When Christmas Comes to Town

Serving up miniature dogs on Christmas Eve since 2010.

As I previously lamented, Nate worked Christmas Day so the fam came here. I miss them so much, but I was telling Nate the other night that living away from them makes it such a treat when they come to visit. 

Dem Boyz...oops and Dem Emmy

Jansen HATED his pajamas. The issue really boiled to the fact that it was not a toy. And he also said he hated the raccoon on them...because it didn't look like a real raccoon. I mean who has even seen a real raccoon!!! They are far too sneaky. Thankfully he will still wear them.

Since we never actually got around to making real cookies for Santa, Natalie insisted on drawing him a picture of one. With lots and lots of M&Ms.

This is a great Christmas morning picture...Jansen's reaction to each present was so fun to listen to. "Oh my gosh! This is is sooooo great!"

One of his gifts was this Lego plane. It took him hours to put together, but he did it all by himself.

Not really sure what to say about this, but some of you will enjoy it immensely. Jansen singing a song for us on Christmas Eve. It's entitled "Christmas Dynamite," and I think it proves that Jansen understands the true meaning of Christmas. Think of it as my gift to all of you.

Forgive Me

Please forgive me for comparing my youngest daughter first to a hippo and now to a sweaty man. These things just come to me. And then these things must be blogged about. I can't just let them sit in my brain and not share them with you, can I? So here it is...the day Emmy reminded me of Rocky:

To Remember from December

Some things to remember from the month of December...(don't get your hopes up - that's it for the rhyming)

When we got home from church last Sunday I asked Jansen if he wanted to change out of his church clothes. He said, "No. I noticed I look really good in this sweater."

The past few days have been rain, rain, rain. Against my better judgment I let the kids play in it. They only lasted a few minutes anyway.

Nate has just a few days off this entire month and is putting in 12 hours each day. Combine that with any other evening obligations = not enough daddy time. One night we bucked bedtime and they went out and rode bikes in the dark with the Christmas lights shining. Nate had as much fun as the kids.

Oh how she loves her Emmy. Jansen said the sweetest thing the other day too. He was crouched next to Emmy's bouncer and he said, "Now remember Emmy, you'll never ever be alone. You have a big brother and a big sister and if you ever fall we'll catch you." MELT MY HEART. Oh and then he said, "And you have a great big nice mommy." Ha! Okay and one more that me laugh. One morning I told Jansen that Emmy was sleeping. He was a little confused and I explained to him that she has to sleep during the night and the day. Then he said, "Oh so she's nocturnal?"

And These Too!

I wish with all my heart I had a copy of our last family picture so that I could post it. Let's just say we are all in denim everything and for some reason we all had chipmunk cheeks. You would have gotten a good laugh. 

Nate has to work from 6 am to 6 pm on Christmas Day this year. Thankfully, everyone you see pictured below is coming to Vegas so that I won't be all by my lonesome on Christmas morning. I'm super excited.

My brother, sister, me and the Mom.

Gals...

This is my sister and her fabulous husband Brennon.

You know us now.

We Had Some Pictures Taken

After Emmy was born I told myself no family pictures this year and no Christmas cards. Just to cut down on the stress and to have one less thing to worry about.WELLLLLLL, this year my mom wanted family pictures of everyone and my dear friend Monica made it all so easy, so we DID have pictures taken. And I'm so happy! First I'll post some of my family...

You know how family pictures are. When you're done, you're DONE.

Next up, the ones with my mom and siblings!

Christmas in Las Vegas

Highs are in the 60s this week...

We visited a place called Springs Preserve this weekend for their Holiday Spectacular. Definitely a fun time. I might reserve the word spectacular for expensive firework shows and the Grand Canyon though.

 I was so excited when I was going through Natalie's baby clothes and found this sweet sweet hat that Nate's mom had made for Natalie. It will be passed along to many baby girls because it needs to be---it's that cute!

 Your eyes are kind of creeping me out in this one Natalie. She's in the lower left corner...ahhh! Did you get creeped out too?! Just quickly look at Nate smiling instead...it's

 a creeped out neutralizer.

I was so happy that both kids wanted to go up and talk to Santa. Jansen hesitated at first. That Santa sure has a treasure trove of toy knowledge. He knew just what my kids were talking about.

Reindeer? Or small horse with antler headband? You decide.



It's All About You Emmy

This post is all about my Emmy who is soon to be 3 months old.
I feel like Emmy recently went from tiny infant to big baby. She is smiling and cooing all the time. When she is sitting in her bouncer or laying on the bed and I come up and talk to her she just lights up and grins...her joy almost gives me guilt (is there no end to the types of mommy guilt we have?)...like she had been anxiously awaiting someone coming to talk to her.

She goes to bed around 7ish each night and wakes 2-3 times on average before getting up for good between 6 and 7. Out of the three kids, she is by far my best night sleeper. She works her way out of her swaddle at night and likes to chew on her fist.

And I feel like we are really turning a corner. Emmy has been an extremely fussy baby. I remember in the hospital thinking she was so calm and even tempered. And she was! For about two weeks. Around that time the fussiness kicked in. I just took life one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time and we exhausted all our options: Mylicon, Mylanta, probiotics, etc. Everyone has their ideas for why your baby might be colicky. There were many days when I was so worried that she was in pain, but in my heart I felt that she was okay...just demanding and high need. If you added up all the time she spent fussing each day it would equal hours...LONG hours. In general, if she wasn't eating or sleeping she was in a state of discontent. She prefers to be walked and walked in order to fall asleep and for many weeks would wake right up if I would try to put her down after she had drifted off. It didn't happen but a few times, but there were days that I literally held her all day. Not ideal circumstances when you have two other kids to care for. I don't mean to be throwing myself a pity party, but having a fussy baby is not really something you can understand unless you have been there. And if you have been there, then maybe you can understand the desperation, worry, exhaustion, and anxiety. But we survived, and like I said, I can really tell that she is changing. The great thing about colic: it does end! Look, can you see that she is changing too?

From this...

And this...

To this...

And this...

I LOVE HER DEARLY.

This Needs to Be Addressed

"Okay kids! Time to get dressed. Come choose something to wear from the pile in mom's room!"
(I do a lot of laundry posts don't I? Can you tell it's taking over my life?)

We're Busy

Sheesh. Poor neglected blog. Posting once a week? That is not acceptable. So you want some excuses? I can give them to you...but it'll just sound like complaining and it all adds up to: being busy and being tired. Oh and having a ton of fun with CARRIE! Carrie is my cousin. Although just saying she is my cousin hardly does her justice since she helped raise me. (feel free to blame her or thank her accordingly.) I mean, we are talking about a girl who handed down her fluorescent pink Umbros to me. How do you repay a debt like that?

We ate these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner:

That's why we're so happy.

One last thing. I posted this on Facebook but had to share on my blog too. Yesterday Jansen told me that goats eat anything. Even Legos. He then advised me, "So if a goat comes to the door, don't answer it." Wise beyond his years I tell you.

Careful Natalie

As Natalie was bounding down the stairs three at a time I said, "Natalie, be careful. That's dangerous."

And from her: "I know Mommy, but I want to be dangerous."

I told Natalie she could plug in the lights for the Christmas tree. As she clambered over our basket of Christmas books I told her to be careful and to please not break anything.

She pretended to see some words somewhere on the basket and read them to me: "This says 'if you break this it will be fun. And then you can rebuild it.'"