Holidays with Nieces

Kids and Christmas are just fun. Particularly the age of about 2.5, which is approximately how old both of my nieces are - Harlee and Mabry. Both girls had some holiday events going on with dance and school, so Andrew and I made as many appearances as possible!

My dance studio, Southern Dance Arts, performs in Alabaster's Christmas parade every year. Although Harlee is taking class, her group was just a little too young to walk/dance in the parade. However, as pretty much the studio mascot, she was still going to be a part of it. She really wanted to be a mermaid, but settled on being Baby Bear to mine and Andrew's Mama & Papa Bear. She was SO excited for the parade because there is a lot of candy being thrown and she was all about it. However it was really cold, and very windy. Trying to explain to a 2.5 year old that they need to stay bundled in the blanket is just not acceptable when there is candy to catch and running to be done. Pre-parade she was super excited and all over the place. By the time we were joining the parade and actually moving she was on the tired side. About 15 minutes in and she had fallen asleep on Andrew's shoulder. She ended up sleeping in the car of one of our floats and Andrew and I were just two random bears. (Oh, guess it'd make sense to say our theme was Fairy Tale Characters). From then on she was in love. Since that day she talks (a lot!) about Andrew and 'her Andrew.' Good thing she's so cute because I seem to have some competition. :)

After the parade, smiling and cold! Check out those pink noses and cheeks.

My guy is such a good sport. He knew it would mean a lot to me if he participated in the parade, and I'm so thankful for him. The deal was I could not post any pictures on social media, but I think the blog deserves some pictures! There were other dads around that made comments about what a good sport he was. Their wives were very impressed. We left figuring there would be a few more men participating next year after the wives saw whatt a trooper my Drewbie was!!

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Mabry had a dance recital and Christmas program at her school. I joined her 3 grandmother's and Shannon for this one. I actually was unable to see any of the show because there were a lot of parents in front of us and she is quite small. I'm sure it was cute. My sources tell me she didn't actually dance, but stood there looking overwhelmed. Sounds pretty common for her age. All those onlookers can be a little scary!!

After the program was finished we visited and took some pictures. After some tickling I was able to coax smiles out of her for the camera. (She loves to smile, but you know kids at this age. Getting them to do it for a camera is an entirely different story!)

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The next weekend we had the studio's annual Christmas recital. Sadly I was not a performer this year since I took the fall off to take care of wedding stuff. I worked backstage and kept Harlee instead. It was great to spend so much time with Harlee, but a little sad that all of my dancer buddies were in performance mode and I was not.

When the time for dress rehearsal came Harlee beyond excited. She did SO well. We was obsessed with her sticker on stage to mark her place. She danced, smiled and hammed it up. She is definitely Ashland's daughter. Her love of performing, attention and dance is undeniable. It's an understatement to say she stole the show!

Her classmates. Their song was about wanting a Hippopotamus for Christmas haha

Love my blondies

Can we talk about how cute this is? She was so excited Andrew came to watch her

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The Monday before Christmas Andrew was working late and I was bored, so I called Ashland to see if she had plans. She did not, so we made a sister/niece date night. I went and picked them up, we did a little shopping, then headed to my mom's to see Patsy! We had a great time running around, being crazy, looking for the cat, and even opened a few presents. Fun night and we got to surprise my mom with a visit.

Are you kidding me? Do kids come cuter than this?!? I would argue NO.

Big Smiles!

We love Patsy!!

After visiting with Mom we loaded up and started to head home. Harlee was having too good of a time and kept saying "Not JJ's house, Mommy." Not one to miss an opportunity to hang with my sister and Harlee, we decided to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Ashland and I are apparently professional lighting designers and critiqued the houses that had displays. It seemed like not as many people put up lights this year. After getting my December power bill, I see why. haha.

We loved the time spent with little ones this holiday season. The joy of Christmas is so much greater when you get to experience it with a child. Love my little girlies!!

Babies and Wedding Plans

Life- man does it move quickly!! It's so true that time slips away so much faster than when you're young. And I consider myself still young! I can only imagine how fast it will feel down the road. I love that things continue progressing and moving forward, but at the same time sometimes I just want to hit the brakes and enjoy the moment. For example, both of my nieces are at such a fun age. Harlee has just turned 2 and Mabry will be 2 in August. I was lucky to spend time with both Mabry and Harlee in the past week and those little girls give me so much joy. They are both happy and carefree and loving and it just makes my heart smile. And if I'm being totally honest, give me a little bit of baby fever. But no worries Mom and Peggy, one step at a time! ;)

Last weekend we celebrated Ted's 32nd birthday. He is one of my future brother-in-laws, but the only one that lives in Birmingham. He is one of Andrew's groomsman and an all around stand out guy. Watching him be as great of a father, husband, friend and brother as he is -- it's nice to see that such good people still exist. Sadly I have no pictures of him, but I do have some of his adorable daughter, Mabry, and myself.

This little angel is too sweet for words.

Every baby loves selfies. She took about 30 within a minute - they are all pretty much identical. haha

Also this week I got in some great, quality time with Ashland and Harlee. Harlee turned two on May 17 but because of dance recitals and general craziness, we are celebrating her birthday this weekend. Ashland needed some help getting supplies for the party, and I was eager to see the two of them since our interaction has been lessened since dance is over for the summer. I picked them up and we ran some errands, got some stuff, forgot other stuff, but had a nice time hanging out. After the running around we were all hungry and a handy-dandy coupon to Ruby Tuesday sounded like a great idea.

Now if you have kids or friends with kids, you know that a sit down dinner in a restaurant with a two year old is much easier to say than to do. Harlee was well tempered but non-stop throughout dinner. Staying in a high chair is way overrated, so there wasn't too much of that. Towards the end I got her to sit with me and take a couple of pictures. What started off as smiling, soon turned into total silliness. I love that baby so much. And, she has finally gotten down pronouncing my name. No longer am I Aunt Ka-shi. No more cereal name for this auntie.

Told ya, babies love selfies!

Good smiles!

Being silly, smashing her face to mine.

Silly girl!!

Aside from baby love, we've also been busy working on wedding plans. I've changed the centerpiece plan and we have a new agenda for the tables. Instead of buying 50+ terra cotta pots and painting them and worrying about finding flowers in bloom around the time of the wedding, we're going a more diy route. Cue Pinterest - the wedding planners best friend. There is a lot of stuff on Pinterest that is super cute, but way over done. We are not trying to be like everyone else. I did find a centerpiece idea that is really beautiful and it's a simple beauty, not gaudy or overdone. It also will allow us to use wooden pallets that we've collected for free, a few fairly inexpensive materials, and a lot of sweat and time. Yes, it will be fairly time consuming and require both mine and Andrew's TLC, but I think it'll turn out wonderful and look even better than the original idea for table toppers.

So this is pretty much exactly what we're going for (minus the dishware)

This was our loot after borrowing a friend's truck and asking very nicely of local business men for their pallets.

So we have about 10 pallets, but will probably end up needing more as not all of the boards are usable. Andrew will break them down to size, I'll sand, stain and prepare the wood, then he'll nail them together. I'm really excited about this and hopeful that they'll turn out as well as I'm expecting. Plus, it will be much cheaper than the pot plan. We'll be able to use the loose rose stems I'll be buying for flowers (diy bouquets and such) for the centerpieces instead of buying blooming flowers that are already potted.

I sent out save the dates last week, so it's becoming more and more real, and definitely getting closer. We're just past 5 months out and there's still so much to do, but I feel like we're staying on track pretty well. I hired a day of coordinator to help set up so I can relax, and I'm feeling pretty good about that. Next thing I know it'll be July and I'll have my first bridal shower. Eek!!

And now for a few obligatory pictures of cute animals :) Rico is getting so big and feisty. He was always feisty, but now he's all over and we cannot contain him. He has no fear of the dog, or the other cats. He figures he does what he wants, and if you don't like it he'll just bite you. He's a mess. But a super cute one, so he kind of gets away with it. Until he bites hard, then he is promptly pushed from the couch or set down from our arms.

Andrew sent me this picture while I was working one night. Happy Mommy!!

Hims so cute

The dog's cushion.

If he's tired, he needs someone to cuddle with. In my lap as usual.

And if you've seen me in the last few days, you may notice that I'm hobbling and walking around like I have many more years on me than I really do. Yea, I joined the local gym. I had a free session with a personal trainer as a new member perk and let's just say it was quite an experience. I seriously thought I was going to throw up before I left the gym. Then I got home and Andrew started asking about dinner...he was promptly told that he was on his own for dinner. There was no way I could even think about eating yet! We did 45 minutes of intense interval training and boy was it intense. I had noodle legs the rest of the night, and the two days following I have been so sore it's almost comical. Until I try to stand or walk or stretch, then it's not so funny. I sneezed this morning and felt my abs ripping apart!

I will say the routine seems to be very promising that it will do just what I need it to do. I'm counting calories to lose and with a work out like that I should be toning up pretty well. Hopefully from here on out I won't require so many days rest in between work outs! So if you see me, don't expect me to move very quickly.

That about covers us for now. Until next time!