12/31/11 - New Year's Eve At Home

We love to spend New Year's Eve at home with our kids.  Grandma Sue made this celebration very fun for the boys and Kennedy was at a party at the neighbor's house.

Grandma Sue brought balloons that the boys popped every hour.  They each had a message inside to open a bag or present, eat a pie she made, etc.  What a fun Grandma!  The boys loved it.

We took the boys outside to do sparklers and throw their pops. They had such a good time. Andrew burnt his finger a little on a sparkler and wouldn't touch them after that, but he kept throwing and jumping on pops with Carter for a long time.

I took these pictures of some of the fireworks from our back porch.  They were beautiful.  They started at about 8:00 and went until 1:00 am.  The boys were obsessed with them.  They kept going from the front porch to the back porch and then upstairs to watch them from the balcony on our second story porch.  Nick followed them around until Drew finally fell asleep at 11:00 pm.  Carter surprised us all by staying awake to ring in the new year.  He has never been able to stay up so late, but he was so excited about the fireworks and so glad his Dad was home to hang out with.

HAPPY NEW YEAR....BRING ON 2012!!



12/30/11 - Dinner With Drew

We went to one of our favorite restaurants (Chuy's) to eat dinner tonight and Drew provided our entertainment.  He took a menu off the table and walked around to each person at the table, asked them what they wanted to eat, and pretended to take our orders.....about six times.

After the food came.....he didn't want to eat what he ordered.  He started eating Nick's rice, but it was too hot.  He got some on the fork and started blowing to cool it off.  The only problem was he would blow almost all the rice off his fork every time.  We couldn't stop laughing at him and his big mess.

He moved from Nick's rice to my salad....with a lot of dressing on it.  He ate lots of our food and never even touched his own chicken strips and fries.  I don't know why we even get him a kids meal anymore.  He doesn't have much of an interest in fries and I think we will have to start getting him stuff we know he will eat (not typically found on the kids menu).

On the way home, Carter and Andrew sat in the back of the minivan and requested the radio volume be turned up.  Those little boys sang a bunch of songs at full volume.  The singing was horribly out of tune....it was just awful.  WE LOVED IT!!  They are so cute.  We have to try and record them singing and post a video some time, it's very entertaining.

Update on the poor dog:

My neighbor told me she wanted to pay to have the stray dog hanging out in our front yard put to sleep yesterday (that option had not occured to me - I was patiently waiting for the authorities to handle the 80 lb. dog).  We had called animal control the day before, but they never came out.  We loaded the dog into Nick's truck and drove her to the vets office.  It cost $80 to have this poor tumor infested animal put out of it's misery.  We did not tell animal control that we took care of the dog, and they still haven't responded to our call.  Government agency?

12/28/11 - The Poor Dog Outside

All the kids enjoyed playing outside a lot today. 

This dog wandered into our neighborhood yesterday.  I have never seen a dog in worse shape.  It looks to have massive tumors growing all over it's body and it has a really hard time moving and eating.  Animal control has been called because this dog clearly needs help.  However, it's about to spend night number 2 out on our front lawn.  It doesn't seem to want to leave our house and no one has come by to pick it up yet.  Poor dog.  :(

12/27/11 - Bieber Boys

Grandma Sue got Carter the Justin Bieber DVD, Never Say Never, for Christmas.  The boys keep watching it over and over and doing their crazy little dances to the music.  There favorite song it Baby.  I hope their dancing skills improve, but this little obsession sure is worth a good laugh.

12/26/11 - Ditched

I have been waiting patiently for a couple of months for the movie War Horse to come out.  Nick and I were supposed to go to see it tonight, just the 2 of us.  It was his 1 day off in a 7 day period and I really wanted to get out and do something together.

Well, when it was about time to leave, Nick informed me that he really wanted to stay home and watch a football game.  WHAT!? 

I tried to convince him to come with me but he had his heart set on watching a quiet evening of football at home.

I couldn't believe I was being ditched. 

Whatever.  I refused to miss the movie.  I informed Kennedy that she was changing from the babysitter into my date.  She couldn't believe I was getting ditched either, but was happy to get to go to the movie and bring her friend Leighann along with us.

I loved the movie!  It was totaly worth the weight.

It took some effort for me not to hold a grudge towards Nick.  I guess I might want to stay home too if I was working the schedule he has been working the past few weeks.  He is forgiven.....this time.

12/25/11 - My Christmas Surprise

Nick and I have not gotten each other gifts for Christmas since we started having kids.  If there is something we really need we usually just get it.

NICK BROKE THE RULES THIS YEAR.

It was such a surprise to me.  I usually get my own gifts for my birthday and stuff because I don't want precious money wasted on something I don't want.  As a result...I am never surprised.

When I was handed this gift yesterday, after all the other gifts had been opened, I was trying to figure out how I would fake being happy about what was inside (I am not good at faking my feelings).  When I opened it.....I started to cry.  Aside from the fact that this gift was something I have been wanting for a long time and just couldn't spend the money on, I was so touched that my husband really put thought into a gift he new I would LOVE.  He is so good to me.  I know how lucky I am to have him, EVEN THOUGH HE DID BRAKE THE RULES.

Thank you Nick!

And This is it!  He got me an INTUOS4 Professional Pen Tablet.

I do so much graphic design work on my computer.  I am constantly drawing things and editing images I find on the Internet to make t-shirts and other things.  I have been doing all this with my computer mouse, but now I will get to use this writing tablet that hooks up to my computer.  This should make the process so much faster.  I LOVE IT!!

I am blessed to have such a great husband.

12/24/11 - Our Christmas Day

This was what our living room looked like after Santa got done working his magic.  Our Christmas Day came a day early because of Nick's work schedule.  We had to wake the kids up at 5:30 am to open their gifts because Nick had to leave for work at 7:30 am.

I love watching people open gifts, especially my kids.  We get our children way too much because it is such a joy to see there faces light up when opening a present - it's like a drug to me.

Grandma Sue showed up at about 6:15 am.  It was fun to see her open the gift we got her, a Nook color.  We try to get her something special for Christmas each year.  She has been such a blessing to our children, being the only relative they see on a regular basis.  She is such a wonderful Grandma to them and we are so appreciative of her love and all she does for all of us.

Shortly after opening the gifts, Nick had to leave for work.  It was really sad.  He is usually the one who puts all the kids toys together and plays with every one of them when he's done.  I had to do that this year and it just wasn't the same. 

 Because this blog is also a family journal, I want to list a few things that each of the kids got for Christmas.  They might find this information very nostalgic when they are older.

Kennedy:

4th Generation ipod Touch (we didn't think she was old enough for the iphone she wanted)

32 inch flat screen HDTV

All kinds of Twilight, Breaking Dawn Memorabilia

MissMe Jeans and other clothing

Crayon Maker and Mini Panda Pillow Pet

Carter:

Disco Light Karaoke Machine

Hot Wheels Race Track

Parking Garage

Justin Bieber DVD

All kinds of Art Stuff and Paint Brushes

Andrew:

Wooden Fire Station

Fisher Price Zoo

GeoTrax Train Set

Cash Register

Play Dough and Art Stuff

I realized today that I only have a few more of these magical Christmases until my kids are grown.  Until that sad day comes....I wouldn't change anything about the way we celebrate this special day. 

Kennedy seemed a little sad this year.  She told me that she really wished their was a real magical Santa.  I took that opportunity to tell her that the spirit of Santa is ABSOLUTELY REAL!  It is the spirit of our SAVIOR.  The gift Christ has given to us is for everyone in the world.  The chance for eternal life together was made real on the night he was born and that gift is a magic unequaled by any!  We both started crying and I was so grateful to share that moment with her.

Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas to everyone!

12/23/11 - Our Night (Nightmare) Before Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve for our family. 

I feel like Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch combined, and I've been having a Nightmare before Christmas!

Nick has to work Christmas Day and he will be leaving at 4 am.  We decided that getting the kids up at 2 am to open gifts was too crazy. The guy working the graveyard shift that night was unwilling to work a few extra hours on Christmas morning so Nick could come in a few hours later (even though that guy has NO children), but he did agree to let Nick come in a few hours late the day before Christmas (the 24th).  So,  we are having Christmas a day early so Nick can watch the kids open their gifts before he goes into work.

Because of this special arrangement and the fact that he has hardly had a couple of days off the last 2 weeks, I have been going out of my way to do things with the kids to make Christmas fun.....so much of this season has been spent without Dad.  :(

So......

I decided to take the kids to see Arthur Christmas again.  It's such a cute movie!  However, this is where the Nightmare begins.

We took our favorite seats (that row in the front where you can put your feet up on the railing and there's no one directly in front of you, just the pathway) and the movie started. 

I began trying to dump some popcorn into a cup for Carter.  He thought I was trying to give him the bag or something and he tried to grab it, which momentarily knocked it out of my hands.  I was able to grab it before it flew too far, but popcorn flew everywhere!   There was some laughter and it was hard to miss the gigantic carpet of popcorn covering the main path, but accidents happen, right?  Later, Kennedy took Carter to the bathroom and as he was leaving, he scooped up a handful of popcorn off the ground and put it in his mouth in front of everyone.  I immediately heard a bunch of whispers and more laughing.  I wanted to disappear!  After coming back, he picked up the popcorn bag.....AND DROPPED IT AGAIN!!!  I started planning a super fast departure from the theater as soon as the movie was over.  Once I saw those credits rolling,  I was hurrying the kids out of their seats, BUT I DROPPED MY KEYS.  AHHH!  Heaven help me.  I hurried down a couple stairs and around the railing to try and fetch them and found that Carter had laid down on top of the popcorn and was pushing himself towards my keys on his stomach.  I gave him the look of death (that only a mother could) and he quickly jumped up....with another handful of popcorn from off the ground....which he threw in his mouth of course.  I just turned and fled for the door at that point and left the kids to find their own way out.  I couldn't take another minute of the humiliation.

Luckily the kids were trailing close behind and we RAN for the minivan to make our way back home.

The traffic was CRAZY!  It took forever to get to the freeway.  When I got off the exit Andrew started screaming that he had to "go potty."  I was now in another traffic jam on the feeder road and my blood pressure was boiling, Drew would not stop screaming.  I was finally able to turn down some random road that lead to a neighborhood.  I was desperately driving around like a crazy person trying to find a way out so we could get to a bathroom.  Nothing but dead ends and I got a little lost.  I was speeding up really fast, stopping quickly and then speeding off again in total desperation (I WAS totally insane at this point).  Then I just decided to stop and have him pee on the side of the road.  TOO LATE!

I got back on the feeder road and started making my way towards home.  This is when Kennedy and Carter told me they needed to go to the bathroom. However, we were currently stopped at a railroad crossing waiting for a very slow train to pass. 

I was fuming!!  Which is also what I noticed our minivan was doing.  It just kept getting worse.

I did a U-turn and made my way into a neighborhood to check under the hood to make sure we were NOT ON FIRE!  Something had sprayed all over the engine and was smoking (radiator fluid maybe?), but other then that, everything seemed fine.  

We did finally make it home somehow.....smoking all the way.

We went inside and I asked Kennedy to change her brother because I needed a TIME OUT.  I went into my room and had a good cry.

I called Nick at work so he could comfort me, but, that's when he told me he would be home an hour late because the guy coming to relieve him was stuck in traffic.  I hung up the phone and cried more, because we would have to eat our fancy Christmas Eve ham dinner without him.

 I tossed out my plans for a beautiful formal dinner with fancy dishes.  We ate on plastic plates and drank cans of Diet Coke (Diet Coke was my special Christmas treat).

Nick finally came in the door....and I instantly felt better.  The kids opened up their Christmas PJ's and slippers.

It started to feel like Christmas Eve.   I read them some books and we read the Christmas story.

We watched our Joy to the World dvd and it brought that Christmas spirit we needed.  It finally felt like Christmas again and the peace returned to my heart. 

 

Off to bed my children go, cause Santa Claus comes tonight.....for us.

12/22/11 - More Ice Skating

The kids LOVE ice skating so I took them again today.  It didn't take Carter long to find a pretty girl to hold his hand and ice skate around with him.  She was one of the skate guards and her name was Abby.  She was so kind to Carter and they skated around together for about an hour.  Carter was a lucky boy.

12/21/11 - Snowball Fight, Texas Style

There's no such thing as a white Christmas in Houston, Texas.

You have to use some creativity to have a snowball fight here.

We took sheets of paper and wadded them into balls....snowballs.  After making a pile in the middle of the cul-de-sac, the fight was on. 

A fun time was had by all and another priceless memory was created. 

Waste of paper?  Maybe to some, but not to these kids.

12/20/11 - Gingerbread Trees

The kids made some Gingerbread Trees tonight with their Dad.  

12/20/11 - My Special Meltdown

Well....it finally happened. 

Remember the bowls Drew put in the oven a few days ago....I cooked them today.

Sooner or later I knew I would forget to look inside the oven before I turned it on.  Kind of ironic that it happened to the exact dishes he put in the oven a few days ago.

I got up early to change the sheets on our bed.  Drew came down early in the morning, climbed into our bed and fell asleep.  When I woke up, I discovered the accidental wet gift he so generously deposited on our brand new mattress.

Since I was up so early I decided to be productive and start making the Christmas sugar cookies to give our neighbors.  I turned on the oven and mixed up the dough.  A funny smell filled the air and then it hit me....I forgot to check inside the oven before turning it on.  I opened it up in terror and a plume of toxic black smoke filled the kitchen.  (REALLY!!  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!)  I completely melted the 2 large plastic bowls and 3 hot pads Drew left in the oven a few days ago.  I had to think fast.  It took me the next 2 hours to clean up that horrible mess.  I had to open every window and door in the house, turn on our industrial fan to help push the smoke outside, and wear a mask to try to protect myself from the cancer causing fumes in the air.  What a nightmare!  Eventually I got the mess cleaned up and the cookies finished.  Just one of those days!

12/18/11 - Never Enough Nativities

I was a substitute teacher for Carter's primary class today.  I read the kids the Christmas story as I set up a PlayMobil Nativity.  The kids loved it!

I love nativities and try to collect a new one each year.  The picture above is of the nativities I set up on the fireplace mantle this year.  I have a bunch more, but I don't like to set them up where the kids can get into them.  The more reminders we can have around the house of the "reason for the season" the better.



12/17/11 - Scary Santa & Baker Boy

Carter was walking around today with this Santa mask he made at school.  He was jumping in front of everyone saying, "Ho ho ho, BOO!"  Then he made everyone look through the mask themselves.  This kid cracks me up.  Hahaha.

Now, While Carter was playing scary Santa, Andrew was up to his usual tricks.  It's a good thing the oven has a lock (so he can't turn the heat on and cook himself) because it's Drew's favorite toy these days.  He always uses the hot pads to put all kinds of things in the oven.  I have to check before I bake anything.  He loves to stuff that thing full of plastic bowls and containers.  

12/16/11 - Sick Santa & Class Party

I'm the home room Mom for Carter's class at school.  Today I was in charge of his class Christmas party.  Drew was supposed to come to the party with me but he started throwing up after the older kids went to school.  I felt so bad for him.  He stayed home watching Christmas movies in his Santa hat all day.

The Christmas party was a success.  The kids loved decorating Mrs. Tallerine like a Christmas tree.

Later in the evening I was supposed to sing a song with a group of woman at our Relief Society (church) dinner.  With Andrew sick and Nick working night shifts....I completely forgot to even go.  Oops!!  That's how the Christmas season can go for me sometimes.  Too much going on and I have a horrible memory. 



12/15/11 - Light Ride

We went on our traditional Christmas Light Drive. We brought our hot chocolate (even though it was 70 degrees outside) and climbed into the back of Nick's truck. We tried to light things up a bit with our own star lights....and off we went to take our tour. We visit a neighborhood in our area every year and each street decorates around a verse of a Christmas song. Our favorite is the 12 Days of Christmas in Texas. It was a fun night and Kennedy enjoyed having some of her friends come with us.

12/13/11 - Present Keeper

Drew knows he can't open these presents until Christmas.  Instead, he puts them in his car and pushes them around the house all day.  Once in awhile he unloads them on the bed or a chair, only to pack them all up again and drive off.  These packages will be played with far more then the pajama's that are in them :)

12/12/11 - Ornament Hunt

After school today we took the kids to the store for our annual "Ornament Hunt."  We each get to pick a special ornament each year to buy and put on our Christmas tree.  We almost had a good time picking out our ornaments....you see, shortly after getting to the store we began to smell something awful.  Nick traced the scent back to Carter and was horrified to learn that Carter had just had an accident (I don't think he was feeling very good).  Nick took him out to the car immediately and left me to pick out their ornaments.  This is what we came up with for this year's ornament hunt.

 I took a picture of each persons choice.  Nick - football player,  Holly - cooler full of Diet Coke,  Kennedy - little girl walking a chihuahua while listening to an ipod and holding her cell phone,  Carter - black sneaker (his favorite shoes), Drew - palm tree (he loved this little tree and wouldn't put it down in the store).

12/11/11 - Decorating The Tree

I put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving but because Nick hasn't been home much, we didn't decorate it until today.  Grandma Sue helped and brought over the new ornaments she made for everyone this year.  Our tree isn't one of those fancy looking masterpieces.  It's covered in ornaments that the kids make, grandma makes, relatives send us, and the kids pick out each year.  It's fun to read the names and dates on each ornament as the tree is decorated. 

12/11/11 - Too Much Water

Carter went to get a drink of water from the fridge today, but it wouldn't shut off after the cup was full (it's been sticking lately).  He had no idea what to do and just stood there with his cup trying to catch the water.  Nick opened the freezer door to shut it off and poor Carter was nearly in tears.

12/10/11 - Family Pictures & Holiday Fun

We finally took some new family pictures this morning.  We haven't really done this since Andrew was born.  I love the picture of our family reading together that we took about 6 years ago and I wanted to replicate that to replace the old family photo above our fire place.  Mission accomplished! 

After the pictures we went out to eat and then it was off to one of our favorite holiday activities -

ICE SKATING!

We have gone ice skating every Christmas season since Kennedy was 2 years old.  She really enjoys this tradition and she looks darn cute doing it :)

Next to try out the ice was Drew.  He started out strong with a cute smile on his face.  25 yards onto the ice....his first experience with ice skating was over.  He was finished.  lol.

Carter has never liked ice skating.  We have tried to get him onto the ice in year's past and it has always ended with him throwing a major tantrum.  We didn't expect this year to be any different.  In fact, we didn't even rent him any skates.  When Andrew was done with his 2 minutes on the ice, Carter wanted to put Drew's skates on his shoes.  We put the skates on and prepared ourselves for his tantrum to begin after he got on the ice.  Nick took him into the rink and Carter immediately wanted Nick to let go of his arm.  He made his way over to the wall and started pulling himself along.  Soon he stopped holding onto the wall and was shuffling himself through the crowd....and that was all it took.  He spent the next 2 hours on the ice going round and round the rink.  We were all amazed.  Way to go Carter!!

While the skating was going on...I hung out with Drew, and he was getting himself into all kinds of mischief.  He thought it was real funny to put his hat over his eyes and then make his ears stick out with his hat.

Next, he climbed under the table and had a great time thinking I couldn't find him.  He also liked to collect the shaved ice from the rink and make snowballs to through at the ice skaters.  HE'S SUCH A STINKER!  haha.

I Stayed on the sidelines with Drew taking lots of pictures of my adorable skaters.

After skating we all went to see the movie, Arthur Christmas.  It was a really cute movie and a great way to end a fabulous day filled with lots of holiday fun.

12/9/11 - Visit With Santa

We have gone to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop the past 3 years.  They have an amazing Winter Wonderland for the kids.  They have crafts, letter writing to Santa and a mailbox to put them in, games and cute things to take pictures with, Real stuffed reindeers, and of course....you get to visit with Santa next to his toy workshop.  Very cute.  Andrew said he was scared of Santa but he got on his lap anyway.  We had a fun night together as a family.

(After taking so many pictures in Santa's Wonderland, Andrew demanded to take a picture with every mannequin in the store.  Funny kid!)