Christmas Festivities

One of the great things about having both sides of our family so close to us is that we get to celebrate every holiday twice! This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with the Blazers. It was great to spend some time with my sisters just relaxing and enjoying their company. Of course we love the presents too, giving them even more so than receiving. It was a great day.

Christmas morning was all smiles. Santa left a desk for Princess, a new bike for Pumpkin, and a Wii for Drummer Boy. Actually, the Wii was for all of us, but I think Drummer Boy was the one who wanted it the most. I made a blueberry almond coffee birthday cake for Jesus and we had a yummy start to our celebration of Jesus's birthday.

At the Blazers, we had our usual traditions of the White Elephant gift exchange for the adults and way too many presents for the kids from all the aunts, uncles, and grandparents. And the boys continued their tradition of getting winded and slightly injured playing touch football. And the kids continued their tradition of running around wild and crazy and excited. Can't really blame them. At the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but thankful for the closeness of family and thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

A couple of days after Christmas, we headed out to West Texas to visit Drummer Boy's grandparents and his mom's side of the family. We haven't been out there for Christmas in about 10 years, so it was really good to spend that time with them. It was a long drive (9 hours) but the girls travel really well, so it wasn't too bad. It was worth it to see Drummer Boy's grandparents. And hey, we came home with a cow that laughs and rolls over, a zhu zhu pet, a pair of rainbow peace socks, and a Texas Tech snuggie. I'd definitely say that was worth the trip, wouldn't you?

How is a Puppy Like a Newborn?

After we had made the decision to get a puppy, but before we actually got her, I told my mom about our decision. She didn't think it was a wise move for our family right now, and she voiced all her concerns to me, ending with, "Amy, it's just like having a newborn baby." "I know, I know," I said. But, even though I knew, I wasn't really prepared. Once again, adding a sweet, innocent little creature to our family has rocked my world! The truth is, in many ways having a new puppy is like having a newborn, or a toddler, but, in many wonderful ways, it is sooooo much easier. Maybe I can make it through this newborn period without the assistance of medication...maybe.

How is a puppy like a newborn baby or a toddler?

She poops and pees ALOT.

She is most attracted to the things that are forbidden.

She would much rather play with a piece of paper that makes a crinkly noise than an actual toy.

She puts everything in her mouth.

She wakes up crying in the middle of the night.

I find myself lying in bed praying, "Lord please don't let her wake up..."

If I turn my back for a few seconds, she is sure to get into something she shouldn't.

She can't communicate in terms that I can understand. She wines alot and I don't know what she wants.

I feel like I can't get anything done when I'm at home with her.

I'm exhausted at the end of the day.

She is adorable and I just want to hug her everytime she looks at me.

How is a puppy soooo much easier than having a newborn?

If I need to go somewhere, I just lock her up and leave her at home.

Or if I just need a break, I put her in her "safe puppy area" (a room blocked off with baby gates) and go about my business.

I can put her food down and walk away instead of having to sit with her while she eats. (I remember when Katie was a baby, she would nurse for 45 minutes every 2 1/2 hours!!)

She requires much less "stuff".

It's not nearly as heartbreaking to let her cry it out at night.

All in all, this puppy is alot of work, and I feel like I'm going through ups and downs just like I did with each of my baby girls. But, I'm hopeful that this roller coaster ride will be much smoother and shorter than the other two. I hope. Only time will tell...

Meet Heidi

Well, we did it! We got a puppy. OMG!! I can't believe it! We got a new puppy!!

I'm not really sure how it happened. It just happened. One day we weren't even thinking about getting a dog. Then the next day the opportunity presented itself to get a dog. And the next day we decided to get the dog. Am I crazy? Isn't getting a puppy supposed to be a decision that you think about and read about and talk about and think about some more? Well, I did all that thinking and talking and reading in a matter of about 2 days. And so far I don't regret it. (so far). No really, I love her.

The girls decided right away to name her Heidi. I like to call her Rascal. Heidi Rascal Blazer. She is a Yorkshire Terrier and she is only 7 weeks old. She weighs 3 lbs 7 ounces. So far, she is doing really well. I know housetraining is going to be a long process so I am hoping that my house doesn't smell like dog pee by the time she gets the hang of it.

She spends half of her day taking naps curled up in a quiet corner or under the couch and she spends the other half of her day being carried around like a doll by Pumpkin or nipping at Princess's heels. My biggest hope is that the girls don't turn her into a fearful, anxious dog before they gain an understanding of the proper way to treat a dog. She's not a doll, she's not a toy, and she's not a scary monster. She's a sweet, precious, curious, energetic puppy and I love her!

The Christmas Spirit

This year, I wanted to start a family tradition of giving not only our money and physical gifts, but also our gift of time and labor to help others. I looked for a community service opportunity that Princess and I could participate in together. With a little help from my sister who works in the non-profit world, I found a great organization called Kids Meals. It is a non-profit that provides free lunches to children who are too young to go to school. For many kids, this is their only square meal each day. I was excited to learn that they welcome children volunteers. Princess was excited to spend a morning having one-on-one time with me.

We showed up around 9AM and we were immediately put to work packing lunches. We were a group of 5 adults and 2 children and we packed 800 sack lunches in less than 3 hours.

Sitting on one of the bags that we packed full of sack lunches.

This bag has 80 lunches in it.

The other adults were part of a group from Starbucks, who were very involved in the community. I learned that Starbucks employees participate in a community service event about once a month. I am impressed! Anyway, they made it alot of fun. They were very competitive and a little sarcastic and did alot of trash talking, all in the name of giving back to the community. Princess also had a great time decorating the lunch sacks, sorting through oranges, transporting bags and juices and sandwiches, and doing whatever the other little girl was doing. She really enjoyed it. We both did. We will definitly continue this tradition at Christmas time and even other times of the year. I would love for community service to become just a regular part of what our family does, any time of year. This was a good start.

Merry Christmas!

A few weeks ago, we talked my dad into taking some family pictures of us, in hopes that we might get a good one for our Christmas card. The clouds rolled in and took away our lighting right before we set out for our photo session, so the pictures are a little dark, but we came out with a few good ones. Here they are:

Christmas Crafts

I love homemade gifts. I love to make them, and I love to receive them. There's just something extra special about a gift that was made with the recipient in mind, don't you think?

The last two years, Princess has enjoyed making homemade gifts for her friends as well. This year, we also made gifts for the teachers. All of our ideas came from Family Fun and Parenting magazines. There are so many great ideas in there! The gifts turned out so cute that I just had to share them!

This is a set of felt and cork coasters. We used bright colors and funky patterns. They turned out super cute. We stuck a Starbucks giftcard in there as well, and Princess's teacher loved them!

Pumpkin's teacher is going to receive this bookmark, along with a giftcard to a local bookstore. I thought it was such a great way to say "Thank you for being a great teacher" in a gift-sort-of-way.

These are the rings and hair pins that Princess made for her friends. They turned out really cute! We used a penny for the base and glued a piece of paper the same size as the penny on top of it. Then she put a letter on each one for her friends' monograms and then we used ModPodge Dimensional Glaze to make it shiny. All her friends really loved these. I think I'd like one for myself, too!