Sleep Training

While hubby was in Iraq I had Cupcake's sleeping routine pretty well on track.  I'd rock her a few minutes and then lay her in her crib.  Sometimes she'd fuss about it and sometimes not.  But, she got to sleep on her own.  Fast forward to Daddy coming home.  He has missed his babies like something awful and he wants to help them get to sleep.  Even if he is snuggling them until they drift off to dreamland.  And now, about a year later, the thought is that Cupcake needs to learn to go to sleep on her own.  She's two now.  So we begin to work with her on staying in her big girl bed after we say prayers and drifting off to sleep on her own.  About two weeks ago I snapped this shot:

We'd been putting Cupcake back in her bed over and over and then it seemed as though she'd gotten the idea and gone to sleep.  When we went to check on her we found her laying just outside of her bedroom door, sound asleep in the hallway.  Make no mistake, she had her silky blanket, 'woof-woof', an passy.  Those are all on her "must have to sleep" list.  I am proud to report that Cupcake is now falling asleep on her own in her big girl bed.  There may be a very short lived fussy girl.  But she's adjusting really well and we are not finding her in her hallway.  Although I do believe Daddy had to take her back to her bed from the hall about three nights in a row.    

Cupcake turns 2!

Happy Happy Birthday to my SWEET Lil' Cupcake!  Today she turns two!  =)  Since this is obviously a very busy time of year we had her party early.  The first weekend in December actually.  Before the party she and her sister followed me outside while I was loading up the swagger wagon.  I grabbed my camera and tried to snap some shots.  This was the best I could get before the party.  (Don't ask what she's doing with that tongue.  Her sister did the same thing at the same age.  LOL!  It's hard to get a smile when they are always cutting up!)

I decided to have her bday party close to her school in hopes we'd get better participation from friends.  Chuck E. Cheeses was about the only option.  AND it turned out to be a great one!  We had several friends show up:

And of course family:

By the way, if you can't tell from this picture, my niece, the one in the car accident, is doing well!

The birthday girl and all her friends had fun!  And this was the easiest possible party a mommy could ever dream of having!  WIN-WIN!!! 

I was worried about how she'd react to Chuck E.  She loved him!  He put the birthday crown on her and she high fived him:

I was unsure about how she'd do opening presents, but she was like a pro!

Lil Cupcake was quite possessive of the inflatable red crown!  She wore it for at least a week and would say "my happy day!"  She would not dare share it with her sister.  I had to pull out the Princess hat that the Princess wore for her bday celebration so they'd both have "happy day" hats!  Ha!  And Cupcake did an awesome job at blowing out her candle!   

To all of my friends and family who made this day so special THANK YOU!!! 

Cupcake At TWO!

My sweet little two year old!  I can not believe it's been TWO years since you were born.  You are such a sweetheart. 

• You LOVE your babies.  You are always trying to kiss, love, diaper, put a blanket on, or just playing with baby dolls or a stuffed animal!  You are such a little caregiver. 
• You love our Einie and you are always trying to hug him and pet him.  You love to go visit friends with pets! 
• You are also very strong willed and self confident.  I love this about you. 
• You love to sing and dance.  You are a wonderful singer!  I noticed at a very early age you are ON KEY AND HAVE RHYTHM!  You love for me to sing to you and you always sing along with me.  I have lullabies that I made up, but your favorite is "you are my Sunshine".  :) 
• You can count to 15 and you know your colors and alphabet.  You know most words to many songs we listen to or sing.  You also know how to say the blessing over our food and frequently join in with me when we say our night-night prayers. 
• You are my blond haired beauty. 
• You love to read.  If you see a book you are asking someone to read it to you.
• You love your sister.  You two have such a special bond and I pray it is a never ending friendship.  You want to be a big girl like her and will do everything she does.  =)  You two can love on each other one minute and fight like it's the end of the world the next!  But mostly, you love each other. 
• You are SUCH the snuggle bunny!  You love to cuddle up to your mommy or daddy and go to sleep. 
• You love your daddy!  You two have a special bond.  I'm not calling you a daddy's girl just yet ;)

You have such a sweet and kind heart and my mind is filled with the endless possibilities of what your life will bring! =)   

I Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Fun with Heat Transfer =)

How many crafts can you make in one long weekend?  A LOT!  Ha, ha!  I have had heat transfer vinyl for a while now and have not sat down long enough to work with my silhouette and read the directions on how to use it this type of vinyl.  It is almost Cupcake's birthday and I wanted a cute shirt for her to wear to school.  I had already purchased a very cute and  for our budget, expensive birthday outfit.  (You will see it in a birthday post for her, however, it completely tore up while washing it on HAND WASH cycle!  Which I am more than a tad bit upset about, but that's another story and I won't post it on my blog.)  Anyhow, back to my latest craft!  Tonight I was checking out She's {kinda} Crafty where Stacy did some cute heat transfer stuff.  I was inspired to use the supplies I had already stocked up on to make something for Cupcake.  I previously purchased some zebra print heat transfer from Hobby Lobby and a cheapo black t-shirt (in case my attempt at heat transfer was a bust), and my pink heat transfer from silhouette.  Cut it out, slap it on the shirt, hit with heat, repeat until desired result achieved:

And here it is up close:

The silhouette would not cut the zebra print heat transfer.  It was WAY to thick even on the setting that is for thicker media.  So I traced a circle on it and cut it out by hand.  That was what the directions said anyway, trace and cut.  Circles ...easy peasy.  It's three layers for everything but her name.  What do you think?  I am thinking this would be a really cute gift for someone.  I can see that in my future!  =) 

Linking here:

So are you wondering why in the world I am up so late?  Well, we had SNOW FLURRIES!  Nothing stickin'  just flurries.  And our schools are opening late in the morning.  LOL!  Oh well, I got to do one more craft than I had planned.  =)