A Skating We Will Go!

Last Friday (Jan. 27th) we celebrated Jayci’s 6th birthday at a local skating rink.

I had her invitations done by a girl on Etsy. I really wish I could do stuff like this. I just don’t have the software.

Because we invited SO many kids. I mean really so many like 40+ kids, I think. We decided to collect books for the library of the school that Jayci attends. She goes to a small school plus they are building a new library. Oh and the sheer fact that I didn’t want to have 30 some odd little toys that would get thrown away in a week laying around. I mean she JUST had Christmas. Anyway, she was happy with this idea. Plus she did get birthday presents from her grandparents and aunts.

Oh and just so you know never and I mean NEVER invite 40 kids thinking that oh maybe half will show up…nope 36 showed up!! That’s A LOT of kids. Which we were so happy and blessed to share Jayci’s birthday party with. I’m serious! She had the best time and I would do it all over again! A collage of some of the skaters. The one in the corner of Jayci cracks me up. After Jayci got out there she warmed up to the skating thing. She was so brave and just took off. Needless, to say she fell more than she actually skated. We are still finding bruises…

I mean it’s not really skating without at least one head injury…Right?

Cake time! My sister, Carrie, made this wonderful cake. It was so pretty and tasted REALLY good as well. Of course Jayci wouldn’t know she just wanted to go skate!

Red-faced and attempting to blow out the candles. 

  I only counted 30 kids in this picture but I am sure that some may have left early or didn’t come and get their picture made.

Oh and the party is just not complete without dancing to the “Cha Cha Slide” Oh and yes I did get out there and skate and do the “Cha Cha Slide” with them. There will just be no pictures posted to prove it. HA!

I absolutely love this picture. They were all running to slide on there knees and I just caught it at the right time!

We had SUCH a fun time. We are so blessed to have to many friends and family to be able to celebrate with! We also were able to donate over 30 books to the elementary library!

Next on the to do list…Planning Korbyn’s 1st birthday!

~ Kristen

My Girl!

Jayci,

   Today my sweet girl you turned 6-years-old. My how time flies! I can remember you birth like it was just yesterday and now you are growing it to this beautiful thriving little girl. Well, let’s be honest I guess you are not all that little anymore.

You started kindergarten this year and you are doing so well. Your teacher raves about how good you are usually (we all have our moments). You are doing wonderful at your spelling words and learning to read. You can count to 100 and have learned to tie your shoes. You have also made so many new friends.

This is your second year of dance. And while you are not the most graceful person you seem to enjoy dancing. You also love cartwheels and handstands, which you are quite good at. At the beginning of this month you made us take your training wheels off of your bicycle and did very well at it. It has been kind of cool here so you have not got a lot of practice but spring will be here soon enough.

Another thing you love to do is sing.  You definitely get this from your daddy. You love music and could listen to it all day.

You are a wonderful big sister. You love Korbyn so much. You always want to hold and carry him. You make sure he is safe. You also make sure nobody gives him any food that he is not supposed to have. In fact, you told on Grammy for giving him a donut the other week at church. HA!

I cannot believe how much you have grown and matured over the past year. You have your moments and you still like to whine a little and hate cleaning your messes but again who doesn’t have those bad sides. You are an amazing little girl and I love you so much!

For your birthday this year we are having a skating party! But to celebrate as a family, Daddy, me, Korbyn and you all went shopping at Justice for you some clothes. Actually, Mimi sent you a gift card so we had to go and spend it!

After clothes shopping we went to Toy's-R-Us to pick you out one toy. Several years ago I signed you up for there birthday club. Every year they send you a 3 dollar coupon  inside of a birthday card. Well we have never actually gone. However, this year I thought it would be really fun to take you. They gave you the crown and a balloon (you picked the color blue). After that they made an announcement over the loud speaker saying something like, “Everyone we have a special birthday girl her name is Jayci and she is 6 years old. Be sure and tell her Happy Birthday.” It was so fun. You ended up picking out 2 new cd’s for your karaoke machine you got for Christmas.  

After Toy’s-R-Us we let you choose where to eat. Of course, you choose none other than Purple Cow. You love that place. We split a milkshake and they put whip cream, sprinkles, and a candle on yours and came out and sang you Happy Birthday. I think you had such a special day!

 

We did all this on Tuesday night because on Wednesday (your actual birthday) you have dance and we usually have church so it is kind of a busy day.

Here you are before school in your 6-year-old birthday shirt!

I have to admit I have not taken your annual birthday pictures yet. That is on my to do list for this week but I wanted to post this collage of you in all your birthday shirts. The last photo is obviously from my phone. Once I take your pictures I will try to redo it. Obviously we like zebra and pink since we did it 2 years in a row…Oops. Oh well this year we threw in a little green too.

Jayci, your daddy and I love you so very much. You are so special to us. I hope you had a very special birthday and have a great party on Friday!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

~ Kristen

I Almost Forgot…

I almost forgot to show off our wonderful family pictures we had done back in November. Krystina Bullard at K. Bullard photography did them. She is on maternity leave right now but you should definitely give her a call, if you live here in central Arkansas, when she comes back.

Without further ado….

We actually had these done for Christmas presents for Jay’s parents. Here is all of us. I think she did a really good job, especially since we had 5 kids to wrangle together.

~Kristen

The first week of 2012

2012 has proved to be a very exciting year for us thus far, especially for Jayci. Christmas break came to an end on January 4th and Jayci headed back to school. Well the previous Saturday Jayci discovered that she had a loose tooth. Well wouldn’t you know the first day back to school her teacher pulled her tooth! I know they are probably very experienced at the tooth pulling business and it probably saved me a lot of drama but I was still quite disappointed. In fact, I almost cried.

Not the greatest picture but her teeth are so little that is the only way I could get it.

The rest of the week we have just kind of hung out. Korbyn has had his first real sickness. He had a small fever virus back in December but this week he was really sick. He has had a fever, congestion, ear infection, and just plain feeling bad. Today he is still snotty but feeling much better.

Korbyn turn 8 months old on Friday. I didn’t do any monthly pictures because he is so snotty and still a little cranky. Some things is he doing now:

• He is up to 17 pounds
• He is crawling all over the place. Not very fast but he is definitely mobile.
• He can go from being on his belly to on sitting all by himself.
• He can pull up in his bed for sure. But other places he’s not quite so sure about.
• He loves his sister SO much. She makes him smiling all the time.
• He is still eating baby food but has started eating table food too. He loves all food except for peas. He pretty much refuses to eat those.

A pictures of my blue-eyed-babe!

And for the biggest excitement of the week. Jayci decided to try riding her bicycle without her training wheels. She did a great job! Still have lots of practices but she is still doing good. 

A video of her riding. Notice she always goes for the grass. She has no idea how to start or stop yet but those will come eventually…I hope. Oh and it’s blurry. I got some better videos but I either talked or made some kind of weird noise in them so I chose not to post those. HA!

Here is a picture of her too.

Now off to get ready to go to work….Hope you all have a great weekend!

~Kristen

Christmas 2011

This Christmas I was excited and sad all at the same time. It was Korbyn’s first Christmas and of course Jayci is so fun right now at Christmas so both of those had me excited. However, I had to work both Saturday and Sunday night so that had me a little bummed. I knew going into the field of nursing that would always be a possibility. However, it still sucks when it happens. All that being said my poor little patients that were stuck in the hospital on Christmas didn’t want to be there either. At least my family and I were all healthy and not spending Christmas sick, in a hospital none the less. Oh I do want to say that a plus side to working at a Children’s hospital on Christmas is that I got to play Santa and deliver some nice presents to the kids in the middle of the night.

Okay okay enough about work…I really did not get a lot of pictures at all of Christmas. I hate that but I kind of just enjoyed spending the time that I did have with my kids.

Here are a few pictures of the kids Christmas Eve (well our Christmas Eve on Friday).  We have a tradition to give new pajamas on Christmas Eve. This year we just got them for the kids. Aren’t they just the CUTEST! (Yes, I’m a little biased)

 

Christmas Morning (actually Saturday) we woke up about 7ish with Korbyn. Fed him breakfast then shortly after that Ms. Jayci work up and was ready to see what Santa brought. Before we let her dig in we read the story of Jesus’ birth. Of course, is kind of like torture for a 5-year-old so we might start doing that on Christmas Eve.

Of course, life wouldn’t be complete without a Angry Bird shirt…

We should have just bought him a box…

And a crowd favorite…The karaoke machine…Thanks MIMI! 

We went other places on Christmas Eve but I forgot my camera at home and again was just enjoying family that I didn’t really even care I had forgot it. Sunday I woke up a little early so we could go eat dinner at my in-laws and spend sometime there before we went to work.

My mother in law made an amazing dinner. I pretty much had to eat and open presents then run to work. It is so hard to leave when my kids are having fun and during family time.

We have one more place to go tomorrow! The festivities are never ending. HA!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

~Kristen

Oh Pinterest…

I know everyone has heard of this and pretty much everyone I know is addicted to it! I LOVE Pinterest. However, I think it has made me realize how uncrafty I really am. I mean I can follow directions good but people that came up with the original pins. They are just genius when it comes to crafting. Anyway, I thought I’d share a favorite recipe and the newest craft I have made. I was going to share all the recipes I have made but there are a lot of them so this one is easily a go to on a regular basis.

Easy Fried Rice with Sweet and Sour Chicken…This comes up often on our weekly menu.

The latest craft I have made is our tree skirt! The original idea came from here. Here is a picture of hers.

And here is mine…

This is the first ruffle. I started the process on Friday night. The full first ruffle got put on Saturday afternoon. Then I went and took a nap…ha. Of course I had to work that night.

I finished the rest today. It really did not take that long once I got started. You know in-between taking care of a baby.

The fabrics I used. Our Christmas tree is very traditional colors so I chose very traditional colored fabrics.  I LOVE the way it turned out!!!

Here is the skirt under our tree. I just love it so much. I need a new topper but have yet to find stuff that I want so for now a crooked star is there. HA!  

Oh and the skirt was not necessarily hard to make but it was very tedious and time consuming. I also ended up with 2 blisters from burning my thumb and forefinger. Totally worth it. Although I will not be making another one any time soon.

I found this on Pinterest too…It will be my next tattoo!

I am absolutely not changing my mind. I would already have it but I am waiting on Korbyn to wean. That could be a while so I have a lot of time to possible change my mind but I hope I don’t…HA!

There are so many more things I love on Pinterest. I want to do them all. I just have to come up with some money. Ha!

I will leave you with this…

Happy 7 month birthday to this little guy! I need to do a post soon on what all he is up to. Maybe tomorrow…

~Kristen

Happy 6 Month Birthday!

Korbyn,

You turned 6 months this past Sunday! I cannot believe you are already 1/2 a year old. I better get to planning for that big first birthday. HA!

You are probably one of the happiest babies ever. You fuss when you are tired or hungry and that is about it.

I cannot believe how much my heart has grown since you were born. Seeing you and your sister interact makes my heart so happy. You see her and your whole face lights up. You love her goofy singing and jumping around. Believe me she loves doing anything to make you smile.

Let’s see what are you up to now…

• You now weigh 15lbs (10%). You are a little on the smaller side. Although we are not too worried about it. You are a very happy baby. You are 26.5 inches in length (54%).

(Your Mimi bought you Sophie the Giraffe toy. You love it!)

• You can roll from back to tummy and then from tummy to back. Although you have yet to figure out that rolling could actually get you where you want to go.
• You are sitting up on your own. I still try to put stuff behind you so that way when you get a little distracted and fall over you don’t hit your head. Oh and because you have learned that you can sit up you really don’t like to be laid down for tummy time anymore. I think you may be one of those babies that just scoots on his bottom to get where he wants to go.

• Since you have started sitting up you now ride in the grocery cart like a big boy. You like being able to look around and you think you are just so big!
• You are still eating every 3-4 hours.
• You started baby food a little over a month ago. You LOVE eating your baby food. I have been making all of it so far. Hopefully I can keep up. So far you have eaten avocados, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples, and pears. 

• You usually sleep through the night but here recently you have been waking up once during the night. You usually eat and go right back to sleep. Your bed time is about 7:30 and you wake up for the day between 6-7am usually.

• This is pretty much how mommy totes you around. We love our Baby K’tan! As you can see here you were having a moody moment while I was trying to vacuum so I just put you in the K’tan and we were all set!   

(Dressed up in some of big sister’s Halloween costume. Had to post this picture because it was so cute!)  

• One funny thing you have started doing is any time I point the camera at you I get a big smile. It is so cute. It’s like you know you are getting your picture taken.

Korby you are so full of energy. I cannot say enough how much you have blessed our lives. Your personality makes us smile so many times a day! You are the sweetest baby and I just can’t get enough of you. In fact, you have only stayed with a babysitter one time and it was only for a couple of hours because I HAD to. However, this weekend you are going to stay with Papaw and Memaw for a few hours while Daddy and I go on a date. I’m already having to mentally prepare myself for this event. HA!

 

Korbyn  ~ We are loving watching you grow and learning so much! Love – Mommy, Daddy, & Jayci!

(P.S. If you like the Hogs shirt, dress, or the Thanksgiving Johnny you can go here or here. My friend Kasie has started a business and make great custom clothing, baby gifts, aprons, and kitchen towels.)

~ Kristen