Bye Bye Powie

Abby has said good-bye to her powies (pacifiers) and boy do we all miss them! I'm a mean mom and told her that she's a big girl now and doesn't need them anymore, Abby had a different idea. She's been having some trouble staying quiet in the morning and by morning I mean like 5 am so I thought what the hey, since she's not sleeping anyway I might as well throw them out. So yesterday afternoon I listened to 90 minutes of toe-curling screaming, with some "I need mommy"s and "I want my powies!"thrown in along with one or two "just one more hug!"s in the mix as well. I didn't let her flounder in total isolation, I did go up and check on her to reassure her that even though I wanted to cut my own ears off that I still loved her. Finally she'd cried so much that she fell asleep. Whew! Last night we gave it another go, this time waiting until she was almost asleep on her feet before putting her in bed. I made Jerry put her to sleep since she doesn't seem as needy with him. I thought we were golden for the night...and then 4 am came around and it was up and down for Jerry and I until it was time for me to go to work at which point I let her stay in our bed. She wiggled in there a bunch and didn't sleep a wink but I wasn't at home so whatever. :) I must say, I have way more will power during the day than I do in the dark of night. Today she went down soooooo easy, I guess being up since 4 will do that to you! Hopefully by the end of the week we'll be back to a routine around here.

Minus, the sleep issues she's been very funny lately. It started snowing again the other day after a day of no snow and she told Jerry "Oh, thank you Daddy, you fixed it!" Then she told the blow-up snowman that they weren't sad anymore (I guess they're sad when not blown up?) and she thinks every morning is Christmas morning. How do you explain to a 2 year old that it won't come again until next year? And her new answer for everything is "I don't know." Ask her what she had for breakfast..."I don't know", what she's wearing..."I don't know." Better than Why? Why? Why? I'm not looking forward to that day.

Christmas Event 6

Late Christmas morning we bundled the kids up for the short trek to the Gardner family home where we had brunch and Abby and Trey got to open presents from Grandma and Bumpa. The other kids (the adult ones) all live at home so they had opened their presents already so the grandkids were the center of attention, I'm sure they didn't mind. Jerry's parents certainly outdid themselves in the toy/clothing department, I think they started shopping early and forgot about some of the stuff they bought already...not that the kids minded a bit! And Uncle Donald and Uncle Adam got both kids Carhart overall, hickory shirts (i now know what those are) and flannel jackets...all they need are some Romeos and we're set for logging! :) We were there for a couple hours and then managed to get back out of the driveway (not an easy feat at all!) and were home in time for naps. Ahhh, no more Christmas now. I love it while it lasts but I'm so glad it's all over with. Plus the house looks way bigger after the decorations come down!

Christmas Event 5: Christmas Morning!

Abby could barely contain herself this morning when she woke up. I told her that we had to wait until Daddy and baby Trey woke up before we could go downstairs. So she promptly went into our room and told Jerry to "get up, it's Christmas!". Then we went to Trey's room to wake him up (I hate doing that!), and I fed him while she bounced around his room with ants in her pants. Finally, it was time to go downstairs. She saw that Santa had been there and eaten his cookies and drank his milk (good job Santa!) and wanted to start handing out presents ASAP. She figured out that all the ones in Princess paper were for her and she, in her OCD fashion, opened one at a time, putting all the paper into a pile. Trey was mostly interested in finding something to put in his mouth, he's got two more teeth close to breaking through. Once the gifts were done it was stocking time and boy was that a big hit....there were MORE PRESENTS inside! The sparkly lip gloss seemed to be the winner out of there. Trey was ready to go back to bed as soon as the unwrapping was done and Abby is now having some quiet time with Jerry on the couch before we get dressed and head over to the Gardner house for more gifts. I think there's going to be a big let-down when all the Christmas hoopla is over! And we also got a nice surprise with some beautiful (and heavy) snowfall this morning. Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!

my favorite gift of all!

Christmas Event 4

Argh, I was doing so well at taking pictures this year of everything we did and then forgot my camera for the one thing I really wanted pictures of! We went up to Bellingham on Tuesday night for the Bauthues Christmas with the extended family. My aunt and uncle and cousin + his family are moving to Texas in the spring and their other two kids live in other states so this was probably our last get-together with them and I so wanted pictures of it! Other people were on the ball and had cameras so hopefully I can snag some pictures later from them but for now it's a pictureless post.

It was great to have everyone there (minus my siblings and their families who were supposed to be on flights other places, which were cancelled, boo!). My cousin Kristy and husband, Bub were able to make it up from San Francisco and I enjoyed visiting with them alot since I rarely get to see them! My aunt Barb cooked a fabulous ham dinner, complete with one of the BEST potato dishes I've ever had. I definitely ate my fill, along with everyone else. Plus, my dad held Trey and Jerry was with Abby so I got to eat in peace at the adult table, very nice. We then got the gifts going and everyone got some yummy and some fun presents. The kids got their stuff out and started playing as soon as everything was unwrapped. It's so great now that the little kids are old enough to get in the spirit of things.

A slippery exit from the driveway and our little family was off to the mall for a "quick" trip to Target. I needed to get stuff for Jerry's stocking so I took Abby with me while Trey stayed with Jerry in the truck. There were a hundred people in there and nothing, absolutely nothing, left on the shelves. 45 minutes later I found enough stuff to fill his stocking and Abby had picked out a present for dad and baby Trey. We made it home by 10:30 and the kids were down for the count.

Christmas Event 3

Yesterday was our third event of the season and one of our very favorite ones. It's our annual brunch with friends. The time varies year to year since we do it when Nick and Colleen are in town from Alaska as they alternate Christmas and New Year's between his family in Anacortes and hers in California. Tony and Shauna once again hosted it at their house in Ferndale, they finished building it last year and it's just beautiful. Shauna made a super fabulous meal for us, breakfast wraps, bacon, cinnamon coffee cake, the works. Everyone definitely filled up! The kids are getting older now and play well together...they love to chase each other around the house (it makes a circle...perfect for running!). There were two pregnant ladies, I was not one this year, thank goodness! Kristin is due in a few weeks and Shannon in April so next year should be even more fun with two new arrivals! Poor Anicia broke her elbow not too long ago and she has a cast on her whole left arm but that didn't seem to slow her down at all, she and Abby were as cute as ever. We don't get together very often but it's so fun when we do!

Abby, Anicia and Trey

the chefs: Shauna and Tony

Abby and Gabe

the kiddos (and Tom) eating breakfast!

Colleen and Trey...new buddies

Shannon, Shauna, Gabe, Kristin and Abby

plus Nick fixing Trey's fluff

Abby and Anicia looking at the snow

Anicia's cast :(

Tony and Trey

new snow!

We woke up this morning to find roughly 3 inches of new snow! The trees are covered once again and it's a snowy-white winter wonderland again. They are doing a pretty good job of plowing the state roads (the city could use some help...they took the weekend off!). They plow so well that our driveway gets covered at the end making it impossible to get out without shoveling first, good thing that's Jerry's job. Here's more snow pics from the house, none from today yet, I'm too lazy to go take any!Abby and I decorated Xmas cookies on Saturday. She's getting old enough now that it's just something fun for the two of us to do. I remember doing it at my Grandma's house with all my cousins and how fun it was. Abby was far more interested in putting sprinkles on the cookies than using frosting but I kindly told her (500 times!) that the sprinkles wouldn't stay on without frosting, so I got to be the official froster.

Christmas Event 2

Note to self: Bellis Fair Mall exit...not a shortcut Friday night, 5pm, during Christmas.

After a long 2 hour trip up to Nooksack (thanks to a 35 min "shortcut" around the mall...we don't go up there much so no, we didn't know how bad it gets!) we made it to my parents' house for the Bauthues family Christmas. Matt, Bethany and kids just got back from San Diego this week after a four month stay so it was very fun to visit with them again. All of us kids haven't been together since last Christmas and I loved getting to visit with all of them. We had lots of gifts to open, expecially the little girls, they were the most fun to watch. The little boys had a good time trying to play together...a lot of grunting and hand flapping but what can you expect from babies?! We lasted until after 10 and then bundled our babies in the car for a windy trip home. We woke up this morning to a crips 9 degree morning (that's with NO wind) and Abby was VERY VERY excited about seeing her Little People farm set up. Animals in the barn, animals out, animals in, animals out, you get the idea. She got a tractor with animals on it too and they joined the farm animals...sheep with sheep, cow with cow, etc...she's a smidge OCD and I lover her for it! Trey got a couple of his toys out and seemed a little miffed when they were taken away for nap time. Both kids are down for early naps today so I'm hoping to get some things cleaned up and some more new toys set out for them.

Matt, Easton and Trey

Princess Abby and Princess Sophia

Helper Elf

another Helper Elf

opening presents!

the others

opening "cow bowling"

delivering a present to Grandpa

her party dress (and cute boxes from Grammy!)

mommy and trey!

trying to figure out how to get Simon's glasses off so he could eat them

her new farm!

the baby boys!

you can hold hands when you're babies

Oh what a beautiful morning!