Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays everyone! So has life slowed down for any of you? It sure hasn't for me! This time of year is usually BY FAR my favorite time of year. I usually go completely overboard decorating the house, watching christmas movies, play christmas music, baking goodies and on and on the list goes. I am usually so keyed up that I have endless amounts of energy to even help others with their shopping and will even wrap their gifts just cause I love it that much. WELL let me just tell you how THIS season has gone instead. We never did get out christmas lights up outside, I never even changed out my fall wreath on the front door to our christmas one. Half our decorations remained in the box and the ones that did make it out are surely taken a beating with a rambunctious 20 mth old running around. Bobby continues to take out all our christmas cards from the holder every night, our ornaments have been taken off and put back on the tree numerous times and I would be lying if I didn't tell you that most of our presents have been "stood on" by a toddler at one time or another (he loves putting things on the floor and "standing" on them with a big "I know I am naughty" grin on his face). I just got our presents wrapped a couple of nights ago, and our neighbors got store-bought goodies this year instead of homemade. Its just been that kind of a year...maybe it has to do with the age of my child. Maybe it has been due to all the illness my family has been hit with (whole other story). Maybe it has been due to me being distracting with interviewing for a new job. I don't know which...but all have impacted my life dramatically lately so I am trying not to sweat the small stuff. and btw...yes I got the job! YAH!

 But one thing that I didn't let slide was getting our family portrait...thank god. And without any further ado....

Our 2011 Christmas card

 Back

Some outtakes from our session.

Thanks Melinda, don't know what I would do without you!

Christmas Part 1

I know I know...I am sooo late on these Christmas posts but I just haven't time to do ANYthing. Better late than never, right? Here are some pics I took once I got my new camera (just in time for our last family shin dig). I still haven't had time to download my old camera to document the first half of the holiday get togethers...but stay tuned.

On our way to Kansas...

Saying hello's....

 Cousin's...

 Highlight of the day...my nephew Cody getting the Ipod Touch he never dreamed he'd get!!

Gramp T reading to the little ones...

 Aunt Addy getting some snuggle time...

 Some play time on our new toys...

 Happy Birthday Jerica!

Christmas break HERE I COME!!!

Christmas break officially begins at 3pm today when work lets me out! I think I have FINALLY finished all my shopping although I am terribly afraid I have forgotten someone's gift or won't bring it to the appropriate function. So I actually think I might have some free time for a couple of hours before hubby and Mr. Bobby get home. What will this too-busy,multitasking, full time working, housekeeper, cooking, wife/mother of the year do with her long overdue time to herself? Well but of course I will try and get ahead...there are no time for naps! I think I will start with the toliets, and the laundry, then the floors, then some organizing of the gifts, and maybe just maybe I will get started on the baking. I highly doubt that though, there isn't enough time...plus I have tomorrow and Friday to get some of that done (when I am not snuggling my bunny). Here's our schedule:
                 

 Friday night AKA Christmas Eve: We have the Reed's big family get together at Uncle Rogers house. This is ALWAYS a lot of fun...we have a Ugly Christmas Sweater contest, along with a nasty game of Dirty Santa (that has been known to cause some pouting and hurt feelings). And hopefully the evening will be following by some light snow...how sweet would that be to have a WHITE Christmas for Bobby's first Christmas? I hope its nothing like last year though...we gotta get to Kansas!



 

Saturday morning AKA Christmas morning: We will do some light gifts at our house (not that Bobby will really notice or care yet this year but oh well...its more for our excitement to share christmas with him than it is for him). And then we are off to the inlaw's for the big Christmas ordeal. My mother-in-law goes all out for Christmas so its usually full of excitement! Then its lunch with my MIL's side of the family and more gift exchanges. Probably followed by a big nap with Bobby in one of the extra bedrooms.


 
Sunday: We are off to Kansas to my brother's house for the whole day! We do Christmas for lunch followed by the gifts...which is always a big hilight to watch my nieces and nephew open everything up with all that kid like excitement. Then in the afternoon it turns into birthday party excitement for my niece Jerica! She was born on January 3rd...so my SIL's kindly throws her party the same day so that all of us out-of-towners don't have to make a second trip back the next weekend.

It's going to be a lot of fun!! My FAVORITE time of year. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday as well! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Fast forward, rewind...no I meant PAUSE!

Does anyone else feel like the Christmas season just goes so incredibly fast that you find it hard to actually stop relax and absorb it? I find myself so caught up in my to-do list that I don't make the time to look off the main road and see all the Christmas lights, or actually enjoy wrapping the presents, or stop thinking so much so I can listen to the Christmas music I have blaring in my car...instead I am just going through the motions. I am sure I have mentioned before Christmas is a big deal to me. I start pulling out the Christmas movies around October...I can barely contain myself to not put my tree up before thanksgiving...and if we don't get snow in December I am pouting. I just wish it was all like it is in the movies. I wouldn't even mind a cheesy lifetime movie version! I just like the idea of a cozy (fireplace blaring, glowing lights decorated, wrapped up in a blanket, glass of wine in hand, cold and snowy outside) evening. Of course this year is slightly different because I have Bobby...so I don't have all the free time I used too. But I wish I could stand back from the rush....look around and soak in the season. After all this is a special year...Bobby's first Christmas! I hope I can remember it!

In other news...Grandma Kaye has been back at it...she just spoils Bobby rotten! She got Bobby a new Bomber Jacket. He is too die for cute in it...and I figured my dad and uncle Kevin would just squeal with excitement when they saw him in it (my dad is an airplace fanatic and Kevin's a pilot). Anyway I just had to share...it wouldn't be a full post without a Bobby picture!

Day 6: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Oops...I'm a day late! Slacking on our challenge already and it's only day 6! Story of my life! Ok soooo lets get right into it, of course my first thought of a Tickle My Fancy item is obviously going to be Bobby, but I know you guys probably already figured that...so instead I chose something else that pleases me to NO END.

Christmas!!!

The Christmas season is MY FAVORITE time of year. From the second Thanksgiving is over till about New Years Eve...I am blaring Christmas music in my car every second (no matter how many fights it causes between me and the hubby). I love everything about the season, the glowing lights, shopping for that perfect gift for each person, wrapping presents, warm clothes and winter weather (hopefully snow!), fireplaces, seeing everyone's glowing tree in their windows, Christmas hymns at church, Christmas cookies and goodies, the Christmas movies on TV (who doesn't like seeing an annual viewing of Home Alone, or Grizwalts Christmas Vacation?). Just walking through Hobby Lobby and seeing Christmas decorations instantly puts me in a better mood and gets me excited.

And this year is going to be the BEST year yet cause now I have a little one to shop for and spoil! (I am sure he will be decked out in Christmas'y sleeper pajamas every night and go to bed by the glow of his own miniature Christmas tree in his nursery). But most of all I can NOT wait to rediscover all the wonders and excitement of Christmas through his eyes in the next couple of years....and we can create traditions of our own to carry on each season.

Christmas photo's

I think I am running a little late on posting these...Christmas feels like forever ago...but I have been so busy that I am just now getting a chance to look back on all the photo's I uploaded. Here is few random shots that sum up some of my favorite memories of this year.

The haul of gifts...

The messes....

The get-togethers with friends and neighbors...

The busy family events...

Happy children....

The snow...

And us...the year we were expecting our baby Bobby.

All time favorite picture...I am disappointed cause its such terrible lighting...but I still smile every time I look at this because there was no prompting on Robby's part...it was just a cute gesture.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season...as we did.

Early Christmas present for Mommy!

Last night Bobby decided to make his presence know...I finally felt him kick! This time I am 100% sure! So it was just a day short of 23 weeks. Its lower than I expected, right below my belly button actually. I don't know what made the difference yesterday but he was so BUSY last night, I felt it over and over throughout the evening. I had ate some Christmas goodies...maybe it was just the sugar in them? This morning I was anxious to feel him again so I drank a glass of orange juice right away...and like clockwork there he was again! Now I am starting to wonder how much of the time he sleeps and how much he is awake? Anyone know the ratio? He is actually kicking me like crazy as we speak. I LOVE IT!! Its the best feeling in the world. Well that's all for now...gotta go start getting ready for the Christmas craziness that is set to begin this evening. Everyone be safe on the roads...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I dreaming of a WHITE Christmas!!!

Well Christmas is almost here...I can hardly believe it! Every year I get so excited...I am who you might call a Christmas fanatic. You could lump in right in there with Clark Grizwalt. I expect all the major elements of the holiday! I have three times as many decorations for Christmas than I do any other holiday and I spend hours, some times days decorating the house and the tree. I want my husband to create magic with the lights outside (as you may recall my husband scaling our roof to get them up this year). I shop and wrap for not only myself and Robby...but also for other family members that don't enjoy the process as much as I do...uh hmm...my father-in-law. Oh and I start listening to Christmas music entirely too early just to make sure that I feel like I get the sufficient amount of time with it before its gone (technically I have been listening to it non-stop since oh...halloween. But hey who's counting? Well besides my husband anyway.

Yes, Robby puts up with all my silly-ness pretty well but there is really only one thing that HE wants to make it a special Christmas. SNOW! He L.O.V.E.S it. And it looks like we just might get his wish this year after all! Yesterday I heard on the radio some weatherman say "Oh I bet Tulsa doesn't get snow...Wichita yes...Tulsa no. And I was soo bummed. We always get jipped down south here. But then this morning while I was in the shower I heard Robby yell YES! and I said WHAT HAPPENED? He said they are saying on the news we are supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow! Yah yah yah! We got so excited! The anticipation for it is almost more than for Christmas itself! We will definitely enjoy it. I just wish I could go sledding this year...but I think this will be the one year Bobby and I sit out. We will just make the hot coco for everyone instead though! :)


This might just be the best Christmas ever. So much to be thankful for this year...so much to look forward too...and hope for in the next year. I am totally feeling the warmth of the season. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Run Run Rudolph!

So is anyone else feeling the rush this year? It seems like the season is just moving so fast. I feel like I have been running around non-stop and I am feeling overwhelmed with everything I still need to get accomplished in the next couple of weeks. The problem is I have NO ENERGY to get it all done! Now granted I am suffering from a wonderful snotty nose cold, that makes my body ache like I just ran a marathon...but still, this is MY FAVORITE time of year...and I want to be able to enjoy doing the Christmas shopping, instead of feeling like breaking out in tears of exhaustion after I get back in my car from the mall. Same with wrapping presents...usually top of my list of favorite things to do, normally I can't wait to get out all the wrapping paper and ribbon as soon as I got home and get things out of the bags. This year the gifts have been sitting in a pile for a couple of days after I have bought them until I can gather enough energy to start the project. And even then I have to take breaks from my back aching from leaning over to much. Oh well, most of the fun in Christmas for me is the "preparing" so I guess I should just sit back and enjoy that the process is stretched out for me...even if its because I am a slow moving, back aching, runny nosed pregnant woman. Oh I can just see Robby drooling now...I am just so irresistible these days. hahhahahahah

In Bobby news...things are pretty quiet. I think I might have felt him kick a couple of times...but being the inexperienced mother I am, there is no telling if it was legitimately him or not. But I am waiting patiently for more communication from him. :) I am growing quite a bit. My belly sticks out pretty obviously. I have received the comment on more than one occasion that "I am big for being 5 months". I can't decide if that is exciting or depressing. I enjoy showing...it makes me feel more confident that people don't just think I am lazy for no reason if they can actually see that there is an obvious reason behind it. And I have always thought a growing baby belly is the most adorable thing. Its just that since "I" am the one growing I have realized for the first time that what isn't so cute about it is that EVERY thing else on your body grows too. And if people think I am big now...I can't imagine what I am going to look like in four more months. I'll take it though...as long as Bobby continues to grow! Go Bobby!

So this second picture is really a not so glamorous picture of me but I wanted an example of how much my belly has grown. I don't think I realized how truly thin I was (everyone always considers themselves fat in their own personal image) but now, I am in a whole new level!

I'd like to compare belly's with the next Santa I run across...

Yep I am definitely growing! I feel like my belly just looked HUGE in this dress. Oh well! I am proud to be carrying around my Bobby in there! Next time I will have to put all the pictures of my belly along to way in a row to compare.

And per Nicole's request...some pictures of Christmas time at the Reed's!