MY Baby Can Read

I am sure you have all seen the infomercial about the program, Your Baby Can Read. I am not an infomercial fan. I don't sit up late at night watching them fascinated by what they're advertising. Therefore, I don't quickly order whatever it is they're selling either.

I did have success with one infomercial product: P90X. And I can't say I didn't covet those who had, Your Baby Can Read. So, unbenownst to me, my Mom sent it to Cashe for Christmas! (Mommy's infomercial dream come true!)

So we started the videos that day - December 25th. And less than one month later, Cashe can read three words. At 14 months old, my son can read three words!

The program comes with videos, books & flashcards. Cashe watches the video every morning after breakfast & later in the day we read through the book & go over the flash cards (I know, I know - Shad continues to call me Rick Moranis from Parenthood because of the flashcards).

The other day, I held up the flashcard that read, "Arms Up". There are no pictures on the card & I said nothing, I swear. All of a sudden, Cashe yells, "up!" & throws his arms in the air!

Then Momma did the same!! ... then I started crying! (Poor little Mister was totally confused.)

My baby can read! My baby can read! My baby can read!

The next day, I held up the "Clap" flashcard & although he can't say it yet, he started clapping. Again, no photos, no gestures & no words from me. He did it all on his own.

Same again with the flashcard, "Wave".

Oh yeah, he's a genius.

Love Your Neighbor ... Literally

Shocked that I used the word "literally"? Shocked I used it in the correct context? You shouldn't be, but I think I'm the only one who does. Just kidding, I swear I'm not this annoying ... unless you're married to me ... then, I'm always correcting your grammar.

ANYWAY, my dear friend AND neighbor, Jill is expecting a tiny, sweet girl in just over a month. And, I have to say, the exact day I found out she was having a little girl, I jumped at the chance of throwing her shower! I contacted Jill's sister-in-law, Ashley to see if anyone else had my idea (I'm not sure I even gave anyone enough time to even come up with the idea). Ashley said no one had & she offered to host the shower with me - yahoo!

So, several months later we hosted a fabulous shower for a great girl with some really great food (courtesy of Chef Ashley), great company & a GREAT afternoon filled with PINK PINK PINK. What a chic chick this little Miss is going to be!

Many, many congrats, Jill!

Wishing you all the best with your little bundle

& thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've always done for me.

And here are just a few pix of the event:

Um, yum ...

(these are courtesy of my friend, Angie - she did a faaahbulous job!

Thank you, Angie!)

The hostesses: Ashley & me

Mommy-to-be & me

A Little Resolution Revamp

So, while I'm working at night sometimes I listen to the sermons online from our old church in southern California, Saddleback Church.

This year is the beginning of a new decade & as I've mentioned before, Rick Warren talks about this being your Decade of Destiny (or Decade of Destiny's Child as Shad refers to it).

Within the Decade of Destiny, you must set yourself goals to accomplish within the next year, next 3 years & next 10 years. And as Pastor Rick explains, you cannot accomplish any spiritual goal in life without having God as your spiritual 'partner', so to speak. You cannot succeed by your own strength in order to make significant changes in your life (& that's why people tend to not follow through with their resolutions - they're often doing them for the wrong reasons).

A phrase he always refers to is, if you don't set a goal, that means you want to stay the same or get worse. That may be health-related, financially, career-wise. Whatever.

So, the 4 goals he suggests setting are these: Health, Relationships, Financial, & Career. I think my 10 New Year's Resolutions could be categorized into each of these somehow, but I decided to set new goals with God as my spiritual partner in order to do better at these things, rather than stay the same or get worse.

Health: I want to maintain my weight once I get to my goal weight. It's really not about looking good, it's about feeling better & taking care of the body God gave me. To do that, I want to start eating fresh & only allowing myself junk food on weekends if we're out of town or at someone else's house. I don't want to have junk food in my house.

Relationships: I want to make a point of making time for all of my friendships & relationships with family, whether it be phone calls or meeting y'all for coffee or having you over for wine.

Financial: To become debt-free & continuing to be wise about how we spend our money.

Career: Obviously, I want to do well at my job-job, but more importantly I really want to excel most at being a great Mom (not by Cashe's definition, but by God's definition).

Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five ...

The countdown to the New Year begins & undoubtedly anyone who maintains a blog is mentally composing their resolutions for the coming year in their head so they can share with their readers & perhaps even compare & update their own lists. But once it's public, it's the real deal. Like all blog posts, everyone knows your business & now they'll hold you to it.

Once you start blogging & even if you don't, you're always thinking, "Is this a blog-worthy topic?" Some bloggers share it all. Some share only the good stuff. Some need to share more. And some need to start a blog (I know several of you who have lives that warrant blog posts).

Last year around this time, I was a Blogger, but I was an emotional wreck after having had a new baby while experiencing what can only be defined as winter "yuck" & having my hormones attempt to readjust to normalcy ... while on the road. My New Year's Resolution consisted of simply just finding 'me' so I could be the wife, mother, daughter, sister & friend I should be.

Did I accomplish that? Yeah. As Shad said the other night though, I think I found 18-year-old Nicole. She was a basketcase, but thankfully she stabalized & the 31-year-old Nicole should too.

So with that intro, I have been mentally fashioning how I need to get my act together this year & this is what I've come up with:

1. The most popular resolution of all time - uh huh, lose weight. I have a plan though, so prayerfully it should work this time. (Should weight-loss really be on your prayer list when it's not life-threatening?)
2. Drink less coffee & drink more water.
3. Stretch more. Dumb? I beg to differ. I swear by stretching. Ask Shad. Anytime he's sick, I tell him to drink more water & stretch. I think he hates me for it too.
4. Eat fresh. Eat no more (well, let's be realistic here) ... Eat less processed foods.
5. Read more. I sat still & read an entire book this year in 2 days (shocked?) so I'm already on a roll.
6. Write more.
7. Schedule more playdates. I struggle with playdates because they can be exhausting & I know I should really be working, but more importantly -- how can you even hold a conversation with other moms while you're chasing your 14-month-old?
8. Date more. Not more people, just more often.
9, Make more phone calls. How? When? I don't know. Prepare yourself for noisy, scattered conversations though.
10. Spiritiually, as a family, we're going to work on being on a page in which we start sharing God more with Cashe. It's important that he know who God is, moreso than just reading through his little Bible everyday & saying, "Peek-a-Boo, God Loves You!"

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

After my last post, you may be anxiously awaiting to hear whether my heart's still a tomato splotched with moldy purple spots ... & I'm here to tell you Schizophrenic Nicole's cheery side showed her face today. Yay for Christmas!

This year, we decided to stay home for the holidays rather than travel home to Montana like we normally do. Not only is it super hard to travel during this time of year, it gets really hard to balance time between all of our family members without going crazy from bouncing around to 4+ different homes while in Missoula, we thought it was important that we start our own traditions with little Mister Mister this year.

So, here's a recap since we didn't get to see many of you this year:

Our Christmas tree

Our Christmas Stockings

Our handsome little man before Christmas Eve Service

Look at that sweet tie (courtesy of Miss Jill)

My boys getting ready for church

Handsome Handsome
(FYI - that's Shad in case you didn't recognize him.

He knew he was getting a new razor for Christmas, so he chose not to shave for almost a week.)

Cashe-man & Mama before Christmas Eve Service

Meeeeerrrrry Christmaaaaaas, fellas!

So bright-eyed & bushy-tailed.

This boy wakes up signing, "more, please" from his crib.

Here he is signing, "more, please" for some banana

(& mind you, he had TWO this morning - he's a monkey).

Gift #1 from Auntie Stace - very appropriately titled, "Hey! Wake Up!"

With a little help, Cashe unwrapped his gifts

(which was very confusing since he was told not to touch them for an entire month prior.)

"Uh oh, what's this?! It looks soft, Daddy."

It's a Pillow Pet from Grammie!

(Oh, and check out that mess.)

And now those dumb presents are out of the way so I can play with the ornaments on the tree.

(Speaking of which, he walked into the office the other day holding up an ornament while saying, "ball".

While I commended him on his discovery, he was scolded for touching the ornaments after he was told not to. He quickly signed, "milk" in order to make me smile & clap for him like I normally do.

He knows how to wrap Mom right around that tiny little finger.)

Christmas 2010 Gifts: Toy Shelf & CD Player

While he's still too young to know the difference, we thought we'd get practical gifts this year.

Cashe has so many CDs, but we have no CD player in our home (only in the car), so now he can listen to his CDs while playing in his room.

The toy shelf was probably more of a gift for me than for him; it took everything I had not to set that up a month ago & I sure had a ball organizing all of his toys today!

Helping cook Christmas Dinner (testing the green beans)

Yes, this was my first Christmas dinner -

Prime rib, yorkshire pudding, baked potatoes, & fresh green beans.

And it turned out fabulous!

A much-needed bath after a messy Christmas dinner

And to complete our perfect day -

a trip around town to look at Christmas lights.

... everyone dancin' merrily in the NEW OLD - FASHIONED WAAAAY!

All The Little Things

You know how all those little things in life happen & they're not big enough to write an entire post about, but they're things everyone must know? Things like:

Work is exhausting! I asked for it. Things were slow for awhile & I begged for more work. Sure enough, it was handed to me & now I'm eatin' my words. Next time I post photos, I'll be cross-eyed (not because I was kicked in the back of the head by a mule, but ...) from all the spreadsheets I've stared at in the past week.

One year & 6 weeks after a baby's birth means ... back to the doctor again. I haven't been since my last Post Partum appointment when I was in tears when she asked, "Are you okay?" Instead, I walked in with all the confidence in the world - I'm a mom. A mother of a one-year-old. I gave birth last year, naturally, without the aid of pain killers. And I'm still alive one year after all that, living to talk about it. My Nurse Practitioner reminded me that there's no more pregnancy for me until we resolve my back issue, gave me a great big hug & told me congratulations on all I had been through. Isn't that the truth? Oh yeah, I'm patting myself on the back.

I know I've posted about how incredible my friend Jen is before, & rightfully so - that girl will go to the moon & back to make sure you're happy. Well, I did a few small favors for her one week, including one day where I watched her kids while she went to a Christmas party. (Mind you, Jen has done things for me from the very first moment I met her & I am not exaggerating in the least). Well, what does she do when she gets home from her party? She tells me, "Go! Go! Go! You have a one-hour-massage scheduled in 15 minutes & you're going to be late. Go!" On my way there, I told my sister how spoiled I was & she asked me, "Can I have her?" Who wouldn't want one?

Anytime I'm working late (um, which is every night since my "shift" starts at Cashe's bedtime & ends at my bedtime), I listen to Pastor Rick Warren's messages at Saddleback Church in Southern California. He's just amazing & right now he's working on a "project" (for a lack of a better word) called, Decade of Destiny. Basically, in the next 10 years, we (those of us who want to) need to focus on what our destiny is. After several Bible Studies, I know what my destiny for the next 10 years will be (aside from being a mom) & I'm working on making it a success. On a side note, however, I was telling Shad about the Decade of Destiny & stumbled on my words, so now he refers to it as the Decade of Destiny's Child. Not sure Beyonce is on the same boat, but you never know.

What else? Oh yeah. Cashe pooped on the floor again. Have I not learned my lesson? Apparently not. When it comes to parenting, I am the meanie, for sure. But who doesn't want to hear their child giggle & squeal with delight while running around the house naked? That's music to my ears. Again, I ran in & started Cashe's bath. I went back to his room to grab his towel & there was what I thought was a new toy on his floor. Then I got a better look at it & thought it was a dog turd. Oh no. It's Cashe. Dangit. Don't tell Dad.

And what happens in Shad's world these days? Besides him making fun of my early-morning Decade of Destiny's Child talk? He's a travelin' man. Recently, he came home with a t-shirt from one of his clients that says, "Best Freakin' Dad Ever". Appropriate. Even more recent than that, he went a business where everyone was on the floor praying to their god(s). Awkward. Maybe turn the sign over from OPEN to CLOSED for a few minutes?

So that's a "quick" view into a few of our little things in life that you may not otherwise hear about, but hopefully made you laugh or feel really good about yourselves.

First Annual Gingerbread House Contest

Okay, so I totally stole this great idea from my brother & his girlfriend, Ali & their friends. Idea thief or not, I have no regrets.

When I initially told Shad I thought we should have a Gingerbread House-making Contest, he said, "See if Jen will want to do it with you." That's his answer to anything he doesn't want to do. (Jen's apparently his back-up plan.)

So, fine. I asked Jen. And Jen seemed to think it was a great idea for couples to do too. So, we asked a few more friends & before you knew it, I had organized our First Annual Gingerbread House Contest (which, I might add, is not the easiest to do with a bunch of busy December schedules).

I sent out a date we would meet & a gameplan with rules for everyone to read before they purchased their ingredients. And it was off to Winco we go! "Mr.-See-If-Jen-Will-Do-It" was eating his words as he filled the cart with the majority of the materials for our house.

So yesterday, I threw together some chili, the Bradleys made a salad, the Petersons made dessert & the Helmboldts brought drinks. We were all starving & had lunch right away as we mentally geared up for the big competition.

Thank goodness Jen had a surplus of aprons, because that saved everyone's church clothes since we managed to have frosting from floor to ceiling. One of the rules required that there be no use of gingerbread house kits, so we were all "roughin' it".




Undoubtedly, the Petersons had the most elaborate, beautiful castle complete with a moat. Jason's an engineer & he built theirs so sturdy that someone in Kansas could display it on their front porch during tornado season & it'd survive.


The Helboldts were quite creative with their lighthouse. It was such a unique idea & it looked fabulous, as did their beach & little jellyfish.







The Bradleys made the "Clark Griswold House" from Christmas Vacation to include Cousin Eddy's RV draining the septic tank in Clark's front yard. Classic.

Bob was on call though & got called out just after we got started, so Jen had to finish the whole house by herself. Poor thing. The Griswold house is covered in lights & she had just finished up the RV. She had quite the job ahead of herself, but she did a fantastic job!

And we threw together a single-wide-Redneck-trailer-home. We had a washer & dryer in the front yard, some dead grass, the decorative white landscaping rock, a clothesline, a fishing pond, a TV antenna on the roof, Christmas lights around the windows, & an abundance of beer bottles laying around the yard.

The winner received $20 in gift cards (everyone had to bring a $5.00 gift card for the winners).

And this year's winner of the First Annual Gingerbread House Contest was:

(drum roll, please .... )

The Redneck Trailer!