Ryan's First Words!

I know, sorry, I don't have any video but I'm going to try to use our new camera to take some. Anyways---Ryan gets told "No" and "Don't" a lot and yesterday when I told him "Don't!" because he was taking his mittens off *again* while we were running errands and he responded "don't!" and laughed at me! At first it didn't occur to me what he was doing, but he kept saying it I then I realized what he was doing. Then today I was saying "No!" (I think this was directed at Alex though) and he again starts saying "nah!" "nah!" and laughing! So we made it a little game and he was just laughing his head off. Now, I don't just walk around telling my kids No and Don't all the time, but he has learned these two!

My sister is coming over and we are going to bake Peanut Butter Blossoms with the kids. It is her birthday today! Tomorrow we are headed to both of my Grandparents' homes and then Christmas morning after the kids open gifts we will go to North Platte and come home late that night. Unfortunately Nik probably won't be with us much of Christmas Eve night which is a bummer because it's definately my favorite night and my most-loved tradition of going to Grandma's. He should arrive right in time to help us haul gifts to the car though-haha.

I do have some pictures to post, Alex and I made a gingerbread house last week, it turned out great and it was so easy to do. (Kit by Wilton sold at Wal-mart for $10.)



We opened gifts at my Parent's house on Sunday and I forgot my camera, but here is one with some of the gifts-Ryan got a plush chair to match Alex's (which she also got for her 2nd Christmas) and they both got these awesome, soft blankets that light-up.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year! (We are hoping it is a HEALTHY New Year...Alex is now on round 3 of antibiotics for bronchitis again. We just can't keep that girl healthy this winter!)

1. I have not totally procrastinated and not started Alex's apron (Christmas present!) yet. I do not not have motivation to do it, even though I know she will LOVE it! I am not such a dork that I am making myself one that is matching.

2. My child is not on antibiotics for the 3rd time this fall. I do not feel like a failure of a mother because of this.

3. Ryan is not still in pajamas. (The kids do not regularly just stay in pajamas if we aren't going anywhere, nope they are dressed right after breakfast!)

4. I have not only had 1/2 of a sandwich today because Alex ate the other

Playing in the snow

in the house! I took a great tip from Wendy @ TheGwennap4 (a MOPS friend of mine) and brought some snow in to play. Alex loved it, and thought the texture and sparkle to the snow was so fascinating. All Ryan wanted to do was shove it in his mouth! This made a minimal mess and kept Alex busy for about 1/2 hour (so what if 10 of those minutes were spent feeding it to Ryan while I was tweezing my eyebrows?)

Dang it's COLD out!!!

Finally freezing here in good ol Nebraska!I wonder if Nik is freezing yet. I feel bad for him having to be in and out of the truck in this frigid cold weather!

The kids have colds, yet again...starting to think this is just normal for us! It seems as though everyone has been having this type of winter though, so I am trying to not let it get me down so much.

I can NOT believe Christmas is next week and I am definitely not ready. The kids' gifts have been slowly drifting in from UPS and I still have some people to buy for. Unfortunately Christmas cards are just not going to happen this year. Maybe I will do New Years Cards! Well Alex just pulled out a puzzle and that's no good with Ryan crawlingwalking around so I must go interfere!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Wanted to make this a separate post for my baby boy!

We always knew that we wanted our kiddos to be close in age and we didn't waste much time! I was SOOO happy when I got that positive pregnancy test. I was ready to give Alex a sibling and I was so ready to cuddle a sweet little newborn again. Throughout my pregnancy we asked Alex if it was a boy or a girl and she always said "boy!" Myself, I just knew it was a boy just like I knew Alex was a girl. They say it's so much easier the 2nd time around, and it really really is. (Despite the fact that you have a toddler AND a newborn, it's still easier!) Ryan is a TRUE BOY! Anybody that has been around him can attest to that fact, he is constantly going somewhere, trying to escape, getting hurt, climbing onto things and pushing things around. I was just thinking this morning, we never used our pack n play with Alex because we never needed to contain her, but I still can't take it down because I have to have a cage for Ryan! (Only kidding of course!) He is such a cuddler and is now giving us "loves" on command and of course still nursing. I fell in love with this sweet little boy the moment I laid my eyes on him and he is my BABY! I love his strong will and desire to find out how things work or where I hid the remote!

Birthday Party 08!

We did the kids' party together this year, seeing as they are less than 2 weeks apart for Birthdays. It was an afternoon of fun and good cake! We had one set of Grandparents, an Aunt, Great Aunt and Great Great Aunt, and Great Grandparents over. (Hope I got all those Greats right, haha.) We enjoyed having everyone over! Here is an album of the afternoon! (Feel free to order prints if you'd like!)

Birthday Party 2008

Rebel For A Cause

A few of you may read MckMama's blog over at mycharmingkids.net. Well, she is having an AWESOME raffle! She is giving away an amazing camera, a Canon Rebel Xsi and a ton of other stuff. $10 buys you a ticket and enters you into the contest. All the proceeds will go to String of Pearls, No Hands But Ours and The Elison Project. I don't know about you, but with Christmas coming and thinking about buying gifts and everything I've also been thinking about what I can give to others. The link to donate is on the right side column of my blog if you feel moved to give to these wonderful charities and have a chance to win this awesome camera! Man I would be in 7th heaven if I won the camera. And if not someone else is going to win and be just as happy, and it will be AMAZING to see how much money this raises as it's only been up for what, 9 hours and the total is 1.5k!!!!

Not Me Monday

1. We definitely did NOT serve our toddlerpreschooler sugary cereal and turn on the TV for her this morning so we could both continue sleeping. We also did not end up sleeping until 8:30 and said toddlerpreschooler did not have 2 bowls of the cereal during this time! Nope not us! (Ok so she is not in preschool yet, but definitely not a toddler!)

2. I did NOT tell Alex several times that she couldn't eat lunch downstairs that we eat lunch at the table and they tell her she could, because that would be so confusing and teach her that if you whine long enough Mom will give in!

3. I did NOT this morning let the child I am trying to slowly wean nurse just because he was such a crab! I am also not going back and forth on whether to wean him, because I am a very decisive person.

4. Yesterday I did not only drink 2 cans of pop and one yummy beer all day long. Nope, only water for me!

5. I will not spend all afternoon playing with our new camera that is due to arrive from UPS. I have cleaning to do!!!