Is It Naptime Yet

Time for some random pictures I’ve taken lately, though they each have their own reason, I just don’t want to make several posts about each subject and instead will roll them into one.

Here is Eden holding cutie pie Zarina when Andrea and Brien were down.

I just think they’re cute.

Next, while on vacation Jon decided to grow a beard. The only problem, I can’t stand kissing him when he has facial hair, and I have no idea how any woman can kiss a man with a beard or mustache.

To remedy this, Jon shaved around the mouth and left just a  beard along his jaw line.

I kept calling him Amish, which he didn’t mind, and I teased that he could have been in a Weird Al video.

It grew on me if his glasses weren’t on, it was a little rebellious, but once the glasses were on all I could think was Amish.

I dared him to go to work with the beard, but he shaved it off.

Giving me a silly look.

Hello Brother Jonathan, or whatever the Amish call each other.

Deep in thought. The funny thing is this and the eyebrow lift, are probably two of the most used poses of Jon’s. He’s so silly.

The next set of random pictures are of my necklace.
No one has asked to see it, but I love it so much, partially because I love my girl’s names so much, I had to post pictures of it.

Next we have the nursing cover I made for Sam. It has a piece of boning that bends and opens the top of the cover to help the mom see her child and what’s going on down there.

The blankets are made of lightweight flannel since she’s having Matilda in the winter, but I don’t think the weather has gotten the memo that it’s winter. It was like 70 degrees today. Very crazy weather this year. The week we had snow has probably been the longest and coldest and then everything else has been above average temperatures.

Lastly, here are my silly girls wearing every dress up necklace and items we have practically.

The girls were sick the very first Sunday of this year, so the second Sunday, or the eleventh, was their first Sunday of Primary, more specifically Eden’s very first Sunday of Primary and Lilah’s first Sunday with a new teacher, but it was a substitute and she’ll have her regular teacher next week.

They wore the dresses I picked out with Carolyn at Old Navy on Black Friday, and I later picked up the tights at Target.

I think they’re adorable and I can’t believe that Eden is now in Primary.

I asked Jon to get pictures, and these are the three he took. Lilah as been such a ham in pictures lately so these are true to her current silliness.

Not sure what Lilah is doing here.

I guess we are going to church and Lilah is assuming the correct position, just not the most reverent of faces.

Again, not sure what exactly is going through her mind.

Eden seemed to have a fun first day and when Jon and I separately checked in on her she seemed to be doing just fine.

Lilah’s teacher was a substitute, but we knew the sister, so her first Sunday in a new class went smoothly also. She talked, knew how to read trust when it was written on the board, and was very well behaved.

I don’t want them to grow up, but they sure are cute.

Today I made an impromptu lunch outing to McDonald’s on our way home from gymnastics. I didn’t want Lilah going in the play area in her socks or bare feet so I told her to keep her shoes on.

She had a very, very hard time with this.

She was about to go in and then she came  back to me.

“It says ‘No Shoes’. I can’t go in.”

“It’s not a big deal. Mommy says you can go in there with shoes.”

Then she whispers in my ear, “I don’t want you to go to jail.”

I chuckle a little and I reply, “I won’t go to jail. Only people who do really bad things go to jail.”

Luckily the play place police weren’t around, otherwise I may have gone to hamburger jail for having my girls break the no shoes allowed rule.

On a side note, the substitute who taught Lilah’s class just came by to drop something off and she just gave some wonderful compliments on how well behaved Lilah was, but also how impressed she was that Lilah read the word “trust” when she wrote it on the board and that Lilah was so smart and was answering a lot of questions. I love my good girl.  She surprises us with words she knows. Last night we got some Greek and Latin root flash cards and she read ‘friendship’ in the back of one.

With Jon being home for two full weeks we’ve gotten into some bad habits. Most of them are sleeping habits, though some have to deal with not doing the dishes or feeding the girls breakfast till late or lunch even later, though those are kinda because of the bad sleeping habits.

Bad habit #1: Going to bed late and sleeping in.
Now I usually have this bad habit, but Jon has adopted it in his own way and him being home has allowed me to sleep in even later.  I’ve been sleeping in till 9 on average and though I love it, I feel so unproductive during the day and lunch time comes to soon.

Bad habit #2: Our food schedule has gone to the pits.
Jon does feed the girls when he’s up and I’m not, but it’s still late and then we eat lunch even later and dinner is sometimes at our normal 6 o’clock time and other nights a little later.

Bad habit #3: The girls coming into bed with us in the morning.
We’re suckers for morning cuddles and Eden has definitely been coming into our bed regularly for morning cuddles. The main problem is she thinks anytime she wakes up after going to bed is time for cuddles and thus she wakes us up around once a night, and with Lilah being sick we’re woken up 2-4 times a night and when I say we I really mean me because usually, though not always, I am the one woken up and the one to deal with getting the girls to bed. Now I see why I’m sleeping in so late. (Last night Jon wasn’t feeling well and he was on the couch and he woke up with Eden lying on his chest and Lilah at his feet.)

Bad habit #4: Not doing dishes.
So our dishes do get done but when Jon’s home I don’t like to do them as often. I want him to pitch in, though if he’s really busy with something I do them. I want Jon to do dishes, but he doesn’t always know I want him to do them. He does today and has promised to do them by 4, so we can have the dishwasher cycle done by five when I start dinner and thus will need the pots and pans to cook with.

Bad Habit #5: Just sheer laziness.
For some reason we’ve had a lot of lazy days around her. Granted some are due to sickness but others are not and today I should be doing something productive, especially since I might be sick later this week, but I really don’t want to. Having Jon around sometimes does this because he too is being less productive, well I see it as less productive because he’s on his Mac a lot, though he is doing things that are important to him they’re just not things around the house that I deem as important. I have not been the nagging wife, I think, and I am to some degree letting him do whatever he wants on his staycation. (Staycation being a vacation where you stay home.) I want to organize my room and hem some pants, but for some reason I just can’t find the motivation. (Jon also does do a lot around the house and some days he’s working while I’m just watching a movie.)

Do you have bad habits when you’re spouse is home for long periods of time?

Is your spouse ever home for long periods of time and I should just be happy that I get this log period of time with mine?

With getting the girls to bed late on Christmas Eve, and since Eden did not get a nap, they slept in. Lilah was the first girl awake, Eden had come into our bed sometime in the wee hours, but she fell back asleep. Lilah woke up at 7:45 am or so and Jon was about to let her look through her stocking, but I woke up Eden so they looked together.

Jon wanted to open presents right away, I think in previous years we’ve had breakfast first, so the girls immediately started dividing the gifts. Lilah did just fine, but Eden kept looking at the ‘from’ name and putting presents in the wrong piles.

Lilah insisted that Daddy open the present they gave him first. It was too cute. After Jon opened the first present Lilah actually wanted him to open his next one, but he declined and we had the girls begin opening gifts.

Overall they did take turns watching each other open gifts. Then the gifts that were for both of them they opened together.

Eden’s gift from her friend Gracie.

Lilah opening her gift from Eden. (It was skittles and nail polish.)

An activity book for Lilah.

Opening the gift from Santa together. (I give one gift from Santa, and usually it’s that years Pixar.)

Wall-E

Jon wearing the Batman shirt the girls gave him right away. Batman is Jon’s favorite super hero. He’s just a regular guy with really cool gadgets.

Opening my necklace.

Showing off my new DVD.
I attached a video of Eden opening her gift. It was the most eventful video we took, and shortest, and in a way it’s also a good example of how our Christmas was. ( She offers her gift to Lilah at one point.)

A funny thing. I was opening my gift and it happened to be a necklace so Lilah says “Oh, he went to Jared’s.” it was too cute. My necklace is not fancy, just two circles with each of the girl’s names stamped on them. It’s kinda the new mother’s necklace, rather than having birth stones. I saw it on a blog a while back and decided I wanted one and sent Jon a e-mail with specific on-line stores he could get them.

After having our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage and eggs, or in Jon’s and my case fried tofu with veggies, I got dressed and then motivated my family to get ready.

We headed out the door to his parents house a little before noon.

The girl’s in front of the tree with Dara and Jason. Lilah was being silly and Eden was being bashful.

Jason, Jon, Lilah, Grandpa Blake, Eden, Grandma Blake, and Dara.

Dara and Jason waited to open gifts til we were there. The calendars I made for them via Costco were a big hit, they got here on the 24th, definitely cut that close, and Jon’s mom wants one and Jon himself wants one for his office. (I told Jon we should have made his parents one, but were were trying to conserve our money at that point and we had already gotten them something.)

So if anyone else wants a calender of my girls let me know. The first calender has a higher fee of $4 and something for shipping, then it goes down to like $1.50 shipping per each after wards. (I’m some what joking about people wanting a calendar of my girls, but serious at the same time, it costs less to get them all at once rather than see them and decide it’s cute and want one more. Each calendar can also be different, or personalized too, but if you don’t get one this year, you might get one next year. ( I could put wedding pictures for the month you were married or vacation pictures if we visited your family or went somewhere together.))

After spending some time at Jon’s parents we went directly to my parents house per the girls request. I just wanted to take a nap, so as long as I got one I didn’t care. The girls watched Wall-E while I slept and Jon tapped into some one’s insecure wireless network on his Mac.

Eventually some family showed up, while others left and we ate dinner. We stayed rather late this year to make sure we saw Derek, Carolyn’s husband. We wanted to make sure he felt included, or at least loved, since he had to work so late on Christmas, well not that late, but he arrived at the normal time we would have left.

A gift my dad got at a party and gave to Derek. Derek is a huge baseball fan and knows everything about baseball.  I took this picture because Derek was in a goofy mood and was actually smiling. (If you look at Carolyn’s blog he never smiles in pictures. )
After being at my parents for far too long we headed home with two slightly hyper little girls, though Eden was asleep before we even got to the freeway.

It was a Merry Christmas filled with family, fun, food, gifts and definitely silliness.

Christmas Eve Day we finally got over to Jon’s parents house to decorate the tree. Mom had put it up, but since the  girls love decorating we came over to “help” and to have Jon figure out what was wrong with her computer. Since they’ve been sick and we’ve been sick we waited till the 24th, otherwise it would have been done a whole 2 days sooner on Monday.

Needless to say the girls loved decorating the tree, but most of all getting on the step stool to decorate the tree. Lets just say that particular area was not lacking in the ornament department.

That evening we went to my parents for Christmas Eve.  It was just my parents,  Carolyn, and us, so it was a small gathering with way too much food, even if it was appetizer type food and cold cuts with rolls. I think Eden ate half the pineapple that night and Lilah was definitely on the silly side.

We read the story of Christ’s birth in Luke and then the girl’s opened their one gift, purple pajama’s that I had made them.

Lilah was being super silly. This was the first picture I took and I went on to take more, but she was even sillier in those with a wide open mouth and jumping in the air, I’m not sure what she was doing.
At one point in the night Lilah decided to sing Jingle Bells, and Eden followed in suit.

We left around 7:45pm and got home a little after 8 pm. Then we watch the Mormon Tabernacle’s Christmas program on PBS and the girls got to bed at 9.

Jon wrapped what he had gotten the girls and me in our room and I finished wrapping in the living room. We had the gate up at the girl’s door so they would stay in their room. Some days I am so grateful for children that don’t climb and do crazy things.

Jon eventually fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie with me and I finished getting the presents around the tree, it’s too close to the ground to put anything under it and I filled the stockings.

I got finished around 10:30pm,  but I finished the movie and then watched a few things on TV and got to bed at 12:30. Luckily the girls slept in Christmas morning.

He has no will power to stay up late, and this was only at 10:30 pm.

See how only half of the white lights light up. It makes for an interesting picture.

I want to blog about Christmas, but the thought of organizing pictures and videos is a little overwhelming right now.

So I’ll blog about today, or the day after Christmas.

I went shopping, it was suppose to be as busy as Black Friday and one of the two stores was pretty busy, but overall I think it was not that busy.

I first bought myself a nice wool and cashmere blend jacket. I really wanted a nice jacket and the price was right and I had a gift card. (originally $200, why anyone would pay $200 is beyond me, down to $60 with a $10 off coupon to make it $50 and a gift card from my mom and dad to pay for it. I am so happy to have a nice warm jacket to wear to church rather than some stretched out sweater. I just couldn’t bring myself to pay even $50 for a jacket before, even if it was a nice one.)

Then I went to another store to get a Christmas tree. Apparently a lot of stores had sold out before Christmas so I was happy to have my sister tell me which Target was carrying some. I got one half off and it’ll due. I really don’t think I would have paid the full $70 though, it was not that nice. The tree my father gave us is a rather nice one, big when fully put up but nice, so it’s hard to get a new one and compare, even when his is breaking and lights are burnt out.

So we now have a new tree to put presents under. You’ll understand this comment when you see our tree this year. I also bought 60 feet of garland, and I think 20 might be enough because it’s kinda  a skinny tree to. Anyone who wants red garland let me know, I can hook you up.

Once home I was greeted with chaos and pajama clad children who were just finishing breakfast. Lilah was just waking up when I left at 8:30 and Eden woke after I left and I returned home by 10:30. (Jon lets them take everything out at once when it comes to Christmas presents, I’m a little more organized and try to have them clean up in between.)

The girls eventually finished their movie, and we tried on clothes to see if dresses and tights fit. I played Go on Lilah’s laptop with her. She installed it herself and I guess will take after her fathers interest, of computers and games. He’s pretty smart so I don’t mind.

We made chex muddy buddies to give away  as reindeer poop and labeled some play dough to also give to the girl’s friends. I just have to get motivated to go outside. It was a nice and windy day and it is really cold out there but tomorrow is going to be just as cold and I want to get the little gift bags out of my house and our Christmas day after cheer spread.

My only problem, we haven’t eaten dinner yet, it’s almost ready and only 6:55, and I don’t want to be out too late.

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a relaxing day after too.

Lilah had a stuffy nose last week that began on Monday night. Eden wasn’t getting it so we thought it was allergies or because of the temperature change we first experienced on Monday. Then Friday Eden got Lilah’s stuffy nose, or as Eden would say snuffy nose. (It was too cute and I had the hardest time not repeating it since we try not to baby talk to our girls.)

Since the girls were sick on Saturday we stayed home instead of doing some holiday festivities, like making cookies and going to a holiday dinner, we’ll I went to the holiday dinner since Jon was a sweet heart and stayed home with our girls.  Sunday Jon stayed home with the girls for two reasons. Eden still had a stuffy nose and he too was feeling sick.  I got some herbs from Sam and we made tea for him that afternoon and myself since I started to feel a little swollen in my throat. So much for Lilah not being contagious. ( I apologize to anyone who was exposed to our germs, it’s just hard to tell if something is a viruses or just due to freak weather like snow storms on Las Vegas. )

Jon’s taken the next two weeks off so Monday  we all went to the planetarium at CSN with our internet home school group. Jon and I felt OK, and the girls were both over their congestion problems. Then we went to Target for the girls to get gifts for one another.  Then since Smith’s was on the way home we stopped and I ran in to get sausage and cinnamon rolls for our Christmas breakfast, then to JoAnn’s because I needed some tear away to do the buttons for the girls pajamas.  (When I expressed we should stop at Smith’s and JoAnn’s after Target he was like, is this going to turn into a long morning of errands? )

That’s my final Christmas project. I’m making the girls matching pajamas.  I have buttons and buttons holes to put on both the girls tops and Lilah’s pajama bottoms to do. I waited till late, but I should get them finished and wrapped tonight so they can open them Christmas Eve. Even though they know they’re getting these pajama’s, I’m making them at night after they’re in bed and I’m hoping Lilah is somewhat surprised, I know Eden will be since she’s littler, but I’ve talked about them in front of them and Lilah remembers everything I say.

Anyways, Jon and I are both having some throat problems, but whatever we had didn’t get too bad and we seem to be on the mend. I’m just hoping it gets better and we can enjoy our Christmas without any illnesses.

Just one day till Christmas, or two depending on how you count.

I’m so excited.

Due to the record snow fall in Las Vegas yesterday, Jon was sent home early that evening. He wanted to make a snowman and play in the snow, so I got layers on the girls, found their hats and gloves and got them ready to have some snow evening fun.

First we built a double sided snowman/ snow teddy bear.

Having fun.

Acting like a kid. ( Isn’t he so cute though?)

Getting the head ready.

Patting the snow down.

Cute smile.

Getting more snow on the head.

Putting on the face.

Putting on buttons.

Lilah working on her side.

Final product on one side.

Eden showing me snow…

…and then starting a snow ball fight.

Lilah’s final snowman. (Mommy helped with the face since Jon’s hands were so frozen and he and Eden were busy having a snowball fight.)

The aftermath.

wet shoes

And wet clothes in both bathrooms.

The family warming up.

Jon didn’t have gloves thus he hands got a little too cold and were still not the same this morning. We think he may have suffered some nerve damage all for the sake of having a snowball fight with Eden and us. Eden was having lots of fun ‘throwing’ the snow. Since she can’t throw far and she knows it, she would gather it in her hands walk up to you and then hit you with the snow point blank by hitting you with her hand and a handful of snow.  Eden’s thumb also was hurting when she got inside, but there have been no complaints today so I imagine she’s fine.

In Henderson my sister still had about 4 inches on the ground and Clark County called off school for the day due to the snow. Oh how unprepared we are for snow in Las Vegas.

Our snow started melting in the night, we got rain after 8 pm or so, and we had a nice wet driveway this morning and afternoon.

We were thinking of visiting Mount Charleston over the break sometime, but honestly I think I’ve had enough snow for the winter.

We don’t have the proper clothing and it gets everything so wet and that’s just not that fun to clean up afterwords or be in.

It’s snowing in Las Vegas and actually sticking to the ground. We’re at a pretty low elevation, so I’m impressed it’s staying. (Where as Henderson and where my in-laws live get snow and we don’t.)

Here’s some video of the girls and some pictures I’ve taken. Now that it’s getting dark, and still snowing I won’t be getting any good pictures till the morning. It’s suppose to snow all night too.

Totally weird. It takes longer than normal to get cold this winter and now we’re getting snow!

Our garden.

Our pomegranate tree.

The ground 30 minutes after the girls made tracks in it.

A light.

We tried to build a snow man, but the snow was still pretty thin and I’m a wimp. I hate cold hands and boy does snow make your hands cold.