Still Alive ....

Barely!
We officially made it through Christmas!  Our Living Room still looks like Santa crashed his sleigh here Christmas night and decided to just take off without pickiong up the toys.  This weekend is surely going to be one of mass organization and cleaning!

I think I must have gained at least 3 pounds in the last week.  This woman is DONE with sugar.  At least for awhile.

I'm loving watching M ride her pink tricycle (through our house) wearing her pink furry princess slippers and brand new pink tutu.  Yes, it's a sea of pink.

I'll be back on to post pictures later - taken with my new camera (Hooray!).  Just thought I would jump on and ease any worries that I may have been swallowed up by Christmas wrap.

Merry Princess!

Success!  

A week and a half-ago I set off on an INSANE mission.  A mission to redo my daughters room all things princess as a Christmas surprise.  This crazy idea spawned when I told my mother-in-law about Indiana's request.  Here's the background....

Indiana one day went into detail about how she wanted a princess bedroom.  She not only wanted a princess bedroom but she wanted to be blindfolded, brought into her room and gasp when she saw it (yes this ALL was part of the convo).

 Your wish is my command pretty princess

My mom-in-law told me I should do it, and she would help!  I was on a mission.....All things princess (so not me), and with a lot of help from my family and my poor sick sleep deprived husband, I managed to pull it off.

  Indiana was pretty surprised too!

Definitely not designer grade aka Heather style, but I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself ;).

"B" Immediately went to the sparkly pillow....and poured her baba all over it.  She approves ;)

She wasn't going anywhere either :)

It is almost perfect....just missing a tower to climb up in and some butterflies (according to Indiana)

Overall though....I think it was pretty much a hit!

Aside from the stomach flu that hit us all on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we had a great Christmas!

How was yours?  

Loving....

Things I'm loving right now:

Holiday creamer flavors for my decaf each morning.

Ornaments made by my little one.  And, the fact that she has packed the lowest branches on our tree FULL of ornaments.  It's where she can reach best.

Home Made Biscotti from a sweet friend.

Watching my little one enjoy her friend.

Bright wrapping paper  Especially the polka dots!

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You know you're old when.....

Sorry I had to do one of these posts since I REALLY felt old this weekend.  So....here it goes (sorry no pics for this one).

You know you're old when............

*You have a weekend free of kids & a two day getaway planned AND use half the time to clean your house

*You take off to the "big city" for a night and end up in your hotel room, in bed and asleep at 10:00

*You see the grandma's in sneakers with their dress clothes and you in heels and think.....well aren't I a dumb one

*You don't bring PJ's on purpose and are ticked at yourself you didn't (some fleece PJ's would have been nice)

*You are making fun of all the ladies out in their short skirts and no jacket (I guess that is ALSO when you know you are smart :)

A little background for you:  Me and the hubby decided to give each other a getaway for our Christmas present.  Life with three kids has just been a little much for us lately and we REALLY needed the break.  So we decided to go stay in Downtown Salt Lake for a couple nights.  Get a hotel room.....visit the lights.....see the sights.....eat some good food....drink some wine.  

Friday rolls around and the house is a mess, we haven't packed, we have a Christmas party to attend; so we decided instead of throwing the money away on a room for the night (getting there at midnight) we would sleep at home and go up early......of course that didn't happen.  After getting to be (around 2:00 am) We woke up early and decided to clean the ENTIRE house spic-n-span (this can never be done with three kids running around).  This left us EXHAUSTED and arriving in town just in time to eat some dinner and crash!  

Needless to say not the most romantic or exciting of our getaways; but sometimes all you need is some sleep and if you have to get a hotel room to get it, so be it :).  

One week till Christmas! You all ready?

Budding Artist

I thought it was an isolated incident......

 

This is a tracing of Indiana's hand (if you can not tell).  I walked by my wall in the hall to discover this little gem.  Unfortunately I sprayed cleaner and THEN took the picture realizing this was her first wall art......first and not last :).

While I thought she had turned a corner in child development and now wanted privacy in the bathroom.....I was duped.  A closed door is the perfect chance to sneak in a mural in the bathroom. 

So I put her to work at erasing.  She will vouch that erasing your mistakes is much less fun than making them.  

I can relate ;).   

Can you believe .......

that Christmas is only TWELVE days away?!

I'm beginning to wonder if the retail world is onto something with putting Christmas decorations out just after Halloween.  While I have been opposed to this in the past, I think next year I am going to be on all things Christmas as I am sneaking Halloween candy out of M's pumpkin.  At least get the lights on the house and get Christmas cards done.

We just finished putting up the rest of our Christmas lights tonight.  And, as our luck would have it, there is something wrong.  It keeps flipping the switch on our breaker.  Drat!  Tomorrow.

We still need to finish putting up about 25% of our decorations and cards are a distant dream.  I've got to get packages ready for family in other states in the next few days.  As I type this I am deciding that we are going to keep our Christmas decorations up through the end of January.  Might as well make it worth it, right?!

We may be desperately behind on decorations, but we have managed to get into some Christmas activities.  M and her little playgroup girlfriends went to Molly Mouse's Sugar Plum Debut the other night.  Molly Mouse is a super cute ballet based on "The Nutcracker" - adapted for children and performed by children.  In fact, M takes ballet lessons from the same company that puts this on.  Who knows; maybe her dream of "being Molly Mouse" could come true.

I never was able to get a picture of all them looking at the camera.  Far too many distractions.  These little ones were loving every minute of it!

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Grandma's ARE the greatest

I had to add my own little gramma' kudos to Heather's post.  Because we too think grandma's are pretty stinkin' great!  

While my mom might think there is no hope left for my inner domestic diva, she has set out to train little Indiana in hopes it skips a generation.  

WARNING: this is cooking Indiana style....

Toddler cooking classes.....it's a messy job!

Especially with Miss "Mess"

I can't think of a better outfit to cook in.  Nothing like baking in your jammers! 

Only Indiana can wear "Mess" in style ;).  

That's my girl!

Before we jump into Christmas

I wanted to do one more post on Thanksgiving.  I downloaded these pictures yesterday and I thought they were too cute not to share.

This was my sweet Mom and M on Thanksgiving morning.

Making cookies!

Before we left for Colorado, I took M to have her haircut at "Cookie Cutters".  She was so excited to get the free snowman shaped cookie cutter.  She asked her Oma (grandma in German) if they could make cookies when we were there.  Of course, Oma said "Absolutely".  M LOVES her Oma (I do, too!).

So, they made cookies on Thanksgiving.  BEFORE getting a turkey and all of the trimmings ready. 

I don't know about you, but I have to say that my mom is one AWESOME Oma!

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Charlie Brown has left the building.....

I promised...

My husband brought in our tree this year and I HAD to make the comment...."It looks a little Charlie Brown babe.".  That was all it took.  The woodworker was on a mission.

 

A mission to Un-Charlie Brown our tree.......

So he got out the saw...the tenon cutters and the wood glue.  

 

"B" was also taking care of business....

Seven...yes SEVEN tenon'd in branches later and Wa-la!  Charlie has left the building.  There are definitely some perks to having a woodworker for a husband ;).

This is the first year since we have been married that I have put blue Christmas lights and the hubby's childhood collection of ornaments on the tree.  Both his all time Christmas fave's (mine, not so much).  I know it is not the greatest of all the trees I have decorated but it made him happy and I think it turned out considering..... 

Lesson to be learned you men out there.  This is all it takes for a woman to cave ;). 

Night all!  Go Blue!

Charlie Browns Tree.....

Well we finally finished our Christmas decorating by putting up the tree today.....I would LOVE to show you the pictures of it, but Blogger decided it is much to late to be uploading pictures.  Apparently it has a bedtime as well ;). 

Off to bed I go.  I will try again tomorrow!!! 

Stay tuned......you are going to love my Charlie Brown Christmas tree story. 

JODY

Let the festivities begin!

Every year I get this picture in my head of how decorating for Christmas is going to be.  It usually goes a little like this: Christmas Music playing....Kids excited and enchanted as they see all of the decorations come out of the boxes.....Husband carrying around his hammer and nails saying "Where do you want it"......The smell of baked good somewhere in the mix.

Now why I picture this every year? Who knows, because every year looks a lot more like this:

Yes, that is my Halloween/Thanksgiving stuff....still not put away.  Oh and the Coyster cramming in yet ANOTHER last minute assignment. 

Well that mess can just speak for itself.....

Yep, that is Jim climbing up the ladder during the Office episode tonight :).  Thank you Jim for gracing us with your presence on Christmas decorating night.  

And last but not least, the eager helpful husband with his hammer and nails :).

Sigh.....there is always next year!  Right??

Happy Fella

Hey, hey.  It looks like there might be hope for some CUTE boy's clothes!
Have you seen Happy Fella brand clothing?  Finally some boy's clothing with some attention to the details!  Isn't this little outfit cute?  Sure, it's for a fancy occasssion and couldn't be worn day to day.  But, it's so nice to know that there are options.  :)

I came across this through Zulily today.  If you have little ones, or buy for little ones, you should check out Zulily HERE.  It's a great site that features killer deals for moms, babies and kids.  The Happy Fella outfit above is only $21.99 on Zulily today (1/2 price).  Check it out....there's also some great deals on Melissa & Doug toys! 

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The Muppets AND.......



A few weeks ago M and I were watching TV and a commercial came on for the new Muppets movie.  She was instantly mesmerised.  Since she is only 3, she has never seen the Muppets.  When they came onto the screen she jumped up, ran over to the TV and said, "Mamma!  What is that?!  Who are they?!!"  I had to rewind the commercial several times for her.....I also had to explain that it was a movie and that we would have to wait for Thanksgiving to see it. 

Well, my little M has a memory like no other.  I'm not kidding ya.  She remembers EVERYTHING.  She remembered that the Muppets were coming out at Thanksgiving and reminded me that I said we would go.  Just after we had Thanksgiving dinner she brought it up again.  I told her that she would have to go to bed early if we were going to go.....not 30 minutes later she was saying she wanted to go to bed (that was a first!).  She was down EARLY just so we could go.

Needless to say we drove an hour to see the first Muppets showing yesterday.  We're still at my parents and that was the closest theater.  She actually chose to see the Muppets before going to see Santa!  She LOVED it.  She said that "Miss Piggy and the frog" are her favorite. 

As much as I thought it was a cute movie and glad she was so happy, I was a little bummed myself.  Going to the first showing also meant that we missed out on all of the Black Friday Early Bird Specials.  CRAP!  I told the hubby that I need to watch what I say next year, because I'm not missing out on the deals again!

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Since we left for my parents last Wednesday, I haven't had a chance to post some other exciting news, yet.  We had our 20 week ultrasound last Tuesday........M is going to have a baby BROTHER!  I was truly shocked.  I thought for sure I was having another girl.  I guess I can throw "Mother's Intuition" out the window!

So, I am now off to sort through 5 bins of baby girl clothes and "stuff".  We are going to sell them since we won't be needing them anymore.  I don't know if it's just the hormones, but I have to say that it is making me very sad.  I've already seen several outfits that I want to hold on to - just because it reminds of something M was doing when she wore it.  It's going to be a tough task!

Heather
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ThanksChristmas

Do you ever feel this way? I know I do.....

Poor Thanksgiving, it is kind of getting the snub.  It is a great holiday......so overshadowed by the favored child of Christmas.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE Christmas.  I love the spirit of giving, love, family, community the list goes on, however I would really like to enjoy my Thanksgiving without hovering over Black Friday ads and obsessively checking my bank account to assess my Christmas fund ;). 

This Thanksgiving I have decided to write letters to SOME of the people who I am sincerely grateful for this year.  There are so many people I am grateful for and have so much influence in my life; I wish I had the time to write them all.  It has been a tough year for us and I am especially grateful to my family and all of their help.  Without them we would not have made it through the last couple years. 

Well Happy Thanksgiving to ALL OF YOU!  I hope you enjoy the time with your family, friends and loved ones.

My Little "Big" Man

As I am writing my post.  My son in helping Indiana brush her teeth then reading her a bedtime story.  There are some things that stink about having such a large gap between kids and other things that rock!  This would be one of those rocking moments :).

Now I know he is not just doing this out of the kindness of his heart but mostly to delay his bedtime ;).  Little does he know that he has: saved my night, done his reading homework AND made his sister happy. 

He is an amazing little guy (not so little anymore), so patient and kind.  We have been complimented so many times about how great of a kid he is....as if they are shocked he is ours :). 

Here he is after a major makeover by Indiana.  Post it note eyelashes and a clip in his hair.  Not many twelve year old's would allow their sisters to do this, he even let me take a picture of it.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I have been thinking about the people in my life and how grateful I am to have them.  He is definitely in my fave five ;).