Have you been here?

Have you ever toured a Mayfield Dairy? Well...you should for a few reasons:

1. It's FREE!!!! What's better than that?

2. You get to take great pictures of the kids wearing hair nets--Our kids with their cousins from Wisconsin.

3. You can think back to touring Atlanta Dairy when you were a kid with Rose Bud--even though there are no real cows at the Mayfield tour.

Post-Christmas "Gotta Haves"

Did you go shopping the day after Christmas? We made it to a few stores. Here are some of my "gotta-haves" that I found post-Christmas (or some maybe were really pre-Christmas):

1. Celeste Suede Crocs...found them at Marshall's for $24ish. LOVE them---soooooo comfy. I think I've worn them just about every day since I bought them! I love them so much that I bought them in black and brown.

2. Tanks at Target to wear under other shirts--the ones I bought are Merona brand. I have tanks from Ann Taylor, GAP, etc...but the reason I LOVE these from Target is...they are long...they come down lower and kinda hang out under your other shirt to add some color. LOVE to wear them with a v-neck t-shirt! My favorite color combo is a chocolate tank with a red t-shirt on top! They weren't on sale, but I think they were $7.99.3. Christmas ribbon is 75% off at Garden Ridge. I never go to Garden Ridge...it's not really convenient for me, but we popped in...and found ribbon for 75% off---got cute ribbon for wrapping next year. Also got some great Grinch ornaments for our Grinch Tree for 50% off!

What have you found this post-Christmas season?

Things We Want to Remember

Do you have a Christmas Memories Book? We got ours the year we were married, and I pull it our every year to record special memories. My favorite part of the book is the section titled...Things we want to remember. It's fun to look back at how our lives have evolved from being newlyweds, to getting a dog, to buying our first home, to having one child and then two children. I love this book!!! I think everyone should have one, but just don't forget where you put it for the next year (Amie)!So here it is for this year...Things we want to remember:

1. My mom made all of the food for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. She mentioned that she needed a dessert...so I bought ingredients to make an ice-cream pie and also one of our families favorite--baklava. I bought a whole tray of pre-made baklava...mom would have made it herself probably, but I'm all about store bought! So...I made the pie and took it with the baklava to my parents house around lunch time. I also took our dachshund for them to babysit while we were going to my in-laws. Can you see where this is going??? I left the tray of baklava on the table in the kitchen. After we got the car packed and everyone loaded, we realized that we forgot to take the dog's food to my parents' house. So...we stopped by (my parents weren't home)...my husband ran inside to drop off the dog food, and he was taking forever to come back out. When he finally emerges, he announces...you guessed it...that our dachshund knocked the tray of baklava off the table and devoured all (or almost all) of it!!! Imagine it...a dachshund full of honey and nuts-UGH!!!

#2 My husband and I don't usually swap Christmas gifts. Over the years...we've decided to buy something for our home around the holidays. So this year...he kept saying...I've got a great idea for you (really for both of us) for Christmas...do you want to know what it is? He must have asked me 20 times if I wanted to know what it was! So...I wasn't going to get him a gift b/c he said his idea was for both of us, but on Christmas Eve-Eve...I got to thinking that he would be sad if I had a gift to open and he didn't...so I went shopping. He's been saying that he wishes we had an electric blanket...so I thought...I'll pick up an electric blanket. Well...I went everywhere I could hit to find one-I went to 5 stores. I found one at Bed, Bath, & Beyond for $179--what??? I don't think so! As a last resort, I finally went to Super Wal-Mart (I had to get some groceries anyway--for the pie and the tray of baklava--remember??) Hooray...they had ONE electric blanket left in the size that I needed. After shopping, I get home and think...I better put my jacket over it b/c he'll come out and see it in the car. I park in the garage...get out...start unloading...hubby comes out and starts unloading too...we get inside and he announces he's taking the dog out...the fat one who ate all the nuts/honey...so I peak out in the garage and see him gingerly lying my jacket back over his electric blanket...UGH!!!!!! And there you have Christmas Memory #2!

Do you have any fun, memorable events from this Christmas season?

"I lost my mind, and I'm trying to find it!"

Yesterday...I was out shopping with my 4-year-old daughter. We were looking at Christmas decor, and she says to me..."I lost my mind, and I'm trying to find it!" What???? That's really the exact words she said!!!
This photo is not from our shopping trip, but can't you just see her saying that phrase while in this pose? In this pic, she was really telling an animated story while standing up on a rock.

Out of Order

So here's the timeline...
About 2 weeks ago, I spent the night in the hospital with chest pains. I'd been having them for a couple of weeks, but then the pain spread down my left arm and in my back--that's when I decided to go to the ER (with coaxing from my sister-who happens to be in the medical field). So...they keep me overnight for observation and I have a stress test in the morning.
Side Note: Have you ever had a stress test--the one on the treadmill with the "dye?" You start walking...then they increase the intensity and the incline over time...then while you're still on the treadmill...they come to inject the 2nd dose of "dye"...while you're still on the treadmill...did I mention that already--then they increase the intensity and incline to a run/jog--all the while telling you--"keep looking ahead down the road" (there's a framed print of a tree-lined road hanging on the wall). OK...now here's the funny part...while all that's going on...I'm thinking "I can't do anymore." then I say, "I don't think I can go any faster...so the guy holds on to my belt loop on the back of my jeans--a sight to see I'm sure!! I wish I had a video of it just for when I need a good laugh!
Now...fast forward to tonight...I was in the floor showing our 5-year old son the proper way to do a push-up (that's a whole 'nother story). So...he starts doing them semi-correctly and then stops saying, "I can't do it anymore...this arm is out-of-order."
Eureka--it's my medical diagnosis: The tests/labs cleared my heart from any concerns...so I think my son diagnosed me...I simply needed a break...I was temporarily out-of-order!
Another Side Note: I haven't had any chest pain the past week or more! :)

You know it's a good party when...

You know it's a good party when: #1 Something gets broken and #2 Somebody has on an outfit that makes you do a double-take.

Something broken:

It's a centerpiece with floating candles--the glass must have gotten too hot and it exploded while we were all sitting around the table!

The outfit that makes you do a double-take:


Our hostess--did you do a double-take? Thanks Christy for the fun, fun party!

OK...so now you KNOW I'm a wife, mother, and Kindergarten teacher--this is about as exciting as the partying gets these days! Have you been to any good parties this Christmas season?

Visit with the Big Man

Hooray--this is the 1st year that our daughter actually sat on Santa's lap! She had a program at her school, and they had breakfast with Santa before the program. Here's some pics of the milestone event:

The kids with the big man-our son asked for a puppy (NO!!!) and a Play Station (NO!!!)-our daughter asked for a cupcake maker (I think he can handle that request).


She's on his lap, but check out the look on her face and her hands when he starts talking to her---"I'm not so sure about this."


Here she is at the program-part of the morning--she saw all of us in the audience, and this is the look we got!


And then a wave:


This pic is my fav of her from the day! I love the lighting.

Favorite Things

I'm so excited about "Thrifty Decor Chick's" give away! I've been posting my favorite products on my blog...now you can look at her blog too for lots of favorites from lots of people--fun, fun, fun!!! I love to get great ideas from others!! So...here are my some of my favorite products-some I've previously posted and some are new:
1. Bath and Body Sweetest Socks--sooooooooo great! Get some!


2. Aveeno hand cream--great--got to have it!






3. Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer (shade: Rhubarb)

4. Mint Chocolate M&Ms


5. Sweet Stripes soft peppermints (bought a huge container of them at Sam's Club)


6. Initial polka-dot Christmas ornaments--here's where I found some CUTE ornaments: https://www.serendipity2004.com/

Now...wrap up some of your favorites and give them as a gift!! I found cute square, silver trays at the local dollar store!! Also bought the cute green snowflake there in a package of about 6. Add fun ribbon...and there you go!

The Wonder of Roasting Marshmallows

Our kids' ages are 5 and 4, and they just had their first experience roasting marshmallows this week. I'm trying to decide if they've been deprived or if we're right on schedule with their ages and this milestone. I mean...you can't have infants mixing with fire, but they could have at least tasted a roasted marshmallow before now--you think?

Check out these photos at the fire pit at The Magical Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier:

Here's the whole crew...

Uncle Jeff lending a hand--look at the wonder in this roaster's eyes.More wonder here...Love this picture of the Daddy with the kids...

One of the cousins teaching the art of roasting...

The 4 cousins together...our kids are always so excited when they get to spend time with their cousins!Now...I couldn't let you miss out on this photo. My sister-in-law spotted this prize that we all had to check out--a giant Rice Krispie Treat for $17.95!

Swap Success!

Hooray! I received my 1st ever blog-swap package! Thanks Marty--everything is so fun! Here's a picture of all of my goodies:

hand towels, brownie mix, hot cocoa mix, 2 treat bags of candy for my kids, HoHoHo notepad, fun "A" key chain, cute Letter to Santa stationary, and a mini-Santa-Merry Christmas stocking--LOVE it all!!

If you get a chance to participate in a swap--do it!! Who doesn't like to get a package in the mail??

We were in a 3-way swap. Here's what I bought for my swap buddy:

1. 72 Personalized return address labels--fun, fun! I love stationary and anything fun that makes communication more exciting--especially if it's personalized-love it!! Check out the the fun products on www.LittleArtStudio.com. Kim has great products and is soooo nice too! I found her on www.etsy.com.

2. I also found a tea towel at a local gift shop with a fun Christmas ribbon with the verse..."May the Lord Bless You and Keep You" written on it. My swap buddy happens to be a friend I grew up with in church. In UMYF, we ended each meeting with our closing blessing...
"May the Lord bless you and keep you; May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace." So...I couldn't think of a more perfect gift for a friend from my youth!

Do you have this???

Here's another poduct that I have to promote...If your hands get dry and yucky in the cold weather, you've got to have this cream! My hands sometimes get so dry that they hurt! Do you have some Avenno Intense Relief Hand Cream? If not...get some!

Do you have these???

Bath and Body Works Sweetest, Softest Ever Socks
If you don't have them...get them!

6 trees decorated in 1 day

When I came home on Tuesday of this week, my husband had a Christmas tree in our living room! So today we decorated the family tree along with 5 other small trees for around the house: Boy Tree, Girl Tree, Dog/Dawg Tree, Pig Tree, and the Grinch Tree. I'm posting photos of a favorite ornament from each tree.

The family tree is in our living room. It is a 9 ft. tree we got a Sam's the first year in our first home...if other words before the "pre-lit trees" were available. Our tree has many ornaments from over the years (from the time I was little to now). No theme tree here for us!!! I love looking at each ornament and remembering it's "story." Do you have favorite ornaments with "stories?" Here's an ornament I bought last year-I actually liked it so much that I bought one for me and one for my college roommate. GO DAWGS!

Both of our children have a small tree in their bedrooms. The boy tree is a green tree with colored lights decorated with red and blue ornaments and ornaments boys like: trucks, cars, and this garage. The garage I found last year at Target. It's actually a gift card holder, but it's a favorite ornament for our son.
The girl tree is pink and it is pre-lit!!! Here's a fun tiara ornament and some of her fun, pink ball ornaments. She also has princesses, a purse, and Minnie on her tree.

Here's my favorite from our Dog/Dawg tree. It's a bobble-head dachshund with a wreath on it's neck from Restoration Hardware (I think--or maybe Pottery Barn). Our dog/Dawg tree has dachshunds and GA Bulldog stuff.

This cutie is on my Pig Tree. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1983. The first insulin I used was made from pig insulin...so I started collecting pigs. I don't collect much anymore--except for pig ornaments. So...I needed a pig tree for them, right?

And finally---the Grinch Tree. I have a wonderful friend that I worked with in another school who has soooooooo many Christmas trees in her home. She is a widow in her 60s, and she doesn't quit. If we drove by her home right now...we might see her up on the ladder hanging Christmas lights along her roof line. No wait...she probably already has it done. In other words, she does it all! Last Christmas we toured her home with the kids, and the kids saw her Grinch tree and had to have one. So...we found a small Grinch-green-colored tree (pre-lit) and bought it on sale last year. Here's the Grinch himself (I couldn't get a very clear pic of him with all that bling!):
Here's hoping you'll be decorating soon too (if you haven't started already!)

Feast 1 and Feast 2

Today were the annual Thanksgiving Feasts at both of the kids schools. It's hard when they're not in the same place! Our boy's was first at 9:30 this morning. Hubby and his parents went there first. After watching the poems/songs and the beginning of the "snack feast" for the kids, they had to hurry off to be at our girl's school by 10:30. Here's our boy and his Daddy...the kids got to pick which costime to wear--so here's our Pilgrim boy.

Our girl performed a few songs in her classroom, made a turkey cupcake project, and then had a big feast for everyone (who paid $5) to eat--my parents joined the rest of the crew here. Check out our girl with her turkey.

Princess Tiger Lily and Nana the Dog

This weekend the kids were invited to a Tinker Bell birthday party with instructions to come dressed as a character from Peter Pan. I'd had it on my mind this week, but the weekend slipped up on us...so Saturday morning we were scrambling around for costumes with a Peter Pan book in hand. The final costumes from around our house were...drum roll please...Princess Tiger Lily and Nana the Dog! The kids had a great time at the party and the pacing was great--lots of planned activities to keep things moving fast. The kids played Mark-the-X on the Map (like pin-the-tail on the donkey), got fairy and pirate tattoos, made personal servings of ice cream in Ziploc bags, painted/decorated treasure boxes, played a beanbag toss game in a pirate ship, ate cake, and watched the birthday girl open her gifts.

Here's Princess Tiger Lily painting her treasure box (wearing her Tinkerbell wings that she won as a prize for a game):Here's Nana the Dog (check out the tail on the belt) and Tiger Lily watching the gift opening:

Not again for a long time

Today we had the great idea to take our kids to see HSM3 at the theater after school. We've been promising our daughter that we'd take her, and things just keep coming up on the weekends. So...we were on the way there last night, but got stuck in traffic. We actually made it to the theater early tonight and things started out great! The movie started around 5 and ended around 7...toward the end we were on a downward spiral. There were too many factors working against us: still not used to time change, big drink=bathroom issues, not many movie-goers=too much room to run around...so based on our later experiences tonight...it may be a long time until we try that kind of after-school outing again! Ending on a more positive note--our daughter did have a blast dancing and taking it all in!

"I don't think Santa is going to stop at our house."

"I don't think Santa is going to stop at our house."--That's exactly what my 4 year old said to me on the way to preschool this morning. We were driving along...having a nice conversation about where Santa lives...where he sits in his sleigh...how the reindeer pull his sleigh...and then she hits me with..."I don't think Santa is going to stop at our house." When I asked her why...she said "because sometimes we're bad." OK...put on the brakes...now I'm thinking my husband and I need to rethink this Christmas-threatening that we've been doing lately--"better be good...Santa's watching." So...we haven't said "you're being bad" to either of our kids, but I guess "you better be good" translates to "you're being bad" in a 4-year-old's mind. To finish the story about this morning...I assured her that Santa would be stopping at our house--now we need to get to writing a letter to Santa so he knows what to bring!

A Christmas Decoration Swap--sounds like fun!

http://www.clemsongirlandthecoach.blogspot.com/

I came across this blog by way of a friend's blog. What could be more fun---a Christmas decoration swap??? Love the idea...can't wait to get started! The deadline to sign up is this Sunday night, November 9--hurry to sign up--you don't have a to have a blog to do it!!

PLEASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSE MOM???????

Today, when I got home from school, the first thing our girl said to me was..."Mama, can I paint my hands and put them on paper?" I asked her if she had done that at school today, and she said she had. So I was thinking..."You've already done that today at school--do we really have to do it again right now?--I just got home!" After a few minutes of "Please mom!!!", I went to get the paint supplies. I'm really glad I did...check out her masterpiece of hand prints and fingerprints. I just helped her squeeze the paint out of the tubes and wash between colors...she did the rest!

Have You Wrangled Any Reptiles Lately?

No really...have you??? We went to Connor's birthday party last weekend. We were entertained by a Reptile Wrangler! He took each animal out one at a time from of a basket--out of a pillowcase tied shut. He had 2 snakes, 1 iguana, 1 alligator, and another reptile (but I forgot it's name)! The kids LOVED it! Our boy is usually the conservative one and our girl is the adventure-seeker, but NOT this time! Our boy loved touching the animals and checking them out up close. Our girl (on the other hand) was right next to me--usually in my lap (I think that was after the Wrangler said the alligator didn't like him as it thrashed around)! After the show, all the kids ran off to play--then that's when the Wrangler proceeds to tell the adults how the 160 lb. python attacked him the week prior! Oh my...I'm glad we weren't on the news!! Happy 6th Birthday to Connor!
Here's that mean 'ol alligator...you can see in his eyes that he's not happy! I guess I wouldn't be too happy with my mouth taped shut either!Here's the mystery reptile...I cannot remember what he's called!Here's a shot of how close we were sitting to the reptiles. Yes...that's the python that attacked the Wrangler last week!
Now this is the kind of reptile I'm talking about--one made of cake and icing!!! Looks like our girl (in the pink bow) likes this "snake" too!