holiday treats

baylee and i spent the good part of the afternoon making holiday goodies.
i am grateful that lee just grabs the camera now. it used to be that i would have to ask him to get it, but he just thinks about it himself. so i am in pictures. he hates the new lense, but he has gotten to where he doesn't complain about it anymore. so i am happy about that.
i just got the new holiday treat cookbook from pampered chef and love it. we made a couple out of there, a cookie that has become our party taker, and a recipe i got from a customer.

we had a rice crispie ornament, chocolate covered brownie with candy cane, the easiest turtles ever, and the mini version of our big cookie. i think they look wonderful. i hope everyone enjoys them as much as baylee and i enjoyed making them. i bought the plate at the dollar store and it held som of the things in fours other things in only twos, so we had to use fancy(not really fancy) styrofoam plates for the rest of the goodies.


there was a huge mess that i tried to vote everyone else clean up, but i ended up cleaning it all up.


tara

surprised

last night i got home late. i went into the boys room to kiss them goodnight and much to my surprise my son had a tattoo. well not one but several. he looked like a "hell's angel" as his teacher today described him. he had them everywhere. two on his stomache, two one each arm, and my personal favorite is one on his neck. i am not opposed to tattoos, but this was crazy. he was so excited about them that today at school he lifted his shirt, pulled up his sleeves, and showed his neck to every teacher that would look. oh, such a proud mother am i.

stomache tattoos

neck tattoo

tara

rumor mill

this has been bugging me for days so maybe by venting here i will finally find peace about it. there is nothing i hate more than rumors. now i am not going to say that i never partake in gossip. if i don't know something to be fact then i will preface it with "this is what i heard, but i don't know if it is true." and usually it is that someone was caught doing this or that. but, it drives me crazy for someone to say something that could have a negative effect on someone. if what you have to say will be hurtful then keep your mouth shut. sorry that is my psa for the day.

tara

christmas frenzy begins

we had the first of our many christmas celebrations tonight, actually our second, but this was the first one that involved the kids. we went to our church ate dinner and visited. then santa showed up. he sat with each of the kids and listened to what they wanted.

baylee went first in our group. he jumped right up and told santa "i want a wii." they visited for a minute and then he got down.

tayte jumped up talked to santa for a while. santa asked what he wanted and tayte told him "i want a wii." this was suprising because up to this point he has said i want a video gamecube. when i told him we have one and what else he wanted he said "we have a gamecube i want a video gamecube." don't ask me what the difference is because he never told me.

payton wanted nothing to do with santa and lee tried to get him a picture by himself. it wasn't pretty.

baylee ran off and i wanted to get a picture with all three so baylee got to stand in line a second time while the rest of us just hung around and visited. when we got up there payton again wanted nothing to do with santa so all five of us got our picture taken with santa. lee holding payton as far from santa as possible.

when we were leaving i told payton to tell santa bye. he walked right up to him furrowed his brow and yelled "sanda. sanda." waved at him, opened his arms for a hug, let santa pick him up, and then wanted to kiss santa. go figure. the kid who wanted nothing to do with him i guess wanted to make sure santa knew he was a good little boy.

tara

baylee's first guitar lesson

baylee was super excited about his guitar lesson. i called home because i knew i wasn't going to get here before they went to bed. he told me all about his guitar lesson. 4,4,4, something or other, 5,4,4, this is the g cord, high e cord. i was really impressed in how much he learned in 30 minutes. he even put me on speaker phone and played a little jingle bells. when he was done i told him the jonas brothers better watch out. which apparently was the exact same thing lee said to him. his teacher is here only until february, which means we can figure out if this is a phase and be done or i will be searching for a new teacher. he really does look cute with his guitar.

tara

my grandma

i did go see my grandma tonight. the whole time i was there i kept seeing the same mannerisms that my dad had. i have always thought that of all my grandma's kids my dad was the most like her. her health is bad. she had that old lady hair that shows you really don't care. strangely enough she had the same hair as my dad. i think donnie has the same receding hairline. the kind that goes way back on both sides but stays at your forehead in the middle.

she sits like my dad with her arms crossed leaning on the table.
coughs just like him with that heaving shoulder thing.

it is funny how these things stood out. i am sure that any of her kids or grandkids could relate her mannerisms to their parent. it was refreshing to see those things again even though they are in a different person.

you can tell she is tired.

when i apoligized for not going to visit she said "i know you are busy and you have a lot going on." i told her that was not a good excuse. she said "well no one else comes either, if you don't have time you can call." so this is my nagging you that are family to go visit grandma, or at least call. but you really should go, it is amazing watching her and cindy together. definite role reversal there. it makes you have faith in people that there are still some that don't send their parents to a nursing home.

tara

its iphone girl

that is how my oldest son greeted me this evening when i got home from work. i used to be a gadget girl. then i went away from it. but now i am back. i usually don't spend money like we have been, but i got a deal on this one. this is how it worked:

daniel gets iphone
i get camera
sell old camera to rachael
daniel gets new job at cell phone place
rachael won't let daniel keep iphone because won't work with new job
tara gets iphone as trade for old camera
everyone happy:)-except daniel who has to use a blackberry pearl :(

so baylee now thinks i am cool because i have an iphone. that is my goal in life for my oldest son to think i am cool(not really, i have never really cared if anyone thought i was cool). i really like it. to bad i hardly get any phone calls on my cell phone. but there are so many other things i can do with it so i am super excited.

tara aka iphone girl