Busy Bee + Design Updates

Between kiddos, house chores, and making endless future plans with everything, I can't seem to keep my blogging hat on long enough to form a proper post. This weekend was a great refresher. No big relaxing trip or reflection time, just quality time with my mom and little sister and watching my own two little ones grow their own little sister friendship.

A few hours walking around a local art festival was enough to inspire creativity and enliven passion. All while observing the world through little eyes. A sand pit becomes a castle construction site, a public piano becomes a grand piano on center stage, and climbing an art sculpture translates to conquering Mt. Kilimanjaro (which my mom actually did in real life a few months back).

And now a few fun blogs I've designed over the past couple of weeks. Check out these amazing ladies and their awesome blogs.

Abbey at Everyday Champagne has always let do as I please with her blog. She recently decided to branch off from solely food blogging to blogging more about fashion and beauty, so a subtle redesign was in order.

Laura from Sweet Cheeks Photography has a great eye for photography! She captures incredible moments in time during her everyday shenanigans with her two blonde haired cuties.

Sarah from The Baum Squad is a fellow momma with a hilarious daughter and a deliciously chunky baby boy (seriously, this kid puts my daughters' baby rolls to shame). She, like me, blogs about everyday life except she succeeds in her scheduling and consistency far better than I could ever even attempt.

Snowpocalypse!

Okay, it wasn't that dramatic here. Just a couple inches of snow and some fun with the kids. We so rarely get snow that I didn't even have snow gear for my (almost) 3 year old and the baby had to make do with rain boots that were a size too big. Maybe next year I'll break down and buy both girls some snow gear for our one-time-a-season snow event.

Winsley really enjoyed the snow for the first little bit. She kept taking off her mittens to touch the snow and try to eat it - that's my girl! Did anybody else ski down the mountain as a child, scooping up snow to eat on the way down? No? Just me, huh? Well, this is awkward…
No more awkward than this next picture though.

Sure, it's all fun and games until Daddy throws a snowball in your face. And then Mom stops to take a picture of your agony instead of rushing to comfort you.
Don't judge! You probably would have done the same thing (at least, that's what I'm telling myself). She was fine. The only way we got her to calm down was to let her throw a snowball at Daddy's face. Gotta be fair.
The snow has pretty much melted by now, but it was fun while it lasted.

Southern Snow Day

We don't get a lot of snow in the south, but when we do… the entire city usually shuts down. Seriously. For just ½ an inch of snow. Northerners think we're crazy. Maybe we are.
Anywho. It snowed on Tuesday night and the snow stayed around yesterday (it usually melts by noon). It was so cold that we only stayed out for a sad 20 minute or so. I blamed it on the baby, but truthfully I was the one who was freezing and wanted to go home.

The babies were bundled up in their big winter coats. Can I still call my (almost) 3 year old my baby? I vote Yes. Does it make sense to buy myself some new winter gear for the maybe 2 times we see snow in North Carolina? 
Poor Ellington wanted to make a snowman with the half ice / half snow… I tried to explain why it probably wouldn't work, but she insisted. And it didn't work, so we moved on to explore our tiny neighborhood playground. 

She wanted to slide down the snow covered slide. Unfortunately, it too was covered with ice. Not to worry. Ellington quickly recruited Winsley to help remove the ice and snow from the slides. That's my girl! Tricking your sister into working for you is rule numero uno of sisterhood. Okay, maybe it's not the number one rule, but it's in the handbook somewhere.
Hope everyone else stayed warm and enjoyed the snow (if you got any).

A Thought on Sisters

Sisters are mean. I have two sisters who I love dearly - now. However, we butted heads more often than not in our younger years. I was on both sides of bullying, stealing, name-calling, tattling, sabotage. Sisterhood is a funny thing. We hate each other with great love. And then we grow up. 

Suddenly, you realize that your fights growing up were hilarious and made for an amazing, story filled childhood. Stories like:

• That time my sister told me that my grandfather's medicine was bubble gum. Of course, she wanted me to try it first… I spent the rest of the day hugging the toilet.
• Me: I want to come visit your high school to see what it will be like next year :)  My Older Sister: [Runs off crying]  Me: What? What'd I say… (And then she decided to switch high schools the next year. I am sure it wasn't because I was going to attend her previous high school. )
• Middle School - High School my older sister would lock her door when she left the house so I couldn't borrow any of her clothes. :(
• She also accused me of stretching out her clothes that I found a way to steal borrow. How rude!
• Remember land lines? Do people still have those? Well, my older sister used to answer and pretend she was me when my friends called. So mean.
• Speaking of mean - My friends and older classmates at my school were deathly afraid of my older sister. I didn't get it, but I kind of loved that I could just say "I'm Malone's little sister" and people would leave me be.

These are all stories of my older sister, Malone. It's her birthday today :) There are about a million more stories I could tell about our torturous reign one my little sister, but that's a post for another day. 

Happy Birthday, Malone!

Anybody have any interesting older sibling stories or were you the bullying big sis?

Weekly Wishes #5?

I'm not sure how many weekly wishes I've done at this point. To be honest, I'm not even sure what week it is anymore - my brain is all mushy at the moment (one of my excuses for my absence from blogland last week). You see, I have a 5 month old and she is no longer sleeping through the night. 

... No big deal. I've been through this before with my older daughter. In fact, my 2 ½ year old continued to wake up once during the night until a few months ago. Just a few minutes during the night to sing a little lady back to sleep and I'd get to climb back in bed to sleep the rest of the night away… or so I thought. 
Turns out, no two kids are the same. Even if they are remarkably similar looking sisters. Winsley has spent the past month waking me up at 11 to eat, 2 in pain from teething, 3 to eat again, 4:30 to show off new skills for an hour or so, and 7 or 8 to eat / wake up. Each time she wakes up, I am up from 30 minutes to an hour feeding her / getting the tylenol / soothing her back to sleep. And because of her no-napping older sister, I no longer have the luxury of 'sleeping when the baby sleeps' as all of the baby books will advise. 
I have been walking around in a foggy monotonous mess for the past month. Just doing enough to get through the day and pining for a night of uninterrupted sleep. My husband will agree that I have not been fun to live with, although he is surely suffering from the same sleep deprivation that I am at this point. 
I love that my littlest girl is growing + learning and I fully appreciate her need to start the day at 4 am with an hour long practice session of baby crawling 101, but I NEED SLEEP! Let's hope my little one reads my blog because my Weekly Wish this week all depends on her… Sleep! I need it. 
Would it be weird to hire a babysitter during the day while I'm upstairs taking a nap? Just kidding - maybe. But it would be a little weird, right?
Linking up with one of my favorite bloggers Melyssa from The Nectar Collective again this week for her amazingly supportive Weekly Wishes series. 

Weekend Recap

Starting with the top row, from right to left, our past week in pictures during our visit to Charlotte. 

1 I spent more time than I wanted to in this gem. I actually learned to drive in this bus of a car. . . 15 YEARS ago! It's still running, but barely. No a/c. No Power Steering. Blinkers don't work. This car has about had it. 

2 + 3 Ellington found a tutu and the rest of the week was dedicated to the ballerina. She demanded that everyone play ballerina with her (including Winsley). Did I say everyone? I meant everyone but me. Apparently, I didn't make the ballerina cut. 

4 + 5 + 6 Before all of the rain and all of the heat, we spent a little time on the playground at my mom's work (she's a preschool director). Love this place!

7 The beginning of a wonderful sibling friendship. 

8 Winsley slept. In the crib! If you knew what we have had to deal with in the sleep department with Ellington, you will understand how happy / excited / relieved I am that Winsley likes the crib. 

9 Monkey grass is the devil! Fortunately, all of the monkey grass that you see in that picture is GONE now. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!