Christmas Thoughts

Happy New Year! Last night we didn't do a whole lot. I went down to my families house in the morning and the kids played outside and did whatever it is they do all day while we're there. Kurt got off at 2:00 (a nice surprise) and we were able to go to Mass that evening with my family instead of waiting to go this morning and being so tired. The guys played cards and we just hung out and laughed and talked.. that's really what I like doing the most anymore. I showed Sara how to put Liam in the sleepy wrap. Brennan doesn't care for it for now, so until next baby ;-) it will be getting good use. We headed home around 10:15 and were asleep right before midnight. We're old!

Christmas was different this year, it never really seemed like Christmas except there was gift giving. Christmas Eve we headed to my parents house, all my siblings were there so it was nice to see everyone, but we've been seeing everyone so much anyway it wasn't anything out of the ordinary (which in away is nice). We all went to Mass and both the babies slept which was awesome. I love going with my family because everyone helps out with Landen & Amelia. Not that Landen needs to be watched when he's with the boys.. he just sits there with them and behaves. Ethan was an alter server and I was so glad to see him up there, he did so good.. I can't believe how grown up he's getting. Afterwards both sets of my grandparents came over to open presents and eat dinner. It was yummy and gift giving was really nice. Jake had Kurt and got him all the rebate (free) items from Menards. It was hilarious and awesome at the same time. I think we should do cool things like that for Christmas gifts! My mom's birthday was the 28th so we gave her the gift we got/made for her early. Sadly a lot of my mom's photo's got ruined from water damage so we all went through our millions of photo's and printed as many as we could out and put them in albums of all of us from as far back as we had. I loved seeing them all - great gift in my opinion. We even made a grandchildren one and I have the cutest photo of Liam, Landen, Amelia & Brennan. :) It was a relaxing night and just kind of seemed like any other night with the family though.

Christmas day we surprisingly woke up fairly early. The kids liked finding their stockings and opened up baby Jesus and placed him in the manger. I think they really understood and we sang happy birthday to Jesus. I kind of came up with this idea as to how to explain getting gifts from each other and giving gifts for the kids since they didn't understand why "we" we were getting gifts on Jesus's birthday. I just said that Jesus loves us so much that he wants us to give "love" gifts to people we care about. I don't know, seemed good at the time. :) We opened gifts and honestly didn't do much, the kids had a few things in their stockings which we do stockings are from Santa and they get mostly religious things. I got the CCC DVD's and Amelia LOVES her St. Bernadette DVD, watches it daily and has even been pretending to make miracles and things. I love it! Then for Ameila's big present we got her the wooden paper dolls from Melissa & Doug, my parents also go that so I need to take it back. She was mostly in love with her candy though so it was good. Landen got the bounce back race car and has been loving every bit of it. Kurt and I got each other our new computer - a Dell, HD wide screen and it's so fast and soft running. I can get things done so fast on it!

We headed to Kurt's parents for Christmas day. It was good to see his brother and his fiance and grandpa. We all exchanged gifts and had lunch. The kids played and then Kurt's Aunt & Uncle came over with their 3 boys. Landen of course loved that and Amelia was right in on the action. It was a good day but just oddly not like most Christmas. Not sure why really.

I was really glad to keep the real meaning of Christmas in our home this year . Oh and I almost forgot my mom has been giving us older kids something on St. Nick's day and she got use more pieces to our Fontani Nativity Set. I absolutely love it. We put it up on the tv cabinet this year with lights and things around it. It looks so nice, makes me want to keep it up all year. I've been thinking about getting some small to put out all year though.. we need more things like that. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Everyone have a Blessed & Merry Christmas! We will be celebrating with family the next two days.

Tis the Season

This Advent season has passed so quickly compared to other years. Usually I feel like I'm sitting there waiting and waiting for Christmas to come.. like a little kid. This year -- it's the 22nd and we still don't have everything done. Insane! I never wait this long..I'm going to blame it on having three children under four and a husband that had no vacation with the new job. Hey, makes me feel better. Kurt and I left the kids Saturday and got a lot of the last few things finished. People are beyond irritating but we managed with a very fussy baby. Can I just say.. thank you for online shopping (where I did a lot).. all you have to get mad at is the slow connection. Ha ha! Other than gift giving and a bit stressed about getting everything done, I've been calm and cool about the other things that tend to get me worked up. We will be where we need to be whenever we can get there and that's that!

On to the project news... Amelia's room is coming along slowly now. We've been so busy on the weekends and I don't dare go and pick carpet out in this madness so it will wait. Things are slowly getting up on the walls though. Kurt decided to remove the hallway carpet to check out the hardwood underneath. Most of it looks pretty good, so we might be fixing it up a bit and leaving it without and then painting the walls. I hope we can get that all done in January. I feel like our house is out of order or something. Argh!

Here's a thinker from Landen! Yesterday he was playing with his cars and told me that the police/ambulance had two dead people in it because they got in a wreck. He went and "dumped" them in the ground and said they were going to heaven because they were good people to be with God. I thought that was good.. then he says... "Mom, God kills people that are bad" Me: "No, God loves everyone even if you're bad" Landen: "No, he kills them when they're bad" Me: "No, God always loves you no matter what, he doesn't want you to do bad things because he wants to live in your heart, but he always loves you and doesn't kill people" Landen: "Well that Noahs Ark book said he killed all the bad people" Me:(hmm) "Well sometimes people write things in books that aren't always true." Landen: "Okay." I was surprised at that, I wasn't sure what to say at first. He's also becoming quite the artist.. he drew Kurt, myself and himself the other day -- a typical four year old drawing I think. Then yesterday he drew a combine on a semi trailer for his grandpa. Oh and he can write and spell his entire first and last name. =)

Amelia is ready for Christmas - or should Amelia say "Jesus's birthday and he's going to hog down his cake!

That's the news for today!

Because I Haven't...

... Posted pictures in over a month and my babies aren't babies anymore!

Don't you love a picture that totally shows a kids personality? That's totally Landen!


It's seriously all about dresses and hair things in this girls world. We only let her wear make up when she really throws a fit. lol!

I've been meaning to post this one picture from Christmas. It pretty much represents the mood that was in the air for Christmas!!!

Holiday Updates

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Better late than never I suppose.

Christmas was nice. We went to my parents for Christmas Eve for Mass and dinner. We did a name exchange this year which helped cut down on buying so many Christmas gifts. It was nice for a change, I didn't feel over whelmed or like gifts were dragging on for hours. I wished we had a video recorder because Landen definitely had a $10,000 winning America's Funniest Home Video. I told my mom it would be nice for Landen and Amelia to have Mary and Jesus dolls. Landen opens his, hits is forehead with his hand and is like "Oh man" and just threw the doll down. As soon as he was told it was Jesus he wipes his forehead with a quick "phew". It was absolutely hilarious - he doesn't really care for the doll like Amelia does and was on to his other gifts, but it was a high light. Amelia got the Mary Doll I looked for and couldn't find (thank you mom) and literally carries it all over the house - she loves it!

Christmas Day we headed to Kurt's parents and then too his grandpa's house to see everyone else. It was a long day and with not feeling well and staying up too late and rushing the day before I wasn't doing all that well. We did get the beautiful towel cabinet his grandpa made that Kurt designed, I love it!

My mom turned 50 the 28th and since she's not much into big parties or anything all her kids and of course my dad decided to remodel her entire kitchen. The cabinets were completely redone, new counter top, etc. My sisters fiance Jake is amazing at that sort of stuff and with my brother, dad and Kurts skills they did some amazing things. Along with my sisters, who did so much I can't even believe it. I can't wait to see the finished project, unfortunately I couldn't do much because of the fumes and dust with being pregnant. My sis Savannah is supposed to be making a pretty good slide show of the process.

New Years was fun and doesn't seem as fun as it does when your younger. We stayed out too late and I literally suffered for two days after.

That's the high lights - that I can remember. Hope I didn't leave anything important out. If I ever download pictures I'll have to add them.

And So I Wonder. . .

Is it really worth getting them dressed up to take Christmas pictures? Will I get a good one? If not I can always fall back on the comical aspect of pictures and go with this one!

Or this one.

Or just let the three year old have the camera and go with it! Have fun with those Christmas pictures, I am sure to look back and get a good laugh out of these and the many others. *Note my shirt, ha ha ha.. I'm lucky!!!! =)

Advent is a time to be happy

I've been quite the downer when it comes to posting. I guess I just haven't been all that perky lately, things make me irritated. I've been thinking about it a lot today (I guess because the kids are both taking naps at the same time for once) and it's advent; I need to get my act together. I'm going to get more into the spirit and start being thankful. Not saying I'm not going to be grumpy, but it will pass.

I've decided to delicate some of the Christmas things to my husband, I feel too stressed to decide who is getting what and on and on. There is just too much materialism in our Christmas and I really would like to do away with that. How do you do that though when most of the family is all about that? It makes it really hard. I'm thinking of asking my Grandma to make a Mary Doll for Amelia, even if it isn't for Christmas. I can't find one and my grandma is really good at sewing I think it might be better than one I would purchase and my friend is going to take some pictures of theirs for me to send.

Our Christmas tree has been setting quite the mood, it's really lovely. Landen and I made our Advent wreath and I really like it since this is our first one. I got the Advent Calender in the mail today - it's going to be so much fun. The kids and I are going to take part in that when they wake up. One day day behind, that's okay. I found the advent wreath for my blog, that made me happy. =) I'm really looking forward to getting my Christmas Photo Cards this year to send out. They were shipped a couple of days ago so as soon as I get them and get stamps I'm going to be sending cards good and early this year. I even picked out some angels from church to pray for and send cards too. =)

Well I'm off to make some coffee, my warming mouse is only keeping my hand warm and I'm freezing! Have a great day. Be sure to enter for some adorable shoes and an awesome smart-e-bear on my review site. I have lots of holiday giveaways coming that you don't want to miss out on.

Worth the Delay

Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers from everyone regarding Landen. He is doing a lot better. Kurt talked to him about when you feel like that saying "I'm smarter than you pee" and even though we had both said something similar to him that didn't work, this worked. He continued to do his "I have to pee and poop" the rest of Wednesday and then a little bit on Thanksgiving but we haven't had anything since. I have heard him say "I'm smart" a few times but nothing to be alarmed about. I talked to the Doctor and nurse Friday and decided to not go forward with the voiding test (that's when they insert a catheter into is penis, shoot dye up into is cavity and then let it out) since he's acting fine. I'm not sure what was going on, but all seems to be better now. I'm still wondering if it had something to do with him being sick and maybe he wasn't fully recovered? Let's hope so!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a busy one, but it was nice. =)

We put our Christmas tree, lights and everything else up on Friday. It makes the house so cozy with the tree up. This year all the break able decorations are on the top; definitely a tree that looks like children live here. =) Landen and I made an advent wreath and Kurt read the blessing last night and we lit the first candle. It's lovely! This is our first year doing the advent wreath and I'm super excited about it. I also ordered an Advent Calender for the kids and everyday you get to read a little song and bible verse and hang it on the tree. I'm hoping it arrives today so we don't have to do too many catch up days.

We got a lot of snow last night; more than I enjoy. The roads are covered and it's going to be hard to get out of the drive way. Yuck! Landen has been wearing his hat, gloves and snow boots all day. He's ready for a snowball fight.

Oh and just to let everyone know, cloth diaper month is over and I have a lot of contests for Christmas related gifts coming up. One almost every single day. Check out Momma In Flip Flops2 to get in on this great stuff. =)

Help me out - Catholic Mommy's

I've been looking for Catholic Christmas gifts for Landen and Amelia. I've been finding tons of things but it's starting to get a bit overwhelming. I don't know what's a big hit, so I thought I would ask those of you that read this that are Catholic. Do your kids have something that's faithful that they really love? After getting that CD I thought it'd be best to just ask others what they're kids really like and go from there. I really want to get Amelia a Mary doll, but I'm not sure if she's still to young only being 15 months. I like the Jesus dolls too. What about DVD's, certain books? I want them geared towards their ages right now (3 and 1), so many things I've heard of are for older kids. I'd love any input, please! It's getting closer and closer and I need to get on it.

It's all over!

It's been almost a week since my last blog post and we've been on the run pretty much everyday since then. As much as I'm going to miss the Christmas lights, music, tree, the anticipation for Christmas to come, snooping through presents, the goodies and the rest of it, I'm really ready to get back into our regular routine and settle down. Today seems to be a bit back to normal and that's only because we are stuck inside the house with a snow storm happening outside as I write this.

Over all Christmas was really nice. We had Christmas Eve with my family as we usually do. We went for lunch because Mass was at 4:00pm this year. We went to a different Parish then I had been to... very small compared to our church here in town. Amelia was pretty good and Landen was a nightmare - overly tired and extremely irritable. I felt like the entire place had all eyes on us, but my family said it wasn't that bad. Then we went back to my parents house for presents - always a fun time! Christmas day we had our own little Christmas here at our place. Landen wasn't quite into Christmas as I thought he'd be, but it was still a lot of fun. Then we went to Kurt's parents for lunch and more presents. Afterwards to his grandpa's for more food and presents. It was a long couple of days, but a lot of fun.

I made a photo montage below of a few of the Christmas pictures we took. Enjoy!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The last few days since Christmas we've been running here and there for everything that has been going on. There are two birthdays in my family - Emily and my mom. We didn't make it for either, but that's normal. Yesterday we went to RIPS for good ol' chicken with Kurt's family. Grandpa leaves for Texas Sunday for a few months and it's kind of a tradition. Today, we cleaning, laundry, trying to fix the tub (ugh) and relaxing. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

I'm Dreaming of A White Christmas (said in a deep manly tone!) Ha ha

Friday morning my sister Sara came and we baked cookies. It was so much fun! We made scotcheroo's, peanut clusters, chocolate covered pretzels (dark and white), those peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top, and Reese's peanut butter cups. Yum, yum, yum! We're planning on taking them to Christmas Eve at my parents house. We've been doing pretty good at staying out of them and just eating the defects if we need a chocolate/sugar fix.

I so enjoy when my sisters come up and visit. Sometimes it's a bit hectic when everyone is around at my parents house, but when it's just a few of us we always have some good talks. With several interruptions from Landen, of course. He's quite the entertainer and is always around for a good laugh. Sara got in trouble by him for touching Amelia's head - she has a soft spot, duh - and he let her know it. =) That was our fun on Friday.

Yesterday we went to Wal-mart to get the basic things we needed to take for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that I had forgotten or was just told we needed to bring. What is it with people waiting until the weekend before Christmas to get their Christmas shopping done? Not the food, the presents - ahh! I seriously would freak out on someone. I'd just grab whatever I saw and get out of there as fast as I could. I was just trying to get through the aisles to get food, without hitting someone while pushing a lop sided, defective cart. How do I always manage to get those carts? And why wouldn't my husband trade me? Yes, we now have to take two carts.. lol! I have Amelia and the cart with the stuff we actually need, Kurt has Landen and the cart with the things we don't really need. Oh.. how things change once you have children!

Now I shall go and finish the laundry, make a peppermint pie, iron clothes for tomorrow, get things around for tomorrow (all the junk we have to take with us), and try to load presents up so Kurt can't take sneaks at his gifts and figure out what they are. =) If I'm not on here again before Christmas. Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas!

Oh Christmas Tree - whhhhaaatttt am I?

I thought I would play along this morning, since I got awaken entirely too early, I'm groggy and not motivated! April had What Kind Of Christmas Tree Are You? on her blog and wanted others to join in. Here I am - A Traditional Tree! I would say that's right. Join in too and leave the link so I can see what you are.

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Our Ornaments

Jenn had a cute blog idea of posting Christmas ornaments that were sentimental to you and wanted other people to play along. Jenn has had her post up for awhile and Sharon has a great blog sharing her ornaments too. I'm finally getting mine up. I'm not the most sentimental person - truly I'm not. Sometimes I can be about certain things, but I'm the girl who's wedding dress is in a garbage bag in our basement - sad, but true. So I picked out a few of the ornaments I liked and have some meaning.

I like this one because it's the first ornament we got after we were married! My mom and dad got it for us. I like these statue things.
I got this little pregnant bear when I was pregnant with Landen. Her hands are resting on her belly. LoL! I always do that when I'm pregnantThis is our family ornament for this year. Unfortunately they put Landen's name on the girl penguin and Amelia on the boy. Oh well... you have to have humor! It's still cute. We've been getting a family ornament every year so far.

We have a lot of hockey ornaments. This one is my favorite though because I like the marshmallow snowmen! This is Kurt's.

Every year we get the kids an ornament. I thought I would post both Amelia and Landen's first ornament. Actually they have more than one, but these are my favorites. Landen got a tractor this year because he's really into tractors.

I got this ornament the Christmas after we miscarried our baby. I hate to be a spectacle and was almost kind of like - "why did I get this" after I opened it, but I do really like it. Every Christmas when I get this out, he'll be remembered at this time as well.

This is Amelia's baby's first Christmas this year. Kurt's mom always finds the marshmallow snowmen and I just love them. Cute!

So there ya have it folks. A few of our ornaments we have on our Christmas tree. For those of you who haven't played along do. It's fun and I'd like to see what you have. It doesn't take that long to snap a few shots of your ornaments and you can always delete them later.

I still want uh hula hoop

Yesterday Kurt and I went and finished our Christmas shopping. My sister Rebecca came up and watched Landen for us so we could get his presents and actually be able to take our time and look around. I have to admit I really missed the little guy. He gave me a hug and kiss when we left and said - "bye mom and dad". He was so happy to spend time with Rebecca - he was actually waiting and waiting for her to get to our house. I'm glad I have someone a truly trust to watch him. I have a hard time leaving him, especially for that long of a time and having us so far away.

We spent our $50 Gordman Bucks. We got more Christmas gifts and a few things that we probably didn't really need. Then we went out to dinner - to Lonestar. I wanted a steak so bad. We got entirely too much food and brought stuff home for lunch today. I couldn't even tell you the last time I've been out to somewhere like that. We usually do the fast places because we have both the kiddo's with us. Amelia was okay at the restaurant. I ended up apologizing to the people that sat around us - however everybody (and I mean everybody) around us said they liked her little crying/cooing and she was adorable. That made me happy that nobody was bothered by me attempting to nurse the squirmier and enjoyed seeing a little one, being a little one. =)

Kurt took half day off of work today. Unfortunately he's been sick most of the day with one of is head aches. I suppose the Netti pot is probably not going to do what I was hoping it to do. Landen and Amelia are already sleeping as well. I guess it's just me an my lonesome to do whatever I want to do. I probably won't be on the rest of the weekend (well who knows) so everyone have a wonderful weekend.

*Maggie, the picture above of Amelia is all for you*

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Saturday we spent the majority of the day putting up our Christmas tree and decor. It was fun as usual. I thought Landen would be able to get more into it, but he's still a little bit small to help out a whole lot. He enjoys the balls and hockey ornaments - he hits the balls with the hockey stick ornament. No breaks yet.

I love Christmas trees and lights. There is something so soothing and relaxing about it. Every year when we put it up it makes our home turn into some soft cozy little place. Well, I think it does anyway. Here's our tree with a little helper. I know it's kind of hard to tell what it looks like. It's fake - Kurt and I got it our first Christmas married. It has those fake little pine cones on it. I love it!

Fala lala la Lalala la!

We finally made it out in all the hustle and bustle for a little bit of Christmas shopping Friday. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought but took a lot longer in each store when you have two little ones to tote around with you. Neither Kurt or I got grumpy at each other, Landen and Amelia were excellent, and we won $50.00 in Gordman bucks! Woo hoo! We got a lot of stuff for family, a little bit for Landen and what other odds and ends we needed. I can't say to much, because family reads this (anyway I think they do) and I don't want to give anything away. =)

I found a children's nativity for Landen. The people are finger puppets and it came with the the stable (that sings), angel, wise men, shepard, some animals, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and it all velcros up so it doesn't get lost. Landen's been having lots of fun with it.

Before we left that morning Kurt found the pacifiers that we had from Landen (that he didn't use) and decided to see if Amelia would try it. Sure enough she took right too it.. I wasn't exactly happy about it, but we decided to have one in the car in case of emergency use. A lot of times if I can't stop I'll just let her have my pinky (yuck I know) but with it being flu season and being out in the stores I didn't want to do that. So we brought it along. Well we ended up using it in the stores - every time I looked down at her it made me feel bad. Something was actually pacifying her and it wasn't me. I really don't like pacifiers either, I have absolutely no problem if other people use them, but I don't want my children using them. As soon as we got home it disappeared - I really have no idea where it is. Kurt probably did something with it because Landen was in love with it (strange child) and he knew I didn't like Amelia having it. It's a good emergency usage for the car though. I know I'd give it to her in the house if it was around instead of just taking time out to nurse and let her suckle. =/

Not much more on shopping - of course we have more to do and I have to go back soon to use my $50 Gordman Bucks!

Traditions of Christmas

After reading Sharon's blog today, I sparked an idea to ask on my blog.

Do any of you do any neat Christmas Traditions?

Or do you do anything neat for Christmas?

• This year I wanted to try the Three Wise Man gift idea. Kurt isn't to thrilled with it, so it might get put aside for another year. It's when your children get three gifts. Something religious, Something they Need, Something they want. I thought it would be fun and put more of a meaning to Christmas. Christmas isn't just about getting a lot of gifts.

• We're also going to do the Advent wreath this year.. which reminds me I have to get one.

• I Also want to wrap Baby Jesus up (from our nativity) in an extra special box with beautiful paper. Put him under the tree and have that be the first gift we open and put him in the manager. I thought about moving the three wise men all over the house during Advent, like they're traveling to see Baby Jesus, but Landen might be a little young for that. Unless I get the non-breakable Nativity. That might be an idea.

• We're going to try to read the story of St. Nicholas on his feast day and put little toys in the kids shoes for that.

• I'd like to actually do stocking this year as well. Let that be the presents from Santa!

I have a lot of wants to do - I'll have to let you all know if any of them actually happen. Haha!

Now that you've read what I want to attempt to do, and hopefully shared what you do. Go on over to Sharon's Blog post relating to Christmas, she wants to know when you should start to Decorate for Christmas. I'm wondering the same thing.