Raya's first trip to the dentist

Raya  made me one proud mama today---she ROCKED her dentist appointment! She was well behaved, polite, followed all the directions, etc. They were able to do everything---brush, "scrape", floss, rinse, flouride, etc....they said she did abnormally well for a kid  her age. She's such a big  girl!

He teeth looked great. They said she does have a little bigger than average overbite, but her teeth in back  line up well and they don't have any concerns about it. Just that after her adult teeth come in we'll have to reevaluate and perhaps she'll need braces down the road like so many other kiddos. Other than that no problems at all!

I didn't take  pictures  at the appointment, because I thought I'd look a little silly bringing  my giant DSLR camera to teh dentist haha...and my phone is just a cheapy and doesn't  really take pics. But I did have Raya show me her pearly whites this afternoon---to document the day :-)

And after humoring  me with  the photoshoot for a good couple minutes, she started in with the "hey mom, it was  just the dentist--I  didn't  solve the problem of world hunger or anything!" look of disgust ;-)

Officially done posing lol

After  the dentist we went to toysrus to  pick  out her bike for her birthday! She was actually to tall for the normal 12 inch bikes, but the 16 inch ones made her nervous (even though she *could* pedal them)....so I found out they make a few 14 inch ones which seem great for Raya's size. Unfortunately that size is uncommon and you don't get many choices. I did find an over the top girlie one though that we decided to go with--gotta have a fancy girlie bike right?!

I decided to save $10 by having Lee assemble  it  himself....only to get home and check out the reviews that the instructions are  horrible  apparently haha. Hopefully he doesn't have too much trouble! I had an impossible  time finding a bike that had all  great reviews (without spending a ton---we just wanted a cheaper bike--not  a lifetime investment :-) ....so this one has some really great reviews, and then some not so great. Guess we'll  see how it treats us. It's cute  though!

At toysrus I mentioned in passing that this was a gift for her birthday so then they gave her a birthday crown and balloon, which made her day haha. Here she is with her balloon.

So that  was  our day!

Miss Raya, I'm SO proud of you today. I  love taking you places and having people tell  me what  a delightful little girl you are. Thanks for making me look  like a rockstar Mama today so that  I  could brag you up :-)   ....even if you *did* rat me out to the hygenist at the end about the sucker I had  promised  you for being good hehe

Little  stinker :-P

She's just one of the girls!

Poor  Brielle....she just doesn't  understand that  she's not big like Raya. She thinks she's just  hanging with the girls, when really she's the baby tag along haha.  When Brielle still  took  a morning nap I  used that  time to do  crafts and educational activities with Raya, but now Brielle doesn't take a morning nap....and she throws a major fit if we dont' include her in our activities. However finding an activity that is appropriate for oth of them  is a challenge. Things will be so much easier  when they are 3 and 4....at that time the age  difference won't seem  like anything--it'll be just like Sawyer and Raya! But  right now the age difference seems huge, and I'm stumped for ideas where I'm not constantly stopping Brielle from choking, etc. on Raya's activities!

Anyways, I *try* to be a cool mom when I can, so  we just  jumped  in and made rice sensory bins today. Raya has loved these in the past, but  Brielle  has never  really played with one.  Let's  just say she LOVED it too---but she ate at least a couple spoonfuls  of rice before I could  stop her  lol. She also tries to pick  up the rice container and almost spill  it everywhere---so my dream of doing housework while they played quietly didn't pan out and I had to spend the whole time sitting right with Brielle. Oh well...she learned how t o say "there it is!!!" when we'd dig up things I hid in the rice, and it's the cutest thing she's said to date. Her little voice is so sweet! :-)

Enjoy the pics! We were still  in pjs haha

We had green rice too....I  just hadn't added it here  yet

Wow!

Goofball

Pretending to eat  it

After we got dressed and went  for  a nice  walk outside the girls decided they needed the rice again for "2 more minutes" lol...so I  got it  out again, this time in the kitchen. (It worked well  for them to play with it on a sheet....then I just shook  the sheet off outside and didn't have rice all over my house.)

And seriously, why do my  girls have  apparently  genetic cheesy smiles!?! lol

And lastly, Raya suddenly INSISTED after  lunch that  I take pictures  of her  posing with her baby  again today. (Grandma, I think she heard me talking  about that baby on the phone with you or something....but she demanded that  I take these pictures, so hear ya go! :-)

Hope everyone is "enjoying"  their Mondays! :-)

Raya's driving!!!

We've  had a powerwheel jeep sitting  at our house for a couple years now. You may remember  when  we had this inside when Raya was little and she loved to sit  in it and pretend to drive. This jeep was *mine* when I was little, and my parents weren't sure if it still  worked, but they thought with a new battery it might.

Well last night Lee finally got around to messing with it. He put a lawnmower battery in it and it's pretty fast now! lol. We make  them  wear helmets when driving in it and  drive on the grass. Poor Brielle did get tossed out once  haha....Raya is a crazy driver ;-)

They had a blast  though!

Kinda  cold and rainy, but  still smiling! :-)

Daddy doing  periodic tune ups haha

Lee had  to chase  them down a couple times---Raya likes  trees LOL

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Today my parents  took  the  girls to town for the day and I worked  on Etsy orders. (I know, I know, I'm really trying to avoid working on weekends, but  my shop opened up with a bang lol....it's slowing down now to a pretty manageable rate since  I have  my turnaround time set so long, so hopefully this is the last weekend I *have* to work :-)

Here is some of the stuff I worked  on! (Can be  purchased in my Etsy shop, No Paparazzi Please )

Custom request for coordinating  brother/sister guitar shirts. Bad  picture---even cuter in person! I love these :-)

I had lots of people take advantage of my special on facebook  the other day for discounted monogram shirts...these are such a fun  staple for any  kid's  wardrobe...especially the preschool crowd--they think they're hot  stuff in their letter shirts hehe. I'll  be working on these for the next few weeks!

Made a cute tutu  set today as well. My camera just  couldn't find the light today, so the pictures don't do it justice. I love  a good poofy tutu and birthday  shirt, don't  you!? :-)

When Raya got home today she was excited to show me the  tiny baby Grandma and  Grandpa got  her....Raya picked  one out for  Brielle too. Well  Raya hasn't let this  baby leave her  sight tonight, and she was happily  watching barney with the baby before bed just  a bit ago. I thought Grandma would enjoy these pictures! :-)

Only baby's eyes are  peeking out...Raya  has quite  the "hug" going on lol

She loves her  babies!

And lastly, a couple more  "outtakes" from our birthday invitation photoshoot  yesterday...

And  lastly,  I haven't done a plea for followers in awhile. I have been watching my number of daily visitors increase and increase over the last month or two....and I know  I have many more loyal  readers than what  shows up  on my blog. See over  on the right hand side  of my  blog---where is says "members" and then lots  of peoples faces underneath??? Well those  are the cool people who follow me publicly! If your name and/or face isn't showing up over there  then please follow me (click the blue button over there  that says "join this site"....and then follow the prompts).  Be  sure to follow "publicly" so that I can get a nice  little ego boost and how  my number of followers go up hehe. Don't  be  shy---I'm really nice! Just vain, and wanting  more followers. ;-)

Enjoy  the last of your weekends everyone!!!

Raya's birthday invite photoshoot

So I  had  planned  to wait   until the weather  got nice and warm and sunny  before doing Raya's photo for her birthday invite---and then today as we were just about to leave for  our family day at the Children's Museum, Lee informed me that it might snow tonight!!! lol...so needless to say I sort of freaked out that I really needed to get this photo taken  and get her invites printed really soon! So what did I do? Well, I grabbed Raya, quick made  her  change into the first remotely sunshiney thing I could fine (her  hair  was already funky from our planned trip to the museum---I just had to go with it!) and we ran into the yard for an impromptu session!!! haha

Needless to say if I had planned it more  ahead of time I would have thought things out a little  better---but we got it done!!! And  the invites are ordered and I  was able to come up with something that  I think is cute, so all  is well :-) We have really small parties so it's not like  I needed something really fancy, but  I  wanted  everyone to get something cute at least.

I'm not sharing the invite until after  it gets mailed out to our guests, but here are a few out takes from the session....enjoy!



We saw lots of the "sweet face"  today

And the crazy person smile

The serious face is always a go to as well

And now that she's almost 3, apparently the "miss attitude" face  is going to be a new one ;-)

Love you Miss  Raya....can't wait until  your party!!

Fashion Friday-- and more hair pictures

So first up, more pics of the girls  from yesterday, sporting their matching dresses from Grandma :-) The dresses are from Target , and I figured I might as well make Target my Fashion Friday feature haha. I'm sure everyone shops at Target sometimes, right?! Well they have adorable  clothes for munchkins...I can never make it out of there without buying something!! However I usually only  shop their sales and clearance racks, because I swear *some* of their  items are getting almost as pricey as Gymboree! Target has cute stuff, but the quality as far as holding up in the wash/fading and stuff is usually lower than brands like Gymboree. So to pay $19 for a Target dress isn't the  best  idea, when you can get Gymboree  dresses on sale for less. The great thing about Target though? They put stuff on sale  CONSTANTLY. You can find summer stuff on clearance there already I swear ...it's only regular price  for about 2 seconds :-)

So anyways, enjoy my munchkins!

Brielle said "no  thanks" to posing for sibling photos yesterday LOL

Grandma did a good job guessing sizes!

What a sweetie :-)

Brielle was still  being uncooperative!

Raya suggested ring around the rosie....

And then drug Brielle around until she complied lol :-)

Ring around the rosie...

You can  tell  Brielle adores her big sister!

Brielle will NOT stop climbing onto  my kitchen table!!! Like actually  on top of the table! At least here she's only
on the chair---but she still  manages to constantly  fall  and hurt herself!

Giving me "the look" when  I tell  her no!

So now here  are the pictures from today showing my little monkey actually ON TOP OF the  table!

I swear, 30 times a day I turn around in the kitchen to see  this.  If it's not the table it's climbing up the bar stools onto
the kitchen counter. Or on the coffee table. Etc. etc. I say no, remove her, scold  her....she cries and then  does it again.
Over  and over and over again all  day long.  Please tell me this is a phase!!!

She actually  walks on the table and hits  her  head on the lights!

So  I need to take some pictures for Raya's birthday  invitation soon.  Her birthday outfit will  probably be sewn the night before the party lol...so  I had to come up with some other idea for the You Are My Sunshine birthday invite. We made this cute handprint sunshine and I want to take her pictures with it. However I'm waiting for a sunny day because a you are my sunshine party pic shouldn't  be taken on a cloudy dreary day! lol. We just  did a test run this morning though...

I have a feeling most of the pics  will  look  like this haha. Hard to get a normal  smile!

And now some pictures  from after my  shower  of my new  haircut. I was SHOCKED by how curly it is now  that it's short. Seriously, you can't  fully appreciate the insanity of this unless  you've know me my entire life....but my entire life my hair  was stick straight. Suddenly I've  got this mess of curls!

As it  dried though I  didn't like  the front.  Partly becuase I'm not at all  used  to seeing  myself with wavy/curly hair, and partly because the part around my face is less layered so it wasn't as curly as the back and looked  kinda  weird...and constantly fell in my face. Ugh.

But then I decided to bobby pin the front back  behind my  ears kinda, and I can handle that I think. I  definitely prefer the straight look, but this will  be doable for the days when I don't have time to blowdry and flat iron it. Since  I can't  do a ponytail anymore this works instead and I think I could go out in public  and  not feel like a complete loser LOL

This was what it looked like after it dried. How horrible  is it? haha

You're  never  fully dressed without a smile, right? ;-)

So thank you girls, for turning mommy's beautiful straight hair into a poodle!! haha. I think I better  buy a new flat iron :-P

Lastly, my little monkey also  loves to climb into  toys. The night before last I  found Brielle  in the living room watching tv like  this:

Raya started pushing her around haha

**If you missed  my post from this  morning please  check it  out below :-)