Merry Christmas EVE!

It's Christmas EVE my friends! :)  Wahoo!

As many (most) of you know, we're in Florida this Christmas.  It's a trip, for sure.  I am most definitely a creature of habit, and as awesome as the sun and mild weather are, its a teeny, weeny bit sad  there is no snow.   In my world, I'd have snow for 2 days- Christmas Eve and Christmas Day- then it would go away and we'd be back in the 80's.  I'm kind of getting the opposite this Christmas, warm weather for 10 days, and then back to frigid Michigan for 5 more months of winter.  Ewwww.

Anywho, we're having a good time and are following traditional Christmas eve suit :)

The church my parents go to has a live nativity scene!  AHH! :)  As in, real donkeys, lambs, etc.  Maeve is going to LOVE it.  

Along with church, I'm going to be running to a few different stores trying to find Maeve a pair of cheap, black shoes.  Lime green crocs are not going to work with her beautiful Christmas dress.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas! 

3 Day Gingerbread Men.

I cooked these on Monday, with every intention in the world, to decorate them after the kids' nap.  I then decided, Ryan should be here to watch Maeve decorate... so I postponed decorating to Monday night.

Monday night came and went, no decorating.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the same... long days with lots of stuffffff crammed in to every second.

Tonight, I declared it "GINGERBREAD NIGHT."  We were decorating these gingermen whether my kids (or I) wanted to or not :)

So decorated we did.. or I should say she did.  We (as in Ryan, Henry and I) watched and ate :)

M :)

I rather enjoy the bokeh in this picture :)

She was sure to give us all stomachs, and hair.

Henry got all the breakage.

she's a light!

our Gingerbread Family.... minus Ryan's leg (eaten by Henry)

so proud. 

About ehhhh, 8, maybe 9 Christmases ago, we (my mom, sisters and I) made cookies on Chrsitmas Eve.  SUGAR cookies to be exact.  I must have eaten half the bowl of raw dough, and then a handful of cooked cookies.  Needless to say, since that Christmas, I have NOT made the traditional sugar Christmas cookies.  I am thinking that I might stifle back the pukey feeling I get when I look at the dough, and make them for the kids.  Hmm... we'll see :)

Nativity Scene 2010

The other morning (Monday, I believe) I got out our Nativity scene, which was passed down from my grandma.   At the end of every Christmas season, we pack it away in bubble wrap, inside an insulated cooler- that's how fragile it is.

Honestly, what was I thinking (okay, I wasn't thinking) when I set up the sweet, fancy, schmancy scene.

It was out for mayyyybe 30 seconds before I heard the first "Uh oh."

Maeve had dropped one of the wisemen and snapped off its shephards hook.  (really not that big of a deal, I think I can glue it, and all will be fine).

However, I promptly packed the set back in its comfy bubble wrap and down to the basement it went.

We were at Target the other day, and I found a window peelie Nativity scene.  It's cheesy, bright colored, not really my style- but it tells the story, which is all that really matters.

Back to the other morning (or afternoon, by this point).

I took out the window peelies and we opened our big front window blinds.  One by one, Maeve stuck each piece of the scene on the window.  She had a blast :)

We talked about how baby Jesus is sleeping, the 3 gifts from the wisemen, and of course all the animals.  Unfortunately, at this age, the animals are the most entertaining thing about the story.

 

So, this Christmas, 2010, our Nativity scene is on our window.

Do you put up a Nativity scene?  Is it kid friendly?  If so, where the heck did you get it??? :)




****a special shout out to Missy for voting for "Mogli ZOOM ZOOM"!**** 

just a quickie...

question is all I have for this FAAAAAA-REEEEEZING December morning.

What is going to be underneath your Christmas tree?

• for your kids?
• for your husband?
• for your parents?

share? share? :)

For real???

Is Thanksgiving seriously a mere 20 days away?

Because that would mean that Christmas is 45 days away... and that seems too soon, right?

Right.

This morning I was blog stalking surfing, and read my blogger friend Jodie's post on, It's ALL Good in Mommyhood, and realized it is that time of year. And as if my suspicions weren't completely confirmed then, they were when I opened my email and saw ads for Black Friday and "guaranteed shipping before xmas." Woah.

And then I remembered I have a shopping date at the Toy House with this lovely lady. And the purpose for our shopping, you ask? Christmas layaway. YIKES.

Yes, Christmas is coming.

Last night, Ryan and I were talking about some deep stuff, (as we always do- HA- just kidding :) like how many gifts should we get the kids this year? (so deep, right?) and, "We're going to be in Florida for Christmas, so when should we open presents with our family?" -such poignant questions, I know.

In Christmases past, I have been known to go a tad overboard with gifts. Although I WILL maintain, that a good amount of the presents under our tree were "free" thanks to couponing and gift card deals.

This year, I have no motivation to coupon... a big reason in being that we don't need anymore CRAP in this house. Remember that massive garage sale I had a few months back? That was such a fabulous purge, I can't stand the thought of stuffing our house with more stuff.

But, like any guilt ridden momma, I can't justify not getting the kids at least SOMETHING for Christmas. I mean, even though we'll be in Florida, I still want them to experience the tree and presents, all that nostalgic Christmas goodness.

Anyways, back to our (Ryan and I's) conversation last night- we decided on a very strict, STICKING TO MY GUNS budget....

The kids will each get 4 gifts.

Gift #1: One from each other (example- I pick out a gift from Maeve to Henry and vice versa)

Gift#2: One present from momma

Gift#3: One present from Dadda

Gift#4: One present from Santa.


Cute, right?

Why is it, that we (as parents) feel the need to flood our kids with presents on Christmas, birthdays, etc.? I KNOW, that come Christmas morning, when the kids "only" get 4 presents (and I'm saying that very sarcastically, knowing full and well that they don't need anything and that life will go on with "only" 4 presents under the tree) that I'll feel guilty that the whole floor isn't covered in paper and toy boxes.

So dumb, but the truth.

Obviously, we're leaving out the most important part of Christmas, the reason there IS a Christmas... and I am hoping that this year, we can focus solely on that- and that the presents are just blurbs in the background.

What a rambling post this has been...

But, if you've followed along, and you feel so compelled, please leave me a comment about the gift sitch in your family. Do you go wild, nuts for Christmas? Or do you strictly budget? How many gifts do the kids get? Any reasoning behind it?

Alrighty, that's my blog for this COLD AS HECK November morning... have a good day!

Christmas At a Glance.

This is such a slacker post- the bulk will be filled with pictures, not words. Basically, I'm beat. Call me "Scrooge" but I'm glad Christmas is over. Ryan and I spent ALL day Saturday tearing down our Christmas decor (including the tree) and it feels great to have a clutter free home again. Yes, we had an incredible Christmas as a family of 4. I slept with both of my babies on Christmas eve (Ryan was putting together a stack of toys out in the living room and I was lonely. So I stayed up for awhile watching "A Christmas Story" while holding both Maeve and Henry. It was divine! But let me clarify- I didn't actually SLEEP with both of them- Henry slept in the bassinet and Maeve made her way back into the crib around 3 or so). Christmas morning went too fast. It seems like I spent a heck of a lot of time shopping, wrapping and arranging for it to be over in a half an hour. Hmmm... As usual, Maeve AND Henry were completely spoiled by the family. Ryan and I asked ourselves later on in the evening why we even bothered buying them gifts... because now we have ourselves our very own "Toys R' Us." Really- its nuts. Highlights from the day include Henry taking a bottle from Auntie Em and giving me a MUCH needed break from nursing!!! Maeve riding on her "Giddy up & go" pony... Hearing my mother in law sing to the "Beatles" rock band thing...Playing "Elefun"... Ryan tossing Maeve in the air for a good solid hour... Maeve putting on her new "pretty-fulls"(aka bracelets, necklaces) and showing them to all who would look. My brain is on overload at the moment and I'm sure we had a lot more heartwarming moments- its a good thing I took a thousand pics! I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours was- we certainly feel blessed, loved and ready to start the new year.

A Hand In Time...

I FINALLY got around to picking up Maeve's plate today and it turned out great- in that wonderfully homemade way :) The hand print is smudged, my writing looks like a 2 year olds and the dots aren't very evenly spaced, BUT it was made by my love and I and I will ALWAYS remember that snowy day in the pottery place. So I showed it to Ryan and he loved it, and we decided to make it a tradition that on every birthday, our children will make a plate (I'll take them like a week before their birthday so the actual plate will be DONE by their birthday) that they can eat on for their special birthday dinner. And each Christmas we'll make a platter with all the kiddos hand prints on it, the date and their names. And on Christmas, we'll be able to serve dinner on our collection of platters. Cool huh? Now all we need are KIDDO-SSSSS. That's kiddos, plural- if you didn't get it :) But all in good time, all in good time.

Also, again nothing to do with the plate, but I went to Body Pump again this morning and BIT it so bad on the ice- I feel like an old woman. Yeah, my body is sore from working out, but this is the 2nd time this week I've fallen- HARD. The first time, I was knocked over by 2 dogs- yeeeah... nice. That mainly hurt my hands and chest- I feel face first- but caught myself with my hands and boobs. Today, I biffed on the ice in my parents driveway and my feet flew up in the air and I landed really, REALLY hard on my back. I am so achy- I had to take tylenol when I finally got home- (yes I went to body pump AFTER I had fallen- I'm so tough I should be beef jerky or something) hahahaha. Anyways I'm sore, from my workouts and from my lack of coordination... I used to be so coordinated... dang its crazy what having a baby will do to your body!!! :)

Well I am going to post again tonight- because I am trying out the deceptive "Aloha Kabobs." I stink at making chicken- it always turns out dry and chewy... so we'll see how it goes.

Hello! I Am Still Here... Barely :)

Oh my gosh- where do I even start??? It seems like months since I've been on here, though really its only been a few days... :) Our modem decided to take a crash Christmas day, which left us completely Internet-less. It was horrible to feel so disconnected! Especially since Comcast couldn't come out until Monday (today). In the meantime, I seemed to have missed a TON. First off, two friends gave birth to beautiful babies- Nora Sauder & Drew Barney. Both babies are gorgeous and give me even more of that lovely baby fever. Poor mommas though- from what I've read and heard, both had rough labors and deliveries. Hopefully their recovery is quick and a WHOLE lot better than mine was! I've also missed the horrific injury of little Griff- Maeve's boyfriend! The poor little guy ripped his already yucky cut open and had to get 12 stitches the day before Christmas. Poor buddy :(

So.... that is what I missed in the world of facebook and the blogosphere, here's what YOU all missed in the exciting lives of the McKenneys...

Christmas eve was beautiful and very spiritual for all of us- we went to First church of Nazarene and it was a great service. I think holidays like Christmas, get pretty emotional when you have a baby. Singing "Silent Night" and holding your sleepy baby is about as sweet as it gets. There was no nursery at the service however- which meant we had to keep taking turns bringing Maeve out into the lobby during any speaking parts. I was lucky enough though to be in the sanctuary during a really powerful song and message- we sang "Emmanuel" which is an awesome song, but the pastor really went into depth with what the song means- he said "God is FOR us. God is IN us. And God is WITH us." I think I am going to wake up every morning and silently say/think that to myself....

After the service, we came back home and Maeve was super sleepy. So there was no unwrapping new Christmas pjs as I had imagined or eating a Christmas cookie by the fire... it was more like stripping Maeve down, wiping her face off and keeping Ryan company as he put together what seemed like a thousand toys. Around 11 or so, we finally went to bed- and we had every intention of watching "A Christmas Story" which plays for 24 hours on Christmas eve, but after the toy putting together, last minute wrapping and baking, we were beat and after about 5 minutes I think we were both zonked out.

Surprisingly enough, Maeve slept in until 9 or so Christmas morning- AWESOME!!! That was our Christmas present right there! :) I was SOOOOO excited to bring Maeve out in the living room and show her the stacks of presents, beautifully wrapped and the wagon waiting to be sat in... To say the least, I was disappointed when Maeve ran out into the living room, completely ignored all the presents, the wagon, her ride on toy and all the other goodies, and went straight for her car- the same car that has sat in our living room for months. Hmmm.... I made Ryan put the car in the back bedroom and I led Maeve around to all the toys, showing her all the cool new things she had to play with. To my delight, she loved (LOVES) the wagon and she also enjoys the ride on toy. Other than that, she didn't give a hoot about anything else. We opened our stockings first, which took a lot of fighting- (i was trying to get her to pose with her stocking- she wanted to MOVE) but lucky for her, I had stuffed it full of CANDY. And since it was Christmas morning, we gave her a few Junior mints and m&ms. She was a happy bubba after that :)

Next stop- my parents house. We had a yummy breakfast casserole and opened more presents... every year I feel guilty for how much we get. I keep telling my parents/ grandma that its SOOOOO not nessecary to go so overboard! I would've been happy with my beautiful pair of Uggs :) YEA!!! But they enjoy spoiling us... Maeve got 2 baby dolls, a kitchen and a shopping cart... plus a hundred bucks to Gymboree, a hundred bucks to Target and hundred bucks to Toys R Us. That kid MADE OUT like a bandit.

After my parents house, it was rush, rush, rush over to Ryan's parents house. We had lunch (which was literally like 45 minutes after a HUGE breakfast) and opened MORE presents. I am happy to announce between my parents, my grandma, his grandparents and his parents we have ALL of our spring break covered and accounted for!!!! HOW GREAT DOES THAT FEEL??????

Maeve started to get cranky around 2ish so we decided it was time to head home and get a nap in. All 3 of us fell asleep- although in separate rooms- me, back in the bedroom watching TLC, Ryan in the living room watching football and Maeve in her room.

Christmas dinner was at my parents house and it was really nice. We had everyone there from our immediate family... even Meghan! :) And after dinner, me, Meg, Ryan and my dad wasted a couple of hours on youtube looking at hilarious yet inappropriate stuff :)

Finally it was time to head back home to our house- if you think you've missed something- like Maeve opening HER presents- you're wrong- it was like 9 at night and she still had like 20 presents to open. She was fading fast so Ryan and I took it upon ourselves to open the bulk of them. She was SO not into Christmas.

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. I mean, I knew she wasn't going to understand Christmas but I thought at the very least she'd be into ripping paper! She just had not interest in it. I went to bed Christmas night feeling a tad bit let down.

SO after Christmas and all its glory, we had 3 amazing WORK-FREE days with daddy!!!!! We soaked them up, relishing in all the time we got as a family. We went out for breakfast, lunch and dinner EVERY day! And we drove up to Great Lakes Crossing one day to take Maeve to "Rainforest Cafe" and to their indoor amusement park. It was a great 3 days :)

TODAY, Monday, was pretty eventful- I woke up with my left eye gooped shut. Pink eye???? Who knows. I have a doc. appointment tomorrow. It was also my weekly appointment up in Ann Arbor- so off I drove with one eye blurry and shut to my anxiety clinic. Turns out it was a good thing I made it there- the dang pharmacy that filled my prescription last time messed up and DOUBLED my dosage!!! Isn't that grounds for suing or something??? I mean all it did was give me the runs (sorry for TMI) but still- I was supposed to only be taking TEN mg. of the meds.- they gave me 20 mg. tablets...

I also went to the Y today and started some weight lifting- its amazing how out of shape I am. Like its really disgusting. My muscles have seemed to atrophied or something. I feel so funny- like a fish out of water, in that weight room... but I have a goal- 115 lbs. by spring break or bust.

Anyways, I feel like I am forgetting to tell you a million things... but at the moment, my eye is dripping with God knows what and I am exhausted from driving to and from Ann Arbor.

OH- one more thing- Ryan, Maeve and I are going to drumroll please................................................... the Westin (HAHAHAHAHAHA) this weekend to celebrate New Years. Gosh darn it we're so adventurous! Someone stop us! No really, I'm excited to get a night away and to ring in the new year at the good ol' Detroit Metro. Yeah, I think its safe to say we've got an obsession :)

POOP & Pottery :)

*Warning- graphic and gross- if you don't wanna hear about baby poo move on:)
We started the day off with an awesome play date at "The Chelsea Treehouse" I think all the babies had a ton of fun (check out the pics!). Unfortunately, I wasn't really keeping track of the time and I thought it was around 11:30 or so when we left and that I'd feed Maeve at home- WRONG- we got in the car and it 12:45!!!!!!! So my poor friend Kelli had to listen to Maeve scream the entire way home... but I felt really bad for Maeve- totally forgot to feed the kid lunch. Sad huh?:(
We made it home despite the screaming and blowing winds and I made her a delicious lunch- she's still on the BRAT diet- so she got Bananas, toast and gatorade. All I can say is to HECK with the BRAT diet because around 3 or so, Maeve woke up COVERED- from head to toe and every crease, space and crevasse in between in green diarrhea. I was shocked when I opened the door- she was standing at her crib, literally COVERED in it. Here's a confession for you: I walked in the room and over to the window and slammed my head against the blinds and started crying. HAHAHAHA what a sight huh??? Maybe it had been a long day, maybe it was the fact that Ryan didn't get a lunch, maybe its that I haven't seen MY mom in 4 days, or maybe it was just because I had spent the ENTIRE night before cleaning her room- changing her bumper pads, her sheets, putting all her books away in her NEW bookshelves, putting her stuffed animals up in the hammock thing, anyways, WHO KNOWS why I can't handle stuff sometimes, but I had a mini melt down. But it is at THOSE moments that you realize being a mom isn't part-time- there are no breaks- there are no "I need some help with this" its just you and your kid. As much as I wanted to squint my eyes shut, wallow in my self pity and click my heels three times to perhaps magically appear in Hawaii, I couldn't. I had a poop covered kid standing in her crib looking at ME to help her out.
There was no need to cut the onsie off (this HAS happened before- never so badly though- and I had cut her onsie off in order to not spread the poo poo to her hair) but this time, the damage had been done. I just unbuttoned it and stripped her- then I stripped down myself... took her into our shower- with her exploded diaper still on. I was honestly afraid of opening it- I was scared that I would open it and like an open levy on a dam, it would come spilling out. That's why I put her in the shower... I figured the drain could act as a garbage dump :) Sooooo.... slowly I peeled the diaper away- I really had never seen anything like this- this diaper was probably 5 lbs. heavy and the poo was smeared everywhere... ahhhhhhhhh. I sat her down and ran back in her room and pushed the diaper through the diaper genie- those of you who are moms know that it didn't work quite like that- it was more like poking the diaper with one finger through the genie hole... I was praying "PLEASE GOD LET THIS DIAPER BE EATEN UP BY THIS CONTRAPTION! NEVER TO BE SMELLED OR SEEN AGAIN!" After I had carefully "poked" the diaper through, I ran back to the shower- Maeve was sitting reading her bath books (good thing she's got an unatural obsession with her bath books! I can't even imagine the damage that could've been done if that poopy butt would've been running through the house!) I hopped in the shower with her- all the while stifling gags- and turned on the water. For the past 5 minutes or so I had been using my pinky fingers to pick at her clothes, poke at her diapers and trying anything I could to avoid touching my poo covered daughter. But as I turned the water on, I picked her up, poo and all, and rocked her in the shower and with my own bare hands, scraped the poopy off her back and out of her hair. Wow I love this kid :)

Flash forward to an hour later- Maeve is cleaned, I am cleaned, her bed is lysoled up- we were ready to go to "Make It Your Own." I had been planning on a trip to the pottery painting place for a few days- I got this adorable idea from a friend (Jessy) to make a platter every Christmas- with the kids handprints on it, the year, and their names. Of course this year, we have one pink handprint, one name and the year 2008. It was going to be a present for Ryan, but it won't be done until next week :( So, instead I think I'm just going to make it a tradition and gift it to myself :) Maybe in 10 years we'll have a platter set big enough to feed a group! Its fun to think about all the handprints that could potentially cover platters and dishes.

To sum it all up, today was a heck of a day. There is a part of me that feels tremendously guilty for crying over poop. And there's another part of me that is proud I actually handled the poop. :) I think I just said this in my previous blog post, but I am ever so grateful that God doesn't give children memories until the age of 2 or so :) Because crying with my head in the blinds isn't something I want Maeve to remember...

Thanks Lord for giving us new days, new opportunities and a fresh start!

God Bless The Snow!

I have been a total and complete "Scrooge" lately when it comes to Christmas, the holidays, the winter, etc. The only person I've really enjoyed shopping for is Maeve- everyone else I either did a gift card or some other completely uncreative gift. And when I heard we were getting a huge snowstorm last night I really didn't think twice about it... I don't teach in the mornings, so I wouldn't get class off and I've got a sick kiddo- that means Maeve and I would be snowed in ALL DAY LONG. BUT, this morning Maeve woke up feeling a lot better- she was running all over the house, playing with her toys and she even took 8 oz. of milk. (YEA!) I still had a few last minute Christmas things to get (along with ALL the baking supplies needed for cookies next week) so I decided to brave the 4 feet of snow we got. My trusty jeep did awesome in it- no sliding, skidding or spinning what-so-ever! And Maeve and I had a VERY productive day. First up was Target- I had a rain check for the "Little People Racin' Garage" (normally 40 bucks, on sale for 20.) AND I SWEAR- THAT WAS MAEVE'S LAST CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!!!!!! I also picked up tape, wrapping supplies, gift bags, cards, that sort of stuff. Then I was on the hunt for some moderately priced picture frames- I needed FOUR 5x7's and those things aren't cheap- or at least I wasn't finding any for cheap at Target... so we headed down to T.J. Max. Again, nothing- although I did find a Christmas dress for me :). Kohls was next on the list: They had a million picture frames, but again, I was looking for something in the 5 dollar range and these were all 7.99-10 bucks. But I found a really cute pair of white pants for Maeve (to go with her Christmas Eve DAY outfit) and I found an AWESOME present for one of my sisters- even though I had already purchased presents for both of them, this particular item was TOO good to pass up! (can't say who it was for or what it was :) BUT because I found this one thing for one of my sisters, I had to even it out and get something for the other- thankfully, I pulled through and found a perfect item.

Around 12:30 we left the mall and I got the most wonderful, blessing of a phonecall- the snow was still falling in Jackson and because of the winter storm warnings, Culligan (Ryan's place of employment) was closing early!!!!!! I thought I had heard wrong- I was SO completely and utterly THRILLED. You really have no idea- the whole way home I sang to Maeve "Daddy's commin' home!" so, GOD BLESS THAT SNOW! Because now, I have my husband sitting next to me at HOME. :) SUCH a rarity!!!!!

Also, in all my driving and running around, I thought of a perfect Jack Johnson lyric to sum up today: "The world has its way to quiet us down." (Losing Keys) Its really true- the whole town has stopped, kids are home, families are together and it truly looks peaceful outside.

Hope you all have a blessed weekend and remember to "quiet down" :)

Monday...

I wasn't sure what to title this post simply because of the vast amount of activities and events that have cluttered my calender this past weekend.

It was my moms big Christmas show- Not much to say about the big Christmas Spectacular- yes, it was spectacular, but it was an exhausting, overly packed weekend. And I was really emotional because of that certain week of the month so I cried through half the songs. It was just a LOT of driving, standing, talking, baby wrangling, etc. So I felt entitled to some soft crying :) In fact, last night as I went to bed, I was so tired and overwhelmed, I was thinking "THANK GOD its Sunday tomorrow- we need a break!" Boo- it was really Monday.

SO we've got 10 days until Christmas??? Crazy, but nice. I really am just about done with everything... I do have lots of baking to do Christmas eve, and some picture developing... but other than that, things are set. Oh I guess I should get my dogs a bone or something.

On the sick front, I am feeling better- still have a scratchy, annoying voice and a disgusting nose, but the fevers haves stopped. Maeve has popped a tooth on her bottom gum which I'm hoping was the culprit of her fevers. She's still a grouch... last night on our way home from the most disastrous photo shoot in history, Ryan and I joked that Maeve had reached a new level of insanity... or perhaps she's just inching her way closer to that magic age of 2. Either way, she was uncooperative, out of control and just plain un-fun to take pictures with last night. Poor Suzie drove all the way down from the Grand Haven area (not sure how to spell your exact location suz!) and Maeve was so incredibly NOT having anything to do with taking pictures. It was embarassing and super frustrating. But thats life with a 14 month old I guess. :)

It IS Monday though, and we all know how much I enjoy Mondays ever since my appointments started up at UMich. No cooking, long drives talking to Ryan and listening to Buffett and usually some good insight as into why I decide to panic in perfectly ordinary situations. It really is a fun night. So I am looking forward to 5 'o clock...

On my "to-do" list today, is to get those pictures developed and get my grandmas gift shipped off to Florida. I would call it a good day though if I managed to get myself and Maeve to Target for the pics.

Alright... I suppose I should start some sort of getting ready for the day... my kids in a diaper, I'm in a t-shirt and the house looks like we had an F-5 come through last night...

I coudn't stand it anymore!!!

For some reason, I am really not into winter or Christmas this year- like I'm excited for Christmas day and eve, but GOSH I am sick of red and green and depressing winter stuff. So I decided to lighten and brighten up my blog. I quite like it... hope you do too and don't call me scrooge! :) For the life of my I can't figure out why I am just not that into the holidays this year...

Of course we will celebrate the real reason for the season on Christmas with our Jesus cake and other traditional stuff. But I am SO ready for spring, spring break, sunshine, etc. Pretty depressing... we've got 4-5 whole months of winter left. GOOD HEAVENS help me! :)

Friday Nights Rock

We were out and about tonight- and we didn't get home until eight!!! WOAH baby right??? :) Haha we dined out at Applebees with all the other earlybird old folks at 5, then we did some Christmas shopping. I know I've said I'm done with Maeve's stuff but jeez oh petes the deals keep getting better and I can't resist! We got some good stuff tonight at Kohls- first, they had these cute little tubes of "Little People" on sale for 3.99 plus an additional 15 percent off. Maeve loves her "Little People"- we own tons of the the little sets so I snatched up two tubes to stick in her stocking... and then I found this ADORABLE baby palm pilot- its made by playskool and all their stuff was 50 percent off with an additional 15 as well. So it ended up being around 7 bucks or so (originally 18.99?) it is SOOOOOOO CUTE! It teaches letters and numbers and we let Maeve play with it while we shopped through the rest of Kohls and she is definitely a fan of it! AND if you didn't know it, I am a huge freak fan of all the "Laugh & Learn" fisher price stuff- Maeve absolutely LOVES it. And guess what I found at Kohls tonight??? A TEA SET- hot pink with little cupcakes and cups and a tea pot that sings. And it was a laugh & learn thing... we didn't get it because, well to be honest Ryan was with me... but I am planning on sneaking back and getting it because it is the sweetest thing ever. Plus every girl needs a tea set! :) AND its on sale for 12 bucks!

SO the big Christmas show is tomorrow night and we're all excited- I'm excited to get it done and over with... so my mom will be freed up to hang out with. PLUS we'll (Ryan and I) be selling flowers and that's always a stresser! But I am super, SUPER excited about Sunday night- we are getting pictures taken by SUZIE!!!! :) YEAH!!!!!!!!! I have all these ideas and I can't wait to get them captured on film. It should be fun! :) And of course they'll be posted all over facebook and all over my blog :)

And guess what else?????? I lucked out and wasn't summoned ONCE this entire week for jury duty! YES!!!!!!! ALL DONE WITH THAT!!!!!

Well, my first gymnastics meet is tomorrow morning, bright and early... so I'd better get some sleep... after I dig out my navy blues (they've been stored away for a year now) and iron them. :)

Have a good weekend y'all!

Oh and here is a pic of the tea set that I desperately want... :)



And here's a pic of the adorable baby palm pilot! :) LOVE IT!

Whats On Your List?

I have lists galore- lists of groceries, lists of "to-do's", Christmas lists, recipe lists, etc. This is probably one of the most jam packed weeks of the year for us- as far as eating and shopping go! So many lists are required in order to maintain my sanity:) We have 2 thanksgivings to attend (YEA!) which means tons of food. Every year I take on the challenge of making something for the festivities. Each year I get more adventurous- the first year as a married couple, I think we made the relish tray :) Last year, it was cranberry relish. This year I was assigned to desserts. THAT'S A BIGGIE in my book! So I am making peanut butter balls and a pear pie. I am pretty confident both will turn out edible. We are also making breakfast for my family the morning of Thanksgiving... we're gonna pull out the t.v trays and watch the Thanksgiving day parade in front of a spread of eggs, bacon, toast, sticky buns, OJ & potatos. yikes! SO MUCH FOOD! And my jeans are already not fitting me... blah.
After Thanksgiving this year, Ryan, Maeve and I are venturing out into the craziness known as Black Friday. So I've got a list made up for that too- I am sure I am going to stray from that list because I am a HORRIBLE list shopper when it comes to the mall, but browsing through the ads on Thursday evening, I am going to try and stay on track. Here is what is on OUR Christmas list this year:

1. A Step-2, two seater wagon
2. Laugh & Learn kitchen
3. Laugh & Learn Mower
4. Personal DVD player


So those are the "big" items that we're looking to get a good deal on. And like I said, I'm sure we'll find other things to throw in the cart! Stocking stuffers right???? :)

I will post pics of my baking skills (or lack of) on Wed. night. Hope you all have a productive, blissfully blessed week! :)