Happy New Year's Eve!

Starting tomorrow I will be taking 1 picture everyday, for the whole year! This is NOT an original idea, but I love it so much, I couldn't help but steal it! With 2 small children and hopes of starting another one in 2011, it seems to be the perfect year to try this project. Hopefully I can keep up with it and let you all enjoy our year in pictures!
Tonight we are doing nothing. Hubby and I aren't big on going out, and I think it's been about 3 years since we watched the ball drop! We are old. Maybe tonight we will stay up until midnight...maybe.
Do you have big plans for New Year's Eve?

Christmas

I love Christmas! I love the months leading up to it, as radio stations begin to play Christmas music, Starbucks busts out the Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Peppermint Mochas, stores fill the aisles with decorations and discounted toys, decorating the house and setting up my Willow Tree Nativity, and of course, spending many hours with family.
Growing up with 4 siblings, every Christmas was wild. We would spend Christmas Eve with my mom's family and stay up super late. I remember the excitement walking into my grandparents' house and seeing the piles of presents extending well past the width of the tree. We would call Santa on is 800 number and karaoke to classics such as 2Legit2Quit.

Just waiting :) (Me, Tom, Nina, Ian, Ash)

Christmas morning started early (sometimes as early as 4am) , begging my parents to get out of bed so we could open our gifts from Santa. I remember asking my parents repeatedly if we could open our stockings while we waited for them to wake up. Santa was always practical, of course, filling our stockings with muffins and juice, to give us energy to make it through the day on 4 hours of sleep. Then we would head to my other grandparents' house for a relaxing afternoon with my dad's side of the family.

I can't remember when it started, but every year until I got married in 2007, I would sleep in my little sister's bed on Christmas Eve. I was so excited (even at 18 & older) for Christmas morning to come, that I couldn't fall asleep; so I would snuggle in my sister's twin bed and toss and turn all night, wishing the night would go faster. This year, I had those same butterflies. I was so full of excitement for Christmas morning; not because of the presents Santa brought ME, but because Princess is 2 and a half. She understood that Santa was going to leave her presents. He brought her a Barbie Beetle and I couldn't wait to see her reaction.

Proudly showing off her car

This year we spent Christmas Eve in Goshen with my family, starting with brunch at my Mom and Dad's. (We got them a TV for Christmas (which I will DEFINITELY blog about later)). I took my awesome cinnamon rolls and the kids had a blast playing with their cousin and all their new toys!

Little Man with his football (from Poppy)

Then we headed to my Grandma's for her Christmas Eve party, and we got to hang out with all of my cousins and their kids.

It's hard to get a good pic when little kids are involved!

On Christmas Day, the kids opened their presents and then we head to Decatur to spend some time with Hubby's family. We started with breakfast at his aunt and uncle's house, then lunch at his great grandma's house, followed by dinner at his parents' house. It was definitely a fun (and food) filled, action packed, busy day!
Over the course of these 2 days, the kids received an overload of toys and clothes (all of which they absolutely LOVE!!). Thank you to everyone! We won't have to buy another toy until next Christmas! I wasn't sure where to place these next few pictures in this blog, but I wanted to share them; so enjoy this hodgepodge of memories from Christmas 2010!*

The wrestling starts early! Little Man and his 2nd cousin (they have a 6 day age difference)

Princess is becoming a pro at unwrapping presents!

Break time!

Over tired delirium

Cousins!

Little Man's favorite part of Christmas...wrapping paper!

**I know this post was a bit all over the place. There is so much to say and not enough brain space to put it all together in one blog post!

Woah!

It's been a whole week since I've posted because we have been so busy! This was our schedule: Tuesday, drive to Nashville; Wednesday, hang out in Nashville plus Garth Brooks concert; Thursday, drive home, drive to Decatur to pick up the kids, drive back home; Friday, drive to Goshen for Christmas Eve, drive home; Saturday, drive to Decatur for Christmas day, drive home; Sunday, drive back to Decatur for sibling dinner; Monday, drive home from Decatur after super fun filled night! Crazy!! So, to fill you all in and give you great details, I will probably do a series of post from this last week, starting with Nashville.

Nashville is an amazing city. There are literally people playing music on every corner. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. They have their guitar cases out collecting money. There are also bars and touristy shops everywhere you look; and each bar has an awesome band playing in it.

Broadway at Night

On Wednesday we went to the world famous Wildhorse Saloon. Apparently on June 1, 1994, the history of the World Famous Wildhorse Saloon began with country superstar Reba McEntire hearding a stampede of live cattle through the streets of Music City, also known as Nashville, Tennessee. The cattle were herded down Second Avenue and past the front doors of the newly opened club.*

(fake) wild horses hanging from the ceiling

They had great food (I had a Grilled Apple BLT for lunch) and all day line dancing. We went back that night before the Garth concert and watched Phil Vaught and enjoyed the night life of the saloon.

Phil Vaught at the Wildhorse Wednesday night

Then we headed to the Garth Brooks concert. He came out of retirement to do this Nashville Flood Relief benefit concert. He performed 9 shows in 6 nights and every single show was sold out. We had horrible seats, literally the highest seats in the building, but it was still AMAZING! I took about 100 pictures and lost my voice screaming and singing.

the crowd (15000+ people)

Garth Brooks
Garth and guest performer, Trisha Yearwood!

The aftermath (on the way home) hehe

We had a fabulous time and would love to go back to Nashville soon. We are also looking into going to see Garth in Vegas because it was such an amazing night! I know I left out so many details, but this past week was full of so much excitement, a blog post just can't do it justice. More to come soon covering our Christmases!

*Check out the Wildhorse Saloon website! Amazing place! http://wildhorsesaloon.com/about-us/about-us

Merry Christmas week!

Yesterday we had a packed house and I loved it! Two of my sisters, their SOs, niece, and parents were here for lunch and just to hang out. It was a lot of fun! The two little Princesses LOVED playing together and Little Man really enjoyed watching it. He is so eager to walk just to keep up with his sister! I was able to snap an awesome picture of my sister's family!

Their little lady has definitely grown so much in the last few weeks since I've seen her! Princess loves playing with her cousin and they are at about the same level in everything! It's a lot of fun to watch them interact.
I can't wait for all of our Christmas festivities, so I can snap lots of pictures of the kids playing with their cousins!
Tomorrow we leave for Nashville and I'm so excited! I can't wait to check out the Grand Ole Opry and just mosey about in Nashville. It will be a great getaway for Hubby and I and the first time we are more than 15 minutes away from our kids overnight; and of course, they are both sick with coughs and colds. I am taking them to the doctor today, just to make sure they are all good before I leave.
I can't wait to tell you all about our trip to Nashville and our wonderful Christmas parties! Hope you all have a fabulous pre-Christmas week!

Tired Feet

Woo! What a long day! I spent the whole day in the kitchen (9-5:30). We finished everything on our list and the house smells amazing, but boy am I tired! I am relaxing on the couch now with a big, fat Ricker's Dr. Pepper and a bowl of "extra butter" popcorn.
I have many pictures to post of the goodies we made today!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Nut Rocha

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Chocolaty Caramel Thumbprints

Scotcharoos

Buckeyes

We are definitely in the holiday spirit around here!

What do you do to get into the holiday spirit?

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

Can you believe it?!!?! One more week until Christmas. December went by in the blink of an eye, but we are ready for the holidays. We had to get everything done early since we will be gone for 3 days right before Christmas. We are leaving Tuesday for the Garth Brooks concert and I am so excited. Once in a lifetime!
Yesterday I headed back to the mall to exchange some jeans I picked up for Princess. They were massive. I can't believe how much of a difference there is between size 4 and 4 years! The mall was crazy! I am so glad we have our Christmas shopping done because I don't think I could have stayed there one more minute.
Today, my little sister and I are baking Christmas treats. We are making: sugar cookie cutouts, peanut butter blossoms, buckeyes, nut rocha (toffee), chocolaty caramel thumbprints, scotcharoos, and puppy chow. We have a full day of baking ahead of us and I can't wait. I love to bake! I hope everything turns out exactly how I plan (will post pictures later).
That's about all that is going on here! I can't wait for Christmas and all the festivities that go with it. And I can't wait to spend the 3 days leading up to Christmas, in Nashville with Garth Brooks...breathing his same air!
Happy Saturday everyone!

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow is Friday! I can't wait! I'm so ready for the week to be over. I wish the work week was 2 days and the weekend was 5. I have so many thoughts; they may be scattered all over the place, so hold on!

1: I have a thought for those who run the consumer world. Shopping carts should be large enough to seat two small children. I took both kids to Target yesterday (one is 2 years 4 months and the other is 7 months). Therefore, Princess is too young to be able to walk on her own. She just isn't trustworthy right now. And Little Man is too big to be carried around in his carseat, and frankly, even if he was, that would take up even more space. So, it's just me and the kids at Target, meaning I can't push two carts. I put Little Man in the seat and Princess in the basket. Princess was all over the place, standing up, shouting "have that, have that" about everything we passed. She was causing my cart to fly all over the place. If the cart was just a little bigger, with 2 side by side seats, it would have made my shopping trip much less stressful.

2: Happy Birthday to my big sister! She is 27 today. We are 17 months apart...so whenever her birthday comes around, it reminds me that very soon I will be exactly where she is; slowly creeping into my late 20's. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is so shocking. I remember having "middle finger night" with my siblings when all 5 of us still shared a room over 20 years ago. Wow, I'm old. :)

3: In less than one week I will be roadtripping it to Nashville to see Garth Brooks in concert! I am totally psyched! Hubby, my sister and her husband, and I will be leaving Tuesday night to see a super late Wednesday night concert. None of us have ever "vacationed" in Nashville, so it should be fun to check out the sights. I'm a little nervous about leaving my kids for 2 days, but they are in good hands, so it should be alright!

4: I got Princess this fabulous little gem at Crazy 8. It is definitely my new favorite kids store!

via

Well, I think I'm gonna say that is it for tonight. Have a fabulous Friday (tomorrow)!

FPOTD

My sister and her husband stopped by for a visit! They live in Chicago, but were in Ohio for the last couple of days due to a loss in the family. On their way home, they stopped in Fort Wayne and we enjoyed a nice pizza dinner. They hung out at our house today and watched Little Man crawl and Princess chat away. I love seeing my siblings! There aren't too many things that can top it!

On another note, Little Man decided that he is "so big" today! He raises his fists in the air and squeals. It is quite amusing and I hope to get a picture and video of it tomorrow. My kids certainly keep me laughing!

Hubby and I got into a heated debate about the best way for me to go about losing weight. I've been running for about 6 months and haven't lost 1 single pound. It gets kind of frustrating, and I'd really rather not take all this extra weight into a third pregnancy. The next thing on my list I have been dreading...calorie counting. Ick! But it needs to be done.
So my goal is to lose 20 pounds by May. I am training for the Indy Mini, so that should help. I could really use the prayers and encouragement over the next few months.
If you have any weight loss secrets or tips, do tell! Please!

FPOTD

My favorite part of today would most definitely have to be that Princess NAPPED! She slept for 1 hour and 15 minutes in her own room. (And it only took 5 minutes of crying!) Little Man added to the awesomeness by sleeping for 3.5 hours! Amazing!

However, I had 3 very specials moments today that were in great contention for the "FPOTD" honor.

1- I got to take a bath. By myself. It was fabulous. No kids bothering me and I was able to make it as hot as I wanted. It's been a long time since I've been able to enjoy that luxury and it was so worth the wait.

2- I made my first recipe from my new CrockPot cookbook. It contains hundreds of recipes that are favorites of long time CrockPot users. I had been looking for a book like this for a long time and finally found it at Target. For less that $12!! I love it!

(Don't you just LOVE my red CrockPot? Again, Target $29, LOVE IT!)

3) Princess and I played in the snow today and made this teeny tiny snowman!It was a fabulous day!

My Lovelies

I thought I'd start and end this post with pictures of my lovelies...Enjoy!


Last night, Hubby and I went to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday date. (BIG thanks to my MIL for watching our kids!) We had wonderful adult conversation and ate way too much. We were going to catch the meteor shower last night, but it was way too cold! We just aren't interested enough in that stuff to stay up late and sit out in the freezing cold.

The cupcakes I made for Hubby to take to work were NOT a hit. No one commented, so that's how I know they weren't my best work. I guess I should stick to scotcharoos. Next weekend I am making tons of Christmas treats, so we'll see if those go over better.

This morning Princess slept until 7:20...what a blessing! My coffee definitely tastes better when the sun is up! Little Man ate at 6 and then slept until 8...so all and all we had a pretty good start to our morning.

We still have a bit of Christmas shopping left to do. I love giving presents, it gives me great joy, but shopping is not my favorite thing to do during this time of year. Maybe next year I'll finish my Christmas shopping in July. Have you finished your shopping yet?

Good Morning!

I know it's not actually morning, but...

This morning I awoke to "Hi Mom! I'm in your bed!". Yup, Princess has decided that she will be getting out of her bed when she wakes up now. She has been in a big girl bed for about 9 months and has only gotten out of her bed, on her own, once. Even if she didn't want to go to sleep or be in her bed, she would not get out. Until now! It's frustrating to say the least, and makes for some early mornings. Hopefully we can get this all figured out soon.

On a brighter note...Happy 26th Birthday to my hubby!

Terrible Two's and Recipe News

It took me quite awhile to come up with that rhyme, but I'm proud of it.

It is currently snowing here, a lot! I'm hoping Hubby gets the day off tomorrow due to the Winter Storm, but when you live 3 miles from work, generally they don't let you miss because of snow. :(

Today Princess pushed the boundaries on rest time, major. She decided she wasn't interested in resting in her room...there was lots of crying and coming out of her room. We eventually caved and rest time was skipped for today. Everyday that passes we get deeper into the "terrible two's" and hopefully closer to the end of tantrums and defiance (I can hope, right?).

Little Man is babbling more today. He crawls around saying "ba ba ba". It is so precious (and a little sad, knowing that in 2 short years he will be talking nonstop to the point where I'm begging him to watch a movie so he stops talking). Every mother deserves a little quiet time. :)

Tomorrow is Hubby's birthday so I tried out a new recipe for his cake. I made yellow cupcakes from scratch and milk chocolate ganache. I decided to let the ganache sit over night in the refrigerator and tomorrow morning I will beat it, turning it into Truffle Frosting. He is going to take the cupcakes to work (I have found that Hubby's colleagues are most appreciative of my baked goods) and hopefully they are a hit. (Will post pictures and reactions tomorrow evening.)

Hope everyone is enjoying this snow (if you have it)! Happy Sunday!

FPOTD

My favorite part of today has to be these Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting!

7 months

Little Man is 7 months old today! I can't believe it. Time has gone by so fast. It feels like just yesterday I was waiting outside the operating room, before my c-section, telling Dr. Weghorst that after 9 months of pregnancy, I STILL wasn't ready to be a mother of 2. I didn't know if I could handle it. But 7 months later, I say with pride, that I am an awesome mother of 2. Princess loves her little brother and they play together so well. I love watching them play together and interact.

I can't believe he used to be this small!

FPOTD

Today I have 3 Favorite Parts Of The Day!


The complete first season of Glee (technically this would be the favorite part of yesterday, since I found it in my mailbox last night)...but I love it more today!


VERA BRADLEY! This is the package I was waiting for! My sisters and I all got a Mailbag! This is my favorite bag ever!

And last but not least, McDonald's Dr. Pepper! Nate brought it home at lunch time. LOVE IT!

I hope your day is as fabulous as mine is shaping up to be!

The End of "Tahty"

It is official..."tahty" is dead. For those of you who don't know, "tahty" means yes. For the last year Princess has used her made up word "tahty" to respond yes. Yesterday was the first day that she used yes instead of "tahty" all day long. It was definitely a shock to me when I asked her if she slept good and she said "yes". I just can't believe it...I don't know yet if I will miss "tahty", but she definitely seems more grown up when she says "yes."

Also, it seems her "nap" will look more like this
...watching Dora while laying on me on the blue couch, her "favorite".

On another note, Little Man spent last evening doing thisHe is gonna be walking before we know it. I don't think I'm ready for that.

I am expecting a very awesome package today, so more to come later!

First Timer

Hello all, and welcome to my blog! This is my first time blogging, so please bear with me as I struggle to learn all about the blogging world. Perhaps someday this page won't be boring and ugly. I wanted to start this blog to keep you all updated on what is happening in our life and family as we grow up, down, and sideways! :)

We will start with the basics...currently our family is 5; me, Hubby, Princess, Little Man, and Sookie (our boston terrier).

Hubby and I met freshman year of college (2003) thanks to my sister and her husband. He played baseball and I black widowed (like the spider). My sister wanted me to date him and get rid of him, in an effort to give him a little experience with having a girlfriend (I was his first "real" girlfriend). After about a year, we finally got together (October 1, 2004) and we've been together ever since. We got married June 9, 2007, and became pregnant with Princess a few months later. Everything seemed to happen rather quickly after that, and time has been flying by ever since. 3 1/2 years later we are still married, still very much in love, and raising 2 (and hoping to add at least 1 more) crazy kids.

Little Man will be 7 months old soon and I pretty much can't believe it. Time just flies. He has started crawling and waving, and much to my dismay, pulling himself up on whatever he can reach. He's too little (and short) to be doing this, so it's mostly laundry baskets, legs, and his crib rails.

Princess is 2 years, 4 months. She is a chatter box and quite whiny since she "take nap anymore" (in her own words, of course!). We recently did away with her pacifier, hence her whiny-ness and refusal to nap. She is the most stubborn little girl I know. I think I should've expected it based on her entry into this world. (My water broke at 3AM on August 17, and she was born, via c-section 24 long hours later.)

Hubby's birthday is coming up...on the 13th actually, and he doesn't want anything. He isn't big into celebrating his birthday, or father's day, or Christmas, or anything else. I, on the other hand, would prefer to celebrate a birthday month, but alas, I must share it with Little Man, so it has been wittled down to a birthday week. Anyway, this year, it looks like we'll be staying up late to catch the meteor shower, which should be frigid, and maybe romantic. I'm pondering gifts for him, so we'll see what happens.

I have been honing my baking skills these past few weeks; making bread, applesauce, pizza dough, and most recently cinnamon rolls (which turned out freakin' awesome!) I'm trying to become more "housewife-y" and a little less boring. This year I DIY'd our Christmas tree by making gingerbread men and bears and stringing popcorn and cranberries. I love it. It is my favorite Christmas tree to date. Decorating the tree with homemade decorations will probably become a tradition in our household now.

We have a big, huge extended family that we love very much. I hope you all continue to follow my blog and enjoy reading about our big crazy adventure!