holidays

A Few Christmas Memories

January 8, 2016 · 4 Comments

I am well aware that Christmas has come and gone, buuuuut, well so did my blogging game. So I’m just now forcing your eyeballs to feast on some holiday pictures (lest you fret, New Years will be up some time next week. You’re welcome) of the babe’s first Christmas.

First we played in our “Santa, define good” onesie, where Sheffield pretended to be an emo baby.

And then he decided to be cute.

It was unseasonably warm and gross, but it was still really fun. Our fire department in the city we live in comes through the neighborhood every year with Santa — so we know when we hear fire truck alarms on Christmas Eve that Santa is coming to town. We rushed outside so baby boo could see him. The fire truck stopped ( in the middle of the street ) just to wave to him. It was awesome!!

Here’s a pic of me looking pretty rough, and Sheffield paying zero attention.

After the fire truck excitement, it was time for a Christmas Eve bath, bottle and Christmas jammies. While I was sitting on the couch feeding him, I was like, how cool would it be if we could get Sheffield to sleep pose under the tree? And it was cool, because look how awesome these pics turned out. I was too afraid to pull out my good camera because of the noise, so the little iPhone pics will have to do.

Cuteness exhibit 1

Cuteness exhibit 2

Cuteness exhibit 3

After baby boo was in bed, B and I opened presents, drank some champagne and went to bed fairly early.

Sheffield woke us up the next morning just too excited to open presents — kidding, he had no clue what was going on. BUT he did thoroughly enjoy eating and playing with the wrapping paper. We went down to the in-laws for Christmas Day, where the child got spoiled some more. The next day we came home and got to play with our new toys.

I mean, check out the face. Doesn’t get much better than that.

So that was our first Christmas! Bummer that we didn’t get a family photo, but I figure that we have the rest of his life for that. And at some point he will be able to turn to me and say, “put the camera away, Mom.” And then I can’t wait to snap one more picture in his face.

New Year’s Dog

January 6, 2015 · 3 Comments

So it’s January 6th — a day after all the strong willed, good people of the world busted out their goals — their blogging goals, personal goals, pictures of their planners. And then there are people like me. Who ask for a planner for Christmas ( B got me the pink and gold one I’d been eying at Target), and then just ignore its contents. Yep, I had this week’s blog posts all written out in that fancy fancy planner — and I didn’t blog at all on Monday.

I’m a terrible goal keeper.

And even worse blogger gal.

Oh well — and this post is just shy of a week being late too. Whoops.

I will say that this past New Year’s was probably the tamest one we’ve ever had. And I’m completely fine with that. Not like being pregnant allows for any sort of staying up/drinking anyway, so I didn’t feel that I was missing out on too much.

B did happen to get reservations at Brio at Brookwood Mall — a fun little Italian place that I had never been to before. I know they’re a chain, but we really didn’t feel like doing the super fancy thing we did last year or just ordering in take out. My babe knows how much I love pasta. And bread. And cheesecake.

So that’s what we did. We went out for pasta, came back to the house, got in our jammies and proceeded to torture the dog by trying to make her wear a New Year’s hat.

She was so happy with us, can’t you tell??

I think she secretly loves wearing hats — but pretends to hate it on camera, so everyone feels sorry that we are her parents.

Anyway, since I clearly suck at sticking to goals, I’m not even going to post what I “tentatively” came up with.

I hope everyone had a great New Year’s! And I hope you are way better at sticking to your goals/resolutions than I am.

Christmas Card Reveal + Another Reveal

December 24, 2014 · 4 Comments

So, I’m pretty sure that most everyone we’ve sent a Christmas card to has received it, so without further ado..

That’s right, everyone, B and I are expecting Baby James #1 next summer!! Next week will be the last week of my first trimester, and we’ll hopefully officially be in the clear. The doc said everything looked strong and good, so I’m feeling pretty good.

I, however, will not turn this blog into my baby blog and have started another one for those interested: babyjamesblog

We feel like it was an early Christmas present and are so excited for 2015!

I can’t wait to do this for my little dude/dudette next year. (yep, that’s me!)

I hope you all have a very happy holiday, filled with lots of family, friends, and of course, cookies.

A Christmas Loving Home

December 17, 2014 · 3 Comments

I’ve always loved decorating for Christmas. I’m not sure if I get it from my mom, who always had the house decorated for Christmas or if it’s just because reindeer and Santas and snowmen are so damn cute! Because they are. And when we went to PA this past time, we got a crap ton of treasures to bring home and display.

Which they are all so proudly doing right now.

This year, we bought an artificial tree instead of a real one. We got a heck of a deal on Black Friday at Home Depot for our tree (and it wasn’t even crowded, AND I ran into an old friend. double win), and I have a need to have my Christmas tree up as early as possible. This particular Christmas tree is also pre-lit, and you can change between colored lights and white. This household tends to like colored lights inside and clear outside, so most of the time it’s set to color.

Also, please be jealous, because we have a strand of blinking Rugrats lights. NO JOKE. B’s grandmother had these things lying around, and his parents were all like do you want these?

Yes. The only answer to that question is yes.

We’ve watched almost all of the movies so far: Elf, Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone 1 & 2, The Polar Express Muppet Christmas Carol, and Family Stone and Love Actually. We normally save A Christmas Story for all day Christmas (shout out TBS!), and need to watch The Ref, Trapped in Paradise, Charlie Brown and The Grinch. Please if I missed anything, let me know! (except It’s a Wonderful Life. B and I may be the only people on earth who can’t stand that movie. Good thing we found each other, huh?)

Cookies were made and eaten, and am making some more this weekend to take to co-workers. There’s also some really cute DIY mason jar snow globes I’d love to make.

But for now, here are a few pics of our indoor decorations:

White stocking is mine, blue is B’s, and the red is of course for Stelly. One day we’ll have matching ones. Maybe.

I got all those old Santas and snowmen from mom, and I love them, especially on their pillow of snow. Our Christmas tree ornaments consist mainly of ones from mine and B’s travels together, and a lot of them are New Orleans. We also have a ton of my childhood ones, including a dirty pink rabbit that I love.

How do y’all decorate for Christmas?

Kansas – The Conclusion

December 16, 2014 · 2 Comments

Yes, I am aware that this trip occurred over three months ago. So sue me. Sometimes I just lose track of time, and I can get very scatterbrained or super excited about something else, and just throw other things to the back burner .

It’s a quality trait in what they “addictive personalities.”

Quite charming, no?

So to finish out the Kansas trip, we actually got to watch the first Auburn game of the season out there. We got to drink many many drinks, take shots of moonshine, enjoy pre-game mojitos, and drink lots of vodka, because I mean, what’s an Auburn football game without a little to drink, amiright?!

Auburn looked terrible, but they did end up beating Arkansas. Oh, and did I mention that we got to have Joe’s Kansas City BBQ (previously known as Oklahoma Joe’s)? Talk about the best damn BBQ in the world. We got pork and beef and a gillion sauces. There’s only a few things I love more than KC BBQ. Oh yeah, and the guy at the bank asking if my dad and I were Alabama fans. Yes, dude, I’m an Alabama fan in my orange and blue, and so was my dad in his shirt that plainly read Auburn on it. #wareagle

So on Sunday, we had some breakfast (where I proceeded to drink an entire bottle of Barefoot Pink Bubbly all to myself), and then we went off to a vineyard out in the KC boondocks: Riverside.

We actually tried all of their wines, and they weren’t too bad. We even came back with two bottles from the place – both ports, and both delicious.

Dad and B even got bourbon flights! I mean, what else can you ask for at a vineyard?!

I also love taking pictures of my dad when he doesn’t know I’m doing it. And I know he loves it too.

This last picture is of a wine slush. YES! WINE SLUSH. It was soooo good.

We all got a little afternoon tipsy, and then on the way home stopped at a liquor/grocery store in Missouri, where we stocked up on liquor and Sheboygan brats, which are now sadly eaten.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip, and even reminiscing three months later was fun!