Santa Claus came to town

Our neighborhood had a Christmas get together last week. There was cookie decorating, hot chocolate making, hayrides with carol singing and the youngest Santa I've ever seen. It was really a nice idea but the Santa kind of ruined it for us. He looked all of 25 years old and only gave us a half hearted HO, HO, HO. Also, the fact that he was not wearing glasses and had brown eyebrows really bothered me. I think it bothered Jake too. He was less than thrilled. I'm pretty sure he knew this guy was an imposter.

Is that Bon Jovi or did Mama get her hair done?

Let me start off by saying that I don't know why my shoulders are all hunched up in this photo. I think I just get really nervous when someone takes my picture because I'm afraid I'll end up looking like a freak. Go figure.

So, last week I decided to go to Amy's "hair gal" to get my hair cut and styled. It was just time for my bi-annual hair grooming. I loved Melanie and decided to trust her opinion that curls are coming back in style. Of course, she also told me everything from the 80's was coming back in style. I just have to say that I will NOT wear leg warmers ever again. Or sweater dresses. Just sayin'. Anyhow, she cut a good chunk of my hair off and showed me how to make the curls look good. I think. I can't decide. Sometimes I look at it and think it's really cute. Other times I look at it and think "hey, when did we get a poodle?" And still other times I look at it and frantically dig around in my purse for a cigarette lighter to hold in the air before I realize that we in fact do NOT have an eighties era rock star living with us.

Diet Diaries

Blah, blah, blah. 129 pounds. I'm happy to still be at the HOLIDAY GOAL WEIGHT, but this is really getting pretty boring. So instead of talking about my weight let's talk about them toes. I think the next time I post a picture of my tootsies they should be DONE UP. Time for a pedicure my friends. Peace out.

40 days to 40

Let the countdown officially begin. In just forty short days, I will be forty years old. They say 40 is the new 30 so I'm not too worried about the number. I just wanted to remind all of you out there (all three of you) reading my blog that you have forty days to contact Rick Springfield and beg him to come to my house with his guitar. Listen people. I don't think I can do this without you. I have not yet heard back from the Ellen show so I think they are ignoring my email. I'm considering an intensive letter writing campaign right now. So get out your pens and your spiral notebooks and help me write letters!

I know we can do this as a group. Some of you are probably thinking what good would my one little letter do? It's just like voting. If we all write a letter maybe someone will listen to us. We CAN change the world. Or at least my little corner of it. Yes we can!

He doesn't even need to spend a lot of time with me. I'm imagining it right now. I open the door to see Rick standing on the doorstep. I calmly greet him and let him into the house while offering him a beverage and something to eat. He sits down on the couch, busts out his guitar and starts singing Jessie's Girl. Then he sings Ordinary Girl, gives me a hug, autographs my arm and leaves to go make some other girl's dream come true. I never wash my arm again. He's in. He's out. It's a whirlwind of excitement.

So remember. I need emails to the Ellen show. Letters to her show or to Rick himself. Come on wordsmiths. I KNOW you can do this. YES, YOU CAN!

Three seems so big!

Oh my. How did we go from this

to this, overnight?

I cannot believe the little boy is three years old today! Time has wings, yes it does. Jake has changed so much in the last year. He is quite the little talker. He just talks and talks and talks. Sometimes I just wish it could be quiet around here. But that usually means someone is getting into trouble so I guess noisy is good.

His vocabulary is sometimes astounding. A couple days ago, we were looking at a book about dolphins and he pointed to this dolphin's head and said "mommy, that dolphin is echolocation." Fantastic! It made my marine biologist heart so happy. On a little different note, the next day when I was changing his diaper he started throwing a fit about me hurting his egg. I was completely lost for a few minutes. He finally got his point across to me. It seems that he is identifying on a very personal level with our marine buddies. In short, he thinks his little man water works parts are actually an egg. He carries his egg around in his pants just like a daddy penguin carries his egg under a pouch in his tummy. So now, in order to change a diaper I have to promise him I won't break his egg when I clean things up. I'm seeing his non-existent college fund quickly turning into a non-existent therapy fund. Oh, well. He is adorable. He makes me laugh every single day and still loves to cuddle with me so what more could I ask for?

We celebrated yesterday with a party. He really wanted a dolphin birthday cake so I was able to come up with something that looked like a third grader made it. Jake loved it though. We had family come for the party and my daddy even provided the entertainment. Here's a picture of the kids surrounding my dad while he sang them a few Christmas songs.

If I can get a video to post again, I'll put one up of Jake and his cousin dancing together. It was so cute! Happy threes Little Mister. Love you so much.

Wordless Wednesday

I just love a good hat, don't you?

Pioner Woman live and in person

Thursday night I had the pleasure of meeting a real live famous blogger in person! I recently bought a cookbook that Pioneer Woman published with a lot of her wonderful, down-home cooking recipes in it. I've been a fan of hers for some time now ever since Amy advised me to check out her blog when I started my own blog a couple years ago. She's very funny and I particularly enjoy the cooking portion of her blog. Her recipes are pretty easy to follow and she includes step by step photos of every recipe.

So anyway, she came to Austin last week for a book signing at a local book store. Amy and I went early to get a wristband ensuring that we would be able to stand in the line to get her to sign our cookbooks. We could not believe how many people showed up for this thing. It must be so surreal for PW (or Ree as I can now call her seeing as how we've met and are really tight now) to see this massive following of people she has all from starting up a blog a few years ago. We waited for about three hours for her to come out and speak. She did a 20 minute question/answer thing and was completely adorable. Her family was with her and they have become quite the celebrities in the blogging world as well. There was a collective gasp from the audience when we got our first peek of her husband. Here he is. She calls him Marlboro Man.



He got just as much attention as she did. Everyone was taking his picture and asking him to sign their books. He seemed really good natured about it all.

After she spoke the line formed for the official book signing. Amy and I stood in line trying to think of something witty and clever to say to her. Honestly, we racked our brains and could not think of anything which meant we just had to improvise when we finally got up to the desk to meet her. Amy complimented her on her public speaking because Ree said right off the bat the she was no good at it. Totally false. She was delightful. Then I muttered some lame comment about how my husband would like to thank her for teaching me how to cook him good food. After that stimulating conversation we got to pose for pictures with her.



While in line Amy and I also debated the pros and cons of hunching down to be more at eye level with her when we had the picture made. Amy said she didn't want to do that because it looked dorky or something. So just as the picture was being taken I naturally bent down a little to get on PW's level but then I looked at Amy and saw she was standing up straight so then I stood up straight and ended up looking like I'm just lurking behind her. Kind of creepy. And also, I totally forgot to suck in my tummy. Oh, well. She was so nice and it was kind of cool to meet a famous blogger. We even got a free tee shirt just for being there. Thanks PW!

It's a real live Christmas mystery

A box arrived on our doorstep yesterday. The return address said it was from a store in North Carolina. Inside the box were two beautiful mugs. One had a dolphin on it and the other a whale tail. The only other thing inside the box was a plain sheet of white paper with the words Merry Christmas. No names or anything else. So basically, we have a present from someone who knows us well enough to know we love the ocean (whales in particular) but we have no way of thanking this person because there was no name. Can anyone out there solve the mystery for me? I would love to thank you personally!

Wordless Wednesday

Elf on the Shelf

Have you seen one of these? It's an Elf on the Shelf. The little elf comes with a book that tells you his life story and how you can use him to start a little Christmas tradition for your own family. I think it's totally cute. I saw one of these when I was out shopping a couple weeks ago but didn't get it because I thought it was over priced. Then, while my parents were here last week a package came in the mail FROM my parents with our very own elf on a shelf kit! I hadn't even told them I was looking at this little guy. What can I say? Great minds think alike. But not all great minds will give up the cash for stuff. I'm just sayin'.

The book is really cute and tells your kiddos that the elf comes to stay in your house around Christmas time and he watches them to see if they are naughty or nice and flies to the North Pole every night for a little chat with Santa. I thought it was brilliant. I also thought it would help Jake behave a little bit better for the next few weeks. Wrong. It seems that not only does he NOT care what mama and daddy and God think, he also does NOT care what the elf and Santa Claus think. In fact, the other morning when he was in time out I mentioned to him the fact that Santa would be very sad when our elf told him what happened that day. Jake asked me if he could go talk to the elf for a minute. I said okay. I was waiting for him to go crying to the elf begging for mercy or something. Instead, this is what he said. "ELF! I NOT listening to Mama. Now go away and leave me alone!"

That is exactly the kind of Christmas time scene I used to picture back when I was single and wishing I had kids. Maybe next week when we take Jake to see Santa at the mall he can kick Santa in the knee and tell him he's fat or something.

I'm hoping that next year we can invoke the spirit of the Elf a little bit better than this year. I really do think it makes a cute tradition. We still need to name our elf though. So far Jake has come up with either Elf, Santa Claus or Big Giant Monster. Does anyone else out there have an elf and if so what did you name it?

Diet Diaries

Okay, I didn't have the camera on me this morning when I weighed in and now it's too late to take a picture of the scale because after two meals and no workout today the scale lies my friends. It tells big, fat lies.

Before it turned into a big liar though it said 130 lbs. this morning. Fantastic! I managed to make it through the Thanksgiving Holiday and maintain my goal weight. Now, only Christmas and New Years to go. Then I'll start berating myself again if I can't get the other five pounds off. It's nice to have something to look forward to.

I've been spending a lot of time with my friend Jillian Michaels via her thirty day shred workout video the past two weeks. As much as I hate to admit it, I think she knows what she's doing. It almost makes the fact that she calls a thirty minute workout a twenty minute workout acceptable. My scale is not the only big liar around here.

Dear Jillian,

I can tell time. xoxo Little Mama

The day after Turkey day

I decided to brave the Black Friday shopping crowds and try to finish up some Christmas shopping this morning. I only went to three different stores and actually, with the exception of Target, the crowds weren't bad at 10am. I guess everyone had already finished their shopping at 6am this morning. I've had my eye on this cute little silver tutu for Emma for weeks now. I just couldn't justify spending $20 on it. Lo and behold, this morning it was on sale for 50% off plus I got an additional 10% off at checkout. Totally worth it! Little Bit loves it. The best part of shopping today? I only have three presents left to go. Woo hoo! They are for the three most difficult to shop for people on my list though. I'm feeling gift cards or cash in the near future. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Diet Diaries

OH. MY. WORD. Is that a 2 following the 1 on the scale? I'm not sure because I haven't seen that number in at least 15 months. But, I think it is. Success! That means I finally reached my Holiday goal weight of 130 which means I can have chocolate cake, or pie or a little bit of both. I'm going to try not to go crazy because the actual goal is to maintain the 130 or under through Christmas and then take off another five pounds before Emma's first birthday. I think I can, I think I can...

Wordless Wednesday

Gem of the Day

Yesterday, as Jake was watching his new fave movie "Free Willy" he looked at me and said "Mama! Dolphins don't eat donuts!" Okay, then. I'm not sure where that came from. I don't think it's in the movie anywhere is it? Regardless, ever since then I've had an idea for a children's book dancing around in my head. Now if only I can make it stop dancing and start writing itself that would be great. Meanwhile, I've decided to start paying closer attention to what Little Mister tells me. Perhaps he's my muse and I'll have a budding career as a childrens book writer. It's secretly one of my life long dreams.

Piggies, paws and little mini quiches

So on Saturday morning I hosted (hostessed?) my first official adult with children type party. It was a Piggies and Paws party. Jake's first teacher in our Mother's Day Out program is now an official artist with this company. I ran into her at Target a few weeks ago and told her I would love to get the kids prints done and she said I should consider hosting a party. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. We really haven't invited many people over to see our new house so I thought it would be fun.

I sent out about 25 email invitations three weeks in advance. Two of my closest friends immediately responded. No one else did. So a week before the party I sent out a reminder email. Six more people responded. That's it. I have four words for you. R. S. V. P. or Responding soon is very polite. Actually, I don't think that's what it stands for but do you get my point? It's fine if you can't make it to a party, but please just let the person giving the party know! I had no idea how much fruit to cut up or how many miniature quiches to warm up in the oven. Plus, I bought snacks for all the kids. I just assumed that everyone who didn't respond wouldn't show up and I was right! Actually, only four people came but we had a great time. They were all neighbors of mine and I got to know each of them a little bit better. The kids (for the most part) enjoyed getting their hands and feet printed for a future piece of art. I highly recommend this company if you're looking for a new way to preserve those little hand and footprints for the future. I even recommend hosting a party because it's fun even if you have no idea how many mini quiches to heat up.

Diet Diaries

After a two week hiatus, I once again weighed in this morning. Unfortunately, I seem to have deleted the picture of the scale. I think it said 131. 6. I know I was relieved because every other day this week it has said close to 133 and I didn't know how that could be especially when just a week and a half ago it said 130.8 which is just eight tenths of a pound away from my Holiday goal weight.

This is becoming slightly discouraging. I've cut way back on my sugar intake, only drink an occasional Coke Zero and have exercised six days this week. What else does a mama have to do? I wake up in the middle of the night with my stomach just growling! Oh, well. I'm not giving up. Not just yet. Thoughts, comments, encouragement are welcome now.

I have a dream

So, this is what comes down to. Me writing emails to celebrities. This is a copy of the actual email I just sent in to the Ellen Degeneres show. Think it will help?

Can Ellen help make my dream of meeting Rick Springfield for my 40th birthday come true?! I love watching Ellen and I love to see how she helps so many people. I know my wish sounds pretty silly but I'm totally serious about wanting to meet my childhood idol before one of us dies. Not that either one of us is sick or anything. I can't tell you how much I have loved Rick Springfield for the last 28 years or so. My best friend at the time and I used to race home from school to watch him on General Hospital and we bought every Tiger Beat, Teen Beat or Seventeen magazine that had his picture in it. The first concert I ever went to was Rick Springfield playing with Quarter Flash in Amarillo, Tx. Went to that with my best friend Amy and we spent the night on the front row in complete disbelief and utter amazement that we were so close to him. I even touched the girl next to me who touched his shoe!

As a stay at home mom who loves my job but is sometimes frightened by the monotony of it all, I can still put one of his CD's on to lift my spirits on any given day. I'd like to say I've matured as a fan and would now just really like to sit down and have a conversation with him assuming I would be able to speak in his presence.

Anyhow, I've asked my friends and family to help me achieve my goal on my blog http://thelittlemama.blogspot.com/2009/11/please-im-begging-you.html , but between you and me I don't think they are taking me seriously. I need help from someone big. Someone with connections. That's where I'm hoping Ellen will come in. I'll even donate my $100 "reward" money to her favorite cause. Thanks in advance! Sincerely, Kim (LM)

Do you hear what I hear?

One of my favorite parts of being a mommy is watching and listening to the kids from afar. I love being with them too but it's fun to see how they behave when they think you're not around and to hear what they have to say to other people.

A few nights ago Mike had the chore (I mean privilege) of getting Jake ready for bed. They were in the playroom and Jake was throwing a good sized fit. I sat in the living room listening to our boy tell his daddy that he only wanted his mama to get him dressed and put him to bed. Mike asked him why he didn't want daddy to do it and he said because "mama my best friend!" While it disappointed me that he was being so ugly to his daddy, I have to admit there was a part of me sitting on the couch thinking "Yeah! I'm his best friend right now!"

This, however, turns out to be a short lived title. The next morning when he woke up the first thing he told me was that his stuffed penguin was his best friend. Oh, well. I'll take what I can get when I can get it. I'm sure it won't be long before he's following Mike around telling him that he's his best friend and I'll be sitting there going "yeah, but who gave birth to you?!" while I drown my sorrows in mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I've also heard him recently telling stories that I make up for him to his toys. He embellishes them with his own little details and makes them his own stories. I love this! It's wonderful seeing your child's imagination grow. Now, if only we could see his compassion for animals grow. As much as he loves dolphins and penguins right now, I'm amazed at how mean he can be to his own puppy and kitty. Poor Zoe thinks she's a soccer ball right now.

In an ongoing effort to teach him to be amazed by all of God's creations, this morning I pointed out a beautiful Monarch butterfly to him at the park. He came over, got down on his hands and knees and we talked about how pretty the butterfly was. When he tried to touch it I told him not to because they're so fragile that touching them can make them not able to fly. I thought he was really understanding all of this and loving it every bit as much as I was. Until he got up, picked up one foot and stomped on that butterfly as hard as he possibly could.

Looks like we still have some work to do. Mike told me that he actually saw the butterfly fly off at the last second and since I couldn't find a body I believe him. Now, if only we could get the cat some wings to escape his "affection" we might be okay.

Wordless Wednesday

Princess Emma

I have to say that dressing Emma up is one of the joys of my life right now. I always thought that if I had a little girl I would want her to be a tomboy and prefer jeans and a t-shirt over frilly little dresses. But for now, while she's still too young to tell me what she likes, I will dress her up for church at least. When Jake saw her in this dress yesterday morning, he said "MAMA! LOOK! Emma a princess!" I thought it was too cute because I'm quite sure we don't talk about princesses around here so I don't know how he even knows what one is. When I told him he could be a prince, he said "no thank you, I Jacob." I just love these little munchkins!

It's good to see the green, green grass of home

Backyard Saga's

In backyard news, a couple days ago Mike and his buddy hauled a couple truck loads of dirt into the yard. We spent the next two days spreading it out over the massive amounts of weeds growing there. I know we should have pulled the weeds, but we are lazy. Mike did spray them with weed killer for all the good that did.

The staked off portion below is the home of our future square foot garden. It's really going to be two square foot gardens combined into one big rectangular garden. I can taste the tomatoes now.

This other staked off bit is going to be our future patio. We hope to build some kind of an arbor over it someday so we can actually enjoy the patio during the nine months of summer we have here.

Grass was delivered today! Our friends Kevin and Leslie came over to help us lay down the sod and Mike just finished up tonight. It looks good in the dark! I'll post pictures of the finished product tomorrow. Peace out.

Thoughtless Thursday

Broccoli, Ice Cream and Dirt in one post!

In an effort to keep a clean house when I have absolutely no time to clean, I made a cleaning chart for myself a few weeks ago. Mainly because I like to make charts. I followed it for about two weeks and was pretty proud of myself. The house was never completely clean all of the time, but at least I knew each room was getting touched on a weekly basis.

Now, my chart sits looking forlornly at me on my desk. It's kind of like broccoli in your refrigerator. You know it's there and that it would be really good for you if you ate it but you just pretend like you can't see it and instead eat the ice cream in the freezer. Only with my cleaning chart I pretend I can't see it and that's it. Things are not getting clean.

In my defense it is really hard to be motivated to clean the house when no one around here is interested in maintaining the clean. Especially the 110 lb. dog who tracks mud all over the place and leaves hair balls in every corner and under every piece of furniture we own. I'm boycotting mopping the floor because it stays clean for exactly three minutes.

Here's a picture of the aforementioned hairballs. It's hard to see them because of my inferior photography skills but trust me they are all over the place. Emma eats them. She also eats cat food. But give the girl a vegetable and she screams like a vampire in the sunlight.




I'm curious to see if anyone out there has a cleaning schedule that really works for them. Clearly, I need some help. LM

I pledge to post something every single day for a month

This is National Blog Posting Month. Who knew? The idea is that you're supposed to post something every day this month even on weekends. I'm going to do my best. I'm not saying it's going to be good or entertaining, but I will try to have something every day. Better start taking pictues of the kids!

Speaking of kids, we did take Jake and Emma to a new play area/bouncy house the other day. They had a blast. Jake has developed a sudden fear of slides and wouldn't do the big one, but we finally talked him into going down the smaller inflatable slide. Emma had so much fun with all of the little toys and really wanted to join Jake in the bouncy house. She's getting so big! It really makes me want another one. Until I remember the whole being pregnant for nine months, feeling sick and tired all the time, and no sleep thingy. Then I'm good with just the two.

Please, I'm begging you...

Here's the deal. I love Rick Springfield. I know it. Mike knows it. You know it. It may seem silly to everyone else out there but I really have this dream of meeting him before I die. The sooner the better. I have now sat through two different Oprah shows where I got to watch others like me be surprised by a visit from him. Don't get me wrong here. I'm happy for them. But I always sit there thinking oh my gosh why can't that be me? On her last show Rick actually showed up and invited these two forty something ladies to go on his cruise in November. How I covet them and their cruise tickets. The only thing standing in my way of going on that cruise is about $2000 and someone to come babysit for a week while I'm gone. In short, never gonna happen.

However, I believe in my heart of hearts that I might be able to meet him in person or even receive a telephone call from him someday. That's where you come in. I'm just gonna put it out there that I need help from my friends and family to help achieve this dream for my fortieth birthday. Gosh, it hurts to say that. I can't believe I'll be turning 40 in January. It would be a little bit easier to swallow if I wasn't married to a 28 year old.

Anyway, I know someone out there has the where-with-all, gumption, fortitude etc. to find a way to get Rick to come to my house for my birthday party with his guitar in hand. Or, maybe just to get on his cell phone and call my house with his guitar in hand. What's in it for you, you ask? Well, my undying love and affection. And maybe $100 cash money. I know Rick's time and talent are worth way more than that but things are tight over here at Little Mama headquarters. So, stop reading and go get busy! I know you can do it!

It's Candy Time!

Oh, the joys of Halloween. Jake liked it last year, but this year he absolutely loved it. How is it that we managed to end the night with more total candy than we started with? Halloween is supposed to be an equal exchange or transfer of candy from one house to another. This year, by the time we were done trick or treating so were most of the neighborhood kids so we ended up with Jake's stash plus half the candy we bought to hand out. You do know whose responsibility it is going to be to eat most of that right? I'm gonna half to take it for the team so that Jake doesn't become some sort of candy crack head. With that being said, I'm going to take the next two weeks off from Diet Diaries. I will be resuming posting my weekly weigh-ins two weeks from today or approximatley one week after the candy disappears.



If you think we can't eat that entire bowl of candy in a week then you are truly underestimating us.

Jake couldn't wait to put on his lion costume and go begging for candy with his two friends "A" and Little "D". We dressed Emma up in her cow costume and then I found out from everyone who saw her that she was actually a giraffe. Amazing. I can tell the difference between a Common dolphin and a Pacific white sided dolphin but am clearly lost when it comes to identifying land mammals. Whatever. She still had fun. I'm amazed at how many people will give candy to an infant with no teeth.




Friday, I decided to go out and find some kitty ears so I could dress up as a cat. Saturday, Halloween day, at 5pm Mike decided to go to WalMart and buy a wig so he could be Afro Man. There's nothing like getting into the spirit of the holiday.

I also made some cupcakes with gummy worms on top and some cookies to munch on because I was afraid we wouldn't have enough sugar to go around. We did start the night off with some real food. Look at our scary Jack O Lantern pizza.




There were a few people in the neighborhood who thought it would be funny to dress up really scary and scare the crap out of little kids. This is actually some sort of moving statue, but then there was a person inside the garage talking for it which really freaked the kids out at first.



It was so much fun watching the sheer joy of the three little boys we had with us as they ran from house to house. Jake had to tell me after each house that he got MORE CANDY! He could not believe it. And the best part for us? Little man actually slept an hour late today. Of course, with the time change he really woke up right on schedule, but still it was a true Halloween miracle.

Saturday spookiness

Here are our little spooks pre-costume. I'll put up pictures later when we get them dressed for Trick or Treating. Jake finally consented to wear the lion costume I bought him and Emma is going to be a cow because she cannot express her opinion on the matter yet. We invited some of our friends over to go trick or treating with us so they should have a marvelous time.