Date Night!

Tonight Matt and I headed up to the Country Club for a much needed date night! Our club has Lakeview Live every Friday night. It is so relaxing and intimate! There is always live music, candle light, and a fabulous menu. We had seafood, steak, wine, and chocolate cake for dessert. What a perfect, scream free dinner! We had to remind ourselves to slow down and enjoy the food! And as wonderful as the dinner alone was, it was still absolutely heaven to come home to our precious little boy waiting up for us! Life is Good.

Loving our evening out!

And loving coming home...

Praise and Prayer

Hello everyone! Well, first and foremost (sp?) let me say Praise the Lord! As many of you know, Matt works for Compass Bank (that's right, the one that just laid off 1200 people...), and they told him yesterday that he would not lose his job!!! Let's just pray that the economy will turn around before there has to be another round of layoffs. Pray for the state of our country and economy!
Also, Sissy had a rough night last night. Poor sweetie was doing great, and then as I was rocking her before bed, she threw up alllllll over me and herself! She had trouble getting the medicine down last night, and that was the result. Any suggestions on ways to get her to take her medicine more easily?!?
Oh, and I finally joined facebook last night. What fun!

70 Degrees in January?!?!?

Wow! Could you believe the weather today? It was near 70 when I picked the kids up, so we headed straight for the park! What a FABULOUS day--there were sooo many people at the park!!! Daniel has gotten so strong and so good at all of the playground equipment. Sissy was born to be on the playground! She loves to go "side" and gets so excited she can hardly stand it when she knows it is an outdoor type of day. We decided to take advantage of this weather in every way--even into the night! Matt's dad grilled some yummy steaks for us for dinner. It totally felt like a nice fall evening! I'll take this type of weather ANY day!

Oh, and Caroline is doing much better with her reflux (fingers crossed!). We put her back on her Axid (50.00 with copay) rather than the Zantac (5.00 with copay). Yes, they are both essentially the same thing, but the Axid is much less bitter and younger children do better with it. I will pay the extreme price it will help little sissy!

Girls Night Out!

I had a wonderful Girl's Night Out last night! It was actually more like a Girl's Night In. Sweet Danette had everyone over to her house for pizza, salad, brownies, and wine. We had a great time analyzing all of the crazy women on the Bachelor. Thanks again for a fantastic night, and don't forget to wear your scarf with EVERY outfit (even your bikini, Mindy!).

Happy Birthday Paw Paw!

Saturday morning we got up and dressed and headed down to Brewton to help Paw Paw celebrate his 60th birthday. Daniel was soooo excited for him to see the cake we had made, and I must say when we finally dug into it on Saturday night, it was fantastic! I don't want to even think about how many calories were in the piece I ate! On the way down we stopped to eat at Beef O'Brady's. We don't have one here in Birmingham, but we used to eat there when we lived in Georgia. It is a great little sports bar and grill type of place. Each booth has it's own little flat screen tv. Daniel was in heaven! Getting to eat a hamburger with the fam and watch Scooby Doo on his own private tv--what more could a 4 year old ask for?!?! Caroline really enjoyed her grilled cheese as well. In fact, Daniel was so impressed with the place that he insisted on eating there for lunch today!

Sadly, it seems that sweet Caroline has had a relapse with her reflux. We have had her off of medication for several months, but a few days ago, she starting throwing up again. We called in the medicine (Zantac) from Brewton this morning and picked it up on our way in. It must taste terrible because she pitches the biggest fit ever when we have to give it to her, and she spits most of it out. I may have to put in a call to Dr. Dudgeon and see if he has any other suggestions. Always something with little ones! Oh, and apparently she slept in a poopy diaper for several hours last night. SO, she has a major diaper rash. Poor thing. She is napping right now. I hope we can figure out this whole reflux thing. D went through the same thing when he was her age. He did finally outgrow it, though he still has a sensitive stomach. They are my children after all! Okay, now to the pics!

Ready for my grilled cheese!

This place is soooo cool!

Paw Paw and Daniel with the famous cake. Notice the "1" candle--hee hee!

I thought this one was cute of sissy peering around at the cake!

This whole birthday party thing can sure wear a girl out!

Sissy Speaks (A lot!)

Well, I finally got around to recording Caroline saying a few of her favorite things. Enjoy the show!


Sissy Speaks (A Lot!) from Tracie Wilson on Vimeo.

Just Call Me Betty Crocker!

I am so incredibly proud of myself right now! Today is my dad's 60th birthday. I decided that I would go all out and make him his most favorite cake--Italian Creme Cake. My mom used to make them for him, so it is kind of a special treat in many ways. For those of you who know much about baking, you know that this is not an easy cake to make. And for those of you who know me, you know that NOTHING is easy for me to bake! Let's just say I am not the greatest cook in town. But I love my daddy bunches (Caroline got her "daddy's girl" trait honest!) and I was determined to do this for him. SO, sweet Mrs. Wilson dug through all of her many cookbooks and recipes a few nights ago and helped me find one in the Southern Living cookbook for a delicious Italian Creme Cake. I must say, I think Daniel and I did a pretty good job! Daniel loves to bake with me (it is usually not too involved!), and he REALLY loves to lick the spoons, beaters, and spatulas! This batch was so tasty even Matt was licking it up! He kept asking why I have never baked a cake like this for him. I promised to make him one for his 60th birthday (it might be that long before I make another cake!!!). We are heading to Brewton tomorrow to deliver the cake and visit with daddy and Tammy. Can't wait for him to see and taste his cake!!

We just got the THREE cake layers out of the oven and are about to mix up the icing while they cool.

Daniel mixed for a while, then I took over the mixing while he added in the powdered sugar bit by bit.

Spreading on the icing...mmmm...almost time to lick the spatula!

The moment D has been waiting for! (Don't worry, I had finished icing the cake before I let him do this!)

The finished product. BEAUTIFUL!

Grilling Out in January

Like many of you, we love to have friends over and grill out--even if it is January! The kids even summed up their dinner with some ice cold popsicles. Who says we can't pretend it's July? :)

Our good friends the Britts came over last night. They have two adorable little girls. One is Caroline's age and the other is two. We had a blast! Below are a few pics from yesterday. Actually the first one is from Sat. morning. Caroline is sporting her new Strasburg pjs that I got for her Thursday. The next one is Caroline giving me a kiss. Notice how she is kissing with her mouth open!

Daddy's Girl

Daniel spent the night with Gran and PePaw again last night, so it was just Matt, Caroline, and me. C is SUCH a daddy's girl. She prefers him over anyone else in the world. This is a cute pic I snapped of the two of them last night. Doesn't it just warm your heart--you can clearly see from their faces how absolutley happy they are to be together!

Good Food, Great Friends

Tonight I went to dinner at Brio with some dear friends. Elizabeth, Abby, and Morgan were teammates of mine when I taught second grade at Edgewood. Actually, Morgan and I were preggers together through the hottest summer in recent history! Her daughter, Bella, was born only days before Caroline. They are big buddies! Morgan is now pregnant with a sweet baby boy to join us in May. We can't wait to meet him! Abby and I are still together at Edgewood, but now that I am in a different grade level, we rarely get to see each other. :( Elizabeth is now teaching in Vestavia, so I hardly ever get to see her either. We do dinners and get togethers as much as we can with our crazy schedules. These are three of my most favorite people!

me, Elizabeth, Abby, and Morgan

sweet tooth or teether?

After school today several of Daniel's friends came over to play. They were all having popsicles and Caroline nearly had a fit to have one too! She keep saying "me, me, pop, me". Yes, I promise she is that verbal. I swear the child can carry on a conversation like no other! Anywho--I am not sure if she likes the sweet taste or the fact that the treat is so cold on her poor mouth. All of a sudden, these baby teeth (including molars!) decided to make their grand appearance all at once! No matter why, Caroline is just about the happiest thing ever after a nice dose of "pop"!

The Washing Machine Song

Daniel is such a little entertainer! He goes to choir at our church on Wednesday nights, and his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Sarah, teaches them some silly songs along with the traditional church songs. Ofcourse, D prefers the silly ones to the "ones to sing in front of the church"! This is a clip of him singing "The Washing Machine Song" (I am not sure what the actual title is!). Notice the emotion in the ooh-ah part. Sissy hears his awesome singing from the kitchen and comes be-bopping in to see the show at the end. Never a dull moment--I love it!

The Washing Machine Song from Tracie Wilson on Vimeo.

Catch Up

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been a while. Last week was quite a week. I returned to work on Monday, and Daniel and Caroline went back to their schools on Tuesday. Well, by Wednesday at noon, Matt got the call from Caroline's school that she had a fever of 100.7 and would not eat her lunch. She is getting 6 teeth, so we thought maybe that was all it was. Matt's mom came over to keep her Thursday, and by 1:00 that afternoon she had a fever of 104.5. Needless to say, she took her immediately to the doctor where they remained until 4:30! Poor sissy and Mrs. Wilson!!! With no nap and nothing on her tummy she had to have several tests run, much to her dismay. They finally came back with the fact that her white blood count was up, which could mean strep (her throat was red) or a urinary tract infection (for those of you who don't know, she has kidney reflux). They cultured the samples and two days later they were still negative. Apparently she just had some sort of a fever virus combined with a sore throat. Poor baby! By Saturday she was back to herself and ready to play! We just took it easy and played around the house yesterday. Today we took the kids to McWane Science Center. They both had a great time! Daniel's favorite thing was laying on the bed of nails and Caroline loved the fish and the water area. Luckily, I remembered her liking the water area A LOT last time, so I took a second shirt for her to put on when we were finished there! Daniel is spending the night with his Gran and PePaw and sissy is down, so I think I am going to close this up and head to bed early. Tomorrow starts another week! Hope all of you have a great one!