Wedding Reception

Kelly's Korner is finishing up the wedding posts tomorrow. The theme for tomorrow is wedding receptions/honeymoons. I'm really whooped tonight so I'm just posting pics of our reception. We went to Longbow Resort in Prim, AR (near Greers Ferry Lake) for our honeymoon...we didn't have digital cameras then and I'm not about to scan our pictures in. But you can hop on over to http://www.longbowresort.com/ to check it out...it is beautiful and rustic. It was featured in Southern Living awhile back and has been deemed "A modern day Eden". I will say that I am probably the only girl you know who went spotlighting for deer on her honeymoon...oh, yesss we did! (not my choice by any means). Anyway...I will do a honeymoon post sometime...it was quite an adventure! But for tonight here are our reception pictures. We did pretty much everything for the reception...made the food, decorated, etc.
My mom made the cakes...they were beautiful and delicious!


Did I mention that my hubbie is a little bit of a redneck??? Yess, that is a camo tablecloth you see there...

One of my favorite things we did was bake a TON of my mamaw's peanut butter cookies to give as favors. We bagged them up in these cute gift bags and attached the recipe with one of her quotes. My mamaw was too ill to attend the wedding but was so proud that we did this! By the way...Essie is named after my mamaw Esther!

This was our reaction to seeing our "getaway truck" for the first time. I cannot even begin to describe the scene...

It was wrapped completley in saran wrap, toilet paper, and powdered sugar. There was icy hot spread on things and trash placed in the bed of the truck but that did not compare to the inside...

Yes.....that's feathers, rice, confetti, balloons, etc. And is was GLUED to the dashboard! Lets just say it took his groomsmen a small fortune to decorate the truck...and an even bigger fortune (and several hours) to clean it out afterwards.

warning...

Fair warning to all...you cannot look at the pictures below without experiencing some extreme heart-warming sensations, uncontrollable grins, and deep sighs. Needless to say, today was a MUCH better day. Essie slept all day today. She woke up in all smiles and has been the happiest baby today! Even with working at my classroom all day she was soooo good! Don't you just want to eat her up??? Oh, she melts me!!!

4 Weeks

Today Essie is 4 weeks old! I can't believe how fast she's growing. She's really chunking up nicely...she can hold her head up reallly well...and she's so alert and interested in everything. Today she and I spent over 5 hours working at my classroom...she did pretty well except for the fact that she wouldn't nap at all. So I brought her home around 3:00 in hopes that she would nap. She did for about 20 minutes. Then we Travis got home we went back up to the classroom to try and get finished. She was NOT having that! We were up there about 2 hours and got absolutely nothing accomplished. She was very upset the whole time and didn't want to be put down. She cried on and off the whole time (very unlike her!-she usually only wimpers when she's hungry). She even cried the whole way home, which is really unlike her. And of course as we are turning on our street she falls asleep. But once we got in she was awake again. So we rushed around to get her bathed and fed in hopes that she would crash! I think she's just really overly tired which made her fussy this evening. We also switched from her "ready to feed" formula to the powder formula. So she may be having some tummy issues as she adjusts to that. I don't know what the cause is but she is typically the happiest little thing and is just not herself this evening. Hopefully she will get a good nights sleep and we will have a better day tomorrow!
This is where she hangs out in my classroom. I pulled the cushion off my chair, covered it with her blanket, and put it in my reading center. She enjoyed looking at the straw that was hanging and the light from the window.

Happy Girl

Essie looked fab in her blue dress/bow today. And I must mention the fact that we got this dress at Walmart for a whopping $2.00! We had a nice day...ran errands this morning and spent the afternoon hanging at home. She was in a great mood...so I took a ton of pictures and videos. She's just getting so big! She spent a good amount of time on her tummy on her boppy today and practiced holding her head up.

Housewife.

After our busy week last week and our busy weekend that followed, I vowed to stay home today and rest/relax. I promised Essie we would stay in our pajamas all day. And we did...I even showered and put on clean pajamas! I didn't do much resting or relaxing but I think Essie did enough for both of us. Our house has gotten filty and the laundry was piling up and I had a list of things to do to get ready for school to start. I couldn't handle letting it slide so I spent the day checking things off my list.

Seriously...what dog would allow this?? He just laid there and let her kick and rub on his face like that!

First I attempted to sew some new curtains and pillows for my classroom. My old ones were pretty tired looking so I picked up this zebra fabric that was on sale at HobLob last week. I am not a seamstress by any means but I can make an average looking curtain and pillow!

While I worked on that, Essie enjoyed her bouncy seat and looking out the window.

Then it was on to laundry and cleaning. I cleaned our bedroom, kitchen, breakfast nook, and living room today...vaccuumed, dusted, sanitized...the whole nine yards! Then I worked on making labels for my classroom, etc. fun, fun!

Once Travis got home, I cooked this yummy dinner of salmon cakes, fried squash, and steamed veggies...I'm posting recipes on my recipe blog.

I did stop occasionally to love on my girl, enjoy her smiles (see video at the very bottom), feed her, and of course wash bottles ( a never ending cycle around here!) She did look so yummy in her "hungry caterpillar" pj's. These were actually hand-me-downs from her cousin Haley!

She's been holding her hands like this lately...it cracks us up. She looks like she's saying "you wanna piece of me?". She also tucks her thumb between her index and middle finger like I do! So today was a pretty good day overall...I felt like a housewife for the most part but I enjoyed it. Oh what I'd give to be able to be a stay at home mommy!

Sunday...

Again today the three of us spent the majority of the day at my classroom working. I am almost done...just some paperwork/finishing touches to do! We also went to lunch with our friends Ashley, Chandler, and their little girl Adalyn. After that we went to a baby shower for a little one named Carter who is due in October! Then back to the classroom for another few hours of work! We are sooo tired and ready to spend some time relaxing at home! So our plans for tomorrow include staying in pajamas all day and relaxing. I think Essie is just as pumped at these plans as I am! We are ready for our routine again! And the house could really use a good cleaning! Here are a few pics of my sweetie today.
My naked baby sleeping away...see that knot on the side of her forehead? She had that at birth and had it x-rayed. It's a calcium deposit and should go away on its own. The dr didn't know what caused it but he did ask if I had any trauma to my belly while pregnant. Nooo, other than bumping into the sink everyday!
Couldn't you just kiss these little toes? E.C. has majorly long feet and toes. She can and will grip your finger with these toes. And don't even try and tickle them...they are waaay ticklish! She will kick and pull them back if you even think about it!
This is one of my favorite outfits so far...I loved how she looked in the bright colors...and the bow options are endless! She's really starting to get some baby acne all over her face. Any suggestions on how to help this? Or do you just let it go away on its own?
Okay, even Essie thought this bow was a little too much for the outfit! ha!
Also we bought this cute sign for her room. You can go to this website to check out all the other cute stuff she makes!. The girl who does this actually did her student teaching in my classroom! She has some super cute stuff so go check it out!

Saturday...

First of all...Essie slept almost 7 hours last night!!! Woo-hoo!!! We are so proud of her. Today we spent the majority of the day working at my classroom. My parents and niece Haley came down to help out and we got most of it done. Travis and I going to go back tomorrow to try and finish.

We found these cute pink ballet slippers for her at Walmart...the almost fit...still a lil too big.

My girl's CRAZY hair!My little water baby.

Could that shirt be any more true???

Also, I'm posting the recipe for this yummy dinner on my recipe blog...check it out if you are interested!