12/31/12

Well, it's here! The last day of 2012. Another year down, and another year in store. I'm actually really excited for this new year. If all goes as planned, we'll be paying off the final piece of debt we have with our tax return in the next month or so, I hope to reach my goal weight by the summer, and, we just may expand our family in the next year. I'm getting really excited, and I'm hoping all of our hard work of planning, and budgets, and sticking to those plans and budgets will finally be paying off. Fingers crossed, hopefully nothing changes!

This morning I was off to work. One good thing about working on a day like today is the extreme lack of traffic. It's heaven! Our parking lot was empty and the building was quiet. I had a ton of stuff to do from all of my time off the past couple weeks, so the day flew by. I did leave a tad early as well, getting ready to celebrate New Years Eve tonight. I stopped home to start some BBQ meatballs in the crockpot, and ran a few quick errands. I packed up a bag and all of our goodies for the night, made a dip and as soon as Christian got home with the girls, we were off to a friends house to celebrate with them and Olivia's BFF.

We spent the night eating a ton of food, playing a few games, watching the girls dance their butts off, drinking some champagne and having lots and lots of laughs. It was a wonderful night. Just my kind of New Years Eve now! And, yes, the girls made it to midnight. They were still running around and having a grand time. Hopefully that means they'll be sleeping in tomorrow! One can dream, right?!?

So, here's to saying goodbye to 2012. There were a few bumps along the road, but overall, it was a pretty great year. We've had vacations, we've met new friends. The girls started school and have changed and grown more than you could even imagine. Christian and I are actually doing pretty great, and I think are stronger for the issues we've overcome this year. We've had some friendships end, some change in one way or another, some grow stronger, and even reconnected with a few. We've both grown and advanced in our jobs at work, we're doing better financially than we have in our entire marriage, and I feel like we've grown leaps and bounds as a family. The girls are growing into their own persons - developing the most amazing (and basically opposite) personalities and are growing WAY too fast. We have so much to look forward to, and we're SO ready to embrace our future and move forward. BRING ON 2013!

12/30/12

Today was a pretty relaxing Sunday. We spent the morning hanging out around the house. I eventually took Amelia off to do a little grocery/weekly shopping. I managed to order Olivia's birthday cake (Hello Kitty, by demand) while we were out, so YAY!

The girls went down for a nap as soon as we got home. Christian and I had some Subway and watched some football together. The girls woke up in time for the big Vikings season finale. They played the Packers tonight (our big rival), and HAD to win to get into the playoffs. It was a super exciting, nervewracking day, but they actually pulled it off. They WON!! So exciting. They have their first playoff game next week. They actually play the Packers again. I think it's going to be a tough game - so I'm a little nervous for them. Fingers crossed!!!

We spent the rest of the night playing with new toys and putting stuff away. I did laundry throughout the day and that pretty much wrapped up our weekend. Back to work tomorrow, and then it's time to ring in a new year! Hard to believe, 2012 is basically over. These years just go faster and faster.

Amelia got herself all dressed up in Christian's work sweater. She thought it was hilarious!

12/29/12

Christian was off to work bright and early this morning. The girls were up not long after that. We had a very busy morning. Breakfast, baths, hanging out. I put their hair up in curlers so they could have fun, curly hair for the day. We played a rousing game of Chutes and Ladders (Olivia won - Amelia quit halfway through), we had a small lunch and I put them down for an early nap. Today, we were off to celebrate Christmas 5 of 6 - Christmas at my dad's with my sisters and their families.

I got myself ready and packed up all of our stuff while the girls took their naps. Then, quickly got them ready, and we were on our way. Christian met us there after work and we all had a great time. We spent the night joking around and laughing with my sisters and parents. The girls had a blast running around with all of my nieces and nephews. All of the kids got to decorate cookies, which was a big hit. Christian and I got joint presents this year - a "crockpot buffet" which I'm super excited about, and a folding table - which you can never have enough of. So, yay!

My sinuses were REALLY killing me today - my dad gave me some medicine, which helped a bit, but I was still feeling pretty crappy. Olivia was coughing up a storm - I'm starting to worry a little bit. Of course peopel talk about the whopping cough, which is terrifying - but she doesn't have the wheeze going on. I was worried about bronchitis - but it doesn't sound as dense as I remember bronchitis sounding. Hopefully it goes away...SOON!

After presents and some chatting, we were on our way home. We had a little dinner, relaxed for a bit, and the girls were off to bed. I wasn't feeling hot, so I spent the night relaxing. Christian stopped over to a friends house to hang out and visit for a while since I didn't make for the most exciting company. I did discover that I have 1 disc of Dexter Season 6, so I spent my alone time watching that. Definitely not complaining!

Here are some pictures of our day. 

12/28/12

Today was a pretty low key day. It was my Friday home with the girls, and we had a fairly standard day. They spent a good amount of time playing down in the playroom/tearing apart the basement. I started putting away some of the Christmas gifts and doing some cleaning around the house. Olivia and I still aren't feeling too great. Nothing serious, but she can't shake this cough, and my head is just clogged up like crazy. So, we watched a little TV and relaxed while Amelia had her run of the house. Pretty much heaven for her!

During naps, I caught up on some shows and had another lazy day. Christian had to work pretty late, and has to work again tomorrow, so we had a pretty early night. Nothing wrong with that! We have another Christmas celebration tomorrow, and then we'll be spending the week finalizing everything for Olivia's birthday party next weekend, so the chaos continues!

This guy spent the day in my face, as usual...

And, this girl spent the day running around like a homeless baby, as usual...

I love this picture of Amelia. Kids in general - such a constant wonder in their eye, in their stare. The world is so amazing to them, such a mystery, so full of opportunity. It's heart warming.

12/27/12

Well, I took the day off today. It wasn't my intent at all. But, I woke up feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. I just needed a mental health day. The decision wasn't made until I was up, ready and on my way to drop the girls off at school though. So, I dropped them off and turned right back around and went home. I stayed in my jammies all day, laying on the couch and watching Dexter. I managed to finish Season 4 and watched ALL of Season 5. It was the perfect day - it was exactly what I needed. A quiet house, all to myself. No chores, no running around, no kids. NOTHING! What a relief!

I picked up the girls around the usual time, made dinner and waited for Christian to get home. We all ate and spent the night relaxing and hanging out. The girls are still pretty tired and recovering from the Holiday chaos, but they had a better day today. As for me, tomorrow is my Friday off, so today starts off a nice LONG weekend! I don't know what I'm going to do when real life settles back in...my first full week at work is going to be TORTURE!

The girls were in the entry closet, rummaging through everything (it's a fairly common occurance), and Amelia spent the night running around in my slippers. She's so cute :)

12/26/12

Well, back to reality. Only, not really. We were up and at it this morning. The girls were furious, and exhausted. I felt so bad waking them up and sending them off. But, Olivia was really excited to see her teacher, and Amelia spotted Niko as soon as we walked in the door, so they quickly forgot how tired they were...

Christian and I were off to work. He was exhausted, but he's swamped so the day flew by. The roads were pretty empty, my parking lot at work was super empty and the building was pretty dead. It was hard to concentrate all day, and it was seriously the longest day I've had in a long time. Seriously considering taking tomorrow off, that's for sure!

FINALLY, it was quitting time. I picked up the girls and we made our way home. We started unpacking some of their toys so we could start getting the trash and recycling ready to go. They were having a blast playing with all of their new goodies. Christian had to work really late, so we just had some leftovers from my in-laws for dinner, hung out for a while, and sent the girls off to bed.

Olivia brought home this cute little handprint art from school today, LOVE it! And, she was really excited to try out her new art studio. My little budding artist :)

12/25/12

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas to all of my friends, family and blog readers (assuming they still exist!). I hope everyone is able to spend some time with loved ones, enjoying the magic, wonder and reason for this day.

The girls were up bright and early this morning, but stayed in their room and played for a while, so at least got that. I finally rolled out of bed and went in to get them. I didn't say anything about Christmas, just waiting to see what their natural reactions would be. Olivia immediately ran to the plate of cookies to check on them. Sure enough, Santa had eaten his cookies and drank his milk, and Olivia was SO excited about it. She couldn't believe it, it was really cute. They started dancing and running around like usual, and after a few minutes they finally noticed all of the presents under the tree. The joy and wonder on their faces was just amazing. They couldn't believe they had all of these exciting packages under the tree, just waiting for them to rip open. And, of course, it didn't take them long to get to it. Olivia knew her presents were wrapped in the princess paper, and Amelia knew her's were in the Winnie the Pooh paper. So, they gathered up their packages and got to work....even Chuy got himself some new, fancy bones!

In the end, Olivia got an Art Studio/Easel, a box full of art supplies (finger paints, paint, markers, paper, glitter glue, paint brushes), the "Brave" movie, a box of clothes (two pairs of jeans, two shirts, and a package of underwear), and Candyland. Amelia got the "Bounce Bounce Tigger", a highchair and good for her babydolls, a box of clothes (three shirts and a package of underwear) and a bag of random doll accessories. I found every single thing I bought them on sale, some of them for REALLY cheap, so it was a good year for them! Once they opened everything up and did a little playing, Olivia spotted their full stockings. Again, joy and wonder. It was so cute.

Christian and I exchanged gifts as well. I got him a Twins hat, two sweaters and a gift card to get a pair of jeans. He got me three shirts and some PJ pants. YAY!

Once everything was opened and the house was officially a disaster, we had breakfast. Thanks to Pinterest, we had a yummy crockpot French Toast souffle. It was delicious! We all showered and got ready, and were on our way!

First up we spent the day at my Grandparents' house, like usual. My Grandma moved into a nursing home over the simmer for Alzheimer/dimensia, so we weren't sure if she'd make it to Christmas. Sure enough, my Grandpa got her to come, and she did great. She probably didn't really remember most of  us, and she was definitely saying some random, off the wall things all day, but she was there, she seemed happy, and it felt like we were whole. We ate dinner, did lots of playing, chatting and catching up, opened presents and it was a great day. THIS, is Christmas to me. Love it!

Our gift to our Grandparents was an updated picture of all of the grandkids. We took one about 11 years ago for them, and my Grandpa, in passing, mentioned that he'd like a new one. So, we got together a few weeks ago to take it. It turned out so great, and we even managed to get in basically the same place.

We finally called it a night, and made our way to our next destination. Back to my in-laws. My sister-in-law couldn't make it yesterday because her girls were with their dad, so she spent the day with Christian's parents today. We couldn't stay long, but we stopped over to exchange gifts with her, and sing Happy Birthday to our oldest niece, Aliana. She turned 8 today - it's so hard to believe! The girls had a blast checking out their gifts and running around together...it's so great to see them all together, being all girly and crazy. It just warms my heart!

Finally, we called it a night. We made our way home, the girls went straight to bed, and we could barely move off of the couch. I'm really kicking myself for not taking tomorrow off. Shoot, had I known I'd be off on Monday, I would have taken tomorrow and Thursday off (Friday is my day off) and had the whole week off. Dang.

It's always sad seeing Christmas come to a close. Luckily, we still have Christmas at my dad's this upcoming weekend, and still have to get together with my mom...so, at least we can drag it out a bit.