Cooking with Toddy

At some point Addie will call my mom Toddy. Right now she is calling her "Mo ma" which sounds similar to Maw Maw. She hates it...which causes us to egg it on even more.

Every time Toddy tried to talk the other night, Addie did this!

 Baking cookies with Toddy

 You can probably guess who rules our family...

I don't believe this is sanitary.

Day trippin

So, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the girl who keeps Addie for us. I really do not know what we would do without her. I trust her 100% and most importantly, Addie is obsessed with her. We are SO thankful to have found such a wonderful person to step in while we are at work! We went on a little trip to visit her today and what do you know...Addie wanted to stay with her! Blessed!

From there, we Macgyvered our way to Macon (Mississippi) to see my cousins and grandparents. I plugged the iPad into the AUX port so I got to listen to the Lion King while Addie watched it. I really took in the scenery on the two hour drive. Wow, we live in a beautiful state! 

Here are some pics:

 A little jealous of the baby

She warmed up after a while though 

Granny with her 8th great grandchild 

Pretty sure he's the best grandfather around...

Enjoying this age

Addie will be two in February...that's hard to believe! This is such a fun age though. Besides the fact that she is a mini me, I love spending time with her. I'm not going to lie...she knows how to push my buttons. I have to be careful how I react and try to think back to what was effective with me. Neither one of us like to be told what to do. Well, of course this is a problem! I have to be very strategic and make her think that whatever I am getting her to do is her idea. It makes for an interesting adventure in parenting.

 This Christmas season we have decorated the tree together, thrown tea parties, baked, etc. It's been a great few days at home already! Ask me next week while I am POTTY TRAINING! To say that I am dreading it is a major understatement. Wish me luck!

 Watching as they tie on the tree

 Making memories...

 My little organizer. She sorted the ornaments for us.

 Carefully positioning the "kid friendly" ornaments on the bottom

 She grouped all of the ornaments that were the same. Hmm

Makeshift tea party with oatmeal cookies and hot cider. Yum!

Filling my spare time

I am off for Christmas break for two whole weeks! My pinterest addiction is actually starting to pay off. Yesterday I worked on a couple of "pallet" projects that I have been lusting over wanting to do. 

I am working on Addie's big girl room. We love animals. Let me clarify...Addie and I love animals! So decided to do some animal artwork for her room. I saw this on Restoration Hardware's website and swore that I could make my version of this for MUCH cheaper than $170 or whatever they were charging plus shipping. I didn't want the silhouette to be black and I didn't like the metal ties. 

Here is my version! 

How to: Andrew took apart the old pallets for me. They were old and brittle with lots of nails in them so it wasn't something I wanted to do.

I got the two side pieces from Lowes. I think they were $1.00 each. Originally I was going to put them on the back to hold the wood together but instead of making the dog bigger, I decided to put them on the front. I went ahead and painted and sanded these pieces to make them look old.

I picked out four "pretty" wood planks (some of them were split in half but it doesn't matter) and laid them out how I wanted them positioned.

I made a dog template with poster board and traced it with chalk. 

Then I put my two holding pieces on the front and screwed those in with 1 1/2 inch nail screws. I would suggest shorter screws because ours poked through the back...we just put foam over them.  

To minimize the fact that I used 1,000 screws, I painted over them again. 

Then, I painted inside of my chalk outline, let it dry, and wiped the chalk off.

All in all, it was a cheap and fun project. 

 I put it high above her bed only because she will have a big fabric headboard. We still have a long way to go with her room...

Project #2 was super easy. The pallet was already missing the middle board so all I had to do was paint it. I didn't sand it or anything before because I didn't want to lose the weathered look.

 I was going for a dark blue/gray but that's not what I got...I painted over it with a light gray.

 I am still deciding what to put in there...maybe an oversized glamour shot picture of Addie? 

Christmas!!!!!!

It's that time of year again...Thanksgiving comes and goes and it causes panic. I always freak out that I haven't ordered Christmas cards OR bought any gifts! This year is different...I am much calmer than usual. Maybe because I am doing everything online?!

There are SO many things that I love about Christmas...I mean we basically count down from Easter, right? Decorating, are you kidding?! SO much fun! One of my favorite things about "the season" is exchanging Christmas cards. I have kept the cards from years past and always go back and look at them before I send mine. I enjoy seeing families change each year. Someone got married, got a new dog, or had a child. I rip open the envelope (saving the return address) and post them around our kitchen door frame. I do look at them when I open them, but I seriously look at them everyday and notice something new. Maybe it's my lack of attention to detail...it takes me a little while, ha! Tiny prints has the most awesome Christmas cards. Here is one that I really like. 

Favorite card on Tiny Prints

Now to choose a picture! I like this one but I didn't have my flash on and I will need to doctor it...

Mulligan for the season?

As I was uploading this weekend's pictures, Addie climbed up next to me, picked up Andrew's iPad and opened her learning game. What in the world?!?! She is currently looking at pictures on Facebook...seriously?! When did she grow up?

We love going to Oxford to see our friends. If we are good at football, that's a plus. Clearly this season was strictly social. We had a great weekend with friends and got lots of good pictures. 

 It was Sean's first trip to meet M.E.'s family! We got to hang with them for a while Saturday.

Family photo in the grove 

 Haley and KJ

 Staring at someone

 Uncles! Charles and Matthew

 Girl pic

 It's been a long time since we all got together for a pic

 No tears this year!

She seemed pretty happy...

Rambling

For the first time this year, the fireplace is on. Andrew hates when I turn it on, but because he is working, Addie and I can do what we want. We are currently curled up watching Cars 2. We have both been stopped up and of course I am an adult (sometimes) and can blow my nose. Addie doesn't know how to get rid of it so she's just been throwing up mucus. Yuck! Before I leave for school each morning, we lay in my bed and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This morning was a little bit different. While enjoying Mickey, Addie threw up a little bit on our comforter. Mind you, we have an oversized california king. Now I have to take our huge comforter to the laundromat because it won't fit in our front loaders. The funniest part of it was that she started dancing right after. Love this age...

I have to share what we did at school today! I have been teaching about Washington D.C. for the past week. Well, I happen to have an awesome friend (Mary Ellis) that lives and works in D.C. We "facetimed" with her this morning in my classroom! My students each came up with one question to ask her. I hooked my iPad up to my projector and displayed her beautiful face on the screen, ha! One at a time, they stood in front of the iPad and asked the question. They thought it was awesome!!!

On a different note: tomorrow I am getting the iPhone 4s. Finally! I am SO excited. If they are out by the time I get out of school, I will be crushed. Let's hope for the best.