The Christmas Gifts... My Sleep Deprivation...

I don't think that I have had a more stressful and unorganized Christmas as I did this year, but it was the best one yet! I had enough between trying to finish this gift before the big day and getting all the presents wrapped before midnight on Christmas Eve... If anyone knows me, I always have all my gifts wrapped a couple weeks before Christmas and am completely organized. I had all my shopping done right before Thanksgiving, but had a some that needed to be finished before the day!

This was the big gift this year for Zoe... Let me tell you that I wouldn't attempt this again! Todd started to put this dollhouse together a year and a half ago. We knew that this was the time to give it to Zoe because all she talked about wanting for Christmas was a talking dollhouse. Well we knew that this one didn't talk, but it was a lot bigger than the one she wanted. Todd finished this in what we thought would have been enough time for me to paint it... a week and a half before Christmas. Now I told him that I wanted to paint all of the pieces before he assembled, but he thought otherwise. I started painting and realized that each color was going to need at least 2 coats if not 3. And I had to use a detail brush to keep it neat... this wasn't very difficult for me as I grew up around ceramics and spent a lot time creating masterpieces. I would put the kids to bed every night at 8pm and head to the basement... I wouldn't return up the stairs until 1am... I would go to bed and get up at 5:45am to get ready for kids to start coming and then do it all over that night again. Let me tell that I was getting used to being sleep deprived, but couldn't wait until I could sleep a whole night through. I finally finished it on Christmas Eve night at 10pm... and then remembered that I had to clean the windows (without popping one of them out of the frame). I didn't get to put as much detail into the shutters and trim as I would have liked, but maybe in the future. I also didn't finish the interior as I really want to see if Zoe plays with it... if not, it will remain as is. However she was thrilled to see it Christmas morning (as I was because I didn't realize Todd carried it upstairs at 3am)... she played with it all day and again on Friday. She did mention that it didn't talk, but it was huge! She said Santa did a great job!!

Cole had a great Christmas also... Santa brought him a remote controlled truck just like dad's except it is battery powered instead of gas (so it is slower) and his Nintendo DS that he has been asking for since this past summer. No stress on Cole's presents this year except that I couldn't remember where I put the DS when it was time to wrap gifts... and I thought I might have to take a trip to Wal-mart on Christmas Eve at 11pm.
Cole was up at 5am on Christmas morning all ready to open gifts... Todd agreed (I don't know what he was thinking!)... Todd thought we better enjoy all the excitement as we probably only have a few more years before the Santa secret is out of the bag... so we all got up even though we knew that Zoe would be a crab later. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed Christmas with the family.

The children will play...

This picture speaks for itself... Todd was taking a shower and I was cleaning... I am not sure what Cole was doing, but we all had a laugh when we seen this!

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish my family and friends Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!! It is at this time of the year that I really appreciate everything that I have... family, friends and love. I hope everyone is taking this time to make special memories in their families and spend some quality time together. I also want to thank my family and friends for being so great and supportive... without you... life wouldn't be the same.

I have been a little preoccupied for the last week and a half trying to finish a very important gift for a sweet, little girl... but after tomorrow I can let everyone know and see what has been taking up all of my nighttime sleep hours (I have almost 30 hours invested in it - all at night when I should be sleeping). I just hope that the little girl finds it just as cool as Todd and I do.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

I decided Friday that I really needed to make some Christmas cookies (especially since we are responsible for the special treat for Zoe's class party at school)... Saturday afternoon I headed to the store to purchase all the needed ingredients for 3 kinds of cookies... I got home and started the Christmas music... I decided to start with the Sour Cream Cut Out cookies at 2pm... this turned out to be a mistake. The kids left me after the first batch to go outside and play in the snow with the neighbor kids. I proceeded to make 2 more batches... not really realizing how many cookies I really had. At 10pm last night (I did take a short break to eat supper), I was still frosting and thinking to myself... "what an idiot...". Needless to say I still have 2 dozen to frost into snowmen with all the adorable fixins and really have no desire to complete them. I did get the other 12 dozen frosted before I retreated to bed last night. I have decided to leave the other 2 kinds of cookies for next weekend. So in other words... I have cookies coming out of my ears... and will probably be gaining a good 10lbs in the next couple of weeks.

And now today I am battling a heck of a cold, thanks to all the wonderful little ones in my life... and 2 children that just want to go out and play in the mud since all of the snow has pretty much melted.

Santa

Cole and Zoe visited Santa twice this weekend... yesterday we went to see him uptown and today he was at Cabela's with Comet. Zoe is still not too sure about Santa, but was ready to sit on Mrs. Claus' lap again this year as long as Cole was on Santa's lap. Cole was so happy to tell Santa that he wanted a Nintendo DS and a baby brother... everyone around just looked at me like I had some news to tell... I told everyone to talk to Todd about that. Zoe told Mrs. Claus that she wanted a Go Potty Baby and a talking dollhouse.
Yes this is a real life reindeer... The kids loved it! Zoe again wouldn't sit in the sleigh with Santa unless her brother went with... Good thing Cole is such a great big brother!

I don't want to go to school!

Zoe has said for the last couple of weeks that she doesn't want to go to school anymore. She has also been crying at school... when asked as to why... her reply is that she misses her mom and wants to go home. As much as this breaks my heart, I also know that she needs time away. So last Wednesday when she said that she didn't want to go... my reaction was the same... "School is fun and you will get to see all of your friends." Then the tears started to roll... I let her go for awhile and then I said that it was time to get all of our winter gear on... then the temper tantrum started... I couldn't send her to school like this... We called dad, but that didn't help. I even asked if she would go if Grandma took her... no way! So I let her stay home (even though I didn't want to as I was afraid that this would start a pattern), but I told her that she was to stay in her room until the kids got off the bus. She kept coming out of her room every 10 minutes asking if she could come out or that she missed me or that she wanted to do a project... My reply was to get back in her room... if she wanted to do a project that she should have went to school... I also told her that it wasn't fun to stay home from school with mom and that if she didn't go to school that I was going to work... I let her come out for lunch, but she had to sit at the dining room table by herself... I did let her stay out of her room, but she had to lay down to take a nap... needless to say that school got out at 1:15pm that day due to the weather. She did tell me before the kids got off the bus that she wanted to go school on Monday... it is no fun staying home with mom... So no matter how much I wanted to cry that morning or how much it broke my heart to be so hard on her... I guess I got my point across and the idea worked because she is all excited to go to school tomorrow morning. What a rough day... and with all of this Todd was working all day (inventory at work) and plowing snow all night... so we were on our own for a couple of days.

Smilebox

I just found out about Smilebox.com and I have been playing around with it tonight. I think this is such a cool website and so many things to create!

Make a Smilebox slideshow