Pumkins and Presents

I think I just now thawed off after being in the FREEZING cold today. I decided to take off of work and chaperon La's field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Last year we had a blast with hay slides, hay rides, rope swings and more! I couldn't wait to go again, you know cuz apparently I'm never going to grow up.

Anywhoo, so I knew we were going to try a different place than last year but still my expectation were still high. Nothing seemed to go right as the day started. With La's birthday being today, I try to take some type of goodies to the class so we can celebrate with her friends. I, of course, didn't buy the cookies last night so I had to get up this morning, walk La to the bus stop, run to the grocery store, buy cookies, bake them and pack them up and get on the Metro and to her school all before 9am. I got there a few minutes after 9 but by then the cookies were destroyed and the small fact that today has to be the coldest day we've had yet. The weather here in DC is really tricky. We can go from 80 degrees one week to 40 the next.

Well with the wind factor and the fact that the land (oh yeah I was NOT a pumpkin patch) had no trees nearby to block the wind it felt like 30 degrees. I was practically near tears. At one point one of the teachers came to check on me because I looked so miserable. The things we do for our kids. While I thought it was too cold for the babies to be out there, not too many of them complained. I guess it's just me.....

Here's Lael with her best friend Charlotte before we ventured into the wind.

When we got off the ride, La insisted on the biggest pumpkin, but of course she couldn't lift it, but it was funny to watch.

The final selection!

After lunch in the barn, she yelled for me to help her. Apparently she had fell and couldn't get up!

After school, our second family presented La with a birthday card and a few presents! Thanks Haskins, we love you guys.

Lael and Riley share a birthday hug, happy 5th guys!

Mommy and Daddy give the baby just watch she wants (yes she is still a baby...hush!)

Birthday Swiss Roll, cuz we're ghetto like that!

And to end the night, my other girlfriend baked cupcakes for La. I know, I know, she's spoiled. Good thing she's mine and you don't have to deal with it! :o)

The 5 Best Years of My Life

5 years ago today at 2:25am an angel was born. She didn't come without a fight. No, she had to be pulled out after 22 hours of labor. She is like that, she won't be forced into anything.

She is her own person. She is the life of a party. She will make you laugh. She is all mine.

I've been pondering all week how to put in words the joy she brings to me. I don't know how to express the happiness that she has brought into my life.

I figured the best way would be to pick my favorite pictures from the past 5 years.

Here she is at 6wks. She had just got her ears pierced and being the trooper that she is, she cried for all of 10 seconds. Drank her bottle and fell asleep.

These were her first Easter pictures at 4mths. She was practically sitting up on her own by then. Always in a rush to grow up.

At 6mths she already had 4 teeth and was crawling and jabbering away. You can tell she really liked to eat because keeping her belly full was not challenge.

At 8mths, she was standing and pulling herself up. I tried to make her sit, but she's stubborn. I don't think she got that from me.....She was walking by 9mths and by 10mths she could full out sprint.

This pictures was the hardest for me. She was 18mths and I took her to get these right before I deployed to Iraq. I slept with this picture every night and it brings back painful memories of when I wasn't sure I would see her again.

When she was 2 she wouldn't stop talking. Actually, that hasn't changed much. She laughed often and in return kept us laughing.

In this picture she was 3 and G-O-O-F-Y. This is how she posed for most of her pictures at this age. I couldn't get her to relax her face and it was hilarious.

This is her 4yr picture from last year when she had just started Pre-K. To look at how much she has changed over the past is AMAZING.

My Dearest Lael,

You have changed my life for the better. You are the sweetest child I've ever known. At the same time you have to be the most stubborn. You sing, dance, read and write with joy. You are your teacher's helper in class. You refuse to sleep without a hug and kiss EVERY night. You adore your sister. You worship your father. Your Nana and MahMah can do no wrong in your eyes. But more importantly you are my child. I can't remember my life before you and can't see my future without you.

Happy Birthday Angel Cake!

Awards

Ok, so guess how excited I am??? Very. I received my first blog award from Melissa! You rock! Thank you so much for the recognition! :0)

I am shocked because I really just started getting my blogging underway. I love it and I'm glad that anyone reads it at all. Take a look at it...go on!

Isn't she a beauty?? Yup, she's mine. Ok now comes the hard part. I have to list 6 things I value and 6 things I do not value. After all that work, I have to give this award to 6 other people. Yeah, they definitely make you earn your winnings around here!

Here my list.....

Value:

1/God

2/My daughter

3/My family

4/My career

5/My health

6/My husband

Of course not it any particular order.

Don't Value:

1/Liars

2/Child Abusers

3/Debt

4/Death

5/Greed

6/Ill Mannered Children

That one was easy. Ok, so here are my 6 winners!

Lara

Dusty

Flssgrl

Heather

Angie

MckMama

Great blogs yall!!

Beef and Bubbles

UPDATE: I mistakingly put that Lael birthday was today but it's Wednesday which is today's tomorrow...you know what I mean...the 29th! ;o)

Sometimes when you are so angry you just have to laugh. Working here in the Pentagon is a different kind of experience. There is a CVS, a cleaners, jewelry store and more. In addition to that there are plenty of eating places. Subway, McDonald's, KFC, Panda Express and more. Well today my stomach gravitated me to Panda to get some of their yummy Beijing Beef. I try not to get a platter because my greediness will force me to eat every. last. piece.




So in an effort to avoid stomach aching I get Panda Bowls. I asked the lady for a bowl with fried rice and picked my entree of Beijing Beef. Now, we all know how chinchy they can be at restaurants so of course I wasn't surprised when she stuffed the bowl with rice and gave me about half a scoop of beefy goodness. Well damn, that's not fair. She was quick to push my bowl down to the lady who bags it up but I was determined to get my fair share of cow.



I stopped the lady and made the mistake of asking for a little bit more chicken. "This is not Chicken!" she yelled at me. "Chicken/Beef whatever, can I have a little more please" I asked.



She then proceeded to breath hard, give me the stank eye (because I was messing up the flow) and took the top off my bowl. I watched her scoop another spoonful of the beef mix and just when she was about to drop it in my bowl, she decided that it was too much and shook it out. All of it, except one piece of beef. No more, no less. Just one. No onions or peppers just the one piece.



She then put the top back on and gave me the "I dare you to say something" look. Me and my coworker couldn't stop laughing. I didn't know what else to do. I was so pissed but I wasn't going to fight the lady. I made sure when I paid for my food I grabbed a few extra fortune cookies because it made me feel better.



I will not tell you about how I got full before I finished all of my bowl. I ate all of my rice but guess how much beef I left in the bowl??? One piece. Yup. I think it was evil. Or maybe the ladies at Panda Express know how much a single serving should be. Either way I won't challenge them again.



In other news, I am plotting ways I can steal this bubble wrap from work. Think of the things I could do with it! Fun Fun Fun.


















Wednesday is Lael's 5th birthday. Yup. I'm officially getting old, cause it's all about me right?

Musicals and Cats

So this weekend was nice and quiet for the most part. I feel bad for my Pedometer because I completely ignored the Step Challenge because being curled up in my room with Eclipse was much more important than burning calories.


I did however, venture out enough to take my darling to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year on Saturday afternoon. Yeah, I know she's barely 5 but she is obsessed. The movie was rated G and the first two were pretty harmless with a bunch of singing and dancing so I saw no harm in taking her. She was really excited and even dressed herself in her "Troy and Gabriella" shirt which was fitting for the occasion. I thought the movie was cute. A little corny how they broke out into song at the weirdest points. I thought the other two movies did a better job with that transition. I giggled out loud every time they broke out into song and La would say "What...what mommy?" I would just shake my head and tell her how much I loved this movie and she would nod in agreement but clearly annoyed I interrupted her concentration.


I think the only things that were weird to me was how when Troy and Gabriella danced she had on this little dress and I didn't really like that you were exposed to too much skin than we should have been but I'm sure only my critical eye caught that. The other was the "kiss" between Troy and Gabriella, it pretty much grossed out all the kids (mine included) and they "eewwwed" and giggled. I thought they could have left that out but no harm done. Overall I was pleased and so was she and she's already talking about going to see it again. Really? Anyone wanna take her?


Sunday was a veg out day. I caught up on my Edward and Bella lovin' and let La play and eat junk until she couldn't take it anymore. I know, I'm such a great mom. At one point she was came in my room and crawled on my futon next to me with a cupcake. I gave her the stank eye because she was clearly playing me knowing that I was too distracted with my reading to yell at her not to bring food upstairs. I let it slide but then she started getting crumbs all over the place.


I said:


"La, can you please pay attention to what you're doing, Princess (our dog) will get sick if you leave too much chocolate laying around."


She looked at me, and we stared at each other for what had to have been a full minute. I then raised my eyebrows waiting for her to acknowledge that she heard me and then she finally opened her mouth and said:


"Meow."


I can't make this stuff up. Of course I fell out into a fit of laughter with her. I cleaned up the crumbs and we were both happy. Me and my kitty.

She Keeps Me Laughing

La's watching i Carly when one of the characters starts screaming and jumping up and down.

She then yells out: "Oh my gosh, that girl is freakin'!"

When I asked her what that meant, she says "That means she excited because she got money."

Thanks for clearing that up baby.

She then decides it was time for math class. She hold up two fingers but this it what she asks:



"Mom guess what's 2 plus 1.........2!" No baby, but good guess.

So after that a new episode of i Carly comes on and I know she loves to sing it so I decided to catch it. Look how she starts dancing! Too funny. Of course towards the end she catches on to me and gets goofy but it made me laugh till my sides ached.




Thanks for keeping mommy laughing girlfriend!

My First Tag!!

Whoo Hoo!! Tuesday I got my first Tag from Flssgrl at Life as We Know It but I had been too engrossed in my Edward affair to post my own. But now I'm taking a break and fulfilling my bloggy duties.

Now that I'm it, get ready to run cause I'm taggin' you next!

Here are rules:

1/Link to the person who tagged you

2/Post the rules

3/Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself

4/Tag 7 random people at the end or your post and link to their blogs

5/Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Ok, not too hard right. Yeah, you go ahead and try to come up with 7 random facts...go ahead.

Alright here goes:

1/I am always cold. I have a heater at my desk and sleep with a separate comforter on my bed.

2/My desk at work looks like a shrine for my daughter, seriously, I need help.

3/I can't drink soda without burping after each sip.

4/I can't stand the feeling of cotton balls. I can't hold them, they make me cringe.

5/I've only had one "partner" (my husband) ever. Such a goodie goodie huh?

6/I had a mini stroke when I was 15. Bells Phalsy I think it's called. I'm all good now.

7/I have always secretly wished I wore glasses. I think they are cute. I know, strange.

Man, I sound really off when I put it in writing.

Tag! Guess who's it?

Dusty

Heather

Melissa

Chris

Kathryn

Big Mama

Boo Mama

Ok, some of yall don't know me but I follow your blogs (stalkishly, yeah I know it's not a real word) and I would like to see your responses. So, blog away friends!