Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter! Starting out slow this morning - since we're hosting this year, the Easter Bunny isn't bringing baskets until we are at church. No Whopper vomit from Oliver on Easter morning - that's a tradition I won't really miss!

Happy Birthday, Oliver!

Our big boy turned 3 today, and to quote Oliver "Everybody had a great time!". When he got up this morning, I sang "Happy Birthday", complete with "cha cha chas", to his delight. Had a little breakfast, opened his gift from Aunt Jamie (Superman toy and a blue satin superhero cape - dude was over the moon!", then we headed out. Went to get some Toy Story plates and napkins, and a Jessie doll to go with his Woody and Buzz (Dee-da sent him a check, and told me to buy him something he wanted). Next stop was a haircut, per his request. Had a little lunch, then we went to the party store for balloons, got home just in time for nap. He wore the cape the whole time we were gone - so cute!

After his nap, Mitz and Pops came over, and he opened his gifts. Then we went to Chuck E Cheese - kids had a blast! Oliver wore his cape again, along with his special birthday shirt (Superman logo with the "S" replaced with a "3"". I climbed up in the tunnels that line the ceiling with him - man, it stinks up there. Oliver wanted Chuck E to come over, so he could tell the big rodent that he has a beautiful hiney (Oliver's highest compliment), but Chuck E didn't... So Oliver stood up at the table and trash talked Chuck E. He was babbling most of it, so we have no idea what he said, but the tone of voice was all tough guy. Had cake and ice cream... Our baker outdid herself again - the cake matched his shirt and was incredible! Found Whoppers (Oliver's favorite chocolate candy) ice cream by Breyers (and it is so gross, but Oliver liked it), so we brought that too!

On the way home, I was trying to get Oliver to pick a favorite birthday present. He mentioned this Buzz Lightyear Shake and Go car, that was one of his gifts from us. Natalie said "Don't you mean the Woody hat? Don't you love that hat?" (that's what she "gave" him - and it's really cool - nice sized, licensed Woody hat, not cheap plastic either - he wore that to CEC too!). He said "I WUV that hat! Thank you giving me my cowboy hat, Nanee". Natalie said "So is it your favorite?". Oliver said "Yes". She said "Good". We were dying. It was probably funnier being there...

As we left CEC, Oliver told all of us "I do love you Mommy". "I do love you Daddy". "I do love you Nanee". "I do love Mitz and Pops", and "EVERYBODY HAD A GREAT TIME". We read a book that Grandma Carol sent him, and as I finished it, he said "I do love Grandma". <3 Great day. Just a wonderful day with my big boy!

And Happy Birthday to Aunt Jamie too!!

Holidays

This will be brief - wanted to write something before I forget it... Just said good-bye to Grandma this morning (we miss her already!) - had a great week with her here in AZ!

Christmas was wonderful - the kids were so excited - had such a lovely day. But what I don't want to forget is... Little Man didn't get a nap on Christmas, so by the end of the day, he was just done. I found him sitting under the tree just before bedtime, eyes glazed over, mumbling repeatedly "Wanna open more presents". LOL

Happy New Year!

Halloween

A little late... The kids had a blast on Halloween! Natalie was Dr. Frankenstein, Oliver was Frankenstein, I was the Bride of Frankenstein, and Jon was Igor. They got lots of candy! We went to see Mitz and Pops first, then came back here to hand out our treats, and trick or treat.

The week before Halloween, we were teaching Oliver how to ToT. It was really cute! I'd go in the powder room, and shut the door. Oliver would grab his pumpkin, knock on the door, and when I opened it, said "Trick or Treat", wait for me to put something in his pumpkin, and then "thank you". The night of Halloween, he said "Trick or Treat" at every house, without being prompted, and somewhere along the way, started saying "Haaaaaap.......py Haw-weeeeeen", very slowly and very seriously - it was the cutest thing ever. Then the next day, he told us "get dark and get candy". :-P

Jon carved a bunch of pumpkins for the kids - did a great job. We had a Buzz Lightyear, Batman symbol, Batman face, and Spiderman face.

Quote of the evening went to Natalie though... On the way back home, she said "I can't WAIT to get to the sugar rush".

Happy 40th, Jon!

Jon turned 40 yesterday (tee hee! :-P)! Managed to remember to post on FB, but kept forgetting to post it here. Yesterday was a mad dash to finish pulling his party together - did a 70s/disco themed party. Had lots of fun! Jon found a vintage disco shirt and I found a vintage disco dress on Ebay. I happened to have a hair appointment scheduled for yesterday morning, as as it also happened, the client after me canceled, so Matthew had time to play! I had the best 70's middle-parted, feathered and backcombed 'do - so much fun! Oliver had a powder blue disco suit costume, and Natalie had a tee-shirt with a disco ball and "Party" on it - she didn't want to dress up. Which was just as well, I couldn't find anything vintage in her size, and the girls' costumes that are available are trampy.

Party details if you're so inclined -

Had about 50 songs on a playlist - love it - was listening to it again today. Oliver's favorite is Macho Man (Village People) - he can listen to it over and over and over. That was all last-minute. A couple of nights ago, I downloaded an album of 100 top songs of the 70s - it was a great mix of music - then I played it and realized the whole album was a cover version. UGH. What a waste of $20!

Food -
Swedish meatballs
cheese fondue
veggie/fruit platters
bacon-wrapped water chestnuts
deviled eggs
Lay's onion dip
chips
salsa/guac/tortilla chips
And for our vegan friends: tabouli, roasted red pepper hummus, vegan pita chips and flatbread, 3 bean salad
Beer/wine/Pepsi Throwback/Tequila Sunrises

Had a rotating disco ball thing.

The cake was fabulous! Used our usual baker - delicious beyond belief and SO cool! I'll get pictures up sometime this week.

Favors were little bags with disco ball keychains, pet rocks (Natalie, her best friend and I made them one afternoon last week), and those soft peppermints - the wrappers were bright yellow with the smiley face. Found someone on Etsy who turned around really cool favor tags that I could print at home - in less than 24 hours!

The kids had so much fun! Natalie told me she wants a 70s party for her birthday this year. :-) And she was so cute yesterday morning - she came charging into the bathroom while I was showering - "Is today the day that Daddy is 40"? - cackling like a little loon.

So, all in all, it turned out well! Especially considering this all came together in two weeks!

4th of July

A week late.

The kids and I had a wonderful weekend with Mitz and Pops - we headed to the mountains, in Payson, that Friday. Jon joined us Sunday for the day/night - stayed home so he could get a ton of yardwork done that is impossible to do with the kids underfoot.

The kids had so much fun! They were able to play outside all day - it's too hot here in the Valley for that, even with the pool (we limit pool time to a couple of hours a day, at most, because of N's eczema, and the sun is of course strong). They rode their bikes, ran around, just generally had a ball. Even got to play in Pops' boat!

Checked out an arts and crafts festival in a neighboring town. Very small, but I bought Mitz a boobie cooler (for real, it's a fabric thing you soak with water and I think refrigerate, then stick in your bra. lol). I think the official name is Boobe Toobe or something like that.

On the 3rd, I took the kids to the second annual 4th of July parade in Payson. Shortest parade ever. Over in less than 20 minutes. I wasn't too impressed, but the kids loved it, and that's what counts! Natalie and Oliver were so excited - and Oliver quickly learned to go diving for candy when it was thrown from the floats! Natalie helped pass out miniature American flags. Anyone can join in the parade - if we're there next year, I might have the kids decorate their bikes and walk in the parade. I was in a couple of parades for the American Legion as a child (Jr. Miss Poppy several years - yes there are pics, no they aren't scanned), and rode in the Memorial Day parades - it was so much fun - I think the kids would enjoy it too. Oliver cut his finger pretty badly that night - Mitz and I took him to a fire station at the end of the development to have it looked at. It wouldn't stop bleeding for a while, got all over me (just to illustrate how much it was - it was even all the way down my back), and I was worried. I didn't want to subject him to an ER on a Saturday night over the 4th if I didn't have to (hello drunks), so we stopped by the fire station first to see if they thought it would need stitches. The firefighters felt it wouldn't be stitched at the ER, gave us some tips for bandaging it, what to watch for, then gave Oliver the royal treatment. They were so nice. They had just returned from a call, but took so much time not only to look at his wound, but to try to cheer him up. They gave him a stuffed dog, a bag full of goodies (stickers, crayons, coloring pages, cup) and let him tour a fire truck! Then he gave hugs all around. His boo-boo is much better now, but he still talks about it. It oozed for a couple of days if the Band-aids came off, but that stopped by Tuesday. Now it's just the barest scrape. Scared the hell out of us though!

Took it easy on the 4th. Pops grilled some killer steaks. I made The Pioneer Woman's Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies, which were awesome. Although I'm going to try this version next time too. Mom, Jon, the kids and I went to check out the fireworks. Couldn't have been a more perfect evening. We were a little irked at first because they wouldn't let cars near the park, so you were forced to take the shuttle buses from a local HS. I wasn't thrilled, because Jon and I had to leave early the next morning - he had a flight to catch, and I didn't want to get caught in post-4th traffic - I thought we'd be out super late. But, they had it down to a science. The weather was perfect - 60ish. We got there early enough to hear the band they had playing - the kids were rocking out - it was SO cute! Oliver was even playing air guitar - he was a dancing machine. Mitz bought the kids glow in the dark necklaces, which they loved. Then we settled back to watch the show. Awesome fireworks display - really long too - longest I've ever been to. Oliver was a little upset at first, then he loved them. Kept saying "fireworks, high, BOOM". He sat in Mitz's lap for a long time, and it was so sweet to see them snuggled up, and I could see Oliver pointing to the sky saying "BOOM" over and over. He was also so excited because the shuttle buses were school buses - he's been itching to ride on a school bus since Natalie gets to ride one too and from school.

We somehow managed to get on the first set of buses back to the HS. Got right in the van - Mitz once again had the parking gods on her side, and were back 5 minutes later. Kids in bed 20 minutes after that - unbelievable. I thought it would be midnight or later before we got out of there - we were back by 10!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to Jon, Jim and Dee-Da (and Uncle Matt and Uncle Kyle too!) - we love you! And we love and remember our fathers and grandfathers who are no longer with us.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there - especially Mitz, Grandma, Elizabeth and Sara!

My MD started off with a bang. I got out of the shower, to find Natalie standing there, swinging a bucket of vomit. "I threwed up Mommy". So I did what any stellar mother would do, I recoiled in horror, and directed her to take it down to Daddy. :-P Poor kid threw up most of the morning, but appears to be on the mend now. We've had a lot of fun with the whole "Natalie gave me a bucket of vomit for MD", but she doesn't find it nearly as amusing - "I did NOT get you throw-up for Mother's Day, Mommy". I tried explaining to her that it was just the timing that made the whole thing classic, and everyone knows that she didn't really get me vomit, but she's too young to understand. But some day, she'll likely have a similar experience, and we can dredge up this memory and cackle away.

Had a nice day though. Went to church, went grocery shopping. Stopped by Mitz's house to give her some flowers (she and Pops decided against coming over for dinner, given the diseased status of our house). Jon cooked an awesome dinner - bacon wrapped scallops with a maple/orange glaze, and a cream/dijon/maple sauce for dipping. And he made me Tollhouse cookies, but in a jellyroll pan (per my request) for dessert. Natalie made me a lovely card at school, and colored a picture for me at home, Jon and the kids gave me some clothes (gee, how DID they know just what to get and even the right sizes to boot?! ). Natalie insisted on putting a candle in my slice of cookie bar, and Oliver started trying to sing "Happy Birthday" - it was the funniest/cutest thing.

My kids rock.

Happy Easter!

We had a nice weekend!

Saturday, we took the kids, and Natalie's best friend and her older sister to a local farm that was having an Easter egg hunt. I took Natalie to that farm for Halloween/pumpkins and we had a wonderful time, so I thought we would all be in for a really good time. Stood in line for an hour and a half. Got up to the register to check-in, and was told that there wasn't any candy left, so they were discounting admission, and the kids could still hunt for eggs. I asked the cashier (the poor girl. I was not amused by that point, and it was obvious) what was the point of hunting for eggs if the kids weren't going to get a prize? She repeated "They can still hunt for eggs". To which I replied "That isn't going to be much fun either, considering we were in line right next to the area where the egg hunt is being held, and I see that you all just dumped the eggs in a pile in the center of the area - there is no 'hunt'". So she said something about being able to go on the hay ride, get faces painted, see the animals. So, OK, we went in. Do the math. We stood in line, an enormous line, for an hour and a half. One face-painting booth. One hayride. One bounce house. Care to guess how long the lines were for those? So no, we weren't able to do any of that. There were a few animals out to look at, and I mean a few. The girls were thirsty, so I took the kids, and Jon stood in line for water. All those people. One concession stand, two people working it. He stood in line for 20 minutes, progressed about 5 feet, maybe. At that point we said "eff it" and left. Very disappointing. But, we went back to the house, got pizza. O napped, Natalie and Trinity played together all afternoon, and her sister went with me while I ran some errands and grocery shopped.

Later that night, after dinner, we got out eggs and dye. The kids had a blast dyeing the eggs - this was Oliver's first time. Although the PAAS kit came with stickers. Oliver put some on his eggs, then noticed that some of the stickers were of balls. He stuck a basketball sticker on his egg, yelled "BALL" and launched the egg across the table, aiming for and missing the egg carton, as opposed to reaching over and placing it in the carton. We were dying. Too funny. I had him do it again, and got it on video.

Easter itself was wonderful! The kids loved their loot from the EB. They got all sugared up, then we went to church. Oliver wouldn't eat breakfast, as he filled up on candy. After mass, they hunted eggs with the kids at church. Then we went to the hall for coffee hour/cake. Oliver threw up chocolate. So gross. Poor kid. But he rallied and tried to go for more chocolate, but we put the kibosh on that. Went home to grab some comfy clothes and my Easter dinner (I hate ham, so I bring my own dinner to my mom's on Easter lol), got some lunch in the kids. Then we went to Mitz and Pops. More Easter baskets, and the kids had an egg hunt at M&P's - they had a great time! Oliver kept dumping his basket all over the floor. As soon as we'd clean it up, he'd dump it again. Had dinner, hung out for a while, both kids passed out in the car on the way home. They were asleep before we hit the freeway - and my mom lives about a mile from the freeway - that's how tired they were.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Had a nice day! The kids had Easter and Oliver's birthday pictures taken today. Picked up some Irish Soda Bread from Wildflower Bread Co. (sucked, BTW. That is NOT soda bread). Natalie had one of her friends from school come over to play in the afternoon. Then I made the kids dark green eggs (blech. I had mine without dye), bacon and cinnamon rolls for dinner. Healthy. lol.

Anyway... Here are the little leprechauns! Had to include a shot of the back of O's shirt - it makes me giggle every time I see it. He loved it too!

Grandma's visit! And Happy New Year!

Grandma arrived last Saturday! After a frustrating day at the airport, she finally arrived around 11 p.m. Natalie was so excited to wake her up Sunday morning! We had such a nice time with her this week, and glad that she was able to have a longer visit this time!

Sunday we went to church, then got Oliver down for a nap, and Natalie, Grandma and I spent the afternoon shopping. Introduced Grandma to Cuban sandwiches.

Monday, I dropped Natalie and Grandma off at As You Wish - a local pottery painting place. Natalie made Grandma a snowman ornament, and Grandma made Natalie a penguin statue. I left them there, and took Oliver to meet Mitz at Home Goods. Bought a few things, then we went back to pick up G and N - after Mitz and I chased each other around the parking lot in our cars - don't ask. We all had lunch, then got the kids back for nap/quiet time.

Tuesday - Natalie's friend Trinity came over to play for most of the day. Then we had an early dinner, and headed out to Zoo Lights - Aunt Jamie came along with us. This is the first time we went in Phoenix and it was beautiful - really well done.

Wednesday - Trinity came over again, and we all went to the "big park" - about a mile from the house. Got McDs for lunch, then I left the girls with Carol while I took Oliver to the doctor - raging case of croup again, and he was prescribed steroids for a couple of days. Then Jon got pizza for the kids and Grandma, and we headed over to Nicholas and Rex's for dinner - had a nice night out - thanks for babysitting, Grandma!

Thursday - Grandma and I took the kids to the zoo during the day. Didn't know it was snow day there - the place was packed - but they had two areas with some snow. Natalie loved it, of course. Oliver, not so much. He's definitely our Arizona native! He thought it was fun until his hands got really cold, then it was all over - big drama. But he kept going back for more, then he'd get cold and upset. The final time, I was so proud of Natalie.... Right after she dumped snow on him (and he found that funny), he played a bit, got cold, got upset, and instead of ignoring him, or calling for me, I watched her take him by the hand, and every so gently led him down the snow hill over to me. It was so sweet to see her caring for her baby brother like that. I got a little choked up. Oh, and we all got to feed giraffes! Grandma and I got slimed a little, but that was OK. The kids loved it - it's such a neat experience. Got the kids back, nap/quiet time, I started cooking. Mitz and Pops came over for dinner and the evening. We had Chicken Saltimbocca (and mine/Cook's Illustrated was better than Bucca di Beppo's, so there!), crash hot potatoes, steamed broccoli, and Tres Leche cake for dessert. That cake is divine - my first time making and trying it and it's so good it's unreal. Got the kids to bed, and the adults sat around and drank and played poker until well in to the New Year! Mitz brought several lovely appetizers, I made hot crab dip and we had chips and salsa as well. One of the best evenings we've had - lots of laughter, obnoxiousness, some vulgarities, and just a general good time!

Happy New Year! I'm adding Tday, Christmas and N's birthday pictures now. I need to get the ones from Grandma's visit uploaded and edited - will try to get that done over the weekend.

Merry Christmas!!

Obviously a little late, but whatever. :-)

We had a wonderful Christmas! Our church's Advent pageant was the Sunday before Christmas - Natalie was Mary this year - and had a beautiful costume handmade by Grandma. All the kids did a great job! Natalie brought down the house at one point - she was supposed to climb on the back of large, stuffed horse (supposed to be the donkey that Mary rode to Bethlehem) - she had been been pretty reserved up until that point... All of a sudden, she leapt up in the air, tucked her legs up, and landed square on the back of the horse/donkey - so funny - you can see the video here - just scroll down a bit until you see the video - it is embedded in our church's homepage. Full screen viewing is best.

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind of cooking/baking, church at 4, then we went to Mitz and Pops' for dinner. Mitz made a delicious salad and lasagna, and Santa called Natalie (M&P arranged for their neighbor to call and play Santa) - Natalie was wide-eyed. Then Pops took the kids out back to look for Santa's sleigh. Mitz went out front and rang the sleigh bells she hangs on her door every year - I heard Natalie shout "That's Santa! I hear his sleigh bells!". She came running in, Mitz showed her the bells and told her that they must have fallen from Santa's sleigh - Natalie was amazed. Then Mitz and Pops gave the kids a special present - a Polar Express train set - the kids love it! We're going to bring it out every Christmas, but put it away during the year so it doesn't get broken. Once that was opened, Oliver turned around and started ripping the paper off one of Natalie's other presents. Whoops!

Headed home. Had the kids hang stockings, get the final chocolates out of their Advent calendars. I put O to bed, Jon put Natalie to bed. Jon was out of her room first - usually I'm out of O's before Jon finishes with Natalie. Apparently she told him "I want The Night Before Christmas because it is short. Frosty is short too, that's OK. And I want no screwing around. No drawing on my back, no snuggling, get out so I can go to sleep". LOL We finished wrapping presents, cleaned the house, and got to bed way too late.

Christmas day was awesome as well. Natalie was up at about 6:20, but waited patiently upstairs until Oliver awoke at 7, and also for Mitz and Pops to arrive at the same time. We opened presents - the kids were so cute. Oliver was just stomping around all over the place with a lollipop. One of his gifts was a plush Dora backpack, with the Map - and he put it on and started singing the Map and Backpack songs. Mitz and Pops stayed for breakfast, then left to meet Jamie and Mike back at their house. They came back around 1:30 with Mike and Jamie. My friend Sylvia and her family joined us again this year, so we had 12 total! Dinner was prime rib, au jus, horseradish cream sauce, Caesar salad, Duchess potatoes, green bean casserole (scratch, not the Campbell's version), rolls. Dessert was Eggnog Bundt cake, and Sylvia brought a Red Velvet cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory that was to.die.for.

Some of the highlights from Christmas day -

Jon found Oliver with a fistful of candy in each hand - one had chocolate, the other candy cane. He said O was alternating cramming gobs of candy in his mouth, drooling everywhere - then he looked at Jon, reached in his mouth and pulled out an intact candy cane wrapper. And laughed.

Oliver received a toy dump truck that plays music, says a few things, and moves. He was chasing a couple of Natalie's Zhu Zhu pets around the house with it.

Mitz gave Natalie a small thing of hand sanitizer in her stocking. Natalie was running around the house telling me how she was going to have everyone use it before dinner, and "I can't believe Mitz got me hand sanitizer - it was JUST WHAT I WANTED". Who knew?! :-)

And of course, after all the present opening orgy was finished, Natalie asked "Is there more?". LOL

Teddy Bear Tea

Yesterday, Mitz and I took Natalie to her first tea! The Ritz-Carlton in Scottsdale holds a Teddy Bear tea each year during the holidays - Mitz and I love to have regular afternoon tea at the Ritz. They hold the Teddy Bear tea in the grand ballroom - the kids have a special menu (PB&J, ham and cheese sandwiches, hot cocoa), adults have a normal afternoon tea (savory sandwiches and lovely little desserts and scones). The ballroom was beautiful - lots of Christmas trees, the entire ceiling was lit up. The man who is in charge of tea there made an appearance and sang some Christmas carols. Once we ate, the kids went to an adjoining area to hear a story read by Mrs. Claus, then they had a puppet show, and a visit from Santa. Natalie was just wide-eyed through all of it. And even had her own cup of tea in addition to cocoa - "Tea is really good... With LOTS of sugar". And Mr. Teddy Bear made the rounds of the room - he got lots of hugs from Natalie! She also used some of her birthday present money to buy herself a special bear to remember the event.

And I have to give mad props to the Ritz with regards to accommodating Natalie's allergies. I called ahead to let them know - they thanked me, told me we'd have our own table (all parties do - I just wasn't sure since it was in the ballroom) and they'd do what they could to mitigate any risk. When we checked in, I could see our reservation - they put a huge note on it about the allergy. Then we were barely in our seats when the maitre-d' came over to let us know he was aware of her allergies, explained what the items to be served contained (you'd be surprised at how many restaurant staff do NOT know what the dishes contain). I expected them to just serve the ham and cheese to her. Nope. They made special jelly-only sandwiches in addition to the h&c. And since most of the desserts contained nuts, they brought her a dish of ice cream - and would have made her a sundae if she'd wanted one. They also brought her another dish because her first one melted - it was served just before story time, so she didn't get to finish. And they brought her a plate full of huge, fresh strawberries. They were so kind, and so accommodating, and managed it without making a big production about it either. Oh and they also sat us at a table near the door - didn't have a lot of tables close to us either, but we weren't in BFE either - just the best place for us in case of any airborne nut dust.

And now for a little bit of WTF... When I was gone from the table at one point, the maitre-d' mentioned to my mom that there was another nut allergy in the room, but they didn't know until they were seated - they had to strip the table completely and start over. I was flabbergasted. I'm well aware of how serious nut allergies can be, and cannot believe that those parents did not call ahead. The menu for the event was posted on the Ritz's site, so it wasn't as if it were a surprise. Besides the fact that they were playing with fire, that was just so rude to the staff - the event is busy enough without having to scramble to accommodate an allergy at the last minute.

And the icing on the cake? Near the end, a table near us was leaving. The mother made a point of stopping by to tell me how "lovely" Natalie's manners are - and that she was a former teacher so she notices and appreciates well-mannered children. I guess she was near Natalie during the story time/puppet show - some kids were standing up and blocking views, and Natalie was very polite about the whole thing. I was so proud of her! And it made an impression on her as well. I told Jon about it this morning (he got back in the wee hours last night/this morning), and he told me Natalie had already told him all about it!

Yes there are pictures. No they won't be up tonight. Soon.

Ho Ho Ho!

I just realized I didn't post this year's Santa pics here. They are on Facebook, and on our Christmas cards, but I love overkill, AND I still laugh every time I see this. I really need to get on Mitz to scan the one from the late 70's - I'm sitting sweetly like Natalie, and my younger brother Rich is in full-on panic and rage - just like Oliver. :-)

Santa's face kills me here -


And the other one -

Now that it's almost Christmas...Thanksgiving!

Can't believe I forgot that. Still have to get pictures up. Anyway... It was a very nice day! The kids were wound up from the get-go, but we all survived the day. Went to church in the morning, then to Mitz and Pops' for dinner. Aunt Jamie, Uncle Mike and Aunt Joan were there. The food was great, everyone behaved, couldn't ask for more! Oliver loved the whipped cream. :-) Aunt Jamie took the kids to the park to burn off some energy - God love her.

I'll try to get my pics up.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

My favorite time of year! We're going to start decorating the house today. I finally caved the other day, and bought an artificial tree. That was a really tough decision (and yes, when I called Jon from Walmart to tell him about a tree I found, I was crying), but we just can't keep a live tree alive in AZ. Even waiting until ten days before Christmas, turning off the heat vent near the tree, watering, preservatives, all that, the damn things die. So I sucked it up. Jon is quite happy, but God love him, he isn't gloating. :-) Anyway..... Here's our little piece of holiday magic from this morning.

Jon has the tree out of the box, and is starting to put it up. Natalie's looking for all the blue lights (we like multi lights on our tree), Oliver's in awe, pointing and saying "Tree! Tree!". And I'm hovering, bitching and still a little bitter about our fake tree. :-)

Me - "That looks really scrawny. The display didn't look like that in the store. It was more full. Are you sure it's going to look OK?"

Jon - "Yes, it's going to be fine. It isn't even halfway up"

Me - "I don't know. It's kind of scrawny"

Jon - *less patiently* "It's going to be FINE"

Me - "I don't know. It looks kind of Charlie Brown to me"

Natalie - "It's not BROWN. It's GREEN"

Me - "WHATEVER"
" Did you put her up to that?"

Natalie - *indignantly* "NO he DIDN'T. I put MYSELF up to that!".

For the record, it's looking better, and he's still not finished. Mitz says I'll adjust and be glad we did it, but I don't know. I am glad we can have a tree up for longer than usual, but this is just really hard for me. Silly, but it is.

Speaking of Natalie-isms... This made me laugh the other day. I bought a new carton of ice cream, and we were having it for dessert. I went to take some recycling out, and as I came back in, I heard some drama. I asked what was going on.

Natalie - "Daddy won't let me lick the lid!" I let her lick the lid if the ice cream is for family consumption only - wouldn't do it if we were serving to guests - but for us? Eh. She's only a kid once, let her lick the lid - it makes her so happy. Jon isn't thrilled with that.

Me - "Oh for God's sake. Let her lick the lid! She's only a kid once!"

Natalie - so earnestly - "Yeah, Daddy. I'm still learning!".

Halloween

Nothing like posting about Halloween well into November. :-)

We had a great time! Jon, Natalie and I were pirates, Oliver was a parrot. He loved his costume! And we found out that dude has quite the sweet tooth. He didn't meet a piece of candy he didn't like. Poor, deprived child hadn't had much candy prior to Halloween. Uncle Mike came over, and he and I took Natalie, Oliver and Natalie's friend Trinity out trick-or-treating. We met up with Natalie's other friend, Alicia, and her family, and had a great time walking around together. This year was a bit of a letdown, in that so many houses were dark in our neighborhood - last year there was a much more festive vibe. Our block was even deader than it was last year, but Trinity's street, which was the party street last year, was fairly quiet too. The kids got a lot of candy, but I was disappointed at how quiet it was overall. Jon went over to Trinity's house to hang out with her parents and pass out our candy, and it's a good thing. We were the only house on our half of our block that had candy - he would have been sitting out there in the dark with no one around.

Anyway, Oliver rode in the wagon for most of it, but towards the end, he got out and would trot up to people's doors with his bucket and hold it out for his candy - he got the hang of it pretty quickly. He tried to double-dip a couple of times, though. Good thing he's cute - no one got mad and he was indulged every time he tried, despite me trying to discourage it.

After that we went back to Trinity's house and hung out for a while. Everyone had a blast!

Pictures will be up at some point.

Happy Easter

What a day. OMG. Between yesterday and today, I'm more exhausted than Christmas! It was such a wonderful Easter though!

Natalie got up first, got her basket with Jon. I came down a few minutes later, and the first thing she said to me was, in this scandalized little voice, "Mommy! The Easter Bunny wasted his carrot! Is that OK?". I assured her that the EB gets lots of carrots, so he usually just takes one bite at each house. Jellybeans for breakfast - what a way to start the day!

Oliver got up a little while later, and being the stellar mommy that I am, I showed him his basket first. He was starving, and grabbed one of the new sippy cups that the EB brought him, and started sucking on an empty cup. Oops! Hungry baby! Got him some breakfast, then the kids had some time to play before church. At one point, Oliver made a grab for Natalie's basket, and we heard "HEY! That's my basket, yours is over there!". All things considered though, she was very sweet with Oliver this morning, helping him with his basket and toys and sharing what was appropriate in hers. Many of you who read this have met our wonderful priest, Fr. Nicholas, he's a favorite (as is Mr. Rex!) with Natalie as well. Today she had Jon get out a baggie, and selected one of her favorite blue Peeps and a handful of jelly beans to take to Fr. Nicholas - "because he likes candy like me, and I want him to have it".

Went to church, lovely service as always! And normally Natalie isn't a fan of church without Sunday School - sit still for an hour? Perish the thought! Yesterday she was pretty good! During one of the hymns, she stood on the pew, wrapped her little arm tight around me, and "followed" along while I sang. During the last hymn, she did the same thing, but tried to sing too - she'd repeat the last word of a verse, and kind of hum the rest of the time - she's never done that before, and it was just so sweet. I hope she grows to love church like we do! I'm sure she will! Oliver received his first birthday prayer, and since he was the only birthday this week (I think, there were so many travelers I didn't notice other bdays), Fr. Nicholas made it a little special for him. Lots of people made a fuss over the birthday boy! The big kids had an Easter Egg hunt after the service, and I took Oliver over to coffee hour - we brought a cake to share with the congregation. The kids each got an Easter basket from church too!

After that we went to Mitz and Pops house, for more Easter fun! Aunt Jamie was there for a bit - the EB left baskets for the kids there, plus Aunt Jamie made one, then when Auntie Cindy came, she had stuff for the kids too! Five baskets each total. Holy moly! Mitz and Aunt Jamie had an Easter egg hunt for Natalie too! The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing, and we had a nice dinner. Oliver is displaying some kleptomaniac proclivities - he kept running around, grabbing random items (such as the phone, magnets from the fridge, etc.) and taking off laughing. The phone was a favorite! He kept trying to sneak up from different angles to get it, and succeeded several times! Silly kid!

And the best ending to the day? I was on the chaise, pretty much comatose. Natalie came up to me, asked if I wanted a snuggle, and damned if she didn't curl up with me for a few precious minutes!

So, all in all, a happy day, and a wonderful first Easter for Oliver! We wish all of our friends and family a Happy Easter!

I'm uploading all the Easter pictures. Natalie saw one from the egg hunt at church. The picture has all the kids in front of a raised garden area. Someone threw a plastic cup in it - I didn't even notice it. Natalie spied it right away and said "PIGS! Look Mommy, one of my friends is a pig". LOL. I really need to teach her litterbug.

Edited to add: Pictures are going up now. Oliver's birthday shots are first up - still have to edit Easter, but there are far fewer, so I hope to get them up tonight as well. Oliver's birthday shots are out of order - the pictures are from my mom's camera and mine, so the file names don't match up well enough to do an automated sort - too many to sort individually - sorry about that!

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!

Happy Thanksgiving

A little late.

We had a nice day, and I think Oliver had a happy first Thanksgiving! When we all got up, Jon made breakfast (His eggs are better than mine, but don't tell him that), and Natalie watched the parade while we got ready.

We headed over to Mitz and Pop's house around 11. Natalie and Mitz finished watching the parade, so they could see Santa come to town. Mitz kept on in the kitchen, and we all visited and ate (I brought crab dip) until dinner. Uncle Mike and Aunt Jamie (my step-siblings) were there, as well as our friend Cindy, AKA Auntie Cindy, AKA Auntie Lush (I came up with that. Not sure why, it just came out. She doesn't even drink all that much).

Dinner was fabulous - Mitz is a great cook! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sausage stuffing, corn/squash/carrot succotash, green bean casserole, gravy, cranberry sauce and rolls. In keeping with tradition, I had an all-white plate - turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll only. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, real whipped cream, apple pie, and Gooey Pumpkin Cakes. Oliver tried turkey, mashed potatoes, squash and a roll - he couldn't shovel the squash in fast enough. I don't think he's going to be eating baby food too much longer. He's back to getting angry when we eat - this time because he wants some of what we are having!

After dinner, Aunt Jamie and Auntie Lush took Natalie and the dogs to the park. We hung around for another couple of hours, then Natalie and Auntie Lush got out the Poker set. haha! As we were leaving, Natalie announced she was staying at Mitz's, and fortunately for her, Mitz and Pops thought that was a good idea! Apparently after we left, Natalie was using the poker chips to "buy" things around the house (this should bode well for the cash register she's getting for her bday) - I hear Mitz needed lots of new lamps and rugs. Mitz started teaching Natalie the card suits, and then she and Pops taught Natalie how to play Go Fish (and she won!).

Had a pretty quiet weekend. Natalie and I got our hair cut. Jon hung lights. He did such a nice job - this is our nicest display yet. We had one minor snag - we use transparent red C9s over clear icicles, and ran out of C9s. Between the two of us, we hit every conceivable place that could have them, and no luck - the only red C9s I found were opaque. So Jon went out, bought some strands of clear C9s, and spent a lot of time switching out every other bulb - so we have red and white C9 strands. It looks great! Our neighbor really liked it, and actually thanked US!

I decorated the house last night (we'll get a tree next weekend). You'd think Natalie had never seen our decorations before - she's in awe. And driving us both crazy. The year Natalie was born, Mitz went a little crazy and bought us a bunch of singing animals - Rudolph, the Abominable Snowman, Santa and Frosty. Natalie has always been scared of them, but not this year. It hasn't even been 24 hours, and I'm ready to pack those things away. I called Mitz to "thank" her, and got her voicemail - I set off all of those suckers over and over again in her VM. :-)

I'll get pictures up a little later.