Christmas Pictures

I didn’t take a lot of pictures but at least I had my camera which is more than I can say about years passed.

Since there are so many of us we played some minute to win it games on Christmas Eve to determine the order of present opening by family.

Gotta get the Oreo in your mouth without using your hands.

Chubby Bunny

This is how I look the whole time when I play this game.

 

Pie Night. On Christmas Eve we have pie for dinner since no one has room after dinner on Christmas

 

Everyone gets matching PJ's but I only got pictures of the younger boy and girl cousins. They vary by age.

 

 

From left to right: the angel, Mary, Joseph, and a shepard. (Baby Jesus kept crawling away.)

 

ready for church

 

Finally a cute picture of Isaac!

 

Kenzie was sleeping, she has a red dress too. Actually I didn't get any pictures of her

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas Presents this Year

I have been dying to post these for a while because they were a ton of fun to do.  I wanted to do them for everyone in my family but they got pretty time consuming and I sometimes struggle with computer addiction so I needed to stop for my own health. I decided to do some fun Photoshopping with everyone’s pictures.

Before

 

After

 

Before

 

After

 

this plus...

 

this

 

equals this

 

Before

 

After

 

Before

 

After

 

Before

 

After

This plus...

 

this

 

equals this

These were so much fun to put together and for someone on a budget they were great because it was free except for a .30 cent print and a $1.00 frame to put them in.  I also gave each family a CD of everyone’s photos so they have the digital files for Facebook or whatever.  I did something different for my in-Laws but I can’t blog about it until after my sister-in-law in Australia gets her’s… yeah I was late in mailing them out but it was a last minute decision gift.

 

Stroller Death

Nathan and I are doing something a little off our paying off debt schedule and pretty much taking December off. I know it is probably not the best thing to do but we will get back on schedule next month.  I think I may want to take December off every year.  Hopefully it will only be ONE more year however.  We still are paying a good chunk, but we have a good chunk of spending money as well.

I made a special trip to Tri-Cities yesterday.  I usually limit it to 1 trip every two weeks for groceries and whatever else I can squeeze in,  Usually, I might get to go to one store for me. MAYBE.  So this time I was totally stoked because I was only going to the fun stuff.  Usually the mall is untouchable when the kids are with me because I don’t have the stroller.  When I am getting groceries there is never enough room for this LARGE stroller.  The mall is IMPOSSIBLE without a double stroller.  Their little legs just get too tired too quickly.

This is my stroller, all three kids can sit on it.  Isaac and the baby in the seats and Ahnna can sit on the foot rest. Or, like this trip, she wanted Isaac to sit on her lap.  It was pretty funny.  I would have taken a picture but I forgot my phone.

So we load up and go in.  I get into my FIRST store and I notice the front wheel is feeling weird.  Nathan bent it really bad about a year ago so we bent it a lot more trying to get the wheel back on, so I’m used to it giving me a little trouble. I went to give it my usual hit back into place but when I lifted the stroller up, the wheel fell off. I tried to shove it back on with no luck.  The store employee got me a hammer and no luck.

Gah! I did NOT want my special trip to only do fun things get ruined!  It was around the corner from Sears who sells strollers, so the nice Aeropostle people let me leave the stroller there while I tried to get a new one.  When I left it there, the employee  said they can throw the big one in the trash for me if I got a new one. I was so done with that darn wheel and there was no way I could carry it with me anyway that I decided to let them chuck it. There were no double strollers so I just got a cheap umbrella stroller for the baby hoping I can still hit a few stores.  I thought about renting a mall stroller but they were all the way at the other end of the mall. Impossible.  The line took forever.  Getting the big stroller unlocked from the dressing room they were keeping it in took forever.    The new employee I was talking to when I got back was trying to tell me to take it around back and I said I just can’t do that.  She didn’t realize that I had two little kids with tired short legs and another stroller to push as well.  There is no way I could also WALK a large stroller around the back of the mall that did not have a wheel attached.

The first store I went to after that took forever to get a dressing room, and I was almost in tears.  When we were done there, the kids were tired and hungry. So the trip was over.  I got to one store and then after we ate I drug them to another store so I could get my eyeliner  I had a gift card for. I guess I need to learn to get a babysitter. I have hard time asking anyone to take the kids for such a LONG time.

I have come to really like Othello. However, ONLY on shopping days, I want to move, and I want to move now.  If we lived nearby it would not have been so bad to have the stroller break. I wouldn’t feel like I have to hit every store in one day.

Isaac’s new favorite toy

Yep, that is my flat iron. He pretends to feed it things, in fact it had all three meals with us today.  He LOVES it and held onto it all day.  Now he is snuggling up to it in bed. Good thing I didn’t go all out on toys for Christmas.  Maybe I should just wrap up my curling iron for him…

p.s. he has never attempted to plug it in and all our plugs have covers on them anyway, so I’m not too worried about him getting burned.

Casual 4 Year Old Conversation

During preschool today, the girls were talking as they were coloring their letters.

Girl 1: You can’t be so bossy, maybe one day when you are a mom you can

Girl 2: When you are a mom you have to kiss the dad on the lips

Girl 1: No you don’t!

Girl 2: Yes you do! You have to kiss him if you want a baby!

LOL! Whew – that was a good one.

In other preschool fun today, I decided to use glitter on our craft. Just some foam snowflakes with a little glue and sprinkle on the glitter over a plate. I thought it should be fairly controlled.  However, when I wasn’t looking, an overexcited Isaac got a hold of one of the containers of glitter and pulled the cap off, resulting in a cloud of glitter that went everywhere.  Isaac was covered in it.  It was even on his tongue and he was trying hard to get it off poor guy.  In the end he failed and it will just have to come out the other end.  There is now a thin layer of glitter covering the table and floor.  If I was feeling highly motivated, I would try to get it up with tape or something but I’m not.  In fact I’ve been in a really weird mood lately, I hope it goes away soon.  It is like I’m having ADD symptoms and it is really annoying.  I can’t focus on anything.

The First Snow

This happened a while ago and I meant to blog about it.  I just got all the pictures off the camera and I was reminded to do it.  I saw on the weather that there was nearly 100% chance of snow that day.  Ahnna was so excited all she could do was look out the window and wait.  She finally laid down and got a blanket.  Isaac came to join her after that and here they are laying by the sliding door waiting for the snow.

It finally came and it was only then that I remembered I needed to get the snow tires put on. So I went to Les Shwab with every other person who thought the same thing and waited TWO HOURS with the older kids.  I thought about walking home but then I would have to walk back to get it and who knows how deep the snow would be by then.  It was really coming down. So we waited and we actually had a lot of fun playing and then watching the tires get changed.

When we got back it was nearly dark but that did not stop us from going out for a little bit. Isaac’s suit made him look like he had “birthing hips” as Nathan but it.

 

When I Think it is OK to use a Credit Card

If you follow Dave Ramsey’s style of money management, than it is never ok to use a credit card.  I think if you are a person who has a hard time keeping your spending under control this is the rule to follow.  In fact I think it is the rule to follow most the time.  I remember when I was in college as a graphic designer and I wanted to buy an apple lap top, my parents told me never buy anything you don’t already have the money for.  I thought “well that’s no fun, then why do I have a credit card at all!” I bought the lap top anyway and only paid the minimum payments of $35 at 19% interest on an item that cost me $2700.  I was taking my first steps to being in debt the rest of my life.  That was not my only credit card purchase but  thankfully I got a good paying job the following year and my husband and I both thought it important to get out of debt before we got married.  Only then did I start to see the trap credit cards can create.

So now that I am all responsible with money – when do I use a credit card? Only if it is something I already have the money for.  (It’s amazing this pool of knowledge you discover your parents have when you grow up.) Then why use a credit card?  My  most recent example is Christmas.  I have a certain amount of money I have been putting aside each month the entire year to save up for Christmas.  This way I know what I have to work with. No matter what, I can’t go over this amount of money.  Period.  Since we live in the middle of nowhere I have to do most my shopping online and I don’t want Nathan to see where I have been shopping or else he will know what I got him. So I chose to use my credit card. I have been keeping a little log of where I have spent Christmas money and I have not gone over.  Important Note - Since I already have the money for everything I put on that card, it gets paid off on the first bill so there is NEVER an interest fee.

Another example was when Nathan took me on my birthday trip to Seattle.  He had a set amount of money we could spend in his head already, knowing it was what we could afford, but most that money was coming from the paycheck he was going to get while we were on vacation, so we put all our expenses on the card and paid it off immediately when we got home.

One my mom use to do was use a Macy’s or JCPenny’s credit card just to get the extra discount the sale gives you by using it.  (They give that extra discount because they expect to make more money off of you by collecting your interest payments on your card.)  Then when we were done shopping she would go back to the area where you can make a payment on your card and pay it off before we left the store.  So she pretty much paid cash but got the discount for using credit.  That is working the system.

So that about sums it up.  I think it is OK to use a credit card if you use it in a way where you never have to pay interest.  That means you can afford what you buy.

A little TOO into potty training.

 

OK anyone out there ever had a kid that does not want to LEAVE the toilet while potty training. Isaac is on there constantly, sounds great but there are serious emotional problems when I try to get him off. He has to get off sometimes. Like to eat or when I have had enough of trying to keep an eye on him. I think he might just like to be naked, or thinks he has to use his diaper when it is on and just can’t stand the thought. I know trying underwear might help but I’m not ready for that stress since he always goes in his diaper before he asks to go on the potty. Do I just need to get over it? I really was not planning on potty training right now.  Writing this makes me feel like I need to just do it but it is SOO stressful! I don’t want messes in my house.  I feel like I just shampooed the carpet and I really don’t want to do it again for a while.  Have you seen our carpet? Since the coloring is so good at hiding things, I can’t even tell if it is wet unless I step on it.  These well meaning people put in great carpet for people who do not have little children. You just NEED to see what is on the ground when you have little ones.

Dang that cupcake he is holding looks so good right now…