Merry Christmas!

While our Christmas/New Year festivities are far from over (we are celebrating next Tuesday with Greg's whole family when his sister and her husband make it into town), we have had enough fun to warrant a blog.  We spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Greg's parents.  We enjoyed fondue on Christmas Eve and a traditional Christmas dinner at our house on Christmas Day.  Our kids will think we are Jewish because we have turned this holiday season into about 12 days of celebration.  They have opened presents seemingly everyday and will continue to do so through next week.  Santa came to our house and Aubrey was thrilled because not only did he get her exactly what she wanted but he also ate up the cookies we left and the reindeer gnawed away at the carrots.  Nathan was most impressed with the match box cars he got and we all had fun zooming them across the floor.  Christmas and kids is a magical combination.  

On their way back home from Montana, my whole family spent the night here last night.  More celebrating!  We each opened another gift, had another big meal, and stayed up too late talking.  I also decided that in the gift department I was deeply regretting the MagnaDoodle we got for Nathan.  You know, one of those screens you write on using a magnetic pen?  Who would have thought that both children would love it with an unending passion and that I would spend hours of every day mediating whose turn it was to use it, how much sharing should be required, and how on earth to hide the dang thing so I could get some peace .  I am seriously contemplating buying a second one, just to preserve my sanity.

On a side note, yep, still pregnant.  Measuring HUGE.  Big enough that the doc once again brought up another ultrasound and the possibility of induction.  I am NOT IN FAVOR of an induction but need to stop measuring so stinking enormous if I want to avoid that conversation.  I will be 39 weeks at my next appointment and I think more decisions will be made then.  In the meantime I am large, crabby, and done done done done done.  I have never measured this big with any of my pregnancies and we are all predicting a large baby.  Let's all say a little prayer for a 2007 baby!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and the time spent with family.  Happy New Years!

Some Winter photos

Next week will be busy (you know, Christmas!) so I thought I'd get a few recent pictures up to tide you over if I'm missing for a bit. Most don't need any explanation but Nathan sleeping with his ball...Let's just say that our boy is quite literally OBSESSED with balls and basketball and has taken to sleeping with a ball. Most kids want their blankie or stuffed animal. Not our son. We find him sleeping peacefully, curled around a ball. That Y chromosome sure is different than the XX combination I'm more familiar with.

Merry Christmas to all!

A very good day

Some days just go well.  That was yesterday.  After church Greg announced that he was feeling all warm and cozy and family oriented and that we needed to make an afternoon of it.  So, we headed to the mall for some holiday sight seeing.  The kids got to walk (a big deal for Nathan when he always has to be in a stroller with mommy) and we took in the sights. We looked at Santa, gave Frosty the snowman a high five, pointed at beautiful bells and sparkly lights, took a ride on an ice cream truck (you know, for 50 cents the truck barely moves back and forth), played in the kids play area, rode up and down the escalator, looked up up up at a very tall Christmas tree, and were asked if Santa would remember the sparkly pink rubber ducky that Aubrey so badly wants (he did).  

Next it was home for some family cooking.  We made up a batch of homemade chicken and dumpling soup.  Greg and I had made rice pudding earlier and let the kids dye one batch red and the other green.  We at warm soup and bread, ate our beautifully colored pudding, and then got ready for Christmas lights.  We bundled the kids up in their jammies and blankies, gave them a Christmas cookie, and set out around the neighborhood.  We drove around until all the fun got the better of the kids and they were zonked in the back seat.  The night ended with Greg and I packing sleeping kids into the house and putting them to bed, then curling up for some Travel Channel, followed by reading with hot chocolate, foot rubs, and snuggling off to sleep.  And I wonder why Mondays always feel so hard!

On a side note, things in the pregnancy department are progressing.  I'm almost 37 weeks and am dilated to 1 cm.  I'm still measuring big which allows me to whine and complain to my fullest capacity.  The baby looks good, I'm not putting on an obscene amount of weight over the holidays, and my doctor things I will safely make it through Christmas and New Years without giving birth.  My ultimate plan is to have the baby around January 3.  You know, after Christmas festivities but a week before my due date.  Now if only it were that simple...

Tag, I'm it

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B.  Each person answers the questions about themselves

C.  Tag five other people, as listed at the bottom of this message.  Send them a personal message to let them know they have been tagged.  (I winged this summary.)

5 things I was doing 10 years ago (in 1997)

1.  I was a senior in high school, deliberating over three different colleges.  I went to my last choice but met my husband so that's okay I think!

2.  Was preparing for my disastrous role in a one act play.  Humiliating!

3.  Working at an orthopedic clinic (Jen, were you there at the same time?)

4.  Still straightening my hair nearly every day.

5.  Thinking my AP Bio final was so hard.  Oh, if only I knew what organic chem had in store for me!

5 things on my to-do list today

1.  Get caught up on a mountain of laundry.

2.  Go to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)

3.  Get my Christmas packages shipped

4.  Try try try to remember to water the tree so that it doesn't self combust.

5.  I-chat with my parents so they can tell the kids good-night

5 snacks I enjoy

1.  I have really enjoyed Top Romen lately.

2.  Cold cereal before bedtime is awesome.  My favorite is Wheat Checks.

3.  Any Christmas goodie lying around my house.

4.  Popcorn (in an air popper like my mommy makes it)

5.  We have been eating Satsuma Mandarine Oranges by the pounds lately.

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire

1.  Let my parents and Greg's parents retire

2.  Let Greg retire!

3 . Buy a loaded Denali (I can't even spell it!) for my ever growing family.

4.  Buy our dream house: kitchen with two ovens and a massive island, at least 5 bedrooms, huge backyard that is self-mowing, great big play room, office, craft room....

5. Donate money to either St. Jude or Shriners.  Why not both?

3 of my bad habits

1.  An unwillingness to learn new things.  I want to be good at things NOW so if something doesn't come naturally to me (i.e. the guitar, golf,) than I just quit. My least favorite quality about myself for sure.

2.  Taking the best people in my life for granted. 

3.  Spending too much time focusing on what is coming rather than enjoying the moment.

5 places I have lived

1.  Dillon, MT

2. Great Falls, MT

3.  Lakeside, MT

4.  Yakima, WA

5.  Liberty Lake, WA

5 jobs I have had

1. Professional ice cream scooper at Baskin Robbins

2. Dining room server at Ponderosa Retirement Center

3.  Nurse tech at Holy Family Hospital on the peds floor

4.  Labor and delivery nurse

5.  School nurse

5 things people don't know about me

1.  Greg and I have a secret that no one else in the world knows.  It is our code if either one of us is ever kidnapped and we have to be sure that our spouse is alive.  :-)

2.  I think making true friends now that I'm out of school is hard.

3.  I hope to never go back to work as a nurse.  I'd way rather write or get paid to read good books.

4.  Greg started watching "Battlestar Gallactic" and I actually kind of like it.

5.  I kind of want to keep having babies until I get another girl, just so Aubrey can have a sister.  

I'm sorry, I have no one to tag.  All my blogging buddies have already participated in this!  Thanks though Brittany, it's always fun to talk about yourself!

We had our annual cookie making day this weekend.  We consumed approximately 1 million pounds of sugar per person.  Greg and David participated by being our master mixologists.  I got to look longingly at others' eggnog delights, spruced up with rum, while I delighted in my sparkling cranberry juice.  I am still suffering the repercussions of all this food.  Hannah made KILLER candy cane fudge, which gives me horrible heartburn on contact.  It also happens to be delicious and what we have leftover and I cannot stop eating it.  As I write my esophagus is burning but I've already contemplating how big of a piece to break off this time.  Where is my will power??

I'm putting a few pictures in but will include more later.  KayLynn and I were actually there, although I don't have any photographic evidence of it. KayLynn got some good pictures of all of us that I will pass along in the future.

What's going on with us

Christmas is great. It seems like everyday we do something related to the season. Buy a Christmas tree, turn over another day on the advent calendar, wrap a present, get Christmas cards, make cookies, play with the kids new Fisher Price Nativity Scene, etc. Of course, the other thing on my mind is that I'm due to have a baby in five weeks and that I'm large and uncomfortable. As you can see from the pictures, this whole pregnancy situation is on Aubrey's mind as well.

On a different note, I have to brag about our fun day yesterday. The kids and I had a nice day and when Greg got home we loaded everyone up to go to his basketball practice. There is a side gym the kids can play in and we can still see Greg. Well, Greg had gotten his location and time mixed up so the gym we showed up at was completely empty. The Jones family then spent the next hour running fast, throwing balls high, getting lots of drinks from the awesome water fountain, skipping, and having fun. After we got home and put the kids to bed Greg and I snuggled on the couch with hot chocolate, watching "Seasons Eatings" on the food network, and having a jolly time. Greg looked at me and said, "Isn't it great how much we love each other?" In case you can't tell, I am completely in love with my family.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Pictures

These pictures belong with the post below, although I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to add them to that post.

Are you a guitar hero?

From the start of our trip to Yakima, Greg was set on getting his hands on the video game "Guitar Hero".  This was to be quite a feat being as my parents sure don't have that game, let alone a Play Station.  However, with the dedication of a karate master, Greg kept calling places, pleading with people, and eventually convinced a friend of Hannah's to loan us his entire system for the weekend, Play Station, guitar, and game.  It was an unbelievable hit with everyone, especially my dad.  On Friday night Greg and Dad stayed up until 1:30 a.m. playing bad 80's butt rock until Greg called it quits.  Dad said he was going to play one more song.  Mom found him the next morning asleep on the couch in the family room, fully clothed except for the shirt he was using for a pillow.  Come to find out the man stayed up and played by himself until 4:45 a.m., at which point he collapsed from exhaustion.  He got almost 3 hours of sleep that "night" and spent the next day decorating the house with Christmas lights in a sleep deprived frenzy.  He told Hannah he was going to tell her friend that we had lost the Play Station.  

I also put up a few pictures of the kids helping make Thanksgiving dinner.  I love watching memories being made.  We had a truly fabulous week.  Anyone else find this Monday hard to swallow???

p.s. On second thought, the pictures will have to wait.  The blog won't download them for some reason so I will try again in a bit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy turkey day!  We have had a day of complete gluttony and it's been glorious.  Our multi course meal was a carb fest.  We washed it down with sparkling cider and a good wine and topped everything off with three different kinds of pie.  Seriously, it does seem sinful to have a holiday that really is based around food but man it's good!  The whole fam was here other than KayLynn and her husband David.  She is spending her first holiday away from home and was very sad.  I encouraged her that it would get easier but I could sympathize.  My first Christmas away from home I called, spoke cheerfully, hung up and cried.  We included Matt this year though so that was fun.  Who ever thought I'd have Thanksgiving dinner with Matt Sackmann????

I hope you all had a great day with people who love you and you love too.  It's so nice to have an excuse to just be with my family.  And tomorrow I'll be up at 5:00 a.m., ready to join the masses for insane shopping.  I do love Thanksgiving.