A review of December

I am slow on posting our Christmas, but with good reason. Todd has been off work since last Monday and I have just been enjoying my family! So here is a bit (okay a lot) of our Christmas and a few other things.

Alyssa with her talking baby from Santa, this was her number one wish and she takes it almost everywhere (I will let her that is) and she sleeps in a cradle beside her bed at night. Her name is Baby...shocking I know :)

And her new dollhouse. Takes up a lot of space in the playroom, but surprisingly Aiden plays nicely with it too. I really just expected him to take all the furniture out and throw it about the house, but so far it can stay downstairs.

Aiden crawling into his puppy ball pit...this takes up most of the family room...so even though I have done an "old toy sweep" we still are overtaken with toys downstairs...he loves it!

Aiden also got his own phone with an answering machine, perhaps now he will stop changing the message on our real answering machine...not likely.

By the time they were done Aiden really only wanted the Goldfish left in his stocking. When it comes down to it this boy only cares about food.

Demi opening one of his gifts, it lasted about 4 minutes until he chewed a hole in the ball and it landed in the trash.

Alyssa helping Daddy make homemade noodles. Aiden was back in bed by 8:30 in the morning, since he got up at 6 which is very early for him. My first (30 something) child got up about 5 and somehow the rest of the house was up before 6!

Some snow fun the week of Christmas.

Sledding down the driveway.

This is the only time I enjoy our steep driveway.

And I don't think I ever posted about Alyssa's preschool Christmas program. Her she is all ready to go. She did a great job singing and dancing...she even had her own line that she said into the microphone perfectly. Unfortunately the pics from the program are all dark, so this is all I've got.

So I think that is enough to catch us up for now.

Happy New Year!

~~Tracy~~

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa Raines house.

A glimpse of our Christmas...so far. I hope everyone has a safe and Blessed Christmas Day. Happy Birthday Jesus!!

~~Love Todd, Tracy, Alyssa & Aiden~~

A New Week

I am so glad to start a new week, as last week was a bit terrible. Alyssa ended up in the hospital on Tuesday morning and was admitted for dehydration, low blood sugar and a temp of 103. Luckily a night of fluids did the trick and she was able to come home on Wednesday. She ran the temp of 103 for 6 days until it finally went away. The doctors never found a source of the temp (even with a very unpleasant straight catheter in the ER and two other blood draws). They wrote it off as a bad viral infection and I am just grateful it wasn't something worse. She really was a trooper during her stay. It probably helped that she had her own TV, and a terribly long movie list to pick from.

So now we get to start a fresh week and really get ready for Christmas. She ended up being 7 days behind on her Christmas candy countdown so we are slowly catching that up. Aiden apparently didn't want to wait as one day he broke into the Christmas Day one and ate all the M & M's inside...oh, if you could have seen the smirk on his face when he got busted :)

So just a few more loose ends to tie up with shopping (I know, we are ALWAYS done before Thanksgiving), Aiden and I plan to finish that up tomorrow morning after we drop Alyssa off at Preschool. Todd works until next Monday and then has 10 (maybe even 12) days off...WHOOO HOOO!!! I am very excited!!

Later this afternoon I am watching a couple of my Friend's children and then tonight it's my monthly Mommy time (AKA: a haircut).

Have a Great Week and Stay Warm!

~~Tracy~~

A few random things

This will just be a random post on what is going on at our house lately. First, a bit of a brag (I have seen some bragging lately on other blogs and thought I would join in ;-). I started running again in August mostly just to lose some weight and get in better shape. Well I am now up to 4.6 miles (and down 9.5 pounds) and feel great. A bunch of my friends are going to run the Mini Marathon in May and I had been debating on signing up as well. After just deciding not to, more or less because of the training time, Troy asked me on Thanksgiving if I wanted to run it with him...so back to the debating. I have decided to wait and do the one in October (Troy, you are willing to do that one with me right?). That way I can train more outside instead of on a treadmill. And I don't have to shell out more money at Christmastime. So that is what is new and exciting in my life (HA!).

On to the kiddos. We have been letting Alyssa watch the Christmas shows on TV at night and this is pretty much what that scene looks like:

This is her and her crew watching The Polar Express. She also had her first Preschool Christmas program last night, but that will be another post.

And Aiden, poor Aiden...he is undecided on still taking 2 naps. This is what happens most mornings around 10 am lately. He had been down to one nap for a few months, but lately his body is wanting more. So yesterday he plopped himself in his bean bag and crashed.

And here he is in a more upright position after being startled by a certain little girl trying to put stickers on him. You can barely see the stickers on his left arm, but notice it didn't phase him much.

That's all I've got for now...

~~Tracy~~

Snow

Today we had our first "playable" snowfall for the winter. Alyssa begged to go out and play in it this morning. So I let her go out back while Aiden and I stayed warm inside and watched. We had to miss church this morning because Alyssa had the stomach flu yesterday and we were waiting out our contagious period. So it was nice to get her out of the house to run around. I think she would stay out there forever, but I made her come in after about 25 minutes. I didn't put her snow pants on and she had on her rain boots because we haven't bought snow boots yet this year (although I am thinking with the right socks the rain boots may do the trick) and I was afraid she was getting cold. She literally ran circles around the yard and examined her footprints. She also went around and "dusted" the snow off of her house and swing set.

She did make sure Aiden was having fun by throwing snowballs at him!

And of course she brought some snow in for Aiden to see, I mean eat...

but he wanted nothing to do with that...

...so she grabbed a bowl and spoon and helped herself. For anyone wondering, our dog has his own separate potty area and is not even allowed in the back yard where the kids play. So the snow was "clean"!

So there is the first snow fun, I personally love the snow. From the inside that is :) Daddy is more the outside cold weather playmate!! The sled is waiting for just a little more...

Here's Proof

I told you he is just like an old man with a walker!! Here is Aiden yesterday stealing Grandpa's...nope still not walking on his own except for a few steps here and there.

Notice in the background of the picture, Grandpa is playing Wii!!

We went to Troy and Sarah's for Thanksgiving this year and had a great time. The food was awesome (of course) and it was great to see everyone. This morning Mom picked me up at 5 am to hit the Black Friday sales, it was her first time venturing out soo early. I am so glad we went, I got some great deals and crossed some more people off my list (and of course got some things for me for Todd to wrap & give me:)

Then our family went to get our Christmas tree, which has surprisingly stayed untouched by Aiden...so far. We will decorate it tomorrow which I am sure will tempt him more!

We have been having a lot of tea parties lately at our house, Alyssa is a great host. She had done away with the "tablecloth" when Aiden is attending, I am sure that is self explanatory.

Well, I am off to get some rest after a loooong day.

~~Tracy~~

2 Days in Review

Monday Morning:
6:06 am Day starts...Alyssa is awake, but a nice break as her waking has been before 5:30 am the 6 consecutive days before this.
7:30 On the phone with the Doctor's office to try and get Aiden and I in today. Appointments made for 9:45.
9:15 Leave with the 2 kiddos for appointments.
9:16 Cell phone rings, WONDERFUL hubby says he is on his way home and if I pull over he will take Alyssa with him.
9:16 and 4 seconds (or immediately): Pull into subdivision and hand over Alyssa.
10:15 Leave Doctor's office...Aiden's rash is an allergic reaction to the ibuprofen I used Friday and Saturday for terribly teething baby :( And me, well since I have been fighting a "cold" for 6 weeks they gave me something to hopefully kick it.
10:55 Leave Target with my prescription.
11:10 Home and lunchtime, lay Aiden down for nap.
2:45 Wake Aiden and the family of 4 is off to our monthly chiropractic visit.
4:45 Home and eating supper (gave in to the world and went through a drive thru for this meal).
8:00 Last child in bed and house is quiet.
8:40 I leave for the Community Center to set up for MOPS.
10:00 Return home.
11:15 or so....Sleep...

Tuesday Morning:
5:22 am Day starts...Alyssa is awake (Hmmm, back on schedule).
8:25 Leave house for MOPS.
11:25 Leave MOPS and pick up Alyssa at preschool.
11:33 Back at MOPS for clean up.
12:15 Home for lunch, Aiden down for nap.
2:10 Wake a (really sound, peaceful) sleeping Aiden to get his 2nd flu shot.
2:15 Leave house.
2:45 Aiden called back for flu shot and informed he could also get his HIB booster today too. Lucky him, now 2 shots two days before Thanksgiving.
3:30 Home for the night, and WONDERFUL hubby is cooking supper.
4:00 Eat supper and WONDERFUL hubby then does dishes and cleans up entire kitchen!!
5:00 Clean kitchen and playing with the kiddos...things are starting to look up :)
8:00 Last child in bed and house is quiet.

I will have to say that the day was also lightened when we were cleaning up after MOPS and Alyssa ran across the room and threw her arms around me and said "I love you soo much Mommy!" followed by a huge kiss and hug. Then she just went back to the table I had sat her at to wait for me.

Alyssa had her Thanksgiving feast today at Preschool and this is what they made and wore. You can't tell in the picture, but the 2 things hanging off the side are little pony tails. I had never seen this before on these handmade bands but it is super cute!

Aiden just trying to figure out what she is doing.

I will end this post with saying how very grateful I am for these past two days...There is honestly nothing more I would rather do. I am surrounded by an amazing family and am very blessed to be with them everyday.

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

~~Tracy~~