The Lynns in Real Life

Our Valentine’s Date

2012-02-14T21:47:00.001-06:00

Rachael & I took the kiddos to Chuck E Cheese tonight… Since her hubby had to work and mine is 7,000-ish miles away… we made plans for ourselves! Chris didn’t wanna go. I guess maybe he thinks he is too old for good ole Chuckie. Bless his heart, he asked if it would hurt my feelings if he didn’t go. I just told him it was totally up to him.

Let me just tell you that Chuckie’s was packed. PACKED. I had to wait in a line 10 people long to get my salad! That’s crazy! I just took my phone in… first up, this little 8 month old cutie, Baby Trace! He’s gotta be the best baby ever. He just sat in his stroller watching everything around him, smiling away, while Rach fed him snacks. SO laid back! My kids would have never gone for that!

Here’s my date! He actually wanted his picture taken! He’s saying “cheese” here, thus the scrunched up face.

These 2 are gonna be best pals. They are 1 week shy of being 1 year apart. Rachael & I noticed that they “people watch” with the same “mean girl” look. Don’t get me wrong, I want my daughter to be sweet & pleasant & a joy to be around. But man, is it funny to watch her stare at people (right now anyway).

Gina wouldn’t put that piece of pizza down!

Garrett enjoyed this little ride… You sit in it, and the seat moves around while you watch a roller coaster ride on the screen. His shirt says “Most Eligible Bachelor”. Grabbed it at Walmart for $5. I figure it’s the last year I’ll probably get to dress him in something cutesie for Valentine’s.

Rapunzel (Grace) on her steed.

Gina wanted to hop on with her…

…but patiently waited her turn.

Such a great Valentine’s day! The kids had parties at school and brought home lots of goodies & cards, and then we got to hang out with the Brooks’ Fam at one of our favorite places! Great day!

Feb Photo A Day {day 14 - heart}

2012-02-14T11:11:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Today's photo challenge was... "heart". So I chose to post this picture that sits in my office... one of my most favorite pictures of us. This was taken August 2010 at Camp Gruber where Kendall was working at the time preparing for this deployment. Another army wife & I had driven over that evening to witness her husband being promoted. I am lucky to have this man as my husband, but I am also lucky that he's my friend. There's really no one else I'd rather travel with, hang out with, do much of anything with over him. Some days it's hard for me to hear other wives (in person or facebook or whatever) complain about whatever their husband is doing... I'm ready to have that problem too. I'm ready to have to clean up the kitchen because he made a mess cooking us dinner. I'm ready to have to pick up his shoes (believe me that one will wear off quickly!) because he left them laying around. I'm ready to have to be scurrying by him in the morning while we are getting the kids ready for the day together. I'm ready to be a normal family, all 6 (including Lily) under one roof. Won't be long...

The G’s 2012 Valentines

2012-02-13T21:49:00.000-06:00

I’ve seen so many super cute Valentines ideas on the blogs I read & on Pinterest… But come on, let’s get real here. What 4 year old boy really wants to hand out something his mom crafted? Really? I think for most 4 year old boys, it’s all about the characters. And my favorite 4 year old chose Toy Story!! To make it a little more personal, we grabbed some glow stick bracelets and affixed them to the cards with the included stickers. The best part was that there were some glow sticks leftover for us to play with! Garrett had a great time naming all the characters on the cards. It came down to being between the Star Wars Lego cards & these... and after about a 5 minute decision process, and me finally telling him to "come on or NO cards"... he went with Toy Story.

Remember last month, Tiny Prints offered bloggers a deal to write a post about their Valentines Classroom Cards. In exchange, bloggers received a promo code for 50 of those cards for free. Let me just say that within 24 hours of completing my post, I had my promo code. Pretty sweet deal! And speaking of sweet… I think these turned our rather nicely. Pics courtesy of the fabulous Dianna from DBaker Photography. The one on the left is for Gina to give to her Valentines in her class, and the ones on the right are for family & teachers. I didn’t order Garrett one of his own because I knew he’d rather give out a character one.

What were these 2 doing while I was putting their Valentines together? Eating Cheez-its, what else?

I love this picture. Look at Lily’s face. She looks shocked or startled, as if Gina just screamed or something! And Garrett is just eyeballing the cheez-it in her hand…

These are the Scrabble Tile Cheez-its. And if Garrett doesn’t get the letter he wants (which is obviously what is happening here)… it is on like Donkey Kong.

She must have gotten the “G” Cheez-it, and that’s his favorite (duh), so he yanked it from her. Gotta be quick, sister.

Maybe she’ll just hide behind the table… maybe he won’t be able to see her…

Oops. She hid, but forgot to take the Cheez-its with her. UH-OH!

Oh well, still have time to smile at mommy before she wages world war 3 on her brother… She can sure look sweet when she wants to.

Snow Day!

2012-02-13T08:34:00.003-06:00

We woke up to snow here in the fort today! I think there might be an inch or 2 out there. But it's enough that all the schools except Poteau & Fort Smith have let out for the day. First things first, I let Chris know... He was so excited he just got up and started playing MW3 on the xbox. I opened Garrett's blinds so he could see, and he stood straight up in his bed with his fists clinched above his head and screamed "SNOOOOOOW! Can we go play in it? Will you make me a snowball to throw?". Quite the change from the kid who didn't care a thing about playing in it last year. Once we got ready to leave, he wanted to run out in the snow, so I snapped this pic with my phone. The roads are fine for the most part, just some slush. I seriously HATE driving in it. HATE it. In fact, we all got dressed & ready, and I waited to leave until I saw a few cars drive by the house to make sure cars were actually driving down our road. Poor G's won't ever get a snow day because goodness knows Rheem isn't shutting down for the snow! Haha!

Feb Photo A Day {blue}

2012-02-13T06:59:00.000-06:00

Today’s photo challenge was “blue”. Anyone that knows my boy at all knows what my blue choice would be… Garrett’s “Blue”. This is our 3rd Blue, but to this little guy, he’s the same as he was on day 1. He loves his Blue, but over the past year, Garrett has grown up a bit, and Blue isn’t as big a part of his life. He never takes him to school, only asks to have him as he goes to sleep about 1-2 nights a week, and is only concerned where he is if he is hurt. I know it won’t be long until he won’t “need” Blue at all… and that’s fine. One day soon, Blue will be added to Garrett’s special memories box, only to be brought out when Garrett finds that girl who’s the one and we’ll give Blue to her to use as her “something blue” if she wants, or maybe to hand down to their firstborn. Whoah. My life just completely flashed before my eyes.

Feb Photo A Day {inside your closet}

2012-02-12T22:17:00.001-06:00

Today’s photo challenge was “inside your closet”. It’s not really a photo worthy place in my house. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great closet, very amply sized with shelves & rods. But I tend to throw things in there on those shelves when I don’t have any other place for it. I’d love to spend time in there and get it organized… maybe someday.

But in the meantime, a girl can dream about a “dream closet”, right? I’d love something dreamy like these with lots of natural light…

…with this big piece of purple awesomeness somewhere in there. Because first off, my favorite color is purple. And second, no way is Kendall gonna let me have it anywhere else in the house.

Of course… I’d wanna be able to fill it with all the awesome outfits that I’ve pinned to my Pinterest Style board.

Oooooh, a girl can dream.

Feb Photo A Day {day 11 – makes you happy}

2012-02-11T22:42:00.000-06:00

Today’s photo challenge was “makes you happy”… I mean, come on, what mom doesn’t get super happy when their toddler falls asleep?! It means a few minutes of silence from all the questions about every. single. thing. we see as we are driving. I know he’s just trying to learn, but sometimes, I just wanna sing loudly to some Nicki Manaj or Fleetwood Mac or something!

Feb Photo A Day {day 10 - self portrait}

2012-02-10T23:03:00.002-06:00

Today's photo challenge word is self-portrait. Gina & I took this one a few weekends ago while laying on my bed. Like most toddlers, she loooooves to make faces and watch herself on my phone.

Feb Photo A Day {day 9 - front door}

2012-02-09T08:05:00.003-06:00

Today's photo challenge word is "front door"... Yes, I have an Easter rabbit on my front door and it's not even Valentine's yet. And yes, my urns that sit outside the front door are empty. It's a work in progress. See our Lily girl in the window to the left? Our front yard smelled like skunk this morning (in February!? Aren't they supposed to be hibernating or something?), and there was a pretty beagle watching us from out by our fence. Needless to say, Lily Bean wanted out there. BAD. But I'm not stupid.

A year ago today, we got a ton of snow. It was my 3rd day back at Rheem, and I couldn't get there because of the snow. Thankful for a truly understanding boss on days like that.

And just because I like to compare... Here's their very first picture in front of the front door back on June 17, 2010. My how things change just a short 602 days later. The above is with my phone, and the below is with my big camera.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Hiding the Basketball From Her Brothers

2012-02-08T21:09:00.001-06:00

Feb Photo A Day {day 8 – sun}

2012-02-08T20:31:00.001-06:00

Today’s photo challenge word is “sun”. Well, we had zero sun today. It was super cloudy and just cold. Wouldn’t ya know it, we were almost to doggie day care when I realized… I had left my coat at home. At least it was just chilly out and not cold.

So, to remind myself of warmth & sunlight… I am going to also include a picture of my son in the sun. This was taken last June, in our front yard, after we had gotten home from Gulf Shores.

Feb Photo A Day {day 7 - button}

2012-02-07T10:05:00.000-06:00

Today's photo challenge word is "button"... And since it was one year ago today that I started back to work at Rheem, I chose to highlight the button on my ID badge. Without sounding too sappy, I really do love this place. I'm blessed to have a job that I do not dread going to in the mornings. The purchasing department (which is where I work) is an amazing group. And I'm blessed to work with (for the most part - haha), people that are pleasant and drama-free. Soooo, happy 1st anniversary to me!

Feb Photo A Day {day 6 – dinner}

2012-02-06T21:20:00.001-06:00

Today’s photo challenge was dinner… I went a bit out of the box on this one… and went under the dinner table. This is where Lily sits EVERY SINGLE MEAL WE EAT. Especially if there are children eating (see Gina behind her?), because she knows that these kids drop food. You see, I know that she has to feel guilty about certain things (i.e. getting my floor muddy, barking when the wind blows, hatin’ on the Schwans man for no good reason), so she makes up for it by cleaning under the kitchen table for me. Sweet hound.

Friend Makin Mondays: Habits

2012-02-06T13:16:00.001-06:00

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s questions on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at All The Weigh so everyone can all see your FMM questions and answers. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Habits

Are you proactive, or do you procrastinate? It depends…I’m proactive when looking forward to something, but when I’m unsure about something (or just not interested in doing it) I sometimes procrastinate. I try not to do the latter, but it happens from time to time. - That was actually the answer from Kenlie, the girl that originates these things, and that is exactly what I was going to say. But add to that the fact that I am SCATTERBRAINED... and I lean towards the procrastinate part. It's not something I'm proud of.
Do you eat breakfast everyday? If so, what’s a typical meal like? Yes. At work, I generally have some oatmeal. At home on the weekends, I have a pb&j and some fruit.
How much time do you spend watching TV on an average day? During the week... maybe an hour or 2. Once the kids are bathed & in bed, I catch up on whatever DVR stuff I have recorded while I am on the laptop blogging or surfing or whatever. If we are home, though, the tv is on.
Do you talk on the phone, or do you prefer e-mail and/or text messages? Definitely depends on the situation. In my personal life, I prefer texting. At work, I prefer email (mostly as a cover-my-bootie kind of thing). I really only like small talk with very few people, so it's rare that I like to talk on the phone.
Do you exercise in the morning, afternoon or evening? I don't. But once I get started back up when Kendall gets home, it'll be evening.
Do you take time for yourself regularly? If so, how do you spend that time? I am a full-time working wife of a deployed Captain in the army. I have 3 children, ages 14, 4, & 1 + a dog that is a flight risk & has separation issues. So, no. Not really. Look, I get it that there are actual single moms out there with more kids than me, and stay at home moms that have more kids than me. But this is my reality, and there are days that it gets a bit overwhelming... but that wasn't your question. Next!
How often do you make your bed? Everyday. But usually, it's just pulling the comforter up and smoothing it out. The pillows only get all propped & fluffed into their proper places if we are having company over.
Do you plan meals? If so, how far in advance? I haven't since Chris moved out, but now that he's back, we will be doing that again. Cooking for myself plus 2 picky-eating toddlers didn't really need much planning.
Do you wake up at the same time everyday? For the most part, yes. I'd like to sleep in past 8 on the weekends, but Gina Barrina is an early bird... I sure can't complain about it though. She is a solid 12 hour sleeper at night, with absolutely NO complaints about going to bed plus she takes an hour or 2 nap every day.
How often do you brush your teeth? It's my first stop when I get out of bed and my last stop before I go to bed, and generally once at work.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to head over to All The Weigh & link up in the comments! Happy Monday friends!

Super Bowl Sunday

2012-02-05T21:41:00.001-06:00

Let me start this post with this: Garrett was sent home from school Wednesday at lunchtime with a fever. He slept ALL day Thursday, and went back to school at 100% on Friday. Gina woke up with this cough that sounded like a goose honking on Saturday, and had a low-grade fever a few times. While I was gone to the army dinner, her fever spiked, she got some crazy chills, and threw up her tylenol when Nanny gave it to her. She slept with me in our bed for the first time in probably 18 months and I probably got only 3 hours of sleep… in 1 hour increments. It was like sleeping in the same bed as Darth Vader, she was so congested. And she would only lay on top of me, not next to me. It was interesting, but somehow, I have still managed to stay awake all day.

All that said to say that, for the most part, Gina had a great day today. She felt great except when she first woke up from her nap, but she got over that by sitting in mommy’s lap for about 30 minutes. AND, she figured out how to turn on the sink faucet in the powder room…

Here’s the cutie a few minutes (and an outfit change) later. She went into Garrett’s room and put on his Oklahoma t-shirt. Went into her room and found her grey leggings and put them on. Brought me her pink flower bow and told me to “put it in my hair”, and then brought me her pink Chuck Taylors and had me put them on.

Look at her face! She’s all “oh no he didn’t!” as big brother Garrett sat down with her in the princess chair (they are both holding a nutrigrain bar – these 2 can’t get enough of those these days!).

Look at her face – she will win this war.

Yep. She won. Sitting by herself. My stars, doesn’t she look like such a big girl here???

We haven’t really done much for the super bowl in recent years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) because Kendall generally has drill since it’s the first weekend of the month.

Chris had spent the night with Nanny & Poppa last night, and he came home about 4. I made some cheese dip & some Schwans chicken chipotle tacos for us to snack on. Madonna was the halftime show… Let me just say I have been a Madonna fan since the 1980’s when I would take my little silver cassette player that my parents got me at Service Merchandise out to the back yard and make up floor routines or crazy random routines on my yellow & brown swingset. I even liked her 90’s music (Ray of Light is a big fave of mine). Do I agree with her and what she stands for? Probably not. But that rarely is why I choose a musician to like. I generally strictly like them for their music. And let me just say that her halftime show ROCKED!!!! I had a blast! She sang Vogue, Music, Open Your Heart, and Living on a Prayer (another big fave for me)… LMFAO, Nicky Minaj, & MIA joined her to sing… AND a band’s drumline joined… PLUS a choir joined her to sing “Living on a Prayer”. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better halftime if I tried.

Gina & Garrett were trying to emulate her moves!

But that got boring quickly! He just went on to his gymnastics moves! Flipping all around the room!

And you know if he’s doing it, little sister will be too!

I must admit… I can’t think of a party that I would have rather been at tonight. I had a BLAST getting to watch the G’s doin’ their thang dancing to the music.

In the end, Eli Manning & the NY Giants beat Tom Brady & the New England Patriots 21-17, and it could have come down to the final catch, but it was incomplete in the end zone to the Patriots.

Feb Photo A Day {day 5 – 10am}

2012-02-05T11:49:00.001-06:00

Today’s word is “10am”… And this is what we are doing pretty much every Saturday & Sunday at 10am – Skyping with Daddy. We normally skype for over an hour, and he just watches them play or whatever. Garrett doesn’t care much about talking to daddy on the phone, instead, he just shows out a bit. But daddy understands, and knows that when he’s here at home, Garrett wants nothing to do with anyone but daddy! Gina, on the other hand, is ALL about talking to daddy! It’s so fun to see her give him sugars and chatter away to him!

Feb Photo A Day {day 4 – a stranger} + Army Dinner

2012-02-04T23:50:00.000-06:00

Today’s photo challenge was “a stranger”… First off, I am entirely too shy to take a picture of a stranger. I’m not that sneaky. Second, my “stranger” pic isn’t exactly of a stranger. Maybe in some sense to Gina he’s a stranger. Let me explain… Chris is back!!! He’s on the left, daddy skyping in the middle, and of course, Garrett on the right (Gina’s bootie and Poppa are on the far right, but not completely in the picture). So, no. My “stranger” is not at all a stranger… but I wanted to document the day he arrived, and I haven’t wanted to just press my camera all up in his face just yet (Nanny took just a few of them skyping with daddy). I am trying to let him get accustomed to being here before I do that. We are all happy he’s back, but Garrett absolutely is ecstatic! They have played & played & played some more.

Tonight, Nanny & Poppa came over to watch the kiddos so I could attend a Military Dining Out down at the Holiday Inn downtown with Kendall’s brother, Kelly. His wife, Molly, had to stay behind in Norman because Kali had a basketball game and I think really she’s just sick of traveling with a baby (Presley is just 7 months old). I am somewhat a nerd when it comes to these army dinners. I always, always love them. I love the ritual, the tradition, and just the ceremony of it all. I love the camaraderie between the officers and I also love the way they applaud each other. I love quizzing Kendall as to what everyone’s medals & decorations on their uniforms signifies. I tried to keep my questioning to Kelly to a minimum, but I still had a blast. Thanks, Kelly, for taking me as your date!

Feb Photo A Day {day 3 - hands}

2012-02-03T20:19:00.001-06:00

Today’s word of the day is hands. Today is also our 9th wedding anniversary! We don’t get to spend it together, but we got to spend the last 2 anniversaries together… so I really can’t complain! For my “hands” picture… I chose to take a picture of my own hand with my wedding ring… holding my anniversary treat to myself – A Sonic Strawberry Milkshake. mmmmm……

Feb Photo A Day {day 2 - words}

2012-02-02T14:41:00.007-06:00

Today's pic is "words"... And my words are from the front of the menu at a favorite of mine here in town, Ed Walker's Drive-in. My pal Monica & I ate lunch there today so we could use my $20 meal anniversary rewards postcard that they had sent us. Since Kendall wasn't here to enjoy it with me, Monica agreed to be my date! If you are from here and you haven't signed up for their rewards, go do so! Some of the best restaurant rewards I've ever seen! We both had a burger & fries and split some fried pickles for an appetizer. The only thing that would have differed if Kendall was here would be that he would have ordered the French Dip. No, we didn't have a curb service (or served any other way) beer as the "words" on the menu state since we both had to go back to work... Although, I have had one before. And they do serve some of the coldest beer in town.

Feb Photo A Day {day 1 - my view}

2012-02-01T12:24:00.003-06:00

Today's pic is "my view".... And here is my rear view today - sickly Garrett. He got sent home from school with a fever just before lunch, so mommy had to miss a vendor lunch. But I'm cool with that, just glad he's feeling good enough to chatter my ears off until Nanny gets here so I can return to work. Here's hoping he doesn't share with any of us...

February Eve {Photo A Day}

2012-01-31T21:59:00.001-06:00

I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna finally join one of these Photo A Day blog challenges. I actually saw it on this blog. But, I did want to note that the lady that originated it is Fat Mum Slim. I think it’ll be kind of interesting to see how everyone else views each of these “days”.

I have actually sat here for 5 minutes with this post open… debating whether or not to commit to it. I’m just going to post a single picture from my phone each day with a simple sentence explaining. That’s not too much commitment, right?

Friend Making Monday: Makeup Favorites

2012-01-30T22:19:00.000-06:00

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at: www.alltheweigh.com so everyone can see your FMM questions and answers.

I am BEYOND excited about this week’s questions! Ever since my momma got me a subscription to Seventeen Magazine when I was like 12, I have been a product junkie. I am a sucker for the newest thing, and am foaming at the mouth to tell someone about it! However, all that said… I would love for someone to teach me how to properly apply some awesome eye makeup.

Do you wear makeup everyday? No. I do wear it during the work week to work. However, if I can get through the weekend with no make up, then that is a great weekend in my book!
Does your routine change if you’re going out with friends/on a date/to a party? If so, how? Yes, definitely more eye make up / eye liner if I’m going out in the evening. During the work week, it’s fairly minimal. Just enough to make me look like a grown up.
Are you loyal to one brand, or do you use different brands for different things? I use different brands for different things, but loyal to those brands for those things. I am super brand loyal in almost every aspect of my life.
Do you wear primer/concealer? If so, what’s your favorite kind? I don’t.
What’s your favorite brand of foundation? Bare Minerals. Love the ease of it. I would probably feel all claustrophobic if I had to go back to actual liquid foundation!
Do you use blush and/or bronzer? No on the blush. I remember a lady that I looked up to in church when I was growing up tell me “don’t ever start wearing blush… once you start, you’ll always have to wear it”. Who knows why that stuck with me, but it did. So I never have! I do use a bronzer in the summer if needed.
Do you wear eye shadow/eye liner? Yes, both Bare Minerals.
What’s your favorite kind of mascara? L’Oreal Voluminous in Blackest Black. I’ve stuck with that one for about 15 years.
Lipstick? Lip gloss? Both? Favorite? I usually put lipstick on only when I first apply my make up for that day. Then, a stained or clear Mac Lipglass the rest of the day. My favorite lip product is the Arbonne LipSaver Chapstick. Hands down best chapstick ever (in my opinion).
Do you wear nail polish regularly? If so, share a few of your favorite brands/colors. Nope. Generally just my toes. And that’s only during the summer.
How do you remove your makeup at the end of the day? Just a hot washcloth, then I follow that up with a Noxzema Toner Pad. I have been a Noxzema girl for probably 25 years. If we are traveling, or I am in a hurry, I love the Noxzema Cleaning Wipes too.
Do you feel prettier when you’re wearing makeup? Yes, definitely. Who doesn’t?
Do you have any beauty tips that you could pass along? Goodness no. I really have no clue what I’m doing when it comes to applying the makeup. I’m just really good at buying it!

So, there you have it! My weekly FMM post! I love doing these!!

Just Gina

2012-01-30T21:44:00.000-06:00

Today… just a little post of pics from my phone about our 1 year, 9 month and 1 week old Gina Barrina.

First off… Let’s discuss her hair. It’s pretty wild, to say the least. For a long time, I would fix her hair for day care, and she would take it down sometime during the day. In the last few weeks, however, she has been leaving it up the whole day! And even wearing bows to school! But when we get home, she rips out that little rubberband… and this fabulousness is what is left.

I put this together last weekend for her bows. I’ve seen similar ones to this on etsy, and thought “I could do that!”… $3.50 per letter (1/2 off at Hobby Lobby) + $2 each for 2 rolls of the black ribbon (also 1/2 off) + some of those velcro command strips (not ever 1/2 off OR on sale! BOO!) = this cuteness. I trimmed up the ends so that they are now the same length, and I think it looks great now!

We found Daddy’s Russian hat this weekend that he got while he was stationed in Bosnia… She kept calling it kitty and petting it until I put it on her head.

This is Gina & Garrett’s pal, Rylee. Her momma works with me and we have become great friends over the past year. They stopped by to see us on Sunday and we had a great time! The weather this week has been PERFECT! Lows in the 40’s/50’s and highs in the 60’s! At the end of January?! I’ll take it! I saw a NWA blogger today say today that she looked back at this week in the past years on her blog and the past 5 years, it has snowed this week. I could seriously live with this exact weather all year round! I love it!

Pretty blue eyed girl in her hooded towel…

Playing airplane on mommy’s feet! She is quite the daredevil! (which, I do know, can be good and bad)

Tonight after her bath, I was getting her dressed for bed, and she kept pointing at her bows on the wall and asking for a bow. So, I put one in her hair! She was so happy! She was getting a bit mad at me while I was taking these pics because she wanted her crib tent SHUT! She kept telling me “mommy ca-yo! MOMMY CA-YOOOO!”, which means “Mommy, please close the crib tent at your earliest convenience. I am ready to go to sleep. Thank you.”

Sweet smile…

Dinner Helpers

2012-01-29T21:11:00.000-06:00

I don’t do anything by myself in this house if these 3 are awake… This includes walking into any room, folding laundry, putting away laundry, walking upstairs, going to the bathroom, and cooking dinner. And tonight was no exception.

Lily generally sets up camp in the middle of the kitchen so she can monitor my every move.

Bless her heart. She was tired.

And there’s the other one!

I had set our paper plates (still using up the last of the ones I had bought from Christmas!) on the island, and when I wasn’t looking, someone stole them. Look at her face… quite the look of guilt, don’t you think?

I guess one day, when the house is quiet, and they’re off doing stuff with their friends, or off to college, or at home with their own families, I might miss them being under my feet. Or maybe I’ll just take them out to eat and actually ENJOY dinner! Haha!

Sometimes, A Girl Just Needs To Put Something Together

2012-01-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

For as long as I can remember, I go through times in my life when I need to put something together. There isn’t a rhyme or reason as to “why”, just a random need to work with my hands. Generally, a store-bought bookshelf will satisfy this need.

My parents came to the fort to hang out with us today. We met up with them at Target, and they came over so dad could put in some lightbulbs that had burned out and just see the grandkids.

While they were there, Garrett came down the stairs and said “mommy, I’m hungry for some chips & cheese dip!”. Dad said, “well you better go get him some!”. So I got to run down the road (BY MYSELF – that never happens!) and pick up some chips, salsa, & cheese dip. After my parents left, we had that with some chicken tacos. After chicken nuggets, and then pizza… chicken tacos with chips & cheese dip is a big fave for my kids (they get that from me, I suppose). Here’s Miss Priss, who can stand on the bottom of the kitchen island and see what I’m doing. I was shredding the chicken, and she was very nosey to see what I was doing!

What a big girl!!

I think she favors her cousin Kali in this one…

I just loooooooove this picture. Love Gina’s shirt, love that she’s telling Lily something important (i.e., being bossy), and (like always) love my Lily Bean’s face.

And here comes the part I was originally talking about… my need to put something together. I really can’t explain it. It comes on about once or twice a year. So, today, we picked up another one of these 9 hole cubbies for the play room. Please note that I do not watch “Family Guy”. I don’t. I watch “Friends” on TBS, and a commercial for “Family Guy” just happened to be on. Anyway… I got quite a bit of help from my 2 little lefties…

Look at that face! I would get the nail started, and he would hammer it on in. He did a great job!

I had painted her nails earlier that day, she is a big fan of having her nails painted. She loved counting the screws. She would count to 5, and then start over again.

Later that evening… She pulled her chair into the kitchen. Not sure why, but she obviously felt that was where it needed to be!

Nothing on the island at this time, but the nosey girl in here still had to check things out!

And where there’s a Gina… There’s gonna be a Garrett telling her what to do.

JCPenney

2012-01-26T21:42:00.000-06:00

So we’ve all seen the JCPenney announcements that “something big is coming” the 1st of February. As part of their ad campain to combat crazy sale ads and coupon fliers, they had a commercial that had a bunch of women screaming “NOOOOOOOOO” when they would see the signs or fliers or ads.

Whenever this has come on the last few weeks, Garrett will RUN from the other room to come & watch. And then he proceeds to ask “mommy, why are those ladies screaming?”. Please note that our windows are opened in the evening at the end of January. LOVE this weather! This week the highs have been in the 60’s and the lows not going below 50. This could be my kind of weather year round. Seriously.

And I just must include this one… I love his love for legos. And I plan to totally feed that love and push it and do anything I can to keep him wanting to play with them. It’s somewhat selfish… I love that he comes to me and says “mommy, build me a _____” and I can do it. A 4-wheeler, a stop sign, a chicken, a tree, a bulldozer, a jet, or a helicopter (his absolute fave)… I just love me some legos.

I really hope she likes them too, and doesn’t just wanna be some WWF girl when she grows up. This girl loves her some wrestling. Good thing he big brother is (for the most part) patient with her and allows her to beat on him and he just laughs. Have I mentioned lately my love for their relationship?

Wordless Wednesday – Trading iPhone Secrets with Granny

2012-01-25T22:24:00.000-06:00

Tiny Prints Valentines Classroom Cards

2012-01-24T20:56:00.001-06:00

I received a most amazing email this evening from Tiny Prints.

They are offering bloggers 50 free Valentines Classroom Cards in exchange for blogging about their Valentines cards & all the awesomeness that is Tiny Prints! I love Tiny Prints. And I would 100% say that even if they weren’t offering me a promo for some cards. I ordered Father’s Day cards from them this year, and I actually ordered some Valentine’s Cards from them recently (no link on them just yet, but I will share them once my Valentines receive them!). Here are the Valentine’s Cards that they have to offer, and here are the Valentine’s Greeting Cards. What’s the difference? The cards are if you need to order 10 or more (if you have lots of aunts & uncles & grandparents that you want to share with!) and the Greeting Cards are specific to one person.

Let’s start with the Classroom Cards - Here are a couple of my faves…

On the inside it has a spot for his picture and it says “and some secrets must be revealed!”. Garrett is BIG TIME into Ninjas & Lego Ninjago sets, so I think he would love it!

On the inside, it just says “Happy Valentine’s Day”, with a spot to put who this one is addressed to. The guy on the front looks like the guy from “The Incredibles”, and we are definitely into that movie these days! This one would be more appropriate for him to give to his guy buddies in class.

On the inside, it has lots of hearts scattered around like the front and just has a place to put who it is addressed to. I thought this one would be cute since she is a dancing QUEEN & it was similar to the Super Hero one above!

On the inside, it says “have a sweet valentine’s day”. This one caught my eye because Gina has such a sweet tooth!

Where else can you find Tiny Prints on social media? Their Twitter is @TinyPrints, Facebook page is here, and they even have Pinterest Boards!

I honestly can’t say enough about Tiny Prints… Their quality is outstanding, their prices are incredible (greeting cards cost same or LESS THAN a Hallmark card for the same quality and it has your favorite pictures on it!), and they even have a wonderful membership program that I am seriously considering enrolling in where you can get 25% or 50% off each card (first one is FREE).

I hope you will check them out! If you do, I hope you’ll share you designs with me!

Gymnastics

2012-01-24T17:56:00.002-06:00

Friend Makin Monday: Short Answers

2012-01-23T11:46:00.003-06:00

It's Monday again! Already??

Basically, on Friend Makin Monday I just link up to Alltheweigh.com so everyone can all my FMM questions and answers.... This week's edition has been named "Short Answers". Short answers. Haha. We all know concise is not something I have mastered in the least. Nonetheless, here we go...

Mac or PC? PC
Do you paint your own nails? Yes. Rarely. And generally just the toesies.
Beach or mountains? I loooooved the beach this summer. So... beach!
What’s the title of the book you’re currently reading? Lol! What? A book? It has taken me 5 days to complete a single issue of Redbook this week.
Do you dance? Since I have discovered how much of a dancer Gina is, I have started dancing around the kids more. And I'm sure I look ridiculous, but who cares? Other than that, no, I am not a dancer.
CNN or Fox News? FoxNews. But I try to stay away from any & all of it these days (I HATE the election coverage. Hate it) unless there's a specific story I am intrigued by.
Do you ride a bicycle? Nope. There's not really a safe place to ride by our house. I used to take a spin class before Garrett was born. I was good at it!
Do you get a yearly flu shot? Yes.
Best movie you’ve seen in 2012? I watched The Help & Larry Crown a couple of weekends ago. Both were ok, nothing really outstanding in my eyes. We watched Beauty & The Beast in 3D this weekend IN THE THEATER. Of course, I had seen it already a good 100 times, but it was amazing in 3D!
Do you prefer to workout at home or at the gym? I don't work out. But hopefully, once that man of mine gets home - I'll get to start again and start my road to being forever healthy! Hurry home, honey, before this "want" leaves me!
Last airport you were in? FSM picking up my hubby last month for his R&R.
Married or single? Married!
iPhone or Android? iPhone
Do you prefer to be in pictures or taking pictures? I like both.
Favorite brand of sneakers? Nike all the way.
Do you like snow? No. I work, so I would have to get my kids out in it to get to work, so no bueno. Plus, our yard really retains sogginess, and it takes it forever to dry out... which means I have to really monitor Lily's trips outside. And who has time to do that?
Do you have/want to have kids? Have
Summer or Winter? Out of the 2, Summer. I love basking in the sun. However, Autumn is my hands down favorite season. No competition.
Do you know how to swim? Yes. I used to teach swimming lessons & I was a lifeguard for 4 summers. Best. Job. EVER.
Do you prefer to shop in store or online? Online most definetly. I love coming home to see a package on the doorstep!

So, there's my not so short answers!

Beauty & The Beast + Gina’s Afternoon With Nanny & Poppa

2012-01-21T21:50:00.001-06:00

Garrett & I went to see Beauty & The Beast in 3D today. While texting my Momma today, she said she remembered taking me to see it when it was released in 1991 (I was 14) while we were in Shawnee, Oklahoma at OBU for one of my piano competitions.

As Garrett & I walked up to the window to get our tickets, my college roomie, Nicki, and her 2 kiddos were buying their tickets too! AND, one of Garrett’s teachers, Miss Tabitha, was there! So we grabbed our popcorn, diet coke & a blue raspberry icee and got our seats. Garrett didn’t care too much about the 3D glasses, he said the blurriness didn’t bother him. I told mom that I didn’t know if he was just low maintenance or he had vision problems! LOL! He did wear the glasses during the musical scenes though. He got a bit wiggly toward the end, but overall did amazing! When it ended, he said “That was AWESOME!” and the crowd around us cracked up.

We headed to the movie theater’s arcade, and I gave him $2 in quarters to play games. When his quarters were gone, I told him it was time to go… and he said “OK”! So proud of my big guy for just leaving and not throwing a fit!

Where was Gina while we were at the movies? She was getting some awesome Nanny & Poppa time! She still doesn’t care anything about watching tv or movies, so I knew that she wouldn’t enjoy the movies theater. Plus, it’s nice to just spend a little one-on-one time with each one sometimes!

I love it when I come home and find cute pictures on my camera… Always a very welcome surprise!

She & Poppa held a tea part with Ariel, the Cow-baby Cabbage Patch, and Rapunzel.

This girl loves to give some sugars! And she loves her babies! I saw her changing one of their diapers this morning.

After the movie, Garrett & I ran by Hobby Lobby so I could get some stuff to make a bow holder to hang in Gina’s room. I wanted to also grab some picture frames, but after about 10 minutes in there, I remembered why Garrett doesn’t get to go into HobLob EVER. He made me a nervous wreck. He wasn’t bad, in fact, he stayed right by me, but he was just chattering away and wanting to touch EVERYTHING. Definitely one of those stores I need to be in by myself. Other than those few minutes… it was SUCH a great & relaxing Saturday!

Reading To His Little Sister

2012-01-20T22:11:00.000-06:00

Garrett is 4 years, 1 month, 1 week & 1 day old… He can recognize every letter (upper & lower case). He can’t read any words yet that I know of, but he loves to “read” to Gina. Tonight, since it was Friday night, I let them take a bath in our bathtub downstairs. They each chose a color tab, and Garrett chose blue, while Gina chose red… so they had a purple bath! I red them FIVE Dr Seuss books while they were in there. Garrett kept asking for “one more”! And since we weren’t pressed to get into bed, I kept reading. I love the Dr Seuss rhymes, and so does Garrett! He tries to guess the rhyming word before I get to it!

After their bath, while I was getting things picked up around the house, I noticed them sitting side by side under the blanket on the couch. Garrett had picked up this “One Rainy Day” book, and was making up his own story for Gina. He told her this was called “Ducky, Ducky, Where’s Your Home?”!! Seriously! Came up with that on his own!

He made up a whole story about every picture in the book… Below is a mud pie… And there was also an ant, and he had Gina point to every picture and repeat what he said it was.

So enthralled with Garrett’s story about the ducky!

“And that’s the end, Gina Barrina! Do you have any questions?” No really. He really said that.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but they are pretty tight, and the majority of the time, they play amazingly well together. I know it won’t always be this way, so I’m soaking it up while I can. In a few years, when they might be at each other’s throats, I’ll come back and live in the good ole days by reading these posts!

iMeet the First Lady

2012-01-18T21:21:00.001-06:00

So there’s this little show on Nickelodeon called iCarly. And this week, they had a very special episode called “iMeet the First Lady”. In case you’ve been under a pop-culture rock, the main character on the show is Carly. And in the show, her dad is a deployed Air Force Colonel. So, Michelle Obama used this platform to show her support of children & families of deployed soldiers.

Now… Do the G’s even remotely understand who Michelle Obama is? Uh, nope. But they like iCarly. Well, Gina thoroughly enjoys dancing to all their music (we totally rock out to the theme song in the van!). Garrett says it’s a show for girls. But, I do catch him watching it.

So, we I watched the episode… They played around and made a lot of noise, while I did a lot of shushing while I tried to listen.

I was super impressed with the episode! It was funny, but they definitely made their point in addressing the sacrifice that families & children make while mommy or daddy is deployed. And I just wanted to note on my little blog that this special episode was aired while the G’s daddy was deployed.

Michelle Obama: I came here to say, “I’m proud of you”.

Carly: Why are you proud of us?

Michelle Obama: Because of how much you care for your father… (she goes on)

I hope people see that in our little family when they look at us – how proud we are of their father (& my husband). Because we are. We seriously could not be any prouder to support him. He is such a great leader of our family (even if it has to be from afar for a while). And he loves these kids more than they’ll probably be able to understand until they have kids of their own. I love to hear him talk about them and the hopes & dreams he has for them!

Gina & Her Cereal

2012-01-16T22:14:00.000-06:00

Gina loves her some cereal! (I hate cereal, I am an oatmeal girl, but I have somehow produced 2 cereal-loving-offspring, and I am cool with that!) And she knows where I store it! She grabs one of her snack-traps out of the drawer…

And then proceeds to hold it up towards the top of the pantry and yells “MOMMA!!! Momma, she-reel" until she gets some cereal. Her favorites right now are: Fruit Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Coco-Puffs, and Kix. The best part is that she knows which one she wants! I hold up the boxes and she says yes or no until I grab the right one!

Sunday Cartoons

2012-01-15T22:24:00.000-06:00

Yet again, our day was filled with a lot of Phineas & Ferb. It’s one of those shows that I certainly don’t mind just having on all day in the background while I fold laundry, clean, and do whatever around the house. But when I say Garrett sitting like this in Gina’s princess chair, I had to snap a pic…

Our Saturday Fun With Miss Maci & Miss America!

2012-01-14T21:51:00.001-06:00

We had a guest with us today (NOT the bird from yesterday)… My niece Maci came over because her big brother, the Jett-man, had some basketball games, and she didn’t wanna go. I’m so excited that Jett-man is playing in the fort now, because now Maci can come hang out with us more! We had so much fun!

The day started with Maci doing Gina’s dolls’ hair (she detangled all of their hair and styled them! I don’t wanna let Gina play with them now because they all look so pretty!). And she even tried to fix Gina’s hair.

Maci got smart and pulled Gina’s princess chair over, and used it to keep Gina in one spot. At one point, Maci said “you need to chain her down to fix her hair! She sure is wriggly!”. I said “yeah, I do that every morning!”. I thought she said “PIN” her down, and in the mornings, I sit Gina between my legs, so I can somewhat keep her still. She’s very tough-headed, and does actually loves to have her hair combed. The sitting still part is what’s hard for her, so sometimes it does become a bit of a wrestling match. Anyway, Maci says “you CHAIN her down?!”. So I then told her I misunderstood what she said… Haha.

All the while, Garrett was plopped in Gina’s Disney Princess Dress-up Trunk watching some Phineas & Ferb…

Look at him all folded up in there!

After Gina’s nap, we got our hoodies on & headed outside! This was the first time Garrett’s basketball goal that Santa brought had been outside. He cried when I picked it up to take it outside. I don’t know if he was truly upset, or just tired. Maci & I explained to him that we were just taking it outside temporarily, and that we’d bring it back in.

Gina brought her stroller out that Granny & Papah got her for Christmas for it’s maiden journey outside.

3 seconds left in the game… Lynn takes it down the court… He shoots… HE SCORES!!!! And the (insert high school mascot name here that Garrett is playing for in 12 years)’s win the state championship!!!!! (a mom can dream, right? No pressure, future Garrett!)

He’s either showing us that he’s 4 years old, or that he made 4 shots in a row… Maybe BOTH! Look at his face, that is pure joy right there.

Maci taking the 4-wheeler for a ride!

He’s up to 5 now!

… for the win!!!!… oh wait, we’ve already done that, huh?

Then it was time to break out the sidewalk chalk!

Poor Gina, one or both of her eyes water anytime we are outside.

Maci drew a big hopscotch design (I had to google “Hopscotch” to see what you call the drawing on the concrete). Garrett actually knew what hopscotch was! I guess they play it at school.

I think it got up to about the mid-50’s today, but it was quite windy… So when I brought the capri-suns outside, I brought gloves out too. Maci was super impressed that the same gloves that fit Garrett & Gina could fit her hands too! Also, Maci was super excited to see that Gina was wearing her old Eskimo Joe’s hoodie! (not that she remembered it, I told her)

Just having fun running around the yard!

After a quick toy pick-up on the driveway, we took our party to the backyard!

I didn’t get any pictures of it (shocking, I know), but today was the first time I remember Gina really wanting to slide. Maybe because Maci was doing it? But Gina would go down the slide however Maci went down the slide! If Maci slid down on her back… so did Gina! And if Maci went down on her belly… so did Gina! When Gina would go down the slide on her bootie, she would hit the ground with such force, that she almost did a forward roll! Maci got tickled every time she did that!

Sweet girl…

Maci was the “counter-girl” (as she called it), and Garrett was the “guy in the kichen”. I would tell her what I wanted to eat, and she would take my “money” and yell back at Garrett what to cook.

Maci went inside to get the tea set so they could have a “tea-party” I guess that’s what Garrett just has to deal with when he’s the only boy.

Jerry, Kelli & Jett came to get Maci… and after that my kids were bored. Haha! We ate a little dinner, and then I caught up on some DVR while we waited for Miss America to come on.

Gina & I watched a bit of Miss America (she danced to all the fun songs they played), but she was just too tired. She was all cuddled up, laying on my chest under the blanket. It was pretty sweet, but she’s one of those kids that has to sleep in her bed, so I took her upstairs. Now, Garrett is asleep in our bed… and I’m watching the talent portion of Miss America. I was pulling for Miss Oklahoma (my home state), Miss South Carolina (she lost over 100 pounds!), and Miss Alabama (I liked her curves, she looked most like a Miss America to me!)… but all that’s left out of the talent from my 3 is Miss Oklahoma!

I have seen several other blogs preparing for Miss America watch parties this week… and now that I have a daughter, I want to do one too! Next year, she might not be all that into it just yet, but soon… we’ll be doing that too! I can’t wait!

Miss Oklahoma was the 1st runner up… Miss Wisconsin won. While I’m a bit upset that my home-state didn’t win, still just excited for another girl to get to have that honor. And her platform is Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents, and for some reason that intrigues me. She has an incarcerated parent, and she has now become Miss America… I wish her a year of greatness!

A Bird. In Our House.

2012-01-13T20:53:00.001-06:00

Tonight started out very pleasant & uneventful… Granny & Papah brought Chili’s over for dinner. I have a reading light that has gone out in the van, and Papah was going to change it. They grandparents played with the grandkids. Papah brought the ladder in to get some burnt out bulbs out of our high ceilings so I’d know what kind of bulbs to get next time I get to Lowe’s. And then it was time for them to leave…

They weren’t gone 5 minutes, when I heard something FLUTTER BY MY HEAD while I was standing by the bar. I saw whatever it was perch on the lamp on the mantle. And I grabbed my camera.

Garrett didn’t see it right away, but my flash (obviously) spooked it and it flew around the room. Amazingly, it didn’t get struck by the ceiling fan! It landed on the windowsill above the back door…

Garrett took this one of it flying in the kitchen. You can bet your bottom dollar I wasn’t the one getting this close to it! I kept telling him to get away from it before it swooped on his head! Or even worse… POOPED on his head!

It landed in the dining room, and here they are talking too it. Garrett kept asking me if it talked. There are 2 birds at Lily’s doggie day care and they are both very chatty. Both can imitate the door-ding there and can also imitate a dog’s bark. I told him no, all this bird could do would be POOP. Which, to my dismay, definitely intrigued him. He’s 4. Poop and toot are his favorite words.

So while I’m snapping away, I’m also on the phone to mom & dad. I calmly said (while dad was ordering hot chocolate at mcd’s drive-thru) – “there’s a bird in the house”. Mom told dad and then she calmly said “we’ll be right there”.

The Schwans man pulled at the same time mom & dad did! So the G’s & I hung out in the garage while Mom & Dad worked their magic. They turned off all the lights trying to get it out the back door. But the playroom light was on upstairs, so it went up there. Luckily, they were able to get it in a towel and get it launched out the back door.

Where was Lily? I had just put her out when I realized the bird was in the house, so I left her out there. Mom & Dad let her in… why? Because she’s technically made to hunt birds, so why not?

My friend Brandy commented on my picture of the bird on facebook that there was an old wives tale that said that a bird in your house means you are pregnant. So that was a big funny all night between Molly and Jenn and all my other pals on there. But I googled it, and apparently it actually means ill luck or death. And on Friday the 13th, no less! NICE!

BIG thanks to my parents… SO glad that they were still close enough to come back and help out!! I don’t know that I could have handled that one on my own!!

Tink Jammies

2012-01-12T21:18:00.001-06:00

I grabbed this awesome little 3 piece set of Tinkerbell Jammies (there’s a picture of Tink on the front) at Target on clearance for $4 not long ago. It’s a 4T, so I was buying it for next year. But what was I thinking? She found it, took off all her clothes (kept her socks & bow on from today) and put on the 3 piece outfit. CORRECTLY put it on. It’s a bit big, bot not really too much! I was shocked! This little pose of hers is her fave way to sit these days…

So when I took her pic, a certain other someone wanted his taken the same way… She’s a bit more graceful with hers. Haha.

I get this face a lot lately… “WHAT, MOM?”

Garrett was hiding from her under the covers, then he’d giggle from underneath and say “Gina Barina! Come find me, I’m in here!”. And she thought that was just the funniest thing ever! I can just hear them cracking up when I look at this picture!

Buuuuut he got a bit too excited and rolled off the couch. Oops.

She’s a bit ticked off because she cannot figure out why her bow will not attach to her foot!

And just like that, he got a smidge to close to her (probably doing his signature “alligator roll” move), so it was then on-like-donkey-kong. Please don’t let the Tinkerbell jammies with a matching tutu fool you, folks. She’s tough. She has recently figured out if she can get her bootie on his head so she can bounce on him, she has the upper hand.

In closing… Is it just me, or do they have the same eyes?

While I prayed & prayed that one of them would get Daddeo’s awesome half blue / half brown eye… I think the blue that God blessed them with couldn’t be any more perfect.

Garrett wanted to take 1 picture, and this was the one he got.

Friend Making Monday: Getting to Know You

2012-01-09T20:02:00.094-06:00

Wow. Well it's certainly been a while since I did one of these. But I sure do love doing them. I linked up over at Kenlie's blog, All The Weigh.

FMM: Getting To Know You

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday? Really? My dream Saturday right now would be to get to be by myself. Go shopping and not have to stress about how much money I spend or how many hours do I have to spend or how quickly I have to get back home to the kids. Just a Saturday about me. I haven't had one of those since fall of 2007, I'm guessin.

2) List your top three favorite TV shows. Friends. Cosby Show. Growing Pains.

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them? If you know me at all, you know I'm crazy about taking pictures. But I'm equally as crazy about being in them. I want my children to know what I looked like. In the horrible event that something happen to myself or Kendall, I want the kids to have tons of pics of themselves with us to be able to treasure.

4) Why do you blog? Originally, I started out with the intent to be part of the blogging community. But for some reason (probably either my shyness or the lack of tragedy in my life), that hasn't happened the way I planned. Soooo, I have resided to the fact that I blog for the sheer purpose of creating a place that these kids can look back at and see who we were & what we were doing during on a random Tuesday in 2011 or whatever.

5) Share five websites that you visit regularly… USAToday, Facebook, My Google Reader, Twitter, and (most recently) weight watchers.

6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be? From my Twitter list.... Well, it would have to be 2: Denis Leary and Dennis Miller. Can you even imagine the fun lunch that would be?!

7) List a few of your favorite snacks. Cantalope, chips & salsa & queso, apples & peanut butter, a cold diet coke from Sonic, a Wendy's Frosty... (this list could get way long, but those are my top 5)

8 ) Do you have a pet? Oh yes we do! Her name is Lily Bean, and she is a 90 lb, 8 year old Weimarner that is gorgeous, loyal, and overly-protective, but also overly loud with her barking. If a leaf blows across the yard, she is gonna bark at it. And just be glad you aren't our Schwans man - he is her new arch nemesis. You want her to like you? She probably won't. She is not about pleasing very many people. But to those she loves, she loves with every inch from the tip of her nose to her docked-off tail.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without? iPhone, camera, laptop.

10) What’s your favorite drink? diet coke (my husband is cringing right now - he keeps telling me "when I get home, we are gonna work on that diet coke addiction")

11) Do you enjoy cooking? No. And when I do cook, it stresses me out to have anyone watch me. Sure, I don't mind to heat things up, or set up a spread of appetizers, but planning & cooking meals? Not for this girl. Kendall & I were actually talking about this exact thing on the phone this morning, and he really loves to cook! So when he gets home and we are finally in a "normal life", he is gonna be the dinner cook! Woohoo! I told him I'd clean the whole house all the time if he would just be the cook...

12) Do you have children? Do we? Why yes, yes we do! Thanks for asking! We have Chris who's 14, Garrett who is 4 and Sassafrass, aka Gina, who will turn 2 in April.

13) What are your favorite hobbies? Taking pictures... wow I am stumped on this one. I really don't have any hobbies! Haha! Wow, I take that "haha" back... that's really sad. I guess I'm just in that phase in my life when that's just not important.

14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing? I’m a fair mix of the 2, depending on the situation.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change? I want to WANT to be healthy and WANT to exercise.

16) Who is your favorite actor/actress? Jennifer Garner and George Clooney.

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week? I am a mother, and I work full-time. Getting to work every day on time and keeping these kids safe & happy is pretty cool, I think. Well, maybe I just think it's cool because I really did nothing that was actually cool this week.

18) Do you live near your family or far from them? My parents are about 40 minutes away, and Kendall's parents are about 10 minutes away. Much of our extended family is also within about a 40 minute drive. Kendall's brother's family is about 3 hours from here, but hopefully, we'll all live closer someday!

The First Lip Gloss

2012-01-05T21:33:00.001-06:00

Santa brought Gina & Garrett both some bath time sets for Christmas… Gina’s was Disney Princess (hair brush, travel sized shampoo & body wash, lip gloss & a hair tie thing) & Garrett’s was Toy Story (an awesome Buzz loofah, travel size shampoo & body wash, and chap stick). Ahhhh, the lip gloss.. maybe Santa didn’t see it when he bought it? Anyway, we opened up the bath time stuff for, well, bath time tonight. And Gina knew right what to do with that lip gloss like it was innate or something!! Or maybe she’s seen me do it a few times… (Please don’t judge my mommy skills by her hair… it stays crazy)

Is it just me because I’m her mommy, or is that some darn good dexterity for a 20 month old to get the lip gloss wand back into the tube? Go, Gina!

After I finished up the dishes from our chicken soft taco dinner, I came into the living room to see this little loveliness… He was using his Tag Reader (from Santa) to read a book to her! And she was still applying the lip gloss!

They are definitely improving on their whole “look at mommy & smile” skills when I point the camera them! They are BOTH looking and ONE is giving me a smile. Even if the other one just looks like a deer in the headlights… I’d call this a success!

Trip to the Dentist... and a Guy Named Eric

2012-01-05T09:17:00.003-06:00

Garrett had his 2nd dentist check up this morning.... First thing when we were getting out of the van, he wanted to know if Papah & Granny were there since they had gone with us when he got his first filling. His little memory kills me sometimes! The doc just bragged and bragged on him! Said whatever we are doing, it is working! Such a proud momma! And he said his enamel is perfect! He does have a bit of crowding, but so did I and so does his big brother Chris, so we expected that.

Before I forget.... Garrett had a substitute teacher at gymnastics this week. Poor girl, she couldn't have been 18, and was dealing with six 4 & 5 year old boys... I did notice that she kept having to corral them, or pull one back to the class, or get their attention, but I had Gina Barrina to contend with so I didn't pay that much attention. When we got in the van, I asked how it went. His response: "we got in trouble a hundred many times for not listening, and she kept calling me Eric." Bahaha!! I laughed so hard! He was so serious, but it didn't seem to bother him! I asked if he had fun, and he said "oh yes!", so I guess being called Eric didn't bother him TOO bad!

Memory

2012-01-03T21:11:00.000-06:00

Garrett got 2 Memory games for Christmas this year… One from Aunt Molly & Uncle Kelly and one from Nanny & Poppa. One set was Toy Story 3 and the other was a Cars Memory game.

Tonight, we opened the Toy Story one after Gina went to bed. First, we got out all 72 cards… but he quickly told me there were too many cards. And I had to agree… this was the first time he was playing Memory, and we didn’t want it to be SO many cards that neither of us EVER found a match!

So we paired them all up, and restarted our game with only 4 pairs, then a game with 6 pairs, and 2 with 8 pairs! I have to comment on the way he’s sitting. I love that little boy way of sitting!

And then… I put the camera down and played. I cannot even begin to tell you how good he is at this game!! I was SHOCKED. We played 4 games – And I am proud to say that he won 2, I won 1, and we tied 1. He was a very good sport when I won, too (which isn’t normally the case with this child – he’s super competitive, and not always a good sport, but we are working on that).

As I put him to bed, he said “can we play memory again tomorrow night after Gina goes to bed?”. I think that’s a great idea! That’ll be our new little “wind down” activity between the time that Gina goes to bed and when he does…

Time To Put It All Away.

2012-01-02T21:15:00.000-06:00

I was off work today (actually had an awesomely relaxing FOUR DAY weekend!). So, we put up all the Christmas decorations this weekend. I say we… It was me. These two just wanted to take everything out of the boxes and/or put themselves in the boxes! But I got it all done. Even got everything taken up to the attic, and the attic reorganized.

See that fleece jacket she has on? That’s all she wore today. That & a diaper. Sometimes it would be zipped, other times not zipped. Good thing we didn’t have to leave the house today, and her awesome fashion sense could just shine on through!

I know I’ve said it before, but I SO love the whole end of the year / holiday season… All the end of the year lists (music, movies, who was searched the most on yahoo, etc), the Christmas movies every day, Christmas music, the decorations (my house looks so naked now, it looks like we are moving or something!), the Christmasy scentsy smells, the parties, the Christmas cards in the mail every day… just so much fun to be had! So, therefore, after January 1, I just hate it. It’s just plain ole winter now (haha, too funny – there’s a story on right now on WGN news about the whole “post seasonal depression disorder”, I guess it’s an actual thing!). Hopefully, we’ll have a super mild winter, and just spring right on into spring. Now the holidays are over, I’m ready to be eating dinner on the back deck and playing outside every evening again! A I’m definitely ready to have some sunlight when we get home!!

New Year’s Eve 2011

2011-12-31T23:23:00.001-06:00

We are t-minutes 90 minutes to 2012… Wow. I guess if the Mayan’s are correct, this is our last New Year’s Eve to celebrate. Not that I believe them, but who knows. Anyway, if it is the last one, I can honestly say it was a GREAT DAY!!

We started the day at Lyndi’s birthday party at the Monkey House…

There was another party there that seriously had every bit of 80 people there! There was only about 15 in our party, so they kind of took over the place. Once they went into their party room, our kids were so excited to have the place to themselves!

Garrett, the birthday girlie Lyndi, and Hadley. These 3 play so good together! And these 2 girls love on Gina, it’s pretty cute.

After grabbing some chips, salsa & cheese dip… We headed home to enjoy this awesome NYE weather! Love that it was upper 60’s all day, and not a single cloud in the sky!

We colored all over the driveway. Usually, we just play just outside the garage, but it was already in the shade, and we wanted to play in the sun, so we moved further down.

Could he seriously look any more like his daddy in this one? And I am not sure what happened to her face… it’s been on there for a few days. She keeps messing with it. I have been keeping neosporin on it… hopefully, it’ll clear up in a few days.

He was drawing some amazing triangles. They were perfect.

Mommy & Gina, as taken by Garrett.

We picked up our stuff on the driveway, and moved our little party to the backyard…

We did lots of swinging…

And some sliding! See the red tinsel? Garrett took it out there back in November when I was decorating for Christmas!

We raced a lot… I must have said “on your mark, get set, GO!” 100 times. They would race to the deck and back to the gate! That’s no joke… plus there’s a bit of an incline! And yes, I did it too! Lily pretty much won every time, which pretty much ticked off Garrett every time. He’d say “MOM! Tell Lily this is NOT a race for dogs! It’s a race for the peoples!”.

I liked the light in this one…

And I just liked the face in this one…

Me? Two times in one post! Shut up!

We moved inside and watched some Phineas & Ferb. It was on a marathon from 11am to 11pm on Disney XD, so that’s pretty much what the tv stayed on all day. I love those 2 boys, they crack me up! I’ll be honest, when I first got pregnant with Gina (before we knew she was a “she”), I wanted a another boy because of Phineas & Ferb! Haha!

Garrett playing on his D-pad (Leap-pad – I’m not sure why he says that) and Gina catching a 5 second rest.

After a bath complete with blue water, 2 glowsticks, and the bathtub markers that Santa brought them… It was time to catch up with Ryan Seacrest on New Year’s Rockin Eve. Gina of course wanted to dance to every song! She is a dancing queen!

Garrett even danced a bit!

Gina made it to about 9pm. And shortly after she went to bed, Garrett thought he heard someone knocking on the door… but it was fireworks across under the hill across the street. We sat on the front porch and watched for about 5 minutes.

A photographer friend of mine (D Baker Photo out of Poteau, Ok) had a super fun photo scavenger hunt on facebook tonight. She had 12 “challenges” & you had to post a pic to her facebook page. If you were the first to post, you got an entry into a drawing for $100 gift certificate from her. It was really fun! Here’s 2 that I entered…

I was first on this one, so I won… “someone wearing a party hat or toboggan”…

And here’s one that Garrett took of me! Haha! Oh yes I did! Garrett got so tickled about this!

Two more that I did was Garrett standing in the open fridge, and a pic of a pet (Lily obviously) taken today.

Garrett made it to about 10:30… and told me he wanted to go to bed. Bless his heart, if he tells you he’s done, that’s big.

So, all in all… a great New Year’s Eve. Sure did miss having my man here to give a New Year’s smooch to (& just his company overall!), but we’ll have the next 40 or so to do that on, so I’ll be ok. I just rang in the New Year’s with NYC on tv, and I think that’s it for me. I’ll wrap it all up with the words of our gal Oprah Winfrey…

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

Tom Hanks

2011-12-29T12:43:00.003-06:00

This Christmas season marks the first time I’ve seen The Polar Express. You know, the one where Tom Hanks voices pretty much every character? And I can see now why it is so loved, it’s a GREAT movie!!

Last night, while I was cooking some spaghetti, Granny texted me and said that The Polar Express would be on AMC at 7. So, I turned it on to record, got the G’s bathed, and put Gina to bed. Garrett & I settled up on the couch to watch. About half way through, he said this little nugget to me….

Garrett: “Mommy, when I close my eyes, that conductor man sounds a lot like Woody (from Toy Story)”.

Geez! I was impressed!

Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-25T23:04:00.001-06:00

Oh man! What a fabulous Christmas Day we had!! We stayed at home ALL DAY, and stayed in our jammies ALL DAY. I could not be more thankful for being able to do that!! Plus, the weather was absolutely perfect! By 9am, we turned off the heater and opened all the windows and didn’t close them til about 9pm! I think it got to the upper 50’s, but it was a blue-clear-sky kinda day. We didn’t play outside… too busy with all the new fun toys!

Here is Garrett’s pile from Santa…

And Gina Barrina’s pile…

I picked up Sara last night on our way home from Heavener from her momma. Uncle Kelly, Aunt Molly, Kali & baby Presley made it down the hill from Rogers about 1am. Sara & I were up waiting for them & watching Home Alone 2. Garrett went to bed SO well! We had discussed several times this week the fact that he needed to be in his bed asleep for Santa to come, and as soon as we got home from the white house, he brushed his teeth, set out Santa’s milk & cookies, let mommy take a few pics, and headed on upstairs and we didn’t hear from him again until Christmas morning!

Daddy called a little before 8 to see if any of our creatures were stirring. While we were on the phone, Nanny texted to say that they were gonna come in and I needed to unlock the garage doors. And while I was up unlocking doors so they could come in, I heard Gina stirring… So I ran upstairs to grab her and she & I went to get Garrett up! He was SO excited when I said Santa had been here! I hope I never ever forget the sheer happiness on his face when he opened his eyes!!

Nanny deemed this our “Daddy on the Shelf”! I thought that was awesome! He skyped in for about 2 solid hours during all the present opening. He is 9 hours ahead of us, so it was the evening for him. While they were perusing their gifts, I heated up the Chick-Fil-A Chicken Mini tray that we had picked up the day before!

Garrett shooting the first basket!

Both listening to something Daddy had to say…

All these Santa presents, and this little lady is carrying around some tic-tacs & flarp. She proceeded to eat the flarp later, not the tic tacs. Check out sweet Garrett getting some Scooby-Doo loves in the background!

And here’s the Christmas room with all the presents…

Sassafrass sitting in her new princess chair & asking for some Skittles!

Poppa had a good idea to move the basketball goal to the foyer. There were at least 100 games of horse played here today!

Let the fun begin!! Kali & Sara had come downstairs & gone through their Santa piles, and after we all had a little breakfast, we moved into the “Christmas room” as Garrett has called it since last year (even when the Christmas tree was put away!), and opened all our presents from each other. Clockwise from the bottom left of the picture, you see Poppa with the video camera, cousin Kali, Gina, cousin Sara, Garrett, Aunt Molly, Nanny holding cousin Presley, and Uncle Kelly on the bottom right.

Another view of the destruction…

There’s that Daddy on the Shelf again!

Santa brought the G’s an awesome new tent to go with their tunnel that Garrett got from Nanny & Poppa back in 2009 when I was pregnant with baby Gina!

Sassafrass and her Rapunzel doll.

Aunt Molly & I had fun cooking snacks up in the kitchen all day while the kids played… I made cheese dip, salsa, rolo pretzels, sausage balls, and sausage wontons (which were a huge hit!) along with several other things. She made some asparagas roll ups, broccoli salad, chocolate covered pretzel sticks, and these amazing oreo balls. We just grazed allllllll day. I wish I would have gotten a picture of all the food in the kitchen... The was no available counterspace! And now there's no available fridge space! Haha!

That evening, my brother brought his whole family over. Jett brought his Kinect that he had gotten for Christmas along with the Wipeout game. It was a HIT! Here’s Jett-man playing Wipeout…

Kali is on the left playing while Maci & Garrett watch…

As the evening went on, I started getting really tired, so I had to find something to do to stay awake. Jett, Garrett & I decided to get out the legos. Let me just say that I’ve still got the lego skills. Kali & Maci played with us too. And between the 4 of them, they had me making 4-wheelers, fire trucks, a stop sign, a light house, a windmill, and several other things.

These last 2 pics are courtesy of my momma from this morning in Heavener. This guy (my nephew Jace) was the big news of the day… He turned 16 today. And you’ll see in his hands a set of keys… Look at his face! What a moment caught on camera!

Those were the keys to his new 2006 dodge truck! His school colors are red & black, so he knew he wanted a red or black truck, and his parents definitely delivered! So, obviously, he drove them all up here in his new truck to hang out at our house this evening. Happy birthday, Jace!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!!!!!

2011-12-25T10:04:00.002-06:00

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created
in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly. ~Andy Rooney

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T05:56:00.001-06:00

From our family to yours… Merry Christmas!

My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night, and here’s my favorite part…

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…

We Are Ready For You, Santa!

2011-12-24T23:09:00.001-06:00

Dear Santa -

Our stockings our hung…

We watched “Prep & Landing” one last time, and discussed your Prep & Landing crew and how Lanny & Wayne are gonna navigate through our house…

The milk & cookies & a couple of Hershey’s Kisses (our absolute favorite candy) have been left by the fireplace…

(you might wanna hurry, Gina has been eyeballing your snack!)

Our letters have been written…

Even Lily is chillaxing…

No, wait… Maybe she heard the reindeer pawing on the roof?

Anyway… We are ready, Santa! We’ve been good this year, and can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!

Love, Garrett & Gina

Wordless Wednesday ~ Who Misses Daddy??

2011-12-21T06:52:00.003-06:00

Christmas Cards 2011

2011-12-20T20:10:00.002-06:00

I am linking up to Faith’s Christmas Card Carousel… I am a bit late to the party, but better late than never.

I mailed our Christmas cards out on Saturday, and my mom sent the approval text on them today (not that she wouldn’t approve, she’s a good mommy, but she was letting me know that she got it and that she loved it… of course, it’s her grandkids & granddog, what’s not to love??) … so I feel comfortable posting them on the ole blog! I ordered 4 sets this year… I think there’s nothing wrong with that. They all had the same pictures.

This set was from Picaboo. I had purchased a Groupon to Picaboo earlier in the year, and was able to get them for a steal. Here’s the front…

The inside… This was the only set with our family picture (from Gulf Shores back in June) included.

Here’s the other 3 sets… Top card is from Snapfish, and the bottom 2 are from See Here.

So there you have it… Christmas Cards 2011! Next year, we’ll all 6 (including Lily) be under 1 roof and my goal is to have us all 6 in one picture. Honestly, my dream Christmas card would be to get us all dressed up, not casual, but really dressed up, like an actual portrait. We’ll see how that goes…

Letter From Santa

2011-12-19T21:42:00.002-06:00

How is it already the Monday before Christmas? As I was walking to the van after work today, it hit me. It’s that same feeling I get every year as the week of Christmas hits… It’s all almost over. Such a mixed feeling for me – Excited about what’s coming up in the coming days, but sad that it’s almost over. I l-o-v-e Christmas. I love the whole season from the first Saturday of College Football until New Year’s Day. It is my favorite time of year. And my birthday doesn’t even fall during this time! Haha! It makes me laugh to see everyone on facebook stressing about wrapping presents and shopping and running errands and going to parties and whether someone told them “Merry Christmas” or “Merry Xmas” or “Happy Holidays”. Those things all seem so trivial to me. Especially since a very special someone isn’t going to be celebrating Christmas day at home with us this year. To me, Christmas is so obviously about celebrating the birth of Jesus. But beyond that, to me it’s just about culminating the year we have had, and celebrating that with family and friends. I can’t express how much fun it is to get to spend Christmas with these 2 little bundles of joy. The joy in Garrett’s eyes when we spot some Christmas lights or see Santa somewhere or a nativity is utterly amazing to me.

But let’s get back to what I originally started this post about… Garrett & Gina got a LETTER FROM SANTA today!! Hot dog! You’ll remember back in March when they also got one…

We read it 3 times immediately. He had comments & questions all the way through… all 3 times.

Gina wanted in on the action too!

But not too close in on the action!

Once we had read, reread, & read the letter again, Garrett was done and hopped down. He then wanted to take a few pics with my camera.

Yes, future Gina, I DO fix your hair in the mornings. But by the time we get home, your hair has a total mind of it’s own, and is absolutely crazy. But, then again, look at mine. I guess you come by crazy hair naturally.

BIG thanks to Santa for thinking of my sweet babies again! We love you bunches!

Lazy Saturday + Christmas Lights!

2011-12-17T21:38:00.002-06:00

We have gone and gone and gone SO much in the last couple of weeks (I’ll catch up and back blog soon on all our fun!) that I wanted to just relax and get the house back in order today.

Therefore… we stayed in jammies today. And Gina colored.

I completed our Christmas cards & got them mailed out! Yes, I know it’s the weekend before Christmas and I’m just now getting them out. I’m just that on top of things these days. I sent out 4 sets this year. All 4 had the same pics… just 4 sets due to the deals I found online for cards.

I looked down and Gina had pulled a blanket & Garrett’s pillow over and made herself at home in the floor next to me!

Garrett watched “Prep & Landing: Naughty Vs Nice” on the DVR a good dozen times. He’s recovering from a little stomach bug he’s had the last 48 hours… But he made up for missing all that food this evening!

We moved on to “Shrek The Halls”… this pose was NOT staged.

She has liked rubbing his hair today. If he has gotten within reach of her today, she has rubbed his hair. I don’t know what started this… I do it a lot, maybe she’s seen me doing it?

About 5, I loaded them up in the van and we took the Christmas cards to the post office to send them along their way. Garrett is so observant & inquisitive these days. He wanted to know why we sent out Christmas cards and why people put up Christmas lights. I took this pic when we were over in Van Buren at the BIG Christmas lights house. This family goes all out… even sets their lights to music (you tune your radio into a specific station to hear it!) and has a Santa that hands out candy canes…

Their light show could definitely rival those on youtube! See the Grinch? Last year, he was in jail, and this year, he’s standing with Max the Dog on top of the train bridge. Garrett talked about the Grinch being in jail until mid-summer. So, I’m thinking they must have gotten some comments, and decided that since the Grinch ends up being nice in the end of his story, he deserved to be out of jail. They have a train that runs in a big circle and everything! We got there about 5:15, and let me tell you… there’s normally a line about 50-70 cars long at least! But not at 5:15! The sun was just setting, and there were only about 8 of us cars there. It was PERFECT!

After we left, we drove around a local neighborhood that has good lights. I asked Garrett if he wanted to go look at more lights or go home. He kept saying he wanted to “stop & look at the lights”. After a few minutes of discussion, I realized he wanted to go back to the house with the Grinch! So… I promised we’d head over there one more time before Christmas, and we headed home.

Nico – Our Family’s Elf on the Shelf… & Christmas Carols

2011-12-15T22:49:00.000-06:00

Back on December 4, a very special package arrived from the North Pole. Our Elf on the Shelf had finally arrived!

I had made Flat Bread Tacos for dinner, so Nanny & Poppa, and Uncle Kelly, Molly, Kali & Presley were all there to witness his arrival!

So, immediately… Daddy read them the story. But since Garrett had already watched the movie a few times, he was able to tell Daddy what was what, and why the Elf is here, and why we can’t touch him.

After the Elf was welcomed into the Lynn family, we decided to sing a few Christmas carols like we did last year! (you must go take a look at last year’s Christmas carols post. Gina is so little. And bald.)

Uncle Kelly and 3 of his 4 girls.

Picking out the next song… Daddy brought me a headlamp like he did last year, but the battery was all but dead, so I just made do with my eagle eyes.

Aunt Molly and sweet Presley

Mommy & Gina Barina

Back to our Elf. Daddy named him. We were throwing around names, and he started talking about names that would go with Santa or St Nicolas or be Christmassy, and he said Nico. And that was that. Nico it is! (pronounced Nick-oh, not Nee-co)

What has Nico been up to? Not a whole lot. I have read other mommy blogs, and apparently, when he doesn’t have to show off to keep the kids attention, he doesn’t. When they are a bit older, and are more interested… He gets a little more active.

Hanging out on the mistletoe…

Playing nerf guns with our Jazzy Reindeer.

Garrett didn’t dig that one too much. He had gotten that Nerf gun for his birthday just a few days before, and wasn’t keen on sharing it with Nico just yet.

Other than that, Nico has pretty much been landing each morning on the mantle or perched in the Christmas tree. Garrett isn’t too concerned with him, until he sees him and then we talk about it. I am excited to watch Nico in the coming years with our family and see what kind of fun (& hopefully not to messy!!) mischief he gets into!

Angry Birds Hat

2011-12-14T22:43:00.000-06:00

Garrett’s friends Cooper & Rylee got him the most awesome Angry Birds hat for his birthday. And being the mean dog-mom that I am… I put it on Lily tonight while Kendall was cooking supper…

My intent was to get one good picture for the blog, but this succession just cracks me up…

Oh the look of disgust! Haha!!!

So embarassing…

Garrett Turns 4.

2011-12-11T19:53:00.001-06:00

Garrett - I swear that it seems like last night, your daddy & I were sitting at Chili’s having our “last meal” before your arrival on 12-12-07 at high noon. And now… fast forward through the best 4 years EVER, and here we are. You are sitting on the couch playing on my iPhone as I type this, sitting next to your daddy who is watching some Dallas Cowboy football while he surfs on his laptop. Little man, you are amazing. I could have never dreamed of a better boy. And boy oh boy, you are all boy. And you are quite funny! You melt my heart almost daily with your sweetness, and how good you are to your “Gina Barrina”. We really love you more than you’ll probably be able to understand until you have kiddos of your own.

SO, while you were playing on my phone, I decided to ask you a few questions… to see who you are at 1-day-shy-of-4-years-old…

How old are you? 3. (all day today, you have asked daddy & me if you are going to be taller tomorrow)

But how old will you be tomorrow? 4, no 10. Uh, 10 is like 1 and then zero (while you were drawing the numbers in the air). (You can draw & recognize all 26 letters, both captital and small, and you can recognize numbers up to 15, and can count into the twenties)

What is your favorite color? Red, no I mean blue. Blue is my favorite.

What is your favorite animal? Uh, a donkey. (why?) Because I like it.

What do you want to be when you are all grown up? (you weren’t sure about that, so daddy & I started naming different things, and this was what came flying outta your mouth) I wanna fly in a cool fast jet, with rockets in it. I know how to shoot them. How do I get to do that?

What’s your favorite thing to eat? Angry Birds!!! No really, Pizza. (mommy is adding to your list – string cheese, popcorn, yogurt, shredded cheese, cheez-its, tater tots, bananas, grapes, strawberries, hershey’s kisses, and you like to dip anything in ketchup, tarter sauce or ranch dressing. you are very much like your momma in that you loooooove some chips & salsa).

What’s your favorite restaurant? You know, where do you like Mommy to take you out to eat? Gavioli’s! (which is your favorite made up word that is your answer whenever you don’t have a “real” answer – it drives mommy a bit crazy). I like to eat Gavioli’s and spaghetti! Hahahaha!. (really, mommy thinks it’s more like McDonald’s or Chick-Fil-A)

Who’s your best friend? Adren (friend at school)

Who loves you?! Daddy!! (daddy tried to coerce you into adding mommy to that statement, but you are all about daddy right now, and honestly, that’s ok with mommy).

What are your favorite songs? Jingle Bells

What kind of things make you happy? Games (you have recently – in the last 3 weeks - discovered the xbox 360, and you are ALL about them).

What’s your favorite thing to watch on T.V? Bubble Guppies! (mommy added these because I know they are your faves) Scooby Doo, Phineas & Ferb, Spongebob, Team Umizoomi, All the Toy Story’s, and the Incredibles.

What’s your favorite thing about Daddy? Flashlights. & Wrestling!

What’s your favorite thing about Mommy? Eyeballs! (I think he’s getting tired of me asking him questions)

What’s your favorite thing about Gina? Hats.

Are you tired of me asking you questions? Nuh-uh. I MEAN YES! Can I have your phone back?

Creekmore Park Holiday Express Train 2011

2011-12-08T23:22:00.001-06:00

Tonight, we rode the Creekmore Park Holiday Express Train! If you are in the area, I definitely recommend this for a fun family thing to do!

First off… Here’s last year’s post of us riding the Creekmore Train.

Garrett waiting in line to ride the train… He is on his 3rd winter wearing that Lands End coat he has on! Isn’t that crazy! And fairly unheard of for toddlers? This will be the last year, though, he’s getting to long for it now.

We only had to wait about 10 minutes to ride this year. I guess since we didn’t go on opening night, there wasn’t as much of a crowd.

Daddy & Garrett

Mommy & Gina

And Gina & Garrett both ended up riding with Daddy. Here we go through the tunnell!!! You can see a little bit of her red hat just to the left of Daddy’s head.

It wasn’t super cold, but cold enough that we just rode the train & left. It was definitely fun & all 4 of us certainly enjoyed it once again this year!
After the train, we grabbed some Chick-fil-a for dinner & rented The Lion King and headed home. Gina was put to bed (she doesn’t care anything about watching tv or movies just yet), and Garrett, Daddy & I loaded up on the couch to watch the movie. It kept Garrett’s attention about 80% of the time. I hadn’t sat down & watched it in probably 10 years, yet I was amazed that I could almost quote the entire thing! Probably drove Kendall nuts! Ha!

Pitchford Dinner

2011-12-07T22:59:00.001-06:00

We had my family + some of my dad’s extended family over for dinner / dessert / coffee this evening so they could visit with Kendall.

There’s Aunt Norma (she brought her fabulous fudge), and Aunt Helen (she brought her yummy brownies), and mom with her back to us.

Jace had been to work out, so he had some buddies with him.

Daddy trying to talk Gina into some mistletoe sugars…

I didn’t take too many pictures, as you can see, but my mom had asked that we gather our family up so she could get a good Christmas card pic. I won’t post the one she chose, maybe I will once her card comes out… but until then, here are the outtakes.

Gang signs…

Show your muscles…

My brother & husband…

Jace & his daddy (my brother)…

Jace is our little Christmas morning baby. Crazy that he is almost 6 foot tall & will be 16 this Christmas!

Gina showing Jett-man how she jumpy-jumps in the exersaucer…

Pretty Gina

Play us a song, piano man…

UPDATED to add - Now that Mom’s Christmas cards have shipped, I present to you the Christmas Card Family Photo 2011.

Rheem Santa Party

2011-12-02T23:41:00.000-06:00

My work has a yearly party for those with young children. They have heavy horderves and Santa brings each boy & girl a special gift!

I took a half day off work so Kendall & I could go eat (one of our faves – El Chico!) and do a little Christmas shopping! Therefore, there were some lovely little Christmas gifts waiting on the G’s when they got home from school… Garrett was very curious of course!

I tried to get a good pic of Daddy with his pretty little baby girl…

But I got about 14 pictures just like this. These two smoochers are just too fast for me! Still cute…

And there’s Daddy & his Garrett!

After our quick pics, we headed downtown to the party!

Here’s a pic of the crowd… See the guy standing in the white hat? Our table was behind that. We met my friend Monica & her family down there, and our crew was a bit late getting there (still beat Santa, & that’s what matters!), so al the tables were taken. Luckily, they had some extras and they set one up for us right by the food!

And there’s the big guy! Also, there’s Rylee (grey & white stripes) & Garrett (navy sweater with his back to us).

Gina was NOT having it. She wasn’t crying, but she was climbing up my head like a freaked out cat when I would try to put her on Santa’s lap. So I just held her instead. This was her first time to wear her pretty Christmas dress. I also let her wear her “fur” coat (from Old Navy – a hand me down from awesome cousin Maci!). She became a tad bit obsessed with it, carried it everywhere! Santa brought her a sporty Barbie. Her very first Barbie!

And Santa brought this good boy his very first Transformer!

The party wrapped up pretty quickly once Santa was done, and we headed home. Uncle Kelly & his crew were waiting for us at the house… It was the first time Kendall got to meet Baby Presley!

Drive-Thru Nativity

2011-12-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

Today was a normal day… I worked, kids had daycare… But one special difference – Daddy was home. I got to meet him (& Nanny & Mimi) for a chips & salsa lunch.

After work, Granny & Papah came over and we all loaded up in the van to go eat some dinner at Beef O Brady’s. It wasn’t perfect (Gina had a very hard time sitting and not throwing things), but it was great food and great company. After dinner… we drove through the Drive-Thru Nativity at a local church. This has become a yearly tradition for us… Here are our posts from 2008 & 2010 (didn’t go in 2009 since that’s when we were living in KC).

This is the only picture I took. The weather was a little chilly, but just perfect for this sort of fun Christmas activity.

It was such a good time! While we were sitting in the van waiting in line to drive through, we let the kids out of their seats. Garrett entertained us with a few Christmas carols, Gina & Garrett took turns pretending to drive, Daddy & Garrett walked to the little petting zoo they had (Garrett kept telling us how stinky that camel was!). I am a sucker for yearly traditions… The kids may not remember it year to year right now, but as they get older, I think this sort of thing might possibly mean something to them. I hope.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Daddy is HOME.

2011-11-30T23:38:00.000-06:00

Welcome Home, Daddy!

2011-11-30T23:24:00.000-06:00

This is gonna be a pretty big post… But we are just so doggone excited to have him home! Even if it is for a short time!

Here’s the banner I have hanging over the kitchen table… Got it for free when Walgreens ran their banners for free one day a few months back. Must admit I was very impressed with the quality!

And this was inspired by Pinterest of course!

Garrett gives his full approval last night, the night before daddy arrived!

FINALLY… The day is here. Our work / school day was FINALLY over and it was FINALLY time to go pick him up at the airport. Her shirt says “Out of my way, I’m here to pick up my daddy”. She had a bow to match, but we all know how that went… They are both made by Bow Head Bowtique on etsy.com.

Mommy & Gina…

Point a camera at this guy and you’ll get something like this…

Gina & Rylee running circles around Poppa!

And they’ve found the blocks!

Anytime we do anything as a family, we pretty much takeover, and the airport is no different. His flight was scheduled to land at 6:30, so we agreed to all gather about 6. And there was about 30 of us. The airport here in the fort is super small, so we definitely took over.

Kendall’s momma kept creeping closer and closer to the gate…

So, the crowd followed…

There’s Monica with my camera. Such a great friend to offer to come and welcome my hubby home with me! She even just took over my camera so I wouldn’t have to mess with it!! Love her!

By now, we had heard that the plane had landed. I kept telling everyone that he would be the last one off, because that’s just how he rolls. Mr Polite.

Granny made this awesome sign!

Closer to the gate…

DADDDDDDYYYY! And yes, if you guessed that I’m crying at this point, you’d have guessed correctly! So excited! The people that were walking through the gate behind him stopped and began applauding. Super sweet!

Nanny took Gina over there to see him too, but Gina wasn’t too sure about it. The rest of the time we were at the airport, she just stared at him, never taking her eye off of him! You could tell that she knew him, but wasn’t 100% sure about it…

Everyone greeting & getting hugs!

Quick try at a family pic, and Gina is trying to bolt!

Maci had made Kendall this really cool patriotic folder with a flag drawn on it and he was trying to look at it, but Garrett kept talking to him & hugging on him. Garrett did not stop chattering to his daddy until we had been home for at least an hour!

Family pic…

Everyone had been told that they were just to “scatter” after the greetings and hugs were complete. So, the rest of the family all went to eat at Western Sizzlin. Since it was well after 7, our kids were starving, so we grabbed some Chick-Fil-A and headed HOME. Nanny & Poppa met us at the house. When we got here, I told Kendall to stay in the garage, and I brought Lily out to greet him. She was BEYOND excited and kept dancing around and whining and leaning on him! Then… he walked into the house. So sweet, he stopped and sighed and just said “man, I love this house”.

Pay Me Some Attention, Please.

2011-11-28T23:20:00.000-06:00

In all the rushing around to get things ready for daddy to come home, she knows that something is up. Obviously, she is not quite sure what is going on, and that makes her very nervous. So she sits like this and stares at me in the rare event that I sit down.

Brrrr…. It’s Finally Cold Outside!

2011-11-27T20:59:00.001-06:00

In know that in just a short month or so, I will be wishing for today’s 48 degree weather! But today was pretty cold outside, and we had a few to-do’s out in the yard. SO we bundled up & headed on out!

They both had gloves, but neither one would keep them on! I just kept watching their hands, and feeling of them, and I kinda figured they would complain if they got to cold.

We picked up limbs that had blown down from that dead tree in the front yard. Gina would pick up the tiny ones and put them in the cart, Garrett got the bigger ones, and I broke down the ones that were huge. I couldn’t believe how much help they both were!

Then we trimmed the shrubs (just a bit, just the really outta whack branches, nothing major), raked the leaves around the garage in hopes that that would curb the amount that were getting into the garage, and played a bit.

Our last task was shutting the garage door so we could sweep it and get it cleaned up. I had the tall broom, Garrett had the push broom, and Gina had our little mini-red broom. Such great helpers!!

I Have Watched “The Elf on the Shelf” 25 Times Today.

2011-11-26T23:59:00.001-06:00

Seriously. I could have titled this post something about it being the Saturday after Thanksgiving, or about how far behind I am on blogging… but, really… The Elf on the Shelf movie debuted on CBS last night, and we watched it. And of course, I DVR’d it. We watched it a couple of times before lunch, then Garrett & Gina went upstairs to play. This evening, while we were eating dinner, he asked to watch it again. After dinner, she was bathed & put to bed, and he wanted to continue watching what he kept referring to as “The Elf on the Show”. And he was very adamant that when ours arrives, we cannot touch it because then it looses it’s magic. So at least the movie is helping him learn the rules before our Elf arrives later this week.

Aunt Molly & her 3 girls have been here since Tuesday night, and we have had a BLAST having them here for Thanksgiving! But they left today, and so I spent the day getting the house put back together from the holiday craziness (not because of Aunt Molly, she cleaned more than I did while she was here!), and catching back up on laundry.

These 2 do such a great job playing together and entertaining each other most of the time…

There was a squirrel on the peak of the roof for a good 10 minutes, and Lily did not take her eyes off of it.

After Aunt Molly left, Gina was eating some fruit loops on a rubbermaid tub, so I scooched her in front of the Christmas tree to attempt to get a few good pics…

I tried a Santa hat, but we all know that wasn’t going to stay on…

She wanted to play peek-a-boo!

Boo!

Love.

Back to the Elf on the Shelf…

And while I was putting away laundry around 9pm, I realized that he hadn’t asked me to fast forward through the commercials… and I found him asleep like this… Bless his heart, he was worn out.

Black Friday

2011-11-25T23:14:00.000-06:00

I used to get up on Black Friday & go shopping with my momma. But these days, this is how that would make me feel…

Instead, this year, Rachael brought her kiddos over and between her kids and mine & Molly’s… we had one big play date. And snack fest.

Rach had asked me to take a few pics of her 2 little ones for Christmas cards. While she was getting them ready, I was setting things up outside and Garrett was out there so I asked him if I could take his picture to check the settings out…

I got a few good ones, but these 2 of him just crack me up. Such a toot.

Now, I know which pic Rach is using for her Christmas card, so I knew it was ok to post this one. Are these 2 just not the cutest!? Such sweet kids, I love having them over to the house!

And there’s their pretty momma!

This guy melts my heart! He’s always like this! Just happy as a lark!

And then there’s this little sass… Had to sneak in the pic! Haha!!

The people across the street were actually taking their horses for a ride outside of the fence, so we were running to our fence so we could get a closer look at our own personal parade!

Trace & Presley… 19 days apart. She weighs about 12 pounds and he weighs about 20. Hehe. Molly said they look like a little old couple sitting here!

My big girl. She seems so big compared to the babies.

Does this not just make you wanna squeeze her!? If I could find a Christmas card with just the word “JOY” on it, this picture would certainly be fitting!

So I didn’t get to go Black Friday shopping! BIG DEAL. We had a GREAT day just playing and eating and visiting! I did score one pretty good deal… I read on facebook about 5:30pm that the tanning salon I use had everything 50% off. I called so see if I could purchase a package over the phone, but I couldn’t. Molly & Rachael told me to run over there and buy it since they were there to watch the kids! So I did! 6 mystic tans for $30. Best Black Friday deal around if ya ask me!!

Gina & Presley’s Turkey Shirts

2011-11-24T23:55:00.000-06:00

These 2 are 14 months apart… So in these pics, Gina is 19 months old and Presley is 5 months old.

Would ya look at that? BOTH looking in the general direction of the camera at the SAME time.

And Gina’s back to messing with Presley’s shirt.

Look at all that fluff in a little bitty bumbo! See how Presley’s turkey feathers are all up in her face? She chewed on them pretty much all day!

Sweet Presley & her pretty momma!

And wouldn’t ya know, the minute that Molly picked Presley up out of the bumbo, someone took off with it…

I liked this one for some reason… I think she looks like a little princess with her skirt all fluffed out over the bumbo.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T23:36:00.000-06:00

Our Thanksgiving consisted the crew from our house splitting up for lunch… Me & the G’s went to Heavener to lunch at the white house and Molly & her crew went to lunch at Mimi & Poppa’s. This was followed by Nanny’s extended family coming to our house for dinner.

First things first, though… Had to take an iPhone pic of these 2 cuties to send to daddy.

I had told Gina to hold her hands up so I could see her shirt. Molly’s mom made one for Gina, Presley, & Grace (even a boy version for baby Trace!) following some shirts we had seen on Pinterest.

Taking these 2 to the white house these days makes me pretty nervous… I am constantly worried about them knocking something over or breaking something or spilling something.

Some of the lunching crowd…

Aaaaaaand once the lunch is done, the wrestling begins!

This girl looooooves her Papah.

By now, my brother’s family had arrived… And this means that including my phone, there were now 4 identical iPhones with black otter boxes. Jace was trying to pull a fast one on Gina by confusing her with them…

Sweet Aunt Helen offering up some post-lunch breath refreshers…

Maci had lost a tooth earlier in the week. So, the evening that she lost it, she went to visit her daddy at his deer camp and was telling all the men about the new gap in her teeth. Those guys started giving her money and she ended up with $30 for ONE tooth! Needless to say, she was wiggling any tooth she could in hopes that she could loose another one before deer season was over! Smart girl!

Some of the men folk…

Look at Garrett’s sweet smile… He sure loves his big cousin Jace (whom he refers to as Johnny)!

They played outside for a few minutes, but the ground was just too soggy.

Around 3, we loaded up and headed back to the fort to get the house ready for Nanny’s family to come over for dinner. We weren’t really sure how many to expect, but there were about 35 people that came! It was a great crew!

Sweet P was sacked out while her momma carried her around visiting everyone.

A quick pic of my in-laws…

Some of the dinner crowd…

The playroom crowd…

And you know who was of course up there trying to get into some trouble!

By about 8pm, everyone was gone, and it was just my family & Uncle Kelly’s crew. And at that time, Gina & I got to participate in my absolute favorite Thanskgiving tradition – a margarita while perusing the Black Friday ads. Of course, I was the only one having a margarita. She had chocolate milk.

Thanksgiving Eve

2011-11-23T22:24:00.000-06:00

So now that I’m a working momma, I had to work the day before Thanksgiving. Of course. And the kids’ day care was closed. Of course. Lucky for me… Aunt Molly & her girls were staying at our house and she OFFERED to keep my kids. I did not even have to ask. Seriously. She’s just that awesome. So about 9am, I get this picture texted to me… My sweet little sassafrass, sitting in Baby Presley’s bumbo… in a purple tutu & a baby bib. I love her.

I came home at lunch… and the house was so quiet. Presley & Gina were napping upstairs. Garrett was eating a pb&j at the table. Kali was coloring at the table. Sara was texting on the couch. Lily was laying quietly on the floor. Molly even had dinner (yummy chicken stroganoff!!) cooking in the crockpot. BEST WIFE EVER. Haha!! Nanny had popped over to help in case she needed it… I’d say she had things under control.

Thanksgiving Week Guests

2011-11-22T23:46:00.000-06:00

Guess who came to stay with us this week!? This little Sweet P, that’s who!! She’s kind of a momma’s girl (I can understand that, as I seem to have one of those myself!), but when there’s not a crowd, she lets me hold her as long as I want. As long as she’s facing out and can see her momma. But hey, I’ll take what I can get.

Gina was in love with the bumbo seat and had fun sitting in it anytime she could! Look at Sweet P admiring her big cousin! Aunt Molly (holding Presley, aka Sweet P), and I have decided that these 2 are gonna have a good time growing up together and will likely get into loads of mischief together.

After a quick (& awesomely healthy, bahaha!) dinner of chips & cheese dip & hot dogs… The fun began… YEP! STAIR DIVING!!!

Look at Kali’s face! She & her big sister Sara were having a blast!!

Then Sara took Garrett down (they were on his mattress).

Then all 3! Look at how Garrett is all tight like he’s about to sail down the luge!

Sara…

Kali…

Garrett…

You knew it had to happen… Little sister had to see what all the fun was about…

So, Aunt Molly yanked her up and managed to wrangle BOTH the little Lynn girls. Gina is all about pointing out people’s eyes, nose, ears, hair… gotta be careful on those eyes though. She likes to poke them.

And for the grand finale… check out where Garrett is. Sometimes it’s the rats being the little cousin! Haha!

This is my 3rd post about putting up the Christmas Tree.

2011-11-19T21:37:00.001-06:00

Seriously. My plan was to have this house decorated for Christmas by mid-November. I’m not far off, but we had the floors cleaned this week. My dad reminded me of that after I had put it up, and so I took the tree back down. Haha!

Today, I finally brought down all the Christmas decorations…

But, as you would guess, I had more help than I really needed. No, I didn’t just stick her in this, she has been climbing in there daily. But it sure was nice that for about 5 minutes she wasn’t under my feet.

Garrett couldn’t resist a chance to pester her while she was trapped in there…

Today, the only time we left the house was to go get Lily from being boarded. While skyping with Daddy this morning, he told Garrett that he would soon take him to get a donut. And wouldn’t ya know it, Garrett had to have a donut! Ha! We stopped in and grabbed a few our way to get Lily. All that to say that we had a very, very lazy Saturday. They both stayed in their jammies the entire day. They played out on the swingset for a long time, and even got out the megablocks. They honestly play so well together. There’s an occasional scream or cry because one won’t share or whatever, but I’d say 90% of the time it’s pretty peaceful. I am really thankful for their relationship!

There’s that sweet Lily Bean…

The tree isn’t near done. Maybe by tomorrow night. But after Gina went to bed, Garrett was ready to help me out!

Gotta love it… He would group the ornaments together on the tree by color and size. I can’t decide if I wanna leave it like that, or spread them out!

Won’t be too many years away, and he probably won’t care anything about helping me with the tree… So I might leave them like that just for fun.

The Toy Catalog

2011-11-15T22:07:00.001-06:00

Sunday before last, the Wal-Mart & Target toy catalogs came in the Sunday paper. So, Friday night, I gave Garrett a pen and said circle things you like…

Wouldn’t ya know it, being 3 years and 11 months old, he circled pretty much everything in there.

Except girl things. Funny how he already knows that Barbies are for girls, so he quickly vocalizes this and skips over those pages. He says “some day Gina will like these, but not right now”.

And back to circling for Garrett…

There were QR codes in both catalogs, so he would look for the “clues”, I would scan it with my phone, and we would watch the video.

It’s crazy to me that this year, he is circling more big boy items… Like transformers, wrestlers, cars, video games, legos, and every other thing in there.

The {Other} Lynn Ladies Came to Visit

2011-11-13T22:28:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, I rented another lens (see my first lens rental post here). I used LensPro2Go.com again, but I upgraded the lens just a bit. I rented the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II. I took some pics at Jace’s football game on Friday night (I’ll post some of those soon), but I also used it at home!

I am sitting with my back against a chair next to the kitchen table to take this one, just to give you an idea of the space between me & my Gina. Now, on to the exersaucer… Molly brought Kali & Presley down for the night on Saturday, and Rachael was bringing Grace & Trace over, so I brought down the exersaucer from the attic for the babies After I wiped it down with clorox and put a blanket underneath (because I wasn’t sure if either baby would be long enough to reach the bottom)… someone took up shop in there.

Cutie…

Oh my sweet girl…

This is the moment that she noticed Lily’s picture above the mantle in the living room! “Yee-yee!!!!” She was very proud of herself!

I went out to the fence to take some pics of the house, and this sweet little moment occurred…

Finally! Our friends arrived! And it was a beautifully perfect fall day, so there was a whole lotta playing outside! It’s funny that every kid that comes over wants to order food when they sit down at this table. Garrett’s order is almost always some french fries and strawberries.

“could you just put down the camera, mom, and put me in the swing?”

Beautiful little Grace!

Pretty red fall leaves behind my little swinging girl!

And Lily… Always there to guard the babies.

Trace in his owl hat! Isn’t he the cutest!? I don’t think he fell asleep, I think the sun was just in his eyes.

I was trying to get all 4 in the pic, but with all the swinging, plus, I was in charge of swinging Grace & Gina (Rachael was pushing Trace & Garrett), I only got a couple of shots. You can barely see the crimson on Garrett’s shirt just past Grace…

Nanny & Poppa arrived! Here’s Nanny attempting to hold her 2 little girlies…

What is it about this tree that draws the kids? With Kali being the oldest, she was pretty much in charge during this day. She was drawing up a treasure map for Garrett. Grace & Gina were just looking on at this point, I’m guessing. Once it got dark, they played with glow sticks, going back & forth between the garage & the back yard & upstairs.

“MOM!! Stop taking our picture! We are looking for treasure!”

Sweet Kali girl… She turned 9 this week!

Gina & her Poppa.

5 month old Trace hanging out on the couch…

These 2 are just under 20 days apart I believe. And Presley has not yet reached Trace’s birth weight of 12 lbs. Presley was so obsessed with him! She wanted to touch his ears and hold his hand… It was too cute!

And see the 3rd set of feet in the pic? Those would belong to last year’s baby (Gina).

Trace got to enjoy the exersaucer while under supervision of his big sister, Grace…

And of course, Gina was all about giving some sugars!

“FEED ME!!!!”. Haha!

While everyone was watching football, I snuck out to the front yard to take some night time pics of the house all lit up…

And here’s the deadliest part of the alarm system… Do you see her?

Such a great Saturday! Molly, Rachael & I with all the kids + Nanny & Poppa, and even Mimi & Poppa Don stopped by! Kelly came over when he was done with drill. We ate, watched football, played, and chatted, and just had an all around great day.

The Christmas Tree is UP!

2011-11-08T21:48:00.001-06:00

After gymnastics tonight (which, by the by, is going swimmingly!), we ran by the store to get chocolate milk, super glue (used all I had last night) and duct tape. Did you know that duct tape now is now perforated every inch or so? Even Garrett was able to rip a piece off! Genius!! We got home, had some grilled cheese sandwiches (along with some honey crisps apples dipped in peanut butter & some strawberries!), and got to work on finishing up the ole Christmas tree!

Ok… so we got it up, and then it was bath time for the little G’s. So we’ll fluff it out tomorrow night and add a couple of more lights.

You know, some other bloggers talk about “getting real” and “putting it all out there”. I don’t know what’s more “real” or “out there” than my naked-and-not-even-fluffed-yet Christmas tree… And this: My awesome redneck handiwork below…

Yep. That’s some black duct tape and some pieces of a Pampers diaper box holding it up & propping it up. That is REAL right there, folks.

But before bath time, two certain someones had some fun in the Christmas tree box (these next 3 were taken with my iPhone).

I love the age that Garrett’s at… He would pull the cardboard shut and I would say “where’d Garrett go?!” and he would crack up and scream “mommy!! It’s ok! I’m in HEEERRRRRE!”.

“Alright, guys, look at my phone!!! Saaaaay chicken nuggets!!!” and Garrett looks at the Christmas tree. Perfect.

We TRIED To Put Up the Christmas Tree

2011-11-07T20:42:00.001-06:00

This morning, after our crazy busy weekend, Garrett was a bit slow waking up. He wasn’t cranky, or whiney… just really had trouble waking up. So, I tried to think of an easy bribe to get him out of bed… I asked him if he would like to put up the Christmas Tree after school! I mean, I had planned on doing it this week anyway, so why not, right? In one swift move, he was up, and getting dressed! And kept telling me “mommy! I’m getting dressed happily so we can put up the Christmas tree today!”.

When we got home, I had a super awesome (just for no reason!!) card waiting for me in the mail! It was from my great friend Jen, and it sang the theme song from (my absolute favorite ever) tv show, Friends. So, Gina, along with her banana, was walking around dancing to the music all evening!

Today, an order of girl scout popcorn I ordered a month or so ago came in at work. One of the popcorns I ordered came in this cute little lunchbox tin. Garrett thought that was just about the coolest thing EVER! He even has it in his bed tonight.

After our dinner of some Schwans Chicken parm, mashed potatoes, and strawberries… We went to the attic and got out the Christmas tree!! My super awesome 2 helpers nearly killed me when I was trying to get the Christmas tree just out of the attic. They were both right under my feet (plus Lily too), and I was trying not to drop the Christmas tree on one of them! So they were both then banished to sitting on the couch until I got it safely down the stairs.

We got the base put together, and the bottom piece out…

We figured out the wiring…

A certain someone thought a certain something could potentially be a lasso…

See Lily over there behind the door on the right? She’s pretty smart sometimes, and stays completely out of the way of the Insane Duo.

And this is the final picture of the Christmas Tree stand intact. Right after I took this one, I lifted the bottom half of the Christmas Tree into the stand, and CRACK. One of the four base pieces snapped off. So, I super glued it back, and I’m going to give it a good 24 hours to dry.

After gymnastics tomorrow night, we’ll finish it up! Stay tuned!