5.4.3.2.1

sweet cheeks and i had a great girls day together on saturday. it started with me taking her to my office. you wouldn't think it would be such a fun event for her, but she absolutely loves coming with me. plus she could easily run around since no one else was in. after that, i took her over to krispy kreme to see donuts being made. you can see them on the conveyor belts from dough, to fried, to glazed. then we got to eat some! after that we went shopping for a winter coat for her. found a great one at sear's lands end, plus it was 30% off! they had some really great colors but sweet cheeks, of course, opted for pink-



after that, we went to the movies.. again! this time we saw the movie "bolt." it was a cute movie, and sweet cheeks made it through the entire thing(too bad her aunt didn't!-haha), but it was not as cute as "madagascar" was. pretty sure sweet cheeks would not have been interested if miley cyrus wasn't the voice of penny in it.

all in all, it was a great saturday.

she made me some "donuts" the next day, while wearing her krispy kreme hat-



last night our town had a little pre-christmas spectacular. well, spectacular is really an exaggeration. though they did have a little parade, some food & fun, face painting, santa, and the lighting of the town tree. it really was a fun time since we went with a few friends and their children as well.

waiting for the parade to start-




yippy for face painting. sweet cheeks was really hoping they would have it-


the holiday snowman which she did not want me to wash off at the end of the night. i wasn't about to let the paint get all over her bed-


sweet cheeks and her friend, with their faces painted, waiting for the tree to light up-


and finally with the count down, on daddy's shoulders, the lighting of the tree. it was a festive evening.



now we are officially in christmas mode. we even put up our little tree last night!

now i need to find a cute advent calendar. i think it will be a good way to put time in perspective for sweet cheeks on just how long it will take for christmas to finally get here. any suggestions on some cute, interactive ones?

the girl has a style of our own

just a quickie post to share my new favorite outfit on sweet cheeks. she picked this one out to wear today to her turkey day at school. normally her outfits are a bit wacky and involve a hannah montana tee, which i am actually ok with. i am all about letting her have her say when it comes to the clothes she wears. we are both still learning to pick our battles, so this is one area i just try to avoid issues due to my own thoughts and ideas on what her outfits should be.

this outfit just turned out so cute on her. plus, she even had me put her hair up. she never wears it like that-

to share or not to share

sweet cheeks had a great tuesday night. her cousin and pop came over for some pizza and playtime. the girls played wonderfully together. normally, they play like siblings. by that i mean they play well part of the time, then get a bit tired of the other and fight. thankfully the playing part always last much longer. well last night was a definite exception to the rule because the girls played perfectly together the entire time. not one time did they fight, or not share with each other. i thoroughly enjoyed watching them have fun.



here is sweet cheeks doing what has now become one of her favorite pastimes- reading the toy catalogs and picking out toys for santa to bring her! she does it every night now. so she was proudly showing her cousin how to scan for great gifts. why does she always pick out the most expensive ones though? i think they need to come out with toy catalogs with gifts $25 and under!



proudly showing off her new noodle necklace that she had made in school-



just playing-



i have no idea what sweet cheeks is so fascinated with on this plastic plate.



she loves to cook this one. she definitely gets it from her father.



all dressed up and smiling pretty with pop-



i laughed because the girls were getting dressed up to get married. i absolutely love the simplicity of childhood.



***

i was scanning etsy for a cute christmas shirt for sweet cheeks. this one from pudge caught my eye-
too cute! makes me wish i could sew, as it looks quite simple, but i can't!




these ones aren't holiday-like but i still thought they were quite cute:

why she is smart

sweet cheeks is smart. i love reminding her of that. lately, i wonder if i am telling her this too much. her new response to me is "i know everything." on saturday, she was doing something that led me to my usual statement to her, "your so smart!" to which she quickly replied, "i know everything because i am three and tall."

***

sweet cheeks sat through her first entire movie at the theatre! we have taken her twice before, to see "horton hears a who" and "shrek 3," but only made it half way through each. friday night, sweet cheeks and I, along with her aunt and two cousins, went to see the movie "madagascar: escape 2 africa." i thought the movie was hilarious and would highly recommend it. sweet cheeks really enjoyed it as well. that and the fact that she was for the first time allowed to eat popcorn.

***

a few new pics from over the weeked-

you can see that sweet cheeks has wavy hair(no we didn't crimp it!), which she absolutely adored on herself. after her bath saturday night, we braided her hair. she woke up on sunday in love with herself. it was too cute!

here she is last night coloring before bed-





graham cracker snack on the couch while watching cinderella-



just a cute shot-

could you guess

i have a question-
why do nuts cost so much?
i do not buy nuts much (mixed, pistachio, whatever) too often simply because they aren't a cheap snack. i just don't know why they aren't?

***
crib bedding

i was doing some research and came across a few really cute crib bedding sets. i do not mean cute as in themey bedding sets either like pooh, mickey, safari, or trucks.

and like nuts, it is amazing how expensive crib bedding sets can be.

i then came across a site that had what i thought to be some really cute and simple sets at a fairly low cost.





(thought this one looked like it was made by the dwell brand but it wasn't)



so could you guess where these cute bedding sets are from?

i wouldn't have

walmart.

go and see for yourself.

a family and then some

we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to spend the weekend with the husband's family at callaway gardens. sweet cheeks absolutely loved every minute of it. we take this weekend trip yearly, and it continually gets more enjoyable as sweet cheeks grows. she had so much fun playing non-stop with her cousin as well. all in all, it was a great weekend full of many fun activities like biking, minigolf, running, playing, coloring, and lots of eating!


sweet cheeks has never played mini golf before. i think she hit the ball as if she were playing shuffle board-



playing in the sand-



riding her bike- she has actually become quite good at this, with the steering and peddling-


sweet cheeks and her cousin had me take a picture of their babies. though, the pic of the girls turned out really cute-



nana was giving them food for the fish and ducks. this was definitely one of her favorite things to do while at callaway.


attempting to jiggle the machine to get more food out. a trick that her nana taught her-



riding on daddy's shoulders. no child ever gets tired of this-


the girls were just running around blowing off some energy after dinner one night-



this picture is a bit crooked but not bad considering it was sweet cheeks that took the picture-


one of the dinners was an outside bbq. needless to say, it was on the chilly side so sweet cheeks warmed up with some hot cocoa. too cute!



and if you are wondering, yes, sweet cheeks did wear her princess tiara 99% of the time we were there. she is too much this one. the crown absolutely fits the personality.

and the clouds burst to show daylight

sweet cheeks and her daddy spent some quality time together this past saturday. they had a picnic at the park, played frisbee and ball, and all around enjoyed the company of one another. i was sad that i missed out on such a fun family time, but so glad that they are able to do things like that. i know they both absolutely loved it.

sweet cheeks, her smile, and the glorious park scenery-
(sorry for the poor phone quality picture!)



after having just previewed my post, it almost sounded like sweet cheeks and her dad only have weekend visits, like we are a divorced family. of course, those of you that know us know that isn't the case. though, after this one particular ford commercial, the husband and i often joke about "thanks for inviting me this weekend." i realize divorce is not a laughing matter, especially for the kids involved.
the commercial was just odd to us. see if you feel the same-

yes, i did!

if you are wondering, yes, i did get out and vote today.

the husband and i went together this morning. the glorious part is that it only took us 20 minutes total. thank you media for hyping it all up last week.

i absolutely love where we live! i love short voting lines! i love friendly poll workers!

***

fun new item-

we got sweet cheeks her own shower. have you seen this in leaps & bounds?

(in case you were wondering, not my child pictured)



she actually uses it. it is too funny seeing my 3 yo toddler take a shower by herself. so independent.

i will try to post a pic of her using the shower next time!

been high in the rockies under the evergreens

we were really high in the great smokies under the pines & oaks, but that just didn't sound quite as good as billy joel's lyrics. i will always have my parents to thank for my appreciation of great music such as billy joel, elvis, & linda ronstadt.

so my sister and i took a trip up to chattanooga to see my little brother at college. my parents and older brother decided to meet us there. it was a great little reunion. no kids, so we were actually able to hold many interesting conversations. in fact, my favorite part of the trip was saturday evening at starbucks, sipping on either coffee or hot chocolate, while all just talking and enjoying the moment.

i have gone back and forth on how to write this post not only about my family, but to them as well. it is almost a strange sense of pressure to make this post about our family weekend a good one.

i will say this- that my family is like all families. we all love each other, support each other, and learn from each other. we do not always understand one another, talk to each other, or see one another. i love them all so so much but do not appreciate any of them to the extent that i should.

all of us on a bridge.


i was pleasantly surprised at just how beautiful parts of chattanooga really were-


my older brother, younger brother, me, and my sister-


close dorm room quarters-


the siblings-

"i got a rock"

poor charlie brown! nothing brings about the spirit of the holidays better than those good ole' charlie brown shows. sweet cheeks and i did watch "it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown." she did enjoy it but she definitely won't appreciate it till years from now.

so we did take sweet cheeks out to my sister's for our yearly pizza & trick-or-treat party. she had a ball. all of the kids there (5 total) had a great time and the parents loved watching them.

so much candy, so much fun.

sweet cheeks eating pizza for dinner (we kept with the halloween theme, healthy, when it came to dinner!)


all of the kids around the table-



and for fun, i thought i would throw in the same 5 kids around the same table in 2006! we missed 2007 due to bronchiolitis. they are all growing so fast.



what great costumes: woopie cushion, hotdog, sleeping beauty, cinderella, and a witch.(seriously- look at sweet cheeks pose. she cracks me up)


sweet cheeks as aurora-


the girls together-


after the trick or treating ended, sweet cheeks and her cousin put on their pjs and colored together. of course it was a photoshoot waiting to happen with them in their matching pajamas. they are so cute together.



all in all, sweet cheeks had a very fun halloween.