Did I ever tell you about...

So I have a knack for picking very smart, creative girlfriends. This was most recently evidenced by my friend Rachel. She is a faithful blogger and I want to be more like that for the few folks that I know read this blog. Her newest idea is to share things that we've never really blogged about. She posted about it on her blog, got suggestions from friends about what random things to write about and posted her first one this week. I shall shamelessly steal her idea each week and write about the same thing.

This week's random blog was: Did I ever tell you about how I picked my children's names". Except in my case - there is only one child, so far.

Kendall Anne - My very favorite girl name in the whole wide world is Maycee. However, I knew that I would never be able to name a sweet baby girl Maycee after marrying James and taking the last name Mason. Maycee Mason sounds like Casey Kasom (you know - the weekly Top 40 dude) and that's just weird. James really liked the name Jasmine, but #1 - I hated it and #2 - I didn't want to be one of those families where everyone's name started with the same letter (no offense to any of those that have decided to go that route). So that left us picking a girl's name from "scratch". Which ended up being really easy because one day I thought of the name Kendall and just knew it was right. James loved it, my mom (whose opinion is probably way too important to this 30 year old woman) liked it - all was well. It's the right mix of different without being pure crazy. As for the Anne - that was easy. My grandmother's name was Ann, my mom's name is LuAnn, and my middle name is Leann. Then I added the 'e' as another tribute to my grandmother, who shared my absolute obsession with reading and who gave me the book Anne of Green Gables when I was just starting to enjoy books.

So there you have it. Post me a comment with anything you'd like me (and Rachel) to blog about!

Happy Birthday Kendall!

Gosh - it's so hard to believe our little peanut is going to be 2 on Friday! I've always thought that time flew by, but once you have children - it's like double warp speed. It truly, truly seems like yesterday that I was excited about having her and now I'm looking at this cool little kid running around the house and talking my ear off. Thank you, Lord, for this precious child.

So much has changed in a year's time...it's amazing how much of a personality develops between 1 and 2. She's so smart and funny and stubborn and friendly and loving and trying - all wrapped up into 24 pounds of cuteness!

We're celebrating a couple of times - first on Friday with a lunch with immediate family - Nana, Papa, Mimi, Meema, Gdad and Sa Sa. I've ordered a special cake from Mad Hatters bakery in Durham, so we shall see if I'll be a repeat customer. Then we're celebrating again on Sunday with our BFFs - I'm having an even specialer (like that word?) cake made by Jenn and the kids are gonna play and we'll have dinner and love on each other (since we haven't really hung out in weeks...gotta love it when your kid loves your BFF's kids...makes things much easier).

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!!

Bad mommy award

Last night I decided to drag my Kendall around with me and my mama while we shopped at Kohl's for me something festive to wear for Christmas. She was such a good girl, which is very unusual for her in Kohl's (she seems to pick up a brat virus every time we walk in that particular store). Then we went back to mama's and had dinner and again, she wasn't acting like herself. Turns out when we finally get home that she has a fever of almost 103. I'm a horrible mother.

*Now accepting comments telling me that I'm not a horrible mother and that you've done something similar*

Time flies

I'm always getting on other blog friends for not posting and I just realized that my last post was a month ago. I need to get on the ball.

A wise friend of mine recently told me that I should start writing down the funny (or at least funny to me) things that Kendall is doing so I don't forget. I figure "write down" in 2009 means type it, so here goes:

1. She talks up a storm (she gets it from her Papa, I think) and mostly gets words right, but there are a few that she says wrong and I can't bear to correct her: "koy" for toy, "rewash" for car wash (more on that later), "shone" for phone, "I luh you" for I love you...I will not correct it - it makes my heart smile to hear her mispronounce things.

2. She is OBSESSED with the rewash. James took her through a car wash last month and she talks about it. Every. Single. Day. She says the same thing every day "I went rewash daddy fun". Which of course means "I went to the car wash with daddy and it was fun". On family date night the other night, we took her through again and it just made her year.

3. She likes to know where everyone that she loves is at that very moment - especially on the way home from Nana's and at bedtime. She goes through the list of people and I have to tell her where they all are and when she'll see them again. Recently she's added new people to the list and it's quite long: Daddy (if he is at work), Nana (my mom), Papa (my dad), Mimi (Megan), MeeMa (James' mom), Gdad (James' dad), Sa Sa (James' sister), Aunt Cole (Nicole), Devwlan (Nicole's son Devlan, Kendall's future husband), Jew (Nicole's son Drew, who Kendall talks about ALL THE TIME, so maybe he's her future husband instead of Devlan??), BJ (self explanatory) and Jack Jack (her friend who broke his arm and Kendall tells me everyday that "Jack Jack arm broke"). It may not always be in this order, but it always contains these people. And sometimes we have to go through them more than once.

4. She is very into Christmas decorations and traditions. Last year she just wanted to eat the ornaments, so I didn't know what this year would bring, but she is WAY into it. We have an Elf on the Shelf named Elvesmere that she loves finding every morning. She helped put up the Christmas tree by gently placing her ornaments on the branches and the other day when we were going upstairs to take a nap, I noticed that she was trying to smuggle baby Jesus from the nativity scene upstairs with her.

Who knew kids could be so much fun?

Since when is my kid smarter than me?

So Kendall had her first trick-or-treat experience on Saturday - she dressed up as the cutest unicorn in all the land and hit about 20 houses with her friend Riley. We came back home on Saturday and she didn't seem all that interested in her loot, so I put the pumpkin bucket in the laundry room and haven't thought anything of it.

Last night as soon as we got home, she walks over to the laundry area, opens the door and asks for a treat. Um - where did that come from? #1 - she never opens the laundry door and #2 - I didn't even know she saw me put it there. So I give her a treat (an itty bitty bag of Skittles for those inquiring minds) and she went on about her business. While she was over in the living room playing and I was SURE she wasn't looking, I took it upon myself to put the pumpkin bucket in the pantry. Safe spot because she didn't see me put it there and I put it up high enough that it wouldn't catch her eye should I open the pantry in front of her.

I go into the office and piddle around some and the next thing I know, in Kendall walks, swinging her PUMPKIN BUCKET and asks for a treat. WHAT!?!?!?! So not only did she OPEN the pantry door, she somehow figured out how to get the bucket down and bring it to me. Geez Louise - she's outsmarting me already.

Just for the record, the pumpkin bucket is hidden in the pots and pans cabinet now.

Tag!

Ya'll know I'm a sucker for any type of "tag" or survey, so when my sweet friend Rachel P posted a tag, I couldn't resist. Here goes:

1. Tell me something great as of late.
- Our vacation was, in a word, great. We went to the beach, dined out, took naps, went to the pool, saw alligators, ate sushi, laughed, laughed and laughed. It was our first vacation with just our little family, but it will not be the last. There is absolutely nothing like waking up everyday for a week straight with only your loves to be with. I am more in love with my husband and daughter than I ever could have imagined.

2. Tell me something hard as of late.
-Consistency with disciplining Kendall is hard. She is such a precious, smart, funny, lively little girl but she is also strong-willed (and I don't use that term lightly - I've read the book). There are days when I feel like I'm doing a pretty horrible job at the whole mommy thing if my 21 month old is already acting so heinous. Luckily she makes up for those days when she tells me she loves me. Most beautiful sound in the world.

3. Tell me something about your family. Good. Bad. Funny.
-Good - My parents are home more now that the winter season is here. While the goal of their ministry is to be full time at the beach, I don't think this winter season will be the start of that, so they'll be around lots.
-Bad - I have a loved one that is my extended family really going through a hard time right now. It's been on my mind a lot.
-Funny - Kendall got rain boots while we were at the beach and insists on wearing them all the time. You can check out Facebook for proof. The child would wear them to bed if she could. Granted, they are pretty cute.

4. Tell me something about your friends.
-They do my heart good and we're heading for a girl's weekend at the beach in a couple of weeks and I can't wait. It's cold so I don't have to squeeze into a bathing suit and I get to be with my girlfriends - doesn't get much better than that.

Unplugged

The Mason family is officially unplugging for a week, starting Sunday! We have been blessed with a place to stay in Hilton Head and we're heading down there early Sunday morning for a week of rest and family time. This will be the first vacation that we've taken with just the three of us - we usually impose ourselves on one set of our parents. My goal is to completely unplug from the busy life in Durham (except for homework of course - that doesn't stop because I'm going out of town, unfortunately). I'm not sure what all we'll get into, but I know Christmas shopping at the outlets is on the agenda and there have been talks of getting me on a bicycle...we shall see.

Can't wait to fill you in when we get back! Take care until then!