The Haynes Get Funky!

I "Elfed" my family last year and got the biggest kick out of it!!! This year there are some new dances involved in the "Elfing" and we have a new member of the Haynes Elf Family.

Please enjoy while we get a little funky. Try not to pee in your pants.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are home from our Thanksgiving Day in Virginia. We went to Suffolk and Portsmouth and visited more family members than I could count!!! It was a good day and we made some relatives very happy by bringing Kingston by for a visit. He was so well behaved and happy all day. He made us very proud.

So, do you wanna know what I am thankful for?

• My wonderful husband, son and other immediate family members. Don't know what I would do without them.
• My job that allows me to take Kingston to work with me to avoid the crazy cost of child care. Thanks, Will and Sherry! Y'all are the best!
• All of the things that make my life so good-my house, my mini van (giggle), my computer, my cell phone!
• My wonderful friends, new and old. I would name them but I would hate to leave someone out and then have one less friend to be thankful for!
• Skittles-Man, I love those things!
• Ending most days with my favorite baby boy doing this in the bathtub:

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We have so much to be thankful for. Thank you for viewing my Thanksgiving post. Hope you had a great day, too!

A Bathroom Sense of Humor

Someone in my family was once told by a teacher that he had a bathroom sense of humor that he should have gotten rid of by the 3rd grade. I'm not going to say who that was, but it wasn't me, my mom or my dad.

Apparently, Kingston is a big fan of the bathroom and I am sure he will end up with that bathroom sense of humor mentioned above. I mean, this episode cracked me up. But then again, I have been known to loose it when watching the bathroom scenes in movies such as Along Came Polly and Dumb and Dumber. (I'm giggle right now just thinking about it!)

Kingston heard Nigel say something to me from inside the bathroom so he went to investigate. He decided to stay a while. While Nigel was still in there. You know, going to the bathroom!

Today Kingston went back in the bathroom (you would think he would be scarred for life but apparently not!) and started playing with a rubber ducky near the door. I checked on him a few times and he was just playing innocently. Then I stopped hearing the ducky squeak as he was slammed against the floor. I walked in and saw this:

Isn't this a typical picture? Who doesn't have a picture of their first born with a puddle of toilet paper at their feet?! And loving every minute of it!

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Kingston can stand alone these days! He likes to stand and then plop down on his butt. I think he will be walking by his birthday. He is so close!

He is also getting pretty snuggly, much to my excitement! He puts his sweet little head on my shoulder and as Grandpa said, "I melt." Today he fell asleep. This is how Nigel found us when he got home from surfing:

Kingston was dead asleep for 45 minutes. He would have slept longer but I was loosing feeling in my lower back. Sweet boy. He melts me on a daily basis!

Not Me Monday!

I'm just going to jump right in here.

I did not forget Not Me Monday for the second Monday in a row. Nope. I'm too on top of things for that. And it isn't 8:30 p.m. on said Monday before I finally posted.

I did not go shopping today with 3 fun girls and spend all of my "Christmas Cash" in the first 3 stores and not have any left over for Target. I didn't put my Target purchases on my credit card. I also most definitely didn't buy myself 2 pairs of shoes. Nope. Never. I would never overspend, nor would I ever buy shoes.

I did not let Kingston play with his bath toys in the bathroom while Nigel was in there. Using the bathroom. And I didn't take pictures because it was so hilarious. And I didn't forget to immediately charge my camera battery so that I could post the pictures. Stay tuned for those. Pretty classic.

Check out MckMama's blog and see what she and many others DIDN'T do.

Small FryDay Contest!

It's been, like, weeks since I've blogged about MckMama and her brood. Stellan is fitting right in and not sleeping a ton, as most newborns do! He is healthy and the family is happy! Hooray!



And to pay us all back for reading and praying and following her blog, MckMama is hosting a contest. I'm not exactly sure of what the big prize will be, but I'm always up for a contest and I DO love to win stuff! So here I am, following the rules (as I almost always do) and I am posting about the Small FryDay Contest! Hello MckMama! We're here, and I'm thinking about approaching you with an arranged marriage offer for Kingston and Small Fry. I think they might get along just fine! So don't be alarmed if I hit you up about that some time soon. (Joking, but Small Fry sure is cute!)




Anyway, thanks for reading and please visit My Charming Kids and see what the busy family is up to now. Wish me luck in the contest!



We are off to a birthday party, a visit with Nana and Grandpa, and various other fun Saturday things.

Accident, Snow and Cute Knitted Hats

Accident:

Kingston had his first semi-major boo-boo this morning. And I mean major only because it left a mark! No blood, no foul, right? Kingston was cruising down the hall pushing Thomas (see previous post) and he somehow got the train turned perpendicular to the "track". He was attempting to either push it sideways, turn it over, or spin it around, I'm not sure which, when all of a sudden his feet slid out and his face hit the train somewhere. After a moment, and I do mean moment, of crying all was well again and there was only a few scrapes and bruises over his right eye.

See?

Owww! It hurt me more than it hurt him, I think.

Snow:

It snowed this morning for about an hour. It is November and it snowed. Great. It was pretty but it is only November. Snow? Can you tell I'm not thrilled? We took Kingston outside in the snow to try to get a picture for our Christmas card but things didn't exactly turn out so great. The deck was slick and wet and Kingston just wanted to sit down and/or crawl in it. Too cold for that and I didn't feel like changing his clothes again! So we got a few shots, but nothing Christmas card worthy.

See?

And did you notice Kingston's Cute Knitted Hat?:

I broke out the knitting needles and made a few hats. The first one I made according to the modifications of the ladies at the knitting store, Knitting Addiction, to make the hat fit Kingston. When I was done, Nigel tried it on, thinking it was his and it fit him perfectly. Oops. Too big. So I tried again and succeeded in making one to fit Kingston. Now Kingston and Dad have matching hats!

See?

Pretty darn cute hats and pretty darn cute hat wearers, I think.

What a day! And we still have more to go!

He's Got Moves!

Check Kingston out! He will be walking unassisted pretty soon, I fear!



Pretty cool, huh? Yeah. I thought so, too.

It's Uncle Mark's Birthday!

Today is Uncle Mark's (my brother's) 32nd birthday! Kingston loves his uncle and heads right over to crawl up his leg as soon as he is up the stairs. Uncle Mark calls Kingston "Little Monkey" and claims that he looks just like one.

So. . . for Uncle Mark's birthday, Kingston and I made him little monkey cupcakes!

We used these things:

Iced them to look like this:

And assembled them to look like this:

I am SO in love with the little monkey cupcakes! Kingston thought they were really cute. He was mad that I wouldn't let him eat one.

And they taste pretty good, too. Just ask Able. He ate this one:

Oops. Anyone want a dog?

Happy Birthday Uncle Mark!

A New Signature and a New Blog Obsession

I started to think that my last signature looked a little like something out of a horror film, so I changed it. I like this one better. I'm so cool.

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Also, my friend who co-owns MidgettGray.com has started her own blog! I like to think I inspired her, what with my super-cool blog and all. I would like to encourage you to check out her blog, M of MG [she is the Midgett (her maiden name, not her size!) of MidgettGray], where she will hopefully clue me in on some fashion do's and don'ts and keep me abreast of the world of fashion and fame in general. That's a tall order, but I feel certain she can do it.

She has added a polling feature to the right side of her blog where she will be asking various questions and looking for input and feedback about some of the items for sale on her site and for many other things. I look forward to seeing how that plays out for her. Maybe I'll poll you about some really important stuff soon!

Anyway, check out her blog and once she gets it rolling, leave her comments and pass it along to anyone else who might be interested. Unlike me, who is blogging just to share my cute son, M is blogging, in part, to promote her business! Maybe if I send a bunch of people her way, she will hook me up with those boots I'm still lusting over. Oh, and the hoodie that I love, too. I'm just saying. . .

Just Because He is So Darn Cute

If this post is a little blurry on your screen, it's because Kingston drooled all over the USB cord. Sorry.

What the Ricky Schroder? Slick hair after his bath.
Grandpa wants to put a ride-on train in his back yard for Kingston and him to play on. Then he will really be Ricky Schroder.

Major spaghetti mess at dinner. The shirt came off. There was sauce on his face. In his hair. Between his fingers. What can I say? The kid loves spaghetti.

He is secure enough in his manhood to wear pink socks. I mean, they have skulls on them so they really aren't super girly.

This is Kingston watching Surf's Up! He was cracking up at the penguins. I'll admit, they make me giggle, too.

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Kingston had to go the doctor today. Ever sit in a doctor's waiting room and get grossed out by the other patients waiting? Yeah. There was a pasty little girl with ratty red hair who was sucking on her middle and ring fingers with one hand while sticking the pointer finger of her other hand in her belly button and pulling. Snot flying. Coughing. Gives me the heeby-jeebies just thinking about it.

Lucky for us Kingston was just in to get a flu shot. Hopefully the shot took care of whatever he could have gotten from breathing the same air as that little girl! He was such a good boy, only crying for about 10 seconds. I was so proud of him.

We got in and out of there as quickly as possible. Not a big fan of the pediatrician's waiting room. Yuck.

Signed, LKH

Check out my new blog signature! I got it at www.mylivesignature.com and I think it is pretty cool! It took me all naptime to figure out how to make it show up on every post without having to copy and past in on every time. Got it! I'm so techy.

Thanks for being so excited with me. I appreciate it.

Mr. and Mrs. Prout

And I don't mean Chris' parents! I mean Lee and Chris Prout. They are married. It was awesome.

I was in charge of arranging the beautiful cup cakes that Lee made all by herself on the cake table. It was all I could do not to lick my fingers multiple times! They turned out so great and looked pretty darn good after I was done with them (toot, toot).




I made the "cake topper" birds for Lee as her shower gift and they looked so cute on the top tier.






The weather was amazing and Lee and Chris were married under the big oak tree next to the sunken garden at the Elizabethan Gardens. They looked so happy!



This is Lee's face when she spotted Kingston in the crowd. Priceless!




Kingston and Nana were my dates for the wedding. They stayed at the reception long enough to have a drink. Fizzy pink lemonade. Kingston LOVED it! Well, once he got used to the bubbles tickling his nose!






Don't worry. Kingston wasn't the only one guzzling beverages! His just happened to be non-alcoholic!

I'm a big sucker for a father/daughter dance. This one got me, too!

The High Cotton heirarchy was there. We sure will miss having Lee-Lee around! (Sorry, Matt. My big head is in the way of your big head!)

Congratulations, Lee and Chris! You looked so beautiful and your wedding was so perfect. We are so happy for you and look forward to sharing a part of your new lives together. We'll come visit when you move to Brooklyn. Just don't go all Yankee on us!!!



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And just because he is so cute, a few pictures of my silly little boy.

My Handsome Wedding Date

He Not Only Plays with the Door, He Now Crawls Right In!

I Think He Is the Blonde Ale!

Planet Pleasing Goods

Besides my friends who started the online boutique, MidgettGray.com, I have another friend who just opened an online store. (Does anyone else know 2 people in their town who have opened online stores in the last 6 months? I think it is sort of strange!)

But I am so excited about my friend Ivy's online store, PlanetPleasingGoods.com. She is selling fair trade, natural, organic, reusable, recycled goods for your home, family, pets, and garden. I really love the toys for kids. There is something so cool about simple, wooden toys for kids instead of the giant plastic numbers with a ton of lights and annoying sounds! I especially love the Dancing Alligator toy. He wiggles and click clacks when you pull him.

I think Kingston might see one of those for either his birthday or Christmas. But shhhhh! Don't tell him!

I even made a gift registery for Christmas so that I could show certain people (ahem, Nana) what we really like on the site. I try to support local businesses when I can and Ivy said that I could pick up or she would personally deliver any of the items I buy to save me shipping. And saving shipping, in turn, saves tons of gas, which goes along with the whole "green" thing. Check out the site and buy a few things! They seem reasonably priced and unique-the perfect combination. And let me know what you think or if you order something.

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We are off to start our busy day. Lee-Lee is getting married today!!!!! Kingston and I will be meeting Nana at the Elizabethan Gardens for the big event. After the wedding we have a birthday party for a little boy in our playgroup, Emerson, who is turning 1 tomorrow.

And having said all that, I gotta get a move on!!! I'll take pictures, don't worry!

My Fortune

Do you believe in the fortunes from fortune cookies? Here I am following mine tonight.

What am I going to share with you, you wonder? Patience. You will soon see.

Nigel and I never get food from the "dirty Chinese" place at the end of our street. My brother, however, eats there quite often. If you know him, you understand this. He also eats an entire large Hot and Ready Little Caesar's (aka Little Sleazers) pizza at least once a week, too. Yikes. But I digress.

Nigel is out of town again so I didn't want to cook dinner. Mark was going to get Chinese so I asked him to get me some too. We didn't have a menu to look at so I just asked him to order the Sesame Chicken Combination. The egg roll is always disgusting and tonight was no different. The fried rice with the pink pieces of "pork" in it was OK once I doused it with soy sauce. The sesame chicken was mostly breader and very little chicken, as expected, but it tasted pretty good. Until. . .

Here is where I follow my fortune. I am sharing my bad fortune with you, my friends.

Please look on top of the piece of broccoli. I found a feather in my sesame chicken. Yeah, you read that right. A feather. Now, I have found feathers on chicken wings or pieces of fried chicken and that doesn't freak me out too bad. But this chicken is diced into tiny bits and covered in breader and fried. I must say that I never expected to find a feather in my sesame chicken. It pretty much grossed me out. Dinner was done.

And now I have fulfilled my fortune. I have shared my bad fortune with you.