It's HEART month!

Yes, yes I know Valentines day is more than a week away.  But I am talking about your actual heart.  Heart disease is the number one killer of Women, more than all the cancers combined.  Now I am not downplaying cancer, Cancer is a HORRIBLE thing.  But it is heart month, and my baby is a CHD kid(congenital heart defect).  Her Grandma, my mom has a heart that beats to its own drummer and drives Grandma crazy when it goes out of whack.  Her great grandmother died of stroke after quadruple heart bypass surgery.  My baby's daddy, aunt and grandfather all have hereditary high cholesterol.  These are all very bad things.  Leading me to this, while it is heart month, please think about the health of your heart. 
Grace's school is doing Jump Rope for Heart which raises awareness as well as money for the American Heart Association.  Build-a-bear is running a promotion with Children's Heart Foundation which is an organization that works closely with doctors and hospitals that deal with CHD kids.  Lily has her 2 year post operative visit in two weeks,after which we will be going to build a bear to get a bear and donate too. Aunt Molly works for the American Heart Association in California, which means she is far away but is full of info and is also a CHD kid herself.  So if you need to know what to do, I have some resources for you.  But most of all think of how to keep yourself healthy and you heart beating so that your LOVE day can be full of HEART.
Talk to you soon.

The Winter Blahs

So after a gorgeous weekend of 70 degree weather, we are back to the blahs.  It is in the 50's and rainy.  I know it is better than the below freezing snowed in days of two weeks ago, but I am ready for spring.  Ready for the renewal, the vitamin D, the playing in the street, riding bikes, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and short sleeves.  I know with all that comes the sneezing, itchy eyes and general allergy pains that it seems both girls are going to inherit. 
I am hoping that as the girls get older the allergy problems will get better.  So far Lily has had hives for some unknown reason, was put on a nebulizer for 5 days of treatment along with steroids for wheezing in her chest and both girls take prescription antihistamine: Allegra for Grace, Singulair for Lily.  We have cool air humidifiers for the winter, air purifiers for the rest of the year.  We dust and vacuum the girls rooms each weekend and they can only sleep with washable luvies.  They take their baths at night to wash off the allergens before bed.  And yet they still have issues, Grace's retreat to her upset tummy and Lily has had cold symptoms since October. 
This all leads to the blahs, dreams of warmer weather, beaches, Disney and various other vacation wishes.  If only................ 

A giggle or two

This was shot with my iphone over the Christmas Break in Florida, make sure to turn the music down at the bottom of the page.

Blizzard 2011, Atlanta style...

It all started about 9:00 Sunday night.  It had been snowing south of Atlanta for a good part of the day.  But the night is when it hit us up here north of the city.  It snowed at 3 inches an hour, but alas we only got a total of 5 inches of snow by the time it was all through.  Then it freezing drizzled for a while. School has now been out for 3 days and it is out again tomorrow.  If we don't go on Friday the kids will have been to school for 4 days in the month of January by Jan. 18th.  Crazy days in Atlanta.

Snow can be fun even when you don't have the proper equipment.  We tried to build a snowman, but without the proper gloves and the fact that the top layer was ice, it proved difficult, so Grace gave up quickly.  Then we went sledding.  Grace and Mommy and Daddy loved it.  Lily was just ready to go in.  Thank goodness Aunt Jenni had left a outgrown pair of snowpants for Grace and Mommy had run to Walmart Sunday and bought a pair of snow boots for Grace and rain boots for Lily. 

These pictures are from the first day.

The street with some sledders.

Our house with a beautiful blanket of snow.

 Sledding at the neighbors, with another neighbors sled.

pose for the camera Grace 

Uhoh 

 And the snowballs fly

Lily with her plastic bag coverings over her warmest clothes, crying cause she is DONE!

Well there may or may not be more to the story, but I am still sane after three days stuck in the house with two kids and the husband ran off, I mean made it in to work today.  It looks like we may be in the house until the weekend, pray for us all to stay the same.

Christmas Part 2, in Florida

Christmas 2010

If a picture says a thousand words, here are a few million from our Christmas....

Cookies for Santa

Our Christmas Eve tradition is attending the Family Service at the Presbyterian church where the children act out the story. This year Gracie got her wish to be a Christmas Angel. Unfortunately this also means she has outgrown the costumed portion of the story. They only use pre-k kids through first graders. Taylor dressed as a Shepard right before they ran down the aisle to be a part of the story.

Then we come home to a dinner made by me for the whole family. This years was a menu of cheese and crackers, fruit salsa and crackers, and chips and salsa followed by baked potato soup. Yummy! After dinner we bake cookies and decorate them for Santa. I cheated and bought the nestle tollhouse precut christmas shaped cookies. The best part is the decorating anyway.

Each kid got their own plastic knife, white icing and sprinkles of red or green or mulitcolored. There was a package of red icing included in the kit to be shared. Grace being not one to like getting dirty was dainty except she kept licking her knife, sorry Santa for the extra germs.

Telling everyone how to do it.

Taylor enjoyed icing the cookies but loved the sprinkles, I am still getting sprinkle up off the floor almost two weeks later.

Yummy!

Serious business


Say Cheese Aunt Anna

Then came Lily. She had a little practice at her class party, but she really got into it this time. She had icing everywhere, including the front of her dress that she used as a napkin. Grandma tried to keep her under control as I took pictures.

give me those sprinkles lady

"there"

Heavenly!

And then it was off to bed to sleep so the big man in red could enjoy his cookies that were left over after the snacking decoraters were finished. They must have been good, he only left crumbs.