12/31/11

It's here, the final day of 2011. Wow! Another year down in the blog. I'll admit, I've kind of sucked it up this year. I'm going to do my best to do better next year and stay more up to date on my posts. I have successfully documented 2 years of our lives though - and I'm quite proud of myself! I still love looking back through all of our little adventures. I'm not sure who, if anybody, even actually reads my blog anymore, but I'm grateful for anybody that is the least bit interested in our little family, and wish you all an amazing 2012!

Today the girls and I were off to my Dad's for our final Christmas celebration. Christian still wasn't feeling well today, so he stayed home and rested while we were off partying. The girls were up and down all day. They would play and seem perfectly fine for a while, then look like they were absolutely miserable for a while. Very strange, but I didn't want them to miss out on spending the day with their cousins. Our family was blessed with a ton of really great gifts, again, and it was so nice spending time with my sisters and their families.

After some food, gifts and catching up, we were on our way home. We just took it easy the rest of the night. I was pretty bummed about our lack of exciting New Years Eve plans. We used to have such a blast, every year...from fancy dinner's out, to laughing the night away with friends at a local bar, to the year we REALLY did it up and rented a limo with all of our friends. It was always such an exciting night, that I really looked forward to...but we haven't done anything the last few years. There's always next year...right?

In the end, I was laying in bed before the ball dropped. We got a pretty bad storm this evening, so the satellite kept going out and it was driving me nuts. The girls were up and down all night anyway thanks to the wind and the surprise fireworks that went off at midnight.

Here is my little 2011, year in review, along with some photos from today's celebration.

January started off with Olivia turning 2, and a wonderful Golden Birthday party at home, with some of our closest friends and family members. We couldn’t believe she was already two, and all of the amazing things she could do. Amelia started to sit up on her own, and the love/hate relationship between the girls really started. The more Amelia could do, the more Olivia wanted to interact with her. But, that interaction wasn’t always so good. Amelia was finally big enough to move into the big tub with Olivia (still in her baby tub though). The winter from hell raged on…this January, it snowed EVERY day, but three days. It was beyond crazy. The month ended on an incredibly sad note, we had to put down our sweet cat Frank, and it’s still hard to even think about.

February was a very big month for Amelia. She started on solids – and I started my journey of homemade baby food. She also started crawling and weaned herself from the pacifier (YAY!). Amelia continued sleeping horribly, her reflux and colic still in full effect. She had her 7 month weight check, and had actually gained some weight, but was still only in the 5%. We celebrated Valentine’s Day, had the girls’ 2 year/6 month photo shoot and took Olivia bowling for the first time…she loved it!

March was very exciting…we entered Amelia in a local “cutest baby contest” and she made it ALL the way to the final round. We didn’t win, but it was very fun to be involved in it. Amelia started pulling up on the furniture, and could stand on her own for a few seconds. We started the process of transiting Amelia to her crib, but she still woke during the night, and would usually end up in bed with me at some point. The girls started to really play together…Olivia started to actually share her stuff with Amelia, and tried teaching her how to do things. Amelia finally got her very first tooth, and we ended the month celebrating Christian’s 27th birthday.

April was still a pretty crazy month weather wise. Some days were spent outside, some days we still got snow. This was literally the winter that would not end – November-April – ouch. We were able to get a few walks around the neighborhood and trips to the park in though. We finally started venturing out in public as a family of 4. This probably sounds ridiculous to a lot of people – but with all of Amelia’s issues…colic, reflux, extreme clinginess and general unhappiness, it was a rough 6-7 months. We didn’t dare venture out too often. We were finally able to start taking her out on short shopping trips this month, and it felt great! Amelia had her 8 month weight check, and was back down in the 2%. She also started cruising the furniture, and standing up from sitting all by herself, and she was consistently sleeping through the night (though, not 100% of the time quite yet)! Olivia got in her final teeth this month, her 2nd molars and, unfortunately, experienced her first trip to the ER with an extreme case of the stomach flu. We ended the month celebrating Easter in many wonderful ways, from Easter Egg Hunts, to Easter Bunny visits, to Dying Eggs to a surprise photo shoot!

May started off with a bang, with the death of Osama Bin Laden. Quite a chapter in American History, that’s for sure. Our family kicked off the month with some Potty Training madness. Olivia TOTALLY rocked it, and took right to it – still so grateful for that. Olivia started to become very aggressive with Amelia, and it just got worse and worse as the month went on. Amelia had her 9 month check, and was back down in the 2% for weight, but the doctor officially gave us the all clear, determining that she is just genetically small. She was following the same curve, consistently, and was developing well, so he didn’t want to focus on that anymore. Amelia also learned how to climb the stairs this month, AND took her very first steps! We celebrated Mother’s day, and unfortunately said goodbye to Christian’s sister and nieces again, as they moved to Mexico. We finally had some pretty good weather by the end of the month, and started some gardening, and even took in our first trip to the zoo for the year!

We started June with our annual trip to Grand Ol’ Day. Always a good time. We also started off the month with my first real dose of single parenting as Christian spent a week working in Wisconsin. Surprisingly, it went pretty well! We celebrated my 28th birthday, and I received a layoff notice thanks to the looming Government Shutdown. I experienced my first REAL concert, Taylor Swift, with tickets I won on the radio. Olivia hit another huge milestone this month…transitioning to her toddler bed! We celebrated Father’s Day with our annual trip to the Twin’s Game. We experienced one of the hottest June’s ever, a legitimate heat wave, getting up to an actual temperature of 102!

July started off on a bittersweet note…with me being laid off from work for 3 weeks. It ended up being a blessing in disguise…lots of time spent with my girls, I was spoiled with it in fact. We had lots of 4th of July fun…town festival, fireworks, BBQ, parade. So much fun! The heat wave continued all month, getting up to 120 degrees one day (which includes A LOT of humidity)! I took the girls on their first trip to the Aquarium, and we went on our very first family vacation to Duluth. We had the time of our life! Amelia turned 1 this month, which is so hard to believe still, and at her 1 year check-up was in the 10% for her weight! Moving up!

August marked another bittersweet milestone…I started the month off no longer pumping, and by the end of the month, Amelia had fully weaned from nursing. I was so happy, proud and excited to have made it that full first year, formula free. While I was happy to hang up my pump, I still to this day miss that connection. We finally had a break in weather this month, and spent a lot of time outside. We went from the winter that wouldn’t end, to the summer of scorching heat. Very strange! This month brought many fun family events…a trip to the zoo, a local family festival, we checked out the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, and we had our 2.5 Year/1 Year photo shoot. So many fun memories. Christian ended the month on a bad note, getting his wisdom teeth pulled. Ouch!

September was a pretty exciting month. We went to our sole Vikings game of the year (which, was probably a good thing – it was not a good year for the purple and gold). And, a couple of my wonderful online friends came to town with their families for a weekend visit. We went to the State Fair, the Mall of America and just hung out, getting to know each other. I was so sad to see them go, but it was amazing getting to meet them in person! We also took our annual trip to the Apple Orchard this month, and spent the rest of that day in Stillwater with the girls. My obsession with Craigslist started, and I’ve been a selling machine ever since! Christian and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, and we attended a bunch of birthday parties this month. I also attended another concerts, a different, more intimate concert, which I again won on the radio – Andy Grammar and Colbie Callait. SO COOL! We ended the month with some of the most amazing fall colors I’ve ever seen before.

October brought another family trip to the Aquarium, and our annual visit to Sever’s Corn Maze. The girls had SO much fun there – it gets better and better, every year! I was very excited to take my own little trip to Chicago to spend the weekend with some more of my wonderful online friends this month, and I had such an amazing time. We had some pretty wonderful fall weather this month…spent lots of time raking, jumping in leaves and getting the yard ready for winter. We also took in many Fall/Halloween activities – a visit to the pumpkin patch, carved some pumpkins, went to the local Halloween Festival and, of course, trick or treating with our little black cat and “princess” witch. Olivia got to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the Mall this month, and I marked 2 years of being smoke free!

November was a pretty relaxing month. We had some pretty great weather, other than one little snow storm, that unlike last year, did not stick around, so we spent a lot of time outdoors still. Amelia had her 15 month check-up, and shot up to 35% for her weight! Amelia started learning to feed herself this month, and was actually quite impressive with her utensils. We celebrated Thanksgiving and definitely had so much to be thankful for. We ended the month by kicking off the Christmas season…we put up the Christmas tree and made our usual visit to the Holidazzle Parade and the Macy’s display.

We ended the year, of course, with Christmas chaos galore! From our month of visits from Buddy the Elf, to the girls’ special video messages from Santa, to building Gingerbread houses and backing Christmas cookies, to our visit to Santa at the mall and checking out the Holiday Lights in the Park, and, of course, our many amazing Christmas celebrations with friends and family. It’s such an amazing time of year…it seems to come quicker and quicker, every year, but goes by just as fast! We only had a very small amount of snow this month – none of which stayed around…no white Christmas for us! I took Olivia on her first trip to Disney on Ice, and took her to the Mall to meet Cinderella one afternoon. This month, I also attended my 10 year high school reunion. Crazy!

2011 was really an amazing year, and I’m looking forward to 2012, and welcoming it with open arms. I’m ready to spend the year focusing on myself, and getting myself back in shape and in a healthy lifestyle. We’ll be working hard, chipping away at our debt, and should be excitedly debt free by the end of the summer. Starting a new year is always so exciting – you just never know where you are going to end up!

12/30/11

Today is my Friday home. THANK GOD, because the girls did not sleep a wink last night. I don't know what we're going to do if this sickness doesn't pass quickly!

The girls were pretty miserable when they woke up. They actually slept in a bit - probably because they were up most of the night. We just hung out most of the day. My mom stopped over with some get well goodies and I managed to get the girls down for a pretty decent nap, which was a nice break from the madness.

Christian wasn't feeling well today either (just what we need). He had to go to work otherwise he won't get his Holiday pay, so he toughed it out. I ran for a medicine run and to grab myself some dinner when he got home since nobody else was feeling well, or hungry. I found some all natural cold medicine at CVS and we're going to give that a shot. Anything in hopes of some sleep!

Christian and I decided to splurge and order tonight's UFC fight. Brock Lesnar is kind of a "hometown" guy, so it's kind of exciting to watch him fight, and I haven't seen one in a long time. There were a few good fights, and after Lesnar lost the main event, he announced his retirement, so it was nice to watch his last fight. Everyone makes fun of me for liking UFC, and I honestly don't know why I do, I just love it. LOL

After the fight, we both basically passed out. Hopefully everybody is feeling a little better tomorrow!

12/29/11

Today was another pretty eventful day for us. Well, in the end, not really - but definitely busy.

I was able to go in to work today. We again didn't really get much sleep. The girls just kept waking up, and waking each other up, all night. Christian finally brought Olivia out on the couch for the night, but I kept having to get up with Amelia. Poor things - they sounded like they were in such pain when they would cry out.

So, I was pretty much the walking dead at work, just as I suspected I would be. I broke down and make the girls appointments to get checked out. I was mainly worried about Amelia's ears and Olivia's eyes, so I figured we were better safe than sorry, and should get it checked out. The woman at the appointment center had to check just about every clinic around the cities before she finally found me a back to back for this afternoon. I was able to get a ton of stuff done at work today, which felt good after being gone yesterday. Then, I left for the day a little early so I could head home to pick up the girls and get to their appointments on time.

After a thorough check of their ears, eyes, and everything else - the doctor was convinced it was completely viral. So, good news - no ear infections, pink eye or anything of the sort. Bad news - there is nothing we can do to help them or treat it. Just the traditional wait it out.

By the end of the night, Amelia seemed to be doing much better. She still had the raspy smoker's voice going on, but she was laughing and playing and being her goofy self. Olivia was pretty miserable - wouldn't really eat and just wanted to lay down and watch her Dora video - which is not like her at all. We gave them some Honey for their throats before bed, and some Benedryl (at the doctor's suggestion). Let's hope they get what they really need tonight...SLEEP!

12/28/11

Well, it was another surprising day in our world today. When we put the girls to bed last night, everything was pretty much normal. They goofed around for a while, and eventually passed out. Suddenly, Olivia woke up at 11:30, then again at 12:00, and again at 12:30 - screaming and crying like crazy. Sounding worse every time. I ended up bringing her into bed with me, so I could make sure she stayed propped up, and she didn't keep waking Amelia up. Amelia slept the rest of the night, and Olivia slept better, but still kept crying out randomly.

I decided to have Christian bring Amelia to his mom's, and I would wait until Olivia woke up to see how she was doing. She sounded horrible when she woke up, and kept saying she wanted to stay home with Mommy, so I ended up just calling in for the day. She was up and down all day...didn't eat much, would play for small amounts of time, otherwise just kind of sat around and hung out with me. Christian called around lunchtime, and it turned out Amelia wasn't doing too well either. Same stuff going on...runny nose, cough, not eating, lethargic. We decided it was best to just keep them apart for the day and let them get some rest.

I did a little work cleaning up the basement while Olivia napped, then I cleaned the kitchen, living room and bedrooms once Christian was home. We got the girls to bed a little early, but I'm not expecting a quiet night. I hate this...poor sick babies, it's not fair!

Even though the girls weren't feeling well, they did try out Amelia's new turtle ride-on toy from Christmas. Neither of them stayed on long, but they thought it was pretty hilarious at first try.

12/27/11

Back into the swing of things. The Holiday season really screws with my schedule - makes it really hard to go back to working every day once it's all over! LOL. Since yesterday was our Christmas Holiday, and Friday is my regular Friday off, it's a 3-day work week for me! I definitely do not hate that! Honestly, that is ideal for me. I would love to work 3 days a week, every week.

I was actually really busy at work, and got all of my highest priority Contracts written, which felt really great. Christian is working at least 2 hours overtime all week (like last week, and probably next week). It turns out they actually get Holiday pay for yesterday, and they posted Saturday, which he'll hopefully get. Should be a nice paycheck next time, which will really help out.

After work, I stopped into Walmart to pick up a couple necessities, and spent the rest of the night actually putting away all of the Christmas gifts and getting the house and toys in order. We have a ton to get done over the next week or so before the carpet cleaners come. Then, it's onto our next big project, finally - the play room! I cannot wait to get started, and see what we come up with. .

Christian and the girls arrived home just in time for dinner and a little family time. We have a Christmas celebration left this Saturday, but it's hard to believe that Christmas is over. It's come and gone again. We're so close to saying goodbye to another year. Really, where does the time go?!

With everything going on, I'm going to be a little out of whack with the age pictures, so I'm doing them today. Amelia's 17 month picture (a day late) and Olivia's 3 year picture (a few days early). Such beauties!

12/26/11

Amelia Badelia is a whole 17 months old today! It's so hard to believe it. She is such an amazing little girl. She's starting to talk more and more every day. Her main words now are mom/mama, dada, grandma, grandpa, purple (seriously, clear as day, it's a pretty strange one), milk, more, baby, bowl and blue. She knows where we keep just about everything, and communicates what she wants so well now days. She is still the sweetest little thing in the world, but she definitely doesn't take much crap. She can defend herself pretty well, that's for sure. Her appetite still seems to come and go...some days she can't eat enough, other days I'm not sure how she survives. She is wearing 12-18 month clothing, which are actually getting a little short on her, so she just may move up a size when she is "supposed" to. She's in Size 4 diapers now, which look HUGE on her, but they give her more protection, and less irritation.

It's so amazing watching her grow, and seeing the relationship between the girls change as they both get older. They get very competitive and jealous of each other, but they are also SO in love with each other. When they are apart, Olivia asks about "sissy" non-stop. She's always worried about what Amelia is doing, how she is doing, who she is with. It's so cute. And, Amelia just thinks Olivia is amazing. If she gets a snack or a toy, she always asks for a second and brings it to Olivia. She never wants to leave Olivia out. They have been doing much better with sharing. We're trying to get Olivia into the mode of "if you want something, you have to ask to "switch" and give them something else in return". She's doing better. It will take some time, but I don't see Amelia having any issues sharing, so that might help.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet day. Christian had to work, today was my Holiday, so it was just me and the girls. I took them to Perkins for breakfast with some of my Christmas cash, then we stopped into Target. I wanted to pick up some Christmas lights to expand our display next year...but they were ALREADY sold out, at 10:00AM! I couldn't believe it! Then, it was home to play for a bit. We checked out some of the new toys and did a little craft project my stepmom sent home with the girls. Then, NAP TIME. I took it easy during nap time, and just relaxed with the computer and the DVR. You are never going to believe this...but, I am 100% caught up on the DVR now! There is not a single recording on it! I don't think that has ever happened to be before. It feels strange. LOL

After naps and a quick dinner, I got the girls ready, and we were off on another Holiday adventure! We picked Christian up from work, then headed into the cities for the "Holiday Lights in the Park" display. It's a really cool light display in St. Paul, that you just drive through and check out all of the displays from your car. It's normally $8 or $10 a car, but I won a "ticket" on facebook last week, so it was FREE (of course). The girls LOVED it. Amelia is so small, and rear facing, so she couldn't see much. We ended up taking them out of their car seats and Christian held them so they could see. I mean, we were in a park, going 0-2MPH, so if anybody wants to give us flack for that, so be it. I'm really glad we made it this year, definitely a new tradition!

Finally, we were home tonight. We arrived home to another mysterious "disaster"...one of our potted "trees" in front of the garage was knocked over. So now we've had the cut string of lights, the mailbox destruction and this. Seriously, can this all really be a coincidence?? Strange.

Bedtime came soon after arriving home. It's hard to believe the long weekend has come to an end. It's never a good thing.

12/25/11

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas, such an amazing day. From the true meaning, to the commercial spirit. I just love it all. Christmas brings such a sense of joy, love and magic. As the girls get older, and more excited about everything, it's just that much better!

Today the girls were up bright and early, as usual. We got right to opening up presents when they woke up, and they had so much fun. They just loved EVERYTHING they opened, like it was the most amazing thing in the world. It was so fun watching them open every package and investigate every gift. After the gift and stocking frenzy, we quick fed the girls, and got ready for my mom to stop over with her gifts. Then, the chaos started up again. Again, the girls were just in awe of every gift. Olivia is VERY princess'ed out now, and Amelia is just too funny. She has a good collection of Winnie the Pooh stuff now, and she LOVE, LOVE, LOVES to get clothes. Every time she opens clothes, she right away wants to put it on. It's the cutest thing ever. My mom brought Christian and I some breakfast too, which was a nice added bonus!

Finally, it was time to shower and get ready. The girls were dolled up and cute as can be, and we were off to Christmas at my grandparents' house. The house was packed and filled with lots of laughter and fun, like usual. The girls had so much fun playing with the other kids. The girls each got a couple of gifts, we got a nice gift from my grandparents and had fun playing in the dirty Santa exchange. No naps and a busy few days started catching up to the girls, and we were on our way home fairly early (missed out on the sandwich dinner and almost missed PIE!). They fell asleep on the way home, and we decided to just put them to bed, and keep our fingers crossed that they would say there (and, they actually did...from 6:30 straight until morning!).

Christian and I just took it easy the rest of the night. Tomorrow is my Holiday at work, but Christian has to work, so he was passed out pretty early too. It's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone again. But, we all know it will be here again before we know it they way time fly's by so fast!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas, surrounded by happiness and loved ones!

12/24/11

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope everybody is celebrating in some way, big or small!

We had a very relaxing morning today, which was really nice. Christian did spend some time putting in a new post for the mailbox, but thanks to the lack of snow and extreme cold, that went pretty fast. Buddy came bright and early for his last visit. He got pretty fancy today, and even wrapped the girls’ gifts! Today they each got a new pair of jammies to wear today, and their own personalized place mats for the table. Lucky girls! They were so excited to see him today – I think they’re going to be pretty sad to say goodbye to good ol’ Buddy!

We just spent the morning hanging out and relaxing. Once the girls were up from their naps, we were off to Christian’s parents’ house, with my mom, for the evening. They didn’t do anything super formal, just lots of yummy appetizers to pig out on. The girls were TOTALLY spoiled and got a ton of great stuff. We got a new set of pots and pans which I’m very excited about. The drinking didn’t get too out of control (always my big concern), and we had a really good time.

After we got home, the girls and I put out some milk and cookies for Santa, and they were off to bed. Christian and I put up the new princess castle Olivia got so she would be able to play with it tomorrow. That thing was a major PITA to put together too, let me tell you! She is going to love it though!

Christmas celebration 2 of 4 down, man I love this time of year!

12/23/11

Today was an AMAZING Friday. Seriously, amazing!

Well, it didn’t start off that way. I received a phone call from my mom that Olivia had thrown up after breakfast. Hoping that it was a fluke thing, we let it go. I made a couple of pretty big Craigslist sales on my lunch break, and my co-worker surprised me with Thai food for lunch! YUM. And, my supervisor ended up sending the few of us that were there home early for the day! Awesome!

I was able to run to a couple stores and pick up some last minute gift cards before I picked up the girls – and with that, Christmas shopping is over! Olivia was doing well, but she threw up again after lunch, and after the car ride home. It seems to be just an upset stomach, maybe she ate something that didn’t agree with her or something? It seems to only be food or motion induced; otherwise, she seems completely normal.

Buddy made a hasty appearance today, completely destroying our Gingerbread house. He brought the girls some Princess stickers and magnets though, that seemed to cheer them up. After a little hanging out, we were off to the Madrid’s house for our first Christmas celebration. We met Christian there, ate lot so yummy snacks, the kids opened their presents and we had some time to catch up. The girls seem to be getting better and better at sharing and playing together, which is nice.

Eventually, toddler crabbiness started up, and it was time to head home. We made a quick stop on the way home to check out this beautiful tree that's lit up every year. We can see it from way down the highway, and every year I'm just in awe. The girls thought it was the coolest thing ever. I love it.

The girls fell asleep on the way home, and Christian and I didn’t last much longer. It was an early night, but a really great day.

12/22/11

Today I was home with the girls because my mother in law had to work. It’s always kind of an adventure when I’m home with the girls – you never know exactly how the day is going to go with them. Today was actually a really, REALLY great day. The girls were beyond well behaved, I couldn’t believe it really. They actually slept in, which was a nice change of page. They were quiet and played so well together, all day long. Sharing, laughing and just having the time of their life. They both ate all of their breakfast AND their lunch. They went down for their naps with no screaming or fighting it. It was seriously one of the the easiest day I’ve ever had with them. I LOVE days like this! No fighting, no stress, no yelling – just an entire day of truly enjoying every second with my girls.

I spent nap time doing my usual…paying bills, balancing the budget, catching up on some DVR’d shows and relaxing with the computer.

The girls went down for their naps pretty late, so Christian arrived home shortly after they woke up. We ate some dinner, and Buddy showed up, hiding upon the girls’ ceiling fan with some fairy wings (“Buddy” may or may not have hurt himself getting into position today…ouch). You should see how the girls react to Buddy’s arrival now days – they just LOVE the whole thing, and ask about him all the time. It’s been so fun, but I’m not sure what they are going to do when he’s gone…

Christian went outside to pull his truck in, and discovered that our mailbox was lying out in the middle of the street. Our mailbox is actually a double mailbox (we share with the neighbors across the street) with quite a solid post into the ground. We both went out to investigate, and it was clear a car had hit it. We saw tire tracks coming across the grass, heading straight for where the mailbox is supposed to be. We were so upset, and at a complete loss of what to do. We did some investigating and we are indeed responsible for replacing it (you know, in all of our extra time, with all of our extra funds). The neighbors across the street never even came out to check or talk to us (it turned out they were in Vegas on vacation, but even to this day – weeks later – they never once mentioned it, thanked us for fixing it or anything. GREAT neighbors we have). Just one more thing to fit into a busy Holiday weekend. Ugh.

Here is a picture of Buddy with his goodies, and the girls, snuggling together on the couch. They were total best friends today!

12/21/11

Today was a pretty low key day. It FINALLY snowed today, a pretty decent amount, but it doesn’t sound like it will stick around through the weekend. Boo. It’s looking like we will definitely NOT be having a white Christmas this year. Pretty bummed about it, but I suppose one brown Christmas every once in a while isn’t horrible.

Work was pretty busy today. Half day yesterday, I’m off tomorrow, Half day Friday = REALLY busy when I’m actually here! I’ve been pretty good about keeping up lately, which makes work much less stressful. Christian has been working a lot of overtime, another great perk of the Holiday season. The girls have been pretty good lately – probably all of the Buddy goodies and Santa bribes :)

Speaking of, Buddy showed up today, hiding under the tree, with some Pez Dispensers. The girls thought they were just the most amazing things ever! Too funny.

I was a little upset today. The Happy Feet contest has been on for a few days now. You can’t see the number of votes you’re getting, but you CAN see which of your facebook friends have been voting. I have 200 friends on facebook, and only 25 have voted within the last few days. And NONE of Christian’s friends. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, seriously, how sad is that? This is literally the easiest contest ever, one click, and you are done. No registering, no giving them personal information, nothing. It was really discouraging, and it makes me question a lot of the people on my friends list. I ended up posting something about it on my page, and got a ton of responses from people. Some said they just plain hadn’t seen my posts about it, and voted right away. YAY. Some wouldn’t vote because they didn’t want to allow the “contest” application associated with it. This kind of bothered me because it’s SUPER easy to remove an application after you are done – but, I get some people are really worried about their privacy so I can't blame them for that. Others only access facebook through their mobile devices, and I guess the contest isn’t accessible through all of them. And, others just didn’t even respond. In the end, after this, I got up to 40 some friends voting, which is much better, but still kind of a dismal amount. In the end, all I can do is be grateful for the opportunity, and thankful for the friends and family that decide to support us.

Here's Buddy with his goodies. And, of course, a random ornament. The bottom half of our tree is just about empty of ornaments at this point. I've just given up on putting them back up. KIDS!