Online Shopping

The post is dedicated to Aunt Patty Wallace, who actually does read my blog!  Thank you:)

Couple things happened this weekend...
1) I finally made it out to the stores to do some in-store shopping for the holidays
2) I've reaffirmed myself that I prefer online shopping instead of lines, crowds, and chaos
3) I did more shopping online
4) I did more shopping online
5) I did more shopping online
6) I realized I'm too efficient at shopping online, using coupon codes, and spending enough to get free shipping
7) I then realized that I need to STOP shopping online...

Only good thing that has come out of the weekend is that I'm about 95% complete with holiday shopping... just a couple more small things to grab and have to mail a box to Chicago.  This is a personal best.  I just ordered Christmas cards so if all goes well, they should arrive in everyone's mailboxes the week before Christmas.

Besides my shopping distractions, the week/weekend was relatively low key.  I had a girls night out on Friday for Kassi's 30th.  We got a hotel room downtown and just had a great time!  Lots of laughs, dancing, and drinks!  Ryan and Maeve had a pretty chill evening, however our girl was up around 5ish so I came home to a very tired house.  Fortunately, we didn't have much going on the rest of the weekend.  Ryan went into work and Maeve and I relaxed.  I have a hysterical video of her falling asleep while eating lunch but it's too long to email and post.

Since I just ordered Christmas cards, I'm all up to date on getting pictures from camera to the computer so here is a hodge podge.

Here are some pictures that didn't make the cut for the Christmas card.  She's such a ham these days, so when we could actually catch her smiling and looking straight at the camera, it often looked like this... squinty eyes and her either sticking out her tongue or with something in her mouth or trying to wrap a bell around her neck.

Maeve getting some Daddy back rub love.  This girl loves a good back rub.

 Doing alittle coloring and playing in pajamas on the weekend with alittle bedhead.

Nothing like reading some books in a blanket fort with Daddy.  Yes, the one to the right has both of them in there. 

Here were some snaps from Thanksgiving.   I just loved her dress from Aunt Kerry.

Coloring with Daddy

Post Dinner and the tights are off... let's do a little dancing!

Or hugging with cousin Evan!

As I mentioned, we took Maeve to see Santa and she wasn't much of a fan... even a visit from Mom couldn't calm her down.  Maybe we'll have been luck next year!

 Have a great week!  Kisses from Maeve!!

December... really?

Hard to believe it's already December.  Thanksgiving and the days following were amazingly quiet and low-key.  I was able to continue a long standing tradition of going to a movie with Alicia before the festivities.  It's hit or miss depending on if we are in the same town, but we've been doing it since high school.  We saw Skyfall, which was awesome!  I highly recommend it.  The only issue I had with the whole movie experience is that the Regal Cinemas no longer sell Skittles, which was a huge disappointment.  Looks like I'll be sneaking my Skittles in going forward.

The rest of the day was spent at the Daley's.  Food, drinks, and company were great.  Maeve not only got tons of attention from her cousins, but loved her turkey dinner.  She gobbled up the turkey, mashed potatoes (both white and sweet potatos), green bean casserole, and her favorite was the pecan pie with ice cream.  She doesn't eat sweets too often so I think she takes full advantage when she does.  She and I were suppose to be splitting a piece of pie and I maybe got three bites.  We ended the night with a little dance party with Drew and Evan.  It was probably a combination of the food and all of the excitement because our girl slept in until almost 9 o'clock.  I was up by 7:30 just waiting and waiting and waiting... there's nothing worse.

The rest of the weekend was so relaxing.  We had some fires, lots of playtime, and I got a bunch of Christmas shopping done online.  We did attend the M&T Childrens Holiday Party on Saturday at the Hamburg Fairgrounds.  I had never been, but it took place so close to home and was something to do on the long weekend.  We got there right at the beginning which was perfect as we were in an out within the hour.  It's more age appropriate for older kids, but we rode a little train ride and carousal and even stopped to see/meet Santa.  Classic child pic.... she screamed!  It's on the camera so still have to transfer.  On Monday, I had to do a quick trip to Baltimore and got to have dinner with my parents and spent the night at their house. Quick in and out, but so nice to have conversation without a one year old distracting me.  The rest of the week was a blur of meetings and errands and dinner with some girlfriends.  I did have one eventful evening when in the middle of Maeve's bath, she pooped in the tub... that was a first!  We were winding down as I had already taken out all of her toys (thank goodness!) and she stood up and I noticed her peeing, but was just about to grab her when we sat back down in the water and not a moment later, I had a present.  Nothing like alittle poop in the tub for a reality check.

Hard to believe, but I have very few pics of our little girl from the past couple of weeks.  Well actually I have quite a few pictures, but all are of a blurry little one year old running around the house.  She's up the stairs, down the stairs, in the closet, in the bathroom, in each and every bedroom, in the bathroom drawers, into EVERYTHING!  It's exhausting chasing her, but there is no greater feeling then those few minutes right after she's in bed, house is quiet, and toys are all put away.

Maeveism's include constant chatter as she'll repeat almost everything you say and consistently have these hysterical conversations with herself using a scale of emotion.  She's still having a problem with biting as she just bit another little boy in school today. I appear to be her favorite target at home as I think she's only bit Ryan once.  She is a dancing machine lately.  Sometimes there doesn't even have to be music playing and she'll just bust into a couple moves, particularly an interesting Stevie Wonder impression.  I'm constantly in awe of her joy of life and passionate personality.