The Day After

The day after Christmas, with Paul back at work and the kids on break from school, I suddenly decided to road-trip it to my sisters house in Chicago.

Like I literally decided at about 9:30am Monday morning.

By noon, we were on the road.

(You DON'T want to know what my house looked like...although you could ask our friend Kevin.)

It was one of my better decisions : )

That night the kids were happily playing with their cousin Madden

AND their Grandma!

My parents spent Christmas with my sister and we got there in time to spend the last day-and-a-half with them. I think they enjoyed the surprise :)

While we were there we..

ended up on a train ride at the mall, when Legoland turned out to be full to capacity.

Avery seriously talked about that train ride for weeks.

Took the kids to see "Chipwrecked"

The big kids loved it, Madden loved his treats, Avery loved going to the potty every 10 minutes, and the adults...endured.

The major accomplishment of the trip was finally making it to the top of Sears Tower, after a failed previous attempt. It's long been a dream of Noah's to stand on the Skydeck. It was a crazy day (waking up way too early, Tiff's almost broken ankle, the crazy bum who threatened to beat us, lineslineslines, crowds, $$)

But just look at that face!! Totally worth it : ) Made me so happy.

Actually, it was scarier than I thought. I'm not afraid of heights and my legs were shaking the entire time. I had to drag Avery out there and she wouldn't stand up.

Alex kept wondering when we were finally going to get there (after lots of different lines, and a couple different elevators). When I told her this was it she gave me one of her looks and said, "Mom, you are kidding me."

And not in a good way.

She ended up loving it : )

I think these two liked the train ride in and out of the city best of all.

It wasn't a super long trip but we enjoyed every minute!

Lazy mornings...

good food,

lounging around,

and staying up late! As in half the night - that's what we had to do to get our kid -free sister time in : ) Best part of the day.

Thanks a million Tiff and Randy, for letting us crash your place at the last minute and cause chaos for 3.5 days.

Potty-training toddler and all.

Good thing I brought Cherry Bombs, right Tiff??

Christmas 2011

A miracle. A bit of snow the day before Christmas Eve.

An even bigger miracle. The rolls I made for Christmas Eve dinner (and orange rolls too, for dessert and breakfast).

I can't remember being more proud, at least of my accomplishments in the kitchen.

A big thank you to my friend Carolyn, for the tutorial and the faith : )

Paul was home.

The kids were excited.

Dinner was delicious (tri-tip, gouda potatoes, rolls, sparkling cider).

The kids each opened one present, as per tradition.

Noah loved making slime (from G&G)

Alex read her new Fancy Nancy books from Noah.

(A few days before Christmas he asked Paul to take him to the store so he could use his money to pick out a present for both of his sisters. We kind of couldn't believe it, it was awesome.)

Avery immediately undressed and snuggled the newest addition to her collection of babies (from G&G)

We finished up, by candlelight, The Christ Book, A Countdown to Christmas.

Something I put together for my family. Been wanting to do it for years, so glad I finally did, we loved it.

Also spent the week of Christmas reading "The Nutcracker" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". I think those will be a tradition now too.

Set our alarms and woke up at 6am Sunday morning - the kids insisted on doing ALL the gifts before 9am church : )

Everyone was happy!

Noah's favorite was his remote control helicopter (in the background)

Alex got the American Girl look-like-me doll that she's been "wishing for"

And Avery loved it all - but mostly the soda and goldfish she found in her stocking : )

I actually loved going to church on Christmas Day, it was a beautiful meeting.

And, bonus, we got a family pic!

We spent the afternoon playing with all our toys (helicopter, just dance, karaoke).

Oh yeah, and Avery started potty-training herself. No joke. She got undies in her stocking and there was no going back for her. I broke out the little potty and she took it from there.

Paul and I snuck in a little nap/rest.

We face-timed with the fam in different parts of the country.

And had fondue for dinner with our friends the Weights.

4 Christmases spent here in this home, in Rochester, MN.

I've loved them all.

The pictures wouldn't be appropriate

I'm pretty certain that Santa is bringing Avery some underwear for Christmas.

Cuz lately, I keep finding her with no diaper on.

Pants, and no diaper.

A skirt, and no diaper.

A shirt and sneakers, and no diaper.

And, my personal favorite, a shirt and legwarmers...and no diaper.

(Like I said, the pictures wouldn't be appropriate.)

She's been asking to wear "Unnies"

and she's about to get her wish.

I really wasn't quite ready for this Avery, but you've left me no choice.

As for being done with diapers for.ev.er? Now that, I'm ready for!

The Entire month of NOVEMBER

Paul working crazy (night shift) hours in the ICU (hate).

Thanksgiving, Noah's 8th Birthday, Noah's baptism and visits from the Grandparents (love).

{Because I'm never going to get to all these things individually...but I'm not ready to give up on this blog yet.}

Thanksgiving:

Great food,

great friends,

the kids had a blast (Noah says it was his best Thanksgiving ever),

Avery was a ham,

and the Bumans were amazing hosts!!

Thanks guys :)

A few days later...

Noah turned 8 years old.

We celebrated by taking Noah and Alex and 2 of their friends to the Mall of America to ride the rides. That's my kind of birthday party. Kids had a blast, Paul and I did a little shopping (not at the same time) and Avery had fun at home with a babysitter. Win win win.

We also had a family party on his actual birthday, with presents and lemon cake with lemon frosting.

A few days later...

Noah got baptized.

It was such an important day for Noah and our family. Everything went beautifully and we're so grateful that both sets of grandparents were there to share the day with us and be a part of it. We also had the love and support of many, many dear friends. We are so proud of Noah and we feel so blessed.

We also got the first (real) snow of the year that day, the kids could not have been happier.

And Paul surprised the kids with a tree. Not the best surprise ever, but they sure had fun decorating it.

November was busy. I'm not gonna lie, I got stressed out at times, I thought it was too hard some days. But there was also a lot of love, laughter, friends, family, and good food.

It's a wonderful life. And I am happy and grateful.

It ended on a High

MY crew

THE crew

Thanks Carolyn and Katy! SO FUN.

Just being silly.

Or serious.

And this little bee...

she might have made my whole life with her cuteness.

Trick-or-treating with Avery might be one of the funnest (not a word) things I have ever done.

For. Reals.

You weren't there so you wouldn't know.

She loooooooooved it. No stroller necessary, she walked (read: ran) on her own for over an hour - bee wand in one hand, candy bag (or purse, as she called it) in the other.

Laughing. Running. Laughing. Falling. Laughing. Yelling.

Yes yelling. You know, things like

"MORE CANDY!"

or

"THEY NOT HOME!"

and

"CHOCOLATE!"

Thank you Avery. Halloween was worth it : )

Also noteworthy:

Alex picked out her and Avery's costumes - all her idea to match. Cutest ever.

When I was ready to bail with Avery, Paul made it home just in time to keep going with the big kids. He saved the day.

Noah outlasted everyone (as in he was trick-or-treating his way home with his friends dad, minus his friend. Thank you Kevin). Never seen such a haul.

Happy Halloween!

Now I can even say that and mean it : )

Avery would say it like this: I doe yike it

I don't like Halloween all that much.

My husband hates it.

Our first problem this year was finding Noah a costume - because he wanted to be something creepy or gross, which I just wasn't having. We finally decided on a black ninja costume, I ordered it, and was glad to be done. I had to pay extra for shipping at that point to guarantee it would arrive the day before his costume parade at school.

The day before his costume parade at school the package arrived. I opened the box. When I saw a bunch of bright colors I knew we had a problem. When I lifted out the most hideous clown costume you have ever seen - I was just pissed.

I immediately called the company, the representative was neither very nice or helpful, and I was informed that the black ninja costume I'd ordered and paid for was completely out of stock, but would I like to choose something else??

Um NO.

So that night Paul and Noah were hitting up every Halloween store in town (pretty much Paul's worst nightmare) and having the same battle with Noah all over again.

There were gone for what seemed like forever. I got one text from Paul while they were out:

"I hate halloween."

Noah came home with a pirate costume - the same exact one I told him before he left that he could borrow from a friend. He insists it's not the same (it is).

Friday I got to haul my 2-year-old to not one but two costume parades at school.

Alex's was first. It wasn't too bad - just the morning kindergarten classes which meant it wasn't too crowded, and Avery only cried a little bit.

But I didn't get very good pictures on my cell phone:

We were back in the afternoon for Noah's parade. A lot more kids, a lot more parents - it's always a madhouse. We got there 15 minutes early and still had to park way too far away. We went to Noah's classroom to snap a few pics beforehand - Avery was screaming her head off and once again I didn't get any good pics on my cell phone:

Then we went outside to wait for the parade to go by. Avery was still screaming so I let her out of the stroller. The parade was passing and I had my phone in hand, watching for Noah's class. Next thing I knew there was a big commotion - and it took me a minute to realize my child was the cause of it. Avery had run into the middle of the pack of kids parading by and basically got trampled, slamming her head pretty hard into the asphalt. As I ran into the mass of swarming and confused children to scoop up my screaming and injured 2-year-old I heard another parent say (loudly) "Whose kid is that??"

I headed to the back of the crowd to calm Avery down - where she passed out in my arms (used to that by now). She came too really quickly and continued to cry. By the time I had her under control...the parade was over. I had missed Noah.

Luckily, a friend of mine was also there, saw what had happened and snapped a picture of Noah for me as he went by.

I also have to mention that just before Noah got trampled I was chatting with the mom standing next to me, it came up in conversation that I was a Mormon, and it seemed to me that she acted awkward. Was it just in my head, because of everything in the media right now? Maybe. I don't know.

Either way, I came home from the school costume parade wanting to cry.

Instead, I laid down on the couch, closed my eyes, and ignored my kids for awhile.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. As we were leaving, I saw another parent using her iphone to take pics of her kid...and zooming in.

what?? my iphone camera can zoom??

I. am. an idiot.

And.

I don't much like Halloween.