My Baby Sisters

Well, not my baby sisters, but my babies that are sisters. I love having little sisters. They are so great together and get along so well (most of the time). I really just love sitting and watching them play. Ky is such a great big sister and talks to Em is the cutest little baby voice when she asks her if she needs anything. Emily follows Ky around the house and wants to do everything just like her big sister. And she always wants to make sure that if she gets something, like a snack, that "Ty Ty" gets the same. If Kylie puts on a dress and wants to dance to her princess music, then Emily stands at the top of the stairs and yells "dress" until I go up and get her one so she can dance too. They love to play "restaurant" and Emily always orders french fries. And they love to cuddle, or as Emily says "cuwwle, Ty Ty."  They even try to convince us to let them sleep in the same bed at bedtime.

We bought this book for our little sisters before Emily was born, and before we knew she would be a little redhead. It's one of my favorite books of theirs and so perfectly describes their relationship already, and the fact that the big sis is blonde and the little is a redhead makes it even better. 

I'm so glad we have little sisters. Sisters hold a very special place in my heart, and I am so glad they have each other too :)

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Home Sweet Home

I was asked to teach a little interior design class for the MBA spouses association. I am by no means an expert at all and I totally laughed at the idea of teaching a class, but I do love to paint furniture and make my own DIY stuff so I found a few things to talk about :) Plus, I was finally forced to take a few pictures of our new (if we can even still call it that) house. So here are a few from my little presentation and a little tiny glimpse into our house. (I'd like to say pictures of the rest of the place are coming soon, but let's just be honest, that's probably not going to happen, so just pay attention to the backgrounds of our photos if you are really that interested in seeing it all.)

The living room with my favorite painted blue dresser/tv stand/toy chest, my favorite pictures of my girlies, and all of my other favorite things:

The master bedroom with painted furniture, diy curtains (don’t mind the little tip at the bottom – I copied this straight from the powerpoint), and cool and soothing neutrals:

The whole message of my little class was based on this idea, and it is completely the way I decorate my own house :)

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My Babies Are Crazy!

I often feel bad about being such a bad blogger. Especially when I have friends and family constantly telling me that I need to update my blog. I just shrug and look away and sheepishly reply, "i know..." It's overwhelming though sometimes, especially when you go a while without. How on earth are you supposed to remember everything in order to catch up. Am I doing my family a disservice by not writing down every detail of our lives in order to remember it in the future? That's the whole reason I started this little thing years ago, for my family, and dog-gone-it, I am going to get better!... maybe...

I originally wrote this little entry on my photo blog (which is also very neglected, so don't feel like I only ignore this one). Anyway, I wrote this entry on my photo blog originally but I think it really belongs here. Here's a little look into what we do, how prissy my little three year old is and why I have trouble getting pictures of my own crazy kids. 

It's no secret that I adore my own two little munchkins more than anything in this world. If you're new to my blog you should know, I have two of the cutest, spunkiest kids on this planet- but I'm partial. Even with all their cuteness though, I found myself slacking on taking photos of them lately. After a little kick in my own tushy and a little slap on my wrist we pulled out the camera and what do you know, Kylie actually sat still for me and, dare I say, posed too. Oh, happy day! Emily, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with it. Even with my pockets full of smarties, she had better things to do than sit (or even be in the same room) for mommy. Ha! But that's the story of most 18 month-olds, right? Ky only lasted about 3 minutes herself, but I'll still consider it a success & I'm seriously contemplating blowing up the first one to a giant canvas. Wouldn't that be fabulous?

My whole set up for these few little shots were super easy too.  Here's a little peak at how we set it up- I never do these pull backs so I thought it might be fun to see, especially because of how easy it was to get this light. I had Ky hold a reflector on her lap for a couple shots but when she got sick of holding that we switched to a white blanket which did the same thing & was a much better prop for her to sing her princess songs with. I'm telling you, we are going to be in trouble when this little prima donna is a teenager :)

That blanket on Kylie's lap was made by my G.G. (great grandma Juanita). I can't even tell you how excited I was when my mom called and told me that she found GG's blanket and was sending it my way. The other side is a beautiful diamond patchwork design. (I wish I knew the story behind it, if there is one.) It reminds me of her and growing up and I love it. It drapes across the back of the couch in our living room so I can see it everyday and be reminded of where I came from. I love it and am so grateful to have this family treasure in our home.

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Cooking Cookies Baking Cookies

Winter has been surprisingly uneventful this year. I thought we were in for blizzard after horrible blizzard moving to Utah, but we have hardly had any snow at all. Great news, but almost a little disappointing too. Still, it has been too cold to really do much outside so most days we find ourselves building castles, playing dress-up, having movie dates, and baking treats. It's a horrible life, isn't it? 

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It Snowed... A Little...

It snowed, but just barely. I still can't believe how mild this winter has been in Utah. Our old home in Arkansas got more snow this year than we did. Crazy, right? Anyway, it snowed last week and Daddy took Ky out to play in it and make some tiny snow people while Emily and I, aka the cold-intolerant ones, stayed inside in the warm house.

I was pretty impressed with the snow-mickey and little man made with some leftover nails and wood from the construction going on across the street. They built their tiny men on top of a pallet of wood and the construction workers were even nice enough to use that pallet last and let the little men live until the snow finally melted. For the next couple days, every time we went outside Kylie was so excited to check on her little snow people.

Mike told me this little pile of snow was Kylie's mermaid. She made it herself :)

When Daddy and Ky finally came back in from the cold Em was excited to show them how she was ready to go out. She wore Daddy's beanie around the house for the next hour or so, patting her head and saying "hat, hat" "outside."

And that pretty much wraps up our winter fun this year! Haha! Maybe next year we'll get the snow I've been dreading (but secretly hoping for) since we moved here :)

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Starting out 2012

We started 2012 with a crazy day! The new year started on a Sunday and on that day we were packed full. First, our usually leisurely morning was cut short because church now starts at 9am (we can't even get to church on time at 1pm so you can see why this was a big deal). Plus, Mike and I were both asked to be the speakers. We found out later that our talks would be setting the theme for the ward focus for the rest of the year- no pressure... We had a brand new primary class to teach and lessons to prepare that day, and on top of all that, our little girls were becoming official big girls! Kylie had her first day in Primary as a Sunbeam and Emily went to nursery for the first time. I was secretly hoping at least one of them would have a melt down because they missed me so much, but they both did so great and were so excited for their new classes. 

What a way to start the year, right? I can't believe our big girls are "real" big girls now. They were both so excited to tell us all about their new classes and new teachers when we got home from church. Ky's new teachers are our neighbors (who she loved to begin with), she loves telling us all about Chad and Chelsea and how she sang and danced in primary... pretty sure you're not really supposed to dance during sharing time, but you just can't keep her down when there is music playing :) And Emily kept going on about the slide and bubbles in Nursery. I wish I could just be a fly on the wall and watch them learning and getting excited. It's hard to be a part of their every second of every day and then have to just sit and wonder what they are doing when they are away from you. Call me silly, but it was a bit of a bittersweet day, watching my girls grow up right in front of me :)

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year - Kirby Style

I'm not gunna lie, we party hard for New Years in the Kirby household. 

I'm totally lying.

We acted like it was any other day of the year except that at 7:30pm we took the girls out on the front steps and banged pots and made all sorts of noise to ring in the new year. I really doubt they had a clue what was going on, but they love making noise so there were no complaints :) The early ringing with pots and pans is a tradition that I grew up with and we have since passed on to our own little girls. 

It's a fun one, even if we do get weird looks from the neighbors. 

The girls are all settled into their beds now, and  Mike and I are working on finishing our talks for church tomorrow (oh, yeah, speaking in church on the first of the new year.) ...And then we are probably just going to go to bed. ha! Party animals I'm telling you!

 Ready or not, here comes 2012!

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Goodbye 2011

It sounds sooo cliche to say that the year has just flown by. But it has, and most of the corny stuff I say on this blog is cliche anyway... We missed the boat on sending out Christmas cards this year, sue me, so we did the next best thing and are sending out New Years cards. I think they are more fun anyway because they are less expected :) and ours are fun and glittery and that always makes everything better too. 

I feel bad for my poor out-numbered husband, he always loses the color battle and gets stuck with pink glitter. Okay, I don't feel that bad.

Happy (almost) 2012! 

I can't wait to see what the new year holds for us! 

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Another Creative Outlet

So, for a while I've been making my own little newborn hats for my sessions and for baby showers and such. Well, I decided I needed another thing to add to my to-do list so I opened up my very own etsy shop and I sell some of my lovely little creations there. If you are ever in the market for some cute newborn hats or some pretty watercolors for your home you should go visit my shop :)

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Christmas

We spent Christmas up in Idaho this year. It was so fun to get up there again and it was actually our first Christmas morning we've spent up there since the girls were born. It was fun to be around so much family during the holidays!

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition by opening up some brand new Christmas jammies:

The girls came out bright-eyed and ready to open some presents. Christmas morning is 1000 times better when you are a parent getting to watch your babies get so excited about all of the Christmas magic. 

Kylie helped Em open all of her presents. How nice of her big sister, right... Emily wasn't too excited about the help, but it was still cute. 

The only things Kylie asked for were a Jingle dog and princess stuff. She was a happy girl!

Daddy getting a hot wheels massage, and mommy cutting out some quiet book dolls for the girls. 

We spent the rest of the day making the rounds with family, eating lots of food and tasty treats and enjoying the special time of the year. Gosh, Christmas feels like it completely snuck up on us and was gone before we knew it! Where has this year gone?

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