Mailbox Monday

I was disappointed today when I didn't receive my package in the mail from Papertrey Ink. I don't know that it was suppose to arrive today but, I was hoping it would. However, I did receive something else in the mail today. I finally got Carver's new backpack. I ordered this backpack over two months ago. It has been back ordered two times. I am very excited that it arrived today. It made the pain and sorrow, of not receiving my crafting goodies, bearable! :-)

On another note... I want to say "thank you and I love you" to my husband. Michael is very handy and I don't praise him enough.

Our washing machine decided, on Saturday, that it was tired of working. Michael quickly got on the Internet and pulled out the handy dandy manual to figure out our problem. After a trip to Nashville today (me and Carver) to pick up a part, Michael made a quick trip home from work to fix our washing machine. I am so excited to have a working washing machine. I don't know that I necessarily love washing clothes but I definitely like having clean clothes.

Thank you God for my washing machine and the many other luxuries that I take for granted every day!

Sunday Lunch

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday at my parents house. This is a picture of my beautiful niece, Paige. This was my favorite picture of the day so I wanted to share.

My mom fixed all of my favorite foods for lunch. Mom does this for all of us on our special day. I have the best mom in the world. We get on each others nerves at times because we are two different people with sometimes very different opinions. The older we get, the worse this seems to get. :-) I guess that is just life and probably that we are too much alike. But.... I love my mom and there is never a doubt that my mom loves me. I am pretty hard to love at times but she loves me anyway. I guess that is what good mothers do!

My family gave me some funny birthday cards and I got some money from my grandmother and from my parents. I can't wait to spend it on some Papertrey goodies... yum!! My siblings and I usually don't exchange gifts for birthdays, just cards, but my sister-in-law made me the sweetest scrapbook for my birthday. It is a poem, with pictures of me and my nephew, Alex, telling the story of how I became known as Boo Boo. Alex started calling me Boo Boo when he was around 2 years old because he couldn't say Kelley. Alex just came out with Boo Boo one day... we all laughed and I have been Boo Boo ever since. To this day if he slips up and calls me by my actual name, I am like "excuse me... i don' t think so... it is boo boo". My oldest nephew, Dustin, is married with a child older than mine and he still calls me Boo Boo. I love it! I will forever treasure that scrapbook.

For Libby

I wanted to make my niece, Libby, something for her birthday (other than her card).

Libby has loved clothes, make-up and jewelry since she was very young. Libby was the only preschooler around that made me nervous about my clothing choices. Many times, she would comment on how she liked my shoes, etc. I was worried that one day she would say something like, "why are you wearing that?" and I would be embarrassed. Of course she never has.. she is too sweet to do that.

I finally decided that I would make Libby a necklace. I stamped Libby's initials onto some polka dot paper, put it between some glass and soldered it together. I have not soldered enough to really get good at it. I bought the tools and glass just before I participated in the craft fair last fall. I quickly put together several necklaces and sold quite a few. I was pretty proud! I just hope they are still in one piece today... ha.

I put the previous ones on ribbon that you had to tie in the back each time you wore it. I think for Libby's, I am going to go to a local store and purchase a brown cord necklace to put it on. I hope she approves!

Shadow Play

I love this picture of Carver. I took this yesterday while we were at the park.

Carver decided, after being at the park for a while, he wanted to take a walk instead of playing on the playground. As we turned a corner, the sun was to our back and Carver discovered his shadow. This is not the first time Carver has seen his shadow but this was the most fun he has had playing with it. Carver would run and just get so tickled watching his shadow. It was such a sweet moment. Carver looks so big to me now but as he was running and I was also watching his shadow... I saw the sweetest little baby shadow swinging his arms and bobbing his head. It was a reminder to me that even though he is growing so big and learning new things everyday that he is still a (my) precious little baby.

That may not make a lot of sense in writing but it makes perfect sense in this mommy's heart.

This is Carver riding his tricycle. He has such a determined look on his face. He must have been concentrating really hard. :-)

Carver usually sits on his tricycle and gets around by pushing his feet on the ground. However, he can go backwards on it pretty well using the pedals. With his daddy's help, Carver finally got the hang of it. He rode down the same strip of sidewalk several times. He would take off and not steer well so he would end up getting stuck in the grass. The last trip down the sidewalk, he had learned to pedal and steer. Carver made it all the way to the end of the sidewalk and he was so pleased with his progress.

What a sweet blessing from God he is!

Birthday Blues

Well... today was not the kind of day I thought it would be.

I woke up later than usual today. I am not use to getting as much sleep as I did last night and for some silly reason, I seem to be in a crabby mood if I get too little or too much sleep. Some may say I am in a crabby mood all of the time and sleep has nothing to do with it. :-) I am talking about my husband. Anyway... waking up later than usual just throws my whole day out of whack.

When we woke up, we went into Carvers room to get him out of bed. Michael usually doesn't get Carver out of bed in the morning because he has already left for work. Well... Carver only wanted his daddy to get him out of bed this morning and he wanted to just give daddy his good morning love. In fact, when I asked him for some love, he said "NO". Of course, this hurt my feelings so I had a pity party for a good portion of the day. Carver was a daddy's boy all day today and I just didn't like it one bit!! I am glad that Carver loves his daddy but today was my day... didn't he know that? :-)

After breakfast, we went to the park for about an hour and then came home for lunch and Carver took a nap. Michael did a few things around the house and I pretty much just laid around feeling sorry for myself. Maybe this getting older thing is taking a toll on me that I didn't expect? Or... maybe I was just being a baby... who knows!!

When Carver woke up from his nap, we went to eat dinner at a restaurant with my parents. They wanted to take me out to eat for my birthday which was really nice. We had a good dinner with my parents and then we went to the ballpark for a little while to watch my nephew, Alex, play baseball. I love going to the ballpark. I grew up playing sports, as did both my older brothers, so some of my fondest childhood memories are from being at the ballpark.

My sister-in-law, Cindi, brought me a giant cupcake to the game for my birthday. I thought this was so sweet of her. Cindi even brought extras for the rest of the family but the only other person who ate one was Carver. Carver has his mothers sweet tooth!!

We didn't stay for the whole game because it was getting late and Carver needed to get in the bed. When we got home, Carver and Michael gave me some birthday cards to open.

That was my day! Nothing terrible happened. I had absolutely no 'real' reason to be in a crabby mood. I got lots of phone calls, text messages, and emails, from friends and family, wishing me a happy birthday. I just chose not to be happy for a majority of the day!! Shame on me for wasting my birthday having a pity party. I have those days from time to time. It just really stinks having one on your birthday.

I wanted to share a few pics of some of my family. These pics were taken tonight at the ballpark.

This is my oldest brother, Mike, and my nephew, Alex.

This is me and my mom, Katha

and this is me and my dad, Howard.