Our attempt at getting all the kids to take a pic together. What fun! This one is a bit photoshopped. Can you tell where? No it's not the shadow on Logan's face.
I loved this one. LOL Bella said LET ME GO!!
My pretty girl on Christmas night. I bought this outfit on clearance after last Christmas before she was born. I had no idea she'd be so dainty.
My mom with my niece Brianna and me and Bella. Brianna is 6 weeks older than Bella. Look at the difference!
Me holding my new cousin Harrison who is 5.5mo, Bella sitting, my sister holding her dd Brianna. It was just babies everywhere this year! Next year there'll be toddlers running everywhere. Bella and Harrison loved each other. They stared and touched and he even pulled her bloomers down at one point! :-O LOL
The boys were on strict orders not to go into the family room until everyone was awake. Logan was up first and I think it was killing him not to go in there until his brother and sister woke up. Of course, we were out late last night so the other two slept until like 8am and I still needed to nurse Bella. Poor kids.
They racked up the toys. Legos, more legos and oh did I mention legos? Logan loved his new PS3 games and hasn't even touched the DS yet. Ugh. Oh well, more games for me to play! :) Dh spent all day putting together a Lego Castle and some Spongebob Lego set thingy. We don't watch the show but I got the set on clearance. They also loved the Melissa and Doug Wood Castle I got on clearance last year. It's really neat with a working drawbridge and trap door. The trap door leads into the jail which even has a sliding door. I found some plastic knights (like the toy soldiers) and Grandpa got them some toy soldiers and right now it looks like the plague or a massacre of a battle happened. I'll post pics of that tomorrow.
Bella got her first purse, a teddy bear, and several other toys both last night and today. She liked the toys but would rather eat the paper.
Dh got some peanut butter fudge (his fave), 2 mag subscriptions which hopefully start soon and his big gift was a laptop/camera bag backpack he's been asking for.
I got 2 pairs of gold hoop earrings. He couldn't decide which to give me so he got both. I love them but what I asked for was a simple pair of studs for the 2nd holes. I told him Valentine's day was coming. LOL I also got a DS game (Sims) and a Portable Navigation system. I'm really not sure what his reasoning was for the Nav. I don't go anywhere. We don't take road trips anywhere. I'm not ungrateful, I'm just not sure what he was thinking. I told him we have to take a trip somewhere now. :) I can't/won't ask him to return it since it's subject to a restocking fee. Ugh.
My dad came over for brunch which was nice. The boys love to have him around. I got a GC from him. :) I get to go buy clothes! Then tonight we all went to my grandparent's house for dinner. Once again, we were loaded down with gifts. Everyone is asleep now thankfully and I just realized it's no longer Christmas since I'm still typing and it's after midnight. Huh. I guess you'll just have to wait until tomorrow for pictures. I'm tired. I'm sure I'm missing something else... I'll re-read tomorrow and adjust if necessary. ;)
We are home from the In Law's with stacks of toys. Stacks. Ugh. We had dinner and gifts there tonight and we all came home reeking of smoke. It's gross. All the toys reek. I had to Febreze a furry animal of Bella's hoping it will dissipate the smell (it's not washable). I will probably smell smoke in my nose for at least 2-3 weeks now. It never fails. It's like phantom smoke and it drives me insane.
Other than that, we had a good time and Bella was a wonderful baby as always. We got there at 6pm which is bedtime for her and she never fussed a bit. The boys had a blast as usual. They have awesome uncles who love to play. Bella opened her first gifts and enjoyed tearing the paper. She really liked trying to eat it more though. I had to take many, many pieces of wrapping paper out of her hands and mouth. :)
Everyone went straight to the showers when we got home and into their Christmas pj's. Ian fell right asleep. Thankfully Logan was still up because we forgot to put out the reindeer food (oatmeal, sugar crystals, non-pareils) that we made today and cookies & milk for Santa. He got up to do that and went straight back to bed. The gifts are all wrapped and put under the tree. Their new Melissa & Doug Wooden Castle is open and waiting (so neat!!). The house is mostly clean and all is quiet. Ahh.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and I can't wait to read everyone's blog. I'm sure you'll see an update from me tomorrow if I have time!
Here are a few pics- mainly of Bella- the boys were too busy running around and dh didn't get many pics of them. :( We will get more tomorrow though!
This is how Bella looked most of the night. Those fingers are her comfort.
Abuela and Bella
Her new bow- courtesy of my dear friend Mandie at How Qute Is That over at Etsy.com. It may be hard to see but it's a little Christmas tree! How QUTE!
Yesterday was our Elf's last day with us. He left for the North Pole last night to help Santa get ready for the BIG night tonight. He did leave the boys a nice letter and some snow to play with. Logan was thrilled with the letter and both boys were excited about playing in *snow* (this stuff is awesome btw. I wish I could find some more but I haven't seen it sold in the mall since I got it a few years ago). They've been playing with their Legos in it all morning.
(Yes I know definitely is spelled wrong. Our Elf typed it last minute before bed at like 1am but I'm always spelling it wrong too. I used to be so good in spelling but that word always throws me off.)
Baking- check Gift wrapping- later tonight Putting goodies in tins- check Craft/gift- not happening
I KNEW I should have started this damn craft a month ago. Instead, the stuff got put up and out of sight=out of mind around here. I still plan on doing the craft, it just isn't going to get done before Christmas. It involves vellum, photo printing and glue. If you're a crafter, you'll know what a PITA it is. Ugh. I learned my lesson (for now)! Procrastination doesn't always work out.
I've just been a busy bee making all kinds of yummy goodies. I had a lot of leftover chocolate this afternoon so I started brainstorming while looking in my pantry.
Chocolate Fruity Cheerios? No.
Chocolate covered Gerber Banana Puffs? Might be good, but No.
Chocolate covered graham crackers? Hmm that sounds good. But wait! Dh had a better idea and I of course came up with an ingenius idea. ;) He suggested covering them with marshmallow creme and dipping them. Instead though, I ran to the store (had to go anyway) and got large marshmallows. Dipped them in the chocolate and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs I made. Voila! Gourmet Smores. Oh my, they are delish! And so simple.
So here's my list so far: Peanut Butter Thins dipped in Ghirardelli Double Chocolate (GDC) Peppermint Thins dipped in GDC Magic Cookie Bars Caramel Peanut Clusters dipped in GDC Pretzels dipped in GDC and topped with non-pareils or peanut butter fudge crumbs (from the fudge that didn't set right) Gourmet Smores
I'm also making some fruit roll cookies for my diabetic BIL. The dough is rather blah so I hope with the fruit they come out better.
Anyone else threatened to call Santa yet? I did! I had to make that threat this weekend when I couldn't get the boys to help clean up. Of course, smarty pants Logan told me that Santa knows/sees everything already so I can't call him. Ha! If I have to call a pretend Santa/friend up and have *Santa* talk to the boys, I will!! I also mention our Elf friend. He's moving from place to place in the house watching.... He's ready to go back to the North Pole and report everything Naughty and Nice happening at home.
See I knew it wouldn't last. Ian's complaining now and even napped on his own. The boy who begs for lunch at 9:30am didn't bother today. Ugh.
Thursday update- She woke around midnight last night crying. Thank goodness I went to bed at 10 anticipating this. She was warm but not burning up like before so I gave her a dose of Tylenol, changed her diaper and she actually nursed quite a bit. Guess she was hungry! She slept until 7am and woke up fine! No noticeable fever, alert, and babbling. She still has a runny/stuffy nose so I had to suction that so she could nurse but it would appear she had a miserable 24 hour bug. (KNOCK ON WOOD!). Keep your fingers crossed!
(Wed) She was/is still running a fever. I can ony get it to drop to about 101 with me alternating Motrin and Tylenol. She had no energy today but she wasn't necessarily listless. She was alert and even played on the floor a bit. I put her in the bath tonight and she just sat there although she did attempt to grab a toy. When she started shivering though I had to take her out. Poor baby. She didn't eat much tonight and barely nursed at bedtime. She just went to sleep next to me.
I hate not being able to do anything for her. I'm on the fence about taking her in to the ped's office. I'll probably wait to see how she is tomorrow and I'll take her to after-hours if I have to. I'm not one to run to the Dr's office at every sniffle but I hate seeing her so sick.
When you say there's nothing going on, something inevitably will happen. About 12:30am or so Bella woke up screaming. Totally unlike her so I got up to go comfort her and she was burning up. Dh grabbed some Motrin for her and I nursed her. Put her back down and only 30min later if that she was up again. Dh got up and went to sit in the recliner with her hoping they could both get some sleep. A bit later, I don't know how long since I fell back asleep, I hear her screaming again. So I got her from dh, checked her temp (100.7 or so) and tried nursing her again while he went back to sleep. She finally fell asleep again (I dozed off as well) and when I put her down, she stayed down until about 7am. She's still running a fever but otherwise she seems okay- just tired. Why won't this damn germ go away?! I'm exhausted and I know dh is even worse. He only got a few hours of sleep last night. He even contemplated calling in this morning but went in anyway.
On a good note, Logan was honored with an Gold Medal Award today for high achievement in reading. One student from each class was honored for either reading, math, science or writing. I'm a proud Mama!! They get an actual medal with their school name engraved on the back and when they get back to their classrooms they will be given a certificate as well. Ian was very good thru the 45min or so presentation and even though Bella isn't feeling well, she didn't make a peep. I'll say it again, I love wearing her. It keeps her so calm and I think she loves being that close to me. She eventually fell asleep right on my chest.
And the pictures (someone remind me to bring my SLR next time!!)
These are his classmates with our Principal, Mr Shields.
Nothing special to talk about. Nothing particularly funny or interesting happened today. Took Logan to school, came home, made caramel peanut clusters, picked Logan up, came home, dipped clusters, and when dh got home we made a trek to the Hallmark store to pick out the kids' ornaments for the year. Oh and I went to the grocery store to get the fixins' for Christmas dinner(I have to make my garlic smashed potatoes) and brunch (my Dad is coming over). Oooh. Am I fun or what? Don't be jealous. ;)
Logan was playing with her this afternoon and helped her stand up. She kept turning around to flash me a smile. Look how big she's getting! All she wants to do now is stand up. I put her to bed and if she's not ready, she stands up and screams for me. Put her down and she gets back up. The boys never had this issue. She'll be walking before I know it.
These toys are part of her Christmas gifts btw. I got both off of Craigslist for less than the cost of one! They are the Laugh & Learn House and Kitchen. They def get two thumbs up from all the kids here!
My mom called me yesterday from Toys R Us to ask me about gifts and to tell me that there were Star Wars characters at the store. I was planning to go out that way anyway so I packed all the kids up and we stopped there first. While the store was pretty busy, the characters were not. Guess not many people shop at the toy store with their kids (SMART!!). It was almost better than going to Disney to see them bc we could actually get up close without the crowds. They even had a real R2D2 robot that *talked*, rolled around and had the LED lights that flickered and such. Very cool! Logan went right up to everyone. Ian was a bit more timid but when I said "last chance", he decided to go see them. He was leary of the guns they carried until I reassured him that they were just pretend.
Pics: I'm not sure who all the characters are. I'm just going by what I think Logan told me. LOL
Princess Leia, Obi Wan Kenobi(?) Or is it Hans Solo? and R2D2
Sand Trooper (?) in background
Clone/Storm Trooper (?)
Snow Trooper and Pilot
Oh and Batman. Not Star Wars but they were thrilled!
We are getting a special family Christmas gift this year. Dh won't tell me how (or who) but a little Elf has decided to give us a weekend vacation at Disney so I just booked a Friday and Saturday night at Animal Kindom Lodge for January!! Oohhh I'm so excited!!! We won't be renewing our passes this year unfortunately so this is sort of like a last hurrah for us. Hopefully we'll be able to get them again in a couple/few more years. I want Bella to have all the fun times that the boys got there too. Oh and me too. ;)
Go into your photo file folder. Choose the 4th photo file within that folder. And from that 4th file, choose your 4th photo. Then share the photo and the memory that goes along with it. Tag 4 more people.
I have years worth of photos on my PC so I had to decide which way to count to 4- across or down- and here's what I ended up with.
This is Bella at just one week old. It was April 1, 2008. Isn't she sweet?
You suck. You don't listen. We've told you time and time again that we don't like the new format. You've promised changes and haven't followed through and now you are closing our (old) board forever in favor of the new format and it still sucks. There are too many boards. Too many spin offs. Everyone is split up. No way to go back to where we left off on a thread. Etc. Etc.
I pictured Cookie Monster as I typed my title. LOL
I had cookie exchange tonight but even before that I was making goodies all day. I made 60+ mint thins, 60+ peanut butter thins, and a pan of Magic Cookie Bars this afternoon. About 5pm, I threw some pizza in the oven in case the boys were hungry when they got home from Abuela's house and after they got home and I finally got Bella to bed I took off for my cookie exchange party. It was a lot of fun. I brought home 7 dz different cookies plus a few leftovers from the tasting portion. We played a game called Foodie Fight. It was a trivia game but it all related to food in some sense. We may have to get it for a future MNI. Thank you Andrea for a great night!!
Finally got to go out with the girls tonight to see the movie on the big screen. I had already seen it once online (sshhh) and liked it better this time since the quality was better. I'm def on Team Edward! The teens behind us were ridiculous. I tried to ignore them but my friend Julie had to get onto them at one point. Someone must have seen the movie a few dozen times bc one girl was reciting the lines word for word! When Edward came on the screen, there were gasps and squeals. Same thing for Jacob and Carlisle. Oh my. I thought it was all rather funny though. We just won't let Amy pick the seats next time. ;)
After the movie, we all headed to our friend Jen's house (at 10pm no less) to discuss the book and movie and just do a lot of gabbing. Okay, mainly gabbing. It was really nice to get out with my girlfriends and see a movie and hang out. Next up- Cookie Exchange!!
So our elf arrived the night we went to see Santa. He hasn't gotten into too much trouble yet. He basically finds a new spot to hide every night. He loves hide and seek. He did invite a friend over one night apparently and they had a *snowball* fight in our living room complete with Lego fort walls and even a snowman! I have proof!
Here he is hanging out on the tv. He still had a snowball in his hand!
And the snowballs...they made quite a mess! Snowballs were all over the floor and table.
She's growing up too fast. Not only is she crawling (at least she's still pretty slow with that), she started pulling herself up to standing less than 2 days later! She's also finally able to sit up by herself from a crawing position. She's decided our food is yummy and devoured some elbow noodles in tomato sauce the other night.
Here she is rolling around in her crib before deciding to stand up. I wish I knew why my videos always upload so crappy. The original always looks so good!
To tent your house and set off a Lysol bomb in it? Seriously. This is getting ridiculous. If it's not a runny nose, it's a cough. If it's not either of those, it's a freakin' fever!
Logan was fine all day Friday. Saturday evening he started running a fever and said he had a headache. No other symptoms really. So Disney was out for today. Today he's running a fever still and even goes and lays down in his bed. Dh thinks he just didn't want to help clean. I think he was sick. His eyes looked a little pink and watery tonight and he just laid around all day. He did eat a little dinner and some popcorn. He didn't finish his lunch however which is really unusual so I know he's not feeling well. So he'll be home from school tomorrow. At least I don't have to go out in the cold and can sleep in a bit. ;)
I usually look forward to fall/winter because the weather is so beautiful but we've never been such a sick household before. UGH!!! I don't know what else to do!
Hmm... why is it that year after year at this time (the holidays) that the jackpot continuously rolls over again and again until it's super high? It never fails that it will be a large jackpot at Christmas time. I thought it was supposed to be random. Sounds pretty fixed to me.
I love all the little hidden stuff at Disney. I've seen the parks over and over yet I always find something new. That's the beauty of WDW. It never gets old.
Outside the Toy Story Mania ride. Did you ever have one of these? I think I had a math one.
Outside the Muppet theatre and store. It's ashame the Muppets (besides the cartoon) aren't on TV anymore. They were great!
If you can't read it, it says "Taking of Flash Pictures is strictly up to you" and "Out to lunch- Be back when I feel like it... Rizzo"
This was on the wall of the baby section (aka Muppet babies nursery). I'm not sure if production is supposed to be mispelled? Maybe the babies did it?
This is the Muppet Babies' window in their nursery. Here it is in the cartoon.
Ugh!!! I'm still 30lbs more than I was pre-Bella. Blech. I saw pics of me from yesterday and I look awful. Part of it is the clothes I'm wearing too. I have to go shopping. I know I really shouldn't but I only own 3 shirts now that fit (others have holes thanks to my stupid, fricken washer- that's a whole other post. I need a new washer) and of those 3 shirts, 2 make me look fat!! I didn't think that until I saw myself in pics with them. gross.
So I'm going back to my Weight Watchers. I've been sporadically counting for the past week or two but I need to get my butt back on it full time. I refuse to gain more weight and I refuse to EVER be that fat again in my life if I can help it. I will be making my usual December exceptions for my cookie exchange and Christmas but that's it. ;) Bella is eating solids more and more (the girl can't live without them now LOL) and she's nursing less so my points have dropped by 5. It's hard but I can do it.
After school today we packed everyone up and headed to Disney. Yea!!! We decided on DHS for a few reasons, the main one being the Osbourne Family Lights. It's awesome year after year. This year they were selling *3D* glasses for $0.99. Thankfully passholders got them free because I would have been disappointed otherwise. Logan liked his though. It's not easy to describe how they made things look. Dh put 2 pairs together at one point and it got trippy. Colors everywhere, rainbows and the people became translucent like. It was like watching some sci fi movie. If you've never seen the light show, they do dancing lights every 10-15min. I'll try to upload a video for you. Logan was a dancing fool himself. ;)
We also saw a few characters we hadn't met yet like Frozone from the Incredibles and Sorcerer Mickey. We also saw Mr & Mrs Incredible again. We just missed the characters from Bolt. Oh well. Wall-E is still not there. A castmember was saying something about his battery wouldn't stay charged and they are having issues with him so I guess he won't be around for a while longer. Bummer. I was hoping the kids would get to meet him before our passes expire. Bella enjoyed the characters I think. She slobbered all over Mickey's nose so I think that's a good sign.
I was smart today and packed pj's for all the kids so when they inevitably fell asleep on the way home, we were all set. Bella was the only one who actually woke up once we got home. Now they are all tucked in and hopefully having sweet dreams of Disney.
Since the kids all went to see the Big Guy himself last night, I guess the BG thought it was the perfect time to send one of his elves to watch over us. He's just here to observe and report back to the BG on all naughty and nice goings on and maybe get into some mischief himself. You know how they are.
Apparently while they boys were asleep last night, our elf helped himself to their Legos and made some kind of red Lego vehicle. He then parked himself way up on top of the kitchen cabinets on top of their Star Wars Lego vehicle for the night. Logan spotted him this morning and was going on and on about it. When Ian woke up, Logan grabbed his hand and showed him our Elf and then led him all over the house to see if the Elf had done anything else. It was funny.
We'll see what other adventures he gets himself into....
Bella got to meet Santa for the 1st time. She had no issues at all and I didn't think she would. She mainly wanted to squirm around to see who was holding her or to grab Mrs. Claus' earrings. Ian was a bit shy at first but once he saw I wasn't leaving him, he was okay. Both he and Logan told Santa what they wanted and gave him a big hug. (Btw, there was NO wait time! This was around 4pm-ish tonight)
And can you see the other one? Look closely.
She got her ears pierced! We went to the Piercing Pagoda and had them done. She was super squirmy while they were marking her ears but I held her tight when they pierced her. She barely made a peep. Daddy was more freaked out then she was. LOL The other sales lady and the customer she was working with were both surprised that Bella didn't scream or cry. They had no idea we were even done yet. She said she should have videotaped the whole thing to show other kids how easy it is. LOL I think it's harder and maybe more painful (even if it's just in your head) when you do it as they get older. I had mine done at 13. Hated the wait and thought it hurt like hell.
She did however cause mischief elsewhere. We were in Hallmark and I wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. I just didn't think about it. I was wearing her in my O&A on my front and she grabbed one of their metal tree displays holding the stuffed reindeer and pulled it over. Ugh. Dh had to pick it all up. I guess she really liked the look of those reindeer!
Just giving credit to Traci Sims (Christmas Freebie kit) for some of my blog header elements as well as Shabby Princess (Holiday Magic kit). My blog header seems to be the only digi-scrapping I do nowadays!
