The Best Part About Birthday Celebrations?

FAMILY!

I love this guy.

Birth*Day*Extravaganza

Today was the day that Amelie has been waiting for!

Her first (only--since they're closing and all) Libby Lu experience!

Amelie was very serious about her "beauty" treatments and loved getting her nails painted and being able to pick out all manner of pink and girly things and then strutting her stuff on the mini-catwalk.

Granny of the East treated us to such a fun day!

Somehow both of us forgot our cameras so Granny bought the point and shoot variety at the store (which will need to be developed soonly).

Granny also treated Amelie to a certain pink skirt that she had her eye on

(remember this outfit? Maeve and I windows-shopped it for Amelie a few weeks ago and don't ya know, Amelie went into the store and the skirt was calling her name =)

Thanks so much for a very special and memorable and fun day Granny!

We love you!

On The Occasion Of Your 4th Birthday

My sweet Amelie Rose,

My little-big girl--what a quick year it has been!

This year you've been potty trained, started dance class and preschool, enjoyed playing with your getting-bigger-every-day lil sis, sleeping in a big-girl bed, riding your big girl bike and just doing a lot of big girl stuff.

We love your endless exuberance, sweet personality, crazy physical comedy, dance-queen moves, musicality, sporty-ness, and love for all things pink, girly, dressy, princess-y.

It makes my heart all mushy to see how much you are learning about Jesus and how you like to talk to Him like a friend--it is awesome.

You are a joy to our family, you've taught us so much about being parents and people and we are so, so SO thankful for you.

You are the sweetest big girl in the world and your Mama and Daddy, (Beacon and many Grandparents) love you so very much!

Happy Birthday Rainbow Brite!

Please Pray

...For baby Stellan....

Read about the problems he is having with RSV here

and then

pray.

BuzyLittleBees

My Mr. Wonderful has been on vacation now since last Tuesday and we haven't had any relaxing days yet!

I am really looking forward to this week b/c hopefully, most of the busy-ness is behind us and we'll have a few minutes to relax and enjoy having him home!

I'm so thankful for his teaching schedule and for so many days off--this his longest vacation of the year and it's our favorite!

With Christmas last week, tons of family stuff (including a visit from my parents and a celebration of Amelie's 4th birthday), and a 2 day favorite people from Pennsylvania visit (WOOT)--our days have been jam packed!

(Have you noticed I haven't blogged 150 times a day? So this is what it's like to have a life, HA!)

It's good to be busy once in a while, I wouldn't want to turn into a permanent hermit or anything =)

In other news, tomorrow is Amelie's big birthday day and Granny of the East and I are taking her out on the town to Libby Lu for a preschool makeover glitter extravaganza festival of pink or something...

I'm super excited!

Also, the much anticipated/needed/dreaded haircut appt. is scheduled for tomorrow, so hopefully that will end is good news and a non-scary haircut.

Happy Monday Night!

I Can't Believe My Favorite Little Sucker Is Almost 4...

Where, oh where, did the time go?

Amelie's Birthday Song

My parents (of the north) and Steven's (of the east), and Uncle Jon and Aunt Ali came to a mini-family celebration of Amelie's 4th year!

She went a little insane from all of the presents, sugar and sheer joy of having two sets of Grandparents in one room--however, she did calm down and go to bed well so this Mama is happy = )

Thank you family for being here to celebrate with us!

We love you and Amelie (and Maeve) love(s) her/their new presents!

Bringing New Meaning...

...to the term...

Naked Chef!

Ah!

Christmas: *Wonderful Style*

Family. Fun. Happy. Warm. Festive.

What a merry Christmas we had!

We were spoiled rotten by our loving family and had such a nice time eating (and eating, and eating) food and being generally jovial with them.

Never mind that it took me 3 hours of reorganizing to get our new gifts to fit in our home,

I did it, it's done and we are thankful.

My parents are coming into town today, and we have plans to see my favorite redhead and her sweet family--I am so excited!

And in other exciting news, we celebrate Amelie's 4th birthday this weekend with family.

Here's the cake I'm using as inspiration for her birthday cake...

We'll see what happens =)

It's A Christmas Miracle!

It's a Christmas Miracle!

{You know, aside from the Christmas Miracle!}

Luke 15: 9

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying,

`Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost!'

I found my Grandmother's ring!

And all was right with the world...

Merry Christmas From The Wonderfuls

Maeve isn't a grinch or anything--she was just sleeping when we took this picture and Amelie smushed her face in! Ha!

What We Did On Christmas Eve Eve: Amelie's Build A Bear Kitty

One of Amelie's early birthday presents involved a trip to Build A Bear where we built a Hello Kitty! Oh my, Hello Kitty had so many cute, fun, sassy accessories, we were sorely tempted!

Here's Amelie and her Ballerina Hello Kitty!

Happy Engage-o-versary Honey!

8 years ago today, Mr. Wonderful proposed to me!

And although I had already bought my dress, set a date and reserved the reception all, and it wasn't really a surprise--it's still one of my favorite, happy, warm, wonderful memories!

If you haven't read the story--you could catch up here =)
Pictured below, the young and carefree version of the future Mr. and Mrs. Wonderful:

Pictured here after wading in thigh high snow (not an exaggeration) for the big water-fall-side proposal:

And here: in all our current day Wonder-glory!Happy engagement-o-versary Honey!

Tag! You might want to look away from the computer now.

My friend Pamela over at The Dayton Time, tagged me in a scary fun little meme.

1. DO NOT change your clothes. DO NOT fix your hair.. Just take a picture.
2. Post that picture with NO editing.
3. Post these instructions with your picture.
4. Tag 10 people to do this!

So..here's your early morning dose of Shelly, in desperate need of a haircut and costume change =)

The Princess And The Crescent Wrench

Last night Sant's helper (Pop of the East) delivered Amelie's Princess bike!
I had planned on putting it together today (since Amelie will be with Daddy at a special Christmas banquet), however, due to the myriad of horrible reviews on the bike, such as:

difficult assembly
Reviewer: R. Julka
really cute bike but HORRIBLE to assemble. The instructions are for a variety of models and are not specific at all with little or no functional instructions. I've assembled various bicylces, wagons, ride-ons, etc. and this by far is the most difficult to assemble. Plus you need a metric allen wrench which is NOT included. And to add insult to injury, the box says that its "easy to assemble" which in my experience is just a big lie.

I decided to get a jump on things last night.

Luckily, the bike was a piece of cake to put together--the only really unfortunate thing was that you need 9 million weird tools and there were absolutely no instructions covering the assembly of the hand break--which is fairly important in my bike riding experience....SO, I spent 30 minutes online researching how to put together a bike and finally found something similar. That part wasn't so fun, but the fact that the bike is all ready is exciting!

Seriously, that girl of mine is having like the best Christmas ever--Princess bike from us and her Grandparents of the North (with the help of Grandparents of the East), and 2 bigger-than-Amelie packages arrived from the Granny of the South including: Barbie computer, keyboard, jewelry box, DIAMOND necklace (um, hello? where's mine!), gold locket necklace and LIFE SIZE barbie dressed in a Princess costume for Amelie. She has all this and it's not even Christmas yet! I think next year she's going to need a pony to top this! ha! Praise the Lord for generous, loving, fun, family!

What do you get when Gap offers free shipping, an extra 25% off, and $25 in free Gap bucks?

...The dress I've been eyeing for 4 months (for $5) of course!!!

YAY!

I originally wanted this for Maeve, but I bought it in Amelie's size so that both girls will get some wear out of it.

Ah...the practicality of having 2 girls...

It makes my heart sing!

Her First *tear* School *sob* Picture

Lost In Translation Transition

For the last week, Maeve's schedule has been in constant flux.

That sweet little stinker has been taking morning naps with NO afternoon nap!

(A napping mother's worst nightmare!)

I've been trying to wean her from the morning nap but she is so tired during the day that's painful for the both of us.

I've tried short-en-ing-ing her morning nap and that just leaves us both grumpy and tired.

(Grumpy for Maeve is a relative term--grumpy maeve = average child, normal maeve = delightfully easy going and happy child)

I remember that Amelie just wasn't tired anymore in the morning--and we easily pushed her nap to 12/12:30 (hello days of yore and your 4 hour nap afternoons...how i miss thee)

Maeve is a different story.

The poor little lamb only slept 20 minutes yesterday morning and was sooo tired that she went to bed at 5:30.

(Luckily she sleeps 12-13 hours a night)

It seems as soon as you get used to one schedule they come up with another--just to keep you on yours toes!

Oh, and Amelie is back to taking 3 hour naps every day.

At least someone is getting some sleep =)

Woe Is *Me*Shell

...I just lost my Grandmother's ring...

Wah!

Shelly's Sunday Sevens: In No Particular Order

My 7 favorite actors/actresses:
1. colin firth
2. hugh grant
3. johnny depp
4. emma thompson
5. toni collette
6. matthew macfayden
7. drew barrymore


My 7 favorite movies:
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Love Actually
3. Moulin Rouge
4. Charlie's Angels (all)
5. Sense and Sensibility
6. Princess Bride
7. Stardust


My 7 favorite tv shows:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Bones
3. Pushing Daisies
4. Chuck
5. The Soup/The Dish
6. How It's Made
7. Dirty Jobs


My 7 favorite musicians:
1. Mr. Wonderful
2. Harry Connick Jr.
3. Dolly Parton
4. Billy Holiday
5. Mariah Carey
6. RoyalCrownRevue
7. Weezer

My 7 favorite things to read:
1. The Bible
2. Anna Karenina esp, but anything Tolstoy
3. anything Gail Carson Levin
4. anything C S Lewis
5. harrypotter-er-s/twilight-er-s
6. anything Jane Austen
7. pretty glossy magazines

My 7 favorite stores:
1. Wegmans
2. Target
3. Barnes and Noble
4. Gymboree/Baby Gap
5. Old Navy
6. Ikea
7. Lakeshore Learning Store

My 7 favorite flowers:
1. lilacs, so much love
2. hydrangeas
3. roses (esp. the pretty purple-y silvery ones)
4. columbine
5. veronica
6. holly hocks
7. tulips


My 7 favorite indulgences:
1. uninterrupted time with my husband
2. sleep/naps
3. editing pictures
4. blogging
5. baking and eating chocolate cake/cheesecake/cookies
6. long days at home with my babies/dressing them in fabulous/fun outfits
7. mocha coffee with whipped cream


My 7 Goals for the Future:
1. Love Jesus more
2. Be a more fabulous wife/mother
3. Have two...
4. ...more babies
5. Finish my Masters degree in Library Science
6. Become a better photographer
7. Get a haircut

What are your 7's?

I'd love to read all about them =)

Happy Sunday!

My Pretty Posies

The Best Things In Life Are Free

One of the (many) perks of being the music director's wife is that we get awesome gifts at each concert (spring and Christmas) he puts on.

This year we got one large-o gift card-o to Target-o.

(And to Applebees...mmm..delicious Applebees and A Christmas Carol Barbie Collection for Amelie, and a Build A Bear for Maeve and a bouquet of GLITTERY yellow roses for Shelly...but that's beside the point...)

Meet my new best friend, HP all in one printer, scanner, copier:

{ Well, it will be my best friend once I buy the right stinkin' USB cable... }

Christmas Around the Wonderful Household

Christmas Cubbies Carol in the Chilly Chilly Air

Shelly is...

...married to a super hawt rock star conductor!

(Loved your concert honey!)

the end.

Shelly's Snippets

*It's official, I'm saying goodbye to Myspace! The majority of my peeps out there in blog land have lost that lovin' feeling for da space, so I'm out like shout...or something.

*Amelie had her cubbies christmas caroling concert (say that five times fast) last night--Sadly, I had to miss it because the Maevenator goes to bed at 6 (and I couldn't see waking her up at 8:00 pm to take her out in the freezing cold). I was sad but Mr. Wonderful video-taped it, so I'll post it later.

*I kind of wish the weather would make up its mind. It's cold today. I like it when the weather makes up it's mind to be 60 and sunny during the month of December. Right?!

*Mr. Wonderful's marvelous Christmas Concert is tonight and I'm so thankful that my MIL is coming to watch the Beacon so that I can enjoy it with my Amelie girl--I'm so excited!!!!!

And now for a little soap-box action:
*I read this really annoying article today about how the writer believed that Twilight was, "..merely teen absintence propaganda..." and should be avoided at all costs. My theory is, the only people who are against abstinence in teens are people who either: a. feel guilty that they don't/won't abstain from sex b. wish they had done so. And honestly, what benefit does sex have for teenagers that we need to encourage them so to partake? What's the problem with the existence of one movie that doesn't focus on teen sex? It really annoyed me. I always find it interesting when people are seriously threatened by morality and a little sad. End soapbox.

*I need a haircut. OH MY do I ever! We're reaching critical mass over here.

*Buying Christmas presents for your extended family just isn't as fun when you can only afford to spend $5 on everyone. Mer.

*Christmas break is next week and I can't wait to have my husband home for 11 days. Awesome.

*It's also official, I'm disabling anonymous comments--I kept them around for a long time b/c sometimes people just don't have an account and I want them to be able to comment without having one but, enough is enough. I am done reading passive aggressive, ill-informed, so-wrong-in-so-manyways-that-i-don't-have-the-strength-to-right-the-wrongs comments etc. I find anonymous commenting is used mainly by snarky people who don't have the self confidence to back up their own personal beliefs with a real name. I'm so over it. Sorry if you are a valid anonymous commenter (like my mr. wonderful!), it's super easy to create a google screen name, so please do so, because I love hearing what you have to say.

Happy Thursday! Where do the weeks go?

For Mr. Wonderful: 32 Facts For Your 32 Years

1. Mr. Wonderful was born December 17, 1976
2. In South Jersey
3. He has the most siblings of any only child I've ever known:
4. 1 half sister
5. 2 half brothers
6. 11 step brothers and step sisters
7. When he was little his hair was very light brown/blondish; it is now very dark brown/blackish
8. He's worn glasses even longer than I have (and I started at the end of 1st grade)
9. We are nearly equally blind. Super blind. Like bats but without helpful radar. He is slightly blind-er.
10. He skipped a grade in elementary school. He's smart like that.
11. He plays piano and clarinet--but mostly piano.
12. He is a board game playing genius. Unbeatable.
13. Mr. Wonderful is a fountain of tv/movie/music related trivia/knowledge. He has the kind of mind that remembers everything he has seen/read/watched (although this ability does not translate to remembering to change the oil or things like that)
14. He attended 3 different schools and graduated from the one where he currently teaches (and has been teaching for 9 years)
15. He went to Cedarville, where we met (in 1997); which was obviously the most important meeting of his life. Ha!
16. He graduated with Majors in Piano Performance/Pedagogy, even though he started out as a Math major.
17. He paid his own way through school--and on his own, through his own hard work and determination paid it all off a few months after he graduated. We are still paying my college debt--b/c I would rather have had fun than worked. Lesson Learned. =)
18. He never does anything for himself and spends all his time, effort and energy on others
19. Especially on me and his babies.
20. He is the most loving helpful father/husband around. He always knows exactly what I need and supports me perfectly.
21. He cleans my house and vacuums and dusts and whatever I ask and never complains about anything ever. He is an excellent example to me.
22. He loves watching tv in his 5 minutes of free time everyday. His favorite shows currently are Prison Break and Hell's Kitchen--but he'll watch whatever I want, every time, without complaining--like the Discovery Channel or PBS. Poor guy.
23. He is an amazing father who spends all of his time inventing games to play with the girls--he rocks. Seriously. I'm so proud of the father he has become.
24. His parents did an excellent job raising him. We love them all!
25. The Wonderful family makes me happy--they are fun to be around, I'm glad we live in the same state as them--it is a blessing!
26. Mr. Wonderful recently earned his Masters In Music Education from Boston University and wishes to be a college level Music Theory teacher. Easier said than done. We're praying that God opens up some doors for us.
27. His school is 2/3 of a mile down the road. We visit him almost every day. It is awesome.
28. When he is home he walks around holding Maeve, he hates to put her down b/c he loves her so much. It makes my heart burst. He loves Amelie too--but you try walking around with a 35 pound toddler for more than 30 seconds, it's hard =)
29. He teaches millions of piano lessons a week to provide for us--it's not easy, but he is always willing to do whatever he needs for the good of our family.
30. He has excellent fashion sense and doesn't need any help from me to look put together and handsome every day.
31. His only fault is that he won't let me faux-hawk his hair every day. Oh well, no one's perfect.
32. He's perfect.

The End. =)

Happy Happy Birthday Honey Pie!

My sweet husband, Mr. Wonderful, celebrates his birthday today!

Yay for December 17!

I'm so glad you were born on this day so many many many many...years ago.

You're my favorite person in the universe, my best friend, my sanity saver, my own personal musical genius, house cleaner, child entertainer, snack go-getter, laundry folder, taker-care-r-of-er, supporter, serenader-er, unbeatable board game player, encourager, etc...

We love you honey!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Um...I need a boy so I can make him wear this shirt...

It's hard to read but says,

"This is how I roll"

With a tractor tire...ahhhh

Genius.

I Love Window(s) Shopping At Gymboree

I'm at it again--Mr. Wonderful took Amelie out to get a haircut (his, not her) and I'm window shopping with the Maevenator.

We like these polka dot outfits for her:

And we both think Amelie would love this feisty outfit.

You know, cause she's feisty.

Window shopping is almost as fun as spending real money...almost =)

HA!

Amelie says,

"I have too many friends, I can't love them all."

"Now I only love *Santa Cow and Jesus."

*{{Santa Cow = the Chick Fil A mascot dressed up as Santa}}

Sweet Wee One In Need Of Prayer

My bloggy friend, B, asked me to pass on a link and I'm more than happy to do so.
The wonderful thing about blog-land is having the privilege to meet so many wonderful people, to hear their stories and to pray for them.
Take a moment from you day and click below and visit this sweet family's link and say a prayer for healing for their little premature baby girl.

The Sweetest Little (Almost) 14 Month Old In The Land

My Heart Is Full

Even with the help of assistant photographer extraordinaire, Mr. Wonderful, getting a picture of the girls is never easy.

I love these amazing little ladies.

So much.

Amelie and Her Little Friends (And Their Big Night)

Amelie and her little friends had their first of 3 Christmas performances last night!

They were absolutely adorable and although Amelie was a bit shy at first, by the end of the night she was singing and doing hand motions to beat the band.

Front Row From Left--Jane, Aiden, Jessie, Bella, (boy i don't know from picture), Hannah, Amelie.

Boy oh boy--do their personalities come out on stage--Jessie was so confident--I love that!
They were always making the most random gestures. Gotta love preschoolers!

I'm so glad Amelie and Hannah are in the same Sunday School class--they're 2 months apart in age and have spent a whole lotta time together since they were wee babies.

Amelie did a lot of "I'm uncomfortable" movements like, fingers in the mouth, in the nose etc...

Finally doing hand motions! Her little friend Hannah was performer! That little girl has no problem being on stage and being heard. It was awesome.

The Wonderful family, including, Grandparents and Uncle and Aunt made it out to the show--we were so happy they could come!

(We love you family!)

What a fun night, I can't wait to get the dvd so I can watch is endlessly.

The end (of this totally self indulgent post =).

2 hours until...

...Amelie's Christmas program at church.

I am so stinkin' excited.

The end.

Bargain Basement

I heart a good clothing find

(at bargain prices of course)

Behold! $5 dress numero dos from Target!

This dress is so stinkin' comfortable and cute and is cut to fit like a dream.

Yay for $5 dresses!

And, the $3 shoes I found to go with it!

FYI--I traded knee high socks in favor of tights for the first time in...um....10 ish years,

I'll let you know how it turns out--

I have a tights phobia,

(too many years in Christian high school/middle school with nude tights...ack! barf! retch!)

but I think I'll survive.

{When You *Run*} Out Of Options

When you're home alone with the little ones on Saturday too

and you start running out of things to do

(because you've already:

gotten groceries

taken care of them

run errands

made a special lunch

gone to the mall to sit on santa's lap, again, and after waiting 20 minutes or more the toddler doesn't speak to him, again...

and you had a pretzel in the food court

and looked at the toy store and the pet store

and ran into friends and played with their baby too

and come home for nap time and

made a:

(with the toddler, she really liked putting the frosting and candy on)

and it's cold

and dark outside

and you've just run out of options

you do the inevitable.

You blow up a giant castle bouncer for them to go crazy on.

So what if you can't walk in your own living room?

3 non stop hours of fun before bedtime

were

totally

worth it.

Shelly's Favorite Christmas Songs

So here's a list of 5 of my favorite-ish Christmas songs/Christmas albums because I had a hard time narrowing it down.

5. I want a hippopotamus for Christmas I have no idea who sings this, I ought to look it up--I only heard it for the first time 3 years ago, and I think it's stinkin' hilarious. There's also a song about a Christmas donkey that makes me laugh too. Good stuff.
4. O Holy Night I love this song, and usually any artist who attempts it has a good enough voice for me to enjoy their rendition, but Mariah Carey's is probably my favorite.
3. Avalon's Christmas Album Avalon is a Christian group with excellent harmony and voices that don't make my ears bleed (and they actually sound good live too which is more than most groups today can say!).
2. Mariah Carey's Christmas Album She is an excellent song writer and wrote some of my favorite modern/original Christmas music like All I Want For Christmas Is You; Jesus, Born on This Day. I also love her rendition of O Holy Night and Santa Claus is Comin' To Town.
1. Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton's Christmas Album will forever be my number 1, because nothing reminds me more of my Grandmother than this album. I heart it and it's tunes chock full of bittersweet memories. I liked this album before I liked Country music b/c my Grandmother's love of it was absolutely infectious and I couldn't resist it. My favorite songs are Winter Wonderland, Once Upon A Christmas and Hard Candy Christmas. This is a hard core country album, not for the faint of heart =)

Amelie Says

Amelie has a problem

(it's genetic)

her "problem" is taking an everyday song and substituting lyrics

Mr. Wonderful and I do this all day long, so the poor kid just didn't have a chance.

This morning she was serenading Mr. Wonderful with "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

And at the end part, where it says, "He will bring us goodness and light!"

Amelie decided it should be sung,

"He will bring us Princess Bikes and some light!"

She has princess bike on the brain

(it's a good thing Granny of the East helped us pick one up incognito and on sale, Christmas can't come fast enough!)

Gas is $1.43

Ca-Ching!

I filled my car for less than $15!!!

Things I Did Today In No Particular Order

* Woke up at 7 with the chick-a-dees
* Dressed, fed, combed, cuddled everyone and prepared Amelie for her day o fun with Granny
* Situated Amelie's carseat in Granny's car, waved goodbye and headed out for errands with Maeve
* Did the laundry. Mer.
* Bought odds and ends at Target
* Finished up Amelie's Christmas shopping at the mall--yay for the Disney Store and everything being 50% off!
* Fed the baby and entertained her while simultaneously cleaning, scrubbing, washing, the entire house, including: the stove top/burner covers (bleck), all the tile in the bathroom, and other misc. annoying/gross jobs.
*Tried to take a speed shower while the girls were watching Sesame Street and was being SO super speedy that I turned the water on while my clothes WERE STILL ON! I have never done that before, and don't plan on doing it again soon--rather counterproductive.
*Had everyone dressed, fed, combed and cuddled again so that we could go get Mr. Wonderful's Christmas presents and eat dinner as a family.
*Boo to the husband-less weekend facing us--he'll be gone nearly all of Saturday and most of Sunday as well.
*Yay to one full week of school before Christmas break! Can I get a woot woot?!!
*And finally, DOUBLE yay for 7 o'clock bedtime for the nap-less girls in the Wonder household!

Amelie Says

Amelie's head is full of big, little, silly, weird, interesting ideas;

--Which she agrees with/believes WHOLE-heartedly--no matter how strange they are--

She has....ahem, decided, our favorite Christmas songs for us, but before I share the favorite songs I'll share the Christmas song rules according to Amelie.

Amelie's Christmas Song Rules
1. No one may ever sing any song. Ever. Amelie wants to learn the words and having Mama or Daddy sing the words only interferes in the process.
2. No humming, whistling, or quiet singing under your breath, either.
3. You will only be allowed to sing, sometimes, your "favorite song" which is a song pre-determined by Amelie (note, not your actual favorite song)
4. You may never turn off the radio in the middle of a Christmas song.
5. You may never turn the channel on the radio, even if you're changing to another all-christmas-music-all-the-time station. Just 'cause.

So now that you've got the rules straight, here are the songs Amelie has decided are all of our favorite songs:

Amelie: Jingle Bell Rock, only the older version by Billy somebody or Bobby somebody--no new version is acceptable.

Mr. Wonderful: All I Want For Christmas Is You, by Mariah Carey. This is alarmingly close to the mark, Mr. Wonderful hearts Mariah, in a big way.

Shelly: Feliz Navidad, Um, seriously, I've asked for a new favorite song but this is the only one she'll let me have. Apparently I made the mistake of singing this one a little too enthusiastically a few weeks ago and I've been branded with it ever since.

So, to this I say, Felize Navidad from the bottom of my heart!

Truth Be Told; Christmas Confessions; Sometimes My Ears Bleed When I Listen To The Radio

You know, I've been listening to Christmas music since the last week of October.

I can't help it--it just makes me happy!

(And merely listening to it for the 3.5 weeks in December before Christmas doesn't seem like quite enough for me anyways)

The problem is that, well, there just aren't that many different Christmas songs out there.

After a few hours of listening you can hear Winter Wonderland by 5 different artists, you know?I've had quite enough of a few songs, and I just thought I'd share, because, you know, that's what I do.

Shelly's Least Favorite Christmas Songs

5. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus By Anyone

(The Jackson 5 version is on a lot, and I don't have a problem with that--just the fact that the kid can't wait to fire up his father by telling on his mother's illicit affair with Santa. I know it's supposed to be ironic and I'm sure I'm the only one, but it just irks me).


4. Winter Wonderland By The Eurythmics/Annie Lennox

(Don't get me wrong my peeps, I love Winter Wonderland, I heart it even, but this version is utterly depressing! It's more like a funeral dirge than a Christmas Carol. OY!)


3. 8 Days Of Christmas by Destiny's Child

(I remember being so excited to get their Christmas cd and then Mr. Wonderful and I popped it in the player and were utterly horrified that anyone spent money on this project. Take my word for it, DO NOT buy this cd. My favorite part of all is where Beyonce takes a writing credit for the lyrics to SILENT NIGHT!! What the?!?)


2. Santa Clause Is Coming To Town By Bruce Spingstein

(I don't really have a problem with this song--just the screachy, screamy rendition. It makes my ears bleed. Literally)


1. Do They Know It's Christmas? By Band Aid

(Holy Crap, this is the mother of all annoying christmas songs--it annoys me so much, I don't even know where to start in dissecting it's annoying-ness. And it is on ALL the time...)

Do you have a least favorite that didn't make the list?

Do tell!

{Tomorrow I'll be all nice-like and list my favorite ones.}

Baby Sign Language Is Cool

I've been lazily, slowly teaching the Maevenator a bit of baby sign language.

She picks up new signs almost instantly

(if only she were lucky enough to have a Mama who were super disciplined and learned new signs herself to teach her child, she would probably know a lot more)

I've taught her all done, more, eat/hungry, drink, cracker.

(Knowledge of sign language relating to carbs is super important in this house!)

The other day I got her up from her nonexistent afternoon nap and she was furiously signing

EAT EAT EAT

And it made me happy that I knew exactly what she wanted.

And that is why baby sign language is cool.

The End.

Kicking the Bucket

Rumors have been flying for months that my favorite tv show ever is being cancelled.

I've tried to deny it but now, they've announced that after 5 shows, Pushing Daisies will be gone for good.

I will miss you pushing daisies--with your cute vest wearing pie maker, fabulous fashions, technicolor backdrops, original story lines, and super fun fast paced dialogue.

=(

I also learned today that they are definitely making Twilight 2, so I feel a little better... {Just a little though. =) }

Lost: One Pink Cowboygirl Boot

If found please return to Amelie and Shelly.

Because we miss it.

(Especially since they are the only shoes she will put on happily without fail)