Wrapping up 2013

I think I'll package up the rest of the month/year in one post. If it's anything like my gift-wrapping skills it won't be anything extraordinary, but at least it will get done.

December treated us to a couple weeks of really cold temps, but for the most part it was a bearable month all things considered. We had some decent snow storms, and I will say this...regardless of not being a fan of winter, I do think a blanket of snow helps to boost the seasonal spirits. I grew up with mostly white Christmases, and I love a reminder of those memories. Having a backyard now is great for the boys, and I'm enjoying the freedom of not having to accompany them on every trip outside. :)

I guess in some ways I consider ourselves to be a young family, so I'm still working on what our traditions will be around the holidays. I think we nailed down a couple we want to stick with, but I guess we'll wait until next year to see what others will be a good fit for us.

Christmas Eve we finished up delivering the last bit of our Christmas baked goods, and we had planned on a trip to see Santa afterwards, but after pulling up to the Sugar Shack, we found that we missed him by a day. We ended up heading home with what will continue to be our Christmas Eve dinner tradition of Chinese takeout. We stole that tradition from the Bacon Family! :)

Once bedtime rolled around for the boys, we went to lay down and all of us ended up falling asleep before 9:00! It was a good thing D woke up halfway through the night, or the boys may have been overlooked by Santa. Even on his days off D can rarely sleep in, so he was up early watching a movie when Zach woke up to use the bathroom. Hearing the TV on he went to investigate and saw his stocking and got the rest of us up in a hurry. Starting our morning off at 6:30 AM was definitely not my idea of fun, but the boys' enthusiasm and a cup of coffee were all I needed to get going. They had a great Christmas, and we're very fortunate that we could do for them what we wanted to.

We made pizza last year on Christmas and we decided to do it again. I think that will be our Christmas dinner tradition moving forward. Leave it to us to have the holiday food traditions nailed down before anything else. :) Anytime we make pizza we need help to eat it, so joining us for dinner was Mom, Dad, Joy, and JT. Their company was a lovely way to finish up the day!

The rest of 2013 was mostly uneventful. The boys and I all came down with a nasty case of the flu, and sick is how we spent the rest of the year.

We didn't have the best start to 2013, but D and I both agree that once things turned around, the year ended on a really good note for us, and we're hoping the trend continues throughout 2014.

Cheers to all our family and friends for great things in 2014!

Warm Florida...

Time sure has been getting away from me! Just when I think I've caught up my train gets derailed and I find myself behind again. Such is life...

December was nuts but a lot of fun. I'm thinking there needs to be a bigger stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There doesn't seem to be enough time to squeeze in enough holiday fun into just one month. I keep going over the things we didn't find enough time to do, but I shouldn't lose sight of all the great things we did squeeze in.

The boys and I had planned a little visit to Florida back in October, but as we were sitting at the gate at the airport, ready to board, the boys' behavior dictated a very loud and dramatic exit from the airport instead of a walk down the jetway. Not exactly the pleasant flight I had hoped for. Lucky for us we found a small window to make up the trip, and we enjoyed a few days with the Bacon's....after a much better travel experience!

We love all the Bacon's, but we were extra excited to see how much Emma had changed since we last visited. It's so much fun to see a little person change so quickly in a short amount of time. She definitely did not disappoint and was full of the lively, sweet/sassy personality we had been hearing so much about. It was so nice to spend most of our time just hanging out at their house. Patti and I did a little sewing, which totally took me back to when I was a kid around the holidays, watching my mom sew our Christmas gifts. Love it.

After we finished up sewing projects and dinner, Patti majorly treated the boys and I to a little visit to Magic Kingdom. We enjoyed a few hours to watch the fireworks show, electric parade, and a couple of rides. I loved seeing the castle frosted with lights for the holidays. It was gorgeous, and it was such a treat to be able to visit the park during that time of year. Thanks again Patti!!

I loved that we were able to find the time to visit the Bacon's, especially during the holidays. I love their home and how much they get into Christmas. I don't know anyone else who decks their house with 4 full-sized Christmas trees and a few bonus smaller ones! It was another great, and always special, visit with some of our favorite people.

MI - Frankenmuth

It took me a day or two to remember how to pronounce the name Frankenmuth, I finally got it after I trained myself to pair Frankenstein and tooth. It's definitely a unique place, and we probably would have had more time to explore it had it not been for the Christmas monstrosity store known as Bronner's Christmas Wonderland!

The sad face in the  middle just wants his mom....

....see a few seconds later and he's happy as a clam. Cute little stinker.

I don't think anyone can fully prepare someone for what to expect upon entering this store! Saying that it's a Christmas explosion doesn't quite cover it...you'd need to multiply it a couple of times. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were warnings in place to advise those susceptible to seizures to enter at their own risk. No joke.

There's so much going on in Bronner's that your eyes literally cannot keep up or process everything you're seeing. We spent hours in this store, and didn't even see everything. You could probably spend days there before you took everything in. The store is the largest of its kind and is the size of 1-1/2 football fields and could probably easily be expanded by another 1/2 and still be slapped full of everything Christmas.

Trees, ornaments, indoor/outdoor decorations, ornaments, stockings, ornaments, Santa costumes, ornaments, lights, ornaments, figurines, and more ornaments. The list of stuff is exhausting. You want Christmas TP? Yup, they got it.

 

Once the shock to the system dulled somewhat, it was a lot of fun to wander around the store and look at everything. All I can say is "wow."

 

 

"This is the best Christmas ever!" - Ben

Christmas + little kiddos = getting up really early. I guess when you tease a kid for months with talk of Santa and there are presents under the tree taunting them for weeks, it's to be expected. What a fun morning it was with our boys, sleepy and all. Joy spent the night with us, and we loved having her here with us this morning before she headed off for fun on the ski slopes.

 

Can you guess what the boys' latest obsession is???

We had a lot of generous help from family and friends to lighten our load and help us give the boys a great Christmas this year, and we can't express enough how grateful we are to all those wonderful people. You know who you are, and we sincerely thank you again!

Later in the day after visiting a very special person, we hosted a little pizza night for some of my family. My parents are here visiting from their mission for the week and they joined us as well as my brother Clair's family. We loved having them all over, and we have loved the opportunity we have had this year to see all of my family within a week's period of time. It's not very often anymore that that happens, and it's so great to see everyone and catch up.

 

As Ben has been saying all day, "This is the best Christmas ever!" I agree Ben, it's been an awesome day, a really awesome day.

Holiday Love to our Family & Friends

Make your own picture collage

Fantastic

I had a difficult time getting into Christmas this year. I probably would have felt like bypassing it all together if it weren't for Zach and Ben. All they know at this age is the excitement of it all, and it probably won't be until next year that they realize there's a lot more to it. I guess it's all that "more" stuff that weighed heavy on me this year. I didn't even realize how much I had been Grinchy this year until today when I thought about my attitude over the past few weeks. Unfortunately I allowed things outside my control to foul my mood and then unleashed that foul mood on my family. For that I feel really terrible. I have a ridiculous list a mile long of the things I'm lucky to have, and I lost sight of how blessed and grateful I am for those things.

There are always going to be people with more than what we have, less than what we have, and some that tragically have hands dealt to them that seem ridiculously unfair. This year I read, watched, and heard of people hurting and struggling, and it broke my heart. Despite our own situation, being less than desirable by some standards, we're rich in all that we do have. I feel ashamed that instead of showing gratitude for those wonderful things, I got caught up with worry about what we didn't have. How shallow of me.

This year I didn't lose a home in a fire, flood, tornado, or foreclosure. My family didn't suffer any devastating health crisis. No one stole our car or broke into our home to steal the boys' gifts. I didn't lose a child in a flash flood or in a fire on Christmas morning. I wasn't abducted and taken away from my family. Nothing awful happened at all.

I am blessed with healthy children, a husband that loves and respects me and provides for our family (not to mention puts up with my unpredictable moods). I find myself waking up to sunshine and warmth nearly every morning. I have cupboards that have plenty of food in them. I have an extensive list of people that I am lucky enough to call friends and family. The list keeps going. Life is pretty fantastic.

I can't fix all that is wrong in this world, I can only do so much. I can however stay grounded, humble and appreciative for the good in my life and teach my children that the blessings they do have will almost always outweigh that which they don't have.

To all my family and friends, thank you for being part of the awesome which is my life. I hope the holidays found you all well and celebrating all that is right.

November Leftovers

What happened to November!?! I guess I need to recap most of the month....

The first couple of weeks we kept busy with unpacking, moving stuff around, buying stuff so we could unpack more stuff, and just getting comfortable with our new place and neighborhood. Darius finished up his job training and so far is enjoying his work.

Our couch is officially broken in. It looks as if we've had it a year already.

We joined our local YMCA and are happy to be adding regular workouts to our days. We love the facility and all its amenities. It's especially nice that we can take the boys with us. They very much enjoy playing in the Child Development Center while we workout. They ask us almost everyday if they can go to the Y and often scream bloody murder when it's time to leave.

Zach got his first black eye. No dramatic story here, just horseplay with his brother. Blankets over the heads...one head meets the other's face. Zach had fun telling his aunts he had a shiner.

For Thanksgiving we joined the Bacons at their home for a delicious feast. The past couple of years it was just our little group of 4 for the holiday, so we were happy to be able to spend the day with our friends!

Our Thanksgiving Day entertainment....poems read by a turkey.

Nothing says Thanksgiving like a post dinner nap.

I didn't really have plans to do any crazy, late-night, pre-Black Friday shopping, but Patti had a few stores she was going to hit Thursday night, and I was eyeing a great deal on a sewing machine and kitchen mat, so I decided to tag along.

This was my first experience at Black Friday madness, and it definitely didn't disappoint! Darius and Michael had gone ahead to scout out Walmart to see if any lines were forming for a certain item Patti and Michael were looking to buy. Turns out we hadn't planned to leave soon enough, so we headed over to meet up with them. Darius had been busy checking stuff out for the boys and found some awesome deals, so I unexpectedly ended up stalking some ride-on toys for a couple of hours before the clock struck NUTS! I can't even describe the madness that ensued. I ended up leaving with all limbs in tact and the boys Christmas shopping pretty much all done.

Black shopping is definitely not for the timid, and although I'm not a shopper at heart...and no where near a competitive shopper, I must admit I found it strangely fun. Patti said it best..."it's an adrenaline rush"...so true.

We've been transitioning into Christmas mode this weekend, and we've got our tree and lights up, but we can't seem to move past that yet. I'm kind of preoccupied with baby shower stuff, and I guess with that and Darius' birthday coming up next weekend, I'm content with putting it on the back burner for now.

This is the part that obviously plugs into the wall, and where did I put it? Yep, at the top of the tree. Doesn't everyone have an outlet on the ceiling?

Christmas done simple.

The boys are still a little young to fully understand what kind of excitement typically surrounds Christmas. We've watched some movies about it, read some stories, sang songs, but they had no idea what was coming. In a way it's nice because they're not at the point where they rush through opening everything within minutes.

One of our gifts to them was additional tracks for their train set. I used the new and old and built a big track for them in the middle of the living room floor. That is what they immediately went for. It didn't even register that there were other gifts in the room and stockings with candy peeking out of them. Then the meltdown inevitably happened shortly thereafter. In addition to the tracks, we got them new engines, different new engines. Big mistake. Of course they wanted to play with the same one and tantrums ensued. Eventually they calmed down and were excited with Rocky and Stinky, the talking, singing, dancing, and my personal favorite: farting, dump and garbage trucks.

Ben painted us a beautiful picture on his new easel. We'll keep it always.

Zach and Stinky the garbage truck.

 

Ben and Rocky the dump truck.



Percy, the cause of the Christmas-morning meltdowns.

We kept it pretty simple. I think that's what I enjoyed most about the day. We could have done more, but at the boys' age, it would have been an overkill. There wasn't anything Darius and I could have exchanged that would have been better than what we already have. We have each other and healthy kids, and we enjoy our time together. The rest is just a little icing. Eventually we'll figure out what traditions we'll adopt over the years as a family. It will be fun to have the boys help us in deciding what those traditions will be.

Christmas Eve in Cordova