Thankful for Cousins

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. One thing I love about our family is the ability to go with the flow. Our original plan was to arrive at Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving day, drive straight to Aaron's aunt's house and meet the family there for the meal, then spend the rest of the weekend at his parent's. It did not go over like that though. Tuesday night our heat went out. Yes, we live in the south and it's not as cold as other places in our country, but it was C-O-L-D in our house. I think 58 or something. Caroline was already in bed, so we got her up and all tried to tough it out in our bed together. She thought it was time to play though and we were all getting colder and colder. So, about midnight we packed up, woke up my parents, and spent the night over there. We decided to head on to his parent's on Wednesday night to escape the cold house. We had a repair man out Wednesday but he wasn't going to be able to fix it until Monday.

Quickly fast forward to today. I wait and wait for the heater repair man to arrive and make my home warm again. He doesn't come. Long story short, we ended up going with someone else who luckily was able to come late this afternoon and fix it. We have heat again! I'm very thankful for a warm house, and also for families who were willing to take us in at the last minute.

This year at Thanksgiving, the girls (Caroline and Annalise) wore almost matching dresses. There were a few differences in the dresses, but we discovered we had the dresses when Steph was here a few months ago. Once we realized we had the dresses, we knew they had to wear them.





We are so thankful for Annalise and her sweet parents and so glad they're growing up together!

Deep Fried Festival

This post is a bit overdue, but I had more important things on my mind to blog about, so I put this off. However, a few weeks ago we attended a huge festival that comes to our fair city once a year. The festival boasts of peanuts, fried Snickers bars, elephant ears (mine and Caroline's favorite), corn dogs, and fried Twinkies. Oh, and rides also. Rides for $1.25 a ticket...not a family on a budgets dream. We were all set to decline riding anything, but Caroline got really excited about the carousel and her sweet Opa ran off to purchase tickets for her to ride, stating, "That's what Opa's are for!"




He bought her not one, but two rides! She loved it and had a blast!

We feasted that night on corn dogs, healthy right? The local corn dog man makes enough money at this yearly festival to keep from working for the entire rest of the year! He says he still takes his homemade corn dogs to other events, but he chooses too. It's unreal...but seriously, they are good corn dogs! We also had an elephant ear. This was Caroline's first time at the festival and her first elephant ear...she thoroughly enjoyed it!



She's really enjoying her elephant ear treat! Speaking of elephants...



Yes, that is Caroline and her daddy watching Aunt KK, Uncle Jud and our friends Will and Kristen ride on an elephant. We did not opt to let Caroline ride.

All in all a fun time with the fam!

Holly Jolly Savings

All over our hometown there are Christmas tress and other decorations popping up. At this time of year I begin to feel sorry for Thanksgiving. A lot of businesses and homeowners just move from Halloween to Christmas, leaving Thanksgiving in a lurch. I used to save all my Christmas shopping and decorating until after Thanksgiving, in an effort to support the holiday of giving thanks. Since having Caroline though...my thoughts have changed a bit. At least on the shopping part.

Aaron and I both grew up getting a lot of gifts for Christmas. I do not want to leave anyone with the impression that our parents spoiled us, or gave in to us, or just gave us everything we wanted...but, we both got more than we ever needed or probably even wanted for Christmas. We try and live on a budget, but aside from that even, we talked about holiday spending in our family before Caroline was born. We were both in agreement that we wanted to give her gifts and enjoy the giving part of the season, but we also wanted the holiday to be about more than gifts. We have some plans about how to instill the joy of giving, rather than receiving, in her when she's a little older, but for now, we're just trying very hard to be reasonable and frugal with her gifts.

If you're willing to share, I'd love to know how your family keeps from spending an arm and a leg on Christmas. We have family members we shop for, and friends we exchange with. Our list is small in comparison to many friends I've talked with, and we set a definitive budget and stick to it. Sticking to it is the difficult part....especially with Caroline. Remember when I said in an earlier paragraph that I no long wait until after Thanksgiving to shop? Toys R Us had a large sale on Fisher Price toys back in April (I think)...it was buy a toy for $25 or more, and get a $25 or less toy for free. We took advantage of this and spent $30 to get Caroline her "big" Christmas gift and birthday gift. I felt good about it. However, I keep seeing other things in the stores I want to get for her! Aaron (the more frugal minded one in our relationship, although I've come a long way...) patiently reminds me that we've already gotten her gifts. Not only those 2, but we got a couple more things for Caroline and other kiddos in our lives when KB Toys went out of business and slashed their prices. I also take advantage of sales at Books-a-Million. W-O-W can you get some books for cheap there when they've got a good sale going on!

I digress...

I've been using sales and coupons and I'm under budget for Christmas and I'm almost done. I would love hints from any of you about how you save. Some of you are probably a lot better than I am and make gifts. I have no crafty talents whatsoever, except I can make pillowcase dresses, but there's not a huge need for pillowcase dresses on our list of gifts to buy.

Oh! Before I forget....

There are some great Target coupons here. Right now you can get a box of 72 Up and Up baby wipes for $1.29...use the $1 off coupon on this site and get the box for $0.29. I don't usually use Target wipes, but I couldn't pass this deal up. Go and stock up if you can! On that same site are other Target coupons, including some for toys. :)

Sorry for rambling in this post!

for the grandparents...

Birthday Girl

This week we've been celebrating Caroline's second birthday. In fact, today marks 2 years since her due date. It's so hard to believe she's already 2! Time is whizzing by in rapid fashion, which is so hard to comprehend. Didn't I just have my first prenatal appointment? Didn't we just find out we were having a daughter? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was on bed rest? Didn't I just have her...yesterday?! Nope, that was all 2 years ago!

It's long been said that time flies when you're having fun, and we definitely have a lot of fun, so I suppose that old saying has merit. What a joy she is in our lives. She has given us more happiness and more blessings than I could have imagined. I thank the Lord for the joy she is and I pray we raise her in a way that's pleasing in His sight. She is a wonderful, special, beautiful (inside and out) little ray of sunshine in our lives! I love spending my days with her and I am thankful to my husband for working so hard to provide for us so I can be home with her.

We had family come in town and had a small party for her on Saturday. Last year, she wasn't thrilled with everyone singing to her and watching her dig into her cake. She cried at being the center of attention, and did not like it when her hand was pushed into the cake. What a stark contrast that scene is to this year! She loved her party this year and spent most of the morning gazing at her cake.





Once it was actually time to eat the cake, we all gathered around and sang to her. She loved having everyone sing to her. She listened and grinned, and when we finished, she clapped emphatically and giggled and loved it! She leaned forward and tried to take a big bite out of the cake! We don't have a picture, only a video. I have no clue how to get a video from my camera onto here. (Sorry grandparents!) I put some on a plate for her and she dug right in!





On er actual birthday Aaron was off work and we took her to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. (I had a coupon!) She loved it and had a blast. There was no real need for us to purchase tokens, because she had a lot of fun just running around. She did ride a few of the rides and enjoyed the huge singing Chuck E. in the corner.





It was a fun week and a fun birthday. We got to spend a lot of time together as a family, which is always great. I'm hoping time will slow down a bit, but regardless, we're savoring her toddler years!

The Fall

Over the past 2 years there have been moments (or hours, or days) where I stop and ask myself if I'm really cut out to be a homemaker and stay-at-home mom. These moments have gotten fewer as the years have gone by and I've grown more comfortable in my role in the home. In fact, most days now I am proud of the job I do and the home I keep. You know what they say though....pride goeth before the fall.

We're having a Gospel Meeting at church this week. (It's excellent too--if you're in our area, we would love for you to come. Every morning at 10 and evenings at 7. The speaker is Kenny Marrs and he's excellent.) Anyway, because the meeting makes our life much more busy and slightly more hectic, I have planned simple suppers each night, with the exception of Wednesday when I will host the speaker and his wife. Tonight was a simple, delicious and fairly nutritious casserole. I went to prepare the dish at about 4:45pm tonight. Aaron arrives home between 5:30 and 6:00 each evening. It's not a long cooking meal, but I wanted to give myself plenty of time. Anyhow, as I was gathering my ingredients I realized I was one ingredient short. After all my careful planning, I fell slightly right here. A quick inspection and I realize I didn't have anything else that could be whipped up quickly, so I loaded Caroline up in the car and ran to Bruno's for that one ingredient. 15 minutes and $0.97 later, I'm home and I've got my dish going. I get the meat browned and I'm ready to drain it. In the spirit of saving time, I decide to drain the meat over the trash can, using the lid to keep the meat in the skillet. Oh, and may I add that I've got a crying and whining toddler who is unhappy that I've sent her into the grotto to play while I cook. You can probably guess what's coming next. As I'm draining the meat, the lid slips and half of it ends up in the trash can. I fall a little more then, but I'm still proud and thinking I may be able to salvage some of it. Once I've got my meat ready (half still in the can, salvaging didn't work out so well...) I let it simmer in the pan with the tomatoes while I layer the casserole. I get everything ready to go and I layer the meat in...only to realize that I've forgotten to layer the kidney beans before the meat. I've completely fallen at this point and I'm no longer proud of my supper. I add the beans, do a little stir and get it in the oven. It's a slightly different rendition of a favorite around here, Taco Casserole, but I'm hoping it will be fine.

This weekend was the small birthday bash. I'm planning to post more tomorrow, but for now, let me leave you with a reminder of her birthday last year....

Little Ladybug

Caroline was a ladybug for Halloween this year.





We had a fun, but tiring weekend! We started our weekend a bit early with a high school football game on Thursday night. There is only one stadium here in town and the two high schools share it, so sometimes one of them will have a game on Thursday night instead of Friday. A good friend of ours from church plays for the team, as a freshman, and although he didn't get any playing time, he dressed out for varsity and we are proud of him! We didn't get home until 10pm, so it was a late night for Caroline, but she LOVED the game. She was cheering and clapping, and she LOVED the band. I told her she could be in band like her Aunt La if she wanted. :) At one point she was standing up next to me, swaying with her eyes closed and moving her arms to the music. She looked like a hippie.

Friday night we met a group of friends at a small, local Italian restaurant to celebrate and husband and wife's birthdays. They're 2 days apart. It was fun, but Caroline was a bit cranky and she had to be taken out. We're having some fit-throwing issues lately. I pray we're consistent and loving as we discipline. The Lord has given us such an awesome responsibility in raising her and each and every time we discipline her we remind ourselves that although it is hard, we're shaping who she's going to be. We want her to love the Lord, and be a polite and respectable lady6, so we're striving to that goal. We covet the prayers of our friends and family as we enter the "Terrible Twos."

Saturday was a great day! The Tigers pulled out a win and we were happy! It was a fun game to watch too--I even got excited more than once! That night we took Caroline out Trick or Treating, but only to a few of our friends houses. We just drove around and got in and out of the car. It was fun to see them all dressed up too. We went a little early so everyone would still be home. We ended up at Poppy and Granny's and they not only gave her candy, but were nice enough to feed all 3 of us pizza.

We've been struggling for a couple of weeks now with Caroline not wanting to go to Bible class. (Since we returned from Aaron's parent's.) She will scream and cry and hold onto us for dear life. It's been unsettling, because obviously we want her to go to Bible Class, but also because she's always LOVED going. Anyway, I've just been sitting with her in class, giving her some security and that seems to have helped. Sunday morning I sat with her about 10 minutes, and then was able to leave her. She did have her "Greenby" (security bear-blanket) with her, but her teachers were very supportive of her having him if it helped. One of them told me at one point Caroline was talking to him...hmmm...not sure if that's good or bad, but imaginative play is good for kiddos right? Regardless, Caroline and Greenby enjoyed Bible class together, without Mommy, and I'm glad!

We've got a busy 2 weeks ahead, but I will not forsake the blog! We're having a 2nd birthday (small) bash on Saturday, so I'll be back to chat about that! Until Then...