Christmas is here...and gone again. (long and pic heavy)

It's over. All that build up with finding the perfect gifts, searching for that elusive toy, decorating the house, cooking the yummy dinner(s), stressing over cleaning the house and it's all over in a flash. Then it's time to take everything down again and re-clean the house since it now looks like a paper and toy factory exploded in it. Christmas should last more than one day. Jesus deserves a longer birthday anyway. :)

As is tradition in our family, we do Christmas Eve with the in-laws. This year was at my younger BIL's house so it wasn't a long drive at least. We voted earlier this year to draw names for the adults and just buy for the kids. And did they ever! My truck was STUFFED with toys. I think everyone went overboard since they only had to buy for one adult. 

Bella's Christmas dress #1. Got it from Goodwill for $2. :) It's from TCP.

I found my twin!

Kiss the baby

*sleeping* in her new Tinkerbell sofa-bed

Could this child give me a genuine smile instead of a posed one?

We got home late on C. Eve so we put the kids right into their jammies (Bella was already in hers before we left) and into bed. The boys have worn these same pj's for 3 Christmases now. Now that's a bargain! They ended up being so big when I bought them that they've just lasted a while. Sadly I don't think they'll make it to a 4th Christmas so I'll just let them wear them the rest of the year. If they still fit next December then all the better!

Christmas morning we slept in. Yep- slept in! We told the boys they were not to leave their room unless they had to use the bathroom and to wait for us to go get them. And they listened! It was after 8 am and I had to wake poor Bella up so she could get in on the fun. Thanks to the awesome Amazon sales and all my bargain hunting mamas online, the kids had plenty to open without me breaking the bank.

Christmas Morning. It was bright as we had just opened the blinds.

I didn't blog about my Sears fiasco earlier this month but I fell in love with a My First Kenmore kitchen set for Bella. I was able to buy them online only to get an email the same night that the fridge was out of stock. I called cust. svc and they said there wasn't a single fridge left in the entire US. WTH?! Long story short I got on my bargain board forum and the awesome ladies there told me they'd spotted it at Kmart stores. I called my store just 5 min down the road and they had one left. Since it was already closing time for them I had to wait until the next morning and it took them 20 minutes and 2 people to load it up but I finally got that sucker in my truck and home and for $35 LESS than what I was going to buy it at Sears for. It took us 1.5 hrs to put together the stove and at least 2 hrs for the fridge but they are adorable and so worth the effort.

You can't see it that well but there's a pretend ice maker/water in the freezer door. All the knobs click on the stove and the timer really works.

Felt pizza.

You can see some of the felt foods I've made. Egg, bacon, cheese, lettuce (under cheese) and orange slices. Above are the pancakes (one plain, one with butter & syrup), oversized poptart (my 1st food I tried), chicken leg and in the baggie is some pasta- bowtie, noodles, and ravioli. I've already taken the bowtie and noodles away until she's a bit older.

The fridge and stove set I got was a hit! I made a bunch of felt foods to go with it and we found some pink metal pots/pans at Sears and a child size apron and oven mitts at Target's $1 Spot. Along with the wood food she got from her uncle and grandpa she has plenty to play with as do the boys! Santa brought her a Maclaren stroller for her babies. She loves all her new dolls and the stroller. She's already tried to sit in it (her cousin did as well) and thankfully it's held up!

The boys got more Legos, books, movies, games and Glo Doodles. Those things are COOL! Santa got a really good deal on them too. ;) I love playing with it as does Bella. DH bought me my first set of pearls, some Godiva dark chocolates and some Yankee Candles. He knows what I like! He got some new BluRay movies and a computer processor he had asked for.

My dad came over for breakfast and to see the kids. We don't see him that often so it was really nice to have him here. After he left it was time to cook yet again and clean some more. Due to an illness in the family it was a last day decision to hold my family's dinner at my house.  It was so last day in fact that we decided to do an appetizer dinner instead of our normal feast. It was okay but it just wasn't the same. We missed having the big dinner with my grandparents and some other family there. 

Okay so on to the rest of the photos. Ready? 

In the stroller is another fave gift- My Pal Violet by Leapfrog. You can plug it into the PC and customize the songs, child's fave animal and food and add their name! So cute!

Christmas dress #2- also from Goodwill for $2. Too bad the shoes had to cost $40. Ouch!

And finally...me. In all my don't-take-my-picture-I wasn't-ready glory. You can at least see my pearls. :) There's a small star in the middle and a larger pearl hangs off of it.

That's it. The end. On to the next year. 2010 here we come!

Happy New Year to me!

Maybe one of my goals this year should have been to spend less. ;)

I got an email last night about a one day only sale at Dillards. It was an additional 50% off all clearance items. It didn't specifically say it was good on Coach bags but I wanted to go check anyway since I really, really wanted a big black purse. It seems like I've been wearing nothing but black shirts and blue jeans this fall and winter and I'm always carrying a tan purse. So off I went this morning. I went straight to the Coach counter and it was a madhouse! Some women had bags and bags of stuff already and the sale had only been going on for 45min. I squeezed my way up to the counter and spotted a super cute black bag. It was 25% off plus the addt'l 50% off so I grabbed it plus a new wristlet to use as a wallet too. They had other really cute bags too but I contained myself although it was sooo tempting! I even went back before I left the store just to drool. :)

I spent the next 2 hours or so browsing the rest of the store. I got Bella two, 3 pc sets (2 shirts and 1 pants) for $7.50 each, I got four darling Christmas stockings that I plan to get embroidered and one Christmas ornament for Logan's teacher who was absent the last day of school and will get her Christmas gift late. Oh and yes you did read that right, I got four stockings. No, I'm not pregnant but I refuse to rule out ever having a 4th baby and I wanted to make sure if we ever had another that he/she would have a matching stocking.

I actually didn't end up spending that much OOP. I had a bunch of gift cards I used for the purse and had cash for most of the rest. I called dh to tell him I got the purse and he laughed at me. Feeling just a tad guilty ( but only for a moment- hehehe) I explained that I had used gift cards to buy it and he said *those were for both of us*. Oops. He's awesome because I know he doesn't care and wasn't going to protest me buying it. Isn't he the best?!

So here are my new beauties. They are black but the signature C's are kinda shimmery. It's a light baby blue inside.


And my adorable stockings. They are pretty big and were only $5 each.

Picture Overload

And these are just a few of what we took. ;)

Right after Santa came


Castle battle


And the massacre aftermath


Clone Trooper Ian


Eating paper


WOW! A Lego Castle!


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

Merry Christmas!

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. ;)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

Merry (almost) Christmas!

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!

Our Elf says Goodbye

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.)

Christmas Past

Since I have nothing to blog about yet again I thought I'd share some photos of Christmas past.

Enjoy.

2002- Logan's 1st Christmas - 3 months old


2003


2004


2005- Ian's 1st Christmas


Ian- 7mo old


2006


2007 (I can't find these darn pj's and they would fit this year! They were huge last year)


2008- Bella's first Christmas- will be 9mo old on Christmas Day

Checking off my list

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.

Stop the clock!

<--------Do you see that big red box over there?? It says 4 days 3 days
until Christmas.

FOUR. THREE. DAYS. LEFT.

I'm not ready! We haven't made a couple of gifts. My baking isn't completed. NOTHING has been wrapped.

O.M.G.

Christmas Goodies

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.

Only 4 days left til Christmas! Holy cow!!

Santa threats

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.

Christmas Countdown

It's on! Only 60 days and counting. See my new ticker over there <------------? You can even decorate my tree! Go ahead, I'll wait....... (humming a little Christmas tune)



Are you done? Yes? Wow, it's beautiful! Good job!


Like I was saying, the countdown is on. I've already started the *Santa Claus is watching you* threat with the boys. Our elf should be popping up sometime soon to watch over them as well. I wonder what kind of mischief he'll get into this year. I'll be sure to update you on his Elfcapades with pics! If anyone has kids around the computer right now bugging the heck out of you, show them the Live Elf Cam. See what kind of trouble those elves are getting themselves into when they are supposed to be working. Naughty elves!

Christmas Gifts

I got 2 more gifts for the boys for Christmas thanks to Craigslist! They love Star Wars and I was able to find a brand new in box Darth Vader talking helmet and a barely used Storm Trooper talking helmet. Woohoo! I picked up the DV one tonight and I'll meet the other lady tomorrow sometime. I think between the huge wooden castle (bought after Christmas this year at 50% off), the Narnia characters to go with it (clearanced), some Leapster games I've saved(clearanced) and these helmets, they've got a decent Christmas ahead.

Bella obviously won't understand Christmas but I'll find her something to put under the tree. Some kind of girly toy perhaps. She doesn't need clothes at. all. Between all my clearance sale shopping this summer and clothes that have been given to me, she's set for the 12mo size as well as a bunch of 18mo. Our neighbor around the corner from us has 2 little girls and she brought over a bag today for me to go thru. I was able to get several cute outfits out of it (gave back the rest for her yard sale). A little Oxiclean on a couple of them and they were good as new! Bella has quite the wardrobe!

Christmas in July?

Do you realize there are only 176 days left to Christmas? Yes, you read that right- we're halfway thru the year already! I don't know where time went either but I'm starting to think about gifts already.

I know we plan on having a budget friendly Christmas this year. Gas prices are soaring as are food prices. I don't forsee a Christmas bonus so I'm not counting on one and dh's side computer work has slowed down dramatically. So my dear family, don't expect much in the way of store bought gifts this year. We are going old-fashioned-handmade-from-the-heart gifts. I've already got a list going of things I can do/make and I think everyone will like them. Or I hope they will. And if they don't, then pfffttt to them! I hope to post pics of those items as we get closer to Christmas time!

If any of my readers want a Word file of different Christmas ideas, leave me a comment with your email address if I don't already have it and I'll send it on. (Yes this is a shameless way for me to get comments! ;) )

Christmas Day...

I can't believe it's over already. All the shopping and cooking and wrapping...all over for yet another year. It seems like it takes forever to get here and then poof! It's over.

So let's see...we were woken this morning about 7:45am by Ian who wanted out of his room. He was really too cute in asking too. "Let me out please..." was heard over and over again. I had put a childproof doorknob cover on the inside so Ian couldn't come out without us knowing this morning. I also put a bell on there if Logan were to get up and come out. Dh had set up the camcorder the night before so we could catch their reaction when they walked into the room. They wanted to start ripping into the gifts right away and I think Ian did too without even knowing whose was whose. LOL

Logan got his new bike, 3 Lmax games, movies, pj's and more Cars. He's been playing his new Sonic Lmax game all day.

Ian got a police car ride on which is really too small for him, pj's, cars, Thomas train, and his fave of the day Pat Pat Rocket. I'm glad he likes it!

I ended up getting dh a new electric razor last minute at Sams yesterday of which he used and loved this morning along with his new TAPS hat and shirt, push up bars and game.

I got a new camera!! It was totally unexpected. I had asked for a new Elph camera I could throw in my purse but instead I got a new Canon 40D and a new lense. This thing is soooooo fast at taking pics! I love it! I've been taking photos all day long. LOL I also got 2 charms (baby related) for necklaces.

My mom and her BFF came by for breakfast. Yum! Dh made cinnamon rolls, french toast, eggs and bacon. More gifts...

We took Logan out for his 1st bike ride and he loved it until he stopped paying attention to what he was doing and took a couple of spills. He hurt his wrist so we stopped for the day. I was able to take some great action shots of him though. My camera can take continous photos so I have a pic for each pedal he took at one point! LOL

Tonight we went to my grandparent's house for dinner. The boys played with their cousin Tyler. We ate and opened a few more gifts and talked. It's much quieter and laid back than with the IL's it seems. I was ready to come home though. I'm tired, my feet are tired and it's nice just to end the day in peace and quiet.

I guess tomorrow we'll have to start cleaning up. There are toys all over the place right now and I have no clue where we'll put them all! It's really time to purge the house of all the clutter so hopefully we can start this weekend. Cross your fingers. LOL We need the luck!

Oh and here are some pics for you...
Christmas Eve

Christmas morning (back of pj's)
Riding the new bike

Bumblebee

Hiding under the table

Playing with my camera for closeups

Hubby and I

Family pic (Logan was running around and was sweaty and this was the best we could get out of Ian)