Just So You Know...

I have a super awesome Christmas/Decorating/Look at all the amazing fun we're having post to put up but Blogger is a POS and won't let me upload anymore pictures until I purchase more space for them. I refuse to  either A.) do an amazingly fun Christmas post with out pictures to prove that I am a Christmas decorating Goddess and B.) PAY for Picassa storage that I don't feel that I need.

If I'm going to be PAYING anyone for anything then it'll be to Wordpress...

Anyone have any great ideas for me how to change this issue?

Thoughts and Prayers

My super sweet cousin passed away this morning. My heart is breaking but I know that it surely must feel a thousand times worse for my Uncle Tim and my cousin Shane's sisters, Shannon and Kendra.

Shane fought valiantly against stomach cancer and now resides in Heaven. He was able to be at home until the very end and was surrounded by all those that loved him dearest. He was preceded unto Heaven by his mother, my Aunt Karen, who passed away 10 years ago after having cancer herself. It's so very sad to those of us left with out these two special people but I find strange comfort that he was greeted in Heaven by his Momma and was perhaps not as scared as he could have been.

My cousin Shannon on the left and sweet Shane on the right. 

I was so fortunate that we got to visit with him for several days back in September. Shane lived in Alabama and had made a trek to Texas to visit a bunch more of his family. Smart boy hurried up and finished off a bunch of bucket list type things this past summer and fall. :)

Shane was my closest cousin in age (we're just a couple of months apart) and although we didn't get to see each other very often, he has always been close to my heart.

I'll miss you forever Shane! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year as every other year, I have so much to be thankful for! I am so very thankful for my family and friends. I love them dearly and I'm lucky enough that they love me as much in return :). I'm thankful for the good food I have to eat, a beautiful roof over my head, and that my beloved has a job!

I'm particularly blessed for by all my children! They keep me both laughing and on my toes :). I'm also so thankful for my wonderful hubby! He works so hard for us each day and still comes home with a smile on his face and love in his eyes!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4 (ESV)

Ice, Ice, Baby

This past weekend I headed up North to a bridal shower in Dallas (Shout out to my friend Amy!). While the boys and I were up there we decided to sneak in a little extra fun and headed out to the Gaylord Texan. They have the most amazing Christmas things already going on! We didn't have a ton of time so we picked the funnest thing they had to do which was to go see ICE! 

ICE is just what it sounds like... millions of pounds of colored are carved ice! Each year they pick a new and fun theme. This year was Merry Madagascar. My boys just adore that movie so it was even more special that we were able to see it in ice!

Each room that you toured had a particular scene carved out and then that portion of the story playing out loud for all to hear. 

(Warning now... This is one of those crazy pictures post :)

Grady and Graham at the entrance to the ICE show. Mimi (my Momma) and Griffin came with us but Griffin lost it right before we were going in and my sweet Momma kept him in the Lobby area for us. Also, let me apologize now for how funny some of my pictures turned out. My poor camera had the hardest time focusing with all that reflective ice in there!

Graham pretty much staying freezing cold (Hey! They keep it at 9 degrees in there!) the whole time. Most of his pictures look just like this one :).

Grady was just fascinated with all of the ice! He was just a tiny baby last time he was here. 

A sweet lady stopped us and asked if she could take our picture. Not the greatest but at least we're all smiling and looking at the camera right? :)

This is my very magnificent picture of the ice slides they had there. Crazy how you can see the frozen condensation in the air! They had 4 slides and Graham went down one but I couldn't get Grady to. He just cried and cried and said how scared he was. Poor baby, he missed out on such a fun ride!

My boys got so tickled at the frozen and real coconuts and just begged me to take a picture of them.

Another things that they cracked up! Banana ice skates!

At the end of the event they had the most beautiful ice sculptures depicting Christ's birth. They had the nativity story playing in this room as well. It was just so beautiful and special!

We all had the best time and made some great memories!

TREAT Time!

I keep seeing all over Facebook and other blogs I follow how more and more people seem to be getting ready for Christmas early this year.  A TON of people I know already have a tree up! Some might think "one Holiday at a time please!" but for me it's more like "I love the Holiday's so much that I want to celebrate them all for as long as I can!".

Because of this philosophy I started shopping in August! I'm already all done in that department (more on that later...) so I can focus more on fun local events going on and spending quality time with my family and friends. I'm getting ready to order my Christmas cards this week so that they can get addressed and mailed out by next week. I figure the sooner I can spread the holiday cheer to other the better :).

Would you like to spread some holiday cheer early this year too?! Treat wants to help you celebrate the season! Whether you're sending out a "Thanks for a delish Turkey dinner!" or a "Merry Christmas!" card you can personalize it however you'd like! The best part of all? They pretty much cost the same as a greeting card that you'd get in a store. How awesome to take that chore off your to-do list during this busy season!

Want to know the other great part?? Today and tomorrow Treat is giving you a free card to try them out! Just enter TREATBLOGR at checkout.

Happy card shopping ya'll! 

WTF

So if you fall into that shitty category of being in the BLM group you've had this experience or something similar to it. It's that moment that you just stop, stare, and then ask yourself... WTF. We've all had those craptastic moments of calls from your insurance company asking about the well-being of a child who is no longer alive or getting Huggies diapers coupons in the mail saying shitty things like "Congratulations on your newborn!" and you just want to shoot the people at your doctors office because how else would Huggies, Pampers, and Enfamil get you on their mailing list??

How is it possible to get slapped in the face so unrelentingly ? First you loose a child which is devastatingly enough and yet for MONTHS and even YEARS later you keep getting subtly or seemingly in my case not so subtly reminders of that perfect baby shaped whole in your heart.

If you will remember (I was going to add a fun link here but now I can't find that old blog post) my old OBGYN (who is the biggest ASSHAT in the whole world) kick started off this phenomenon at 6 weeks postpartum asking how my dead baby was doing. If you are new to my blog (or maybe just don't remember)  this is why he is no longer my doctor.

Over the past couple of years the reminder of my daughter's short life has been brought to the forefront in a variety of un-fun ways. (Don't get me wrong here ya'll, I love reminders of my daughter just the kind and gentle ones though...) Here is the most current shitty reminder.

How dare the universe (or whoever is responsible for this shenanigans) send ME and American Girl catalog with a little blonde girl on the front that is named Caroline??? When I checked my mail it seriously felt like someone had just poked me in the eye like 3 times. 

Pretty much right after that I announced that I was leaving to go to a little bit of Christmas shopping.

Retail therapy is the best ya'll.

Holiday Photo Shoot

I decided a while back that I would really need to get a jump start on Christmas this year if there was going to be any semblance of order at all. So, despite the fact that it's still the beginning of November we hauled our boys out to Yancey to meet up with one of my besties Kim. She and her sweet family have some AMAZING land out there.

I was cracking up at just how hot it was but, since these are going to be for Christmas cards, my boys had to look the part. I stuffed my poor babies into sweaters and jeans for the photos. The adults were all hot and sweaty so I know they had to be dying. They were (for the most part) pretty good about it!

I don't want to spoil my Christmas cards by showing everyone the pictures (although undoubtedly if you know me on Facebook, you already seen a ton of them :) ahead of time. So, here are some fun "out takes".  They are still really cute though!

Grady doing his Uncle Fester impersonation...

It just ain't a Mueller Brother picture if someone isn't crying...

Bless my sweet sweet friends heart for taking these (and more!) for us. I love the silly ones, the crying ones, the perfect ones, even the "no ones even looking at the camera" ones. Every picture captures perfectly the essence of my boys.

Laughing or crying, I'm cute all the time! :) 

I love you to bits Kim! Thanks again for doing this for our family!

Confession Friday

• I have 47 million things (with pictures) to blog about but I just haven't.

• I let Graham, Grady, and Griffin watch too many cartoons. Far more than is good for their little brains.

• I'm pretty upset with some of my neighbors who came and picked fruit from out 2 fruit trees (with our permission). They took most of the fruit off the trees including a boat load that was no where near ready to be picked yet. I don't know much about produce but it seems to me that ripening on the tree would be best for fruit especially when the homeowner (me) tells the neighbor across the street that they can "come over anytime and pick fruit". They did not have to take it all at once. Can anyone now tell me what the heck to do with a LARGE bag of green lemons?? Yeah, they were nice enough to pick my own un-ripe fruit and bring it to me.

• I got in a fight with my hubby this morning. It ended up with me hanging up on him. I feel very bad and very immature for doing that. I won't tell you what over. It's an issue that is both political and religious. We each are pretty committed to our notion of what is right and what is not. It's probably best that we agree to disagree on this issue and that it's something we need not discuss ever again. Right? Thoughts?

• I got Griffin's hair cut and they did a terrible job. I've been calling him Lloyd because he looks like this now. 

yeah, the one of the left...

• The pile of dishes in my sink look something akin to what you might see in a college frat house.

• I have eaten like half of my kids Halloween candy. I dare not get on a scale any.time.soon. 

• I made a bunch of things (food-wise) from Pinterst lately and about 3/4 of them came out tasting pretty crappy. Food Fail.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!