Off to the races

Santa brought our family two more Wii controllers and wheels so that we can do what Ian likes to do best for family time and that is.....Mario Kart Wii.

Here is our first ever 4 person race.....quickly changed to 3 person after we had humored Livy. She does like to hold the wheel, drive, and shake it but that is about all.

Messy Messy

Livy has decided it is time to start learning to feed herself. I'll be glad to be able to eat a meal and taste my food again instead of merely inhaling it so for now, we only do meal time near a source of running water :)

Liver Day Celebration

We celebrated Ian's first liver day yesterday with green cupcakes topped with green frosting and sprinkles and for dinner we had what else but pizza our usual celebration dinner. We made it a year without a rejection episode and that has been a wonderful miracle for our family. I am filled with all sorts of joy!

Ian also had his preschool program on his Liver Day and I had to choke back tears while at the program thinking how different things were a year ago. He did a great job with his part. Livy however was mostly a wiggle worm through the entire thing so my pictures are somewhat blurring because of her jostling the camera.

It is hard to believe that we are already at the year mark for his transplant. Our hearts are full of gratitude for the family, friends, donor family, medical staff, and Heavenly Father who made this possible.

Finally Done

I finished my Christmas shopping late last night. I think this is a record for me to be so late into the month. I still have a ton of wrapping to do and will try to tackle that this weekend. I so love the wrapping part....in fact Brett often puts my stuff in boxes for me to wrap as he doesn't like doing it and I do :)

Livy has successfully managed to pull (and mangle) a few ornaments off the tree but honestly has done a lot better with it than I thought.

And if anyone has ideas as to how to fend off the question of if it is Christmas yet, please share. We have two advent calendars we are using plus a countdown chain with an activity for each day and yet somehow I still get asked almost daily if Santa will be making his visit tonight. This same questioner is very anxious for Frosty to come on TV and I keep checking listing for this.....please let me not miss setting the DVR!

I am reading a collection of Christmas stories and have found joy in hearing the tale of the shoemaker again this year as I have not read it for a long time now. I love how Christmas is a Holiday for young and old to enjoy!

Family Thanksgiving

This year my family got together at Hilton Head (less my brother and his family--we missed you!) It was a wonderful week. The weather wasn't overly great but that was ok b/c we had tons of stuff to keep us occupied like craft projects,
walking the beach (livy did better at not eating as much sand),
making christmas goodies to share (love the faces here),
ladies going to see New Moon
and of course eating thanksgiving dinner.

We had so much fun and much to be grateful for. On to Christmas :)

Similiarities

So this is me as a one year old........

And this is L as a one year old.....

Any similarities?

Guess How Much?

I know that lots of people out there can score big with bargains and couponing--I am trying. This is my small victory today at Publix which I am really starting to like not only because they have great deals but also because they are so customer centric--loading my groceries, helping unbuckle the kids, etc.

So this is what I bought today....

Four boxes of Chex cereal

Three boxes of Special K cereal

One box Honey Maid Grahams

Two boxes Betty Crocker Potatoes

One package Nestle Toll House Morsels

Three packages Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough

Three cans of Hunts Tomatoes

Two jars Ragu Pasta Sauce

Here is my picture of my purchases (for less than $15) that made me have to finagle again with where to store everything.

Halloween

Our brainy idea of the wagon

on Halloween was thwarted a bit by the in and out motif...something that we had not planned on. So after about 3 houses on our street we traded the wagon in for a stroller. Livy came home before Ian and was thrilled with the treats that came out of her sack.Ians sack was filled with lots of stuff including some full size candy bars. They had a great time out and about in 70 degree weather!

Halloween Preparations

So at our house we have been busy getting ready for Halloween or at least trying to get ready for Halloween. We did a trial run of the costumes....please let me know if you think Livy should be the pumpkin or the lady bug. I am torn.

We went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin (complete with Ian falling on a pumpkin stem and scraping his face and getting a bruise)

We made the treat for Ian's preschool class.....a baby food jar with spray painted lid filled with regular and chocolate goldfish for the "orange and black" colors of Halloween--we opted for the non-candy route this year.

Holiday Busy Already

So I am a planner by nature and with the Holidays coming up in the next months I want to "plan my work and then work my plan". I love this time of year....good treats, good food, family time, and good fun!!! My family is getting together at Thanksgiving so I need to have a lot of Christmas stuff done by then which is why I started early. I have seen Holiday Books to help keep one organized and decided to just create one of my own. It will help keep things like important dates, gift lists, traditions, menus, recipes in one quick spot. Both kids have "helped" me color things. So here is my creation :)

Turning One

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIVIA!!!

Ian and I made some party hats today for the festivities and guess who wore hers the least????? I took countless pictures trying to get one with her wearing the hat in it.

We opened presents....fisher price talking purse and the upgraded model of the old school record player (now a CD player).

And of course had some cake smashing too....I made a flower cake and a tiny one for Livy to have all to herself. Oh the goo but so worth the joy!

Preparations

Hard to believe that Livy is coming up on her first birthday! So in preparation for the princess' day we have....

Painted toenails in princess pink (in a quick dry formula of course) for the first time

Stamped wrapping paper

Tried on the dress for the one year picture

Experimented with the tiniest barretts I have ever seen

What will Friday ever bring???

Sore Muscles

We mulched our front flower beds this past weekend and prior to that Brett laid nice brick edging around them to keep the mulch in place as every time it rained we would watch our mulch wash away.

To showcase our efforts here is a before picture.....

And here is the after picture--please ooh and ahh :)

All about food

Other than our recent trip to the ER, we've been up to a lot of activies that involve food so here is our post.

We got all decked out in Hokie wear to get the free chicken sandwhich at Chick-Fil-A on labor day. The sandwhiches were great but the wait of 20+ minutes in a very crowded and tiny area with two hungry and wiggly kids, was so not worth it. I have told Brett to remind me of that experience when I tell him about another freebie. (Please disgregard the awful photo attempt in the mirror and the messy bathroom counter.)

We discovered that we had an apple tree in our backyard....well a very tiny one that produced 3 apples. We picked them as Ian needed one for preschool this past week (letter A day). The branches were suprisingly sharp so Ian was a bit hestitant about getting poked.

And Livy who is 11 months old found a box of Cheerios (and shocking did not dump them everywhere). She sure wanted what was inside though. Brand imprinting at its best. She is our mountain goat already climbing to pursue things.

She also got her first corn on the cob on her month day in celebration of her fourth tooth (two on top and two on the bottom). And as we suspected, she LOVED it.

First Day

Today was Ian's first day of preschool and he had an awesome time! No tears, loved every minute of it and basically the picture of what I was hoping it would be for him. We got there early, just like most of the class so we had to wait around for a few for the class to open. Every mom there had a camera with her to document the all important "first day" moments. When I returned to pick Ian up and asked him about his day he told me all about who was naughty; hopefully, he won't ever need to include himself in that list.

We opted to park instead of doing the "drive through" lane today. Ian had his special Thomas backpack ready to go.

The teacher put name tags on everyone's back so she could tell who was who.

And of course Livy thought it was all for her and couldn't resist playing with the toys and kids.

He is already looking forward to preschool tomorrow.

Sprinkler

We went to playgroup today at the Sprinkler. It was a great day for the sprinkler as there were hardly any other kids (school starting again is great for that) and it wasn't baking hot sunshine. Today was especially nice also because L could stand and walk so I didn't have to carry her and hold her the whole time--it was delightful!

I captured some great moments (in my humble mommy opinion) at with the kiddos having fun in the water. I will miss you Sprinkler when you close for the year in a few weeks.

our vacation

I've not updated our blog for a while as we've been in Virginia visiting family and friends. It was a great trip--just not the getting there part. Our DVD player stopped working on our return journey at around Charlotte.

We also were racing to come back to make a 4pm doctor appointment for both kids that I set up that morning begging for the latest appointment as we would be coming from VA. BOTH kids turned out to have pretty gnarly ear infections and are now on antibiotics. I'm glad to know that at least there was some reason for the rotten sleep all of us got the last few nights.

So here are some of our highlights of our trip (in no particular order)

Canning beans (twice--I think the count was something like 88 pints)

Visiting the caboose park (Ian wouldn't climb on it once we got there)

Awesome haircut

Dinner with old High School band friends atMacado's

Lots of great afternoon naps for me while Grandma watched the kiddos (why can't you store sleep?)

Shopping with my Mom (great deals on capri's!)

Picking corn from the garden

Playing in the Virginia Room

Ian digging trenches in the garden (so that he could be "just like scoop" from bob the builder)

Playing with the water table

Shopping without the kiddos

Swimming with friends (sorry we were late)

Boucing balls with Ian (what a thigh workout!)

Twisty string cheese (I've told Ian that orange string cheese is only at Grandma's)

Playing $100,000 Pyramid game show with Mom late at night

Shopping at Kroger (sadness that they no longer sell hulless popcorn)

Watching the neighbors cat "Leroid" (real name is Elroy)

Girls night out (wonderful ginger cookies and conversation and stamping cards)

Hamster Wheel (termed the "Tramster wheel" by Ian)

Bubbles in the VA room

Die cutting foam and felt at Pulaski Library (the alphabet I started two years ago is complete)

Visiting Thrift stores for books (got a Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton for kids Christmas)

Here are some pictures from our journey and more are on my facebook page if you want to see them!

I hear a symphony

The sound of the garage door opening signaling Brett returning from work is just music to my ears, like a symphony. The kids tackle daddy and I well I want to run and lock myself in the bedroom for a few minutes of peace. Nothing like getting tackled!