Christmas in a nutshell...

Garrett's school had a very cute concert for Christmas. I wish I could post the video, but I just can't figure out how and I'm sick of trying! This picture will have to do. Does the kid with his finger in his nose remind anyone else of Aron? Every time I see him I'm transported back to preschool myself! Anyway, such fun for a mom.

Garrett also had his class Christmas party and his last day at his preschool on the 19th. There were lots of tears and sobs (from me, not Garrett! Give me a break, I'm a first timer!). I've loved his school and his teachers so much! Leaving this school behind will probably be the hardest part of our move! (Oh yeah, we're moving back to California!!!! Merry Christmas to me!) Ms. Lynn and Ms. Lou have been so sweet and loving and they will be missed!

Ms. Lynn Ms. Lou

We've had a lot of fun this Christmas season. Other than the stress of a move looming, it has been great. Garrett is at such a fun age. He is old enough to understand the true meaning of Christmas, but still young enough to enjoy all the "magic". We had fun counting down the days, baking cookies, decorating a gingerbread house and singing carols. This year Garrett knew the words to more songs than just "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty".

We spent Christmas Eve with our entire "East Coast Family". A set of Great-Grandparents, Grandparents, some Aunts (pronounced onts on the east coast, not ants) and Uncles and a few cousins (all originally from Maine). It was a lot of fun and very crowded. Garrett scored on the gifts...wish Santa knew that, he wouldn't have had to bring so much!

Christmas morning was fun this year, too. I got my first "mom, have I slept long enough?". I didn't have the heart to tell him to stay in bed for a few more hours, but I should have. This has been a really long day! Garrett's favorite gift was his Monster Truck...or is it Tyler's favorite? It's hard to tell! My house looks like a tornado hit it and I've tried calculating how many more boxes I need to move all this new stuff, but I'm not going to think about that now, I'll think about it tomorrow! (I'm in Georgia, I can quote it if I want to!)

Decking the halls!

He really has an eye, doesn't he? I would've never thought to hang Thomas wrapping paper from every stationary item! Such a creative use for packing tape! If you ever need to remove paint from your walls, I've got just the product!

P.S. My kid asked for a Chia-Pet for Christmas. What do I do about this? Will Chia-Pets ever go away?!

Bloggerexia

I haven't blogged in a month! Trust me, giving up Diet Coke is not the most exciting thing to happen in the last month! I guess I'm just not as committed as my sister, Julie (by committed, I mean obsessed!).
Garrett and I just got back from a whirlwind trip out west. We flew from Atlanta to Chicago, where our 45 minute layover turned into about 45 seconds, then on to Las Vegas. Mom and Big Papa picked us up for our 2 hour car ride to Leeds, Utah (sounds crazy, but was so worth it!). Garrett was such a trooper.
We had Thanksgiving with my parents and my brother and his family . It was perfect! It was such a treat to see them all and it was really nice to have a small group for Thanksgiving. I love the whole group, but being the youngest of such a large family I start to get "Cindy Brady Syndrome". I secretly wonder if I'm going to end up at the kid table. I'm 30, I'm a mom, but some things stick with you.
We were able to see the rest of the family as they past through on the way to other destinations. Garrett played with all his cousins and had a great time. He was very lost in the fact that the mountains were so big and there were no trees. I guess he's been in Georgia for too long...no mountains and way too many trees!
When our 2 and a half weeks were up, we headed to Las Vegas to catch our flight home to Atlanta via Chicago...whew!

(I would include pictures, but we just had our computer "fixed" again and I can't download anything. Visit Julie's blog and imagine us in some of her pictures!)
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P.S. I am no longer off the sauce thanks to Diet Cokes biggest "pusher"! You know who you are! I am holding you personally responsible for my sleepless nights!

Two weeks off the sauce...

...Diet Coke, that is. I decided to give it a try and I'm proud to report success! It's amazing, I cut out Diet Coke and I don't need the aid of Benadryl to fall asleep at night! Imagine that. I actually feel great now that the headaches and shaking have subsided. Is that what drug detox feels like? Just kidding, it wasn't that hard. Julie, it's your turn, Mom and I have done it. Won't you join us on the wagon?

Welcome to the dark side!

Happy Halloween!

This has been the best Halloween! Garrett is at a fun age for costumes and trick-or-treating. Carving pumpkins was even fun and I hate that part! We took Garrett trick-or-treating in our town square and then to the mall. We were done by dark and home to pass out candy.

He's not just a member...

...he's also the President of "I-Love-Thomas-So-Much-I- Could-Just-Scream" (ILTSMICJS for short). Membership comes complete with: Polyester, zip-front warm-up jacket; Cotton blend Thomas shirt; Elastic waist jeans emblazoned with the Thomas logo; and for the real fan, Thomas underwear. We have Grammy to thank for this wonderful purchase. I will be lucky to get it off his body to wash it, let alone burn it! Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Thomas, I just hate that he has somehow gotten into my child's brain and taken control! How long can this condition last? Is there treatment? A 12 step program, perhaps? Where did I go wrong?

Happy Birthday Garrett!

It's Official, my baby is 4! He had a very special request for a birthday cake this year..."The Mystery Machine" from Scooby-Doo. O.K.?! All I could remember was that it looked like a 70's, stoner van so I did my best. It's a pretty sad version, but luckily Garrett isn't a very harsh critic. It tasted good!

Fish tales

We gave Garrett the choice of a birthday party with friends or camping as a family and presents from us. He chose wisely! We went camping this weekend and had a great time! Now I don't have to throw a party, which I usually love, except our house is a disaster area with projects going on all over the place. We'll still have a little family party on Tuesday with cake, but that's it. Happy 4th Birthday Garrett!

We camped on the Tallulah River, it was beautiful. We went fishing and Garrett was the only one to catch anything! It was a huge one, though! It gave a pretty good fight, but he totally conquered it! He is quite the fisherman and Tyler couldn't be prouder.

The campsite had a cute little "mini-golf" course. It was pretty much the same hole repeated 18 times, but still fun. We had a great time and the weather was perfect. I love this time of year!

Give yourself a squeeze!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

Go get your mammogram if you're due!

Working in Plastic and Reconstructive surgery for most of my life has given me the opportunity to meet many women who have battled this disease, some won and some didn't. Early detection saved my mom six years ago and made me a firm believer in breast health! Save the ta-tas ladies!!

Total Momsense

Analyze This

So, Garrett drew this wonderful picture of our family holding hands and smiling. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, that's what I thought until he told me the big one was me! Dad is 6'4", I'm 4'11" and he draws me as the big one?! I'm not sure how I feel about that. To make matters worse, he really struggled to make my mouth smile. He just couldn't quite get the sides to turn up the right way. What's up with that? Anyone want to take a stab? Michael, I'm waiting for your professional analysis!

Needless to say, I've been walking around here smiling like an idiot for the last 2 days!!

Child's Play

We discovered a new game to play as a family. It's a game of chance, so anyone can win, perfect for playing with a 3 year old. It's called LRC (left, right, center) and is perfect for teaching kids right from left. We have been playing it a lot the past few days and Garrett has won, fair and square, almost every time! Each player starts with 5 chips and take turns rolling 3 special dice marked with L, R, C and a black dot. If you roll an L you pass one chip to the person on the left, same for the right and center. What you really hope for is 3 black dots, that way you don't have to pass any chips! I've never seen Garrett as excited as he was when he rolled 3 black dots!! I hope I'm not setting this kid up for a future at the Craps table.

Six Years Later

Where were you when you saw this image for the first time? It has been six years, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I also remember how instantly united our country became, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing the American flag proudly displayed. I remember going to a baseball game shortly after the attacks, wondering if it was okay to have fun, wondering if it was safe to be in such a crowded, public place. When they sang the National Anthem there wasn't a dry eye in the stadium, it was amazing! I heard a report on the news last week that 20 percent of high school students couldn't remember the year that 9/11 occured. 20 percent? WOW! I hope that we all remember the significance of today and remember to fly our flags to honor those who have lost their loved ones.

First day of school!

Is the first day of preschool supposed to be harder for the parent than it is for the kid? We got to school early so that we could take pictures and I could walk Garrett to class. He wanted nothing to do with that!! The school has a "carpool" lane where the parents pull up and drop their kids at the curb with the teacher's aide. Garrett insisted that I follow proper "big kid" protocol, I was not prepared for that.

He had a great time, of course, and hasn't stopped talking about it all day. He was the big helper in class and followed all of Ms. Lynn's instructions (if only she lived here!). There is a boy in his class with a severe peanut allergy so none of the students can bring anything with peanuts or peanut oil in them. Garrett is now obsessed with peanuts! He asks about everything. "Do bananas have peanuts? What about fruit snacks?" It is quite disturbing that "fruit"snacks contain no fruit, but they do contain Carnuba Wax! Mmmm, tasty!

We took some pictures, but apparently, the sun is Garrett's Kryptonite! He is squinting so tight that you'd think I was shining a spotlight directly in his eyes. I thought about re-taking them, but decided against it. I want to show him exactly the way he is...and now I have something to show his future girlfriends!

P.S. Neither bananas or fruit snacks contain peanuts!

Check out my Slide Show!

"Mom, come look at this"

Usually, "Mom come look at this", means I'm going to have a mess to clean up. Not tonight! The letters aren't perfect, but you can definitely see the G-A-R-R-E-T-T! I am so proud of my little "genius", not even in preschool yet and he's writing his name. I know, every mom thinks their kid is a genius, but this is my blog and I can brag if I want to!

This is my "flip"...

We've lived in this "flip" for 2 years and haven't done a thing...until now. We should have taken pictures before we started, but we didn't! We started by painting the wall from white to Paper Bag Brown which made our light wood cabinets look pink! So, while Tyler was out of town one day, I started taking the cabinet doors down and sanding them. I didn't realize what a big job I had started, but it was too late to turn back! I'm still not completely done, as you can see. We've been living without drawer fronts for over a week now! Next order of business will be to get rid of the nasty vinyl floor and laminate counter tops! I'm hoping for black granite and wood floors (and to win the lottery). Tyler is a little more practical and wants to do tile, since he's doing all the work from here on out, I'm sure he's going to win! After seeing the pictures, I'm thinking new appliances would be nice...this could get expensive! We'll keep taking pictures to show off our progress and if we start any other rooms we'll take pictures before we start!

Well, here it goes...

Here it is, my first post on our blog! I was inspired by my sister to give it a try, but to be honest I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm completely lame when it comes to this kind of stuff, but I like the idea of staying connected even though we're time-zones away. The little guy is growing up so fast and will be starting preschool and "soccer" this fall so I'm sure I'll have lots of cute pictures and stories to post! I say "soccer" because it's a bunch of 3 and 4 year old kids I don't think we'll be seeing a lot of actual soccer being played. Garrett's just in it for the trophy anyway, he's got a little of his dad's competitive streak (look out Becks!). We'll keep you posted on how everything unfolds (or unravels).