Christmas Day 2014

Better late than never right!? ;)

"A toy garbage truck, Skye from Paw Patrol and camo boots"--Santa delivered!

We love shopping for KeeKee's stocking!  R helped me pick some things out for her!  

R seriously gets SO hot when he sleeps...we were staying with my parents on Christmas Eve and when I went to wake him up on Christmas morning and I saw sweat puddles on his arm!  I couldn't even believe it!  His lil body is just a little furnace when he sleeps!!   

For someone born on 09.09.09 a baseball cap with the #9 on it is necessary!  

Wadders to go ducky hunting with Poppy!

R got this alligator for Uncle G...and he even wrapped it himself.  Alligators will always make us think of G since he got a gator tag and killed one a couple years ago.

New necklace from Naynee's "friends"!  He loves it!

R had seen some of the Home Alone movies, but not all of them.  I was happy to introduce him to the others!  

Christmas morning!  He has always been so sweet & patient!

We had a great morning with lots of surprises, and some...not so much!  But good family time, and then we cleaned up and picked up (slowly, but surely) and got busy making lunch!  Ms. Barbara came over and ate with us.  We later made our way to Poppy's game room where we all enjoyed a little nap!

I feel extremely blessed to get to celebrate the birth of Jesus another year with the ones so dear to me!

Chatbooks Y'all!!

Someone posted about Chatbooks on IG a while back and I knew I had to see what the fuss was all about! I  instantly downloaded the app and gave it a try!  After some looking around and thinking what a deal $6.00 was for a book of 60 pages...I knew this was exactly what I needed and had been wanting for all my pictures!  

It took me some time to go through and "exclude" some of my IG pictures that I didn't want in my books, and once I did that...I had 17 volumes worth of pictures.  I knew I had to start somewhere--and this was it!  I bought them all and couldn't wait for them to get in!

I actually had forgotten that I had ordered them, especially with all the Christmas gifts I had been ordering for other people, and when I got them in my mailbox I literally SCREAMED--R thought something was seriously wrong!  Ha!  Nope...just my order of Chatbooks! 

The past two months since we have had them...I've caught myself looking through them, I've caught R sitting down looking through them, and extended family (who may or may not have IG) have gotten the chance to sit down and look at them, which just makes my heart happy!   

I opted to have a "subscription" with them, which has been so nice!  As soon as you have new pictures on IG, they know about it.  No uploading them, e-mailing them or getting them from your phone to your computer, etc. Once you have filled up a new books with 60 pictures, they e mail you and tell you that your next volume is full and you have 48 hours to edit the book to your liking.

I'm thankful for this, because I usually go back and have about 5-10 pictures I want to exclude from the book, which makes my book no longer "ready" to print, so they don't print it.  And then the whole process starts over again.

When I get another e-mail telling me it's ready to be edited, I go back again and exclude any pictures I might want to exclude, and then pick the picture I want on the cover and leave it as is.  They will see that I still have 60 pictures in there...and after 48 hours they will print and ship!  Easy as that!  They basically take care of everything for you, which is so nice for busy, working-mamas like myself!

I recently saw Chatbooks post about these Target Dollar Spot baskets on their IG.  I knew I had to have them, and luckily my store had some!  They were just too perfect for housing my Chatbooks!

Right now I have them on the sofa table behind our love-seat...but I love that they are all together if we want to just pick them up and take them some where else to enjoy.  

Here's where it gets FUN!

They announced a while back, that they were starting to offer books with up to 300 pages.  I thought this was GREAT, but commented to ask if they would ever consider going up to at least 365 pages, so that we could print "A Photo A Day" pictures for an entire year...so that you could have them all together in one book, instead of being chopped up into a bunch of different books.

They (@chelsprince) quickly commented back stating they would, "Keep this in mind for the future."  Good enough answer for this customer, and I was just impressed I got a direct reply at all!  But I honestly didn't really think about it again....UNTIL...

I saw this!!!

I about screamed when I saw it!  I was so excited that they took my idea and RAN WITH IT!!  My dad says I need to ask them for royalties!  Ha!

I haven't had the chance to order my "Pic a Day" book from 2014 yet, but I plan to do so soon!

An awesome feature that I love that Chatbooks offers is being about to pull all the pictures off of IG that has a certain #hashtag.  This way you don't have to go through and pick out all the picture you want in your book one-by-one, and IG/Chatbooks basically do all the work for you!  

So, there ya have it!  Are you ready to go order your own Chatbooks now?!  YOU SHOULD!  

Use my referral code QPANHW2K to get your first Chatbook for FREE!!!  Yay! 

sunday happenings!

First weekend to relax after being back into the grind.

I'll be honest.  I was ready to get back to work and in routine, but boy was I glad for the weekend to be here!

Last Sunday night, I was up every hour...paranoid that I wouldn't wake up to my alarm Monday morning...like I did Saturday morning when dad was supposed to come pick us up at 8 o'clock to go somewhere, and I woke up to the sound of him banging on my bedroom window.  OMG is right.

Monday and Tuesday I was up and at'um when the alarm went off.  The rest of the week...not so much!  All that enthusiasm, GONE.  It doesn't help that it's FREEZING outside.  I just want to stay in yoga pants, a Patagonia and my Uggs all day!

Ryder gets bored at home sometimes...and I think he was tired of me, and his behaving was showing that.  So it was time for him to go back to school too.  But sure enough, but the end of the school day Tuesday I was antsy to get my baby back.  As much as I was ready for a "break"--I missed being with him too!

Monday night when I finally got him down to bed, I missed him.  We went and ate dinner with my parents and he was a WILD CHILD.  I was counting down the minutes until bed time.  Then bed time comes and I lay down with him...and he won't close his mouth (it's a real problem y'all).  He asks me, "How do you just fall asleep mom?"  "Ryder, please try to quit thinking about things and just close your eyes and GO TO SLEEP."

Not five minutes later...silence.

And then...I miss him and wish he was awake!  Why is that?!  I guess we always want what we can't have, no matter the situation.

Anyways...this is major brain dump.

I'm excited to started Kelly Minter's "What is Love" studying 1, 2 and 3rd John!  I've never done any other studies at church other than Beth Moore (which I've LOVED) but I am excited to try a new author!

Recently...well the past 6 days, when R hears me tell someone that he starts Kinder "next year" he corrects me and says "No, mom...THIS YEAR"  How is that so.  I've known he would start school in "2015" since he was born...but how is it already here?

We called my dad's dad, Papa John.  The other night we had pizza and I over heard Ryder calling the Parmasean cheese "Papa John cheese"--it sounds right!

Happy Sunday Y'all!  I'm eating some of my mom's Wild Rice soup, watching the Packers and the Cowboys play, grading some papers and trying to stay warm!  ENJOY today before we get back to the hustle and the bustle tomorrow!  

christmas eve 2014

There's one place I've been on Christmas Eve night growing up, and it's Nana and Papaw's house.  I haven't known anything different.  I've gone from being the only grandchild there, to being the oldest grandchild of 11 there, to being a mom there.  

Some of the traditions we carry on there include eating appetizers while we visit and catch up, and then eatting chili for "dinner"---if our bellies are feeling up to it!  Another tradition is decorating Nana's sugar cookies with homemade frosting.  We have gone from using only the most basic colors, to using every color under the sun, which has been so much fun!  I've never been one to eat sugar cookies or really getting into decorating them, but I'll decorate a few just for traditions sake!  Ryder has gotten to partake in the event over the years as well which has been fun to watch!  He would still much rather like the spoon than anything else! :P

Some people go ALL our with their decorating...but I am not one of them!  =)  But I love those that are!

Picture of us by the tree!  Ryder was in a cute sweater and jeans, but to be honest, that's just not "him".  He is much more "himself" when he is in a hoodie and sweats, so I switched him into those mid-evening and I'm so glad I did.  As a parent, there are somethings you just have to "let go" on--whether it's letting go for your child's sake, or for your own expectation's sake.  And this time...I had to let go for my own sake, and I'm perfectly okay with that.   

Here we are in front of the tree in 2012!

After the sugar cookies are all decorated and we've eaten dinner...we all sit down and read The Christmas Story.  Papaw used to read it straight out of the Bible until Naynee found this book and gifted it to him 22 years ago.  I think it's neat that we've used this same book for 22 years!  

At one time, there were a lot of little grand kids that would all pile up in Papaw's lap with him while he read it.  We have since all gotten a little bit too big, and it's been up to Ryder to fulfill that role for the past 5 years!  

 Here they are in 2011...

 ...and 2012

...and 2013.  I love looking back at old pictures of the same thing!  It's crazy how things change in a year, but my how so many things can stay the same!

We are so thankful that we get to spend this special time with family every year...and that nothing comes in between it!  We stayed there later this year than we ever have before, but we had a complete blast!  Santa was just a lil tired from staying up so late! ;)

#katiaday2015 week 1

Day 1:  We had a relaxing, enjoyable New Year's Day spent at home...and then got to enjoy some of KeeKee's apple crumble and ice cream while sitting by the fire!  

 Day 2:  Someone was antsy to get outside and asked, "If I put my coat on, can I go play outside?"  How can I say no to that!  It was super wet out so I made him wear his Muck boots which he LOVED.  He wasn't out there very long before I made him come in from being too wet--I knew he had to have been cold!

 Day 3:  We made a day trip to visit Aunt Dean, and I had to explain to Ryder what a "house phone" was.  I told him it was connected to the wall, and you couldn't just take it where you wanted to.  There was no text messaging on it and no apps.  He then asked me why it didn't have Instagram.

 Day 4:  Ryder loves days at Mimi's where he gets to play with his cousin Caleb!  and they love forts!

 Day 5:  I was so glad to have my little guy back from Mimi's after my first day back to school after break.  I told him I wanted to get him a treat, and he said he wanted Maggie's!  So Maggie's it was!  He gets a chocolate no-bake, and I get a gourmet chocolate chip!  and we love us some Orange Crush!  Life is worth celebrating!  

Day 6:  I've missed him during the day since we have both gone back to school.  Then, when I get him home he just about wears me out because he is so FULL of energy, and I am counting down the minutes until bed time!  But as soon as he is asleep, I "miss" him and wish he was awake!  

Day 7:  Can we talk about the fact that is was 18 degrees yesterday?  YIKES!  A blanket scarf was a must while I had car duty after school!