So the other day, I decided to put together a fun date jar for Alan and I so we could get some dates on the calendar! This year has been a rough one for our marriage given I have been a little preoccupied with feeling sick, depressed and now my new found friend, anxiety! I've been a bit selfish and I don't put the effort I need to into our relationship. I know for a fact that if nothing is planned, nothing happens and then the day to day becomes hard to make that connection with out extra effort. So I spent a few hours the other day searching ideas for some not so usual ideas, but it was hard! LOL. I'd see list after list and think "oh we wouldn't do that" or something else, but in the end, I came up with some fun ideas and can't wait to get some on the calendar!
For Christmas, Alissa picked me out a Sudoku game book. She knows I like to play it, so one night as I was playing, she wanted learn how to play. I told her how it worked and she helped me solve one of the puzzles and was pretty great at it! The other night, Alan says "have you looked at Alissa"? She frequently has something cute going on at night (it's usually her and Bob together) but this night, it was her falling asleep playing Sudoku!! She was actually doing pretty well on her own before falling asleep!
The other day we were at Mindy's house and Ben said "Alissa you can go home, but Zach can stay and sleep over" (or something to that effect ha ha...nice!) so Zach has a sleep over at Ben's and Sophie came over for a sleepover with Alissa. Sophie and Alissa are so great together. They play so nicely and you don't even know they are here because they are just good girls together! It's so nice to have so many cousins that are close in age and close in distance! The next day, the girls where practicing the song on The Polar Express and came down to sing it to me. It was very cute!
We had a nice Christmas! The kids were told not to wake mom and dad up until 9am, but they are KIDS...we woke up at 8 (I'll take 8 and not 6 or even 7am)! We went right to opening presents and the kids (heck, we all) got spoiled (even though Santa didn't realize he was spoiling until we saw everything we got). But it was fun...I have to admit, I love Christmas and gifts...I do! LOL! I am really not one to buy a tun of things through out the year and it's fun to get a lot of fun things on the same day. I do however, want to spend more time teaching my kids that giving back and helping others is important too, I just didn't do such a great job at it. But let's not get into all the things I don't do "such a great job at" as a mom! Anyways, we opened presents, had some breakfast and then played! Zach got right to Lego making (Legos are seriously the best toy invention ever) and Alissa rode her scooter and played with her new Rapunzel doll. The kitties even got a little stocking and enjoyed the goodies inside!We headed over to Christi's house for lunch around 1:30 and spend a few fun hours over there eating yummy turkey, ham, rolls, mashed potatoes and just sat around chatting. It's so nice to be around family! We (the kids and I) then headed to Mindy's to give Grammy, Ryan and Mind their gifts and spent a few hours hanging out there. We got home just in time for bed and we enjoyed out Christmas! Lots of pictures, I love pictures! Alan got me a new Nikon Coolpix and I think I've finally found a point and shoot camera that I will like when I'm not using my big camera! Both of the kids sang at school, but it was for all the other students and not parents (dumb), so I wanted Alissa to sing her song on Christmas, so she sang us her song! Zach takes after his mom and was a little too shy to sing his song, but it's okay! We love both of our kids and their differences!
This year I wanted to do fun neighbors gifts, but I wasn't sure what and then I found this idea on Pinterest and thought it was so cute! It's a basket full of fun holiday things and what you do is drop off the basket at a neighbors house and it says on a note that they can take as many things as they want, but they must replace it with something else and then pass the basket on! We dropped it off earlier in the month (around the 5th) and it's actually supposed to come back TODAY! The only thing I didn't like about the idea is that I'm sure it didn't get to ALL the neighbors and I wish It could have! So we'll see!!
I had some fun making things this year! It's always nice to have a project and I haven't had a lot of them lately, so I am not sure what got into me! I AGAIN found some really cute ideas on Pinterest and decided to try them out! For our friends holiday party, I made those cute candy cane chocolate suckers (which took way longer than I expected, but are SO CUTE and yummy)! I always wonder what to get the kids teachers, so with some searching on Pinterest, I found the idea to give them a fun craft thing filled with fun teacher supplies and candy! It turned out WAY cute! and then we had the Schacher's family for the gift exchange and I wanted to do something different! I ended up making the kids customized games with their family pictures on it! It turned out ADORABLE and even my kids loved playing with the puzzles I made! I did a SCHA-tzee game, go fish and then puzzles all customized! I made some other things, but didn't get pictures! It was fun to do that for everyone!
So for the past years, we have done a fun holiday party with a group of our closest friends/family. We always have a lot of fun!! This year it was planned for the weekend, but because of some sickness we rescheduled to yesterday (which meant not as late as night as It normally would have been, but it's okay, still fun). Everyone brought their own soup, a white elephant and then their family gift to exchange. The white elephant is the funnest, although, with 30+ people (most being kids) it got a little crazy!! It must be CHRISTMAS!! Lots of pictures and lots of laughs!
This year we ended up sending out three different holiday cards, so if you got one but not the other, you can see all THREE LOL! And if we missed your family, I'm sorry! We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!
Yesterday was my 31st birthday. Yep, I am now "well into" my 30's LOL! I had a normal day as most grown ups do. Alan worked a 1/2 day and told the kids to be helpful around the house. I got up and Alissa was "sweeping" the floor, later to leave the broom laying in the middle of the floor with out the floor being swept lol. I then noticed some of the dishes were put away and I found out that was Zach's job, except the dishes in the dishwasher were still dirty LOL! I love my kids and it's the thought that counts! The day was peaceful with Miss quietly watching TV in my room and Zach playing a video game downstairs (yep, I'm THAT mom) and I was working on updating my family blog!
My mom and Mindy came by to say happy birthday and drop off some gifts. We had some lunch and chatted and it was a nice visit!
I was told by Alan that we were going out at 6:00 and I needed to be ready. As I worked on my blog, I guess I was thinking about it and started to get anxiety about going out. I have some new (well not new, but just figuring out) anxieties about going out. The past years with me being sick have all now pointed to having anxiety. Not fun, but I have all the symptoms. So, that's been a some what new adventure in my life! So anyways, I started feeling sick and needed to take some time to calm down. Alan came home during it and ended up telling me what I was doing for my birthday...a girls night! It helped to know (who would have thought, I used to love surprises!)!
So we went out to Wingers for dinner and Big Lots after and had a blast! I laughed harder than I have in a long time at dinner! We did some "emotion" pictures like we had at the John Mayer concert and it was hilarious!
Staring with Christi who's (ketchup bottle) gerbil died! Then Holly with a sour face. Susan had her mortgage payed for her. Carrie witnessed a horrible accident and I came across a mountain lion that jumped on my back and spoke to me "Hey girlfriend"! How'd we do? Believable?!
We then went for round two! Christi: glee. Holly: pain (and she actually accidentally bumped her knee on the table so she was in pain). Susan: baffled. Carrie: In love and me: hilariously happy !
We then decided to do groups of two with opposite emotions! Carrie did disgusted while I did trust. Holly did submission while Susan did content. And because it was my birthday I got to do it twice! Christi did love while I did remorse! Yep, we are spot on right?! It was so much fun! Holly came up behind me impersonating the mountain lion and we lost it when she put her hands up in a claw, came to my shoulder and said "hey girlfriend"! I think we all just about peed out pants...my stomach hurt I was laughing so hard! This might have been one of those "you had to be there" moments, but boy was it funny!
We then headed over to Big Lots for some last minute shopping and to do a scavenger hunt! We got about 1/2 way through out list and pooped out! Man, I was dying around 10pm (yep, I must be old now) and we called it a night! It was a great birthday! Thanks to my thoughtful hubby who knew I would have a fun time on a girls night and thanks to my good friends who made it a fun night!
