A few favorites

This is one of my favorite pictures from the Thanksgiving holiday because she's just so dern cute!! She rode this thing constantly and it totally shocked me since it makes a pretty loud noise and she's the kid that still hides from the vacuum cleaner :)

Then this one, for obvious reasons :)

And this. She was all about some Tammy last week! Nonie and Tammy were really the only laps she was interested in sitting in. And mine of course. Always mine :)

Gray, like the color

James can ask the most questions of any little boy I know. And 89.9% of his questions are not trivial  Every now and then you will get a "why are clouds white" kind of question but most of his questions make you wish you wonder if you even graduated high school. Or kindergarten for that matter. For instance this afternoon he asked why color was every where. Huh?

He says: Color. Why is it every where you look. Every where you go there is color. There's never not color any where. How come?

Me says: Uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, well son, that's a right good question you got there. Uhmmmmmmmmmmmm, well I guess the good Lord just wanted our lives to be full of color. Color makes everything so much better. Like (picture a smartie pants moment in my head) what if those trees over there were not green but gray? How boring would that be? And what if our house was not red bricks but gray ones?

He says: Uh, mom, gray IS a color.

Yes. Yes it is.

Thanksgiving Day

Jon and I swap holidays and this year was our year to be with my family in Danville for Thanksgiving. We went up on Monday and came back on Saturday. Of all the Bryant Thanksgivings we've had this year was the best by far. It was relaxing (for the most part!) and loaded down with fun!! Per tradition we all met up at my Aunt Jan and Uncle Kiah's for Thanksgiving dinner and stuffed ourselves silly!! It was also the coldest year we've had in a long time which made it even more festive!!

I just finished writing out my "schedule" for the next 3 weeks and really want to take a nap now! I've got more to squeeze into these 3 weeks than ever before but I've promised myself that I will enjoy every minute of it and refuse to be a grinch this year!! I've also promised to blog every day or at least every other day so that I can document our Thanksgiving break and all the days leading up to Christmas. And I've got tons of pictures that I want to share as well and lets face it that's the driving force behind my blog! And just as a disclaimer my husband and brother in law were indeed present at all these functions but I only got like 1 picture to prove they were around! Buddy came down with a stomach virus Wednesday and stayed cooped up in his room until Friday and Jon kept his deer stand warm for a large portion of his break!! We did celebrate his birthday on Monday before we left and managed to squeeze in 2 hrs to go see Catching Fire which was AWESOME, btw :)

 
I read a post from a photographer's blog that I like to follow and she talked about how important it is to take pictures WITH your children while they are young. Not so much for yourself but for your children. They will want to remember what you looked like when they were young. It really touched my heart so that's another promise I've made to myself. To make sure I get in the pictures WITH them more than I have been. I want them to look back in 18 years when they remember what they felt and looked like as kids and have pictures of me to go with those memories. Think about it. It's so important for them. So important. It may not seem like it now but when they grow up, get married and hopefully have children of their own, how precious will it be to have lots of pictures to look at of me with them? I would love to have more pictures of me and my mom and since my kids are growing up in the digital age, I have no excuse to not make sure they have bunches of them :)

Blue Toes The Thanksgiving Turkey

Audrey was invited to go get a pedicure last weekend with one of her little friends and since Jon was out of town I said yes faster than Audrey did! 2 kids vs. 3 kids is, well, it's one less kid and when you don't feel well that's like a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter's night :) (I came down with the flu on Friday.)

She was gone pretty much the whole day and when she got back she was telling us all about it and showing of her pretty sparkly blue toes and we were all ooing and awing. I went in the kitchen to fix her supper plate and she followed me in there and pulled me down to whisper in my ear "Mama we also got to get cup cakes at that nail place but I didn't want to tell James because he would say that's not fair! So don't tell him but I wanted to tell you." Two things struck my heart when she said those words 1. My daughter just told me a REAL secret!!!! and 2. She is such a thoughtful little kiddo and always has been looking out for that brother of hers. And this still baffles me to no end because she can push his buttons like nobody else and lovvvveeees to do it too!!

James and I enjoyed our little time together while Audrey was gone and while Sassafrass napped some of that attitude off. It's not often I get to spend quiet time with the twins (just two us) so this was refreshing. We played Memory and tied and then we played about 150 games of Candyland and laughed and laughed and laughed at each other. He took to stacking the deck once, so he could get all the fun cards. Mizell blood runs thick!! It was fun and we bonded a little bit that day, I think. Me and my son. I sure do love him!!

Buttermilk

Olivia has the ability to command a room. If she's in it most likely most eyes are on her. I don't say this to boast, it's just a fact. And she doesn't even know she's doing it. She's so animated and friendly, she's just being herself and people love it. A lot of the times when we are out and she passes by someone or even sees someone across the parking lot she will say "Hey! My name's Wivi." (Lately though it's turned into Wivia and I'm not sure how I feel about that little advancement.)

She always gets comments on how beautiful she is and how cute she is and how sweet she is from complete strangers (while i enjoy ppl bragging on my baby it does get a little much at times). And she gets tons of compliments on her speech. She is very advanced for her age (again, not boasting just stating facts) and I think it has to do with 3 things: 1. She's a girl 2. She is the youngest of two very big talkers and 3. She sits and reads with us every night while we are reading big kid books with James and Audrey. I'm talking 20 pagers and for the most part she sits there and soaks in every.single.word. She lives for book time every night. And I read to her during the day most days too!!!! Maybe she will be a librarian?

Last Thursday we went to the store to buy a few things to make biscuits with and one of those things was buttermilk. Monday we went back to the store and as we were passing by the milk she starts saying "stop we need buttermilk! we need buttermilk!" Well one of the ladies that works there who we see often (I live less than 1 mile from walmart...) always comments on how cute O is and that day she heard her talking about the buttermilk and I didn't think she was gonna quit laughing! She say "Buttamilk? What you know bout sum buttamilk?" Then she said she was gonna start calling Olivia buttermilk and a while later when we ran into her again, she said 'Hey buttamilk!' and started chuckling; so did I, naturally. Olivia continued her "command" of the "room" by saying "Hey! Thats not funny!" Which just made her new friend chuckle even louder!

Did you notice a common theme in any of these pictures? Yes, that's right. Never once was did she make eye contact with the camera. And I have lots more than just these. The few times she would look at me, I wasn't ready. I AM SO SLOW!!!!!!! And the last picture is pretty much her protest to the camera after about 15 min of it in her face. **Sigh** Buttermilk can't help it, she's almost as cute when she's angry as when she's happy :)

Giving myself a number

I know you all have been dying for me to play that "If you like this I will give you a number and you have to tell ___ random facts about yourself" game on facebook so I thought I'd oblige you all and just do a blog post about it :) So pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee and prepare to be amazed!! Or bored.  Whichever.

1. I do not like the dark. As a child I was petrified of the dark and used to pile my entire collection of stuffed animals on the side of the bed that I did not sleep on so they could protect me from what ever creatures lurked around my bed room at night time. Not sure what was gonna protect me on the side of the bed that I did sleep on.

2. From the age of 7-8 my parents took me off of wheat because I had an allergy to it and it gave me a raspy voice. After a year off of it the allergy went away so I only had to endure 1 birthday with a cake no one but me would eat. That was a sad birthday for me especially because I shared it with a friend that year and every one ate her cake and not mine (Did i forget to tell you to grab a box of tissues? sorry).

3. I was homeschooled until the 8th grade when after two years of begging relentlessly my parents finally gave in and sent me to a teeny tiny private school in the middle of nowhere and there I stayed until I graduated high school. Best 5 years of my life!!

4. I didn't join the church until I was 20 years old. 

5. I met Jon and fell in love with him when I was 7 years old. Really. I used to day dream about him for hours on end and pray so hard that his Papa would bring him to Cool Springs every time we had a meeting! I eventually forgot about him (because he never showed up!!) until we met up again randomly when we were 18 and I had a boyfriend. I took one look at him and couldn't remember for the life of me what I thought was so great about him when I was 7. I know, that's kinda harsh but it's the truth. About a year and a half later he showed up again in my life (this time as a preacher) and all it took was seeing the back of his head and, well, the rest is history!

6. I am a horrible procrastinator. Actually, I guess that makes me a fantastic procrasitnator.

7. I detest cleaning out the refrigerator but I love to clean bathrooms.

8. My cowboy boots (or would that be cowgirl?) are the most comfortable pair of shoes that I own and I wish I had about 10 pairs. Does this make me a redneck??

9. I have seen every single episode of Friends at least 20 times each. Might even be 30 by now.

10. If I ever came back in another life and could choose to live any where in the world it would be New York City. And I would be a street life photographer.

11. If I could choose to live any where in my real life I would choose the Drummond Ranch. And I would be Ree.

12. I had to go to summer school in between my sophomore and junior year in high school for geometry. I had to take it again my junior year. (And I still can't spell the word.)

13. Being a house wife/stay at mom is the best full time job I could ever dream of. I honestly do not wish I had a career outside of my family. Even though one day I hope to be a somewhat successful photographer, my family is my most fullfilling work.

It not funny

Ray Ray woke up in a foul humor this morning. She is usually in a pretty good mood when she wakes up but not today. Suspicious. And she was for what ever reason royally ticked at her poor old daddy this morning, didn't even want to tell him good morning. He took it in stride and as he was leaving (she was eating her waffle) he called over his shoulder "good bye I love y'all" and in a growly voice she hollered back 'goot bye i.love.you.too.' Ahhhahaha!!! We got a good laugh out of that one. She knows she loves her daddy and knew it was part of their morning routine to tell each other good bye and even though she was NOT in the mood for sentiment she told him any way. That child!! That child!!

Later, while we were playing play dough she looked at me and said "I don't feel good. I need to go to tha doctor." I couldn't help but chuckle at her because what 2 year old tells you they need to go to the doctor??? She looked at me and said "It not funny!!! I.DON'T.FEEL.GOOD."

Just a few minutes ago we had to go to the Wal mart for a few things and she walked around for a bit helping to push the buggy and put stuff in and then all of a sudden she says "Oh, I don't feel good. Can we go home?" Do you suppose she's heard the term "I don't feel good" in excess lately? I think so. Her eyes are red and she kept covering her face any time the sun would hit it so I think she's probably got a headache. Glad I've already got that Tamiflu. If I had to make another trip to the big T this week I, well, I'd go but I wouldn't like it :)