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-

cuz it's a girls night it's alright without you

yes, i totally just used miley cyrus lyrics as my post title. i couldn't help it though, they just fit so perfectly!

so last wednesday night i was able to have dinner out with my sister and two friends. it was a great night out. thankfully sweet cheek's grandma was able to watch her and her cousin. we all had a wonderful night out. the dinner, according to me, wasn't that great but it didn't matter. i was there to visit, chat, and catch up. i think we sat at the restaurant for about 2 hours. we would have stayed a lot longer if we weren't getting the "get outta here" eyes from the wait staff. we were able to talk about ourselves, marriage, kids, old friends from high school, etc. all in all, we had a wonderful two hours together!

so happy together.... (me, nikki(mother of 3), angie(mother of 2), melissa(mother of 2)- my sister)



me and nikki- she has been my best friend since homeroom in the 8th grade. thank god our maiden names began with an "r" and an "s."



my sister and angie. in all honesty, angie was her friend first. they met in gym class i believe. but you know how it goes with sisters, if you are friends with one of us, you have to be friends with both of us. that is how it works for melissa and i anyway. angie was obviously ok with that deal as well since she has been our friend for about 17 years now. wow- we are getting old!





and the 3 of them.

lost camera = no pictures

i haven't posted in a week. i took time off for the holiday and didn't do much on the computer at all in our 5 days off.

and now that i am ready to do a new post...

i can not find my camera. so, no new pictures. and i had so many good ones to share. pictures from my girls dinner out with my sister and two friends. pictures from turkey day at my parent's house. pictures of sweet cheeks playing with her 6 cousins. i hope i find it.

***

leah remini is hilarious. i loved her on "the king of queens" and i loved her on the web shows "in the motherhood." if you haven't watched it before, you absolutely must. you will laugh your pants off. she is freakin hilarious. i even remember her from her old "saved by the bell" days. i also love how normal she seems, despite the weird scientology thing. i remember reading that her 4 year old still used the bottle at night. i disagreed with it, but hey, she is just a mom and that does not make you perfect as we all know. on her blog, she mentioned carrying her little girl. again, 4 is a little old to be carried, but our babies are still our babies. i love carrying sweet cheeks at her old age of 3.

i also heard that ABC will develop "in the motherhood" for its channel, without leah remini. big mistake! though chelsea handler is cast and she is pretty funny herself.

i was sad when i saw this picture though. yuck to her being a smoker!