Thank Bob the most wonderful time of the year is OVER!

OK… so I’m a Scrooge… bah-humbug to you and your overly holiday cheerful self.

Usually, I’m a very into Christmas person… this year, eh, not so much. Thanks to Belly teething and me getting sick, lets just say good riddance Christmas! Now since I know you are all just dying to see yet more Christmas pictures (because the 100-gazillion-million-fillion other blogs you read with Christmas photos surely weren’t enough since they didn’t have MY cute kids…) here you go:

There you go. I’m too lazy and done with Christmas to add anymore. The kids had a blast, and all got exactly what they asked for.

Twas the day before the night before Christmas…

and Mommy just didn’t care.

She didn’t feel the holiday spirit, she didn’t feel the joy or excitement.

She felt deep down bone tired and like she’d been run over by a truck like a rabbit.
Her body was achy, her head threatened a divorce, her brain felt like it was leaking and all-in-all she just was not one with the force.

Coffee wasn’t helping.

The Belly was most definitely not either.

Mommy kept checking because she was positive both Belly and her were sick and must have a fever.

Mommy didn’t want to go shopping, read a book, clean, cook, or wrap presents, really what she wanted to do was sleep and maybe open a few of the kids presents so she could watch them.

She was bored. She was tired. But she could not nap.
She was cold. She was achy – like her energy had been sapped.

Twas the day before the night before Christmas and Mommy didn’t care.
She didn’t even have the energy to pretend so thank God the boys weren’t there.

Ryan – 0 / Rudolph’s Nose - 2

I went in last Friday to help with Ryan’s class Christmas party.

I, as I was 2 years ago, was in charge of the pin the nose on Rudolph game. I could have sworn Ryan had played pin the tail on the donkey before, but nope, I guess not. The boy not only had no idea what to do, he could not grasp the fact that he was supposed to:

1. Not be able to see where he was going
2. Not be able to see what he doing
3. Walk forward

Plus the little punk would not turn. I literally had to force the boy in circles.

Now for your viewing pleasure two clips of Ryan vs. Rudolph’s Nose.

Bravo Mrs. Zach’s Teacher Ma’am.

I love the set up Zach’s teacher has for class parties and such. She has this policy – either send in a contribution or come in and help. I know this has to frustrate some parents, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty a lot of parents just don’t seem to care about special things the class does. They just sort of ignore them. And personally, I hate parents that do that. Yeah, I know, not all students have a parent that stays home during the day and come and be active in the class. And yeah, not all families can afford to send something in. But, she allows for that. It doesn’t have to be the parent that comes in, any adult family member can come in. Such as on the 10th I went in and helped with their Reindeer rotation party, and since I was going to be helping in Ryan’s class for their party on the 17th my brother went in and helped with Zach’s Christmas Breakfast party. Nor does she require you send in something expensive if you can’t come in. She’ll take napkins, and cheap things like that. With how many parents just ignore the flyers that are sent home asking for contributions and helpers (and with this being his 3rd year in school and my 3rd year helping the teachers plan things – I can tell you many parents do ignore these) I just have to stand up and applaud his teacher. She sent something home at the beginning of the year explaining her policy and you had to sign it agreeing to it. Each time I’ve met with her she’s gone over if I did/did not send something, and if I did not did I come in and help. It just bugs the mess out of me how some parents just have no desire to come in or contribute to the class. Do they think the school pays for these things? No, the teacher and other parents pay to make up the difference if all things needed aren’t sent in. More times than not it’s the teacher. And you know what, that’s just not right. Teachers make a pitiful salary for all they do, not to mention they have to put up with all the school politics, your children, and you parents who don’t seem to care. I figure it’s the least we can do as parents to come help when it’s needed or to send in a few things for the class.

((OK – stepping off my soapbox now lol))

Christmas Time Contest

Over on my new blog (lol don’t worry – this one isn’t going anywhere) for my Project 365 pictures, photo editing tutorials, and contests I have my first ever contest up and listed!! The winner of the contest gets a $20 gift certificate to My Four Hens’ store! Here’s my example photo:

Go check the contest out!!! Deadline isn’t until January 1, 2011 11:59 pm Central Standard Time!
Tutus and Sneakers – Contest: Christmas Time

Saturday Snapshots (12/18)

Elf… I think I’m going to fire your butt.

Meet Charlie Snowman Peterpants

He is one of those creepy little Elf on the Shelf dudes. I thought he was kinda creepy and that the idea would not work at my house, but since my mom spent the $30 on it for the boys and Belly I figured we might as well do it. And hey, the boys think he’s pretty darn cool. The boys named him. They actually agreed on Charlie, then Ryan picked Snowman, and Zach Peterpants. No, no idea where he pulled that name from. lol

The premise is that he’s like Santa’s secret agent. He watches you and then goes back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa if you’ve been good or bad, then comes back and hides somewhere and you have to find him. This is supposed to make children behave.

Yeah… that’s not working.

Instead I have yelling, tantrums, and punching every morning because one boy wants to beat the other at finding him. As if our mornings weren’t hectic and angry enough. (Comes from living in a house where poor ol’ Ryan is our only morning person. lol) Plus, as I mentioned before… I think he’s uber-creepy.

We’ll keep doing it… probably will next year too… hopefully by next year he might actually work.

Enjoy.

Proof I love my boys.

Should I ever need proof about loving my boys I now have it.

I was willing to look thoroughly and completely idiotic this weekend in search of something off both of their Christmas lists (Yeah – I just started Christmas shopping Saturday – I swear it’s not because I was procrastinating like usual).

Lets talk about Zach’s first since his mission for me was not too bad.
On his letter to Santa he said he wanted a Lego Star Wars book. Luckily for Santa, Zach gave me a little more detail on the book than he did Santa. He said “That one you know. The one that’s like one of those books at school, but it’s about Star Wars. Oh, and everything in it is Legos.” Clear as mud right? I asked Zach where Santa could find the book and he said “It’s at that store Daddy goes to. You know, the one by the mall. It’s got like movies and stuff.” (Yeah… “you know” is his new phrase by the way) That translated – Best Buy. Since the majority of what the boys want can be bought at Best Buy anyway, that was our first stop. After picking up the movies they wanted (Z – Percy Jackson, R – Toy Story 3 and Shrek 4, B – Beauty and the Beast), and after looking really, and I do mean REALLY, stupid on Ryan’s behalf, I went in search of that Lego Star Wars book. I looked where they had their few books – no Lego Star Wars books. Looked where they had a display of Star Wars collectibles – no Lego Star Wars book there either. Looked over where the Lego video games were – still no book. I’m starting to think maybe Zach made this book up. So, I suck up my creeping embarrassment and find a worker and go ask if they have any idea what I’m talking about, and if they have this book, or if this book is even real. First three people I asked looked at me like “What the hell are you talking about?” however, the third lady suggested I go ask the guy working in cameras… he, it turns out, is a Star Wars junkie. I find my Star-Wars-Yoda-Camera guy, ask him about the book, and he says he knows what I’m talking about – but no they don’t sale it anymore, and he doesn’t know the name of it. BUT I got a new clue. He said it’s like an encyclopedia of all things Star Wars and Lego Star Wars, AND it’s the size of a medium sized coffee table book. Good news right? Errr, wrong. I went to four bookstores before I found that stupid book, when I asked the workers if they had the book I kept hearing “Well, it would help if you knew the book’s name or who wrote it.” I mean come-the-flippers-on, how many freaking Star Wars Lego encyclopedias could there possibly be??!! The only reason we found it at the last place is because that store actually had a huge section just for Star Wars stuff. This is the book he wants.

I really really want to say lets just not talk about Ryan’s. I mean really. I swear – I think Zach put this idea into Ryan’s head just to get a few good laughs at his brother’s expense.
If you look here at the last thing on Ryan’s part of the list you will see the present that is the bane of my holiday shopping. Think it’s a typo that’s supposed to say Megatron? Well, you think wrong. Yup, he wants a Negatron action figure. Who or what is Negatron you ask. Apparently, Negatron is supposed to be a bad guy Transformer. And Zach is backing up Ryan 100% in this thought. Wanna know the catch? There is NO Transformer named Negatron. John and I figured well maybe there is, and we just don’t know about it. We asked almost all the workers at Best Buy, and a few of the geekier looking customers, if they knew who Negatron was. Some just said no, some laughed and asked if we were joking. One guy said “Don’t be stupid, there is no Negatron” when I insisted that was who my son meant, not Megatron. We spent hours looking at toy stores fueled not only by the boys’ insistence, but also by my older brother who was backing them up. We searched and we searched and we searched. We put up with laughs and constant “Do you mean Megatron?” because my brother was backing the boys up. Come to find out later, when my brother posted it to Facebook, that he has no idea if there is or isn’t a Negatron, he just wanted to see if we’d go nuts looking. Now I have to try to convince Ryan that Zach and Joe (my brother) were lying to him all this time and find out what toy he wants instead.

I hate Christmas shopping.

Saturday Snapshots (12/11)

It was a two tutu kind of day.

A long long time ago, in a galaxy not quite so far away, lived a very silly princess. This princess, Princess Pudding, was, as mentioned before, silly; she was also very loving, kind, obnoxious, and cuddly. When Princess Pudding felt down or bad her favorite thing to do was to dress up in her prettiest silliest clothes. The more down she was the sillier she looked.

Today… alas, today Princess Pudding looked very, very silly indeed. Today Princess Pudding was feeling all the injustices of being not-quite-one-but-not-quite-two. Her brothers, Prince Zoo and Prince Wild, left to go learn how to kill space dragons before she woke up. Her daddy, King Daddy, had gone off to rule the galaxy while she was still in bed. And that was just NOT fair. How can a princess be a proper princess when her family does not give her bye-kisses? She can’t.

Then, to make matters worse, when her mommy, Queen Mommy, came to get her out of bed, her mommy said Princess Pudding smelled bad. Princesses are not supposed to stink. Queen Mommy had to know that, she must have just wanted to hurt Princess Pudding’s feelings. Queen Mommy was just unfair and cruel all morning. She would not let her eat a biscuit while her diaper was being changed. And she would not let her rub oatmeal in her princess hair. She wouldn’t let the princess wear her fairy wings while eating, and she wouldn’t let her have her paci either.

After breakfast Princess Pudding said enough was enough – and that she was in charge. She tried screaming at Queen Mommy, but she was not only ignored – Queen Mommy put Princess Pudding in the hall by herself!!! When screaming “No Momma!” over in the hallway over and over did not make Queen Mommy come back Princess Pudding decided to throw herself down on the floor. That was not a good idea. She did not know Prince Zoo left blocks right where she was planning to fling herself. When Princess Pudding started crying because she was hurt Queen Mommy ran and scooped her right up and kissed her boo-boo.

Queen Mommy put Princess Pudding in her favorite tutu, gave her an extra kiss, and told her it was time for all princesses to start behaving. Princess Pudding thought maybe it was time too. Princess Pudding watched some shows on the magic box, drew some magnificent illustrations with her parchment and magic color sticks, and talked to her magical pig. And then it happened again… the force was disturbed in Princess Pudding’s day. She had been laying on the floor and her royal dog accidentally stepped on her leg when she ran to the door. Princess Pudding laid and she cried. Queen Mommy picked her up, gave her kisses, and told her she’d be OK. Princess Pudding knew she would not be OK, Queen Mommy was wrong. Princess Pudding went to her room to cry, and came back out with her other tutu. Queen Mommy laughed and put the second tutu on top of the first, and told Princess Pudding she was such a “silly little pudding-pie.”

But the second tutu worked, and the silliness of the two tutus together worked to make everything right in Princess Pudding’s day. And it stayed OK. And it was good.

Saturday Snapshots (12/4)

(Christmas Wishlist – written by Zach for both)

So this is what we’ll do.

It’s not like I’ve had nothing to blog about the past few days. I have. I swear. But see here’s what happened…

Something happened, and I really wanted to blog about it, but then I didn’t get a chance to the day it happened, and the next day some other stuff happened that I wanted to blog about, but then I didn’t know which to blog about first. Then yesterday I wanted to blog about something else… but had two others I should blog about…

It’s a vicious cycle that leads to me sitting on my butt doing anything but blogging.

So this what we’ll do (what I should have just done to start with)… We’ll combine them to one post. I sometimes astonish myself at the genius I posses.

First – and best – I got a huge blessing from the digital scrapbooking designer I work with. It was so nice and took a worry off my heart. Totally made my week. I love working with her and she is just nicest lady. Before I got on her team I was burning myself on scrapping. I was just flat out overcommitted between working for designers and doing my own designing. Don’t get me wrong – I loved the store I worked for, and I loved the designers I worked for but it was all too much. I put off designing because I wanted to be scrapping, I put off scrapping because I had to work on team pages, I put off those because I knew I should be working on designing. Then this opportunity came along, but to get it I had to work exclusively with her. Dropping my other commitments terrified me, but I’m constantly getting proof it was the right thing to do.

Second – as I’m sure everyone who reads my blog or has had a toddler knows – teething freaking sucks. Yes, still teething. I live for the day that Belly finally has all her teeth. And the teething combined with the on-set of the terrible twos… hell, pure hell. Never did I think I’d have a child that would be harder to keep up with than Ryan, but let me tell you, Belly is putting him to shame in the mischief and trouble department.

Last, I’m working on documenting the 25 Days that lead up to Christmas. It’s a digital scrapbooking project and the goal is to make one page a day going over your day, specifically the parts relating to Christmas. So far I’m really enjoying it – and actually keeping up. Here are the pages from the past two days.

Cover:

Dec 1st:

Dec 2nd:

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not shooting for fancy, just documented.