'Twas 6 Days After Christmas...

And I finally got to my Christmas recap.  It was a really busy, and sickly (for me), Christmas season around here.  I started off the month with a trip to Portland to visit Nanette and less than two weeks after I got back, we threw a Christmas party at our house.  It was pretty much all Rob's friends from work that we invited and a lot of them showed up.  It was open house style with lots of food and drinks and I was so busy, that I didn't even get a picture of the house during the party.  You would just see wall-to-wall people though if I had gotten the chance.  It was a good time and I'd like to do it again next year but Rob was so worn out, he said we could do it in about 3 years.  We'll see.  I did a lot of decorating around the house and I have two favorite projects.  The first one I didn't get a picture of either.  I am bad about that.  I got the inspiration from Pinterest to do an advent calendar out of a over-the-door shoe organizer.

Source: modernparentsmessykids.com via Shelby on Pinterest

This one is a lot cuter than mine.  I will have to see if I can spruce mine up for next year and make it look like this one.  The other thing I did that I loved so much came from another pin.  I got so many compliments at the party on it too, which was great.  On our gallery wall, I swapped out the photos I could change with all our different Christmas card photos we've taken over the years (that part was my idea) and then the ones that I couldn't change, I just wrapped them up to look like giant Christmas gifts.

It was kind of a lot of work and definitely took a lot of wrapping paper and ribbon, but the result was totally worth it.  The whole house was totally decked out because I love to decorate and with the party I had a good excuse to go nuts but these were my two favorite things.  And we took everything down this weekend so that is all the photos I have of that.

We had a lot of fun on Christmas morning.  Santa brought Rex a "space station" that he was asking for (actually it is a space shuttle and launch tower) and Wyatt got a V-Reader so he will stop stealing his brother's all the time.  At least that is what I was hoping for and now we have two so there are a lot less fights over that toy.  They got all kinds of things from us and family and friends- pretend camping gear, Mobigo games, boats and trucks of all kinds, books, clothes, puzzles, play food and cooking stuff and more that I can't remember right now.  Because it was a LOT.  Here are some photos from that morning.









I have to point out the matching Christmas elf pajamas.  This is the one time of the whole year when I insist on dressing them the same and I will keep doing it as long as I can get away with it- they are so adorable!!

Cooking With What You Have

Rob and I were pretty proud of ourselves tonight when it came to making dinner.  We made dinner using only what we could find around the house.  The menu planning was all Rob- he is really good at figuring out what to make with what we already have.  I have a sinus infection and I wasn't planning on assisting with any of it.  So Rob decided to make cornbread muffins, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes and sort of a chicken a la king dish that he was going to use up a bunch of our turkey lunchmeat with instead of chicken.  When he called me out to help, he already had the cornbread made, the carrots were boiling and so were the potatoes.  I am the mashed potato queen though so he asked me if I could check if they were done and finish them up.  He also had the cream cheese and butter sitting out so that I could make them Pioneer Woman fatty-fat-fat style.  Don't get me wrong- they are the most delicious mashed potatoes I have ever had.  I just usually only make them that way for Thanksgiving.  As I was taking care of the potatoes, I watched Rob starting to make the gravy for the turkey a la king.  And I got concerned.  Making a roux or gravy is about one of the hardest things to make in the kitchen and he was going about it all wrong.  I am no expert but I have had some success with making a roux before (thanks mom and dad for the lesson!) so I jumped in and took over.  I also told him he did not have "gravy clearance" which we both laughed really hard about.  He was just dumping the flour right into the melted butter and onions and was about to add the broth before I stopped him.  The flour and butter have to be stirred constantly and cooked together for quite a while to make sure you get the gritty, raw flour taste out of there.  Anyhow, it turned out really good and I think we will have to add that recipe into the mix for future meals.  Like Rob said, "It's like really, really good cafeteria food."  I got a picture of what was left of it.



Not that I am enjoying the sinus infection at all, but it is kind of nice to have Rob take over the menu planning for a while- he does such a great job!

A White Christmas for 2012

Last year, we didn't get hardly any snow and this year has been off to a pretty slow start too.  Until last night that is.  I'm not sure how much we did get- I usually measure by the amount I see piled up on things like fences and outdoor toys so let's say we got about this much.



If I had to guess, I'd say we got around 8 inches of snow last night.  That's a pretty significant amount of snow for us.  The boys were so anxious to go out and play in it this morning; it was all they talked about from the moment they got up.  I was dreading it because I knew what would happen- so here it is.

Mommy opens the door and they rush out-



Wyatt's boots get "dirty" from the snow and he wants right back in-



Wyatt decides to watch us play from inside the house where he can stay clean and dry-



Rex plays in the snow with me and tries to throw snowballs at me-



Then he makes a snow angel-



Then I make one-



And then I decided we were both too wet and cold and needed to go inside.  I chased Rex around for a while and finally got him back in the house where we got into some warm and dry clothes.  It was a lot of fun though while we were out there.  Rex was asking all day to go back out but I had enough for one day.  I took a few pictures of our street from the front porch- I was all warm and dry again and didn't want to venture too far out so this was the best I could do.





It looks so beautiful but it is a little scary out there still so we didn't go out anywhere today.  Rex's school was canceled so that was good.  Rob took the bus to work so he didn't have to worry about driving.  Rex's last day of school before Christmas break is tomorrow and they are having a party so we'll have to go out for that but it should be a lot better by then.  I'm so happy to have all the snow in time for Christmas!

Lowering the Weirdness Level in Portland

I said goodbye to my husband and babies last Thursday morning to catch a taxi, shuttle and two airplanes to go visit Nanette and her family in Portland, Oregon.  It was the first time I had been away from the boys for more than just a couple of hours so it was a big deal.  I cried a little here and there throughout the day I left but was also looking forward to some me-time.  Something I have only had very small doses of for the last 4.5 years.  So it was a fun, but kind of difficult, time for me all wrapped into one.  Anyhow, moving on...

I noticed even at the airport gate in Chicago that if you are a guy from Portland, you probably are sporting one of these things- a beard or skinny cords.  If you don't have either, you better at least have a cardigan sweater on to make up for it.  I hate going places and being obvious that I am a tourist.  I have very few pictures of my trip, in fact, just because of that reason.  I think though that there was no way to hide it in Portland.  The motto is "Keep Portland Weird"- don't believe me?



It is painted on the building right there by Voodoo Donuts.  I think I'm pretty normal and not-weird so I'm sure the weirdness level dipped a bit over the weekend.  Sorry Portland.  Speaking of Voodoo Donuts, it is a must in Portland so we went there for breakfast Friday morning.  I love donuts so it wasn't hard to convince me.  I decided to step out a little and try something different.  Now they have a lot of crazy donuts so maybe it wasn't so different but I got the "fritter of the day" which turned out to be strawberry-pineapple-banana with sprinkles on top.



It was good but a little too much sugar for my breakfast.  I ate half and threw the rest away before I gave myself a stomachache.  From there, we cruised over to Powell's City of Books where I loaded up with books for the boys for Christmas presents.  We shopped around downtown a little more and then headed over to the Clackamas Town Center.  I had requested a visit to one of the H&M stores and the mall provided that along with lunch and a showing of Silver Linings Playbook.  The movie was great and I was just happy to see any movie in a theater because that rarely happens these days. I picked up some Molasses Chips for Rob at See's Candy, bought the boys some more clothes at a super-duper sale at Gymboree and then we headed back to Nanette's place.   Brent picked up dinner for us at Killer Burger which was fantastic.  Such a good burger.  Thursday night's dinner was also a big winner- we went to Hopworks and the soft pretzel sticks were amazing.  I felt like I didn't really get the whole Portland experience since it is beer-heaven and I don't like beer.  In fact, no one ordered beer at Hopworks.  Lucky they didn't kick us out.

On Saturday we went to the Little T Bakery for some breakfast.  Like everywhere else they took me, this place had fantastic food.  We did a little shopping in the Sellwood area and then were headed to the Japanese Garden when we got distracted by the a food cart pod downtown.  It was lunchtime, after all.  I got distracted by this one, in particular.



Mmm, Cuban food.  I ordered the pork box and it was great.  The pork, the maduros, the black beans and rice- all of it was delicious.  As we were all getting our food from the various carts, it started to rain.  No one brought an umbrella (I was advised not to use one as to avoid looking like a tourist and being snickered at) so we decided to head back to their house where we all took naps.  We hung out there for a while before heading over to Dove Vivi for pizza.  Once again, delicious food.  We all spent some more time at home hanging out before I headed to bed fairly early since I had an early flight the next morning.

Now, about my flights home.  What I had booked was terrible.  I was using a mileage award for the ticket and my choices were poor.  I was supposed to fly Portland-Seattle-Chicago-Des Moines with about 4 hour layovers.  Yikes.  I tried on the phone to get the direct Portland-Chicago flight so I could completely skip Seattle but had no luck.  When I got to the ticket counter, "Sure!  There's room on that flight."  So I got to Chicago way ahead of schedule.  It looked like I would spend 9 hours there before my flight to Des Moines took off.  I figured I would spend $30-40 for a rental car and just drive home from O'Hare.  This was where my plan started to unravel.  I never checked the cost of the rental car until I got to Chicago and then realized it was going to be $140 for a car.  Uh oh.  As I'm talking to Rob on the phone about this, I realize there are 3 flights bound for Des Moines, all leaving at 2:00.  It was 1:40.  I hang up with Rob and run from the L gates all the way over to the G gates to see if I can get on one of the planes.  As it turned out, Des Moines was foggy all morning and no flights had been able to get in there yet.  Bad for everyone else, fantastic for me.  I had to pay a small fee but I was able to get on a flight that left at 2:20.  Woohoo!!  Rob and the boys picked me up at the airport and I made it to my house about 9 hours before I thought I would.  My advice is that if you want to change a flight, keep asking because someone just might tell you yes.  And even more miraculously, my bag made it to Des Moines ahead of me and was waiting at the baggage claim counter.  I wasn't due in until 11:35 that night so I have no idea why that bag was there- it shouldn't have been, but it was.  Everything just turned out perfect.

My boys didn't get more than about 4 feet away from me once we were home, which I loved.  It was a great trip but I was thankful to be home again and see my husband and my boys.

Thanksgiving Recap and Christmas Decorating

I love Thanksgiving.  It is a great day to eat some good food and spend a lot of time with your family.  However, when all your family lives 2,000 miles away, all you are left with is a day of good food- and that is not that exciting.  Thanksgiving is probably the hardest time I have being away from family and it has become not my most favorite holiday.  I really miss our family and look forward to the boys being old enough to travel at the Thanksgiving holiday (when everything is crazy and it all can go wrong) so we can once again spend the day with our family.  We did cook up the whole meal, like we do every year, but I only took this one picture of Rob with the persimmon pudding he made.



On to happier things- like decorating the house for Christmas.  During the summer of 2011, we picked up a Christmas tree at a neighbor's estate/moving-into-retirement-home-and-downsizing sale.  It was a good deal at 5 bucks and it was a good test to see how we felt about going from the real tree to an artificial tree.



I was very anti-fake tree but I found myself growing to like the fake one.  It holds up better with the boys, no watering or drying out, very little needles come off the thing and I can put it up the day after Thanksgiving and it will look the same on Christmas.  To solve the smell issue, Rob found a candle for me that makes the house smell like Christmas tree.  Now I was sold.  The only thing is that I was wishing it had clear lights and was taller.  I started scanning craigslist and waiting.  I missed out on one so I waited a bit longer and found a really nice looking one at a really nice looking house.  I went to peep it out last Friday and it was awesome.  AND it was only $50.  That thing must have cost at least $300-$400 when it was new.  The owner was meticulous about taking care of it and storing it and it is in fantastic shape.  I brought it home and we set it up right away and decorated it.



Most of the decorating around the house is done now, including putting the lights and garlands on the exterior of the house.  I still have some more to do, like decorating the tree in the family room but I need to go shopping for some Rex-and-Wyatt-proof decorations because they destroyed the ones I had on it last year.  I love Christmastime!

Thanksgiving Prep Part 1 - Crafts

Rex had a Thanksgiving feast at school today.  They ate a lot of food, decorated their own placemats and made special headwear for the occasion.



I'm not real sure how this would rate on the politically correct scale for Thanksgiving attire but I think I made something like that when I was in school 30 years ago.  I was planning on having him make something similar for our own Thanksgiving dinner as seen below.

Source: celebrations.com via Shelby on Pinterest

I don't know if I can get Wyatt to do it but I might try.  Rex and I could always make one for him if he isn't interested.  Because even if he doesn't want to make it, he will want to wear one on Thanksgiving if his brother has one.  The decorating placemats thing is a good idea too so now I'm trying to think how I want to do that one.  This idea looks pretty good.

Source: jennwa.blogspot.com via Shelby on Pinterest

That is probably too much for Wyatt so maybe this one is a better idea for him.

Trying to paint his little hand will be tricky, for sure, but I think we could manage.  I've only got two days though so I better get on it asap if I am going to get placemats and turkey hats ready in time!

Snowball Jamboree

Last night was our town's Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony and festival in the downtown area so we made plans to go check it out.  Rob asked me what it was called and I told him, "The snowball jamboree or something.  I don't know."  I knew it started with snow but couldn't remember the rest- I think it is actually called Snow Magic Festival but I could still be wrong.  Anyhow,  I love that our boys are getting old enough to go out and do those kinds of things.  A lot of the shops and businesses had refreshments and activities as well as a trolley ride and kiddie train ride.  Rob had to work a little late so we missed the tree lighting ceremony which I realized wasn't so bad once we saw the tree.



We passed by a tree with lights a few blocks away, in front of City Hall, when we were arriving and Rob wondered if that was the tree.  I told him no, that I thought the official Christmas Tree was on Main Street in a little plaza area.  Well, I was right- that's where we found that tree.  It was a little strange though because the one in front of City Hall was way bigger and we thought it was kind of puny.  I think the biggest thing that I'm having trouble with is why there are no decorations on it.  What's up with that?  Hmm.  But they had a sign and stage and microphone all set up in front of this tree so I'm sure that it was the one.  The tree may have been a disappointment but everything else was great, especially the kiddie train ride.





The trolley ride looked like fun too but with our late start, we were running out of time.  We stopped in at a few stores we'd never been in before and found one we will be returning to a lot, I'm sure- the fancy candy store.  Not one with like jellybeans or bottlecaps everywhere but like seriously good chocolates.  They also had gelato but it wasn't really the night to try that.  It looked delicious so we will have to try it another time.  It may have been a little strange to have all the Christmas stuff starting up before Thanksgiving, but with the weather here I understand why.  It wasn't bad at all out there and in another few weeks, it could be mighty cold.  I am so ready to get Thanksgiving over with so I can really start up with all the Christmas decorations and activities!

Where were you before, Monroe Bisque?

When we first moved into our house 5 1/2 years ago, everything had to be repainted.  The living room was peach, some of the bedrooms were pink and yellow and everything just needed a freshening up.  It also seemed like a good idea to keep the colors consistent in the house.  So everything besides the bathrooms is either Churchill Hotel Vanilla (love it) or  Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe (not a fan).  Here is the taupe living room right after it was painted.

I kept hoping I would like it but I have just never warmed up to it.  I was so scared of picking a tan that had too much pink or peach in it that I ended up with one that was basically gray.  And now I know that "taupe" is the codeword for "gray".  Lesson learned.  And it is all my fault; I picked it so I hate to ask Rob if we could repaint it.   So last May, while Rob was in California for a little racing mini-vacation, I thought I would attempt to paint our living room and dining room and the two adjacent hallways myself.  It would be a nice surprise and I didn't figure I would be sleeping much at night without Rob home and I would have time then to paint.  This is how much I got done.

I got my little tester spot on the wall and verified that I loved the new color.  It is perfect.  It has more of a yellow-y undertone that looks a thousand times better with our trim. Where were you before, Monroe Bisque?   After I got the boys to bed the first night, I realized what a large space this was that I was attempting to paint all by myself.  I also realized how tired I was after looking after the boys by myself all day.  Uh oh.  I knew where this was headed- there was no way I was getting any of that painting done.  New Plan- Rob will paint when he gets back to thank me for looking after the boys for several days while he went to California and raced with his buddies.  Rob apparently wasn't on board with that plan because that wall has looked like that for the last 6 months.  Now that it is getting cold, I know for sure that the painting won't get done for another few months until it is warm outside again.  Rob took the old paint to the hardware store and got it mixed up really well and today I covered over my sample.

I was so resistant to painting over it because it feels like I am losing ground in my quest to get that room repainted.  Eventually though the big splotch on the wall was just too much to handle and it needed to get covered up.  I will just have to be extra nice to Rob over the winter and make sure that when the temperatures go up, my Monroe Bisque paint makes its way out of the basement and onto the walls.

Hulk Get Sleepy

I am the first to admit that my boys get a little wild sometimes but when it comes to bedtime and even nap time, they are the BEST.  Often times, they come up to us and tell us when they are ready to go to bed.  Usually it is Rex but sometimes Wyatt does it too.  It is so awesome.  Like tonight, it was about 8:30 p.m. and Wyatt told me, "Let's go bed" and Rex chimed right in, "Yeah- it's time to go bed now.  Let's go."  Well, okay I guess!  What kids do that??  We are really lucky and we know it.  So we washed them up and put them to bed as requested.  They don't always make it to bed though before they crash out.



That's Rex asleep on the couch.  That was late yesterday afternoon, after his scheduled rest time.  He doesn't have to take a nap anymore but he has to spend an hour in his room, playing quietly.  He usually reads his V-Reader or plays with his Mobigo.  He does pretty good though sometimes it is challenging and we have to keep battling the whole time about why he needs to stay in his room.  Anyhow, he probably should have taken the nap yesterday because this was no place to sleep.  A few minutes after I took that picture, little brother got up and immediately began harassing Rex until he woke up.

And while we are on the topic of sleeping and beds, Rex recently realized he is strong enough to move his around his room.  Wood floors + bed on felt pads = easily maneuvered bed.  So he pushed it over to the middle of his room.



Sorry for the poor quality- this is another one of my terrible pictures from my phone.  (Side note- don't buy the Samsung Stratosphere.  It has been nothing but problems for me and nothing works good on it.)   I was wondering what he was up to and it didn't take too long to figure it out.



With the bed right in the middle of the room, he could now pull the chains on the fan/light to operate it. Oh my.  He treated us to a very short light show before we got him down and put the room back together.  The kid is huge and strong like bull.  And way too smart.   We could be in for it with that guy.

Parent Teacher Conference Number 1

Yesterday was my first parent teacher conference. It is kind of a crazy thing for me to think about. I am a parent and I go to parent teacher conferences at my kid's school.  The teacher was still meeting with some other parents when I arrived but she had the kids make a little book with a page about each of them that we could read while we were waiting.  Rex's was great and was just so Rex that I had to get my phone out and take a little picture of it.



Apparently he wanted to be a doctor that day.  He says that a lot but he comes up with all kinds of jobs from garbage truck driver to bank teller to fireman.  He does love to pretend he is a doctor though and work on all of us so I wouldn't be surprised at all if that is what he grows up to do.  Anyhow, Rex may have picked an actual job but some of the kids, not so much.  I wish I had more time to read them all because they were cracking me up.  There were some policemen, firemen, and astronauts in there too but the two funniest answers were a "fish" and a "green batman".  It makes me laugh again right now just typing it.  A fish and a green batman- kids are so funny!!

Rex's teacher said he is doing really well.  He plays good with all the kids, his writing is coming along, he knows all the letters and sounds great but we need to help him with the counting a little more.  She showed me lots of different things he has been working on with the letters, drawing and even how well he is using scissors.  The one thing everyone at the school (so she says) loves about him is how happy and friendly he is and how he is just so excited to be there everyday.  It is all very true- that kid loves people and loves to go to school.  It makes this mommy proud to hear how well her son is doing and it was just nice to have that time to hear all about his school experience and see what he has been working on the last few months and how much he has progressed.  Yay for the future Dr. Rex!