Saturday, December 30, 2006

Happy New Year! (a little early)

Just wanted to wish a safe and happy New Year to all of you out there! May 2007 bring you health, happiness, and a many wonderful memories and experiences!!! I cannot wait to see where 2007 takes our family.

I've been giving a lot of thought to a New Years resolution this year. I usually make them, but rarely actually keep them. There's something kind of fun about started a new year with a new outlook, new goals, and new possibilities. Normally people resolve to better themselves in some way, but this year, I'm resolving to "unbetter" myself. I'm giving myself permission to "fail" sometimes. To take the unreasonable expectations I put on myself and tell them to shove it from time to time. I'm going to really try to not be so focused on being the perfect mom and wife. I will let things slide from time to time so that I can take the time to focus on the little things; the day to day things, the ordinary things that seem silly and trivial, but end up meaning the most. I think this might be the one resolution that I really can keep, but it might also be the hardest one I've ever made.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Whew! Bun will NOT have to go naked!

I just got home from my cousin's house where his wife gave us 10, count 'em 10, boxes of baby boy clothes from her sons (newborn - 12 months). I am so overwhelmed I'm not sure I can even bring myself to unload the boxes from the back of my car. This kid is going to be one well dressed kid; I think probably 90% of the clothes we got are either from Gymboree or Baby Gap. Might be a little "last season", but he'll never know . . . watch out ladies!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas pictures

Decked out in her Christmas Eve finest:
Kitchen and stocking from Santa by the tree:
Fun on Christmas morning:

and her favorite part of Grandma and Grandad's house . . . the sheep and reindeer antlers (they played music and lit up!)

Alyssa-isms

A couple cute things that she's said lately that I don't want to forget ~ probably should go in her baby book . . . maybe I'll dig that thing out again . . . some day. ;)

She's learned to identify "Snoopy" from watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" over and over again the past couple months. But for some reason now whenever she sees a snowman she'll call it snoopy, too. I thought maybe because it was white with black eyes/buttons, but even pink ones that are on my flannel pjs.

When she wants her blanket she'll ask for her "beer". I don't know where she got that from, but I think its hysterical, so I hate to correct her. Although I suppose its not the most politically correct thing for a 2 year old to be screaming for "beer" when she's upset. Probably makes me look like a bad mom. But its sooo darn cute! Blankie just doesn't have the same cuteness.

And I hate to talk about this one, but it has a pretty funny ending.
A few weeks ago I was sucking boogers out of Alyssa's nose. I went to squeeze the "sucker" to try to clear it out and I heard a booger go shooting out, but couldn't find it around the changing table anywhere, so just kind of forgot about it. A few days later I was changing Alyssa and she kept saying "Oh booger!" over and over again. I thought she was talking about her nose, but then looked to where she was looking and saw a big 'ol dried booger on the wall about her. Once I finally got dried booger off the wall it actually chipped away a little bit of the paint, so now there's a tiny little brown dot where the booger used to be. She still says "Oh booger!" and points to the wall whenever I change her because she's convince there's still a booger up there.

Boogers and poop ~ two of her favorite topics!

Merry Christmas to me!

Not really a Christmas present, but it arrived on Christmas Eve and made me SOOO HAPPY! Several months ago I came across a storage unit that I absolutely loved and wanted to buy for Alyssa's toy room. Until I saw the $175 price tag. So a few weeks ago I drew up plans for my Dad to have him build for a similar one customized in size for the storage tubs/bins that we currently have. I really thought it would be a couple month project for him at least, but they surprised us by bringing it along on Sunday. I could hardly wait until lunch was over and Alyssa was down for a nap so I could start organizing "my" toy room. Its bigger than I expected, but I think its going to be perfect (I expected to have "room to grow", but as you can see we've filled it up quite nicely).

Simple minds; simple pleasures . . .

Christmas 2006

I would say that Christmas 2006 at our house was overall a huge success. Although Adam might disagree because he didn't get his fancy-schmancy pen for work and his pj pants are too long and his pj shirt has an itchy tag. ;) My parents came to our house Sunday around 11:30. We opened a few presents from them (more to come next weekend when hopefully my sister, bil, and niece will be back since they couldn't travel from Colorado last weekend) and had a relaxing lunch of chili and sandwiches together. Mom, Dad, Alyssa, and I met my cousins and their families at church at 3, then after that we picked up Adam and headed to my cousin Mark's house for his family's annual Christmas open house. Lots of good food and a fun time to connect with family (even though most of us live about 15 minutes apart we rarely see each other outside of Christmas Eve).

Christmas Day we were actually awoken by Lexi who was anxious to get the day started; isn't that the toddler's job?! Alyssa woke up soon after, so we took her downstairs to check out the kitchen and stocking goodies that Santa left. I made "monkey bread" for breakfast, which I think will become an annual tradition, and while that was cooking we opened the rest of our presents. Adam gets the prize for cleverest present this year ~ he bought me a gift certificate (with the assistance of his handy dandy Dwight helpers!) for a massage. Instead of just wrapping up the gift certificate, he actually duct taped two dumbells inside a box, then put the certificate on top. I was certain I was getting bricks for Christmas for weeks! :) Alyssa went down for a nap around 10:30, so Adam and I went back to bed to watch "A Christmas Story"/take naps ourselves. After everyone was up and dressed/showered we headed over to Adam's parents around 2. We sat around talking and snacking with the inlaws and Adam's older brother until his younger brother got home from work about 5:30, then we spent almost 2 hours opening GOBS of presents followed by a yummy dinner. We all made quite the haul; there was literally no room left in the car as we were leaving. I don't know what we're going to do next year when there is an extra car seat (no folding down the seats to make more room for loot) and an extra person to buy presents for.

Alyssa is having a great time with the kitchen "appliances" that her Grandma K got her. My favorite gifts that they got me were a new sewing machine, which I'm excited to break out (see comment about Adam's pj pants being too long; I think that's my first project) and a massaging shower head that I need to try out. I was so sad when we had to leave our other one behind at the old house, so maybe this will help the new house feel more like "home".

Pictures of our festivities to follow (maybe/hopefully)!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Family Adventure

Not nearly as exciting as one might think . . . we decorated sugar cookies together today!

I was in charge of frosting, Alyssa was in charge of sprinkling or decorating, and Adam ran "interference" when Alyssa got a little sprinkle happy. Which was about .32 seconds after she started decorating most cookies since the sprinkles came out pretty darn fast. I had a great time watching him yell, "STOP! STOP! STOP!" as the originally yellow or green frosted cookie quickly turned into a sea of green and red sprinkles.

My first attempt at linking a video to my blog:
Saturday, December 23, 2006


our decorating queen with her final masterpieces

I think we all had a fun time; maybe it'll even turn into a new family tradition!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Picture fun

Adam has his "team" Christmas outting this afternoon/evening for work, so it was just us girls at home tonight. We did a little playing around with my camera as one of our "fun" activities. I love the look of pictures where Christmas lights are the focal point, but unfortunately when you turn the flash off on my camera to get the full effect of the lights, everything goes all blurry. I did play around a little with different effects on one of my favorites, so thought I would share. A professional I am not, but still kind of fun. :)


And one of the stairs, just because I love the look of our entry way all decorated.

Monday, December 18, 2006

I'm making my list . . .

and checking it twice (or thrice . . . or fifty times).

And shockingly, I think I'm really pretty on the ball/prepared this holiday season. I've got all our out of town packages wrapped, packed up, postage labels on them, and set up a pick up with our mail person for tomorrow. Alyssa and I have to frost/decorate about 2 dozen sugar cookies sometime this week and I need to make one more loaf of bread to give to the neighbors, but otherwise my holiday goodies were finished today. I'm waiting for my dad's Christmas gift to arrive (it was shipped today) and we need to get 3 more KC&ES DVDs from Eric for Adam's family, but otherwise all my gifts are bought and wrapped. I do need to hit the grocery store to pick up supplies for Christmas Eve, but there's still plenty of time for that.

Its a really good feeling! Normally I'm the person frantically trying to finish up wrapping presents as we're walking out the door Christmas morning. Its funny, but in a way being able to handle this holiday fairly smoothly (let's not think about my near breakdowns over Alyssa's play kitchen) makes me feel like I'm going to be okay at handling becoming the mother of two children. And considering that I entered the "30s" week-wise yesterday, that's going to be happening before I know it!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

"Goodnight Moon" . . . its all about the MOUSE?!

"Goodnight Moon" has found itself into our regular rotation of bedtime books. Before I had kids it was one of my favorite children's books and I think it was probably one of the first books that I bought for Alyssa, so I'm glad that its turning into a favorite of hers, too. But the kid is OBSESSED with the "little mouse" in the book. She has to find the mouse (or a pile of yarn that *looks* like a mouse) on each page and if she can't find it she gets really stressed. Its not a calming book at all for her because she's either super excited that she found the mouse (kind of her own toddler version of "Where's Waldo") or anxious/upset if there isn't a mouse on the page. Maybe that explains why she hasn't been going to sleep right away the past week or so. Maybe "Goodnight Moon" needs to be moved down to the toy room with the "hyper" books.

I'm tired.

That's about all I'm "musing" today. I'm wondering if I have time to go take a little nap AND squeeze in my trips to the grocery store and dollar store before the inlaws arrive in 4 1/2 hours. Maybe I'll go get showered/dressed, run my errands, and then reward myself with a nap! (if time is left over). Heck, I could probably nap while they're here; they come to see Alyssa anyway. ;)

My back hurts, too.
Hurts in a way that can only be cured by a nap. ;) Oh the decisions!!!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Grandpa's JD gal . . .

That's John Deere, not Jack Daniels, folks. :) My dad is a huge John Deere fan; he even has his own fully restored 1935 (the year that he was born) tractor that he drives in parades during the summer. He's kind of famous around my hometown for being the "JD guy". So this year for Christmas Alyssa donned her "My grandpa drives John Deere" t-shirt and we're having it put on a travel mug for him. The pictures turned out really cute, so thought I would share a couple. Mostly to make up for the horrible Santa picture I shared earlier. ;)





Hello Santa!

My mom, Alyssa and I did our marathon holiday shopping trip today, complete with visit to Santa. Considering that Alyssa was crying before we even walked into Santa's "village" at the mall, the visit didn't go so hot. We did get one (expensive) picture to bring home as proof that we did visit him this year, but after looking at how surly Santa looked in all the pictures, I don't really blame Alyssa for not wanting to hang out with him. I'll have to go check past pictures, but I think he may have been the same Santa who two years ago wouldn't give a little girl enough time on his lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas, so she stood off to the side whispering softly "Polly Pocket, please, Santa" after her turn was up, which totally broke my heart. Advice to those of you in town ~ avoid the Oakview Santa. Thought I would share the photo anyway . . . she wasn't actually sitting on Santa's lap, just my lap in front of Santa (you may notice my hands/arms making a cameo appearance), but we did get the two of them together, at least! (excuse the crappy quality of my "picture of a picture", please!)

On the upside, with the exception of our $5 family "gag gifts", my Christmas shopping is FINISHED!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Bah Humbug!

My mom and I went to Toys R Us today Christmas shopping. I am NOT a huge TRU fan at any time during the year, but at Christmas its a special kind of hell. Especially if you're an extremely wide load/pregnant and trying to push a shopping cart around. The stores near us are usually dirty and are arranged really stupidly. They have aisles that intersect at all sorts of weird angles and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their store layout. But anyway . . .

After a lot of research online I had finally figured out which play kitchen I wanted to get for Alyssa and according to the Little Tikes and TRU website, TRU kept it in stock. I really wanted to go pick it up at a time when Alyssa wasn't with me so that it would be a total surprise on Christmas morning, so I thought this afternoon while she was napping would be the perfect opportunity. I also wanted to pick up a gift for her secret santa exchange on one of my mom's boards. The mom of the girl that we're buying a gift for is VERY particular about what she wants/buys for herself, so I can only assume that she's that way with her kids, too. She's constantly talking about all the things she has to return/exchange after holidays and birthdays, so I'm a little stressed about finding the perfect gift. Another mom on the board posted a link to a doll set a few months ago and I remember the "exchange" mom really liking it, so I was going to pick up one for the exchange and one for Alyssa's stocking. Damned if I could find those dolls anywhere in the store. Damned if I could find the kitchen I wanted. And damned if I could find a simple stuffed cookie monster. I hate that we fought the crowds (even armed with some great $5 off coupons!) and came home completely empty handed. OH! And I wanted a simple pair of dress up shoes for Alyssa; the plastic princess kind . . . damned if I could find those either!

I suggested to my mom that we look for a keyboard/piano for them to give Alyssa for Christmas as I thought that was something that she would really enjoy. Damned if the only one they had in the whole place (that didn't have a 10 years and older age suggestion) was Barbie. Not that that's really BAD, but I was hoping to find something a little more basic and gender neutral. But Bun is going to have to play with a pink and lavender shopping cart one day, so why not a pink Barbie piano. Maybe we should have gotten him the matching Barbie guitar . . . that would have been manly, right?

I think the kitchen that I spent so much time picking out is being discontinued because its no longer on Little Tikes website, so I did find one that I liked pretty much the same. I'm starting to feel so burnt out that I just want to get her one and get it over with. Mom and I are going shopping again on Tuesday and I hope we have better luck then because I'm in a seriously pissy mood after TRU today. Although dinner, complete with onion rings, at Red Robin helped a bit. And there's Alyssa's visit to Santa to look forward to on Tuesday. :)

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Oh, those crazy K boys!

A post dedicated to the antics of some of my favorite men . . . my husband and brother-in-laws to be exact.

#1 thing that you do NOT do to your pregnant wife:
Decide that while you're on the roof hanging Christmas lights you'll toss your coat onto the ground in front of her without warning her. She'll think that she just watched her husband fall to an untimely death/paralysis, which is never a good thing.

#1 thing that you do NOT call and tell your pregnant sister-in-law:

Me: Hello?
Chris: Christi?
Me: Yes . . .
Chris: Its Chris K---. I'm at the hospital. (imagine a completely deadpan/no emotional voice)
*long pause*
Me: What's wrong?
Chris: (quite amused) Nothing! I work here!

Little does he know that I seriously had tears in my eyes at the end of that part of our conversation. Although I was a little confused since the caller ID said Children's hospital and I knew that Alyssa was in her room sleeping, so I couldn't figure out what other kid in our life could be in the hospital.

And speaking of my brother in laws calling ~ the always give their first AND last name when identifying themselves, which I think is kind of weird. We've been related for 4 years; I think we could be on a first name basis by now.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Pregnancy Pictures

I was feeling kind of cute and sassy today, so thought I would attempt to take some belly pictures of myself. I thought they turned out kind of fun, so decided to share . . .

traditional "28 weeks" shot


a little "artsy fartsy" just for fun


And where was Alyssa during all this?
Trying on Daddy's boxers, of course!
(Actually this happened last week, but I just got around to downloading it and its too funny not to share)

Monday, December 04, 2006

I think I can . . . I think I can . . . maybe . . . maybe . . . not . . . ugh.

My mom is coming tomorrow and bring with her her friend Mary and my dad's cousin Shirley who is visiting from Oregon for a week. This will be the first time that Mom and Mary have seen the new house all decked out for Christmas the first time Shirley has seen it at all, so I am DETERMINED to have it sparkling. I made out my anal retentive list this morning (divided up according to rooms and chores per room . . . very organized) and I was off. Alyssa was such a great helper/stay out of the way-er and I felt like I got a lot accomplished this morning. I fed her lunch, got her down for a nap, made myself lunch and now I've lost my drive. I feel like the "Little Engine that Could" as he's approaching the top of the mountain. Chugging along very, very, very slowly, straining to get up the motivation to go keep cleaning.

Truth be told for the most part, the house is presentable. There are still a lot of boxes around of decorations that need to be moved back to the basement, but that will probably be Adam's job once he gets home anyway. No one is REALLY going to notice whether my kitchen floor is mopped or not, but I feel like its been so long since several of the "less noticable" places in my house have been cleaned. I swear that Alyssa's bathroom floor got mopped today for the first time since we moved in 7 months ago (usually I just figure that wiping up tons of bathwater that gets tossed over the side is just as good as mopping ~ I would make Martha proud, huh?).

Okay, I'm going to go at least get our bedroom/bathroom/closet "good" cleaned. And then I'll say "forget you" to the rest of my list or maybe I'll have my drive back. I should be on the downward slope of my cleaning list by then.

What a lame blog entry! lol

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Oh POOP!!!!

My child is obsessed with poop. I don't know where she gets it. The most funny thing about it is that when she sees/thinks about it she'll say in this completely horrified little toddler voice "ohhhh poop!"

The other night I was reading her her touch and feel Farm Animals book. When I turned the page to the sheep, immediately I heard "ohhhhh poop!" I couldn't figure out what she was talking about until I noticed that, yes, my brilliant child, I guess that log does kind of look like poop. So over and over again we had this discussion:

Alyssa: "Ohhhhhh poop!"
Me: "No, that's a log"
Alyssa: "log"
Me: "that's right"
*few seconds pass*
Alyssa: "Ohhhhhhh poop, mommy!"

But today's "poop" may have taken the cake ~ we need to add this to our "list of things we never thought we would say to our children" that Adam blogged about.

Sitting down to have supper, I actually found myself saying, "No Sweetie, that isn't poop, its sausage". Of course, a few minutes later I asked her if she wanted a bite of poop while offering her the sausage link . . . I like to keep my girl on her toes.