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!!

Bliss

Today was a dreadfully cold day.  Working outside on a dreadfully cold day pretty much leads to a dreadful day.  Yesterday it was 70 degrees and we had 2 tornado's in our area, one not too far from here, and today it was 30 degrees, it spit snow and sleet all day, and the winds were brutally cold.  I came home to a little surprise from the husband, which made my dreadful day seem not quite so dreadful.  We have a great little cupcake shop in our town called Bliss Cupcake.  And when their logo says 'a mouthful of happy,' they mean it!!

I have only been there a handful of times, the most recent was back in the summer when I took Sara Kate, but it's delicious.  I follow them on Twitter and Instagram so I see yummy cupcake pictures constantly.  Tonight I got some of my own.  Yay!  In this box there were 2 vanilla, 2 chocolate milkshake, and 2 Razorback red velvet.  I've had the red velvet before but never the other 2 flavors, although I've always wanted to try the chocolate milkshake.

During dinner, Chris told Sara Kate she had a special prize waiting for her after she ate.  The phrase 'special prize' is the key phrase to get her really really excited and it gets her to eat her dinner (and no we don't use the phrase often but she knows what it means).  When she finished eating, she excitedly looked in the box and said, 'I want red.'  I took chocolate, and Chris took vanilla.  Sara Kate took one bite of her cream cheese frosting on her 'red cupcake' and said 'I don't want it.'  And she wanted Chris' 'white one.'  'I want the white one.'  So being a good daddy, he traded with her.  And she was in heaven.

She ate not quite half of it before she said 'I don't want it, it's shooey.'  (We use shooey to mean gross, like don't touch that, it's shooey.)  Nooooo, it's not shooey, we told her!!  But she was done.

So Chris and I had to take one for the team and finish the half eaten vanilla cupcake.  And it was to die for!!!!  Shockingly, I would say it was better than the chocolate (I'm a chocoholic for those who don't know!!).  And after dinner I was soooo full but thankfully I was no longer in quite in such a dreadful mood.  Now if I could just warm up! :-)

If you live in Northwest Arkansas and have never been there, go to Bliss Cupcake!!  Or if you are traveling to our area, plan a trip to Bliss!  You won't be sorry!

Catch Up

Hey, friends!  Sorry for the inadvertent blog break.  The past 2 weeks have flown by and I almost can't even remember what's been going on.  My work is super busy right now and I'm swamped so I'm pretty exhausted in the evenings, which leads to the desire to lay around and do nothing.   Despite the busyness, last weekend was a long weekend and we decided to head south to visit my mom and dad.  They were thrilled to see Sara Kate and have her visit and Sara Kate was thrilled to 'go to Ghee's house and play with the ponies.'  She still remembers going down there last time (which was back in October) and playing with my old My Little Ponies.  I was a little less thrilled because a weekend away from home means bad sleeping.  Sara Kate and I slept in my brothers room and Chris slept in my room, but we made it work and it's worth it for special grandparent time.

 

 For those who don't know, I'm from a small town (El Dorado) and there is actually NOTHING to do there.  Our trips away from the house included the grocery store, church, and the park...super exciting right?!?  Haha!  We spent alot of time playing and visiting with some family that came by for dinner one night.

One thing I was excited to do was to visit with one of my oldest and sweetest friends, Sheila.  We went to 'competing' middle schools but became very good friends in high school.  We met her and her daughter at the park for some play time since the weather was beautiful.  Sara Kate had been wanting to go outside so it worked out perfectly.

 After our weekend away, we got back into the grove of a normal busy work week and school. 

The one unfortunate thing that happened this week was I got hit Tuesday evening after I picked up Sara Kate.  It was a 4 car accident because someone ran a red light, slammed into a mini van, pushed the mini van into the truck in front of me, and then into me.  Since I was the last car hit, I received the least amount of damage, but it still sucks because I found out this week that the person who caused the accident didn't have insurance.  Lovely.  But our car is still drivable and no one was injured.  So thank goodness for that.

Friday night I went out with some friends for a little fun.  I stayed out way too late and had to get up way too early Saturday morning but it was fun hanging with the girls.  These girls have actually been or currently are interns in our office but they've turned into good friends and I'm thankful for that!

This weekend also brought celebrating some birthday's!  Sara Kate had a birthday party to go to for one of her friends from school, Wave.  It was at Chick-Fil-A and she had a blast playing.  It's cute seeing her interact with her friends from school.  And I decided that's a great place for a birthday party!  The one not so great thing about the party was the Chick-Fil-A cow.  Sara Kate FREAKED OUT!!!!  I mean seriously freaked out!!  She doesn't like big costumed animals (like the Razorback mascot and obviously the cow) but I thought she might be ok with it seeing her friends going up to say hi.  Nope, she didn't even want to go to the table to get a cupcake because the cow was taking pictures with kids nearby.  I finally coerced her to sit at the very end of the corner of a table.  Haha.  But she had a great time at the party. And thank goodness this child finally got a cupcake because for some reason she has been talking about cupcakes for 2 weeks!!

  

Chris' mom's birthday was this past week and his grandpa's birthday is this coming week so more birthday celebration took place yesterday.  We had lunch and the cousins had lots of time to play, which is always a fun time.

 

 

So there's a little bit of what's been going on with us. This week will bring more of the same I'm sure...more weird weather (cold, warm, cold warm...Arkansas weather is SO annoying!), maybe some rain (fingers crossed but I have a ton of field work to do so it could suck for me), more busy work days, and lots more play time with Sara Kate.  Hope ya'll had a good weekend!