a little christmas chaos

merry christmas, people!

{out of courtesy i'm going to tell you to turn the sound DOWN...
mama gets a little "WOOT WOOT" happy...}

from our family to your family...

Happiest of Holidays!

All the best for a fantastic 2009

lemonade malfunctions

i'm back to not being able to make lemonade. anyone remember what that was like for me? it's a tough situation. one that i'm not sure i am equipped with the power to figure out. not this time, anyway. sometimes lemons aren't for lemonade, so much as they are for throwing at people you are angry at. ok, so i've never thrown a lemon at anyone, but i'm just saying...that's what i want to do with them today. what happened to Christmas spirit? lemons. that's what.

but beyond my issues with lemons right now, so much is happening around these parts. my sister arrives from LA on Thursday with her beautiful family that i miss entirely too much. my brother and his wife fly in on Friday. my aunt, uncle, and favorite cousins come in on Saturday. we have a sister-in-law coming in with her son on monday...our niece skates in an ice show on Saturday {which we unfortunately will have to miss}... and then there is Christmas. and wrapping presents. and unwrapping presents. and dinners. lots and lots of family dinners. it is by FAR my favorite time of year. even if i'm surrounded by lemons twenty-four hours a day.

i can't tell you the value of a good spousal relationship. i can tell you that they don't last forever on their own. they truly are work. and if you think you can take it all for granted for one stinking minute, don't. because it can be gone in the blink of an eye. so to end my rant on lemons today, i want to say this. i love my husband. and i love that we both realize we are lucky. not just to have each other, but to truly appreciate each other for what we bring to the table and maintain everyday.

and on another ending note...here's my two year old recently. she loves to be funny, no matter what it takes. even if it means she loses a little blood circulation throughout her head to get that laugh.

what.

a.

hoot.

we like to call her... Sophilicious.

beauteous

check this out -- a great way to repurpose all of your grocery bags into BOWS.

yes.

i said BOWS!

holiday doctor appointments

today i went to the doctors. my girls had follow-ups for their pneumonia. {you will all be happy to know they have a clean bill of health.} however, half of america was in there and i will tell you this... they do NOT have clean bills of health. in fact, i now know why the economy is failing. nobody is at work. they're all at the doctors.

there was a woman in there with her two boys. the older son was 3 and the younger son was 1. she was tall and blonde and had a butt that screamed "i do lounges for hours everyday"... {and she was proud to show it off in tight yoga pants for all of the office to see} ... i noticed her right off the bat, not for her backside that i envied {man, it would take me twice as many lounges to even come close to that} but because she was one of those "out-spoken, loud" type of waiting room patrons.

i applaud mothers that stick to their guns. i do. but in a jampacked waiting room with 40 other people, i wasn't sure if her actions were appropriate. let me explain...

the 3 year old took a chair away from his 1 year old brother. his mother then told him to give it back or face 3 minutes of time-out. he gave her a blank stare. she counted to 3. LOUDLY. she took him away SCREAMING. she sat him in the chair and walked away. he kicked. he screamed. he bit the leather chair. he licked the leather chair. and he did it all for 3 minutes. three full minutes. she didn't try to be quiet about it. she commandeered the entire waiting room. my girls could do nothing but stare along with the 40 other people in there. forget dora on the flatscreen... you couldn't even hear the t.v., let alone see past the "show" to see the tv.

i didn't know if i should be annoyed at the fact that she couldn't just let it slide for the sake of not making the hectic waiting room even MORE hectic, or if i should applaud her for sticking to her guns and not bending the rules because they weren't at home.

but then it happened again. this time, with the one year old. how can you leave a one year old in timeout at a doctor's office? it was the longest minute of my life. and after that minute i knew the answer to my question.

leave the timeouts at home.

other people have to survive that horrible wait.

don't make it worse for people than it already VISIBLY is.

end of my story.

{oh, and merry christmas!}

woot woot!

I am a winnuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

{winner winner chicken dinner}

what a great day in america.

neighborly neighbors

don't you love a good neighbor? i didn't realize how great they were until we actually had a set. that we liked.

we've lived in this house for over 6 years and this year was the first we'd actually became friends with a set of neighbors. i thought it was overrated until we met the vanns.

so this morning was my OH-so-important meeting with that VERY important man. mrs. vann kindly called me to see if i'd like her to take ethan up to the school this morning, along with her twins for the breakfast, workshop, and pictures.

{what?! you mean.... i might get the chance to stay in my jammies a little longer and actually enJOY my coffee? }

i took the deal. i took it faster than i thought i was physically able to take things. i don't think she even finished asking her question before she had her answer.

of course... i try to do the same for her sometimes. in fact, i offered to keep their 2 year old tonight while the parents and twins are in a parade. so...this, my friends, is why having neighbors is great. especially co-oping parents.

but to answer some of your questions... yes, i really was looking forward to going and enjoying this time with my kids. however, sometimes things pop up and all of the sudden you are sick to your stomach. so then you really don't look forward to going anymore. and that's ok. it's called life happens. we're very used to that around here these days.

so in lieu of all of us going up there for "the meeting" i get to blog and drink coffee and my lovely hubbie gets to go up on the roof and attach christmas lights to the house. it was kind of.... meant to be. wouldn't you think?

the blogfrog

what a nifty idea... check it out and join the fun! Enter to win a $200 Target Giftcard while you're there....

the blogfrog

beautiful.

it's frideeeeeeeeee!

it's friday. and you know what that means... another busy weekend. we've got a very important meeting tomorrow with an extremely important man. i would tell you who he is but i don't want you getting all jealous on me, and such. well. ok. fine. we're having breakfast with santa. shhhhh. i don't need the entire world to know he's in town. because, you see, if we're not part of the first 200 people there, we don't get fed. i mean we still get to see santa, but, well, you know... some would say i'm driven by food.

{i think they're right, but that's not the point.}

after that we get to go to a parade out in the county. there's another one in the city that night, but... it's a little too chaotic for me. not to mention, i get free hot chocolate at the county parade.

we still need to put up our christmas lights on the house, so cross your fingers we get that done folks! it makes coming home all the better each night. i love it. and beyond doing all things christmas, i really want to take the opportunity to relax. if you can recall, my thanksgiving weekend {all four days of it} were very busy. i would love to be able to finish my 2nd twilight novel. "novel." maybe during sunday afternoon football while the girls are a-nappin'.

happy friday to all, and to all a happy friday.

Da-poo

Tonight at dinner my 2 year old decided to serenade us with her alphabet...
my personal favorite letter of Sophie's is her "Da-poo"...

lunch.

today i had lunch with my hubbie and my girls. what a treat! there's something to be said for having that kind of mid-workday reunion with the ones you love.

{i highly recommend you try it if you ever get the chance.}

its the little things

so yes, first thing's first. i'm evidently on some sort of a blogging kick today. that's what happens when you let several days slip by between entries. sue me.





on sunday i was at home making cupcakes for emma's big party at pre-school when i came across a recipe for an awesome sounding peanut butter chocolate cake. if there is one thing i can't get enough of, it's peanut butter and chocolate ANYTHING. i put the recipe next to my computer so i would remember to get the ingredients at some point in the near future {which is where i also conveniently store any coupons and shopping lists i put together}.



fast forward to yesterday. it got dark early yesterday. i would say headlights were required by 3:45pm. for safety, at least. i left work that night just drained. absolutely drained. not only do i have to sit and work during the day, i'm so excited about the holidays {visitors, decorations, meals, trips, gifts, parties, etc} that i also sit here and think about everything that i still need to get done prior to the week before christmas {when aforementioned guests arrive}. so i was mentally drained. kaputz.


i got home and was so excited to see dinner was 2 minutes from being done, the kids were all happy to see me, and something interesting sat on my kitchen counter. it was UFO-ish. kind of big. kind of foily. it was odd shaped, to say the least. so i asked chris, "what, pray tell, lay under that foil?"



say it with me people...

peanut butter chocolate cake

that's what.

it's the little things that make the difference. it helped me decide i had the energy to get this accomplished last night....

*sigh* i love the holidays.

pics of a princess...or two

my {sick} little princesses

emma's class singing *happy birthday*

me behind the lens *sobbing*



emma and ms martin

emma and miss annunzi (and her *twin*)

it's a girl thang

a bit behind schedule

So usually my Christmas tree is up the weekend after Thanksgiving. And usually my Christmas cards go out the Monday after the weekend that my Christmas tree goes up. So if I was to actually get a second to look at my schedule I would clearly see I am a bit behind schedule. That is something I don’t dig being. I don’t dig being late and I don’t dig going out of the house without something on my lips. They’re just two of my things.

Last night I caught wind of a mood. A good mood. A mood full of Christmas spirit. Can you believe that? Polar Express was on the tube and the music {that beautiful music} put me over the top.

{It’s Christmas time.}

Thanksgiving was busy for us this year. The actual big T-Day was spent at my mom’s. The next day I went Black Friday shopping, followed by immediately heading up to my in-law’s for the next two days. On Sunday I had my 1 year old niece and my 2 year old nephew all day so their parents could attend a Redskins game. And mind you, through this entire 4 day period I had 2 very sick little girls.

{It may have been “Tree” time, but I was significantly without the time to make it happen.}

So last night it happened. I got it done. I got the furniture rearranged, the tree up, the stockings hung. It was a new tree (one of the pre-lit skinnier type) and I wasn’t sure which ornaments to use. You see… we used to have an oversized (as in FAT) tree that took up half of our very tiny living space. So with that tree, I had to use TONS of ornaments.

How would I choose this year?

You know how you choose?

It’s called… racing against the hands of three excited kids. You kind of … don’t get to choose. You kind of … take what you get. It’s kind of….chosen for you.

I love my tree and I love the warmth it brings to my home. We’ve got lots of love in there but the twinkly lights seem to amplify that love. Aren’t things better twinkly? My kids seem to think so. And I’m starting to believe that too.

Kids are pretty spot-on.

{well, except for when they put rubber snakes in your bed at night, or make you smell their stinky morning breath – because I’m not sure I see the good in either of those two things.}