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...