What Do You Do?

What do you do when you were hoping to play outside but the weather ended up being just a bit too chilly to go out?  Make chocolate chip cookies of course.  And when I say "make" chocolate chip cookies what I mean is eat the chocolate chips out of the dough and then grin at your brother after every stolen chip.  :) 

Christmas 2011!

Christmas 2011, I don’t think Santa over looked our house.  In fact, with all the presents under the tree, he might have accidently stopped by the house a couple times.  1 month later we are still trying to find homes for all the gismos and gadgets Santa brought to our home.

As if the mass quantities of presents were not evidence enough of Santa’s presence, the devoured cookies sealed the deal.   

Our early riser was the first one down the stairs around 6:30 am.  Merry Christmas Case!

Sleepy head Cole didn’t want to go down the stairs alone so he hitched a ride on mama’s hip. 

 

Merry Christmas Cole!  I love you!

With everyone awake and dressed for some fun (insert silly hats) we started the morning with breakfast. 

We were lucky enough to get Lele, PaPe and Uncle Jason as visitors for Christmas again this year.  Hooray for family and more fun hats!

Our families long honored Christmas breakfast tradition of Dunkin Donuts and Poinsettia mimosas lives on even hundreds of miles away in Colorado.

First order of business, passing out Christmas stockings and sacks.  Case played Santa and handed out everyone’s goodies.  Here is a bag for you dad.

Balls, stamps, cars and toys-a-plenty were filling up the boys stockings. 

Handmade cards for Lele, DVD's for Uncle Jason and (of course) golf balls for Pape and a whistle for fun. Santa must have filled up at the gas station because every grown up received lottery tickets! Unfortunately, no big winners this year.

Santa brought daddy something for his gun.

Mommy was just super happy to have her boys close.  Christmas round one was over.  Now its on to the second part, presents!

Best When A Mess

Pistol

Can anyone find the pistol in these pictures? I’ll give you a hint. There is no gun anywhere to be found. The real pistol is Mr. Cole.

1) I want to play with the electrical plug

2) I have just been told no and am thinking about how to show my disapproval of the redirection.

3) Are you still looking at me? Because if you are, I am still upset.

4) See my face?! I am sad and it’s because of you, mom and dad!



5) See these tears! I am really, really sad.



6) Look I’m coughing now! I am really, really, really sad!

7)  If screams, tears and coughing won’t work maybe I will choke and puke to show you how serious I am.  I am really, really, really, really sad! 

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve 2011 recap.  Case spent the entire month of December on his best behavior minus an off day or two.  Santa even sent Case a couple emails from the North Pole updating him on his naught/nice status (1 naughty message and 1 nice message) so of course Christmas Eve we took a trip to see Saint Nick at the mall and get the final verdict.  Cody thought we were bonkers for going to the mall Christmas Eve and certifiably insane for trying to see Santa but the mall was virtually empty.  We parked up front and walked right up to Santa with no wait at all.  Christmas miracles DO come true. 

Everyone was anxiously waiting to see what Coles reaction would be after he was handed over to the guy in red.  Surprisingly he didn’t cry.  I was expecting one of those funny pics with a terrified child on Santa’s knee but no tears were shed.  No one could get a smile out of him either so his blank stare is the face that will be remembered.  

After the mall we went home to bake and decorate Santa cookies and open up our Santa jammies.  Red moose jammies for Case and Cole. 

Case and Pape made most of the cookies.  They were all wonderful. 

As you can see they had a good time together. 

Cole didn’t decorate any cookies this year but he was our official cookie taste tester.  In case you were wondering, everything was given the seal of approval.   

With the cookies set out for Santa, it's off to bed.  Good night Christmas Eve.  See you Christmas morning. 

Worth Doing

Here is a recap of my past few days.  What should I clean up first?:  The vomit soaked jammies or the stinky diarrhea diaper in the bathroom.  The chocolate pudding puke trail from the living room to the bathroom or the chair where the vomiting all started?  The sticky spots on the floor where unhungry children have thrown their food or the pile of dirty dishes stacking up?  Cole is sick and Case is sick.  Neither sickness is pretty.  I keep wondering when this streak of illness will finally leave this home.  Every time someone gets sick I am totally deflated.  It’s been going on 9 or 10 months and every month we have dealt with multiple illnesses.  January brought the hope and promise of a new year and I foolishly believed we would have a healthier year.  That’s why it was particularly devastating and difficult when two nights ago Cole was up almost 20 hours straight with an ear infection.  He wanted to be held standing up not sitting down, rocked side to side not back and forth and would scream if you tilted him even slightly into a reclining position.  That night was hard on both of us to say the least.   However while I was standing in the middle of our dark cold living room at 5 am swaying from side to side for going on 2 hours zoning out to some happier place while trying not to fall asleep and drop him, he lifted his little head, grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me on the lips.  It almost felt like he was saying thank you.  That little kiss kept me going the rest of the day and the next night when it started over again.  It’s the little things that make the hard things worth doing.           

XOXO

Kiss, kiss, hug, hug.  Cole is giving kisses and hugs and I LOVE it!  Now I just have to make sure he doesn't have a hidden pretzle piece shoved in his little mouth because he has a tendancy to spit out food just before giving kisses.  Our sweet, sweet little pig pen baby.  Oh how I love him. 

Splish Splash

Tonight, bathtime was very.......wet.  Let's just say my naughty boys plotted together to soak mama and succeeded.  In order to avoid the tsunami in my bathroom I spent the majority of the time standing in the doorway out of splash range.  Simple fun can be the best fun and tonight we shared a lot of laughs.