Is It Love Potion No. 9?

Or Maybe We Just Got Bit By The Love Bug!

But There Is Something In The Air. . .

Seriously, I don't know what has come over me this year, but I was unable to stop myself from getting a few of the Valentine's Day decorations at Target ~ I SWEAR they pump something through the air there that makes your shopping inhibitions just fly right out the window OR maybe it's just those darn dollar bins, you think you're getting such a good deal! But none the less, we headed home with some adorable bright colored decorations, as opposed to the traditional pink & red ones, and decorated for our 'Valentine's Party' or at least that's what Kaiden thinks. Not to mention the absolutely adorable card making kits, I mean HOW can you go wrong getting 2 cards, envelopes & 4 pages of stickers for the boys to decorate them, talk about the most wallet friendly Valentine's day card around! And you know Grandparents just LOVE that kind of stuff!

A Little Love Day Swag!

Kaiden & Pierce decorated with window clings!

The dollar bin card making kit

A few more dollar bin crafting card kits

The Boys LOVED doing the sticker cards, act surprised Grandparents!

My Lovey Towels!

Not pictured would be the adorable little XOXO & nesting heart cookie cutters we also picked up with the accompanying heart inspired sprinkles for our baking project we'll do as that weeks arts & crafts projects.  Can't imagine why the edible art projects are always the Boys & Dave's favorites! *wink, wink*  Oh and I had never seen these before & since they were on sale at Target ~and since admittedly I think TUMS have better flavor then conversation hearts~ I picked them up - Peep pink hearts & I♥U marshmallow treats, I think these will be big hits with the boys too!

Aren't those too cute!

Well for now, thats it!  Although I know I picked up a few things this summer at that party store's going out of business sale, I guess I should go digging through my decoration boxes to see what else I've got down there.  Here's hoping the Love Bug comes to bite the Love right out of you too!! ;o)

A Little Saturday Monkey Business!

After A Week Being Snowed In, We Weren't The Only One's With This Idea!

So Monday thru Friday we were pretty much home bound, you're an avid reader you already know all the details from the two previous posts, right?!?!  Anyway we had some errands to run and since we were going to be in the area of our local Monkey Joes, we decided what better way to let them romp around & enjoy themselves and get good and tired out for some naps!  Here's a funny thing, I'm thinking that EVERY parent in the surrounding area had the same thought!  But it was a LOT of fun!  And it certainly helps when Dave is with us, because Lord knows the boys don't actually want to go in the same direction!  Or if by some miracle they did GO the same direction, chances are they won't both be staying there for long!

En Route
So here they are my sweet boy's waiting patiently while we ran our errands.  It's funny cause it was cold outside, not freezing, but SO sunny that the boys were getting hot just sitting in their seats - so I got out their sippies and let them juice it up for a few minutes!  Bottoms Up Boys!!

Did you notice the boy's new do's?!  They were fresh from hair cuts - too cute, I know! ;o)

It's GO Time!!!

You're Going Down Crabby!

So like I mentioned at the top of the post, it was pretty crowded in there, and as also previously mentioned, since you are an avid reader of my blog, I don't have to remind you how well I don't do in big crowds!  So I only shot a few pictures and quick videos, then ran the camera out to the car to enjoy the time with my family AND because it is SO much easier to keep track of your kiddos when you're NOT looking through the lens of the camera!

As if you don't know exactly what I'm talking about here's a video of how quick Wild Man takes off from Crabby patty to the next jump & bounce!

Now the signs say that you can assist children under the age of 4, but no bouncing - well that was all Dave needed to hear - although technically I think he stopped at the 'Parent's can help under the age of 4' cause I think I may have seen him do a few jumps here and there - but getting to 'play' with the boys is the BEST part!  We slid, we climbed ~ which when you're holding Pierce like an Orangetang baby, minus him actively holding a whole lot - you work up quite a sweat pretty quickly!  It was a serious workout!  And SO much fun!

Here's the boy's in one of their favorite attractions there, the Sponge Bob jump!  Kaiden is an old pro at these things, seriously this kid is in & out of these things faster than you could imagine, which particualarly stressing when the entrance is NO where near the exit (what were they thinking!?) but of course he has been a fan of them from the beginning!  So he had already been in climbed up & slid down twice in the time it took me & Piercey to get to him.  So if you watch close you'll see him in the background going up the climb to get to the slide.

Then of course he's a speed demon, so I had recording after Pierce came down thinking it would be a minute or two before Kaiden got up there, but I was wrong, so here come's Dave immediately followed by K-man!

Really these are the mornings that keep you going on the 'other' days!  You know what I mean?  It's not that you love your kids less on the days that have more whining or crying, or fits, or dirty diapers, or. . .**focus** . . but it's these memories of just awesome fun and family together time that keep you 'focused'!  And believe me, these are the day's that I thank God for every night in my prayers!

Who Would Have Thought!?

That Last Snow Hung Around For MORE Than A Week!

I Know, I Know. . . BUT This Is GEORGIA!!

I mean I can't even really explain just how unreal this is to people (or more like my family) who live up north & deal with snow from Nov. to April, this isn't that.  This is Georgia, we have 10 Snow Plow/Road Salt Machines for the ENTIRE STATE!!!!  I mean, COME ON!  And see the thing with this snow storm was that after dumping between 6 to 8 inches (maybe a little less down in the city) it then covered EVERYTHING with between 1/2 to 1 inch of ice!  WHAT, we are NOT equipped to deal with ice!  So believe it or not, the whole city was pretty much shut down for the better part of the entire week!

Again, please consider all the circumstances, it's GA, virtually no way to deal with this magnitude of winter weather, so Monday morning we all awake to see this winter wonderland, and for the most part everyone is pumped to get a snow day.  I thought had we not had the kids we could have played a really fun drinking game just watching the morning news cast & taking shots on the word 'treacherous'.    I guess I should add that the storm dumped more ice south of us in the city, & more fluffy white stuff on us, which was fun - for us!  But not so much for the 4 million or so people who live & or work downtown.

Of course you've already seen my Monday post, we had a blast the first day, two official trips outside both filled with sledding, snow hiking, snowball throwing FUN!!!!  But there was a twist to the rest of the week, see even though the temperature never officially made it above freezing, at night it would get even colder - like down to the teens!  And so each morning the wonderful snow from the day before would now have 1/4 to 1/2 an inch of new ice on top!  Which still looks pretty enough if all you want to do is look at it, but which makes it VERY hard for the wee ones to walk in or enjoy playing on. . .   Found this very accurate chart on facebook ~ well yeah, it pretty much speaks for itself!

A Snowy Day Visitor
So come Tuesday my Mom, who has never been the best 'sit (calmly) in one place' kind of person, decided that she needed to get up to the gas station, in case she was called to get into work - which basically meant that she was SO fed up with being home alone that she was willing to risk it all on the ice & snow covered roads, & as luck would have it our house is on the way to and from the gas station!  So she stopped over with all the fixings for homemade guacamole - OH SO YUMMY - and although it's officially more of a summer time snack, it gave all of us just enough energy to suit up and hit the hills one more time.  Since Dave had to work and Mom had wanted to enjoy the day with the kids, I got her a pair of Under Armour cold gear leggings and we layered up & went for an adventure!

I wish I would have brought the camera with us, but I was more interested in having fun at the time!  Mom and Kaiden were sledding buddies and again I teamed up with Wild Man, and we tore down the 'slopes' or hills - ya know, which ever.  The snow/ice combination was F~A~S~T!!  It was mid day so the layer of ice had melted some making the snow exceptionally 'packy' if that a real term.  So after a while we decided it would be fun to go make a snow man in the front yard.  I didn't have an extra scarf & I wasn't about to donate mine!  So after rummaging through the garage for a few minutes I found enough stuff to make him look like "a daddy snowman at the beach" - or at least that's what Kaiden thought he looked like!

Kaiden putting on the finishing touches

There!  Just Right!

Kaiden & Daddy Beachy Snowman!

The Motley Crew That Made The Masterpiece!

Is Everybody Looking!?  OK Is Anybody Looking?!

More Of The Same
Wednesday, Thursday & even Friday - it was like being in the movie 'Ground Hog Day' - every time you woke up and turned on the news they were showing near empty highways and asking people to only drive between 10 & 4!  It was madness!  Our roads were fine, but mostly because immediately behind our house is a county road so it was plowed and salted a few times, and that road intersects with another county road that had also been cared for - so Wednesday for a few hours we headed over to Mom's house (a whopping 2 miles away) and the boys got to play with a few different toys, watch some birdies at her feeders then we picked up some pizza (definitely yummy on a feezing cold day) and then we headed back home to interrupt Daddy's work for a pizza picnic lunch.

Thursday Dave got bit by the 'I need a quiet place to work' bug & risked it on the roads down to his office a short 37 mile one way commute that on a good day takes an hour and a half - I think all in all that day he spent almost 6 hours commuting to and from work.  Had to help push a few cars off of ice patches and then decided he would work from home again on Friday ~ now is the part I just love the most ~ "I TOLD him so"!!!

Friday we were running out of a few essentials and Dave was almost done with his work on one of his files, so around 5:00 I loaded up the boys and headed for Kroger - let me just say that was NOT the best idea!  LORD only knows what I bought!  We were ALL hungry, I think we got 4 different bags of chips, stuff for nachos, beer, snacks for the boys - and hour and a half and $130 dollars later I MADE us leave!  I have never had such a discombobulated grocery trip!  It may not have been my greatest trip in terms of utilizing my coupons OR buying the healthiest food, BUT we had some delicious nachos with yummy cold beer followed by a warm cookie - and after a week in the frozen wasteland, isn't that all any of us could ask for!?

Snowmagedon 2011

We Got Gorgeous Powder Overnight

6 to 8 Inches - That's Unheard Of 'Round These Parts!

Here are a few shots around the house first thing in the morning: it was SUCH a beautiful sight! Everything was under a blanket of fluffy snow! The view looking out our front door, Trooper Dog's prints in the snow, and I particularly love the brick pattern, this was on the front porch right up to the front door, and the last pictures are of the back deck -look how deep it was!

My Snow Bunnies!

Where The Action Is!

What a GREAT day! I've said it before and I know I will again, but snow days are one of my FAVORITE things! We had SO much fun today that when we had to come in to do dinner, Dave and I weren't ready for it to end ~ the boys however were! And since we all know the kids are boss, we went in!Luckily we have sufficient cold weather gear for everyone so that once you get bundled up, which is a process to say the least, when you get out in the snow you are NOT cold! Although Pierce may argue that his ghetto gloves ~ which consisted of one pair of cotton knit gloves, one plastic sandwich baggie and then a second pair of cotton knit gloves over the top, could leave some room for improvement, all in all no one complained. Which allowed us to spend some significant time out exploring the 'wild' and of course SLEDDING!!!

This year the boys got two saucer sleds for Christmas and it was just in time since we had a White Christmas, but it was SO cold then 19 degrees with a feels like 9 when the wind would blow, that we only got to take a few sled runs down the side of our house, but today was different! To begin we practiced on a very small hill we have in the front yard, each boy really enjoyed it & we decided we could take on a bigger challenge. So we hiked down the road a bit and found some more advance hills. Once the initial sled path is carved out in the snow, you can really start to pick up some speed!

We would take turns going down the hill together, Dave with Kaiden and Pierce & I. Kaiden doesn't love it but will take a few runs, but Pierce on the other hand, he can't get enough ~ I knew he would be my adrenaline junkie! It was a pretty good workout for me pushing Pierce up the hill on his saucer OR trying to carry him & the sled up the hill ~ lots of layers between us + gloved hands = serious work not to drop the baby!

The Boys In Action

After an hour or so in the snow we went back to the house to thaw out, eat some chili ~ the perfect snow day food ~ and throw all our wet cold gear in the dryer so we could go back out after naps. Oh yeah and technically Dave did have work to do so he had other things to fill his day besides the snow! But by the time we got ready for our second trip out we decided that carrying Pierce was a seriously inefficeient way to get around so with a little more snow day intuition we turned our saucer sled into a riding sled!! I used one of my hair bands & the dogs leash & ta da!! Of course you have to set the baby just right in the sled but once you get going it's smooth sailing!

Round Two:
So with Pierce on his pull behind sled, we skidded our way down the side walk ~ I use the term side walk loosely since EVERYTHING was covered with both ice & snow ~ but we finally reached our sledding destination after a few more runs down the smallish hill the boys wanted to go bigger! Lucky for us we live in the sticks which just happens to have a LOT of rolling hills, never mind that the hill we were on lead to a sand trap, it was BIG & it went FAST and 4 out of the 5 races Piercey & I won the race, I am a better saucer driver than Dave ~ go figure. Although I may have had the advantage with my solid hood ornament, but I'll tell ya this, carrying that little trophy back up to the top of said sledding hill made me sweat! Shew! But it was SO worth it! Trooper would huff it back up to the top, then sprint after us barking in protest the whole time, I think in his old age & as self appointed protector of our pack, he really doesn't like it when things seem out of control, it was very endearing!

After enjoying the hill for what felt like eternity, it's weird when everything is covered in white and NO ONE has a care in the world what time it is, or there are no other people around time does kinda stand still, but the sun was going down AND there was that whole SEC Championship game we wanted to watch, so Dave picked up Kaiden and I place Pierce back on his chariot and we headed back to the house for the night. As we stripped off our wet snow going clothes, starving for dinner and ready for some snuggling on the couch I thought what a GREAT DAY! I mean it really gave me the warm and fuzzies, one of those days you wish you could freeze time & just stay in that moment the whole day! My favorite part, which wasn't caught on video, the four of us and Troops were back in our front yard, just before going in for the night, and we were rolling around in the snow, attempting to make snow angels, throwing snow balls for Troops to catch, watching Trooper try to 'kill' the snow (when they shake their head back and forth while he nibbles at the snow and watching Pierce and Kaiden tackle each other and try to tackle us into snow piles, and we were just laughing and having the most fun, yup that is my forever memory from the day!

Belated Christmas Pageant

It Was Worth The Wait!

But First, A Freak Of Nature!

Both boys are in a little half-day preschool a few days a week and they had scheduled to have their Christmas pageant and class parties the last Thursday of school before Christmas break, but as fate would have it we had a freak ice storm that temporarily paralyzed the city, well Atlanta & surrounding counties too! I say 'freak' ice storm because it had been relatively warm the days leading up to it, but with some rain, then all of a sudden the freezing rain moved in, the sun went down & people's usual bad commute home turned into a nightmare!! Some people in our area had more than a 5 hour drive home which should have been around 45 minutes. Cars were stranded, flipped over, in ditches, there were some 400 car accidents in Cherokee County alone in a matter of 2 hours! This all happened Wednesday night and as the evening news ran across the bottom of the screen was flashing the school closings, and sure enough there was 'Cherokee County' - there went our Christmas festivities - or so I thought! The other thing that was rather 'freaky' about this ice storm was that the very next evening it was in the high 50s and muggy!! I'm telling you if you didn't experience it you wouldn't have believed it!

On With The Show

So now here we are first week of January and we're headed to the preschool for our Christmas Pageant. Since this is the first year either of the boys participated in it, I had NO idea that people would sit in an empty sanctuary for 45 minutes just to get a good seat! Luckily one of the Mom's in Kaiden's class was headed up that way and said she would save seats for us! That was great cause I had to go home, pick up Dave, the cookie trays, and the teacher gifts - rookie mistake! ;o)

We had great seats and not long after we sat down all the precious little manger animals started filling in! Each class was dressed as a different part of the manger scene and of course it wouldn't be Christmas without a sleigh & some reindeer!!

A Rather Dashing Reindeer

So the 'bigger' kids came in and sat down then in came the babies. Pierce's class was in a crib with wheels that had been decorated with jingle bells & felt to look like a sleigh and each of the babies wore a headband with antlers ~ I am telling you it was just about the cutest thing you could ever hope to see! Down the aisle they came, all the adorable little heads adorned with jingling felt covered antlers, well all but one little brown haired boy! Right up to the front of the church they went and once up there they were going to be read the
story of the miracle at the manger. As the teacher begins reading all the heads in the sleigh turn towards the sound of her voice, well again, all but one! Here's my Pierce without antlers and facing the wrong direction ~ Go Figure!

 The antlers are replaced on his head and as if to celebrate that fact Pierce begins to bounce up and down delighting himself with each jingle of his headpiece! For a brief moment Pierce turns to look at the teacher who is reading the book and then he turns back around to look at the congregation who are all looking in his direction ~ of course WE all know that is a coincidence because the audience is also looking at the stage~ but not Pierce, he believed all eyes were on him & he got right to the business of greeting people! With a huge grin & a wave Pierce would chirp out 'HI' to his school mates in the first few rows. He did this
for pretty much the remainder of the story & then off they went rolling down the next aisle and out of the room before chaos ensued! It was perfect!

An Angelic Serenade

Once Pierce's class was out of the sanctuary, in marched an army of Angels! There are two or three classes of two year olds (I realize Kaiden is actually 3, but he misses the school cut-off by 9 days) dressed in white gowns (large white T-shirts) with wings and a halo ~ well a few were missing their halo's and you'd be right if you guessed my angel was one without his halo! (Are you starting to pick up on a pattern here?)

 Once all the kiddos were placed in their spot on the steps the piano began to play the tune 'twinkle twinkle little star' which they had changed to incorporate Christmas and Angels, very cute! Then it was time to jingle their bells! Each had a little jingle stick and they were SO excited to sing jingle bells, each of course really belting it out when they got to the 'HEY' part. Kaiden knew the words and sang most of each song, getting distracted by his neighbor, his jingle stick, holding his halo maybe a passing dust bunny, who knows he's 3 and this was his first performance, but I thought he did GREAT!! And since I am NOT ashamed of it I have to admit that I got a little teary watching my baby up there singing in front of a whole room of people, how is it possible that he is old enough to do that already!? As they walked down the aisle to leave, I was one of 'those parents' who yelled out his name & he says he saw Daddy but couldn't see me - FIGURES!! And just like that my boys were done with their parts of the program!

Party Time!!

After the other classes performed their parts, which were absolutely adorable as well - the 3 & 4 year olds were dressed as the animals from the manger, so one class was dressed as cows, the next were donkeys, there were lambs and my favorite were the camels ~ they had burlap sacks sewn onto the back of their brown shirts for humps, I mean HOW cute is that!? We cleared out of the sanctuary and headed back down to the classrooms to enjoy their parties. It was harder to do their parties this time because unlike their fall parties that were on separate days, this was simultaneous! So I was EXTRA thankful that Dave was also there so that we could divide and conquer!

 Dave went to be with Kaiden (shocker) but Kaiden was beyond thrilled that his Daddy was in his classroom, it was very sweet!  And Dave was there to do the arts & crafts project and the book exchange, so talk about a great day!

And I headed up the hall to go party it up with Wild Man (aka Pierce) who by the time I got in there was red faced and stripped down to his T-Shirt, sounds about right!

It really was a great day and I am SO thankful that the school still put it on and that Dave could be there with us!  

Christmas Merriment

Scrapblog Tile

I love doing the scrapblogs tiles and using them as my blog topper every so often I change up the themes and therefore update the tiles and I figured rather than forget how precious each of these labors of love, I would include them with photo recap posts. So above is the Christmas 2010 scrabblog tile. Aren't they sweet?!

Photo Recap

These first few photos may look familiar, these were taken during my 'photo shoot' for our Christmas card. Since I have no shame in my game, I will tell you these pictures and videos (which probably won't be posted) were taken over the course of an hour, after the boys had been at school & were there for tired - yeah by the end of it I could have cared less if a one of the pictures had come out good, I was on the verge of scrapping the card idea & I was over joyed when I got to tuck them in for their naps! Yeah, needless to say attempting to 'capture the moment' with two wee ones is EXHAUSTING! But I have to admit they came out SO much better then anticipated!

This picture was taken just after I finished addressing the Christmas cards, which thankfully turned out adorable. The boys were playing 'pots & pans' which evolved into Pierce with a strainer on his head & a rubber spatula as his drum stick! Too Funny!

This is our 'elf on the shelf' - I think his name is Buddy, but part way through the year it was changed to tree skirt - after our favorite show Prep & Landing - but this was one of his visits, just before Christmas.

Christmas Eve - can you see the excitment!? Seriously he was wired, pumped, could NOT wait for Santa to come & getting him to sleep was more involved than we thought it would be.

Christmas Morning! HE CAME!!!

Dave reading Santa's message

Our morning started early, like 5:20! Remember I said he was excited, so when he rolled over and saw the lights from the tree, he jumped out of bed & ran to our room saying "The presents are HERE! Santa Came! It's Christmas Eve & it's snowing! (he was a little confused - of course a few hours later it did in fact start snowing, but that's another post)

Since we LOVE the Polar Express, Santa wrapped the boy's gifts in the special red & white paper with large green bows. So Kaiden immediately knew which gifts were for him & Pierce, and since it would be at least an hour before brother woke up, we let Kaiden go through his stocking & open his big Santa present.

Let'er Rip! Kaiden tore into his present - YUP you guessed it, he got his Monorail!

Kaiden had already gone through his stocking at this point!

Pierce's big Santa present was this Pooh ride on train and he was delighted! I wish I had pictures of him excitedly ripping into his wrapping paper, but the truth is, his brother was so excited to 'help' that Kaiden pretty much did ALL the unwrapping this year! But Pierce didn't seem sad about it, he was just pumped to have his train! Kaiden did give the toy immediately to Pierce once it was out of the box, so that worked out well!

A few snaps of my favorite decorations from around the house. This angel used to be my Grandma Anne's, I love 'things' with meaning!

This turned out to be my FAVORITE addition to the holiday decorations, the dining room! Who knew?! I had a few short pieces of garland left over, a few un-hung decorations, a spool of red velvet ribbon and an extra strand of lights & viola! My peaceful room!

The big picture - I found the mosaic vases at GoodWill (LOVE THAT PLACE!), I had the galvinized arrangement from years past and found the runner that tied them all together at TJ Maxx. I thought it was the the perfect addition to the room.

The second half of our Christmas Day included a trip to Mom's house to open her gifts & do a dinner. Since my brother's birthday is Christmas Eve, and Dave's is the 26th and let's not forget the reason for the season, I made this Christmas ornament cake for everyone. It was really easy & yummy!

We had to hurry our Christmas at Mom's because it was really snowing out there and even though we have an all wheel drive car, which also happens to be the heaviest car in it's class (a little joke for Dave there) we didn't want to risk driving the 2 miles on slushy snowy roads.

Last But NOT Least

So I was just about to wrap up the post when I realized that I hadn't posted a picture of the gifts Dave & I exchanged - typical of a mom to always put ourselves last! So I know that some people may have not 'loved' receiving a toaster for Christmas, but I was PUMPED!! In 11 years of being together we have never had a toaster, always/only a toaster oven - which unfortunately ours died earlier this year - but let me tell you bread + a real toaster = delicious toast! As opposed to 'broiled bread' out of the oven! And it's beautiful - kudos hubby!

Dave got a replacement tag for his honda - which has the original (used to be) blue gwinnett honda tag on it so now he has this gorgeous tag to replace it with. Although he likes this new tag so much he doesn't want to have it destroyed during his commutes - so it may be save to hang on the wall in the 'Cowboys' room - this is our fictional room in the basement, which we have yet to build out - but we've been collecting things to go in it all the same! :o)

OK, that's it! All in all it was another great holiday! And like usual, it's SO hard to believe another Christmas has come & gone and now it's time to take down decorations and find new projects to tackle! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and if by chance you didn't get everything on your list, I hear it's worth it to brave the crowds & hit up those after Christmas sales!