Things That Make Us Go XOXO!

Our week started off with a gorgeous sunrise! I always know spring is on its way when we start waking up with the sun again-- as opposed to driving to school when it's pitch black outside we're treated to this instead. I thought the colors were perfect for Valentine's Week. XOXO

 We got a much anticipated Valentine's package in the mail from Grandma Cardon Monday afternoon, with some handmade crocheted hairbands and this cute little bear hoodie for Leah. I think Leah thought it really did look like a bear and was a little afraid to put in on, but luckily Lucy was more than happy to oblige and and try it on for size so we could send a pic!

Leah did love the headbands however, and she was happy to model all the cute colors and sizes. Now all three of us girls will be fighting over who gets to wear which one-- and Lucy's worn one every day to school so far. They're all so ADORABLE!

Zachary was not left out of the fun and was sent his Hoggy-Hoggy-Hogwarts muffler. He's wanted one since Lucy got hers last fall, and has been wearing it to school in the mornings. He likes to show his support for Harry and Gryffindor too! Thanks Grandma! XOXO

Jon has been working his tail off all week picking up extra moonlighting hours in Fayetteville, and had another 60+ hour work week. I'm not really sure how he does it. He worked from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but by Wednesday I had reached MY limit! Thankfully another package arrived-- this time from Grandma Joanie, with lots of fun treats and cards and books to entertain the kids! On top of that, I decided we needed a little frozen yogurt break at Purple Penguin.  XOXO

Thursday I surprised the kids at school by showing up unexpectedly at lunch. Their reactions were so priceless! Zach walked into the cafeteria and saw Leah and I, and got a big huge smile on his face and said, "That's my mom and baby sister!" He even let me give him a few hugs and kisses in front of his friends. Lucy's class eats after the kindergarteners, so I went out into the hallway to meet them.  When she saw me, she stopped dead in her tracks, and said, "Moooom??? I didn't know you were coming here!" She was totally shocked. These two Valentine's definitely have my whole heart! XOXO 

 I made some chocolate covered strawberries Friday morning for a friend, and with the leftover dipping chocolate I had just enough to pour into a candy heart mold and make Leah a little treat. She was thrilled and thought she could eat them all before mommy caught her! She IS pretty hard to say no to!

The kids had an early release day, so I got to pick them up right after their Valentine parties. Zach was SO thrilled he'd been given Valentines from his friends-- he takes it very personally and is like, "Wow! JB gave me a Valentine?? That's so nice of him!" with every single Valentine. He's so funny! 

Saturday morning we were all pretty thankful Daddy was at home at last! The kids hadn't really seen him all week, and neither had I, so I figured the perfect way to celebrate him being home was by making some red velvet pancakes for Valentine's breakfast. Yum!

 

Poor Zach had caught Lucy's cold from the previous week, and was really feeling yucky Friday after school when the excitement from his class Valentine party had worn off. He started getting a fever Friday night and complaining about his ears hurting, so right after breakfast Jon took him to the doctor. Yep, you guessed it. Double ear infection for this little guy! After a few rounds of antibiotics he's feeling much better now. 

Jon spoiled me rotten and let me get this chair from TJ Maxx that I've had my eye on. I think it's the perfect sitting room chair to go right next to my piano once I finally paint it blue! Ha ha! Jon's not so sure about the color I picked out, but I love it.

Then on top of that I got a real shocker when I woke up and sitting on the counter was a little black box with my name on it. I got me some new sparkly earrings! You have to look close, but I promise they're really there. In the immortal words of my niece Eva: they're "diiiamonds!" They really are a girl's best friend. XOXO 

 That night we splurged on a babysitter and headed out to dinner just the two of us. Jon picked the Pik N Pig which is a kitchy little BBQ joint out in Carthage, but it totally hit the spot! After a week of being ships that passed in the night, I was sure glad to finally have him all to myself!

 My handsome Valentine! He got the BBQ brisket sandwich, fries, and coleslaw-- and it was delish.

I ordered the garden salad and added pulled pork on top and it was awesome. We finished our night of BBQ off with a slice of key lime pie to share, and called it a date! XOXO

My little Valentine's looked so cute all dressed up for church today, I couldn't help but take a picture. These two sisters are best friends, and I'm so thankful!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY 2015

XOXO

February Follies!

February is officially here! And along with it have come many a folly:

fol·ly

ˈfälē/

noun

1. 1. Lack of good sense; foolishness.
2. 
   

 The months are really dwindling down before the "Great Move," and I feel like all the stress and pressure we're feeling from its looming presence has made us a little crazy. But we're trying to make the most of each day left here in the grand ol' South and have been up to quite a bit in these last few weeks. Here's a folly-filled recap:

 Jon picked up a few extra days of moonlighting at Day and Night Dental in Fayetteville, including a Saturday, so instead of sitting at home bored with the kids, I decided to brave it alone and drive out to Rockingham to visit the Discovery Kids Museum before our pass expired.

 It was my first act of folly, but I'm so glad we did! The kids all had a blast and it was the perfect way to use up a freezing cold Saturday in winter. It broke up the monotony of being at home all weekend, and Leah even snoozed on the drive back to Pinehurst she was so tuckered out from all we'd seen and done!  

 Not too long ago it was revealed to my friend Jennifer-- who is a local-yokel who's lived here all her life-- that we had NEVER been to Granny's for some donuts! February Folly #2! Granny's is down in Aberdeen, literally 100 yards away from a brand-new Dunkin Donuts ironically, and let's face it, based on their signage I was a little freaked out by Granny's face. Wouldn't you be?? But she swore up and down that they were the best donuts ever, and the reason it always looked closed was because they WERE closed; they only make a certain amount of donuts each morning, and when they sell-out they close up, which on the weekends is as early as 10 a.m. 

 Well, if they're THAT good I knew we were really missing out on a best-kept-secret, so Leah and I did indeed get there early one morning to test them out. I don't think Leah minded too much, do you?

 Jennifer said their glazed donuts were fabulous because they put some sort of sweetened cream cheese mixture in the center, so I got these to take home to Jon and the kids as a surprise, and an old-fashioned cake donut for me. What an awesome local treat! Yum! 

 I think I must have had Granny's donuts on my mind the rest of the week, because that Sunday I decided to make a "healthy-er" version of donuts for our Sunday night dessert. I bought a donut pan, and whipped up some devil's food chocolate cake donuts that were BAKED, not fried, and then dipped them in a most scrumptious chocolate glaze. Oh! And I added some heart sprinkles for good measure. They were AMAZING! 

 Who doesn't love donuts??? And you could hardly even tell they weren't the regular fried kind. All dozen were gone by Monday morning, so I think that speaks for itself.

The kids helped me do a little decorating for Valentine's Day, and Zach already has his Valentines signed, sealed, and ready to deliver to his friends at school!

Speaking of Zach, we are SO proud of him! He recently got his report card back for his first semester of Kindergarten, and he had completely surprised everyone (even his teachers) with how well he'd done! He'd started the year off being one of the lowest readers in his class, and he had to meet every morning with the reading specialist. He just didn't seem to care about letters and numbers and learning to read, so he was just very apathetic about everything! We kept working at home with his letters, then gradually his sight words, then with his take-home readers until he became more and more confident. This time when they tested him, he knew ALL of his sight words, and more importantly he read at a level C (which is back up to grade-level and where he should be), and he basically blew away his teachers with how far he'd come in such a short amount of time. We (of course) always knew he had it in him, but school finally clicked and he's a rockstar. Now that's no folly! WAY TO GO ZACH!

Meet the Queen of Folly herself. She has been working hard to remind us she is officially in the "Terrible Twos"-- and nothing she does makes any sense. Holy moly! She is a two-year old terror if ever I saw one, and she is smart, sneaky, and sassy to boot. Don't let that adorable smile fool you! 

 She absolutely HATES getting her hair combed, and sometimes we go days without washing, combing, or styling it, and we show up at the gym with hair (and Leah) looking like something the cat dragged in. I should feel embarrassed, but I don't. Those gym ladies love her to death, and they know I'm just very wisely picking my battles!

 She is constantly making messes. Mess after mess after mess. If I leave anything within her reach, I can pretty much guarantee it'll end up on the floor or in her tight little clutches. She dumped an entire bag of Cheerios all over the floor one morning while I was showering, and then very "helpfully" swept them up for me.

One afternoon driving home from the grocery store I gave her a bag of marshmallows to hold, thinking she'd just eat a few as a snack, only to discover upon our arrival home that she'd been chewing them up and then smearing them all over her feet, face, hands, car seat, chair, etc. It was a HUGE sticky mess-- similar in fact, to the one she'd made a few days prior involving a poopy diaper of hers. I'll spare you the gory details, but the concept was the same. LEAH!

 February Folly #1,00,001: I got called to be an Activity Days leader last month over the 8-11 year olds, and it's been a fun and challenging calling. Jon and I team teach the 9-10 year olds in primary on Sundays, and he also got called to be a Cub Scout leader, so now the whole family has to be at the church Thursday nights at 7 p.m. for our activities. I have one leader helping me (who is a cute young 20-something newlywed), and between us we have over 20 girls to entertain! We basically have no budget, no room, but plenty of silly, sweet, and enthusiastic girls so it'll definitely keep me on my toes these next few months.   

 This past weekend was filled with folly as the doldrums of wet winter weather, lots of work and no play, and a yucky cold the kids were passing around all kind of caught up to us. We were all in need of a little break-- and when that happens, my motto is to throw good sense to the wind and just get outta town as quickly as possible! So Saturday we hit the highway and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Myrtle Beach. The kids couldn't figure out why we were headed to our summer retreat when the weather was so cold, but it was nice just to wave goodbye to Pinehurst in the rearview mirror, despite knowing it wasn't really a true Beach Day. We drove straight to the outlet malls for some power shopping, and then got half-priced milkshakes at the Steak 'n' Shake during Happy Hour. 

 Next we headed straight for the beach. I knew the sun would be setting soon, and I wanted to catch the last light of day with a little salt breeze on my face before we turned around and headed back home. Although freezing, it was worth it! The sunset was absolutely INCREDIBLE.

 The outside temperature was around 54 degrees, but with the wind chill off the ocean, it was much, much cooler than that! Brrrrr! 

 I am really getting depressed as my beach opportunities dwindle further and further down. They've been the absolute best part about living in North Carolina, and are my sanity in the summer months. I made Jon promise we'd come every weekend in May and June-- which are right around the corner!

 

The sea foam was so beautiful!

We spent a few minutes enjoying the fresh air, chasing the seagulls, and just soaking in the breathtaking scenery. Lucy, ever impervious to the cold, even wanted to put her feet in the water. She's nuts. But we had the entire beach to ourselves-- there wasn't a single other person in sight when we looked up and down the shoreline. It was pretty cool.

Sometimes I'm really grateful for folly-filled, impulse decisions that say, "Let's go jump in the car and head to the beach and not look back!" But more particularly for a husband and kids who are game to do it. Jon didn't even laugh at me, when I'm sure the last thing he was expecting to hear when he asked was, "What do you want to do today?" We had a super yummy dinner at Carrabas (which is NOT on the list of 10 restaurants here in town-- hooray!!) and then drove back home. All three kids zonked out about 30 minutes into the drive, so it was actually a very pleasant, quiet ride home, with lots of time to talk to my main squeeze. I'm sure thankful for all the fun follies February has brought so far!  

Resolutions for 2015!

The month of January is all about making (and hopefully keeping) resolutions. Around the Cardon home, we've been diligently working on our resolutions for 2015. Here's a rundown on just a few of them:

VISITING TEACHING

Admittedly, I've never been that great at visiting teaching. It's hard here where our ward boundaries extend pretty much to Kingdom Come (about 1 1/2 hours end to end) and for some reason they don't assign you sisters all in the same city. At one point I had 4 different sisters in 4 different cities. Add in peoples' work schedules, juggling kids, and the evenings when Jon is working, and I don't have a great track record. But guess what? Leah patiently sat through about 3 hours of visiting teaching appointments a couple of mornings ago, so, so far, I have a perfect record for the year (ha, ha). I thought she deserved a break at Chick fil A for some lunch before we headed home. Phew!

ATTEND THE TEMPLE

The Raleigh temple closes in December for maintenance, which is probably just as well since our December was pretty crazy--but we hadn't been to the temple since October.  As soon as January 1st rolled around, Jon and I knew we needed to get a temple trip on the calendar ASAP. Although (happily) we only live an hour away from the temple, since we don't have babysitters it takes some serious finaggling to make it work. This time we sent Jon up first on his own last Friday night after work, and he caught the 7 p.m. session. Then, we all drove up together Saturday morning so I could make the noon session, while Jon and the kids got lunch and shopped at Target. Once my session finished, we headed to Costco for groceries, which made for a very long day, but we're both grateful we got to go!

POTTY TRAINING

 Leah is super interested in going potty like a big girl, so once I'd bought her some princess big-girl panties, that sealed the deal! So far we've been very casual about it, just wearing panties on mornings we're home for a couple of hours at a time, and she's been pretty hit or miss. She mostly makes it to the potty, and I'm figuring this is about the same age that we potty-trained Lucy successfully. It would sure be nice to be diaper free!

DADDY DATES

I am totally kicking myself for not taking better pictures, but Jon is so cute to take each kid out for a "Daddy Date" all by themselves and this month he completed dates with all three kids! They get so excited when we plan our week during FHE, and Jon sets up their individual "date." Lucy was first, and they went to get Blizzards at Dairy Queen. Zach went next on his "Mans Date" to have donuts and hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts. Leah was last (but not least) and since she is obsessed with cupcakes, of course daddy took her to pick one out at C Cups Cupcakery in Southern Pines. She was thrilled!

ENJOYING OUR LAST SOUTHERN WINTER 

 The weather so far this month has been beyond incredible! It's toying with me...Trying to tempt me into staying here where snowy, icy, cold winters are never the norm! All week it was sunny and in the 60's, topping out on Wednesday at 66 degrees, IN JANUARY!! It was fantastic. I took Leah to the park in an effort to make the most of our last "winter" here in the South and the extra vitamin D was the exact boost we needed.

 I've come home on several blue-skied mornings to find 14 (FOURTEEN) of the biggest, meanest turkey vultures sitting on our roof, waiting for me to pull into the garage.  They don't even flinch when I honk at them, or open the garage door. They usually sit along the power lines behind our house, but for some reason they've adopted our roof as their roost-- most likely to drive me insane with all of the poop they're leaving up there, or to catch Leah unawares when I let her out to play some morning. They'll carry her away if I'm not careful! It's like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. So creepy!

BEDTIME ARRANGEMENTS

Miss Lucy is so much fun to have as a child. She is vivacious, articulate, happy, and has the very wildest of imaginations! In fact, so active is her little brain, that when it's nighttime and time for bed, she has a really hard time turning her imagination off and falling asleep. In her AIG class they studied ancient Egyptian history, particularly mummies, which utterly fascinated Lucy! She even got to read some books with pictures of REAL mummies and what they look like today. Unfortunately this exposure creeped her our for MONTHS, and she's had nightmares about mummies hiding under her bed ever since. It got so bad several weeks ago that we even had to have her start sleeping in our room on the floor. Meanwhile, we moved Leah out of her pack'n'play and into the bed Lucy and Zach were sharing--because Zach was then scared to sleep alone. She became Zachy's new bed buddy, leaving us in a pickle!  

As soon as the kids started back to school I knew it was time we handled the "Bedtime Arrangements," dun, dun. dun. I decided to switch the crib in Lucy's room into a toddler bed, we decked it out with Frozen bedding, and Leah was more than happy to claim it--and she sleeps great. Thus on to Lucy! She was much harder to convince that mummies aren't real and don't visit Pinehurst, but we finally worked out that as long as she cuddles up with her Holy Ghost blanket, I come check in every 10 minutes until she's asleep, and we leave the night-light on, all three have successfully been sharing that one little room without too many problems (knock on wood). Phew!

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF DOWN TIME

Moving is HARD. Moving is STRESSFUL. I've heard it said that the three most stressful life events are Death (of a loved one), Divorce, and Moving. And folks, having moved a time or two, I can vouch for how very true that is! Jon has been working harder than ever to help build up the "nest egg" so to speak, to ensure us as easy a transition as possible, and just came off of a 60 hour work week, moonlighting Monday night, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday-- and by Saturday evening we both were totally wiped out. I'm trying really hard to stay positive and ahead of all the things that will be drastically changing in the next four (eek!) months, but the fear and uncertainty is definitely taking its toll! We decided to hire a babysitter and treat ourselves to Date Night yesterday evening.  

We thought outside the box and tried a local joint called "Squires Pub" over in Southern Pines. We've probably driven past it a thousand times. It serves British pub food, and it was actually really, really good! We tried the calamari, fish n' chips, and the Revolutionary burger-- which has been voted best burger by several local newspapers 4 years in a row. I have to say, it definitely hit the spot and I'm so glad we took a chance and got to try somewhere new! So, although January has never been one of my favorite months, we're making it through one day at a time, staying busy and enjoying the unexpected sunny days, and the down time before the moving chaos begins. Let's just hope we can stick with our 2015 Resolutions!