Decorating cookies

I have many, many pictures to update you on so I'll try to start at the beginning. My Mom just left this morning, Eric drove up to MD to take care of some of the stuff on the house, but I am getting ahead of myself. My Mom arrived from FL last week. I thought this would be a good time to decorate cookies, our family's tradition. I haven't had such a good luck getting the cookies to work out right, so I was glad that Mom was coming so I could watch and learn. Watch and learn I did! Now I hope I can remember to next year. Here are the pictures:

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas eve, the presents are wrapped and under the tree, stuffing made, cake made, ready to go, I suppose. Now all we need to do is go to bed early, there is much un-wrapping to do tomorrow. I forgot to remind Gwen that she is not to get up and un-wrap presents tomorrow until everyone gets up! I hope she just doesn't get up and start un-wrapping. We went to Church today, the children's Mass, had our tradition, close your arteries shrimp. Currently Eric and my Mother are discussing www.noradsanta.org it is a pretty intense conversation. I am beginning to wonder if they are going to stay up and watch the whole thing.
I have realized yet again, I have a backlog of pictures to post. So here are some from our "Christmas photo shoot". We tried to take pictures on the campus, but it the kids were not super co-operative and this picture, I wish I was better positioned for and I wish I would have gotten the sweet one right after it where Gwen kissed Nate, but alas, I didn't! :( This picture actually made the Christmas card, I think. It was I think the cutest where we could see there faces.

I loved this picture, but I didn't feel like it would work on the card. And really, can't see Gwen's face.

I also wanted to include these pictures of the kids "helping" us put up the tree.

Well, goodnight everyone. Merry Christmas! I hope you have a happy and blessed holiday surrounded by friends and family.

Its not real snow

We have been kind of busy around here, I have been scouring to do the last minute Christmas things and making caramels. I have delivered candy to all of our neighbors. I've been busy, I tell you.

Today we went to a little shopping center with the kids, we didn't know anything about it, but we thought we'd give it a go because it was decorated pretty. It was a little hoity-toity for us, and mostly had place to eat and no shops. I tried to get pictures of the kids in front of the tacky decorations.

Well, Gwen cooperated for like a minute.

You might notice in those pictures there is snow. Apparently, if we wouldn't have moved from MD we would have gotten snowed in. Yesterday when it started snowing, I showed Gwen that it was snowing and she said "Mom its not real snow, it isn't on the ground and we can't play in it". So, last night we got some snow, that stuck to the ground, we bundled the kids up and took them outside to play.

You can see Nate really enjoyed himself, well I don't know if he really cared so much about it, he was trying to sneak around the car.

We could make snow balls, and then I tried to make a snow man, well, I succeeded in making a snow man, but then it was crushed by the children, who probably wouldn't have crushed it until Eric said something like Nate-chop! Which is Nate's newest trick, he loves to walk around and say "chop, chop" and then knock stuff over or hit things, great, thanks Eric!

A good time was had by all, we had hot chocolate after we came in and then I made caramel, which takes forever! It was a lot of stirring...

Dr. appt

Here are the vital statistics:
He is 25lb 4oz (50%)
32in (50%)
It seems he grew about a pound (15oz) and 1 inch. Also his head is at 50%, so he is all around average! Everything went well, he got all the shots, and now is done with shots until preK! YAY! Also, he has a bump on his wrist, which is apparently a cyst, that is often hereditary. She said that it probably will not be a problem for him ever, but we will keep an eye on it, and if it does cause problems (like when he is weightlifting!) or get bigger it can be drained. All-in-all good visit, on schedule, back in 6 months!

Gwen

My almost 3.5 year old is going through a rather trying time, apparently. Eric says that he kind of feels like she has PMS. She is quite the emotional one these days. Some days I get this, where she is cooperative and sweet and will do what I ask with very little questioning...other days I get this, where she won't even turn around for the camera....I had to get the picture following this one on the fly, which is why it is so dark.

She is a study in contrasts, some times she's up, sometimes she's down. You never know which one you are going to get. Many things I wonder about...why is she sleeping on the floor?

Why does she refuse to nap, but anytime she sits still between 3-4 she falls asleep, like in my car, in the stroller, or next to me on the couch this afternoon. She is a mystery. It makes me think of a silly little movie that I saw where the character says "I love you, but I don't really like you very much right now". I love her dearly, but she makes me question my sanity.

Here she is climbing the rock wall at the local museum.

We have had some issue with Gwen and her peeing. Not really a problem so much, she just won't go as often as I should think she should, like 1-3 times a day, usually she doesn't pee until mid-afternoon. I had discussed it with the Dr at her 3yr appointment and she told me I should make a routine out of it, and I've tried, seriously, I've tried, but its been 6 months and I have to beg and plead with her to go, not worth it to me. I feel like at this point, I am just training her to go when I tell her, and not actually go when she needs to, so then if I forget one day to remind her she is going to have an accident, which I don't want to happen. So, I'm going to let her be for a while and go when she needs to, and see how it goes. Today she went during quiet time and she didn't flush "because it is so loud and she didn't want to wake anybody up"! She is so considerate. We have tried to night train, but we are staying up too late (E & I) so we aren't getting up the instant she gets up, which I think we are going to have to do to night train her. So as soon as we quit being lazy, that will go well, I am sure.

FYI-that little boy in the picture is not Nate! I took the kids to the Museum the other day on a Mom's group thing, they had enough members that we could get in for free. I haven't done anything else with these Moms because their activities are not convenient for me, and then Friday I hardly got to talk to any of them, but the kids had a super fun time, and that is all that matters!

Busy Evenings

The last couple evenings I have been super busy, I have been busily writing my Christmas cards. I have other things to do, after the cards, but wanted to get them out, so I could cross them off my todo list.
Gwen has started to take over some of my responsibilities around here, finally. She has started reading Nate's books before nap time (this is news to Eric, who still reads the stories before bedtime, sucker!) She demands that he sits next to her and she "reads" to him. Of course, she is almost 3.5 and she is not actually reading to him, she has just memorized the books. And sometimes needs help remembering how to start the page, but usually does all the words, as written.

Ah, 1 less chore for me! Now if I could just get her to keep her clothes on all day and clean up after herself, I would be set!

Sunday-update!

Well, sadly I forgot to mention a couple things in my Sunday post from yesterday. After Nate's nap we couldn't decide what to do, and Gwen was uncooperative, so I suggested we clean out their room. Eric and I went in there with a trash bag and removed baby toys, toys they don't touch and books. We actually probably pulled 2 garbage bags worth of stuff out of there. Nate has a tendency to tear books, so we have to figure out what to do about that. I have started throwing some of those books away, since he is tearing them beyond repair, in my opinion. We now have only 1 "cube" that has toys in it and a half filled toy box! AWESOME. I kind of wish Christmas wasn't coming, because I think this will make our lives a lot easier and now they have 1/3 the toys they used to have in there, which looking at it, seems to be a more reasonable number. Now if we could just get Gwen to get rid of some of her "babies" (stuffed animals and dolls) we would be in much better shape, because her "babies" bassinet is overflowing.
I also attempted peppermint bark. We LOVE the stuff from W-S. But we've always thought it was too expensive and I have been wanting a recipe to make it at home. The recipe I made yesterday was a fail! :( It mostly tastes like chocolate, the ratio seems off and well, it is just not right. I am just going to have to try again... Find a different recipe, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, it is edible, that's not the problem, the problem is too much chocolate, not enough peppermint.
I've also realized it is time to make candy, we have our last music class next week and I'd like to make candy to take to the class. So I've got to get on that. I also had a chat with our neighbor the cop and his wife. Man are they nice people, they are definitely getting some of our candy! He gave me the low-down on the high-speed chase and the catching of the criminals! He told me I could come over any time I had a question or problem and he will let me know what is going on. (Since I said I wanted to come over and find out what happened but had seen it on the news and so I didn't need to know). I am glad that conversation is over with, now I won't feel so weird going over and finding out stuff about police activity. It was funny though, because he didn't realize that it was Eric he saw on the trail, it was, after all a rather unusual coincidence!

Sunday

The last couple of nights, maybe a week or so, we have found Gwen sleeping on the floor in front of the door. We don't know why, I suspect it is so she can listen to the TV and sneak peeks, but I think Eric and I have found a temporary solution that we haven't implemented yet, maybe soon. One of these days we found Gwen like this. Sitting in front of the night light, I should think if she didn't sit in front of the light, she wouldn't need the glasses, but what do I know! Nate has taken a particular liking to laying on his belly to look at things. He also loves to sit in people's laps and have them read to him. Sadly he will have you read the same story over and over again. I think Eric was tired of it and tried to get away, Nate wasn't bothered by this, he just laid down next to him and said "read, read". Eric, obviously obliged! We decided this year to celebrate the feast of St. Nick, sadly we were a day off, but the kids don't know that. We decided to stuff their stockings instead of socks or shoes and the kids really enjoyed it. We took some of the stocking stuffer like presents out of the already piled up gift stash in the garage and gave them some...Gwen got these PJs seen here! As you can see, still a ham and wearing Daddy's slippers...I should think she would be warmer if she wore the PJ bottoms, but again, what do I know! Nate got a truck, a fire truck to be specific, randomly throughout the day he would say "TRUCK, TRUCK" with some urgency, and then have to find it immediately. I would say it was a hit! They got a couple other things, but not so exciting as those 2 presents. Gwen loves her stocking so much she brought it with her to Church and she took it up to Communion!
We also put up more Christmas lights. We figured out what was causing the lights on the house not to light, and when we'd fix the issue on the strand we'd accidentally blow a fuse. It was fun! So we think we have finally figured out our lighting scheme, but we are figured out that we should do some diagramming or something before we just start throwing up lights, oh well, next year! Here is the rest of the scheme with the new lights from Dad's stash. You'll just have to look back at the other picture and pretend it is 1 picture! Maybe soon we will have all the lights working at the same time and we can get a picture, just maybe.

Craziness

Today was a rather busy day for us...despite the rain, we decided to go for a run. It is a little chilly here and it is possible we should have brought more clothes/brought gloves or something. But whatever, no one seems the worse for the wear. I like these Sat runs, I don't have to push the stroller, which is AWESOME! This run was filled with high adrenaline craziness. It all happened 3/4 of the way through our run, Eric had paused to take care of the kids and I hear some sirens...I can see the road from the trail and I see this car that was sliding across the road and I hear a crash. (by now I had stopped running and was just staring) I yell to Eric, who apparently can't hear me, as I see some police cars pull up and all of a sudden between us runs a man followed by 2 policemen, 1 of whom Eric says is our neighbor! Eric catches up to me and we just stand there staring as we see more police cars pull up and then we see 4 or 5 cops and a canine come onto the trail. We also see a runner get turned around by the cops. They asked him to turn around he tells us. The rest of the day we have wondered what was going on, I thought I was going to have to bang on the neighbor's door and find out what was going on, but then I finally found the news article...if you click on the word article, it shows a picture of the car wrapped around the tree! I have to say, I am thankful that guy lives here, he is a pretty nice guy, we've talked to him a couple times he's a newlywed. We also found out that when I talked about being awakened by the police lights, here, that the neighbors actually had a break-in and the police neighbor came out in his uniform to go to work and saw some strange guy standing in his neighbor's yard going through a purse and he apparently chased after the guy. I don't think he caught him, but still, I'm thinking I am going to have to make that man some Christmas candy and take it over there, because he definitely deserves some treats!
We then braved the crowds at Toys R US and learning express. I have to say I am rather disappointed with the gifts for Nate. I would really like to get Nate some kind of push toy, he really likes the little shopping cart we have (that is not really for kids) and Gwen's stroller. There are huge markets of toys for the 3+ girl crowd, I can't even decide what to get her, there are so many options! But, I am going to head out to the store, we are going to celebrate St. Nick's day this year, a day late, but whatever. They don't know the difference!

Leftovers

As I said after my November posting, I have been pretty busy with Christmas stuff. I received our Christmas cards and I now have them all addressed, well I have 2 people I don't have addresses for, so they might not get cards, now I just have to write out the notes and wait for Eric to come home with the stamps. I already have 8 done, now 50 more to go! I know that many people still send out the "Christmas letter", but I just can't do that I like sending notes, the personal-ness of that and not having to write something that I can send to everyone. Don't get me wrong, I love getting the Christmas letter and reading what is going on in people's lives, it just doesn't work for me!

I haven't posted pictures in a while, so I thought I should post our "leftover" Thanksgiving pictures. Here is Nate with one of the dogs. I can't remember which dog this is, but Nate has his beloved toy, so he kept a keen eye on Nate.

Nate would try to give the dog the toy, we couldn't really figure it out, whether he wanted to give up the toy or not, he would kind of hold out his hand a say "doggie". The dog would take it from him, but I think that freaked out Nate also...poor guy wasn't quite sure!

I snuck upstairs to take this shot of the girls. I think Angela might have been reading to her, I don't know...

Angela also brought down some castle stuff the girls played with right before we left.

As I said before, all-in-all a good day!

So official, I am posting a badge!

While I am waiting for the rest of my pictures to upload, I thought I would post this "badge". I don't know if I will add it to my sidebar, but I am going to make it a real live post, so I can always remember! Go me!

November 30th!

It has been a rather challenging day for me. It seemed to have started off not on the right foot; not on the wrong foot either, but maybe just the left foot. (hehe) I spent a good portion of my quiet time, actually all of my quiet time on the phone trying to figure out dental insurance, and Why NC is such a pain in the butt! Seriously, the entire state of ped dentists have decided not to file insurance. But my insurance won't tell me how much they'll pay, and since we have all dealt with insurance companies before we all know, they don't pay 100%, even though they say they do. I mean it is really clever of the ped dentists not to file and to decide as a group not to file, but is screws people like us, people who have insurance and paid the insurance and don't want to pay and then be reimbursed. Fortunately I was reminded that Gwen is of the age that regular dentists will take and our dentist is a "family" practice. So YAY! She's going on Wed. Now I guess we just won't take Nate to the dentist. I was told by the insurance company that if I could get the ped dentist to send a pretreatment estimate they would let me know how much I would have to pay. Then I called the ped dentist and they told me they don't do that, so I got the codes and then called back the insurance company to find out the info and the claims people don't have access to that information and the lady couldn't really help me, SERIOUSLY? I mean they can't just tell me what the average costs are if I have the codes, I should think someone could help me. Anyhoo, maybe I will just call again tomorrow. Apparently if I could get the pretreatment estimate I could find out what the average cost is for ped dentists around here. Although, I guess I could just do that myself! I am half debating just taking Nate to a ped dentist 1 a year and then when he turns 3 taking him to the regular dentist, I mean we pay for his insurance anyway and since he is only 1 it is not like they do much and sometimes don't even get through a whole appointment. But, we'll see, one of the ped dentist offices are going to call me back after the office manager is back to let me know if they can help me in any way. If they can, then I will likely take Nate there at least once.
When speaking to the hubby the other night, or maybe even listening while he was talking to his Momma, I found out more about Gwen's Santa letter. I had noticed that he had drawn pictures of what she wanted and at the time I didn't think anything about it, until he mentioned it, apparently she asked him to draw the pictures. Pretty smart girl, I think, I mean it is a good way to make sure Daddy is writing down exactly what you say, if you can't read!
I don't have anything else to say, I have got to get back to "work". With my Christmas cards that I ordered, for signing up with a new account I get 100 free prints. It doesn't say how long the prints are free for, but I don't want to pass up this opportunity, so I have been going through the pictures I have already ordered for Nate's scrapbook and trying to get everything together. It is hard to do when you haven't started, I only have 20 or so pictures left on my order, so I hope to finish that up tonight! I foresee a lot of scrapbooking in my future! That is good though, I have time most evenings to get stuff done!
I hope you have enjoyed this month of blogging. I can already tell you tomorrow I won't likely be blogging tomorrow, i have a sorely needed hair appointment in the evening and I might sneak in some Christmas shopping after that, you never know how I might feel with a new haircut and out of the house on my own!

November 29th!

Is anyone else happy that this month only has 30 days? No, huh...I guess that means that we are that much closer to Christmas. I guess I should pay more attention to that. Christmas is coming! Today we had another pretty good day. There were 5 Baptisms this morning at Church. I seem to have gotten used to "facing the East and facing the West" thing. The nice thing is that they allow all the little kids go up to the Baptismal font and watch up close, Gwen LOVES to do that, she lives for that. Today they had the older brother of one of the kids hold the baby in the font, so sweet. In this Church they don't have ushers, at the offertory every other row gets a basket and the person at end of the second row brings up the basket. This morning Gwen brought up the basket. She brought it right up knew exactly what to do. I guess they do learn things and understand things. I think the thing I am concerned most about is that she is going to forget where we are sitting and freak out. But, she is totally cool, always remembers where we are sitting and doesn't appear to be concerned.
Since it was a warm day today, we decided to go for a bike ride on the ATT. We live about a mile from the trail, Eric uses it for his commute. We decided to go the opposite way of his commute, towards Durham. It was late in the afternoon (after Nate's nap) and we decided to turn around when we seemed to hit the projects, or really an area that I wouldn't want to be in by myself after dark. Gwen napped during our bike ride. I had packed some snacks for the kids, just 1 snack cup per kid and since Gwen fell asleep, Nate decided to eat all of her snacks. He just leaned over and took them. Then he tried to return the snack cup to her, he is so mischievous. I don't know that Gwen will know what hit her as he gets older. It was a nice afternoon. The Gwen that we dealt with after her cat nap is the Gwen I wish we had every afternoon. The nap took the edge off, that was awesome!

November 28th!

I can't believe November is almost over, 2 days left of NaBloPoMo, I might just make it. I have to say this year it has been more difficult to keep up with this posting thing! I don't know if it is the 2 kids 1 of whom is not napping anymore, or if it is my move and not having any friends so I have nothing to write about. Well, nothing interesting to write about.
Today, for instance we went for a run, the whole family. We ended up doing 4.5+ miles, I know I ran 2 of those miles without stopping, the rest, well I did some running back, but Nate started to throw a fit so for the last 1.5 mi we let the kids out to walk/run with us. I really enjoyed not having to push the jogger. I know that is the only reason I got so far, I just kept plugging away while the hubby dealt with the kids! Nate was pretty cute after the run, he kept yelling "run, run" or "go, go" and would start running with all his might, he also had several sword fights with his sister using sticks. Lots more injuries in my future with those 2! When we were on the trail we saw people riding these, the human powered kind. It was very interesting to see. I should think after a while you would get pretty tired. But, what do I know, really, I didn't try the thing.
That pretty much took up our morning. This afternoon we wanted to leave but couldn't figure out where to go. I am sure there were places we could go to, we just couldn't think of anything. I guess we will have to put our thinking caps on for tomorrow afternoon. I guess we are pretty boring kind of people and well we just don't know of the fun things to do yet.
The hubby is still working on projects and we are gearing up for the "winter break" aka the break he will never, ever have again. It seems that his rotation is done officially next week (I think) then he has 2 finals and then he is off until sometime in Jan. He has been told that he can still come into work. And, I think he will a little bit, to keep up appearances and such. But I think (although I don't know) most of the time he is planning on being around. I think we will continue with projects and maybe paint a room or 2 so we can start hanging up some pictures that are still in boxes. We are definitely looking forward to making this place more home-y.
Gwen and Eric worked on her Santa letter. I am still undecided on this Santa thing. Don't know how much I want to encourage it. But Gwen dictated the letter and Eric wrote it. Too bad some of the people that are shopping for Gwen have already finished shopping. I am not sure how much Santa is going to bring her though, because she thinks the only thing Nate wants is a stocking and that is not very nice to not suggest things for your brother who can't really express what he wants.
We have noticed that we are cleaning much more, mostly because before we could ignore everything and go downstairs to our kid-free zone until we felt like dealing with it. Now we don't have that luxury, we must deal or step over.
I think that is all for now. I feel pretty tired, even though it is only 8p. I might try to go to bed early...I know it will never happen, but a girl can dream!

Friday that feels like Saturday

We had a great day yesterday. Yes, it was more crowded on the road yesterday than we expected, but we made it there and back and had a lovely dinner with Jess and extended family. Although there was a lot of this going on... we had to monitor Nate every second!!! Gwen on the other hand, we didn't see at all, I snuck upstairs and took this picture. Angela and Gwen spent the whole day together, minus the strange incident where Gwen ran inside saying she didn't want to play anymore and wanted to go home. I don't know what happened, likely she didn't get to do what she wanted so she decided to go home!

We tried to take pictures of the kids today for the Christmas cards, but we ended up with mostly pictures like these...

And I thought, well since we didn't get much maybe we can go back after naps or tomorrow for some pictures and then this happened:

So, then I figured what the heck, I'll be able to find something of use and make do, because Nate's outfit is too dirty for tomorrow. I did get the Christmas card done, to our satisfaction, well I guess to my satisfaction, I just wonder what our critic will think! It is done now, though, so there is nothing I can do about it now.

We also watched the Iron Bowl today. I had some confusion about the time of the game, I totally thought it was at 3:30, so I missed the 1st quarter, and then since when I started to watch the game bama started scoring, I decided to go to the grocery store. The game ended up being more of a nail biter than I think anyone was expecting, and I am sorry we lost, but it was a good game. Now onto the bowl game.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, long about Sunday I had a grand idea, why not do homemade Thanksgiving cards, everyone loves homemade cards, don't they? Well tough, that's what you are getting this year, if your lucky. So, while Eric was beautifying the house, I tried to get the kids to make these "cards". I had the kids put their hands out neither really wanted to co-operate, but finally Gwen let me do it and Eric came in to see what was going on and put down Nate's hand & I traced quickly.

I then ran to the copy machine made copies and I had both kids color on the them. On a side note, every time you say color, Nate runs to the guest bedroom and sits at the table all while yelling "color, color". So cute, he gets the hang of it now, kind of, I mean he still eats it all, but whatever. The only thing I didn't consider is that they wouldn't want to do like 7 of these things at a time...oops, so we did like 3 and sent those out on Monday. I left the unfinished copies in the bedroom for Gwen to work on "when she felt like it" and she did color on them over the next day or so. Now, Nate I had to bring him back in later and direct him to color, which he obliged. I did find this in the bedroom when I went in to check on Gwen's progress:

look, she made her own. And, I think you can tell looking at that picture, Gwen is definitely a lefty, she traced her right hand instead of her left.

We are on our way to Jess and fam for Thanksgiving. Sadly I am taking my terrible looking pie (I hope it tastes good!) and cranbake. I know the cranbake will be good. I hope the kids make it threw the day, I am rather nervous about having them at some one's house that hasn't been baby proofed in like 4 years (have I mentioned the stairs)! Plus the kids won't be on schedule, let's hope they aren't too crazy tomorrow. We hope that you all have a very happy and fun-filled turkey day. Eat lots of turkey and fixin', if you enjoy that kind of thing!

Lighting the house...

Today, since Eric didn't really have to work. He had some helpers.
Here are the finished lights, so far.

Eric apparently took these pictures so he can plan the rest of his lighting scheme...we have way more lights to go up. We have tons of lights, and more coming from Dad's stash. But as we have in years past we will be likely be still adding to our decorations up until Christmas, especially if the weather is still this warm!

Problems

Have I mentioned that having kids can really cramp my style? I mean they can really extend the simple tasks and make them into marathon tasks. This place just doesn't seem to stay clean. I have decided it is no longer worth putting the vacuum away; I vacuum everyday, everyday I tell you. Nate has decided that he wants to take over the vacuuming responsibilities... on the surface, this is a great thing, but in reality it is pretty terrible. He comes running whenever the vacuum starts and then he wants to "help, help, help". But, he vacuums so slow and then gets frustrated whenever he gets stuck on something. A real pain.

This day I distracted him with the popper, much easier for him.

I forgot to post this picture with parade pictures, Gwen was going to carry this backpack for us, but quickly changed her mind, when she realized her backpack was smaller and less cumbersome.

Here is Nate "sit"(-ting) on the "table". His vocab is really improving, and occasionally I can get him to get down by himself. I try to make a big production of the getting down by himself, so he will continue to try.

Now if I could get him to realize that he should sit in chairs and dinner will be ready when it's ready, and it will happen sooner if he stops climbing on the table!

Parade slideshow

Because we took way too many pictures, I am going the slide route yet again! I hope you enjoy all our pictures.

In other news, this morning I was awoken by some strange flashing lights. I looked out the window and there were 3 cop cars at one of the neighbors house. I don't know why and I have heard that is not the first time cops were at their house. But really at 6 in the morning for like 30-45 min! Makes me wonder.
I also forgot to mention, the other night we put Gwen to bed Eric dressed her in her sleep clothes, she got up and she was in pink tights, a shirt, and Nate's sweatshirt! She is a rather crazy kid.
We are gearing up to take the pictures of the kids for Christmas, but as you've noticed Nate has that scratch on his nose, that was starting to heal and now he keeps scratching it, I guess it itches but I don't know what to do to keep him from scratching it. And say if he was my first child (and a girl) I would likely cancel pictures or buy make-up, but he's a boy and he you know he's always going to have scrapes, should I just get used to it. Because it is likely I could have a senior picture that was redone in a way that I am still not happy with...that is a post about my Dad for another day.

oops!

I almost forgot to post today! We have been busy, I guess. Church, working on the house. Big things. Ok, not so big things, just things. I have finally found a Church, have I mentioned that? Well, I joined one. Yay me! On the house, we finally hid the cords that were in the living. Not all of them, but the ones we can see when we are watching TV. I bought the cord hider thingy soon after we moved here and we just got all the necessary things to complete the task YAY! It looks so nice, the hubby did a nice job. So, now when we decide on a color for the inside (instead of flat white, so dirty with kids with grubby hands!) we will be able to slap it right onto the walls. Won't that be exciting, we would probably even be able to get pictures out of the boxes and hang stuff up on the walls!!! Then, it will feel more like a home.
Not much else has gone on around here. I guess this writing everyday thing really shows just how boring our life is around here. I guess I need to get out more!

Parade

Today we went to the Christmas parade in Raleigh, despite any issues of the morning. The hubby thought that whenever we got up we could go, I thought we should pack and leave before the parade started since we had to 30 minutes to get there. The hubby's opinion is that since the kids are young they won't know the difference (but I DID!) He still maintains that we saw the whole parade, I maintain that we didn't. We took some pictures, the kids saw Santa, I guess all went well. The kids enjoyed it, well if you ask Gwen, she didn't "enjoy" it, she "liked" it. Apparently we need to review the definitions of "enjoy" and "like". Pictures will follow later, I don't feel getting the camera and the cord.

Today is ?

I am realizing that I no longer know what the date is. This can really be a problem, one because well, I might miss birthdays, things I plan on doing, etc because I have no idea. I do know what day of the week it is, but the day of the month, no clue! Fortunately the holiday this month is on a Thursday, so it isn't like I am going to miss that! Since we have a house this year, more importantly a 1 story house, it is likely we will be doing a lot of decorating for Christmas, well that and Mom keeps sending us lights from Dad's "collection". Not that we are complaining, don't think that. With the weather being so temperate here, I think it is likely we will do a lot of decorating, with all of us outside "helping". But, I don't really know when to start decorating the outside of the house. We tend to decorate mid-Dec, we leave our decorations up until the first week or so of Jan, so I don't like to put them up too early. Maybe we will start the outside of the house decorating earlier and wait until closer to the end of the month for the tree. We don't actually have space for a tree, but we will have to figure out something, I suspect Nate is going to spend a lot of time trying to climb the tree so we are going to have to figure out some kind of arrangement that discourages taking off the decorations/climbing the tree!
We are debating about going to a parade tomorrow. Eric and I went to the Rose bowl parade when we lived in SoCal and haven't been to one since, we haven't even been able to watch the Macy's day parade since. But, I guess it would be fun for the kids, although Gwen has informed us that she does not want to attend the parade, even though she doesn't know what one is and doesn't care to know. But, maybe we will try anyways! Alright, guess I don't have anything else for now. Ciao!

Choices

We are having a relatively good day around here, despite the congestion that has appeared. We don't have any other symptoms but congestion, I got mine first, I think and then Nate and lastly Gwen. I have to say Nate is super cute, every time I blow my nose or Gwen's he also has to "blow" (his nose). I am sure that is not very hygienic, but whatever, we all have the same thing anyways. Nate's vocabulary is really improving. Some words can confuse, but he probably has close to 50 words now, and he'll try to say anything, I have been working on different fruit with him because he likes to call everything in the fruit bowl "apple" which is really annoying to me, because pears are not apples, but I guess he gets confused because we have green and red apples in our bowl. We also have a new fruit addition to our family, the pomegranate. Approved by 3 of the 4 members of our family (only disliked by Gwen). So if you are keeping track at home, Nate eats-salmon, pomegranate, CHEESE, bread, cereal, grapes, rice. He will occasionally eat corn, apples, pear, and banana-he is rather picky about bananas, the ripeness affects his decision there! I have faith that this is a phase and he will eventually eat more food, Gwen is slowly starting to eat dinner with us-I am hoping by the time they are 20 I won't be having these problems, of course by then I hopefully won't be making them dinner because they've gone away to college!
I think we are finally settling into the lifestyle of our choosing. We knew going into this there were going to be cutbacks and I think we are doing well. We are sticking to our budget and despite some random things we didn't account for we are not at a high level of stress about money (or lack thereof); if we were, I would be looking for a job. We have found we don't really miss the things we cut out and we are wondering where our money went to before.
Gwen is, well getting to be a big girl. She completely dresses herself in the morning. I think she would also like to brush her teeth, but I still brush after her, she is cute trying to brush. She can talk your ear off and she has started talking to random people, strangers really. She'll tell them anything. We were at the play area in the mall and this guy walks up to his wife (who was a friend of the person I was with) and said this little girl (Gwen) just told him "Nate is my brother, he's a boy, he doesn't wear dresses, only shirts, I wear dresses." He didn't know I was her mother! I don't know where she gets this stuff! We have good days and bad days with her; days she can listen and days she can't. I would like her to understand that I am not kidding, when I tell her to help me clean her room, it is not up for debate. But, she gets to the super tired point and starts to cling and hang on me and WHINES instantly! And, she can be bossy, telling us what to do. I think she is going to start to become more helpful and sweet, as her brother becomes more challenging and sweet.

Park

Today I went with my exercise buddy to a woman's only event at a running store. Had some yummy wine and apps and learned what shoes I should be wearing, and why my knees hurt. Informative! Too bad I just bought the wrong shoes. But, I guess this isn't why you come to this website (hi "Ant"!)
Like I said yesterday we went to the park after the run, we had fun. The kids didn't want to leave, so I guess that is a good sign. Here are the pictures I took.

It is not the best park in the world, but since it is not the best park in the world not many people go there, which makes it fun for the kids, not super busy. That day we were the only ones there. The kids love to run around, with 2 that can be a challenge, I tend to let Gwen do whatever and check on her, but follow Nate around like a hawk. (If you notice his face, you will see where he decided to try out a skateboard and landed on his nose, I was standing right there and it looked rather innocuous, he was just sitting on it, how did I know he was going to face plant off it? Will he ever learn?) Nate is learning to climb up and down and "sit, sit, sit" when you go down the slide. We had to go through the same process with Gwen, so at least for this "developmental step" I am prepared, now if he would follow any of her other tendencies I would be prepared. It is funny how different children of the same parentage can be completely different from the getgo. I keep praying that Nate is going through a phase that will one day allow for him to be curious which includes climbing without peril. I mean, if he could just learn that some things are dangerous and wouldn't be so pigheaded I could have less stress.