Wii Had Fun

This weekend we took the Wii over to Me Me and Granddaddy's for a spin. Needless to say, we all had fun.
Actually, with the exception of Gavin getting sick, this past week was nothing but fun. I enjoyed every minute of being with my family. As evidenced by the following pictures, you'll see why.

Gavin worked security so D. could put up Christmas lights.
He also helped me deck the halls inside.
And even read through the Friday ads.
He and Finn played so well together we let the festivities go on a little longer than usual. Long enough that we put Gavin in his p.j.s and Finn wanted to follow suit.
I'm hoping to ease back into the work week tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. If I seem more tired than usual Monday morning, we'll just blame it on the turkey.

Thankfully Joyous Thursdays Week #1

Today kicks off the first ever Thankfully Joyous Thursday post. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, read yesterday's blog. It will tell you more about why I decided to do these weekly posts from now until New Years Eve, but basically I want to carry over the attitude of being thankful from now until I'm ringing in 2010. Really, I have multitudes of reasons to be thankful every day for the rest of my life without ever repeating myself.

And yesterday reminded me that I am thankfully joyous for the women in my life. See these four females.
While they’re having a twenty-minute Thanksgiving dressing debate over adding extra sodium to the mix, I am reminded about why I am blessed to call them family. Not only do a certain grandmother’s one line quips crack me up and elicit, “I can’t believe you said that” looks from others, but each of them holds such unique and wonderful qualities- courage, creativity, humility, tenderness, and wisdom beyond belief. We missed you dearly Nessa and Brandy.

Then there are these ladies. While they may not be blood relatives, God decided to make them love relatives thanks to marrying D. more than seven years ago. I have enjoyed the warm embraces, teasing, creativity and laughter more than they will know.


Thanks Me Me for letting me tag along on your run this morning. I hope I didn't hold you back too much. It's hard keeping up with a World Champion!

Thankfully Joyous

There is so much to be thankful for. My family probably tires of hearing it, but Thanksgiving is my most favorite time of year. Not only are the leaves (trying to) change here in the humid South, but the age old saying of turning over a new leaf really does ring true for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas holiday, but right now I'm hoping it holds off for just a wee bit longer.

My cynicism for everything red and green probably has something to do with reminders of last year's frantic whirlwind that didn't include much merriment. Coupled with having a six month old, being back at work for approximately a month, and a strong desire for creating new family traditions, there was lots of last minute preparation going on and not a lot of joy being spread around my household.

This year I want to continue my thankful heart from Thanksgiving right on into the new year. The desire for my family is to truly experience the joy of the holiday season and make memories of holy-days. Yes, things will more than likely be simplified- less decorations, less shopping, less running around, and there might not be a traditional Moore Christmas party complete with a life-size Grinch, but you know, less is more. Besides, there's only room for one five foot tall Grinch and at least it has an off switch. I don't.

So, to keep my sanity in the coming months and remind me of the real reason for the season, I'm going to start a weekly series from Thanksgiving Day until New Years Eve entitled Thankfully Joyous Thursdays. Feel free to comment on what makes you thankfully joyous. I may even post a few ideas on what I plan to do to keep things simple and family oriented, but I promise I'll try to keep the to-do list to a bare minimum.

Thanksgiving Thankful Boxes

In an earnest effort to keep the "Thanks" part in Thanksgiving, I've been known to make my family (most were willing participants) write down or say something they were thankful for while we're passing the dressing and gnawing on a turkey leg (okay, so no one gnaws on a turkey leg). We've shared some good times doing this, but to give my family more time to think about what they were thankful for, I decided to mail them a little Thanksgiving packet. Some may not get theirs until a day before Thanksgiving, but a few more hours of thinking time is better than being put on the spot.

The supplies:
scissors
4x6 scrapbook paper
double sided tape or thread and needle
envelope
ribbon
die cuts
little flower brads, which I forgot to photograph but are in the picture later on.

I came up with a short note to the family and then wrote it in a pretty font and workable size. After printing it out, I cut around the poem with decorative scissors. Then, I took 4x6 pieces of scrapbook paper, cut off 1/2 an inch on one of the short sides and long sides. I had to do this so it would fit in the envelopes. To assemble the note cards, I used flower-shaped brads to tack the note to the scrapbook paper.

For the first cards, I tried to sew a coordinating ribbon to the bottom of the card. It came out okay, but I was afraid the thread would eventually break through the card. For the remaining cards, I just put some double sided tape on the back of the ribbon.

I used the die cute machine at school and cut turkey, pumpkin and leaf patterns using various shades of scrapbook paper. If you don't have one of these machines handy, you can Google any assortment of Thanksgiving images, copy and paste them into Word and print them out on your choice of paper. These die cuts will be where your family writes what they are thankful for.

To put it all together, stuff the card in the envelope, include the die cuts and a few smaller leaves and acorns or whatever suits you. I used a brown calligraphy pen to address the envelopes and took one of the small leaves, wrote an M for our last name and taped it to the back of the envelope at the enclosure site.

I did this for D.'s side of the family, so Dani if you haven't gotten yours yet, it should hopefully be there tomorrow. Talk about giving everyone extra time.
During Thanksgiving dinner, we'll pull out our thankful notes from this box I found half off at Hobby Lobby and try to guess who wrote each one.

I rewrote a couple of different poems and came up with this for the inside of the box:

The Thankful Box
"It's just a little box that we use at this time each year,
But what is in that little box will always bring a tear.
It's something that we do for all to benefit;
Everyone has placed a little note inside of it.
We all named it our "thankful box" and what the notes will say,
Are all the things we're thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day.
One of us will read the notes as we all sit around,
And slowly read what each note says and what we've written down.
We do not sign the little notes or put our names on it,
But as the little notes are read we know just who they fit.
This year as we read the notes they seemed to ring out clear,
We didn't take for granted many things we had this year."

I was going to do the same for my family, but when I found out we were hosting an army, time prevented otherwise. For them I had plans to have everyone write down something they are thankful for on strips of Christmas paper and then we would make a giant paper chain to hopefully decorate my grandparent's house if they are willing. Since then I found out my little boy has bronchiolitis (not bronchitis) so plans may have changed once again.

No time to put together a thankful box- no worries. As I tell my kindergartners, just being together and being thankful are what's most important.

The Pre Feast

This is what I have time to do while I'm on Thanksgiving vacation.
I tried a new recipe for corn souffle and that on the right is homemade lasagna. Oh, and the chocolate blob turned into these:
Caramel truffles for Thanksgiving. Some had almonds added and others had sea salt on top for D. A little preparation ahead of time never hurt anyone. At least I'm hoping it helps me.

A Hairy Situation

We bit the bullet and our little man got his first haircut. I knew he was needing it for awhile. I would comb it to the side, but every time his hair would fall down, it would be in his eyes. I also knew that D. thought I could cut it and that scared me. I figured that if I messed it up too badly, then I could take him tomorrow to have it professionally done since I'm off this week.

After giving Gavin a bath, I gathered up all of my courage and the baby scissors and went to work. We don't really have pictures of the actual process since D. had to hold the man's hands. I got the front cut and D. thought I was done, but I refused to let my baby have a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back doesn't work for me.

Here is he from a few days ago.

And here's the result...
Why do haircuts always make baby boys look like little boys?

Growing Up Is Hard

Today, Gavin turned seventeen months old, and it might be a day that he wished he could forget but I won't. Since Friday, he's not been himself. He's been fussy and not eating. He didn't even want to go on a mule ride this evening. It has all to do with four very swollen canine teeth that have decided to rear their ugly heads.

And poor Gavin is getting the brunt of it. I would say Mommy and Daddy are, but we're not the ones feeling the pain. I don't like seeing him like this, but I have enjoyed the extra cuddle time. After these troublesome teeth, I think he only has another set of molars left to come in. I'm hoping he will still want to cuddle every now and then for old times sake.

We went outside this evening to take pictures since I like to get some pictures of him every 17th day of the month and I thought he might enjoy being outside. The sun didn't cooperate with us and was barely peeking through by the time we got home.


Today's pictures are not of Gavin's usual smiling self, but that's okay. They capture a time in his life that we won't have back. I especially like the one of him asleep in my arms because he hasn't done that since I don't know when.

Sweet boy - at 17 months you:
>Say Momma, Dada, ball, more and hi plus a lot of other stuff we don't quite understand yet;
>Explore everywhere;
>Like to join in when we laugh;
>Love being chased and will try to "get us" if we pretend we're hiding;
>Still love Mr. Rabbit but are good about only needing him when you sleep or aren't feeling well;
>Are very clingy to immediate family right now, especially me;
>Walk very well, but still needs a hand to get up from the floor even if it's just to hold a finger;
>Will shake your head "no" and mean it;
>Throw a ball really well- fast and straight on. We thought it was just going to be your left hand, but now it's both;
>Still like your hats. Today you had on three different ones and I only put one of them on;
>Wears 12 month clothes and a size three diaper;
>Keep us on our toes about what to feed you;
>Have the cutest blond hair and brown eyes;
>Try to put your shoes on and will lift your leg when we put your socks or shoes on;
>Love books;
>Nod your head and clap to music especially the "Arky, Arky" song;
>Crack us up all of the time.

Happy Birthday Poppy!

We hope you have a blessed birthday.
Love,
The Fam

Artsy Smartsy

It's still very, very early, but so far, Gavin does not seem to have a hankering for art. Today, I tried giving him round washable crayons, but he wanted to throw them like a ball. Then, I tried crayons that are shaped like triangles for easier grip, but I promise for literally 15 minutes straight he entertained himself by putting them in the box and then taking them out- repeatedly. No joke- 15 minutes! And here's the proof. Pretend it's in video format.
I love that chubby hand.
Notice the intense look of concentration.
And you know what? It really doesn't matter if he is an amazing artist like his daddy or can barely draw stick figures like his mommy, Gavin is fearfully and wonderfully made.

Weekend in Review

To say we had a great weekend would be an understatement. What did we do? Not a lot, but we got to spend it together as a family. And those my friends, are the best weekends. Here's a picture recap in review.

Gavin and I played outside Friday evening. He made silly faces.
And stuck his tongue out a lot. I think he's teething again.
Showed off his irresistible outstretched hands that he effectively uses when he wants something.
He took his first picture.
Went for a mule ride with Me Me and the cousins.
Played with his new old glasses and then later decided it would be fun to play with Mommy's glasses.
And yes, we thought the phase of him feeding his toes was over, but apparently it's still just as much fun. And I hate to say it, but he ate his bread after he had it in between his toes for awhile.
That's our boy!
Okay, this wasn't really "our" weekend in review, but more like Gavin's weekend roundup. Even so, D. and I enjoyed it just the same.

The 2009 DQ Debate

It all started with these. I found this set of vanilla and chocolate dipped pretend Dairy Queen ice cream cones at Target today. Since Gavin loves ice cream, I thought he might enjoy these. He didn't actually try to eat either one, but more so enjoyed throwing them around. I'm just glad he didn't get upset when he figured out they weren't real.

I also found pretend DQ ice cream sandwiches. This led off to a debate between D. and I as to whether we thought the real ice cream sandwiches were larger or smaller. I said the real sandwiches were bigger around while he thought the fake sanwiches were thicker. The only way we were going to see who was right was to take D. up on his suggestion to go get a real ice cream sandwich from Dairy Queen. Who was I to argue?

Gavin had eaten, but it wasn't until after we had left, that D. and I realized neither of us had. Oh well. A little dessert before dinner every once in a blue moon isn't going to hurt anyone.

When we got to DQ, we were a little uncertain our mystery would be solved because the before mentioned sandwiches were not listed on the menu. To our taste buds delight, the person at the window said that would be $1.61. I wonder what other items they don't have listed.

Drum roll please. The winner of the 2009 DQ ice cream sandwich debate is.... both of us.

The real ice cream sandwich was larger around but not quite as thick. Although I think D. was smooshing the real one a little bit. It's probably a good thing we forgot to actually wager anything on our little debate since we both were right.

And no mom, I would never take pictures in the car while driving.
This little man could hardly care less though. He was just along for the ride.

Yard Decorations

Yep, that's what we dressed up as- yard decorations. Gavin and I knew we were going to be a gnome and fairy, but D. put the finishing touches on by bringing it together as a garden light. Last year we were a lumber jack, tree and tree hugger.I guess we might have to keep going with the family theme.

Speaking of family, I wish I had a group picture of D.'s family. We had everything from cats to Wonder Woman and MacGyver. After visiting both sides of the family, we called it quits and didn't make the rest of the rounds. I'm not sure if it was the adults or the kid who was most tired. Here's a few pictures of our little gnome.