What a wonderful day!

Logan

Marie

Katie

Ryan

Christmas at our house was the best ever this year! Both boys really were aware of what was going on. This is the first time that Logan participated in opening presents on his own. Last year we had them in their respective areas and gave them gifts and allowed them to open at the same time and I just grabbed pics after it was done. This year, something told me we needed to do one present at a time. Of course, the old video recorder wasn't working as the battery was so dead, there was no resuscitating it. I had my handy little digital camera on from the time we started until the last gift was unwrapped and the battery died right after that! I didn't even have enough juice to take pictures when my Mom got here a few hours later. I took pictures as they were unwrapping so I probably ended up with five to six pictures per gift. LOL

Back to Logan, he surprised me by grabbing the very first gift and ripping the paper. He was what I'd call a "neat ripper". He'd pull a piece of paper off, throw it on the floor and move on to the next area until the entire gift was done. (Later he handed each piece to me or Marie so it wouldn't make a mess!) It was such a sight! Last year it was like pulling teeth to get him to unwrap. I had to help him the entire time and after a few presents I had Marie open them for him. What a difference a year makes!

Ryan was into unwrapping this year too and for a three year old, he did pretty good. You could tell he has sensory issues by the way he'd start flicking his fingers if the paper didn't come off quick enough. (Got stuck to his fingers, what a sight it was when the tape got stuck to him!!LOL) He loved all his Thomas the Train toys and all of Logan's too! He was really getting into it by the end and reached over the gate and grabbed a gift and started ripping it open. I was laughing so hard I almost dropped the camera. Logan didn't mind it at all, by that time, he was OVER the whole scene and just wanted to play with his Learn Through Music. Yeah, that toy was from three years ago and he had it in his lap or by his side the ENTIRE TIME. He serenaded us with different music for the entire time. He liked his new toys and had them neatly placed around his area but would always go back to playing with his old toy.

The girls had a blast opening gifts. Katie was loving all the Barbie's she received and Marie loved her new Video Now player with the mini DVD's that she got to play on it. Of course, she also loved Katie's Barbie guitar and had Katie playing with that as soon as it was out of the box. I think Marie was more concerned with Katie getting to open all her stuff then she was about her own things. What a great big sister she is; they may fight like little wildcats but they really love each other! Oh and what a treat we had!!! Logan was singing some Christmas carols; Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Feliz Navidad. Of course, you couldn't understand all the words but some came out clear as day and he had the tunes to each song down to a science. I've tried to get him on tape but you know how that goes! Every time I get near him with the camera he stops singing. What a little character he is, hamming it up UNTIL the camera is on him.

Merry Christmas!

I've been very lax with keeping my blog up-to-date lately but after the holidays I promise to get back to my weekly posts. (if not more!)

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year! I hope that everyone gets to spend the holidays with family and friends and that you get to rest a little too. We are staying home and are going to have a wonderful time. Once the kids open up all the gifts from Santa (or bags of coal which ever they receive) we will relax in our jammies watching movies and playing with the new toys. Dinner will be chili and cornbread with some sandwiches, YUMMO! The hardest part of the meal will be the chopping of the onion then browning it and the meat.

Have a wonderful night tonight and day tomorrow!!

Oops!

Katie was helping me clean but decided she was too tired to finish!

It looks like Ryan is counting for Hide-and-Seek but he's asleep!

I had to get to get this picture; usually this little guy is almost naked when he hits the door after school. Shoes, socks and shirts come off as soon as the door is shut. I think he hates all clothes except for pants and I'm not too sure sometimes about them. LOL

I have been stitching just not a lot these past couple of weeks so I don't have any pictures to show. I'll take a quick shot later and post it soon. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. My how time flies when you're having fun! It also doesn't help that any time I try to sit down to do a post Ryan decides that he wants to snuggle with Mommy.

I still haven't put up the Christmas decorations yet. I know, very bad Mommy!! I was thinking about it yesterday when hubby was home but he decided to put up the light fixtures in the kids rooms. Since I'd been waiting on that for almost four years I wasn't about to say no! I did start today to go through all their current toys and weed out what they don't play with or have outgrown. I have quite a big bundle that will be offered up to a local freecycle group today after I finish going through everything. That's the first step in preparing for Christmas in this house; weed through to make room for new. I also need to clear out a space for the tree and redo the infant gates. Yes, even though my youngest will be three in February I still have infant gates in place and will continue to until they stop tearing up my books and everything else! I have to get back in that area and pull stuff (garage here we come!!) so I can vaccum in preparation for our tree which I'm bound and determined will go up tomorrow. I want to get as much as I can done before the older two get home so that we can start putting the ornaments up on the tree together. I always loved that part of decorating as a child; listening to carols, drinking hot cocoa and just having fun with the family.

I believe we are completely done with the shopping for the family so after the decorating comes the wrapping of presents. I so don't want to do what I did last year and sit on the floor for hours while I wrapped all the gifts. Who am I kidding, I got so tired by the third hour I picked items and just slapped some stickers with their names on them and had DH put them under the tree. The kids had a ball unwrapping gifts but also loved being able to see some so truly it didn't matter. Since hubby's family didn't wrap things from Santa we have compromised and wrap half so I can live with that.

Tagged!

I was tagged by Meari.

Here are the rules:

*Find the 6th folder in your photos folder and then the 6th photo in it.

* Pray that you remember the details ;)

* Post it on your blog

*Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.

Okay, the 6th folder only has two pictures in it (for Logan's PEC book; a picture of a book I made for him for his therapy)

So here is the 6th picture in my 7th folder:

Logan and Katie in the pool July of 2007. Marie was in there too but for some reason I couldn't get my camera to include her. Bad Mommy!! I have since figured out the camera and include all children in the area when taking a pic LOL!

I tag Heather, Carolyn, Henderica, Kelly and Beth.

Some pics and an update of sorts

See, I told you there are too many great patterns in this magazine!

Here is the free pattern that someone announced in a newsletter. You can find the design here. Look at Victoriana, then under Freebies.

Here is The Prairie Schooler, Inc. Snowy Night pattern from the JCS Christmas Ornament Magazine for 2008

Here is the Scandinavian Stitches Norweigan Reindeer from the same magazine. (Just need to finish both now!!)

It's been rather crazy around this house this last month. I was started awake yesterday by DH asking if Logan had any bread left. Logan is on the GF/CF diet and it's not always easy finding things that he will eat but bread is one thing he absolutely loves. He loves his PB toast and boy you'd better never run out of bread or PB! I jumped out of bed to go searching (very groggily I might add) for his bread. We order it from Amazon once a month and I supplement with homemade between orders. This month he hasn't really been very receptive to the store bought so we decided to skip the next shipment and wouldn't you know it was all gone! I had to think quick (still more than half asleep) and decided to make some homemade waffles for him. The whole time I'm doing this he's standing there giving me the "Logan Look".

He's standing there in his jammie bottoms, no shirt and his blanket wrapped around his neck/head fuming at me. Good thing the recipe is easy to follow or I'd have been in BIG trouble. Once his first waffles were done, he was happy again and I could make some much needed coffee. (if I weren't afraid of needles I'd have set up an I.V. and just went for the vein shot of caffeine) I then had to throw all the ingredients in the bread machine (wonderful WONDERFUL invention!!) so he could have some fresh bread later on. The boy proceeded to eat three or four waffles and snack on other stuff. Once the bread was done, he was eyeing it saying "I want peanut butter toast, please, thank you, OKAY!" He ended up eating two pieces and a piece of cinnamon toast too. He's obviously having a growing spurt. I'm just thankful he's eating as some days he just picks at his food.

I hate days like that. The good thing was I just continued from there and washed all the clothes (towels will be done today) and did dishes, mopped the dining room floor and vaccumed everything. (had to mop the floor because he let me know he wasn't happy being made to wait for his food by playing in his chocolate milk on the chair and floor) Not two hours later the playroom was demolished and the food crumbs from their snacks and lunch were all over the place. Why do I bother, I ask myself this question a lot. LOL

Another awesome giveaway!

Come check out Chiloe's blog to see what she is giving away. While you're there, drop her a line to wish her a belated birthday. I wish I had found her blog sooner so I could have wished her a Happy Birthday on the actual day!

I will be back in a little while to post a picture of my small finish from last week and my current small project. I had a great weekend; DH and I were able to go out for date night after all. We had a lovely dinner and then walked around Barnes & Nobles for a while. I found the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue and of course bought it! I had tried to find this at a bookstore closer to us but couldn't find it so I'm glad we decided to stop and walk around before heading back home on Saturday. The current small project I'm working on is an ornament from that magazine and I've got some sticky notes marking the other pages I want to do as well. (Imagine what it looks like with neon pink sticky notes sticking out all over!)

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The rules to follow are :

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to other 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.

Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award. Thanks goes out to Debbie for considering me as a recipiant of your award!! I love reading her blog and I think you will too, so when you have a free minute go check it out.

Here are a few of the blogs that I choose for this award are:

Kelly - who is always making me smile or laugh with her posts.

At the Honeysuckle Tree

Carolyn

Shari

Cheryl
Kathy

Miss Deborah - a true inspiration

Mylene