Santa Claus is Coming to Town...

Addie and Belle both woke up last night vomiting.  So, Shane and I spent our Christmas Eve today bleaching and lysoling the house, keeping our fingers crossed that neither one of us will end up with it.  I am so anal about getting sick.  I swear I followed the girls around all day with handsanitizer and lysol.  Everytime they ate something I made them wash their hands afterwards.  Everytime they opened a door or touched the counter, I was behind them to spray with the lysol.  In fact, my hands are red and a little swollen from having them in bleach water for most of the day.  So needless to say, our Christmas Eve wasn't exactly relaxing and stress-free...until tonight.
Remember when you were a little kid on Christmas Eve and your parents told you it was bedtime.  You got all snuggled in your bed and just laid there, listening, and anticipating the morning.  There was no way you were going to sleep.
I feel the same way now, as a parent, but instead of anticipating Santa's arrival, I AM Santa!  I could not wait for my girls to go to bed tonight so I could drag all of their gifts out of the car (yes, they've been in the trunk of the car for the past month) and start wrapping and setting up their huge Christmas morning display.  In fact, I might be more excited to be Santa than to actually get gifts from Santa.  There is nothing better than on Christmas morning seeing your children's faces as they gauck at all the "stuff" Santa has brought them.
Although it is not always about receiving, and I had a very proud moment when I overheard Addie talking to Shane this morning.  Shane asked Addie, "Are you going to be upset if Santa doesn't bring you everything you asked for?"  Addie replied, "No."  Shane said, "That was a good answer."  Addie then looked at him and said, "Well, that's the spirit of Christmas, Dad."

Check out the girls' Christmas morning surprises!  I can't wait for them to get up already!

Even Chloe got in on the Christmas surprises!

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!

"Stinky" Leg

Okay, so let me paint this picture for you.  Shane, Addison, Annabelle, and I are all laying on our bed in Shane and I's bedroom the other evening.  Annabelle stands up and starts jumping around on the bed.  She was looking mighty fine too, dressed in nothing but her diaper and her Ugg boots...

Then, out of nowhere Annabelle starts singing..

"Do the "stinky" leg, do the "stinky" leg, do the "stinky" leg..."
"NOW STOP!" (This said with a little hip actions too)
"Do the "stinky" leg, do the "stinky" leg, do the "stinky" leg."

As she is singing, she is moving her leg around and around.

Shane and I could not stop laughing.  I was basically in tears I was laughing so hard.  I tried to get her to do it again so I could record her, but she would not do it..

Here is a clip of the real song, so you can REALLY appreciate how funny this was.  And, just for the record, the song is called Stanky Leg!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewufRwrayTI

Extreme Sugar High

So tonight was the night that we decided to make Christmas cookies.  This is the first year that Annabelle has participated, as last year, she was too young.  Of course, Addie was all about helping.  She dug her hands in the flour, rolled out the dough and of course used the cookies cutters to create the Christmas trees, stars, snowmen, ect.

I guess I just had too high of expectations for Annabelle.  I thought she would be all about getting in the flour and rolling the dough, but she wanted NO part of it.  Every time she got a tiny dot of flour on her she screamed!  She was way too busy shaking the jars of sprinkles and putting the food coloring in and out of the boxes. 

 On the otherhand, once the all the cookies were baked and cooled down, she did get somewhat excited about decorating.  She didn't really care for the icing, same thing as the flour, everytime it got on her she screamed...well that's until she figured out that if the icing got on her she could just eat it.  Then, it was okay!  But, she was ALL ABOUT the SPRINKLES!  She shook those containers to her hearts content.  And, if she would get too much  (which was on ALL of them), she would yell "WHOOO!"  

Tomorrow we are doing Christmas with my immediate family because my parents are leaving for a cruise next weekend which goes until after Christmas Day (I know, right?)  So, we may be on an EXTREME sugar high after all the icing and sprinkles on the cookies!  That's okay though.  I love starting these traditions with my girls...even if it means that my cookies are a little extra crunchy!

My girls turned 2 and 5 this weekend....I know what your thinking, Shane and I aren't really good with planning.  Addie's birthday is December 4th and Annabelle's is the 3rd.  So anyway, we had a big birthday bash on Friday night.  The theme, CUPCAKES, of course!  Check out the pictures!

 I'm not sure how we are going to fit all of their stuff into our toy room...guess I'll make that my project for this week!

Tonight we decided to surprise the girls and take them out to dinner and then downtown for a carriage ride.  We went to Outback Steakhouse and our server was great!  She brought out ice cream sundaes for both girls with candles in it for them to blow out.  They thought that was the berries! 
We then headed downtown to the circle for a carriage ride.  We got right on, and everything seemed to be going smooth.  We got into some traffic and the carriage started to get a little jerky.  Annabelle about fell forward out of her seat several times and I was getting somewhat nervous.  We were stopped at the stoplight and all of a sudden the horse started whinnying and backing up.  Then the horse jack knifed the carriage.  I was looking at Shane like "What the hell is going on?"  The woman that was driving the carriage hops off and is in a panic looking around the cart and says "That guy just backed up into my horse!"  Lucky for us noone or nothing was hurt, but seriously, I swear, this kind of stuff only happens to us.  Thank goodness the girls didn't get scared or nothing major happened.  Geez!  Anyway, it turned out fine and Addie and Belle were excited about their surprise, which is all that mattered!

Say What?

My husband, Shane, was a groomsman in a wedding this weekend in Florida.  So we thought this would be a good excuse for a weekend get away for the 2 of us.  We talked my parents into keeping the girls (which took a little begging considering every time they have kept them when we've gone out of town, one of them has gotten sick!) and we got to spend some time by ourselves. 

We flew out of Indy Friday morning and into Jacksonville.  When we got to Jacksonville airport we picked up our rental car, and headed down I-95 towards St. Augustine Beach.  On our way into St. Augustine, we were getting a little hungry, so we stopped at the first restaurant we came to, which just so happened to be Red Lobster. 

Mind you, Red Lobster had just opened, it was only 11AM, but we had been up since 4 AM and had eaten breakfast at 530 so we were ready for some lunch. 
We walked in and were seated in a corner booth immediately.  As we sat there talking, a group of people from what looked like an assisted living home were being seated behind us.  There were about 10 of them all together and they were accompanied by nurses or employees of the home.  There were a few walking with canes and a couple being pushed in wheel chairs, but there was one woman in particular that was in a big black wheel chair.  I'm not sure what exactly was wrong with her, some kind of palsy it looked like because she constantly shook. 
Shane and I didn't think anything of it really, I mean hell, we worked at Grays forever, we saw old people all the time. 
Then the waitress walked over to take their drink order.  They went around the table, giving their orders of mostly sweet tea, water, or coke.  But, when they came to this little lady in the black wheel chair, she belted out "Bud Light Draft." 
I about choked on my food.  I looked at Shane and said "Did she just order a Bud Light on Draft."  He was like "That's what I thought she said?" 
And then as if it couldn't get better....
The waitress brought out her 16 oz. Bud Light Draft and she stuck a straw in her mug and started drinking it.  I assume this is because she couldn't hold the glass without spilling it because of all the shaking. 
This struck me so funny.  I mean, should she really be drinking a beer if she can't even hold it?  And, is that appropriate for the employees of the assisted living home to take their tennants out for alcohol? 

Jinkies!

Well, I am a little behind on the blogging so I'll make this one short and sweet.  I spent all week last week preparing for Halloween.  I've always loved Halloween, but this year I was extra excited!  Our theme, the Scooby Doo Gang!  We had Freddie, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby.  All we were missing was the Mystery Machine van.  So I get this idea (I've told you before about how I get this great ideas, fortunately it did not involve my grandma this time!) to make a Mystery Machine out of a cardboard box.  First problem, I didn't have a box.  So, my friend Gayle went scowering the town for a box on Friday morning (Trick or Treat was on Saturday).  She went to Walmart, Target, Staples, she even resorted to looking in dumpsters.  Finally, she found a box at one of the local kids' stores.  She brought it over around 11 AM and then it began..the transformation of this box into the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine.  I (with the help of Gayle and my husband Shane) spent all damn day painting, cutting, taping, and stretching because my back got soo stiff from sitting on the floor!  After it was all over (around 730PM) it was so AWESOME!  Take a look!

By the way, those headlight lit up...came in handy in the dark!

On Saturday the family got together for our annual soup dinner and Christmas name drawing before we all went out trick or treating.  Take a look at how the rest of our night went.  And I just have to say, Annabelle wins the award for best costume, Velma.  She was OH SO CUTE!

Opening a Can of Whoop A**

Okay so I have been very curious about boxing for about the past year.  Something about being able to kick someone's ass seems very liberating to me!  Yesterday I decided to call a Muay Thai gym and find out some more information.  I called, talked to James, and set up an appointment for this evening.
I walked in tonight and the first thing I see is a sign that says "Absolutely No Shoes Beyond This Point."  As if I didn't feel awkward enough, I had to take off my shoes and socks and show my unpedicured toes to the whole gym.  So from the get-go James creeped me out.  He was the typical salesman, asking me all kinds of weirdo questions about why I was interested in Muay Tai and if I like working with a team, ect.  Then he breaks the news to me about the pricing....$185/month for a committment of 12 months.  I about choked.  Or I could commit for 24 months and pay only $160/month...geez what a break?  I was feeling overwhelmed.  I asked if it would be possible to try it out first before I made such a huge committment.
He agreed and asked if I had time to do a private lesson immediately.  I said sure.  Then he informed me that to do the lesson I had to purchase a tshirt and hand wraps.  WHAT!  Okay, so I caved.  I bought the freaking tshirt and hand wraps....$25.  We went into this private room, where it was just me, him, and about 5 punching bags.  Talk about AWKWARD!  He taught me a few techniques and then we headed to the main gym.  I was feeling better about that since there were other people in there, but then he made me get in the boxing ring, which was right in the middle of gym, right in front of EVERYONE!  I wanted to say "ARE YOU SERIOUS!"  So we practiced for another 20 minutes and it was over.  He took me back to his office and asked me which committment I would like to make.  I hate the feeling of being pressured into something.  And, thats when the conversation went bad....
I said that I needed to go home and speak with my husband about our budget (Are you serious, I don't need to check with my husband, I do the budget, but I had to think of something to get me out of there) and see if this was something we wanted to committ to financially.  James then mumbled, "well I don't understand, I don't give out private lessons for free unless you join the club." 
I went into b**** mode.  I said, "Well, that wasn't what I understood...so do I really need to pay you for the private lesson?"  James replies,"Well no, if you are going to talk to your husband tonight then that's fine.  There is a beginner class that starts tomorrow, so I guess I will see you then." 
I said, "Um, Maybe."  And walked out.  Mr. James Creeper Weirdo, needless to say, will not be seeing me tomorrow......

Monster Mash

Tonight was our 2nd Annual Family Halloween Party.  All the kids came dressed in their costumes.  There was a southern belle, a witch, a senorita, a rock star, a cat, Mickey Mouse, and the Scooby Doo clan, Freddie, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy. 

Shane and I spent all day preparing for this event.  We made sloppy joe, cheese potatoes, green beans, dirt pudding, and broccoli salad.  Oh!  And I can't forget that Kim and I spent the morning making a cake.  Not just any cake, a cake that looks like a PUMPKIN!  It turned out pretty cute!  (We are going to try again next week...need a bigger bundt cake pan..)

The kids first decorated their pumpkins and then they hunted for skulls in the yard.  For some odd reason, they LOVE doing this.  We even bought more skulls this year and it still wasn't enough.  We kept having to throw the skulls back in the yard after they would find them.  It became quite humorous...especially after a couple close calls of kids almost getting hit by one! 

Then it was on to the pinata.  All the kids took a whack at it and then Marielle (the "big kid") took one good softball swing to the pinata and it was down!  It still wasn't busted so as Shane held the pinata the kids continued to take turns hitting it.  Ruby took several swats at it, but we weren't sure who/what she was aiming for, the pinata or Shane! 

Overall it was a great party!  The kids had a fun time and the adults always like getting together.  We are so lucky to be blessed with such a good group of friends....both the kids and adults.  We can't wait until next year!