Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had our first Thanksgiving in Arizona, and Bret made the turkey and I even baked. I am happy to say that no one got sick, so I say it was a great success. Before dinner we all go around the table and say everything that we are thankful for for the past year. Mackenzie started and said she was thankful for her friends, Julia and Shannon. With a little probing she did say she was thankful for her mom and dad and family, ok it was a lot of probing. When each person would talk Mackenzie would chime in with, don't forget me, you are thankful for me. It was absolutely adorable and soon our thankful speeches turned into a dinner of Mackenzie praises. She absolutely loved it.

You are probably looking at the pictures wondering what the heck we were doing, well it is a family tradition that I started a few years ago. At the end of dinner each person sits in the end chair and trys to blow out both candles in a straight line. As you can see we look very funny, but definitely have a great time doing it. My dad says stupid things like, "be the candle", or my mom starts by meditating. We are all so strange, but dinner always ends with a great laugh. Sadly this year, no one was able to do it, I couldn't even blow out the first candle. Mackenzie was old enough this year so she joined in with us, she is just like her mom and is not good at blowing out the candles, Ithink we will start practicing for next year, only 364 days to go.

A little sad news to conclude with: on Wed my family got the news that my grandma had passed away. My grandma was a special lady who will be missed dearly, but I am thankful that she is now in a peaceful place and reunited with my grandpa. I will be leaving to go to Chicago for the funeral and wake, while my sister stays and watches Mackenzie for a few days (she is an amazing sister), and Bret helps Gary move to AZ. Please keep us in your thoughts as my family is doing a lot of traveling in the next few days, so that we all return safe and sound.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and now it is time to get those Christmas trees out:)

Mackenzie being Mackenzie

There are some days when you look at your little one and think why are you such a pain or a PITA, (pain in the @#$) and then there are those days when you look at them and are just in awe of how adorable they are. Well Mackenzie has been giving me many awe moments lately, now don't get me wrong she definitely has her PITA moments and has to be sent to her room, but mostly this week she has been adorable.

Every Sunday, I sit on the couch and cut out coupons so this Sunday Mackenzie decided that she was going to join me. She was so excited because she thought she was helping me out, what a sweetheart, even if she was cutting up all of the coupons that I already cut out and now wouldn't be able to use, but oh well this moment was worth way more than the $.45 I would have saved on rolls.

Then today, I was cleaning the house to get ready for Thanksgiving and Mackenzie got bored helping me so she went and played in our exercise room. She was being awfully quiet, which is normally not a good thing, so I went to check on her. I walked in and she had taken her elmo chair and put it on the treadmill and lined up all of her Little People and was reading them stories. This was such an AWE moment. With Thanksgiving coming I have been in this thankful mode of feeling so lucky to have the life that I do, and when I see my little one being so creative and adorable it just makes me even more thankful.

I hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving!!!!!!

GP came to Visit

Thanksgiving shopping together

Most of you are probably wondering who GP is, well it is my dad. Instead of being called grandpa, he refers to himself as GP. What can I say my dad likes initials after all his name is T.J. Anyways Mackenzie was soooo excited to see GP. You never know what you are going to get from her, it is always a 50-50 no matter who you are. Half the time she will run towards you and be so excited to see you, and the other half she will put her head down and not want anything to do with you. This even happens to me and for goodness sakes I am the one who delivered the stubborn 10 pounder. Well for the entire trip Mackenzie was GP's buddy, they played tick tack toe at breakfast, went Thanksgiving shopping together, watched cartoons early in the morning together while I was sleeping:), and played basketball. Like mother like daughter Mackenzie wanted to play for money and every shot she made she got a dollar, it was so funny to watch her because she concentrated so hard for each shot because she wanted that money. When it was all said and done Mackenzie walked away with 6 dollars even though she says she won 3 "hundy" dollars. That is her word for hundred. I have had Mackenzie practicing every night so that for Thanksgiving maybe she can get some more money out of GP!!! All in all it was a great trip, Mackenzie had a blast with her GP and I got to spend some quality time with my dad.

Am I losing my Mind???

O.K. I don't know if I am losing my mind or not. This past Saturday was absolutely horrible, I had no motivation to do anything, I didn't want to get out of bed, get off the couch etc. After hearing the word mommy for the 150th time within an hour I wanted to jump out a window. Ok I know at this point you think I am psycho and are wondering if Bret has had me admitted. I know as a woman we are hormonal, but my hormones were taken to a whole new level this weekend. Since I had no motivation to do anything or to play house or baby with the munchkin all day, I decided to do something I did with my mom when I was little. I knew for sure this would get me out of my funk. We used to clean out my closet and play dressing room to get rid of all my old clothes and to make room for clothes for the new season. So Mackenzie and I took ALL of her clothes out of her room and threw them into the middle of the loft floor. I was so excited that I was actually going to do something... Until I found myself overwhelmed eating pretzels and watching the real housewives of Atlanta on the couch while Mackenzie took the clothes and spread them all over the house. So needless to say I did not get out of my funk and now my house was a disaster. I then decided to call my mom and sister who I ended up crying to on the phone for absolutey no reason at all. Bret then came up with the wonderful idea that I needed some time for myself. He is so brilliant or he was just scared to death of me.

So Sunday morning rolls around and Mackenzie comes in our room like usual asking to watch toons (cartoons), Bret literally jumped out of bed picked Mackenzie up and took her downstairs so that I wouldn't wake up. I then rolled out of bed at 9:30, my husband is amazing. He then told me that he was taking her to lunch with him and one of his friends. I was feeling so much better from getting a good night sleep, but the thought of an afternoon alone was wonderful so I wasn't going to stop a father, daughter date.

Now I know it sounds like I don't like my life and that I am miserable, but it is the complete opposite, I am the luckiest wife and mom in the world, but every now and then we need to be by ourselves. So there I was driving in the car actually listening to music, instead of hearing the wiggles or elmo from the dvd player. I went in the store without unbuckling a car seat, getting the diaper bag and making sure there were snacks and milk etc. I then decided I would stop and have lunch, a quesadilla & chips from Chipotle, I ate it in my car in the parking lot of Target and was in heaven. I then did some Christmas shopping. Can I just say how amazing Bret is he never once called to ask if I was coming home, I truely believe he wouldn't have called even if the house was on fire because he wanted me to have some time for myself. So I know you are wondering if I decided to go home. Well the answer is YES, the second I walked in the door Mackenzie came running down the stairs and jumped into my arms, and Bret was laying on the couch looking just as I had looked the day before. I was not going crazy, life makes us crazy and a 3 year old who is amazing, hilarious, and priceless is a lot of work, however with just a little break I am back and fresh. Now Bret needs a nap and a day to himself, that is why we make such a good team.

My Husband is a Cave Man

Bret and I have been so busy lately that we are like two ships passing in the night. So when Bret walked in from work today and I saw that he had almost a full beard I almost passed out. He said that he has been too busy to shave and I have been too busy to notice. Mackenzie told Bret that his face was dirty and that he needed to have a picture taken.

If you notice I am not in the picture and that is for a good reason. I have chosen to give up caffeine and boy do I look terrible. I am 2 days clean, I can not believe how much I am craving a cold glass of diet pepsi, I have had a headache for the past two days and absolutely no energy. I hope it will get easier. I decided that drinking an entire liter of diet pepsi in a day is a little ridiculous, don't ya think. I would pour myself a glass, get a refill go on the computer, get a refill, watch t.v. etc and before you know it an entire liter was gone. I know I am pathetic, but hopefully over the next few days my cravings will be gone and I won't look so tired and miserable.

Halloween Has Come and Gone!!!

I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween. Mackenzie had a very happy halloween and went to many parties. She had a preschool party, then two stroller strides parties and then we went to a carnival on the actual night of halloween. I was hosting a booth at the carnival for stroller strides and Mackenzie was obsessed with our game of ring toss, she would put a ring on and then say "o.k, I need some candy now" How did she get so smart??? Bret had to work so Auntie Kristen came and saved the day. Mackenzie got to go around and play all of the games with her aunt while mommy hosted the booth and daddy worked. Pops ( Bret's dad also came to visit, but he opted to stay at the house, I don't blame him). Mackenzie has already chosen her costume for next year... a carebear, elmo, cookie monster, and my favorite a chicken. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.