one little word 2014

I have made my choice for Ali's One Little Word Campaign.   

Flow

as in 'go with the flow' 

as in 'move with a continual change of place among the constituent particles'

as in 'proceed smoothly'

as in 'hang loose'

as in 'deform under stress without cracking or rupturing'  

I like these definitions.   The idea of Ali's One Little Word Campaign is to latch onto a word and let it be an inspiration, a guide, a mood, a thought, a dream and anything you want for the whole year.  

The first time I did this was back in 2008 or 2009 when my word was "me", which soon transformed into the title of this blog and became an acronym for Mommy Extraordinaire. 

In 2010, I choose "me" again, followed by the number "27" in 2011.  That went nowhere - I had a new baby and life was too crazy to even think about it and going with a number just didn't lend itself the way I thought it would. So a year later, I didn't have a word, nor did I for 2013. 

But I'm determined to revisit the One Little Word for 2014.  I have a routine now.  The boys are bigger and while life certainly is not easier, I do get more M.E. time than in years past, thanks to electronics that babysit the boys from time to time. Let's be honest! 

Why, flow? 

Because I need to manage expectations. 

I tend to work things up in my head and then cause myself worry or extra work that is completely unnecessary at home, at work and emotionally. 

Case in point, LG switching schools.  I laid awake and worried for days about the transition physically, about how in the world, we would manage two drop-offs and two pick-ups every morning and afternoon. Only to find out when the time came that it was no big deal. In the mornings, I can easily do both drop-offs because I going opposite the major travel flow and the Man usually takes one of the boys and I the other.  In the afternoon, I get to pick-up both boys easily with time to spare. No need to hurry, speed or be crazy about getting from one school to the next.  The fact is they are only a few miles apart and I have a full 20 minutes to drive it.  It really is not a big deal to physically get them two and from two different schools. 

 I need to go with the flow, look forward, be aware, but not be dramatic about things I can't control or can't change. I'm sure I'll have may share of ebb, but I'll just roll with it and flow! 

Happy Last Day of 2013. 

  

December Daily Album 2013

Once again this year, I attempted to complete a mini-album dedicated to the month of December.  A concept called December Daily developed by Ali Edwards.  Love her and this project and although I wouldn't call myself a diehard Christmas lover, I like the idea of focusing on one story everyday leading up to Christmas.  A chance to focus on our little life right now.

Back in October I committed to the project with the pre-order of a December Daily kit from Studio Calico.  By spending this money I knew I'd have to do it.

And I'm happy to say that thanks to my new little at home photo printer and carving out time this weekend, I was able to not just finish the album, but actually "CREATE" this album.  And I'm pretty proud of it.  Of course, its not perfect. My photos are blurry. My pages aren't works of art. But you know what I do have?  I have 25 little stories! Snippets and Pieces of our lives and I love that.

In 2014, I'd like to do this project at another time of year besides December.  Just to have another perspective from another time of year, but without the online community and cool kit, I'm not sure I will make it happen but its nice to think about.

Here's December 1 - 5 from my December Daily mini-album...

 For my cover page, I copied Ali Edwards and gold embossed the chip board '25' from the SC kit and then adhered it to a transparency that I then slipped into a page protector. Definitely worth the time to do this, because I love it and I love the see thru element of it. 25 days until Christmas, 25 stories!

 Day 1 is the story about our leaf raking/football game.

Both photos were taken with the big camera by M.E. 

Day 2 has two stories.  

The left hand side is the little story about the Seahawks and the fabulous season they are having. 

 The right side is the cute little 'Hello' photos of LG.  

His personality is just so FULL and even without words there's a story. 

All photos were taken with my iPhone by M.E.

Day 3 and 4 are not in chronological order and I'm totally okay with that. Its about the stories of December, not a recount of each day. 

Day 3 is the story of my ornaments. I happily built this ornament storage last year and while it worked perfectly, the 130 degrees it got in our attic over the summer caused all the cups to come unglued.  Bummer, but its still extremely effective at organizing my ornaments and keeping them safe. I also have a quick pic of the first ornament of the year. 

Both photos are from my iPhone taken by M.E.  

Day 4 is the story of the tree. I had to blow this picture up and have it printed at walmart because its probably one of the best stories in the album. 

Photo taken with the big camera by M.E.  

This little circle was a PL card that I cut out.  I like cutting up those cards to make new things and bonus - it matched.  

Day 5 was two pages and two stories. Just needed to make that happen and again the stories aren't in order.  

The left hand side is a blown up photo of the Man and I headed out to his company Christmas party.  

Photo taken with the big camera by our babysitter Layla. Thanks La. 

The right hand side is the story of waiting for the snow to come. It was the day I had to pick up Buddy early and the Man had to get LG because it was sleeting.  Once everyone got home, Buddy decided that it was time for the Polar Express.  It felt officially like winter, with the sleet and snow coming down and watching a Christmas movie, LG loved it.  

Yes, that little transparency card is backwards, but that's because it describes the next day! 

Photo taken with the big camera by M.E. 

Happy December Daily. More posts to come! 

Christmas

We were very blessed this Christmas and despite the lack of extending family (as in zero), we had a lovely time just the 5 of us.  This is the only Christmas ever that the Man and I have not been with either of our families.  It felt weird and I'll admit a little empty, but it was also nice to just be, relax and do whatever we wanted.

This included the Man taking the boys duck hunting, shopping on Christmas eve, getting our last package at 8 PM, and the Man whipping up an impromptu turkey dinner. It didn't occur to us until like 3 PM on Christmas eve that we didn't have a Christmas dinner planned. So off to the grocery he went, luckily they had thawed turkeys!

Here's Christmas morning...
Note: my pictures aren't the best. With bad lighting and the wrong setting and the boys moving at the speed of light, I did a poor job of capturing the moment.  But you'll get the idea, I think.

Christmas morning at approximately 1:30 AM. 

Nana and Grampa had mailed all of their packages, and I picked up Mamaw's and Papaw's, so the boys woke up to lots of things under the tree. 

Santa brought Buddy a Richard Sherman jersey. He was very happy. 

Santa brought LG a large Lego set, Jabba the Hutt's palace and brought Babe a Lego train. 

Babe loving his new shoes.  

Another Lego set for LG and the one he really wanted.  

LG got the Man this really cool grill spatula that has the seahawk emblem, so that when you press hamburgers the emblem embeds in the meat.  Too cool. 

 Buddy got him a thin camo ski mask for hunting. LG didn't like him wearing this, he said it was scary for him to be a bad guy. 

Another Lego set for LG.  

LG loves, loves, loves, his new corduroy newspaper boy hat from Grampa and Nana.  He was adorable standing with his hands in his pockets, I think he was a bit overwhelmed with it all.  

LG got him this little knit stocking cap too.  He wore it for a second then back to the newspaper boy.  

LG got a Star Wars comforter. Yay, he loved it.  

Buddy opens a duck call.  

Babe was beside himself when he opened Buzz Lightyear. We thought he'd like it, but we had no idea he'd LOVE it. 

That was all she wrote for presents for Babe. He was done. Nothing else mattered.  

Oh Buddy had been wanting this hoodie for months. Yay for patiently waiting until Christmas.  

We finally managed to get Babe to open a couple more presents and he was pretty happy that he did. He got a left handed baseball mitt.  Game on.  

 And last but not least, the Man got the boys a Wii U. Our old wii had busted for the third time back in June and I refused to fix it again. So the Man decided we should up grade to the new Wii U.  We get all the cool things about the new Wii plus can play all our old game. Yay.  The boys were so happy!

We got lots of other cool things.

I got a personal photo printer from the Man and it has changed my life already.  LG got M.E. a cool Christmas ornament and peacock earrings, both of which I loved. Buddy got me the coolest kitchen apron ever-made from Anthropologie and I love, love it.

It was a wonderful day of gift giving and blessings and lego building!

Buddy and the Recorder

Practicing for the Christmas program at school.

Name that tune?

PreSchool Christmas Program

It is always a highlight of the season, the PreSchool Christmas program.  

 This year, Babe and his classmates were sheep.  I know these are alittle blurry. Its so difficult to get a good picture in the church.  And I don't have the steadiest of hands.  

So adorable and a little tired. 

Of course Babe was one of the loudest singers and jingle bell ringers. He is such a little ham.  

My little sheep and M.E.  

Afterwards in the reception, Santa came.  

Babe was seriously beside himself.  

He has always loved mascots, so he couldn't wait to see and talk to Santa.  

He sat right up there with no hesitation at all and just talked and talked. 

I think he finally asked for a train. I was like, huh, a train.  Never heard about that before. hmmm.  

He didn't want to get down. I think he would have hung out there for an hour, if he could.  

So wonderful and fun.  

Now we got to figure out things about this train. 

Sledding

I finally got the sledding pictures off the Man's phone. Still need to get the videos.
It feels a bit strange to finally post these when its 60 degrees today. Thing change quickly, especially the weather here.

All bundled up and ready to go. I think the high temperature was like 18 or something ridiculous.  

I love it how Babe is so bundled up he is stiff.  

So super happy that these two are getting along so great. The Man said they happily shared a sled all day.  The Babe going down along a couple of times. 

JOY 

Of course Buddy was all about it.  He loves SNOW!  He got some major air a couple times.  

This isn't much of a hill, but its perfect for the climb back up.  and its kinda of hidden so there's usually not many people there. 

I know it doesn't look like there's much snow to sled in, but it was slick with ice and sleet, so they really got going.   That's Babe in the center of the picture.  He was accidentally left at the bottom.  The Man said it took him a few minutes to realize his brothers weren't around and then when he did, he started crying and the Man had to go get him.  Ha!  

Go, LG, Go! 

The Snow

As many of you already know, it snowed last week... yay for the boys.

 This was last Thursday at 11:30 AM, sleet beginning to collect on the deck. 

By 2 o'clock it was full on precipitating and I was getting nervous. Finally LG's school called to say that campus was closing at 3:30, pick up students as soon as possible. So Babe and I jump in the van and get to the end of our street and I realize it was slick. Too slick for M.E. so I called the Man, who then said he'd leave work early and go get LG in the 4W drive. Thankful for that. 

While I was already out I decided to pick up Buddy early (he's schools only a mile from the house). I'm so glad I did.  Apparently half the school had already been picked up, I'm not sure why they didn't call it off early. Anyhow. 

The Man arrived home with LG at 3:30. It was very slick out. 

 This was at 3:45.  This is just as much sleet as snow and the roads looked the same. 

By 7:45 the next morning, we had at least 2 maybe 3 inches on the deck. School was closed obviously.  

It continued to snow,  so out they went to play. 

Snow Angel Buddy. 

 Snow Angel LG.

 Snow Angel Babe. 

I don't know what our official total was but it was something like 4" here.  

 Oh my sweet boys. I'm so glad I manage to get good ski clothes located and/or bought before the snow hit.  They were all nice and warm to play. 

Look at LG's face. Love it.  

LG may be the one who loves Christmas the most, but its Buddy who loves snow the most. LOVES it. He stayed out much longer than his brothers. Just being in the snow and letting it fall on his face.  Its so cool, how their personalities are so different.

The Man took them sledding on Saturday. I keep forgetting to get the pictures off his phone. Maybe tonight - Then I'll post some of the videos he took. Fun times.