Easter Weekend! {lots of pics}

We had so much fun over the weekend! It was very busy! I was off on Friday and should have been getting things ready for the weekend, but with my clingy little girl it has been almost impossible to do anything lately. I managed to get to run a couple of errands, but still had to go back out after Reese went to bed! Evan decided to take off on Saturday to get our house in order for company and go to the zoo! We enjoyed some yummy monkey bread that I will share soon! (Since I got the Rhodes dinner rolls for our dinner I just knew we had to make that bread!) 

Reese could actually see the animals and just had a blast with little girls that are like cousins to her (close family friends). She is not too much of stroller baby! She likes to be held or walk around on her own. She sure looks like she knows where she's going, but really she's just wandering around. I'm really trying to get her to hold my hand and walk with me! She's starting to do it, but only for short periods of time.

gotta love that smile!

three generations, one with a mouth full of cheez-its!

can't get enough of those kisses!

she could have done the slide all day with these two!

"Hi penguin! You're just my size!"

I call this "zoo tired!" she slept a long time, we had to wake her up

We went to grandma's for a delicious spaghetti dinner and dying Easter eggs! She started getting some Easter goodies and she just loved this bunny! We tried to get a good pic of her with the ears on! She also got a little golf set, and went about nuts over it! She was whacking the clubs around like crazy, I thought someone was about to get hurt! She even screamed when she wanted it... I said oh no time to calm down and then showed her how I would ask nicely for it!

What a super fun day!

Easter was even busier! The morning was fun showing Reese that the Easter bunny came!

peeps are a hit!

 I was baking a cake, making bunny bait, Evan got the rolls ready, and I was making pork loin for our dinner! Everyone else brought the sides and more Easter baskets! Our child is absolutely spoiled! We had a super yummy dinner. I was nervous about my pork loin because I had to double the recipe and of course didn't read everything about the glaze before hand! But it was pretty tasty! Here's the recipe. I attempted to decorate my cake! It looked like maybe a kid did it, but oh well. Gotta love strawberry cake!

We had a lot of fun at the Easter Egg Hunt that my grandparents and great aunt have been putting on for 40 years! Reese figured out that kids were putting the bubble wands into the soapy water, but not how to do the bubbles. She thought she was pretty cool walking around with the sticks! She got lots of cool toys, books, and candy throughout the day from all of her grandparents! She's one lucky girl! We had a blast and she was one wore out little girl!

this is just one of my favorite pictures ever!

Time for some dieting after all the candy and good food! Better eating all together actually! 

With the nicer weather it's actually given me a kick to get into a better habit of exercising!

Have a great week!

Easter's On It's Way

I'm super excited for Easter this year! This is the first holiday that I think Reese will really get to enjoy! Last year she was only 7 weeks old on Easter! She was such a pretty little baby sleeping most of the day and doing a major spit up on her precious dress! By Christmas she was 10 months and with all of the different events, she was just really overwhelmed. By the time her birthday rolled around she was loving it! She knew the celebration was just for her and she was happy to be the center of attention!

I have wanted to make an Easter wreath for quite a while now. I found the things I needed and had a couple things on hand. When I see grapevine wreaths at a thrift store I buy them... they are usually only 50 cents or a dollar! They aren't too expensive at Hobby Lobby, but I know that I might not use it right away or paint it or it might not turn out how I want.

I had painted one of my grapevine wreaths ballet slipper pink a while back. I was trying to make something for Reese's room, but it didn't work out! It was perfect for Easter though! I've been really drawn to purple for Easter, but I'm normally a pink girl so this was perfect! I got some cute glittery colored eggs, a bundle of carrots, and a pink bunny! For now the bunny will have to do, I thought it would go on a different way, but it actually just sets right in there for now. I couldn't find anything else to go in it's place.

Here was my inspiration. I pinned it on Pinterest probably right when I discovered Pinterest.

I also wanted to make a special basket for Reese. I found a basket at a thrift store for like 2 bucks! It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do and trying to figure out how to do it. I didn't know if I should do pink or yellow or white or my recent favorite mint color, or possibly a dark wood stain color. I went with white and found a purple fabric that had bunnies holding different colored jelly beans. It screamed Easter and was like 40% off! I can update it or do a different basket as Reese gets older and can tell me her favorite colors and fabric designs.

I CANNOT sew! I researched how to make a basket liner without sewing. Turns out people use hot glue to hem things, and there is also hem adhesive strips. My mom's friend helped me with the hemming adhesive strips. I would not have known how to do it without her help! I love how it turned out! My mom tied some cute bows for me on the sides! TEAM EFFORT! I'm really grateful for all of their help all of the time!

Stay tuned to see it filled with goodies from the Easter bunny!

We are hosting a dinner with my dad and step mom, and Evan's mom and her hubby! Then we head off to the Easter Egg Hunt at my great aunt's house. It's a huge event! I went to it when I was little, so I'm super excited to take Reese!

Of course I had quite the time finding the perfect dress for Reese. I saw this bunny dress a while back and it was not available for a while. Must have sold out quick. When it was available again, it was never in Reese's size! Last Saturday I checked again and woohoo it was in her size! I thought I'd better do 2-3 day shipping. I had some rewards and things were on sale so I got a really good deal. But by Wednesday and Thursday my order had not arrived. This morning I called because the tracking said it was delivered yesterday! Gap went above and beyond, calling the post office, calling stores to get me a replacement! Then of course a little while ago the mail man said he mistakenly delivered my order to another house! Shortly after the package arrived in the mail! So Reese will be able to wear this perfect Easter dress!

So here's Reese last Easter!

 Reese got her big girl car seat this week! What a difference a year makes! 

Happy Easter! Enjoy the weekend!

I want to blog...

Hello!
I have been wanting to get back to blogging! And make it into something more than it was before. I wish I would have used it during my pregnancy and all of my daughter's first year.

She is now 14 months old! How did that happen? 

She's such a sweetie and quite the HAM!

The time is going by so fast! I want to enjoy each moment... even the challenging moments (especially when it comes to parenting).

I'd like to blog about the things I am passionate about and what I enjoy in life. I like cooking and baking and sharing recipes! I want need to be healthy! I love to run, but it has been very hard as a new mom. My schedule is kind of crazy running a before and after school program. We have been very lucky though since my husband works weekends, he has taken care of our daughter during the day. I can also come home and spend time with her on my breaks since I work a split shift. But we hardly ever have a day off together. So my husband misses out on so much on the weekends. He doesn't get to see friends or family very much. We also don't get much done around our house! He may be switching to working during the week again. So our little Reese may be starting to go to the baby sitter that I went to when I was younger. She offers daily rates and we will only need a couple days a week, because my mother in law can watch her one or two days and Evan would be off every Friday and every other Thursday! Not a bad schedule!
I know that it will give us more time as a family and more time to get things done! It will also be great for Reese to go somewhere and spend time with other kids! So I'm crossing my fingers that it all works out for the best!
I'd like to blog about things we do together as a family, holidays, my journey to be healthy and run again, and different crafts I do at home and with my kids at school, as well as new recipes I try out!
I will share lots of pictures! And the stories that go along with it! I don't want to forget all of these events going on... the time is passing quickly and there is always so much to do!

I hope everyone enjoys!

Baby Miller's Gender Reveal!

I always had it in mind that I would not find out the gender of my baby until the baby was born. My husband wanted to know as soon as he could. Through the wonderful world of pinterest and facebook I learned about gender reveal parties. I like to make anything into a party! I also like things to be memorable and special. My husband also wanted to know the sex before the big reveal with family. I had a very hard time with this... I felt like I would be able to figure out the gender by his reaction. I backed off and hoped he would change his mind, but the week of our appointment I battled again! We shook on him finding out before the reveal if the second baby we don't find out until the baby's birth!

When we got to the doctor's office he asked the tech to write the sex down and put it in an envelope (which he could have given the sealed envelope to the people at Party City and they would put the correct color of balloons in the box). He said he was going to look at it right before he got the balloons that would be released from the box I decorated. He said he was at least going to wait until I went back to work. All afternoon I hoped he had changed his mind to wait and find out with me. But he didn't. We went to the doctor on Friday and our party was on Sunday. He said he almost slipped up several times and that he thought he could have waited to find out with me.

I really couldn't tell and only thought he might have messed up one thing he said about the baby but we were talking about other people too so it wasn't a dead give away. I just thought about how it's like when you tell someone to buy you one of two things for Christmas, you know what gifts you might get, just not which one!

Our party was so much fun! I of course had fun doing lots of projects and then getting everyone together! We did a diaper raffle as well. Anyone that brought diapers entered the drawing for a sweet prize--a night out at the movies with candy and Topsy's popcorn! If they brought more than one pack of diapers they got to enter their name again!

 

I just love love love the balloon display, from Special Events in Blue Springs.They do parties and cute accessories!

Cast your vote!

The invite was created for me by the same designer that did so many things for my wedding:

 Kim Totty

 I'm pretty proud of this little banner I made out of scrapbook paper. I traced some cute letters I got at Hobby Lobby and hung it on jute with the clothespins that people wore to show their vote. My hubby even called this banner cute!

The votes were even just before the reveal!

Team Blue

Team Pink

 The Reveal!!!

 It's a girl!!!

 Mommy's excited! Daddy's in trouble (:

My cousin was pretty certain it was a girl! She bought a boy outfit too, but this was the set of outfits I wanted to go buy if it was a girl!

All of our family and friends loved this party! We had a great day, got lots of diapers and celebrated our baby!

Thrifting... repurpose

I have become quite the thrifter! It all started because I was really getting my kitchen organized. My husband also built me a pantry. In preparation for the pantry I wanted to find some containers and baskets to better organize items in the pantry. {side note--I just love that pantry! I need to post about it}
This post is about a couple of items that are finished. I've already done quite a few projects, but they aren't ready to post yet!

Some of the containers I got for organizing did not need anything but a trip through the dishwasher. I found this canister set and saw some potential. Nice solid wood and heavy glass containers that sealed really well.

This is also my first successful distressing project. After one coat of black paint, it was just too black, and not the look I had imagined.

My hubby sawed off the tops, I had already taken off the knobs that were on two of the canisters. Then the tops got a coat of chalkboard paint... and tada!

I really love this little set!

So here is my candle holder inspiration... I loved the colors, but I have orange in my kitchen. This also inspired my grey and organe kitchen.

Here's what I found at the first thrift store I looked... there's tons of gold decor at the thrift stores. All they need is some paint!

[BEFORE]

[AFTER]

Just a different color makes the world of difference. I am ready to tackle furniture now! There are such great deals on good wood furniture... with a coat of paint and new hardware they are good as new! And you get a super good deal on something that could be as unique as you choose! 

What color candle sticks should I get??