That Big, Stupid, Purple Dinosaur

For Bella's entire life I have managed to avoid the nightmare that is Barney. The dumb purple dinosaur with the horrid t.v. show and even worse music, you know the one. I can't help it, I despise it, and I have somehow miraculously managed to keep her from ever seeing it for over 5 years.

I'm amazing, I know.

And those of you parents out there who are forced to suffer through the torture are jealous.

I know.

Don't be.

Along the way, someone, somewhere has betrayed me.

I know this because yesterday, while I was studying, Bella found Barney on t.v. (it's getting so much harder to hide things from her now that she can read!), and since I was distracted, decided to take a little looksy.

About 10 minutes in, I overheard one of the horrible songs and immediately said, "Oh no missy, no Barney. Turn that off."

Her response? Get ready for this one, it's good. . . .

"Why Mommy? It's just a wonderful show full of adorable children and a lovable purple dinosaur. What's wrong with that?"

She really said that to me. And how do I argue with that?

I can't make this stuff up.

The Spunky LilyPad

I want to give a little shout out to my SUPER AWESOMELY talented cousin, Nicole, who made this canvas for me:

Isn't it the cutest thing?? I am a reading junkie and my little princess loves fairy tales of course, so when I saw it, I HAD to have it!!
My original plan was to hang it in Bella's room above her bookshelf, but once I got it, it was too cute not to see it all the time, so I hung it in my main living area! :) It makes me so happy!! It does not make Bella happy that it is not in her room! Guess, I am just going to have to place another order!
She can do all kinds of personal canvas creations, so check out her etsy shop if you think you might be interested in something!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thespunkylilypad?ref=top_trail

Thanks Nicole!! We love it!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Because our weekend just hadn't been busy enough, we decided to add one more thing in. . .putting up the Christmas Tree!!! It's one of my favorite times of the year-we turn on Christmas music and all go Christmas Crazy for the day. It's so much fun!
Once the boxes were down from the attic, Bella went insane and wouldn't let us sit still until the decorating was in full swing. She was so excited she didn't know what to do with herself!


So she did what she always does: she drew! Here she is drawing pictures of her favorite ornaments. This one is of her Nutcracker ornament.
Daddy got her her own tree for her room!

Christmas story break.
Even Lily was festive!
All the decorating made Lils tired!

Count on Daddy to be silly!
Daddy doing his special job.
Zachy helping

Probably my favorite ornament on the tree. We got this the year I was pregnant with Roo.

The munchkins doing their special job. They love wiggling under the tree to put on the skirt.
We even got Christmas sheets this year! I think this is going to be a new tradition.



Another one of my favorite ornaments because it completely represents who Bella is-Mommy's little artist.


She takes after her Daddy in the silly department.
Unpacking boxes
Beau didn't have a Christmas shirt, so we put this t-shirt on him. He hates us. Just look at his face. He's the most humiliated lab on the planet.

Even Duke the Elf made his appearance! This was the moment Little Bit spotted him!
That's the face of a little girl happy to see her elf!
Duke!

Gobble! Gobble!

We started our Thanksgiving festivities this year with a trip to Nana's house, and we dined like royalty! She always sets the most beautiful, fancy table for special occasions-it could make eating cereal feel like a big deal! The food was SO YUMMY and we really enjoyed spending a relaxing afternoon with her, just eating and watching a little football.

Isn't that a beautiful table!?


I call this "Sophisticated Caveman"


Ohhh my. This picture does not do that turkey (or ham) justice!


Nana and the kids


Bella loves Nana's Christmas Tree. It's decorated with ornaments from old classic movies-mainly Gone With the Wind. So pretty!

After we left Nana's we headed out for yet another adventure. . . meeting long lost relatives. Through the strange wonder that is Facebook, I have recently gotten in touch with an Aunt & Cousin that I used to be close with when I was just a very tiny munchkin. "Talking" with them over facebook was neat enough, but I wasn't expecting to feel quite so very happy about actually meeting them. Don't get me wrong-I was excited! But those of you that know me, know I have a bit of social anxiety and pretty much freak out at the thought of meeting new people. Generally, this involves a lot of sweating and panic on my part. Followed by a total inability to come up with anything intelligent or witty to say. And ending with me hiding safely behind Rob while He proceeds to charm everyone beyond belief. I both love him and hate him for that ability. Mostly love him though :)
So this little introduction wasn't really any different, especially the part where I had to walk into a house full of people I din't know and ask for someone I haven't seen in about 26 years! Yep, I was in full panic mode. Short of breath, heart palpitations, and everything. That lasted all of 5 seconds! From the moment my little family walked into this big family's gathering, we felt SO welcome and loved, like we really were always just a regular part of their family. It was wonderful and amazing. Everyone was so sweet!!! My cousin is ADORABLE and hilarious and goes non-stop. My face was hurting from laughing at her by the end of the night. My Aunt and Uncle are just the sweetest people you could ever imagine. Seriously. I've just never felt so at ease. There were tons of kids and they all had the best time together-like they had been friends forever too. Bella even cried when it was time to leave because she didn't want to leave her cousin. I totally understood how she felt-this was the kind of family you didn't want to leave. It was such a gift to reconnect with them-especially on Thanksgiving! We all had such a great time and hope to see them again really really soon!

Me and my beautiful cousin


The girls. Instant friends!


The whole long lost gang



Saturday, we headed over to PapaGigi's for our 3rd Thanksgiving feast! It was yet another super fun day, full of family and delicious food! We ate, watched football, and then played a version of football in the front yard. Really, I don't know what it would be called, but it involved a football, kicking, throwing, and a LOT of laughing!





Bella has clearly missed her calling as a professional punter.


Zach, however, has serious potential as a quarterback-his arm is crazy good!!!



Hope everyone had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as we did!

Adventures in Wonderland

Thursday night, after we had finished our Thanksgiving extravaganzas, we dropped the kiddos off at Nana's for a sleepover, and set out on what is quite possibly the craziest thing we have ever done. You see, Friday was of course, Black Friday, and Target was having a ridiculous sale on televisions. Rob, being the gadget/tv/movie kind of guy that he is, spotted this amazing deal immediately upon perusing through the Black Friday ads. And then immediately decided that we must own one. What did this mean? This meant that we, Rob and I, had to be at the front of the line when Target opened at 4a.m. Friday morning. This would not have been a big deal, EXCEPT for the fact that the temperature Thursday night was going to be the coldest we had had all year! AND the weather men were calling for "wintery mix"!

Now, I am all for an adventure, especially with Rob, but sitting out in the freezing cold rain is pushing it. Actually, it's beyond pushing it; it's too much. I'm not doing it.

Rob was much more dedicated to the mission. He REALLY wanted this tv! So at 10p.m we head over to Target to begin the stake out. It was FREEZING. And raining. And sleeting. I was not getting out of the car. But Rob bundled up and headed out. What a man!

see that blue and white umbrella at the end of the line? That's Rob. (Pic taken by me from the warm, coziness of our truck)

After about 30 minutes, the people in line realized that they could get up under the overhang above the front doors and get out of the rain. Once Rob was there, I felt sorry for him sitting out in the cold darkness all alone. So I joined him. Sitting out in the cold for 6 hours for a tv really wasn't all that bad. . .until that last hour.

That's us at 3am. 5 hours down, 1 to go!

Something happened. It got colder and time began to creep. My feet were so cold I really wanted to cry. Rob kept telling me to go back to the car, but I didn't want to leave him all alone. Plus, he was toughing it out, I could too. (And truthfully, it was sort of a personal challenge/mission not to quit right at the end. I'm weird like that.)

We thought they were going to be giving out tickets, but at the last minute, we found out they weren't-it was every man for himself. Rob and I decided that our plan of attack would be for him to make a mad dash for the tv as soon as the doors opened, I would get the cart and join him asap. I kind of wanted in on the mad dash, but Rob is bigger. And stronger. And not pregnant. Oh well, there is no "I" in team.

By the time I got back there with the cart, Rob already had the tv and was off to the side guarding it like it was one of his children. He rocks.

So, needless to say, our night was a success. We have our new tv in our bedroom and love it. Although, that night is nothing I ever want to do again, it really was kind of fun, and it will make a great story for our kids in the future. . . .No kids, we never waited in line all night for that toy you really wanted for Christmas, but we did do it for our tv! HA!!!

*for the record, we get "the toy" our kids want LONG before Black Friday, even if we have to pay more for it, so there is no need to stand outside all night and fight crazy people in hopes of getting our hands on whatever it is. :)