Peyton's Baseball Season Begins - Spring/Summer 2011

Peyton is on yet a new team this year... The Royals. I love baseball so much! Most of you know that I come from a long line of baseball players/coaches in my family, so you can say it's in our blood! ;) Last night was Peyton's 2nd game of the season. The team played well, but had one rotten inning, which caused a loss for the team. Peyton played very good last night... getting some outs... scoring some runs. Go Peyton! He is perfectly comfortable playing 3rd Base... it's his favorite position! AND, he's good at it! He played so well that the coach sent us a private email after the game and told us that he was proud of Peyton and he played very well today! He also informed us that his permanent position will be 3rd Base for the rest of the season... yeah!!

Here is a picture of him guarding his position:



Here are some pictures of Peyton's 1st hit:



















Khloe LOVES the outdoors. She was so cute... plopping her bottom down on my jacket by my chair, lounging in the chair with her peanuts, cheering her bubby on and so many other cute things! LOL

Here are some pictures of Khloe at her bubby's Baseball Game:

















AND... MORE pictures of Peyton playing Ball:







Way to go my sweet boy!! I'm so proud of you and am looking forward to an EXCITING baseball Season! XOXO

Khloe's State Pageant (4/9/11)

Khloe has been in several pageants in the last 6 months. I really enjoy the natural beauty pageants (and they are NOTHING like Toddler & Tiaras on television). Khloe's latest pageant (this past Saturday) couldn't have gone more wrong (and it was her State Pageant). It was Saturday (April 9th)... it ended up being a half day pageant, but it was supposed to be an all day pageant. When I showed up, they showed me the schedule change... which was irritating, because Khloe's Papa and Nana were going to come but wouldn't be able to now. I found out at 9:30am that the beauty division of her pageant had been moved up by a couple of hours and would be at 10:30am (one hour from when I found out and called my mother in law, Mary). I called her and she wasn't even ready, which indicated that there would be NO WAY they could make it from Missouri to Springdale in time. My husband was at his dear client's funeral (of course took priority over his daughter's pageant, because she was a dear old lady he admired) and my son was at his first baseball game of the season. BUSY DAY!

Khloe was in a fantastic mood when she arrived at the Holiday Inn for her big day. She was definitely Miss Personality at that time. She shined so much that the ladies (including the Director) noticed and practically begged me to put her in the Personality contest, as well as the other categories that she was already registered in. The main categories that my daughter was in was "Sleepwear", "Best Dressed" and "Beauty." I never put her in Photogenic, because Khloe doesn't take great pictures and is much more darling in person. Her outfits were nothing like the other girls' competing. Her attire was absolutely darling... and both custom made for her! Both hair accessories she wore with her outfits were custom made, too (by her mommy dearest). Her beauty attire was made to mimic the outfit that she never got to wear for her Valentine's Day pageant (remember, the one sitting on my doorstep hours after her pageant was over). LOL Anyway, I asked her Nana to make a replica of it, except in different colors for this state pageant. It turned out DARLING!

Here are pictures of Khloe's Sleepwear attire she wore for her State Pageant:






Here are pictures of Khloe's Beauty attire she wore for the same State Pageant:






Unfortunately, Khloe did not win any of the categories at her pageant. She did not want to cooperate at the pageant and decided to do whatever she wanted on stage... including, whimper and sit down and be stubborn. Aside from that, though, she did okay considering her beauty division was right in the middle of her nap time. She was hot in the pageant room and on stage - they needed to cool the room down a lot more than they did. It was miserable for me, too. She only competed against one little girl in her age division for the sleepwear contest. She didn't win, though (which completely baffled me because her outfit was so different than the other little girl's outfit and was custom made - unlike the other little girl's). She didn't win Best Dressed either... which completed irritated me, too, because she WAS the best dressed. Everyone in the audience was in shock... total shock. I heard them mumbling that they didn't understand that. Khloe's outfits were the only outfits custom made and completely stood out from the other girls'. The whole thing was a MESS! She received 2nd Runner up... which is not even worth announcing! I know that sounds snooty and ungrateful, but really I'm not being that way at all. Khloe was the cutest there and I felt like the judges were punishing her for being "overdressed" compared to the other little girls (who were all wearing solid white church dresses and simple bows). I was so frustrated (although, I didn't let it show) that when they called her 2nd Runner Up (and that being the only recognition she received), I took her trophy... went to the changing room... grabbed our stuff and left immediately (not being a poor sport; I just didn't feel like sticking around). I emailed the director when I got home telling my displeasure with the judges ability to judge and how everyone knew that Khloe should have AT THE LEAST won Best Dressed. I wasn't hateful to the director at all, but she needed to know that I knew it wasn't right. Oh well...

This pageant helped me decide what I want to do going forward with Khloe's pageants. I think I am going to wait until December this year (Khloe will be 2 1/2 years old by then) to start taking pageants more seriously. She is in her terrible 2's already, so that will give her time to mature a little. She will be better behaved/disciplined by then. Two is such a HARD age for little girls. There are a lot of changes around that age. Anyway, we are not done with the pageant world, but we are going to take a long break. I am going to put her in dance instead. She LOVES music and loves to sing (her own words) and dance. It's her favorite. So, why not start something she loves in the meantime. :)

Here is a picture of Khloe at her pageant with a little girl in her age division (They adored each other and kept holding hands and running down the halls together):




Thanks for letting me vent... Ha! I'll be spending much of my time these next couple of months preparing for Khloe's 2nd birthday party. I have some fun ideas, already! Hard to believe she turns two years old in 2 1/2 months. EEK!

Khloe's Sweetheart Pageant on 2/12/2011

My daughter competed in her second pageant, which was the "Sweetheart Pageant" for Valentine's Day. We had ordered her pageant attire in January for this particular pageant and I couldn't wait to see Khloe in it! But, because of the TWO major snow storms that hit us over the past 10 days, her shipment of her outfit was delayed because they couldn't get delivery trucks to our house. I was in high hopes that her pageant attire (that was OVERNIGHTED on 2/8/11) would finally be in my hands before her pageant on Saturday (2/12). However, Friday came and went and there was still NO DELIVERY! I didn't know what to do at this point, because the pageant had two divisions (Beauty & Valentine's Wear) and I had not a clue what she was going to wear - especially since I was still snowed in and couldn't go anywhere! Well, I found some make-do outfits for her in some of her 18mos clothing totes I had bought early on. They were really adorable, but nothing compared to the outfit I had ordered for her and was ANXIOUSLY awaiting to be delivered! Atleast it was a backup outfit if I didn't receive her outfit by Saturday morning... before leaving for the pageant (which was 45 minutes away from our house).

Saturday morning came and I just KNEW her outfit would come, but it DIDN'T! I was sad! We were forced to leave the house at 12:30pm to make it to her pageant by 2:00pm. We were there 5 minutes late, but they were running late anyway. I got Khloe's contestant # pinned on her and was ready for the pageant to begin! There were some really cute little girls there... AND, they all had the most darling outfits themed for Valentine's day (with hearts galore). All I could find for Khloe was a pink and white polka dotted Mud Pie outfit with matching hairbow... it had to work!

Here is the Pink/White Valentine's Wear outfit Khloe had to wear because her custom outfit never arrived:


(As you can see it was adorable, but not quite Valentine's enough like the other girls'!)

Here is the Beauty part of the Pageant... Khloe's dress was so cute, but maybe I should have had her go out without the hat because it was pressing down her face~ LOL!


(And, boy, she strutted her stuff... LOL!)

After she walked out of the floor both times, they had the girls line up again and they announced the winners in each age division. I knew because of attire, Khloe would get docked points... and she did. She ended up being 1st Runner Up (2nd Place) in her age division. 1st Runner Up is good, but not Queen! :( But, atleast she won another trophy - she really loves her trophies! ;)

Here are some pictures of her walking in front of the judges (there were three judges):

















Well, overall, she did pretty good... would have probably won Queen had she wore the right attire AND if we had received her outfit we had made for her for this pageant. And, guess what was sitting on our front door step when we got home from the pageant? A box WITH HER PAGEANT OUTFIT in it! Grr!!! Go figure! LOL

GOOD JOB, KHLOE.... WE ARE PROUD OF YOU, SWEET BABY GIRL! XOXO

Massive Snow Storm - Winter 2011

I have not seen this much snow in our area since I was a little girl. Wow! I felt like we were in Canada or something! Over a two week span, we received more snow in two snowfalls than we did in 2009 & 2010 combined! On 2/1/11, we received a total of 12" of snow... On 2/9/11, we received another 24" of snow! That is a total of 36" of snow in basically a week. It will not be forgotten!

Here are some pictures of my family during the first snow fall on 2-1-2011:


















Here are some pictures of my family in our backyard (Khloe wasn't thrilled about the snow!):












Will post more pictures SOON of the 2nd snowfall (24") on 2/9/11.....