Swimming with the Olymipian’s and the Ruby Giveaway Winner

First off, the winner of the giveaway is Naomi Beachy!  Congratulations Naomi. I will e-mail you with details.  Thank you for all who entered.  I loved reading your acts of service and holiday traditions.  Every one of them made me smile!  Thank you for sharing and being a part of Ruby.

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This summer we were glued to the T.V every evening during the Olympics, especially to watch the swimming events.  It was common for the entire family (even Ady) to be up until 11:30, then the late night shows started and it was time for bed.  The kids didn’t want to miss a thing!  Neither did we.  These are really fun summer memories for us and great time spent as a family. 

Swimming has been such a huge part of our life since we moved to Texas.  The kids have been in summer league for 4 years now and Kaylee has swam year round for half of that time.  It is a big commitment but such a wonderful sport to be involved in.  In the middle of September we had the opportunity to be a part of something really exciting!  Kaylee’s year round swim team, Swim Streamline, brought two Olympian swimmers to us!  Josh Davis and Misty Hyman came and taught a swim clinic for our team at our pool. They are amazing people and had so much to share with the kids.  Not only did they offer great advice and tips about swimming, but they had just as much wonderful advice about life and being the best person you can be.  I was inspired listening to them and their amazing life stories.  Doesn’t it seem like every Olympian has a special story to share?  An experience that kept them going and made them such strong people? They had their own stories to share and I loved hearing them.  It’s nice because when Kaylee is exhausted from doing hard things, whether it is at swim or at school we can talk about what we remember Josh and Misty saying.  They taught these kids life skills and gave me extra tools to use as a parent.  The other day I told Kaylee “Practice makes perfect.”  She said, “No. Josh said practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.”  Oh. Yeah your right. Thanks Kaylee!

The morning started by meeting Josh and Misty.  Each swimmer got their autograph and took a picture with them while wearing their gold medals.  So inspiring! 

They even had the kids sign their own shirts.

Then it was time to learn.  After Josh and Misty gave their speeches it was time for hands on teaching in and out of the pool.

They got the kids pumped up and were so much fun to interact with.

Coach Ross, who is still a strong swimmer and swims for the Masters Swim Team, raced Josh Davis.  The kids absolutely LOVED this!

We are so lucky to have the opportunities we have and be surrounded by so many amazing people every day. Our coaches and team rock!  We are proud to be Northampton Cuda’s and to be a part of Swim Streamline through out the year.

Aaaaaaaannnnnnddd…

We had a birthday in the house!!!

Ady turned 3.

More to come soon.

Around Here {Kaylee’s Room}

This week has been a busy one.  A good one, but a busy one. Lots of errands and misc. things to do.  I had to take my brand new Toyota Sienna in to get fixed, for the second time.  We have only had it for 3 months and it has been in two minor accidents.  I have NEVER been in a car accident where I have been behind the wheel and then we get a brand new van that we have been waiting to buy forever and I rear end someone after having it for only a month.  Ugghh…the thought still makes me sick.  It was minor, no one got hurt and my bumper got replaced shortly after that.  I swear, I probably only had it back for maybe another month, when someone came inside Kid to Kid one day while I was shopping to ask if I was the owner of the Grayish Toyota Sienna outside.  Ummmm….I didn’t want to answer and my heart sank, but I said yes, knowing what she was going to tell me.  Sure enough, she had backed out of the parking spot next to me and hit the side of my van.  However nervous I was to call my husband and tell him about this, I was just as grateful that she came in to tell me.  That would have been awful to go outside and find that for myself!.  I can’t even imagine. 

So this week started out with me spending an entire morning taking my van in to get fixed and battling the insurance guy for a rental car.  Fun.  I have felt lost with a tiny rental car and being with out my van  all week.  My husband is actually on his way to pick it up while I type this.  Woo-hoo!  The rest of the week was a Dr. appointment and lunch with Kaylee, visiting teaching 3 of the women in my ward another morning, taking my kids back to school photos one evening, having Activity Days at my house with the young girls from church one night, scheduling and preparing things for holiday photo shoots and preparing for a caramel apple demonstration I taught last night at Relief Society.  It was so fun and they turned out so cute!  I will have to share about that next week.  BTW, have you seen the free monthly printouts for visiting teaching on Pinterest?  I loved that!  So easy and cute.  Also, I made a Photography/Wardrobe inspiration board for my clients to view on Pinterest.  Can you tell I love Pinterest?  I do.  So many of them ask me what they should wear, so I thought I would gather up several ideas  and help give them a head start.  Tomorrow we are going to an A&M football game.  It is an all day event and it will be my first A&M game.  The boys go all the time and love it.  I’m excited to see what the hype is all about.

Alrighty, on to the post.  I thought it was time for another “Around Here” post.  This time I thought I would share Kaylee’s room.  We re-did her room for Christmas last year.  The whole idea of it has been finished since then, but I just barely added the finishing touches, like printing and framing photos.  To see what her room was like before go here. 

Here it is now. 

We both agreed that we wanted it to be a little bit more streamlined and grown up.  She loves.  I love it. We are happy.

The bedding is the Shabby Chic line from Target.  I think I even got the zebra throw there too. The sheets are also from Target.

As are the pillows.  I love Target!

I took down the quilt that was hanging on my shabby board and tied some picture frames around the rod with tulle.  The lamp is from Hob Lob.

 

The two black frames I already had.  We just spray painted them black.  The pink frame was a find at Marshall’s Home Goods, but it was in the room before.

We replaced her old knobs on her dresser with glass ones from Hob Lob.  The lamp is also from there as well as the frames. 

So far, maybe you can tell my favorite decor stores are Target, Hobby Lobby and Marshall’s.  Love them all!

I printed a photo of Kaylee on this old car in a 20 x 24.  I love the texture the car brings to the room.  I bought a canvas in the same size and spray painted it black.  Then used craft spray adhesive to glue it on.  If you haven’t done this before I would advise you to have someone help you.  It is a two person job, for me anyway.   I took the vinyl “Dream” off the wall and placed it on the photo.  I was happy it worked so well for me to re-use.

  We took this bookshelf from Ady’s room and gave her Kaylee’s dollhouse bookshelf.  Ady’s room is different now too.  I will have to share that soon.  This bookshelf is perfect in Kaylee’s room.  Casey made this for the boys years ago.  It has been painted several times. 

My sweet girl.

 

Her desk area got a minor makeover.  The mirror and chair were painted.  My aunt gave Kaylee a new creating memories organizer.  She loves it.

I love her grouping of K’s.  Here is a tip: If you have a couple of similar, small things like this, it makes more of a statement if you put them all together. 

 

And that is that!  I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping by. :)

 

Linking up to:

A Birthday Party for Kaylee

You should be forewarned that this is a really long post.  There are so many details to share.

In July we celebrated Kaylee’s 10th birthday.  She had a kitchen themed party.  She helped me plan the whole thing.

We started out in the pizza station.  One of Kaylee’s favorite meals are her daddy’s homemade calzones.

Each place setting had a silver cake tray along with their plate and napkins.  They used the silver tray to roll out their dough.  That way it wouldn’t stick to the table cloth.

I had glass containers out for all of the pizza toppings.

And of course her fave…Dr. Pepper.

We used the frozen package of Rhodes Bread.  It was easy prep.  Each loaf was cut into thirds.

It was the perfect size for them to handle on their own and plenty big for one serving.

The toppings were loaded up, the top of the bread was folded over, pinched shut and put in the oven to bake.

Casey was a huge help with this, plus Kaylee loved that her dad was helping with her party.

While the calzones were baking, it was time to move to the baking center.

The girls each had an apron tied to their chair.  I had the moms RSVP with their daughters favorite color.  We just did simple white aprons and then embellished them with the chosen color.  This was one of their party favors.

This one is Kaylee’s tied to her birthday chair.  (As a side note: this chair was free.  A couple of days before her party my neighbor had this chair and another one sitting out for the garbage man to get.  I snatched them up.  It was already painted green and perfect.  I have painted the other one a fire engine red.  Now we have a girl and boy birthday chair and two new photography props.)

Each place setting also had a chefs hat (their other party favor) a silver tray (with a lip on it so the sprinkles wouldn’t roll all over the floor) and their paper goods.

I baked sugar cookies ahead of time in 3 different size of circles.  They made their own birthday cake cookie by decorating and stacking them.

The party girls worked hard.

Here are some details of the table decor and what the girls used to decorate their cookies.

They had lots of fun and got so creative!

After they ate their calzones it was time to open presents…

and blow out the candles.

Each of the girls got one of Kaylee’s candles and made wishes together.

Here are a couple more party decorations.  While Kaylee and I were preparing for her party she kept asking me over and over what decoration was my favorite.  I never could decide but she always chose the cupcake garland.

Her other favorites were the fresh Gerber Daisies on the shelf and the centerpiece of the table. 

This was such a fun way to celebrate Kaylee’s birthday.  She and her friends are old enough to know their way around the kitchen and do things on their own while still enjoying a creative outlet.  My favorite part of the whole thing was spending time with Kaylee planning it.  We gathered ideas from my Birthday Party board on Pinterest together and shopped late into the night and spent a couple of days putting it all together.  She has an eye for detail and appreciates pretty things.  We speak the same language. :)

 

 

Linking up to:

 

Double Digits

We celebrated Kaylee’s birthday last week.  She turned the big TEN.  It’s crazy for me to think that I have a daughter in the double digits!  That’s serious stuff.  It means that whether I realize it or not, I am in the thick of raising my family.  It means that I need to have a game plan and be prepared for these teenage years that are going to come much to quickly.  It also means that I need to enjoy her every day and treat her like the sweet princess she is.  That really isn’t very hard to do because she makes life pretty sweet (most of the time). 

 

Happy Birthday Kaylee!

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have a tradition of breakfast in bed on your birthday.  The kids love this, so do I.  The night before her birthday, Casey blew up some balloons and I snuck into her room and scattered them all over while she was sleeping.  I thought it would be a fun surprise.  This should tell her how much I really love her because I HATE balloons.  It drives me batty how the kids act around them, but it was worth it.  A couple days later we had a balloon popping party.

Her breakfast request was chocolate chip muffins with a crumb topping, milk and I added the fruit,  (cause that’s what good moms do, right?)

And little sisters are supposed to be obnoxious and get into your business.

I think we have the big sister, lil sister roles covered perfectly!

Then it was off to Cold Stone for lunch.

Yes.  You read that right.  We had Cold Stone for lunch.  And that was it. Partially because I was trying to indulge everyone on a special day but also because I really didn’t want to make lunch when we got home. 

The menu that night was her choice.  She choose Cream Cheese Chicken in the crockpot with rice.  The green beans were added by dad (‘cause that’s what good dad’s do, right?)

Then it was time for presents. 

This year she got new shoes, a swim suit and cover up, a new shirt, head band, crazy socks, The game of Life,  Just Dance 2 for the wii and birthday $.

We ended her day with cake and birthday wishes.

I think she had a pretty good day. :) Now we are in the middle of planning her birthday party that is this weekend.  I really should be far past the planning stage and well into the doing stage, but I’m not.  It’s going to be fun though.  She’s super excited!  I’ll keep you posted.