Charli's American Girl Tea Party

This weekend we hosted Charli Beth's 8th birthday party for her and her friends. Second grade seems to be the year of American Girls doll because the obsession has been a true overload. Charli knew right away what party theme she wanted as soon as the planning began. 

We quickly started going to antique booths and vendors to find cheap tea cups. In spending money for tea cups, I knew I would have to justify it in some form or fashion. So I decided that giving the cups as a part of their party favors would be the best idea and yes, the girls seemed to be very excited that they could keep them! 

When the girls came into the party they were immediately served cinnamon rolls and strawberry fruit tea. 

After their "Warm Welcome" we helped each girl make necklaces for themselves and their dolls. 

We quickly transitioned into snack time after the necklaces were made. I could be wrong but I think this was one of Charli's favorite times. The girl loves food and especially the fact that I made my "famous meatballs" as she says. {Totally not famous but I will take it.} 

The girls finished eating fairly quickly and went off to play time with their dolls while others went back for second helpings. 

While the girls played my MIL, Mother and sister in law cleaned tea cups to bag for each girl to take home. This was most defenitly the easiest and budget friendly idea even though maybe not the most practical for my helpers. I also made the dolls party hats, which were SO simple to make. 

Charli asked her Meme to make a strawberry cake for her birthday. It seems that the party was pretty strawberry oriented, and we did not even mean for it to be. 

The girls watched Charli open her gifts then she blew out her candle so they could all enjoy cake. They were quickly back to playing in minutes, and the party was coming to a end. 

Charli Beth seemed to really love this party and all of the time spent with her friends. The girl who never gets sleepy, was worn out by the time we arrived home. Although that did not stop her from playing with all of her new items. 

I must thank all of my family and friends that went far and beyond with putting forth an extra hand with this party! 

Charli is 8, already!

Eight years ago, I became a Mother. For months I worried, prayed, and crossed my fingers that I would get this parenthood career correct. I've failed many times, and many times I have failed her. But she has always loved me unconditionally and I could not be anymore blessed than I am just simply being her Mother. 

The first time I held her I sobbed tears of excitement, worry and disbelief at how I was already a Mommy at the young age of 18. I took a deep breath looked into her eyes, seeing her squished little piglet nose and knew at that moment that my life made complete and perfect sense. She was my lifesaver, and there are a lot of days that she still is.

Dear Charli Beth,

I must first give you a laugh and let you know that I immediately started crying as I wrote, "Dear Charli." As you and I both know, I am not one to cry. But you my sweet girl made me a softy within my mommy heart. You gave me the tenderness, love and affection that I had needed for so many years. You took my heart, by the first grip around my fingers and made my life far more extraordinary that I ever thought possible.

Most days it seems absolutely impossible that you are turning eight years old and already in the second grade. I feel somewhat lost about this too. Just yesterday I was sticking huge headband bows on your head, and pulling you around in the red radio flyer wagon that Maw gave to you. Then, I flash forward  to how much you have grown since your little brother has arrived and our family grew by so much. It is purely amazing at how mature, gracious and humble you are at such young age. 

No matter where life takes you, I pray that your dreams of being a cowgirl, riding in a rodeo, holding the American flag while the national anthem plays is fulfilled one day. I also pray that your dreams are always so innocent and pure as the ones you have now. You have the biggest heart to make anything that you wish for come true. 

I love you so much more than my blog can ever explain to you, or that I can tell you in words. We have a special bond and such sweet memories that no one in this world can ever replace. I hope that this year brings you joy, lessons, love and lots of wonderful memories. 

You will always be my favorite girl in the entire world.

Love,

Mommy

A Winter Snow

Winter weather, you either love it or hate it. Thankfully, I am one of those very few inidividuals that sees the need to embrace it because either way, it is going to hit us at some point. I see no need is complaining over how cold it is, or how hot it is during the summer. 

Some of my favorite memoires as a child were made playing in the snow or while the snow was falling. I can also tell you that some of my favorite memories made as a parent have been during snow days. These pleasant days are few and far between in southern Kentucky anymore. It seemed all winter we were being missed by the snow in every direction by just a few miles. That was until Sunday night when we received two inches of sleet then several inches of snow. I tried to measure but it was almost impossible due to the ice. Ranges around the county were from 4 1/2 to 9. The wind caused drifts and it's the first in years that I have saw. 

So I embraced it. Well, I had to. I had two eager kids, with school out and Curtis off at work pushing cars out of ditches all day. (By the way, the man needs to invest in a nice pair of gloves. I was amazed to hear that he was out in this pushing frozen cars with no gloves on.) The first day we spent two 15 minute session outside going down small hills in the barnyard. It was just way to cold to adventure out for long. Then yesterday we played our hearts out for at least two hours. 

Riding down the hill the Charli on the sled listening to her giggle and helping Bryar find drifts to go "hop" in are precious memories that are forever embedded to me. Those are memories that we can only make in the few precious snow days that we get.

 We then started making a snowman. Yes, in this hard sleet/snow combination. It was not an easy task. After a bit Charli got cold and went inside to find items to use as clothing accessories. Then after being inside she decided that it was much warmer in and made her a hot chocolate to watch from the window. 

Of course we would have no other than a cowboy snowman. 

Bryar had full intentions of making Cowboy Snowman go, "boom" but thankfully after reminding him how long it took to make he understood. But I cannt say that he has not been staring out the window asking to go boom all day. 

Charli's school is already called off again for Thursday and I forsee it being on Friday as well. I mean why not after 4 days. I hope to make some more snowy memories before this melts and Spring of 2014 arrives in a matter of days. 

Father Daughter Dance & Valentines Day!

 

As most of you know the yearly Father Daughter dance is one of the most precious days. To see Charli and Curtis get dressed up for one another makes my heart melt. They want to please the other and look fancy as Charli would say. 

This is how Charli picked for her hair to be done this year. I'm not very talented in that area and sadly the rain did not help much. 

Aren't they just adorable? Her excitement for this day was so sweet. She wanted to give him gifts and he brought her home a rose. This is the stuff that every little girl dreams of. 

They went dancing for a bite then ended their night by eating out at Charli's favorite  place, Chuy's. 

Charli's class had a Valentine box contest  and she decided to make a puppy this year. I honestly was not prepared to help with a big box this year but we made it happen one Sunday afternoon during nap time. 

She just loved how it has a bow and tutu. I glued most of the items while she cut and held pieces together. 

She actually won the contest surprisingly too! She was so excited when I arrived at her class party. 

I made these last minute scarves for the second grade teachers. Obviously I did not know their full names so I went with a one letter monogram. 

Curtis has been wanting a pair of casual shoes for a while so I decided to give him something he needed rather than chocolates or such. (Don't mind that I am still new at this stuff and purchase the wrong size. But thanks to Finish Line for mailing the correct to us!) 

I pretty much refuse to spend $4 on a useless bag and remembered that I had kraft paper so I made this corny little design. I tried to think of reasons that CB would say too. But when she got home from school she wrote some of her own reasons. 

Valentines morning I woke up while he was in the shower and rushed outside to put this on his truck. 

You know it's funny ;) 

Curtis and I spent the Saturday after Valentines Day in Nashville. We went shopping then out to eat at Stoney River Steak House, then had breakfast at Loveless Cafe. I swear that I am going to get better at taking pictures of him and I together. I just typically put away my phone when we have a lone time. I could not have asked for a better gift then time well spent together and a full nights of rest. 

No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent-

The quote listed in the title of this blog post typically makes me feel, "okay" or "strong." But lately when I remind myself of this quote after someone literally tries to make me feel inferior, it becomes more of a slap in the face. Not because I am inferior but because I give others the ability to let me feel so. 

Do you let others make you feel ashamed? 

I think it is human nature. Even if the person hurting you, is not even meaning to do so. We have all accidentally said things before that we have not meant, so that is not neccassary what I am speaking of. 

Do you stop to smile back at a person who is walking by? Or make a friendly conversation back when someone speaks to you? If not, then you have probably made the other side feel unworthy for that speck of moment and that spilt second can feel like a lifetime.

It seems that I am growing my children up in a world of adults who feel as if they have power over one another. It can be from a coach, a school activity or just a Mom on Facebook. 

We are adults, men, women, workers, parents and at the end of each are we not all just that.  So why, why, why must we beat one another down even with small gestures or actions.

Kids sense these things, and they pick up on our parent battles way more often than we think they notice. {Especially my kid who sometimes with her vocabulary I think I need to send her 80 year old self back to the nursing home that she came from.} Then we wonder why kids "bully" one another. 

Have you ever thought it was because they see the actions from us as adults first? Mind blowing isn't it? We look so closely at others that sometimes we fail to look into our own hearts and realize that maybe we are the start of certain issues. 

Yesterday while at a local consignment sale a lady dropped an item next to me and I quickly bent over to pick it up to hand back to her. Before I even raised back to my standing position she was already snatching it from my hand and giving me that funky "why would you even touch my soon to be item" look. So I just kind of laughed it off and then thought to myself how she probably has no idea how she actually made me feel dumb for a spilt second. Why would I feel dumb? Because she practically stomped on the fact that I was trying to do something nice for her. 

We are such a blind world that is focused to much on ourselves and not enough on others. I carry the term of bullying loosely because I feel that we have also become very sensitive within the United States BUT to be honest I am tired {so tired} of getting the cold shoulder, the dirty looks, and pushed out because of others. It's time that we as adults start setting great example for our children and start working on our hearts while working on theirs. 

"People will not always remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feels."

LoneStar Rodeo

Once again as a family tradition this year we made our way right up the road to the WKU AG expo center to watch the LoneStar Rodeo. This is the fifth year for Charli and I together and the third for us as a family. I am very certain that the kids will never let miss a show if possible. 

After having so much fun playing in the snow Bryar took a car nap on the way in. We changed our plans and had lunch by drive thru so he would be able to enjoy the rodeo in a decent mood. 

Bryar wore his chaps and vest to sport his cowboy soul and actually won second place best dressed cowboy. He was the cutest thing though! His favorite part was obviously the bulls and Charli loved watching the barrel racers. Each time one would come out we would decide if we were a fan of that particular color. Typically her favorites are buckskin but she was siding with Curtis on all of his picks. 

The entertainment was SO good too. I had watched this guy on Good Morning America a while back and he seriously amazed me. He is known as the "Mustang Millionaire." He was on a show on National Geographic where these trainers would pick a horse out of a herd of wild mustangs, then they had 120 days to train the horse. Whoever had the best one and the end won the money. 

Obviously he won. Yes, that horse is sitting like a dog in the car. I mean really? That is so awesome to me.

Charli participated in the gold rush (digging for money in hay) along with other kids. But girl is way to timid for anything like this. I'm not sure whose kid she really is? 

After we left Bryar wanted to do nothing more than come home and ride everyone like we were bulls. Charli bless her heart became the bull by the end of the night. I suppose that is some of the non-perks of being the big sister. 

Snow Much Fun!

Last weekend we finally got a little bit of snow. Even though it was not much and it was honestly all gone by lunch we made the best of it. 

It is true that southern Kentucky continue to get missed in every direction and by just a few miles. I know most of you are ready for the winter weather to disappear and Spring to be in full force. But I on the other hand love the snow. 

Watching my kids play and be able to play with them is such wonderful memories for me. 

Is it obvious that Charli got tired of pulling Bryar half way down the lane? 

Curtis and I eventually took over running these two back and forth. 

We ended up at Charli's favorite spot on the farm which she calls rock city. There was a some water that had frozen over so her and Curtis tried walking on it which really went about as well as you can imagine. 

Have I ever mentioned how much Gunner loves the snow? He goes into complete happy fits and it's the funniest thing, ever. We always say that it reminds him of his "home" before he made the trip to America. 

Bryar could of enjoyed the entire day just being pulled around. But soon after we were finished playing it was time to head to the rodeo.