Okies

Scott's aunt and uncle and cousins came for a visit a few weeks ago and I wanted to post a few pics. It's so much fun when they come down cause then the boys have more cousins to play with!

Made in China

Last week Nolan asked me if the North Pole was in China. Random. I told him no and went through the basic location of the two places. I then asked why. He told me that he had just noticed that ALL of the toys that Santa brought said "Made in China" on them and then pointed to it on the bottom of a monster truck. Seriously? What am I doing to do with this kid? Like I would have ever noticed that when I was little! I then had to think fast and explain that the elves don't know how to make plastic so they must order the parts from China and then build the toys. He stopped and thought about it for a minute and then his eyes lit up and he said "OH! That makes sense; they only know how to make things out of wood like on all the Christmas movies!" I just agreed and he walked back out of the kitchen satisfied. I think things are about to get really interesting around here with our new little reader! Ha Ha!

My change for 2010

I have been thinking about my resolutions for 2010. I love my life. It's full of fun, love and joy; but with that also comes stress and the constant need for more time and money to have all that fun! I started thinking about what really makes life fun. It's not all the places we go, the things we buy or the food we eat. It's spending time with our friends and family and enjoying their company. I knew I wanted my resolution to be focused on change. I want to be spiritually stronger, I want to be healthier and I want to be more financially settled and secure. I want these things for my family, I want them for myself. I read a blog about making your resolution one word. A simple word that you can repeat and think of each time you need encouragement or a reminder of your goal. What a good idea...seriously, the BEST idea ever! I love the idea of having a "mantra" of sorts, something to keep me grounded in what I want, not what others want of me. It is hard as a mother, wife and friend to remember what I want all the time. I sorta get lost in the details of others' "wants". I think that my word will be CHANGE. I want to change myself - inside and out! I want to change my reactions, change my perceptions and change my focus. I plan to talk to Scott and Nolan about this tonight at the dinner table and encourage them to also think of their word for 2010. A new focus for our family - a change.

2009 Wrap Up!

The year just flew by...I seriously can't believe that 2010 is here. It was a busy year for the Mays! Here is a brief recap of all the ups and downs -
Scott started working for TXU after 11 years with Chase, my sweet PaPa Perry passed away, Michelle and Kasey got married, I turned thirty, Hudson has 7 ear infections and then surgery for ear tubes and adenoid removal, we had a train party for the boys' 5th and 2nd b-days, we remodeled our bathroom and Scott's jam room, I found a new love for cooking and blogging, Becca and Conner lost their baby, we "stay-cationed" in Granbury, we went to the river with friends, Michael Jackson died, Scott turned thirty, Nolan started Kindergarten, we saw Paul McCartney in concert, our country is still at war and still financially struggling, it was a good year, it was a hard year...here's to 2010! Who knows what our future holds?!?!

Here are a few pictures from our New Years Eve...we partied down with Sara/Chris/Ava/Addi, Mike/Nicole/Addyson, and Jamie/Billy/Lincoln. The kids wrecked the house while we tried to play a few games of Partini. It was a good time although I am pretty sure that the kids could have easily out lasted the adults!

The kids gathered around the iphone for some good old fashioned fun.


This last picture is hilarious. Nolan was given a "New Years" necklace and he felt the need to wear it all night and it kinda looked more like a gold link chain or something that a rapper would wear. He put on his Nerf Dart Tag vest over his PJ's along with his Mavs hat to complete the look. What made it funny was that he was dead serious in this outfit - like it was normal. Never say the kid doesn't have his own style. Oh yeah, and the band-aid next to his eye is from a fight over trains with Hudson. Hud has a matching scratch between his eyes on his forehead from Nolan. Ugh! Can't we all just get along - no need for cat fights over the train table!

Making the rounds on Christmas day!

After the glass incident we headed over to Granny's house. It was good to spend time with the Willard side of our family. The boys played with the train, Hudson got into all the candy dishes (as always), we had a huge yummy lunch and opened great presents.

Then we went over to MeMa's for deserts and more presents of course. My favorite gift that Nolan picked out this year was for Old PaPa (PaPa Harkrider). Nolan always wants to play in their garage (I guess because it is full of boxes and old stuff) but he always wants to go out there. PaPa and MeMa always tell him no because they say there could be mice out there. I don't think there are really any mice, but they have said it said since Nolan was little. At Dollar Tree Nolan saw a pack of mouse traps and got so excited. He picked them up and turned around with the biggest smile and said "I want to get these for Old PaPa - MeMa would be so happy if he could catch that old mouse out in the garage!". It was so sweet and very thoughtful. We wrapped them up and Nolan was so proud to give PaPa his gift. Just what any man would want - mouse traps! It was really cute.




Our last stop for the day was Grandma's house. She did snacks and presents in the evening which worked out perfectly for us. I didn't get any pictures at our last stop. I stole a couple from facebook that my cousin Alicia posted. Grandma gave the boys bikes this year. Nolan was SO excited about his new "big boy" bike with NO training wheels. We took the training wheels off his other bike this summer but he wasn't quite ready yet. This is a little bigger bike so I think it will be easier for him to ride it and I know he will have it down in no time!


This holiday season was jam packed with parties, family, food and fun! It is a blessing to have such a full and crazy life! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ugh!

After playing in the snow all Christmas morning, we came in too get warmed up, got dressed for Christmas day, pulled out all of the presents from under the tree and were just starting to load up in the Explorer. Scott came in the house and asked me to come out into the garage. In the back of my mind I was thinking maybe he had a little Christmas surprise for me...boy did he, but not what I was thinking. I walked outside to a floor covered in broken glass. The back window of the Explorer was busted out. Scott said he was just lifting up the glass part of the door and loading the presents into the back when it shattered. I don't know if he was pressing too hard or what happened but we were both in shock. What a yucky thing to happen on Christmas day! We had to stop everything and get it all cleaned up. Glass was everywhere and it was a huge mess. We vowed to just try not to worry about it and call insurance the next day. We moved everything to my car and ended up being about thirty mins late to Granny's. The good news was that it's just considered a "glass claim" on insurance so the deductible is less. They has to order the glass from the Ford House because it has special things that go with it and they are coming on Thursday to replace it. Ugh! Stinks to have to pay for that right after Christmas but at least no one was hurt and we just have to pay the deductible.

Santa and Snow!

Christmas morning we woke up to Nolan yelling "Santa came, Santa left me a P-71 Blackbird!" It was 5:45 AM and we were super sleepy but had to get up with two excited boys to see what Santa had left for them. They loved their guitars, cars, a baby doll for Hudson and monster trucks...and of course the airplane model for Nolan. It was so cute to see Hudson get so excited about the presents and Santa. Nolan and I made monkey bread and Daddy went back to sleep for a few hours. Then it was time to get bundled up and head out into the snow to play. I just wish that the boys could have understood how special it was to get to make a snowman on Christmas. It was so much fun to watch them play in it. Hudson had never even really seen snow until this year and even Nolan had only seen the ice storms in the previous winters...this was their first real snow! The last time we had deep powdery snow was six years ago at Valentines when I was prego with Nolan. It was our whole family's first white Christmas.