Our sweet girl is 3 months old today! I can't believe it! I am not sure exactly what her stats are since we don't go back to the doctor until her 4 month appointment but I can tell that she is getting so much longer, she basically takes up my entire torso when I am holding her with her head at my shoulder. This morning when I went in to get her she wasn't crying she was just jibber jabbering away to herself. She is getting sillier by the day and is always ready to give us a smile. She has just discovered her feet and likes to grab onto them now. She also has sort of figured out how to put the paci back into her mouth after she spits it out. Basically she is just the best baby ever! :)

Mommy and Daddy love you Kenley June!

Some Guard Dog

I'm fairly sure that this is NOT how guard dogs are supposed to sleep.

Sorry!

I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat. I went to bed yesterday night with a fever of 101.2, the chills, a pounding headache, and lots of throw up.

So I am really sorry to anyone who I came into contact with yesterday or Sunday. If you get sick I am really really sorry its not fun at all.

The good news is that right now my fever is only 100.6 so its going down and all of the other symptoms are getting alot better!

Poor Kenley has a blob for a Mom today :)

Red Robin, Airports, and Panda Bears

This is a long one you might want to take a bathroom break before you begin reading :)

Yesterday we headed over to Jacksonville to find some lace for my ball gown. I have this idea in my head for adding some lace on my ball gown to make it a little more modest. Apparently the lace in my head doesn't exist, at least not in the silvery gray color that I want. To try and make do, I bought some white lace and some fabric dye. I have never dyed any fabric before so this should be interesting! I am going to attempt it tomorrow!

We shopped around Jacksonville for awhile and then ate at Red Robin! I love that we finally have a Red Robin here! I always get their salad and Chicken Tortilla Soup! I need to figure out how to re-create that soup so that I can make it at home! Any ideas for me as to what is in it? Kenley fell asleep with her pinkies gripping the sides of her car seat while we were eating.Once we got home we decided to play a game of Monopoly. Brian killed it! In the beginning I had tons of property and was doing really well, but Brian bought all of the airports and it killed me! Most of the game all of my properties were mortgaged. Not very Dave Ramsey. :) After Brian won Monopoly I challenged him to Pinochle. I was leading 134 to 40 but then somehow he made a big come back and I lost at that too! We will be having a rematch very soon!
My side is the side without ANY money. :)
Here are some pictures for my cousin Nicole who sent Kenley this panda bear outfit! The hat that came with it was either really small or Kenley's head is really big because it didn't fit her at all. I think its the big head :) Thanks for the outfit Nicole! We love you!

I also got my bangs cut this weekend. Notice in the above picture how they are too short so they can't decide if they want to be side bangs or front bangs. I need to know how to fix this because I totally regret getting them cut! I just wanted my bangs to look as good as Kimbe's! I did get told at church today that I look just like my sister. :)

Here is a picture of my Grandpa, Kimbe, and my cousins Sean, Nicole, and Justin! See how cute her bangs are! I love you Kimbe!

Kenley's debut video!

Kenley was having a real serious mother-daughter talk with Keri today, so I tried to catch it on video. The grandparents will love this one...

This ones for the Good's

On Strike

Kenley is on a nap strike today. I don't know what has gotten into her. She did fall asleep for like ten minutes while I was holding her and walking around but when the walking stopped so did the sleeping. She did fall asleep during her 2 o'clock feeding which she hasn't done since she was first born but that "nap" also ended promptly when I so rudely decided to move my arm a little bit. I don't know what the deal is with today but in order to make it a more of a happy day for me I am steaming some artichokes! Which I intend to eat with butter (I usually eat them naked) and the remaining two cupcake muffins (bringing my total to 5 for the day). :)

I'm pretty sure I have an unhealthy love for food. I am okay with that.

I'm a winner!

I won this cute pennant banner from Kim over @ Newlywoodwards! Go check her blog out! She makes me regret being lazy and not planting a garden this year! Especially when I see all of her cute pumpkins!
Please excuse the Mals-14 flag poles, car seat, bouncy seat, and Becky's basket full of my reusable shopping bags that I have needed to return to her for two months. Thankyouverymuch.

If you could also please excuse my lack of drapes that would be great too. I am indecisive and the last ones got ruined by dog blood. Its a long story. But Tyson wasn't so nice to a visiting dog. :(
We went a thriftin this morning! I got two more cream sweaters and this book! I have had this book on my Christmas list ever since Melissa showed it to me. I am so excited that I found it for only $1!
This past weekend we went and saw Julie & Julia! It was good. I love Julia Child she cracks me up! It was a great movie EXCEPT for the few swear words that really didn't need to be there at all. One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when perfectly good movies add in one or two swear words that totally don't even fit just so that they can have them in there. It really irks me. Really. But other than that I loved the movie! It makes me want to get Mastering the Art of French Cooking.... Brian... Christmas is coming up! Hint hint.

Fall Candle Holders

This picture is from Pottery Barn. I loved the way that they wrapped leaves around candle holders so I decided to recreate the look!

Pottery Barns Version:
My Version:



I really like how they turned out! I got the twine @ the dollar spot at Target, the leaves came from Michaels for half off (and I have a ton of leaves left over), and the glasses came from our cupboard! We don't use our small ones very often so they wont be missed! All I did was attach the leaves onto the glasses with double stick tape and then tie some twine around them!

Three

That is the number of cupcake muffins that I ate last night. Three is also the number of cupcake muffins that I ate this morning for breakfast. Twelve. Twelve is the number that I will eat if I make another batch. I am really fighting the urge to make another batch but I am not sure if I will win that battle. :)All you need to do is mix 1 box of devils food cake mix + one can of pumpkin puree. Put mixture in 12 muffin cups and bake @ 350 degrees for 20 minutes!

Thrifty Finds!

We found some great stuff this weekend @ the thrift shops! I found 3 great sweaters for my Christmas craft project. They are gray, cream, and sage but now that I look at them though, I just want cream ones for my project so I think I need to find 2 more cream cable knit sweaters. I think I will make the gray one into a pillow and the sage one is my size so I might just keep it as a sweater. I also found that sweet little copy of Little Women for Kenley. It is from 1947 and the cover is brown cream and magenta with girls in poofy dresses on it. Its so cute! That blue dress is the main part of my costume for Christy and Jesse's costume party! Can you guess what I am going as? Brian and Kenley's costumes coordinate with mine!

I also got my ball gown today @ a consignment shop! The tag said 15 dollars but it rang up in the system for half off so I got it for 8!! Its already at the seamstress so I don't have pictures. Really it will end up being 58 dollars due to alterations though.. I am just too short for any dresses so no matter what I would have most likely had to have the hem altered so at least my dress was cheap!

Weird Random Post :)

I had like 3 very different dreams last night. In one of them I was at a big thrift store that was having a huge sale and everything was .75 cents. (I was so so excited!) On one table was a bunch of purple Tupperware that I really wanted so I scooped it up right away and as I was getting some Barbie sized Tupperware someone stole my purple Tupperware. How rude! So I found the girl and got in a fight with her. Not a yelling fight....A fist fight....Weird. But then it turned out that she hadn't taken them and an old man had so then I had to go back and apologize to her. Weird dream right? But whats even weirder is that today @ the base thrift shop I found purple Tupperware! How crazy! My other dreams were crazy too. In one we were visiting Kyle and Joy in Japan but we were at some people from their Church's house and in the other I was an alien or a witch or something that one was the most bizarre! Because I had two sisters and a brother and my parents killed my husband but then he came back to life. But it had a lot of sci-fi stuff going on too. lol.

{Please don't think I am nuts! I just have a very vivid imagination!}

[Vivid is one of my very favorite words]

Side note: Did you know that you can buy nuts at the Dollar Store? They are big bags too! I am eating Dollar Store sunflower seeds right now! Also the Dollar Store is a great place for shower curtains! I always get mine there because lets face it I would rather buy a new one than try to clean those stinkers.

Please tell me you have random dreams too!

Christmas Travel

We finally booked our flight to Washington for Christmas! The dates are the 16th to the 29th. We wanted to only go for a week but the tickets were just so much cheaper if we booked on these days. I will be completely honest I have very mixed feelings about this trip.

Don't get me wrong, I am very very thankful to my wonderful in-laws for helping us out with getting the tickets. I really am excited to go home and see our family and friends and to introduce Kenley to everyone. I cant wait for James and Kenley to be side by side! I miss my sister like crazy. Today is her 18th birthday! I wish I could be there to celebrate with her! {Happy Birthday Kimbe I love you!} I also am really excited for Kenley to meet my grandparents.

But on the other hand, I am really nervous about traveling with Kenley and being away from our routine for so long. It's hard to be out of our own home and in someone elses for a long period of time. I am sure it will just be that much harder with a nursing baby.

Maybe I am having all of these feelings just because our last trip back to Washington was less than pleasant due to me catching a cold on the plane ride there and then having morning sickness and then getting snowed in. My goal for this trip is to not throw up on the aisle way of the airplane like last time. lol. The other day Brian said "Wouldn't it be cool if every time we went back you were pregnant and threw up on the plane?" Umm.. NO!

I have no idea what God has in store for us or where we will be living next Christmas. But I really think that after this Christmas we will start doing our own Christmas at our own home. I want to start our own family traditions with Kenley. Somehow wanting that makes me feel like I am being really selfish. Is that really selfish of me?

These are just some of the thoughts swirling around in my brain right now.

Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood!

Our house is getting spiffed up this weekend! It is a three day weekend for Brian due to Columbus Day so we are taking advantage of this time to get some house projects done! Brian worked hard on the outside of the house today while I stayed inside and finished off some projects for Kenley's room.

We also made a run to the Morehead City Lowes to get new blinds for the living room. The blinds we had were pathetic, one of them left a big gap for people to see through, which isn't a big deal except for the fact that the little neighbor boys have taken to peeking in. Which makes me nervous especially since sometimes I feed Kenley in the living room.

On the way down we stopped at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and I found a small Tupperware Modular Mate for .25 cents! I love thrifting and finding cheap Tupperware, when I was pregnant I even had a dream about a big garage sale with tons of Modular Mates lol.

Here is a before picture of the shelves we put in Kenley's room.
The frames are all from the dollar store
Here is after some rearranging
I put pictures in the dollar store frames and added her pottery footprint frame which still needs a picture. I also added a small apothecary jar filled with some paci's that are still to big for her.
Over at the changing table area I added a frame hairbow holder that I made from a dollar store frame and some leftover ribbon and the hot glue gun. I had to have Brian do the math for me so that the spacing would be even. He is so handy to have around! I also covered the wipes container with the same fabric used throughout the rest of the room. It was a gorgeous warm {nothing like October} day out today so I thought I would get at least one more wear out of the beachy little outfit that Auntie Kimbe bought. She is almost big enough for her sunglasses to fit her too! I also finally got around to adding the trim to this travel wipes case. A friend from church embroidered Kenley's name on the fabric for me!

Its been a great day for us! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Beautiful day for a walk!

Dinner

Tonight I made Chicken Parmesan using classic ingredients like: string cheese, pizza sauce, and toast.

I need to go to the grocery store :)

It did taste really good though!

Sweet Baby!

I snapped these pictures this morning while we were getting ready for her bath and bathing her and getting dressed afterward!
Cleaning behind the ears!

The flash is way too much in this picture but you can really see how blue her eyes have become

This picture is my favorite. Kenley is always super happy when we put her on the changing table. I have no idea why she loves it but she is always super smile-y whenever she is on there.

Kenley "Goodfellow"

I'm pretty sure that Kenley thinks that Kayla, Kylie, and Kristen are her sisters.

Here is Kylie and Kenley in their matching dresses
And this is Kristen taking pictures of them. She is so funny! The camera battery was dead so she informed me that we needed to take pictures in the hallway so that she could have her camera plugged into the outlet.


We love the Goodfellows!

Beautiful Day!

Today our friends Chip and Amy got married. Its was a beautiful ceremony that was held at a house on the river. It was absolutely beautiful! Thank you LORD for the good weather! Yesterday was rainy so we weren't sure if they would be able to actually have the wedding outside.

We were matching today! We weren't planning on it but I got dressed and then when I went to dress Kenley I realized that she had a dress the same color as my tank top and it just so happened that Brian had a tie that was the same color too!

I cant decide which picture I like the best so I am just going to post them all! I think the one next to the tree is my favorite though!



After the long day Kenley conked out in Brian's arms!
And know I am just realizing just how many mosquito bites I got while we were out by the river. My goodness my legs look like I have chicken pox! I sure am going to look great in my skirt tomorrow lol. I hope that Kenley didn't get any bites! I tried to keep her covered but I guess we will see in the morning!

Oh and here is a video of Kenley that we took about a week ago that I just finally figured out how to upload it to the computer! I'm sure the grandparents will enjoy this :)

Southwest Chicken Soup

We both really like this soup. It packs a little bit of heat so I like to add lots of sour cream to my bowl. Its great for chilly weather and its super easy to throw together and forget about until you are ready to eat! Sometimes I add about a cup or two of water to thin it out a bit if has to simmer for a long time before we will be able to get to eating it. Its a very forgiving soup so add what you like skip what you don't! I have even let it simmer for over an hour before because Brian had a long day at work. Left me know if you like it!


Southwest Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
1 Rotisserie Chicken (Shredded)
1 Jar Salsa Verde
1 Can Navy Beans (Drained and Rinsed)
1 Container Chicken Broth
1 Can Corn
1 Cup Leftover Cooked Rice

Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot and simmer for about 20 minutes or until heated through.

Serve with cheese, sour cream, and homemade tortilla strips*

*To make homemade tortilla strips just place some oil in the bottom of a pot over medium heat. While oil is heating cut corn tortillas into strips. Once oil is hot drop some of your tortillas in there and let them fry up nice and almost golden. Drain them on a paper towel and generously salt them while they are still hot.

Make sure you use corn tortillas rather than flour tortillas because corn tortillas make better chips. :)

You must make this!

This corn recipe is so good! You have to try it! Buns in my Oven also has some other really good looking recipes that I want to try! I already made her chocolate peanut butter oat bars and they were a big hit!

We have an IKEA!!

Well North Carolina does! Its still 4 hours and 57 minutes away but I totally want to make a trip!

Kenley's Stats

Yesterday Kenley's height and weight numbers that they gave me at the doctor just didn't seem quite right. Especially the length since they told me that she was 21 inches when that was her birth length and she was 21 and 3/4 at her 1 month appointment. So I called the visiting nurse on base to come out and do a height and weight check on her. Her correct stats currently are weight- 10lbs 12oz and height- 23 1/2 inches. Our girl is growing!