Oh, and I have to brag about my favorite gift

I'm a sucker for anything to do with my kids, and especially their little handprints - I love them so.

The day before Thanksgiving, Jon told me he needed to take the kids out, wouldn't tell me where. I knew that my mom and Jamie were going out, and I knew that mom most likely knew what was up, so I tried to trick her, and asked if I could join her and Jamie. She told me "sure!", so I knew that they weren't going to be with Jon and the kids. I copped to what I was up to and received the "they are his kids too, and if he wants to take them somewhere, let it be. Leave the man alone" lecture. LOL

So... My mom handed me a box on Christmas, and in it was a beautiful round platter. The platter is blue on the bottom, and white on the top (just like our dishes!), and says "We love Mommy". It has two large hearts, one had each kids's name, and also their handprints, each set of prints forming the shape of a heart. It was from Mom, Jamie, Jon and the kids. So, not only did I receive something so wonderful and meaningful, I had the satisfaction of knowing I was on the right track all along, I just had no idea that they were going to be making me something! I thought they were just going to go shopping or something. Sneaky devils!

Christmas week

I should break this up into a bunch of smaller posts, but that would require some effort, so I'll just put it all in one. Sorry. :-P

Last Sunday (12/21) was our church's Christmas Pageant. Natalie had three roles - Elizabeth (Mary's cousin. Next year N will be Mary!), the Innkeepers wife, and an angel. She did a great job! It was a little hectic - I was one of the "stage hands", and one of the other kids played multiple roles too, which made costume changes a little hairy, but we all made it through! All the kids were so cute! It really made the parishioners happy too - I think it has been several years since they've had a children's Christmas program.

Monday, Mitz came over and we made cookies. Only one kind turned out, which pissed me off so much, I made more that night, determined to get it right. Mitz did the same at her house - this apple didn't fall far from the tree. Just as I finished one batch of dough though, my Kitchen-Aid shit the bed. More on that later. Jon and Natalie made a gingerbread house while I made more cookies that night. It turned out really well this year! When we weren't looking, Natalie stuck Goldfish crackers to the house - it was a nice addition. :-P

Wednesday we didn't do a whole lot during the day. We went to Christmas Eve service at 4, then headed to Mitz and Pops' for dinner. Aunt Joan and Great-Grandpa Carl were there. We had ham, shrimp (to appease my finicky palate), potato salad, green salad (to appease my finicky palate) and something else. Cupcakes and brownies for dessert. Got the kids home in time to rush to bed to prepare for Santa's visit! We had the kids open our ornaments to them (I get them Lenox ones every year, which is turning into a problem - we never have enough strong branches to accommodate the heavy ornaments), and also ones that Great-Aunt Lois and Great-Uncle Don sent. Normally we have Natalie open her Christmas pjs, and their special ornaments are hung at the time we decorate the tree, but since the kids wore their Christmas jammies on the Polar Express, it seemed silly to wrap them up, so we held back the ornaments this year. Natalie hung our stockings, and the Santa key on the door. We got the kids to bed, then I realized we forgot to have N help with the cookies, carrot, and milk for Santa, so I took care of that, and Santa left Natalie a thank-you note. I made a few things ahead for Christmas dinner, and as I was mixing some Focking Good Cheese dip with my hand mixer, that shit the bed too. Then I noticed the outlet (on one side of our island) was smoking. More on that later. Jon and I got to bed way too late.

I woke up Christmas Day around 5:30, go figure, and tried to go back to sleep. Too excited, so I got up around 6:10. Oliver got up at 6:45, and we had to WAKE Natalie up at 7. Can you believe that? Opened our stockings, and then hit the tree. It was so wonderful - Natalie was so excited! Oliver was all wound up too - he had no clue what was going on, but was enjoying tackling paper and rolling in it, and eating bows. Santa hid Natalie's new bike behind the tree, so it took her awhile to spy it, but when she did, she had to have it immediately. We had to call her back to finish opening gifts - she was riding the bike around the house.

Jon made breakfast - bacon and french toast. He's the french toast master. Actually, he makes a wonderful breakfast, so if we're having a full breakfast, he's the one who makes it. Unless we're having pancakes - I found a product called Batter Blaster - organic pancake batter in a spray bottle like Reddi-Whip. The kids get fun shapes, and I make curse words for Jon - might as well have fun before the kids learn to read! Anyway....

Mom, Jim, Mike and Jamie were due over at noon, so around 11, we decided to get the prime rib in the oven. The recipe I use calls for browning the roast on the stove top. Works great, if you take into consideration the amount of fat on top of your roast - which I didn't, and also this roast had a thick layer of fat. Holy crap, we smoked the house out. It was awful! Natalie was convinced the fire department was going to come, Oliver thought it was funny for a bit - he was on his knees laughing and waving his arms, then the smoke got down to his level and he started coughing and gagging. You could barely see throughout the whole downstairs. I had Jon take the kids upstairs, threw the roast in the oven, then turned on the ceiling fans, and opened all the windows. Jon came back down after I went up and got a fan from the garage, and turned on the HVAC fan too. Luckily the smoke cleared by the time my family arrived. I was shocked that none of the smoke detectors went off - they should have - so Jon is replacing all the batteries tonight.

So we had presents round 2. It reminded me of when my brother and I were kids and we'd go to my grandparents for Christmas part 2. The kids got totally spoiled this year, and I loved every minute of it. I'm a Christmas junky. Mitz had stockings for all of us too - I pulled a mini Butter Shots out of mine, then Mitz exclaimed "Where's the other one? I put two in there - one for me". LOL. I lined up the shots when we started cooking. :-P Then we all hung out for the afternoon - Aunt Joan, and our friends Sylvia and Ed, and their sons Aaron and Adam came for dinner too! While I was getting dinner together, I mentioned to Pops that I didn't think my KA crapped out after all - that the outlet was smoking when in use. He jumped up, told us to grab some tools, and he pulled apart the outlet to investigate. Thank God for him.... He found that the connections were loose, and since he explains it better, I'll just leave it at we could have had a fire - he actually said he couldn't believe we didn't - the wires had fried so badly. He got it all fixed up for us, and my mixers work too! As we took the last pot off the stove, Jon and I noticed that the top half of the right front burner (glass cooktop. I WANT GAS) was glowing orange - huge orange circle, extending into the space between the front and back burners. More on that later too.

Then, that afternoon, I had one of the breakfast area windows open because the oven heated up the house and I was dying. Oliver crawled over to the window, pulled up and stood there, waving and tapping on the window. We thought he was just having fun at the window, then when I went to pull him away, I noticed that baby beaver (you should see his crib) decided to have a little snack. He chewed the windowsill (you'll see pics in the Christmas album) - down to the freaking metal - huge spot.

For dinner we had the prime rib, horseradish cream sauce, red wine au jus, Caesar salad, from-scratch green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls. Sylvia brought a fabulous bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes, which was SO good, and my mom made a delicious trifle.

After everyone left, and we got the kids to bed, Jon and I started clean up. He started to clean the cooktop, then called me over. The right front burner had an enormous crack in it - went all the way up into the back burner. Then I swear, as we were watching it more cracks appeared all over the surface. It was the strangest thing. Wasn't there when we were cooking, and nothing dropped on it. Kenmore can't get anyone out until Tuesday, and we're informed that they will determine what happened. Ok, whatever. It better be replaced - we bought it when we moved in, so it isn't that old. It has to be something with heat distress, as I mentioned, nothing dropped on it, and the left front burner was never used that day, yet it developed a big crack too. We had dinner at M&P's last night and tonight. Sucks to be without a cooktop. They say the oven is safe, but it makes me nervous - if it's a heat thing - I don't know that I want to be heating up the oven and using it.

It was nice to be with family and friends for Christmas! Usually it is just our immediate/nuclear family, so this was wonderful!

Last but not least, we remember and miss those who passed this year, Jon's father Grandpa Ron (March), Jon's maternal grandmother Grandma Helen (May) and Jim's maternal Aunt Ivy (December).

I'm working on pictures tonight. If they aren't up tonight, they will be tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Stairs? No problem

Oliver has mastered the stairs (crawling up). The other day he went all the way up, but it was slow going. Just now, he made a dash for them, I was right behind him, and I mean right behind him. He was up 5 of them by the time I got to the base. He got all the way to the top (me right behind) very quickly!

Uncle (B)Ri(t)ch

Not so hidden message in the title. :-P

Rich wanted a shout-out (do people still say that?) on the blog... So here he is...

Rich is my younger brother - he's 33. He lives in Baltimore, MD, with his girlfriend Christie (who is a saint, much like Jon). No one can frustrate me or make me laugh quite like him. And he's the master at pushing my buttons - of course I would NEVER return the favor. :-P I think my fondest memory of growing up together was the time I Maced him. Or maybe how attached he was to his security blanket, Dee (oddly enough, Natalie always called her pacifiers "Dee" - we called them nin-nins, so the Dee thing was a mystery). He used to get so upset when our mom would wash Dee - he'd stand outside trying to pull Dee off the clothesline, wailing "Deeeeee Deeeee". Then when he got Dee back, he'd take a big whiff and say "Mmmmm! Dee keen (clean)". Or the Thanksgiving morning when we were watching the parade, and he had to go to the bathroom. He put Dee on the space heater while he was gone, to keep Dee warm. By the time he returned, Dee was literally smoking, and had two big scorch marks.

He and one of our neighborhood friends (at our grandparents) loved to gang up on me too. Our grandparent's house had a covered porch, and we were not allowed to go out on the porch roof. So of course, he and Keith would take my beloved doll, Margaret, and throw her up on the porch roof. As I'd climb out the bedroom window to get onto the roof to rescue Margaret (they'd throw her far enough out on the porch so I couldn't just lean out and get her), they'd turn on the hose, and soak me and the porch roof, then rat me out for being on the roof, with the water only on the roof and me as proof. Meanies.

Anyway... As little brothers go, he isn't half bad. I miss him, and wish we could see him more often.

He's missing a horn here. :-P

Oliver's latest

Skeezix continues to learn new things every day!

He gives high-fives now
He's trying to stand alone - has succeeded a couple of times
Starting to wave
Chewing up his crib. The little beaver.
AND, the best? The other day, he crawled up to me, pulled on my leg and said "Mama". About two months ago, he started saying "Mmmmmmm" when he wanted me - he'd crawl after me saying it - Jon pointed out that he only did that for me. But there's something special about "Mama".

Natalie officially turned 4!

Yesterday. I'm late. Sue me. :-P

We had a very nice day! She had presents early (loved her new cash register!), and then Mitz and Pops came over in the afternoon. More gifts - M&P scored a hit! She's been wanting this Elefun game for more than a year now (Google it and you might understand why Santa forgot to bring it last year. It is fun though!). She didn't even have it all the way out of the bag... Just shaking and jumping with joy - "It's the Elefun game! Elefun! Now Santa doesn't need to get me it". lol

After that, we went to Organ Stop Pizza - a local pizza place with an enormous organ, pipes all over the place, and tap-dancing kitty marionettes. Natalie had so much fun! She was dancing around the table the whole time. Oliver even enjoyed it - he was enthralled! Dancing in his highchair, and he clapped for the first time too! Had an ice cream cake, then went to look at a famous light display in Mesa. Except most of the houses on the block didn't have their lights on. Bummer! Called it a night, got the kids to bed.

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet girl! I can't believe you are 4 already!

And Happy Birthday to Aunt Annie (the 15th too), Grandma Carol (today!), and Pops (the 18th).

Natalie's Birthday party with her friends.

Natalie's birthday party was at Freestone Railroad Park in Gilbert, AZ. She wanted a party at the train park, with puppy plates/decor, and a Batman cake. What a fun place to have a birthday party! They have a nice party area, overlooking a pond, and right there is a concession stand, and four rides - Ferris Wheel, Carousel, Wave Runner, and a train that goes around the entire park. The nice part about it is the rides and party area are all in the same space - much easier for the kids to run around, and also for us to keep an eye on them. A bunch of her friends from school came, our friends Stacey, Donny and their youngest son Jackson, Aunt Jamie, Uncle Mike, Mitz and Pops.

The kids started off on the Wave Runner, and they all rode that non-stop for the first twenty minutes. It was like kiddie crack! After we got them all off that, we had pizza, cake and ice cream, all the kids were given engraved wooden train whistles from the park, and Natalie and Oliver were given engineer caps. Then rides, rides and more rides! Even Oliver got to ride on the train! All of the kids had such a fun time. I've never seen Natalie so happy - just truly joyful - everything being a kid should be. I couldn't ask for anything more. Even when it was time to go (we stayed after since the ride wristbands were good until the park closed), she was happy right to the end, no trouble about leaving. We rode the train, then the other three rides, got some lemonade and popcorn, and headed to the car. Jon left after the party ended so Oliver could get a nap.

When we got home, Natalie was chattering on about her party. "I had a cool party! And a cool whistle! And a cool hat! And cool lemonade! And cool popcorn! And cool goodie bags! And cool balloons!". She also told me "I'm 4 now. I'm not 3. I like being 4". I reminded her that she was technically 3 until Monday - she told me "I know Mommy. I'm just pretending to be 4!". We let her open her presents from her friends. I had forgotten that I started stashing random things in some of the gift bags during clean-up - extra plates, napkins, blowers, etc. As she opened bags, she'd say "Look Mommy! They got me plates! And blowers! And napkins - lots of napkins!". The last bag had the candle striker/lighter in it - oops. She pulled it out, totally scandalized tone "Look Mommy. Who gave me this? I'm not supposed to have that".

So, tomorrow, our baby officially turns 4. I really can't believe it. We have a full day planned tomorrow. We'll probably give her presents early, then Mitz and Pops are coming over in the afternoon for presents, and then we are going to a place called Organ Stop Pizza (we took Grandma Carol there this summer when she visited) for dinner/cake. Whew!

Oh, I don't want to make a huge deal about this. But we couldn't keep the cat. Natalie kept reacting to her, and the allergy worsened. By Friday, she was telling me her throat hurt and was tight. I took her to her doctor to find out if it was strep, but he took one look at her and asked me if she'd been around peanuts - ruled out a cold, upper respiratory illness, no swollen glands, throat wasn't red. It went downhill from there, and he told us to get the cat out of the house immediately. We called around for three hours, and found a place to take her - they adopt out 100% of their healthy animals - and since we'd already been to the vet, we knew CG was healthy, plus she's young and great with kids, so hopefully soon she'll be with her forever family. It was heartbreaking and devastating - we all loved that little kitten, but we couldn't take the chance of Natalie anaphylaxing/stopping breathing. As it was, she woke up Friday night at midnight, choking and gagging - even after we cleaned, and totally stripped her bedding, washed and replaced. She's gradually getting better, but she, and we miss CG so much.

I've been able to come to some sort of peace about what happened. At first I kept thinking why would this happen - why would she follow N home, then make her so sick we couldn't keep her - what good does that do that poor cat or us? It just doesn't make sense. Then I started thinking, well maybe this is just part of what God planned. He knew that we would take her in, take her to the vet, get her started on what she needs to lead life as a healthy kitty, and then when it all went to shit, that we would take the time to find the best place we could for her (in the short time we had to do it), so she'd then be available for her forever family - especially since we were able to give the shelter a good description of her sweet disposition, great nature with kids. That belief is what is helping me come to terms with this, because it hurts. I hated seeing my daughter hysterical, Jon upset, me upset, and we certainly would never have taken her in had we known - but where she is is still better than roaming the streets - she was clearly happy being an inside cat.

Note - pictures are up. Shutterfly made major changes to their site, one of which included removing the option to sort pictures by certain parameters - such as in order by file name. Of all things to remove, that really sucked. So the pictures never upload in order, which is why they always jump around - I don't have the time to manually arrange them. I also snagged some my mom took too, so those just got tacked onto the end.

Natalie's Christmas Program - Pre-school

Last Thursday evening was Natalie's pre-school program! All of the classes (young 3s, pre-school, Pre-K and Kindergarten) had a little performance. All of the kids did a great job - my kid included, of course! Jon, Oliver, Mitz and I were all there.

The Young 3s sang a couple of songs with motions. One of the little girls was a total ham. Before they started, just after they got on-stage, she must have noticed her mother go near the stage to get pictures. Thatfast, she had her fingers pulling her cheeks, tongue out - but in a cute, mischievous way. Then her skirt went over her head! Too funny!

Pre-K went next, and had Mary, Joseph, Wise Men (on of the boys had his crown fall over his face, and couldn't get it up - we got a picture of that. He tried to fix it, then valiantly carried on), angels, and shepherds.

Kindergarten was third. They recited pages of scripture - really amazing. They did that for Bible Days (Halloween), and Thanksgiving too. Their teacher is incredible - she's able to get them to memorize all that, and teach them other things as well - some of the kids are already doing 2nd grade math!

Natalie's class was last. They were all angels, going to see the baby Jesus. Every child had a line. Natalie was first, she was the Guardian Angel. Her line was "I will protect the angels" - she said it nice and loud! Then they sang a couple of songs.

It was a very nice evening, and so much fun to see all the kids dressed up and doing their thing!

Now we just have to get through her Sunday School program on the 21st. She has three roles - none of the kids have to speak, but a couple of them have multiple roles. They've been champs at rehearsals!

I'll get pictures up later on... Have to recap Natalie's bday party next!

Another tooth and first haircut

Bet you think I'm going to talk about Oliver's first haircut? Haha! Guess again. I'm talking about first unauthorized haircut. Natalie snuck her kiddie scissors into another room. Jon found a clump of hair while he was sweeping after dinner. *shocked face*. She cut a chunk off the front, and fortunately, since she has an asymmetrical bob like mine, she cut it off the longer end, so it blends pretty well. The stinker!

Oliver's right canine finally broke through yesterday!

Christmas Grey went to the vet. She's about 6 months old, and a Diluted Tabby (whatever that means), appears to be in good health, although we are waiting on Feline Leukemia and AIDs tests. She gets spayed and de-clawed (yeah, I know. Mean, but we didn't want a pet to begin with, so if she's to stay, the claws have to go. They do it with a laser now, which seals the nerve endings, she's supposed to be pain-free the next day) on the 19th - Merry Christmas! LOL

And on a side note... Some people are just sick. I noticed a lame Siamese behind the vet's counter. Beautiful cat. Back legs completely slack, along with her hind quarters, although she drags herself along remarkably well on her front legs. Apparently someone shot her with a BB gun. Cruel, cruel, cruel. The vet took her in, and is giving steroid treatments, in the hopes that she might regain use of her back legs - one leg can kind of move a little now. She seems like a sweet cat too - not like the Siamese that my Great-Aunt Joan had - Sam was MEAN. Although that might have had something to do with my cousin Peggy and I carrying it around like a baby. Sam didn't like that so much. :-P

First night away from home

Skeezers had his first sleepover with Mitz and Pops yesterday! We had a party to go to, and since he needs to be in bed by 7, or he's a wreck, Mitz offered to take him overnight, so Jon, Natalie and I could go to the party.

He did very well! Slept the whole night, just like he does at home, and wasn't any trouble at all! We picked him up after church today, so he had a nice long visit with his grandparents!

I missed him terribly, but am glad he had some alone time with Mitz and Pops, and that all went well!

Thanks, Mitz and Pops!

We've been adopted

Introducing Christmas Grey (Natalie chose her name. I was angling for Noelle, but CG it is).





I first noticed her about a month ago, while driving home one evening. Stopped the car and tried to get her - she was tiny and clearly a stray - but she wouldn't come near me.


Last night, Jon and Natalie took a walk. On the way back, they saw two cats, CG and another white and black one (who is too big and well-groomed to be a stray), stopped to pet them. I went to bed around 10:30, heard something outside, opened the door and both cats were there. CG would have walked right in the house, and every time she heard us inside, she started scratching the door and meowing.

This morning, I didn't see her when I went out to walk. I got home, and Natalie woke up - I was telling her about the cats following her home - we heard meowing outside. CG was back again. She walked in as soon as we opened the door. I put some baby food and water outside for her, while we debated what to do. Once she walked in a second time, we knew. She chose us.

She's very sweet, appears to be an older kitten. She lets Natalie cuddle with her, pick her up, all that. She hides a little at times, but she's just getting used to her new home. She goes to the vet on Monday.

So much for no pets. Thank God she didn't find a dog.

Just like that....

The cyst is gone. No sign of it at all. Huh. That's a good thing, but surprising!

Busy boy!

Skeezix is on a tear. Yesterday he attempted to stand alone twice (he can now stand at the dishwasher by using his belly to balance, which to his delight, leaves both hands free to grab whatever he can), crawled up the stairs (Mitz and Pops came by, Mitz was on the stairs, and Oliver crawled over to see her, then went up three stairs. Oy), and is cruising along the furniture now. He's quite proud of himself - with each new trick, he gives the most delighted, pleased with himself laugh. And I sprout more white hairs.

He also has a unique little issue. We've been waiting for his right canine to join his other three upper teeth, and thought for sure he'd get it this week. The other morning, his gum was immensely swollen in that area, and you could see white at the edge of the gum. Didn't check closely yesterday. Today, after his nap, I noticed something hanging off his gum. It looked like gum tissue, in the shape of a large skin tag, or like a small ulululululua (too lazy to Google the correct spelling) thing that hangs at the back of the throat. Freaked me out. Called his ped, who referred us to a pediatric dentist. Went to the dentist this afternoon - it's very uncommon, but it is something like a cyst that is caused by the gum swelling because of a tooth, but when the tooth recedes, the gum can get irritated and form this cyst type thing. The dentist has only seen that one other time in the front of the mouth - and that was with his own son. They do commonly happen with the 6 year molars. It's harmless, and should go down a bit as the irritation subsides. And once the tooth officially breaks, it should go away within a week or two. If it doesn't, it will need to be clipped off. Just the thought of that makes me want to vomit, so send good thoughts that it goes away on its own. Oh, and the thing bleeds a little bit at times too. Good times.

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting his other favorite trick. Our DVD player in the family room is a combo receiver, DVD, something else. It was a little wide for the shelf, so Jon took the doors off that area so it would fit. Oliver has enjoyed crawling up to it for ages now, and pressing buttons. Cute, right? Now he's learning which buttons do what. So if he fancies hearing a little mariachi music, he presses the button that turns it on, and the default is the FM station that plays mariachi. He knows what he's doing too - he presses it, stands up and starts dancing a little. If you turn it off, he just looks down, presses his button and gets his groove on again!

A trifecta of teeth!

Skeezers cut three teeth last Wednesday! He'd been working on the front two (central), but it looked as if the canines (lateral incisors for you specific types) were going to come in first. I was kind of hoping for that - I've never seen a baby vampire jack o' lantern, but alas, three came in at once! He got the centrals and the left canine. The right one will be in any day now - you can see white just under the gum, and it's hugely swollen!

That makes 6 teeth so far!