The Talk

So does anyone else have little girls that are coming upon puberty? I don't exactly think we are there just yet. Her pediatrician agreed when I took her for her 9 year check up back in May. I was also a "late bloomer" so fingers crossed Mere will be too. But to prepare us for the "talk" (I am in no way prepared for this. I didn't think the last 9 1/2 years would fly by like this!!)  I got Mere this American Girl book.

Several co workers had given their daughter's this book when they were  around her age. Mere skimmed through the book on Christmas day on our way to Augusta. We are going to go back through the book together. For me I really like the book to help ease us into the "talk". It is simply written and easy for a younger girl to understand. It talks about puberty in a positive way. It has fun illustrations that would appeal to our daughter and does talks about all bodies being different. So if you are looking for a book to ease your daughter into this season of her life I highly recommend it.

Christmas + Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake

I hope ya'll had a holly, jolly Christmas! I must say for us this was one of the best Christmases in a LONG time. Too many times I have let the stress level of Christmas Eve and Day get the best of me. Also, because of that and other issues the hubby and I have not exactly had the best Christmases. We put on a good front for the kids and family but on the inside we want to strangle each other. lol! No lie we probably could have on several of our past Christmases. But this year was amazing because we were actually happy. It was such a great feeling too. Even the kids bickering with each other didn't get us in a bad mood. For me this was one of the best gifts just us being happy....2nd of course to those UK tickets! ha.

On Christmas Eve we spent time with my family in Augusta at my brother and sister in law's house. We have outgrown my momma's small apartment. My kids love getting time to play with their cousins. My momma spoiled all the grandkids and us as well!! My bestie came down to see us with her little boy so we could exchange our gifts as well. Max was excited to get to see his bestie too!! We thought about staying and going to Christmas Eve mass with them at the church I grew up in but Mere wanted to go to ours so she could wear her new Christmas outfit lol. We had planned on going to midnight mass but we were all getting tired so we arrived back at our house in time to change our clothes and make it to the 5 o'clock service. I am so glad we did too. Not sure we would have made it to midnight mass. Walking out of church and seeing the snow was a magical feeling. (and I am not a cold snow type person). After mass the kids were ready to put on their pj's and get settled into bed so santa could come. Nick and I enjoyed the peace and quiet watching a Christmas movie and a bottle of wine.

My momma, siblings, in laws, and grandkids

all the girl grandkids

all the grandkids

Christmas day the kids woke us up at 6 am....yikes!! I tried getting them to go back to sleep and just wait another hour but they were having none of it. So we all got up to see what Santa had brought. I was worried the kids might be disappointed in their gifts. Santa wasn't bringing as much since our NYC trip was part of their gift from us. They each had 6 presents to open form us (Santa doesn't wrap!!) and were thrilled with their new Nike gear ! I was spoiled by Nick with lower arena Uk tickets, TOMS slippers, Loft giftcard, UK sweatshirt, and some Victoria Secret that I will keep secret lol. The kids got me a new pink Yeti. The kids each picked out 2 things to give their daddy out of all the stuff I bought. Mere cracked me up because she had to give him his bourbon!! After I cleaned up the disaster from opening all the gifts I made Breakfast. I used a recipe I saw floating around on facebook. I was a little nervous on how it was going to turn out. But ya'll it was DELICIOUS!! I will share the recipe at the end of the post! We drove back to Augusta to my aunt's house to celebrate with all the extended family! The kids crashed once we got home. I could have used another day off today to recover but back to work I go!! Have a great week!!

Max's favorite gift: cordless vacuum. My boy loves to clean and vacuum!

CINNAMON ROLL FRENCH TOAST BAKE

I found the recipe here.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tubes refrigerated grand cinnamon rolls (10 rolls total, the big kind)
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup maple syrup, divided
• frosting from the cinnamon rolls, warmed

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Pour melted butter into 13x9-inch (3-quart) baking dish.
3. Cut dough into 8 rounds (if it's not already segmented into rounds) and place the cinnamon rolls into the bottom of the baking dish. Set icing aside.
4. In medium bowl, beat eggs.Add in cream, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended.
5. Pour egg mixture over rolls, it's okay if it completely covers the roll
6. Pour 1/2 cup maple syrup over the rolls and sprinkle with pecan bits.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Pour the extra 1/2 cup of maple syrup over the cooked rolls and drizzle with the warmed icing.
9. Enjoy!

OMG! It was sooo good!! I will admit I was mixing the ingredients together and I accidently dumped the cinnamon on top of the rolls! I was able to spread it out and save them lol. I normally do something dumb like that while making stuff. Since Christmas has passed would be great to make ahead of time for New Years Day morning!

Life Lately

Well hello there friends! It's been a while since I have been around these parts. I love this little corner of the internet to share my favorite things about life, fashion , and travel. But sometimes it is just one more thing added to my never ending to do list! I am hoping with the New Year I can branch out a little more on here ! I am looking forward to a fresh start that each New Year offers. We had the most magical time in NYC. If this is on your bucketlist for a magic Christmas getaway....GO!! It was AMAZING!! I think this is the first trip where the kids didn't have meltdowns or make us want to pawn them off to someone else. lol. I can't wait to share more about our trip!

I celebrated my 30 something birthday last Sunday. My birthday is exactly one week before Christmas. My family does a great job of spoiling (well most times ha) and making my birthday special and not just mixed in with Christmas. Nick baked a blackberry cake using my Granny Habermehl's recipe (here you can read my post from where Mere and I had a little lesson with my grandmother a few months before she passed away. It makes me so glad we took the time to spend the day with her. We learned so much more than just how to bake a cake!!). Nick's cake turned out sooo good! Her cake is so hard to duplicate but his was pretty spot on!!

Both kiddos had Christmas parties this week. As a working momma it is not always easy being able to attend parties and field trips. I do the best I can. I am off every Wednesday so when a party is scheduled on Wednesday Mere and I are both super happy! Max's party was just for the kids so I didn't have to feel guilty not being there. But the teachers sent us some cute pics of him! For Meredith's party the kiddos made care packages for the homeless shelter.

Mere has been begging to put layers/bangs in her hair so I had made me a hair appointment this week and made her one as well. It's amazing how just a little bit of layers around her face makes her look so much more grown up. It makes my momma heart sad. I hate the kiddos getting older! As for me, I need some blonde back into my life. Val never disappoints and always gets my color spot on to the vision I have in my head! So now Mere and I are Christmas ready with new do's!

Ya'll how in the world are we days away from celebrating Christmas?! Is everyone ready or are you last minute shoppers? I am pretty much finished. I have to run to our local town center and grab 3 gifts and wrap the hubbies gifts. The kids each want to pick one or two of his and wrap from them. Then of course the grocery run ....thank goodness for clicklist that I already have scheduled for Saturday evening! Nick works Saturday so I figured I would attempt baking cookies with the kids while listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas classics! I need to get a little more in the Christmas spirit. For some reason this year I haven't felt the Christmas spirit like year's past. Well, in NYC I did. But back home amongst the hustle and bustle of work, kids, laundry , cleaning....LIFE....it just hasn't been there. I know getting to spend the next three days off from work and with the kids should help! I will leave you with a picture of Rupp! He is sooo BIG! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Oh Christmas Tree

Anyone else having trouble getting into the holiday spirit? I don't know what my problem is. Maybe the stress of Meredith having appendicitis or other things going on in my life. We normally go to a Christmas tree farm in Ohio but with Meredith still being sore we decided to skip. Instead a few friends told us of a place in Newport that had Christmas trees. We decided to give that a try. They had so many trees that were great prices too!!

We got the tree home and decorated. Now waiting on that Christmas spirit to hit. On the bright side under 2 weeks and we will be in NYC!! Whoop whoop!

A Thanksgiving to Remember

Well, this Thanksgiving was one for the book....for realz! One we won't soon forget. Why you ask? It all started on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving. Mere only had a half day of school, so I took the day off. I was glad I did because they rescheduled the school's awards ceremony. If you are a working mom then you know how hard it is to make these sort of events. The God's were with me on this one. After the ceremony Mere came up to us and said her belly hurt. I didn't think much of it. It was close to lunch time and figured it was her belly telling her she was hungry. I waited around for a half hour for dismissal and then Mere and I ran some errands. She was still complaining that her stomach hurt. I made her show me exactly where. Of course, she points to her RLQ (sorry medical lingo. Right lower pelvic area). Typical mom who works in the medical field ....tell her it will be better soon and cross my fingers and off to finish our errands. A couple hours later it was still hurting but she had a sleep over at a friend's that she was insistent on still going. Although, while walking in Walgreens she wouldn't let me walk fast and told me not to make her laugh. In the back of my mind I was starting to worry about her appendix. But kept nudging it out of my mind because she was ok to go to a sleepover. I told her to call me if she started to feel sicker. I messaged her before bedtime and she said she was doing ok. Then again on Wednesday morning she said she was doing ok but the pain was still there....no other symptoms. My momma intuition was in overdrive and the thought of appendicitis was growing stronger. It just wasn't a great time. I was working Wednesday day and then coming back in for a 3rd shift. Of course, the next day was Thanksgiving and Nick was working the holiday at the firehouse. I ended up calling the pediatrician who of course wanted us to come in. I tried to stall and see if we could come in Friday if she was still experiencing the pain. I wanted them to order a stat ultrasound without us coming in to save us time. Well, they wouldn't do that. (but ya'll that would have saved me some time. I knew what she needed done. ). Luckily, I was able to leave work at 1p and picked her up and went straight to the pedi office. The did a couple of things : made her jump up and down, pressed on her lower abdomen where she was having the pain, and bent her legs up and down. The doctor then looked at me and said you know what I am going to have you do. GAHHH! I mean, seriously she was only having the pain. What were the odds that it would end up being what we were all thinking. She wanted us to go straight over to the Emergency Room at Cincinnati Children's. I tried getting her to call a Children's outpatient center to just get us in for a stat ultrasound. They did try and they could not fit us in until 4:30. It was 2:30 by this point so just decided to go to the ER in the end. Poor Mere was starting to fret and get really nervous. I think deep down she knew it was appendicitis too. We are so lucky in this area that we have one of the top Children's Hospitals in this area. It literally took us 20 minutes to get there. We checked in. I expected to have to wait in the waiting room for hours but they surprised me and took us back within 10 minutes. Once we got to a room the nurse came in took some vitals and then the doctor came in and let us know she was going to order the ultrasound (yea I know). We were back in the radiology department with in a few minutes with the official diagnosis of appendicitis. Mere was such the trooper. We got back to the room in the ER they started an IV (she didn't even flinch ya'll) and drew some lab work. They admitted us to a room because surgery was going to be late in the evening. We apparently were the 3rd appendicitis of the afternoon! Yikes. Mere got teary eyed when we explained what was going to happen. But she never was dramatic, screaming and crying. Thank God. I cannot handle that . The only way you would have known she was upset with tears is if you were looking at her. I think deep down she must have felt worse than she was letting on. Nick met us in the Emergency Dept. right before they moved us to her inpatient room. It is such a odd feeling in the pit of your stomach knowing what is ahead. She looked so pitiful and scared. I wanted to take her place so bad. But I felt confidant with the doctors and the staff. They were all AMAZING!! We went to surgery that evening about 9p and were out and back in our room by midnight. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night for Mere , Nick and I. Between the IV beeping every 2 to 3 hours and us checking on her , no one slept a wink.

Thanksgiving Day came at we all were exhausted. Nick did leave around 9a and go and pick up Max. He was so upset about his Mere Mere. I was able to get cleaned up and showered and eat a little breakfast. My lunch and supper the night before consisted of coffee and animal crackers. Since I left work early I didn't eat lunch and then it was a whirlwind after. We also watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Mere was in a lot of pain but she got up and let me wash her off and brush her hair and teeth. Those small things made her feel a little better. Once Max arrived we loaded Mere up in a wheelchair and went to the play room they have for the kids (I told you this place was amazing). They had a Thanksgiving craft set up. So each of the kiddos made turkeys and painted them . Then we went to the cafeteria and had lunch. We got discharged and were home by 4 that afternoon. We had a lot to be thankful for after all that. It really makes you humble and grateful after seeing other kids that are much more sick than yours. We will take appendicitis any day over the cancers and diseases these children are fighting. We took it easy the rest of the day. I ended up going into work and working my 3rd shift that I was scheduled for. She was sore for several days and we just had a low key weekend. We normally get our Christmas tree the weekend of Thanksgiving but with all that went on we had to hold off!

Headed home!!

I am so glad we are back to normal. She can't play sports for 2 weeks which is sad . It is basketball season. But I think missing 2 games isn't so bad!!