Best Gifts of Christmas

Thanks to Pinterest (the.best.thing.ever), we had a very homemade Christmas this year.

Aunt D made these for us:

Face magnets!!

Those darling faces are Frick, Frack, Frog, my nephews and niece.

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I made these scarves in various colors for the ladies in our family:

and one for me in orange since Clemson is headed to the Orange Bowl.

T shirt scarves are super cute and easy to make.

I WILL be making more of these.

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Also gifted this year:

Click the picture for the website and photo credit.

Go around the world with your kids!

Per the Little Passports website:

Little Passports is your child’s ticket to an exciting global adventure. Inspire a love and understanding of the world as your child learns about a country’s geography,

history, culture, and language in a fun and memorable way.

I am so excited about the boys receiving these each month.

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While they receive that each month, I’ll receive a box from Birchbox!

Click the picture for the link and photo credit.

With Birchbox, you receive 4-5 beauty samples each month.

 I’ve seen this on friends’ blogs and thought it was the perfect gift that keeps on giving.

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I hope that you and yours had a blessed Christmas.

7 Quick Takes

–1–

I am writing this post on my iPhone via the WordPress app.  Not only am I typing my post, but I can insert pictures, check stats, and revise drafts.  Dude.  So awesome.

–2–

Frog is tripping all.the.time.  He’s almost 19 months.  I’m wondering if this is a growth spurt or if he is taking after me, Little Miss Clumsy.

–3–

Frick swam in the time trials for his swim team last night.  Frack would have swam, too, but had to miss it for his baseball game.  Frick’s routine for swimming in meets last year was to swim, swim, hang on the lane rope.  Repeat.  Repeat again and again.  That usually left him with a time of around 3 minutes for a 25 yard race.  That’s really slow, if you aren’t familiar with competitive swimming.  He did get faster by the end of the season, cutting his time down to 1:59 (1 minute, 59 seconds).  Last night, a different Frick showed up on the starting block.  This little guy dove jumped in and swam, swam, swam.  He never reached for the lane rope.  His time?  1 minute.  What a difference a year makes!!

–4–

Meanwhile, BP had Frack at the ball field for his game.  He “played” pitcher (this league is coaches pitch), but really just fielded balls.  If you haven’t ever seen a bunch of 5 year olds play ball, you must go for the entertainment value.  When a ball is hit to anywhere in the field, ALL the players run after it.  The coaches have a challenging time getting the kids to stay in their positions.  Since Frack was right there on the pitching mound, he was thrilled to have at least 5 balls come straight at him. But his favorite thing is to run the bases and slide into them.  The evidence is on his white pants that I have to soak in OxyClean after each game.

–5–

Frick’s obsession with Cars the movie has yet to subside.  He is stoked for the debut of Cars 2 on June 24. He already has planned our evening.  I’m not surprised our Event Coordinator Extraordinaire already has this one in the books, are you?  It will be the night of our 11th anniversary and we couldn’t think of a better way to spend it other than with our boys.

–6–

I have started reading the Mitford Series by Jan Karon.  I really love reading series books and sequels.  I find when I really like a book, I become totally invested and absorbed in the characters.  So having a sequel to read just makes my day.  Speaking of books….

–7–

I am so excited that one of my favorite authors, Dorothea Benton Frank, has a new book coming out on June 14th called Folly Beach.  Last year, I went to a book signing for her book, Lowcountry Summer.  Dot Frank is hilarious in person.  Meeting her was one of the highlights of my summer.

What books are you reading now?

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Stop by Conversion Diary for more quick takes.

Southern Winter Wonderland

5 inches of snow.

The last time our area had 5 inches of snow was in 1992.

To say we are excited it an understatement.

Our backyard was gorgeous when we went back out to play at 7:45am.

Frick and Frack posed for photos for me…

Note to self:

Put the bags inside their shoes instead of over their shoes.

Cut me some slack…it’s been 21 years since I lived in the north.

I had fun getting some photos of the boys launching from the slide.

And BP rocked the snowman.

All of this while

Frog slept all snug as a bug in a rug.

One Would Think We Lived In Pittsburgh!!

Oh.My.Stars.

Hell hath frozen over.

It’s snowing here in Downtown, Smalltown, Southeastern USA.

It NEVER snows here in Downtown, Smalltown, Southeastern USA.

EVER.

We are the kind of people that run to the store to get bread and milk if the weather guy calls for flurries.

(I have milk, but no bread–yikes!)

And then throw sand out on the roads.

I heard Wal-Mart was packed today and ran out of bags.

They ran out of BAGS.

We had lots of fun in the snow today–and it’s still coming down.

Snow cones made from daiquiri mix were served, sans alcohol (for the kids, DUH).

So I struck a ‘Captain’ pose instead.

These photos were taken around 4:30pm.

It’s now 5:42pm and at least another 2 inches of snow is on the ground.

Thanks to the southwest for blowing it this way!!

A New Frontier

I am so relieved to get rid of this:

And start using this:

The only thing I really like about the Razor was it’s compact form.  I despise texting on it.  I feel like a teenager taking a keyboarding class for the first time.  I am constantly hunting and pecking for the letters, I somehow erase those letters, then I curse, and start that whole process again.

ERRRRR

It’s going to take some time to get used to the bulkier iPhone (that we bought refurbished for 49 bucks!), but having access to just about anything right there at my fingertips makes me do a happy dance.

So…I have two questions for you, Dreamers!

1.  If you have an iPhone, what is/are your favorite app(s)?

and

2.  If you were in my phone book (some of you are), what song should I use as  your ring tone?