i am the entertainer, i bring to you my songs

sweet cheeks was given this cool new microphone w/ stand from our friend for christmas. she absolutely adores it. the girl loves to perform and i absolutely adore her concerts. the best part is the songs that she sings. it isn't anything from hannah montana or taylor swift, rather all sweet cheek orginals.

take a listen-

we had ourselves a merry little christmas

i knew it would happen. the holiday came and went so quickly. i am sad it is over. sweet cheeks keeps asking when santa or the elf are coming back. hard to explain how that works.

so here are just a few photos of the great events that took place over the last few days of the christmas holiday.

the husband brought home some reindeer food for sweet cheeks to spread out on christmas eve night. it sparkled under the light of the moon and made it easy for the reindeer to find our house. she loved doing it-




sweet cheeks in her christmas pjs. we were doing our 4th annual reading of 'twas the night before christmas,' as well as 'merry christmas little critter.' she loves the critter books by mercer mayer.



she actually went to sleep so easily on christmas eve night since she knew the big man wouldn't arrive till she was sound asleep. it was cute because she kept warning our dog not to bark at the reindeer or the sound of the jingling bells.

i will be honest when i say at 7:30am christmas morning, i finally woke sweet cheeks up. i thought for sure she would have woke up bright and early that morning, say around 5ish, ready to open presents. that didn't happen and the anticipation was killing me, so i whispered "ho ho ho" and she sprang out of bed so quickly saying, "santa came, lets go see what he brought."






she loved everything santa left for her, including her snap girls, pram stroller, cinderella, hannah montana doll, stickers, princess purse, nightgown, tees, and dress up gown. it was so much fun watching her unwrap everything in less than 15 minutes!

christmas day we went and had breakfast with the husband's family. sweet cheeks and her cousin both arrived wearing their princess gowns. they were so cute together!

just thought this was a good shot-




the girls in their dresses-



we celebrated christmas yesterday with my family. sweet cheeks spent the day playing with all 6 of her cousins. i would find her every so often and ask her if she missed playing with me! she was too busy having fun to think about mom. it was a great day as well.

***

tonight sweet cheeks asked me if i would do a photo shoot of her. this girl is such a ham & absolutely loves being silly. here are two of the cute shots-

another helper... another fake beard

in my previous post i said i didn't get any pictures of sweet cheeks with santas helper at her school party friday. but a sweet mom to another toddler in the class did take some and shared. so yippy! a few pics of sweet cheeks with the helper-






did you think it would be a picture of sweet cheeks without the tiara? of course not.

a busy weekend

we had a fun but busy weekend.

thursday- sweet cheek's grandpa, grandma, and 2 cousins(britney-15, kelley-14) came down for a visit. they stayed with us till saturday. she absolutely loved having the company. she talked, played, acted silly nonstop.

friday- was sweet cheeks holiday party at school. santa made a surprise appearance and gave all of the kids books. i, yet again, pointed out that it was santa's helper as santa and the elves were so busy back at the north pole making all of the presents. that evening, my sister came over with her two kids(ages 6 & 9), and my brother also came by. i so enjoyed being all together. later that evening, the husband and i headed out to finish up some christmas shopping. i knew my parents could handle sweet cheeks and her 3 cousins on their own. we finished the shopping, then headed to grab a quick beer & some chips n queso. it was a nice time for the two of us! i was able to drink a beer without being asked 20 questions from my 3 year old who thinks only daddy can have a beer.

saturday- my parents and nieces left, then sweet cheek's nana and papa took her christmas shopping. so the husband and i once again had a nice lunch out together. that evening we kept sweet cheek's cousin ellis(2 yo) for the night. she loved having company again.

it was a great weekend full of family. sweet cheeks had a few stingy moments, but overall she did a great job of entertaining everyone. sorry i was bad and have no pictures to share!

***

in keeping with the theme of cold, here are a few cute mitten hair clips from etsy-




***

i also found this table on etsy. it is creatively decorated with the floral & dot prints, and painted in beautiful pink tones. the reason i am sharing it is because i think it is non other than the ikea latt table i have shared before that sweet cheeks and i painted and covered with contact paper. so if you know how to paint, it is a cute way to add color to a table that comes so plain (and so cheap)-

new site

i have a new favorite website to share.

you have to see it!

it is galison

they have some really great stationery & office supplies.

like these really cute sticky notes. so much sweeter and brighter than the usual canary yellow 3x3 office ones i use-



another cute set. love the colors in this one-



pretty blues-




on this same website under the folder mudpuppy are some great kids things.

i love this puzzle. your child first gets to color it.
how fun is putting together a puzzle that you colored yourself-


i know a little girl, whom i like to call sweet cheeks, that would love this sticker book-


now go and check it out!

a warm head

i do not think i posted this pic yet of sweet cheeks with santa. her nana and pop took her two weekends ago to see santa, while the husband and i attended his christmas party. i was told she ran right up to santa and requested many presents for herself, as well as pink sneakers for me. she is so thoughtful, right.

so here she is with the big man-



i actually told her that this was one of santa's helpers because quite frankly, i thought this santa was a little on the scary side! i do not want her visions in her head of jolly ole st nick to look like him. she was ok with that.

***

it is so cold in so many parts of the u.s. right now but thankfully not where we live. i still thought i would share some really adorable baby hats. a little shop on etsy called nini's.

a quickie post

saturday we took sweet cheeks and her cousin to have their picture taken together, as well as separate.

OMG! all of the pictures turned out so well.

sweet cheeks was a complete ham for the entire thing, smiling non-stop and listening to directions given. it was such success.

here are a few of the photos-

sweet cheeks and ellis-



love these! i could just eat her up-



probably my favorite. she was just so comfortable! she really enjoyed it.



adorable with her ponytails.

nutterbutter snack

i picked sweet cheeks up yesterday from school. and as part of our daily pick up routine, i had a snack for her. she had asked me to bring fig newtons, but the newtons from the little store in my building were past their expiration date so i opted to get her some nutterbutters. she quickly opened them, took one out for herself, and then offered one to me (yes, i took it!). once the first one was gone, she ripped open the package for another. just as she ripped it open, one cookie landed on the floor.
i said to her, 'that is ok, you still have that one in your hand to eat." all the while thinking to myself that i was so glad we were never part of the 5 second rule in our family. with two dogs, you can't have that rule. the dog hair makes it too risky.
next thing i know she says, "here ya go" and gave me half of her cookie, without even being prompted. my gosh.. she seriously is the sweetest, most thoughtful kid ever.
the next thing she says is, "can you get me that other cookie OFF THE FLOOR. i will just blow it off."
what! where did she learn that? now i am on the hunt to find out which family member taught her that one! i did ask her but she pleaded the 5th.

a few examples

you all know that sweet cheeks is very much into picking out her own clothes. she definitely has a style of her own, and i try to let her run with it. most days, her outfits contain either a hannah montana shirt or what she refers to as a "fancy" dress. i do love that she is comfortable in what she picks out and wears everything with such pride. the girl is just too cute.

thought i would share a few of her latest outfits-

this has to be one of the most original but again, she wears it so well.




this is what she chose to wear on saturday, when her nana and pop took her to see santa at the mall. the dress is beautiful. little could you see, but sweet cheeks was wearing a purple hannah shirt under the dress! and yes, she did set those candy canes up like that in the background to be in the picture with her.



a little dress up time before dinner. she always arrives to dinner in style.



here she is in a pretty black/gray dress. she wore it to school last week. her teachers were all asking what the occasion was for such a fancy dress. of course, no
reason necessary with this one!



***

quick side note - please tell me if i am the only one already a sucker for all of the lifetime & family channel holiday movies. what is with me! i even watched one on friday night that had uncle joey from full house in it. so lame, but still i watched it. they get me every year with those movies!

click here for a link in case you want to join me-

bus driver- move that bus!

sweet cheeks, the husband, and i live in a great suburb of atlanta. our home was built in '76. to afford our wonderful area, we opted to do go with the cheapest house in our subdivision. it works for us. however, our kitchen does not. long term plans are to gut the entire kitchen, knock out one wall to open the kitchen up to the living room, and add another wall to separate the kitchen from the play room. again, all of which is a goal that we hope to achieve in about 2 years or so.

so the husband painted our kitchen a great new color and put up a black splash. those changes, plus a few decor additions, i think made for a much needed polished update to our very outdated kitchen.

kitchen before-




kitchen after- what do you think?

i had a girl named erin, found her on etsy, make the kitchen words for me.



new rug from target, which i love for the color-


closer look at the back splash-

a new curtain-

these are just too cute

did you know sweet cheeks can count to 42 now? yes, she is quite the counter these days. i am 32 and i absolutely love that sweet cheeks says i am 22, because in those few split seconds before i correct her, i am in my own head young again. why do i have to be so honest with her and say, "no sweet cheeks, mommy is 32." not like she knows the difference, or really cares. it is just my way of bringing myself back to reality, that i am so in to my thirties. i am, as the show was called, thirty something. eek. please tell me when this all happened? you would think the wrinkles would have been enough of a reminder. oh how my thirties are already mocking me, daily!

***

i was playfully looking through my favorite website, etsy, and found some really cute items to share-


you just have to love that amy butler. her fabric rocks!



again.. too cute. i love the birdie's legs-


when sweet cheeks was little, i had a cute floral mobile from carter's. it was fine at the time, but if i had known such cute handmade mobiles existed, i definitely would have gotten something like this for her nursery-



the handstiched elephant is sweet and what great colors-

thanksgiving day

we spent thanksgiving with my family this year. we usually take turns each year between the husbands family and my own for both thanksgiving and christmas. so this year turned out to be a lot of fun for sweet cheeks since 6 of her 7 cousins were there to play with. she had a blast. plus, i think she just really enjoyed visiting with my parents since she doesn't get to see them that often. we originally planned to leave on thursday evening but sweet cheeks begged and pleaded for one more night, so we left friday instead.

here is sweet cheeks in a tree with her cousins. i really wish that stick wasn't in the way! it is a cute picture.
i will label it after one of sweet cheeks favorite dr. seuss lines: "three fish in a tree, how can that be?"




sweet cheeks with her 6 cousins in the wagon. they all range in age from 15-3.



sweet cheeks little cousin loved pulling her around in this wagon, along with his brother-



a new favorite picture of mine of sweet cheeks-



me, the husband, and sweet cheeks-