Christmas Cookies!

Every year my mother goes to town baking for the Holidays. This year I think she said she was only going to make six types, she just wasn't up to doing a lot of baking. Every year I intend to help her make every type so that I too can learn the recipes and carry on this great tradition. Once again the Holidays got away from me, more so this year than ever and I didn't get to help. Luckily, Kadence got to join in the fun though and one Sunday they made over five dozen sugar cookies which were frosted and then carefully decorated. I know every year that I don't stand a chance at resisting these spectacular sweets. Luckily this year I have a legit excuse for my big belly! My favorites include the powder sugar covered Rumballs and the Peanut Butter Blossoms that are topped with Hershey Kisses. Here's a few pics of her work. I hope she knows just how much we appreciate her hours in the kitchen and look forward to these sweets every year!

A sampling of Mom's cookies that I took to Albuquerque with us!

Divinity, Fudge, Carmels and Chocolate Carmels

Peanut Butter Blossoms, Rumballs, and Pumpkin Cookies

Drop Cookies, Sugar Cookies, Apple filled Cookies

More Rumballs, Spritz and Rosettes

Christmas in Vegas

This year we spent Christmas in Albuquerque with Charlie's family. We try to rotate every year, one year in Vegas, one year in Albuquerque. Prior to us leaving town we celebrated Christmas with my parents and sister's family. We had a Honeybaked ham that was absolutely delicious. I can still taste it and am constantly craving more! After dinner we opened gifts.


My mom made the kids quilts this year. Kadee got Tinkerbell and Cole got Cars. Cole loves blankets. He has a tattered blue one that he sleeps with every night and loves the heck out of. I was lucky to get a good shot of him snuggling with his new quilt. She made one for each of the little kids and in addition to the ones my kiddos got they included Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Animals, Soccer and all turned out great. Nice work mom!

Dad got a new truck this year so me and my sister pitched in and got him a GPS. Vegas is a bit bigger than Albuquerque so he is always calling me and my sister for mapquest printouts and directions so hopefully this will help him out a bit.



My mom has really picked up her sewing, so we went ahead and got her a really nice sewing table that folds out to a monstrous workspace so she can sprawl her projects all over the place.

Unbelievable

So this week has been relatively cold and on Monday the foothills surrounding Vegas got snow. It has been beautiful to see the mountains surrounding us with a dusting of snow covering them. So at work on Monday, I started joking around with everyone saying that maybe we would get a snow day, since there were flurries and all. Everyone laughed hysterically at me. I told them, you wait until these roads are snow packed and we can't drive home. The laughs got louder and louder. Well this morning it looked a little threatening but this is Vegas and the chances of snow in two days just isn't in the cards. Well low and behold at lunch we started seeing a flake here and a flake there. I immediately warned my coworkers to just wait and see because the roads would be snow packed and we wouldn't be able to get home. Again I was laughed at...hysterically. Well around 2:00 pm we started seeing these snowflakes again. The calls started to our family and friends to see what the weather was like near their part of town. When I called my mom she informed me there was at least two inches on the ground by them. Then another co-worker who happened to be off e-mailed a photo of himself at his house and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground! At 3:00 pm we left the office. It took us two hours to get home. Us Vegas drivers just aren't used to this white stuff! When we got to our house, it was stunning and had a beautiful white blanket covering it. We immediately bundled the kids up and headed to the front yard to build a snowman. Our neighborhood was very spirited and almost all of the houses had a friendly snowman in their front yards! As of right now it is still snowing, schools are canceled tomorrow and who knows maybe mommy and daddy will have a "Snow Day" because after all, the roads look like they will be snow packed :

My Starbucks Kids

We have all been a little under the weather lately, Cole especially. Charlie stayed home with them yesterday and took them to the doctor. They are both on antibiotics, nebulizer treatments and prescription decongestants! I felt like absolute crud today so I stayed home with Cole. On top of us all being a little under the weather, it has been pretty cold here in Vegas recently...we even got snow yesterday. So in our freezing cold 44 degree temperatures (I know everyone up in Montana who is suffering from -32 degree temperatures are probably laughing at my "freezing cold" comment), we decided we all needed a warm treat after I picked Kadence up from school today. Starbucks is right across the street from her school so away we went. One thing we all agreed on is that Starbucks has a magical way of making a sore throat feel a lot better!

Kadee's End of the Season Party

Kadence recently had her year end party for Cheerleading. The girls all gathered for a pizza party hosted by her coach. Awards and trophies were handed out. Kadence was given the "best smile" award which she truly deserved. She enjoyed the season, getting to know the girls and learning all of the fun cheers. Kadence's Cheer Squad
Waiting patiently for their trophies!

Santa's Visit

Kadence and Cole were invited to a birthday party with a special guest of honor...Santa Claus! Cole was a little nervous at first but warmed up quickly to the Jolly old fellow. Kadee rattled off her wish list to Santa which included diamonds and gold, yes you read that right, my five year old wanted diamonds and gold this year! I take absolutely no responsibility for this, as the only diamonds and gold I have is my wedding ring, which I haven't been able to wear since I was pregnant with Kadee (my fingers swelled up so much and never shrunk back down to size!) I saw a little surprise in Santa's face when she laid this request on him, he chuckled and then quickly asked if she had been good enough this year, she looked up to me quickly for reassurance and told Santa that yes she had been a good girl. All in all she was right, she is a very good girl and we count our blessings for her!

Kadee's Gymnastics Winter Extravaganza

Kadence has been going to gymnastics at GymCats for almost a year now. She goes once a week and really enjoys it. This Saturday, her gym put on a winter extravaganza that Kadee participated in. It is amazing to see how much she has progressed in the last year! Her cartwheels are getting better and better every week and she is really excelling on the beam. That little girl just glides across that thing like it is nothing! I am pretty sure her favorite thing to do at the gym however is hanging from the bar over the foam pit and then letting go and falling into piles upon piles of foam squares. To be honest, I think that would be my favorite thing to do also!

Christmas Party 2008

This last Friday, our group in our office gathered together at our supervisor's house for a Christmas party. We had it catered and took part in the "white elephant" gift exchange. I think everyone there had a fantastic time. The food was delicious and the company was great.

"The Group"

"The Girls"

Okay so the rumor has it that something is in the water at our office, specifically in my group because both me and Clarice are prego! That's okay, it just gives us a better excuse to eat more chocolate chip "Nothing Bundt Cake"...YUMMY!

Naturally, during the gift exchange, Charlie picked the gift in the Victoria's Secret bag. My husband is addicted to this store, for obvious reasons I guess. Every time he is at the mall with me we have to visit Victoria's Secret. Men! The joke was on him however, because there were no untouchables in the bag, only a DVD of "The Office" TV series. Everyone else was very spirited about the gift exchange. Some were happy with their option of picking a gift from under the tree while others had their eyes on somebody else's gift and waited their turn to move in for the kill. Dallas made it clear that her gift would be going nowhere but home with her. It was really cute and although several teased she got to take it home with her, not to mention that she pretty much threatened anyone who attempted to take it from her! I don't think Joe even cared much about the present he received, he was just happy to get a new hair accessory. He must have known that a big present was waiting for him in Marty's garage. See Joe had a little run in with a pole in our parking garage, so Marty, being the good-hearted supervisor that he is, brought in a bike from the garage for Joe to use until his car was back from the shop. Don't feel bad Joe, when I was pregnant with Kadence, I reversed into a pole on two different occasions and reversed into a parked car. Hey, like they say, $h!t happens!The night ended on a good note, and several left with new found hair accessories! I think we all had a great time and look forward to it again next year.

Christmas Traditions

I started a tradition back when Kadee was born that every year, the night we decorate our Christmas tree we would sleep out in the living room with all of the Christmas lights on. So this year we ordered Pizza, set up the tree and blew up the air mattress as a bed for the kids. Me and Daddy sleep on the couch next to them. We watched "Polar Express" and Kadee and me were the first to fall asleep. Cole stayed up to keep Daddy company! Soon everyone was fast asleep and another tradition was over.

Another tradition of mine is that every year I buy the kids a Hallmark Ornament that pretty much resembles something about them from the past year. I got this idea from a Hallmark commercial well before I had kids. It was about a little boy at school who brought in a box of ornaments for show and tell. He carefully told the class about each one and why his mom had bought it for him. I also have a close friend who's mother did this for her and I just thought it was a great idea!

Me and Charlie headed to the Hallmark store on Friday during our lunch break to pick out just the right ornaments for the kids this year. Cole's was pretty easy. He recently was at my sister's house while me and Charlie went to some friend's for dinner. My sister has an old wooden train set that her son used to play with that Cole absolutely loves. When we came to pick him up that night he surprised us with a new saying, "All Aboard!" He's not talking a whole lot yet but this was clear as day, what was even better was the head movements he makes when he says it. So as we perused through all of the ornaments looking for some type of choo-choo train Charlie found this one from the Polar Express, titled, you guessed it, "All Aboard".

One down, one to go. Kadee's ornament is always a little tougher to find. We looked and looked, and there were some cute ones but none stood out more than the Pink Barbie Princess. We decided on this one for several reasons. This year Kadence has really started to play with Barbies. She has a huge container full and loves taking at least two everywhere we go. She also got to pick out her Halloween costume for the first time and as you all may have seen, she picked out a pink glamour Barbie costume. I always thought I would have a little tomboy, but boy was I mistaken, she is a little girly girl and loves all that is pink and pretty! That's why we decided this ornament was perfect for her this year.

A BIG SURPRISE!!!!

Back in September of this year me and Charlie found out that we were in for the surprise of our lives! See, we have been pretty lucky and have been able to do almost everything according to plan! We went to college together, after college we got married (I was 25 years old, which was the age I had wanted to be when I got married). A year after we were married we bought our house. In 2003, we welcomed our beautiful baby girl into our lives and then added to our family in 2006 with our son, Cole. They were three years apart in age, just as I planned! At that point Charlie made it clear we were done! We had a beautiful daughter and an adventurous son, one each, both healthy and happy, our family was complete. Plan accomplished!

And then come September, I realized something just wasn't right. Things weren't going as expected. I didn't mention anything to Charlie, no need to panic right. Well come mid-September, I thought I better bring it to his attention. We laughed about it, pretty much laughed it off and just thought maybe my "schedule" was off. I had been on some pretty strong antibiotics for an infection I had so things over the last few months had been kind of crazy anyway! And then another week went buy and it was time to take "the test". It was now time to panic. Two lines shot up immediately, no need to wait the full three minutes! I almost fainted, really this was the closest I have ever come to fainting. This was not planned, this was not happening.

I told Charlie and that next month we were both just like deer in headlights. How are we going to afford another baby. With the housing market bottoming out, we knew we weren't getting into another house. We only have three bedrooms, where would we put another baby. It just seemed like constant hyperventilation the entire month. I couldn't sleep, I caught myself in tears all the time. This was not according to plan and I could not deal with it!

At this point I had already started blogging and one of my friends at work kept telling me about a blog I needed to read. It was written by a mother of four girls who just lost her 18 month old to a drowning. On one of my sleepless nights, I decided to sit down and read this blog. I cried and cried and cried. I wrote about it in a previous post of mine. But those words written by that mother literally changed my outlook on life that night. There was a picture of her hand holding her daughter's hand (who was in a coma and about to be taken off of life support) and the second I saw that picture and read the entry the gray cloud that was hanging over me literally was gone. I was crying tears of joy at that point for the beautiful blessing I had been given.

My children are my world, what would make this one any different. So we would have to tighten our budget a little and the kids would have to share rooms. Big deal! We were going to be blessed with another beautiful baby, and as long as it was healthy, nothing else mattered! The next morning on our way to work, I broke down in tears telling Charlie about the excerpts from the blog I had read and how stupid I was to shed one tear over this. Our family was growing by one and that would only bring us more happy memories then we could have ever imagined! For the first time I saw the cloud disappear from over Charlie and he got it. Even though it was not according to plan, this was nothing but a blessing! We waited until I was twelve weeks to tell people, wanted to see the doc and make sure all was okay. We were actually nervous about telling people. How do two, responsible adults accidentally get pregnant? I just told myself, God has a plan for us and it includes three beautiful blessings! Ever since I have had such a good feeling about our family, it now seemed like it would be complete! Charlie has been absolutely fantastic throughout this whole thing and I am lucky to have him as the father of my kiddos!

We recently went in for our Ultrasound and found out...It's a Boy! Everyone, I would like you to meet Chance Neilson!