Christmas in Dixie..........

We got back from small town Alabama last night. We drove 11 hours each way with 2 kids and a dog to have Christmas with our families. Lucky for us, we are from the same home town and only have to make one trip to see all of our family. We left last Wednesday. We spent a day with my dad, a couple with the inlaws, and a couple with my mom and step dad. Other people also came to see us on Saturday and Sunday when we celebrated Christmas. Over the course of the 7 days, we were in 5 different houses. So we had to move our junk around that many times. I was sooooo tired of lugging around the play yard for Addie to nap in! It was very nice to get home last night. We came home with many gifts and some $$$$$!! The kids have a really, really nice chunk for their "future funds". Anyways, here are some pics. If you wonder why Connor is in almost none of them, it is bc he usually despises having his picture taken. Hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Let's start with a pic of our tree that we left at our house to die during our trip. lol

Addie the night before we left.

Doodles on that loooong car ride to AL.

Addie on the trip. She probably had it worst of all bc she still rear faces and hates riding in the car.

Outside watching the birds. It was a beautiful 78 degree day. lol

Having a tantrum bc she did not want to go inside and open presents.




We caught Addie with this beer bottle she got out of the trash. Had to snap a quick pic before taking it away.




Connor loves my cousin Hailey.




Connor opening his favorite present he got on the trip. It was a kid digital camera from Emmie.(my mom)




Connor after eating a cup cake to celebrate J Cole's birthday.




Addie and Daddy.




Addie and me.




Addie having a snack. This was at my mom's river cabin.




The stairs at my mom's cabin that got Addie a couple of times. She never fell down them bc we were good about keeping her off of them. She did fall over and knock her forehead on the first step which left a straight line bruise. She also slipped on her pants that were too long and fall into the banister with her cheek. It bruised immediately and she still has that one.





Addie loved looking out the windows at the cabin. She watched the birds and the wind blowing.

Isn't This Cute?!

My mom bought Addie this absolutely adorable comforter from Pottery Barn Kids. I just wanted to share the cuteness. I LOVE it!

Pottery Disaster & Pig Tails At Last!

Yesterday I made a huge mistake. I took a 16 month old and a 3.5 year old into a pottery painting place full of breakables. Let me just say that will make you sweat with nervousness. I should have known that since Connor does not care to color, he would not really want to paint. And there was no bribing him either. Thank the Lord above that we left the store without breaking anything. We did waste $60 on nothing that looks decent but that is better than paying thousands for an entire shelf of breakables being knocked over. Lesson learned.
Today, I decided to make some little pig tails in Addie's haor for the first time. She looked so freaking adorable. Even Wes said so. I thought he would hate the pig tails but he thought she looked precious. I bribed her to sit still for me to do them with a Christmas cookie. I snapped a few pics, of course. I know you all are just dying to see(insert sarcasm) so I will stop jabbering and post the adorable pics. lol

Enjoying her cookie I bribed her with.

She was walking by me when I snapped this one.

This pic is so cute and for some stinkin reason it will only upload sideways!

From the back. Addie was listening to the bear tell the story "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

More Strep, Christmas Card Pics, and Some Cuteness

So much to tell, as I am sure my title lets on. lol Friday began with Connor not feeling good. It continued off and on all weekend. Sunday his neck began looking huge bc of his lymph nodes so I took him to the pediatrician Monday morning. Well, he has strep throat. Addie had it in September and again in October. We had a break from strep in November and now Connor has it again. I am sure Addie will have it soon bc she seems extra susceptible. Uggghh.
Of course, I waited until the last minute to take a pic of the kids for the Christmas cards. So Connor looks totally stoned in all of the pics bc he is sick. People are going to think we gave him some meds to get him to sit still for the picture. lol He was also forced to color a large sign that says Merry Christmas for him and Addie to hold in the picture. Make sure to look closely at the horrible bubble letters I did for him to color. You would never know I use to be a cheerleader and had to paint that crap on signs for football games all the time. They would be so ashamed. lol
Addie has become quite the little helper. She loves throwing things in the trash. Like on of our 3 cordless phones(we guess bc it is gone), a measuring cup, and the Leap Frog ABC Fridge Magnet. Luckily, the Fridge Magnet began singing the ABC's when we were taking out the trash. We were able to dig it out of all the nasty trash. The new rule in the house that I am sure no one will follow is to see what is on the top of the trash before throwing more in. That way if Addie has thrown in something important, we will be able to save it. She is doing so many cute things. She pretends to brush her hair, pretends to put toothpaste on her toothbrush,pretends to brush her doll's teeth, says bye bye to her pee pee and poop after she uses the potty, blows kisses, squeezes when giving hugs, kissing the pictures on the digital picture frame......I could go on and on.......but I will stop. She looooves getting on the couch and rolling around. She has rolled off twice now but keeps on getting back up for more.
Not much else to tell about that I can think of at the moment. Enjoy the pics!

Sat afternoon Doodles crashed out on Daddy bc he was not feeling well Friday night and slept very little.

Sunday Connor colored this sign for their Christmas picture. He was really motivated until the end. He got tired of coloring and it took a few breaks and a npa to get this finished.



Connor was quite possessive over that sign he worked so hard on. This was during our photo attempt for the Christmas card.

Addie was saying sorry. Connor looks terrible since he is sick.

Addie being still and acting innocent after I caught her rolling on the couch.

Kissing and hugging the digital picture frame. Notice the mess of her hair from rolling around on the couch.

I am hoping that Addie will leave her hair clips in her hair soon bc it is all over the place right now. It looks so cute with a bow or clip in though. Sigh.

Crazy Bed Head. Too Funny!

Ever since Addie has been sleeping in her toddler bed, she has been waking from every bed time and nap time with crazy bed head. At first she was waking with all of the hair on the back of her hair all tangled up and matted. There was no combing that mess. The new thing is waking with a crazy mess on top that makes me think of a chicken for some reason. Yesterday I finally broke down and bought some detangler spray to take care of the mess in back that she wakes up with 3 times a day. lol We gave it a try this morning and it worked pretty well. Yesterday afternoon when she woke up I took a few pics of the craziness on top. She was still a bit sleepy in the first pic. If you look closely at the first and second pics, you can see the crazy hair even in the shadow! lol And the third pic shows Addie's goofy scrunched up face she makes when she is being silly.

Still trying to wake up. Look at the shadow of her hair. lol

Look at the shadow again. This cracks me up.

The silly scrunched up face Addie likes to make.

Thanksgiving and My Family has Come and Gone!

Wow, time is flying! I cannot believe that December is here, Thanksgiving has come and and gone, as has my family. My Mom, step-dad, and brother flew in on Thanksgiving day. They were here until Sunday night. When they arrived, Addie ran to me and would not leave my arms in the beginning. She quickly warmed up to them and was back to her sweet normal self. We got started cooking. We had a huge feast! Just in case anyone cares, we had: fried turkey, honey baked ham from the Honey Baked Ham Store, squash dressing, tomato pie, broccoli and rice casserole, green bean bundles, rolls, cream cheese pie, and cheese cake. Everything was yummy! The next day we left the kids with the men and went out to do some shopping in the Black Friday madness. My mom bought a lot of gifts. Since our home town only has a Walmart and Belk she was in heaven here in Fayetteville. We wanted to go to Raleigh but figured that would be waaaay too long to leave 3 kids with 2 men. lol The only gift I bought was a new baby doll stroller for Addie since her other is slowly falling apart. I bought a few other things that we just needed. It was so fun to just go out and spend time with my mom. It has been a long time since we have been able to do that. The rest of the weekend was spent just spending time together. We watched the Auburn vs. Alabama game on Sat. All of us were disappointed except for Jim(my step-dad). Other than the football game, we had a great weekend! The visit ended when I took them to the airport Sunday night. Their flight got delayed a coupe of hours which thenmade them miss their flight out of Atlanta. They did not get home until Monday around lunch time. Gotta love Delta and Atlanta.....NOT! Anyways, here are some pics from the long weekend. Hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving!

Patiently waiting for some yummy dinner on Turkey Day!

Addie really likes the musical reindeer.

Considering grabbing an ornament.

And going for it!

Yummy yogurt.

Gotta love that messy smile.

She has my chubby chin.

Sweet blue eyed girl!

Watching tv with Paw-Paw Jim.

Sitting around with Emmie.

Telling Emmie & Paw-Paw Jim goodnight and good bye.

Dancing and High Fives!

Up Close With Addie

Sharing means caring!

Most of the time, Addie and Connor are fighting over anything and everything. No matter what it is, they both want it. It may be an old cheerio one of them found under the couch, it may be a toy, it may be my nice pewter measuring spoons someone swiped from the kitchen drawer, it may be who is going to throw a piece of trash away, it may be the tv remote, xbox remote, or phone, it may be who is going to use the downstairs bathroom, or it may even be me or Daddy. I guess I can stop bc you probably get the idea that they fight over pretty much everything. Wait! I thought of another one. They fight over that damn baby stroller and the cozy coupe worse than anything. But in the midst of all the fighting there are the sweet moments. And let me tell you, they melt my heart! These moments are rare and I consider myself so lucky when I manage to see them..... and when they actually last long enough for me to grab my camera. Today I after a long day of squabbling, I caught them sitting in a bucket from Connor's toy storage together. They were laughing and having a good time. After a bit, Connor got tired of sharing his bucket so he went to get another one for Addie. Then they both enjoyed their own bucket. It was so cute to watch them play and enjoy each other without fighting. Below are a few pics I was able to get.

Playing nice in the bucket. Notice Addie has the highly sought after pewter measuring spoons. lol

After Connor went to get Addie her own bucket.

Other stuff going on around here. Wes is gone for a few days. We will be missing him while he is gone. This time next week, my mom, Jim, and J Cole will be here!!!!! I am so excited about them coming. Saturday will be a whole month that Addie has been wearing panties and out of diapers. She still does great on the potty and I am so proud! She is also doing really great in her big girl bed and seems to like it. Connor still really likes school even though he hesitates before going in. Guess that is all for now. I got one more pic today that I thought I would share. Addie's shirt had a hood and she wanted it on for a good part of the day. This isn't a very good pic bc she would not slow down. But she just looked so cute walking around inside with her hood on. :)

Cute little thing walking around with her hood on inside.

A Cold Day & First Night in Big Girl Bed!

Today was a cold day but we managed to get outside for a few minutes after running an errand. I got some cute pics of the kids. Of ourse I will share a few below.
Big news of the day is tonight is Addie's first night in the toddler bed. We were not sure how she was going to react. She went to sleep and never made a peep! We cannot believe it. Below are some pics of us putting her in it for bed for the first time. The yellow stuff is not part of her normal bedding and do not match. It is temporary until Emmie gives her the quilt from Pottery Barn that matches the other Pottery Barn stuff on her bed. We want her to be nice and warm until then though. lol

I like this one. I think I am going to make it my new big pic at the top of the blog!

Addie liked being in the fort.

Addie says "Hi"!

Happy girl!

Silly boy!

The windblown look.

Connor was trying to carry Addie.

Looks like she likes it.

Ready to be tucked in.

Laughing at Daddy.

Now good night! We cut out the light and never heard another peep.