It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas...

If you've been a faithful reader of this blog for a while now, you've probably picked up on the fact that I really don't like Christmas. And by "don't like," I mean "despise." Having small children who get excited about it is making my disdain for this stupid holiday not quite so vicious, but I'd still rather the holiday progression go from Thanksgiving to my birthday and not deal with this whole Christmas business at all.

But that being said, I'm never one to turn down a holiday get-together with good friends, food, and a craft. So tonight the kids and I headed to Sonya and Craig's for pizza and gingerbread house/cookie making. Logan and Kaylee had a great time with their buddy Onora...when they weren't falling off of chairs or being attacked by Sonya's new kitten :)

Nikki and Todd were there with some of their brood, too, so the older kids spent about two hours on their gingerbread houses. They looked great and gave me some inspiration for the construction that will be taking place next Friday when Savannah is home :D

The highlight of the night was probably when the kids all started opening their gingerbread kits. I was in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner and Craig came in with the bags of frosting mix. He got out the mixer and started making the frosting and said, "what do you want to bet that Sonya will walk in here in about a minute saying, 'I didn't know we had to MAKE the frosting!'" Sure enough, about ten seconds after he said that, the girl comes in the kitchen and says, "Craig, the kids are saying we are supposed to make the frosting! I thought it was just in there all made!" Craig and I just looked at each other and cracked up. Those two are so good for each other.

Thanks for forcing me into the holiday spirit friends.

And here are some pictures...

First Haircut...

The other day, I realized Logan's hair was getting SUPER shaggy and that it was time for a cut. Now, occasionally I will take him somewhere and have it done, but most of the time, I just bust out the clippers and give him a 3 on the sides and a 4 on top. So that's what I did. However, every time I end up doing Logan's hair at home, Kaylee starts digging around for scissors and says, "cut my hair, too!"

Of course I'm usually all, "but you're my baby and I don't want to cut your long, beautiful hair!" but this time I said fine.

It was just a trim...maybe like 2 inches by the time I was done. But it turned out nice and even (trust me it is. She kept cocking her head when she smiled so it looks longer on one side in the picture.) and Miss K was so thrilled that when Daddy came home, she ran up to him and said, "look a my hair! I so boofal!"

Finally An iPhone Blogger App!!!

My prayers have been answered. Back when I got the ole' trusty iPhone, I was bothered that there wasn't an official app for blogger. My SiL figured out a way to do it via mobil blogging, but you couldn't do it with multiple pictures or even a title. But now...look at me go!!! (However, I can't turn my phone sideways for the extended keyboard which is a bit annoying.)

So anyways, we got out tree up. Our REAL tree! The first time in our marriage that we have had a real tree. It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas in here, that's for sure.

So the night we got the tree was also Bloomfield's annual tree lighting ceremony. It's a big thing with hay rides and hot chocolate and Santa. Let's see how the picture uploading goes...

Recognize Santa? Yeah, Logan did too. So when we had him standing in line, we were encouraging him to tell "Santa" all the things he wanted. Then Logan looks up and exclaimed, "that's not Santa, that's my Grandpa!"

All in all, it was a fun night. Assuming Logan didn't mess up too many kids and their belief in Santa. Oh and if you ignore the fight we had about where to park for the tree lighting. Or if you overlook the incident with the tree flying off the roof of the van.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

Christine Makes Some Valid Points...

I sent out round one of Christmas cards yesterday and on the back, there is a link to this blog. And my good buddy Christine made a nice little jab when I said that...something along the lines of "You never update it, so why would you include a link to it?" Touche, Udders. Touche. So...random, unrelated happenings...

We've been in the new house for almost three months AND LOVE IT!!!! I even hosted Thanksgiving here for 15 members of the Thomas family. And the dinner was SUPERB if I do say so myself. My timing was flawless, the gravy was 100% lump-free, the turkey was nice and moist (I guess it could have been a bit browner, but whatever...), and there were plenty of left-overs for everyone. Oh, and I tried a new stuffing recipe and it was pretty freaking yummy.
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I've been working at the Canandaigua YMCA for almost 3 months now, too. And that is GREAT. I get a free membership for me and a steeply discounted family membership for Zac and the kids. I'm only scheduled to work like 2 hours a day, 3 days a week, but there are always people in the daycare looking for time off. I can usually triple my hours each week if I just go in and grab "time off requests." My specific job requires me to teach a "First Time Fun" class for 18 month to 3-year-olds and their parents. It's fun, but sometimes it's challenging. I need to come up with a craft each week and it's difficult to find something that 18 month old's AND 3-year-old's can do. I usually pull it off a the last second, but I have been known to just put out play-dough and cookie cutters once or twice. It's also really great that I get to take my kids with me. Kay is in the class I teach, but I send Logan to the daycare...which he actually looks forward to because Grandma Jaylene works down there while I am up teaching my class. It works out perfectly!
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Speaking of Christine, we got to hang out for her birthday. There was some scheduling involved, and some babysitting concerns, but she ended up driving out here from Buffalo. We started the day with a trip to The Sandbox with the kids over in Fairport (which was pretty fun!), came back to the house (did I mention that I LOVE this house?!?!?!) for a bit, then left L and K with Zac and took Christine's daughter, Grace, to her mom's so we could enjoy a big ole' fatty steak dinner by ourselves. Then we topped the evening off with a Wegman's Pizza Cookie and devoured it back at Christine's mom's. It was a great day. And I can't wait to do it again next month for my birthday ;-)
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What else? Oh. My Christmas shopping is pretty much done. I got probably 60% of it Black Friday shopping, 35% on Amazon (with Amazon Prime's free shipping, mind you), and the other 5% I'm in the middle of making. I guess I can spill the beans on at least one present...I got my parents a laptop. Their computer bit the dust about a month ago. Their ancient computer. That was running Windows ME or something...
Anyways, I was trying to figure out how we could help them pay for a new desktop. But even refurbished ones were a little out of our current price range, as we have rent to pay (on the house that I LOVE). And then I saw it. A Compaq Presario Laptop at Walmart for $198. I asked my dad what he thought of a laptop and he said he could learn how to use it, so I put it at the top of my list. (Well, second on my list. First and foremost I wanted a Shark Steamer that was on sale for $39.)
So I set off to Walmart at 9:25 Thursday night. The steamer was going on sale at 10 and the laptops were to be released at 12:01. I mapped out the store online and noticed that the steamers were on the way to the laptops so that's where I headed. And luck was on my side because I got a steamer AND got the 6th to last ticket for a laptop. Of course, I had to wait around for just over 2 hours to get it, but I was inside, warm, sitting down, and watching Netflix on my iPhone. I've had worse Black Friday experiences.
After the laptops were handed out, I made my way through the rest of the relatively quiet store. It was BONKERS at 10 when I first got there, but at midnight, it wasn't much different than any other midnight Walmart shopping trip. I still managed to get most everything else I intended to (with the exception of socks and undies for the kids) and kept it under $200. Well, excluding the laptop.
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Kaylee has decided to try using the potty with or without my blessing. I've fought it for the last 3 weeks or so because I'M not ready to go through that hell again. But today she insisted. She has been in her Dora underwear for 9 hours and not had a single accident. She pees probably every half hour and pooed twice. I'm not going to lie...I'm impressed. But I'm not holding my breath that this is the end of my diaper-buying days.
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Now that the Christmas cards are on their way, I guess I can post these:







As always, my beautiful and talented sister-in-law, Liz, took them. In our back yard. Of the house that I LOVE.
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And from now on, I will make shorter, more frequent blog posts. Like in the olden days.