Karlee turned 3!

My baby girl is 3.  She is my favorite 3 year old.  She is so sweet and so kind.  She is also, so 3.

She is quite the manipulator, and the queen of stalling.  She will come up with 30 reason why she cant do something like go to bed, take a nap or eat her dinner.  She is thirsty, needs to go potty, her mouth is too cold for hot dinner, her eyes are too tired to look at her food.  She need to sing a song, she needs a hug.  The girl knows every excuse in the book.  I have NO IDEA where she gets it from.  haha that is a lie.  She gets it from her mama.  I am the first queen of excuses.

She has also learned things like spitting, throwing things, taking off her shoes where ever we go, yesterday she took off her pants while we were out to dinner.  She says things like, mom dont throw me down, if I try to hold her hand, or mom, dont hit me, if I try to pick her up.  She is so much like me its scary.

When she gets nervous, she always says, Mom, I need hugs.  I love her.  She tells me, oh mom, this is going to be good, when she is excited about something.  She knows she had a birthday, and she still keeps saying when asked how old she is.... Im going to be three.
She corrects people when they say the yellow fish... no thats a tang, and the pink one is anthius.

She looks after Zane.  If he is getting into trouble she come and finds an adult and says, hey.. wheres zane?  which means, zane is doing something he shouldnt and i saw but i am not going to be the one to tell on him.
She doesnt like to leave the house until she knows Zane is coming with.
Every saturday morning she asks her daddy to snuggle with her on the couch while they sleep and watch cartoons.  Its cute so that helps that allen spends the morning sleeping.  He gets a pass.  She loves to snuggle with Allen and watch the fish at night too.

For her birthday we had a back yard party with all the cousins.  Allen built a new playground and they all came over to play on it.  There were several crash's and a few bumps, but Briggs got the worst of it with a door handle to the eyebrow and a trip to the emergency room.  (he didnt end up needing stitches but it was a bad one.)  Jen made Karlee's adorable Toy story cake.  We all loved it.  Especially Karlee.   Girl just loves CAKE.

She got a new helmet for her bike, some barbies, a couple new swim suits and tons of other great stuff.  She is spoiled and i love her.  Happy birthday cake Karlee bug.

random goodies

Warm- and warmish weather really brings our family to life.  I feel like a new person when we can just get out side and play.  Here are a few random goodies from lately.
-Grandma and Grandpa Allen are leaving on one of their adventures for the next 3 weeks, missing mothers day and Karlee's birthday.  So we went up and visited with them before they left.
Karlee picked out a fat elephant with dangling legs, and Zane picked a sparkly rock to give to Grandma Allen for mothers day.
They gave Karlee her birthday present since they were not going to be here... and we played with it for a while in their back yard.  Its a bubble fan.

The other day I stopped by DI, to see if there were any good finds.  I found one of my favorite friends, Kenzie and a couple of night stands.  Kenzie was there doing the same thing.  Great minds think a like.  Anyway, for $15 I got some awesome night stands (super ugly).
I hurried home and refinished 1 of them before Allen got home from work.  I knew I had to or they would go straight to the garbage.  Turns out he loves them just as much as I do. 

Above: Before

After!!!!  I love the blue.  They will be so cute in our bedroom.  Now i just need to put the handles back on and paint the other one.

My sassy Diva.

Karlee is such a girly girl.  Diva is her middle name.  No, its Montana, but it should be Diva.

Fancy nails, cheetah flats, and putting on a concert in her bedroom for her barbies.

(instead of taking a nap)

Spring, friends, flowers and stitches.

I love the spring. I get spring fever and become obsessed with spending time outside. This week I think we have spent at least 3 hours in the yard just enjoying our selves... every day.

I also love the bright flowers that bloom on our corner and the tulips in our round garden.

Allens birthday is on Saturday so I thought I would try to mow the lawn/ get a tan on Monday.  So that he could just enjoy being outside this weekend and not have to do so much yard work.  Well, I wore a tank top and some shorts, mowed the side yard strip, the top level of the yard and started down to the lower level of the front yard.  The grass was so long from recent spring showers, that I didn't see a sprinkler and ran it over.  It broke and shot back at my leg.  split it right open.  The kids were both sleeping and I couldn't get a hold of anyone to come stay with them.  So being the awesome mom that I am, I left them home alone and started on my way to the insta care.  Luckily my friend Mal was able to come up to my house and stay with the kids for me.  She got there like 2 minutes after I left.

Poor Mal, I didnt tell her why I was leaving and I didnt clean up the blood in the kitchen before.  So when she got there she was so confused and probably thinking I had been murdered and kidnapped. haha JK, she thought I cut myself in the kitchen but couldn't figure it out because there was no knife.
Anyhow... I went to insta-care and Shaleen sat with me while they stitched up my leg.  Gross.  

I came home to these two girls playing in the yard.  They are best buddies.  Oakley and her littler brother Owen have been getting babysat with my kids once a week.  They love to play together.  Karlee and Oaks are about 4 months apart and Zane and Owen are 2 weeks.  Best buds.

So, I only finished like a quarter of the lawn, and now Allen has to fix the sprinkler.  I guess I created more work.  Too bad.  I'm sure his birthday will still be a blast.

Family Time.

Lately the only thing on my mind is trying to find balance with my family.  I have been struggling to feel like I am using my time appropriately and that I am giving enough attention to my kids. 

I feel like this last week has gone better. 

I made sure to plan time for school, plan time for cooking dinner, and plan time for my kids.  I know this doesn't seem very hard for some people but for me it is a huge challenge.  After work, my kids are usually napping.  I have worked my hardest to clean up the house, study for school and get dinner started during this time. The last 5 days seem to be going great.  I have been spending plenty of time with my kids, and I have still been working hard on my school work.

I decided that I needed to make the basic things into a family event.  We went on a picnic to the park on Sunday.  We ate dinner on a blanket in the front yard yesterday, and then went for a walk with duke around the block.  We met some new neighbors, and got a little exercise too.  (We live on a steep hill.. walking around the block is a challenge) 
None of these things took very long and didn't require much prep work.  I feel like if I keep that in mind when I am struggling to find balance with my family I will be much more successful. 
Little, easy things can make all the difference.  

This was on Saturday, we went to Chili's for lunch.  way better than going for dinner.

Kelly Clarckson and Matt Nathanson

My love bought me tickets at Christmas to see Kelly! It was such a great present.  The concert was on 3/20/2012 and Matt Nathanson opened.  We had a great time and Kelly was PERFECT.  I love her.

Love you Mr. Bishop... my life would seriously suck with out you.