Blue Christmas

I sang "Ill have a blue Christmas without you" to myself this Christmas. I mean, I had a great Christmas with our little family but it wasn't the same as the usual BIG family Christmas we have in Calgary, full of tradition and busy busy busy. I just missed my family a lot!

So Christmas eve we went to "ICE" which is a huge indoor ice sculpture display a posh hotel here in town. We went with our friends Jeremy and Aiden and really had fun. They keep it 9 degrees F in there and so you need to wear a parka that they provide, especially if you are going to go down the ice slides. Well we had to wait in line to get in and so in the line waiting, we all got a little warm, especially because strollers were not allowed so Courtney had to be held. Anyway, by the time the parka's had to go on, Natalie was sweaty and wouldn't stop screaming/crying over being hot and sweaty. We finally got her to calm down after we were inside and she say how cold it really was. Everyone was freezing rubbing their hands together inside and I just laughed, and I actually thought to myself how nice it felt in there. That Canadian blood is still there I guess! Nat insisted on taking her parka off half way through, and she was fine with her little red nose.
So this year they did a Charlie brown theme, so all the displays are made entirely out of ice and there were all of the characters and so much more!! including a slide out of ice.

That night we went out to dinner at Kobe steak house, which is a timpinyaki type of cooking place. The kids loved it, although boots didn't eat anything! That might be a fun tradition to start!

We headed home for some carol singing, led by Natalie, and then a very fast nativity reenactment. BOOTS did not want to get into costume, so Natalie made up for it by really going all out in hers! She was the perfect Mary, and boots was silly Joseph. Stuffed animals filled in as the wisemen and of course Simba was baby Jesus. She really had fun! Next tradition: Opening Christmas jammies. I tried really hard to find Christmas stripes but it was near impossible. I will search early next year! So they walked away with these. Natalie's is my favorite since I used to wear these when I was little girl, and she adores the robe just as much as I used to!

Santa came and really left some awesome stuff! It was so much fun to see the kids faces in the morning when they investigated all of their new toys.

I really wanted to make some home made Cinnamon rolls, or have scotch Stew (the Miller tradition) but I just ran out of time and so we had NORMAL breakfast, how much does that suck?!) Later on we headed into Rawlins for a Italian feast and more presents/hanging out. It was a very chill day! Boots got sick and then Natalie did too, so we have all been battling the head cold/cough for a few days now.

Now we are getting ready to ring in the New Year! We will be headed down to Houston to celebrate... and get my tooth checked on of course.

Court is now 3.5 months old and has started to roll around. OK, not around, but she is rolling over. This is the youngest for our children, so exciting!! She is such a happy baby and just is always smiling and cooing. Her giggles have just started and they are adorable. She is spitting up a ton though, after every meal you can guarantee a puker. I brought her in to see if it was acid reflux, but alas the Dr. told me it was nothing since she is chunking up and she is not fussy at all. happy spits i guess!! So she always is pretty smelly and in need of a change of clothes and a bath.

We also took boots in for his Orthopedic visit #2. So he has had this limp ever since I was in Hawaii. We have done blood work, xrays, MRI and now we are seeing a specialist to try and get it all figured out. Nothing has come from it yet but we are in the process through some medication he is on right now, anti-inflammitories. Anyway, little sport is so good about taking his meds, even though he hates it and he claims he is all better. Love that kid. anyway...

So there you have it, Merry Christmas from all of us!!

The Eve Eve

Today we headed over to Aunt Kathleen's house to do gingerbread houses. Boots and Av mainly just ate candy, but Natalie loved doing her house, then eating it. Kat and I also had fun doing our mansions! They are time consuming, but something about making your own is super fun! And bonus for me, I didn't like any of the candy used, so my munching was a minimum!
My camera, of course, died right after I took a picture of boots with his house. Notice the half eaten tree.
The little babes are getting adorable. Today they were making each other laugh and giggle. They will be trouble but right now I will enjoy their sweetness.


Later tonight we went caroling to a few widows in our ward, and I know they loved it. jingle bells and Rudolph were the song picks from the kids, but I would have preferred something more Christ-like. The whole point of us going out was to get into the real spirit of Christmas, and Santa and reindeer defeat that purpose.
I was struggling feeling in the spirit, and we needed to get out and do a little something for some people we love! Needless to say, I am now in full swing. Service has been the focus for me this week, and I am feeling so happy. Presents are wrapped, cookies already sent out, MOST Christmas cards out, and as I type Santa is putting together something special.

We got a fabulous cookie bouquet today in the mail from Nana and Grandad and so dessert was yum-o! Here was my place, hot chocolate, cookie, and my dc. MMMM winning combination! Although my new favorite drink is no longer Diet Coke, it has been replaced with... drum roll... vanilla coke zero. This is so strange, as I usually really dislike the taste of coke. But it is sooo good!

So Merry Christmas Eve, eve. Tomorrow will be filled with love and goodness and I cant wait to start a few little traditions of our own.

I'm thinking sleeping all in the same room, dinner out on Christmas Eve, and we will see what else comes from it!

side note, we took booters back to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon today and was re examined after a medication he has been on for a few weeks. We are going to do 2 more weeks of this medicine and then go off and see how it effects him. He has been walking more normal, but yesterday he was limping around really bad all day so that worries me again. Sitting in the Doctors office though, made me rethink having more kids. I know they are all young and with me 24/7 but it was a nut house. I dont know how I was able to concentrate on the Doctor while I was a jungle gym, and when I tell them to stop something in a setting like that, it is like they hear "jump higher, run faster, be a little more crazy!" AHHH! I dislike going anywhere with those 3 alone.

back it up

A few weeks ago, my parents came into town for Courtney's baby blessing. They were here for 3 days, which was totally dreamy. I love having them come and visit, they really should just move here!! haha

Anyway, fun weekend with Nana and Grandad and a beautiful baby blessing from Brian.

I tell ya, My dad and Boots have a special something going on. They are a match made in heaven those two, and I love it. I am so grateful for their friendship already!

I still have some more posts to catch up on, but I feel like I have no time. I remember there being times people say that about blogging and I always have said "there is always time to blog!" but really I am so busy and tired that there really ISN'T time to blog.

So upcoming is Hawaii~!! FINALLY! Oh and new Family pictures....I will try to get to that tomorrow since then there will be Christmas right there!

Speaking of, does anyone else have the issue of too much fun stuff for the kiddos? Man, I just keep getting things thinking that they will just LOVE this or that. first of all, this isn't saving anything for next year, and second of all... they aren't being nice enough to get them all! I actually took one of Natalie's biggest things back. There will come another time for it I guess! But I am so excited for Christmas. I was feeling a little blue and down about not being with my family and not ever seeing Brian like I would like. Well we have been trying some extra Christmas spirit things, like service, caroling, wrapping, Miracle on 34th, and tomorrow is gingerbread and more caroling. It IS working to get me in the spirit of Christmas though. The only think missing now is my Miller Family. :(

I just want to top this post off with these 3 gems. The 3 cousins back in October, Courtney about a month old here. She slept through the entire shoot, and Haley (blue shirt) started to cry through it all and Courtney just layed there limp. She is totally known for her 3.5 short months as being the sleeper. She still sleeps almost every time she eats.

The Next picture is about month later, in November, around thanksgiving. These 3 are going to be trouble!!

Almost 30... minus one

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN! We love you so much!! Hope you had a great day cooking a great dinner and putting the kids to bed!! haha Really though he is the cook around here and we had our friends over for a little party and needed good food, so obviously he cooked! (btw, the ribs were divine hun) And truly he is best at putting the rug rats to bed, even though booters took HOURS to go to sleep tonight.
December is flying, I have been meaning to blog so so many times this week and then something came up and then something else came up and so on... which is why I think I found my first one of these:ACK! A grey hair. I had seen something glittering right behind my bangs for a little while now but thought it was just the angle I was looking. Yesterday I decided to investigate. My nightmare came true, I have a grey hair. I never thought I would be one to care about stuff like this but very honestly, it freaked/freaks me out. DE STRESS JENI, no more grey hairs allowed!

So what have we been doing? Baking, playing, dancing, singing, wrapping, and shopping. So basically a lot of fun things, just so busy that I forgot to have much fun doing it all!

So first off, we bought some cans of snow. Sounds classy doesn't it?! Well when you live in Texas and your husband can go play golf in shorts on December 18th and your kids can play in the backyard for over an hour in just their underwear, classy again I know, spray snow in a can is pretty awesome.

When will I ever be able to get a picture of the 3 of them together that is actually a framable keeper? Not for a LOOOONG time I am guessing! Still gotta love those busy busy munchins.

So then I baked. Baking really isn't the same without my momma around to talk/sing/play with, but it was still semi fun to have the help of 4 little hands. One of my favorite holiday treats is whipped shortbread. I look forward to it being around every year. This year though, I think I whipped it a little too long if that is possible. When I took them off the cookies sheet it was a crumbly pile of goodness for me to chow down one. But no cookies!So I move on to #2. Chocolate crinkles. These turned out just fine, and boots can back me up on this one.... one of these cookies is not like the others:

And last, Sweet Natalie has started a 2.5 hours 2 days a week dance class and she is in heaven. a dozen little girls her age, in tutus, all into the same things she is? AHHHH it is awesome. Tap, Ballet, storytime, craft time, and tumbling. It is radical. We are on break for the holidays but Natalie is loving it, and watching her show me a few moves cracks me up! I cant wait to see her do more as she learns the routines!

I am falling asleep but wanted to get this entry up before the start of this week. I am really looking forward to this week, since we will be having Christmas here in Texas for the first time in our marriage. I know the kids will like it being in our own house, and there is something exciting about having our own stuff, but I cant lie... I am super sad that I am not with my family. I miss them so very much and just am having a kinda hard time being away from them. Ah, I guess I'll get over it, but in the meantime, I will pout about it!

The Day has come

We sang the 12 days of Christmas to Natalie last night, She hated it. She said "That isn't a song cause you just singing over and over!" 12 days left though. Time flies. I cant believe it is almost half through Dec, and almost 2011! I remember when the 2000's seemed sooo futuristic! haha

So as I have talked about before, I am married to a scrooge. WELL I got him to put up lights, actually technically Justin got him to do it, but they went up and I couldn't be happier about it. The kids were so excited (I mean c'mon now Natalie has a "fancy" house). So Brian and Justin names it Christmas Lights Day. And what better excuse to get a cookie cake than that?!
Last night we did our annual Rawlins Gingerbread night. We did cookies this year instead of Houses. Natalie was ticked but a lot less work for me! Boots and Av just enjoyed a table full of candy, and since everyone was side tracked making cookies, they were in heaven shoveling it in!

Q- WAKE UP! She is the sleepiest little thing. You would think that she is 3 months old now, all the sleepiness would wear off. You would be wrong. When she is awake she is darling, but when she is asleep... YUMMY!

I have decided that there is no terrible age, like not just ONE terrible age. All ages have a time and a tantrum associated with them. Terrible Twos is no longer the phrase, it is terrible whatever age you are phase. Boots has been having screaming fits and tantrums and sassing me a lot. He is 2. Natalie is 4 and she has an opinion on everything. Especially her clothes. If I pick out her clothes and they aren't a tutu, cozy dress, pink, leggings, etc she gets so angry. She hates jeans, she hates most pants, she hates shirts that aren't pink or sparkly. She has a lot of cute clothes though and so when I try to put her in them she screams and throws a fit, followed by "IM NOT FANCY!" I am trying to work with her on the fact that she can be fancy with accessories, not just clothes.

She also can get very jealous, especially when it comes to boots getting a treat, and she doesn't. Natalie came into the kitchen the other day all muffed that boots had something that she didn't. "What does Boots have?!"(whine whine whine) I could tell from the way she asked that it was probably candy, or at least she thought. A second later boots came walking in with the most sour disgusted look on his face and his mouth open saying "yucky! yucky!" After a little questioning and smelling, we discovered it was indeed a moms worst nightmare for food, Poop. It was sick. He had found a little poop pellet(I don't know what it was there) in the toy room and popped it in. Natalie's jealousy quickly faded. And that was the best boots has ever been with brushing his teeth, he wanted that taste OUT!

Oddly enough Natalie has always had something strange going on with poop. When she was smaller, she would play in it, or get into it. Then when potty training she hated going in the toilet for the longest time, and now she loves her privacy when going and forces me out of the bathroom. Anyway, today I was changing Courtney and Natalie got curious. "Where does poop come from Momma?" I then had to explain it all to her and while explaining a used a little example "The other day, you know how boots poop was green? It was from all the gum he had eaten." She thought about this for a minute and then said back to me "So if I eat lots and lots of Orange stuffes will my poop be orange?" It makes sense doesn't it? Anyway she was so funny, at least she didn't ask where babies come from. I am not ready for that talk.

And last thing about Natalie, this morning at breakfast she was drinking some hot chocolate and eating some toast. I was telling her one of my favorite things to do when I was younger, and still now is to dip my toast into my hot chocolate, (soldiers and hot chocolate.) She looked a little baffled and then got a big smile on her face. She asked me if I was sure it was ok, and I said of course. I was curious as to why she was acting so funny at that idea... until... She picked her foot up and dipped her TOES in her hot chocolate. She had a huge smile across her face and it took me a sec to realize she thought I had said I like to dip my toes in hot chocolate, not toast. haha She cracks me up all day long!

And what am I grateful for the last few days?

Saturday - peer pressure in a good way, otherwise my lights wouldn't have gone up

Sunday - A lobby at church, I wouldn't not have made it in the chapel for the full 1:15 by myself with the 3. They were horrible.

Monday - that we are able to put as many trash bags in our trash bin as we can fit, we are not limited to two like some people I know! I would die of trash build up.