Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We enjoyed a wonderful week-and-a-half downstate with both sides of the family for Christmas. Our computer was with us, but I never took the time to blog. My sisters Amanda and Jennifer were also in town (with their families, of course). In that time, we did some shopping, threw a surprise birthday party for my brother Dan, got spoiled with some new gadgets, and even sneaked in a day date. Unfortunately, my camera didn't make the return trip with us so I don't actually have pictures of any of the above at this time.
Today, we are taking it easy and trying to find our groove again. Whatever that means for us. I have plenty to do and Adrian is currently throwing a fit. He slept till 9:30 today, but I don't think he's quite 'caught up' with his sleep yet after such a busy week.
This picture was our Christmas card this year--if you're local, and I don't have your address, it's still coming to you! They finally arrived the day we left so I passed out a lot of them at church on Christmas and sent out what I could. BTW, I emailed Snapfish, telling them how irritated I was with the 3 weeks it took to receive my cards and they refunded my order.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Bah Humbug...but not really

I'm feeling just a teeny bit stressed out today. I wish we could be downstate with our families already. I hate this last-minute procrastination crap that I always seem to be involved with. I still have 2 gifts to make. 1 is sort of close to being finished and the other--felt food for Adrian--might not get done at all. I thought the food would be much more fun to make (I'm just free-handing everything) but I didn't realize how much hand sewing went into making it. I hate hand sewing.
I'm also still waiting for my Christmas cards to arrive. I think I ordered them on November 24th. I'm pretty much furious about that. Remind me not to use Snapfish next year. I could have handed out a good percentage, but now I'll be mailing a lot more than I had originally planned. Aaand, I'll probably be addressing those downstate since they didn't arrive yet again today and I really don't have time to do that before we leave.
To combat my stress, I've been stuffing my face with brownies. Which, in turn, makes me feel sick.
The trouble with procrastinating is that I get stressed thinking about what still needs to be done which causes me to procrastinate even more. And to think I'm more prepared than I was this time last year...
Well, anyhow, there's laundry and packing and sewing and wrapping to be done! (Just not in that order.)

Camping In

I don't think I ever mentioned it on here, but Adrian had been climbing out of his crib 17 times a night so we finally said 'enough.' I'm not exaggerating when I say 17, in fact, one night it may have been closer to 29. It gets old quick, let me tell you. Especially when he's back out of his crib by the time I even climb back in my bed which is about 10 steps around the corner. We have been wanting to get him a twin-sized bed for the past several months, but it hasn't happened yet. About a week ago, (after the night of 29 crib evacuations) I folded up his little crib and set up his little mattress in the corner. And he's been sleeping a million times better ever since. As have I. Apparently standing up and running out of his room isn't quite as alluring as scaling the side of his crib.
 

Then, a few nights ago, I thought I heard him playing in his room after putting him to bed. When he didn't come out I went to investigate. His bed is in the far corner so when I heard breathing coming from the middle of the room I thought he was sneaking around. I flipped on the light to find him in his tent. He had pulled all his bedding, minus the mattress, into the tent and was only awake because I turned the light on. He's been sleeping in there since and he's even made it through a few nights without getting up!

Decking the Halls

Jeff picked up our tree on Saturday evening. (For the locals, there are trees starting at $10 in Ish...) We have never made a big outing of Christmas tree hunting, but then maybe that's because we don't cut down our own. Someday, but for now it's so much easier to buy one, especially when we can get it that cheap. While Jeff was out, Adrian and I rearranged the living room to fit out tree.

Adrian likes to be right in there 'helping.' (He's sitting next to me now telling me, "Mom, Adrian helping Dad?")

I think I still surprise Jeff every once in a while. He was shaking his head when he was putting up the tree and we realized just how short it is...and I didn't even care. My only request was that we don't get a Charlie Brown, other than that, I really don't care. This tree is so short, I could put the tree topper on while standing on the ground. And I'm only 5' folks.

I tried to let Adrian decorate:

It didn't go so well...

He had a little better luck with these swirly turquoise ornaments:

I put the remaining 7 ornaments on along with garland.

Now all we need is a tree skirt, tree topper, and a lot more ornaments. Ah, well, we're halfway there. I did have a few more ornaments but I ended up hanging them in the window. I'll have to post a picture if I ever figure out how to take a decent picture of the window. Tips are welcome.

Other than that...we made it through chickenpox with Adrian this past week. He did pretty well, just crabby for a few days and low fever, but nothing to get me worried.  Yesterday in church he told our friend Kate, "I have chickenpox. I have scabs." I keep trying to tell him he doesn't have chickenpox anymore, just scabs. Lots of scabs.

The Sunday School Program was last night, it's always so cute to see all the kids saying their pieces and singing the songs. It's a little different here than when I was in Sunday school downstate, mostly due to a much, much smaller group. The 5-year-olds each have a piece to say which is so sweet, just something simple like "Jesus loves me," or "Jesus was born on Christmas." And at the end, the entire Sunday school goes to the front to sing a song together. I imagine that won't happen for too many more years since our congregation has grown so much.

Now to finish supper and finish my dish for Ladies' Christmas Party tonight!

jokes on me

I saw repinned this top on Pinterest without noticing where it was from. While I was downstate for Christmas, I bought the same top in salmon. I found it at the Old Navy in the Tanger Outlets which, to my knowledge, doesn't carry maternity clothes. I bought it one size too big thinking of this very pin. Ha! So today, I pulled it out to resize and halfway through I clicked over to Pinterest, to this picture and realized oh, whoops, I guess I could have just bought it in the right size. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure it would have fit over my belly much longer if I had bought it in the right size.

Okay, so that's about all I got done today and yikes, our trip downstate is sneaking right up on me!

this time, last year

Our tree was already up, my belly was pretty flat, and Adrian was still as goofy (and cute) as ever.

And oh man, looking back at these pictures makes me so excited to have another little boy!

As for everything else, we will hopefully be getting our tree very, very soon, my belly is quite round, Jeff is working a lot, Adrian is covered in spots. I picked up everything we need for hot cocoa, including the whipped cream, so we're all ready to decorate. Just as soon as a tree makes its appearance. Pictures to come when stated event occurs. 

Mr. Snowman

Whenever Adrian is bored or crabby I give him a list of ideas to occupy his time. Among that is "go look out the window." For some reason, that one usually works. Here he is sharing the snowy view with his snowman (one of the few decorations that he can't ruin in some way).

a few snapshots from our visit with the families

Adrian and Kendall playing with the Push 'n' Go vehicles in Grandma's kitchen.

Jenny peeling, coring, and slicing apples for a Thanksgiving pie.

Jenna and Mom-in-law, Paula, making pie crust.

Grandpa and Adrian

Adrian and Auntie Jenna. How uncomfortable does he look??

The kiddos with Grandma and her i-pod.

Uncle Brett with his i-pad and Bentley with his i-phone. NBD.

Adrian coloring with Auntie Katie. 

Jeff and Adrian at the Fantasy of Lights Parade.