Twas the Night Before Christmas....

And it was one of the few nights my kids were excited to go to bed! But before we could do that we needed to make sure the milk and cookies were set out with care for soon old Saint Nick would soon be there.

Each child wanted to pick out a 'special' cookie that we had made just for Santa.


Then We had to place said cookies and said glass of milk next to the tree. I was worried that a dog or cat may destroy what was left for dear old Santa, so we weren't sure if we should do plastic or glass, plastic or glass....hmm we decided Santa deserved the real thing, so glass it was.

We said our prayers and everyone scooted off to bed. The funny part is that recently Andrew has been in the habit of waking up sometime during the night and turning his bedroom light on. Sometimes he gets up, sometimes he just falls back asleep. But many nights, I'll see his light on from under the door and I'll sneak in there and he's out cold with the light blaring. So I was sure to tell the kids that on THIS night, that no one should be awake, because if Santa arrives and he sees that children are awake and/or out of bed, he may very well pass right on by the house to go the next one.

So the next morning, the kids slept in for once. I was shocked. But then I realized that maybe they didn't just sleep in, maybe they were just a little freaked to come out too early in case Santa hadn't arrived as of yet.

So a little after 7am, Cailin crept out and into our room. The first thing she said was "mom, was Santa here?". I said "I don't know, should we go look?" And off she cruised, with me in tow. Once she spied the tree with presents and the stockings lined up full, she squealed "HE'S BEEN HERE MOMMY! HE'S BEEN HERE!".

(you see we had the tree pretty much baricaded because the dog would like to try to grab a branch with it's teeth and attempted repeatedly to pull it over. So we had all sorts of furniture blocking the tree, this was one of the first times we actually had the tree open and in full-view for all. It didn't last long though, at least until the dog woke up and emerged from his kennel.....)


Now we waited until the rest of the family arose and the kids got to work on opening their Santa presents. They were very excited to get a Wii system, a few games and the accompanying pieces.

Proof that Santa had polished his yummy cookies and milk.



We of course spent time talking about the other meaning of Christmas....The kids even sang an inspiring version of "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus. Of course, that was not caught on film which was a bummer.

Puppy update

I kind of, sort of got in trouble for bashing poor, cute, little sweetie pie Jake (our puppy). Yes, he is cute. Yes, is sweet. BUT, he is kind of a handful! He's tried pulling the Christmas tree down, so now we have that barricaded off. He's harassed the cats non-stop, so they are pretty much in hiding, well except one that is quite a feisty one, Ripley. She's like a thousand years old and is feisty to say the least. She stands her grand and has 'taught' the puppy to respect her authority (quoting Cartman from South Park).

Otherwise, the puppy is doing well. He has assimilated into our family well. The kids love him. Although they are not thrilled when he nibbles their toes, or rips their clothes when playing. We watch him closely around them so no one gets hurt. The kids have learned a lot about how to care for an animal and to be kind to animals as well as they love him to pieces.


He also loves the snow, which is good, because like I've said before, living in Minnesota, we get a lot of snow. He likes to roll around in the snow, bury his entire head in the snow and just make a total mess of himself in the snow. So that's all good.

Winter Fun

Whew! It's been really busy in our house these past few weeks. Turns out that having two kids, working full time (thankfully), getting ready for the holidays, battling colds AND having a puppy keeps one very, very busy!
:)

But we did find some time to get out and play in the snow. Last weekend, Andrew wanted to go out and do some sledding. We have a small hill on the side of our house that dumps directly into our now dormant garden. So that has become our sledding hill in our yard. It's kind of nice not to have to go anywhere to go sledding.

I remained in the house with Cailin since she was getting over a cold/fever. She was very upset that she couldn't go sledding and I was deemed 'the meanest mommy ever' for not letting her go out with her 102.9 fever. Man, I AM mean! Well, that was until she got to watch a movie and snuggle on the couch with me, then I was told "this is exactly what I wanted mommy!". Aaaah, the mind of an almost five year old. As I tell her, 'it's hard being 5!".

Ok, so back to sledding, Cailin was all situated with her movie and then Andrew, Mike AND the puppy Jake went outside to play. Last year, Andrew didn't like being in the snow. He's kind of a sensitive kid. Not just sensitive in his feelings, like he is very sensitive to certain textures as well as things that are cold. So he wasn't a big fan of the snow last year. Well, that was last year. Big boy has grown up a bit!

Getting ready for the first run, Masher not sure what to expect:


Now, on run 3 or 4, enjoying himself.


And now, with the dog:


And yes, the dog liked sledding as well. We had to drag Masher in the house. I kept reassuring Masher that the good news is that since we live in Minnesota, we have months of snow and winter weather ahead of us, so there will be plenty of days to go sledding again......
right.....

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. (www.mycharmingkids.net)

I'm sure you know it was not me that ignored the laundry once again. Oops. I'm sure it just slipped my mind. And it isn't me that still hasn't done anything about Holiday cards as of yet. The organized part of me would never have allowed this much time to go and not have even thought of doing a holiday card yet. No way, couldn't be me. I'm sure if I had neglected to do so as of yet, I'd be all over that very soon. I'm sure. Right?

And it wasn't me that was playing doctor's office with my kids (the innocent kind, not the adolescent kind) and actually dozed off while I was in for 'routine surgery' as my daughter told me. I would never have fallen asleep while we were playing, even if it was for just a few minutes. And it surely wasn't me who was laughing as my daughter used the VeggieTales manger scene as the music (it plays a song of a Veggietale signing "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem")to put me to sleep. Well that laughing must not have been right before I actually dozed off. That must have been a mistake.

And most certainly it wasn't me that used distraction as a means to solve a disagreement between my two kids. You see that would have been the easy way out, instead I'm sure I would have sat with both of them, and thoughtfully discussed the offense and come up with some lengthy peace agreement rather than said "Hey, Andrew - look! The Fraser's turned their Christmas lights on, let's go see". (wow good timing Frasers - thank you!)

It was NOT me that was in a meeting last week at work only to look down and see that I might have had two different socks on. D'OH! Then it also wasn't me that thought back to when I was getting dressed that morning, (running late because of the puppy) that maybe getting dressed in the dark was maybe not such a good idea?? I have got to get to that laundry....

And I'm sure it wasn't me that instead of getting ready for work as I should am sitting on the computer seeing what y'all are up to. (and hearing the dog scratching at the door) Nope, wasn't me either!
;)

Happy Monday!

Before AND After

I started doing some Christmas baking this past weekend. We usually attend a few Christmas gatherings over the next few weeks and it's nice to arrive with a plate of homemade cookies in hand. At least, that's what I'm told ("we'd love to have you and oh, if you could bring some of your cookies, that would be great...").

So I had some 'help' getting cookies started this weekend. My kitchen looked like it had been a part of some type of explosion.
So here is the before:


And AFTER we made cookies....



We were making gingerbread cookies. All was well until I busted out the sprinkles. I made some frosting and then the kids wanted to try EVERY kind of sprinkle we had. We left some looking pretty nice and neat, but some we just let the kids go to town. Some had close to an inch of sprinkles (on top of the frosting).

We also had a few casualties. These didn't make the journey. They were broken in the process and left aside to enjoy by the kids. I actually think they broke a few on purpose just to have some to munch on this weekend.


Too bad the dog doesn't understand the idea of licking up the remnants yet. I had to do that myself. Well, not lick them up, but sweep them up at least.

The kids then had to sample their cookies and after about fifteen minutes of creating designs (and destroying the kitchen) they got bored and disappeared to play in their rooms together.


It's all clean now at least for the moment.

Relax and Enjoy the Ride

I am just exhausted almost every day. Many days I'm already in bed by now, exhausted. And I only have two kids!

So how do people do it. I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong, but it seems like most days I'm flying by the seat of my pants to get it all done. I work full time, my husband does as well, we have a four year old and three year old, cats and now a puppy. We have a house that needs cleaning, laundry that needs cleaning - you know - all that stuff. So I sit here at 10 minutes after 9 in the evening and think 'what am i doing on the computer? The house is a disaster, the puppy is chewing on an Easter basket that he found god knows where, the dishwasher needs emptying, the laundry needs folding and I NEED to go to bed to start this all over again in a few short hours.'

But I remind myself that a messy house or unfolded laundry does not make unhappy children or an unhappy family. I try to remind myself that the clothes will get folded eventually and that the dishes will find their way back to the cabinet soon. But moments like this

don't come along too often. We put our Christmas tree up and both kids eagerly helped. We listened to nice music and they just played so cooperatively (which believe me at 3 and 4 can be a miracle some days). It was really awesome.

So I just need to remind myself to relax. Just relax about the small stuff and enjoy the fun stuff. Because time does move quickly and as Ferris Bueller said in 1986 (not that I'm dating myself at all) "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it". So I guess I'll try and remember that as I trip over the Easter basket in the hall.
:)

Happy Wednesday!

Swimming anyone?

Yes, it seems like an odd time of year to be discussing this, however, Cailin and I stopped by the Foss Swim school in Chanhassen the other day to get her registered for winter swim classes.

You may recall that Cailin had swimming lessons previously and only entered the pool once. Yes, once. My little fish, only went into the swimming lesson pool one time. Otherwise refusing to go. She got a little freaked out by the set up, so we decided to try another venue.

Most of the kids have swim goggles and Cailin was all excited to get her own swim goggles. As soon as we got home, little mash (aka Andrew) found said goggles and decideded to try them on.

Thirsty boy, drinking his milk!

Funny but he figured those out quickly!


I guess he'll be up next for swimming lessons.