blake

just when i thought i had sweet cheeks shoes for fall picked out, i came across another one that i am really considering over the pediped polka dot boot. it is a slip on ankle boot by morgan and milo called blake. i love the color, the style, as well as the paisley print. i found them in the garnett hill catalog. they also have lots of other cute shoes and clothes, like a pair of the merrells that i had put in one of my other posts. you should check out their selection.

here is the shoe-

where is the cotton candy guy?

sunday we took sweet cheeks out to see a baseball game. again, we were so fortunate with the great weather. it was a bit overcast with temps in the mid 70's. we had a lot of fun with her. we went to the top of the stadium and really enjoyed the view for a while. then we decided to get some lunch and go to our seats. we got the usual hot dogs, chips, and coke. sweet cheeks did not care at all for the food and spent a good 30 minutes watching the every move of all of the cotton candy walking vendors. i would randomly ask her, "where is the cotton candy?" just to see her point them out to me
since she wouldn't take her eyes off of them. we were able to get her to eat quite a
bit of her hot dog with the promise of cotton candy to follow. i think we only stayed about 4 innings, and our home team lost, but it was a great trip.

at the top of the stadium looking around-



they had this long stretch of dirt for the kids to run a base. sweet cheeks stopped about 1/2 way down not quite sure what she was doing, looked around, then resumed running.



watching the game with dad-



hot dog time-


i can only assume by the look on her face that this picture of us was taken after i had removed the cotton candy from her tiny hands.

cupcake decorating class

after our park trip on saturday, we had a fun bbq out at my sisters house. of course sweet cheeks was excited about this since she would get to play with her cousins. there were also a few other kids over to play with.

i decided to make cupcakes the night before with sweet cheeks for no reason other than the fact that she is really into mixing ingredients right now. half the time she just lists off ingredients to mix like sugar, mustard, ketchup, sprinkles, and flour. it is fun for her, plus it keeps her occupied while i do the dishes. so we decided to bring the cupcakes over to my sister's house for the kids to decorate themselves. we brought icing, chocolate chips, and about 3 different kinds of sprinkles. i think they all really enjoyed it. well, sweet cheeks really enjoyed the decorating part. in the end, she didn't even eat the cupcake. guess she put too much stuff on for her own liking.

let the decorating begin-





licking the icing off the spoon (notice the blue streaks sweet cheek's cousin put in her hair)




after cupcake time, the girls all raided my nieces bedroom for dress up time. they destroyed that girls room and my poor sister got the pleasure of cleaning it all up. i walked in the room one time only to have sweet cheeks shut the door in my face and yell "we're naked in here!"

here the girls are ready for the ball, so they said-


the next day, sweet cheeks and i made banana bread from scratch. she was such a help and we both really enjoyed it. that was on sunday and we finished up the last two pieces of bread at breakfast today. i think we will be making that again soon.

saturday in the park

the husband and i took sweet cheeks to the park on saturday to meet up with a few friends. it was absolute perfect park weather. sweet cheeks loved having some friends to chase around as well. i do not doubt that on a daily basis, she gets tired of playing with her parents. so the park was a lot of fun for us, as well as the 100 other kids that were there playing on the cool last day of summer. (so happy we are officially in fall now)

sweet cheeks really rocking the shades as she goes down the slide-



i really had to work on my own issues as a parent when it came to sweet cheeks climbing on this thing. i get so nervous when i envision all the ways she can hurt herself on it but I really wanted to let her climb it to feel that great sense of accomplishment once she reached the top. she did great. my heart raced every time she did it, but she really was careful and always made it to the top booboo free.



going down the slide with her friend-



this park that we go to is a really fun park with several different age range play sections. that being said, i have always thought that the large rocks were really poorly placed. no need to have them at the park, right in the middle of two play sections that the kids run back and forth from. anyway, they make for good balance practice i guess because sweet cheeks and her friends were continually walking & crawling from one end to the other.



the rock climb- she is quite the athletic one wouldn't you say!

she's crafty

sweet cheeks is very much into doing arts & crafts. i know i have said that many times before but it is still quite true. so we decided to make another tee, as she has made many before. take note of the shirt she is actually wearing, the cute bright pink one. it has an iron-on guitar and says "uck," though originally it said "rock." i actually bought that cute shirt for her at target. when i brought it home and showed it to her, she responded with "what's on it?" as if to ask me where is all the glitter & pizzazz she has become accustomed to? of course it had none so i let her add her own.(don't worry, i did the actually ironing!) i decided to do the before & after shots of her craftiness at work with the blue tee.







what do you think, should she open her own shop?

not for sleeping in

i totally forgot to share photos of sweet cheeks in her pink foam curlers. we found them at walgreens, like $2 for the pack of 10! she was so excited to get them in her hair when we bought them. once out of the bath, her excitement started to diminish. she only wanted me to put 4 curlers in her hair. i told her 4 curlers wouldn't cover much ground on her head but fine, 4 it is. those 4 curlers worked extra hard in the 10 minutes that they lasted on sweet cheeks head. she was fluffying her "curls" quite proudly. i guess we have to work on building up the # of curlers and the length of time she wears them. after having put them in just the front of her head, i seriously had to wonder how i ever slept an entire night with those things on. sure foam is soft but it doesn't make it comfortable for bedtime.

aka

chicken drumstick

aka- chicken on the bone

i love it. that is what sweet cheeks calls drumsticks. lately for dinner she requests "chicken on the bone and macaroni and cheese." the girl knows what she likes.

spell my name

i don't even try to deny the fact that i think sweet cheeks is a smarty. then again, i do not know any parent who does not boast on their own child. that is why i love it when sweet cheeks does things that only prove she is a bit above average. today she was doing a little independent play while i was trying to get some laundry & dishes done. i knew she was drawing on her chalkboard easel but wasn't really sure what she was drawing. she then called me over to see what she had been writing! it was her name. i was pretty floored because it was so clear that she really did write her own name. i knew she could do a few of the letters but not all of them. ok, so the line of the "L" was on top and the "N" was a bit squiggly, it was still quite obvious. i gave her the biggest hug and told her how amazing this was, and what a little smarty she is. then i quickly grabbed the camera to document this occasion, the first time sweet cheeks wrote her own name. the catch is, if you want to see the picture, email me and i can share it with you since i don't share sweet cheeks name here.

***

ukraine

where my parents will be going tomorrow on a 10 day missionary trip. please keep them in your thoughts & prayers.

these are too cute

i have been doing a bit of online previewing, but not shopping (just yet!), for some new fall shoes for sweet cheeks. i have found lots of cute ones, lots of not-so-practical ones, and quite a bit of i-just-gotta-get-her-these!

quite a few cute ones-

morgan & milo




merrell has so many great ones!








not so practical-








i gotta get her these-

pedipeds is a brand of shoes that i had sweet cheeks wearing when she was crawling and first starting to walk. the brand now has pediped flex, which is a toddler shoe. i definitely need to get these soft and terribly cute boots for sweet cheeks.



these are made by naturino. i love the idea of red & sparkly, while still comfortable. i read a lot of positive comments on these shoes. what little girl wouldn't love these.

take me home country road

i am going to post about sweet cheeks in a minute. before i do, i want to share the unfortunate news that my brother received today. my sweet, little 8 yo nephew got the first dna confirmation today that he does have duchenne muscular dystrophy. i am more than heart broken for my nephew. he is such a smart, sweet little boy who does not deserve to have to endure something so horrible. i absolute hate this for him and my brothers family. please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. he is such a sweet kid. i can't stress that enough.

***

sweet cheek and i were able to venture up to visit my parents this weekend. we had a great visit. all of sweet cheek's cousins were there, including my sweet nephew. they all had a blast running around chasing each other and playing outside. they also had a great time separating boys from girls. each with their own sign on the bedroom doors stating either "no boys allowed" or "no girls allowed." sweet cheeks was able to pick a ton of blueberries with my dad as well.

here is the stash:



sweet cheeks found this enormous magnifying glass in my parents office. i was cracking up at her face in it- (*note her red nails that her daddy painted)



sweet picture of sweet cheeks with her cousin and grandpa (or grandpoo as she kept calling him)


sweet cheeks, evil red eye, and grandpoo-


we had a great visit with my parents. they were even kind enough to keep a few of the grandkids so my sister and i could go out to dinner with two of my cousins. it was a great meal and even better conversations! i will have pics of that meal out to share eventually. waiting for my cousins to send a few pics to me.

***

i added a little bit to sweet cheek's vanity that i made for her. i added some hooks to the wall to hang her dress up clothes on, a mirror, and a polka dot wall decal. i also emptied one of her book shelves for her dress up shoes and tiaras. her dress up corner is quite cute and she is definitely enjoying it!

phoebe gets a sister

elizabeth

that was the name of my very first cabbage patch doll. i loved her. in fact, i have her still. she lives in our spare bedroom closet, carefully hidden, till a certain toddler is old enough to play with her responsibly. i know it is just a doll but elizabeth meant so much to me at the time, that now when i see her it really brings back so many happy childhood memories.

phoebe

we all know this is sweet cheeks very first cabbage patch doll that goes absolutely everywhere with sweet cheeks. phoebe entered into sweet cheeks life when she was only 18 months old. now two years later, she is dirty and stained but just still so important to sweet cheeks. she is one of her absolute best friends. i think it is so adorable.

babyland general

the 100% hoakie, original home of the cabbage patch doll. sweet cheeks and i had the chance to visit it on sunday. i wasn't really sure what to expect but it pretty much met my small expectations. now to the 3 foot toddler that was with me, babyland general was totally fun. a doll hospital with everything from a nicu, to school, to labor & delivery room. i have no doubt that we will go back in the near future.


this place was so hands-on. sweet cheeks loved being able to pick up and play with all of the dolls here.


seriously... the hair on this one!



doesn't sweet cheeks just blend here-


we, of course, left babyland general's store with a new dollie, bathtub, and diapers. sweet cheeks was so excited to get home to introduce baby to phoebe. yes, baby is the name sweet cheeks gave her. though she was born with the name kaylee bianca. it was so cute to see her so excited with her two girls together.


sweet cheeks took this picture by herself of the sisters. wow- what a stark difference in the dolls coloring. phoebe is worn but loved, no doubt.


we had a great mother-daughter day together to babyland general.