Mini Vacay {how to have a baby}

I told Jeremiah the night before my induction that I felt kind of bad that I hadn't gone into labor on my own. He said, "What? Like you're a failure as a child-bearer?" Yeah, something like that. But let me just say, being induced is totally the way to do it! It was like a mini vacay because I got to relax, I never felt a single labor contraction, the nurses were awesome, I was waited on hand & foot, and there was some alone time with my hubby! :)

I got up just after 5am on Friday morning to get ready to go to the hospital. We had to be there at 6. Here's the final belly shot (39 wks 1 day):



After I got all checked in at the hospital my Dr. came in to check me & break my water. I was still only dilated to 1.5 & the baby was still -3 (pretty high). Oh & I was only 60% effaced! So I could have easily not gone into labor for another week!

At 6:45a my Dr. tried but wasn't able to break my water since baby was still too high & my cervix wasn't thinned enough, and it hurt like heck while he tried twice! He'd told me at my appt that I wouldn't get my epidural until after he'd broken my water, but at 7:15 the Dr. who is said to give the best epidurals was in my room! He was quick & getting the epidural was only a little uncomfortable & 10 mins later I was on my way to numb! :) It was a little more than an hour later I think that I got hooked up to Pitocin. I hung out & relaxed while Jeremiah went to get some breakfast (and go to work! - he didn't tell me that till later). At 10:10a my Dr. came in to check me. I was dilated to 3 & he was able to break my water. He went back to work (building next door) to see patients, & my nurse didn't come & check me for 2 hours! I was pretty surprised that she let me go so long w/out being checked since with Ellie I'd dilated so quickly. Of course with Ellie I'd gone into labor so my body was more ready. Anyway, during those 2 hours I napped, played Angry Birds on my iPhone, watched part of an episode of The Bachelor on the iPad, and just relaxed. It was awesome! When my nurse checked me around 12:15 she was pretty surprised to find that I was complete. Who knows how long I'd been done! The baby was still high so she called my Dr. to let him know I was fully dilated but that there was no hurry since the baby was still high. He came right over anyway. He came in & chatted w/Jeremiah & I while he put his booties on & I finished my Italian ice :) and then he checked me & said I was ready. It seemed kind of casual so I didn't take it that seriously. Jeremiah & I have talked about how the whole thing was pretty anti-climatic! The nurse got everything ready & 3 pushes later we had ourselves a baby! Okay, so actually the first push was pretty half-hearted since like I said it seemed kinda casual. But after the 2nd one the baby's heartrate was dropping (it was down to 50) & my Dr. had his game face on. He said I had to get the baby out on the next push (or he was getting the forceps). I did it!

When I heard "it's a girl!" I teared up. I could feel the spirit with the birth of this sweet new baby. They cleaned her a little bit & set her on me & kept working on cleaning her up. It was a great experience!

Official data:

born at 12:38pm

8 lbs 2 oz

20" long

This is about 10 mins later after they took APGAR scores, weighed & measured her (from Jer's iPhone b/c he wouldn't get the real camera out...)

(...until I got annoyed & insisted)

So my mom had the kids in the morning & Jack had been giving her a hard time (as in he was being a total punk) & had just had a time out. When he heard the news that it was a girl he was completely undone & bawled! I know bud, your dad was a little bummed at first too. That's why I LOVE this picture. It's sad & sweet to me. My 2 guys looking at this sweet little baby GIRL a little unsure since they badly wanted her to be a BOY. :( Thankfully they've both come to terms. Of course Jeremiah absolutely adores our daughter, but he's still bummed for Jack to not have a little brother. And Jack is already fine I think with having a sister. He's very sweet to her & loves to hold her.

Callie was at school when the baby was born so as soon as I could I called the school & they announced over the speaker in her class that it was a girl! Callie loved that! She said everyone in her class cheered & gave her hugs & high-5's. Totally cool! She said she was a little disappointed it was a girl because she was hoping Jack would also have a little brother, but she was still happy it was a girl.



And sweet Ellie! She has been SO excited to be a big sister! She loved coming to see us at the hospital & see her new sister! In fact when Jeremiah's mom took her home afterwards she threw a huge fit because she'd wanted to go back to the hospital & be with us.



We gave the kids a gift bag of movies & treats when they came to see us at the hospital. We hoped it would help them to not be sad at home. Ellie, who we'd thought would have the hardest time was so excited about the goodies! :)

So last but not least, her name. It was a big decision! I was pretty sure her name would be Quinn but Jeremiah was just not a lover. He didn't have any better suggestions so I told him to get online & look at names. When we went to sleep Friday night he called her Amelia (which I loved) & so I thought that was it. Then on Saturday morning we went back & forth between Quinn, Amelia & Adelyn. After a call from his sister he was suddenly pretty much decided on Olivia, which I thought was humorous since I'd LOVED that name when I was pg w/Ellie, and he hated the name. If he'd liked the name then, Ellie probably would've been named Olivia. Anyway, the final choice was down to Adelyn & Olivia. I finally just told him to choose since he seemed pretty set on Olivia even though I wasn't loving it. I'd learn to love it. He left to go switch cars & get the infant seat & when he got back he said we should both write down our choice & then we'd show each other. He looked at mine first. I wrote "you choose." He threw his choice in the garbage since I wasn't playing fair. I finally got out of him that he'd written Adelyn. So that was it. That's how to choose a name Divis-style! :)

Adelyn Jeanne Divis

Adelyn (pronounced Add-a-lin) because we like it. Jeanne (pronounced Jean) after my middle name. Jeremiah pretty much insisted (I've never really liked my middle name). It's sweet of him.

We love our sweet baby girl!

31

I had a great birthday this year! Summer wanted to take me to lunch but she had to work on my actual birthday so she took me the day before. Abby joined us too & they totally spoiled me! Abby brought the cute cake platter & together they got me a custom return address stamp that Abby has that I love!

On my birthday (Jan 26 - TWO days before Addy was born!) Jeremiah made me french toast - my favorite - for breakfast. The kids had all made me sweet cards.

Callie took this picture of Jer & me :)

My friend Katie arranged a birthday lunch for me some other friends at pizza hut. I got some gifts & we had cupcakes & chatted while all our kids tore the place apart! :) That evening Jer's & my parents & Jonny, Ann & Whitley came over for chicken fettuccine alfredo & cupcakes. It was a great day!

Fireplace

Just before Thanksgiving our fireplace got finished & I never shared pictures. We absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I think the transformation is amazing & I love the way it changes the look of our living room. You see it right away when you walk in our home.

(The inspiration fireplace is from a PB catalog)

Before


After

Jackson-isms

Doesn't he look like a little Hugh Hefner? He LOVES the robe that Jeremiah & I got him for Christmas & wears it around the house often in the morning & evening when he's in his pjs.



12/15/10:

Jack was drinking a Starbuck's Vanilla Bean Frappaccino for the first time & he said, "This drink is sooo good. I would say so darn good, but I'm not allowed to say darn, am I?"

Me: Yeah you can say darn.

Jack: Oh yeah, i forgot. It's frickin i can't say.

Me: Nope you can't say frickin.

Jack: But maybe if nobody was around & it was just you & me & you said that it was okay then I would say 'hey mom, this drink is so frickin good.'

Me: Jack, you can't say that.

Jack: Is it cause I'm not old enough?

12/15/10:

Jack was asking about the chocolate bunny on the Nestle Quik container & I said, "That's the Quik bunny." He said, "And the other one, the pink one, is the slow bunny."

12/15/10:
We were listening to I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. The song says "I like hippopotamus's & hippopotamus's like me too."
Jack said, "Hippopotamus's don't like any people, right?" I said yep. He said, "Except for people with big fat butts!"

9/16/10:

A friend of ours passed away & I was talking to my kids about it. Callie & Jack pointed out sadly that the children won't be able to see their dad again or even call him.

Jack said, "When I'm a grown-up & I know somebody who's a loved one who dies, I'm gonna call their number & see who answers. Mom? Do you know Jesus' number?"

our Tiny Dancer

Ellie had her first dance class on Friday morning! She was SOOO excited about going to it. A family in our ward gives dance lessons out of their garage to younger kids, starting at age 3. Since Ellie will be 3 in just over a month I asked if they'd let her join them for their spring session. The girl dances & prances around our house all day long. One of her very favorite things to do is put on her princess dresses or tutus & dance along to our Bella Dancerella DVD! My only concern for the dance class was how well Ellie would follow directions.

When I picked Ellie up afterwards, the dance class mom said that Ellie did a great job & that she's totally ready for dance. Okay, this mom is an extremely positive person so she may have made it sound like Ellie did better than she actually did :), but I do think Ellie probably follows directions from other people much better than she does from me!

On our way home from dance class we called Jeremiah so she could tell him about it. This is what she said:

"I learned about fruit snacks, and I learned about goodies, and about pretzels, and about water, and about marshmallows, and I made a new friend, ...and I learned about dancing! And I got a stamp!"

She did show us her new moves though - very cute! She can also do her butterfly stretches perfectly!

Way to go tiny dancer! :)

Lame

Had a Dr appt this am. I was so sure/hopeful that I'd be getting my membranes stripped and having a baby in the next day or so, but nope, baby is still just as high up as last week. It's just not meant to be. Bummer! Baby, you'd better be adorable to make me wait & suffer! :) My Dr scheduled an induction for next Friday morning. If this baby waits that long maybe I should hold out for a few more days so that we can have a Feb birthday!

GroopDealz

One of my favorite little breaks during a day is going down my blog reader to see who's posted. Today I am STOKED because one of the craft blogs I like (Make It and Love It) talked about today's GroopDealz offering! I've bought something before off of GroopDealz & I think it's a pretty cool site. So for today's deal: dah dah dah dahhhhh......

Capture My Heart Hand Stamped Necklace!



I'm super excited about this because a necklace this type was on my Christmas/birthday (next week!) list. I know Jeremiah didn't really know where to start b/c if you look at hand stamped necklaces on etsy it's overwhelming! There's a huge range of prices & styles. And if you look on non-etsy sites they're pretty pricey. Plus since we don't yet know what our last little name on the necklace will be that made options difficult. So the awesome thing about this is that a] it's 1/2 priced & b] if I understand correctly, what I'm buying is a 1/2 priced coupon that I have to redeem by a certain date, so I can order the necklace in a few days (crossing my fingers) when I have this baby! :) Yay!!!

Go buy one!

this week

Today I'm once again a hunting widow. Boo. Normally I'm totally fine with it because it's one of Jeremiah's loves & so I fully support that. And also he works hard & has stressful weeks all the time so I realize he needs a break & it's nice for him to get out & do something he enjoys. But I need a break today too. I need them a lot more lately than I usually do. Hmmm, could it be something to do with all the pregnancy hormones? :) Luckily tonight I'll get one. Hopefully Thai food (or something equally delicious) and a movie.

It's been a stressful & sort of crazy week. Wednesday was the only day I didn't have something in particular to do so Jeremiah's mom, my sil Ann & I (along w/Jack & Ellie) went to Bullhead to go to Target & a couple other places. One thing I was looking forward to shopping for at Target was some Valentine's decor. Amazingly enough, there was none! They're not putting it out for another couple of weeks I was told. What?! Christmas stuff was out before Halloween! WalMart has had a teeny tiny little section with some Valentine's candy in it since before Christmas, but now that Valentine's Day is actually a month away neither WalMart or Target have their main stuff out! It was disappointing.

I cooked breakfast for the first time in weeks for my kids this morning (if you count pancakes as cooking!). Today we had snowman pancakes. They wanted faces so after I smeared some peanut butter on the snowmen I gave the kids each a little handful of m&m's to create their masterpieces. It's the simple things that make life great! :)

Oh, Ellie just came up to me with a play necklace on & said, "Mom, do I look like a jerk or do I look pretty?" Where does she come up with this stuff? Time to go referee the hooligans & try not to yell too much when I see the mess they've managed to make even though their rooms were all clean when they got up this morning.

Baby stuff

I'm 37 wks now & I can't wait to have this baby! Except I'm super nervous to go through the pain of labor. I don't know what's scarier - having your first baby & not knowing what to expect or having your 4th baby (or any baby after #1) & knowing exactly what to expect! I'm not into being a hero & doing natural childbirth, but I didn't get an epidural with Ellie because she came too fast after my water was broken. I hated every second of it & it was a terrible birthing experience. I'm so nervous that's going to happen again!

I was talking to a girl yesterday who's due in a couple weeks. She told me that she wasn't going to any of the weekly checks this month basically because it's emotionally stressful & it's not like it makes a difference whether or not you're checked. Amen! At 36 weeks I hadn't dilated at all. At this week's appt (Thurs) I was 1.5, 70% effaced, but the baby's at -3 station so too high up to have my membranes stripped. I would almost bet money that next week it'll be about the same, but maybe the baby will have moved down to a 0 & then at least I'll be able to have my membranes stripped. That's about how it's gone in the past for me anyway. So yes, it's emotionally stressful because you show up for these appointments hoping to hear that you're about to have a baby and then nothing. And even if you did hear that you were about to have the baby it's no guarantee that your body will change much in the next week. This waiting game is a killer!

On a great note my belly has stopped growing! I finally don't feel insanely huge anymore! At least not any bigger than I should be at this point in a prenancy. I'm normal-ish (I think anyway)! And oddly enough people have stopped commenting about my size! It's weird, because it's not like anybody knows how far along I am. But I haven't been assaulted by rude comments in a couple of weeks. It's been great! :)

My 1st Blurb Book!

I'd wanted to turn my blog into a book for a long time & I'm so excited that I finally did some of it! It took HOURS & HOURS but it's totally worth it! I'm so glad to 1] Have my blog backed up. It's unlikely that it would happen, but I have heard of people losing their entire blogs! That would be devastating to me since the MAIN reason I blog is so that my family has a history (don't get me wrong - I love the social aspect of it). 2] My family will be able to look at this book years down the road & be able to enjoy this "scrapbook" chocked full of memories & pictures. I haven't printed copies for my kids yet, but sometime I will. That's one thing that's awesome about Blurb (the printer I used). You can go back & order additional copies of your book at any time. I highly recommend Blurb to anybody who is thinking about printing your blog. But like I said it took me a really, really long time to make a book. If you're into a simpler look (and I mean MUCH simpler) check out Blog2Print. I think you could probably get your book done in a matter of minutes! Here's my 1st book:

Divis-licious Make Your Own Book

Embellished Tee: with Multi-Layered Flowers {I made it!}

A blog I follow is Make It & Love It. I look at a lot of crafty blogs & keep all the good posts in my reader, but I rarely end up actually making the stuff that I love. I saw this shirt a little bit ago on MI-LI & when I saw it again the other day I decided I was going to do it! I'm so excited about how mine turned out! It's such an awesome feeling to end up with something that looks good that you've made yourself! The only bad thing about it is that I would normally wear a M but I got an XL to cover my gigantic belly, so the top/armpit area doesn't fit like it should. I have to do more adjusting than I would ever do if I were wearing a normal fitting shirt. Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

Blog Comments tip

My sister had this on her blog & I think it's a great tip so I'm reposting her repost. Basically I'm saying you should all change your blog settings because we all ask each other questions from time to time in comments or say things that the blog owner would love to comment back to just us on & it would be nice for the person you're asking to be able to just hit reply. I know I'd respond to people's questions if I could do that. But since I haven't been able to I usually just ignore them.

You can see the original post here:

Do you all receive notification to your email when someone comments on your blog? Did you know you can just hit reply to that comment? If the email address is not connected it will show the address of noreply-comment@blogger.com. If they do choose to show their email address you can reply directly to their comment!

Here's how to do it: (if you're using the blogger platform)
Go to Dashboard
You should see your profile on the left hand side.
Click Edit Profile
Under Privacy go to the 3rd choice down from the top
Check the box that says 'Show my email address'

You got all that? Now please go change your settings!

Happy New Year!

When our tentative New Year's Eve plans got cancelled we decided to have a family game night at home with the kids. To start the evening off we made pizza. All the kids got to help put the cheese & toppings on. Unfortunately the pizza was disgusting, due to a last minute pizza sauce I threw together! LOL Not a good recipe. We had sparkling lemonade with it since that's what we had in the fridge & I'd forgotten to get Martinelli's, even though Jeremiah had been at the store & had Welch's sparkling stuff in hand (the Martinellie's was sold out at WalMart) & I'd said I'd get the Martinelli's from Target! LOL Oops! We also had Cool Ranch Doritos - Callie's request! I'd told each of the kids they could choose an appetizer for us to have on New Year's Eve & that was Callie's! :)

While the pizza was baking Jeremiah lit a bunch of fireworks outside with the kids. Fireworks have just recently become legal in AZ so this was a first. The kids LOVED it!

Onto the game portion of our evening. First up, Trouble.

Jeremiah & Ellie were on a team. I love how Ellie has to lay on the bubble to pop it!

Unfortunately there was a lot of crying during the game. Callie was being a major poor sport & would cry if she got sent home or do a mean laugh if she sent someone else home. She spent part of the game in time out. It was a test of patience for Jeremiah & I.

Next we played Toy Story Yahtzee. That went much better than Trouble had & no tears were shed.

For a treat we did fondue with the kids. We dipped gummy bears (Jack's appetizer request), pretzels, marshmallows, bananas, & PB Oreos.

At 9 we did our countdown with noisemakers & the little bottle confetti poppers. Callie mouthed off & was acting especially bratty & the evening ended in tears. Callie's. And mine. Because I was so frustrated with my 6 year old.

We put the kids to bed & Jeremiah & I watched tv together. We watched stuff like Myth Busters, American Pickers & Pawn Stars (Jeremiah was driving). A show ended & I happened to see that it was exactly midnight. We said Happy New Year to each other, did a quick kiss, & watched another show before going to bed. I hope your New Year's Eve was as exciting as ours! LOL

It was really sweet of Jeremiah when he thanked me for planning a fun family night. I thought he was joking in light of all the tears & time-outs, but he wasn't. That stuff just happens in a family & there are still plenty of good things to cancel out the sadder or angrier moments. I just have to remember that. I love my children & my husband so much!

Happy New Year!

Christmas {2010}

I really wanted to better enjoy the holidays this year & I thought I was well on my way when the month started, but as it went on the usual stresses set in. Okay, stress. The thing I hate the most about the holidays is neighbor gifts. There, I said it. I'm a terrible person. I love our friends and "neighbors" but I stress out every single year about having to show that love.

I'm always trying to figure out a frugal way to do lots of gifts without having to slave in the kitchen or on any one thing for days and still give out something nice or cool. Pretty much not possible. I was honestly in tears the weekend before Christmas. I had wanted to be done with neighbor gifts by the 2nd weekend of the month, but it didn't happen. Thus the usual holiday stress because it was now the "last minute." When you wait till the last minute (the 21st) to deliver neighbor gifts it adds stress (for me at least) because there are people who are going to feel bad that you're giving them something & they didn't include you on their list. And since it's a few days before Christmas there's no time to graciously reciprocate. And I certainly don't care if I give something to someone & they don't give something to me, but I still don't want them to feel bad. I love to overthink everything. I agonize over who I should include on our list. Like this: if I give something to family A then do I need to give something to family B since A & B are good friends & we've all hung out, even though we wouldn't probably hang out with family B on our own? But I do like family B. But maybe it would be weird if I included them. Or lame since it's 4 days before Christmas.

SEE? I care way too much about other people's feelings I think. I actually had a few of our treats packaged & ready to deliver & was even on my way to one family's house but turned around & decided not to because of above-mentioned reasons. They & the other families got crossed off my list at the last second because I was too embarrased!

Next year I swear that by the 2nd weekend of the month I will have my neighbor gifts done. Of course I swore that this year & it didn't happen. But maybe if I'd written down how bad it sucks the previous year I could have read it this year & got my butt in gear. So here's to timely, stress-free neighbor gifts in 2011!

Oh, what was the neighbor gift? I came across this brilliant inspiration here for hot chocolate on a stick and took it one step farther by using a candy cane that I cut the crook off of for the stick. I used her printable directions too & changed it to Merry Christmas (I just like that better). My pictures are of course nothing like the inspiration pictures, but the final product was WAY cute irl! It was really fun when a couple people called to tell me how much they loved it. Everyone loves a pat on the back, right? :D



Okay, moving on. A few years ago after spending enough Christmases with Jeremiah's family to adopt their traditions, I made my family change theirs. Growing up, Christmas Eve was nothing special. If we had a tradition it would be ordering Little Caesar's at 7pm while my mom was locked in her bedroom till all hours of the night wrapping presents. My mom was a working gal then & that's just when she was able to get to it. But now we're all grown up & things are different.

So what I love about Jeremiah's family's traditions: They ALWAYS go to Grandpa & Grandma Divis' for Christmas Eve dinner with as much of the extended family as possible. Grandpa Divis always reads the Christmas story from the scriptures. Once Jeremiah's family is back at home they open up the sibling exchange presents (as well as pajamas, a tradition that I like but modified). On Christmas day there isn't a huge meal. My first Christmas with Jeremiah's family was strange because of that - I've ALWAYS had a big Christmas dinner. I thought it was just so wrong! :) They will still cook a ham but it's to snack on & not for a formal sit-down. But guess what? Now I love all those things & have forced my own (as in my parents/siblings) to embrace these things.

Our Christmas Eve dinner the last few years has been prime rib, instead of the turkey & ham I grew up on for Christmas. I LOVE prime rib, and it's a treat because it's crazy expensive I think. Only because we haven't ever found it in normal sized portions to buy. Sure it's only $3.99/lb but when you can't find smaller than 17lb portions it gets spendy! So the only issue with dinner this year (and it was sort of a big one) was that I didn't buy the meat ahead of time & I didn't look over my recipe ahead of time. I tried to buy the meat on the 23rd while I was at WalMart, but I couldn't find it. I'm assuming WalMart doesn't carry prime rib. So as I'm looking at the recipe on Christmas Eve at about noon I see that the prime rib is supposed to be in the oven for 5 hours! Crap! I wasn't ready to run out to the store so I asked Jeremiah to grab it, but it was a while before he could leave work & it was 2 before we got it in the oven! So that moved our dinner back at least 2 hours right off the bat. But then our prime rib was a lot bigger than what the recipe called for so it wasn't done anywhere close to on time. We ended up feeding the kids around 7 & doing the nativity, and then the adults all ate around 8:30! Lame, huh?! Again, next year I need to be reading all of this so I can BE PREPARED!!! Thank goodness we didn't invite anyone over this year!

So here's my favorite picture from our little family nativity. Joseph & Mary had bad attitudes. And then there's our angel, happy to be in a "princess" dress! I love it!

Before the kids went to bed we let them open up their gifts to each other. Callie chose a mini Etch A Sketch for Jack and a little bag of Toy Story army guy LEGOs, Jack gave Ellie a pink bouncy ball & a bag of Skittles, & Ellie gave Callie a little Shrinky Dink set & a container of gum. As far as pajamas go, I decided years ago that instead of doing Christmas Eve pj's we'd give our kids Christmas pj's on Thanksgiving night. That way they could wear them throughout the holiday season. I know I could do everyday pj's for them to open Christmas Eve, but come on, I want them wearing their Christmas jammas on Christmas morning, not plain old everyday jammas! :) And it would be a waste to not give them Christmas themed pj's until Christmas Eve when the season is over. So that's my pj tradition modification.

Onto Christmas morning. I considered taking pictures, but in the end I decided to stay where I was & enjoy the moment with the kids & just write about it later. I regret that.

When Jack went to bed on Christmas Eve he asked Jeremiah if Santa might really give him coal for Christmas. Jeremiah said we'd have to see. Jack was being an optimist & said that even if Santa did give him coal it would be okay because he'd add it to his rock collection! Jack was the first child up on Christmas morning. He saw his wrapped present from Santa & was SO excited & did a little laugh & said "Santa brought me a present! He didn't bring me coal, he brought me a present!" It was absolutely priceless! I love that boy so much!

Santa brought Callie an Easy Bake Oven, the one thing she'd been pining over since before her birthday (Jul 1)! She was ELATED! Very very sadly, Santa forgot to bring her a lightbulb & we seriously did not have a single lightbult that would be even close to working :( It wasn't until a few days later that Callie & I baked her first Easy Bake masterpiece. Okay, not really a masterpiece. We didn't set the timer & lost track of time so it overbaked by a couple of mins. Instead of a yellow cake with chocolate frosting she had a yellow crunchy cookie with chocolate frosting! :) She still loved it & is excited to use her oven some more.

Jack really wanted this toy Spike the Dinosaur. He's a big remote control dino with a big price tag to match. If it were a toy that I feel he could have had for years to come I would have gladly encouraged Santa to bring it for him, but I know my kids. So when Jack asked Santa to bring Spike I explained to him that when toys are that expensive at the store, the elves have to work extra extra hard to make that kind of toy, and they just can't spend that much time making one child's toy. I had to tell him that several times during the season. One day close to Christmas he said, "Yeah, but I asked for Spike last year too & so maybe the elves could work on part of it last year & part of it this year so that it won't be too much work at once." He's so clever! Early in the season though I encouraged him to ask for a Hot Wheels set he'd played with & loved at a friend's house. So Santa brought Jack a Hot Wheels Dr. Bones Color Lab, and guess what? Jack loves it! And he wasn't sad about not getting Spike.

Ellie wanted a "baby doll just like Callie's." Early on I'd planned on asking Santa to bring her a Bitty Baby of her own, but then I got practical & decided she already had a baby she loved so why spend $45 on a Bitty Baby? I was really proud of myself for coming to that conclusion! So instead Santa was asked to bring her some more Snap N Style dolls & stuff. She loves Callie's old ones so I figured she'd be thrilled to have some more of them. But as the days to Christmas grew closer she kept talking about the baby doll that she wanted. She climbed in bed with Jeremiah & me one morning & we were talking about it & she was very adamant that she wanted a baby doll just like Callie's. That did it. I caved & sent in her order to Santa as soon as I got out of bed! She was VERY happy to open up her Bitty Baby from Santa on Christmas morning!

I tried to keep Christmas simple this year because last year was ridiculous. The only other thing that Jeremiah & I got our kids was a robe & a pillow pet (yes, you read that right. I bought my children a stupid pillow pet). But with gifts from grandparents & aunts/uncles, they were still spoiled & had lots to open.

Ellie got these sunglasses in her stocking from Santa & wore them around for quite a bit Christmas day. It didn't bother her at all that her hair was in her face!



Santa put a bunch of dart refills in Jack's stocking for his dart guns he got for his birthday, so Jeremiah & Jack had an all out war in the afternoon!



The rest of the day was spent snacking, napping, relaxing & playing. It was also really fun being able to talk to my 2 brothers, both on missions in Mexico (Veracruz & Mexico City West). In fact my Veracruz bro's mission pres let him do Skype! I couldn't believe it! I thought it was fun being able to see him for the first time in almost 2 years! They'll both be home mid-April. So despite my bad attitude earlier in the week from the tree & neighbor gift stuff, it was a great Christmas.

Oh this picture is from a few nights later, but here's our redecorated Christmas tree!



And that wraps up our 2010 Christmas! I'm so punny, I know!

handprint snowman ornaments

Last year I used the kids' handprints to make snowman handprint ornaments for the grandparents & for me. The kids' only involvement was their actual print, & I did the rest. They were super cute, but I didn't put the ornaments on the tree this year since they are GLASS & therefore very "Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian." (name that Christmas movie!)

When I saw this post from one of my fav blogs I knew I wanted to make new & improved hand print snowman ornaments - this time on little canvases! And this time I let the kids pretty much do it themselves. It was very hard for me to let them have total creative control, but we all made it through it. Of course I had to help Ellie a bit, but really she did a lot. She did most of the buttons on her snowmen, most of the carrot noses, some of the snow, & some of the mouths. She also "helped" me with some of the other parts (I controlled her hand).



Here are the final results (tdf cute if you ask me!):

Jackson's

Callie's

Ellie's

Oh {dead} Christmas Tree

I'm not even kidding, although I wish I were.

Last year we threw out our artificial tree b/c it was a piece of crap & we figured we'd buy a new one this year. Then this year came & Jeremiah decided he'd rather buy a live tree each year than deal with storage of an artificial tree from year to year since we're really out of space for something like that. Plus it seems that year after year I have issues with the lights on artificial trees working.

I loaded up the kids Thanksgiving weekend while Jeremiah was on his elk hunt & went to good ol' Home Depot to pick out a tree. They cut a bit off the bottom & I bought a new tree stand with big metal teeth on the bottom that would bite into the tree to help it absorb water.

Fast forward a few weeks. Our tree is DEAD. Dead, dead, dead. I had noticed a week or so before that the tree wasn't sucking up water. I haven't had a lot of live trees, but I seem to remember the ones I did being water hogs. We could go DAYS without adding water to this tree. Jeremiah wondered if drilling holes near the base would help. This was before it was completely dead & he didn't do it. So then once he determined it was officially dead, he brings in the drill. Silly Jeremiah. It was of course too late. At first I said I didn't care - I didn't want to deal with undecorating & redecorating a tree a week & a half before Christmas. But as the days went by our tree began to look like this: (see how the left side is shriveling into itself?!)



Until it got to this point I was ready to ignore the problem & take it down the day after Christmas. But Jeremiah had already said we were getting a different tree, and once it got this bad I knew we had to do it. So FIVE (5) DAYS before Christmas we undecorated our sad tree! Jeremiah took it back to Home Depot since they guaranteed it, but they only had 2 trees left & they were both shabby looking. They gave us our money back & very fortunately we were able to use a pre-lit artificial tree that Jeremiah's parents had just inherited but not put up since they were spending the holidays in Washington. It sucked redoing a tree. It sucked the first time I did it & I was swearing half the time then (issues with the stupid new base, issues with the the lights, pine needles everywhere, etc.). Imagine take 2! Fortunately Jeremiah was awesome & set up the artificial tree & helped hang the garland (the tree is usually all me). He started to hang ornaments but gave up after about 15 mins. I was feeling quite scrooge-ish by the time I finished! Bah-humbug!

Christmas is coming!

And Santa's sweatshop workshop is in full swing at our house! Christmas card addressing, neighbor gift baking, school teacher & classmate treats, etc.



Just look at the little elves wrapping up packages for Christmas day! {love it}

Callie was upset with me the other day because I wouldn't let her do something or I was getting onto her about something - I don't remember. I was being a mom. She got real quiet & thoughtful for a minute. Then she says, "Mom, would Santa ever put coal in a grown-up's stocking?" I started laughing & said, "I guess he could. Why? Do you think he should put coal in my stocking?" She said yes.

I'm still laughing.

Australian/Austrian Costume

I'll be honest - I'm looking for a huge atta-girl here. Callie's teacher sent home a note from school last week saying that for their Christmas party they were going to do a celebration of countries around the world. Callie's assignment was Austria (which Callie kept telling me was Australia before I actually saw the paper), and the teacher wanted the kids to come to school in a costume that represented the country. Seriously?! This is 1st grade! I was feeling quite put out but I didn't want my kid to be the only one to show up without her country's costume!

I did what any awesome mom would do and put together a costume. My total cost was about $5.50 & tons of frustration! I bought a yard of black felt for her "vest" - whatever it's called, & a few yards of ribbon. We had the skirt. I used one of her shirts to trace the basic size/shape for the vest, then guessed on the neck. Turns out the shoulders were way too wide but oh well. I was going to just sew up the sides & attach the eyelets for lacing it up & call it good, but I sort of got into it & decided to see what some extra stitching would look like. Before long I was committed to a bunch of decorative stitching! And then I had all kinds of eyelet issues. I have an eyelet setting plier tool made for fabric eyelets & snaps & it didn't work. I gave up after ruining all but the eyelets I definitely needed plus 2 extra. I had to get creative & go through Jeremiah's toolbox to find something that would work to set the eyelets, but I finally got them done.

Callie was so excited about her costume. Even with the extra wide shoulders on her vest she looked cute. I even braided ribbon into her hair & we practiced saying "Merry Christmas" in German for a couple days before. Turns out the teacher never had the kids say Merry Christmas in their languages. Oh well. Anyway, don't I totally rock as a mom for throwing together a freaking Austrian costume the night before her Christmas party? I mean, seriously!





Fröhliche Weihnachten!

snowman snack

I saw this snack idea here & had the snowman head picks ordered within minutes! Jack had snack at preschool this week & I knew he'd love them. I got enough picks to take the snack to Callie's class next month too. I got the picks in the mail super quickly, and then of course I had the hardest time finding donut holes in this town! I called every grocery store & none of them bake their own & they were all out from their suppliers. I finally ordered some from the donut shop in town. They were huge - not the traditional donut hole I've ever seen/eaten, but they worked out in the end. And yes, Jack loved them!

The Nutcracker! {2010}

I love traditions. A few years ago we took our kids to the Polar Express for the first time. I wanted to also do The Nutcracker, but let's be real- the streets are not paved with gold & it costs a lot of money to do all the extra stuff there is to do at the holidays. So a tradition was formed. One year as a family we do the Polar Express, and on the alternate year I'll take Callie (and next time Ellie) to see The Nutcracker. (If Jack wants to go sometime we'll have to talk about it then.) For now we're seeing a local community production. Someday I'll take Callie to a professional production, but for $20/ticket & some narration, the community production is perfect for kids!

The Nutcracker was on Friday night in Boulder City (almost to Las Vegas). I picked Callie up early from school (she was just a little bit excited about that), and she, my friend Abby & I headed to Henderson to do some shopping! I let Callie choose where she wanted to go for dinner. I made a few suggestions, one of them being Pei Wei. She said no to that since that's where we ate last time. Two years ago! Crazy that she remembered that, since we've eaten in Henderson a billion times since then. When I suggested Red Robin she asked if that's the place with balloons. Again, how does she remember this stuff? It's been a LONG time since she's been to Red Robin. Anyway, after a great afternoon of shopping, we headed to Red Robin in the mall & met up with some other friends.

The Nutcracker wasn't as great for me this time as it was last time. For one I didn't get to sit with Callie for most of the show. I would be happy to sit through a professional production of Nutcracker, but most of the enjoyment for me seeing this community production is watching Callie. She LOVED it last time & decided she wanted to be a ballerina. It had been great seeing her excitement. So this year I missed out on that. That combined with the embarrassingly revealing tights on the nutcracker. Seriously! It was like a bad train wreck you can't take your eyes off of! I was so distracted! Plus for some reason all the little girls ended up sitting together & I was cringing in my seat for the first 2/3 of the show because of their {lack of} theater ettiquette. I finally couldn't take it any more & I crawled down the row & made the girls scoot so I could sit by Callie & control my kid!

Callie really enjoyed The Nutcracker & still wants to be a ballerina. She loved taking pictures with some of the cast afterwards & also her friends. We ended the night with a stop at McDonald's. Since none of our friends joined us this time I got Callie a milkshake to go & we headed home. Callie was asleep before we were truly out of Boulder, I think. It was great spending the day with my Callie-girl! It had been a fun day hanging out with Abby too & getting our shop on!