halloween christmas

When The Mayor first started going to preschool, his teacher asked we send in a backup outfit that would be kept at school for the children to be changed into in case of a bathroom accident or if they spilled their drink on them. (They don't use sippy cups, they teach them how to drink out of a real cup so accidents are bound to happen). I sent in a pair of shorts and t-shirt that The Mayor rarely wore. I couldn't send in one of our favorites...especially since it was going to be kept at school. And being that The Mayor had a summer wardrobe that would have made any woman jealous, seriously, he had enough clothes to last him well over a month before laundry had to be done, it wasn't that tough to pick an outfit to be left at his school. His last day before Thanksgiving break they sent home the summer clothes and asked we send in an outfit appropriate for the cold weather when we returned to school this week. Being that we are still building The Mayor's winter wardrobe, I don't have a spare pair of pants and top that I can live without for the next several months. I contemplated not sending in an outfit today and running to Kohl's to pick up a pair of pants and a shirt, but something in me told me I better send an outfit. Even though The Mayor has never needed his backup outfit since he has been in school, something told me I better send in some clothes. So I sent in a pair of jeans that are WAY too big for him and his Halloween t-shirt. Both of which he will not be wearing this winter and I can definitely live without.

As I pulled up into carpool line, I caught a glimpse of my son, who when I dropped him off was wearing a pair of navy cords with a green and navy "Big Brother" t-shirt. When he was brought back to me he was wearing his navy cords and his orange and black striped Halloween t-shirt. While the other children were being brought out in their cute Christmas themed shirts, my son was sporting a shirt with a ghost on it saying "Boo!". He spilled his juice down the front of his shirt during snack time. Guess it is a good thing I listened to my gut and sent in the backup outfit.

The kids enjoyed spending the afternoon in their new toy house. A friend of ours gave it to us...I LOVE hand-me-down toys. Especially when they are in mint condition! This toy looks like it just came out of the box but apparently we are the 5th family in our neighborhood to own it. I love it when people respect their toys and take care of them. This toy is going to get a lot of love in this household. The Mayor kept asking D and me to crawl through the teeny-tiny door and get into the house with them. It wasn't good enough for us to just walk into the house, we had to enter through the door. Let me just say, I will be hitting the gym tomorrow. It was a tight squeeze.

she's a cutie

And in the words of The Mayor, she is also "messy, messy". I just didn't have it in me tonight to pop open some jars of baby food, mix her oatmeal cereal together and spoon feed Love Bug. So Love Bug ate with the big kids tonight and had her first real meal...spaghetti. And it was everything I knew it would be.

I did have the foresight to strip her down to just her diaper; if I didn't have it in me to feed her a jar of baby food I definitely didn't have it in me to wash tomato sauce out of her white onesie. I put the cut up pasta on her tray and let her go to town. She had more fun just playing in the sauce and attempting to lick it off her fingers than she did actually eating, and I can't really say she ate since I don't think one piece of pasta made it into her mouth. We are still mastering the "self-feeding" and I think the gumminess of the pasta kind of threw her off, so I did end up having to feed her. Once I did, she devoured that food like it was going to walk off her tray.

Little Miss loved eating and wearing her first big girl meal.

sit back, relax and enjoy

Today was my most favorite day of the Christmas season. The day when the last decoration was hung, every box and tub containing Christmas decorations was put back into the storage closet and the pine needles were vacuumed up. The house is completely clean, back in order and the Christmas decorations are all up. So now we get to sit back, relax and enjoy the Christmas season. It feels so good as I type this to see all the lights on the trees, the stockings hanging from the mantle and to smell my Christmas candles burning. And this year is even better since I am done Christmas shopping too. That never happens this early. I'm sure I'll pick up a few odds and ends for stocking stuffers before all is said and done, but all the big stuff is taken care of.

We enjoyed our last day of D being home on vacation. Tomorrow is going to be a sad reality when he is at work and we have one boy who is going to spend a majority of the day asking where his dad is. Thankfully in a couple of weeks D will be home on vacation again.

We have play dates lined up this week, The Mayor goes back to school and Love Bug and I will be helping Meega get ready for Bennett's big 1st birthday party this weekend. I am not sure how he is already 1, but somehow he is...and we will be celebrating! It's definitely the most wonderful time of year!

How cute is she? Her new outfit...thinking this is what she will wear when she meets Santa for the first time.

Nothing better than sitting by only the glow of the Christmas lights

new traditions

One of the best things about being a family are the traditions you create. Today we started a new one. We headed up to Kinsey Family Farm in North Forsyth County and got our Christmas tree. It is beautiful up there. Rolling hills of several different kinds of pine trees surrounding a large pond with the North Georgia Mountains in the horizon. It really is breath taking...and of course, I forgot my camera.

You can get your tree one of two ways: Clark Griswold style where you walk the land and cut your own tree or you can pick one that has just been cut and is sitting in a bucket of water (so it isn't wasting any time drying out). We chose that route this year. It was quite cold and with Love Bug already bundled like Nanook of the North, we decided the already cut trees were fine with us. And the fact this is our first Christmas with an automobile of our own that can carry a Christmas tree was icing on the cake. No more borrowing PopPop's truck to get our tree home.

The tree is a beauty. She is already in the stand, watered and waiting for her bling. The colored lights were just purchased and will be adorning our tree soon (I've always been a clear lights girl, but with the kiddos getting older and The Mayor loving all the lights, we thought we would now be a colored lights family)...another new tradition.

my favorite

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Always has been. The feeling I get each year knowing I get to spend it with the family I love, eating delicious food, watching football, telling stories and laughing just brings me such joy. And I love Thanksgiving because it kicks off the official start of Christmas.

This was our year to stay in Atlanta and spend the day with my family. After D ran in the half-marathon that morning (which he finished in the top 10% - I could not be more proud of him!) we hung out at home with the kids. After naps, we headed to Mamie and PopPop's to hang out, watch football and eat delicious food. This year was extra special because Aunt Amy, Uncle Wes and Sydney were in town and this was the first time all 4 kids were together. The four of them could not have had more fun together. We are so blessed. The kids played so well together and did a fantastic job of wearing each other out. The Mayor was sound asleep 5 minutes after we got home and Love Bug immediately followed.

At 8:00 last night, I picked up my friend Tiffany and we headed out to start our Black Friday shopping. We hit the first store before 8:30 PM and I pulled into my driveway at 10:30 AM this morning. 14 1/2 hours of shopping. Exhausted doesn't begin to describe how tired I really am but it was such an adrenaline rush being out in the middle of the night and saving hundreds of dollars. Seriously. I saved us so much money that it made every line worth it. And if I save money every year like I did this year, I will definitely continue doing this. Thankfully I had fantastic company and it made the night so much fun.

Tomorrow we are going to venture out to get our Christmas tree and finish decorating the house. This time of year makes me so happy...and so thankful to be so blessed to have two beautiful children, a husband who makes me a better person and a family who loves me and my family unconditionally.

The Mayor teaching Love Bug how to perfect the art of crawling

PopPop trying to teach Love Bug to walk

Love Bug and Sydney

our attempt at a picture with the four cousins...this was the best one

Love Bug and Bennett

sunday, monday fun day

We have been enjoying every second of D being home.

Sunday and Monday D and The Mayor spent a majority of each morning working in the backyard. We have a great size yard, but you wouldn't know it with all of the trees in the backyard. We knew when we bought this house we would have our work cut out for us clearing out the wooded backyard once we had children, and now because that time is upon us, D has been busy working back there. It started back in January when we had 10 trees professionally cut down and just about every nice weekend we had in the spring and summer, D was back there working. There was one area left to work on and this time D took along his sidekick. It was so adorable to watch from the window. The Mayor helping drag tree branches, getting sidetracked by a big rock and taking the time to play with it, or sitting on some tree stumps talking to his dad while D worked. They were out there for hours both mornings. I couldn't believe The Mayor stayed out there the entire time right by his dad's side. His dad's little shadow.

Sweet Love Bug is coming down with a nasty cough. And if it doesn't get dramatically better by morning, we will be making a day-before-Thanksgiving visit to the doctor. I just hate it when my babies are sick.

When D and The Mayor weren't working in the backyard, we spent the rest of the day shopping, eating lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and lots of playing. We are soaking up every minute of D being home.

remember The Mayor's Thanksgiving lunch at school...when he would only wear his t-shirt? He decided he wanted to wear his necklace today and he wanted me to take a picture of him wearing it. Typical Mayor...in his own time.

hardcore

My apologies to The Mayor of 2023 who when reading this as a 16 year old will probably be utterly and completely embarrassed. But when this is all said and done and just a distant memory, I don't want to forget.

This morning we decided to go hardcore with the potty training because for months we have been trying and we haven't made any progress. The Mayor woke up around 8:30 and instead of putting a fresh diaper on him, we put him in a pair of big boy underwear. Logic told me any accident he had in the underwear would upset him and hopefully trigger him to put 2 and 2 together so when he needed to go to the bathroom, he would go in the potty. Before he was finished with breakfast, he had already had his first accident. And instead of it upsetting him, he just walked off towards his toys. He walked like he was riding a horse so the wet underwear wouldn't touch him, but he was perfectly content in keeping them on. By 9AM he was in his 2nd pair of underwear and we started the timer on the microwave for 20 minutes. We told him when the timer went off, we were going to go to the potty. About 15 minutes later, accident number 2 occurred. This time he was wet and dirty...and still perfectly content with continuing to play in his soiled underwear. A small battle ensued to get the dirty underwear off and the pull-ups on. I may have been willing to be hardcore but I can only handle so much laundry in one morning.

Every 20 minutes for the next few hours, we attempted to go to the bathroom. We bribed him with candy, brownies and even one of his Christmas presents. Nothing. I was even mean enough to eat a brownie in front of him in an attempt to get him to go the bathroom telling him he could have one if he would just go pee-pee in the potty. He would sit on the toilet every time but immediately say "I'm done" and want to get off.

I asked D if we were going to have to send a package of pull-ups with him when he moved off to college.

Finally, hours later, The Mayor went pee-pee in the potty! He was so proud...and so were we. We left his bathroom and immediately went downstairs where he excitedly exclaimed "I get a special treat!" He sat down and ate that brownie with pride. We still have a long way to go, but we are finally making progress.

checking out his big boy underwear

so proud! And eating his "special treat"

15% discount

Meega and Bennett met The Mayor, Love Bug and me out to run some errands. We started at Michael's to get a Christmas tree for Love Bug's nursery and then walked over to Kohl's to check out their toys and get Bennett some clothes. I wanted to check out their toy inventory to see if it would be worth going on Black Friday. For some reason, The Mayor had a meltdown while at the store. I tried my hardest to get him to calm down, I did everything, including bribery but it was to no avail. I just let him sit in his stroller and cry it out while we waited for Meega to check out. He was so upset, the cashier checking Meega out gave her an additional 15% off her purchase...now that is a meltdown.

After he calmed down he was a completely different boy. He was sweet, I mean sugary sweet and exhausted. He fell asleep on the way to Target, and it is not a long trip. I didn't want him to sleep in the stroller (so he would sleep when we got home) so I told him he could walk while in the store. Normally he would jump at this chance. Instead he said he didn't want to walk, he wanted to be carried. Normally I would jump at this chance but do you know how difficult it is to push a double stroller while carrying a 37 pound child? It ain't easy. I'm going to have one bulging bicep.

Now that sugary sweet boy is sound asleep for a much needed nap.

inside the mind of the mayor

After reading a bedtime story to The Mayor, I had him lying on my shoulder while we rocked. The room was utterly quiet. All of a sudden, The Mayor burst into laughter. And it was the type of "old man" laughter where you have that wheezing sound coming from your throat because you are laughing so hard it is difficult to catch your breath. He sat up, looked at me, and started laughing again. Every time I asked him what was so funny, he started the "old man" laugh again. The laughter was contagious and we both just sat there cracking up over nothing. He was laughing so hard he snorted, covered his mouth with both hands in comedic horror and continued with the guttural laughing. Oh how I wish I knew what was going on in his mind that caused the spontaneous laughing. I know I will never know, but I was happy to be part of it with him.

This was a great way to end another great day. A beautiful sunny day with The Mayor in school, Love Bug and I having lunch with a friend, naps, dinner as a family and great play time with the kids before bed. D has work tomorrow and then he is off until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Can not wait for 2 full weekends sandwiched around a full week with the 4 of us at home together. I love this time of year.

just a motoring

It is hard to believe just a few weeks ago Love Bug could barely get her legs under herself and get on all 4s because she is just a motoring now. I put her down in one spot of the room, literally turn around and she is across the room. She has wasted no time in perfecting the art of crawling. She has gotten pretty good at pulling up to her knees and tonight while lying across D's back when he was laying on the floor, she pulled up to her feet.

Tonight was one of those nights I wish we had video cameras in every room of the house taping at all times. I just don't want to forget the sounds of Love Bug laughing, the sounds of The Mayor tickling his sister and saying "I got you, I got you", Love Bug babbling and all of the other things that made tonight a fantastic night.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

standing up on her toes

he loves this shirt...thankfully he has two that say "big brother" because every morning he requests to wear his "big brudder" shirt

why crawl around daddy when I can just crawl over him?

mr. independent

I believe Frank Sinatra's song "I did it my way" is going to be The Mayor's theme song for his life. Today was The Mayor's Thanksgiving lunch at his school and as the parents were in the gym setting up the tables and getting the food prepped, we noticed our children being brought down the hallway in their Thanksgiving costumes. Each child was wearing a t-shirt decorated with their handprints made into turkeys, necklaces made out of painted pasta shells, and construction paper headbands with their names on them and a feather sticking out the back. They looked adorable. And then I saw The Mayor, wearing only the t-shirt. He was the only child in his class not wearing the necklace or the headband.

He was so excited when he came into the gym and saw me. He ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug. I am so happy we are at the stage where he is still so excited to see me. The Mayor's teacher made her rounds talking to all of the parents and when she came up to me I said, "so he didn't want to wear the hat?" and she said "we are lucky he is wearing the t-shirt". I just laughed...that is my boy. He doesn't care what everyone is doing, if he doesn't want to do it, he isn't going to do it. I can only hope this strength continues through the teen years when peer pressure is kicked up a notch.

They got him to agree to wear the t-shirt once they explained to him why they wanted him to wear the shirt and only after they agreed to let him help take off his old t-shirt to put on this new t-shirt. Mr. Independent.

the placemat they made for their lunch

running free!

2nd tooth and breathing treatments

Love Bug is getting a partner for her loner of a bottom tooth...its neighbor has finally cut through! Sweet girl has half of her 2nd bottom tooth visible...and she is cute!! It hasn't slowed her down one bit either. To be honest, I would have never known she was teething without seeing the top of the white chomper. She hasn't been fussy (thank you Jesus) nor has she been biting (and considering we are still nursing, another thank you to Jesus).

I took The Mayor to the doctor this morning because we can not seem to get rid of his cough. Going on a month here, felt it was time to get the doctor to have another look. Wouldn't you know, he has an ear infection in one ear (which I had just said to D last night after The Mayor literally just fell over his own two feet, "wonder if he has an ear infection, his balance seems to be off" guess I should have gone to med school) and he needed a breathing treatment because he was wheezing. I am one of the few people amongst my friends who has never had to have a breathing treatment for my child. And I wish I was still one of those. You would have thought they were ripping out The Mayor's toenails one by one the way he screamed during the treatment. I was literally bear hugging him with one arm to keep him from pulling the mask off, while using the other arm to keep the mask over his mouth. My leg was wrapped around his legs so he couldn't thrash around. He and I were both in a full-on, dripping down his head and dripping down my back sweat. Poor Love Bug started crying because her brother was crying so loudly, so thankfully one of the nurses took her out of her stroller and walked her around until the nightmare was over. We left there with a prescription for an antibiotic for the ear infection and an inhaler for the cough.

Our inhaler treatment (with the chamber and duck mask) went OK this evening. Took a lot of bribing with some Skittles but he finally agreed to sit in my lap and breath it in. Can't wait until we get to do it all over again tomorrow...

saturdays, sec football and santa

Yeah, you actually read that title correctly...we saw Santa tonight. I know, seriously? The old man can't even wait until we've celebrated Thanksgiving before making his first appearance. We spent the day watching SEC football on TV (is there really any other kind of football to watch?) and then loaded up in the minivan and headed down the street to see Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive and light the Christmas tree. And normally this would panic me to no end, but this year I am a little bit on top of the Christmas shopping so seeing Santa didn't send me into a tailspin thinking my back is against on the wall before the big day arrives. Which for those of you counting, there is 41 days (and 4 hours) until Christmas. Where has this year gone?

cutest cheerleader ever

pretty much sums up The Mayor...on the move and holding a train

waiting for Santa

before

after

if it was only appropriate

The Mayor, Love Bug and I went to lunch with a dear friend of mine today. We usually hit one of our favorite Mexican restaurants when we go to lunch together because well, we love Mexican food but with chips and salsa immediately greeting us when we are seated at the table, it is conducive when dining with a 3 year old. "Chips and cheese" is The Mayor's absolute favorite thing to eat when at a Mexican restaurant, so when his kids nachos arrived, it allowed Sue and I to have adult conversation and kept The Mayor occupied for about 40 minutes. For a kids order of nachos this plate could more than feed an adult and takes him quite some time to finish what he can eat.

By the end of the meal, he had cheese on both sleeves of his shirt from where he leaned his arms over to grab a chip, cheese on both sides of his hands, cheese in the back of his hair from where he scratched his head, cheese in his bangs, cheese on the bridge of his nose, cheese on both sides of his pants, cheese on both sides of his shirt, cheese on the back collar of his shirt and cheese ALL over his face. If only...if only it was appropriate as an adult to dive into our favorite meal with no care in the world, where we enjoy it so much that we are literally wearing it...and still look cute as ever. If only I had my camera with me to capture the cuteness.

a whole lot of nothin'

Today was a school day for The Mayor which meant I took advantage of having one child for the morning and ran errands. Bennett and Meega came over for a quick visit before naps and both kids slept extra long. I love days like today...get things done, get to see family and both kids are happy.

Meega and Love Bug

bennett checking himself out in the mirror...cute kid