It's my favorite time of year!

smart snap! : )

Christmas is in full swing over here.  It's so fun with Riley believing in Santa and Lyssi Lu getting so excited over the boxes that hold her gifts.  We may have let her play with her special things prior to wrapping them because Sister isn't going to remember anyways.  Her verdict for them is excitement and we are pretty excited for her to rip them open and actually play with them.  The tree has been up since Thanksgiving weekend and the stockings have been hung with care.  Our elf on the shelf has made another appearance this year and the craze regarding the elf is insane!  Last year our elf was thrown around and manhandled because Riley didn't quite get it.  This year after reading the book and watching the movie he is in awe of that elf.  Ours' is named Skippy and that beats Elfie from last year.  He has caused some trouble buts it's all in good fun and when I asked Riley Friday night what Skippy was going to report to Santa he replied: "that I am a good boy, that I eat good (he must be confused!), I play good and I help my Sister.  I answered back "will he tell Santa that you share?"  Riley: "Addually, I am still working on that one."  Ha!  The boy is certainly honest and that counts for something!

We went to a work party for D's company Saturday and we hired a real babysitter.  The kids were pretty stoked to see her and we enjoyed really good food and lots of laughs as the rest of the sales team has awesome wives.  D was nervous about leaving the kids after Friday night caused bags under our eyes.  Lyssi Lu got a non sleeping bug up her butt that I am guessing from her new found crawling ability and she was wide awake and pissed off about us trying to let her cry it out til 3:00 or later in the morn.  I seriously don't know how I stayed up all those nights with her because it was miserable and thank goodness she is back to sleeping through the night again!  Sister was exhausted Saturday and looking miserable.  She was a handful but after a great nap she was herself again and we are thankful for both kids being healthy before we leave on Thursday.

I cannot for the life of me remember why I thought I could leave the kids for 3 nights.  I was just giving Lyssi Lu a bath and I couldn't stop crying.  She was looking at me all sweet and smiley and I just can't imagine leaving her.  Will she understand that we are coming back?  Will she be good for her Nana's and Auntie Teetee?  Will Riley get all sad over Daddy being gone like he did last time D left for a night?  Good Lord, what were we thinking!?  I am missing out on the Sunday School program Saturday night and listening to the kids sing their 3 songs so proud and loud today made tears spring up.  They sing so sweetly and with all their hearts.  I am so bummed I will be missing it.  There is nothing better than seeing Christ through a child's heart and I am so lucky to be there in the mess of it as they proudly proclaim their faith.

Prayers for safe travel and for our kids to feel our love are going to be frequent and desperately repeated throughout the week.

Prayers to you and yours while you prepare for the Christmas celebrations and everything that comes with them.

My favorite new ornaments for this year...I got an A, R, and D...self explanatory and then an M because even I think of myself as just Mommy and not Lindsey anymore! : )

So excited to see the kid's names on the stockings soon!

Old faithful, red, silver, and a spattering of the favorite ornaments from past and present. 

Silly Skippy!

He tried to parachute into the stocking and missed a bit! ; )



I think that 4 strings of white lights on the tree is sufficient! ; ) and yes, I realize it got a little "light" bare towards the top! 

 I guess we will see on the flip side!

Alyssa Marie: 10 months

304.36 days old.

304 days sounds like a lot.  It sounds like a lot and yet it has been a quick tornado of activity giving way to countless snuggles, the sweet smell of a newborn, pink blankies and nuks, flower headbands and barrettes. It has been 304 days of girly bliss.  It still marveled me tonight while I was cooking dinner (funny enough for a friend) and Derrick was frying up pork chops that peering just past our countertop revealed two little smiles.  One running around throwing a baseball up in the air and one awkwardly trying to get her legs in motion to crawl.  It was a Kodak moment.  Daddy and Mommy in the kitchen cooking while the children laughed and giggled in the LR.  It was at that moment that I remembered how much I love this house that allows me to be in the kitchen, doing laundry if need be and still being right there with my kids sneaking glances their way and then smiling to myself at how merry and bright this season is in our house.  I am in awe of time this month.  Last year I was hauling around a swollen belly that yielded blunt kicks and hiccups always in the dead of night.  I was counting down 7, 6, 5 weeks till baby girls arrival.  I remember it like yesterday.  This year I am squeezing chubbers and kissing her soft baby belly amazed that this last 5 lbs is stubbornly staying put on my midsection.

Sweet, sweet baby girl you made us a bonafide family.  One child was heaven, life-changing, easy in comparison, two has felt like a family.  The children playing together, the girls staying back and cleaning while the boys run errands and go to swimming lessons, our laps being full while we enjoy pre-bedtime snuggles in the rocking chair or books in Riley's bed.  This is exactly what I pictured my life to be.  This is exactly where we are supposed to be.

Exciting stuff going on around here where Lyssi Lu is concerned.

*She finally cut another tooth.  Her eye tooth to be exact and shortly following that is now her opposite one swelling up her gums.  You wouldn't even know she was teething.  Girlfriend is tough as nails.
*She is mobile now.  She has started crawling this week in fact.  It's awkward and looks silly but it's progress and she is all the more happier to be able to do more than reach and shout for what she wants.  Sister is determined.
*She is still sleeping like a angel.  Bed by 7:15 and up around 7:00 or later.  Little lady values beauty sleep.
*She is wearing size 3 diapers.
*She is drinking a bottle at 7:30, 12:30, 4 and 7:15 and eating solids twice a day.  Lu lu is loving food.  She eats anything we give her, pumpkin pancakes (her favorite), bananas, crackers, pizza and even broccoli.  Her absolute favorite is cheese though.  She is so my daughter.
*She drinks from a sippy cup now and mastered that the 2nd time we handed it to her.
*She still has blue eyes that sparkle and blonde hair that is thin and wispy.
*She looks so much like her Daddy.
*She claps proudly and dances new moves when the music is turned on.
*She waves bye bye and hello and smiles at everyone she sees.
*She loves to read and especially loves turning the chunky board book pages.

We are so excited to share Christmas with her this year and Mommy is especially excited for her to get some good girly things.  Little Sister loves her the bats and balls but she is ready for more.  : )

Merry early Christmas little girl.  You have made our year.

Love you to the moon and back Alyssa Lu.

Turkied out

A little misleading, the title that is.  I am not in the least bit turkied (spelling?) out.  We ate some of the juiciest, most tender, delicious turkey yesterday that I am completely looking forward to again for lunch but in every other aspect of life I am totally wiped out so this is a stream of consciousness type post which might end up sounding more like a brain barf...too far with the barf reference? : )

My Dad had Wednesday off and when he said bye to the kids with a "See you tomorrow for Turkey Day,"  Riley replied with a sing songy "Otay but I do not like turkey."  Cracked everyone up.  Still does since I have a big smile on my face just remembering it.  He is funny.  He never lacks words and seriously is just funny.  Oh and we made these deliciously cute turkeys.

We have peeked in on him before bed a few nights in the last few weeks and because our bedtime keeps creeping up earlier and earlier (ha, like 8:20 kind of early) he seems to be always awake with a big grin on his face so we have invited him to bed with us to snuggle.  As he makes his way into our room with at the minimum 2 puppies and a lovie he repeats "snuddles, snuddles, snuddles." And typing it out does it absolutely no justice.  It's quite possibly the cutest word he has said ever and it made us all laugh so hard the first night he started repeating it that we almost woke Lyssi Lu up!

We had conferences for Riley Monday night.  Yes, they have conferences for 3 year old's.  It was actually really informative and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  I got a really good chill and goosebumps when Mrs Jane opened up with a prayer for our Riley and his future.  It was humbling to realize that someone else takes an interest in the well-being and spiritual growth of our child.  I had to keep repeating to myself "don't cry, once you start you never stop, don't cry, look at the pictures and smile, ask questions, but don't start crying."  We learned that Riley never stops smiling in class, that he had an issue with another boy over a truck and that they worked it out on their own deciding to share, that he loves storytime and that everything he does is age appropriate.  And that school picture, for a stereo-typical set-up and pose, well it doesn't get much cuter.  My Dad carries it around in his shirt pocket pulling it out to show everyone.  Pride: Check.

Alyssa my lu is continuing to sleep like a little pro.  Bless her heart.  She is waving goodbye and hello with much praise coming from us.  She continues to shy away from crawling and now that I have set up the tree we are just that much more content with the state of her crawling!  She is all girl.  We noticed that when we put dresses on her she just lights up like well, a Christmas tree.  It's so cute.  All smiles, gumming it up extra for Daddy who just thinks she is the prettiest thing he's ever seen.  I took her on a shopping spree and we tried on some Baby Gap dresses and the price-tag was hard to swallow but I put that dress on her (the one) and she was enamored with herself in the mirror.  Guaranteed that if Daddy was there even he would have ignored the price-tag.

Speaking of Daddy and our Lu lu, is there nothing more precious than the love between a girl and her Daddy?

Daddy keeps her safe

Sometimes I still look at her and sit in amazement that the blond-haired blue-eyed beaut is my girl.  Had it not been for the mirror (sorry) during labor I would have thought they switched the babies up or something.  She lourves me something fierce.  She loves Dada and Riley too but it's something-that Mother/Daughter bond.  Girlfriend is perfection.

And she loves her some leaves!

I love Christmas with it's lights, trees, carols and presents.  I love setting up our tree and having my now family of 3 more sitting in awe watching.  D told me no less than 5 times that I am good at that tree business and I ate those words up.  It's a lot of work and hearing a bit of praise and the "wow's" and "ooohs" from those little ones, makes it all oh so worth it.  I love even more the Christmas story and the Christian music.  I heard "The First Noel" on the radio for the first time of the season driving to work this week and the combination of my favorite song, the dark and beautiful sky and my tiredness brought tears to my eyes.  I love this time of year.

We leave for Vegas in 19 days.  Be like WHOA.  I am not nervous.  D is a darn near basket case bout leaving those kids of ours.  I am sure I will be all weepy and nervous but for now I am just looking forward to the unknown of what one does when they have no kids for 3.5 consecutive days!  Seriously, what did we do before kids!?  We have never been away from the kids for more than a night so challenge this will be but I think it will be good for everyone.

Work is so draining right now.  We are short like 7-8 people short.  It's quite miserable and the old "be thankful you have a job" phrase is just annoying currently.  Exciting news is a raise in the near future for a change in job titles (across the board for me and all my co-workers because we are all cross trained in the lab) and a few new benefits for the 2012 year including $20 off to a gym and something else that I got excited about but can't for the life of me remember.

We had family pictures taken for Christmas and I loved the photog, her in home studio and her style.  She has one of the classiest eyes for shots and seriously the best editing eye I have seen.  I can't imagine any of our shots coming out great though because I was too worried about Lyssi punching Riley and Riley giving a cheesy smile to remember to smile myself so we will have to see.

I already have Lyssi Lu's first b-day planned out, down to the invitation and the decor.  I have had this vision since she was in-utero.   I also have Riley's 4th b-day planned out.  It's amazing how my brain works as I run through words in my head that rhyme with 2, 3, 1 etc.

Our children have started playing together.  Riley hands her a toy and she laughs and hands it back.  Riley tickles her and 'wrestles' with her and they laugh and chitter chatter back and forth.  We are the creepers tip-toeing around making sure not to interrupt their special time and sneaking lenses in and around corners because it is caute!

We finished the last HP movie and the only word that comes to mind is epic.  We put the kids to bed early, shut off all the lights and sat down and enjoyed a whole movie with zero interruptions.  We went to bed at 10:30 and was awoken by the children at 7:08, it was therapeutic all that adult time and sleep.  Being that I can't keep my eyes open at night it was nice to know I don't have some sort of disease or worse narcolepsy because I am pretty sure I could fall asleep anywhere the last few weeks.

This picture cracks me up.  My Dad asked me numerous times if I got pictures of all the mums this year and I did, except the baby girl didn't care for my many attempts.  Case in point...


See those colors Dad?!



We ate at Olive Garden recently and have realized that 90% of the time we have horrible service.  This last time we waited 18 minutes for anyone/someone to come to our table.  18 minutes with 2 small children can be like an eternity.  Then when we finally got our salads our dinners came out at the same time!  It was good eating but probably we will be thinking twice about it next time.

I feel lighter, maybe even full of more energy now that I got all that off my chest.  Preserving these memories so that years down the road we can remember the important stuff like in 2012 we saved a combined $40 off at the Y and so forth.  : )  Nighty Night!

Pinch me, please

I had one of those moments last weekend where I must have looked a fool to everyone else but I just couldn't help it. 

Riley started swimming lessons, the real ones where the parents sit on the sidelines while the kids plunge in to 'soak' and learn.  I looked around and saw various parents filling in the benches and starting to read books or play on their super cool smartphones and I looked down and saw our bag full of towels, a change of clothes, my super un-cool texting phone, my book and my camera.  I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and read.  I just couldn't bring myself to take my eyes off of my Riley. 

I was the parent who stood the whole time, absorbing the moments. I mean really, do you see the brown eyed, brown haired, can't-stop-smiling, I swear was just a baby over there!?  I wanted to explain that it was our first swimming lessons and that he's my first baby but I don't think anyone even noticed that I was standing at the edge of the pool. I was far enough away that Riley didn't have to wave at me every 2 minutes but close enough to again admire his long lashes that looked even more brilliant wet, close enough to hear him squeal as his hand shot up in the air signaling his readiness to try the next skill, close enough to get tears in my eyes not because of the chlorination filling the area but because this is what I always imagined when I dreamed of motherhood. 

I wanted to call D and tell him that not only did Riley get in with zero trepidation (D was thinking Riley would hesistate and probably not get in at all) but that it was mesmerizing to watch and that I could hardly contain my pride but I seriously couldn't pull myself away not even for a quick phone call. 

This was the part of parenting that I wasn't overly familiar with.  The parenting where they let go of your hand and walk forward without you and you just hope that no one hurts them, that they don't get scared and that they remember their manners and that their Mommy is waiting for them.  It was absolutely surreal.  I can do the baby/toddler stage with my eyes closed.  (Not to say it's easy or a piece of cake for me but many years of constant babysitting and now having 2 kids I understand it, they have a need-you meet it)  This was a new feeling, one you can't really prepare for.   After parenting him for 3.5 years and realizing that (just about) everything goes through Mommy beforehand this was the first time where for 30 minutes he didn't need me.  He didn't need me to splash with him or show him how to float.  He didn't need me to fuss over water getting in his eyes.  He didn't need me for support or strength.  He was just a little boy filled up to the brim with excitement, looking all grown up and listening intently to instructions.  I don't get to watch him at preschool.  There's not a two-sided mirror to stare through and see how your child interacts with others when you're not around (although that would be AWESOME!) and my experiences just this last Feb-May with him at 2's with parents school didn't give me a good look at him since he had me the whole time and rarely wanted to me to not always be right there with him playing or creating whatever was on the schedule that day.  This was my first real experience with myself and my Riley in our new roles as supporter and quite literally swimmer. 

This is what I always imagined when I was younger.  My children diving head first into life and taking with them the lessons and confidence we have instilled in them.  Taking on new challenges without hesitation and with enthusiasm.  It was amazing.  Big kid, happy meal afterwards kind of amazing. 

And just think...this is only the beginning!

No fear here!

Riley's first time singing in front of church...he isn't much of a singer!  

Our halloween cowboy...is it wrong that I want to pencil that stache in everyday?