Birthday Sleepover!

My birthday was a few weeks back and I was out of town. Also I've been eyeing a 'night away' from my Baby Bear for a while now. He's old enough now that although he still wakes up to eat he can take a bottle of milk - and then I could stay out, consume alcohol without having to do math, and just have a night's sleep without waking up to the demands of a third party! So the girls gave me just that (with the aid of Loving Husband watching Ace) a girlie sleepover hosted by B & D! Yay! And it true B & D fashion it was an excellent time had by all!

Yep I said goodbye to my husband and Ace around 5pm on Saturday night and headed over to B & D's - the festivities began with Gorgonzola honey bites! Yummy. We consumed a good quantity of that and then I got to open my presents! Yay! I was spoiled again and got all sorts of great things: a colander that I had been wishing for for a while, a subscription to Everyday Food, cute magnety tins, a silicone wisk, a Christmas cd, and soap for my new bathroom! All very awesome and all my kitchen stuff is in my fun red color! Very exciting. :) Thanks ladies!!

Then we moved onto making dinner! A group project! We made ravioli - yum! It was a sweet potato ricotta with thyme. Yum! Very delicious and really easy (as long as you know how to operate the pasta maker.)








After dinner we moved onto crafting and a movie. Yes, B & D had a fun craft project planned out where you upcycle well-used children's Christmas books and make garland out of them. So cute and very fun and easy! All you do is create a template and then trace, cut, hole punch and string. Some of us did trees only and others added in the festive stockings as well.













We then dyed some cupcake mix and made rainbow cupcakes and consumed those on their immediate exit from the oven. Yum! The rest of our evening's schedule was: throw some Sex and The City on, continue to sip some wine finish the jumbo size bottle of wine and relax. We posed with our festive pjs on for a few pictures (note the garland in the background!) And we slowly slunk off to bed between 12:30am and 3am - Jackie and I were the night owls of the bunch!












I then slept in a bed with polar bear sheets... ok 'polar bear' is a coined term by D ... so I recognize you might not understand what on earth I'm referencing. First let me state that no actual polar bears are involved and second it's like sleeping on a giant stuffed animal. It's sooo cozy!! Basically I'm speaking of mink - oh so cozy! I still woke up a few times in the night - just because my body doesn't know any other way. However, I was able to drift right back to sleep without having to feed anyone - I woke up much more rested and not wanting to leave the polar bear sheets! Ahhh. It was a fabulous sleepover! So much fun!

Thanks ladies! Let's do it every year for my birthday!! :) hehe

Where did the time go?

I recently transfered all my pictures back onto my laptop and was looking through a lot of my older pictures. Then my friend Lori from Livin' in a Fishbowl posted some pictures from when she was full-term pregnant in a flashback series on her page and so I was inspired to do the same. And let me tell you - I am glad she's apologized because her 'full-term' photo was what I looked like at 24 weeks or maybe 26 weeks. Literally. I was bigger by 28 weeks for sure. I'm not joking... I've stolen her photo to do a side-by-side comparison.


I know. I know. I was HUGE! I was being told I was going to 'pop' once I hit 28 weeks (just what a pregnant woman with 12 weeks to go wants to hear) but I survived and for the most part everything has shifted back to where it should be. I might even do it again someday. ;-) One of my favorite pictures of me when I was pregnant was this one taken around 34 weeks when we celebrated our 4th anniversary early:

My full term picture was taken on my due date and that night I went into labor at 10pm. Ace arrived in this world 30 hours and 15 minutes later. You can read Ace's birth story here. One of my favorite early photos that I love so much is after Ace's first bath (at home) at three days old and he looks so sweet and content.


At 12 days old we took him to get his first professional pictures taken. He was so tiny! Now my son is officially over half my size. I'm 61" and he is about 32" right now. Siigh.


And now he's just a few days shy of 15 months old! How fast time has gone.

Happy Birthday, Grum!

Today would have been my grandmother's 84th birthday. Her presence has been missed, but around this time of year starting today on her birthday it is even more noted. I was thinking the other day that it was nearly time to start making the cranberry relish and it was the first time in a few weeks that I truly felt my grandma's absence. I would not be able to call her this year to verify the recipe. It instantly made my heart sink.

We didn't spend birthdays or Thanksgivings together all that frequently once I got married. Although we did throw a grand party for her 80th and my mom's 50th (only a few days apart from each other) back in 2005. An excellent time had by all!

Last Christmas was the first Christmas in my 20-something life that I had not spent it with my immediate family. The first Christmas that I did not spent it with my grandma - ever. I don't regret that I didn't, but I am sad that I won't ever have the opportunity to spend it with her again. The last Christmas I did spend with my grandma was 2007 when we announced to our family that we were pregnant. She was so happy. I'm so blessed by all the memories I have.

So today I am missing her, but I know that in the days and weeks to come her absence is going to be all the more palpable, but I'll be ok... I know where she is. Happy Birthday, Grum! It's your best one yet, because this year you're partying with Grandpa and Jesus!

Ace Antics

I've been after Ace in recent days to not climb on chairs and thus most of our furniture is tucked in under the tables. So it was a bit of a surprise when I heard Ace mildly fussing from the kitchen as if he was stuck. I thought he had tried to climb under the chairs in an army-crawl method, yet again - he usually bonks his head - but nope he had tried something else. When I started to film this I didn't think I'd get much more than just the visual of him encased in the chairs... but my son did not disappoint. He proceeded to have an entire conversation with his momma on how 'yes' he was stuck and 'yes' he was allowed to be up there. I love that he kept saying 'stuck' after he got down. Oh how I love my little climber and my heart melts for his kisses.

Wordless Wednesday - Yum!

My Speech

I like to memorialize things and some have asked - so if you're interested in my 6 minute speech to people you might not know, enjoy! My son provides excellent background noise throughout and I'm not sure if the camera man felt that he had to also raise his glass toward the end or what is happening, but it's been preserved and now that it is on the blog - it actually happened ;-)

My Christmas Musings

Is Christmas a holiDAY or is it a season? Why is it that 'Christmas' seems to seep into department stores, radios, homes, and public streets earlier and earlier. Is it wrong that people want to celebrate Christmas more than just the day of the event? Why do we? I personally start listening to Christmas music in October. I don't listen to it every day - but it just brings cheer to my heart. I get excited when I see decorations starting to go up and while stores have an ulterior motive of making money, it still makes me excited when the Christmas season begins to arrive.

Christmas is supposed to be about Christ, the birth of him more specifically. However, with most Christian holidays it has been commercialized and marketed into an explosion come November of tinsel, lights, and bows, but is that bad? Is it bad that a day meant to celebrate Jesus has spilled into the entire month of December... and now into November? Doesn't that commercialization of bows, lights, and tinsel just provide additional opportunities to bring it back to Jesus? I mean yes in a sinless world we wouldn't have to 'bring it back to Jesus' it would be all about Jesus, but we don't live in that world. Shouldn't we as Christians be delighted to be able to remind people why we celebrate Christmas for that much longer? I mean we should celebrate Jesus every day with as much fanfare and excitement that people do when they celebrate Christmas, but we don't. I know I don't. But Christmas allows for an ever present reminder.
Buying presents, giving your time, giving to others, decorating with lights, putting up a tree with a star on top - just like the star that led the wisemen to Jesus (it is why I like a star on the top of my tree and not an angel) all of these things are small (albeit commercialized) ways to celebrate Jesus - and yes non-Christians utilize these same symbols to celebrate their Christmas - but if we know in our hearts why we put up these symbols that's what matters.

I think the reason that people (not businesses) enjoy breaking out Christmas music and decorations early is because of the feeling and emotion that comes with Christmas. Christmas Cheer is a real thing. While it causes stress and annoyance for some - I find everything to be a cheerful and joyous this time of year. It is a season of giving - while people can (and some do) give all year long - this season is when people give out of the goodness out of their heart. People donate can goods, toys, and their time more during this season. It makes people open their hearts more. People (except at malls) are kinder. They want to see their fellow man enjoy the same joy on Christmas day that they do. And while not everyone that gives from their heart is motivated by Jesus - it certainly is a good reminder of Jesus. A self-sacrafice for the benefit of the undeserving and/or unfortunate.

Watching a Christmas movie evokes memories of happy times and brings a warmness to my heart - which while I might be happy regardless of Christmas - it just adds a level of well... cheer and why wouldn't that be a good thing? I can't find one.

My son and I watching A Muppet Christmas Carol
So if it invokes cheer in me - why is it that for others Christmas before December 15th (the obligatory 2 week prior acceptability to decorate and celebrate) a cardinal violation of something sacred? That when they hear Christmas music before December 1st they want to punch a wall? Is it just a general humbug? Are they merely Scrooges and Grinches? Can't they see and feel the warmth of the holiday season regardless of the date on the calendar? Perhaps the two sides never will understand each other. Perhaps there are just those that embrace Christmas as a season and those that embrace it as a day.

I don't know, for me the Christmas season lifts my spirits. It's a time to celebrate Jesus in a special way, it is a time for family gatherings, it is a time to be happy and cheerful. For me it IS the most wonderful time of the year and so why wouldn't I want that time of the year to begin as soon as possible? ;-)