North Carolina Austins: 2012

Monday, December 24, 2012

Holiday Fun

We've had quite a fun and exciting December!

We've decked the halls

We've been doing LOTS of singing, in the car, around the tree, and a little on stage, too!

Herbie, our Elf on the Shelf, has reported back to Santa EVERY SINGLE NIGHT this season. ( The capital letters are a pat on the back to this awesome Mom who has remembered to assist him EVERY SINGLE NIGHT since Thanksgiving.)

Herbie has baked us snowman cookies, left us coloring pages and ornament crafts, and even made donut snowmen for breakfast one morning! We are really going to miss him when he goes back to the North Pole with Santa.

We had breakfast with Mrs. Claus and Libby actually talked to Santa at the mall one morning!

We sent out our Christmas cards...(and our entry into a holiday family photo contest was not accepted. Apparently it could be considered offensive to some?)

We've made cookies, well...Grandma has been making cookies. We helped with a little bit of decorating and a lot of taste testing!

Maggie has a friend at school who is Jewish, so she has been teaching us what she has learned about Hanukkah. It seemed like the most appealing tradition is getting a present every day. Grandma and GB thought a new tradition would be fun, and hence, Chenekah was born.

I have always been a fan of opening gifts as they arrive, so this sounded alright to me. Daddy, however, does not even open birthday cards until his actual birthday! He's coming around on the Chenekah celebrating, though....he made GB this sign.

We've been to at least 3 parades in the last month and attempted a "snow" festival (when it was 60 degrees out and 500 children were in line to sled down a hill about as big as the one on Rice Avenue I slid down when I was 5 years old.) It's been a great holiday season so far, and we're looking forward to our visit with Santa and going over the rivers and through some rain to Gamma's house!

Monday, November 19, 2012

I thik your speshol

Maggie and Libby helped me make some pumpkin chocolate chip bread and mini muffins for our wonderful teachers and bus driver.

Our kindergarten girl is AWESOME!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Party rockin in this house tonight, (and the next day, and probably for the rest of November!)

We started celebrating Libby's #3 birthday several days ago, and there's no telling when we will stop! We went to Barnes and Noble on Friday night to give George a big hug. ( Good thing, too. He must have warned some of his cousins that we would be seeing them at the zoo in a few days. The red booty baboons were very entertaining.)

We went to a super fun carnival at Apex High School on Saturday afternoon!

Still monkeying around, we had cake and ice cream and opened some presents on Sunday. TT, Jerome, GB, and Grandma were all here to go bananas with us!

Then on Monday, Libby's actual birthday, we left a BEAUTIFUL day in Apex to go check out the real monkeys at the NC Zoo in Asheboro. It rained the ENTIRE day, but we still had a great time, thanks to those baboons! Maybe she'll get a real monkey for her birthday next year?

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween

What did the mama tomato say

to the baby tomato who was waddling behind?

Ketchup.

Time for October ketchup.

Cheneys North flew down a few weekends ago and we all caravanned over to TT's near Charlotte. Celebrating Dawn and Jerome's engagement! First, we had some fun at the park in Concord.

On Sunday, we went to Carrigan Farms, where they are having their wedding in March. They have a fun hayride and pumpkin patch there in the fall.

Thought we'd stop for apple picking on the way back home.

The season was early this year, so we 'picked' apples out of bushel baskets. Good enough for these girls!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Burgher Time

Gamma and Grandfather came down for a fall visit last weekend. We had lots of fun, despite the rain on Saturday. Sunday's weather was a great improvement, and made for a fun morning at the pumpkin patch!

Maggie was a-maizing in the corn

Two black and hairy bats, eating delicious gnats, flapping their wings along the way!

(We have a Halloween cd that has been running constantly in the minivan since someone spotted the first candy corn of the season. After a weekend in the backseat, Grandfather most likely still has this song in his head!)

This pumpkin patch is one of our favorites in the area, because of it's fancy, high budget entertainment.

Whoa.

Helping Gamma make a special pumpkin dish!

Notable Quotables

Libby and I had steal cut oats for breakfast this morning.

me: Do you want bananas on yours? I'm having bananas on mine.

Lib: No. I want honey on mine. I like honey. I like honey on Scottish biscuits.

me: What's a Scottish biscuit?

Lib: You know, you put them in the toaster.

me: English muffin?

Lib: Yeah, that's it.

Libby does a lot of singing. We are currently stuck on Katy Perry's Roar album. Back when we used to be able to listen to the radio on the way to school, she'd have great comments on the lyrics to songs.

You know that song- "I'm never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm..." Then it goes, "Should've known better than to "cheetah" friend", and she laughs and says she wishes she had a cheetah friend.

Another time, she commented that "you really can't rock and roll all night, but you could party every day."

And finally, if you know Libby, you know she has a little 'lovey' monkey that she has slept with every night of her life. We were listening to The Beastie Boys, Brass Monkey, and there's a line, " wherever we go, we bring monkey with us". She thought that was great, "Hey Mommy, me too!"

This afternoon, we were over at Grandma and GB's. Libby asked Grandma is she'd get "that cat fun dip" out.

As the new holiday tradition of Chenekah was being established, we were trying to come up with a 'theme song' or Chenekah carol. Maggie was getting impatient with our singing, and shouts out, "Oh for Christ's Cake! Let's just open the present!" The baking of the Christ Cake....and another Chenekah tradition begins!

At the dinner table, both girls like to have a chance to say their own special blessing. Tonight, Libby was especially thankful. "Thank you, God, for Daddy's favorite (dinner), and the beans. And all my family. And the napkins. And money. Amen. And the Steelers."

Libby just came up to me and said, "Mommy, I want to go somewhere else." And I asked, "where would you like to go?"

"To my bed."

Almost 3 years old, and a good hour before the usual bedtime!

I'm sure every mother can sympathize with my lack of alone time in the bathroom. I was getting into the shower this morning and Libby says,"Whoa. You have big boobies." I smile politely. Then she continues, "They look like meatballs!"

Age 2 1/2

Maggie received an invitation to a birthday party for one of her friends from preschool. The next day in school, all the mothers were hanging around the classroom getting ready for a field trip to the park. As the teacher was trying to quiet everyone down and get the morning started, Maggie calls out to her friend, "Hey Nathan! I'm a big fan of that Chucky Cheese party!"

Age 5

I usually buy generic diapers, or if I happen to find a good deal, we get the Huggies brand with Mickey Mouse on them. Recently, I bought the Pampers with Sesame Street gang print. I put one on Libby last night and she says, " I see Elmo. Who's those guys?" Before I could answer, she asks, " Nerdy and Bert?"

At the $2 movies watching the beginning of Puss in Boots, where they show an intriguing 'fiesta del fuego' somewhere in Spain. Maggie says, "Don't they have fun in Mexican?!?!"

Libby, dressed in her Steelers gear, about to eat some playoff snacks, starts singing to the tune of "O Christmas Tree"...

"Oh chicken wing, oh chicken wing!" Jan.2012

The girls were hanging around on the diving boards at the pool while some bigger kids were throwing a football and catching it as they went off the boards. The lifeguard asked them to not throw the ball with the little kids around. Maggie marched up on the board and said, "I'm all bigged up! They must be talking about Libby." One of the 12ish year old boys got a real kick out of that.

"Is that Annie all grown up?", Maggie asked as we turned the channel to the movie Napolean Dynamite.

Maggie: "Some Daddys have hair, and some don't."
Mommy: "My Daddy has hair."
Maggie: "Only the sticking up kind, like this." (motioning wild hair)
Daddy: "Does my Daddy have any hair?"
Maggie: "Only just a little bit, right by his ears."

"If there's another Maggie in this country, I'll just change my name to Pam"

I asked Maggie what happened to the head band that she was wearing when she went to school one morning. She told me it broke. I asked her if she lost her temper, and she replied, "Mommy, I think I lost all of my tempers!" Like mother, like daughter.

Maggie overheard me make a comment to Rob about it being a great Saturday afternoon for tailgating. A couple of hours later she says, " I think I want to do some tail getting." I asked her what that entails, and she replied, " You sit right here in the grass and wait for your tail to grow."

"Mommy, will you tell me about that sign that has a nortado on it?" Maggie, 3 1/2

"Those aren't farts...those are rockets!" Maggie, 3 1/2

"If you kiss with your head this way (tilted to one side) that means you're in love." Maggie, age 3

"Is heaven a rectangle state?" Maggie, age 3

"It's great packer snow out there, I'm going to make a big, big big, big fat snowman". Maggie, age 2

North Carolina Austins