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).

2012 Calendar is finally done!

A few years ago my Mom gave me a calendar that she had scrapbooked. All I had to do was add a picture to each month and at the end of the year, cut the scrapbook pages out to put in a book. I loved the calendar and I was very good with keeping up with it. She gave me another scrapped calendar for 2010. I loved my calendars and I love being able to look back through the books. Mom didn't make one for me for 2011 so I did it myself and I finished putting the book together a few weeks ago and then scrapped the pages for this year. I finished the pages yesterday...just in time to enjoy the January page for a few days!

I love how it turned out and I am looking forward to adding pictures and embellishments to each month!

Game Night!

One of the "Family Resolutions" we have made for this year is to have at least 1 game night each month. We didn't want to make it for every week because that would just be setting ourselves up for failure. You know how life gets in the way and all! We had planned to have it Sunday night, then Monday night and neither of those worked out. We finally were able to do it last night! I love playing games and I'm loving that Chloe Jo is getting old enough to understand some games!

We played

Candyland
Uno Moo
I have to say that Uno Moo is one of my favorite games. It is fast and it is simple enough that Chloe doesn't need any help (besides with not looking when she is drawing her game pieces!). We gave this to her for Christmas and we have used it so much already!
And we played Life. Even though Chloe Jo was on a team with Daddy, she is still way too young for this game. She got very bored because it is a long game compared to Uno Moo and Candyland.
We haven't been doing much else around here. We went out Monday to shop and bank in big town and then Chloe Jo got sick that evening. She has been running a low grade fever off and on since and she is congested and coughing. I used to have bad colds every winter so it seems like she is just following in my footsteps. I hate it when she is sick! Plus, we are supposed to go to Georgia on Friday and our room is non-refundable. I hope she is well enough to go. I can't hardly stomach loosing that money!

Time to start collecting next season clothes!

Lately, I have been searching eBay and the sale racks for clothes for Chloe for the spring/summer. She has grown so much during the last few months. She was in a size 2T in September and now needs a 4T in most things. She is just getting so tall, but she isn't gaining any weight. Actually she has lost 1/2 a pound since October. I'm sure this is due to (1) her being sick during the Christmas holiday and (2) that she is so picky! Seriously, she is the pickiest eater and she would rather go without anything to eat than eat something she doesn't want. I measured and weighed her a couple of days ago.

She is 38 inches tall which makes her on the upside of the 75th percentile.

She now weighs 28 pounds putting her just above the 25th percentile.
The problem I am having with buying her some clothes for next season is the size. I've been looking for 5, 5T stuff for her to make sure the length is right, but it really irks me to have to take up every single pair of pants/shorts/skirts. Since she hasn't gained any weight, then I would have to take up 5T stuff a lot. I guess that would be fine because I can always cut the excess dart fabric off after I put the darts in. I'm just so surprised that she is in the 75th percentile for height and the 25th for weight. She is definitely a tall and skinny little thing!

Changed my mind.

I had planned on cleaning today.

Instead I sat down and watched a movie with my princess.

I think that was a much better use of my time anyway. :)

My Recipe Box: Zucchini Cakes

I sure have been loving Pinterest! I have found several recipes that I want to try. I attempted a potato soup on Tuesday, but burnt the bottom so I ended up throwing it out. I will try that again tomorrow. Tonight, though, I tried a recipe for Zucchini Cakes that I found and Russ and I loved them! Chloe Jo, as usual, wouldn't touch any of them. We call her Picky Picky (like the Quimby's cat). This recipe came from this blog if you want to check it out. She actually got it from somewhere else.

This is the picture from Pinterest (well, her blog):
And this is what mine turned out looking like:
Not quite the same, but I'll explain that after sharing the recipe!

Zucchini Cakes

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini, grated

1 large egg

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1 Tbsp Adobo spices

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Squeeze excess liquid from the zucchini. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and spray with Pam. Shape spoonfuls of batter into small patties and drop into sizzling skillet. Cook on each side for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Finish off in oven by broiling for 2 minutes. Enjoy!

As for the red tint in my zucchini cakes...it was caused by my version of the Adobo spices. I had never heard of Adobo spices before and I couldn't find anything that said "Adobo" at the store so I googled it and found a recipe. I didn't have everything it called for so I just improvised a bit. The original recipe can be found here.

My recipe is as follows:

Adobo Spices

Ingredients:

1 oz. (one of the small containers) paprika

I didn't measure any of the rest of the ingredients. I just put in what I thought would be good and smelled nice.

Fresh ground black pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Ground oregano

Cayenne Pepper

I just put all the ingredients in a container, put the lid on and shook it up. I think it turned out yummy and the cayenne gave it a nice kick!

How is it that my baby is turning 3!?!?

In a few short months, Chloe Jo will be turning 3! I can't believe she is already this big, but I'm looking forward to celebrating her birthday! This year is especially fun because she has been giving me input on what she would like for presents (a pink skoos bus!) and what theme she wants for her party. Right now, the theme is between:

Strawberry Shortcake
Dora the Explorer
And Elmo
I think we are leaning toward Strawberry Shortcake. Of course, she may change her mind tomorrow!

I have dreams of making her a pink, red and green tutu, a shirt with a strawberry on it and buying a pair of green and white striped leg warmers for her to wear! Oh, and of course I'm going to be making her a bow or a crown or a hat of some sort!

I have 2 more presents to buy for her (I've been getting things as I find them on sale) and I would love to find some wrapping paper with strawberries on it. I've also been looking at party supplies, but I think I'm just going to go to the Dollar Store and buy table stuff in the Strawberry Shortcake colors. And of course I'll be making a cake. I already have the cake in mind and am hoping to find a Strawberry Shortcake figure and her Cruiser to put on it. I'm so excited already about this and I don't even know if she is going to definitely go with Strawberry Shortcake, not to mention her birthday is still a couple of months away! I guess it doesn't hurt to be prepared!