I am Stacy Meadows, a middle school teacher and professional photographer in Pasadena, Maryland.
I love the song "Little Moments" by Brad Paisley.
Especially, the part about backing his truck into something- yep, I did that!
Oh and the part about burning the cake on his birthday - I've done that a few times too!
That song reminds me of a blog, little stories making up a life.
Our lives are made up of lots of "Little Moments" and I hope, through this blog,
to help you catch a glimpse of the moments of the Meadows household...
"Ham" who is my wacky, smart and doesn't miss a trick 3 year old and "G"
who is my sensitive, hot tempered, home wrecker working on 2.
Let's not forget my Hubby- who puts up with it all.
Sprinkled with some photography sneak peeks and specials and you have Meadows Moments making a life.
Come in, hang out and enjoy and hopefully I can keep up!
Stacy
How sweet is she? Lucky for Miss G’s parents she was born just before the snow storm and they were home snuggling throughout the whole thing. Lucky for me I have 4 wheel drive and could still make her appointment!
and a little sneak peek at her birth announcement…
Let’s Go RAVENS!! If we win one of my favorite students (boy) will be wearing a pink Raven’s jersey tomorrow!!
Last night we taught G the fine art of the pajama snow dance, ya know just in case!
I really, really couldn’t have come up this outfit if I tried…pajamas (at 3:00 in the afternoon), paper hat from Hershey Factory, super hero cape from Santa, and some “gubs” – “Cause I don’t want to get any germs from the food at my restaurant Mommy”…
So then it’s decided that G needs his cape at the resturant too- I put the cape on, turn my camera on him, he sits down, gives me this look and says “CHIZ!” Really, this early- I was hoping for at least a few more months before I got the chizzy grin…
and some more, just for fun of “the caped crusaders” on Christmas morning…
Super Brett…
and G- before we realized the collar flipped down-oops.
Ham walked down the steps made this face and said “Oh man” He was looking under the tree. The gifts were all over the rest of the room. Poor boy, Mommy’s a little slow in the morning too.
I Love, Love, Love the just woken up look and he was so happy to have a new Quack, Quack- we think he either flushed or threw away the old one!
We have these great “Santa Sacks” for the boys that we got last year from my sister. Santa doesn’t wrap any of his gifts so they are ready to play on Christmas Morning (my husband came with that tradition) Makes for a easy Christmas Eve and the boys still get the excitement of pulling it all out of the bag. Don’t worry- they aren’t deprived in the gift unwrapping area… my Mom wraps EVERYTHING!
Christmas eve was pretty quiet at our house this year. We had my parents and my Pop over for dinner and had the boys in bed by 8:30. For some strange reason we had to wake g up at 9:00 am! All of these are quick, flashy snapshots- sorry, I was in a hurry to get to church. Wrestling the cookies away from G so we could leave Santa some-
and we said goodbye to our Elf on a Shelf- I was really hoping he would stay with us for the whole year!
Finally Santa came… Funny story- Everything was out by 11:30pm when I started making the Chocolate Truffles for Christmas day. I hear Ham open his door around 12:30 am. I catch him at the bottom of the stairs. He takes a look at all of the gifts and flatly states… “A new doggie, why’d he bring me a new doggie? I already have a doggie.” I said “I don’t know what your talking about and I scooted him up to his bed. The next morning he had no recollection he had ever gotten up!
Here is Ham in the middle of the storm- and hubby is snowblowing the driveway for the first time of many. The minute he saw the first flake he wanted to build a snowman. I waited him out for hours. Finally, after 45 minutes of getting him dressed I sent him out the back door not realizing how deep 30 inches really was. He stepped off of the deck into a snowdrift and I had to get dressed to go rescue him- he was up to his waist in snow and couldn’t move his legs!
Disclaimer: For the next few photos- I have no idea where the sunglasses came from. I know I didn’t buy them. I think they were a gift from someone or my sister left them at our house or something but we were desperate and I grabbed them from the console of my truck. They do crack me up how they’re “oh so 70′s” tinted. Poor kid- he’s going to hate me later!
So, excited he got to ride the 4 wheeler with Pop Pop-completely a benefit of living across the street from your parents- sharing toys!
Both boys love sledding- I have the bruised knees to prove it. Sledding is hard work- for the parent- Run, Slide, Slip, Push, Run, Catch on the other side, then carry them both back up!
Off to shovel out Pop…
I cannot tell you how excited I was to get 3 days off before Christmas break for snow! Someone please remind me about it next year when I’m not ready for Christmas. While Ham went with my Dad and Hubby to dig my Pop out- I took G out for a little fun. He LOVED the snow- the cute snowsuit is a hand me down from a neighbor- it took him about 10 minutes to get used to moving around in it but once he did there was no no stopping him.
He didn’t fall in this next one- he’s laying in the snow and trying to swim in it by throwing it up in the air.
Here’s to using that snow suit just a few more times this year!!
This year we decided that we were going to cut down our own tree instead of the small skinny artificial one I like I mean we put up each year. I have trouble with Christmas decorations- I like them but I don’t like them out. I know- it sounds crazy but I hate having things out and sitting around- I guess it is part of being claustrophobic. Hubby had to guilt me into getting all the stuff out of the basement. We didn’t even decorate until Dec. 18th! Today is Jan 2 and it’s all gone and put away ahhhhh!
Anyway, we bundled up the boys and headed out to Applewood Farm which if it isn’t in PA you could definately see it from there! I have heard horror stories about how long it takes for families to choose a tree. One of the things I LOVE about my husband he’s a see it, like it, buy it- kind of guy… well except for buying sunglasses and a marrying me- they took FOREVER to do! Once he chooses something it either works or he makes it work. So, we only took about 10 minutes to choose a tree.
Thanks goodness it only took 10 minutes- I had G on my back in the backpack- Poor kid, he looked like a stuffed sausage.
After we cut down the tree I wanted to let G loose to run around on the farm. Hubby decided it wasn’t in our best interest since it took the two of us to shove him into the backpack…
Finally, we were off to drag it to the tractor and went on to see the cute farm animals in the barn and ride the G scale train. Ham stated on the way home that Santa could take back the swing set he brought him last year and replace it with a whole farm- “You know, with all the animals and stuff!”
Funny pee story: Before we left I knew Ham needed to potty before we headed home. I took him in the port-a-potty and pulled down his three layers of pants and begged him to stand to pee. No go. He stood there looking at the gross toilet and said – “I don’t have to go.” Knowing we had a two hour drive home, I grabbed him around the waist with my FREEZING cold hands to hover him over the potty. As soon as I touched him he started screaming “NO! NO Don’t touch me!” Then “Hurry, Hurry- I do have to go!” I bend over him lifting him with my forearms under his arm pits to try to keep him from falling into the potty and my face is, well it’s, RIGHT THERE almost in the toilet. It is then that I realize, as he is trying not to pee on his snow pants, that I am bending at the waist and my butt is hanging out of the open door of the port-a- potty for all the world to see. It wouldn’t have been so bad if my butt hadn’t been poured into my snow pants, Cira 1996, which was my last year in college when I worked (and worked out) at a gym and before I had two children!
When we arrived home- Hubby cut two feet off the bottom of the tree to make it work, we forgot to water it by the third day and it dried up and the needles made a HUGE mess yesterday when we took it down. But, I loved the smell and the fact that I could make topiaries on the front porch with the extra branches and that my electrician husband is “in charge” of the lights. (Fine by me- that’s the worst job!) So we will go for it again next year. It started a magical Christmas season for us…
Couple of special notes- Ham and Hubby add a piece to the train every year – it’s their thing. Ham made the gingerbread cookies with my Mother-in-Law on Dec. 4 while I was at a wedding. G ate all the candy off of the cookies the week after Christmas. Every time we turned around he had a piece in his mouth- GROSS!
