Peer Pressure

There's nothing like a little peer pressure. Wednesday, I read Heather's blog about her bucket list. Today, I talked to Jen about her bucket list.  This makes me think about my own list - which has been in rough draft form for a few years now. I think I need to finish mine up and just go ahead and put it out there.

From what I can tell all bucket lists are based on each individual's perspective on life. My definition is simple - a list of things I would like to do before I "kick the bucket". These aren't mandatory to me and there are lots of things that are much MORE important than accomplishing the bucket list. I have a separate list of musts that is very personal to me.

1. travel to Boston with Jon - we have been talking about this since before we were married. A Red Sox game will be on the agenda

2. take Gracie to New York - she is so impressed with it. I have to take her there so she can see what it's all about. Ice skating in Central Park is a must!

3. take Caroline to a Dude Ranch - she LOVES horses and farms - this will be a challenge for me I think.

4. swim with the dolphins

5. take Jonas (our dog) to the beach

6. take Anna Kate to Disney World

7. take all three kids to Washington D.C.

8. plant a garden and harvest it

9. see London - still not positive about this one

10. make amazing memories with my family that none of us will forget! This one may be the hardest of all.

11. be a better blogger ;)

Happy New Year!

Back to Blogger

After being attacked by a no good, worthless hacker on my WordPress blog, I have decided that I just don't want to fight with that, so I am moving back to blogger, but keeping my domain - www.littlebitandgrace.com. I thought my twelve followers would like to know...

Crazy (sometimes) Beautiful Life & HHI Vacation

I finally feel like it's time to start keeping up with my blog again! Whew! That last month of pregnancy was hard on all of us! This picture was taken the morning we went to the hospital to meet Anna Kate.



This is where the (sometimes) comes in to the title since I'm not really feeling beautiful here!


We are all so thankful she arrived safely and is a healthy girl! Our world has changed so much since her arrival!





For the past 5 months I have been generally exhausted with life! Trying to keep up with a 10 year old and an 8 year old while taking care of an infant apparently isn't easy. Anna Kate has had lots of life experiences by now that the other two had never seen at this point in their lives. I can tell she is catching on quickly though.

Gracie and Caroline have proven to be awesome big sisters. They enjoyed a summer of playing outside with our neighbors and the occasional visit to a friend's house which was a welcomed break from the door opening and closing all day long for me! We had to get some WD-40 a few weeks after the baby was born because every time the door opened, the baby woke up, and I was ready to SCREAM! I love WD-40 now!

We have taken two trips since Anna Kate's birth. She enjoyed her first trip to the cabin at Oak Haven Resort in Sevierville.

It was really a good trip. The kids had a good time visiting with the Hall family. Anna Kate got tired with all the traveling and different schedules, but she made it okay too. We took this trip to meet most of the Halls for a family reunion. There was good food and fun for all. We rode go carts and Caroline let me drive her around the track...she may never want me to do that again because my competitive side came out! I think we won, but it has been a few months since the race.

It is a family tradition for us to go to the Chop House on the first night we arrive at the cabin and then we usually end up there at least one more time while we are visiting. We held to tradition on this trip and it was delicious as always! I guess that is just a small piece of Josh that we like to hold onto when we're there. He would order the biggest steak I have ever seen every time we went! I think it's called the DelMonico Rib-eye. I'm just waiting for Gracie to ask if she can order it one of these times when we go. I think I will let her just so she can say she ordered it.

We also just came back from Hilton Head Island. This was my first visit there. It was a really nice place and the beaches were prettier than I expected them to be. I have been to the East coast before and my memory of the beaches was not good...

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip - the colors just came out perfect - almost postcard worthy!

It was so windy when we first arrived! There was some rainy weather moving out and the wind was totally unbelievable! I took the girls to the beach on that first day - this picture shows just how windy it was!

Caroline is cracking me up here, but it really is that windy! I don't know if there is a picture of it or not, but one of the days Heather and I took a blanket to sit on while the kids played and the blanket ended up wrapped around us while we were sitting on it and the kid's toys were about half a mile down the beach by the time they caught them. CRAZY!


We did manage to get a family picture that I think will be on my wall soon!

I'm not thrilled with myself in this picture, but everyone else looks good...it's kind of hard to get 5 people to look at the camera and all smile without someone's hair getting crazy or eyes blinking, etc...

I love how the baby is looking at the girls because that is pretty much how it is when they are around.

Caroline spent most of the week hunting for shells and sand dollars while Gracie and Andy were more interested in getting out to the "big" waves. Caroline was very successful finding 3 sand dollars and 1 starfish. We tried to bring the starfish home but it was not happening - it broke into a million pieces. She gave one sand dollar away to a lady who wasn't as lucky as she, and we brought the other two home - one for us and one for Andy.


I can't say that we will go back to HHI anytime soon. We much prefer the emerald coast with its white sand and crystal clear waters, but I'm glad we experienced it. I don't know that I've ever been that close to a gator before unless I was at a zoo! There were some different things to do there like ride bikes! The kids loved being able to ride all over the place with us.





We were able to take the kids on that awesome Exploring Savannah tour that Jon and I took last year while we were there. Savannah is only about 45 minutes from HHI. It's a walking tour and the weather couldn't have been better! Anna Kate got to "ride" in her favorite position most of the time. The kids got to sit on Forrest Gump's bench and see Forsythe fountain. Mr. Bobby Davis taught us all about the great city in his own "southern" way! We ate chicken tenders at Spanky's on River Street and ice cream at Leopold's Ice Cream shop. I would recommend this tour to anyone!

If you get the chance be sure to ask Caroline about the "certificate of appropriateness" that she learned about. She has a great southern belle impression!

I have a few more things to blog about, but I feel like they deserve their own post. I will get to those soon...I think!

Jonas and Stella

I have been trying to get a video of this for several months. Each time Stella gets Jonas's toys, Jonas will just stand there and cry and bark and whine until we give her the toy. Here, Stella has a black tire toy that belongs to Jonas and even though this wasn't her best performance, Jonas ends up getting the toy :) At the end, you will hear Caroline say "Good Luck, Anna Kate" because she says that at the end of every one of her videos now. (If you haven't watched Disney's "Good Luck, Charlie" show, you should!)

I was thinking as I was typing this post about how we will soon be videoing Anna Kate instead of our dogs...we have about 9 weeks left until we meet her!!!

Sweet Caroline

Press play to enjoy a song while you read (because I have tried for at least an hour to figure out how to get this song to play automatically when you open this post)


These photos are being posted in the order that they were taken last night...It has become a bit of a family tradition to make a cake or cupcakes on the night before the birthday - usually because we are taking them to school the next day - so Caroline wanted her picture taken with her cupcake:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I think she was about to blow out the candle:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUT WAIT!!!! She forgot to make a wish!



 

 

 

 

 

 

These pics made me laugh this morning!

She was properly named Caroline by her Daddy - she just couldn't be sweeter if you ask me!

Happy 8th birthday ,  Sweet Caroline!

Memory Lane

Life is not measured by the number of breaths that we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Five years ago today, the world lost a truly great guy. His memory lives on through two beautiful little girls who I am lucky enough to call my daughters :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of Josh and Caroline:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a good one of Heather, Josh, Andy, Gracie, and Caroline:




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We miss you, Josh!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Tomorrow Gracie is turning 10 years old. I feel like I should have something proverbial to say, but I'm at a loss right now. It does make me feel old to really think about the fact that she has been here for an entire decade.

I have been thinking about when we decided to have a baby the first time. I think it was more "I" wanted to have a baby at first, but after she arrived Josh was smitten by her. I can tell when I look back at pictures how much happiness he got from her. I think she has so many of her dad's traits from not being very flexible (literally) to taking life quite seriously at times. Even her teeth remind me of him. I know he would be so proud of her for being a good student, being respectful, and so many more things because I am proud of her for them!

Gracie was a great baby, funny toddler, great kid, and is now turning into a responsible - I'm just going to say it - preteen?!?!?! That just sounds so weird! In my mind, I suppose, she will always be this little girl that I prayed for:

 

She was 6 days late (or as some might say on "Gracie's time"), and she has kept up her tradition as we are all commonly sitting in the car waiting for her to finish whatever she's doing so we can leave :)

Here is the most recent picture I have taken of Gracie. She is wearing silver make-up because of her recent role in "The Wizard of Oz" at school. Look at what a different 10 years makes:

Happy birthday, Gracie!

Love, Mom

Pulling Teeth

My kids are like night and day when it comes to several things - one of which is pulling teeth! Gracie can't wait to get the teeth out. As soon as she thinks a tooth is the slightest bit loose, she pulls it with her dad's pliers - yes I said pliers!

So, about 2 years ago here is what Gracie looked like: (Her little sister was pretty cute with all those baby teeth, right?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, Gracie's teeth looked a lot like two large chicklets for a while when they finally came in. They were way too big for her little mouth! She has now grown into them and I really don't even think she is going to need braces - now that's something to be thankful for!

Here are the chicklets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, Caroline started losing teeth about a year ago, and it has been a totally different experience. She did okay with  the first one. I'm pretty sure it just fell out of her mouth while we were in a public restroom somewhere - great memory right? That was not exactly what I had planned, but I was just glad it was finally out because there was NO convincing that child to pull her tooth or to even let anyone near her mouth at the time.

The second tooth was not quite so easy to get out: Her adult tooth started coming in behind it and it just wouldn't get loose enough to fall out...this little scenario ended up costing me $100 at the dentist office! We had a very serious talk about the fact that there were about 15 more teeth in her mouth and we would not be letting the dentist pull each of them at the rate of $100 each! She took me seriously, because it has gotten better...

Last night, Caroline hit her mouth on something and it knocked one of her top teeth looser than it had been. It looked so funny because it was crooked and slightly out of place. Today at lunch, I told her I would buy her a toy if she would just go ahead and pull it today - knowing that probably wouldn't happen. She hit her mouth again today, and guess what??????

The tooth came out and I had to go buy a toy! Here is the big girl with her missing tooth! Here come the chicklets :)

 

 

Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe is one of my family's favorite dinners! It is also fairly easy to make, so we have it at least once a month...

You will need:

1 pkg chicken breast (3-4 breasts)

1 small container sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can Rotel

1 C shredded cheese

1 can red enchilada sauce - I use mild

1 package large tortillas (about 10)

To make things easier I put the chicken in the crock pot on low for the day.  If you don't have time for that, you can boil it in a pan with water and a bouillon cube until cooked.

I have done with two different ways and either one is great. The first is to pour the whole can of Rotel in with the chicken. The second is to put the chicken in with a chicken flavor bouillon cube and about a cup of water.

When you are ready to cook the enchiladas, take the chicken (and Rotel) out of the crock pot and shred it with a fork. It should shred very easily. Combine the soup and sour cream, mix well. Add chicken, cheese and rotel (unless you used it to cook with). [You may want to add other ingredients to this such as black beans, black olives, etc...]

Prepare a 9x13 pan by spraying it with PAM. Fill tortillas with about two spoonfuls of chicken mixture and roll. Place enchiladas in pan. When you have filled all tortillas and placed them in the pan, pour enchilada sauce over top. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.

Serve with rice, cheese dip, guacamole, and ENJOY!

Sweet Memories

Since I have been at home for a few weeks now, I have organized and cleaned (more organizing than cleaning actually) several things that I have been meaning to get to but just couldn't find time while working...

One of these things is my pictures from the past several years. I was really good at keeping them chronologically placed in albums - I mean to the point that if you open one of those previous albums to the front cover, you will find a list of all the events that are in that album. They are numbered too! I know that's ridiculous. Well, I fell into the craziness of single-parenthood and totally lost my groove on the picture organizing :( There are two large boxes full of disorganized pictures since 2005 or so...Jon all but banned me from going through them after we moved into this house because I started looking at them then, but ended up crying like a big baby over my babies and their dad...He really didn't know what to do with me that time - and honestly there was nothing he could do - just deal with some of my craziness - the poor guy! I'm not crying this time, but remembering so much and thankful for those memories.

When I finally started looking through the pictures, I found these sweet kids in them that I barely recognize anymore! I miss these days so much! They were so sweet and young and cute! I love the baby faces...



These were taken in the Spring of 2005 - the last time we went to the beach with Josh. We got some great pictures of him with the girls there - one of my faves:



That is possible the sweetest little look Caroline has on her face that I have EVER seen!

I think this was the second trip we took to the beach with the kids. The first time Caroline was not fond of the sand at all. She wouldn't let us put her down on the beach without a towel or chair underneath her, so this picture was quite the milestone for her:



Sweet little toes and fingers!

I have really enjoyed looking through them and love my Picasa to organize them in. It puts them in order by year when I load the CDs!  So even if I don't know what year the pics were taken, the picture CDs do, and somehow the software pulls out the info! AWESOME! I would recommend Picasa to everyone!

Snow 2011 - take 256

These are from the last snow we had - what was that last week? or two days ago? I don't know...I've lost count.

I love the colors in these pics - especially the one of the two girls together on the bridge!

Snow is so beautiful and yes we should just enjoy it's splendor, but I have just about had my fill of it! I'm writing this post as I wait - yet again - for school to be cancelled tomorrow because guess what?

It snowed...again!

Pink Little Blanket

Tonight we are childless! We had discussed just getting a movie and staying in, so that's what I was already doing when Jon called on his way home. He said he wanted to go out and do a few things, so I got dressed again and we went to Hendersonville. There are a couple of birthdays in the family, so he said he wanted to get those taken care of and he wanted to get something for the baby! YAY!

He was telling me how when he was little he had an orange blanket that he called "Orange Little Blanket" and maybe we could get Anna Kate and orange blanket like his (I convinced him that the only way we would get an orange baby blanket would be to go buy the fabric and make it ourselves...)

When we got to the store, Jon went ahead to the baby stuff and I had to go to another department...by the time I got over there, he had chosen a soft little blanket with a bear on it. Anna Kate now has a "Pink Little Blanket"!

Animal love and the future

Caroline has a deep affection for animals, especially horses... This morning on the way to school we passed a little fence that held a miniature horse. She said she really just doesn't understand why we can't have one of those at our house. (I kinda feel like we already do - her name is Jonas)

Anyway, we live in a neighborhood with restrictions on this sort of thing, so I began to explain to her that we are not allowed to have farm animals here. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Caroline: I really just don't like the neighborhood where we live. I really want a horse.

Me: Well, when you grow up you can have a horse as long as you will take care of it.

Caroline: I want to work with animals when I grow up.

Me: You can do that, but you may want to do something else like be a teacher or something too. Then, you could just have the horses at your house, but you will want to marry someone who loves horses as much as you do so they can help you with them.

Caroline: Well, what will I do when I'm pregnant?

Me: HUH?

Caroline: Who will take care of the horses when I go to the hospital to have a baby?

Me: Oh, well, you have plenty of family members that will help you with them when you go to have a baby. It only takes a couple of days.

Caroline: Gracie, will you take care of the horses when I go to have a baby?

Gracie: Ummmm.....well....

Me: Caroline, please don't worry about it right now. We will take care of it when the time comes!

All because we drove past one little horse on the way to school!

Lovin' the Groundhog!

So, if you haven't heard, Punxsutawney Phil has predicted an early Spring. I love that guy!

BUT Where is it? Why are the weather forecasters predicting snow again???? I'm counting on Phil's prediction to come true, so hopefully this week will be the end of the snow until next winter!

It's a GIRL!

Another sweet little blonde headed one if my predictions are correct! We can't wait to meet Anna Kate sometime around June 10th!

After the ultrasound, the doctor took close to an hour to come to the room, so all I could do was worry that something was wrong. Thankfully, she came in and said that our baby is perfect! That was an answered prayer! I had worried over that for several weeks for some reason - I guess just the Devil giving me something to worry about, right?

Tomorrow, tomorrow...you're only a day away!

Tomorrow we will find out if we are going to add Anna Kate or [insert boy name here] to our family! I am excited to know which it will be - hopefully he/she will cooperate and let us know! Jon and I picked out several boy names, but were unable to come to an agreement on what to name him if it is a boy...His name will have be _____ Evan or Evan ______, but this is all we know! I don't think Jon officially accepted Anna Kate as the girl name, but we made an agreement - if it's a girl, I pick. If it's a boy, he picks! Obviously, I have already picked with the help of my BFF Jen...actually it was her suggestion because I have already chosen two girl names and was totally out of ideas!

Out of all three pregnancies, this is the first time that I have waited to decorate the room or buy clothes, etc for the baby until I know what to buy. I was way too excited to wait with Gracie, the first, I had the room practically finished before the ultrasound and just added girly touches; she already had several sleepers, onesies, etc that would go either way too. With Caroline, we waited until she was born to find out if she was a boy or girl, so we had the room totally finished and of course by that time we had figured out that we didn't need much for a newborn - blanket, diapers, gown/onesies and you're good to go! I think waiting was fun, but was torture for the family! This time, I want to buy boy stuff if it's a boy and girl stuff if it's a girl - no in between!

Needless to say, there will be a new blog post tomorrow with the news!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I know that anyone who has ever been pregnant will definitely understand this. Last night, I really wanted a BBQ Chicken pizza. If you have never tried this, you are missing out. I know it sounds a little gross, but it's not. I even liked it before I was pregnant, so I don't think it's one of those pickles and ice cream things...I never craved anything like that by the way.

I thought I would share the recipe if anyone would like to try it.

I buy one of those pizza dough mixes at the grocery store, so you can do that or just buy one of the pre-made ones.




You will need
pizza crust
Olive oil
a sweet but spicy BBQ sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle OR Raspberry Chipotle)
Red onion chopped
Cilantro
one large chicken breast cubed
Mozzarella or Pizza cheese

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add red onions and cubed chicken. Cook until chicken is completely done. Add 2 TBSP of BBQ sauce and turn heat to low to simmer. If you are making your pizza dough, go ahead and do so following the package directions. Mine said to heat the oven to 425*. When your dough is ready, place it on your baking sheet. Spread the BBQ sauce (as much as you would prefer) on the dough. Add the chicken and onion mixture. Cover with cheese. Cook following dough instructions (mine said about 20 minutes). When the pizza is finished, top with cilantro and serve!

It is sooooo good.

Dayspring Unwound!

Gracie and Caroline have been on the school's jump-rope team for a few years now. They really love it! I love it because we only have practice once a week, they both like to jump and it's right after school! They get to perform at the school's basketball games to show off their skills. Let me say that there is no way in the world that I could do any of these things, and I am amazed at what they have learned!

Here is Gracie doing the "Moon bounce":


Here is Caroline doing the "Pretzel"!


I hope the girls continue to jump for years! It's so good for their health! Occasionally I get the idea that I can jump rope (not while pregnant, of course), then, I try it and remember that it feels like my brain is going to explode! I will just stick to walking ;)

The Real Reason Jon went to Orlando...

Hogwarts! It was amazing but ridiculously busy...

Funnies from Disney

I think we may have been more exhausted on this trip than we have been in a while because there were several things that happened which have become part of our everyday lives...

I promised the family that there would be a list to go on the blog so that we wouldn't forget all of them, so here goes!

1. While we were there the kids noticed that there was a large Hispanic population. Gracie piped in to one conversation regarding this fact with a very loud "Aloha". Now, I'm not sure if it was the exhaustion or what, but the whole group just fell apart laughing at her because she felt like she was speaking Spanish! We did fill her in that it is a Hawaiian greeting, but she has thoroughly enjoyed using the word at random times since this incident!

2. From this trip forward I think I have become the official Tour Guide and trip planner. They made me drive this huge suburban that we rented; AND somehow, we did get to the right places! I got some help from the kiddos one morning though:



3. I don't know if this one qualifies as a funny, but it's something any mom would be proud of! Our kids have grown up watching Mary Poppins - I think Gracie and I probably know every word to the movie and each song too! Well, while we were at Epcot, we met the real Mary Poppins and she said that our kids were extremely well-behaved ;)



I may have to return later to add to this post, but I have to work tomorrow - it's bed time!

The most Magical Place on Earth

We went to Disney World in September 2010, and I have had a hard time picking which pics I want to use for the blog post; I am finally going to put it into words with LOTS of pictures. It seems to me that I always do a better job choosing pictures after a little time has passed...sentiment sets in and I can appreciate even the worst picture of myself because of the smile it puts on my face when I think of the memory I have from it. Case in point:



OH! I don't want to leave this one out because there is a great story to go with it...sorry Heather! This picture was taken before my family actually arrived at the airport. They are laughing at GranGran I believe because of a discussion about the new full body scanners at the airport...She was telling them that it allows them to see you without clothes and they didn't believe her. Apparently LOTS of things are very funny early in the morning ;)



We didn't tell Gracie and Caroline that they were going to Disney World until we arrived at the airport. We let Andy hold this sign as we pulled up to unload our bags! They didn't really believe us until we got on the plane! I LOVE Gracie's expression here! It's perfect!



This was Andy's and Caroline's first time on an airplane! Thankfully, the flight was very smooth and uneventful! (I have more pictures of Andy, but wanted to let his mom post them on her blog :)



The first place we went when we arrived was Animal Kingdom. It was awesome! After getting our lanyards for pin collecting, and walking around trying to figure out the map, we stopped at the "A Bug's Life" show thinking that would give the kids something to do while we caught our breath! HA! It was an interactive 3D show and not all of us enjoyed the "interactive" part. The seats felt like there were bugs crawling behind our backs and under our bottoms, but the WORST part (if you ask Andy) was getting sprayed with "bug saliva" (water). I think it nearly ruined his day! Caroline liked the bug glasses!



I love the look of amazement on Gracie's face watching this parade!



The second day, we visited Magic Kingdom!



Caroline enjoyed at least a couple shoulder rides through there! It seemed very crowded, but the workers told us that it was a light day with around 20,000 guests! WOW!



Gracie and Caroline had their faces painted at Magic Kingdom...and we watched the electrical parade - SO COOL!



The kids even talked GranGran and Grandad into riding a rollercoaster!



It was a fantastic trip! We made lots of memories to go along with these pictures. I would say I can't wait to go back, but I need a few years to recover!