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!!)