Em's routine with the dish towels

Spot the dish towels:

Walk over and pull them down:

Come show mommy:

"No really mom, do you see my new trick?"

Throws them on the ground and then lays on top of them pretending to sleep!

Hilarious!

Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Bites!

These little bites were so good and easy, I just have to share!  I found this recipe off Pinterest here, but I'll write out the instructions below as well!  These tasted like small coffee cake bites to us!

Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

Ingredients:

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1) Mix flour, crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. 

2) Cut in shortening with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3) Add milk and stir just until moistened.

4) Roll dough into approximately 2 1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

5) Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in a small bowl. Drop balls into melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

6) Place balls onto greased 8 or 9 inch round pan.

7) Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in pan on wire rack before removing.

If you are looking for a perfectly rounded ball, try using a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan as mine baked together. They weren’t exactly round but they still turned out beautiful!

Easter and Egg Hunt

Since we decided to go to our Easter service on Saturday night, we had all day Sunday at home to give Emery a small egg hunt and just enjoy the day.

Kyle and I realized we had all the ingredients for a Pinterest recipe for breakfast -- Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Bites.  I'll post the recipe tomorrow, it was delicious! We waited to do an Easter Egg Hunt for Emery after her 1st nap, but let her play with an egg that morning.  She.loved.it.

After her nap, someone was all dressed and ready for the Easter Egg Hunt!

If we say "cheeeeese" this is what Emery does for the camera now.  Lifts up her chin and scrunches up her whole face... so cute!

Our front yard is super small but Emery still had a ball crawling in the grass to get all the eggs.

And putting them in her basket.  She knows what those words mean from cleaning up our toys everyday!

She was so excited when she discovered there was a new wubanub in her basket.  Her elephant paci started ripping, so we replaced it with a cow who we lovingly call "moo moo".

And time to walk to find the other eggs.  She was having difficulty in the grass so daddy helped.

And another egg in the tree!

Walking with her basket full of eggs -- most of which were empty.  Some had jelly beans in since she loves to shake things and hear the noise!

Instead of going with the traditional Easter food we decided to branch out and have ribs.  They are one of Ky's favorites and he loved making his own sauce and smoking them all afternoon!

A wonderful Easter with our family of 3.  Throughout the day, I kept singing one of our favorite praise songs "In Christ Alone".  The following lyrics are so perfect for why we can CELEBRATE always but especially on Easter weekend.  We are so thankful for Christ's love and mercy!

There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious Day, Up from the grave He rose again.

And as He stands in victory, Sin's curse has lost its grip on me.
For I am His and He is mine, Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

Easter Festival

I'm so sorry we were MIA last week on our blog.  It was a crazy week for so many reasons and on top of that I had lost my memory card to my camera.  No pictures = no blogging!  Luckily, I found it this past weekend so I can finally share our Easter pictures!

Our church hosted an Easter Festival on the Saturday night before Easter.  We loved going to church on Saturday night as we had no problem making it on time and Emery wasn't fighting a nap so she did great in the nursery!  After the amazing praise & worship session and message we headed outside for the Easter Festival.  Rach, Mike and Gunney came and met us and the kids had a ball exploring all fun events they had set up.  Below is a blow up obviously for little kids but they had tons of other blow up events, face painting, snow cones, mini train rides, etc!

Emery couldn't decide if she liked it or if we were leaving her for good in that thing:

The church provided hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, drinks and all the fixings.  It was delicious and so fun to bring blankets and picnic around the campus.  The weather was perfect!

Thanks Rach & Mike for coming along!

And lastly one of our family of three.  Seems like just yesterday we were taking Emery to church for her FIRST Easter last year.

Hope you all had wonderful Easter's as well!

Bye Bye Volvo!

A huge blessing with Kyle's new job is that we get a company car again!  So, last weekend we said goodbye to our faithful Volvo and watched the new owners from Mississippi drive it away! I had to get a hug in before we said goodbye though :)

Date night to celebrate!

Last week, Kyle and I met on a Monday night after work for a dinner date just the two of us (thank you Jeneane for staying later to watch Emery!).  We went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants here in town, Pappasitos!  We had two things to celebrate: 1) Me nursing an entire year (hence the margarita in the picture below... my first one in almost 2 years!) and way more importantly 2) Kyle accepting a new job!

We are so excited for this new opportunity for Kyle, as he is taking on the National Account Manager position for Irwin Tools (a division of Newell Rubbermaid) selling to Home Depot.  He was sought after for this job by the current team, and this offer couldn't have come at a better time!  Congratulations Ky, I am so proud of you!!

Our last Birthday Celebration!

Emery is one loved girl, having 3 birthday parties in one month!  One with my family in the Keys, one with GA friends, and lastly one with Kyle's family a couple weekends ago when we went to Raleigh to visit.  

I love the look of concentration on Em's face... like "how can I start eating that RIGHT NOW?!"

She has eating cupcakes DOWN PAT and this time decided to not even use her hands at the beginning, hilarious!

She ate the ENTIRE cupcake this time, cake and all!

Thank you everyone for celebrating our little girl turning one!

And a adorable picture I snapped before we left of Emery and her Poppa!

One thing is for certain, Emery is loved!

{Semi} Wordless Wednesday: WE FINALLY HAVE TEETH!!!

Yes, it's true Emery finally got her first 2 teeth (at the same time) a couple days after her 1st Birthday.  I think she was just being totally selfless and waiting for me to stop nursing ;) Whatever the reason, it's crazy to see two little white nubs popping out of that bottom gum!  (And boy were those teeth NO FUN coming through... hope the other ones are a little less painful for our girl!)

Hunger Games Movie Premiere!

Lacey and I read the Hunger Games series together and I remember being so excited when they said it was going to come out in a movie!  We bought our tickets and parachute tshirts for the Midnight Premiere (both are traditions now because of what we've done for Twilight) and before we knew it it was time to go see it!

Lacey and her roommates hosted a Hunger Games party before hand and it was so much fun.  She went all out with the decorations and tied in the menu items perfectly with the book... so creative! 

Tracker Jacker cookies, hilarious!

Here's the whole group:

 Playing trivia and other games!

 And then it was time to head to the theater!  There was a long line, so we hunkered down and started waiting...

AND THEN I GOT SICK :(  I had been feeling funny all day, and about 40 minutes before the movie I knew I had to head home.  I must have caught some kind of 24 hour throwing up virus, but it hit hard and fast... man I hate those!!

So the next week, Andrea and Lacey volunteered to go with me to see the movie! They loved it so much the first time, that they didn't mind seeing it again!

Lacey & Andrea:

Lacey and I:

Thank y'all SO MUCH for coming with me a second time!  I loved the movie... not as great as the books but pretty close!  We're already looking forward to the sequels!

Emery's 1st Birthday Presents

Most of our gifts to Emery we had a little hand in making, so I thought I would share!

First up is the favorite around the house, Emery and I probably read it around 8 times per day!  I love board books, and knew that I wanted to make one for Emery that had all of our family inside.  Since we live farther away from most of our family members, Kyle and I thought it would be the perfect way for her to get familiar with their names and faces!  

I went online and found Pint Size Productions, a company that prints board books for you.  You can use their templates OR if you have the correct software you can ask to have the templates emailed to you.  I chose the latter (surprised?), which allowed me to design it just the way we wanted (a layout where pictures were on every page, accurate text placement and a patterned background).  We were able to fit all of our family pictures and names in perfectly this way, yeah!

Here is the cover and spine:

On the back cover I put a picture of the 3 of us, then put this text underneath: We want you to know how loved you are, by all of our family members near and far.  We love you so much! Mommy & Daddy

Here's an example of the inside of the book.  Behind the names I reversed the colors that were on the cover and put light pink diagonal lines on a white background to add a little something.

Like I said before ... Emery LOVES it and points to everyone's picture before she flips the pages.  It was totally worth the time to make this board book!

Our next gift was inspired by an image I found while browsing on Pinterest a couple months ago... an over-sized ruler!  It's not your typical growth chart but serves the same purpose, and the plus is that we can move it with us from house to house.  We bought a 1x8, Kyle stained it, then I used a sharpie to draw on the lines and numbers!  We've made a couple of these for friends and family, and I'm so glad we took the time to make Emery one too!  Now I just have to get her 1 year measurement drawn on there!  (This is where we are putting it... still not hung up on the wall quite yet!)

 

Lastly, we ordered Em a pair of pink TOMs! Kyle and I had said as soon Emery started walking that we would invest in a pair and I'm so glad that we did.  They fit her perfectly (size 3's -- they are so tiny!) and they stay on perfectly.  It's so neat to know that someone on the other side of the world was given a pair of shoes just by us making a purchase through TOMs... makes it completely worth it!

Our happy girl wearing her new shoes :)

And since we are on the subject of shoes I just have to show one of the gifts that Emery was given by our friends, Serina & Chris, at her birthday party.  HAND PAINTED Converse shoes!!  I seriously cannot wait till Emery can fit into these!

I just love the "established 2011" on the backs, so cute!  Thank you so much Serina... you are so creative!!

A wonderful 1st Birthday for sure!

Picnics & Parks

A couple weekends ago on our way back from Boone, we stopped for a picnic lunch in Charlotte.  Man what a difference it makes to eat lunch outside then just driving while eating fast food.  We left refreshed and ready for the 4 hour drive back home.

More recently, Emery, Kyle and I met Mike & Gunney for a picnic lunch at a nearby park.  There's a pond to feed the geese so we used some of our sandwich bread to do that as well.  It was a fun day enjoying the beautiful weather!

And we couldn't leave without getting some "jump" shots of the kiddos!  You can tell by their faces this is a regular occurrence in both our households... They LOVE it!

And going down the slide holding hands of course!  Too cute!

 

Trying to enjoy the weather before the hot hot Georgia summer comes!