The rush is over!

Well, here it is, December 19th, and I'm finally getting a chance to update the good ol' Baby Blog. Did you all miss the updates??

Drew is FINALLY done with that darn exercise, and they PASSED! That means they don't have to do it again in a few months, thank goodness. I have been busy, busy, trying to get Christmas stuff finished up, gifts wrapped, things made. Pretty much every waking moment has been filled with one thing or another (and that's when the kids are asleep).

My flight back from CA, was pretty good. They were able to let Dad in all the way to my gate to help me with the kids and our stuff. We got there early and were able to pre-board. Our flight was completely jam packed. The gentleman next to us was the father of 6 kids so he was very patient on the flight, not that the kids were bad! Carson slept most of the time. The man in front of Taylor I apologized to in advance since her feet were right at the tray table behind his seat (her car seat lifted her up pretty high). Of course somehow the portable DVD player batteries didn't get charged so we only got 10 minutes of a movie before it died, we were only 45 minutes into the flight.

I managed to keep her busy with books, and coloring until the last hour or so, then she started getting tired of being of her seat and started kicking the one in front of her. Luckily she didn't pound it like she did on the way there (there was nobody in front of us then), but I had to constantly remind her not to kick the seat. She was getting really moody when we finally started to make our descent. Five minutes before we landed, she fell asleep, go figure...when everybody was getting off the plane, the guy in front of her said she was meant to be a soccer player for sure, haha. We joked about her falling asleep 3 hours too late.

We waited until everybody else was off before we unloaded and got everything together. Drew was already waiting just across where we exited from, whew!! We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner and did a little Christmas shopping while we were in Dallas, then headed home.

So, that was the trip home. Since then I've been working on Christmas, Drew has been working. Oh, we got our Christmas tree on Monday the 6th since Drew was on call. That was fun... okay, not really, but it's definitely a story! The first place we went to didn't really have any good trees, plus we had forgotten to go get cash, so we left there, went to the ATM by our bank, and it wouldn't take our card.. so we drove the half a mile down to the actual branch, but the ATM's are all inside and they had closed 3 minutes earlier. We drove back to the non-working ATM and I sat there and tried it a few times until it finally took the card and got cash. We went to another tree place and they didn't have any of the trees we like.

We decided to head back towards home up the side highway and hope they had something there, they did, but Drew accidentally passed it, so he turned around, then passed the entrance again (it was already dark). He turned into the driveway after the tent, and there was a grassy area in front of it with tire tracks, but not an actual road. He started to turn in and I said (take notes here) "That looks pretty muddy, do you think we might get stuck?" The response: "Nah, we'll be alright". We made it approximately 15 feet later, yep.. stuck.

Luckily the owner of the place had a 4 wheel drive (no surprise there), and he pulled us out. Of course I told him we had to get a tree from them now. Luckily they had a good one. :) Nice and smelly and green!

We decided we aren't going to put lights up outside this year, not because we don't want to, just because I can't do it during the day, and Drew is just now really getting a day off with less than a week until Christmas. It seems like an awful lot of work just for a few days of lights. I decorated the inside and that will just have to do. Hopefully next year they wont have an exercise for the 3 months before Christmas!

Another big event that's going on is Taylor started going to a Mom's Day Out program. It's at a church in town, actually at the same church my Weight Watcher's Meeting is held. She goes just one day a week (Thursday's), from 9am to 2pm. They play, and learn from the bible, and also learn a shape, a number, and a letter. They do music and story time, and they take a nap! She seems to REALLY enjoy it. In the morning we get her back pack with her lunch and diapers and her nap mat (a photo will follow, I made it myself!) and head off. She tells me she's going to "cool" with her "packpack" to "play" and go "nigh-nigh". Last week I got my very first ornament (a snowflake) with her picture in the middle. I haven't taken a photo of it yet, but I will!

I also get a report card when I pick her up that tells me how she did during the day, and also the picture of the day that she colored (she draws a lot of O's.. it's her favorite letter). All in all, it's awesome. She has fun, learns, plays with other kids, we get a break from each other and I get to run a few kid free errands (Drew hangs on to the baby) then come home and get some things accomplished before going to pick her up.

We also started putting them together in the bedroom at night! I thought it was going to go a lot worse than it did, but in the week they've been room sharing, we only had one rough night. Taylor usually goes down between 7:30 and 8. Carson usually goes down between 8:30 and 9 after one last evening meal. Usually Taylor is already out by then, so I just sneak in and put him down with his sleep sheep (it makes white noise) on, and he falls asleep with in 10 minutes or so. Sometimes I have to go back in to give him his paci a couple times but he gets there.

They both sleep through the night fairly well. Carson gets up around 4 on occasion, but most of the time it doesn't wake Taylor up, and if it does, she goes back to sleep pretty easy.. except Friday when the garbage truck woke her up. That was a tough day. Anyway, I think she enjoys sharing the room and having the company in there, I'm glad that it's going so well, and we have our room back!

Taylor has been in a mood lately, the terrible two's in full swing. Some days start off better than others, but it's been tough. Her new thing is hitting her head on stuff when she gets mad or frustrated. Not sure how to nip that in the bud, but I guess it's just a phase and she'll grow out of it hopefully. I'm tempted to put a bike helmet on her during the day (kidding). The next big thing with her is to really concentrate on potty training. We had not really been pushing the matter since I've been on my own a lot, plus traveling so we've just been letting her control it.. but the novelty of getting to go on the potty has worn off and she no longer asks to go every 5 minutes. Not sure if we'll start that soon or wait a little bit longer. I'm sure she's getting close to ready. It's just a matter of having enough hands at the right time.

She's also getting really good at putting words together. You can tell there is a lot of thought in between them since she pauses, but she's getting there. My favorite things she says are Thank You Mama (or Dada).. which actually sounds more like Tay Too, and Love you which sounds like Wuv You. She probably says somewhere upwards of 250 words now. We counted a few months ago and she was at about 175, and she says new ones ALL the time. She's soooo smart it's scary! Sometimes I don't even realize what she knows until she says something and surprises me. They really do pay attention to EVERYthing.. even if it doesn't seem like it.

Drew has this week off, so I'm looking forward to him being home. We're thinking of him taking leave in January and finding some snow somewhere to take Taylor too. I think she'd really have fun, and we haven't seen snow in ages!

For Christmas dinner we decided we're doing a small small Turkey, AND a ham since we weren't together for Thanksgiving (we normally do Turkey on Thanksgiving and Ham on Christmas), we'll freeze lots of left overs so I have a few meals ready when the kids are making it hard for me to cook.

Oh yeah, we've also been sick. I think Taylor started it, then Drew and I both got it at the same time. Carson is the only one who seems to have escaped the cold! I think we are finally on the mend though, so tha'ts good!

Anyway, I'm sure you've been waiting for pics, so I'll get to uploading what I've got!!

Took this just before we left CA, it's my new favorite photo of Taylor!


These were my attempt at Chrismtas pictures of the kids. I got the lights set up, the backround set up, the kids dressed... then Drew got called into work. Seriously!! What kind of luck is that? So I was left to photograph the both of them by myself.

It started off well.. Taylor was being very lovey to her brother.


She even smiled at me (okay, I was holding an M&M above the Camera)

Looking pretty
"Lights!"
He doesn't need bribes to smile.. :) yet.
Well, no smiles, but at least they are both looking. Hey, don't you think they look a lot alike here?
So serious, little Santa.

and really, this is how it was towards the end. One cheesing for M&Ms. One tired of the Bumbo.

Too slow with the M&M's because I was busy trying to give the baby a pacifier while I regrouped.


Well, if you've received our Christmas card yet, you will know enough turned out.. so mission accomplished!! I sure could have used some eggnog after that fiasco! :)


Here is the nap mat I created for Taylor's MDO class. She LOVES it. She climbed in it right away and she sleeps like a champ at MDO! The blanket is attached and the pillowcase holds the pillow she normally sleeps with at night. It rolls up and ties with a ribbon, and even has a handle (it's on the underside) to carry it with! It has a 1" foam pad inside to keep her comfy. It's velcro-ed at the end so I can remove the pad for washing.

See!! She likes it!!
When I was printing out photos for a photo frame I got for the wall I realized I didn't have any good photos of Carson and I either, so I had Drew snap a couple.



These are just a couple of snapshots of Carson hanging out with the dogs. They are such good boys and so patient. I think everybody was enjoying the bit of sunshine coming in the window. :)

Pulled out the jumperoo for Carson, he's about outgrown the swing. He's not quite big enough for it yet and gets impatient, but he'll sit in it for 5 minutes or so at a time playing with the little bug. Soon enough he might find it interesting.


These I took today, one of the hats I made a while ago finally fits Carson.. sort of (it's about 3 rows too tall). I decided it needed bear ears so I put some on it last night. I really like the way these came out.. it helps that he's such a cute boy!!!




Guess I need to work on getting more pics of Taylor and Drew this next go-around!! She's not been in the mood to be photographed much lately, but hopefully we'll work on that. She doesn't sit still for more than 3 seconds so it does make it hard. Little sweet stinker.

Alright, I'm off.. thank you for your patience in waiting for an update!

Love to you all!
-Me