The Last Weekend in January

Has January seemed to last FOREVER???? It certainly has around here and I'll be glad to see it go. In honor of it being the last weekend in a very cold month, I tried to take more pictures this weekend. Even if they are blurry with bad lighting! 

Nate received the Responsibility award at morning assembly on Friday. We didn't know about it, so thankfully Scott was there to see it. We are so proud of him and so thankful he chooses to use these skills at school! Now if we could just transfer a little bit back to home:)

Friday afternoon, I decided we would do a little baking. I had picked up this Brownie Pop kit and thought it would be fun for the kids. Well. It proved to be a little harder than I had anticipated, but we still made it. Lila helped me, but Nate bowed out. 

So I had to go hunt for a picture when he did like to bake with me. In that same spot.

Lila and I had fun regardless of the difficulty level. And as you can see, I'm winning on the bow crusade this week. This week only of course.

Friday night, the kids took baths early so that we could eat pizza and watch a movie before bed. I'm loving having my big table back! We're doing a little furniture revamp in the front room. More pictures and details soon!

Saturday. Oh Saturday. It was kind of a doozy. We didn't have anything going on and it was too cold and windy to do anything outside. So we tried as hard as we could not to be cranky with each other. That involved lots of playing babies, cooking fake food, and Nate beating me in Connect Four. By 5:30, we were ready to have some Mexican. Thank goodness for Mexican. 

Sunday. Oh Sunday. Oh dear glorious Sunday. It was sunny and warm (yes, 52 is totally a heat wave) and we were able to play outside. 2 different parks for a total of about 3 hours made the total difference in our day. Kids were happy, I was happy. The world was right.

But only for about 10 hours. Now we're back to 13 degrees with no chance of a warm up to 52 degrees in our 10 day forecast.

Winter. Oh Winter. I'm pretty much done.

MLK + Another Snow Day

I think a couple of years ago, I wrote a post that started with, "Dear Winter, you are just too much." These words keep popping in my head this year. Because really, Winter, you are just too much. 

After the polar vortex came and went, I thought to myself that I'm just not going to complain about the weather anymore if it's above 20 degrees. Because 20 degrees really doesn't feel that bad anymore. But when your 8 year old really needs to be in school, and it snows the day after MLK, and school is called off, it's a little hard not to complain. It didn't even snow very much. But it's cold. And the winds are supposed to gust up to 40 mph today. I guess that's something. 

We did have a relaxing long weekend. We ate Mexican on Friday night, swam at the indoor pool on Saturday, played at the park on Sunday and managed to have 2 dinner/movie nights. We got lots of rest and the boys sorted and played lots of Legos. 

Lila & I went to the store on Sunday - she's the best little shopper. 

I continue to be thankful that Lila's school never closes. She could have gone yesterday but she was starting to come down with a cold and had fever, so we didn't send her. She's back to her spit fire self today, so thankfully her school is open!

Y'all know I get my worrying from my sweet Mama. Well when I thought Lila was getting sick, we all jumped to conclusions that she had the flu. Sweet Baby Thane just had it last week and so it became more real that any of the kids could get it. When I called her to tell her it wasn't the flu, I could tell she wasn't convinced. So I told her this story that happened yesterday morning.

Lila was after Nate about something. I was working downstairs and could hear her chattering away at him. There was something she didn't like for sure. I hear a break in the talking and some stomping off toward the bathroom. I hear her come back out and say something but I couldn't tell what it was. Scott comes downstairs almost immediately doubled over in laughter.

After she was schooling him in her room, she went to the bathroom where the toothbrushes were laid out, unused. She grabbed them and walked back to Nate and had the final say of the argument..

AND....YOUR BREATH STINKS!

My mom said she wouldn't worry about her anymore.

Just another day in the life:)

Throwback Thursday

Hard to believe this really wasn't that long ago...

Loves Lately

My parents gave me these Toms for Christmas and I am so in love. I wear them any time the temperature is above 40 degrees and I can still justify going out without socks. They are worth it. They are the Metallic Herringbone, so they have a tiny sparkle to them, which I adore. I'm a late Toms follower, but I have to say I'm super impressed. A summer style is definitely calling my name. 

Nordstorm

Over Christmas break, one of my organizational projects was to purge all of our "baby" books from Lila's bookshelf and then re-locate the "little kid" books from Nate's bookshelf to hers. Nate was very helpful in purging his bookshelf to make room for more appropriate titles.

This is one of the books that came over to Lila's shelf. Scott gave it to Nate on his 3rd birthday so I knew it was a perfect time to break it out for Lila. She loves it. I love it. It's a great children's book. We have a sequel to it called, "Read to Tiger." It's good, but "Tiger Can't Sleep" is better. Check it out if you have young children in your life. It's entertaining and spunky.

Amazon

I remember when I used to stalk new recipes like it was my job. Those were the good ole days. I still cook of course, but our variety is not near what it used to be. Insert this recipe. I could have it 5 nights a week and not be tired of it. I'm sure you've heard of it, or at least one that is similar, but if you aren't cooking it now, you totally should be. Creamy Italian Chicken Crockpot...I serve it over whole grain rice.

Southern Food 

Big Happy Anniversary to Jane Ellis & Robbie Griggs today! Happy 14th!

First "Real" Week of 2014

Getting back into the swing of things proved to be very difficult last week. Nate ended up missing school Monday & Tuesday due to the extreme cold temperatures and abundant snow fall we received on Sunday. I left to work in Nashville on Tuesday afternoon and Nate was all set to go to school on Wednesday. 

Well. Seems the pipes don't really like all this cold weather, so as they were walking out the door on Wednesday morning, Scott got the call that a pipe had burst at the elementary school and there would be no school for ANOTHER DAY. 

Sigh. 

That's about all you can do. Thankfully, my mom was already on her way to STL to stay with the kids on Wednesday night since Scott would be working. So off Nate went to a friend's house until she could get here. He finally went back on Thursday just in time for the weekend. 

So we are VERY thankful, that this was our afternoon yesterday. Snow is 95% gone and it was a beautiful day to go to the park. What a difference a week makes! 

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out around the house, but did go to play mini golf indoors on Saturday. I didn't get a picture because my phone all of the sudden said it was out of storage. But we had fun, even if Lila didn't really understand what the heck we were doing.

I'm in full organization mode right now - trying to make the best of our space for as long as we are here. I spent time tackling a few areas this weekend and feel good about the improvements I've been able to make.

Happy 2014! I feel like this is our first "real" week of the new year.

Christmas Round 2

During the week between Christmas & New Years, the kids and I were on our own since Scott was working. I took off work and we busied ourselves at the park and the library, as well as made trips to Waffle House and Monkey Joe's. It's hard to believe we actually got to play outside with the blizzard we are experiencing right now (yes, Nate's return to school will be delayed at least 1 day...Grrrrreaat). We had a good week and even though I wondered how I would survive all the togetherness at times, I felt sad when it was coming to an end. 

Round 2 of our Christmas started on New Year's Eve when Mimi, Paka, Amanda, David, Noah, Gavin & Levi arrived! It was Scott's last day of work for the week, so it was a special day all around. 

On Wednesday, we walked to the Post to watch Georgia play in their bowl game. I've had little control over Lila's outfits during this Christmas break, as well as her hair. She told me last week that she did not have to wear a bow if she didn't want to. My heart is breaking...

The crew...minus Levi. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the 5 of them. Fail.

Why yes! Lila received a pair of pajamas and immediately put them on! In fact, out of the last about 72 hours, she's worn real clothes for about 8 of those. Yesterday, she wore her bedtime pjs until naptime and then changed into a new pair for the rest of the day. -30 wind chills make me not care.

We had a fabulous time with the Boyle-Odoms. It snowed on Wednesday night and everyone got to sled on Thursday. It was super cold, so it didn't last long. We had fun just relaxing, watching movies, playing games and eating well!

Now on to the New Year!

Christmas 2013

My little blogging break was not intentional, we've just kind of taken a break from all of reality lately. But now it's back to the grind. Provided Winter doesn't deal us a doozy on Monday that prevents school from starting back. Which is what it's looking like!  

We had a wonderfully blessed holiday season and started off the festivities with Christmas Eve dinner at the Page's (Sarah's parents). They are so sweet to host us and we look forward to it every year. The kids weren't exactly cooperating with pictures, but we managed to eek a few out. Before we left the house...

Nate took this one and I think he did a pretty good job!

Relaxing and enjoying some family time.

Lila entertained herself and Thane with the entourage she had to bring with her.

Thane loved the babies and patted this one on her head as he carried her around.

He loves his cousins and lights up when he sees them. Makes me SO happy!

Everyone is so generous to our kids and Sarah & Hamil were extra generous with this vanity set for Lila that had approximately 382 parts:) Lila thinks it is the bomb.

Back at the ranch, we carried on our tradition of the First Gift of Christmas. Nate got a Riddler collectible figure.

And Lila got a Barbie...

Christmas morning! We had to wait on Lila to get up and finally had to wake her up at 7:00. Now that's a Christmas miracle!

Nate received Lego Batman II from Santa and he & Scott have enjoyed challenging each other.

Scott got the kids robes and Lila has worn hers to bed every night since. I don't mind since this old house gets rather cold in the winter.

After we opened presents and relaxed a little, the kids & I packed up and headed to the cabin to see my parents since Scott had to go to work. We missed him, but we enjoyed playing, moving the cows and having Christmas dinner with them and Michael.

Nana & Wayne gave Lila this scooter and thankfully we've had some nice outside time since then to ride it. She's a pro!

The Brunot farm was a lovely place to spend the rest of our Christmas Day. So peaceful there.

Then it was back to STL to hibernate and get ready for Christmas Round 2!