Exhausted…

whew…. I am beat!

But we are having a great time. Except for the fact that my precious father in law is in the hospital. Prayers would be appreciated.

Just for fun my cousin Jennifer and I attempted to take our newborns and her 2 year-old and 5 year-old to have their portraits made at JC Penneys….oh.my.word

All probably would have been perfect if they had been running on time but after waiting an hour we had 2 very miserable 2 month olds and a 2-year-old who wanted the cookie we promised him RIGHT NOW thank you very much. Since we could not calm the babies they suggested we go walk around until they fell asleep and them come back and they would take sleeping baby pictures. I assumed that when they made that suggestion that when we returned they would get us in right away NOT make us wait another hour by which time the babies had woken up and were now hungry. In the end we settled for screaming baby pictures…. and hopefully soon my eye will stop twitching. I did enjoy having extra time to visit with my cousin but 4+ hours in the Penneys portrait studio was probably not the ideal location for chit-chat.

Yesterday my mother in law took me to Textile Fabrics in Nashville to do a little Christmas shopping. He he he….she was naughtier than I was and she doesn’t sew. I guess having a granddaughter makes it imperative that she buy me all the cute little girl fabrics she can find! We came home with a great haul (pictures will come). Textile fabrics is my favorite shop even if they are ridiculously over priced (12.98 for quilting cotton ala Free Spirit/Michael Miller yeah right sucka) but they have such an amazing selection and their ribbons, trims and buttons are wowsers!

The cooking and baking frenzy has begun and I must confess to having very high hopes for a nap tomorrow. I am exhausted.

We have arrived!

In Tennessee that is…. yippee. Reagan is now being snuggled by her grandmom, granddad and uncles. I am rejoicing in the extra hands to help with the baby wrangling. Except no one was eager to help at 4am this morning when she wanted to eat. I guess night feedings are still my gig.

We have a jam-packed week ahead of us. So many friends and family to visit and shopping to do. Not including all the normal Thanksgiving prep work.

Sunday (today) we are heading to my cousin Jennifer’s to celebrate her son Aj turning 2. My normal 2-year-old gift is usually finger paint or a musical instrument but as I am a mom myself and have to worry about retaliation I decided to go with something else. Ok I lied…. I totally got him a xylophone!

Monday I am heading back to Jennifer’s to teach her how to sew. We are very excited. Tuesday is shopping with my mother in law during the day and visiting with our very cherished friends Kenny and Cary in the evening. Wednesday I hope to meet Diana for lunch at Burdett’s tea shop and then off to get Reagan’s picture made with her cousins. I also have to bake all the Thanksgiving pies on Wednesday. Thursday (after the frantic cooking) is eating and relaxing with family. I also have my fingers crosses grandmom will watch Reagan while Michael and I possibly go to the movies with his brothers. Friday my mother in law and I do lots of shopping. I have my heart set on a trip out to Textile Fabrics in Nashville. And after an exhausting and fun-filled week we will start the horrifically long journey home on Saturday since I have to work on Sunday afternoon.

Reagan did great on the trip down. We did break in into 2 days since we couldn’t leave until after Michael got home from work on Friday. She had the birds in the back seat to keep her company and I made sure we stopped in Paducah to stretch our legs at Hancock’s of Paducah. I even rewarded her for her good behavior by letting her pick out some fabric for a new outfit and a new Oliver and S pattern. Reagan has very good taste. She must have inherited that from me!

I hope you all have a fun and blessed Thanksgiving week with those you love. I know we have so much to be Thankful for!

Starting early

Michael has always had a thing for flash cards. Even when he was little he would have his mom or grandmom do flash cards with him all the time. When we first found out we were expecting he wanted to go to the local learning store and select some flash cards so he can educate the young mind we have been entrusted with….

and he started immediately. They do this everyday.

of course Sami is never too far away. Heaven forbid he miss out on any of the action… who knows, perhaps he will learn his ABCs also

hopefully it will expand his vocabulary beyond stop it, mommy, soda and love you…oh and NO

We also have story time a couple of times a day. This is my typical view

Sunbeam the parakeet prefers story time on top of my head hence she is not in the pictures.

Look who has started to smile! She finds everything hilarious….ahhhh that adorable fuzzy head. Bliss

We had a “Force” filled Halloween

With our adorable little Jedi Master!

Michael was sad that we only had 2 trick or treaters…. we had hope to get to know our neighbors better.

a word about pigeons…

 

Well Michael finally did it…he met Tim the neighbor who raises the pigeons. He has been dying to meet him since we moved here. Apparently Tim is real kind and neighborly as he offered Michael a couple of baby pigeons to raise up. Trust me, I forbade him from accepting anymore pets from people.

But that got Michael asking him how he got into raising pigeons. It seems some kind person also offered Tim a couple of baby pigeons to raise and since he does not have a wise wife at home to kill him for bringing home the nasty little buggars he accepted. And now he can’t get rid of them. They just keep coming back and continuing to breed. So there you have it…even the guy who has the pigeons doesn’t want them. The are pretty “free range” around the trailer park. They like to strut in front of our trailer for two reasons

A. Michael feeds them (even though I have told him not to) and

B. it makes Sami crazy. I have to keep the curtains closed since Sami feels it is his duty to guard the house. So when Sami is not screaming “Stop it” at Reagan for crying he is squawking at the pigeons…which makes Reagan cry.

See, we are having fun!