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!

Sam at 8 months

 (This is a 7 month picture. I haven't been so good at taking pics lately either)
 
Wow! 8 months old. I didn't believe time could go by any faster, but it certainly does when the second child arrives. As a fan of the newborn stage, I'm sad to see him getting so big, but I know it's just the way it is. Here is what Sam is doing at 8 months.

- Crawling, pulling up, and standing alone for a few seconds at a time.
- Eating formula, baby food (his favorites are apple and sweet potatoes) , cheese puffs, Mum Mums, sweet potato puffs.
- He is babbling and screeching all the time now.
- He loves to be held. All.The.Time
- He loves to be outside.
- He likes to ride in the stroller.
- Not a huge fan of the carseat, but luckily we never have to travel very far.
- His favorite toy is my car keys, the computer printer and a little piano my dad got Finley for her first Christmas.
- He has the sweetest smile you have ever seen and he smiles all the time!
- He still looks exactly like Joey. His hair is getting longer and the dark is disappearing and the blond is coming in (just like Finley's did)
- He loves his sister and smiles at her when she talks to him.
- His eyes are still blue, we can't believe it.
- He hates having his clothes and diaper changed
- He loves taking a bath. I couldn't keep him in the infant tub so I just fill the big bath tub up with a few inches and let him crawl back and forth, back and forth.
- He wears a size 4 diaper, 9-12M clothes, no shoes yet. He weighs a little over 18 lbs. I'll add his height at the next doctor's appt.
- He has had 2 ear infections so far. I am new to this sick baby thing and it is no fun. Finley didn't get sick until she was 2! I think it's from being in the church nursery, gym nursery and having a sibling in MDO. Finley didn't stay anywhere until she went to MDO when she was 2.5.
- He takes two long naps each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
- Sleeping at night isn't going so well. I'm new to this too. Finley started sleeping through the night between 9-12 weeks and she never regressed. It was amazing! Sam will occasionally sleep through the night, but I usually get up and give him his bottle or paci once or twice a night.  Luckily, he holds his own bottle so I just stumble to the kitchen, make it, give it to him and get back in bed. I would let him cry it out, but I haven't because I haven't wanted to wake up Finley.
- He is a major Mama's boy, but that's okay :)
- He loves for you to crawl on your hands and knees after him. He turns around every few steps and looks to see if you're still coming after him. 

Sam you are a joy and we love you so much!!!!!

I'm back!

What a terrible, terrible blogger I am. My excuse? Laziness. That and I just don't have the time and when I do have time to myself I do not want to spend it in front of a computer unless I'm browsing Pinterest :) I'm trying to decide if I should try to get caught up from where I left off or just start from today and hope I remember whatever happened in the last few months. Decision, decisions...