Ready for the Holidays

Every year starting in September, I begin to get excited about the upcoming holidays and seasons. The changing of the leaves, going to the pumpkin patch, trick-or-treating, and hot apple cider are all things that I associate with the Fall season. I love the cooler weather that accompanies it. People come here to Asheville to see the changing leaves and it is quite beautiful. I am so happy that I don't have to travel anywhere to see such gorgeous views. If you haven't been here during this season, I highly recommend it. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a sight to behold.

Halloween is the first holiday and it is one of my favorites. I love getting the kids dressed up and going door to door in our neighborhood. We have several decorations already put out and I will quickly be adding more as I can't seem to be able to stop buying them. We are going to throw a Halloween party with a few neighbors and some of Hayden's buds this year. I plan on serving a light dinner of some sort and having cool festive foods/goodies. Afterward, the kids can take off trick-or-treating. The good thing is that our neighborhood is *the* place to be for TOTing. There are so many houses here that it is a one-stop-shop. I love that! I will probably send Clayton with the kids and I will stay behind to hand out candy. That is one of my favorite things to do.

Shortly after that, Emerson and Clayton's birthdays come around. E is at the beginning of November and C is at the end. Both of their gifts have already been bought and E's is even wrapped. I went ahead and gave C his gift last week (an XBox 360). I know it was way early, but he has been so wonderful to me. He has also been pretty bored since his XBox went kaput recently, so I just had to give it to him. He was thrilled, to say the least.

Anyway, Thanksgiving comes next. We take an annual trip to the pumpkin patch for pictures and then we buy some pumpkins from a really nice old guy that runs a roadside stand. He is the nicest guy ever and I will continue going back to him every year. For our holiday dinner, I always make a huge meal with my parents and grandparents. I am so glad that I get to be the host each year. Cooking is one of my hobbies, so this holiday definitely suits me. Clayton and I are both huge turkey fans and we always manage to eat every last bite of the leftovers. Yummy, I can't wait for the feast to begin!

Christmas is the grand finale of the year. This year, I am well prepared. I have already addressed my cards, bought everyone's gifts, gotten the Hallmark ornaments, and the homemade gifts are almost done. The only thing left to do is buy the Christmas jammies for each of us. After that, we will be able to enjoy the holiday without a lot of stress. Yay! I am so looking forward to the festivities. We are most likely going to do a trip with my parents on the Polar Express to see Santa. The kids will get a big kick out of that! We will do Christmas morning at home and then have dinner with my family in High Point. It's always so hectic, but we really enjoy it.

LOL, I didn't mean to ramble so much, but I am super tired. Clayton is in Wisconsin this week and I can't sleep without him here. Ugh. I can't wait for him to come back on Friday.

New layout

The ScrapRoom had us all make a layout about ourselves for the design team section of the website. I have been wanting to use this beautiful KI paper forever, so I finally did and the above layout is what I came up with. The picture stinks, but it was the only one I had (Joanna, I need you to come over here for a photo shoot!). 

OMG, you have to see this!

Click on this link and then click on the top video with Elmo: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/guide?category=Top%20Videos&subcategory=&id=2462444#2462444

I chuckled the whole time the new Elmo TMX laughed. It is so freakin' cute! I had no desire to get this thing for my kids until I actually saw it. He has 3 cycles of laughs. If you watch all 3 on the video, you will see that he gets funnier with each cycle. He rolls, slaps the ground, slaps his hip, and doubles over with laughter. What's amazing is that he gets right back up on his feet after having a contagious laughing fit. He is absolutely hilarious.

Here's a complete description of what he does:
-Elmo will tickle America's funny bone with 3 interactive tickle spots on his chin, tummy or toe
-When kids tickle Elmo once on any of the tickle spots, he starts to laugh and slap his leg twice, then falls down into a sitting position and rocks himself back up to standing while laughing
-Tickle him a second time and he repeats the pattern even more, then sits down again and falls backwards onto his back and starts kicking his feet while laughing even harder before standing up and asking to be tickled again
-Tickle him 3 times and he absolutely lets loose going through the first 2 patterns and then rolling over onto his tummy where he starts hitting the floor with his hand in gales of laughter, then rolling onto his back, standing up again, and ending with a deep sigh

If you are interested in getting one for the holidays, good luck. They debuted yesterday and no stores around me have any left. I was so upset that I was a day late and a dollar short. Ugh! It's sad, but alot of them got swiped up by people reselling them for ungodly amounts on ebay. Well, thank the Lord for my wonderful Mom because she called around her town for them and everyone was out. She then tried a Toys 'R Us in Greensboro (about 30 min. from her) and found out that they had 16 left. They would not hold an Elmo for her so she raced out there to get one. Fortunately, there was 3 left when she arrived. She swiped one and my Aunt got one too for my cousins. Yay!!! I can't wait for Emerson to get it for Christmas. He is going to love it. :)

My silly boy

Emerson is growing up too fast. Doesn't he look so much older in this photo? I took it over a month and a half ago. Sheesh. Slow down little man. 

Forgot to post this one

Clayton took this photo of me and the kiddos back on my birthday. We were goofing around in the the playroom. 

Crap...

I tell you what, I did the dumbest thing yesterday. We went to the fair with Tracy and Austin. I took my camera so that I could get some fun shots of the kiddos. When I tried to take a pic of them on a ride, I realized that I left the stupid memory card in it's dock at home. Ugh! This is the first time that I have forgotten the stupid thing. They were so cute. Lesson learned.

I forgot to mention...

I made the design team for The ScrapRoom!!! I have wanted to design for this club forever! The owner, Tammy, has a great knack for putting together page kits. Her kits come loaded with 4 mini kits that guarantee you at least 8 layouts. I can get 10-12 out of them sometimes. She always picks the latest/greatest papers and embellishments. I have been a subscriber of TSR for a long time now, so I know just how good the kits really are. They ROCK! Check out the monthly idea page here: http://www.scrap-room.com/ideas.htm . It is so exciting to see that I have 4 projects there with my name in lights. What an honor! Anyway, the layouts that got me a spot on the team can be see at that link. Mind you, they could have been better. I did them all within 24 hours because I had to leave for Denver and wouldn't be back home to work on them before the deadline. There is another double page layout that I did, but I can't post that one because it is a part of an instruction card that can only be seen exclusively by kit subscribers.

Also, I am happy to report that my friend Shirley also made the team! Yee haw!! I used to design for her when she owned The Scrapbook Stand. She rocks and I am so glad to be working with her again. :)

Re-Cap of Denver

You know, I wrote out a HUGE re-cap of my adventures in Denver and somehow it all got deleted before I could post here on blogger. Dang it! Be sure to scroll down the page as I have added several new updates to my blog. Anyhow, here's how my trip went:

Wed. 8/23-My flight from Asheville got delayed and so I missed my second flight from Atlanta. It made me really late and I ended up getting to the hotel after midnight and chatting with my IM until 2am (MST), although it felt more like 4am (EST) to me. She is so sweet! She had cookies, Body Shop goodies, and a beautiful card waiting in my room for me. Needless to say, we slept in the next morning, lol.

Thurs. 8/24-We went out to the local mall to kill some time. That place is so cool! It looked like a lodge inside. I was pretty impressed. We caught a matinee and saw "Little Miss Sunshine". That movie is really cute and I highly suggest it.

Fri. 8/25 and Sat. 8/26-We transferred 3 embryos at around 2pm that Friday. Everything went well. I had a valium before the procedure so I ended up sleeping the rest of the day. I was ordered to be on strict bedrest for the rest of that day and the next. My IM took great care of me, but it was still rough. I couldn't stand not being able to get up and walk around. My body ached from being in the bed so much. At least I had good company. ;)

Sun. 8/27-My IM flew back home to Atlanta that morning, so I went out and toured the Denver Tech Center area that day. It felt so good to be back on my feet! I walked everywhere and the weather was so nice. The photo above was one of the pretty fountains that I passed on one of the main roads near my hotel. That night, I met one of my college buddies that now lives in Denver, Jennifer. I miss her so much. When we got together, it was just like old times. She was just as beautiful as I remember. We had a great night reminiscing about our college days when we both worked for a student textbook store called Packbackers. Man, those were the days! We had a wonderful dinner at PF Changs and I really enjoyed her company. Clayton and I have been toying with the idea of moving out to Denver. It would be great to be near J-fer, but she would likely move back to NC if and when we did that.

Mon. 8/28-I couldn't help but fear for my life on the 2 plane rides back home. A plane had went down the day before and I couldn't help but think about it the whole time. It was such a tragedy. Those poor people. I luckily made it back home and I was so happy to see my family waiting for me outside the airport doors. I had missed them so much. I felt such a sigh of relief to finally be back home again.

First Day of Preshool

The boys had their first day of preschool this past Tuesday. Both of their classes seem to be really fun. They both come home exhausted, but happy. Hayden's class will be doing some fun new things this year like cooking and taking field trips. Emerson has a cute gal pal in his. Her name is Bailey and the teacher said that they stick together like glue. That's my chick magnet boy!

In the photo the boys were ready to go and didn't want to take the time for a pic. That's why Hayden has a "come on already" look on his face, lol. 

Mango Madness

Ok, so I normally don't look this way, I swear. The last time I posted a pic when I had hives, I had assumed that it was from a mango. Well, I ate several pieces of fresh mango while I was in Denver and I did not develop a reaction. I decided that the hives must have come from something else since I appeared to be fine the last time I ate them. This past Tuesday, I decided to make a recipe for a yummy mango taco salad. Let me tell ya, it was pretty good. I ate every bite on my plate. The next morning, I started to scratch my armpits because they were itching me to death and that is when I felt little bumps everywhere. Ack! My whole body is covered with them. The rash on my face is hideous and one of my eyes is incredibly swollen. See how my left eye looks in the photo? That isn't normal. It looks like I got into a street fight. Geez. I have hives all over me. The bumps are even in my butt crack, lol. The good news is that I can continue to eat mango. I just can't cut fresh mango myself. After doing some research, I found out that the peel of the mango and the sap that may come out of the stem have the same chemical that poison oak/ivy have. I am severely allergic to poison oak/ivy, so my body reacted to the peel of the mango. It's a good thing that I didn't eat the peel, lol. Next time I buy fresh mango, I will either use gloves when I cut it or I will have Clayton do it. This was a nasty lesson to learn, but I am so glad that I can still eat it.

Surrogacy Update

I talked with my IM last night and I am so excited that they may use an egg donor to try having a baby again. I happily agreed to carry for them if they decide to travel that path. I have enjoyed being a part of their journey to parenthood and I would love nothing more than to work with them again. All they have to do is tell me when and I am there. They may change their minds and do adoption though, so I am not getting my hopes up too much just yet. In 2 weeks, they will let me know their decision as they have a lot of research to do before making up their minds. No matter what they decide, I will stand behind them and cheer them on. They are the sweetest couple and I just know that they will make wonderful parents.

If they decide to go the adoption route, I am going to give a third and final couple a try. I really want to be a surrogate and I feel like it is my calling. Nothing would make me happier or make me feel more worthwhile than to help a couple achieve their dream of parenthood.

Hayden's New Toy

Hayden just got his first Big Wheel last weekend. Boy, that thing sure does bring back memories for Clayton and I. We both had one when we were little. They are so fun! 

So Incredibly Sad...

I am sad to say that our embryo transfer was unsuccessful. I don't really know what to do or say at this point. Please keep my IPs in your prayers because this was their last try at having their own baby. :(