2014 - Week 52

Monday, back to reality, off into another week. But, being Christmas week, at least it was a super short one! Work was pretty standard, but it was pretty quiet around the building. While the hustle and bustle usually helps make the days go faster, sometimes the quiet is nice. Helps you focus a little bit more, I think. Even though I have a short week, I did leave a little early today to do a Target/grocery run. I picked up the big girls on my way home and we settled in for the night. Put everything away, made dinner. Christian arrived home with Eliza and we had a quiet night before bed. With Christmas a few days away, it’s leaving me a little torn. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year…the decorations, the music, the family time, the general feel and magic of the season. Since having kids, I feel like it gets more magical and meaningful each year. This year, I just haven’t been in the spirit. I this being stressed and overwhelmed plays a big part in it, and it’s our first Christmas since my last grandparent passed away, so the thought if not spending Christmas day with them, and my family, is hard. Cut I think it’s also just the drama surrounding it gets more and more every year. We don’t spend enough time with this person, we spend too much time with that person, this person doesn’t appreciate their gift(s), that person is too drunk…it’s amazing most years if we can even fit in our own Christmas at home we’re so busy trying to make everybody else happy. This year will be no different…there’s always something. But, we WILL have our own Christmas here at home, Christmas morning, and I’m super excited about that. And, it’s or last “first Christmas”, so we definitely have to take that in. I think we just need to accept that no matter how old we are, the drama is never going to go away.

Today, we found Buddy on a romantic bike ride with Barbie.

Tuesday was a pretty low key day, before kicking off all of the Christmas chaos. The most exciting part of the day is that our new parking ramp at work is FINALLY done, and today was our first day parking in it. Seriously, I cannot even explain how exciting this is. No more parking in our, literally, dangerous parking lot…my work is not in the best of neighborhoods, and I can’t tell you how many muggings, car break-ins, assaults, etc. there have been in our parking lot over the years. No more trekking it from the lot to the building, especially if you start/go in later. No more snow or having the car sit in the brutal winter wind anymore. The van is literally right outside of our building,  in a covered ramp, waiting for me. I LOVE it! In other exciting news, Eliza is still not crawling or rolling, but she is starting to support herself for short times when standing up next to furniture/tables. Not that I want her to grow up anymore, or any faster, but it’s pretty exciting. I’m still pretty convinced that she’ll just skip crawling all together.

Tonight we found buddy curled up with Barbie on a movie date - two dates in a row, must be love!

Getting so big!

Wednesday, a busy, busy day. Christmas Eve! The girls were all of to daycare – they closed at 2:00 for the holiday. Christian was off to work, and while he didn’t get off early, he got off “on time”, so that was nice. It was my work from home day. It’s always kind of a mystery if we’ll be sent home early on Christmas Eve…it’s not “required”, so it’s up to each individual office director to decide if, and when, they’ll let us go. Well, today I got the note at noon we could log off for the day. AWESOME!!! I think that’s the earliest we’ve ever been let off. It’s unfortunate for those to actually take the day off, they lose out on the “free time”, but I’ll definitely take it! After I logged off, I did some final cleaning up in preparation for the evening, and wrapped Buddy’s last gift for the girls. I picked them from daycare just before close…they spent the day watching movies and having a pretty laid back day. Once home, I got them into their Christmas dresses and looking all cute. My mom arrived around 3:00…we hung out and chatted, played with the girls, she wanted to get a good picture with them in their dresses. She brought some ribs over for us to have for dinner, which Christian started cooking when he arrived home. While those cooked, we all opened presents. For some reason, my mom decided she wanted to keep a few of their gifts at her place, so they won’t be getting those until the next time they go over there for a visit, but she had gotten them some clothes, a couple toys for Eliza, and a couple small things for the big girls. After cleaning up from present opening, we got the girls changed (white, sparkly dresses and BBQ ribs don’t mix well), had some dessert and my mom was on her way home shortly after. The girls found Buddy shortly after she left, so we have them baths and they got into their new pajamas. Then, Christian’s friend Lorenzo stopped over. He’s Eliza’s godfather, so he wanted to bring her a Christmas gift…but, he didn’t feel like he could just get her something, so he also got the big girls gifts too. They went crazy, had a blast playing with their new stuff. They are so spoiled, but it’s fun watching them. Finally, they were off to bed. We completely forgot to make Santa’s cookies this year, oops! Once they were tucked away, I packed their stockings while the boys put together their trampoline – their Santa gift. With that, we were officially ready for Christmas Day. Ready to celebrate our final “first Christmas” with little Eliza.

My little gifts, ready for the day.

Christmas fun!

Santa is a good guy!

Thursday was the big day. MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I swear, growing up, it felt like Christmas would never come, like each one was years between the next. Now, it seems like it’s Christmas every time I turn around! The girls were up bright and early, and were SO excited to find their new trampoline from Santa. They  LOVED it. They opened their stocking, and help Eliza go through hers. Amelia was so funny – she wanted to take a picture with every single thing she pulled out. Olivia couldn’t believe Santa knew what all of her favorite things were. It was pretty funny. We all opened the rest of our gifts, I made some French toast for breakfast, and we proceeded to get ready for the day, one by one. Once we were all cleaned up, and packed up, we were off. First up, we stopped at my Dad’s for Christmas with my stepfamily. Normally, Christmas day is spent at my Dad’s parents’ house, with his whole family. But, apparently, with the passing of my Grandpa earlier this year, that tradition is no longer. So, now the stepfamily Christmas is being held on Christmas day. We got there, the girls played the day away, we chatted, ate some lunch, opened presents. We don’t see that side of the family too often, so it’s always fun to get together and catch up. Next up, we were off to finish the day at my in-laws. Now the girls went SUPER crazy, running around with their cousins like a pack of wild girls. We had dinner, lots of laughs opened WAY too many presents and had a wonderful night. We had to call it a day earlier than usual…the girls had daycare the next day, so we made our way home around 9:00 and we were all off to bed. I can’t believe another Christmas is in the books. While I might not have been in my cheeriest most spirited of moods, it ended up being a wonderful Christmas. Regardless of the chaos, the drama or anything that might be going on, I have my husband and 3 amazing little girls I get to celebrate with and I really couldn’t ask for more.

Christmas Day, wonderful!

My new charm

Dressed and ready - we decided to spare our parents houses the glitterbomb that is their Christmas dresses.

Friday was a very low key day. Christian was off to work, the big girls were off to daycare and it was my Friday off with the girls. I worked a little bit on unpackaging toys and gifts for the girls, and doing a tad bit of cleaning up, but I spent most of the day binge watching on Netflix. I finished catching up on “The 100” (seriously, LOVE it!) and started watching “The 4400” – apparently I’m on a sci-fi kick! I picked up the big girls at daycare at closing, we had some dinner, and we had a (much needed) quiet night at home. Christian and I did start watching the latest “Transformer” movie, but I didn’t make it long before passing out. Old lady alert!

While the big girls were away, Eliza got to play with ALL the new toys. She was a fan.

On Saturday, Christian was off to work and the girls and I settled in for the day. I finished unpackaging toys while the girls played and relaxed. Amelia woke up feeling tired and a little rundown, so she rested for a while. Otherwise, they spent most of the day trying out all of their new stuff, and watching their new tablets to their little hearts content. Eliza took a nice loooooong nap, otherwise, she was not in a very chipper mood. We think we see two little tooth holes on her bottom gum, but we don’t see anything coming through yet. She does seem to be showing a lot of signs lately. As the girls went to bed, Christian and I settled in for a movie night. We watched “Lawless” and “The Wolf of Wallstreet”...as the night progressed, I developed a headache that just got worse and worse. I missed parts of the movies while I rested on an ice pack, but both were quite good – the night was fairly successful.

My babies, I just love them to pieces.

Sunday was another quiet day. Eliza was beyond crabby all day long, poor thing. While she napped on and off, I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done. She is most definitely teething, I can officially feel a tooth popping through! YES, hopefully this will give us a little relief. In addition, it seems to be causing her some nursing issues, which just adds to all of the frustrations. Christian and I managed to take a little nap while all of the girls were down, which does not happen often. I swear, napping just makes me even more tired though. I got a little bit of cleaning done between the crabbiness and the napping. Our friend Sara stopped over with Olivia’s BFF, Bella, and Eliza’s boyfriend, Connor, for a visit before bed. Another week has come to an end, another weekend ticked down and we were heading into the final days of 2014. I can’t believe we’re actually about to ring in another year. Amazing.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - Week 51

Well, Monday did not start off too great (even for a Monday!). Eliza had a pretty rough night – therefore, I had a pretty rough night. And, a nice, early morning. I mean, seriously, this can end any time now. I feel like I just drag all day long, I’m like the walking dead at work every day. Luckily, Monday is her day at my in-laws, so even if she’s not feeling 100%, I know she’ll be well cared for. Of course, the downside, is like a typical grandparent, my in-laws freak out about everything and convince us (more Christian than anything) that she’s deathly ill and something horrible is going on. So, throughout the day we just started worrying more and more. After a long day of work, I decided to take Eliza in to be seen again. Mostly, we have been concerned about her getting dehydrated. We feel like she was showing several signs of it…her soft spot was sunken in more than usual, she’s had a slight fever, she’s not eating well, she’s still throwing up randomly, she’s waking up with dry diapers and not peeing much at all throughout the day. While we’re *sure* she’s just fine, it never hurts to get checked out. But, there’s no way to get a last minute appointment with a (decent) pediatrician in our system, and I just hat taking the kids to Urgent Care…the doctors they staff just never seem to know how to deal with kids. We decided to try out this “Urgency Room” place a few people have recommended to me. It’s kind of a cross between an emergency room and a clinic. And, it was actually pretty awesome. They checked us in, got is in a room, and a short time later the doctor came in. He right away said she appeared to be happy and healthy and didn’t show any obvious signs of being sick or dehydrated. Her vitals were all pretty good, so everything was coming up positive. Because of her on and off fevers, they suggested checking for a urinary tract infection. So, they used a catheter to check her urine – which, on the plus side, would also show if she was dehydrated. She was NOT a fan of that process, but it went quickly (and boy did she pee after they did that!). I fed her while we waited for the results, and thankfully everything came back normal. So, they just gave us a few things to keep an eye on, said just keep feeding her like normal, even if she’s throwing up or refuses, just keep trying. It’s always nice to get the “all clear” and know that nothing serious is going on, but sometimes you just wish there was actually something you could treat, something you could actually DO something for. Waiting it out is just the worst. While we were getting checked out, Christian picked the big girls up and started dinner at home. We pretty much just had time to eat and go to bed once we were all home and settled in, so it was a pretty chaotic evening. I did contact Sprint and put them in their place today though, which made me feel pretty good with everything going on. We switched from T-Mobile to Spring a few weeks ago, and I received our first bill. It was almost double what it was supposed to be and I was freaking out. A small portion of the additional costs were pro-rated from the month before...apparently having a phone for TWO DAYS of a billing period = $20 per line. Ugh. I talked to them to figure out the rest of the issues….for one, they added insurance to both of our phones, which we didn’t ask for ($22 total), so they agreed to remove those charges. In addition, each line had a $15 fee that was supposed to be waived through December 2015. According to them, the small print states that it can take 2-3 billing periods to reflect that promotion. I was NOT having any of that. I totally went off about how shady it was, and how this was not like a discount or a special, on-going program…it was a signing promotion that was only good for a certain period of time…it’s not like I get 2 additional months at the end because it takes them 2 months to activate. I finally talked to a supervisor and they agreed to manually apply the discount until it goes through (so, $30 was removed). I’m not a confrontational person, so it’s hard for me to contact a company like that and let them have it, but man did it feel good! Jerks.

Tuesday was actually a pretty good day. Eliza seemed to be doing much better and was off to daycare. We were off to work, the big girls off to school. All was right in the world again. Our local radio station does this “Christmas Wish” thing every year – where you nominate a deserving family for some kind of uplifting experience (everything from Christmas presents for kids, grocery gift cards for the family, new appliances, etc.). It’s been getting to me big time lately – specifically these two infant stories they’ve done. One baby, London, is exactly a month older than Eliza and looks so much like her. She’s the sweetest little thing; you can follow her story on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/703198259751832/?ref=br_tf. The other is this sweet little guy Vito, you can follow his story as well https://www.facebook.com/VitoSkaro. Their stories just broke my heart and had me bawling. Continuing to follow their stories is an emotional rollercoaster – I don’t know how people manage to stay so strong, I just don’t. Anyway, Christmas Wish and crying my eyes out all the way to work is how I start very morning this time of year. On the flip slide, on the way home a light came on in the van. Christian ran it up to the auto parts store to scan it and apparently it’s some kind of sensor, so he’ll be bringing that in to get fixed on Thursday. Ugh – makes me nervous that we’ve already had a few issues with the van, and it’s not even a year old yet. When I picked the girls up, I received a gift from Eliza (well, her teacher, LOL). I opened it when I got home and it was this SUPER cute ornament her teacher had made, with her pictures all over it. I seriously almost died, I love it!

The awesome ornament I got from Eliza's teacher, love!

Tonight Buddy and his friends were holding some sack races.

Wednesday was a pretty quiet day. It was my work from home day, so the morning was slightly less chaotic than normal. Christian was off to work and I dropped the girls off at daycare. On our way out, the post office delivered a package – at 6:30AM, crazy! We received another package in the morning, afternoon mail and I officially had everything I needed to finish wrapping this weekend. Another plus today…while it was cold as heck, it was sunny…after what seems like weeks of gray, foggy, dark, sad weather, it was finally sunny. Between the sun and a slight breeze, snow was blowing around like little specs of glitter. I loved it – a very small bright side to winter weather. After working the day away, I picked the girls up, we met Christian at home and we had a quiet evening.

Buddy made it snow inside tonight and surprised the girls when they got home. Eliza is mesmerized by them!

Buddy had to look up directions on how to cut out snowflakes - apparently elementary arts and crafts don't stick with you for too long.

Thursday was a pretty low-key day all around. We were all off to work, daycare and school as appropriate. With that, Eliza actually made it through the entire week and I think we might actually be in the clear (knock on wood), finally!! Christian took the van today to get fixed today, so I drive my old car to work. It was so strange being in the car again (since we can’t fit all of the girls in it, I really never go in it anymore), and I felt like I couldn’t see anything…I definitely missed my van after a day away from it! They did get the part replaced and the light off though, hallelujah!! So, at the end of the day, we have a house of healthy people, a van that’s been fixed back up and we were good to go. Can’t get much better than that!

Buddy had quite the showing at his kissing booth tonight...I'm sure all of his earnings are going to a good cause.

In honor of our visit to see the big guy this weekend, my throwback this week was a look back at our past visits. This year should be interesting.

Friday, Friday, Friday…FINALLY Friday. Even though it was my Friday to work, it was still Friday and you can’t really beat that. My mom was over bright and early to hang out with Eliza for the day…with her being sick, it had been quite a long time since she’d watched Eliza. After a long day at work, I picked the big girls up and rushed home…I left them with my mom for a few minutes to rush Eliza off to get her 2^nd dose of the fly shot (with fingers TIGHTLY crossed that didn’t spawn all of her issues last month). We were in and out, and back home in no time, ready to get the weekend started. Christian had to work late, pretty typical for Friday, so it was just the girls and I for most of the evening. Olivia brought home a cute ornament from school today, and her teachers gave her a fun book and bag. She was excited about being on winter break – though, I don’t think she truly knows what it means, and I don’t think she’ll actually be excited about sitting at daycare for two weeks. I got the girls fed and settled in, Christian brought home dinner for us and we had a quiet night at home. I did some final present wrapping after the girls went to bed…how crazy is it that Christmas is a week away?!?

The super cute ornament Olivia made.

The dog is obsessed with her.

Buddy arrived with this years Gingerbread House tonight. We were too tired to do it though...

On Saturday, Christian was off to work. The girls were up really, REALLY early…so I sent them back to bed. I don’t play those games. Eliza and I finally woke, and freed the big girls from their room. We had breakfast, I have them all some baths and got Eliza down for a nap. The big girls watched some movies and played while I did a little cleaning up, showered and got ready for the day. We finally packed into the van, and met Christian at his sisters’ house for his oldest nieces birthday party (she’s a Christmas baby, so they had her party early this year). The girls had a great time playing with their cousins, his mom and sister made some yummy taquitos for dinner, we chatted and laughed and hung out for a while. Finally, we were on our way home, for some Christmas activities. We started on our gingerbread house, and made the girls’ 2014 homemade ornaments. It was pretty late by the time we finished, so the girls pretty much passed out…Christian wasn’t far behind either. I started watching “Anchorman 2” (despite all of the bad things I’ve heard about it), but I couldn’t keep myself awake for long either. We’re all so lame!

Seriously, I love this girl, with her big, round, bald head. Love!

  

The birthday girl! Oldest and youngest cousins, so cute.

Buddy arrived with supplies to make our ornaments tonight. Fun!

(observing)

Sunday was another pretty busy day. We started off pretty typical...breakfast, picked up around the house, started laundry. Then, got ourselves ready and kicked off a day of Christmas festivities. First, we were off to Mall of America for our Santa visit. I didn’t expect miracles this year…but it was pretty much a disaster. Eliza was miserable ad hungry (terrible planning)…one flash of the photographers camera and Amelia’s eyes were watering and she was miserable. It was just terrible. I mean, we didn’t have a screaming, terrified kid, but still, terrible. Eliza fell asleep on the way home and napped for a while, so we finished up the gingerbread house and worked on the girls’ homemade cards for the grandparents. Finally, we made cookies (it’s taken forever, but they’re finally made!) and cleaned up the kitchen. It was late, but Christian was off to help his friend, Lorenzo, with car stuff. I got the big girls to bed, but Eliza would not go to sleep for ANYTHING. It was an exhausting night, and it should make for a rough Monday.

Visiting Santa

Making our gingerbread house

Buddy brought us supplies to make our homemade Christmas Cards for the grandparents tonight

Making cookies for the teachers at KinderCare

Until Next Week! XOXO