365 Day 366

We finally got our boys home today. We had a wonderful day letting them open their Christmas presents and playing with the goodies while I got to work on some crochet projects.  As a treat for the holiday we picked up some Mia Bella Gelato to enjoy after dinner and let the kids watch one of their movies from Santa (even though the boys are currently grounded). Such an enjoyable day to end such an enjoyable year on. 

Happy New Year!

Things Kids Say: December 2012

In the olden times people didn't have pretty little lights on their trees, they had big, giant ones!
"You mean like the ones on the neighbors house?"
"Yes"
"You mean during my childhood...."
~Bear

"How did crunchy stuff get in my hair?"
"It's probably yogurt"
"Oh yea"
~Bug

"Pops is a cowboy!!"
~Bug

"It's my line"
(in response you telling her I'm not willing to cross the line with that choice)

(While I'm annoyed at Cliff and not using my best words)
"You were being bitchy this morning" -me
*very matter of factly without attitude* "You're being bitchy now Mama..."

"(I'm) not here right now. I went back to the twenty first century!"
~Gator

365 Day 365

This morning we all woke up together and made mini french toast for breakfast. 

365 Day 364

Finally pulled out all the baby clothes we saved and sorted them by size and what can be worn by a boy. We ended with 7 outdoor trash bags of too small girl clothes, 2 boxes and a laundry basket of big girl clothes for Bug, and 1 laundry basket 0-3 months and 1 box of mixed sizes for the new little boy. 

It was a long process, but I feel so fortunate that we have clothes for our coming baby and we can pass on some clothes to another little girl.

365 Day 363

It happened again. I got my second Jury Summons, both while pregnant.

 I like that Sac County lets me submit my excuse online. Very convenient.

365 Day 362

Just a calm day at home. Bug decided today would be a great day to pull out Alphie and play games.

365 Day 361

Bug woke up and decided it was the perfect time to put her ornament on the tree. Even before we could put her picture in it or attach a hook. She knows where it goes and that's where she decided it needed to be now.

365 Day 360

Today was the last technical family Christmas party. There were many moments that I greatly enjoyed but sharing this morning with Bug was probably one of my favorites.

 Between my natural Grinchiness and pregnancy hormones my morning didn't start off too bright. Lovely Bug didn't loose her charm and helped me out of my funk. 

Then, while opening presents from Santa (whom she thought didn't come because she hadn't looked under the tree) she actually got excited to see a box in the wrapping paper. Getting past the paper, and then the box, she discovered that she got exactly what she asked for.

One that same note, at both family parties where she received gifts I never told her to hug anyone or say thank you, she just did it herself. I would ask her who the gift was from and once she knew who gave it to her she immediately walked over to them and said thank you and gave hugs. 

Some days it's nice to feel like I'm doing okay as a parent. 

365 Day 359

This is the first year we actually talked to Bug about Santa Claus. Most kids seem afraid of him but she was so excited to sit with him and take a picture! This is part of our yearly church routine. Sadly, I didn't have the boys this year but that didn't stop us from having fun. Bug said she loved the music and the train ride the best.  

365 Day 358

Tonight was the one of our many Christmas parties with the family. Since the rain finally paused for us we chose to end the night looking at the houses on 'Christmas Street'. Bear ran up ahead with cousins (and Auntie Lissa) to see more houses than a pregnant lady and 3 year old could get to, but I got proof these two siblings had fun .

365 Day 357

We're making a lot of changes to our Christmas traditions. Making new ones, keeping old ones, changing expectations. Today is possibly my favorite one that we always plan and usually don't get to: Baking day!

Cliff made Pumpkin Rolls with Gator, Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bear, and Butterballs with Bug.

Best. Daddy. Ever!

365 Day 356

First day of winter and we got Christmas from Texas.
We love our Bert!

365 Day 355

A perfect end to my evening: Tea and a game with friends. Yes, this is my happy place.

365 Day 354

No boys today so I chose to head up to Pops house. He took me out to the base (where I failed to find what I came for but did find my favorite playing cards). The real treat of the day was spending so much time with him and Granny. No name baby likes to hide when people try to feel him but sometimes they get lucky and he dances.  

365 Day 353

Sunday Bug and I made banana bread for breakfast. I let her pour in all the ingredients and it was so funny that when I pulled out my camera she turned and smiled at me just as I took the picture. She totally just photo bombed her own photo. This isn't even the best photo from that morning but it was too funny to not want to remember for a long time to come. 

365 Day 352

Never mind the dust, my job was to file all these papers and for a second it's actually completely done!

365 Day 351

Even though it's just days before Christmas we finally pulled our tree out of the attic. I love that it already has lights on it. Since I still don't trust our cats  around the tree (or our kids to a point) we repeated last years tradition of making a 'card tree' and leaving our ornaments in storage. Bug says it's finally Christmas in our house!

365 Day 350

While hanging out at home Bug discovered my personal Nerf Gun. She had a blast shooting the disk down the hall over and over again. Oddly enough her Daddy is doing the same thing today at the range.

365 Day 349

Driving to Cliff's work to meet friends for dinner. I got caught in some traffic due to this semi loosing part of its load. Glad I headed out early.  

365 Day 348

Naming this baby was supposed to be easy (we had boy and girl names picked after our last child) but somehow we have no name at the moment. The kids think it's funny that I'm calling him "Baby-no-name". Today I found this on our chalkboard care of Gator.  

365 Day 347

More new tea, yummy cookies, and some quiet to myself. It's going to be a good day.

365 Day 346

Trained monkeys could file but we're lacking any of those so I'm happily doing it. I only had a couple hours but I made a major dent, you can actually see the holder past the papers now.

365 Day 345

This picture was taken a few days ago but it was so cute how much she wanted to write on our kitchen chalkboard. You'd think she didn't have two other boards in the house to color on with how excited she was to use this one. Her outfit was also completely picked out by her and it wasn't all that bad for her normal choices.

365 Day 344

The kids spent the day with Auntie Lissa. Nobody wanted to come home, they had such a blast!

365 Day 343

Today was the annual gingerbread house party at Pops and Granny's. The kids all had so much fun eating and decorating with the candy. As always it was a great turnout and highly enjoyable for everyone.

I was sad we had to cut out early (accidentally double booked ourselves) but before we left the party my cousin styled my hair for me (and showed me a new trick!) so I felt beautiful for the evening.

I know my kids had a great time afterwards with Auntie Lissa and Cliff and I got to have some adult time at his company holiday dinner.  Even in all my grinchiness, there are good things about the holidays!

365 Day 342

I got invited to my first cookie exchange tonight. After the initial panic of what to bring (Cliff makes the cookies in our house) we settled on chocolate mint pinwheels. Very pretty, very minty, fun texture, but we know what we'd do different next time 

(only put mint in half the batter, add more chocolate; and/or try other flavor combos).

The guests were all strangers to me and I'm pretty sure I was still the youngest (one of the effects of being married to an older man) but I had a great time. 

Now please excuse me while I go put myself into a diabetic coma.

365 Day 341

After a great disappointment from a package of sugar free instant pudding (not chocolate enough, not anything enough, just blah) I went to my trusty Cooks and found the most divinely rich Dark Chocolate Pudding recipe. I am one happy preggo lady!

365 Day 340

Today we celebrated Grandmas Belated Birthday with lunch at The Cheesecake Factory! It's so wonderful getting to see her and getting photographic proof is even better! Two of my favorite people in one happy memory.

365 Day 339

I finally found a dentist that is covered by my insurance that I don't despise. Only took 6 months!
They actually fixed my broken filling and afterwards I painted Bug's nails as a treat for being so good. She insisted I put red on my nails as well.

365 Day 338

I was in the office today and was greeted by this thick, stalky, curly tailed, feral kitty that we tried to take home. After almost 3 years he finally let me pet him. A lot. But because he's feral of course he still tried to bite or claw me with one of his 6-toed paws. I don't see him much but man is he a cool cat!

365 Day 337

Almost 2 week after my pedicure and my polish still looks great.

Once I got home I discovered I actually own this nail polish color (what are the odds?) so when I'm ready I can retouch myself.

365 Day 336

It may be outdated with cards like diskette, Watergate  and blockbuster, but it was still a lot of fun to play with everyone.

And, I won't be soon forgetting the failed Taboo card or Oral Messages.

365 Day 335

Today we braved to storm to run some errands in town. 

A deal on a hot-list toy brought us into the mall (ugh). Bug really wanted to go see Santa Claus but settled for checking out the over-sized ornaments on the over-sized tree instead.

365 Day 334

With the crust recipe from Cliff's cousin and the pot pie filling our incredible friends gave us, tonight is looking to be delicious. Top it off with the cookies Cliff and I made and you're bound to find me with a giant smile on my face.

365 Day 333

I have the most amazing friends in the world. 

Not only do they feed us a fantastic dinner tonight but they sent us home with the fillings for a pot pie.

YUM!

365 Day 332

She knows better than to play on the stairs. Seems it's a daily reminder that I tell her to get off the stairs.

Yesterday when she saw me she decided to jump off the stairs. Maybe I wouldn't see her and remind her if she got off quickly. Unfortunately for her she got off too quickly and face-planted into another step. She was not happy to see her blood but we were on our way out the door so she begrudgingly sucked it up as long as I let her hold the wash cloth to it (for hours!).
Today it looks worse, but she's forgotten about it so all is well again.

365 Day 331

We came home from a wonderful vacation, put our feet up and relaxed on our last day off. No where we had to be, nothing we had to do, so we stayed home and just chilled. 

Then this morning I got in the truck and noticed it sounded like punks muscle car and the check engine light was on. Considering we didn't drive anywhere yesterday and it was just fine for all of our vacation I knew something was up and drove to the mechanic.

Turns out some jerk tried to steal my catalytic converter in that time after I got home and this morning. They cut through the pipe on both sides and cut the cable to it. We just replaced it a couple months ago so I was pretty pissed off about it. I'm glad they didn't take it (I assume a neighbor came outside and scared them off or something to that effect) but having to get it welded back together (shown below) and replace the cable is not cool.

Welcome to the holiday season when the biggest A-Holes come out with their desperation to impress their friends and family with material items. Sigh. Can it just be February already? 

365 Day 330

One of my pictures from yesterday's stop on I-5. Shasta at Sunset.

I'm so grateful to have a camera that captures the colors I see.

365 Day 329

I'm a sucker for vista points and even though this one isn't the best (and not new to us) I couldn't resist asking Cliff to pull over for some sunset pictures. It's hard to see Shasta in the background, but I'm really glad I made him take a 'facebook' picture of us. The kids all had a blast running around, too! 

365 Day 328

 I was supposed to camp out for Black Friday at Target like I do every year. 

This year Target opened at 9pm on Thanksgiving. I like Black Friday, not Black Holiday. I was planning on getting our shopping done and then stopping at the donut place I was told about earlier this week. Change of plans. I didn't go out, but I still had plans to try the donuts. 

Cliff and I were wanting to cook ribs for our family so we went out this afternoon for the mean. Perfect time to stop for Heavenly Donuts!

Oh and they were! I'm more than happy to skip my novelty Voodoo Donut for these things.

365 Day 327

Every year I wake up at 5am to pick up my Thanksgiving paper. Even though I already knew what was in most the ads and we aren't really looking for anything specific this year it's tradition so I still did it. 

This year the weather was perfect for me. It wasn't too cold, it wasn't raining, and the attendants at the gas station were so friendly. I came home and was more energized than I should have been after only 4 hours of sleep.

365 Day 326

Home from a pedicure and finished Husband Pie before us adults head off to see Breaking Dawn in the Theaters.

365 Day 325

We had an amazing evening planned for us tonight: pizza and drinks for the adults, pizza and movies at home for the kids. We walked into town (lucky day in Washington with no rain) for the pizza and drinks. It was an adult get away while on vacation that felt awesome, even if I couldn't have 'real' drinks.

All of our drinks lined up. Yummy

365 Day 324

I noticed on Friday that since it's finally time to replace our wiper blades. I asked Cliff if he wanted me to do it or if he wanted to handle it (sometimes he likes to take care of 'car stuff' because I do it wrong). Anyway, he didn't have time to get any before we left and for the life of us we couldn't find an auto parts store in Oregon.
Today we ran down to Woodland to get groceries and stopped at Napa. It was funny that he parked in front of the sign that tells you they will install wiper blades for you (I always have a hell of a time doing it). It must be man code to not ask for help because he came out solo. Perfectly fine by me.

He started on the first side. Cleaned the window and then tried to get the old blade off. It wouldn't come off so he fidgets with it some more and then finally pulled out his pocket knife. It still wouldn't come off and that's when I realized I had already listened to two songs on the radio and I had my camera in my purse. As soon as I pulled it out he realized what my goal was and tried (jokingly) to block the sign. He's actually laughing here because he knows what I plan to do with the picture I get. 

He did get the wiper off soon after I pulled out the camera and he completed the other side in under a minute.

Hats off to anyone who wants to stand in the cold and rain to replace the wipers when it could be done for you in less than half the time, but at least I got a great chuckle out of this one as well.
Thanks for the picture, honey. 

I love you and how you always make me smile, even when you weren't trying to.

365 Day 323

Now that hostess has gone under, people are going crazy buying every box off the shelves in stores. I personally don't care that much but when I saw a gas station in Redding still had Hoho's in stock I couldn't resist picking up a package for nostalgia's sake. Now the question is, should I share?

365 Day 322

It may be a long drive across 2 states but at least the view is interesting. Even in inclement weather.

365 Day 321

My souvenir from my 3 hour blood test: 3 holes in my arm and this oh so yummy bottle of Limeondex. It tastes like the syrup for 7up and has almost the same consistency  You get 5 minutes to drink it all up. Too much to just shoot all at once but the faster you drink it the better! There is no water (or food or other drinks) for 2 hours after this, you just get to sit and wait.

To be fair it was only a 2 hour test, and an hour of the office trying to figure out what they were doing. 3 hours of my time.

365 Day 320

Addressed, stamped, and stuffed ready to be mailed out.

365 Day 319

After 2 and a half days of running errands and being excellent she deserved a treat. She chose a pumpkin muffin. She's so excited for me to cut it up for her! 

365 Day 318

Something looks different.... Say hello to our new bench seat!

365 Day 317

I got to spend a few hours filing for the company today. I loved it because it felt great to do some work outside the home, it was great to help the company, and lastly it was awesome to see physical proof of how much my husbands hard work has accomplished. I love that man!