Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a wonderful day of eating and being with family. This morning we went over to my mom's house to have Thanksgiving lunch with mom, Bill (step-dad), Reynie (sister), Bella (sorta niece), and Chris (husband) and kids, Sydney and Grayson. The food was wonderful and there was plenty of it.

The girl's, Sydney and Bella, got to break the wishbone. Sydney won with the longest end, but did not understand the whole concept of making a wish. I'm sure they were so confused on why they were playing with a bone, but oh well.

We also attempted to have pictures made for our Christmas cards, but it was a little challenging. A another blog post all on it's own.

We are very thankful to be in such a wonderful family and to have great friends. God has truly blessed us.

I will leave you now with this incredibly lovely picture of my sister, Reynie, trying to eat the red berries off my mother's bushes. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday: Making candy with the kids

Both kids helping me mix the peanut butter ball mixture. It really takes all three of us to handle the mixer.

They love licking the beaters. Yum-O!

Grayson smiling after he helps make oreo truffles.

The imprint of Grayson's shirt on the oreo truffle.

Sydney posing with her oreo truffles.

Gooey little hands.

Please don't touch me with those hands.

Everything turned out great. 116 peanut butter balls and 40ish oreo truffles. We saved some in the freezer for Christmas. My neighbor, Dannielle, says they won't last till then. She better stay out of my freezer. Time for me to move the key.

My daughter has holes in her ears.

Yesterday Sydney and I had a "mommy and me" day. She has been begging me for weeks now to get her ears pierced. We took Grayson over to Gammie's house. There was no way I was battling him and eye piercing at the same time without drugs, so he stayed and we went.

We went to the mall and our first stop was Claire's. She was very nervous. They only had one girl there, so she had to get one ear done at a time. I was a little nervous then, wondering if she actually do both after the first was done. Below is before the piercing began...smiling and happy.

And during the torture...I mean, piercing.

Finally, we were done. She officially had holes in her ears. I was so proud of her, she was a brave little girl. Here she is below sporting her new earrings.

They were beautiful flower earrings. They were far better than the round silver balls that I had when I got mine pierced for the first time.

So much for her staying a baby forever. My little girl is growing up. Sniff...Sniff.

Sydney's Hairdo

Yesterday, Sydney decided she would do her own hair for school. She did and it was...um...very lovely.

She was so proud of her work. Notice in the pictures that she is also wearing a red long sleeve shirt with a turquoise short sleeve shirt over it. I am not sure she matched, but it was better than the tank top that she wanted to wear.

Notice how she pulled her hair back into a pony tail, she didn't do half bad. She even accented it with a lime green bow. Mind you, she was not wearing any lime green.

She is such a beautiful little girl and I love her very much. Yes, I did let the teacher know when I let her out of the car that Sydney did her own hair...all by herself.

General Updates and Stuff

I know it has been a few days, but things have been crazy and I have just been plain lazy. Deal with it!

We had a wonderful weekend without children. It was way too quiet in my house. Even when they are sleeping there still seems to be the hum of children in the air, but this past weekend there was no hum. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. The house actually stayed clean, there was no audience while I peed, and no "Ma-Ma" echoing through my ears. Just peace and quiet...I sure did miss my kids.

We never did make it to see the movie, Fire Proof. It was not showing anymore in Douglasville. But we did get lots of Christmas shopping done, not all but we are well on our way. I do find it harder and harder to buy for Sydney. She is getting so big. I did, however, buy her a 3-Story Barbie Dream House for Christmas. I am so excited. I always wanted a Barbie Dream House when I was a little girl. We will have so much fun playing together. I can't wait.

Well that is all for now. Tomorrow should be interesting, I will posting Sydney's new hairdo...Stay tuned.

TGIF

What a crazy weekend we have planned! One nice thing is that the kids are going to Maw-Maw & Paw-Paw's to spend the whole weekend. I will get to sleep all night and get to sleep in. I won't know what to do with all the extra sleep. I will miss them, but it is so nice to have break every once in a while.

Tonight is the Holiday Arts & Crafts Festival at Sydney's school. I have just been named the the PTSO (Parent, Teacher, Student Organization) President and this is the first function. I am a little nervous on how it will all turn out. I already see things I will do differently next year, but you have to learn the hard way. We will have all kinds of arts and crafts vendors, food, hot chocolate, and cookies. I will be working my Creative Memories table. Hopefully it will be a great night.

Tomorrow, Chris and I are planning to spend the day Christmas shopping for the kids. We are meeting Chris' parent's in Douglasville to shop the day away. We might even try to fit in a movie. We have been wanting to see the movie, Fireproof. The only movies we usually make it to are kid movies, so this could be nice.

Sunday after church we will head to Anniston to pick up the kids. I will be ready to grab 'em up and love on 'em by then.

Hope you have some great weekend plans, I would love to hear about them.
See you on Monday!

FYI

Thought I would give you all a little tip...just because you tell your 23 month old son not to touch the hot stove doesn't mean he will listen. Yes, Grayson burnt his little finger...bet he will listen to Mommy next time.

Wordless Wednesday:Me...on the floor.

Ok, I know it is Wordless Wednesday,but who can just post a picture without talking about it? Not me, that's who. I will show you my picture first, then tell you all about it.

Let me start by saying the picture is sideways. Don't know why...just posted that way. Deal with it.

This picture was taken while at my Creative Memories Showcase this past August. There was a group of 4 consultants rooming together and we thought I would be nice to take a picture of us all together. Elizabeth had this new, cool tripod that was small, lightweight, and you could attach it to anything. She also had a new lense on her camera. This lense was HUGE. She could be standing a foot in front of you and zoom in on your nose hairs or point it over your shoulder and zoom in on Texas. So, as you can imagine the combination of lightweight tripod and a massive camera lense do not mix. She set it up and ran back to sit with us for the picture and over the camera went onto the floor. I didn't want to waste the shot so I leaned over and smiled. And there you have it...me...on the floor.

Beans

Beans, Beans, Good for your heart

The more you eat 'em the more you...well, you know.

Last night for dinner I made a big ole pot of beans. I bought a package of dried 15 bean mixture and soaked them over night and put them in the crock pot yesterday morning with some big ole chunks of ham. It simmered all day, then I made some rice and cornbread. I have issues with cornbread, I can never seem to get it quite right. I tried a new recipe last night and it was a little too cake like. So, I could use any help you would like to give on how to make some good cornbread.

Below is my yummy plate from last night.

As in the words of my preacher, "It was so good it made your tongue want to slap your eyeballs out." (or something like that)

Leaves

This past weekend I took some pictures of the kids playing in the leaves at Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house. They were so cute, raking, sweeping, and jumping in all the leaves. I also found this little poem online about leaves that I will not doubt add to a scrapbook page, but I will share it with you now along with some pictures.

How silently they tumble down

And come to rest upon the ground

To lay a carpet, rich and rare,

Beneath the trees without a care,

Content to sleep, their work well done,

Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly

Until they nearly reach the sky.

Twisting, turning through the air

Till all the trees stand stark and bare.

Exhausted, drop to earth below

To wait, like children, for the snow.

TGIF

Before I tell you about all my exciting weekend plans, let me explain the noise in the background. For some odd reason, my son, Grayson, has decided that his sister, "Ne-Ne", must carry around a crown pillow this morning. She must not put it down, or he screams at the top of his lungs..."Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne". As you can imagine, she is putting it down...a lot. Now where are my ear plugs?

Today, I am taking my sweet mother-in-law, Peggy, Christmas shopping. She does not drive and the only person she usually gets to shop with is her husband, Tommy. Now you ladies know how tough it can be to shop with a man in tow, so it seems only fair that I save the poor woman and give her a day to shop in peace. Oh, and a day of peace for me, too. Grayson is staying with Gramps. I am so excited.

Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne...he is at it again.

Tonight we are going over to my Dad's and J-Mom's house to spend the night. Chris will be up all night helping the men of the church cook pigs for the Youth BBQ tomorrow. So, we are going off to play in Anniston. J-Mom is cooking us dinner and if the rain clears we will have a fire in the fire pit. I can feel the warmth of the fire now...ahhhh.

Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne...oh, will the fun ever end.

Tomorrow is my Daddy's birthday. We are planning on going to the movies to see Madagascar:2. Hopefully Grayson will watch the movie or go to sleep and not throw popcorn at the other movies goers or run up and down the isles. I will let you know how that goes. After that we are planning to just hang out and spend some quality time with my Daddy aka Paw-Paw.

Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne...someone please save me.

Sunday will be church, nap, church again. I love Sundays, they are so relaxing.

That is all the plans for now, but with my family you never know what will happen next. Let me know what you are doing.

Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne, Ne-Ne...Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma...oh no, it's my turn.

The Cricut

Ok, some of you are wondering, "What is a Cricut?", well it is a wonderful machince that scrapbookers use. It can cut out letters, shapes, pictures, and all kinds of stuff. It is a die cut machine and I LOVE it.


Now, for the fun part. Yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby with my boss to find a tree and decoration to enter a Christmas tree into a Festival of Trees at a local school. We decided on a "Diva" tree. It is silver with hot pink, black and silver decorations. Can't wait to get it all jazzed up. But, while we were shopping for "Diva" stuff, we walked by the Cricut display. Of course I had to stop and browse a minute. Then there it was...Vinyl paper with a sticky back to use in my Cricut. After I danced a goofy little dance in the middle of the store, I grabbed up the "ebony" color and off I went to pay. What fun is vinyl paper with a sticky back you ask? With this I can cut out lettering and pictures to stick on the walls. Yippee!


As soon as I got home and was cuttin' away. The first thing I did was cut out Sydney's name and a flower and applied it to her door.




Then, of course, I couldn't leave Grayson out, so I cut out his name and a star and applied it to his door.

The kids were so pleased, as was I. I took a picture with my cell phone to show it off at church. I showed it to Alex, age 7, and he said he wanted me to cut out "Keep out of my room" for his door. Bless him!

Pictured below are pictures of the kids below there names. Such cuties.

So, I'm off to see what other fun creations I can cut out and put on a wall...

Julia

My friend, Julia, said she was not reading my blog unless she was in it. How mean is that? To make her happy, she is now in my blog. Hey Julia!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday: Mo-Mo aka Elmo Shoes

These are the shoes my son, Grayson, wore all day yesterday. He wore them to vote with me, to Wal-Mart, and to the school for a PTSO meeting. They are back on this morning. Yippee!!!

New Workout

Today I discovered a new workout program. It is great because it is not something I would do everyday, just maybe just 2 to 4 times a month. But girlfriend, you can burn more calories than you could consume in a week. Put on your New Balance Shoes and let's get started.

1. Make a groceries list. I mean a GROCERY LIST. A list of groceries that will last at least a week, but more like two weeks.
2. Gather your coupons, and mark all the sales.
3. Have limited money to spend.
4. This is the most important part to make the workout work...bring a 22 month old boy with you to the store.

Now, you must try to find the best deal and save the most money while trying to keep the boy in the buggy, keep the boy from attacking other shoppers, keep the boy from pulling things off the shelf, keep the boy from running up and down the isles, and keep the boy from throwing every round object throughout the store screaming, "Ball...Ball".

By the time you are finished you will be sweating, breathing heavy, and ready to beat a child. It is so much fun, trust me.

If this sounds like a workout for you, but you don't have the 22 month old boy that you need,I will be more than happy to GIVE you mine.

Wal-Mart will never be the same again.