Organization Binge

I've been on an organization binge all week. I am well on my way to getting rid of 100 things this year and I don't think I'll even have to go to the second floor of our house to complete that goal (even though I totally should - I don't think I wear 75% of the clothes in my closet). Poor Brenna was a victim of my intense concentration on organization. She was playing in her little chair and was a little grouchy, so I gave her her paci and headed back to the kitchen. A while later, I returned to find this:

Poor sweet baby!!! I moved her to the pack n play, but she woke up - oops. I guess that tray was more comfortable than it looked.

So far, I am up to 7 paper/reusable grocery bags full of items, plus a big George Foreman grill, all waiting patiently in my laundry room, waiting to be taken to Allen Community Outreach. Bonus: I have gained one drawer and 2/3 of a kitchen cabinet. I have no clue what I'm going to do with the extra space. Most likely fill it, no surprise there!

On Tuesday, Steven and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. Steven wished me a "Happy J.o.P. Day" because we were originally married by the Justice of the Peace, Judge Payton (who, coincidentally, also married Steven's brother and his wife this October... keeping it all in the family). We had a "real" church wedding 8 months later because I'm a princess like that, but we still like to celebrate the day we were legally wed.

There should be a picture of us getting married here, but I refused to take one because it wasn't our "real" wedding day. Stupid.

This year, we broke out our fine china (just for fun) and had steak tacos for dinner. It was pretty hilarious drinking water from a tea cup and seeing the salsa drip all over the fancy plates. I'm so glad we used it though, it was a fun way to celebrate. Since we have two anniversaries and this one falls so soon after Christmas, we usually exchange something small. This year, I gave Steven the go-ahead to order some books from Amazon he's been wanting and he set out to find a gift for me. It has taken until the last year or so for me to realize that Steven and I see gift-giving holiday differently. He sees it as an opportunity to get what he wants, and I see it as a chance to be surprised by someone I care about, who cares about me too. I would always try to surprise Steven (which he hated because he wanted to get something he WANTS, not something he may or may not want) and he always wanted me to tell him what I wanted (which I hate because I feel like it puts the responsibility on me to find my own gift, which makes me assume that the other person doesn't care enough to try to find something they think I would like). Totally different approaches, but recognizing that makes it easier to get something that the other person really appreciates.

Anyway, that looooong drawn out explanation was all to get to this point. Steven totally hit the nail on the head this year.

(source)

I am mildly obsessed with Anthropologie right now, and these cups fit the bill. I bought the 'a' cup for myself after Christmas while shopping with my sister, and Steven went back to buy 'b' for Brenna, 'j' for Jackson, 's' for Steven, and 'h' for Haynes. It was exactly what I wanted, down to the last letter, literally. I cleaned out my coffee mug shelf to make room for them, eliminating 6 plain black coffee mugs from our stash. I never in my life thought I would be this excited to receive coffee mugs for my anniversary, but I am - I even danced around the house when he brought them home. Best hubs ever.

So, now I'm off to put Jackson down for a nap so the organization excitement can continue. My house is a disaster, but dang it, the cabinets are organized!

Things Jackson Says... while Playing

This child is always cracking me up! Here are some favorite quotes this week:

"Das so cute!" (every time I show him a picture I have just taken)

"Minnie, look, I found your car! Thank you, Jackson. You're welcome!" (after I found Minnie Mouse's car and gave it to him)

"Oh no! What a messy, messy mess!" (after throwing his blocks on the ground)

"TA-dahhhhh" (after throwing said blocks into my laundry basket, half-full of clean clothes)

Recently, he has been obsessed with monsters. He always tells me to hide because there's a "monster coming Mommy! Hide!" I'm sure it is no coincidence that his favorite movie right now is Monsters, Inc. Every night he asks me to check under his bed and check his closet for monsters. I tell them to go home because it's past their bedtime and their Mommies are looking for them. The thing is, he seems to find it funny and exciting and hasn't acted truly afraid yet. He got some legos from Mimi and Poppy for Christmas and has had the best time playing with them. I moved them into the living room so he could have some room to play in the same room as me. I just don't go into his play room very often, and it's so nice to have him close-by.

Brenna has recently become semi-mobile. She can roll over and hold her head up easily. Right now, she is lying on her play mat (in the background of these pictures) and swatting at an elephant rattle. Yesterday she moved from the play mat, in to the middle of the floor for a total of about 4 feet. Oh lordy. I could see that she was trying to figure out how to crawl too. I am not excited to baby proof everything again. We have latches on the cabinets and covers on the outlets, but something tells me that won't be enough with this little one. She is so curious!

I love this picture because it is so indicative of the type of relationship these two have. Jackson really loves his little sister and she looks at him like he is the coolest person in the world. I know they will fight and get frustrated with each other, but I pray they will always love each other just as much (if not more!) as they do now.

Holiday Photo Dump

We were so blessed to be busy this holiday season, but that didn't leave a whole lot of time for blogging! Here's what we were up to instead:

Trains at North Park. We went last year and Jackson loved it, but this year he LOVED it! What's great about this age is that he generally can't remember things from a year ago, so everything to do with Christmas is so new and exciting. He thought the trains were great and he ran around looking at all the buttons. Since we went in the middle of the week, before school let out, it wasn't very crowded.

Brenna came along to check out the trains too and was great at keep an eye on my coat and Starbucks cup - sorry Brenna, you really were more than a glorified coat rack.

Waiting for the trains to pass by!

Dallas skyline - Reunion tower (the one with the ball on top, in case you aren't familiar) is my favorite part of the skyline - makes me feel like I'm home.

I think it was after taking this picture of Jackson in front of the Dallas skyline that I thought to myself "Oh hey, Jackson's been crossing his legs a lot...." so I asked if he needed to go to the bathroom. He said no, and then I told him that we could come back to see the trains afterwards. He agreed and was so ready to go to the bathroom, that he didn't even wait to leave the train area before he started pulling off his pants. Haha! I pulled them back up and we ran (almost literally) to the nearest bathroom. I was so proud that he made it!

As promised, we came back to check out some more trains. Here are the trains in front of the Cotton Bowl, which is apparently now host to the TicketCity Bowl because the Cotton Bowl is now being played at Jerryworld... I mean Cowboy Stadium? Whatever, here it is all dressed up for the Red River Showdown, which begs the question - why is there so much available parking?

Texas State Fair, complete with Big Tex.

We took two vacations this year - Washington DC and Canada - so it was really special to see this scene from DC (no matter how inaccurate - haha).

This is (unfortunately) the best picture I got of Jackson in front of Grand Central Station. My sister, aka Aunt Emily (Ehmly) lives in Brooklyn, so I wanted to get a picture of this one for her.

About half-way through the time we spent at the trains, Jackson found these red buttons that would move some of the elements inside the display. Sometimes a light would come on, or a person would swing on the playground, little things like that. So we had to go back through the entire exhibit and press every button 15,000 times. Good thing Brenna had fallen asleep by then.

A couple days before Christmas, my family and Steven's family got together for an Allen Americans hockey game. There are 3 reasons I like the Allen Americans: 1. They play at the AEC, which is just 10 minutes from our house, 2. The tickets are cheap, about $15-$30 each, 3. They are actually pretty good! In addition to that, the sense of community it brings is so uplifting. I don't think I have ever been to a game and not run into at least one person I know.

Since we had such a large group and the kids were going to be with us, we decided to rent a box for the night. It was so much fun! There were 16 seats, plus a little seating area behind. Since there were only 12 of us (including the kids) there was lots of room to mingle and hang out.

Jackson has already been to a few Allen Americans games. We have somehow wormed our way into free sets of tickets a few times, so that's when we bring him along. We figure that if we have to leave early, we won't feel as annoyed by it if the seats were free. So far, we've been right. He loved the box and even got to see the mascot, Biscuit, up close when Biscuit visited the box next to us. Jackson has a little Biscuit toy at home that he sleeps with sometimes, so we made sure that little Biscuit was there for the game. Brenna is looking after him in the picture with my Mom.

This is my sister's friend from high school, Caroline and my sister. Caroline is kind of an honorary Scott - she's come to a lot of our family functions over the years and she is lots of fun.

I tried to get a picture with my sister and it turned into a silly photo shoot - surprise. Emily is way better and being silly-pretty than I am. She looks like she's asking for a new pony for Christmas and I look like I'm trying to imitate a fish on the phone.

Brenna had a great time being passed around the room to all her family members. Steven's brother even held her and played with her for a while. She spent a long time at the end of the night on the floor with my sister and Caroline. They were so good with her and seemed to really enjoy playing with her. Jackson and Brenna are so lucky to have a sweet aunt who is crazy about them.

I didn't get any pictures of Steven's side of the family, but I swear they were there. In total, we had Steven's parents, his brother Chris and wife Robin. On my side, we had my parents, my sister and Caroline, and then of course Steven, Jackson, Brenna, and me. It was a great way to spend time together and relax while enjoying the game.

The next day was Christmas Eve, which we spent with my family since my sister was only in town for about a week.

When we were leaving, I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in their Christmaswear, but first, Jackson wanted to get a picture of Brenna and me. I think he did a pretty good job!

My Dad and Jackson looked like accidental twins in their jeans and blue and white button-down shirts. Jackson really loves his Poppy Scott.

This may be my favorite picture of these two so far!!! They both look so happy and festive. I loved putting Brenna's Christmas Eve outfit together. I found each piece separately and I love how it all came together. I've said it before and I'll say it again - girls are so much more fun to dress than boys!

Finally, here are some pictures we had taken of Jacks and Brenna in their Christmas PJs. I am so glad that I got matching PJs for them! I was worried that Brenna wouldn't grow into her pajamas in time for Christmas, but luckily, Gymboree's pajamas are made to fit snugly, so they were just fine. They looked so cute in their matching jammies. I think this is going to be a tradition, at least as long as they'll let me!!

I hope your Christmas was as merry as ours was!!

525,600 minutes.

2011 was another year in the life. So far, the most special years in my life have been 1984, 1997, 2002, 2006, 2008, and 2011. 1984 was the year I was born (and the hubs too - not that we knew each other), 1997 seemed to be a "coming-of-age" year for me. I feel like I went through a lot of change that year. 2002 I graduated from high school, 2006 I transitioned from being a crazy college student/sorority girl to being a wife and professional. Finally, 2008 and 2011 brought the sweetest gifts of all - my goofy, loving Jackson and my cuddly, happy Brenna.

In 2012, I have set a goal to get rid of 100 things. I decided that groups of items will count as one thing. So far, I have 96 things left to go. Not too bad for the first day of the year!

1. A cookbook holder that Steven bought for me while we were living in Japan. It's a really nice cookbook holder, but he bought me another one for Christmas after we moved into our house that mounts underneath our upper cabinets (therefore saving counter space). I offered it to my new sister-in-law and she was happy to take it.

2. 3 kitchen rugs that I got on sale and could not keep clean. They were impossible to clean and attracted dog hair like it was going out of style. They looked grubby, made the kitchen look yucky, and had to go. (trash)

3. 3 stockings we had amassed over the years. Totally cute and functional, but not worth keeping in our house anymore. (donate)

4. 5 stocking holders that are super-cute, but just don't weigh enough to hold up a stocking full of goodies. Back to the drawing board - aka nails in the mantle. (donate)

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? Have you started on any of them yet?