FINALLY!!!!

GETTING THE KEYS!!!! IN ONE HOUR!!!! YIPPIE~! I am so excited, now is time to clean, paint and shampoo the carpet and onto the ubber fun packing and moving! I am just so thrilled!!! Cant wait! We have been so blessed with this house and the way it has all worked out!

Christmas blues

Last saturday I woke up with a really sore throat and thought "great! perfect holiday timing." I figured it would hurry up and pass but that night my throat was hurting even more and I could hardly sleep, so the next day when we left for Disneyland I practically had no voice. It was raining the next day at Disneyland which made my sore throat even worse and I really had no voice, Noah said I sounded like a cross dressing munchkin (whatever that sounds like) and after spending the whole day at Disneyland chasing around a two and a half year old with no voice (which is not easy) I was really hoping it would come back, nope the next day I really had nothing, you could not even hear me talking so I resorted to hand gestures. Anyway so now its over a week and I still am struggling with a voice, it is slowly coming back but not nearly even half way there yet and I am starting to really actually feel sick, the whole drained, stuffy, headachiness, and all that fun stuff. I have been taking lots of naps (thank goodness my husband is off for a few weeks) and playing a lot of Ticket to Ride with Noah. Landon has been taking good care of me too. This is the longest I have ever had no voice for... the most was about a day and then it got better. This time around it just gets worse.... Hopefully I will get better here soon. Anyway I will post christmas pictures and disney pictures when I am feeling better. :O)

My big helper!!

Thanks Landon I dont know how I could have done it without you!!! I was refilling the little basket downstairs with toliet paper and I guess Landon thought I did not do it right and that it needed more. I only brought down four, but as you can see there is a bit more then that.... :O) I did not discover it till the next day, oh what would I have done with out his help? :o)

Sugar cookies!!! Yum-O!

Landon and I made christmas sugar cookies the other day. We had a lot of fun, but I really had to work on my not being a perfectionist skills. I let Landon have free reign of making the cookies which resulted in a mixture of frosting colors and sprinkles. He was so funny when we were cutting the cookies to bake, he would cut one out and then want to cute the same one again, needless to say we have to roll up and re cut a lot of them because well an angel in 3 pieces wont come out so good. :O)
The first picture was at the very end, I turned around to get a wash cloth to clean up Landon and in the spane of about 5 seconds he managed to dump the sprinkles into the white frosting..... after a nice talk we had a nice laugh about it, no harm done, just a waste of frosting.... maybe daddy will like it. :O) The finished product, arent they beautiful?

Ignore my no make up face. :O)

Oh I love all the fun christmas crafts!!!

Crossing fingers!

Here is some pics cause he is just so darn cute!!!! :O)

I have been weening Braddoc back into his bed. When we moved into this house it threw him all off on his sleeping because he really had no bed for a few days and all his naps were in his carseat or swing during the day so I have been trying to get him back into his bed to actually sleep. The last two nights he did sleep in his bed, it was wonderful. He woke up at 4 the first night, ate and then went back to sleep till 8 and then today he woke up at 6, ate, and then slept till about 7:30 so I think that qualifies as sleepin through the night..... knock on wood. Hopefully he keeps this up, he is such a good baby and adapts pretty well, so crossing my fingers that our trip to Disneyland (leaving today) does not through him totally off his routine. :O)

Braddoc has started to grab at us. He will wrap his arms around our head and open his mouth for big kisses, he LOVES kisses, he even knows when you are asking for a kiss. He opens his mouth and moves in for the kiss, he is so sweet, such a wonderful little boy. He will reach at our faces and rest his hand on our cheeks, its just the most peaceful loving thing. He loves his stuffed animals too, he loves to hold them and kiss them and talk talk talk to them. They really keep him occupied for awhile. :O)

Wrapping up the holidays

This is what happens when you let a two year old wrap presents. I have been telling him for days that we could wrap his present to Noah and tonight we finally had time. Last night we went to the store and he picked out this paper and tonight I wrapped it and gave him the labels, a pen and some tape and he went to town making it "pretty" for daddy.

Sorry about this pushing the limit picture..... he was naked for like the 50th time that day. I swear I do dress him... he just does not like to be dressed, and well if he really wants to run free for a bit, who cares!!! Usually he has on undies and a shirt or sometimes just undies!!! Anyway, at least he was covering up all the privates....:O) You can see the tape sticking off the box, and the beautiful coloring job he did!

I watched an episode of John and Kate plus 8 last night where they let all the kids wrap presents and I thought.... "How in the world did they handle all of that?" And tonight when Landon was wrapping this present I again thought that with the added, "Im going crazy with just one kid wrapping, let alone 8 kids!!!!" Anway being thankful for what I have..... fun times and great memories!!! And a totally cute wrapping job, hope daddy likes it, this was about a 20 minute project. :O)

My day with my two year old!

Ahhh today was one of those days where the phrase "Dont get mad take a picture" ran through my head about 50 times. :O) So I took pictures and laughed about it with Landon, after of course explaing why we dont do that. The first picture is not a mad picture, it was actually really sweet. I was in the kitchen with another celiac friend, making yummy goodies and Landon was being so good playing with his cars. He came and told me "I do a good job, come see, take picture." So I went in and found a tower of cars, he was so proud of himself. :O) The next two pictures: I made gluten free oatmeal and raisin cookie bars ( so excited when I found gluten free oats). I gave Landon one and told him to take it to the table. I went to peek on Braddoc in the jumper and came back to find this. I asked him what he was doing and he told me "I cut it!" So there is is in crumbles, at least he was smart enough to put a towel under it first. :O)

The next two pictures: It was about 4:45 and I was about to start dinner when my friend who I had been making cookies with stopped back by to pick up her cookies. I turn around and Landon has a lid in his hand, "Mommy I make mess." a million things run through my mind, mostly "where did he get this? and where is the mess?" So I ask him to show me and he grabs my hand and takes me around the corner, points at what you see in the pictures, looks up at me and says "Mommy I just hungry." Poor kid had found last nights dinner left overs (that a certain un named husband was supposed to take for his dinner tonight forgot) and tried to bring them to me, the lid must have come off before he made it to me and the dinner went all over the floor and the wall. Thankfully the meatloaf with the ketchup stayed in the container, that would have really made a mess. Anyway, sorry about the picture of the wall being so blurry, I wanted a picture but I wanted to clean up too, so I took it fast and it did not come out so good. :O) Ahh children!

No pictures of this one because well he was naked again!!! I went into the kitchen after answering the phone. I had left Landon at the table because we were eating dinner and literally the phone had rang every 5 minutes for about 3 hours straight and I was going crazy, anyway I come back into the kitchen to find a pile of salt on the table and Landon rubbing salt all over his naked body.....WHAT IN THE WORLD!!!??? I literally had to hold in my laughter I thought I was going to roll on the floor laughing, what was he thinking? He just looks at me and says, "It feel good on my tummy" (which is were he was rubbing it the most) seriously where do kids come up with these things? Ahhhh defenitely got my comic relief for the day. :O)

My little jumping bean

Landon was not a fan of the jumper, but apparently Braddoc is!!! I was cooking dinner and Braddoc is one of those babies that does not like to be doing the same thing for more then about 10 minutes. Usually I just have to move him for the couch to the floor or give him a different toy, or change his scenery. He was in the bouncer and getting fussy. I could tell his teeth hurt (he is cuting a tooth) so I gave him some tylenol and he was good for about 10 more minutes then he got fussy again (he really just squeeks at me or grunts or hollars till I look at him) so I got out the Johnny Jump Up and tried it out. He loved it! He spun in circles, so fast sometimes I thought he was going to hit his head on the door opening! He was jumping and moving all over the place, it took him a few minutes to get the hang of it but when he did watch out he was on a roll.

I made a video of him jumping in it, but there is a half naked Landon running around behind Braddoc in the laundry room, I have actually discovered that almost all of my videos of Braddoc have a mostly naked Landon somewhere in them..... why do little kids like being naked?

Gingerbread house making!

Landon had a blast making gingerbread houses. It took him awhile to figure out that he could eat all the stuff too. :O)It was really funny to watch him he was so serious and admint about needing LOTS of frosting! He really did not eat much candy but he sure did make a mess. He calls his gingerbread house "Cinderellas House." Why? I dont know! but its cute non the less. We bought the houses on Friday and did not have time to make his when daddy would be home until Monday, talk about an impatient little two year old. He actually did pretty good with the having to wait, but I did hear about it alot through out the weekend. :O) He likes to look at it now and tell me he made that. It was hard for me because I am obsessive compulsive and a neat freak when it comes to those sorts of things, so to just let him have free reign and make a mess was a lot for me to do, but I did it. We made sugar cookies today, same thing. Ill post pics later and tell you about that one. :O)

Another totally off topic thing: Tonight at about 7:20 I was cleaning up the kitchen trying to keep busy for about twenty minutes before I felt like I really needed Landon to get ready for bed, since he was being really good and just drinking milk and watching mickey mouse, I figured I would let him have a treat and stay up a bit later then normal, and I knew after the day I had if I sat down that would be it, I would be done for the evening. Landon comes waltzing into the kitchen, naked, and tells me "I ready for nigh night! Get pjs on and go sleep." so I guess he know that it was bed time. After the day we have both had I dont blame the poor kid for being tired, we wrapped presents for daddy, made bread and cookies and cookie bars, and he bounced around the living room in circles for about 20 minutes straight earlier in the day, he was just plum tuckered out. :O) Of course after I get all of his pjs on, "I go pee pee." So Pjs off and to the bathroom....... ahhhh will the night end. I found myself singing Silent Night to him wondering when I could just go pass out, when the thought occured to me that I really need to cherish these moments. That I may be tired but ten years from now, even a week from now when I look back I will kick myself for not being in the moment and cherishing it, no matter how tired I was, those moments you can not get back..... so I stood up and got into the singing, and Landon tells me "No stop dont sing like that....." oh well at least I tried!!!

His new word is "Huh?!" I will ask him to do something or tell him something and he says...... Huh!!?? Oh to have another husband..... :O)

Christmas Party date night!

Some friends of ours had a christmas party on Friday night. Noah had to work but amazingly they let him off so we were able to go together. We had a blast. We had a gingerbread making contest and played some games. It was so much fun to make the gingerbread house and just be goofy adults for a night. We were with 5 other couples and we really enjoyed their company. We stayed and talked till about 1 in the morning. I think the latest I have been intentially up in a long time. We lost trake of time and just enjoyed ourselves, it was so refreshing. It was funny because we were among friends from church and stayed out till 1 and the next night we went to Noahs work christmas party and stayed for about 2 hours and were home by 10, shows you where our real priorities are and whose company we really enjoy. :O) Thanks guys for having us over. We have not had that much fun out with friends in a long time. And MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Our house, we made it with the Leemans. Courtney and I were supposed to be each others date because both our husbands had to work, but they both wound up getting off so we made the gingerbread house together. That red thing on the roof is santa getting stuck in the chimney (good work Noah and Joe)

All of our houses! The Hills made there gingerbread from scratch, it was pretty amazing.... dark "wood" inside and nice and light on the outside. (wink wink to all those there, you know what I am talking about) the house second closest in the picture won the contest. Good job Ashtons!!! and the one closest in the pictures is a gingerbread "outhouse", very funny!!! It was a blast, I have not made a gingerbread house in like 10 years. :O) Made us come home and make one with Landon, (pictures of that to come)

Just being silly!!

Here is a picture post. Present wrapping, bundling up for the snow, and just being silly. I think the picture explain themselves, enjoy!!!

I can not believe how skinny Braddoc looks in these pictures below and how chubby his cheeks look in the pictures above, so different!!!

Real food..... sort of!

So since Braddoc is under weight I have started feeding him rice cereal and applesauce. HE LOVES it!! I am amazed at how well he does with it and how little mess he makes. With Landon im sure he only got like two bites total out of a whole bowl and with Braddoc Ide say he gets all but about half a bite, he even starts to fuss at me if I am taking to long to get him another bite and he smiles so much when he sees me getting one ready. :O) I took some pictures of him after he ate it to show how clean he was and then in mid smile, mid picture, he spits up about half of what he ate. I was part of the way through feeding him and he was not fussing at me about wanting another bite, so I thought he might be done but was not sure, so I kept feeding him, well I guess he was done. That the only time he has done that in a weeks worth of feeding. He is such a good baby!!! I love that you can see his fuzzy hair in the pictures too. :O)

One of the boys!!

We went to Noahs Young Mens Christmas party and Landon had a blast. He loved being one of the big boys. They had video games going all over the place and he was just mesmerized by all of it. He went from console to console watching the games and cheering for the boys playing. He was so much fun to watch. He was such a sweet boy. They did a white elephant thing and he was just so excited to watch the boys open their presents and then they let him open one and it was a Mickey Mouse, stapler. He loved that it was mickey mouse and went around "stapling" everything. I have no idea how he knew what to do with it, but he did. :O) After that though he thought he could open the presents at home, so needless to say we have had to retape some presents and then just give him some of the ones he got all the way open (only 2 of those). Ahh I cant wait till its christmas and the presents under the tree are not a headache for me watch. :O)

It snowed......

......well sort of. We got a bit of snow flurries here at our house, nothing that stuck, mostly more like rain. We showed Landon and he said, "its raining." So I guess it was a bit wet but it was snow non the less, reminded me a bit of break up in Alaska. They did get lots better snow else were around the valley, and we thought about driving to it, but I did not want to get Braddoc out and get him sick since it is RSV season. So we just stayed around the house and watched the snow fall. I did take Landon out to go shopping after I put Braddoc to bed and we got to run into the store in the snow. Landon loved it!!! He was being so silly saying "AHHHH it get me." and covering his head.

I loved driving in the snow. I loved watching the snow falling and hitting my windshield it was so beautiful and peaceful, I was a bit leary of those driving around me who are not used to wet or snowy weather, but other then that I totally enjoyed driving and just watching the snow fall. I loved looking at the street lights and seeing the flakes falling in the light. I tried to get a picture of it, but the light kept overtaking my pictures and Im not a professional so I had no idea how to make that not happen. But it was simply beautiful. I was driving and found myself overcome with joy and happiness. You know the feeling where a sudder goes through your whole body and you feel warm and cozy, that was the feeling. Man do I miss real snow!!!

It did snow enough in parts of the Valley that they closed schools. So Im sure the kids really enjoyed that. :O) Anyway we sort of got a white christmas. I wish it had stuck more at our house so Landon could have played in it, but Ill take what I can get.