Fondue and Family

My brother and sister-in-law came in town from St. Louis to celebrate Christmas.

Camdyn loves Christina!

 

Booth met his cousin, Oz, for the first time.  He showed off by proving he could leap over Oz in a single bound.  Oz, was not impressed.

 

Cooper and my brother, Brendan.  Cooper is usually glued to his side when he's here.

 

 

Cooper wearing his new hat from Uncle Brendan, who is a computer engineer at Boeing.  I don't think Cooper has taken it off since.

Booth making himself comfortable on my sister, Meghan.

 

Rowyn, the drama queen.

 

Talking to Cinderella on her palm phone.

Dancing for her audience.

My brother made Fondue for dinner.

I'm sad they live so far away and wish we could have meals like this more often.

Christmas 2010

If it were up to Cooper, Christmas morning would have started at 5 am.  We managed to coax him back to sleep for a few more hours, but by 7 the whole house was up.

I was ahead of the game this year, I had our video camera charged and ready to go...because last year someone neglected to check it and it had a dead battery.  I turned it on and starting taping Christmas morning...or not.  Some idiot one neglected to buy a new tape.  Ugh.  I guess there is always next year.  So, pictures it is.

Cooper found a family gift that sneaky Santa must have hidden behind our Christmas tree.


That afternoon, we headed to my parents house for dinner, presents, and for a Christmas surprise.
 

The top window on the left that you can just barely see through the tree was my room growing up. 

The surprise?

My sister, Rosa, whom we haven't seen in almost 20 years had flown in for Christmas. 

God has blessed us; 
family, friends, food, shelter, health, love.  
Yes, we certainly are blessed.


Merry Christmas!
Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Cookies and Babies

On Christmas Eve, we decorated cookies.

Rowyn was quite fond of sprinkles.

Yes, she licked the frosting knife...on more than one occasion.  Christmas is the season of sharing.

Most of the sprinkles came from The Calico Bean Market.

Sugar high in full effect!

We have a new baby in the family and we got to meet her on Christmas Eve.  My cousin Ben and his girlfriend, Erin, had baby Aubrey last week.  She's beautiful...they couldn't have asked for a more perfect Christmas gift.

Christmas Eve

After swimming, we went to my parents house to celebrate.

 

And to open presents.

 

The kids love to run Papa's train, it even smokes with the push of button.  Rowyn derailed it at least a handful of times.

Grammy with our four, just after church, so no one had time to destroy their outfits yet.

Aunt Meghan got in for a picture too.

 

Meghan and Mom and my bokeh shots...

having fun on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, I hope yours was full of friends, family, and fun!

A dip on Christmas Eve

My sister and her boyfriend stayed at the Midway while home for Christmas, so we took the kids for a dip on Christmas Eve.

Big sister Riley helping out Rowyn.

Camdyn was a little excited. ;)

Splashing with Aunt Ca-Ca (Caitlin).  Lucky Aunt Caitlin is practicing her swimming, because she's off to Costa Rica for a wedding.  Lucky girl.  I'm not jealous at all.

Tea for Two

Camdyn spent all morning playing with the play food.  She cooked, organized, and then invited me to a tea party with a full smorgasbord of food.

She left out no detail...

Yesterday, we started Camdyn on medication for ADHD.  I have very mixed emotions, but I think we need to try this next step, for both Camdyn and for our family as a whole.

Yesterday, Camdyn was a different girl.  She played for over 4 hours with the play food...there was no fighting, no tantrums, no zooming around. There was no screaming, no hitting, no teasing.  

It was bittersweet.

We have a book called The Good Little Girl, it tells the story of a good girl named, Miranda.  Miranda, has a naughty girl living inside her, named Lucretia, who comes to the surface when Miranda has had enough being patient with her busy parents who have no time for her.  Lucretia is bold, bossy, and stands up for Miranda...maybe a little too much.  I can't help comparing it to Camdyn...and the naughty little Lumpy living inside her.  Camdyn so desperately wants to be good, she wants praise, she wants people to like her.  Who wouldn't?  Hopefully, this will give Camdyn a chance for all of that.  I know it's not a magic pill...a magic fix all, but if it helps even a little bit, I'm willing to try it.

I said it is bittersweet.  Bittersweet, because I love that little Lumpy just as much as I love Camdyn.  I don't want this to come at the cost of losing her personality...'cause God knows that girl's chalk full of it.

So, we're going to work on finding balance. 
If this doesn't work, we'll try something else, but at least we'll know we tried.   

Felt Ornaments

Since somebody fell asleep in the middle of eating her licorice, I used the time to make some felt ornaments.

I decided to make a few for the cats, with a little extra added ingredient.  I plan on giving them out without letting their humans know about the kitty weed...watching the cats scale the tree should make for great fun on Christmas.  haha!

I started by printing off the letter, cutting it out, tracing it onto the felt, and then cutting it out of the felt.  I used a toy to trace the circle onto the felt and cut out two of those, as well.  I picked out coordinating thread and first hand sewed the letter to the felt front.  I then stitched around the outside being sure to sew through the ribbon I'd decided on for the hanger.

Stop about 3/4 of the way, stuff with filler and a little catnip.  Finish hand stitching it closed...and you're done!

I made this one for my Mom's cat, Oliver. 

Three didn't get the memo it's not for him...

So, to pacify him, I gave him his own.  Let the drug-induced coma begin.  If you've never seen a cat high on the nip, you don't know what you're missing.  Seriously funny stuff!

Sick-o

The stomach flu has been making its way through our house.  I hate vomit.  I think Clyde hates it even more, he's the one that's had to clean the carpets twice, the couch cushions three times, and the fabric ottoman once.  God forbid, they hit the hardwood floors.


I'm just thankful it's happening BEFORE Christmas.


I'm off to disinfect...everything.

Crafting

Today was crafting day.  Riley is home with pink eye, which hopefully, will end with her...so she helped me make a wreath for the front door.  I got the wreath from Target's dollar aisle, along with some of the packs of ornaments.  The rest I picked up 75% off after Christmas last year.

The crafting was a diversion for me.  Lumpy spent Sunday night into Monday puking, then preschool was canceled due to the weather Monday and Tuesday...so she's stir crazy.  I'm crazy anyway, but the added chaos means mommy needs a Xanax.

I'm happy with how the wreath turned out...and I only burned one finger on the glue gun, that has to be a record.  On a side note, the wreath turned my fingers hot pink.

Opportunist

While the other kids are in school, Rowyn makes good use of her time, sneaking into Riley's room to delve into Polly Pocket world. 

Time to fire up the sewing machine

Add this to my list of sewing projects I want to make someday. It's a faux chenille blanket and I'd love to try and make ruin one.

Dana also has a tutorial...cute, right?!

Add another bookmark to my 'sewing' folder.  I am awesome at finding ideas I like and fail at actually completing any.  Maybe someday, when my craft table doesn't look like this...