Our Family

Our Family
December 2013

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Our Christmas Cards

Each year, well for the last 2 years, my cousin and I have taken each others family picture to use for a Christmas card.  We probably stress over our outfits for everyone WAY too much! But if you know us, it's totally us.

As soon as we get to my aunt and uncle's we rush everyone into the family room and start snapping away.  This year my aunt was even nice enough to change her curtains and put up a Christmas tree to be in the picture with us so it would be different from last years.  She's so Martha!

Emma wasn't the least bit interested in cheesing for the camera.  I was so hoping that she would do her usual super cheese face, but she sat there stone faced.  Oh well, at least we got some good ones!

Here's the one we decided to go with on our Christmas card.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Black Friday Recap

You may remember my post about Black Friday shopping last week.  I was extremely stressed out about possibly not shopping.  Well, I have the most amazing grandmother in the world (for lots of other reasons than this) and she came to my rescue! Even though I'm 90% sure she would rather do anything than drag herself outta bed at 6 am to come over, she did it anyway because she loves us. :-)

It seemed like most people were out at midnight, but we like to stick to the early morning, but not too early.  When we first got to the mall, it was awesome, there were lots of parking spaces and not too many people in the stores, yet we were still able to get all the awesome deals!  Why would anyone want to go at midnight??

After spending lots of hours and money (I still don't know my total because I'm too scared to add it up. Let's just say I was waiting for one of the stores to decline me!) at the mall we had lunch and moved on to Toys R Us. Again, that store wasn't so bad either by the time we got there. After that we hit Kohl's and then Target.

I have to say that after this trip I am just about finished shopping for everyone.  I might need get a couple more things for Patrick and stocking stuffers but I got way more than I probably needed.  Isn't that part of the fun on Black Friday? I was even able to get a few things for myself! :-)

I can't believe how long we were out tearing it up at the stores. I thought we'd be home around 12:30 - 1:00 since we left here at 6:30, but we didn't get home until about 4:00. Wow!!   Then it was off to my Aunt and Uncle's for Thanksgiving leftovers, which is the best after a long day of shopping!

Until next year credit card! I wish I had taken a picture of all our bags in the back of the van.  It was ridiculous!! But, I forgot since we had to cram them all up to the middle to fit Patrick's new ping pong table in the back!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since today is Thanksgiving, thought what better time to talk about things we are thankful for. These are just some of the things that I am thankful for...

  1. Aiden & Emma - I am so thankful to have these two in my life.  They have enriched our lives so much and they make every day better!
  2. My husband, Patrick - I really lucked out with him.  He's the best father, friend, and husband I could ever ask for! 
  3. The rest of my amazing family!
  4. Our health.  I know first hand how lucky we all are to be happy and healthy.

And what Aiden is thankful for...
  1. The Wii Mario & all my Mario toys
  2. Mommy & Daddy
  3. Emma
  4. Movies
  5. My toys
  6. My house
  7. Friends
  8. Clothes to keep us warm
If Emma could tell us what she's thankful for we think it would be...
  1. Mama, Dada, & Aiden
  2. Her puppy & blanket
  3. Milk & Juice
  4. Snacks
  5. Books!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!  And happy shopping tomorrow! :-)

    Tuesday, November 22, 2011

    Playing the Computer

    When I first started this blog, I told myself the best part about it was that I could keep track of all the funny things the kids do and say.

    The other day I was upstairs playing my hand held Skip-Bo game.  Aiden came by and asked me what I was doing. I told him it was a game. Of course he wanted to play, but I know that it's one that's a little over his head so I told him that I was playing the computer.  He asked me how that worked and I explained that the computer just knows how to play against you on these type of games.

    After that he took off running for downstairs yelling that he was going to watch.

    :-)  He was running downstairs to the laptop to watch it play me on my little handheld game. :-) 

    It's funny how they're so literal! 

    Monday, November 21, 2011

    Fall Photo Shoot

    As you can tell I'm slightly obsessed with taking pictures of the kids.  Any chance I get to take a picture, you better believe I've got my camera!  Last week we had a couple beautiful days so we had lots of time to play outside. With the leaves changing to pretty colors, I thought I better grab my camera!  Here are some of the pictures that I was able to get of the kids. 

     
     
    My Absolute Favorite!!
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    I am so happy about the way they turned out! I already ordered my favorite on a canvas! :-)

    Friday, November 18, 2011

    Y3W: Too Soon?? Maybe??

    Last Sunday, Patrick decided he was going to put most of our Christmas stuff up outside.  I thought it was so he wouldn't have to do it when it was freezing out and that we wouldn't really turn them on yet.  Well? I was wrong.  They have been on every night since.  Too soon? Maybe?  But when Emma sees them every night and tells me "pretty" as we walk by them, I don't care if it's earlier than normal, she loves them!
    Checking out Daddy's work

    Now to get the wreaths and trees up out there!

    Thursday, November 17, 2011

    Black Friday Shopping

    When I was little I couldn't wait for Christmas! I can remember being at my grandmother's for Thanksgiving and when dinner was over all the adults would sit around and talk and us kids? We got busy on our Christmas lists! We needed to get them done so we could leave them there so Mom-mom and Pop-pop would know just what to get us.  This lasted for awhile, until I was big enough to no longer need to write a list, I could actually go shopping with the girls (my grandmother, mom, sister, and cousins, Aimee & Bethany) and pick out what I wanted.  And?  I LOVED it!!!

    Yes, it's crazy out there but it's a tradition that I look forward to every year.  I can remember every year Mom and Mom-mom wanted to get started super early and my cousin, sister, and I would beg to start a little bit later, maybe closer to 7-8.  We would get there and visit what seemed like every single store until we found that perfect item and Mom-mom would make the purchase. After everyone was finished shopping we'd gather in the food court for lunch, Mom-mom's treat.  Ah, memories! <3

    As we got a little older our group started to shrink and it eventually it ended up being Aimee and I meeting Mom and Mom-mom for our shopping spree.  Once we finished shopping, and lunch, of course, Aimee and I would break off and make a few mores stops on the way home.

    Now that we have families of our own our shopping sprees with Mom-mom have come to an end because it's just easier to get a gift card or money since she has a billion grandkids & great grandkids.  But Aimee and I have continued this shopping tradition.  Every year we meet up at my house and off we go.  Mom-mom we be proud that we even started going a little earlier each year! You just can't find the deals that we do on Black Friday any other time.  And it's the best for when you have no clue what to get for someone because I can always spot something that someone has to have!

    Patrick has always been able to work later that day so our shopping would work out. Now, he's in a different position and is forced to be out working at the same time we need to be shopping.  Not good.  This is a long standing tradition.  What am I supposed to do?  I can't imagine not being able to go.  It might sound ridiculous but as I type this I am getting the watery eyes because I am stressed out about what to do.  No one wants to babysit your kids at 5 am.  Everyone's working or sleeping.  This is one of those times that I wish Mom was still here.  There would be no question as to what to do.

    Shopping is NOT supposed to be so stressful!  Stupid work schedules! Sigh...

    Wednesday, November 16, 2011

    Wordless Wednesday: Best Friends

    I love these pictures Kelly got of Aiden and Hunter this past weekend.  Aiden thinks that Hunter could pretty much walk on water. This is what they did when she told them to act like they liked each other.  I just love the look on their faces!


    Awww!

    Tuesday, November 15, 2011

    This is getting hard!

    I started Weight Watchers in February, so I've been on it for awhile now.  I know that they say this isn't so much a diet, more of a change in life style.  I have a confession...I use it as a diet!

    I've done pretty awesome (if I say so myself!) and to this minute have lost 45.6 lbs.  That's more than a whole Aiden! Woot! Woot! Has this been easy? Hell. No.  I wanna eat crap all the time! You name it and if it's not from this house and I don't have to cook it...I'm in!  This leads to my problem.  It's getting very hard to stick to this diet.  I know this time of year (Thanksgiving and Christmas) is always hard, but honestly I wanna eat and more than just a little serving!

    Weight Watchers online has a little chart so you can see a graph of your lovely weight loss.  At first mine was all downhill baby! And now?  It looks like a little roller coaster ride.  Up and down, up and down.  One week I'll lose, the next, I gain and then I'll lose what I just gained.  Then repeat that. See what I'm saying? Roller coaster.

    I don't want to lose much more. Maybe 5 lbs. But those last 5 lbs might just take another year! It's already been a month or 2 of getting close and then cheating and gaining it back. Sigh.  It'll happen. I don't want to take it too far and lose too much. I know that I'm about exactly where I should be.  I just wish I could be more confident of when I get there, I can stay there.  Yeah, not likely if I don't stick to eating the way I'm supposed to be.

    Why does it have to be so much work? I hate naturally skinny people! Just kidding...kind of!

    Monday, November 14, 2011

    What I Learned this Weekend...

    1.  Snakes are disgusting, ugly, scary, and Aiden has NO fear of them!

    We went out back to play on Saturday and Aiden was trying to talk to me while I was helping Emma so I was only half listening.  When I finished, I headed over to him and heard him say something about a snake and saw him go to stomp on something. I get over there and this is what I see..

    Now to some, this may be a small, ugly garden snake...to me? It's an anaconda! I had to quickly grab Aiden away and told him that we NEVER try to stomp on a snake to kill it.  Seriously? He acted like it was a little worm! Needless to say, we headed out to the front yard to play instead. When I checked out back later it wasn't there anymore.  Yeah, so who knows when we'll head back out there to play!!

    2.  I should never, ever play poker professionally!

    Saturday night we went over to my cousin's house and ended up playing poker.  I've played a little here and there in the past (on the computer), but never really knew what I was doing.  Apparently, I'm very easy to read, according to Patrick.  I held my own for a bit though and I'm proud to say that I was not the first one out! Woot! Woot! Sorry Ron! :-)  Somehow, Kelly won the game...I think she plays more often than she let on... :-)
    When I still thought I was doing well!
    Horrible cards!
    Ron seemed to be very happy about only having a stack of $1's left!

    And I'm down to just a little bit of chips left...

    Patrick was very proud of himself for stealing my chips
    That's what Patrick thinks about Kelly's win!

    The Poker Champion
    **Thanks Kelly for not minding that I stole your pictures!  Now I need to study so I can whoop up on everyone next time!

    Friday, November 11, 2011

    Y3W: What I'm Loving...

    • Emma singing along to Britney Spears' "I Wanna Go". She loves this song and that makes me smile since I'm a Britney fan myself. 
    • That I've gotten a big chunk of the kids' Christmas shopping done! Now, what I'm going to get for everyone else...I've got no clue, but I'm very excited to have the kids almost done!
    • Coffee.  I've never really been a big coffee drinker, but lately I've been wanting it in the morning.  Yummy! Makes me feel all grown up! :-)
    • How proud Aiden is of his soccer trophy.  He gets the biggest grin on his face whenever he gets to show it off to someone!
    • Cooking in the crockpot! Even though I do not feel like preparing anything for dinner in the morning, I'm so happy when I don't have to do anything in the evening to prepare for it!
    • A great bargain! Aiden needed a new coat this year.  I get emails from Old Navy all the time and finally decided I should probably look and see what they had to offer in his size.  His request...it needed to be blue.  As luck would have it, they had a big, puffy blue coat. Perfect!  It was originally $50, but marked down to $20 and then I had an extra coupon.  I ended up paying $14 for this brand new $50 coat.  Woot! Woot! I am still excited about that one! :-D
    • Snickers bars.  Enough said.  Maybe this should just say, "Aiden's Halloween Candy Bucket" :-/
    • All my extra cuddle time with Aiden this week!  I know that he's big enough to sit by himself to do these breathing treatments he has to do this week, but he doesn't like have the strap to the mask wrapped around his head the right way so I have been taking full advantage of cuddling with him to make sure it's held up there just right!
    • Emma repeating "Love you" back to me when I tell her.  Melt. My. Heart.  It's always a BIG moment when your baby tells you they love you back! Sigh. (No one else would probably be able to tell that's what she's saying back to us, but we can and that's all that matters!) <3<3
     Happy Friday!!

      Thursday, November 10, 2011

      Mario Addicts!

      My kids LOVE Mario!!! I swear Aiden is addicted.  He only asks about a billion times a day if he can play it.  To be honest, it drives me insane to hear him ask that question!!

      He doesn't get to play it everyday, but we definitely use it as a threat if he's acting up.  You gotta do what you gotta do!

      Most of the time he wants to play 2 players so you don't even get to enjoy peace and quiet while he's playing. Nope! And him and I...do not play so well together.  We are both quick to yell at the other for stealing power or killing the other guy.  This is why I don't understand why he still likes to play with me. :-)

      Emma thinks it's just as fabulous.  She gets all excited when she hears the music and yell "Ma", you know for "Mario"!  When she can, she'll steal the extra remote and "play" with Aiden too.  For now, things go over much smoother when Emma plays him. She could care less what power she has. :-)
       
       
       
      Excuse my floor, it likes having stuff thrown all over it! :-)

      Wednesday, November 9, 2011

      Wordless Wednesday: Loving her new hat!

      Emma LOVES her new hat from Aunt Kelly! She ran around with it on for awhile the other day and wouldn't let me take it off! Now of course when I want her to wear it, she'll want nothing to do with it! This picture just makes me giggle. She's a nut!

      Tuesday, November 8, 2011

      Emma's 18 Month Visit

      Yesterday, (Nov. 7th) you had your 18 month visit to the doctor.  Since you were put in the hospital at Easter time you are terrified of the doctor's office and freak out any and every time someone comes near you! I expected no less this time but boy did you surprise me! You weren't very to go back to the little room, but I'm thinking that might have been because you were having too much fun playing in the waiting room.

      Once we got back, were okay as long as the nurse didn't get too close.  Usually trying to get your length can be tough work because you try to get up to get back up in my arms, but today you laid still and just whined a bit.  What?! Is this the same girl I've been taking to the doctor??  I had to go ahead and warn the nurse that weighing you would most likely not go well and that usually you start screaming as soon as I put you down and you try to jump off back at me...so off we went and you sat right down and didn't make a peep!  You even let the lady check your temperature with no complaints!  I swear you were just trying to make me look like a liar!

      You were such a good girl the whole time! And we were there forever!! 2 hours forever! Both you and Aiden had to be checked out, but my goodness that's a long time to expect little kids to be locked up in a little room!

      You had to get 2 shots. :-(  That did not make you very happy and you screamed your little head off.  Those shots must have been some doosies because later in the evening you're still holding your leg in the shot spot and whining.  Big Brother Aiden was there just as soon as they were done to try and make you feel better though.  He loves you so much! :-)

      Emma's 18 Month Stats:
      • Height - 32.48 inches  (74th%)
      • Weight - 26 lbs 1 oz   (74th%)
      • Head Circumference - 18.11 inches (35th%)
      And here's what makes a doctor's visit and shots all worth it...


      *On a side note - The doctor confirmed that Aiden does have croup and he's gotta have breathing treatments just about every 4 hours for the next week.  Yay! Fun! At least he seems to be feeling better and that pesky fever is just about gone!!

      Monday, November 7, 2011

      What a Stinky Weekend!

      We had big, fun plans for this past weekend.  We were going to go camping again at Voshell's Campground with my cousin Ron's family and this time my other cousin Aimee and her crew were coming too. I couldn't wait!! I had the food all purchased, the camper all packed up and ready to go and then I got the call...

      Aimee's crew was out because her little boy, Colton, was sick. :-(  Boo! Not on the weekend of all the yumminess we were about to take part in!

      Kelly (Ron's wife) and I thought it was probably best for our groups to just stay home as well since our little girls were both running fevers, plus Ron had to work so in the end it would just work out better.

      Best. Decision. Ever!!

      Thursday (the day before we were leaving) Emma got a fever in the morning and it progressively got higher as the day went on.  Maybe it's teeth?? That's always my go to thought with the little ones. :-)  Friday morning, that darn fever was still here and she threw up twice.  Thank God we were at home, and not out camping!!!

      Of course the second time she was sick to her stomach was while we were all sitting down and eating dinner.  Just what everyone wants to see, hear, and smell while trying to eat dinner.  Aiden could NOT get it out of his head and I was so worried that he was going to make himself sick just replaying it over and over again in his head.  Luckily he didn't.  Shew!!

      Fast forward to about 3:00 am early Saturday morning when Aiden made his regular appearance in our bed and he was burning up.  Great! Now we have another one with a fever.  Emma had a slight fever all day Saturday, but both her and Aiden's were able to be controlled with Tylenol.  He was even running around like a mad man when that stuff would kick into his system.  He had a tiny cough but being the kid he is, he didn't want anyone to hear him, so he was trying to keep it in and cough with his mouth closed, if that's even possible.

      Yesterday morning (Sunday), he was doing the whole trying to hide the cough thing and I noticed immediately that it sounded just like it did before when he had croup.  This poor child seems to get croup every single year.  I continued to give him meds throughout the day to try and bring his temperature down, but this time it just wasn't working.  When it got up to 103.2 and he had medicine that should have been working, but wasn't, we called the doctor.

      She told us to give him breathing treatments right then and again before bed and to make sure he was drinking so he didn't end up dehydrated.  Poor guy.  He did such a great job with the treatments! And by bedtime even though he was still barking like a seal, he seemed to be feeling a little better and his fever had come down.
      Poor guy getting his treatment

      Man, what a yucky way to spend a weekend that was going to be lots of fun! Hopefully he'll be on the mend soon! Until then...it's off to give him a treatment...

      Thursday, November 3, 2011

      Soccer's Over for the Season

      Aiden's last soccer game was supposed to be this past Saturday but the other team's coach had to cancel so our first season of soccer has officially come to an end.

      I am so proud of Aiden for getting out there and having lots of fun.  He is that kid that's always worried about people looking at him or him making a mistake in front of people.  I don't know why he's this way (could be that I'm just like it?), but we're working on it and playing soccer was a huge step forward!  He may not have gone after the ball everytime or even knew if they won or lost, but he got out there ran around and had fun.

      During each game (after the first one) he kicked the ball at least one time and that was enough for him.  We were all so proud that he did that! And throwing the ball in...awesome!

      The team got together on Saturday for an end of the season pizza party.  Aiden did tell me that he was glad the coach canceled his game so they could have a pizza party instead. Hahaha He is so my child.  They had lots of fun eating pizza, playing video games, and getting trophies!

      He thought patches were cool. Not as cool as a trophy!

      He already told me he wants to play again so now we wait until spring sign-ups!
      Ready for Aiden's soccer party

      Hanging with Josh

      Josh and Aiden

      Team Wolf Pack

      Team Wolf Pack - Fall 2011

      So proud of their trophies!

      See my trophy?