New Years Eve

Hehe.. this video is Alissa doing the "monkey dance". It has been awhile since I have been able to post videos, and now that it is working again I will post them more often. This was "filmed" by my digital camera this morning. Alissa was in her pjs and wearing the rock necklace she made this summer. Since seeing the Nutcracker Ballet with Grandma Davis a couple weeks ago she has wanted to be a ballerina. And thanks to Santa bringing her some ballet slippers she dances all around the house. I absolutely LOVE this age.. and every other age.. why is it that whatever age the kids happen to be is always the best at that time? Maybe that's some weird parental brain wiring so you don't go bonkers :)

While I am waiting for this video to upload (it takes FOREVER), how about a Jonathan update? He has been using the potty more and more but only for #2. I finally broke down and bought some pull ups because otherwise it is a real pain getting those diapers off and on. The smallest size pull ups are too big for him.. oh well.. I make it work.

On to New Year stuff!! As I type this my kids are both at Grandma Adams house. She is very very kind and very very brave because they are going to both spend the night. It will be Jonathan's first night away from mommy. I have worked hard the last couple weeks to night ween him so he won't need my milk while he is gone.. sigh.. it is so hard to leave them but Matt and I really need some "us" time. I remember the first time Alissa spent the night away from home.. I cried like a baby!! Pitiful I know. No tears this time, I guess I am maturing in my motherhood. ;) I doubt very much that I will sleep tonight. We shall see.

As for a New Years resolution.. oh boy this one is worn out, but I am going to lose 10 pounds. Starting tomorrow it is back to my low carb routine. I lost 30 and gained back 10, so its time to reclaim my figure :) The good thing is it shouldn't take long, I'm betting a month. Matt's resolution: "To buy more guns". Hahaha.. so he says, so he says.

Here is a cute brother and sister video.. Jonathan is always copying everything Alissa does.

Notice the look on Ali's face when Jon screams? The "Uh-oh.. hope I'm not in trouble" look. Priceless.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

ZOOLIGHTS!!

We had a spectacular day yesterday! Started the day with a trip to he car wash and Costco with Grandma and Grandpa Adams. Costco had a ton of free samples so the kids were good to go for lunch -- gotta love Costco samples!! :) By the time we finished it was Jonathan's nap time so we headed home to put him to sleep.

After nap we picked up Grandma Davis and Bethany and headed to the Portland Zoo for Zoolights!! Zoolights is an annual Christmas light display at the zoo. The say there are over a million lights and after being there I believe it!! The reason we got to go to Zoolights this year (for the first time) is the awesome Christmas present I received. When I opened the box this is what I saw:

Isn't my mother-in-law creative?? Hehe.. too cute!! It was a one year membership to the zoo!! I think this was my favorite present this year.. the gift that keeps on giving!!

Anyways, back to the zoo. The kids had a blast and so did I. We got to ride the train for the first time! It was a really cool set up.

This is my favorite picture from the trip.. we nabbed some poor tourist (I'm guessing hehe) to take our picture. It's all of us in the penguin exhibit. Jonathan is chilling out in the sling.. I hadn't realized how heavy he was getting until I put him in that thing and tooled him around the zoo!!

This is when we first arrived.. the kids were bundled up in a thousand layers.. it as COLD!! Our wagon by the way was the envy of many parents there!! Hehe.. the canopy was priceless with all the rain!!

You can see some of the lights in the background of this picture. It was absolutely beautiful!

Look!! We met a tiger.. luckily this one didn't attack.. yikes. The real tigers were nowhere to be found, I wonder if it has something to do with the Christmas day attack? Hmmm..

Alissa acting like a penguin at the penguin nesting thingy..

And the last one is heading out of the zoo.. these bears are right outside the gift shop.

Speaking of the gift shop, Alissa got to choose anything she wanted (within reason) as a souvenir. Want to guess what she picked? Not the cute stuffed peacock, or the neat giraffe with the fuzzy head.. ohh no nothing like that. She wanted the big squishy spider. That's my girl!! Hehe.. so we left with her happy as a bug holding her squishy "momma" spider to go with her little squishy "baby" spiders at home.

Is life good or what??

FYI

To put some people's minds at ease, my blog is now open by invitation only. Apparently I was the only one who wasn't concerned about cyber boogie men. Shrug.

Santa has come and gone...pics pics and more pics...

Oh so much to blog about!! Where to start?? First things first, I got a new hair cut!! Here it is:

I was feeling frisky so went with red.. hehe.. something different and fun, and it is only semi-permanent so will be gone in 6 weeks.. I was surprised Matt liked it!

Back to Christmas stuff.. and I warn you there are a ton of pictures! Christmas Eve Alissa received a letter in the mail from GG... this is her opening it:

And then discovering when you open the card it plays music:

She got a real kick out of that.

Christmas Eve evening we went to Grandma Davis' house to do our traditional opening of the presents.. wow.. it was a mountain of presents!! This is what it looked like before the opening began (keep in mind there were more presents in the other room):

The kids were only more then happy to dig in!! Here are a couple pictures of the gift opening:

It was craziness!! And oh so much fun. The kids got tons of neat stuff and had a blast ripping open presents.. gotta love Christmas.

Here's a couple random pictures I liked from the evening:

It's RUDOLPH!!

Matt hanging out amongst the presents:

YIKES!! BAD SANTA!! ;)

That about does it for Christmas Eve.. I forgot to get a picture of everyone standing together, shame on me!! :) Next time.. Moving on to Christmas day..

So first off the kids were so pooped from Christmas Eve they slept until almost 10am on Christmas day!! I know I know.. enjoy it while I can.. hehe.. This is how they looked right before waking up:

And then Alissa as she woke up saying, "Did Santa come Mommy??"

Sure enough.. the big man came.. this is what the kids saw when they stumbled out of bed together:

Ahh but wait!! There's more!! MOMMY got a surprise too.. apparently I was a REAL good girl this year because this is what surprised ME when I went out with the kids:

That's right, I got a new computer (which I am on now!! YEAH!) and new 22" flat screen monitor (WOW!) new printer, and I am STILL in shock!! It is the first computer we have ever owned that isn't a hand-me-down.. and let me tell you it totally ROCKS!! I am so excited and spoiled. Anyways, enough on me!! :) The kids had a fabulous time opening gifts and Alissa got the train set she ordered from Santa.. although her "Doctor Me Mommy" baby was a huge hit too. Here is me video taping Alissa seeing the presents for the first time (thanks Matt).

We went to Grandma Davis' house for Christmas dinner (YUM) and ate at about 2. After dinner and stockings from Santa we went to Dallas for more food hehe and a fun little gift exchange. It was a great Christmas, dare I say the best ever? :)

Oh, and my news I was going to share with everyone (thought I forgot did you??) I am going to be an aunt again!! YIPPEE!! It will be awesome having another baby around.. seems Jonathan didn't spend enough time as a baby, what's up with that? Now I need to get my baby fix elsewhere. :)

That's it for now!!!

Christmas Eve EVE

I just love this time of year. Can I just say MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :)

So it has been a busy couple of days. Lets start with yesterday. We invited a couple of friends (Justin and Lisa) over for dinner. The kids and I went out in the pouring rain to Costco and most of Salem was there buying last minute Christmas gifts.. soooo we parked half a mile from the store and ran for it getting pretty well soaked but HEY this is Oregon, what can you expect? It was all for a good cause: Costco steaks. Ahh nothing is better, especially when they meet up with Matt's grill.. yuuummm. Anyhow.. that was our only adventure of the day, and trust me it was plenty.

As we were preparing dinner Matt's mom and sister showed up and dropped off some goodies, they were kind enough to buy me a Christmas shirt.. sad isn't it? I didn't even have a single Christmas shirt.. humbug!! Anyhow, they fixed that with a cute pink long sleeved shirt with a snowman on it -- LOVE IT!

Then our guests of honor arrived so we kicked out Mom and Beth ;) Lisa made an awesome pasta salad and some yummy dessert that Jonathan flipped for (peanut brittle that wasn't the consistency of concrete and peppermint bark). And dinner was fabulous as usual. The kids were both falling over themselves showing off for Lisa, it was too cute. You know what was so great about the evening? Not only was it nice to have friends over, something we should do much more often, but it was nice to just kick back.. have a glass of wine (ok..or two.. and a half? Hehe) and be with good people. We played "Sorry" and just had a great time. The kids both went to bed early.. although both of them wouldn't stay asleep for one reason or another.. oh well.. maybe next time? Ahh wishful thinking.

After our guests left Matt and I watched a couple episodes of "Rome" (Which if you haven't seen it is utterly addictive and the best series ever) and I think we made it to bed about 1.. :) The kids were pooped out and both slept till about 9:30 which if a very good thing considering mommy went to bed so late.. no one wants to be around mommy with less then 8 hours of sleep.. pitiful eh?

Moving on to today.. it was Christmas as Grandma and Grandpa Adams house today. We were there with Tom and Debbie and Spencer. Alissa and Spencer got along wonderfully!! Very few squabbles.. very nice for us. My mom made an awesome lasagna and we played "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" Umm.. nope. Pretty much we weren't. But we had fun anyway :)

Looking forward to tomorrow -- Papa is coming over in the morning for breakfast, then we are going to let the kids open presents from us.. then on to Matt's folks house for still more presents.. you know I almost enjoy Christmas Eve more then Christmas.. although the Turkey on Christmas tips the scales!! :)

Ahhh.. all the presents are wrapped.. the stockings are hung (at Grandma Davis house lol).. Christmas music on the radio 24/7.. This is the best time of year isn't it?

Something else has me in a fantastic mood.. I got the best most EXCITING news ever today!! But, since this blog is public I will not risk telling you all what it is.. till after Tuesday that is. It is so hard for me not to tell the world.. sigh.. oh well.. Soon ;) I have to wait until everyone knows, wouldn't want to spoil the surprise right?

SANTA!!

ARGH!! I am so mad right now!! Have I mentioned my luck lately?? Sigh.. Well, Sunday we went to Woodburn Outlet mall and the kiddos got to see Santa..why am I mad??!!!?? Well.. I got the CUTEST picture of both kids on Santa's lap, and asked for it on CD.. Guess what?! The CD doesn't work!!!! :( :( :(

Oh well.. life goes on.. I guess I can describe it to you -- Alissa was happy (first year for THAT) and Jonathan was signing "MOM" toooo cute.. I can at least tell you about it too. This was the first year Alissa truly understood Santa and was not afraid of him. She reluctantly went to him when he held out his hands, and allowed him to put her on his lap. Then the coolest thing ever happened -- the first thing she said to him was, "Hey Santa, I put the magic key on the Christmas tree so you can get in our house!!" **(Quick explanation: When growing up in Arizona we obviously didn't have a chimney for Santa to come down, so my parents thought up the "magic key" and every year we were so excited when we pulled it out of the ornament box to hang it on the tree. Matt and I decided to continue this tradition with our kids since we only have a pellet stove and that would be a tight squeeze for poor Santa)** Thank goodness it was a great Santa -- he didn't skip a beat and went along with it saying "Great..blahblah" They sat there and talked and talked and Alissa asked him for a Thomas the Train set with a magic roller to make the tracks (Costco!! :)). Coooooool. I was so excited to see her actually talking with Santa with no fear -- YOU GO GIRL!!

So after her conversation with Santa I put Jonathan on his lap with Alissa and we took some excellent pictures, too bad you'll have to take my word on that one.

Moving right along.. a couple nights ago Matt was leaving for work when he went to check on Alissa who was fast asleep in her room. He comes out laughing saying I HAD to see how Alissa was sleeping!! It was too good an opportunity to pass up so I ran for the camera!! This is what we saw: Nice eh? Hehe..

In Jonathan news -- he continues to add to his signs and is starting to get more verbal. A couple days ago he started eating well with a spoon all by himself. Of course I grabbed the camera for that one!! This is him eating oatmeal (I swear some got in his mouth).
Jonathan is also cutting another tooth. I have found he eats a lot less when a tooth is coming through, then starts to eat like a maniac once it is in. He is a skinny kid.. funny I always thought he would be my beefy boy, I mean common.. he started out 9 1/2 pounds!! But alas, God thought I needed two kids who constantly need encouraging to get them to eat. Guess it could be worse, they both LOVE to sleep!! Hehe.. I will count my blessing on that one.

Oh, I forgot to mention we went to the Keizer light display Sunday night and it was awesome!! We met Colleen and her two kids and all piled into my van. Sasha and Ali sat together and had a blast. Jonathan thought it was the best thing and kept signing "Pretty, Mom, Pretty, Look, Ball, Pretty, Again" LOL.. he was frantic in the back seat. Oh yeah, he waved to all the Santas and reindeer. Too cute.

Until next time.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree..

My first time with a tree on top of my van (usually we take the truck), so I had to capture the moment:

Here it is!! We got a beautiful Noble this year!! Here it is before the decorations were hung:

Alissa taking a break from all the hard work and our finished product:

When Jonathan woke up he promptly removed all of Alissa's well placed ornaments from the bottom of the tree...

So our tree looks a bit bare on the bottom now, but what can you do with a toddler running around? :)
This all happened on the 13th.

For Matt's birthday I told Alissa she could design Daddy's cake.. so she did all of the work, the design is all hers.. Mommy just supervised and lent a hand when needed. I thought she did an awesome job!! Here it is:


Matt and I went to dinner alone at Red Lobster, where I got the steak :) I'm a land lover. Matt got king crab legs and snow crab legs and said they were yummy. Then we went to Matt's mom's house for Ali's cake and presents. Oh!! I totally forgot. For his birthday Matt was surprised with a new radio and speakers in his Honda (thanks to his brother's installation skills) and also Mark took our truck to Stayton to pick up a ton of pellets to save Matt the trip.. he was very surprised to say the least!! His other present of course was tattoo removal. He had his first treatment, I will spare the details and pictures for the other blog.

So today Matt stayed awake to hang out with us and we ended up on an adventure to Clackamas Town Center. That's a story for another day. I will tell you we ate at Chili's (my first time since there isn't one in Salem) and it was great! (Except for the bug in my water, but that's just my luck I suppose).

I'm sure I'm missing something here.. I should try and get on here more so I don't forget!! Hehe.. I'll post again soon.

Tattoo

So, getting ready for Matt's birthday Friday. His big gift this year is a loooong awaited tattoo removal. He goes in for his first treatment on his 29th birthday -- the 11 year anniversary of putting it on. That makes 11 years (minus a day or two) of regret. My mom and his mom both gave him a birthday gift of one months treatment (It is a 8-10 month process at one treatment a month). I hope our children learn from his mistakes and NEVER get a tattoo!! Temporary tattoos are awesome. Anything more, not so much. I took a picture of the tattoo tonight and will take more pictures as he goes to treatments.. I am thinking about posting a separate sight for just the tattoo removal so if anyone wants to learn about his experience (how much pain, how long treatments, etc etc) and see pictures of the progress leave me a comment and let me know, if there isn't much interest I will just document everything and not worry about posting it online.

In other news, Alissa has been much more excited about the mail man lately..lol.. her and Jon received a package from GG.. here they are opening it up:

Then Jonathan went right for the goodies:

While Alissa occupied herself popping the packing bubbles.

It was a string of the cutest Winnie The Pooh lights ever!! I asked Alissa if she would like to hang them outside, or on the Christmas tree.. and she says, "In my ROOM Mommy!!" .. Oh, of course..silly me. So the light are hanging over her window, they make a great night light(s).

I have much more to write about, but unfortunately my house needs me at the moment :)

HASTA

Christmas is in the air.. part 2

Matt and Alissa finished hanging the Christmas lights yesterday..This is Alissa trying to touch Frosty..

And Alissa putting the finishing touches on the lights on the bushes.

After hanging the lights, Ali and Daddy cleaned up all the sticks that blew off of our tree during the wind storm..

I was a little camera happy yesterday :) After the clean up Ali and Daddy watched Aladdin. I swear they look so much alike it is scary, and they both turn to zombies when watching tv..lol..

As soon as the zombies realized I was taking their picture:

ROFL.. I love it. Of course I can't leave well enough alone, so I tried for another picture of Matt.. I got a "talk to the foot" :)

And just because I don't want to leave Jonathan out, this is him the same day playing with his favorite "ball" -- one of Matt's bobbers. Note the dirty shirt -- he had just enjoyed his first powdered donut :) He was thrilled.

We went to story time this morning at the public library. I am so proud of Alissa!! She has turned into the most social kid I have ever seen. She literally rounds up the other little girls her age and gets them to play games with her. LOL.. She is a natural leader and I think that is so cool. She is a very confident and creative little girl. So for all of those out there who said attachment parenting would create a shy/introvert/stuck on mom kid -- WRONG. :) By never letting her CIO (cry it out), allowing her to nurse on demand until 22 months, letting her sleep with mommy until she one day (at about 2 1/2) came up to me and said "I'm a big girl now mommy, I'm going to sleep in my own bed", and other attachment parenting mumbo jumbo -- I didn't create a monster after all. Goes to show you should listen to your own mommy instincts and do what you think is right. Phooey on the mainstream.. don't just go with the flow because you think you have to. Do what YOU think is right as a parent..whatever craziness that might be ;) OK.. rant over. I have made mistakes (lots of them) but overall I think I've done ok, and I hope my kiddos agree.

HE DID IT!!!!!!

So normally I don't blog in the middle of the day, but I am so excited I have to share!!! Jonathan was standing in the doorway signing "poop" over and over, so I grabbed him and put him on the potty. HE POOPED!! I can't believe we are going to potty train this early -- and it is all his idea!! LOL.. I am sooooo looking forward to not changing poopy diapers anymore. YIIIPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE

Christmas is in the air..

Since I last posted it snowed here.. ok, so nothing stuck but we got to see big snow flakes and Alissa thought that was just great. From snow to rain and a wind storm that just passed. Ahh I love this time of year.
This Picture is Alissa getting her first look at the snow flakes coming down.

This is right after her first peek of snow, she insisted on running outside in her pjs to catch snowflakes.

We have tried to stay indoors as much as possible the last couple of days... not fun going out in a storm with two kids let me tell you. So we made the best of it here. Alissa and I made pumpkin bread muffins for Matt to bring to work and they were a big hit.

Speaking of Matt's work.. apparently a certain SOMEONE we know got some good news.. and we still haven't heard from this SOMEONE (you know who you are). HINT HINT

Anyways :) Today we took Bethany out shopping for a few hours and braved the storm. I was desperate for some groceries and we all needed to get out of the house. While we were out Alissa says, "Mommy, let's go play at Grandma Davis' house!" I say, "Grandma is sick sweetie." She replies, "Ok Mommy, let's go play at Grandma Adam's house." Again.."Sorry baby, Grandma Adams has work she needs to get done." then I get, "Mommy, can we go see GG now, or is it still too cold?" LOL.. at least she gets that it is too cold here for GG, but I think she still imagines GG is at her house and just refuses to go out because of the weather.. too funny. Got to give her points for trying.

Matt has his physical tomorrow and then another psych test and hopefully we will know more about this new job and when he is going to finally hit the road. Apparently his co-workers at the jail are trying hard to get him to stay.. hehe.. sorry guys.. no dice. He might eventually go back, but I doubt it.

Oh! On our "snow" day we got another surprise in the mail!! THANK YOU GG!! :) GG sent some books and included was a book for Alissa and Jonathan.. Yet again Alissa was a happy camper and promptly insisted we read the book over and over again. Here is a picture of Jonathan reading the book. Note that he has on my hairband..lol.. he loved to take it off my head and wear it and he says "Pretty" (one of his new words). He is going to give me grief some day for these pictures.. but it's too much fun!!

This last picture shows off Jonathan's new teeth. He has 8 teeth up front and 4 new molars. And yes, he is trying to eat my hair thingy. :)