Happy New Year

I know I've been quiet the last few days, just been busy, but I wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone! If you go out, make sure to drive carefully!

A Daddy's Pride

I thought this was a bit embarrassing, but of course his daddy took great pride in this little story:
We were at the store day after Christmas (stupidly, I know, but we needed milk) so of course it was packed. Carson and Trevor mentioned they wanted to go home and watch a movie with popcorn, and started good naturedly arguing about sharing one bag and decided we'd all need our own bag to eat. I told them if we each ate a whole bag ourselves we'd be fat! They thought this was funny and then started competing about who would be the fattest once we were finished.
Carson: "I will be the fattest, because I can eat popcorn faster than you!"
Trevor: (exasperated by the competition at this point, stands up in the cart in front of a store full of people as we approach the VERY long checkout lines)"No! I will be the fattest, AND the tallest, and I will have the BIGGEST PENI!!!!!" (that's as close to grammatically correct as I will let my youngsters go)

He got tons of chuckles and mirthful grins and the cashier gave him a high five. The boy is three, y'all. What am I going to do when he's 15?? And no, we don't have discussions with our children about how having a big "peni" might be a good thing, he's just a boy, and this is possibly genetically inserted along with the amniotic stuff.

Christmas Miracle of Sorts

As some of you know, Reed's daughter Savannah went "missing" with her mother a year and a half ago. One weekend we saw her, the next...they were gone. To say we were upset is an understatement, but since her mom has full custody, there was really nothing we could do, and we had no forwarding information to contact her all this time.
I've been searching the internet for anything we can use to get in touch with them, and this week I finally found it. I found her mom on the computer, and emailed her. She emailed back right away with their number so I called.
Lo and behold, they are back in North Carolina, and looked for us upon returning only to find that WE were now gone.
I gave Reed her number as an early "Christmas present" and he was ecstatic. He called immediately and talked to her for quite a bit and made plans for a weekly phone call. She is doing well, is very happy, and is in her school chorus--even got to sing a solo at the last concert!
We are truly happy to have reconnected to this wonderful little girl and look forward to many more calls and visits in the near future. I think the moral of the story is, if it's important, keep trying.
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. We've been a bit under the weather lately and trying to make christmas presents, buy some, get them wrapped and keep up with daily life, and time slips by. Hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

Tagged Again by Brandy

Brandy tagged me for a Christmas quiz, so here goes:
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I like wrapping because I prefer to UNWRAP things rather than look in a bag. More fun that way.
2. Real trees or artificial? We have an artificial tree. I am allergic to real ones.~me too!
3. When do you put up your Christmas tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take your tree down? I leave it up as long as possible because I LOVE our tree and decorations and the l ights at night.
5. Do you like eggnog? I've never had eggnog, but I don't think it sounds like something I want to try. I'm okay with my hot cider punch.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? hmm..I love gifts, so I'm easy. My brother and I got these awesome bears when we were young, mine was a beautiful ballerina bear and his was a football bear. They were super soft pillow-types, and we kept those around for YEARS. Also, the ones that my parents did a scavenger hunt for--they'd leave clues on the tree that took us around the house to more clues until we finally found our present, like a bike or a basketball goal. I did that last year for Carson with picture clues and I'll try it this year too.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? We used to have a creche, but I think it was lost in one of our many moves.
8. Hardest person to buy for? This year, they were both pretty easy. They asked for very specific things and that was that.
9. Easiest person to buy for? This year I had more fun buying for Trevor, because this is the first year he's asked for anything, and his interests are a bit more diverse than Carsons "Transformers" List
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? huh. I don't know that any gifts are bad, except for the ones that are more about getting you a gift than YOU. You can usually tell.
11. Christmas cards or e-mail Christmas Cards? I mail. I love to get them, so do unto others...
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Elf with Will Ferrell
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Hoo boy. This year it was...this week. Usually I'm all done by December.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I can think of.
15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? turkey. I really want turkey this year. sausage and egg casserole is for breakfast--it's tradition. my mawmaw's biscuits.
16. Clear light or colored light? CLEAR! I like them clear.
17. Angel on top or Star? We have a cute red star on top.--us too! from Target
Now who am I going to tag??
Renee, Alisa, and Marie--you can do yours on myspace. :)

Trevor learned a new song this year

I never really notice his lisp unless I've taped him. He reminds me of that little girl from Mrs. Doubtfire, it's all the same letters she lisped.
He loves this song and asks me to sing it every night before bed.
Enjoy!

In a cookie mood

Last year, I went to my pal Kala's treat swap and even though I've never been a huge cookie fan, I had some there that were to die for.

I'm in the holiday mood, so I think the boys and I are going to make some sugar cookies to share with friends and family, but since I can't give YOU cookies, I thought I'd give you some great recipes.

These were a big hit last year, and I'm sorry to say I can't remember who made them. This may not be her recipe, I found it online, but it seems similar enough. YUM.

Chocolate Cherry Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
48 maraschino cherries (about one 10-ounce jar), undrained
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine flour and cocoa powder. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press down center of each ball with your thumb. Drain cherries, reserving juice. Halve any large cherries. Place a cherry or cherry half in the center of each cookie.
For frosting, in a small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and the sweetened condensed milk. Heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 4 teaspoons of the reserved cherry juice.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon frosting over each cherry, spreading to cover cherry. (If necessary, thin frosting with additional cherry juice). Bake in preheated oven about 10 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, cool. Makes 48.
To store: Place in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container, cover. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

I'll post some pics of our creations a bit later. Till then, Enjoy the countdown! 17 more days till Christmas!

Two Years Ago Today

I started this little blog because my friend Brandy had one and I thought it looked like a great way to 1. share your pictures and life's tidbits with family and friends and 2. talk without being interrupted.
I was right on both counts, and I've come to really love this little blog o'mine, whether I have 1 reader or 100. I know many people go on to blogebrity with their writing, and I'm not sure how that happens. Perhaps their lives are a bit more interesting than mine, perhaps they talk about more than just their own two kids. Maybe they're just better writers, period, or pay people to read. LOL But regardless of who reads this, it's a fun little journal for me to go back and look at my babies through this span and see what we were doing, how they looked and it's a heck of a lot easier than keeping a journal or doing the time-consuming scrapbooks (which I swear I will get back to someday). My boys have grown up immensely in this time, as have Reed and I, and it's nice to see where we came from and how far we've come.

I hope any visitor to this blog feels free to leave me their link so I can check out the stories they choose to share, and thanks to all of you for clicking here and checking out ours.

What the big people do

I know this is a single-minded mommy blog, but sometimes the adults in the house want a place to brag, too. So I may expand just a bit, and if that gets approval I'll keep going. Thanks for the compliments and emails you're sending, by the way. Even though I may act like I don't need praise, I secretly crave as much as I can get. Not so secret now, huh? Or was that just a semi-veiled plea for more comments? I'll never tell.
Anyway, What We're Digging en la casa de Smith:
Man vs. Wild Have you SEEN Bear Grylls? The man is like Rambo, Chuck Norris and a CIA dude rolled into one. And maybe Grizzly Adams. He would, like, totally win the million on Survivor.
And speaking of that, Survivor: China I know Survivor is no new discovery, but we're die hard fans. We were sad to see James get das boot, but it sure made for an interesting show last week.
To prove we don't just watch tv, Wii Tennis has become a bedtime ritual in our house lately. Reed and I were sitting on the back porch at night after the kids went to bed, talking and playing Aggravation, but we started to feel old so we broke out the old Wii and got busy. We both have perpetual shoulder and arm pains, because the force of your swing on tv does correlate somewhat to the force of your swing in real life. I'm much more dramatic of a player than Reed is, but I'm also much worse, so it evens out. I'm sweating by the end of the night, every night, and I can only occasionally get him to sweat. But I dance and twirl as I hit backhands and supersonic serves and it's great entertainment...if you were ever allowed to watch, which you never will be, by the way. Unless I get to watch you playing it in person first.

My Brthr

Carson had to do this assignment in class about what he is thankful for. We were pleasantly surprised to see him bring this paper home. He also was quite proud to tell us that he sounded out "brother" on his own. There is constantly toothpaste smeared on the bathroom sink, walking the floors of his room is a mine field since you never know when you will step on an Extra! Tiny! Toy! (Sharp Edition) tm, and he never brings his drinking cups back to the kitchen sink when he's finished. But loving pieces like this make all that worth it, and then some.

I especially love Trevor's neck and string hair. That must be some serious gel this stick figure uses...