What we have been doing since Christmas.... a quick catch up :)

Here is what we have done since Christmas...

• Had New Years.... obviously....  we went to Red Lobster with Nana and Pappy (my parents) my sister, and my cousin Ang. Then to his parents until midnight where the children delighted in shooting everyone with nerf guns... battery powered.... machine gun style....  loonnnggg night.
• We had a round of nasty stomach flu.... yuck... lets not elaborate. 
• We had a Sleepover at Grammy B's so Tom and I got a weekend to ourselves!!! Sooo nice, so needed, so grateful. I takes quite a woman to take three under three for two night. And they took them to church! This was Daniels first sleepover.... *sigh*sniff*
• We had checkups and Flu shots.. and flu booster shots... never ending doctors appointments, that is my life.
• We had and are currently having the Blizzard of 2010. About 2 feet of snow in two major storms, no school in a week! crazy wind, crazy cold..... we are enjoying a slower pace to say the least, but spring is welcome to come anytime. As Isabella would say... "ohhh, but thats gonna take for yonger mama!".

 So we've read a lot of books and Bible stories...

 

played and played and played some more.

we have had some problems...

nothing that could not be fixed with a good nap :)

or some yummy snickerdoodles...

 

We went out some too...

But mostly we are just staying home and trying to keep warm.

Back to Blogging

I started out with to much ambition and ended up with little to show for it.... story of my life. hmmm....

Soooo........ lets have a do over! Shorter more frequent posts! my newest goal I will write at least twice a week....

Does this count??? 

Decorating with Memories

Decorating the Christmas Tree.... with a preschooler, a toddler, a baby, a puppy, and a very tired Daddy.

Tis the season to take some extra Tylenol, grab a Big cup of coffee, and plaster a smile on my face until bedtime.

Daniel, my darling five month old angel was sleeping nearly the whole time, he didn't even make it through putting on the lights before he was seeing visions of sugar plums... on this day he was, hands down, my favorite.

I won't lie like some mothers do... I have a favorite, it just changes day by day, sometimes hour by hour.

Tommy... Tommy two two!!!! He wanted to follow his Dad around the tree in circles as he put on the lights. He unfortunately is not as fast and is easily distracted so he mostly kept tripping Daddy up.

Then he wanted to pick up any and all debris on the floor and hand it to me piece by piece:

"UH OH mama.....ewwww.... UH OH mama ewwww ... UH OOOHHHH..."

and so on.... very very loudly. This was made worse by the fact that our vacuum clogged up about eight times... no joke. Poor Tom spent more time trying to fix that vacuum than he did decorating the tree. (I guess I should be grateful that someone was willing to do the job by hand if all else failed)

Then he wanted to put on the decorations with me, however he was confused. He would take the ornament stick his hand in the tree and just let go, never ever occured to him to try to hook it on a branch. So he became the "runner". I gave him the ornament, he gave it to Daddy.

If you have a repatative job you are dreading I suggest you find a two year old.

Last but not least Isabella, let me first say that from the start of the day, way back before we even got the tree, this child was simply discontent with everything we were doing.

We were eating breakfast, she wanted to go.

We were at the tree farm petting the dog, she wanted to get the tree.

We were hunting for the tree, she wanted to go back and see the dog.

When she said " I wanna go home, I'm cold." I nearly lost it.

Don't act like you haven't been there.

On this went until we were putting up lights, when she begged and asked and begged for us to turn them on please please please.....

When we were finally putting up the decorations I was trying to explain to her what they were,

Isabella's First Christmas

Mommy and Daddy's First married Christmas

Great Grandpa Brugere's VERY old hand decorated ornament....

That was when all the stress of the day fell away a little, and I was a bit humbled by my inability to see the big picture.

This is the only Christmas we get for sure.

Think about it, we are not necessarily going to be here next year or even next week.

Chances are we will.... but what if?

Would you spend more time at the mall? Look harder for the perfect gift?

Buy them more toys? No... you would spend time and make memories.

All the ornaments were really just reminders of all the memories. 

I remember the first year we were married we couldn't even afford to buy a First Christmas ornament for ourselves. So I wrote our names and the date on a cheap silver ball... and now it is my favorite. 

Isabella and Tommy's First ever ornaments, a pink quilt and a stork carrying a blue bundle, and this year we will add Daniels. 

My first Christmas ornament, I can picture my mom telling me about it every year.

My husbands Grandfather, his namesake, who I never got to meet. We have been given his ornament that he made when he was just eight years old. It has seen countless memories made from its perch at the very top of the tree.

   I'm going to try harder this year not to forget the reason for Christmas. Not to let it get lost in the shopping mall, the parties and commitments, or the tantrums we deal with day to day. 

Its all about God, coming here to show us his love, his heart for his creation. Putting his plan into motion that night in Bethlehem. A plan to one day bring His children home for good.

Isaiah 12:2  Surely God is my salvation;
                   I will trust and not be afraid.
                   The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song;
                   he has become my salvation.” 

Brought to you by the Letter T and the number 2!

Tommy's birthday weekend began with a nice hot breakfast,

I would like to say I do this for them everyday but that would be an outright lie.... 

dry cereal or graham crackers are our usual's.... sometimes toast when we are feeling fancy.

Isabella requested a mickey mouse pancake, and I wanted to do something special for Tommy since it was his birthday, so in case you can't tell that is a 2.... and I am quite proud of it!

Something as silly as a "special" pancake on a birthday, but somehow it makes my heart swell and my eyes water just a little because it was one of those rare moments when I know we are at the beginning of a family tradition. I know we will do this again.  It doesn't matter what the tradition is, it is beautiful because it binds us together as a family just a little tighter each time we share it.

...Ok, now stop laughing at the thought of me weeping into my pancake mix....

So after breakfast we moved on to another tradition, cutting down our Christmas tree. This is something both of our families did growing up. I was more than a little excited because FINALY it was snowing! I had prayed for this and was doubly blessed because not only do I love snow while we are cutting down the tree, but I love snow on Tommy's birthday too. I have very sweet memories of watching big fat soft snowflakes fall on the city while I cuddled my new little man in bed all day..... today was not a day to stay in bed all day (and there was only a little snow)  still it was nice. Now back to getting the tree....

So we all bundled up.

And we hit the road.... with refreshments.

we made some new and unexpected friends (this patient old guy was tied up

by the sample trees at the tree farm.)

We debated and found the perfect tree, and then found it had a tag.

So we debated some more and found the truly perfect tree and we all took our turns helping Daddy.

 

 

 

Almost all of us....

Once we had the tree cut, tied, and loaded up we hit the Burger King drive-thru. (believe it or not this IS a tradition started by Tom's family....  a yummy one!) and we headed home to thaw out. Come back later for the fiasco that was decorating. Surprisingly this was made difficult by the vacuum and not the children... for once!

Looking back to look ahead

Two years ago tonight I was laying in a hospital bed awaiting the birth of my second child,  my first son, my sweet Tommy.

Here he is only a few minutes old (and already I could tell he was gifted :)

I can't imagine that it has been two years, I feel like I blinked and here I am.

I want to rewind and do it all again, I want to go back to that hospital room on that very snowy morning and hold that warm little body on my chest again, and smell him, and feel his fuzzy little head on my cheek.

I want to relive all his firsts, 

I want to watch him meeting his big sister for the first time.

I want to see him on his first Christmas in his tiny little sweater vest.

I want to watch him scoot around the living room on his belly.

I want to watch him in the pool with his Pap for his first swim.

I want to see him dig into that first birthday cake just once more.

But if I could go back I would miss this Tommy....

Our Little Man, who makes us laugh almost constantly.

His open-mouthed kisses (with sound effects) are a vital part of my daily routine.

Watching him dance is better than anything on TV.

Waking up to his voice calling me Mama is almost enough to make me forget how early it is.

I can't go back and I can't stay here either, but I can write it all down so that someday when two years has turned into twenty I can look back and savor all these sweet and fleeting moments just once more.

Happy Birthday Little Man! I thank God everyday that you are ours!