Christmas Survey

Because I am feeling like an overachiever and all...a Christmas Survey if you will.

1. Fresh Tree/Fake Tree? - FRESH! I love getting a fresh tree and I am really glad I married someone that loves fresh trees as well. That could have been a real problem. Not a deal breaker but a serious problem every 11 months.

2. Favorite Ornament - Goodness. I LOVE all my ornaments. There are only a couple on my tree that aren't special. One of my favorite traditions is my Nana giving us ornaments every year. Those are so special and I love getting them out every year. I also love the homemade ones I have gotten the last couple of years with JD's picture from school.

3. Favorite Christmas Song - I LOVE Christmas songs. I have a couple - "Walking in a Winter Wonderland", The Christmas Song, and Let it Snow!!

4. Favorite Tradition - See number 2. I look so forward to those ornaments every year. We have gotten them for as long as I can remember and I had so much fun telling JD about them this year. I also love picking out the tree. And driving through Prestonwood to look at lights. I also like our new tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve and them being our PJ's for Christmas morning, This year they will all be matching Christmas PJ's - I love Jimmy for doing this with us! Last night JD and I made those home-made Cinnamon, Nutmeg, ground clove, and ginger ornaments you bake for an hour. He has SOOOO much fun making them and then painting them. We made a gingerbread girl and boy that were JD and MacKenize and he thought that was the coolest thing ever. I can see that being something we do for years to come.

5. Favorite Gift Ever Received - When I was younger it was definetly my keyboard. I remember being so excited about it. In recent years...anything that was a SURPRISE since I usually pick out my own gift.

6. Favorite Christmas Meal - The usualy, ham (I prefer honeybaked ham over turkey), greasy bacon-filled green beans, dressing, giblet gravy and mashed potatos, sweet potato casserole, and dessert!

7. Favorite Christmas Cookie - Hmmm....I don't have one.

8. Favorite Place to be - The BIG OB! Nana and PawPaw's house hands down with all the family. There is no place on earth like Christmas at Nana's. It's seriously like a Winter Wonderland. She has a Christmas Tree in every room (all 4 bedrooms, all 4 bathrooms, the laundry room and pantry, the formal living, dining, sunroom, kitchen, and sitting room) - it's insane!!! I hope her mansion in heaven is the exact same way at Christmas.

9. Favorite Memory - Goodness, there are so many. I can remember being little and so excited after opening presents on Christmas morning and all I wanted to do outside and see what my best friend Ashley across the street got and ride our new bikes or rollerblades together. I remember the year she got her Red Jeep and how cool it was!! Another neat memory was the Christmas we spent in Hawaii. I went with Jimmy and his family to Hawaii for 2 weeks over Christmas while his sister and brother-in-law lived there. It was crazy being able to go to the beach after opening gifts!

10. Favorite Christmas Movie - I love them all! Home Alone was probably one of the funniest! I am really wanting to see Four Christmas's this year though!!

There you go...Merry Christmas!

lazy update

I have been called out on my lack of blogging. I have no new excuse so I won't even try. I will tell you that I am laying on the couch with a headache so spelling, grammar, and capslock for that matter are out the window! awesome.

i am just going to do a quick post but i PROMISE to post on monday in participation with Boo Mama's Tour of Christmas Homes!

For now, a recap...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was spent in good ole Mississippi. We switch off our holidays so this year we went to Nana's house for Turkey Day and will spend Christmas here. As always, the trip passed to quickly. The kids had a blast, they are just crazy about their Nana and PawPaw.

And again, because i am too tired and my head hurts too bad, i will be now sending you to my mother's blog if you'd like to see pictures. there are some cute ones.
http://thegannonfamily.blogspot.com/2008/12/thanksgiving.html

if that doesn't satisfy your van-fam photo update, you can also check out another post by my dear mother. it's on the pure goofiness of our family. she ain't lyin'. poor jimmy...i think somedays he seriously wonders what he got himself into but at least he knows that i get it honestly. and...his family ain't all that sane either. seriously.
http://thegannonfamily.blogspot.com/2008/12/tgif.html

that's all i got for now in pictures. it's friday night. i am so glad it's the weekend. i have a lot of sewing to get done. this whole sewing thing has really taken off. seriously. (has anyone notice how much i use that word? it's probably the most used word in my vocab - seriously.) right now i have 4 PJ sets and 2 pillowcase dresses to complete for a friend, 6 PJ sets for an etsy order, plus a shirt dress, a pj set, 2 appliqued T's and a skirt/shirt set all for Christmas gifts, and then a FUN girly outfit and 4 PJ sets for my family for Christmas. Oh, and in case y'all haven't heard, there are only 12 more days until christmas. awesome.

tomorrow we have a borthday party for one of JD's friends, which reminds me, i need to finish her birthday gift as well. my mom came over the other night and asked if the kids could spend saturday night with them. ummm....twist my arm please. i of course could never deny grandparents there right to see their grandchildren, so we will be kidless tomorrow evening. we have some dinner Christmas party to attend at the club and then we'll probably go out with the crew. i am in need of some country music and dancing. but i can hear the guys groan already, so it will probably be darts. again.

i'm done for the night but do check back monday for the Christmas Tour of Homes! it's sure to be fun! even though i am less than impresses with my Christmas decor this year. oh well...maybe i'll get some new stuff after Christmas when it's all 70%off.

PEACE!

These Two

I hate that I am not blogging so I am going to try and squeeze that in real quick. I mean, it's already 12:13 am, what's another few minutes?!

Things are good. Busy. Busy. Busy. But good. My babies are growing like crazy. Here are a few updates on those two...

JD is a mess. He is starting to talk back. Or sass me. It's driving me crazy. He has a response to every single thing I say. Usually if I can just get him to say, "Yes Mam" then it ends the convo, but that's proving to be trickier than it was a week ago. I possibly said, "YES MAM????!!!!" twenty times today alone. Really.

Last week we got loaded up and pulled out of the driveway for school only to discover that my tire preassure was low. So I called Jimmy b/c I don't have any clue what that means. After performing some of my own diagnostic test (checking the tires for nails) I drove to the gas station and attempted to put air in my tire. I like to pretend I know how to use those type of things, but I don't. I am pretty sure I had a few people laughing in the parking lot. I was so concerned with overfilling the tire that I gave up. I called Jimmy and was probably pretty rude b/c I was so aggrivated about my tires, even more aggrivated about the possibility of JD missing school, and mostly aggrivated that Jimmy was in Spring and unable to fix the situation immediately, which is how I like most problems solved. Anywho, I got back in the car and informed JD that we might have to miss school because mommy's tire was messed up. To which he responded, "Mama, we are not arguing about this. I am going to school!" Hmm...wonder where he's heard that before?!?



He is also completely in love with his sister. That being said, he pesters her to no end. He has to touch her. She doesn't like to be touched. He has to talk to her right in the face. She doesn't like that either. He has to poke her with sticks. She's not a fan. He has to crawl around the house after her and everytime she turns around to look at him he gets within inches of her face. She has this thing with personal space. He has to talk to her all the time. She's rather he just left her alone. He has to take every toy she's playing with. She squeals, LOUDLY, everytime. He has to sit in her new pink chair. She doesn't really like to share that. He has to spit water on her in the bathtub. She only thought that was funny the first time - 4 months ago. He has to hug her constantly (which is sweet I know). She's good after the first one each day. He has to put his arm around her in the shopping cart and squeeze. She doesn't like to be held onto and again squeals. Loudly. He just loves her so. And she loves him. But really, give a sister some space. The first person she looks for every morning is her brother. And if he's still asleep, she pokes him in the face until he wakes.



JD has also learned to write his name. I was so excited the first time he did it without being shown first. He is soooo smart. I mean, it is only 2 letters, but it's a start?! Actually, last night he wrote "Jimmy." I didn't even realize he knew his real name was Jimmy. TGF Mrs. Clayton. JD tells me how much he loves Mrs. Clayton (his teacher) daily.



One last thing about my boy. Can y'all believe he will ve 4 in 2 months?! Holy cow!!!



Shana - Squash Casserole, plus I have 7 Thanksgiving wooden hangy things that mom's can paintkris h - cranberry chutney stuff (and probably cupcakes too.......................)Kris O - mashed potatoesSarah - rollsJessica - Pumpkin PieJennifer - cups, plates, napkins, soda for mamas and box drinks for the kiddosAmy-Greenbeans (I know big surprise)

MacKenzie is more than a handful. She's a WILD CHILD. Seriously. She has no fear. Saturday she climbed up the ladder to the fort in the yard. The ladder consists of 5 steps and the 5th step is about 5-1/2' off the ground. She climbed all the way to the 5th step. She's crazy.



We have to bungy-cord her to the high chair. That doesn't look odd I promise. She climbs out of her high chair, over the tray, and onto the kitchen table. She then looks at me like, "What?!"



She can say "Mama, Bye, Dada, Dog, and Bubba." Oh, and she can scream/squeal/whine/yell - I don't even know what to call it. It's not pretty.



She is so dang cute. I could just stare at her all day. She is a pure joy. A mess. But a joy. She's not our "easy one" by any means, but I couldn't imagine her any other way.



Well. I better go to bed. I have to get up in 7 hours for preschool. And Jimmy wants to do a breakfast before he leave for work. FUN?!

MUDCAKE ORIGINALS are here!

Check, check, check it out!!!

www.amudcakesoiree.com
--->Click on the MUDCAKE ORIGINALS button on the right side of the screen! Hello custom clothes! Whoo hoo!!

Do share wontcha? I might just have to do a giveaway sometime soon?!

A Mudcake Soiree

I know, I know. Y'all are just dying to see my Halloween Part 2 post, but photobucket hates me. So, it will have to wait.

I did want to share a site that I haven't promoted much but simply because I am try to not completely overwhelm myself. Anyways. It's a site dedicated to my party planning and eventually will also feature the custom children's clothes I am doing. All in do time. For now, check it out...tell me what you think!

A Mudcake Soiree

Halloween Catch Up - Part 1

Ok. So let's play a little catch-up. First things first...

Pre-Halloween Fun...

The week before we had our annual company picinic. It was at Bear Creek park this year, and as always the kids had a blast. Here's the little lady right in the middle of everything...





Cousin Alexis and Kenzie


And then Nana and PawPaw came in town and it was all about spending time with them before MacKenzie's birthday! As usual we spent every minute soaking up their visit.

Here's the pig...err....girl...eating spaghetti and then getting cleaned up.





Here are a few of her and Nana laying together. How precious is this? She's holding one of the baby dolls she got for her birthday. It's sooo crazy having a girl second becuase they are soooo different. Amanda - I can not wait for you to experience all this!! I just love how she loves her babies already!







Kisses


We carved a pumpkin. JD wasn't sure about it all but finally helped daddy clean it out. Kenzie doesn't miss a beat!!!





Nana and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch over by us. This is our third year to go. It was a lot of fun and some great photo ops. If my kids liked getting their pictures taken...





Seriously??! Get this thing off my head!










My Sweet and Silly Boy








Part 2...tomorrow...

No Bama '08 - I know. I'm lame.

It's time. All of the debates...speculation...ads...SNL skits...punch lines on late night tv...all for this. Election Day. It's funny. A part of me is soooo glad it's almost over. Another part worries about the state of our country and what tomorrow will be like.

I voted today. Along with a million others. It was such an odd feeling. This is the second presidential election I have been able to vote in (my sister's first). It was so different than the first. It was so less monumental last time. It was neat that both times I have gone with my husband. There's strength in walking in there together. MacKenzie also went with us. There was no line whatsoever. The people at the poles were so dang nice. They asked me to bring MacKenzie into the gym where the voting was taking place because it was such a monumental event. How neat is that. I, of course, didn't because she's loud. And she was hungry. Lethal combo I tell you.

Voting is such an odd experience. That walk from the sign-in table to the polls is long. And quiet. It reminded me of being a little girl in the school auditorium. It was like the honor roll ceremony where you have to stand up and walk all the way to the stage in front of the entire kindergarten class. Praying silently that you don't fall only to hear your FATHER yell from the parent area, "Whoo-ooo, Stephanie loves Ross!" Y'all, I am not lying. That is completely awful. Can y'all even imagine how embarrassed I was??!! Embarrassed that now Ross knew I did indeed love him. Embarrassed that the rest of the kindergarten class knew I loved him. Embarrassed that my dad was so lame he felt the need to announce that to the whole class. Embarrassed at his level of maturity. Just embarrassed. Y'all, it was wrong on all levels. Can you tell I am still dealing with this? I got so upset thinking about it earlier I had to call my mom. She pulled Dr. Deal With Your Emotions and told me to write a letter to him. I didn't. I am blogging instead.

So...back to the monumental election. It's here. My stomach is kinda in knots. The entire Houston-area must have ordered pizza tonight because it was a 2-1/2 hour wait. Jimmy picked it up. So...we are now eating our pizza, watching the tv, and praying. My sis is here though. It makes it a little more exciting. She's funny. And young. I love her.

Palin-McCain '08!!!

It's Official - She's a Year Old!

Y'all...how did this happen? How did my sweet little baby turn into a big girl? She's one years old and I can not believe it. I knew it was going to happen but now that she's officially 1 and the
party has passed I am in disbelief. She's all big and stuff.

Her birthday was one for the books. Seriously, it was awesome if I do say so myself. I was so happy with how everything turned out!!! Here are some pictures from that special day...

The decorations and beautiful cake...






Favors!


The Princess in her new princess chair from KK and Pa Tim


Momma puting on her birthday hat


She didn't really like it...


...at all


MacKenzie wanting her FuFu


My Princess


Nicky and MacKenzie


Cake Time!!




YUM!!












NOT THE HAIR!!


This is soooo good!!!


Nana and Kenzie-Girl


Clean up time!


Nana kissing Kenzie


KK and Kenzie


Princess Gets to Open her Presents!