Our Christmas Morning

We had a nice Christmas morning at home before we headed out for all of our other gatherings.

Ardon had been up anxiously waiting to open gifts but we finally had to drag Elee out of bed so we could get started.

They started with stockings.

Then went on with their other gifts.

Ardon got this pop-up tent, it has already been hours of fun for both of them!

And here's Elee with her new baby doll.

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It was so much fun this year to watch both the kids have so much fun on Christmas morning.

8 Christmas Confessions

1. I was the least prepared for Christmas this year than I have ever been.
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2. Except for church and 'special functions' my kids have been wearing footed pajamas 24/7.
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3. The other day I may have let one of my children eat cookie dough before 8am, see yesterdays post.
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4. I only did the bare minimum of house cleaning this week so I keep seeing dust bunnies dart across my floor.
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5. I sat in fruit cake and discovered this while climbing out of the car for a family get together and finding a large lump stuck to the back of my pants.
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6. We don't have cable so there is about 5 ft of painters tape holding a pair of rabbit ears to our TV, we can get between 13-16 channels this way!
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7. I lost one of Elee's Christmas gifts, it was out with the other gifts on the floor waiting to be wrapped and then suddenly it was just gone, and the thing that's even worse, I can't remember what it was.
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8. And last but not least, come July of 2011 we will be a family of 5!

Early 'Eve' Activities

Ardon is usually an early riser and since he's been having a little respiratory trouble lately he's been up even earlier. I decided that we would make the best of our early start and get to baking the cookie dough I had chilling in the fridge. We started out by licking off the beaters.

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When I handed him his he asked, "Are we eating this cause it's supposed to make us feel better?" I couldn't help but smiling and told him that yes, in a special way it would make us feel better. He's definitely my boy!

Taste Preferences

Elee gets so excited when she sees me with a coffee. She will watch for me to set the cup down then hurry over to try and snatch a drink, fortunately there were just drips this time.

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About 30 minutes later I guess she was eyeing daddy with a bottle of coke, when he tossed it in the trash and walked out of the room she saw her opportunity and took it. This is how I found her when I came around the corner. She'll do anything to get a little bit of the good stuff!

Lexus Vs. Semi

Semi wins!

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Surprised?!

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Long story short, Bronze drove it to work Monday since that is his short day. As he was in his tractor getting ready to head out for the morning he heard someone knocking on his door. When he opened it one of the guys he works with looked at him and said "Man, I got your car." Bronze asked if he dinged it and the only response back was "No, I GOT your car."

Everyone felt really bad about it, it's been a little crazy getting the repairs set up but in the end it will be fixed at no cost to us and at least it was just the car and not a person.

6 Days....

until Christmas!

Are you ready?!

The Faces of Elee

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She has just a smidgen of ornery in case you couldn't tell!

3 Shots

Elee had to get some vaccinations today, it wasn't any fun but she recuperated fairly quickly. This evening she wanted to look at the band aids (she likes to call them stickers) on her legs.

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She had two in her right leg and one in her left leg.
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She can't resist pulling them off so that she can try to stick them somewhere else.
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Now time for the yellow ones.

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They were more fun because there was more 'sticky' left to them.
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She was a little traumatized after pulling them off, remembering what happened earlier, and was really upset when I laid her down to get her pajamas back on. I think she was afraid she was going to get shots again. It always helps to snuggle something soft and fuzzy though to make us feel better.

This is our second round and we have another round of shots in 30 days, bringing our final tally to 11 immunizations in just a couple months. HOPEFULLY that will be it for a while.

My Silly Girl

Elee loves to play with the dishes as I unload the dishwasher.

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She puts this bowl on her head and flicks her head forward quickly to try and flip it off.

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She's going to end up with whiplash.
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I usually end up having to re-wash a lot of the dishes but figure it's cheep entertainment for everyone!

A Child's Prayer

The other night we got out to run a couple of errands. We were just finishing up and getting ready to drive towards home when Ardon says from the back seat, "I think we should pray for grandpa." We told him that sounded like a great idea and that he could go ahead and pray what was on his heart. As we quietly listened this is what came from the back seat.

"Dear Jesus, please help grandpa when he's driving home tonight, and keep him safe so he doesn't get bumped on the road by another car and have to have the police man come to him. Please help him get home so he can be with meme. And Jesus, please help meme for when she goes to bed tonight so she can be able to sleep when it's night time."

"Jesus, I want to pray for the grandpa that lives in Santa Fe, that he would be able to get more rides to grandma Leyba's house so we can see him more."

"And Jesus, be with great grandpa and help him not get sick any more so he doesn't have to go to the hospital any more and so he can stay home and feel better."

"We love you Jesus, Amen."

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Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

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Ephesians 6:18a And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Then & Now

December 2007

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December 2010

Same Santa hat, hard to believe it's the same little boy!

A Road

Ardon has been asking me all day to make him a road to drive on. It started this morning when he was playing with some cars. I told him we would work on it at some point today but earlier I was busy getting the house back to 'normal' after the holiday weekend.

We got home this evening from running a couple errands and I just sat down when Ardon looked over at me and said "Mom, we forgot to make a road!" As much as I wanted to just sit down with my feet up a few minutes, I decided that he had been patiently waiting for long enough. I got up to look for something to make a road and this is what I came up with.

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There is a Walmart, gas station, Dr. office, park and home. It took me all of 10 minutes to get the cardboard and markers and throw it together hence the incredible art work!

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There was a lot of crashing.

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Veering off the road.

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And cruising through town, and the river.

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I had no idea Elee would get into it like she did, it was so funny to watch her driving the car all over and making vrooming sounds as she went. Ardon just loves that she is getting big enough to be a regular playmate now.

On a Cold, Wintry Morning...

It doesn't get much better than snuggling up together under nice, cozy blankets.

Playing

Bronze bartered for a Wii on craigslist last week, they hadn't played it much yet so the boys decided to mess around on it for a while this evening.

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They played tennis, boxed and here they are bowling.

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The Wii is a little out of Elee's league at this point so she settled for watching Curious George on daddy's handheld system. It's always a good alternative.

Yogurt

I did something that I have wanted to try but has always made me nervous. I made homemade yogurt. I've looked up the directions on doing this several times but I was hesitant to make a dairy product that has to sit out so bacteria can grow. It was a mental block but I finally got past it.

Here is the final product, it turned out a lot smoother than I expected.

It tastes just like plain yogurt. Elee really likes it this way.

Ardon preferred it with flavor added so I sprinkled a little Jell-O over his.

It was a fun experiment and is supposed to be a lot better for you.

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I kind of combined recipes for our yogurt, here is what I did if you get ambitious and want to try making your own.

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You will need:

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4 c. milk (make sure it's not ultra pasteurized)

3/4 c. powdered milk

1-6oz yogurt cup with a distant expiration date

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Mix your milk and powdered milk well and put in a crock pot for 3 hours on low. After 3 hours take the crock out and let it set for an hour or so, until you can stick your finger in it but it feels just too hot for a bath.

At this point turn your oven on and preheat to the lowest temp it will go. Scoop out some of the milk and add it to the yogurt to temper it then dump everything back into the crock and mix well.

Turn your oven off and the oven light on, then place the crock with lid on in the oven and leave it alone. It will need to sit in there undisturbed for a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 12 hours, the longer you let it sit the tangier it will get from the live cultures. I let it sit for about 9-10 hours and it was just slightly more tangy than what I buy at the store. Refrigerate it.

You can also add fresh or frozen fruit to flavor it. It is supposed to last for 7 days in the fridge and you can freeze some of it to use as a starter for the next time.

If you decide to try it have fun and good luck!

Chapstick

Still Here

I am still here, I think ;-) It has been one of those weeks. I got ready to blog a couple times but had camera issues so I haven't been able to get to any pictures.

We have been sick with respiratory junk this week, I haven't had much of a voice since last week and Bronze ended up with a bad stomach bug. We've had all sorts of doctor appointments. I took Ardon in last Friday, his cough kept getting tighter and he stopped breathing, it was terrifying and we almost had to call an ambulance. Thankfully he started breathing again after a breathing treatment, he was diagnosed with asthma and put on steroids and has started daily asthma medication.

Elee has had a little cough with a yucky nose, I think all her new teeth are contributing to this. She had to get some immunizations Tuesday and I can tell her legs are still bothering her, she gave the nurse a piece of her mind after it was all done.

Hopefully we'll all well by Thanksgiving. It has taken me a while to get excited for the holidays this year (I think I was mourning the loss of summer) but now I am finally starting to look forward to all the celebration.

Cleaning Crew

Ardon teaches Elee how to do lots of different things.

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Like how to wipe her face.
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And one of my personal favorites, how to clean the floors!

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Ardon loves to help clean the house and as long as he keeps teaching Elee things along those lines it looks like I'm going to be set!

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Sysco's Leftovers

It has been very interesting what Bronze has come home with the last couple weeks. It's fun to see what new product he walks into the house with when he gets home from work. Last week we ended up with about 15-20lbs of chopped ham, cream puffs, spicy cheese sticks, a loaf of bread and something else that's already been eaten but I can't remember what it was.

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This weeks assortment has included a box full of bread.

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Looks like we'll be having sandwiches, spaghetti and soup to use this up with.

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An industrial sized bag of fries!

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10lbs of potato salad.

(Potato salad anyone?)

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And this crazy chocolate cake! I'm not really a 'chocolate person' but I even enjoyed a few bites of this! It's very, very chocolaty but really not too sweet!

(I wont even tell you what the 'Nutrition Information' label says, lets just say that the appropriate name for this cake would be 'Death by Chocolate'.)

I guess that pretty much sums up this week's extra pantry items, a lot of which we will be sharing ;-)

Wonder what next week will bring, hm???

I sent homemade tamales for the guy at work in charge of giving out left over product, he's Bronze's buddy anyhow but it never hurts to butter up our supplier!

Smothered

Now that Elee is somewhat mobile she loves to chase after, hang onto and climb over her brother.
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Ardon thinks it fun when she decides to trample over him (most of the time) and even encourages it.
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It's so much fun to watch them interact and play together. It can get pretty rowdy in our home at times but I really enjoy it!

Most of the time that is ;-)

Aftermath

For the small amount of trick-or-treating he did Ardon made out pretty well. Now his favorite thing to do when he gets to pick out a candy is dump the bag out on the ground and sort through every piece.

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View from the top.

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Elee thinks it's pretty exciting stuff, she likes to bury her hands in the candy and shake them back and forth quickly, making the packages crunkle.
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It was so fun to take Ardon out this year, he really got into it and would have gone trick-or-treating all night if we'd of let him!