Merry Christmas from the Family

I am sure you are all tired of Christmas music and I know Christmas has come and gone. BUT, we still have to celebrate with my family this coming weekend. To keep me in the mood, I had to listen to our family Christmas theme song.

Cheers!!

Christmas Fun

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and looking forward to a wonderful New Year.  We have enjoyed time with family as well as some down time at home this year. It is definitely going to be hard going back to work this week. I am trying not to think about it and enjoy my last few days off.

This was Matilda's second Christmas but first time getting to open gifts. She was a bit unsure at first but with an early Christmas with Ethan's family and birthday gifts she was a pro come Christmas morning!!  I don't think Greta understood the whole Christmas and Santa thing although we talked about it a lot. When asked what she wanted for Christmas she would usually tell me "Apples!". I think after leaving cookies and milk for Santa and the the gifts in the morning, she finally made the connection. Next year should be twice as fun. We also plan on starting the elf on the shelf next year which should result in good behavior for a month! Right?!?  Maybe I should start it now!! Could it work for a whole year?

Here are a some pictures from the past week.

Sledding fun. Greta was a bit nervous at first but realized soon that she loved it!

Uncle Ty taking his turn.

Cute snow picture :)

Greta on Christmas Eve. I guess she thought that Santa may bring the cold in with him.

Matilda started right in on the gifts.

Greta enjoying her "big ipod" as she calls it. 

Sweet Sleep

This my friends may not be exciting for you but for this mom it is priceless!!  That sweet birthday girl I gushed about a couple days ago, well you will notice I wrote nothing about how much I love the way she sleeps or rather the lack of sleep during the day.   She will nap at daycare for HOURS, nap for grandma with no problems, but for her mom she does not like to nap regardless of how tired she is.  But today she did!! I laid her down, she fussed for a minute and then silence!  Yes, not exciting, but oh so sweet.

Then I was crazy enough to sneak in and take pictures!!

Note: I started to write this blog two days ago, little stinker woke up before I had a chance to finish. Maybe now you will understand why my blog posts are not as often as I had hoped.  I would still like to get my Christmas post up before New Years, but I wouldn't hold your breathe!

Matilda Rose

To my baby girl Matilda Rose:

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I welcomed you into this world.  I loved you before I had even laid eyes on you. At that first cry you had me wrapped around your finger.  For you my sweet girl I will do anything.  You bring a smile to my face daily.  

I love your silly faces.

I love your dimples (on all cheeks!).

I love the way you love your sister. No matter how much she has picked on you this past year, you still think she is the funniest person you know.

I love your big blue eyes. 

I love your giggle.

I love the way you love music.

I love the way you dance.

I love the way you give kisses.

I love when you get shy you cling to me like a little monkey.

I love that I am your favorite person to cuddle with because I know that you will most likely outgrow cuddle time way to soon.

I even love your temper tantrums when you don’t get your way.  They are still cute coming from such a little package. (Ask me again when you are two if I love your tantrums.)

I love everything about you.

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living 
my baby you'll be.

Happy 1^st Birthday my sweet Tillie Rose.

Love, 
Mom

Snow Day!!!!

I like a good snow as long as I don't have to go out in it. Today was one of those days. Work was canceled, leaving me home all day (and night) with the dogs and the girls.

Our snow day adventures.

Pancakes followed by washing dishes. She washed dishes probably 4 times during the day, too bad she didn't wash the ones piling up on the counter! 

Christmas Tree ornament theft

I guess a snow day with mom can be kind of boring!

Mirror Fun!

This is pretty much what the dogs did all day. They wanted nothing to do with the blizzard. 

Making and eating cookies. Say Cheese!

Bed jumping, making messes and dancing

Last but not least. Happy Anniversary to my husband. Its been a great 6 years and I look forward to many more.  Six years ago today we were enjoying the sunshine in Mexico together, today we "enjoy" a blizzard apart. Oh well, we always have next year. Hopefully we can celebrate in Mexico again or at the least in the same house!  Mexico sounds so nice right now, a girl can dream.

Heartache

My heart hurts for all of those affected by the tragic events that went on yesterday at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

As a mother I can't help but to "go there" and think about what it must be like. It is really unimaginable.

I find myself crying whenever my mind wonders back to yesterday.  I have hugged and kissed my girls extra over the past day. I am grateful they were home with me yesterday.  I am glad they are so young and I don't have to explain to them that although rare, bad things happen in this world. How do you comfort those children so young that heard and saw something so horrible?   As young as my girls are I think they knew something was going on yesterday.  I think they felt my mood as they both kissed and hugged me more. I know not to take a day for granted but life gets busy and sometimes you forget, then this happens.  Cherish every single moment.

My prayers and thoughts go out to all those who had children at the school, to those who don't have a chance to give their kids that extra hug, to those teachers who showed amazing courage in an unthinkable situation.

I grieve for you. I pray for you.  My heart literally hurts for you.

Toddler Talk

This is an older video of Miss Greta but still makes me giggle!

Camera

I bought a camera for myself. Merry Christmas to me!  I know nothing very little about photography but would like to teach myself enough to have some frame worthy photos to display.  Hopefully the quality improves along the way. Regardless if that happens, the most important thing is that I am taking more pictures. In the past I haven't pulled the camera out enough. I really want to be able to look back on these days when the kids were little.  Before long my family will get tired of looking at my face with a camera in front of it.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past couple weeks. 

Abe and Tammy

I won!!!

I won!!  $4.00!! WooHoo! Ok, so I should really say “we” since I went in with other family members.

Yes, I joined the other millions on the bandwagon and bought a few powerball tickets for last night’s drawing.

Yes, I know that the chance of winning was 1:175 million plus, but it was that 1 that got me hooked. You can’t win if you don’t play.

Yes, I understand that I am throwing that money away, but for a few days I got to dream what it would be like to wake up an instant multimillionaire.  It was fun. It gives you a little bit of hope that your financial worries could be over, or at least your worries would shift.

What would I do with millions? Pay off all my debt. Quit my job. Finish our house that has been a work in progress for 6 years!  Take a very long vacation. Someday open my own business because I want too not because I have to.  Give to charity. Relax. And then live life as I always have, just with a bit more free time and financial stability! Oh the dreams. It was fun but I guess it’s over now….until next week when I buy 2 more tickets with the $4.00 we won.  Only because splitting $4.00 doesn’t go far.  

Congrats to the lucky bastards people that won in Missouri and Arizona. I wish you the best and hope you put your millions to good use.

Did you play? What were your dreams?

Trees, Margs and Balls!! Oh My!!

I love this time of year.  Not sure what part I love the most; the extra days off of work, spending time with the family, good food and drinks, or the Christmas music!  I love it all.  We went to the local tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree this past weekend. It is the earliest we have had a tree up and I love it. It will make the holiday season seem a bit longer.  The tree picking out process took a long time as it does every year. I haven't quite figured out why it is so hard to pick the perfect tree. It seemed like a really long time with the girls "helping" us!  We took the wagon for them to ride in which they sat in for about 2 minutes and we carried them the other hour!   Oh the many joys of parenthood! 

Dad can do it all! Carry the tree and the baby!

The real excitement came when we got the tree home. Both girls went down for a long nap, which left me armed with a margarita in one hand, balls in the other and Raffi Christmas playing in the background (best Christmas CD EVER!).  I was in heaven!

Margaritas and balls! oh Yea!



The pretty tree!



Momnesia

Momnesia  - (definition)  A mother’s  loss of memory of a previous bad public outing with her children.  It makes her believe the next trip out is going to be wonderful.   If it were not for momnesia she would never leave the house with children in tow.

I had a case of momnesia. I decided last Friday to take both my girls on a shopping trip for new shoes. My toddler, Greta, loves shoes.  It would be so much fun to let her try on and pick out her own shoes. I even gave her the speech if you are good, you will get to buy new shoes. She told me she was so excited! I loaded both girls up with wonderful images of how much fun we were going to have.  I was going to be that mom who can do it all!! I see other mom’s with little ones out at stores with their well-behaved children, why can’t I do it?  Of course in the back of my mind I knew I was crazy. Let’s just say my girls have spunk.  They are bursting with personality and are so much fun to be around. But along with that great spunk comes stubbornness and downright orneriness at times. While Greta had fun running through the store yelling “Try to get me”, I did not.  People were staring (some laughing) as I pushed the double stroller with one kid in it through the aisles trying to find and catch her without any luck. I finally decided it was best if I sat on a bench and waited for her little game to be over.  I ended up carrying her out shoeless (as they had been thrown when handed to her to put on). I won’t even go into the kicking and screaming on the floor that went on in the previous store (obviously I should have given up then).  Needless to say we bought no shoes.

She really is cute though.

In the end, my only regret is not taking a picture or video…..the momnesia is already setting in again!

Pig and Candy Corn

I know this is a little late to be posting the kids in their Halloween costumes. It is better late than never. 

Classic Greta face!





A little background story on the costumes. I found them on craigslist less than a week before Halloween. When I received the email that they were still available it got this mommy-blogger-wanna-be excited! Not because my kids were going to be a pig and a candy corn (which is pretty cool!) but because the costumes belonged to one of my favorite bloggers....mommymishmash herself! YEAH!! Check out her blog HERE and on the Iowa City Press Citizen.  I love her sense of humor and her adventures as a mom. She has made me laugh and cry.  I immediately sent a text to my sister and asked if she thought it would be completely creepy if I told her that I loved her and she could be my best friend  loved the blog. My husband thought I should take my picture with her. Mommy Mishmash is probably very thankful right now that I didn't whip out my phone for a quick pic :) I did end up telling her I was a big fan of her blog. She was very nice about it and didn't act like I was creepy at all. Who knows what she thought when I walked out the door (most likely locking it behind me)!  Thanks to her my kids were the cutest pig and candy corn!

Manic Monday

Monday recap:

·         Girls are in their car seats on time!!! Woohooo! Start the car…nope car won’t start. Car only makes strange noises.  Side note, van is less than a year old and 30,00 miles. Really??!!

·         Self-Pity Party – I did manage to make it to work, late of course.  Start the pity party.  I have for the most part accepted that I will not get to be a stay at home mom, my dream job. A crazy hard job that I want with all my heart. My girls go to a great day care two times a week and the other two days spend it with a grandma they are crazy about. I know they are in wonderful hands and they are happy. I still have days when the pain of leaving them is real. My head knows this is what I must do for my family, but my heart begs to differ. It longs to spend the whole day with them, not a couple hours at night.  I think my tears today were building up slowly; starting with running into an old co-worker who quit after her first child was born. She asked if I was still working and when I told her I was, she said “I don’t know how you do it.” Do I have a choice?  You have to do it, whether you are a full time working mom, stay at home mom or somewhere in between you do what you have to.  That one encounter got me thinking all over again how much I want to stay at home with them. They are only little once. Then maybe it was my little one clinging to me as I tried to drop her off or my two year old telling me daily when I pick her up "I cry - want mommy get here".  Maybe it is the darn time change that has me in a funk, at any rate, it hurts but I must wipe the tears and move on.

·         The real stinker of the day…SKUNK!! The dogs were sprayed up close and personal by a skunk. They were determined to catch the black and white "kitty".  It smelled for at least a mile down the road. This happens all within minutes of the tow truck coming to take the car away.  2 home concoctions, 2 shampoos and 1 miracle skunk odor remover later they were welcomed back into the house.  Still slightly smelly but hopefully not enough to stink up the whole house.  I was not about to let my spoiled fur babies sleep out in the cold (although I almost asked the hubby too as he smelled as bad as them!). They are not cut out for the cold as they are used to sleeping in our bed under the covers. As a result we may all smell a little skunky for days!   

Manic Monday

I wish it was Sunday

‘Cause that’s my funday

My I don’t have to runday

It’s just another manic Monday

Lets all hope for a better Tuesday!!!

Toddler Talk #1

Toddler from the bathroom: "MOM!!! Come turn the light on to see my big turd."

(Mom sends in Dad because she is not feeling well)

Dad to Toddler: "That's not that big!"

Dad reports back to mom: "That was NOT a big turd!"

The End.

Recent Randoms

We recently went to a local farm and pumpkin patch. We couldn't of picked a better day to go, the weather was amazing.  It was a good trip, nothing crazy really happened which is a rare occurrence for us. Not even one toddler meltdown or at least not one big enough I can remember it.  Greta chose to wear her rain boots. Very smart girl and pretty darn cute if I say so! It wasn't rainy that day but it was a bit muddy when visiting with the cows and chickens.  We all should of taken our fashion sense from her!  All went well, although Greta was slightly disappointed that there were no elephants or giraffes on the farm. Hard to believe I know! 

Last weekend we had tickets to the home Iowa Game.  It was going to be a an outing without the kids! Exciting day for this mom.  But no, it wasn't meant to be. We lost our babysitter and had to sell our tickets.  I should of been tailgating with these lovely family members (cabo and all!)...

But instead I did this...

Read Books..lots of books.



picked up toilet paper



cuddled with this beautiful mug

 Now you tell me why would I of wanted to go drink lots of beer and cheer on the hawks??