The Big One

I don't even know what to say about Tinkerbell's birthday. . . We had a great day Friday, a fun party Saturday, and were reminded how blessed we are for having her in our lives; realizing at the same time that being parents has put us in fast-forward with no hope of hitting the slow-motion or pause button. It was one of those wonderful, bittersweet milestones that I'm sure I'll exprierence over and over again. Here's the re-cap:

Valentine's Day, Part 2

I had to share just a little more of our Valentine's Day :)

First Valentine

heart-shaped pancakes

Abby Cadabby

Daddy's present - a mouse pad of her "Top 10"

my present - The Great Cupcake pan!

Daddy's sweethearts

Just hangin' out

Tickle Monster finger puppets

Love is in the Air

I will be the first to admit that I get excited about holidays - even the "little" ones. I'm one of those annoying people that has a box of decorations for "non-Christmas" holidays (don't worry, R has kept this to a minimum). This was perfect when I taught kindergarten - what five year old isn't excited about an excuse to have a party and possibly eat cake? Since I'm not teaching right now, I'm very excited that being a Mom gives me a reason to celebrate each holiday to the fullest. R started our Valentine fun by surprising me with heart-shaped cookies a few weekends ago (he made them while I was out shopping), and I've been in a "Valentine" mood since. Last weekend, I decided it would be fun to take a few pictures of Tinkerbell in a super-cute pink fur vest that was given to us before she was born (that's right, pink fur). I also took the opportunity to get out her ladybug costume one more time and pose some pictures with some of my ladybugs. It's getting REALLY hard to take "non-candid" pictures of her, but thanks to Daddy's entertainment, I managed to get a few. K and I also took a few pictures of the girls in their Valentine shirts (thanks, Nana!)

So . . . Happy Valentine's Day from us and our little lovebug :)

Fun Giveaways for Valentine's Day

If you love freebies as much as I do, stop by these blogs and enter to win super-cute Hanky Panky panties, an amazing brownie box from Fat Witch Bakery, or a copy of Eat This, Not That (to read AFTER you eat the brownies) . . .

Make Mine a Mojito Giveaway

Blue-Eyed Bride Giveaway

Chic Runner Giveaway

Merry Christmas to me!

Our furniture finally arrived this week and I must say that I am feeling a little better about the munchkin exploring in the living room. I still have to watch her like a hawk, but she can no longer reconfigure our sound system or toss about five DVDs on the floor before I can get to her. Thank you again to our families who so graciously gave us gift cards for Christmas to buy this furniture - we love it! We also spent last weekend installing a new baby gate, putting locks on several of the cabinets, and re-organizing the pantry so that all things dangerous are out of reach. Regardless of the time we spend making things "safe", this kid finds a way to get into something! Oh, the life of a Mom with a crawling baby (I wouldn't trade it for anything!) By the way, Tink is having some "Pack N Play" time so that I can have a moment of peace. If you have a little one and haven't read Baby Wise Book Two, I highly recommend it! Gotta go, my time is almost up and I'm sure there's something more productive I should be doing. . .

Twas the week after Christmas. . .

and I'm still trying to get caught up on everything. . . We had a wonderful Christmas full of time with family! R and I were very excited about Tink's first Christmas and she seemed to love it as much as we do :) Of course, she was completely interested in wrapping paper and exploring all of the new places we visited - she's getting harder and harder to keep up with! There were way too many pictures to choose from, so here are some highlights (don't forget to mute the playlist at the bottom of the page before you start the video) If you're on Facebook, these are the same pictures I posted this morning :)

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful week with family in Oklahoma! We started by celebrating R's Grandpa's birthday on Wednesday night, and getting together with the Linders crew is never boring! Tink hasn't spent a lot of time with her Daddy's family, so they had fun playing and getting to know each other. We celebrated Thanksgiving with more family on Thursday and Tink did her best to keep up with the big kids :) We headed further north on Friday for Thanksgiving with my family (can you say FULL?) and enjoyed time with my parents and grandparents. We are so thankful for our families and for time spent with them - it never seems long enough and we came home looking forward to Christmas!

cousins

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Going for a ride

Thanksgiving Dinner (#3!)

Cheering for the Sooners with Papa

Halloween

I have a lot of posting to catch up on, so I decided to spare myself the headache and post each separately as if I had been keeping up with things all along :)

We had such a fun Halloween! My niece spent the day with us and I had a great time taking the girls' pictures in their cute Halloween shirts. We also hosted a Halloween party for our friends with little ones, which was hilarious - there should be a rule against forcing your child into a fuzzy costume just for the sake of pictures, but it's way too cute to resist! Tinkerbell was a pretty good sport, I must admit. She wasn't a big fan of her wings, but I'm not sure I would be fond of having something strapped to my back that completely threw off the little balance I constantly worked so hard to achieve. Fun was had by all (except when we tried to take pictures) and I very quickly began having Pumpkin Patch flashbacks. . . Oh well, maybe they'll be more into it next year.

Cute Halloween shirts

(Thanks, Grandma!)

My sweet ladybug

(Props to Aunt Lorie for scoring such a

CUTE costume at a consignment sale!)

Cousins in costume

Our sweet friends

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we made our first trip to the Pumpkin Patch! We visited Hall's Pumpkin Farm in Grapevine, which was super cute and free (R's favorite part of the whole experience). Tink wasn't at all as excited as we were (my Granny reminded me that I wasn't too fond of being outside and getting dirty as a kid, so at least we know where she gets it!) We had to laugh at all of the other parents trying to pose their babies and get pictures - there were lots of silly voices, waving hands, and crying kids dressed in fall clothing in 80 degree weather! :) Next time, we'll definitely take our video camera to capture the whole affair! We did manage to get just a few good ones, so here they are - happy fall!

I'm not so sure about this. . .

Can I eat it?

Doesn't taste very good!

This one is more my size!

Still doesn't taste good, though :)

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere!

Fabulous Fourth

We took our first plane ride to Oklahoma with Tink and she did great! We thought that we were on time when we arrived at the airport, but it was a zoo (of course) and we almost missed our flight! I hoped that our first trip with a baby in tow would not include a mad dash to the gate, and of course, it did. Once we arrived in Tulsa and found that our luggage also made it, the trip was wonderful. We spent a long weekend with my parents, my sister and her family, and also visited my Grandparents. It was wonderful to spend time together, and we are looking forward to many more summer weekends with my family!

Ready to go!

We bought these before

the girls were born

Baths are more fun in the sink!

Showing Papa which card to play

First Sunday at church together

Testing the water in

Nana's new pool

Nana's girls

At Granny and Grandad's house

Proud Daddy

We celebrated Father's Day last weekend in Oklahoma City. R spent most of the weekend helping his Dad on his Grandma's farm, so Tink and I got to spend lots of time with her Grandma and Great-Grandma! We also spent time with the rest of the family and went to church together Sunday morning. It was so fun to see R stand up with the other dads and be recognized in church - I am so proud that he's mine! I can't imagine having a better husband, provider, and Daddy for Tink. We are both so blessed to have him.

Happy Father's Day!

Our Family

PaPa and the grandkids

PaPa's baby girl

Four Linders Generations

Wild Blackberries!