Happy Birthday to my Sissy!

I woke up this morning to tornado warnings - Nashville is welcoming spring apparently. (Except what's with a couple cold days this week? I'm wearing capris and open toed shoes regardless, damn it.)

This week we are celebrating my sissy's birthday! She turns 37 this week.....today we went to lunch (a treat, since I don't always get to see my sister during the work day!) and this weekend we will be doing the usual celebration - heading to Kentucky for a visit to Dolphie's! So ready for another karaoke weekend with my girls!

Samantha is seven years older than me & was my little mother hen when I was born, helping take care of me, etc. But don't get me wrong, she TOTALLY played the "I'm the big sister, that's why!" card with me all the time.  We used to love playing "school" at Granny's house - Granny had the coolest old time looking school desk, and would buy us supplies like crazy. It was there that I constantly begged to be the teacher instead of the student and always got the, "No! I'm the older sister, I get to be the teacher!"

But as I got older, I picked up on the advantages of having an older sister. Especially one as bad ass as mine - if anyone ever bothered me, I played the "I'm going to get my sister"....and that was that. And when I had a bad dream, it was always my sisters room that I went -- where we'd crawl in her bed & watch Golden Girls together.

I've been very fortunate to be very, very close to my sister, who has been the one constant in my life, and never left my side. I don't think there's been much we've done without each other. I was in the delivery room holding her hand when my nephew was born, and even when I moved for  a few short months, when I had car trouble, it was my sister who drove 3 hours to come get me.

I think I'd be lost without her....Happy Birthday to my big sissy!

Please notice that my Grandmother put me in a bikini with CAT HEADS on the boobs, while my sister got a cute little one piece.

Our mom really really really liked poofy hair back in the day...sigh. She wasn't very good at it either. Which is why as I got older, I had my sister do my hair. 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Yay for Wednesdays! A step closer to the weekend being here..although I did wake up and thought it was Thursday. I was horribly disappointed when I realized it wasn't!

And it's time for What I'm Loving Wednesday. But first, let me give a little what I'm NOT loving: Last night, my Comcast decided to go out. When, you ask? Right at the freaking beginning of Dance Moms! Whaaaaat?! While it would be faaaabulous if Comcast would just freaking work like it's supposed to (I'm totally confused: Why is my bill $200 a month when my cable & internet go down at least once a week now?),  apparently this won't ever happen and they need a copy of my television schedule.  Sunday-Wednesday nights are unacceptable time frames for my cable to go out.  Hooray for networks putting shows online now for impatient people like me who can't wait for it to re-air eventually!

Moving on..

This week I'm loving...

Victoria's Secret just put out this new shirt & I am in looooove! I've already ordered it :) 

                              

EVERYTHING else is all repeats tonight --- except the beloved Duck Dynasty -- so, clearly, we know what my priority is tonight! 

I am loving this crackle overcoat -- if you haven't tried it, go buy it! Pair blue & white and boom, got my Kentucky game day nails ready to roll! 

I found this on pinterest and tried it tonight! Apple pie bites, sliced apples with crescent rolls and cinnamon! Such a great idea, and they'll be a hit at the office. And, for the domestically challenged like me: they were ridiculous easy. 

I spotted this on pinterest and fell in love with this quote.  Think this needs to be hanging in the house....

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!

15 years ago tonight, I had my best friend from high school spend the night. We were freshman and spent the night gossiping and watching chick flicks - and naturally - staying up as late as possible.

I awoke to my mom nudging me at 5:45am…. "You should get up. Samantha is headed to the hospital." I immediately shot straight out of bed, and woke up my friend shouting, "Meredith, my sister is having the baby! You should call your mom now and go home, we have to go RIGHT NOW!!"

So I was a bit of a drama queen……so what!?

Paige Alyson made her appearance 12 long hours later. She was our first everything…my sisters first child, my first niece, the first Grandbaby, and my Granny's first Great Grandbaby - which meant she was destined to be spoiled. We didn't know the sex until she was born, but I was SO positive it was a girl, I used my allowances the entire time Sam was pregnant on dresses and everything pink.

When Samantha was in labor, she was only going to be allowed to have 2 people in the delivery room - which was my brother in law & our mom. As a 14 year old drama queen, I was heartbroken. The split second she was born, though, being the good brother in law, John burst out and shouted for me and said "Girl! Head full of black hair!" Mom wasn't so nice, who smugly came out of the delivery room and smiled…"Guess who was the first person ever to hold her????"

I say spoiled, and I meant it. Paige was downright spoiled ROTTEN. My sister worked with my father in his garage for the first years of Paige's life - which meant Paige stayed in the house with my mom & I M-F until usually after dinner. And when she was 3 days old, we implemented the "every Tuesday and Thursday Mommy & Daddy want to go out, so Aunt Nicole is baby-sitting and spending the night". I ate it up, and I wanted every single waking moment with that baby. If I spent the night, my sister never got up once, because the instant Paige cried, I was at her crib with a bottle.

Paige was 4 when I took her on her first road trip to Ashland, KY to see Patty in concert. She was always my little sidekick, and had me wrapped around her fingers since day 1.

I don't know where the time has gone….but she's grown into a beautiful young lady, and I'm so proud of her. Happy Birthday to my beautiful, favorite girl.

Granny was so excited to become Great Granny -- she couldn't get enough of visiting this sweet baby girl after she was born! 

with my beach baby!! 

Becoming a big sister! 

A little festive recap!

Hard to believe Christmas is over! It was a great Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day again this year. We spent much of Christmas Eve playing games, and then waiting for Kadin to fall asleep (and waiting on Santa, you know!) Little shit didn't fall asleep until almost midnight, so by that time, my sister and I were already curled up together in what we call the big butt chair watching "Elf", and we'd whipped out the candy cane vodka! 

A little pic spam and commentary of a few pics :) I hope everyone had a great one! 

Christmas Eve present! Of course, it was from Aunt Nicole! (It was Paranorman - seriously cute movie! We saw it in the theater not too long ago)

Family Jenga time! 

Johnny boy meant serious business. Actually, he and Paige did sooooo good. By the end of the game, the rest of us were too afraid to touch it! 

Cookies and Milk for Santa time! I love when we pick out the cookies we're going to leave. Kadin love love loves Granny's Gingerbread Men cookies, so he refused to part with too much of one for Santa!

Every Christmas morning, K-man passes out our gifts, and then builds walls around himself with some of his! 

Sasa and some of her stuff -- Kadin just kind of tossed everyone elses! 

Paige got a new electric guitar :) Any of you that know Paige know how much she loves her music, so this was perfect for her! She's been dying for one. I got her a great "Asking Alexandria" guitar strap to go with it.

I also got her some band hoodies -- teens can be SOOOO hard to shop for, so I felt ridiculously triumphant this Christmas hahaha. Thanks Hot Topic! Side note for the locals, HT ships out of LaVergne, so....everything arrived the day after I placed the order. Win! 

The boy sure loves his wrestling!  He has been asking for this for quite awhile, so you can imagine what he played with most of the day. He wants more wrestlers to go with it now -- Grandpa got him a Visa Gift Card, I have a feeling little man will be spending it on wrestlers pretty soon! (Side note, mom got him a movie gift card and he spent almost the entire thing on Christmas, lmao!)

I sure do love that Sasa wanted a Little Mermaid sweatshirt, hahah, because it was easier to find than I thought it would be. (Again, props to Hot Topic!)

I bought these Wreck It Ralph fists on Black Friday, and they had the bag so I had to buy it! But, we couldn't put it under the tree because we knew he'd know what it was.....so, we totally played a "Toy Story"....and after everything was opened, did the "Aunt Nicole is pulling out a surprise present!"

We made this book of Granny for my mom. Obviously, it turned into a pretty sweet moment. I also bought her one of the Origami Owl Living Locket necklaces and picked out all the charms to symbolize my Granny, and it turned out soooo fabulous. I've got to post the pics, since I didn't really take many of her opening it.

The coasters I made were a success :) 

No explanation needed, hahahahaha.

I am so excited! My mom and sister knew how much I've been wanting a quesadilla maker and a cake pop maker, so look what was waiting under the tree for me! I'm about to try out the quesadilla maker today, and the cake pop maker will get tested this weekend! Most of you know what a Moe's junkie I am, haha, so maybe the quesadilla maker will save me from going there 1092102190291 times a month.

I wanted to buy this for myself on Black Friday, but my sister said "no! Mom already bought it for you", hahaha. I am excited to put it up -- now I've got to figure out what pics I want to put in it! And where the heck I want to put it!

Keeping our tradition, Mom, Sam, the kids and I went to the movies before Christmas Dinner....Sam and I wanted to see Les Mes, but since we had Kadin, that was a no go. We let him pick it out, so we ended up seeing Parental Guidance-- which I highly recommend, it was super. We laughed, we cried -- it was worth seeing. 

Kinda sad it's over, but soooo ready to party for NYE!  And I guess we're technically not done celebrating Christmas, since we'll be heading to Opryland this week to see what they've done with the decorations this year. Usually we've done this already, but we wanted to wait on Sasa to fly in and come with us! 

There are just no words....

There are no words to describe the horrible news coming out of Connecticut today. My heart goes out to all the families affected.

All I can say is I am sure thankful for these three beautiful kids and am glad I tell them how much I love them every moment I can: