Valentine’s Day comes and goes in such a rush every year because it is now defined as the day before Annabel’s birthday.  I really love the holiday so I have to remember to make it special.  I decorate the house with pink and red and hearts and “love” signs. (It’s awesome because it gives me another great excuse to buy cute decorations at Homegoods or Hobby Lobby.)

We give the kiddies a special Valentine’s bag of treats in the morning.  The “treats” are always something other than candy because they will get so much of that from friends and teachers and grandparents.

This year we gave Daniel and Annabel some new coloring books and stickers so they spent the morning doing art projects before Daniel had to leave for school.  Annabel was super excited because we went back to Daniel’s class for a Valentine’s party at lunch time. She can not wait to start school in the fall.  At this rate, she thinks school is all about playing with friends and eating sugary things.

Yep, that’s about right.

Then, we had Grandma and Grandma over for a special Valentine’s family dinner .  They drove down from Maryland to spend three days with us.  We ate pasta cake (lasagna), broccoli, salad, and brownie sundaes.  We are all stuffed and full of love and ready for round two tomorrow.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

After a great couple of days in North Carolina, we then drove 5 hours north to Maryland to the home where I grew up.  We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.   They are always amazed that their grand kids eat so well.  (Or so much.)

The highlight was Grandma’s famous homemade spaghetti and meatballs.   My mom made it for us all the time as kids growing up and it is STILL my favorite pasta dish of all time.

The kiddies had a blast playing with Grandpa in the park and reading tons of books with Grandma.

Then we were off to my sister’s house where the kiddies ran around in whatever patches of snow were left on the ground.  It’s amazing to watch children play with the most random things and these cousins had a BLAST.

We also continued our tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve together.  The kids party in the afternoon with lots of sparkling things and sugar.  Then the adults celebrate later with lots of wine, snacks, and game playing.

That last photo was just hours before I slipped on a step going down to my sister’s basement and completely sprained my big toe.  I really thought I broke it.  The pain was so bad.  But I could walk.  Or rather LIMP around so I figured it was just a bad sprain.  It’s still hurting me a little now.  And NO, it was not a big drunken New Year’s Eve injury. YES, there was wine and a teeny bit of champagne, but the stairs really were a bit tricky and I did not want to turn on the light because the kiddies were fast asleep in the room downstairs.  See, I really will do anything, or suffer any injury, for my family.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year!  Did you know today is the very last day that I can say that?  Well, according to Ryan Seacrest and his millions of Twitter followers.  Yesterday he asked “what’s the expiration date on saying “Happy New Year?”

Someone replied “halfway through January.”  Or January 15th.

So I’m going with that since today is January 15th.  Happy New Year!

The past month has been so crazy.  Some of it is still a blur and most of it is still sitting on my digital camera.  Christmas morning was so much fun.  It was great to be in our brand new home.    (This photo could have been a potential Pottery Barn ad expect for that blue TV screen there in the corner and those wires hanging from the mantle.  Maybe next year.)

The kiddies got matching Mickey Mouse Christmas “ja-mammies” (as Annabel likes to say.)  

Daniel is hugging his Bumble stuffed animal.  Annabel got the Clarice.  They are from the special “Rudolph” set at the Build-a-Bear store.  (Mama got the Rudolph because we needed the complete set. Duh.)

Here’s Daddy reading the traditional “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Santa was very good to the kiddies.  They both got the number one item on their Christmas list.  Daniel’s was a garbage truck.

Annabel’s was a princess tea set.  Here she is serving some tea to her GG.

Then it was Christmas tree pancakes for breakfast and off to church. 

(Daniel wanted to wear his tie on the OUTSIDE of his sweater vest so everyone could see it. )

Right after church we were back in our PJs drinking orange juice (kids) and mimosas (adults) and playing with all our new stuff.  Cheers!

The very next morning we headed out on our week long road trip to visit family.   We drove to North Carolina  then up to Maryland then back to North Carolina then home to Florida.  It was a whirlwind of fun, awesome food, and weird sleeping arrangements.  It was snowing in South Carolina the entire first leg of our tour.  Daniel asked, “Why is all that dust flying around our car?”  What a Florida kid.  I realized then that he had never seen snow actually FALL to the ground.  He’s just seen it ON the ground.  When we arrived in NC, we had the chance to run around in the cold, throw snow balls and make snow angels. 

Annabel did not like the snow as much as Daniel, but she is so cute when she cries.

We had a great visit with Pop Pop and Queen which included a lot of the aforementioned eating plus lots of drinking and being merry.

Then it was off to Maryland.  Part Two recap tomorrow!

We are now heading out for some antique market shopping.  And when I say we, yes I mean all four of us.  I figure we’ll last 20 minutes.  Hopefully that will be enough time to pick up a cool mirror for our guest bath.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 – PopMommy

I have not had a moment to post some photos from our Thanksgiving celebration, because here is a quick list of what has been going on in my life since I last posted something on this here blog:

  – I got sick and was surviving on Dayquil, Nyquil, and lots of bad food.

 – We moved out of our rental home into a brand new home that we bought – Yay!  It was an amazing deal (a foreclosure that needed a little love) and we have been renovating the place for over a month.  It was done Friday night and we moved in Saturday morning.  It was a LONG day.

– Once we moved in, Bean got sick with a stomach virus.  Poor guy is still recovering, but on the upswing.

 – I am now basically in a state of physical and emotional disarray.  There are boxes all over the place.  Downstairs AND upstairs.  We have STAIRS now.  I was seriously nervous about them with the kiddies, but it has been going very well.  Annabel still goes down on her bum, but she stopped asking me to carry her, so that’s a huge win.  My emotional disarray is from being overwhelmed with the entire process.  Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and we still need to decorate, get a tree, send out the cards, etc.  I’m taking it one  HOUR at a time.

And so I wanted to post some Thanksgiving photos.  For two reasons: One, because they feature the final photos of our last home, and two, because I need to give thanks for these awesome people in my life.  THEY are the ones who ground me through all of life’s crazy transitions. 

PS – I also must give a really big thanks to my hubbie for setting up our cable the day we moved into our new home.  He knows I need my must-see TV shows to make me smile.  AND my internet.  Thanks, Baby!

Now that the kiddies are 4 and 2, the Halloween celebrations have kicked up a notch.  We basically celebrate Halloween the entire month of October.

This year it started when I hung the “Countdown to Halloween” Witch sign on the wall and it finally ended last night when I wrestled the plastic pumpkins filled with candy from their hands. Daniel has school parties now and Annabel was invited to a Mommy & Me costume party for the first time.  I’m a little jealous of their social network, I’ll be honest.  But I get to live vicariously through them, so that’s fine.

Daniel’s Halloween celebration started at his preschool and since they are not allowed to wear costumes, everyone rocked a team jersey.  Here he is doing some pumpkin rolling and candy hunting:

His most favorite part was the eating and there was plenty of sweet stuff to go around including pumpkin donuts from Krispy Kreme.  It took every cell in my body to not eat one.  They looked so yummy.

Annabel is still going through her princess diva phase so she spent the first half of her costume party observing from a distance:

But then she decided to have fun and dove right in making crafts, playing with the sand table and eating lots of junk food.  She had a blast.

Then it was finally Halloween night and my Tinkerbell and Cowboy were ready to go:

They trick or treated for an HOUR.  That was a new record.   The weather was perfect.   We shared some candy before bedtime and now I’m in the process of packing up all the decorations and moving on to the next holiday. (But I did get some AMAZING deals this morning when Annabel and I went Halloween clearance shopping! Woo Hoo!)

Hope your Halloween was awesome too.

My hubbie pointed out that he turned 16 years old yesterday.  Well, TWENTY YEARS AGO. 

I think getting older freaks him out.  Until I remind him that, ahem, I am the older one.  So anything negative he says about his age is even more negative for me.

But this isn’t about me. 

It’s about you, Baby.  Happy, Happy 16 plus 20 years.   You are still the most handsome, smart, funny, sexy (mad)man in town.

Today was our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! 

I dressed the kiddies up in their festive long sleeve fall shirts and it was so HOT that I actually felt a little bad.

But we were only there for about 30 minutes before I quickly ushered them back into the car for some water and air conditioning.

Ah…Florida in the fall.

But, seriously now, the pumpkin patch is one of my all time favorite family activities because we have been going to the same place for four years. 

Daniel and Annabel had a blast running around the orange rows and picking out pumpkins.  They understand that their pumpkins will soon be turned into Halloween night Jack-0-lanterns.  They love picking out the super small pumpkins and gourds that decorate our table at home.  They love the play tractor.

It’s the first step to get us officially ready for Halloween and the holiday season.

Even if it was 85 degrees outside.

PS – Annabel’s super cute Halloween hair bow and pumpkin socks came from the Target $1 bin.  I heart Tarjay!

Happy Independence Day! 

May God Bless America and May God Bless all the brave Americans who are serving, or have served, our awesome country.

Have a safe and happy holiday.

My kiddies have the BEST Daddy in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, so we had to do it up right.  The day started with ME making the breakfast.  If you’ve joined me here before, or know me, then you also know that I can’t/don’t cook.  Well, I had to give my hubbie a break on Father’s Day so he was “treated” to my whole wheat French toast, which I kindly coated with tons of powdered sugar, fresh berries, and thick maple syrup.  I added a side of strong coffee, so it was all good!

Then I quickly moved on to the gifts!  The best presents were all the cards including the special homemade cards from Bean and Annabel.

Then hubbie was off to the spa for a 90 minute massage followed by a sushi lunch at the bar all by himself.  This is how we do Mother’s Day and Father’s Day at our house.  The reward of being so awesome and involved in your children’s lives all year long is a special day where you get to spend time ALL ALONE.  IT’S THE BEST.

But then our family quickly regrouped for a grand finale dinner at the Outback Steakhouse! 

GG joined us and it was super yummy.  For some reason we all ordered the fresh veggie side so there was an insane amount of green broccoli all over the table and I wish I had taken a picture of that.  I am glad that I did NOT  take a picture of Annabel’s meltdown when she could not hold her milk cup right or balance a piece of penne pasta on one spoke of her fork.  But other than that, we survived the Father’s Day dinner.  Hubbie had a beer so all was right with the world.

I just wanted to say thank you again, Baby.  Thank you for another amazing year as Daddy.

And just like the Father’s Day card said: You sure know how to make a kid feel loved and a wife feel lucky. 

I love you.