Thanksgiving weekend

So, it's been a little while since I've been on here. It got a little crazy around here with holidays coming up and trying to get our house CLEAN - not just clean - for the family to come over here for Thanksgiving. But it was all worth the weekend we've had!


The fun and funny stuff started (well, as far back as I can remember) was Wednesday. I was meeting a friend for lunch and thought we'd go a little early and go to Big Lots. I hadn't been there in a while and thought I'd go see what they had. We were looking at toys when Connor said, "Hey, Mommy. I hear something." I asked him what he heard and he said, "Music." So, I showed him where the speaker was on the ceiling. We went on looking at toys and were going to look at the Christmas tress and village houses since both kids love them. They started talking over the loud speaker. Connor stopped in his tracks, looked up at the speaker and said, "I would like some chicken and french fries. (pause) Uh huh. (pause) No, that's all. Thank you." And then continued on his merry way. The lesson for me was - we much go through the drive thru for chicken and french fries just a little too often. :-)


Thursday was spent just hanging around the house (we didn't do the whole family Thanksgiving meal until today) and fixing our own Thanksgiving meal which consisted of turkey legs boiled in sprite, sugar, Tabasco sauce, red pepper flakes and few other things then grilled with honey on them. I'm sorry to say I actually didn't get to eat one because of feeding one child and trying to get the other to eat but Danny said they were very good. In the afternoon we went out and played in the leaves. Danny made a HUGE pile of leaves (the pile wasn't even half of what was in our yard!). Connor had never played in the leaves before. He was a little unsure at first but when Danny showed him how to jump in them he was all about it. He loves jumping on, at, off anything. That evening I got to "spend" Thanksgiving with just about all of my family in Houston. My parents were down there for the holidays so my dad and I used Skype to talk at the family get together. So I (and Connor off and on) spent an hour on the computer talking to all. It was great and a lot of fun!


Friday the kids and I went out with their Aunt Mel to hit the black Friday shopping. Connor was great and had fun. So far, Savannah isn't a big fan of shopping. I think she gets bored sitting in the back seat of the stroller and can't see very well. So, next time out I may try the kids switching places and see how that works. But we had fun anyway! I got 2 Christmas presents and everything else was just for me! That was the best part! :-) We of course had to start decorating for Christmas - always the day after Thanksgiving. Connor got to decorate his own little tree. He also got to watch the first part of Polar Express and really liked it. I wasn't sure if he would or not, but I should have known he would since he loves trains. So, we had to go out and get it today so he could see the end of it.


Today all of Danny's family came over to eat lunch. It was a great time - and there was a lot of good food. Savannah napped shortly after eating but Connor had a big time with his older cousins - Nathan, Amber & Ryan. He's funny. He doesn't always realize he isn't there size and just talks to them like he is their age. At one point I heard him say, "Hey, I have an idea." I never did hear the idea but it tickles me when he talks like a grown person. One of Connor's favorite things to do with Danny is Connor runs around the couches. As he comes around the front Danny takes one of out big couch pillows, throws it at him and knocks him down. Connor grabs the pillow and takes it back to Danny and tells him to do it again. All the kids got in on the action today and Connor thought that was great! After everybody had left we hung around the house a little and then ran out to get last few things needed for decorating. That's finished now and it's time to REALLY start buying Christmas presents!!

A couple of side notes.....

Savannah is doing her best to talk, although most times it comes out just squealing. I will be sooooo glad when she can use her words. But the words she can say are: uh oh, Lighten, Momma, Dada and baby. She just added baby this past week. And Connor's new favorite phrase to say, "Oh my crap." Some people think it's funny to hear a 3 year old say that, but Mommy doesn't always - but sometimes I do!

(I've added pictures from our weekend in the November photo album.)

What goes up must come down

So, Savannah seems to be a little behind Connor when it comes to some things....Connor rolled over at 3 months - Savannah at 4; Connor crawled at 6 months - Savannah at 8; Connor was walking at 11 months - Savannah's not 11 months but almost and just started cruising; Connor fell down the stairs at 6 months - Savannah at 10 1/2.

Connor's story - I had gone into the laundry room and he was following behind. We had not got the gate up at the top of the stairs yet but was using my pac n play (folded up) to block the stairs. I didn't realize that the pac n play had been scooted over a bit and being the curious person he is he decided to go investigate. I heard a few thumps - thinking Connor had thrown one of Danny's shoes down the stairs only to be shocked when I heard wailing!! I rad out there and he was 1/2 way down the stairs (hardwood). I ran as fat as I could to get to him. After the fact it was kind of funny. He was sitting on the stair - reclined back - and it looked like he was just hanging out. No harm though - just a tiny bloody nose.

Savannah's story - Danny was in the kitchen and I was on the other side of the counter cleaning. He asked, "How many stairs can Savannah go up?" I started walking over there because she had never climbed stairs before. I was about to her when I see her sitting on the second step from the bottom. She turned and saw Danny and smiled and decided to try to crawl to him. She thought she'd hit floor but instead found air. I was not quite fast enough. She landed on her forehead and tumbled over. She of course let out a big cry but within probably 3 minutes she was over it. I knew it had just scared her. Within 5 minutes she was back down on the floor playing with Connor.

She may be a little behind Connor in some things but she DID learn how to crawl up stairs before he did. :-)

God's lesson continues....and fun at the park!

So, after I posted my blog yesterday believe it or not my lessons on cleaning, or really patience, continued. I ended up using my little green machine two more times...one on Orange Fanta that got spilled on the carpet. The second was on the "poo water" that spilled out of the hose of the green machine while I was carrying it to clean the fanta. :-) And yes, last night my kids went to bed clean. :-) Today....it was Grapette that got spilled on the carpet. It's fine though - I didn't get upset...just cleaned it up.

This afternoon after both kids just slept 1 1/2 hours I decided to go to take them to the park. It was about 60 degrees and I thought I had better take advantage before it gets too cold. Luckily there weren't a whole lot of kids there. I decided to take the wagon in case Connor decided he wanted to go on a walk. But, we ended up not going on a walk because he found a couple of little boys to play with. He can always find someone to play with at the park. He doesn't care how big they are. He doesn't always realize that he's only 2....he thinks he's just as big as whatever kids is around. He plays with older boys - middle school age - at church every Sunday. He found these two little boys that looked to be around 6 & 7. They apparently were playing "Scooby Doo" which I thought was so neat because you don't see many kids pretending to be Scooby any more. One of them was Scooby - and no he didn't crawl around on all fours - and the other was Shaggy. They made Connor the monster that was chasing them. It was cute because Connor didn't have a clue what was going on. He just thought it was great that he was getting to run around chasing these other boys. He had an absolute blast. Savannah loved swinging. I guess she did that for about 20 minutes. She also went down the slide with a little help from Mommy and thoroughly enjoyed that. Her favorite thing though was sitting in the mulch trying to eat the mulch and leaves that fell. She wasn't sure about crawling around on it at first but soon got used to it and was throwing all the mulch out of her way. She tried really hard a couple times to follow Connor and his "friends" but just couldn't keep up. As we were going back to the park there were a lot of leaves in one area. Connor asked me to put them on him so I did. I then had him throw them out of the wagon and he loved it! The pictures turned out cute - in my opinion, anyway. It was a great one and a half hours spent at the park.

God's Lesson

If you are on facebook you would have seen that my status at one point was "Valerie is wondering what lesson God is trying to teach her with the way these past few days have gone!!!" I've finally figured out God's lesson for me.....it's all about cleaning!! I know I'm not the greatest cleaner but I really didn't think God would have to teach me about that. Let me share with you some events of the past two days.....

Savannah had some congestion and some "watery stool" over the weekend so she's been a bit fussy. Put on top of that a big brother who wants to wake up before the sun comes up and insists on waking up Mommy who now has not had enough sleep...let's just say I knew yesterday was going to be a trying day! Yesterday morning was filled with fussiness from everybody - not a lot of fun. My mom calls and I'm filling in her on the day so far. Connor keeps saying, "Hey Mommy" and Savannah's fussing in her high chair because she has run out of food because I'm trying to CLEAN the kitchen. Being the wonderful and caring and loving Christian mother that she is she asks if I want her to pray with me before she hangs up. I of course say YES! I'm feeling better as she's praying then......

Connor comes out of the bathroom with lotion from fingertips to elbows on both arms. He was wanting to be a very good, clean boy and wash his hands (which always consists of washing up to his elbows for some reason). I told him he had to wait for Mommy but seeing how he's getting big he decided to do it himself....but didn't get soap but lotion. He can't reach the faucet to turn it on so he just kept getting more and more lotion. I'm laughing as Mom finishes her wonderful prayer for me. I think she's prayed for patience for me and I really don't ever pray for that because to learn patience you have to deal with things to become patient. I inform Mom what happened, and as we're laughing about that and I'm CLEANING Connor's arms and hands Lightnin' proceeds to pee on Danny's pull over he wears every day. Once again, CLEANING has to take place. At least I laugh about it - only because it was Danny's and not mine. :-) I'm trying to CLEAN Connor and Lightnin' mess while still trying to CLEAN the kitchen and do laundry which of course is CLEANING clothes. I put Connor and Savannah down for a nap and finally get to eat lunch at 1:15. Connor doesn't sleep - Savannah sleeps for an hour. So, once again I've got fussy kids and still not a clean kitchen, but some clean clothes. Let's just say last night the kids went to bed early ..... and without being CLEANED!

Today...Connor was up at 5:00. But today, I took him back up to his room and told him he had to go back to sleep because I was locking him in and it was going to be a long time before I came back to get him. Thankfully he did go back to sleep. But Savannah was waking off and on from 5:00. I didn't get a lot of sleep between 5:00 & 7:15 but I did get some!! She of course has been a monster all day! We went to Kroger this morning and before I can even get her in the buggy she's whining and carrying on. I forgot her paci so our first stop was the baby aisle and broke into a package of pacies (paid for later of course!). While I'm at the deli she's fussing so the lady behind the counter was very nice and got her and Connor both sugar cookies.....that were orange and of course I had Savannah in white. Needless to say I'll be CLEANING her white jacket. But that had to wait because our cute little puppy left me a lot to CLEAN! We got back from the store and I took Lightnin' out for about 10 minutes. He does #1 but not #2 - not unusual. But we come back inside and I'm CLEANING Savannah's bottom and what does he do....#2. Not only does he do it but either he or Connor stepped in it and proceeded to walk all over the place. Now I there are little spots of poop all over my great room and bedroom. So I have just spent an hour CLEANING poop with God's greatest creation for anyone with kids or pets - the Bissell little Green Machine.

So, does anybody else see how I'm thinking God is wanting me to learn about cleaning ..... or is all this cleaning my lessons on patience? :-)

Growing up

Let's see...where do I start. Savannah is growing up so fast right before my eyes. She started pulling up on everything this week - even on the hardwood floor. She is always very proud of herself. She has also starting "walking on her knees" across the hardwood floor while pushing and holding on to something. I know she's just dying to walk. When she and Connor are playing together and he takes off running, she crawls as fast as she can (with her tiny bottom wiggling behind). It's really one of the cutest things I've ever seen! She does it with such determination too - she lowers her head and is gone before you know it. She has said her first word other than "mama" and "dada." Believe it or not she tries to say "Lightnin'" (our dog's name). She gets pretty close. It comes out "yigh yen." You can tell she's trying to say his name. It's so cute. She uses the same tones that I do when I ask her to say it. She's into squealing again. She used to do it, but had stopped and I thanked God for that! These past couple of weeks she's started it up again. She squeals when she's mad, when she's excited, or just because she wants to. It's cute sometimes but most of the time it's just annoying. Connor doesn't like it either. He's heard me say "No, ma'am" a lot so when she does it he tells her that. She's getting 2 more teeth in on the bottom so that makes a total of 6 teeth so far. And she uses all of them when it comes to eating her favorite foods....peas, broccoli, chicken, pancakes, asparagus, potatoes, carrots, eggs, graham crackers....and any other food that you can think of. She loves eating and enjoys all foods!!! Now, if only I could get Connor to eat like that!! She also has signed her first sign language words - "
All done." It's not exactly the way you're supposed to do it - but I know she's saying it. You are supposed to hold your hands out in front of you palms up then turn your hands over so the backside is up. She pretty much just waves, but every time I say "All done" she does that, whether I say it when changing her diaper or eating - whatever she does it. It's cute!

Danny and I took Connor to his first University of Tennessee basketball (exhibition) game this past Friday night. It's officially his 2nd - when he was 2 months old we went with a bunch of people from church - but that doesn't really count. He wasn't too sure of it at first. We got there about 30 minutes early to watch warm ups and stuff. Our seats are a little close to the band - a few sections away. He was excited when he first saw them because he LOVES music. He's learning the different instruments. When they were getting ready to start he covered his ears (see pictures) because he was afraid they were going to be loud. He doesn't like noises unless he's controlling it. He got used to it pretty quick. Then the game started. He was good until everybody cheered - he would then cover his ears again. The game didn't start 'til 7:30 so we didn't stay too long. But, by the time we were leaving he was having a good time. He got to eat some popcorn and had M & Ms and a sprite. I hated to leave, but if he's up too late he can be really crabby the next day. As we were walking out I asked him if he would like to go to another game and his reply was, "Yes, that was cool." Sometimes we forget that he's only 2 - almost 3 - because he just seems to know so much and is very aware of things. He surprised me on the way home when he asked, "Why is the road so bumpy?" We had just gone over a bridge and it was a little bumpy. Maybe I should expect questions like that from him, but I don't. He's in a very curious stage right now. I swear he asks at least 100 questions a day. He is all the time asking me why I say things...mainly doing with Savannah and Lightnin'. He asks, "Why'd you say no, Vannah (or Lighten)?" or "Why'd you say good boy Lighten?" I of course say no to Lightnin' or Savannah a lot during the day so I hear those questions a lot during the day!!! I love that he is curious but sometimes I get tired of answering the same things over and over and over and over and over and over again! :-) He loves going to school. Sometimes when I drop him off he still wants me to hold him but his teachers are very good at distracting him so I can leave. When I go get him he is so happy. His teachers love him! When he is gone they always let him and me know that they missed him. He has a little friend at school, that is a girl, named Dee Dee. I just found this out last week. They are buddies at school. He missed last Wednesday because of some congestion. On Thursday when I went to pick him up his teacher was telling me that the two of them hung around each other all day and just kept talking and touching, like hugging, each other all morning. I got to see them do it. She kept wanting to hug him and he would touch her hair. It was cute, but also made me a little sad....because he's growing up. He's also growing up into an older boy by not ever wanting to wear pants!! I was looking back at some pictures and it seems that a lot of the pictures of him consist of him wearing no pants. I started thinking that some people may wonder about that. There is a good explanation...other than being male. He doesn't have any pants that really fit him well. He will be 3 in about a month and he's in between 18 month and 24 month size pants. 18 month pants are too short and still big in the waste on him. I have found some 24 month that have the adjustable waist but they are still big on him. When he's not wearing shoes his pants constantly fall down and get under his feet. He gets tired of pulling them up so he pulls them off. :-) See.....growing up like most men and doesn't want to wear any pants! :-) Both my wonderful, adorable are growing up so fast!!!

Not a completely happy Halloween

So, this is how I imagined Halloween......

We'd dress up our Spider along with Little Miss Muffet. Mom had found a cute spider costume (which is what Connor said he wanted to be every time we asked him) and she made Savannah's Little Miss Muffet dress. We'd go see family; go to trunk-or-treat for Connor so he could have a new experience of getting a lot of candy, inflatables, food, etc, etc. We'd come home and put the kids to bed and smile the rest of the evening because Connor had such a good time. Let's just say....that's not what happened!

We started off good. The kids cooperated with getting dressed. We went to see Grammy's so she could see them and of course so they could get their goody bags. As we were leaving our pastor's wife and good friend of mine, Laura, stopped by so her youngest son could trick-or-treat and also to give Connor his goody bag. Caleb was nice enough to not wear his mask where Connor would see him because it was one of those one's where you can squeeze the heart and blood runs throughout the face. Danny went over to see the mask and Connor followed and saw it. Not good, but not bad. We then went to Danny's sister's house -Aunt Mel. We waited there for Danny's brother and his 3 kids to stop by. While we were waiting, Uncle Dave - being the good uncle that he is - asked Connor if he wanted to help him give out candy. Connor was very excited about helping! The very first person that came to the door was a girl with the "Scream" mask (from the movie Scream) and dressed in all black. Connor went running to the door - stopped half way there and ran back. He was about to cry and said, "I didn't like that." He was ready to go bye bye after that. But we waited for the rest of the family. Then, they got there and the youngest was dressed up in something scary. Poor Connor didn't know what to think. We explained to him that they were dressed up like he was and were just kids. He got the concept because when we went back to Grammy's so Granddaddy could see them he asked, "Are there any scary kids in there?" Needless to say we didn't go trunk-or-treat because I was afraid there would be a lot of scary outfits there. We just went home. Once we were home all was good though. He did have fun helping Daddy carve the pumpkin and he was very glad about the candy. He loves candy!! So, it wasn't exactly a Happy Halloween - but at least there was no crying - just almost!