christmas-y stuff

these two weeks have been a blur.  not a bad sort of blur.... just, well, its all run together. 

we started the christmas vacation {i.e. the children's day school was not in session} with faustino taking a fellowship interview trip.

also known as single parenthood.

but strangely, i was okay with that.  even without all of my shopping done.  {confession:  i did have my mother-in-law swing by one evening once the kids were tucked in so that i could run a couple of places without carting the circus with me}

of course ethan had his yearly doctor's appointment.  and we had the polor express class playdate with boxes as our "train cars" {so cute}.  savannah and ethan also played with a "older" friend while she did some babysitting "training."  they asked me every. single. day. to go back and play with their new friend.  i think i'll be putting her on the schedule as my mother's helper.  for real.  amazing.

we did a lot of playing.  bed jumping.  reading.  puzzles. rain coat wearing {ethan really digs the outer wear}.  with the occasional christmas movie thrown in {might i suggest the curious george very monkey christmas?  quite possibly the one that held their attention best.  has a catchy song too.  that way you can hum christmas monkey all the damn day long... hahahaha.  curse me later.}

i really enjoyed it.  i also released myself of several things.  christmas baking.  christmas crafting.  and christmas friends' gifts.

was that good or bad?  i don't know.  but it was freeing.  and cheaper {think:  fellowship interviews} and waaaaay less stressful.

i remarkably managed to score matching carters pj's for the kids.  in their correct sizes.  after failed attempts to find christmas pj's elsewhere including the store where i found them {nothing like procrastination}  from the looks of all my friends christmas photos on facebook and blogs... it looks like we all bought the same pairs :)  

wilbert gave the kids the christmas pj's.  but i have slipped up so many times and corrected myself that i am certain this will not become a wilbert the elf tradition.  i can't keep up with the elf trickery!  our elf did basic stuff all season.  basic is really better for me.  no crazy pinterest style elf tricks for us.

christmas eve eve we went to a family christmas party {where savannah enjoyed being the center of attention}... spent the night at my parents house.... and woke up and had christmas presents.  after we ate brunch and played we jumped in the car and came back to fort worth where we put the children down for naps and then went to the christmas eve service.

 

her sussy to open was her little "ears" 

 

mom, can you send me some of your pictures?  

all two that i took were, uh, not great.  this was the best... and it isn't so fantastic, huh?

ethan was so so so tired for the christmas eve service that he just wanted to lay with his head in my lap.  which caused me to bawl the whole time.  my little boy just doesn't slow down like that anymore.  and he is my christmas baby... oh.  break my heart.  so sweet to hear carols about the silent night with jesus in the manger and hold my baby boy.  makes me cry just thinking about it...

and after a beautiful service we went home, read a night before christmas, and snuggled our babies before last minute wrapping and minor assembly of santa gifts.

in our house, with space and budget issues, santa brings each child one, unwrapped, assembled thing.  when space and budget are no longer an issue, i have no doubt that this rule will still be in place.  wrapped gifts also don't arrive under the tree until christmas eve.  it definitely takes the focus off of the gifts a little bit.  and every little bit helps.

christmas morning, ethan and savannah woke up to a bike and a shopping cart from santa.  faustino cooked us breakfast... and we lounged around all morning.  i got a pair of boots that i am so excited about... i can't even tell you what it is like to live in fort worth and not own boots.  sacrilege.

by the way... ethan's bike has training wheels.  just fyi... 

he may be his father's son, but he is no cycling prodigy... :)

and this melissa and doug shopping cart is amazing.  it really looks like a miniature store buggy.  super sturdy. 

the kids played and destroyed the house all day... we watched episodes of dexter while the kids napped, and then we enjoyed christmas with my nieces over at grammy's house.  i ate enough food for two people to gear up for the wrapping paper ripping fest... whew.  delightfully exhausting.

and do i have photos from that night?  no.  didn't even feel like busting out the camera.  shame on me.  i should have because all 5 kids had a fun time... 

and this week... i have been sick.  monday was the whole, achy body, super sleepy thing.  then i spent a few days on the mend... much better today.  we played with friends this morning and are planning on going to the botanical gardens after i get dinner ready and everyone wakes up from their nap.  a simultaneous nap.  nearly never happens.

i will *almost* be sad when school starts up next week... almost.

and that sums up the comings and goings and mostly staying in the house portion of christmas...

xoxo, s

holiday frame of mind

hi, y'all.  thank you for your sweet words about my leg.  really, i was not trying to get a bunch of sympathy.  but it was nice to have so many encouraging messages on here, facebook, phone calls + text messages, and in person, etc.

the burn is much, much, better.  just trying to minimize the scar now... :)  at least it isn't pool weather.

definitely far from pool weather here.  its been a nice, windy, rainy, drizzly, cold, seasonally appropriate grey here.  and i will take it happily.

don't get me wrong.  i would prefer 75 degrees.  however, there is something fantastic about putting up the tree, eating a roast, and listening to the rain come down while baylor beat the pants off of ut.

it was a good weekend.

and friday was a good start to the weekend with a very unexpected invitation to take the ticket of another friend who sadly could not go to the gingerbread house building extravaganza charity event... i had to pick the little ones up so i could only stay for an hour...

so i did what anybody would do.  hoarded candy and took home a half finished house for my preschooler to work on.  it is no beauty.   but i did get some major "cool-mom" points. 

don't worry, it wasn't nearly done here.  more candy was added... :)

and he worked on some fine motor skills.  and sorting skills.  really, it was quite educational.  and my frame of mind was good.  i didn't have any expectations about what it should look like.  i did not care that it might be considered ugly-ish.

i am sure that most of the houses that came home were beautiful.  i mean.  people came with their own tools and researched their plan.

not being from fort worth, i had no idea that this was such a big deal.  we can add that to a running list of things on which i have been educated.

and that is how i am going into this holiday season.  no to low expectations.  a purposeful laid-back.  hopefully, it will bring me joy to lose the christmas-bitch persona that creeps in every year.  you know, the one that is irritated that the bows got crushed on the packages as someone else loaded the car.  the one that freaks out over minor details.  who gets irritated over thinking about being dropped off a christmas card list or two {perhaps they didn't send out cards, stephanie.  that is what rational stephanie says...}  the one that gets irritated at the children when christmas cookie frosting gets on their christmas clothes... i sound like mom of the year.  grrr.  not proud.

wish me luck.

and on a completely unrelated note,  savannah got the top two teeth she's been working on right before thanksgiving.  and this past weekend, she got the bottom two.  have we turned a corner??  time will tell.

xoxo, s

{mostly} Ethan's Birthday Recap

yikes.  i just re-read this, and it is long.  and rambling.  so i'm going to delete the bulk of the rambling... y'all don't really care about the rambling, right?

let me begin with the beginning of the last week of "school" -- i got my shopping done, did the school program thing, celebrated ethan's birthday, and had savannah's 6 month appointment {doesn't every baby have their 6 month appointment at 7.5 months?  by the way, she is 19 lbs, 9 oz, and 28 inches long, for my record keeping purposes}

the wrench that i threw in the mix?  i decided on monday that we should go to longview and celebrate christmas the weekend before christmas.

whirlwind.

but on to ethan's birthday...

we started with a little celebration at school...  we really started by going to get donuts for breakfast, then getting the cookies for school.  {i wanted to bring donut holes, but they were out! boo!}





and then we had a little family get together that evening.  {store bought cake, on sale!}











and he received the fire truck of his dreams which has dominated our living room.  and has no "place" on his single toy shelf in our 900 sq. ft. house.  and i think i am going to puke when i think about what santa is adding.  thankyouverymuch.



and sister thought it was all about her... she had so much fun with the paper!







and she's been doing this thing where she stands on one leg.  lord, help me.  we're so certain that she'll stand soon that we moved her crib mattress down tonight. 





then, on saturday, we had birthday, round 2 in longview.   



it was all very fun.  ethan played with an older cousin all night, and learned about pretending to play football and tackle.  i definitely felt like he was growing up.  what happened to my baby???

then, on sunday morning, we woke up, noshed on faustino's aunt bonnie's hash brown casserole that i brought.  {i need to give y'all the recipe for that one} and had christmas.  i was on cloud nine when i opened up my gift from my parents.  what has happened to me that i am that excited over household appliances?  but i am!

anyway, the house has that whole, toys out of place thing going on... and i've not been able to get it under control... as i have been christmas carding {with my shutterfly freebies - turned out pretty cute, btw, and then my etsy ones came in at the last minute.  people will get them monday after xmas.} and canning more cranapple butter.  along with disciplining children that must surely be acting out because of the full moon/eclipse/winter solstice.  right??

and then we did the gingerbread house thing... which was a blast... you can read about it here, on sabrina's blog.  if only someone could have taken pictures when it got really out of control... not enough hands...

but i gotta go... i just realized that i have christmas eve/christmas day food to wrap my brain around.  i've known all along that christmas is on the 25th...  oh well :)

holiday recap

So I started writing this long winded boring post... and I thought, nobody will stay interested enough in this thing to finish reading this.  So instead of tons of paragraphs, pictures and bullet points will solve my problem...

::  I took Birthday donuts for Ethan's birthday to his class on the Friday after his birthday... isn't his little class cute?? 

::  We started off the weekend after Ethan's Birthday at his Nana's and Papa's house in Longview...

::  We celebrated Birthdays - Ethan's and Faustino's with cake and presents... Ethan loved his cake - it had Elmo and Big Bird in a car and a truck... he was beyond excited!

 

::  We celebrated an early Christmas with my family... I was a bad mommy... and took no pictures of the festivities... **note - I gave my dad Omaha Steaks... this will make sense later in the bullet point list**

::  We enjoyed seeing our extended family and Ethan had fun playing with his second cousins.

:: We got ready for Christmas... we wrapped, we shopped... Ethan didn't feel so hot one day, and I couldn't resist a sickly Ethan picture.  Pathetically cute.  He perked up that afternoon...

::  Then we had the curse of the "bad things happen in 3's"

::  1.  The day before Christmas Eve, Faustino had to have 2 root canals.  Poor guy.

::  2.  Christmas Eve morning, my dad had a heart attack.  I was very upset.  Heart disease runs in the family.  It is scary.  Scary... but he is doing great now.  Looks like he won't be eating any of those Omaha Steaks.

::  3.  Remember the weekend before... we went to Longview... I took the Omaha Steaks...the steaks that were in the freezer in the garage.... welllllll.... I can laugh about it now, but the door to the freezer didn't shut all the way.  So our garage smelled like rotting meat, and I discovered it Christmas Eve afternoon.  So Faustino and I threw away 6 trash bags full of rotting meat.  The smell still lingers... ewwww...

::  But we managed to play in the snow

::  Ethan isn't really a fan of the snow.  But enjoyed pointing it out.  Snow! Snow! Snow! Pointing out every window...  too cute.

::  And Santa came to visit

::  And Ethan got more trains.  Which he loved.

::  And I got a camera.  After the whole freezer incident, I probably deserved coal.

::  But I am seriously excited about my camera.  I love my camera.  I really, really love my camera.  Now I need to learn how to use it...

::  We had Christmas evening at Grammy's house

::  Ethan learned how to play his new harmonica

::  And we had a very Merry Christmas

 

 

::  Faustino was on call the day after Christmas, so Ethan and I drove to McKinney for Christmas with extended family.  And amazingly, Ethan had only a 30 minute nap, and not a single melt down.  He helped unwrap, entertained us with his harmonica skills... and then he got into mischief... all boy.

 

 

 

:: And since then we have kept a low profile.  Ethan has played with his new toys and I have worked on figuring out where all this new stuff will fit organization...

:: And now, it is New Year's Eve.  Happy 2010. 

:: And thank you, God, for a healthy baby.  I will never forget last new year, at Cook Children's... with our poor, sick little Ethan.

 

::  But so this post doesn't end on the sad, sickly photo's of Ethan's allergic reaction to antibiotics we gave him for an ear infection {don't get me started on the topic...}  Let's end it with a cute Ethan photo...