So Excited

It is the day before Thanksgiving and I am getting excited all around. Thomas helped me decorate the tree on Sunday night and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I have done gold and red for the last few years, so I decided to add green this year. Yes, I am one of those people who's tree is all color coordinating. I went back to hobby lobby and bought some more decorations. We are having a Christmas party this year, so I have to be totally decorated. Tom is off of work the whole weekend so he has promised me the lights on the house would be done before Monday. YIPPEE! I got out my Christmas CD the other day and have officially begun rocking' out to it every time I am in the car. People look at me like I am crazy, singing my heart out to country Christmas. Oh well, it doesn't bother me.


Of course I have not seen the day after Thanksgiving ads yet, but YES I will be one of those crazy women out at the crack of dawn waiting in line. I do it more for the fun rather than any particular sale item, but this year I am hoping with the way the economy is I will get some good deals. Most likely it will be Kohl's and then Target, Kohl's opens at 4am and Target not until 6am.


Quick side story.....while typing this post, I just heard a crash in the kitchen. I went to check it out and my son has just pulled all of the freshly baked cookies onto the floor. I have four left. My dog was trying to eat them as fast as I was trying to clean them all up. Oh the joys of parenthood.


Here is a pic of my tree and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

I take that back

So, quick update.......I took out my Christmas decorations and well, I really don't have any. SAD :( I guess I have to go shopping. What a bummer too because I thought it would really take up my evening and keep my kid entertained. Oh well! At least all the cool things I saw when I was out today may find their way into my cart and home with me.

Needless to say no pics yet!

I can't wait any longer...

My Christmas decorations are coming out today. After I picked the kids up from my moms this morning I decided to go browse around Hobby Lobby and see what fun things I could buy. I didn't purchase a whole lot, but there were so many things I could have purchased if I knew how my decorating was going. This would be the reason I decided to drag it out today. I was planning on pulling it all out soon, but I can't wait any longer. Now that my house is all pretty from a new coat of paint I am more excited to decorate.

I did however get Taylor her own stocking which I needed (purely for decoration, as I use gift bags to put all of my stocking stuffers in). It was 50% off, so that was exciting. There was no sale sign anywhere around the stockings, so I thought I would have to use my coupon. Nothing is better than getting to the register and finding out your item is on sale, although I did all that walking around and all of the things I got were all on sale. No need for the coupon today. :(

Well I will post pics once I am done decorating. Oh will Tom be surprised when he gets home. I am hoping this will help motivate me for Christmas shopping. Only one week 'til BLACK FRIDAY!! Yippee!! Yes, I am one of those crazy people out at the crack of dawn waiting in line. For the rush if for nothing else and I always get some pretty good deals.

Weekend Warriors!

Happy Tuesday everyone, well at least it is for me. I decided a while ago that I wanted to paint the entire inside of our house (excluding bedrooms), a very big undertaking. I convinced Tom to change his day off and do it this weekend, so we did.

Well, 8 gallons of paint and two very tired painters later, we finished last night. I love love love how it turned out. It is amazing how much a fresh coat of paint will change the way your house looks. I worked Saturday and Sunday, so we painted a little bit each of those days and then powered it out on Monday and finished. It is not easy to tackle something like this with two little kids, so bless my mom for taking them both on Sunday night and keeping them all day Monday.

I am happy to report that Tom and I made it the whole time without even one argument. I don't know about some of you, but husbands and wives doing projects together can sometimes be difficult (well at least for Tom and I). It was his 33rd birthday on Sunday, so truthfully I don't think he was too excited about painting, but he did it anyway. We were both pleasantly surprised that we actually FINISHED. It is such a good feeling to know we accomplished something big like this is one weekend. Now I need to make a list of all the other things I need to get done and get started. It is less than two weeks til Thanksgiving....where does the time go?

Here are a few pics from the weekend, Tom was not too happy with my documentation of our project. I will take some completed pics later.


The darker color is the new color of the walls.




Tom's job was the ceiling and parts I couldn't reach. He He! I got stuck with the trim and a lot of the taping. YUCK!

Hazards of parenthood

Sometimes being a mom isn't all it is cracked up to be. The are moments when you ask yourself "If I had known this before I had kids would I have still done it?" In most cases I have found that no matter what the answer is you have to learn to laugh about these moments.

Now to my funny story...I just got home from running some errands, both of my kids fell asleep in the car YEAH, but of course my little Taylor woke up as soon as I got her out of the car. I decided that I would give her a bottle before laying her back down. I gave her the bottle as I always do, in her little seat on the couch. I sat down to call my mom for a daily chat (one of many throughout my day). When Taylor finished her bottle she had a very funny grin on her face and I even commented to my mom regarding it. My daughter has a tendency of making me think she has a messy diaper just by farting really bad, I thought this was what she had done. I hung up the phone and went to pick her up when I felt a not so nice wet feeling on her lower back.................

..............And when I rolled her over to see how she managed to get wet on her lower back there was a nice surprise. Officially she has had her first blow-out diaper and it was a doozy! Still she sat with her grin. Honestly I couldn't figure out how I was going to pick her up without some transfer. Of course I instantly took a minute to call and share with my mom before I gave her a bath, that is how bad it was. All the while she still kept her grin as though she was proud of what had just happened.

As a parent I cannot tell you how many times I have said "That was the worst diaper I have ever changed" and then a worse one comes along, but let me tell you people this time I mean it. I still am not quite sure how it all managed to escape the diaper (one of the many mysteries regarding babies), but it did and I have a washer full of clothes, towels and a seat cover to prove it.

Happy Monday...

What a boring day to say the least. I always think it is a good idea sometimes to stay home and get things done around the house. Well at least it seems that way in theory. With two kids though it never seems to go as I plan it in my head. Doing simple things like the dishes isn't easy with kids, so when I am forced to do things like clean the bathroom I have to get creative. One in the bath and the other in a bouncy chair. One chore like that and it is all I can do to continue on. Once I get in a cleaning mood, I don't like to stop or I will lose momentum and that will be the end. Today was just not one of those momentum days though, I just never could get the ball rolling. So it is now almost 6pm and I only have a little to show for my day home. I guess tomorrow will have to be a continuation of my Monday.

On an entirely different note I am very happy to report that although I have been bringing up the rear in my fantasy football league all season and went into this weekend 2-7, I will take a win this week against my hubby. I do not expect to have a great comeback although I would love it if I did, it is just nice to bring my husband down a notch or two. It will also be nice not to be tied for last anymore, that title will be held by my sisters boyfriend all by himself. Sorry Ken!!

Happy Monday!!

A Serious Moment

So the holiday season is completely upon us and it will fly by this year just as it does every year, but I have been thinking a lot lately about the past holiday season and all of the things there are to be thankful for this year.

Anyone that knows me even a little bit knows how close I am with my family. My parents and my sister are three of the most important people in my life. I do not remember the exact moment and it surprises me that I don't, but almost a year ago my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It is very hard for me to put into words how I felt. I don't think through the entire process I ever could bring myself to talk to my dad about any of it. I am usually the one that can talk about anything and would rather let my feelings show, but I could just never bring myself to talk with either of my parents. Occasionally my mom and I would talk, but it always led to tears. I could not imagine losing one of my parents, so I had no clue how to deal with it. To say the least it was a rough time and not the best holiday season ever. My dad had surgery in February and I couldn't be more happy to say that he is cancer-free.

After all was said and done, I think I learned a lot. I always knew the strength of my parents, but had never seen it in such a way. I feel blessed to have the relationship that I do with my parents and try very hard not to ever take it for granted. I hoped and still do, that both my mom and my dad know how important they are to me. One of the greatest things that has come from having kids is seeing my parents as grandparents.

I really don't have any recent pictures of my mom and dad together and even pics of me with either one of them are hard to come by. My mom hates having her picture taken, but I do have this one of my dad and I at my wedding. Thought I would share.

I am proud to say.....

I voted for the first time today!!

I registered a little while back when I renewed my car tabs and was so excited. I really have no excuse or reason why I never have in the past, but I haven't. I felt like no one has any room to complain if they can't say they put effort into playing a part, so this year I did.

I have been looking forward to voting since I registered and when I got up this morning I thought, okay now I really have to do it. I had no real desire to take my two kids and stand in line forever, so I put it off all morning. I decided that after nap time I would pack them up and go stand in line. I put Taylor in the snugly and gave Thomas Dum Dum suckers (he never gets them, so he was super excited), told him to stand right by me and be very quiet. We only had to stand in line for about 10 minutes because M-Z last names was a very short line. Good thing I finally changed my name to my married name. Ha Ha it only took me a year and a half!

I was very excited to stand in the little booth and mark my choices. I am glad I voted and will be even more glad when the whole thing is over.

Halloween Fun

This was Thomas' third Halloween and Taylor's first and it was a success. Before I even start I need to say that it turns out Thomas' costume was a dragon and not a dinosaur. My husband and dad pointed out that it had more features of a dragon rather than of a dinosaur. Too Thomas though it was dinosaur and really that is all that matters. He looked great and so did my cute little ladybug Taylor. We walked around my parents neighborhood and once Thomas got the hang of it he would have gone all night. "More candy mommy, more candy!"

It was a beautiful night out. There really is nothing like trick or treating in 90 degree weather (not really 90), but definitely warm. Not a lot of people out in the neighborhood, but quite a few lazy people who put bowls on their doorsteps. The whole fun of handing out candy is seeing the costumes that kids have on. Oh well, Thomas gladly took their candy no matter where it was.

The night ended with two tired kids and one bucket full of candy. Here are some pictures from the night. My sis and her boyfriend went to a party after we finished taking the kids out, they went as contestants on the Supermarket Sweep. They looked great.

Are you kidding me??

It has occurred to me in the last hour that it really does not matter what I say to my son, he has no intention of listening to me today. This goes for my dog as well. As I type this post he has now been on "Time-out" for a very long time. I honestly can't remember the reason I put him there this last time, but with the day I have had I really don't care.

There are days when everything goes as planned or as expected, but then there are days like this. Where at 5:15pm I am seriously contemplating a 5:30pm bedtime. Don't get me wrong, although it might be hard to believe this right now, I love being able to be home with my kids. I know that I am lucky and I try very hard not to take it for granted, but today is just not one of those days. There are moments when I completely check out, this is what I am currently doing by blogging rather than parenting.

As I type, my daughter is screaming for no apparent reason (she is not hungry, colicky or anything else....just high maintenance), my dog is barking because she has been outside for all of the last five minutes and is afraid I may never let her in and my son is yelling, hoping that I will get sick of hearing him and let him up from his "time-out" chair.

If I was any sort of drinker I may be doing that right now, but I'm not so I will just continue to go through this sober. If there is one thing I have learned it is this: Being a parent can be the most gratifying unpaid job, but it can also be the most exhausting unpaid job. Either way it is unpaid.

I will sign off as a very tired MOMMY!

Pumpkin Carving......SO MUCH FUN!!

So we (actually I) had the great idea to carve pumpkins last night. We packed up the family and the pumpkins and went to my parents house to make it a family event. I tried to make it something we would be doing for Thomas' benefit, but lets be realistic....it was really for me. I wanted to have cool pumpkins to put on the porch.

I have not carved a pumpkin in years, but it was just as fun a I remembered. I will admit that I do not enjoy the gutting of the pumpkin though, and ended up giving that job to my hubby. I bought one of those kits and each of us chose a picture. Those kit things work pretty darn good too.

Mission accomplished! We have three really cool pumpkins to show for our hard work. Kelli chose the vampire about to bite into the woman's neck, I chose a spider in the moonlight and Tom chose a bat, well we think. He ended up doing the image upside down. This is a very typical thing for Tom to do, he is not a direction follower. AT ALL! Here are some pics from the night. My sis even broke out the old Halloween sweatshirt that my grandma painted for her YEARS ago.

We Made It!

I never realized just how much I look forward to the couple hours I get to spend with my husband every night until he leaves me for a week and I don't have it. Tom has always worked quite a bit. I guess the normal really it is just that I am always working his days off, so it really feels like we never see each other. With his new job he had spend this week in California and I was left to play mom by myself all week. I really didn't think it would be all that different from our normal week. I was totally wrong! Tom really helps me with the kids at night and I think they (Thomas especially) looks forward to him putting them to bed. Putting the exhaustion of kids aside, it is nice to have adult conversation.

He gets home tomorrow and we are excited that the week is over and he will be home. I am sure it will be minutes and we will all be driving each other crazy, but I think I like that better than being alone.

I really do not know how any single parent does it.......my hat is off to you.

When will it stop??

Either it never happened or it has been suppressed in my memory, but I do not think Thomas ever cried like Taylor does. I would say she is only happy when she is eating or being held, but truthfully if you are not walking around while holding her she isn't happy either. She cries for no apparent reason. No she is not colicky, just high maintenance. Maybe in some weird way I am being punished. All of the times of being high maintenance myself, but then one would think she would only act this way around me. Not true! She is this way with everyone. The only time you can be sure she is happy is with a bottle in her mouth....and maybe the 10 minutes post bottle. I move her from spot to spot around the house in 10-15 minute incriments and have been known (just yesterday actually) to blast music to drown her out. When all else fails she goes down for a nap. I feel like the worst mom sometimes, but I do not know how to make her happy.

These are the things we tell ourselves to remember the next time we consider having kids, but at some unknown time these same things are forgotten. Kind of like giving birth. I thought it was no big deal, in fact I even bought cute underwear to wear home from the hospital. Jokes on me because I had totally forgotten. So like I said even if Thomas was like, this I totally forgot.

Here is a thought....maybe these are the moments I should scrapbook about, them I would never forget.

Thomas and his costumes

So this is Thomas' third Halloween and some might say that I take great pleasure in picking his costumes. I am very aware that there will be a day when he does not want me to pick his costume, so until then.. Year #1 he was a chicken. It was great, well for everyone except him. He hated the costume. He cried the entire time he had it on (all 15 minutes). This year I had his pictures taken at JCPenney and took the chicken costume with me. HILARIOUS! Year #2 he was a monkey, complete with a banana in the pocket. I really didn't think it could get any funnier than the chicken...I was wrong. This year he enjoyed the costume and tried it on for us all quite a few times. Again HILARIOUS! So today my mom and I trucked off to Target to check out costumes and..........................here is what we left with.

Year #3 he will be going as a dinosaur. Once I convinced him to try on the head piece it was decided. Both my mom and I were laughing, so hard I had to cross my legs and truly try to stop. We told him to roar like a dinosaur and he did. This made the moment even better. I do not want to ruin great Halloween pics, so for now you will only see the the costume. Someday he will choose his own costumes and I am sure none of them will ever be as funny as the ones that I have chosen for him.

No idea what my daughter will wear for her first Halloween, but you can almost guarantee it will be funny.

He Finally Did It....

I started the daunting task of potty training a week ago Monday, and much to my surprise Thomas has been doing really well with the peeing. It really only took him a few days and he had that part down. I confined myself to my house for the first week, leaving only to grocery shop once and go to work at the end of the week. I was and still am very proud that Thomas took to it quickly.........On that note though, the pooping not so much.

Thomas cracks me up on a daily basis, he always has, but this potty training thing has brought the humor to a new level. I have heard horror stories about this task and the things that little boys do when they are forced to take the diaper off and use the BIG BOY POTTY as we call it. I consider myself lucky so far because the accidents we have had regarding the poop are not that bad, just funny. I decided to ask my pediatrician yesterday if she had any advice and to my amazment she told me to let him go in the diaper if he wanted to. I was not liking this idea. I truly felt like this was sending the wrong message. With that in mind though I knew he was scared to go on the toilet, therefor holding it all day long.

Well today was the day....He finally did it. I know my son and I was sure that if he just did it one time he would not fear it anymore. I have tried to bribe him with everything I can think of and finally it paid off. Any toy he wanted at Target if he would just go poop on the potty.

"Mommy, Mommy...I did it...I did it!" My excitement was through the roof, that is until I went to see for myself. Are you kidding me? One tiny little "pooplet" as I would like to call it floating all by itself at the bottom. I tried to be excited for him, but I knew he still had to go.

Fast forward 15 minutes....."Mommy, Mommy....I did it lots....I did it lots this time!"

Again with the excitement, only this time he did. What a feeling of accomplishment and it wasn't even me that went.

We will see how the next days go, but to end the story we made a 5:00pm Target run so he could pick out any toy he wanted. He picked out a motorcycle that was $5.99 and since that was what his heart was set on I threw in a Cars Ball to go with. $5.99 seemed not enough for this moment.