Quote of the day

"I loooooooooooooove baby Jesus!"

-Bubba, age 3

Dora Dora Dora the Explorer!

So...should I be concerned that Bubba is obsessed beyond belief with Dora? Just means he likes chicks, right? Not that he wants to be one...? Ha!

What is even stranger is that 4 months ago, this child would not watch anything on TV. The only thing he would watch is The Wiggles on DVDs. It's nice that now that the TV can babysit him he'll watch Dora while I get blogging stuff done around the house.

Off to watch Christmas Dora!

It's still funny to me!

This just never gets old.

Not my finest parenting moment...

Peanut: "Carson doesn't like me."


Me: "Why not?"


Peanut: "Because he says I'm stupid."


Me: "Well, you tell Carson that he's stupid."

Peanut: "I can't! I'll get in trouble!"



Me: "Then tell him I said he's stupid."

Peanut's eyes are as big as saucers.

I have been diagnosed on more than one occasion with a very serious disease. It can affect your personal life, your professional life and everything in between. It's called verbal diarrhea. As I've gotten older, I've come to realize that isn't always a good thing. (And I should add that I've learned I'm not always right. Go figure!) I've had to take my medicine and have learned to bite my tongue.

So, couple my case of verbal diarrhea with my momma bear instinct and you get my not-so-finest moment in parenting.

Last horrah with Ama & Papa

At least it's melting!

I'm not really shy about hiding my dislike for winter. If Iowa wasn't such a great place to raise the tater tots, I would be outta here. Well, if the rest of my family would move to FL too.

My parents leave on Friday. They'll be gone 4 months. I'm really sad this year because I don't think we'll make it down for a visit. We usually do, but with Trophy Hub and Peanut in school (and both of them already missing school for Disney last month) we'd need to go over spring break. Spring break plane tickets aren't exactly cheap. Not exactly cheap x 4 + rental car = really expensive. I think the winter is going to seem really long without the break. Boo hoo. I know I get no sympathy, so moving on.

My ever so helpful MIL offered to keep the boys last night after our Christmas at her house. I was tired after the final holiday festivity so I took her up on it. Trophy Hub had to work so I had the house to myself. After we got home, I started to not feel well, which is NOT like me at all. I just don't get sick. Sick, meaning influenza or colds, I just don't get it. Now, if someone who has had the stomach flu within the last 3 months comes within 500 yards of me, I get that. But I had a fever and started getting body aches. I took some Aleve and the aches were gone, but I still had a fever.

It was about 11pm and my MIL called. I should have known it wasn't good. I could hear Bubba crying. He woke up with an earache. She ended up bringing them home. Bubba was up all night. He was a train wreck. It was like when he was an infant and had ear infections. He finally fell asleep about 6:30 this morning and slept for 3 hours until I woke him up.

Our doctor's office isn't open on Saturdays, so I took him to UI's Not-so-Quick Care. With one person in the waiting room, they told me it would be an hour to an hour and a half. Then I got to sit in the waiting room and listen to them bitch gripe about people coming in. Oh, pardon me for bothering you at your JOB.* We finally got called back and PA looked in his ear and told me it looked like his ear drum had burst. Lovely. At least that would explain why he was in so much pain. I left with a prescription for antibiotic and ear drops. And, by the way, I was really bothering the lady working at the Wal-Mart pharmacy too. Grrrr.

*Don't mess with me when I'm sleep deprived.

But...all is well now! After it burst (I'm thinking that must have happened before he fell asleep at 6:30 this morning), it must have felt better because he woke up a new child. When I put him down tonight, he felt a bit warm, but was acting just fine. He's a tough cookie.

A post-Christmas post is coming soon!

These are a few of my favorite things

There are so many things I love about Christmas. Here are my boys enjoying two of my favorite things...lights and candy.

Birthday and Santa Claus

Today was Peanut's 6th birthday! It was very odd to not be with him on his special day, but he had fun being special at school. He got to wear a crown all day and got a card from his teacher. I told him I would make him a cake for school, but he just wanted dirt cake. That's definitely easier than a cake, so I didn't argue!

Tonight we went to see Santa at South Slope. Peanut did very well. He was super nervous and although you can't really tell from the pic, he got red faced. I was very proud of him for not backing out. (And not only because we waited for an hour.)
Bubba, on the other hand, was in full panic mode....

He wanted nothing to do with Santa. I can't say I was surprised and I didn't push him.

That's all for tonight!

The post where I link to YouTube twice, share recipes & ramble...a lot

I felt like doing this today when the boys went outside twice and played nicely for longer than 5 minutes together. Peanut has loved the snow for several years.

When we had our snow day on Wednesday, Bubba didn't have much interest in playing outside. It was a lot colder, but it may have also been because he looked a little like this. So I was pleasantly surprised how well he did outside today. Only a few meltdowns over mittens falling off.

Our weekend was very uneventful. Trophy Hub deer hunted both mornings and worked both nights. We did head into the mall yesterday and hit a few stores. Didn't get one Christmas present, so I'm very far behind now. My MIL is going to watch the boys some night this week so I can get my shopping done. I usually shop slowly over 2 months, but I could not get into the spirit before our vacation. I'm paying for that now!

I have a question for you...what do you do with your Christmas cards? I love getting them, but haven't come up with a good way of displaying them. Right now, they are sitting in a pile on my kitchen counter.

What is your favorite Christmas sweet or snack? Send me your recipe! I have 3 get togethers next weekend and would love to try one of your favorites!

Here is my all time favorite and they are so easy:

Chow Mein Cookies

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

1 bag butterscotch chips

Chow Mein Noodles

Melt chips and add noodles. Drop onto wax paper to set. Enjoy!

Here is another favorite, a little more work and totally worth it:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

1 c peanut butter (you can use chunky, but I use creamy)

1/4 c butter, softened

1 c powdered sugar

2 c Rice Krispies

1 1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

2 T vegetable shortening (or paraffin wax)

Beat peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until thoroughly combined. Stir in Rice Krispies. Shape into balls. (You can either put these in mini muffin cups or just put on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper - I do the latter.) Refrigerate or freeze. Melt chocolate chips and shortening. Spoon over balls.

Yum.

My three favorite people in the whole world

Over my head?

Do you think it's a bad sign that I had to read the instruction manual for my new camera to attach the neck strap?

Never mind.

Don't answer that.

Budding shutterbug?

Bubba took this photo of me.

Water slide party!

It's birthday party day! We had (once again) a joint birthday party for the boys. With their birthdays only being a month apart, the last few years we have opted to have them together. This saves money and time. Two of my favorite things to save!

We rented out a pool at a local hotel that has a 100 ft water slide. It was a blast for all the kids - there were about 15 of them. It was also a blast for the adults that opted to partake - that would include me. Ahem.

Peanut is a total fish. All my pics of him today look like this:

Bubba had a ball too, but since he couldn't touch in the pool he relied on Trophy Hub and I to tote him around. Except in the hot tub, of course, which is his favorite place to be anyway. And yes, we do feed him.
I had planned on making 2 cakes. When my first one fell apart (literally) so did my plan. We ended up with just one, which was fine since I had made Bubba's last month anyway, remember? Just like that one, please don't look too close - I'm an amateur! The picture I had to use to make this one was bad and unlike everyone else in my household, I don't know Darth Vader's facial features like the back of my hand. So I just had to wing it. Peanut was happy with it and it tasted pretty darn good, so I'm calling it a success.

If my kids make me tired, other people's kids exhaust me.

Snuggled in the Snuggie

Trophy Hub loves gift giving. He loves it so much that once he has bought me something he has a really hard time keeping it from me. Which is why I have no gifts to open on the actual holiday, birthday, anniversary.

Tonight at the end of our date, he surprised me with my first early Christmas present. I am the proud owner of a pink Snuggie. You know, the blanket with sleeves. It's wonderful! Its keeping me nice and toasty as I type this.

I have been cold since...oh, September. And it's snowing and below 30 degrees outside. I don't see me warming up until summer. So I know I will get lots of use out of it. He will probably regret getting me a pink one because I'm sure he'll want to use it!