Yuletide Review

There it is, the infamous Santa picture we went through so much to get... I love it!  I have the cutest kids!
So Christmas, it was wonderful, even if it had a few black marks here and there.  One huge black mark was that Thomas was sick. Like REALLY sick.  Go to the ER sick.  After 3 days of no eating and only kind of drinking and non stop crying, we took him in, and he had 2 bad ear infections and a viral infection.  So they gave him meds to stop the vomiting (did I forget to mention he was throwing up all the time?)  and antibiotics.  Also, apparently little kids in the ER get the red carpet treatment.  It was very full, and we got a private waiting room, they gave Thomas a quilt, a search and find toy, a book, and a stuffed dog.  Nurses kept coming to see why he was crying, and if they could do anything, it was really nice of them.  Finally the Dr said he had to drink something, otherwise we would have to be admited to give him fluids, which apparently is really hard on a toddler (for obvious reasons I guess) So the nurse brought him 2 sodas, apple juice and "special pink juice" which he actually drank! And then proceeded to drink everything else, once they got the anti-nausea meds in him he was doing much better. But then we had to wait 2 hours to see if he could keep it down. He did, and we left only to have him throw up in the parking lot, no joke.  But it was okay.
Also, my mom was really sick, so that was no fun.  But we had a great Christmas.  We got to spend time with both families, and give and get plenty of gifts, and we got tons of snow (YAY!)  And Lorelai was perfect, not a peep the whole time we were in the ER and dealing with a super sick brother, she was great.  I love that girl (you too Thomas) 
I just spent the last 4 hours unpacking and putting away gifts as well as reorganizing to fit it all,  we are so blessed! And Thomas is laughing, BEST. SOUND. EVER.

Cookies

We recently took a trip to Colorado, and James' sister had some delicious cookies, so I totally copied her idea.  I found some recipes and reworked them and created a sugar gingerbread hybrid cookie, and then some salted caramel cream cheese frosting. They are pretty good, not gonna lie. I thank my sister in law for the inspiration.  It was so much fun for me to have Thomas help me cut out the shapes and he also had a blast.  I am loving the Christmas season, I also made hot chocolate on a stick. Haven't tried it yet, but we have given it t our neighbors, so I hope it's good....
We have also totally given in to Thomas asking to open presents early, yeah... So we have half as many as we started with, but I'm fine with it, let the magic last as long as possible.   We have decided that we are having our own little Christmas on Saturday, before we celebrate with our families next week.  I'm really excited, I have meals planned, and fun treats and everything, I can't wait!
Also we have started watching Vampire Diaries... It's very CW.

Thank you giving!

I figured since I have been HORRIBLE at writing lately I should give an update.
Thanksgiving was great fun. We spent time with my family, and shopped, and ate. It was wonderful.  Thomas wouldn't say Thanks-giving, he would say "Thank you giving" or "Happy giving!"  It was really cute.  He loved all the great food, and spent the whole meal "cutting" his stuffing with his fork. Love that boy.
This year I went all out with my mom and did a whole table setting and everything. I had WAY too much fun doing it. I'm pretty sure my whole family thought I was silly, but I had a blast with it.  Maybe I'll put pictures up, somewhere... Probably not. 
Lorelai slept though Thanksgiving. She wasn't too excited about it. She was also a bit of a mommy's/daddy's girl all weekend. That's tiring!  She moves all over the place now, but not front back, it's always side to side...  And Thomas just tried to sit on her head. Oh the joys! It's the little things really.
Black Friday was a huge success!  We spent what we planned, didn't go totally crazy with gift buying, and still had a great time!  
Ok, I'm being cut short by a super cute little girl who is rather upset that her brother won't leave her alone. He just wants to play Lorelai!

Watermelon

I love it. Seriously. I can eat all I want, all day, every day, and it's never too much.  It's not too much of a good thing, and it's not too many calories.  I actually read somewhere that watermelon is a negative calorie food, meaning you burn more calories digesting it than you could consume from it.  It just makes me happy.

So we celebrated Thomas's birthday, and it was so much fun.  We went to the aquarium, and at first he was a little scared of the fish, but then he loved it. Especially the penguins.  We had a fun cake and cupcakes and pizza and breadsticks. It was great fun.  Then on his actual birthday we ordered more pizza (I'm sick of it) and sang and gave him his gift. We got him a tool set, with a drill that actually spins and screws in little screws.  He loves it. As in for 3 days that's the only toy he played with (that's a big deal for a 2 year old, let me just tell you).  He also got a fun magnetic alphabet book, cute clothes, and shoes from our families. It was a great 2nd birthday if I do say so myself.

The kids got shots, and Lorelai is 13.15 lbs, 23 inches, and Thomas is 23lbs and 33 inches.  I have one tall skinny kid and one short chunky one. I LOVE IT!  It's so much fun :)  However both kids shots at the same time, bad plan.  I had to have my mom come with me because James was at school, it's a good thing she was there because I hate it! Thomas was so upset, he kept saying "Hurt, hurt"  and it made my heart hurt.  Lorelai got over it pretty quickly, I cuddled her and she was fine, Thomas was sad for hours and kept telling me about it.  But he's done with shots until kindergarten, party!!!  Lorelai goes back in 2 months.

The police academy is in full swing now, and I miss James like crazy. But he's having a great time.

My little not-roller

Lorelai hates to roll over.  She has done it about 5 times, and gets really upset about it. So now she refuses.  She scoots around on her stomach, and can do a complete 180 while on her stomach to face the toys she wants, but she refuses to roll over.  It's a little odd actually. Thomas was a rolling fiend, he wouldn't stop, I couldn't keep him on a blanket to save my life. Lorelai, on the other hand, must get motion sickness or something.... We do tummy time all the time, sometimes twice a day. Who knows.
I often find myself only posting on my blog when one of my friends has, and I think "Oh, I should write something" 
My phone fell into the toilet. Very tragic, it's currently getting a rice bath to fix it, I hope.
Lorelai started solids. She is pretty good with them, still spits some out, but actually eats too.
Thomas still refuses to eat, and Lorelai is gaining on him. Literally. They are less than 10 lbs apart now. My little chunky girl.
Thomas LOVES nursery all of the sudden. He gets mad when we leave, and asks to go back all the time. Which is great!
I have our Halloween costumes almost all done, it's awesome. We are the famous foursome from the Wizard of Oz.
Lorelai is barely into 3-6 month clothing, apparently she's not as chunky as I'd like to believe...
James is amazing, he has made it through 6 weeks of school, every day. Until last Friday, I asked him to skip because I missed him.

Life is good, and Lorelai is crying, got to go do my thing!

A Church-time Disaster

So this morning as I lay in bed I thought "I want to sleep in, but I'll get up and we will go to Church, it's important"  So getting dressed was the same ordeal it always is, Thomas not wanting his tie, Lorelai pooping on our way out the door, ect.  Nothing out of the norm, other than Lorelai was a little fussy, but babies do that sometimes.
We got to  church right on time, sat down, both kids were doing good, we had announcements and then Thomas started to cough. Just a little, oh ho, little did I know how problematic a little coughing could be.  He kept coughing, and then burped, really loudly (several people turned and smiled at us, especially those with little kids) and then he made a face.  The worst face, one you never want to see, but especially not while sitting in Sacrament meeting.
Thomas threw up. All over James, the bench, me, the pew in front of us, and the VERY nice couple sitting in front of us. That's right, during the opening song my two year old managed to catch every eye in the audience.  Poor kid,  before we knew what was happening he threw up again. I then very sternly told James to take Thomas outside, all the way outside so that he wouldn't get anything else dirty. And then I got out the baby wipes, gave a few to the people in front of us and set to cleaning as much as I could.  Right then Lorelai started screaming.  At that moment I thought "I am the most irreverent mother that ever was".  And I wanted to cry.  Then a very nice older lady came over and took Lorelai, and Thomas's nursery leader brought me paper towels and I got it all cleaned.   On our way home I thought "Why do we ever bother? we NEVER make it through sacrament, and now everyone in my ward will know me as the mom whose kid threw up in sacrament meeting" We got home, got everyone cleaned, and as we put Thomas in the bath I just started to cry.  I was so mortified at what had happened, and completely embarrassed.  I felt like everyone in the meeting turned from the first counselor who was speaking to us, and just stared at us. 
Of course that wasn't enough, I went in my room to get something, and my bed was soaking wet.  Our air conditioner that is above our bed leaked.  And Lorelai was still screaming.
Oh my, it's been quite the day.  I'll post again soon, and that one will have a happier undertone, I promise. But right now, I am a little upset.

I'm no good at this...

Coming up with creative titles that is.  My dear friends whose blogs I read always have such good titles and fun stories and I just feel like I can't find a creative title to save my life.  Perhaps I am just too hard on myself and people don't really care what I title my blog....

Probably.

Anywho, life around these parts is pretty awesome.  James took Friday off of work, just cause he didn't want to get up in the morning (and then two minutes later Thomas woke up and he had to get up anyway, lol) but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  We got to go to the park, and play all day, and I got to clean my house without holding a 3 month old and constantly craning my neck to check on my two year old who gets suspiciously quiet from time to time. Yes, that is my exciting thing, cleaning my house. What can I say, I'm a homemaker through and through (my friend Brittany would have undoubtedly had a much funnier way of saying that, and for that, I think I need to spend more time hanging out with her and her two adorable kids...) Anyhow, I feel like we are finally getting a good rhythm, I have a schedule of what part of the house gets cleaned on what days, and when the kids get bathed, and what time of day we do reading time, and singing time ect.  Lorelai still likes to have little fits of annoyance when I sit down to read to Thomas (for some reason she has decided she has to have me holding her and standing while trying to read to Thomas... it's kind of like a circus act, because Thomas wants to turn the pages and point out letters and pictures, I have mad skills) Speaking of my adorable kids, want an update? I'm sure you do, I'm sure you sit around all day thinking "What is going on with Amanda's kids?" No? Oh, well okay, too bad for you. You're going to get one anyway (I realize as I sit here that I keep saying you, and acting as though I am talking to a specific person, does that in any way qualify as me talking to myself, like, digitally... food for thought) Thomas is way too much fun, and way to freakin' smart. He figures everything out, even if I am trying my best to keep him from doing so. He remembers where I hide things, and days later will go get them to play with them. The dang nerf guns I got James for Christmas last year have become the bane of my existence. Thomas figured out how to load and shoot them.  The big problem is, he doesn't think he can do it himself, and acts like he needs my help.  So instead of him playing quietly by himself for a little while, he chases me around and asks for help.  He has found them 5 different times when I have tried to hide them... Hopefully the back of our closet behind our Christmas decorations will last for a while... Hopefully.  Lorelai is such a little observer. She always wants to watch everything, and gets mad if she can't.  She loves to look at toys, all of them. But just look, she's not into touching them. I worried that maybe she couldn't get them or something, but when I try to clean her nose or wipe her face she can sure grab my hand with uncanny accuracy... So I'm thinking she just doesn't want to hold the toys...
We are watching  "Operation Dumbo Drop" so I gotta go before I miss the good part ;)