Christmas through the eyes of a two year old

I have spent the past few days decorating our house for Christmas.  Parker had so much fun with all the "new" stuff.  However, it has been pretty entertaining watching how he plays with the decorations.

For Christmas last year my mom gave Parker a bunch of Christmas books.  I packed them away with the decorations so they would be "new" again this year.  He was beyond excited about all of the books and after he read them, he decided they were more well suited as a Choo-Choo train!

I have a Santa Claus decoration that is similar to a Russian Nesting Doll.  It has proven to be his favorite toy.  However, he thinks they are cups and pretends to drink from them.  I'm just waiting for the moment he actually fills one of the wooden figures up with water from our refrigerator door (note to self: remember to child lock the ice and water dispensers).

See that item he's holding?  It's not a Christmas wreath centerpiece for my coffe table.  Nope.  If you look closer you see that it's an alligator.  And, it's chasing him!

I let Parker decorate one Christmas tree all by his self.  He had so much fun doing it!  However, he would place all the ornaments on one tree branch until it was full, then he would proceed to another one.  I know I've morphed into a mom when I bit my tongue and refrained from telling him where to put each ornament so it would look "pretty".  He was so focused and when we ran out of ornaments he was absolutely beaming.  He couldn't wait to show it to his daddy when he got home that evening.  The memory makes me a little teary eyed! 

Once we were finished with the little tree he was overly excited to put together the bigger Christmas tree.  After I put it together there were a few V-shaped tree limbs (I'm assuming to put at the bases of the poles so it doesn't look so fake!  But, to a two year old, they were more fun to wear as hats.  He even told me I had to wear one and when I did so, he told me I was a princess (if someone ever needs a self-confidence booster, just hang out with a two year old!).

As much as he is enjoying all the decorations, the little guitar Christmas tree ornament is taunting him.  I had to move it to a higher branch because even though I thought it was our of his reach, nothing can stand in the way of a budding musician.  I don't have a picture of it, but Parker practically tried to climb the tree to try and yank it down.

Happy Holidays from our house to yours!

2012 Thanksgiving Weekend

I always intend to blog about our holidays and never seem to find the time to do so!  I figure it's too late to blog about Halloween, so instead I'll share about our Thanksgiving whirlwind of events!

1.  Wednesday:  We drove up to Yukon late Wednesday afternoon to Greg's aunt's house.  We had time to visit and hang out with family which was fabulous.  Parker entertained everyone with his rock-star glasses (I forgot to take a picture and he broke them yesterday.  Boo!) and guitar.

2.  Thursday:  We enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving lunch with our family.  Everything was delicious, but my mouth keeps watering for some more of grandmother's cornbread stuffing that she added bacon too.  Yummy! 


Greg and cousins Harper and Ashley

Me and my cousin Halsey

Parker cracking up his cousins Hillarie and Harper

After Parker's nap we drove to Norman so we could spend a few days at Greg's mom and step-dad's house.  That night after I put Parker down I decided to brave the Black Friday craziness!  The plan was to meet up with some girlfriends, but that didn't last long as we were all in the search of good bargains.  I started out at Target and got the first three Twilight movies for $4 a piece!  Yay!  From there I went to Wal-Mart where I had a lot of success!  I bought the entire Harry Potter DVD collection for a little over $20!  Yay!  I also bought a wii for $95 and a new TV stand for our living room for $87!  Yay!  After I left Wal-Mart I ventured over to Best Buy and braved the cold and the wind standing in line for an hour.  I should have got there sooner because the TV we wanted to buy was already sold out (I walked in the door at 12:15 and the doors opened at 12:00.  They were only letting 50 people in at a time).  Boo!  The guy had a TV that was an inch smaller that he said he would sell to me for $250, but I figured Greg would gripe so I said no.  We were wanting to buy a 40" for $187.  To console myself I bought The Lorax DVD for $4.  We recently rented it for family movie night and Parker loved it so I didn't feel as pissy when I left.  I think I climbed into bed that night morning at 1:30.

3.  Friday:  After we got up and around, Greg, Parker and myself headed to the mall.  I needed some new foundation at MAC, I had to get my wedding ring inspected (and cleaned!) to maintain my warranty, and I wanted to find Parker a pair of Christmas pajama's for his Christmas Eve present.  I got a pair and a sweatshirt for him at The Children's Place for $12!  Yay!  We had a nice lunch at El Chico and then left the mall.  It actually wasn't as packed as the stores were the night before.  From there we braved Toys R Us, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart turned into a major score because Greg has been dying to buy a bike with training wheels for Parker.  We got the last one in his size for $29.  Yay!  Parker was with us and rode it all the way to the check out stand and the whole time he kept saying, "Daddy, I want to take this home".  Poor Greg was ready to give it to him right then and there (and he still says he doesn't want to wait until Christmas), but I told Parker that we were just picking it up as a favor for another little boy's parents. 

From there we went to Best Buy.  Greg told me I was crazy for passing up the TV offer the guy made me the night before.  I was obviously getting sleep deprived because I didn't even think about just buying it and returning it if Greg didn't like it.  Luckily, the same employee who told me about it the night before was still working and they had three left!  There was a sign on them that said $299, so they adjusted it at the register for us.  We are now up with the times with a flat screen TV in our living room!  Yay!  (Is it just me, or are there a lot of "yay's" in this post?)  From there we want back to my in-laws house to relax for about an hour before we met some friends for dinner at Red Lobster.  That night after Parker was already in bed, Greg and I left to go watch the final Twilight movie at the theatre!  It was great and I'm so glad that Greg was such a trooper during the entire Twilight series of movies!

Saturday:  I'm not sure if any one has noticed, but I added some new items to my Bucket List recently.  On Saturday, I had the pleasure of marking another item off of that list!  We went to the OU football game!  And not just any game, it was the Bedlam Game!  I know a lot of my family on the East coast may be reading this and wonder what all the excitement is.  Well, Oklahoma doesn't have a pro football team.  Instead, our state either roots for the University of Oklahoma (OU) or Oklahoma State University (OSU).  Bedlam game is OU vs. OSU.  So, it's a pretty big deal!  One of my best friends from high school has 4 season tickets and they invited Greg and I to join them.  We were thrilled!  It was a great game that ended with an OT Sooner win!  BOOMER SOONER!

 

After the game, Greg was anxious to drive the two hours back home.  He is in the middle of fifty million different projects at our house (OK, more like six or seven, but they are all big under takings!) and was ready to go home so he could knock some of the projects off his list on Sunday.  We got home tired and exhausted around 10:30 that night, but were happy to be home with all of our goodies!

Sunday:  I went grocery shopping, cooked lunch and dinner, and tried to complete all of the un-packing (I failed).  Greg and I both put together our new TV stand and then he installed our new TV, along with hooking up our surround sound and the new wii.  All I can say is I was even more excited than usual to watch Revenge and 666 Park Ave that night!

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I voted!

Did you?

This sounds soooo lame, but the best part about the whole process is the little sticker I can wear proudly all day that says, "I Voted".  (Make fun of me if you want, but that sticker also got me 10% off my purchase at Atwoods today!)

See my sticker?
 

The previous election was the first time I chose to exercise my right to vote.  And after all the time I spent researching the different political parties and each candidate, I was really looking forward to that stupid sticker.  We were still "living on the road" at that time, so I did an absentee ballot.  Which meant I didn't get a sticker. :(

This year, I didn't stress myself out over who to vote for.  I watched the debates, tuned out all my friends and their opinions, and voted for the guy that I think can do a decent job.  And then, I got a sticker.  What can I say?  It's the little things in life that please me, and later today when I pick my son up, he'll be excited to steal my sticker, so it will actually make two people's day!

Happy Election Day!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of Fall last month, mainly because I saw this cute little printable on pinterest and I couldn't wait to frame and display one personally. 



Can you find my typo?

To make your own printable, go here.  Once I saved the blank version I opened mine up in my paint program and added text boxes so I could write my own bucket list items.  The size of the picture was not big enough to fit the 8X10 frame I already had (and that was conveniently painted a nice pumpkin orange color), so I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased a cute piece of scrapbook paper to place behind my bucket list.  Then, just use a dry-erase marker to check off your bucket list items!