Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Christmas Cards

It was that first nostalgia of Christmas today when our Christmas cards arrived!

mini Shout OUT to Shutterfly and FedEx for getting to us so quickly (I think I just made and purchased them Monday NIGHT). 

The cards have been stuffed in the envelopes (face up of course so you can see them when you open them) and are ready for the labels to be put on, stamped, and return address"ed" if that is even a verb. That will all come this evening and tomorrow!

I think I will send them out Friday so that they get to people Saturday and Monday which would be December 1st and the 3rd and at least then I am not sending them the month of November? That would be a little overkill? But I want to  get it out those friends, whom like me, put them up in a collage.

I won't post the picture until they have gone out to ruin the surprise, but I like them. They are different than years past. I wasn't really (nor was my husband) with any of the pictures of "the adults". I wanted to do cute pictures of The King, but then I wanted to do all these fun pictures of them to portray his personality. 

I couldn't just chose 1 or 3, but I didn't want to be that person that put 10-15 photos as a "hey look at every picture we took this year", haha. NO offense if you did that! Harley and Belle may have been cut  out of the pics, but they did make the "signatures" this year!


Hello....Handsome





OK so maybe I am a little bit late on this train, but, 
CHRIS HEMSWORTH, what?!?

This past weekend we watched "Snow White and the Hunstman" and Mr. Chris was in it. It wasn't love at first sight or anything, but as the movie went on I just wanted to keep seeing more! I am a hopeless romantic so I am sure the transpiring attraction/love story/sexual tension between him and Snow added to my curiousity.

I know his  brother, because I am a big Hunger Games fan. And I do think that in general Liam is attractive (not necessarily as Gale in HG), but I just can't get over that he is with Miley and that creeps me out.

But I had honestly never noticed Chris before. So, in case you are like me... here are a few pics for you to gaze at!





Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Negotiation

Why does ALMOST everything in life have to be a negotiation or bribery?!?

For example.....
Breakfast today for The King:
Egg white omelet
2 sausage links
Grapes

For someone who isn't a huge "meat" eater, he sure loves SAUSAGE! He downed his two links like that (snap!) and was already asking for "MO" before we had even begun ours! Therefore, the rest of breakfast was negotiation and bribery... you eat those eggs and you MAY have some more sausage... and so on and so on.

Then there was....
Two nights ago we had crab cakes for dinner and he ate almost 1/2 of my husband's. Well, guess who bought  him his own crab cake and he wouldn't eat it! OK in his defense it was a different style/brand, but come on you are 1.5 why do you know the difference!!! 

And the most worst and recent.....
He had a playdate with a friend and would NOT eat his lunch! After my husband tried to explain to him for 20 minutes you can go when your lunch is done. Clearly reinforcments are needed, it just wasn't working... so I came in and tried to show him what Dadddy meant.

Me: Do you want to go play with H?
King: YESSSS

Me: OK then you have to put on this SOCK
King: OK
Me: But before I put this sock on you have to take a bite of THIS

And sure enough that kid took one of the biggest bites I had seen in a long time! This continued through each sock, shoe, pant leg, arm hole, shirt, jacket, and hat until the meal was done!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Team George Blog



Check out my husband and I's joint blog covering our fitness regimen and lifestyle

THANK YOU

THANKS FOR VISITING THE "NEW" BLOG!

I had to change with the times, so here I am Momma MotorMouth. 

Mom, Wife, Worker, Cook, Baker, Volunteer, and Friend. 

I haven't been the best about blogging since I got busy with work again, but I do post semi-frequently and hope that I can keep you interested with my thoughts that tend not to make sense nor go anywhere!

XOXO

New Blog or This Blog?

Panama Garage Games 4.14.12

 It's no secret that health and fitness play a large role in my family's daily life. And I'd like to start blogging a little bit about our daily endeavours with our CF regimen.

For those of you who may not recognize the abbreviation, CF stands for CrossFit. CrossFit, Inc. describes its strength and conditioning program as “constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement," with the stated goal of improving fitness. 

CrossFit is not just a "type of exercise", but I have been coming to realize IF you want it to, it is a way of life. Now, there are many different levels of CF. My husband and I jumped up our regime to 5x/week last March and immediately I saw a difference between 3x/week. As a lifestyle choice, we decided to perform our workouts Monday through Friday and leave our weekends to "rest" or for  moderate exercise (go for a light jog, etc.). This schedule really fit our family and social schedule.   

As we have just hit our year 1 mark of beginning CF: research, my husband's certification, group workouts, etc. it makes me reflect on the past year physically and mentally.

We have just signed up for our 2nd CF competition and will be competing at the beginning of January. Even though I have been competing my whole life, I was usually good at it or had the confidence I would come out on top. However, I am already nervous about this competition. Yes, I have come a long way, but still have so far to go. CF exposes my mental weaknesses and my physical weakness of good form, holding weight above my head, and taking the Olympic weight lifting moves to the next level.

I just can't decided whether or not I want to do it here or on a separate blog. I am thinking I may do a separate blog if my husband wanted to join in on his thoughts.......


Cheesy or Cherished?

So it's been challenging trying to teach The King about anything other than Thanksgiving besides trying to say the word itself. I think we may have our own version by Thursday though... I'm hopeful!

I will admit, lately I have less than patient some people at least. And I feel that I have been the recipient of the same "wrong doings". What is that saying.... you hurt the ones you love the most, because you know they will forgive you? It's so easy one day to say I will change or improve something and focus on it. But then having a whole lifestyle change is another.

But then it just hit me this morning, why not try being nice.... It's a lot harder to be nice 24/7 then it is to be judgmental, pushy, critical, real, etc. What about just giving out appreciation and compliments for free? What will people think? Well with Thanksgiving a few days away, I thought I would try it out for a few hours :) !

So this morning I got a work email from an associate we always expect immediate response and action from and I thought to myself, you know I should go ahead and thank her. So in the spirit of the holiday I did and her response was wonderful! Not a few minutes l later I received a similar email from another associate thanking ME for their business. OK, so yes it was mass produced, but who cares.

Wouldn't the world be a much nicer place if we threw out compliments and appreciation instead of insults and put me downs?

Act of Appreciation

A good friend told me about a little tradition she has about taking her children to the doctor.....

1. She always dresses her kids up 

2. MOST of the times she brings a treat for the receptionists/front desk employees

My friend told me about her traditions a few years ago, I believe it was pre-King. I thought it was a cool idea, but never thought twice about it until I had my own child and I actually really took to the ideas. 

 I like the idea of showing these doctors and employees respect.

Maybe with the clothes, hey may not notice at first (especially if when the doctor comes in and your child's clothes are off, ha), but eventually I really think they do. In fact, I know they do as I have had many of the doctor's make positive comments. Even beyond that, I hope for the years to come it teaches my son to show respect to these professionals.

In regards to bringing a treat (whether you have baked it yourself is NOT the point), I believe it makes a difference! Since the time The King was 6 weeks old, I have been bringing them little things here and there (cookies, bread, brownies, etc.) and they always seem more than appreciative AND even the next time I come in (without something) they always bring it up again and say thank you.

Today, in honor of the fall and Thanksgiving week, The King will be bringing them Pumpkin Bread for his sick visit!


Where do they learn these things?!?

We have all heard the expression "kids are like sponges, they absorb everything", but what about the expression "where the heck did my kid learn that?"?!?

So, yes, we are definitely at the stage where we have to watch what we say around "The King" as he is in repeat mode.

Example 1
Mommy: hurt myself... shouts out an explicit.....
The King: repeats explicit with a smile and lisp... SH*SHHHH. 

Cute the first time, but not after


Example 2
Scenario:  driving down the main road through town yesterday and this lady comes completely over into my lane I have to swerve up on to the curb with BOTH tires

Mommy: LADYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

The King: lady! lady! lady! hahah LADY, hahaha, lady! lady!....... 

This continued for the next 3 minutes as I had to chase her down to pull over (yes I was beeping frantically behind her, eventually having to get out of my car tap on her window), finally when she agreed to pull over, Kingston is in the back [window down I may add] screaming on cue..... lady! lady! lady) 

HOWEVER...... sometimes I wonder where he learns some of the stuff he says and does

He isn't in daycare and doesn't really watch "tv", he does have some older friends and cousins he hangs around and i know they can learn behavior, but still.....

Example 1
Knowing how to push my buttons and the limits???

Scenario: yesterday we had to go to the shore house and meet the adjuster. The whole bottom floor dry wall has been taken out so the beams are showing. Knowing my curious 1.5yr old would want to go check them out, I set up the whole garage with his toys- digger, trucks, guitar, etc. for distraction. He tried a few times and I told him not to go in there and guided him towards his "play area". Well mid-conversation I look over and he is slow-mo walking sideways through the doorway smiling at me going "hiiiiii, hiiiiii, hiiii mommeeeeee". I mean really?!?  

Example 2
SANTA.....

We definitely hadn't spoken about Santa yet this year! He hasn't watched any Christmas tv or dvd's and out of know year about a month ago he pulls out these red furry Elmo gloves and says "SANTA"! Does he remember from last year? My thought is no way, he was only 11mo, but maybe? So we said "OK" and moved on, but then the word kept coming up. I hadn't heard any of his older friends (haha ok they are 3, 5, and 6 not 20's ha) mention it yet this year either! But he keeps repeating "Santa, Santa, Santa". 

My husband said they have taken several trips to Home Depot and even back in October they had Christmas decorations up and they started to learn about Christmas tree, decorations, and Santa, but this was after the first mentioning of him!

CRAZY! But as his mother, and someone who happens to LOVEEEEEEE Christmas! I am taking full advantage of this situation! I hate to admit we have already started listening to Children Christmas songs; I showed him Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer movie in the car yesterday, and even told him about how Santa knows when he is being naughty and nice (yes I said word by word the song, haha)!

I have all these books on children and their mind, I am sure the research to my questions are in there, maybe I should get on that.............