Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The night before Christmas Eve

I forgot to mention last post that the red Jeep is finally missing from the driveway. It has been broken for quite a while. It was a matter of finding someone who Hubby felt was capable of working on the old thing. After I did some calling around, we found someone to take it to. We dropped it off early Saturday morning. This guy we found has a shop on the side from his regular full time job. So, it will be with him for a while, since he gets little time to work on it.

So, here we are the night before Christmas Eve. We built (well, Hubby built and I supervised) something tonight that needed to be built prior to Thursday morning. It was done fast and easy. I still have a few gifts I need to wrap prior to delivery tomorrow.

Courtney is done with daycare until next week now. They did some really cute things for Christmas this week. They made reindeer food with glitter. It’s oats (oatmeal) with glitter. The oats are to attract the reindeer and the glitter is to reflect the light so reindeer can find the house. We will sprinkle it on the lawn tomorrow night before bed. We also purchased our cookies today to put out for Santa.

We also got a rib roast at Whole Foods tonight. We plan on roasting and smoking it tomorrow. Our office will only be open half a day tomorrow, but I am not going in since Courtney doesn’t have daycare. But she and I will make a stop up there to say hello to everyone. And the executive board made the decision to also keep the office closed on Friday. But Hubby has to go in for a few hours in the morning that day too.

Well, just a quick update as to what we are up to! I need to go and wrap a few gifts!!!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

It's almost Chritmas!

Another week flown by! I can’t even believe it!

Hubby and I braved a snow storm to get down to my parents’ house last weekend. It was snowing pretty hard on the way down. But, we went and dropped the kid off. We were hoping that also meant fewer crowds out and about for our toy shopping. And indeed, it pretty much did! We were able to maneuver around Toy R Us without much company!

After spending a long time there, we finished all the shopping for little one’s we needed to finish! And from there we went and ran a few errands to finish the rest of our Christmas shopping, including a gift for me!

Monday was a fun day. I had another doctor’s appointment, including an ultrasound! And guess what? The baby finally decided to show herself, and yes, it is a girl! I have started having contractions, but the doctor said that it’s still okay. I am not meeting the criteria to make them worry. So, he told me when they start, I am to drink water and get off my feet. Yeah, I will do my best, but that is just not always possible.

Tuesday I took Courtney to My Gym. She is so independent. She runs around there with no fear and wanting to do what she wants to do, which sometimes is against what is going on in the class! But, it’s good to see her learning new things and doing new activities.

I took Thursday off from work. My mom got tickets for Courtney, her and I to see Sesame Street Live, Elmo Makes Music. I hadn’t shared the fact that we were going to see Elmo with her. I let my mom do that once we met her at her work. And it’s a darn good thing I didn’t tell her. Once she found out where we were going, that child was on a mission. She immediately put on her coat and started walking out the door. And she was on a mission until we were in our seats. She kept asking over and over again, where Elmo was. Finally the show came on and she was pretty mesmerized. She was just enthralled until the end.

After the show we went to lunch and Courtney kept informing us that after lunch we were going back to see Elmo. She has talked about it every day since. In fact she mentioned going to see Elmo today, 4 days later.

Thursday night we had a dinner party here at our house. Every year we have a Christmas Party that is just for close friends. This dinner has been held annually for several years now. Our favorite restaurant to have this event at closed. So, in order to keep costs down, we decided to have the party at our house. We had it catered, and that was nice. Everyone pays their share for dinner and we collect donations of kids PJ’s and books for the Pajama Program. It was great to catch up with everyone. One couple that was there recently got engaged, so that was big news to be shared! Since we had the party here, we also hired a babysitter to come and play with Courtney. She also put her to bed, so we could enjoy our dinner party. It was handy!

Friday we also had a babysitter booked so that Hubby and I could go and have dinner with one of my old friends. He ended up cancelling, but we decided to keep the babysitter and have a date night. So, we went to a nice restaurant for dinner. We finished up dinner just about the time Courtney would have been going to bed, so we decided it was probably best to find something else to do instead of going home. But we couldn’t think of anything to do. We ended up making a trip to Best Buy and Target. I think we need to practice our date night skills.

Saturday was a fun day. Our friends’ daughter had her first dance recital. She is 4, but this dance class starts kids at 2. I had never been to a dance recital for kids before. It was incredibly cute! Kinsey did a fantastic job. How on earth did she grow up so fast? It just doesn’t seem like it was almost 5 years ago now that we were visiting her and her parents in the hospital the day she was born! (Kinsey’s the one without the hat)

Kinsey wanted to celebrate her dance recital with pizza and ice cream sundaes afterwards. The recital was right during nap time, so Hubby stayed home with Courtney. They met us over at the Z’s house once we all got back over there. And we chowed on pizza and had incredible ice cream sundaes after dinner. Courtney actually didn’t sleep during her naptime, so we didn’t stay late. She was right at the end of her good behavior as we were leaving, so we left just in time. After a quick bath she was in bed, and out like a light pretty fast.

Today we slept in about an hour. I was planning on taking Courtney to my parents’ house for the day, but she was struggling with listening this morning and lost the privilege to go to Nana and Papa’s house. So, she stayed home with us. Our plan was to wrap gifts and to get the crib out of her room today, and other things. We still got these things accomplished. We didn’t get as much accomplished as we would have liked, but we did get the crib out of her room and I did get all Christmas gifts wrapped.

This afternoon, after Courtney got up from her nap, she and I went to the basement and watched A Muppets' Christmas Carol. It’s my favorite Christmas movie and it always puts me in the Christmas Spirit! Courtney actually sat and snuggled with me for the whole movie.

One of my Christmas gifts arrived Wednesday night. Hubby got me a new BlackBerry Storm. So far I love it. Its touch screen and fun to play with. I still have a lot to learn about it.

Well, it’s late and I still have to get ready for work and school tomorrow! Hope everyone is well.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

First trip to see Santa

The holidays are certainly upon us. I can tell by how busy we seem to be every night!

Saturday night we had our company holiday party. It was a good time had by all. It was amazing that we had most of the staff in one place at one time! We were only missing 2 staff members and 1 contractor, so not too shabby! We went to a local Italian restaurant and ate and ate and ate. My office assistant has a daughter a year older than Courtney and a daughter a year younger than Courtney. When Courtney took swim lessons over the summer, the older girl was in her class, so Courtney knows her already. Plus we try to get the girls together occasionally. Once we and they were at the party, Courtney migrated right to them. She colored with them, and danced to the music with them. She had a great time. It ended up being a late night for her, but she did well.

The next day we put a turkey breast on the smoker, my favorite. And we invited some friends over for dinner. So that night we had 5 adults and 3 kids at our dinner table. Kinsey and Hailey joined Courtney at the “kids table” we added onto our dinner table. We all ate a great dinner and the girls all played really well together!

Monday night we let Courtney stay up late (just an hour past her usual bedtime) and watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas special. She loved Snoopy. When Snoopy was not on screen she kept asking “where’s Snoopy?”

Tuesday we started our Christmas baking. Courtney helped of course, and she thought that was fun. She got to stir. We didn’t get much done that night other than the actual baking of the cookies.

Wednesday night we frosted and decorated the cookies we had baked the day before. She and Daddy had a great time doing that. She also enjoyed being our frosting tester, since we made homemade frosting too.

Thursday I sent some of the cookies she had made in her lunch. The teachers said she was pretty excited when she saw them in her lunch the next day. We also brought some for her teachers. They said they enjoyed eating them too. We used an Alton Brown recipe and everyone was commenting on how yummy the cookies turned out. We took all the leftovers to work on Thursday where they were devoured.

Thursday night Courtney’s school was having a parents’ appreciation dinner. It was supposed to start at 4pm. When we arrived about 4:20pm there wasn’t much going on. We waited around about 15 minutes and there still wasn’t really much going on, and Courtney asked to go home, so we did. We hadn’t planned on eating at home that night, so we ordered Chinese on our way home.

After dinner, it was My Gym night. There was a LOT of kids in her class. For the holiday season they opened it up so that you can anyone can attend any classes. Usually you have your class you are scheduled for and you stick to that one. But because everyone’s holiday schedule is so crazy they open up the scheduled and restrictions which I am guessing is why there were so many kids in the class. Courtney had a blast running around and playing on the equipment. And she enjoyed the little activities they brought out for the kids to play with. But for some odd reason, her favorite thing to do is help clean up and put away things. Now if we could only get her to do that at home, too!

Courtney certainly knows who Santa is this year. She can spot him a mile away. She spotted him one night on top of a pole at a Christmas tree lot we were driving by! And anyone who may even resemble Santa is classified as Santa. We weren’t planning on taking her to sit on Santa’s lap this year, thinking she is still a bit too young, but we have decided that we were going to do it. She is just enthralled by him. Of course she doesn’t understand what his job is or that he brings presents, but she certainly likes him! So, last night we took her to the mall. We arrived right at 5pm, which apparently is Santa’s dinner time, and he was on break until 6pm. So, we went and ate dinner at the food court. Once we were done, I went and got in line while Courtney and Hubby walked around the mall.

Finally Santa arrived. And finally, it was her turn. For about the first 2 seconds she was on his lap she had that look of “I am gonna cry!”, but thankfully it faded and she was just kind of there. It took 3 tires before she somewhat smiled for a picture, but even the best picture is kind of a half hearted one! But then Santa gave her a book and all was right with the world. THEN Santa was a good guy. Then she was willing to talk to him.

Hubby was kind enough to prep her about what she wanted for Christmas. So, when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said “a pony”. Aww, how cute. Doesn’t every little girl want a pony? Of course on the way home she then wanted to know where her pony was. Hubby got to explain that the pony was on the farm. And since he prepped her with the “I want a Pony for Christmas”, he can also diffuse any pony situations that may arise.

Update on my schooling, I got a 97% on my last test!!! And thanks to the fact that I didn’t miss a single class I got enough extra credit points to put my grade to an A+!!!! Next I am taking Legal Environment of Business. I am looking forward to this class, but I am taking it online since I am due in the middle of the semester. I am worried how I will do with motivation; I have never taken an online class for that purpose. But who knows, maybe I will love it and end up taking more online classes!

Tomorrow Hubby and I are taking Courtney to Nana and Papa’s house. After leaving her there, which is never a problem, she practically pushes us out the door (I wonder what goes on when we aren’t around?), we are going to do some Christmas shopping for her. I have no idea what we are going to get her, but I can tell you it won’t be a pony. (Although I wouldn’t mind having a pony, it’s against our HOA rules.) But this way Hubby and I can take some time to find her some good gifts.

Well, it’s bed time! Night all!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Fun Snow!

So, the weatherman kept telling us that we would get some snow on Saturday night. But they didn’t make it out to be much of anything. In fact they weren’t even predicting inches of any sort. Imagine our surprise when we woke up Sunday morning to about 5 inches of snow!! And it was still snowing!

Mid morning we took Courtney out for her first real snow experience. We pulled out the little sled Nana had purchased for her last Christmas. We put on 50 billion layers, well not really 50 billion, but you know how it is. And we all headed out for some fun in the snow. Hubby pulled Courtney around for a while and then I got a turn. Hubby then pulled out the snow blower and cleared the driveway and sidewalks. Courtney and I went into the backyard and played out there with the dogs too. Overall we spent an hour and a half playing outside! It was fun! We came in and I made grilled cheese and ham sandwiches to help us warm up. After lunch both Courtney and I took long naps!

Sunday night we measured how much snow was on our deck and it measured at 6 inches. But it sure felt like more! Funny thing is that at my parents’ house, only 10 miles south of us, they only got about an inch!

Monday night we went up to the zoo. We were invited to attend their Premier to the Winter Wildland at the zoo. In the past it has been called the Electric Safari, but they made some changes so I guess they decided to change the name too. So, we got up there right at 5:30pm as it started. We rode the tram up to the Moose Lodge for dinner. They had a nice buffet that was pretty tasty!

When we arrived at the lodge they had a porcupine out and Courtney got to feed it! It put it’s paw on her hand and that is all she talked about for a few days. After dinner we headed out to look at the lights. I love any excuse to go to the zoo at night. I think the animals are always so much more active!

We worked our way through the zoo to end at the giraffe house. Of course we had to feed them! So, we fed them a few crackers before heading out. Yes, the little trip did cause Courtney to get to bed about an hour late, but she sure had fun, and so did I!

The next morning she was pretty grouchy! Over the weekend when it was snowing I had made coco for us all to warm up. Courtney calls it coffee. She saw me heat up the water in the tea pot. Well, when little Miss Grouchy came downstairs Tuesday morning, she saw the teapot and started saying “I want coffee, I want coffee!” When I explained to her that I wouldn’t be making “coffee”, she increased her voice an octave or two, and a decibel or two and repeated “I want coffee, I want coffee!” I had to laugh, here is this 2 year old demanding coffee as if she was suffering from lack of caffeine. I was glad no bystanders were around to witness it. Without explanation, it would have seemed pretty odd!

So, we finally got all the snow cleared out of here, and we get hit again today. It has snowed all day and the roads are pretty bad. It’s also very cold! At 9:30pm the temp outside is 13 degrees! We skipped going to My Gym tonight. It is supposed to stop snowing at some point tonight or tomorrow, and we are only supposed to get 1-4 inches. I know we were at about 2-3 inches when we got home from work, so hopefully the weather men aren’t wrong again. I really need to make a trip to the grocery store. We certainly could scrounge in our pantry for food and we wouldn’t starve, but it would be nice to have more staples on hand.

Well, I guess I will go and move laundry!