Me & My Girl

Just a few shots of us together on a wonderful Mother's Day! I had an awesome day with my "getting" so grown up daughter! Thanks for all of the lovely gifts...but most of all thanks for the day! I bet she told me Happy Mother's Day 20 times and I love you Mommy even more! These are the days we have to hang on to because they go by just way to fast!

"Special" Mother's Day Gifts

Measuring, measuring, measuring

Finished...

Smells good!

Every year since Emily's 2nd Mother's Day, We started making something for the Grandma's & Aunt Kim for part of their Mother's Day gift. I know they all enjoy the hands on gifts because those are the ones they can cherish. Our first year Mike helped Emily make all of them (and Me) a handprint mosaic stepping stone, last year were watering cans with handprints....so this year we made home made bath salts. I decided to go more the personal route instead of the yard this time. Emily absolutely loved making this item. Alot of measuring and stirring. We also threw in 2 more and made a total of 6 because we made her teachers one also. Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try this craft...

Lavender and Tea Tree Oil Bath Salt
Ingredients

1/2 cup Sea Salt
10 drops pure essential lavender oil
10 drops pure essential tree tea oil
1 tablespoon dried lavender

Description of the oils I decided to go with....

Tea Tree Oil- has powerful but gentle antibacterial and antiseptic properties. It is said to be good for arthritis, warts, athlete's foot, psoriasis, carbuncles, acne, rashes, toe and fingernail fungus, eczema and boils. It is also good for muscle and joint pain. Cleans and disinfects.

Lavender- has been used for thousands of years for various skin conditions and was highly valued for its antiseptic properties making it ideal for skin care. It helps prevent the build up of sebum, oils in the skin that bacteria feed on. Lavender promotes tissue regeneration and keeps the skin supple. Good for all skin types and skin conditions. It helps reduce and prevent scarring, wrinkles, and stretch marks. The aroma is uplifting and encouraging, and is good for depression and relieving nervous tension. It is also helpful for rheumatism and arthritis pain. Relieves tension and stress and soothes sore muscles and joints.

Cookie Share-- Peanut Butter Cookies (Healthier)

As we are trying to eat healthier in our house...it has also got me looking for recipes that could still be favorites for the kids and in this case we are taking them to our family cook-out tomorrow! We did make them..and as you can tell Emily approved so we are sharing this recipe for anyone interested!

Peanut Butter Cookies with Turbinado Sugar (I found at Fresh Market)I used organic butter and eggs also!

Active Time: 15 Minutes
Total Time: 35 Minutes
Yield: Makes about 28
This is a great cookie to pack for lunch or take on a hike. Whole wheat flour and turbinado sugar give the cookie a wonderful texture as well as making it lower in fat and higher in protein for a peanut butter cookie that is more nutritious.
RECIPE INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup salted chunky natural peanut butter
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

Additional turbinado sugar

DIRECTIONS
Position racks in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Using electric stand mixer, beat butter and 1 cup turbinado sugar with paddle attachment until well blended. Add peanut butter and mix well. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in baking soda and salt. Thoroughly mix in flour.

Using hands, form dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Dip half of each dough ball into additional turbinado sugar. Place dough balls sugar side up on ungreased cookie sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart. Using flat-bottomed glass and applying even pressure, flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness.

Bake until golden brown, about 16 minutes. Cool 2 minutes. Using spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Store cookies in airtight container.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

First Night in the Big Girl Bed

Waking up in her big girl bed the next morning

Finally, lastnight was the big night of the way overdue big girl bed. Amazingly enough Emily has never tried to get out of her crib. She hasn't had a thrashing around night terror in a few months now and she is approaching her 4th birthday , so it is time! We did purchase rails for now as a pre-caution just incase they start up again. Emily's big girl (full size) bed was only partially put up though because we realized after Mike started putting it together that it needs special rails ordered specifically for her crib to turn into the bed. Oh well, we will post more pics later when we get it all together..but for now she is able to sleep on the full size frame that we had and her headboard is sitting at the head of it!

She was soooo excited all day but when it came for bed time, she must have called us in there a half a dozen times with different anxiety issues. So..I finally just laid down with her for an hour until she had calmed down and got used to the idea. Then she slept the rest of the night with no problems :)

I cant wait to do some re-arranging to the room in the upcoming weeks. We aren't changing much but a few changes would be nice! We'll repost to this topic later!!

Healthy Hounds Dog Wash

Michelle & Ashley doing the honors!

Not liking the blowdry

Emily watching the dogs get washed

Picking Daisy Mae a special treat out for being good

My beautiful girl all cleaned up!

This afternoon we headed over to Healthy Hounds (at 79th & Fall Creek) because Mike's cousin Michelle was putting on a dog wash fundraiser for GPA Indy. I figured it was a good chance to visit her and Ashley (closer than her house in Avon), get a bath for Daisy Mae, and I could look around the cute little holistic store. It was right up my line of some healthier things to eat for Daisy Mae and a good time visiting with Michelle and several of her greyhound friends.

Spring Sing

Heading over to school..

Lemonade and cookies afterwards

Friends are a wonderful thing!

Our Happy girl!

Tonight was Emily's first performance at her pre-school. The senior and jr pr-schoolers put on a little "Spring Sing" for the parents to come and watch. Emily's class sang three songs and then they sang three more with the other class. She did very well but of course she had Fallyn with her so that always helps! You would have never known that we were there or that she had Grandparents there because she hung out with the Ranek's and Fallyn's Nana afterwards! It is nice to see that she's coming out of some of that shyness!

Great job girls...you both are getting sooo big, too fast!

Mutt Strut 2010

Waiting patiently to head out in her Drama Queen shirt

Getting wet..

Okay...soaked!

She looks like a wet rat!

This years Mutt Strut was pretty much a wash out day! Mom & I still figured we would atleast go on out to the track and let Daisy Mae have her play day out and we could still check out all of the vendor booths that hand out tons of free samples and coupons. I even won a $20.00 off voucher for Daisy Mae's next groom at Best Friends! YAY! We left soak and wet and opted to not walk all around the track since we were wet enough after hitting all of the vendors but it was still a fun event and MANY people still came out for the day...rain or shine! This has to be our biggest fundraiser for the Indianapolis Humane Society ( they get $25.00 a walker). There are always tons of people and this was there sixth year and I swear it gets bigger every year the more dog lovers that hear about it. I can still remember the first walk and it has definitely tripled in size!

Great Day..but glad we chose not to take Emily afterall with Us since she totally would not have handled the cold rain well!

Mr. Potato Head

Meet Mr. Potato head! Emily made this little guy last week when they had Earth week. Ironically, on Earth Day (almost exactly a week later) he is growing his hair!! She has been sooo good with remembering to water him everynight before bed. She even forgot one night and started yelling for me to take her in and water him because she almost forgot! I think she is going to have the love of house plants just like her Dad. Poor girl is going to be upset when we have to throw him out because of the nasty smell of the potato soon! LOL

I think I will start looking now for something to replace it for when the time comes!

My Man..Sammy Kershaw!

My favorite all time country music singer...Sammy Kershaw was here tonight in concert at 8 Second Saloon. I love this man for many reasons...love his songs, love the cheap tickets ($13.00), love that he sang our wedding song "You are the Love of My Life", and our memories together really go way back to him. Our first concert together 17 years ago was a free concert that Sammy put on at IRP. We have seen him many times since the first time (even in casinos)..ironically the last time was almost exactly 9 years ago in the very same place (8 Second Saloon) right before our wedding! Tonight we had stage seats. He touched my hand and gave me some beads..xoxoxo

We love you Sammy and we'll see you again! Thanks for always rekindling our love and memories of the past for us! We had a BLAST tonight!

Meet Elizabeth (The RealCare baby)

Tonight Stephanie came up to babysit Emily while Mommy & Daddy headed out to a concert. Along with Stephanie came her Realcare baby that was assigned to her this weekend from her parenting class at school. Emily was happy to help take care of "Elizabeth"! Too bad she wasn't the one up with her from 2:00-5:00 a.m. when she was crying off and on....VERY LOUDLY!

Clean Teeth....Dirty Teeth

Cleaned the teeth...then went to get them dirty!

Today was our second attempt to get a teeth cleaning and xrays at Dr. Michelle's. Emily did awesome this time until it came to the last 2 xrays in the back. She was not about to put that thing that you bite down on in the back of her mouth. So the visit was over! But she did awesome with the cleaning and the front x-rays. Honestly the teeth that I was worried about was the front two anyway. She does have some de-calcifying in between them but no cavaties as far as Dr. Michelle could tell without the last 2 x-rays!

But the Bad Mommy in me promised Dairy Queens chocolate ice cream with sprinkles if she let her clean her teeth. What was I thinking to go dirty the teeth right away today???

Hey Girls...No Sharing !!

Well I thought that when Emily had asked for seconds on spaghetti that she was eating very well tonight! Looks like she might have been having some help!!

Lunch & Play @ Cool Creek Park

After the haircut...we headed over to Cool Creek Park with packed lunches and played until naptime! Nothing better than some fresh air on a beautiful day!

Time to get a haircut!

Playtime before cut while waiting our turn

All smiles while she watches her show

4 1/2 inches going....going

Gone!

All Done!


It has only been 10 months since Emily had her very first trim that took the baby "V" off the back of her hair. In the meantime, she has grown quite alot of hair but its really looking too stringy for my taste and honestly it's getting really hard to do anything with besides one big ponytail. She has made comments about cutting some of it...so I decided that's what we would do since Summer is approaching anyway! I had not really decided just how much until she was sitting in the chair....but 4 1/2 inches is what was decided!

She had a great time picking out her movie, sucker, and balloon at Cookie Cutters. Of course, it was extra special since she had Bella along with Us to share in the fun! No...we didn't cut Bella's hair but she would have! I was able to get her to settle for sitting in her own chair with her own movie too :-)
Plus the sucker & balloon at the end just like Emily = 2 happy girls!