He gets it

Hayden: Santa gon' come to my new house?
Mom: Yep, he knows where our new house is.

Hayden: Then the Grinch gon' get my presents?

That kid is smart. Or, watches too much tv.

Hayden's birthday party

Three is an important age! We decided to have Hayden's birthday party at our new house this year, as we could probably get away with at least one more low-key party before we have to go all Bumper Jumpers and Safari Nation and Chuck E. Cheese. This was our extra motivation to get as much of our house done as possible before November 19th!

Hayden is interested in a lot of things, but none so much as Toy Story 3 and balloons! We had no problem finding decor for his party. In fact, the hard part is not buying all of it! But we figured the kids don't pay much attention anyway, and the adults were more excited about seeing our house!

After our quick lunch of 3-year-old friendly foods (Chick Fil A nuggets, chips, sliced cheese, pasta salad) we got down to business. Hayden has gotten much better at opening presents, and even stopped to "read" some cards!

He had a great time seeing his family, especially his cousins Ryan and Zoe, and loved all his toys! He is especially partial to a construction zone with a remote-controlled dump truck, and he sleeps with his new pillow pet. Hard to believe he's 3!

About four hours after the party ended, he decided it was time for cake and he finally dug into his Buzz and Woody cake! What a great day for our sweet little wild man.

Kahlua Cake

This is one of my very favorites, and special thanks to Jaime Boris for sharing it with me!

1 box devil's food cake , without the pudding


1 large box instant vanilla pudding

4 large eggs

16 oz sour cream

3/4 cup oil

2/3 cup kahlua (the recipe calls for 1/3 but i add a little extra)



Mix ingredients until well blended. Stir in 6 oz chocolate chips. Pour into well-greased bundt pan and bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.

I sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving. Happy Friday!

Working it

Last week, I attended a conference for Financial Aid at Embassy Suites in Greensboro. I was excited to finally get in a little professional development, and even more excited that it was in my backyard and NOT across the state. I got to see my Sarah, whom we miss dearly, and meet some new friends. I also ran into two Salem alums, as well as the Financial Aid Office staff from Salem. It was fun to have that piece of "home" amongst a ton of new faces!

Myself, Jen Cassels, Dee Dee Carter and Christy Chesnut, in a quick break between sessions.

I learned a lot, brought back some good informations and some swag for my office, and generally had a good time meeting with other financial aid professionals and learning more about my job. This is a tricky business, with regulations changing all the time and it was nice to hear a lot of things in one place instead of piecing them together.

I'll miss out on the spring conference on account of one newborn baby Rogers, but I'm excited to attend another one later!

Well. That's done.

Last weekend we made one last round of trips to the apartment to pick up a few odds and ends, and to clean. Jay and Hayden packed up the car and I stayed behind to scrub and vacuum and whatnot. It was nice to have a few minutes to myself to reflect on our time in the apartment. As I wiped out the fridge and scrubbed the tub, I found myself surprised that I had zero attachment to those walls. I remember standing in our apartment in Germany, closing the door one last time and trying not to cry. THAT place, where I spent almost five years and went from newlywed to mom in what seemed like a blink, where we brought Oscar and Hayden both home to, where we had friends over for good times and bad...I was so sad to leave it and so terrified for what would come next. But I guess this time, I wasn't sad to leave it because I knew I was headed home. Truly home, to a house I own, that we will make a million new memories in with new family members. I'm grateful for our little transition apartment, but I had a much harder time saying goodbye to Hayden's old daycare than I did to Lake Brandt Place apartments! Jay turned in our keys yesterday and we officially only have one residence now!

Happy Birthday, Hayden!

My little man is three years old today. How time flies! This time three years ago, I had no idea that I'd be holding a little boy in my arms by midnight. What a wonderful gift he is!

We will celebrate tonight with a new movie and some brownies that I'm sure he'll be excited to help me make. His family and a few friends will be over Saturday afternoon to help him blow out his three candles!

Happy Halloween!

We were SO excited for Halloween in our new house! We couldn't wait to take Hayden out trick or treating in our new, giant, overly-popular-for-Halloween neighborhood. We were also excited because our cul-de-sac has parties for every holiday, even if it has to be a short one because of work and school the next day. Hayden wore his costume at school for his last day there, and was excited about Halloween! I came home, tossed dinner in the oven, freshened up my own costume (ladybug) and Hayden and I waited impatiently for Jay to eat (we were too excited to eat).

He was the cutest little Woody!

We headed out to our neighborhood and saw tons and TONS of kids. People come from all over Greensboro because Adams Farm is such a concentrated location, so we got to see tons of fun costumes! Hayden got really excited every time he saw another Woody, and I was surprised how few Buzz Lightyears we saw!

After awhile he was tired of the hat so I carried it. At every house that had pumpkins, he made sure to tell me which ones were big, which ones were babies, and that they were our neighbors' pumpkins. He did really well with "thank you" after the candy but "trick or treat" was pretty quiet. I'm always surprised how shy he can be around strangers.

Oscar also loves Halloween because he gets to go with us! One of the neighbors had their dog (and treats) alongside their Halloween candy, and Hayden got really excited to give a treat to Oscar. The good thing about an almost-three-year-old on Halloween is the attention span. After a good 30 minutes, he was ready to go home. Perfect! We checked out his candy, let him have a few pieces and then it was bath and bedtime for our little trick or treater.

Happy Halloween!