Merry Christmas

This picture is so much more than this year's Christmas card. It's my favorite memory from 2015!  Standing in Cinderella's Castle in the Happiest Place on Earth with the happiest kid on Earth is going to be hard to top!!!! 

I will never take this moment for granted.....We are beyond blessed and as the card says "beyond merry"!

Cookie Making, Hat Wearing, Baby Loving cousins.....

Delaney's cousins from NC made it to town for Christmas!!! It didn't take long for us to head over for a visit. Like always, I managed to stay out of the kitchen (which is a good idea since our oven has been out of commission for almost two weeks....and we now know our smoke detectors ALL 3 are in working order)!

These kids are ready for Christmas!!!

All Sorts of Busy

We have had so much fun this holiday season like going to ugly Christmas sweater parties (Rudolph courtesy of Pinterest of course).............

And great grandma's Christmas program.......

And eating cake for breakfast........

And a little of this.......

And getting our pre-Christmas nails done

And more to come this week!!!!!

Christmas at the Zoo

We took advantage of more warm weather this week and headed to the zoo!

And ended at the border for "puffy drinks"

"Best Day EVER"...............

We took advantage of the warm weather and headed downtown to mail Delaney's letter to Santa.  Have I mentioned how much my girl LOVES downtown. 

As we were on the interstate, she spotted the tree.

We decided to take a carriage to get there!

.

Our driver made a quick stop to mail Delaney's letter

(Play Doh, Dollhouse, American Girl, Lip Gloss and FOOD---I have no idea what that means, maybe Delaney's trying to tell me to go to the grocery!)  As we started to "sound spell" American Girl Delaney said "wait, I"ll just get one of my bags from there and copy the letters from it".

I LOVE this picture (minus the fact I'm not even looking),
it shows the sheer excitement in Delaney's face!

She said "you guys tricked me"!

This is as close as Delaney would get to "Roxy".

It really was the BEST DAY EVER..............well, 

until tomorrow, when I get to be her mom all over again!

Santa Visit 2015

Delaney's school had breakfast with Santa this weekend. And I realized that school food is still "school food".  She has been telling me she can't tell me what she's going to ask Santa for for Christmas and how it's a secret. Just before we left, I got out of her the four things she wants:

1. A Pony

2. A dollhouse

3. Play doh

4. An American Girl Doll

I tried to "listen in" when she was talking to Santa and I heard her say "a pony".

She told me she only asked for two of the four things:

1. A Pony

2. A dollhouse

If only Santa's workshop wasn't already closed!

Delaney had a very exciting weekend! On Friday night, we had movie, pizza and popcorn night (she wanted us to play Bunco!). I showed Delaney the previews for Babes in Toyland to see if she wanted to watch it and she told me no, it looked like a movie from the 80's or 90's!

Delaney thinks ALL movies look like that when they aren't in HD. Delaney is an HD snob (just like her daddy)!

On Saturday, she got to go to the Circus with one of her friends from school. To say she was excited is a major understatement. She was equally excited to ride in the little girl's parents' mini van! 

TRUE STORY FRIENDS!!

The mom text me pictures. I was so excited to see Delaney with her overpriced snow cone but I don't want to post a picture of the girls on the world wide web without their permission so you'll have to take my word that it was full of cuteness! I think the best part of this story is the following text between me and my aunt after I sent her pictures:

Me: Delaney is at the circus with her friend from school.

Aunt: Did you take her?

Me: No, the mom came and picked her up.

Aunt: OMG You are not even there, Dave would have a fit!!!

Me: I KNOW.............................

I got THE BEST advice from Julie the day before (at 4 months older and 4 more kids than me she is SO wise) about Delaney doing things with kids from school. I was 100% comfortable with Delaney going to the circus. And just as soon as my sweet little thing got home, she turned around and left again (didn't even take off her coat) just like a teenager! She even kept the change from the money I gave her to buy a snack at the circus #girlsareexpensive.

I still refuse to wake a sleeping "baby"......................

Welcome Sneaky

While Delaney was at school, Sneaky decided to show up! He (who is clearly now a she) was due in late last night but his....or, her, flight was delayed :-) Sneaky left a note reminding Delaney to be a good girl. Delaney said she liked Sneaky's hand writing but thought it was so weird Sneaky wrote her a note since she doesn't have fingers.........

I asked Delaney what she was going to ask Santa for for Christmas and she told me it was a secret and I don't need to know everything! (Good thing our Santa stops at our house daily in his big brown sleigh).

I knew this day would come.............

You know, when Cyber Monday is just an extension of Sunday. Just like Black Friday really isn't Black Friday anymore since the sales start on Thanksgiving. I didn't find any better deals today than I did yesterday AND YOU KNOW I LOOKED! But you bet I was probably the ONLY mom in the drop off line at school this morning putting a new tv in my cart! #howsthatformultitasking

I told my friend I really think the kids should be out of school for Cyber Monday. I was so excited to wake up this morning to my favorite day of the year. Then Delaney decided she was not wearing pants to school because "what if Skylynn doesn't wear pants". I told her to put on a jumper and tell Skylynn to start wearing pants!  What Delaney was wearing was not exactly my priority!

Thanksgiving 2015

Delaney was out of school on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Which led to an entire day of asking me every 5 minutes when her cousins would be arriving. At one point, she picked up my phone and asked Siri how much longer it would be. We were able to squeeze in an emergency trip to Macy's for a Thanksgiving outfit #mommaforgottoplanahead before they arrived!

Finally!

The next morning it was time to get up and start getting ready! Cousin Jeremy braided Delaney's hair (while she treated herself to a donut).

I really need to learn how to do this...................

Then we headed to aunt Trina's house for lunch.  Here are the two newest members (I wonder if someone fed them turkey!) We sat and passed around the babies!

My Little Turkey!

Oh these two...............

So thankful I was chosen to be her momma...........

The littles........(and big cousin, Adarrah)

Then it was time to head home before we headed to the "next one". This happened about 2 seconds after she got in the car. No turkey involved.................

The "extended" family rents out a gym to host the "dessert" get together. Last count was 85 people!

Apparently she didn't notice ALL of the desserts...........

Logan and Lexi's mom and dad decided to do some black Friday shopping. I decided I would rather stick needles in my eyeballs and offered to babysit! The three kids are 5, 4 and 18 months. Lexi went down for a nap and virtually slept through black Friday while these two played, and played.....

and played.............(they also got out the Play Doh which mostly ended up on the floor).  It was so much fun to sit and listen to their conversation. Especially this one: Logan said "does your daddy ever come home". Delaney "no, he lives in heaven".................I LOVE THEM!

And these "twinsies" got their picture taken before it was time to say good-bye.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving this year was when we pulled into the driveway at aunt Trina's and we waited in the car so we could listen to our "theme song". Each year, we somehow end up with one (it finds us).  "I got EVERYTHING I NEED and NOTHING that I DON'T"....................."found" us this year and sums us up perfectly! 

Delaney has turned into quite the little "car" dancer/singer!  We were recently pulling in at home (and by home I mean Target) and one of daddy's fireman friends was walking out and "caught" us and walked up to the car and said "what's going on here"! We dance like no one is watching....even if it's in the car! The girl can belt out "video killed the radio star" like no one's business! So if you see (or hear) us driving, don't mind us.........CAUSE WE WON'T MIND YOU!

School Pictures

Pre-K3

2013

 Pre-K4

2014

Kindergarten

2015

(Seriously thought about doing picture retakes for Kindergarten, I mean just LOOK at that hair)

The girl is a hot little mess and she doesn't care!

Just looking at these pictures makes me sing to myself "sit up straight look at the yellow bird"!!

Tis' the Season for ...............STRESS!

I get stressed just thinking about addressing the Christmas cards and wrapping gifts!

I have a "no labels" and "no gift bags" policy at Christmas. 

Perhaps my holiday stress is a bit self induced!

Life Around Here Lately.....

Pretty much looks like this.....

Just in case you're wondering, I don't typically take pictures of the delivery people but I took this for another reason and thought I would update you on what's been going on around here lately.....

Weekend Recap

Delaney is NEVER home on the weekends! She's turned into a teenager with her busy calendar!

She is such a little social butterfly, I just don't know where she gets it :-)

On Friday, I picked Delaney up from school and told her she had a surprise babysitter coming to the house. She made multiple guesses (including her cousin Logan who is younger than her and lives in KY)! She also guessed her cousin who lives in Manhattan! She must really think people will travel far to babysit her. Her babysitter didn't travel far at all; it was the little girl next door babysitting for the first time. Actually, she's not so little anymore---- I can't believe how tall she has gotten (I don't even remember seeing her one time over the summer). Delaney was so excited for her to come over, she waited at the front door on her for an hour (and asked me 500 times when would it be 4:00).

And I was so excited to meet Julie for round 2 of her birthday celebration!

I actually had to change out of my work clothes (yoga pants) to head to happy hour!

She asked me about the babysitter situation and "who I got" (she knows the babysitter) and asked me how old she is now and I told her I had no idea! I guess I should have asked....I did tell her how tall she'd gotten (as if a tall kid had to be old enough to babysit)! I later found out she's in middle school.

I had NO IDEA how much I was suppose to pay a babysitter!! And when your ATM only lets you withdraw 20's, the going rate is apparently $10 an hour (thank goodness happy hour lasts just 2 hours)! 

Delaney and I watched Poltergeist which is probably not the best Friday night family movie but she loves scary movies just like her momma! I told her not to tell anyone I let her watch it and she said "but what if I do".

Operation clean up the playroom came to a screeching halt Saturday when it was time to head to grandma and grandpa's. I made the usual empty threats telling her she wasn't going to go if  it wasn't cleaned. She knew I had plans, she knew she was going! At one point she said "mommy, I just feel like I need a night away from you"( I was thinking a week seemed in order in the moment)!

I took a video and sent it to grandma to show Delaney (apologizing for our bad day).

This is what I got in return.

Clearly, I was more upset over how things went than she was!

The next morning I picked her up after "breakfast club" (breakfast rotation with friends) and the very first conversation we had went like this:

"Mommy, Kelsey at school was talking to me about the father/daughter dance and I told her, tell me more about this on recess. I asked her if there is a mommy/daughter dance because I don't have a daddy, well, I do, but he's in heaven and Kesley told me she was so very sorry to hear that and I told her she doesn't have to be sorry, it's not her fault". (I melt.....)

And here I thought our conversation would go something like "did you have fun last night"!!

Ok, wipe your tears, because you know in true Delaney form it gets better........

I said, "Delaney, you know that daddy's friends would line up at the door to take you to the father/daughter dance don't you"?

"Yes, but I think I just want grandpa to take me"!!

(And for the record, I know nothing of a father/daughter, make that grandpa/granddaughter dance)!

Later, we were driving and she said "Dear Jesus, thank you for my daddy, please watch over him". AND THEN...............

"Dear Jesus, thank you for the people who made my little baby (a/k/a her baby doll).

Never EVER a dull moment around here.......

Then Monday rolled around and I got home and saw this on the front porch.

You can imagine how excited I was.............until I noticed a note on the front porch from one of the fireman Dave worked with who was in the neighborhood and just stopped by to check on us!

Nordstrom, you made my day for a millisecond, but I'd take a lifetime of those notes over a pair of Joe's (jeans) and a super hideous award winning (hopefully) ugly Christmas sweater!

We have gotten into a bad habit of doing homework too late at night. And by bad habit, I mean when we got to the last page, Delaney said "mommy, I think this worksheet is going to be easy peasey lemon squeezy and I don't think we'll fight over it at all"...................

She reminded me that the letter this week at school is "R" and that meant she had to have something for dinner that started with an R and the only thing "she" could come up with was a Reese's Cup! After I got done laughing, I realized, she was right! 

I better add radishes to the grocery list!