Christmas eve

I have taken quite a blogging holiday. We have been so busy with my inlaws here and all of the christmas festivities that I have not been on line much. So I am going to start with xmas eve. We have a fairly new tradition of having my Dad, stepmom (Trish) and brother Jake over for dinner. I really like it cuz I dont usually get to see them much over xmas. I get to cook all day long and I really love it. This year was a very yummy year. But my dad couldnt come which was a really big bummer. I LOVE my dad and am a bit of a daddys girl, so I was sad that he couldnt come (he had a bad back). Thankfully, Trish and Jake still came for the dinner. We had so much yummy food. Roasted red pepper dip and cheeses from Trader Joes...if you have never had cambazola cheese before, you need to leave the computer right now and go out and buy some. It is amazingly delish.

We then had a salad course with apple cider dressing.

Our main course was a slow cooked ham that Loren used about 5 different recipes to make in the crockpot. It was awesome, but he doesnt know how he did it! Then cauliflower gratin http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1853962
and Paula deens corn cassarole http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/corn-casserole-recipe/index.html
and yorkshire pudding with sage and bacon and last but not least mashed potatoes...Oh yeah, and then christmas cookies...I am still full.

Merry Christmas!

More later, we have been so busy. The boys (and us) have had a wonderful and blessed day. L's mom and dad are here visiting for the week so we have a lot going on. I hope everyone has had a wonderful christmas and not too much snow!
Peace

xmas party 1

Jacks best friend and Jacks best friends mom.

















d Jacks favorite race car hat.














the boys playing their favorite game of being run over by a giant purple ball. All the boys screamed with delight as L bounced the ball off of them and they would fall down.

xmas party 2

Here are the Dads eating at the kiddy table, just like they used to do.














Here is a beautiful gingerbread house that Ryans mom made! The boys (and adults) couldnt wait to start eating it! Pretty and yummy!







Birthday cupcakes

Busy, busy, busy

This has been quite a week. Trying to finish up xmas shopping, start wrapping, getting gifts ready for work today, baking gifts, loren working late one day, it has been a hectic week. And I am not done yet!!

I will soon be posting pictures of a very fun xmas party we went to last Saturday at Uncle Bill and Auntie Kates. It was the third annual "kid" party. It used to be that we were the kids (me, L, Kates 2 sons and their wifes) but now it is all about the next generation. Jack, his best bud Ryan (Kates grandson), Luke and now Kenzie (Kate's granddaughter). Crazy kids every where. The first year was just Jack and Ryan but I was pregnant with Luke, but we were not telling anyone yet, so i dumped my wine down the bathroom sink to not look suspicious. The next year Luke was added to the mix, but at 4 months old he was not very mobile. This year all boys and a few dads were super rambunctious. Kenzie is just adorable at 10 months and next year will be in the mix with the boys.

New best friend

I woke up this saturday morning to find Jack on the couch watching Bob the Builder. A show that he can watch many, many, many times and he requests it every morning now.

I was amazed to find the cat lying on Jack. He was pretty proud that the kitty wanted to lay on him.

After 3 years of being roughly petted, tail pulled, hair yanked out...T likes to hang out with Jack.

The cat also likes to sleep on Jack bed, tho not when Jack is in it.

Who's the man

This morning I took Jack to school on my way to work. He always has to have toast cut into soldiers in a baggy to eat in the car on the way to any place he goes in the morning. He is a boy of many habits. As we were pulling out he asked (as he always asks) "butter on it?" I said "yes, butter is on it. Lots of butter. Daddy makes good toast." With out missing a beat Jack says back "daddy a good man". I agreed with him and totally cracked up.

Edited to say that I realized today that it is "Daddy is a good guy" not man, but guy!

Jack speech update

Jack had his almost 3 year old speech assessment. When he turns 3 he no longer qualifies for State services (good thing, cuz everything is being cut in the State) and will move over to the school district for services. He is doing really well with words, speaking and language. The problems are enunciation and social skills. He is really hard to understand and many things sound the same...like bird and boat. His speech teacher thinks that she can really make progress on the enunciation in the next few weeks but the she feels that he needs more social interaction with kids. He freezes up around other kids (execpt Ryan) and does not talk. He does, however, talk to grown ups. I think that he is really, really shy around kids. He is definately talking more and that is very much a relief, but I was/am shy and it is hard to be a shy kid. I hope if we get him more used to kids, maybe that will help. It looks like if he qualifies for services, he will be able to go to speech therapy at SLVE and have a "class" of 3 other kids who work on their speech together. This will start the end of January.

Race car shirt or tractor shirt

These are the options.

Jack will not get dressed if he does not approve of the shirt. And he rarely approves of the shirt. The types of shirts he will wear are race cars or tractor (trucks) or diggers of some kind...occasionally he will go for the dump truck shirt. He is a boy obsessed and I (and Aunt Kate) had to go out and buy him more digger shirts so that he will not wear the same one all week long. Even with his growing pile of car/truck shirts, inevitably the one he wants to wear is dirty. He will pull them out of the laundry, carry them around the house and say that they are not dirty and must be worn. I am afraid that his pre school will think that he only has 2 shirts and turn me in to CPS!

O Chirstmas tree

On Saturday we all bundled up in our santa hats and headed out to the xmas tree lot.

Luke only wore his hat for about 3 seconds...he is not a fan of the hat.

Everyone thought that the boys were adorable and even took a few pictures of them.
They wanted us to stay longer then the 2 minutes that it took us to pick out a tree and pay for it.

The boys were very excited and have not been able to keep their hands of the tree since.
So far, the tree has not tipped over yet or have any balls broken...yet.

Sort of happy Jack is back...for the most part

Jack is seeming to act much better. Not totally back to happy Jack, but he is heading to 3 years old so we can not expect him to be all that great. He is defiant in many ways, but not always like he was last week. I dont think that the poor guy likes change and we had lots of changes to his routine with the TG holiday. We had a good drop off at school today which always makes me happy.

Luke had his 15 month drs appointment and the poor little guy has a really bad ear infection. The Dr was amazed to see he was acting so great with such a bad infection. I got to see it and everything. It was pretty neat and looked very painful. He put him on antibiotics with the hope that when his ear gets better so will his cough and sniffles that he has had for 2 months... I really hope we can all get healthy for xmas and get some needed sleep! Luke is now on the small side at 21 lbs he is in the 10-25%ile. We are hoping once he feels better, he will be back with his normal exuberant appetite. Typically the kid can eat, unlike the birdy Jack. He is in the 50th%ile for height (I don't remember the number) so that is good. Poor kid took a header yesterday and cut his lip open with his teeth. We are not sure how he did it, but it was really bloody. I dont do well with blood but I think with these boys Im gonna have to get used to it.

Job security at least for a little while longer

I just found out that I will get to stay in my job part time thru May, least I think it is May. I was supposed to start back full time in January. There is no way that I could do that at this point in my life and I was planning on resigning. It is really scary to think about leaving a good job during a resession. I am sure that the UC will not be hiring anyone else any time soon with the way the budget is going so leaving with out thinking there will be opening later on down the line was scary. I am fond of my paycheck, even if it is pretty small. It covers Jack's preschool and gives us a little more of a cushon to live on. I really do like my job and the people I work with are great! We are getting into our busy season which is a lot of work, but I really like it the best.

Awesome Tofu

I made this recipe for dinner on Monday night.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/caramelized-tofu-recipe.html

I used walnuts instead of the pecans since that it what I had on hand.
I don't have a picture of it, but it was really, really good!
Jack and Luke ate a few of the walnuts... boys have been really hard to feed lately.

merry christmas

Still freaked out about xmas shopping, but looking forward to getting a tree. Luke is looking forward to knocking the tree down, many, many times.

My MIL sent us this neat wreath that sings and sparkles for our front door. The pix does not do it justice. We love it.

attack of the body snatchers

I do not know what has happened, but some thing has taken away my sweet boys nice dispositions. Happy Jack is now unhappy, miserable and everyone must suffer Jack. Luke has taken to having extreme mood swings from sweet boy to no one can console me as I howl for 2 hours. Needless to say, no one in the our family is happy right now. I hope this "stage" goes quickly...

Happy Thanksgiving

Here are a few pix of our very hectic and fun Thanksgiving.

Poor kitty

One of Lukes favorite pastimes it torturing the cat...
Amazingly enough, Tbone does not strike back as Luke
pinches him, squeezes him and tries to mash him into the carpet.

Tbone is happy that we are not having any more children and
he is not very happy with the ones we have. I bet he would even
trade them in on a few dogs.

Daddy time

Here are my buddy computer engineers. They are watching old time cartoons that L remembers from his childhood. Something about a banana and a dog, I think?

Sorry I havent updated lately, but life has been a little hectic. Luke was really sick with a cold and then Jack has had another ear infection...I ended up with Lukes cold and after 2 weeks I am finally feeling better. My mom has been sick too and ended up with hives...Everyone is stressed!

It's coming...

Can you believe that there are 36 more days till Christmas. 36 more days...I find that fact frightening! So much to do, no time. Last year I schlepped a 3 month old Luke out shopping with me. At 14 months, he is no longer shopping friendly. He crys, wiggles out of the stroller, kicks things and pulls at the mechanise. Jacks not a big shopper either... And, I have no idea what to get people this year, nothing, nada, not a clue. L doesnt like to give gift certificates, but thats looking like the only way to go. I am so tired of giving boring ole shirts.

The boys are really easy, a little too easy, to shop for. Why is it that they always want to play with one toy at the same time. Luke has tractor marks on his forehead where Jack smacked him with it as not to share...

I do love everything else about xmas...the tree, the lights, the food, the cookies, fire in the fireplace and above all, family!

And he is off...

I came home on friday to find Jack "new" bike parked on the deck.
I had hoped to give it to him when he completed potty training, but I forgot to tell this to L.
L was trying to kill time till I got home and the bike was an excellent diversion.
Considering that it has been 80 degrees out this weekend, it is perfect bike riding weather.













Can you belive that it is the middle of November and 80 degrees!! I just put away all of their summer stuff last weekend...







Anyway, Jack was liking his bike and did really well on it. One of L's parents from school gave it to us last year for Jack which was VERY nice! The next day he rode again for a little while but decided that it made it butt hurt too much. And that is with a diaper.








Notice that he has his head turned looking at something...unfortunely, he does this a lot. What is behind him is more interesting then the parked car in front of him. Ugh.

Jackisms

What dat, Mommy?
A box, Jack.
What dat, Daddy?
An empty box, Jack
What dat, Mommy?
AHG.....
Everything now is "What dat?" and "Why?"

We need to go pick up Daddy, Jack.
Pick up Daddy, pick up Daddy, why?
So he can come home, Jack.
Why come home?

"No home" is another popular phase "No go home"
Apparently, he is tired of his toys and beating up his brother and does not want to come home.

My hero

This morning I was getting ready for work when I heard a pop then gushing sound. Not a good thing. I thought that maybe L had turned on the water in the kitchen, but he was getting Jack dressed. A pipe had burst. Bad news. L had to turn off the water and go under the house...2 of his least favorite things to do. He called me by 9am and had fixed the whole thing!

I now realize that I have hardly any current pictures of L. This one is our wedding anouncement with me cropped out.

Lukes cold

Poor Luke has been sick since Friday night. He has a cold.
I took him to the doctor today...but nothing you can do for a cold.
None of us are sleeping as Luke coughs all night long. All night long...we are very, very tired.

pumpkin soup

I found this recipe on the blog of another Jan 06 mom, JL, that I like to read. Pumpkin Soup and Ham & Cheddar Scones The link to the recipe doesnt seem to be working right now, but check it out later and see if it is up. We all really liked the soup, except Jack. It has mushrooms in it which give it a sort of meaty taste. I love the scones...you can not go wrong with ham, cheese and butter!

I am discovering that Jack and Luke do not like the same dinner foods and it is really annoying. Jack likes fried rice, eggs, and ham. Luke hates them, but loves potatoes, mac & cheese, quesadillas and most pasta. Jack hates them... They do both love sweet stuff, dinosaur chicken bites from costco and toast. Typically, one will eat the dinner and one will not with Jack being the more picky eater.
And Luke will not keep a bib on...or socks...

Long week...

This was quite a week. I finished most of my outreach and have no more scheduled presentations to do! Yeah! My car is happy about it too as I've put lots of miles on it going to the Monterrey area. I also smashed my bumper when I got lost at a school and couldn't see the fire hydrant that I back into trying not to drive of a cliff. Then my sun roof decided to leak in all the crazy rain we had last week...I didn't discover it until after all the rain. Luckily, my very handy husband was able to fix it with no problem. Glad driving is over! I was looking forward to a relaxing Friday night with a freezer dinner and glass of wine, but Jack had other ideas. Poor little guy got yet another ear infection. He was sleeping till I got home from work and then he cried and cried. Off we went to Urgent Care. ( I love Urgent Care - so great to have a place to take sick kids on weekends and after house) It wasn't very busy, but I think they only had one doctor cuz the whole thing to 3 hours. Jack pleading with me to go home and "no doctor, ear all better" the whole time. So now we are going the penicillin route. Then at 11 pm Luke woke up screaming...he now has a delightful cold complete with lots of snot, sneezing and hacking cough. Im sure L and I are next in line to get sick...This has been a crazy year for sickness and it is back again. I'll try to get some more pix up soon.

New pres

I am really excited about Obama winning! I know that change will take a long time and that he will have a rough road ahead of him, but I feel like he will be a GREAT president. And as a bonus...NO MORE COMMERCIALS for election stuff!! Horray!

Kit chow

Jack's favorite movie (only movie for that matter) is Cars. He says "watch race car" many times a day. We limit him to once a day at the very most. He has never been one to watch a lot of tv so this race car thing is kinda nice. I can clean up the kitchen, read my favorite blogs, take a shower...the list goes on.

He can sit still for about an hour till he has to get up and move some cars around. It is a still a sitting record for him.

Cars is a great movie...I am starting to quote all the lines. Luckily, i still find it funny and get a little choked up when Lighting helps King finish his last race.

Happy Halloween

So we went to down town SC for Halloween. I never go down town cuz it is too much of a freak show, but on halloween everyone goes...luckily more kids then freaks till dark. We went early.


Both boys enjoyed it and what is not to like... lots to look at and candy. Great combo.







One of the funnier moments was when a lady was admiring Luke in the stroller. She was saying how cute he was and he just let out a lukey scream...and it scared the s#*t out of her. She jumped a foot at such a loud voice out of such a small boy.



Luckily, it did not rain until later that night.








Can you guess what L was?

A black eyed pea.