Christmas 2008 Part 2

For the last couple of years, my family has had our Christmas festivities some time between Christmas and New Years Day. We have done this, not only because of every one's busy schedules on Christmas, but also because someone usually has to work on Christmas. This year we all got together last night at our house. As you can see from these first two pictures, our house was pretty packed. We had 29 people which included 20 adults and 9 children. We ate "finger foods", played a white elephant game, and opened our gift exchange presents.

Cooper was asleep by the time we opened presents, so Mason and Daddy opened his presents for him. Aren't they so nice?

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Meador for the boys' presents!

Mason and Braeden have matching slippers (or sandals as Mason calls them) so, they thought they were pretty cool.

Christmas 2008

I fully intended on wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, before Christmas Day ended, but as I am sure everyone can agree, the day just goes by so fast and before I knew it, it was late and time for bed. So, I hope everyone had a great Christmas surrounded by their family, friends, and good food. I don't have as many pictures as I would have hoped to. I usually forget my camera, or when I do remember to bring it, I forget to take pictures.

Every year we go to Grandpa and Grandma Long's house (Jeff's Mom's parents) on Christmas Eve. We always have tons of snacks and play some games. This year we took Settlers of Catan with us and taught Jeff's brother Steve and Uncle Dave the game. Yours tuely FINALLY won the game. (In all the times we have played I have never won, and I got close only once.)

Usually when we get home from Grandpa and Grandma Long's house we let the boys open one present (their new pajamas), but they were both asleep in the car by the time we got home, so they both went straight to bed.

Me, Jeff's mom Teresa, and Cooper

Christmas morning we open presents at home with the boys. This year we decided not to put any presents under the tree until the boys went to bed Christmas Eve. So Mason was really excited to see all the presents in the morning.

Mason opening his "Santa" present.

Santa brought Mason a backhoe and Cooper a big squishy car.

Cooper really didn't care much about his presents, he wanted to play with Mason's, because after all big boy toys are so much better.

Mason's new fire truck and backhoe

Every year we open presents with Jeff's parents and brother's family Christmas morning after we have all opened presents with our individual families. We rotate who's house we open presents at, this year it was our turn.

After we opened presents with Jeff's parents and brother's family, we went to my parents for a pancake brunch. Of course I forgot my camera, so sorry, no pictures. It ended up being around noon by the time we sat down to eat. Once we were all done, Cooper was really tired. I looked over at him sitting in his highchair, he had his left hand over his left eye as if to say, "Leave me alone, I am very tired". My brother-in-law Aaron saw this too, so he took Cooper's right hand and put it over his right eye. As soon as Aaron did this, you could see under Cooper's hands his lips begin to quiver and then the tears came on. I couldn't help but laugh. I really did feel bad for him, he had a long couple of days.

This year Jeff and I decided (well it was more Jeff deciding) to have Christmas dinner at our house. This was the first year (in our five years of marriage) that we have made our own holiday dinner. We had ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green been casserole, corn, rolls, apple pie and ice cream. We invited my sister Britany, and Jeff's parents over.

Christmas traditions

I just thought I would take a minute to write down our family's Christmas traditions and I would love to hear what every one's traditions are!

*Thanksgiving night we watch a Christmas movie, to get the spirit of Christmas

*We set up our Christmas tree (or at least we try to) the day after Thanksgiving

*Every year we buy a Christmas ornament with the year on it.

*We spend Christmas Eve with Jeff's Grandpa and Grandma Long, where we have snacks and play games.

*We buy new pajamas and open them on Christmas Eve and wear them to bed that night.

*We open the rest of our presents in the morning.

*Then as soon as we are done opening presents at our house we go open presents with Jeff's parents and brother, Steve's family.

*Later in the day we go to Jeff's grandma Borders' house and have Christmas dinner with that side of his family. (This year we are doing something different though)

*A few days after Christmas (usually New Years Day) we get together with my family and we have our Christmas gift exchange and a white elephant exchange.

More unwelcomed snow

Between last Thursday and Friday, we got close to 28" on snow. From Saturday night to Sunday night we got an additional 6". Yesterday we got about another 1". On the news they said we would not be getting any snow today, but would be having another storm Wednesday and Thursday that is expected to bring an additional 5-8" plus snow on Saturday and Sunday. Hooray! No snow Today! Nope, guess again! It has been snowing since I got up today. Luckily it's just some light flurries, so not much is accumulating, but still. Do we really need any more snow? I think not. OK mother nature you can give good ol' Spokane a break for...um...let's see...maybe a year....or two.

If it weren't for all my family living in Spokane, I would move somewhere where the weather stays above zero in the winter and below ninety degrees in the summer. Thankfully though, Jeff was able to find a snow blower on Craig's list, so at least we (I mean I) am not out there shoveling the snow!

Honestly

I gotta good idea!

This phrase seems to be Mason's latest and greatest. He uses it to his benefit all the time.

When he is suppose to be in bed, already asleep, he will come down the stairs and tell us, "I gotta good idea, I will go to bed, Dad will do the dishes, and Mom will watch a movie!". (While he shakes his finger with every detail, and saying it matter of factually) I have to admit that I do like his "good idea" when it benefits me too.

He not only uses this phrase when he is stalling at bed time, he will also repeat what Jeff or I just said, beginning with "Hey, I gotta good idea..." (followed by what Jeff or I just said), then he will ask, "Is that a good idea?" Yup, great idea Mason, it's too bad I didn't think of it myself.

Cooper's (finally) walking!

I was beginning to wonder if this big event would ever happen, but I am very happy to say that he has began walking. It seems like forever ago that he took his first steps. I thought that after he took his first steps (at 14 months, on Oct. 21), he would take off running, but he decided he liked the crawling thing much better. He has been walking now for about a week. He started out just walking about five feet and then going right back down to crawl the rest of the way (even if he technically could have continued to walk). Every day he walks more and more. I'm sure that in a matter of weeks he will be running.

My back and arms are now getting a much needed break from carrying around our 27 pound sack of potatoes. Not to mention, my ears are also getting a break from hearing him whine and cry if I didn't take him EVERYWHERE with me, now he just walks with me.

A quiet moment

One of the quieter moments with five boys. (They were watching The Polar Express)

Dominoes

Last night Mason was getting REALLY cranky. I'm sure it was because he had been cooped up in the house all day. So we got out our Domino set and I showed him how to make a "Domino reaction". Mason LOVED it. He even played with the dominoes this morning and entertained himself pretty good for over an hour while I went out and dug our driveway out after the plows came by and put two feet of packed snow on the driveway.Setting up his dominoes.
My turn.

Mason got a hold of the camera

26" and counting

The snow began to fall yesterday morning around 9:00 and has not stopped. I have lost count of how many times Jeff and I have shoveled our driveway, but it really doesn't matter because our street is covered by the 26" of snow that has fallen in the last 26 hours or so.

I just took this picture from the middle of our street. You can't tell where our property stops and the street begins.

This is our back yard. The fence at the back of our property is 6 feet tall.

We are due to still get an additional 2-4" today and more snow on Sunday and possibly more on Saturday as well!

After being outside for just a few minutes, Mason and I came inside to enjoy some hot chocolate and a "Pirouette" (which is a Chocolate Fudge rolled wafer). Yummy!

Bisquick

I have always debated whether or not if I should write about the great deals I find at the grocery store or not. I finally decided to share one of these great deals. Albertsons is running a sale right now on Bisquick (40 oz. size) 2/$5. That in it's self is NOT a great deal, but along with that, if you buy $10 in Bisquick (and/or other participating items) Albertsons will give you $4 off your final grocery bill. So, if you buy 4 boxes of Bisquick for $10, take $4 off, then you just paid $6 for 4 boxes of Bisquick. OH BUT WAIT! I just found $1 off coupons for the Bisquick on ebay. So now my final price will be $2 for 4 boxes of Bisquick!!! Yup, I will end up paying $0.50 for each box of Bisquick!

OK, so here the one down fall to "buying" coupons off ebay, you don't get to choose the quantity of coupons you want to "buy", the seller does. So, I had to order 20-$1.00 off coupons, and well, I really don't need 20 boxes of Bisquick. So for anyone who is saying right now (and lives or will be in the Spokane area) "I wish I could get that same deal on Bisquick". You can! I am going to go ahead and buy all 20 boxes of Bisquick, and am willing to "sell" (probably) 10 of the boxes for $0.60 ($0.50=cost of Bisquick and $0.10=cost to ship each coupon to my house). If you are interested in buying some of the Bisquick, let me know. You can buy one box or all boxes.

***12/16/08 update**** So I went to Albertson's to cash in on my great deal and they didn't have as many of the Bisquick as I wanted, so I got a rain check and will be going back in, in a few days to get the Bisquick.

Just to give you an idea of how great a deal this is...the 40oz. Bisquick is normally $4.39.

If you take $3.89 (amount saved) divide it by $4.39. Total saved is 88%

Mason's asthma and allergies

As most of you know, Mason has asthma and begins to have an asthma attack if he runs around a lot and is allergic to cats and dogs, what else he may be allergic to we don't know, but we will be having him tested of allergies come summer.

About a month ago, I took Mason into the doctor because he had a cough (and he had the cough for two months previous to that) but when Jeff listened to Mason with his stethoscope, his lungs sounded clear. I explained to the doctor that he coughs when he runs around a lot, when he is around animals, and well, pretty much all the time. I also told her that we would give him nebulizer treatments when the coughing would get really bad, but the treatments would only subside the coughing for a few hours.

I told our doctor that I didn't think it was fair for Mason to have to stop running around like every other three year old boy, just because he has asthma. I hated having to tell Mason that he had to settle down when he was having so much fun, I know he just thought I was punishing him. Our doctor agreed with me that Mason should be able to play and be like every other three year old and so she put Mason on Singulair. Within about a week of taking him medicine we really noticed a decrease in his coughing, and after another week, the coughing was gone!

Mason had a follow-up appointment with his doctor today. He is doing very well on his medication, but she reminded me to still keep Mason away from cats and dogs (and all other animals until we have his allergy tests done in the summer) as much as possible because the medication is not a "cure all". He can still have asthma attacks.

In my own perfect little world, none of our family members or friends would have cat or dogs. Since I don't have my own perfect world, and never will, we just have to limit the time we expose Mason to cats and dogs. I don't like having to limit our time that we get to spend at those family members and friends' houses, but we have to do what is best for Mason, and not let our selfish desires of wanting to stay and visit take over.

One crazy week!

I have a new appreciation for single parents. Though I don't think I fully understand what they go through, the appreciation is still there. Let me explain why I have this new appreciation.

Jeff has a goal of becoming a Firefighter/EMT and then eventually a Firefighter/Paramedic. In order to accomplish this goal he has to go through (and pass) the fire academy, become a certified EMT, and then test with any or all the fire district he wants to get hired on with, and then hopefully get hired on. Jeff was really lucky to have been accepted into the EMT course before he passed the fire academy. (Usually you have to get through the fire academy before they will even consider you for the EMT course).

Jeff has been taking the EMT course since the beginning of November and the course will continue until the first weekend in January. Along with taking the EMT course, Jeff is also training with the volunteers from Fire District 9. He is hoping that once he goes through the fire academy (which starts sometime in February and is a ten week course) he will be able to test with one of the Fire Districts and get hired.

So where does the feeling like a single parent come in? Well, for the last month Jeff's schedule has looked like this:

Working full time M-F 8am-5pm

Monday night with the volunteer firefighters from 6:30-9:00pm

Wednesday night at his EMT course from 6:00pm-10:00pm. So Jeff goes straight from work to class, so he is gone from 8:00am-10:30pm

Saturday he is at his EMT course from 8:00am-5:30pm

This past week has been really crazy! I not only had to deal with Jeff being gone all the time, but I hurt my back and I could barley walk! Then to really top it all off Cooper has been sick with an ear infection and a fever Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so all he wanted was for me hold him. Yup, that was fun. Me with my sore back and Cooper my 27 pound 15 1/2 month son, who still does not walk and absolutely refused to crawl anywhere! Oh, and I almost forgot that Cooper was not sleeping well, he would wake up from his nap after just an hour of being asleep and he would wake up several times during the night. So needless to say, Jeff and I have been really sleep deprived and Cooper was super cranky. Last night I came in the living room and found this:

Too cute!

Christmas gift for our house

Jeff and I have decided that instead of buying each other gifts for Christmas, we would buy something for the family or house. We figure that we pretty much get the things we need/want when we need/want them anyways, so by the time Christmas comes, we struggle to think of things to get each other. This year we ordered a "Shelf Reliance" shelf. For those of you who may not know what this is, it is a shelf that rotates your food for you, as long as you put the food in order of when it expires, the one that expires first will be the one available to you first. We went with the shelf that holds just #10 cans, the particular shelf can hod up to 112-#10 cans.

Bill helped Jeff put the shelf together, and as you can see, he was thrilled about it! Thanks for helping Bill!

Mason, Connor, and Zachary took an empty box that had our food storage in it and made a train out it.

Bush Bloopers

I got this from a friends blog. (Thanks Nicole!) Anyways, it's just some funny bloopers from speeches President Bush has given. Now, don't get me wrong, I like President Bush, I think he has done a great job with the problems that have come our way, but I still find this really funny!

Bye-Bye and Kisses

I am constantly amazed at the things Cooper understands! The other day Jeff was explaining to Cooper that we needed to get his shoes and coat on so we could go bye-bye. Cooper went right to the garage door and tried to open it. Then after getting Cooper's coat on, Jeff said, "let's go to the car". To which Cooper responded, "car?" It seems that everyday Cooper is learning a new word.

He has also learned how to kiss. He will give you a kiss when you ask him for one and then when you say thank you, he will give you another kiss.