It's Better to Give?

Have you ever given a gift that just made you never want to give anyone a gift ever again in your entire life? I am seriously about to swear off gift giving for the rest of eternity. So we all know Father's Day is just around the corner. In case you didn't know it's in 2 days so get it together. I have had this amazing Father's Day gift planned for weeks, maybe months. Side note, I love giving gifts, I put a lot of thought into the gifts I give. I stress over finding the perfect gift. I research for months until I find the perfect gift. Well, no more. I am done.

M and her dad have been wanting to go camping for quite a while. I do not camp.

 "Oh, but why not? Camping is so much fun! Sleeping under the stars! Roasting marshmallows! Cooking your food over an open fire! Foraging for berries in the woods like a tiny little fuzzy bear!"

You know what I say to that? Murderers lurking in the woods with big knives! Snakes! Big angry bears with big sharp teeth. Bugs that bite and leave gaping wounds that need to be stuffed with gauze. Eating poisonous berries (I saw Into the Wild). Peeing in the woods. Pooping in a hole in the ground. I already miss enough showers as it is, I do not need another excuse to skip a shower. Don't even talk to me about bathing in a creek. No means NO!

I freaking love my husband though. I mean sometimes I don't always like him, like right now because of his desire to go camping and my stupid need to fulfill his every wish like a good little wife. Anyway, I love him though and I love my daughter even more. So I get this bright idea that I am going to set up the tent in the backyard while he's at work except that the weather had to come along and ruin my plans with all this rain. Our fire pit is already full of wood just waiting to be burned. There was even a full moon tonight! It would have been perfect!  But no, it just had to rain. Fine. I decided I can just work around the rain. I'll just set that bad boy up inside, right in the middle of the living room floor.

Ugh. It did not go well. Actually that is an understatement. It's been 2 hours and that bad boy is still laying in a pile on the ground, poles everywhere. I put it together 3 times and had to take it down 3 times. I tried watching videos on youtube and I tried begging and pleading with the tent to just cooperate. Help me help you.

This is what M did most of the time. She probably learned a few new fun 4 letter words.

She finally took pity on me and helped but it was still no use. The damn thing is still piled up on the floor with poles everywhere.

Wonderful Husband- never question my love for you because I will pull this story up and force you to read it over and over again until you no longer question my love. Happy Father's. I love you. Now get home and help me put your gift together.

P.S. Everything I do, I do it for you. Next time I'll take a nap with J instead. For you of course. All for you.

J's 1st Birthday

When the husband and I decided we were ready to have another child one of the things we considered was how much a 2nd child would affect our lives. I mean, the first child turned our lives upside down (in the best way possible). But what about 2 children? How much different could another child make our lives? How much harder could another child be? I mean, we've got this thing down after having one child. Right? Wrong. The answer to those questions is A LOT. But in the best way possible. I swear to you, J's mission in life is to show us that we have no clue what we're doing and anything we might have learned with our first child does not apply to him. He his determined to be the total opposite of M. In the best way possible.

We thought M was a grumpy baby. She hated leaving the house. Forget eating out. We couldn't eat out for at least a year after we had her. J loves to eat out. J loves to eat. J eats everything that M doesn't like and he refuses to eat the things she does like. With a few exceptions, like avocados. I have to buy 10 avocados every 2 weeks. These kids love avocados. I have to buy bananas twice a week. The apple bowl must be fully stocked at all times. Pancakes are always a hit. So are cheese sticks. M used to love sweet potato fries until J decided he loved them now she refuses to eat them. Making dinner has become a bit of a challenge. Most night I feel like I am making 4 different meals. I'm starting to think I am just going to give up and everyone can eat ice cream every meal. We all like ice cream.

No matter how grumpy M seemed as a baby, J's mission is to out-grump her. I say this with all the love in my heart, he is a grumpy old man trapped in a baby's body. He yells at everyone. Refuses to let anyone hold him besides his mom. He tolerates dad if mom is unavailable. No one else though. He still cries when little old ladies stop to coo over him in the grocery store. In fact, anytime anyone talks to him he looks at them as if to say "What do you want from me?" He can be a stick in the mud. He doesn't like bubble baths, they make him cry. Bubbles in general make him cry. Swings also make him cry. When we go to the park he prefers the safety of his stroller. He really is his mother's son so far. Cautious and skeptical but also curious about his world. Although he prefers to quietly observe without being noticed. Although he's not a fan of sleep, that is definitely a trait he gets from his dad. M and I need a lot of beauty sleep or we're pretty awful company.

One thing he does love is to snuggle and show affection. He insists on being rocked to sleep each night, and nap time as well. He recently learned how to give a kiss and we're all constantly asking him for kisses. The boy can't come in contact with something soft without stopping to snuggle it for a bit. He loves to laugh. We're convinced he tells us jokes. He'll jabber away in his baby talk and then laugh and laugh. He loves peek-a-boo M is the funniest person he knows and she loves to make him laugh by doing karate kicks and shouting "Hi-ya". Now that he's able to stand up and hold onto something he will kick his little leg out and shout "hi-ya". He also does is while he's in his car seat which is pretty silly. When he gets excited he scrunches his nose up and makes a sniffling sound and swings his arm. Sometimes he will shake his booty her act like he's riding a horse when he's really pleased with something. When he eats something delicious he throws his hands in the air and says "Mmm". As much as he loves the 3 of us, he really enjoys playing with his toys by himself. You couldn't possibly read J too many books, he loves books.

We can't believe this boy has been in our lives for only 1 short year. It fells like he's been a part of us since the beginning of time. We can't get enough of our hunk.

Speaking of birthdays, his party was this past weekend. His middle name inspired me to throw a Cowboys and Indians pow-wow in the backyard.

 We grilled hotdogs. We ate too much watermelon. I made some delicious cupcakes.

You can find the recipe for the cupcakes here and the frosting here. I planned on making a recipe for Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcakes but my husband talked me out of it last minute and I went the cheater's route. The toppers I found at Michael's for $3 for a giant tub. You can get them on Amazon too. I also made name tags with either an Indian name or a cowboy name and everyone drew a name tag which told them whether they were a cowboy or and Indian and they then got a hat or a feathered head band. Somehow it didn't go as well I hoped since I still have a ton of cowboy hats.

Oh, and we built a teepee. Somehow I failed to get a picture of it standing up in the yard on the day of the party but I did take a picture while I was painting it.

It was surprisingly easy and cheap to make. We followed these instructions that I found on Pinterest. All in all, the party was a success. I should probably join some sort of 12 step program for obsessively planning children's birthday parties, or any party in my mind all day long. What can I say? This little tribe loves a good party.

Now it's time to plan M's 4th birthday party! Oh my! How did we end up with a 1 year old and a 4 year old? When did that happen? How did that happen? Where did they come from? I'm going to keep them.

Torturing Children Is What The Mall Bunny Does Best

Happy early Easter! Hope you all have big plans. I have big plans to eat about 8 of these little babies all by myself.

                       picture and recipe snatched from here

I also really look forward to cheesy mall bunny pictures every year. I'm about to share a bit of awkward truth with ya'll right now. I was probably getting those taken until I was 14 years old. And I liked it. Bam. I even thought about getting in on it this year. But I didn't want to steal Jack's thunder on his first Easter. For a second I really considered skipping the mall bunny pictures and doing one of those fancy spring sessions with a pro photographer and a real bunny or maybe some sweet little chicks. So glad we didn't do that this year after how incredible these turned out. J was terrified, we knew he would be. M held it together pretty well this year especially after she saw J freaking out. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say she might have even thought it was funny.You be the judge.

Sneak Peek

Our Christmas cards should be going out in the mail very soon. We had family pictures taken just for the cards again this year and I am so excited for everyone to see them! I also can not keep a secret and hate surprises, so lucky you, you get a sneak peek because I can not wait to share! We had so much fun taking them. A very big thank you to my cousin Sally from Sally Muir Photography for taking our pictures again and for being so wonderful. If you live in the Atlanta area and you're looking for a photographer, please get in touch with Sally and let her know we sent you. Without further ado......

Apples & Pumpkins

It's fall! Finally! Sadly, spring and fall do not last long in Georgia. We've decided to take advantage of Georgia's amazing but short fall season by both an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch recently. I have never been to an apple orchard or a pumpkin patch. I know that might be hard to believe considering Burt's Pumpkin Patch is a big deal where we live and I've lived in the North Georgia area for 18 years. No one ever took me and although I've expressed interest in going with Ryan over the years, we just never made it. Now we have M and more incentive to take her, if for no other reason than a cute photo session.

A few weeks ago I was checking out the daily deals on Groupon, they were advertising a great deal for BJ Reece Apple House. For $12, the package included:

• Admission for two (a $4 value) * Kids under 3 are free*
• A 1/4-peck of self-picked apples (a $4 value)
• A hayride for two (a $6 value)
• Petting farm admission for two (a $6 value)
• Apple cannon fun with one basket of apples (a $5 value)

It took us about an hour to get to BJ Reece, which worked out great for us. M took a nap and was in a great mood when we arrived. I was surprised by how large the orchard was. There are actually 2 orchards, one on either side of the street. We arrived later than we had hoped to (we're never on time anymore) and decided to stay on the main side of the road where the store and petting farm are located. The opposite side of the street is where they offer hayrides and since we didn't make it to that side, we didn't take advantage of the hayride for 2 that was part of the package deal. The first thing we did was claim our bag for apple picking and enter the orchard. Our next stop was the apple cannon. Ryan was really looking forward to shooting apples 500 feet across a field. The line was packed with people and moving at a ridiculously slow pace. Ryan stood in line for 15 minutes without moving while M and I sat in the shade of an apple tree where M made friends with a boy a few years older than her. When Ryan decided he didn't want to wait in the line for the canon any longer, we told M to say "bye-bye" to her little buddy and she blew him kisses while he hid behind his mother and gave her a shy grin. Our little girl is a flirt! Before filling our bag with hand-picked apples, we headed over to the petting zoo. If you ever want us to go somewhere just mention that the venue has a petting zoo and we won't be able to resist. We love petting zoos! I was impressed with the amount of animals they had. There were at least 20 or maybe 30 fainting goats, enough chickens to fill 10 KFC buckets, bunnies, pigs and piglets, puppies, and even a mini horse! We spent the majority of our time chasing down animals and forcing them to let us pet them and scratch their ears. I even stole an apple from a baby goat and fed it to the hungry looking mini horse. Just as the orchard was preparing to shut down for the day, we quickly filled our bag with delicious apples and made our way back to our car for the scenic drive home through the hills of North Georgia.We really had a great time and we will definitely be back. My only complaints: It was impossible to push a stroller up and down the gravel paved hills of the orchard. While at the petting zoo, I did notice a few pieces of broken glass on the ground, there were a few abandoned pull behind trailors and various farm equipment laying around for kids to climb on, and the chicken coop where the bunnies, puppies and mini horse were kept was kind of falling apart. All in all though it was a lot of fun! Oh, and of course I used my apples for baking. I baked Martha's Apple Crsip and Caramel Apple Cupcakes. Yum.

After visiting the apple orchard, we knew we wanted to take M to the Pumpkin Patch. We planned on going to Burt's but after seeing a Groupon deal for Warbington Farms we ended up going there instead, although we didn't end up buying the deal. I'm not sure what I expected since I've never been to a pumpkin patch. However, I've been hearing about how fantastic Burt's is for years. Maybe I went into it with higher expectations than I should have but I was a little disappointed. The pumpkin patch wasn't that big, the pumpkins were over-priced, and the petting zoo consisted of 5 goats in a pen and you could stick your hands through the wire and pet them. There were apparently hay rides but I think they were for older kids. I was under the impression that there was a store that offered fresh veggies but when we went into the store all we saw were a few jars of some really old looking jam (I didn't think jam could look old but it can people, it can). They did offer pony rides which we considered taking M on but I didn't want to have to go back into the dusty little store and buy a ticket. So, we took some pictures and left. Like I said, maybe I went into it with higher expectations than I should have but I was not impressed. We did get a lot of cute pictures though and we stopped by BJ's on our way home and bought cheaper pumpkins. Maybe we'll try Burt's.