Last week recap

Wow so I've really been slacking on the blogging lately. In my defense, we've had a lot of stuff going on around here, plus everyone has been in some state of sickness for the past 10 days. Here's a recap of what we've been up to...

We took a walk this weekend as a family, enjoying the sunny weather and spending some quality time together.





It is such a relief to have the kids feeling better, after a week of doing mostly this:


We've stuck close to home most of last week, and spent quite a bit of time outside enjoying the sunny weather. Sometimes I forget that it can stay this warm through the middle of November! Its crazy. But its better than blistering cold, for sure. The kids always seem to benefit from time spent outside.




My adoring husband did the sweetest thing for me: he granted me my wish of getting new countertops/sink/faucet! (He says its my birthday/Christmas gift for the next 5 years haha!) Having a white kitchen is a lot of work, and it has been next to impossible to keep clean with kids around and their constant splattering, spilling, dirty-hand wiping, etc. But our new counters look fabulous, and I LOVE them! We did a lot of research and got an excellent deal, and are very pleased with how everything turned out. We were without a working sink for 2 days, so I had to clean the dishes in the bathroom sink. That was interesting...

Old counters (well, they'd just been torn out):


New counters in Baltic Brown:



Thanks babe! You're the best!

You think your hair's got volume?

Check out this 'do! (this is what happens when your older sister gets ahold of the brush and wants to style your hair)


You probably can't tell in the picture, but my baby boy is feeling pretty under the weather. He's been battling a runny nose and other yuckiness this week, and the only place he wants to be is in his maman's arms!

Harris Teeter doubles!!

Ok so its that time of the month when I get to shop at my favorite grocery store- Harris Teeter! I usually can't justify spending any time or money there on a regular basis, but triple coupons is a great excuse to gets lots of free or almost-free stuff! If you are looking for coupon matches, The Deal Scoop has organized them into a google document, so you can have them categorized by aisle, price, or insert date- whichever works best for you! This woman is fabulous!!

I'll try to get a picture up later of my purchases, but with 3 out of the 4 of us who live in this household sick, it just might not happen.

Happy shopping!

Don't forget to vote today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm warning you right now...if you do not go out and vote, I will hunt you down and kick you to the curb. Oh I'll do it alright. This is such a HUGE privilege for Americans, and most treat it like its nothing special! I got out this morning and voted with one kid on my hip and the other being dragged in from the parking lot, so I don't want to hear any excuses!!!!!

If you need to know where to vote, want to see a sample ballot, or see a list of candidates, click here.

Ok lecture is over. You'd better believe I'll be following the election results like a hawk tonight. Too bad I can't vote in the Raleigh elections, but you'd better believe I would if I could!!!

Halloween 2009

I am supremely disappointed in my Halloween pictures. Walking around the neighborhood with both the kids and Chloe made it nearly impossible to get any good shots!! Oh well. We had SUCH a good time, and Eva especially enjoyed herself immensely. We had an early dinner with friends, then dressed the kids and made it out of the house before too many trick or treaters showed up at our house. Yeah...it was just a little crazy!


Thibault was very well-behaved the whole time, and I could have just kissed him to pieces in that little chick costume! (which I thought was a duck until I actually put it on him...oops) Eva wore her witch costume from last year, and she was unbelievably adorable! She kept her hat on the whole time we were strolling about, and didn't try to eat the candy en route.

And what was up with the weather?? I was a sweaty mess by the time we got back, and we had to peel Thibault's chick costume off of him, because he was getting overheated. In the picture below you can see another view of Eva, and that's Avery in the elephant costume. They were such a funny pair! All the kids had such cute costumes!




Eva gets a pick-me-up from Papa.



Sadie got tired of walking Chloe, so we put her in the wagon and the kids "helped". There were so many people out walking the streets, and from the number of parked cars, we're pretty sure at least half of the kids didn't even live in our neighborhood. But it was fun to see all the little kids' costumes, and we met plenty of dogs in disguise too.


Our neighbors are so awesome! Everyone really gets into decorating their houses, and there are a few who really make it fun for trick or treaters with their scary tents or robotic goblins or whatever. Eva was pretty freaked out by the moving ones, but wanted to get close to them nonetheless, for a better view I guess!

You can see the kids' costumes best here. Check out Kate's pumpkin costume- she was so precious!!

2009 LHS Powderpuff

Yesterday we got to watch Aunt Sadie's powderpuff game at Leesville. It was a fierce adrenaline-charged football match between the senior and junior girls, and I have such fond memories of when I participated in this special tradition in high school! We were the first junior class to tie the seniors EVER, which is unusual since the referee tends to blow his whistle in favor of the seniors. Haha!


There were lots of booths set up on the track, and while some parents sat in the stands, we strolled around the field and let the kids run around. Eva enjoyed some cotton candy and apple cider, while Thibault chowed down on a quiche from the French club booth. I got to visit with my high school French teacher, and was even recognized by another former teacher! Guess I haven't changed that much :)


We had a lot of fun cheering for Sadie and the rest of the seniors, and the most entertaining part of the game by far were the male cheerleaders. Oh. my. word....they were doing basket tosses and cheers, and they were so funny I almost peed in my pants!


Both kids got to try their first dum-dum, which was a hit of course! Lots of drool and stickiness. Between powderpuff, the fair, and halloween, the kids have had more candy in the month of October than in their entire lives!

Playing in the leaves

The other morning I decided to make a leaf pile for the kids to play in. Then I set up the camera, aimed it at the pile, then threw the kids in one by one. They l-o-v-e-d it!! (please disregard the fact that I look like a frumpy housewife...I wasn't prepared to be on camera that morning haha)

Not Me!

Ok fine...I'll join this crazy circus started by MckMama and post all my embarrassing and horrific mommy moments from this week! In fact, I had to narrow down the list...

This is for you Em!!!! :P

I do my best to provide nutritious meals and snacks for my children. So it was not me this week who did not check first and as a result, accidentally bought the yogurt labeled "wildberry blue", only to find it CHOCK-FULL of blue food dye that was beyond disgusting-looking. I also did not serve it to my 10 month old son, exclaiming to my husband that it would be funny if his poop came out blue as a result. So it was not me who found said son's diaper full of GREEN poop the next day (yellow + blue...anyone?) and it most certainly did not cross my mind to take a picture and send it to my husband. I would never do that. I would also never write "I-told-you-so" in the subject line. My husband is very busy at work and has no time for such nonsense.

I do not have a weakness for coke products. It was not me who waited until the kids were both asleep to pull the 2-liter out of the fridge and drink a whole glass, savoring the moment because my two year old isn't around to beg for her taste. I also did not consume 4 cookies in the same sitting, along with the coke. I have more willpower than that.

It was most certainly not me who found a dead mouse in one of the traps I had set under the sink, and I most certainly did not proceed to run out of the room screaming and checking to make sure it wasn't on me (let me reiterate- the mouse was d-e-a-d). This behavior did not freak out my daughter. After regaining my sanity, I also did not weigh the pros and cons of simply leaving the dead mouse under the sink until my husband got home a day later, as oppose to me simply throwing the critter in the trash myself. I am super mom, after all, and very capable of handling dead rodents! In the end, it was not me who did indeed wait for her darling husband to get back home to take care of the corpse, with its skinny neck squished under the metal bar...eww.

Seeing as how much I love stumbling upon animals stuck in traps in my house, it was not me who found another mouse in one of my sticky pad traps just days later. It was also not me who tracked down her daughter to show her the "cute" mouse (her words, not mine) before pictching it- alive- into the trash. I always treat animals humanely and would never do a thing like that.

Speaking of treating animals in a humane way, it was not me who flipped over a big rock while working in the yard this weekend and happened upon two- count 'em- TWO black widow spiders. And an egg sack. And it was not me who promptly killed one of them and coaxed the other into a ziploc bag, just so I could show my kids. Eva did not find the spider fascinating and keep asking me to take it out of the bag.

My 10 month old son always goes down for his naps with hardly a peep of protest. Therefore it was not me who heard him whining for several minutes after laying him down for his afternoon nap and think to myself, Hmm now's a good time to do the vaccuuming. I am a caring and compassionate mother, who would never ignore her baby's cries and certainly would never attempt to block them out with the noise of a machine I loathe.

I am a responsible adult, so it was definitely not me who has been giving serious thought to wearing diapers at night because of my many nocturnal visits to the bathroom. I mean, wouldn't it be easier to cut out liquids after 6pm or something? Anyway, I definitely did not continue to give this a lot of thought, to the point that I'm wondering which aisle at Target I would find those things in....maybe there's a coupon somewhere I can use...

And last but not least, you did not find me in the bathroom taking a pregnancy test due to the fact that I have been exhibiting pregnancy-like symptoms for the past two weeks. And I was not the tiniest bit disappointed to see that it was negative, since I'd started to get my heart set on the idea of having another baby. Hehe. (just to clarify, to the best of my knowledge, I am not pregnant!)

Levi's birthday party

We had such a blast at Levi's birthday party this weekend! And since you all know how much I love taking pictures and video, I couldn't resist capturing the party guests. Thank you especially to the birthday boy, who graciously allowed my daughter to steal his gifts 2.4 seconds after he opened them :)

NC State Fair

This year was the third year for Eva, and Thibault's very first time to visit the State Fair. This was a wonderful family tradition for me as a kid, and I was so pleased that Arnaud was able to join us this year!


We stayed a little over an hour, but were not able to cover much territory. You know how it is. The kids were in overdrive with all the sights and smells, and just finding and consuming lunch for everyone was an enormous task.

Our first stop (after the bathroom...another story for another day) was at the little children's barnyard. Eva is obsessed with animals of any sort, so I knew she would enjoy this. Thibault looked bored the whole time, go figure! He did perk up, however, after sampling my funnel cake. Hehe



I announced early on that I would not leave without a funnel cake, and Arnaud countered by informing me that he was going to try the fried pecan pie. So we both got what we were craving, even though I never even got a bite of his pie (ahem...piggo!!). How many calories are in that thing? Like a thousand at least!


Eva did ask for a bite. But she wasn't interested in seconds, so I guess she didn't really like it.


So then I spotted the Chickfila cow, and just had to take advantage of the photo op. Oh my goodness...I have never seen Eva as freaked out as she was when I approached that cow with both her and Thibault on my hip. She almost threw her neck out trying to get away from him, nearly causing me to drop her. Thibault, on the other hand, just stared. Wouldn't take his eyes off of him. I laughed to myself, because he's scared of the vaccuum, but not a guy in a giant cow suit?? Anyway, I couldn't get them to look at the camera, and believe it or not, this is the best shot we got. As expected, Eva screamed her head off in protest as we were walking away.


Thibault: "Thanks Maman, for all the sugar! Yummy yummy yummy..."



Ok so maybe I will tell the bathroom story. I'm surprised I haven't had to do this at all since becoming a mom, but like everything else, there's a first time for everything! For me, this was the first time ever that I've had to use the bathroom with the stall door wide open as Thibault looked on from his stroller. First I held Eva over the toilet to do her business, then I was next. I had a couple women give me a look, but more because the stroller was blocking their way in that tiny bathroom. The hardest part was keeping Eva from touching everything, especially the flusher! That is her favorite part of going to the bathroom, after all.


All in all, it was a great family outing that I look forward to next year. I would've liked to have visited the exhibits and seen those giant vegetables being shown, but maybe next year we'll have more time. It was probably the last time we'll see much of Arnaud for the next few days anyway, since inventory is this weekend and he is busy busy busy!