Happy Halloween!

This was the first year that Khyri kind of understood the concept of Halloween. We didn't go trick or treating, but instead headed out to a few Halloween events and over to friend's houses. Since Halloween was on Monday this year so we got good wear out of the costumes... Friday, Saturday, and Monday! Speaking of costumes... drum roll...

Kielle was a ladybug

and Khyri was The Cat in The Hat!

We went to Daddy's job on Friday afternoon to trick or treat in the cubicles. They decorated the elevator banks - totally awesome! Of course Khyri was more fascinated with the daggone elevators and not the decorations. It was ok.. the was just the start of the Halloween weekend ;-) I guess we had to ramp up.  Khyri refused to keep his hat on his head. So people kept saying he was a dressed up penguin. LOL. I wanted a picture of himso badly in the hat. But what's the saying - good things come to those who wait! and wait I did...with a big fat pouty face. hmph. Kielle on the otherhand was unusually smiley and playful riding around with Daddy (she is such a daddy's girl already!)

On Saturday, we loaded up the kiddos and went to a community service event sponsored by my Sorority chapter. We headed to Fickett Elementary school to participate in a trunk or treat activity for the students. For those that are unfamiliar with Trunk or Treat, its when people decorate the trunks of their cars and children trick or treat in parking lots. We didn't know that our car was gonna be used in the event so we didn't decorate :-( but we will be ready for next year! I've already grabbed some of the sale decorations to use.

Kielle slept the whole time, while Khyri (with his hat!) helped hand out candy to the students

I don't think Khyri knew that he was handing out yummy candy. We don't do candy in our house so he's not really exposed to it. Candy to Khyri is a green grape hahaha. I snapped this picture of him trying to figure out what a 'Smartie" candy was. Thinking back, I don't think he had one piece of candy the whole weekend.

We got some well needed rest on Sunday and then on Monday night we headed out to see some friends. No holiday would be complete without Khyri getting to see Auntie Netta... so of course we headed over to her house ;-)

To commemorate our 2011 Halloween, we made ghost footprints and sent them to relatives. How much fun is that!!?!? crafts annnnddd costumes!

 

Well Halloween 2011 has come and gone. The costumes are all packed away except for...

Shopping at Publix - clearly a hat is needed!

THE HAT! Khyri is so attached to this hat now. He likes to wear it everywhere, and that's ok by me :0

FALL FAMILY FUN

 

I love fall. I absolutely do. The crisp cool weather, the trees turning color ... ahhh yes fall has arrived! Fall weather is the best time to get outdoors. Down here it is ridiculously hot until mid September, so I happily welcome weather in the high 60s (I know some of y'all still think that's hot! LOL). 

Our fall fun started off at Zoo Atlanta. Here's a tip fellow mommies : If you are looking for nice backdrops to take Halloween pictures and the like, go to Zoo Atlanta the Friday before the 'Boo at the Zoo' event. Most of the the decorations were already set up when we went. Photo Op!! haahha Khyri loved looking at the stinky elephant, but his absolute favorite animal was the giraffe. Altough the kiddos loved watching the animals, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few photos of Khy and Kielle on some of the Zoo Atlanta props.

 

 
We continued our fall fun with friends, animals  and pumpkins! (Apparently animals is a central theme this fall ahaha) We went to the Southern Belle Farms waaaaayyyy down in McDonough, GA to pet some goats, watch a couple of pig races and frolic among some pumpkins:

This farm was jam packed with fun stuff! They had a corn maze (which we didn't do. can you imagine the Mosleys getting trapped in the corn maze!?!?), hayrides, optional cotton picking (we opted out..too close for comfort hahaha) and the coolest thing - a corn cob shooting range! We paid one price and had access to everything they offered so you know I was happy. There's nothing worse than getting nickled and dimed when you go out... sheesh.

Kielle had a great time rolling around in the grass, while Khyri played on the some unique horse swings. There were 'country' attractions there too like the super long and steep slide made out of a drainage pipe.

Mommy and Kielle going down the slide

Whoa! Now that's a slide!

 After watching the pig races, we loaded up into the Moo Mobile. How cute is this!?!?hahahah

We capped off the day with a stroll through the pumpkin patch area. We picked out two small pumpkins to bring home, but of course we had to take a few photos with the bigger pumpkins too!

We had a great day. Needless to say after all of this fun everyone was all tuckered out :-)

CABBAGE PATCH FUN!

Ok so I have been meaning to post this for awhile. I had the pleasure of taking my cousin Bri to the Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland GA back in August. For those who don't see what the excitement is for visiting a hospital - let me say this is like no hospital you've ever seen... This is where Cabbage Patch Kids are born!

There is a lot of hype now for these ridiculously expensive American Girl dolls, but I'll take a good ole plastic head, yarn haired Cabbage Patch doll thank you very much!

We set out on the 2 and a half hour drive on country roads past the allowable outlet mall limits (you know how the outlet mall is the farthest out in the country you go!?! haha). The drive was long but oh so worth it! Sitting on top of a hill was beautiful Babyland General! It is filled with all types of Cabbage Patch Kids from preemies to toddlers. I didn't even know they made toddlers!

he highlight of the trip was we got to see one baby boy  delivered by the RPN (Registered Patch Nurse). So you know how all Cabbage Patch Kids have two first names - well they get them from  two kids who are in the audience at Babyland at the time of delivery. yup! When the stork finishes checking the cabbage heads to see who is ready to the deliver, the cabbage leaves open up and out comes a bouncing baby cabbage patch kid! The RPN does a quick physical and then asks for two first names from the audience. The boy that was delivered while we were there was Payton James. Hmmm Maybe I can get Kielle to shout my name one time... GASP! Can you imagine?!?! a Cabbage Patch Kid named Kahlillah :-) Here are some photos from our trip!

Kielle is sprouting from a head of cabbage!

Do you see how wide my smile is?!?!?! I had a BLAST!

CPK is trying hard to keep up with the new trends. They've got a styling station for the yarn hair.

Now THIS is a treehouse!

If they had this in an XL Kielle would have been a candy stripper this Halloween

They make the kids with teeth now!

I remember they had these when I got my cabbage pack kids. Why do they cost the same as real diapers?!?!

Super cute! Some are the size of the My Buddy and Kid Sister dolls... remember those?!?!

Boy or girl?!?! You have to open the present inside to see what color outfit you get! I LOVE this ;-)

My Cabbage Patch Kids Cherry Paulette with my own very own baby doll Kielle Elaine ;-)

Now Cherry Paulette is a little beat up, but if I would have kept her in pristine condition should would be worth about $700 bucks now. There is a museum at the facility and some of the earliest Cabbage Patch dolls are worth 5 to 8 thousand dollars. WOW! For more information on Babyland General and Cabbage Patch Kids check out http://www.cabbagepatchkids.com/

TIME TO 'MOMMY & DADDY' UP

There comes a time when a parent is forced to 'man up' or in our case 'mommy & daddy up'. It is imperative that Keith and I be the voices of our children if we think things are awry. This is easier said than done because Keith and I are both mild tempered. We're not fans of awkward situations or confrontation. Its just not where we excel as parents. But, sometimes you've gotta step out of your comfort zone and 'get buck'. On Friday October 7, 2011 Keith and I grew some major balls.

Here's the story:
Khyri goes to daycare three days a week Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Keith brings Khyri home from daycare on Wednesday in his shirt, and his shoes. What's missing?!?! That's right folks - PANTS! The boy came home in a diaper. *take a deep breath* I was LIVID. Of course I asked Keith what happened and he just answers "They said he had an accident at the school" *blank stare* Surely you asked for more information right Keith!?! Surely you think something is wrong here and that our son should not be in a diaper! Am I the only one upset about the situation? (because Khyri skipped into the house like he was in the poppy fields with Dorothy and friends. He was totally unphased) I am so angry I have to step outside and get myself together. I don't want the children to see me upset. Thoughts start going through my head Was Khyri embarrassed? How long was he in the diaper? WHY DIDN'T THEY CALL ME?

I jump on the phone and call the usual support team. I need to get some guidance and suggestions on how I need to approach this. My first reaction is to bust up in there and shut the whole place down... but that wouldn't result in anything but me going to jail and the kiddos being raised without a mommy. So let's explore some other options...First things first I need to get the entire story from the daycare. Keith doesn't ask questions - remember no confrontation, so I've only got bits of the story. If I'm going to raise hell I need to have the full story. So I take a deep breath.

Khyri is scheduled to go to school on Thursday, but I don't want to send him. I'm just not in the mood to deal with this mess  - again no confrontation. Of course the longer I put off goingin to talk, the more I am getting upset and frustrated. My emotions are snowballing - all rational thinking is slowly leaving the building ahahha. Keith decide that we are gonna go into the daycare and speak to the owners about our concerns on Friday. We didn't want to go during peak times (pick up and drop off) because we wanted the owner's full attention. So we went during naptime. Now let me interject here and say that the night before I was talking to Keith and he was being all calm. I told him straight up "Look when we go into that daycare I need you on the same page as me. We need to be equally upset. Don't try to make it look like I'm the irrational mom making a mountain out of a mole hill. We are team Mosley... don't be the weak link." I didn't know what to expect from him - but I had put him on notice. Come hard or don't come at all!

So on Friday me and the kiddos head to the daycare from the park and Keith leaves work early. We get there around 3:30pm. I pull up with a crying Kielle and I see Keith jump out of his car and head in. I get out and pull Kielle into the front seat to nurse her. Keith comes back out "You ready?!" What!?!? Wait a minute sir - are you ready to 'get buck'?? whoa.. I guess he said if we're gonna be on the same page then let's roll full steam. Dang! I wasn't ready. I didn't have my game face on yet. I'm still in playground mode. 'Mommy up" Kahlillah! I asked for 5 minutes to nurse Kielle. Do you know he went back in there and started the conversation without me! hahahaha Talk about irrational.. geesh. ahhaha. So finally me and the kiddos roll in and I sit down and start in on the owner. "I would like to discuss why Khyri came home in a diaper yesterday." I explained my dissatisfaction with how the situation was handled. Apparently Khyri had peed through his jeans and the teacher thought that leaving him in just a diaper was an acceptable solution. The owner said she wasn't aware of the situation until Keith walked into her office with Khyri to pay the bill (yes Keith proceeded to conduct business while his child was in a diaper - allllllll bad. but that's another discussion for a later day *sigh*). She supposedly went back and asked the teacher what happened. My main concern was that we did not receive a call. I told the owner that even though she does a background check for her staff, she does not know the backgrounds of all the other people that enter that daycare to pick up their children. Anybody could have been looking at my son in his underclothes. Anyone. You cannot tell me that there are no extra clothes in the daycare for accidents like this - no lost and found?... no nothing?!?!? Then the owner says "I don't know why she didn't use the extra clothes we have" What!?!? so you do have extra clothes?!?!?! You need to talk to ole girl STAT. Apparently she is not aware of your policy or procedures. Get her straight immediately.

I was very firm when talking to the owner. I didn't waver. As I was talking - literally in the middle of my sentence my husband, Keith Farren Mosley Jr., blurts out in his deep I'm not in the mood to play games right now voice, "We should have gotten a call!" Uhhhhh ok. I see you Keith! Throwing in some backup nice.. a little unexpected.. but nice.  ahhahaha At least we were on the same page. She definitely knew that we were both unhappy with the situation. The teacher wasn't there that day so we didn't get to speak to her. The owner said she was going to have a talk with the teacher "to hear her side". I don't know what side there is to hear. I mean look at the end result.. my baby came home in a daggone diaper. There's nothing else to discuss. Whatever... So we left the daycare feeling somewhat empowered. I definitely had my chest poked out a little. If anything, we made it clear that we are not sideline parents. We are very involved and not only expect the best for our child, but will call you out if you are not providing what we need.

So here we are today - Sunday and we have not heard from the daycare. I feel like we should have gotten a follow up call Friday afternoon. Remember - we still don't know exactly what happened. We only know that Khyri came out in a diaper. I don't know when he wet his pants. I don't know how the teacher came to the conclusion to leave him in a diaper. Where they trying to potty train him? Was his diaper on incorrectly? I don't know any of the actual events.

*sigh* So... now I gotta go back in there. I will send Khyri  this Tuesday and per the advice of my SororMommy friend Dawn I will reintroduce myself to the teacher and let her know that I am always available by cell phone. I will tell her that I want to be called whenever anything out of the ordinary happens with Khyri major or minor. I will also shoulder some of the blame for the situation by acknowledging that I did not pack an extra pair of pants (although that's why they have the emergency clothing stash... but whatever). Hopefully this will solve the situation. Either way, we are looking for a new school. I had planned on moving Khyri into a learning center in March, but now its really kicked up to January and if the finances are right- even earlier.

I was surprised at how Keith and I jumped into protector mode. We did good! Unfortunately I'm sure this is just the first of many times that we will have to be advocates and protectors of Khyri and Kielle. If the events of last week are any indication, I  know we're up to the challenge. Bring it - we're ready!

SCORE!

There are a few words that describe me to a tee : cheap, bargain, frugal, thrifty, budget, and my personal favorite - economical. I wear these words proudly. I looooooove finding a bargain. Over the past two years I have become addicted to consignment shopping.

Now before you have visions of little old me rummaging through tattered baskets and dusty sweaters, let me assure that this is not the bargain hunting of yore. I am an aficionado of children's consignment events. It's a fairly new business model where organizations or owners will hold consignment sales throughout the year.

My favorite consignment sales are thrown by the Cumberland Community Church Mothers Of Preschoolers (MOPS) group. You can check them out and learn more about the sales here. They organize a spring and a fall sale. In addition to keeping 70% of their profits, sellers have the option of donating unsold merchandise to charity at the end of the sale. Its the best of both worlds! I've sold in 3 sales so far.

Selling is fun, but boy oh boy is shopping THE BEST. You can really find some great deals at the events. Sometimes there are even items brand new with tags on! Usually I focus on clothing for Khyri and Kielle. This year though it all started with one toy that I wanted to get... and activity cube.

Way back in June I was crusing through the Red Dot Boutique aka Target and I came across this: *cue angel music in background*

THE ACTIVITY CUBE!!

I was absolutely positive that this was going to be the big gift that I got for Kielle this Christmas. It retails at Target for $59.99. Now me being thrifty, this was a big step for me to pay over $25.00 for a toy. But I kept looking at it every time I went into Target. I had to get this activity cube for my baby girl!

Fast forward to last weekend. I volunteered with the MOPS group to prepare for the upcoming consignment sale. I helped move furniture, stuffed goodie bags, and hung clothes on racks for the sale. It was during my volunteer shift that I spotted in the dimly lit corner not one but two of these activity cubes. I couldn't believe it! Sometime during my shift I managed to sneak away for a moment and get a peek at what the price was - $16! yup $16! So I set off home determined that on the first day of the sale I was going to get the cube.

The sale started at 5:30pm. I arrived at the church at 5:15pm. Dang. A line had already started forming. I was about number 7 in the line and since I was focused and knew exactly what I wanted I felt that I had a pretty good chance that I could get my cube. I mean seriously what are the chances that 2 out of the 6 people in front of me want activity cubes?!!? When the doors opened I struck in the room heading straight to the toy section on the right. At first I couldn't find the cubes. I started getting sad. I felt the tears starting to well up../ but then I located the perfect activity cube sitting under a shelf. I was so happy - no jubilant.. yes I was jubilant! Its not the exact same cube, but its close enough.. and dangit for 40 less dollars... yeah Kielle will still love it. So I grabbed my cube and stuck it in holding so I could continue shopping.

Finding clothes was a cinch because I had written a list on my cellphone of specific items I needed for Khyri and Kielle's wardrobe. Since Khyri has started going to school one extra day, we needed a few more long sleeve shirts and pants. So that was my main focus.

For awhile I was a little iffy about consignment shopping because I didn't know what condition the clothing would be. I am always pleasantly surprised at the good quality of the clothing I get. At this sale, I lucked up and bought mostly top tier name brand items - stuff that I definitely wouldn't have bought regularly. Here is a few of my great finds.

New With Tags (NWT) Gymboree sweater was $32.50 now $7.00!

Janie & Jack sweater vest and oxford shirt only $8!

$5 for this whole 3 piece outfit by Powder Bleu

Khyri is gonna be styling in this Baby GAP pullover - $4

Pretty in Pink Gorgeous in Green winter coat by Carters only $5!

And to think I thought my kids would never be able to wear Osh Kosh - $2!

Khyri's first Tommy Hilfiger shirt only $4

Summertime Style in Smartfit sandals retails for $19.99. I got them for $4!

I stuck to my list and got all the clothes we needed so I was happy. I even managed to squeeze in two puzzle games for Khyri and an additional stand up toy for Kielle. I was pretty happy with my haul. Now I just need to find places to hide the toys until Christmas. They both got a little taste - but they'll still be surprised in three months :-) Children... out of sight out of mind!

The complete haul!

My big consignment score included:

• 1 three piece girls outfit
• 1 long sleeve girls shirt
• 1 pair of girls jeans
• 1 girls winter coat
• 3 pairs of tights
• 2 pairs of boys jeans
• 1 pullover lightweight jacket
• 1 sweater vest
• 1 winter sweater
• 1 long sleeve boys shirt
• 2 long sleeve waffle knit layer shirts
• 4 oxford style shirts
• 2 pairs of boys shoes
• 2 puzzles
• 1 stand and play toy
• 1 ACTIVITY CUBE ;-)

There's nothing close to the exhilaration of finding a great deal! Saving money is awesome ahahah. I walked out of the consignment event Thursday having spent $100.50 for 25 items! And remember one of those items was the $16.00 activity cube. Not bad... not bad at all...

MILESTONES!

I can't believe that we are already in September. So much is happening and so quickly! Slow down 2011. Geesh. I can barely keep up. This post is all about achievements and growing up!

Solid Food - Yum Yum

Little miss Kielle has started solids! We eat solids maybe 3 days a week. She still prefers to nurse most of the time, so I'm not rushing into full on solids just yet. We started off with rice cereal and now we're on Gerber stage 1 foods. She loves sweet potato, but absolutely hates carrots.

Table Manners
Mr Khyri is a pro at using his big boy cup and spoon. He loves cereal for breakfast and mixed veggies for dinner. Of course chicken fingers is a serious staple at dinner time!

 

Kielle has taken over the highchair and Khyri now sits in a booster seat at the table. I think he feels like a big boy - actually, I don't think he even cares... as long as he's getting fed! Kielle has made the highchair her own spilling food all over the place. Take a look at what goes on at the Mosley table for meals:

What'd you say?
Big boy alert - Khyri is talking! I was concerned that he wasn't speaking much when he turned two so I enrolled him in speech therapy. The speech therapist Miss Laurie came to our house for an hour every two weeks.  Now homie talks up a storm! He says the alphabet, counts to 30, counts backward from 10, knows his colors and his shapes. He is a awesome! ;-) It's amazing to see how much he has heard over these past two years, but he just wasn't able to communicate with us. One time when I was putting him down to sleep, he started singing a song I made up for him. I sing this song every night - but I didn't know he heard it. I LOVE hearing him sing the song!!!
Goodnight...Goodnight. Sleep tight... sleep tight. When you wake you wake there will be a kiss from mommy! *sigh* YAY for the made up lullaby

What used to be a 10 minute walk to his daycare is now 25 minutes.  Khyri points out everything and identifies them by shape and color. Red rectangle door. Yellow Diamond - slow down. Red octagon - stop. The funniest thing is when we go to the Red Dot Boutique aka Target and Khyri starts saying Free! ahahhaha He is truly my child. He can spot a deal two aisles up!

Move Out The Way
Kielle is mobile! That's right!! My baby girl is up and moving. She started rocking on her knees a few weeks ago and then she moved up to the 'army crawl'. Two weeks ago, Keith's good friend Gina came by the house with some shoes that had flowers on them. Well that was all Kielle needed! She bee-lined to Gina's shoes. I hope this doesn't mean my daughter is gonna be a fashion diva hahahahha - cuz I can't help with that at all ;-)

Once she got the crawling down she moved onto bigger and better things. Tonight Little Miss Kielle decided to literally pop up with this:

Shopping Time
Our family marked a really big milestone last Sunday. We conquered the double shopping cart! Keith and I both acknowledge that going out with two children takes a LOT more planning and time than just one. We've pretty much got the double stroller down - all praises due to the Phil & Ted's Explorer hahahahhah - but the elusive double shopping cart was still a beast we were afraid of.

We started off doing our big monthly shopping at Costco. Gotta love the big double wide shopping carts at Costco!! Perfect for hauling tons of oversized pasta boxes and two wiggle worm kiddos. Kielle was looking too cute with her pink bow! Khyri had on whatever he would let me grab that morning *sigh* haahhahahaha

Next stop was Publix. They have THE COOLEST racecar double shopping carts. We loaded in the munchkins and headed inside to finish up our monthly shopping. Khyri seriously thought he was driving. He was spinning that wheel like a madman. It reminded me of Keith's driving! hahahaha

Keith tried to act like he was embarrassed. Whatever. I could swear I heard him saying 'vroom vroom' down one of the aisles when he thought I wasn't looking hahaaahahah.

One time for technology! I'm so glad we are able to capture some of these moments on camera. This way we can always look back and remember 'when'.