Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We have 11 days until Christmas. Every year I say I'm going to be prepared way in advance. Each year, I lie. I'm setting a goal to start in July next year..... I'll let you know how that goes.


 So we took the little tykes to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop last week. This was Cullen's very first Santa visit. I wasn't sure how he was going to handle it. You know, the whole strange man with a fluffy beard and large belly handing out candy? Kinda freaky if you think about it. Not to mention exactly what we tell our children to stay away from. We waited patiently for our turn (thankfully we were 3rd in line) and then we walked up to the Jolly ole' guy. Okay, this Santa was amazing! I'm talking real beard with the little turned up mustache. Rosy cheeks, gleam in his eye. His belly shook like a bowl full of jelly.. whole 9 yards.

 Slaten jogged up and jumped right into his lap. I held sweet little Cullen and walked him up to old Saint Nick. He reached out his hands and Cullen dug his tiny, razor sharp fingernails into my arms. His eyes widened in horror as he realized I was about to hand him to this strange man who was dressed like an over sized pin cushion. His mouth opened wide in a state of utter shock. I could practically feel the fear radiate off of him as he climbed up my body, searching behind me for a soul to help him escape. I cooed to him in my soft momma voice that this was Santa Claus. The most beloved man among children! I pried his baby gorilla grip from my arms and handed him to Santa. He whimpered and started to cry. I moved to the side so the photographer could snap a picture of my two beautiful children on the lap of Kris Kringle. A photo I could treasure for the rest of my life. One I could pull out for years to come and show future wives and future grandchildren.

 Thinking quickly Santa handed Cullen a couple of candy canes. This stopped the tears, but the look of betrayal was still on Cullen's face as he glanced at me and then back at the stranger passing out candy. The photographer in her Elf hat began to shake some bells drawing the attention away from Santa for a moment and to the camera. Cullen didn't smile, but at least he stopped shaking in terror. She snapped the shot and I bolted forward to grab my baby. I returned his death grip hug and explained that mommy would never leave him with a strange man who smells like peppermint. Despite my worrying the picture turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Just the tiniest lip poke was all Cullen did. I label this year's Santa visit a success!

Every Day Life

Wanna know what we've been doing lately? Nothing much...



Just racing through the house together



Playing wild bandits while half dressed

Making cute excited faces and super tough guy faces

You know? Just being cute.



Life Lately

 Guys, I am super duper excited! My first blog post for Alabama Baby Magazine went up last week! You can check it out here! I'm on cloud nine. So if you are visiting from Albabymag.com welcome and thank you so much for stopping by!

Things have been crazy, busy lately and they are showing so signs of slacking up. So I'm just going to hit the highlights of what life is doing right now.

- I'm 67% sure Slaten's beta is biting the dust. Things are not looking good. I would perform mouth to mouth resuscitation, but I'm worried I'd inhale him, and I'm told fish need water not air to survive? Maybe we should have filled the bowl up?

- We've all been sick. Both boys had pink eye. That was fun. Have you ever had a child with pink eye? Do you know how hard it is to not touch your eyes when you're thinking about it? Are your eyes itching right now? Do you want to touch them? Sorry about that. Sweet Husband had an ear infection that the doctor said was bad enough that he could puncture his eardrum and let the pressure out for him. Sweet Husband declined. Can't say that I blame him. Saturday I lost my voice completely. It was heaven for my family. I ended up kicking them out so I didn't have to try to talk for the evening. I did have that sexy 40 year old woman smoker's voice for a few days after. That was awesome.

- I am OBSESSED with paranormal TV shows. I watch them everyday. Want to know a secret? I don't believe in ghosts. Yet, I can't stop the paranormal. Also I hate scary movies. I just don't understand myself sometimes.

- My car hates me. It's trying to fall apart. again. We are not on speaking terms right now and refuse to tell him good boy even when he gets me from point A to point B. Jed- you better watch it boy. You're about to get the boot.

- I've given Slaten a new name, Sassy Slaten. Apparently 5 is going to be a fun year... yay.... Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue....

- In less than 2 and a half weeks we will no longer have a baby. Insert sad face. Our little Cullen will be entering the terrible 2s. I don't want to talk about it. It's a touchy subject for me.

- I sold our crib and it was bittersweet. It also made me a little scared because I hear of these horror stories of women getting pregnant when they get rid of their baby stuff, so I've been doing a lot of praying lately. Please for my sanity's sake, no more children! I'm going to knock on wood now.


So there are the highlights from the past couple of weeks. I know life is only going to get busier this month so right now I'm going to enjoy nap time by watching paranormal tv shows and thinking about the pan of brownies sitting on my stove. They're calling my name.