I think it's time...

...for Kensington to get a king-sized bed.  Seriously...look at all of those stuffed animals! 

You can't even see her face in this picture!  Geez!  And if I remove one secretly, she'll instantly walk in her room and notice.  I allow this madness because she is a great sleeper.  Mama needs her kids to take naps, so whatever makes that happen, can happen.

Meet Emmy

For months and months and months, we've told Kensington that if she was good at the wedding (cooperated for pictures, walked down the aisle, smiled, etc.), we would buy her an American Girl Doll as her reward.  She's talked about it non-stop.  We received a catalog in the mail and she has memorized it.  This girl was determined to get her doll.  Well, the big day came and she was perfect, so the next evening, we headed into Dallas to visit the American Girl Doll store.  Let me just say...I am so thankful I only have one daughter.  Geez...that store could get a mom in trouble!

Daddy and Kensington about to walk in.

So happy with their rewards!!  (Yes, since Smith was a fabulous ring bearer, he was promised a toy from the toy store, however, he found a stuffed dog at the American Girl doll store and was smitten.  One stop shopping for the Shulls!)

Smith and Chocolate Chip :)

Kensington and her Bitty Baby, Emmy.  Bitty Babies don't come with names, so when I asked her what she wanted us to call her, she immediately said Emmy.  They're in love.

Of course, I had to buy them matching pjs.  Aren't they cute?!

Me, my girl and her Emmy.

K learns to swim!!

This was our second year to take swim lessons from the fabulous Ms. Sally.  Click here to see our sweet girl last year.  It's crazy how far she's come in a year.  This year, Smith took lessons too.  He wasn't crazy about the experience but Kensington Kate...she can officially swim.  Not just kind of swim, we're talking full on swimming across the pool.  This kid amazed me with her skills this year.  Good job K!

Lovie came to our final class on Friday. 

This is us waiting in Ms. Sally's garage...about to go in.

They love their Lovie!

Look at her go!

This is sweet Smith.  Trust me...this dude will be wearing floaties all summer.

No fear!

The goggles are just the cutest!

So proud of them for completing their week!

Then this was Saturday...we headed to Lovie and Papa Jay's to show off our swimming skills.  She's "posing" here.

XOXO

Hello?!  Leaping from the side of the pool.  Uncle Sean was quite impressed.

She would leap in and then swim to the side.

Andrew and Sean diving and flipping for us.  Crazy guys!

It's Monday...

...but here is one picture from our Saturday :).

Kensington Cottage

Over the last week, I've been flooded with questions about Kensington Cottage.  I blogged about it here last year, but since it made its national television debut, so many of you want to know how to get one for yourself.

The cottage was custom built by Bob Sossaman, an actual craftsman and builder.  To contact him about a dream house of your own, email him at bobcarolsossamon@gmail.com.

Happy Monday!

Cribs Be Gone

Ohhh...remember waaaaay back when...4 years ago when I posted this about our new baby's nursery?  I was 8 months pregnant and didn't know the gender of my sweet little baby but I had a room ready.  When we found out it was a girl, we added some girl touches...then 16 short months later, we had our boy and moved the girl to the room next door, took down all of the girl touches and added some boy touches.  Now...we have a big girl and a big boy.  At one point, we had two cribs but now we have none.  Kensington (the over-achiever that she is) moved into a big girl bed when she was only 19 months old but sweet Smith stayed in his crib a little (ok, a lot) longer.  Well, last weekend, he begged and we finally decided to take down the chandelier and upgrade his room into a big boy room.  Bye-bye crib...hello big boy stuff.

This is where the crib used to be...now we have some great organizers for all of his boy stuff and his dad's Big XII Championship jersey framed. 

We have some boy accessories (come on...you know Lovie wasn't going to let us not have accessories...that's what happens when your grandma is a fabulous interior designer!).

We kept the window treatments but upgraded with a Fenway Park sign I bought in Boston.

We took down some baby stuff on the wall and added some subway art.

Since Mama got the Fenway Park sign, Daddy got the Yankee pillow to go with his new bedding.

But of course, there are Red Sox logos on the MLB sheets :).

Big boy bed!

We have one of Daddy's Detroit Lion footballs and some golf stuff on his shelf.  Remember Smith's First Par-Tee?

Or what about Smith's Ski Lodge?

And since we're discussing rooms today, I thought I'd share Kensington's room too.  This is where my big girl sleeps.

The shelf in her room...remember Kensington's Cider Mill?

And Kensington's Tangled Up Birthday...

Boy...my kids are growing up fast.  I used to be a mom of two babies, now I'm a mom of two big kids.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Love them!



Swanky

My sweet friend and fabulous photographer Narci D asked me if she could use Kensington as her model for a contest hosted by the clothing line Swanky Baby Vintage. She said she needed a brown haired, blue eyed, size 3T girl and that so happens to perfectly describe Miss K.  Well, well, well...the pictures were soooooo good!  So good in fact, that I asked sweet Narci to photograph Smith as well. 

 The funny part about the photography contest was that there were 19 models and people were to vote on Face Book for their favorite.  I noticed that K was #6 out of 19 models, so I called Narci and asked her how important it was for her photo to win...I could tell that it was pretty important, so I told her I would make it happen.  What did this savvy mama do to ensure that her daughter's picture won the contest?  Well, I called my little brother of course, and had him tweet it out to all of his "friends".  Thirty-five minutes later, K was in first place....by a mile.  So thanks to Uncle Seanie, we won the contest.  Gotta love an uncle with a lot of friends who will happily help.  Thank you Narci D Photography!

Love!