Her first 'subject'
Enough of that - take MY picture!
This shot was taken by Cameron ~ Kennedy was wrestling with Daddy
To keep her off of mine, I got Kennedy a digital camera for Christmas. It's really cute ~ Fisher Price and completely made for kids. I must say, I was a little surprised at the quality of the pictures. Pretty good for this little camera!! Should I be concerned my kid likes to have her picture taken??!
After Santa left ....ahhh look at those beautiful 'new' floors!
Our guard dog protecting all the presents Santa left ...
Cameron and his 'tars'
Kennedy's reaction after I told her we were going to see Hannah Montana ... stone cold and then said "Can Daddy get us backstage?"
Christmas was exciting this year at our house! Cameron is finally old enough to understand at least the 'opening presents' part - the hard part was keeping him from opening presentst that were not HIS! We were lucky enough to sleep in until 8:30 and then the craziness started. Cameron's big gift was the train table. Kennedy got a bike from Santa and although Santa did not think Cameron would care about a bike, it was what nearly started World War III right here at our house. SO, luckily, Cameron has a birthday in just a few weeks and he has requested a 'tismas' bike or a Spiderman bike. Ask him - he'll tell ya -- he wants a bike. Chad and I did not exchange gifts this year, although "Santa" did bring an xbox 360 (dubbed the 'family gift' although only one BIG KID has even played with it so far) and he left a beautiful new set of Wolfgang Puck cookware!! Chad and I were really trying hard to get our children to understand the true meaning of CHRISTmas ~ Santa did not go overboard either ~ for the first time in 5 yrs!!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and here is wishing you the HAPPIEST of New Year's!!
Cameron just opened a singing Spiderman ~ he was delighted!
Wishing you all a peaceful day full of yummy food and cozy naps!
Merry Christmas!
Last night, I hosted a table at the church that Chad and I attend. The purpose of the event is to raise money for the benevolence mission at our church. We watched a video and it said our church has gifted over $30,000 in gift cards to those in need. The admission to the coffee was a minimum $15 gift card. Some of the tables were completely over the top. I decorated mine very whimsical as my inspiration came from a table cloth I purchased last Christmas. It is The 12 Days of Christmas and has bright beautiful colors. We had a GREAT time and I look forward to doing it again next year! You can see more pictures:
I have a twin sister ~ most of you that read this blog know that. When my Mom was pregnant, she was told she was having roughly a 10 lbs baby boy .... uh huh, imagine her surprise when she woke up (heck yeah, she was asleep ...) and she had TWIN girls. We were 5 lbs a piece and born 4 minutes apart. I remember reading letters my Mom wrote to my aunt saying "I can't believe this happened to me", etc etc etc -- she said she even thought to ask the dr if she could pick just one to go home (my Mom, ever the jokester). Anyway, here is what is funny .. my sister's name is Jennifer. Her maiden name is Jennifer Carol Bell. She married a guy named Shawn. Shawn Carroll....yes folks, so that means her name is Jennifer Carol Bell Caroll (technically) or Jennifer Carol Carroll (quite FESTIVE!) or Jennifer Bell Carroll (which is what she ended up taking legally) ~ we like to call her Jennifer Caroll
My girlfriend, Shannon, told me yesterday that we would be leaving at 5pm to go 'somewhere' and to be ready to go! We left and she said "Merry Christmas ~ we're going to make dinners at Dinner Done!" ... this is something I have wanted to do since we moved here and discovered the 'you come in and assemble it and we clean it' kitchen places. It's awesome. You go in, tell them your name and they point you towards the recipes that you signed up for ~ and they have a fantastic variety of foods. You have freezer containers, you make everything, wrap it up, place a sticker on it and put it in the freezer when you get home. We made 4 different dishes, and split them, so I have 8 different main meals. We made Pork Loin with cranberry sauce, Everything chicken, beef filets w/bleu cheese~walnut stuffing, and Chicken and Asparagus (this is actually parmesan breaded chicken stuffed with monterey jack cheese and asparagus) ... funny ... Shannon told me to snap off the ends of the asparagus. So off I go, snapping off the ends. She yells "What are you doing??!?! That's the TIP!! STOP!!!" ... I just looked at her and said "Well, that is why I don't cook because I DON'T know what I'm doing" ..... I have read about those clubs where the ladies cook all day, freeze it and swap. Well, this is more up my alley because you just pay for the session and you make it and walk away - they even CLEAN UP AFTER YOU!!!! I'm HOOKED!!!
Mommy: "WHAT???!??!"
Kennedy: "Oh yes, I did. I went up in the attic and saw it all right there!" (Insert incredibly huge grin here)
Madelynn (Kennedy partner in crime): "Yes, Mrs. Natalie, it's up there"
Mommy: "No, surely you guys don't know what you are talking about!"
Kennedy and Madelynn: "NOOOOOOOOOOOO, really, it's up there! Can we have it??"
Mommy (to Mrs. Shannon): "Must go now .... see you later. Wine later?"
Mommy (to Kennedy): "Go inside and change for cheerleading. When you are changed, you can go back up in the attic and if it's there, you can have it"
Now, imagine, a finely dressed 32 yr old mommy in heels, dress pants, nice top, trekking up into the attic entry that she LEFT DOWN because she was going to take the boxes from the Christmas stuff up after she changed (not thinking a nosey 5 yr old would climb up there .. who am I kidding, she is MY KID) .... scurrying up into the attic, sweating because it's freaking 90 degrees in DECEMBER, trying to 'adjust' what one child MIGHT have seen.
Kennedy comes out, several times, albeit giving me ENOUGH time, thank goodness, to remove what Santa MAY HAVE ALREADY LEFT AT OUR HOUSE because his sleigh was too heavy (that was what I got out of my emergency phone call to Shawn Trotti for HELP!!!!) and climbs back up in the attic and she turns around, big huge grin KNOWING she is about to get some Littlest Pet Shop stuff and low and behold, IT'S GONE!! She had the most blank look on her face. It took everything for me NOT to laugh - acutally, I did laugh, told her she was crazy and to get down, we needed to go to Wal-Mart. She kept saying "I SWEAR it was up there" .....
This is soooooooooooooooo something I did 25 yrs ago to my own mother, except it involved a boat and a beating and to this day, I swear I was only looking for wrapping paper.
My dear friend, Kim Wheeler, is doing some Christmas craft tutorials. Our first craft was a wreath ~ I changed mine up a bit because I was in Garden Ridge (Florida friends: we do not have this store here and it is a complete shame!!) ~ and I found these adorable little picks with candy on them ... then they had the matching bow!! I made this entire wreath for $15! You can check Kim out here She is going to do a bunch more crafts too and they are NOT expensive.
This is what time we left for shopping!
Leaving Chick-fil-A
Going out ...
Wouldn't you want to hit on us?? See story below!
This is why you DON'T hit on us ....
Just pulling out of the driveway ...
On the highway ....
Gone in 60 seconds ...
Both of them ... Daddy and I got to listen to OUR music!!
Cameron and Pappy (my dad)
*** My pictures are out of order and I don't know how to fix it ***
Ok, first things first ~ the 2nd Annual Evening of Hope was a complete success. We don't have final figures yet, but we do know that it is MORE than last year and we 'think' it is significantly more than last year. We have been getting tons of response and wonderful letters, plus Shawn and I have been asked to chair it next year. You can here to check out some of the pictures of the EVENING!
We left for Atlanta on Tuesday ~ for those of you that know me, know I was chomping at the bit to go. I must have said 100x "We're going to hit traffic and it will be 8:00 before we get there". Chad's ratings came out, so he had to stay for that - they were high and crushing the competition, as usual ~ so off we go. PACKED into Chad's truck (that got VERY GOOD gas mileage I might add) and heading north - wouldn't you know we freaking hit traffic not even before Land O' Lakes?? I know, let's do road construction on one of the busiest traveling weeks of the year .. DUH!! Anyway, we finally got there .... at 8:00pm ... and my best friend Amber and her family were also up for the night on their way to North Georgia (they are from Orlando). It was nice to visit, albeit brief, but good to see them all the same.
Thanksgiving was wonderful and boy am I thankful for my Dad's health. We took a family picture and I was looking at it on the way home and thought "Dang, he looks good for all that he has been through!" .... Jenn and I went shopping at the buttcrack of dawn and my girlfriends from Tampa were texting me that they were out too - CRAZY girls! We hit Kohl's first for the toys and then headed to where else, Chick-fil-A to grab some liquid energy, and then off to Toys R Us -- stupid. I walked in, turned around and walked out. YOU COULD NOT EVEN MOVE!! SO, we went over to Macy's where it was a complete bust, except for the BLACK trouser socks I bought because I could hear Shawn Trotti in my ear like a little guardian angel saying "You really don't have white socks on with your black ankle boots, do you Nat??" ~ I just didn't think the sales were good enough. Honestly, Shannon and I went shopping last week and the sales were better. Finally, we hit Target (SCORE!!) and then we decided to head on down to Cumberland Mall .... where we had a little bit of success. We went home and grabbed the girls from my Mom and then went and slept at Jenn's house. THEN that night we went out with my dear dear friend Courtney. She is beautiful, inside and out, and short of sounding cocky, we were definitely the eye candy in this one place called Hemingway's. We were in downtown Marietta and the girls were ... well, rough. I had been there before when I lived over that way and only remember their fantastic cheesburgers, but boy does it change after dark. They had a band playing and Chad was itching to fight someone. Not sure why, he hadn't even been drinking, but he said he didn't like the way guys were just STARING at us. SO, to make matters worse, this 5'4" joker in a leather bomber jacket walks up to me and says "So, are you guys married?" and I said "Yes" .. and he said 'I thought so, I wanted to come over and give you married girls some play so you felt good about yourselves" ... surely he was joking. I leaned into him and told him that obviously he couldn't seethat we were with our husbands, we were 'good' and that he needed to leave. He kept talking and I just put my hand in his face and said "Bye Bye" ... I had my hand on Chad's other leg to keep him from getting up ... he was ready to send the guy on his way IN HIS OWN WAY!! We left shortly after and headed back to my sister's.
Finally we are home -- I missed my bed, the weather here and my friends, but I was so happy to finally spend some time with my parents and my sister, as well as Courtney. I don't get to see them nearly enough and TRUST me, I gave everyone grief about traveling to Florida ~ esp my mom, who I know reads this. SO MOM, I will tell you, Cameron asked about 'Nina and Pappy' all the way home. When are you coming?
Today we are putting up the Christmas tree and getting the house decorated for Christmas!!
well, this Christmas is going to be 'different'. One of my dear friends told me that she only does 3 gifts from Santa for her kids ~ as I looked at her in awe and WHY?!?! she explained that too often we get lost in the true meaning of Christmas ... and that Jesus received 3 gifts from the 3 wise men ~ so that was all her children were going to get, and then a few others from herself, her husband and each sibling. As I think back on Christmases past, I kind of get disgusted in the amount of money Chad and I have spent on our kids ~ only to have the toys break or fade in to a fast memory once something better comes along. I honestly can not even really tell you what the kids got last year - I do know Chad fell from a book case, but that is a WHOLE other post .. one that I can finally tell without tears running down my face from laughter. I have also gotten much deeper involved in a charitable foundation here in our town and I have come face to face with families either losing loved ones to cancer or caring for loved ones with cancer. We recently gifted a 13 yr old boy with a new mattress - a $400 mattress. His parents said they couldn't believe a mattress cost that much and how much more comfortable their son sleeps at night - now friends, I know how much I spent on my mattress and it was A LOT more than $400. Seeing these things, well, it really puts things into perspective. I was telling Kennedy that Christmas would not be crazy this year. She would still get AWESOME presents like she does every year, but it wouldn't be so much. She asked why and so I told her the story of the Three Wise Men and so on ... now the reason for this post ... because her response was "Well, he must not have been a very good boy" ...... out of the mouths of 5 yr olds!
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving ~ we are heading north for a very much anticipated trip to visit my parents and my sister and her family. I've got my camera ready! Yes, we are going shopping at 4 AM on Friday ..... 'cuz that's how we roll.
This is as close as we'll get to seeing the leaves change here in sunny Tampa, FL! Yes, I know one side is higher than the other, but I nearly killed myself getting it up there, so it's going to have to stay like that until I can fix it .... and yes, that is Roscoe you see behind the front door -- wondering why his mommy is outside and he's NOT! I did make these myself, with the help of a friend. Can't wait to fashion my Christmas one ......
Poor Roscoe ... see the scribble marks on his head from the Sharpie? Courtesy o' Cameron Brock.
For a dog that we didn't think could jump on the bed, he sure fooled us!
I bought them flutes ~ at the dollar store ~ because I am the coolest mom EVER!
and they will probably get lead, GHB, rat poop or some kind of poisoning for blowing on these things ... .DADDY LOVES THEM!!!
Here are a couple pics I took this weekend. Yes, Cameron still drinks a bottle, but only at night. I kind of equate it to drinking coffee in the morning or a glass of warm milk before bed (who does that anyway?) - it calms him and well, he doesn't drink from a sippy cup. It's all or nothing. He drinks from a regular cup during the day, plus I will delete any negative comments about his bottle as I was hesistant to even post the picture ... but he's my baby and well, how many kids go to high school with a bottle?
Then I was at the Dollar Store and found a set of 2 flute/clarinet things ... hmmmmm, we NEED those. Chad has about broken them twice. They keep disappearing and reappearing .... maybe they will travel to Atlanta and stay there (insert big cheesy grin here).
Friday night we went to The Fisherman's Ball which benefitted the Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Unfortunately, we saw way too many people there that we knew that had been affected by Pediatric Cancer. It was nice to see some familiar faces because we were WAAAAY far away from home and was glad to see our friends had traveled WAAAAY far away from their homes as well. There were lots of people there with VERY deep pockets -- we were not some of them -- but we did come home with an autographed NCAA basketball ~ signed by Billy Donovan. I kept telling Chad "But it's not a football" .. in which his response was "I don't care, it's Gators and it is for the children" .. God I love his heart. Earlier in the day he was at McDill Air Force Base for the Annual Regatta and he is always a mess when he gets back from there - ready to enlist and go blow things up.
I ask that you keep me in your prayers this week as we make the final preparations for The 2nd Annual Evening of Hope. I, along with my very dear friend, Shawn Trotti, are the co-chairs of the event and well, we're almost there. I'll make sure to post some pictures Sunday .. OH, SUNDAY ... Kennedy's dress rehearsal for competition cheerleading. GO SHARK PUPS!!
OK, here are all the things Cameron did while Chad was gone:
That's all I can remember for now and no kidding, all of this stuff happened just by me leaving him for a mere 20-30 seconds, if that. For instance, I sat down, LITERALLY, sat down to read the paper and 15 seconds into it, he comes running in covered in spackling that I had JUST placed on a very high cabinet ... that joker must have been watching me because he pushed a chair over to it, got it down and went town. I know this is God's funny joke on me for whatever I did in my former life. BUT ... let me say this, with all the things he does, here is my list of things that he does that I absolutely LOVE:
So Chad is home and we are leaving for Atlanta on Nov 20 ~ but we have a BIG event coming up this weekend .. The Evening of Hope. I'm chairing it, along with my great friend, Shawn Trotti. We are quite the power house, I must say, but I'm glad it's almost over.
I have been keeping a mental list of all the things Cameron has done since Chad has been out of town ... wait until ya'll see it. I will not post it until Daddy is safely home ... which will be LAAAAAAATTTEEEE Wednesday night. Hopefully, I will have a voice (not strained from YELLING "CAMERON - DON'T!!!) ... and Chad says to me on the phone "He doesn't do that when I'm home" ... yeah, I know, because I try to MULTI-TASK and do other things .... and all the things that have happened, literally, have happened within 2 sec of me 'stepping away' to put a load of laundry in the washer, take a folded load of laundry into it's respective room, take the dog out, pee, cook dinner, make the bed, put away laundry, sweep, vaccuum, mop (with my NEW BAD BOY MOP Shannon Gordon found for us!!!), work, plan an event for 300 people, you know - KEEP UP A HOUSEHOLD?!??! Stay tuned ...
and I will be clinically insane by tomorrow, MAYBE Monday ...... but my house will be clean, because that is what I do when Chad is out of town. I clean like crazy b/c I am down one person. I also take this time to start and NOT FINISH every project I can think of because he's not hovering over me complaining that I've started YET another project that will remain unfinished for several months. Seriously .. just ask my friends. I did finish some things that I started, but I did start another project, which I plan to blog as soon as I finish, so I am a bit motivated.
Anyway, if you don't hear from me, call me. I might be hanging from the ceiling fans or passed out from the bleach fumes.
So my girlfriend, Shannon (who is a dental hygenist) and I were talking and she reminded me that when Kennedy loses her first tooth, to make sure I write it down. I laughed and said "I dread the day my kid loses her first tooth because she is such a freak about stuff like that!" ... that was on Monday. On Friday, Chad comes in with Kennedy and said "Kennedy, tell Mommy" and I'm thinking .... "Great .. did she steal another kid's pencil and hide it in mulch, then lie to her teacher or maybe she smacked another kid on the head this week .... " She comes in and WITH HER TONGUE, pushes her tooth towards me and says "Mommy, my tooth is loose!" I quickly grabbed her and we ran over to Ms. Shannon's for her to take a look at it. Ms. Shannon looked at it and said to me "One wiggle and it's out" ... crap, I thought. We're going to a friend's house tonight and if it falls out over there, I don't want her to embarrass me with her freak out session. We got home and I gently persuade her to let me 'touch it with a napkin' IE: pull it. SHE FLIPPED OUT!! Chad tried to do it with me holding her and she bit him ... HARD. He walked off and said he wasn't dealing with it anymore. She was acting like a complete lunatic ... screaming all kinds of 'It's my favorite tooth, I don't want it to fall out". SO we left her alone. Fast forward about 30 min and she walked in to the bathroom where I was getting ready and smiles and says "My tooth fell out!" .. we screamed, yelled, high-fived and did a little 'your tooth fell out dance' ... we called Nina and Pappy and Pappy convinced Kennedy that the tooth fairy brings $100 bills. Then we went to our friend's house and Mr. Cody had Kennedy convinced that the tooth fairy gave $10 ..... well, Kennedy's tooth fairy gave $5 (inflation my friends ... I got $1, I think) and even left fairy dust and a very sweet note. Kennedy LOVED that tooth fairy gave her a kiss on the cheek because the proof was the fairy dust left on her face .... FUN TIMES!!
Sometimes, really, being a mother, makes me want to cry. I have asked God on SEVERAL occasions what on earth he was thinking letting me procreate, other than the fact that Chad and I do make beautiful children, because sometimes I don't think I am cut out for it. I seriously think God was playing a funny funny joke on me when he gave me Cameron ~ honestly, I was a pretty good kid. I need to talk to Chad's parents and see what he did because that is my ONLY reasoning as to WHY my kid does some of the things that he does. Don't get wrong, I am HONORED to be their mommy ~ I do thank God every day that I have 2 beautiful, healthy, smart, FUNNY children ... (notice I left out MISCHEAVIOUS) and I really want to know WHERE they get the notion to do what they do!! My friend, Anissa, she is a hoot. I read her blog and I am so thankful that I am not the only one. You can check her out at http://www.hope4peyton.org/ and get ready to pee your pants ~ I have told her on SEVERAL occasions she needs to be a sitcom writer. ANYWAY, I got both kids out of the shower and I went to get Cameron's diaper and his pajamas. I was gone NOT for very long and well, I came back to what looked like a shaving cream bottle had EXPLODED in my bathroom and it was GILETTE and it's going to smell like MAN in our bathroom for days. I looked at Cameron, my mouth actually dropped, and said "CAMERON ~ WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" (I knew, I just wanted to hear what he would say) .... and JUST LIKE THE HEAD SHAVING INCIDENT, he said "I'm like daddy, I'm like Daddy' and that joker was SHAVING HIS FACE .. WITH A RAZOR. I grabbed it from him (well, after I took a picture, that is why it's fuzzy) and then just started craughing (that is what I call crying/laughing) .... long frustrating day and well, it surely ended with a smile on my face as I think "He is so smart" ... enjoy ... and Jenn, I know you are rolling ... I mean probably laughing SO hard b/c you don't have to deal with it, but remember, we are coming to visit for almost a week!!!!
This is Roscoe. He is now our dog. We adopted him yesterday, on my birthday, and he is great. He is dalmation and basset hound mix. To me, if Chad were a dog, this is what he would look like ~ very stocky with a big head. If Kennedy could get him to jump on her bed and sleep with her, she would ~ however this joker can not jump (YEE HAW!). He is 3 yrs old and very laid back, but has a FIERCE bark (YEE HAW again).
SURPRISE!
Opening presents ~ FUN!
SO CUTE! courtesy of Publix
I have the BEST girlfriends! Friday night was a normal Friday night for me. Boring, nothing going on. I had talked to a few of my girlfriends earlier in the day and we chit-chatted, but nothing out of the ordinary. I even had coffee with Kandi that morning before we started our work day! Shannon (my neighbor and dear friend) had called and asked if I wanted to come over and hang out for a little while since her husband was working late. Around 6:30, Chad had suggested we go to dinner and I told him that I was going to go over to Shannon's a little later. Little did I know, he was simply encouraging me to get in the SHOWER! I had worked in the yard for about an hour once I got home from work and was not presentable at ALL!
Around 7:15, Shannon called to see if I was still coming. I asked her if it would be ok if I came over in my pajamas because I wanted to take a shower. She said "SURE! I'm in my pjs too" (LIAR!!!!) ~ so imagine my surprise when I casually walk over to Shannon's with a box of makeup stuff I had received in the mail that day and I walked in to 10 of my girlfriends screaming SURPRISE! I screamed - in FEAR - and turned around and walked in to laundry room and shut the door. I had to process everything that was happening ~ I had no idea. Then I started crying because I couldn't believe everyone was THERE! LOOK at my feet ~ yes, let's just pretend I was trying on my Halloween costume, but at least I was comfortable.
Shannon, Shawn, Pam, Alisa, Lara, Susan, Julie, Renee, Stacey and Kandi ~ THANK YOU for making this one of the best birthdays ever! It really meant the WORLD to me and I love you guys!
Bet the title of THAT post freaked a few of you out! HA! He'll be here on Tuesday .... on my birthday .... stand by!
So my kids have discovered my little hand held digital voice recorder. We got it a long time ago when we first moved to Ocala for Chad to use when he was out and about and wanted to record stuff for the radio station. THEN we moved and it got lost (figures ...). Well, I found it a few months ago when I was decontaminating the Durango and have been using it to record parts for my weekends up singing with the worship team at my church. WELLLLLL, this little thing has kept my kids entertained for the last 2 hrs. I showed Kennedy how to record and play back and I have listened to them giggling, talking, singing, screaming (esp when Kennedy takes it from Cameron ~ he just wants to 'say hi' and then puts it to his ear when he hears it being played back). He literally doubles over in a belly laugh when he hears Kennedy say this one thing ... OH, and they keep acting like it's their radio station ~ wonder where they get that from! Anyway, now I just need to figure out how to put the stuff on my computer and upload it on here so you can hear some of their funnies!
Cameron and Kennedy
Cameron
Chad felt he needed to shave Cameron's head due to his date with the clippers ..... I hope it grows back in time for our Christmas pictures.
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