Tuesday, December 30, 2008

the tradition continues

Christmas Eve dinner at the BEST chinese restaurant in town! Our church didn't hold a Christmas Eve service, so we checked out another church across town. The first two songs were Feliz Navis Dad and Jingle Bell Rock. They never did have a sermon.I'm all for support of the troops away from their families, but seriously, did they need to do a 10 minute video of clips from Inside Edition and youtube, set to "I'll be home for Christmas?"
They did call all the children up front, to which Brigham leaped out of his seat, before we could even tell him it was ok. He of course raised his hand with the first volunteer request, and got to set up the nativity scene on stage. After the kids were released, Brig stayed up having a big old conversation with the pastor. The kid is not shy.


we ate and ate, and ate.

Tatum loved the crab rangoon, eggrolls, and chicken fried rice!

We got back to our house, for our traditional dessert and gift opening. Here is my little brother, Brian. He's not a fan of the camera, but since I hardly have any pics of him, I forced him!!



trying to capture a quick pose in their fancy clothes, before they changed into their new Christmas pj's.





the sugar has set in, and the exitement and anticipation of what is under the tree is too much!








Our little diva. yep. she is all Princess. got the jewels. the wand. the gloves. the purse.



and the belly.







my brother is kinda the scrooge around Christmas. doesn't get into the decorations, festivites, presents or anything like that. He always says there is nothing he 'needs'.
well, I found the home run winner for him.



An English Bulldog bronzed pewter bottle opener.
He is a huge bulldog lover and is quite the lover of fine wines and exotic imports.

The seond I saw this gem in the pottery barn catolog, I knew it would made him smile. YAY!

and here are the munchkins, patiently waiting for grandpa to take off the packaging of their new magnadoodles!



forgot to add, that my diva grabs her cap, any time she can get it. this was Andrew's brand new Broncho's hat.
perhaps she'll have a career in the hip hop industry rather then the modeling one.


Monday, December 29, 2008

we said good- bye


to Frank and Charlie. these devious dudes arrive around the first or second week of December. They are sent by Santa to keep an eye on Brigham and Tatum. They are pretty harmless.. they sleep during the day.. but if they are fed their required crackers and water(which Brigham seemingly forgot, and so dad had to step in..) then they came alive and ruled the house while we were all tucked in bed.

Brigham awoke to find them doing gymnastics from the kitchen chandelier, playing in his toy box, jumping on the couch, driving away in his Diego Jeep, among other activities.
They report back to SC on how the kiddos are behaving and then head back to the North Pole with Santa after he's visited.
I'd been meaning to introduce my blog friends to Frank and Charlie when they arrived, but alas...there is too much to blog about and not enough time, to actually DO it... ..lol.

I had small helpers in the kitchen on the day of Christmas eve, as we baked lots and lots of cookies... snicker doodles, sugar cookies(which are still not iced), choco chip(as requested by Santa) and white choco covered pretzels.





these were supposed to be delivered to our neighbors, prior to Christmas, but with temperatures in the , well.. ONES, TWOS, and ZEROS.. we opted to wait, and now they'll be our Happy New Year treats!



so I am a tad behind....

the Friday before Christmas, we had just a few last minute gifty things to get. and we had never gotten back to the mall to see Mr. C, so Andrew took off a couple hours early from work.. we ate a relaxed dinner at our second favorite place next to Little Mexico, which is Macalister's Deli.
An amazingly large menu (perfect when we all have different cravings =P).... and kids meals are just $1.99!! and they come with teddy grams! and their sweet tea is DELISH. We waited in the smoke infested line with several little brats, ahem.. children waiting to see the big guy.
We always forget, why it is that we don't go to the mall. especially on a Friday night. seriously every hill jack from every little surrounding town, seems to put on their finest Nas(ty) car or Carhardts and crawl their way to THE mall. ugh.
but we do it for the children right?
I went off to scope out a good hiding place from which to use my ultra zoom lens, b/c we were not going to pay those ridiculous prices for the totally awful pictures, that they print out.
Brigham of course ran up to SC , but Tatum clinched tightly to Andrew's neck and started shaking profusely. Um. not the year for her picture with the fat man.

but they were dressed so cute, that I was dying to get a picture of the two of them. So I scoped out a little tree half way down the mall, but of course my 19 month old wanted to no part of it.

I am now losing that perfectly poser, sit -for- hours -in -front- of -the- camera- for- mommy -and loving it, little girl.
I am experiencing what the moms of my 2 year old clients deal with. ah. the joys.

Friday, December 19, 2008

a grin that melt's a mother's heart

YAY!!! I may have scored back some points..lol. I was planning on dressing Brigham up in his fancy clothes to go to school on Wednesday , since he didn't get to wear it on Tuesday. My mom called me early Wednesday morning and said she had talked to a friend whose granddaughter was in the program the day before, and she had thought that Brig's class was singing again.
So I called the church and THEY WERE! I did a happy dance, and ran to move Brigham along and told him to hurry because his program was today!


of course with a 4 year old, a little argument took place about who was right b/c he was sure that his program was the day before and that he had missed it! I excitedly told him that we got a 'do -over' and that he got to sing today.

His teachers let him stay with the other class and then proceed downstairs for the 'party'.
Andrew and grandma both were able to come and we were so proud of our little entertainer!
It is really sweet to see these little faces lit with joy, and hear their little off tune voices singing about the birth of sweet baby Jesus.



The teachers had dressed the kids up , a few weeks earlier and made this video, that played before and after the program.
Last year Brigham was a Shepard. This year he was Joseph. He had been talking about it for weeks.
I am so happy that we were able to see him(He's in the top left).


And afterwards, we went to the union at Purdue to see the BIG tree. This is a tradition for us to go eat in the diner downstairs, and check out the huge gingerbread house!



Tatum met some new friends!





I stopped counting at how many times I told them not to touch. And when their mouths were full, I just gave up! How do have to little ones playing in an edible house, and expect them not to want to take a nibble? Its Christmas after all, so I let them have fun!





and we tried to get some pictures in front of the ginormous, 3 story tree.










I think that the sugar may have kicked in by now!!!
So thank you so much for your sweet comments and encouragement about the program mis hap.
Everything worked out great and I couldn't have had a more thrilled little boy!
We went to a life group Holiday party that evening and he and his little friend Gabby stood on the fireplace hearth and re-created the show for us all. It was awesome to once again, witness the wonder, and belief in these little ones.
Last night we spent the evening with some good friends and their sweet 9 day old baby girl.
We had not gotten together with them since late August, so the kids all played well together and the adults had great conversation and we made Buckeyes and had wonderfully good hot chocolate! YUMM.
It was nearly midnight before we left, and we headed out to a total sheet of ice. Yep. the winter ice warning they talked about, actually came. we drove like 5 miles an hour home. but we made it safely.
So we're off to see that fat man in a red suit, and try to cross some last things off our lists.
Then its our traditional drive -around -and -look-at -the- lights journey.
There are some pretty cool ones , we've scoped out that have synchronized w/ music and stuff.. so with the ice/snow it should be gorgeous!









Thursday, December 18, 2008

not gonna get mother of the year award

not that I actually thought I had a chance at winning.. but ya know, I feed them, clothe them, bathe them, keep a roof over their heads... so perhaps maybe a second place ribbon was in my future.. but there is no way.

Not when you forget your son's Christmas program at school.

Nope. and you have the guilt to last a lifetime.seriously, how could this happen?
I have had it down on the calendar for Wed. Dec 17th, for a month.

My kid has been practicing his songs. Every day when I pick him up from PreK , he'll be singing away in the back seat... and he's told me there were some 'surprises' for mom and dad too.

So how does this happen?

My mom and I took Brigham to the Christmas show on Sunday afternoon at Purdue(purdue musical organizations).
I was sang as a Purduette in college, so it was exciting for me to take my child and point up stage and show him 'what mommy did' a long time ago! This was a big year too, they were celebrating 75 years of the show. My dad ( a former Glee Clubber) came back to sing in the shows as alumni.
Half way thru, the poor kid started coughing.. and then his eyes were all watery. By the time we got home, he was sneezing..
so into jammies he went, soup, oj, and medicine, and then we put him to bed.
We kept telling him, he had to be well for his program on Wednesday.
Monday, he slept in, actually we all did. Cept Andrew who went in to work overtime all day.
We layed low, and he seemed to be better, but by dinner time, he was getting a rash all over his face, and kinda felt warm.
We bundled up the kids so we could take a dinner to our friends who just had a baby. (he stayed in the car w/ his germs) and we came home, tried to get him to eat dinner, gave him some medicine and sent him to bed.
We told him he had to be well for his program on Wednesday.
He was seemed a lot better, but I decided to keep him home Tuesday just to make sure he was tip top, and he slept in until 9:45, while his sister did not awake til after 10am!!
It was bitter cold here, so we didn't venture out at all.
stayed in pj's all day.
By noon, I could tell, he was back to his crazy healthy self.
The weather was getting pretty bad, and I still had to get to the store to get stuff to make cookies to take to the program on Wednesday.
My wonderful husband braved the roads home from work, got my list, and headed out again to get the ingredients for the super cute cookies I was making to take.
Just as I was prepping the cookies, the phone rings. Its my friend Sylvia. (also a mom of a boy in Brig's class)
She wants to know if everything is ok, because we were not at the program that morning.
WHAT!!??????
yeah. so the program was Tuesday morning.
I am a total loser.
and then I had to tell Brigham.
and I told me 'I am really sad, that I don't get to be in my program'.
and I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.
and then I called my mom to tell her, b/c her grandson was very excited to have his grandma watch him perform.
and my mom says to me ' what kind of a mom are you? what kind of a mom forgets their kid's program?' are you going to lie to him, and tell him it was cancelled?'

and so then I felt a whole lot better..... (sarcasm).

any ideas out there to win back the sweet smile of your little guy?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Christmas prep recap

*wrote the letter to Santa
he was not being supervised, and when I came into see what he wrote, it read 'Dear Santa,'
and then a bunch of scribbles, like he was writing in cursive.. lol
we told him he better use words, if he wanted Santa to know what toy he wanted!!
*took it with us to the local parade, where the mail carriers were collecting them
It was a bitter cold day, but we enjoyed a front row seat from the coziness of couches in front of a huge picture window in my mom's office. The kids had so much fun, and the adults didn't have to worry about keeping hats and mittens on the kids! It was super fun to see the babies, Tatum and Carter, interact this year. They squealed with delight as the parade marched by!


*the boys went on the perfect tree hunt, while the girls stayed warm and made hot chocolate to treat them after their hard work.. lol

he searched, and searched....










and found the perfect one!










and paid for it all by himself









*traditional tree pics were taken, though these were pretty impromptu.... still want to get the two of them sitting together









*candy house was built.. and unlike last year, when mama almost hyper ventilated b/c of the random- absolutely-no -order-whatsoever-to decorating-the candy house,
This year, my boy was meticulous. seriously, the little yellow gumdrops in the windows, are people looking out!!










Andrew and I had a date night two weekends ago, where we got almost all the shopping done!
just a few more things on our list, and we're done!
We tried a new irish pub that opened in town.. while the atmosphere was super cool(though I couldn't partake in me good ol' frothy beverage)... the service was pretty terrible, and the food was just ok.
My brother works at the other location and it is pretty hoppin all the time.In fact that is where I had Andrew's surprise 30th birthday party last year!
This one, however, needs to iron out the kinks.
We grabbed some Starbucks on the way home, and just enjoyed the quiet of a child-less night!
Over the weekend Brigham and grandma made cookies, and then they were all brought home, so we could decorate them.
I made a cake for someone on Saturday.. a Nemo one, turned out pretty cute.. so I had all this left over icing.. which we put to good use!
Got to bake some cookies for Brigham's Christmas program on Wednesday, and figure out something to take for a party we have Wed evening
This week is gonna be busy.. hope to post some more later on this week..
I can hardly believe next week is Christmas!
Did it sneak up on us this year or what??











Thursday, December 11, 2008

and without further delay....

hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, though that seems like months ago.. and to think only 13 more days til' Christmas!!

I am sooo sorry for the absense of posting -a little bit of sickness and then holiday madness set in, ... I know you have been on pins and needles waiting to find out the winner....



I thank you for your patience and so with some much cohersed help from Miss T and her little pink purse, and of course big brother had to be in on it, so he drew out
congratulations Nicole!! send me your mailing address, and I'll get these goodies off to you!

and because it was the start of December, and I love giving better then getting.. so another name was drawn...Summer, send me your address or I'll just bring it tomorrow when I see you!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

sick as a dog

yep that was me this past weekend. ugh. actually it has been me the last two weekends and kinda during the week too. ugh.
but mostly this weekend, I thought I was GONNA die. seriously.
I became quite good friends with the porcelain throne, and realized that I need to re caulk around my cabinets and bath tubs. I stayed in my velour jogging (lounging) suit for two days and pretty much didn't get off the couch. I suffered thru 4 hours alone with the munchkins, while Andrew went off to watch Purdue kick IU 's booty! seriously , it was not even a game. PU smoked them! great way for our Coach to end the season and his career as a Boilermaker.
Luckily, Andrew was in full daddy gear when he got home, so he kept them entertained, and fed and bathed, while I was dying on the couch.
Sunday, Andrew had to work the worship team at church, leaving at 7:30am and returning around 2pm.. I just was in agony at the thought of enduring the kids high pitched squeals, snotty, noses , and poopy pants..(of course I love them!) so I called my mom and she agreed to watch them, only if I could get them over to her house. So , I quickly packed a bag with their clothes, and popped their messy heads, and slipper footed bodies into the car.. and squeamishly made my way across to my mom's.
Truthfully, I don't even remember the drive.
I don't think I ate anything more than about 4 saltine crackers and a 2 liter of diet 7up in the whole two days!! I lay on the couch, while life went on around me... and watched several movies on TBS. I highly recommend the Prince and Me. and lucky for me the sequel came on right after.. though not so good.
My man went and picked up the kids and resumed his daddy duty right away, with not a single grumble. I LOVE him!!
By 6pm, I was really hungry and for some crazy reason, thought that what I wanted to eat was a steak! So my, darling husband took off to the store with my kids, and then prepared a fantastic- hit -the-spot- meal of steak, baked potato, and Caesar salad. It was soooo good. And apparently my aching body approved too. Thank goodness!
Andrew fed the kids, and played with them, and completely cleaned up the kitchen.. then put the kiddos to bed.
I was starting to feel better by around 9pm, so we watched a movie together.
I can't tell you how grateful I am for the man I have beside me. In sickness and in health. for sure! He really goes above and beyond in treating me like a princess. I wish I could treat him with half as much kindness as he dotes on me. What an amazing father he is.. I am truly blesssed.
I am thankful for my mom's willingness to help out with the kids. It has certainly been something we have not taken for grantid,as she is always inviting them to stay with her, or to take them on special outings. She is has always been quick to help us with whatever we need.
Having my dad just a mile from us, has been great for my kids. Sunday's became special time with Grandpa. Again, at most often a last minute request, dad was always willing to come over to watch the kids. He just moved to Indianapolis..(or as Brigham says his 'other city') and we'll miss not having him so close.
My brother is just across town, though we don't see if as often as we'd like.. its for my kids to have their uncle so close.
So as we come upon this Thanksgiving holiday, I want to let those close to me know how much I am truly grateful for them in my life, and how much they are loved.
and now as I have been blessed.. I want to bless one of YOU!!
It's time for a GIVE AWAY!!!

Earlier this July I was surprised by my friend RITA, with a gigantic box, full of scrappy goodness. and if you know what an amazing designer she, is you know she has some of the most amazing supplies eV-ah ! seriously.

stamps galore

can you believe all this stuff?


and for all you non-scrappers out there, don't you worry, because, in this big ol' enormous box, was not only all kinds of scrap booking stuff, but oh, yeah..... the owner of DETAILS had generously given me all kinds of unique yumminess.




see that adorable gnome on a rope??? he could be yours!!!




ok, sorry this baby is mine. I'm selfishly keeping this.. goes with too many outfits ! but you can find other fabulous watches and accessories on her site at DETAILS.





















So how could YOU get some of this delish stash?? Just leave me a comment (all you lurkers too!!) and tell me what you are Thankful for.
I'll have a drawing on Friday around midnight..(if I survive that late after blackfriday shopping)
ETA: I can't pick a winner, if noone leaves a comment... and I know you are all reading.. lol !!
so even if you've never spoken before, let this be your chance.. to win some goodies!!
Deadline extended to MONDAY DEC. 1ST.
The winner will be posted by Tues Dec 2Nd!
Have a wonderfully safe and satisfying Thanksgiving!!




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