she believes!

i am so excited about christmas. it is the most amazing time of the year. so, i as a mother felt it was my duty & obligation to instill the same belief into sweet cheeks that christmas is the absolute "most wonderful time of the year." it started late in november when we began listening to christmas music. she is quite good at "jingle bells." it then progressed into the first week of december when we hung stockings and put up the christmas tree. for a two year old, sweet cheeks truly amazed me at putting up the tree. she was great with the decorations. now onto the holiday movies, i had to record the classics for her to watch, as they are on past her bedtime. I had "rudolph" and "a charlie brown christmas" for her to see. sadly, it was "shrek the halls" that she loved! i think she has watched it a total of 15 times. she now has a favorite holiday movie as well, "the polar express."


i really thought this movie was going to be too old for her to enjoy but i was so wrong. she absolutely loves it. tom hanks did a great job with his many characters in this one. i love how excited sweet cheeks is about christmas already. we have been reading "twas the night before christmas" and "the story of christmas" to her quite a bit. she is excited for santa to bring her presents, though she isn't up for sitting on his lap just yet. she hopes he will bring her a vacuum and baby doll. i am thrilled to see the excitement for christmas through her new, young eyes. it is going to be just as much fun for sweet cheeks parents, as it will be for sweet cheeks.

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i don't have a little one, as we all know, but if i did you can bet i would be sporting one of these great slings. i love it! why didn't i know about the easiness of slings when sweet cheeks was a baby. what rock was i living under? they can be found here.



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one more sweet find, if only i knew someone with twins girls to appreciate these cute necklaces from violet gum drop dot com:



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a bonus photo of sweet cheeks for fun because there is just no better way to color than without your pants on!

look who's a big girl now!

we went to ikea with the intentions of buying a futon for one of the spare bedrooms. what we left with was a twin bed for sweet cheeks! she tried out several different floor models and seems to get in & out of this particular one with ease, so we got it! she is doing such a great job of sleeping in it at night like a big girl. i am so proud of her. we ended up converting our spare bedroom into one more playroom for sweet cheeks(not that she needed another place to make a mess). we also moved her old toddler bed in there.

here is the proud girl in her big girl bed-



oh how i wish sweet cheeks would keep a headband in. i love it on her but the second i put one on her, she yanks it right out.



and another great picture of her in the cute crewcuts dress. i can't help it, the girl is just so cute-

choochoo soul

i was looking back at old videos of sweet cheeks today and came across this cutie.
it is so hard to even remember a time when she wasn't talking but here she is, drooling and signing! she used to love the choochoo soul opening song on the disney channel. we would have to watch it many times over. here she is semi-dancing to it. i love seeing her sign "again" immediately once the opening is finished. she was so adorable. i just can't believe how she has grown.





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i seriously saw this license plate today on a ford mustang:

UBENBIT

meet my baby doll, jesus

ok, please tell me if i am the only one who finds this a little odd.

i was in the middle of doing a baby doll/accessories search on Target.com

circles in the sand

after a bout of something along the lines of tonsilitis last week, sweet cheeks is finally and mostly better. it did sadly have a negative impact on one of the most glorious kid holidays.... halloween. we were originally scheduled to trick or treat with sweet cheeks cousin but due to the illness, we had to pass. so we (meaning mom & dad to sweet cheeks) took her to a local neighborhood to hit just a few houses so she wouldn't miss out completely. it turned out to be ok. she ate lots of candy and that is in fact what the holiday is all about!

we spent this past weekend at calloway gardens. it was a beautiful weekend, lots of sun and cool temp. we took sweet cheeks to the birds of prey show, the butterfly house, and to the little beach playground. she really had a nice time. despite her going to bed way too late two nights in a row, she even behaved for us! enjoy just a few of the great pictures that i was able to take of her over our weekend.

the first is sweet cheeks with her cousin. they were having a great time feeding the ducks, fish, and turtles!







my cutie on the playground. what a beautiful face, seriously!



she really enjoyed playing in the sand. i loved watching her.





does it get any sweeter than a girl and her favorite doll. phoebe, her first cabbage patch, literally goes everywhere with us these days. also note her cute mayapappaya owl hairclip!





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now, this is the time when i like to share a new favorite find of mine on the net. what a cute guitar tee. ok, i think it is cute but i haven't actually purchased it as we already have quite the collection of guitar things for sweet cheeks but i still love the line art and simplicity on this toddler tee.

nothing left to do but smile smile smile

it has been so beautiful outside that i have loved taking photos of sweet cheeks outdoors. it is so difficult though being the parent to such a beautiful child, yet she refuses to pose for the camera. i had to share the great shots of her that i was able to catch.

1. she found a piece of pine straw. purpose of the pine straw: to poke at a spider-free spiderweb!



2. all smiles because we were sneakily sitting on the back of daddy's car. (i will shamelessly try anything to make her smile)



3. GRRRRRR- i love this photo, with the exception of the fact that i cut off the top of her head. her amazing features really come through here. what amazing eyes sweet cheeks has.



4. can you guess what she is eating? another new favorite of hers: a cannoli. she has a small piece of italian in her afterall.



5. here i am... new haircut & all. maybe i should have shared a before picture but i am sure there is one on this blog somewhere. i am still not sure how i feel about it. it is a nice cut but doesn't really have much WOW factor.

again....?

i seriously wish that i enjoyed picking out my clothes each day as much i do for sweet cheeks. her closet is always so organized. her clothes are always put away. her socks are always matched. her room is never out of order. i wish i applied the same TLC to my own bedroom, closet, and wardrobe. but i don't. maybe smaller clothes are just cuter. maybe it is the fact that clothes in the size 2T range are about a 1/3 of the cost of my own, on a sale day! so here is another oh-so-sweet picture of sweet cheeks in her leggings. she has them in black and purple as well, but the brown just seem to coordinate so much more with everything.

(in case you are wondering what is in her hand, it is a fruit loop straw. a current favorite of hers!)





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i have found some sweet hairclips to buy for sweetcheeks from my new favorite website, etsy. i love the colors and shapes of these clips, plus the price isn't that bad at $6.50 per clip. no doubt they will coordinate well with the rest of sweet cheeks fall attire. luckily, she is still at an age in which mommy can pick out her clothes without much protest from the toddler.