Pinterest wins again!

This was one of my favorite Pinterest ideas ever! I loved being able to see my nearest and dearest every day. Since I spend all my time in the kitchen, this was the perfect pin. The little white card on the far bottom right is from the policemen thanking us for the doughnuts :)

RAK: Update

Well, I got most of them done by Christmas :) We took treats to the firemen and policemen, we donated food to a local food bank, we made treats for the mailman. we gave away an item on Facebook for free and we donated to an international charity. We didn't tip the Publix cart guys because I only went twice and I didn't have cash either time. I will do it before New Year's though. We also didn't do the drive through one either because I only had fast food once and there was no one behind me because I was eating lunch at 3pm. I still really want to do this one so I will try to do it before New Year's.

Merry Christmas! Fevers, vomiting and ear infections for everyone!

It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but all parents have a perfect vision of what Christmas morning should look like and my vision didn't involve any of those things. We really had a wonderful Christmas despite the illness. We drove to Birmingham on the Friday before Christmas. The drive down went great, first hurdle cleared. I had dinner at Village Tavern with some dear friends who I don't get to see often enough. Not everyone could make it and they were missed :( My first duty of the 2013 is to plan a fun playdate that everyone can come to. Wish me luck! Saturday we had Christmas at my mom's house with my cousins on her side. We had a great time. Some of them met Sam for the first time!

Saturday night I decided that Sam had an ear infection. He was fussy all day, pulling on his ears and he's already had 2 in the last few months. We got him some meds and he seems to be feeling better. I'm praying this isn't the start of chronic ear infections. Poor fussy baby :(

On Sunday, Joey played golf and I hung around at my mom's house then that afternoon we went to my step-sister's house to have Christmas with my dad. We had a great time with them too! I'm so ready for my dad to retire and move back to Birmingham. When that happens, my entire immediate family will be in one city! We won't be there, but at least we'll only have one place to go to see everyone :)

On Monday, we had Christmas with Joey's family and we celebrated his grandparents' birthdays. I wish we could have stayed longer, but after dinner we rushed back to Huntsville.

We had a lot of work to do. We had to unpack 3 Christmases worth of gifts, 4 days worth of luggage and laundry and we still had to get ready for "Santa". Thankfully, the kids fell asleep on the way home and we slipped them both into bed and they stayed asleep until morning. We made some coffee and hot chocolate, put Christmas Vacation on and started putting things together. It was nice :)

 Frosty the Elf had to leave us, but he left a sweet note for Finley.

Joey and I were up before the kids on Christmas morning. We were so excited! Finley got up and I immediately knew something was wrong. Her cheeks were bright red. She held out as long as she could, but shortly after seeing her presents she wandered back into her room, got in the bed and passed out. She had a 101 degree fever :( She alternating between playing with her toys and napping.

Sam woke up shortly after Finley and was feeling much better so he was my happy boy again.

Both kids are all smiles today so my only problem is finding a place for all of this.

Now for the MVP (most valuable present) list...

Finley: plasma car from Joey's parents, dollhouse kitchen from us, a train that my dad and step-mom gave Sam and the reading tent from my Mom.

Sam: the painters tape we put on the tv cabinet doors so he wouldn't smash his fingers and Finley's plasma car.

We had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you did too!

My Baby Man

We're a nudist colony around here during the day. Sometimes I just get tired of doing laundry.

Frosty's Antics: Day 3

That scoundrel, Frosty, is at it again! He rolled the bathroom! Finley thought it was really funny. Unfortunately, we think Frosty flew away for the day because she was so upset about Finley's behavior this morning. Finley wasn't very nice to brother. We're not sure when she'll be back :(

Frosty's Antics: Day 2

Look what Frosty did last night while we were asleep!

A family of performers.

Finley's Christmas program was last week. She did great! She sang most of the songs and shook her jingle bells. She looked so cute! This year they wore angel costumes. She was so excited when she saw Sam and I had crawled to the front to wave to her.

On Sunday, Joey was in the Boar's Head service at church. He was a wonderful shepard and even grew his hair and beard out to prepare for his role.

Oh, Sam...

Before Sam arrived, I heard horror stories about how boys are always hurting themselves and I started to get worried. So far he has successfully crawled down the small flight of brick stairs in our house. He was barely crawling at the time and he made it down unscathed in about 5 seconds. We put up a gate, but if that gate is left open it's like his radar goes off and you've never seen a baby crawl so fast towards anything in your life. I vacuumed up a broken ornament and then set the dust buster on the floor and a few little pieces of BROKEN GLASS came out of the hose and were on the floor. I had to fish the pieces out of his mouth.! He slammed his finger in our entertainment center last night and had a huge dent in his finger. I was headed out the door to the ER when I realized it was already popping back out. He somehow got the cleaning cabinet open (it has a child proofing device on it and I have trouble getting it open sometimes) and was sucking on the spray nozzle of a Lysol bottle. You get the idea. If he's not trying to harm himself, his sister is jumping off the furniture over him, choking him, laying on top of him, squeezing his head, or throwing things at him and laughing hysterically. He's only 8 months old! I try not to think about how this will compound when he's older. I know he will most likely have a love for sports like his Daddy and I always imagined cheering him on in whatever sport he decides to participate in, but I wouldn't mind a son who is interested in music or art. If he insists on playing a sport, I suppose golf would be okay :)

Frosty the Elf

Our elf arrived this morning! Finley has named him Frosty.Today I have been moving him around while Finley isn't paying attention. She likes to look for him and gets excited when she finds him. She  said she hopes she can see him fly. I told her he was shy and didn't like to fly in front of people. I'm not really counting on this to improve her behavior because if she doesn't care what me and Joey, Jesus and Santa Claus think I don't think she's going to care about the opinion of a stuffed elf, but we'll see ;) For now, I just want it to be the start of a fun Christmas tradition.

I'll report his antics as they happen, but don't expect anything over the top. I already have a husband and two children to clean up after ;)

Her SHE is (Finley calls it she) sleeping in the chandelier. She flew into Finley's room to sleep on her light fixture, but I overheard Finley say, "Frosty, don't sleep in here okay?" I guess those shifty eyes creeped her out.

They will not be forgotten.

Since Friday I have tried to push the tragedy in Connecticut to the very back of my mind, but it just keeps cropping up and every time it does I have to fight back tears. I think about how scared those babies and teachers must have been. I think about how shattered, heartbroken and hopeless those parents must feel. I think about them going home after identifying bodies and seeing Christmas presents under the tree, pajamas on the floor and artwork on the refrigerator and I wonder how will they ever take a breath again. How will they ever recover? How will anyone at that school and in that community ever recover from this? I prayed that they didn't suffer. I prayed that the families would find peace. I prayed that Finley and Sam will have teachers who would die for them, I prayed that the powers that be would implement new safety measures. It feels like the world should stop but it just keeps on going. Then, I start to think about how it could have been here. It could have been at Finley's school. That's when I have to tell myself to stop. When the movie theater shooting happened, I found myself thinking everywhere I went, "What will I do if I turn this corner and there is a man with a gun". Since the shooting in Connecticut I have found myself thinking it again. I don't want to see the innocent, angelic smiling faces of the children who were gunned down by that madman. It makes me too sad. I feel guilty for feeling this way because I know they should not ever be forgotten. It's just one of those things you cannot bear the thought of and having a face to go with a name makes it too real, I guess. I could go on and on about what I think should be done but I just want those affected to know that the world is mourning the loss of those children and they are loved and missed by people who don't even know them. They will not be forgotten. 

If only I was 5 inches taller...

My sweet husband surprised me with tickets to see the Rockettes at the Grand Ole Opry! I saw them in NYC when I was in high school and loved it and mentioned it would be fun to see them in Nashville. Ask and you shall receive ;) We drove up to Nashville Saturday and did some shopping, had dinner at Demo's and headed over to the most crowded place on Earth. Seriously. If you ever decide to go to show there, just know you need to arrive a couple hours early and shop or eat and then walk to the theater. We could see the place at 7:00 and we were still 15 minutes late for the 8:00 show. Aside from that it was awesome!!! The toy soldiers segment was my favorite. Finley would have loved it! Joey and I decided we will definitely take her next year. Joey even liked it, surprise, surprise. The next morning we got up and had breakfast at Loveless Cafe. My mouth is watering as I type this. It's good old fashioned Southern home cooking. They are famous for their biscuits and for good reason. It was a great weekend!

A Skate in the Park

This year Huntsville got an outdoor skating rink at Big Spring Park! The Tinsel Trail runs right beside it. The Tinsel Trail is an event where businesses buy Christmas trees and decorate them and then you can walk along a trail and view them. Katie and Abby joined us last night for a girls night to skate and walk the trail. We had a great time! Finley was a little grumpy because we had a busy day and she didn't take a nap, but she held it together as long as she could :) She did great skating. She was frustrated that she couldn't do it herself, but once she decided to let me help by pushing her along with one of those walkers she had fun. Faster, Mommy, faster!!! By the time we went around a few times my glutes were a burnin'. She really wants to go back so we may have to do it again with Daddy.

You've been RAK'd!

Random Acts of Kindness, I LOVE it!

A random act of kindness every day seemed overwhelming to me. I want to WANT to do these, not be thinking all day every day that I have failed if I don't get it done. I decided we would do 3 a week. I went through a few lists and picked out the following random acts of kindness. Here's my list and the reason I picked these particular acts. Some are purely to give, some are for fun and some are to inspire others to perform random acts of kindness.

 1.) Take treats to the fire station: Firemen don't get paid enough for the danger they put themselves in every day. Krispy Kreme doughnuts should make it better, right? We did this today. A lady called them upstairs and said a little girl wanted to give them some doughnuts. It may have been the fastest anyone has ever come down a flight of stairs :)


2.)  Take treats to the police station: Policemen don't get paid enough either. I had planned to take them doughnuts until I realized the irony...maybe cookies instead.

3.) Make treats for the mailman: In my neighborhood, the mailboxes are on the houses. Our mailman walks his route in the sweltering heat of summer and in the freezing cold of winter. He deserves a little something, don't you think? Maybe a gift card and some cookies.

3.) Make treats for anyone else who may come by the house: The meter man, city workers, garbage collectors, UPS, Fed Ex, etc. I was thinking a little bag of cookies with a note.

4.) Pay for the person behind you in the drive thru: I love this one! How fun to watch the disbelief that someone they don't know did something nice for them. I would be so excited if this happened to me...it's the little things :)

5.) Give the guy at Publix who takes your cart to your car a gift card: I'm so excited for this one too. This one older man always takes my cart to the car and I always feel sad that a.) He doesn't accept tips and b.) I never have cash to tip him anyway.

6.) Put 3 new toys in the Public toy donation box: I noticed they had a box yesterday and I have lots of toy coupons that I can't use on my kids. They have too much already!!!

7.) Donate food items to a local food bank: Donating food goes hand in hand with BOGO at Publix. One for me, one for you. Hopefully, it will help a few more people have a hot meal over the holidays.

8.) Give away a good item on Facebook: There is a great FB page where I sell the kids things when we are done with them. I'm just going to pick one of the things I have and give it away for free.

9.) Donate to an international charity: I kind of cheated on this one because we have already done this, but I figured if I can't get my all 3 things done one week I'll use this one in its place.

Stay tuned for updates...

Giving.

This year, for whatever reason, I couldn't find the energy or motivation to do my Operation Christmas Child boxes. I don't have any shoe boxes, I don't have a whole lot of kid free time and looking for appropriate items while keeping the 8 month old and the 3 year old in check seems impossible, etc. Excuses, excuses, I know. Luckily, online donating is available!

Here is the link. They have gifts for every budget. You can even gift a goat or help stock a fish pond!

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/gift_catalog/

Merry Christmas!!!

OH, THE AGONY!

For whatever reason I had a really hard time this year with Christmas gifts for Finley. You would think it would be easy because she is 3 1/2 and told me exactly what she wanted Santa Claus to bring her. All she asked for was a kitchen and a dollhouse kitchen. The dollhouse kitchen was this thing...

She saw this in Target months ago and she was locked in. She hasn't stopped talking about it since. She wants Santa Claus to bring her a dollhouse kitchen. I didn't want to get it for her. It has a million little pieces and it was $50 (a lot for this little thing in my opinion). I told Joey how I felt and he made the good point that it was one of 2 things she asked for,  how could we not get it?

She also asked for a kitchen. We got her this one.

I can't wait for her to see it!!! This gift has the "come around the corner on Christmas morning" wow factor I really want for her.

Just a reminder. She had a kitchen that she NEVER played with. It was a really nice one and a friend gave it to us. For free. Well, we got rid of it because she never played with it and that kitchen took up a lot of space in our "getting smaller by the minute" playroom. I feel certain she will play with this one. I think she was just too young at the time for the other kitchen.

We also got her some art supplies, a LeapFrog LeapPad2 Explorer and Perfection. Do you remember that board game? I think Finley will love the suspense of all the pieces flying everywhere. Joey and I are already planning a Perfection match against each other. He has no idea what he's up against. I have incredible hand eye coordination and it's even better when I'm competing against my husband ;)

Sam was much easier. I went online and looked at all the toys for ages 12-24 months and bought the ones with the best reviews. Here is his big gift. It got rave reviews and every time I tell someone that he is getting this they say what a great toy it is and that there 7 year old still plays with it. Yay! The other toys are just things that I thought were cute and that got good reviews from parents. Poor Sam. he has to play with his sisters pink "girl" toys so all he is getting this year is toys that are, if not boyish, at least gender neutral. 

The only gift I have left to buy is Joey's. I have one lame idea of what to get him. He is so hard to buy for. I'm hoping something will come to me in a dream.

I'm thankful for...

I hate to be a Thanksgiving Scrooge, but I was glad to see Thanksgiving marked off the calendar. I can't help but feel anxious for it to be over so we can proceed to the main event...Christmas!!! I outdid myself this year and got my shopping done and Christmas cards addressed, house decorated, gifts wrapped all before Thanksgiving. It's hard to do during the hustle and bustle of fall, but it's so worth it when you are done and can just enjoy the season. I will try to get done by Thanksgiving every year. I will say that the downside is that you have to keep yourself from giving people their gifts early, especially your children. Also, you keep seeing good deals so you keep buying things. As of right now, my kids have a ridiculous amount of gifts for Christmas because I can't resist a good deal. Probably best if I just stay out of stores until Christmas is over. Anyway, here is my Christmas card picture this year. I think I took 70 pictures and this was the only one that was even close to making the cut. As you can see I tried to rake the leaves out of the picture, but I didn't rake far enough. It wasn't enough to make me want to try again though. Getting a good picture of two kids is next to impossible. Lesson learned.

And now I can say to you all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Thanksgiving 2012

We stayed in Huntsville, I think we had Burger King and we all waited to for the stomach bug to strike again. Sam started vomiting the day before Thanksgiving. We had planned to go to Birmingham, but I couldn't bear the thought of getting sick while we were out of town or worse, giving it to a houseful of people. We decide to stay home. It wasn't too bad. After being at home all day I decided to partake in the Black Friday madness just to get out of the house. Madness is the only way to describe it. So that was our Thanksgiving this year. Exciting, huh?

P.S. No one else got sick so we were thankful.

Breaking Dawn Part II

AMAZING!!!! I'm sad to see The Twilight Saga end, but what a great ending it was :) The ending was brilliant. I never saw it coming. I was horrified like everyone else in the audience and gasped when I realized what had happened. AHHHH, it was so good!  Amanda came to Huntsville for a girls weekend. We had a great time! Joey took the kids to Bham so we could relax at home. Husband of the Year! I hope Finley will want to read the books and see the movies one day. That way I'll have an excuse to read them again. I wonder how I will feel about it in 10 years...

Quick recap...I mean, really quick

Madison Street Festival with the Chatams. Also, it's mine and Katie's 3 year anniversary ;) I always forget to take a picture of the two of us.

Old Baker Farm Pumpkin Patch. I love these girls!!! We had a great time. This is the second year in a row one of my children threw up at the pumpkin patch. Sam came down with the stomach bug which he then passed on to everyone in our family. I don't need to blog about it because I will never forget that week from hell.

 

Halloween! Supergirl and her loyal puppy dog. We went trick or treating with the Schmitzs and had a great time.  Finley was going to be a princess and then she said she didn't want to be a princess so I let her pick out her own costume at Party City and she picked Supergirl. I'm so glad I let her do that because it was so cute!!! Cici and Cat Cat came to visit on Halloween too!