Still here

We are still here. For the past week or so I have been fighting the flu. Reese has had a horrible cold that I truly believe was the flu but her test was negative. And we just found out today that Sam has RSV with another ear infection. Lance is the only well one and he has been awesome taking care of us all. It has been a horrible week and I can't wait for this all to be over.


- Posted from my iPhone

Sammy Says the Blessing

Circa 1997

A month or so ago Becca called with a totally random question.  I can’t remember exactly what she said but it went something like this:

B: “Hey!  I know you are totally uncool now that you are a mom of two and you spend most days in your pjs, no make-up on, hair in a ponytail, and cleaning up poop.  But I was wondering if you wanted to pretend like you were cool for one night.”

R: “Huh? Reese, quiet I am on the phone.  Sam, please stop putting stuff in your mouth. Becca, you still there?  Sorry.  What did you say?”

Ok, so it didn’t really go like that.  She asked if I wanted to go to the Usher concert which really did make me feel so not cool!  I didn’t even know that Usher was still “cool”.  We used to listen to him in high school and loved him.  So I eventually agreed to go with her, Leah, and Susan and pretend like it was 1997 again.  And then I immediately turned off Kidz Bop and turned the radio on to Q100 so I could catch up on the latest and greatest of Usher.

When we arrived at Phillips I was so scared we (or I) was going to be obviously out of place but to my surprise there were ALL kinds of people there.  I blended right in.  Except for maybe my white girl dance moves.  The first act was some Michael Jackson wanna-be named Miguel.  I obviously knew nothing of his and wasn’t quite sure what he was actually doing on stage.  The second act was Trey Songz.  Again, I had no idea who he was but the girl next to me kept calling him her “Baby-Daddy”…she was in love and was watching everything through her binoculars since we were in section 305.  He was a good singer but annoying as a performer.  All of the sudden a song came on that I knew! I leaned over to Becca and said, “I know this song.  It is on Reese’s Kidz Bop CD.”  Dork! Finally Usher came out to an entire arena of screaming girls fans (men, women, boys, girls, grandma’s, teenagers).  He is a great dancer and a lot of fun to watch.  I was a little disappointed in all the showy-ness.  I like a concert where there is just singing (and dancing if necessary).  I don’t need all the talking, costume changes, and fluff. I knew maybe half of the songs.  I knew the old ones and a couple of the new ones (thank you Q100). 

I had a great night reliving old times with my sisters.  Thanks girls for making this old, grubby mom feel cool again for one night! ;-)

Santa Parade

Today we enjoyed the Santa Parade in our downtown area.  Reese was so very excited to go.  It was definitely chilly but nothing a warm coat and a hat couldn’t cure.

After an iffy start to the morning for Sam he ended up being able to join us at the parade.  Our little monkey enjoyed a banana while waiting for the parade to start.

We met our neighbors there which made both girls very happy.

Sam loved all the “boy” stuff.  He loved the police motorcycle, the trucks, the airplanes flying over, and would bark at the dogs walking by. 

 

I am so glad he was able to go with us today because he didn’t move the entire hour of the parade.  He just sat in my lap and stared in awe of it all.

What a fun time!!  I am so excited about this Christmas season.  Reese is super excited about everything (except for Santa) and I think Sam will just get a kick out of watching Reese be crazy!

Shopping

I finally, finally, finally started Christmas shopping.  Everything has been bought online so far.  I do need to go to Target for one thing but I am hoping I can get most everything online sitting in my pjs. 

Now if only our photographer would ever send me our family pictures so I can start on my Christmas cards!  I can’t wait to cash in my Shutterfly discount.

Santa Visit

I didn't want to be in the picture with Santa this year but it didn't go that way. Reese didn't want to be near him at all! She actually ran away twice. Sam was fine in my lap next to Santa but when he thought I was about to get up he cried. He calmed down but Reese still was having nothing to do with any of it. Funny memories for sure!


- Posted from my iPhone

Birthday Weekend

Lance and I have not had any one on one time in quite a while.  We had an anniversary dinner last February and have the occasional alone car ride to and from small group.  Since Lance’s birthday is tomorrow and Sam is no longer dependant solely on me we planned a night out.

We checked-in to our hotel in Midtown around 4:00 or so yesterday afternoon.  After we got to our room, Lance asked what we should do.  I suggested we sit down, enjoy the quiet, enjoy not having any kids climb on us, enjoy watching what we wanted to watch on TV, and just be.  We went to dinner at Oceanaire.  Lance had the yellow tail tuna and I had stuffed shrimp.  It was pretty good and we totally enjoyed being able to have a conversation.  And to be honest we really didn’t even talk about the kids much. 

After dinner we went back to the hotel and changed clothes so that we could meet up with our friends Donnie and Carrie.  We met them at a bar in Midtown to watch the GA v. GT game.  Because of the holiday weekend the bar was totally empty.  We had the entire upstairs with a gigantic big screen all to ourselves.  We had such a wonderful time cheering on our teams and hanging out with our sweet friends! 

This morning we slept in as long as we could.  I think Lance was up at 8:00 and I got up at 9:00 (our room was a suite so he was up and didn’t even bother me).  After Lance was ready he ran out to get us breakfast while I got moving.

My godson, Owen, was being baptized today so we headed to church with them.  After church we went back to their house for lunch.  The kids met us there and were so happy to see us (and we were super excited to see them too).  We had a great time visiting and celebrating the cute little man!!

We did not take a camera with us anywhere this weekend so hopefully our friends will share all of their pictures with us!

I am glad we were able to have some quality time together!  What a wonderful weekend!

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

I love Shutterfly!  Each year for my kids birthdays I create a photobook through Shutterfly to keep track of their year of memories.   I have also given my MIL and husband a calendar for Christmas that I really loved.

Shutterfly is doing a promo for bloggers where if you write a blog post about the Shutterfly Christmas cards you get 50 for free!!  Woohoo!  Sign me up!  Here goes…

I have a problem.  As I look through the Christmas cards I catch myself focusing on the cute little kids faces that are on the cards instead of the actual design.  I will choose a card and then realize I chose it for the sweet little face and then realize that I really love the card too.

And how could you not?  Look at this sweet face and those blonde locks.

Or this purely happy and contagious smile.

This one just makes me giggle!

It is so hard for me to choose my favorites because, well, there are so many favorites.  I can’t wait to see how our Christmas cards will turn out!!  I know that no matter what I choose they will be so cute and great memories.

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent all day for Thanksgiving with Lance’s family. It was his parents, sister, nephews, an aunt and a few cousins.  Dinner was of course yummy.  Reese and Sam had so much fun with their cousins.  Brody was extra sweet with them today. 

Brody and Reese had lunch together at the kids table.

And Reese was attached to him most of the day.

Sam even got in on the attention from Brody.

At one point Lance was holding Sam and a couple of people asked Sam if they could hold him.  He would turn away from them to say no.  Then Brody asked him if he could hold him and Sam leaned out for Brody to take him.  It was sooooo sweet!!

Dalton and Reese decided to dig holes in their Pop’s yard.  Not sure he was too thrilled about that but they had some messy fun.

  

Yesterday we were out running some errands and Lance wanted to go get a baseball glove so he could throw the ball with Brody.

They threw the ball for a long time.  I am pretty sure Lance will be sore tomorrow.

Sam had fun crawling around in the grass.  He didn’t get in one nap and was such a good little guy all day.  He is always so good but I was extra surprised at how well he did with no naps.

 

Reese was a little bummed that she didn’t get to throw and hit the ball with Lance and Brody.  So she just ran around outside.

We were not even out of the neighborhood on our way home and Sam fell asleep.  He was so pooped.

And then we just had fun watching Kung Fu Panda when we got home.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.  We are so thankful and blessed!

Christmas Decorations

Lance came home from Jax on Monday so we used Monday as a time to decorate for Christmas.  Reese was so excited and couldn’t wait. 

We got a lot of the inside decorations up.  I was using my garden gloves to set the tree up because I hate how sharp the needles are.  I always end up with tons of scratches on my hands.  Reese thought it was funny so she went upstairs and got her winter gloves too.

She was such a big helper.  We ended up have a lot of ornaments on the bottom part of our tree.  ;-)

We also set the small tree up in Reese’s room.  She loves having it in there.  I had visions on her falling asleep with the soft glow of her little tree creating sweet Christmas dreams.  But I went upstairs shortly after she went to bed and she was sitting up in her bed reading books so I had to turn the tree off.  I should have known!

I still have all of the outside decorations to do.  We didn’t do any of those last year because I just didn’t have the energy or will with a little Sammy so I really want to do those this year!  Hopefully we can get those up at some point this week!  Hint, hint Honey!

A Singing Room

This past weekend Lance went to Jacksonville to pick up his grandmother’s piano.  Reese loves to play the piano at my parents house so she was SO excited to be getting one of her own.  She calls the parlor at my parents house “the singing room” because that is where the piano is to play and sing with.  Now she has her very own singing room.  

She could not wait to get her hands on the piano.

While Reese played on the big piano Sam was left with the little one.

And he was so excited he wasn’t having to compete with Reese to get his hands on this piano.

First Steps

Sam took his first steps today.  We were so proud of him!! And he was super excited too!  I didn’t get a video until the end of the day right before bedtime so he wasn’t really interested in showing off his new trick.