It's too heavy

Recently Violet asked to go outside and see the moon. Nothing new to us. Ever since her Bum Bum taught her how to say Moon she likes to go out and say Hi to it.

But now she knows how to climb up on the small brick wall surrounding the flower garden. Then she says...

"Hi Moon!" Then she spreads her arms really wide and says " Big hug moon?" "It's too heavy mommy."

I love seeing her personality come out with all her words. Last night I was getting her to sleep. She starting roaring over and over. I told her to be quiet because I was sleeping. Then she said Why Mommy? It's a dinosaur!

So, I stayed up a little longer and listened to the Dinosaur!

Fish Cookies

Fish cookies. I used ground tuna in place of sugar for these fishy cookies. Haha! Ok, that one glass of white wine was enough for me. Let me just say that I know I have no frosting skills whatsoever! Jordan said they look like Shrek feet. But my Violet girl thought they were all pretty!

Sugar cookies usually aren't my thing. But I found a bag of cute cookie cutters at my mom's and had to use them. I made flip flops and fishies. The cookies were Martha Stewart's Ideal Sugar Cookies. Only Martha would add the word Ideal to her recipe. I found that very amusing.

The frosting was from Alton Brown. If your going to make the frosting make sure to really beat those egg whites or your frosting will never "fluff" up.

I have made sugar cookies from scratch a handful of times. These were delicious! The cookies were a little soft and I could taste the hint of sea salt along with the sweet vanilla taste. Perfect!

Matt came home and saw the decorated cookies and ate one instantly. Then he said there better be more frosting because that wasn't enough for him! He then completely frosted every square inch of two flip flops.

Ahhh... Why can't I be in that naturally thin category and eat 3 frosted cookies in a row?!

Potty Time

Violet has been using the potty first thing in the morning since May. I didn't want to start full time potty training until the stress of the wedding was over.

So, the Monday after the wedding I got her pull ups! We keep her in pull ups during the day and diapers are for bedtime. We got her an Elmo Goes Potty book that has buttons to sound like a toilet flushing. She loves it! I also let her pick out some big girl panties. She picked Minnie Mouse. Now that was a funny sight! Violet in a pair of panties. This was her Gigi and Mee Maw's idea...I don't have enough patience yet for those. I'm sure they would potty train her quicker though since she can actually feel the wetness in them. Maybe I'll try that method next month.

For the most part we have to tell her to go sit on the potty. It's only when she's very still or tired that she realizes she has the urge to go. The last 2 nights she has slept through the night with a dry diaper!

She just loves all things potty right now. I had to take her to the doctor last week. While we were in the waiting room she starts yelling POTTY POTTY! So, I take her in there and she insist on getting on the "big potty". Then she just sits there. The nurse had to knock on the door to tell us it was our turn. Violet then threw a tantrum because she didn't want to leave the potty.

Violet also likes to follow me into the bathroom and tell me "good job mommy"..."yay!"..."you flush it mommy?"..."you wash your hands mommy?"

It is so funny! She does this with our dog too. If he's doing his business in the backyard she has to be nosy and walk right up to him and say "good job colby!" or "ewww, colby go pee pee".

Sometimes we find her putting her dolls on her potty and telling them how to go potty.

I wonder how long it will take to get her potty trained. I may have started her too early. She just seemed so interested in it but sometimes it seems like a fun game to her.

I would cry tears of JOY

Psalm 55:22
Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.


Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Summer Dayz

Baked fish. Swimming. Sidewalk chalk. Bubbles. My favorite girl. = Good day.

Like these lyrics

I love this verse from "unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield.

" Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
only you can let it in
no one else, no one else
can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten"

This song always gets me in a good mood!

Love is sweet

The candy buffet had to be one of the cutest things at our wedding. We loaded up a bin filled with chinese takeout boxes with our monogram on it for guest to take home their favorite candies. Here's my old post about making all those boxes.

My mom put together the banner with ribbons, strings and scrapbook paper. The letters were silver and glittery. I tried to darken the last picture so you could read it better. It says LOVE IS SWEET. Our photographers said it was the biggest candy buffet they had ever seen. Funny! My mom has been buying chocolate like crazy since Valentine's day. There was at least 75 pounds of candy.

All the candy was labeled. Some of them had special titles like "matt's favorite" or "jill's favorite" and so on. One of my mom's friend found the wax soda pop bottles and said he hadn't seen them since he was a kid. It was nice to see people of all ages turning into kids around the candy table.

The picture frame says LOVE IS SWEET, TAKE A TREAT.

Some of the candies we shared were lindt white chocolate, jelly bellys, cotton candy, violet crumbles, hershey kisses, rock candy and much more!

This is a great candy buffet site if your looking for more ideas. Look for more candy buffet pictures from me in the next couple of months. I saw my photographers taking pictures of our wedding rings next to the purple m&m's. All of these pictures were taken by thoughtful family members.

Feel free to click on the pics to enlarge them and check out all the candy!

Happy birthday to us

As a lot of my friends know Matt and I share the same birthday. July 19! He is exactly 6 years older than me. Last night I was talking with Jordan and I said isn't it weird that my husband and I have the same birthday? Then she responded isn't it weird that you have a husband?! LOL! Ya, it kinda is. But I like it!
Matt works on the weekend so we decided to get a late birthday dinner on Saturday night. My parents took Violet to feed fish at the lake. I should have sent my camera with them. They said she had a lot of fun feeding the "big & fat fish".

We went to a small sushi place that we like. I like it because they have stuff that picky people like me will eat. I got the chicken roll on the very bottom which was filled with rice, fried chicken chunks, avocado, crab meat and cream cheese. Matt got the spider roll and incredible roll. We had a nice time. I love him! Then we got ice cream at Braum's and headed home to see our baby girl.

Some wedding details

Here's a close up of our aisle decorations. My mom hung mason jars from Shepard hooks then bundled up flowers inside. The Shepard's hooks were purchased at JoAnn's for around 2 bucks a piece. We ordered our flowers in bulk for this and a few other projects. My mom has her flower shop listed on her blog if your interested.
I had 2 cute young girls from each side of my family pass out water bottles to our guest as they were being seated. The temperature was 100+ degrees for our wedding. The girls also passed out the programs which were printed onto fans. I don't have a picture of those yet. My mom printed up labels and stuck them onto scrapbook paper to dress up the water bottles. So simple!

Here's another pic of the cute white chairs that Rose Chapel provided.

Random Girl

Tonight I cooked dinner. Yay, go me. It's been a while. We have had so much going on. I made Mexican Zucchini Soup with Cornbread Casserole from allrecipes. Violet surprisingly ate a whole baby bowl full. It's full of vegetables! Doesn't my plate look pretty next to flowers from the wedding?

Early in the day I noticed Violet had a red mark next to her eye. It didn't seem to bother her. By dinner it looked like this (see above). I'm hoping it's just a bug bite or else were visiting the doc soon. She's acting like her usual self. She will pat her eye and say "owie".

Jill

What I Hope For

Matt and I on our wedding night. Our 2 year old Violet was one of our flower girls.

1. To have a life filled with happiness even during the rough times when at first glance it seems like there is nothing to be happy for.

One of my favorite sayings is "Stop crying. You won't see your blessings through your tears."

2. For Matt to find a full time job that can support our family again. He was laid off from Sirius the week after he proposed to me. That was December 08.

He currently has a part time temp job that pays for our car payments & a few other necessities thank the Lord. He has a couple interviews coming up real soon. I pray that God will bless him with the right job soon. We are lucky that our family takes good care of us in the meantime.

3. To own a house and a yard where Violet can blow bubbles and play on a swing.

4. For Violet to know Jesus loves her very much.

5. To have another baby or two or three. :)

6. To embrace aging and be more kind to myself.

I'm a Mrs.!

The wedding went pretty much just like we planned. (except for jaley's zipper ripping on her bridesmaid dress 2 hours before showtime). I really can't say I have any regrets about my wedding.

Of course it had it's quirks like, Violet tugging on my dress during the ceremony, the pastor's leg was giving out on him during the ceremony, the maybe "wedding crasher" girl that performed a glow stick routine at the reception. Oh my! That cracked me up. Our photographers asked if we had hired her and Matt and I had no clue who she was.

We had so many family and friends come to our special day. There were so many that I thought could not make it that came. It was a blast! My cousin counted 176 guest. You know what?! My mom and I never counted children in our final head count of rsvps. Lol, Were crazy! There was plenty of food though. We took home pans of cheesecake and cupcakes. I think people got full off the candy buffet and chocolate fountain way before the cake cutting started.

Overall it was simply beautiful! The guest had a great time with the candy bar and photo booth. Our DJ from DJ Connection was awesome! He got out on the dance floor and showed us how to do a few dances.

My cake tower turned out lovely. It was a huge display of mini plain & white chocolate cheesecakes and red velvet cupcakes with flowers tucked in between it all. Somehow my mom pulled it together. I was worried about how that would turn out since we never practiced how we would place all the desserts and flowers together.

My mom made all the centerpieces and bridesmaid bouquets. (she made a lot of other things that I will share later) She did great! Then I had a friend from highschool (FlowerFlour) make my bouquet, tosser and the mother's wrist corsages. I really loved my bouquet.

I can't wait to see the pictures from our photographers, Joel & Laura! They are the cutest couple and great at what they do. They will be mailing me the photo booth disc soon and I get to see what "sneaky" things my guest did in the booth! Were any of yall naughty? LOL! I won't get my wedding disc for at least 2 months. But a lot of friends and family took some excellent pictures as well.

So, what else can I say? I'm just Happy. I'm Mrs. Kuhlmann. Matt and I have gone through a lot of change in the past 3 1/2 years and it was all for the better. I'm so happy with this life God has blessed me with. I've got my baby's last name now and Matt and I look forward to the future.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a beautiful night! I love you both.

My Wedding Day

Is here!

Matt and I are getting married in this courtyard at 7 o'clock tonight! WOW!

2 year check up

I thought I would do a short update on V. We had her party last night. Some of our relatives came into town early for the wedding and were able to come to her impromptu party. It was great! I will blog about it when I have more time. I have so many pics to go through!

Today was her 2 year check up. I love taking her to the doctor and seeing how much she has grown. I was reading a friend's blog the other day about getting excited to see the doc that will deliver her baby. I don't know why that's so fun for moms. Well, for me anyways. Shots are not fun but Violet is up to date until she's 4. No tears here!

Violet is 36 inches tall and 28 pounds.

I just looked up the average toddler growth chart. That makes Violet 6 inches taller than most two year olds! Crazy to me. We all like to joke around here that she will pass me up by the time she is 5 years old. My extended family has some tall ladies. My mom's sister is 5'10.

It was a nice and short doctor visit. She's just perfect!

ps. I'm getting married on Friday!

Violet is two

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

I can't believe I've already had two years of seeing your precious face everyday. Time has flown! You have grown so much since last July. I can't wait to see you open your gifts and eat cupcakes. Love YOU! You make me and daddy so happy!

(Violet at her First Birthday)

V got her first haircut!

Here is the before shot. She seemed a little nervous but sat very still with Daddy.




And During...




And After! She looks like an almost 2 year old!