ROLL TIDE and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record so I won't say it, except to state the obvious that I am playing catchup! Bare with me as I try and quickly post the "big" moments in our house lately:

~Our new puppy now weighs a whopping 50 lbs (as of last night) and you can almost watch her grow
~Our elf, Snowflake, is back in action (more on that at the end)
~Sam and I and my parents were fortunate enough to get to go to the SEC Championship Game and celebrate the big win for the weekend (thank you Aunt Kate and Big Will for keeping the girls for us especially being almost 8 months pregnant!)
~My niece shot her first deer (yes, we live in the South and girls hunt!)
~I've been slowly getting my Christmas decorations up - I normally have everything out and completed by Sunday night after Thanksgiving, but have been very slacking this year.
~Cut WAY back on our decorations AND Christmas presents this year!
~Let the girls totally decorate our tree (with Daddy's help of course for the high spots) and have resisted the urge to rearrange" it the way I want it - I mean, who cares that the 1 string of colored lights is only on one side of our totally white light tree? And who cares that there are more ornaments in one spot than any other? That's where they wanted it and that's where it will stay this year!
~Finished my Christmas shopping - ALL ONLINE! I totally took advantage of "Cyber Monday" and got some really awesome deals!!! Don't have the time or patience this year to go to the stores!
~Made a huge decision regarding how we celebrate Christmas this year - after losing my grandmother on Christmas Day last year and with the money situation being a little tight, we decided to forgo our annual Christmas Eve Chili and Cheer that my family has been hosting as long as I can remember! Instead, this year we will be attending church, making cookies for Santa, riding around our neighborhood to enjoy the luminaries that we never get to see because we are too busy getting ready for the party, eating Chili (can't quick that tradition), watching Chirstmas movies in our PJ's, going to bed early so that Santa can get back to the North Pole early, enjoying the excitement of our girls at this magical age, and hopefully creating some NEW traditions until the girls get older and don't believe anymore!
~Crossing my fingers that we MAY get to go to Pasadena - Sam got his tickets, now I just have to talk Sam into going instead of selling the tickets!
~Booked tickets to take the girls to see Cavalia - it's a horse show that's created by the people that create Cirque du Soleil - MM is sooooo excited. I will definitely post pics of that!

SNOWFLAKE:

So, as I said above, Snowflake is back!!! He accidentally showed up in one of our boxes of decorations (oops, forgot that's where I stored him last year) and MM found him! So far Snowflake has gotten himself tangled in the colored lights while trying to "help" us decorate since it was taking so long. Then, while we were at the SEC game, he got into the girls closets and had strewn every piece of Alabama clothing they had all over the kitchen table. MM said he must have been trying to find something to wear to watch the game! Then, he made a mess with pinecones in the den. Then, he and the Grinch had a "snowball fight" in our pantry with marshmallows. And today, he magically got into MM's school bag and is "watching" her at school! I will post pictures of some of these later, but for now, this is all you get!!!!

Sad To See Summer Come And Go

Summer is one of my favorite times of the year. It should be a time to relax, unwind, sit on the porch watching the girls play, grilling out, going to the lake, going to the beach, etc. etc. etc. It seems though that lately, summer is just as busy as the rest of the year and it FLIES by in the blink of an eye. So here we are, getting back to the daily grind and our usual fall activities. . .school, gymnastics, and FOOTBALL of course! I was certainly excited to see Tide roll over Va Tech this past weekend and really looking forward to our first home game this weekend.

As for last week, thanks for all the prayers! We made it smooth sailing with no sickness and with everyone being out of town and having to come up with hundreds of ideas to keep a 2 year old and 4 year old entertained for 5 days while it rained outside! I have to admit that I got really creative and we all had a blast! Saturday, my SIL and I took all 4 of our girls to McWane Center in Bham. They all had so much fun and I'm not sure if we even got to do everything that was available. Considering that both my SIL and I are a tad bit germaphobes, we carried around hand sanitizer in our hands the whole time and just laughed at how ridiculous we were. I really don't care what people thougt about us, but we did make out of there without Swine Flu! Another fun part of the weekend was getting to watch the new Hannah Montana Movie about 5 times! I had purposely saved watching this until Sam was gone. So Friday night, I bought mini pizza crust and all the "makings" of pizza (or at least what I knew the girls would eat). They both got to make their own pizza and then we watching the movie on a pallet (for those of you not from the South, this is just several layers of blankets on the floor) and watched the movie together and ate our pizzas! I have to admit that I even really enjoyed the movie too! Yes, it's one of those things I said I would never do or watch, but we had such a fun "Girls Night" and it was all worth it!

Monday was the last day that the Country Club pool was open for the season and the girls were very sad, but we certainly took advantage of the last day and swam until we just couldn't swim anymore (and the water was freezing from the rain all weekend!). All the kids were having a ball having a water fight and running around screaming and I guess the lifeguards (and parents for that matter) just let all the rules go out the window since it was the last day!

A funny Anna story (well, maybe it shoudn't be funny, but I just couldn't help it): with Sam out of town during the game Saturday, the girls "tried" to watch it with me, but it was kind of late and it had been a long day already. So I was watching the game and apparently I had made several comments like "Ugh!" and "Geez!" when the team was struggling a bit. Not really thinking about it, I took Anna upstairs to rock her and put her down for bed and turned on the game in her room while I rocked her. Well, something happened in the game and I just kind of moaned out of frustration and Anna sits straight up and yells, "Jesus!" I laughed so hard (I know I should not have laughed because now she thinks its funny to do) I was crying. I guess I really need to watch what I say, even though I was only saying Geez.

Oh, and sorry for the poor quality of the picture, Sam took my camera on his trip and I was camera-less all last week so this was with my iPhone. This was on Friday - they have Fan Day every Friday at school during football season. BTW, MM was not excited (contrary to her smiling face), that she was having to wear a dress! Also, please ignore the lovely tennis shoes MM has on with her dress. We no longer have a kids shoe store in town and she has outgrown her Keds. Anna, on the other hand, only loves dresses!

Revenge

So in revenge of Sam "hi-jacking" the blog and posting the hilarious (can you hear the sarcasm?) video of me playing Wii, it is my turn to embarrass him. This picture, my friends, is Sam at his greatest. Most people don't realize how much of a joke-ster Sam is. He fools everyone with his quiet, humble personality, but he really is funny. Let me set the scene for you. . .I'm laying in bed reading a book and watching TV. Sam has been in the shower and starts walking into the room from the bathroom saying,

"Man, that Volumizing Shampoo you use REALLY works!"

Ok, so anyone who knows Sam knows that he has hair that any woman could hate. It is thick, shiny, full, and straight. He has to keep it cut fairly short because the longer it is, the higher it is, seriously! P.S. I now know where MM got her sticky-uppy hair as a baby. Anyway, this is what I look up to find. . .

I laughed until I was literally crying streams down my face! I mean, who's hair can do that! That is NOT normal! And he was so proud of it! Also, he said he wanted to prove to his older brother that he DOES NOT have a receding hair line like the rest of the men in his family! This picture should do the job!

Fuller Festival

Nothing like pure blue sugar swirled onto a stick!

Here in T-town this past weekend, was a wonderful festival called Fuller Festival, in honor of a little boy (same age as MM) that was diagnosed with Leukemia 2 years ago. He is doing great now and so his parents wanted to host a festival that raise money for Children's Hospital in B'ham to show them how appreciative they were for everything that was done for them. It was a huge success and a great turnout. They had all the wonderful bouncy things, slides, carnival games, carousel, little "rides", music, food, etc. all day long. ALL of their friends, our friends, neighbors, etc. were out in full stride! It was total mass kid chaos, but they were having a ball! All you could see was children running around in sheer glee playing on all the fun stuff. The key for the parents was to kind of stay in the middle so you could just watch them from place to place. It was also exhausting! As you can tell by the pictures, Anna pretty much just stayed with us (eating junk) and MM was on and off every ride and activity with her friends - you think this is any prediction of how they will be when they are teenagers? The pirate ship ride was so funny. All the kids were really wanting to ride and as you can see on their faces they were not sure they really liked it once they were moving. Well, it finally stopped and they all got off and I asked, "So, that maybe wasn't your favorite ride, was it?" They all just screamed and shouted, "IT WAS SO FUN AND OUR FAVORITE!!!" Oh, sorry, I couldn't have been able to tell judging by the looks on your faces!

Adventures In Target

So the other day, I saw this segment on the Today Show showing them making this recipe for Classic Lasagna and it looked so yummy that I decided, why not? Also, the night before, we told Mary Mac that if she cleaned up the playroom (and it was a disaster) that we would give her $5 for her work. She happily complied and we gave her the money and she put it in her piggy bank. After I picked them up from school that day, I decided we would try and tackle both tasks at the same - groceries and a toy (boy, is she like her mom or what? the money was burning a whole in her pocket already). In a side note, is it bad that we give her money to help instill a little money sense in this tough economic time and then put it in her piggy bank (I deposit this into her bank account every so often) and not actually spend her money? We do only let her spend the amount of money she earned AND she thinks it is her money from her bank. Anyway, so while in Target, we are riding around to the grocery section (in one of those fancy 2 bench buggies) when all of a sudden Mary Mac comes sliding right out onto the floor on her back. She is in total hysteria (more embarrassed than hurt)! When I asked her what happened, between tears, she blames Anna for pushing her out. I honestly have no idea at this time who did what - my mind was focused on groceries, getting out of there before pre-naptime meltdown, and they were both content with their little "prizes" (yes, Anna got one too even though she didn't earn it - she is only 2 and we will do the same for her one day). As we all start to calm down, Anna just simply looks at me with those huge brown "angelic" eyes and grins and says, "Mommy, I tish her!" It took me several times of hearing her before I realized that she was happily admitting that she had indeed PUSHED ("tish") Mary Mac out of the buggie with her feet. Oh my, what a little devious thing! I know, this is only the beginning! I profusely apologized to Mary Mac later that I let Anna get away with it, but I was so in shock!

Eating Tips from the Collins Family

Here is yet another video of Anna at dinner time. Thank goodness, unlike Mary Mac, we have never really had much trouble with getting Anna to eat. She is a bit of a snacker, but she normally eats pretty well! But, I guess she has watched us trying anything and everything to get Mary Mac to eat that she decided she would do it to herself. In case you can't tell, she is feeding herself and making her spoon like an "airplane"! Too cute! She makes us laugh more and more everyday! And I am proud to say that we (as a family) eat dinner together at our kitchen table every night of the week, so this is not an unusual occurence if you were to peak into our windows each night. I don't think many people can say that these days, but this is one of those things that my parents did and I am determined to do as well. It is a great time to hear all about their day and really learn things about your children that you may not otherwise know. Now, granted, it may only be Hamburger Helper (that which I am not proud of, but resort to on certain days), but we eat together!!!!!

Dancing Girls

I just found this video on my camera that I had forgotten to upload and it just makes me laugh out loud! Poor Mary Mac has very little rhythym (sp?), but by golly, Anna can keep a beat even at the ripe old age of 22 months (notice how serious she is even when Mary Mac tries to distract her - she just does right back into her dance). I took this video one random Friday night when we were having a family night at home and just turned on the music really loud in the kitchen and POOF, the girls just started getting down! It was one of those spur of the moment things that just makes me smile from the inside out to watch our sweet angels having such unabandoned fun with nothing but little music. It's amazing what music and dancing does for our souls! By the way, please excuse the song, I know it's little much for the little ones to be dancing to, but it just came one and we went with it! Also, I apologize if Anna's "moves" are offensive to anyone - NO, I did NOT teach her that! I have not a clue where she learned it!