This family is from Amarillo, where we live. Their 17 year old daughter ran away the day after Christmas. She is headed toward Arizona or California. Please watch the video and share it with everyone and pray this girl makes it home safe...

Win Kai was a baby I used cloth diapers.  This website was a life saver for me.  It helped me to know which kind of diapers to use, which brands were good.  I would highly recommend it if you are or plan to cloth diaper.

And guess what, they are giving away LOTS of stuff.  She is having a drawing everyday for 12 days.  Today is day 1 and she is giving away 4 different things.  Go HERE now and register!!!!

Dear Kai Bear,

Today my adorable little miracle turns 3.  It is so hard to believe that you are already three.  Where have the last 36 months gone??!? 

There are a lot of things I would change about the last three years, but you definately are not one of them.  You have been a constant joy during some very rough times.  You are always there to do something terribly adorable to make me smile.

When I found out I was pregnant with you I of course started dreaming of who you would be.  Never could I have imagined anything close to who you actually are.  I go to bed every night smiling, thinking of all the funny, cute things you did and said that day.  Never could I have fathomed just how much your daddy and I were missing before you came.  It's hard for me even to remember the days before you were here...it feels like you have always been a part of us, that we have always been a family of 3. 

I cherish everyday that we share together.  Even though I would love to keep you small forever, I look forward to watching you continue to grow.  You truly are the light of my life.  A little 9lb 6oz miracle that changed me and my life forever.  I love you more than you will ever know.

You are my sunshine...
Mama

If you have ever been to the Texas State Fair, you know it is ginormous...it takes at least 2 days to walk the whole thing and see all there is to see.  While living in the metroplex I think we only went to the fair twice, which I was ok with...way to many people for my liking.

Here in the panhandle we have the Tri-State Fair. Yup that's right a fair for 3 different states. I LOVE the Tri-State Fair. It's a great size, has great fair food and if you go at the right time (Sunday morning) there's nobody there!! There are also a lot of animals, which Kai particularly liked.

Have you been on Pinterest yet?  If you not you need to go and check it out.  Send me an email and I will send you an invite.  It's such a genuis idea.  You basically make bulletin boards and you pin things from all over the interenet on them.  It's a great way to keep ideas all in one place.  I have been using it to get ideas for Kai's upcoming birthday party.  I have a board called "kai's caterpillar party" and everytime I see something online I want to remember or do, I just pin it to that board...it's that easy!!

The board that gets the most attention right now is "looks yummy".  It currently has 1055 pictures (with links to recipes) of delectible food on it.  You see I have been on a diet for about 6 months now (I can't wait to post about my loss...should be in about a month) so it saves me the calories by being able to look at the yummy food, but not eat it.  It also makes me so excited to start cooking again when I am finally done dieting. 

So basically what I am saying is get your tushy over to Pinterest and get started pinning!!

And because it's been a while...here is a cute pic of my boy!

Well, Kai has officially started preschool...but he's only 2 you say?  I know.  It was about a month ago that I really decided that he NEEDED to be in preschool.  He needs to be around other kids a lot more than he is and he needs to be away from me more than he is.  The kicker was the fact that everytime I picked him up from Sunday school he would cry because he didn't want to leave.

So a girl I know through a parenting group I am a part of started her own preschool this year.  I asked her if she would be ok with him starting even though he was young and she said it was fine.  So I signed him up and he started last tuesday.  He goes half days on tue and thur and he LOVES it.  There are only 8 kids and two teachers.  They get to play and do art and crafts and learn and everything my little boy loves to do.

I was a little said when I dropped him off, but I knew it was the best thing for him.  He needs to grow and learn and experience life...without me.  It is amazing how just in the last month how much older he seems.  His speaking is so much clearer.  He talks to strangers.  He introduces himself to everyone and asks what their names are.  He orders for himself at restaurants.  He is just such a big boy. 

I am hoping that Hanlie from The messiness of life is reading this.  I tried to post a comment on your blog and blogger would not let, I seriously tried for 30 minutes.  And you don't have an email address on your account.  So I would love to tell you what I wanted to say.  My email is on my profile, please email me so I can email you back.  Thanks.

We went on a little trip to Denver a few weeks ago.  We visited my brother, SIL and our adorable niece Copper.  She is so freaking cute.  We had a great time.  The first day we went shopping, and I bought all of Kai's winter clothes and a couple pairs of shoes. 

The second day we went swimming. It was a ton of fun. Kai loved sitting in the fake jet ski. And Copper fell asleep on a floatie in the pool, she is such a silly girl.  Kai refused to look at the camera for the group shot.  He is such a toot when he wants to be.

The next day we went to Mt. Evans.  It's a 14000 foot mountain that you can drive to the top of.  Unfortuantely, I didn't think realize the road was going to be so curvy and I got a little car sick on the way up.  Once we got up there it was just beautiful.  I took a few pics and then went and laid in the car while everyone else hiked around.

So my little brother got married about a month ago.  I got to plan the whole wedding.  We were on a shoestring budget and we were having the wedding in my mother's back yard.  Needless to say it was a lot of work and a little stressful but I think it turned out beautiful.

Josh was the best man and Kai was the ring bearer.  Also, our neice Copper was the flower girl.  We had the wedding on one side of the lawn.  The grass was nice and green.  We had an arch that I covered in tulle and lights.  I also bought some trees that had taper candles in them.  Unfortuantely it was too windy to light them.  Their colors were watermelon pink and kelly green and I think they looked great together.  We had the reception on the other end of the yard.  We took lights from the peak of the house and fence and hung paper lanterns on them.  I also had torches scattered around the yard.  The tables had which tableclothes.  The center pieces were hurricane vases with green rocks and candles.  They were set on octagon mirrors and also two bud vases with a orchids in them and a few more votive candles.

I was also in charge of making the cake.  It was a 4 tier round cake.  The biggest problem was actually baking the cakes.  I think the pans we bought were crappy.  So it took me almost 12 hours of baking to get the 8 cakes that I needed.  It was very exhausting.  Luckily, the decorating went much smoother.  I was happy with the way the cake turned out.  It clearly wasn't done by a professional, but it's not too shabby, being my first wedding cake and all.  The picture of the cake makes it look more crooked then it really was.  Remember it was on a table sitting in the yard, which was not flat!!

We are still here, I'm just a really sucky blogger.  I have been working on the layout of the blog for a while now, changing this and deciding I didn't like so I'd change that, it's constantly a work in progress.  But I think at the moment I am happy with it.  Simple but still cute.  Tell me what you think.

Besides the heat, the wind and the extreme lack of rain, the summer has been good.  My brother got married, it was beautiful.  I will post pics when I get them.  We have been going and doing fun things.  So here are a few pics.  I promise I will be back soon...also, I have high hopes to start updating day to day gourmet again.  Food/cooking has become a passion once again, so much so I would love to open a restaurant or have a food truck or can everything that I find.  Not sure yet where to go with this dream.

We have an awsome place here call the Don Harrington Discovery Center.  They have neat sciency stuff (not shown in the pics).  We bought a year pass so we can go anytime we want.

We had a very fun 4th of July.  Spent the day at moms house in the pool and did some grilling for dinner.  Since we are drier than a desert right now we were under a burn ban and no fireworks were allowed.  So Amarillo did a laser light show.  It was cool, but it wasn't fireworks, there's just nothing like it. 

It's hard to live in an apartment with a toddler...especially a toddler who LOVES to go outside.  So we have tried really hard to have fun things for Kai to do.  I would say Kai has some pretty awesome backyard toys...considering he has no backyard!!

It's HOT and DRY and WINDY here.  You may have heard that we have gotten no rain and thus have been having a ton of wildfires.  Two of which have come very close to my grandparents house.  Thankfully though their house is ok, but many others have been lost.  We are in desperate need of rain right now.

Life has been good.  Planning a wedding is a lot of work.  It is in about a week and half and there is still so much to do.  But it will get done and I am super excited.  I think it is going to be beautiful and wonderful!.  The one thing I am most worried about is the cake...mom and I are making it.  Cake decorating is not one of my fortes but I think we can do it.  We are keeping it simple, yet pretty.  I'll post pics for you to see how wonderful it is!!

Kai is great.  He is fully in the terrible twos...mostly he is a really good, well-behaved kid, but he definitely has his moments where he pushes the limits.

Here are some older pics of Kai that I should have posted earlier, some are from Easter.  Enjoy, I'll be back soon...promise!!