I can’t believe it’s been four years since our sweetie was born. She changed our lives. She made us parents. She has taught us sooooo much! I wouldn’t change a single thing about her – she’s smart, beautiful, hard-working, strong-willed, loving, kind-hearted, etc etc etc… She’s a perfect blend of me and Seth and a whole lot of Haley. I love this girl more than life.
Happy birthday, sweetpea! Don’t grow up too fast. 
People like to say they won’t make New Year’s Resolutions because they won’t keep them. Even if I say I won’t make any, I always have a few things in my mind that I’d like to do, work on, change… There’s just something about a new year starting that feels like a fresh start. But realistically, things won’t be any different January 1st than they were December 31st.
There’s the usual “lose weight” resolution. I think most everyone has that goal in mind, and a few will do it. 
I may, I may not – I won’t make any promises.
I have other things in mind as usual, always trying to improve every area of my life. Do more with the kids, stay on top of the housework better, take more time for myself, etc etc.
A new year brings hope… I hope this year is a fun one. I hope Blake masters the stairs this year so we can take down the gates. And I hope he figures out the potty so we can quit buying diapers. I hope Haley’s speech continues to blossom, along with her personality. I hope Seth and I continue to love each other even more. Overall, I hope this year brings our family even closer together with lots of fun memories!
I’m really looking forward to what this year has to offer for our family, my business, and myself!
Happy New Year! I would love to hear your resolutions (and whether you think you’ll keep them or not )!
Poor Seth… His birthday always gets mixed in with Christmas. I’m doing it again now. I never posted about his birthday, and I want to post our Christmas too. Poor, poor Seth.
Anyhow, so yeah… Seth turned 30. Thirty!! My husband is thirty! He thinks it sounds old, but no matter how I say it or type it I just can’t see it. Thirty is so young. And so what if we’re 30, 40, 50, whatever… we’re so blessed and happy. Age doesn’t matter.
I decided to have a little surprise party for Seth. Nothing big – we just had Tim and Kylie come over for brownies. But it was fun. Haley was sad at first because they were getting ready to go shopping and we put that off to surprise him. But we managed to get her to hide.
He was surprised, and we enjoyed sitting around talking and eating brownies for a while. Blake slept through it, but it was still fun.
That night was the night of the annual luminaries that the neighbors do on our local roads. There was a live nativity scene down the road, so we stopped to show the kids. They flipped out when we left, so we turned around and went back to it.
His parents had a birthday dinner for him. The kids were excited to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ so much!
And then there’s Christmas… This was such a GREAT Christmas! Definitely my best ever.
Christmas Eve morning we relaxed, cooked, … just got ready for the day. Blake got an early nap before going to my mom’s at 2:00. Then we went to Seth’s grandparents’ house at 5. The kids did well – no meltdowns, and neither of them were sick!
On Christmas morning, Blake woke up first. We wanted them to come down the stairs together, so I kept him in his room as long as I could before letting him wake Haley up. Seth had the lights on and video camera ready for us. (These first few pictures were super dark and barely salvageable, but I had to keep them… Thank goodness I shoot RAW!)
We had breakfast with Seth’s parents, went home for Blake to nap, and then went to see my family. And again – the kids did great!
So there you have it – our best Christmas ever. Does it get any better than this??
I haven’t finished going through our Christmas photos yet, and I’m really not in a hurry. Seth has the week off work, and we’ve just been enjoying having him at home. lots of family time, little home projects, relaxing, playing, … This is my favorite week.
Maybe I’ll get around to them later. But for now… Family calls. ♡
I know, I know… I start most of my posts talking about how busy I am. But that’s my best excuse for only posting about once a month. By the time I take care of the kids, sort of keep up the house, deal with the animals, keep up with my pictures and business, have any personal time, etc, … I just don’t have much time to sit and blog. It doesn’t seem like I should be so busy… but I just end up with no time to do everything I need/want to do. I really need to make time to blog though – because I’ll regret it in the future if I don’t document anything. I’ll try to do better. Maybe.
{yep, they got into my makeup. and yep, I kind of let them.}
So there’s my obligatory “that’s-why-I-haven’t-been-blogging-lately” paragraph. Moving on…
My last post was of the Christmas parades, which happened December 1st. It’s now December 22nd, and there are currently 408 photos in my December gallery. Eek! I’ll try not to make this too painfully long and boring. Not that you have to read this or look at my pictures, but you know. Whatever. I’m rambling.
It’s been a month of preparing for Christmas. Getting excited about Christmas. Getting Haley excited about Christmas. Shopping for Christmas. Etc about Christmas. It’s been a good month. She really understands this year, and she can’t wait for “ris ris” day. She makes up songs about “ris ris time” and the “ris ris ree” – it’s the cutest thing ever. Blake’s really excited too – not because he understands it’s almost Christmas, but because there are all these fun sticky bows on wrapping paper under the Christmas tree. He loves to pull the bows off to play with them and carry around the funky-shaped gifts. He hasn’t tried opening them yet, so I don’t say much about it.
*** I started this post yesterday and I spoke too soon. He opened a gift this morning. It was Haley’s – we managed to keep her from seeing it. ***
It was hard to explain to Haley that it was a few weeks till Christmas, so we made one of those red and green paper chain things to help count down to Christmas. I was telling her that when we got to the top that it would be Christmas, so one morning she took the piece off the top instead of the bottom. She was pretty upset that it still wasn’t Christmas, but now she understands that when the chain is *gone* that it will be Christmas.
Christmas this year is so exciting because the kids are really having fun with it all. This may be the most excited I have ever been about Christmas.
This post is taking too long… I have a lot of non-computer things to do if Blake ever stops nursing (yes, that’s when I squeeze in my computer time). So I’m just going to post some pictures and videos from this month and then get busy…
{nursing her baby}
{she wanted to wear a party hat to school for party day}
I had an idea to make Santa-looking mini muffins using red and white icing for Haley’s afternoon school Christmas party. The icing turned out pink, and the “hat” looked really stupid. So then I decided to just do smiley faces, which also looked stupid. And then my camera rolled over onto the plate on the way to the school. And then Haley cried through the party because she thought we were going home right away. (We won’t talk about everything else I screwed up that day.) And then I decided the day would’ve been better if I didn’t try to go. You live and learn, right?
Haley loves to help wrap gifts. By help, I mean she’s in charge of the tape. You have to raise your hand and say “me” for each. and. every. piece. So we spent a couple hours last night after the kids were in bed finishing up the wrapping.
So that’s been our month. Hopefully it won’t be SO long before my next post…
Merry Christmas!!
I’ll end the post with a couple cute videos…
It had been years and years since we had been to the Athens Christmas parade, so we were so excited to take the kids this year. Haley didn’t seem to be interested in anything about Christmas in previous years, so we didn’t bother taking her. But this year… this year is different. She gets it, she understands and retains what we tell her, and she’s excited! So we psyched her up for it all week and then Thursday night we took them. Blake really enjoyed it too!
They spent most of the time sitting on Seth’s lap watching everything and catching candy (and glow sticks!).
{the police lights turned their faces blue at just the wrong time}
We walked up to watch them light the tree, but the kids were done with it by then. So we went home happy.
Saturday we took them to the Comer parade. They had fun – mostly because they brought home more candy than they got for Halloween. We found a good space to sit and enjoyed.
{Blake kept putting candy in Seth’s pockets}
Haley was sick again this year (how does she manage that every year??). But otherwise, we had a great Thanksgiving!
A certain little boy was up at 5:00, but it worked out because his nap had to be earlier than normal. He didn’t have time to nap between family gatherings, but he got a 3-hour nap before we headed out.
Little Ms Pitiful woke up a few hours later. Stuffy/runny nose, coughing, she seemed miserable. But she was still pretty happy regardless.
The kids played with play dough and squinkies, and then Haley watched Seth make the pumpkin pies.
{Yes, her hair is this crazy every morning}
{Time to tame the crazy hair!}
My family was first. We missed my grandmother – she was home sick. She ended up in the er and icu, but she’s doing better now. It was great to see everyone else there.
We had a few minutes at home. I took these and have to share… they crack me up. Haley was trying to hug on him, but he was irritated and just wanted to go. haha…
The kids were tired by the time we got to Seth’s family. They were good, but obviously tired. They sat in the floor and played most of the time, and by the end Haley kept begging to go home and go to bed.
Now we’re looking forward to Christmas!! 
I wasn’t feeling too thankful this morning. I contemplated a sarcastic “thankful” post about how I was up with Blake before 5:00 am. Or how I had to clean up a mess from the dog AND the cat this morning. Or how I’m on day 4 of this migraine (the one I was sure was on its way out yesterday evening). Or how Haley is sick AGAIN this year. (How does she manage a runny nose every Thanksgiving?? She’s really not sick often!) Or, or, or, ….
But you know what? Blake is healthy, and he slept straight through 8:30 till almost 5:00. The cat is sweet and pretty and lucky to be alive. The dog… well the dog makes Seth happy. The migraine could be worse. And Haley’s Thanksgiving cold makes me thankful that she doesn’t get them too often (and it’s not that bad this year… and Blake doesn’t have it yet…).
So yes, I’m thankful. For my super sweet husband, my beautiful healthy children, my home, our families, Seth’s job, my growing business, cold weather, pumpkin spice coffee creamer, spellcheck, and the rice pack thing I heat up to put on my eyes to ease my headache.
I could go on and on, but I really shouldn’t be looking at a computer screen now. I just had to write this out, because it would seem silly later but I really felt the need to post it.
I’m off to rest a bit before starting pumpkin pies and broccoli casserole.
Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope your day is full of love, thankfulness, and lots of yummy food! (A privilege of being mommy is getting to say “yummy” without feeling silly. I’m thankful for that too. )
I can’t think of a creative title for this post. Not that any of my titles are creative, but I just can’t think of anything. So there.
We don’t have much to update on… We’ve just been having fun, doing our thing. The kids are talking SO MUCH! Haley has just gotten conversational. She “reads” books that she has memorized.
{don’t ask about those bleached spots on the carpet… it may or may not involve a spider, some household cleaner with bleach, and a panicked mommy…}
She asks a lot of questions. “Whassat?”
“What he do?”
“What doin’?”
And she says things like “I don’t remember” and “I help Mommy!”. Her favorite thing to joke about lately is purposefully saying things wrong to get a reaction. The most common one: “Daddy cows make milk, mommy cow is bull!” – it’s hilarious every time.
And Blake… a.k.a. Mr Copycat… He’s just talking away with his cute little-boy voice. He’ll say pretty much anything we ask him to, and he copies pretty much everything whether we want him to or not.
Oh… and he peed in (or close to) the potty TWICE last night! The first time I sat him on it, using the little seat Haley used for a while. I didn’t expect him to actually do anything, so he wasn’t aimed appropriately. But he did pee deliberately sitting on the potty! The second time he was standing on a stool next to the potty and peed before I had time to get him where he needed to be. But he seems to have the idea! We’re just going to go with it, offer but not push. See what happens. I’m really hoping he’ll take off with it, since he’s figured out how to remove his diaper… We’ll see!
Together, they’re so super cute and sweet.
They have their moments, like siblings do (and should). They take things from each other, argue over who had what first, and who gets to hold the “babybug” jar. But all the spontaneous hugs and kisses, her “I missed you Blake” when she gets home from school, and his “Haley!” first thing in the morning… it’s obvious they really love each other and are close. They’re best buddies, and I hope it stays that way.
{cell phone photo}
{picking pecans – I’ll have a separate post for this later}
We’re so excited about the holidays with the kids this year. They’re both so much fun now and really seem to understand things. I hope I’ll be able to keep our blog updated now and then.
Happy Thursday!!
Wait, what? Yes… Halloween… I am that far behind. *sigh*
I posted about our visit to the pumpkin patch, and the comparison photos of them in the costumes from last year and this year. But what did we do with the pumpkins? And did they wear their costumes on Halloween? And what about trick-or-treating?? I know, I know… The suspense is too much!
Ha. Ok, seriously… I just like to document our lives; I can’t help it. I know it’s not that interesting if you’re not us, but I love having this place I can document *us* to look back on later down the road. It’s the same reason I love photography… I just love to document life. Where did that rabbit trail come from?
So anyhow, the pumpkins. We had the big “mommy pumpkin” (named by Haley) and they each had their little pumpkins. They painted theirs, and we carved the big one. Haley drew the nose on the big one to carve – she decided it should be a circle. They painted, I helped them and took pictures, and Seth carved. Then they helped pull the seeds and stuff out. Not really… We encouraged them to touch it a little, and then we just did it while they played. But they really liked the finished product.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I was able to get Haley to wear the Princes Leia costume (or “bear princess” as she called it) for photos, but when we were getting ready to go “trunk or treating” at a local church (car-to-car at the church rather than house-to-house) she said she wanted to be a kitty cat. She had a black cat hoodie (hand-me-down) in her closet. She wore that with black pants and – get this – her rain boots. She wanted to wear her boots. I’m so glad she did because it was SO stinking cute! They were both really tired and crabby on Halloween, so we didn’t actually go out for regular trick-or-treating. The church function was it for us, but they got so much candy that we were fine with that.
{This reminds me so much of me and my mom. I remember being a black cat for a few years.}
Thanks for stopping by! This is just our little slice of the interwebs where we document our day-to-day lives. Leave a comment to let us know you were here. :-)
~ Seth and Alyssa.
