Christmas pictures

Christmas was bittersweet this year. It was the first year for as long as I could remember that we didn't have Christmas with my Grandparents. They are both in the nursing home and the families all did their own thing. So I had my mom and brothers over to my house for Christmas Eve. My 2 youngest brothers are both chefs at a fancy little Italian restaurant so they actual pitched in and helped make dinner. Tim made yummy basil mashed potatoes and a scrumptious chocolate torte! It was so good. I think over the next few days I finished of 3/4 of it! So here are pictures from Christmas eve with my family.


Of course Christmas morning was a visit from Santa. And rushing to go to our two other family gatherings


Then we went to Grandma B's for lunch. Trevor really enjoyed terrorizing Scooter the Siamese cat. Both Jayden and Trevor weren't too sure what to think of Charlie the dog. But they warmed up to him a little bit.









After that we went to Grandpa G's. I ate way to much sweets and got a tummy ache. It was really nice spending a few days with family.


And finally we went home and all took a really long nap!

Visit with Santa

Trevor did much better sitting with Santa than he did last year. Santa thought it was pretty cute that Trevor had a Santa hat. Trevor loves that Santa hat, he wears it pretty much every day. He always wants to wear it everywhere we go and gets mad when I won't let him wear it to daycare.

Again I've backdated some posts

Just letting you all know I've recently put up some other older things all the way back to October. Some things I put up are alot of pictures back through October, halloween pictures, some videos of Jayden "dancing" and a bunch of other stuff.

Most recent "pro" pics

No more snow please

I dislike winter very much. And can't stand pretty much everything that goes along with it. The happenings of the last 3 weeks pretty much sum up why I would love to be a "snow bird" someday.


In the last 30 days I have:
~ been sick for a total of nearly 3 weeks (2 separate times)
~ been puked on and snotted on by sick babies
~ nearly wrecked my car sliding on a ice covered side street. Trevor thought it was all kinds of fun and was squealing with delight in the back while I was shrieking in fear of hitting numerous parked cars before finally coming to a stop
~ have worked three times in Des Moines (2 hour drive one way) the day after a snow storm and the roads were still pretty yucky
~ witnessed Trevor eating nasty snow off the garage floor. Yuck!!!
~ been bombarded at work with sick people coughing and hacking all over. No wonder I keep getting sick

On the bright side, it is a pretty white wonderland outside. If only it weren't so darn cold and slippery!

Qwest for a Christmas picture

I thought about taking the kiddos to Penneys to get holidayish pictures taken. But I thought back to the last time and decided I could do just as good on my own. Maybe so, they didn't turn out like I'd hope. But at least I didn't have to cough up some cash to be disappointed when Trevor made it much more difficult than it needed to be. I good a few "nice" shots. I love the moment I captured in the first with Trevor hugging Jayden. Too bad they weren't really smiling. I got a couple of cute ones with Jayden solo, too bad her fingers are all blurred in the movment.

There were a lot of tears on Trevor's part, and flat refusal to stay on the backdrop. I even got "props" I thought we be good to bait them to stay on the backdrop. Seems all that did was give them something to fight over. Notice in the last picture all of the bulbs were behind Trevor, out of Jayden's reach and she has just a little bit of beads to hold on to. I gave up after 58 pictures.

Not quite the greeting card type pictures I was going for. Oh well, I was kidding myself when I even thought about sending out Christmas cards. Maybe I'll get them out in time for New Year's cards. Or maybe I'll just save the envelopes I've started addressing faor next year. If it wasn't for all these hours I'm working these days, I really could have got them out. I suppose I have an excuse every year. But this year I'm really having a hard time. I work in a couple of really slow stores this week so I could ~maybe~ finish them at work; if I get my other paperwork I tote along with me done first. But then they'd be too late to really consider Christmas cards. So I think New Years cards it is. :o) Is there such a thing?

Sleepy Girl

My Happy place

Who would have ever in a million years would have thought that doing laundry in my dank basement would in my mind be considered an escape. I have quite a set up down there. The entire main room has clothes lines running the length so I can hang clothes as I go. A couple of wire cubbies allow me to sort each members clothes into their own little cubbies. And a 6 foot banquet table that used to be used for scrapbooking has become my folding table. I just brought down my ironing board since I've got a ton of purdy new clothes that might need ironing.

I relish those 15-30 minute snippets of time where I'm folding laundry in the basement with both the washer and dryer humming to drown out the screaming, kiddo video, or annoying constant "noise" of a parade of infant toys all singing their own tune all at the same time. Ahhh, it's paradise! It reminds me I need to go start another load. ~ hmmm maybe I should stash a book or a magazine somewhere and take some extra time "sorting socks."

I got big plans for my dank little basement. Soon I'd like to put some fresh paint up. Maybe set up a sewing cabinet. In the other room one day I hope to have padding on the floors of some kind so the kiddos can play. Ohhh scratch that, it would defeat the purpose. Maybe instead I'll make a little workout room.

Jayden at 8months

~ Has a sense of humor. When she chuckles she sounds like beevis (or butthead? I'm not sure which is which.)
~ Is lightning fast with her army crawl but doesn't yet crawl with her tummy off the ground
~ Gets frantic when she is hungry and knows food is coming
~ Loves to crumple paper
~ Gets ~MAD~ when you take said paper away
~ Loves to play peek-a-boo and covers her face with her blankie
~ Only uses a binkie when it's time for bed
~ Pulls up on things and gets into a somewhat of a standing position
~ Knows the minute I walk in the door after work and starts screaming if I don't come in to greet her that very moment
~ Is getting better at eating for me, although the first taste of anything seems yucky
~ Had her first protein type meal last night, apples and chicken
~ Has very dry skin, I have to rub her down with Aquaphillic every night
~ Is starting to fight with Trevor over toys. She gets mad when he takes them away and he tells her to "STOP!!!" or "Noooo!"
~ Usually wakes up in a really good mood
~ Is ticklish all over. Tickling almost always gets giggles.
~ Still doesn't laugh easily but giggles uncontrollably once you get her going.
~ What she lacks in laughs she makes up for in big happy grins. She's a really smiley baby.
~ Never once has cried at daycare... so they say
~ Nellie at daycare says she's the best baby and always wants to be the one to take care of her