New Years, fried chicken, and fessing up

Well, that's embarrassing. I was just thinking about needing to update my blog, I downloaded a few pics, and BAM! I forgot my blog password. I guess that means I've been gone too long? Whoopsies! Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will not apologize for not blogging because we've been BUSY living and attempting to appreciate every morsel of these holidays. I do believe we have been successful in this endeavor so far with only one more holiday to go....LOUNGERAMA! We do the New Years Eve thing at my sister's house with close friends. It's what we've done for at least 7 years or so now and it's what we love. I told Homet that I pray to never be one of those people that says, "Well, I was in bed by 10 on New Year's Eve." Something about the New Year, wiping the slate clean, and a fresh start make me giddy. Hom and I have "Goal's Dinner" every year on the first week in January where we go somewhere super fancy and make goals for the next year. We each have to come up with a spiritual, professional, and personal goal and can't tell each other until dinner. We, then, record it in our "Goal's Book" and look back over the previous years and what we have/haven't accomplished. Yes, gasp, sometimes our goal's fall short but that's part of the fun. Anyway, I love everything about a New Year. That being said, the best part about New Years is our annual Lougerama (also held at Lindsay's.) We wake up late, stay in our pjs all day, put blow up mattresses all over her living room, pick up KFC fried chicken with all the sides, and watch football all day. It is heaven. We were talking about the logistics of it last night and I recalled that the last time I ate KFC fried chicken was....Jan 1, 2011. Love it. Anyway, I didn't intend on this being a blog about New Years and fried chicken. I actually was going to blog in reference to a friend who had "Fessed up" about being obsessed with Pinterest. She asked who had tested out some of the ideas on the site so here goes, Ashley...
Here were our fall/Christmas projects (all of these were from Pinterest and I am taking no credit for the creativity of them.)
The first was just a little centerpiece for our island. It was popcorn, split peas, and red beans topped with a orangey red candle and tied with some twine. My twine obsession is a blog post in itself. Anyway, the pic doesn't do it justice. I thought it turned out adorable and since I already had most of the items (I didn't have any split peas and Wade wasn't all too happy when he went to cook red beans and rice and I had used them, but anywho), it was cheap. When fall was winding down and Christmas decor started, I just popped that popcorn, strung it up, and put it around our tree.

Notice, my (reused) popcorn garland

This next one was free. I love all things fall. The football, the weather, the soups, and most of all, FREE ART SUPPLIES! E and I went walking on our neighborhood trail and collected these pine cones and leaves. I then spray adhesived them to a vase I had, tied on a little twine, and filled that sucker up with pine cones. I put this on our dresser in our bedroom. I don't think I got this from Pinterest but I'm sure it's an idea adapted from something I saw on there.


I made these little cuties for our Halloween party. They were a hit. Just a mini Nutter Butter, a bit of melted choc chips, and a Hershey kiss, and Ta-da---you have acorns. Plus, they were yummy too.



At Christmas, I repeated my fall layered decor for the mantle and gave it a Christmas candy land touch. It's hard to see in the pic but I layered Life Saver candies, then Hot Tamales candy, then red/green/white gum drops on the bottom. The jar to the left is just candy canes. The vase to the right was layered red hots, peppermints, and Hershey kisses. The garland was from our tree and there you have a mantle piece for less than $10. Not the fanciest mantle around but it was ours and we loved it (or at least I did. I think it was torture for E as he kept pointing up at the mantle and saying, "Mommy, I like to eat those.") And, yes, my TV is above our fireplace. I know it's tacky. Don't even get me started. That fell into that category with my beloved husband, "Makes him so happy/Not really worth fighting over."

Seaside Wine Festival

A few weekends ago, we traveled on down to Seaside to celebrate their annual Red Wine Festival. Months ago, Homet and I were looking for some way to, without child in tow, celebrate our 6th anniversary. As we asked around, a plan was hatched. It was also two of my favorite people's 40th birthday party (I can tell their age now because 40 is the new 30.) About 18-20 of us came from all parts of the country to join in the festivities. We had one house in Seaside for "the couples" and one house in Seagrove for "the girls." GOOD TIMES were had, I assure you. Anyway, if you're a wine drinker at all, I encourage you to try this out. I'm not much of a red wine drinker but they had options for all palates. If you've ever trekked to Florida with an almost 2 year old then repeated the trip without said angel a month later, you will realize that a 6 hour car ride really ain't that bad (the second time around.) We were well rested, bellies firm from laughter, and felt totally full (metaphorically and physically) by the time the long weekend was up.
When we left for our vacay, we left behind a one year old, barely grasping to the innocent one-ness. As I kissed him good-bye all I could think was, "When I return, you will be two." We returned on the day of his second birthday to an energy-filled two year old and were grateful for our weekend of rest and relaxation.
My littler big sis and I

Just a few of my fave PICU girls!

My sweetie and I celebrating 6 wonderful years. Hard to believe he's put up with me for over TEN! Sucka!

Love this guy. Too bad he lives in Cali/Texas:(

Wild Man

We took our Christmas pics a couple weeks ago and, to say the least, it was an adventure. I got so bad about taking pics after E turned one. I just didn't feel like stressing (and paying a small fortune). We have a nice camera and I usually have it perched in our living room shelves for easy access to capture priceless moments. Well, as he approached two, I started feeling all guilty that we hadn't had any professional pics in a year. Let. Me. Tell. You. It is way different taking professional pics with a two year old than it was just a short year prior. That child has his own agenda. If she said stand, he laid. If she said run, he walked. I have no idea where he got that stubborness from (wink wink.) Anyway, she took about 50-75 pics and I walked away with VERY low expectations. I was surprised a few days later with about 20 absolute gems. Here are a few of the wild child himself.

Media Days

I have been making a point to read more lately. It makes me happy, makes me feel more informed, and chills me out (typically before bed.) Lately, I have read some great books. Of course, I read The Help a few months ago which was unbelievable. My goal was to finish it prior to the movie coming out because I can't stand to see a movie THEN read the book. So, finish it I do and then.... I never got a chance to see the movie. I'm now waiting until it comes out on DVD/Infiniti. I know, I know, it was a breathtaking movie. You don't have to tell me.
After I finished The Help I was given a recommendation to read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I went into this read very skeptical. I am more of a chick lit sort of reader. I think a lot at work and don't want to think at home. While Homet reads something like The Life and Times of Genghis Khan, I'm snuggled up with Shopahaulic Takes Manhattan (and loving it. Don't judge.) Anyway, Unbroken is a story about a POW in World War II. I know right? I sound smart now. Told you not to judge. This book was so well written and the story so captivating, I couldn't put it down. After Unbroken was complete, I set my Nook down and allowed Homet to borrow it so he could read the book I had been gushing about for the last week. Well, after longingly staring at my Nook gathering dust on his bedside table, I swiped it back and bought another book. I gave him a solid 5 days and after that, I say "Too bad, so sad." (Poor fella was actually too busy reading up on some financial church literature that he has to teach on in a couple weeks. SUCKA!)
So then I just went into B & N Top 100 feeling all inspired by a "real" book. I kept seeing The Hunger Games pop up. Though it was, again, totally not my style, I bought it anyway. Y'all I REALLY couldn't stop reading. Homet found me reading while....putting on make-up, folding clothes, drying my hair, and even DURING BREAKS IN THE SAINTS GAME (I found myself wishing Payton would take a time-out at non strategic times.) It was quite out of control and I had to stop myself when I got flour all over my Nook while reading and rolling out dough for a pizza. Needless to say, it is a really strange plot but so well written.
Since my post is "Media Days" I feel it necessary to insert at least one other form of media besides books. Last night I got this great idea that, in "celebration" of Halloween, we put E to bed, pop some popcorn, and watch a scary movie. All that we could find was Halloween H2O which is apparently some sequel to the 5 previous Halloweens (is it called a sequel if there's 6?) Anyway, both of us couldn't even remember if we'd seen the first Halloween but we were both certain we hadn't seen 2-5 and feared we might be a bit behind with the info leading up to H2O. We opted for the only other option, The Happening. I'm not a big scary movie watcher. Hell, I'm not really a big movie watcher at all. I despise sitting still and not talking that long. Drives Homet crazy. Anyway, maybe I'm rusty on my movie critiquing but that was one of the worst movies ever. I was confused throughout and not in a really-pay-attention-you'll-figure-it-out-by-the-end-DaVinci-Code sort of confused. It left me scratching my head as the credits rolled. They tried to insert an occasional kiss and couples' dispute but it wasn't even a good love story. One plus was it had Mark Wahlberg and he's just as cute as he ever was (though this might be his first movie where he never lost his shirt:(()

--Please forgive my lack of underlining and quotes as appropriate. For one, I can't remember what's supposed to be in what. For two, I'm too lazy to look it up. Threesies, my almost two year old just woke up and I don't have time.

Yep, we're alive.

Well, hello there, blogging world! It's been a while. I have no excuses other than we've been busy. This blog post will be heavy on the pics since they pretty much sum up our recent life. Happy Halloween from our little boxer...


No, the shiner's not real.

Our little sports lover is gearing up for his second birthday in a couple of weeks. Here's a pic from his birthday photo shoot.


And here's his "Mom are we done yet?" face. He has mastered this quite well in his 23 1/2 months.

And a shout out to our pal, Lala, for E's birthday invites. Love them. Check her out at http://www.pickled-paper.com/. Not only is she fabulous, but she's super quick too.

Mouth of the South

Since our boy got his ear tubes in May, his language skills exploded. He now repeats EVERYthing. It might be the scariest, cutest, funniest, most intriguing trick as of yet. Here are a few gems you might catch if you get to spend a few minutes with our busy body.

Me: Ev, what's today?
E: Game. Day. (He says all compound words as two separate entities like he has to catch his breath between. Pine. Apple. is one of our faves. No Reunion jokes needed here.....)
Me: What do we say on game day?
E: Go Tigews (Tigers.)

You see, I'm a nurse and all about using the correct words for your body parts but when penis started coming out sounding like pieces, I must admit I did like that better. In fact, it came in pretty handy in the store the other day when I was holding him on my hip and he looked at me, scowled, and yelled, "MOMMY, MY PIECES."Sorry, Bud, I'll readjust so I don't squish your "pieces."

Mommy, moowwnn. (Come on)

He also LOVES to pray but mainly for Paw Paw and Gen Gen (my Dad and StepMom.) We haven't figured out yet why they need more prayers than the rest of us but you better believe they get prayed for multiple times a day. We pray before each meal then, as my hubs says, "We have to pray our way through dinner" as E will often stop us, try to hold our hands, and say, "Mommy, Daddy. Pay." and bow his head.

My Beach Baby

We go on a family vacay every year at the end of the summer. We stay around the Seaside area so as to avoid the big crowds. This year has been the funnest so far as Shoog thoroughly enjoyed every minute at the beach. He could have spent the entire time covered (literally covered. Like HEAD TO TOE) in sand and been perfectly content. Here's a progressive tour of our last three years. How time flies...
2009--The pregnant year. I think I was 26 weeks. This was the year that while my family enjoyed a nice glass of vino, I sipped on one of my hub's custom mocktails. There was alot of mocktail drinking this year.

2010--The year with a baby. This was a cool year. Shoog was 10 months old and FINALLY got a tooth (actually two, on the bottom) while we were on vacation. We were starting to think he was going to be toothless the rest of his life. We were thinking about the bright (cheap) side though...after the dentures, no real dentist visits. No dental insurance, no braces! Unless he got gingivitis...or we had to replace the dentures...I bet dentures are expensive...anyhow, he got teeth this year!




2011--The year of the busy toddler. His favorite game ended up being, "Whoa whoa whoa!" As in: Ev's heading straight for the water, who's going to stop him? Then, one of our crew would jump up and cut him off screaming, "Whoa whoa whoa!" He though it was hysterical. Actually, I was driving around today and heard him talking nonstop in the back saying, "Beach, whoa whoa whoa! Birds. Fly away!" Yeah, it was a hit.