One Time a Year

Well I realize now why I only get all suzy homemakery and cook one time a year. BECAUSE ONE TIME A YEAR IS ENOUGH!!! It's great to add the personal touch, but again only one time a year! I've spent the last two nights (after work) coming home to cook. Last night it was 2 huge batches of sausage balls and 2 batches of tuxedo balls... if you've never had them they are AWESOME!! (all credit goes to Heather for those!) Then tonight I made 2 batches of my candy cane sugar cookies. One batch is actually 2 batches... one white batch and one red batch so that's actually 4 batches!! Anyway I like to make Brian's employee's something for Christmas so it has a personal touch, plus we have our annual luncheon at work tomorrow where I always bring the cookies. And these days as Mackenzie is actually into everything and has teachers that have to keep up with her I realize they need CHristmas gifts too! And I've also realized why my Mom did it! Ha! Thanks Mom!!

Is that alot of cookies or what?? I even had half as much on another counter! I need to recoup until next year...

By the way, I just love these little chinese take out boxes! I used boxes like this for Mackie's b-day favors and now I'm using them again for Christmas! They are so cute, and they matched the boxes I found for the cookies back in October!

Side note... Brian laughed at my word... suzy homemakery, but its my blog and I can use the words I want to!! When he gets his own he can use the words he wants! Ha!

Springer

Mackenzie has a new obsession... one of those little bitty metal slinkies. Who knows why but for some reason she calls it her "springer". I assume its because it looks like a spring and in 2 yr old logic it should then be called "springer". Who can fault a 2 yr old for their logic? If only things were that easy!! :) She is OBSESSED with it and wants it ALL the time. And go figure its little and she likes to carry it everywhere so we never know where exactly to look for it. One morning before leaving for work I came in the living room to find her playing with it, she looked at me and just said "Mom it's not boinging!!" I was surprised as usual and had no idea where she had learned the word boing or what it meant. She never ceases to trip me out with the new words she comes up with every day. I also want to thank my wonderful husband for buying a backup and also discovering they have them at the W-M checkout and not just the Target dollar bins!!

Could she have anything else on??

Yeah I couldn't resist taking this pic... could she have put anything else on??? Jewelry might be the only thing she's missing.

1. Pajamas
2. Coat
3. Scarf
4. Sunglasses
5. Green headband (that didn't match)
6. Headphones
7. I think she even had a cell phone stuck beside her leg.

Family Movie Night

The weekend before Thanksgiving I took my GMAT to get into grad school. But I decided it was more important to have a family movie night the night before my test... I was tired of studying and I was in need of some serious family QT. We rented Kung Fu Panda and Brian even got a tub of movie popcorn at W-M. We had a great time hanging out as a family, and Mackenzie really liked the movie.

Can you tell she was watching the movie and not interested in taking a pic?

Yeah she was loving the popcorn!

Such a sweet girl to share... :)

Christmastime is HERE!!!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE Christmastime! It such an amazing time of year with all the family and Christmas decorations, but most importantly it celebrates when our Savior was born. I get so frustrated because we all get so wrapped up in what Christmas has been turned into... finding gifts for this person, what am I going to get that person, holiday parties, and what am I getting?? The real reason we celebrate Christmas is because Christ came to earth to DIE for us! I still can't comprehend it some days, and am SOOOO grateful for His sacrifice!!!

After taking my GMAT I decided I needed something relaxing to do so I decided to put up my Christmas tree. What was I thinking?? Did I forget how many lights I put on the tree? Both Brian and Mackenzie were in bed when I finished with the lights, and I was about to wrap up and I remembered I told Mackenzie she could help me with the ornaments. If you have or ever have had a 2 yr old, you know that promising a 2 yr old something and then hoping they will forget doesn't work... So I knew it was best to wait until picking her up from Wanda's to put on the ornaments.

She had a good time putting the ornaments on the tree! Until she got bored! Did I mention she's 2 1/2 and has a age appropriate attention span? :) I love it when she looks at me and says "Mom the Christmas tree is beautiful!" (She says beautiful so cool!)

Can you tell what her favorite ornament was?

Can you tell how excited she was about the Razorback ornament??? Yes we're raising our kiddo right!!! Woo Pig Sooie!!

This was the ornament Charlie and I always fought over putting on the Christmas tree growing up. I'm still not sure why but I love the fact the ornament ended up at my house!! Guess that's the benefit of being the older sibling who had a family first. :)

First Movie

We took Mackenzie to see her first movie a few weeks ago... she loved Madagascar so much that we thought Madagascar 2 would be a great first movie for her. She did really great during the movie and only got really restless one time during the movie. We told her all week we were going to take her to the movie, and that we'd have lots of popcorn and M&M's. She was in heaven! We had a great time together as a family, and poor Brian met us right as he was getting off work, so he slept thru part of the movie.

Stackin'

Mackenzie's newest obsession is with stacking the cups and cans in the kitchen. My kitchen could be perfectly clean... (Hey I said could be, not that it is, anything is possible!) and all the sudden out comes every cup in our cabinet and every can in the other cabinet and away goes my clean (or pretend) clean kitchen. This day she had skittles she was pouring back and forth between the cups. Even more of a mess, but she was having such a blast!! Some days she helps pick up the mess and then other days its just not worth the 10 extra minutes it would take to have the "help".

P.S. Mackenzie just saw this pic and said, "It's my tower! I build it!" and immediately went back to watching Mickey before bedtime.

One of many times the "tower" fell over.

This time was funny because I caught it in the midst of fall... her face was priceless!

This is Mackenzie's silly new "say cheese" face... I laugh every time but then thing what a silly picture! (Again she looked over while I was uploading the pics and said, "I'm saying cheese!")

Halloween

Yeah I know it's only like a month late, but here are the pics of Mackie from Halloween. She was Cinderella... wonder why that was? I'm sure it had nothing to do with Disneyworld or the fact that it was an outfit she loved and that it meant I didn't ahve to buy another costume! :)

We made it special by spraying her with "sparkly things" and even a little clear lip gloss! She was too cute, but of course wouldn't stay still or stop and smile for the camera. She was in a constant state of motion that night.

I've been tagged...

I've been tagged by Susy to do the following:

1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer

2. Choose the 4th picture

3. Explain the picture

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

So this is what would have been my 4th pic from my 4th folder if I'd ever gotten around to putting all my pics back in the same directory. (New camera created a new directory) Anyway this pic is of Mackenzie when she was 2 months old playing in her Bumbo seat. God bless the person who invented this jewel! Mackenzie loved that rattle and I choose to believe that the look on her face was one of 2 month old focus and not that she was "doing business". (Honestly, I can't remember...) Another couple of cool details... this was before all Mackenzie's hair came in and got crazy and curly! It's also before it lightened up, when she was born it was light brown and LITERALLY looked like she had been to get it highlighted. If you notice her toes, one side is curled up and the other is spread out. She used to do that a lot when she was little. Not ever sure why, but she liked to alternate between curling her toes and spreading them out. Such a silly girl, even at 2 months old!

I tag:

1. Heather

2. Anne

3. Abbie

4. Sarah

Scarf

Over the weekend Mama Jo gave Mackenzie a scarf she had made. Initially Mackenzie didn't want ANYTHING to do with it, even after MJ, Nana, me, and Kelsey tried it on. But at bedtime that night she had to find the scarf and take it to bed with her. (It's in the top left corner of this pic.) Gotta love the changing mind of a 2 yr old!

Go Fish!

These days my child is obsessed with games... doesn't matter which kind, card games, computer games, puzzles, even hi ho cherrio. I finally snapped some pictures of her while we were playing Go Fish (the 2 yr old version where we always have a match) Sunday after church. There is never a boring moment with her!!

If she doesn't want to give you one of her cards when you ask her she stacks her cards up where you can't see what she has and says "Maybe Later!" You can't help but laugh!

Hi Heels

This weekend we went to Magnolia to a friend from college's wedding. Before we left town we stopped to see Brian's sister Amanda. While we were there Mackenzie decided she not only wanted to wear my shoes (not unsual these days) but she also wanted to prance around. Thank goodness my camera was still in Brian's pocket!

More Random Mackenzisms

I know I've blogged before about the random things Mackenzie says, but she is always saying the funniest things, so I build them all up and then will post them a group at a time.

A couple of weekends ago Brian was in our bedroom putting up laundry and Mackenzie was playing in our closet... for some reason she loves to do that when we're in there. I guess it seems fun like a fort... at least that's why I used to play in my closet!!! Anyway back to the point, Brian says all of the sudden, Mackenzie opens the door and says "Thanks for shopping with us today!" and then promptly closes the door! Who knows where she learned that but I think its' hilarious!!

Another new thing in Mackenzie land is the fact that if she gets her clothes even a little bit wet, she has to strip them off! The first day she started this she came running in to the living room from the playroom and said "I gotta go change my clothes I spilled water all over them". And then she immediately turned around to run to her room. The way she said it, so matter of factly and just like it was an FYI made me almost roll on the floor laughing!

This next one I have NO idea where it came from... I don't even remember what I said to her, but all of the sudden she looked at me and said "Awwww shucks!" It applied perfectly to the situation and she also had the perfect accompanying look. I was just in awe of the random things she says!

There are many more, but that's all I have on the e-mail I sent myself to make sure I didn't forget to blog about them!

Talking on the phone

When we were in Disneyworld I bought an Ariel cell phone for Mackenzie to use as a prize on the way home. Well we never needed it on the way home so I was saving it for her stocking... well last week she ended up in the prize drawer and found it. There was no way I was getting out of giving it to her then. Well its' been absolutely hilarious!

Here's a sample conversation:

I walk in the room and she looks at me and says

"Shhhh! I'm talking on the phone."

"No there is too many people in here"

"Hi, my name is Mackenzie. What's yours? Ariel?"

"Alright talk to you later"

Here's another one... can't decide which is funnier.

"Hey Ariel!"

"Whatcha doing?"

"Oh you're in the ocean with Flounder and the shark?"

"Can I talk to Flounder?"

"Hey Flounder, you're in the ocean with Ariel and the shark."

"Have fun, talk to you later!"

Many different variations on this same conversation are going on all the time, and are always entertaining!

I love Puggles!

On Wednesday nights when Brian and I are helping with Trek (5th & 6th grade Awana's) Mackenzie goes to Puggles. She LOVES Puggles and can't WAIT to go every week!! This year I love it even more because she comes home every week and we can ask her what she's learned. So far this year she has learned that God has made the trees, the flowers, the grass, the vegetables and this week the sun. It's the best feeling in the world to hear my kiddo telling me what she learned at church... that God made everything. Mine and Brian's ultimate goal as parents is to raise children who love God with all their hearts and want to do His will in their lives.

I was trying to get her to smile and look at the camera, but she'd say "Cheese" and look down immediately.

Go figure, I was trying to get her to show me her Puggles shirt.

Our little camel.

Quality Time

This weekend Brian and I were able to get out of town and have a little quality time. We went to Fayetteville to the Razorback/Ole Miss game. Obviously we really wanted the Razorbacks to win, but I actually think its pretty funny that Houston won... He can say take that Arkansas, you treated me bad on the way out, and I came into your house and beat you. He-He-He!

Granted I was much more "ok" with the loss without the last two minutes of the game... that part was extremely painful!!

Leave it to Brian to not be serious when I'm trying to take a pic....

AWESOME PIC!

Is this an awesome pic or what?? Gotta love good luck shots!

The Egg

Today Wanda send a magical disappearing egg home with Mackie for bathtime. She actually had it yesterday but the munchkin wasn't a nice girl (can you tell we don't use the word bad in this situation?) so Wanda wasn't going to give her a treat... More power to her!

When I was trying to open it for her and right after I handed it to her she kept saying "It's about to hatch, It's about to hatch!!" It was so cute!!

The egg fizzed up and when it disappeared there was a dinosaur inside. After the dinosaur magically appeared she sweetly said "Thank you egg!" It was totally random and out of the blue and equally as precious!! :) P.S. The water is that color because of the egg not because I never clean my bathtub... Ha!

Murphy USA Family Picnic

Last weekend we had a picnic for work. The weather was perfect, the kiddos had fun, and I even got to play bingo (with a crappy card). We also had somebody there who took pics and we ended up with some REALLY cute ones of Mackenzie and some family shots too.

One of the pics is one of my new faves of all times!! Randomly enough it ended up being the "poster" for the picnic... and NO I'm no bragging!! I'm just a little biased. Ha!

My new all time favorite pic!!

Wind and crazy curly hair... never a boring combination!

The kids had a great time doing the pumpkin walk.

Of course the Mackenzie & Rylee had to hold hands!

This one just makes me giggle! We've got a better pic, but this is too cute!