Emery's helper stand from Grandpa!

A couple weeks ago, I met Nick and my Dad to pick up Emery's helper stand!  My Dad had made one for my sister's kiddos a couple years ago, and I knew Emery was at the perfect age to have one of her own as well.  I'm so grateful for my Dad and how he was more than willing to whip up this amazing piece of furniture for his granddaughter!  These stands are for sale online around $120, so making it was definitely the way to go (materials cost around $20)!

I actually sent my dad this link that Ana White had posted (her blog is amazing if you haven't discovered it yet!) and with only a few modifications of his own (to improve it, you know!) it was ready to go in a couple days!  I loved seeing Nick and Dad for a little bit when picking up the stand.

We decided to stain it instead of paint. We went with "Dark Walnut" as it was recommended to us from a staining professional ;)

We love how it turned out, and how you can still see the pretty grain!

Here is Ky mid-stain.  He did 2 coats and then sealed it with 3 coats of polyurethane.

Emery absolutely LOVES her stand, and is having the best time climbing up and helping me make meals.  I'm also truly enjoying it as now I don't hear "up up up" or "hold you" every second I'm in the kitchen.  Having my hands free in the kitchen again is amazing. Win win!

I'll have to include later a picture of Emery using it after it's been stained.  Thank you again so much Dad for making this for Emery... WE LOVE IT and love you!

"I got Bronchitis... ain't nobody got time for that!"

Our sweet girl was diagnosed this week with acute bronchitis!  With the medicine and nebulizer treatments she's feeling better already, thank heavens. But of course Kyle and I can't help but sing this song EVERY TIME we mention Emery having Bronchitis...

Ain't nobody got time for that :)

Introducing Roger... The Elf :)

So, the gift that I hinted about yesterday was ELF ON THE SHELF!  I think Emery is definitely at an age where she would think it's so fun to find the Elf in different places everyday, and help give him a name.  Our family will always celebrate and really teach the true reason for Christmas to our children, being the birth of Jesus, but I do think it's fun to add a little Santa stuff every now and then :)

Anyways, we picked up the book, doll and dvd at the Southern Christmas Show and opened it a couple days later to give our Elf a name!  So what is his name you ask? Umm that would be ROGER.

Can't read my blurry phone pic very well?  Let me give you a close up... that's right it says ROGER.

So the story behind it... we asked Emery what his name should be and clear as day she said Roger.  I tried to convince her on other-more-Elf-like-names but Kyle insisted we keep it Roger because it was too hilarious.  Clearly Emery loves the name and loves him :)

We broke the rules and let her play with him for the day.  We're excited to start hiding him different places every night for her to find in the morning!

Southern Christmas Show!

So now that we are officially in the Christmas season, I can share pictures from when Lauren, Merrin, Emery and I headed to the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte!  We went on a Tuesday morning and surprising enough it was still super crowded!  We had a blast looking at all the decorated Christmas trees and browsing all the crafts.  We even saw Santa and took a picture with him!  (I thought Emery would immediately start crying if we got too close -- hence the reason we aren't in the sleigh-- but she did great and even gave him a high five!)

Emery had fun in the Boba carrier and loved listening to the Christmas music and seeing the choo choo trains!

Thank you again Lauren for suggesting this outing!  We had so much fun with y'all!  Stay tuned tomorrow for Emery introducing one of the gifts we picked up there!

Happy Thanksgiving & Random Phone Pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We all have so much to be thankful for this year, and I hope you are able to spend the entire day truly celebrating all of your blessings with people that you love!

 Here are some random pictures of one of our biggest blessings, sweet Emery!

 We'll be back on Monday!

Gibby, the Ultimate Candy Mashup

It's no secret how much Kyle and I love candy.  When M&M last visited us in Marietta we introduced them to our favorite candy mashup-- swedish fish mixed with skittles mixed with sour patch watermelons all in a ziplock bag.  YUM.  WELL the other weekend when Molly and Marshal came over for dinner, they brought the ultimate candy mashup... a piñata!! hahaha stuffed with all of our favorite candies!

 

We had a great visit and dinner with them, then after Emery went to sleep we got down to business (Emery did not like it when we took practice swings at "Gibby" so we waited for her to go to bed).  But of course before we cracked Gibby open we totally had to get glamour shots with him :) 

To say we had fun hitting him in our front yard is a serious understatement.  We had a blast!  Just look at everyone's facial expressions... LOVE!

 And the outcome of poor Gibby... yes we are still finding starburst candies in our front yard!

Such a fun night together!

Settling In!

Now I know I just posted yesterday about our future home, but I wanted to back up and devote a whole post to our current rental and life here.  We have immediately felt like we are back home, and the transition to NC living has been so easy for us since we already know the roads and are living so close to friends & family.  We only unpacked the items that we absolutely need into the house, and everything else is stacked to the ceiling in the garage.  Luckily, our furniture is fitting great and we are loving all the extra space!  Just a couple things that we are LOVING  that we've never had before in a house: a huge kitchen with an island, a pantry, an actual mailbox outside, a shower where Kyle's elbows don't touch the walls, and our own his & hers closets in the master.... we are getting spoiled!
The garage is detached and we have a small fenced in yard with a "stage" (gazebo) as we call it in the back.  We play out back a lot and love the privacy!

In our neighborhood there is also a flat, paved greenway that is perfect for our daily walks & bike rides. 

Since the backyard isn't big enough for Tyson to catch the frisbee in, we head about 3 blocks away to a nearby field in the neighborhood.  Emery gets lots of flying time there, too :)

 
We are really enjoying being so close to Kyle's work and walking up to the restaurants and shops.   Kyle's been riding his bike to work most days as well.  He calls us to tell us that he's coming home and 3 minutes later he shows up on our doorstep... WOW it is awesome!

 

And lastly I have to share about our sweet "homecoming party" that Molly & Marshal threw for us a couple weeks ago.  They had us over for a delicious meal, then surprised us with our favorite cupcakes and two sentimental gifts for our house!  Molly framed a picture of our Marietta street sign and then also did a water color painting of our home.  As soon as I opened them I started crying... so so sweet.  That house will always be so special to us, and they couldn't have given us a more perfect gift!  Thank you again you two!

We miss all of our friends and family in GA, but are loving it here in Charlotte and feel blessed for having such a quick adjustment to life back in NC!

Under Contract!

Helloooooo! I apologize for slacking on the blog posts lately, we have had a lot going on the past couple weeks around here.  The most exciting news is that we are OFFICIALLY UNDER CONTRACT with a house here in Charlotte in a neighborhood that we love!  We put an offer in on it almost 2 months ago (while we were still living in GA), and since it was a short sale home the process can unfortunately take a while.  BUT thankfully it's been a pretty quick process for us, and as of last week all departments in the bank have approved our offer!

The house has so much potential, and we are excited about the possibility to do so many fun projects together to spruce it up!  So get ready for lots of Pinterest project posts (I've been pinning away like crazy).  IF everything goes well with inspections we should close on December 19th and then officially be moved in by January 1st.  Keep your fingers crossed-- Tyson is PUMPED about having this big backyard to catch the frisbee in!

Wordless Wednesday: Sharing her "teedens" with daddy

Shutterfly Giveaway Winner Announced!

I'm excited to announce that Lynsey from

The Moore Family Blog

has won our Shutterfly Giveaway!

Congratulations Lynsey! Email us at leahandkyleblog@gmail.com and we'll get your coupon code (for an extra $50 off your order of $50 or more) to you soon!

Fun with Merrin & Lauren

We are so excited to live closer to my childhood best friend, Lauren, and her family.  It's great to know our girls will be able to grow up together like Lauren and I did!  Seems like yesterday they were first meeting :)

Now look how big they are... full blown girly toddlers!  Emery loves necklaces and Merrin loves purses... hilarious.

Oh hey, pretty blue eyed girl!

Emery was showing Merrin how to make the train go "choo choo":

And of course we had to get a group shot together.  Merrin graciously put her call on hold for us, haha.  So thankful we have such healthy little girls!

Before we knew it our play date was over and they had to return back to Shelby.  But first came some hugs:

And some lovely kisses!  If you can't tell Merrin is NOT shy haha maybe she'll wear off on Emery?!

So sweet:

Thank y'all again for coming over to play, can't wait to do it again soon!

Don't forget to sign up for our Shutterfly Giveaway HERE.  It ends on Sunday-- Good Luck!