Our Favorite Little Book Store

Since moving back to Kansas City several years ago, I have discovered some absolutely fabulous local businesses here. One of those is the most amazingly cute, sweet, and kid-friendly book stores known to man.

Tonight, we stopped in to pick up a book for Everleigh's friend, Sage.

And while I may be a little old for this place, I still feel my imagination kicking in to overtime when I walk through the giant aligator mouth door and soak in all the wonderful and whimsical things around me. Oh, and the books selection is also fantastic ;)

Everleigh loves it at the Reading Reptile, and I cannot wait until she's old enough to have birthday parties there, attend story time, and pick out some books of her own.

Missouri or Florida?

So, while I understand that as soon as I post about this our luck will likely change, I cannot help but brag about the amazingly lovely mild winter we are having. It's fabulous. It may mean global warming is peaking and we're all going to die. But right now I'm choosing to focus on the positive. Yesterday it was almost 70 degrees outside. 70. On January 5th. In Missouri. Cah-rae-zee.

So I took the afternoon off and scooped up little Ev-wev and we all went to the Zoo to soak it up. While we were a little pressed for time, it was still a lovely little trip. Everleigh kept asking about when we would see the doggies and kitties (her all-time favs) so I don't think she quite gets the concept of the zoo yet, but she had fun seeing the baby monkey and the tiger and playing on the playground with some British kids and being strolled around in the sunshine.

And while I am by no means a pageant mom or some other kind of silly type running around trying to put a hairpiece and false eyelashes on my baby, it made me a little too happy that Everleigh allowed me to put her hair in piggies and SHE KEPT THEM IN MOST OF THE DAY. I know, right?

Again, I don't care if she wears bows all the time or likes pink or wants to be a princess. But dang it if those pigtails aren't the cutest thing ever. So----to recap:
70 degree weather in January in Missouri; A day at the zoo in the sunshine with foreigners; and Everleigh wearing pigtails purely for my enjoyment = a perfect little Thursday.

PS: look at her cute little jacket too. She's such a tough guy!

A Look Back Before We Look Ahead

While I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday laze, I have to admit it feels good to be back to work, back to blogging, and back to taking care of businss ;)

The new year is always a time of new beginnings, and a time for reflection. 2011 was a big year for our family, and I thought it only right to reflect before moving forward:

January 2011: In my severe sleep deprivation haze, I spent way too much time trying to make Everleigh a baby dolly by hand

 

February 2011: Scott turned the big 4-0, and we celebrated in style.

March 2011: Everleigh got her first tooth (at nine months old) and took her first series of unassisted steps!

April 2011: We got pictures back from our first family photo shoot (by the amazing Jennifer Flanagan) and Everleigh slept through the night (only once) for the first time since being born.

May 2011: I turned 29 and reflected on birthdays post-kid; My step-daughter,Tory, graduated high school!

June 2011: Everleigh turned ONE, and we had a beautiful little outdoor cookout in the rain :(

July 2011: Scott had a big art show, and we celebrated the 4th of July with a bang.

August 2011: Scott started school at the prestigious art school, the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) and our schedules got a whole lot busier!

September 2011: Scott and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary

October 2011: Everleigh was a bee for Halloween (a holiday she now calls "we-a-ween")

November 2011: Everleigh had a fun and chilly Fall photo shoot with Tina of In His Image

December 2011: We moved the week before Christmas, and it reminded us of what the holiday season is all about; Scott and I both had reunion shows for the holidays with our bands and got to be rockstars for a night!

Windy New Years!

Yesterday (New Years Eve), Kansas City was blessed with an unexpectedly gorgeous day, with weather topping out in the mid 60's. This is kind of unheard of in Missouri, where we typically spend this time of year lotioning up and layering and shoveling snow and staying inside.

Now you KNOW we Foulks love us some warmer climates, so we fully embraced the day and got out to a nearby park to take full advantage of our gift.

While it was warm, it was super windy, but we just let it blow our hair and challenge us on the big hills. We took Ev by the pond to see the duckies, which she loved, we swung on swings. We petted all the friendly doggies in sight. We ran and played and it felt absolutely perfect.

Here are some shots of our time:

Scott and my stepdaughter, Tory

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I can't think of any better way to say goodbye to 2011 than with this gorgeous day.

Christmas Time

Well, it is 3 days past Christmas and I'm finally recovering from all the love, smiles, hugs, and yummy food I got spoiled with over the holidays.

Here's how our Christmas went down:

after rocking out on Friday night ;), Scott, Ev and I stayed in a hotel in St. Joe. We woke up on Christmas Eve and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel with friends (um, well, about as leisurely as you can with a toddler. Basically this means we laughed and enjoyed company while chasing Everleigh down between bites of food.). Then I took Ev for a swim in the hotel pool, which she loved for about 5 minutes, then she just wanted to get out and run around the outside of the pool scaring me half to death.

Later that afternoon, we shared a Christmas ham with Scott's mom, sister, daughter Tory, and 3 year old niece Remi. Everleigh was in hog heaven running around with Remi and trying to open everyone else's presents. She scored some sweet gifts and we all enjoyed some laughs. Then, we headed back to Kansas City to go to MY parent's Christmas shindig. We ate some more, laughed some more, let Everleigh chase around some more, and helped her open presents.

While Ev was much more hip to Christmas this year, she still didn't quite get it, and eventually I think she felt like we were putting her to work opening gifts. She did, however, enjoy the toys!

When we got home Christmas Eve night, we got Ev to sleep, then set about opening up all her toys--a task which required a pair of scissors, a good set of fingernails, some sharp teeth, and lots of patience. How about the way the wrap up kids toys these days? Sheesh! 400 twist ties, 37 rubber bands, 3 curse words, and a pile of cardboard later, her gifts were opened. We decided rather than wrapping them in paper, which she would then not want to open and we would have to open for her, we opted for placing the gift under the tree out of the packaging so she could dive right in. Also, because by then we were feeling extremely lazy.

And wouldn't you know that Christmas morning, Everleigh snuck downstairs at 6AM and without a peep, grabbed a gift (a little panda purse), walked into our room carrying it, and tapped me on the shoulder? When I looked up she was carrying the purse and had a smile on her face the size of Texas. Adorable.

So we did the present thing and watched her play, then I cooked up a special Christmas meal just for us--turkey breast, potatoes, stuffing, canned cranberries (the best), fresh green beans, corn, and hot biscuits. It was a hit with Scotti :)

The rest of the day we were as lazy as you can be with a toddler. We stayed in PJ's and watched Christmas specials on TV. Everleigh enjoyed the old and new versions of the Grinch, and then we all sacked out about 8:30PM. Honestly, it was one of the best Christmas's I've ever had. So much love!

I hope yours was great too!

Rock Star for a Night

Sorry I've been out of touch! Friday night bot Scott and I had "reunion" shows with our old bands, so we traveled up to Saint Joseph (only an hour away from Kansas City), to play some music. We took Ev and checked into the downtown hotel, dropped her off at Scott's mom's house, then dolled up and prepped for our night.

I took a loooonnng bath and spent way too long on my hair and makeup just because I could. Then I got all psyched up and went down to the venue to kick the party off. We did a sound check and then hung about, I drank some cocktail concoction with orang juice and chocolate vodka--sounds weird but tastes yummy!

Then we played, and let me tell you--I loved it. At first I was nervous because, well, being on stage is so different from my day to day life and I was worried about getting the parts right. But as soon as we dove in, I forgot all about that and just enjoyed playing and singing and doing my thing. 

We had a pretty decent crowd of old friends, fans, and random peeps who wandered in. Lots of fellow musicians and hippie-types, which was sweet. We passed out kazoos and squirt guns and bubbles (curtesy of Santa and the Dollar Tree), and made it a big party.

Meanwhile, a block away, my hubby Scott rocked out with his old band to a huge crowd (his crowd seemed a little more neck-tatoo, I might fight you types). It was awesome watching him do his thing up there--Scott is an amazing performer and he was straight up getting it with his moves and his stage presence. After watching for a bit, I had to literally run back to my venue to close with a second set, then we picked the girl up from Grandmas and slept at the hotel. 

It was a busy/crazy/awesome night, and it did us both some good to feel like we were rockin, even if just for one night. 

PS: Christmas posts to come!

Moving the Week Before Christmas--a Love Story

Note: I wrote this post last week, then in my rush forgot to post it. Boo to me. Since then we have moved and we LOVE our new little house!

We officially have 3 days left until we get keys to our new place, and the big move happens over the weekend. We are so excited about moving into our little house and getting all snuggled in right before Christmas. This means we've pushed back decorating or doing lots of Christmas traditions until we're settled, but it should make for a super fun week leading up to Christmas!

We plan to move some things before we get the truck, like our clothes and dishes and Ev's toys. I just realized yesterday in packing up our 3 bookshelves, that it took TEN boxes just to load up books and bookshelf items (framed pictures and other things on the bookshelf). Crazy. We cannot wait to get to the new place and begin decorating and coming up with new ideas. It will put a real creative bug into our cold winter months, and I couldn't be more thrilled. When we first heard that our rent was going to almost double if we stayed at our current home, we freaked out a little bit. We like it there and it serves us well. But in prepping for this move, we are getting excited about the ways our new home will be different. Everleigh has started noticing houses in her books and saying "Dora's house", "Boot's house" etc. Last night I asked her if she was excited about moving to our new house and she looked at me, nodded her head and said "playroom". She knows!

In thinking about Christmas and the things we want to do at the new house (Scott is so excited he wants to put up lights on the house even though they will only be up for a week), I've been remembering Christmas traditions from my childhood and considering what traditions we want to carry over or invent for our family.

As a kid, I always remember my mom baking sugar cookies and letting us help decorate, weathering the cold to chop down our own Christmas tree, playing Christmas records on the giant record console in our hallway that we were usually not allowed to touch, singing hymns and Christmas songs, sitting by the stone fireplace and watching my dad crack chestnuts and walnuts so we could have a taste, helping decorate the tree and having our own special ornaments, doing the advent calendar, listening to my dad read us Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Biblical Christmas story on Christmas Eve. Then there were Christmas church services and driving around to see the houses with all the lights, caroling with church groups and adopting an "angel tree" family to buy gifts for, helping my parents wrap the gifts they bought for each other in a funny kid-way (too much tape and lots of odd shapes). It was magical. You know what I barely remember? What gifts I got. Because it really didn't matter that much. It was about how it felt. And it felt beautiful.

I hope I can give that same gift to Everleigh, and plan to start this year in our new house--even if we have moving boxes piled up next to the tree.