Dates & New Years Eve

I am so glad to be out on Christmas break. I so needed a break from school. It still seems way too short though. Oh well, I will take what I can get.

I am taking the boys out on Momma dates this week, so that's always fun. Tomorrow is Bourbon's day. He has picked out Red Lobster & Bowling, so that should be a fun afternoon. I love having one on one time with them. Friday is Roman's day. We are probably going to Musashi's and then either to a movie or bowling as well. We will see what he ends up picking. I wanted to take Bourbon to The Melting Pot (I love fondue!) but they don't open until 5pm, and we are going out for lunch, so maybe we will just do a family dinner there sometime. So he decided Red Lobster was the way to go. Works for me!

I am so excited about getting to go out on New Years Eve too! I think we have decided that we are going to go to RiverWind casino and do their New York themed NYE shin-dig. We are getting a hotel in norman and getting shuttled to and from the hotel so we can drink and not drive. We rarely if ever get to go out on the town, so we are looking forward to it! It should be fun. I really wish we knew someone who wanted to go out with us, it would be more entertaining with a bunch of friends, but so far we haven't found anyone that doesn't already have plans oor who just isn't going out at all. Not that it will be terrible for it to just be us 2, that will be nice too! It will have to suffice as our anniversary date too. I had thought we would go out again at the end of the month to celebrate 9 years, but since NYE is going to cost us an arm and a leg, this is going to have to be it for the month of January! But it will be worth it, I think we are going to have a blast.

We amazingly still have one more Christmas festivity as well. Alan's aunt & cousins & family (along with his mom) went to Cancun for Christmas and just got back today, and we always have a Christmas celebration with them in edmond, so we are heading there saturday for the last christmas celebration of the season. Poor Starla is going to think that Chrismas lasts for a month!
2009. Crazy. Ya know, the 90's just don't seem like they were that long ago. Is this what it's like to get old?! :) Time to figure out what I want to accomplish in this new year. It will be lots. There is a ton of stuff I need to get done. Starting with losing the extra 50 lbs I've been carrying around since I had Roman 8 years ago. Weight has always been an issue in my life, and I am so tired of that. I really need to do something once and for all to get it under control. I am so disgusted with myself on a daily basis, I just want to look in the mirror and be happy with that I see. Now don't get me wrong, my face, I have no problems with. I think I'm pretty cute , :) it's just the body I can't stand. So this is the year, this is the year I break the cycle of poor eating habits and I lose weight. That is just one of my many goals for the new year. I think I will go join weight watchers (again) on Saturday. I lost 25 lbs with it this year when I actually followed it, so I guess I need to do that again.

But until then, I am enjoying my white russian (which would be like 6 points on WW, lol) right now and I am going to enjoy my lunch dates this week, and my dinner date with my hubby on wed. and then, THEN it will be time to begin. Hee hee

Our many, and varied holiday activities & celebrations (caution, lots of pics!)

After the toddler party we had our adult Christmas party! There was lots of wine, games and fun! Here's the party spread.

We played apples to apples and scattegories. I haven't laughed that much in a very long time. I couldn't stop laughing at one point, tears streaming down my face.... good times.

We played Dirty santa, it got a bit dirty....

Troung seemed happy with his win!

The next day we went to Ducan for Christmas with Alan's familia.

Alan juggles everywhere we go, life is a stage.

We ate lunch, opened presents and played dirty santa at Alan's dad's house.

Then we headed over to Alan's mom's house where we ate dinner, played games and opened presents again!

Cousin Karli came home with us and stayed the night, and we made our favorite reindeer cookies the next day!

On Christmas eve, Alan & the boys went downtown to the snowtubing at the brick. They had a blast!

Then that night we hosted my family Christmas with my parents, brothers & families, Aunt Theresa and Jamie. We had a big traditional ham dinner, opened presents and played games.

My daddy!

Alan was so excited about his chocolate brownie trifle, he took like 5 pictures of it. Lol. I also made a chocolate banana bread pudding. Yum.

Me and my love.

My brother Nate with his oldest daughter Destiny.

Jamie & I were passing out gifts, Alan thought he would be cute and call our names and then take a pic.

After everyone left, the kids got to open their christmas eve gift, the robes I made! Alan was supposed to open his too, but he had fallen aleep in his chair before everyone had left!

For some reason I don't have them all 3 together in their robes, just 2 at a time!

We had milk & cookies and picked out the ones we were leaving for Santa and then out Starla to bed. After that we tracked Santa on Norad. If you haven't ever done that, it is SO much fun! Go to http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html and check it out. It shows where Santa is at the moment on Christmad eve and even has videos of his flight. They tell all about santa, it is lots of fun. The boys get so excited watching him on his flight, as soon as he hit the USA we went to bed, it was just a few minutes after 10pm!

Before that though, we had to read "twas the night before Christmas" which is our christmas eve tradition. Alan always reads it, but he had fallen asleep.......

So Bourbon got to read it, which he was pretty excited about.

Roman wrote one more letter to santa, begging for his violin, and we left the cookies & milk out and they went to bed.

Since Alan fell asleep at 8pm, and usually gets up at 3am, he was awake long before everyone else on Christmas morning, and took some pics of the christmas tree with his party lights on it.

He sat in the chair in the living room and waited for the rest of us to get up, so he could take pics of the kids faces right when they entered the living room. Here is Starla coming in for the first time.

Then of course the Christmas madness ensued. Presents everywhere! We always let the kids open their stockings first, then we open ours. Then we let them open their santa gifts. Then we pass out all the presents and from youngest to oldest we each pick a gift and open it, one by one. My mom did that with us when we were kids too, and I liked it, so I kept the tradition.

The kids got me a cute mom angel gift set.

Roman got a robot

Bourbon got the Pokemon Battle dome

Starla got a stroller for her babies

Daddy got Rock Band

Alan wrapped up a box inside a wrapped up box inside a wrapped up box inside a wrapped up box, where inside was a note saying he would be back inside with my gift. He is so silly. He came in with a brand new microwave. Woo hoo! Ours was barely working! In fact my mom had bought me one too, and they discovered this on Christmas eve and my mom had to run out and get me a new gift before we opened gifts that night!

We always take The Annual Loot pic. We put all the kids gifts on the couch from and then take a pic. My parents didn't do it every year, but there were a few years of pics that I found of me with all my christmas gifts, and it is so neat to see all my old toys that I loved but didn't remember where they came from, and could say "wow, that's when I got that!" so I decided I would always take an Annual Loot pic, and have every single year since I have had kids.

They are spoiled. In fact I think there are a couple gifts missing from each kids loot, it's hard to keep all the gifts together from each christmas celebration!

Santa did bring Roman a shiney red violin.

Bourbon got a big TV for his room from Mom & Dad.

After we cleaned up and had breakfast and such, we headed over to my aunt Sharon's for the my extended family christmas where we had a big lunch with turkey & ham and all the trimmings, and opened gifts and played dirty santa.

Here is a pic with my family with my grandparents.

We had such a wonderful, and busy, Christmas! I love that we get to spend so much time with so many different family members.

copy & paste of my myspace blog for a lack of time...

Sunday, December 28, 2008 (wow, I didn't realize my date/time on myspace is off, it's saturday, not sunday....)

Seriously?
Current mood: optimistic

Is 2008 really already over? How did that happen? Where does the time go? Why is it when you are a kid, time moves soooo slowly, and then the older you get the faster it flies by? Do you reach a point where it all starts to revert back to lasting forever again? Is there some shift in the time-space continuum that happens as you age?!?!?! I can use big words and pretend I'm an intellectual. :) You guys know me too well to pull that off though, hee hee!
I have spent the day shopping, grabbing up 50-75% off christmas deals and using gift cards. It has been fun! And I'm about all stocked up for next Christmas already! We are still searching for something fun and entertaining to do on New Years. We are thinking of the casino & hotel route, if we can find a hotel room this late in the game. I need to start working on that. My break from school is going by too quickly! I have too much I want to get done!! Sigh.
There's the good ol' new years resolutions to work on too....... What is it about the beginning of a new year that seems so fresh and new, like the perfect time to break habits and do great things? Why can't we just decide to do those things say, in June? But alas, I fall into the trap each year, and will come up with my list of resolutions to ring in the new year. 2009. Which means Alan & I have been together for 9 years (more or less, we don't really subtract that one year we separated, lol, we like our own version of the math!) 9 years!!! Crazy. n the blink of an eye it's gonna be 18.........
Hope all is well with everyone and that the holidays are treating you well!!
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(it's not 3am, I'd be asleep if it were 3am, not blogging......)

Friday, December 26, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Current mood: blissful

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I will blog more and share pics and all that good stuff soon. I need some down time though to recover from the crazy holiday madness!!! We had a wonderful Christmas, I'm sad that it is over. But now it is time for think about New years!!! Alan & I have decided to go out, which rarely happens any more! But we aren't sure what we will be doing, and we would love to hang out with some people in the process, so if you have any good ideas on what is hopping on new years, and/or if you want to hang with us, let us know! We were thinking about maybe a casino and hotel for the evening, so we can drink and not drive, but we aren't sure just yet! My parents are keeping the kids all night so we can do whatever we want! WOO HOO!!!

A bit of this.... a bit of that....

So I do it all the time, so I should be used to it, but I tend to bite off more than I can chew. So I am crazy busy as always, but really I don't know how to live life any other way. I still have a ton of gifts to make for Christmas and it is a week away! But I love, LOVE making gifts for people. It just makes me really happy. I love giving gifts period, I love spoiling people, but there is something so special about homemade gifts. I was trying to make sock monkeys for every kid I knew for Christmas, that and a book, because I love books. I should have started soooooo much earlier. I had this thought back in June when I first learned to make sock monkeys, but thought I would just wait until school was out....... sheesh. It was only thanks to my aunt Theresa that I got the ones done for the toddler party today. She helped me assemble them! They were just all stuffed and unassembled when she came to the rescue! She helped me sew on all of their appendages! And I still have about a dozen more to make before christmas. That and the kids robes. We have the tradition of the kids getting new Pj's every Christmas eve, so they look all cute Christmas morning. Well this year I decided to make them all new robes, and maybe PJ pants to match, but of course didn't start until this week. I have Starla & Bourbon's robe done, and now I have Roman & Alan's to go. SO every day while the kids are in school, and every night when everyone has gone to bed, I have been making sock monkeys and robes. Which is really what I need to be doing right now, but I thought I'd at least try to get caught up on my e-mails and blogs and such, because I haven't had time all week! I can't complain though, it's my own fault. I always try to do too much. I can't help it. Just like buying my kids gifts. Every year, I say to myself this Christmas will be different, I won't buy as many gifts for the kids, I won't go overboard. And every year I think it gets worse and I actually buy more. It's terrible. I try so hard to make Christmas about Jesus, and about family and tradition and memories, but because I love to spoil people, especially my kids, I can't help but buy them a ton of stuff. Which makes Christmas about toys and gifts. Sigh. Alan says that in my attempt to make everything SOOO special, nothing is special because everyday is 'special'. Like having Christmas everyday, it suddenly doesn't mean anything. But I am always trying to make everything so special. I go overboard with birthdays, holidays, everything, trying to cram in as much stuff as possible to make it "special". Sheesh. You would think I'd learn.
So anyways, this blog is going to be a hodge podge of pictures and thoughts, because I haven't had time to get on here and share, and probably won't too much until after Christmas!

Starla discovered Roman's mask, and goes around saying "I'm bat baby!" It's pretty cute!

We got to go have Christmas lunch with Roman last thursday! We went and had lunch with Bourbon on tuesday, after I helped all 3 of the 3rd grade classes make ornaments (with Aunt Theresa's help once again, and her son Dusty). Bourbon's teacher from last year came up to me in the cafeteria when I had lunch with Roman last week and asked if I could come and help this week making ornaments with all of the 3rd graders, and could bring help if I could. So we hot glued about 75 ornaments together for kids 6 at a time (2 kids for each of us) in the library, then we got to go eat with Bourbon, who didn't hardly acknowledge us the entire time, he just sat there talking to his freinds the whole time. It's like he is a teenager already.......

Starla loves to paint, apparently it tastes good because it always winds up in her mouth....

Roman is such a unique kid. He's so funny. He loves overalls and eccentric clothing. While looking through the last 2 weeks of pics to make this blog, it reminded me that I don't take enough pictures of Bourbon. I need to take more pictures of Bourbon by himself. I guess that's the plight of being the oldest. I make memory books on snapfish each year for christmas for Bourbon's dad and his parents (Bourbon's grandparents) of Bourbon's year, and when I made it last week I suddenly realized I just don't take many photos of Bourbon by himself, yet I have a ton of Roman & Starla. I always jokingly say though that Alan, Roman & Starla are always on center stage and entertaining and competing for attention, and Bourbon & I are just wallflowers. I guess that is really true. Roman & Starla are always doing something funny or quirky and I grab my camera. I need to learn to just grab it and take pics of Bourbon just being Bourbon.

I made cornish hens for dinner this week, and Roman made his dance, lol.

Did I mention Starla loves to paint? We do it ALOT! Which means we take lots of baths too!

Last saturday some people from my Life Group from church went to The Red Cross and stuffed stockings for needy kids. We stuffed 316 stockings in less than 2 hours! Go us!

Me and my bestest friend Jamie.

I love Starla's big poufy pink coat!

Hee hee, Alan says I order way too much stuff online. We actually had 2 mail men come on monday, at the same time. One came with regular mail and one came with a package, I have no idea why it came separately, but I thought it was funny and took a picture, so I could show Alan and make the joke that we get so much mail it takes 2 mailmen....

Oh yeah, Starla loves to paint....

We made Christmas cookies!!

The boys liked it for a while, and then decided they were bored....

We had our toddler Christmas party today, which was sooo much fun! Thanks for coming those of you who got to come!! I love having parties and having kids over to play. It's so much fun. Noah brought Starla a present! It was her first present of the season, so she was pretty excited when she got to open it. Ever since we told her about Santa this season and presents and such, she has been saying Santa is going to bring her a special cake. I have no idea why, but she always says Santa is going to bring her a special cake. So she opens Noah's present and she looks at me and says "Where's my cake?" and it looks like she is about to get really upset about it, it took me a second and then I realized what she was talking about, and said "Santa will bring you a special cake, remember? This present is from Noah!" (Note to self, Santa must bring Starla a special cake!!!) she took a breath, smiled, and said "ok" and looked down at the beautfiul tutu she got and said "Noah got me a special dress!!!" and was so excited. It was naptime, so I told her when she got up she could wear it. As soon as she got up from her nap she asked about it, so we put it on without anything else for a few hours (Daddy wasn't sure he liked that too much, lol). And then I made Alan take it off of her so we could eat dinner, and she got upset and wanted her special dress!! So I told her as soon as she was done eating she could have it back! So after dinner we put it on over her clothes and went to go see the Christmas lights and went to go show Nanny & Papa her special dress (and to take them some cookies!). I have a feeling this tutu is going to be worn daily........

Thanks Noah!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, magical, memory-filled Christmas full of love and family and warmth and happiness.