Happy Halloween 2010

I must say that I totally slacked on Halloween this year. We did manage to carve our 2 pumpkins and light them on 2 occasions,

but I really didn't put much thought into Drew's costume. I could make excuses about how I only had 50 other things that were a higher priority than a costume he cared nothing about, but I won't do that. I just wanted something simple, economical, and that didn't absolutely require a hat. (He HATES hats.) So Drew was going to be a train engineer. Simple. Economical.



Unfortunately, in retrospect, it required the hat because without it he looked like Farmer Fred.


So what was Drew this year? Well, for a total of 5 minutes he was a train engineer. The rest of the time, he was a farmer. Are you wondering what Andrew's costume has to do with an engineer/farmer? Nothing. Not a thing. Because trunk or treat started at 5 and I started on everyone's costume at 4:25. The final outcome:

An engineer/farmer, pirate, and a pregnant witch.




(Note the loads of chocolate on his mouth. This child was a chocolatey, sticky mess by the time 7pm rolled around. Oh and wound up on sugar. The crash was lovely.)



Overall, a fun time, even if it irked me constantly that we had no "theme." Hope your family has a very happy halloween!

Happy Mother's Day!

I have a lot of blog catching up to do (and I actually have pictures to post!), but I wanted to drop a quick line and say "Happy Mother's Day" to all of our incredible moms out there! I was born to one truly incredible mother who, to this day, continually makes sacrifices for her children. I was doubly blessed to call another lady my "almost mother"--my Deda! I love these two ladies with my entire being. They are the example of what a mom should be!

Hope you all have had a wonderful mother's day! Outside of a child of God and a wife, there's no other name I'd rather be called than "mommy!"

Merry Christmas --2009

(Disclaimer: This post was written days ago, but my camera was MIA. People don't like posts without pictures, so I held out until I found it. That happened right before leaving for Greenville, MS where we have super slow internet. Long story short--all the pictures will have red eye or some blemish because my connection is too slow for online photo editing. Please forgive!)

I deserve to be beat with a wet noodle. (Didn't your mother ever threaten you with that punishment?) I've been a bad blogger. I'm probably the last person on your reader list to blog about our Christmas celebration, but at least I'm doing it. Better now than never!

One unexpected gift I received this year was a stomach bug. It started a day or so before Christmas with nausea and extreme tiredness (yeah, I was thinking I was pregnant, too) and then resulted in other not so fun things on Christmas Eve night and Christmas day. Thankfully, Zofran spared my life and left me able to at least hold a video camera on Christmas morning. I didn't get to partake in Christmas foods or go with the family on Christmas day, but I'll venture to say I still had a great Christmas watching my little boy and spending time with family.

Christmas Eve was spent at my parents with the traditional meal of fried fish, french fries, hushpuppies, cole slaw, and tea. Can we say Southern? Can we say yum? Well, everyone else said it was yum.

We tried taking a few family pictures, but there was way too much going on for Drew to be in a "sit still and smile" mood. This is the best we got:

It'll do. ;)



Since we weren't all spending the night at my parents' on Christmas Eve like tradition holds, we opened up our new Christmas PJs and put them on immediately. I must say we were a cute bunch!


And a pretty goofy bunch...





We dove into the rest of our gifts. We are one spoiled rotten bunch. All of us. I won't lie and say I don't like receiving a great gift, but I enjoy seeing other people open gifts from us even more. (Especially if you can tell they actually like the gift!) My sweet sister Kacie spent hours pouring over her gift for me and I am so indebted to her! She made a book out of my blog of Drew's first year of life--pictures and monthly birthday updates included. I was so honored that she took up that much of her time and so thankful that she took that burden off my hands! It was on my to-do list for January! Thank you, Kacie!

My mom was presented with the most gorgeous diamond ring from my dad! It was beautiful, and she was very grateful!


Drew had a ball opening his gifts, but wasn't too keen on opening another gift when he wanted to play with the one he just opened. (I think my advice for other parents would be to go ahead and take the toys OUT of the packaging and then wrap them for 12-24 month olds. That way you don't have to spend tons of time ripping cardboard and tape apart and breaking fingernails.) To say he got a lot of stuff would be an understatement. I think I'm going to need to have a garage sale to make room for the new stuff!


Late Christmas Eve night for Andrew & his mom was spent cleaning the house and preparing for Christmas morning as well as being my 2 little nurses. They got gold stars from this patient!

Mom, Dad, Kacie, Judd, Caroline, and Mamaw got here around 9am Christmas morning to see Drew open his gifts. I went a little crazy and wrapped everything, including stocking stuffers. His main gift was a kitchen set since he loves playing with anything in the kitchen. Imaginative play isn't quite developed yet, but he's getting there. He likes to stir up stuff in a bowl and come give you a taste. He always expects you to say, "Mmm!!"



(Here he is having a taste of plastic beans...)

Drew's Granna and Papaw brought Drew's big gift with them after he'd opened Santa Claus presents. Guess what it was?

Yep. He was thrilled! It's an outside tractor so we can't wait until it gets warm outside again! I have a feeling I'll have a really hard time getting this child to come inside this year! Thanks Mom & Dad for the generous gift!

Andrew and Ms. Debbie took Drew to my side of the family's celebration for lunch a little while later. Drew's great grandmother had been working on him a twin sized quilt out of some fabric I picked out. The plan is to decorate his eventual big boy room in a cowboy theme. Well, I thought the quilt turned out FABULOUS and Drew did too! They said he was squealing when he saw it and started clapping his hands and wanted to rub it! Pretty sure that made my grandmother's day! How awesome is this quilt?!



He got more toys of course and was pooped when he returned home to mommy!

Since then, he has played his little heart out with all these toys. My house is a disaster zone, resembling Toys R' Us at the end of Black Friday. It's slowly being pieced back together now. I did something totally out of the ordinary; I took my tree down yesterday! I always leave it up until after New Year's, but Drew had utterly destroyed the poor thing and it was just a constant headache to trip over scattered ornaments. I will say I am really enjoying having my house back in order!

What a wonderful Christmas to celebrate our Savior's birth with family! It still amazes me to think that Immanuel ("God with us") left a perfect heaven, knowing his destiny, to walk among the sin of this Earth because He loves His people so much. Thank you, God, for your Son who cleanses us daily and gives us the hope of an eternal life!

Merry (belated) Christmas & Happy New Year!

Drew's Modest Christmas List

Everyone keeps asking what Drew wants for Christmas, so I sat down and asked him. He proposed that he write a letter to Santa, to request the items he most desires. I wish I could just scan it in because he wrote in beautiful calligraphy. It was really something to behold.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Santa,

It seems around my house there are a lot of things termed "no no," but I was thinking if you gave me my own "no no" items, they wouldn't be off limits anymore. Genius idea, huh? Here's what I've been thinking:

-My own set of blinds with blind cords that I can open and close 'til my heart's content. Oh and not the skinny $28 set from Lowes. I want you to custom order me the $200 set. Those are the ones I really like. For some reason, mom and dad hate for me to play with those. Stingy parents.

-A table I can climb on. Mom and Dad say it needs padding around the edges so my constantly bruised head will go away.

-A dryer I can operate myself.

-My own hairdryer. Mom said I broke her last one and won't let me use this one. Mean lady.

-My own bathroom toiletries, complete with screw on caps that I can play with all day long.

-A jacuzzi faucet that I can sit and turn off and on. Mom requests no hot water hooked up to it since that's why I can't play with hers.

-A door that opens and closes easily, but doesn't mash my fingers. All the old people freak out when I play with doors, so the non-smashing kind would save them a lot of headaches.

-Shoes I can get off easier. Socks too.

-A stinkin' adult sized Christmas tree that I can do WHATEVER I want with. Maybe I should move this to the top of my list...

-A set of stairs that will catch me if I fall. (Okay, mom asked me to put that in. Seeing as how I'm nice and all, I did it...)

-An oven drawer I can open and climb all over without getting in trouble.

-My own fireplace with doors. Can we put a chair inside? It's my favorite quiet spot. Maybe some reading material? I like the touchy-feely kind, in case you were wondering.

-My own fridge to climb in and pull everything out of.

-For heaven's sakes, a dishwasher that I can load and unload with random items and turn on to hear the cool noise!

Well, that's about it, I guess. I don't think it's asking too much since Mommy always says what a sweet boy I am. Oh those temper tantrums? I'll try to tone those down a bit if you can work on some of these things for me. Mommy says we might need to add on to the house if you bring me all this stuff, so maybe a fat gift card to Lowe's as well.

Thanks, Santa! You're the best!

Love,
Drew

Our Christmas Decor: Toddler Style

My Aunt Deda said I should take a picture of our tree this year so we can look back and laugh about it in years to come. I decided I'd post it so you can get a chuckle too. After 1 1/2 weeks of being constantly torn apart by curious hands, here is our poor tree.


The bottom half is quite lacking in ornaments. And since this picture was taken 10 minutes ago, another 2 ornaments have found a new home towards the top of the tree.

Surprisingly, he's left the mantle decor alone, aside from trying to pull on the stockings.


This is probably the majority of the decor going up at our home this year. Our curious toddler's hands can't take anymore temptation!

*Keep scrolling for another new post!

Holiday Traditions

One of the greatest parts of the holidays for our family is repeating and carrying on traditions. We're always looking to expand our tradition list, so feel free to share your traditions or link to your blog in the comment section to explain your traditions! Check out Kelly's Korner for more great links to traditions!

-Christmas pajamas: Everyone in the family gets a pair of Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve to wear to bed that night.

-Stockings are opened first on Christmas morning, followed by presents. Kids will open gifts all at the same time, but adults go one by one to make the gift opening time last longer.

-Sausage balls on Christmas morning are a must.

-We have a tradition of eating a non-traditional dinner on Christmas Eve: fried fish. Strange? Yes. Delicious? You bet.

-Must watch movies consist of A Christmas Story and The Santa Clause.

Andrew and I want to incorporate more traditions centered around Jesus into our yearly routines. We want to read the Christmas story on the night before Christmas and possibly start a yearly tradition of seeing the Singing Christmas Tree in Memphis when the kids get older.

Elf on a Shelf is another tradition we plan on starting next year once Drew can understand more of what/who the elf is!

I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas! The Christmas spirit is in full swing at our home! Decor pictures to come soon!

Christmas Tree Disaster

To all of you out there who let out a "bwa ha ha ha" as I spoke of putting up my Christmas tree without toddler precautions, I concede. You were right.

Christmas tree + shiny ornaments + lights + 16 month old= DISASTER

I need a recording around my neck that says "no, no." However, I would need to change the batteries more than once a day because that's how often I say it. I think he actually thinks the name for ornament is "no." (Yep. Just said the repeated phrase it as I typed it out...And he's still standing there holding an ornament.) This tactic is not working.

Here are the basic scenarios we're seeing by the hour:

--Drew stares at the tree. Then he turns and looks at me with the most mischievous grin. I give him a stern look and say, "No. Don't touch the tree." He then turns and jets at lightning speed towards the tree, putting his little toddler hands all over whichever ornaments he can get on.

--Drew adds TO the tree: a toothbrush, some lint, a pacifier, etc.

--As I'm doing the dishes, I hear, "Na na na na na!" (Translation: "No, no, no, no, no) He then comes running to me to bring me two ornaments from the tree. We replace them all while saying, "No, no, no." Repeat. Repeat again. I pull some hair out--my own, of course. Repeat. Repeat.

You get the picture. Unfortunately, you don't get a picture of my tree. Originally, it looked pretty cute. To my dismay, but for my sanity's sake, most of the ornaments got moved to the top half of the tree. We definitely will not win "most beautiful tree," but at least all my ornaments won't be broken. Well, unless the whole tree falls over because it's top heavy. In that case, we'll have plastic ornaments next year.

Oh, speaking of broken ornaments, we're at 1...so far.

My new plan is to buy Drew a miniature tree at Hobby Lobby on Friday with his own nonbreakable decorations that he can decorate and undecorate as he pleases. Getting him a miniature version of "big people stuff" usually works well for him. I'll let you know how that goes.

Let me guess. You're laughing at me again? ;)

Bitten

I've been bitten by the Christmas bug. I thought I was holding it at bay, but yesterday I headed to Kohl's to use my awesome 30% off coupon. Oh, Kohls, how I love thee. (Great prices, great merchandise, and you're open after my child goes to bed. Oh and holiday hours extend that even further. *sigh*)

Christmas trees. Christmas music. Holiday candle scents. Wrapping paper. Gift buying. I was hooked. I came home with my bag of gifts and sat them on the table.

That leaves me with my new dilemma: now I have all these gifts to wrap and no tree to put them under. A sane person might suggest putting them in a closet for 2 weeks, but I'm gonna pull the "I have no more closet space" card and pretend like that's true. And then I'm gonna pull the "It's only a week and a half early to put up the tree!" card and act like it's socially acceptable to do so.

That leaves me one question...am I crazy enough to put my tree up this weekend? Well, yes I am. It's only a week and a half early! Not sure if the hubs is going to agree to this. I'll just blame it on the Kohl's Christmas bug.

Stick around. Christmas tree pictures might be coming soon!

Halloween 2009 & Chuck E Cheese

I know I'm the last breathing blogger who hasn't finished blogging about Halloween yet, but I can't rest until I get it written down. (Okay, that's a lie. I've slept fine.)

On Halloween night we got the pleasure of heading to our neighbor's Halloween party/cookoff (Hi, Daphne!) As Andrew's mom, Debbie, and I were getting Drew ready for the party, Andrew decided it was imperative that our pumpkin get carved before the trick or treaters came to our house (where we would not even be located...).

The party started at 5. At 4:45, Andrew started carving his elaborate Scooby Doo Pumpkin. Ms. Debbie & I headed to the party sans Andrew at 5:30pm to enjoy DELICIOUS potato soup. Even picky little Drew partook in the meal. Andrew showed up about an hour later with a proud display of Scooby Doo Pumpkin iPhone photos. (Wish I had a picture to post. It turned out great!) *sigh* Husbands. Cant' live with 'em. Can't live without 'em. ;) (Just kidding, babe--love you!)

Instead of trick or treating this year, we decided to hit up Chuck E Cheese for the first time. Are we crazy or what? We thought it would be uncrowded, but we were wrong! Drew had a lot of fun, but mainly stuck to any game with a steering wheel.


Walking into a place like Chuck E Cheese with 200 sets of dirty hands and prevalent strains of the flu give me the chills. Good thing I had my handy dandy Lysol spray! Yep. I sprayed every one of those toys with Lysol before I let Drew touch them. Oh, I got laughs, but you know what? He didn't get sick from there, so it was worth the stares!

My verdict: we had fun, but Drew probably would have had just as much fun playing in our truck with the steering wheel. Andrew, however, got our money's worth. He had a BALL. I actually went to find him after 10-15 minutes of him being gone. Found him right where I suspected: the deer hunting game. Are we surprised? ;)

Trunk or Treat 2009 Pictures--Arrr Matey!

Last night's Trunk or Treat was a hit! Our family costume theme was "pirates" and our costumes were pretty cheap & easy. Drew's was store bought from Target ($12) and mine was pieces put together out of my closet. For Andrew costume, we bought a $10 black shirt from Marshall's and cut off the sleeves and neck. Made a cheap vest! We did spend $2 on his hook and $10 on his wig. It was worth it; he loved the hair! ;)

I don't have much time to go on about how great the night was, so I'll just give you a few pictures:









To see all of the night's pictures, click here!

Family Costume Ideas

My husband has no idea about what I'm about to write about, so let's keep this between us. Okay? Okay. Lean in so you can hear me...

This year for Halloween we are dressing up as a family. I'm trying to think of a cute group costume idea that we can pull off inexpensively. I want your creative ideas. Here are the requirements:

1. Nothing that starts with sexy or scandalous. (Ex: sexy nurse, scandalous police officer. Um, no thanks.)

2. Cannot require a headpiece for Drew. It won't last 0.5 seconds.

Okay, that's not bad so surely you guys can come up with something! I was trying to think of a Heroes related costume (since we're major fans and all), but Drew could only be Matt Parkman's baby...and that's not gonna be cute in pictures since there's nothing special about the kid. (Well...except that he can make electronics work without touching them.)

Here are ideas I'm considering so far:

1. Jon & Kate with Drew as Collen (Collen was our favorite, but that wouldn't be a cute costume for Drew)
2. Barbie, Ken & baby (or dog! That way Drew could be a puppy!)
3. Farmer, Wife, and Farm Animal
4. Some kind of candy theme?
5. Cinderella, Prince, and Gus-Gus the mouse (He would make a darling mouse! But I don't know if Andrew would wanna wear a tail...)
6. Nintendo characters (Mario, Princess, and donkey kong)

Andrew is probably gonna fly in with some crazy idea like, "How about Drew and I go as camouflaged hunters and you be a deer?!" So, honey, let me just tell you I'm vetoing that already.

Thoughts?

Christmas in July Questions

69 degrees? In Mississippi? In July?

What a rare occasion! We should celebrate! I'll hit the Christmas music!

No? You're not in the spirit? Oh. Sorry.

This weather + Hobby Lobby's Christmas decor being out for a MONTH + reading old blogs with Christmas tours = an Audra who is ready for Christmas 2009!

In honor of my ridiculous mood, a few Christmas questions for you...

1. Where did you buy your tree? Are you happy with it? We're desperately in need of a new one this year, but I'm not looking to spend $300 on one. So if yours is $300, please include that in your comment so I don't go see it, get my hopes up, and then have them come crashing down when I see the price tag.

2. What are you looking forward to at Christmastime this year? Last year, Christmas was kinda crazy at our house with a 5 month old, so I'm looking forward to a more relaxed, easy going Christmas in 2009. I'm always looking forward to Black Friday (can we say 3am shopping? YES)! And of course we get to do Christmas this year with Drew! Andrew and I are excited to play Santa!

3. What new Christmas decor item is on your list for this year? Where are you gonna head to buy it? Besides a new tree, I want monogrammed stockings for our family of three. Oh...and I don't wanna pay an arm and a leg for them, so Ballard's and PB are out! Maybe buy them at Target and get them monogrammed??

Merry Christmas in July!

Our Last "First" Holiday

Nicki so sweetly reminded me that yesterday was Drew's last "first holiday," and I dare say we had a blast celebrating it! You really can't beat good family, good food, and good fireworks all in one day. Kacie and Judd even made it up for the weekend-always a treat!

This time last year I was, well, for lack of a better, more fitting term--large. Drew had five days left to bake inside me before making his grand appearance. That goes without saying that we did not make it out in the 90 degree heat to see fireworks on July 4, 2008. So my plan for the last year was to make up for it in 2009.

I'm a worrier by nature. I attempt to avoid any meltdowns or cryfests if at all possible, but am starting to realize that would mean locking myself indoors for most of my life (hm...I DO like air conditioning...). I donned my big girl panties last night and took Drew to see the fireworks, against my better judgment. Why the worry?
1) His bedtime usually falls around 7:30-8:00.
2) The fireworks started at 9.
3) They last at least 30 minutes.
4) Getting out of the park in traffic takes 30 min.
5) No nap since 1:30pm

This would not be a good combination. Especially if heat were added.

So it kinda started like this.

But do you know what the magic solution was? Orange juice. Sunny D to be exact, if you count that as "juice." It did the trick quite beautifully! We went without meltdown, scraped knee, or explosive diaper. A lovely evening if I do say so myself!


Not one tear shed over the fireworks!




Impressive. She's holding two babies at once. ;)


Love them and can't wait for their baby to arrive in September!



Oh and what's a southern celebration without sweet tea? Drew's a BIG fan!




Hope you all had a fabulous 4th with your families, celebrating all the sacrifices made for our country by our servicemen and women. And happy birthday to my sweet cousin Aaron! A smile from him is worth a million bucks!

Be a blessing this week!