Hodgepodge Post: Snow, Cornbread, & 30 Week Bump

We woke up Saturday morning to something we rarely see around here - especially this early in the winter season.



SNOW!



Just enough to be pretty but not enough to interfere with the plans for the day.



Two of my really good friends that I have kept up with since high school visited us Saturday morning to see the new house. Wyatt had fun playing with Tara's kids while Tara, Lori, and I had a chance to catch up.

Then our friends Jan and Dale came over that afternoon to watch the Alabama Crimson Tide ROLL over the Florida Gators! It was a great game and so fun to be able to host friends in our home. I made a couple appetizers and then served Santa Fe Soup with a really yummy cornbread recipe that I am going to share at the end of this post. Believe me - it's not your average cornbread. It is moist and delicious and I can never limit myself to less than at least 3 pieces.

Tomorrow I go in for my 30 week appointment and am having a 4-D ultrasound. I am excited to see what he "looks" like at this point. And because I was dressed up from church, I went ahead and had J take my 30 week bump pic a day early.



And just because I like to post pics of my little guy, here is Wy playing with the Legos he swiped from his Didi's house this afternoon.



He has just recently become very interested in building things with Legos and this is a garbage truck that he made. And because I am pretty sure he doesn't read my blog, I feel it is safe to share that he is getting some of his very own Lego's for Christmas this year.


NOT YOUR AVERAGE CORNBREAD RECIPE:

Preheat oven to 425
Grease & flour a 9 x 13 pan

Mix the following ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups self rising corn meal
- 3/4 cup cooking oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 small can (6 oz I think) of cream style corn
- 8 ounce sour cream
- shake in a couple tablespoons of minced onion

Pour mixture into pan and bake 15 - 20 minutes

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I spent Thanksgiving night putting up our Christmas tree and thought I would share a few photos of some of my favorite ornaments. I know, I know - just what you have been waiting for I am sure but I just love my tree and just about every ornament means something to me so I wanted to share just a few.

I know I mentioned last year that we are carrying on a tradition that my parents did for me - giving an ornament to Wyatt each year to represent what that year was about. Most of the ornaments on our tree are from my childhood and I love rediscovering them each year. This year was a little tougher for me with Wyatt b/c they don't make ornaments of unhappy boys living in a trailer which is what I feel so much of 2009 was about. :)

So I thought about the highlights of the year and the fun times we did manage to have together during our 'escape from reality ' sessions. The obvious choice was TRAINS. We took a train ride with his cousins and his Didi and Papa. We also spent the night in a train car at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel which thrilled him as well. And the child knows all kinds of things about trains that he has learned from watching YouTube clips on all the various kinds of trains that are out there. And don't even get me started on all the trips to Southerland Station we took this summer.

So I got him this ornament:



And then the other big thing he was slightly obsessed with this year was Dinosaurs. We have several books, we have Discovery channel movies, we rented Disney's Dinosaur movie several times, and we saw an IMAX movie about Dinosaurs when we took Wy to the McWane Center in Birmingham.

So I got him this one too:




I don't usually get one for J and I but I wanted to be sure to get one to remember our move.



I am also working on creating one with my mom that I will share once we get our rears into gear and make it!


Here are a few others that represent places we have visited:

New Orleans




Bahamas




Hawaii




Paris




My parents brought us this from their trip to Ireland





Here is my Baby's First Christmas ornament from 1977




Here is Wyatt's Baby's First Christmas ornament from 2006




Even Phoebe got an ornament back in 1998 for her first Christmas with us




And here is our tree which Wyatt helped me decorate this year.



Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Camper

Happy late Birthday Phoebe! She turned 12 years old last month!

Babysitter Love & Potty Talk

Only one more week until I get Internet at my house!!! Once that happens, I will be better at updating my blog and will post house pics. Until then, a couple little updates.

I did end up having to take the 3 hour glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. Thankfully, I passed that test so no finger pricks or shots in my immediate future. And for that, I am TRULY thankful.

We are getting settled into our house. I love, love, love it. I was at Hobby Lobby today and my head was spinning with all the house decorating potential I have this year. Don't exactly have the budget for it but they were having a 50% off sale on all Christmas decor so I am planning to go back this week for a few must haves!

How is Wyatt? He is doing great. He loves his "green room" which is his bedroom. He has slept upstairs all on his own ever since the second night and hasn't had any issues being in his new room/house. A couple stories for you.

Last week J and I went out on an actual date night. We went to dinner and to a movie which I can't tell you the last time we have done that. Any free time we had in the past nine months was spent at home improvement type stores so it was so fun to get to go out and just relax. We had a friend and employee of ours named Ashley come over to babysit. She is 21, very responsible, LOVES to play with Wyatt and has babysat for us since he was an infant. Although, she did not babysit for us at all during the Simple Life saga as NO ONE entered that inner sanctum the entire time we lived there. :)

So Wy was thrilled to hear she was coming to babysit and starting asking for her about 3:00 even though she wasn't scheduled to arrive until 5:30. They had a fun night playing and he was in bed asleep when we got home. The next morning, I hear him announce from his bed "I'm awake!" So I trod up the stairs and enter his room and I wish I had a picture of the expression on his face. I can only describe it as he was happy until he saw me, then his little face fell, and it went like this:

Wy: "What are YOU doing here?"

Me: Um, I live here. I am your mother.

Wy: Where's Ashwee? (growing visbily more upset)

Me: Well honey, Ashley is at her house, where she lives.

Wy: But I wanted to pway with Ashwee.

and he crawls into my lap and cries. with tears streaming down his little face. Bless him.


Another quick story related to potty times. When we are out and about and Wy announces to me that he has to go to the potty, I always ask out of habit "what kind?" And usually it is because I am trying to assess how much time I have before I need to find a bathroom and the urgency of it i.e. we are driving down the highway and there isn't a bathroom anywhere and he has to pee pee, then I will pull over and let him use a bottle or cup or something that I can throw away. I mean when little guys have to go, they have to go. And then there are times that we are in a store, say HOME DEPOT, and he tells me he has to go poo poo. I detest taking him to public restrooms especially when his little hiney is going to have to go on a seat. I do the whole putting down of the toilet paper and he knows not to touch ANYTHING.

So the other day we are almost home and he says he has to go potty.

Me: What kind?

Wy: (in a whisper) poo poo

Me: OK (because I know we are almost home so no biggie)

Wy: NO - you are supposed to say "ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

Oh, I laughed at that one. I do totally say that to him when we are out because it never seems to fail that he has to go poo poo at the most inopportune times. Again, bless him.

Life Lesson and Galaxy of Lights

Patience, patience, patience. I get it. That is the lesson of my life. I thought I had passed my big patience test after enduring 7 full months of living the Simple Life. Yet somehow, after being in our new house, which I need to name, for 2 weeks, I still don't have INTERNET!!!

Oh AT&T - you rank right up there with the electrical inspector on my list of those who I HATE. You tell us that our services will transfer yet we have to wait 2 weeks for you to come to our abode and get us set up. Once that occurs, for some reason, we are still unable to access the Internet. So my husband has to spend 45 minutes on the phone with multiple people, all who are not native English speakers, to find out that "oh sorry, we don't offer DSL in your area."

WHAT?!?!?! I had been counting down the days until I could get my Internet fix in the comfort of my own home. What is a girl to do? Apparently get stuck with Satellite Internet which I am not sure I am going to like but I don't really have any other options. AND - I have to wait until DECEMBER 1st for that to be installed. Cue the violins...

So for now, I am having to use my husband's office computer to check email and update my blog. Not at all convenient but better than nothing.

So enough on that. How about some pics?

We went to the Galaxy of Lights at the Botanical Gardens last night with most of my family - a group of 16 in all. It is open right now to members as a walk through although I have to say I prefer the drive through option. But the kids loved it and it was good exercise.

Here are the kids before we began the long walk...



Wy really liked the farm scene lights...





They had a cute winter scene with snowmen at the end for pictures...

Weekend in Review

We have had a busy week and weekend - most of the "must haves" have been unpacked but there are still lots of boxes in the study and garage that I have to tackle. But I am loving every minute of it and am SO THANKFUL for our home!

On Friday night, my parents had Wyatt spend the night along with several of his cousins. Since we had a "free" night, we went out to dinner to celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary that was last week. We ended up going all the way to Nashville though because their Costco had these bar stools that I wanted, no NEEDED, for our kitchen! I had seen them in Hsv but they only had 2 so to Nashville we went. Since we don't have furniture for our dining room or the eat in area of the kitchen, getting some seating was at the top of our list!

Wy likes them b/c his food is out of reach of Phoebe.



Then on Saturday, my parents took all the kids to their school's Fall Festival. I met them there and took Wy back and forth to all the little game booths and of course the huge blow up slides. He got a little too much sun - I forget he is fair like me and can get a sunburn even in November!


My dad and Wyatt at the Cake Walk - they both won a cake!


Climbing the obstacle course


The big slide


With his tickets in hand as usual...



With his "big" cousin Emma - I love, love, love her curls...



We also got new neighbors that "moved in" on Saturday.



Hope everyone had great weekends!!!

Happy House and Happy Halloween!

I didn't think I would ever get to share this happy news but...

We moved into our new home! We have been living there since last Thursday after we passed the second electrical final inspection. It went something like this.

Inspector: Did ja change out yer plugs?

Jeremy: Yes

Inspector: Alrighty then...

Seriously.

But who cares right? It meant we were free to move in and we did...and still are.

More pics and stories to come on that but for now, I wanted to share a few of Wyatt in his Halloween costume.

He was an adorable, if I may say so myself, Peter Pan. Although most everyone thought he was Robin Hood. :)










I hope everyone had fun and safe Halloweens! House pics coming soon!