Christmas in NJ

On Christmas day, we headed to NJ after lunch. We went right to Aunt Cindy and Uncle Bill's to see family who were still there celebrating. We had yummy desserts and got a chance to hang out. Then we headed to Oma and Opa's to let Carter settle down before bed.

He did lots of playing with daddy's old toys!!

 

On Monday, I also got to meet my best friend, Allie, who was up from Atlanta. SUPER excited for that because it was literally a YEAR to the day since we saw each other. That is way too long when you spent so much time together in college. I loved catching up with her--every time we do, it is like we saw each other the day before.

Tuesday the 27th was celebration day with the whole family. Matt, Erin, and the kids arrived, Ben and Salli (and kids) came up, and lots of other family came, too. I even got to meet the Siczkas!! We did gifts and a yummy dinner. We, of course, grabbed the family photos as well.

Oma and Opa with all the grandkids...

A tower on Uncle Seth/Daddy.

The resident home protectors--Bentley and Baxter!

Standing on a stool to get closer to the snacks Oma put out. He was at that table ALL DAY. Finally, we had to put the stuff away because he wouldn't stop. :)

He picked up and peeled his very own Cutie. It was adorable!!

We also got a chance while we were in NJ to visit Ben and Salli's new house. Bentley are Carter especially loved it because they have a fenced in yard like us and they just ran and ran and ran. Carter couldn't get enough of their swingset and sliding board either.

We had a fun time and were glad to see so many people! As always, we were super blessed while we were there. Carter got a new picnic table with umbrella, a tray for his carseat when traveling, new playfood, flashcards, and a bunch of other things. We also got "date night" gift cards, Seth got hunting stuff, and I got new decorations!!

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Re-Cap

[Warning: a million photos to follow]

I figured I better hurry up and get the Christmas re-cap done so that it makes it into the 2011 blog book. :) We had an incredibly busy holiday season this year and while fun, is exhausting with a toddler. If you have one, you feel me on this. Ha! I'm thinking that next year with two little ones, we may be taking it a bit easier.

On Christmas eve day, we headed to my parent's house for the day. We had an appetizer lunch that was really good (thanks, Pinterest, for all the ideas!) and then the kids were rarin' to go to head downstairs to the gifts. While Uncle Bradley got changed from work, we had to occupy the kids however we could. Silly faces did the trick for a few minutes.

And some "nigh nigh" on Carter's homemade cot fashioned out of Gramma's pillows. Super cute.

FINALLY, it was time to head downstairs. They had some cute cousin cuddle time! :)

These kids aren't spoiled at ALL. This wasn't even all of them. They were beyond excited - certainly a lively year this year with three kids under two and a half!

C-man poses with Aunt Michelle and makes his infamous "cheeeese" face. I could eat him up.

A new firetruck!! He loves his new truck and spends a lot of time putting random toys in the ladder compartment and going up and down.

A new table from Gramma and Pa. Thanks for putting it together for us too - I'm certain that would have sent me to an early grave.

After a fun afternoon at Gramma and Pa's, we headed to Maw-maw and papa's for more gifts and dinner. By this time (and no nap), Carter was getting slightly antsy, but the new tractor he got made things all better. He also got a really fun dinosaur piggy bank that he has now made his purpose to fill by begging for change from every adult he sees. He's not my kid...ahem. The Christmas eve service was up next - and let's just say, thanks for keeping it short, Pastor Ed. There was no nursery and Carter is not the quietest in church. We stuffed him full of cheez-its and water, and distracted him as best we could.

The night seemed awfully short (though it always does with a little boy who gets up hours before the sun), but it's always easier to get up so early on Christmas :)

He dug right in, and was a lot of fun this year. After about give gifts, he was sort of over it though, and just wanted to play with his already-opened ones, so mommy helped finish the rest.

He got a new grill from Santa and LOVES it. It has the cutest food in it. He also got more play food from Aunt Erin and Uncle Matt, so he's having a blast force-"feeding" us hamburgers and hot dogs all day, every day. He's one cute cook. :)

I got a new Chi straightener, a panini maker, lots of decorations, a Vera Bradley duffle, Kindle case,  photography stuff, and lots more. Seth got tons of hunting stuff, cologne, running gear, gift cards, and more.

After gifts and breakfast, we headed to church. Sheetz was giving out free coffee all day on Christmas, so we headed out for 10 a.m. church around 9:35 to make a stop by Sheetz beforehand. We grabbed some coffee and made our way to church. As we approached the parking lot, I literally only saw like 10-15 cars. I have to be honest - I was irritated that hardly anyone was at church on Christmas day...seemed so ironic. Then we saw it. The big banner that said "Christmas Day Service - 10:30 a.m." WHOOPS. Needless to say, we got a good seat.

Carter fell FAST asleep on the way home - like dead-to-the-world asleep. We carried him inside and plopped him on the couch...something that has NEVER worked in our house. Well, I had to practically splash him with cold water to wake him for lunch. It was so adorable...guess he had a busy morning.

After lunch we headed to NJ to spend a few days with Seth's family (re-cap coming soon...).

All in all, we had an incredibly blessed and fun Christmas eve and Christmas day, and having a toddler certainly keeps you moving all day!! I hope you had a great Christmas too!

Pregnancy Highlights: 13 Weeks

The Christmas re-cap is coming soon, but we've been busy so I haven't gotten to it yet.

How Far Along: 13.5 weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 2 pounds

Maternity Clothes: A few things, mostly pants

Best Moment this week: enjoying Christmas!

Gender: Not sure yet, and I don't have a guess either.

Movement: He/she is moving like crazy, but I don't feel a thing!

Food Craving: Nothing really

What I miss: My energy :)

Sleep: I go to the bathroom a few times a night, but fine otherwise.

What I am looking forward to: My last few days of Christmas vacation from work - relaxing and trying to get some things done, too.

Symptoms: Some nausea (though less than the first trimester) and occasional headaches. Other than that, no issues!

We heard the baby's heartbeat yesterday at the appointment, and it was upper 150s. Everything was great!  

Pregnancy Highlights: 12 Weeks

Well, I think it's safe to say the news is officially out. I love telling people--so fun! :) Anywho, I'm due on July 3, which makes me pretty happy since Seth will be off with me most of the summer again!

Since I did these updates for Carter, I feel like I should do them again. I think it'll be fun to compare years down the road.

How Far Along: a little over 12 weeks. The baby is the size of a lime already!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Not sure really, maybe 4 pounds??

Maternity Clothes: A few things, mostly pants.

Best Moment this week: prepping for Christmas!

Gender: Not sure yet!

Movement: He/she is moving like crazy, but I don't feel a thing!

Food Craving: Salty things

What I miss: Nothing yet...well, except maybe the constant underlying feeling of nausea. :)

Sleep: I go to the bathroom like 1,825 times a night, which is annoying. Other than that, it's fine.

What I am looking forward to: Celebrating the holidays and seeing how excited Carter gets this year!!

Symptoms: Nausea and occasional headaches. Other than that, no issues!

Thought You'd Like to Know...

Details to follow! :)

Almost to the big 3-0.

My gorgeous, wonderful husband is getting old. :) He's almost 30...he gets to eek out one last year in his 20s.

He's sort of like cheese. Or steak. He just gets better with age.

And tonight....DRUMROLL please....we are going on a kid-free date night. Carter will be spending the night with gramma and pa, probably getting spoiled (I think she's praying that he selects tonight as the night to sleep past 5:35 a.m.). I'm so excited for a nice dinner out where we are not feeding a small boy a steady stream of Cheerios. We'll miss him, but parents need alone time too. :) Thanks, gramma and pa!

Happy birthday, love!

Five years.

Happy five year anniversary to the perfect guy for me.

I love you.

(source)

The Sicknesses in Our House

I talked a bit about how Seth and I had the stomach bug this past week, but I think I forgot to mention that we had another sickness in our house the week before. I got a call from daycare two weeks ago that C-man had a fever and needed to be picked up. He wasn't interested in eating his lunch and just wanted to go to sleep. When I got there, he was sound asleep on his cot in the middle of the room while everyone else ate lunch. Poor thing. He was so warm and sleepy. I carried him sleeping to the car, he slept the whole way home, and then I put him in his crib and he slept there for three and a half hours (until I woke him up so he'd sleep).

We went to the living room and the poor little boy didn't want to even be put down. He just wanted to be held and to sleep. He did this all afternoon. :(

He was home the next day as well, but his fever broke and he was feeling better. Thankfully, it was just a 24 hour fever because it could have been much worse. He's got a nasty runny nose now, but we can deal with that!

Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday, we went up to my parent's house so that Seth could go hunting and Carter and I could go to Breakfast with Santa with McKenna and Eli (and my mom, Jason, and Michelle). I knew before we even went that Carter wouldn't be all oblivious and smiley like he was last year. I was fairly certain he would be a hot mess.

Case in point:

We had to give him his gift bag before we could even think of getting him close to the big guy, and he was clawing my neck as we neared him. I'm not that bad of a mom. I only snapped this one picture and quickly got him off. He stopped crying immediately, though watched him quite closely all of breakfast to make sure he didn't come too close. :)

When we got home, there was a package from Aunt Polly and Uncle Dirk for Squirt. We told him to smile for the camera and out of nowhere he said "Cheeeeese." No idea where he learned that from - we never say that to him! It was so adorable!

He was very excited about his new ornament and it will find a place on the tree that is in the "safe zone" for little boy hands. :) Thanks, Aunt Polly and Uncle Dirk!

Making cookies!

One thing we've never been super good at each year is making cookies. I'm not really good at making them, and we hardly ever eat them for more than a day or two. But this year, I was really wanting to make them with Carter, and decided to just freeze most of them to pull out here and there when needed over the next few months.

Here are a few pictures of the fun - he was so excited to watch them in the oven!

The Holidays

My plan for this year was to get my shopping done before Thanksgiving so that we can actually enjoy the holiday season without stress this year. I'm happy to say I about 85% met that goal and only have a few small things to get yet.

The relaxing part? Notsomuch. Yet, at least.

We got our outdoor lights up a few weeks ago when it was warmer so that we could turn them on Thanksgiving night...which we did. For exactly one night before a string went out. I fixed that one, and we were good for a few days. I came home Friday night and saw one string of lights out AGAIN...on each of ALL FOUR TREES. WHAT?!?! I lovingly fixed those with new strings the next day, and I kid you not, a string is out again. I give up. I'm about to unplug that bush. They just look so pretty though.

We put our tree up around Thanksgiving as well and I love it. I always love having the tree up - it makes me so happy. A certain little boy loves to touch the ornaments, but I put the non-breakables at the bottom. :)

Seth had a 24ish hour stomach bug full of all sorts of stomach issues and barfing Monday and Tuesday, so we steered clear of daddy. While he recovered, he was out of commission for the TEN TIMES Carter got up the other night.

Which leads me to how Carter is refusing to sleep and eat. It's simply lovely. He apparently can survive on fruit cups only because that's all he wants. He went through a meat and crouton only phase, but that's long gone. Pasta - no way. Eggs - you're crazy, mom. Hamburgers - HA. Get real. I can deal with the not eating part, but at 19 months, the no sleeping thing is baffling us. I'm not proud of it, but I gave him Benadryl last night. and it was glorious. A sleepy momma's gotta do what she's gotta do. Don't judge. :)

SO, the relaxing part is...um, yet to come, but we're making the best of it. We are looking forward to Breakfast with Santa this Saturday with McKenna and Eli, a family party next weekend, a date night for our five year anniversary, and lots of other fun holiday festivities!
Hope you're getting a chance to relax and enjoy too! And if you're looking for some non-stop fun in your life, we have an ADORABLE, precious toddler who doesn't eat or sleep and will keep you on your feet. :)

UPDATED: I should have knocked on wood because I no sooner posted this and I came down with the nasty stomach bug as well. Turns out, it is a fast mover in families. I'm so far behind on blogging and posting about fun things we've done, but I'll eventually catch up. :)