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!
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!
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!
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!!
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!
Apparently Alissa had wanted to go to the Nutcracker last year and I didn't know. She has been asking Alan to take her and so one day they just went! Alissa was so excited to be having this special date with Alan. They parked the car, took the trax train, had dinner, saw the Nutcracker, got hot chocolate and enjoyed a special day together!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed to Hurricane to Grammy's house for some celebrating! Alan, Zach and Great Grandma all celebrate birthdays in November and Scoot is Dec 1st. My Grandma knew that Mindy and John were staying at my mom's on the way to AZ, but she didn't know we were there, so we got to surprise her again! She came over and we had dinner, opened presents, at cake and ice cream! Of course, I had to get some pictures with Great Grandma, Zach and pup-pup. She doesn't remember that she gave it to Zach, but Zach will always remember because we've made it known to him that he got his special pup-pup from Great Grandma! We tried some other pictures and well...they were fun! My mom got some words from the Sound of Music lady and changed the words up a bit to go with things my grandma likes! She got a fun little song (Alissa was so cute trying to sing it) and then we watched the same DVD slide show we watched for her 90th birthday! Good times! The rest of the weekend was just hanging out at Grammy's house! I will always have wonderful memories of my grandma and we have been luck to have her around for so long! She turned 92 on Thanksgiving! I called her to wish her a happy birthday and she was just so cute. We spent about 25 minutes on the phone...her talking about how she wants to play bridge again and her feeding her kitty!
Our little baby boy, Zach, turned 9 on November 16th! I can't believe how fast time goes and how big our baby is! Since it was a school day, I decided to take Zach out to lunch and I think he really liked that! I checked him out of school and we headed to Wingers so he could use his free birthday lunch! It was quick, but we had fun! After school we got ready for our party people to come over and celebrate with us! I love that even with out "friends" parties, we have cousins galore that come celebrate with us and we always enjoy it! We had everyone over for cake and ice cream and I think Zach's 9th birthday was a success!
We are so blessed to have Zach in our lives. He is a smart, sweet, sensitive, energetic...loves legos, cars 2, toy story, star wars, the Diary of a Wimpy kid books. He likes to listen to music or books on tape at night, he still loves his pup-pup. He is our early bird and wakes up before me every morning! He plays kickball at recess and doing well in school. He likes to pretend he doesn't love hugs from mom, but he loves it! He loves playing Ratchet and Clank still and is a great little video game player. He's very creative, making all sorts of things out of Legos. He plays well by himself and will quietly spend hours (well, maybe not hours, but a long time) just laying on the floor in the living room playing with his toys. He loves throwing the football around with Alan and playing card games. He still doesn't get a long with Alissa, but maybe one of these days he'll realize we should get a long with our sister (coming from the girl who was very mean to her sister! yep, it's true...but now we are friends). Zach loves his cousins! He's a little goof ball and we love him! Happy 9th Birthday Zach!
