"It Smells Like Santa Has Been Here" aka Christmas #3

That was the quote of the day from Anna.

Anna woke up saying "Will. Some. Bod. eee. Come. Wake. Me. Up!" from her room. I got up there and she went to the bathroom while I went in to change Carter's diaper. She came into his room...

whispering...
"Mommy! Santa came and he brought me what I always wanted!"

What's that?

still whipsering...
"A rocking chair! And it's full of stuffed animals!"





Before we opened gifts Carter insisted on eating a breakfast bar.




Santa brought Anna a rocking chair, a singing barbie and a giraffe.

Santa brought Carter a walking dinosaur and a tool work bench.



Opening Stockings...


Make way for the dinosaur


Kevin had no idea I got him the Wii.




Merry Christmas to all and and to all a good night.

Christmas Eve aka Christmas #2

Christmas #2 was at my parents house on Xmas eve.

My brother Zach and his wife Kristen


Take note, this is how it looked when we started.



First present opened.


Carter's into it.


C'mon papa, can't you get it out yet!?


They are really fast.


And our work here is done.


Uncle Ben got the kids those cool cardboard blocks. Kevin and I loved these as kids. Carter seems to like them too...

This is what happens when you have a big sister

Project from last weekend

Here's the project my mom helped me with last weekend - hanging all of these photos up and down our stairs at the house.

Going down towards the basement.




Going upstairs.


At the landing.


Opposite.


Up the stairs.

You Are Going to Have a Baby

I know this is several videos but I think it's totally worth it.

Anna's Christmas play at daycare.



You're Going To Have A Baby...


Glory to God and Silent Night


Away In a Manger


The Wise Men


The Doves


Mary and Joseph asking for a donkey

Do you have a lot of birthdays in December?

Wow has it really been that long since I wrote something? Where have I been all this time?

Thursday my mom and I took Anna to see Seussical. Her first play. It was very entertaining. Cute show with cute lyrics and lots of music.

Friday I went to dinner with Lisa who was in town for www.kcsweaterparty.com. I didn't go to the party because I was exhausted and feeling really behind on all the Christmas hoopla.

Saturday while Kevin was hunting my mom came over and we hung all those pictures I framed. I had attempted to do this by myself and realized it was not a good idea. Kevin might have divorced me if we tried to do that together. Would you believe on Sunday my calves were sore from going up and down the stairs so many times? That's really sad. Really out of shape. I told Kevin maybe he should get me a treadmill for Christmas.

I also got the tree up on Saturday. Finally. We hung the non-breakable ornaments, started with the breakables and Anna broke the first one. I decided to hold off on those until they are asleep and I'll hang them up high.

Sunday morning Tassie somehow managed to get all the way behind the tree and then realized she might not be able to get back out. It was early and Kevin was still sleeping and I seriously had visions of the whole thing flipping over. Somehow, miraculously she squirmed her way out.

I then went shopping with Candi in an attempt to buy some presents before the weather freaked out. It started out as 61 and ended up at 16 in the afternoon. It is now frigidly cold. Have I mentioned how much I hate the cold? Is it May yet?

All this time Anna has been praciticing her songs for the Christmas play. She knows more words than I do, and songs I've never even heard of. It's all about baby Jesus. They are having a Christmas party on Friday at daycare. There is a list of treats you can sign up for. I signed up for pink lemonade. One of her teachers then proceeded to tell me she's baking two birthday cakes. To which I actually said, Oh, do you have a lot of December birthdays? And she said "It's Jesus' birthday". Right. She must thing I'm a moron. Or an atheist. If I got to pick I'd hope she just thinks I'm an atheist.

Today I finally ordered my Christmas cards. Right on top of things.

Grandma Central

This morning Kevin's mom left (thanks for watching the kiddos while we went to the wedding!) and tonight my parents came over after being out of town for nearly 3 weeks. They brought us dinner which gave me the night off (thanks!)

Kevin and I finally figured out what days we are doing holidays where. And we decided we should start buying some gifts since Christmas is just 2 1/2 weeks away.

I am so not prepared this year for some reason. So he knocked a gift off a list and I finished a gift for the grandparents and great grandparents. 2 down. Probably 10 to go, I haven't counted.

Not to metion that it is apparently EMAIL CRAZY week at work. I'm trying to get another person hired so I can go back to working normal hours. I have 3 interviews scheduled tomorrow. Good for getting someone else, bad for me planning to get much done.

I Am Officially Potty Training Again

Carter is starting to show real interest in potty training. So much so that I bought pull ups on Thursday. But training a boy is so different. He pees all over his hand. Which i'm only allowing because it's better than peeing all over me.

But so far he has gone EVERY TIME I have put him on the potty and when I remember to ask he has had a dry diaper.

Right now we are just rewarding with stickers and LOTS and LOTS of excitement from everyone and anyone who is around when it happens.

I hope this goes better than when I trained Anna. So far that was my least favorite "phase" (which lasted a year and a half).

College Reunion

We went to a wedding this weekend for one of Kevin's friends from college. It was a no-kids wedding so it was like a college reunion with no kids. Party On!


We are almost all married with two kids.

It was at Big Cedar Lodge so every room was FULL of dead animals like this.

Happy Bday Baby Boy

Carter turned 2 last Saturday. Happy Birthday my sweet baby Carter.

Today he had is checkup. I thought he would get shots but he didn't, so I gave him a dose of Tylenol for nothing. oh well.

36 inches tall - 90th percentile
29 pounds - 75th percentile
90th percentile for head size

At two you love...

...trains
...Mickey Mouse
...markers
...playing with your sister
...music and dancing, although your version of dancing is jumping
...grandma and papa
...the dogs
...reading books

At two you say...

...2 and 3 word sentences all the time
"dink peas"
"uh oh mommy"
"mo milk mommy"
"good morning anna"

...4 word sentences occasionally like
"I unt juice mommy"

... animals names by picture and say their corresponding noises. You like to tease me at the end of one of the books by joking that a dog says "oink oink"

... All of your body parts

You sing...

...Jingle Bells
...most of the ABCs although it's a little fuzzy after P sometimes

At two we are dealing with...

...your hitting when you can't express via words how you feel
...unexplainable mood swings I can only equate to a 15 year old girl
...taking away the binky

I love it when...

...you put your hand on my back when you're first laying down on the changing table in the morning. As if to say "good morning mommy"

...you cuddle with me on the couch

...you play so well with your sister, like two peas in a pod

...you wake up happy and playing in your crib

...you still let me rock you at night and lay your head on my chest with your blankie

When Anna turned 2 I was just pregnant with Carter. Not planning on doing that again right now. Of course, we weren't planning on doing that then either. ha. no seriously. not now.

It's Beginning To Look More Like Christmas

This morning the very first thing Anna said was

"I dreamed about Rudolph."

Maybe that's what did it, or maybe it was the fact that the sun finally came out, but I got the Christmas spark today.

We listened to Christmas music in the car and I discovered that Carter knows all the words to Jingle Bells. Guess what he must be singing at the daycare Christmas program.

I bought Kevin's present and a few things for the kids. I also got my nails done and a spray tan for this weekend. Kevin's mom comes tomorrow to watch the kids while we go to a wedding a few hours away for a college friend that Kevin went to school with.

This evening we put out the Christmas wreath and reindeer on the front porch, hung the stockings and put up garland. We don't have the tree out or any lights up but it's beginning to look more like Christmas.

Hello December

This evening Anna has been singing Christmas caroles from her program at daycare. They do a Christmas play and she is an angel she tells me.

I've been having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year for some reason. I'm not motivated to buy presents, haven't gotten a single decoration out and haven't made my Christmas list. Even with our first snow on Sunday morning and having a snow ball fight with the kids and sledding down the hill in our mountain of one inch of snow, I haven't gotten excited yet.

But I was slightly inspired by the "pa rum puh pun pun" that Anna kept singing over and over and over and over while I was making dinner tonight. She also knows all the words to silent night and away in a manger. I was very impressed. I don't even know all the words to away in a manger.

Ali is doing a Daily December album. I had considered doing this and maybe I still will later after just documenting in the blog each day (although I missed yesterday but I could write about the first snow or Cyber Monday for my job - we sent about 750,000 emails) but with so many unfinished projects looking me in the face I decided not to start another.

Carter went "pee on potty" twice today and received a cute certificate for doing so.

NOW HERE'S something I'm excited about! Britney announced a tour this morning and tickets were already on sale. Thank god my friend Ramsey had emailed me about this - it was the first email I opened - scrambled to get Ticketmaster open and search for tickets - wait, what are premium tickets - how much are those - what are these packages - Candi, candi, I must call my friend Candi before I buy tickets. Whew - after all was settled I am happy with our Section 107 Row 21 seats. But imagine what we could have gotten if I had just received that email one hour earlier. Or turned on Good Morning America instead of the Today Show. Oh well. Now I just have to wait for April 2nd. Kind of like a Christmas present for myself I guess.

MU Game

Yesterday we went to the MU KU game at Arrowhead. This is only my 4th event at Arrowhead and I've lived in KC my entire life. And two of my events were concerts.

We were lucky enough to have Zach and Kristin come over early to babysit the kids all day. Thanks guys!

We bundled up and tailgated before the game. We got very lucky and our seats turned out to be under the overhang. This was critical because it was a wintry mix the entire game and most people were soaked.

The boys:


Our setup:


The girls:


Our own personal porta potty:


Success:


Touchdown:


Halftime:


You can really see the snow coming down here:

If only this had been the final score.

SAHM

Today I am playing SAHM (stay at home mom) on a week day because I have the day off. Of course, as a working mom with an extra day off I tend to overload my to-do list.

1. Finish putting pictures in frames, possibly hang some
2. Finish week in the life album: Print my journaling, Laminate the cover, Finishing touches. Photograph. Post online
3. Laundry
4. Dishes
5. Vacuum

Anna is begging me to take them to Paradise Park so I'm trying to decide if I'm up for that adventure today and how that fits in with a possible nap schedule.

I also need to do something with the four boxes of clothes a distant relative gave me. I think I am going to just give these to my mom to use as extra clothes for the kids when they are at grandma's house. It's no secret I love to shop so I really don't need any of these clothes for the kids. I think last time she gave me all this stuff I took it to Goodwill so someone else who really needs it could use it.

I am trying so hard to purge, not keep extra stuff, find some organization to my household. And then somehow more junk - lots of it - boxes and boxes - somehow make it into my house. Seriously, have we met? We never unpack all the boxes after each move we make so what makes other people think they should give us more old stuff that we will never go through and only have to move later?

And then I think, I should be thankful that I have too much stuff.

Family Photos

Mike Freeland takes the best pictures. He did our wedding photos and about a month ago we did some fall family pics. I'm going to have a hard time choosing. Here are just a few of the more than 150 to pick from.

Old School

For a good laugh and a blast back to the 90's

Carter looks like...

Zach 18 months


Carter 22 months


Me 17 1/2 months


Carter 17 months


Anna 18 months

Anna says...

So I DID manage to get all of those things on my list done, plus make the appetizer I remembered I had planned to take. I did get an extra hour though because Kevin didn't get off work until noon. We arrived around 4 pm at the same time as Kevin's brother-in-law and his wife. Today we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and then packed it back up and headed home. We got here around 7:30. Kind of a quick trip.

Tassie cut her paw on the farm but I think she is going to be ok. I think Sonar would have preferred to stay, although he did sleep on Anna's lap on the way back which was pretty cute.

On the way down we experienced this cute "Anna says"

Anna: Look a statue.
Me: That's a cemetary.
Anna: No, it's a statue patch. Like a flower patch.

I will forever call cemetaries statue patches. I thought this was so clever.

Really glad this is only a 3 day work week for me.

Thanksgiving #2

Today we go to Kevin's parents for Thanksgiving #2. Carter got pink eye on Thursday so I worked from home yesterday and then I came down with a cold last night. Carter was up at some point in the middle of the night to "wock" = rock and I was up several times blowing my nose and sneezing. I'm also trying really hard NOT to get pink eye.

So in the next two hours I'm planning to

1. Bathe the kids because there is no hot water in the bathtub at Kevin's parents house
2. Pack
3. Dishes
4. Move laundry to dryer
5. Shower and get myself ready

I crossed almost everything off the list on Thursday, even with Carter being my buddy all day, so wish me luck this morning. I should have got up earlier but I feel like crap.

Thanksgiving #1

So we had our first of 2 (or possibly 3) Thanksgivings last weekend. Since everyone was together on my side of the family we also sang Happy Birthday to Carter and I had a Sesame Street cake made.

My brother Zach and his wife Kristen got us what could possibly be the most annoying toy ever. I really thought I had seen them all but with no volume control and no off switch this one might take the taco. It is soon to be banished to being an outdoor toy.

My grandpa was released from the hospital to join us for the Thanksgiving dinner which was nice. Then he had to be back by 5. They say he had a mild stroke. Today he starts rehab for his fingers. He is now back at home.

I was thankful to get to see my cousins on my mom's side which I don't see very often. One just got married last summer and the other is engaged to get married this summer.

Today I have a long list of to-do's. I was going to work until I realized I will be doing Thanksgiving #2 this weekend and then next week is Thankgiving so the stores will be super crazy. I have to do these errands today since some involve mall and toy stores.

1. Grocery Shopping for next week since I won't be able to go on Sat. or Sun. This means I might have to cook and freeze some stuff today if at all possible cause produce isn't going to make it that long.

2. Macys to get lancome toner and mascara

3. Get Carter a Bday present (his bday is the 29th which is the Sat after Thanksgiving and god knows I'm not gonna try to hit a toy store between Thanksgiving and Saturday.)

4. Long underwear to wear to the MU KU game at arrowhead on the 29th (also on Carter's bday)

5. Find someone to watch the kids while we go to the MU KU game

6. Call Mike our photographer and give him credit card info to pay for sitting fee. Hope to get a login to view proofs today. very excited about these

7. Need a few more frames from Michael's to complete the framing project

8. Print and finish week in the life album (ok this probably won't get done but in an ideal world)

9. Target
- lotion
- toothpaste for kevin
- shaving cream
- diapers
- diet mt dew for kevin
- any entertaining & food items needed for trip to kevin's parents

So needless to day I'm drinking the coffee as fast as I can. I dropped the kids off at daycare to try to be as efficient as possible.

Ready - Go!

TGIS

Thank god its the weekend. Another crazy work week ending with a crazy Friday. Also, last night my grandpa had to go to the hospital last night because he couldn't feel three of his fingers. Or at least this is the telephone-effect-report I received. Not sure what is really wrong yet.

Here's everything I would LIKE to get done today. Reality? Probably half?

Nail salon
Grocery shopping
Pick up a few more frames at a different Michaels
Print week in the life album journaling
Laminate cover for week in the life album
Laundry. Lots and lots of laundry
Toy pickup
Dishes
Go to Sam and Candi's for dinner and cards

I came home yesterday to find out my hubby is paying my car off! Best early xmas present! I now love him forever :)

Still Here!

I have been out of commission for while since work has been so crazy. Kevin had also been out of town on hunting trips so I had the kids all to myself two weekends in a row. He gets back tonight and that was his last trip for the season.

I did get some more scrap time in with my BFF. I filled all my pattern paper slots in my "week in the life" album and finished all my days of the week titles. I downloaded some of Ali's digital layouts and copied my journaling from my blog into the layouts, getting them to fit within one 8.5x11 page. Since I only have a normal printer I am printing my journaling on 8.5x11 to adhere to my 12x12 page. I'll add some some embellishments or ribbon I think. I did my title for the front of the album. It's close to wrapping up but I think it will be next weekend before it's final.

Today I made a trip to Michael's and got 12 8x10 frames and 4 5x7 frames and one with two 5x7 openings in one frame. The 8x10 frames were 2 for $9 it was such a deal. The others were 40% off. I have a lot of posed photos of the kids over the years that have just been sitting in a box up stairs. I finally decided to just do all black frames with white mattes and to put them going up and down the stairs we have (this gives me four walls to do arrangements). I got some of them in the frames tonight but not all and haven't hung yet. I am excited about this project too and promised myself to finish it by the time Thanksgiving is over.

Speaking of... we are doing Thanksgiving at my grandparents this weekend as well as a little party for Carter's birthday. It's early but the only time everyone could get together. I ordered a Sesame Street cake at the grocery store this morning that I'm sure will be a hit. I can't believe my baby will be 2.

Well I'm sure that's enough writing to catch everyone up for the last week.

I'm voting for

Obama. And so should you. Especially if you live in Missouri.

Fall

Today we were up early because of the time change. I had done meal planning, showered, been to the grocery store and back all by 10:30. It was a beautiful day so I let the kids play outside until lunch.

Our neighborhood isn't very old so it cracked me up when Anna thought the few leaves from our lonely tree in front was a "huge pile." I thought back to when we lived in Prairie Village before she was born, at all the huge oak trees we had that would dump a foot of leaves over the entire ground and clog our gutters causing the rain to overflow and make our basement leak. I'm sure this is the only reason we own a rake today and that it has hung in our garage since then until I pulled it out today. Anna and I raked the leaves IN to a pile. The kids jumped and then Carter raked all the leaves OUT of the pile. Anna picked more leaves from a tree by the house to put into the pile. And then they did some swinging.

We went inside for lunch, a quick trip to Target and Walmart looking for clearance halloween items. Then we all took a nap for at least 2 hours and the kids for 3. There is nothing like a good nap.

**********************

Serious scrap time on Saturday with Candi. Look for updates on my Week In The Life Album soon.