Stay Safe and Happy New Year!!

I know...I'm blogging and it's 10:49pm on New Years, hahah...loser alert....dunt dunt dunt... We couldn't stay out and party this year anyways, because we need to be on the road at 8am tomorrow. We're going skiing at Ober Ski Resort in Gatlinburg and I'm going to try snowboarding while there as well too. My friends, Layla and Angela are letting me borrow their gear, woo hoo! I love my friends!! So, we knew if we got a babysitter (another issue) that we couldn't stay out late and then get up early and be ready to leave bright eyed and bushy tailed. :)

We did go out early tonight and visited Jamie and Kevin in W-S and the rest of our fun gang were there too. It was more kid friendly this New Years. Layla and Reggie's children, Ty and Camy were there and they are so big now and so gorgeous!! Skylar was running around like crazy as well and either Terry or I were on the run after him. He reaches for everything and that could be Jamie's beautiful wedding China, wine glasses filled with wine or Izzie (Jamie and Kev's dog), haha...So we were on our toes, so to speak. We had a good time and I did get a couple of pics before we left.

Next year for New Years, we will have another set of feet running around as Jamie is due to give birth in 2 months to a He or a She. :)

Ty hiding his Face. He's going to be the BIG 3 in February!!

Kevin holding Skylar and holding his beverage. Way to multi-task Kev. :)
Mother to be Jamie already has the touch. Look how Skylar snuggled with her. Awwww

The Girls!! Layla, Katie, Jamie and I.

So many things happened for us girls above in 08.

• Layla gave birth to her beautiful daughter Camryn in February
• Katie got married to Rob in June
• Jamie earned her MBA from Wake Forest and got her wish to be pregnant around the same time of graduating
• Terry and I bought the house we fell in love with in Greensboro and are flourishing as a family of 4 (counting Ralphie) and loving life as we should.

Terry and I count our blessings every day. We're healthy, we have a roof over our head, we don't go to bed hungry and we enjoy our very healthy and crazy man son, Skylar. It's hard to complain about the little things when you see others that are not fortunate at all. So, my New Years Resolutions and goals are to appreciate what I have and not take anything for granted and also forgive people and let the little things go.

Enjoy life, because it's what "you" make of it, not what it is. Love and Peace in the New Year!!

Relaxing and new stuff with Skylar

Today we had a great day to do NOTHING!! ahhhhhh....the joys of relaxation. Skylar is feeling 100% and he wanted to play all day long and we were more than happy to play with him. He loves his little power wheel quad. Of course, I can never get him smiling. My camera is just not fast enough, ha! Below he's wearing his new sweatsuit. I know it's just a sweatsuit to most people, but I think he looks so cute in it. I know...I'm a mom, a proud one might I add.

Running around

He's really enjoying this thing, you just wouldn't know it. :)

Yes, I got a smile! Well smirk...

New things with Skylar, since he's 17 months old as of yesterday...

*He's jumping everywhere. It's too cute! Now I need to buy a jump rope, haha...

*He wipes his mouth and hands when you tell him to clean himself after eating.

*He plays contently by himself

*He understands me when I say it's time for night night, let's go upstairs and bath time. (He goes to his room when I say night night, he runs to the stairs and starts to climb them without my help, but I'm behind him the whole time when I say let's go upstairs and he goes to the bathroom naked when it's bath time)

*He tries to put on his shoes now, since for the last year he would just kick them off. :) Yaaaay, we're heading in the right direction now!!

*He knows his head, nose and feet when you say them.

*He dances all the time when he hears music and he does the chicken dance with us...not Perfect, but cute. (I'm going to get this on video and post this week)

*His new words are bump and baby. He mimicks us a lot now. He learned a bad word a month ago,....bad mommy. I won't post that word.

***One of his tubes is not functioning anymore, so I hope he doesn't get sick again. I don't want to have to get another tube inserted anytime soon.

Christmas in Marion to see Grandma, Grandpa and Papaw and the rest of the gang...

On Friday, we went to Marion to see Terry's side of the Presnell Gang and celebrate Christmas there. The food was wonderful!! I hate that I gained a billion pounds...I know I did too, because now my khakis are tight...ugh!

Skylar was spoiled big time. He got tons of clothes, his table and chair set and toys toys toys... We had to leave several of them there, because since I downsized my car, there was no room to bring everything back to Greensboro, ahha! Too funny! Everyone was so good to him and us. Even Ralphie got a present!

Skylar loved his cousin Jaden's Hulk gloves.

These are just a few presents that Skylar got, there were more....can you say spoiled!!!

Instead of opening his presents, he rather play with the bows. hah

Cousin Jaden putting up his dukes!

The 3 stooges! Jaden, Skylar and Xavier. Out of the million of pictures that I tried to capture of them 3, this was the best one, ahahah!

Christmas at Nanny and Grandpa's in King!!

Grandmother, Mom, Mely, Gina, John, Veronica and me

After we laid around and played a bit, we headed to King to have Christmas at Nanny and Grandpa's house. I think the hit was the ATV power wheels my sister Gina bought for both Skylar and Zeb each. It was too cute.

Rex was being cute climbing the tree out in the front yard

Yassie running after Skylar

Rex running after Zeb

Poor Guy was still feeling bad, even though the Tylenol was kicking in.

There was such chaos there!

Say Cheese guys!

Christmas Day...more sickness and oh yeah, bah humbug...

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday with your family and friends. We had a great Christmas, ...despite Skylar getting Croup. Fun stuff, I tell ya. :) We woke up and Skylar was burning up with a 102.7 tempature. He has been coughing a lot and his cough started to sound like a bark, but we didn't think too much of it at the time. I thought his ears were still infected, since he had a double ear infection and eye infection the week before.....I mean, gosh!!

We went to the doctor on Friday and they confirmed that he does have croup. Poor guy. He's been so miserable, so he really didn't enjoy his toys until later.

Here are a few pics from the day. Santa and family was good to him. :)

He loves me...he does...seriously... :)

The whole package. Now he's ready to work...I think.

Merry Chistmas and Happy Holidays...

Got to be somewhat PC. :) I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday with your loved ones, eat lots of food and stay warm in your houses. We also wish everyone a safe and sound and full of joy Christmas!!! I can't wait to see everyone's wonderful pictures!!

Tis the Season to be Merry!!

Teacher's Gifts

I decided to make my teacher's gifts this year from Skylar. I made Monkey Munch as seen on the show Jon and Kate Plus 8 and then I made some Chocolate and peanut butter covered pretzels. :) Can you say ya-ummm! I appreciate Skylar's teachers for all that they do, so this is the least I can do for them. Hopefully, they are not on diets, because um....

Also, I love getting deals, so of course I shop at Food Lion and I get a lot of the food lion brands, because well, they taste the same and they're cheaper. I will say the only name brand we have to buy, because it DOES NOT taste the same is Campbell's tomato soup and Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable ABC noodle soup. I do love my Campbells...ok off topic, anyhoo..see the pics below.

Food Lion brand Candy that melts in the microwave in 1 minute

Peanut butter melted with the chocolate and I dipped the pretzels in there
Ta-daa...not a really great presentation, but I'm not Giada people! :)
I made them look tasty with my beautiful ribbon work, ahah...

Also, some have asked what's in Monkey munch... (BTW this was part of the favors that we gave out at Skylar's monkey themed 1st birthday party) The recipe is below.

MONKEY MUNCH

Ingredients
1 Cup Semi sweet Chocolate chips
3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
9 cups of Chex Mix or Cherrios or both combined
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup of Powdered sugar
1 or 2 tablesppons of Margarine
1 or 2 gallon zip lock bags

Melt the chocolate, peanut butter and margarine together on medium heat. Then add the vanilla and stir for another minute on low heat.

Place 9 cups of your chex mix, cherrios or mixure in a bowl and add the above to it and mix with a spoon. I find it hard to mix, so I just mix with my hands. It's not scorching hot, so it's fine. Then place the mix in a ziplock bag and add your powdered sugar and shake shake shake!! :) -Side note, make sure the bag is sealed, haha! It's so delicious!!! Once made, you can eat right away or just store in the fridge and eat when you're ready for a much needed sugar rush!

I made this for the teachers and I made enought to give out to our family. This is a less expensive way of giving gifts this Holiday Season. It's still from the heart and it's not cutting too deep in the pockets either.

After this, Skylar decided to show me his new favorite drawer in the kitchen...

Mom, I will help you fold them back....promise

Right after I throw them everywhere and then hide them in different places...

Such a crazy goober

Celebrating Christmas a little early..

Today we had an early Christmas lunch in W-S at my Grandmother's assisted living club house. Not all of my immediate family was there, since they had to work, but we had a good time, although it was super cold and we were small in numbers. My grandmother is getting on up there in her years, so we are fortunate to join these gatherings with her when we are able. Miss Photogenic showing me her mad skills
Zeb playing Peek a Boo
My Daughter, I mean Niece Yasmine hamming it up for the Camera. :)

We decided to take a little walk with Zeb and Skylar. Although you can't see Zeb's face here, he was not having it, so ...

Yasmine took his place.

All my sistas and me....

I had a fun filled, much needed girls day with my sista and her BFFs! I met up with Gina and her BFF Debbie and her sister Shannon, who is my age, well a little younger than I and who I've known for years too. I haven't seen Shannon though, for about 12 years as in 1996, as in my senior year in HS, as in...I'm so old people! Gina introduced me to Nawab indian cuisine and lets just say.....that's my new fav food!! If you haven't tried out this type of cuisine or been to this restaurant, I suggest that you try it out. It's wonderful!! Here are a few pics and we even got lucky and ran into Santa! I told him I was good all year, so we'll see on Christmas day if I was good enough. ;)

Eating in Nawab

Telling Santa I was good and whispering that Gina had not....so I will get her presents too...:)

Then off to Tranquility Day Spa.....mmmmmm.
This, I would have to say was very much needed. I still had a little left over on my AWESOME gift certificate present from my Wonderful Hubby forom Valentines and was able to use the rest for a 60 minute swedish massage. My Sister Gina got the European Facial, Debbie also got a facial and Shannon got the Russian pedicure. We were in Heavan. Since I didn't get any pictures there, here's the link to Gina's post on it. I did steal one or two pics. :)
A fun day, yes indeed!

My Niece, the beauty queen

This weekend was so packed busy, I can barely keep my eyes open right now.

Saturday, Yasmine was in a beauty pageant, Miss Jr. Pre-Teen Greensboro. She did so well!! She won first place for the Most Photogenic and she placed 3rd runner up over all. That's amazing considering how many little girls that were participating. I'm so proud of her!! I entered a pageant very similar as this one when I was a teenager, except mine was for Miss Teen Raleigh and I know all too well the nerves that come along with it. She was so calm and cool, like she's done this sort of thing before. No way we are related, because I was always a nervous wreck when I competed in these things. Only if I could have her confidence, ya know? :) I'm looking at the future Miss America!! Or Miss Universe!! Oh lord, I really need a little girl! I wished I had better pictures, but all my pictures turned out so dark, so here are a couple.


Today we went to Concord to meet up with Kelly. Terry and Skylar wanted to tag along which I was happy about, until Skylar had a huge and I mean HUGE meltdown right in front of the Bass Pro shop. Oh my gosh, Terry thought it would be cute to place Skylar on the John Deere Tractor, because well, Skylar loves riding things and he always tries to get on Terry's lawnmower. Well, right when he did that, Terry had to use the bathroom (convenient huh?) and Kelly went to Circuit City real quick and so it was Skylar and me. I didn't want him on the lawnmower anymore, so right when I took him off the lawnmower, he flipped out. I immediately tried to put him in his stroller, so I could take him walking to calm him down and well, he scooted down so quickly in his stroller, I couldn't strap him in fast enough, and then his head got stuck for moment under the tray. This was all going on, while I was ALL by myself, Skylar was holding his breath, me sweating from head to toe and everyone staring at me. I mean, talk embarrassing, ha! Once Skylar got loose and slid all the way out of the stroller, he took a breath and then the screaming cries started. Again....everyone is still staring at me. Terry comes back after which seemed to be hours and says, what happened? UGH...men. :) We were going to visit Santa, but after that episode, we had to end our shopping trip early. Sorry Kelly!!

Here are some pics that I attempted to take for possible Christmas cards and well, he does not do well for me, ahah! Oh well...daycare pictures made the cut this year. :) You should receive them sometime this week. Better late than never, right?

I don't think so mom!

You want me to smile? What?

I'm done!