You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only---two....

Friday night was our daughter's very first dance recital! EVER! She is just two and the youngest in her class, but she did soooooo well!!!! I am just so thrilled and proud of our little girl!!! Here she is just before going on stage!

Little bit "deer in the headlights", huh? teehee She typically HAMS. IT. UP. Kirsten loves the camera. :) However, she fell asleep in the car on the way there and was trying to wake up. lol

Their little group danced to the song "Poison Ivy" and oh my goodness were they CUTE!

Everyone said that she knew the dance moves better than most of the little girls, but my eyes were glued to her the entire performance...so I will just take their word for it. ;) After they finished dancing, they all lined up and the dance studio's owner asked them each their name and age. Each little girl peered into that "giant" micophone and gave her name...some timidly, some vibrantly. I sat there thinking "Kirsten will just stare out into the crowd and say her classic: "Uh...uh...uh..." But NO!!!!! I was pleasantly surprised when she gave her name AND age!!! That's mommy and daddy's little girl!!! We sure do LOVE the stage! Her daddy and I have been acting since we were kids, so she is just destined to love the limelight....it's in her genetics. :)

Regular dance class resumes this week and Kirsten will learn the basics of ballet, along with her normal gymnastics.

Here are some photos from that night. She cracked me up how she was OH SO SERIOUS the entire performance! Once I picked her up off-stage she was all smiles, begging to go again! Christmas recital, here we come!!!!

A miniature Julia Child!

I am tickled pink (ah! Pink! I love pink. :) ) to say that I won an item in Disney's Stella and Dot giveaway over at Ruffles and Stuff! My daughter won this precious set of pearls. I am so excited to see her in them!

Can I just say that I LOVE Stella and Dot's items?! They are so precious, I love the Mommy and Me things, they are really cute without being TOO "matchy-matchy", which I love! The kiddie stuff is adorable and age appropriate, while the items are designed to be a little bulkier and just look more fashionista-ish. I may foresee a trunk show in my future...

I must confess, I am trying to figure out how to get a bunch of money together...I want to re-decorate our house. Teehee!! We have been married nearly four years, which means I have not actually decorated properly since being married. Most of us have this predicament...we want to please our hubbies-to-be by letting them help choose our furniture in a MAJOR way, when they really don't care too much as long as it's comfortable and isn't riddled with pink/flowers or a combination of the two. So, redecorating is something that we really want to do this year being that we have planned since Kirsten was born to have another munchkin sometime in 2011...NOT pregnant OR trying yet, folks!!!! Don't get any rumors started, we just want to do all the stuff we have planned before we even THINK about it! lol We're I'm a major planner. LOL Ryan couldn't care less as long as it's a sensible plan and I only consult him once or twice on the matter. Oh, and I don't spend all of his hard-earned money. :) So, today I am focusing on the living room. I am not redecorating in a HUGE way, just little things here and there. Furniture isn't so little, though, is it? Well, I am WAY tired of our over-stuffed leather couches. They are nice for a guy, but too slouchy-looking for me. Loved them for the first couple of years, though....I guess I am just comfortable enough now to express my true decorating opinion? Anyway, I want something slimmer and less bulky since we are now apartment dwellers. I also want something that isn't quite as deep. If I want my feet to touch the floor, I have to slouch pretty low in these. Not a good confidence-builder. LOL Anyway, I am going to be listing them on Craigslist soon...if you know someone that wants dark brown leather couches, let me know! I am off to do some internet-window-shopping! (Is it bad that I secretly wish I could have a white couch? I mean, I know it's crazy with kids, but I have NOTHING against about 12 cans of Scotch Guard.....)

Dog Days of Spring

Yesterday morning was spent haunting the windows waiting for the mailman to come. Had my package finally arrived? Would it be delayed another day? Dismayed when the mailman was over an hour late, I went to the back door to let Molly, our Cocker Spaniel, outside. Suddenly, I heard two sharp rings of the door bell! Molly entered protection mode and began to bark incessantly, Kirsten--sensing the excitement exhibited by both Molly and me--ran wildly to the front door. Thrilled at the idea that my package had come, I also rushed to the door. Upon reaching the door, I opened it to find the object of my longing...

My first pair of dog grooming clippers! I had to wait until yesterday evening to try them out (we had a funeral to attend yesterday afternoon) and it took me several hours, but I got Molly looking pretty good! She's definitely not professional-looking, but for my first groom, I think I did pretty well! Here are some pictures of our girl.

I just could not get her to stand up for her modeling debut, she wasn't too happy with me by the time I was done grooming her. Molly may not look as if she had much done to her (I forgot to take a "before" photo) but, believe me, there was enough hair on the floor to make a whole new dog! Needless to say, I am pleased that I spent about $10 more than a normal grooming session to do it myself COUNTLESS more times. Don't you just love saving money?!

Dancing drama

Today was a busy day! We made a "pilgrimage" to Paul's Discount (YAY!) so I could ogle their fabric and Ryan could look at handguns. I bought embroidery floss, needles and two bags of little pom-poms. Ryan went back for the handgun. haha We've been meaning to purchase one since we got married almost four years ago, but had never done it. We finally have one. To celebrate Mother's Day, we will be going out to my parent's farm to target shoot. Redneck? Yes. Are we actually redneck? Not at ALL. lol Anyway...I digress...

After our trip to Paul's, we went home to get Kirsten ready for her dance recital pictures. Let me tell you...those girlies were CUTE! I will post pictures of her in her costume soon! After her photo shoot and rehearsal, Kirsten threw a ROYAL FIT when it was time to leave...she wanted to jump on the "jumpoline". Since we knew that it was getting late, we only let her jump for a minute, she was told to lay down for a while as soon as we got home. When she layed down for a good thirty minutes with no contest, we realized just how tired she really was!

Anyway...I mean to have my new scarf finished by tonight so I could post pictures. Instead, I will be laying in bed trying to get it done in time to wear to church tomorrow. Happy Mother's Day, everyone!!!

Aahhh...a moment of serendipity.

I have come to the decision that technology is EXHAUSTING! Last night, I got my blog all set up nice and pretty--just the way I liked it. This morning, I got on to do a little more editing, only to find that I had MAJORLY misspelled my url. The url I actually wanted was taken and--after what seemed like hours of trying to come up with a similar, yet totally different url and title--I ended up having to create an entirely new blog. SO. Here I am. Back at the beginning. Wondering if this is all worth it... Anyway....

Today, I was giving my daughter lunch and she told me the plate was too warm for her legs. (Yes, I let her eat her lunch on the floor in front of the tv. :) This is not uncommon as our plates are pottery, so they do warm up quickly. As usual, I reached for a towel to relieve her little legs, but the towel was dirty, so I grabbed a pot holder. That's when it hit me. I dug through my scraps of fabric and decided to make what I have dubbed a "lap mat". Like a placemat...but for your lap. Not to mention, insulated. :) In about 20 minutes, this little project was done. I did remember (almost forgot!) to take some photos for a quickie tutorial. Not that I don't have faith that people can't figure it out on their own....more for the fun of doing my first tutorial. Ready? Here we go.

I started by cutting out two 10"X15" rectangles of both fabric and batting, just the perfect size for her little lap. Cute fabric, huh? Remnant pile at the store. :)

I then did the obvious thing and put the pretty fabric right side to right side with the batting on the bottom and sewed it together, leaving a hole in one end. Turning it right side out, it should look like this:

Just sew that little opening shut and add some decorative stitching to keep all in place and, VOILA!

An adorable lap mat for your little munchkin! I am going to get some oilcloth and make another that will wipe clean. ;) Here it is in use....yes, we lounge in our jammies lots of days. Too busy tomorrow to care about what we look like today...but you will find out about tomorrow...well...tomorrow!

For now, I am off to find something divine to turn this fabric into!

Happy serendipity!