Post Christmas!

Christmas is over, and so's my birthday. Booo....

But, what an awesome last week it has been! Courtney helped me make a ton of different cookies. We made ornaments and gingerbread houses (both real and foam). We wrapped gifts. We did a ton of different and fun things!
Kasey decorated herself instead of her gingerbread house!
Courtney making ornaments!

Finally Christmas Eve arrived! Hubby and I got up at 4am and put the prime rib on the smoker. (Then went back to bed.) Later in the morning, Courtney and I went to the Children's Service at church. They do an adorable children's service at 10:30am. They have a lot of costumes for any kid that comes to the service. Kids can be an angel, a Shepard, or a wise man. Then they get to participate in the live nativity. It's a short service, but its so cute! I saw lots of my friends, and we sang lots of Christmas carols.

After church we stopped at Wild Birds Unlimited to get my dad one last gift. They have a cute little area outside to cater to birds that includes a pond. Wouldn't you know they have about 15 ducks that live in the pond. They let Courtney feed the ducks some corn. She got a kick out of that!

We then went home and had lunch and naps. After that, we got ready for our big dinner! Our friends Glenn and Alexis joined us for dinner. We had prime rib, cheesy zucchini, roasted potatoes, salad, and homemade bread. The food was delicious! For dessert we had pecan pie and homemade ice cream.

I forgot to mention that the day before we got an ice cream maker. Hubby had several gift certificates to William Sonoma from work, so we got an ice cream maker!

We had made reindeer food earlier in the day, so Courtney and Kasey went outside after dinner and sprinkled that on the lawn. Plus we put out the cookies and milk for Santa! We also spent a good portion of the evening tracking Santa, thanks to NORAD. We finally got the girls in bed, and Courtney told me she was going to lay in bed and listen for the reindeer landing on the roof.
The girls with Hubby checking on Santa's progress.

In the morning she woke us up about 7am, not too bad! She was upset because she was sure Santa had not come because she didn't hear the reindeer land on the roof. So, she was happily surprised to see the Santa gifts when we got downstairs! He did indeed come! And he ate his cookies and drank his milk!

The girls went crazy and opened all their gifts! Santa brought Courtney exactly what she asked for: a ladybug pillow pet, Princess and the Frog movie, and Toy Story movies. She was very happy! The other big hit for her was the Hungrey Hungrey Hippo game her Great Grandma (GG) gave her, and her twilight ladybug that Grammy and Granddad gave her.

Kasey really enjoyed the Monkey Pillow Pet Santa brought, the baby doll that GG gave her and the twilight turtle that Grammy and Granddad gave her. In fact here we are a few days later and she is still quite attached to those toys.

After naps we headed down to my parents' house. The girls had more presents to open there. Kasey got a big garage like toy for her cars. She is so funny, she is into baby dolls, but she is also very into cars! She's very well rounded! :)

Courtney was very excited when she opened a 7 Princess Doll toy. It has 7 of the Disney Princesses in one large box, like Snow White, Cinderella, Tianna, Sleeping Beauty, etc. She exclaimed that it's what she wanted and Santa didn't bring it! It was cute!

We had a good time opening gifts there! And then we had a large turkey dinner. After dinner we opened our stockings. And after that we pigged out on Christmas cookies for dessert. It was a great time! We brought two very tired little girls home and tucked them into bed.

The next day was my birthday! We were planning on going to brunch at The Sunbird, which I love and I was very excited that my birthday fell on a Sunday so we could do it! I was quite surprised to see about 30 of my friends there when we arrived! Hubby threw me a surprise party! It was wonderful!

After pigging out and spending time with my friends, we headed for home. Kasey crashed in the car. So, we got the girls home and in bed. During nap time, Zak and Susan came up to stay with the girls. Hubby and I went and got pedicures. That was nice and relaxing!

After we got home, we got the girls ready to go and we headed to Giuseppe's for dinner. We had a nice quiet family dinner. I didn't get much family time at brunch that morning, so it was nice to have time with just them. Plus the food was delicious!

My birthday was amazing! And there were some unplanned surprises in there too that made the day even better! One of our friends went into labor, and another set got engaged!

I tell you what, the last month has been quite amazing and so fun! Now I can't wait for Christmas again next year! I am so thankful for my Hubby and my girls who made this Christmas season so amazing!

And here we are at the end of the year. What a year this has been for me. I feel like I have gone through some big changes this past year. I feel so much happier and at peace. I try really hard to let go of the things that I can not control or that make me mad. I try really hard to pay attention to the mood I am projecting. I wish to always project a happy mood, not a grouchy one. And all of those things have made a big difference in my overall disposition! I feel like 2010 wasn't a perfect year, but it wasn't a bad year! In fact, overall, it was a pretty darn good year!

We of course have a ton of pictures from Christmas, and it's hard to pick a few to put up here, so I invite you to go to our gallery and check them out!

Christmas is one week away!

This time of year is sooo fun!!

Today we went to the zoo for preschool. We learned about grizzly bears. We have learned about them before, but I love it when we learn about them. We get to go up to the bear hut and be about 3 feet from them! Oh they are sooo cute that close. You just want to squeeze them! They really look like big teddy bears with cute furry ears! There is always a parent in the group who gets quite freaked about how close you actually are. There is a huge piece of steel mesh between the bears and us, but it is really close. It's even closer when the kids feed the bears sticks covered in honey... I know those bears could kill us in an instant, but I just want to give them some pets or hugs! Oh they are cute!

And our moose, Tahoma, was up walking around today, so I got to be feet from him today too! He's getting so big! Those animal babies grow up just as fast as kiddos!
After preschool we spent quite some time in the education center. Courtney loves that place. I know we go there a lot when we walk in the door and the keeper says "Hi Courtney" as we are walking in the door. (She didn't have a name tag on or anything either). Anyway, Courtney pet a leopard gecko, Tiger Lilly the skunk, 2 tortoises (Timmy and Tammy), and a few other things I think. She also made a few tubes for Tiger Lilly's cage. We were the only ones in there, so we had all the keepers to ourselves and so Courtney got anything she asked for. And she asks... That is why she loves that place. She regularly gets to help feed animals, pet animals, and more in their education center. When we were leaving the keeper said "she always asks such great questions! Which is a great way to learn!"

It's been a busy week here, as you would expect for this time of year. We have been doing LOTS of fun things! Making cookies for one. I think we are at about a batch a day. And we have about 4 different kinds I want to make this upcoming week, so we are going to be busy. Which will be very handy since Courtney is done with school until next year!
No, I didn't make the house, it was $8 at Target as a kit, and Courtney thought it was the best thing ever!
Kasey says: thanks for letting me lick the beater Mom!!!

Kasey came down with something the other day. Wednesday she woke up from nap and was her usual happy self. Then suddenly about 4pm she did a 180. She was miserable, and felt HOT, and she just wanted to be held. I took her temp and it was 102.9! We kept her on Tylenol and Motrin, but even that only brought her fever down to about 101.7. The next afternoon I took her to the doctor. He checked her ears and swabbed her for strep. Ears were fine and the strep test was negative. So, the thought was that she was either teething, or she was fighting something. She isn't a typical fever teether, she usually gets a runny nose when she teethes. So, she was probably fighting something. Friday morning, she was back down to 99.4 without med, and a happier kid. Today she seemed just about normal! Who knows what that was all about. Of course Courtney woke up with a slight runny nose. If it's not one, its the other! That is the NON-fun part of this time of year.

We did finally get some snow! Just about an inch, but it was a very welcome sight! It was 60 degrees on Monday or Tuesday and then snowing Thursday and Friday! Since Kasey felt miserable on Thursday and Friday and it was snowing the girls and I watched a few Christmas movies. We watched White Christmas and 2 Sesame Street ones over the course of 2 days. We still have a few more to watch, but I have to get them to stretch until Christmas!

Monday night we went to the preview party for Electric Safari at the zoo. It was fun. It wasn't quite as fun as last year, but it was still fun. They had free pony rides, so both girls were able to enjoy that. And free merry-go-round rides! We all took part in that too! They started the evening with some amazing food as usual and then we headed out to check out the zoo. They got some cool new lights scenes this year. We really enjoy the benefit of getting to go to the preview party. Its not nearly as crowded as it is once its open to the public!The front of the zoo all lit up!

The 3 dark figures are Hubby and the girls walking around the zoo!

Sunday (sorry, I am kind of working backwards here) we did more baking! I had a neighborhood cookie exchange that afternoon to attend, and I needed to bring 3 dozen cookies! The cookie exchange was so fun! I got to meet several neighbors I have never met before and spend some time with others I see regularly! Plus I got some really good cookies and their recipes! Here are Courtney and Hubby mixing up the peppermint chocolate chip cookies for the exchange.

Prior to the cookie exchange we went to the P's house to celebrate a very important birthday! Makala turned 1! It was a cute party and Makala really got into her cake (as you can see from the picture).

Saturday was a busy day for us too! (Last Saturday). Hubby had a test in the morning in Denver for a certification. I had a luncheon at the Colorado Springs Country Club. The mentor mom in my MOPS small group invited all the girls in our small group to lunch (7 of us) to her Courtney Club. It was very nice and the food was delicious! We had a white elephant gift exchange and it was a great time had by all!

That evening we went to my Ministry Team Christmas Party at another friend's house. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the girls from the Ministry Team and also getting to meet everyone's husbands! We ate lots of good food, had lots of good conversation, and played a few games.

Each evening we have been doing the Advent calendar still, one night she actually picked staying home and doing the calendar to going to the library for story time! And usually all it says it to find items I have hidden to put in the donation box! Then usually Courtney helps me wrap a few presents. Its hard for me to let go of presents looking perfect, but she loves helping, so I am working on letting it go...

Tonight the Advent calendar told Courtney that she got to pick where we were going out to dinner. She picked Noodles (not a huge surprise to us). First we stopped at the mall to check out the gingerbread house display they had there. It was pretty neat! A local culinary school made a bunch of them (that were quite detailed) to support the local Ronald McDonald house. Since Courtney has been so into gingerbread houses and such, she loved it! Plus we did a bit of a walking around the mall. Not sure what we were thinking, going to the mall the last Saturday before Christmas. It was insane. We hit 2 stores and left!

On the way home from dinner we stopped at a house to check out their light display that was recommended by some friends. It was well worth it! I uploaded two of the songs to You Tube, you can watch them here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez6dDISQ3m0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hruETBmd7pg

I am really looking forward to the next week! Cooking, baking, Christmas movies, present wrapping and more! I am going to be sad to see Christmas end....

I love December

Tonight in our Advent calendar it said: Let's go out to dinner, Kasey gets to choose where! "Kasey" chose Gunther Toody's. It's a 50's style diner. Mommy really likes those nights!

We have been in Christmas mode still. Courtney has been in the mood to bake. At school all this past week they were talking about Gingerbread boys/girls/houses etc. So, she has really been on a kick to bake gingerbread men. I haven't gotten gutsy enough to try them. Maybe next week... But it's been funny to pick her up each day. If she isn't covered in frosting, the room at school is. I am not sure what activities they have been up to, but one day she had dried icing all over her face! Including her eyelids. The next day, it looked like a sack of flour had exploded in the room. Several mothers made comments and one of the teachers aids made some sort of comment about having fun that day...

We did however make some Christmas cupcakes. I had a recipe from a magazine I received recenlty. The cupcakes were on the cover. They looked really tasty. Courtney saw them a few days ago and has been bugging me to make them too. So, I caved on that one. Except we didn't make them from scratch like the recipe called for. I cheated and got boxed mix. And I bought white canned frosting. Courtney helped make the cupcakes and put them in the cupcake pan (she's getting really good at that). After they were baked and cooled, we mixed up 3 batches of frosting. One green, one red and one white, all with some peppermint extract mixed in. Mmm, that made for some yummy toppings to chocolate cupcakes! And Courtney decorated them with Christmas sprinkles. They were sooo tasty! Courtney named them Christmas cupcakes. I think we might have to make them a tradition every year! We delivered some to some of our neighbors too, they were too yummy to not share! Plus, we really didn't need to eat all 24 of them...
The girls have been very into Christmas music. Courtney wants it on in the car all the time, and we sing Christmas carols before bed every night. They both LOVE Rudolph. Kasey makes the motions and Courtney sings along at the top of her lungs.

The other day I went for my annual eye exam (I still have 20/20 vision by the way). My eye doctor has been my eye doctor for 10+ years. We were discussing kids. He said: no one can explain to you (pre-kids) how much kids change your life. So true, which got me to thinking that no one can also explain to non-parents how magical the Christmas season is with little kids. It really used to bother me to see Christmas stuff hitting the stores at Halloween time. This year, I started to feel excited when I saw it! And once December hits, it's like the whole month is magical! I know that this magic thing really probably only lasts for a short time, but it's so fun while we have it! I hope we are able to keep it for a few more years.

Although, we have had lots of unseasonably warm weather this month, and not much snow. I really would appreciate some more snow to make it a tad more Christmasy around here! But the warm days are nice too, I guess. Except I find myself outside putting up more lights every time it gets above 50 degrees. If this keeps up my house is going to look like the Griswald's by Christmas!

MOPS is on break until next year, so our neighbor came over for a play date today. It was nice to not have to get up and rush off. The girls had a fun time playing, and the mommies had a good time talking.

Yesterday Kasey had a speech evaluation. She came in on the borderline for being average and having issues. They found she was dropping syllables in the middle of words or not pronouncing any at all. So, they told us to really pronounciate words the next few months. If she is still having issues when she turns 2 we need to go back for another evaluation. They said she is an "at risk" kid at the moment and the next 4 months are crucial. Which is why we really need to work with her hard for the next 4 months.

On of the things they said to me as we were starting the evaluation was "so she is 20 months old". In my head I thought 'no, she is 19 months.' Then I thought 'wait, the 8th was the day before, shoot, I guess she is 20 months!' Wasn't it just yesterday I was having to adjust to her being 19 months old! That last month really flew by!

Well, I need to go and make 3 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange on Sunday! Hope everyone is well!

Busy weekend!

Its been busy here! We had our Annual Friends dinner on Friday night. We figure this was probably the 10th or 11th year it's been done. We met up at Giuseppe's downtown. It was fun. The food was good and we sat in the perfect room. We weren't surrounded by other people and the way we were positioned, we could be as loud as we wanted! It was great! Plus we got to spend lots of time with Little Esten, so that was nice too.We took the girls to my parents house for the evening. When we came to pick them up, they were so happy! It was WAY past bedtime, and they were still awake, but Kasey was BEAMING! It was obvious they had a wonderful time. It was so cute!

A few months ago, Hubby's calf started bothering him. Mostly when he was on it all day when he was teaching. The doctor checked it out and said it was probably strained and to take it easy on it. A few months go by and suddenly it really starts bothering him again, pretty bad. So, he went back to the doctor, but saw a D.O. in their office who deals a lot with sports medicine. After a thorough exam and lots of pushing where it hurts, it was determined that Hubby has micro tears in his calf. The doctor gave him this cream that he has to apply 4 times a day to the area. It apparently is an anti-inflammatory in cream form. He has to do this for 2 weeks and then see how it feels. We are still in that 2 week period and he says it is still pretty sore. Next may be some physical therapy.

Speaking of physical therapy, Courtney will be going back into PT. We are going to be running out of insurance covered visits for her occupational therapy soon. Kaiser only allows her 20 visits per year. And the year is renewable at the end of May for her. We will run out of visits at the end of January. That is quite a gap for her to go without therapy. We don't want that to happen, plus she still needs PT. So, she had to get evaluated again. She is 50 months old, but she comes in at a 30-37 month old level for her physical abilities. But she is pretty able to function normally in society. But of course some PT wouldn't hurt. And it will keep her in some sort of therapy. So, we will start that up Mid-January. I am hoping to get her back into Hippo therapy, but I am not sure we will be able to work that with our schedule. We will see.

If you remember, Courtney has also been lactose allergic for some time. It's been a while since we have let her try milk. She has always been ok with yogurt, cheese, etc, but to give her straight milk was a problem. The other night when we were at Noodles, she saw a chocolate milk carton and really wanted chocolate milk. I went ahead and let her try it just to see. Guess what, no complaints of pain! So, over the last few days I have given her a serving of regular milk just to see what happens. No complaints!!! She usually complains of stomach pain. So, she may finally be past it! I am slowly going to switch her over! It will make life a little easier if that is indeed the case! Kasey still can't tolerate regular milk, but it gives me hope! YAY!

So, I got a new advent calendar for this year. I got one of those boxes that have little doors for the girls to open. I did something a bit different. I bought a lot of travel sized products to use with the calendar. Every evening I hid whatever the box is going to ask the girls to find. Such as last night was: find 2 blue mouthwashes for our donation box. Then once they find them, they put them in our donation box. At the end of the month we will drop off the donation at ESM at our church. Hopefully this starts to instill giving into our kids. Ok, Kasey may be a bit too young, but hopefully Courtney starts to get it. We talk about why we collect these things and who will get them, etc. The calendar doesn't have all donations though, there are some fun ones mixed in there too. The other night we got: let's go out to dinner and Daddy chooses where. He chose The Elephant Bar because we had a large gift certificate for them. I just looked, tonight's is: let's go out for ice cream! Whoo hoo!

Saturday morning we had zoo preschool. We learned all about snow leopards. After we did our craft and learned all about them, we headed to the snow leopard exhibit. When we got there, they weren't out yet. So, we got to walk around and go to the leopard house! We got to be inside with them! Well, they were in cages, but it was so cool to be so close to the 2 snow leopards and 1 amur leopard.Snow leopard

Later that night we went to the Festival of Lights downtown. It's the winter parade I guess you could say. It was cold, as I guess it should be for a winter parade. We bundeled up and headed out. We picked up dinner on the way and put it in a cooler to try to keep it warm! While we were walking in we ran into our friend Kim and her girls. They had some saved seats, so we joined them. Here are the girls all bundled up:

Kasey stayed in her stroller to keep her contained....

One of the floats.

After the parade we ducked into a cafe for some warming up and to hopefully let traffic subside a bit. We had cookies and juice while the girls had fun together. It was fun.

The fun of the holiday season is upon us and I couldn't be more excited!

December is upon us

I have been feeling a little frustrated the last few days. It seems there aren't enough hours in the day. I could use a few more to get everything done that I need to get done. Especially a few more hours of daylight would be really helpful. Oh well...

So, a few months ago, like in about May, I did a will up online. I got everything done and in order! YAY! I printed it out! YAY! Then I just had to get it notarized and signed by 2 witnesses. Yea, I finally did that today. Ok, so I am slow. Anyway, I didn't take the time to look over my will before I had it witnessed and notarized today. Should have done that.... I saw that in several places I have Susan and Zak Keller down. Now that they are (CENSORED AT MY MOTHER'S DEMAND), that needs to be changed. Grrrr. Thankfully because I did my will online I can change it easily to one of them or the other. Then I will have to get it re-witnessed and notarized. I guess it really doesn't matter. I guess it would have been needed to be changed anyway, but I wish I had seen it before I had gotten it done today. Oh well. I am sure over the years it will need to be updated and redone. But right away? Ugh.

Christmas is coming to our house slowly. The girls and I put the tree up the other day. It only had about 10 ornaments on it, but it's up and lit! Hey, people on the street can't tell it's not decorated, unless they look closely. We got our outside ground decorations up last weekend, and then yesterday it got warm enough again for us to get the icicle lights up. I did a majority of the prep work, then Hubby came home and just popped them up into place and got power run to them. Slowly but surely. Heck, by the time Christmas gets here, we just may be ready!

The girls are both doing really well. Kasey has figured out how to plug her ears. She was playing around with it today. Then I went through the car wash, and she did it in there. She doesn't like the car wash. And then, on the way home from the car wash, Courtney and I were singing along with the radio and she did it again! Should I be crushed? She plugs her ears when I sing!

I got my first Christmas package off today. It's to our friend who is currently deployed overseas. So, I needed to make the December 4th deadline to get it out. No problem! Now I just need to work on getting the rest of my packages wrapped and out and life will be golden. Again, this is where I need more hours in the day.

So, it's been getting cold here. This apparently has led to mice coming indoors. One was nice enough to die right next to my shoes for me to discover on Thanksgiving morning. Then on Tuesday night, Hubby and I spent the better part of an hour trying to get a live one out of our house! The darn thing was under the birdcage, then he went behind our hutch. We finally we able to get him to run out the door to the garage. I hope he kept running right on out of my house, but I doubt it. That's fine. He can stay hidden in my garage not bothering me and I will be just fine with it. But I want him to STAY OUT OF MY HOUSE!

It's shaping up to be a busy month as December always is. I am looking forward to it. It's so fun once the kids start to get to that age of enjoying things! We are going to go to the Festival of Lights parade on Saturday night. We went last year too and had a great time! Courtney loved it. And of course Electric Safari kicks off soon. We got invited to the premier party! We had a great time at that last year too! I remember so clearly how it was 6 degrees and a layer of snow was on everything. It was so cold it kept the amount of people down, and the people that were there were following Santa around. So, we did our own thing and it was like we had the zoo to ourselves. We were so bundled up that the cold didn't bother any of us. In fact we would get hot when we went indoors. I have a feeling it's not going to be 6 degrees this year when we go, but it will still be a good time. That I know.

We took the girls to dinner the other night at Noodles. (If you don't know what that is, it's pretty much fast food noodle dishes). Courtney got plain buttered noodles. No cheese or anything. She said to us, "mmm, this is the best dinner I have ever had." Really? Cause I make that at home for her all the time! I guess eating the same thing at a "restaurant" makes it taste better. Silly girl.

Well, time to head for bed. Night all!