Christmas in Las Vegas

Wow, we actually stayed in the desert for Christmas this year. It was very different. No hustle and bustle of flying off to the East Coast. Drove home from Utah on Christmas Eve, ate a yummy southwestern style dinner and then wrapped presents for the kids. It was a long day since I sat in the back seat with the kids for 6 hours. Then tried to get us unpacked, straightened the house and got it ready for Santa to come. I think I was more excited than Reece. I wrapped all of his presents while Mo put together an ABC animal toy. One present from Santa and the rest from family is how we tried to explain it to Reece. He must have woken up 4 different times during the night, he is cutting his 2 year molars and hasn't been sleeping well. I was so nervous he was going to see all of his gifts that I would wake, race up stairs and try to settle him back down to sleep. He was up for good around 7 am when he came running into our room shouting, "Mommy come look at the presents. Look at the tree. Can I open them?" We got up and started the 15 minute process of opening presents. I swear, he ripped through them like a wild fire. We would slow him down and try and explain that Santa brought this gift from Noni or Uncle Travis but he didn't care. He was very excited about his piggy bank from Grammy Myers, his Elmo sweatshirt from Uncle Matthew and his Thomas the Train stuff from Uncle Travis, Uncle Jim and Aunt Jaime. Raine sat on my lap and watched all of the chaos. Christmas afternoon was spent with The Castillo Family. We enjoyed a delicious meal with good friends.

Day 7 sure isn't Heaven for the lil people

As I tidy up my house while my family sleeps; I hear coughs coming from all 3 bedrooms in the house. Mo is coughing away after swigging a good amount of cough syrup. Not much I can do for him. I check on Raine, give her a drink of water and lay her back down. I go make sure my son isn't freezing to death since he kicks all his covers off during the night. He wakes as I am covering him up and says, "Mama, will you lay wif me for just one lil tiny minute." My heart melts as I lay down with my sick 3 year old. Poor guy has the start of a double ear infection and quite a wicked cold. Runny green boogies and an awful cough.

I woke to him asking if he could crawl in bed with us. It was 7:30 am which is late for Reece to wake. He climbed in and chatted our ears off. We asked hm to go play with some of his new toys, he said he wanted to snuggle with us. Can't pass that up. So we snuggled a bit then he wanted cartoons. I'm sick of Disney so I asked for Sesame Street. He obliged. All three of us hung out in bed until about 8:30 when we heard lil Raine thumping away in her crib. Reece heard her and asked if we could go wake her up. I went up to get the baby and Mo made coffee. He makes a mean cafe mocha with a splash of vanilla creamer.

As we were eating breakfast, I told MO I think I should take the kids to the doctor. I called a girlfriend to confirm, sometimes I need to get the encouragement from a fellow mom since my hubby was indifferent. I knew in my gut that the kids noses were only going to greener and their coughs were only going to become more frequent without some antibiotics. I have been nursing semi-cold symptoms for too long; especially in Reece.

At 9:45 I call and get an appointment for 10:45. Plenty of time an hour to get ready and out the door. Nope, we were running out the door so we weren't late. It's hard to get ready with two lil people underfoot; plus they needed to brush teeth and hair too. I ran back in the house for Raine's blanket I knew she would need it, we don't go any where with out it! Oh and I had to grab some bread for the ducks. I bribbed Reece with feeding the ducks if he was a good boy at the doctors office. So we made it through the appointment no problem. Raine is fine it's just her allergies with all of the wind kicking up and she hasn't had her singular for a few days so that doesn't help. Reece on the other hand has a very high threshold for pain. He must take after his mama. He's quite congested, coughing alot, lots of running boogies and don't forget those pesty ear infections. He never told me his ears were hurting. What a trooper. After the doc we fed the ducks super fast since Raine was so cranky and tired. Came home put Raine to bed and headed back out to fill the scripts. $90.00 later I have Raine's singular, a cough med and an antibiotic for Reece. I got home for Target just in time to fill Reece's body with meds and put him down for a nap. Once he finally fell asleep; he was out for almost 3 hours. Raine slept almost 5 hours. Think my kids need some rest or what.

I should have been more productive during their naps but once again I was sucked into the computer. Oh well, I got a few things done. Mo brought home take out again since we are on vacation and were blessed with so many gift cards. Reece didn't want to eat so he watched Ice Age with his daddy. I gave Raine a bath and put her to bed while the boys played on the computer, practiced writing their letters, showered and went to bed. It was a hectic morning but a reasonably lax afternoon, hence the reason I am up straightening up my home while my family sleeps. Better go get a few more things accomplished...

Day 6 of winter break

Day 6
Thursday, Dec 27th and I am still not planning on going any where any time soon. I was able to chat with friends on the phone while the kids slept. I spent way too much time cleaning up my emails; reading over 200, well deleting those darn shopping ones. I am proud to say my inbox and files are condensed. I uploaded and edited more pics of the kids from Christmas. I spent the remaining $100.00 on my CCSD gift card. Paid my scholastic book orders and ordered books for Reece & Raine's Leap pad. I rather play on the computer than pick up clutter. Plus who can pick up when lil bodies just take more stuff out!

Reece and I played ABC puzzle cards, ABC Bingo, painted and opened more new toys. He is getting very good at recognizing his alphabet. Mo also taught him how to make an R. He is pretty good at it. Now he can write all the letters in his name. R-E-E-C-E spells Reece he signs as he writes. He loves to write on the lil dry erase board he got from Grammy Rosie. The marker already died since he wouldn't put it down. Thankfully, Erin gave him an ABC dry erase book with a new marker for Christmas.

I convinced the DeRusha family to come over for a take out dinner so the kids could open their presents and we could see them one last time. We saw our friends 3 times while they were in from Cali. That may be a record. I had to hurry and clear off the table so we would have a place to eat but it worked out. They didn't care about the piles of clutter that are still growing around my home. They realize it is Christmas and my home is very well lived in!

All in all~a wonderfully relaxing day!

Christmas break has truly begun!

It is day 5 of my winter break and I finally feel like I relaxed all day long. Don't get me wrong, I have been somewhat relaxed on days 1, 2, 3, 4 but there was always something I needed to do on those days. Today however I had nothing to do, no where to go. Nothing but feed my kids and play with them. We played a lot. I looked at several piles around my house and ignored them all. That is very hard for me to do. When I ignore them they seem to grow. I have a forest of clean & dirty clothes growing on a chair near my bed.
Reece and I played Chutes & Ladders for the first time today. He was enjoying it. He didn't like having to slide down the chutes but loved when he was able to climb a ladder. I had to explain that when he was in the middle of a chute or ladder it was a safe spot. He would become very excited when he would land on a "safe spot". I won the game. Reece was not very happy about that. I explained to him that if he didn't cheat and spin the spinner two times instead of once; he wouldn't have lost his turn and maybe he would have won!

Since Reece is just learning how to play games we had to create a cheating rule. When he decides he wants to go two times or look at the cards in memory and CHEAT he has to lose his turn. He seems to be learning from it. He only cheated 2 times during Chutes & Ladders.

Raine loves to dance so when Reece napped we played with everything musical. She loves to play her piano and today she was doing some ballet moves while she played. Her friend at the babysitter goes to dance classes and teaches Raine how to dance. It's always an adorable sight. I guess she will be headed to some dance classes some day.

I better go get something accomplished today. Maybe I will read the letters I had my second graders write to me. That will give me a good laugh! Or I could start a new book and finish my fun filled day of doing nothing!

Merry Christmas to all

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! It was super relaxing! We woke to Reece stirring in his bed at about 5:30. I ran upstairs so he wouldn't come down and see all of the presents. He was still pretty sleepy so I layed with him for a bit and then he fell back asleep. I crept back down to my bed and woke at 7:30 to the sound of a lil one playing under the tree. I kicked Mo and said I think Reece is up. We peaked in on him and he was playing with the Chutes & Ladders game I had set up under the tree. We ran back into the bedroom to grab the video camera and sneak up on him.

We said, "Reece what are you doing up?" He was afraid he was in trouble. I then said, "What is all this?" "PRESENTS," he shouted. We asked him who brought all of this and he shouted SAAANNNTTTAAAA! He was so cute. He wanted to open more presents but we told him we needed to go get Raine first. When we walked into her room, she was up playing with her baby doll. It was the perfect way to wake for Christmas.

The morning was awesome! It took us an hour and a half to open presents, and we didn't have all that much. Reece loved opening the toy trains, games and books. Raine pushed her cabbage patch baby around in her pink umbrella stroller. Mo liked his shirt and tie from the kids but liked his tie rack even more. Who knew my mountain man would enjoy getting all dressed up for work each morning. I was busy with the video camera and regular camera. We would set up for some great camera moments only to realize we were working with a 3 year old and 1 year who wouldn't conform to our ways. I don't know where my children get their stubbornness from?

When we were all finished I started making breakfast. Reece & Mo played Lincoln Logs. They built our future log cabin on the table, way far out of Raine's reach! She was not happy and wanted to help. I stuck her in her chair to eat and she was happy as can be. She went off for her first nap of the day and we enjoyed our eggs, sausage and hash browns! It was delicious. Mo and Reece watched Jungle Book while I cleaned up and downloaded our Christmas pictures. It was such a slow paced morning.

The afternoon seemed to fly by. I showered, made crescent rolls and got the family ready for Christmas dinner at the Castillo's home. We were a little late since my kids love their beds and napped a good long while. I felt pretty bad showing up late for dinner with the salad and rolls, but everyone seemed to be fine with it. The Castillo's had a delicious spread: chicken, lamb, rice, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing and the best pumpkin cheesecake. We also had a birthday cake for Jesus. We lit 5 candles for each of the kids and sang Happy Birthday. It was so fun. The evening was so relaxing. I love hanging out with our west coast family/friends. They are the best.

We drove home, put the kiddos to bed and hit the sack ourselves. I was pooped. All in all, it was a fantastic day; extremely memorable! I hope you all had just as nice a Christmas as we did.

Anxious

Have you ever felt anxious for events to come and then you wondered why your were so worried? I feel that way a lot and I am always so glad when they are over. They were never as bad I thought they would be. The event always goes better than I thought it would. I know that is because I work better under pressure. I wish I could be that person who plans and prepares. Don't get me wrong, I do to some extent. Seriously though, I work best when something is due tomorrow. Is that due to genetics or personality? Are my kiddos doomed to the gene of procrastination also? Just some random thoughts...