Happy Birthday Carson!!!

My baby is 3 years old today. He may be growing up, but he's STILL my BABY. He'll be my baby when he's 27...whether he likes it or not. It seems like yesterday we brought our little peanut home from the hospital. He wasn't even as big as the head support in his baby seat. At 5 pounds, he literally swam in his preemie sized hat and sleeper.

A happy baby at 5 Months

Then at a year old...

Almost 2


And now he's getting all grown up. I can't bear to watch...




So what's the Birthday boy doing today, you ask?





He's NOT partying by any stretch of the imagination.

Poor little guy is stuck at home with a fever, chills, coughs, etc, etc. It near breaks my heart in two just to look at him. He's quite pitiful.

Bummer. What a way to spend your birthday.

Day 25

My 25th Day post is a bit late, but what's a few days anyway? We had a wonderful Christmas at my folks place with the family. This is my brother's little girl, Breanna. She is the sweetest little thing and we got to be great buddies. So I got my "little girl" fix for a little while anyway.

Day 24

Happy Christmas Eve!!

We let the guys open their gifts last night since we'll be out of town for the rest of the week. We went to our favorite Mexican restaraunt for supper, and then came home for presents. Carson is thrilled with his trains. It seems that they have lots of engines and very few freight cars, which can cause lots of scraps because they both want to carry lots of freight cars. So I found a lot of 19 cars on ebay cheap and they are so happy to have enough freight cars to share. At last, peace has come to the Fogleman house.

Jackson's been wanting a real police uniform forever. It's pretty hilarious.

Now we're off to Granna's to enjoy Christmas with the family!

Day 23

I'm posting our Christmas card just in case you didn't get one. Now you can't say I didn't think about you!

Day 22

Here's a Merry Christmas to you, Jackson and Carson style.

Day 21

The boys received these carved wood guns for Christmas from a great friend, and they were just so cute that I had to share them. On one side they have their "cowboy" names, Slim and Shorty.

On the other side is carved their real names and the year. They absolutely love them! Thanks so much, Peggy! You've made two little cowpokes very happy.

Woo-Hoo!! I'm officially caught up on my posts! At least until tomorrow....

Day 20

The boys are already enjoying some Christmas gifts. Here they're listening to a new Thomas story on their Leap Pad. Thomas has an amazing calming effect on these guys. Honestly I don't dress my children to coordinate with their bedroom decor - it was just a weird little coincidence. It looks like one of those find the objects in the picture. It should have a caption that says, "Can you count how many fire trucks are in this picture?"

Day 19

Well Happy 19th Day of Christmas. I don't have any Christmasy pictures to post, but I'll at least ramble out an update. Carson's getting a bit better, he slept all night last night without much coughing. Mr. Fixit came through once again and has saved our bathroom from destruction. The kitchen is slowly coming together and is getting finished. The only Mavis the Train in Alabama has been found and promptly bought. (whew, big sigh of relief) But I can't give a good report on the Christmas tree. If it doesn't shape up, it will find itself disowned from the family as soon as Christmas is over. But we did have a great time the other night with our friends, the Overalls. We had a fun time playing Dutch Blitz, a horrible time playing Trivial Pursuit, and we toned it all down with a slow and easy game of dominoes.

I gave Jackson the camera and let him take some pictures. He does pretty good sometimes.

David O and Faith.

Jackson informed us that he was giving Faith a ring for Christmas. I'm not real sure what he meant by that, but there was an element of concern amongst the big people.

I have no idea what this picture has to do with anything. Give a 5 year old a camera, and you never know what you'll find on it. Boy, he really should brush his teeth...

Those boys will make cowpokes out of the girls yet.

I'm slowly getting caught up on my posts. I think I'll reward myself with some hershey's candy cane kisses. Can't seem to get enough of those things...

Day 18

A popular buzz phrase in the blogging world is "just keeping it real". Well, let me try to keep it real for ya. Our house doesn't always look like the Christmas photos, and our boys don't always act as sweet as they look in their photos. And I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping ( Carson asked for ONE particular train engine and nothing else, and wouldn't you know it, I can't find one anywhere. Please excuse me while I pull my hair out and run around frantically). Things have been on the harried side this week. My kitchen looks like this...

Christmas baking? You've got to be kidding. See the Mt. Dew on my saw horse? That is a very important part of remodeling...and sanity.

Add to that a sick little guy who has to be held while he sleeps, so as to avoid the violent coughing fits that lead to gagging, that leads to...well I'll leave the rest of that to your imagination.
My bathroom faucet also decided it wants to run full time, no matter if it's turned off or not. So we've had a steady stream of water running all day, just waiting for Mr. Fixit to get home from work. Why not just turn the water off to the sink you ask? Tried that, those valves are broke too.
And then there's the lights on the "prelit" tree, that keep going out whole sections at a time. I just keep adding new strings of lights to the tree when one goes out. I don't think any of the original "prelit" lights are still working. Which raises the question...What's the point of buying a prelit tree in the first place?!?!
And I am dreadfully behind in my blogging...So that's been my week. How's your week been?
I'm just keeping it real.

Day 17

Sorry about the mysterious absence of posts. My days of Christmas haven't been very "daily". My Mom called and said, "You haven't blogged today, are you very busy or very sick?" Well, it's like this...There's been a death in the family, and we've been grieving. Poor ole Bessy finally breathed her last, rest her soul. She literally went out with a puff of smoke. Here she is all hooked up to life support...we did everything we could.

She's been a very faithful and dependable member of our family for 5 years. She's the only vehicle our boys have ever known. (Sniff) She has served for 200,000 miles, she deserves a medal of honor for all she has endured in this family. She was our U-Haul for 5 moves. I guess she really has earned retirement.

So we had to make time in our crazy schedule to track down a good used car. Our prayers were answered, and thanks to God and Craigslist, we found a good clean car with low miles and low price tag. Perfect. So Merry Christmas to Me!

We bought it from the sweetest little French lady, Colette, who had never driven the car at night or in the rain, and had it serviced faithfully every 3,000 miles and had saved all the records to prove it. It was her baby, and we were only too happy to adopt it from her. Besides, she had the most wonderful french accent. So now we call it our "Caahhh".

Day 16 A Holiday Open House

I thought I'd take part in the blog land Holiday Open House. (Go over to Kimba's at A Soft Place to Land to see all the wonderful holiday homes.) I've already posted most of these pictures, so you regulars may get bored, but read on, you just might find something new.
This is the wreath hanging by my front door...Come on in...
First stop, the living room, home of the big tree.

Our main tree this year is mostly gold and deep red.

A little more in the living room...

I don't have a mantle so I have to put garlands in other creative places.
A peak into the guest room:

The kitchen is my favorite, with all the fun little gingerbread men.

This shelf full of Santa's is in the dining area...

This is the top of the buffet also in the dining area. (duh...)

Yep. There's even Christmas cheer in the bathroom...

The boys tree is in the playroom and it's all silvery and snowy and fun...and is definitely leaning to port side...

Here's a closeup of the playroom tree - I love all the silver ornaments.

This tree isn't meant to be perfect, the little people helped decorate it and they're quite proud of it. I sure wouldn't want to "mess" it up.

Now that all of the decorating is done, the Christmas cards have been mailed, and the gifts have been tracked down, wrapped, and placed under the tree, I can sit back and enjoy the Holiday Season...and think about the Reason for it all.

Day 15

Yep. Even the bathroom got decked. Very few rooms have escaped "Operation Decorate for Christmas". David's afraid for the garage...

Day 14

Here's a 5 minute project: gather a cluster of tree clippings, tie with a bow and a few floral picks... And it's ready for the front door. What could be easier (or cheaper!!) than that?
My outdoor decorations are pretty simple this year. Not that I didn't want to do more....but the cold hard truth of the matter is I'm a major wuss about being cold. I have never been able to see the fun in freezing one's self to the bone. Crank up the fire, and pass the hot chocolate...

Day 13

Just a few scenes from the guest room...
I couldn't bear to leave my old tree topper in the box, so I found a home for her on the guest room dresser. I think she looks right at home up there.

It's a good thing I took the picture of the little tree when I did. It has since taken a nose dive and is still laying right where it landed. This poor little tree will be replaced as soon as I hit the after Christmas sales...

Day 12

Well, whada ya know, it's the same little elf. I think he lives under my Christmas tree. Every time I walk through the living room, this little guy is pushing trains around under the tree.
He's pretty irresistible, too.
The Christmas cards are all done, progress is being made on the shopping, I didn't say how MUCH progress, but progress none the less. And now we're off to have family portraits made. Ahh, tis the Season for so many items on my to do list, and so little time...

Day 11

Merry Christmas from the cutest little elf in the North Pole! Ok, Ok so maybe north Alabama isn't exactly the North Pole, but right now it FEELS like it...
Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the Season!

Day 10

I'm just lovin these ornaments by Gooseberry Patch. (And it sure doesn't hurt that Cracker Barrell has already marked them 40% off!) The tiny little cookbooks actually have a few recipes in them.

Day 9

Come on in to my cozy little kitchen and have a nice warm cookie...

The gingerbread men have all come out of their stuffy ole storage boxes and made themselves at home on shelves, counters, the kitchen Christmas tree... they've pretty much taken over the entire kitchen. But that's okay, they're quite the jolly crew, and they make the kitchen a happy place.

Day 8

Santa popped his head in our van to talk to two very wide eyed boys as we drove through the Huntsville Botanical Gardens Galaxy of Lights. It'll be a good long while before they forget that...
The displays were just beautiful...

And larger than life...

and there's no way I could show it all here!

Then we drove on up the mountain to see the view of Huntsville. We're just enjoying the Season...