I am Blessed

I am Blessed with a little angel! She had a pageant this morning at school and it was super duper adorable. I took a few pictures, but I did more videoing than picture taking.

The first song, she had her finger in her mouth the whole time. The second song, she did the hand motions for Away in the Manger. And for the third song, she cried her little head off. That was actually super duper cute too. You'll have to see the videos on Facebook, I never can load them on here. Sorry.

Christmas is slowly approaching, and I love this time of year. Although, I usually always miss my Grandma Rosa most at this time, we have so much to be thankful for and so many wonderful family members and friends to enjoy. We head to Texas on Christmas Day and I will be so glad to be in my home(s) for Christmas, even if it isn't the day of.

This is her school picture. So cute, I could eat her up. It reminds me a lot of this little guy below.

Christmas Decorating

This year I wanted to do a little more than usual for Christmas decorating. We will actually be here for Christmas Day and then we are flying off to Texas. I usually don't do much for decorating, because we usually leave a week or even two before Christmas and stay gone after Christmas is over. So, I decided to do a candy land. I think I will add to the decorations every year and build up the collection. Many of these things are not hard, but are tedious and time consuming, especially the gumdrop tree. And, it took a lot more candy than I would have imagined. Sallie Rose's gingerbread people she made with Susan

My Grandma Rosa Lee's angels

Of course we have a Texas ornament


Kevin's ornament from when he was a child, these are very cool

Apple O's and peppermint trees

Peppermint garland over the mirror

This is our outdoor tree, furnished with giant peppermints, candy canes and large ornaments

Ribbon Candy, my favorite

Our first nativity scene, this is of course the real meaning of Christmas

Oh the gumdrop tree. 4 boxes (1 of which Kevin ate) later and lots of hot glue, this is Kevin's favorite.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful time and that we all remember as cheesy as it sounds, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". My sisters love it when I remind them of this as we all are pulling eachother's hair out because we for one slight minute forgot what life is about, love.

We are still here

Yes, we are still here and we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving week, but for some reason I have been extremely busy. I am trying to study for my first exam that I take on December 9th, trying to plan a fundraiser for Urban Hope (which is a lot of work), volunteering 2 afternoons a week at Urban Hope, still managing the properties, decorating our house as a Christmas Candyland (hopefully will finish this weekend and have pictures) and trying not to miss a single minute of my precious baby's life. She is unbearably cute lately. I think we have moved past all the temper tantrums and now we are in that waiting period of pure joy before we hit terrible threes (I hope not).

Oh, and I am trying to think of how to buy all my special people Christmas gifts on a budget of $10. That will be the most challenging. I will have to be creative or just steal some of my gifts. If you get something really random from me as a gift, just know that it was the only thing I could get the courage enough to steal.

Over protective Mommy

I knew the day would come when I would become the over protective Mommy over my little Sallie Rose. I have always been one of those people who hates for other people to bully or be ugly to another person. It makes my skin crawl. I never understood why someone would make fun of someone or try to hurt them just to make themselves feel better. However, I never cared what anyone said about me. I rarely get my feelings hurt or take to heart what anyone thinks about me. I don't know what it is, I just never have cared. If you make fun of my family or my friends or even an innocent "nerd" that can't stand up for themselves, then I will be in your face and telling you what a loser you.

So, now that I am a Mom and I have a precious little angel who is small and quiet, I have been dreading the day that she would get her feelings hurt or be pushed around by someone. So far she has been fine with standing up for herself. When I take her to school and the little boys get too close to her, she yells at them and pushes them away. I do not want her to be violent or nasty, but I don't mind her pushing the boys off of her.

The other day we had Julia's birthday party to go to and Julia is Sallie Rose's older bestie, Julia is 4. She loves Julia. They played a lot together when Susan watched Julia one week while her Grandma was out sick. They play great together and Julia is very sweet to Sallie Rose. At the party, Julia had another 4 year old girl to play with and they ran all over the house and up and down the stairs and Sallie Rose could not keep up. She is just so tiny still and can't move like the 4 year olds. Of course we tried to keep up with them for a while, but after I took her up and down the stairs 3 times to follow Juila, Mommy put an end to that and we stayed downstairs.

Mia, the other 4 year old friend, who happens to be a red head (go figure) was coloring at one point and Sallie Rose wanted to color too and Mia told her no. I bit my tongue and just waited it out. Then Sallie Rose started laughing for really no reason and Mia told her it wasn't funny. I still said nothing. Then Sallie Rose laughed again and Mia once again told her it wasn't funny so don't laugh and then took a color pencil away from Sallie Rose. So that was enough for me. I went right over there and said to Mia, "if Sallie Rose wants to laugh then she can laugh at whatever she wants and you need to stop telling her she can't.". Mia left the room with her red pigtails and her ugly outfit and I won. Ok, I didn't want to win, I just didn't want her telling my baby she couldn't laugh.

Sallie Rose spent the whole party playing by herself and asking why Juila wasn't playing with her. If this is already breaking my heart, I am going to have a long road ahead of me. I really am trying not to get involved too much in her life in the future, but dang I don't want her to cry or feel left out EVER!

I know one day I will have to sit SR down and tell her that people say nasty things and that it doesn't matter what they say about her, but that she is a child of God and is beautiful inside and out. I have known so many girls that had parents that were supportive and wonderful, but these girls still had low self esteem just because the kids at school told them they were fat or ugly. I am so sad for children who believe what other people say and have esteem problems or eating disorders due to the teasing. On the other hand, I absolutely do not want Sallie Rose to be a bully herself. I would be mortified if a mother told me my child had caused their child pain. So, how do you stop that from happening? Either way, I will try and prevent her causing pain to another or her letting another person's words hurt her. What a hard job. What a very hard job.

30th Birthday 10 day Extravaganza

Wow, what a wonderful 10 days. I first flew into Dallas and met up with a group of 6 other girls from high school. I hadn't seen 4 of them in 10 years. I knew what most of them were doing, because I stay up to date with them through Makell. I was so excited to see them and we had such a great time. They are all beautiful, accomplished, fun, and generous girls. It was one of the best times I have had with a bunch of girls in a long time. I really miss those days. We had a group of about 12 girls that we all hung with in high school and we were all so close and had so much fun together. Usually if 3 or 4 of the girls went somewhere, we were all soon to be following behind. We were such an amazing group and come to find out, we are all still pretty great even when we are not in a pack of 12. What a good time. We shopped, toured Cowboys stadium, went to a Mavs game, drank, stayed up too late, and caught up on all the good stuff since 2000. It did take me 2 days to recover from all the late nights and drinking, because I am not used to drinking that much. It was really nice.

Next on my agenda was the cruise with Suzanne and Tara. We left out of Galveston and I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how the cruise was going to be. I had never been on one and didn't know if I would get seasick or an anxiety attack. I think all 3 of us woke up the first morning tired and ready to get out to the top deck to see the World. Our room did not have a window and it was on the lowest level. A little bit of an nerve pusher. After that first day, I was fine. I just laid on the sun deck and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The highlight was Cozumel. We stopped there and did a snorkel excursion. It was so nice and the crew on the boat was a little interesting. I attracted a friend named Fernando and he did some dirty dancing for us and made me a special towel hat that everyone thought was so funny. One guy even came over and took my picture. I am sure I am on a loser blog or on his Facebook page and all his friends are laughing their heads off at my expense.

We had a great time and it was so nice to be with my sisters and just relax and be care free. Oh and drink pina colodas in the sun while tanning. I have the best sisters and am so grateful they took me on this trip for my birthday.

This is the towel "sting ray" that they made for us each day. One day it was a dog and they hung it from the ceiling. Our stateroom attendant did not like us because we wouldn't put our bags under the beds. We took that as a sign that he was threatening us.

"Smoking Kills" is the best seller. Nice.

Cozumel

Fernando and my Princess Leia towel hat

Fernando dancing and blowing us kisses

Snorkel time

Our boat driver steered with his foot the whole time.

Her shirt said "Went on Vacation left on probation"

Thank you sisters! You are the best!

30th Birthday Donations

In honor of myself, thank you, I am asking my friends and family members to donate to Urban Hope for my 30th birthday. So, those brown leather boots that you were going to buy me, can go back to the store and you can click on the donate button on the left and put the money towards a better cause than my outer appearance. This of course is optional and no one will be outed for not donating. I would just like to use this special occasion and do what my Grandma Rosa Lee would do and try to do something other than send long lists out to my family and friends of all the things I want and give to someone who really needs it. I, of course, appreciate any donations of any amount to my cause.

The Incredible Edible Egg...Chicken

Well, all in all, we had a pretty good Halloween. We had a little bit of 2 year old drama Saturday and a large cry fest on Sunday, but at the end of the day, we all had fun.

I made her costume, except for the hat, and I was pretty proud of myself. I don't sew that much and I took it on and made it work. It was pretty easy, I'm not going to lie. I thought it was pretty cute and different than your usual run of the mill princess, snow white, fairy, and so on. No offense to those who did go as all of those, but I figure that every year from here on out Sallie Rose will choose to be one of those. I thought I would choose for her this year and then next year we can do everything that involves a pretty dress, fairy wings, and/or a tutu.

She was not that interested in putting her egg on. She wore it school Thursday and kept it on all day until lunch. She really wanted to go trick or treating on Saturday, but she did not want to put on a costume. We finally convinced her to put it on and the hat (for 4 seconds), got one good picture and then let it go after that. I was tired of fighting with her. If she doesn't want to be any fun, then that is her own issue.

Today the Church had their Fall Festival and we went out there and had a lot of fun. We of course had to deal with her 30 minute cryfest after naptime before we could go. I have no idea why she was crying, but she did and it was sad. She literally cried for 20 minutes so hard that she was doing the cry where you shake and have double breaths. You know which one I am talking about? I just figure it goes with her age. One minute she is happy, the next she is a 16 year old in a 2 year old body. Wowzers.

We had a good weekend, but now it is time for me to get studying. I plan on taking my first test on November 22nd and so far I have been pretty diligent about studying every single night, except Friday and Saturdays. Next week, I go on a cruise with 2 of my sisters and then come back and take a test. Woo hoo Cruise!!!

P.S. Take a look at that picture of me at the bottom. Can we say Kardashian sister? Dang girl, baby got back. I always laugh at how big their butts are, but I should take a look at the mirror more often. :)

Ottawa Farms

Saturday we went about 15 miles outside of town to Ottawa Farms. It was a lot of fun. They had hay rides, goats, pig races, bouncy houses, pumpkins and those adorable barrel cow trains. Sallie Rose loved the hay ride and loved loved the cow trains. She thought they were pigs, but they were cows. I had to ride in one too, because she wasn't going to ride alone.

Piggy!

There we are, riding the cow train.

Riding it backwards.

Hay Ride