Ahh, pure joy!

I LOVE this time of year! The smells, sights, sounds - perfect. I have to say that this year has been even more magical than years past, because Addie is REALLY getting into the Christmas season (admittedly, she is excited about the impending gifts, but we're working on the true meaning :)).

We started decorating on Black Friday and got our tree the first weekend of December. It is my year for the tree, and I decided to do something a little different and got a Douglas fir. I am actually trying to convince John Michael that we need to get this same kind every year because it kinda looks like a cross between a Cedar and a Fraser fir. He is not buying it ;)

Addie has had a BLAST decorating the house (and Nana & Papa's house, too!). I have taken her to the Dollar store three times to let her pick out more decorations (for her room - our Dollar store has a limited selection... :)).

Yes. Yes, I did.

We have also started the Elf on a Shelf tradition this year. Our elf is named "Snowman" and he sure does love to hop around from place to place in our house! Addie and Landon both get a kick out of finding where he has moved to each morning. I have heard other parents say that they get a good solid month of outstanding behavior out of their kids due to the elves - we were this lucky for about two days. Ha!

*photo credit: Addie Corn

We went to go visit Santa last weekend. Addie and Landon were so good while waiting in the long line. They were both excited to see Santa and kept peering around the people to see him. It was absolutely adorable. I was a little surprised that Landon was so excited given his age (and remembering how Addie reacted to him at around the same age), but he was thrilled. Until we got to him. As soon as John Michael placed him on Santa's lap, he completely lost it. Addie did great and sweetly told Santa that she wants a doll house and a baby doll. Her meltdown began as we were leaving - turns out she thought she should get her presents right then and didn't quite understand it. Makes sense to me! ;) She also flipped out because the photo package we purchased came with one stuffed animal. Because Landon had been so traumatized (and at this time Addie was still smiling), we let him choose which one they would take home. She had just about the worst tantrum I have ever seen from her. I had to strap her in Landon's stroller to get her out of the mall. She was screaming and crying - I was *that* mom. It was pretty amazing. John Michael and Landon walked behind us, gradually falling more behind so as to not be associated with the crazy lady who couldn't control her kid - HAHAHA!

Well, I have honestly thought about taking them back for a second shot, but this one may just be awesome enough to keep. We'll see...

Today we got the ultimate Christmas-mood-setter-inner in the form of a little over an inch of snow (thus far). The weather forecasters said that it would happen, but I just knew it'd be a bluff. I thought they had said it would begin Saturday night/early Sunday morning, so when we woke up to NO SNOW this morning, I made a little bit of a pouty comment about it and went on with our morning. Then it started really coming down around lunch time, and by 1:00, the ground was covered enough for us to break out an early Christmas present (a sled) and put it to good use. HOORAY!

We went out for Round 2 after Landon woke up from his nap and he was thrilled with sledding. I admit - I hope this is the first of many snows for this season. And I wouldn't hate if the next one came in approximately two weeks. Just a thought :)

Going 'halfsies'

Alright - I am not oblivious to the fact that I haven't updated much on the kids' milestones/cuteness lately, so I thought I'd jump on the fact that Landon was just 20 1/2 months (I'm grasping for straws here, people...but work with me...) and Addie had her half-birthday a couple of weeks ago and is now 4 1/2. Yay! So here goes (and I'm not even going to apologize for the obnoxiousness):

Addie at 4 1/2:

* is still a little peanut. It is becoming more obvious to me how petite she is compared to her classmates, but she seems to be growing fine.

* wears a size 7 shoe and 4T clothes

* seems to have turned her corner of the "f_ fours" :) She still has the occasional tantrum, but is generally very sweet and thoughtful

* is a little smarty pants. We still get comments from her teachers on a regular basis about how smart she is. The funny thing? She pretends not to be at home. For example, her Spanish teacher was telling me how advanced she is in Spanish class and how she helps her friends. But when I ask her to help me with any of the words (even simple ones like colors) she'll tell me she doesn't know. Hmph.

* has outstanding fine motor skills. She has been staying in the lines and able to cut along very detailed lines for a while now. She seems to be quite gifted in art.

* shows ZERO interest in starting to read. She still loves to be read to, but gets upset if I try to have her help me sound out any words (and I swear I am not pressuring her!).

* loves her once-a-week gymnastics class!

* says the funniest, most grown-up things to us - we never know what's next

* is 4 1/2 going on 18

* loooves all things pink and girly (princess, baby dolls) but also loves to get dirty outside and help Daddy in the garden

* has randomly decided she is afraid of kittens (and suggested to Nana that she put their kittens in the car)

* goes to bed around 8ish and is still sound asleep when we go to wake her at 6:30

* is a fantastic big sister to Landon and loves to spend time with him

* would eat chicken nuggets or hot dogs every day if allowed; she is quite a picky eater lately. So frustrating! We have a hard time getting protein into her diet. She loves nuts, thank goodness. She still won't eat any fresh fruit but will eat dried.

* has started testing the waters of fibbing. So far she's finding out it doesn't work so well.

* went to her first sleepover about a month ago, and had her first friend over to spend (almost) the night (her friend got homesick around 10:30 :)) last night. What a big girl!

A little Q&A with my girl:

What are your teachers' names? Miss Emily and Miss Candi

Who are your friends in school? the girls

What is your favorite game to play? Hide and Seek

Do you have any boy friends? Hunter and Holland

What is your favorite color? pink

Do you have a favorite song? Twinkle, Twinkle

What is your favorite book? Cinderella

What is your favorite TV program/movie? All the Princess ones

What do you want to do when you grow up? A cow! [gotta love having big dreams! :)]

And now, the boy...

Landon at 20 1/2 months:

* is growing pretty steadily - wearing 24 month clothes

* becoming a pickier eater

* knows most of his colors and all of his basic shapes

* can count to ten! Sometimes he skips 2 and 4 though :)

* sings an adorable version of the alphabet - he stays on tune/tempo the whole time but misses about 1/3 of the letters. But boy, he sings it with soul ;)

* goes from zero to ANGRY with little-to-no warning; ends up throwing himself to the floor and having tantrums at least once a day

* is putting multiple words together and becoming easier to understand

* seems to understand most everything we say (whether or not he decides to listen... :))

* likes to follow Addie EVERYWHERE and do whatever she is doing

* got his first haircut a couple of weeks ago!

* asks to sit on the potty ALL THE TIME - so far only two "successful" trips. I am trying not to discourage him from sitting on the potty, but it is quite obvious that he is quite a ways off from being ready to really train.

* is still (mostly) a happy, loving baby boy!

"Seriously, Mom - what is going on here?"

First haircut - November 14, 2010

Christmas cards, or if you're slackers like us...

Happy New Year Cards! We started the tradition of doing New Year cards a few years ago. Okay, I admit - it started because we hadn't gotten off our duffs in enough time to get out Christmas cards (law school midterms/finals, anyone? Yeah, that's what I thought! ;)). But then we just got to where we liked it better. And now I think it's a fun tradition because everyone (i.e., ME!) has started getting bummed because the Christmas cards in the mail have come to a halt, and BAM! Re-energize the holiday season. The point of this post? One of my favorite card/photo places, Shutterfly, is doing a special for bloggers! You can get 50 holiday cards for free! WOOHOO! We have gotten tons of items from Shutterfly, including photo books for the grandmommies (and great-grandmommies), and our holiday cards from last year.

Here was last year's card, which I'm admittedly disappointed that I can't use twice in a row (because we've been told that it's still on refrigerators and up in cubicles, and that'd just be weird :)):

This one is also completely adorable:

I'm going to stop with giving away all my potential New Year's card ideas and give some of my favorites for those of you who actually get your cards out on time:

I love how classic this one is!

How fun is this one?

Anyway, all my blogger friends (and lurkers) - you guys should check more of these cards out here, and also check out this awesome promotion by going here.

I'm so excited about picking out the perfect card, and can't wait to personalize them and send them out. Now I just get to pore over wording for hours. Yes, I'm serious.

:)

Halloween 2010

I mean, at the rate I'm going, we'll be talking about this Christmas around the Fourth of July :)

Anyway - we had a fantastic Halloween weekend! We kicked it off the weekend before by going to Ring Farm in Columbia (yes, this was during my birthday weekend, but I decided to add it to this Halloween post because it made more sense). We had so much fun! It was similar to Gentry's Farm, which we also love, but smaller (and therefore a LOT less crowded). The kids, John Michael, Mimi and I headed over there a little before lunch time and we had a blast.

They had a cotton field (patch?) that the kids thought was so cool. I admit, I did, too! I hadn't seen "real" cotton up close since elementary school and a trip to one of the local farms in Nashville. Fascinating.

The babies also enjoyed the tractor tire tower, but especially loved the long slides! John Michael seemed to have just as much fun :)

We also got our pumpkins that day! We got some really pretty ones. We didn't end up carving them until the day of Halloween, which was probably the best idea - the weather has been so beautiful here (read: HOT for October/November) that they surely would've rotted on our front porch had we carved them too early!

As has been the tradition for the past few years, all of the grandparents came down for dinner. This year was the most fun yet; no tantrums from either baby, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect! Addie decided a few months ago that she was going to be Snow White. We tried to convince her to be something different or unusual, but she was determined. The best part about it is we already had her entire costume. Nice! We had planned to make Landon a costume to be one of the Seven Dwarves, but then life got in the way. JM ended up buying him a monkey costume two days before. He was adorable!

We took them trick-or-treating up and down our street (probably 6 houses or so) and I decided to take Landon and the wagon back home. Of course Addie wanted to keep going, so JM said he'd take her to a few more houses. Almost an HOUR later, they returned, and she had TONS of candy! He said she had wanted to keep going, so they did! Needless to say, she was exhausted by the time her bedtime came around that evening :)

The big 3-0!

It got here. The day I thought I'd dread. I turned 30. :) Actually, months before my birthday, I started getting excited just like every year (yes, I do start counting down to my birthday approximately nine months beforehand - don't judge :)). Then as it approached, I became kinda bummed about it. Why? I have no idea. ANYWAY - I snapped out of it and became kid-on-Christmas-Eve-excited as usual. I believe I called my mom every day for two weeks to remind her my birthday was coming up. It's our annual ritual, and it's a silly one: I call my parents to tell them, "Hey! Did you know that my birthday is in __ days?" And my mom will say, "I do know! I was there!" and my dad will say, "And it was the longest day of my life!" (He thinks he's hilarious :))

Again, I digress. My birthday was on a Sunday this year (October 24) so naturally, we began celebrating on Saturday. We went out to dinner with Lynn, Kris, Leslie and Skye to Flyte and it. was. amazing, as was the margarita cheesecake that Lynn made for me. WOW. We then went to Patterson House for a drink and that was pretty fantastic, too! I felt like a grownup - ha!

Sunday morning (the big day!) John Michael and the babies made my breakfast, and then we headed to Arrington Vineyards for a few hours with Lynn, Kris, Holland & Quinn; Sam (boss' husband), Shauna (my sweet boss) and Claire (Shauna and Sam's beautiful 2-year-old); and Sam (coworker) and Shelly (his adorable wife). The kids all ran around and had a BLAST! I have never seen five kids who were so dirty! And there were no meltdowns! Miracle, I tell ya. That may have been due to the fact that they had chocolate cake AND cupcakes to keep them occupied, along with the sticks they insisted on carrying while they ran (!).

From there we went to Mimi & PawPaw's for more yummy food. I swear, I know it sounds like I ate the whole weekend, but...well, I think I really did. HA! It was awesome! My mom made one of my favorite meals, a pork loin (a particular one - recipe by Emeril Lagasse - I'm not sure what it's really called; we just call it the "Emeril roast") and a chocolate truffle cheesecake. Double yum.

But wait, there's more! Monday I obviously had to work, and I was actually in Day Three of a four-day training class. My friends Brandi and Shauna surprised me by having an extra slide added to the PowerPoint (they did this during our lunch break - still not sure how I didn't see them!) and bringing ANOTHER cake and more cupcakes! Everyone in the class sang to me, which was half-embarrassing, half-awesome (I can't lie - I loooove birthdays so!).

We celebrated one last time on Wednesday by going out to lunch with some more of my coworkers. Yes, more food.

All in all, it was one of my best birthdays yet. Oh, and by the way, it's 11 months and 13 days til my birthday! :D

Arrington photos!

My world, hovering over a barrel :)

I'm going to try to pretend that this wasn't a trash can, and that my son wasn't playing inside said trash can. But I'm pretty sure I'm pretending for naught...

(These three photos swiped from Kris' Facebook account - taken with his iPhone)

Boys!

"God made dirt so dirt don't hurt."

Addie requested that I wear her tiara, just for a few minutes. It says "Birthday Girl" and she likes to wear it year round. That's my girl!

18-month checkup

Okay, so Landon is 20 months old now. And I already posted all the suuuper adorable stuff he was doing two months ago. But what I didn't post were his stats (and let's be honest - there's no way I'd remember otherwise, and I kinda keep losing the little stat sheets from the ped's office). So here ya go!

Height: 32 1/4 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 25 pounds, 8 ounces (40-50th percentile)

John Michael took him to his checkup (we normally both go, but it was when I was out of town) but he said the doctor is pleased at his development - yay!

Slacker...

So I was catching up with my friend Nancy yesterday and realized I've completely slacked on blogging the past month or two. So here are some things I hope to blog about this week:

- Addie's first sleepover

- my 30th birthday

- Halloween

- Landon's new accomplishments

- Addie playing "dumb"

Hopefully I'll start tonight after the kids go to bed (if we can get them to bed, with the time change!).

A whole week...

Well, I survived. I was away from my babies for a whole week, and contrary to my prediction, I did NOT have any mental breakdowns :)

I left Wednesday, October 6th for my friend Kristin's wedding in Portland, Oregon. Kristin and I have been best friends since fifth grade, and I had the honor to be her matron of honor! I was excited to get to Portland a few days before the wedding (which was on Sunday, 10/10/10) to visit with Kristin and help with some last-minute wedding errands. I had an absolute blast! John Michael came in on Saturday evening, just in time for the rehearsal dinner. I think having him there definitely eased my homesickness! It also helped that we were busy, busy, busy and stayed that way all day Sunday! Our days included a walk around Kristin & Clint's adorable neighborhood, a trip to Ikea, a long afternoon at the tattoo shop (yes, seriously; no, I didn't get one), yummy meals out and playtime with Clint's sister Jamie and his best friend Mike (and Jamie's boyfriend Joseph).

The wedding was absolutely perfect. Kristin was even more beautiful than normal, and Clint (her new husband) was just as handsome. What a perfect pair! I hadn't met Clint before my visit but was pleasantly surprised to discover that they are just as great together as I had imagined from our phone and email conversations :)

Sadly, I had to leave the reception early to catch a redeye flight. Those were my only sad tears of the entire trip! It was so hard to leave Kristin, knowing it'll be at least a few months before I see her again! Boo. Just keep reminding myself how much fun we had and how we'll pick up right where we left off, as we always do.

Anyway, John Michael took me to the airport for my flight to New Orleans for a work conference. I had the genius idea of flying out at 11:35 p.m. (the latest flight I could get and still get to NO at a time early enough to not miss a large part of my conference), thinking that I would sleep at least a good portion of the first leg of the trip, which was 3 hours and 45 minutes. WRONG! I did not sleep a single wink! I had a very nice, but rather large man sitting next to me who was able to fall asleep; in fact, he fell asleep so deeply that he was "all up in my business," as Addie would say. Anyway, I landed in Houston at 5:15 CST and *think* that I slept about 30 minutes to an hour before my next flight (which was also sleepless). I arrived in New Orleans at 8:45ish a.m. CST and headed straight to the conference. To say I was exhausted would be an understatement, but somehow I plugged through! My boss Shauna was there and we even got to do a little sightseeing (and beignet-eating) that afternoon before meeting up with some other Tennessee city attorney friends for dinner. I ended up staying awake until 10:15! WOW! I never would've thought!

Tuesday was another full conference day (the conference was GREAT, by the way) and I flew out Wednesday afternoon. Although I didn't have the expected homesickness meltdowns (thank you, Skype!), I have never been so excited to get home! I think it's safe to say that the kiddos were pretty pumped, too - especially Addie!

So where were the babies when John Michael was in Portland? They had an adventuresome weekend! They spent Friday evening with Mimi and PawPaw due to JM's early flight time; Saturday afternoon and evening were spent with Lynn, Kris, Holland and Quinn, and Sunday afternoon and evening were Nana & Papa's! It sounds like they all had a blast and we are SO blessed to have such loving family and friends to help us out!

Okay, right now you're going to have to forgive the lack of pictures. I'm going to have to swipe some off of others' Facebook pages. But soon, I promise! Here's one of my favorites though :)

Rocky Top!

A couple of weekends ago we had a fantastic getaway weekend with Nana & Papa and Aunt Carol! We stayed in THE. MOST. AMAZING cabin ever in Wears Valley. *Sigh.* I'd go back in a heartbeat!

Anyway, John Michael and Papa arrived Thursday afternoon because they had had a business meeting in Knoxville that morning. Nana and I finally got away from Nashville around 6ish and arrived at the cabin around 10:30 p.m. EST (we made awesome time! Two babies and NO STOPS along the way! WOOHOO!). Although it was dark, I could already tell that the cabin was by far the nicest we'd ever stayed in.

On Friday we woke up and took it easy for a good part of the day before taking a nice short hike (to go see this Schoolhouse). The weather was great - a little warm in the sun, but perfect in the shade. The kiddos rode in their backpacks again and loved being able to get out and run around when we got to the schoolhouse. They were too cute! Addie "taught" Nana and Papa while we were there.

We left from there to go back to the cabin and Aunt Carol (Nana's sister) got there right after we did. Addie and Landon were excited to see her (we were too, of course, it was just adorable that they were so excited :)) and Addie quickly recruited her to color with her. Let's just say the cabin was covered with Addie's masterpieces.

Saturday we went to campus and tailgated and went to the game. Nana and Papa were generous enough to give us their tickets (they got others) so JM, the babies, Carol and I were able to sit in the shade to enjoy a little bit of the game. Addie spent the whole time complaining that it was too loud (yes, it is - it's Neyland Stadium!) but seemed to forget when we bought her Dippin' Dots and popcorn. Funny how that works. Landon was pretty good but was exhausted so then he just became delirious. We ended up leaving with about 5 minutes left in the first half. Not too shabby :) We were not overly disappointed that we weren't there for the whole game anyway, given the sad loss to Florida.

Aunt Marci came to visit us and went to see the Vol Walk with us!

We had a great weekend full of family and fun. There was lots of coloring and board game playing (Addie is a pro at Mouse Trap!) and plenty of relaxing, too! I think we all decided that the only thing wrong with the weekend was that it was too short. We can't wait til next year!

We saw the most gorgeous sunsets while we were there!

Eating dinner out in the gazebo after the game

A year and a half?

REALLY? My cutie pie is seriously a year and a half old (plus two days - yeah, yeah)?! I really can't believe it. He is changing and growing every day and is starting to look less like a baby and more like a little boy (*tear*). He is still just about the sweetest baby you can find, and although he is now officially a master of the tantrum, he is nearly always a complete joy to be around, and we get compliments on how good/cute he is whenever we're in public. I still find it comical that I was worried that I couldn't/wouldn't love a second child. I can't explain the love I feel for this little munchkin. I think we've decided to keep him ;)

I don't think I've posted a "milestone post" in a few months, so some of these will be old news for us, but I figured I'd put them down anyways.

At 18 months, Landon is:

* made of lead, I'm sure; his height/weight check is not until the end of the month, so I'll post official stats then, but I can tell you that he is heavy!

* in size 5 diapers (I don't think we ever got to size 5 with Addie!)

* in size 4 shoes

* in 18-month clothes

* talking A LOT! New favorites this month (ahem, these months) include: flower ("fower"); tomato ("momo"); yogurt ("ogur"); Landon ("nanu"); swing ("wing"); a very emphatic "GO!" for whenever he's ready to leave somewhere; all of his animal sounds. He also tells us yes by a full head (and most of his upper-body) nod, and is quite fond of his verbal "NOOOO!"

* enjoying coloring with crayons and markers, especially on the floor and on our furniture. Awesome.

* now purposefully tormenting Addie

* still a great sleeper: 7 p.m. to around 6:30 a.m. (unless it's the weekend, then it is earlier, without fail); at school he will take a 2-hour nap, but at home he will nap close to FOUR HOURS if given the opportunity

* getting close to needing his first haircut, but I know that his curls will be gone forever, so I'm postponing as long as possible...

* still in a "mine" phase. This was one of his first words - we should've known we were in trouble when he pulled this one out about six months ago. :)

* a charmer and is still a big ol' teacher's pet

* obsessed with "buh"s (books) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. At least there's a balance. ;)

* CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!

There's a Party Goin' On Right Here...

We caught Addie singing this over and over (and over) again the other night. TOO CUTE!

The 'Ham

Now that our favorite newlyweds, the Goodens, are living in Birmingham (read: about 3 1/2 hours closer than they were before), we decided that we needed to take a day trip to visit them! So last Saturday it was...

We piled in the car and left the house a little after 7:45 a.m., and arrived around 10:45 to Chris and Katie's beautiful new home. It was POURING in Birmingham (actually the last 45 minutes to an hour of our drive, which added a little bit of travel time), and that was a real bummer because we had planned on going to an amusement/water park while we were there. We went to lunch and then decided that Katie and I would take the kids to the McWane Science Center to have some indoor fun time. Of course, by the time we got out, it was a gorgeous day! Figures. :)

We had a good time at the science center (and John Michael and Chris enjoyed playing Chris' new Madden '11 game) but I think we had the most fun just hanging out at Chris and Katie's house. And Addie and Landon would agree. In one of their guest rooms, there is a closet that made the PERFECT hideout for the kids. They had a BLAST taking everything out of the bedroom and putting it in their "playhouse." Plus, Katie and I got to catch up a little more, too, without having to try to chase munchkins around a madhouse. Woohoo!

We headed out around dinnertime in hopes that we'd have two sleepy babies (we were 1 for 1). It really was a perfect day trip! I am so excited to have them so close, especially now that Katie and I are done with school. Now we have our crazy lawyer & doctor schedules to contend with (okay, really just Katie's doctor schedule, but I wanted to make myself feel more important for a split second ;)), but it's still nice to know we can just pick up and go to visit without months of planning. Yay!

Oh, I do have to eat my words from my last post - for the most part, Addie and Landon were little angels. No major meltdowns ALL DAY LONG. Woohoo!

Ahh, the water table...

In the submarine (yep, Landon's shirt is wet)

"Hello?"

Digging for fossils

Landon and Aunt Katie