Christmas With The In-Laws

New Years Eve, can you believe it? We're almost to 2012! This year has gone crazy fast and it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating 2010 finishing up! We've been eating some good food all night, actually was cleaning some of the night, and now we're in the middle of a movie but are taking a break so Scott can get Savannah to sleep.

After opening Christmas presents at our house Christmas morning we drove over to Jim & Pat's to open presents with them. Their living room was ridiculously full and we were spoiled like always. The kids got some great presents, Connor got some awesome wrestling toys, a Toy Story Garbage Truck and some other great things from Grandma & Grandpa. Savannah got a baby doll and stroller along with a fisher price picnic basket that I had asked for, for her. We also got some great things from The Moore's, including some super comfy sandals for me and an awesome shirt for Scott. We also gave them their presents, and this year Pat wins the present that I spent the most time on. Several, several hours, and 282 photos went into a photo book that covers the time frame of Connor's 2nd birthday to his 4th birthday. I'm going by Birthdays because that's an easy cut off time for me to remember for when I do it again for her. I think she liked it, and I hope everyone else loved their presents as well! After that the family from Milwaukee came up and we spent a few hours with them, celebrating with good food and of course more presents for the kids!

Christmas Morning

So my laptop hasn't turned on since Christmas Eve, which totally sucks, and it also means I don't spend as much time on the computer as before. Why? Well: the computer downstairs is super slow, and the computer is downstairs......which means I can't gradually get things done while still watching the kids, watching TV, etc. like I did before. Still haven't decided if we are going to try and get it fixed or just replace it.......hmmm

Christmas started at home with the alarm going off at 5:31 (we went to bed at 1:30 a.m., so the 1st several times it went off I don't even remember). We finally got out of bed around 6 a.m., then we got the kids up. Opened presents, had to stop several times to re-charge batteries quickly (didn't want to miss Connor opening the batcave on my camcorder). Connor got a wrestling toy he wanted, a batcave, a movie, book, and some clothes. Savannah got a trike, a Christmas Barbie, and a bunch of clothes. I got a few things I had picked out and some new tank tops, and Scott got a Salads book (he loves Salads), a movie, a shirt, and a new game. Then we quickly got ready and were out the door at 7:30 a.m. (that's what time we were suppose to get to Jim & Pat's, but that just didn't happen we were lucky we got out of there when we did!)

Christmas Eve At GG's

So Connor got this super cute little reader that reads 8 Disney books from Grandma & Grandpa for Christmas, and he's been listening to it for almost 45 minutes. I excited! I hope he truley enjoys books as much as I do, I've read over 30+ books this year, and hoping to finish 1 more before the end of the year! Reading = smart! :)

So Christmas Eve we go to church at St. Dennis and then head over to GG's for the Veith Christmas. It's always a pretty crazy and hectic evening at GG's. We eat dinner and then begin to open presents. We go youngest to oldest, so Savannah got to go 1st for the 2nd year in a row. We ended up leaving by 10:30 p.m. and it wasn't near finished yet, I guess they were just finishing up just after midnight. If everyone were to come I think we figured out we'd have over 35 people there. It was a fun time and the kids and us got some really fun stuff. Oh, and this picture doesn't do the night justice, you can only see part of all the presents.

Santa Cookies

What a weekend we had! It went by way to fast and now look, it's Tuesday! And of course, stupid me scheduled mine and Connor's Dentist appointments for 8 a.m. Why did I do that? Waking up at 6 a.m. was not easy, then I had to run Savannah to the in-laws before we went to the dentist. Thankfully Connor did AMAZING, which always helps when you're tired & cranky!

So Friday night I started making "Santa Cookies" for Connor & Buddy to decorate on Saturday afternoon while we were over at the Moore's watching the Dolphin's game. Last year the frosting I made turned out horrible and was super runny & sweet so I searched for new recipes to use this year. I used THIS sugar cookie recipe and THIS frosting recipe. I'm not a fan of sugar cookies so I never tasted that part but the frosting was amazing. The boys had a lot of fun decorating their fun shapes (not just Christmas shapes, we had some animals and planes, flowers, etc). Matt & I did the majority of the frosting while Buddy kept eating all the cookies and Connor kept putting his finger in all the frosting, lol. After we were done with the frosting and the sprinkles each boy selected 3 cookies that we set aside as our "Santa Cookies".

Christmas With The Brausen's

Did a little shopping this morning. Ran to Menards, Shopko and then to Target. Got a few gifts for next year (yes I'm horrible, lol, but come on..........there are a LOT of people we buy for, so I gotta make sure I get really good deals!). Now we're about to run to Walmart before heading to Grandma's for lunch and then Woodman's to get a few groceries for the next couple of days.

On Friday night we went over to John & Carol's house to celebrate Christmas with the Brausen family. We ate some yummy food and then all the kid's opened up their gifts. The kids were spoiled like always, Connor got The Ultimate Optimus Prime Transformer, Savannah got some really cute clothes, and they both got a ton of other presents. Sorry, can't remember everything they got at this moment our house looks like a battle field! I got some yummy smelling body butter and Scott & I both got 1 of our trips to Disney in April, so now we only have to pay for 1 of us! Yay! We also did our gift exchange. We play a randomly selected game to get our order of who gets to pick first and then we can steal, etc. Scott ended up with some ice cream topping set with bowls & a scoop and I ended up with a 2 pack of pretty photo albums which I desperately needed.

Popcorn Balls

Christmas Eve, wahoo! Let the spoiling of the children begin, lol! We had banana pancakes with strawberry syrup this morning, yumm! Now I have to do some baking quick, run to the mall, go over to Aunt Ki-Ki's, then it's church and Christmas with GG. So it'll be a pretty full day today!

So on Wednesday night I made Popcorn Balls for Connor's Holiday Program that was on Thursday. I had never made Popcorn Balls before, so I searched online for a recipe. I came across THIS one. I totally burnt my hands making these, but I think it was worth it. While I'm not a fan of popcorn balls I've discovered, Connor & Aunt Ki-Ki dove right in and there's only a few of the 35 left that I made. And of course I had to make them red & green for Christmas!

Employment Law

So I really need to get working on my cake and cupcakes and also my cut out cookies that I need to make today, but I just got Savannah to take a nap and both kids have been crazy this morning so it's nice to have a little break and just sit here for awhile. Scott had to go into work this morning for a few hours, then he was stopping at GG's house to drop off the presents for tomorrow night and also stopping at Woodman's to get a few things I need to get us by until Monday.

On Wednesday I finished up with my second class of the semester, Employment Law. The grade for the class was made up of 4 tests and 10 discussion boards. However the discussion boards were pretty pointless basically we just had to somewhat respond do the question and we got full points. We didn't have to respond to anyone elses posts, which I thought was the whole point of discussion boards, to get people talking to each other, but oh well I guess. The textbook was okay for a textbook, however when they posted case discussions I wish they would have summarized them instead of just copying them because without a law background some of the wording was a little over my head. As far as the instructor for the course, Nancy Johnson, if I wouldn't have just looked up her name I wouldn't have known it. This course was all do it yourself, which is okay for me. I did end up getting an A in the course, which gives me perfect honors for the semester and brings me 1 class closer to graduation and graduating with honors - really hope that happens!

Miss. Savannah's TuTu's

Ran to MATC this morning to return my rental book, sell a few other books and purchase one of Scott's book's he needs for next semester. I actually left with $21, I think that's a first! But it's probably because I sold 3 books and only purchased 1 book, lol. The 3 books I needed and the 1 other one Scott needed I purchased off of amazon and saved almost $100! I also couldn't sell my Marketing Principles book back because of water damage, BUT every page is still there and you can get to every page, so if you know someone who could use it let me know and I'll sell it for pretty cheap, otherwise I'll list it on Craig's List.

So over the past several day's I've decided to make and start selling TuTu's. Why? Because I like being creative and I love TuTu's! I've already opened my Etsy Shop and started a FB page for it. So now I have 2 shops, lol, I know, but I can't help myself. I need something to do that satisfies my inner creativity. I love canning with Jessica, so we will continue AJsCanning (FB & Etsy) but that requires a lot more work and preparation than TuTu's. There probably wont be any TuTu's for sale until the beginning of 2012, I'm in the process of getting some Valentines Day TuTu's together, but when you decide to make a purchase use code: BLOGGER10OFF to receive 10% off your purchase (This is good for Miss. Savannah's TuTu's & AJs Canning). I'm also thinking about running a contest for Free Product once I've reached a certain amount of fans on FB. I'll let you know what I decide, but in the meantime go LIKE both shops!

Marketing Principles

Well it's almost 8 o'clock and I still have to make Connor's Popcorn Ball's for his Holiday Program tomorrow, oops, better get started! It seems like I've had so much to do today and I'm not getting anywhere.....don't you love the holidays? With work, school, and family obligations there's always something to do! Which is probably why I had a hard time sleeping last night because I couldn't turn my brain off!

So on Sunday I finally finished up my Marketing Principles class from MATC (or now known as Madison College). I actually had finished the last graded assignment last Thursday night but I wanted to finish up all the reading before I counted the class as complete. There were 3 chapters that were un-assigned that I read as well. Overall the class was interesting and I learned a lot about marketing. There's a lot more to marketing then I ever realized, I never realized how many aspects of the business world are related to it. I took the class online so I can't complain about the instructor (Chris Arenas). He was very quick to grade work which is a nice change, as it seems some instructors wait forever to grade the online classes. The one aspect of the class I did not like was I never saw the "red marks" on my assignments so I didn't know what to do to improve my grade (every instructor grades differently). I did the best I could however and did finish the class with an A. That's the hardest A I've had in a long time. The assignments were difficult, made you think, but were definitely organized in a way that will help anyone going into a marketing field (or business field for that matter).

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

So Savannah is taking an early nap today, which is good I guess. I can get my blog post taken care of right away and then start working on my homework. Just under 2 more chapters to read for my Employment Law class, then I have to take the test tomorrow night. I believe I just need to get a 92% or higher to get an A in the class, so keeping my fingers crossed that happens! I NEED to get an A in order to have a chance to graduate with honors!

So Sunday Connor & I decided to make some cookies. I had extra Hersey kisses laying around so I figured I'd make Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, because who doesn't love peanut butter? (If you don't know by now I LOVE peanut butter!). I followed the recipe on allrecipes.com exactly as stated, except I tripled everything. It ended up making 5 dozen cookies! Yum! Connor's job was to unwrap all the Hersey Kisses (which to me would suck, but he loved doing it). It did say to cook them for 10 minutes, however it took mine about 15 minutes using the Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan (LOVE! If you do not have this pan, you need to get it to make cookies, they always come out perfect all around, never underdone on top and burnt on the bottom which is the problem I had with other cookie sheets). These cookies turned out so well I had to bring 3 dozen of them to work in order to prevent me from eating them all!

Cristmas At The Lodge

Monday - check! Only a few more days to go until Connor is on his 1st ever Christmas Break! Oops, sorry, did I say Christmas Break? I mean Holiday Break! Please forgive me, lol. Okay, I can completely understand why they need to call it a Holiday Break instead of Christmas Break, but a friend of mine just posted on FB that their child's teacher e-mailed them today talking about all the holiday's they will celebrate this week, and guess what? She mentioned every holiday you could think of except Christmas. How can you leave out Christmas if you are celebrating every other Holiday? Isn't that a form of discrimination? Okay, I don't want to get in a debate about it, so I'll stop there!

So Saturday we took Connor to Karate, then headed to the library, did a little shopping and then headed to The Lodge for a Christmas Celebrating (VFW for those of you who are not familiar with the family "terminology", lol) The kids got to sit on Santa's lap (all of which did, so you gotta count that as a win!), they all got a little gift bag from Santa, then we got to eat some snacks that they provided and just hang out for awhile. We were there for almost 2 hours and it was a very nice time. This was a member's only event, and since Pat is a member we got to partake in the celebrating - it also prevented a huge crowd so it wasn't overly crazy in there! Now onto the next event!

The Hangover - Part 2

Can you believe Christmas is only 6 days away? I can't! Still lots to do this week! I finished up reading my Marketing Textbook last night, now I have to read 3 more chapters in my Employment Law Textbook and complete the final exam. Technically I have until Thursday night to complete it but I'll have to finish it Wednesday night so I have Thursday to return the book - it was a rental so it has to be returned by the last day of the semester.

So Friday night we finally got to watch The Hangover - Part 2. Scott LOVED the 1st one so he was super excited to finally see the 2nd one. While it was definitely like the first one, it was outrageously hilarious and disturbing all at the same time. If you like crude humor and can tolerate a lot of F bombs and you loved the 1st one, then i definitely recommend you seeing this one too. Even though we just watched it I guarantee Scott will find some excuse to watch it again in the next several weeks.

A New Cast

Savannah is sleeping and I'm thinking about joining her soon even though there is still a ton to do around the house. I hate when Scott lets me sleep in to much because then it seems most of my day is gone and then nothing gets done. Yes I know I'm complaining about him letting me sleep in, lol, but I've told him countless times that 9:30 a.m. at the LATEST, cause any later I really get more crabby!

So Thursday night after Christmas with Betty we came home and started getting ready for bed. Connor & I decided we were going to go outside and play for a few minutes while Scott got Savannah's PJ's on. Well we were outside for a minute and then decided to come back inside to find some gloves. Well we never ended up going back outside because all I heard is, "Babe, we have a problem!" Well Miss. Savannah's cast fell off! WTF. I didn't know that could happen! So I had to call GHC, wait almost an hour for them to call me back, for them to tell me to call UW, then had to wait for them to call me back, for them to tell me to come into the ER, then for me to call GHC back to make sure that a proper authorization went through. Thankfully Uncle Andy was available to go with me to the ER because I really didn't feel like going by myself, I was already super tired and needed someone to help me stay awake, so I met him at the mall at around 10 p.m. and we made the drive in. We got to see a nurse right away and got back in a room fairly quickly but then we waited and waited....... thankfully all of the Dr's were really nice when they stopped in, they were just busy and we eventually got her re-casted and we got to leave. They made the cast a little longer and bent her arm a little more in hopes that this will not happen again. This time we decided to go with another Christmas cast, and also Connor & Scott's favorite color - Green!

Christmas With Betty

So I just heard the Packer's lost their first game of the year, lol! Awesome! They will probably go on to win the Super Bowl but to be faithful to my dear hubby who is a Dolphin's fan and holds the record of being the only team that's undefeated, I'm glad the Packer's lost and can not take that record! Plus I hate Rodgers!

So on Thursday we went over to Jim & Pat's house to celebrate Christmas with Betty since she goes out to Colorado to visit with her sister for Christmas, so we always do it early. We got some Little Cesar's Pizza for dinner and then got to open presents! Both boys got an awesome Imagainex Dinosaur along with How to Train Your Dragon Movie. The Girls got the Zany Zoo toy, which is awesome! Matt & Scott both got new jerseys and a case of beer, Chrissy & I also got some team apparel! We gave Betty some Christmas Pictures, some canned goods (pickles & banberry jam) and I also made her a UW Wisconsin fleece blanket that had pictures on it. We also do Secret Santa, I had Pat, Scott had Betty, Jim had me, and Chrissy or Matt had Scott (can't remember, and I'd ask Scott but he's currently taking a nap with Savannah, lol). It's always a lot of fun and of course the kids love getting presents early! Now onto the next Christmas event! This season is going by so fast! Only a week left until the big day!

The Cast

Scott went to work this morning and only ended up working for 2.5 hours because the computer systems didn't seem to like him today, oh well! That way he was home in time to help me with the kids - took Connor to karate and then headed to the library and picked up a few things. Connor got 2 movies & a book, Scott got a new book on tape to start after Christmas songs are done on the radio, and I got a new book & cookbook!

So as everyone should be aware of by now, Miss. Savannah broke her arm last week. She was in a splint for a few days and on Tuesday she ended up getting her cast put on. We had to drive to the American Family Children's Hospital to have it done. We were in and out in about a half hour because they weren't very busy, which was nice. It gave us enough time to stop at work and let Daddy see her cast & sign it! I was thinking about making it pink, but decided to do red to make it match for Christmas!

Brausen Christmas

So for the past week dropping Connor off at school as been horrible, just like the beginning. He's been clingy & crying..... it breaks my heart. He's told his teacher that something is wrong but then he wont say anything more than that, so I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any useful advice on how to get a 4 year old to tell you what's wrong? Maybe he doesn't really understand what's wrong and doesn't have the words to say it? I'm not sure........

So Sunday was The Brausen Family Christmas. They do it at the same church every year even though the noise level is ridiculous and sometimes it hard to hear yourself think, but they probably will never change where they have it. This year they did it early so we had more of a brunch, yumm breakfast burritos! Every year they you can purchase "tickets" and try to win donated prizes (this year I brought Apple Butter for someone to win). Savannah & Connor both won a bunch of stuff from the kids table, I ended up winning a baking basket and Scott won nothing! Santa came and brought Connor a transformer & Savannah got Violet. Connor was super excited to see Santa but when he came close he ended up hiding under the table, lol. Overall it was a great time as always, now it's onto the next Christmas Event!

Round Robin

Christmas with Betty tonight! Should be a lot of fun! Just finished up wrapping her last present and also the Secret Santa presents! Can you believe Christmas is only 10 days away? Connor is getting super excited! So tonight is Christmas with Betty, then Saturday is Christmas at the VFW (The Lodge as we cal it), next Thursday is Connor's Holiday Program at School, then Friday night is Christmas at the Brausen's house, Saturday is Church then Christmas at GG's, then Sunday is Christmas! So lots and lots of stuff to going on!

So this past Saturday was Round Robin. If you don't know what Round Robin is, well: We go to every one's (well almost everyone) house in the "Veith" family for an hour, eat food, drink, and then go to the next house. It's an all day event that is a one of a kind day. We started this year at 11 a.m. at the Frank's, 12 p.m. was our house, 1 & 2 were Joe & Cassie's house (which we skipped so the kids could get a nap in). 3 was Kim & Jr's, 4 was Carol's, 5 was Paul & Ginger's, 6 was Gary's and 7 was GG's (which we also skipped because Scott had to bowl). There's always a great variety of food and you always eat way to much, lol, but oh well! Actually at the bowling ally we had to order Connor some food because he was to busy most of the day playing with the other kids. Normally we would have stopped at the Moore's house but Ella was really sick, so we took Buddy off their hands so they could spend some time with her alone. Now that that's done, it's onto the next Christmas Event! (FYI - Connor would NOT look at the cameras, lol, stubborn butt! Oh, and also forgot to mention most people wear their Christmas PJ's for this, but Scott & I wear shorts with Christmas socks!)

Sweet Dream Kisses

So I finished up Pat's Christmas present last night, yay! That took FOREVER! It ended up having 282 pictures in it! Holy cow! I did realize however I ordered the wrong size, crap! Some of those pages have a lot of pictures on them, so I hope she'll be able to see them! I also finished getting the kids god parents presents together this morning! Woho! Now I just need to get 1 more thing for Matt and 1 more thing for Secret Santa and then I think we're done! I'll have to double check everything and make sure we didn't miss anyone, but the end is in sight!

So we finished the book Sweet Dream Kisses - Treasury of Bedtime Stories last month. I don't know how I forgot to post about it but somehow it got missed. I realized it when I went onto my Shelfari account and it still said we were reading it, oops! Anyways, the book is super cute & a really nice one to have. It has a ton of short stories in it, some classics and some I've never heard of before. We would read 2-3 almost every night (Scott even read once and awhile!) and took us a few weeks to complete it. If you're looking for a nice book to purchase for a little kid I recommend this one! I don't remember where we got it but I'm sure you could find it on Amazon very easily.

A Broken Arm

Got a little more done on Pat's Christmas Present, only 17% (4 months worth) to go! Other than that it's been a pretty quiet night, we're going to make Connor go to bed early tonight and I have Chicken Stock going right now. Can you believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away? Does everyone have there shopping done? I have only a few things left to get and a few presents left to wrap, but other than that we're done!

So if you haven't heard yet, Miss. Savannah broke her arm last Thursday. It's officially a Buckle Fracture in her left Radius. It happened when Savannah & Grandpa were taking a nap, he thought she was still sleeping and went quickly to the bathroom, when he returned she was on the floor crying. I took her in Thursday to get checked out, they kept saying shoulder so I had them check that out, they also checked out her head and her hips and everything seemed and we were sent home. I noticed Friday morning while watching her crawl that something still didn't seem right. So I called again and made another appointment for that afternoon. 5 X-rays and an hour and a half after we got there we learned about the fracture. They put her in a splint and sent us home for the weekend. Overall she's doing very well with it. Once and awhile you can tell she gets mad/frustrated with it but it's not a constant complaining. We go in tomorrow morning to UW Children's Hospital to get a real cast. I think I'm going to have them do red one to match for Christmas!

Birthday Pictures

Lots to do this morning! Dropped Connor off at school, then got gas in the car (Scott says I need to get it when it hits 1/4 tank in the winter instead of waiting until the light goes on like I normally do..... so I'm going to try!), went to Target and got some groceries for the week (really can't wait until the Woodman's in Sun Prairie opens up, lots cheaper there!), then got dinner ready for tonight (whole chicken in the crock pot with some potatoes), finished getting Savannah's Thank You's done so I can mail them, now I have just a little time before I go to the post office (gotta mail out my 1st Etsy order!) and get Connor from school.

So Friday Scott & Connor went and picked up Savannah's birthday pictures from JcPenney. I was overall very happy with the pictures this time around, it's hard when they're little because they don't understand they need to stay in one place and smile, but oh well. We got some really good ones. The 1st outfit was from JcPenney and I custom ordered the headband from Dolly Priss (LOVE!! Please Go Check Out Her Great Stuff) The 2nd outfit I ordered off of e-bay and it had a matching headband so I didn't have to fin.d one to match (which is sometimes pretty difficult). Is it sad I already know one of the outfits she will be wearing for her pictures next year? lol! Well, enjoy 1 of the pictures! The rest if you want to see them I posted a link to the album on JcPenney on my Facebook page.

1 Year Check Up

Getting ready for Round Robin to start and I have a few moments so I figured I'd do my daily post now because I might forget later in the day. I made zucchini cookies, muffins & bread last night for our house. The fun all begins in 23 minutes at the Frank's house, then our house is at noon. Then Joe's, Cassie's, Kim & JR, Carol's, Paul & Gingers, Gary's, then GG's to finish up the night! Should be a lot of fun like always!

So Monday was Miss. Savannah's 1 year check up. And she's perfect, of course! Weighing in at 18lbs3oz and 29 inches long she is officially at the length limit for her baby carrier car seat so we will be switching to a big girl car seat shortly, rear facing still of course! This month has been another one of those months that seems like she's learned so much! She learned how to shake her head no, wave bye-bye, climb up the stairs, and cruise around furniture. She's still waking up at least one time every night and she still sleeps every night cuddled up next to me. I can officially now say she never had 1 drop of formula also! Something I'm incredibly proud of. It's been very difficult but well worth it!! I'm not sure how the weaning process from breastfeeding will work but I'm not going to worry about it right now since we're in the middle of the cold & flu season. I think I've decided I want to be done by around 18 months or so, so we'll probably begin working on that in the spring.

Happy Birthday JoJo

Well it looks like Savannah is going to be naughty today and not take a nap, usually she would have been sleeping now for a good 20+ minutes but after 30+ minutes of attempting to get her to take a nap I've pretty much given up. Anyways, it's past her 1st Birthday so she can get by with only 1 nap...... I guess we'll see how today goes!

So on Sunday we went to the 2nd 1/2 of the Care Bear Birthday Party Weekend! My good friend Mandi's middle child JoJo (Josephyne) 3rd Birthday was this week, so we got together at their church to celebrate. It's always nice to see Mandi and her family and we try to catch up as much as possible in the short amount of time we get to talk to each other. I hope JoJo had a great party and really enjoys the play food that we gave her (which I hear will go great with her Christmas present)!

The Birthday Cake

Thursday already. Where does the week go? I have my final Marketing assignment due tonight, my last test for Employment Law isn't due for another 2 weeks, so I'm good there. Gotta get moving! Gotta finish Pat's Christmas Present also! I worked on it for almost 2 hours last night, but am only about 55% done.............really need to finish it this week to make sure that I get it in time for Christmas!

So now to post about the cake for Savannah's Birthday Party. If you all remember the fabulous job that Patsy did on Connor's cake it'll be no surprise that she did another amazing job on Savannah's cake. I think she used a different frosting this time though because it was much sweeter than last time, but either way it tasted & looked fabulous. I hope she enjoys doing them for us as much as we enjoy having her do them. I'm already thinking about Connor's 5th Birthday Cake. Can you believe in just 6.5 months Connor will be 5??? Well anyways, here's a picture of the fabulous cake!

A 1st Birthday Party

Finally got Savannah to take a nap this morning, I almost thought she was going to skip it because she didn't seem like she was that tired. Trying to get a few things done around the house and get some homework done. This semester is almost over, yay! Also, we have Round Robin this weekend so we gotta get the house looking 1/2 way decent for people to come over!

So Saturday the 3rd was Savannah's big birthday party! We had it over at John & Carol's house because there was no way we could fit everyone inside of our house. Connor's party always works out great because we can do it outside but with a winter party that just isn't possible. So the theme was Care Bears, cups, plates, napkins, decorations, and cake were all matching. Unfortunately the balloons weren't quite the same since they didn't have Care Bear balloons at the store, should have ordered them online! Oh well I guess! A bunch of people showed up to her party (although there were quite a few people missing but that's a whole other story I don't feel like getting into right now). She got some wonderful presents, including some super cute clothes, leg warmers, a pink rocking chair, a pink rocking recliner, books, some toys, a walker, and some other cute stuff! Thank you for everyone who came to her party, thank you to everyone who brought food to pass as well, and thank you Patsy for once again making a fabulous cake! I'll post more about the cake tomorrow!

The Mini Party

Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner tonight, yumm! Had to cook the chicken this time, usually we just use left over chicken from a whole chicken, but we haven't made a whole chicken in awhile so I just cooked up some chicken breasts. Should make Scott's "dinner duty" easy for him, all he has to do is throw in the cooked chicken and the noodles when he gets home from taking Connor to Karate.

So after the Children's Museum we went home and got everything ready for a "mini" party. Both sets of grandparents, the Moore's and Betty came over. I made BBQ Chicken Wings (3 different types of BBQ, the kind I made, Tastefully Simple's, and Open Pit), Honey Teriyaki Ribs (Tastefully Simple, but I can't find it on the website to add a link, so I think it may have been discontinued), some pasta, and Pat made some bread. I also made some cherry chip cupcakes with strawberry frosting for dessert. We ate dinner, then opened presents (a couple super cute outfits, a mini mouse, a bracelet, a stacking toy, a Barbie Jeep and from us - diamond earrings, clothes, a movie & a cute lady bug shapes toy) , then we had "cake"! Because we did BLW with Savannah, she was so use to just getting regular food, that she really didn't get that messy at all. It took her a little bit to even try it because she was confused as to what it was since she has never been given a cupcake before. Overall, I think Savannah's Birthday was awesome! And I have tons of pictures to show her when she's older!

Children's Museum

Monday once again back to a regular work week. Can you believe Christmas is less than 3 weeks away now? Connor's getting excited about all the presents (of course, lol). I'm about done with all my shopping & wrapping just a few little things to get done yet. The biggest being the mother-in-laws present, kind of slacking on that, NEED to finish that this week so I get it in time for Christmas.

So for Savannah's Birthday we met up with the Moore's to go to the Children's Museum. We went almost a year ago for Buddy's Birthday and the kids had a ton of fun so we figured we'd go again for Savannah's. The boys had a ton of fun looking and playing with everything and the girls had fun looking at everyone being silly and getting into a few things themselves. Connor even ended up seeing one of his classmates at the museum - Matthew - whose cubby is right next to his at school. We had so much fun we decided we're going to go again on Scott's birthday next month!

Birthday Bath

Lazy Sunday morning so far. It's almost 10 a.m. and we still haven't eaten breakfast, but we have talked about it, so that counts, right? Lol! We have a birthday party to go to today, and then possibly stopping by the Moore's house to watch the end of the Dolphin Game. Depends on how long we're at the birthday party though.

So on Savannah's Birthday, after breakfast she needed to take a bath because of all the eggs in her hair and the fact she was getting birthday pictures taken soon. So in the bath she went. She actually ended up taking 2 bath's that day. 1 after breakfast and 1 at night time (part of our usual bedtime routine). She absolutely loves baths and she would stay in there all day if we let her. She always crys when we take her out......

Birthday Breakfast

Saturday night, looking forward to tomorrow and going to another Care Bear Birthday Party! Tonight we're just chilling after a long day watching The Hangover on TBS, which is very weird.......so much stuff is edited and bleeped out, lol.

So Thursday was Miss. Savannah's Birthday. I'm pretty sure I took way more pictures on her birthday than Connor's. So who said the 2nd child gets jipped? lol. So to start the Birthday Photo Bomb, here's a picture of Savannah's 1st Birthday breakfast! She got Eggs, Honeydew & Peas. She loves eggs, and I always make sure she has a veggie & a fruit with every meal (that's why it's kind of a weird combo of food, lol). And of course, she got some in her hair!

Meeting Santa

So tired! Waited until the last minute to do my Marketing assignment again, and Savannah was up every few hours last night, so I'm super tired! Gotta drop Connor off at school in a little bit and then head to Woodman's to pick up the food for Savannah's Birthday Party!

So Wednesday night we headed to the mall to get Miss. Savannah's ears pierced (which she did amazing with by the way), afterwards we grabbed some dinner and then went to see Santa. It took a little persuasion but both kids sat on Santa's lap! Connor even asked for 2 presents from Santa, so glad that he talked to him! Both presents by the way are currently wrapped in the basement so Santa wont disappoint him this year :) I really wasn't going to push the whole Santa issue but I kind of got sucked into the whole parade of it, oh well I guess, there are worse things for kids to believe in, right?

Lean Green Smoothie

I've been kind of slacking this week in posting, mostly because Savannah hasn't really been napping much in the mornings, which is when I usually post, and also I'm trying to catch up with my homework, almost completely caught up in my Marketing class, should be done tonight. Only a few more weeks left of class then I get a little bit of a break.

After reading my last book I've been looking into Raw recipes and came upon a smoothie on allrecipes.com that sounded like it could be pretty good, called Lean Green Smoothie. I decided to make this for us for dinner last Saturday, since we had a huge lunch and we were going to the bowling ally so we could always grab something little if we were still hungry. I didn't have any mint, so I didn't add that, and I also didn't add all of a 1/2 a cup of broccoli because I didn't have that much, so I probably only added about 1/8 of a cup. Also I added a handful of baby spinach in it as well since baby spinach is a "super" food. It made about 3 large cup fulls of smoothie, I ate 1, Scott ate 2 (1 that night, and 1 the next night). It tasted pretty good, it was a little heavy on the cucumber (Scott didn't think so, but I did), so I'd probably only add 1/2 a one next time. I actually ended up making Connor a separate one that I liked even better - 1 banana, ice, handful of grapes & a handful of baby spinach.

Creating Healthy Children

Can you believe Miss. Savannah will be 1 in 3 days? I can't! Where has the time gone? In the process of getting final details for her party done, still have to order balloons, but we'll probably end up doing that Thursday when we're out and about getting her pictures done and possibly going to the Children's Museum.

So Saturday I finished reading Creating Healthy Children Through Attachment Parenting and Raw Foods by Karen Ranzi. The book was not what I expected. I picked it up more for the Attachment Parenting concepts vs the Raw Foods, but the majority of the book was about the benefits of Raw Foods. It also discusses a variety of other topics including homeschooling, vaccinations, etc. While I understand the benefits of a 100% Raw Diet I don't think our family is totally ready to give up some of our favorite foods. However, since starting to read this book we have been taking strides to eat healthier (salads, green smoothies, etc). I actually checked out a Raw Food Cookbook from the Library and we're going to try a recipe or two out of there. I'm going to take a break from reading because I'm falling a little behind in school and only have a couple of weeks left of this semester so I need to concentrate on reading my textbooks.

Black Friday

Well I didn't get nearly as much accomplished today as I wanted to. I still have time to get some stuff done but I really don't have the motivation to do it. Just sitting here playing on the computer while Scott plays with the kids in the kitchen with Play Doh. Really have to do some homework and finish cleaning my room since I took everything out of my closet and now it's all over my bed.

So with Thanksgiving comes Black Friday, the day of shopping. I've only been participating in Black Friday for the last couple of years, but it's been a lot of fun. Chrissy picked me up at 9:30 pm to head to Walmart. We went there last year so we weren't expecting it to be as busy as it was this year. There was no were to park and we had to park a few blocks away. We looked ridiculous running to the store trying to get there at 10 p.m. so we didn't miss any of the sales. We got in and out fairly quickly and then headed to Kohl's. We got there at 11:15 but they weren't opened until midnight so we sat in her vehicle for awhile so we didn't have to stand out in the cold. Again, we were in and out fairly quickly , stopped by Target but didn't buy anything, and then was home a little after 1 a.m. Got about 2 hours of sleep then headed out again, this time with Miss. Savannah. We picked up Pat and went to the mall for awhile. Picked up some super cute PJ's for Connor from Gymboree for pretty cheap and some other stuff as well. Afterwards we went and picked up Granny, went to breakfast, then to Shopko & Target. I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping, I do have a few things to pick up still but am about 93% done I would say, and they are all wrapped as well! Bring on the Christmas Season!

Happy Thanksgiving

Saturday night of our long weekend, where has the weekend gone? I love when we have lots of stuff to do on the weekends but at the same time I hate it because then it goes by even quicker. It doesn't help that I took a nice hour and a half nap with Savannah today to, which makes the time go by faster as well.

So Thanksgiving has come and go. Savannah's last "1st" Holiday! We started the day at the in-laws, then headed over to John & Carol's then headed over to Aunt Missy's house. Holiday's are fun because we get to see everyone but I feel bad that it seems like we are never at one place very long, but what do you do? Gotta make the rounds which means only a limited time at each place. Packers won (mixed feelings), Dolphins lost (sad) and the 49ers lost (glad), there was good food everywhere we went and also lots of talk about Black Friday. We called it a night relatively early to try and get home so I could rest for the big shopping extravaganza, which didn't happen, but oh well I guess. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate a lot of amazing food!

Pumpkin Pie

Black Friday shopping is less than 4 hours away, are you feeling it? Getting exciting, thinking about taking a 2ish hour nap before going out though.......don't know how long I'll make it without a nap, especially since Savannah was up every 2-3 hours last night, I'm already dragging and it's just after 6. Going to feed Savannah quick, maybe take a shower and then if they family will let me I'll lay down for a bit.

So for Thanksgiving this year I decided to use some of the Pumpkin Puree I made this fall to make Pumpkin Pie, yes I made a Pumpkin Pie entirely from scratch, cooked my own pumpkin and everything, how many people can say they've done that before? I thought were were going to get 3, but it made more than I planned, so we got 4 pies and 1 crust less pie. I made Scott eat some for breakfast this morning just to make sure it was edible, lol, and it actually turned out really good. If you ever have the chance to make your own Pumpkin Pie from Pumpkins you grow, do it! It was fun to do and now I can say I've done it!

Her 24th Birthday

Almost Thanksgiving already, which means BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING! WOHO! :) Anyone else as excited as I am? The main stores I need to go to are Walmart & Kohl's, everywhere else it doesn't matter if I go to or not. Last year Savannah was born 5 days after Black Friday shopping, so going into Black Friday I had pretty much all of my shopping done, this year I saved a few things to buy specifically on Black Friday. Should be fun!

So this past Monday was Chrissy's Birthday. The big ole' 3-0, so why does the title of this post say 24? Well, she always jokes around and says it's her 24th birthday and that her younger brother is older than her, lol. We celebrated by having dinner and eating cake over at the in-laws house. Then it was present time, which the kids loved and get way ahead of themselves doing, but it was fun. We got her some Lemon Slush from Tastefully Simple, some cool glasses to put it in, and also a cheese grader & meat hammer that she asked for. I hope she had a great birthday!

$10,000 Holiday Giveaway

So Savannah is taking a quick nap right now and Scott is doing a little cleaning around the house. I did manage to get some laundry done today, yay! In a little bit I have to go pick Connor up from school and I'm taking the kids to Grandma's even though Scott is home because he is going to try and get some last minute outside stuff done, we shall see if he actually accomplishes much, it was a long night last night - Savannah didn't sleep well!

So on FB I've been following all these super cute vendors and along came this amazing giveaway. You can find all the information HERE. It would be absolutley amazing to win all of these wonderful prizes, but the chances are probably pretty slim. Either way, I'm going to do as many entries as possible to win! Here's a picture from one of the vendors Etsy site so you get a quick glimpse of a beautiful piece you can win! Check it out!

Zucchini Bread

So Scott's off of work this week which completely throws our morning routine out of whack...... you would think with 2 people home in the morning more would get done around the house but I think the opposite is true and less gets done. I did unload the dishwasher this morning so at least 1 thing got done, lol, hopefully I'll get motivated to get some laundry done too.

So yesterday I tried a new recipe from allrecipes.com for some Zucchini Bread. I changed a few things with the recipe. 1st I used part Veg Oil and Part Olive Oil because I didn't have enough Veg Oil at home. 2nd I took out 1/2 cup of the sugar and replaced it with brown sugar (someone suggested that in the comments section). 3rd I used Pampered Chef's mini loaf pan instead of a large pan to cook it in. The recipe ended up making 5 mini loafs. I made 3 with nuts and 2 without nuts just in case someone didn't want the nuts and gave one of each to my friend Aimee who stopped by the house yesterday. Scott and I both tried a piece of it last night and I thought it tasted really good! Warm Zucchini Bread with a little butter (one of the only thing I use butter on), yumm!

Pumpkin Butter

A pretty relaxing day around the house. Scott & the kids went over to the Moore's for the football game while I stayed home and made some zucchini bread, took a bath and read my current book. The weekend is almost over but thankfully this is a short work week, only 3 days. Scott has all week off, lucky! And hopefully he'll be getting some last minute things outside done and also get new brakes on his truck.

So last week Jessica & I opened up our Etsy shop - AJsCanning - and going with a suggestion from our friend Carolyn I decided to look into Pumpkin Butter. I had a few pumpkins still sitting around that I needed to do something with so this seemed like the perfect thing! I got the recipe from PickYourOwn.Org like I get a lot of my recipes from. Instead of letting it cook for only about 8 hours, I cooked mine for about 24 hours but that was the only difference I made. I made a total of 12-4oz jars and 8-16oz jars. All 12 of the 4oz jars are now on our Etsy site waiting for you to purchase it. My house now smells like Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Pie!

Happy Feet

So we went out tonight for a pre-celebration for Chrissy's Birthday, Pedros, yumm! Of course I ended up eating way to much like always, but it tasted so good! I really wanted to get a Margarita but didn't because of Miss. Savannah, and plus I had to drive the kids home because Scott is going out with them to the bars. I really really really hope he doesn't come home drunk.

So yesterday for our "camp-out" we watched Happy Feet. I know the movie is 5ish years old but I had never seen it before. The second one is in theaters right now and I kind of wanted to take Connor to it so I figured we should probably see the first one. It was so cute and super good. Maybe it's my inner band/choir geekness, but I loved all the singing and dancing and plus penguins are always good. The story line is always a good one to talk to kids about, basically: be true to yourself and be who you are no matter what. If you haven't seen it already it's worth checking out, I'm going to hopefully take Connor to the 2nd one next weekend.

Lace Leggings

So yesterday was the first time in over 2 weeks I didn't make a post. Yesterday was a very busy day! I added some more items to AJsCanning (so check it out!) and also I had dinner at the in-laws, went to the grocery store, had a Marketing assignment due last night and then I stayed up late to watch the 2 hour Private Practice.

So awhile back there was a contest to win a pair of free Lace Leggings. It required my lovely family & friends to "LIKE" Lace Leggings and mention that I sent them there, with a minimum of 5 referrals. Well I believe I must have been the only person who saw the contest post because I am the only one who had any referrals and I had more than 5, so I got a free pair! Today is the first time I've put them on Savannah, they are a little big because I got the toddler size (18month-3T I believe) so she can wear them as long as possible. They are super cute! Thank you all who helped me out to receive these super cute leggings. I may have to buy a few more pairs in the different colors. If you are interested you can contact Lake Leggings on Facebook.

AJs Canning

Savannah is sleeping and Scott & Connor are watching wrestling. I still need to do some Marketing homework tonight but am just playing around on the computer instead. There are so many interesting things you can find online and I really enjoy exploring the internet. To bad I can't get paid for playing online! (If you think of a way I can, please let me know! lol)

So Jessica & I have started talking about the possibility of selling some of our caned goods online, so today I decided to set up an Etsy Shop called AJsCanning (Amber, Jessica, get it? I know, not very creative, lol, but whatever!). It's a work in progress and things will be updated as much as I have time to do so. Also I have to decide how much and of what we want to sell, for now I just put up 1 jar of our wonderful Apple Butter. Is there anything specific you would like to see for sale? If so, I'll take it into consideration and try to get it added as quickly as possible. And if you decide to make a purchase since you're a wonderful viewer of my blog type the coupon code Blogger10OFF and get 10% off your purchase!

5 Best Baby Items - "Big Ticket"

Can you believe Thanksgiving is just a little over a week away, which means Black Friday is just around the corner! Are you going shopping? I am! Walmart opens at 10 p.m. and you better believe that's when I'll be there! You can't beat $2 movies and $5 PJ's for kids! Will also be hitting up Kohl's at midnight and the mall by 5 a.m. Other stores are opening at midnight as well but so far there is nothing jumping out that I need from them.

So I was trying to come up with something to Blog about today and nothing was jumping out. Then I realized Savannah turns 1 in just 16 days so now would probably be a great time to showcase the 5 items I don't think I could live without this past year. In no particular order:

1. Medela New Pump in Style Original Breast Pump - I purchased this while still at the hospital with Connor and we have definetly gotten our money's worth. If you plan on breastfeeding but have to go back to work you need to get a good pump that will work efficiently and effectively. Other than the normal parts wearing out and having to be replaced, this has been a wonderful investment.

2. Fisher Price Bouncer - I had a bouncer with Connor but never figured out what happened with it, after a few months debating about buying a new one we finally went out and purchased one. It's great the first 6 months to have. Savannah loved looking at the animals and it made it easier for us to get dinner made with her being happily content sitting in the bouncer.

3. Fisher Price Swing - I received this from one of my baby showers when pregnant with Connor and I love it. Connor enjoyed it, my cousin's baby girl Lily used it for awhile and now Savannah uses it. Savannah likes to keep moving when she takes her naps so after I rock her to sleep I can plop her down in this and she'll take a descent nap in it. I'm glad I have it!

4. Fisher Price Booster - With Connor we used a regular high chair but with Savannah we decided against it. Why you may ask? Well since we did Baby Led Weaning with Savannah it was important that the tray wasn't to high up on her chest. With a regular high chair this is a problem and it can be difficult for a baby to grab the food easily so we decided on a booster seat - which is cheaper and it also "fits" her better. Plus it takes up a lot less room in your house.

5. Baby Carrier: BabyHawk - I really wish I would have known about these when Connor was a baby. Having to worry about a stroller is kind of a pain in the butt and if you're going somewhere like the Farmers Market Downtown with the huge crown they can be a huge inconvenience, but with a baby carrier you don't have to worry about the stroller. It is also nice when it's cold outside because it will keep you and baby warmer and there is a lot of other reasons wearing your baby is beneficial for your baby (but that's an entirely different type of post).

Microwave Rocky Road Brownie Dessert

So much homework to do, so little time.........and it doesn't help that Scott has to do homework tonight too......We really should have worked on it a little this weekend (I read like .5 chapter yesterday - but should have done more). It doesn't help that both kids are going crazy today so it seems like neither of us can get much done tonight.

So yesterday we went over to the Moore's for the Dolphin game and I decided to try out one of the recipes from the fall/winter 2011 season's best recipe collection - microwave rocky road brown dessert. WOW! It was so easy to make and it tasted so good! We actually have a little left over and I'll probably be finishing it off shortly here. If you don't already have the Deep Covered Baker you need to get it! You can make whole chickens, a roast, potato soup, and the best thing you can make is this wonderful dessert! Buy it so you can make it, you won't be sorry!

Spaghetti Sauce

So it's Sunday night. I really should be reading some of my homework because I am a few chapters behind, but I really don't feel like doing it. Instead I'm sitting here watching a movie with the family and also reading my current book "Creating Healthy Children". Buffalo Chicken Pizza is in the oven and then pretty soon it'll be time to get the kids ready for bed. I will force myself to finish reading one chapter for school tonight, just not yet!

So yesterday Jessica and Justin came over and we made Spaghetti Sauce. This was the first time we've done this so we didn't know exactly what to expect. We started off pulling 36 pounds of tomatoes out of the freezer and purchasing 6 packs of Mrs. Wages Pasta Sauce packs. I also asked a co-worker if she had any advice and she said to just throw in a little "extra" stuff with the packets, so I put in 1.5 pounds of green peppers (from the garden, in the freezer) a large onion that I had and also about 3 garlic gloves that I had. It should have gotten us approximately 30 pints of Spaghetti Sauce, but we only got the equivalent of 19 pints (7 quarts, and 5 pints), it would have been nice if it would have yielded more but not much we can do about it. We did take a little taste and I thought it tasted great so hopefully it'll taste even better after it sits in the cans for awhile. I still have 15 more pounds of tomatoes in the freezer so we'll have to come up with a project for those, either more spaghetti sauce or a different type of salsa maybe.

Frenemy

Sitting around with Jessica and Justin waiting for our Spaghetti Sauce to be complete. Scott took Connor to the bowling ally and I just got Savannah to sleep, so we're just watching Justin play his XBox. I know Walmart has a really good Black Friday deal for them, so maybe we'll get one....it would be fun, but I don't think I want to spend that kind of money on a video game considering we rarely play our Wii.

So another Friday night and we watched another movie we picked up from the Library. This time we picked up the movie Frenemy. I had never heard of the movie but we saw that Zach was in it, so we figured we'd try it out. Have any of you ever seen it? Well I advise you to never get it. It was by far the worst movie I've ever seen. The plot didn't make sense, they talked a lot about drugs and murder and it was disgusting. Don't get me wrong, I love a good slasher movie once and awhile, but this was just so bad it was disturbing and just plain wrong. Never ever be tempted to pick up this movie it'll just be a waste of 80 minutes of your life! Also, I'm still confused as to why Zach is on the cover of this movie because he's barley in this movie.