Stepping into "big girl world"

Bless her heart...Caroline has no clue really that her little world will soon be turned upside down. We are starting this weekend to get her big girl room ready. We've been looking for bedding and thinking of paint colors. I had originally wanted to get her some purple bedding...she likes purple and almost always chooses it over pink when given the choice. With the help of some friends, (after a pathetic facebook plea about how frustrated I was) I did locate some purple bedding that was adorable. However...we are not going to use it. A good friend here in town offered to let me look at the duvet covers she still had from her girls first big girl rooms and I, being a bit frugal (ok...cheap) quickly took her up on it. Both sets were ADORABLE, but we fell in love with one. I say we because, seriously, all 3 of it love it so much. I offered this friend some money, but she graciously turned me down. We're going to use the same comforter that has been on the bed instead of buying a down. I like the idea of using an older comforter that is machine washable as we go through potty training. The duvet cover is also machine washable, so I'm happy abotu that!

One of the things that make this such a fantastic situation is that the duvet was handmade by a friend of my friend's, making it somewhat unique. I LOVE that. I like that it hasn't been mass marketed and can be found in 1 out of 4 girls rooms in the city. We have a lot of ideas and plans for the room, and we are hopefully going to have it all done by the end of March. That's our goal...putting out in blogger land will give me some accountablility. We'll see...somehow, home projects around here never quite go as planned. :) I am not going to give details of the room...I'm already excited about posting pics when we're finished!

The very first step of Project Big Girl Room was removing the foam slanted mattress from the bed. I had it on the bed for my mother, who needs to be slightly elevated when she sleeps. She lives here now and is no longer sleeping in that bed, so Dad come over and picked it up. While awaiting him though...it became a slide for Caroline.







Courtney's Tip for the Day:
If you change your phone number or address...call and let your health care professionals know so they can update your file. We failed to do this and drove 3 hours to Children's Hospital for a checkup for Caroline...only to find out our doctor was called away and we were rescheduled for the following week. They called Aaron's old cell number...we missed out on another event because we were planning to be there. Hindsight is 20/20...

A Great Visit!

We had a lovely family day yesterday! Dad and Mom were still here and it was so nice to spend Easter with them! We had a wonderful visit and I was sad to see them drive away after lunch. We are already looking forward to their next visit!

Caroline made beeline for her Easter basket...you'd think she actually had a clue it was a holiday! :) She seemed to really like all the things the "Easter Bunny" brought her.




A few weeks ago Aaron had run an errand for me to Target and he came home with a bunny ear headband he found in the dollar section. He was excited about them so we planned to put them in her basket. She thought they were hilarious and loved them! Although, once she had them on her head she wouldn't leave them alone!




We've never really given Caroline candy...maybe a bite or two here or there, but not much at all. We decided she was old enough now for her own chocolate bunny. We bought her the smallest one from Target. It was so funny because she was looking in her basket and taking everything out and she took it out, looked at it for about a second, and tossed it aside! I laughed and told her, "That's the best thing in there!" But she had no clue what it was! Once I opened it and gave her a bite she agreed with me! It's now resting in the fridge for later consumption. I think it's missing an ear and that's it! :) She'll enjoy it for a while!

I loved her dress. I bought it at Kids Market and got a great deal, which made me love it even more!




We wanted some pictures of her by herself, but she was too interested in her shadow to look up!




All in all, we had a great day!

While Dad and Mom were here Dad and Aaron got a lot of stuff done around the house. The major thing was they finished the storage building! I am so excited! We don't have much storage space in the house so our closets are jam packed, but now we'll be able to store things in the building and I am SO HAPPY ABOUT IT! Caroline's swing and bouncy chair are still just sitting out in the bedrooms (one in hers, one in ours) because we haven't had a place to store them. It will be wonderful to get them put away! Dad and Aaron also: shaved the legs of our bar stools so they're not so tall now, hung curtains, did some re-weather stripping on the back door, fixed a broken dining chair, and worked on a small leak in the roof. Dad will probably need a week to rest up from all the work we had him doing! I'm so thankful he was here to help and I know he enjoyed helping us.

Mom and I did a lot of chatting, playing, and cooking while they were here, which was wonderful! I loved spending time with her.

I want to write about my adventures in couponing, but I think I'll save that for another blog! :)

Whew!

We've been really busy the last week and a half, but we've had so much fun! We're a little more tired than usual, but it was all worth it!

Aaron's sister, Karen, and her husband, Justin, came to visit two weekends ago. They were in our area for another reason but were able to stay over a Saturday night and it was really fun being with them!

I love this picture of Caroline and her Uncle Jud. He was so sweet and patient, letting her sit in his lap while he was on the computer. She really loves him, it's so sweet!

Caroline, playing "Where is Caroline" with Aunt KK. Oh, and the green blanket they're playing with is Aunt KK's Snuggie. (You know, one of those blankets from the infomercial. We teased her incessantly about it!)

We had a big consignment sale here in town last week called Kids Market. I know other cities in AL have the same sale, so you've probably heard of it. Anyway, I went the first night it was open to the public because I didn't contribute this year. I spent a decent amount of money, but I got all of Caroline's church dresses for spring and summer, a few play clothes, some dresses for fall, and a small play kitchen. I'd been wanting to get Caroline a little kitchen to keep in my kitchen and this one was a great buy and just the right size. It's really small, so it's perfect for Caroline right now. She LOVES it. It's definately her favorite toy. I figure since I now know she loves it, we might be willing to get her another, larger one, for Christmas one year. Anyway, here she is playing with it.




The kitchen came with a little play phone that rests in a cradle on the side if the refrigderator. Caroline has always loved phones. While she was playing with her kitchen, I walked out of the room to change some laundry and I could hear her in the kitchen. It sort of sounded like she was whining, so I came around the corner to peek at her and saw her.

Yes, she was talking on her phone. At one point she had her hand on her hip and then made a hand gesture. I suppose she's seen me doing something similar. :)

We had more company this past weekend. Aaron's cousin, Stephanie, her husband, Bryan, and their daughter, Annalise, came to see us. We had a BLAST! Caroline and Annalise are exactly the same age. They share a birthday. Caroline is about 14 hours older than Annalise. We are hoping they will be great friends. At Christmas we decided that we would all be "aunt" and "uncle" and hopefully raise them more like first cousins than second cousins. Caroline really took to her Uncle Bryan. She also loves her Uncle Jud, so we're a little concerend about her intrest in men. :) The girls had a ton of fun playing together. Here are some pics from our weekend.









For lunch on Saturday we took them to our local hot dog restaurant. Yes, you read that correctly. Hot Dog Restuarant. Aaron loves to take people there when they come to visit us for the first time, so true to form, we went. It's actually really good! Here we are at Honey's.



It was sad when they had to leave on Saturday afternoon, but we had such a fun time. We're really looking forward to making more family memories with them. We're hoping Steph and Annalise can come back this summer so us girls can hit the beach.

Then, something AMAZING happened on Sunday morning. It SNOWED! We couldn't believe it! It was the first time we've seen it snow since we moved here 4 years ago. You just don't see a lot of snow in the deep south. We tried to get a picture, but our camera battery was dead. :( It really did snow though!

Caroline is now the only child in her Bible Class. Slowly over the last year, others from her class have left for various reasons, so sadly, she's the only one. She has 2 kiddos that are about 1.5 years older than her at church, and two who are about a year younger than her. She'll probably end up being in class with the older two half the time, and the younger two half the time, but for now, she's the only one. Sunday morning her teacher wasn't going to be there so I took her in class and we had class together. She loves the flowers so I snapped a few pics of her with them. (We charged the camera battery and then brought it with us in case it snowed some more!)




And, finally, Aaron and I have been busy around the house the last few weeks. Aaron painted our guest bathroom, which was hideous before! Here are some before pics.




Here are some after pics.



He did a great job, huh? It's so wonderful to have a nice looking guest bathroom! I'm so thankful for such a handy husband.

I got some bread starter from a lady at church, so I've been making sourdough bread.

It's yummy and a great thing to take to others. Caroline and I are planning to take a loaf to our preacher and his family, who all have the flu. I'm not going in though...we love them, but don't want the flu!

Well...WHEW! I'm done!

(It keeps telling me there is an error when I try to check my spelling. Please overlook any words that aren't spelled correctly!)