Birthday Invitations

I've been trying to nail down the party "place" for The Princesses third birthday for about two weeks now. We really wanted to be able to have a gymnastics party. The local gymnastics joint tried really hard to work with me on two dates but they just could not get the workers needed to be available on either of the weekends we had in mind. So, yesterday I had a friend call and try to find out if we could reserve the 'gym' area at her church. She and I are going tomorrow to put down the payment for the date and time. The time is still iffy but I am so proud that I FINALLY have the invitations ready to print! I will share them on here. I still have to add directions and add the time of the party. Then when they are printed I will be punching double holes in the top and tying a ribbon in for a little extra decoration. The princess demanded asked for a Dora party. After already making gymnastics dora invitations I was sad to have to come up with a new theme. Especially since a gym has endless possibilities. But, here it is.....Dora Princess and Pirates! What do you think??



A friend of mine helped me with the idea of "gift not necessary". I was trying to find a polite way to say, the economy is rough right now, so the MAIN thing we want is for you to come have fun! I liked it. I hope it was a good way to say it. I will be posting a birthday blog for the Princess soon. Get ready for mega pics of my sweet baby girl! Ofcourse she made me a mommy, which was one of the things I wanted most out of life. And I have to say, when God gave her to me, He blessed me beyond measure!

Sacrifices for our Country

I found out today that two pilots from my husbands unit in Iraq were killed in a helicopter hard landing. I was overwhelmed with sorrow for them and for their families.

I began to reflect on just what the military sacrifices during a deployment. I began to look back through some of my pictures at my hero and our family. Every second being thankful we still have the husband and daddy we love so much. I had just gotten photoshop and stayed up late one night and worked on the creations below. I cried and cried. I listened to music that reminded me of what I was feeling, what my daughter was feeling, what my baby was missing and what my husband was feeling.


When my husband left our daughters were 2 years and 4 months old. Can you imagine all the changes they went through while he was gone? It is amazing when you think of it. Here they are at the send off and about half way through the deployment:

They LOVE their daddy so much. They missed him. My 2 year old prayed every night for her daddy's safe return. My baby's legs kicked with joy when she would see her daddy on skype or hear his voice on the phone.

Other families and soldiers made sacrifices too. Some men could barely dust the sand off their boots before their spouses said they wanted a divorce. Some soldiers are still there. Some had babies born during this deployment. Some of them had girlfriends who left them mid deployment. And the ultimate sacrifice was made by two soldiers and their families. They were brave. Their families made the ultimate sacrifice. Please say a special prayer for them tonight. I know that I will.

My husband is home and safe. I am thanking God for our families miracle. I heard a positive preacher by the name of Joel Osteen teach of faith that is not shaken by circumstances. Faith that thanks God for the future whether it seems like it can happen or not. I chose to have that faith. I woke up daily and thanked God for keeping my husband safe and for bringing him home to us early. God delivered our miracle and my husband was released a few months early. Tonight I am again thanking God for that miracle of a safe return. Thanking God that I am not worrying if that was my husband injured or killed in another country. Thanking God that my girls have a daddy safe and sound. Thanking God for my hero being returned safely.

Please pray for the families who lost loved ones. And please pray for the soldiers who are still there or on other foreign soil taking care of business so we can all sleep in a warm bed tonight.

i ♥ Thursdays!

Last week I participated in I "heart Thursdays. It's a GREAT way to say what we are thankful for during the current week. So this week I am again going to participate in I "heart"... at You and Me Plus Three. Go there now to add yours and read others!!

i ~♥~ snow days that are not that snowy... and fun with my girls!
i ~♥~ my little stuffed devil that sings "Hot Blooded" and watching the girls dance to it!
i ~♥~ how girlie my little princess is!
i ~♥~ making plans to go to the aquarium for a quick trip away from home and getting to see my college roomie and her fam soon!
i ~♥~ getting to spend some time on Valentine's day with my best friend!
i ~♥~ the new shoes I found at Target this week!!!!!
i ~♥~ the clothes I got the girls this week! I am READY for spring! (Hmmm...idea for another post...all the girls clothes I've gotten recently)
i ~♥~ starting to plan my little girls bday party!!!!
i ~♥~ seeing the Boo grow and understand so much each day!

~I hope you dance~

Today's title was a take on the following picture of my little missy princess:

So I should start with the story from the day before Valentine's. We ended up at the ER with the princess. She fell of the bed and hit her cheek on the wooden rail. OUCH is an understatement! She did not fracture her face but here is fair warning...the pictures are tough! The doctor warned us the blood would travel from the cheek to the eye and it would be about 2 weeks before we stop getting glared at in the grocery store. Here is a little preview of the changes from day 2 to day 4:

She cried and I cried. I could not believe my baby had gotten hurt so bad! Her daddy had just been in to check on her. Thank goodness she is not in alot of pain! Just a little warning that the princess is looking like rocky in all the pics in this post....
So we got a little snow on Monday, President's day and the hubby stayed home with the girls. Tuesday the county schools still did not go back (why is beyond me). So I stayed home with the girls. We had a BLAST! The princess was really into changing clothes and getting into twirly skirts! Here is a pic of her in the new outfit her Gigi got her:

The boo ALWAYS loves to dance. We had so much fun with this little devil that daddy got me with my roses for vday! His pitch fork spins while he sings "hot blooded" LOL!

Both girls LOVE to dance to this little guy! Bella just loves to dance period! And Caydence is enjoying it more now than ever. Bella is also enjoying loving on her bitty baby that Mimi got her for Christmas!

Here is a shot of what they enjoyed througout the day. While the Boo napped the Princess enjoyed some tv with all her friends, when they were both up they enjoyed some coloring with those awesome markers that only mark on the coloring book (thank you Gina for the introduction to these babies!), and once Bella awoke from her nap she enjoyed her 'laptop'.

Next is a major grid of pics...First we took pics of the princesses toes. She got "flip flop fresh" (borrowed from a friend of mine's little guy...Love it!) The Boo read to her babies, the Princess played with her snowglobe Daddy got her from Germany, enjoyed a sucker that looks like lips on the outside, and read to Puff and baby Belle. Boo enjoyed reading to her babies, watching some tv, climbing on and off that chair, reading to herself, hugging her stuffed animals and ofcourse following her sister around! And yes, all these pics were taken in one day...so it is true the Princess changed clothes alot...just because! And I LOVED it! =)

So that's about it for our "snow day" Have a blessed week!

*Beauty Regimen*

I am linking up today with Beth at the stories of A 2 Z for Beauty Regimen, get your face on party. Check out her blog to read other's posts on this!


I will not, I repeat, not be posting a before and after picture. You just don't want to see that people! ;-) But I will post what I am loving these days beauty wise. Since the hubby was deployed for quite some time I let myself go. I didn't have the time to focus on me...between work, that long drive, two babies, laundry, house chores... I was just glad to get over 2 hrs sleep a night and get up brush my hair and teeth and muddle to the next day! I know, Wah, wah, wah! BUT now that he's back I have been very into my beauty regimen. (next I tackle the weight game, but for now, just the face and hair). Okay, so hair first. I am loving my new brush (purchased at ULTA) to use when I dry out my hair...

You pull out the little silver pin out at the end and turn it around and put it back in and wha-la...you have something to EASILY part/section your hair. =) LOVE IT!
Also I have rather OILY hair. I HAVE to wash every day or else! But, I found this stuff...

So what's great about it??? I save time every other day! I just use the salon grafix dry shampoo...and it's made based on YOUR hair color! Genious! Where has this been all my life?!!!
A few months back my mom bought me an instyler. I am loving it because my hair has just enough natural curl to be a mess. I mean, it has to be straightened or else it frizzes, but it isn't enough natural curl to wear it curly. Know what I mean?! Plus it holds NO curl so hot rollers just won't do.



My next product I use holds double purpose. A. It helps detangle that natural curl that is a super pain to brush when it's wet. B. It helps protect from use of the hot instyler. It's Chi Keratin Mist. Obviously I use this when my hair is still wet, so before the styling and only if it's just been washed.

Okay, so make up. I am big on eyes and mainly use lip gloss. I am not big on foundation. I have tried bare minerals, which I definately like better than any drug store mineral foundation that I found. But at the same time it didn't WOW me like the info-mercial said it would. I have to prime my eye lids before applying foundation or the eye makeup will NOT stay on. They are OILY! Weird, right?! Anyway, I prefer using beauty control shadow control cream. But if I'm out I will just use some concealer and it works ok.

I am really liking the maybeline line stylist eyeliner I recently bought. You can draw a thin or thick line with it depending on the look you are going for!

And for the mascara, you will not find one better than maybeline's define a lash lengthening:

For shadow I use lots of different kinds. I like browns and shimmery pinks OR greys and blacks depending on my shirt. Loreal is probably the brand I use most. My cheeks are naturally pink so next I slap on powder and lipgloss and I'm out the door! =) Geesh...what us girls do for beauty!

Valentine's Day

So yesterday was Valentine's day! I saw a friend on facebook post: Happy Singles Awareness Day! LOL! Too funny...if I hadn't spent years feeling that way then I wouldn't be too nice that I find it so humerous. But yesterday I was not single. I have been blessed with an awesome hubby and the two sweetest little valentine's ever! The hubster got all his girls roses! He bought the girls red and pink roses and had some red roses sent to me. I am not a flower arranger but I tried...didn't do them justice but here's a pic of mine:

Daddy was busy working on a take home test for his differential equations class so the girls and I kept busy:

Aunt Nancy came over to visit and eat lunch with us. Long story but we ended up at the ER the night before Valentine's with Cayd bug. She had a terrible fall off of her bed and we thought she might have fractured her cheek! She did not! WHEW! But, she has a rough looking bruise. Doc says since the facial tissue is naturally loose that it will look worse before it looks better and her eye would likely black and maybe even get bloody. Going on day three and he was right. So back to the lunch...I was in the middle of making lasagna when the ER visit happened. I ended up throwing the goods in the fridge when we got back from the ER to cook for Vday lunch instead. We had lasagna and bread and some of those peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses inside! Yum!
It was nice to have Nancy over and enjoy some adult time with my bestie on heart day!

New Haircut

About a week and a half back I got my hair did! It was in DEEP NEED! I got a couple of inches cut off and more layers put in and bangs cut. For those who know me...they know that is ALOT! Here's a pic:

I'm lovin the bangs! Next time I might go shorter! ;-)

School Vday Party!

Caydence and Bella's daycare had a school party on Thursday to celebrate Valentine's day. It was so much fun! Caydence's class had pizza and curly cheetos and the cupcakes we made. Check out this pic with Caydence and her many classmates:

Some silly shots:

Caydence's room and the room just below her are pretty open to one another. Here is a shot of all those kiddos and some of the babies since she talks about some of them too!

Bella's class was asleep for most of the "party" time. They had spaghetti o's and curly cheese curls and some mini- cookies we brought. Bella woke up just before I had to jet back to work. I stayed to get a few shots of her:

The girls enjoyed their first Valentine's party at their new school and so did I.

I realize this week has been CRAZY busy with posts! I have enjoyed blogging this week but in the future I doubt I have time for this many! LOL!

Fix it Friday

I decided to link up with http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ for fix it friday. I have been using picnik for photo editing the last couple of weeks because our laptop crashed which had photoshop on it and I haven't made the time to load photoshop to the desktop I've been using. Here are my results...I'm still learning EVERYTHING about editing and very much experimenting. If I DID have photoshop loaded I probably would have used some kind of texture on the background.

Memorable Valentine's Day

I decided to link up today with Kelly's Korner "show us your life", topic being most memorable valentine's day. Click on the link below to check out Kelly's Korner and all the other bloggers posts!

My most memorable Vday was ofcourse with the hubby. We were dating and he'd asked me to come meet his family in Connecticut and then on Valentine's Day he had plans for us to take the train into NY for a short stay. Well, there was a Noreaster that season in Ct and this is the result:

We did manage to get to NY...my first trip there! Here we are at the Museum of Natural History...which I definately enjoyed!

Since we didn't manage to get pics together here is one just before that trip of us that same year:

And here we are this year...(I definately was having a bad hair day, but Tim is handsome as ever!)


So here we are 4 years later...true love!

Cupcakes!

Last night Caydence and I made cupcakes for her class party today. She was very excited. This girl LOVES to bake. Usually it's G-man that lets her help in the kitchen. Last night however, she baked with mommy. First let me show you our 'supplies':

I let the princess help pour in the cake mix and stir the cake mix. She also helped me pour them into the cupcake pan.

Like any good mommy, when we were finished pouring the last cupcake I let her lick the spoon!

After the cupcakes cooked we iced them with this icing in a can....it is the bomb-diggity! LOVE LOVE LOVE that stuff! The princess sprinkled them with all kinds of valentine-ish sprinkles! They were pretty =) Then I thought to myself, how am I gonna get these babies to school tomorrow? I have a 40 minute drive to daycare! Wait, I remembered what a packrat/hoarder sentamental person I am, and I save all kinds of things for a rainy day. I have a box that I got some knee high boots in a few years ago....so I lined it with tin foil and wa-la!

Ofcourse next there was the taste test...of the royal variety! Princess Caydence tested the cupcakes and only ate her icing/sprinkles and would not share it with daddy. From the look below, I think she liked them.

Alright...you all keep in mind I work away from home and with our commute we are out atleast 12 hours a day. So, this was not Martha Stewart style, but more a "shake and bake" variety cupcake bake. It was still loads of fun with the princess! And a big thanks to daddy for helping me get the other 'house' stuff done so I could share this moment with Caydence.

i ♥ Thursdays!

I am participating in this weeks I "heart"... at You and Me Plus Three. Go there now to add yours and read others!!

Crystal has a great point...there is so much negative around today and so many things in everyday life that can get us down. Let's take the time on Thursday to reflect on things that have happened during the busy week we've had that we ♥! These are random and in no order....or wait, didn't I just say the same thing twice! Oh well, here they are:

i ~♥~ going to the circus with the fam
i ~♥~ making cupcakes with the greatest lil' girl last night (will post pics on that later!)
i ~♥~ whipped icing from a can (This stuff is the bomb-diggity for us working moms especially)
i ~♥~ when I crawl back in bed and the hubster pulls me close for a snuggle
i ~♥~ watching my Bella boo dance and smile
i ~♥~ seeing the girls faces light up when they see their Gigi
i ~♥~ my camera and all it's great accessories to play with
i ~♥~ a mexican lunch date with the hubby
i ~♥~ my new haircut and color