I could just eat her up...

You all remember when I said one of my resolutions for this New Year was to blog more?

You do. Well good, because here I am. I don't have a darn thing to say but I'm blogging anyway. Mainly because I took the most adorable picture of Cadence today and I must share it with the world wide web.

I'm sorry to all of you other parents out there, but seriously, is this not the most adorable child you have ever seen? I mean really, if she were any cuter I would have to take her to Build-a-Bear and have her stuffed and then I would have to buy her one of those overly priced bear outfits.

This child is such a ham, I promise you that whenever she sees me grab my camera she is straight up smiles. Sooo cute!!

I'm so in love with this picture that I have decided it's going to grace her first birthday invitation...that I still need to order by the way. We have less than two months for me to get myself into full on birthday motivation mode and I still have yet to take Addison's picture for her invite. The goal, keep fingers and toes crossed for me please, is to have the invites sent out together on the 18th. That will give people four weeks to clear their schedules and put us on their calendars!!

Happy New Years

Happy New Years from my family to yours!

God has blessed me so much with my two little girls.

The years 2010 and 2011 were pretty rough for our little family financially and for me health wise, but 2012 is already looking up for us as we begin our fresh start. We are blessed with wonderful family and friends and they along with my husband and daughters make all of our past struggles seem small and frivolous.

Thank you for continuing to take this journey alongside of us via our blog. My resolutions for the new year are to blog more, send birthday cards and thank you cards instead of texts or e-mails, and to spend more quality time with family that I don't see on a regular basis.

What are some of yours?

Merry Christmas 2011

This is the Christmas post that almost wasn't. I really don't understand why I have so much trouble posting using our laptop but I do. Thankfully Mom's desktop computer has been fixed and hopefully soon I will have ours fixed, so once they are back in the house up and running I will just use one of them. Maybe then I will blog more...just joking!! We all know that won't happen.

Anyway, yet another Christmas has come and gone. This year was one of the better Christmas' that we have had in a long time. I have always enjoyed the time that we spend with our family, isn't that the point of the holidays, but this is the first year in about five that we were actually able to buy presents for not only each other, but for our close family as well. It was also a welcome relief that we were able to be so generous with the girls. After scoping out some of my favorite family blogs I'm starting to think we were overly generous...lol. I know that next year since we will hopefully be back under our own roof instead of my Mother's that we may not be able to splurge quite like we did this year so that makes me feel a little better about this year. I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to get Daniel his Kindle Fire. He almost didn't get it until after Christmas but thanks to a very belated birthday check from my step-dad I was able to rush out and get it for him. I am pretty sure he was shocked to have gotten it which makes it that much better for me to have given it to him.

Christmas Eve this year was spent at my brother Steve's apartment. It was mind blowing for me to have my younger brother cook dinner for us and invite us into his first home. It's a reminder that we're all getting older...I still can't believe that I turned 28 this year. I might need medicated for the big 3-0.

Daddy helping the girls open their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. One of the traditions I started last year with Addison.

Daddy and Addison trying out the new Kindle.

Me and my precious girls on Christmas morning. We didn't get a single picture of Cadence in her Christmas jammies...baby girl woke up soaking wet.The girls trying out their new car and wagon before heading out to Mamaw's house for our Christmas lunch. We love doing lunch with my mother-in-law. This year to be different she served us a taco ring and taco's. I have to share the taco ring recipe with you because it was so good and it was so different from our usual holiday feast.

My beautiful little family of four. These three make every holiday for me special.

Mamaw and her girls. Santa not only spoiled the girls rotten at our house but she spoiled them rotten at her house as well. I can't tell you how fortunate I am to have such wonderful, generous people in my children's lives. Being a child of divorce I have enough family to keep us busy for every holiday, and often times we go without seeing some because there isn't enough time in the day. How blessed are we to have so many people love us and for us to have love them?

After visiting with Mamaw and Uncle Dusty for a few hours we always make our way to spend time with my Dad's family. The past two Christmas' have been spent at my Uncle Dan and Aunt Robin's where we feast, share gifts, and enjoy a few hours of togetherness. This year was no exception. My Aunt Robin made a lovely pork roast and a tender beef roast to go with my homemade coleslaw and my cousin Heather's awesome mac and cheese. Helping Aunt Heather open one of her gifts. We don't wrap the girls presents from Santa, which is fine by me because I hate wrapping presents, so they enjoyed helping unwrap gifts at Uncle Dan and Aunt Robin's. They weren't overly into it at Mamaw's house so I did most of the unwrapping there. Christmas chaos. Paper and presents everywhere, smiles on faces, and yummy food in bellies. What a way to spend a wonderful day!!

Now that Christmas has come and gone we have another celebration to start planning in our house. In less than two months we will be celebrating Cadence's first birthday and Addison's second. I CANNOT believe my little baby is going to be one and that my bigger baby will be two. My how time flies when you're having fun. I've decided that I am going to incorporate their parties into one since they have the same birthday week and this years theme is a circus event. We're having circus themed foods, games, maybe a clown and some face painting, and of course lots of balloons. I can't tell you how excited I am to throw this event. Thanks to pinterest I already have a few craft ideas that I need to get started on.

Our Visit with Santa

Sunday we took the girls to see Santa. This was Addison's second visit but Cadence's first. Addison did really well visiting him last year, but like with Cadence, we weren't sure how this years visit was going to go.

Overall the visit went really well. It was just our luck though that as we went to sit down, we did our family shot first, the photographers equiptment went down and everything had to be rebooted. It took about twenty minutes or so that meant just sitting there waiting. Addison was very apprehensive of him and it required her sitting on my lap for the family shot. She did sit next to him during the shot of just the two girls, but we got two chances and two chances only before she had had enough of the big guy.

As you can see Cadence just loved it. She could have cared less about the big guy and she actually stayed on his lap and just hung out during the twenty minute wait. She literally just kicked back and rested her head on his chest and everything...it was so cute. Addison on the other hand stayed as far away from him as possible and she enjoyed playing with the basket of stuffed animals that they were handing out to each child. The nice thing about our twenty minute wait was that she got to give several animals a test drive before she settled on which one she and her sister were taking home...lol.

We randomly did a family shot last year and because I enjoyed how well it turned out I decided that we would make it a yearly tradition. I bought a pretty Christmas frame from my favorite store ever...Kohls, and each year I plan on adding our newest picture with Santa. I know we will get a kick out of seeing how the girls grow and Daniel and I change through the years when I add each picture. Now if only it wasn't so darn expensive to get pictures taken with Santa we would be all set.

Just in case I don't post again until after Christmas...I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. Please be safe in your travels and remember to savor each moment with your children and families.

I was a little slow in the Christmas card process this year so our family decided to send out New Year's cards. Be sure to check back next week to get a sneak peak at our lovely little card. Shutterfly has an awesome selection of cards and I am really impressed with our card. I wish that I could send each and every one of you an actual card but I only bought twenty five and those babies weren't cheap...lol.

Real Housewives of Dayton

How many of you watch Bravo's Real Housewives shows, raise your hands? How many of you follow blogs of stay at home Mom's, raise your hands?

My hand is risen for both of the above questions. Watching the shows and following certain blogs is my guilty pleasure. I'll admit to it, I'm not afraid.

Now how many of you sit back and wonder, or in my case wish, that you could always looks so well put together as most of these women do? That would be me! I always sit back and wonder just how they do it. They always have their hair and make up done wonderfully, and their outfits, I mean who wouldn't want to always be that stylish. I know I would.

I know a few of the blogs that I follow these women actually set their alarms to get up an hour before their children just so they can get their hair and makeup done? Seriously? I'm all about getting as much sleep as possible around here and if that means skipping that hour of Mommy prep than so be it. Now I'm not trying to being harsh or disrespectful to any of them, I'm just trying to keep it real when it comes to this particular housewife.

In reality, I wish I had the motivation that these women do. We don't really have a schedule around here. We are usually up and out of bed between the hours of nine and ten which is a miracle I know! I'm spoiled that the girls allow me to sleep that long...this sick and worn out Momma needs it. Cadence goes down for a nap around noon and Addison follows about an hour or so later. We fly by the seat of our pants around here. I wish we had a better schedule...I wish I was like all of those other blogging Moms. Unfortunately that's not our reality right now. I place a lot of the blame on my current health issues. I'm fighting the battle of my life with this disease and until my surgery and recovery period I just don't see it any other way. My Crohns disease is dictating our schedules.

I do have days where I get dressed, fix my hair and makeup, but I'm going to be honest with you...it's usually because I have errands to run or doctors appointments to make. Most days, well, I look like this...

...my hair is a complete mess, I have no makeup on, and I'm still wearing the clothes I slept in. Lord how I love my lounge pants! It also shows the lovely fingerprints all over the fireplace doors...HAHA. I'm still losing weight so I'm liking the fact that I'm looking thinner, however, one of the side effects of taking steroids is that it makes your face nice and round as you can see. Maybe if I put my makeup on and did my hair it wouldn't be so bad...lol.

I'm not really sure the purpose of this post. I think it's because so many of us sit back and fantasize about these women and the lives that they live. We wish that we could go to fancy tea parties during the day and elaborate parties in the evenings dressed in our finest gowns like the Beverly Hills Housewives do. But then I remember that we only see what they want us to see on those silly shows and that on the blogs I follow I only see the pictures that the blogger wants us to see. They don't always show us the pictures of them without their hair and makeup done, still sporting their jammies but I imagine even they have days like mine...just not as often...lol. As much as I would love to have those tea parties to attend and as much as I would like to get dolled up, that's not my reality. My reality is shown in the picture above and other than wishing that I could for once be healthy...I wouldn't have it any other way. I love spending my days with my girls and sitting in the middle of the playroom floor with Addison playing with her plastic tea set is just fine by this Momma. Plus, the girls don't care what I look like or what I'm wearing...they just love their Momma the way she is and for that I am truly blessed.

So go ahead and take a look at the picture above, I'm not ashamed...I'm just keeping it real.

It's looking like Christmas around these parts...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we went out and purchased our Christmas tree. I can't tell you how excited I was to be out hunting for the perfect tree for the first time in way too many years. I also can't believe I was doing it with two little girls in tow. That particular Sunday was awesome. Warm enough that we just needed light weight jackets and wouldn't freeze our behinds off.

Cadence could have cared less what we were doing but Addison got a bit of a kick walking around pulling out trees to examine them. I can't wait until their both older and can really get into the tree picking experiencing. It was always a big deal for us growing up, especially since we usually had more than one tree. Christmas was always one of my Mom's favorite holidays...pretty much the only holiday that we decorated for. When we moved to the farm all those years ago it wasn't unusual for us to have three live trees in the house. We loved us some Christmas trees.

This year we decorated the tree with white lights which flicker off and on, it is so pretty. We also have stuck with a red, green, and silver theme. Most of our ornaments are still in the attic of our old house, which we really need to go and get, but we did receive four really nice ones this year at our annual ornament exchange at Thanksgiving. I also bought some new, cheap, and most importantly, shatter proof ornaments, to add to our collection. Addison really enjoyed helping decorate and for the most part she's leaving the tree alone, as is her little sister. I think the Great Danes have broken more ornaments in previous years than what the girls hopefully will. Dog with long tail+glass ornaments=BAD IDEA!!!

Here is our lovely tree, which honestly is so perfect it saddens me that we will eventually have to drag it to the bonfire pile. It is just the right height and width. The smell is unbelievable and by far my favorite Christmas time scent. As I was admiring it today it made me sit and think about how many trees are cut down each year, just to be dragged to the trash after a month or so. I wonder how many trees are cut down each year? I'm still planning on purchasing a nice fake one after Christmas this year to try to be "green", but I can't make any promises that we won't ever purchase another real one. I just get a kick out of going out each year and picking that perfect one. Maybe one day we will find a place where they come with some of their roots and we can keep it alive and plant it in the coming spring? Just a thought!

Turkey Day 2011

I can't believe it but yet another holiday has come and gone. Don't you remember growing up? How the year seemed to just drag on and on. It was if Thanksgiving and Christmas, especially Christmas, would never get here. Now as an adult I find myself wondering where previous days and months have gone. They just seem to fly by now.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day for us. I have so much to be thankful for even if I do have this dark cloud called Crohns disease hovering above me at all times. As hard as I try to not dwell on my condition it always sneaks its way into my thoughts. I tried to keep myself medicated during our festivities which took place on both Thursday and Friday, but I did end up sick towards the end of our day Thursday. I didn't think I was going to survive the drive home. It seems like the more I hurt, the more bumps in the road there are.

I did manage to snap a few pictures of our two day event. I think my family is becoming more and more appreciative of the fact that I take pictures of every function. I managed to coax my sister Megan into taking a picture of Daniel and I with the girls. I love it and would love it even more if my husband would stop being such a darn scrooge when it comes to pictures and actually smile once in awhile. Addison not having her fingers in her mouth would have been a nice touch as well but what can you do, right? Don't you love the girls matching outfits? I know I will only be able to do such a thing for a few years, if that, before they both start forming their own outfit opinions. My MIL loves purple so I made sure we wore the purple outfits on Thursday which was where we spent half of our day. We spent the other half with my Mom's side of the family at my Aunt Linda's home.

Friday we spent with my Dad's side of the family. My sister Nikki and her husband recently moved three hours away from home so that he could begin working at a new job. This was the first we had seen them and my nephew Dylan in awhile and I was happy to get to spend a few hours with them before they head home sometime this weekend. Nikki is expecting their second baby who is due March 7th. This birth is already giving me anxiety...lol. She had a tough time delivering Dylan and now that I will be almost three hours away, there is a good possibility that I may not make it down there for this one. I just can't see myself traveling three hours away being as sick as I am. I honestly don't think I could handle that long of a drive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be healthy enough to help welcome this newest edition to our family.

Speaking of babies...I swear I just had this one. Cadence is another fine example of time flying by. I can't believe she is nine months old now. Look at how big she is. Daniel's been getting a real kick out of her these past few days. She can now clap on command and he thinks its awesome. Addison went to town on her Thanksgiving dinner last year, which would have put her at nine months as well. For whatever reason Cadence just didn't care about it this year. I think we are behind with giving her "big people" food so it's partly our fault. Even though Addison is only a year apart from Cadence I still find myself wondering things such as when we started Addie on solids, big people food, and forget when she started to crawl and walk. We keep trying to compare the girls to one another developmentally and have to remind ourselves that each of our little ladies is different. No matter what, they are both so darn cute I can barely stand it. I am so lucky that God chose me as their Mommy. Below is Daddy with his mini-me. Daniel can try to deny Addison as she is my spitting image, but Cadence, Cadence is all Daddy.

"Here Daddy, let me try to do something with your hair."

Addison with her cousin Dylan. I'm pretty sure their related...lol. I still can't get over how big they are. Dylan turned two in October and Addison will be two in February. Slow down babies...slow down!!

Every Thanksgiving for the past few years, the Murphy's have done an ornament exchange after dinner. I started the tradition a few years ago when Daniel and I started hosting Thanksgiving dinner in our home. I figured it would be a way to kick off the Christmas season. I took pictures this year of everyone and their ornaments.

Look at my Uncle Dan and Aunt Robin...she's actually smiling for her picture. Uncle Dan loves doing the exchange, even though they don't need a holiday kick off. It's Christmas at their house all year long. Just call them Mr. & Mrs. Claus. It's not a far fetch if you really think about it, just look at Uncle Dan's beard...lol. Plus they were wearing red.

With the end of the Thanksgiving holiday comes the beginning of Christmas at our house. Daniel and I are some of the few remaining that refuse to decorate before Thanksgiving. He was just complaining the other day that some of the stores were already putting out the Christmas decor. Even the radio station that plays 24 hours of Christmas music until Christmas started playing it before Thanksgiving. I just want to savor each holiday individually so I refuse to rush them along by overlapping them. I think part of the Christmas appeal is that it only comes once a year. For me it makes me enjoy it and savor all that it is about all the more during that time. I feel if we add days to the celebration it will make it less meaningful. That's just how I feel though so if you are one of the ones who put your tree up before turkey day, go about your business, I'm not judging you!!

The end of Thanksgiving also means time to start shopping. Daniel and I are both really excited this year. Addison is big enough now to realize, to an extent, what's going on. We have some really great gifts idea for both girls this year and I can't wait for Santa to bring them. Of course we have to wait for Santa to get paid again, but I imagine everyone can relate to that.

Here's to a great Christmas kick off. I hope everyone enjoys the next month as much as I plan on trying to. Mine will consist of vicodin and phenegran cocktails, but I'm going to try to enjoy my days to the best that my body will allow me! Tonight is day one for us. We're getting pizza with family and afterwards...we're going to buy and decorate our tree!!! Growing up we always had real trees at my Mom's house and they were always my favorite. Just the smell alone makes having one worth it. Daniel's family does the fake tree route which is fine, especially since prior to this year we had been using a fake tree that his Mom gave us a few years back when financially we weren't able to buy a tree. I've decided that for this year we're going to get a real tree and after all of the fake trees go on sale after Christmas, we're going to purchase a nice big, full, fake one, and we're going to alternate between fake and real every Christmas. That way we can enjoy the best of both worlds.