Dear Santa!

Over the past few weeks I have been bribing my son to be good in stores through Santa.  I would like to believe every parent bribes their child with Santa, but I am sure there is some perfect parent out there with some perfect child who doesn't believe in bribing. . . haha!  Anyways when we go into a store and Caden sees something he wants I then take a picture on my phone.  I tell him that we will send Santa a letter of all the pictures of what we want.  Now he doesn't throw fits or fus in any store he simply says mommy take a picture!  He has gotten to the point where he does it with everything, but he doesn't have to know that Santa has a spending limit! : )  I have been done with the boys since around Thanksgiving so I figured I should put together the letter and send it off to Santa.  The boys are scheduled to go to JCPennys on Wednesday for pictures, so I thought I should make sure that Santa already had the letter incase Caden says something.  I was pretty excited to put this together because I like crafty things and I think this will be a really cute tradition to start and I cannot wait for the boys (or their appreciative wives) to look back on it later on.  I had about a million pictures to choose from so I only put the pictures that I knew I had already gotten them in the letter.  Caden was so excited to see the pictures printed out and was so excited to mail the letter off.  I am so glad I decided to do this and look forward to doing this every year.  I can imagine making my teenage boys come up with a list for me. . . haha!  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day!

Blue Hat, Green Hat!

Sandra Boynton has the cutest little books.  We would read several of them to Caden when he was younger and he loved them.  Well he recently found them on Ashton's bookshelf and has fallen back in love with them.  They are really easy to memorize so he reads them to us all the time now which I love.  One of his many favorites is Blue Hat, Green Hat.  It is about four animals describing what they are wearing so it teaches both colors and clothing.  The turkey in the book always puts the wrong piece of clothing on (i.e. shirt on as shorts).  So it goes something like this "Blue hat, green hat, red hat, oops!"  Caden laughs so hard every time it gets to the oops part and this in turn makes Ashton laugh.  It is so great watching them together now.  Well now Caden does a new thing every night before bath.  He comes out of his room with nothing but his socks on and says he is ready for his bath.  And now every time, because my son is super routine boy, has to have the following exchange.  "That isn't right.  No pants, No shirt, No underwear, Oops!"  The first time I did it he thought it was hilarious and now we always have to do.  Sometimes the routines he comes up with are annoying because they take time to accomplish and his OCD tendencies worry me, but this one is just too cute not to do.  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day.

Beach Bargain!

We woke up early today to try and sell Nick's huge collection of baseball cards.  We heard through a local store that nobody really buys post-1980 cards around here but we may have luck going to vendors selling them at the local flea market and see if they want them.  So off we went to the flea market.  I

do not want to sound snobby but this post is going to do just that.  I make fun of how country it is here and it isn't till people visit that they are like it really is country here.  Locals think that being from Texas that I should be used to country but I am not used to this at all.  It is not even how small the

town is but how weird it is set up.  There are no zoning laws here.  So a nice house will be built on a street by a trailer park, by a convenient store, by a liquor store by a school by a neighborhood.  It is so weird and random.  One second you think you are in a good area the next you are secretly making sure the doors are

locked.  This flea market was huge and brought out a Pensacolian population that I had never encountered.  I was just hoping we could find someone to take these cards and be done with it.  Unfortunately we found no one and left disgusted with tons of baseball cards.  Anyways after our interesting adventure I decided today was the day to go take Christmas card pictures down at the beach because it was so nice outside.  I knew that it was going to start getting really cold and I thought we should act on the last day of warm weather.  I am very glad we went because it was nice but it was windy, the red flags were even out!  I got some okay pictures, not

the best.  I really am just ready for my new super nice camera we are getting from my parents.  Expect super nice pictures very soon, until then I have to live with my little point and shoot camera.  I think a better camera would have made better pictures, but instead I was too picky.  I loved my boys coordinating outfits, of course.  Ashton was too distracted by everything to really give a smile, so instead he snarled in most of the pictures.  It was too bright for Caden, so he looks like his eyes are closed in every picture.  I still managed to get some good ones and came home immediately and made the Christmas card and have it already!  I am sharing only pictures that I did not use on the card, because I want the others to be a surprise! : )  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day!    

Shopping Solo!

Today was Black Friday.  I really am pretty much done with both of the boys so there was not anything that I needed to stand in line for hours waiting to get.  I also am not a big fan of shopping by myself and the thought of standing outside of Wal-Mart or any other store at midnight, pretty much scares me to pieces.  After looking through the adds yesterday we saw a few things that we wanted to check out but nothing that stood out to us.  So we decided whenever the boys were up and we got ready we would leave and check some places out.  We started off at the NEX because we thought they may have something and we had to see what the unknown would be.  Turns out we wasted our time and gas because they had nothing.  We then went on to K-Mart because they had a present for Ashton half of the price I paid for it.  I had already went and checked on their policy and they told me that I would have to re-buy the gift and take back the original one.  I thought this was ridiculous since all I wanted was a store gift card but none the less we got the same gift.  We also bought the rest of the batman accessories through Imaginex for Caden since they were buy one get one half off.  Nick went and stood in line while I distracted the boys in the car.  After an hour I was ready for Nick to leave.  Mind you this is at 11 in the morning, so I was confused, all the crazies should be at home sleeping.  Turns out he picked the "I'm going to argue every price, run out of paper, right a check line..." It was annoying.  Anyways, the boys were hungry and ready for a nap and I was disappointed.  I wanted to go to more stores and just spend the day browsing.  The boys had other plans.  So I decided that I would be brave and go shopping solo.  All I ended up going to was Wal-Mart, Target and Kohls.  I didn't really get that much of anything because we didn't need anything.  But it was nice that I got out of the house by myself and browse at my own leisure.  I still like shopping with other people better and would have preferred company than by myself but oh well.  I really need to get Ashton like Caden was, used to shopping.  There is no way while Nick is gone that I can be home-bound, I will go stir crazy.  So I need to retrain the children so I can shop!  : )  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day.

To Be Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Today I was pretty sad and depressed being without family and not having a very successful doctor's appointment the day before.  We had seen that Cracker Barrel did Thanksgiving so we had already decided we were going there.  I assumed (and you know what happens then) that going at 11 when they start that we would be okay.  I mean they have a store with toys to entertain the children so a little wait wouldn't even be bad.  Well we showed up and couldn't even get to the restaurant because of the traffic.  We ended up having to turn around because of too many people!!  Can you believe that many people go there??  I had no idea that many people in this tiny town that all seem to live by their family would go out to eat on Thanksgiving.  I was super bummed because it was Ashton's first Thanksgiving and we weren't even able to celebrate it.  I was bummed that we weren't with family.  I was bummed that we couldn't have any yummy food.  We ended up eating sandwiches which made me even that much more depressed.  I was just in a horrible mood and having a really hard time being thankful.  I was sad and trying to be positive seemed unimaginable.  I knew this was one of my last holidays to spend with my family of four for possibly the next five years because you can never guarantee that a sea duty husband will ever be home.  I was sad that no one realized this.  That instead of spending one last holiday together as a family people were selfish.  That is right, I was in that kind of mood.  Again you can all get mad at me, but hey this is my blog and my feelings.  I really just could not believe that no one realized that my son's first Thanksgiving could be my husband's last.  I mean I don't want to talk that way but anything is possible.  Now to not end this post on such a sour note, I will try and be better.  I am very thankful that my husband and boys are together.  I am glad that we may not be at our healthiest (Caden) that we definitely are better than most.  I am so glad that we were together and have each other.  After naps, Nick put us in better spirits and we decided to go see Happy Feet 2.  We were the only ones in the theater which was nice because Caden could run around and Ashton could be loud.  But a family came in late and they were just as noisy, so it was okay.  Ashton ended up sleeping through most of it, Caden was bored and I was under-whelmed.  It was cute, but just a little too long or the big finish needed to happen already instead of keep dragging it out.  I am still glad we went because we all had fun and I forgot it was Thanksgiving and I was happy.  After the movie I decided we should give Cracker Barrel one more shot, and I am glad we did.  There was a little wait but nothing the store couldn't help pass the time with.  The food was pretty good, no family Thanksgiving, but still good to get Turkey.  Ashton loved the sweet potatoes, Turkey, and bread.  Caden had a hamburger, very fitting for him.  We left with full bellys, sleeping boys and leftover, a pretty great dinner!  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day.

The Long Awaited...

Hand Turkey Cookies were made today! : )  I kind of cheated and bought sugar cookie dough and just used some sprinkles and frosting I already had.  None the less Caden loved it so much!!  I am so glad I did it because he had been asking to make these for awhile.  He loved decorating them and eating the M&M's, the frosting he wasn't much of a fan of.  But between the sugar cookie batter, candy, and cookies. . . dinner was pretty much ruined.  But who cares, he had fun and loved it!  I really had fun too, I love baking and decorating things.  Nick had fun too, whether he would admit it or not! 

I think I am not ready to talk about the appointment right now.  If you really care or want to know then you are more than welcome to contact me and ask.  I have been pretty down lately and very disappointed with people and myself for letting people affect me the way they do.  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day. 

My Ashy Kolby!

I thought when not much was going on that I should start having more blogs on what one of the boys has been doing lately or something new or cute they do.  I have a lot of random pictures of Ashton and thought I would share.  His brother is obsessed with Nutrigrain Bars, so I thought I would share one with Ashton.  He absolutely loved it and made the cutest little mess!  He really loves anything his brother has, so when Caden is at school we play with some of his stuff.  Shhh!  Ashton loved riding around in his car, which Caden was just 

a few months older than him when he got it and still loves it!  Ashton would not stop laughing while he was in it, like he knew it was our littlesecret.  Ashton loves to destroy anything he can get his hands on, so the Christmas tree is one of his favorites!  I try 

and keep him away from it as well as I can, but he is pretty fast.  I really need one of those baby gates around it.  I thought the other day I was being clever when I put him in the walker so I could do the dishes.  No, that just meant he could reach more, higher and faster!  Ashton also has quite a little personality and attitude for being so little.  I feel as though he already throws little fits.  If there is something he wants and can’t have or if you are holding him and he wants down, he throws his head back and screams.  I had a video to show this but once again it won't upload, I need to figure this thing out!  I love my little Ashy and am so blessed to have him in my life.  He really keeps me on my toes and shows me that he wants to be the center of attention at all times.  I love how much he loves his brother and cannot see how their relationship evolves with time.  Post and Carry on with the rest of your day.