23. electric
Look very closely. Look very closely to the top of Sam's head. Girl has been blessed with static electricity, just like her mom.
24. stripes
I think I'm on the tail end of a love affair with chevron stripes, but this is Sam's Valentine's Day Date Night dress. Two years ago Chris took Cara to Chik Fil A's Daddy Daughter Date Night and last year since Sam was older he took them both. It has become a new tradition for V-Day and this year I have decided to get two beautiful dresses that will be boxed and wrapped, and Chris will give to the girls before their date. I mean, what girl doesn't want a new dress for a date!
25. landscape
Literally, a week after our last winter storm warning that never came, we got another one. And again, nothing came. So as I sat at work pondering the idea of a snowy Friday, I goggled a snow filled landscape to make as my screensaver. Fingers still crossed for GA snow!
26. together
I went completely unpredictable with this word, and snapped a pairing that I think looks so nice together; strawberries and blueberries. The colors, the contrasting shapes, the rough, seedy exterior of a strawberry mixed with a smooth, fuzzy blueberry...just a simply sweet sight. And the almonds fit together with a heart healthy snack!
27. sun
This is literally the only thing we've done in January when the sun has been out. Obsessed!
28. through
I think it's fair to say most kids love ice cream. I feel awful for the unfortunate cases of lactose intolerance, but generally speaking kids go gah gah for ice cream. It's also probably safe to say that most people detest the feeling of "brain freeze". You know when you eat something really cold, too fast and your head experiences weird sensations, like your brain is screaming "I'm too cold to think!". Okay, so most people don't like that. Well, Cara either a.) doesn't mind brain freeze or b.) doesn't get brain freeze because that child goes through a dish of ice cream in less than 120 seconds. The only other person I know who can do that is my best friend, Tina. And fitting enough, they share the same middle name.
29. grow
Last night we rented "Hotel Transylvania" and what's better is The Sherer's, over a 1,000 miles away, rented it at the same time. It's important to me that although our kids will grow up apart, they won't grow apart.
18. shadow
I could take a picture of a shadow any day, but this day really stood out, because after 4 days of straight rain, the sun peeked it's way back into Acworth. The girls were literally driving me crazy, stuck inside, so these shadows were VERY welcome shadows!
19. delicious
Saturday night, Cara and I met my Mom, Dad, Ryan and Paola for dinner. We were supposed to go to the delicious Henry's in Acworth, but after a 2 hour wait was revealed we opted for a quaint little tavern. You know what's more delicious than Henry's? Having dinner with your family on a Saturday night :)
20. something you saw
I know I've raved on Pinterest many times before, but I absolutely adore this website for party planning. I really have come to enjoy planning parties, but more so the little details that go into it. Perusing Pinterest Sunday night, I saw this dump truck set up. I instantly forwarded it to my BFF who's son loves everything trucks. Fingers crossed she lets me plan birthday numero dos!
21. what you do
I raise two totally normal, well adjusted toddlers.
22. corner
Came to bed last night at 11 PM, and was given the corner of the bed. I love how they lay across the bed. Such a cozy night's sleep I had...
I discovered the Pioneer Woman through a Pinterest recipe I came across last year. I don't remember the exact recipe, but I know it was delicious. I know that, because now when I want to find a recipe, I start at her website. So this week I wanted to make a roasted chicken and moseyed on over to her site, finding a recipe that I felt confident I could do. Based on her pictures (my favorite part!), I assumed I could handle it. Take a chicken, rinse, butter it up, pop it in the oven. Being new to buttering poultry, I was unaware of the hatred butter feels for the skin of a chicken. And maybe it's just me, but my butter outright REFUSED to slather all over the chicken. I took a picture of my product vs. Ree's (she has a real name) and I don't think I have to tell you which one is mine.
I nailed it, lol. But honestly, my final product looked pretty tasty. Regardless of the fact that I've decided I will never roast a chicken again. Buying a Publix Mojo rotisserie for $8 is wayyyyy better than handling raw bird, fighting butter, and re-basting every thirty minutes.
15. an ordinary moment
I wanted to capture a moment that I experience pretty frequently. Matty has become very privy to video chatting and enjoys calling his grandparents in PA since he doesn't see them often. Some nights I get lucky enough to receive a call from him, to which he either says "memo" and acts like I'm not there or yells for "Carda!". I think it's interesting that our children will find video chatting, ordinary moments. My, how we've progressed.
16. two things
In GA, we rarely get snow. I googled Atlanta's average annual snowfall and its a measly 2 inches. So this week snow was a possibility in our forecast. Cara's teacher, Mrs. Collins, told her to do two things if she wanted it to snow. She had to wear her PJs backwards and cross her fingers. I knew nothing about this until Cara jumped up, shoving her arms in her sleeves wiggling around, shouting "I have to wear my PJs backwards!". I found this to be so adorable and nixed my original 2 things idea for this.
17. ready
So, the day for probable snow arrived and I shot a picture of Sam checking for the flurries to fall. I had dinner in the crock pot, the fire on, plenty of milk and bread...we were READY! Annnnnd, I type this at 7 AM from a snow-less city in Georgia. :(
11. water
I'm not gonna lie that this is a stretch, and I'm not gonna lie that I kinda forgot about day 11 BUT it kind of works out. I had taken a picture of a birthday gift Chris got Matt to send to Tina, and it's of a mason jar of moonshine. When realizing I had forgotten day 11, I saw this and thought of turning "water into wine" and figured hey, water can probably turn into moonshine too then. Voila, I found some water.
12. surprise
The biggest surprise of the weekend was hitting mid 70's in January. It was a beautiful weekend though!
13. circle
I was trying to decide what kind of circle to take a picture of, not wanting it to be literal and I decided to focus in on the day we had. It was a big day for us Falcon's fans with our first playoff win in years and the first playoff win as a fan. Sunday, we "circle"d around the falcons, and it was awesome!
14. something yellow
I have followed a website for over a year now called KrazyKouponLady.com. It's a website dedicated to saving money, which I adore! I do a lot of gift shopping through this site, saving 50% and more on discounted clothes and toys, various websites running sales, free shipping deals, etc. Yesterday they updated this wonderful banana slicer was a $1 something on Amazon, so I bought it for this banana loving family. And it turned out to be something yellow.
Previously mentioned, Falcons rose up! Cara sported some new bangs for the big game...
And then I decided to get Sam's cut so they'd both be less "chopped" for their father daughter date night next month. Excuse the cream cheese...
9. paper
These papers happen to be work notes and various resources for a temp job I started this month. I have been a stay at home mom for 4 of the 5 years I've had children, with the last 3 being consecutive. That's a lot of corporate adult time I've missed. This new job has been exciting, challenging, rewarding and educational. These "papers" remind me how grateful I am for new experiences.
10. one o'clock
This is where Sam and I were today at one o'clock. Invariably, you can find us at this Publix during a lot of o'clocks of the day. My cashier responded to my "thanks" today with "see you tomorrow". I kinda *love* having a place, where everyone knows your face.
Something I'm attempting...
So each day, I take a photo that applies to the given word. Here are my first 8 days:
1. today
This really explains my New Year's Day. Myself and the family were particularly lazy. And the slippers indicate that this very day was a cold one. And also touches on my laziness...
2. something new
I saw a NEW movie with my Mom and Val. It was an awesome movie. And I got to share it with some of my favorite people. My picture stinks because I remembered to take it once the lights were off :/
3. heart
We went to the American Girl bistro, and had dessert. These little girls (and dessert) have my heart!
4. the view from here
At karaoke for Val's birthday, this was my view. He was a white rapper, who sang "shake your moneymaker".
5. movement
Sam always catches the best movement shots. Her candid photos are priceless.
6. mine
I took this photo of Cara, after saying goodbye to Val, Cali and Lucas. I posted it as "mine" because her sense of sadness and longing after saying goodbye is all me. That's my kid right there. Mine.
7. street
That would be my new car, in front of my street. Reminds me to be thankful for my husband who makes it all possible :)
8. something beginning with "t"
toddler. she's 100% toddler.
Happy New Year! I wanted to touch on our New Year's Eve briefly, because it was the most fun NYE I've had since 2006. And real quick, let me touch on 2006. It's the only NYE I went out. I was dating Chris, and we joined Christina and her then boyfriend at a place called Diamond Dave's. Chris and I would frequent this place for the outstanding people watching. So we go there for NYE, get there at like 11:30 PM and are shoulder to shoulder that's how packed it is. It's loud, there's a DJ, as promised - fantastic people watching, and we are thirsty. Chris and Christina's then boyfriend (best to keep him out of this), head to the bar. It's prob 11:50 when they leave and now the DJ is yelling, YELLING, 2 more minutes. Then it's 1 more minute. Then we're in countdown mode. I am anxiously searching the crowds for Chris, in a bit of a panic, that we won't kiss at midnight. Weighing heavily in the back of my mind is that saying "how you spend your NYE is how you spend your year". I don't want my year spent NOT getting to kiss this guy I like so much!! So now it's 7, 6, 5...and I'm full on in a sweat. But then, it happened. Like straight out of a movie, the crowd started to part, and there was Chris holding our drinks, barreling through a crowd of people to get to me. 1! Happy New Year! He made it! And I got my kiss at midnight. 7 kisses later, our NYE, not nearly as cinematic, will be a forefront in my memory. We spent this year at home, with the girls. I started some new traditions. We played games. We danced. We sang. We ate good food. We drank good champagne. And the night ended with fireworks. How can you argue with that?! It was a simple, yet memorable evening, that I'm glad we stayed in for. Partying with our kids turns out to be a lot of fun!!
As for my new tradition...
I revamped the Christmas tree to be a New Year's Tree. I hung lots of balloons on it, among other festive silver and black items, and on each hour starting at 8 PM, we'd all pop a balloon. Most of the balloons had lottery tickets, but Cara, Sam and Chris each got a special prize balloon with a clue in it. The clue led them to various places where a prize was hidden. I loved doing this, because each hour had so much excitement to it! Sam didn't make it for the 11 PM popping, nor did she reach Midnight. Cara not only lasted until Midnight, but I'm pretty sure she was up until 1 AM.
I also set up a popcorn bar for the girls, which of course, they loved!
A great ending to the night was discovering our neighbors setting off HUGE fireworks. It seemed like our own personal show :)
I am back from my Christmas blog break! No, I don't really take a Christmas blog break. I get lazy during Christmas (i.e. the month of December), and neglect things that are important and come January I get to play catch up. So here I am, catching up with my blog.
Christmas 2012 was fantastic, per usual with the group of people I have in my life! We are blessed, blessed, blessed! And I'm talking more than just gifts. Because I know growing up that's what I cared about, and I'd be lying if I said I don't still get excited to give AND receive gifts, but as I get older, Christmas just keeps getting better. I appreciate the true meaning more. I appreciate the amount of people I get to have in my company during the "holidays". I appreciate the saying "cheer up, it's the holidays" and using that excuse to get people out of their funks. And I especially appreciate the ending of a year and being healthy enough to celebrate it. Boy, do things change as you grow up!
I know two little girls who see Christmas not much more than presents, Santa, elves, cookies, glitter, ornaments, lights and fun! And I'm okay with that. As they grow, I will make sure they understand the true meaning.
Christmas Eve was spent traditionally with the Kenny side, at our home. We cooked up a ham and had a wonderful feast, complimented with great company. As the night calmed down, Chris and I took the girls to look at lights, having our own magical polar (cough, camry) express. I saw the idea on Pinterest and loved that it would wind the girls down before bed. Worked so well, Sam zonked in the car and Cara barely made it upstairs before she fell asleep. New tradition, check. Christmas morning came early for Santa and his elf who got to assemble a Barbie dream house of 2,347 piecess. The girls were delighted! We all were spoiled with some great new gifts! Christmas day was continued at our house, joined by the Gale clan. It was a terrific day of relaxing, frying a turkey and enjoying each others company! Like I said before we are blessed!
New stuff...
Gingerbread cookies and home made chocolate chip cookies for Santa, yum!
SOME of the people who make it all worth while (I have ZERO pictures of Christmas Eve, and those people make it worth while too!)
