ava at her school program

Ava and Grandma at her school

Cookin' with Nana

Sweet Cousins

Ava opening presents at Grandma and Pops.....I must add she is wearing one of my dresses from when I was a little girl! She insisted on wearing it......too cute!

More sweet cousins in Christmas jammies

oh and if you are reading this in Google reader, click on over to my blog and see my updated header! It's nothing too cute just some cute pics of sweet Ava Joy.