Being Negative Can Be A Good Thing (Sometimes)

Life has been busy since last Monday night. As I mentioned in Monday's post, I went to my SS Ladies Christmas Party. It was so much fun. After "stealing" an ornament from someone during White Elephant Exchange, I left with a very cute ornament that is now hanging on our tree. On Tuesday-Friday at lunch, I was participating in curriculum writing for my county. As nice as it is to get a break form my classroom, I was ready to get back to my students. Here she is last week playing on the bed with Cali. My two sweet girls!! Cali needs a haircut bad.

Friday night, Scott and I went to his work party. Mom kept Emma for us while we were there. Then Saturday evening, we went to our SS Christmas Party. This one was for everyone. Emma went and played with church friends while we were in another part of the church having fun! This week is flying by! Emma was burning up last night and has been coughing, so I took her to the doctor today. They checked her for Flu and RSV since both of those have been going around. They were both NEGATIVE (see how being negative can sometimes be a god thing :))!!! I was so relieved. By the time I took her to the doctor, her temperature was almost to 102. She was so hot!! She never really fussed though. I got her home and we took a good two hour nap. We gave her more medicine once Scott got home and she is quickly getting back to normal! She will stay home tomorrow with Scott half the day and then my mom the rest of the day (she is leaving work early to relieve him) so he can go to work some. I would if it wasn't a few days before Christmas break and I have so much to get accomplished before grades and all of that are due. But, if they could not stay home then I would definitely stay home. Family will always come before my work!! So Emma has gotten lots (even more than the ton we already do :)) of cuddle time and Mickey Mouse today and tonight while she has not been feeling good.

Peppermint Is In This Year

Peppermint stuff is everywhere this year. I bought some peppermint bark candy the other week which was amazing. I am going to be making some chocolate/peppermint cookies to take to my students later this week. And now I am making these peppermint/M&M/pretzel snacks for my Ladies night Sunday School party tomorrow night. These were super easy!!! Last year I made Santa hats with strawberries, icing, and brownies. Those were so cute and easy to make too! To make these peppermint snacks, you place a Hershey Kiss (any kind will work, but these are the cutest) on a square pretzel. Then you bake at 170 degrees for 5-6 minutes.

After the 5-6 minutes are up, take them out of the oven and place a green or red M&M on top of the  semi-melted kiss. Then place in the freezer for an hour. They taste so good too!!

Emma would say so too as she has had a few kisses and some of the completed snacks. Here she is playing with the left over pretzels. She let Scott put her hair in a poney tail with cute little clips on each side. So sweet!!

I am loving her Christmas pajamas!!

I have a few more snacks in the freezer and then they will all be ready for tomorrow night. I got this tree platter at my first bridal shower which happened to be a Christmas shower. It was my favorite shower by far! I still love using this platter each December!

Outside Girl & PJ Traditions

This was an awesome late night snack on Thursday. I didn't say the healthiest, but oh so good!!! Last night Scott and I had oreos and milk. While I do love milk with my oreos, I LOVE some coke with them!!

Saturday, Scott and my brother laid some sod in our backyard. Emma wanted to go outside so bad with them. Here she is with bedhead and everything. Yea- too bad those shoes did not help with the game Saturday night. They did play awesome though. I do not get into football, but I got all into the game last night. I love Mark Richt as their coach. He is a guy with great character!!!

After the sod, a few plants, and pine straw had been laid, her and Scott went back outside. She wanted to help water the new plants. Yes, she does not have one pants! We are in south Georgia and it was HOT on December 1st!!

Last year, we wrapped some Christmas pajama's and opened them on Christmas Eve night before going to bed. I decided this year to change our first annual tradition and start allowing Emma to open a couple pair of new pajama's on December 1st of every year. That way she can wear them throughout the month of December. 

It did not take her long at all to know what to do with that present. This is the first time she has really opened a wrapped gift. I did most of the unwrapping last Christmas and for her first birthday. She will really be into it this Christmas and her 2nd birthday (that is a little over a month away)!

She got a red/green/gray pair with a reindeer on them and then a pink/green/white pair with polar bears, reindeer, Christmas trees, and Santa on them.

She was trying so hard to dress herself. And because I am OCD about stuff, I went ahead and washed them before I wrapped them so she could wear them tonight. I freak out about wearing stuff that has not been washed. :/

TOO Much Food Miss Priss!!!

We went out to eat at Outback Sunday after church. My mom met us there. Emma insisted on taking the bread with her. She ate so much bread and butter while we were there. 

Here she is Monday after Scott got her from school while I was at the eye doctor. 

Yesterday, Scott sent me a text while at work telling me that Emma's teacher called saying she was fussy, wouldn't eat, and was pulling at her ear. I do not play around with ear infections so I immediately made an appointment yesterday afternoon to see if she had an ear infection. Her teacher said she also had not had a BM that day. TMI I know, but it is a fact of life. Scott and I started thinking and it had been since Monday since she had had one. We took her to the doctor and her ears and mouth looked great. Thank goodness she did not have an ear infection or hand/food/mouth which are two things she has had in the past. He told us she was probably constipated and told mer an over the counter powder to get to help her go. Of course, once Scott picked her up from school, she acted like noting was wrong. STINKER!! :)

 Last night, we went to the mall and out to eat with my mom's brother and sister who were in town. Emma enjoyed eating a pretzel.

 And riding the train!!

After we ate and got home, Emma finally went!!!!!! We were all relieved. She is on a cheese and banana restriction for awhile!! Two of her favorites, but she eats them too much. I did not realize until the doctor told us that bananas can cause constipation. Sorry this post was a little personal, but this is the life with Emma we were living this week!! :)

Thanksgiving Week

This post is full of random things we did the week of Thanksgiving!! I had the whole week off from work which was wonderful! Monday, I went to a neat restaurant and did some shopping with my Big Mama friends. We have known each other for 16 years and one of us came up with that name and it just sort of stuck a long time ago. Then Monday night, Emma stayed with my mom and Scott and I went to see Breaking Dawn: Part 2. It was amazing- as was the popcorn and coke!! :)

Lillie stayed with mom Monday night with Emma too. Lillie made Emma a bracelet that you can see she is wearing in the picture. She had a mouth full of goldfish in this picture.

My mom got Emma a big girl twin bed to see if she would sleep in it. She has been sleeping with us for a year now. She got sick a year ago and refused to sleep in her crib. Then we got her a toddler bed and she slept a few nights in it, but not many. It was not made for us to lay down with her at night. She loves this bed and has been sleeping in it since we got it. She even took a 3 hour nap in it Tuesday after we got back from lunch for Lillie's birthday.

Here she is watching Mickey Mouse and eating Sushi. What a life!!!

Here is Lillie (the birthday girl) holding Emma and her friend outside of the restaurant. They were about to release some balloons into the air.

I do not have any pictures of Thanksgiving. But, we ate lunch at Scott's grandparents and dinner with my mom. My parents are divorced, but I am so glad that they can be around each other and get along. My dad came over to my moms to eat dinner with us. Thursday night, my mom kept Emma so we could go shopping Thursday night. I hate that employees have to work on Thursday night, but I would much rather go shopping at night than first thing in the morning. Here is our shopping crew minus Scott, who was taking the picture. Josh (behind me who was Scott's college roommate) really was having fun. Don't let the picture fool you! :)

Here we are about to tackle Toys R Us. It was not bad because they only let a certain number of people in at a time. Then we went to Wal-Mart which was very orderly and organized, Target, and then finished off at the Mall. Belk's was a mad house because they were having their huge sale on boots.

Friday afternoon, my mom and us went to get our trees from a local tree farm. We wanted to get Emma her own little tree. We thought we could cut one of these little ones down for her to put in her bedroom. We later found out that this tree was not for sell. OOPS!!! But the owner is super sweet and did not even let us pay for it. We have been going for several years and will continue to get our trees from him. 

She insisted on carrying her tree. :)

She did let her daddy help her along the way.

Here is our tree all decorated.

 My mom bought us Elf on a Shelf this year. She got the "girly" elf. She is sitting on our mantle this year. We might participate with her and Emma next year when Emma is a little older.

 This is what Emma chose to do while we decorated the tree. Silly girl!! :)

THANKful!!!

As a teacher, I know how special it is to receive a gift every once in awhile. I made a promise to myself, that I would always show Emma's teachers (even daycare teachers) how much I appreciate them. I bought her two teachers a candle from Bath & Body the other day and typed up a quick little card to put on the outside. It says, "Thankful to have you as my teacher! Happy Thanksgiving! Love, Emma." I will take it to them in the morning when I drop off Emma. 

 We went and had Thanksgiving at my Aunt's (dad's sister) today. It was nice to see everyone and eat all of the amazing food!! I took corn casserole that Paula Deen makes. It has got to be one of the easiest side dishes out there!! Emma got to ride on Eva- a Great Dane for a few seconds this afternoon after we had all eaten. Eva is such a BIG dog, but is such a sweetie!!

I can't wait to begin this week where we take time to stop and think about what all we are THANKful for!!

We LOVE Athens!!

Scott went to college in Athens. It is a place where we would love to live one day!! We went for a night stay last weekend. Emma has found a love in the Disney app on our phone. :)

We got there Sunday morning and ate at Pita Pit. Then we walked through a few stores to get Emma and Scott some shirts. We took Emma to walk through campus since it was safe, no cars, and she had been sitting for the past 3 hours. We met a bunny on a leash. She was not too sure of it. 

Then Scott had to go ring the bell. Emma wanted to go with him, but quickly ran back to me once she realized how loud it was. 

She is wearing a grey Georgia shirt Scott bought her a few months ago when he went to a game. A worker at the store where he bought it recognized her shirt as soon as we walked into the store. I am loving my "preppy" girl in these pictures. She is holding one of the few new stuffed animals she got on the trip.

Then we went to look at the stadium and got our picture taken by a sweet person walking by the stadium as well.

We walked around some more last Sunday before going to the bookstore and then going back to the hotel to get our car. We stayed at Hotel Indigo and it was such a nice place. We will be staying there when we return. We were heading to take Emma to a zoo and playground, but she was so tired, she passed out almost as soon as we got into the car. So, we took her first thing Monday morning. We were off work due to Veteran's Day. She loved swinging with mama and going down the slides.

Then we took her to the little zoo they had that was free. One of the many reasons we love Athens is that there are so many little parks, zoos, and botanical gardens we could go to on our days off. Emma loved picking up the acorns!! 

I thought these two pictures were so sweet. She was holding her daddy's hands so sweetly!!

As soon as we left the playground and zoo, she fell asleep and slept most of the way to Atlanta. We went to Atlanta to do a little shopping. 

We grabbed lunch and she instantly saw the carousel. After we ate, her and I rode it. I do not do things that go round and round for too long. I figured the carousel would be over quick and it would go slow enough not to bother me. It went faster than any other carousel I had ever been on and it was super long (I guess because there was not a long line waiting). Needless to say, I was past ready for that thing to stop. Emma- not so much!!! :)

She wanted to ride the "choo choo" Sunday night when we were at the Athens Mall, but we missed the last ride for the night. We promised her we would ride it in Atlanta. She loved riding it with Scott. 

Here they were going past me at one point.

This past Thursday, I took her to do a trial class of gymnastics. She LOVED it, but like dance, is not quite ready for a structured class. She loved doing the activities, but could not understand why she couldn't slide whenever she wanted or that she had to wait her turn. We will try again in August when they start new classes for the year.

Here she was on the big trampoline trying to "jump!" The instructor in the picture said she did great for her first night. She said most will not get on the trampoline or do anything the first night. I want it to be fun her Emma and myself when we do it and having Emma squirm or cry because she can't do something right when she wants to is not worth it. We will try again soon!! :)

Scott had to stay over at work later Thursday night, so he and Emma got to sleep in some Friday morning. She woke up and sat in her chair to watch a few minutes of cartoons before heading off to school.