Going To The Chapel

Kellye and Jerrub are gonna get married!! I am about to head out the door to swing by my aunt's to pick up some flowers and head to my parent's house because today my mom and I are arbor decorators and bustle artists. I have googled both of these acts and am still not sure how to either, but gosh darn it I will try.

These are the arbors, but I did not do the decorating.

I will post some pictures tomorrow. Who knows maybe arbor decorating and bustling things are my true calling.

We arrived at Maple Grove Farms a little before 2 and immediately started unloading all of our supplies. We decided I would be the ladder climber and my mom would be the plant preparer. Almost everything we used was supplied by my mom or friends. I believe we ended up spending  maybe $70. Thankfully my mom had ordered some greenery from Sams Club because that is what we mainly used to create the decorations and then we filled in with flowers.

The signs walking down the aisle created by Kellye's daddy Terry.

The Program/Guest Book table. The photographer they had originally wanted to shoot the wedding backed out just a few weeks before the big day (I would have killed him), but he was nice enough to create a beautiful guest book out of Kellye and Jerrubs engagement pictures.

The arbor entering the ceremony sight. We used leather leaf for the main greenery and I believe the flowers are a type of hydrangea (I will have to ask my mom to make sure).

For the main alter arbor my mom took down the white fabric hanging in her bathroom and I am so glad she did because it made the whole look come together. I think it would have been really plain looking without it.

I am really really happy with the way everything turned out

The back of the first arbor. We wanted to make sure you couldn't see the stems and oasis sticking out the back.

The signs walking back

These wreaths hung on the reception hall doors.

The groomsmen

The Bridesmaids

Precious flower girls and ring barer. We didn't think he was going to make it down the aisle, but he made it with the sign tucked under his chin.

I wish this hadn't turned out so blurry because it is such a precious picture.

Mother of the bride

Father of the bride

Jake does clean up nice

The caterer was a family friend who also turned out to be an amazing decorator! The food was DELICIOUS! and the buffet and table decoration were AMAZING! I absolutely loved this main center piece. Sadly my camera does not do it justice.

All of the vases were decorated by the triplets. Just in case you didn't know My MIL came in a set. Jean, Jane, and Joan be thar names. Jane happens to be the brides mama.

Mr. and Mrs. Hammrich

A little June bug montage

I still can't believe the wedding is finally here and Kellye is married! Everything was perfect and I am so happy for these 2 kids. I wish them many many years of happiness.

Locks

I got my hair cut

Life According To Kinley

We've got a talker people

Heavy

I am saying a few extra prayers tonight for those that I love that are sick, hurting, tired, have lost someone, or are just in need of a little guidance in their journey.

Just the other day I was walking through the halls at school and the piano teacher was playing  in our cafeteria and it was really pretty and it took me a minute to realize what it was. I hadn't heard this song in such a long time and it just so happened to be one of my all time favorite songs and I started to cry because It made me think of so many people in my life right who were hurting and my heart just broke because there was nothing I could do to help them. I prayed for all of them that night.I prayed for peace, no more pain, understanding, strength, healing, guidance. Life is just so strange sometimes. It goes by so extremely fast and it seems like  only when something bad happens or goes wrong the days drag on so slowly and only then do we really slow down and think about what is really going on. 

I wish all of my people lived on my block and no matter what they needed or were going through I could just walk down to their house make some coffee and just be there. I want my people near me. I feel like a part of me is missing right now because everyone is too far away and I can't get my hands on them when they need me. I really miss my people right now. My friend Rachel and I were texting back and forth tonight and she recently lost someone special to her and I said I wish we were all still in Knoxville so we could be there when someone needed us and what she texted me back made me miss everyone even more. 

"I wanna meet Mckinley and watch Gibson chase imaginary bugs. I want to smell Chris walk in a roombefore I see him and hear Whitney yell at him for using the "good" paper towels. I wanna crawl into bed with Cary at 11 in the morning and have her interrupt me while Brett plays on the computer. I want to pretend not to like your People magazine and watch you paint your toes for the third time in a day. I want the toaster to catch on fire and to eat stuffed zucchini 3 times a week. 

Why are my people so far away from me . I need my people. 

Be Not Afraid

You shall cross the barren desert, but you shall not die of thirst. You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way. You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand. You shall see the face of God and live. 

Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow me, and I will give you rest. t_a
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If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown. If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed. If you stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side, know that I am with you through it all. 

Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow me, and I will give you rest.  

Blessed are your poor, for the kingdom shall be theirs. Blest are you that weep and mourn, for one day you shall laugh. And if wicked men insult and hate you all because of me, blessed, blessed are you!

Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow me, and I will give you rest. 

I am going to hold onto my husband a little tighter tonight and give my Baby Love an extra blessing while she sleeps. 

You Know You're a Preschool Teacher When

You reach into the box to get a new tissue, and pull out one that is partly used.

You come home with blue fingernails because the food coloring spilled.

You come home with red fingernails because the water colors spilled.

You come home with glue all over your fingers because someone squished the top back on the glue stick without rolling it down.

You find yourself using "We" when you talk to your class (“We all need to catch a bubble, we keep our hands to ourselves, we use walking feet, etc…..”).

You come home from work with smears on your shoulder from the child who cried on it that morning.

You keep losing your pen only to find 5 stuck in your bun.

You hair started out cute at the beginning of the day then transformed to a messy pen filled pony tail.

You have ever uttered the phrase "We do not call our friends pickles, Baby Diaper, or tell our friends they can't come to you Birthday."

You see at least 2 bottoms per day. Either running to the bathroom or nonchalantly hanging out with a hand or 2 upon it. 

You pull out toilet paper tubes out of the trash because you know you will need them in class.
You have at least one piece of light-up, holiday, character, sea.sonal jewelry.
You come home at the end of the day with only your midsection smeered with dirty hands, markers, and paint.
You find yourself humming Tootie Tah, Days of the Week, Skinamarinki Dinki Dink
You find glitter in your hair, stuck to your skin, in the bottom of your bag, in the upholstery of your car, in every article of clothing you own, in the carpets at your house...basically everywhere you've ever been! And no matter how many times you shower you are still covered in glitter!
When leaving the room to use the restroom, you tell people that you need to use the potty.

At the store, you dig in your pocket for change and pull out beads, legos and a marble.

You tie your shoes in double knots.
You have clothing for every season.
You know that the last puzzle piece is hidden under the rug or shelf.
You can name 5 techniques for unjamming a zipper.
You carry extra tissues and hand sanatizer wherever you go. 
You can continue reading your story with a straight face midst toots and giggles.
You have an extra set of clothes for emergencies. 

You can read an entire book upside down while showing all pictures.
You go to to the store and realize you are still wearing a fruit loop necklace that was made for you earlier that day.

You find stickers in very interesting places.

You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
You know each child's individual sneeze, cough, and other strange noises they make
You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr._______" and know you have been spotted. And then the child won't even look at you because they are freaking out that you have actually LEFT THE SCHOOL!
You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty minutes.
You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and planning period.
You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that coffee can or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
You believe chocolate is a food group.
You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own needs.
You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!
You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."
You find true beauty in a can of perfectly sharpened pencils
You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer or as we call it magic soap.
You choose the scent of tempra paint over victorias secret "angel" any day
You know all seven verses to "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee" because you made three of them up yourself
You can make paper chains with a perfect pattern in your sleep
Everywhere you go they find you with the children
You go home with rubber bands on your wrists.
You are in the grocery store and tell a child who is running to show you their walking feet
You have mulch lining the cuffs of your pants.


I can't think of anymore 


Anyone got anything to add

I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller I Wish I Was A Baller

I wish I had a super duper cool camera that I could take even more pictures of my bebe with. 

We are kind of poor and I would NEVER be able to afford anything more then my little Canon elph. I love my little camera and it has done a great job, but it isn't going to last me too much longer and just today as I was reading one of my favorite blogs they were hosting a giveaway and today is the last day to enter! Ehh! Seeing as how I have been out of touch with the internet world I felt like maybe today was my lucky day and I needed to enter. I would give my right arm and possibly a few toes, and maybe an ear to win something like this. All I have to do is edit one of my photos using CameraBag and seeing as how the site I was using to edit my pictures has since been removed I need somewhere new to edit pictures of Baby Love. I guess I need to chose a picture now. Sadly I don't have that many to chose from since I haven't had time to re save all of my pictures I lost in The Great Computer Crash of 2012!

I knew what picture I wanted to use because when I took it I knew it would be a really good one.
The first picture is the original. I took it at the zoo on a very special trip. It just so happened to be Kinley's first real zoo visit and we got to spend the day with my sister, her new boyfriend, his sister and her 3 little boys. We were watching the grizzlies play in their pond and one of the little boys pressed his tiny little hands against the glass to watch the bears swim around and play. The colors the water created and his little outline against the glass just caught my eye.

Once I downloaded CameraBag I started looking at all of the different ways I could edit my picture. I have to say CameraBag is super easy to use. I have used other editing software and it was all Way too hard for me to figure out. I like that CameraBag lets you chose different ways to edit. I like the preset favorites and my absolute favorite was Tunnel Vision. I like how it kept the blue colors of the tunnel and the water and how it darkened the picture and made it a bit grainy.

I played around with the light and saturation, but I didn't like messing with the Tunnel Vision settings. I liked how it looked without too much fine tuning.

So here it is my CameraBag edit. I love how easy it was and I absolutely love how my picture turned out.

Mistakes and a Little Bloglovin

I accidentally deleted 3 friggin posts from this week because I am a super awesome idiot! Here's a quick recap of stuff no one probably wanted to read anyways. Everything broke in our house (my sad computer is on the top of that list). Fast forward everything except the lawn mower has been fixed or replace because I am awesome and have become my own Geek Squad. I now know how to replace a hard drive, sweet talk and At&T guy for a free wireless modem and u-verse for $24.99 for a year (he told me to call back in 6 months and tell them I want to cancel my service to get another free year). Plus he taught me how to hook up my phone to the modem and never use my phone data while at home.

Now for my post baby body deleted post recap. 

I am down to my pre baby weight and I am going to get really healthy again. I plan on starting weight watchers again and I will be doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred along with some running, P90X, Pilates, and yoga mixed in. I still can't believe I gained and lost 50 lbs. in 18 months. Like they say 9 months on 9 months off. I really do feel lucky because nursing/pumping helped me lose most of the baby weight. I also feel very lucky that my body let me nurse/pump as long as I did. Now that I look back and how much I was actually making when I did finally stop I kind of wish I was still doing it, but we are done and I can give myself a nice pat on the back for working as hard as I did and hopefully next time I can nurse even longer. Back to my plan to get this mama body back in shape I plan on doing a post Monday or Tuesday on my progress and I will include some awesomely embarrassing photos of myself and I will include my losses, gains, and stats. This will be purely to keep myself accountable to sticking with it and I am hoping putting everything out in the public on the internet will actually make me get off of my lazy butt and get moving. Since I have nothing, but time on my hands this summer (please pray that my child keeps her long nap in the mornings) I am hoping to lose at least 5 more lbs. and tone up this bod a little. Please feel free to antagonize and yell at me if I miss a post because obviously like my birth when my doctor was practically yelling at me for not working hard enough I need someone to kick my butt and make me work!

Last, but not least I wanted to show a little love for a good friends Super Duper Adorable Blog, but I once again am a freakin idiot and deleted that post too. Her name is Nicole and she just so happens to be a good friend and fellow 4K teacher. She has started  a blog all about preschool and the awesome stuff  we do. Preschool isn't all playtime people.We work our butts off everyday and these kiddos are wicked smart and we have to come up with more stuff each and everyday to keep up with their little spongey brains. Nicole has done as awesome job keeping up with the different crafts and activities that go down in 4K. If you have a minute or need some super cute ideas for your classroom please pretty please go check out The
Pre K Diaries.

So that's what you missed because I am a complete moron. I learned my lesson about changing labels on different posts. I am still not entirely caught up with all of the changes on blogger. I am sure no one really wanted to read those post anyways and hopefully it won't happen again. How about a little Kinley to make up for it.

A Little Popeye Lip

We LOVE you!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

My poor sad laptop died and I am now typing on a computer that is roughly 7ish years old. My computer is so old the it guy at Microsoft tried to charge me $60 to help me fix something because my windows xp was 12 years out of date. Well you can suck it Microsoft it guy I don't need you and your fancy schmancy windows vista! Hopefully once I load the camera uploading  program on here I can upload all of Kinley's 8 month, March, and Easter updates and pictures. Pray for me and my outdated technology.

Month 8

This month we took our second roadtrip. We had already been up to visit our friends in Nashville for Christmas, but this time was for a pretty special occasion. We were celebrating the newest arrival to our group. Ms. Saddie will be joining us in a few short weeks and we all got together for a couples shower at Kevin and Susan's beautiful new home.

Mckinley and Ellis were really funny playing together. The girls were born almost exactly 2 months apart and it was fun seeing what Ellis can do and what Kinley will be doing very soon. Every toy Kinley picked up Ellis took from her and vise versa and neither of them cared when it happened. I am sure in a few years they will be fighting and biting each other. They just kept touching each other and watching what each other did.

We had such a good time at the party Saturday night. It was so nice having all of our Nashville peeps in the same place and we got to celebrate not 1, but 2 little ones who would be joining us in the near future. You see we had just recently found out that Austin snd Amanda are expecting a little lady this summer.

We not only got to visit all of the Lipscomb friends, but I got to spend a few hours with some of my very dear friends from, UT Chris and Whitney. I was supposed to go to Whitney's baby shower Saturday, but couldn't make it all the way out to Dickson and back in time for the Donegan shower, but getting a few uninterrupted moments with them at their precious home was even better. Whitney will soon be a fellow coth mama so I had to bestow upon her some cute fluff and bottom butter. I think Kinley really liked Chris. She kept rolling all over to him adn trying to take his glasses.

We did not hit up our usual breakfast spot (Pancake Pantry) because we had been craving cheesecake for quite sometime so we headed out to the Factory of Cheesecake for some grub. The girls did a little tandom screaming, we ate soem delicious food, and may have left our pink giraffe blanket. Thank you Russell and Amber for swinging back buy and picking it up for us. Once again you did awesome on the drive home. you slept almost the entire way there and back. We are praying that you do the same in July when we head to the beach. 

Month 8 has been a slow month for us. You are sitting up and rolling, but no forward movement yet. You will try to push yourself up on your little chubby arms, but you just can't seem to hold yourself up. You are still sleeping like a champ, but every now and then you will cry out in the middle of the night, but all you need is a repacying and you are back to sleep.That is a real word I swear and if you look it up in the dictionary it will say what a tired parent does when their child wakes up at 3 a.m. and or sticking a paci back in a child's mouth so you can get a few more hours of sleep. We haven't really tried any chunks of solid food except for puffs and you aren't really eating that much yet. Our meals at home are hit or miss, but you always seem to eat better for Julie at school. I have only had to make 3-4 batches of food so far, but hopefully you will start eating more soon. 

I swear I don't just post the pictures where she is smiling she is just always smiling.

First time swinging.

You think he likes her a little bit?

My girl isn't afraid to get a little dirt under her nails.

I have really enjoyed month 8. Besides another ear infection (I don't think you will ever be 100% well) month 8 has been pretty uneventful. We are just chugging along still trying to figure things out. I don't think we will ever feel like we we have this parenting thing completely figured out, but we haven't screwed you up too much just yet so maybe we aren't doing that bad of a job.

Cutie With A Fluffy Bootie

A few people have asked recently how our diapers work so I thought I would write a little somethin something about what we use and how it works.

I can still remember sitting in my classroom months before even getting pregnant staring at my computer at all of the overwhelming information about cloth diapers. I had no clue what anything was or what any of the terms meant (cd, hemp, insert, aio, fluff, hybrid, etc), but I knew this was something I wanted to try. I also remember telling people we would be using cloth diapers once I got pregnant and I am sure you are thinking how excited everyone was for us and how positive they were and I would laugh in your face because you are funny. Most people (not all, but most people) said we were crazy or that we would only do it for a few weeks and then give up. Well those people don't know me very well because when you tell I can't or won't do something you bet I will put my 190% percent into whatever you said I can't do.

So here we are almost 8 months into our cloth diapering adventure and my baby has super padded fluffy butt (that is what we call our nigh time diaper system) right now as we speak.

We just bought our second pack of disposable diapers (We bought 1 pack of disposables at the very beginning because I did not want to wash meconium off of my liners and I might have forgotten to turn on the dryer after stripping my liners and had no dry diapers the other morning). I had no clue what size to buy, but I did find some that were made from plant based materials and chlorine free which made me very happy.

What We Use

We use 2 different brands of CD's (Cloth Diapers). Our main go to diaper is Best Bottoms. They are a one size (they have different snaps to make the diaper different sizes so baby can wear them from birth to potty training) hybrid diaper system which mean you have a diaper cover

 
That you snap an insert into

When baby pees or poops you remove the soiled insert and snap a new one in. I usually grab a new cover and insert and place the cover removed from babies bottom to the side to use later unless it is soiled.

The dirty liner goes into a wet bag (We use one like this in her room and we have a few smaller sizes for traveling). Depending on how dirty the cover gets we might throw the cover in the wet bag to be washed or we might need to use the diaper sprayer to spray the poo off and then place it in a wet bag to wash later.

We wipe her down with cloth wipes (inexpensive terry baby wash cloths) and a spray solution of warm water, baby oil, and a drop of baby wash) and those get thrown into the wet bag with the soiled diapers to be washed later. We use a special diaper cream on Kinley's booty since most creams are not cloth diaper safe which means they will leave a residue buildup on the cloth insert causing it not to absorb liquids and leak. This can be fixed by stripping (washing diapers in VERY hot water or washing with dish liquid to remove all buildup allowing the diapers to absorb more). We us Organic Coconut Oil.

If you have never heard of it look it up because it is Amazing stuff. It can be use for Anything and Everything! We slap some of that on at each diaper change and we have only used up 1 large jar in 7 months. On the very rare occasion her booty gets red (if she is on antibiotics) we will use a little regular diaper cream and we just slap a piece of fleece fabric on top of the inside of the diaper to keep the cream off of the liner. We will wash these separately later.

Our Nigh time diaper routine is pretty much the same just with a different brand of diaper. We use Fuzzibunz which are a one size or a sized pocket diapering system. This means It is a cloth diaper with a pocket in the middle that you stuff inserts into to make it more absorbent. We normally double stuff (stuff 2 microfiber inserts into the inner pocket) which make the diaper more absorbent for the 10+ hours baby girl sleeps.

Our wash routine has become just that part of our family routine. We wash every other day unless baby girl poops a ton that particular day and we use either E.C.O.S. detergent which can be found at Walmart or Tide Free and Clear (The less brighteners and additives in the detergent the better it is for the life expectancy and absorbency of your diapers). There are other detergents you can use, but these are what I have found work for us. Before Kinley started eating food we did not have to spray the poo off of er diaper because breast milk is water soluble so we just threw everything into the wash together. Now that she is eating 3 meals a day we spray all of her poop diapers off and I usually throw them in the washer and run a rinse/soak cycle. Then I was them on cold/cold. I hang my covers to dry and just throw the liners in the dryer and run it twice since they are so absorbent and hold so much liquid until they completely dry.

Why we decided to use cloth diapers.

I purchased all of our diapers online because sadly there aren't many places that sell cloth in Memphis. I have recently heard that there are a few places that are hit or miss, but may have cloth diapers occasionally. Almost every single one of our diapers and liners were previously owned and before you saw GROSS you should know that most people who use cloth either borrow from friends or buy them used and there is a HUGE resale market. We initially purchased Gdiapers a hybrid diaper system from www.diaperswappers.com, but those turned out to not be our favorite brand to use. They leaked too much and I didn't care for all of the parts you had to put together. After a little more research I found Best Bottoms and we absolutely love the versatility of them. Buying used diapers helped save us even more money then we already would be saving by using cloth. These diapers will last us through potty training Mckinley and then we will reuse them on our next baby adventure. All in all I would say we have spent maybe $400 in diapers and diaper supplies. Including detergent maybe $500. So we are saving thousands on diapers.

One great thing about cloth diapers and cloth diaper companies are diaper giveaways and sales. If you search the internet and sign up for different sites like Zulilly, Baby Half Off, Baby Steals, Green Baby Bargains, Hippo Bargains, or Eco Baby Buys you can get brand new diapers for dirt cheap. As I am typing this I am entering a lifetime giveaway for some fluff and boy could I use a lifetime supply of fluff. I could go days without washing! Booty Buns are super cute one size pocket diapers. I don't currently own this brand, but I LOVE trying new kinds of diapers with different fits and I just love winning stuff and what is better then free diapers.

If you want to know more about using cloth diapers the best place to find information is the Awesome Cloth Diaper Blog written by the lovely Lara. Lara has a way of explaining everything that makes it so easy to understand. If you are considering cloth this is where you need to start to learn about everything. Another place for condensed cloth diaper info is one of my favorite blogs . As I was reading late last night I came across this post about using cloth diapers.

SO there it is. Why and how we use cloth diapers. I am by no means a cloth diapering expert, but I have read everything there is out there about cloth and I LOVE showing people how they work and if anyone ever needs any advice I am always up for talking about cloth.
It's super easy, affordable, and who doesn't love a baby with a super fluffy bum!