Is It Naptime Yet

On Saturday the girls and I headed over to my sister Carolyn’s house to make cookies. It was to give Jon time alone to study and Carolyn’s co-worker was supposed to come over because we weren’t able to make Christmas cookies with her and she wanted to see Carolyn’s house. Instead her husband made her go to some timeshare thing so they could get two free airline tickets since they need to fly to their niece’s wedding later this year.

I packed what I thought was everything I needed and headed over to Carolyn’s. She had ordered pizzas for lunch so we ate and then got started making cookies.

While I was pulling everything out I realized I had forgotten the shortening for the frosting but since Carolyn lives so far from civilization the nearest store is like 5 miles away and I figured we’d just make cookies and the girls and I would have to frost them at home.

Then as I looked through the  basket I realized I left the heart-shaped cookie cutter I borrowed from Sam at home on my counter. So now I had to go to the store.

We finished the dough, and the girls and Carolyn settled in watching some TV while I went to the store.

I got shortening, cookie cutters, and some chocolate chip cookie dough since that was the cookie Derek requested to be made since we were coming over. (I almost did not buy it because Derek is so spoiled by his parents but I like chocolate chip cookies too and figured I’d take some home also.)

I got back and we baked cookies and then decorated them like the sweetheart candies you buy, only I don’t buy them and could only think of a handful of phrases. Carolyn was funny and I love some of the phrases she came up with.

Here’s the pictures of what I left with Carolyn on Saturday, and what we have left this morning. I don’t think I’m suppose to eat five cookies a day, but that’s what happens when you love sugar cookies and they’re in the house. Jon has also been eating them, so I think my ‘eat all you can get’ mentality kicked in, yeah that’s why I eat five a day, to get them out of the house sooner so Jon won’t eat them. I’ll take the hit. (I have had none today, but will probably eat one after lunch and one tonight. I just love sugar cookies and you have to eat them before they get stale and the girls would rather have candy.)

Carolyn thought of: Heart U, Nice Bum, Hot Stuff, Hot Lips, Heart Breaker, (which was made with the last of the frosting and we didn’t have enough of either color so she did half and half). I made:  I heart you, Love, and Cutie Pie.

I also made a Babe, Hey Babe, Dad and a Sexy cookie, which Jon ate. Carolyn attempted to make a sexy cookie with sprinkles, but she only could fit  “sex” on the cookie and decided to make it all sprinkles. (It’s the yellow cookie with sprinkles in the previous picture.)

Eden only ate maybe half a piece of pizza but she had three cookies, I guess she takes after her mom.

Lilah had lots of fun decorating them for other people and then having us eat them, she did eventually eat one.

We had lots of fun at Carolyn’s house and left around 5:30pm. I was so sleepy on the way home because I get sleepy in the afternoons and it was a very relaxing drive home.

The girls had so much fun since they got to play and jump on all of Carolyn’s pillows. Lilah was sad that we don’t go to Carolyn’s more often and said we should go there whenever she needs to bake cookies. I probably would visit Carolyn if she lived closer and if she wasn’t so busy working all the time. I just hate taking up all her free time with my two silly girls.

Since we had (still have) two sick girls and no life, Jon and I stayed home for News Years Eve.  Traditionally we have IBC root beer floats at midnight, but we were feeling frugal and had already bought some sparkling cider and neither of us wanted to go to the store so we enjoyed the sparkling cider after midnight.

We put the girls to bed around 8ish and tucked in for some movies. Jon had Netflixed Persepolis, which was rather interesting and intriguing. Then we popped in The Prestige about 20 minutes till midnight. We paused to see the worst fireworks show Las Vegas as ever given and kiss at midnight. (New regulations made the fireworks be fired off from ground level or the top of parking garages instead of the top of the hotels roofs. They had totally lame shots of the fireworks and I’m sure anyone who wasn’t totally plastered, and maybe some that were, thought that the fireworks weren’t that  good too.)

Jon had napped during the first movie so he was awake at he beginning of The Prestige, but he did not last long. I stayed up till 2:30am watching the movie and then some temping infomercials, though I think it was the sleep deprivation that made me want to buy a hair straightener and the pilates chair.   Eden also woke up for a short time after midnight due to being congested.

The girls woke up super early on News Years day, like 5 o’clock, and Jon stayed up with them while I slept in, with many interruptions mind you, till 10:30 am. I’m a little ashamed to admit I slept till 10:30, but I did.

We had a very lazy New Years. Eden loves lazy days where she’s able to keep her pajama’s on. I do not let them do that but Jon has and even today Eden was wearing her pajama’s till she decided she wanted to go outside at like 2:00 this afternoon.  Lilah was dressed today, but that’s only because she wore clothes to bed and has yet to change.

Chaos, utter chaos, when Jon is home.

That said with the very early morning on New Years day Eden took a super long nap, like she almost did not wake up from her nap, so we let her sleep longer but then she woke up at 8pm for a couple of hours and we sent her back to bed at 10pm.

Lilah feel asleep on the couch around 6:30pm and we put her to bed and she stayed there till 7:30 this morning.

It was a lazy New Years with two sick girls.

Today I finally did something productive outside the house, grocery shopping. We were completely out of milk and thus an expedition out of the house was necessary.

We still need to take down the tree so it can go in the trash for pick-up tomorrow, but as nap time approaches it may not happen unless we get motivated tonight. (funny note: Lilah saw a thing about taking your tree to the Springs Preserve to be recycled and she said we should do that, but I had to explain they wanted real trees not fake ones. So she then suggested that we grow our own tree and then cut it down next year to be recycled. )

Monday my yoga class begins and I’ve signed the girls up for a gymnastics class. If they’re over their coughs, and if Eden stops getting a fever every night, than they’re be able to go on Tuesday.

I just hope they’re better by Sunday so Eden can attend her first Sunday in Primary and so Lilah can be there to show her the  ropes.

My baby is going to be in Primary, I think I need to have another child but not for a couple years since life has taken some unexpected turns.

Happy News Years.

Also I am setting no goals this year. I never keep them or I only keep part of them, so this year my only goal is to continue going to Yoga and hope it doesn’t get cancelled due to the small class size.

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.

Last night we watch a Faith Hill Christmas special on PBS and she performed the following song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8illRJRmN8
I thought it was beautiful in that it’s different yet gives a wonderful message.

I really wish I could buy the Faith Hill Christmas Cd in time for it to get here by Christmas, but I may just have to wait till next year.

It also has one of my other favorite non traditional songs, Where are you Christmas.

This year the truffle gods were looking down at me and laughing.

I don’t know if it’s because I declined help from my very busy friend Beth and her daughters, or because it was humid, or maybe it was my children that were driving me nuts, but things just did not want to go right for me.

I started melting my truffle mixtures on Tuesday morning. I melted the white and then began melting the milk chocolate, to make the mint milk chocolate center. This was my first mishap, which I was able to save. I think I slightly burned the truffle mixture by heating it up too quickly, but it didn’t get too burned and I was able to whipped it to smoothness and it tasted just fine.

My next batch was not so lucky.

It got burned, and as it cooled it separated. It’s still sitting in my fridge because I’m not sure what to do with it. It’s still edible, just not usable for truffles. I’m so glad I only wasted $2 worth of chocolate, rather than $5, had I not bought it on sale.

So I let my truffles set and after lunch I started to roll them and then I began dipping them after they had their freezer time. The white truffles came out wonderfully, they usually do, but the milk chocolate mint I was having problems left and right. The chocolate was cracking, and then I’d get a few good ones and the the chocolate coating starting looking weird. I call it pudding, because it reminds me of that. It was not fun.

I remade a a fourth truffle mixture a little bit before I went to a church activity. Going made me stay up till 1 am, but I would need to wait for the mixture to cool and harden in the fridge anyways and I needed to get out of the house. My children were extra bothersome this day, and I’m sure it’s because I was frustrated at all the bumps in my truffle making road.

We got the girls to bed after I came home and I still had problems with the chocolate coating looking like pudding at times, but there was less stress since the girls were in bed and I was almost at the end, even if people got pudding truffles.

I bagged them and got them ready for Jon, only he didn’t take them to work this Wednesday, he took them on Friday.

I also made chocolate covered popcorn, both were hits.

I was able to have enough nice looking truffles for his work colleagues, but now I have a lot of funny looking truffles. I’m not sure who I want to give them too, because there are way too many for my little family.

Here are some photos of the truffles, including the ‘pudding’ ones.

The white, pretty, Christmas ones.

Pudding looking truffles.

The new way I decorated some.

Saturday the 6th, was our ward’s Christmas dinner and program. Eden had a really hard time at practice that morning so that night I wasn’t too surprised when she just stood there while all the other kids were ‘dashing’, which you’ll kinda be able to see in the video, but our seats were on the wrong side of the stage since the seats on the correct side were all taken and the quality isn’t too good, but you’ll get the just of the cuteness.

Here’s a short video of the girls singing Jingle Bells.

The girls sat on Santa’s lap and they printed the photo’s out right there. Since we don’t do the Santa Claus thing, I’m not going to go out of my way to get a picture with a really nice Santa, and I’m just happy they were both so willing to take the picture.

It’s a pretty washed out picture. I tried to make it less bright, but that only gave them spotty skin.