the naughty list

at grandma's house, at grandma's house,
we're always welcome without a doubt.
no chores to do,
and goodies i can't refuse,
so welcome to grandma's house!
...
brennan came home spoiled rotten.
after an afternoon with grandma.
all to himself.
i took max home for a nap.
and indulged myself in white chocolate covered popcorn,
while wrapping all of the presents.
yay me for not waiting until christmas eve again.
:):):):):):):):)
after banishing max out of her own bedroom and throwing an unidentified flying object into the wall of his own room,
i told brennan he was on the naughty list until further notice.
he fell to floor in a fit of sadness and anger.
and then begged for me to call santa back.
i said i'd think about it.

mean mommy.
oh well.
...
and might i add,
it was a lovely afternoon of present wrapping,
baby napping,
laundry doing,
and show watching.
i've forgotten what it's like to have an entire house to myself for three hours:)
god bless grandmas.

letters to Emily {souffles, strata, & midnight mass}

Dear Emily,

I was LAUGHING so hard when you told me the story of you in costco spending too much money on Christmas food and barely being able to push the cart!! You are a woman after my own heart. I have been taking the weighty matter of Christmas food into consideration as well, and it is no light thing. It is something to be taken very seriously. After all, most traditions are food based. There is nothing like a predictable mamas meal for a holiday. Some day Brennan will be saying to his wife, "We are not going to your mom's house for christmas, my mom makes these killer oreo balls and I can't live with out them during the holidays." Max will be saying,"Conference is always with my mom, dah... scones and raspberry butter, need I say more?" So, you're not only cooking for a day, these meals are impressions of a lifetime! But the image is great, you and the heavy cart, in costco with two kids, just wonderful. Christmas morning I have a few ideas for breakfast, I think I am going to do a make-ahead-casserole, so I don't have to fuss with breakfast in the morning. Which one do you think...... French Toast Souffle or Mexican Egg Strata? I have always respected your pallet, so your input is much needed. What is your Christmas menu? For Eve and Morning of?

I got your Christmas Card today!!! I loved it! Thank you so much. You are so good. I was lazy and posted mine on facebook.

I love how hard it was to part with your beloved Caboodle. I understand what you went through. It seems like every girl on the block had a caboodle and it was only a matter of when YOU got one that you would be crowned with the glory of an aqua (in my case) and pink organizer for your 8 year old personal items. And when I got mine it was a BIG deal, I think almost as big of a deal as the new kids on the block sleeping bag I got for Christmas one year. Pretty close.

So, Life for me right now is pretty much this- nursing, changing diapers, feeding Smith, putting down for naps, carrying babies, binki's, burping, Smith's therapy, feeding Bryce, and doing it all over again. It's a beautiful thing. Bear is so fun. He is started to coo and make cute noises. I love baby noises. Bryce talks to Bear in German, I think it's cute. Last night for our advent from our Count down to Christmas jar was to make hot chocolate. I made killer mint hot chocolate and it was just what the doctor ordered. Tonight our advent was to make home-made christmas cards for families in the ward. All I can say is MOTHERS are awesome because they never act like they got like 2 hours of sleep, they are always nice and good to their kids and neighbors, I just don't know how we do it. I haven't got very much sleep and it is killing me, I am excited to hear your sleep adventures with your third. Any thought on names? Are you going to surprise everyone with a name? So far your kids names are cute, so just keep going with the flow. We are going to midnight mass for Christmas eve, it is a german tradition. They hold one for families at 7 so kids can go. So we are going here for that event on saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am really excited to experience a german midnight mass. I heard there is a children's choir singing. It shoud be fun. Well Emily you are beautiful. I love you and hope your Christmas weekend is amazing!

 

love

Beth

 

Oh, yeah, you look way small for 24 weeks. I was gigantic....                        

Letters to Beth {smog, binkies, and Christmas}

Dear Beth,
That story of you holding smith and bear at the therapist office, and Smith slipping out of your arms with you yelling for help was too funny. I could almost hear your cute voice yelling for the therapist. I want to eat the schnitzel, and glory be that chocolate sounds amazing. I may have to read Little Women next. I am embarrassed to say I have never taken the time to read the actual book, but I did grow up watching the movie. The waitress Paige is starting to grow on me in my book. She is not as skanky as I thought. Her character is developing more and more, and I'm beginning to feel some empathy for her life experiences. Nicholas is still a big fat jerk. I am glad he has not been in the last few chapters. Her high school boyfriend {I think his name is Jacob, no relation to any vampires} is a dream, although he was kind of jerky at first too. I am so angry with her for leaving him. He turned out to be madly in love with her, but I understand why she had to go, even though I would have stayed. Nonetheless, Little Women is next. Thank you for the recommendation.  

The corn snow is falling this morning. We have had almost zero snow this month and 100% smog. The air has been so gross. No storms to clear the air out. Cough. Cough. On Monday we drove to Park City, and I gasped when we started driving up the canyon. We drove up out of the smog, which my eyes had started to believe were actually clouds, and into gorgeous blue skies. Driving home was depressing. Down out of the clear, sunny, blue skies, and into the polluted smog. BARF. My grass is still green. I am so envious of all of your snow. We are supposed to get a few inches today. I just hope they don't melt away by Christmas. I really will take whatever we can get though. Every morning Brennan wakes up and asks if it's Christmas yet. I told him it has to snow, and there have to be presents under the tree. The weather may make me half a liar. I haven't wrapped any presents yet. I promised myself last year that I wouldn't wait to wrap the presents until Christmas Eve ever again. It appears I may be heading for that same fate. Have mercy.

Last night I made my oreo balls. Note to self: make two batches next year. They are tasty as ever. Lemon bread is next.

I completely overspent at Costco for our Christmas food. I could barely push the cart by the end and had to forgo getting Sean's compressed air that I had missed on the loop through. With both kids in the cart, and all of the food, there was no way I was going back. I was just trying to not huff and puff. He forgave me when I showed him the Mexican coke in the bottles.

Did you ever get my Christmas card? I want to see how long it takes to get a letter to Germany. I sent it last Wednesday. I'm guessing a week is not enough.

The nesting bug is taking over. I organized my pantry about a month ago. Then last weekend I went to brush my teeth and 2 hours later we had two very organized closets upstairs. Every time I go into my bathroom I open the closet door and admire my work. Organizing never felt so good. We are talking 6 bags of trash and 6 bags of donations for the D.I. Sean's first question was what did I throw out of his. Smart man. I was proud to say almost nothing. A few scarves I had never seen him wear, but that was it. The rest was all mine. You wouldn't believe how much stage makeup I had been holding onto from high school. Old sample lotions from Clinique. Dingy travel sized bottles. Things like that. I have no idea why I waited this long to get rid of it all. I was sad to see the pink caboodle with my name on it go, but there was just no reason to hold onto it anymore. It was the one my mom bought me for clogging in elementary school. I always felt so grown up carrying that around at competitions. I did save one little red makeup tote with blush brushes and mirrors for Max. I did wrap that present, and I can't wait to give it to her on Christmas. She still thinks Santa and Mrs. Claus are the scariest people alive. I absolutely think it is the funniest thing to put her on their laps and take pictures of her screaming. Cruel? I think not. Comic relief:)

Brennan is leaving his binkies for Santa on Christmas Eve, along with the milk and cookies. He's been telling us he wanted to leave them for Santa to take to the other babies b/c he was a big boy and didn't need them anymore. In return, he would like a spiderman bike. We of course were the ones to feed this information to him in the first place, but he sounded sold {and very excited about his spiderman bike, might I add.}. Well, last night when I was putting him to bed he started whimpering about it. Told me he didn't want to grow up. Wanted to be a baby forever, NOT a big boy or a man, b/c he just couldn't part with his beloved binkies. I couldn't help but think of Peter Pan and the lost boys. I asked him if he was scared he was going to miss them. He said yes. So I asked him if every time he missed them after giving them away to Santa for the babies that don't have binkies in the world if he would like to come and get a hug from me to make him feel better. He said yes, that would be nice. Man, this growing up stuff if rough. I just know it's time for the binkies to go. It hasn't been before, but now it is.

We are picking my mom up from the airport in about an hour. She took the redeye from Hawaii last night. I am so excited to have her here. I can't wait to see those stockings filled and presents filling in the floor under the tree. I hope you have the merriest of Christmas's with lots of really good food, fun, and laughter.

Love,
Emily

santa's helpers

i have started to utilize my "pick things up from the floor" helpers.
i should have been doing this all along.
so happy to have two this time.
b/c if one is unwilling,
there's always another:)

and

i can no longer get my leg up on its own without using my hands to lift it higher than half of a foot off of the ground.

like over brooke's baby gate.

i had to pull my own leg up over her baby gate today.
we had a good laugh over it.
and then i may or may not have waddled for a step or two just after.
may or may not have.
just sayin.

making a list {checked it twice}

i've made my list.

and checked it twice.

it whipped around the backside of my torn piece of paper.

so i made it again.

on a full sheet.

and shamelessly enjoyed it.

making the list.

twice:)

organizing it.

relishing in it.

glorying in the food preparations for the big christmas festivities.

getting excited for my most favorite items.

savoring the sounds of christmas traditions.

...

what are your must have's on christmas day?

i could live on the sugared baked bri, shrimp, and ham rolls.

with chocolate croissants for breakfast.

dipped in tom & jerry's.

minus the rum.

the entire day.

this is all in need.

no other nourishment required.

and in the wrong order.

but not to be forgotten.

the meat and cheese fondue on christmas eve.

the rice pudding for dessert.

nutmeg on top.

{i always eat sean's. he doesn't like it.}

although he did try to convince me was figgy pudding.

and then sang the song inserting the words,

"now bring us some figgy pudding, our rice pudding figgy pudding."

i've confirmed.

it is NOT in the song.

and it is NOT figgy pudding.

but is IS my favorite christmas dessert.

the christmas light viewing.

and the famous gibson christmas eve/nativity reenactment song book.

that's sean's mom handmade, sewed, and stitched.

she plays the piano.

we sing.

and dress up.

it's lovely.

{i'd better be a shoe in for mary this year. if not, i'm striking next year.}

...

new traditions to be introduced:

chocolate pie

homemade peppermint ice cream

polar express in grandma & grandpa gibson's movie room.

...

I CAN'T WAIT:)

zoo lights {a photo gallery}

ZOO LIGHTS.

our new favorite frosty tradition.

 comet was there too.

this was my favorite part.

 POOF!

 picking the gorilla's nose from the comfort of his blanketed, hot chocolate holding, cadalliac may have been brennan's favorite part.

i guess we'll never know.

now,

if we could just get some

SNOW:)

extravaganza review! {april, may, & june}

<br /><center><a href="http://www.emmymom2.com/"><img src="http://i855.photobucket.com/albums/ab115/Emmymom/2011%20Blog%20Pictures/2011buttonblue200.jpg" /></a></center><br />

alright folks,

it's week 2.

and just so there's no confusion,

here's a link to the rules.

for the nitty gritty,

if you want to win a prize.

8 prizes!

from 8 lovely ladies,

including yours truly;)

don't forget to include the button code above with your post,

as several people forgot last week.

...

AND NOW,

i

give

you

APRIL,

 MAY,

&

JUNE

my very first seed sprouted.

i was the proudest little mama there ever was.



it snowed a whole lot.

over night.

and shut the power off.

on sunday conference.

AND

max decided to start walking.

upright.

like cromagnum man.

she grew some hair.

and turned into a toddler.

like overnight.

my plants grew some more.

i learned about pinching.

i left for hawaii.

BY MYSELF.

to visit my mom.

here

here

here

here

HERE

here

here

here

here

HERE

HERE

here

and then i came home and showered my family with gifts

here.

the popcorn was popping on my neighbor's trees.

we did easter stuff.

i ate the kid's easter candy.

before easter.

and had to buy more.

it was lovely.

pb eggs.

pb eggs:)

we celebrated 7 YEARS of marriage on easter.

i fired the groundhog.

b/c he's a man of LIES!

even though it was really pretty.

and melted by the end of the day.

i had just had enough of being sick the entire winter.

this coming from a snow lover.

i was done with the snow.

and the winter.

and was convinced that if it became summer we would be healthy.

and we were:)

our trees blossomed.

breathtakingly beautiful.

and i wrote my all time favorite post.

it got warm.

we pulled out the sunscreen.

and bathing suits.

and then we were back in coats again.

we got the dirt ready.

and

PLANTED!!!

all of my little seedlings.

:)

and then it snowed.

but my plants lived.

even though spring just wouldn't spring.

i had a war with max's fire alarm.

which i still have not fixed.

swim lessons started.

we bought a whole lot of sand.

and had to go back and buy double more.

but ended up with an amazing sandbox.

my seeds really started growing.

like into food.

brennan finally got potty trained.

summer decided to grace us with its presence.

our air conditioner broke.

i almost cried.

wait,

i did.

and then it got fixed.

and we finally started enjoying summer.

"man talk" began.

and we started living in the pool.

no really,

we did.

and when we weren't in the pool,

we were still in our bathing suits.

on vacation in our backyard.

it was father's day.

my sister came to visit.

we got really lazy.

summer lazy:)

it was

great:)

so link up!

and don't forget the button!

button!

who's got the button!?