Randomness

This is totally random and has nothing to do with anything.  I stole it from another blog and thought it was cute so here goes!

And now a survey which I'm supposed to do and answer with only one word.
The Fun Part:

1. Where is your cell phone? charging
2. Your hair? Ugh
3. Your mother? friend
4. Your father? daddy
5. Your favorite food? mexican
6. Your dream last night? work
7. Your favorite drink? Dr.Pepper
8. Your dream/goal? SAHM
9. What room are you in? work
10. Your hobby? music
11. Your fear? alone
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren't? lost
15. Muffins? wildberry
16. Wish list item? Beads!!
17. Where did you grow up? Lexington
18. Last thing you did? blog
19. What are you wearing? pandora
20. Your TV? football :(
21. Your pets? Pacey
22. Friends? best
23. Your life? blessed
24. Your mood? tired
25. Missing someone? babies
26. Vehicle? Ford
27. Something you're not wearing? hat
28. Your favorite store? Jewelry
29. Your favorite color? Pink
30. When was the last time you laughed? earlier
31. Last time you cried? Church
32. Your best friend? mom
33. One place that I go to over and over? church
34. One person who emails me regularly? mom
35. Favorite place to eat? OliveGarden (can't help it's 2 words)

Jonah's EB Auction

**I am trying to help out with an amazing little boy and his family by spreading the word about this auction.**
Matt and Patrice Williams and their little boy Jonah live here in Winston-Salem. Jonah was born with a very rare genetic skin disorder called Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa which causes his skin to slough off and blister all over. He was not expected to live even to his first birthday but this little miracle boy will celebrate his second birthday in February!

In the hopes of someday finding a cure for EB, the Williams family has decided to hold their second annual auction. Jonah’s EB Auction will raise money to help support DebRA in funding their research on EB.

The auction will run from Thursday, February 24th at 8:00 pm to Sunday, February 27th (Jonah's birthday) at 8:00 pm.

You can donate new, bought items, handmade items, or gift cards/certificates to be auctioned off. You may also consider making a monetary donation that will first help with the shipping costs of sending the auctioned items to the winners and the rest will go directly to DebRA.

If you are interested in donating items or money please email me, Ashlea Speer, at awspeer7(at)gmail(dot)com or call me at (336)425-2654,

-OR-

you can email Katie at jonahsebauction(at)gmail(dot)com, and she will get back with you. They need to know what you'd like to donate and the value of the item. Katie will let you know the details from there.


**Visit jonahsebauction.blogspot.com to learn more about the auction!

**Visit patriceandmattwilliams.blogspot.com to learn more about this amazing little boy and his family!

**Visit Debra.org to learn more about EB!

“Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is a rare genetic skin disease that causes the skin to be so fragile that the slightest friction can cause severe blistering–inside and outside the body. Today there is no cure. Severe forms of EB cause patients to live with constant pain and scarring. The worst forms of EB lead to eventual disfigurement, disability, and often early death.”

Christmas at Nana's

Christmas, Part 3

After we open gifts at home Christmas morning, we go to Scottie's moms house to....

wait for it....

Open MORE gifts!!

We had a wonderful time and it was great getting all 7 of the grandkids together this year (since last year there were only 5!).  I know I have said it before but I have the BEST in-laws anyone could ask for.  I love them all dearly and I'm so blessed to be a part of their family.

Jaxten and Caden playing.

Jimmy and Caden.  Jimmy is the oldest and until this year Caden was the youngest.

Caden opening his Nerf gun.  (Thanks Heather.  Now we have little nerf darts everywhere!)

Tradition: Scottie gets a huge box of Goldfish crackers every year!

My Duke fan mom-in-law broke down and bought me a pink UNC shirt!!! Go Tarheels!!

Our family, Scottie's brothers family and his sisters family got together again this year for a huge family portrait.  We all pitched in together and bought Scottie's mom a 20 x 24 canvas to go on her mantel.  She loved it!!

Me and my boys!

Alydia is thinking "Ooooh, I'm gonna grab him!" and Jaxten is thinking "Girl, you better back up!"  They are hilarious!

Caden is showing Jaxten his Nerf gun.  "You can look but you can't touch."

He looks like he is about to karate chop someone!

One of my favorite pics of my big boy.  I was having fun playing with my new camera!

Just wanna plant one right on them big sweet lips!

Scottie and Christie playing Just Dance on the Wii.  Ya'll, it was HI-LAR-I-OUS!!!!  He was most definately "shakin' what his mama gave him"! LOL

One of the best parts of the whole day......

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

This was the first time it had snowed on Christmas day since 1998!!  It was so special!

We had the best Christmas I can remember in a long time!

Christmas morning!!!

Now for Christmas, Part 2!!

We always come back home after spending Christmas eve at Pa's so we can wake up at home Christmas morning.  My mom (Mimi) and my granny come over EARLY so we can all open presents together.  The boys had a blast this year!  Especially Caden because Jaxten was more interested in eating the paper so Caden got to open his presents AND Jaxten's.

Here's our tree.  It's so pretty when it is lit up and the camera just can't capture it the way I want it to.

Our first family ornament!

Caden is like "Hey let ME help you with that".  Jaxten was thinking "Give me that paper kid, it looks yummy!"

Yes, we got Pacey a present too!  Doesn't everyone get their dog a present for Christmas???  Pacey loved all the squeeky toys and Jaxten ended up with the ball!

This is the BEST Christmas movie EVAH!!  Who doesn't love A Christmas Story?!?  "I triple-dog-dare ya" hahahahaha

Caden checking out Jaxten's toy.

Caden opening one of Jaxten's presents.  Caden had Cars wrapping paper and Jaxten had Toy Story.  I coordinated it so Caden would know what was his which may or may not have been such a good idea. ;)

Jaxten's favorite part of the morning!

Jaxten loved his Lightning McQueen ride-on toy!!  He looks like he is texting on his little phone behind the wheel (I would say just like mommy but texting while driving is illegal you know!) (I don't text while driving anymore but I still talk on the phone a little   quite a bit   okay, okay, if the car is running I'm probably talking on the phone!  There.  I said it!)

Also loved the dinosaur ride-on toy!

Caden playing with his new Leapster2.  (Look at those eyelashes!  He's got his daddy's eyelashes.  I have begged Scottie to let me put mascara on them just one time so I could see how pretty they would be but he just won't let me! lol)

It looks like the Christmas tree exploded in here!

Daddy and Caden.

Caden is showing Jaxten how his new toy works.  It's a little race track that spins around and shoots the cars out of the side.  Jaxten almost cried the first few times, but after a few minutes he was laughing so hard!  It was absolutely the most precious thing I have ever seen to watch them play together.  I have dreamed of this moment for a long time!

(Have you all noticed Pacey is somewhere in almost all of these pictures?  He was never far from the action that morning!)

Just the three of us, Jaxten had already fallen asleep for his morning nap.

We had so much fun this year!  I can only imagine next year will have to be even better since Jaxten will be a little older and more involved.

I love my little family!

Christmas Eve at Pa's

Christmas time is always so FULL of activity around our house, so I thought it would be best to just post several blogs full of pictures instead of trying to type out everything!! 

(That and maybe I'm just a bit lazy.....Hey, it's post holiday season.  I'm allowed!)

Every year we go to Scottie's grandpa's (Pa) house for Christmas eve.  We had a great time, although it hasn't been quite the same since his Ma died in 2005.  Miss you Ma!

Anyway, how could you not L.O.V.E. this face?!?

Pawpaw bought him yet another race car.  The kid is OB-SESSED with some racing!

Pawpaw and his little buddies!  My dad has been going through a tough time recently and I was so glad he was able to come with us!

Jaxten loved his new little toy.

Jaxten and Alydia are so funny together.  Jaxten is very laid back and Alydia is very...well...not!  She's always trying to hug and kiss him or grab him or grab toys and he just looks at her like "chill out kid".  It's super funny to watch!

Boys opening presents.

He smiled so big when he saw the glow-worm's face light up and grabbed it and pulled it up close for a big smooch!!

Our family of four. (It's still wierd to type "four" instead of "three").

Christmas Craft and Decorations

I guess it's about time I post about something Christmas-y around here.  I saw this idea over at Thrifty Decor Chick  and thought it looked so creative and EASY!! 

(This girl has the best ideas and most of them are things I think I could tackle myself!) 

Anyway, I have been wanting to do something to my dining room chairs for Christmas but I never could figure out anything.  When I saw these cute little rings I knew that's what I wanted! 

And did I mention how EASY it was?!? 

I am so NOT crafty so for me to try it, it really has to be simple. :)

You start with this:

-wooden rings from Dollar Tree

-Ribbon

-Hot glue gun

-Scissors

*If you have any cute ornaments or something like that you can use them too*

Just start wrapping the ribbon around the wooden ring...

Cut the ribbon once you have it all covered and hot glue the end down. 

This is what you end up with!

(Sorry, this picture didn't get turned the right way. Oops!)

Scottie had these acorn ornaments that we've been trying to figure out what to do with.  So, I put them on a piece of ribbon and then put the ring on the ribbon.

I actually hotglued the ribbon together once I put them around the top of the chairs so it would look seamless.  Hey..it worked. :)

This is what I ended up with.  I L.O.V.E. them!

Too cute!

I think I'll enjoy these because I can change the ribbon and the ornaments each year if I want to!

So there's my little craft.  I did a couple of other things that I might try to post about when I actually take pictures!

Gatlinburg, Part 3

The first night we were in Tennessee, we were supposed to go see the parade. It was supposed to be a really big deal and something like 80,000 people usually come to see it. I like parades and all but have I metioned it was cold outside???

And also, that I HATE being cold!!

Oh, I did mention that already.


Well, then you can imagine how excited I was about the thought of sitting outside for hours in the 15 degree weather.....with a 4 year old who also HATES to be cold and a 9 month old who would have been bundled up so much that no one would know whether I had a baby or a blanket burrito!


We were planning on going to the Dixie Stampede on Saturday. The week before we left my dad found out we were going and mentioned that he could get us discounted tickets through his work because they are one of the sponsors for the race team he works for. Then, after a bunch of back and forth they told us they don't do discount tickets for anyone on Saturdays or Sundays in the month of December. But they do still do it on Fridays and how perfect is that?!? Great excuse to NOT go to the parade without telling everyone I just didn't want to go! The discount was amazing and ended up saving our group of 13 around $300!! We couldn't pass it up! So we skipped the parade and went to Dixie Stampede and everyone loved it. Caden was in awe the whole time and could barely eat for watching everything so intently! They don't allow flash photography inside so I only have a couple of pictures from after it was over. It was wonderful though. They even included the story of Jesus' birth. I was very happy they didn't leave Jesus out of their Christmas show! (I mean, it is his birthday you know ;) )


On Saturday morning, Scottie and I went to the new Titanic museum. Caden and our niece Alayna went with us. It was A-MAZE-ING!!! The story of the Titanic has always facinated me and Scottie. I would love to go down to the actual wreckage in a submarine or something! They are doing a cruise in April 2012 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship. It will go on the same route that the Titanic went and will stop over the site of where she sank at the exact time that it happened and have a memorial service. Scottie and I looked at some prices for tickets and of course it was a little too expensive for us justify paying. But I'm sure it would have been very interesting!

The stage.  I would love to have a house like that to decorate for Christmas.  So pretty!

Caden with his flag and his souvenier boot cup!

He LOVED the show!

The outside of the Titanic museum.  It looked like the front half of the ship.  How cool is that?!?

When you go in, they give you a boarding pass that looks just like the actual ones from 1912.  On the back it has information about a passenger that was aboard the ship.  It tells things like why they were traveling, where they were going and some about their family.  But you have to wait until you get to the Memorial room to see of you lived or died.

This was my person.  She was married to "Diamond Jim" Baxter who was in prison.  He had told her where he had a lot of money hidden and she and her son and daughter went and got the money and boarded the ship to come to the states.  Helene and her daughter made in on one of the lifeboats but her son unfortunately did not.

This was Caden's person.  He was a 2nd Class Saloon Steward (he worked on the ship).  He lived!

This was Scottie's passenger.  He was a 1st Class Bedroom Steward. (He cleaned bedrooms).  He was the steward for Titanic builder Thomas Andrews.  He lived!

The front of the building looked like it was splashing through the water but it was scraping along the side of an iceburg.  There was a room inside that had an "iceburg", a wall of ice that you could touch and also a pool of water you could stick your hand in to feel exactly how cold the water was that night. 

 Let me just tell ya......

It. Was. COLD!!!!!!

I only lasted like 5 seconds......with only one hand!

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have your whole body plunged into that icy water even for a few seconds, much less hours.  Bless those poor peoples hearts.

Caden acting goofy!  "Can you believe that?!?"

The three of us.  Jaxten stayed at the cabin with Nana.

This was the sign at night.  We went by on Friday night because every Friday and Saturday night in December they have a snow machine on the roof blowing snow out over the parking lot.  I took pictures of that too but they didn't turn out so great.

The Titanic at night.

I absolutely loved the museum.  That is a place I definately want to go back to.  They had so much stuff in there and it was hard to see every picture and read every bit of information on every artifact.  The grand staircase was AWESOME too.  It was an exact replica of the grand staircase on the ship and it was kind of surreal to walk up and down it.  They said they spared no expense and made the floors out of the most expensive material of that time.  It was something even more expensive than tile or marble........linoleum. LOL 

I so wish we could have taken pictures inside. 

Anyway, we had an amazing time!!