Winter

While regions to the north and south of us are getting hit hard, we have had such an uneventful winter.  I have to say that one of the fantastic things about living in northwest Arkansas, as opposed to south Arkansas where I grew up and Mississippi where I went to college, is being able to experience 4 seasons.  Almost every year since I moved here, the winter season has included a large snow event!  And I LOVE it!!  The year I was pregnant, we had crazy snow.  The year Sara Kate was a baby was had seriously crazy snow.  And I was so sad that 2012 was a total bust.  And now it's winter 2013 and I'm once again sad to report that so far it's been a bust!  Like I said, the last big snow events we had were in 2011, when Sara Kate was about 10 months old, when she was far too young to do anything or really experience it!

Here's a picture from the HUGE 18 inch snow (huge for my south Arkansas standards, ha!!) we got in February 2011...she obviously was not impressed, ha!!  And don't worry, she only sat in the snow long enough for me to take her picture!

And in that same week in February 2011 we had another significant snow, 6-7 inches (again, that's alot for me!), or enough for me to attempt to build a snowman.  

Because I very rarely had these experiences as a kid (we had ice down in south Arkansas!!), I just want so badly to have these winter experiences with Sara Kate...playing in the snow, building snowmen, snow ball fights, sledding...and I know I'll get that chance eventually, but I'm getting impatient!  Haha!  I just want a stinkin' snow day!!  :-)  The local weathermen have alerted us to probably 4 'winter storms' this winter that haven't panned out and we've just gotten a dusting here and a dusting there.  We don't have much faith in them right now, ha!  Today we got some snow that came in the morning after the morning commute began (which was TERRIBLE!!)!  Here's a picture I snapped outside my office.  Looks pretty.  Too bad it wasn't enough to close down!

Last Wednesday, we had a 'winter storm' (according to the weatherman) that was supposed to start with snow and turn to rain then turn to ice (it ended up being nothing).  The snow did start on Wednesday morning, and it actually snowed enough and caused enough problems to let schools out early and to close our office early.  I had Sara Kate picked up at 2:30, and when we went outside she said, 'It's snowing!  It's so pretty!  I wanna play in the snow.'  That's all you have to say sweet girl!!  So as soon as we got home, in our measly little 1.5 inch snow, we played.  And we ran around.  And we laughed.  And we smiled.  And she tasted it.  And she had such a good time.  And it was so so precious to me.  Those are the things I want to experience with her.  I look forward to the first time we get to build a snowman and make snow angels and go sledding and make snow ice cream.  But for now I'll settle for the little things.  Because they made my sweet girl smile.  Which makes me smile.

Pictures from February 20, 2013

 

 

Our Week

Another week has come and gone, and it was a different sort of week for me.  Chris had to go out of town for work so I played the single parent role.  Before he left town and since he was going to be out of town for Valentine's Day (which I really don't care anything about), we had a little date night.

 

I think I can say that Noodles is one of my most favorite restaurants in NW Arkansas, plus it's local and I always enjoy supporting local businesses.  They have this grilled chicken dish that has a jalapeno lime cilantro cream sauce, and it's simply amazing. Yum!!  Basically, if you have never been to Noodles, you should check it out!!

Yes, I took a picture of my food.  But you needed to SEE how amazing this dish is! :-)  And no, I don't eat the jalapeno's, they just add good flavor.

Wednesday morning we had to say goodbye to Chris, which we were sad about.

With Valentine's Day being Thursday, I spent some time Tuesday night and Wednesday night making Valentine's for Sara Kate's class.  I baked these heart cookies, bagged them, and tied them with a valentine that said 'you're a 'tweet heart' valentine.'  Not overly creative, but a little different than just the regular paper valentine cards (which there is absolutely nothing wrong with!!!).

 

I picked Sara Kate up from school on Thursday and thought I would take her to Chick-Fil-A for a fun dinner and some play time.  But we got there and it was packed with some kind of Valentine event and we saw the cow inside through the window.  She said 'I not go in.  I not go in.  I stay in the car.'  After the fiasco involving the cow at Wave's birthday party a couple weeks ago, I agreed and we just came home and spent the evening together.

Saturday we traveled to Berryville for Hannah's 5th birthday.  I can't believe our sweet niece is turning 5 tomorrow (February 18)!!  Chris was sad to miss her party but he got to spend time with her last night and today so that was good.  And Sara Kate was beyond thrilled to go to Hannah's house and to go to Hannah's birthday party!  Her party was at the bowling alley, which was fun for her and her friends.  Plus it was Sara Kate's first time to bowl, if that's what you can call what little kids do, haha!!

Sara Kate had a great time, of course.  But as the mother of a 2 year old who was in emotional overdrive from excitement and who had had no nap, it was the most stressful party I've ever been to!!  But we loved celebrating with our sweet Hannah.  

Hannah and Hayden came back to Fayetteville last night so we got to spend more time with them last night, today at church, and at lunch.  Hannah and Sara Kate crack me up.  I know I've mentioned it before, but Sara Kate copies everything Hannah does.  They had me rolling during the last song of our service, and I had to record it.  It takes them a few seconds to get into it so wait for it!!

The kids had a little more cousin time this afternoon before everyone headed home.  I love that they are so close and love each other!

So that's what's been going on with us.  I have a couple things to write about soon...including potty training!!  So stay tuned! :-)  Hope ya'll have a good week!

Who Does She Look Like?

In my opinion, Sara Kate doesn't look like either Chris or I.  I have friends who's kids undeniably look like one parent or the other...like carbon copies!!  I feel that's not the case with us, although I have people tell me that she favors me more.  I guess she's just a good mix of the 2 of us.  Back around Thanksgiving I had my mom bring up some pictures of me when I was 2 and 1/2 and we had some fun comparing pictures of me at 2 and 1/2 to pictures of Sara Kate.  So here's a little comparison (I can't get the pictures side by side because of size so sorry about that!).

Sara Kate

 Me

Sara Kate

Me (and my brother)

 

Sara Kate

Me

Me and Sara Kate

Me and my mom (and brother)

So what do ya'll think??  She appears to favor a young Kristen!  Obviously I don't care who she looks like but it's fun to compare at different ages. :-)

A Concert From Our Little Musician

Sara Kate has music in her blood.  Her daddy has amazing musical talent.  He's a choir teacher in the Fayetteville Public Schools, he's the praise band director at our church (First Christian Church), he plays an amazing piano, he plays an amazing guitar, and he dabbles in the trumpet and some other instruments.  I have played the flute since I was in the 6th grade and took piano lessons for 10 years.  So not only does Sara Kate have music in her blood, but she gets it from both of us...plus grandparents on both sides (my mom has a minor in music and Chris' grandpa sings in a barber shop group, for example).  She's always singing some kind of tune and tonight our budding musician gave us a precious little concert.  We recorded her singing several songs but the ones that made the cut in this particular concert video include the ABC's, Bumblebee, The Big Hairy Spider (the larger version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, which they sing at her school), and Ba Ba Blacksheep.  The video is about 2 and 1/2 minutes long and I know I'm partial to Sara Kate's cuteness, but it's worth it to watch the whole thing!  Enjoy!! :-)

Hog Ball

I have a couple of things to blog about but since today is 'The Big Game' I thought I'd blog sports!  Who doesn't like reading about a good sporting event?!  Don't answer that.  Haha!!  Chris and I haven't had a good date in a while so yesterday I thought I would surprise him with plans.  I talked with his mom and dad about watching Sara Kate and then I bought us tickets to go watch some Hog Ball!!  We go to football games every year but we rarely go to basketball games so it was a different kind of day for us.

The Razorbacks were playing the Tennessee Volunteers at Bud Walton.  Our basketball team seems to be hit or miss with wins; sometimes they look awesome and sometimes they look like crap.  But we picked a good game to go to because we were able to watch a WIN!  Chris is a great photographer in my book, and he likes any opportunity to use his camera gear.  A ball game is a great reason to snap some pics!

 

 

Seeing as I'm a huge football fan, the highlight of the game was being there to see our new football coach, Bret Bielema, get introduced to the crowd and speak!!  That place was LOUD when he walked onto the court!  I'm so pumped for football season!!

We also got to see the one and only Nolan Richardson on the court at halftime for some recognition.  Very cool afternoon!  

After the game we went to a local place called Sassy's Red House for dinner.  It's a cool sports bar/restaurant and it's where our basketball coach has his weekly press meeting.  They had these really cool beer mugs and I wanted it so bad!  I asked the waitress if they sold them and she said no but they get them because Coach Anderson does his press meeting there.  She said they seem to disappear.  I can see why!  And NO I didn't take mine! :-)

Know what the next best part of the day was??  When some of the basketball team came in to eat!!!!!  We were eating in the bar area and watching the Florida/Ole Miss game and one of the guys was standing right next to me.  And one of the guys that came in was our star player, BJ Young.  I obviously embarrassed Chris because he told me to stop staring.  I'm SUCH a dork!!  HAHA!!  He said he couldn't believe I didn't get my phone out to take a picture and would you believe I didn't even think of that! So needless to say we had a very fun dinner! :-)

Since today is the Super Bowl we are cooking some food and just hanging out getting ready to watch the game.  We got invited to a party but Sara Kate wasn't feeling good last night, complaining of her ear and head hurting, and she has been in a super weird crabby mood today so we decided to stay home in case she's coming down with something.  So who will we root for?  I don't really care, but I inadvertently dressed Sara Kate in purple today so I guess we'll say Go Ravens!

Hope everyone had a good weekend and enjoys the Super Bowl!!