I want these for Christmas! The Rayban Wayfarers. The newer ones. The old ones that have been around for many many years tilt in, but the newer model don't tilt in and they don't touch my cheeks. I love them. I think they look great on me.
Here I am trying them on at the store:
ha

The ones in the photo have a blue lens and are polarized. I will be happy with the all black ones that are not polarized as well.

What do you want for Christmas?

She will keep me honest!

I asked my mom to make up a small Christmas arrangement for a lady that hangs out with Anika most mornings I do spin. She comes into the gym daycare, but Anika is the only one, so she gets a lot of special attention from her. I have gotten to know this lady and I am also very fond of her. She has a background in early childhood education and development, and works with Anika on so many fun things. Lets call her L.   When we see L around town, Anika gets excited to see her and vice versa. We even went Trick or treating with her this year (and many other people I have met through Anika!)
I realized today would be the last day we see L for FOUR months because she goes away for the winter. I didn't have anything at home to make her something special, so I called my mom last night. My mom has all the greens and decorations to make arrangements because she makes a lot of them this time of year.  My mom also knows L and thinks she is someone very special to Anika.  

My mom goes to the gym Friday mornings too and she brought the flower arrangement and I got it out of her car. I kind of wanted to pass it off like I made it...well, more the fact, I didn't want L to know that I had MY MOM make a gift for MY Daughter to give her. Ya know? I'm an adult and I should have arranged something myself. 
Anyway, I had Anika hand the arrangement to L, and L looked at me and said "Ohh, did you make this?" and before I could answer little miss Big Mouth Anika said "Nona Did"

BHAHAAH.

I wasn't going to lie, but still I found it funny Anika piped right up.

She has already told on me a few times in the past.

She is a chatter box to boot. Speaking in sentences and telling me what to do, but she is so sweet still. Mostly.  

We gave Anika's sitter who watches her 3 days a week, a big arrangement like this:

 

Except hers was bigger and nicer and had more fun stuff in it.  My dad made the wooden boxes. The arrangement looked great on her porch and can stay outside or inside.  I wish I got a picture of the one I gave her sitter.

This week its really been made clear to me how many special people Anika has in her life.  People who really love her, and not just family.  The sweet things people say about her and how much they love spending time with her. I know MY family is bias because we are her family, but its pretty nice to hear non family people say how much they enjoy being around my daughter. I hope she continues to be the type of person people love being around.  It has been a fear of mine that I would have a kid that everyone hates to be around.  Admit it, we ALL Know a  kid like that.

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I now need to get MY mom something VERY Special for all that she does for Anika (and me). She is going to Hawaii next month, so I think I might get her some gift cards to restaurants and activities.

I did get her this wreath for her Birthday.  My blog friend Ashley made it.  She has an etsy store that you can find HERE.

 

 

 

Happy Friday!!

Christmas Time

 Last weekend, we went to see some Christmas trees on display.

Lots of different themes. Anika always recognizes Elmo and I'm not sure where she learned about him.

 

 

This past Friday, I hosted a girls night at my house. The weather was horrible and the roads were bad, so only 3 out of the 5 came.
We still had fun.  It was funny because one girl (who is a few years younger than me) was talking about a party in HS where she got sick and was on the bathroom floor. I was like, Hmm, I was at that party. We made jokes about there being no camera phones back then...but then I went down to my basement and pulled the photo album from 2000, and voila, I had a photo of her on the bathroom floor. LOL.  Poor girl, but we had a good laugh. Even before camera phones, I ALWAYS had a camera!

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This weekend, we made my mom's Santa Christmas cookies. Well, kind of. We replaced  a few ingredients and we never decorated them which is what really makes them!  I really had to relax and let this go...QUITE a mess was made! I kept reminding myself, I could clean it up later :)  

 Pouring and Mixing

Rolling

 

Cutting

 

The dough should have been chilled so the Santa cutter wouldn't really work.

 

 

 

Anika's old sitter sold us this piano for $20.
I MEAN, LOOK AT IT!

 

We were going to give it to her for Christmas, but she saw it when I brought her down to the basement to get the Christmas cookie cutters out of a bin.
She went ballistic, so I let her have it. 
The dress she has on was mine :)

 

We went to the Santa's Village near my parents town.
I actually was one of those elves when I was in 5th grade! ha

 

 

 

 

The entire train set is my Uncle's.

 

 

 

Night night baby Jesus.

 

She saw Santa from afar and said Santa, but she did NOT want to be close to him!

 

 

After, we went out to dinner to celebrate my mom's Birthday. By the way, we celebrated Andrew's last weekend.  I got him a bread maker.  We went to breakfast for his Birthday. I don't think I have any photos from his, but I do have this video.

 

 

 This photo below is staged  :) That would be Andrew's ROOT beer and not even that went in her cup. ha.

What We have been up to.

 Anika's sitter took this picture of her playing. She has so much fun there.  If you remember, Anika's old sitter returned to a professional career at the end of the summer and Anika started at a new place. Two girls Anika got babysat with at the old place went to the new place too. IT is just the 3 girls and the sitter's son, who is in school half the day.  We have been so extremely blessed and fortunate. We LOVE this sitter too.

Anika turned 20 Months! Ah

 

We did the annual Turkey trot Thanksgiving morning. There are no photos because Anika was NOT happy. She usually loves walks/runs, but oh no. Miserable little girl. I don't know if it was being all bundled up because it was so cold, or WHAT her deal was.

 

We went to my Gram's for dinner.

 

 

 

my cousin insists on giving Anika the whoopee pies she makes.

 

I couldn't find Anika and I walked out in the hall and she had gotten up on the bench and was playing some tunes :)

 

 

 

We got home from my Gram's about 8 PM Thanksgiving night and we put Anika to bed. I put my jammies on.  Andrew and I looked at some black Friday ads and I realized that all the sales were THURSDAY night. I was WIDE awake, so I got dressed again and headed to walmart (25 minutes away). I parked and walked right in around 9. I went and bought the on sale Leappad.
Then I looked around for where the Ipad line was. I found it. I was 21st in line. They couldn't sell the Ipads until 10 pm. They were selling 85.
I waited and was very entertained playing on my phone with no husband or baby wanting me :)
Then I got thirsty. REALLY thirsty, so I asked the girl behind me to hold my place. I  went and got some water. I came back and talked to the girl and we just chatted and before I knew it, we got our Ipads. There was no pushing, no yelling, nothing like you see on TV. This is rural NH, people.

After the Ipad, I went and got a few more things.  Then, I went next door to the outlets. Jcrew was 50% off so I got a gift for someone and some tights for me. It was so crazy to see TONS of people out shopping at midnight. The parking lot was full. Everyone was happy and I thought it was very neat.  I know IM an asshole for supporting Thursday shopping, bla bla- so Un hippie of me, I get it. I went to a few mores stores and went home. When I got home at 1 AM, Anika was awake! WHAT?? Andrew said she woke up at 10, wired! I have my suspicions of why she was up wired, but we finally got her to sleep with us, but it wasn't real sleep.

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Friday, we went to my parent's house to get our Christmas tree. We always get it from my dad's. They are not always the prettiest, but they are free and my dad grew them.

 

 

 

 

 I had to crop this because for some reason, Andrew's hand was on his crotch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

my niece helped us!

 

Anika was SOOO much fun decorating the tree. It was a lot of work pulling out all the decorations from the basement and such, but she loved hanging ornaments. She is so gentle and followed directions quite well. I was really impressed. We played Christmas music. She LOVES the nativity Scene. My mom bought her one - a nice one made in Italy. She loves putting baby Jesus night night.

 

 

 

 

 

The Star!

Charlie Brown Tree

 

 

GUZZI!!

 -

ON Saturday, Anika and I went to a baby shower. It was fun. THen, we went shopping and I returned a bunch of the stuff I bought Thursday night! ha.

I got carried away. I also returned the leap pad. We are going to let her use the Ipad with apps (sometimes) instead.

We also went into Ann Taylor Loft and this happened: there was a display of women's headbands and Anika reached for one so I let her try it on and then she started saying mirror so I brought her to the mirror and she smiled and said "Anka want one" ! I said, you have some at home and she was ok with that response.

Then we went to walmart, and she started yelling Barbie at a Barbie display. I don't even know how she knew what that was, but She picked it up, and I asked her to put it back and after a few times  of asking, she did, but I saw it was $5 so I got it for her! ha.

I cant believe I did. Andrew calls the doll YUCK, so now Aniak drags it by its hair and calls it Yuck too.

 

 

 

Andrew and I exchange ornaments.
I got him this one with the new NZ house painted on it from an etsy shop.

It came in the mail today and I let him see it. I'm so bad at surprises! ha.

We also get Anika one. Ill post hers later.

 

 

I posted about this picture on FB, but if you are not friends with me, here is the story:
The other morning  we were JUST Getting up.

 Anika wanted to play with my ring, and I wouldn't let her. She started to cry and have a little tantrum. I said "If you are going to cry, please go do it in your room. There are toys in your room you can play with"
  She stopped crying and walked immediately next door to her room. It was VERY quiet, so after a minute or two I walked into her room and here she was.
I asked "what are you doing?"
Anika: "time out".
Me: No one said anything about time out. You don't have to sit there
Anika: OH. (got up and played).

 

Seriously, I don't know what's up with her doing that. We don't even USE TIMEOUT!

 

Oh friends, I could go on and on, but this is pretty long. I wish I could keep up on a normal basis.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.