Thanksgiving and Black Friday Shopping

This year, I decided to host Thanksgiving at our house since last year (our first Thanksgiving at our new home, and Kali's first Thanksgiving) we were at TJ's brother's house in Birmingham.  Originally it was going to be us (TJ, me, and Kali) my parents, and TJ's parents.  But TJ's sister and brother in law, were able to come down and join us!  So, we had a full house and some yummy food!
My parents brought the Turkey and my dad's pumpkin and apple pies.  TJ's parents brought some sides of baked beans, deviled eggs, stuffing, green beans, and pecan pie.  TJ's sister brought a sweet potato pie (I'd never had one of those before and it was delicious!!!).  And I made a sweet potato souffle, corn, ranch potatoes, and rolls.  It was all so good! And the best part of having Thanksgiving at my house?! THE LEFT OVERS!!!!! Kali and I just ate Thanksgiving dinner all over again for lunch today. Yummy!!!

It was also great to have everyone over! There are a lot of things we're thankful for this year, and having a wonderful family that loves us and adores our child is amazing! We're surrounded by some of the best people, and I tell Kali every night everyone that loves her and how lucky she is (and remind myself how lucky I am to have her and have all those people in my life as well).

After dinner, I prepared for some Black Friday shopping! My best friend, Jen and I go every year. We were kinda hesitant about it starting so dang early this year (9pm at Toys R Us and 10pm at Walmart), but we headed out anyway.  We got to Toys R Us at 8pm, and the lines was ridiculously long.  We decided to stay in the nice warm car and wait until they opened and the crowd went in before attempting it.  We walked up to the door about 8:50, and found that they were only letting about 30 people in at a time.  Which is actually smart on their part, but that meant that we were going to have to wait in line for 2 hours before even getting inside and then fighting the checkout line.  We decided that nothing we wanted was THAT important, and headed to Walmart.  After searching for a parking spot for 30 minutes (people were parking on the side of the HIGHWAY just to go in there), Jen let me out at the door to scope out what the inside was like.  It was a freaking MADHOUSE!  It went from ridiculous at Toys R Us to insanity at Walmart.  I got stuck by the pallet with the $5 barbies and thought that I was going to die when they started ripping into it and barbies were flying!  I eventually had to ditch my cart just to try and get out of that section and find Jen (who finally found a parking spot).  We got the few things we needed and went to the Lawn and Garden section to check out.  Then we headed back to Toys R Us and got the few things we needed there (like Kali's Power Wheels! Whoop Whoop) and stood in the checkout line for ONE HOUR. Ridiculous I tell you!
We stopped at Target last, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated.  We were home by 3am and I was asleep by 3:30a.

I was able to knock a few people off my shopping list, and Kali is officially done.  But I'm not sure that I'll do Black Friday shopping next year if they start it so early again.  There were people there that normally wouldn't go if it was at 3am like normal.  But since it was 9/10pm, they figured they could attend and go home and sleep afterwards.  It just wasn't worth that amount of crowd and chaos for me to do again.  But I always enjoy shopping with Jen, and it made for a good story ;-)

NOW, I'm cleaning up the living room of all Kali's toys and putting some of them up to prepare for the CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!!  I think we're going to start decorating this Sunday.  We've had such a busy couple of months, that we never really get a full day on the weekend to ourselves.  So I'm preparing for it to be like that this month again.  And taking advantage of the fact that we have nothing planned for Sunday and going to decorate.  I'm kinda excited to see how Kali is with the tree. Last year, she was only 2 months old for Christmas and the tree really didn't mean anything to her.  But this year, I bet she's going to love the lights! YAY!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!  Christmas tree pictures are soon to come! :)

13 Months

I realized last night after posting my beginning of November post, that I haven't done Kali's 13 month post yet.  I've been such a blog slacker.  I apologize!!!  And the crazy thing is that she's learning so much the past month or so, that I really want to share everything the bug has been learning and doing. 
I don't have any "I'm 13 Months Old Today" pictures, cause I was going to do that for the first year. But now...I kinda miss it. So here are some random pictures, taken from my phone.

My little country girl.  Hanging out in Mema & Papa's garden,

in her overalls.  She looked so adorable!

Sitting in her Bumbo seat (that she used to HATE when she was a baby)

Miss Sassy!

She had her hat, phone, keys and necklace. 

All she was missing was a purse. LOL

Opening her Lawnmower from Aunt Debbie

Pushing it around the house

(she's been doing this for 3 days now.  And it's LOUD!)

13 Month Stats:

Weight: 24.5lbs

Height: 30.5 inches

Eating: You eat anything that we eat (minus shellfish and nuts). You still have your favorites, and I love to see you eat all those fruits and veggies!

Sleep: We're trying to get you back to sleeping through the night.  We're not sure what has stopped that progression, but we'll slowly but surely get back there.  Right now you're only waking up about 1 time per night, but it's still a battle to get you back to sleep.  It's a progress. 

Accomplishments: You have 8 teeth now, and I think you're getting some more.  You're still working on talking more, and have added "Bi" for bite.  But you're getting better with your critters! 
You know what a tiger says (Rawr), a frog says (Stick out your tongue - cause they have long tongues), Dog (growl), an Elephant (Pthhhh with your tongue), and now a cow (moooo). You got a book for your birthday called "First 100 words".  It has pictures of all sorts of things that children
say as their first words.  You can recognize lots of things in the book. All of the animals that you know the sounds of, juice, books, birds, babies, ducks, fish, shoes, and more.  It's amazing all the things that you recognize and know what they are.
You also recently started shaking your head "No".  Especially when you have something you know you're not supposed to have, you'll look at us and shake your head no...but keep whatever it is. 
You have an uncanny fascination with Tupperware.  It's the only cabinet in the kitchen that we'll let you get into, and you will sit in front of it and play with the Tupperware forever!  It's pretty funny.  I could just buy you a bunch of Tupperware for Christmas, and I bet you'd be happy.

This is already a great start to her second year! LOVE YOU MONSTER!
 

Starting November off with a bang!

Although we've been busy this November, I don't have a lot of pictures to prove it.  I'm kinda slackin' on that at the moment (could use the fact that I need a new camera on it...and then make it a HINT that I'd like my DLSR **cough, cough, buy me one for Christmas TJ, cough, cough**)
November started out with a Birthday Party for my BFF, Jen's youngest son.  It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Hot Diggity Dog themed party.  They had a train jumpy house, and Kali loved it.  But we had to limit her in there once the bigger kids arrived.  She couldn't handle it with all of them in there.

Me, Theresa, and Jen in the hats that Jen's mom crocheted.

They were so adorable!

I wish we could have kept them...but they were for the kids.

Choo Choo Train!

Kali playing on the slide once the big kids got to the party.

Trevor's Birthday cake

Stephen's sister made this! It was amazing, and tasted REALLY good.

She's for hire!

On Facebook, Sugar Crystals. :-)

Kali enjoying some Puffs with TJ

 Then, we headed up to Birmingham Veteran's day weekend for Addison's 1st Birthday, and the Children's of Alabama benefit ball.  We had a great weekend!!

Singing Happy Birthday to Addison

Ashley made ALL of the food at the party.

Those cupcakes were White Hot Chocolate, and they were FABULOUS!!

TJ and Kali.

Kali thought those balloons were awesome.

THIS DANG LAWN MOWER!

Addison got it as a present.  Someone put it together, and Kali started to play with it

THEN, she wouldn't let it go.  She threw a major fit when I took it away from her.

I've never seen her throw such a fit.

So, I decided I was going to get it for her for Christmas

But Aunt Debbie already sent us one. LOL!!!

 While we were in Birmingham, Debbie and Jonathan invited us to the Children's hospital ball that Jonathan donated money to, and received a full table at the ball.  I was so excited to be able to get dressed up!! And Wayne was excited that we would be going and leave Kali with him. LOL.
Even though I had TJ bring my camera, I didn't take hardly any pictures.  These are actually ones that TJ took.  So I don't have a nice one, but we had a great time! TJ won one of the silent auction items, and Betty won 2.  That was more fun than I thought it would be.

ME

TJ

Me and TJ

Before we were going to head up to Birmingham, Kali was acting sickly. At first, I thought it was just her teeth bothering her. But it never fails, I think it's teeth, and it turns into something worse.
She had been throwing up a little, but not running any type of fever.  But all she wanted to do was for me to hold her and her sleep on my chest.  I felt so bad for her.
Friday morning (since I was off for Veteran's Day) I took her to the doctor's office. Turns out, she had a slight ear infection.  But they tested her for Strep and the Flu.  Both came back negative, thankfully.  She got a shot and I was told she would be fine to travel.  I was really worried about her because as soon as we left the doctor's office she slept.  The ENTIRE morning.  That is not like my little active Kalibug.  So we were thinking that we weren't going to go out of town. But at about 2pm she woke up and seemed to be feeling better.  SO we headed up.  And she's been fine ever since. I sure hate when the bug is sick! She looks so pitiful and I just want to hold and hug her and make it all better.

This year, I decided that we should have Thanksgiving at our house.  We never do anything at our house, and I like having guests over.  So it's going to be me, TJ, Kali, my parents, TJ's parents, and Debbie and Jonathan over for Thanksgiving.  I'm super excited.  And to prepare for such festivities...I made a Thanksgiving wreath for the front porch.  Took me about an hour to put together, and cost about $16.  All of the fall decorations were 80% off at Hobby Lobby.  So I got a fall garland that is originally $49.99 for $9.98.  AWESOME! :)

My wreath! :)

Hanging out on our front porch. 

Looks so festive, right?!

I will be sure to take more pictures during Thanksgiving and post them.  And then we'll be gearing up for Christmas.  I guess I better think about where the Christmas tree is going to go! :-)

Trick-Or-Treat

Halloween was wonderful! Kali really seemed to enjoy it. 

Sunday we headed to a Fall Festival with Kali at Mema's church.  She enjoyed it so much! There was a huge blow up slide, and Kali and TJ went down that thing 5 times! She cried when we had to leave because she wanted to keep going down the slide.  I guess we know what we're going to have to get her next year for her birthday! :)

First time down the slide with Daddy

She wanted to go again!

Again...

Cheese!

I loved her little round face in this costume! Those cheeks are adorable!

Walking around the whole place.

The slide...again

And again... :-)

On Halloween, TJ woke up and didn't feel very well. I'm thinking it was because he's been working non-stop between his actual job, and his lawn care business.  Not to mention all the things that the family has been doing.  So, he stayed home.  I, thankfully, was able to get off work at 4pm so that I could get home and get everything ready for our 5 stops that we were planning on making. 

I got home shortly after 4:30 and TJ and Kali were carving our pumpkin.  It turned out so cute, and we put it right next to the one that I made on the porch.

Here is Kali and her pumpkin.

She didn't want to let it go.

Kali with her pumpkin, Mommy's pumpkin, and Daddy's pumpkin

After we put the pumpkins on the porch (after some wrestling the little one away from Kali) I was able to gather all the things we needed for the night (blanket, bucket, wagon) and we got our Kalibug ready to be a ladybug.  Then we headed to Mema and Papa's house to start our trick-or-treating adventures.

Carrying her bucket to go trick-or-treating at Mema's

She did so well walking up to the door

But Papa's decorations did scare her and she wouldn't ring the door bell.

 After we left Mema's neighborhood, we went to the Lynn Haven Fall Festival.  It was too packed for us to really enjoy it, but it was nice to stop by and see what was going on.  I'm sure Kali will have more fun next year when she can play some of the games.

Then, it was off to Tee's house for some dinner and more trick-or-treating. But...

This is how we found her when we got there.

And Theresa's house is only about 5 miles down the road with 2 stop lights. LOL!

Theresa had a wonderful dinner all ready for everyone that was making their stops.  It was so yummy, and Kali ate 1/2 of my chili!  This kid can eat!!!  We waited a little while for Jen and the boys to get there, and then headed around the neighborhood for candy gathering.  Kali, Travis, and Trevor were freaking adorable! 

Travis: Scarecrow; Kali: Ladybug; Trevor: Lion

And of course, my kid is going to be the one that won't smile.

It was a lot of fun, and Kali got some good candy.  She had her first Snickers, Reeses (although she snuck that one, and ate a little tinfoil), and had her first sucker.  She loved it all.  And surprisingly, she went right to sleep without a problem.  I guess she takes after her mother, who can drink a cup of coffee right before going to bed.  Or maybe her father who will drink 2 Pepsi's between 5pm and 10pm and fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.  Either way, she should be destined to be a good sleeper...but she's still getting up around 2am wanting to snuggle in bed. Meh, she won't be this little for long!! :-)

I'm thankful that Halloween is over, but I'm so glad she was able to enjoy it.  Next year is going to be even better.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!