Tie Challenge 2015

Do any of you guys remember the Turtleneck Challenge of 2010?  When I made it 29 days in a row wearing nothing but turtlenecks?  (And my coworkers didn't even catch on!)  Well, 5 years later, it's time for another challenge!

Except this time, it's Matt's wardrobe that's being tested! :)

This challenge came about oh, six-ish weeks ago when his revolving necktie holder gave up and crashed to the floor.  All of his ties landed in a heap and our kids swarmed to them like it was a big pile of leaves to jump in.  By the time we drug them out of there, it was like a colorful tie explosion inside our closet.

So we got to thinking, just how many ties are there?  (And how long is it going to take us to hang them all back up?!)  What better way to answer that question than by wearing one a day until they ran out?  Matt was up for the challenge.  :)

Day One of Tie Challenge 2015

Now, if you're sitting there thinking, "Who wears ties anymore?" let me tell you that Matt does!  And so do all of his coworkers.  At his place of business, they have a business dress code so it's full suit and tie for all the men.  He won't be the weirdo hanging out in a tie while everyone else is in a t-shirt or polo.

Here are his rules:
1.  One tie per work day.  (Unlike with my turtleneck challenge, he doesn't have to wear a tie every single day of the week because that would be weird.  Just the days he's in the office and has to wear a tie anyway.)
2.  ALL ties that are in the closet must be worn - even the big fat bright yellow one, the two bow ties, and the pastel one that screams Easter egg.

When we were first talking about this, I asked him, "What about your Christmas tie?  It's gonna look stupid if you're wearing it in mid-November."  His response?  "I plan on wearing it on Christmas Eve just like every other year."

So he thinks he'll make it past Christmas Eve.  What do you think!?

Just like with the Turtleneck Challenge of 2010, we'll have daily photographic evidence of all the different ties.  And we'll have a prize for whoever guesses closest to the correct number of ties he owns!  (No, it won't be a necktie.)

Before you leave your guess in the comments, here are a few hints to help you out (and no, we have no idea what the answer is yet - we have not pre-counted the ties).  

1. We are already over 20 days in on taking pictures so your guess should definitely be over that!
2. All of his ties fit on one revolving tie rack, similar to this one on Amazon.  I will not say how full or empty it is.
3.  Like I mentioned earlier, Matt thinks he's gonna have no problem making it to Christmas Eve.

Don't forget that he only has to wear them on business days so you can't just count down the days til Christmas!  Leave your guess in the comments section of this post (one guess per person!).  And if you want, feel free to leave a [reasonable] suggestion for the prize too.  :)

Frozen on Ice!

The weekend after Katie Wynn's birthday, Disney's Frozen on Ice was in town!  Obviously I had to take her to see it for her birthday (actually, I would've taken her even if it wasn't her birthday).  We also bought a ticket for my niece Bren whose birthday was in August.  We made it a girls' trip with me and Katie Wynn, Bren and her mom (Beth) and Bren's friend, and my mom, Mimi.  Our tickets were for 2:00 and with this being Katie Wynn's first ever show to go to and it being right in the middle of nap time, I just knew she would end up sleeping through the whole thing.  Thankfully, though, she took about a 40 minute nap in the car on the way to the show so she was wide awake when we arrived!

Earlier that morning before church, I had to try to use meeting Elsa and Anna that afternoon as a bribe to get Katie Wynn up and moving and out the door on time.  It totally backfired when my painfully shy little girl burst into tears about meeting them!  Wasn't really expecting that one.  I had to do a lot of back-tracking and explain that we weren't really going to meet them and they wouldn't even talk to her and that we'd just wave from really far away.  Thank goodness for one of our church friends that had gone the previous day and showed us pictures on her phone!

So, to say the least, Katie Wynn was a little bit nervous about going.  And before anyone tries to get on to me about not letting her dress up for the show (ahem, Kim!), please know that yes, she owns an Anna dress and yes, I had it with me in our bag but she did not want to put it on, even after I really tried to get her excited about it.  

I am not a huge Disney girl myself so this was also a new experience for me.  I didn't know what to expect either.  I have not seen a lot of Disney movies, especially the newer ones, and Katie Wynn has only ever seen Frozen.  The only tv show she has ever really seen is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  So, imagine our excitement when the first two characters to skate out onto the ice were Mickey and  Minnie!!  Check out her mouth-open stare.  :)

And I love this one that Beth got of the three of us.  I guess Mom and I were happy to see Minnie and Mickey too.  

There were several other characters that came out at the beginning that we did not know, but she enjoyed watching Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Goofy.  When the real performance (Frozen) started, she climbed up in my lap and settled in.  She stayed in that trance for a good long while!

I think it was the goldfish in our bag that broke her trance, but only barely.

We stayed in our seats during intermission.  In hindsight, I should've let her get up and run out some energy because she got restless during the last half (which was a lot shorter, thank goodness).  

She loved seeing Olaf and Marshmallow out on the ice!

And Mickey and Minnie and Donald made another appearance at the end of the show!

Katie Wynn was way too nervous for pictures before the show, but we got some cute ones of the girls afterwards!

Katie Wynn also had a pink tutu that she could've worn like Bren, but she wouldn't put it on either.

Bren and her buddy Maddi Grace were so cute!

I think Katie Wynn liked hanging out with the big girls.  :)

All in all, it was a really fun experience!  With the exception of getting a little bit antsy towards the end, I was really proud of how well Katie Wynn did.  Maybe we will be able to take her to a movie sometime this year!  (Or maybe we'll continue to hold off on that...who knows?)

Katie Wynn Turns Three!

For MONTHS, Katie Wynn asked us if it was her birthday yet.  I think it started in March around my birthday.  And then after we had Thomas's birthday in June she really ramped it up.  So we had to list off everyone we knew that would have a birthday before it was time for hers.  And after every birthday party we went to, she'd asked again if it was her birthday yet and we'd remind her of who all was ahead of her. 

So when the day FINALLY got here, Matt and Thomas and I snuck into her room while she was still in bed and sang happy birthday to her.  And, with her face still buried in the pillows and covers, she mumbled, "It's not my birfday yet."  

And then boy did she get really excited when we told her that YES! It WAS her birthday!  We gave her three balloons to prove it.  :)

She loved her balloons so much we may have to make this a birthday tradition!  Note to self: always have an almost-empty helium tank stashed in the garage.

Here she is holding up three fingers for her new age! :)

We took more pictures before leaving for school.  

It was fun taking her to school that morning.  We took the gooiest, messiest-looking chocolate cupcakes for her classmates to enjoy and she was so proud to carry them in.  And her teacher had hung a big Happy Birthday sign on her door that she'd made with ORANGE marker - Katie Wynn's favorite color!  She was so excited to see it and gave her teacher a big hug.  She told everyone she saw, "It's my birfday today."  :)

Lala and Poppa (Matt's parents) arrived at our house just in time to see the kids get home from school.  They had promised Katie Wynn they would see her on her birthday and they made good on their word!  She was very glad to see them.

We didn't have our real family celebration until the next night when my parents could also join all of us for dinner.  Katie Wynn received a "big" gift from each of us (me and Matt, his parents, and my parents) that we wanted her to get to have before her birthday party the upcoming weekend.  Not one time on her actual birthday did she mention anything about presents.  It never occurred to her that she would be getting some!  So when I asked her if she wanted to go outside and see what Daddy and I had gotten for her, she grinned from ear to ear!

We gave her this roller coaster and had it set up in the driveway for her to see.  She wasted no time climbing up on it.

We set it up so that she would roll into the grass and stop.  Our driveway is slanted towards the street so we definitely can't point it in that direction!

She gave Thomas a turn but he wasn't feeling it.  Which is funny now because by the end of the week, he was going down it more often than her!

After she'd played on the roller coaster for a little while, we asked her if she'd like her gift from Mimi and Poppy.  Another big ol' grin. :)  We helped her close her eyes while Poppy unloaded their car and set up her new picnic table!  (This is the best full shot of it I got.  Oops.)

The table is so cute.  I love that it's not plastic and primary colors so that it will look nice sitting out in our yard, and I love that it's little enough for the kids but not too little that Matt and I can't sit at it with them.  

Daddy helped her cover her eyes again so Poppa could carry out her big gift from him and Lala.

When we told her she could look, she was excited to see a new bike!

And not just any bike, an ORANGE one!  Complete with a bell.

She and Thomas sat at the picnic table to open the rest of the smaller gifts.  Lala and Poppa brought her the cutest orange dress and both she and Thomas got a new pair of puppy dog pj's!  From my parents she opened the Tickle Monster book and tickle gloves.  I gave her a pair of green pajamas (at her request) and a new shirt that I told her was to wear when we went to see Elsa and Anna that weekend!

While she finished with her gifts, Thomas was a gentleman and filled her bike up with gas. :)

I think Katie Wynn really liked the present part of her birthday!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner together that night and afterwards, Katie Wynn finally got to blow out her birthday candles.  She just giggled while we sung to her.  

After bath, she put on her new pair of green jammies and had one last gift to open from her Daddy.  He gave her a big hardback book of all the classic nursery rhymes.  We read poems from it several nights a week!

I definitely think this was my favorite birthday with Katie Wynn so far.  She was the perfect age - old enough to understand that it was her day but not to old to demand or expect anything.  It was fun to watch how excited she got about things and just giggle and grin.  

We had her third birthday party the weekend after her birthday and it might be my favorite party to date too!  I am still waiting on the party pics from the photographer we had there, but here is a sneak peek from my phone.  We invited all of her friends over for a car wash!

More official party pictures to come!

September Phone Pics

September phone pics comin' atcha before October is even halfway over.  Boom!  

The most important and exciting thing that happened during September was that Katie Wynn turned THREE!!!  I cannot believe I have a baby that old.  She will always be my little baby girl.  Anyway, I don't have her birthday pictures ready yet so I'm going to completely skip over it in this post.  It will get a full blown post (or two) of its own!  

At the end of my last post, I wrote that Thomas returned home from Florida with a fever.  We came home on a Wednesday and I had planned to use Thursday and Friday as major work days for our embroidery business.  We had a big fall trunk show right before we went on vacation so we had tons of orders to work on!  But, even after two doses of Tylenol the night before, T-Man still had a high fever Thursday morning so no daycare for him.  He was glad to get to go over to Mimi's with me so that he could lay around and nap with Charlie!  

His fever still wouldn't go down so I ended up taking him to the doctor Thursday afternoon.  No ear infections, just an unexplained fever.  (After three and half days of fever, it finally went away and he got a small rash so we're thinking it was roseola.)  Less than thirty minutes after returning to Mimi's house from the doctor's office, I was running to the bathroom with a horrible stomach virus that seemed to come out of nowhere.  It beat me up for about 6 hours straight.  Thank goodness my Mom was around to take care of both of us!  What would I do without her?   I was so sick that night that I never even made it home.  Matt picked Thomas up and kept the kids at our house and I crawled upstairs to my childhood bedroom for the night.  The virus was gone the next day but it took me a good 24 hours to get my energy back!  Thomas and I laid on Mimi's futon and watched her sew the following day.  So much for knocking out orders that Thursday and Friday!

Everyone was back in good health by Saturday so we were able to go to church to see Miss Lilli Greer get baptized!  Such a special day!  I'm so glad we were able to be there for her big moment, even if we were late because of a low tire and then spent half of the service in the lobby with our loud children...  We did at least see her actually get baptized!  My mom made her gown and sadly, I didn't get a full shot of it.  Isn't she such a pretty girl?!

Another round of uncooperative kids in cute matching church clothes...Katie Wynn is getting so much better about letting me take her picture!

I'll take her sweet kisses any day I can get them!

We got a new gas pump for the coupe cars that gets drug out everyday along with the cars.  "Hey, hey Mama, I gotta put grass in the cars."

Matt lost a bet to a coworker during the month of September.  Therefore, he also lost the sleeves to his shirt...

We love when Addi Clare comes over for dinner.  These two girls play so well together!  

And then little brother always comes along and ruins everything! :)

It wouldn't be a monthly phone pics post without pictures of Katie Wynn trying on clothes!  This dress is her first Matilda Jane outfit.  I have really been trying to hold off on buying her these clothes until she is a little bit bigger (I want to dress her like a little girl as long as I can!) but I had some credit from the trunk show we hosted so I picked out this dress for her.  And I think she's so stinkin' cute in it I may have to start buying her more MJ stuff!

These were samples from our trunk show.  They don't have her name on them so I was going to sell them if they didn't fit.  It's a good thing they fit ok because I don't think I could get them away from her now.  She loves getting new clothes!

Our church has a new logo so they've had several new merchandise items with it printed on it available for sale.  Matt brought home this new cup and Katie-bug claimed it for herself immediately.  She thinks it's amazing and loves sliding the top open and closed.

Katie Wynn's best buddy, Addi Clare, has a birthday just 5 days before KW's so her birthday party is usually the weekend before ours.  This year, Katie Wynn was so excited to go to AC's house to play in the new playhouse that her daddy had built her for her birthday.  Then we got there and she saw that there were other people there and totally clammed up, like she does at every other party.  I had to carry her up the stairs and into the playhouse so she'd go play.  Eventually I was able to sneak down but she stuck her head out often to make sure I was still close by.  You can see in the group picture below how shy and reserved she gets in crowds.  She was not happy about being up there for that picture!

Too busy eating her cupcake to smile with the birthday girl!

Every now and then she begs me to take her picture for school.  And I'm always happy to do it.  (Thomas doesn't always agree.)

On Katie Wynn's actual birthday, I had my hair painted!  It's been a long time since I've had any color on my hair so I was slightly nervous.  These aren't really good before and after shots at all but you can kinda see the lighter color in the picture on the right.  This [new?] technique that my hairstylist is now doing is very subtle and naturally sun-kissed looking.  I love the way it turned out!

We went to our church's annual fall Hullabaloo.  I had my hands full carrying kids most of the time so I only have a couple pictures from it!  Katie Wynn wouldn't sit up on the hay bales with her brother for anything.  Boo!  

But we got a semi-decent one with their grandparents!  Lala made Katie Wynn sit up there with her.  

Lala and Poppa gave Katie Wynn some new puppy dog jammies for her birthday.  But they didn't leave Thomas out - he got a pair too!  I just love it when they're nice and clean and in cute pajamas at the end of the day.  They always smell so good and are usually pretty sweet!

One day after work I got some good hugs and lovin' from my little guy.  And then right after this picture was taken, he bit me.

Even though I try hard not to dress my kids too "grown," I'm a sucker for little vests.  They are so cute!  When I took this picture, Katie Wynn told me, "Hey Mama, we're vest frands."  

I hope they are always each other's best buddy!  Birthday pictures to come soon!

Labor Day Vacay

To get the month of September started off right, we went to the beach!  Just like we've done the last couple of times, we left late Thursday evening after dinner and baths and drove halfway.  This works out really well for us because the kids sleep and when we get to the hotel we just have to put them straight into bed.  The next morning, we fuel up on a continental breakfast, hit the road in our jammies, and make it to our beach house before lunch! 

Matt and Katie Wynn went to pick up lunch while Thomas and I hung out at the house.

After lunch we headed straight to the beach!  Both kids enjoyed it again this time, though Thomas was actually a little hesitant at first.  After a beach nap, though, he was ready to play in the sand!  

Napping boys...

We love to dig holes for the big waves to fill up.

One of my favorite things to do is sit on the shore and watch these little white shell-crabby-things wash up and then dig their way back into the sand.  I showed them to Katie Wynn on this trip and she had fun collecting some of them.

Matt caught us a crab!  

I am in love with these wispy curls.  Or was in love, I guess.  Thomas got his first trim during this trip.  It took me three days to complete it because I didn't want to cut too much.  So the wispy hair is still back there but it doesn't curl up quite as much now that it's shorter.

Guess who wasn't afraid to stand in the waves?  Who cares if there was tons of seaweed?

Jumping for joy for being on the beach!

Can you even handle this cute smile??

This was the first time we'd ever carried a tent down to the beach.  We took it all three days because I wanted to use it since I'd already purchased it, but we really didn't even need it.  Katie Wynn rarely sat still enough to be in it and Thomas napped in someone's lap under the umbrella each day.

Strollin' into the water like a boss.

Katie Wynn kept us all busy with "helping" her build sand castles.  

What that really meant was that she wanted us to build some so she could squash them all!

My little Godzilla at work destroying our sand town.

Our last day at the beach we finally had less seaweed, but in its place were flies.  LOTS of flies!  Biting flies!  They were worse than the mosquitoes we have here at home.  They made Katie Wynn cry a lot so we cut this trip short.  Next time we'll know to bring bug spray.

I can see one of those pesky flies on Thomas's foot in this picture!  I had to fan the kids the whole time we sat on the towel to try to keep the flies off.

Thomas fell asleep and KW was eating her snack so I was actually able to get a tiny sand castle built and take a picture before it was destroyed!

Thomas ate his first whole peach on this trip.  I had gotten the peach for myself but he stole it and pretty much ate it in one continuous bite.  I think he loved it!

And he got filthy while eating it and was made when it was gone!

Mom and I took the kids to Target with us while the guys golfed.  They rode in one of those enormous double seat carts that can be hard to steer.  Add that huge cart to the five noodles we purchased and I should probably write an apology note to the Target employees for all the merchandise we knocked off the shelves.  

Both kids slept really good at night, thanks to getting worn out in the sun each day!  I have significantly less sleeping pictures of Thomas than Katie Wynn because I am generally way too scared to do anything that might wake him up!  He passed out at the beach house though so I was able to get a picture of that booty in the air.  Katie Wynn fell asleep hugging the Nicholas Sparks book that she was "reading" before bed.

Poppy brought home donuts for breakfast!

Katie Wynn grew a goatee on our trip.  No, wait, maybe she just ate a chocolate covered donut...

Group selfie!  (Groupie?)

We decided to forgo the beach one day and opted for the community pool instead.  Thomas's favorite thing to do at any pool is step in, climb out, step in, climb out, over and over.

And sometimes cry if you won't hold him! :)

Katie Wynn is pretty independent in the water if she is wearing her puddle jumper.  Thank Heavens to whoever invented those - I can't wait for Thomas to fit in one next year!

Matt and my dad took the kids to a playground one afternoon.  This shot of Katie Wynn that he took is one of my favorites - something about it makes her look so grown to me!

I saved their firecracker shirts for Labor Day when we had plans to go hear live music and watch fireworks.  But then that night came and we realized we had the date wrong and the live music and fireworks had been the night before.  Bummer!  Katie Wynn wanted her new monkey to have it's picture taken with Thomas.  :)

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures from the trip!  It's currently the screensaver on my phone and it makes me smile every time I see it.  

But this one cracks me up too.  Don't they look like they're up to no good?  My caption on Instagram said, "Ok, I'm seriously not asking again - which one of you has on the stinky diaper?"

When there are no fireworks to watch, you just set 'em loose and let 'em run wild for a little while. :)

And then you fill them up with ice cream!

What little girl doesn't love a walk home hand-in-hand with grandparents?  

On our last afternoon, Matt and I took the kids to Seaside to walk around and window shop.  I took this picture of them but realize now that I should've zoomed out to see what kind of bodies their heads are one!

More running around.  We're big fans of getting rid of extra energy, ha!

My parents kept the kids that night so we could enjoy a dinner out.  While they were at home, Thomas got himself into a bit of a sticky situation.  He couldn't figure out how to get out from under the barstools and it made him MAD!

For the ride home, we wore our new Seaside puppy dog shirts!

I love that I can now tell her to put her arm around his shoulder and she'll do it without totally knocking him over. (Or strangling him.)

One of my faves!  That boy is just silly!

At Mom's recommendation, we stopped at Durbin Farms Market for lunch and it did not disappoint!  We couldn't leave without having some of their homemade peach ice cream.  Yum!

The trip was so fun and it was so good to get away for a few days.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it home Thomas had a fever that he kept for a solid three days.  I took him to the doctor and as soon as we made it home from there, I got knocked out by a full-blown stomach bug.  It was not exactly the warm welcome home we were hoping for!  

Now we've been home for a month and we don't have our next trip to the beach scheduled yet!  I hate that...I like knowing when we'll be back and having something to count down to!  Maybe we can go around Thanksgiving...