Catching up!!

So I'm finally taking the time to share some of our pictures from our spring and summer fun. I know I'm way behind. Back in April we took Karlee to see Thomas and friends in Chattanooga. She liked all the activities and stuff there but she was a little scared of the train ride and I'm not really sure why.




You can never take a picture of this kid without her over doing the cheese!!! She see's a camera pointed at her and immediately yells Cheese!

Then we traveled to GA to visit with Nathan's family. His grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, and many cousins.
Here is a picture of Karlee with Nathan's sister's little girl Aubrie. You can never get the both of them to look at the camera at the same time.

They took a ride around the property on a golf cart, the kids loved it. Really thought they were doing something.















I think I have a future football player on my hands. And here Karlee is with her 1st cousins Aubrie and Taylor and of course you can never get them all to look at the camera.

Karlee's 1st trip to Chuck E. Cheese's and this is the only picture I got the whole time I was there. She was having too much fun with cousin Corbin to slow down or even let me catch up to them to take pictures.















Fun at Dollywood with Uncle Jody before he left to go to CA.


Past out after a day at Dollywood!!

Promise more to come. Still have pictures from mini vacation in the mountains and of course Fall is here so more pictures to follow. Sorry I got so behind.

A lot to talk about soon to come.

Sorry, I've been a very busy girl the past few weeks. We took Karlee to Thomas the Train on April 25th, went to GA for Nathan's grandmother's 80th birthday last weekend, and then this weekend was Mother's Day so as you can see that was 3 weekends taken up by activities. I promise I'll post on each event and post pictures as well. When I have time to breath long enough to do that. Just check back in a few days. I promise I'll update.

Easter Weekend Fun

The last two weekends have been so busy. With Egg hunts, Easter Pictures, Church Easter Egg hunt with cousin Corbin, decorating eggs, and then visits with family

These were taken on Good Friday during all of the horrible storms that were going on and everyone kept calling to see where I was. I hate storms so I'm surprised I didn't cancel this session once I saw what the predictions in the weather were. But luckily what hit Knoxville wasn't so bad. But during all of it we were trying to pose Karlee. She did a good job and I was very pleased with what we got for the money. I will totally go back to Portrait Innovations again. These are the best pictures of her. I think anyway.

I didn't really want her to have a picture with the bear but she just wouldn't give up on it. It did turn out cute though.

This one is beautiful in black and white. The flower looked so good with her dress.

Hunting eggs with Corbin at Granny's house. They are second cousins and are so cute together.

1st time coloring boiled eggs. I dipped them and then once this one was dry I handed it to her and she colored on it with the clear crayon that comes with the kit. Once she was finished I dipped again in another color to show up what she did. Of course it was just scribble but it was still cute since it was her creation.

Corbin's church Easter Egg hunt. She had lots of fun once she was allowed to go outside and find the eggs.

Sitting down and checking out what all they found and of course eat what was found inside. Lots of fun.

This is one side of the steps of all the kids. Both sides were full. Luckily they did split them into age groups.

The Easter bunny came to town and left this cute little basket full of goodies. She's too funny in the morning if you can tell by this silly look she's giving me as I'm trying to get a picture.

Posing after church in her pretty dress.

Playing in the car with Nana. This is her favorite thing to do.

Over all we had a great Easter weekend and the weather turned out to be pretty. I hope everyone else had a blessed and happy Easter as well.

Thirty-One Party

I'm taking outside orders for Thirty-One instead of having a party at my house. I just thought I would try this first due to so much going on this month. If you are interested in ordering something please click the link and find order from party and then find my name in the list.

I love this stuff. It's great and the new kids line is so cute.

http://www.mythirtyone.com/2774

I also have catalogs for those of you that see me and want to look at one.

Spring Cleaning

Okay so I started slowly cleaning out Karlee's closet. Here are a few things I need to try to sell and if you are interested in anything please email me at Jennifercronan@bellsouth.net or comment here. I have priced everything but I will take any offers if you think it's not worth what I'm asking.

The giraffe is practically brand new. Karlee played with it and actually still plays with it some but it was taking up space in her room that could be used for other things so I finally moved it to her closet and now just think it's time to let someone else have fun with him. I paid $27 for him so I think $10 is a fair price but if you have a better offer let me know.

The Easter dress is 12 months and she only wore it for pictures and church. I have it on EBay right now but if you (someone out there reading this) wants it I will take it off of EBay and let you have it for $10 obo. It's La Princess brand.

The blue dress is 6-12 months Gymboree $5, the Sweater and Onesie Set 6-12 months Gymboree the sweater still has tags on it and the onesie I took the tags off and washed it before realizing it was too small for her. I'll take $10 obo. The duck outfit also Gymboree 6-12 months is so cute, she got to wear it once or twice and I'll take $20 obo since it's a $50 outfit. I'm Gymboree crazy and I have to stop buying stuff in there. It's crazy. I have so many other things so if you have a daughter that needs 6-12 months spring and summer clothes please let me know and I'll send you pictures and work out prices on them.

I thought I would try putting this out there and then if this doesn't work do a yard sale. I just hate dealing with yard sales. They take too long to prepare for and sometimes in the end you don't get enough money to have even wasted the time on it.

Just let me know if you are interested. I hope this works.

Never Ready!

Why is it that Karlee always seems to do the cutest things and I never and I mean never catch it on video or camera. I hate that! I need to just hang both the video camera and regular camera around my neck since she's so unpredictable.
The other night as I'm getting her out of the bath tub she's singing songs and just being cutesy when all of sudden I hear One Nation, Under God and I stop and I'm thinking to myself is my 2 year old reciting the pledge of allegiance. I don't say anything because I'm amazed at how well she's saying this. So she ends it and I said wow Karlee you said the pledge and she looked at me like yeah so what. I'm sure she says it a lot at daycare or something because she seems to just learn more there than I ever imagined she would at 2. So I asked her if she could say it for me again and she did this time from beginning to end. Of course being the proud and happy mom I was, I had to let someone else here so I called mom and told Karlee to recite it to Nana, no don't want too. So after handing her the phone and mom asking her if she could say it she finally repeated it word for word again to Nana and Papaw.
I'm telling you that just thrilled me. I didn't learn the pledge until I was probably 5 or 6 and she already knows it at 2. That just surprised me. I now get more and more thrilled with her in daycare because I see how much she is learning and how much fun she has. She's saying her ABC's and counting to 10 in English and Spanish. She knows her colors some, but won't let you know that she truly knows them. If you ask her she will say it's blue or yellow when it's not but she knows them if you don't ask her. But anyway I hated taking her to daycare for the longest time but once she got past the baby stage and I realized how much this child learns I'm so thrilled to take her there now. Miss Tara Thank you if you are reading this. Karlee loves school and she loves Miss Tara.

Shop til you drop!!

Friday I took off work to spend the day with Karlee before I left to go to Sparta to spend some time with my sister in law and family. Karlee and I didn't do much other than lay around and watch TV together. We played and read stories. It was just a nice day to do things with her. I got to cuddle with her so she would nap. I love that she still loves to be in mommy's arms.

So around 5pm on Friday I took her to my mother and father in laws so she could spend the night with them for the first time. I drove to Sparta, an hour and 20 min. away. I got there just in time to sit down to a nice dinner with Amy, Jon, Taylor, and Aubrie. It seemed funny to be there without Karlee and this was my first time spending the night away from her. She has only spent the night with my parents once since she was born. I don't mind it at all. It just seems different. It especially didn't feel right that I had left her at home this time. Since she doesn't get to see Taylor and Aubrie much, but Amy and I had big plans for Saturday.

So anyway Aubrie is 13 months and usually does not usually take up to anyone, but she just stuck right to me, she didn't want me out of her sight for awhile, it was cute. Taylor kept calling me girl, "Hey Girl", he never said my name but maybe once. He's going to be turning 3 in May. They are such sweet and good kids.

So anyway Saturday Amy and I got up and drove to Nashville an hour more from her house to go shopping for spring and summer clothes for not just the kids but us too at Opry Mills. It was great. I found lots of stuff for Karlee. Most everyone knows that I love to shop and I don't always think about what I'm spending until I've already spent it. Amy is a more caution or price watcher type shopper so it was kind of good having her with me because if I saw that she wasn't going to pay the price for something for Aubrie I thought long and hard about it for Karlee. I did still spend a lot more on Karlee than I had planned, but that's what I get for having a girl. It's too much fun shopping for little girls.

My favorite thing I bought her is a one piece bathing suit from Gymboree Outlet that is pink and white striped with a green turtle on the front above the cutest little skirt. I also found matching hot pink flip flops that have the turtle on top. Too cute. As soon as I got home I showed those to Karlee first thing and she of course had to take her other socks and shoes off to try them on. Too much fun! They are adorable. I did find a few things for me. I of course bought 3 pairs of shoes and several tops for myself. Karlee got lots more though.

Oh and when I got home she was at my Nanny's house with my parents. So when I got there she was hiding from me and when she heard my voice she came running to me about to cry. I guess she was just overly excited to see her mommy that had been gone from her for just a total of 24 hours. It made me happy to see she did miss me. I really needed this girls weekend though.

My sister and law and I have never really spent much time together so this was a nice way to get away from the kids and husbands, have our bonding time, and shop too. She's a stay at home mom and doesn't get out much with two children so I'm sure she enjoyed it as much as I did. I know we both go and do things but this was just really what I needed. It helped relieve stress and helped me just relax and have fun. All moms deserve a little free time every once in a while. I look forward to having the time and money to do it again.

Spring time fun!

I'm so excited for the longer days, the warm weather, and time outside with Karlee. Last night we enjoyed a walk down the street. She still loves getting in her stroller and strolling through the neighborhood. I figured by this age she would hate it but nope she got so excited when I told her we were going home to take a walk.
After our nice walk we went home and played on her little swing and slide I got her last summer. I believe she's outgrowing it pretty fast and needs a big swing set. I'm going to look and see if I can find us a good deal on one so she can have that. So many things to look forward to this spring and summer with her.
Not to sound like I'm bragging but I know I am. She just surprises me each day with new words. Words that I never imagined a 2 year old saying as clearly as she does. Last night she climbed on her slide and it has a telescope on it that of course is pretty wore out and you can't really see anything through it, but she loves to pretend. So anyway I didn't even know that she knew what it was and as clearly as I would say it she blurts out a telescope mommy. Come play with the telescope. I know at some point she has heard me say that's what it is, but it's been a while since we've played outside on the slide so for her to remember it and be able to say it just surprised me and made so happy. She's just a little sponge. Like the other day she heard mom saying this is my granddaughter and later that day and all week long she's said mom I'm a granddaughter. I just thought that was the funniest thing and just proof she listens to your every word and repeats even if it's not right then. She's so much fun.
I hope to update more than I have been, things get crazy with a toddler and this is my stress reliever. These are pictures I took tonight after our walk and fun outside in the nice almost 80 degree weather. Sad to know colder weather back in the rest of the week.

Phases!

I know it's just a phase that toddler's go through but it's stressing me out. Every time I think that there is nothing on the floor or in reach there she is chewing on something. Ugh! I just know she's going to choke on something. I have fussed at her and put her in time out. I understand that their memory isn't as good as an adults but you would think that as many times as we have gotten onto her for this she would be past it.

This morning as I'm trying to make sure we have everything together for daycare, I turn around and there she is chewing on something. As soon as I turn around and she realizes I see her she grabs the round rubber whatever out of her mouth. She could have easily choked on it. I asked her where she found such a thing and she kept saying back of that, which was the baby gate. I inspected it and could not see anything missing so I have no clue what it was. I'm so stressed right now over lots of things and I didn't want to have to get onto her first thing this morning but it was like every time I turned around this was happening. Ugh!

So I just really want to scream. Again I know it's just a phase but it's a very stressing one at that. I'm sure in a few weeks she will be on to another phase and I'll be saying I know it's just a phase. It's crazy how they go through the phases and you think you're prepared but nope not at all. It's something new every day. Every day there is a new challenge, a new phase, a new word, a new something. She's growing up so fast into this independent little girl and it amazes me how fast time goes by. I just hope this phase ends soon. I hate digging stuff out of her mouth and I hate not know what was that you just swallowed. Ugh. Phases!!!

Today's funny

So this morning as I'm trying to get Yogi in the kitchen so we can leave the house. I said something about come on Yogi, come on fatty. He's such a fat dog. Anyway not even thinking about how Karlee loves to repeat stuff she blurts out FAT BUTT. I thought surely not she's trying to say fatty or something so I asked her again what did you say. FAT Butt!! So freaking funny.

So instead of laughing and making her realize that mommy thought this is funny and I'm allowed to say things like that. I just turned to her and said no we don't say that, that's ugly and makes mommy sad. So she stopped saying it. I know she will do it again, but I just thought it was one of the funniest things she has said so far and had to share.

Then and Now

There are definitly days that I miss my little baby girl. The days of cuddling and rocking to get her to sleep. I do miss all the baby things, but I also love the toddler she is.

I just can't belive how things change so fast. From the day you bring a new baby home. You are constandly doing something. Time flies that's for sure. It feels like just yesterday she was laughing for the first time and today she's being sassy and bossy. It's so worth it all. I can't wait to see the person she grows up to be but right now I try to enjoy each and every day and each and every tough thing that motherhood throws my way.

Right now I want to know how to make her stop eating stuff off the floor, stop kicking the dog, stop pulling every toy out just to say no I can't put it back up mommy. I enjoy reading the 500 books over and over to her each night before bed. I just really enjoy being a mommy to Karlee. She's the joy of mine and Nathan's life. So many exciting things are coming our way.

Just because

Well several of my friends have started doing this so I thought I would do it too. I'm not sure how much to talk about but I'm sure I'll get this figured out and in the process get to tell what funny things Karlee does now that she's 2.

Gosh to start off I can't believe she's 2 years old already. I wish I had started this when she was born just so I could have shared all of her first, but this is going to be a fun journey through the toddler years. Potty training, talking, and just funny things she does.

I hope all of you will check in and keep up with all of our moments.