Baby Shower Prep

I've been working hard getting things ready for the baby shower I am helping to host in a few weeks. I just have to finish up the ribbon topiaries (if I can find more of the ribbon I've been using) and I need to make the pom poms to hang from the ceiling. I also have to get the supplies for the punch, find a game and pick up a prize for the winner. Sigh. I always make things bigger than they need to be and then justify it by saying I don't want to have some rinky dink thing because I'm cheap...even though that's actually kind of true...

Anywho...

Here is the diaper cake I created. I found one on pinterest that I liked, took the idea and ran with it. I love how it turned out!
I also made this ribbon wreath. Is it obvious my friend is having a girl? She doesn't have a specific theme for the nursery or a name for the baby yet so we are going completely generic with lots of pink. Blush and bashful are my signature colors.
After we use this wreath for the shower, I'm going to hang it on Chloe Jo's door. She loves it and was not happy when I told her she couldn't have it.
I also finished up this adorable diaper carriage. I've never seen one of these in person, but I saw one on *can you guess?* pinterest and had to make one!
Seriously, how precious is it!?!?!
I'm loving the decorations so far and am excited to put the room together in a few weeks!

A few more details

I'm so glad that I finally shared our BIG news about moving! We have known since the beginning of January, but preacher's usually give a 3 month notice so I wanted to wait awhile before saying anything.

Last year, around Thanksgiving, Russ talked to my brother-in-law, Chris. The congregation my sister and her family are members at has a preacher who is...shall we say...getting up in years. They had been toying with the idea of hiring a younger man to work with the preacher for a year and then completely take over the pulpit position in a year. Russ actually tried out for this position before we came to South Carolina, but the church decided that it wasn't the right time to make that step. They opened the position back up last year, but have had little luck finding a man who wanted to work with another preacher. After talking with Chris at Thanksgiving, Russ decided that he wanted to try out for the position again. We tried out while we were out there for Christmas and found out the next week that we got the job!

We are so thrilled to be moving back to the mid-west! We will all miss the congregation here, but this part of the country is not where I want to raise Chloe Jo. The racism around here is unbelievable. Maybe I am just sheltered, but I didn't even know racism existed like this anymore. One of the first Sunday papers we bought after moving here was about the Ku Klux Klan having a demonstration in big town next door. For REAL! I had no idea the KKK was still around, let alone having demonstrations! That is one of the biggest reasons we don't want to raise Chloe Jo around here. It would take so little time for her to start having that kind of outlook. Just one person would have to say something and her little mind would take that and remember it forever. I know everywhere has it's problems and maybe in other people's minds this isn't a big deal, but it's a big deal to me.

We will be packing up during the month of March and will be moving out the last week. Russ' first day is April 1st.

We have been looking into buying a house and I am so excited to tell you that we have been approved for a loan! The only bad thing about it is that they want 4 weeks of pay stubs from the new job so we can't go ahead and buy yet. We haven't been able to find a place that will do a month-to-month lease so we are now looking into a long term hotel. I know that doesn't sound at all appealing (at least not to me), but if it will give us the time to buy a house and not have to pay the deposit on an apartment, it is the best option for us. Or maybe we should just move in with my sister for 5 weeks! Bahahahaha! She would love that!

Anyway, it's been very exciting getting approved for a home loan and looking at the houses around the area on real estate websites.

And best thing of all: I'm getting a craft room!!!! I've already started pinning fun ways to organize and decorate!

Next post will have pictures! I promise!

Getting out of Dodge!

This time for good!

We are moving!

And guess what else???

We are moving back to the midwest!

Oklahoma to be exact!

We will be just minutes from my sister's and just 3 hours from my parents!

We have enjoyed our adventure in South Carolina and we will always have mostly fond memories of our time here.

I am so ready to get back to our home turf, though.

We are so excited to open this next chapter!

Plans for the week

I have a million things I want to get done this week. We'll see how far I get. I don't necessarily have to get all this done, I just want to.

The first thing is that I'm planning a baby shower for a friend and I'm trying to get that all organized, hand out assignments and get some of the decorations done. We have a spare classroom at the church building that I can put the finished items in so they won't be sitting around my home until the shower. It isn't until the beginning of March so I have a couple of weeks, but I really wanted to get the invitations out tomorrow so everyone has time to mark it on their calendars.

I'm excited about this because it's been a while since I've helped plan a baby shower and I've joined Pinterest since the last one. :)

One of the things I'm very excited about making is a diaper cake.
I started it tonight, but didn't get very far because I ran out of rubber bands. I've never made one before so I'm hoping it turns out as cute as I want it to.
I'm also going to try to make a diaper carriage. I think it will be a cute addition to the cake table.

I painted the fronts of these clothes pins for a clothes line. I love little baby clothes lines. I think they are so cute!
Here is the invitation I chose. I went to Dollar Tree first and they had invitations, but they weren't really that cute. They would have worked fine, but they just weren't quite what I wanted so I ended up putting them back and buying these at the Wall-to-Wall Mart.
I am also going to make ribbon topiaries for the cake table. Another lady is going to be in charge of the cake and I have to get a list of odds and ends to the other hostess to get. I'm so looking forward to decorating and doing this for my friend!

And just because she's so adorb:
Mer! Love her!

My little model

How hilarious is this pose??? Adorable!

Little Miss Sass

There aren't very many things that make me madder than when I am sassed by a youngun'.

I never thought I would be the parent with the sassy child, but here I am.

And it doesn't seem how I discipline (lately that seems to be all I do), Chloe Jo still has the sass going on.

I will eventually get it through to her that she needs to be respectful.

I don't know why people say "terrible 2's" because I think age 3 is going to be waaaaay worse than age 2.

Sometimes, at the end of the night, I just sit myself down and have a good cry because I feel like I am completely failing in motherhood. I know that's not really true, but sometimes I feel that way. This age has been extremely frustrating.

But, it has also been extremely fun and rewarding.

She is talking so much now that I have to tell her to be quiet. For being such a quiet infant (in the talking department...she has always been able to scream), she is the most talkative toddler.

If she wants to do something herself she will say "My tuwn! My tuwn!" And if she doesn't want to do something she will say "Momma's tuwn."

She has also started saying she "I wuv oo, too, Ma" or "I wuv oo, too, Da" or, more recently, "I wuv herw" when hugging a dolly.

Sometimes she will snuggle with me in the rocker after she gets up or before she goes to bed and she will sigh really big and say "I miss _____." Usually she says G-Jo, but it just depends. She is obsessed with her G-Jo lately. She made up a whole song about her a few days ago.

She is so lovey. She does not like it when I am stressed. Things around here have been changing a lot in the last couple of months and I was laying on the bed just thinking about everything a few days ago and she climbed up on the bed, hugged me and said "don wowwy, Momma."

I also love that she is getting old enough to do some craft things and to play games. I think I may have a date with her and Uno Moo later today. :)

And, yet, more problems with water.

Ever since we moved here, our home has been plagued by water problems. Our water heater has never worked right and our landlord refuses to replace it. It is out in our storage closet and it is on a shelf in the corner. It leaked and ruined 4 upholstered chairs and a Christmas tree. There were a few other things it ruined, but I can't remember what they were. This fiasco went on for months until, finally, they attached a pipe to where it was leaking from and routed it outside. So it wasn't fixed, but it wasn't ruining our stuff anymore (although we have paid for the extra leaked water since we moved in). Then in the summer of last year, a tornado came through our town, knocked over a tree which fell on our home, breaking the water pipe in the attic and flooding our whole place. We weren't home at the time so we weren't able to turn the water off before it ruined several things...our dresser, our headboard and a few other things I can't remember now. After the issues with water damaging our things and having to get rid of and replace so many items (some large items) imagine my wrath when I went out to our storage unit to find more water on the floor! I am so disgusted by this problem. Apparently, the water heater next door was leaking and the water flowed in from there....and got all over our things again. To say I'm mad is an understatement. I am fuming. I drug everything out of there except for a shelf (that has damage on the bottom now) to dry out. I am so disgusted with the whole situation. I think I'm going to go work out and then get my craft on. Maybe I'll feel better after that.

On a much more fun note....my nephew Brenson should be arriving tomorrow finally. His due date was Monday and he has just taken his sweet time, but my sister is being induced tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see a picture! I really wish I could be there, but I will be seeing him in person very, very soon!

Trying to get back on track

This is week 3 of getting back into the working out routine for me. My Wii Fit told me that it had been 332 days since I last used the program. Besides taking walks, that is pretty accurate and my weight gain over the last year shows it. So, I gave myself a goal of losing 40 pounds. I am mad at myself for letting it get this bad...again. I lost 70 pounds before I got pregnant with Chloe Jo and I did great during the pregnancy and for a long time after having her. I'm ready to get back on track and start feeling better about my body!

Check this one off the Bucket List!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Ours was fantastic!

Russ took Chloe Jo and I to Georgia to see the birthplace of the Cabbage Patch Dolls! This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time and I am so thrilled we finally were able to go! I had a great time...and Chloe Jo definitely enjoyed herself, too!

We left Friday morning and arrived at Babyland General Hospital that afternoon.

I could not stop grinning. I was so excited to be able to finally go there! I loved my CPK's when I was a girl and I still love them and have several. My oldest is 28!

Here we are ready to go in and see the dolls!

I know many people think they are ugly little things, but I will always love them.

I though it was fun to walk in and see the incubators, followed by the nursery's. I was overwhelmed by how many dolls there were in the 3 nursery rooms. There were several cribs and they were all full of dolls (and everyone of them were adoptable)!

CPK's were originally all soft sculpture. They are still made by hand and the adoption fee is considerable. If I was going to adopt one of the soft sculpture dolls, it would be the boy with the fro. Is he not the cutest!?!?

After the nursery, there was a large open room full of CPK merchandise and more dolls. I loved this cabbage patch. Several of the cabbages would rise up or turn every once in a while. It was so cute!

This display was amazing. The lights on the picture changed colors. I loved it! I also love how there were bunny bees everywhere watching over the babies.

Here is the hospital nursery where the stork helped deliver the Cabbage Patch Kids.

And another shot of the nursery. I love how the baby in the back is getting weighed. Awwww!

And there were, of course, a couple of adoption offices.

My little Cabbage Patch. She really wasn't thrilled to sit on this and there was no way she was going to smile for me.

And here we are with our new dolls. Chloe Jo latched onto this cute little tiger and didn't want to let him go. I tried to get her to get something that you couldn't find everywhere and she was having none of it. She named him Bradley. I chose a doll exclusive to Babyland General. The neat thing about the exclusive dolls is that none of them are named yet. Chloe Jo wanted me to name my baby Chloe Jo and was very annoyed that I wouldn't do it. She finally agreed to Maria Jo.

After exploring Babyland, we went to find our hotel. I reserved a room in Helen, GA. I had no idea that this was a tourist town and that it would be so fun to walk around and shop! We had a great time exploring!

Chloe Jo loved the fountain. She even made a wish and threw a penny in!

We headed back home on Saturday. Doesn't CJ look so big pulling her own bag?

We had a great time in Georgia and I can now check Babyland General off of my bucket list!

Mission: Organization

The title isn't really accurate. I'm a very organized person most of the time. It drives me batty if there are things out of place around here. I'm not sure if it is fortunate or unfortunate, but Chloe Jo inherited my OCD nature (or CDO...I like the letters in order...).

Moving on...How is it that we can accumulate so. much. stuff. in a short amount of time? It never ceases to amaze me. I have sent several bags of things to our local Twice as Nice to donate in the last few months. I cleaned out Chloe Jo's toys and got rid of the remaining infant toys that she doesn't play with anymore. I ridded out my closet and chunked a bunch of clothes that I no longer wear and I got rid of some kitchen appliances like a small crockpot that we replaced with a larger one a few weeks ago and a rice cooker that we have had for a year that I didn't use even once.

The biggest things I have done, though, in the last week are organizing/ridding out my scrapbooking stuff and cleaning out the entertainment cabinet drawers.

I didn't have much excess in the way of scrapbooking stuff, but I had a very disorganized plastic bag of ribbon and I had a ton of stickers I needed to go through. I ended up giving a bunch of stickers that I would never use to Chloe Jo and went through the ribbon and managed to fit all my SIX ribbon boxes and one other box that I emptied. The biggest project was sorting all of my paper! I finally went through it and sorted into boxes by color. Everything will be so much easier to find now that I don't have to search through 4 boxes of paper just to find one specific color.
The next thing was to clean out the entertainment cabinet drawers. We have 2 drawers in our cabinet and they were both stuffed so full that it gave me an anxiety attack just opening them. Plus, there wasn't room for Chloe Jo's DVD's so they were being stored on a shelf in her room. Russ and I went through everything a couple of days ago and got rid of most of the cases for the CD's and DVD's and put them all in cases that take up much less room. We also ridded out the ones that we don't listen to or watch and that freed up a lot of space. There was enough freed up space that we were able to get all of Chloe Jo's DVD's in a small case.

Everything looks so much better! It gives me great pleasure to have things organized in a way that will be easier for us to use.

Oh, How Pinteresting!

I've decided to change it up today and link up with The Vintage Apple for

Since Pinterest is a new love of mine, how fitting is it for me to join in on this fun!

I have about a million things pinned already (and have cooked some and made some) so it was hard to narrow down what I wanted to pin. I finally decided to pin some of the fun felt crafts I've found.

Source: notmartha.org via Lisa on Pinterest

LOVE these!

Source: craftedblog.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

These are perfect for Valentine's Day! I'm not sure I'll actually get to them, though. :(

Source: simple-serendipities.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Really need to make a few of these. The bookmark I have right now always falls out because it is too heavy!

Source: prudentbaby.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I don't know if I'll ever actually make this, but I think it is super cute!

Source: flickr.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Definitely going to make this for fall!

And there you have it! Go link up with some of the things you've been pinning lately!

The Last Few Days

There hasn't been a whole lot going on here the last few days. My poor girl has been sick, but I think she is finally feeling better. We were able to take her to church services on Sunday. She does have a lingering cough that is worse during the night. I think I'm going to roll up a towel to put under the head of her bed and see if that helps her out. Luckily, she hasn't had a fever since last Wednesday.

Because she hasn't been feeling well, we have been staying home for the most part. We did get out to get groceries on Monday while Daddy was at work, but haven't been out today at all. Since we were both feeling poorly last week, we decided to not go to Georgia, but postponed it to this weekend. I'm looking forward to this little mini-trip!

Yesterday didn't start out too well, but I got several packages in the mail and it helped lift my spirits. Ashley sent me a fun package with these great matryoshka doll gifts in it! Love!
I also finally got in some scrapbooking paper that I had ordered to make a few things for Chloe Jo's birthday party. Today was spent in making a Happy Birthday banner. The theme is going to be Strawberry Shortcake. How fun is this banner!?!?
I used tulle to tie the pieces together. Thanks Pinterest for that idea!
I love it and am excited to use it....in 2 1/2 months. HA! I guess I'm an eager beaver!
Well, I need to get off of here. Some little girl has been asking to take a back with go ticks (glow sticks).