Christmas---12/25/2013

Our stockings

My parents

The boys and their new toys

Christmas jammies (taken on 12/24/13)

Christmas---12/25/2013 (continued)

letter from Emerson

Yearly Ornaments, Colorado Spruce, & The Novice---12/1, 12/5, 12/10

On the 1st of every December, the elves ring the front door bell and run.  All we ever see is the bag of ornaments that they left for us.  I got the cute owl, the boys each got a penguin, and Clayton got a cool Santa.  This is a fun tradition for us and it will be good whenever my boys move out.  The thought is that they will have a collection of meaningful ornaments to start their own trees with.  Their grandma Christie sends them yearly ornaments also so they will definitely be able to decorate an entire tree by adulthood.  

When I got this unexpected gift in the mail from Lowe's, I cried.  It totally touched my heartstrings when I saw that it was a "Colorado" blue spruce.  I miss that state so much (though I love being near my family and I hated the long winters there).  I hope that we move that way again and that my parents follow us.  We shall see.

I have been doing a lot of background acting lately and it is so much fun!  On this day, I was working on the set of a new TV show called "The Novice".  I had already worked on the pilot the week before but got to return since I wasn't seen.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really seen this time either.  I was in the far background as a pedestrian during a scene where there was some action on the streets.  Clayton's car (the silver Corolla on the street) was left all day to serve as a vehicle waiting at a traffic light.  The people working in uptown Charlotte weren't too happy with us being there as this was a busy intersection that got blocked off for filming all day long.  Egad.  Considering that the show messed up the morning and evening commutes for many people, there were a lot of bad things said online, lol.  Anyway, this show will be on USA and is made by Fox.  It looks to be a pretty decent show.  The lead guy is a cutie named Shane Coffey and his father is played by Alan Ruck (Cameron from Ferris Bueller).  

Christmas 2011 (a tad bit late, lol)

The boys in their new jammies on Christmas morning
Hayden (age 8) & Emerson (age 7)

I never got around to posting around Christmas thanks to being too busy.  We moved into our new house on 12/23 so things were really hectic.  I managed to put up a small tree (our big one was buried somewhere in the garage).  We were living out of boxes and the house was a wreck, to say the least.  Anyway, I will share this one photo with you guys because all the others involve boxes and random crap in all the backgrounds, lol.

Just in case you haven't followed my blog over the years, we are visited by Santa' elves twice a year.  They come on the 1st of December to leave us our new ornaments and then they drop by on Christmas eve to give us our new jammies.  We never see the elves in action.  They just ring the door bell, leave the goods on the steps, and then they disappear.  It's so much fun.  We look forward to their visits every year.

Coming Out of Hiding, lol

How has this holiday season been treating ya'll? Good, I hope. We have been extremely busy and I just haven't had alot of time to update my blog. Here's my attempt to bring my blog up-to-date:

12/17 (Wed.)-Emerson had his Christmas program with his preschool. He got to sing a few songs and then say a line by himself on stage. He was a little shy but he did great. He said his line perfectly. I told him to make sure to say it loud so that his Daddy could hear it. He was so proud of himself and we were too.

12/18 (Thurs.)-Today was the last day of school for both boys and each had their school Christmas parties on that day. I couldn't be in both places at the same time so Clayton went to Emerson's party and I went to Hayden's. I had to help the kiddos make pancakes on a griddle so that was interesting to say the least. As we walked out of the school we realized that it was snowing pretty heavily. It was nice to see the snow but it unfortunately messed up our travel plans for that weekend.

12/19 (Fri.)-This day marked Clayton's Christmas vacation. Every year he takes a couple of weeks off in December to relax and enjoy staying at home. He won't go back until January 2nd. We were supposed to leave and head out to Wyoming to spend Christmas with his Mom but that didn't happen due to the weather. Her area was supposed to get snow 3 of the 4 days we were going to be there. Heck if I wanted to travel in that mess. I love snow but I do not like to drive in it. That totally sucked.

12/20 (Sat.)-It's actually a good thing that we didn't go to Wyoming. I was sick as a dog and ended up spending the day in bed. I had a roaring headache.

12/21 (Sun.)-We headed to the Denver Zoo to see their holiday display of lights. The event is called Zoo Lights and it rocked. We froze our butts off but it was well worth it. The kids got to see Santa and then we took the little steam-powered train for a little tour around the middle of the park. After that we went to see the hippos, elephants, snakes, fish and giraffes in their indoor exhibits. There was a cute baby giraffe that we really enjoyed seeing. There was also supposed to be some baby snow leopards somewhere but we missed them. If you live anywhere near Denver, you really should check this event out. It ends after New Year's Day so it is still going on right now. The trip was well worth it to us and we plan to make it a Christmas tradition from now on.

12/22 (Mon.)-I worked on getting the house clean all day long. Clayton also helped quite a bit and then took the kiddos to see Bolt at the theatre. I soooo appreciated that as the kids were driving me insane.

12/23 (Tues.)-My parents flew in to spend the holidays with us. My Dad had never been on an airplane nor had he ever been to Colorado before this day. He also hadn't seen the kids since June 2007 so this was a big trip for him. We met up with them in Brighton for dinner at a yummy 50's diner. We had a good time and the kiddos were thrilled to see Grandma and Grandpa.

12/24 (Wed.)-My parents and the kids put together rice krispie houses (kinda like making gingerbread houses but they tasted much better IMO). Hubby helped the kids make sugar cookies and rice krispie treats for Santa. One of Santa's elves rang our door bell and left us all Christmas jammies and a note that said that we needed to go to bed soon because Santa was on his way. This is a yearly tradition that began with Hayden's first Christmas and it is one of my favorites. The kids never quite make it to the door fast enough to catch sight of the elves. It's all so much fun.

12/25 (Thurs.)-I couldn't believe that the kids weren't up at the buttcrack of dawn that morning. The one morning that I expect them to get up early is of course the day that they sleep in, lol. We all waited in the kitchen for them to come down. Once Hayden emerged I told him to wake his brother because Santa had left them some goodies. He quickly grabbed Emerson and they both flew down to the living room. It was fun watching them go through their stockings. After they finished we dove into ours and then everyone opened their gifts. Here are a few of the gifts we got that I can remember off the top of my head:

Hayden & Emerson
-2 Nintendo DS Lite systems
----games-Transformers, Super Mario Bros., Pac-Man, Spongebob-Drawn to Life, Lego Star Wars, Bolt
-Nintendo Wii
----games-Super Mario Kart, Thrillville, Da Blob, Rayman:Raving Rabbids, Paperboy Mario
----accessories-Sports Kit, 2 Steering Wheels, Gloves (covers for the 2 remotes and 2 nunchuks)
-2 Playdough Caddys
-Star Wars voice changing helmet
-Wooden disk sets that are used for building things

Me
-Nintendo DS Lite
----games-Brain Age 2, MillionHeir, CrossworDS
-Snow Boots
-Slippers
-NC State sweatshirt
-Bakeware set

Clayton
-Nintendo DS Lite
----games-Zelda, 007
-Coat and scarf
-Puffy vest
-NC State sweatshirt
-Personalized beer mugs
-Coffee caddy for Keurig cups

Don't you think that it is funny that all 4 of us got Nintendo DS Lites for Christmas? On top of that we got the Wii from Mom and Dad. Clayton still has his XBox 360 too so now we have a ton of video gaming options in our house. It is insane around here but a lot of fun, lol.

Mom and Dad usually don't do much for themselves for Christmas so I got them both stockings this year and filled them to the brim with lots of fun goodies. We also gave them a new digital camera so that they could get out of the Stone Age. Film is so old school, lol.

12/26 (Fri.)-We goofed off all morning and then headed out to Red Robin for lunch. After that, Mom and I went to Target to pick up some Christmas cards and wrapping paper for next year. I really lucked out and got some great deals. We headed to Starbucks after that and then went back home for the evening.

12/27 (Sat.)-We relaxed and took it easy today with my parents. For lunch we headed to Culver's (their food is so-so but their frozen custard is heavenly). I made some molasses cookies that evening and we just chilled.

BTW-I want to say Happy 1st Birthday to my first surrobabe!!! He was born after midnight on 12/27/07. I can't believe that he is already a 1 year old. Wow, time sure does fly.

12/28 (Sun.)-Mom and Dad flew back to NC today. I spent all day in bed due to reflux and I just didn't feel very good in general. Thank goodness I had a backlog of DVRed programs to watch to keep me entertained (and not to mention I had my new DS to keep me company too).

12/29 (Mon.)-And now I am finally caught up to today. We met up with Clayton's Dad and his wife for lunch at Rockbottom Brewery. It was fun catching up with them. We then went to Toys 'R Us so that the boys could spend their accumulated Christmas cash before heading back home.

Whew....I am tired of typing now. I will try to get some pics posted tomorrow. My card reader is now broken and I hate hooking my cameras (I have 2 and they each use a different kind of disk hence making a multi-disk reader much easier to deal with) directly up to the laptop. I will possibly just go buy another reader tomorrow to make it easier but we shall see. Good night everyone!!

Sorry for the bombardment of posts today guys...I am a little behind, lol

It's that fun time of year again. The elves have been by our home to drop off some fun ornaments for each of us. Every year they manage to put a gift bag of them for us out on our front porch but we never catch them in the act. It usually happens on the 1st of December but we were a little late getting our Christmas tree up this year and I have a feeling that they somehow knew that, lol. Anyhoo, the kiddos were super excited and were ready to tear their ornaments open but I made them wait until Dad got home to partake in the fun too. They were a little disgruntled by that but it was worth it.

Clayton got the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story", Hayden got Kung Fu Panda, Emerson got Wall-E and I got Snoopy sitting on a gingerbread doghouse (I love the Peanuts gang). Every year we get new ornaments from the elves (namely Hallmark, lol). The plan is that the boys will have 18 special ornaments to begin their own trees once they move away/go to college. I really wish that we would have had the same tradition as we were growing up because Clayton and I had to start from scratch. When we were in college it was difficult to throw down alot of money for a measly tree, ornaments, lights, tinsel, etc. Hopefully my kiddos will appreciate this one day. :)

Our 2008 Christmas Cards

This year I decided to go with some cool cards from Anna Griffin (who I love because she went to NC State's design school, lol). I have 3 different designs because I just couldn't make up my mind which ones to buy. I love each of them. If you are on my card list, you can expect to receive one of these just after Turkey Day. ;)

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

It was way too windy and cold when we took these pics so I made the photo shoot go rather quickly.

This one is the winner. It goes so well with the Anna Griffin cards that I bought. She has a vintage-y look so the sepia tone works well with them.

My Little Monkeys

Every year we get a visit from Santa's elves on Christmas Eve. They leave the kiddos a note saying that they better get to bed soon because Santa is on the way. Along with the note comes Christmas themed jammies for each of us. We never see the elusive elves though. They just ring the bell and disappear before we open the door. It's such a fun tradition. :)

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas Day tomorrow. We are a bit bummed because we have no family here with us this year but we will be okay. We will likely head out to the theatre to see the Chipmunks in the evening. It'll still be fun holiday for us.

And no, in case you are wondering, I still haven't had the baby. My IPs are patiently waiting here in Colorado for him to arrive. Hopefully it will be soon!

Our new stockings :)

Whoo hoo, UPS just dropped these off on our front porch. They are so cute!

Lots of Updates

Hey guys, I know I am a complete slacker when it comes to my blog. I am usually so good at keeping it updated but life has been crazy lately. I am now 36 weeks and 1 day preggo so I am a bit tired to say the least. Hubby needs to take a belly shot for me tonight so I can post it here. I got checked on Tuesday and I am 1.5cm dilated and 50% effaced. Yay! My IPs are getting really excited as we wait for the baby to make his arrival. I predict it to be 12/13 but it is all up to him. Since neither one of my kiddos made it to 39 weeks, I don't think that this one will either. Hayden was 38w6d and Emerson was 37w6d. They were both over 7 pounds so I can't imagine how much bigger they would have been if I was one of those poor moms that goes beyond their due dates. Egad.

Anyhoo, Clayton has been going nutso trying to get our outside lights up. Poor guy had lots of issues with lights not working and snow to deal with. Unfortunately, our house faces North and the front never gets any sunlight. We got snow a week or so ago and it lingered until yesterday because it couldn't melt. It's a good thing that it finally did because we are supposed to get more soon and Clayton would never be able to get on the roof, lol. He did a great job, huh?

We are going to go get Clayton's Christmas present today. He has been wanting a LCD tv with a surround system. I found an great deal online today for a 46" Sony Bravia tv plus an awesome Sony surround system. It even includes free shipping. We are going to pick up the system but have the tv delivered next week (unless he finds something better tonight). The cool thing is that our house is already completely wired and ready to go for the sound system. It won't take much to install it. :)

My design team term at 3 Scrappy Boys is now drawing to a close this month. I have been on the team since October 2006. I am a bit sad but relieved at the same time. I really need a break and now is a good time to do so. The new gals that were chosen are awesome and I know that they will represent Cindy and 3SB well. I can't wait to see their monthly creations. Congrats to the new ladies!! BTW-I have some new creations using the November kit and will try to get them uploaded soon. The kit was so bright and funky. You can't help but love it. ;)

A few Christmas morning photos...

These toys came from Santa. The kids really lucked out because they got 2 stockings each this year. Their Grandma Christie had made them each one and stuffed them to the brim with wooden Thomas trains and Cars. The stockings that we had for them are not shown above because they are hanging up on the mantle. Also, the new train track that Santa brought for them is in the play room. You can see the box on the right side of the pic. It has a double-decker spiral in it. It's very cool.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We are on our way to High Point to be with family and stuff ourselves silly at my Aunt's. I will update when we return later in the week.

 

 

 

Christmas Jammies

One of Santa's elves brought us all some cool Christmas jammies. Aren't the boys cute? 

Train rides, cookie swaps, updates, and a partridge in a pear tree

Sorry about the blog hiatus. Life has been moving at such a rapid speed lately that I find myself struggling to keep up. Christmas is always so much fun, but it is definitely wearing me out this year. Here's what all has been going on over the past several days:

Today-12/14

Grandma and Grandpa Jacobsen purchased Polar Express tickets for us last week and we got to ride the train today. We departed from the train depot in Bryson City (about 1 1/2 hours west of Asheville). It was a little chilly, but the day was beautiful and the ride was peaceful. We were served hot chocolate and rice krispie treats. The kiddos loved it! We picked Santa up at the North Pole and he rode back to the train depot with us. He handed out bells for all the kids that "believe" and we sang carols all the way back. If you want to check out the website for the depot in Bryson City or Dillsboro (they are really close together), visit: The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.

Emerson waiting in the depot before we could board the train

Clayton and Hayden being silly

Emerson and me

Hayden looking out for Santa

Santa wasn't supposed to really interact with the kids since he had to greet soooo many, but he did stop and ask to pick up Emerson. I couldn't believe that E didn't freak out. And yes, those are pajamas. Kids were told that they could wear their pjs on the train since that is what the kids in the movie wore. Hayden simply refused, lol.

Sunday-12/10

Happy birthday to my Mom! I hope you enjoy the Paula Deen magazine subscription that I sent ya!!

Saturday-12/9

This day was totally insane for us. We had so many things to do in such a small amount of time. We got up early in the morning to go to a Fun Depot Christmas party for the kids (hosted by my hubby's work). It wasn't so bad when we first got there, but then it all of a sudden got a little chaotic. There were so many birthday parties, other Christmas parties and boy scouts there. Luckily for us, we got to have some fun before the crowds started piling in. We took the boys back home afterwards because my Mom had just gotten into town to baby-sit for us.

Clayton and I met a prospective couple for surrogacy at lunchtime and hit it off. I won't go into details, but I will say that they were nice and we will be working together. :)

Dinner was spent with Clayton's co-workers at Copper Crest at Lake Osceola. It was alot of fun! I enjoyed meeting everyone including his boss (and his wife). They were so nice. I am glad that Clayton has such a great group of people to work with. He is very blessed. After we ate, we played a gift exchange game and I ended up bringing home my own gift. I almost didn't take it to dinner with us because I wanted to keep it for myself, lol. It was a trio of yummy hot chocolates from Starbucks. We also got a really cute set of mugs with more hot chocolate. Mmmmmmm...

Friday-12/8

My friend Kala threw the most wonderful cookie exchange party. The food was spectacular and everyone brought lots of delicious cookies/treats. There was 16 of us gals and no kiddos. It was an absolute blast! I made a bar cookie that had a sugar cookie bottom and then was topped with pretzels, white chocolate chips, cashews, peanut butter and melted chocolate chips. They tasted alot like a Take 5 candy bar. I went home that night with 16 different 1/2 dozens of cookies and I am sure that I have added a few pounds to the ole waistline as a result, lol. I can't wait to do it again next year. :)

Rambling...school pics, presents, Santa, etc.

Hey all! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day. I am just sitting around contemplating the millions of things that I need to be doing. Ugh. I have some wonderful school pics of the boys to share with you, but I haven't scanned them in yet. I will do that sometime after lunch. They are so cute! They will show up at the top of my blog this afternoon. ;)

Does anyone like Grey's Anatomy? I have just started getting into that show and I am now officially hooked. I haven't watched any of the new season yet, but they are all DVRed. Disk 2 from season 2 just got sent back to Blockbuster and I can't wait to get the next one. That show really makes me want to go to med school. Well, we all know that I would never give up my domesticity to actually have a career though. LOL

My kids are going to be bombarded with so many gifts this year that we are going to get rid of everything that we have right now. I am serious. These kids are getting so much that we see no need in keeping everything that we already have. Check out their gift list. It contains gifts that I know are coming to them from us, Santa, grandparents, and other family members. Lord knows what else they will be getting that I don't already know about.

Here's the list so far:

-Elmo TMX
-HotWheels Criss Cross Crash
-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
-the *ENTIRE* collection of all the diecast Disney Cars
-Power Rangers Solar Streak Megazord (my kids aren't into PR, but this thing is cool in that it is like a Trans Former-it can be changed from a big dude to a train)
-several board games like Chutes and Ladders/Candyland
-Tinkertoys (the real wooden ones)
-Little People Farm and the accessories
-Little People Amusement Park
-a new spiral track for our wooden Thomas train set
-a new table top for their train table since Hayden peeled up the design (sheesh!)
-Light Brite
-Thomas Aquadoodle mat (this thing is so neat-Thomas actually moves along a track that the kids draw)
-Elmo Aquadoodle mat
-lots of new Thomas trains
-DVDs (Curious George, Cars, and Elmo)
-projector that works with a book of stories
-puzzles
-Caterpillar construction vehicles
-large talking Lightning McQueen car
-LeapFrog alphabet spider

The bad thing is that I know there are things that I have bought, but can't remember what they are. Everything is already wrapped so it will be a surprise to me when they open them.

Clayton's Mom and Jack bought us tickets to ride the Polar Express on the 14th. We are so excited! The kids get to wear their jammies and drink hot chocolate during the ride. They will meet Santa too. I will be sure to take lots of pics and post them to the blog afterward.

Speaking of meeting Santa, we went last weekend. Hayden couldn't wait to sit on his lap and Emerson didn't want to go near him, lol. I did buy a pic, but it is horrible. I didn't realize it until after we left. The camera focused on the background instead of H and Santa. I am going to scan the pic and see if I can photoshop it. We'll see. I am doubtful, but oh well. At least he got to give Santa his wishlist. ;)

O' Christmas Tree

Clayton and the boys put the tree up on Thanksgiving Day. I don't mind being the one to take it down, but I abhor putting it up. If it were up to me, the tree would have beautiful garland, white lights, glittery ornaments in a pretty color scheme and ribbons running all through it. Clayton insists that it be haphazard with lots of cheap tinsel and colored lights. I will let him win on this issue. He loves Christmas more than anyone in our household, so he can have what makes him happy. He's always singing to Christmas music and dreaming up ways to decorate the house. I love him for that. Thank the Lord that I have such a wonderfully fun hubby.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...