Christmas Highlights

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I feel like it came and went especially fast this year. Being on the other side and doing the mom thing is exhausting!! But so fun. I am ready to catch up on some rest this week. Here are some of the highlights.

Remember the Santa's Village? Here is the ice maze...

After Ellie's Christmas program and about 3 sugar cookies

On stage with some of the other "santas" in her class

My Paula Deen peppermint cake that I was very rushed to make. It could've looked better, but it still tasted good.All set and ready to go...

Tearing into the medical kits that I dove for at Toys 'R' Us just a few weeks before.

Luke enjoying his Elmo slippers, Handy Manny pajamas and school bus. Ellie with her slippers, new pajamas, and homeade apron made by mom (the stockings in the pictures above were also made by mom!) And finally...enjoying a stocking stuffer-Big Bird grape foam soap. Ellie isn't mad by the way, just being really silly.
Can't wait to see everyone else's pictures!!!

Dreary Weather

It has been raining now for like four days and I'm trying to be thankful for it, but I'm really ready for it to go away. Now, if I had no children or a husband or a house to take care of, I might could enjoy curling up in front of movies for a few days, but that is not the situation here.

Ada and Laura Beth have been visiting this week and I love not being alone all day with kids, but Ada and Ellie aren't exactly to the place where they play well together. Ellie likes to pretend a lot with things being a certain way. Ada wants to join in, of course, and do what Ellie is doing, but doesn't quite know how to play like Ellie would have her play. If Ellie is in the right mood, she is patient, but if not, forget it. Meanwhile, Luke would be content just watching movies and it is hard not to let him when things are dreary out. But I think it is hard for Ada to understand how anyone could possibly sit still for more than a second and she gets frustrated with him when he doesn't interact with her more. LB and I have been constantly working at "resolving" all these situations. It is so exhausting.

LB, Scott, and Ada left today for a long Christmas weekend with Scott's family. So, tonight our family headed to Huntsville. We have been wanting to take the kids to Santa's Village-a setup up downtown with many Christmas activities for the kids to see and do. We splurged and first went to Outback. This is by far and away Steven's favorite restaurant. It's pretty high up there on my list as well. We used to go there all the time, back before there were kids and I was working and our budget looked a little different. We haven't been there in so long, and tonight was one of those meals that just hit the spot. I made myself miserable. Here I sit, almost 5 hours later, still feeling the effect of eating way too much at dinner.

Anyway, back to the rain...it hadn't rained all day, so I was very excited that it looked like Santa's Village would work out tonight. But, wouldn't you know it-just as we are getting ready to leave it starts raining again. Just enough to get us to Huntsville, and it seemed to be over after dinner. So we got to Santa's Village and I guess everyone else had been cooped up in the house for too long as well, because it was jam packed, and muddy! There were people dressed up as different things (gingerbread men, snowmen, etc.) Luke was terrified. And then when we got to the "elves workshop" there was a tower with working trains going round and round. He wanted to stay there forever and when we finally pulled him away, he had a meltdown (they are starting to become somewhat common these days). There was a little ice maze and every 20 min. there was a machine that shot out fake snow. This seemed to be the highlight. But other than that, it was not so much fun. Overall, however, it was a really fun night.

And now I am going to curl up and go to bed and hopefully wake up to a much less full stomach (less full of food, I know it will still be full of a baby) and some drier weather!

Christmas Thus Far

So, you haven't heard from me in awhile for several reasons. The holiday season kind of came in with a bang. After Ellie's hospital stay she has made a slow, but full recovery (which I am extremely thankful for) and we were busy with that plus Thanksgiving. The next week we enjoyed a quick, but great visit from Steven's parents. (who, in case you didn't know, live in Albuquerque) The day they arrived we had a Christmas dinner at our church-which Steven's dad spoke at. It was excellent! Everything-the food, the speaking, the fellowship, the decorations. Several of the ladies in the church decorated the tables-so fun! His parents' visit was a huge blessing. I am extremely blessed to have what I think is an out of the ordinary in-law situation. They are the most kind, gracious, loving people you will ever meet! Diana (Steven's mom) is incredibly gifted in the area of interior design and "did her thing" with much of my house. I am thrilled over it.

I would have pictures-but that is mainly why I haven't been blogging. Our computer situation is the pits right now. Our main computer (which I do all of our picture stuff on) is so messed up. I did manage to make a Christmas card on Kodak gallery, after spending at least an hour working on it, only to have it freeze and then having to start all over. Anyway, that really leaves Steven's laptop which he always has with him. So, then by nighttime when there is finally time to blog, I don't feel very motivated anymore and I can't do pictures on it anyway. So...all of that to say I am pretty bummed because I have great pics to share and a lot really has been going on.

As for Ellie and Luke updates-they are doing well. Very much enjoying the Christmas season. As I type this, Luke is asking for "ar pess" which for awhile I thought he was asking for "Laura Beth". Then I quickly figured out he is saying "Polar Express". He is absolutely OBSESSED with this movie. We discovered it on TV one night and recorded it. He would seriously watch it over and over and over if we would let him. Ellie enjoys the one line where the little geeky boy says "stupid underwear". So, we've now been introduced to that word and try not to encourage it, but it is pretty funny when they both crack up over that line.

Ellie is upstairs putting up a fight over going to bed. Ellie and Luke typically go to bed at the same time, but today Ellie did not have a nap and did have a full day at school and is clearly ready for bed. She is doing much, much better. And I am so thankful, because that in between stage was pretty rough-a lot of whining and extreme meltdowns. Her school program is next week. She has been singing a lot of Christmas songs. Her class (3 yr. olds) are going to be Santas. She sings "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" all the time. Which, I haven't ever really thought about it, but now that I have a child who sings it and pays attention to the words, I don't really love it. Think about some of the words "you better not cry, you better not pout...he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake" It's not a huge deal, I don't think any permanent damage will be done. But it really goes against what I want Ellie and Luke to understand. That they can't be "good" on their own, Christ is the only one who can produce that in them. Not to mention, he sees you when you're sleeping and awake sounds a little weird to me. Anyway, like I said, not too worried about it, just thought I would throw those thoughts out there.

One more thing about Luke. We had a major breakthrough yesterday. He desperately needed a haircut and if you keep up with this blog, you have seen what that is like. So, I told him where we were going and needless to say, he wasn't thrilled. Well, I couldn't find a parking spot and I could see several men waiting at the barber shop. It was kind of rainy and I just thought I don't want to deal with this today. So, we went to Wal-Mart and I decided to give their "salon" a shot. There was no wait and I sat down with Luke in the chair. At first he panicked, but then for whatever reason, he got okay. He did great and even laughed at one point because he said it tickled. I was so proud of him, I let him pick out a car (another major obsession these days!!). He was very excited about the car...until today. Mom and I were back in Wal-Mart (I'm there a lot). I guess he thought this was a new thing that we got to do every time we were there-pick out a toy. He saw several things he wanted and when we told him we couldn't take them home, he flipped out!!!! We tried offering the car he had just gotten yesterday-but all of a sudden it was old in comparison to the new toys on the shelves. This was a new thing for him-a tantrum in public-and I mean a tantrum! People were looking and he was so upset, like, he was having trouble catching his breath. I guess it's to be expected-he is almost 2 1/2.

As for me and this pregnancy, things are moving along. I feel as though the first trimester went by pretty slowly because I was so sick. The second trimester flew by and now things have slowed down again a bit. Christmas definitely helps, though. I mean, as soon as Christmas as here, we are looking at about 6 weeks. Some days I think I can definitely do that, others, I think no way. My back bothers me a lot and I have Braxton-Hicks quite often-especially going up and down our stairs, bathing the kids, bending over, etc., etc. This is the first house I've been pregnant in that has stairs, so maybe, just maybe I will go into labor on my own. I have been induced twice and would love to experience that, but I also don't want a 10 lb. baby. So, we'll see. For now, I'm trying to enjoy these last few months of putting kids down and having free time, sleeping all night, and all that stuff you take for granted until you have a newborn.

Alright, can you tell I haven't blogged in awhile? If you're still reading...I hope you are enjoying this Christmas season thus far!