I can’t believe how fast time has flown by! It’s hard to imagine that my little girl is almost a year old! She’s so fun to play with. She gets into everything – once I think I’ve finally gotten everything baby proofed  she finds something new to get in to. Here’s some pictures of Katelyn:

She is so funny she loves to talk on her phone. I love how she’s starting to share everything with Brad and I. Cheerios, toys, and lots of little hugs.

She loves to take off her socks – once she does she usually wants me to put them back on. I love to tickle and eat her little feet especially when she giggles.

We got a few pets for Katelyn to help entertain her during the day. A whole flock of birds! I save my leftover bread heels and crumble them up on the ledge outside our front window. Katelyn loves to watch the bird eat. We’ve got her saying ‘tweet tweet’ everytime she sees the birds. When ever we ask her if she wants to feed them she runs or crawls over to the couch and looks out the window. It’s so cute.

I can not for the life of me get her to keep a headband on. I’m hoping that she’ll get more girly and like things like that, but I think not. She’s her daddy’s girl through and through. She loves to play ball with him, play with toy cars, play on the computer, watch movies, eat… sometimes she’ll play with her baby doll – but usually only to pull out the bottle and make the baby cry and laugh about it. She’s a handful and definitely has her own personality and stubborn streak – which I’m sure she didn’t get from me. She can point to mommy and daddy’s nose, mouth, and eyes but she really won’t point to them on herself. She is walking, falling, running, climbing, crawling, and rolling all over the place. She’s growing up way too fast, but we’re loving every minute of it…except for her ability to find any small piece of anything on the carpet and eating it before mom and get it out of her mouth.

Oh a little side note – Katelyn had her first little boy kiss her last week. We were at a play group with some friends from our ward. This adorable little boy named Peyton was playing around all the babies and he would go around giving them hugs and kisses. If she’s already getting kissed before a year we’re in big trouble! Luckily she’s not to happy about people in her personal space and usually pushes them away – including me.

Here’s an update of what I’ve been up to lately…

Have you ever had those Lofthouse Sugar Cookies? You know the one’s I’m talking about – thick and soft, with decadent pink frosting and sprinkles… the cookies that you want to eat all by yourself? I found a fabulous recipe for similar cookies!

1 C. Butter*
2 C. Sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 C. Sour cream
5-6 C. Flour (until desired consistency for rolling)

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Cover and
2. refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a
3. generous amount of flour. Cut out shapes and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes exactly.
4. Cool on wire rack. Frost and decorate as desire.

*I only used a 1/2 C. butter by accident and they turned out fabulous. I hand mixed everything and they turned out great. Brad’s not a big fan of frosting – I know I don’t understand it either. So I didn’t frost a few just for him. They weren’t too bad unfrosted, but I have a firm belief that anything with frosting on it always tastes better! I made both butter cream frosting and cream cheese frosting. Yum!

So on to my latest sewing project. For some reason I’m feeling like sewing lately. Here’s my scripture cover that I made. I plan on making a matching church bag to go with it. I’m thinking I might make some of these for gifts for family and friends. Super easy to make and they look awesome! This is my prototype…the next one will be much better.

And last but not least – I found an awesome website that I got 140 business cards for free – I just had to pay shipping ($6) not a bad deal.  The website is call Vistaprint.com They have some pretty cool stuff.

I have a few more projects that I’m working on and I’ll post them as soon as I’m finished!

If you have never heard of the Fly Lady you need to check out her website! She is awesome! I have been trying to get organized and have my daily, weekly, and monthly chores on a list to do. My own attempts didn’t work as well as I had hoped. I just wanted a routine or system that would help me to remember to do my chores so my house was in order and decluttered.  I really don’t like clutter. Enter Fly Lady! Her system totally works for me and I am so excited to start doing it all. The best part is that everything she teaches is free. You just have to take the time to sign up for her newsletters or visit her website! Simple – Easy – Baby Steps! I made my own control journal last night and I can totally see it helping me. I am a list person – I need lists, I make a million lists, I love to cross things off my lists, I write things down on my lists just to cross them off… you get the picture. Her ideas are so easy to personalize for your individual style of cleaning. It’s great! What a beautiful shiny sink I have! Hello clean house – here I come!

Let me know if you want to schedule an appointment I have limited openings. We can do sessions indoors or outside. If you have more children please let me know. I will definitely be able to do a slightly larger group – I just need advanced notice.

*** I’m starting a customer referral program. At your appointment you’ll get my business card with a coupon on the back for a free 8×10 or $10 off. If you refer someone to me and they book a session you can get either reward! They just need to let me know who referred them. ***

Here’s some randomness for your day. My Little sister is awesome! She asked me to design a business card, price menu, and t-shirt for her salon. She has to market her own salon for hair school (Taylor Andrews Academy). So we came up with this! ta-da! Her salon is the coolest, most modernest, fabulously decorated salon ever conceived! (OK so it’s not real – but if it were it would be very cool!)

This is the easiest project I have done in a long time! I found the idea on a blog called make it and love it (here.) This lady is amazing! I don’t know how she does everything she does but she really is incredible. I saw this felt Mr. Potato Head and I had to make one for Katelyn. I needed something new fun and quiet for church and her birthday. Enter Mr. Potato Head or should I say Mrs. Potato Head.

I made one potato and various parts to make a bunch of different types of faces. I made a ‘potato sack’ draw string bag to hold all of them together. While I was thus creating – I thought why not add some baby potato’s in the mix?  (i.e. the tots) so now she has a happy family! The little tots are rice filled – I didn’t have any dried beans. I hot glued some of the pieces and sewed the others. Over all the total cost of this project was $3 maybe $4. If you have any questions let me know. Super fun, super easy – and Katelyn already loves it. She’s not going to be happy with me when I take it away and wrap it up for her birthday!

Congratulations Brad!!! He passed his  SSCP^® test.  (Title to add to his professional name: Systems Security Certified Practitioner)! We are so proud of you Brad!

I know Katelyn’s birthday is very far away… pratically two months.  But as Brad can attest to I am a prepared freak. I plan for the upcoming Christmas in January and start shopping in June. Holidays are planned out months in advance. What can I say – I like to be planned out and know what’s going on. Unlike Brad who doesn’t mind waiting until a week or two before to plan. I think he’s a good balance for me. I’m super uptight about planning and he’s relaxed and laid back.

I really want to make Katelyn’s first birthday super special. I was trying to come up with a theme or something and I saw these super cute ideas on parenting.com. Inspiration! So my dilemma is this: which cake do I use?

On the one hand – Princess everything? Hello – she is my daughter after all…of course she is a princess. However – she loves all the new shoes she got from Grandma. I could totally do an ‘accessories/dress up’ party for her. By the way – both of the these cakes are super easy to make. Here’s the link for the instructions. Plus, they have tons of boy cakes too for those who need more masculine ideas. I need help deciding which cake to make – and potentially which theme!

I’m also in the process of making a book of Katelyn’s first year of life. I want to get little notes from all her grandparents, aunts & uncles, great grandparents, etc. to fill in pages with their pictures. I thought that this would be a great memory for her, especially as we only have a year left before we move for Brad’s job (who knows where that will take us?!)Anyways – help me decide which cake! Thanks!

I like this picture of Brad – he’s such a goofball sometimes. It makes me smile.

Rock Band – right on! (Maybe that’s too dated to say…) We got to spend New Years Eve with Brad’s family. The event of choice for the evening was for the family to see Savior of the World at the Conference Center on Temple Square. Unfortunately they don’t allow children under eight years of age. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Katelyn with a stranger while I went, so Me, Katelyn, Catherine (my sister in law) and Theron (my nephew) stayed home and had a grand old time. We watched a movie and played on the wii. Once the rest of the family came home out came Rock Band. Even Brad’s parents got in on the action. I was super impressed at everyone’s talents.

Here’s some pictures for your enjoyment. I think these guys would make the hottest newest band ever!