She's checking it twice....

It's that time of year again! Time to sift through the Black Friday circulars, scissors in hand, and create our patented 3D Christmas lists! This can take hours, folks, and yet it never loses its appeal. I love-love-love this idea, and I can thank my daughter for its creation. Yet another reason why I repeatedly tell her, "You're good at what you do!"

Thanksgiving Recap (Sorta)

Thanks. Giving. That's two words. That's what I've been focusing on over our extended Thanksgiving break. And I've come to the realization that I have so much to be thankful for in life, it literally terrifies me. My life is far from perfect, but I am so, so blessed that sometimes I wonder if I truly deserve it.

No, I'm not going to launch into a typical list about all the things for which I am thankful (although I could!), and I'll try not to cite all the details of our various Thanksgiving celebrations (although they were great!), so instead I'll simply say this: my week-long blog furlough was well worth it.

I hope I gave thanks fitting all that I didn't mention before. Cause it's a lot.

In the meantime, since I'm slow with photos lately, here's a professional shot from our visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Huntingburg Christmas Stroll awhile back. I share this memory with humor, because you'll notice a certain lady standing in the background (not planned!) with her coat still on and a resigned smile on her face. That's me. That's the first time I've ever had to appear in a Santa photo. Why? Read on....

Santa: I'll take this strapping young lad! Come here, son!

Ava: That's my little brother Hudson. He's pretty wild sometimes.

Santa: Oh, my! He's quite the little wiggler!

Mrs. Claus: Oh, let me have him. I'm better with the little ones, I think.

Ava: See? He's wild!

Julia (the photographer): Um, Mom, why don't you jump in for this one?

And so it went. Hudson didn't scream or cry so much as he simply refused to sit, stand, or be still for the photo. So good 'ole Mom tucked him in tight and swallowed her pride. Click!

I'm thankful for a daughter with her father's personality and her mother's imagination.

I'm thankful for a son with his mother's personality and his father's stubbornness!

See? Thanks. Giving.

Just Because...

...he's so DARN cute!

Toby

This past week at preschool, Ava was the helper. If you'll recall, I believe I gave a run-down of this vastly important honor last year when she first got to experience all the glory. This year, as a seasoned pro, she was no less excited. Perhaps the best part of being Miss Nichole's helper was bringing home the classroom pet, Toby. Besides playing with him at home, Ava also got to take him on a family trip to Evansville. He ate at Texas Roadhouse, did some Christmas shopping, and even rode the carousel at the mall.

Lucky Toby!

Afterward, Ava and I had some fun designing a scrapbook page for her to take back to preschool and share her weekend with Toby. How fun! Even mommies can get into this project! And even though Hudson has a few years before preschool, he enjoyed the experience as well. It's amazing how much excitement a simple stuffed animal can bring to the hum-drums of darkening days and colder temperatures.

And also? I single-handedly took both kids (plus Toby!) on the carousel. I'm hiding in the pic below, but I considered this quite the feat. At Holiday World, Hudson hated the carousel, but this time he demanded to go along. Being somewhat brave at that moment, I gave him a chance. And.....He. LOVED. It!

P.S. Erik took the photo. Why? Because he gets carousel-sick. Which is why I was so proud that I was able to get both kids through our ride. And yes, my husband will probably not appreciate that I just shared his carousel-sickness. Sorry, E! ;)

A great weekend with Toby? Check!

Up next? Thanksgiving!

Buffalo Run

Today, I accompanied Ava and her preschool class on a field trip to Buffalo Run (near Heritage Hills High School). And although it was rather cold, it was a great time. As you'll no doubt infer from the following barrage of pictures!

What can I say? Watching four-year-olds experience new people, places, and things is just too, too adorable! Especially when it comes paired with spending a special day with my girl!

Bedtime Portrait

As Ava and I were getting ready for bed tonight, she suddenly decided that it was of vast importance that we take a photo together. In fact, she set up the entire shot (in front of our shower curtain, no less!) and even enlisted Daddy to take our pic for us. Have I mentioned lately how awesome my daughter is?!

You can tell from her expression that she's sleepy, but she stayed up just long enough to help me crop it and to inform me that she liked sepia ("topia") the best! Ha! So in honor of my sweet, adorable girl, I am wasting no time in posting her creation.

I still maintain she's going to have a creative career of some sort, even though she now says she wants to be a girl policeman. ;)

Love you, Ava Bear!

Boo-WHAT?

Do you ever say something—some random thing—and suddenly find it hilarious? Every single syllable for some reason just cracks you up? Almost gets you stuck on an endless cycle of repeating those insignificant, yet decidedly silly words? And you can't stop because of the bubbling laughter in your throat?

Then you'll understand our family dinner tonight.

We had tacos, which itself is entirely insignificant, but Hudson reached for something on the table, and I moved to hand it to him. For some random reason, I plopped that food onto his highchair and announced, “BOO-YAH!”

For about a second, he stared at me in shock. Then proceeded to laugh his you-know-what off. Apparently, I was THAT funny.

And for some reason, that set the rest of us off, too. I mean, we were rolling on our chairs, tears spurting out of our eyes, just totally laughing in each other's faces. I cannot explain it. It was just one of those things. Hilarious.

Just as we started to settle down, Hudson's eyes lit up and he did his own best impression of BOO-YAH!

Which got us all started again.

And so it went. Someone would shout BOO-YAH! (we kept getting louder and louder) and the rest of us would laugh like hyenas. No food was eaten. We just reveled in our hilarious round of BOO-YAHS!

I guess you had to be there. But even if you weren't (and let's face it, it was just our crazy foursome, so you weren't), but even if you weren't there at our table, believe me when I say you'll appreciate this next part of the story. Because just as we finally caught our breaths and turned back to our food, Ava decided to chime in with one final shout.

She stood up from her chair, executed some complicated ESmith-type hand gyrations, and shouted at the top of her lungs—BOO-YAH, MOTHER F*CKER!

For about a second, we stared at each other in shock. Then ROARED some more.

(FYI: I have no idea where she heard this, but judging from the look on Erik's face immediately after she said it, I think I know the answer to that. And before I get any ranting emails....yes, I realize laughing at her was not the best parenting move given her statement, but there was absolutely no preventing it. Taken in context, it would've been impossible. We were already giggly! But I do promise that I had a serious post-BOO-YAH! chat with her about appropriate dinner conversation. And I think she got it just fine.)

Autumn Kitchen

Please ignore the trash in the lower left-hand corner, but feel free to notice the cutie-in-pink on the other side of the room!

Earlier this week, at some point, a random conversation with some friends turned to talk of fall decorating. Who does it? What types of decor do they use? Don't ask me why, but at this point I opted to share the fact that while I do very little myself, I have an orange kitchen/dining room, so in a way it feels autumn year-round at my house.

At this juncture, everyone stopped and stared. An ORANGE kitchen? Seriously?

Seriously, folks.

Let me explain. You see, a few years ago, I finally grew tired of having taupe walls in all rooms on the main floor of our house. They're actually quite beautiful—the people that flipped our house before we bought it chose this color—but I wanted at least one room to change. Being such a brave decorator (NOT!), I thought going with a darker terra cotta color in the kitchen might make just enough of a difference. Perhaps with orange-ish undertones to make it pop—whatever. I didn't give it much thought. Obviously. And this is why I cannot decorate. Because either I picked the wrong terra cotta color, or a mistake was made in the paint mixing. I don't know, but I left one day for school while my dad painted for me (such a sweetheart!), and when I returned at the end of the day, I had an orange kitchen.

What can I say? I laughed. I shrugged. I just decided to keep it.

Over the years, it's either grown on me or I have just stopped noticing it. Most days, I even forget what a crazy-colored kitchen I have. Until I bring it up in conversation and people look at me like I'm nuts. Ha!

So anyway, in honor of fall decorating, here is a snap-shot of my dining room. I'd share my kitchen as well, but it was seriously dirty today, so I'll add those pics later after I've had a chance to clean up. (Remember, the Huntingburg Christmas Stroll is this weekend, so I've been busy. More on that later!). In the meantime, here's my dining room. Just to prove that I'm not lying.

Yes, my name is Lori Smith, and I have an orange dining room. :)

A close-up (and in my own defense, I think these photos make the orange appear bolder than it actually is!)

I'm Here!

Yes, I'm still here and happy, although you wouldn't know it from my blog! Since November has blown in new changes for us, I've discovered I have less time for writing and organizing my online priorities. In fact, as I scanned the last few posts, I realized I've truly neglected the quality of my writing (and I'm a creative writing teacher!). I'll try to do better, I promise.

So what changes have settled upon us? Well, Erik has begun his middle school coaching career in 6th grade girls basketball, and I'm learning what it takes to single-handedly run our evenings. It ain't easy, folks! Total respect to all those single parents who do this all the time. Wow. How DO you do it?

For the last few years, as I may have mentioned, Erik was the sports coordinator for the elementary school at which he taught. From what I understand, this was actually more work for him, but it was the type of thing that could be done during his normal school day. It actually affected us very little. Whereas this new gig occurs evenings (five nights a week!), plus some Saturdays, so we're seeing a lot less of Daddy these days.

Challenges? Balancing the rush of kids that greets me each day upon my return, trying to give them equal attention as the only parent. THEN trying to manage supper! Plus, I'm not gonna lie, I miss blogging and Facebooking.

Benefits? I'm spending 100% of my time focused on Ava and Hudson. We've played more games, read more books, and laughed more the past two weeks than we had togther in a long time. It almost feels like I'm relearning vital little bits of them, and you know what? I LOVE IT! Ok, so I'm so much more exhausted at the end of the day, but I know it's because I've dedicated myself to being the best mommy I can be. Plus, I'm not gonna lie, I really appreciate the weekends when Erik gets up early with them and lets me sleep as a reward!

Anyway, we're still here and enjoying our time together. Especially planning for the upcoming holidays and all that entails! With the Huntingburg Christmas Stroll this weekend, I plan to be totally inspired and refreshed.

In the meantime, I added a few more pics for your enjoyment: a couple leftovers from Halloween and a couple of random shots that I love. Enjoy!

P.S. A special Happy Birthday shout-out to my mom! Hope you had a great day!