What I'm Loving Lately.

I'm feeling like I'm in a blogging mood, but I'm just not fun & bubbly enough to write full paragraphs that go together/I was bopping around town last night and thought of too many blog ideas, so I'm smushing the ideas into one post and being lazing and making it a list! Get excited to read what I'm loving right this second...!

BEYONCE. I love that she's pregnant. I love her album 4. I love all of her fun, dance-y music videos. I love how excited Jay-Z was when she announced her pregnancy. I am loving me some Beyonce! (#'s 2, 3, 7, and 10 are the best songs on 4, fyi.)

• This blog. Mary discovered it, like she always does, so at least I'm giving her the finder's credit! Cely rocks, even if her name is a bit wonky!
• This blog, too!!!! I know, Kelle annoys me sometimes because she makes me feel like a mom FAIL after how awesome she is with her girls, BUT she is also inspiring, her photos are A-MAZ-ING, and her writing flows so well. I bet she doesn't do lists. Dang! Oh, and she is SUPER-EXTRA-CHRISTMAS-Y this time of year. Love!
• More music! Rihanna's We Found Love. It's really fun and her accent is pretty!
• They're called reindeer noses in our house and they are sinful. And adding the holiday lbs as we speak. Dang, Mary, and her baking skills.
• Our garbage men. I know, so strange. BUT they are the most friendly guys on earth. Swear. The old man with the big grey beard who drives the truck isn't even scary because he waves his little heart out every Wednesday morning. Scarjo loses her bananas whenever she sees an orange truck around town, but especially if it's making it's way down our street. We sit in our driveway or front window and just watch and wave. It's pretty cute, all the way around! So, tomorrow, we're bringing them cookies in their own plastic containers. I baked them, so it's not that exciting, but it makes me happy for them to know how much I appreciate them taking the time to be friendly to Scarjo & Neiners!

Ok, so their relationship had a rocky start!

• CHRISTMAS CARDS in the mail make me giddy! Like I race to see the mail everyday hoping to find more cards from friends! I showed you mine here!
• Another blog that I find extra interesting because her daughter, Everly, is two weeks older than Scarlett and their milestones are so similar! It's neat to read about other little girls like my little one!
• Watching Scarlett go crazy in the back seat to Adele's Rumour Has It. Oh my, she bops around in her car seat and sings right along with the music. I seriously need to record her!
• Hair appointments! Molly, Mary, and I are all having our roots touched up this week. Yay for sisters; they make the best babysitters!
• Hearing Scarlett "talking" on the phone. It never gets old! Her little gibberish is too funny for words! I must record that, too! She still calls Santa the most to say, "baby ease! I nice!"
• New Girl. Love, love, looooove Zooey Deschanel and her new tv show!!! "You've got some Schmidt on your face!" Hahahahaha!

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• And lastly, I'm loving anything Christmas-y. The Starbucks flavors for the season (& Dunkin Donut's!). The all-holiday music stations. Wrapping presents. Baking goodies. Reading Christmas books. Talking about Santa with the little ones. Christmas concerts. Driving by Santa's house and getting Scarlett all excited for Saturday night!!! Fun stuff!!!

There's nothing funnier...

...than a spunky three-year-old allowed to participate in an older kids' Christmas concert!  She definitely made my Sunday morning more fun; look at how entertaining Miss Alyssa was for the church audience:

(Sorry in advance for the poor picture quality...I was in church trying not to act like a freak with my camera!  AND Tyler confiscated my camera and turned off my flash.  Lame.)

She spotted her posse in the crowd!

Pose!

and some waves!

She's an expressive singer!

That's normal...?!

Oh, Alyssa Lou!

OR an (almost) two-year-old eating cereal like a big girl!  Messy, messy!

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Please excuse the USWeekly pages that we had neglected to throw away!

OR that same (almost)two-year-old cheering on her older cousin & Camdyn!  SO serious!

Scarjo and Grammum, who she insists to call, "Mum!"  Ouch for me!

Lastly, there's nothing cuter than babies listening to Auntie Mary calling Santa!  

Mum's new adopted daughter, Camdyn, was in the Christmas concert, too!

Santa was at Subway...

...according to Scarlett, at least!  As we were eating dinner at Subway,* a nice old man walked in wearing a Santa hat.  The girls freeeeaked out!  Lulu and Scarlett just stared at him like creepers as he ordered his sandwich, and then as he walked out, he stopped and said hello to the girls.  (Sweet, old man!)  After they waved goodbye to "Santa," Scarlett hollered, "I nice!  Baby ease!"  Hilarious!  

I love how much she loooves Santa!!!  Her favorite thing to do these days is drive by Santa's house in Kringeville.  When he's not there, he's either in the North Pole checking on his elves or the big guy is a lazy arse** who is STILL sleeping.  Scarlett says, "Shhhh! Santa's seeping!"  ...and then she asks to drive by again and again and again!!   

Christmas is SO much more fun with babies!!!! 

Baking with Auntie Mary!

*Yes, I know the pathetic-ness of eating IN Subway, BUT it's so much less-stressful than eating in a real restaurant with waiters and free breadsticks and such.

**Just say it with an english accent; you'll feel fancy!

Toddler Time is for the kids, right?!

When you're out at group events, the other moms scope each other out and sometimes...if you're lucky, you'll get "picked up."  You know this happens!  I remember my sister, Molly, would brag to me that another mom tried to pick her up at the playground.  I had no kids.  I thought she was crazy.  Now I get it.  Turns out, when you meet other cool moms who seem to be like you, you chat them up to see if they're interested in taking this new friendship further.  If they are interested, it could lead to endless play dates!

Well, it just so happened that I made myself a new friend!  Mary and I both went to toddler time after inviting an old college acquaintance to join us.  Her little boy was born exactly one month after Scarlett, so it is fun to compare watch them play together!  (And she's due at the beginning of March with baby #2!  Hello, baby fever!)  It's a win/win.  Now Scarjo has a new prospective friend, too!

While on the play date, there was another normal looking mom who was chatting me up!  I was on fire today; it must've been my stylish danskos.  Of course!  ;)

This whole mom-pick-up thing is like the new dating scene in my life; a little bit ridiculous, but what better way to meet friends who have similar interests with you?!

Toddler Time is my new favorite scene on Tuesday/Thursday mornings, yes!  Next up is Rhyme Time at the library...I'm sure there will be some nice, respectable moms there!  I'll just need to remember my camera next time.  Sadly, there are no pictures from today.  Mom fail!

Luckily, have I these gems from the other day:

Lulu with ONE ponytail!  You're right, Mary, she looks fifteen.

She's just chatting away on our walk!

And then had a little bit of a meltdown.  In the front lawn.  

Where's The Snow?

I totally heard that Wendy's lady from the old "Where's the beef?" commercials saying that title!  I'm a dork.  But seriously, I want a snowy Christmas!  All of the snow has melted and we're left with 40 degree weather.  In the middle of December.  In MAINE!

On the plus side...

We did get to go for a walk this afternoon!  It was getting a little chilly towards the end, but we enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted!

She's looking for ducks in the stream...surprisingly, we did see a few!

Christmas Cards

It's so funny how our opinions change over time.  I look back at my old myspace page and wonder what I was thinking when I posted those pictures or wrote a cheesy update.  What I didn't realize was how opinions could change in just a year!

Just about this time last year, I was sending out the best ever Christmas cards.  (also my first ever!)  In my mind, this year, I was bound & determined to out-do myself.  The first attempt at Christmas pictures ended with frustration on my part and a messy Scarjo.  Not sure why I thought I could sit her down and have her stay still for longer than a few minutes!  Crazy!  The second attempt was completely accidental; Scarlett was in her jammies and had her hair all over the place, but she was cute and posing, so we went with it!

I was so bummed because I didn't feel like I had improved the Christmas cards of last year, but accepted that this year was a wash and we'd try again next year.  (Oh, the stresses of a SAHM!  Haha!)  The cards were ordered with the best pictures that we had.  Boom, done.  I was over it!

Then...I was looking through Scarlett's baby book and came across this bad boy:

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I still love how much we captured Alyssa and Scarlett's playful relationship, BUT I am less in love with it than I was...it makes me happier with 2011's card!!!  Yes, Tyler's contribution was the back...he thinks he's hilarious! ;)


Oops...well that was a big tease!  Ok, here is this year's Christmas card, for reals:

Front

Back

Its Official.

I am a blog creeper.  Ew.  (That's one of Scarlett's new words!)  I read all of my favorite blogs on a daily basis for the last few months, but have yet to actually post on my very own blog.  Slacker!  Or really it's a lot of laziness/Mary's here, so she knows all of my news.  Shame on me, though, because I use this blog as a baby book-ish record of Scarjo's babyhood and I have missed some pretty big things...

Take, for example, her only second Halloween ever.  I never wrote about how she was the leader of the pack, marching up all those stairs with some 'tude because she wanted her CANDY.  Her costume was a bat, btw.  Mary and I dressed Louisa and Scarlett as the same thing because nothing is cuter than a bat, other than TWO bats with shiny, black Mary Janes.  CUTIE-CUTES!  And we felt ironic because the last thing you'd expect these two sweet, innocent little ones to be dressed as are gross, creepy bats.  You'd expect princesses with frilly tutus, which will probably happen next year...  Not gonna lie, Scarjo has a thing for tutus.  I am not sure why, but I didn't see that one coming!  I thought Alyssa Lou was the tutu-wearer in the fam!

Another unblogged about event was Lulu's first birthday!  Worst. Aunt. Ever.  It was also the worst party ever, so samesies!  OMG, my family + the Clunies = AWKWARD DISASTER!  Mary and I tried to save it with our sparkling personalities, but Mary-Anne LaMarre (aka: Fancy Mum) was in the house and there was just no way around the completely uncomfortable divide that was at that party.  Next year, no in-laws!  Brian will be back, though, so yay!  Or maybe just two parties...or have the party on neutral ground (23 Morrill/our new pad because we best be selling this shizzzz!)...just a few ideas, Mar-wad!

Speaking of birthdays, Scarjo's 2nd one is right around the corner.  Holy cannoli, how did that happen?!?!  She is almost freakin' two.  Time for more babies, ASAP!  Not even kidding...

I'm thinking no party for this year, though.  Sads for me Scarlett, but I just cannot handle the in-laws (us Beal girls have some issues, eh?).  For reals, though...I'm having nightmares of my MIL trying to steal my little Miss Scarlett.  Like legit nightmares.  Something's got to change...and I'm thinking that Thanksgiving and Christmas are all the in-laws that my poor little stress-ball self can handle.  I do want to have a little get together with my friends, so that we celebrate Scarlett turning two in a mini way!  We'll see...!  Let's be honest, I just want to dress her in a personalized 2nd birthday outfit.  But they're so cute!

Something else that is blog-worthy/hilarious; Scarlett thinks that Louisa is her own personal real live baby doll.  She tries to walk her, brush her hair, push her in the baby strollers...you get the drift.  Scarjo may also try to get on top of her to pig pile and sometimes rides her like a horse and says, "neigh!!!"  We're working on that! It is pretty entertaining, to say that least!  Poor Neiners!  (It rhymes with "weiners!"  Oh, did I not mention that is Louisa's nickname?  We can thank Scarlett for that one!)

Almost two is a pretty fantastic age, I will admit, even though she's turning into a child right before my eyes!  Scarlett calls Da, Santa, and Auntie Molly on the phone all. the.time.  She sits there, laughing, and then says, "funny!  no...yeah...Mamy, Mummy, Neinu...yeah, no, hahaha, funny!"  If it's Santa, though, she'll add an, "I nice!  Baby ease!"  It is probably my favorite thing to watch her do...I'll have to record that sometime!

So Christmas is only 15 days away!!!  Mostly all of my presents are wrapped and under the tree.  Woohoo! I know that there are going to be lots of last minute things that I'll have to do, so I'm pretty excited to be this far finished.

Lately, other than Christmas shopping, Mary, Lulu, Scarjo, and I have been going to Rhyme Time at the library, Toddler Time at the Alfond Youth Center, and socializing with Grammum and Alyssa at Cam's soccer and gymnastics practices!  Fun times in the 'ville!

Ok, now for new picturesssss!  This is the fun part:)

Stealing Mum's "wa-wa-yeah."

Weirdo!  She likes to play under tables.

Testing out the Halloween costume.

Personal. Life-size. Baby Doll.

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Scarjo loves her babies!!!

Alyssa, Scarlett, Louisa

Driving to Portland was exhausting.

First time on a carousel...less than impressed!

Oooh, oh, oh, It's Magic!

Scarlett woke us up at 2am the other morning singing, "Oooh, oh, oh, it's baaa-gic!"  We died laughing at her cuteness!  (Next time, I must get it on video!)   I have to say, I'm kinda loving Selena Gomez now, too!  (Thank you, Alyssa, for introducing us all to the Biebs' gf!)  

And you're welcome for getting this song stuck in your head...!  ;)

Big Things are Happening in Our House.

Here is Scarlett.

She pooped on the potty tonight!!!

Woohooooo!

She was pretty horrified by the whole experience...

and it may have been an accident,

BUT

I still say it counts as her first time on the potty.  Yessss!

She was less excited than me and wicked grossed out.

SO

We gave her her favorite treat (candy pumpkin).

Now we need to stock up on them because I'm pretty sure we're in

full potty training mode at this point...eek!

Just Another Thursday in the 'Ville.

Okay, let me preface this with explaining that Tyler, the man with two jobs, is on vacation this week.  After cleaning out the garage, he was planning on relaxing and playing Madden...until I kindly reminded him that he has a one-year-old and a tiiired wife who wants to sleep in and have help taking care of Scarjo.  Sads for Tyler, but Mary and I were pretty much loving the idea of spending our Thursday afternoon perusing the aisles at Target.  (Did you know they have Missoni baby flats?!)  So Tyler, trying to be a good sport, climbed on into the Escape and came with us on our shopping spree to help with the babies!

While we were at Target, we ran into old co-workers and their super-cute (not as grumpy as Scarlett) babies, walked around in said Missoni flats, and stocked up on strawberry-filled panda cookies that Alyssa loves (and are only $1!), but then Scarjo started to lose her S-H-I-T.  Sooo...

We left Target, ate fried pickles at Texas Roadhouse, and then we went to THE CHRISTMAS TREE SHOP!!!  So. much. fun.  They have everything!  While we stocked up on crazy brand-named deep conditioner, discontinued best ever mascara (FYI, I paid $2.99 for mine.  F.), and mats for Tyler's wet boots, Scarjo walked around the store trying to apply men's deodorant.  It's her new thing; she witnessed me applying spray deodorant and has made it her everyday ritual since!  So strange.  (and hilarious!)  Luckily, the deo had the protective shield on it, so she didn't reek like a man all day.  Scarjo also noticed a rack of "shoes" and proceeded to sit in the aisle, take off her own shoe, and try to stick her foot into the "shoes" that she had discovered.  Those "shoes" happened to be doggies' chew toy shaped as shoes.  Smartest Funniest baby ever!

Second most entertaining Scarjo move of the afternoon was when she requested the hand mirror while sitting in her car seat eating her toddler Mum-mum.  I look back and this is what I witnessed:

Oh yes, she is watching herself eat in the mirror

Fruitcake baby!

The MOST entertaining Scarjo moment was probably so awesome because I am her mother, but still...the whole way home she fed her baby it's bottle and gave it love.  Cutie-cutes!

Clearly unfazed by the screaming "Nene" sitting a foot away from her!

So SWEET!

Yeah, it was a pretty fun day for me and the roomies!  We ended it with sleeping babies (who skipped their baths and went to sleep quickly), revisiting fun purchases as we put everything away, and a large-ish glass of wine with Molly.

Apple farm & open swim are on the agenda for tomorrow...I'm already excited!

Ouch!

Tonight, I made the mistake of giving Scarlett kisses.  Whoa!  She got angry, made a grumpy face, and picked up the blanket to rub the kisses off!!!  Sads.  Is she already too cool for her "Mummysssss?"

On a happier note, I had a celebrity sighting today!  I ran into Ashley Underwood at Sun Tan City!  That counts, right?!

I blame potty training?!

While out & about with my sister and all of the little ladies, but after my nalgene of water AND a large iced coffee, I had to race to the nearest public bathroom quickly, with Scarlett in tow.  I fly into the stall, grab the paper seat cover out, and try to rip out the middle, but as I'm in the process of ripping, I look over and Scarlett has her hands in the toilet water and is playfully splashing it around!!!!  Ahhhh!  Funniest Grossest thing ever.  I whip out my wet ones while I use the restroom and then we scrub, scrub, scrub with copious amounts of soap and warm water.  Blech!  That was how my most uneventful eventful day began...more updates (& pictures!) to come...!

HAPPY SEPTEMBER!  I already have my Fall wreath on the front door and pumpkin shots in my coffee! 

Halloween 2012

You may be asking yourself, "Already?!  What a nut case."  But, yes, Scarlett (& Louisa's!)  Halloween costumes have been purchased and are in the process of being shipped as we speak.  And while what they're actually dressing up as must remain a secret, I have to share some sweet things that I've spotted along my journey to finding the perfect costume.  Oh so many adorable options for Halloween day!

Scarlett's obsessed with kitties, so these would be perfect!
Clothes with "Daddy" sayings are. not. allowed.  There can never be enough of these sayings, though! 
Honestly, all of these would be acceptable, but I'm dying for the princess jammies!  (and can we talk about those ballet slippers?!  LOVE.)
Sweet!  Just not sure if Scarjo could pull off all that orange!
Gotta love Etsy!
If only Tyler could pick her costume...yikes.
Not her costume, but I kiiinda wanted it to be...!
Absolutely love this, this, and this!

Here is Scarlett last year on her first Halloween, my little cupcake, with Princess Tiana! 

All bundled up for trick-or-treating!