2009: The good and the bad.

Here's a rundown of what went on with our little family in 2009:

• We sold our Provo home in February -- 100% good.
• Macey turned 3 -- 75% good. I docked 25% for babies growing up too quickly and to terrible 3's, hoo boy!
  
• Randy quit his mortgage refinance job in April to focus completely on school -- 70% good.
• We had our sweet baby boy Collin Randall on April 8 -- 100% good.
• Had our biggest tax year on April 15 (paid, not refund) -- 100% bad, boo hiss!
• Continued to watch the stock market plummet and stagger, never coming close to where they were -- 100% bad... they get an F.
• Blessed Collin first week in June -- 80% good, 20% stress!
• Traded our 2005 Nissan Titan in for a family friendly 2005 GMC Yukon Denali -- 100% good.
  
• Went to Aspen Grove for a Slade family vacation for a week in July -- 90% good. 10% bad because I had a lil' one and had to pack him around everywhere in them mountains. 
• Judy Family Reunion in Stanley, ID in August. 95% good. Docked 5% for having a sick Macey the last day.
• Sister getaway in September -- 95% good, 5% bad because I had not trained hard enough to run the 5k and then while running it twisted my ankle. 
  
• Macey started preschool -- 100% good. 
• Collin's milestones: rolling over, sitting up, crawling (army style), happy baby, cut 1st tooth on December 24 -- 75% good, 25% bad because he is growing up too fast and I wish all of his teeth were in. He's not a happy camper when he's teething!
• Had a very close call in Idaho. A SUV on the other side of the freeway rolled into the median (icy roads) towards us, we were very lucky he didn't hit us, but my car got creamed from debris... mostly river rocks. Over $4,000 worth of damage. OUCH. -- 100% bad, especially since we found out the person was uninsured. BOO. Luckily my insurance is paying for everything (without raising my premium), but we had a nasty $500 deductible. Don't ever think you're 'saving a buck' by canceling insurance. You're not! Not only are these people out a vehicle (it was definitely totaled), now they are being hunted down by my insurance to be compensated, plus a ticket for being uninsured = LOTS of money.
  
• Randy graduates from BYU!!! -- 100% good, obviously.
• We celebrated our 5th year of marriage December 28 -- 100% good, especially since Grandpa Judy watched both of our kids for us so we could have a night to ourselves! We stayed at Destinations Inn. It was my first time leaving Collin all night and it was heavenly. Thanks, Dad!

I'll take the good and the bad. 2009 was mostly a good year (with lots and lots of stress), here's hoping 2010 is nice to us, with lots of job offers! :)

In other news...

Macey got mad at me yesterday while I was doing a pretty good job ignoring her. She was asking me to do something weird with some car. Like, put some scrunched up paper through the toy car's windows. I was ignoring her repeat her request when she grabbed my face and calmly (but sternly) said, "Mommy. Will you PLEASE put this paper into this VEHICLE!" Oh my, I didn't know whether to laugh or be scared. She was not joking around.

Also, it is official. I'm married to an educated man. Randy took his last final on Friday. Thank you, BYU! I don't know what I'll do now. BYU campus has been a part of my everyday life for the past 6.5 years. Way too long to be associating with the Zoobies if ya know what I mean. And if you ever went to BYU, you know what I mean. So to the over achieving 4.0 Zoobies of Brigham Young- I say see ya lata, suckas!! C's and D's get degrees! Let the great job hunt of 2009/2010 begin. I told him he needs to start practicing his "Welcome to Walmart!" HA. I promise I really am an encouraging supportive wife. And he didn't get all C's and D's. :)

And lastly, did you know Christmas is in 3 days!? I know, because every morning Macey asks me in a reverent voice if it's Christmas Eve yet.

2 years.

Honestly, I was hoping for the 2nd year marker without my Mom to come and go without much pain.I'm tired of hurting. Of course, that did not happen. The emotions I feel are still very raw and tender, especially around this time of year. But along with the feelings of sadness and loss, I also feel happy and relieved. It took me a while to get to the point where I am actually happy for my Mom. My sweet sister gave me and my other sisters a Willow Tree statuette of a woman raising both of her arms in victory, as if she had just come in first from a race. She told us "because that's how I picture Mom and Lori {my oldest sister that died from cancer, too} reacted when they reached the other side." I put that ornament by pictures I have of my Mom and Lori in my front room and love to look at them and think how right on Natalie was.I bet that's exactly what they did. Not only are they free from the awful diseases that riddled their bodies, but they are free of pain from this temporal world.

At first it was all about me. How can I possibly handle this? I miss Mom so much. I lost my best friend. My children lost an amazing grandmother. Will I ever feel normal again? Etc. One of my good friends  (who also lost her Mom at a young age) from my old ward wrote me a beautiful letter after Mom passed away and she told me something that I will never forget. She said "just remember that the pain is ours, they are very happy where they are at". The pain is ours. At the time I thought yeah, no kidding the pain is ours-- and I couldn't get much past that. Now that I am starting to know how to deal with the loss, I am able to look past it and actually be happy for my Mom.. I can only imagine all the good that she is doing on the other side. She hated being pretty much confined to her recliner and bed that last little while... I am sure that she is more than making up for that now.

I used to agonize over Macey and recently Collin. They won't know their Grandma Judy. Their Grandma Judy won't know them! I can now see that I was very wrong on both accounts. Grandma Judy definitely knows my kids, very well. I also realized that I was only 2 when my sister died, but over the years it feels as if we've grown closer. I am sure my kids will feel the same way with their Grandma. I know I feel the same way about her, too. Even though she is physically gone, I feel like she is still very much around and my relationship with her is still growing. It just stinks that she's not here for me to call everyday and talk to. Since she's been gone, there have been some very close calls in our family where we were so lucky that everything turned out to be ok. I always wonder if Mom had a part in that. Then I think of course she did, it's MOM! =)

This second year has definitely been different than the 1st year. I am able to see and feel more than the constant feeling of loss, and for that I am so grateful. I definitely still have bad days, but I'm sure that will be the case for many years. It's a learning process. So today while I am remembering my mother, I'm trying not to focus on what we lost, but what our family gained... another angel who will do anything to see our family succeed. I am so lucky to belong to such an amazing family. I love you, Mom! Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Card.

Merry Christmas, y'all! I hope you are all enjoying being with your loved ones this holiday season! If stamps weren't like, a million dollars... I would send you all this card! But this year you will have to enjoy my craftiness and cute kids (and hubbs) from your computer screen. Yes, I digi-scrapped the card myself. That's right, I know some stuff! :) 

Traditions.

Every Christmas Season we buy a new nutcracker. Randy's family did that when he was a little kid and he loved it, so we started it when we got married. Macey now loves it (we went to The Nutcracker ballet in Logan so now she is obsessed) and reminded us that we needed to go out and buy a nutcracker to put in our tree. We found this little guy at Dollar Tree. Score! The trick is getting Macey to leave him alone since he's littler than our other nutcrackers she thinks he's a doll. Oh well, if he breaks he was a dollar, right?

We had a fun time decorating the tree with our nutcrackers, and even more fun setting up and playing with the train! Look how huge Collin's eyes are in these pics... he was hilarious!!

{1st time de-railing the train.... not the last. We actually gave up on putting it back on the tracks.}

 

{Macey loves running along with it and singing the music it plays}

We've been enjoying our family time together. One of my favorite things to do is get out the Christmas Decorations and go to town while I sing to my Crooner's Christmas cd! So just for good measure... here is a picture of my tree this year. Yep, still rockin' the colored lights and loving it. :)

Another tradition we have is each kid gets their own little tree in their room. Here is Macey's. I think I'm going to wait a year (or two) to put one in Collin's room. He regularly crawls (army style) into Macey's room just to knock over her tree, I'm pretty sure. :)

Ironic.

Today's Sunday school lesson was on language and how important it is to set a good example for your kids. I have to admit, I was a little uncomfortable and kept looking at Randy, like "how does he know?"

I felt this way because just last week when we were parking in a store parking lot, Macey yelled "I'm PISSED! I'm pissed at store!!" She really didn't want to go to that store. :)

Lesson learned, point taken. Randy, you really need to be better with your language. ;)

Macey's Mini Feast.

Macey's pre-school had a mini feast today in honor of Thanksgiving. She has been looking forward to it for SO LONG! Each child was supposed to bring a finger food. We were told to 'get creative'.... so I made these babies. They turned out to be so cute! After we got them all ready to go Macey requested that she wear a "long dress" to school. How could I say no to that? Here she is cheesing it up, waiting for carpool!

She came home with a white piece of felt around her neck and a white hat. She got to be a pilgrim! How cute is that!? I tried to get a picture of her but she was too fast. By the time I retrieved the camera from downstairs she had already changed into her pajamas. :)

Bawl baby.

So Macey came home from preschool on Thursday with a cute piece of paper that had her hand print on it and a poem. She asked me "what it says", so I read it to her..... and while I was reading it I started CRYING!! She looked at me like, what in the crap is wrong with you? It's just a hand!! It totally reminded me of when my Mom would read a story out of The New Era or The Ensign to me. She would almost always cry... and I would always roll my eyes. Funny how things come around full circle, huh?

I still can't even read it without tearing up. I decided I don't want my baby girl to grow up anymore.

Christmas? Check.

I'm a little crazy and started thinking Christmas in August. No, I wasn't listening to Jingle Bells or anything like that... but I was planning, bargain shopping, crafting, etc. I've had this project done since September and have just been itching to post about it! But I could never find the right time to take pictures of it since Macey is my shadow from sun up til' sun down. I finally took some pics tonight after she was in bed... and I got all excited again! :)

So my friend and I were shopping at a craft outlet and found a trunk for $10. It was regularly $65. That's a deal that I couldn't pass up.. so I bought the plain wooden trunk and made a very girly dress up trunk out of it! I am thrilled with the results. I don't know who's going to be more excited on Christmas morning... Macey or me! :)

Before:

After:

The original plan was to just paint it cream with pink trim and paint all the metal pieces black... but I  love polka dots too much. :) The picture doesn't show it well, but there are pink polka dots and very light pink polka dots. I do need to put a finish on still so it's nice and shiny.

Inside with all the goods:

Crown:

The crown is made of felt, I hand-stitched the pieces because I am not a precise seamstress. :) Attached is an elastic with a fabric cover.

Princess hat:

This bad boy was a pain in the butt. I bought one of those super flimsy foam hats at a craft store for like a dollar, then covered it in fabric, ric rac, gems and lots of ribbons. It has an elastic at the bottom to go under the chin which you can't see. I should have had more of a plan when I attacked this project, it was a lot of trial and error before I got to where I liked it.

Wand:

I don't know why that picture is sideways. And it's almost midnight so I'm over it. :) The wand was semi-easy. A little messy. It's just a dowel painted and then 2 felt stars hand-stitched together and filled with batting and then stuffed with ribbon.

Necklaces:

Ugh. Same thing with the picture. Weird. Anyway, I love these necklaces... they were super easy and cheap to make! They are both strung on heavy duty elastic. The pictures don't give them justice at all, they are very pretty and blingy. One is hot pink with pink crystals, the other one is dark green and blue.

Superhero masks:

Oh my gosh these are probably my favorite. I have several pictures of me wearing these... but I won't post those. :P I found a free pattern online and just traced it onto felt, cut it out and decorated! SUPER easy and probably took 5 minutes.

Superhero cape:

I just winged this baby. I am not a pattern follower at all. I get an idea in my head and I go with it... looking back I probably should have done a little research. I could have saved some time. But overall am very pleased with it! The reverse side of the cape is light pink. The button says "Girl Power".

twirly skirt:

Macey loves twirling in skirts... so I thought a longer skirt with lots of fun colors would be fun for her. And I wanted to do something other than tulle. Turned out very cute and again, super easy!

Shoes:

The only item in the trunk that I didn't make. They were $4 at Walmart. Mace is going to flip!

I figure the overall cost for me was about $30. I had almost all of the items on hand, which was super nice! I am going to make one more twirly skirt for Macey and then I am done with it. Maybe another pair of dress up shoes. :) I'm very pleased! And I know she is just completely going to freak out on Christmas morning. All of this stuff is right up her alley!

Hooray for homemade Christmas gifts! I probably won't be able to get away with it for long with her before it becomes "uncool".  :) I also have a few other projects underway but can't exactly post them here because certain people read a certain blog. ;)

Family Picture.

I've had the shirts for our family picture hanging up in my closet for over 3 months, now. I could just never bring myself to actually want to get my picture taken. I've never been one to love the camera, especially after having a baby! It's like my body goes into "what in the crap just happened to me?!" mode for a long time after having a baby. A lot of women can come home from the hospital in their old jeans... I'm lucky if I can fit into my maternity stuff again because I'm so swollen! I can't remember how many times people told me "oh you will love the first week after having the baby because the weight just falls off". Really? Where exactly did it fall off? Because with both of my babies I wasn't able to get ANY weight to budge for a lonnnng time. I am just now starting to kick it into high gear and really try hard. I'm not one where I can go for a walk around my neighborhood and I lose 5 lbs. :) Heck, if I even look at a donut I gain 3 lbs! I just completed my first week without any sugar. My goal was to make it until yesterday and then I could reward myself. I did, and now my goal is to make it 2 weeks without sugar and then I can reward myself (within reason... I let myself have 1 cookie yesterday and 1 today). On top of no sugar I follow weight watchers loosely, and am starting back up on P90X. On days that are nice outside I'm going to go run... I gotta get back in shape for my sister getaway in May (we run a 5k together). Oh... so what was I talking about? Right, my family picture. (Can you tell how self conscious I am right now?)

I finally said stuff it, let's do it now while Collin will still fit into his shirt (barely) and the weather is somewhat warm! It's not about how I look and feel, it's all about the kids, right? :) So we got everyone ready, loaded up our camera and tripod and set up camp in a park across the street from the temple. We set the tripod on top of a picnic table. :) I was surprised that we were able to get a halfway decent one all by ourselves!! There was no way we could get Collin to look at the camera with nobody behind it and with leaves all around! But we said good enough, so here is what y'all are getting on your Christmas card.

Another dose of Macey.

 Macey posing with Kitty in a skirt I made for her (and flower) before preschool.

Sometimes Randy and I just lay in bed laughing about what funny things Macey said that day. We ask each other "what was your favorite Moo today?" or "what was your favorite Bubbas today?" I love it because a lot of times I will go to bed so exhausted and just done with kids. Talking about what cute things they did/said refreshes and excites me for a new day! :)

Yesterday night we were driving home from IKEA and I got stuck behind a sllooowww driver (my mom used to call them D.W.O.'s... Driving While Old) and Macey asked me why I was driving so slow. I told her because the lady in front of me is driving slow. After contemplating this for a minute she asked, "can you tell her to give it some gas?!" 

The other day we were checking out at a craft store and Macey found a stuffed cat that looked exactly like our kitty by the register. She picked it up, noticed the uncanny resemblance and yelled, "Oh my gosh! This fing is digusting!!" The clerk was laughing so hard when I told her why Macey probably thought it was creepy. :)

We have a box in our basement that is Macey's favorite toy right now. She was trying to stuff Kitty into it and close the lid so she would be stuck but Kitty jumped out right before Mace could close the lid. Macey got really mad and yelled out, "YOU TRAITOR!"


 

This kid.

I can't believe Collin is almost 7 months old!

Some things you may not know about this kid:

His nickname is "Bubbas" or "The Bubbas" (no idea where it came from, but it stuck).

This kid can roll around a room like it's nobody's business!

He still won't hold his bottle.

He is either too busy playing with my face

or too busy rubbing his blanky on his face.

Is ready to crawl any day now.

He is a blanky baby and a binky baby!

Love it.

All you have to do is put his blanket up by his face and his eyes roll back.

This kid ADORES his big sister.

Weighs over 18 lbs.

His favorite toys are his swing, jumper and Macey's play piano.

LOVES applesauce, bananas, prunes, sweet potatoes and peaches. Thinks carrots and green beans are just ok. Give him a Saltine cracker and it'll keep him entertained for a good half hour. :)

He's a squawker. Seriously, he loves to squeal and squawk in the highest pitch voice.

Makes Randy a little nervous. ;)

Every time I take him somewhere people ask me if he's teething.

No, he's just a super slobbery baby!

No teef yet.

Macey likes to remind him of that when

he tries to steal her food.

This kid lucked out in the eye department.

He inherited Randy's deep blue eyes and looong eyelashes.

He is SUCH a happy baby.

No matter when the last time he took a bath was,

he has stinky toes.

I LOVE this kid. :)

The grad.

I'm on a posting frenzy, and it feels so good!

So, this is Randy's last semester of school. EVER! I am so proud of him and all the hard work, dedication and patience he has put into it all. Being a music major at BYU is no little task. Part of his major requirement was for him to take lessons for whatever musical instrument got him accepted into the major in the first place. The cello. It has been so fun listening to him practice his pieces... he practices an hour every day! His instrument playing (he can play any instrument, he's a natural and I'm jealous) has been put on hold while he focuses more on school. His official major is audio recording, so technically... it has nothing to do with playing an instrument, but it is in the music major... so really it has EVERYTHING to do with playing an instrument. ;) I'm glad that they make it this way because these guys have such an ear for music (I'm told I have a really lousy ear, cause Randy doesn't like the songs I like) and that makes them more competitive and valuable. Anyway, so it has been a lot of fun for our little family to sit in the front room and listen to him play. A few weeks ago he had a recital at an old folks' home in Provo. I was so excited to see Randy in action again! He's been in orchestras pretty much all his life, and when I met him he was in the Philharmonic at BYU (he's been on TV before, people)! :) So for him this was really no big deal at all, but for us it was so exciting! Macey has never seen Randy perform before.

I figured it's an old folks' home... they love kids, right? I'll be the hit of the night with a crazy toddler and a baby! Riiiiight. Turns out, the old folks didn't care so much about the kids... but thoroughly enjoyed watching (let's be honest, I don't know how much hearing goes on in that place) Randy! I was trying to stifle my laughter... Randy was surrounded by women! I think I only saw 1 man there.

 They loved it! Except for one woman, who got up in the middle of a performance and walked out. As she was leaving she looked at me and said "I hate that kind of music." HAHAHA! It was all classical! That made my night. Randy did fantastic and when he got up some women got up with him and followed him to his seat so they could ask him questions (or check him out). :)

It was a fun night, but really the highlight of the night was while Randy was playing Macey yelled "GO DADDY!" It was too cute to tell her to be quiet.... but also really embarrassing. :) She loved watching him perform, too.

Halloween was spooktacular!

I decided this was probably one of the only years that I could get Macey and Collin to wear matching Halloween costumes without one or both throwing fits. I saw these darling skeleton pajamas at the Gap and couldn't resist. They were so easy and cheap! Plus Macey is obsessed with jammies (jam-bees) and bones. This was perfect! She loved wearing her costume to pre-school and was even more ecstatic on Halloween night when she noticed that they glowed in the dark! Collin was neutral on the subject, but did enjoy the walk around the neighborhood!

Randy dressed up as white trash. You can't see it very well, but that's a blonde mullet. I love this picture because Macey is copying his pose and he didn't even know it!

One year older and wiser, too!

Happy Birthday, to me!

It was my birthday on Halloween. I turned the ripe old age of 25! I have no problem telling people my age... give me 10 years and it'll probably change. But for now, I feel really young.

The day before Halloween is our good friend Ben's birthday. We always go out to dinner with Ben and his wife Sara for dinner to celebrate our birthdays. This year I begged and pleaded for Tepanyaki! We only go 1-2 times a year... and I have been thinking about it for the past month! Love everything about it! So we went and had a good time. Even with 2 kids in tow! B&S gave me the most hilarious card ever (not to mention a very generous gift card to get a pedicure/manicure!) while we were there. I just had to scan it so I can remember it always. Love those guys. :)

Halloween morning I told Macey we were going to go out and buy some balloons and cake for me! She was SO excited. Randy had to be at school for a good portion of the day for a group project so it was just me and the kids. We get to Macey's (the grocery store) and I notice a huge line in the front of the store. I figure it was probably people watching a band or something since Macey's does that quite a bit. As we get closer I see a table set up that says "MEET PAUL MILLSAP". !!! (For those that don't know sports, Paul Millsap is a forward for the Utah Jazz.) I was so excited and kept thinking that Randy was going to be so jealous! Millsap hadn't shown up yet so we wandered into the store to buy our things. Even after we checked out he still hadn't showed... I decided it wasn't worth it anyway to stand in a huge line with 2 kids, so I turned the gigantor cart around (Macey insists on riding in the car carts... EVERY. TIME.) and there walking through the doors is PAUL MILLSAP! The crowd started cheering and yelling his name. It was exciting! I couldn't believe my eyes! Especially when we had eye contact for what seemed to be a long time. Now that I think about it, I must have looked like I wanted to say something to him. (HAHA). In my head all I could think was, he sees my balloons and my party stuff.... I need to explain myself (WHAT?!). So as he's looking at me I blurt out ".... it's my birthday." OH. MY. GOSH. Did I really just say that to him?! I was humiliated, I think my face turned 5 shades of red, and of course I sweat when I'm nervous.... fortunately he was cool and didn't seem to think I was insane and just said "Oh no way! Happy Birthday!" and walked off. Wow. Most embarrassing/coolest thing EVER! Thanks for making my day week month, Paul Millsap!

Anyway, it was a good day. Randy spoiled me. I think my favorite present from him was his video he made for me on the computer, though. He recorded himself lip synching to a really.... interesting (feminine) song. It was hilarious/awesome/weird. All at the same time. Which is why I love him! This is me watching the video. Took me by surprise. :)

All in all, a very enjoyable birthday. Thank you for the gifts, calls, e-mails, texts, cards (Dad, your card made me cry) etc! I have the best family and friends ever!

Macey, the Hero.

This literally happened 5 minutes ago.

So I'm downstairs, checking my stuff on here (I blame you) alone (I stupidly left Collin upstairs rolling around and Macey was watching Tinkerbell) when I hear Macey yelling for me, "Mommy! Collin's just falling down the stairs!!" I jumped out of my chair and darted for the stairs. My baby is too young to take his first tumble down the stairs! He needs to be at least crawling. When I turn the corner I see Collin, headed face first down the stairs, and Macey holding onto him with all her might. I couldn't believe she could hold him like that! He wasn't even scared, he was like let me go! That was fun!! I thanked Macey a million times and this was her reply:

"Mommy, I'm just really a hero."


P.S. I have about an infinity of posts I want to post, but they all include pictures... and my computer is STUPID and won't upload any! Hopefully we can figure out the problem soon because I am dying to share some of these pictures and stories! Here's a little teaser... Randy. Playing his Cello. Old ladies want him. Macey yelling in the background while he's playing (it was at a recital... a quiet recital) "GO DADDY!" Good times...

Halloween? Check.

We are ready for the big holiday, have been for a while! Here are my decorations in all their glory! Since we have little kids, we don't go the scary route yet, just the cute fun route. Macey LOOOVES all the decorations. She can't wait for Halloween!

My computer is being a butt, I couldn't upload photos individually... so you get 2 massive collages. I hope you can get the jist. Our house is so festive and fun to decorate! Oh, and an inside story... remember my front window? Well, Randy loved it so much that he decided to decorate our back windows. The big one with the orange lights people can see from the road, and the one you can't see well is Macey's window. She has a "nice" ghost on hers! :)

Promises...

So, I'm really good at making promises.... not the best at keeping them.

Like, how I promised myself that I was going to go to bed early last night.

Or how I promised that we'd be at church on time today.

How about when I promised Macey that I was going to throw away EVERY SINGLE CRAYON in our house if she drew her "name" on the walls or my door again, so help me!

I seem to remember promising Macey that yes, tomorrow you can eat all the cookies that you want if you just go to bed. :) I think I ate all those cookies that I promised myself I wouldn't touch.

Anybody else feel this way? It's like I'm just setting myself up for failure. I have too many projects going on and make too many promises to myself, I guess.

Anyway, the reason for this post was to tell all those who care (so... maybe my sisters... and Dad {I know you're reading, Dad! You can comment, you know!}) that I didn't forget about posting pictures of my Halloween decorations. I'm working on it!

I Promise.

Until then, here's a little sneak peak of my pride and joy this year. Enjoy the view of my front window. I know I sure am. :)

It's Halloweeeeeen Time!

My house is decked out, the kids' costumes are ready and waiting, and we've still got well over a month left! I just really love Halloween, ok? And since I have a butt load of Halloween decorations, (plus it's my birthday and all).... I get to enjoy it early. If I am gonna put up that many decorations, they've gotta be up for over a month! So to gear you up for the holiday, here are some of my favorite Halloween jokes!

My all-time favorite:
What do you get when you goose a ghost?
A handful of sheet.

What do you get when you cross a ghost and an owl?
Something that scares people and doesn't give a hoot.

How did the Priest make Holy Water?
He took some tap water and boiled the Hell out of it.

What do you get when you cross a werewolf and a vampire?
A fur coat that fangs around your neck.

What did one ghost say to the other ghost?
I'm sorry, I just don't believe in people.

And on the less appropriate side.... (but I laughed hard enough to want to post them here all the same). I'm a little bit of an inappropriate person.

Why was the man ghost told he could never have babies?
Because he had a hollow-weenie.

What do ghosts put in their bras?
BOOOOOOObies.


Admit it. You laughed out loud at least one time.

*Pictures of my Halloween decor to come soon!

My cute Moo.

Macey loves getting her picture taken! She's always telling me to take her picture. These are just taken out in our front yard on a whim... it was like 90 degrees out but Macey REALLY wanted to wear that outfit (new boots) so I let her and thought it was too cute not to take a picture of.

All aboard!

All aboard the choo-choo train, all aboard the choo-choo train! All aboard the choo-choo train, all aboard. All aboard! CHOO CHOO! K, sorry. That was probably weird to those of you whose kids don't watch the Disney Channel. Just a little Choo-Choo Soul for your (dis) pleasure.

Anyway, the other day we all congregated in Macey's room like we always do and had a Kodak moment. I like to lay with Collin sitting up on my belly and do a train (cause he giggles), this time Macey wanted in on the fun, too. I had to keep reminding her that I wasn't a horse, I was a train. You don't jump on trains... with bladders.

So the first picture is funny to me. Macey, Collin and I were all playing and having a good time until Daddy walked in with the camera and then Macey was all business. She hurries and grabs Collin's shoulders and poses. Collin was intrigued by the camera, but not enough to take his fist out of his mouth.



This one Macey is doing the loco-motion (c'mon, c'mon).... I don't know what it's called... honking the train? And she just got done saying "All aborn?!" Collin is giggling, but still not entertained enough for him to want to stop sucking on his hands.

See what he has to put up with?

Here's a hint: There was no "boo-boo" on his forehead like Macey said there was when I asked her why there was a Hello Kitty band-aid on Collin's head. Poor guy... if only he knew this is just the beginning.

R.I.P. Lucy, R.I.P.

So, our cat is gone. She hasn't come home for days. We let her out at night so she can get her freak on (don't worry, she's fixed) and she is always waiting on the front door step first thing in the morning. I can only imagine that she ran out into the road (after I told her a million times not to!) and got hit. We have asked neighbors and no sign of her. We've taken lots of drives around the neighborhood and possible "Lucy attractions"... nothing. It's always sad to lose a good pet!! What happened to her 9 lives? She must have used them all up when we weren't watching her at night. Rest in peace Lucy... we'll miss you.

One of my very favorite things.

Lil' chunky monkey legs and feet.

The only time cankles are cute.