I'm Soooooooo Busy!!!

I don't even have time for this post! Work has me swamped, and family...it's Christmas-time...what more can I say? I want to tell you all about the wonderful time I had last night working with families that are less fortunate, but it will have to wait. I want to tell you about how 98% of my Christmas cards are out, but that will have to wait. I want to tell you about how I have to have 6 dozen cookies made by tomorrow night, but that will have to wait.

I have work to do! Hopefully I can update soon!

Contest Winner and Update...

I'm sorry for the delay in letting you know who won the contest, but Jen from Sabbatical Mom won the $30 at http://www.cookware.com/! Congratulations Jen!!! Please send me your e-mail address and I will get you the info.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I feel like I have been burried alive. On top of all of the holiday and work stress, I have two very sick kids. Ryan has pink eye on top of a really bad cold. He looks and feels miserable. Kylie has a stomach flu right now, and at 11:10 PM, I cannot see a bedtime in sight for me. 3 kids in her class threw up at school today, and she decided to join in the fun around 7:00 this evening. Unfortunately, she is on an every-20-minute schedule, so John and I will likely try to take turns getting 20 minute power naps with her tonight.

But in all of this, I'm thankful. I'm thankful that my kids rarely, and I mean rarely get sick. I'm thankfuly that my mom made us dinner tonight, and that they are here this weekend in case John and/or I contract this stomach-thing.

And I hope we don't get sick...we have John's office Christmas party tomorrow night, and then we have our house church potluck on Saturday, and I need to get a ton of stuff done this weekend...I have been praying really hard that John and I stay healthy, or at least that we get what Ryan has and NOT the stomach bug.

Good Night With Friends, Sick Baby...

This is the last day to enter the contest!!! Come on people…this is $30 free and clear!!!

What an evening…

Poor Ryan woke up sick yesterday morning. He was completely fine the day and night before, but woke up all congested and was just miserable and clingy the whole day. Thankfully, we as a family don’t get sick very often, so I really have nothing to complain about. But it’s still so hard when a baby is sick…it’s so hard to comfort him because he doesn’t watch TV, no matter how hard I try, and he just wants you to hold him, while standing up. Last night he was up from 2:00 AM - 4:00 AM again, only this time he was happy and playing in his crib from 2 - 3 (and constantly saying "dadda! Daaaadddddaaa!") and then whined himself to sleep from 3 - 4.

On a brighter side, our neighbors came over for dinner last night, and that was a ton of fun! With it being so cold outside, we never see them, and that’s hard to adjust to when we were used to seeing them every day during the summer. So the kids all played in the basement while the adults got to catch up. And Ryan even took a little nap, which made him feel a little better.

While discussing with my neighbor the next 2 ½ weeks leading up to Christmas, I started to stress again…I just hate how much there is to do! I still have to finish shopping, I have to wrap all of the presents, I have to get the Christmas cards out, I have to make more Christmas cookies, and we have a number of gatherings before Christmas where I need to make food or get a present ready. And it doesn’t help that I think I have the same cold as Ryan…I have had constant headaches and just don’t feel well.

I know I will get everything done…I just really hope to get it all done before Christmas Eve!

Weekend Wrap-Up...

Another fantastic weekend that ended too quickly!

But first…don’t forget about my contest below…post a comment to that post before midnight tomorrow night and you’ll be entered into the drawing for a $30 gift certificate to www.cookware.com!!!

Friday evening my sister called me and said she was at the bridal salon and had found another dress that she liked better than the one she had picked out. So I ran over there and looked at it…definitely gorgeous and definitely made her happier! After that I rushed home for house church. Yet again, a fun evening with friends! I love that my hectic, stressful weeks end with a night with good friends and food :)

Saturday morning was a lazy morning. The kids played, and while Ryan went down for his morning nap, I actually laid on the couch for about a minute! Unfortunately, right at that time Kylie informed me that she was hungry for lunch. So I got back up and made everyone lunch :)

After Ryan’s nap, my mom, my dad, and the kids and I headed over to our town’s holiday festival. John’s company was doing a picture booth like they always do, so he was already there. This year it was nice having my parents there because the past few years they have been busy, and it has been just me navigating three kids through the absolute chaos!

The first thing we did was we went and saw Santa (I love this because we never have to go see a mall Santa because this Santa is awesome, takes his time, and we get great pictures!). Ryan of course screamed, which is good because I love that screaming Santa-picture! After Santa, John took the kids’ picture, and then we headed to the next room and did all of the crafts. The kids really have fun at this event each year…it just stinks because it’s so crowded, and there are so many small children and strollers, and no room to walk.

After we were done, we headed home and everyone took a nap :) After our naps we made some Christmas cookies and ate pizza. It really was a good Saturday! Sunday was church, and then grocery shopping and then just hanging out at home. After we cleaned up the playroom, the kids and I played a game of I Spy (the board game). If you have young kids I highly recommend this game…Josh and Kylie can play this equally well, and even I have a lot of fun playing it with them! Now it’s back to the grind of the week and stressing about getting everything done for Christmas. I’m about 60% done with my Christmas shopping and I’m waiting on a ton of packages to arrive. Once those get here, I hope to get some major wrapping done and hopefully be completely done the week before Christmas. That’s the goal anyway :)

Christmas Lists and A CONTEST!!!

It’s no secret to those who know me that I love to cook. Part of the reason that I love to cook is because I love good food, and therefore, I love to make good food. It’s funny, I don’t enjoy cooking an easy mac ‘n cheese meal, because to me, that’s not “good food” (don’t get me wrong, that is a family staple in our house, I just don’t love cooking it). But you want pot roast with homemade mashed potatoes, onions and carrots? I will gladly whip that up for you!

So in the past years, my Christmas list contains many cooking items. Last year my list consisted of a wok, a Panini pan, a pasta machine, wooden spoons, a fryer, spatulas and measuring spoons. I received all of those items and have used them more times than I can count (except for the pasta roller thing, but that’s only because I haven’t taken the time to learn how to make pasta yet, but I’m dying to try!). And John’s gift to me last year? A set of three fabulous, hard-core knives. One of the best presents he’s ever gotten me, and it wasn’t even on my list! This year I have some cooking items on my list again, but not as many as I really don’t need many more items.

One thing that I would love to get some day is a whole set of good pots and pans. I was searching cookware sets and drooling over the Calphalon sets. I’m very lucky in that I do have a bunch of Calphalon pans (all pretty much given to me at my wedding), and I love them. But not all of my pans are Calphalons, and sometimes those pans that aren’t make me angry :).

In the spirit of giving, the awesome people over at http://www.cookware.com/ have given me a $30 gift certificate to give away to one lucky reader! All you have to do is leave a comment to this post telling me what item you would love to have from http://www.cookware.com/ by Midnight, EST on Wednesday, December 9th, and I will randomly pick one person to win the gift certificate!

I have browsed the site, and being the avid cooker that I am, everything looks so wonderful! I keep drooling over my Shun knives (seriously, if you ever want good knives, I LOVE them!) and hoping that maybe John will get me another one for Christmas. And if you want a good Panini pan, they have my Calphalon one on sale with free shipping! I have yet to make an actual “Panini,” but I use the pan all the time for grilled cheese! The kids even ask me to make it in that pan as opposed to a normal skillet.

So go to the site and look around…you will find some great deals! You can Christmas shop and maybe get yourself a little something too! And leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for the $30 gift certificate!

Quick Kiddo Update...

I’m really busy at work, which is unusual for December. Usually during this time I’m able to get everything ready for my busy time starting in January, clean up my office, and be able to take time-off guilt-free (of my own doing…not by anyone else). But this year is different. I’m working on a memo that is, quite frankly, draining me. It’s about a topic I just can’t get my arms around, and that’s so frustrating to me. I know that I will figure it out, I always do, but the road has been/will be bumpy.

So I’ll take a minute to give a quick kid recap and then I’ll dive back into the madness :)

-Kylie is the best big sister I’ve ever seen. She plays with Josh a lot, and hates it when he’s upset or getting in trouble. I can leave Ryan with her while I run and do something and know that she will watch him at all times and make sure he is not climbing the stairs!

-Joshie is adorable! His knowledge of sports never ceases to amaze me. He knows players, and rules, and teams and scores. Joshie knows his numbers a lot better than Kylie did at this age just because of watching so many sports! He’s also learning addition a lot earlier because of sports – his imaginary football games will have scores and we’ll work through what the new score is now that a team has scored a touchdown.

-Ryan is my buddy! Hearing “mamma” come out of his mouth in his high-pitched voice never gets old (even at 2:00 in the morning!). He’s a tough little kid…he bonks his head a lot and he’ll just sit there and rub it and move on. We have a little kids’ couch (made out of foam) down in the play room, and he likes to climb over the back of it and tumble down – he’s such a roly-poly! He has also mastered climbing up the little Tykes slide we have and sliding down. I can’t trust him completely by himself yet though…he likes to stand up and look over the edge :)

-Kylie is my little smarty-pants. We had her conferences and her reading evaluation put her at the level they like to see kids leaving first grade at. It’s no surprise as she loves to read and does it all the time. She does great on her spelling tests, and this week is her first week with two “challenge” words which are extra credit (holiday and thankful). She’s good at math, but not as strong as reading. Just about every other night John gives her a page of addition and subtraction problems as a timed test (this is what they do in school). She gets flustered and tells herself she can’t do the problems. I keep trying to work with her and tell her that she can do them, she just needs to calm down and breathe!

-Joshie makes me laugh the most. He makes the funniest faces when he talks, and he tells me “seriously” all the time. The way he pronounces his “Rs” is adorable and when he talks I just want to scoop him up and eat him! My worry with him is his weight. Everyone thinks I’m crazy, but the kid is seriously skin and bones. When I pick him up I feel like I could break him. He doesn’t eat a whole lot…we make him eat his lunch and dinner, but it can be such a struggle. And just by watching him every day, I can see his caloric output is a lot higher than his input.

So that’s a quick recap…counting down until I get to spend the whole week with them after Christmas!

Christmas Cards and Jinxing...

Guess what the UPS man delivered to me last night? My Christmas cards! I’ve never, ever had my cards “done” this early before! So now all we have to do is run the envelopes through the printer, and they’ll be ready to go out. It will be such a huge relief to get those out…I always stress about getting them done, and last year they were mailed out on Christmas Eve!

If anyone wants a card from me, just send me your address!

As for the rest of my Christmas chores, I’m getting there :) I added a few more decorations to the house last night, and I ordered a couple more presents as well. I’m hoping to get some more ordered today during lunch. I really, really want to not have any stress as we get closer to the big day!

Another thing I realized last night is that I’m really good at jinxing myself…for some reason, as I was watching TV last night, I was appreciating the fact that Ryan sleeps through the night. I don’t know what prompted that thought, it was completely out of the blue. Well, as I’m sure you can guess, at 2:15 AM I heard my little guy whining. I went up to put his paci back in, and found him sitting up in the corner of his crib. When he saw me, he smiled and said “mamma.” He was ready to get up! I laid him back down and for 2 hours he played/whined/cried/played and finally fell asleep around 4:30.

So if you need anything jinxed, give me a call…apparently I’m super good at it :)

Thanksgiving 2009...

I can’t believe the long weekend is over :( It was so restful, and so relaxing, and we had so much fun!

The holiday started off with a short-notice viewing of the Rockette’s Christmas Show. My mom had wanted to go, so she took my sister, Kylie and I to the late afternoon show. Afterwards we all went to a very nice dinner out (Kylie didn’t understand why there were no kids menus).

After dinner we went home and hung out with the boys. The big thing that happened was that Ryan actually took a couple steps! He still has no interest in walking, but when he really wants something (like to come and see me), he’ll take some steps! Then the kids started up the movie Bedtime Stories, and part way through it my other sister arrived from Michigan. We went over the plans for the next day and all went to bed.





Thursday we woke up bright and early (I feel old, because just a few years ago, before kids, I had trouble dragging myself out of bed before the parade ended, and here I was up way before the thing even started!

I went downstairs and started making the traditional sticky buns, along with our new addition of homemade cinnamon rolls. Both of them turned out fantastic! We had enough leftovers that I’ve been bring the cinnamon rolls to work for breakfast, which has been an awesome treat.

We watched the parade and just lounged around, which felt so good! Around 12:30 we started making the food…first the appetizers which were going to be our lunch, and then the main dinner items. John got the garage all set up to fry the turkey and watch football. We were finally all ready to eat around 5:00, but no one was hungry! Seriously, all of the food was laid out on the island and no one wanted to eat. So a couple of us headed over to Michael’s because they had their cricut cartridges on sale. When we got back we all sat down and ate our wonderful dinner. After dinner we played Taboo, and it was neat because Kylie actually got to play a little – we had her on both teams and didn’t count her points, but I was so surprised at how well she did!

Friday we got up bright and early and headed down to John’s parents’. They were all going to the OU game, which started at 11:00. John’s sister, Kylie and Ryan and I wanted nothing to do with sitting out in the snow to watch a football game, so we stayed back at the house. John’s sister took Kylie to see a movie, and Ryan and I took a nap :) After the game we hung out for a little bit and then headed out to dinner. It was another great family dinner, only this time with pizza :) When we got back home, Ryan went to bed and Kylie and Joshie went over to my parents’ house (I think my dad was having withdrawal not seeing them for a whole day!), so John and I got to watch some TV and hang out together.







Saturday was another lazy day! I didn’t go anywhere, and we got to play with the kids a ton! That night my other sister came over, we got some Chinese, and watched the CBJ game and Night at The Museum 2.

Sunday was church, and then more playing and relaxing. We also went and bought our Christmas tree – we finally found an artificial one that we liked. So after my sister left to go back to Michigan, we got the house decorated. We only have a tiny little bit left to do, which is very different from the past years…usually it takes us forever to get everything decorated, but this year seemed so simple.

So that was Thanksgiving weekend 2009. I actually didn’t take too many pictures, which is strange, but I definitely had a great weekend, and I can’t wait until Christmas!