Adam is an artist

Probably none of you knew that Adam is a famous sculptor. No really- he is. He is really private with his work but this Christmas he gave us a demonstration and I was able to snap a few pictures while he wasn't looking to share with you.

Yes folks- that's play-doh and play-doh accessories. That last one he was so proud of that he took two pictures of it and then made me come block the light so he could get a picture he was happy with. Of his play-doh monster statue. My husband everyone.

Christmas Day!

We have been overtaken by presents. This morning when I was cleaning up from the house destruction that is Christmas, I was a little afraid I would never see my floors or counter tops again! We now have enough colors and markers and toys that make noise and books and microphones and art easels and tables and stuffed animals and drums and movies and small toys and big toys and everything in between to last us at least until Anna's birthday. (: I think my favorite moment this year was when Anna opened her stuffed Goofy that I thought she would LOVE because she loves her small one and this one is bigger and it talks. Not so much love for this Goofy. I think it scared her because she dropped in on the ground and then kicked it away from her with her foot. Ha!

Here are some of the pics from Christmas Day 2008.

Opening Packages

Stocking

Love the look of delight on her face when she saw a Tigger doll

The next American Idol- they take them this young right? (:

Make-over by Aunt Stacey

I think her favorite present was the lip gloss!

Playing Play doh with Daddy

My sister is a tattle tale

For those of you that know my sister- she is such a tattle-tale! You do ONE dumb thing and the VERY next day it's all over her blog. (:

Christmas Eve with Nana and Papa

We had Christmas with Nana and Papa tonight. It was a great night- very enjoyable to be able to sit and visit with them. Anna got some great gifts. She is having such a fun Christmas this year. Here are a few pictures and a funny video. (on the video... note the hand movements of a true harmonica player)

and last but not least... "Anna plays the blues"

Thanks for the evening and the gifts Nana and Papa!

Small things

Tonight I am filling a whole blog post with things that have been on my mind to post but are not large or important enough to fill up a whole post unto themselves. So here goes...

1. This is from yesterday when I had a bad day. Today was a fun day. Yesterday was not a fun day- I was in a really,realy, really bad mood. Ask Adam- he'll tell you. (:

2. Anna informed me today that one day she was going to be a queen and wear a crown and that she wanted me to be "princess mommy". That's my girl- keep those goals high!

3. Congrats to my sister, Julie, and Lacey (and me I guess!) for surviving another semester!

4. Little known fact about myself. I am very interested in dinosaurs. If I liked the heat more I might have considered going into archaeology.

5. Congrats to my brother for buying his first house- it is beautiful and he has been so patient waiting for the perfect house to come along.

6. Adam made even more delicious alfredo tonight. mmmm....

7. I can't end on 7 cause my sister pointed it out last time and it bugged me cause of my odd numbers thing.

8. I can't wait to see Anna open presents tomorrow. She LOVES presents. As soon as my computer backs up every single photo I ever took, I am going to download some new ones from Christmas with Robin and Kem. I want to post a seriously cute video of the little one playing with one of her presents. I'll stick in some pictures too just cause she's so cute.

Little girl.... BIG attitude

Here are some recent funny things Anna has said or done recently...

(said to Adam when he was getting worked up about something- said very calmly and quietly)

"Dadddddy.... just calm down."

She calls her stuffed Mickey and Goofy "her boys" and let me tell you... you do NOT want to wash them right before naptime.

(said to Gma and I in the car while we were debating about what to feed her- using a still small voice to herself)

"Fine, just ignore me."

(said to me)

"I think about polka dots....hahahahahahaha!!!! (laughing hysterically)

(said to me after I accidently pulled her hair when I pulled her shirt over her head)

Anna- "Ow...." (some crying)

Me- "oh baby I am so sorry- Mommy didn't mean for that to happen"

Anna- "DON'T let it happen again."

I just got all her presents wrapped and under the tree about 2 hrs ago- she has grabbed one and hidden from me to try and open it 3 times now.

I am a mother

I saw this idea on another blog and liked the idea. She actually stole it from someone else so I figured I could steal it too. (:



I am a mother. I have unidentified smears on my jeans about the height of Anna's hands. I know all the lyrics to Mickey Mouse clubhouse and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. I get up many nights from my warm bed and search the house for Goofy. I chase away hyenas. My kiss has magical healing powers. My day is instantly brightened by my child's smile. I make mistakes. I am growing. I can instantly spot a choking hazard from 3 rooms away. I routinely reach my hand out to grab whatever my daughter is spitting out of her mouth. I will do anything, go anywhere, pay any price to protect my child. My hero is my own mother. I haven't had a full night's uninterrupted sleep in two and a half years. I can withstand hours of whining. I try to be everything to everyone, but very rarely succeed. I haven't used the bathroom without a toddler standing by in over a year. I think making homemade cookies and eating the sprinkles is important. I wish I was better, thinner, more faithful, smarter. I love to snuggle up on the couch with children's books, a pillow, a blanket and Anna. My food is almost always eaten cold. I fill sippy cups 1,000 times a day. I get 10,000 hugs a day in return. Being a mother is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am a mother.

Some Stuff

I am really tired but my husband requested a blog so here goes... just some completely random stuff.

1. I think my computer keyboard is possessed. Adam doesn't believe me but sometimes just randomly and out of the blue, a certain key will just stop working. Like for instance, the last few days, my space key didn't actually create a space about every 4th time that I hit it. So everything I typed the last few days lookedlike thisand then sometimeslikethisjust all runtogether. It was very irritating. And now the space key is working again but my q button won't work. I had to hit that button literally 6 times to make it type. And I counted so I know it was 6. Ok it was 7 but I don't like odd numbers so I rounded down. Stupid possessed computer.

2. Anna and I made cookies and started our Christmas art project today. I have some cute pics of her eating the sprinkles dumping all the sprinkles out at once decorating the cookies that I will post sometime soon. If I get around to it. I do have two tests tomorrow and two finals Sunday and Monday and 3 quizzes to take tomorrow also so maybe you should just take my word for it that she was super cute while "decorating" the cookies. Unfortunately, I had a mommy brain moment and forgot they were in the oven so they were a mite crispy. She still managed to eat them right up.

3. Adam made some delicious alfredo tonight. That might explain the extreme fatigue that is making me want to lie down and sleep the carb sleep of death.

4. I am super thirsty all the sudden.

5. Ok all better now. I love me some earl grey tea mixed with regular black tea. (mine - not Starkbucks...)

6. I have this nerve in my neck (maybe it's a muscle- I don't know - I haven't taken my anatomy class yet- that's next semester) that just tightens up and screams at me now. It's really actually kinda funny cause its like my own little "you are getting too tense and stressed out" alarm. I can feel that slight burning/ouchy/tightness start in my neck and off I go to slap on some sort of heating pad or thermacare wrap or icyhot patch like I am 90 freaking years old. Hey man- you do whatcha gotta do to avoid that horrible "I can't move or my head will literally fall off my shoulders" kinda pain. Right? Right.

7. never mind. that's it. I have to go back to studying and trying not to fall asleep. Good night.

mood indicator-sleepy but pretty ok

Dancing

Open Letter

Dear Adam,

I hope that you are recovering from having to push your dumb wife's car to the gas station last night. I am sure that she is very sorry for being such a dumbhead as to run her car completely out of gas, until literally even the fumes were gone. I imagine that getting out in the freezing cold, with no coat, and pushing a heavy car with your wife in it, down to the gas station was very difficult. I suspect that this experience was made much, much worse by all the cars zooming past you on the very busy road that the car stopped dead on. I hope that you did not contract any frostbite or pneumonia from the extreme cold and physical exertion in the very cold air. I know any laughter that sprung from her lips was not intentional and not directed at you, and was just a product of the ridiculous situation that she had gotten you into, as opposed to just being laughter at the sight of you pushing the car down the road. And she most certainly was NOT laughing about all the cuss words streaming from your mouth. I also am very confident that she has learned a very valuable lesson from all your pain and irritation. Namely, that she should never ever take a chance on having enough gas to get home without filling up again. I hope that you can forgive your smackhead of a wife and chalk the retardedness up to too much stress. Maybe it would help to repeat "so much darkness" to yourself 5 times, breathing deeply after each time. Hopefully one day this will actually be just another funny memory to laugh about.

P.S. Perhaps Amber's Gas law should read something like this "Empty Gas Tank + Extreme Cold + Attempting to make it to the Gas Station = Very Angry and Tired Husband"

Sincerely,

Your Wife

I can't believe it....

I am almost done with my first semester back in school! Wow- time goes much faster for me then it used to. That's kind've a scary thought. I have one more week of classes then 2 finals then Christmas break. I am all signed up for my next semester though, so I can continue to bore you all with tales of school woes. I am taking a combined anatomy/physiology class. I promise not to pass on too much disgusting stuff. No, never mind- I am definitely passing on disgusting stuff (:

Grades should be good- my chemistry teacher is actually curving quiz scores now. That's how bad this class does. It's a little silly but hey- makes my life easier. I should be studying right now for a nutrition test but I am tired and my back hurts (yeah, I am whiney - thanks for asking) so I think I'll give the notes the old read through and set aside for tonight.

This is such a boring blog entry- I am boring my own self right now. I wonder if there is anything better to talk about...hmmm... nope guess not.

Oh it has come to my attention that some people were slightly confused by one of my last posts- the one about the Twilight books. So just to clarify- I do not actually believe in vampires. (; I am just weird and pretty much everything I say has a healthy dose of sarcasm thrown in just for fun. Now bigfoot and Nessie on the other hand...they are real.

I think I am going to start adding my own mood indicator to my blogs occasionally- just for fun. They'll be at the top of the post. This first one's gonna be right here at the bottom though. I have a feeling it is one I will use often...hehehe

Amber's mood right now is..... "So Much Darkness..."

More Winter stuff

Man sorry about that title- I am brain dead tonight. Last blog was just a photo commentary on how hard it is to get that really great picture of a 2 yr old. It happened when I tried to take her Halloween pictures too. She just moves so fast now! She makes the cutest face ever in the whole world that she has ever made and it is gone or twisted into some crazy face or hidden behind an ornament so fast that there is no camera on earth with a shutter speed fast enough to catch it!

Here are some great ones we ok mostly Adam, managed to catch of the fun of decorating a tree. Anna was so funny to watch- she was so excited and dancing around and pulling everything apart. We, at one point, had a "nest" of Christmas ball ornaments all together in our tree where she piled them. She still can't quite resist the urge to touch the ornaments but is doing quite well at not pulling them off the tree.

Here are a few pictures of how we feed the birds at our house. We don't go for all them fancy birdhouses and feeders- nope we just throw it right on the ground. I figure if they are hungry enough, they'll find it! Actually, I did have a feeder but I bought one that sticks to your glass door and that lasted about 2 seconds. I haven't replaced it yet so we did in fact, throw seed on the ground. Anna didn't quite get the hang of gently tossing it in various directions. She did like the throwing though.

I think Anna remembers snow from last year but she sure was excited about the little bit we got yesterday! She was glued to the window for quite a while then she insisted on sitting in her chair to watch. (:

I was just wonderin....

What it is that happens when a sweet baby girl turns 2ish....

that makes you have to go through so many pictures like this.....

and this....

to get one like this?