Christmas Vacation

 Our little family will be packing up the new ride and heading north this week for a much needed vacation!

We are so excited to see some snow!  And eat good food, and see family, and just relax!  And the presents won't hurt either...  So see ya next year!

My Christmas Soul Mate

 One of the reasons I know Bobby is my soul mate is our love of Christmas.  Both radio stations in our cars have been set to Christmas songs since the day after Thanksgiving.  We are looking forward to our drive to NY so we can listen to Christmas music for 14 hours straight.  Not too many people have that much love for Jingle Bells.  Maybe it has something to do with both of our birthdays being in December.  His is December 21 and mine is December 24. 

Speaking of my birthday, I will be accepting presents throughout the year.  Some of my favorite things are sparkly, ruffly, shiny, brown, silver, black, green, blue, purple, well pretty much most colors.  Except for yellow, it clashes with my blond hair. 

One thing I can always get Bobby to agree to is more Christmas decorations.  He's as much of a sucker as I am for them.  Even when I say that I want to put another wreath up, I don't get an eyeroll.  And I already have 4 up.  The only thing I couldn't get Bobby to agree to was putting a tree up.  As much as I really want a tree up, I know that Jack would have pulled it down at least 14 times by now.  And we are leaving for NY next week so who would water it?  I compensated my putting up more tree trimmings from the Christmas tree kiosk around town.  We go to the same guy every year and he gives me as many trimmings as I need.  He tells Bobby the same story about when he was in the military.  Maybe when we retire in our luxury RV we can drive around selling Christmas trees.

I am anxiously waiting for our Christmas cards to arrive from Shutterfly!  I think they will be here tomorrow.  I've got all my address labels printed out so we just need the cards!  This will be our first photo Christmas card and I can't wait to see what they look like.

We are beyond excited to get home for the holidays this year.  We didn't make it in time for Christmas last year since Jack was born in the beginning of December.  This will be the first time in four years that Bobby and both his brothers and their girlfriends will be together.  Between all the deployments we haven't been able to spend it as a whole family.  Bobby is super excited for this...  We also get to meet Bobby's older brothers new fiance!  The got engaged a little over a month ago.  It totally blew all of us out of the water too!  But not we get to have a beautiful wedding next Oct at Chapel Hill NC.  We also get to go skiing when we go home!  I haven't been on skis in I don't know how long.  It's like riding a bike right??  I used to teach skiing in Vermont so I should be ok.

Jack is excited to go sledding at the cabin.  He's got his snowsuit all ready!  I can't wait to get some pics of him in the snow.  He's loves Christmas just as much as we do.  He's a December baby too afterall...

Pay It Forward

 Did you know that December 1 was Pay It Forward day?  Jack and I didn't do much that day since we were getting ready for our weekend visitors.  So I didn't get to do anything special for someone else.  But I did do something special a few days later. 

One of the girls I went to high school with, August, has an 18 month old little boy named Liam who was just diagnosed with Leukemia.  He is half way through his chemo therapy and things are looking up for them.  They are at a hospital in Rochester NY which is about 2 hours from our hometown.  Since her husband has to work in Elmira he is not able to be with them full time.  And they have another boy who is older than Liam.  Can you imagine the stress she must be going through?  She is facing some pretty big demons right now with her faith too.  This is little Liam.

Every day since finding this out, I look at Jack and wonder why.  Why does this happen to such sweet innocent babies?  Not that I understand why it happens at all.  How can a mother be put through this?  I read the updates on Liam and cry inside for August, even if they are good! 

So my pay it forward was sending money in to help this family with Liam's medical bills.  If you would like to help them out too here is how.  I know they would be forever grateful for your generosity...

Did anyone else do something for Pay It Forward day??

My baby is ONE!

 What a weekend we had!  My sweet little boy turned one!  And everyone came to celebrate, except my Dad.  He couldn't get off work, but we will see him in two weeks.  Even my sister surprised us by coming!

I can finally stop obsessing over every little One Fish Two Fish thing out there in the internet bloggy world.  It was getting bad...  But in the end, my hard work paid off and I loved everything about Jack's party! 

My first ever attempt at using fondant was a typical first attempt in my opinion.  I was picturing my cake to look exactly like the one I was modeling it after.  And well, I guess the cake had other plans.  It wasn't so much perfect, but it tasted darn good!  At least it looked like the Cat's Hat, no one was confused.  I won't show you what it was supposed to look like.  Just the wonderful job I did!

So I'm sure I've said this before, but I am not a baker.  I am a cooker.  The only cake I have ever made has been in sheet form, never layers.  So the fact that there are 6 cakes on that baby is quite impressive for me.  Pay no attention to the little nub on the top, that is not the dowel supporting the cake or anything... I gave up on a few details, like his name in blue fondant on top, the one fish cut out and letters, and the rest of the black wrinkles in the hat.  Cake making is just not as easy as it seems on tv.  Anyway, on to the rest of the stuff I didn't mess up at all...

The Candy Bar

Jack's smash cake my sister decorated

Happy Birthday To You sign in book

12 months of Jack

Seuss Poms

Goldfish favors for the kids

Wonderful food catered by the City Center where we had the party

So nice not to have to clean or cook!

One fish two fish red fish blue fish cut outs

Time for cake!

Sharing with Mommy

We had such a great time and Jack is pretty spoiled with presents now!  We are very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family that shared such a special day with us!

Oh Poor Bloggy...

How I have been neglecting you.  I have this little button on my Yahoo page that one clicks me to my blog.  I have been ignoring that little button every time I check my email.  If I don't click on it then I am not reminded that I haven't written anything in ages.  I'm not feeling too bloggy lately.  And the Jack-man is quite the free time hog.

That and all my free time has been spent planning the most super fantastical One Fish Two Fish 1st birthday party.  I really cannot wait to share it with you all!  Stay tuned...

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Our friend Jon came how from Afghanistan the day before and stayed with us for two nights, so it was just us and him.  But don't let the fact that there were only 4 of us fool you, we have more than enough for about 10.  I have a fear of running out of food and people going hungry.  And I love me some turkey sandwich leftovers.  So I slaved all day, those boys were spoiled, and turned out quite the feast.  Take a peek...

Needless to say, we didn't run out of food.  Again...  Ah well, at least I don't have to worry about dinners for a few days right? 

Today I accomplished an amazing feat.  At least in my book.  I ran 5.64 miles.  In a row.  Without stopping.  Crazy huh?  That's the farthest I have ever gone!  One week from today is the Savannah Bridge run and I am doing the 10K.  So looks like I actually might finish.  And not die.  Yippeeee!

Among some other exciting news, we will be going to NY for Christmas!  That makes us so incredibly happy you have no idea.  Christmas is our absolute favorite and the lack of snow in these parts really gets to us.  Christmas is already in the process of going up, yes it's a process, and Christmas music is in full swing around here.

Well I will leave you with one last cutest picture in the world of my almost one year old man!  Yikes!

Christmas Card Fun!

 We got our family pictures taken yesterday for our Christmas cards.  Just in time for this awesome promotion Shutterfly has going on.  Not only do they have different ways to earn free prints, but they are giving bloggers 50 free holiday cards!!  Learn more here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

I am a big fan of Shutterfly!  Jack has his own share site on Shutterfly!  Since our families live so far away, it's a great way to share his every move.  With just a few clicks, the Grandmas can ooh and ahh over all the cuteness of Jack.  I love the photobooks too!  We have ordered Jack photobooks for the grandparents and I made a wedding photobook to send to Bobby when he was deployed to Iraq.  He deployed 3 weeks after the wedding so didn't get to see the album the photographer made...

This will be the first year we send out a photo Christmas card.  Since we now have the most adorable little boy to show off, I am excited to pick out one of Shutterfly's gorgeous cards!  The only problem is the are SO MANY to choose from!  I want to send a different style to everyone we know, just so I don't have to choose only one!  Here are a few that I am thinking of getting...

found here...

or

found here...

or

found here...

Once we get our pictures back from the fabulous Jennifer Norton, I should be ready to decide!  Our pictures were taken at a Christmas tree farm so they should be very cute!  If you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because I'm looking through all 748 designs trying to decide...

1-9 FA Soldiers for Cake Boss

This is what our unit has been up to during the deployment.  I wanted to be home for the making of this video, but Jack and I were visiting family in NY.  Do you think we can get Cake Boss there??  We hope so!

Can You Guess?

Now I've made up my mind
For the day of Jack's first wish
And if you come you will find
You'll be playing with fish

There will be red ones and blue ones
Old ones and new
Some may be black
And some may be blue

We'll eat lots of cake
And have the funnest of fun
Cause there's only one time
When Jack will be ONE!



Can you guess his theme?

I'll give you one more hint, Jack must wear these to his party...

Biggest Birthday Bash

 That's what I want to give Jack.  The biggest bash ever.  At least for his first one, we'll see what happens later on.  But I am stumped.  I don't know what kind of theme I want.  I need some help.  His room is elephant themed and I always buy everything elephant I see for him.  Should I stick with that?  Or monkeys?  We love a good monkey around here.  Maybe construction?  Cause what boy doesn't love a truck?  Cat in the hat?  Just cause it's fun?  It's just too overwhelming for me...

I've spend way too much time on the web looking for ideas.  Really, just come look at my house...  But I still cannot decide.  I want it to be perfect.  I totally love what this mama did for her little birdies first birthday.  I definately want to do this...

And this blog has the cutest ideas!  I love these elephant favors!

And this would be fun to make!

There are a thousand more ideas at Kara's Party Ideas.  And with all these awesome ideas I just can't decide.  Hopefully I can figure out something soon!  Jack's 1st birthday is December 3!  Ahh my baby isn't gonna be a baby much longer!!!

 

 

Pumpkin Pounds

 With all the running I've been doing lately, I've been dropping the baby pounds!  I'm back down to the size I was way before baby Jack came along.  I'm pretty sure I'll keep losing since I still have a long road of training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  Well, that is if I stop making all these delicious pumpkin recipes.  Something tells me that isn't happening anytime soon...

I just love anything pumpkin.  This is my favorite food time of year because pumpkin recipes are in full force.  I even bought four cans of pure pumpkin just to get ready.  They were on sale...  I've made pumpkin muffins and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so far.  They were awesome.  Then Bobby asked me not to make any other sweets.  Apparently his pumpkin pounds are showing..  So I made sugar cookies.  In my defense, I was bored.  Bobby was gone all day and night welcoming home the redeploying troops and baking is way more fun than cleaning.  And I found fun halloween sprinkles and striped icing at Walmart, so I had to get them.  And what are sprinkles and icing without sugar cookies?  Nothing I tell you, the cookies are vital...

Jack and I hit the mall on Saturday since Bobby was at work getting ready for more flights coming in.  After passing two Starbucks I decided I better stop in for a pumpkin spice latte.  While waiting in line, I spotted the best looking piece of pumpkin loaf ever.  So I had to get it.  Pure pumpkin decadence.  Even Jack thought so, he ate more than his fair share.  The next day at Target I had to get another one, for Jack, since he loved it so much.  And that got me thinking.  The recipe has got to be on the internet somewhere.  I can find anything on the internet.  I pride myself in my internet searching skills.  So I found a couple recipes, some I knew right away they weren't right from the ingredients.  The Starbucks kind had a good spice kick to it, so when I found this recipe, I knew it had potential.  I'll probably throw this baby together later and let ya know how it goes.  Here's the recipe if you need to make this too...

Starbucks Pumpkin Bread

1 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground clove

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

¼ cup dark brown sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup canned pumpkin

¾ cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

¼ cup pumpkin seeds, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and 
salt, set aside. Beat eggs, sugars, and vanilla in large bowl on high speed for about 30 seconds. Add dry ingredients and mix. Add pumpkin and oil, mix. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake approximately 70 min. or until the top of the bread begins to brown. When the bread is cool, slice into approximately 1 inch slices. Serves 8.
 
Someone posted this as a comment to one of the couldn't-be-Starbucks recipes.

Utterly Tired

 Jack has roseola.  And I have engorged breasts. Sorry to get so real so fast... It all started with a fever on Sunday which stayed around 100F, spiked to 103F on Monday and was gone by Wednesday morning.  Then Wed. night I noticed his torso covered in little red spots.  Not raised or itchy, but ALL over his back and front!  Also, for some reason Wed. night my right breast was really full, so I pumped before bed.  And I pumped 3 ounces.  Now this may not sound like a lot, but I am not a quantity pumper.  It takes me days to get 4 ounces, I just don't do it enough I guess.  This morning he woke at 5am for a fill up and went back down as normal.  An hour later he wakes up screaming.  And I was kinda screaming too!  My right breast was engorged again.  I tried to feed Jack on that breast, and the little stinker bit me!  Jack has never once in our whole 10 and a half months of breastfeeding even half nibbled me, so I squealed a little.  Ok I screamed.  Then he started crying, maybe I scared him.  But after that he refused to nurse.  So I rocked him for a bit and put him back down.

A couple hours later he gets up and we get our breakfasts ready.  Since I am still feeling like Bessy the Moo Cow, I decide to pump again.  I get another 3 ounces!  Fast forward to Jack's nap time and we get all settled to nurse.  Nope.  Not having it.  He takes two swigs, bites, pulls off and screams his head off.  I should also add here that Jack has also refused to drink water from his sippy cup.  Great kid, you really don't want IV fluids...  So back to naptime, I put him down and he's out right away.  Once again, I feel like I'm about to explode so I pump another 4 ounces.  Strange little side note: This is all only from one side.  The other is acting normal...  Now when Jack won't nurse again before his afternoon nap and has barely had three sips of water all day, I call the Dr. and ask to be seen.  The little red spot rash was a mystery but I was mostly concerned about the not drinking.  So was his Dr.  And the spots are from roseola.  At least we are on the tail end of that virus...

So Jack got a little treat and I put a couple splashes of apple juice in his water to see if he'd drink that.  He took a few more sips than before but not much.  Before I put him to bed I gave him one of the bottles of breastmilk I pumped.  He drank about 1/2 ounce.  If he doesn't start drinking more tomorrow then we might be off to the hospital to get IV fluids.  Let's hope for some chugging tomorrow!  Now I must be off to pump myself dry.  Since Jack isn't holding up his end of the bargain...

Tear Jerker Proposal

 A friend of mine put this put on Facebook and it is too beautiful not to share!  Of course any man in his dress blues (or whatever the Marines call them...) always makes me swell up with tears and pride.  Add a wedding propsal to the mix and it's an all out tissue fest.  So grab a box of tissues and take a minute to read with awesome pictures this beautiful story.

An All American Proposal

Here's a sneak peek...

At this rate, I give up...

This week is not going so well.  I'm a little nervous for what tomorrow might bring.  It all started with Sunday.  We had our closing event for the combat spouses badge on post.  Bobby went on a bike ride with a friend and was meeting us on post, so I packed me and Jack up, got the dogs inside, and shut up all the bedroom doors (you know to keep accidents from happening) and headed out to post.  Three hours later we get home.  Bobby goes in the house first to let the crazy dogs outside since Jack was asleep in the car.  I like to let Jack sleep it out while he can cause he is the kind of baby you cannot transport and he stays asleep.  So Bobby hangs with Jack while I go to the bathroom.  I walk down the hall to the bathroom in our bedroom.  I notice some stuff on the floor outside our door.  That's funny cause I thought I just swept up the floors...  I open the door, Merlin races out of the room, and I just stand there gasping.  Merlin was stuck in the bedroom the whole time and attempted to escape, by ripping up the carpet all around the door.  And by ripping I mean destroying.  Right down to tearing our wonderful 8lb pet proof carpet pad into a million teeny pieces.  Define pet proof... 

Onto Monday.  Days seems to be going well.  Jack's happy.  Morning nap is great.  Then comes the afternoon.  I swear sometimes it's like 12 oclock hits and I have a new baby.  A new evil baby.  He's cranky so I try to put him down for his nap like a half hour early.  He nurses, lays down in his crib, snuggles up with his blanket and falls asleep.  So I think.  Fifteen minutes later I have a screaming banshee on my hands.  After what seems like hours he finally falls asleep, but only for a half hour.  Then goes into this inconsolable crying attack for like 20 minutes after I pick him up.  Of course the rest of the afternoon doesn't get much better from here.  Nothing makes him happy.  I ended up putting one of his favorite Baby Einstein videos on loop and leaving him be.  Obviously Mommy Magic was not working today.  Fast forward to dinner time and I am clueless.  I have some chicken breasts out, which I am oh so bored with, and an eggplant.  I find some frozen artichoke hearts in the freezer and decide to just wing it and make some kind of pasta.  I am usually pretty good at this.  So everything is cut up and cooking away.  My standard ingredients have been added.  A lot little garlic, olive oil, butter, and now I'm ready to add some white wine.  But there's no wine. What?!  How does that even happen?  So I turn to my trusty sherry, that'll work.  Ahh, no sherry either!  So I open the fridge and see a bottle of thai peanut sauce.  Hmm... this could be asian right?  So I add a little.  Needs something else.  I put some coconut milk in.  Then decide since I put coconut milk in I should add curry powder.  I tasted it and promptly spit it back out.  I'm not quite sure what happened next, but I just remember being on the phone with Bobby crying about how dinner was ruined.  I am normally a very good cook, but being overwhelmed with Jack and not having the ingredients I needed just made me loopy.  Needless to say, dinner was trashed and we ordered pizza and wings.  Maybe I should mess up dinner more often...

Now that brings us to today, Tuesday.  After Jack and I go through out morning play ritual, I sit down to check my email.  My computer was off from the night before so I hit the power button.  Nothing.  I hit it again and it turns on but nothing happens on the screen and it isn't making the start up noise.  So I restart it and wait.  Nothing.  Take the battery out that always works right?  Nope, not in this case.  Just great.  ALL my pictures are on there.  And no, they are not backed up.  We were getting to that I swear...  Not to mention all my favorites.  I have so many recipes in my favorites I want to try.  So today after the carpet guy comes to assess the damage, we are headed to the computer store.  Hopefully it's something fixable.  And not too expensive...

Hot Date!

 Woohoo!  I have a hot date tomorrow night!  My husband!  Now this might not seem as exciting to you, but Bobby and I haven't been out on a real date since April.  With this whole Rear D gig, I don't get to see him much.  So I took it upon myself to call our babysitter and set up a date and then tell Bobby he will be required to wine and dine me Sat. night.  Luckily, he's in the Army and used to following orders.  Good husband...

And he's been getting ready for the past two nights. By sleeping.  I told him he will be required to stay awake until at least 10pm.  Of course I plan this date after one of the busiest weeks he's had.  Poor guy got like 5 hours of sleep from Mon-Wed. between redeployment flights and soldier issues at work.  Luckily he got a break today and was home by 4:40pm and then asleep on the couch by 6:30pm.  He almost beat Jack to bed...

I think the lucky restaurant will be the new mediterranean place downtown.  They even have a hookah bar although I don't think we will be participating in that event.  Then of course we will be visiting our favorite dessert date spot Lulu's Chocolate Bar.  It really doesn't get any better than this place!  Bobby got me a strawberry suspension cake from here for my graduation. It was heavenly.  I think I even ate some for breakfast...

Spooky Mantle

 For the first time in my mantle decorating history I have decorated for halloween and not just fall.  Searching the bloggy land I just found way too many cute ideas to pass up.  Plus in a month I get to redecorate!  Here are some pics of my mantle, just keep in mind I am no photographer!

I found these cute apothecary style jars at Uncommon and decided to give em a try.  I couldn't find the right 3rd size so I just went with two.

I glittered that baby up with a little Martha Stewart glitter ♥ who doesn't love glitter??

Dollar Tree has some good halloween decor!  These babies came pre-glittered! Sigh... I would have loved to glitter them too...

I had all intentions of taking the mirror down but that would involve removing all Jack's toys that surround the fireplace in hopes of keeping him from actually climbing inside it.  So far this has worked...

I just loooove the crows.  They really make those sticks.  They are my favorite part.  Again thank you Dollar Tree!

 So there ya have it!  My first halloween mantle!  I may not take this one down...