Jan 29: Yay for Friends

Today was a normal Sunday, we went to church where Reese went to children's church without me for the first time. She's finally getting to a place when she doesn't freak out around other people so she enjoyed it (as long as her Cheerios were within arms reach). Then, for dinner we had our friends Robbie, Sylvia and their baby Robert over for dinner. There are not many things I enjoy more than watching our babies grow up with our friends' babies. Robert and Reese and 6 weeks apart and it's so sweet to watch them play on the floor next to each other. It seems like just yesterday we were watching Elijah and Aiden like this and now they're 3 years old and best buddies. Sigh. In other news, I've been attempting to declutter our house and yesterday came up on the dvds. Before kids, Adam and I were big movie lovers. Not the real "artsy" movie lovers, but we went to the movies at least once a week and bought nearly every movie in the $3 bin at Circuit City. As a result we have a lot of movies taking up a lot of space and I know there are a lot that we could get rid of. So I decided that we're going to start watching them and deciding if they are worth keeping. I'm embarrassed to say that there are dozens that I've NEVER even seen before. So we watched Evolution with that guy from X Files, the red head that played Jack's Boston girlfriend on 30 Rock, and that other guy from Dude, Where's my Car (not ashamed to say we own that movie as well and it is on the "keep" list. "Dude, you got a tattoo. What's mine say?", "Sweet! What's mine say?", "Dude! What's mine say?" Oh my gosh. I bust out laughing every time.) Anyway, Evolution was pretty stinking funny and is ending up in the 'keep' pile as well. Oh man, I don't know how effective this process will be.

Jan 28: Party like you got married in Vegas!

Today was a crazy awesome day. We had a play date in the morning with my friend Kelli and her daughter Emmy. We walked down to the playground and the kids played out front with Elijah's tricycle and motorized gator. Then we got all dolled up and headed up to Mt. Dora to celebrate my mom-in-law's surprise Christmas Vegas wedding. The kids were a hit and made their Nana proud. So happy for Susan and Chuck and wishing them a million lifetimes of happiness. After we got home and the kids were in bed Adam and I watched Cowboys and Aliens.

One word.

Amazing.

Hello. Cowboys? Check. Aliens? Check. Indians? Check. Cowboys and Indians teaming up to fight the aliens? Check, check, check. It was awesome.

I'll leave you with this beauty of a picture.

Jan 27: Shop Around

Today was payday which equals grocery shopping day in our house. I grocery shop when Adam gets paid so only every other week. My budget: around $100 (yup, that's for TWO weeks, 4 people). In order to make every dollar stretch I cut coupons and look up all the local store ads. Since I usually have at least one child with me when shopping I try to be extra organized. Huge props to my new phone which helps me stay super organized without bringing along 37 sheets of paper. So today was grocery shopping day, because it takes an entire day (in the rain no less). Then we had family movie night and watched Dolphin Tale. Oh my. What a sweet movie! And since Winter and the aquarium and here in Florida I do believe a trip over to Clearwater will be in the near future. Elijah usually only likes cartoon movies (with the exception of The Santa Clause 3) but he actually wanted to watch this movie over and over. Then Adam and I watched Limitless, it came out a while ago but we never saw it so thought we should rent it before it was out of Redbox. Bleh... there is not enough Bradley Cooper to make that movie worthwhile.

Jan 26: There, there

Something I seriously love about Reese that I must document so that I don't forget: when she's upset and/or crying on the floor and I pick her up, she immediately nuzzles her head into my shoulder and pats my back. I guess like I do to her? It is so absolutely sweet. I cannot put into words the feeling I get, but I had to jot it down so when she stops, I can be reminded of my sweet bug.

Other big news of the day... I was hit by a bus. Ok, not a real bus but the sinus infection bus that makes every part of my body ache, my nose run like a leaky faucet, my eyes swell and water and my throat turn into fire.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Needless to say, but we did not go outside today except to get in and out of the car twice and to the mailbox once (which was all junk so not worth the trip down the driveway). Elijah woke up dry again (TWO days in a row!), he did wake up at some point in the middle of night and came in our room but I passed him off to Adam, who so graciously got up and dealt with it (LOVE him). So our first trip to the car was for donuts, drive through only today as my appearance was quite rough and I didn't want to scare anyone so early in the morning. Adam has to work late tonight. Like crazy late. Elijah was missing his daddy something fierce so I thought it would be sweet to take them up there to see him before bed. We ate a little early and since we stayed in the house all day I figured they could skip bath time. I load everyone up, Reese screams halfway there and then they both pass out. Elijah could barely keep his eyes open when I woke them up when we got there and Reese slept through the whole thing. It's the thought that counts though, right?

Tomorrow's Friday (which I just realized) and I am looking forward to lots of fun this weekend!

Jan 25: A birthday, a breakfast and knitting night fun

Today is my little sister's birthday. I'm big on birthdays. Loooove them. But I know that today it a pretty somber one for my sis. On the up side, she's got a wedding to look forward to this year, so there is lots of happiness coming her way :)

Elijah did not wake up dry yesterday (as I expected) but he shocked me by bursting into our bedroom this morning to announce he was dry. Yay! And, that he wanted Chick-fil-a for breakfast. Okie dokie kid. It really was perfect since he could eat and play all in the same place. Plus, their new kids menu options are a much better choice than chocolate frosted with sprinkle donuts. We did take a walk to our playground in the afternoon but holy baloney it was H.O.T. I always put Reese in the swings because, A: she loves it and B: if I put her down she gets dirty, tries to climb on things she shouldn't and eats leaves. The problem is that the swings on the playground are not shaded at all, so in the afternoon the sun in blazing down on them. Not to forget that my sinuses seriously hate being outside and I could feel my allergies moving past normal allergy annoyance to sinus infection. Sure enough, as the day progressed I just got worse and worse, despite taking allergy meds. For dinner Elijah and I made spaghetti (his most favorite dinner) with home-made turkey meatballs - and only a few of my sinus infected sneezes. A very first for me. I usually only let Elijah help with pouring and mixing ingredients and not really handle the food so much, but tonight, I was feeling brave and let him help me shape the meatballs. I gave him a slightly rolled form and he immediately tries to make it into a snake and dropped it on the floor. I almost gave up and told him to go play, it'd be so much easier and faster to do it myself, but God shot me down some extra patience and Elijah ended up becoming a pretty good meatball roller. The best part? He actually ate them! He never eats regular meatballs (any kind of beef actually) but he ate these. And liked them. Score! After dinner I went out for knitting night with my bestie. Starbucks and knitting and laughing and talking. Love it. Can't wait for next Wednesday when we start our bible study!

Jan 24: A day to say Goodbye

Today was my stepmother's funeral. It was hard and sad and sweet and wonderful all at the same time. I truly enjoyed viewing all the photos of her from babyhood til the end. The best part was when a very close family friend played guitar and sang a song my dad wrote. It was incredibly moving and I'm thankful that Steven did it, as hard as I know it was for him.

Adam got off early from work to attend so afterward I was able to have a nice walk and playground date just me and Elijah. We ran and swung and visited the moon and it was perfect.

Who's the Boss?

Elijah: "Boys are made of brothers."
Me: "So what are girls then?"
Elijah: "The boss."

So smart already.

Jan 23: DONUTS FOR BREAKFAST! YAY!

We promised Elijah that if he could make it through the whole night with no accidents, he would get donuts for breakfast the next day. The first four nights resulted in four days of me washing all his bedding. BUT... the fifth night resulted in...

DONUTS!

Now, I have no expectations that it will happen two nights in a row but if it does we'll be having donuts for breakfast again tomorrow (fingers crossed since I love me some Bakery Plus!)

We also walked down to the playground, visited Mawmaw, did some tutoring and made the most delicious chicken enchilada crescent rolls (so easy, so cheap, so yummy).

Jan 22: On the other side of emotions...

After the news of Karen yesterday, today was filled with a different kind of emotion. Our lovely friends, Robbie and Sylvia, dedicated their sweet, sweet boy, Robert to the Lord. We were so excited to get to be a part and witness and pray with them on this day. We absolutely love them and their family. We also got to wish Robbie's mom (Adam's second mom) a belated birthday (it was yesterday).

So...

Happy Dedicated Day Baby Robert!

Happy Belated Birthday Mrs. Baer!

Happy Belated Birthday Chuck!

And in other news, I finally broke down and allowed Adam to get us new phones. I've been adamantly against getting "smart" phones. I don't see the need to be connected to the internet everywhere you go. BUT... after countless times of replacing my phone, never being able to make a call, phone turning off by itself at a whim, I'd had enough and needed a new phone. I'm a stay at home mom with no house phone. I need to be able to contact the world. Unfortunately, you can't get a working phone without going all fancy so that's what we did. Don't get me wrong... I love my new phone. :) Feel like I've entered the modern world.

Jan 21: A look at love

Today I received some pretty intense news. My step-mother, who has had some serious health problems that have drastically intensified over the past year, passed away Friday night. My parents split up when I was very young and my dad remarried my step-mother, Karen. I'm grateful I was so young that I don't remember it. I didn't have to go through dealing with a divorce and any resentment of my father remarrying. Karen has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. She was not only a wonderful step-mother, but a great woman. I will always remember her as sincerely kind. Very artistic. Passionate for animals. Growing up, they always had dogs, cats, birds, goats, horses, chickens, reptiles, just to name a few. :) Most of all, I will always remember the love that her and my dad always shared. Their love was devoted, unconditional and ever lasting. I can only hope to have that kind of love for as long as they had. My heart goes out to my brother, Tyler, who has devoted his life to caring for his mother so selflessly. In his words, "she's taken care of me for the last 20+ years. It's the least I can do." I can't describe how much I respect that guy. To my sister, who is recently engaged. I can't imagine the emotions that will play out while planning her wedding. Her most important day and missing one the most important people in her life. I'm grateful that her mother got to see her so happy and in love. Had the chance to meet her future son-in-law and know that he daughter will be loved for a lifetime. And to my dad, thanks for showing me what it means to love your wife, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for better or worse.

Jan 20: Love my little family

Today didn't seem like any out of ordinary. Adam came home from work and made dinner and we had family movie night - Kung Fu Panda 2. After that Adam and I watched the movie Courageous. Wow. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty intense. Every father should see it. Although I really enjoyed it, I can't even describe how powerfully it hit Adam. I've never seen him so choked up over a movie. Those Sherwood church folks up in Georgia sure do know how to make great movies that make you think about your life, marriage, family and cause a stirring. Does anyone remember a little film called Fireproof from a couple years ago? Same people. Great job guys!

Jan 19: Riding like the big boys

Nothing too exciting today, went for two walks and did tutoring. During our second walk Elijah decided to ride his tricycle. When I say ride, I mean sit on it and walk it. Halfway through though he actually got the hang of pushing the petals. Poor kid's legs are just barely long enough to reach and push but he was giving it all his might. He looked up (through his sunglasses - too cute) and said, "I'm doing it! Just like the big boys!" Then, a few feet past that he decided he was tired of riding his trike so I ended up pulling the wagon with both kids inside and carrying his GIGANTIC tricycle. Have I mentioned that I gave up my C25K already? Ha.

Jan 18: Double digits people... it's close

10 months old.

What?

What?

No, really.

What?!

Only TWO more months until my little bug is a year old.

Ok... moving past before the blubbering starts. Today I had a nice long play date with my bff Karlie. Oh yeah, the boys and babies were there too :) We played outside, took a walk and just overall enjoyed all the littles that surround us.

To make the day even better, got to go out after dinner with my other two besties and plan our woman's bible study. Woot, woot! Regular adult time with my favorite ladies on the planet, reading a new book and loving Jesus. Does it get any better?

Jan 17: The unperks of having a 3 year old

Went to our second week of story time at the library. It was lovely but not as good as last week since we didn't get donuts beforehand. I woke up early to run and it was seriously my only motivation. "If you want that donut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles you better get up and run it off first!" But then my 3 year old had to act like a 3 year old and I took the treat away. Sometimes being a responsible parent and not rewarding your child for bad behavior is just the pits. After story time I did my first week of "regular" tutoring. Can I tell you how honored I feel that someone asks me for help with anything? I'm pretty sure I enjoy it way more than I'm actually helping. At dinner Reese had her first ever "regular dinner" instead of baby food. I made breaded chicken in the crock pot with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, put some in the mini-chopper with some pureed butternut squash and spaghetti and the girl ate it up. (Oh, can't forget to add that the chicken was breaded with yellow squash... bwahahaha.) I can't believe she's growing up so fast!

Jan 16: Every day Life

Nothing exciting happened in our day today, but that's not to say we're not busy. Thought I'd give you a glimpse into a "quiet" day in the Teston house.

Between the hours of 7 am and 6 pm:
Everybody up and fed, including two kids, one dog and one mom - check
Four loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away - check
A fifth load of laundry left over from last week to put away - check
Kitchen cleaned - check
Bottles washed - check
Lunch made and fed, two kids & one mom - check
No less than 12 books read with Elijah - check
Arts and craft activity with Elijah - check
Massive blow out from Reese requiring a bath - check
Clean bath - check
Played with 1,374,282 cars, trucks, trains, planes, and other musical, plush baby or toddler toys - check
Dinner made - check
Kitchen cleaned again - check

All done with Elijah watches less than 1 hour of television and Reese napping for no more than 1 hour all day.

Elijah's rendition of a page from a library book

Just didn't want you to think we are up to nothing on our "boring" days. :)

And to finish off the day, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of our bffs, Desi Shave. We love you girl! Happy 6th!

Jan 15: Bug on the move

Best day this year, hands down. Church in the morning then Elijah and I went out for a little one on one time, visiting the pet store (where we found a pair of brother/sister puppies that were begging to come home with us) and the book store. Adam and Reese stayed home for some time of their own, taking a walk and visiting PawPaw. After we were home the boys went out and grilled up some dinner while Reesey and I stayed in and watched the Packers. It was fabulous (aside from the Packers loss, boo!).

Oh.

Did I mention?

Reese started walking.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I about fell over. I'm so happy I was smart enough to get up and grab the camera so I took a few seconds video of some of her first steps.

Jan 14: Date Night

Saturday was a great day spent shopping for, cooking and pureeing veggies. Made some lemon blueberry muffins (with hidden yellow squash!) for easy breakfasts this week and baked ziti for dinner. Lots of time spent in the kitchen (with the occasional football watching break). Then, Adam and I got a much needed date night! We had gone out before Christmas to shop for the kiddos but other than that our last date was for our anniversary (way back July 29!). We went and saw Contraband (hellooooo Mark Wahlberg) at a theater downtown. I'm not going to say it was the best part of the date, but their deep friend oreos are to die for. Oh my.

Jan 13: Peek-a-boo, it's vacation time. Sort of.

Two major cute kid things to share about today.
1. Reese learned how to play peek-a-boo. She pulled her blanket up and down over her face just squealing. It was so beautiful and hilarious and perfect. Man, I love her.
2. Elijah was driving me nutty today. He has been for the last few days to be honest. He was getting all upset about something, freaking out when his sister would come near him while he was playing with this helicopter toy. I'm trying to clean up the massive tornado of a mess in the house (cleaned out both the kids toy boxes and it seemed like every inch of my house was covered). I was getting crazy frustrated with him and snapped at him. He fell to pieces, just crying and whining, which of course tried on my nerves even more. I was trying to make out what he was saying and finally heard it....
"I just want you to go on vacation with me!"
Poor kid was trying to get me to play vacation with him. So I did. And it was the sweetest thing. He took me to Uncle-mont to visit Uncle Dave, Uncle Matty and GG. When we got there we played in the snow and built a snowman. It was just the vacation I've been dreaming of. You know... if you get past the fact that I didn't actually leave my living room.

Elijah with his imaginary snowman.

Yes. My child does own pants. I promise.

Jan 12: Life's a breeze

Today was my second day of C25K and watch out, it was way better than the first! I felt no need to stop in the middle of the road to lay down or anything. The weather here in sunny Orlando was perfect for being outside so the kiddos and I walked down and played on the swings for a while. Reesey looooves the swings. We also made one of our many weekly treks to Target (my friend asked me recently if I purposely forget things at the store so I have a reason to visit Target so often. Perhaps subconsciously I do). We got what we needed and then perused through the toy isles for what seemed like hours. I'm pretty sure my child could direct you to any specific item you might be looking for in our Target toy department. It's no wonder he's so sure that Santa shops there. If I didn't blog about it already, let me take a moment to share Elijah's present opening Christmas morning... he had received a plastic fire hat from the fire station we visited during our RACK, the only problem was that the hat is too small for his head. He mentioned that maybe Santa would bring him a new one. We went to Target after our FS visit and we saw a bigger, way awesome fire hat, and it fit! It was the only one they had though so I stashed it behind some big boxed toys in hopes that it would still be there when Adam and I did our Christmas shopping the following weekend. It was! So Christmas morning when E saw his fire hat he exclaimed, "Santa went to the wee store!" (wee store = Target, our Target has parking above the store so whenever we drive up or down he has to say "WEEE!" like he's on a roller coaster or something. Thank Florida living for the excitement of parking garages since we don't have any mountains or hills.) So, now that I've gone completely off subject of what we did today, here's a pic of the kidlins swinging away at the park. Today. :)

Jan 11: Starting the Unfinished

Blame it on the new year, early spring cleaning or left over new home nesting, but I got the sudden urge today to begin scrubbing my tile/baseboard edges with a toothbrush. That led to cleaning out the sliding glass door track and the biggest job of all... cleaning the fireplace. Let me note that I did not finish one of these projects, just started them. I desperately want to get my house organized, clean, free of unnecessary stuff, my problem is that I become a tad ADD during the process. I start one thing than see something else,than another. In all other areas of my life I am pretty good at balancing and weighing importance, but not when it comes to cleaning. For example, while Adam was in Vegas after Christmas, there were tons of decorations to put away, unwrapped presents everywhere, but what did I find was the most important thing to do? Clean my washer and dryer. Let's hope I accomplish some of the cleaning projects I started today!

Jan 10: I don't like running but I do like donuts

Adam and I started the C25K this week. It's a running program that is suppose to get you from couch potato to running a 5k in 9 weeks. Adam's first day was yesterday, mine this morning. I was reminded in the first 10 minutes how much I dislike running. I thought I was going to throw up or pass out. I had to fight the urge to just lay down in the middle of the sidewalk (I thought that given it was before the sunrise this was probably not a wise choice). The rest of the day was much more pleasurable. The kids and I went for donuts at our favorite bakery and then headed to story time at the library (our first but most definitely not last time). Elijah loved it, especially when they sang "Wheels on the Bus", which is his favorite non-Christmas song. Side note: we're nearly half way through January and my child is still belting out the carols like it was Christmas Eve. We also had a few critter roundup guys over to assess our scratchy attic and we believe it may have just been a squirrel. Adam will close up some places and we're hoping that will solve the problem (fingers crossed!).

And let me leave you with a picture of one of my favorite things. Ever.

I can't believe I get to spend all day with this face and her equally hilarious brother.

Living the life.

Jan 9: My 3 year old: a constant reminder of love

So I started writing this post and I'll be honest... it was coming out with quite a bit of complaining. Then, Adam was getting the kids in the bath and Elijah asked me to come help him get undressed. When I knelt down he said, "Mommy, thanks for letting me be in your belly."

We've had a lot of discussions about where babies come from (not how they get there, but where they grow), obviously with the arrival of Reese and all our friends babies. Elijah accompanied me to most of my doctor appointments when I was pregnant with his sister and he's seen my scar(s) from my c-sections from them both. He has a 3 year old's understanding of what I've gone through as a mother. He has no idea, of course, of the magnitude of the experience.

This was just the sweetest appreciation from a three year old I could possible think to get.

Thank you Jesus, for blessing me more than I even know, sacraficing more than I could ever imagine, and for my sweet boy for reminding me of the simplicity of my understanding.

So no complaining from me. I will note that today we heard a critter in the attic. Tomorrow we have three different pest controllers coming over to give us estimates for the critter removal. Hopefully it was just a squirrel who got lost and has made his way back to the trees.

Jan 8: Happy Birthday Elvis!

I am not a crazy Elvis fan. I mean, I like him, yeah. But not a die hard, know all there is to know about him kind of fan. I will always remember his birthday though: Jan 8, because it's also the birthday of one of the best guys I know... my dad-in-law! I am crazy blessed to be one of those people who has awesome in-laws. Brad has welcomed me into the family since Adam and I first started dating (9 years ago! Ah!). He's been more generous that I ever could explain and I don't know how Adam and I would have survived without him. Today we got to go out for dinner to celebrate his birthday.

Brad:

I am so very thankful to have you in my life. You raised an awesome son and you are a great Pawpaw to my kiddos. Thanks for always supporting and loving us. Thanks for giving us a place to live all those years, always meeting a need that you see and reminding me of how lucky I am to be your family :) Hope your 53rd year is the best one yet!

Love, Erwin

Jan 7: My little helper

Today Adam had to work so the kids and I hung out, walked down to the playground for a while and made some banana pudding for my dad-in-law's birthday. My Gramma is a realtor and she sent out little magnetic calendars; each month of the calendar is a recipe. After looking through them I decided that one of my goals for 2012 is going to be to make every recipe included. The first one: Alabama Banana Pudding. I've never made pudding from scratch before and since we gave the pudding to Adam's dad, I don't know how it turned out. Hopefully he's enjoying it! Elijah was a super helper and in addition to adding the ingredients, he arranged all the bananas and wafers. Here's our finished product:

Also, I got my haircut today! Woo hoo! Not that I did anything drastic to it, but I so rarely do I had to include it in my daily documentation. :)

Jan 6: Reesey's first words!

Reese has been saying the "mamama", "dadadada" and other sounds for a while but I don't ever actually think she's associated either sound with Adam or I. Then yesterday she was on the floor watching the dog and I swore she said Daisy! Then at dinner, I was giving her bites of my dinner (french toast with butternut squash puree and grits with cauliflower puree = family fooled again!) and she said, "MO!" (more). Adam and I both looked at each other and knew the other was thinking the same thing. I don't think he believed me about Daisy, but he sure did believe she was saying more now. Aw, our little bug is growing up.

A couple other things that would have been the most exciting news of the day had Reese not starting gabbing away: my sweet, sweet father in law had our second shower and garbage disposal fixed! Both our showers decided to pop up with issues around the same time so shower time has been quite limited. Our garbage disposal hasn't worked since we bought the house. It was so nice taking a shower that I could actually stand still in for a moment and enjoy! :) Thanks Brad! Best father-in-law ever!

Jan 5: Just another day in the neighborhood

Nothing crazy to report on today (there will probably be lots of days like this). We did our normal house stuff and went over for a play date with some of our besties. A couple things I do want to remember about today:
1. Going in to get Reese in the morning. I hear her so I go in her room. She's standing in her crib, binky in mouth, blanket in hand, huge grin. As soon as I walk over to her, she lays back down and snuggles in with her blanket. This is her new morning ritual and I just adore it. She's ridiculously cute. When I put my hands out to pick her up and asked her if she wanted breakfast, she just shook her head and nuzzled in some more.
2. Watching Elijah and Aiden together. I love these boys and love that they are growing up together. It's awesome to see them forming a 3 year old friendship. It's also quite hilarious to watch their "troubles". They have both mastered the "terrible threes" and I can't help but laugh when they fall to pieces over things like sharing apples.
3. Elijah telling me I'm the best mom ever. I seriously love that kid.

Christmas: Tis the Season to "RACK" it up!

I mentioned before that we had started Random Acts of Christmas Kindness with Elijah during December. What an awesome experience it was! The whole family joined in and we partnered up with some friends for a few things so we were really spreading the love.

We picked all things that were: 1) Inexpensive. We don't have much to give in money department but we have lots of goodwill and gratefulness! 2) Understandable for a 3 year old. I searched online and found so many awesome ideas that didn't fit our criteria. Handing out gift cards, buying some one's gas, paying for groceries, etc. Adam and I came up with some ideas and I hit up my facebook friends for some extra. We completed all but one thing on our list, and Elijah was asleep for another but overall a total success!

Here was our RACK list, 2011 style:

Donate items to the animal shelter.

Thanks to a facebook friend for this idea!

Elijah picked out treats and we brought food and soap too.

They let us walk around and look at all the animals.

Both kids fell in love with the cats. Elijah had to go to each cage and talk to them.

Reese pointed at them all and smiled.

Donate items to a military care package.

Huge thanks to a FB friend to happened to post that her and her husband were

collecting items. Extra perk: she lives close by and we have kids the same ages so the kids and I walked over and had a little play time too.

Goodies for the garbage collectors.

This was one of the best. We woke up and went straight outside.

On the coldest day we'd had yet.

Ate breakfast outside and waited. And waited. And waited.

Then we got really excited. They were on our street just on the other side of the cross street a couple house down. And then...

they turned. So we waited some more.

They finally came down our street and E handed them the cupcakes we made. The worker was so sweet, said his thanks, put them in the cab of the truck and they went on. We started putting all the various toys, tricycles, etc back in the garage when what do we see? The garbage truck backing up to our house. The guy came over and said, "I saw you had your camera out. Would you like a picture of him in front of the truck?"

How crazy awesome is that?! Yup. We've got the nicest trash collectors around.

Of course, E was TERRIFIED that they were coming back to take him to the dump

(if you've seen Toy Story 3, you can imagine why he is so scared of the dump. The big mound of trash going into the fire... yeah. He thought that was his future.)

But despite the trauma, really cool morning.

We also brought cupcakes to the library, where the worker was grateful she followed us around thanking us and inviting her coworkers over to thank us.

We left some cupcakes for the mailman, who I should mention is now one of Elijah's best friends. We wait outside for him most days so he can hand deliver the mail to E.

And more cupcakes to the post office

(Big thanks to my father-in-law for the Christmas cupcake molds. They were definitely put to use!)

Adam took Elijah to drop off a toy at a Toys for Tots drop off.

Adam said E was surprisingly really good, didn't hesitate about giving away the toy and didn't ask for any of the others. Probably helped that the employees at the drop off gave him a hand full of Tootsie rolls. :)

We teamed up with our best buddies and delivered some coloring books and crayons to the Children's hospital.

Then next door to drop off cookies and, you guessed it, more cupcakes.

And lastly some handmade Christmas cards to the nursing home.

The boys were so cute together!

We brought cupcakes to the fire house.

This was probably Elijah's favorite.

They let him explore the fire truck and gave him and Reese fire hats

(which E informed me were too small for his head, and maybe Santa would bring him a bigger one. Santa did.)

We also brought cupcakes to the police station.

Here E got to explore a police car, turn on the lights and use the air horn.

He also learned about who to go to if you get lost and impressed the officer with his skills at buckling himself into his car seat.

We went to Target and Elijah chased people down and handed out candy canes with a Christmas message.

This one was really sweet to see my kid surprise shoppers with some cheer.

We also walked around the neighborhood and Elijah sang Christmas carols (Rudolph and Santa Claus is coming to town) and handed out candy canes. We only stopped at a couple houses but he sure did brighten some homes. And Adam took him to donate some jackets and blankets to the homeless shelter but Elijah fell asleep on the way.

This really was the best part of the Christmas season. I'm hoping in this new year we will accomplish doing a RAK each month and next December do this as more an advent, one thing each day.

Jan 4: Cold weather cuties

Not much to report on today. It's cold in Florida. Not crazy cold but our news stations sure are excited to report on 30 degree weather. I took the opportunity to put the kids new hats on them they got for Christmas when we ran some errands. Might be the only chance they get since our chances of taking a vacation even NEXT winter are quickly disappearing.

Aren't they just the cutest?

Don't you want to send us on a vacation? :)

Jan 3: This mom succeeds at fooling her family

Jan 3: My kid is not a terrible eater. But, he's not a great eater either. He eats fruits and veggies but it's always the same ones. Bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, carrots, corn and occasionally a piece of broccoli or a couple peas. I'd seen Jessica Seinfeld on Anderson Cooper and was quite intrigued by her idea of hiding fruit and vegetable purees in food. My sweet, sweet husband gave me one of her books for Christmas so today I made my first dish. I started making homemade macaroni and cheese a few months back. My kid LOVES mac-n-cheese but the box kind is 1) not good for him and 2) doesn't go far. Home made is well worth the extra time! The only problem: he won't eat it. Don't ask me why I decided to deceive my child by hiding vegetables in a dish he already doesn't like but I did. I steamed and pureed some cauliflower today (he helped) and added a couple heaping spoon fulls into my sauce. I let him pick out our vegetable for dinner (he picked corn, of course). He ate all his corn and then... every single noodle. I was shocked. Even my husband didn't notice there was cauliflower in it. So two servings of vegetables for dinner. Score 1 for mom.

And in case you're wondering what the bug does while I cook:

Jan 2: Science Center Family Fun

Jan 2: My mom was so sweet and gave us Science Center passes again for Christmas. We LOVE the science center. Here's why:
1. It's cool. Crazy cool.
2. It's inside. Florida is hot so having an inside activity where my kid can run around is a PLUS.
3. The parking is included in our passes and best part: it's covered! Again, Florida is hot and covered parking is a nice perk.
4. We get our learn on.

Jan 1: CHILI

Although Jan 1 it wasn't quite chilly for chili, we hosted our 2nd annual New Years Day Chili and had our friends Karlie and Chris and their boys Aiden and Chase over. Adam made two chilies, a traditional red chili and a new, so-super-awesome-delicious-should-have-made-a-million-gallons of white chili. I came down with a sinus infection and was feeling pretty out of it and did not take one single picture. Ugh. But it was good times with good friends and a great way to start off the new year :)

'ello 2012!

We're starting off 2012 with a bucket full of fun... and sickness... but we'll focus on the fun :) I saw a thing on Pintrest where you take index cards and write the month and day on each one and put then in a box. Then, on that day you write down what (if anything) memorable that happened. You would do this every day for the year and then the next year start over with the same cards. This way you'd be able to look back and see what happened on a particular day for years and years. I thought it looked crazy cool. I'm a calendar LOVER. I write everything down on the calendar and am always a little hesitant to throw it away at the end of the year so this idea was made for me. I got out my stack of index cards and wrote the dates for all of January, determined to find a cute box to hold them in. Then I started thinking about some of the other things I wanted to accomplish this year. One, I desperately need to be more organized. I love organization and do not intentionally create chaos in the house, but with two pack rats and two kids, stuff just accumulates everywhere. I want to try and minimize it. Unfortunately, my want to keep this box around forever and ever with index cards kind of conflicts with my want to minimize the amount of crapola around. That brought me to another goal for the year: blog more. And viola, a decision was reached. I'll blog about each day. Something short just capturing what happened and label it with the date. Then, in years, I can pull up all my blogs about Jan 1 and see all the exciting things that happened. It will be my virtual version of the index card box. We will call it... hmm... something cute... something clever... I'll think of something. For now, it will be my blog-not-a-box-daily-event-capturer.