16 months!

Kenley is 16 months old today! I can barely believe how big she has
gotten! She runs around all day long. We just bought her size 12 month
pajamas and moved her up to size three diapers (more for capacity than
size though).

She is a total girly girl, she will use anything that she finds as
either a necklace or a bracelet. She loves to wear shoes and also
loves to put my shoes on and attempt to walk around. Lately she has
been really into giving everything a hug, the other day at Applebees
she insisted on hugging her water cup.

She loves sour cream, grapes, and bananas. She also really likes to
dip her foods especially if she sees us dip something.

She also has found her "rythym" and starts dancing whenever music is
on. She especially loves when Daddy dances with her. She also loves
when she Daddy throws her up in the air and spins her around. I am
convinced that she is going to grow up to be a little acrobat :).

Kenley girl, you are getting so big! You make Daddy and I laugh at
least four times a day! We love you sweet girl!

Happy Thanksgiving and a Recipe!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great day filled with the people who you are thankful for! This year we spent the morning watching the parade and eating breakfast with my family and then went over to Brian's parents for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. In the four years that we have been married this is the first year that we have spent Thanksgiving with family. Kenley was very tired and went to sleep at Fred and Terri's around 6 and then we got her up to go home and she slept until 10 this morning! Growth spurt or teething??

For Thanksgiving breakfast with my family I came up with a yummy little creation that I like to refer to as Cinnamon Nuggets. This recipe is kind of a cross between monkey bread and a cinnamon roll and it is perfect for brunch.

Ingredients:

1 can Flaky Layers Refrigerated biscuits

1 cup Sugar + 2 T Cinnamon = Cinnamon Sugar

6 T Butter (Melted)

4 ounces Cream Cheese (Softened)

2+ Cups Powdered Sugar

Milk (To reach desired consistency)

A dribble of Vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Cut each biscuit into fourths

3. Dip biscuit pieces into butter and then into cinnamon sugar, lay dipped biscuit pieces flat into a greased 9x13 baking dish.

4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. While biscuits are baking prepare your icing. I like cream cheese icing on cinnamon rolls so in my Kitchenaid mixer I combined the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and drip of vanilla then I added a little milk to get the consistency that I wanted. Luckily for me icing making is kind of a taste and adjust as you go thing so play around with it until it tastes how you want it!

6. Once biscuits are cooked pull them out of the oven and let them sit for about 5 minutes before you pour the frosting on. This way there is still a little warmth to warm up your frosting but it wont completely melt when it touches the biscuits.

7. Serve Warm!

What was your favorite dish at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday?

Mine is always the green bean casserole! Though Heidi's Sticky Toffee Pudding certainly gave my beloved green bean casserole a run for its money this year!

A year in pictures

As you may have figured out, I {Heart} Cover Button Kits!

We are still trying to figure out the layout for Kenley's bedroom. Her bedroom here is much smaller than in North Carolina and in a few months is going to need to accommodate a toddler bed as well as the crib.

We hadn't hung any pictures yet due to the fact that I rearrange her room almost every week. I really wanted to display her monthly pictures that I took of her first year but I didn't want to be stuck with having to patch up tons of holes when I decided I wanted to move things around again.

My beloved cover button kit came to my rescue! I covered 4 buttons in leftover nursery scrap fabric, then I used e6000 to glue thumb tacks to the back of the buttons once I removed the shanks. I then just tacked up some grosgrain ribbon that matches her bedding and used mini clothes pins to clip on her pictures!

I am really pleased with the outcome! We plan on making Kenley an upholstered toddler bed for Christmas by loosely following these plans from Design*Sponge. We plan on adding a headboard and upholstering it all in a green linen! I cant wait to see the finished product! I am also really excited because I was able to find and purchase 3 more yards of our nursery fabric! Since making Kenley's set last year the fabric has since been discontinued and I was so disappointed. But now I have three more yards to work with!

Pretty Pictures

I love seeing pretty house pictures online and in magazines! Here are a few of my favorites!

I found both of the following images via Living Lucky. I love the colors of the outside of this house the grays, the pop of greens, and the pop of purple... Gorgeous! This picture is definitely going into my future house folder!

This bedroom is gorgeous as well! I am a big fan of white and gray being used together as well as how that gorgeous chandelier that draws your eye to the planked ceiling!

I am LOVING this room that I saw over at Brooklyn Limestone. It was actually part of a halloween party where the theme was a mad scientists house and a tree grew up from his tub. Weird, but how magical does this bathroom look! I adore the branchy "tree" with the Christmas lights on it.

Obviously its not a realistic space but it is so pretty! I couldn't help but include it!

Here are two images from Meg @ Whatever's House. She is great at using tons of color and mixing it all just the right way!

When we have a house with an additional room I definitely want to have a playroom with a big bed in it so that we can all pile into the bed and read bedtime stories.

Meg's Kitchen is definitely my favorite! I love the layout with the huge island and tons of seating around it, but my favorite part is how there is a sitting/living area just off of the kitchen, perfect for entertaining!

Those are a few of my favorites!

31 Weeks

This pregnancy has been so different than my pregnancy with Kenley.

I have had lots of cravings, with Kenley I didn't have any but with this baby I definitely have, my main craving this pregnancy has been Applebee's Boneless Buffalo Wings! Yum! We have probably been to Applebee's at least 10 times since moving here so that I can have wings. Typically, I am all about the sweets but lately I have been all about the salty and savory.

I still have 22 more pounds to gain for me to reach my delivery weight with Kenley. That is a lot to gain in 9 weeks but who knows! My belly is definitely bigger than I realize! Just this week I knocked a plate off of the counter because I didn't realize I was so close to it! haha

I think that Kenley is somewhat aware that something is happening, she is not a cuddly child at all but lately she has been wanting a lot more Mommy time. Thursday morning she even cuddled in bed with me for 15 minutes! She is also at a point where she is learning new words, this week she will say bay-bee, lift my shirt up and pat my belly! Its so cute! Though I don't think that she really gets that there is a baby in Mommy's belly because today she was lifting her shirt up and patting her belly and saying bay-bee... haha

Sweet Memories

Today I have been going through the pictures on our old computer to pick out pictures for our photo wall. Its kind of hard deciding on pictures because I know that in 2 months we will have another sweet child who will need to be represented on the wall!

Here are two of my favorites from our last day in North Carolina

Some mornings,

You just need coffee. Thank you Starbucks Via Mocha Flavor!

Dare to Be... Thankful!

Kim at Newlywoodwards is once again hosting the Dare to DIY Parties. I participated a few times last year and I hope to participate more this year!

This weeks theme was Dare to Be.. Thankful. I wasn't quite sure what Thanksgiving craft to make until I saw this cute little turkey hair bow from Silly Eagle Books via One Pretty Thing.

Here is my version:

The body of the turkey is just two buttons hot glued together. I didn't have any googly eyes that were small enough so I used some large blue seed beads for the eyes. Yesterday my Aunt Kris dropped off a few boxes of random old {awesome} Christmas stuff and much to my surprise there was a big container of foam ornaments. For the beak and the wattle I just cut out little pieces of the foam ornaments. A little ribbon and some hot glue later and I was left with this cute little turkey hair bow for Kenley to wear on Thanksgiving!

{My little model is so much more cooperative when her Daddy is pinning her down hugging on her}

I can't wait to use up more of the goodies from the two boxes Aunt Kris gave me for some Christmas crafting!

Awesome!

I am taking sewing lessons from Cheryl Mills and our first assignment is a button-down shirt with a collar. {sidenote: yikes! What did I get myself into?}

I went to our new Joann store and found a pattern that would work for a shirt for Kenley, even with the coupon I paid about $9.

Today we went to Value Village and I insisted on going through every sewing pattern. I am so glad that I did because look what I found!! 2 of the exact same patterns as what I already bought!! For 0.35 cents a piece!!!

It is so worth it to take the time to look!

In none awesome news, I had a water cup spill in my diaper bag and drench my camera :( it is officially out of commission. Thankfully it happened after the ball! We have been planning on getting me a DSLR for Christmas this year anyways but I think I still might shop around for another small point and shoot. Any suggestions?

Pinkies up Ladies!

Sunday Afternoon Nap Time

2010 Marine Corps Ball

November 10th 1775 is the Marine Corps Birthday so every year around this time we get to dress up and celebrate! This year it was held at the Seattle Aquarium which is where our ninth grade banquet was!

{Do you like my photo wall behind us? More on that in another post!}

This years ball for us was so much different than the years past. When Brian was a part of Mals-14 there were around 1500 people at our balls. This year it was a Navy-Marine Corps Ball and was mostly filled with ROTC people and there were only about 225 of us! Most of the traditions were the same but there were a few new-to-us Navy traditions. I think the weirdest part of the whole night for me was that there were only a handful of Marines in Dress Blues everyone else was ROTC and dressed in the Navy dress uniform! It was very easy to spot the Marines! Another thing that was different was that there were only a handful of wives there. I am definitely not used to being one of the most senior wives!

I received a lot of compliments on my dress (Thanks Kimi!) and my necklace. I think its because I was the only pregnant person there so I kind of stuck out if you know what I mean :)! 29 weeks down 11 to go!

Kimbe was nice enough to come up from college to do my hair! I loved it! She really should be a hairstylist because I would have paid big bucks to have my updo done!

(This is what all of our self portraits look like if I take them. :) I forget that Brian is much taller than I am.)

And to end the night with a bang, as we were walking up to our house I slipped on something rolled my ankle and fell completely to the ground landing on my hip. Thankfully I did not land on Claire and also thankfully it did not happen at the ball! I am sure that had the big pregnant lady fallen, I would have been the talk of the unit for many balls to come.

We had a great time and it was definitely my favorite ball so far! Happy 235th Birthday Marine Corps!

Dear Bridesmaids

I am so sorry for making you wear these shoes to our wedding! I realize now after wearing them for a night that making you wear them for an entire day was so mean! I love you! Thanks for loving me enough to wear them!

The Second Amendment

As of Monday, I can officially say that I have exercised the 2nd Amendment! (I think...Does it count if I don't actually own the gun?)

Brian, Dad, Fred, Terri, Kenley*, and I went to the shooting range. I had never before fired a gun and I was a little nervous!

Once I started shooting though my competitive nature took over and I had to make each shot better than the last! I actually did pretty well which surprised me and REALLY surprised Brian. So we now know that if needed I could protect us :) Terri was really funny, I think she only shot like three or four times and each time she screamed. I was a little nervous to be in the stall next to her :)

*We took turns waiting outside with Kenley... just in case you were worried that we let her be in there with the guns :)