Holidaze,.. Under Construction

As the 2007 Holidays come to a close I am beginning work on a 2008 guide to saving your sanity and keeping organized for the next Holiday season.  Most people find that they cant enjoy the six weeks from Thanksgiving to New Years due to how chaotic it can be.  I met a number of ladies this year who were praying for Christmas to hurry up and be gone so their life could get back to normal. 

What these ladies needed was a way to spread out what they needed to do so they could enjoy the season and not feel crunched for time and money.  This guide is all about making your lists and checking them twice to make sure you don't walk around in aHolidaze.

Chapters

1. Introduction to the Pieces of the pie (cards, newsletters, shopping, budgets, wrapping, baking, decorating)
2. Random Tips and Tricks
3. Website resources
4. Cards/Family updates (letters, newsletter, poem)/thank you cards
5. Holiday Budget
6. Decorating, decorate early so you can enjoy it, keeps you in the holiday mood
7. Baking/Food preparation
8. Wrapping/assembling/stockings
9. Hosting a celebration
10. Making time for you

A Tyrant Toddler

If you read my Christmas newsletter you probably got a laugh out of our Toddler Triumphs over Tyrant Parents article, but let me tell you these last few days have been awful with a toddler suffering from a sinus infection and major congestion.  The poor guy is coughing horribly, super cranky and only wants Mommy. 

I managed to sneak away today for about an hour and hit the gym, which was great since I haven't been in a week.  I feel so much better when I make it there and with it only taking 35 minutes, there is just really no reason not to go.  I am also really focusing on my water intake today and am determined to get all 10 glasses in before bed tonight.  They say it takes 21 days to make a habit so this is day 2 of healthy eating, daily exercise and drowning my pounds in H20. 

We also just got a house guest who will be here until next Wednesday.  Precious, my sister in law's dog, is quirky and adorable.  Hopefully our chaotic household won't terrify her.

For most of the day Eric and I have tried to clean house around and behind the two foot tall tornado that lives here.  It never fails to amaze me how much destruction he can do.  On that note I need to run so I can get cleaning again!

Home for the Holidays

Growing up the holidays definitely meant family to me... All four of them!  A typical holiday rush was visiting my mother's parents two days before Christmas or Christmas eve, my fathers family on Christmas eve, exchanging gifts with friends on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning at home, and Christmas day with my step-father's family.  Then we would rush home, pack quickly, leave all our neat new things and fly off to spend the week after Christmas with my dad and step-mom in Maryland.  We did Christmas the evening we arrived and finally got a few days to sit back and relax before flying home in time to start school.

This year, our first Christmas as a family in our own home, we decided to start some new traditions, one of which is staying put for Christmas.  So we invited the family to join us for a day of festivities, and I got cooking.  I have to say there is nothing like Holiday entertaining to get you cleaning.  Our home was ready for company a good 2 days before Christmas, and it was a darn good thing, since that was when disaster struck!  Since we were so ahead of the game I decided to sneak off for 30 minutes of remembering that I'm a woman and not just a mommy time and get my hair cut.  The guy who cut my hair was super quick, probably since he was chop happy :), and as I was leaving a mere 30 minutes later, Eric called and told me what no mother or hostess wants to hear.  Alex was defiling my clean house, but you can't blame him, the poor kiddo had a stomach bug.  For two weeks Alex had been fighting a cold that I told myself would be gone by Christmas, but now 48 hours before family arrived for the day, he was throwing up like crazy.  Luckily it only lasted about 12 hours and then he was good to go, but as these things have a habit of doing, the trouble was just beginning.  My Mother in law was kind enough to come and help me while Alex was sick and sure enough the next morning she and I both woke up feeling horrible.  Fortunately for me, my episode was brief and after liberal use of lysol the entire house I was ready to get in gear for Christmas day.  We celebrated Christmas even at my in-laws and my father in law was put to work in the kitchen while Debra rested and entertained. 

Christmas day was wonderful and thankfully sickness-free, but as the day wore down and the paper and boxes piled up Eric started feeling bad.  I cleaned and tidied, saw our overnight guests settled and grabbed what sleep I could before Alex's cough (his cold never went away and was back in force) woke him up at 5am.  Our day got an early start since I could only keep him in his room until 6:30, and we headed out to rouse the troops.  We made breakfast and I started on what was left of the Christmas dishes while Eric slept off the bug in our room.  At 10 last night he emerged briefly before sleeping a little more, and I am happy to say that today he is feeling much better, but weak from spending a day as a bump on a log.

Like most mom's around the world, I am working on finding a place for all the new toys Alex got and trying to get my house back in order.  I have also settled on my two New Year's Resolutions for 2008.

1. I want to get pregnant in 2008.  Now this is a little more involved than it sounds :), since I need to lose about 90 lbs before that happens.  Eric and I have both agreed that it would not be healthy at all for me to get pregnant now, so over the next 12 months I want to get to the point that we can start trying for #2.

2. I want to blog daily. This is a goal of mine for a couple of reasons. I have always wanted to journal and keep a record of the daily events in our lives, especially since I became pregnant with Alex.  However keeping up with a journal and dedicating the time to be consistent with it has never happened.  Since I am on the computer daily I have decided to blog my journal.  Another great reason for this is that I have always been told, by doctors, friends and more that keeping a journal can really help keep you motivated and losing weight. 

It is so lovely to sit here and be able to get these thoughts down on paper, so to speak, instead of being on the run somewhere.  I am truly looking forward to a great end of the year vacation starting off 2008 right for our family!

I Love Turkey

So Thanksgiving was great. We went to Houston but Mom set up Dad's computer and I watched the Chipmunk Movie on the way down. It was great and tons of fun. Then we stayed at a neat hotel where I got to experience a fire place since we don't have one at home. I loved it! Gigi made a great pre Turkey day dinner and I got to eat all kinds of new foods, then it was off to bed and the next day we went everywhere meeting all kinds of new cousins. Mom said I had met them before but I didn't remember anyone. Here's lots of pictures so enjoy!

 

Alex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkins As Far As the Eye Could See

Image by Russ Osborne via Flickr

So this weekend was tons of fun. Dad was just in from traveling and all of us, him, mom and I were all sick but pulled it together to go pumpkin hunting on Saturday. There was a little mixup with the directions so we ended up driving around forever but we finally arrived and I got to run all over the place checking everything out. I even got to see goats and eat homemade strawberry icecream...mmmmmm.

 

Here's a few pictures and there are more in the photo album.

 

 

Then we came home and rested for a while, went out to dinner where I had lots of yummy chipoltle and then finally shoe shopping. Noni got me two new pairs of shoes, and one set has pirates on them and will match my halloween costume.

 

This week we are going to carve our pumpkin, bake pumpkin seeds, make baked apples and do some holiday decorating.

 

Oh and I am in training. Mom and I are doing Race for the Cure on November 4th (here's Our Race for the Cure Page http://www.komenaustin.org/site/TR?px=1402434&pg=personal&fr_id=1060). I can't wait to wave to everyone as we walk all morning!

 

Enjoy the pictures and see you all soon over the holidays.

 

Alex

Ready for Halloween

Image via Wikipedia

So its been a busy month since Mom last had time to put some pictures up. I got my 1 year pictures taken, Mom was so happy with them and I loved cheesing it up for the camera. We've spent a lot of time at the park, and even got to try my halloween costume out at the fall carnival. There's lots of new pictures up so check them out.

 

Other fun things to note, I am talking up a storm. New words that I am saying are cheese, shoes (pronounced chooz), out, puppy, princess, cracker, fishes (for goldfish), ball, memaw, gigi, ya-ya, mama, daddy, bye bye, kiss, uh uh, yes, what, and tons more.

 

I am sleeping lots these days and am down by 8 each night and sleeping until 6 each morning. Apparently I am never going to be a late sleeper.

 

I have another cold and this one is already in my chest, so lots of yuck, that is hopefully gone before next Saturday when I go to pumpkin patch to pick out my pumpkin.

 

Check back next week for pictures of my trip.

Almost 27

I love celebrating my birthday.  I woke up today and realized that its right around the corner. I can't wait to do something special, maybe the movies or dinner.  Sorry to ramble I'm just getting excited!