O Christmas Break, O Christmas Break...Please Dont Make My Friends Leave!

I have been pleading with Santa to send me some help to get all my chores done. I asked him to send me an elf that specializes in cleaning. There must be some elf who has been arguing or not doing his elfly duties that he could punish by sending to my house to scrub floors and toilets and such. It took a while to finally get a response to my pleas. He told me there were already enough short people in my house. Ba da dum pssshhh. (that was my drum in case you were clueless)

Due to the fact that I have been denied my funny shoed assistant and because today is Rhiannons last day of school for the next two weeks, I am taking a bloggy break. Dont worry your pretty little heads though because I will be back.

Until then I will be enjoying my time with my pretty little girls...we've got Laya's bday party, crafts to do, cookies and candy to make, meeting Ms. Mimi herself, Christmas Eve festivities with Levi's family, Christmas at my house, dentist appointment, maybe a movie trip, maybe a zoo trip....you can see we will be busy. No time in there for blogging!

Oh and please do not leave a camera anywhere near the cookies and milk left out for Santa...it may be hard for him to resist taking some pics while you are snug in your beds.

Not cool Santa, not cool.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Dear Someone

Dear Levi,

Should I be worried? Have you become a cutter? It wasnt long ago that I had to drive you to urgent care where you required stitches after cutting your thumb, and now Monday you came home after a long days work and told me you had cut your arm at work, luckily this one didnt require any stitches. Of course you also cut your shirt when you self-mutilated cut your arm. This is why I buy your work shirts at Goodwill, they never have a long life expectancy. You make knives dear, you would think you could handle the blade a little better...

There are far better ways to get attention babe,
Wifey

Dear Mom,

Im sorry I forgot to tell you happy birthday Wednesday until the afternoon. Normally I always try to be the first one to tell you. All week I was reminding myself to tell you happy birthday on Wednesday since we had already had your party over a week ago and I didnt want to miss telling you on the actual day. I failed. I suck. I understand if you never want to speak to me again....ok no really dont do that because I would go insane. Everyone on FB had told you before your own daughter...I shall walk around with a giant loser L on my forehead for the rest of the week and hang my head low. Thanks for understanding that mom brain has taken over, and I havent been sleeping well, and the party was 10 days ago, and....wait I blame Levi. Remember its always his fault when I do something wrong. Yeah thats it, lets go with that. Its all his fault!!

Your forgetful daughter (but its not my fault)
Amanda

Dear Rhiannon,

You crack me up. Remember when we saw some cows on the side of the road? You asked where they came from and I explained they must have got out from somewhere. You wondered what they were doing and daddy had some smart alec remark about how they were eating grass. Your come back was hysterical. You said "actually I think they got away from Santa, this is AZ he uses cows instead of reindeer". You are one quick witted girl. You never miss a beat. Sometimes though you say the most off the wall things. Like when I picked you up from school Wednesday and you told me that you were really hungry. I asked you how come you were so hungry. You said "because I dont like tomatoes." WTF? What does not liking tomatoes have to do with being hungry. After some prying to figure out what you meant I figured out that they were serving a chicken sandwich and baked chips at school. you put the lettuce that came with it on your sandwich and ate all your chips but you didnt eat the tomato...thus you came to the conclusion that is why you were still hungry. Oy vay.

You are too much like your mama,
Mama

Layla,

I dont even know where to start with you girl. You figured out how to get open the child proof locks on the cabinets so we had to replace them... and you havent figured out the new ones yet. Then you decided it would be fun to put your hands in the garbage can and also to try and get in the drawer that has all your spoons and sippy cup lids and medicine spoons. So we put little buckle type locks on the trash and the drawer (the kind that are actually meant to go on the fridge). It took you a matter of days to figure out how to open them. Now our trash can has to sit on the table and I have to put a different lock on the drawer. Whats next? Nevermind I dont want to know. How about we just stop now? I am really getting tired of chasing you around the house trying to keep you out of everything! Or if you must could you just run around in circles really fast and then while Im chasing you then maybe I could get some exercise while Im at it. That would be a plus. You can laugh hysterically at the sight of me running after you and I can sweat and pant and want to pass out all while dropping the pounds. Its a win-win really.

The one getting up and down 847970903 times a day,
Mama


Time for your letters! Link to me somewhere in your post and fill out the linky so we can all hop over and visit your letters. Now get to gettin'!!

The Mother of Invention

Last night I had a PTO meeting. Levi wasnt home from work so I had to take the girls with me. No big deal except that the meeting was during dinner time. So I fed Layla before we left and took her some snacks just in case, but Rhiannon said she just wanted a snack and would eat dinner when we got back. I gave her a snack while I got ready to go, knowing that since it was our Christmas party at our meeting there would be more goodies there if she got too hungry. I call hubs on the way to the meeting and tell him that if he is home before us to go ahead and start dinner and we can always reheat if we need to.

Meeting happens. Party happens. We leave the school, but a few of us stand outside talking about various school events and such. When we got back home it is after 7 and the hubs has just started dinner. Ok no problem. I get Layla fed and she plays. Levi finishes up our dinner and I tell Rhiannon that she gets to stay up an extra 30 minutes because I dont want her to go to bed too soon after she has eaten dinner in order to give her stomach time to settle. Of course she is excited about it...8:30 is soooooooo much better than 8:00 after all.

Dinner happens. Teeth brushing happens. All the getting ready for bed things happen. She plays and watches tv for a bit. She has some wind down time with me on the couch snuggling and talking. She says her throat hurts a little and asks for a throat drop. I tell her to go ahead and get one and when she is finished with it then it is time for bed. You know what happens next right?

Nothing is happening. Well except the ssssslllloooowwww devouring of the throat drop. I mean slow. I mean so slow that I went to bed and woke up 2 weeks later and she still wasnt done with it yet. I mean so slow that...well you get the idea. 10 minutes have passed...it is after 8:30 now. I tell her to finish up the drop. She says her throat really hurts so she needs to do it slow. This from the girl who takes 2 licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop. A few more minutes pass I tell her its time to chew it. She tells me its too hard and it will break her teeth...uh huh right.
I said "Im on to your game sweetheart".
She smirks and says "what game?"
I said "I know you are just trying to avoid going to bed."
She says "No I just wanted to take my time with the throat drop".
I said "Remember honey before I was an adult I was a kid, I know how the games are played."
She says "oh so you used to play games on your parents when you were a kid too?" (uh huh she admitted it!!!)
I said "Play the games? Girl I invented the games. You will never be able to pull one off on me."

And with that she was off to bed. And I had won...at least for now.

Get Down With Your Random Self

• This morning on Sesame Street Elmo was talking about plants. He had on a tumbleweed and a cactus. Being in AZ both of these "plants" are familiar to me....however I thought the tumbleweed closely resembled horse crap....weird.

• This week marks 6 years since I was laid off from being a bookkeeper for a mortgage broker...Rhiannon was then 1 year old....I have been a SAHM ever since. Biggest blessing in disguise ever. Has been worth every sacrifice, every gray hair, every moment in the corner babbling to myself.
• I have a PTO meeting this evening and we are having our PTO Christmas party. We are supposed to bring some snacks to share and a $5 gift. I forgot about the gift until last night. So Im going to make a cute sign. This morning I was outside spray painting the wood. Apparently I wasnt smart enough to check which way the nozzle was pointed and when I pressed it down it sprayed back into my hand. I havent been able to get it all off yet...so much for making it seem like I spent days making the gift if I show up at the meeting with spray paint on my hand.
• Layla has learned to say "Why". Its joyous. Everything you say to her she gets this real serious look on her face and says "Why?" But it isnt always at the appropriate times, or maybe it is. Me--"Love you Layla" Her--"why?" Me--"Im going to cook dinner" Her--"why?" Me--"Layla stop pulling your sisters hair" Her--"why?" Me--"Because its not nice" Her--"why?" Me--"Because it hurts sissy" Her--"why?" Me--"just stop doing it" Her--"why" Me--"Because I said so!!!" Oh yeah you knew it was coming didnt you?

Visit the Unmom for more Randomness

Christmas Is In The Air

Today Im going to join in with the fabulous Jen at Tatertots and Jello for a homemade gifts party...and I am joining in with Amber for Friend Makin Monday's Christmas House Tours. Its a twofer!

I am actually making a couple of gifts that I am not done with that I will post later in the week. But Miss Jen said that I could show some Christmas decor that I made and as a bonus I have something that my husband made!

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love to decorate the house to help get into the spirit of the holiday. This year however I had to limit how much I could decorate due to having a grabby toddler in the house. Our normal 6 1/2 ft fake tree got ruined last year so instead of buying a new big one that I knew I wouldnt be able to keep Layla out of, I put up a table top one instead.

I only put up some of our favorite ornaments, obviously I could possibly put them all on this small tree. My normal angel topper was too big for the tree so I tied several bows up at the top so it didnt seem so empty up there! I buy the girls and Levi an ornament every year, so we have ornaments that reppresent what the girls are into each year and what Levi likes. I sometimes buy my own Christmas ornament as well because my husband doesnt think to do it but I also get an ornament from my mom each year. I love how ornaments show your personality.

This one Levi's mom got us last year and I love it. It has all our names on the snowman hats, so cute.

Here are the ornaments I bought Levi and the girls this year...
Any guess on whose this is?

This flamingo is Rhiannons...to show her flamingo pink walls in her zoo room.

And this is Layla's ornament. Since she is still too young to really be into anything I got this cute one...Noel is her middle name because she was born two days before Christmas.

Ok onto more decor!

That wreath is one of the Christmas decorations that I made. It started out as just a cheap green wreath that had a very tacky plug in candle in the center with a bow that I got from the dollar store for $3. I had picked up the star from the grocery store for $5. I hot glued it to the middle of the of the wreath. Then I took some plain bulb ornaments and hot glued them to the little topper thing where the hook is so that they would fall off. I opened up the hook and used it to tightly twist the wire around the wreath. Once I got all the ornaments wired to the wreath I hot glued the ornaments to each other so they would stay sticking out and not hang down. I tied it off with a ribbon and there you have my $8 wreath!

The vase in the middle of the tray is filled with the bulbs from outdoor Christmas and then tied with the same ribbon I used on the wreath.

That is a glittery ornament at the top of the vase. I liked the way it matched the plates under the vase so I stuck it up there.

This is a milk glass dish that I filled with very pale blue ornaments. I turned a plant holder upside down and put the dish on top of it to give it some height and tied it off with a bow...I love how subtly pretty it looks.

I made these trees from foam cones...obviously you can see that I ran out of mints for the candy tree! The other one is just pinecones around the bottom of the tree and then I did the top half in green ribbon with some Christmas M&M's for ornaments and decoration.

I cant wait to show some more of the decor and gifts later this week when I finish them up. In the meantime I will leave you with something my husband made. I think I mentioned once before that my husband makes custom knives. He makes all kinds, from bowie knives, to knife sets in the home, to pocket knives. Here is the pocket knife he finished up last night that a guy he works with had ordered for someone.


I wish the blue showed up better in the pictures but it was night time and my kitchen lights just dont show the brightness of the blue that well. But you get the idea anyway. It is too late to order them to have them in time for Christmas but let me know if you are interested in ordering one at any time...they make great gifts for the men in your lives. And they can be done in all different types of wood and even antler. Shameless plug for the hubs.

Head on over and visit Jen and Amber for their linky parties today!

Oh and I double posted today so that I could enter a pic into the I Heart Faces photo contest this week so you can check that one out here or just scroll down to the next post.

I Heart Faces...Pets!

Its been a while since I did any postings for I Heart Faces. This week I just couldnt resist! This weeks theme is Pets (or any animal, doesnt have to be a pet). I immediately knew what picture I was going to post.

Here in the AZ desert we have horned lizards, or as most call them horny toads. They are often hard to spot because they blend in with the dirt and rocks. We have a resident horny toad that we see every once in a while around our yard. I took this picture of him when he was resting on our walkway during late summer this year.

Do you see what I see?

Like his camouflage? Go see what everyone else is posting up!!

I Admit...Im A Hoarder

I have been hoarding awards..for over a month. So please dont think Im not appreciative....Im just lazy. Today I will accept and pass out all the treasures.

Did you notice the gown I wore especially for the occasion?
My date is pretty hot too right? I spent hours making our duct tape formal wear.

First up.......

I received this fine piece of artwork from my favorite Tater Tot Mom. Of course there are rules...But Im a rebel and I dont want to follow rules, it takes too much effort! Please give a warm round of applause to the recepient of this scribbly award......

Desert Rose Moments

Next up Steph from Watching Airplanes gave me this sweetness award. Yep it has rules too and yep Im not following them either (10 things about myself, pass to 10 bloggers). Bow down as I pass this one onto.....

Living In France

The awesomest of all things awesome...Ms Stir-Fry Awesomeness passed on this fab award to me. Holla out loud as I pass this on to.....

Tatertots and Jello

This pink goodness comes from this cool chick that I get to meet when she comes to my neck of the woods just before Christmas! Talk about a cool present! Im talking about Macey at Living in France!! Cant wait to meet her....so excited I could just poop my pants! Wave your hands in the air like you care for the chick I pass this on to.....

Im Living Proof That God Has A Sense of Humor
and
The Life of Me Plus Three

This one was give to me by both my in real life friend Rose at Desert Rose Moments and by my real life but through blogging and havent technically met yet (but will in July!) friend April at The Life of Me Plus Three. Im going to pass this one along to one of my stalkers followers that has been around since nearly the beginning of all these shenanigans......

This Is The Year

This one comes from some dramatic mama's at Daily Doses of Mama Drama. Im going to dramatically yell that the winner of this award is.................

One Foot in Front of the Other!!!!!!

Another sweet award from Watching Airplanes. Suddenly I want cupcakes. And this one is bestowed upon the always hilarious.....

Lee the Hotflash Queen

Thanks everyone for all of the lovely awards. Im still blown away that anyone besides my mom reads all this ridonkulousness. And one last shout out...this nutty girl always makes me laugh and is a blog that I read every single day without fail. She is not an award poster but she comments on every single post of mine every day...which is amazing to me since she is uber popular, seriously I want to be like her when I grow up....say hello to

A Nut in a Nutshell

Now I command that you go read and follow everyone one of these amazing ladies that I linked to in this post....command I tell you!!! Go.....NOW!

That is all. Peace out.