One boy, one nose, one ROCK?!?!?!

As anyone with small children knows you can never be too surprised by the things they do. When I was pregnant with Peyton people would tell me stories about when I was a child and how wild and crazy I was. Fear set in knowing full well that any child of mine was going to be, well, wild and crazy. Turns out, she's not so bad. :) She and I have always had a wonderful bond and she's been like my little buddy since day one. She is a challenge in her own right but nothing like I feared she would be.

THEN CAME MAX!!!!!!!!!!!! He's been nothing short of a surprise since the day I found out he was in my belly. We wouldn't trade him for the world but he is so much harder than Peyton. He's harder in that he is ALL BOY ALL THE TIME!!!! It never stops. Ever. My cousin Kimberly has a little boy that is Peyton's age, Bryson. Bryson is an excellent kid, however, he is all boy. Kimberly "cursed" me with one just like him when I was pregnant with Max. I honestly though she had to be crazy. Really, Kimberly is it that hard? YES! So my apologies to Kimberly and Jeff for under estimating the boy! :) Max, is rougher, braver, and more stubborn than I ever imagined a small child could be. He falls down the stairs at least once a week despite my best efforts to keep it from happening. He is constantly smashing fingers in doors, drawers and anything else he can pry open with his little hands. Everyday when I pick him up from school his teachers always laugh at how "rough and tumble" he is. Tuesday was no exception.

When we got home it was business as usual. Dinner, baths, playing and then ready for bed. Except that it wasn't. We did dinner and baths but when I was dressing Max for bed I noticed that his nose needed to be sucked out. One nostril, no biggie, 2nd nostril, MAX WHAT THE HECK IS IN YOUR NOSE? "I no know". Little Dude had a rock stuck up his nose! Yep, a real plucked from the playground little rock. Being that I am calm and level headed in all situations I didn't panic at all. Yeah right! I was flipping out. Jerome went to get the tweezers and a flashlight so we could do our own extraction. That didn't work. I called my parents, my girlfriend up the street, a friend that is a firefighter, and THEN the pediatrician. Yes, really in that order. I took him to urgent care and had my parents meet me in case it got ugly(Jerome stayed home with Peyton). Good thing, it took, me, my dad, and a nurse to hold him down so the doctor could get it out. Thankfully Jerome and I hadn't done any damage and pushed it up anymore than it was so it was easily removed with the correct tool. Max came out totally unscathed and happy as a clam. We saved the rock and it is labeled and in his baby box. Now when I drop him off at school I have to tell him not to stick anything up his nose. BOYS!!!!

25 Random things...

1. Jerome and I dated for 8 months before we were engaged.
2. We were engaged for 8 months before we married.
3. Jerome is 8 1/2 years older than me.
4. When Peyton was a baby Jerome used to get up with her at 5am and watch Sports Center with her on Saturdays so I could sleep in. He was very happy the day she decided to sleep until 8am.
5. To this day Jerome still gets up with the kids on Saturday so I can sleep in.
6. Though I was born and raised in GA, aka The Peach State, I absolutely HATE peaches.
7. I truly believe Peyton will become a vet and Max will be an Ultimate Fighting Champion.
8. When I was in 7th grade I passed out at the doctors office, fell off the table and cracked my cheek bone.
9. There are days that I want to send the kids to daycare and crawl back in bed.
10. There are some days that I do.
11. Jerome and I never took a honeymoon.
12. Jerome's mom is from Naples Italy. Her whole family still lives there.
13. We really would love for our children to speak Italian so they can communicate with them.
14. Jerome was in the Marines when I met him. I'm selfishly glad he didn't re-up after we met. Although I'm very proud of him.
15. I would really love to buy my childhood home so we could raise our family there.
16. I'm sooooo sad that my baby will be in kindergarten in the fall.
17. I want to buy a treadmill but I know I will never ever use it.
18. I trained for a 1/2 marathon and then had to drop out b/c of a foot injury.
19. I wish I had six-pack abs.
20. I hate clutter but if you came to our house you'd never know it.
21. I think Lost is the dumbest TV show EVER!
22. I'm pretty sure nobody reads our blog.
23. I secretly wish we could have another baby. I tell people differently. I lie. :)
24. I would love to hire someone to clean my house.
25. I love my family more than anything and I'm so very proud of them.

Life is back to normal!!!!

We're all back to our routine. Peyton's back to school, Jerome and I are back to work and Max is back to his "school". Here are some pics of the last month or so to get you all caught up. Enjoy.


Daddy helping Max put out his reindeer food.

Peyton putting out hers.

I love to watch them play more than anything. It usually turns into a fight but it does start out nice. :P

Peyton's cookies for Santa. Baked exactly how he likes them!

Check out his shoes! Yep he likes to wear princess shoes. Oy!!! LOL

Happy boy on the way to the lights at Lanier.

Baking Santa's favorite cookie. Oatmeal Raisin.

Peyton's Christmas party at Bright Beginnings.

Peyton the ham.

The Jefferson Christmas Parade.

I know it's been a while..

Sorry to have taken so long to write. We've had quite a bit going on lately. Sadly I have yet to load any of the photos so this will just be the details. I'll try my hardest to post pictures before the weeks end.

I guess I'll go back to Thanksgiving. Peyton had her school break for Thanksgiving Wed, Thurs and Fri of that week. Wednesday I took her to the dentist. It was the second time she's been and she did excellent. She was funny about it b/c the hygienist we usually see is a girl I've known for a very long time. Ms Jessica. Well Ms Jessica is out on maternity leave with her beautiful little girl at the moment so Peyton was not all that thrilled about that. She wanted me to call Ms Jessica and ask her to please come see Peyton's teeth and then go home with her baby. Once I convinced her that no matter who cleaned her teeth she would be fine she went in and acted just like the big girl she is. She'll be so happy when we go back in the spring and Ms Jessica is back. After that we met up with Jerome so we could take him to lunch. Peyton is so in love with Daddy at the moment. This has been a long time coming.

Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we headed out to Conyers to see Jerome's parents. Nonna and Papa as they like to be called. When we arrived they had put their Christmas tree up and let Peyton and Max decorate it. They did a great job. Max had a little trouble actually getting the ornaments ON the tree but with a little help he got the hang of it. We had a nice lunch and a nice visit.

Jerome had off on Friday so we had a nice long weekend together. We put our Christmas tree up Saturday and the kids really seemed to enjoy having it up. Max was more interested in playing with the boxes and putting stuff away than with actually decorating the tree but he still had fun. We thought he was going to be the trouble maker as far as the tree is concerned this year but nope, it's Peyton! She keeps moving the ornaments and grouping them by color. Guess that's what happens when they start learning patterns in school. She's always so proud too.

This past Saturday(Dec 6th)we had our first Christmas of the season. The Maxwell family got together. We had another new addition this year with little Miss Claire. Now that their are 4 small children running around it's so much fun to watch them. Carson and Max seemed a bit more interested this year. They both got pretty much the same toys but Carson thought Max's were cooler. He was so cute coming over and taking them one by one. Max didn't care though, he was ready for his nap before we even finished opening gifts. He hasn't been feeling well so hopefully the Thomas family Christmas will be a little more exciting for him. After we had lunch and visited with everyone it was time for the Vincent clan to head to the Jefferson Christmas Parade. Peyton had the opportunity to ride on 2 floats this year. Her pre-k class had a float(that won 1st place)and her ballet school had a float. She wanted to ride on the ballet float b/c she was going to get to be a "Whoo". The younger kids rode in the 2 floats and wore cute little "Whoo" headbands and "Whoo" shirts and got to shake maracas. The older girls followed and danced in the street. They were the Cat in the Hat. It was all very cute. I walked along beside the float and let me just say that Jefferson is a pretty hilly little town. Not as bad as Athens but still pretty hilly. It was a really get day. Christmas is such a wonderful time of year b/c it seems that it's the only time of year my whole family has the chance to get together. It's so wonderful to be reminded of our many many blessings.

On Monday(December 8)Jerome and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. In so many ways it seems like it was just last week we were heading to the beach to get everything ready for the wedding. Here we are 7 years later with 2 beautiful children and very blessed lives. We couldn't ask for more. God has been so good to us.

That pretty much sums up the last little bit. Next post will be all about the pictures.

Lazy lady!

The past couple of weeks have been rather uneventful at our house. Jerome took Peyton to UGA to an equestrian event. Her current obsession is horses so he thought she'd love that. It gave them a chance to have some daddy/daughter time. She loved every minute of it. He said there was so much going on that she couldn't sit still but she still had a great time. I've posted some pictures of her petting one of the horses. That just made her day. Peyton's class had a Pow Wow on Tuesday. They've been learning about Pilgrims and Indians for Thanksgiving. Her teacher gave all of the kids Indian names and they put on a little "show" for the parents. Peytons name is "Running Deer". She refused to participate. Little turkey that she is she wanted to sit in my lap and cry the whole time. I've included a picture of her sour face from the Pow Wow. It was cute and her friends had a great time. Maybe she'll participate in the next thing they do.


Peyton petting the horse.

Peyton's "Sour Face". Just like her Daddy. HAHA!!!

Look how happy she is!

Trick or Treat

Halloween is really great fun when you have small children. This year was especially fun because Max was able to participate in the festivities. We started off on Thursday making treats for the kids parties at school. Friday they both went to school dressed up, Peyton has Batgirl and Max as Superman(we called him Superbaby). After school we went to my cousin Kimberly's neighborhood to Trick or Treat with them. We now have more candy than the grocery store. The kids truly enjoyed themselves. As a parent that is fun to watch. I've posted pictures below of our Halloween.


Brownie Bites for Max's party at school.

Peyton helping to keep the kids happy at Max's party

Superbaby and Batgirl with the pumpkin they painted.

The "Eyeballs" I made for Peyton's class.

Peyton's party.

The very first time for Max to trick or treat. Peyton helped him.

Bryson, Max and Peyton ready to go get some candy!

Max thought it was the coolest thing he's ever done!!

Stress? Nerves? Stressed nerves? Nervous stress?

Well about 5 months ago I started running again. About 4 months ago I had the bright idea that I would sign up for a 1/2 marathon. At the time I was running almost everyday and I was very excited. While I'm still very excited I didn't really account for the fact that I have 2 kids and a job and this is the time of year I ALWAYS get sick. 3 weeks ago I got sick, then Jerome got sick, then Peyton got sick. Because of the 2 of them getting sick I didn't really take the time to get well. I finally started feeling better but it took a while. So fast forward to this week. I'm freaking out. I am sooooo ill prepared for a race that is in ONE MONTH! It's not like it's a 5 or 10K or something small. It was so much easier to train for this thing when I was staying home. Much more time to go out and run 10 miles. So here I sit super stressed. I guess ready or not I'll run this race. I can't say I'll do well but as long as I don't die on the side of the road I'll consider it a success. My goal is to finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes. The rate I'm going I'm thinking it'll be dinner time before I'm finished. :)


Next week I'll update on the kids. They're so excited about trick or treating. I'll have pictures then too.