Bubby Withdrawal & Annabelle Baskets

Today makes day 5 that Cole has been staying with my parents. I truly think we are starting to go through withdrawal. The absence of bickering is deafening. :) I love that little guy and have found it very hard not to be part of his daily life. I know he is having a great time and it actually means a lot to me. He is making memories with his grandparents and that is priceless. However, this momma needs more than talking on the phone to feel connected. Have I mentioned that I miss him?

We have called him everyday. We have interrupted him playing the wii, making up SpongeBob jokes and visiting with his cousins. We have begged relentlessly for him to come back and at least act like he misses us, but here I am again with a quiet house. I don’t know how I will ever be an empty nester. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be an annoying mom that calls my children everyday to ask them what they are doing. They’ve been forewarned!

This has definitely created some extra special bonding time for Audrey and me though and even allowed me some time with John to have meaningful conversations.

Audrey has been so cute when she talks to Cole each night. She always says she loves him and has the biggest smile on her face. It melts my heart that they have such a great connection.

Performing the Nutcracker Suite :) She loves doing “bullay” ballet.

This is her new thing. She constantly poses for pictures and she will pose herself and ask me to take a picture. I think I’ve created a monster!

Today is the day that my Etsy store was featured on Fabulous Friday Freebies.  Yea!!! Last week when I was approached by Mandy to have my store featured, I was asked to send free merchandise to compensate her for featuring my store. She briefly told me about her daughter having a successful heart surgery, but also mentioned a friend that went through the same experience, but her daughter didn’t make it. Mandy wanted me to send items that her friend, Rebecca, could place in Annabelle Baskets. They are gift baskets that are donated to heart babies undergoing open heart surgery to repair congenital heart defects.

After visiting the Annabelle Baskets blog, I wanted to donate something to go in the baskets in addition to what I already sent. I contacted Rebecca and she gave me an idea of what she already includes in the baskets.

I wish I could do much more. If you are inclined to make a donation or purchase things from the Annabelle Baskets registry at Toys ‘R Us, please visit the blog to see how you can help. They also accept monetary donations.I was very inspired by the fact that Rebecca turned something so tragic into a ministry to help others.

This is what I will be sending.

Here are some random pictures from this week that I haven’t had time to blog about.

We made strawberry milkshakes yesterday. She loves her Princess Aurora sunglasses.

We whipped up a lemon bar recipe from a cake mix cookbook.

This was suppose to be my job, but someone’s getting too smart!

The picture on the right is what ours was suppose to look like. Except Audrey didn’t like the leaves in the picture. She insisted that we not eat leaves because that’s, “Yucky!”

John brought home this beauty. I don’t know what someone was thinking when they wallpapered it, but I hope to upgrade it at least a little before bringing it into the house. I don’t know where I’m going to put it yet so it’s making it hard to decide what color to go with. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a lot of sanding involved.

Tomorrow, Cole will be back and I am suppose to have a girl’s night with some friends from high school. Monday, I’m going to Arkansas with two friends to go to several flea markets. I’m secretly just happy to be getting to spend some time with the two of them. They are crazy, adorable & absolutely the most fun to be around! We are also going to take a mini vacation as a family next week. My van has been in the shop the last few days and we have to take it back Monday to get new struts put on it before we head too far.

I’ll be excited to post more soon!

I’m being featured!!!

This Friday, July 16, my Etsy store, Shabby Chic Baby Bowtique , will be featured on Fabulous Friday Freebies. Feel free to check out Mandy’s blog and go back on Friday to see how you can win your choice of a $25 gift certificate or over $25 worth of merchandise for yourself or your girly girl.

Until then, visit my Etsy store by clicking on one of the pictures below.

Feel free to become a fan of Shabby Chic Baby Bowtique on Facebook for product updates, special fan sales and lots of giveaways!

Let the countdown begin…

We only have 24 more days of school this year. That includes only 4 more Mondays. If you take off a field trip day, graduation practice and the last day being a half day, it’s like we only have 21 1/2.

Needless to say, I have a lot to do right now. The end of the year is always insanely busy. This year is no exception. Well, maybe a little exception. I have an ebay customer wanting to buy 6800 bows to donate to the Canadian NICU that her babies were in. So, this adds a little extra pressure. She is suppose to pay tomorrow. I said I wouldn’t begin the order until I actually had her payment, but I’m starting to feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day anyway, so I better get started. If she doesn’t order, I’ll have them ready for my ebay and Etsy customers and maybe I’ll feel like I’m ahead.

On top of this, Sissy has been sick. She is having some horrible coughing rounds at night time. Her days are okay, but nights are awful. Last night, she coughed so hard that she threw up all over both of us. I felt awful for her! I’m hoping that she gets over whatever this is very quickly. She doesn’t think it’s even remotely acceptable for us to deny her playing outside right now. She’s definitely an outdoor girl. Tonight, she was fine with just walking the track around the pond a couple of times and then coming in.

While we were at the pond tonight, a neighbor dog decided to swim in the pond. It was so funny to watch. He would run into the pond and doggy paddle (or is it just called paddling when a dog is doing it?) and then walk right out and play with our dog. Copper, our dog, didn’t initially like the stranger one bit. However, she warmed up to him and they chased two huge bunnies through the field like they were best of friends.

Cole is taking the MAP test the next three days and I offered to make and send brain food on the testing days. Tomorrow, it will be banana bread. The next few days will be pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and to celebrate on Wednesday, some kind of popsicles or ice cream sandwiches.

Tomorrow is our first Families and French Toast breakfast. I think there are 16 people coming in our class. I’m excited about seeing the kids with their parents. We are also starting Kindergarten Graduation practice. This is always a  bit stressful, but I’m hopeful anyway.

Sorry for the random, all over the place post. :) I hope to get some pictures added later this week.

Feeling lucky (or blessed)?

Head over to my Facebook Fan page for Shabby Chic Baby Bowtique to enter my giveaway this weekend.  I’m giving away a free ‘springy’ layered bow. The contest ends at 8:00 AM CST on Monday, April 5.

This is my 100th post!!!

It’s amazing to me that I have actually made it to 100 posts. I admit to being completely horrible about updating frequently. The fact that I have one person reading my blog, despite my infrequency, is even more shocking. :) Thanks to anyone who takes time to read about my family and me.  

I began blogging when I realized I wasn’t scrapbooking anymore. I needed a way to document my thoughts and feelings that went along with the thousands of pictures I was taking regularly of my family and friends. This is a great outlet for me. It is my constant goal to keep up with this better.

For my 100th blog post, I’d like to have a giveaway. Since I love to make boutique bows and hair accessories, I would love to share some with one lucky reader. You have your choice of one of the following items listed below.

6 Clippies

(You choose the colors)

or

2 Boutique Bows

(See the above grosgrain ribbon chart for a list of available solid colors.) If you want the bow attached to a headband, I have the following 1.5” crochet headband colors available: light pink, shocking pink, lavender, black, red, white, and blue)

or

6 Designer Clippies

 

or

50 Itty Bitty Infant Stick-on Hairbows

1. For one entry,  leave me a comment about which item you would choose.
2. For a second entry, leave another comment telling me you subscribe to or follow my blog.
3. You can also enter by blogging about my giveaway. Drop back by to post a link to your blog with the giveaway info. listed.

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. Good luck!

I will accept entries through Monday, August 10. I will announce the winner on Tuesday, August 11. Make sure I have access to your e-mail address in case you are chosen.