The Moore Family Blog

NOLA #14

2012-01-27T16:46:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago my whole family went to NOLA for the National Championship game. It was honestly the 2nd best trip I've ever been on besides my honeymoon. Boredom was the last thing I can say happened, there is so much to do there. Constant entertainment! And the great part about it was that we could sleep as long/short as we wanted and then get up and go do whatever. No itineraries, schedules, or specific times to be somewhere (besides the game, of course).

Here is the fortune teller/palm reader we went to. He was pretty good & knew we had 2 children 1 girl, 1 boy but then he said I was 5-10 days preggo with my 3rd and we about paniced. Thankfully, he was wrong on that!!

More street entertainers...

Eating lunch at Turtle Bay. We ate here twice in one day it was so good.

The whole family all in one place at one time, doesn't happen very often these days.

Kinda creepy, not sure what this guy was?

We met up with all of our next door neighbors later on for a fun night.

This is the stage of the bar we stayed at pretty much the entire time. It was called The Beach and it was seriously like a University of Alabama Alumni party in there. We saw so many people we knew!

Jeremy pulled out the camera right away and so I smiled. I was confused about why he was dying laughing until I looked back at what was behind me. Whoops!

Game day!! Hanging out at the Super Dome Allstate Party!

So much fun....I can hardly stand looking at these pictures without dying to go back.

Aimee, me, Uncle Barry, Aunt Dory, and Aunt Di.

Alabama fans were way outnumbered at the Dome. Look at all the purple & yellow.

It was seriously almost a joke at how outnumbered we were.

Taco Bell had a table where you could walk up and get free tacos and you could go back as many times as you wanted. Such a great thing on a day like that. It saved many people from drinking too much.

The Coach's trophee

Love this with the Super Dome behind us

The LSU version of Hugh Hefner (he asked to take a picture with us, we didn't volunteer)

Hightower's sister and family.

And this was the last picture before everyone headed into the game.

And to top this trip off, my Alma Mater won yet another National Championship!!! # 14!! I couldn't believe it and seriously didn't even start celebrating until about 4 minutes left to go in the game. Even though the score didn't seem close it was still so nerve wracking the entire time.

ROLL TIDE!!! And Congratulations Bama!!

Blogger Help

2012-01-26T12:23:00.001-06:00

Ok people. I NEED ANY ADVICE I CAN GET PLEASE!!

I know I always say I would blog more "if I could get more time or if I weren't so busy, etc" but the truth is that when I do actually get a little time to do a post it seems to take me FOR-EV-ER to finish just ONE post. There has got to be a more updated blogger program or something??

For example, Facebook will allow you to click on a folder of pictures and hold the control key down and select as many pictures as you'd like all at one time. Whereas, blogger makes me go into a folder and select pictures ONLY one at a time. I'm telling you it takes forever to do that.

And when I do actually get all my pictures uploaded to blogger, it will not let me organize them the way I want to most of the time. I have to upload them in the order I want to post them or else there is no way to move them around or do 2-3 pictures side by side.

Also, is there any way to post a video on blogger besides having to download it to youtube first?

I know I say this a lot, but I really do want to try to blog more. We have lots of fun and exciting stuff going on around here and I'm doing really well at taking more pictures/videos so far this year but they are all just sitting in folders on my computer because it takes so long to upload them to blogger.

I NEED HELP! or advice or whatever can make my blogging experience more successful.

Thanks!!

Christmas Eve's Eve, Eve, & Day

2012-01-19T10:04:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve's Eve (Friday night), we went to my inlaws to do Christmas. We had another appearance from Santa Claus (my brother in-law) and as always my kids wracked up sooo many presents I questioned whether Santa even needed to visit them.

Carter was scared again of course..

Since the family is getting so big, we all drew names this year. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Nana & Papa for having us and for all of our wonderful presents!

Carter was being his crazy silly self the whole way home which was waaaay past his bedtime.

Playing peek-a-boo.

Christmas Eve always starts off with church and then we all head to my grandmothers house to eat, exchange presents, and play a really fun game of dirty santa. The past few years we've left my grandmothers around 9:30 and gone to my Aunt's house (which is next door) to play games all night. It sure makes for a lot of laughter and a late Christmas Eve!

Carter with my cousin's little boy (and my godchild) Landen.

And these next few are sadly the only pictures I got of my children in their Christmas outfits.

And then we all changed clothes & opened presents!

The kids get so many presents that we make them pick one to play with and we open all the other ones in the morning so we don't lose all the parts before we even get home. Maci Rose chose her new horse barn.

Aunt Aimee, who many say she looks like.

And then came the photo shoot, trying to get all the grandkids in one place at one time and all looking at the camera and smiling. Even though we try every year it's NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

That's my 75 year old grandmother in the front!

And then we did our imediate family.

Haha...love this one! Matt is in mid-sneeze.

All 3 kids + Jeremy.

So much fun! It's the one night I look forward to every year.

Christmas Day

We went to Aunt Mary's house to eat and open even more presents with my cousins on my dad's side of the family!

I know it's almost a month later but I hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. I know we did!

Christmas Happenings

2012-01-14T19:40:00.000-06:00

First, I must appologize for the quality of these pictures (not that I usually have great pics or anything) but most of these are off my phone. One of my New Years Resolutions is to take more pictures this year and to remember to bring my camera with me more often & actually take it out of my purse every once in a while!! I need major improvement in this department.

Other things we did around here before Christmas include...

Trying out all the cool rides while Christmas shopping.

Playing dirty santa at my Aunt and Uncle's Christmas party.

Using our new magic bullet blender to make yummy smoothies.

Maci Rose had jingle jammie day at school.

Went to lots of Christmas parties and sang many songs along the way. (I've tried to upload the videos a million times so hopefully I can do a follow up post on that)

And visited Santa at Bass Pro Shops.

He was scared of Santa the second he saw him. Even when we were in the back of a huge line.

And here is the famous Santa pose that made it on our Christmas cards this year. Yes, crouch grabbing and all!

We went to eat with my parents the other day and a man came in with white hair and a long white beard and Carter wouldn't quit staring at him and pointing saying "San Claw". I think he may be scarred for life. Let's hope not!

Maci Rose had her Christmas program at her school.

She is currently in the 10th percentile on height and weight which we discovered after seeing how small she was compared to the rest of the kids in her class. She weighs 28 pounds and is 37 inches tall. Maybe she'll have a growth spurt between now and April when she turns 4 or maybe she'll be short like her mama. We'll see!

Christmas Tradition

2012-01-03T19:02:00.000-06:00

Ever since I can remember my cousins and I have gotten together before Christmas to make gingerbread houses and cookies for Santa. It is so fun to still carry it on through our kids. Although we still make jokes that it's technically more for us than them!

Carter ate every piece of candy we handed him to put on the house.

Making cookies for Santa...

The weather was really bad that day, so Carter was our weatherman keeping us informed.

And thanks to Pinterest we also added homemade handprint Santa ornaments this year. I think they turned out so cute!!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-01T20:39:00.001-06:00

So I'm a little behind on this post...but this year I am thankful for so many things starting with my Almighty God who has given me everything I don't deserve and who still loves me even though I am a sinner. He is great and he has blessed me beyond words.

I am thankful for my beautiful and healthy children. They make my world complete. I couldn't imagine life without them. And to get to experience a girl and a boy who have completely different personalities, looks, emotions, & interests is so much fun. I love them both in different ways but most of all because they love me unconditionally back. It makes my heart melt!

I am thankful for my wonderful and loving husband. Without him, Maci Rose and Carter wouldn't exist. He is my rock and has supported me through so many things in my life. He is such a hardworking and faithful man. Through the good, bad, and in between he is truly my one and only. I love you Jeremy!

I am thankful for my family. Being Italian, I have more family than many can dream of on just one side. And then to add my mom's side and my husbands side, we are extremely blessed. Although I am thankful for each and every one of them, it is becoming hard to fit every one in on holidays so I am thankful to have you all even when our time together is cut short I don't forget just how blessed I am to know you are there for us no matter what.

I am thankful for my friends. I have some of the best friends that exist. From high school friends, college friends and sorority sisters, my wonderful neighbors and my mommy friends I have all the support I need and more. I love having friends that are good in different ways.

And speaking of neighbors,,,,have I mentioned just how great they are?? I have the most fun and helpful neighbors ever. One of my neighbors gave me my job and I work for her. How convenient huh? Sometimes we even ride together to save on gas. She also keeps Carter for me while I work. On Fridays, my other neighbor who has girls in school with Maci Rose takes her to school for me. Another one came over last minute a few weeks ago to babysit while Jeremy and I headed to a funeral. My brother (Uncle Matt Matt) is only a street over from us and we can walk through the woods beside our house to visit on pretty days.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving and did lunch with my cousins on my dad's side of the family, and then headed to my Aunt's house on my mom's side of the family to play a little flag football. We went to my inlaws on Friday evening and did Thanksgiving with them as well. By spreading it out to 2 days it let us have a little more relaxation than we're used to on Thanksgiving not having to fit everyone in on one day.

The kids ate on a little kitchen that we used to play with when we were little.

So much fun with all these babies around!

there was so much food!!

Aunt Em came in town from NY

And then we celebrated my dad's birthday which was November 13th.

I couldn't keep my hands off my godchild Kate. I just love those thighs!!

She's so cute!

And speaking of thighs, Carter is doing well in that department too!

I wish I had gotten some pictures of the flag football game. It was definitely a hit and something we're hoping to add to more holiday get togethers! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

#1 vs. #2

2011-11-09T16:21:00.000-06:00

"The game of the century" as some people called it.....Alabama vs. LSU!! This past weekend we loaded up both kids and went to ttown to tailgate with family and friends and even got to be on GAME DAY!! Check this out!

That big black thing to the left of the picture below kind of just "floating" in the sky was the ESPN game day camera going accross a line back and forth while we were told to cheer.

Aunt Aimee and Matt were the ones holding our kids up for the camera to see.

Then we came back to hang out at the tailgate and fill up our bellies with good food (and drinks)....

These dogs were causing a major hold up on the side walk so I had to see what was making all that comotion...pretty cute and funny!

One of the many wagon rides they went on

Man, they look so happy don't they??

And then Thomas and Maci Rose decided they were gonna try to take a nap....

While we tried to keep our monkey from climbing on the cooler!!

Repeatedly.......

And again....

And again...

And again....

And yet once again!!

Worn out yet? We were! This kid just doesn't listen!

Who me??

Maci Rose found ways to entertain herself as usual

Discussing with Maci Rose about how to get us to go home...

Ok buddy, we took the hint!

So we left about an hour before game time and headed to Aunt Di's house to watch it!

Even though we lost, we played a good game and I honestly feel like we beat ourselves! There's always next year,,,right???

Oh....and I totally forgot to mention that I ran into Taylor Hicks on the quad and my sister and I got a picture with him. Pretty cool, huh?

ROLL TIDE!!

Disney on Ice & Spider Cookies

2011-11-07T19:06:00.002-06:00

Last Wednesday we took both kids to see Disney on Ice. This is Carter's first time to go to something like this and he was scared to death when the characters came out. It was actually really sweet because I got some much needed cuddling time with him! Bless his heart, we've left him in town while we've gone to the beach, Minnesota, ball games, ttown, Auburn, circus, & movies so he really doesn't have much exposure to this kind of stuff. Maci Rose has gone with us to all these events even as a little baby, but keeping up with 2 is so much harder than 1 and we always have family who is willing and wanting to watch him.

Cuddling with my buddy!

These starfish in The Little Mermaid act were my favorite outfits!

You can tell she enjoyed her snow cone with those purple lips!

Yes, that's Carter underneath all those blankets trying to get out of the stroller, of course!

Jeremy bought Maci Rose a little sword thing that sings and lights up so we heard the kids fighting over it the whole car ride home. We are past the days where we could get by with just buying for 1 child now! Between tickets, snow cones, popcorn, & souveniers you can easily drop $100 at these kind of things! It's outrageous!

And you can see why we tend to leave Carter at home, because he will only sit still for .5 seconds at a time!

SPIDER COOKIES

I originally saw these cookies in the newspaper a few weeks before Halloween and wanted to make them.

I made them for Maci Rose's Halloween party at school, but I still figured I'd share them with you because they are so easy to make and fun entertainment for the kids. We actually just made some the other day for an afternoon snack since it was raining & we were stuck inside. It is the perfect sweet and salty mix. All it is is an oreo cookie with pretzels and you can either use icing or some type of small candy for the eyes. We used some leftover Easter candy we had. I also used a little extra white icing to help the pretzels stick inside the oreo. Here's a close up!

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T21:33:00.000-05:00

I want to first start off by saying how much money I've been saving lately with coupons, sales, and re-using things that I already have. I went to Winn Dixie a few weeks ago and spent $29 on 22 items! I've always been creative and people compliment me on my ideas and on my house decorating. I have even re-done a room in my aunts house and helped a friend with a few decorating projects, but my problem is that I'm not creative when it comes to making things for cheap or free. But this Halloween I have made things out of what I have. So, it may not be as cute or perfect as what I'd like but hey it's free!! So I'll have to deal.

Here is the wreath I made for our front door this year. The wreath has been in my attic with lots of ugly fake leaves and flowers on it that I removed. Then I went to the dollar tree and bought the spider web and "Happy Halloween", which I just gluegunned into place and Voila! A $2 wreath for my front door. I'll take it!

I also made some ghosts that, once again, I've seen on pinterest and blogs and I've wanted to make them but just didn't have the extra money. So, I took the pre-lit topiary trees that I use at Christmas and threw a white fleece blanket that I had over them and used construction paper (that I already had) as the eyes and mouths. Oh and the names are part of the playball shapes I use for my students once again that I already had, so the total cost of these cute ghosts = free!!

(these topiary trees do get really hot with the fleece over them so I usually just turn them on for a few hours a night)

My mom gave me some cute pumpkin and bat sponges a few years ago and I put them away in my Halloween decorations hoping to do something artsy with paints and the kids. But this year I realized that probably won't happen and why not decorate with them? So I put fishing wire through them and hung them
from my mantle.

Ok, so now onto Halloween night! Which was fun and laid back this year for us. Usually my whole family comes over for chilli & trick-or-treating (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc) but this year everyone decided to go to my aunt's house and since my children are a little under the weather and I had to work all day today we decided to stay home and do our own thing. This is the first year we didn't have a house to feed or people to entertain or a crowd to keep up with while trick-or-treating. We went out early around 5:45 and were home by 7:00. Maci Rose loved it at first but after only about 20 houses she said she was cold and ready to go home. She wouldn't wear her jacket because it covered her outfit. Figures!! And Carter went to about 5 houses and after each house he wanted to open every piece of new candy they put in his bucket. So we finally just put him in the waggon and let him have a sucker until we got home. I'm ashamed to say that I hardly have any cute pictures of them. Between getting juice cups ready and jackets for the kids and wiping their noses every few seconds I got what I could. Plus, Carter was an elephant and wouldn't wear the hood so that was another battle, but hey I tried the best I could!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Playball

2011-10-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is my new job!! And it is about as fun as it sounds. "playing ball" It just kind of fell into my lap. My neighbor really needed some help with her classes because they were too full for her to teach alone. I work at 3 different schools...BeKare, Mountain Brook Baptist, & Church of Brook Hills. I honestly feel like it was a blessing from God. I work 2 days a week so I can still spend some time with my babies and make a little money too. It's exactly what I needed. So, if you're wondering what it is check out their website at http://alabama.usaplayball.com/about_us

I put the description below off their website to get you more familiar with what it is.

Please contact me if you are interested in signing your child up or seeing if it is offered at their school!

For over 25 years, We’ve Used Sports as a Means To Enrich all Aspects of a Child’s Life…

In Playball, sports play a vital role in the health and well being of every child. Sports help us learn life skills such as respect, sportsmanship, responsibility, confidence, self-esteem, patience, tolerance and leadership.

With Playball children learn the basic skills for Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Hockey, Tennis and Soccer.

Playball classes begin at age 2 and go through to age 8. It suits the needs of all children regardless of athletic abilities. It helps develop the confidence to participate in all activities - on and off the field!

Playball is progressive: children progress from informal introduction of basic ball and movement skills to more structured sports participation. No two classes are the same!

Playball consists of 6 stages - each focusing on the age development of the child.

Playball works on developing skills such as balance, coordination, mid-line crossing, throwing, catching, fielding and dribbling.

Playball is taught in different venues such as pre-schools, day cares, parks, and recreation centers!

Playball gives kids the opportunity to explore their creativity and imagination. They experience fun, laughter, joy and success. Children do not care that they are learning “tennis forehand” because it’s so much fun “swatting away mosquitoes!”.

Playball develops reading, thinking and problem solving skills as well as motor skill development. This is why Playball is so important for your children! We use these principles to design a program that is not only fun for the kids but has an underlying principle to accomplish this!!

NEWSLETTER LINK:

Please click here for our weekly skill spot

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=e16fff00ceab5f9a&resid=E16FFF00CEAB5F9A!546

email us @ PlayballAlabama@live.com

Labor Day

2011-09-28T11:04:00.000-05:00

Busy is an understatement to describe our Labor Day weekend.

First of all, Jeremy was asked to be the best man in his best friend's wedding, which was down in Ft. Myers, Florida so he flew out on Friday morning and I stayed home with the kids.

Second, Saturday was the first "football game day" for most college teams and especially bama, which we spent all day out at my aunt's house watching all the games, eating good food, and letting the kids swim.

Third, Jeremy and I were asked to be asked the godparents of my cousins baby, Kate and the baptism was on Sunday (the day before Labor Day). We are very honored to be such special people in her life!

Fourth, my cousin Emily came in town from NY for her neice's baptism!

Fifth, Sunday, the 4th of September was my birthday and I turned 28! I feel so close to 30 at this age it's scary! For some reason I am really scared of turning 30. My 20's have been the best years of my life and I don't want them to end!!

So it was a crazy busy, but an extremely fun weekend for everyone!

A Doctor & Cowboy

2011-09-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

Ok so I know I'm behind on my promise of 7 consecutive posts but while I'm slowly working on those I thought I'd show you the 2 cuties occupying my time.

While cleaning up dinner these 2 headed upstairs to the playroom & this is what I found. Maci Rose was wearing her doctor gear checking her baby's heartbeat and Carter was wearing a cowboy hat driving this noisy fire truck thing. It was a sight for sure! Hopefully they're getting some good practice for the future! Well the doctor at least! We'll see! Either way it gave me a good laugh after a long day at work!

Frugal Friday

2011-09-16T10:54:00.000-05:00

5 smart ways you can use BALLOONS!!

I don't know about you but I have tons of balloons leftover from the 4 birthday parties I've thrown for my kiddos. They are stored in a bucket of party decorations out in my garage that my children seem to get into at least once a week asking me to blow up these balloons for them. And I know, I should probably find another place for it but that would require me having to go up in my attic and clear a space which is not as easy as it sounds. Anyways.... when I read this little snipet from Women's World Magazine the other day I thought this was so neat. I've never thought of using balloons other than for parties and entertainment.

1.) Open a bottle. You can use a rubber balloon to get a stubborn top off a bottle. Just use the balloon as you would a gripper.

2.) Make an ice pack. (this is my favorite!!) Fill a balloon halfway with water, but make sure you leave enough room for it to expand. Then place it in the freezer to have ready whenever you need an ice pack!

3.) Protect a cut. Slip a balloon over a painful papercut to keep it dry & clean while washing dishes, bathing kids, or doing some other type of house work or craft.

4.) Keep the shape. Blow up a balloon and slip an item of laundry over it to keep the shape of air-dry items such as bras and baseball caps. Toddler shirts fit perfectly.

5.) Save cut flowers. Slip a balloon filled with a little bit of water on the end of the stem and use a rubberband to secure it in place to help cut flowers last longer or until you can get them into a vase.

Have a good weekend!!

JaRae's Wedding

2011-09-15T20:45:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we flew to Minnesota for my cousin JaRae's wedding. She was one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen. And her mom owns a salon!! How cool is that?? So all of the bridesmaids got to get their hair, make-up & nails done too.

Formal weddings in Minnesota are done differently than weddings down here, but my little sister is considering trying to incorporate these northern parties down here when she starts her wedding planning (hopefully soon ;)). They have the wedding at 2pm in the afternoon and then go bar hopping on party buses in between the wedding and reception. Then there is a sit down dinner at 6:00pm followed by dancing and reception. It's a good way to make your wedding day worth the money you pay instead of just a few hours and it also gives kids/parents time to go home and change clothes and nap in between.

Isn't her hair so cool & different?!

The bridesmaids wore sunflowers in their hair which went perfectly with their yellow dresses. So summery!

their first dance

Once again, love love love the hair! So unique! Her hair is usually really straight and long so it was so different to see this on her.And this picture below is my absolute favorite!

Father/Daughter dance

This is Taylor, the sister of the bride and maid of honor.

Bar hopping in between the wedding and reception. Of course, we had to go to the "Bar and Grill" places because of kids, but it was still so much fun!

Uncle Mickey and Maci Rose

We partied the night away. I havent had that much fun dancing at a wedding in a long time.

There were these little puppies there that Maci Rose ~~threw a fit~~ begged to bring home. She literally woke up and went to sleep every.single.day. asking to bring one home. I mean how do you explain to a 3 year old that you are in another state?? She thought we were up in the sky and then the airplane was going to take us back down to the ground and home. I tried explaining a million times. So frustrating!! needless to say, she didn't get to take one home.

At Uncle Mickey's cookout.

We had so much fun and always enjoy every second we are up there!! They provide tons of entertainment! I have over 100 family members that all live in one small town called Buffalo. This is my moms side of the family or I guess you can say my grandmother's side?? Her 5 siblings & their kids and grandkids & great grandkids!! Can't wait to go back! We miss you guys already!

My Challenge to Myself

2011-09-14T12:07:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone!! I'm alive I promise.

And I have sooo much to catch you up on so I'm challenging myself to do a post everyday for the next 7 days. These will include Carter's 15 month update, my new job, our trip to Minnesota, & just a little about what has been going on around here. This should be interesting to say the least. Here's to hoping I can stick it out!! Wish me luck!

3K

2011-08-17T17:31:00.000-05:00

Well another year is here and Maci Rose is off to 3K!! I must say that this is a good way to get me prepared for kindergarten. She gets dropped off & picked up in a carpool line just like we used to when we were little. And while it's a little bittersweet in the morning as she gets out of the car, this kid LOVES school!!

As soon as she hops in the car when I pick her up she is telling what she did, who she played with, what she ate/didn't eat before I can even get a breath to ask her those questions.

We also recently received her school pictures from the end of last year. And I think they turned out great!!

Below is a picture of me and Jeremy at 3 years. I'd say she has my eyes and mouth and Jeremy's shape face & coloring. What do you think?

And I'm not sure if you remember this post but I promised to post her "DOLLS" picture that was placed in her school art show last year. So here it is....(you may have to turn the screen sideways)

Here is a picture she drew the other day of a bird....

I know these may not be the best pictures to you, but the fact that she is telling you what she is drawing as she draws it...for example, "mom here is the bird's eye" or "let me draw him some legs" as she draws them is pretty cool and shows that even if we don't see it she knows what it's supposed to be.

Just for the record, I've been typing this one post alone for about 3 hours now. Maci Rose pinched her finger and spilled a sippy cup full of V-8 splash on my bedspread and Carter clogged up a toilet with a whole roll of toilet paper. And since I've been promising her to make strawberry cake one night this week I decided this might cheer her up so I've done bandaids, used spot shot, a plunger, spankings (more to come on this), made dinner, fed 2 kids, and baked a cake all while trying to finish this post. I don't know how you people with more than 2 blog out there. Props to you!! Because this seems to be the norm for me these days!

A trip to Children's

2011-08-11T08:06:00.000-05:00

A week ago at this very time we were sitting at Children's waiting and wondering if our little girl was going to have to go into surgery or not. What a difference a week can make!!

Many of you already know, but for those of you who do not, Maci Rose woke up last Wednesday night/Thurs morning at 1:45am screaming and crying and bent over in the fetal position saying that her stomach hurt. She had also been running a fever between 101 & 102 for 2 days straight prior to this.

Of course, like most mothers I thought ok I can fix this. I brought her to the potty and tried to make her go. At that point, she was screaming so hard that she was gagging (which was one of the scariest things I've ever seen from a child). So I took her off the pot and laid down with her in my bed putting pressure on her belly and rubbing her back.

10 mins later she dozed off. Voila! I thought what in the world just happened?? So I moved her back to her bed around 3am to be awoken again 45 mins later to even louder, harder screaming and more gagging and this time she didn't come walking into my room like before, she stayed bent over in her bed and wouldn't move. I tried to pick her up to bring her to the bathroom but she would scream so loud and say "Your hurting me momma", so I decided to call the nurse. When the nurse heard her in the background she immidiately said you need to bring her in, this sounds like appendicitis!

At this point, I had every thought cross my mind, what to wear, what to grab, what to do with Carter, what will comfort her on the ride there, etc.? It's the worst feeling!! But it's part of the job description for being a mother. So I did what I thought I should and we left. I dropped Carter off at my parents on the way. And my mom met us out at the car where she saw and heard Maci Rose from her front porch! I'm telling ya.....it was the worst screaming ever!!

When we walked into Children's and they heard and saw Maci Rose they immediately put us back in a room. And for all of you who have waited for hours in the waiting room, you can probably know how I scared I was that we went straight to a room!!

They ran tons of tests on my baby girl. 2 x-rays, blood work, ultrasound, and put her in a hospital gown with an IV in her hand, and a catheter. She was one sick looking child.

I was trying so hard to fight back my tears, and I almost lost it once. It was so hard. When you've been awake since 1:45am and you're sleep deprived and you have one of your babies away from you and another one in front of you in pain and in a hospital gown, it's not easy!!

Thank the Lord Almighty for watching over her and protecting her when I couldn't do anything!!! He is so good & all you have in situations like this!!

Everything came back normal, we found out that she was severely constipated, her white blood cell count was a little elevated, and her lymphnodes in her stomach were swollen showing that her body was fighting some type of infection (hence the fever she had for 2 days prior). They gave her an enema and a few hours after she went she was so much better! We finally left the hospital around noon on Thursday.

I know most of you are probably saying what my husband was saying at that point, "She just had a $200 poop???" Yes, I guess if you want to put it that way!

Now she is taking Metamucil and fiber gummies to avoid these issues again.

But seriously, the screaming was so intense that I woke up twice the next night thinking I was hearing it again.

Now she is back to her normal hyper self. I'm so glad my baby is ok!!

I-Phone Recap

2011-07-26T20:31:00.000-05:00

As I said in my previous post, I have been "camera-less" for the past few weeks & have only had my I-phone to capture pictures. So here is what we've been up to:

Jeremy wearing the Auburn championship ring

My sweet buddy on our way to drop him off before the beach

Showing off her new Sea 'N Suds t-shirt from the beach

Lots of playing in the backyard

Trying to have some quiet fun while waiting on Maci Rose to wake up from her "rare" afternoon nap

He's even whiter than the driveway!!

Making sure I don't go far!

Eating lots of popsickles in this heat

We took our next door neighbors out for their birthdays & they gave him a shot on fire! I've never seen something done like that before at a Mexican Restaurant. Pretty cool!!

I went to a Pampered Chef party and was making some peach salsa and almost cut the end of my pinky off with a peeler. I guess I don't need expensive stuff!! My dull knives work just fine.

And this little guy is into all kinds of girly things lately, make-up, baby dolls, pushing strollers, etc.

Caught him with my mascara all over his face!! He was trying to put it on like lipstick!

And here we go..........The TEMPER TANTRUM PHASE has begun!

I can't help but laugh every time he does it. It's just so funny how upset he gets and how he wants to "stay" upset even when you try to fix it. Almost like he's having fun throwing the fit!

He has to sit up and look around and make sure someone is watching, because if not he will stop.

hahahaha.....he's so pitiful isn't he??

Ok fine I'm all better now that I found something cool to play with!

We also went to the McWane Center last week with my cousin Katie and friend Carrie and their little ones. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show, but it was lots of fun and we can't wait to go back!

And that folks is what we've been up to lately!

FOJ 2011

2011-07-25T18:58:00.000-05:00

This year we got to spend the 4th of July with aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, siblings & grandparents at the beach!! And a good time was had by all!

Here are some of the 1 million beach pictures I took....

On our way down to the beach for the first time

My dad...the whitest full blooded Italian I know!

(yes, seriously this is how he came out to the beach every time)

My family played a game to see how many people they could fit into this boat at one time before it turned over, I think the record was 18....pretty impressive!

My aunt was burried as a mermaid and Maci Rose loved it...

So she went next!

Thanks to Uncle Matt Matt for letting her wear your sunglasses!

Hunting for crabs

Me & my crazy aunt!

Playing yard darts or "sand darts"

Minus the "sweaty-ness" I think this is a cute picture....I swear it was 180 degrees at this place. It was called The Hangout and it was a lot of fun but they seriously DO NOT have air conditioner. They have huge open windows to let the breeze in from the beach. I don't know how the servers do it!!

Aimee and her boyfriend Matt

Haha....Aunt Neisa in rare form!

and again...

About 1/4th of the crowd with us

3 generations! (My mom, me, sister, Aimee & Maci Rose) If only we could have convinced my grandmother (who was fully clothed and sitting in the shade) to get at the very bottom we would have had 4 generations (if she could survive the weight).

Maci Rose could have collected sea shells literally for 24 hours straight. I'm tempted to get a sandbox in our backyard and hide her sea shells in there and have her find them again. Kept her entertained for hours!!

My favorite part...around 6:30 when the sun went down & we were all feeling "good". The weather was so enjoyable and everything was so humorous! Can't even tell ya what was so funny but sure do miss those fun nights with all my family around!

Great pic Matt!

My sweet girl! Maybe it was because I didn't have Carter around for this trip, but seriously Maci Rose was perfect! Not a complaint or peep outta this kid. Everyone can agree. She's definitely a beach baby!

Our famous pose we've been doing since our 4th date!

Cousins.

My sexy man

She did this for hours

Yummy FOJ treats!

Watching the fireworks!

I hope you all had a great 4th as well!!

On another note, my camera broke the weekend we got back and I just got a new one this past weekend. So I've been a few weeks with only an I-phone camera. It was long overdue!! I still have a lot of learning, but hope to be back to blogging with some better pictures soon. It's fun to adjust the lighting & try out different settings but I'm not good at it yet.

Ooops I forgot to mention...

2011-06-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

CARTER IS WALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and has been going strong since June 9th. I've been meaning to do this post for a while, but was trying to get some good footage of him in action. OH WELL!! I have a few short videos from my phone that I'm going to try and put on this post if possible.

I figured I would also go ahead and do a 13 month update (which he will be tomorrow) because we are going to the beach and I know I will have tons of pictures and posts to do from that. I can't wait!! It's our first vacation in over 2 years.

At 13 months Carter weighs 22.4lbs and is 30.5 inches long. Yes, I know his measurements sound huge and we constantly get comments about how big he is from strangers, but believe it or not he is only in the 50th % for both! As opposed to being in the 75th & 90th % for so long maybe he is finally slowing down a little.

He says kiki (kitty), mama, dada, Maci (AAA-C), ba (ball), and he sounds like he is copying us on a lot of other things we say. For example, if I say "where's daddy?" he makes a ssss sound and dada. Or if I yell at Maci Rose he will come behind me raising his voice with all kinds of make up words too!

Saying he's into everything is an understatement!! I don't know if it's because he's a boy or 2nd or what, but I never remember Maci Rose being this mischievious. He knows what he's not supposed to do, touch, etc. and he will look back at me with a smile and still go straight for whatever he's not supposed to.

Here is the view from my bedroom/bed out into the loft/playroom area.

My bed has been my personal desk for a while. I sit up here with my laptop and check email, do schoolwork, pay bills, fill out my calendar book, & make to-do lists all while being able to watch the kids play. The kids usually know that I'm working and to leave me alone. Well not lately!! Carter can climb up on my tall bed by putting his foot on the box springs and pulling his way up. Once he is on my bed my piles of paperwork go in every direction, all my coupons are unorganized, and most of the time he is pounding the keys on my laptop. Then Maci Rose sees that he's allowed up here (not really,,,but he didn't get a spanking) so she comes in here and starts playing with him and jumping on the bed. I have really got to get SOME place that can be just mine to put stuff and know that no kid can get into it. It's driving me crazy!!

Besides walking, getting into everything, and saying a few more words his 12 month update still stands true. He is such a smiley boy with the biggest blue eyes and longest eyelashes!! I love him dearly!!

Here are a few videos of him lately...

Have a great 4th of July!!

New Additions

2011-06-22T19:05:00.000-05:00

We've had some exciting new additions around here recently. On June 7th my cousin Katie had a new baby girl, Kathryn Rose aka "Kate". She is absolutely beautiful and we have enjoyed loving on her!

My other cousin had a baby on June 10th. A little boy named Caden. 2 new baby cousins in the same week!!

And the Moore family got a new baby too. A baby kitty named Whip. She and Maci Rose are best friends!!

This is how I found her when I went to turn Maci Rose's tv off last night. So cute!!

(Notice her arm around her neck)

Welcome to the family everyone!! We're glad to have you all to love on!!

Thanks Mom!

2011-06-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

For these adorable matching outfits you made!

She has made Maci Rose at least 10 smocked dresses in her 3 years of life, but this is the first outfit she's made Carter so far. She originally made the dress for Maci Rose and since it was puppy dogs I asked her to make a matching outfit for Carter. This was her first time making a john-john and it turned out really cute!

We had family pictures taken on Saturday and they got to wear their new outfits for the first time!!

Many thanks to Stephanie Benzaia of Benzaia Photography!

Frugal Friday

2011-06-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

Ok guys this is really cool!! Forget buying any more stain remover for your clothes!! I don't know who told me this or if I read it somewhere or what but it REALLY works!! And I've been doing this for a few months now & I'm amazed at the results! Here is the new Shout, Resolve, Oxyclean, or whatever you are using for getting stains out of your clothes.

(drum roll please!!!!)...............

As crazy as it sounds this is some powerful stuff!! Make sure you buy the real Johnson's product though because "off brands" just don't do the trick. Take the shampoo and rub it on and in the stain or stains that you are trying to remove. I usually rub it in really well within the first 12 hours that the stain gets there and then I lay the item outside in direct sunlight which will fade the stain tremendously. Then wash the item of clothing with your next load of laundry and WALA the stain is GONE!! I mean you don't even see the first sign of where it was. It's AMAZING!!

Last Sunday night we had a big dinner over at my house with lots of family and we had lasagna. Maci Rose was wearing a new white with black polka dot sundress she got for her birthday.(I know right, I shouldn't have put her in white.) but at the time I didn't think about it. She got lasagna all.over.that.dress!! I was so sad because I just knew it would join that pile of clothes in her closet that are known as "play clothes". The stain had a good 4-5 hours to set in before I even noticed it, but I rubbed lots of Johnsons baby shampoo all over it that night and layed it in the sun for about 2 hours the next day and it faded to where you could hardly tell where it was. After I washed it, it was good as new!

I've used it on strawberry, popsickle, chocolate, and tea stains. IT REALLY IS AMAZING TO WATCH IT WORK!! Try it!! and let me know what you think!!!

(There are 2 new posts below. I'm trying to get caught up with all my pictures because I have a lot of new and exciting things to share, but I'm trying to back track a little first.)

Have a great weekend!!

Carter's Birthday Party

2011-06-17T17:51:00.000-05:00

Carter's party was fishing themed this year. We served gummy worms and sweedish fish and some pizza bites, chips, and other candies. It was at our house with 2 kiddie pools and a sprinkler going in our backyard. The guests wore their bathing suits and we all hung out outside in the 90 degree heat for the most part. It was from 10-12 in the morning so it wasn't too bad.

Carter with Papa

Food and drinks

The birthday boy!

Maci Rose and our next door neighbor McKenzie in matching swimsuits!

Carter with his great grandma!

My parents bought him a water table and it was a huge hit. Here they are building it.

Look at that red hair!!

Playing with Jaxton, who is 3 weeks younger than Carter.

He wanted to eat the "1" candle instead of his cupcake.

Finally digging in a little bit

The cupcake table

I made these cupcakes. I used a spray paint food coloring for cupcakes to give it color. It's really cool and I have 2 cans left over so I'm trying to think of something else creative I can use them on. Lily Pad Boutique made the cupcake toppers, the invitations and the banner. I love them!! They did a great job!

Grandmothers and Great Grandmother

He gave bubbles for party favors.

The banner

Up close

We had another 50th birthday party to make after Carter's and this is the only picture I got from it. I know it's probably not a good idea to ride kids on top of your drink cooler, but it sure made for a cute picture!!

Memorial Day

2011-06-17T16:38:00.000-05:00

For Memorial Day we did the usual and went to my aunt's pool for her annual party. This year she had a hat contest inspired by the royal wedding. It was so fun to see how creative everyone was. The hats were so cute and hilarious!! With 2 mobile kids to watch around the pool this year I didn't take many pictures so enjoy the few that I did...

Bow Hangers

2011-06-09T08:57:00.000-05:00

I'm making bow hangers and selling them for $5 or you can buy 2 for $8. Let me know if you'd like one!!

ONE YEAR!!

2011-06-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

Well Carter boy I can't believe you are a year old today!!! You are such a fun and sweet little boy! You love your momma and cry when you see me getting ready in the morning because you are afraid I'm gonna leave you. You are so smiley all the time. You have a fake laugh just to make people think they are funny even when they aren't. You also have a fake cry and it's so funny. It is so obvious it's fake that even strangers know you're faking, but you think you have us all fooled. You have brought so much joy to our lives over the past year and I hate to see you grow up so quickly!!

A Few TidBits About My Man:
Height: 30 inches? (we will know for sure next Tuesday but he is very long and most of it is in his waist)
Weight: 21 lbs/10 oz.
Babbles: Says mama, dada, baba, "A" for hey & kiki (kitty) and imitiates a lot of the things we say.
Food: Anything and everything. He loves waffles, strawberries, popsickles, any type of noodle dish, cheese crackers, poptarts. He has been eating gerber graduate meals since about 8 months old, but now he is starting to not want any type of baby/toddler specific food. He wants whatever we are eating and knows the difference between the real thing and the baby equivalent food.
Teeth: He has a total of 9 teeth with the 10th about to cut through the gum. He has 4 on top and 4 on the bottom in the front and 1 of his 1 year old molars is coming in on the left side. The other one looks like it's about to pop through any day now.
Sleep: Well....this is a hard one. He has done extremely well the past month usually only waking up once at night and sometimes not at all. However, last week was a different story. We brought him to the dr. thinking he had an ear infection, but he didn't and we figured it is those big molars cutting through in the back of his mouth. He was up for 3 straight nights last week. It was miserable for all of us.

Others: He gives the sweetest kisses!! He leans his whole head into yours.

He loves to "share" with you even when you least expect it. Like in church when you all of a sudden have a soggy goldfish in your mouth while you're singing.

He loves drinking out of a sippy cup and can also suck out of a straw/juicebox now. However, he refuses to drink milk/formula out of anything but a bottle.

He can go up and down stairs, as well as back off of beds, couches, etc. I don't have to worry about him falling off as much because he knows how to turn around and get down. He even turns around to back into the pool. Kinda scary!

He is climbing on EVERYTHING. This may be an understatement!! The nursery at the gym calls him "the climber" every time I bring him in. I've seen him on top of picnic tables, counters, chairs, Maci Rose's queen size bed, cars, wagons, and the list goes on and on. He has also learned to push his little riding toys over to shelves/tables and stand on them to reach whatever it is he wants.

I don't really think we can call him a walker just yet. He will stand up on his own and take 5-6 steps at a time, but once he falls down he just crawls the rest of the way to get there. So he can walk but prefers to crawl because it's faster. He stands up all the time though. He will stand up and drink a bottle or eat a popsickle or play with a toy. The other day my dad came over and he took about 10 steps accross our kitchen to get to him, but it's rare occasions we see that many. I think it's going to be in the near future that we see him take off!

And the way he sits gets quite a lot of attention. We get comments all the time about his little squat. I don't know how his legs can handle it but he can sit like this for like 5-10 minutes at a time.

He will dance on command. It doesn't matter if you have music or not, you can say "dance Carter boy" and he will give you a little dance. It's so cute! He also recognizes the following words when we say them bi-bite, uh-oh/ouch, baba, no, Maci Rose, daddy, mama & when a phone is ringing he will put his hand up to his ear like he is talking on the phone.

He has the fattest/biggest hands and feet ever. The only shoes I can get on him are his sandals and crocks and occasionally a pair of keds that are 2 sizes too big. People are constantly making comments about their size, including my pediatrician who when I made the comment about him being a football player because of his size he held up his hands and said I'd say a basketball player with these hands!

I asked him how old he was and he held up 1 finger!! (totally kidding....he's pointing at the camera)

Look at the size of those hands!

Why'd you put me in this high chair just to take pictures???

Oh....nevermind...is this cupcake really mine??

He is the sweetest and cutest little boy ever!! We have enjoyed every second of you this year and are excited to watch you grow into a handsome young man. We love you so much! Happy Birthday Carter boy!!

Here is a sneak peak of what we're doing to prepare for his party. The theme this year is fishing...

I can't wait to show pictures of how it turns out!!

And another...

2011-05-30T19:38:00.000-05:00

Another cute video of Carter laughing hysterically at Maci Rose splashing around in the bathtub.

As Promissed...

2011-05-30T12:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a video of Carter dancing. He will dance on command even without music. It is sooo funny! It's even funnier when he is standing up out of his booster chair because he still does the crazy hand motions but he bounces up and down too.

11 months

2011-05-24T16:23:00.000-05:00

Ok so I know I'm a little late on this post, but I've been going 90 to nothing lately. I've been going to a May mini term class for 5 hours every.single.day for the past 3 weeks and we've had homework every day and tests every Thursday. This Thursday will be the final and the class will be over. Pretty cool to get a semester worth of knowledge in just 3 short weeks!

Anyways, I figured I better get this post on here soon because one week from tomorrow my baby will be 1!! And I don't want to skip it because this is a way I can archive and look back and see what he was doing at 11 months.

A few of his accomplishments this month include:
* going up and down the stairs (we don't use a gate anymore)
* drinking from a straw...he loves juice boxes
* almost completely on milk instead of formula
* dancing!!....omg....this is the funniest thing and I hope to post a video of it soon
* sleeping through the night for the most part. He has done so well this month and on the nights he's woken up it's only been once so I feel like a new woman these days (*better keep my fingers crossed on this one*)
* saying mama and dada

Here are his 11 month pics....

Playing peek-a-boo...

I will tell you a lot more exciting stuff on his 1 year post. I can't believe he will be 1! Where has the time gone? You are getting cuter and funnier by the second!! I love you Carter boy!!

A little bit of everything...(and Easter)

2011-05-02T14:28:00.001-05:00

WARNING: This is an extremely long post!!

I have been blogging like once a month lately hoping that life is going to slow down any minute so I can catch up. Well this past week reality set in and I realized LIFE IS NEVER GOING TO SLOW DOWN. I have been going full blast with school assignments, house stuff, weddings, showers, birthday parties, holidays, family reunions, and the gym/working out. Yes!! that's right I said GYM. We joined the Y 2 weeks ago and I'm proud to announce that I am officially a member of a gym for the first time ever in my life. I have enjoyed going to spin classes and step/workout classes for the first time. I have lost 0 pounds so far but my body is looking way more toned.

Here are some other things that are going on around here and definitely getting in the way of my blogging...

1.) I have finals this week (yes, I should be studying) so that has me busy enough.

2.) Carter has surgery on Friday and I am a nervous wreck about it!!

3.) I started cleaning my aunt's house once a week, which takes about 3.5 hours. She has a really big house, but I'm working on blinds, ceiling fans and baseboards and it is hard stuff!! I need the money though and everyone who knows me knows I'm a germ/clean freak so it is something I enjoy doing.

4.) I have had weddings and baby showers taking up my weekends lately. And if I'm not at one of those I'm trying to spend some time with my kiddos in our new and improved backyard. Jeremy built us a fence and we finally got a net for our trampoline so our backyard is our new "park". We have a playhouse, swingset, trampoline and swimming pool and should be getting a sand box soon.

5.) School has been tough and on top of the classes I'm taking this semester I have been trying to work in some floater classes to get me through school a little faster. So as soon as finals are over this week, I will be starting the May mini term Monday morning and going to class 5 hours every day for the next 3 weeks straight.

6.) Carter is into everything!!! And requiring a lot more work to watch these days!! He turned 11 months old yesterday and I haven't even taken his 11 month pics yet, but I promise that post will be coming soon because there is a lot to share. He will be 1 in less than 4 weeks and I am trying to start working on his birthday party.

7.) I have been gathering stuff around my house for a huge yard sale my whole entire family is going to be having at the end of May. I have taken a lot of those things and donated them to those who lost everything in the horrible tornado last week.

Speaking of that...I can hardly watch videos or footage without pouring tears. I am so heart-broken about Tuscaloosa where I spent 4.5 years of college. My parents went to Alabama and my brother went to school and law school there. My little sister is a senior there right now and was down there and less than a half mile away from 15th street last Wednesday when the storms hit. They have let school out completely for the semester and moved graduation back to August now. I am very thankful she and all of my other friends and family are safe, but my heart breaks for those who have lost loved ones and everything they own. My little sister continues to tell me stories of friends of friends who are still missing. It's so sad!

I'm sure there are many more things I'm leaving off this list, but I'm sure you can see how busy we've been and how busy we're going to be. Life is just not going to slow down any time soon.

So I'll leave you with Easter pics and events (since that was supposed to be a post of mine last week). Ugh! We dyed Easter eggs with cousins, had 2 Easter egg hunts with mine and Jeremy's families, Easter bunny came, and then I tried to get some pics of my kids in their Easter outfits, but it was hot outside and they had already eaten lunch and were ready to change and play and I made them sit and take pics. Needless to say they weren't very enthused!

The Party

2011-04-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

I must say that having 2 kids has really made me a much worse procrastinator than I already was. I was really up in the air about what to do for Maci Rose's birthday this year. And it was very last minute planning. Since she is in school now and we've been invited to a lot of her friends birthday parties I figured we probably should have a party for her friends too. We usually just do family (which is over 50 people) and close friends of ours.

We decided to have it at the Kids Kingdom to avoid having a million little children in our house. Well the night of her birthday party there was awful thunderstorms and tornados all over the state. We put so much time into party favors and cake, etc. that I didn't want to cancel or have to reschedule. Only about half of the people we invited came, but it made it was nice and it allowed me to be able to actually relax and talk to the people who could come. Which turned out perfect!

Holly, my neighbor, and I made cake pops! I know a lot of people have never heard of them, but they are becoming such a big hit at birthday parties these days. It is cake on a stick (kind of like a sucker). The theme of her party was Hello Kitty. Here is what they looked like before I painted their faces. Holly made the actual pops and did most of the work. I just painted their faces on them. Thanks again Holly!!

I used a bucket we had at the house and placed half of a styrofoam ball in there to stick the cake pops in. It made for a cute centerpiece.

I also bought a small Hello Kitty cake from Sam's so she could have something to blow out the candles....

She gave out sidewalk chalk as party favors...

Carter had a ball crawling around and banging on all the machines...

AND she enjoyed opening lots of presents....

Everything turned out great! Thanks to everyone who came and for all her presents! She is very blessed and thankful!

T...H...R...E...E

2011-04-18T15:05:00.000-05:00

Well Maci Rose I'm really sad about this 3 thing!! You see at 2 year old you were still in diapers, sucking on a paci. You had that "baby look" and thought I hung the moon! Three is a whole different ball game! No more diapers, paci's, you've lost that baby face of yours and you actually think most things I do are either wrong or you can do it better by yourself. (Yes, I know I'm really gonna have a breakdown at 5).

Now I would like to take a little time to brag about some of your accomplishments. Wow! Where do I begin?
1.) potty trained
2.) gave up your paci completely when Carter came along
3.) You try to do everything on you own...."I do it momma"
4.)You sleep all by yourself in your big girl bed (no it's not a toddler bed, it's a full size bed with no railing)
5.) You know all of your colors including those odd ones like tan, hazel, olive, etc.
6.) You can ride your tricycle for hours (Great Grandma brags about you to all of her friends for being able to ride a bike so well at 2 years old)
7.) You are an incredible artist and have been recognized in an art show already (details below)
8.) You love make believe play and can make up some of the funniest stories
9.) You are incredibly flexible. The teachers at your school call you "monkey" because you hang off the monkey bars and are constantly climbing/hanging/flipping on things your not supposed to.
10.) You have never had a bad report from school and I always hear about how sweet you are to the others.
11.) You have a vocabulary of over 400 words. You have been speaking sentences before you were 2.
12.) You can sing almost any nursery rhyme.
13.)You know your blessing and "I see the moon prayer".
14.) You could count from 1 to 12 at one point but for some reason now when I ask you to count it goes something like this...1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 15, 20, 100. I don't know if you've just learned higher #'s or forgotten what you used to know??

About the whole artist thing... I went to pick you up one day at school and your teacher pulled me aside and asked if I did a lot of art stuff like drawing. Ummm no?!? She showed me a picture that you drew with 4 stick figures (fingers and feet/toes included) and then said look at what the rest of the class drew, which was a bunch of scribble. She said that was very advanced for a 2 year old. The school had an art show on April 7th and your art work was displayed. I have yet to get it back from them but as soon as I do I will put it in your baby book for you to look back at one day. I have seen you draw stick figures for some time now but I had no clue that was advanced!!

You are somewhere around 26 pounds and probably close to 35 inches tall. I will know more exact #'s and %'s when we go for your 3 year old check up.

You could not be a more perfect daughter. You are so cute and sweet and you love your momma (as opposed to what everyone says about Daddy's little girl). Don't get me wrong you have your daddy wrapped around your finger but you prefer me to hold you, tuck you in, etc. these days. I thank God for giving me you every.single.day! You are my first and will always hold a very special place in my heart!! I love you so much Maci Rose!! Happy Birthday big girl!!

10 months

2011-04-03T21:31:00.000-05:00

Carter was 10 months old on Friday. He is such a sweet little boy! I just love watching his personality develop more and more each day. He weighs somewhere around 21 pounds and he is around 30 inches long. He is exactly 5.5 pounds lighter and 5.5 inches shorter than Maci Rose.

If you ask Maci Rose who her friends are these days, the first name she says is "baby Tarter"! They play together so well and Maci Rose will hold Carter's hand and he will walk next to her. He loves it! and he thinks he is just as big as she is.

His accomplishments this month include.... standing for a little over 20 seconds by himself. He will stand by himself without even noticing but as soon as he notices he starts to panic. It's funny! It's like he doesn't trust himself or his legs!

He can climb on and off the couch when Maci Rose takes the pillows off. This is one of their favorite things to do. He is also climbing our stairs. And he is really quick too. Usually by the time I get the car unloaded he is already at the top of the stairs.

He can walk and push all of his riding toys around the house.

He cut a new tooth on the bottom left hand side which makes him now have 7 teeth! 4 at the top and 3 on the bottom.

He still will eat ANYTHING! He loves raviolli, mandarin oranges, cheerios, puffs, rice, and corn and peas. He is completely off of baby food.

He can and prefers to drink out of a sippy cup instead of a bottle.

He only has a passie when he is in his crib. He will fuss just to go and get in his crib for a passie. When he is ready to get out he will take it out of his mouth. However, he does know where they are in his diaper bag and a lot of times I find him going through it and putting one in his mouth.

He loves playing peek-a-boo, clapping his hands, and giving a high five. He will also wave bye-bye.

(Look at that hair sticking up on his head)

We still haven't heard any words out of his mouth yet. Hopefully this will come soon. Only babbles so far. Maci Rose said her first word at 9 months (ki ki for kitty), but a lot of people tell me boys are slower to talk than girls. But we havent heard a dadada, bababa, mamama, etc. sound at all yet??

The more hair he's getting, the more we think he is going to be red headed. Depending on what light he is in his hair looks different colors, but it definitely has a lot of red in it.

He is such a smiley boy and I love him to death!!! Happy 10 months Carter!! I can't believe you will be 1 in less than 2 months!

32!!!

2011-03-22T12:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my amazing hubby who is turning 32 today!!

You are such an amazing person and an even more amazing father!! I am who I am because of you. I love you with all of my heart and look forward to at least another 32 years with you old man!!

WE LOVE YOU,

Bonnie, Maci Rose & Carter

Frugal Friday

2011-03-11T09:59:00.000-06:00

Smart ways to use your hairdryers!!!

1.) Unstick candle wax! Remove dried-on wax from almost any surface by blowing warm air over it and when it melts wipe it away using a clean cloth!!

2.) Fogged-up bathroom mirror?? Blast warm air from your hairdryer at the mirror to get it clear again.

3.) Travel Tip!! Instead of putting your sopping wet toothbrush into your bag try blowing a little hot air from your hairdryer on the bristles for a few minutes to speed dry it.

4.) Easy dusting! A hairdryer can help you remove dust from those hard to reach places. Just plug it up and use a low and cool setting to blow dust to a spot where it can be swept away.

5.) Removing a band-aid! Take the sting out of removing a band-aid with a little hot air. Warm the band-aid for a few seconds with your hairdryer, which will loosen the adhesive, allowing it to come off easily!

9 months!

2011-03-02T08:47:00.000-06:00

Carter has now been out of my stomach for as long as he was in there! I can't believe it! I said we would do things differently with him like get rid of the passie and bottle at a year old, but I find myself wanting to hold onto those "baby" items a little longer just because I don't want him to grow up!

Carter is 20.3 pounds and 29.5 inches long, which puts him in 50% on weight and 75% on length. He has a very long torso and it's hard to find things that snap in the crotch. He is pretty true to size. He can wear anywhere from 6-12 month clothing and is in size 3 diapers.

He is completely off of baby food now! For breakfast he usually eats fruit, blueberry muffins, toast, cheerios, or grits. Throughout the day he eats yogurt bites, gerber puffs and crunchies, fig newtons, crackers, bananas, etc. and for supper he usually has some type of vegetable and a starch like raviolli, rice, or mashed potatoes. He still gets most of his protein from his formula. This has made it so much easier for me too! I can cook for the whole family now. I don't have to fix him a separate meal. Also, he eats everything with his fingers so I don't have to take the time to feed him anymore.

Saying he is into EVERYTHING is an understatement. There is nothing off limits to this little guy. He is pulling up and walking around tables, beds, furniture, toys, etc. He has fallen off of our trampoline and my bed twice. And he recently had his first big bruise on his forhead. He is one tough little guy, and definitely ALL BOY!

The other day Maci Rose went potty and when Jeremy went in the bathroom Carter was chewing on the wet toilet paper he had pulled out of the toilet. GROSS!!! I hope he survives!

Once again, there is nothing off limits and you can't take your eyes off him!

He still thinks his sister is the funniest thing to walk this earth. She can do nothing wrong in his eyes...

He is still my smiley, fun-loving, and sweet little boy!! I never knew I could love another child so much!! Happy 9 months Carter!!

Happy V-day and 4 Years!

2011-02-18T16:27:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Jeremy and I celebrated 4 years of marriage! And usually we combine Valentine's Day and our anniversary in one romantic dinner out....But Hey! let's face it.... with 2 kids, 2 and under there isn't much romance around here anymore. And it just doesn't feel right going to a Japanese restaurant without the kids who are so entertained by it! So this year I cooked a nice dinner and we celebrated with a family night!

I am one who is more content with not spending any money and just having a movie night with my hubby and putting the kids in bed early. My perfect way of celebrating!

We had baked potatoes, chicken cor don bleu, broccolli, croissant rolls, salad and homemade strawberry cupcakes that Maci Rose tells everyone, "I made 'dem by mytelf."

Jeremy got me an I Phone 4!! Ok, call me crazy people, but this phone is way too complicated and advanced for me so I'm sending it back. But, I am going to get another nice phone with the same package as the I-phone and I will FINALLY have internet on my phone! I am sooo excited! I'm sure one day I'll look back and wonder how I ever made it without internet on my phone.

(that is the box with my I-phone in it. It was delivered to my door on V-day. Pretty cool huh?)

After lots and lots of candy and a Valentine's Day party at her school, this little girl was out at 6:45!!

And here's a little video I took of Maci Rose right before she got out of the car for school. I know....I don't have an actress! She never performs right for the camera, but this is all I got! Even if it does have some attitude with it!

Enjoying Each Other's Company...

2011-02-16T13:08:00.000-06:00

One of the main reasons I wanted to have another baby so close to Maci Rose is so she could have someone to play with. My brother and I were only 23 months apart and I loved having a sibling so close in age to me.

Now that Carter is crawling and into EVERYTHING, Maci Rose and him have been able to play together!! It's so cute! It kind of depends on if Maci Rose is in a "sharing" mood or not, but on her good days it sure makes me happy!!

Carter thinks his sister is soooo funny.....

My mom and sister came over on Sunday and while the kids were being bathed I put out Valentine's gifts in their rooms. When I went to get the camera this is what I came back to find....

he had crawled into Maci Rose's room and they were sharing her sucker..

Needless to say, he could have cared less about his real present after that sucker.

Bathtime is another thing that is hit or miss. Sometimes Maci Rose wants him to get in and play with her and other times she doesn't, but needless to say it is always together because Carter crawls into the bathroom and stands on the side of the bathtub watching and squealing to her. He walks back and forth along the side and knocks off everything on the side of the bathtub into the water and splashes his sister and himself and has a blast whether in the tub with her or not.

And then when she is forced to get out of the tub because it is Carter's turn she comes BACK in there and tempts him with all of her cool toys. Here she is just pacing outside the tub waiting for him to get out and play with her...

And then he stands up in the tub from the other side to see what she's got, & that's when I begin draining the water, because I know he is an accident waiting to happen....

And now he can push his baby in the stroller along with his sister!

They can also play chase and hide-and-go-seek...

Now it's time to see how well they play together outside! I hope you all are enjoying this weather!

It's Official...

2011-02-05T11:26:00.004-06:00

........that this little girl........

...........IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!!!!!!

This past Thursday marked a solid month that Maci Rose has been in panties. This includes at night too! We've had some rough patches for sure, but there have been no accidents for almost 2 weeks now. She has been accident free at school too, which makes her 1 of the 4 children that are potty trained in her class. I thought she was a little late considering she will be 3 in April, but I guess not considering over half her class is still in diapers. This has also decreased our expenses by over $50 a month!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU MACI ROSE!!!

8 months

2011-02-02T17:52:00.018-06:00

Well Carter boy, you are eight months old!! And it hit me this morning that you are only 4 months away from being a year old. Where has the time gone??

I wish I could hold onto these next 4 months forever, but you seem to want to show me everyday something new you can do. You have been getting around on your own since 7 months by crawling/scooting backwards across the room and even bear walking a few times on your hands and feet, but on Sunday afternoon (1/30/11) you took off! So now you are officially crawling!(**forwards that is**)

Everywhere we take you we get comments about how good of a baby you are and how smiley you are. It's funny because you can sit in a stroller at the mall all day long but as soon as you get home you are fussy. When people babysit you they are constantly making assumptions that you are not feeling well or tired because you are fussy, but it's because you don't like to SIT anywhere. You are a go, go, go baby! I could ride you around in the car all day long and you wouldn't ever make a sound. I guess this means you're a social butterfly!

You still DO NOT sleep through the night, but I guess I'll contribute some of that to teething. You have 2 teeth at the bottom and I can see the right one of the top about to come through.

You are still a big boy! You weigh 19 pounds, 13oz. and are 28.5 inches long.

You can wear anywhere from 6-12-18 month clothes!

You eat all day long, but don't seem to like your bottles/formula anymore. You want food! This week alone I have caught you drinking your sister's milk cup and eating the rest of her pop tart this morning. ONE thing is for sure...if you put food out in the room I know you will stay there so I don't have to worry about you falling down the stairs!

You are pulling up on everything!

Last night was so cute....Maci Rose was playing hide and go seek with you and you would crawl over to every closet and door she went to hide in and would chuckle when she would run out screaming 'you found me'!

I love when you grab my face and give me slobbery kisses!Despite the sleepless nights, you sure are one bundle of joy and such a loveable baby! I am so in love with you!! You couldn't be a more perfect son! Happy 8 months Carter boy!

Frugal Friday

2011-01-28T11:14:00.002-06:00

A few small changes you can make at home that can add up to big results:

* Save energy. Keeping your fridge too cold wastes energy. Keep your fridge between 37 - 40 degrees and freezers at 5 degrees.

* Save water. If your bathroom fixtures were installed before 1992, replacing your toilet with a more efficient one could save you thousands of gallons of water every year.

* Reduce waste. More than 80% of recyclable bottles end up in landfills each year, so reduce bottle waste and filter your tap water.

Frugal Friday

2011-01-21T10:21:00.000-06:00

Recession Busters!!

If you see a sale advertised you automatically assume you're going to save money, right? Think again! Alot of retailers use promotions to sneakily get you to spend more than you have to! Here's how to steer clear of them...

1.) Avoid BOGO: Yes that's buy one get one! The trouble with a lot of these is that stores often inflate their base prices on these items. Plus, the items that go on sale are often more expensive than other options to begin with. For instance, a familiar brand of an item may be on sale but another brand or an off brand might be the better deal. So before you BOGO an item do a quick price comparison to make sure you're getting the best deal.

2.) Decline a door buster! Door-buster sales, like what you see on Black Friday, are becoming more regular. This is because retailers reel in customers that are on a "buy now" mission to a big purchase such as a new tv and usually supplies are very limited. Make sure you do some online price comparing using the door buster's model # before you rush to the store.

3.) Avoid liquidations! A retailer that is shutting its doors will often run a liquidation sale to clear its store completely. But many liquidations are handled by outside companies who reprice many of the items and may possibly increase the prices till the close date approaches. To outsmart them, go right before the start of a liquidation sale. That way the retailer is still in control and has likely drastically dropped prices to recoup as much money as possible!

Catching Up #1

2011-01-18T21:22:00.000-06:00

I figured I'd start labeling my Catching Up posts by #'s! School is back in session and things are going full swing over here so I have a feeling you're going to be seeing a lot more of these!

Here's a recap of what's been goin on...

We went to Superior Grill to see Livewire (the band that played at our wedding) play for New Years. Here are a few pics from the night...

I have been painting our foyer and living room and I'm very pleased with the outcome. We still have light fixtures to put up and couch pillows to cover but here is a sneak peak at what it looks like so far...

Maci Rose has been wearing panties since January 3rd. We've had some great days and some terrible days but one thing is for sure..SHE'S DONE WITH DIAPERS! When I mention putting a diaper back on her after an accident she pitches a fit so I'm just going to have to live out this "in between" stage the best way I can.

The worst is when we're out in public and she has to go. She's gone at a Burger King, Walmart, and in a port-a-potty (my church is under construction). Yuck!! I know this phase will pass, but this in between potty training stuff can be very exhausting!

She's also been best friends with Carter. She wakes him up as soon as she gets up in the morning to play with her, but as soon as he grabs something she doesn't want him to have, she gets mad and asks me "to get the slime off of it." I guess we are going to have to work on the sharing thing.

Carter is crawling, but only backwards, it's funny! He has 2 new additions in the bottom of his mouth. He has been up every 2 hours most nights. It's made for a very tired and cranky mommy and baby. I'm hoping the rest of his teeth don't bother him this much.

And here are a few pictures from the ice storm last week. My mom and sister stayed with us Sunday - Tuesday and we had a blast!! I think we all gained 50 pounds because all we did was play in the snow and then eat and over and over again, but what else can you do when you're snowed in? It almost became a laughing matter every time someone was hungry again. (Guess you had to be there!)

This was our backyard on Friday! We got tons of snow and it didn't fully melt until after the rain last night!

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-18T08:01:00.000-06:00

I better get these on here soon or I'm likely to forget about them before I even start them. This is a way for me to check back and cross off as I go. And hopefully **fingers crossed** I will accomplish everything this year!

Fitness/Personal Goals:
* No eating after 8pm.

* Walk on treadmill 3 days a week for 45mins - 1 hour.

* Do ab rollers 4 days a week.

* Have a frugal friday post every.single.friday! (or at least every other)

* Find the perfect dress and go to my 10 year reunion!!

* Try not to care about the cleanliness of my house so much and to put other things in front of having a spotless house all the time. This may sound easier than it actually is, but I'm OCD when it comes to having dishes in the sink or seeing stuff on the floor that needs to be swept, mopped, or vacumed. I tend to put more important things aside just to vacum or wash dishes. I'm learning that it's ok to let dishes pile up to spend more time with my husband or children or even just to get more sleep.

*To start slowly printing pictures off my digital camera and get them into photo albums.

*Join a prayer group with other women my age.

Financial:

* Come up with a reasonable budget for groceries and go grocery shopping all at once and only 1 day a week. (I swear the little trips for 1 or 2 items every other day add up fast).

* Spend only $100 on eating out per month (this is going to be tough)

* Have only 1 child in diapers. Check!! Accomplished!! Maci Rose has been out of diapers, even at night, since Jan. 3rd. (This is another post in itself).

Around the House:

* Paint foyer and living room and get new light fixtures. (in the process now....I can't wait to post pics)

* Build a bar and bookshelves, get barstools, and new recessed lighting to go in the living room.

* Re-do the playroom/loft area to better meet all of our needs. Play area for kids, small office for me, playstation/game area for Jeremy. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

* To have all repairs done to house that were included in our warranty.

* To clean out garage completely and give excess stuff to Hannah Home.

*To lay more ply wood in attic for storage.

Frugal Friday

2011-01-14T11:48:00.000-06:00

There is no theme for today's frugal friday...but here are just a few smart ideas for you to try.

1.) Easier shopping! A way to make grocery shopping a little easier on those of you who have your hands full is to bring a closepin with you and clip your list on the top of the cart. This way you can keep your hands free and still see your list (and you would be shocked at how many people stop you and compliment your great idea!!!).
Another way is to get your kids involved. Hand them the list and have them call it out to you and let another one mark off the item as you get it. This will keep them from being bored and noticing the toys on the shelves and constantly asking for each item.

2.) Save your produce!! Place paper towels in vegetable bins to soak up the extra moisture it accumlates while sitting in the fridge. It will give you an extra 3-4days to eat your produce before it spoils. (I've also heard of placing a small sponge in there and it works too, but I've never tried it).

3.) Stop your pets from messing up your house! If you have pets who sling their bowls of food and water every.time.they.eat, try cutting a piece off of your rug liner or the rubberized shelf liner you can buy in stores and place it underneath the bowls. It will keep the bowls in place and prevent spills.

4.) Stop mildew buildup on shower curtains! Water usually builds up in the hem of a shower curtain but if you cut the bottom seam of your plastic liner with pinking shears, the water will easily drip off keeping it dry and mold-free.

5.) Remove black smudges from tile and linoleum floors! This one I have also not tried before. Dab a non-gel toothpaste onto a soft cloth and rub the area in a circular motion, then use a damp cloth to remove the residue. The grit in the toothpaste will gently scrub off the mark without leaving any scratches.

Frugal Friday

2011-01-07T10:49:00.000-06:00

Ok so I was supposed to do a New Years Resolutions post before this one, but between a 7 month old cutting 2 teeth and a 2.5 year old only in undies this week I have been super busy and sleep deprived so that post will obviously come after this one.

BUT.....that being said, one of my new years resolutions is to really start buckling down on my frugal friday posts. I've been saving clips out of magazines and ideas I've heard from people for a couple of months now so I'm going to really try to have one up every.single.friday! Yes you heard me right!! So hold me accountable!!

Here is today's:

Most of you have probably been noticing the gas prices climbing. They are almost $3/gallon at some places right now!! Here are 4 ways you can cut back on your gas expenses in the new year.

1.) Plan the cheapest route!! Driving on the highway, rather than local roads can save you tons of gas! Cars are on average 30% more fuel-efficient on highways compared to stop-and-go city streets.

2.) Planning a road trip? Where you stop to get gas can make a difference. Gas prices can vary 40 cents a gallon from state to state! To plot out the most frugal fuel stops, log onto http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/, which gives free updates on gas costs across the country.

3.) Toting around more stuff than you need in your car? While it's easy to use your car as a mini suitcase in case of emergencies, kids stuff, etc. storing them elsewhere can save you on fuel costs. For each additional 100 pounds your car carries, its fuel efficiency drops 2% or more. That's like paying 3 cents more per gallon at the pump.

4.) Take a second look at your errands route and plan stops so that you are only making right hand turns. Avoid left hand turns. It's an insider tip from the pro's: Delivery companies such as UPS have found that routes with fewer left-hand turns result in less idling time, saving millions of gallons of gas per year!

So take a few more minutes every day to plan out your errands and take items out of your car that you don't plan on using and you could see a change in your budget in just a few months!!

7 months!

2011-01-01T21:46:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year and Happy 7 months to my Carter boy!!

Carter is 7 months old today! He is 19 pounds and 27.5 inches long.

He loves standing up on toys, tables and couches now, but he's not pulling himself up yet.

He also loves his new riding toy that Santa Claus brought him.

And sometimes he does both at one time...rides while playing with a stand up toy.

He is holding his bottle very well now and hardly needs it propped anymore.

I know this may be funny to some, but he actually has hair that is long enough to stick up now!(every little bit counts to us)

And here are some photos from his mini photo shoot this morning. Enjoy!

Christmas Eve and Day

2010-12-31T11:33:00.000-06:00

This little guy enjoyed himself and his presents on Christmas Eve....

But unfortunately this little girl had a rough beginning of the night.

On Christmas Eve my whole family, cousins, aunts, uncles, and all go to church together and then to my grandmother's house to exchange gifts and play games.

This year was a little different though because in the middle of church Maci Rose threw up out of no where. In her 2.5 years of life we've never seen her throw up or have a stomach bug (knock on wood), so this was a first for her and us. She had to take her dress off so we left Carter with the family and headed home to get her a new outfit and to see how she felt.

Everything seemed fine with her for the next hour so we went to my grandmothers to celebrate with everyone. The only thing we can conclude about her incident is that she had a slight cold last week and we gave her mucinex on an empty stomach before church. After she ate she was absolutely fine. A mommy lesson learned!

Exchanging presents....

Here are all the grandchildren and great grandchildren. I'm the oldest!

There are 5 great grandchildren and the 6th is on the way. Besides Maci Rose, all the great grandchildren are boys including the one on the way!

Christmas Day

Look at what Santa Claus brought this year...

And this is the first time we've had a white Christmas!!

We went to Aunt Mary and Uncle Ant's house for lunch and the last exchanging of presents. This is Maci Rose wearing her new princess set.

And Carter got this adorable outfit...thanks Em!

We then went to my dad's family Christmas dinner. (this is the Italian side and there are over 75 people in one house, it's crazy but good to see everyone every year).

These 2 are cousins....can you tell which one is Maci Rose??

We had a fabulous Christmas and hope you did as well!

"Moore" Christmas!

2010-12-30T21:15:00.000-06:00

The night before Christmas Eve we went to my inlaws for supper and our first round of presents. Although I don't have that many pictures from that night because my camera battery died, my kiddos racked up with presents. When we got home and unloaded the car and really went through everything, I thought my kids didn't need Santa to come anymore.

Maci Rose got 3 dolls, dora memory game, 2 other games we haven't opened yet, a talking puppy, play kitchen food, aprons, and oven mit, a tea set, and I'm sure there are more I'm leaving off. Needless to say she got tons of toys!

Carter got a snail that rolls to encourage crawling, a ball that sings and talks and moves on its own, trucks, cars and a ramp to roll them down, rattles, and a little basket ball goal that grows with you.

Carter curiously watching his cousin Casey.

Carter is 3 months older than Casey.

Casey is almost 4 months old and is rolling over like a champ!

Carter is reassuring Casey that one day he would be as big as him!

This is the only picture I have of Maci Rose running to open up presents.

Here are Nana and Papa and all their grandchildren.

Thanks Nana and Papa for having us!!

Family Tradition

2010-12-29T15:48:00.000-06:00

Ever since I can remember me and my cousins used to get together every Christmas to do gingerbread houses and cookies. Now, we are carrying on the tradition with our kids!

Carter boy chewed on a twizzler the whole time!

My sugar high children! (look at Carter's belly)

I offered to do it at my house this year and let me tell you it is a huge chore to clean up sprinkles and flour and candy. I'm still finding it after I've swept and mopped a few times!

We also tried something new, gingerbread ornaments. All of ours were broken before we could even decorate them :( but maybe next year we will do a better job!

It was so much fun and one of the things I look forward to all year long!

A Very Red Christmas Party

2010-12-26T12:21:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday my aunt had a super fun party! I highly recommend it if you've never played before. The object of the game is to figure out who killed santa. She sent out emails a month ahead of time telling you who you had to dress up as. I was Ms. Mistletoe (the north pole accountant) and Jeremy was Cody Zip (the north pole postmaster). We googled our names and ordered our outfits online.

When we walked in the door she handed us an envelope with a name tag and some clues in it. It also had an alibi that you had to memorize and tell people when they asked where you were when Santa Claus was killed. (It's very similar to the game Clue). We also had a sheet where you could jot down notes next to each person to figure out who to eliminate.

Father and Mrs. Time--they won best costume!

you can't see it in this picture but his clock was a viagra clock...hilarious!)

Willie Columbo & Snow Flake & off to the right side was Frosty the Snowman

The Grinch and Buddy the Elf

From left to right..Darla Bright, Comet, Cupid, Yule Tide(the reindeer trainer), Vixen, Prancer, Snowflake

Buddy the Elf and Jingle Bell

Cody Zip, Ms. Mistletoe, Cupid and Comet

Jolly O'Toy (the head toy factory manager)

My dad and his 3 kids (My brother was Basil the North Pole insurance agent).

And guess who killed Santa Claus .....

You guessed it...Cody Zip (the postmaster of the North Pole and my hubby!!) He had no clue, but his alibi was that he was out delivering mail and he had no witness and there was no one else who saw him or was with him, so by process of elimination it came down to him!

Sorry to all of the people I didn't get pictures of. All of the costumes were hilarious and great!! This was such a fun party!!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T21:10:00.000-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love,

Jeremy, Bonnie, Maci Rose, and Carter Moore

( I'm hoping to have lots of new posts this week of all the fun we've been up to the past few weeks, so stay tuned)

Aaaahhhh....

2010-12-17T17:50:00.000-06:00

.........................FINALS ARE OVER!!!!

Now it's time to play!

Half a year!

2010-12-08T11:29:00.000-06:00

Happy 6 months Carter! Or as Maci Rose calls you, "baby Tarter"!

You are 6 months old!! Wow! Time is flying by.

I remember thinking the first 6 months took an eternity with Maci Rose and then next thing I knew she was turning 2. It is true that with each child time seems to speed up so much faster!

I must add that this is my favorite age! I love 6-12 months! They are finally able to do things on their own and entertain themselves, but they still are so dependent on you and they are so loveable. Plus you are done with the burping, holding their heads up, jumping to their every wail, etc. I wish I could lock my babies into this age forever!

You are such a smiley baby! And people everywhere are always commenting on the way you hold your mouth open when you smile! It's so funny!

You are 18 pounds and 26.5 inches long which puts you in between 50-75 %. Maci Rose was the same length as you at this age, but only 15.2 pounds. Personally, I'm shocked you aren't bigger than you are! I know that sounds crazy saying that but you can eat and eat and eat!

You are drinking 6-7 5ounce bottles a day! Between 30-35 ounces! Everything I read and most other babies I know this age are only drinking about 24 ounces. You also eat 2 jars of baby food every day and sometimes 3 depending on if it's stage 1 or 2 baby food. You love eating both!

You are snacking on yogurt bites, gerber puffs, cheerios, biter biscuits, rice cakes, and anything else your daddy shares with you. Great grandma fed you a mini Thanksgiving dinner the other day with squash, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and applesauce and said you're starving. Well duh! I would eat that good stuff too if all my mom fed me was baby mush in a jar.

No one was harmed in these next pictures! You have discovered that if you can lean forward enough then you can plop onto your belly, which must mean you are about to learn how to get up on all fours and crawl. You will do anything you can to play with your sister's toys and it seems to frustrate you that you can't be as big as her when she eats and plays around you!

I don't know the exact measurement but your daddy swears your head has got to weigh 2-3 of your pounds! You have a big head like your dad and he said that from the time you came out of the womb!

We still don't know what color hair you are going to have! In some lights we swear it is going to be dark brown like mine, but then in the sunlight it looks red and in other lights it looks the same color as your sister's hair.

You still have your blue eyes, so I'm starting to think they may stay that way! Maci Rose's stayed a blueish/grey until a year and then changed into a brownish hazel color so who knows?

You are STILL not sleeping through the night. I will be sure to announce when that happens! We do get some good nights though. Sometimes from 10-6 and other times 6pm-3am. But sometimes your up 5 or 6 times just to be re-wrapped or have your passie put back in your mouth.

And I cave into those eyes every time!

We love you sooooo much and you have been such a wonderful addition to our family!

If I'm MIA on my blog for the next few months, just know that I am loving on 18 pounds of my cute, adorable baby boy!! It flies by too fast not to soak up every second of it!!

Carter's Specialist Appointment

2010-11-30T18:31:00.000-06:00

Most of you who read my blog know what I'm talking about but to inform those of you who do not know, Carter was born with a cyst up by his collar bone on his neck. My aunt who has 5 kids of her own noticed a small dimple (yes like what you have when you smile) when he was only 3 weeks old. We brought him to his pediatrician to have it checked out and he said we needed to see a specialist when Carter was closer to 6 months old.

To give you a little insight of the size of the cyst, I tried to take a picture of it and you couldnt even see it in the picture. The dimple on the outside of his skin is about 1/4 of a pea in size. If you press down on the dimple you can feel a knot underneath about the size of a pen tip. It is so tiny that when I show people they are like, how in the world did you find that??

Yesterday the time had come to see the specialist at Children's Hospital and now we finally have some answers about what it is and what needs to be done.

This is something called a branchial cyst or remnant. The surgeon said he sees this all the time and it is very common. He recommended that we get it removed to avoid infection of it in the future but said that it is not a pressing matter.

Some kids have drainage that comes out of the cyst which usually means it connects to their throat, but Carter has not had anything like that and so the surgeon thinks his is just a very shallow one.

And, believe it or not, many children who are born with something like this don't even notice it until they are in their teens and it gets infected and forms a white head that will not go away on it's own. Crazy, huh?

With that being said, we decided to schedule surgery for Carter at 9 months old. It is usually about a 15-20 minute surgery and we can leave the hospital the same day.

I am very relieved to know something finally. The suspense was killing me! To me, a knot is something that is associated with cancer so I'm glad to know that is out of the question.

God is so good and he has answered our prayers! I am still nervous about my baby having surgery, but I know God will get me through it!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! They are definitely appreciated!

If anyone knows of anyone who has had the same thing or something similiar, I would love to hear about it.

Happy Thanksgiving Week... (to me)

2010-11-29T20:36:00.000-06:00

Well it's been a crazy Thanksgiving break. I had no class last week, but unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy my week off the way I had envisioned it.

I spent Monday in the doctors office with Maci Rose to find out she had an upper respiratory infection. With mucinex and motrin and lysol around the clock, I tried as hard as I could to keep Carter from getting sick.

Well Thanksgiving morning Carter woke up with well lets just say some type of stomach bug. All day Thursday and Friday I swear we went through at least 30 diapers. Poor buddy! All to find out after spending the afternoon yesterday in Children's South that he has his first ear infection in his right ear.

They gave him amoxicillin and after only 3 doses so far he is a changed baby!!

We actually did have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family! We started out at my mom's side of the family and ended at my in-laws for a wonderful dinner.

Cousins!!

Friday, Jeremy went down to ttown for the game while I took the kids to my aunt's to watch it with all the bama fans.

Waking up just in time to cheer on the tide.

Saturday we partied way too hard (as in we didn't go to bed until 4:30am) at my cousins 21st b'day party. My camera died at the very beginning of the night, but there was a DJ and we did some pretty serious dancing!

The birthday boy!

Switching men for the night!

And Sunday we had a great Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's side of the family and got to see Emily!!

And after that crazy and exhausting week/weekend, today was Carter's specialist appointment at Children's Hospital, so back to the doctors office we went! 3 times in one week might be a record for us!

(This will be another post tomorrow)

Happy Birthday Paw Paw!!

2010-11-23T10:30:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we went down to Tuscaloosa to tailgate for the Alabama vs. Miss State game and celebrate my dad's birthday!!

Aunt Aimee and Jo Jo

the birthday boy!

And of course it's tradition to go to Pablo's for a birthday celebration and margaritas!

Everyone always says my kids look like their paw paw!

Thanks Katie for taking these pics even if Carter was pulling Maci Rose's hair~!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! WE LOVE YOU!!