01.02.10
Good-bye Behemoth
Anyone who knows me – or has read this blog for any length of time knows that I really love my husband and I never say anything bad about him. It’s not that he’s perfect it’s just that I love and respect him and I wouldn’t want him tell all of my dirty laundry on the internet for everyone to see- forever!
Having said all that I have to share a time that I was really not happy with him. It’s when he brought home a huge stuffed bear from the thrift store. He took the kids to the thrift store to look around and they each got to choose a toy to bring home. Baby #3 picked the biggest stuffed bear I’ve ever seen in my life. The thing was behemoth thus his name Behemoth. I’ve lived with Behemoth for about 1 1/2 years now and there has not been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t wanted to get rid of him.
Soon Behemoth became a part of our family and all of the kids adopted him. He lived in the girls’ room, but they all shared him like another brother. After what happened when I tried to donate Clifford I knew not to try to just donate him before I had the okay from everyone.
Finally, a few weeks ago, while we were doing a pre-Christmas toy purge I asked the kids if I could please, for the love of all things sacred, donate Behemoth to a child who could love him. I even told them that that could be their Christmas gift to me and that it would be the best Christmas ever for me if Behemoth could go.
Guess what! They all agreed. As soon as they all agreed I took him and their toys and loaded them into the van.
And it was the best Christmas ever!
12.29.09
Christmas Day
We had a wonderful Christmas this year. After hearing about friends who got stuck in a snow storm and had to spend Christmas Eve and half of Christmas day in a shelter- it made me even more grateful that we don’t have to travel! The kids woke up around 7 and we all headed down to open gifts:
Baby #1 bought this movie for Baby #2 with his allowance. He so happy that she loved it so much.
Baby #2 now officially has her own bible! She had a hand me down bible from Baby #1 and she’s so proud of her new one.
The snow we got the previous day hadn’t melted so Hubs and the kids built a snowman. I was the photographer and stayed inside and supervised.
Baby #3 couldn’t find her gloves so she put on some ghetto mittens- also known as socks.
12.28.09
When You Want Something Done Right
We have lived in our house for almost nine years and have never had anything hanging over the couch in our living room. Nine years!!!! Which for someone who loves decorating and all that sort of thing as much as I do- is simply a tragedy. About three months ago I found some matted frames at Target. I got three 5×7 and two 11×14 frames for a total of $27 – which is pretty good considering one 11×14 frame normally costs $30. I brought my frames home, but had no idea what I’d do with them. I just knew that it was too good of a deal to pass up.
In November my mom took some family pictures of us and there were a few pictures that I really liked. I decided that I’d blow up two of the pictures for the 11 x14 frames and use the 5 x7 frames to frame their school pictures.
I knew that this was a big job- one that I was not equipped to handle. Mainly because it involved math. When I hang a picture I grab a hammer and a nail. When Hubs hangs a picture this is what he gets:
Hammer
Screws
Drill
Anchors
Level
Tape Measure
Pencil
Screw driver
I should also mention that Hubs is an engineer- which explains the attention to detail and the need for so many tools. In the end I got my wall grouping perfectly spaced and level. It looks awesome!
12.26.09
Christmas Eve
We had a wonderful Christmas this year and the fun started on Christmas Eve. Hubs had the day off from work so we decided to have some fun decorating gingerbread house cookies. Hubs does all of the cooking on Christmas morning so I decided that I would cook the cookies that were to be decorated. Come to find out I suck at making gingerbread house cookies. They had instructions on how to make it all symmetrical and stuff, but that required reading directions beyond just the recipe. So here’s how mine turned out:
Hubs took pity on me and took over the project and this is what he came up with:
Which is much closer than to this:
Once the cookies were baked and cooled it was time to decorate. Earlier in the week we went to Target and the kids got to pick some candy out of the bulk bins to personalize their cookies.
Hubs decided that he would decorate a mansion- not just a house:
His mansion looks lovely on our summer platter.
Shortly after that it was time to get ready for church. I let my kids wear what they want all throughout the year just so that on Christmas Eve I can require them to wear what I want them to wear.
After service they kids got to open one present- their Christmas pajamas.
Well that’s enough excitement for today. Stay tuned for the Christmas post. I’m sure you can hardly wait.
12.23.09
A New Tradition is Born
A couple of weeks ago I thought that it might be fun to start a new tradition around here. Because we don’t have quite enough already. I thought that it would be fun to have my best girlfriends bring over their daughters for a morning of decorating gingerbread houses. The only problem is I had this brilliant idea about six days prior to the only Saturday I thought that I could feasibly do it. In other words- only my dear sweet neighbor was able to make it.
Which ended up being nice for my first year to try this. We ended up doing the “party” this past Saturday and it was a lot of fun. And I have the pictures to prove it:
I bought pre-assembled houses on sale for $7 and they were worth every penny.
I think that they ate about as much candy as they put on their houses.
The finished products:
I decided to buy houses for Baby #1 and my neighbor’s son so that they could join in on the fun too. Here was the surprising part- they were about twice as fast at decorating (okay- I guess that shouldn’t be all that surprising) and a whole lot less messy than the girls were. If you do this- be prepared for a HUGE mess. Totally worth it though.
These are two of my favorite pictures from the day:
I now have more Christmas decorations:
This was a great project and I’m looking forward to doing it next year with even more people. I’ll be sending out an invitation in January so no excuses girls!
12.16.09
Birthday Recap
Yesterday was my 33 birthday. I can honestly say that it was on of my best birthdays ever. Hubs was so sweet and brought me a gift every other day for the two weeks leading up to my birthday. Some were big (iPod Nano!!! Which I LOVE), some were small- my favorite ice cream. They were all really thoughtful and not just something he picked up at the store on his way home from work. He really took his time and put thought and effort into all of the gifts which really blessed my heart so much.
Last night we stayed in and had dinner. He brought McDonalds for the kids and Chinese for us and we had a nice family dinner at home. Just how I like it. He even surprised me with a birthday cake:
After we ate I decided that I wanted to go to Bass Pro to have the kids have their picture taken with Santa. I know- not exactly a fun relaxing evening, but I knew that this might be one of the only nights we could do it before Christmas. My kids really wanted to see him and even though we really don’t confirm or deny Santa (when asked we just say “what do you think”) I knew that they really wanted to see him so I figured we’d just go then.
The wait was pretty long even though it was a weeknight so we set up to explore the store while we waited for our time slot to open up. First we did the carousel:
Next we saw Jaws:
Since we are in Texas we did what any good Texan does- shoot guns. Start ‘em young I say:
After all the fun we went to wait in line. My kids took a picture with Frosty:
Next we had our photo session with Santa. I have to give props to Bass Pro. They are so nice- we were at the end of their Santa time and everyone, including Santa, was super nice and helpful. They even let us take multiple pictures- and it was all free (you have the option of buying packages, but we just took our freebie because we’re cheap).
Initially Baby #2 wanted Baby #1 to go first, but once the clearing opened and she saw Santa she ran up there full steam ahead:
Baby #3 normally won’t go within 10 feet of Santa, but today she agreed to take a picture- only if I would hold her:
Even though Bass Pro was a bit of a beatdown we got our annual pictures in and it’s one thing I can check off the list. Overall I had a wonderful birthday.
12.09.09
Christmas Traditions
I posted this last year, but thought I’d post it again to any new readers. I even added something that we’ve started doing this year.
I thought that I’d share some of our family traditions. It’s always good for me to write things down- that way I can check back next year and make sure I covered everything. Growing up the only tradition we had was reading the Christmas story out of Luke. Not a bad tradition at all, but that’s pretty much the only one we really had. Because of that I’m a tad fanatical about our traditions.
The Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving. That’s when we put up our tree. Growing up we never had a set date- it was when my parents were in the mood to do it- and it drove me crazy! I could never understand why we couldn’t have the tree up as long as possible. I figure if we’re going to get all the stuff out let it be out for a while. Having said that we take it all down Christmas night or the day after. When Christmas is over I want it all back in the attic so I can get back to normal.
Our biggest tradition is Christmas Eve night. It’s jammed back. First we go to church for our Christmas Eve service. When church is over we come home and the kids have a present to open. That present is pajamas and a new toothbrush (as opposed to an old used toothbrush that we normally give them). I know that the toothbrush part sounds weird, but they LOVE it! Baby #1 said that he couldn’t wait to get his new toothbrush this year. No mention of all of the other toys he got last year- it’s the toothbrush that he remembers.
After they get their new pajamas they put them on and we load back in the car and go out and look at Christmas lights. We’re lucky that there are several neighborhoods close to us that have great light displays. We do a lot of light lookin’ throughout the month, but we save these neighborhoods for Christmas Eve.
We get home and the kids have to put their “reindeer food” out in the backyard (just in case you don’t know what reindeer food is it’s oatmeal with glitter). After that they have strict instructions to go to bed so that Hubs and I Santa can get theirgifts ready.
On Christmas morning we open our presents as a family and about mid-morning my family comes over for a breakfast extravaganza. Hubs goes all out and makes the best breakfast you could imagine. And it always has a theme. We started out with the Bed and Breakfast theme we also had Iron Chef were every dish had to have strawberries and last year every dish started with the first letter of the kid’s first name (Owen’s Oatmeal Bake for instance).
As I mentioned in my previous post all of the kids get one special ornament to reflect what they were into this past year. My intention is to label them all with their name and year and when they get married they’ll get all of their ornaments and have a nice head start some Christmas ornaments.
A tradition that started this year and has made my life soooooo much easier when it comes to gifts is a simple four-part formula when it comes to my kids’ gifts. They’ll each get – something they want (Santa gift), something they need, something they can wear (pajamas), and something they can read. Before I tried to do three gifts each- like Jesus was brought- and I’d always forget how many I bought who and how had what. I don’t know why, but this system just seems to work a lot better for us and I know that they’re not going to get a bunch of toys that they’ll play with for a week and be done.
I think that that wraps it up. I swear that I’m missing something, but if I do my kids will let me know.
12.04.09
Let’s Go Wassailing
Last night we bundled up the kids and went to the 21st annual Denton Holiday Lighting Festival. I normally don’t do cold, but I decided to suck it up, bundle up and check it out. First I had to load up all of the coats, scarves, hats, and gloves that we would need to stay warm. This is what my front seat looked like when we headed out:
Hubs works one block off of the square in Denton so we met him there to put all of our coats and gear on and headed out to sample wassail. We stopped at a store and tried their wassail and treats:
Our next stop was the reigning champs of Wassailfest:
After sampling several different wassail which actually tasted pretty much the same we thought it would be fun to take a carriage ride:
The big moment- lighting the Christmas tree and then the surrounding trees. It was beautiful!
Next we decided to let the kids do some of the kids activities that were there. This was a great event for kids they had all kinds of things they could do- here’s what we did:
My kids were fascinated by the live nativity scene.
Hubs decided to warm up with some fresh tamales:
Next we really needed to warm up so we went to the Hydrant Cafe:
Baby #1 is obviously way too cool to sit with his family:
They actually have a hydrant mascot which Baby #2 really wanted to pose with:
We went home shortly after our pit stop and it was all worth it because 2 out of 3 kids was asleep by the time we reached home:
We may be adding Denton Holiday Lighting Festival to our list of Christmas traditions.
11.16.09
Insert Cliche Here
Anyone who has kids knows that once you have kids your life continues at a pace comparable to warp speed (once they’re around one year old and sleeping through the night and all that good stuff – before that life drags on at a snails pace.)
I know that my kids are getting older. I can look back at pictures of them and see how cute they were. And they were cute and they are cute now- thanks mainly to their daddy’s genes since two out of three look a lot more like him than me.
But back to the point- this morning when my son came downstairs ready for Kindergarten it just hit me (again) how quickly their growing up.
Check it out- his great-grandfather bought this shirt for him when he was barely walking – right around 10 months. Now 6 years later the shirt actually fits. Which is quite the miracle that we even hung on to the shirt that long because if we’re not using it it’s out the door.
As much as I wanted time to speed up when he was taking every single nap on my chest, or waking up 4 times a night to eat, or insist on being carried around ALL OF THE TIME (can you tell that he’s my first-born??)- I wouldn’t mind if time slowed down just a little bit so I could enjoy my time with him- and his sisters- before they’re all out of here.
10.12.09
He Scores Points for Creativity
Baby #1 has been hounding me for about a week to decorate our house for Halloween. We have several houses in our neighborhood that are all decked out for Halloween and Baby #1 wants to do the same thing.
It’s not happening.
I don’t mind trick or treating and dressing up, but I’m not going to spend money to decorate my house for Halloween. There are many things that I could spend that money on- and Halloween decorations will not make the cut.
In a fit of creative genius Baby #1 told me that he was going to decorate his room for Halloween with stuff he has. This is after him telling me- for the past week- that when he turns 18 and has his own house he’s going to totally decorate it for Halloween and it’s even going to have a haunted house, and Hubs and I will not be invited.
I don’t know of many 18 year olds that own their own homes, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Anywho- here are some pictures of his room:
The blue pillowcase is a ghost – just in case you didn’t know.
While he was giving me a tour I took his jacket off of him lamp to take downstairs and he informed me that the jacket was part of the scary stuff.
This is the part that I find scary:
