You know it's bad when...

You knew the Cowboy's game was bad when Daddy diverted his attention from the game to painting Megan's toenails. That hand up in the air was her directing the painting.



This is Megan practicing "touchdown" in case it was ever needed during the game (unfortunately not)...thank you Uncle Matt and Aunt Krissa for her Romo jersey! Pardon the mess in the background...she was having fun with my stickers.

Mmmmm...it's that time of year again!

Yeah, I might be obsessed with sodium and fatting foods right now, but my favorite fruit is out in the store right now - pink oranges. I've blogged about these suckers before, HERE, but I just can't get enough. YUM-O! We get fruits and veggies from a co-op every 2 weeks, and we picked our produce up on Tuesday. We never know what we're going to get, so imagine my surprise when I peeled an orange to find out that it's a pink orange - my absolute favorite! An early Christmas present!!!! I've almost eaten through the supply, yes in 3 days, but I'll be stocking up again this weekend.

Christmas Evening

Aunt Kari, Uncle Kari, Granna & Double G, Kati, and Ryan came over for Christmas evening. What a hoot! Megan was in 100% performance mode. We had saved a few of her presents from the morning, so it seemed like she had an endless pile to open. She opened the Kimono that Grandma made each of the grandkid girls, so they have one just like Aunt Lisa wore when she was little. We had a tough time figuring it out...crazy Americans...but she really likes it! She got a Barbie car, a princess character chair for "watching movies" (that she used today), Barbies, and books. Granna and Double G are perhaps the hippest great-grandparents I know...they got a Wii for Christmas and both play very well. They tested it out at our house. What fun!

Christmas Afternoon

All the cousins, aunts, uncles, Uncle Rick, and Gran & Papa came over for Christmas lunch and presents. I don't have many pics of the afternoon group for some reason. The kids were so patient even though we made them eat lunch before tearing into their gifts. Some of them were walking around asking, "You done yet?" and assessing each plate. Megan got lots of new gifts including new glitter shoes (with covered glitter so it doesn't chip off), cute new clothes, a purse, a baby bed, an Etch-a-Sketch, and Hungry Hungry Hippos. I believe everyone has been subjected to playing a round or two of HHH. She and Daddy played for a long time yesterday...I love her hand up in the air while she plays.

Christmas Morning

After a late night, Megan took her time getting up. I'd been up for almost 2 hours, pacing the house, waiting for her to wake up. I finally sent Uncle Scott in to get her up at 9 a.m. We had a quiet, fun morning opening gifts. Megan got lots of neat toys and gifts. It was so enjoyable to watch her open presents, get excited, play, talk about them, and move on to the next one. Uncle Scott did great shopping for our kids! He got Megan a Cinderella pillow and Connor an "I love the Cowboys!" jacket. Perfect. We gave Grandpa some cologne since he always makes sure I smell good. (My perfume this is year is called "Flowerbomb". VERY nice.) Aunt Lisa hooked me up with a cookbook holder and a cookbook - for the busy family (that's us!). My kids (that's weird to say) got me a very awesome chopping knife. I used it last night for dinner and whoa baby...slides right through those carrots! Daddy got lots of nice presents too...money for a circular saw (bought it already, a sweater, a Cowboys hat, etc). Priceless morning...

Christmas Eve

This year was such a different Christmas. Not in a bad way, but just in a different way. My mom is out in Utah with Matt's family and new baby Nolan - lucky lady - and my dad and Scott are here - lucky us. Grandpa and Scott came over for Christmas Eve/Christmas morning. I will have to admit that I embarrassed myself in front of my dad...he turned to me and said, "What's Christmas Eve tradition around here?" Silence. I had no idea! We've never been by ourselves! By my response you would've thought that I had been raised in a house without traditions, too. Following my lead, we stumbled through the evening, managing only to set cookies out for Santa. This is not my "mother of the year" year; I'll do better next time.

Megan and Grandpa snuggling. They weren't really asleep. Megan "tasted" one of Santa's cookies.

The tree and living room at night.

Megan's loot before she tore into it.

Pre-Christmas

Yeah, yeah...I have a lot of catching up to do. Have a seat...

Aunt Kelly had the kids over to decorate cookies for Santa. Needless to say, I think Megan consumed more than she decorated, but oh well. She'd purposely paint her fingers with the icing so she had to lick them. :) It was such a good time! Thank you, Aunt Kelly.











That evening, we had dinner with our favorite Aussie family. The kids exchanged gifts, and we had a fabulous dinner. Whatever Angus does to the food is magical! :) I ate myself silly stuffed! Then we sat around for hours talking and laughing. We did not leave until after 1 a.m. The kids were still bouncing around, but then Megan passed out in the car while we were still in the driveway. Thank you for a wonderful evening.

Giveaway results

So you can all step away from your computers and join your family festivities....

The calendar goes to....Kelli A.!

Have a fun, memorable holiday - and to all a good night!

E

Sad and Happy

This is a very bittersweet holiday week for our family. Jeremy's grandpa, Great-Grandpa Jim, passed away in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. He'd recently been diagnosed with cancer, but due to heart problems, he wasn't able to undergo any surgery or treatments. We were able to visit with him and say our goodbyes on Sunday evening. His hilarious sense of humor and affection will be sorely missed. We all have great memories of him, but one of my most vivid and heartwarming memories of him took place about 4 years ago. I was introducing him to one of my friends or family members, and I said, "This is Jeremy's grandpa, Jim." He squeezed his arm around my shoulder and said, "Woman, am I not good enough to be your Grandpa, too? Well, I'll be..." I started to explain that's not what I meant, and he just wouldn't let me out of it. He kept teasing me about it for the rest of the day. Ever since then he brought it up every now and then, just to get me going again.

On the total flip side, we welcomed a new life into our family. My brother Matt and his wife Krissa had baby Nolan DeLaney yesterday afternoon. He weighed 8lbs 2oz and has some Aunt Erica reddish tint to his hair (I'm so proud). Mom and baby are doing fine, and I hear a rumor that big sister Rylee is very excited! I've seen one picture of him (on my phone), but I cannot wait to see more. Congrats!

The Megan and Georgia show

Over the past two days, Megan and Georgia have been inseparable. In all fairness to her parents, we've been begging to have Georgia around to keep Megan happy! Last night, we had them in the car together, and we laughed SO hard. I mean, these two are funny! When they weren't making hilarious conversation, they were practicing "Jingle Bells" at the top of their lungs. They sweetly sang their rendition ("in a one for sumthin' sleigh - HEY!") to great-grandma, Uncle Rick, Aunt Karen, and Big Austin. I couldn't get it on video last night, but the two princesses were nice enough to let me video it today. Enjoy.

My scrapbooking buddy

I wanted to scrapbook for a while yesterday, and Daddy was otherwise occupied, so I improvised: I gave Megan a bunch of stuff and had her join me. She was so darn cute! She cut, glued, stuck, imagined, pretended, and created. She even fashioned her own magnifying class (last pic below) with a pipe cleaner. We were in there for almost 2 hours. She usually doesn't do anything for more than 15-20 minutes.

Giveaway

Yes, you read correctly. I am holding my first "blog giveaway"! Whoo hoo. Up for grabs: a homemade 2009 calendar (8x8) very similar to the one as seen this week on my blog or HERE.

To enter, leave a comment with your name (with at least your last initial, unless you have an i.d. and no need for email addresses yet). I have enabled anonymous comments until the end of this giveaway, so fellow blog lurkers are welcome to enter as well. Please only enter once. This is for adults only...don't be entering your kids and pets! :) The giveaway starts today and will end at noon Christmas Eve. Megan will draw for the winner that afternoon, and I will post the results sometime after that. I will complete the calendar and have it to the winner in time to hang it up on New Year's Day.

I may have forgotten something, but seeing how I am a "giveaway virgin", please accept my apologies ahead of time. Have fun and good luck!

"gyn-nastics party"

Last night we went to a birthday party (Jaxon's 2nd) at a gymnastics gym. We were a little worried that Megan might be a little timid, but we were so wrong. Here's a glimpse of the first 3 minutes:


She had a blast! She jumped on the trampolines, jumped into the foam pit, walked on the balance beam, played hula-hoops, climbed the wall, and ran all over the place! We had one little incident when she and another little boy cracked heads, but for the most part she was just one little striped blur. We're thinking this is a great idea for Megan's birthday party in January. :)

Visit to Santa

Megan and I had a "girl day" today. We ran some errands and visited Santa. She saw him before Thanksgiving, but she needed to make some revisions to her list. Today she jumped right up there and shared her list: a princess clock, Barbie stuff, a camera, new coloring books, and a new PB (purple blanket). So far, Santa has done a great job of getting things ready for her. :)

My favorite thing is that Megan and Santa held hands the entire time. Didn't seem creepy; just seemed precious.

Christmas party excitement

Today was Megan's Christmas pajama party at school. They got to wear their pj's all day today - notice she's in pj pants? Don't ask me how long that process took this morning. Anyway, thank goodness we had some princess pj's stashed away, and it was warm enough today to wear short sleeves.


This wasn't the most flattering picture, but she was so darn cute sitting at the table with her reindeer antlers flopping around. They had snacks including a very yummy Christmas tree cookie, Rice Krispy treats, fruit, and juice. Ms. Tiffany gave them goodie bags and a cute ornament for the tree.


They had a class book exchange, and of course, she picked the book she brought...why the heck not? She picked it out in the store, so she knew she wanted the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book.

It took approximately 5 minutes for her to pass out in the car. First, she had a very severe stomach ache and cried about that for a minute or two. Then all of a sudden she was out. She slept 3 hours this afternoon. Didn't know what to do with the time. Don't worry, I didn't clean or anything productive.

Product Review

I rarely use my blog for negative product reviews, but I thought I should warn you about this one: Libby's canned Pumpkin Pie Mix. Four thumbs down.

Our Walmart had cases of these on every corner (should've been my first clue), so I grabbed one for an "emergency pumpkin pie crisis". Last night was one such night. The can boasts of only needing 2 other ingredients: 2 eggs and 1 5oz can of evaporated milk. Easy, right? No worries about leaving out the sugar...(K). Megan and I followed the directions to the letter, including the cooking time. But the sucker wouldn't cook! No kidding, I baked that pie for 2 hours (the recipe calls for 65-75 minutes total), and it still wouldn't "set" in the middle. However, I had to quit baking it or the pie crust would've charred! I finally just turned the oven off and left the pie in there for a while longer. I figured for the amount of time it was in there, it was cooked past the danger part. I put it out back in the 20 degree weather to cool, and then cut into it. It was a little "done" tasting - duh - but the part I couldn't get past the funky "sweet" aftertaste that lingered on my tongue for hours! It stuck around after 2 teeth brushings. I even gagged on the taste when I woke up this morning. They laced that stuff with something funky.

Anyway, to me, it's worth getting the old fashioned canned pumpkin and having to do the extra measuring and pouring to have an actual cooked, yummy pumpkin pie. My apologies if you like it...this is merely my opinion. :)

Homemade

Once people enter my circle of friends or family, they subject themselves to receiving handmade things from me at any occasion. For some reason, I get these wild hairs to make things for people...I have no idea if they really like them, but I like making them. Sometimes I get some pretty weird looks, like, "Couldn't you have just given me a gift card?" or "What were you thinking?" and I'm pretty sure I get the hint. Those people usually don't have to endure another handmade thing from me. But I'm always looking for new victims...HA! I just finished one of my gifts for someone this Christmas - a 2009 calendar. Not telling who it's for...

Current Meganisms

These are a few of my favorite things that Megan does lately:

1) "I can do it by myself." She's very independent lately when it comes to...um...everything. She wants to go potty, get dressed, undress, clean up, wash her hands, etc, all by herself. I bet I hear those words 100 times a day.

2) "Can I watch you cook?" She's also very enthralled with the whole cooking process. She pushes that blue chair all around the kitchen, on my heels, to watch whatever I'm slicing, dicing, stirring, and/or cooking. So far, she's got the whole "don't touch the stove" thing down.

3) "Uncle Jeff will know." The other night she wanted to know what the little fringy shoulder things on Prince Charming's uniform were called. Daddy and I had no idea, and told her we didn't know. She said, "Uncle Jeff will know." So we called him, and he found out for her (they're eppilettes in case anyone wants to know). Now, if I say, "I don't know," she declares that Uncle Jeff will know so we should call him. Poor Uncle Jeff would be on the phone at least an hour a day if I called him every time she tells me he knows something that I don't know. That Uncle Jeff is smart!

4) "I think Baby Connor..." Poor Connor. He hasn't even come out yet and Megan is talking for him. She likes to tell me what he wants, needs, and thinks. "Baby Connor is hungry. We should get a snack." "Baby Connor is tired. We should relax and watch a movie." "Baby Connor is thirsty. Here lemme get us a drink." Did you catch how everything has a benefit for her, too? Baby Connor needs all those things, so I can share with her or she gets to do what she wants.

5) "Bippity Boppity Boo" Every evening, Megan gets her magic wand and Bippity Boppity Boo's the Tinkerbell tree-topper and the tree lights on. Daddy stands behind the tree and turns them on when she says, "BOO!" She thinks that is fabulous.

Why I will finish my Christmas shopping ALONE

Yesterday, I experienced the shopping trip from hell. That is not an exaggeration. Shopping with a 2 year old is punishment. Hands down.

I decided to try to whittle away at my Christmas list, and Megan was in a pretty good mood all morning, so why not? She got dressed in her "Santa dress" (red sweater dress with fuzzy rims around the neckline and sleeves) and seemed very excited to help shop. Out the door.

Getting out the door was the nicest part of the day. Holy crap. I won't even tell you what all she did, because I'm embarrassed by 99% of it, but I will share one experience we had at JCPenney. While sitting in a basket at the previous store, she skillfully negotiated the priviledge of getting to walk around the next store, JCPenney. I figured, okay, why not...they don't have baskets anyway, and who wants to lift the stroller out of the van...yada yada. We got to Penney's, deposited change in the red bucket, and headed through the store. She had it in her mind that we were there to get something for Baby Connor for Christmas, and that was so sweet of her, so I indulged. We walked around the baby section and she zeroed in on a set of bibs. She flipped through all five, made up what the writing said, and told me that Connor needed them. Cute! I was so consumed with her sweetness that I didn't realize she had just instigated a game of "let's run around JCPenney and see if fat mom can catch me."

People, the next 15 minutes was ridiculous. Megan ran around the store, hiding in racks, crossing over departments, and I could not catch her. Picture a pissed red-head, 7 months pregnant, huffing and puffing around the store trying to catch a giggling 2 year old....it was quite a sight. I was sweating, profusely, and couldn't even get close to her. She was constantly 10 feet in front of me and fast! People were staring and laughing, which fueled my fire. Of course no one stepped out to grab her or help, so this went on for 15 minutes. Somehow I tricked her and she ran right into me. It was all I could do to not tan her hide right there in the store. She thought it was hilarious. The rest of the shopping trip went down hill from there to the point where I thought I was going to blow my top. I didn't - and Megan should be thankful everyday that stores, and parking lots, have cameras....I refuse to be "that mom" on Fox News...

Detergent update

So, now I know how to make myself do laundry...I actually couldn't wait to wash a load today to see how my soap concoction worked. First off, the recipe was not kidding when it said the detergent would "gel". I assumed it would be like hair gel; it's more like Jello jigglers.

I washed a light-colored load with shirts, pj's, etc. I also threw in a very dirty Megan dress with a red mark, some dirt, and orange juice - untreated, with no stain remover. After the load washed, I pulled the dress out to find the dirt and red mark gone, but the orange juice still hanging on for dear life. In all fairness, my other detergent doesn't remove orange juice either, so maybe orange juice just has to be treated? Other than that, the clothes seem clean. The soap doesn't have any scent, so they don't "smell clean", but they sure look clean. It made me start wondering...how do I even know my laundry washed in regular detergent is clean? :)

But I washed the clothes in soap, so I assume they are clean. I'm going to continue to use it and report back with any significant news.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

No, seriously, that title is correct!

The other day I was blog stalking (yes, I blog stalk). A lady was talking about making homemade laundry detergent, and it got me to thinking - a dangerous thing. A few Google searches later, I was hooked! I found a recipe, HERE, and gathered the ingredients.



Tonight we assembled the 10 gallon tote of homemade laundry detergent. From start to finish it took about an hour...it takes forever for the bar soap to dissolve. And let me tell you, it was easy! The hardest part was grating the bar of soap on a cheese grater because I have no leverage.



Costs? Cheap! The Zote bar was $.80; the washing soda was $2.75; the Borax was $2.98. According to the recipe, I can get approximately 640 loads of laundry for the batch that I made (with only one cup used from each of the washing soda and Borax). That's $.01 per load. If my calculations are correct, I'll be using this detergent batch for 2 years! :) Or half of that once Connor gets here.

It has to sit overnight to gel, so I haven't used it yet, but I'll let you know how it goes. From what I've read, people say it cleans better than regular store-bought detergents. I'll stick Megan's very dirty dress in the first load tomorrow and that will be the real test!

Next homemade staple? Maple syrup. That's another day...

Coloring Fool

One of Megan's newest obsessions is coloring in coloring books. She literally spends hours a day coloring...either by herself or with one of us. I'm not complaining because it's easy work for me (much easier than dressing Barbies!). She's managed to color through several coloring books lately...I'm going to have to make a trip to Dollar Tree again sometime soon!

Check-up

Went to the doctor today and everything is fine. The nurse came in and said, "Time to hear the heartbeat." Megan said, "Oh good, my favorite part!" I did fine on my glucose test and for once, my blood sugar levels weren't in the low, scary range. I've gained 24 pounds already, which was the total amount I gained with Megan...yikes...but I really don't care. Dr. Z is very funny, and regarding my weight said, "Wow. Thanksgiving must've been good. Brace yourself for Christmas." HA! We had a nice little chat, and she really helped me out (mentally) by saying a few things including that she won't make me wait until my due date - she's fine with 38 weeks. Whew....I happen to be at that base of the "am-I-going-to-be-pregnant-forever?" mountain, looking up.

And good Grandma

Grandma came over yesterday to have a "girls day". She and I hung out all day (while Megan was in school) and played with her new Cricut Expression (that thing is awesome!). We cut out a cool little paper doll set for Megan...even a Tony Romo uniform for the little guy paper doll. After school we all three went shopping, and boy was it nice to have Grandma help distract the 2 year old! We came home and just relaxed for a while before Grandma and I headed out for dual grocery shopping at Walmart. I heard Grandma say, more than once, that she loved it when Megan said, "Oh Grandma, I'm so glad you're here!" Thanks for the fun day! (Of course, we were so busy that we don't have pictures, but I'll get some of our cute paper dolls soon.)

Good Grandpa!

Yeah, I've put off the Walmart trip until the sleet subsides...in the meantime, Megan put her new ornament on the tree. Grandpa was able to find a Barbie shoe ornament, and Megan wanted to make sure it was close up by Tinkerbell (which I wanted to make sure YOU knew that we weren't still sporting a Christmas present bow on top of the tree). Daddy helped her get it up there pretty high, and I'm grateful that she thinks it needs to be up there instead of down near her hands.

Raising my hand like a dummy

Who waits until it's 30 degrees outside with 40 mph winds and a threat of sleet to go grocery shopping? Looking on the bright side, maybe Walmart won't be that crowded? :) *sigh*

Photo shoot

While Ashley was here, she took our family photos at a nearby park. Somehow she got Megan to cooperate AND captured her true personality. I love them. You can view some of them HERE and look at the other great photos she's taken. Thank you, Ashley!

She'll show me...

We've been trying a new (to us) form of thinking and discipline around here...the Love and Logic ways. Without going into much detail, basically we give Megan choices left and right and let her have some say in the day to day operations. They aren't necessarily important choices, mind you, but she seems to think they are. Like, "Do you want an apple or orange for a snack?" or "Do you want this book or this book?" or "Do you want to go to bed now or in 5 minutes?" (I'd give her five minutes anyway). It's been working very well, and things happen to be a little more calm around here. I don't know if she picked up the book and read it while I wasn't looking or she just caught on, but the past 3 days she has peppered me with choices...more choices than I even give her! At first she just started with questions during her pretend playing session at her pretend kitchen, "You have two choices...do you want onions or sprinkles on your pizza?", but then the questions quickly turned to her benefit, "Do you want to let me have candy or cookies?" Sneaky! I don't remember reading the section in the book about the questioning child...

On a side note, the girl is a bottomless pit lately. I think my pregnancy appetite has rubbed off on her. She thinks we have to eat all day long, but I can't even keep up with her! It's crazy. At least she doesn't have to weigh-in every two weeks.

Who are these people?

Brain overload

For some reason, I decided that I could teach myself 2 things today: 1) how to make my own blog background/header and 2) Facebook. So far, here at almost midnight, I'm about to chunk my laptop at the Christmas tree. Layers??? Anyone??? I mean, really. Could it be any harder to figure it out? Or am I just so far irritated and frustrated that I can't think straight? Probably. I just received some sound advice from my sweet husband: perhaps I should only tackle one thing at a time? I feel incompetent. I think I'll go eat. :)

Parade and Tree Lighting

We went to the town Christmas light parade and tree lighting this evening. It wasn't too cold, thank goodness. Megan managed to con Papa into buying her a hot dog (thank you) which she instantly inhaled. We sat along the parade route and waved at the people on the light floats. The girls were so quiet...until Santa rode by!

The parade was just long enough for us...about 25 minutes was the max for 2 antsy 2 year olds. We skipped out on the actual tree lighting and ran down to Babe's before everyone else had the same idea. We got in right away - on a Saturday night - and just before the line formed and wrapped around the building. We stuffed ourselves with yummy chicken and then headed home for a night of 2 year old entertainment. Whooo...we all three sat here and laughed so hard at those 2 girls. They were much more entertaining than the Big 12 game.

Girly play time

Megan and Cousin Anna have had a blast this weekend! Ashley and I went Christmas shopping today and left the girls with Daddy...sweet Daddy. He had a few little issues but he said mostly things went fine. The girls colored, played dress up (of course), and hide-and-seek. And while kidless, I got tons of Christmas shopping done. We've enjoyed having them visit. The girls are hilarious together!