Brunch with Santa

The club has brunch every Sunday. On Easter you can have brunch with the Easter Bunny, as we did here. At Christmas time you can have brunch and take a picture with Santa. We had such great Easter pictures. I was very excited. Especially now that Bill and I generally sleep more and have a better system for getting dressed and watching Leighton.

Well, Leighton had other plans....

Leighton, meet Santa...

 Um, what's going on?

 What? I stay with him?!? This is not happening...

 I do NOT heart Santa! I do not heart Santa at all!

Nice try, mom. Let's get out of here.

There's always next year.... On the plus side she loved the brunch part! Pancakes and breakfast potatoes - yum!

Thanksgiving

Obviously, this post is waaay behind, but it's really hard to get to the computer with an active crawler/early walker on the loose!

Thanksgiving was spent with Bill's family. His dad was fresh home from the hospital, so it was a relaxed holiday with us all most thankful to be home together. Of course Paw Paw wanted to give Leighton a Christmas sneak peak, so she got to play with a toy early. She even took a couple steps for Meme and Paw Paw to see:)

 Hmmm, this looks interesting....

 Is anybody looking?

 This will do until I get my license

foot rubs from Paw Paw are the best:)

Bad Blogger

I am SUCH a bad blogger! Oh, life, how you interfere with my internet time! LOL!

Here is the final thankful post and hopefully I can catch up on life real soon!;-)

Day 23: I am thankful that baby girl is feeling better. hope I'm next:)

Day 24: I'm thankful for cold meds that will hopefully kick in soon. happy Thanksgiving!

Day 25: Today I'm thankful that black friday sales also occur online:)

 

Day 26: I am so thankful to be home and for my sleep number bed!

Day 27: so thankful for Bill taking care of Leighton and dinner while I was feeling bad yesterday, yay!

Day 28: I am thankful I feel better:)

Day 29: I am thankful for my beautiful, generous, loving mother! Happy birthday, Mom!

Day 30: Saving the best for last! I am most thankful for my Heavenly Father, through whom all of my blessings flow!

Soooo, obviously a little cold comes about the world becomes all about me! Haha, sorry for the redundant thanks in the beginning, maybe this month I'll learn to be less whiney?? Here's hoping!

I'd also like to ask for prayer for my father in law, he isn't doing well right now and is back in the hospital. Please pray for healing and for my mother in law as she helps to care for him and run her business.

More Thanks

For some reason my last one published with only one day of thanks listed, that has been fixed:) Here's round 3:

Day 15: I am thankful for my godchildren, Kallie, AnnMarie and the oldest, my only boy, Sage Benoit. So proud of him and all he has been working for and accomplishing.

Older pic, but it works;-)

Day 16: I am thankful for Dave's willingness to share his talent with us, love the painting he did of Bill and Leighton!

Day 17: I am thankful for God's protection over my family.

Day 18: I am thankful for our extended family, such a quirky, smart, fun and diverse group of individuals.

Day 19: I amd thankful for my in-laws, Clyde and @Vicki Hamrick. Not everyone has grandparents as great as my baby girl does, and they are half of them. Praying for them both tonight, get well soon Paw Paw Clyde!

 

Day 20: so thankful we were able to celebrate my grandfather's (and Leighton's great grandfather's!)Birthday. What a blessing!

Day 21: I'm thankful that Bill's crazy work schedule brought us to an impromptu dinner with our best friends.

Day 22: I am so thankful to be home!!

Weekend

This weekend was pretty busy. The whole family was in Louisiana to celebrate my grandfather's birthday. I, unfortunately, didn't take any pictures. But others did, so hopefully I will have some soon.

Monday Bill had trucks to inspect in Biloxi, so Sunday night he and I headed to Beau Rivage for the night. We had dinner at Jia and gambled a little. Well, he gambled a little, I watched. It was decorated for Christmas and so beautiful!

Small selection of the over the top decorations

us after dinner (should have done this before we left, we were tired when we got back!)

At the last minute Bill got a call to look at trucks in Baton Rouge on the way home. It allowed us to have dinner with our best friends, Dusty, Courtney and Jake. They sent Leighton her Christmas present with us, and it is the first time Leighton has ever opened a present!

She was excited!

We have a busy schedule ahead, the holiday rush begins this week! Hopefully I will do better with taking pictures;)



The thankfulness continues....

The thankfulness continues....

Day 7: I am thankful for good coffee. Much needed today:) also for my new job's hours allowing me time to do my Bible study in the morning. I get so much more out of it in the morning!

The "new" job is taking care of L full-time. Yes, it's still new to me;-)

Day 8: I'm thankful I'm NOT Mrs Duggar. 20 kids (with pregnancy/labor/delivery), no thank you. But congrats to her, I'm sure she wouldn't be happy with my 1:)



Day 9: I am thankful for hot baths and good books



Day 10: I am thankful for my Dad. Always such a great provider our family and now for mom. He is such a hard worker and made countless sacrifices for his family. Love him

Day 11: Today I am thankful for those who serve and have served in the armed forces, as well as the families that stay behind during deployment/training. You are all appreciated



Day 12: I'm thankful for old friends



Day 13: today I am thankful I got to spend an entire day with my husband!
 
Day 14: I'm thankful so serve a God who provides for us in our times of need. Praying for so many going through struggles right now, may the feel His mercy and be comforted by His peace.

Closet

A while back (as in before pregnancy and subsequent motherhood sucked out all of my energy and spare time) I did a post on the start of me trying to make my itty bitty closet a workable space.

I haven't been a full-time mom for that long, so juggling work clothes, lounge clothes and "weekend" clothes were getting tough. Not to mention I hate throwing things away.

Well, it only got worse. I couldn't stand pressure on my stomach in early pregnancy, and maternity clothes were too big. Then those "in between" clothes were too tight and the wrong season when I first went back to work.

Point is, it still needs to be cleaned out AGAIN and is more crowded than before. But as I wrestle with what to throw and what to keep, I did pretty it up a little and added some organizational touches.

 The baskets are for socks, underwear, etc. My closet is in my bathroom, so walking to the bedroom for those items is over kill (and part of my storage problem). Pjs are kept on the left side in a large hanging set of cloth shelves bought at the closet section of target. The storage cube also doubles as a step stool to reach my shoes. My nicer handbags are on the upper shelves in dust covers.

 Back of the closet door has scarves, belts and a couple of awkward-shaped bags.

 Upper right shelf has short boots. I have still yet to buy shoe boxes for these.

These are my pumps, dress boots and nicer flats and wedges. That is a lone pair of tennis on the left, not sure how they snuck up there;-)

In the mean time, I am saving pics of other peoples closets from blogs and house listings b/c my next house will be much better!

A Month of Thanksgiving

A lot of people of Facebook (including myself) are doing a thankful post a day.

I'd like to do the same thing on here, but it is not as convenient, so I thought I'd recap my FB posts each week.

Here we go!

Day 1:

Today I am thankful for friends willing to stop and pray in the middle of dinner. So needed:)Day 2:

Specifically, I was referring to Jacque and Gracie who prayed with me for my good friend who isn't doing well. They are awesome (as is Regina, the subject of said prayers).

Today I am thankful for a husband who works hard - at providing for us and allowing me to stay home, at our marriage, his spiritual growth, and honoring his parents. love that man!Day 3:

Who has two thumbs and is super awesome?? This guy!

Today (and everyday), I am thankful for Leighton, because she's awesome and getting to be her mom is the greatest privilege of my lifeDay 4:

Because it doesn't take a mother to love this face;-)

I am thankful for the health of my family. It is an invaluable blessing that allows great and small joys and annoyances to be noticed.Day 5:

So easy to take for granted until you no longer can take it for granted.

I am thankful that Christmas stuff is out early. Leighton is on the tail end of wearing 12 month clothes and babies 1st Christmas onesies only go to 12 mos.

Super-cute pictures of my girl in reindeer pjs to follow...Day 6:

I am so thankful for my mom. She is so selfless and understanding, always tending to others' needs without any thought or expectation for something in return.

Which got the comment: "So true she is a blessing!!!!!" from my cousin, Mistie, proving I'm not just biased;-)

 

So, what are you thankful for?

Leighton's First Halloween!

The original plan for Halloween was for Leighton to be Tinkerbell, a la this:

Unfortunately, getting it off of her after this try-on was an ordeal.

Plan B. We bought her a lady bug costume, which actually coordinated better with Noah's bee anyway;-)

Here are some highlights of Halloween night:

So excited!

Decorating our pumpkin patch pumpkins

Daddy, Mommy, Baby and Noah pumpkins

Helping Daddy pass out candy

The night before, we hit trunk-or-treat with cousin Braylee:

that's enough with the pictures, Mommy!

So glad these two girls got to hang out! Love us some time with the cousins!

As a bonus, here's Mackenzie in the costume I picked for her:

I swear, this hand on the hip thing is new and she didn't learn it from me!

She wanted to be a vampire cheerleader. I know, WTH?? Fortunately they did not have vampire fangs in her size. Plan B was much cuter for her;-)

Bill is 30!!

Yesterday my wonderful, fabulous husband turned 30!

We celebrated yesterday with grilled steaks and cake at his parents' home with them, Christa, Wes, Braylee and Zack.

Unfortunaltely, the one picture I thought I had of it is not to be found on my camera:( Hopefully one will turn up.

Last weekend, however, was his birthday trip to the official Sunday night football game of the Saints vs. the Colts.

Granted the game was a blow out, us long-time Saints fans remember clearly the not so distant past when we were on the receiving end of those blow outs.

Now, not only are we giving them, we are breaking total points and win margin records. Awesome.

Now for the pics...

Birthday boy

 mini tailgate in hotel pregame

 official hotel of the new orleans saints. okay, not really, those things are all over La and I heart them

 cheesin it up

 no idea who this loser is, haha j/k

 they came out quiet, almost didn't notice

Bill's favorite part...the dance cam

this isn't anything to be proud of, but there was a lot of crunk in that stadium...

final score shot before we started hiking back to the hotel

 pink for breast cancer awareness month

 poydras street was shutdown like a mardi gras parade route post game

So much fun! Hope to back next year!