Gunnar's gift

I forgot to mention the great gift that Gunnar made for us (mostly for the mama, I am sure). He made it at school. He said that he painted everything himself and put the rub on letters all by himself. He said that the teacher had cut the little fabric pieces out, I think. But other than that, it was all him. I think it turned out really well. I love it.

Christmas Aftermath

Ever try to write a blog post while being attacked by a munchkin? It's quite humorous actually. That kid has been on a sugar high for about 68 hours. When will we recover? Soon, I hope. I did put the rest of the candy up in the pantry out of sight. I hope that will help. He has eaten quite a few little oranges as well, but the sugar is still winning.

My mom was able to come spend Christmas with us. It was awesome. The boys went to sleep pretty easily & quickly after we watched their Portable North Pole messages from Santa. Gunnar claims he doesn't remember, but about 10:30pm after Neil and I had just gone to bed Gunnar got down out of his bed. Luckily, their door is very squeaky. I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. As soon as I opened the door, he scrambled back up to his top bunk.

At about 4:10am, Gunnar woke up and came in to see if he could go downstairs. "No, Gunnar, it's 4:10AM! Go back to bed," I mumble. "But don't we wake up normally at 3:30am?" Gunnar asked excitedly. "No, Gunnar . . . 6:30am." Gunnar sighed and returned to his bed. About 5:54am Paden and Fischer both woke up. It was no stopping them then. Fischer didn't know what was going on, but was doing his normal screaming for something to drink. Luckily, he was easily distracted by the presents.

I really thought this year was going to be pretty low key. Santa did well. He brought Gunnar and Erector set (could be found at Costco, I heard). He brought Paden the new Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. He brought Fischer a ride-on toy four-wheeler (foot powered). He also brought them all a 105-piece, four-drawer, tool chest . . . to share. I love that Santa went easy on the stockings - a little candy and a key chain flash-light. The grandparents, on the other hand . . . well, we are so thankful for the grandparents. :) They did their job, well.

Grandma with the puppies made some fabulous hats for each of the boys. They love them. They will be wearing them anytime they leave the house, I am sure. Grandpa & Grandma Livingston scored big with the Snuggies! Thanks! WE ALL love them. They are really warm. I can see how we are going to struggle with sharing on those babies.

So, it's the day after Christmas and we've accomplished so much. Gunnar finished his first car built with his Erector set. It's pretty awesome. Paden has gotten to the last level on his new game. (Don't think he's that great, he cheats.) Fischer . . . well, Fischer has eaten most of Gunnar's candy, decided he really likes Coca-Cola Classic (caffeine free, of course) and expended the most amount of energy of anyone in the house (probably more than all of us combined). We made caramel corn today, so flippin' tasty! We made M&M cookies, using Fischer's candy (trying to use that up). My dining room floor got cleaned - thanks, Mom! I haven't tried out my Christmas present yet, but I so would have, had my mom not beat me too it. She bought us a Shark Steam mop thing. It looks like a much better design than the monster one we got last year that has had broken handle for the last 6 months.

Tomorrow . . . laundry and wal-mart . . . sounds like a grand plan. The boys have gift cards to spend. That should be exciting to see what kind of crap, I mean great stuff, they come home with.

So, it's almost bed time. I suppose I should be a good mom and make sure the little tummies are full of something not in the junk food group before bed. These pictures are repeat from FB, but they are the best ones of the few I took yesterday.

PS - I just had an epiphany . . . upload pictures before putting words to your post. I am not sure I have not thought of that before!!! It just took me about 10 minutes to get the pictures where I wanted them.

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas . . . maybe

I remember how excited I was as a kid to decorate for Christmas!! This year, not so much. A serious lack of motivation has set in. However, we did (we, meaning Neil and the boys) got the decorations out of the garage attic. We decorated (we, meaning, the boys) the tree and put a few decorations out. We (we, meaning I) didn't help them out and we didn't finish. We'll finish up tomorrow, I hope. We (we, meaning Neil) did "put up" the Christmas lights on the outside of the house. By "put up" I mean plugged in. Yeah, we totally didn't take our lights off the house last year. It's been only slightly embarrassing for the last 365 days. We are awesome, I know. By awesome, I mean lame, retarded and ridiculous. I mean, it's us . . . the ones who didn't take 18 ft pool down until it snowed 6 inches in it. What's the fun in taking it down in nice weather? Blizzard is much more exciting!

Anyway . . . our tree is definitely NOT going to win any beauty awards, but I love that the boys did it all. It's NOT a Grandma Livingston approved tree. This would not pass the test at her house - it's way too chaotic and mixed up! I'll have to either get a stool for them to finish or finish it for them.

I am not sure if you can see some of my favorites of this tree . . . there's no decorations above Gunnar's reach; there's a Rescue Hero toy hanging from the bead garland; there's a snowman ornament hanging in it's protective storage container and the giant wreath of Paden's hands. There was two wreaths of hands, but I am not sure what happened to the other.

But seriously, my most favorite is that they were SOOO happily decorating the tree together - all three boys. I am not sure how much help Fischer actually was, but he was right there in the mix of things. They got out their Thomas the Tank Engine track and built a track under the tree.

I was in the kitchen making dinner and Paden comes to ask me to write the following note:

"Dear Santa,
Please turn off the engine. Have a Merry Christmas!"

The 8.5 x 11 sized note is hanging directly on the tree at Paden's eye level. He explained that they want to leave Thomas running on Christmas Eve, but that Santa should turn it off because we don't want the batteries to run out. They just think of everything don't they? Paden also reminded me that we need to make cookies for Santa. Thanks, Pade . . . probably don't need to do that today, but thanks for the reminder! :-)

Gotta love those boys. They are so fun. Oh, I almost forgot. Did you know that I am the best mom in the whole world because I helped them put in Christmas lights all around their bedroom? How sweet. I didn't realize how easy it was to be mom of the year. Here I am trying to keep clean clothes in the dressers, keep food in the bellies, keep the dirt out of their fingernails and keep the word of God in their minds. Wow, have I been focusing my energies in the wrong place. It's all the Christmas lights . . . it's all in the Christmas lights.

I think we are pretty well done Christmas shopping. We are going light this year. It's hard to break away from wanting the boys have longer than 2 minutes of opening presents joy. But, in reality, they don't NEED a darn thing. Since the boys aren't one of my two faithful blog readers, I can spill the beans on what we talked Santa into bringing to our house this year. We got a Harbor Freight special tool box. Over 100 piece tool set in a 4-drawer box for $35! What a steal! It's in the back of the van, they haven't managed to look back there in the last 4 days! We got an erector set from Costco, something for Gunnar to use the tools on. Paden likes tools too, but not as much as Gunnar, so we plan on getting him the new Donkey Kong game, which puts us over our desired $100 Christmas budget by a little bit. Neil really believes that 18-month old Fischer doesn't need anything for Christmas, but you can't tell me that he won't be right there looking for what's his. So, I am not really sure what to get him. The boys really want snuggies - so if any family members out there are struggling with what to get the boys - snuggies. Adult size, please! :)

On a non-Christmas related note . . . we are taking away the binkie. Wish us luck. On Friday, we took Fischer for his 18-month check up. All is well, except that we (we, meaning me, myself and I) got "reprimanded" for having the binkie in the backpack. So, yeah, it's time. Fischer has looked for it a couple of times today. I let him have it last night because he was with a baby sitter, but when he woke up in the middle of the night, I couldn't find it, so I thought what a better time than the middle of the night to make the kid give it up. I brought him into bed with him and he definitely fidgeted for much longer without it. When Gunnar was little, he had a binkie, but he was not attached to it all. When he turned 18 months old, I put the binkies in the cupboard and he never, ever had an issue. Paden never took to a binkie. I really thought that I could go 18 months with Fischer's bink. I think I made the wrong choice. The kid is a little and by a little, I mean a lot) attached to it. I am sure he'll made through relatively un-traumatized by the event. He already hasn't been sleeping through the night, so it's not really that big of deal. Right? Right.

Wow, it's way past my bedtime! The end . . .