Alpine Village Four-Peat

This is the fourth year in a row that we've been to Trinity Baptist's Church Alpine Village. The church transforms their gym into a village filled with all of these adorable little houses that offer the children a different craft to make, snack to eat or gift/ornament to take home. In addition there is a live Nativity, a "park" where the kids can play with snow, a puppet show and of course the opportunity to see Santa. Can you believe that all of this is free? Well, Isabella absolutely loves everything about it. And just for fun I thought I'd take you on a stroll down Memory Lane regarding our last four visits to Alpine Village:

~ 2005 ~

Our first visit to Alpine Village. Isabella was not even 5 months old yet and although she was a bit overwhelmed by all the noise, she was quite mesmerized with all the lights. Her older cousins on the other hand had a blast.

~ 2006 ~

I love her expression in this picture. Isabella was 16 and a half months old and instantly fell in love with this wooden horse. Sharing was not even in her vocabulary at this time so trying to get her off the horse while explaining that other children deserved a turn was pretty much a catastrophe.

~ 2007 ~

Yep, she's almost 2 and a half years old and definitely in charge. She knows she wants to ride the wooden horse, she kind of knows the concept of sharing, but she's totally unwilling to do so. Luckily she got over her huge tantrum when we distracted her with the other activities available.

~ 2008 ~

This was taken last Saturday. She's now almost 3 and a half years old. Once again the wooden horse is a big hit, but she's now old enough to remember all there is to do once you get past the horses. So she rode it for a while and eagerly let another kid have a turn so that she could move on to bigger and better things,...

Like for example, playing in the snow:

Playing in the snow is definitely the highlight of the entire event. Yes. Snow. In case you couldn't tell it's shredded plastic. It gets everywhere. And it's pretty darn close to impossible to get out of your hair. This, my friends, is the highlight of the entire event!

In previous years we have not been to see Santa for a couple of reason, the main one being Isabella's paralyzing fear of him, so we've gone to the puppet show instead. Well this year is a whole different story. Since she's now understanding the concept of Santa bringing gifts, she's all about seeing him, sitting on his lap and reading off her list.

Now, before you go and make a judgement on the following picture and me personally as a mother, please understand that I try to be the best mother I can to my children, but I am also a scrapbooker. How sad will Sam be years from now when he's looking through his scrapbooks and asks where his first Christmas picture alone with Santa is only for me to respond that there isn't one because he was too scared? No, we can't have that. So luckily I'll have this to show him instead:

Pitiful, isn't it? Poor baby!

While there I also tried to get a picture of the kids together for our Christmas card. Yeah, let's just say my efforts yielded unsuccessful results. But regardless, we had a great time on our Four-Peat visit to Alpine Village.

Checking it all off the list

Although I got off to a pretty late start this year, I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making.


Preschool Christmas Party Goody Bags: CHECK

I'm one of the party moms for Isabella's Preschool Christmas Party this year, and I was put in charge of the goody bags. A couple other moms have snacks and crafts. The moment I knew what I was responsible for (which was last week) I went to Oriental Trading to check out their assortment. Honestly, so much of what they usually bring home in goody bags is junk and ends up in the garbage. So I was determined to change that and make these goody bags awesome! I was going to stick with a Jesus based theme to remind the kids of the real reason for the season.

I placed some really cool items in my shopping cart (candy cane ornaments, nativity scene sticker sheets and some really cute elf picture frames). When I went to place the $20 order with my $.98 shipping offer, it stated that it wouldn't be delivered until around the 22nd of December. Huh? Did I mention the party's on the 18th? That won't work, at all!

Fine, so maybe I can't use the almost free shipping so I'll order it and pay to have the shipping expedited a bit faster. YEAH! $20 shipping on a $20 order to have it by the 17th of December. First off, that's cutting it way too close for my liking. Second, I wasn't really planning on spending $40+ on these goody bags, which may end up in someone's garbage anyway. And finally, Holy Cow, what do I do now?

OK, so now I'm in desperation mode. I went to Target, Walmart and the two different Hobby Lobbys in town. Nothing! I checked other resources online. Nothing! Finally, I made a trip to Michael's on Friday and wait, do you hear that? Yes, it's the angels singing their lovely tunes as everything came together.

The contents of the goody bars are: a candy cane with the candy cane story, a picture frame and a Santa/Moose/ Teddy Bear jar filled with yummy Hershey Kisses. OK, so other than the candy cane with the candy cane story I wasn't able to find much else that was Jesus related, but I can honestly say that I am thrilled with I did find. Isabella absolutely loves the little jars,.. hopefully so will the other kids. I'll tell you on Thursday.


Teachers' Gifts: Check

I went the easy route on these teachers' gifts this year: a beautiful glass ornament (so much so that I picked one for our tree as well, lol) and some cute Christmas chocolate candy for each of the two room teachers and an ornament for the music teacher. Done! I love, love, love the gift bags I found at Hobby Lobby for them.


The best part of the above mentioned gifts? I'm all about bargains and everything was at least 50% off at Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I so love it when that happens!


Christmas Shopping: Almost done

I think I have one more visit to Amazon.com and I'm done! Oh, how I love cyber shopping,... let me count the ways.

Today we're going to our church's late service (11:15am) to join our friends in celebrating their baby's baptism and then to their home for lunch. So I better get going, I still have some gift wrapping and getting ready to do. Talk soon!

It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Alright, so let me just get it out there so that we can move on with this post,... I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. Things have been INSANELY busy and when I do have time to sit, writing about the craziness of it all is the last thing on my mind. So there! I don't know about you, but I feel much better.

First order of business ~ the halls are finally decked! I'm usually one of those people who puts up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving day or shortly there after. Nope, not this year. Actually, I'm embarrassed to admit that for a while there I had quite a Scrooge-like state of mind. You see, with all this uncertainty about my Dad and his condition/treatment and whether or not we'd be traveling to FL, I actually debated whether or not to put the tree up at all this year. I kept thinking what's the point? And then it hit me ~ Isabella and her fascination for all things Christmas that light up! She's the point! And although Sam's too young to know it, so is he! So as you can imagine, as soon as I had my little epiphany I got real busy.

This here is a view of our Christmas tree from upstairs. Due to my before mentioned state of mind, I kept the decor pretty simple this year.

This eclectic flocked pink little number decorated with everything from graceful ballerinas to lollipops to disco balls is Isabella's tree that sits in her room.

Of course, Sam inherited Isabella's old tree. He is absolutely mesmerized by the different color lights and ornaments. I'm thinking next year we'll have to "personalize" his tree for him.

This is our Dining Room tree which is the only one that's been up since before Thanksgiving.


*****
OK, so what else have I been up to? Oh yeah, not WW. I just realized that I haven't even reported on my WW progress, or lack thereof, since November. That's NOT good! Let me just be frank here, I have been so unmotivated lately it's ridiculous. The lack of self-control I have had in the last few weeks is a disgrace.

Pounds lost last week: +.2 lbs
Pounds lost this week: .2 lbs
Total lost: 24.4 lbs

So as you can see luckily the damage has not been as bad as it could have been and I have vowed to get back on the program ASAP. Next week there WILL be a loss reported,... I promise hope!

*****
Last Wednesday our friend Laura, brave friend that she is, hosted a Children's Christmas party at her beautiful home. It was all about the kids and it was wonderful! They got to decorate Christmas cookies, eat pizza and play for hours.

There was one itty bitty insy weensy problem ~ I did some major sinning while I was there. You know the commandment that says : "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's ______"? Well let me tell ya, I coveted, I coveted BIG TIME! What was the source of my desire/sin you ask? Here it is:

That's right my friends, it's the 21 piece Willow Tree Nativity Set and it is as magnificent as the price tag is hefty! I was literally trying to figure out how I could discreetly stuff the entire set into my very small purse. HA HA HA. Just kidding,... or am I?

So I'm wondering, is coveting a "sin" if it involves something that is Jesus centered? Yeah,... probably.

*****
Today we went to my niece's 6th Birthday party and then to Alpine Village for the fourth year in a row. I'll post about that later because someone, who shall remain nameless, is hanging on my leg begging me to get off the computer. But before I go I do have to leave you with a funny from this week.

On Tuesday it rained and rained and rained and rained. And just when you thought it couldn't rain anymore you guessed it, it rained some more. Anyway, I was having one of those days when I wanted to call in sick for the day. You know the kind, right? I didn't want to change another diaper, or feed another mouth, or listen to any whining or do anything really. So as if I wasn't irate enough already, the dogs refused to go outside to do their business in the rain until way late in the day. And of course, when they finally did they tracked all this water and mud into the house adding one more thing to the list of things I didn't want to do, but had to.

Anyway, Mick comes back inside and heads straight to the water bowl. When it comes to water Mick can outdrink any dog we've ever known. So he's drinking. A lot. Nonstop actually. Isabella's in the bathroom taking care of her business. So I tell him: "Mick, that's enough". Drink. Drink. Drink. Then I say: "Mick, stop!" More drinking. Finally, I yell at him: "Mick! Quit!" Suddenly, the bathroom doors flies open and Isabella comes out, pants around her ankles and says to me: "Momma, is he killing you or just getting on your nerves?" Yeah I admit it, I laughed hard at this one. She totally changed my mood for the remainder of the day.

OK, gotta go now.

His Cool New Trick

Four easy steps to standing up:

(1) First and foremost, make sure you've got
an acceptable audience.

(2) Then, grab the table with both hands
and pull yourself up on your huge chunky knees.

(3) Muster as much concentration and strength as
possible and pull yourself up to standing position.

(4) Finally, plop yourself back on the floor
and celebrate like it's nobody's business.

Yes, our big boy is now pulling himself up everywhere, ALL the time and chomping at the bit to start cruising. What's my favorite part in all of this? When he plops himself back on the floor and starts clapping and laughing hard belly laughs due to his accomplishing this new trick. So what do we do, you ask? Well, we all celebrate right along with him. Especially his sister, who's positively certain she's taught him absolutely everything he knows. These kids, I tell ya,...

Update on my Dad

Well, my Mom and Dad had their first consultation at the Jacksonville Mayo Clinic yesterday, but unfortunately there's not much to report.

Right now they appear to be in the fact gathering stage; drawing blood, running tests, meeting with all the different specialists, and so forth. In about a week to a week and a half everyone involved in my Dad's evaluation ~ all the doctors, nurses, social workers, etc ~ will meet and make the determination of whether or not they consider my dad to be a viable candidate for a kidney and liver transplant.

So, the good news is that after reviewing my Dad's VERY extensive medical charts, they didn't just say there was nothing they could do for him.

The bad news is that we have to wait some time before we know what the next step will be. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not really good at this waiting thing. But hey, as long as there's a chance I will continue to wait, prayerfully,...

Please know, I am so very grateful for all of your thoughts and prayers and feel absolutely blessed to have such amazing people in my life. Thank you!

Isabella's Christmas Program

Tonight was Isabella's Preschool Christmas Program titled "What Can I Give Jesus?" It was SO cute. She had her very own line: "What can I give Jesus as small as I am?", and she kinda sang and kinda danced, kinda played bells and kinda had two wardrobe malfunctions right up on the altar; one major, one minor. But all in all, it was a very cute program and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Even Sam was quite well behaved, considering it lasted about 45 minutes.

With regards to the major wardrobe malfunction previously mentioned, well apparently she wanted to make sure everything was right where it should be as soon as she climbed up on the altar. So she made all necessary adjustments while concentrating on her music teacher so that she wouldn't miss her cue.

I think at one point she thought that maybe the other kids were singing a bit too loud,... unnecessarily. What do you think?

The minor wardrobe malfunction occurred when midway through the program she somehow lost a shoe.

She tried vigorously to put it back on during the performance, but suddenly, like a true star, decided that the show must go on and finished the program without a shoe.

Of course, the evening would not have been complete without a visit from Santa. Isabella told me she HAD to speak to him again and REMIND him of what she wants for Christmas. It's crazy to see how very comfortable she is with Santa Clause this year. Last year she literally yelled the items on her list from what she considered was a safe enough distance. Boy, what a difference a year makes.

The last photo of the evening was taken by Scott as soon as we got home and it's of me and the kiddos in front of our dining room Christmas tree.
This was the perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Bust a Move ~ Christmas Style

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sorry, but after seeing the dancing elves all over Blogland for a couple of years now I just couldn't resist. This has made me and Isabella laugh to the point of tears. Silly I know, but isn't that the point?

Enjoy and then go and make yourself your own family of silly dancing elves.

Yeah, not exactly enchanting

We went to the Enchanted Forest at the Pink Palace yesterday to see all the different Christmas trees and the animated animals in the forest. This is the third year we go to see this specific exhibit and I would venture to say quite likely the last. It was INSANE! I should have just made a U-Turn the minute I pulled into the parking lot and saw the 27 school buses all lined up. Seriously, what a nightmare!

I met up with three of my friends and their six children and we foolishly thought we could hold our own in this endless sea of school-aged children/teachers/parents.

We pretty much ran through the forest as fast as we could so that we could get out of there as quickly as possible. Not to mention that in the process of our "mini marathon" I was reprimanded for taking flash photography. Hmmm,... let's see: (A) I honestly cannot recall seeing any signs that prohibited photography of any kind along the way, (B) the forest is pretty dark so no flash pretty much guarantees no decent photos, and oh yeah (C) are you kidding me? Do you not see the light effects inside the forest from ALL the different flashes going off around you? I am seriously experiencing some déjà vu from my "no photography" experience at The Backyardigans Live show.

Anyway, after we got through the forest at an unbelievably ridiculous speed we ended up visiting Santa. This was the first year that Isabella was not absolutely terrified of the Jolly Old Man. She was actually dare I say, excited to see him and tell him what she wants for Christmas this year. Her list is short and sweet: Moon Sand (ughhh!), a Dora bike with a Dora helmet (safety first!) and a camera (brings a tear to my eyes!).

And what about Sam you ask? Well, I think it's best to let the picture speak for itself:

Yeah, this is pretty much how all four moms felt by the time we got out of there. I certainly wouldn't call this an enchanting experience by any means. Talk about sucking the joy right out of the season,...

Meet Celimar

This is my beautiful friend Celimar.

Celimar came from AZ to visit us during Thanksgiving break. She is and has been a very good friend of mine for a very long time. She is like family. You see, I have known her for her entire 23 years of life. I met her as a beautiful tiny newborn the day she came home from the hospital. I was, gulp, 13 years old. I was her babysitter until the day I moved to Madison, WI in January of 1992 to continue my college endeavours. Whether close by or from far away, I have had the privilege of knowing this girl and seeing her develop into the amazing human being that she is today.

It was absolutely awesome having her visit. The last time we saw her was almost 7 years ago at our wedding. And her transformation from teen to woman has been amazing. But I must confess that initially I had this overwhelming need to protect her, as if she was still the little girl I was so frequently entrusted with way back when.

Sometimes while enjoying some drinks together during her visit it felt so incredibly weird, almost as if I was encouraging underage drinking. The fact that she is a Master's student is baffling to me. Also, the fact that she has a boyfriend pretty much blows me away. Did I mention that she's 23 years old? But, can I help it that I still see the innocent little girl she once was? Yeah let me tell ya, I have never felt older than I did this last week.

This was the first time that she met the kids and to say that they both adored her is a gross understatement. Every time Sam saw her he had this huge grin on his face, almost of a flirtatious nature. He's gonna be trouble, that little one. But then again, she is quite a stunning beauty. And Isabella? Oh, she was all over Celi the entire time she was here. They played and danced and colored and jumped until they could do no more. It was such an unbelievable blessing to see her with my children and to see them love her so much, so quickly.

Thank you for coming to visit us, Celi. We hope you had as much fun as we did and we can't wait to see you again. Hmmm, maybe a nice little trip to AZ next year?

We love you!

I need the Geek Squad ASAP

So,... we're having some pretty serious computer issues and I'm not able to upload pictures right this minute. But as soon as we're up and running (which Scott, my very own personal geek squad, assures me will be soon) I will provide a proper update and share some pictures and stories from our fun Thanksgiving weekend with our special guest, Celimar. We had such a great time and I can't wait to tell you all about her.

I am happy to say that I am finally done with the Twilight books series, which pretty much means I can go back to living my life without this ridiculous obsession. Yes my friends, in the last week and a half I read all four books and watched the movie,... twice. And just so you know, it is SO much better the second time around, because then you stop concerning yourself with how some parts are different from the book and how "cheesy" the acting is at times and you're better able to focus on the story and Edward (sigh!). Well OK, maybe I'm still a little bit obsessed, but trust me it's not as bad as it has been. Although I am looking into a 12-step recovery program as we speak (at least until the next two movies are released).

Not much else going on in our neck of the woods. Unfortunately, I have nothing to report on the WW front since I missed last week's meeting, but I'm sure it was BAD! Also, I'm still debating whether or not to put up our big Christmas tree since we still don't know what my Dad's status is and if we may be going to FL. I'm leaning towards putting it up for the kids, but we'll see.

Alrighty then, I'll be back with pictures soon. Until then,...