Christmas on the Early Side 2008

We spent Christmas Day with Jake's family. It was a good day with good food and BIG news from two couples. We have a nephew due in April and another baby due in July. I'm going to be busy working on cross stitch birth announcements during the coming months. I was wondering what project I was going to work on next. Here are some of the pictures we took during the celebration.

Jake and Peder listening to the Christmas story being read from the Bible.


Emmy and Mari during the Christmas story. Marissa and Jenna have all kinds of cool doll toys.


Mari with Uncle John....she was quite the social butterfly.

Peder hanging out with John, Nick and Marissa. He retreated to the couch when Marissa kept trying to put him to bed. :)

Mari playing with Auntie Jill. Once again a very social girl.

Emmy playing INSIDE the doll house that Marissa and Jenna got for Christmas. She liked climbing in and playing with the door.

Peder playing with his new backhoe. Very exciting!

Peder loves this toy. He loves flying this around.

Mari loving her new Care Bear and pillow. What a snuggler.

Our girls love stuffed animals and dolls and are always giving them lots of love.

As you can see by Emmy giving a kiss to the orange Care Bear

Emmy with some of her new books. This girl loves to read.

This picture isn't Christmas related, but I thought it was too cute not to post. Jake's brother Nick came over to hang out for a bit while in town from Chicago. Mari took very good care of him. She snuggled with him, sat on his lap and forced crackers down his throat every chance she got...even after he had said "All done" numerous times. She just likes to take care of others.

Our Little Family's Christmas

We had a wonderful little Christmas here on Christmas Eve. Here are some pictures from our morning and gift opening.

All of our stockings stuffed with goodies and waiting for children to discover them.

All three kids in their chairs. The girls got theirs for Christmas and immediately sat down in them when they got up in the morning....no one even noticed the stockings.

Peder discovering his stocking and dumping out the contents. He was SO excited to see Annie and Clarabel (from Thomas the Tank Engine) in there that he ran across the room to show Daddy.

Emmy digging things out of her stocking. She immediately handed one of her candy canes to Peder for him to have. Such a sweetie.

Mari with her stocking. Like her Mommy she is slow to wake and it takes her awhile to get going.

Emmy opening her first present. She was very good at tearing open her presents.

Mari tearing in to a present. Notice the red shoes? She got those in her first present and put them on right away.

Mari opening up her favorite present, a Little People Princess Doll House.

Emmy on her favorite present, a rocking unicorn that sings and makes noises.

Peder with one of his favorite presents. When I asked him what his favorite presents were he said his guitar and harmonica....he loves all things musical.

Jake opening his favorite present, a reciprocating saw. (Notice a haze starting?)

Me with my present from the kiddos, a computer program for my scrapbooking die-cutting machine. It's AWESOME!

Mari in the present aftermath....what a mess! And see how the haze is a lot thicker?

It's because of this. I made homemade caramel rolls in a bundt pan that separates apart. The caramel dripped onto the bottom of the oven. I stuck a cookie sheet under it, but not before it was too late and the house was filled with smoke. Lesson learned!

Peder with some of his new hard hat, tool belt and some of his new tools.

We had a very Merry Christmas and hope the rest of you did too. I'll post pictures from our other two celebrations in the days to come!

A House Filled with Joy

I got home from work tonight to a quite hilarious situation. Jake was running a bath for all three kids and Peder came running out of the bathroom in just a t-shirt and proceeded to take that off as he said hi to me. I went in to the bathroom to say hi to everyone else. Jake greeted me appropriately with a hi and a smile over the shoulder, Emmy totally ignored me and Mari waved hi to me with a smile while trying to pull off her diaper. Quite the greeting and I couldn't help but laugh and fall in love with my family all over again.

Our house is completely filled with excitement for tomorrow right now. One pie is cooling and the other is in the oven, Peder has repeatedly come out of his bedroom to "go to the bathroom," Mari is talking away in bed and the caramel rolls for breakfast are rising in the fridge. We're bubbling with excitement here. Tomorrow is a big celebration for us. Santa comes and we open presents right away in the morning. Then we'll have caramel rolls for breakfast and Jake and the kids will play the morning away. I'll be in the kitchen making a capon with garlic gravy, corn casserole and rolls and summon Jake to make the mashed potatoes at the right time. After our afternoon nap we'll head to our church's Christmas Eve service. I love it and the kids will be in church with us. After that we'll drive around to look at the lights, have pie and I'll make a snack dip. It's a big day, a day of traditions we started when Peder was just over a year old and one that we now look forward to every year.

The night before Christmas Eve all the kids get a new pair of jammies to wear to bed and for opening gifts in the morning. The kids really like theirs this year and I think they all look pretty cute. :)

Peder in his new Lightening McQueen jammies.....VERY EXCITING

Mari, post bath. Her jammies say, "I'm Santa's Best Gift"
Emmy doing some reading before bed. Her jammies say Sweet Dreams and are all glittery, she thought that was pretty cool.

All three kiddos in their new jammies...getting this was quite the ordeal.

Daddy and Emmy reading Twas the Night Before Christmas. Emmy was very interested, but the other two abandoned them soon after the story started.

Putting out cookies and milk for Santa. Each of the kids decorated one cookie for Santa and Peder picked out one of Jake's to put out too.

Putting out bread for the reindeer. I thought we had carrots, but I was wrong, so Daddy suggested that the reindeer might like some bread. Good save.
So we're all set for Santa and Christmas....now if Peder would just fall asleep so Santa could come!

So I said no more whining

But I WANT TO! Emmy was admitted to the hospital today and that bugs me. I hate the hospital. I hate it when my babies are sick. BLECH BLECH BLECH! Check out her caring bridge page for more info: www.caringbridge.org/visit/emmareneearly.

Why the stomach flu?

So.....yeah. Peder was sick Tuesday night and through Wednesday afternoon....with the stomach flu. Now Jake is sick and Emmy just threw up for the first time. Yesterday I realized that my kids don't get colds, they just throw up all over everything. Seriously, I can think of ONE cold and that lasted like a day. Maybe that's a good thing, because I can handle throw up better then a gross runny nose, but then a runny nose is a lot easier to clean up.

UGH! My biggest thing is that Emmy throwing up makes me very nervous. After the doctor repaired her malrotated stomach he told us that there is a 10% chance that it could recur....so every time Emmy gets the stomach flu I'm going to freak out. WHOOP-DEE-DOO! At least I know what to watch for.

The two sickly ones are cuddling on the couch. Hopefully they can just mope together until they are all better.

In other news, I'm on my way to knowing what the heck has been going on with my pelvis and the severe pain I've been having. I had an x-ray yesterday that basically said that the area in the center of the pelvis where it comes together is asymmetrical and that could be causing my issues. Today I had an MRI. It was excruciating. I had to lay flat on my back, legs straight out and then they taped my toes together so I was pigeon-toed. Not exactly the most comfortable position when your pelvis is 100%. I just can't believe that they really expect you to lay completely still for 40 minutes. Anyway, I have a follow-up on the 30th, so hopefully I'll know more then.

I'm done whining. I'm going to get the girls ready for bed and then go do all the grocery shopping for the next week. A big list this week, with Christmas Eve's dinner and Christmas cookies on the list. If everyone is feeling well, the weeked will be a fun one.

Another Monday...

Mondays are always hard in our household. Daddy is gone and everyone just seems to have a hard time with that (including me). Today is no exception. Mari went on an hour long tantrum this morning....mostly because she wasn't getting her way and was told that hitting is not ok. Peder is playing too aggressively and has shoved his sisters over repeatedly. Emmy has been pretty even-keal today....at least so far.

So when I'm feeling frustrated, impatient and exhausted like I am today, I take time to look at my scrapbooks or just find a favorite picture of us. Our Christmas picture this year turned out really nice. It only took like 8 tries, compared to the 20-30 of years past (and that includes the years when it was just Jake and me and the dogs. So I look at my adorable family and try to remember that my screaming children are the same ones that are smiling so adorably at me from this picture.

The main basis of my frustration is that I'm continuing to have severe pelvic pain and once again it's starting to prevent me from doing the things that I want to do. The pain is not well managed and I'm really hoping that I can get some answers this week. I have an appointment with an orthopedist on Wednesday morning and hope to have a plan of action then. I'm going to PUSH for one.

I am ready for Christmas to be here. I have to go pick up a few more things, but otherwise I am set to go. I can't wait to watch my children and husband open their presents. I'm excited about what each of them is getting and know that they will all like what they get. We're baking cookies with Peder this weekend and I've gotten our menu for Christmas Eve done. WA-HOO!

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season and are staying warm. It's SO cold out there I don't even want to let the dog out!

MIA

It's been a bit since I've posted. I promise I have good reason. When we haven't been uber busy, I've been laid up on the couch taking muscle relaxers. I'm having some major issues with my pelvis again. I had hoped I was past all of this since I was doing so well over the summer, but in the last couple of months it has been progressively getting worse. This week I had a doctor's appointment and I was referred to an orthopedist, so hopefully I'll be on the road to recovery or at least have some kind of treatment plan starting next week.

Last weekend we went to the Macy's 8th floor display with my parents and afterwards we met a bunch of our family to watch the Holidazzle parade. The kids were in absolute awe of the 8th floor display and seemed to enjoy the parade.

Waiting in line....the dividing ropes provided some entertainment along the way.

Jake and me waiting in line....I think we're cute. :)

The kids could not believe it. Emmy and Mari pointed and said, "Ooooh!"

Peder checking out the cool things with Grandpa...we played musical kids throughout the display. The kids kept switching adults...at one time I was carrying both girls.

See how excited the girls were? Too cute!

Mari telling Grandpa how cool the stuff was.

Emmy saying, "Look Daddy! Look!"

Grandma and Peder being amazed.

Taking a picture at the end of display resulted in this reddish glow. It's from all the glitter in the floor.

The Stockings are ALL Hung

I got all of the stockings done, and they look great if I do say so myself! I've been working like crazy to get Mari's done before Christmas. I also just sewed mine and Emmy's and did some "touch up" work on Peder's and put the hanging loop on it. I love having them all hanging on the wall....they look so cute! My house is now COMPLETELY decorated. WA-HOO!

Exhaustion

I am completely exhausted. Bone tired. Would fall asleep this moment if I didn't have 3 children sitting next to me, wide awake.

I've been working my tail off on Christmas projects. I have been getting quite a bit done and getting close to finishing quite a few things. I'm SO determined to get Mari's stocking done that I'm staying up WAY too late working on it.

I would also like to mail out my Christmas cards on Monday, but have a lot of things to do to get them ready to mail. I have to write our Christmas letter, but I always have a hard time summarizing a year on one page....and this year will be especially difficult to do that with.

Emmy had a doctor's appointment today where we learned how to "dilate" her. Fun, FUN, FUN! It's going to be an interesting 6-8 weeks.

Now I just need to get an appointment for my pelvis....dang thing won't give me a break.

I'm just glad that I'm getting things done, it will make the weeks and days closer to Christmas a lot easier to make it through if I don't have as many "stressors." I hope to post pictures of our weekend soon....I'm just too tired right now. :)