SO WHAT! Wednesday

Of course today is Wednesday, so of course I am linking up wtih Shannon for a little SWW.

This week I am saying SO WHAT if:

• I know I am adequately caffeinated when my pee smells like coffee (TMI? Then you better stop reading now)
• Sometimes my pee smells like Cheerio's, but I never eat Cheerios. Weird. How does this happen?
• Every time I see a girl in one of those faux fur vests I call her Cruella DeVille (in my head of course...I'm not that brave), yet I think those vests are cute and I really want one.
• The CMA's are tonight and I am the stupidly excited. I can't wait to see all my Okie's representing and now that we go to Nashville a lot, I feel like I know all the singers (I have stalked a few of their houses before. Normal, No?).
• By far my favorite thing to watch are the singers performing in their awesome clothes. Carrie Underwood always looks GORGEOUS and she always shows off her pretty legs. I love a girl that shows some leg and covers the boobies (I can relate. My chest looks like my back).

• I secretly want to be besties with Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. He's hysterical, she's a Bad A and they have a lot of rescue animals on their farm in Oklahoma, plus he used to sport a mullet and I know someone who would appreciate that.

We're going on a bear hunt

Except we're not hunting for bears. (I apologize if I got that "Bear Hunt" song/book in your head. I am an ex-kindergarten teacher so I spent many days with that song in my head. Now it's your turn). Going on a leaf hunt is more accurate, but then there would be no catchy song to go with it.
"What I love about right now" is the fall season. The season makes my heart happy because not only are the leaves beautiful, but the weather is nice enough to go on a walks anytime of the day.

Yesterday, Isabelle and I ventured out to enjoy the nice weather and play in the leaves.

We also did some minor trespassing....this yard isn't ours.

I remember being young and thinking that I was a failure in life if I didn't jump in every puddle that I saw. Apparently, that tradition lives on.

Sometimes, the small things in life can seem pretty silly. "I am a 26 year old mother and wife....I don't jump in puddles. What would the neighbors think? I don't want to get my pants wet." Those kind of thoughts are normal. They are normal, but boring. The second I stopped thinking about the negative stuff and took a lesson from Isabelle and jumped in the puddle, I couldn't stop. I was laughing so hard and Isabelle was belly laughing at me laughing and screaming.  She then showed me how she likes to jump in puddles. We were taking lessons from one another.

 Sometimes I think people don't give kids enough credit. They know more than we think. They are listening when we don't think they are listening. They are learning from every situation whether we like it or not.

As parents, we are told that our most important jobs are to mold them into "good" people.

The one thing I have learned this past year though is that kids actually mold their parents the most. Isabelle makes me want to be a better person. For her. For our family. She showed me the true meaning of unconditional love. She taught me that a simple smile can light up any one's life. She shows me daily that people are people. It doesn't matter what they look like or how they dress. She will smile, blow kisses and wave at everyone just the same. 

Can you imagine how different this world would be if we would all take a lesson from a child?

What's Shakin?

We are! That's right, Oklahoma had TWO earthquakes this weekend. The first one was Friday morning at 2am, which I missed because I had been in bed for 6 hours  just a bit because I'm crazy like that, and the second one was on Saturday night at 10:30 pm. It was a 4.9 and I completely felt it. I have been living in the Midwest all of my life so I have experienced some pretty wicked storms and I can safely say that I will take storms over earthquakes every day. They can sort of predict tornadoes, and big storms. Earthquakes just.... BAM. Not really a fan of surprises. In 2011 Oklahoma broke the records for the strongest earthquake here, hottest temperature, coldest temperature, snowfall, and highest winds.... Who wouldn't want to live in this fine state?

So you know how your from Oklahoma? When this is on your news and it's normal:

Honest mistake..

You know how else you know you're from Oklahoma? When you let your 14 month old do this:

 That's correct, she's driving. Now before you call me Britney Spears (which I totally wouldn't be offended by), please note that we were in my brothers neighborhood going about 5 miles an hour and we were going right down the street. We were taking family pictures and we wanted to get her in a good mood. Putting her in the car seat does not put her in a good mood. Driving cars does put her in a good mood.

She looks like she's going to take driving very seriously though. Thank goodness, soon she can chaperone me around. Since the day I turned 16 1/2, I hated driving. It was cool for about 6 months, but now I would rather read a book, be the car DJ or be the car lead singer (I prefer doing all three).

What I'm loving right now:

Bed Head. Baby mullet makes awesome bed head.

Thank you for all of the prayers and sweet words about selling our house..We had a great open house and we hope to hear more soon! You guys are the best! 

Family Friday

I'm loving right now how close Isabelle and her cousin Allie are in age. Right now they like each other, but I know as they continue to get older they will really love each other.

On Thursday my sister in law and I dropped Izzy and Allie off at the church daycare so we could attend a women's bible study. Both girls saw each other and were quickly comforted by one another. My sister in law told me this is the first time she has ever dropped Allie off and not left her hysterically crying. So either the Lord silenced her because he knew mama needed some quiet time or she just realized life with her cousin wasn't so scary. Can I get an Amen?!

They don't look like they are related at all. Izzy has darker skin with light brown hair and almost black eyes. Allie has pale white skin with black hair and baby blue eyes. Isabelle is outspoken, stubborn, and energetic. Since she became a walker, she hasn't stopped running. Allie is quiet, calm, easy going (she is 1 out of 5 kids), and she wants nothing to do with walking. It will be interesting to see how much they stay the same and how much they differ in the years to come.

                                 Izzy couldn't bear the idea of Allie having to eat all that cake all by herself!

The girls with their Nina. She's the best mom in the world. Don't argue with me...I'm always right.

You know what else I'm loving right now? This relaxing weekend coming up...Oh wait, never mind. We have to clean our house (and I mean really clean) for an open house on Sunday (please pray this house sells FAST. Mama's getting a tad sick of spit shining everything because we don't have enough time to get out the cleaning supplies), I have Christmas shopping to do at our Church Holiday Market, and we have decided that we are going to Oklahoma City (an hour and a half away) to visit Mr. T's mom and sister and then return Sunday afternoon for our family pictures. Someday I'll relax. Until then, I guess I just buckle up and hold on.

What are you loving right now?

A tad bit behind

I have noticed lately on Facebook and a few blogs that people are posting what they're thankful for during the month of November for Thanksgiving. I think that is such an awesome idea. Kelle Hampton is doing a "What I love right now" and I think that is an even better idea (I'm pretty sure Kelle is superwoman or something...she's amazing). 

So for the month of November, along with some of my other blog posts I am going to post about what I'm loving right now in my life. Some of the most awesome things in our life are the small things. The small things make the big things, yet we too quickly forget how great those small things really are.

I am loving right now how Isabelle is literally copying everything that I do. When I ask her to say a word she quickly throws out her best try. This can lead to "cat" sounding like "da da ma ma ca ca", or something in that sounds like Chinese, but she's still trying. And I still praise her.

 When I want a picture of her in her natural element (running), I simply run in one direction, while she chases after me, and then I spin around and sit on the ground so I can get a picture. That theory used to work. Now she chases after me and then when I am about to get a cute picture, she spins around and sits on the ground, just like her mama. It makes picture taking impossible, but it's oh so adorable every time she does it.

I know something simple as her copying me will quickly end. And then I will quickly forget about it. But, for now it's actually one of my most cherished memories.

So What! Wednesday

Obviously, it's Wednesday so it's time for linking up with Shannon for a little So What! Wednesday

So what:

• If I have decided to turn into a "tween" lately. I have read all of the Twilight's, Harry Potters, and saw the Justin Bieber movie (and completely fell in love with him...not in a creepy way, but in a "aww he's just a little baby" way).
• I am really excited for Christmas music to start being played. My rule of thumb is after Thanksgiving. (First CD on the list WILL be the new Justin Bieber Christmas CD).
• I laughed an evil laugh (inside my head) when my sister in law had her first baby and claimed, "she didn't know what she would do with all her free time now that she gets to stay home for a few months". Haha! Ohh rookie moms. So cute, naive, and freshly showered.  
• My laundry hasn't been done in over a week. I have "Real Housewives" to catch up on people! What would happen to the Universe if my DVR was full? Scary thought. I don't want to test it. 
• I LOVE Halloween, but I am ready for the whole idea of girls dressing like strippers for Halloween, to be over. Why is that cute? Why is this okay? Normal costumes (i.e. teacher, nurse, principal, Elmo) are turning into really scandalous, tiny bits of clothing. I am happy to see that more of my "friends" on Facebook are posting pics of their babies in costumes and less of themselves wearing close to no clothes.  
• I posted Isabelle in her Dora costume, but not any of the outtakes. This was more like it: 

Yes, that's me laughing and holding her arms so she won't pull the wig off. She's stubborn, but so am I. We got our picture though didn't we?

We came to party

Here is Isabelle's BIG reveal (can you hear my Oprah voice in your head?) of her Halloween costume.

Now before you get all "oh my gosh she kept that wig on?! That's amazing!" I can tell you she didn't. This picture was taken by a two person team. Mr. T had the camera and I was wearing my distracting game face. I was pumping her full of animal crakers (her favorite thing to eat in the world. Sister picked animal crackers over Snickers! Rookie mistake) and yelling, "Look at the airplanes! Look Isabelle! Airplanes". We snapped about 100 pictures of her doing this same pose during a 30 second window. When she realized what was happening, the wig went flying and the backpack fell to the ground. We got a picture. That's all that matters.

So we went Trick or Treating dressed as Minnie Mouse because without the wig and backpack, she just looks like a bad episode of Toddlers and Tiaras with her short little shorts on and her sassy attitude.

A year ago we were to the Aquarium to "Trick or Treat" with our 2 1/2 month old baby dressed as a Lobster.

I just can't get enough of this picture

 This year

This year, we have a 14 month old that wanted nothing to do with Trick or Treating, she only wanted to dance. There was a DJ, a dance floor and lights at the Aquarium and Isabelle was in HEAVEN. We continued to try and coax her away to get some candy (even though she doesn't eat candy...I guess I'll get a few cavities for her. I'm what you call a team player) but she continued to sprint back to the dance floor to get her groove on.

                      Minnie also decided that she wanted nothing to do with her ears

                              She did however want everything to do with her cousin Allie's hat. She would put it on when we took it off and and then get mad when we would put the hat back on Allie. Girls, jealousy starts already?!

                                            Allie chasing Isabelle to get her hat back

                                                                    She came to party.

        The glowstick makes her look like a tiny ringmaster

The pics are a tad blurry. Have you tried taking pictures of a sprinting toddler? Not easy. 

The DJ told us, she was his favorite because she was the only kid that was more into the music rather than the candy. I have a feeling that will change over time, but if not then we know that her love of a good party came naturally to her at a young age.