Our weekend was more eventful than usual, and it was great! On Saturday I went to the grocery store with Andrew, and Brian and Jacob went to Home Depot. I bought all of the goodies to make more deceptively delicious meals. This week's menu consists of Chicken Parmesan (with spinach and carrots), Honey Mustard Chicken (sweet potatoes), Lo Mein (sweet potatoes), and later in the week I'll make Orange Chicken (I think this also has sweet potatoes). The recipes are really easy to make, and you don't need to go out and buy a lot of weird ingredients that you'll never use again. I love it! Best Christmas gift by far! At Home Depot, Brian picked out some paint samples for our room (YAY! Painting is on my list for 2011) and some light fixtures for the house. You know, fixtures that we actually like. :)
So after I returned home, I made Andrew some lunch (standard chicken nuggets....my kids live on them over the weekend). Then I started a load of laundry. After I started the laundry I started gathering trash. On my way to put a bag in the garage, I thought I heard some noise as I was walking through the utility room. What?!?! That sounded like crackling under my feet. Why would there be cr...ack....ling.....OMG!!! WATER EVERYWHERE!!! Sure enough, here comes Andrew running after me. He runs into the utility room (of course he was wearing pants that were too long for his short little legs), and he ran right back out when I told him to get out. Then he looked up at me and kind of fussed, "Feet! Feet!" So I turned off the washer, took his pants off, and locked him out of the kitchen. Then I called Brian to tell him that they need to come into the house through the front door because our pipes were frozen. Clean up begins, and I'm mad because it is above 40 degrees, so there is no reason our pipes should be frozen. In about 15-20 minutes, Brian and Jacob get home. Brian kind of creeps around the corner of the kitchen island, and he says, "I think I know what happened." He goes on to explain that he thought I might do laundry while the pipes were actually frozen earlier in the week. So he took out the drain tube to put salt into the pipe and forgot to put the tube back in the drain hole. The real news is that I did not fly off the handle when he told me. He helped me clean up the mess, and we were fine! Then he called his mom so that we could have a date night (it's been FOREVER!).
We went out with Cassie and Brian Saturday night. I cooked all day Sunday. We also managed to watch 2 movies. Great weekend!
Facebook Friends
I am friends with the boys' teachers on Facebook. Brian and I are some of the younger parents at the school, and the teachers are only a few years younger than us. Plus, let's face it, they are awesome people! Brian didn't like it so much when I friended the teachers. Had I not friended them, I would've missed out on little nuggets like this:
"Andrew got to stay home with Mommy today because he threw up on her bed."
"You throw up in the toilet or on Daddy." (he shared this with his friends one day)
And this from Christmas: "Jacob is so excited about Christmas that EVERYTHING we do in class has to somehow relate to Santa and the North Pole. We were watching a Bookflix that had clouds in it and Jacob says, 'It's a snow slide in the North Pole!' One of the other boys, of course, corrected him and he just said, 'Maybe. But it's almost Christmas so it's NOT clouds. It's SNOW in the NORTH POLE for SANTA.' He was VERY serious."
In other news, it is friggin' cold here. I am not a fan! Last week I rocked on my resolutions, and this week I'm back to just living in chaos. I'd like to blame the weather because it's really got me in a weird and very unpleasant mood. I'm not sleeping well; I don't want to get up in the morning (which means I drag in a few minutes late....every day for work); and I'm completely unmotivated to do much around the house. I've planned a little girl time this weekend with my friend, Cassie, so hopefully that will pull me out of the funk. Oh yeah...and if Andrew would just get well and stay that way, it'd help. :)
Here are a couple of pictures of the boys at ICE at the Gaylord. (okay...Andrew at ICE. Blogger is messing up and won't let me add another picture)
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone! We spent New Year's Eve this year with the boys. It was so fun! Brian and I went out before we picked them up from school to get hats, noise makers, and some yummy snacks for our celebration. Andrew stayed up until 10:30, and Jacob stayed up until 11:00. And then they both slept in until 8 I think.
I thought the new year was going to bring a new blog, but man...it is a royal pain to set that up. So I've decided to stick with blogger. (Brian thinks I should switch to wordpress)
I've made some crazy resolutions for the new year. Basically it can all be wrapped up with saying that I would like to be more organized. I make this resolution every year, but this year I've actually made some changes in the way I approach things instead of just saying "I'd like to be more organized." Last week was great! Things flowed more smoothly at work and home. The tough part will be to keep it all up.
Brian bought the second edition of Deceptively Delicious for me for Christmas. I think it is by far the best gift I received! What you do is puree vegetables, freeze them in 1/4 and 1/2 Cup portions, and then use them to cook. The recipes are so simple, and every one has been a hit at the house!
Today I am home with Andrew for the first illness of the year. That didn't take long! His tummy was weird all weekend, and we could tell he didn't feel well. Then I wasn't feeling well yesterday or this morning, so I stayed home with him. We had great timing if you ask me. It snowed here yesterday (not even enough at our house for the boys to play in it), and then freezing drizzle hit this morning right before rush hour. So all of the roads have been in bad shape. I think we'll both be back to a normal schedule tomorrow!
Lastly, I am working on my Christmas blog. I have TONS of pictures. It was the best!
Here's to a happy new year for all and a full year of blogging for me!
I thought the new year was going to bring a new blog, but man...it is a royal pain to set that up. So I've decided to stick with blogger. (Brian thinks I should switch to wordpress)
I've made some crazy resolutions for the new year. Basically it can all be wrapped up with saying that I would like to be more organized. I make this resolution every year, but this year I've actually made some changes in the way I approach things instead of just saying "I'd like to be more organized." Last week was great! Things flowed more smoothly at work and home. The tough part will be to keep it all up.
Brian bought the second edition of Deceptively Delicious for me for Christmas. I think it is by far the best gift I received! What you do is puree vegetables, freeze them in 1/4 and 1/2 Cup portions, and then use them to cook. The recipes are so simple, and every one has been a hit at the house!
Today I am home with Andrew for the first illness of the year. That didn't take long! His tummy was weird all weekend, and we could tell he didn't feel well. Then I wasn't feeling well yesterday or this morning, so I stayed home with him. We had great timing if you ask me. It snowed here yesterday (not even enough at our house for the boys to play in it), and then freezing drizzle hit this morning right before rush hour. So all of the roads have been in bad shape. I think we'll both be back to a normal schedule tomorrow!
Lastly, I am working on my Christmas blog. I have TONS of pictures. It was the best!
Here's to a happy new year for all and a full year of blogging for me!
Christmas Activities
This was by far the most fun Christmas season I believe I've ever had! I tried to do as many Christmas activities as possible with the boys (mainly for Jacob). So here's the run down of the activities in the last 30 days.
1. Put up the Christmas decorations. They boys LOVED putting the "balls" on the tree.
2. The Trains at Northpark. We started this tradition last year with my parents. My boys love trains, and so this is a must-see every year!
3. ICE at The Gaylord. I really wanted to see this exhibit this year because of the Charlie Brown theme. They bring in literally tons of ice each year and sculpt scenes based on the theme. It is truly amazing! One minor detail that I forgot was that Andrew HATES to be cold. oops! So he did not take it very well. That meant that I didn't get to see much either. I scurried to get him out of there, but it still took forever because of all of the people. Jacob liked it a lot, so he and Brian had a good time!
4. Christmas Lights. I love looking at Christmas lights each year, and Jacob took an interest this year. So I took them to one of the popular neighborhoods to look at the lights. It only took an hour of waiting in line (after the 30 minute car ride from Grandmother's house), and we made it thru half of the neighborhood. I tried so hard to make it thru the whole thing. I fed them healthy crackers, graham crackers, and Jacob even scored some chocolate during the trip. We jammed to their favorite songs from The Polar Express and my favorites from the Glee Christmas Album (yep...I'm a Gleek). It was fun!
5. Santa. We made it to see Santa! We went with Matthew and Grant, too! The Santa picture of my boys includes the whole family. They were both scared. Then we wanted a picture of all 4 grandsons for my parents. I'm in the picture, too, but I'm mostly hidden. You can see that my boys' shirts are pulled tight to keep them from running away.
6. Decorate Cookies with Santa. I posted about this earlier. We had fun watching the boys freak out around Santa. There weren't any meltdowns, but you could see their discomfort on their little faces. Kinda funny!
7. Elf on the Shelf! It was our first year to have an Elf on the Shelf thanks to Grandmother! Our elf's name is Elfie.
8. Advent Calendar. Again, thanks to Grandmother, we had an Advent Calendar. The boys LOVED moving a small Santa toy from day to day each morning. This was a wonderful thing to have in our house for Christmas.
9. Decorating cookies for Santa. Jacob and I spent some time on Christmas Eve to decorate cookies for Santa. So fun! I can't wait until next year when Andrew will be old enough to participate.
10. The Night Before Christmas. We read this every year. I love this tradition!
1. Put up the Christmas decorations. They boys LOVED putting the "balls" on the tree.
2. The Trains at Northpark. We started this tradition last year with my parents. My boys love trains, and so this is a must-see every year!
3. ICE at The Gaylord. I really wanted to see this exhibit this year because of the Charlie Brown theme. They bring in literally tons of ice each year and sculpt scenes based on the theme. It is truly amazing! One minor detail that I forgot was that Andrew HATES to be cold. oops! So he did not take it very well. That meant that I didn't get to see much either. I scurried to get him out of there, but it still took forever because of all of the people. Jacob liked it a lot, so he and Brian had a good time!
4. Christmas Lights. I love looking at Christmas lights each year, and Jacob took an interest this year. So I took them to one of the popular neighborhoods to look at the lights. It only took an hour of waiting in line (after the 30 minute car ride from Grandmother's house), and we made it thru half of the neighborhood. I tried so hard to make it thru the whole thing. I fed them healthy crackers, graham crackers, and Jacob even scored some chocolate during the trip. We jammed to their favorite songs from The Polar Express and my favorites from the Glee Christmas Album (yep...I'm a Gleek). It was fun!
5. Santa. We made it to see Santa! We went with Matthew and Grant, too! The Santa picture of my boys includes the whole family. They were both scared. Then we wanted a picture of all 4 grandsons for my parents. I'm in the picture, too, but I'm mostly hidden. You can see that my boys' shirts are pulled tight to keep them from running away.
6. Decorate Cookies with Santa. I posted about this earlier. We had fun watching the boys freak out around Santa. There weren't any meltdowns, but you could see their discomfort on their little faces. Kinda funny!
7. Elf on the Shelf! It was our first year to have an Elf on the Shelf thanks to Grandmother! Our elf's name is Elfie.
8. Advent Calendar. Again, thanks to Grandmother, we had an Advent Calendar. The boys LOVED moving a small Santa toy from day to day each morning. This was a wonderful thing to have in our house for Christmas.
9. Decorating cookies for Santa. Jacob and I spent some time on Christmas Eve to decorate cookies for Santa. So fun! I can't wait until next year when Andrew will be old enough to participate.
10. The Night Before Christmas. We read this every year. I love this tradition!
Christmas Time Is Here
I love Christmas more and more with each passing year, and the kids do nothing but feed the monster. I love to decorate (even if I don't actually get it done); I love the music; and I love buying gifts for everyone!
So when it was time to begin decorating, I had plenty of helpers. The boys helped us get the tree out.
Then we HAD to get a Christmas Train! It has been the year of the train in our house.
This year Jacob gets it! We've got the Santa stories going non-stop, our Elf on the Shelf moves every night, we pretend to be on the Polar Express, and we've got the list for Santa memorized. Andrew loves to sing Rudolph, too! Except for the part where he is afraid of Santa. We had a family Santa photo this year. It's a step up from last year where you can actually see tears hanging off of Jacob's face....even with me in the picture.
Scared of Santa sitting right next to him
Then they decorated the tree.
Then we HAD to get a Christmas Train! It has been the year of the train in our house.
This year Jacob gets it! We've got the Santa stories going non-stop, our Elf on the Shelf moves every night, we pretend to be on the Polar Express, and we've got the list for Santa memorized. Andrew loves to sing Rudolph, too! Except for the part where he is afraid of Santa. We had a family Santa photo this year. It's a step up from last year where you can actually see tears hanging off of Jacob's face....even with me in the picture.
And it looks like Andrew is going to be afraid of Santa. The kids' school had a night where the kids could decorate cookies with Santa. So Santa made his way around the room, and he eventually made it over to the table where the kids were sitting. Andrew would not even look at Santa, and Jacob sat in Brian's lap because he was afraid.
Decorating Cookies
Scared of Santa sitting right next to him
Andrew's Animals
Andrew actually talks and makes more noise than Jacob ever did at his age. He always has coo'd more and babbled more. I am just not as good at taking the video of him as I was with Jacob.
But the other night, Andrew was in the mood to show off while we were sitting at the dinner table! Right now he is totally into Gorillas. He will walk around like a gorilla, and he likes to bang his chest, too! We have an animal book with lots of animal pictures. He loves to find the gorilla....over and over and over again. It was actually the first thing he asked for this morning (even before his milk!).
In this video, listen carefully as he actually says, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" like Santa Clause. I think only Brian and I can understand the Merry Christmas part, but watch for it. It's the part where he throws his hands above his head.
He used to know that the horse says Neigh, but in the last couple of months, he's changed it to the clicking noise like when they walk. He will actually run around the house and make that noise. Jacob likes that game, too!
You’re So Awesome
I just had one of the most rewarding moments since I became a parent. Jacob and I were discussing Christmas. We went thru the entire scenario: Santa opens the fireplace doors, sets out toys for Jacob and Andrew, gets back into the fireplace, goes up the chimney, gets back on his sleigh, and rides off with his reindeer about 10 feet to the next house. When Santa is finished delivering toys to all of the good little boys and girls, he goes back to the North Pole. Jacob wanted to clarify that it is the real North Pole that Santa goes back to. As soon as we were done reviewing Santa’s gig the night before Christmas, Jacob turned toward me, gave me a big hug, and said, “You’re so awesome!” My heart literally melted!
Then, as if the awesomeness wasn’t enough, he reviewed his daily morning routine: he goes downstairs when he sees our bedroom light on, comes into our room and gets on the bed, we talk for a few minutes, then he tells me he is hungry, and I get his breakfast…”every time” (according to him….with a big smile on his face he says it). Heart melts more! It’s like he really appreciates that I do that for him. What a great night!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)