Confessions of a Shopaholic

This post is not a review of the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic" (even though I'd like to see it!)


No, this post is about my little miss Shopaholic Carlee.

Carlee used to throw such HUGE fits over shoe shopping. I mean she used melt down into an instant don't touch my feet-I hate shoes mode. These days the switch has flipped and I can't seem to keep her AWAY from shoes! She excitedly squeals, "Let's see! Let's see!" as she makes her way over to the shoe displays. She will then proceed to touch every shoe and say, "Pretty!"

My cousin Kaitlyn was trying on flip flops yesterday and she grabbed a size 6 (Yes a 6! She needs to stop growing!) and Carlee just had to try them on too. She was so cute trying to walk around in shoes five times too big. Well, she was cute until I told her to take them off. Then she started a diva tantrum and refused to remove them from her feet. After all, Kaitlyn and mommy got shoes so it seemed only fair to her that she should get some too right? Well, life's not always fair girl.

Kaitlyn thought it was funny when Carlee saw something she liked in the store. Carlee would run up to it and laugh a wicked "Heh, heh, heh!" almost as if saying, "Oh this should be mine!" She did that with an adorable little monkey purse that caught her eye. We handed Carlee a pair of shoes to keep her hands busy just so we could pry it off her arm!

All the sparkly jewelry in the display cases have caught her eye now too. I've never seen her so intrigued! She looked just like this little girl:

We took her to Claire's to look at some "cheaper" jewelry (even though mommy didn't buy her anything!). She grabbed a basket and started filling it up. Every time she turned her back mommy would take something out and put it back on the shelf. Yep, I'm soooo sneaky! She was disappointed when she didn't get anything so she played tug-o-war with Kaitlyn over a pair of cupcake earrings I bought for Kaitlyn's b-day. Sorry Carlee! You gotta have pierced ears to get those!

Anyways, I think you can see that my little miss Carlee is just starting to be a shopaholic. By the time she turns five we might have to let her join a kindergarten shoppers anonymous. I guess I shouldn't have complained that Carlee didn't used to like shopping. Complaining usually backfires!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. She had a great big slice of homemade bread with butter. Now that's heaven!

2. God is by my side, always. He's the one person I can always turn too, even though I screw up once in awhile.

3. I know this: I really love my children. I just wish they weren't constantly pushing each others buttons and fighting! I feel like I'm going to have to be committed into the insane asylum soon if I don't get some peace!

4. A Twix candy bar is in my drawer still. I hope I have the willpower today to keep it there. :)

5. These words apply to me: my heart has good intentions in abundance, it's my body that's weak.

6. It's about time the sun was shining! I have been enjoying the moisture we received though. Our little valley REALLY needed it!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting my car back from the mechanics (do they train mechanics to be rip-off artists??), tomorrow my plans include trying to save my trees from the weeds that have overtaken them and Sunday, I want to rest (I hope)!

Happy Father's Day!

I LOVE to bake, yet I hate to cook. Does that make sense? Desserts are just more fun to bake than say, a rack of lamb. This father's day the kids wanted to make daddy a special treat. I came across a recipe for Snickerdoodle cake that sounded delish so we decided to give it a shot.

First the kids wanted to dress the part for some serious baking.

How cute is she?

And check out this adorable future chef!

Collin measured out the flour...

...and baking powder.

Carlee stirred the sugar. Sort of.

Collin was VERY excited to use the beaters. Luckily he didn't make a horrible mess which was nice!

Little flour face.

Carlee did some last minute stirring before we put the batter in the pan. I'm pretty sure she did a little bit of tasting too. :)

Here's the result! A yummy cinnamon snacking cake! We put a little whipped cream on the top with some cinnamon just to dress it up a little.

The kids are big fans of whipped cream. Can you tell?

I think everyone liked it and you can see the recipe on my food blog. Hope everyone had a good Father's day!

When it rains it pours.

All the rain that we have been getting for weeks has been awesome! Sure I complained that they postponed t-ball for two weeks and the weeds are starting to grow higher than our baby trees but now we have water running through the river in our backyard! I hope it runs all summer long.


One of the kids favorite summer activities is throwing rocks in the river. They'd stay there for hours if I let 'em. Yet, there's only so many times mommy can say "wow" at another splash in the river before she's ready to go. We had a blast and we're waiting for another rain free night to go play some more.

See how close it is to our house?

See my stick?

That's not a stick.
Now this is a stick!

Ahhh..summer!

Well, summer has just begun and already the kids are bleeding me dry!

Swimming lessons...

...basketball camp...

...and now T-Ball finally started!

It's been worth the money to see their little faces light up with joy and laughter. It's probably a good thing we don't have gymnastics close or I would have been suckered into that too!

Gotta love summer!

Now THAT'S my kind of diet!!

Tonight I am baking cookies and eating with both hands! My ultimate favorite cookie would have to be the sugar cookie. What's yours?