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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Enjoy a sampling of our New Years Eve!
Signs were posted on all the doors so people would know where they could and could not go.
Our bedroom where the cats and the baby were (and the spare bathroom.)
The office
The nursery
The guest room!
Once all the signs were hung it was time to party!
Ace sported some fashionable tie-dye and bell-bottoms.

I was your standard flower child... and my husband....
A riot cop!



The baby went to sleep with no problems at 11! Yay!


Happy Groovy New Year, everyone!

Readying for the party!

The Annual New Years Eve Party is rapidly approaching....



Loving Husband and I are buzzing around getting all the final touches in order and then decorating will commence shortly. This years theme is the 70s! And why not groove into the new year in a quite amusing theme. Below is our invite - sorry blogging world you're not invited to our event - but you can be amused by my husband's prose!



What do Pet Rocks, leisure suits, and Jimmy Hoffa all have in common? New Age hedonism? Standing up to "The Man"? A well-deserved end? NO! They are all part of this year's "Righteous New Year's Eve"!



Yes that's right, join us in remembering an era (presumably) gone forever, and celebrate in a "far out" way! Hippies, environmentalists, and feminists unite! Roll out that Flower Power! (Alternatively, recall that the 70s also included the Cold War, Vietnam, Buck Rogers, and Hawaii Five-0.) :)



Whether you're a NARC, Granola, Spaz, or Crook, it's all copacetic. Bring on the Farrah Fawcett hair, mustaches, and bell-bottoms, and boogie like it's 1970-something! Drink as much or as little as you like, nobody is going to harsh your buzz.



If you're a fan of the Brady Bunch, Star Wars, Bruce Lee, or the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Israel still kicked the **** out of its neighbors! Er, that is-- Don't be a Jive Turkey! Invite someone cool, dress for the occasion, and there will be plenty of peace and love to go around at this year's RIGHTEOUS NEW YEAR'S EVE!




Also for your amusement pleasure enjoy our two past parties and then glorious themes that accompanied them. Can you guess the decades we enjoyed our frivolity in?









Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Tackle it Tuesday - Premiere Edition

Tackle It Tuesday Meme
What a wonderful idea! Something to blog about and still be productive with cemented proof stored into the blogging world for all to see that us mommys don't just sit at home eating bon bons and watching soap operas. Ha!

Today I've decided to tackle a laundry pile. Granted this is by far not the only laundry pile in the house but it is one of the clean piles! It also is possible that some of this clean pile was merely located to another clean pile, but I assure you that whatever was relocated is certainly closer to its final destination that it previously was! :)

Folding laundry is one of my least favorite activities as far as housework goes. But in the name of blogging I am game! So upstairs Ace and I went to tackle a pile of laundry. Ace's crib often is a dumping ground for clean clothes, as it isn't his bed just yet. The cats avoid it (99% of the time) and thus its a safe place. But it needed to be done!
Check out what other people are tackling and tell us what you are tackling over at 5 Minutes for Moms.

BEFORE:

DURING:
AFTER:
Besides laundry and certainly more important is prayer for Baby Stellan, he is in the hospital fighting for his life with RSV. You can get details and updates on My Charming Kids please keep Stellan and the whole family in your prayers.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Best of 2008

Best Event: Becoming a mother

Best Movie: Sex and the City: The Movie

Best Over-Played Song:
Kokomo by The Beach Boys (yep it's the only thing that calms the boy down in the car... so we've heard it a FEW times this year.)

Best Book: The Friday Night Knitting Club

Best New-ity of 08:
Ace

Most Shocking News of 08: Dana had to have her lungs glued to her insides!

MW's Word of the Year: bailout
Jo's Word of the Year: Ace


Events of 2008 in no particular order as usual:
1. Baby showers!
2. 4th anniversary at The Lodge
3. Reading over 13000 pages
4. SATC Weekend with Carrie
5. Discovering I have Purpura annularis telangectoides
6. 30 hours of labor
7. The presidential election
8. The 20" of snow in December
9. Visit with Derek & Jen in Cali
10. Snowing in late April!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Blessed

Sometimes when things get overwhelming, busy, or chaotic I tend to forget how blessed my life truly is. I have always had good health, family, love, support and a strong belief in God. Tonight as I trolled along the in the blogging world I came across a few blogs that made me truly understand how blessed my life is and how rich in faith these other blogging women are. My heart aches for them and my hope cheers for them and my prayers go out to both of these families. I sit reading these blogs and looking down at my sleeping boy and praise God for the blessings and gift He has given us in Ace.





Friday, December 26, 2008

Ace's First Christmas

In our household our current plan is to keep the meaning of Christmas in perspective for our little guy. Meaning we're hoping to avoid the massive piles of loot every December 25th and just have some key joyous items for him to enjoy on the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. There is no Santa Clause in this household, but don't fret there isn't any grinches here either. We merely want to keep the meaning of Christmas in our hearts and in the day itself. So this year we (more specifically, I) did our best to control ourselves in the spending arena for Christmas loot for our four month old son.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, Ace's favorite gift was from his Grandma Carol in the form of Nemo! Previously, Ace's Nemo was this little guy....



Now he has this one!

From Grammie he received some cars and this train - he was fascinated by the train on "Christmas" morning. He loved to touch all the animals and all the tactile features that came with it. And he already is enjoying the cars because they push so easily - in a few months he'll love to bang them together!

He enjoyed visiting and sitting with Gran. Sadly Pop Pop had a cold and couldn't cuddle with him, but Ace certainly enjoyed smiling and laughing with Pop Pop from afar. He was very glad they could be there on Christmas and that the weather didn't prevent them!

Finally, from good ol' mom and dad Ace received a few presents. This was his one present he opened on Christmas eve. They're three blocks with different features (rattle, crinkle, squeak!) and as usual Ace went for the one that was orange!
Ace had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas it has been! We woke up this morning to blizzard like conditions with the snowflakes falling that were as big as your fist! We had about 5 new inches of snow and it was a beautiful morning.



It was a wonderful day spent relaxing, enjoying God's beautiful backdrop of snow and celebrating the birth of Jesus. We had a lovely dinner and finished off the evening by watching A Christmas Carol.

Ace had a wonderful Christmas and by far his favorite gift was from his Grandma Carol who gave him a giant Nemo (it's about his size) when we pulled it out of the bag his eyes got so big and he lunged with full force his mouth onto it (that means he likes it) :) It was a blessed day.

For the final time in 2008: Merry Christmas, everyone!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Snowy Madness!

The snow can provide or create many different things: amusement, beauty, headaches... here is a sampling of our family's experiences in the snow thus far this year.

Shoveling the driveway to get the Elantra out so that we could go buy Christmas dinner today, yep Christmas eve... We kept hoping it would melt, but it just keeps coming down!

The sun has been out once in a week and we caught it on film. Beautiful!

Cabin fever causes people to do things a tad crazy. My dear husband "enjoying" the snow.

The kitties have ventured out rarely into the snow for the most part they let us open the door for them to establish it's still cold and then go back to their resting spot for a longer snooze.
Measuring the snow a few days ago, it was 9" then.

This is the family tradition I married into, hence why to the left is my husband's willing snow print and to the right is my side being shoved into the snow for the traditional "deck dive"

Hope you enjoyed our Winter Wonderland!

Four Months Old

Ace is a third of a year old today and what a day it is. It’s Christmas eve! The snow is (still) falling and we’re buried inside! We have about a foot of snow out on our deck and the wind has started to blow – it’s truly a festive winter wonderland outside – all for Ace’s four month birthday!

Milestones for Ace’s fourth month of life: He laughed for the first time. He enjoyed some water (besides what he consumed in the shower). He enjoyed his first Thanksgiving. He was away from his mom for the first time. The beginning of teething for the boy.

Ace enjoyed many festivities at the beginning of the month from dinners with friends and Bunco, to Thanksgiving, cookie exchanges and gingerbread house making parties. He got toted a lot of places, but was a very good at each excursion.

Our little man also started to roll from his back to his front. He hasn’t quite made it all the way over (silly arms) but he’s trying his hardest. His scooting has gotten a lot more laborious since he’s packing on the pounds, but his new and latest thing he loves to do is walk everywhere! Yep our little man has the idea down pact on how to walk. All we do is hold him up and prevent him from plummeting to the floor, but he puts one foot in front of the other and will walk to his mom or dad.

Loving Husband has enjoyed most of this month off for vacation! So Ace has gotten a lot of dad time in. They enjoy walking around the house and having tummy time. Ace certainly recognizes both Loving Husband and I and currently is making sounds that sound like “mama” but like most babies I’m guessing he’ll sneak in a “dada” as a first real word. Siigh.

Ace enjoyed his first snow and my oh my what a first snow it has been. We currently have a foot sitting out on our deck. Ace also got to watch his mom and his dad participate in the Scrooge* traditional deck dive (his Grammie held him during said madness) Deck dive you say? Yes, this is where mom and dad stripped to their underwear and lay out in the first snow of the season. Insanity is really all that is. Ace stayed inside and warm – the smartest one in the family already!

Speaking of Grandmas – it’s true! Ace got to spend a week with Grammie – mostly indoors due to the snow, but we had a nice time and Ace enjoyed his first “Christmas” with Grammie. We had Christmas breakfast and enjoyed opening presents – it was nice visit and my mom made it out just in time! The airlines cancelled a ton of flights the day after she left.

On the less fun side our little boy has started teething. So there have been a few days where all I do is hold him and stick my finger in his mouth for him to chomp on. He has a handful of teething rings – but his mouth is too tiny for most of them. He has taken a liking to chewing on a bottle with water in it – so whatever works :)

Ace is growing like a weed and is looking so grown up. I cannot believe that he is four months old today. Time flies and I am sure will continue to do so. 2008 flew by so fast!



Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Years "Resolutions"

I am not one to have "resolutions" for the new year. I don't want to kick a habit (I like all of mine, hehe) and I don't have anything life conquering I wish to accomplish by the end of 2009, but typically at the beginning of a new year I like to set a goal. For the last two years that goal has been regarding my reading. I love books, and the last two years it has been fun to see how much I can read in different manners. In 2007 I read 30 books. In 2008 the goal was page count, to date the page count complete is 13,001 pages. And in 2009 I'm going to have a very active little boy and reading is going to be extremely hard to complete in any "goal" reaching manner. I still have book club so I'll at least attempt to read 11/12 books within the year of 2009 and knowing me will still make a fairly decent dent in all the books of the world. :) But I am going to go with a new goal of 2009.
I'm going to become a blogger. I already have been a pretty consistent fair-weather blogger since 2004 - but my goal for 2009 is to post at least a couple times a week. I originally started this blog to allow people not connected with myspace to be able to read my posts on Ace, but the more time I spent here the more that I realized my 2009 goal was staring me in the face.
In light of this new goal, I decided to combine all three of my blogs and thus I've spent the day backlogging old posts from myspace and livejournal (my original blog.) Not every post made it's way to this blog - but a good percentage have and thus my collection is here. I'm not sure back-dating is "legal" in the blogging world, but I figure they were blogged SOMEWHERE in the cyber world so it shouldn't be that taboo to combine them all into one blogging hemisphere.
So that's it! My 2009 goal - to blog at least twice a week on this here blog! I'll still post some on myspace - but for the most part this will be 2009's location to look for the happenings of the Ebenezer* Family.
* name changed to protect everyone. Really it's for your own good. ;-)
++ UPDATE January 2, 2009 ++
Check out what other moms are resolving at 5 Minutes for Mom and Vermillion Rules

O' Christmas Tree

I was inspired to compose this blog from reading one of my favorite blogs: The Family Fish Bowl. It amused me to no end - and this rebuttal blog is certainly not meant to create a mockery of her love of real trees at Christmas but to defend those that like the "fake" ones so that there isn't shame for those that choose to go faux. Under Lori's rules I am of those that is allowed at faux tree. My free pass comes in the form of allergies! It is true. I am allergic to Christmas trees.

Growing up with a faux tree in both my house and my grandparents house, my exposure to the real deal was limited. My friend Shelley had a real one and that's about the only house I can recall that had one. And during the holiday seasons spending time at friend's houses is limited because of all the festivities. So it wasn't until college that I really started to put two and two together that hmm every time I'm in a house with a real tree, my face starts to leak. Most of my allergy is similar to hay fever or the symptoms described by Ben Stien in his ever famous monotone voice: red, itchy eyes.... Um yah - so in college is when I discovered this. I've never been specifically tested on what it is - because I can be in a forest most of the year and not have an issue... so my best guess is the sap that runs after the tree has been cut, or the mold. It being trapped inside I'm sure exasperates the issue - but tree lots are equally as horrible if not worse... the masses tend to attack from Thanksgiving all the way till the week of Christmas (after that their mostly dead and not quite as potent.) So see I've achieved the free pass for the faux tree.
Now let me defend my faux tree. Not all of them start 3 feet from the ground and not all of them have very obvious synthetic branches. The part of having to fluff it out because its been in a box for 11 months - well that's true, but I just assume that the time I'm fluffing my tree is less time that it takes for someone to go to a lot, pick the tree, haul the tree and balance it on the correct-best side of the room - there's always a trade off. But I think that the faux trees have gotten far superior as time has gone on. And like real trees the better the tree the more you have to pay.

So allow me to introduce you to my faux tree in all its glory. I love this tree and the great thing is: I get to enjoy it year after year. So while my husband says I'm allergic to Christmas, I say I'm just a perfectionist of Christmas and have found the perfect tree and plan to enjoy it year after year (or all year if I was so inclind.) Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Married Christmas Memories

I decided to put up my past Christmas photos of Loving Husband and I since we’ve been married and I thought it would be nice to write a blog about them.
2004

2004: our first Christmas together as a married couple. We enjoyed the beginning of a tradition which is our Christmas stockings. Filling them with little items for each other and then opening them alone together. This particular year we opened them before driving up to Berdo on Christmas Eve morning.

2005

Christmas 2005 was an exciting and busy time for us. Loving Husband had just gotten a job in the NW and so we were busy with the usual holiday bustle and the additional stress of packing him to move to the NW 6 months before me. We enjoyed Christmas with my family on Christmas day and then flew to the NW a few days later.

2006

Loving Husband and I opened our stockings up in our bedroom alone – while my mom and grandma slept, who were visiting to celebrate Christmas with us for our first Christmas in the NW. My aunt and uncle also joined us for the celebration, along with all of Loving Husband’s family. All in all we had 12 for Christmas dinner. It was a wonderful time.

2007

We were first time homeowners! The tree was the first thing we moved into the house… and two weeks later we learned that we were pregnant. What a wonderful holiday season it was. We celebrated Christmas in California with my family and flew home on Christmas night to get ourselves ready for our annual new years party. Christmas stockings didn’t actually get exchanged until mid-January (oops!) but with moving, painting, travel and parties to plan stocking stuffers got demoted, but we enjoyed an evening after all the decorations were down exchanging stockings.

2008

There are many firsts that come with this Christmas. It is the first with our son and the first without my family. Yep it’s true. I have spent Christmas day (or eve) with my family every year of my life. It’s going to be weird, but wonderful all the same.

So may your holidays be equally as wonderful and exciting.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Ace's Dictionary

All parents call their children nicknames. There are traditional ones and then of course each family has their own unique samplings of names for their children. In order to preserve the memory of Ace’s early names I decided to create a dictionary – a glossary of terms so to speak (ha!) so that I can remember them as they fade and evolve into new names.

**Bear, Baby Bear: As Ace has grown and turned into a bigger boy - we have doned him with the nickname Baby Bear or Bear. Since I'm Mama Bear it's only fitting that he is baby bear. :)
Billy goat: Already this nickname has become somewhat obsolete. When Ace was first born he would stretch and make this little noise that sounded just like a billy goat neighing. It was the most adorable sound and already he has grown out of it. I miss it, but it’s tucked into the back of my brain and if I close my eyes I can still hear it. I hope it stays tucked there and isn’t dislodged by something frivolous.
Oog: This is a new name mainly used by Ace’s dad, but it represents Ace’s favorite “word” – he says it all the time. ooooooooG, sometimes it’s just oooo – but he will talk and talk and talk and say oog as long as you’ll listen and we plan to listen for a long time.
Salmon: Since the day he was born he liked to use every muscle he had to try and arch away from us, as if he was trying to fling himself free. He arches his back as far away from whomever is carrying him and like a salmon jumping out of the water tries to get away. Often he will do it when he’s fussing, but sometimes he’ll just do it for a different view on life.
Sleepy Sam: The “S”s are big in this household. Sam is used often accompanied by Sleepy, Sneezy, and perhaps a few other dwarfs… merely to describe Ace’s current state of being. We don’t plan to call him Sam on a regular basis…. But it’s used every so often so into the dictionary it does go.
Snacker: This is probably his ultimate nickname. This boy likes to eat for 5 minutes and then take a break, then eat for a minute and then look at something, then be done for a long while and then return again for another snack. Some of that early on was due to excessive milk flow and no need to eat for a long time – but he truly is a snacker and not a marathon eater.
Snoozer: This is used in a combo of the traditional meaning – a baby who naps and also in a unique application of the word in that this boy is a snoozer. He’s started in recent days/weeks to get into a better routine of a “nap” but until then he wouldn’t nap for longer than 20 minutes during the day. He acted as a snooze button would. Very short “naps”
The Milk Bringer: That’s me. My beloved husband has bestowed this delightful title onto myself when talking to our son about eating or coming to see me. And while I am also mama – when it is time for Ace to eat I am referred to as The Milk Bringer. I am sure as time evolves there will be a far more elaborate tale to go along with my title – I’m sure this definition will have an expansion.
Walker: Ace has been trying to walk since the womb. He’s had the strongest legs of any baby that I’ve ever met. He has been taking steps since he was 6 weeks old and has been ooching to get moving since he arrived in this world. He’ll kick his legs when his dad holds him, he will walk across a room now (with help of course) to come get one of his parents… he just wants to walk… and thus “walker”So that is what comes to mind at the moment.


I will continue to update this dictionary as more terms come to mind. Merry Christmas everyone!

**UPDATED 8/17/09