Both Nathan and I are sick today. He’s been fighting some bug since Thanksgiving and I think I caught something while out in California too.

So, we’ve been spending a lot of time in our jammies watching Christmas movies and drinking orange juice.

Today, though, he was just being a little spitfire and I decided we needed some sort of activity to make it to nap time. Ha! I’d seen these salt dough handprint ornaments on Pinterest and thought they were just adorable, so we mixed up a small batch today. Pardon the DISASTER my kitchen is in – I finally had a few minutes to clean up while he was eating lunch.

I cut the recipe down quite a bit, but this is what I came up with and it seemed to work great! We had a TON of dough leftover, so we made a few extra ornaments. Nathan was very excited to “help” me. 🙂

Salt Dough Ornaments:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
Water (I think I probably added a little over 1/3 cup – I just added until the consistency was right)

Knead for a few minutes and then roll out on a floured surface. Cut out ornaments, then bake at 300 degrees for 20ish minutes.

He had SO much fun! All I need to do now is go get some sealer so I can paint it and hang it up!

He’s at such a fun/exhausting age right now! A few things I want to remember:

* He has had a language EXPLOSION lately! He can say “Mommy” and “Dad” very well. He calls his paci his “Baba”. Kody’s new name is “Dodo”, but occasionally he’ll call him “Dody”. His favorite word is “FUT-BAWL!” and he yells it at the top of his lungs. He tries to say everything, he just doesn’t always quite get it right. 😉

* I couldn’t find what I was looking for at a store one day so we left and I said, “Well, bummer kid.” He looked at me, grinned and said, “Bum-mer.”

* His new favorite thing to do is “houlp” (help). He wants to do whatever we are doing, whether that’s dishes or writing. My laptop has taken a beating lately.

Hope you all are staying well and warm!

We had a wonderful time in California with Jon’s side of the family for Thanksgiving! And – MIRACLE OF ALL MIRACLES – Nathan was a complete ANGEL on the plane on the way out there (the way home was not quite as good, but hey, I’ll take what I can get!). We took Band-Aids, stickers, little grow-your-own-zoo-animal sponges, coloring books, disgusting sticky frogs among other things. I had an entire bag packed just with plane toys.

We flew out there Tuesday night after Jon got off work and spent the night in Los Angeles at a hotel – which was the perfect thing to do. Jon’s parents live two hours away from the airport and we landed at Nathan’s bedtime. He was starting to become quite the grouch by the time we got off the shuttle at the hotel. A bath seemed to help.

He did discover that night, though, that he can now unlock my phone and take pictures. A few of the best ones I found later on my phone:

Jon’s parents picked us up Wednesday morning and we spent the rest of the day making pies, playing with cousins, visiting with family and discovering a whole house filled with new toys. Ha! 🙂

Thanksgiving Day was so much fun – and there was SO MUCH going on! Nathan ended up taking an early nap and then was able to join us for our late lunch feast. Then we spent the rest of the day eating pie, playing games and visiting.

Since we spent Thanksgiving with Jon’s family, we will be spending Christmas at home, so we went ahead and did our little Christmas gift exchange Friday night. The kids went crazy. It was so fun!

We got home yesterday. Tired and a lot heavier! Ha! I am so blessed to have a wonderful inlaw family!

Today, we put up Christmas decorations (YAY!) and then went to go see Gammy and Pops for a little bit. It’s also a certain husband of mine’s birthday coming up on Wednesday, so we celebrated in California, we celebrated today and we’ll celebrate again this week. GOODNESS. 🙂

What did you do for Thanksgiving??

I am thankful for SO MANY THINGS, but when all is said and done, when all is quiet at the end of the day, when the dishes have been washed, the laundry has been folded, the house has been cleaned, the errands have been run and the writing has been completed for the day… the things I’m thankful for are not things at all.

I have been blessed beyond measure!

What are you thankful for?

We have had a fun, busy weekend!! I saw this idea on Pinterest a little while ago – glow sticks in the bathtub! Nathan was a fan. 🙂

I have been trying to find everything I can to keep Nathan preoccupied on the plane during our holiday vacation this year! So, we had to run by the dollar section at Target. I think we found a good assortment of stuff – we came back with a bag full!

We had a great weekend! Friday night, my parents watched Nathan for us overnight. It was the first night I’d ever spent away from him and as weird as it was, it was SO nice. Thank you, Mom and Dad!! We ate dinner on the patio, we watched a late movie, we slept in and went out to a late breakfast. It was a perfect day. 🙂

We set up an air mattress in the living room to watch a movie on this weekend and I SO need to remember this on days when it’s too cold to play outside. He went ballistic on the mattress! Rolling, jumping, doing somersaults – ha! It was SO funny to watch!

Y’all know that I tend to be a little nuts about Christmas. So, of course we had to go ahead and pull out a few of the decorations this past weekend – especially since we’ll be with family over Thanksgiving and not able to do our normal Saturday-after-Thanksgiving setup.

I think my favorite part of this picture is the strip of tape on his shoulder. Ha! Setting up the tree was an adventure this year!

Someone found the box for the tree more interesting than the actual setting up. 🙂

The finished product!

SO SO SO excited that it is this time of year!! Bring on the snow, the hot chocolate, the Christmas carols and the excitement! 🙂

What are your favorite Christmas movies/music??

We’ve been having teething issues this week. Come on through, little tooth!

This just makes my whole day:

Right back at you, kid (and Jon)! 🙂

This week has been busy but busy in the sense that we did a lot but I don’t really remember what all we did. Ha! 🙂

Mostly, we’ve been getting ready for Thanksgiving/Christmas with the O’Brien side. I’ve been trying to think of different ways to keep Nathan occupied on the airplane this time, seeing as how the last time was SO HORRENDOUS. If anyone has any tips, please, I’m begging you!

Wednesday, we met our friend Jamie and her kids, Joel and Julia, at the zoo. So much fun! We were about the only people there, so Nathan got to get out and walk around instead of having to stay in the stroller. He had a blast with his cute little friends. 🙂

Thursday, Nathan was crying and whining and just generally acting not his normal, happy-go-lucky self. So, I got him all ready for an early nap and then realized his forehead was burning up. He was running a 102.5 fever! I gave him Tylenol and checked on him throughout the nap. He had a rough rest of the afternoon and night. By yesterday morning, though, he was fine. I’m pretty sure it was teething. He’s cutting some back teeth and those have just been a doozy.

Poor baby. 🙁

So, this morning, since he was all back to normal, we decided to have a little family breakfast at Krispy Kreme. Nathan’s first Krispy Kreme doughnut!!

I think he was a fan.

Then he drank some orange juice and made a face from the sourness. We laughed so hard so then he kept doing it the rest of breakfast. Ha!

Such a silly! It’s nice to have my goofy boy back. 🙂

What have you guys been up to?

This is mostly just for my memories. Since I’ve been posting the Fall Fiction Frenzy, I didn’t get to update on my little Tot, who just had his second Halloween.

I don’t know how he got to be so old.

We pulled out the Christmas movies! Last year, my siblings got Nathan the Christmas Classics DVD set (one of the BEST gifts EVER!). So, we had to start watching those! We showed Nathan Rudolph one night after dinner and he had to go get his blanket, Wyatt and Lucky and sit in his little chair with them while watching the movie. At least, until it got tense. 🙂

We went back to the same Pumpkin Patch we did pictures at last year to get family pictures done again this year. Let me tell you – last year was WAY easier! Last year, we just kind of propped him up and got him to smile. This year, it was like a wrestling match to get him to sit still! We still got a few good ones though, I think. 🙂

Gammy and Pops came with us and got some grandparent pictures done! I need to frame Nathan with both sets of grandparents at the Patch.

After we got pictures, we let him run around and play with all the fun things they had to do there. I love his face with the duck races!!

And then Pops pushed him around on the tractor, since someone’s legs still don’t quite reach the pedals.

Y’all, I have to confess: Way, WAY before Jon and I even met, I always had this picture in my head of my little kid all dressed up for Halloween, sitting on the couch with a bunch of his or her friends also all dressed up.

And this year, I got my picture!! God is SO good, isn’t He? I love how He fulfills dreams – in His timing.

Aren’t their expressions hilarious?? They look like they’re all about to be sent to the chopping block! Ha! We had the Lunch Bunch over to my parents’ house for chili. Everyone brought a TON of food, so we just ate, laughed, took a million pictures of the kids and had a wonderful night! I hope it becomes a yearly tradition. 🙂

Last Friday night, Jon had to run get more grass seed to fill in a few spots on the lawn, so Nathan and I went with him. Nathan had the BEST time at Lowe’s! I’m debating about going there on days when I just need to get out of the house! Ha!

He loved riding the “dack-der!”. I think it’s so fun that he’s starting to say so many words! And that I can finally understand a lot of what he’s saying!

We were walking through the Christmas aisle and saw all the huge blow up Christmas displays for sale. Nathan saw this one:

And came to a dead stop and said “Mim-mey!” and started waving.

Ha! Someone’s a fan!

First off, guys, I just want to say how much fun I had doing this little series with you!! I hope you learned more about your favorite authors and maybe found a few new ones to check out!

To all of the following winners: Please send email me (erynnmangum@gmail.com) your full name and address as soon as you can! If I don’t hear from a winner by next weekend, I will redraw the winner.

And now, without further ado, drumroll please, I give to you our winners!

For the signed Betsy St. Amant book, it’s…

Lanae!!

—

For the signed Jenny B. Jones book, it’s…

Hannah Kruse!!

—

For the signed Tamara Leigh book, it’s…

Little Buttercup Baby!!

—

For the signed Jenness Walker book, it’s…

Madison Akins!!

—

For the Diana Prusik ebook, it’s…

Lynola!!

—

For the signed C.J. Darlington book, it’s…

Sarah Pickens!!

—

For the signed Christa Banister book, it’s…

Cjoy!!

—

For the signed Sketchy Behavior, it’s…

Andrea!!

—

For the signed book of mine, it’s…

Meghan!!

—

AND…for the grand prize.. the Old Navy gift card, it’s…

MARTHA A!!! 🙂

Congratulations to all of you!! And thank you to everyone for playing!! 🙂

Just to give y’all a little bit longer to get your names in the hat for the Fall Fiction Frenzy drawings! 🙂

Here are a few of my favorites from the last couple of weeks. Excited to hear yours!

1. Jif Natural Peanut Butter

SO delicious! As a general rule, I don’t like natural peanut butter. Mostly because of the texture and the fact that you have to stir it for like a decade before it’s pliable and then you have to store it in the fridge where it gets rock hard and demolishes whatever bread you’re trying to spread it on. But this stuff looks and acts exactly like normal peanut butter except without all the additives. YUM.

2. Ramona and Beezus

I know, I know. I’ve mentioned this before. But I just absolutely adore this movie! Every single thing about it. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this blog, drive to the nearest video rental place and settle in with a blanket and a big cup of coffee.

3. Playing in our grassy backyard!

We’re finally able to walk on it!! I think Nathan might have had a little bit of fun. 🙂 It was very cold yesterday though, so we all had to bundle up.

4. Starbucks Verona Blend

To go with that Ramona and Beezus that you’re about to rent. 😉 It’s hands-down my favorite coffee.

5. My little Tiger

Oh, how I love my little boy. And he is SUCH a boy. 🙂

He had his 15 month appointment today. He’s finally starting to gain some weight! I’m planning a catch up post over the last two weeks and I’ll write his stats down there. But I had to post this picture of him today after his doctor’s appointment. Little doll. 🙂

Hope you’re having a good day! Don’t forget to get your comments in before tonight. 🙂 And, if you’d like, I’d love to hear some of your favorites this week!