the leinwetters: December 2011

So a while ago I ran across this adorable play kitchen that a grandma had made from an old TV stand. "How CUTE!" I thought. And then the next dreaded words came right out of my mouth... "I can do THAT."

Famous last words...
This summer I scavenged around garage sales and goodwill looking for the perfect TV stand and one day, I found this beauty-

$10. Yes, I'll take it! This is when the DIY gods started laughing their tails off. If there is one thing I learned from this project, its that repurposing is WAY OVERRATED. WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY overrated!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I said at least a hundred times while spending precious time "tweaking" things on this old TV stand that this would have been a million times easier if I would have just started from scratch. But I didn't. And by the time I realized it, I was in too deep to turn back. So away I plugged at this little project and after about 60 hours total, I ended up with this adorable kitchen for my cutie patootie. I am pretty sure the DIY gods have stopped laughing. :)

I cannot wait for Adri to see this Christmas morning. She is going to LOVE it!!!!!

Special thanks to Grandpa B and Dave Clark for their help!!!!! Without all the right tools, I could have never made this. :)

Miss Adrianna Claire Leinwetter blessed our lives 3 years ago today at 12:15am. Her dimple was the first thing everyone noticed about her at birth and its still the first thing people comment on when they see her.
Adri on December 10th, 2008

Here is Adri at 3 years old. I can't hardly believe my baby is 3. It is soooo bittersweet for me. A little more bitter than sweet if I am totally honest. :) It just kills me to see her grow up. She was such a fun baby and an adorable toddler. I wish I could freeze her and keep her just like this FOREVER!

Adri lights up a room with her smile and she has the sweetest heart I could ever imagine. She literally can melt you into a puddle of goo in 1 minute flat. Let me prove this point- today I took her to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. She wanted to bring her new Bitty Baby and stroller and because its her birthday, I let her. :) As she is pushing her baby in to the mall, a couple, about Adri's grandparent's age, stops her and asks to see her baby. She stops, uncovers her baby and like a proud new mom, shows off her baby. The couple, who had already started to melt into a puddle of goo (b/c of Adri's cuteness, which I can't even describe in words, you have to just see her.), oooo's and awww's over her baby and just as they begin their complete melt down, Adri says (about her baby), "i just love her so much. she's such a good baby. but she's getting cold now so i need to cover her back up or move away from this door. i am a good mommy b/c, well, its my birthday." The couple, now making a mess of goo all over the floor proceeds to take out his wallet and hand Adri a $5 bill!!! See what I mean? 100% pure adorable-ness. I have a ton of similar stories. She's just sooooo stinkin sweet.

She is also quite a spit-fire! She's got the eye roll, hands-on-hip, "you just don't understand" act down to a T. She loves to annoy her brother... just for fun. She loves to goof off, be silly, laugh at anything and everything and she has the most ornory grin you could imagine. She would change clothes 10 times a day if we let her. She loves shoes, jewelry and anything princess. Her favorite thing to wear right now are her skinny jeans. And she sadly, knows the difference between other jeans and her skinnies. She also loves anything sparkly. All girl!!! Dare I say, "so much like her momma"??
Here's our Miss Personality! I tried to get a few pics for our Christmas cards but as you can see, I wasn't getting very far.

Adri's birthday party was today. It was a mermaid themed "shell-abration" and she had a blast with all of her friends. Here are some pics from the party-