Mrs. Ape Grape Burgess!!!!

We cut Thanksgiving evening kind of short because I needed to head out early the next morning to spend the weekend with April getting some last minute wedding stuff done. We had so much fun together arranging flowers and making her bouquet and cooking, etc. It was great to see her family too and made me feel like we were both kids again. We got to spend a lot of time together being big dorks before her big day.

It was a cute and small little wedding at Steve's parent's house and she looked beautiful. Of course, it rained and despite everyone telling her that rain on your wedding day was good luck, she wasn't buying it. Regardless, it was a very sweet and meaningful ceremony and I'm sure the pictures will still turn out gorgeous. Steve is a great guy and I look forward to getting to know him even more! Congratulations Ape! I love you with all my heart and wish you two a lifetime of happiness together!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a nice and relaxing one. It was great to be able to focus on something else over the last couple of days besides getting the house ready to sell.

We spent the morning at home cooking and watching the parade on tv. The kids loved all the dancers and the big balloons and it took me back to when I was younger and loved watching that parade too. Then, we headed over to my parent's house to spend the day with them, my aunt and uncle, and my grandmother. We popped the first bottle of wine at 11:30 in the morning. Is that bad?

(Top Left: My goofy aunt and grandma. Top Right: A picture of Wyatt blowing out his first candle ever. Bottom: A pair of big ol' dorkwads.)

A Big Booty Recipe

I haven't written a post in days because we've been busting our butts painting, finishing up the floors, organizing, and donating. We still have so much to do and all I want is to get this piece listed (not that there are any buyers out there, but I will at least feel like I'm doing something about our situation).

Anyway, I will catch up and post pictures soon, but I wanted to post a recipe. (I know, SNORE!) But, I use this thing to look up my own recipes and well... I need my stuffing one in here. Brent's mom gave this recipe to me when we were first married and I've kind of tweeked it over the years. (She calls it dressing but I really don't understand the difference between stuffing and dressing because I'm a mo-ron.) Ever since, my family has put me in charge of the stuffing because it's that fab! The best part about it is frying up the left overs in the morning with some scrambled eggs and leftover ham. It's definately one of our traditions. Before I knew stuffing could be this good, I wouldn't get near that spongy-barf-looking stuff with a 10 foot pole!

Cornbread Stuffing

1 - 16oz. cornbread stuffing
3 cans chicken broth
2 cans cream of crap (one cream of chicken and one whatever you like)
1/2 stick melted butter
2 eggs
1 pound sausage, browned and drained
2-3 small onions, diced
2 small apples, diced
pepper to taste

Brown and drain the sausage. Saute the onions in the sausage fat that is still lingering in the pan. At the very end, throw the sausage and the apples back in the pan and let them mingle together for a little while with the heat off while you do the other steps. Combine the melted butter, broth, and cornbread and let it sit for 10 minutes. Add eggs and other remaining ingredients. Stir well. (It should be as thick as cake batter - add more broth or water until necessary.) Bake for 40 minutes at 375. Let stand for at least 20-30 minutes before serving.

Professional Pics

We got our pictures back from when we took the kids to one of the old squares in Savannah. A few of them turned out pretty cute but Wyatt was such a pill that day that there were really only two that turned out okay of him. It's so hard because they freak out when you take them to a portrait studio (and I don't blame them because it's kind of weird and creepy) and they run around like loons if you give them the freedom outside of a studio. It's a hard age to have pictures done. Regardless, these are a few of my favorites from the session.

Allison did an incredible job with what she was given! Those stinkers didn't even give us one of the two of them together. Little Blitters! Here is a link to Allison's website. She's the best!

http://www.allisonrichardson.com/

"Mommai" and her "Cahggie"

I really need to write a post about Callie because that beautiful little girl is just growing by leaps and bounds everyday. I remember when she would learn one new thing a week and I would get all excited because I could blog about it, but now... she learns so much new stuff everyday that I can't even keep up. It's killing me because I can't stop her from growing up so fast. I need her to be my baby everyday for the rest of my life. I need to hear her little diaper crinkle when she comes flying in the bedroom in the morning wanting to lay under the blankets together. I'm going to miss her when she's 20 and not sleeping upstairs. Sometimes, I fight myself not to go wake her up at night so that we can hang out and chat. I love listening to the things she talks about and learning what she thinks is so important to her at this age. I want to be right next to her my whole life.

She is learning all about Santa Claus these days but still clings to the pumpkins from Halloween. She's got a radar for those left over pumpkins out there and gets so excited when she sees one. She loves looking for the moon outside during the day and shockingly enough, most days you can see it! She's going to be pretty confused when we teach her that the moon comes up at night.

But those are such a small things on the scope of what she already knows and likes to do. She loves giving the dogs treats and she is starting to tell us when she's ready ("reh-ree!") to go to the playground ("WEE!"). She can even ask us for help ("hep") now. She has a memory like an elephant and it takes your breath away when you realize she remembers something very little from a few months ago.

She's starting to tell stories about her life too. A couple weeks ago, we went into Lowes and there was this ugly plastic life-like Santa that was motion activated and would turn and look at you and start singing when you walked by it. Callie was deathly terrified of that stupid thing. Anyway, this morning Brent had to run into Lowes and she knew that Santa was in there. She started talking about Santa and about how daddy was in there. (The poor thing probably feared for her daddy's life!) Then, at dinner tonight, she wanted to talk about it again and to relive out loud how her daddy had gone into Lowe's this morning and had seen Santa (who says, "HO HO HO! Merry Mas!") and how Wyatt had also seen the Santa when we went before (weeks ago).

She still wants to "EAT!" all the time but only picks at food when you put it in front of her. She eats like a bird. Instead, she lives on juice and milk and will always find some way to con Wyatt out of his full sippy cup either by trading him with an empty one or but just plain stealing it when he's not looking. She loves to color and asks to do it incessantly. She always pats the chair next to her and says, "mommy", to let me know she wants me to color with her.

She loves bugs but knows that they are "eww", so she won't touch them but is enthralled by them all the same. Today she pointed at an embroidered bumblebee on her pjs and said, "Cool!" Her favorite color is yellow. She loves raisins and cheese. And, miss thing also loves to sing and dance to lots of different kinds of music. Brent turned the radio station on her the other day and she complained until he turned it back. Then she started blissfully swaying and singing away again.

She knows her way around town too. She knows the road to grandmas house, Chick-Fil-A, and knows when to start looking for different water fountains around town. She's always been like that... she's known where all the flags were since she learned what a flag was. Silly girl.

I would have never imagined that it was possible so early, but the squirt is my little best friend. I don't know if that makes me pathetic or overly in-love with her, but she truly is my little soul mate and I can't believe she is my daughter. What I ever did to deserve her, I'll never know. She gives meaning and joy to every breath I take and I will fight for every breath I take until the very end just to be in the same world as her! My Cal Bear.

Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Busy Weekend

Brent and I had a good weekend even though it involved packing and laying wood floors in the kitchen. On Friday and Saturday, I tore the unfinished storage room apart trying to find things to throw away, donate or pack up. We have shoved so much crap into the empty spaces of this house that we were drowning in it. If we didn't know where to put it, we either threw it in the storage room, the closet under the stairs, or our bedroom closets. We've finally made a dent in cleaning up all three of those rat infested pits.

Sunday, we took the kids over to my parents house at the butt crack and came home to start laying wood floors in the kitchen. We just had nasty linoleum in there and needed to change it so it wouldn't hinder the sale of the house. (I know it's probably taboo, but I actually loved the vinyl because it didn't matter what happened to it and was so easy to clean.) Brent had a buddy who was supposed to help but cancelled at the last minute so I put on my butch hat and helped him out instead. It was kind of empowering to see all the work we were getting done. Anyway, we aren't completely finished but so far I feel like it's made a huge difference.

This morning, Brent and I were both hobbling around like a pair of 90 year olds because we are so sore from being construction workers. I'll tell you though, it was worth every penny of the $2000 we saved from laying it ourselves. It was actually borderline fun.

S.O.S.

It seems kind of oxymoronic to write a post like this after one that was titled, "Happy Day". I've been procrastinating on writing this post for almost a year now. But, since it's all set in stone at this point...

The IT department for the State of GA is being outsourced. This is the department Brent works for and he has honestly loved every minute of it as well as the people he works with. It was a really hard blow. We were informed of this on Dec. 19th of last year - a week before Christmas. (I guess it was their way of spreading the holiday cheer.) Anyway, we hoped that by the time this came to fruition that something would have fizzled out along the way and that Brent would get to keep his job.

Fizzle, it did not.

Last Friday, the contract was signed for the outsourcing to take place and just to add insult to injury, we learned that Brent (being only five months shy of vesting) would not get the retirement that he had been so dedicated to getting.

Merry #&@%*&! Christmas times 2.

We live in such a small town with no businesses that could ever support the type of work that Brent does. So, we're gonna have to move.

I know that there are tons of people in a similar position that we are in, so I can't complain too much. I just pray that we come out the other end of this okay and look back to see how obvious it is that everything happens for a reason. For right now though, we are wrecked. There is so much on our plates as far as Brent finding a new job and selling this house with one-year-old twins in tow that I can't even wrap my head around it.

And not that anyone needs reminding of it, but did I mention that the economy SUCKS right now?!?!

yelp.

Happy Day

I needed Brent to be home so badly today! He had off for Veterans Day and we worked our butts off this morning cleaning out closets and organizing. I can't even tell you how many projects we have started in this house and never finish. I swear we both have ADD so when the project is close enough to being finished where we can get the jist of what it will look like completed, then we quit. We'll go 80% of the way and get bored. Anyway, I've just been feeling like the rat-infested chaos is getting worse and worse the older the kids are getting and the more junk we are collecting. But, we both feel good about what we accomplished and we donated so much crap that it felt freeing!

Then we took the kids to the playground.

This little group of ducks made my day. If you can see, they are all big fat white ducks and then there is this one little tag-a-long tiny brown dude. He's also a duck but not like the rest of the flock. Anyway, the white ducks seemed to have taken this little guy in because they were all happily swimming around and fishing together. No one seemed to notice he was different including the brown dude himself. They all quack. Brent formed a theory that the brown one got lost when he was little and settled for these guys when he finally found some fellow ducks. The white ones took him in because he was just a baby. I think it's true. So cute.

AND Top Chef starts tomorrow which puts an added spring in my step. For me, it's almost as good as watching The Hills. Which, by the way, did you see Jon's shirt from Jon and Kate plus 8 last night? It said, "Don't worry. Beef curry." I grinned out loud.

I haven't posted in about a week which is a little bit unusual for me, but we were served a big ol' healthy serving of crap pie almost every single day last week. Oh well. It is what it is and the good news is that we are all healthy. We are in for lots of changes around here fo' sho'!

Health Hazard.

The weekend was nice though. The kids had their picture's taken again by the same photographer who took their pictures right before those squirts turned one. I can't sing her praises enough! That stinkin' Wyatt gave her a run for her money though because he was in such a foul mood. As Brent would say, "He was ripe for the pickin'!" We met her at one of the beautiful old squares in downtown Savannah and she had some incredible ideas for her shots. I'm so anxious to see how they turned out!

The world was ending because I wouldn't let them hold their little cuddle buddy things, Foo Foo and Hippo.

Apparently, one dose of Tylenol for Wyatt wasn't enough.

Sunday we went to see Disney on Ice and it was really cute. The kids loved every minute of it and they both bee bopped in their little seats. It was so precious! They are still so in love with Mickey Mouse! Brent and I were a little bored but the runts had a blast and that's all that matters.

Happy Election Day! (OR NOT)

Thanks Caroline! This has been stuck in my head for days! So cute!

Ben and Jerry's is giving away free scoops of icecream today between 5pm-8pm for voting. I'm not lucky enough to have one near me, but I thought I'd pass on the good fattening word anyway. Here's the link: http://benandjerrys.com/features/i_voted/.

Starbucks is also giving away a free tall brewed coffee for voting between 8am-10pm. Here's the link to their commercial on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2J8KJDsqqY.

...and if you don't know now you know!

Yesterday was such a great day! Callie and I left the boys at home and went Christmas shopping! I LOVE Christmas! I'm already fighting the urge to put up the tree. Anyway, we went all over the place and even stopped for lunch. She did awesome and was such a good girl the entire day. She enjoyed everything and learned about Santa since he's already plastered all over the stores. She talked about Wyatt and Daddy a lot.

When I came home, Brent was jealous because Callie was stuck to me for the rest of the day. So, in an attempt to get even, Brent decided to take Wyatt out for awhile too but came home after only five minutes because Wyatt threw a huge tantrum. The poor little dude is teething, bless his heart, so he's pissed off all the time. I can't wait until he feels better because there's nothing we can do to make him feel better except drown him in Tylenol. On top of that, they aren't really catching onto the whole time change thing so he's kinda cranky from not getting enough sleep too.

Anyway, we had a great weekend taking it easy and wallowing in the cozy weather. I love how it feels to run the heat knowing it's pretty cold outside and how the sky seems so much darker during the days. It just makes me want to eat thick, fatty foods and take naps all the time.

This is a cute video that we took last night. The kids were going crazy over this song and I get giddy when I see them like this over songs that I love to the core. It makes me feel like I have two mini-mes! (Watch how Wyatt knows how to clap his hands when the dude starts talking about it! I love that turd!)

Halloween Munchkins

Halloween was precious! Of course, we tried to cram too much into one day but that's how we roll. We had to carve FOUR pumpkins since I bought one for each of us. It took all morning. I made the kids an Elmo and a Mickey Mouse pumpkin. Brent worked on his normal artistic masterpiece which always makes me happy since he's such a Rembrandt.



He named his pumpkin "Sherlock Butt" (because he's as creative as he is artistic) but once Callie saw the pumpkin, she told us it was a bug and we went with that because that seemed cuter than the Asian looking drag queen with a bat nose. The last one was an owl which was perfect because I stole it's eyes for my Mickey Mouse ears. Since we weren't going to be home at all last night, I lit them and put them in the bathroom for the kids to see whenever they wanted. Honestly, I liked sneaking in there to look at them too and we got to enjoy them a lot longer so I might have to start doing that every year.

Then, we took the kids to the pediatrician's office to get their flu shots which was an adventure in and of itself, and came home to get dressed. Callie was a "yeyo bi-bice" (yellow princess) and Wyatt was a precious monkey (with the all-important banana). We went over to Dan and Catherine's house to party like big people while we let the kids trick-or-treat. They were all so cute but pretty skittish about walking up to strangers and getting candy. Wyatt was only interested in driving the golf cart. He did not care about the candy at all and would throw a fit every time we tried to pry him from the steering wheel. Callie wanted to be carried most of the time. The night pretty much ended for her when a motion-animated witch shook and cackled at her. She was done. They were both done. So, we loaded them up and they cried the whole way home in between shoving handfuls of smarties in their mouths.

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