Christmas 2008 Review

We had a great Christmas this year. I thought I would give a review.


THE GOOD:

We had a one night get-away to Branson to see the lights and it was wonderful to spend some time away from all of the madness that has been our lives for the past month.
Our church had a nice Christmas Eve service and it was wonderful to come home and open new jammies, read the story of Christmas & the Night Before Christmas and get ready for Santa.

SANTA CAME!!! The boys were so funny as they came out and saw their gifts.
What great memories and seeing Ethan's eyes as he opened his GIANT bowling pins was priceless. With the world's longest hallway that we have it only makes sense to have these. I will say now that I did NOT make this purchase. Daddy did this and so I will remind him of this when he starts getting on to the boys for the pins flying against the walls.
We spent time with our family and had fun opening gifts and eating way too much.

I finally got the under the cabinet CD player/radio that I have asked for 3 years in a row! Hooray!

I also got, you won't believe this, NKOTB's greatest hits!!!!!!!!!!! There will definitely be some jamming while I fix dinner to this one.



THE BAD:

When we went to Branson it was the COLDEST day of the year. I'm still having a hard time talking about how cold it was because it was brutal for all 4 of us. While we were at SDC Reece had tears coming out of his eyes he was so cold, Ethan could hardly talk, and Scott and I were just miserable. We did get to see some good shows, the big tree, and have some fun. We found a Pizza Hut when we left there and it took away all the pain.


Apparently Santa does not read my blog. What a rudey!! I did not get the PedEgg. My friend Ashlee checked in to see if I got it. She got one! She said it is great and she even had her hubby use it. What a shame. I guess I will have to buy my own. Thanks for nothing Santa. Hee hee!

THE UGLY:

Here is what one might look like after a couple of hours in the 14 DEGREE weather. Yikes!
Santa decided that Reece needed to stop wearing Pull-Ups so he gave him some Mickey Mouse underwear in his stocking. Reece opened them up, shouted out "I DON'T LIKE THESE!!!! I DON'T LIKE UNDERWEAR" and threw them down. He will be sporting these underwear starting tomorrow against his will. The Resolve and I are getting prepared.
I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!! New Year here we come! Baby sister will be here soon (but hopefully not too soon because Mommy has a scrapbook weekend to attend first).
Big hugs to all! :)

30

As most of you know I turned 30 on Wednesday...how could you not with the horrendous video my dear sweet husband created?!?!? I am actually looking forward to starting my 30's. I remember when I started my job right out of college. I was 22 and the girl that I shared an office with was so nice. One day she told me she was 30. I nearly fell out of my chair. I remember thinking to myself "oh, poor thing, she is so old already. it will be forever before I'm 30" How my thinking has changed!!!

Anyway, I have had a lot of things floating around in my head that I felt were blog-worthy. I was going to do some sort of 30 theme, but I don't really have 30 things and I'm not feeling very creative. So here are more random thoughts:

• I think Facebook is the best thing ever. If you all remember I was hesitant to join, but was peer pressured by Scotty. I am absolutely addicted to it and until you are on there yourself you have no idea how fun it is. I have talked to so many people from high school, college, work, etc that I haven't heard from in years. It is fun to see pictures of everyone's families and how I LOVE reading status updates. Shanda, I haven't given up on you joining, either. It's a new year, time for Facebook.
  
• You can get a free 8x10 from Walgreens now through TODAY Dec 20. I am not the best at updating pictures around my house. The last time they had this I took advantage of it and got an 8x10 of a great picture of the boys I had taken and framed it right up. It looks great! And did I mention FREE??? Use the coupon code FREEGIFT when you check out with your photo.

• Ethan has created more "house rules". The funniest thing is the day he was making them I was in our bedroom folding laundry. He shouted from our living room (we have a really long hallway so it's pretty far across the house)...."MMMMMMOOOOOOMMMMMMMM, HOW DO YOU SPELL SCREEEEEAAAAAMMMMM??" I about lost it. One of the new rules was, you guessed it...Do not scream. Ha!
  
• Aaron has finished CHEMO!!! Hooray!! It has been a long 6 months for their family and we are so excited that this is over for them. We are praying that his immune system will be strong enough to keep him out of the hospital on Christmas.

• On my birthday I put my glasses on that night since my contacts were bugging me. I never wear my glasses. Reece said "Mommy, you look like Grandma!" Ummm, probably not the best thing to say to me when I turn 30. 30 is ok, but I hope I don't look 55!!!
  
• Today is my sister's b-day! Happy Birthday Trac!! I don't think you read my blog, but I had to give you a shout-out just in case!

There are some products I would like to recognize that I could not live without. Every time I use one of these I think about how thankful I am for these things:

• Shout: without this my boys would look like the biggest slobs ever. I literally spray down every item of clothing before it goes in the washer.
  
• Clorox wipes: how did moms of boys clean their toilets before these were invented (and the floor and wall around the toilet, ugh)
  
• MP3 players: things have changed since the walkman and the portable cd player. How great & easy is it to listen to tunes with these things? If you have it on in a house with two rowdy boys it really drowns out the noise. Hee hee.
  
• Anti-bacterial hand soap: is it possible to be addicted to this stuff? I think I am. You find it everywhere now. The only mishap I have had is when visiting a friend in the hospital I leaned against the wall under an automatic dispenser and it got all over my shoulder.

• The Ped Egg: ok, I don't really have one of these yet, but I have "hinted" that I would like one in my stocking. I have heard that they work wonders. If I get one (again, hint hint, $9.99 at Walgreens) I will be sure to give a full report.
  
• Online bill-pay: I am serious when I say that I haven't bought stamps since last Christmas. I pay EVERYTHING online. It is so nice.

Moving on:

• I am VERY excited for Christmas and ready to see the boys on Christmas morning. My Dad has reminded me many times that really these are the best years for kids with Christmas and he is right. Seeing their excitement is something wonderful.

• Tuesday is Dec 23 which makes exactly one month until Baby Sister is due. I know you are ready for her to be born so I will call her by name. Keeping with our tradition we always keep the name a secret. It is killing me this time, but we love the name we have picked out and can't wait for it to go public!! I have finally gotten that "burst of energy" that they say you get around your second trimester. I never got that because I got sick almost every day until I was 22 weeks along. Her room is looking good, closets are getting moved around, so we will be ready to hold that baby girl in our arms. The boys could not be more excited. They talk about her every day.

Cookie Day 2008

For at least the past 5 years my family has had what we call "Cookie Day." We all get together and bring 3 recipes and our ingredients and bake ALL DAY LONG! It is girls only and it consists of my mom & two aunts, two cousins (although one couldn't make it this year), sister, and two nieces. And me, of course. They told me that next year baby sister has to come. I have mixed feelings about bringing someone with me. I have to say that I enjoy the "girls only" events where I get to leave the boys with Daddy and only worry about myself. Ha! Just kidding! Baby sister will love it, so it will be fun. It's hard to believe that next year at Christmas she will be almost one! Wow! She's getting here sooner than we think!

Here are some pictures from the big event. Once we are finished we all separate the goodies out and take home enough goodies to share with friends (and eat a lot ourselves).

The ingredients:

The group (we got new aprons this year courtesy of Aunt Chris & Mom put our names on them):
The finished product....mmmmm! :)

The e-clubs are paying off

Whoever makes fun of me signing up for free samples and for joining e-clubs can go ahead and stop laughing (Scott). Since my birthday is this month my email inbox is starting to fill up with Birthday gifts from these places of free stuff & discounts. Here's what I've gotten so far:

-Dairy Queen--buy one blizzard get one free
-The Children's Place--15% off your next purchase
-Sonic--free regular tots, cream slush or medium drink
-On the Border--free empanadas or dessert
-Arby's --free regular roast beef (this helps soften the blow from the milkshake incident from last week)
-THIS JUST IN--Free entree up to $15 at Lonestar Steakhouse

I could list out all of the samples I get in the mail at least once a week but I haven't been keeping up with them. The best one yet is the free bottle including drop-ins from Playtex.

My printer is working overdrive. Sign up for the clubs now!! You usually get something free for signing up and then again on your b-day. The one fabulous exception is Dairy Queen and the Blizzard fan club sends that coupon sometimes once a month for a buy one get one free blizzard (thanks Jenn for the tip on that one). I'm not saying I do this, but if you have more than one email address you can sign up again. That's just an anonymous tip.

You are all welcome! Merry Christmas!

Random Random Random

So I have no good "topic" for this post. Here are a few things going on.

-I got a coupon for a free mint chocolate swirl milkshake from Arby's. I have been tasting it all day and was saving it for after church tonight to get it. I was so excited I even told the boys they could have a taste. Much to my dismay when I got in the drive-thru they told me that their franchise doesn't offer those shakes. WHAT!??!?!??! How sad am I? I pulled out (because I am not going to pay for one when I had my sights set on a free one) and now I am baking cookies from a tub. The cookies are good, but I was really wanting my mint shake. I'm going to hit up the other Arby's tomorrow. You never know.

-5 members of my family ran in the 5k here in town last night. They did GREAT!!! They have all been training and it was fun to see all of their hard work pay off. I was so proud and a little jealous that I couldn't run with them. I am setting my sights to run the Toad Suck race in May. We'll see!

-I went to the doctor on Monday and we had an ultrasound. Baby Sister is DEFINITELY still a girl. I was a little nervous since we have already painted. She is already weighing in at 4 pounds 4 oz. We are still shooting for late January but my doctor said we will be watching it closely. I do not want another 9 pounder on my hands. Speaking of weight...oh my. Have I gained it or what? I am now to my all-time high. Higher than when I had both boys. Higher than my senior year of high school through sophomore year of college. Higher than I would have imagined. The scale does not lie. I know you are thinking to yourself....ummmm, you probably shouldn't be getting milkshakes and eating cookies if you are that worried about your weight. Yes, you are right, but I just can't help it! I read a lot of blogs and the pregnant girls always post belly shots each week. I've decided that since I haven't posted any that I would go ahead and post one of me at 33 weeks. Enjoy.

-The Hogs basketball is in full swing. I am so excited. I love love love it. I get so obsessed with it. It gets a little out of control. I don't think I'll be able to waddle my giant rear to a game this season so I am a little sad but I will be sure to watch all games.

-Christmas is here at our house! YIPEEE! The boys are digging the tree, decorations, and lights. I'm getting excited.

That's all from here.