Liam Turns Two!

...well.... not quite yet, but he did have his birthday party last night.  :)

The party started at 6:00.  Keith couldn't come because he was still at work.  So, Etta and I hopped in the car at about 6:00 and drove up the road and arrived at Liam's house at about 5 after.  Etta had fun playing in the balls and with her friends.  She also enjoyed pizza and cake & icecream.  we got back home around 7:30 and Etta didn't go to bed until about 10:30.  That's THREE hours after she usually goes to sleep.  *sigh*  At least she slept in an extra hour today. 

Happy Birthday, Liam!

 
Etta stacked three party hats that were on the coffee table!  Atta girl!

Erin made a great beach ball cake (the party theme was balls- Liam's favorite) and we all sang "happy birthday".

Thanksgiving Weekend

Gobble Gobble!

(By the way, if you've never heard a turkey in real life, they REALLY do say ""gobblegobblegobble" )

The long holiday weekend began Wednesday evening, when I started prepping food.  I made the chocolate pudding pie and I tried a new pie recipe that sounded interesting... peanut butter and jelly pie!  Turns out, it's crap!  WAY too sweet, but Etta LOVED licking the beater!  I also went ahead an prepped the turkey before I went to bed. 

My alarm went off at 4:30am on Thursday morning.  I stumbled into the kitchen, punched 350 on the oven, tossed the bird in, and padded back to the bedroom.  I got back up for the day around 7:30 and hit the ground running.  Mixing and stirring and measuring and pouring and carving and showering and diapering and dressing and out the door by 11:45.

When we got to Granny and Pop's house around 12:30, I set-up Etta's Pack-n-Play, sound machine, and monitor in the back bedroom and tried to put her down for a nap.  Of course, she was in a strange place (for a nap) and she knew she was missing a party.  So, after much frustration, I let her out to run around and enjoy the party for a bit.  We tried again a while later and she was asleep by about 2:30.  Whew!  So, the food was good and the company was great!  Somehow I didn't take many photos... not sure how that happened!

Friday morning, I got up at about 3:45 and went shopping with the crazies!  :)  I got to Kohls (my first stop) at about 4:30am.  Target around 5:45, Chick-fil-A around 7:45 (gotta have breakfast!). Then I swiped my credit card at Staples, Office Max, Electronics Express, Stride Rite, and then, finally, I was all swiped out and I went home.  All of that and I was back home by 9:30am.  As you can imagine, I didn't do much else that day. Well, besides watch Auburn win the Iron Bowl!  War Eagle

Or the next...  Saturday was a very lazy day!  Keith got up with Etta and I got to sleep-in.  woot!  I spent the day playing with Etta, watching tv, and doing laundry.  Keith grilled steaks for dinner.

This morning, Keith and I dropped Etta off at her Grandmomma and Granddaddy's house and we went on a date.  We went to a 10:15 matinee to see Harry Potter.  I had no idea until Friday that there was such a thing as a movie before noon, but it was awesome!  We had popcorn for brunch.  Keith and I use to go to the movies every weekend.  That was years ago, though and we haven't been to see a movie since... Well, I'm not sure the last movie I saw with Keith in the theatre.  It was probably before Etta came along. So, it was a nice date. 

After the movie, Keith talked me into lunch at Demos' in downtown Nashville even though I was full of popcorn.  I still managed to eat a cup of their yummy baked chicken soup and a few bites of the blackened chicken pasta (I took the rest home and ate it for dinner). 

After lunch, we went to pick Etta up.  She was eating a snack when we got there, but she was excited to see us.  She said "dada dada dada dada" when we walked in.  Sheesh!  No one cares about Mama when Dada's around.  She eventually gave me a sweet hug.  Then, I packed up her stuff while she played piano.  A group photo and we were off!

I think we had a pretty great Thanksgiving Weekend!  Hope you did too!   

Opryland Hotel

On Sunday evening, our little threesome headed out to Opryland to see the lights and try to get some holiday pictures.  Opryland had JUST opened on Monday after being closed since the May flood.  That's 5 1/2 months.  They spent millions renovating the hotel and I was actually disappointed that I had not had the foresight to just book a room for the night.  We got started about an hour later than I had hoped, but we made it.  I had wanted to get there with some daylight left for the sake of natural light in our photos.  Didn't happen. 

For those of you who don't know about Opryland Hotel, to say it is huge is an understatement!  It's a Nashville attraction and you actually have to pay to park.  When I first moved up here 8 1/2 years ago, the cost to park at the hotel was $10!  I thought this was OUTRAGEOUS!  So, anytime we went over there (or HAD to go over there when we were planning the wedding), we would just park in the Opry Mills Mall parking lot next door and walk over.  So, last night we tried to park in the mall parking lot, but the access to the hotel from the mall was blocked by fences.  Opry Mills is still closed from the flooding and much of the parking lot is fenced off.  We decided to bite the bullet and pay the ten bucks.  As we turned to enter the parking lot, we were ASTOUNDED to see that the cost to park is now $18 (!!!).  Holy Crap!  We were already in line, unsure of another place to park, running later than I had wanted, and the mood in the car was grumpy.  I was just ready to park the car.  I will go ahead and add here that the TRUE cost to park was $19.66.  Taxes, I guess.  Why don't they just include taxes in the posted cost?  Good thing their fancy little machine took credit cards! 

When we were finally parked and out of the car, we changed E into her fancy little dress and headed on in.  It was crowded, of course, but it was beautiful!  The Cascades area (hardest hit in the flood) has been remodeled, but still felt the same.  The lights were magical, as always.  I wish I had taken more pictures of just the inside of the Hotel, but we were busy chasing Etta and hoping to find just the right spot to set up the camera for a family picture.  I was having flash issues.  The flash made all of the pictures turn out harsh and gave red eye that was uncorrectable- not to mention how SHINY it made Etta's dress look.  *sigh*  In the end, we got ONE picture that was worthy of our holiday card.  I'm not going to share that one today.  You have to wait until you get your card in the mail.  I will, however, share with you a few of the other shots that weren't "the one".

We left there about an hour or so after we got there.  Etta started falling apart and we were about 45 minutes away from home, and she still needed dinner (official dinner, she had some cheerios along the way).  We didn't do too bad, she was in bed, asleep by 8:00.

Oreo

Etta found a small pack of Oreos in my purse on Sunday.  They came as a little dessert-type treat when we ate at Famous Dave's a couple weeks ago.  I hid the little two-pack in my purse and had no intention of letting her have it.  Ever. I was totally going to eat them one day  Well, she found it, then managed to open the package using her little teeth.  So, before she made a huge mess on the couch, I moved her over to her chair and let her have ONE.  She, of course, LOVED it!  :)