Tech Week

Sorry for the lack of posts this week!  I am currently dancing in a musical and this week is tech week.  Which means super late nights and no sleep for me.  We have our first audience tonight and I could not be more excited!  So have a great weekend everyone...I will see you on Monday!

I am the tiny person in the front row ;) 

Lingerie Shower

A month after her bridal shower, I hosted a lingerie shower for Kamile at her new house!  Since she is young and so cute, I wanted something that would fit her personality.   I searched and searched for a theme I would like and found NOTHING!  So I thought for a few day and came up with an "Eye Candy" theme.  It turned out super ADORABLE!!!  Once I finished making the invitation, I was ready to design the candy table.  

During the summer I bought some shabby white frames that Hobby Lobby had on sale.  They had not found a permanent place in my home yet so I used them in the design.  I cut out the K, A and heart from poster board and covered them in sprinkles! Cotton candy in cute polka dot cups, apothecary jars with hard candy, suckers and candy canes made the table so DELICIOUS looking!  My most favorite was the gum ball necklaces.  I used a needle and ribbon to string them on.  It was a little sticky and took some time but SO WORTH it!  The guests could put their treats in green chevron bags. 

A close up of the details-

Gingerbread ladies with lingerie on ;) 

Yummy candy in apothecaries 

Gum ball necklaces

Lollipops and candy canes

We played the most hilarious games and pigged out on candy. It was such a fun day! She ended up with A LOT of eye candy for her new husband ;)  

 I was a bit bummed because someone broke into my car the week of the shower and stole some of my camera lenses.  So the only pics I have from my phone!  But in a happy twist of fate...the person was caught (who broke into my car) and I will get my lenses back!   

 

Grayson at 2 1/2

Happy Half Birthday Grayson! 

Here is what you are doing! 

You call us by our first names

but you call yourself baby most of the time.

You are a picky eater sometimes. 

You LOVE all things that have to do with trains.

You can impersonate a train whistle PERFECTLY.

You can say your ABC's

You are starting to recognize letters in books and on signs.

You can count to 20.

You know your colors.

You can point out a rectangle, circle, triangle, oval, diamond, square, heart and star.

You are very particular, neat and tidy.  If you see a drop of water on the floor, you will ask for a paper towel to clean it up.  When you finish eating you will ask for your hands to be washed.

You love to sing.

You LOVE LOVE LOVE your Daddy...and you want to do everything that he does!

We hear "play trains" at least 50 times a day.

You do not like crafts, coloring or painting. (much to my dismay).

You love to dance and know some basic dance terms ;) (much to Artie's dismay).

You talk all the time.

You REFUSE to potty train. But I am not worried, it will come in your own time.

You wake up between 7 and 7:30 every morning.

You take a 2 hour nap everyday.

You go to bed around 8pm every night.

Dear Grayson,
               I love seeing how you learn new things everyday.  Your Daddy and I laugh all day long at the things you say.  You are so smart and more importantly SO kind.  I am so proud of you.  You are such a blessing to our family sweet boy!

Love- Momma

Pin It

So I seriously love Pinterest.  I love that you can log in and find ANYTHING you want.  But it is almost overwhelming with all the choices!  One of the pins that has been popping up recently is this....

Revolutionary Mac and Cheese 

 Photo courtesy of Macaroniandcheesecake.com

I love mac and cheese so I KNEW I wanted to try something that claimed to be revolutionary!  I hate that I don't have more pictures but Gray got a little crazy while I was cooking.  I was trying not to let the milk burn while keeping Gray from scaling over the couches like an Army Ranger.  

The start

The recipe calls for you to cook the pasta in the milk.  I will say that it was nice not to have to strain and transfer.  The overall flavor was good.  Delicious even!  The only problem I had was my cheese just did not melt well.  That top picture is what it is suppose to look like.  Mine not so much.  It was definitely creamy!  The cheese was just a little clumpy.  

Would I make it again?  Mmmm yes.  I actually might make it again to try to make it better.  Again, the flavor was SO GOOD.  I would just adjust the amount of milk/type of cheese.  Maybe I used a cheap cheese that didn't melt well?  Maybe.  

So the Revolutionary Mac and Cheese was somewhat of a success!  Here is a link to the recipe if you would like to try it for yourself!!   Revolutionary Mac and Cheese

This one time...

This one time Grayson and I were driving along and we saw a train.  You see my boy is OBSESSED with trains.  So I thought it would be GREAT that we got stopped by it!!!  Super great!!!  I would win mom of the day!!!  

Until this happened....

You know the famous youtube video of the little girl crying over Justin Bieber?  Well this train was my boy's Justin Bieber.   

It was just a little too much for him to handle. 

Beach 2012

Still trying to play catch up!!!


Every August we make a trip to the beach.  This ends up being the perfect time to go because it still feels like summer but without all the people! We try to go around the time schools go back to ensure this ha.  The beach trip this year ended up being a little weird.  Poor Grayson had a TERRIBLE allergic reaction to pineapples and was miserable! I felt SO BAD.

Before the allergic reaction! 

A little timid at first

Then he got brave-In Grayson's words 

"Baby do it!"   

(he calls himself baby haha)

In little boy HEAVEN

This is where things turned a little ugly.  

The first night we were there, we went out for dinner.  The restaurant served pineapple with Grayson's meal and he ate it right up. (let me state that we thought he might be developing an allergy but were not 100%.  Late in the summer he started breaking out on his chin when he would eat and we thought maybe it was because he was eating really acidic things.  He was eating pineapple and tomatoes like crazy during the summer.)  During dinner he started getting splotchy.  Really splotchy.  The longer we sat there the worse it was getting.   So I did what any mother would do...got my phone out and took pictures of it.  I immediately sent it to our nurse who sent us out for benadryl.  

Luckily we had arrived early enough to North Myrtle that we got to have some beach time!  The rest of the time, we hid from the sun so Grayson would not feel worse! :)

We took Grayson to a place called Alligator Adventure.  Well he was so drugged that he did not care one bit haha.  

This cute guy came right up to us!  

They had beautiful birds! 

And weird albino alligators

This picture sums up Grayson's beach trip.

You can see one of his little spots :(

More inside time meant more relaxation time! Which was fine by me.  I am just glad Grayson got to spend a few hours at the beach.  It proved that it is going to get easier!  He definitely liked it a lot more than 2011!

GHS Majorettes

It is hard to believe how fast football season passed this year!  It seems like it was over in the blink of an eye.  Our team only made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs this year...sad.  We are use to going all the way to state!! : )

Grayson showing his support before a football game! 

My girls did an amazing job this year.  They looked beautiful and twirled great on the field.  I haven't posted much about them this year so I thought a little post was in order. I can't even believe I am saying this but auditions are quickly approaching! We have two 8th graders that are auditioning in April.  They are working hard to be a part of the line!

 The first game!

Nice....

 The seniors

Near the end of the season

I am going to miss our seniors so much!  They had a wonderful year and I know they are going to do great things in college!!!

Snow Day!

I am not a fan of snow at all.  Call me a scrooge but all I can think about is the sweet little old people without electricity.  Artie and I had a bet going.  Usually once a year the meteorologist will get everyone in tizzy about measurable snow fall.  Then it never snows.  Artie told me that we were going to get some snow this time and I did not believe him....and a bet was born.  Luckily the wager was one of my pies so it wouldn't be TERRIBLE if I lost.  ;)

Well.  It snowed.  A lot.

Since Grayson has never played in the snow, I bundled him up to go outside.  Grayson decided he was done after 10 minutes haha!  I was JUST fine with it...I know there is going to be a day when I can't even bribe him to come in.


One of the problems, I believe, was proper footwear.  Remember when I said it never snows?  Yeah.  Grayson has a pair of rain boots that Santa brought but are a bit big.  So I had to go country style and tie grocery sacks around his shoes.  It was FANCY.....

Fell on his first step into the snow....off to a bad start. 

Fancy shoes!

I talked him into building a snow man

 Tasting the snow

This is his "momma told me not to eat the snow" face 

Grayson did not ask to go back out today haha.  

Artie's 30th Birthday

Trying to finish posting all the fun things that happened this fall!

In October Artie turned 30!  Wahoo...he finally caught up to me.  I love that his birthday is in the fall because we ALWAYS have a bonfire.  The crispy nights and warm bonfire make me SO happy.  I seriously look forward to it every year.  His birthday is really close to Halloween so we ask everyone to dress up.  Last year the theme was Lumber Jack and this year the theme was movie characters.  It was hilarious to see what people chose.  Artie wanted to dress up like the characters from Nerds.  It turned out to be so FUNNY!!!!

My little nerd!! 

Harry Potter and Indiana Jones

Katnis and Alice

King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

Woody and Jessie

So silly. 

What a fun way to celebrate being 30!