Christmas Fun

We started Christmas Eve morning with Dippy Donuts. It was a recipe I caught on Paula Dean's show. They were pretty good....and SO healthy!! ;). We ended up running a few last minute errands later that morning. I had a bit of a pie disaster which kind of put a kink in my mood, but I rebounded quickly. We also delivered pumpkin bread to two of our neighbors.

That night we had our friend, Enrique, over for dinner. I made beef brisket, beans and a salad. I have to say that everything was pretty delicious. After a long course of dessert, we watched Christmas Vacation. This is an annual event at our house. Everyone was tired, so we were in bed shortly after 10.

The next morning we ran down to see what Santa brought. Unfortunately, Alex thought his milk was way more important and was not impressed by the sled Santa brought. Paul got a ladder, and I got some Black Jewel popcorn.

Later Christmas morning we head over to the Halvorson (Paul's sister) house. Alex was a little slow with the gift opening, but it was fun to watch him. We all got spoiled. We indulged all day on pizza, sweet goodies, meatballs, and dip. We played games and had blast trying out Rock Band. I like the drums and bass the best. By the time we left that evening, I was so bloated from all the salt that my boots barely fit!

When we arrived back at our house, my mom and dad had arrived. Alex was tuckerd out and was a sleep in no time. We were tired, too. It ended up being another early evening which was ok because we needed lots of energy opening presents.

We are celebrating Christmas today with my mom and dad. Since my dad had to work, and Alex goes to be early now, we decided it would be better to wait until the next day. We started the morning with a quick pancake breakfast, and we were off to open gifts. It has been a wonderful day. I'm in the process of cooking our big dinner for tonight. We are having turkey, honey glazed ham, cornbread dressing, corn, rolls, deviled eggs and I think that's it.

We are hoping to get Alex out this afternoon to try out the sled. You can't pass of up a 31 degree heat wave!!

White Christmas

It sure is pretty watching the snow fall. Today has been fun. We've been family bonding. Paul got up early and ran. I got up early and got ready so that when he got back we could run errands. We were out the door at 8 am. Perfect timing because that's when most stores were opening. It was very peaceful. We were back by 9:45 and not one swear word was uttered. I would not want to be out later.

We got home and I started making pie crusts. Paul has picked out a fresh peach pie and rhubarb cream. I chose pecan...no surprise there. I'm also making"trash". I hope to finish off any baking and start some prep work. My grocery list wasn't ready before we left this morning, so we are going to venture once more this afternoon.

Yesterday, I went to a mom's group. It's for stay at home moms. It was nice to be able to get out and meet new people and let Alex play with other children. We met at McDonald's for breakfast and to play in the playland. These are tough words to swallow. I claimed I wasn't letting Alex play in those germ infested areas. Maybe that will teach me to never say never! He had a blast. He climbed the stairs and disappeard into the land of tunnels. I was hoping he would figure out how to get down because I was sure I wasn't going to fit up there. Of course, he came bopping along a little bit later. I'm not quite sure if he went down the slide or how exactly he got out. Of course, Mr. Social went around to stop at various tables to "talk". He played for 2 hours! I was pleasantly surprised about the group. I expected it to be lots of "perfect" moms. It wasn't that way at all. I enoyed it so much that I decided to join. There are activities several times a week, but you just attend what you want.

Safe travels to anyone on the go today and tomorrow.

Let it Snow

We are watching the snow fall again. It sounds like we are to get about 6 inches or more. The wind should pick up later today. Fun, fun.

Paul's last day of work was Thursday. He doesn't have to go back until Jan 5!!! I'm SO excited. We kicked off the weekend with a trip to the mall yesterday. We arrived as the doors opened at 9. We got some really good deals at Macy's. They always seem to have the best clearance prices. I must say that I get really put off by Herbergers. Each year we buy these coupon book fundraiser things. I've yet to figure out what the coupon is good for. I even brought the ones from the paper yesterday, and they wouldn't accept those either. Next time I'm going to have someone walk me over to an item that the coupon is good for. I have a feeling it applies to nothing in the store!! We also stopped by Dinoland. I use to be kind of fearful of these places due to the germs. After my mom met with the endocrinologist, I'm much more willing to expose Alex. We did wash his hands afterwards. He really enjoyed the other children. He and another little boy played peek a boo. He was a running/giggling machine. We then headed downtown to due some banking and stopped by one of Paul's favorite spots, Bertrosa's. It's a Chicago style cafe....another words...all sorts of hot dogs and sandwiches. Basically, lots of man friendly food.

Alex has taken an interest in the toilet. I'm trying to explain that only poo poo and pee pee goes in there. He was starting to place all sorts of things inside. He now runs around saying pee pee and going to the toilet and saying pee pee. I thought it might be a good time to associate those words with things in his diaper. Now he waves his hand in front of his face and says "uff" or "soo" if he has a stinky diaper and says pee pee for just a wet diaper. He isn't able to tell me what's in there on his own. Maybe he will figure that out in the near future.

I didn't do Christmas trays this year. I'm not sure why. I guess it's too much work. I did make mini loaves of pumpkin bread instead. It's better than nothing. I'm almost done with my shopping and have 90% of my stuff wrapped. I hope to finish up everything on Monday. You couldn't pay me to get out on 13th ave today!!!

Digging Out

The storm moved out over night and left Paul lots of work for the morning. Here are some pictures. Keep in mind that quite a few are taken from above, so the depth/size of things is a little off. We only got 11" but with the wind it really filled in the streets and made some large drifts. This is the drift right outside of our back door

The plows have yet to come, so the neighborhood guys decided to take matters in to their own hands and blow paths through the street.

House next door.

I don't think we will be using this sidewalk until April!

Christmas Magic

Wow, what a storm. With the blizzard blasting us, I thought it would be a good time to update.

The last few days have been quite fun and full of Christmas Spirit. Thursday was big day for Alex. We decided to take him to Santa Village at Rheault Farm. Our first stop was to the donation barn. We dropped off our canned goods and headed over to check out the donation train. Alex really liked the trains. The Elves stopped the train so kids could toss a dollar in one of the box cars! We then headed over to the bunker house to make an ornament. I did most of the work. Well, if you call glueing work :). I tried to get Alex to put the red ball/nose on our reindeer ornament, but he found it much more fun to toss the balls in and out of the bucket. We then headed over to the house. It was very festive. Inside, we found Santa waiting. While we signed the guest book, Santa informed Granddad that the hot "drink" they were serving was staining his beard and mustache. He hoped next year Budweiser was sponsoring the event!! lol. After Alex had his picture taken, he went in to the kitchen, and Mrs. Claus helped him decorate a cookie. Alex LOVED shaking the sprinkles. On the way out, we checked out the reindeer.

The evening continued once we got home. I mixed up gingerbread and sugar cookie dough earlier in the day, so Alex got to make cookies for the first time. Gingerbread boys are a tradition in my family. I've made gingerbread boys every year with my mom since I was just under 2. I was excited that Grams was visiting to carry on the tradition. Alex quickly found out how wonderful the dough tastes! He attempted to cut out some cookies , but he, mostly, just stole chunks of dough. I thought we would decorate the boys with raisins but someone was eating them faster than I could put them on. We decided to let him decorate with sprinkles. I think three boys ended getting half a bottle of sprinkles. Oh well, it sure was fun!

On Friday, we headed out to chop down our Christmas tree. When we arrived, we got Alex into his bibs, coat, hat, and snow boots. We had a lot of trouble getting his boots on, so he wasn't able to walk around very well. We put him in the sled, grabbed our saw, and took off. We didn't get too far until he started crying. Once he tumped out of the sled, he was done. Dad ended up carrying him. Needless, to say we quickly found a tree, sawed it down, and hauled it back to the car. Rumor has it that Santa will be bringing Alex a fancy toddler sled for Christmas. I sure hope so. I think he would have been fine had he had a back on the sled.

Today we are going to decorate the tree. I still have some baking to do and all the presents to wrap. This seems like a perfect day to do these things. One glance outside will definitely get you in the Christmas Spirit! Oh, Paul has just informed me that snow is piled up between our front door and storm door. He is now shoveling the entry way in our house!!!! Ho, Ho, Ho!

'tis the season to be merry

Wow, I'm finally updating. Hopefully my small group of followers haven't given up!

Here is a quick run down of November: The middle of November we made an overnight trip to Bismarck. Each year we go down and spend the night with Alex's godfather, Mathew. We have a Cranium competition with him and his wife. There is even a trophy involved! I'm sad to say that we didn't return home with the trophy. We enjoy playing board games with them and need to get down there more often. We also stopped by to see Mary Kay, Paul's sister. It's nice to have family living fairly close by.

The next week I made a trip up to Langdon to stay with my mom and dad for the week. As soon as we got up there, Alex got his first cold ever. He was still running in 3rd gear even with his cold.

I have to back up and express a little frustration I had with Paul. We laugh now but at the time I was not a happy camper. The weekend before I left for my mom and dad's we had agreed that I would get to scrapbook all day Saturday while Paul looked after Alex. Well, I had to run some errands that morning and so did Paul. He took Alex with him. We both arrived home just before lunch. I had all my stuff out and ready to go once we ate. Shortly after eating, Paul announces that he had a "little" mishap in the car. He said he took grass clippings to the compost pile and the barrel tipped over in the Pacifica. He said he just needed to suck up the clippings. I said not a big deal. Well, then he came in and told me that there was some water in the barrel and that he would need to put baking soda and sop up the water. While cleaning the car, he decide to listen to the Bison game on the radio. However, after 2 hours of cleaning the battery was dead. By the time I started my scarbooking it was after 2 and we leave for church at 4:30. As we head out the door to go to church, I'm hit with the most nasty odor. Paul failed to mention that the water was stinky! Think seafood delight. I was ticked to put in nicely. I have no idea why he didn't put plastic down or a tarp. I went on in a not so nice tone explaining this and that our car was not a truck!
So, that Monday I load the stinky car and start to leave....the car won't start! I call Paul at work to come jump me. A little bit later he arrives with some guy he works with. He had gone out, started his car, and while wiping the snow off, the car locked him out. We aren't sure what's going on with the other car now. So, I get jumped and give him my extra keys, so he can turn his car off! It was like Murphy's Law.
I was finally on the road but ended up having to buy a battery in Langdon. To this day, we still have a mildly stinky car which is much better than before. I'm still trying different things to take the rest of the smell out.

Our Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Williston. Alex enjoyed his time with his grandparents. He likes exploring new places. We tried taking him to light up night while we were there, but we didn't take the stroller with us and he likes to be on the move. He just threw a fit and we missed the 5 floats that went by. Fun times! On the way home Alex had his first Happy Meal. We, of course, opted for the apples and milk. He still enjoyed a couple of our fries. He seemed very proud of himself to be sitting between us on the bench eating like a big boy.

Alex had his 18month appt yesterday. He is 22lbs 13oz ( 13% for weight) 31 1/2 inches( 26% height) and his head is still on the bigger end (82%). The doctor was pleased with his measurements. I was disappointed about the height. I just hope he isn't short!!! The doctor said he is consistently lean, so he wasn't concerned. He only got one shot which was nice.

Alex is really in to climbing! He now climbs up his high chair and seats himself. The other day he pulled out a chair in the dining room and stood on top of the dining room table. Lots of fun for him....not so much for me.

Spook-tacular Evening

We started off our Halloween fun on Thursday night by carving our pumpkin while sipping hot apple cider. We got around to it a little late this year but at least it was carved. I felt like Michaelangelo! Alex wasn't interested in the pumpkin carving this year. Oh well.

On Halloween Day we made a stop by the library, so Alex could meet Clifford. He seems to have a thing for people in costumes!

As the evening approached we got Alex dressed for a night of trick-r-treating. He made such a cute dragon! He wouldn't keep the head piece on unless he was out and about getting candy.

Paul took Alex around the neighborhood while I passed out candy. He got quite the loot for a 17month old! He already has a sweet tooth.

With such a nice night, I expected a lot of kids. By 7:15 we had only had 20, so we decided to head over to the Halvorsons'. We dumped what candy we had left in a bowl and left in on the porch with a note telling the kids to help themselves. I have a feeling one kid helped himself to most of it! I wonder if the the late time change had some effect on the trick r treating since it didn't get dark until later? Alex got a book and treats from the Halvorsons'. He put on quite a show for them the rest of the evening.

We left the Halvorson House about 9:30. Ghost Hunters Live was on, so I had a hard time leaving. Alex was pooped. I think he was out before we even got out of their driveway.

The night was a lot of fun. Paul and I enjoyed rummaging in Alex's candy. Of course, we had to sample some. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!