Merry [late] Christmas!

I'm slow to post this because I had to edit it to take off our last name, but I think a good portion of people have already seen our little card anyway.


This year has been a good one for us. We evened up the feminine presence in our house with the addition of Kaitlyn. We took some fun trips and enjoyed family visiting us. I crafted it up with aprons and what not. Jon got a promotion. Alex got a swing set.
I would do a year in review, but if you really want to see what went on this year, just go look at the archives. :)

We hope next year is just as great as this year was!

Domestic Gifts part deux

Remember this post about being excited about appliances and such for gifts?
Yup... the same thing happened this year.

From my lovely lovely husband, my birthday and christmas presents (lol and valentine's and mother's day 2010 presents) were bought months before the holidays rolled around.
If you need help remembering, here's the post about my sweet new (well... CL new anyway) dishwasher and super sweet new washer and dryer (which are indeed fabulous for washing diapers). Thank you Honey- I couldn't have asked for a better gift. :)

I always laughed when we gave my mom small appliances or other house/kitchen-y stuff for mother's day and christmas and her birthday. I always wondering how she could actually want that stuff and not something else.

Little did I know that she probably liked it as much as I do... which is a lot! And now she's the one giving me house/kitchen-y stuff for presents.

For my birthday my mom and dad got me an awesome set of tupperware. all of the old mismatched stuff went out and now we have a lovely set that nests very nicely. I have SO much more room in my cupboard (which is a VERY good thing since I'm severely lacking on cupboard space).

For Christmas I requested Corelle. Earlier in the year I had remembered the set we had growing up and wishing that I had the same set (plus, I just didn't really love any of the other patterns). Well wonder of wonders on Christmas morning I got to open up a set of 12 Old Town Blue patterned Corelle plates. My dishwasher is going to love me. And Jon is going to love not running out of bowls on the days when we have something that uses bowls for dinner (between cereal and then 2 days of soup etc., the bowls are gone). I plan on making them a memory in my kid's minds just like they were in mine and then being able to pass them on to one of them one day (it's okay Mom, I forgive you for not keeping yours. :) )

That reminds me though... my sister wasn't nearly as excited about that pattern as I was and had no desire to have Old Town Blue dinnerware in her future home. I'm convinced that in about 10 years she'll have a change of heart.


I can't wait until my birthday and Christmas next year so I can brag about the wondrous household related gifts I get yet again since it's inevitable that such things will be at the top of my list.

that guy

We made it to Utah!

Alex has taken a liking to Sally (she was willing to play trains etc. with him).
I don't know if he just can't remember her name very well or what the story is, but he's been referring to her as "that guy". It makes me laugh.

At dinner time he wanted her to come over and eat (she was holding Kaitlyn) and he goes, "I want dat guy come ova and eat wif us".

Later, Sally was all bundled up in her blue Snuggie and she and Alex were chasing around and playing with a football. No surprise that Alex loved it. So when Sally went into her room, Alex wanted her to come back and play. He came and asked me where she went: "where did dad boo (blue) guy go?"

I may just have to call Sally "that blue guy" from now on. :)

naki

The other day alex was going downstairs to get some clothes, so he was all naked. I was coming up the stairs and loudly exclaimed, "NAKI!"
He must have been in a less the=an ideal mood because he got a little upset and yelled, "I NOT naki! I'm Alex (last name)!"

Okay then. You can be Alex.

That also reminds me that Alex refuses to recognize that he has a middle name and always corrects us when we call him by all 3 names.

snuggle

In the ongoing effort to combat Kaitlyn's nightly fussiness, we are currently cuddled up in bed together. I'm loving it. Though I would love it more if she weren't laying on my arm. Makes it hard to surf the interwebs, you know?
I love a good excuse to lounge around in bed.

Most of Alex's infancy (at least the morning part) was spent in my bed watching 2 hours of ER every morning.

Perhaps that is why he wasn't as fussy as his sister. He got lots of mama bed time.

Or maybe his sister is just a loon determined to give us a run for our sanity.

Or maybe we just forgot about all the not so great parts of Alex's infancy.

words that actually came out of Jon's mouth

Yesterday Jon asked me when I was going to make him a mei tai.

And when he was changing Kaitlyn's cloth diaper he was going to put the one from the top of the pile on and then I heard him say, "oh let's do the pink one because it matches [your clothes]".

Cute.

Something that HAD to be made

Many many many thanks to my friend Crystal for taking her time to help me make this!
As you can see, it was something much needed since Kaitlyn is a bit fussy at night. Not to mention that I have a 3 yr. old that demands some of my time during the day and a baby that likes to be walked/held/rocked to sleep every few hours.
Kaitlyn loves it and is asleep within minutes of being in it.
I love it because the weight is distributed on both shoulders.
Alex loves it because I can play with him or get him things.

I told Jon that I'm going to have to make him one (or just add on to the length of the ties on mine).

Oh and please excuse the messy hair... I didn't feel like doing it today since we were just hanging out at home all day.

Kaitlyn's First Smile

Enjoy!

The Grinch

The other day when we were putting up our Christmas tree one of us said something about the Grinch and Alex asked, "who you talking 'bout mama?"
I told him, "The Grinch"
Alex: "and who's the Grinch"

So I told him that the Grinch is a green guy that lives in Whoville and doesn't like Christmas and he comes and takes everyone's presents.

At this point, Alex got very concerned and very sad and said, "I don't want that grinch to come take my presents".

I was very quick to explain that the Grinch brings back the presents and that he just lives in Whoville that's just in a book.

Luckily he hasn't been too concerned about it since. Though maybe I should use this as a way to get him to clean up his toys or go to bed when he doesn't want to and throws little tantrums. Really, is anything scarier at Christmas than the possibility of a weird looking green thing coming to steal all of your presents? I think not.

Alex loves Grandpa

Today I had to call my mom and Alex was super excited to talk to Grandpa and Grandma. He excitedly said hi to Grandma and then immediately said, "where's Grandpa?!" He was quite disappointed that he wasn't there, but seemed to be satisfied that he was down at Great Grandpa's.

Alex was also playing with a little tape measure. He was measuring the walls and would call out random measurements. ("six and a half inches!" Yes, he really knows to say inches and "a half" apparently). After a bit, he got a little sad and said that he just really wanted a tape measure like Grandpa's. No messing around with little and pretend stuff with Alex apparently.

The thing that had me laughing the most was when he picked up one of his crayons he was coloring with and tried to put it behind his ear and said, "and this is how you wear this". I had to ask him who does that and he told me, "Grandpa!". It was super cute.

picture post

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks!


Here I am trying out the neti pot for the first time. (I'm actually dressed because I had just been to my 4 day postpartum visit with Kaitlyn.) Oh and this was my birthday. Happy birthday to me.

This is Alex "golfing". I call it that because I'm not sure what else to call it. The concept was similar to golfing, though it was with a baseball bat and the swing was a little off. It was highly amusing to watch.

This is just another picture from when Grandpa was cutting his hair in the playhouse

These were both taken on Thanksgiving. The whole day Alex was putting on and taking off his hood randomly.

This is about as interested in Kaitlyn Alex has been. Maybe one day he'll actually want to touch her beyond kissing her head and if we're lucky, he'll even want to hold her!

Lastly, this is me and Kaitlyn on Thanksgiving. Weighing in at 8 lbs. 10 oz. at her 2 week visit (she was 7 lbs. 10 oz. at the 4 day visit, so she gained a pound in just over a week), she is definitely thankful for Mommy. :)

Goodbye fussy nights

I don't know who loves this more, us or Kaitlyn!

I don't know why/how it works, but when Kaitlyn gets fussy, we put her in the swing and she falls asleep. It's wonderful. Heavenly really.
I am so glad I made Jon put it together last week.