Boutique Sweet Cheeks goes to Las Vegas and LA October 2010

One of the largest baby/childrens trade shows(ABC EXPO) in the world is held annually in Las Vegas. As most of you know, my dad and I came up with a pattern 3 years ago for the bumbo chair cover. You can see our covers at Boutique Sweet Cheeks.com. Sales started out great and have exceeded our expectations over the past year. These EXPO's are essential for business, because they get your product into retail stores. Buyers and media outlets are there looking for the next best baby gadget or trend. Getting ready for the show was stressful. I had never done anything like this and had no idea what to expect. I never imagined how much effort and time it would take to get ready and feel prepared. Overall it was a wondeful learning experience and I am so glad we went. I could not have done it without the help of my Dad, Jennifer, Candice, Mike, David or Mom.

Plus...who wouldn't want to go to Vegas?

We stayed in 2 hotels while we were there...the Palazzo and the Hard Rock.

The Palazzo was great..and worth every Penny. It's part of the Venetian.

Our Room...

We had our 1st celebrity sighting here as well. Mr. Larry Flynt of Hustler Magazine. Woody Harrelson played him in the movie..People vs. Larry Flynt. He is actually in the wheel chair because he was shot in Lawrenceville GA near the downtown courthouse.

We also ran into the following wax celebrities..

Oprah

Tupac

Britney

The Rat Pack

And my wax figure. Crazy!


Here was our Booth for the show.

We met some fun friends at the EXPO and they have some great products so check them out.

Piggy Paint..A non-toxic nail polish.

Pulling up Flowers. A keepsake journal by the Dibble Company.

2nd Celebrity Sighting...Danny Lynn and Larry Birkhead at the actual ABC EXPO.

The daughter of Anna Nicole Smith.

During the week, we switched over to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. We kept seeing these kids being followed around by camera men and huge lights. We also saw signs everywhere telling guest that a reality show was being filmed and that we might appear on camera. They would'nt tell us the show they were doing, but with the help of the internet, we found out.

Real World Las Vegas

We spent our days at the EXPO and our nights mostly going out to eat, sight seeing and sleeping. The 3 hour time difference was crazy. I woke up at 7 every morning..and was ready to go to bed by 6pm. Not good when you are in Vegas. One night was spent at the gas station because Jennifers battery died on her car. Dad rode to walmart with a complete stranger who spoke very little english, but was very kind. He actually had to take dad to 3 different places to get the right battery.

After the EXPO, we rode back to LA with Jennifer. I was really excited to be in "LA Baby" (inside joke between me and Jenn.)

3rd celebrity sighting was Mischa Barton. She was eating at the same little french resturant as us, hardly noticeable. The only reason we recognized her was because she went to the bathroom which was right by our table.

We drove all around LA and even went up to Calabasas, CA to vist the first DASH store. Owned by the Kardashian sisters, none of which were there.

It was a great trip with great people, however I really missed my family and home. Glad to finally be back. ")

Family Trip to Glen Falls Waterfall in Highlands NC

This is a wonderful hike to take with your kids. There are 3 different places to see waterfalls along the easy trail. It's located about 2 miles outside of the main Highlands, NC downtown area.

October 3rd Our 7 year anniversary.

Mike and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary the first weekend in October, by white water rafting and camping out in Tennessee. I was not nervous at all about rafting, but then this instructor sat everybody down to give us a small training session. He was pretty energized...on energy drinks and I am assuming some illegal substances...because seriously he had a lot of energy. He pretty much said that everyone would fall out of the boat. This was not something I was going to let happen. I am not the most outdoorsy person...and falling out of the boat and humilating myself in front of a ton of people was not my idea of exciting. However I need to live a little and go with it, so I did...the outcome..... I didn't fall out of the boat and it was awesome. I loved it. The weather was beautiful and camping out afterwards with our friends was so fun. This was also the first time we had spent the night without the girls. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching them.

I love you Mike and look forward to many more adventures with you.

Day Trip up to Mountains May 29th, 2010

Today we drove up to the mountains to cool off and eat some good BBQ. Mike found a BBQ tasting festival up in Young Harris Georgia and we got to sample some great BBQ. We also enjoyed fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade. Yum Yum.

On our way home we stopped by a little river and let the girls play. Here are some pictures of the beautiful river and my 2 beautiful girls.

Girls Beach Trip April 2010

I had a case of the mondays..so I decided to pack up the car and take the girls down to the beach in Florida. My favorite momma moment was when we were all getting ready to go to sleep and the girls were making each other laugh. It was so great for me, as their mother to see them happy and playing together.

Here are some photos from the trip. We did the Alligator farm in the morning and the beach later that afternoon.

Easter 2010

We had a wonderful Easter with my Family.
Great Lunch, Easter Baskets, Easter Egg Hunts, and Easter Candy!

Karlie and Janies Pony Party

Since Karlie turned 3 at the end of February and Janie turned 2 at the beginning of April we decided to do a combined Birthday party this year.
In October we went to a fall festival which had pony rides. Karlie tried it and of course loved it. So for their party this year, I thought about having someone come out to the house to give pony rides to the kids.
In my search for this, I found a lady who had a farm in Snellville who actually had the parties at her farm. We had hit the Jackpot! It was the best place ever. She had a playground, picnic tables, seating, a covered place in the barn to keep the food and unwrap gifts, bales of hay for the kids to climb on and of course a miniature pony for pony rides.(Big horses too for the older kids.)

I had so much fun planning for the party.

I found the cutest invites on ETSY.


I made the girls matching outfits. White tee's with their names, ages, and cowboy hats...along with cute little ruffled pants.

And found some great things at the dollar store for goodie bags.


For food, we did Shanes Rib Shack BBQ sandwiches, had lots of ice cold IBC rootbeer and cream sodas, red velvet cupcakes for dessert and I made some yummy caramel apples coated in M&Ms.

Here are some photos of the fun.

The writing on the wall!

So...It was a perfectly normal sunny day. I had just got done cleaning the house, vacuumed both floors, cleaned the kitchen, did the laundry...and I even shampooed the carpet in the living room.
Ahhh..a nice clean home.
I decided to let the girls play downstairs while I went upstairs to call the insurance people about our car accident. I got off the phone and thought...wow..the girls are being really quite. This usually means they are doing something they shouldn't be. As I walk down the stairs I see the first of the damage. Black Sharpie marker everywhere! They wrote on the walls, their toys, the furniture, the tv, the wood floors, and best of all the carpet I had just shampooed. I was speechless for a while..they both stared at me like they knew they had done something wrong. Karlie went to timeout and Janie went to her bed.

Here are some pictures from that fateful day...






This is them after they had washed away their sins. My cute little angels again.")

Stress Break....I mean Spring Break 2010

Here we go.. in order of how things transpired....

Arrival to the Brown's Orlando House: Saturday Morning 2 AM.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were great relaxing days. We didn't know at the time that we would really need these. ") During this time we slept, ate, visited with family and shopped.

Tuesday-Thursday..We decided to rent a house on the beach in St. Augustine,Florida.
The house was right on the beach, but that was the only good thing. It was older, and had a dirty feel to it.
The girls were able to go on the beach for a couple of hours, but we had to bundle them up in jackets, sweaters and jeans...because it was overcast, windy and rainy for the whole 2 days we were there.



Doesn't this look like a beautiful day on the beach?


Tuesday Night we decided to go on our Favorite Sail Boat ride in St. Augustine. Its a sunset sail, where you usually see dolphins, and enjoy the view. Mike and I have done it about 7 times by ourselves, but we decided to take the girls this time. We thought the girls would think it was amazing that they were on a real SAIL BOAT! NOPE.... They for some reason hated every minute of it. Maybe because it was 4o degrees! Janie was the worst, she was inconsolable. I felt terrible for everyone else on the boat that paid money to hear a toddler scream for 2 hours. The captain of the boat did however show us down to the hull of the boat, where Janie's cries were somewhat muted. So glad we paid $90 to sit in the hull of a boat.

Wednesday got even better!! That night I had gone to visit one of my friends, Julie, who lived in the area for dinner. I loved catching up with her, and talking to her about all that had been going on in our lives since she had moved to Florida. It was great seeing her.
On my way home, a car tried switching over to my lane. (I was in his blind spot) and he hit the side of my car, causing me to spin across the 4 lane road into a huge cement pole. My car which we had just bought in January, was totalled. Ughh!!

That car WAS so nice.

Thursday we spent the day at enterprise renting a minivan*. Then we went to the junk yard to get some items from the car, took pics. etc. Then we drove 2 hours back to Orlando.

Friday was Mikes Birthday...and by far the best, most memorable, enjoyable part of the trip. My parents watched the girls all day while Uncle Bill took us to Silver Springs for Kayaking. I don't know of any other place in the states where you can experience something like this.

The river water is clear...you can see everything underneath you which is Amazing, Scary, and Beautiful. There were alligators lying on mossy patches everywhere, birds and turtles. But the best was the wild Monkeys. Yes!! Wild Monkeys in Florida! They shot a movie back on the river in the 30's and some monkeys got loose and have been reproducing and living there ever since. WE LOVED IT!



Saturday we rested from our 10 mile kayaking trip.

Sunday we were leaving to head back to Georgia. I was driving and had not even gotten a mile from the house when a cop runs out to the road in front of our car. His partner was clocking people in this parking lot on the right... and he would run out to tell them they were speeding and needed to pull over for their ticket. After they talked to me a little while and got some information they ended up letting me go without even a warning. How awesome was that!! GO Florida Cops.

Georgia Cops...not so sweet. Mike got a ticket on interstate 75 going 88. Anything over 85 is considered "Super Speeding" under the new super speeder law..meaning another $200 gets ADDED on to your original fine.



REALLY!!

Happy Spring Break. ")