Almost Ready...

We are almost ready for WILD mans Birthday party. Cope is currently doing some relaxing by watching football, I am dressed and ready, and Ramsey is finishing up his nap. The party starts at 4:00 but some family are coming as early as 3:00. All we have left to do is put the balloons on the mailbox, warm up the dips, set out the foods, and get Ramsey pumped up for the fun afternoon. There will be about 15 kids and 25 adults in our non-gigantic house but who cares, I think it is going to be fun! Now, our home might not be in one piece at the end but we shall have celebrated and be fatter and happier for it! Hope to be back with some cute pictures tomorrow.

Thanksgiving 2009

Despite having wrecked both our cars a few days ago I found myself simply overflowing with thankfulness this year. I thought I'd jot a quick list of my most favorite things I'm very thankful for:

1) Cope and Ramsey
2) Our Parents
3) Our home
4) Our Health
5) Cope's Job
6) My play/ sewing job
7)Our friends and our sisters
8) Our doggies
9) Cope NOT being deployed this year
10) Truly enjoying my life

We have so much to be thankful for and those are just a few. We had a great day yesterday celebrating the day with my Mom and Morgan and Cope's Mom and Dad. They each also brought us a loaner vehicle to use for the next few weeks. Thank you again! We had so much good food and we finally got to use our fine china and set a real adult table for our parents. Very fun!

Also, this past Tuesday Ramsey had a Thanksgiving party at "playschool". They had a short stage thing and then it was off to the classroom for some cupcakes and goodies. Ramsey did good on stage until he spotted me waving like a crazy lady in the audience and he started crying because he wanted to come sit with me. Other then that we had a good time and Cope's Mom even came down to see her little grandson in action.

The Car is Broken

The "car is broken" according to Ramsey and I have to agree. Let me explain...

So on Tuesday afternoon my Mom watches Ramsey while I sew and then we meet for dinner and Cope meets us on his way in from work. After dinner since Cope and I are always in two separate cars we let Ramsey choose if he wants to ride in the truck with me or car with Daddy. Last night he chose the car with Daddy we gave him his milk and I said I'd see them at home. I was cruising along and saw Cope and Ramsey pass me so I just got behind them for the drive home. Well, Cope was switching lanes and so I followed when all of the sudden he slams on his brakes due to the vehicle in front doing the same. I slammed on my bakes as soon as I saw this but I could not get stopped fast enough due to everyones brakes slamming and I plowed into the the back of our car. It was that or swerve into the next lane of busy traffic. Cope and I quickly pulled to the side of the road and I jumped out to check on Ramsey in the car. He was FINE and still just chugging away on his milk not even phased. Cope and I assessed the damage and a wrecker and state patrol were called. My Mom came by to take Ramsey on home and Morgan stayed with Cope and I. You can imagine the confused look on the state patrols face when he learned we were married and had damaged both of our vehicles. He was actually nice and in the end thanked Cope for his Military service. So the wrecker came and towed the car away and we got in the slightly mangled truck and drove it home. I was greeted by Ramsey who looked at me very seriously and said " car broken" , "bump" . Yes, sweety I believe your right. I put him to bed while cope began to work on our insurance stuff. As I put Ramsey to bed I had tears in my eyes and just thanked God we were all fine and it was only cars and not any of us hurt, especially Ramsey.

I went to bed more thankful then ever before. Even this morning I'm having trouble shaking the "What If ?" feeling. We are going to try to deal with insurance all day and figure out where to go from here. We're assuming the car is totaled and it was funny because the Acura is now 10 years old and we were just talking about when we thought we'd be getting a new car. Funny how somethings get decided for you. The truck does have some front damage that will have to get fixed soon. Again though, they are only cars not our lives and for that I am so grateful.

Feeling It!!!

I'm feeling the Holiday spirit finally. I persuaded Cope to help me decorate for Christmas early this year. I have NEVER put up Christmas before Thanksgiving but we spent a ton on decorations last year and even had my friend, Hannah turn our home into an all out Christmas wonderland. Cope is going out of town for several days in December and this past weekend was low key and we had the time so I said "Let's Do It". We both were sort of dreading it but once we got started it went great! I am so glad we have our decorations up and now we can focus on Turkey day and Ramsey's Birthday party this week. I am getting so excited to watch Ramsey begin to fully get into the magic of Christmas. He enjoyed helping us decorate the tree and got so excited that the tree was still here and lit this morning when he woke up. So now all I want to do it listen to Christmas music and anticipate experiencing all the joy the 2009 holiday season will bring.

Cope and Ramsey enjoying some cartoons before we got started:Ramsey helping Cope with the tree:Ramsey excited to see the tree today:

FINISHED!!!

Imagine It!

I've mentioned before that Cope is off on Fridays so we try to do something special on those days and one BIG thing each month. This month's was trying out the Imagine It Children's museum in Atlanta. It was pretty neat and since Ramsey isn't 2 yet he even got in for free. They had tons of hands on things for kids to learn and explore. It was a little crowded due to field trips but we ended up having a good time and think when Ramsey gets a little bigger we'll be back for some more exploring. After the museum we went to a neat Sushi lunch place. Ramsey mostly ate goldfish and drank grape juice. He has a cold which is messing with his appetite somewhat (his normal appetite isn't all that big). Then we went by to see where Cope works. We hadn't been there because it is an hour drive on a traffic free day. From there I made Cope do a little fabric shopping with me and then we ended our adventure at Cold Stone. I got my favorite cake batter with cookie dough. YUMMY. Ramsey ate vanilla wafers. We had a really fun day as a family and Ramsey was on his best behavior (most of the time). Our big plans for this weekend are visiting Cope's parents today and then decorating our house for Christmas tomorrow. Here are some pics from Friday's Family Fun Day:

Party Planning

We're getting ready for Ramsey BIG birthday bash next weekend. I am so excited for his party. I think when he turned 1 I was just thankful to have survived that first year, we had just moved, and Cope had just come home from Iraq. It was hard to truly be in the moment with all the craziness in our lives at the time. I am now focused and ready to throw our little guy a full themed Birthday party. He loves Curious George so I'm running with that. We're taking him to Imagine It ( Museum in Atlanta)tomorrow which is hosting a special Curious George thing for the next few months. We're hoping to get him even more pumped up about his party theme.

Here is his invitation my Mom created special for the Birthday Boy:
Here is the Birthday shirt I made for him:

I can hardly believe Ramsey is almost 2. He is one WILD little man but man I think he is just the BEST! I so enjoy being his Mommy. What a treat!

The Name Game

Sage Top

I'm sure this is totally inappropriate but I'm blogging about it anyway. I've posted before about how Ramsey is very into thing being on top of other things. He loves to do "Daddy Top" and climb in Cope. He loves when we are driving down the road and he sees a tow truck carrying a car. He says "Car Top"! Well this morning he caught our little dog Bentley doing a "Sage Top". He thought this was very funny and just giggled before trying it himself. It is sort of hard to see Ramsey's face of excitement in the picture below but trust me he was stoked. Poor Sage, she is just minding her own business.

Tailgate Party at Play School

Ramsey's Play School had a tailgate party this morning so we all geared up in our UGA finest and went to party. It was pretty cute and each classroom had different games and goodies for the kiddies. Of course the little ones Ramsey's age found simply playing with trucks was was more fun then silly ole games. The morning ended with Corn dogs at 10:00am. Breakfast of champions! Then we headed to Bounce in Beans in town for a little girl's Birthday party. Ramsey was thrilled to finally get to go back to " Bounce Beans!!!" It has been a fun morning and now Ramsey is napping and as usual Mommy is sewing and Daddy is playing some X-Box. Oh, how I love Fridays!!!


Eating some cereal with Daddy: Excited to get to his class party:
Trying his first corn dog, of course he just used it as a means to more ketchup: Best Buddy Ty chowing down: Playing trucks once we got home:

So far our weekend is off to a fun start. We are about to head over to My Moms for a holiday photo shoot. I'm sure that won't be stressful in the least.

One Word Wednesday- Cool!

Monkey Joes or Bust

Friday morning Cope and I took Ramsey to Monkey Joes for some family play time. He has been asking to go to "Monkey Moes" for weeks now so we finally had some time to take him down to Kennesaw. He was so thrilled when we got there. Seriously, I'm sure he peed his pants out of excitement. Here are some pics from our little outing:

Daddy Top

One of Ramsey's latest favorite activities is doing a "Daddy Top". Yes, he came up with that name all on his own. He loves to climb on Cope's head and fall back. He is such a little WILD child but he makes us laugh even still. Here is the "Daddy Top" in action:

Spending The Night with Nama

Ramsey spent the night with My Mom (AKA Nama) and Papa Morgan last Friday night so Cope and I could go out to dinner and then attend our Adults only neighborhood Halloween party. I think Ramsey had a total blast because when we went to pick him up Saturday morning he said "No, Stay Here"! We made him come home anyway. Mom said he slept all night in the pack n play and when he wasn't sleeping he was wide open. It was good for Cope and I to have an evening to ourselves and I think Ramsey occasionally needs to get spoiled rotten and break a few rules. Here are just a couple of pics my mom sent me from their spend the night fun.

Evening Fun

Ramsey L-O-V-E-S when his Daddy gets home in the evening and they get to play. It is so fun to watch the joy they bring to each other.

Christmas Already???

Yep, that's right folks. It is time to switch over to Christmas brain. I have lots of personalized gifts ideas on my website along with 8 new Christmas applique shirts. So check it out at www.collectionsbytaranicole.blogspot.com

Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping!!!

Trick Or Treating

Ramsey and his buddy Ty had a blast last night trick or treating together. These two are so cute together. They did great going door to door and had lots of loot to show for it. Ty ate so much candy I am sure he kept his parents up until midnight. Ramsey settled for a sucker and that was it. We had a great evening with my parents too. They came over to hand out candy while we took the boys around. I know I've said it before but holidays are a million times for fun and exciting to experience it through the eyes of children.

In Other news: My sister, Paige is running the New York marathon this morning. Go Paige! We are cheering you on and are very proud of you. You can do it!!!