unplugged

So I unplugged for a while. Completely enjoyed my time off with my family and soaked up every. single. minute. It was glorious. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year as well!

Since I stayed away from the blog and posted very little on facebook/twitter during our break, I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures with you from our Christmas. We kept things super simple this year. I didn't decorate the perfect Christmas tree, and I didn't even post a Christmas home tour. We DID, however, manage to get our rooftop lights from last year on the Today Show. Yup. THAT Today Show.

Crazy.

I'll be back this week with an update on Project Life and some goodies I've been working on for the shop, but in the meantime, here's a glimpse at Christmas 2012:

Hubs and I went to a Madrigal Dinner. No forks, head in stocks...that kinda thing.

Loved watching our girls play.

Also loved adding cards to our cabinets each day. Sweet faces.

Oliver's Christmas party at school.

 Got to hang out with Dylan Riley Snyder from Disney XD's Kickin' It! Such an awesome guy!

Pure silliness...

Dusted off my Battleship skillz.

Watched this amazing lights display that was set to music. If you're in T-town, add this to your list of places to visit next year.

Wrapped gifts. The paper is from the dollar spot at Target and the tulle is leftover from mah WEDDIN' Y'ALL.

Dressed like a modern-day Dorothy,

while my bro-in-law dressed like this.

#Legos

#Batmansnuggie

Sister was SO excited to open some Barbies. That's mah girl.

MM was just happy to play with the bags...

Outside toys!

that were NOT for him. #120lbweightlimit

He wastes no time. #done

Beautiful service.

A crazy last-minute search for one of these on Dec 22. (Long story short, we found ONE)

Thug Princess.

Angry birds abound.

This girl loves her some Walter. (and nope- still not living inside. Just came in for a quick visit)

MM was even kind enough to share her little people Cinderella. That's big.

Got an awesome shirt. Thanks Mum.

Little People Empire! At last, the Ark can visit the Circus, the Jungle, AND the Princess castle.

More Legos.

And a massive purge. Turns out I still had every.single. program/playbill to EVERY show I'd ever been to in my life. Every. Single. One.

Does anyone really need 28 playbills to Urinetown or Millie? Cause that's how many I had, y'all. (no worries. I totally kept the signed ones)

And probably the biggest news of all:
THIS ONE GOES IN THE POTTY NOW.
Hasn't mastered number two in the loo, but she's mighty close.

So that's pretty much all the news that is the news.

Feels good to be back.

Happy Monday!

every potty has a pooper, that's why we invited you

She did it.

That's right.

Number two in the loo.

We danced, we celebrated,

and then we promptly sent the boys off to a hockey game while we girls went in search of a new Barbie.

Because my friends, that little gal had been a'holdin her poo IN, so not only did we have cause to celebrate over the fact that she'd done it in the potty, but we were celebrating the fact that she'd actually done it at ALL.

I love the look of pure astonishment that Toys R Us can cause.
Those aisles of stocked shelves can be overwhelming, not just to wee ones, but to the parents of the wee ones as well.

My kiddos each received gift cards to this most magical place, so we have Aunt Cindy to thank for this loot:

E picked a purple-haired Barbie, a half-dozen fake cupcakes for her kitchen, and a ballet tutu. MM is holding a new Minnie cell phone (because one can never have too many) and a mini Cabbage Patch in a lion costume.
Oh the happiness.

I must add that before leaving for the toy store, I too had to use the potty. After hearing me tee, Eliza patted my shoulder, told me, "Good Job Mommy! You want a new Barbie?" Can you even handle the sweetness of that? I told her that I just wanted HER to pick a new Barbie, but seeing as how proud she was of me, I think I'm at least entitled to a new pair of shoes.

Yes?

Moving on...

Muh boys enjoyed some UA hockey while we were perusin' the aisles.

Isn't my little man cute up there with his daddy's friends?

So glad they could do something manly while we were gettin' our girl-time on.

I made a lil' somethin somethin while I waited on the menfolk to get home.

It probably weighs in at a gajillion calories but it tasted so good, I didn't even care. It's another crockpot recipe I stumbled upon at school on Friday and friends, sometimes words can't describe the pure goodness of how something tastes.

This is one of those times.

Bananas Foster via slow-cooker:

1/2 C melted butter

1/4 C brown sugar (packed)

1/4 C rum (or 1/4 C rum extract)

5-6 bananas cut on the diagonal

Mix up those first 3 in your slow-cooker, toss in the bananas, and simmer on low for an hour. Since I was making this for one, I did about a fourth of what's called for and only waited for half an hour. Turns out, that actually worked, and consequently, sent me straight into a sugar-induced coma.

I kid.

But seriously-

it was gooooood.

(Subject change)

O lost his 2nd tooth this week.

Check out this snaggley cuteness:

and here's a look at all 3 coloring a birthday card for my Dad.

Happy Birthday Pops!

We love you!

Also tried out a couple more recipes from my board.

For supper Saturday night, we had chicken taco chili-

this pretty much required me to open several cans, dump the contents into my crockpot, put a few chicken breasts on top, and then go and play with my kiddos for 4 hours. About 30 minutes before we were ready to eat, I shredded the chicken with a couple of forks and bada-bing, bada-boom.

Dinner was served.

This one gets an A-plusssss because my kids ate it too.

Thanks again Pinterest.

Source: redsie05.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

For Dessert, I made this yumminess:

Source: myellowumbrella.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Sopapilla cheesecake?

Made with crescent rolls?

So easy to put together a 3-year old can do it?

Yes.

Oh heavens yes.

Sheesh was it good.

That's all for today, but I do want to thank God for keeping us safe last night/this morning. Alabama had some rather nasty weather and I truly hope that none of you reading this were affected. Havea safe day my friends!

9 things from my weekend

1. Yesterday, E wore panties ALL.DAY.LONG. with no accidents. I was even brave enough to take her out, away from the comforts of our house and her little pink potty seat. Super Girl was amazing and she made it through an hour and a half of running errands with not even a drop of tee on her princess undies. This is one proud mamma who's not afraid to admit that she's already dreaming of what she could put that diaper moolah towards now that we'll only be buying half as many....

2. I got hooked on Downton Abbey over the weekend. Do you watch? It's a Masterpiece Classics production on PBS and it's amazeballs. Seriously. If you're not watching, you should be. Season 1 is now on Netflix so I watched the first 5 episodes Saturday & Sunday and then cheated and watched parts of the first 2 episodes of season 2 while also keeping up with the Golden Globes Sunday night. The writing/directing is superb and if sleep was something I could do without, I'd have finished the entire season already. The show won the globe for best television mini-series and airs Sunday nights on PBS.

pssst- just realized you can view full episodes of season 2 for a limited time on the link above. Don't jump ahead if you've not seen season 1 though-
do as I say, not as I do.

3. I read the first page to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 5 times over the weekend. That is all.

4. I took the Christmas cards off of the cabinets and the Christmas wreath off of the front door yesterday. MEH, however, is still on the roof.

5. I cooked. Actual food. In the crockpot and in the oven. Can you even believe it? No microwave involved. I've been pinning recipes like crazy but never actually used any until Saturday. We had this for dinner:

Source: myrecipes.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

this for dessert:

Source: eatatallies.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

and these while we watched the Globes:

Source: jennasjourneyblog.blogspot.com via Monica on Pinterest

I also made the Zaxby's sauce from the recipe on Pinterest and goshgollygee is it good. All of the recipes above can be found on my recipes board HERE, and just for the record, crescent rolls are my new BFF.

6. While watching the Golden Globes, E came running towards me with a distressed look on her face. She started crying, saying that she needed to poo-poo, but once she was within 3 feet of me I could already smell it. The poor girl was beside herself over the fact that she'd pooped in her princess panties, and really- who could blame her. I'd be distressed if I'd pooped in my panties too. We all would. I calmly but somewhat hysterically asked her where she was when she'd done the deed, knowing that if she'd been sitting on a white bedspread in her room, chances are some poop could've squished from the sides, but then...

I saw it.

And friends, lemme tell ya, I've never been so happy to see something like this before.

Rabbit pellet poo.

On the floor behind her,

down the hall to her bedroom,

in her bedroom floor,

and then all over the bathmat when we took those soiled princess undies off.

If you're a parent, or a human, you know rabbit pellet poo.

It's small, round, and hard, which makes it super easy to pick up- should you ever have to.

So there I was, watching the second most prestigious awards show of the season with all this glitz and glamour oozing from the screen and walking along, picking up rabbit pellet poo.

Our little Super Girl still won't poo in the potty. Number ones all day long in the loo, but no number twos.

7. I feel as though I've blogged about E way more than my other kiddos lately, and I have- what with all this potty training and whatnot. I'll have to correct that soon.

8. I'm working on lots of new goodies for the shop. Pics to come.

9. I have to share my faves from the Golden Globes and also tell you that I think a couple of my twitter friends nailed it when they said that Tilda Swinton looked like she was channeling David Bowie. What would we do without the Tilda's and the Bjork's to liven up the awards shows, hmmm?

My fave of the evening was Kate Itshouldbeillegaltobethisgorgeous Beckinsale:

(yes, that's her real middle name in case you wondered)

also loved Emma, Heidi, and Debra,

as well as:

Viola, Kristen, Sofia, and Kate.

And now, for those I lovingly refer to as the crazies who really give us something to talk about:

all photos found here and here

Tilda Swinton a.k.a. David Bowie

Jessica Biel in a 1980's promslashwedding dress

Kelly Osbourne as a futuristic Jeston's-ish mermaid

and Madonna in one glove and a dress that was just...heinous.

Who were your bests and worsts of the evening?
Or are you not an award show junkie?
Have you ever had to pick up poo before, or is it just me?

Do tell....

someone at my house is wearing princess panties

and it's not me.

It's this little gal right here:

yup.

It's our sweet little diva-costume-wearing-wizard-of-oz-lovin' Eliza.

At 2 1/2 years old, she's actually been 'ready' for a while now. And when I say 'ready', I mean totally knows when she needs to go and hides under tables and in closets so as not to be seen as she does her bidness type of ready. She's also been telling us to change her diaper and has, on occasion, brought us one herself as if to say, "My bum is wet and/or nasty with poo and I'd like for you to get it off now". She also, and here's the kicker,  will tell us which type of butt paste she would like. Yes, .... I know. Such a diva.

When this started several months ago, we immediately began trying to get her little booty on the pot but were met with screams of protest, and when I say 'screams', I mean just that. Screams. Even with promises of new Barbies and dress-up clothes, ponies and jewels, keys to her own car and a Swiss bank account with loads of cash. Since it's not our habit of making our kids cry and flail about if we can help it, we didn't push it. No sense in making her crazy mad, and after all...it wasn't like she's 6 and being denied access to big school because she can't wipe her own tooshie. She's just 2. There's still time.

 Well my friends, that time has come.

She is finally willing to not only sit on the potty, but to do something in it. Only #1 so far, but we're hopeful that any second now we'll get to flush something solid. Better for it to be goin' down the loo than ending up on our curb. Why the sudden change in attitude over sittin' on the pot? Well...I have to credit the hubs. Don't know how he did it, but he was off at the beginning of the week and called me on Wednesday to pick up a little prize on my way home because low and behold Eliza had peed in the potty. The teeny little bowl full of teeny little fruit in her hands in the pic above are erasers that I picked up in the dollah spot at Target. Also picked up some super-cool felt sushi for a buck. Because what 1 and 2 year old don't like to pretend that they're eating raw fish? Hmmm?

Anywho, just wanted to share a bit of what's happening at the Mathews hizzy this week. Along with the extravagant list above, we've also promised E that she can go to ballet classes as soon as she poops, so here's hoping we're taking a tutu-clad girly to a studio near us soon and very soon. We've had two in diapers for almost 20 months now, which has been totally awesome. And when I say 'awesome', I mean expensive.

Happy Friday y'all!