All By Myself

Hunter kicked a habit over the holiday weekend ~ his training wheel habit! He is now officially a little 2 wheeled speed demon! He spent Thursday and Friday nights at my parent's house and on Saturday my dad took him out to teach him how to ride without them ~ I think this is one of my dad's FAVORITE things to do, he is the one who taught all of us to do it. He picked it up really quickly ~ had a couple of falls a long the way, but being the hard headed, stubborn, never give up little donkey that he is he would just stand up brush himself off and climb right back on. Scott took his training wheels off of his bike here today and he has undoubtedly mastered riding without them ~ it was all we could do to get him off the bike to come inside. He will now be asking Santa for a bigger bike ~ which was going to happen anyway as his current bike is WAY too small! I'm glad my dad got to do his thing ~ Hunter will remember who taught him to ride his bike for the rest of his life ~ he is already making plans for his Grangy to teach Maisie to ride as well!

Not only did he learn to ride without training wheels, but he also attended his first skate party. He has some of those little skates that you put on their tennis shoes, but he hasn't ever really done much with them. Scott took him to the party ~ while mom, Maisie, and I headed to Galveston to shop ~ and said that at first he was spending the bulk of his time on the floor, but after a little while he seemed to get the hang of it. He said he had fun and wants to go back and do it again. Amazingly with the things he has done over the weekend there was not a single trip to the ER for a cast or stitches! Woo hoo!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I'm Thankful For

Since it is Thanksgiving I thought this was a good time to share with you just what I am thankful for.

1. My 2 beautiful, healthy children ~ although Hunter makes me want to strangle him on a regular basis I thank god for him everyday. And my sweet little Maisie ~ last year on Thanksgiving I was 35 weeks pregnant and ended up at the hospital to be monitored for fear that I was going into pre-term labor; fortunately she opted not to make her appearance and hung out for another 3 weeks arriving healthy and fully mature!

2. My wonderful husband ~ I honestly don't know what I would do without him ~ he is my best friend. There are plenty of times that I would like to strangle him as well ~ sometimes he and the boy in unison ~ but we always figure it out and move on.

3. Another Thanksgiving with my parents ~ particularly my dad. He has been through so much in the last 30 years health wise it is truly remarkable that he is still here with us. Of course I am also very thankful for my mom, but she's in pretty good shape so we just don't ever think that this year could be the last with her, it's a real crap shoot with dad.

4. Celebrating Maisies's first Thanksgiving ~ although she doesn't know what today is all about, she will in time. She went to her first Thanksgiving Parade downtown today ~ a real tradition in my family ~ I have been going with dad for 30 years now which gives me a lifetime of memories to be thankful for.

5. My brother and sister ~ we have always been a close family that hangs out together. While today we are scattered around, not one of us has ever strayed far enough to not be just a quick car ride away. We may not see each other like we used to, but there aren't many days that pass between phone calls. Bryan and I used to go see a movie every Thanksgiving after dinner was over ~ we haven't done that in a long time and I really miss it ~ we pass a movie theater on the way back from my parent's house and I think of those times every year.

6. My furry 4 legged children ~ they make me laugh and love me unconditionally. When they aren't here the house just isn't the same, instead it is eerily quiet ~ and that's not an easy feat given the 2 kids who live here!

7. The roof over our heads ~ we were so very fortunate to have gotten through Ike with the little damage and inconvenience that we sustained. My brother and his family were unfortunately not so lucky and have still not been able to move back into their own home. There are so many families just like them, many of who don't even have a house to repair because it was washed away altogether, we were very fortunate.

8. The food on our table ~ not just today but everyday. With the economy in the state that it is I feel very blessed to be able to go to the grocery store and get what my family needs without having to worry if I can still afford to pay our mortgage or electric bill. This also ties into my wonderful husband and what a fantastic job he does providing for his family.

9. The clothes on our backs ~ there are certainly many families on a normal year who don't have warm clothes, but this year with Ike having ripped through our area there are so many more. Again we are so fortunate to have escaped essentially unscathed.

The Great White Hunter

This morning Scott got up and headed out to once again attempt to hunt and gather for his family ~ he had gone over the weekend as well and I told him not to return until he had a deer strapped to the hood of his truck ~ let me just say there was no deer strapped to the hood upon his return ~ he's lucky I let him stay! Now of course letting him stay came at a price ~ the price of me getting to make fun of him and tell him that he sucks as a hunter and gatherer! He claims that he didn't see any ~ I call BS on that! When he had taken Hunter out there a couple of weeks ago Hunter called in 2 deer ~ Scott hadn't gone to hunt that weekend figuring that Hunter was not quite ready to see what hunting is really all about, instead he had gone to let Hunter sit in a stand and watch the animals. Well, The Great White Hunter has just called to say that I can no longer make fun of his hunting and gathering skills ~ he got one! Woo hoo we will once again have meat for the freezer! Hunter will be excited to hear that "daddy shot a dead deer" and will be even more excited to "take the dead deer" to the processor and then go pick the "dead deer" up. This is at least how he was referring to last years deer, so we'll see if he still refers to it the same this year. Way to go babe ~ no more making fun of your ability to provide for your family!

A New Milestone

Last night we FINALLY had to drop Maisie's mattress down from the highest point! Now you may be saying to yourself "my god that kid is almost a year old and they are JUST NOW dropping the mattress?" ~ it's not that we are bad parents and have been letting her teeter on the edge of falling out of the crib or anything like that, it's that there has not been any danger of her falling out of the crib until now. I have said it before and I say it again ~ Maisie is LAZY! She just figured out yesterday how to roll completely over from her back to stomach ~ developmentally there is absolutely nothing wrong with this kid, she just HATES to be on her stomach ~ at least she hated to be on her stomach until yesterday! She has rolled from side to side for quite sometime, just never all the way over, and when you go to put her down for a nap or to bed she just rolls onto her side and slips into a coma immediately ~ no screwing around for her (I so deserved her!). When I went in to get her from her morning nap she was in there on her stomach just hanging out and playing ~ I was a little surprised to see her doing that, to say the least, and then as I vacuumed her room while she was still captive in the crib she proceeded to get up on her knees and then onto her butt ~ again something she has never done before as she is never on her stomach to need to get to her butt ~ she's always just put on her butt. Now that she has figured out this new trick to add to her repertoire the mattress had to go down since she could theoretically topple right over the top at this point!

She doesn't crawl either ~ not to say that she isn't mobile, she just doesn't do the "traditional" crawling, instead she scoots everywhere sitting straight up on her butt. She has been doing that for probably 3 months now ~ and is amazingly quick at it let me add ~ I had thought that she would get tired of that and figure out how to get on her knees and go ~ wrong She knows perfectly well how to get on her knees but she never goes anywhere ~ instead she plops herself back on her butt and off she goes again ~ needless to say the butt of her pants is ALWAYS filthy! It doesn't matter if I have just vacuumed and mopped the floors ~ with 3 dogs and all hard surface flooring there is no such thing as a "clean" floor. So I guess she will never traditionally crawl and will continue to scoot to her destination until the day she stands up and walks off on her two tiny little feet ~ she gets everywhere she wants to go doing exactly what she's doing! Just as soon as I can find the battery charger for my camera ~ it's still MIA since our return from Disney ~ I will video her doing her scooting maneuver and post it.

The Griswold Family Vacation

Cinderella's Castle & Main Street USA

decorated for Christmas

The Christmas tree at Animal Kingdom

Hunter building a dinosaur at T-Rex

Well, we came, we saw, we conquered! The trip to Disney was quite lovely, more crowded this time than last month, but still not too particularly bad. I think the longest lines we saw were a 40 minute wait, but even when the board said that, it was typically half of what they were advertising. The weather was good ~ quite chilly the first two nights, but fantastically sunny and beautiful after that. Since we were travelling with the senior citizens we took it easy again this trip ~ no getting up and blowing and going nonstop ~ definitely a very nice way to go. If anyone is looking for a trip I saw a commercial last night for a special they are running where you get 3 nights + tickets free when you book a 4 night trip ~ that's an amazing deal! After all, it is "the happiest place on earth"! Hunter was again all about the roller coasters ~ he is truly miffed that he isn't tall enough to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster ~ and being that it goes upside down, I am not going to try and sneak him on ~ I'd really just assume that he didn't fall out of the stretch limo! My sister and her sugar daddy went with us ~ we didn't see much of them unless Lee was wanting to ride something that Wilson refused to. We did talk the poor guy into riding Expedition Everest and he was not so impressed with our conniving ways! Before the the ride starts to go backwards he kept screaming "Hunter! I can't believe I let you talk me into this!". He did manage to survive the ordeal, but didn't trust a word we had to say about another ride! A new restaurant opened in Downtown Disney called T-Rex ~ it is another Landry's operation and the same premise as The Rainforest Cafe ~ only all about dinosaurs instead of the rainforest. All of the dining rooms were different ~ one was an aquarium, one was the ice age, one the fire pit and they each had corresponding anamatronic creatures ~ it was really a cool place to eat so if you should ever find yourself there we highly recommend it. We went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party which turned out to be not so merry for me ~ more about that adventure in it's very own entry! We also made it to the shuttle launch ~ again it deserves it's own entry as well ~ Clark W. Griswold was at his finest on this outing! My poor little mouse has had a hard time adjusting back to normal life ~ okay life around here is never really normal per say ~ she has been a really good traveler and never had an adjustment issue before ~ oh well, they are always looking to throw you a curve ball aren't they? She did well today though, so hopefully she is readjusted and back into her normal groove ~ a much happier and cuter mouse when she's well rested! Oh, Maisie discovered real food while we were there and has now decided to boycott the crap that comes out of a jar (for the most part, I can still sometimes get a few bites down her) ~ before this trip she had zero interest in chewing ~ anything you gave her that required she chew she would choke on ~ however now she has decided that real food rocks ~ junk food that is! Hunter has always been such a good eater with everything ~ meat, fruits, and veggies ~ Maisie on the other hand is obviously going to be my junker ~ she has no interest in anything except yogurt, Ritz crackers, and Gerber puffs (hence why I am still trying to get some of the crap from a jar down her). If she is anything like me, she too will be having cookie dough for breakfast before long!

My little junk food queen enjoying a

powdered donut for breakfast

one morning ~ she is also a BIG

fan of Mickey waffles!

Your Three Words

Here is the Your Three Words Segment from Saturday ~ hey, better late than never!

The Happiest Place on Earth

So once again we are packing up and heading off to "The Happiest Place on Earth", this time for the BIG family vaca! We are all looking forward to it ~ I'm amazed Hunter can sleep he is so excited! I have been incredibly busy ~ I hosted my first show Thursday night so I have been working pretty much non stop to get ready for that ~ a week of relaxing and doing nothing will be a nice change! I will post more about the show once we get home ~ or if we can get the computer to work this time I may just surprise you with a mid-vaca post ~ we'll just have to see.