Christmas Eve

Presents are 92% wrapped, baking is done, its snowing golf ball sized flakes, kids are taking their naps. Ahhhhhhhh

Christmas Program.

Wyatt's Christmas Program went very well. This year he made all the hand motions he was supposed to do and made lip movements like he was singing. HUGE improvement from last year where he just scowled at the back of the room.

Ok, seriously...out of all 100 pictures I took that morning. THIS is the best one. Wyatt is the cute navy blue blob.

Wyatt and I made his teachers some "light bulb" ornaments. If you know Wyatt well, you know how perfect an ornament made from a light bulb is for Wyatt to give. They turned out pretty cute.

We took the kids to see Santa. Wyatt was really shy and didn't look Santa directly in the eye when he "whispered" his wish list. All done with a cheeky smile. Adorable.

Emma, made herself right at home on Santa's lap, clapping her hands, looking up at him, smiling away. Then came time to leave.... Wyatt bounced right up said "Nice fire Santa" (there was a fake fire next to his chair) and Emma SCREAMED! Cried, cried, screamed, clawed her away up my shoulder and down my back to try and get back to Santa's lap. It was quite a sight.

Usually kids scream when you put them on Santa's lap, not when you take them off.... Leave it to Emma.

We took the kids sledding for the first time yesterday. That was an ordeal. The hill was great, but for some reason Wyatt and I had the hardest time trekking to it. The snow was waist deep on him and about thigh deep on me in some spots. We kept falling, slipping, stopping. It was pure hell. BUT... the actual act of sledding was fun. Wyatt was nervous to go alone, so always had dad with. Once Emma got a taste for the downward fall, she never wanted to be left behind. Dad wanted to go just him and Wyatt once and as Randy was inching away Emma ran up, hooked onto his arm, and wouldn't let go. So cute.

This is Emma raring to go, and Randy trying to talk Wyatt into going down the hill alone. Randy... you'd stand a better chance in seeing the second coming than talking him into going down alone!

Ok.... Yes.... I realize she looks like a pink version of that over-bundled kid from

"A Christmas Story"

They are all set to go, and Randy is annoyed that its taking me so long to snap the damn picture. Give me a break... I couldn't feel the button through my gloves!

Tonight is our going out to parties night. As well as church. Should be a hoot with these 2, well, I should say 3. Wyatt is growing more excited in anticipation of "The Big Man" We'll see if he gets presents or coal this year.

Everyone have a very Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Solstice, Yule, whatever your thing is for this season.

Farewell Ornaments

Our Christmas tree went ass over tea kettle tonight. Seriously, it just went "Tiiimmmmmbeeeeer!" And down it came. Luckily, the kids werent around it when it went. I can't even imagine if they had been under the damn thing.
I held myself together really well until I started to pick the tree up and saw both the kids 1st christmas ornaments were smashed, our 1st home 2005 was smashed along with anything else that was glass. Sucks. Its the ones I had memories attached to that were hard. Sooo... I sobbed like a baby. I hope I didn't traumatize Wyatt's friend Gabe, whom I was babysitting at the time. (Did Gabe tell you all about it Carrie?)
So, yea. Wyatt was in shock. Didnt seem too phased, honestly, he was trying to hold me together. "It was a nice tree mom" Thanks bud. ;)

Almost wish I had pictures, Im sure in retrospect this will be funny, but for right now, Im halfway through the scotch.

Merry Christmas to all and to all aaahh screw it.

Tis' the Season

Busy, busy, busy.

There's the baking.... (Story goes, Wyatt and I had aprons on, Emma yanked this down from the hook and nudged me to put it on her.)

The Advent Calendar...

The Snow...

The finding of the Christmas tree...

The crying because we didn't buy the gangliest tree on the lot...

The Decorating of the Christmas tree...

The butchering of the slain deer, and the telling of friends' that "Daddy Shot Santa's Reindeer!"(how redneck are we? seriously Yea, thats a deer leg in my f*ing living room, chunked on a piece of cardboard on my f*ing coffee table.)

And Fun Christmas Crafts...

It's been really busy and over-scheduled. I'm really trying to be grateful and love every minute of the chaos. This time next year, I have a feeling we'll be pretty lonely in our new town.

Cheers.

Welcome, Friend

I was cleaning out my dads house this past weekend and was going through a toy bin he has for the kids. I was getting rid of broken things, old, weird things etc. I came across an old puppy that was mine when I was little. It was well-loved. The cotton was so far compressed the puppy is darn near flat, was torn and he smelled to high heaven. So, I tossed him. I swear Wyatt ears perk right up when he hears anything large going into the trash can, so he came in to see. I was watching him over my shoulder and what I saw was so sweet.
He came in, his mouth dropped and then stuck out his lip at the sight of the discarded puppy. He picked him up out of the trash, made "dusting off" motions, then whispered to the puppy, "It's o.k., Don't worry, I'll take you home."

My heart broke in half and I felt like an evil puppy killer. The kind the PETA rigs up car bombs for. So, I interjected, "Wyatt do you want to take that puppy to our house?" Wyatt says, "Yes *sniffs the puppy* but he's going to need a bath."

So, we took him home, washed and mended him, Wyatt named him and introduced him to his first friend, Molly the giraffe.

Welcome Home Dog E. Good, Welcome Home.

Thank You Stove Top Chicken Bake

Thanks to Stove Top Chicken Bake, Emma ate about 1 cup of vegetables. That probably makes only 2 cups of vegetables shes eaten in her whole life. :)

Thank you Stove Top, Thank you!

Recipe
1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken (Whole Wheat kind)
1-1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup (Campbell's healthy Request)
1/3 cup Breakstone’s or Knudsen Sour Cream (Fat Free)
1 bag (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed, drained

Preheat oven to 400°F. Prepare stuffing mix as directed on package; set aside.
Mix chicken, soup, sour cream and vegetables in 13x9-inch baking dish; top with the stuffing.
Bake 30 min or until chicken is cooked through.

Emma Stats as of Today:

*She ate (and by ate, I mean, it entered her mouth was chewed and swallowed) her first noodle. Thank the Lord now we can resume regular Toddler feeding schedules!

*Said "Baba" and meant it

*Said yayayalalblaaaahya *ALL DONE* yayayablaaaaablahya

*Climbed the kitchen table purposely to get the Ms. Fields cookie bag and enjoyed said cookie right there on the top of the table. (when I caught her, she gave me a big chocolate smile and said "Hi!")

*Is going on her 4th! week of diaper rash

*Jumps around and laughs in bed after I've put her to nite nite, then when I come in the room, she belly flops down and pretends to sleep (with a BIG smile on her face)

A funny Wyatt thing too!

We went to the mall and walked past Santa. He told me " I don't wanna go in there!" I said "Why not? If you don't tell Santa what you want for Christmas how will he know what to bring?" Wyatt replied, "Well, I'll just write it in a letter" I then said, "Ooook, well if you don't see Santa, how will he know that you've been a good boy?" He retorts, " I'll just put that in the letter too."

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Oh, this is a puzzle that Wyatt picked from the Toys for Tots Warehouse to check and clean. So far so good. He's had a really great time putting this together and cleaning the pieces. He's going to be sad to see it go, but, AT LONG LAST!!! he finally understands that this is going to a kid who doesnt have many toys. I guess he just needed something more visual to let "giving to needy children" sink in. Its not just talking about it, its actually doing it. This makes it a little more real for him, I think.

Random Wyatt-ism

Wyatt asked me "What if you had more babies?"
I said "Well, what about it ? "
He says, "Its a good idea, but remember you'd have to vagina them all out"

Apples of my Eye

Yay for apples! Emma gnawed on this thing for a whole day. Whenever she'd get clingy/needy/annoying, I'd tell her to "Go find your apple!" She'd go find it, sit and gnaw a while. :) I'm a bad mom.

Not much of anything going on here. I've been moody because for the last 3 days I've been making calls and doing some online sleuthing regarding our next duty station. Randy can pick orders in Dec. (choose location) So, I've been looking into a few places to see if we'd fit. (Schools, supportive friendly naval community, weather) This is stressful. I really don't mind moving. Its the Randy being gone for months at a time that is the kicker.

I can do it myself, I've done it before. He's had 6 ? I think, tours since we've been together. I can handle it. One time he's been deployed while Wyatt's been around. But Wyatt was really young and I really don't think he noticed much. It just took Randy a few weeks of "blending in" to be accepted into his routine again.

Its the kids... How do we go about this without damaging them ? I keep looking for a Navy Brats website to see how Navy brats turn out through the years of deployments and moving. Are we going to damage the kids by moving all the time? Randy not being around ?

The house I grew up in, is the only home I've known. My dad is still there. That's home. I move, I travel, but "that" is where my "home" is. Will my kids ever have that ? If they don't will it damage them in some way ?

Am I over-thinking this ?

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Anyway...
Wyatt's funny. He tells me the other day " I love you mommy, and I love your skin!"
Ha! thanks kid.

I'm in the car, guy cuts me off.... I start swearing "Expletive, deleted, Mother F*ckers" Ok. So. I look back and Wyatt's mouth hit the floor. I tell him "Mommy can get very mad and talk very naughty sometimes, but you can never ever talk like mommy" Wyatt says, "Ok, well then, by all means, Stop."

Nuff said. Will do, buddy.

Ever seen a kid so happy to be holding a shovel ?

Emma Well Baby

Today she is 25 lbs and 32.5 inches. Growth is going great. Dr. has a problem with Ms. Em's speech though. Emma only says "mom" and "hi" and she has a mock attempt at "cheese" which is more like "eeese" She has said, grandma, bird, dada, and a one word para-phrase of "whats that" which is "waasat" She has said those maybe once, twice. She prefers "Mom" and "Hi" that's it. She loves saying "hi" in fact. So much she'll say it over and over and over and over until you've said "hi" back to her.



She will sign for "Milk" and "All Done" and will shake her head yes and no appropriately and also for the sake of being a little stinker.



But apparently she is supposed to be speaking more at 16 months. Soooo Dr. wants Em to start Birth to 3

Urgh. I kind of don't want to. Not that I don't want Emma to be on schedule, but I have a gut feeling that Emma is simply one of these kids that is working on her physical stuff right now and will get to the talking later. I mean.... give that kid a plane ticket and a pocket full of dreams and she'll climb Mt. Everest. Seriously... the girl scales the couch as well as sits on top of the dinner table.

She pulled out that dinner table sitting gem last night. Nice huh ? That's Wyatt behind her freaking out "Mom!!!! Get her off the table!"

Soooo... I took off the table cloth and everything after that... it makes it a little harder for her to get on top of the table when she has no leverage.

Anyway..point is.... Gut says she'll talk when shes damn well ready. I wasn't so sure with Wyatt, which is why he went into birth to 3. And look at him now, hes quick as a whip. Not sure what to do with this. Dr. also suggested putting Emma in a regular daycare spot with kids her own age. So she has her own place and space with kids like her. Apparently my one hour 4 times a week at the gym daycare isn't enough ?!

Bleh. I feel like I'm messing up.

Anway... felt 3 lumps in my can a few days ago...had it checked today. It'll be fine, Im sure.

Election 2008

I pulled Wyatt out of school today to go to the polls with me. I explained how everything worked. We talked to people, he blurted who our pick was. It was fun. I let him color our lines on the ballot and I explained what each was for. We went over to the "ballot eating machine" and Wyatt screams "Obama Baby!" I think the lady handing out the "I voted" stickers damn near wet herself.

I felt so great about introducing Wyatt to the first election of his life. And it's such an important one! He is all caught up in it. So am I, its like Christmas around here. Randy and I are watching the returns and its really exciting. (I totally sound like I need to find a hobby right about now huh?) Anyway...

I feel so empowered every time I vote. Especially as a woman. I hope I can pass these ideals onto Wyatt and Emma.

Halloween

Halloween was great. Em stayed home to hand out candy with daddy and Wyatt and I went around the neighborhood. He was over it after 20 minutes, but I kept trucking him along for another half hour after that. There were a lot of older kids (17, 18ish) that were mowing over the little guys so Wyatt was done pretty quick after all that mess.

We had a bonfire with some friends and family after trick or treating. It was a nice way to end the day.

Some pics of the kids:

Emma was a poodle :)

Wyatt was Thomas the Train and his Train Conductor....again...this year. Although he says that next year he will not be needing "Thomas the Box" again.
(p.s. hubby looks totally hot in this picture. rawr)

This outfit was made my Auntie Lisa. Emma learned all about "Twirling" after putting this little number on. :)

I bought this one from a lady on Etsy. I was going to make one myself, but my little brain couldn't comprehend the pillowcase dress design. The arm holes. Couldn't figure out the arm holes.

Defeated

Ever have those days where you feel completely defeated. Your spirit feels let down and you get all mopey. Its where Im living today.

Em is cutting what seems like ALL of her teeth and I can do nothing to make it better for her. Shes very dramatic and she'll fling herself onto the floor with her hands over her head and just wail and wail. I feel so bad for her.
Wyatt keeps telling me that my dinner is "disgusting" Dude...it took me 3 hours to make dinner tonight.
I gave Randy one task this week of asking his superior if he can get off a couple hours early Friday. All he needed to do was mention it at the beginning of the week to give her heads up. He keeps "forgetting." K, whatever.
This house. Oh my. This house. I swear I clean for 2 hours everyday. EVERYDAY. When the kids go down for "quiet time." And each day I feel like all I do is clean up from the previous night. It never gets more clean than the surface crap. We still have to do the deep cleaning and packing to get the house "show ready" for when we try and sell it. Im in denial because Im afraid/don't want to move again. Mostly it doesn't feel "real" yet because we don't know where we are going.

Oh and least I not forget that every time I talk to my dad he answers the phone "McCain Campaign Headquarters" and most importantly the speech I get from dad and my brother about how Obama will tax guns and ammo up to 500% Ok... Im too tired this far into election season to tell them that its as much bullshit as well as outlandish. Dad....Dave.... please....the next time you want to convert me by waving a ridiculous notion over my head......www.factcheck.org

Defeated. Just defeated. All this great fun Halloweeny stuff going on around us, and Im just feeling like the "let-down" punchline in a bad Saturday Night Live skit. Ba doom boom.

Tomorrow will be better.

Holiday Spirit

We're all in fine holiday spirit here. By holiday I mean Halloween & the Fall Season. The way I feel about Halloween is how most folks feel about Christmas. It's just my thing. Dead things, fall colors, the smell of burning leaves, my wedding anniversary, the start of the "cold" season, pumpkin farms. Love it all. I'm trying to instill my love of the holiday into the kids. They ain't bitin. Not yet anyway, although I did manage to get Wyatt to love Nightmare before Christmas. Its a start I guess.










Anyway... We went to Land of the Giants. Randy helped farmer Dave out in the field and in return, Farmer Dave said we could pick a few of anything we wanted. We got this monstrous pumpkin and also some other pumpkins with the biggest fattest stems I've ever seen.









































Oh...a moment to love on my hubbys arm muscles. He helped unload like 30 of these bad boys and I was drooling and taking pictures. He ain't got a bad bum either. Love you hunny!





















Time for fall themed sugar cookies too :)









Also... we went to Apple Holler. Haven't been there in a while. Prices kind of have us heading for the hills.... but .... They have the coolest corn thingy....



















Doesn't that look like fun?!

Who is your Candidate ?

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

I love this calculator. You can click on the issues and learn more about them if your not sure where each side is on it. I am 75% Obama and Nadar tied.

After an alarming conversation with my mum, I made her take this quiz. (I refused to believe she had republican views, not that there is anything wrong with having that view, I just know she doesn't sit right in the mold) I was right...she is soooo not republican. I don't think she knew that.

This is an important election! Find out where you are on the issues that are important to you, and vote for who's best! This is your life, and your voting for your future as well as your children's future.

Holy hell, when did I start to care so much about this stuff???? I wore an anarchists pin for 4 straight years in high school. Oooooh, I was so cool.


And ladies.....

I don't know where public school failed me. I know they must have touched on this, must have been when I knew everything and wore the anarchists pin, but I've recently looked into it myself. Women's Sufferage. Do you know what those women went through just to give us the right to vote? It's amazing! They were arrested, beaten, even tortured for picketing the White House. If your not the reading kind...Go watch "Iron Jawed Angels"

These women deserve our adoration!

As women, we owe it to them to vote. You can't bitch if you don't vote right?
What would Susan say ?







I will now come down from my soap box. have a pleasant evening!

Weight Loss Gods

Ummm....

Went to buy new shoes today. Went to my normal section. Grabbed my normal size. Too Big. Ok. Maybe its just the shoe? Tried another one...too big. And another, and another. What the hell ? Went to the next lower size..... perfect fit.

Seriously ? Ummm....

Attention weight loss Gods:

I have been working my butt off to hopefully "work my butt off" and you give me smaller feet instead of a smaller ass ? Really ? Next time your flicking your magic wand at my body, could you aim it at a spot that isnt so redundant ?

Thaaaanks!

What my Daddy Does

How to tell if you have way too much Country Music Television playing in your home.

Mom: What does daddy do for work?
Wyatt : Daddy fights to keep me safe in my house and Americans safe in their houses's so that they can sing with their guitars.

I'm imagining Wyatt's image of his dad at work is something like this:

Boogers

Wyatt: " I had a big ole booger, so I got it out then put it in my special place"

Me: "Where's your special place? The garbage?"

Wyatt: "The Couch"


Urgh. Between his finger smelling like his butt and wiping boogers on the couch, I have to sit and wonder where I went wrong explaining basic hygiene and cleanliness.

First Day of 4K

I can't believe I am just blogging this now.

Wyatt's first day of school was Sept. 3rd. He was completely excited/anxious. He made sure that his clothes, hair, backpack and lunch bag were "doing the right thing" as he calls it.

Of course after we took this picture it started to rain... so back in the house we go for one more thing.
When we got to his school and into his classroom, he was like an old pro. He got really silly and felt right at home. Barely said bye to mom and dad. *sniffle, sniffle*

Why was I the only mom with a camera in the classroom ? Randy was getting seriously annoyed with me....as shown by the picture below :)

Every day since his first he as loved his class! There hasn't been one morning where he grunted about going to school. He's happy and at the end of the school day he'll give me a generic rundown of everything they did. It's usually something like "I played, I learned, I did stations, I did everything the teacher told me to do."

Puddin' Painting

So Amanda's ( http://giddygoat.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/pudding-paint/ ) post about V pudding painting reminded me of when Wyatt was 2.5 and in birth to 3. He loathed the pudding paint activity! He hated mess, and hated his hands dirty. He would maybe stick a finger tip in the pudding, then he was sooo done. I thought Id give it a try again, along with Emma.

Along Came Wyatt.....















I don't think Wyatt has a problem with Tactile Play Activities anymore :)

Mini-Vacation

We went to the Dells for a little mini-vacation last week. We stayed at the Polynesian, and I think that's going to be our new Dells Vacation place. It was really chill and laid back, not too crazy, not over-whelming and the best strawberry daiquiris and piña colada's EVER! We didn't do a whole lot of stuff outside the hotel, but we did, mine for gemstones, saw the Bartlett Exploratory (like a science center) and played some mini-golf.
Wyatt picked up a new phrase while there... "In vacation land, we get to eat whatever we want!"
Give ya 2 guesses who he picked that up from ;) Yea, I don't know if I blogged it, but Randy (who is just sooooo fat) and I started South Beach "officially" I've lost 10lbs, Randy 4. We didn't even think to attempt South Beach while on vacation, and it was nice to cheat a little.

So, Wyatt and Emma's 1st big pool/water slide experience. Wyatt was cautious, as always, warming up gradually. Emma's first trot in the kiddie pool, looked something like this:

And seriously, she spent most of her time under the water. That kid gave me 100 heart attacks. She had no fear, and when she would come up blinded by the water in her eyes, she would just giggle and laugh.

Some Random Picture's...


Wyatt Mining for Rocks

He was so fasinated with this Jacob's Ladder

Wyatt was SOOO mad that I "lost my body"

Getting Dumped on

Down the Slide!

Yep, you got it lined up!

This is how you're supposed to hold it right ?

Either he was mad we were leaving, or this pirate dude was really scary.

2 seconds after this was taken, she realized what she was next to and started to scream

1st Roller Coaster @ knuckleheads