Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

We had so much fun today. N and I went to a "Noon Year's Eve" party and concert this morning. It started at 10:30 and ended at noon. The woman (Ms J) who used to teach the music classes N and I went to sold her music business about a year ago and went solo as a children's music writer/performer. She put on a concert (of her music) in conjunction with the noon year's eve countdown. She did lots of fun interactive things with her concert to keep the kids engaged. She had the kids yell and do hand motions with a few songs and she threw lots of beach balls during one song. Ms J's helpers handed out bubble paper for each child to play with during the bubble paper song. Thousands of bubbles floated down from the ceiling during one song. We counted down to noon and hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling.

We had plans to go out for lunch with our friends after the concert, so we headed outside to get in our cars to drive to a restaurant. Half way to the car a monsoon struck. I'm not kidding. It was only slightly sprinkling when we left the building and by the time we were half way from our car the skies opened and the rain just poured. We were soaking wet and cold, so we decided to go home, change our clothes and invite our friends to our house for lunch. We had frozen pizza, peaches and brownies for lunch then the kids played while the Mommies visited. So fun!!

Shortly after our friends went home my mom arrived to watch the boys so D and I could go camera shopping and out for a nice dinner. D and I really enjoyed getting dressed up to go out for a nice meal. We also liked being able to camera shop without our two little monkeys hanging all over us. We are home now....watching reruns of "Pickers" and doing more camera research. When we went into Best Buy to look at their selection we were sure we pretty much knew what camera we were going to buy. We just went to the store to hold the camera to confirm our decision....Well, we are glad we went to the store to test out the camera because we held it, tried to work it and realized that is not at all what we want.. So we're kind of back to square one. Therefore, we are researching cameras, blogging and watching Pickers for New Year's Eve night. We hear Guilianna and Bill are supposed to be the big guests on one of the New Year's shows, but we're not so sure we'll be up to see that. We decided we'd rather start the new year off with as much sleep as possible. Thank goodness for DVR.

I have a few pictures of the concert below. Please excuse the quality. You will see why we are in the market for a new camera. The pictures aren't great and D has been holding one part of his camera together with duct tape for well over six months now. We're due.

Bubbles falling from the ceiling

Bubble paper

Balloons falling at noon

Playin in the Snow

The temperature warmed up and the wind slowed down a bit today, so we headed outside to play in the snow. I'm usually not one to go out and play in the snow. I don't like to get cold and wet and I don't like the hassle of putting on all the snow gear. I also don't like taking off all the snow gear and finding a place to hang it up to dry. Oh, and I like the time inside by myself to get a few things done. With all that said...I decided to stop being a scrooge about playing in the snow...for once. I'm not sayin I'm gonna go outside every time the boys (and I mean all three boys) want to play in the white fluffy stuff, but I will do it occasionally. Because, honestly, I did have a good time today. I was glad I went out. I enjoyed watching L negotiate the rough, deep, slippery terrain. Last time we took him out he could not move. He was like a big marshmallow standing still in the driveway because he could NOT move in the big boots we put on him. This time we (I mean D, our snow enthusiast) decided to try something different. He put socks on N's feet, then plastic sandwich bags on top of the socks. He then put on L's snow pants before putting on an old pair of N's tennis shoes. This method worked quite well. L was ecstatic because he could walk and I was happy because his feet stayed warm and dry.

I mainly walked around and explored with L while D and N built things. I also took L for a little (and very slow) sled ride. He can't quite get the hang of staying balanced and sitting upright while the sled is moving.

N attempted to carve out an igloo in the snow, but decided he needed Daddy's help in doing so. Unfortunately the best place to make an igloo was right next to our garbage cans that were sitting out for garbage day. Despite my best effort to exclude the cans from the pictures, I could not quite get a good shot without them. D built a huge snow man. It's slightly taller than me, so it's pretty tall. We used an old scarf, water bottle lids, an ear of corn and a broken bucket from a loader toy to complete the snow man. Oh, and D used tree branches for arms.

I'm glad I went outside to play with everyone. The fresh air and sunshine (what little of it there was) sure felt good! We already miss being outside and we're at the beginning of winter. Eek!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was great this year. We celebrated with D's family on the 24th. While getting everyone showered, dressed and fed and getting all our Christmas stuff and baby gear thrown in the car is a challenge, it's worth it. I always try to get as much stuff as I possibly can get done the night before. I get clothes laid out, suitcase packed (we can fill a carry on with baby stuff even if we are only taking a day trip), presents in a laundry basket set in a visible, yet untouchable location. We don't to forget them but we don't want the boys to get ahold of them. In the morning when the troops are fed and dressed I throw the last few things in the suitcase and pile things by the back door. When things are by the door that's D's cue to start loading up the big black sleigh, err truck. The moment I check off the last item on the packing list and sit down in the car is the moment I start to enjoy the holiday. I usually make an audible sigh of relief that everything and everyone is on it's way to our destination....Then the kids start to ask for things and I'm reminded that being the driver is an easier job than being the passenger.

N doing some Christmas themed activity pages in the car.

As I was saying...We spent Christmas Eve at D's parents. Maybe the pep talk I gave N in the car on the way to T's house actually stayed with him because he waited his turn to open his gifts like I asked him to. Good job, Buddy! A gorgeous snow fall took place while we opened gifts. It was really neat to look across the room and watch family open presents while the snow fell outside the window in the background. We enjoyed opening presents, eating lunch and playing with all our new toys/presents. The snow fall mentioned above was gorgeous, but we needed to head home before the weather got too bad and the roads impassable, so we headed out. When we got home we had enough time to unload, take naps and get dressed in time to head to church

.

Honestly, we are not regular church goers. Every weekend we talk about going to church, but have a hard time doing so with L's current nap schedule. Since we don't get to church too often we weren't sure how the boys would act at service on Christmas Eve. We decided to attend the"Family" service. This option did not offer child care, but it worked out well because the majority of the people attending had children with them, so they were understanding of any "kid activity" that took place throughout the service. N went down to the front of the sanctuary for children's time. I was very, very proud of the way he conducted himself up there. He kept his hands to himself and sat still during the whole thing. He did not stand up and attempt to pull over the advent candle as he did last year. He's come a long way! After church we came home, ate supper and got ready for Santa. N sat out a cookie bar and a couple carrots for Mr. Claus and the reindeer. We forgot to sprinkle reindeer dust outside, but the Big Guy and his crew managed to find their way to our house anyway. ;)

N was super excited for Santa to come to our house. He asked me a couple times if our chimney was clean so Santa could come down it without getting dirty on the way down. I assured him it was clean. N was very interested in hearing Santa's sleigh bells. We have a video monitor set up in both boys' rooms, so I watched N all evening to see what he doing. Every time he heard a sound he'd jump out of bed and run to his doorway. He'd stand there a few seconds, then run back to his bed. He did this for about an hour before laying in bed. When he'd hear a sound he'd sit up in bed, then lay back down after a minute or two. When that got tiring he finally fell asleep.

Christmas morning was wonderful. The boys actually slept in until a decent time. I do think L was up in the night, so we didn't get a full, uninterrupted night of sleep like we'd asked for on our Christmas lists, but we woke up fairly rested anyway. I popped an egg casserole and some cinnamon rolls into the oven while we opened Santa's gifts. We ate then we opened our gifts from Mommy and Daddy to the boys.

N is in LOVE with the huge combine Santa brought him. I pleaded with Santa not to bring this. I told Mr Claus that we need to broaden our kids' horizons and get them toys related to things other than farming machinery. Good thing Santa did not listen 'cause N says "it's the one thing he's always wanted and the best thing he's ever gotten."

I got a "kitchen helper" from the boys. I've always wanted one of these. I've been wanting one for a few years but could never justify the cost. I get the One Step Ahead magazine in the mail all the time. I flip it open to the page with the kitchen helper (or their version of it) on it. I guess I must have left it open to that page enough times for D to pick up on my desire to have one!

If I had to guess I'd say D's favorite gift is the Wii we got for the boys. I had no idea how quickly he'd get sucked into those games!

L hasn't latched onto any one toy yet. He's still at the age where he just wants to do whatever N is doing.

Even though we all have our favorite new toys, we've been playing with everything we received. We are very fortunate that we had all day Christmas day to play and get ready for the company that came to our house on Sunday. It was a relaxing, yet productive day.

Sunday was fun. My family came to our house for the morning and early afternoon. We Skyped my sister who lives over seas (as you can see in a previous post). We opened gifts after enjoying a nice thirty minute conversation with my sis and her hubby. Gift unwrapping went really well. The kids did a great job of taking turns! N loved the first gift he opened (Magniformers from Grammy and Grandpa) so much that I had to keep asking him to please put down that toy and open another gift! We enjoyed a nice meal and some play time before my sister and her family had to shove off. My mom hung around for a little while after everyone else left to chat and help clean up.

I think we have most of the Christmas dishes cleaned up and put away by now. All our new toys are still out, but all the wrapping paper and packaging is thrown away (or recycled if possible). The tree and decorations will stay up a little bit longer before being tucked away again. Even though all of our celebrations are over, I'm still not ready to put the tree away. We are lucky enough that D gets a nice long break over the holidays. Usually when we put the tree away that marks the end of D's break and means we have to get back to reality. I'm not ready for that just yet. I say, "Let's enjoy Daddy's winter break and ease back into reality as gradually as possible."

Cookie Dough Truffles

I saw this cookie dough truffle recipe online and my mouth instantly started watering. I didn't have all the ingredients the recipe calls for, but I did have a bag of chocolate chip cookie mix in the pantry. So I improvised. I combined the cookie mix and one stick of butter as the recipe on the back of the bag calls for. I omitted the egg. I scooped the dough using my cookie scoop and placed them in the freezer. I ended up leaving them in the freezer longer than I originally intended, so before rolling them in chocolate I let them thaw for a bit in the fridge. I slowly melted dark chocolate chips in the microwave and rolled the dough balls in the chocolate. I let them sit for a while to dry. I served them at my family Christmas and they were a hit. They were sooo delicious! Rich but delish! To recap, this is what I used:

One bag cookie mix

One stick butter

Dark chocolate chips (Ghiradelli 60% are the best!!)

Photo of the Day

Trying to Skype with my sister. We could see her and hear her. She could see us, but she could not hear us.

We eventually got it to work.

School Program

Today was N's school Christmas program. Grammy came over for it. We had lunch at our house first then took some pictures in front of the Christmas tree before heading to N's school. The program took place at a time of the day when L usually naps, so D stayed home with him...however, the little booger changed up his own schedule today and was awake. D still stayed home with him and that was just as well. I doubt L would have lasted through that much sitting.

N did a good job. He sat very nicely with his classmates. He got up and sang when it was his turn. He knew all the words to the songs and sang every one. He knew all the actions to the songs and did them really well. I'm so proud. There was one point in the show where an adult read a book to the children. That part got long in my opinion, but N was really good and sat still and listened. Everyone stayed after the show to eat cookies and see Santa. N was more interested in the cookies than Santa, so we didn't wait in line for the big guy. After playing in the all purpose room with some other kids for a while N said he was ready to go home.

When we got home we decorated gingerbread cupcake houses with Grammy. N decorated one house and one tree. Then I think he got tired and lost interest. So we packed things up and played trains downstairs. You just never know how much interest he's going to have a in craft or baking project. It was fun, though. I think I'll freeze the other houses and decorate those some other time. Maybe on a day when we don't have so many other things going on.

After burning off some steam in the basement and eating some dinner, we headed out to a local Christmas light display. We listened to Christmas music as we rolled through the lights.

There was a line of cars steadily moving through the display, but there was not a huge line to get in. It was a perfect night for doing this. There's snow on the ground, but the roads are safe to drive on. We are supposed to get a deluge of snow later this week, so I'm glad we were able to do this before that hits. It was fun. Both boys were mesmerized by the whole thing. We're lucky to have such a neat activity so close to our house.

Friday Funnies

Some of these "Friday funnies" are really old, but I thought I'd share them any way.

Conversation with N

Me: I said "oh man" for some reason.

N: "Why do you say ah-men, Mama? We say "ah-men" at school.

He thought I said Amen instead of Oh man.

We purchased pumpkins a couple weeks ago with plans of carving them. Then the weather got really warm and it just didn't seem right to carve pumpkins in warm weather. That's something you do on a cool fall day, right? We never got around to carving them, but we did paint a couple. Nick keeps asking me, "when are we going to jack-o-latern our pumpkins, Mom?"

N and Daddy's conversation a few days ago.

Daddy: "N, Daddy's going to a farm toy show tomorrow. What should I buy?"

N: "A toy, Dad!" (Like dah, Dad. What else would you buy?)

N rarely eats pop tarts. The other day he had one at home that was (dye free) cherry pomegranate. It had white frosting and pink sprinkles on the top. N pointed to the pink sprinkles and said "This is rosemary, Mom. Can't you tell? It's pink like a rose. That's why they call it rosemary."

Yesterday out of the blue N says to me, " Mom, I have a band of tiny little people playing music in my head." He holds up his fingers to show me that they are "this big" so they can fit inside of his head.

Today while eating french fries N says, "Mom, I like sea salt on my fries."

The Real Santa

So, if you've been keeping up with the blog, you would remember me mentioning that N is not so sure he believes in Santa. Well, he believes in Santa, but he's not so sure every Santa he sees is THE Santa. He's seen several Santas pictured in the newspaper and on television. He even stood by Santa (didn't want to sit on his lap. I can't blame him) at the Polar Express event D took him to. Each time he's seen these Santas he says, "That's not the real Santa. That's just a guy dressed up like Santa." Well, today N saw the real Santa! There was a heavier set man with a long white and gray beard at N's school/church today. The man was sitting in the common area sorting through recycle bins. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, jeans and boots. As we rounded the corner and got within eye site of the man, N slowed down his walking pace and stared at him. I noticed the man's beard and looked at him wondering what he was doing, but N was thinking something else. When we got home N said, "Mom, that was the real Santa at school today! Did you see him? He wasn't wearing his red coat and pants, but that was him. He was working, so he didn't have his Santa clothes on, but that was him, that was him!"

Gingerbread House and Polar Express

We've had a lot of fun celebrating the holidays the last couple weeks. Last Saturday I took N to a gingerbread decorating "workshop" at our local library. This activity is very popular in our town, so it books up really quickly. I am glad my friend, J caught me at the library back in October and told me I better sign up for it. It was so much fun and it was only $5!! The kids arrive at the library and the gingerbread houses are already assembled. Each house is "glued" (with icing) to a piece of foil covered cardboard. Each child receives a baggie of icing and is told to go ahead and decorate. There were several tables set up with four seats at each table. Every table had several bowls and plates of candies, cookies, pretzels and cereals for the kids to decorate with. Towards the middle of the workshop the head librarian gave each child one Peep brand marshmallow in the shape of a Christmas tree to put on his/her house. N was very interested in creating his house. We found two Nilla wafers that were stuck together and attached them to the house because they looked like a snow man. He was very meticulous about putting gum drops around the house in a pattern to serve as a fence. He was also interested in tasting nearly every candy, cookie, cereal. He'd say, " I will just try ONE of these, Mom. Just one." Christmas music was playing in the back ground and a nice blanket of snow had fallen on the ground outside earlier that day. It was such a great day! I loved it and N did too.

Tonight D took N to a nearby park for their "Polar Express" night while L and I stayed home. N and D had to leave before dinner to get to the event on time, so the two of them drove through McD's to get supper on the way there. N was super excited about that. The Polar Express event had lots of activities. I wasn't there, but I hear a conductor read part of the "Polar Express" book to everyone while they waited their turn to board the train. Then they got on the train and the rest of the story was read to everyone over the speaker system during the ride. The train ride was an open air train, so everyone had to bundle up for the ride. D and N were prepared with their hats and gloves, but D said N wouldn't wear his gloves because he didn't want to drop his ticket. If you've seen the Polar Express movie you know there's a part in the movie when one of the passengers drops her ticket and gets in big trouble. N remembered that from the movie and took that very seriously on his ride! The train ride ended at the train depot that was decorated as the North Pole. From there everyone got a ride to the main lodge where they got to talk to Santa.

As N and D approached Santa N told D, "That's not the real Santa. That's just a guy dressed up like Santa." N wore his "Santa Rocks" shirt and Santa noticed it. He said, "That's right. Santa rocks!" N thought that was cool. Santa asked N if he's a good boy. He asked if N puts away his toys, his clothes and helps with the cooking at home. N said "I do" to all of them. D said N warmed up to Santa and started to believe he might be the real deal. The thing that Santa said that won Nick over was when Santa said, "Wow! You've grown a lot since last year!" Then Santa asked N what he wants for Christmas and N said, "A John Deere tractor and a red hay bailer that makes circle hay." After talking to Santa and getting a picture with him, N and D had hot cocoa and cookies while they watched Rudolf on a big screen TV and sat in bean bags. Then N made his way through an inflatable maze before heading outside for pony rides. When D and N got to the pony rides, they realized there was a line and N said he was tired and would rather go home. He came home with a picture of he and Santa, a jingle bell and a Polar Express ticket. Apparently there were also ten crafts and a couple animal shows, but D and N did not participate in those because they didn't have time. They had a fun, busy night!

Peppermint Popcorn

I actually made this recipe several weeks ago, but because I gave it to a friend as her Secret Santa, I haven't been able to post it. Here it is. It's yummy. I think if I did it over again I'd use the seedless popcorn that comes already popped in the bag. I say that because, for some reason, my popcorn had lots of seeds in it which made it a little hard to enjoy this yummy treat.

Peppermint Popcorn

2 Bags popcorn (or about 16 cups already popped popcorn)

1 box candy canes

2 cups white chocolate chips

Smash candy canes. I put the candy canes in a small bag and put that small bag into a larger bag to reduce the candy cane mess. Pop the popcorn. Melt chocolate chips. Mix crushed candy canes into melted chocolate. Pour over popcorn. Stir popcorn and chocolate to evenly coat. Lay out on wax paper to cool.

Merry Medical Moment: Gross!

Now that it's December and Christmas is approaching I shall place my tongue firmly in my cheek and call these "Merry Medical Moments" instead of Medical Moments. 'Cause why have a medical moment when you can have a merry medical moment?

So, the most recent of our medical moments is absolutely gross. Totally, completely gross. So if you're eating or if you have a weak stomach, then this is your warning. Stop eating. Stop reading.

With that said... Sunday night. Yes, another Sunday night. When sickness strikes at our house, it strikes on Sunday nights. Not sure why, but it does. Sunday evening D and I returned from a wonderful date afternoon. (We saw the movie Morning Glory. It's cute and entertaining.) We thanked D's parents for rescuing relieving us of our parental duties for a few hours and we stepped, no leaped back into reality. Shortly after D's parents left L made a stinky diaper. When D asked me to come over and look at it I knew something was wrong. It was half "normal," half red. "Did he eat play-doh? Geesh, that's red!" A quick call to D's parent's and they confirmed L did not eat play-doh nor did he eat any red food. Then what is it? I called peds after-hours and they said several things, but the main thing was to give it some time and three red diaps before taking him in to the ER. Time went on, another diaper came. It was all red. We worried, we contemplated our options and decided to take L to the ER. D's Mom returned to our house to stay with N while we took L to the hospital. We took the two diapers to the hospital with us. Sounds gross, I know, but we are soooo glad we did! If your child ever has an odd looking diaper, I strongly encourage you to wrap it up in a plastic bag and bring it with you to be examined because this is what saved us from having to endure a myriad of blood tests and sonograms. We talked to the doctors about several things, but one of them was the medicine L is currently taking for an ear infection, Cefdinir (or Omnisef as they call it at the hospital). Apparently this medicine has strange effects on a child's pee and poo. It can turn pee orange and poo red. Luckily the resident assigned to us talked this over with the on shift doctor and the doctor informed her of this fact before tests and sonograms were performed. The doctor had the resident do a litmus test of sorts using a small smudge of L's poo and it confirmed that there was no blood in the stool. The litmus test showed all the red stuff was the Omnisef! Thank goodness! I was sure we had internal bleeding on or hands, but we didn't. One thing the doctor noted was that the poo was "brick red" instead of bright red. He said the color of red is a big sign in what could be going on. SO, if you have kids remember Omnisef/Cefdinir can make your child's poo turn brick red. (But, if you have any concerns I'd certainly advise you to make a trip to the ER to rule out anything more serious!)

Christmas Decorating

We put our tree up last weekend. We usually go to a local Christmas parade on Thanksgiving weekend, but decided to skip it this year since the boys have been sick. We figured standing outside in 30 degree weather might just set us two steps back in our efforts to get them over their bronchitis and ear infections... Little did we know "The flu of 2010" would strike anyway... So we put our tree up rather than going to the parade. N was a really good helper this year. He likes to find things that match and our tree is color coded, so he had fun matching the color on the core of the tree to the colors on each branch. Does this photo remind you of the Griswold Family Christmas too?

I've enjoyed decorating for Christmas since I was a little girl. I remember pulling out whatever odds and ends Mom had on hand and arranging them all over the house. I certainly do not claim to be a pro by any means, but I still enjoy it. Over the last few days I've been putting out decorations when I get a few minutes. I am challenging myself to use the decorations we have without buying too many new things. One thing I have lots of are plain white candles. I wanted to incorporate them some how but I wanted to jazz them up a bit, so I decided to try to find some ribbon to wrap around them. I didn't find any ribbon, but I did find some pretty leftover wrapping paper from last year. The light bulb went on. I decided to partially wrap the candles with wrapping paper. I obviously know this would pose a fire hazard if you placed the paper too close to the wick, so I placed the paper in the middle of the candle. I wrapped the paper around each candle and put tape over the paper so it didn't hurt the candles.

Here's the tree and the mantel together. I might try to find something to hang over the tv if I can figure out how to hang it without damaging the wall.

I'm brainstorming ideas for what to put in our half bath (now painted blue), our "shelf" above the closet in the entry way and in the stairwall going to our upstairs. I'm kinda in the mood to make something, we'll see. And if I don't get around to it, so be it. Maybe I'll do it next year.