Grammys!

I have recently realized I missed my calling in life....Yes, I know, shocking that housewife/mother is not what I always intended to be. I was supposed to be...wait for it....a STAR!! Let me explain....

This past weekend, I had a fabulous surprise! For Beck's 60th birthday this year, my Dad got the two of them tickets to the Grammys. To say I was a tad jealous would be a colossal understatement. Actually, I felt the trip was slightly wasted on them when little ole me would appreciate it SO. MUCH. MORE.

Imagine my surprise and delight when Friday my Dad called and said, "okay, hop on a plane..I got you a ticket!" Yippee!!! While I was thrilled to go, I was sent in a tailspin. I needed to spray on a tan, mani/pedi and figure out WHAT TO WEAR. Basically, I had one day to get fabulous. Because I am me, I MIGHT have had a dress dry cleaned in the off chance that Dad would come through and invite me. You can never be to prepared...

I left Saturday and after being stuck in Dallas traffic for 2 hrs I had to valet (because that was the fastest option) RUN in the terminal and by what was a small miracle, I got to upgrade to first class. You may be wondering why this is so important? WELL, after being in the car for 4 hours and then having another 3.5 hr flight...that would be 7.5 hrs without eating...this prego would STARVE! Basically I was thrilled because in first class you get a meal.

 Sadly, my luck seemed to go slightly south when I was seated next to a professor who was only to happy to talk my ear off. During the flight he had 2 Bloody Marys', and FIVE glasses of red wine. Awesome. His topics of choice included, Obama and why he loves him, weather patterns in the US and his upcoming conference in Australia....oh. my-lanta...shut up...please! I finally arrived at the hotel at 11:45 pm. What a whip!

 The next morning (GRAMMY DAY!) Dad, Mom and I went to breakfast then went on a walk to get a little exercise. We walked to the Beverly Hilton where there was tons of media due to Whitney's passing as well as Clive Davis's party the night before. We then walked through the neighborhood and I immediately called Slade and said we needed to move HERE. The houses were amazing, the flowers were blooming...basically it was my happy place.

We had to leave our hotel at 2pm to head to the Staples Center for the show. The Grammys start at 5:00 sharp and you have to be in the building by 4:30. First, we went to the Ritz/JL Marriot which is right next to the Staples Center. There were people all over the lobby and in the hotel bar having a drink before heading over to the show. Since I am with child, I did not partake, but we sat down, had a drink and people watched. I thought the airport was good people watching....ohhh how wrong I was. LA during the Grammys brings out ALL kinds!

Originally, my ticket was not very good. Due to the diverse group of performers, tickets this year were even harder than usual to get. However, in true Tommy fashion, Dad found the only guy scalping that hadn't been arrested and got me a MUCH better seat! It was when we were waiting for Dad that Mom and I were approached by a Chinese News Station and asked to give an on camera interview on our thoughts about Whitney's passing.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. The three of us begin to be interviewed by the nice lady and when they get to Mom, she starts to get a little emotional talking about Whit. Oh dear...
The follow up question is can we possibly sing a few lines of our favorite Whitney song? Am, I being punked? Talk about feeling like you are in the twilight zone....We politely declined. I wonder if it would have made me a star in Shanghai?

We make our way into the Staples Center and immediately I realize that this is where I belong. The beautiful people in beautiful clothes, the stars, the cameras, all of it...it was like the mothership calling me home.Those stars who gripe and moan about the red carpet and "fame" in general...Puh-lease!  Walk on a red carpet while people yell at you how fabulous you are and how beautiful you look...SIGN ME UP! What, Ryan Seacrest, you want to interview me....sure! You want my picture? No prob! How would you like me to pose?

outside staples center

Dad and I

Mom and I

Red Carpet

Anyway, back to reality. We went into the Master Card suite before the show and it was fun. A bunch of cast members from the Bachelor were in there...

The show was AMAZING. So cool to see so much talent in one room. I sat next to my new bff Sona. She is about 50 and from Atlanta. She has her own company and does charity events across the country. She did an event for the Grammys and now is a member of the Grammys so she has been coming to the show for years. She was a wealth of knowledge and so much fun to sit by!

Dad got us FAB seats

The show was 3.5 hrs long but didn't really seem like it. I only got up once...that's how enthralled with it all I was. After the show, we went to the official Grammy after party. Supposedly, the nominees are all supposed to go, but if they were there they only stayed for about 20 seconds. The party itself, however, was great. There were concerts by One Republic and Kenny Loggins and the food was crazy good. It was a Rio De Janeiro themed so women in bikinis and elaborate headdresses danced on stages while shirtless men pranced around passing out drinks. 

After Party

Mom and I at after party

All in all, it was an amazing experience and I feel so lucky to have gotten to go...now I want to go back next year!! My one regret is that I didn't take enough pics!

Guess WHAT!?!

Its me Knox and guess what....I'm gonna be a BIG BROTHER!!!! I am beyond excited about this. From what I gather, my new sister (I keep telling Mom it's a girl) is inside Mommy's tummy. I like to lift up her shirt and point to the baby but Mom said I have to quit doing that in public.

The major bummer for me is that I have to wait until SEPTEMBER before I get to play with my little sister or brother.

 Supposedly, it takes quite a while for Mom to grow these babies. Ever since Mom started growing the baby my life has been pretty cush! I get to watch the ipad pretty much whenever I want because Mom is really sick. I also get to play with Gan and LoLo a lot because Mom has been baby sick as well as got my RSV....let's just say Mom's been pretty agreeable to whatever I do as long as I let her lay down while I do it. Like yesterday, Mom put a blanket on the grass in the front yard and I mowed all around her.

Basically this is a big deal for me, I am very excited to teach my little bro or sis about very important things like the mailman, mowing, the moon, choo choos, diggers and my favorite song, The Wheels on the Bus! I am going to need all these months until September to prepare! I have decided I would like to name the baby Bob Santa or Bubbles... Mom is not as fired up about these suggestions as I because she thinks that if a girls name is Bubbles Hodges then she probably will end up being a dancer on the main stage....I don't see why this is a bad thing? Dancers are great!

Christmas 2012

Here are a few pics from our amazing Christmas with Bebe and Grandad!!

Knox was so excited to "hold bebe yak" (Hold Baby Jack)

Santa!

he found the sparkle santa hat and LOVED it

the cutest trio ever!

Bebe playing with the toys

how many kids can you fit in a jeep

watch out ...Caroline's driving!

this picture makes me VERY happy

Grandad's light extravaganza

Grandad and the kiddos watching people from behind the lights.

So long Rizzle and Steve-O...

Up to this point, Rizzle and Steve-O have been Steve and Sharon's "grandparent" names. In true Knox form, he decided that he would like to put his flare on things and has changed them. So they are now Bob and Bebo. Sharon is Bob and Steve is Bebo How did this get changed you may ask? Well Rizzle wasn't really working for Sharon because Knox couldn't say it, so in his "everyone and everything including himself is Bob" phase, he must have called her Bob and she answered to it. Thus, Bob stuck. His cow is also still Bob so it gets slightly confusing at times but for the most part he's pretty clear to which Bob he is referring.

Bebo took a little longer for him to come up with. This past week he kept saying, "mamma call Bebo" I had NO idea what he was saying. Then he pointed to a picture that was taken at Steve and Sharon's and said, "Bob and Bebo home" ....ahhhh I get it....Bebo is Steve-O! Actually this works a little better for me because I was wondering what interesting looks I was going to get when he said he was going to visit his grandparents, "Bob and Steve."

Knox with Bob and Bebo

Mommy

Knox has decided today that I am no longer Mamma but Mommy. I don't know why but I kinda love it.

Lights!

I am totally a Christmas light snob. I like them a certain way but really I just like to see that a little effort went into the effect. I also dole out points for originality. That's why this year, our Christmas lights are really just God's reminder to me that bad lights happen to good people. I wish I could blame it on Slade, I seriously wish I could, but alas... he had nothing to do with it.

I went to get new lights and thought I wanted LED due to the energy saving benefits and they are brighter. In my haste I grabbed "cool white" as opposed to "warm white"...we get them all up and turn them on. Knox yells, "BLUE!" Well, he would be correct because it seems they are so "cool" the look blue. Awesome. So in an effort to debunk any rumors about us converting to Judaism, I added some greed LED lights to my garland on the bannister. That just looked ridiculous. Next, I added some colored lights...I am usually not a big fan of colored lights but I can't very well have two shades of white, now can I?

Needless to say, our lights this year are abysmal. They do not bring me the joy I sought when the process began. They do, however, cause Slade and I to laugh every time we pull in the driveway because they are just that bad. It looks like a colorblind toddler put them up. Oh well, there's always next year.

In what I can only say is the yin to my yang...my Dad and I decided to totally go "Griswald" on their lights this year because all the grand babies will be home for Christmas. It's not super hard when your main goal is to impress a three yr old and two 2 yr olds. Dad went balls to the wall and ordered 300 strands of lights and hired a crew to put them up. After three days of a bucket lift being in my parents front yard, they are complete. I would say I was more a co-designer on the project since I did none of the labor and paid for none of the lights. It didn't turn out exactly as we planned but this was our maiden voyage... so by the time the kids are say, ten, its going to rock your socks off. Dad wanted to do lots of blow up's etc. but in her true 4th quarter quarterback style (comes in at the last minute and thinks she's in charge) Mom nixed that. I tried to impress upon Dad that the true art of being over the top is to make it seem as though you don't realize it's too much. To be overtly tacky is just to easy...it takes more finesse and planning to make people question just what the heck you are doing.

A small fortune later, it looks amazing. Dad is a little bummed because he thinks it's too classy and not "Griswald" enough. Well hell, next year he can just have my "blue" and colored lights and shake things up a bit. He did decorate the kids playhouse in lights and it's really cute.

in process...

finished!

Bob Santa...

Meet Bob...he was formerly Knox, but I guess that was just a little to "out there" for him. After naming his bounce cow "Bob" Knox has decided that he likes the name and has adopted it. If you ask him what his name is...Bob. What? We don't even know a Bob that we regularly see, so I have NO idea where he got this. This morning I realized I didn't know Bob's last name. When I asked him, he thoughtfully looked up and after a moment responded....Santa. Meet Bob Santa ...(formerly Knox Hodges)

I have no idea where he found his sunglasses but he just walked in as I was typing this morning dressed like so