New Year, New Blog

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The Worst!

I have not intentionally avoided blogging. I have run out of Blogger storage space, and now Google wants to charge me. Has this happened to any of you? I Googled ways to fix this - delete Picasa photos, draft posts, etc. - but none of the ways have worked.

I think I might move to Wordpress or Tumblr. Does anyone know of any other ways to fix this, or any other hosting sites I might want to try?

Thanks for the suggestions, and hopefully I'll be back to documenting soon! :)

Quotes of the Week

"Look at me, Daddy! I dancing!"
 - Preston, as he busts a move in the living room

"My do it! My do it!"
 - Preston, every five minutes

"Careful, daddy!"
 - Preston, as we are sitting down to eat breakfast and Brian was about to take a bite of cereal.

Preston loves to play hide-and-seek. We were playing in his room before bedtime, and Preston hid behind Brian. Brian yells "Preston, where are you? Mommy, have you seen Preston?" and Preston yells from his hiding spot "Is he over here? NO!!"

A few minutes later, he pulls his tunnel out from under his bed and starts crawling through it. He pops out of his tunnel and starts singing (very passionately) "This is the day, this is the day, this is the day the Lord has made!" This must have been a song he learned at school, haha!

The other morning, Preston was just fighting me on everything. From what he was wearing, to what he wanted for breakfast, to where he wanted to sit, etc. You name it, he was going to but heads with me. We left the house later than usual because of the large amount of compromising that occurred, and as we pull into Christ the King, Preston yells from the backseat "Yay Mommy! You did it!"

He is so funny.

Eyelashes to die for!

My beautiful blue-eyed boy

Halloween & Thanksgiving

Catching up on holidays! Here are a few from Halloween. We went to Zoo Boo for the second year in a row. For Halloween night, we got together with our neighbors. It was crazy, and so fun to see them get into trick-or-treating. Preston was Hairy Dog, Georgia's mascot.

Heading into Zoo Boo!

Preston hopped up on the hay barrel and yelled "cheese!" It was so cute. 

My cute little bulldog had so much fun at Zoo Boo. It was the weekend before Halloween... a great pre-cursor for trick-or-treating.

Halloween night in Brierwood...

Our set up on by the front door. Unfortunately, kids were greedy and not only took all the candy (which was expected) but also the blue bowl. Haha!

The Glasses hosted us all. So very sweet of them!

Just playing some hoops with Tyler the monkey. :)

P and his favorite person - Reed!

P and daddy heading out!

"I got this, daddy"

A month flew by, and Thanksgiving was here before we knew it. Our little guy turned 21 months old and he'll be 22 months in a few days. How time flies! He will be turning two so soon.

We headed to the farm for a night and had Thanksgiving lunch with my family. I am so thankful for Brian - he helped my grandfather and blew all the leaves for him. It was much appreciated! After a great meal, we drove three hours back home to eat dinner with Brian's family. Lots of eating and lots of fun with both families!

There isn't tons for him to do at the farm, so books and crayons kept him entertained!

So cute!

Contemplating life on the farm...

Testing out Gramps' tractor. 

My wonderful family!

Back in Memphis, P enjoyed eating next to his cute cousin Campbell.

Oh this was so funny! Preston made everyone (yes, made them - people tried to sit out and he literally dragged them into the circle) sing Ring Around the Rosy. Then he forced everyone to fall down. Brian's dad tried to go down half-way, and Preston said "No, Bobo, fall down!" It was so funny.

Preston was telling Mimzie she had to go all the way down. Haha!

Once he made sure everyone was all the way down, he went all the way down too. 

Our bossy little guy loved being the center of attention.

The day after Thanksgiving, we got together with a few friends from high school and their little ones for a play date at our house. Sweet Avery and Piper had fun playing with Preston. Such cuties!

The best we could get of the six of us!

"Look Piper. This is how you take off your shoes."

Preston took off his shoe and was running around the front yard like this. Meanwhile Piper and Avery were being sweet and picking up a leaf or two. Oh this difference between boys and girls. So many fun memories!

Latest Ramblings

Life has been so busy lately. Halloween was so fun, and P totally got trick-or-treating. Hopefully, I'll upload those pics soon. Brian traveled with my brothers and friends for my brother's bachelor party in New Orleans, and I traveled to Charlotte, NC for work. We are wrapping up a big exterior project on the house, and slowly preparing for the upcoming holidays.

P is officially at my favorite age. The talking is incredible. The words are just flowing and I can't keep up with all the new phrases, sentences and sayings. The boy loves to sing. His personality is like mine in so many ways, and as he grows, I am seeing it more and more.

A few cute things lately....

The other night, our power randomly went out. When we started lighting candles, P starting singing happy birthday. So funny!

While Brian was in New Orleans, P and I had a sleep over with my mom (my dad was with Brian and my  brothers). We had such a fun girls night together, but also enjoyed playing with P. She pulled out our old trike from the attic for him to try. P saw it, yelled "bike!!!" and immediately hopped on.

P's school is getting ready for their own Thanksgiving celebrations and we were asked to bring in a family picture for their leaf project. So sweet. I love the art that comes home with him.

He's super into his blanket. I washed it, took it out of the dryer, and he was so happy. He just smiled and hugged it. :)

We went to a shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law. Preston came and also brought her a little gift. :)

We are blessed with the sweetest child. I really mean it when I say he is SO SWEET. We were worried for a while because he was doing a lot of biting and hitting in school. I am happy to report that his teacher told me that he has become the sweetest child in the class, and all the others are acting out now. While I feel for the other parents, I was so happy to hear this. As a parent, you just want a NICE child. 

Big boy cup!

Kicking back, watching some Caillou. The child LOVES Caillou. I think  he is starting to replace Elmo. 

Tub Time

My camera is off getting fixed. It had a little accident, but will hopefully be back in good health soon. In the meantime, I leave you with the cutest child ever in the bath tub. :)

Carving

We carved a pumpkin tonight on the kitchen floor. Preston was really interested, but wouldn't touch the mushy insides until a few minutes in. Then he threw a big wad of it at me and tried to grab the carving knife from Brian. Typical! :)

One story I want to remember...

We finished carving the pumpkin and put a light inside of him. Then we turned out the lights. After we oooo-ed and awed a minute, Preston goes, "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear pumpkin, happy birthday to you." It was hysterical! I guess the candle and the lights out made it seem like it was pumpkin's birthday. So precious.

Preston is already really attached to the pumpkin. Brian put the pumpkin on the front porch and Preston had a major breakdown, screaming "Pumpkin! Pumpkin!" and so we brought him back inside to live.

Brian did a great job carving. Here is a little (long!) video of our night. Preston talks a ton in it! So funny. We live in a world with quick cell phone videos and I want Preston to actually be able to watch himself as a child one day. So, every now and then, I pull out the video camera and document his voice, his movements, laugh at what Brian and I look/sound/act like, etc. :) Tonight was one of those nights!

Then I made some candied pumpkin seeds, and they were pretty tasty.

1 cup washed and dried pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
some salt
1/2 stick melted butter
Mix all together and spread evenly onto a foil lined pan. Bake at 275 for an hour, stirring once or twice. After baking, let them sit on the counter until cooled. Break apart and enjoy!