What I want for Christmas by Mia age 4.

Every year, I ask my daughter what she wants Santa to bring her and every year, I get the most obscure, random answers.  At age 2, she wanted yellow paint.  Yup...that's all.  Yellow. Paint.  At age 3 (last year), she wanted a purple polka dot puppy because apparently Santa can make anything (yeah, right). 

This year, this is how she has answered.  Please note, this is about the 10th time I have asked (in hopes for some new answers), but no such luck.

Me:  Mia, what do you want Santa to bring you this year?

Mia:  A rainbow lasso.

Me:  A what? 

Mia:  A rainbow lasso so I can be a rainbow cowgirl.

Me:  Speechless.

I guess I'll be tie dying a lasso this year. 

Soccer, Photoshoots, and Sandy

We finally had a low key weekend where we just hung out at home (except for soccer practice). 

 

 

After soccer, Mia decided that she wanted to have a photoshoot.  She really loves the camera (both being in front of it and behind it)

 

Posing with Hello Kitty

 

Her serious face

 

Big smiles

 

 

Cool Pax wanted to play too

 



 

Yesterday, my sweet man fell asleep on me.  I love that sweet face.

 



Love that kid so much!

 

Now we are all set for Sandy

 

Cuddling up and watching tv before we lose power.  Hope everyone stays safe. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bird, It's a plane....no, it's....Clark Kent!

I saw this picture on Pinterest of a little boy dressed as Clark Kent.  Oh my gosh...I died of cuteness.

I immediately fell in love and knew my Pax-man had to reenact the picture.  My model was not the most cooperative, but I still think he is one handsome little Superman.

Terrible backdrop, but...this was a last minute photo shoot.

Adjusting his glasses...

Oh my gosh...could he get any cuter? 

We tried this costume (aka--chance to get a better picture) again for a Birthday/Halloween party.  Of course, within 5 minutes of getting to the costume party (before I could even get my camera out of the bag), he spilled something on his shirt.

My superman travels by air and by car.

 And of course, he is there to rescue danzels in distress, including his sister.  Or...maybe he is just crying because she is in "his" car.  Yup, I think that's probably it. 

Liebster Award

Sara over at Gone Yonkers and Jess over at Mommy Mishaps nominated me for the Liebster Award.  After I looked up what a Liebster award was, I learned it's a great way to discover new blogs and advertise for blogs who have less than 200 followers. 

 

Here are the rules: 

1. Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you, and then create 11 new questions for the bloggers you pass the award to.

3. Choose 11 bloggers (with less than 200 followers) to pass the award to and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them about the award.

5. No tag backs!

11 Random Facts about me:

1. I eat a chocolate covered donut and drink a fountain coke every morning for breakfast.
2. I hate wrapping gifts.  I like the idea of making them look pretty, but when it comes to doing it...I hate it.
3. I love Christmas.  I listen to Christmas music year round and I would LOVE to keep our tree up year round.
4. Black Friday is my 2nd favorite day of the year. 
5. I love playing dress up with my kids.
6. I teach Sunday School to 2-3 year olds.  This year, we have triplet 2 year old boys in our class. 
7. I love shopping and finding a great deal!
8. I love to read and I usually average at least 3 books a month.
9. While I am so not crafty, I am determinted to make a ribbon wreath for Christmas, similar to AP's Halloween wreath. 
10. My favorite color is yellow
11. I hide ice cream and dark chocolate milky ways in the fridge and freezer :)

Sara's questions for me:

1. What's the best gift you've ever recieved?  My best gift was probably my "mothers" ring with my kid's birthstones. 
2. Who do you call first with important news? Why them?  I would first call Chris, my husband.  He is my best friend. 
3. Why did you start blogging?  I don't really scrap book so for me, it is a way to document what our family is up to and make new friends in the process.
4. Do you share your blog with ALL of your real-life friends and co-workers? Why or why not?  Actually, I don't yet.  I have shared it with a couple of RL friends (my husband, a couple of friends from church, and 2 girls at work).  I'm not brave enough to share with everyone else yet.  While I have nothing to hide, I sometimes use it as an outlet to vent and I'm just not ready to tell everyone yet. 
5. What is your favorite holiday? Why?  Christmas for sure!  I love it.  I love finding the perfect gifts for everyone  and watching my kids excitement Christmas morning.
6. Do you have a family tradition you grew up with that you plan to continue?  We go visit my family Christmas eve, then to Church that evening. 
7. What do you do after a bad day to make it better?  A glass of wine and/or chocolate never hurt :).  Hugs from my kids are pretty great too!
8. What was the last book that you read? Was it good or bad?  Right now, I'm reading Still Missing and it is so good!!
9. What movie character would you like to be?  Hmm...I have no idea.  I rarely watch movies.  I'd say a movie filmed in Italy with a hot costar (preferably Ryan Gossling). 
10. What holiday candy is your favorite?  Anything chocolate. 
11. What do you think will be different about your life this time next year?  This time next year, we will most likely be living in our new house and hopefully, Paxton will be eating solid foods.  In other words, hopefully it will be a better year.

Jess's questions for me:

Here are my questions for my nominees:

1.  What is the most stupid thing you’ve ever done? What was the outcome?  I do a lot of stupid things.  I don't know how I could choose just one. 

2.  Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.  My children!

3.  10 years ago, where did you think you’d be today?  I guess I really assumed I'd be married with kids. 

4.   Where do you aspire to be 10 years from now?  I just  hope to be a mom to my beautiful healthy kids, married to my best friend and living a happy life.
 
5.   Do you hold on to anything that you need to let go of? If so, is it something you can share?   I tend to forgive but not forget things that hurt me, especially if it is done by someone I love. 

6. What is your “life’s legacy?” What do you want to be known for?  I want to be known as a good mother to loved my children and did my best to always help and be there for others. 

7. Is there anything that you pretend to understand that you totally don’t?   Ha!  Lots!  Politics, technology, math....the list goes on.

8. What is your “worst habit?”  Cracking my knuckles

9. What do you think is your most attractive attribute?  I have no idea.  Certainly not my pointy ears or forehead (aka seven-head).  Maybe my blueish/green eyes?  I really don't know. 

10. What made you start blogging?  To document what we are doing and what we are going through as a family

11. Describe a relationship that means the most to you.   God.  That is the most important relationship you can have. 


Questions for my Nominees:
1.  What is your favorite book and why?
2.  What is your favorite show?
3.  What have you learned from other bloggers that you want to share?
4.  Have you started Christmas shopping?
5.  Are you dressing up for Halloween?  As what?
6.  What is your favorite song? 
7.  Why did you start blogging?
8.  What was your best memory as a child?
9.  What is your biggest pet peeve?
10.  What is your favorite color? 
11.  What makes you happy?


My nominees:

1.  Samantha at  3 oh 1 Grace St. 
2.  Kristen at A day in the life of me
3.  Ricci at A Beautiful Mess
4.  Sarah at A Dash of Sarah
5.  Rachel at A Dash of Southern
6.  Gay at A girl named Gay
7.  Kristy at a Happy Heart
8.  Chymecindy at akachymecindy
9.  Kristina at  Bella Mia
10.  Allyssa at Breakfast at Zempkes
11.  Kayla at Keeping up wtih Kayla

Forget it Friday

This week, I'm linking up with my blog friend Sharee again for Forget it Friday.  This week, I want to forget:

• That we have still had only 1 showing on our house and they are not interested.
• Mia has had a few accidents in her bed.  Unfortunately, he usually happens just before my alarm clock goes off at 5am.
• I wasted too many hours trying to get into a book that totally sucked.  Finally, after 4 chapters, I'm giving up.  I hate to be a quiter, but it was really that bad.
• I still have 2 more weeks of driving to Baltimore for Paxton's feeding therapy.

There are a lot of good things this week as well that I definitely want to remember.

• Today, as you are reading this, I am watching Disney on Ice (and we are in the front row!).  Yay!!!
• My kids give the best knockdown hugs and they have had a ton to give this week. 
• I love snuggling with Mia in bed watching Say Yes to the Dress.  It is one of the highlights of my week!

Feeding Therapy Week 4

My happy little man is finishing his 4th week of feeding therapy tomorrow.  I have to say, while I hate the 1.5 hour drive each way to Baltimore, the weeks are going by fast and he really has adjusted well to the change in schedule and all of the new people.  I am so lucky to have such an outgoing and happy kid. 

This week, he:

• Voluntarily put the chewy tube in his mouth at every meal
• Ate 3 bites of mashed potatoes before he refused them (of course, they were mixed with his baby food)
• Didn't throw a huge tantrum when the therapist put crumbs on his mouth.  He cried, but only for a few minutes. 

Concerns:

• The 6 week program is over in 2 weeks and he is still only eating baby food and still not feeding himself.  Will I be packing baby food in his lunch forever?
• The head Therapist told me she has never seen a child as happy, but as stubborn as mine when it comes to food.  Nothing works.  He doesn't care if you take his toys away or ignore him.  I guess I should take it as a compliment that he is self-sufficient when it comes to entertaining himself :). 

Next week they will start training us on ways we can help him at home.  I was hoping that he would come out of the program eating Mac and Cheese or at least Mashed Potatoes and Speghetti O's, but I guess I need to come to the realization that this process will take more time than I thought. 

Things that make me go Hmmm....

Do you have that song stuck in your head now too??  You're welcome :).  I was listening to the radio yesterday and they were talking about this news story.  Apparently, there is a woman who put out an ad in search of someone to dress up as an owl and stand in her bedroom and watch her sleep.  Oh. My. Gosh.  How creepy is that?  Well, thanks to the crazy lady, it gave me this idea for a blog post.  Here are a few other things that make me go hmmm.

   

This bath mat turns red when wet.  So creepy.

 

Bacon Roses:  I don't know whether I want to eat them or look at them. 

There are no words

 

I'm pretty sure my kids have this toy.  

Looks the same, right? 

Through the eyes of my 4 year old (a future photographer?)

Mia is obsessed with my iphone.  Let me clarify...she is obsessed with taking pictures with my iphone.  I think she may be a future photographer.  She has a good eye most of the time.  Here are a few random shots. 

I then asked her to take a picture of a few of her favorite things.  Mainly because I'm tired of deleting hundreds of pictures of rocks, dirt, etc.

Rainbow, her my little pony

Roller skates

Her brother's bike

soccer ball

 

and of course, multiple pictures of her favorite doll, Kendal

 

I think I have a future photographer, though if you ask her, she only wants to be a mommy of 100 babies.  :)

 

5 Activites: Busy and quiet play cheap

I don't know about you, but I love any activity that is quiet and that buys me 15 minutes of no whinning  and maybe a little wining :).  So, therefore I went straight to the expert...Pinterest.   I came up with a few cheap ideas to keep the kids busy and quiet while not breaking the bank.

First up....making cool designs with pipe cleaners. 

You just need a collander and pipe cleaners and a couple of energetic toddlers or preschoolers. 

 

Note...this activity bought me enough time to shower with no interruptions!

 

 

and bonus...both kids had a great time!

 

The finished product.

 

Next up:  Cup Towers

Materials:  Cups! 

 

 

We used a variety including red solo cups, purple plastic cups, and Repunzel cups.

 

Viola...

Paxton's job by the way was knocking it down.

 

3rd Activity:  Transferring balls

Materials:  Tweezers, bowl/cups, little puffy balls from the craft shop.

 

 

We even used them as a learning tool and had the kids take them out by color.  This activity definitely entertained them both the longest.  It was a huge hit and it didn't take Paxton long to learn to use the tweezers. 

 

Activity 4:  Crayon Towers.

Materials:  Crayons

Side note:  This was hard and the kids lost interest in a few minutes.  I thought it was still worthy of adding to the list incase you have older kids.

 

Although, even I had trouble keeping them from rolling.

 

Activity 5:  Felt

Materials: Felt paternes and a felt board.

It should be noted, I bought my board and cutouts (pre cut) at Michaels.  I am not crafty and have no desire to cut a bunch of felt, but if you like too....that's great! 

 

My Spidarman Princess (his sister dresses him up) had a great time playing with his sister's felt board. 

 

 

My kids had a great time with each activity.  They love new "games" and I loved my quiet time.  I hope it buys you some time as well.