Christmas 2007!

Wow! This Christmas season has been such a whirlwind. I have been off of work since the Friday before Christmas, but haven't had much time to blog!

We spent the days leading up to Christmas and some of Christmas day at my parents house. We did a lot of shopping, playing games, and of course our favorite pasttime...eating! On Christmas day we went to the Gaylord Texan to eat Christmas lunch, visit the ICE! exhibit and see all of the Gaylord decorations. This was our fourth time to go to the Gaylord during the holidays and has become somewhat of a tradition! After the Gaylord, we went to Jeff's parents house for more Christmas celebrating, and of course....more eating!!

This picture is from Christmas Eve. We all wear our red scrubs on Christmas Eve--this year, Landry and Korley even got red scrubs!

This Christmas was brought to you by the letters E-L-M-O!!!

This is one of Korley's favorite presents. It's a plastic tube of lipstick that was in a toy purse she got as a present. She has carried this tube of lipstick everywhere!!


Santa brought a new bike and a Smart Cycle for Landry....




and, a retro Schwinn tricycle for Korley!


ICE! exhibit....

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my dear blog friends!

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth!!

ketchup

I have to admit....I am glad last weekend is behind me. This past September I volunteered to help my friend, Karin, with kids choir at our church. By help, I mean that I intended to be there for crowd control--50+ kids ages Kindergarten-6th grade can get a little chaotic. So, I showed up on Sunday evenings and separated those who couldn't keep hands to themselves, shushed the talkers, and sometimes stopped kids from vigorously turning in circles...yeah, seriously.

Then, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to take over the music portion of the program. Yikes! I was more than happy to help my friend out, but was nervous about the task! Although I had five years of piano and five years of choir in my younger days, I really had as much business being in charge of music as Helen Keller.

Up until the last minute of rehearsal, there were so many things that hadn't quite come together. But, when it was finally *showtime*, the kids did their absolute best and it was great! Of course, there were a couple of things that happened that weren't "supposed to", but that's to be expected--and it gave the performance a certain "character". Karin, we hope we made you proud! These kids adore you!

Landry was part of the choir and she had so much fun. She LOVES performing on stage!

This picture is a little fuzzy, but here she is singing her solo (which she sang very well!)

Since it was so rainy last night, I figured most people would stay in, and I thought it would be perfect opportunity for us to get out and take the girls' picture with Santa. Jeff told me on the way to the mall that he thought this was a horrible idea; he just knew it would be crowded. I told him he was wrong because no one would be wanting to get out in the yucky weather. We made a deal with each other--whoever was right could tell the other person, "I told you so". Yeah, believe it or not we are in our 30s. Well, Jeff told me..... Not only was the line long, but it was also "pet night". So, it smelled like wet dog all through the line. Ewwwwww!

Anyway, this isn't the picture my mind's eye had taken--I wanted Korley to be smiling and her pant leg to be straight, and I didn't envision Landry to have a hump in her hair from where her ponytail had been just minutes before. But, at any rate, I present the Santa picture of 2007!

Santa Claus May Not Be Coming To Town...

Ok, not really. Santa will always come to our house. But, shopping for Christmas presents for Landry this year has proved to be harder than in years past. She has not asked for anything!! The other night, we were at Frisco's Merry Main Street and they had little tables set up where you could write letters to Santa and then put them in a special "North Pole" mailbox. She wanted to write a letter, so we did, but she had to strain her brain to come up with something to write down. Fortunately, Landry has always been thankful for and enjoyed anything she's given, so I'm sure we can't go wrong with whatever we get her.

Somebody was asking me the other day what kind of toys Korley likes to play with. After I thought about it for a moment, I realized that she really doesn't play with toys. She spends her time moving things. She can be found somewhere in our house gathering something (that she's probably not supposed to have) and moving them to some other part of the house. For instance, the other day she spent about 15 minutes moving shoes from my closet to underneath the desk in our study. It's not uncommon for me to find crayons underneath my bathroom sink, or to hear my cell phone ringing from the hamper. Seeing as how this is her favorite activity, I'm at a loss as to what to get her as well for Christmas, too. Maybe I should get her a push cart to help her haul stuff around the house!

33!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jeff! The best husband and father in the world!

I'm surprised they don't use Rotary phones.....

It's easy to get frustated at stores with crowds and such during the holiday season. But, one place in particular just drives me completely nuts....Hob..by Lob..by. What is the deal with keying in the price of EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM?? Haven't they heard of barcodes? They were first used in the '60s, which was before I was born, which makes HL about 40 years behind the times! And, if that's not irritating enough, the only way the cashiers know if something is on sale is if they look at the sale circular that they have taped to their counter. And, of course, I ALWAYS get in the line with the least amount of people, but somehow it takes four times longer to check out. The other day I was in line with my merchandise (TWO spools of Christmas ribbon) behind a lady with a cart full of stuff. As if it wasn't bad enough that she questioned every single keyed in price and made the cashier keep checking the circular, she also had a sack full of stuff to exchange and a separate sack full of stuff to return!! Heavens to Betsy.....

And, as always, as soon as she is walking away and it's finally my turn to check out, another check-out line opens.

Coffee Talk

Let me start by saying that with the exception of the very rare road trips I have taken this past year, it has been a while since I have been in a convenience store. I generally fill-up at Wal-Mart or Costco and always pay with my debit card so there has been no reason for me to go into a convenience store. However, recently I have fallen in love with 7-11.


People, they have the best selection of coffee! They have two big coffee makers, each with several burners that are warming about 8 pots of freshly made flavored coffee. They've got regular, decaf, and bold (boring!), but also hazelnut, french vanilla and many more! And, they have those cute little flavored Coffee-Mate creamers. My favorite right now is Hazelnut coffee with one Hazelnut creamer and one packet of Equal--Mmmmmmm!


So, pretend we are sitting down to chat with a cup of coffee. The coffee chat subject for the day is your least favorite Christmas song. And, I guess we can throw in most favorite, too. I don't want to totally be Debbie Downer.


My least favorite is anything by Kenny G. I don't know why, but the sound of any instrument with a reed just really bugs me. I think it has something to do with all the woodwind'ers I was in middle school band with that were constantly chewing on their reeds--gross! Anyway, I just don't like the sound of saxophones or clarinets; therefore, I don't enjoy Kenny G's Christmas music--or really any of his music.


My favorite Christmas song (at least right now) is Josh Groban's "O Holy Night".


Your turn.....

Fun with MyHeritage.com

I wish I had a picture.....

update: Thanks, Tiffany, for granting my wish! :)

Yesterday, our church's kids' choir performed during the two morning services. They have a Christmas program in a few weeks and they sang one of their songs from the program. Landry got on stage and SANG HER HEART OUT. And, not just sang with her voice, but with everything she had! She was bouncing and dancing and just oozed excitement and enthusiasm. It was so great! I know I'm somewhat partial, but it was great! ;)

Happy Halloween!

In our house, Hannah Montana, Gabriela and Sharpay, Cheetah Girls, and all of the Disney Princesses aren't anything to write home about.

But, Bindi the Jungle Girl--now she's a celebrity. So, like most little girls who want to dress up like who they admire, Landry chose to be Bindi Irwin this Halloween. And, we thought it only be appropriate for Korley to be a crocodile. :)

In case you're unfamiliar with Bindi the Jungle Girl, here's a picture of her from one of her shows. We got pretty close to her "look". Got the yellow monogramed shirt, khaki pants, crimped pigtails, and something to hold that resembles something I would never ever touch. Wasn't willing to cut bangs, though!

After we got the girls ready we headed to our church's carnival. Landry had a great time playing the games!

After we got back from the carnival, Landry got to go trick-or-treating (Korley was pooped and went to bed!). And, then, as we've done in years past, she and Daddy hung out on the front porch to hand out candy!

The other big news of the day was the 3rd lost tooth (first top one)! When I picked Landry up from school today her tooth looked like this (yuk!). It was just dangling there, barely hanging on, and flapping in the wind when she breathed or talked. I told her she wasn't going to get to do any Halloween stuff until we pulled that tooth out. Yeah--go ahead--submit your nominations for me to win Mom of the Year.

Anyway, about 30 seconds after the previous picture was taken we got the below result!

Last Minute Costume

This isn't Korley's real Halloween costume. She was supposed to wear her costume to daycare today and I didn't want her to wear her real costume because 1) it would be way to hot for her in this EIGHTY DEGREE WEATHER (ugh!) and 2) I didn't want her to get it dirty. ;)

So, we went with Plan B--the ol' standby cheerleader outfit. Here she is this morning before she went to school--and with Landry, too!

And speaking of last minute costumes, the following pictures were not only last minute, but could also be categorized as the WORST COSTUME EXECUTION ever!! Jeff and I went to a Halloween party a couple of years ago. We weren't going to dress up, but at the last minute we decided we wanted to. We tried to go as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, circa 1970s. Seriously--worst costumes ever.

Last Friday we took the girls to the pumpkin patch. I'm using the term "pumpkin patch" very loosely. This wasn't the kind of patch we are used to going to--this was basically a bunch of pumpkins thrown in a church lawn.

Korley brought me this pumpkin that had a bunch of *warts* on it and she said "Ewwwwwwwww".

This was the only half-way decent picture I got of Landry and Korley together. I didn't know it at the time, but Landry was running a fever and didn't feel good. Later, we went to the mall for dinner and she feel asleep in the on the bench in the foodcourt. Yeah, I'm a good mom.

By Saturday she was feeling much better and my parents treated us (ok, it was REALLY for Landry!) to the "Walking With Dinosaurs" show. I'm not much into dinosaurs, but this was really cool.

BTW, Ann, Erica and Chas--here is a picture of my new 'do (kind of). It's kind of deceiving because I'm leaning forward, but it's one of those bobs that's shorter in the back.

And, of course, PopPop bought her some really cool souvenirs!

And no weekend would be complete without laundry. This weekend I got a little *help* from Korley. Actually, she was the polar opposite of help. Anytime I tried to get an item out of the basket, she'd scream, take it from me and move it to where she was sitting on it better.

Is it weird that.....

on Wednesday at work I didn't see ONE person that I work with ALL DAY. People were there, but it was one of those days were everyone was is a nerdy mood and just stayed in their cubicles all day. So, Thursday I wore to work THE EXACT SAME OUTFIT I wore the day before. Because I could.

Witchcraft

I guess the title would be more appropriate if these were actually witches, but it's the best title I could come up with. :) I've always liked the personalized ceramics with handprints/footprints--like Paint.ed Pig.gies does--but, they're quite expensive. This is the same concept for nearly free. I stole this idea from my friend Tiffany--these didn't turn out perfect, but still cute!

It's been a while since I have blogged. I should have a lot to talk about, but I don't. At the end of the day when I do have time to blog, the last thing I want to do is get on my computer. My work has been very busy/frustrating lately, and quite frankly, I'm hating it. I am finding harder and harder to find the work/life balance. Really I don't have anything good to say about work right now--so I'm not going to say anything (else) at all.....

Cute Landry story--so this week is Red Ribbon Week at school (probably all schools). I asked her the other day if she knew what Red Ribbon Week meant and she said "Yes. It's where you don't do drugs all week." Nice.

What else?....I got my hair cut last weekend. REALLY SHORT. I'm okay with it, but I don't think it looks very good to others. The main reaction I'm getting is, "wow, you cut your hair!" And that's all. The only person who really *raved* about it was this lady that I don't know at all, but she works on my floor and I see her everyday. However, her hair is EXACTLY like Peg Bundy's so I don't really know how to interpret her compliment. Oh well, I'm not. A compliment's a compliment and I'll take it!


Allright, I'm tired and have nothing useful to say. I'll try to blog something more entertaining tomorrow.

Randomness

Traci tagged me a couple of weeks ago to do an 8 Random Things list. I don't know why I found this so hard, but it was. I mean it's only eight things.....how hard can that be? However, I placed a lot of pressure on myself trying to make them "random". We'll see just how random they are....


1) I don't really like to read. This is not something I'm proud of, but it's true. I hate books. I sometimes force myself to read and usually I'm disappointed by the end of the book and wished I hadn't read it. I've pretty much hated every book suggested by Oprah. If I do decide to read, I'll generally pick a Nicholas Sparks book--I like his books. When I read People or US Weekly I usually go through the whole magazine first looking at the pictures and then I might go back and read an article. A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the waiting room of a tire store reading an article in a magazine about this crime/controversy incident that occured on the Texas/Mexico border. It was very intriguing and I was interested; however, I flipped through and saw how many pages the article covered and quit reading it--too many pages.


2) I might not like to read, but apparently I like to ramble on about how much I don't like to read.


3) Fall is not my favorite season (summer is), but two of my favorite fall things are football and taco soup.


4) One of the reasons I don't like fall is fall clothes. I hate wearing long sleeves and I hate wearing coats. I hate how I have to pull my hair out of the neckline of coats, and how my hair gets all static-y.


5) I am part vampire. No, silly, not really! But, I CANNOT go outside without sunglasses on. Even if it's cloudy and rainy out, my eyes are so sensitive to sunlight that I have to wear sunglasses outside....always!


6) I played tennis growing up and I miss it. I would love to find the time to start playing again. Maybe I'll give up reading altogether and replace it with tennis! :)


7) I work full-time and I sometimes struggle with this choice. The (what seems like) weekly Today Show segment on the "mommy wars" doesn't help, either. It doesn't matter, though, I constantly have my own mommy wars going on inside my head.


8) I have this horrible, terrible, awful habit of not putting on my seatbelt. Barbara Mandrell (and my mom) would be so disappointed in me. Today when I was driving my 18 mile drive to work, I put my seatbelt on for the last .0000005 miles of the drive.


I'm typing this while watching Dancing With the Stars....is it just me or does anyone else prefer Drew Lachey to Samantha Harris?

She's Got the Look

Many people tell me that Landry and Korley don't look alike. But, since Korley was a newborn she will occasionally make a facial expression that stops me cold and takes me back to when Landry was Korley's age.


Korley definitely has her own "faces", but she has developed Landry's "super cheese" smile. This is the smile she flashes with everything she's got--her nose wrinkles like a bunny, she squints her eyes to where she can barely see, and shows every tooth she's got. Both of these girls have gotten out of more trouble with this smile....

Korley--almost 18 months

Landry-18 months

My sweet little Landry is home from school today, sick with the stomach bug. I know she hates being sick, and I hate for her to be sick. However, I am so thankful that it's just a stomach bug --and that I can go home and hug her and hold her--and that she will be fine by tomorrow and running and playing--and that in general she is healthy--as is my precious Korley.

I can't even imagine going through what this sweet, young family is going through this very moment. Say a prayer for the Farleys.

It's been well over a week now, but below is the new cast. Her first choice was "animal print", but our doctor didn't have any type of animal print tape. Her second choice was black. Yep, black! I almost fainted when I had mental flashes 10 years into the future of my baby dressing in goth with jet black dyed hair and pastey white make-up with heavy black eye-liner (okay, maybe a little dramatic...or maybe not!). I was able to talk her out of black by explaining that no one would be able to sign her cast. So, we settled for HOT pink. And I do mean HOT!!


Since she is prohibited from playing soccer right now--by the way, it's not so much the falling and hurting her arm that's a problem, it's that if her arm gets sweaty inside the cast she could get a skin infection, EWWWWW!--she has been doing a lot of indoor activities. One of her friends got her these dinosaur eggs that melt in hot water and when it dissolves it leaves behind dinosaur bones and you can then "build" the dinosaur. Landry considered this a "science experiment" and insisted that she and Jeff wear their safety goggles. :) My little nerds....

I haven't written a lot about Korley in a while and I don't know why. There is A LOT going on with this child. She definitely keeps us on our toes! Here are some of her "favorites":

words: right now she loves saying "lellow" (yellow), "good girl", and "bubbles"

accessory: pacifier, "pappy" as she calls it

hobbies: climbing stairs, climbing chairs, climbing couches, climbing slides, climbing ______!! She also LOVES to sing! I'm amazed at how she remembers the tune to songs. I can't always tell what she's saying by her words, but I can always tell by the tune she's singing. It's so cute!

food: Vienna sausages (she actually applauds when she sees me pull these out of the pantry!), green beans, spaghetti (or ravioli, or lasagna), grapes

TV show: The Wiggles, Elmo, and she loves that star character during breaks on PBS Kids Sprout