November

I've got Jay Leno on in the background. Not because I'm watching, just because I need a little background noise in order to focus. His voice actually annoys me... sorry Jay. So I have it only turned up to the "2" notch on the tv. I can't believe it's January and I'm just now writing about November. Why do I do this? I can't remember November. I can't even remember most of yesterday! So, I guess a more appropriate title would be "Thanksgiving", considering that's just about the only thing I remember about November.

October seemed to creep up on us, and in a flash it was gone. It seemed as though Halloween came, and the next morning we woke up to Thanksgiving. Suddenly I was running around to every grocery store within a 2 mile radius of my house (which is LITERALLY 4 different stores) getting everything I would need for 4 pumpkin pies, an apple pie and about 30 rolls. I wouldn't normally need to go to 4 grocery stores for these items, but I guess in the frantic commotion of the holiday, and hoping to get everything done right, and done just in time, I kept forgetting "that one other ingredient". Needless to say, as it was the night before Thanksgiving at about 10 o'clock at night, with my honey home for the holiday, I was not going to spend the entire evening baking. So I decided to scratch the apple pie, (there would be other pies, like grandmas always delicious Pecan Pie), and just do the 4 pumpkin. (One was to stay at our house, of course!) Then I would just get up the next morning and get the rolls made, so they would be nice and warm for dinner.

Could someone please explain to me why I wasn't aware that it takes 3 1/2 hours to make rolls?? Anybody?? It was 2 hours until we were supposed to leave, and I had gotten myself showered, hair done, and makeup started. I figured it would be a good time to go downstairs and get the rolls started so they could cook while I finished getting myself and the baby ready for the big day. I walked down to the freezer, pulled out my very large bag of frozen rolls, and read the directions. Allow 3 1/2 hours for rolls to rise and bake. WHAT???

So, after a lot of contemplating, (ok, not a lot. About 2 minutes), I decided to scratch that idea. The grocery stores were open until about 4 that day, so we would just make a last minute pit stop to pick up some bagged, already-made rolls. This hurt. My grandmother is the cook of the century. Everything she makes is homemade. She's the epitomy of "that grandmother with the spotless house, emaculate yard, and hot meal in the oven AT ALL TIMES". I knew this would be a disappointment. I don't know how she does it. I am a mother to one baby and 2 teenagers, and I can't find enough time in the day to get the kitchen clean and a single load of laundry done. Let alone raise 6 kids and a husband, and keep a spotless house, with virtually no dirty laundry to be found ANYWHERE, and still have a deliciously cooked homemade-from-scratch meal on the table every night. I know I'm getting a bit off subject, but you can see how I would be disappointed not to be bringing hot, fresh, oven cooked rolls over. I had one job, bring a couple pies and some rolls, and I couldn't even accomplish that. Now I was starting to understand why people say the holidays are so stressful!

But we made it there. Bagged rolls and all. And no one complained!

Grandma's table is always set so cute. It just wouldn't be grandma's without some "table flare" as I like to call it! I think that's where I get my love of decorating tables. Weird, I know!

There weren't many of us there this year. Which was kind of nice. I remember growing up, and coming to my grandparents' house to see all of my cousins. You could hear little feet running across the kitchen tiles and screams of laughter as the younger kids would chase each other around the house. (Then, without fail, would always be followed by one of the aunts yelling "out of the kitchen!") Us "older kids" would hang out on the living room floor playing with grandma & grandpa's old Tinker Toys while we waited for all the finishing touches to be done with the tables and food. And waiting to hear grandma yell for grandpa to come cut the turkey. This meant it was time to rush to the kitchen to guard your place in line. But not this year. This year there was just about a dozen of us. It was nice to have a more intimate dinner where we could all hear each other talking. Still, there wasn't enough room for everyone at the dining room table, so mom, John and Josh & Janessa sat at the small, what we usually call "the kids table"! Mom just HAD to take Tiuke with her! He was spoiled, of course, and got to eat the majority of mom's mashed potatoes, yams, and got his first taste of stuffing. Then his second taste, and third, and so on!!

You can see Aunt Debbie's candied yams way down the line. I don't know what she does to those things, but they are, without fail, the best thing on the table every year. Pretty sure I shamefully had 3 servings!!

I love his "Oh no, grandma... they caught us" look!

After dinner we headed for the living room where everyone sat and laughed, and played with the baby. We got caught up on the latest adventures in everyone's lives, and just got to enjoy each other's company. And baby was happy!!

You see him holding uncle Josh's thumb?! Yep, they're pals!

Oh I can't EVER pass up an opportunity to get pictures of him with his great grandparents! They're just so great with him!

It was such a nice Thanksgiving. I'm really starting to get sentimental about holidays and traditions. Even more than I was before having a baby. I realize now how important my traditions were growing up, and I just hope to be able to pass on some of those, and make even more new ones for my little ones. But at the end of the day, family is what makes the holidays the holidays, and I'm so thankful to have my family. And I must say, I am so blessed to have such a kind and wonderful man by my side. His being gone makes each day a challenge, but when he gets to come home for the holidays, it makes it even that much sweeter!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

Uncle Chris let him "borrow" his cool watch!

Craziness

I feel like my head is cluttered right now. It seems like each time I'm doing good at keeping up on my blog, something happens which holds me back from continuing. My laptop got a virus, yet again. I know, you probably don't even believe me now. Yes, I had virus protection and still, my computer was invaded. It's hopeless I decided. That laptop was doomed from the start. I loved it, but it was doomed. So after coming to this conclusion I decided to start researching new laptops. Luckily it's the holidays, and all the stores are starting to have awesome deals on their electronics. So as I'm researching & researching, I found it. At midnight. I was watching QVC. Yes, me, watching QVC! And there it was... "HP Pavilion with 4 years of McAfee virus protection, plus Over $700 in software including Photoshop Elements 10 for just $529"... WHAT???!! It was like some sort of divine intervention. Like someone, somewhere knew just what I wanted/needed, and practically placed it in my lap. I immediately ordered, and today it came...

Isn't she lovely?! And I must say, I see now why so many women get addicted to QVC, it's like window shopping in the comfort of your own home. And then suddenly, you see it, that one thing you just MUST have. And it's at a killer price. So you order it, and did you know it only takes a few days to be delivered. It's fantastic!

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So I think the craziness really started a couple weeks ago. Duke was going to be in town for Halloween, so we thought it would be a good idea to bless the baby on the 30th, the day before Halloween. It was something we've been wanting to do, but with Duke's crazy work schedule we hadn't been able to plan it out. It was just supposed to be a simple gathering of family and close friends, where after we would all meet up at my dad's for some refreshments and snacks.

It turned into much more than that.

We (I) decided we should actually feed everyone, since most everybody was coming a pretty long way to be there. I settled on ribs & chicken from Famous Dave's. I figured the sides such as potato salad, beans and dessert was something that could be homemade by myself and a few loving family members in order to save on cost. Well, I was right, but let me tell you, ribs & chicken for 60 people is NOT cheap!

I asked a few family members to make a few things, but since I'm not very good at delegating who should make what, and I always feel guilty asking for favors, I decided I would make the potato salad & cornbread myself. This was a big mistake. Not only was I making the potato salad and cornbread, but I decided I should make it the night before so it would be fresh for the following day. That's fine, except that I didn't get started until 8:30 at night. Duke and I ran errands all day trying to find an all white outfit to bless Tiuke in, (this was a hard enough task to begin with), and we also picked up a new crib for him that day. (Not something that needed to be done RIGHT THEN!) We also still had to go shopping to buy everything we needed to make, and all of the plates, napkins, plasticware, etc.

I made 20 lbs of potato salad.

I got done cooking at 1:15am.

Thank goodness Duke was there helping me clean & peel & cut  & boil and everything in between. It would have been much longer without his help. We were both exhausted, but that couldn't stop us, because we only had a few hours before we had to be up & getting ready for Tiuke's big day! So many people came to the blessing, and we felt so humbled. It was awesome seeing all the people who came to support our new baby. And we had even more people sending emails & text messages wishing us luck and congratulations from those who weren't able to be there. We are so thankful for all of the love that surrounds us and our beautiful family. It was a beautiful day, but I am so happy to have it over with!

(I'm a moron and forgot my camera that day with all the commotion. Don't worry though, we got lots of photos on my dad's camera, so I will be posting those pictures soon!)

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Halloween was awesome though! We were so tired that morning, and didn't feel much like doing anything. But we got it together about 5:30 and headed to Wal-Mart for some last minute costume necessities. Duke had no costume, so as we walked around the store searching for random accessories, silly shirts or shoes we found it, while wandering in the Christmas section. We stopped to admire the newest in "Santa Hat Technology", and then it happened. Duke picked up what looked like a camo hunting baseball cap with a pair of light-up antlers on it. It was HILARIOUS on him! I told him he had to get it!We took it with us and stopped over at the costume aisle just to see what they had, and it just so happened that they had a mullet wig on sale for $5. We couldn't pass it up! Duke already had a plaid coat at home and that was it!! He was a redneck hunter guy. It was AMAZING!! I went as the Sundrop girl. All it took was a Sundrop shirt from Wal Mart, some red leg warmers (which were actually socks because leg warmers are NOT easy to find!) and a $7 pair of "Mormon shorts" over my black leggings. Then Tiuke was a lime green Dragon! (I think I ordered his costume over a month in advance!!)

Luckily everyone was really understanding about us being too tired to travel across the whole valley just so they could see the baby in his costume, so we sent a photo to most everybody. We stopped over at Duke's sister's to see everyone there, but they were all out trick or treating, so then we headed over to Jocy's. She was so excited to see Tiuke in his costume, and they didn't have many trick or treaters so we were able to sit and visit for a while. Buddy was ready to get out of his costume and headed straight for the candy.

He wanted the candy so bad he was even willing to settle for the bowl instead.

And after realizing all he was going to get out of it was a candy wrapper to suck on and drool all over, he decided instead he would tell Aunt Jocy all the stories about his very first halloween.

He was so happy!

And we were lucky enough to sneak in a family photo really quick before Tiuke passed out from a long night of Trick-or-Treating!

It was so nice to have Duke home. In 9 weeks I had only seen him for 4 1/2 days, so it was great being able to have him here. I felt like the whole time we were busy though, and didn't get any time to just sit home and relax. Hopefully next time he's here we can just enjoy being couch potatoes for a couple days!

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There is one thing though that I've always noticed about the time when Duke is here. The week before he came home I cleaned & cleaned and scrubbed & scrubbed. I went through everything, piles of cd's, cleaned out cabinets, sifted through "junk drawers" and I threw out EVERYTHING!!!

On the left... got my coupon book all organized and updated. And the picture on the right, well that's just a little craft I threw together in the middle of cleaning made out of random nik naks I found in the junk drawer!

And yet somehow, after all that cleaning and de-junking, my house still ends up looking like a hurricane came through after the week Duke is home. I don't know if it's me not wanting to spend the time cleaning while he's home, or maybe he just really is extra messy when he comes home, but there has to be some sort of explanation for why my house always seems to become a complete disaster by the time he goes back to work! Luckily though, my house is now back to normal, and will hopeful stay clean at least for the next few weeks until he's home again!!

October went by so fast and I can't believe we're already 9 days into November. I've been looking for a wreath or something to hang on the door for Thanksgiving, but it is not easy finding something that doesn't have pilgrims and turkeys all over it. But I finally found it today. I think it was made just for me.

Oh ya... it's got feathers! Feathers everywhere! It's such a cute, chic wreath. Just what I was looking for. I've got the most fashionable door on the block people!

And just as a goodbye note... I will leave you with these pictures. I'm spoiling my baby. Don't judge me. I got a popsicle out the other day, and he followed my every move from the second I pulled it out of the freezer. He kept looking at me with these adorable eyes that said "why can't I have any mom? Don't you love me?" Yes, yes I do. So I gave in. Don't judge me.

He's so big he thought he should hold it himself!

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Night time Ritual

I never knew that bathtime and books would ever be so important and exciting as they are now. Right now. In this moment. There are so many things I love about being a stay at home mom and spending every moment with my little man, but one of my absolute favorite things is bath time & reading. Each night after Tiuke eats his last bottle of the night, I fill up his bath tub, get out a clean washcloth, grab a new hooded towel and hang it on the towel rack, and then put my little buddy's squirmy body in the water, and he giggles. He splashes, and giggles, and smiles. It is better than I could have ever imagined.

And after his bath is over, and he gets his "swim" time, I pull him out, wrap him in his towel, snuggle him for a while, and then lay him on the bed to lotion up his soft silky body & put him in some warm baby jammies that smell like they've just been taken out of a room full of Dreft. It is the most delicious smell in the world, by the way! He laughs the whole time. Then, like magic, his eyes get sleepy, and as I pick him up he snuggles up to my chest just a little bit closer than usual. It's story book time. And he LOVES to read!

Tonight was a new book that we bought at Witches Night Out. It's called "Frank was a Monster who Wanted to Dance". It is so adorable, and he just loves the pictures. The contrast of Frank's lime green face next to the dark greys and deep purples make it so fun to look at. And it is the perfect book for October. I've made sure to make it a ritual, every night before bed, to read to him. I can see that as he gets older he will love having story time before bed, and I hope that as he grows up and becomes too big to read with me that he remembers his childhood, and that one of his favorite memories is reading books before bed with mom and dad.

There's just something about having him sit on my lap and talk to the pictures while I read him the story that is just so comforting and relaxing. It's like a special bonding moment. Just my son & I, sitting in bed reading books together. I promise to cherish these moments, every day, and never take a single one for granted. I was born for this. And it is so much better than I ever thought it would be.

I even let him lay in bed and read the book himself sometimes!

I can't wait for tomorrow night!