Anna's Class Christmas Party 2010

Anna was SOOOOoooooo excited that I got to come into her class for their Christmas party. To tell the truth, I was excited, too, because since she is in the drop-off and pick-up line this year, I have only seen the inside of her classroom a couple of times. I was eager to see what she "lived in" on her days at school. The kids had just come back from music with Mrs. Davis when the moms arrived and we laid out the spread of reindeer cookies, fruit, cheese, pretzels, and juice boxes. The kids definitely did not need lunch after school that day!

The moms chatted with Miss Susan and Miss Jane about the different personalities in the class and it was fun to see all the kids after hearing names for so long. The part that frustrated me was that after the party, the kids were allowed some free time to play and Anna turned into this whiney, wild maniac who would not listen to me or the teachers. Miss Jane reassured me that Anna was usually "so good". I hope that she is, minus those couple of times she has hit someone over the head with a toy and has gone to time-out this year. Why is it that kids save their worst behavior for when Mom is present? Gotta love it!

The Great Cookie Experiment

At the beginning of the school year, I signed up to help with Anna's class Christmas Party with two other moms. I had found this really cute reindeer cookie recipe, so I offered to try it out for the party. Last Monday morning, Anna and I took over the kitchen to make cookies. The reindeer cookies were the easy part. We baked the sugar cookie dough, pushed on the pretzel antlers and then used icing and M&Ms to make the eyes and nose. They turned out so cute!

We had quite a bit of dough left over and I discovered some Christmas sprinkles in the cabinet, so I knew what I had to do. Don't get me wrong, I was loving this time with Anna and the tradition we were starting. However, I am extremely Type A, borderline OCD, and the thought of rolling out dough with flour and then letting Anna put on the sprinkles was making me anxious as I envisioned my kitchen post-baking. I took a deep breath, did some self-talk (along the lines of "the kitchen can always be cleaned up, let your daughter enjoy this opportunity to help make Christmas cookies"), and trudged ahead.

Anna loved helping with the flour and decided we needed to make teddy bear, sleigh, reindeer, and Christmas tree cookies. She played while the cookies baked and then it was time to put on the icing and sprinkles. I was icing the cookies and her job was to put on the sprinkles. I thought I was doing a fantastic job of "letting go" as I heard sprinkle after sprinkle hit the already-flour-covered floor when Anna looked at me and asked, "Mommy, why are you not happy?" I told her that I was happy and then she preceded to reenact the face that she had reportedly seen me wearing. Busted! Guess I wasn't doing such a great job of "letting go" after all. I explained to her that Mommy just isn't very good at being OK with making a mess, but told her that I loved making cookies with her. That'll have to do until the next perceptive observation from our 3-year-old comes along!:)

The Second Snow

The first snow of this winter season was after we left the UNC/Kentucky game in Chapel Hill. We were bummed because it had turned back into rain by the time we made it home, so Anna never really got to play in it. The second snow of the season was the other night and it started about 8 pm. Since Anna had missed the first one, we had to get bundled up and at least go out on the deck to enjoy it. I'm glad we did because it was pretty much gone by the morning. She had the biggest time eating the snow (not sure why she found this so amusing...possibly because the dogs were eating it, too. I don't know). It was beautiful for the hour or so that it lasted. I wish it would stop teasing us and give us a good snow to play in!! They are calling for some on Christmas night, but that would be way too good to be true!

The Chef

Talley and Block came up for the annual Hege Christmas Party and stayed with us for a night. It was wonderful because we finally had time to sit back and relax and enjoy each other's company. (Little did we know that Talley would go into labor 2 days later and be stuck on bedrest, but I digress.) They brought Anna a couple of Christmas presents which she LOVED. One was a V-Tech princess wand that you have to "wave" to answer different questions for the different princesses. Block was quite knowledgeable about the workings of this wand, which cracks me up imagining him sitting and playing with it so he could show her what it did. Hilarious! The other gift was this adorable chef apron, hat, and oven mitt. Anna wouldn't let me take a normal picture of her, so I had to chase her around the house to get one. Pretty good if I do say so myself!

What A Game!

On Saturday, Will and I took Anna to the UNC/Kentucky game in Chapel Hill. It was a 12:30 pm game, so we figured it may be one of the few she could make it to. Plus, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to feel up to making that trek with our due date getting closer and closer! It turned out to be well worth the trip because it came with lots of surprises, the first being that UNC played pretty decently (finally) and won a very good, close game at the end.

A happy girl with her cotton candy!

Anna and Rameses

When we walked out of the game, it was snowing!!

All the excitement made for a sleepy girl that evening...

Advent Calendar

Last year, Mimi got us a gorgeous advent calendar in the shape of a beautiful Victorian house with lots of doors. Anna was a little too young to actually get the point last year, but is clearly ready for it this year. She has loved opening the doors each morning (notice the bed head) and has found yummy candy and even a princess necklace so far! For the last couple of days, she has had to find the next door to open so she will be ready a day early. I love that it teaches her patience, anticipation, and counting all at the same time! Every day she says, "and when we've opened all the doors, then Santa will be here!" So precious!

Benny is Back!

Our "Elf on the Shelf" showed up on the first day of December and Anna was so excited! She has gotten in the habit of telling Benny where she wants him to sit next and gets great satisfaction out of finding him there the next morning. Mommy and Daddy love that all we have to say is, "Benny is watching!" and someone straightens up pretty quickly!:)

Christmas Overalls

I found these precious overalls at a consignment sale over the summer and thought they were too cute not to get a picture of...and of course the model is pretty cute, too!

Look What I Can Reach Now!

...And I guess that's why Will and I keep finding lights on all over the house!

Thanksgiving 2010...and the Hotel Experience

Every year since Will and I started dating (unless I had to work), we have done double duty on Thanksgiving. We drive three hours to Rocky Mount for lunch with my dad's side of the family (usually 30-40+ people) and then drive back for dinner with Will's family. Will's family has been flexible to allow us the opportunity to do both and not have to choose. This holiday is especially important to me because in most years, this is the one time all year I get to see some of my extended family members.

This year, however, we decided that driving six hours on Thanksgiving just wasn't going to be the best option. Plus, I wanted to spend more than just the 3-4 hours over lunch with my family. So, we booked a hotel room for Wednesday night and drove over that afternoon. We got to have dinner with those who were already in town and Anna got to hang out with her (second) cousin Katelyn.

The most interesting part of the trip was that it was Anna's first experience in a hotel. When we checked in on Wednesday, Anna was just in awe. We got a warm cookie at check-in (we stayed at a Double Tree) and then went to our room. Anna was super-excited that she could open the mini-fridge by herself. I bet her drink went in and out of that fridge 100 times in the hour we were there! And of course, Will and I were not allowed to touch the fridge--she had to do it for us! It was so funny.

We pushed the ottoman up against one of the beds so she could climb up herself. We had told her that all of us would sleep in the same room and I had already promised to sleep in the bed with her, so she was thrilled about that arrangement! When we got back to the hotel after dinner, she took a bath in the tub and then we got her PJs on. It was about 9:15 when we tucked her in the bed. I went ahead and got ready for bed, too, because I knew she wouldn't go to sleep if we were still up. Once I got into bed, the 100 goodnights and 500 questions started. She could hear some of the sounds from the rest of the hotel, so I guess her little brain started wondering...

What's that sound, Mommy?

Why are the other people staying here?

Is somebody in the room next to us?

Is somebody staying up above us?

How do they get up there?

Is there a room above that one?

How tall is this hotel?

How long are we going to stay here?

Someone else is going to stay in this room when we leave?

Who's going to clean this room?

and on and on and on...

I know it had to be at least 10:30 before she actually was quiet and finally asleep! She did sleep through the night until about 7:30 the next morning, so that was a blessing! Someone was hyper the next morning, though! She took her PJ's off and started dancing in front of the AC. Then she and Daddy made a mountain with all the pillows and Anna loved being thrown onto it. Who knew a hotel could be so fun?

Once we actually made it back to my Aunt Lyn's house, we got to love on my niece Penelope and hang out with the fam. It was so fun! It was a year to be thankful for, for sure, even if there were several people we were missing like crazy.

The bellies...Caroline and Jack

Jason doing his uncle duties!

Claire and Katelyn joining the fun

Aunt Sarah with her arms full...and loving it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trying Not to Be a Hoarder

I always have the hardest time throwing away Anna's arts and crafts from preschool and Sunday School and MOPS. I know that realistically I cannot keep everything because I would have a ginormous stack that would take up an entire closet if I did. I also realize that at the age of 25ish, when I will hand this stuff over to her as my mom did for me, she is not going to want every single craft project she did in Mother's Morning Out and 2-year-old preschool. I get all that. And don't get me wrong--there are some special things that I will keep in a special folder. However, I know that those things should only be one or two big things per year and she's not even in kindergarten yet! But there are still some things that get me, like any kind of craft with her hands or feet. They will only be that size once!

So, I'm taking the idea of a friend of mine and photographing them. That way I can put them here on the blog for all to see, I will still have a record of them, but I can throw them away and not clutter my entire home. Enjoy!

Last Game of the Season

It's been a great year of UNC football, even though the final record wasn't exactly what we all wished it would be. We had some great times tailgating and experiencing the games. Anna absolutely LOVED going and was much easier to take this year. Here are some pics from our final home game against NC State.

When we got to our seats and Anna saw all the red, she said, "This is Papa's team! I love the Wolfpack!" Will was quick to correct her, but I had to sneak Papa a text and let him know that Anna had picked up on his attempted brainwashing after all!:)

The Hege family with our tailgating buddies: Block and Talley, the Yates family, and Moriarty

Anna was so excited to get a hat just like Daddy's! Go Heels!

Baby Shower Tailgate

My sweet sister-in-law, Erin, had the great idea to turn one of the UNC tailgates into a baby shower for me and Will and Talley and Block. It was even complete with an "It's A Boy!" banner for Jack and Charlie. Talley and I opened lots of cute gifts, most of them UNC themed, to help us get ready for our boys on the way. It was so fun!

The Proud Papas

And a baby shower wouldn't be complete without baby bootie cake squares from Dewey's!

Thanks, Erin, for putting all of this together. Next football season will be quite different, for sure, with little Jack and Charlie joining us!

Busy with Nothing

I know I haven't blogged in a while. We have been busy with the usuals of life, plus the training of this new family addition. It has been interesting, for sure. He really is a sweet, laid-back dog and Miller is as happy as a clam with his new "brother". Murphy has just been shoved in and out of so many different homes that now he is just utterly confused. It took him almost two weeks to figure out that he could go in and out of the dog door by himself without our pushing and prodding. Now we just have to help him to understand that it is his responsibility to go out of it when he has to go potty! Add to that the fact that we're still weaning the prednisone for his itching and so he pees ALL. THE. TIME. I have reached my limit of cleaning up pee puddles, so we started crating him when we leave. That worked for a few days, but this morning he had an accident in his crate, which let me know that he really has little control over his bladder on this medication. I'm weaning him off and praying that when he goes back to the vet on Friday, they can give him something chronic for his allergies that doesn't affect his bladder. And I pray that all this peeing in the house hasn't conditioned him to thinking that it's OK!! I wish I could just fast forward to several weeks from now when I hope things will be evening out a little! But if I do that too far, it will almost be time for Jack to be here! Yikes!

Our New Family Addition (and it's not the baby)

OK, so let me explain. Oh, for the past couple of months or so, poor Miller and I have not been the best of buds. The honest truth is that he was driving me crazy! Now, I realize that Will and I did him a huge disservice by making him our baby for 18 months and then quickly demoting him to "dog" status when Anna arrived. However, there is nothing I can really do to go back and fix that now. So, he has never really gotten over his demotion and has been increasingly needy lately. Plus, Anna was definitely picking up on my feelings toward Miller and I didn't want her to think it was OK to treat a pet that way. I told Will that we just had to do something because I was not able to give him the attention and playtime that he needed now and certainly wasn't going to be able to in the future with Jack coming. We didn't know what to do. Enter my lovely sister, Sarah...

Sarah and Jason have two boxers, Riley and Harley, that they integrated into a family when they started dating and got married. These two dogs love. each. other.--it's so cute! They have also been sweet to keep Miller several times for us because Miller loves going over and hanging out with their "boys". Sarah kept telling me that Miller just needed a friend so that he would have another dog to play with and give him some of the attention that I could not. I was completely skeptical because in my mind, two dogs meant two sets of muddy paws on my carpet, two vet bills, two stays at the kennel, etc., etc. Plus, I had told Sarah that I would never do the puppy thing again and our wish list for a rescue was rather impossible: 4-5 years-old, hypoallergenic (non-shedding), good with children, low-energy, non-abused or aggressive, male, housetrained, and preferably with a mild food allergy so that we could have them on the same food as Miller. Yeah right!

Well, on the way back from our weekend to Wilmington to see Penelope, we were talking about it again, and Sarah decided to start doing some of her google magic. She found this rescue dog in Raleigh who fit our description, almost to a "T". She emailed them "for me" and asked for an application. Long story short is that I filled out the application, the whole time thinking that I had completely lost my mind, and they approved us, called and talked to me about this dog named "Snuggles", and wanted us to come get this dog for a trial period. Crazy!

Now here is where I need to stop and explain to you how awesome my husband is. In spite of the insanity of all of this, my sweet hubby never once said, "You are completely crazy for doing this". Through all of it, he just kept saying that if I thought it would help me with Miller, then he would support me. How amazing is that? I did get him to admit once that he did think it was a little crazy, but I thought so, too.

So, on Sunday afternoon (Halloween afternoon), Will gave up watching football to drive Anna and me and Miller to Cary to meet and pick up our new family addition. We were officially adopting Snuggles with the understanding that we could bring him back within a month if things didn't work out. And that's how we ended up with a new dog.

First things first was changing his name because Snuggles just wasn't going to cut it. For some reason, I felt a huge need for some alliteration, so we settled on Murphy. Miller and Murphy. I think it's adorable. The "boys" (as we now call them) have done extremely well. There has been the occasional growl for emphasis or warning not to take a certain toy. Otherwise, they are so cute together and have gotten along great. He is just a sweet, laid-back little guy. Anna did learn that she couldn't pull a dog's tail--he snapped at her and scared her half to death. I have been pretty diligent about observing them since and he has been nothing but sweet to her. I think that was a pretty good life lesson learned as long as that's all she wrote.

Now I'm just praying that all of this doesn't completely come back to bite me in the you-know-where. The good news is that Murphy is a sweet dog, but just needs the necessary training to get him used to our family. That will come with time. Miller has been so good through everything and I have come to realize how good a dog he really is. Plus, Anna is learning huge lessons about how to treat pets with love and care. And she keeps reminding us that Murphy's Mommy and Daddy didn't want him so that's why he came to live with us, so that he could have a family. I think the outcome has been pretty positive so far! Just keep praying for us, will you?

Halloween 2010

Halloween was a little bit of a blur this year. I think part of it was because Anna wore her Cinderella dress every second that she could between her preschool fall festival on Monday night and Halloween on Sunday night. By the time we put it on for trick-or-treating, it wasn't the big deal that it had been at the beginning of the week. She did look gorgeous, though! Plus, Anna didn't even make it a block down the street before deciding we needed to go back and help Daddy pass out candy. She had a blast watching all the other kids come up to the house and getting to pass out candy to them. Go figure!

Pumpkin Carving

We have pondered each Halloween about carving a pumpkin, but always decided that Anna was still too young to really get it. This year, however, after hearing 587 renditions of the "Mr. Jack-o-Lantern" song and reading umpteen books about Halloween, I knew we were at prime pumpkin carving age! This afternoon, Anna picked out the perfect pumpkin from our collection to carve. We took it out on the deck and started the process. It was so funny to watch her as we carved out the "hat" and scooped all the seeds out. She decided she wanted round eyes and a triangle nose. She was absolutely thrilled with the results! I have to admit that we did a pretty good job with Mr. Jack-o-lantern on our first pumpkin carving attempt as parents. Anna decided she was going to name him "Snowflake" (I don't get it either) and preceded to stand outside well past her bedtime telling me a story about how she had gotten all the "twinkle, twinkle stars" to go inside Snowflake and that's why he was so bright and happy. What an imagination! After a meltdown when it was time for bed, she had to give him a kiss and hug goodnight!