Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Thank you, Frances!

Callie walked all around here this morning pregnant with her favorite giraffe. Wyatt spoke in tongue. He was only willing to meow and use hand gestures. When Brent loaded them up into the wagon to take them and the dogs for a walk, Callie first had to pack up her purse and strap on her princess heels. We joked that God made her out of pink sparkles, princesses, hearts, puppies, and everything else dripping in girliness. Wywy on the other hand was created in a moment of boredom so he was laced with kookiness. My two preciously perfect gifts.

This is a picture of the carefully chosen contents of Callie's purse which were very festive. (Meanwhile, Wyatt was getting her coat and socks... girlfriend already knows how to work the men!)

Anyway, I digress. The purpose of this post is to say THANK YOU to our pal Frances! She sent her Ariel costume to Callie a couple of weeks ago and she was so exited about it that she wore it for several days straight. She looks like kin of that skanky horror Chuckie doll dude with that hot mess of a red wig. She calls the wig, "hairball"... how appropriate is that!?!?

Hugs and kisses Frances and we can't wait to see you next week!

10 Things About Wyatt

1. First and foremost, Wyatt is a helper. He has been that way since he was a baby and I love that it's not changing. He is absolutely the happiest when he is helping you with something.

2. pee = "peep"

3. Wyatt still gets to the brink of passing out when he is upset and starts to cry. He turns blue and falls over and sometimes even starts seizing a little bit. The pediatrician said he would outgrow it by the time he turns 3, but I don't see that happening. In fact, I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that he will get control of it before his 5th birthday.

4. He has the BEST sense of humor. We call him the clingon just because he seriously acts like he's from another planet. He is 5 million steps beyond just being silly. I love it.

5. Wyatt is the first one that I was able to have a real inside joke with. When we were at Disney, one night after hitting the parks hard, he was tired out of his mind. He didn't want to eat dinner and just sat there and wailed. Finally after he calmed down (although the tears were still in his eyes), I asked him if he wanted a bite of my soup and before he even tasted it, he choked out, "Tooooooooo hhhhhhhhot." with the biggest pouty lip on the planet. I couldn't help it and my insensitive self busted out laughing at the little dude and mimicked him right there on the spot. Wyatt belly laughed like you would not believe! Now, every time he gets fussy or pouty at the dinner table, I say, "Toooooo hhhhhhhot!" and the kid dies laughing and forgets about his bad mood. I love that baby.

6. You can tell whenever Wyatt likes something because his reaction is always, "My, my, mine fwaybet!" (My favorite.) It's my favorite thing that he says.

7. If you know me well enough to know my brother, you know that he is the movie quoter of the century. He can hold a full conversation of pure movie quotes and does pretty well with the accents too. In fact, I think that he even wanted to do voice-overs as a career at one point. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, Wyatt turned to me and did an imitation of one of the Arnold Schwarzenegger sounding pigs in the beginning of the movie 'Shrek'. He said, "Play da movie! Yah! Play!" just like the pig says with the same accent. I about fell over. It shocked the crap out of me because I never considered "Likes to quote movies" as a rung on the DNA ladder.

8. elevator = "yoyobater" which really is one of his favorite things in the world. He can't get enough of pushing the buttons and feeling the movement of the thing going up or down. He loves it!

9. Wyatt hates cleaning up. He will do it if there is incentive but he almost always finds a way to weasel out of picking up his toys. He gets excited about throwing trash away and also puts his dirty clothes in the hamper, but don't expect him to acknowledge your request when you ask him to put his toys away.

10. Sometimes he will randomly growl (pretty loudly) in public. It has a tendency to startle passersby. (It's really embarrassing but something I would secretly like to do too.) I get such a kick out of this little dude.

Christmas Tour of Homes

This is a cute little thing I did a couple years ago. If you want to peek in and see the way other people decorate and celebrate Christmas, then just click on the link above that will take you to a list of homes participating in the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes. I dig it because it's like peeping in strangers' windows. It also gives me good ideas for next year.

Anyway, here is my contribution to the Tour of Homes:

And this is my cyber-caroling portion of the post. (Pretend like you just heard the "belldoor" ring and went to answer it...)

For Anderson and Jake

His very first rollercoaster ("roader-coster") ride! (We thought of you the whole time, Edgars!) My favorite part is his little baby scream. It's so freaking cute. (Excuse our stupid banter in the beginning. It's pretty typical, but annoying nonetheless.)

There are two things that I keep remembering about our trip that I don't want to forget so I figured I'd make a quick post about them.

Ever since he was able to (possibly before the little dude could even walk), Wyatt crosses his fingers when he is unsure about something. I always know when to go over and reassure him because his fingers will be crossed. It's totally odd but ridiculously endearing. Anyway, the older he gets, the less and less I'm seeing those little fingers cross. Infact, it had been such a long time, that when I saw him doing it while standing in line for the Toy Story ride, I almost welled up with tears at the idea that I might forget something about his baby personality that used to be so commonplace to me. These nuggets are getting so big that even some of their toddler nuances are starting to fade. It's way too sad for me.

My strongest memory of Callie from the trip was her reaction to watching the 3D shows. Girlfriend could not deal. She straight up thought that she was under attack. The first time, I looked over to see if she was enjoying herself as much as we were, and the poor thing was shaking and crying. I felt awful because I didn't even realize what was going on because her screams where drowned out by the laughter in the theater. I finally had to take the glasses away from her. We went to 3 shows hoping she would warm up to the concept, but the poor thing could never grasp that it wasn't real. Bless her little heart.

Animal Kingdom & Gaylord Palms

We got home from Disney on Friday... just in time for me to be sick as a dog for two days and then to have to get up and rally for another two weeks of being a single mom. I've been doing this alone thing too much and I'm done with it.

Anyway, to backtrack for a second, we went to the Animal Kingdom on Thursday. The kids had been looking forward to seeing giraffes and hippos (their favorite animals) the entire week. They loved every minute of it but my favorite memory of the day was going on a rapids ride and seeing Wyatt and Brent get soaked. Callie and I were sitting on the opposite side and only got a little wet. She wasn't amused by the ride at all and said, "Coggie not like it. Now Coggie all dirty." And she had a look that could kill on her face. Wyatt on the other hand, who was drenched to the bone was screaming, "FUN! FUN! Do it again!?!?" We were dying laughing at the kid.

After that, we went to Gaylord Palms for this thing called ICE. It was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. The whole thing was ice sculptures and you had to wear parkas the whole time because it was minus 9 degrees in there. It was stupid cold to the point where some people's shutters were freezing on their cameras. I had never seen anything like it before and the ice slide was the highlight. The kids loved it but even Brent and I tore down those things like penguins on crack. They gave out hot chocolate at the end too. It was precious.

Cinderella's Castle

Cinderella's castle dripping in Christmas lights is truly one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. All I wanted was a lawn chair to sit in and stare at this thing for hours. It was gorgeous! With the temperature being this comfortable too, I doubt if we will ever come back any other time of year. Christmas at Disney is beautiful!

We did the Magic Kingdom again yesterday because we only finished half of the park before and there was so much we had never seen. There was a pretty big storm that was lurking around which worked out great because there was such a small crowd and hardly any lines for most of the afternoon. It never rained either so it couldn't have been more perfect for us.

Wyatt's favorite thing yesterday was this crappy paper mickey mouse driver's license they give you when you drive the little gas powered cars around the track. Even though he got to drive the car all by himself (I only pushed the pedal), it did not outshine his new driver's license. He thought he was the coolest dude ever and kept pulling that thing in and out of his pocket for the rest of the day.

Callie was in heaven yesterday because she got to meet the cowgirl from Toy Story 2 (who is second only to the Little Mermaid). She was obsessed. We even had to pull her away because she wouldn't let go.

Hollywood Studios

Yesterday we went to Hollywood Studios and there was a bunch of things we got to see that we missed last year. Toy Story Mania is by far and away the coolest ride I have ever been on and creatively, it was done so well. Brent and I also took turns going on the Tower of Terror which was awesome! At some points of the ride, you have no idea whether you are falling up or down.

We stayed late to see the Osbourne Family Festival of lights which was the tackiest light display I have ever seen in my entire life! It "snowed" too which was just little bubbles, but the kids didn't know any better and loved trying to catch the snowflakes. We had a really good time at the park yesterday, but for me it still doesn't come close to touching the Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom

We hit the Magic Kingdom for almost the whole day yesterday! I can barely move this morning because my entire body hurts. On top of that, the kids partied until the wee hours of the morning in their packnplays which totally burns the candlestick at both ends. Yelp.



We started in Tomorrowland and did a few rides before we found a Buzz Lightyear meet and greet. Brent and I gasped at the same time when we saw him because we knew it was going to rock Wyatt's world. So, we hurried to stand in line and as soon as Wyatt got a clear view of him (even though there were still about 20 people in front of us) he screamed, "HEY BUZZ! RIGHT HERE! IT'S MEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The guy in front of us doubled over laughing with us too. I think that I could have stood there all day long watching little boys meet their super hero. It was so hilarious and sweet!



Later in the day, we got to meet the princesses and Callie was awestruck. We had to keep holding her back because she kept forgetting to wait for her turn. It was so cute. She was both outgoing and shy at the same time and it's all she's talked about ever since.

We let Wyatt run up and hug the princesses too after Callie had a minute by herself. He darted right up to Belle gave her a big hug and said, "I Wywy! I have shoes. They are for kicking. See?" And then demonstrated some very fancy kicking manuvers. When we let him go see Sleeping Beauty, he felt her up. Daddy was proud.

Of course, the best part of the day for Callie was meeting Ariel. When the kids woke up this morning, we heard them in the other room talking so excitedly about meeting Buzz and Ariel. Seriously, it's the cutest age ever for Disney.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with family and hope that you all did too! I'm overwhelmed and so thankful for all the blessings that God has given us this year (and every year). It was so relaxing just to have everyone together for one of our typical family holidays and for all of us to get fat and happy in unison. My aunt introduced me to her corn pudding which was luscious enough for me to want to post the recipe.



Aunt Yvette's Corn Pudding
1 14 oz. can creamed corn
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 small can whole kernel corn
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
_______________________________________
Mix all the crap together. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Don't forget to butter the casserole dish or it will (quote) "stick to high heaven." :)


Brent and I even attempted to battle the Black Friday crowds together at midnight (huge mistake) and again in the early morning. It was pointless and sketchy. The line for Toys R Us was wrapped around the building 5 people deep so there was no way any amount of money we would save was worth standing in that line. Instead, we pulled into the parking lot of a nearby hotel to access wifi and ordered crap online.

After a few hours of sleep, we were still hoping we would have better luck and headed out again only to return pretty empty handed. Since we were out anyway, we picked up a few things that weren't even on sale. I don't think we'll attempt it at all next year. Regardless, it was kinda nice spending a little bit of time together without the kids... like a pathetic date or something. :)

Yesterday, we took it easy and tried to catch up on some sleep and today, we are enjoying an awesome day of college football and gearing up for vacation! So excited!

Dear Santa,

A couple weeks ago, I started asking the kids what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. Callie caught on right away and erupted out of the gate with, "A puppy!" (Sorry kid, but hell no.) She went on to list all the characters in the Toy Story movie, added that she wanted a crown and a giraffe which eventually morphed into "lots of giraffes!" The giraffe request was the cutest one because months ago, Callie told me that her favorite little giraffe needed a family.

Wyatt didn't get it though. I would ask him at least once a day what he wanted from Santa and every time, the kid just changed the subject no matter how hard I pushed it. Twenty attempts later, he still wasn't giving me anything and I wasn't sure whether he just didn't understand the concept, or whether he simply didn't know what he wanted for Christmas.

Finally, I tried a different route and asked him if Santa was going to bring him a present - to which he exclaimed, "OH YES!" So I asked him what kind of present Santa was bringing him and he said, "A blue present! With a big bow!" Cautiously, as to not veer him off his mental track, I asked him what was inside his blue present and he happily exclaimed, "A blue race car!" Victory.

After overhearing our conversation, Callie couldn't contain herself anymore and started excitedly telling us how she wanted a purple present with a purple bow with purple sparkly princess shoes. (Which is now the first thing she rattles off when you ask her what's on her list.) Santa's got it pretty easy at our house this year. I do know, however, that these days are numbered.

Callie's List
A puppy
All the Toy Story characters
Lots of giraffes
A crown
Purple present with purple sparkly princess shoes

Wyatt's List
Blue present with blue race car

Nuggets in November

Brent is feeling better and the three of us successfully avoided getting it! I told Brent to kinda keep his distance from me and the kids this past week but Wyatt has been chasing him around the house for a few days very worried and asking, "Daddy? All done boogah nose?" (Brent never had a cold, but it's the only thing Wyatt correlates to being sick. Precious, huh!?)

It had been weeks since I uploaded any pictures to my computer which is completely out of character for me. These last few weeks have been about finding balance again and it takes a lot out of you to stand upright when you've been toppled over for such a long time. I'm so excited the holidays are coming up knowing that our family gets a chance to regroup. We have so much to be thankful for.

I snuck into Callie's room late last night to see if she wanted to watch Shrek 3 with me since it was on TV. (First, I tried waking up Wyatt - he was having none of it.) Of course, she was passed out too because it was so late, but I saw this scene at the foot of her bed and thought I might literally melt right there.

She had asked me earlier in the night if she could take some plastic food up to bed with her. I didn't care so I let her. But, when I saw why she had done it, and also saw that she made sure to give each critter their own piece of food, I was completely overwhelmed and fell in love with that curly angel in her crib all over again.

These kids... Light. Up. My. Life.