Flashback Friday: A Christmas Penguin

Today I am participating in "Flashback Friday" again - if you would like to see the host of this awesome weekly event, please go on over to Christopher & Tia (you won't be disappointed!). :)

John proposed to me on December 22, 2005, the night before he left to have Christmas with his family in Oregon.  The next Christmas - our very first Christmas as a married couple - was celebrated after flying in from a week vacation in Las Vegas with his family on Christmas Eve and me feeling completely worn out from vomiting the entire plane ride ( I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and had morning sickness 24/7).  Both were great Christmases - for different reasons.  One we got engaged and the other we were married and expecting our first baby together. :)  The best Christmas was the next Christmas, however - Christmas 2007.  Our baby boy's very first Christmas. 

Johnny was just shy of five months for his first Christmas.  It was our first Christmas in the little house (that we miss a lot) and the roads were really slick and icy.  John had to work until the evening on Christmas Eve, so I packed up the car with all of our gifts and Johnny and headed to go pick up John from work so we could go to my grandparents' house for our traditional Christmas Eve get-together.  I only made it to the end of the road from our house where it started to go uphill when it got super slick.  I was fine getting up the hill (even though I was in our little car), but there was a car stuck on the side of the road halfway up the hill and an older man standing outside slipping and sliding all over the place trying to flag someone down.  I stopped my vehicle to help him and ended up giving him a ride back down the road past my house to his son's house to get help.  Johnny wailed and wailed the entire time - I felt bad for the poor man's ears.  After dropping him off I tried to get back up the hill, but I wasn't able to that time, so I had to go the long way through Spokane and in order to get to the freeway to go pick up John from work. I was late getting there, but I wasn't upset or anything - just glad I could help someone out.  John was waiting for me with a Christmas card and a single red rose - totally unexpected and sweet. :)  

Once we got to my grandparents' house we opened gifts and spent time with my family.  The best part of the entire evening, however, was this: 

Ha - yes, we dressed up our son in a penguin suit for Christmas.  Boy, was he thrilled!  The poor kid got passed around in the stuffy penguin suit from family member to family member.  We all got a good laugh out of it, but he wasn't quite as amused...hee hee.

My brother Joseph should really get some credit here, because he was the one who bought the suit for Johnny the previous Christmas when I was barely pregnant and we weren't even aware of the baby's gender yet.  :)  Thank you Joseph for making it possible for us to create embarrassing moments & dress our baby up for our own amusement! Ha.  

Johnny's second Christmas was last year (not quite as eventful as the penguin suit, I must admit), and it was a lot more fun because he was old enough to have fun with all of the gifts and the Christmas tree and everything!  He was spoiled as usual by his parents and grandparents and it was an enjoyable Christmas.  :)  

This is a picture of Johnny at Christmas Day mass at the Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral.  He was sporting the sweater vest and his mohawk - awesome.  :)  

This year we are living 1000 miles away from family and friends and we thought we weren't going to be able to spend Christmas with any of them, but we are leaving this weekend and get to spend two whole weeks with all of them (thanks be to God)!! We are very excited! :)  Christmases are always special for many different reasons.  I like to look back at the pictures of past Christmases and smile, and I am very much looking forward to future Christmases and the memories that will come from them!  :)  This Christmas will be more fun for all of us - Johnny will get to run around and see his family (and he'll be sporting a lot more hair!).

We were supposed to drive up (18 hours in a car with a two year old...yuck) on Tuesday December 22 but because of weather forecasts we are leaving Saturday night at midnight and driving up on Sunday.  I'm excited because it means I get to go home for a couple of days longer, but it also means I have a lot less time to get everything ready.  I went to bed at 4am last night (this morning) working on Christmas gifts and I have a lot more to do for gifts, packing, errands, cleaning, etc. today and tomorrow.  Our friend Bre will be driving up from another part of Colorado tomorrow afternoon and will be riding with us up to WA state so she can see her family too.  Let's hope & pray that the drive up is safe and that my son feels the need to catch up on sleep! ;)  I may or may not get to post again before we drive up to WA, but if not, I'll see a lot of you that read this blog in a couple of days!!! Love you all and miss you!! We're coming home to the beautiful beautiful northwest!  

 

Happy Birthday Christy! :)

Today is my aunt Christy's birthday! :)  Happy Birthday!!!!!!  Christy is an awesome aunt and I am looking forward to seeing her when we go back to WA on monday (I'm doing a happy dance, which you can't see since I'm writing this...too bad for you)!  Christy is one of the most pure souls I know - you can't help but be happy and in an uplifting mood when you around her.  Her laugh is amazing and she has a wonderful sense of humor.  :)  She probably has one of the biggest hearts - as far back as I can remember in my life, she has always appeared to me as a caring person filled with a laughter.  She is a loving mother of three kids (Matthew, Sarah, & Jeremy), and adoring grandmother of two grandsons - Austin & Andrew.  :)  She is a movie enthusiast, a gardener, a maker of jewelry (really pretty jewelry too! I have a bracelet she made for me that I really really love), a wonderful cook & baker (she makes this strawberry cake that is to die for), and an all-around fun & carefree person.  She has done a great deal of kind & wonderful things for me over the years, and I am very proud to call her my aunt.  I am praying & hoping that she has a very wonderful birthday today and I just want her to know that she is in my thoughts and prayers. :)

I realize this picture is a bit fuzzy, but I think this is a great picture of my aunt - it captures her smile perfectly! :)  This was taken Christmas Eve 2007 - Johnny's first Christmas.  Johnny has always been fascinated by her - her laugh, her smile, her curly hair, her fun carefree nature.  He has always laughed and been silly around her, which is saying a lot about her infectious personality because he can be really shy around people. :)  

Happy Birthday! :)

On another note: we have a busy week ahead of us getting things ready for our trip back home to WA state - things to pack, Christmas gifts to finish up, and other various errands to finish up this week.  I am hoping to be able to post a couple more times on this blog before we leave, but just in case I don't, you all know why I haven't.  We are looking forward to seeing all of our family & friends for Christmas - send some prayers or some positive thinking our way so that we can avoid massive amounts of snow during our 18 hr trip on Monday and avoid any illnesses (especially for Johnny) while we are around loads of people for the holidays. :)

Christmas Lights & Hot Cocoa

A week or so back there was the Parade of Lights in downtown Denver.  I had it written in my planner since September, and was excited about going to it - but when it came down to it, we didn't.  Up until about fifteen minutes before we were supposed to leave for the parade, we were planning on going, and then at the last minute decided not to go.  John had spent that entire day begging me to change my mind so we could stay home, citing complaints of the stress of parking, the cold weather, and the crowds.  Eventually I wore down, and after all his complaining, the entire idea lost its excitement and allure.  In return for sacrificing a wonderful family outing, I made John promise to take us to look at Christmas lights in some of the areas of Denver sometime in the next week or two.  It was the lights I was really interested in anyway. 

Last night I finally cashed in on his promise (it wasn't very cold last night)- we packed up Johnny in some warm comfy clothes, grabbed a fleece blanket & our camera, and mixed up some hot cocoa in travel mugs.  Since it was dark outside, a little cold, and we had a toddler who is impossible to walk with on a sidewalk (he tends to dart out to unsafe places and goes limp and boneless if we try to stop him), we opted to drive around and look at lights rather than walk around. 

This was Johnny watching the lights:

 

 

Did you notice that he was looking through his toy binoculars backwards in the first picture?  Well, he was.  He refuses to look through them correctly - it was adorable though. :)  (He is holding a glow stick in his hand, which you can't really tell in this picture.)  As you can tell from the photos he was really excited to be looking at Christmas lights! He sang to himself and chattered away as we drove around.  For the first part of the trip, I was on the phone talking to my grandparents (called to wish my Grandpa a "happy birthday"), but after that we continued to drive around in search of houses or neighborhoods with lights.  Sadly, there weren't very many.  The Cherry Creek District and some of downtown had some lights around commercial areas, and we got lucky in a few neighborhoods that had quite a few lights, but for the most part not too many Christmas lights.  I'm not sure if it is because Denver is not really all that festive of a city or the economy (electricity costs money, don't you know?), but there just wasn't that many lights.  We drove around for almost an hour and only saw lights for part of that time. 

It was worth it though, because it made Johnny happy to look at lights and spend time with mommy and daddy.  :)  Next year we hope to do this again, but we'll probably try to research places to go and look at lights before we head out.  All in all though, it was a fun evening and a great way to spend time as a family!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Joe!

(Easter 2009)

Today is my grandpa Joe's 72nd birthday - I just want to wish him a very happy Birthday!! :)  I am blessed to still have him in my life, and Johnny is very very lucky to have his great-grandfather in his life as well.  We are looking forward to seeing him when we drive back home to WA state for Christmas in less than two weeks!!! My grandpa retired from the Air Force after a full career of serving his country - including serving as a B52 gunner during the Vietnam War.  After retiring from the Air Force, he started working as a Postal Worker for another full career of service until he retired a couple of years ago.  You'd think after two full careers and after two retirements, he'd be relaxing, but he holds down a part time job or two to keep himself busy. :)  He is an avid fisherman, hunter, and all-around outdoor enthusiast.  He has also been known to play a video/computer game or two. ;)  He has survived a heart attack, hernias, and open heart surgery.  He is a strongly religious and loving family man.  He has a great many things to be proud of accomplishing over the past 72 years of life, and I'm sure the rest of my family would agree with me - he deserves to have an extraordinary birthday! :)  Happy Birthday, grandpa - we love you!

Flashback Friday: Monkey Love

I am participating in "Flashback Friday" again this week - if you would like to participate or visit the host of this  awesome weekly event, please go on over to Christopher & Tia (pssst, their blog is pretty awesome!).  

The funny "Grumpy Face" picture of Johnny from last week put me in the mood for another humorous picture of him from his baby days (not that he isn't still my baby - he'll be my baby even when he is middle-aged and balding!).  The picture above was taken in January 2008 when he was just shy of being six months old.  This was during the really bad winter snow storm when the fence in our yard was hidden under four or five feet of snow.  And we couldn't get our car out of the driveway.  It was ridiculous. 

Since, I couldn't get to most of my classes that week -which really sucked since it was the very beginning of the semester - I was home with Johnny trying to brave the snow and cold.  I would have to go outside and attempt to shovel some of the pathway several times throughout the day so that the snow wouldn't accumulate to a foot or two by the time John got home from work (he was borrowing his parents' car, which was the only one that could drive in the snow), and it was a lot of work.  I'd put Johnny in his highchair in front of the giant window that looks out on our driveway and pathway, so he could play with his toys and know that mommy hadn't abandoned him.  It didn't do much to ease his anxiety, because every time I'd look up from my shoveling, I'd see this little boy crying and sobbing behind the window.  The shoveling would take three times as long because I'd have to keep going inside and comforting him, which involved a lot of stripping snow gear off and then putting them back on.  Inevitably he'd sob again as soon as I was outside, and the cycle would continue.

The picture above was taken on one of those days during the snowstorm and huge amounts of snow that resulted from it.  All I remember is cuddling with him and watching a movie and then looking down and seeing Johnny sound asleep with his little stuffed monkey rattle still inside his mouth and his arm up in the air.  I guess he was chewing on it, and fell asleep mid chomp?  Whatever happened - it was adorable. :)  I'm glad we have silly pictures of him as a baby to look back on now...particularly when Johnny is being quite The Terrible Two, rather than my cuddly sweet little boy who likes to give kisses.  It is truly remarkable how much I love this little boy, and how easy it is for him to make me laugh. :)

Johnny's Quirks

I want to share some random pictures of Johnny that have been taken in the last few weeks that I think are cute, but wouldn't make it into the blog otherwise.  So, here they are:

(He always spits out his binky once he falls asleep - and look! Gator was keeping him company during nap time!)

   (We keep fleece throw blankets in this basket in the living room - Johnny likes to climb in it & play...oh, and drag Cookie Monster with him!)

(He was surprised that I would interrupt up his game with Elmo & Cookie Monster)

 

(He curled up in the rocking chair with his blankie & his daddy's childhood teddy bear Pookie and fell asleep all on his own for nap time - mommy was thrilled! )

(The second night we had the tree up, after I turned the lights on - Johnny got so excited to see the tree with lights on again that he flopped down right where he was standing onto his cute little PJ'd bottom and watched the tree for about twenty minutes. Super cute!)

 

(Earlier today he fell asleep after throwing a tantrum for close to half an hour - the first time he has ever thrown a tantrum where he couldn't be distracted & exhausted him so much that he fell asleep in the midst of it! :)  Oh, and yes, he is wearing his little outfit that my great-aunt & great-uncle brought him from Japan a few months ago - he still loves it!)

There you have it - random photos of Johnny in the past few weeks that I think are particularly adorable. :)  

Other things of note, concerning Johnny:

 *   His favorite movie is still Finding Nemo, but he has been requesting either Iron Giant or Horton Hears a Who multiple times a day, every day, for the past few weeks.  It takes most of my energy to get him to pick a different movie (for my sanity) or to distract himself with a game or a toy or anything else.  When I went grocery shopping yesterday, I was gone for a almost three hours, and came home to discover that John had given in and let Johnny watch Horton Hears a Who twice in a row because he wouldn't stop requesting it...you could say that Johnny often gets his way with daddy, which poses problems for mommy when she has to lay down the law or discipline. *sigh*

*He has a fascination with daddy's heavy duty silver flashlight and wanted to take it into the bathtub with him this morning - to which he was told "no" and daddy had to subsequently chase a naked toddler carrying a flashlight around the apartment.

*He is interested in anything that mommy is eating - pretty much only if mommy is eating it.  The upside is that he is trying new things this way. 

*Things that are fascinating to him right now: the Christmas tree & potatoes.  No, not to eat - to play with.  He keeps getting into the potato bag and carrying potatoes around, sometimes using them as footballs and chucking them around the living room.  

*His favorite book right now is a book of Disney stories.

*He likes to take this small plastic zebra (roughly the size of a medium sized banana lengthwise) and pretend he is riding it like a horse around the house.  It is makes me laugh, but I can't get a picture of it because every time I run for the camera he stops doing it!

 

*His favorite food is breaded fish fillets and any type of fruit.

*He gives mommy kisses repeatedly throughout the day (they are very sweet, but sometimes he holds my face still and forces me to kiss him until I need to break away to breathe or because I'm gagging from all the drool that seems to keep coming from his mouth due to his erupting 2 year old molars).  He also gives mommy attitude throughout the day.  He was shrieking the other day and I asked him to stop, so he did it louder, and so finally I shushed him.  It wasn't a mean shush or anything like that, but apparently he didn't like it very much.  He stopped shrieking and then waited until I was bent over the cookbook I was looking at before he came over to me and nudged me to get my attention.  When I looked up at him, his eyes turned all serious and then he shushed me!  He even had his finger up near his mouth and shushed me with the very same attitude look I have in many of the photos of me as a toddler. After he shushed me, he ran off to play!  I was in shock, but I also couldn't help but laugh. :)  I wish I had a picture of the little face he made - my parents would swear it is almost identical to my little toddler attitude face. Ha!

*He sings to himself in his toddler language when he is in his car seat - probably one of the cutest things and makes daddy & mommy laugh.

*He wants to go outside, but it the temperature has been hovering around 0 degrees, and with the wind chill it feels like -10 or so.  Poor little guy. :(

*He randomly walks to the door and starts waving and saying "bye" over and over - he doesn't stop until you wave and say "bye" a few times back to him!.  He also likes to try and say "dank you" and "love you" over and over too - they don't come out as clear, but you can still understand what he is saying. :)

*He still loves dinosaurs and animal toys.  I am repeatedly growled at by his T-rex throughout the day, and I also have to salvage snacks that end up in his mouth too, since Johnny loves to feed him.

*Lately he has been doing this cute thing where he will be watching a movie and he will run into his room and bring out a toy that represents something in the movie and then pretend he is in the movie too.  With A Bug's Life it is a beanie baby bird that he brings out a minute or so before the bird appears in the movie.  With Toy Story it is his T-Rex.  With Cars (this was the first time he did it) he brings out a little green race car, a little orange cement truck that sort of looks like the tow truck in the movie, and a big metal semi-truck that he likes to load the other two into -just like in the movie!  None of these things were in the same place in his room, but he ran in there during the movie one day and brought them all out and started loading them in the back like in the movie.  :)  With The Incredibles he likes to bring out his Mr. Incredible action figure that I bought him at a yard sale and throw him around the room (I think he is pretending Mr. Incredible is fighting the giant robot like in the movie, where he gets thrown around-there are lots of grunts and robotic noises involved).  With Finding Nemo it is a humpback whale that he likes to go and get right before the whale shows up in the movie & a plastic Tiger when he was watching the Jaguar in the beginning of Tarzan.  I'm sure there are other movies that he does this for, I just can't think of them right this second.  Either way it is super adorable!  I try to get him to name the toys he brings out when he does it, and he does sometimes, but most of the time he is more intent on pretending he is the animal/car/dinosaur/robot and makes the appropriate sounds (are all little boys born with the innate ability to know the difference between car/animal/dinosaur/robot sounds and be able to replicate them? ).  

*He also erupts into fits of laughter in anticipation of funny parts in his favorite movies - when Flick finds out the "warriors" are "circus bugs" and it zooms in on his face in A Bug's Life or in Monster's Inc. when Mike swallows the microphone & lets out a belch at the end of the movie (typical little boy humor).  :)

*As soon as light appears in the sky in the morning, he is up and wanting to play, which results in crankiness later in the morning since he doesn't go to bed as easily as he gets up in the morning.

*He is still a banana fiend & has adorable curly hair (though it is a bit wild in the mornings when he first wakes up and before he gets a bath).  My favorite feature of his, though, is his big adorable brown eyes with long eyelashes - they super duper cute when they are happy, grumpy, sad, mean, etc. :)

*His favorite game is for mommy to chase him around on all fours like she is an animal or to walk around like Frankenstein or a robot and pretend to want to eat him.  He shrieks and erupts into giggles. :)  

*He has taken to pulling up my shirt and playing with my belly button lately - a habit which I dearly hope he outgrows, particularly because of my fear that he'll attempt this in public!

*Newest word of the day: "out" - repeated when I told him several times throughout the day he needed to get "out" of mommy & daddy's room, stay "out" of the fridge & pantry unless he wanted mommy to get him a snack, daddy has to go "out" but will be right back, and so on.  :) He really stressed and enunciated the "t" in the word too - super adorable!

*The majority of the time spent in time out recently has been split between two things: him opening the door to the bathroom and then closing himself in it (we've had to resort to locking the bathroom & unlocking it with a penny...I hope this new obsession with the bathroom will make potty training with him once we get back to Denver in January really easy!) and him unplugging his stand lamp in his room and dragging it to the living room (one of these days he is going to break it or hurt himself).  The latter is the worst because he will go straight from time out and go and do it again!  Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about it because the bedrooms in our apartment don't have built in lights, so the only way he can have light in his room is with this stand lamp. *sigh*  Why do little boys have to get into trouble all the time??

***

That is the newest in the life in Johnny that I wanted to share.  We are looking forward to visiting family & friends in WA for Christmas - Johnny will be happy to see everyone!  The one thing we're worried about in visiting family & friends (besides how weather will impact our 18 hr drive) is Johnny being exposed to the flu or H1N1, since he is pretty isolated here in Denver.  Tomorrow will be the first day that Denver is opening up the H1N1 flu shots up to the public and we will be going tomorrow morning to wait in line in the cold in hopes that they do not run out of shots before our turn is up.  We desperately want to get flu shots and H1N1 shots before we go home, so send some prayers our way that we'll be able to make that happen! :)  

And Johnny just stumbled out of his room from his nap, so that is my cue to say goodbye!  Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the holiday season wherever they are!! :)

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Today the temperature hovered around zero degrees, but factoring in the wind chill, it felt like anywhere between -10 and -15, according to the weatherman.  With tons of snow on the ground, and more snow in store for us throughout the week, this is shaping up to be an awesome week (I couldn't be any more sarcastic right now).  Just in case you haven't gotten this in past blog posts: I loathe snow!  It was just my luck too that today coincided with my need for a large grocery shopping adventure.  So, I donned my gigantic puffy coat, a scarf, my husband's gloves (I can't seem to find any of my gloves...must have been lost in the move), and ventured out into the bitter cold.  The car didn't want to start because it was so cold, but eventually it did start.  The drive to the grocery store wasn't that great either because the roads weren't very well paved.  Once there, I spent two hours shopping (I try to go only once or twice a month, depending on what all is going on that month - it requires hours of ad-scanning, menu planning, a typed up list, NOT taking the Terrible Two, and spending far too long in the grocery store) and walking around in a puffy coat because the store was ridiculously cold.  

By the way, why do people in Denver find it necessary to stop and stare and make openly rude comments about someone who has a full cart of food?  Do they really have trouble comprehending that someone would shop in bulk??  I never had this problem in Spokane, yet here I'm stared at every time I go shopping - and I truly mean every time.  The employees at the Safeway I shop at act like they've never seen a person with a large load before too...I don't get it.  John used to work at Safeway back in WA and he used to get people all the time with large loads, and it wasn't that big of a deal.  Anyway, that is my little rant, because I'm tired of people being rude about it, and I think the whole thing is ridiculous.

After getting home and unloading all the groceries and dividing bulk packs of meat into ziploc bags, I was able to finally relax and attempt to warm up (to no real avail - no matter how high the heater goes, it is so bitterly cold outside that it is still cold inside).  For dinner, I decided to make a homemade chicken pot pie for dinner, so that the oven could help contribute more heat in the apartment (it helped a little).  The recipe isn't exactly like pot pies that you would get in the freezer section of the grocery store - but definitely healthier.  It was more like a pot pie casserole with a crust on top.  Regardless, it was delicious, so I thought I'd share the recipe! :)  Oh, and I didn't get a picture this time, but it didn't look really incredible by any means anyway.  Just looked like a casserole with a golden brown crust on top.  ;)

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

4 cups cooked chicken in chunks (or turkey) - we used 2 chicken breasts and it was enough meat

1 - 16 oz bag of frozen vegetables

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced really small so they cook all the way

1 cup chicken broth 

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup onion chopped finely - we didn't use, since we don't really like onions that much 

Topping:

1 1/4 cup milk

1 1/4 cup Bisquik

3/4 cup butter, melted - we used 1/2 cup butter and it turned out wonderfully

Directions:

Grease 9x13 pan (we used a pyrex baking dish).  Layer chicken, vegetables, potatoes, and onion in the bottom of the pan.  Mix broth and cream soup and pour over meat/vegetables in pan.  

Mix topping ingredients together and carefully pour over that.

Bake at 400 for 1 hour until golden brown.

Recipe Notes:

This recipe makes a lot of food, so if you have a small family, then you might want to consider halving the recipe and baking it in an 8x8 baking pan instead.

Also, it might bubble over a little when baking, so you might want to consider putting a baking sheet under the dish while in the oven (we didn't have a problem with this in the 9x13 pan).  

What we thought: We really enjoyed this dish - John more so than me, which wasn't surprising.  My favorite part of pot pies has always been the crust, so I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more crust than what was on top.  However, it was a nice hearty meal that I really enjoyed.  It reminded John of these "Homestyle Bakes" that we used to buy at the grocery store (I don't think they make them anymore) that he loved.  It was a nice warm, semi-healthy (healthier than the pot pies you buy in the freezer section), and filling dinner.  It didn't do much to warm up my feet, but this was a good dish and I think this has earned a spot in our repeat recipe book. :)  If you try out this recipe, let me know what you think!

Click here to see the original recipe

I'm praying that it stops being cold and the snow goes away before we make our 18 hour & 1000 mile trek back to Washington State in a couple of weeks!! I hope that everyone is keeping their feet warm in nice comfy socks and drinking apple cider & hot cocoa at home with their families! :)

 

 

 

Christmas Decorations!

We decorated the apartment for Christmas today, which I'm really excited about!  John and I waited until The Terrible Two was taking a nap before we took out all the boxes of decorations.  We set up our tree (my parents were nice enough to send this for Johnny a couple of weeks ago! Thanks mom & dad!), put on the lights, and then the decorations.  Then I put the dollar store tree skirt I bought a couple of years ago around the bottom of it (once I get a sewing machine, I plan to sew my own tree skirt), and then put some Christmas bears that my grandma gave Johnny last year in a basket under it.  We hung up colored lights around the patio glass doors and then some white ones (I LOVE the white ones - there is something so romantic about them!) around our big bedroom window.  We set out our nativity set and hung up the stockings above our fireplace, as well as setting out the rest of our odds & ends Christmas decorations. 

Now we're set for Christmas, even though we'll be gone for Christmas, because we are going back to WA!!!  That is the very best Christmas present, considering we thought we weren't going to be able to go home for Christmas this year. :)  We are counting down the days and are very much looking forward to a week and a half with family and friends!! (The 18 hour drive one-way doesn't look quite as appealing...)  

When Johnny woke up from his nap, he was a little confused at first, because our living room was a little rearranged, and because there was this fantastic tree in the corner with a bunch of multi-colored lights!  He was ecstatic!  We've had our problems with him trying to rip ornaments off the tree (seriously, he's like a cat), but he has been so happy dancing and laughing in front of the tree.  He was content to just lay down on the ground, fold his arms behind his head, and just watch the tree for a while.  It was really adorable! :)  

 

Putting up Christmas ornaments every year is always fun because my family has a tradition of each person getting a new unique ornament every year.  So, every year when we put up the ornaments on the tree, I get to see all the ornaments I have been given since my very first Christmas. :)  Johnny doesn't have that many ornaments yet, but someday when he moves out of our home, he'll have his own collection of ornaments to put on his family tree. I think that is really special, and I'm happy my parents had that tradition.  I love Christmas! 

Flashback Friday: Grumpy Face

I am participating in "Flashback Friday" again this week.  If you would like to visit the host of this awesome weekly event, please visit Christopher & Tia. :)

hee hee

I can never look at this picture without laughing.  This is probably tied for first with a few other pictures as my husband's favorite picture of our son as a baby.  I have a lot of favorite pictures, but this one is definitely in the top tier of them. We call this the "grumpy face" picture.  Johnny was about a month old in this picture and apparently he wasn't happy with us about something...taking a picture? his bib being crooked? tired? hungry? wet diaper?  balding in the front at such a young age? I have no clue since it was so long ago, but it is funny nonetheless. :)  Johnny still makes grumpy faces, but they look almost identical to the pictures I have of me as a toddler giving mean, grumpy looks to the camera (or anyone else...I was sort of a grumpy, mean little kid with an attitude of a teenager).  Lucky for me, my son didn't just inherit my looks--his personality is spot on with mine too! (Somewhere my mom is laughing & rejoicing in the word "karma".)  Eventually I want to get this picture framed for my bedroom, and I'm sure Johnny is really going to appreciate that once he is a teenager. (Just in case you wondering, that was written with heavy sarcasm.)  For now I will just rejoice in my ability to look at this picture and laugh. :)

"TodaysMama" Holiday Wish List Meme

 I am entering TodaysMama (see link below) Holiday Giveway.  Part of entering is to post this questionaire on your blog & then e-mail them the link.  So, here it is:


Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
I don't really have a holiday wish list per se, but these things are on my general wish list: sewing machine, cricut, professional camera, Adobe Photoshop, & a Kitchenaid Mixer.  That is more of a wish list for the next decade.  I'll be thrilled with books or whatnot for Christmas! :)
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
 A set of marble tile coasters for my wedding
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
Homemade soap or handmade baby items
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
My brain must not be working very well this morning, because I am having a hard time remembering a lot of specifics...we always had really nice Christmases thanks to my parents.  I guess of what I remember from my parents, it would be my first CD player.  My husband gave me a wooden rosary that was blessed by JPII when we were dating in high school (so technically not an adult), which I loved until it was stolen along with my purse.
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
My son is only 2 & too young to really have a wish list, but things he would enjoy: anything dinosaur, wood blocks, cars, Disney DVDs, books, art supplies, etc.
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Anything with pumpkin in it or a spiral ham dinner.
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
Can't post that because family reads this blog. :) But I am hoping that my ideas will happen. :)  For my son, it doesn't matter if I post: felt food, a car travel mat (for playing with Hot wheels cars and the like), a crayon roll, among other things. I really want to make him a bean bag chair (I have a tutorial & design I really like), but that might be a birthday gift rather than a Christmas gift. :) 
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
It is a tie between the classic movies (like "Rudolph") and "A Christmas Story"
9. Favorite holiday song?
"Silent Night"
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Driving/walking around to look at Christmas lights & the tradition of each family member getting a new unique ornament every year for the tree (I have ones for myself all the way to my very first Christmas!).  I also really love Christmas Mass. :)

Superior Scribbler Award

Today I was given The Superior Scribbler Award from my best friend Katherine & her blog WA^Squared (really awesome blog about her adventures in WA D.C. with a five year fellowship with the Carnegie Institute to teach math--you should really check it out, and not just because she is my best friend, but because she is a beautiful person & a beautiful writer with some important insights about the public education system & life)!!!!  I am very honored to receive this award:

Here are the rules: (if you would like to see some rather colorful rules that Katherine added to these on her blog, click here)

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to their five most deserving blogger friends.

2. Each Superior must link to the author and name of the blog from whom he/she has received the award.

3.  Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

4. Each blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List.  That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

5.  Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog. 

Here are my nominations:

1. Tia from Christopher & Tia: I love this blog, and I'm not afraid to admit it!!  Tia has a humorous writing-style and I adore her children--they are both really really adorable.  She writes about her family, life as a military wife, crafts (she is very artistic), gluten-free recipes she comes up with on her own (very impressive & makes me interested in gluten-free recipes even though we aren't gluten-free), Flashback Fridays (she hosts this, which if you read my blog, you know I take part in each Friday) and pretty much anything else that comes to her mind. :)  Even though I have never met her in person, I already feel like I know her and I consider her a friend.  She is definitely deserving of this award and I really recommend everyone checking out her blog.  (Oh, and she grew up in WA state too, which means she is automatically part of an elite group of awesome-ness!) 

2. Katherine from WA^Squared: So, she was the one who gave me this blog award, but being as how I also love love love her blog and she is my best friend since we were in elementary school, I figure she has to make my list of five blogs...even if that means she'll have two awards.  And I don't really feel all that bad about it either, considering she gave an award to the person who gave her one too.  (Great minds think alike?!)

3. Heather from Establishing Anti-Establishment: Another friend of mine from high school and the writer of a blog that I enjoy.  She has only been a blogger for a short time and she isn't a regular blogger, but her writing style is sarcastic & witty (reminds me of many of the conversations we had throughout high school about pretty much everything) and I enjoy reading it.  I am also looking forward to reading more of her blog as time goes on--she has a lot of things to say about the world and a unique perspective that is interesting, thought-provoking, and refreshing.  

4. Sarah from Cover Her Briefness In Singing:  I have only met Sarah once, a little over a year ago.  I found her randomly online when a good friend of mine had a miscarriage; I was looking for something online to help her...I don't know what I was looking for, but I came across Sarah's blog.  Sarah's blog is a blog about healing & loss, a blog in memory of her stillborn daughter Grace.  Her writing style is beyond beautiful and touches me so deeply--something that one isn't accustomed to on a normal basis.  When I read her blog, it is inevitable that I will cry, I will laugh, I will appreciate life, I will think about things more deeply than normal.  It is difficult to explain how much this blog touches me until you read it for yourself.  She is actually the reason I started a blogger profile--I wanted to keep up with her blog & be able to leave comments.  Eventually I decided I wanted to have my own blog, but it all started with her.  She has a gift of writing and I honestly believe that her writing is helping many women out there that walk around with the pain and loss of losing a baby.  When I first came across her blog she was organizing a school backpack/supply drive in memory of her daughter--she wanted people to prepare backpacks that she could drop off at the school that her daughter would have been starting Kindergarten at that year, had she still been alive.  That was the one time I met her...when I met her to give her the backpack I had put together.  She was a very nice woman, and I hope that someday I meet her again.  For now, her blog gives me inspiration and hope.  

5.  Konstance from My Life as a Young Mom and Housewife:  I met Konstance here in Denver not long after we moved here a few months ago.  She was one of the moms on the play date I went on at the Flat Irons Mall.  She is a really nice person and one of the couple friends I have here in Denver.  :)  Her blog is about her musings as a young wife and mother and she has a humorous & playful writing style that I enjoy reading.  (Also, she is the only person on this list that is not from WA--she is from Louisiana--so, that gives her a little extra credit, since I usually have a bias for Washingtonians.)

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So, there you have it--my five nominations for The Superior Scribbler Award!! :)  For all of you who won, make sure you follow the rules above & thanks for being inspirational & superb bloggers! :) And an extra big thanks to Katherine--I love you & miss you (only about three weeks until we see each other!)!!!