Happy New Year

Things have been a bit busy, today was the first day I've had off since Xmas and I go right back to work tomorrow, have to be out of the house by 8:30 am. won't get another day off until Saturday. I feel as though I've been getting nothing done. There are weeks when I work more days now then I did when I worked at Andrew. I'm going to have to do something about that. We've got to find another house, straighten up this one. There's been so much on my mind lately that I'm feeling overwhelmed. Again. Not as bad as when I was still at Andrew. But I am a little tired of feeling this way.
Had an okay afternoon with the little man, he took a nice little nap on my lap today, it was lovely! I got some quality time with my snuggle bug. Plenty of time to snuggle with him and stroke his hair while he slept snuggled up against me. I'm sure there won't be many more of those left, they are few and far between as it is.
I just want to wish you all a really happy new year. I hope this year is even better then the last. I really want to stay up and watch Dick Clark's rockin eve tonight so I can see Rascal Flatts perform but I have to go to bed so I can get up early. Some one out there watch it and enjoy it for me, let me know what they sing ok?

Merry Christmas to all...

and to All A Good Night!
My mom and god-mother came over today for Christmas. They came first thing in the morning to see Aidan open his gifts. My mom stayed for about 2 hours and then my god-mother took her back home because she was tired. (thankfully they're only a couple of blocks away, and my god-mother came right back) Then when it was closer to dinner time she came back over. Everything went really well. We had chicken cutlet, mashed taters, sweet taters, green beans, corn, stuffing, and HOMEMADE crescent rolls (which I made with my own two hands- and it was unanimous that they are way better then the ones in the can! LOL) For dessert there was pumpkin pie (made by me, too!) So all of my holiday baking was a hit! (we're not going to think about the fudge, because that's not really baking now is it? LOL that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
I hope everyone had an awesome holiday. Ours was great considering we weren't really where we wanted to be. Aidan was thrilled with his kitchen (pictures to come soon). For now I'm off to play with the little man before bed time.

Christmas Baking

I started out on Friday with all the baking and stuff. I attempted fudge, this did not go well! I thought it was going well, left it to cool down to 110 degrees before the final beating and let me tell you it got as hard as a rock before it even cooled down! HOLY COW! This was after 1 email and 4 or 5 calls to my darling mother in law, who by the way is infinitely patient with all my questions (because lets face it I'm clueless in the kitchen, but I'm learning). Anyway we had a jolly good laugh at my fudge (which included me tapping the top of it with my wooden spoon so she could hear how hard it was and my father in law in the background telling me to get a jack hammer! thanks dad LOL). It felt good to laugh. I may try to make the fudge again tomorrow, we'll see how everything else goes.
Saturday we made these fantastic wreath and candy cane shaped cookies, they are awesome! We probably ended up with 2 or 3 dozen of those. We also made Mamaw's cinnamon rolls. (Mom they came out great, Ian just said if I was going to do anything different put more cinnamon and sugar). We mixed up the dough to make gingerbread Saturday as well (it had to chill over night).
So today we mixed the dough for the sugar cookies, and while that was chilling we cut the first batches of gingerbread. Then we cute the first pans of sugar cookies and we kept alternating between the two, while one was chilling we'd cut the next batch of the other. These cookies worked out really well together because they cook at the same temperature, just different amount of time. We ended up with about 5 dozen sugar cookies and probably 4 or more dozen of the ginger bread. They both came out great!!
Now tomorrow, I'm just got to make the crescent rolls (from scratch because the store bought have the stuff we're trying to avoid in them) and dinner. And possibly the fudge. Let me tell you my KitchenAid stand mixer just got a big work out ( and on it virgin run too)!!
Even though I've enjoyed the baking and stuff this year I think I'll be very glad when the holidays are over. Aidan was a total monster yesterday and today. Threats of no presents from Santa don't even work, he just keeps being a stinker. He broke another one of my ornaments today, one I just got a couple of weeks ago. Then he tried to hide the piece he broke off, which just totally ticked me off.

Another LO

Did this lo just because! The kit used is LaWanna DesJardin's Groovy Little Christmas. (I recolored the alpha from the kit with another paper from the kit so that is would match what I was doing) I also used a template from Brenda Kempf. The font used is Comic Sans MS.

Quote Challenge at AddictedtoDigital.com

Did this page for the challenge over at addictedtodigital.com . The quote reads "Children are to be treated gently. They are like snowflakes- unique but only here for a while"~Dan Ward. The kit used is LaWanna DesJardin's Winter Wonder Kit. The font used is Comic San Serif

The little cutie in the picture is Aidan's cousin Jason.

Rare indeed!

I had to share this picture, because this is not a common thing anymore. Aidan is now 4 and doesn't often want to snuggle with mommy unless she's in the middle of doing something. He's often times too busy playing and being a boy. But this was taken on the 13th at about 7:30 pm. He had his 4 year check up that morning and I think those 3 shots finally caught up with him. He was at my feet working in one of his preschool work books while I was checking my mail and I glanced down because it was suddenly quiet, and he was knocked out on the floor! So I scooped him up onto my lap and and he sort of woke up and started to ask if he could do something but fell asleep again before he finished his sentence. He did that several times before daddy got up for the night. He slept from then until 10 the next day, he was worn out!

Xmas photo shoot

Haircut or no Haircut I took pictures today for our christmas cards. At 9 pm, lol. In horrible lighting and they didn't come out too bad! so here's a sneak peek for anyone who wants one.

Santa Digi Layout

Did this page for a challenge at Addicted to Digital. The Kit used is Kim Johnson's Holly Jolly Christmas ( I recolored the slide mounts to match the green in the paint swishes). The font is CK Twilight.
Various pictures of my little man with Santa.
I'm off to bed, gotta get up for work in the morning.

Redecorating...

the old blog-a-roo! Got tired of it not really having any flair. Made the banner myself using Kim Johnson's Holly Jolly Christmas digital scrapbooking kit. The font for those interested is CK Twilight. Had lots of help from Ian on figuring out how to change the banner up there. (Thanks, Dear) That's last year's Christmas picture on there, seeing as I haven't taken this year's yet. But you never know I might change it before Christmas because I'm going to be taking our pictures sometime within the next week. Going to do it myself too, since I finally got a tripod and figured out how to use the timer on my camera, LOL. Let me know what ya'll think. Does it look good? bad? ugly?

Aidan's 4 year checkup...

went really well. My little guy was so good, hopped up on the scale to be measured and weighed, got his blood pressure taken (with a little mini blood pressure cuff, which was just too stinking cute, LOL), had his temp checked and all the normal stuff. He's doing great, doctor said to watch his weight, but didn't actually say he is over weight. Aidan had to get 3 shots this time, and he took it like a champ, no tears or anything. He was AWESOME. The nurse asked him if he wanted a lollipop and some stickers since he was so good, and his response, in his excited, cheerful voice was "Well, SURE!!", totally as if he was doing her a favor! She got a big kick out of him. He's such a good kid. We're slowly but surely getting closer to being totally potty trained, he's had a few accidents but it's expected right?. My little guy was laying on the floor next to me just now, coloring, while I checked my e-mail and I look down and he's knocked out, totally snoring, I think those shots finally caught up with him.
He helped me wrap some christmas presents last night and helped me pack and mail a gift this morning. He's a good helper. Each day I'm amazed by what he can do. He's constantly learning something new. Just these last 2 weeks he's been putting his own gloves on, with no help. He dresses himself. Helps gather stuff to make PB&J sandwiches. Helps put things away. He's pretty good at rinsing the dishes too (supervised of course). He's just an amazing little man. You just gotta love him!

WalkAmerica

Signed up today for next years Walk America for the March of Dimes. Will be walking on April 29th on Chicago's Lake Front. Personal Sponsor Page is here and the team page is here . If you want more info about this charity go here. I'll be adding the links to my page and my team page in the side bar. If anyone would like to walk with me that would be great, the more the merrier!!

Some funny random shots

I took these myself of Aidan and me while we were waiting for Daddy so we could put the birthday boy to bed. It's been a big day for the little man. He turned four and mommy put him in big boy underwear all day. It went really well, no accidents. He's such a good boy, and he tries so hard. We even went out in public with no accidents! How awesome is my little man?!?!? I think we'll probably put him in an overnight pull-up bcause I don't think it'll do him any good to have an accident at night, I think it would set him back. We'll wait a few days and see if he wakes up dry for a few days running, if so I think it'll be onto underwear at night and a big boy bed.
Gotta run up and put the little guy to bed, without further ado here are pictures of Momma and her little boo!

A couple more pictures of the tree

Birthday Boy!!!

So here he is in all his 4 year old glory! As always (seriously since the christmas he was 1) he tears off pieces of paper hands them to me, tears off some more, hands them to me. He's really quite methodical about it. He had great fun opening his presents. But by far his favorite has been the Vacuum from Grammy and Grandpa. He keeps going back and playing with it again and again. He's quite a cutie. Mommy and Daddy sure do love you little man! (Secretly I'm wailing "oh my God my baby is 4!!!!!!!!") Happy Birthday Day Sweetkins!

Pictures

This right here is a peekin' punkin! He was peeking through the tree at me while I was fluffing out the branches.
Aidan putting the first ornament on the tree, which happens to be Big Bird that he picked out a couple of days ago while we were tree shopping.
And here's the finished product. With the angel on top that Aidan helped me pick out this week. It really is quite pretty with the lights on, maybe once Aidan is asleep I'll turn the lights off and try to get a picture of the tree with it's twinkling lights.

Trimming the Tree

This is the first time we've put up a tree since I was pregnant with Aidan, and since he'll be four tomorrow that means it's been 4 years! This should be interesting since Aidan has been driving me right up the wall asking me "are we gonna put up the tree today?" for the last 2 weeks. I appeased him the other day by going up and getting out the wreath for the front door (which I decorated myself when I was in high school, musical instruments and various other christmas-y things, it's lovely if I do say so myself...and it is still to this day the best thing to come out of my high school years!) Will post pictures of the tree in the next post first I must make myself somewhat presentable (as I'm still in my pjs!). The baby and I put all the ornaments on and it is one mighty full tree!
It seems we've got several themes going over the years that these have been collected. There are ornaments that were mine, ornaments that were Ian's, and then of course there were ornaments that were "ours" and now there are Aidan's, too. I've discovered I must have a thing for penguins, as I bought a penguin ornament at the Zoo two summers ago, and bought three yesterday, one for each of us and each different, and there are several others that have accumulated over the years. Then of course there was the year of the snowmen-we've tons of those! Then there are lots of looney tunes ones, Taz for me and Marvin for Ian. Lots of Disney, gobs and gobs of bells in various shapes and sizes, including santas! Too many snowflakes to count! And then the year Aidan was born and the ones that followed there were plenty of Pooh! So we have QUITE an assortment. All special, and really they makes for a pretty tree! Even if it does seem as if it should tumble over from the sheer volume of decoration!
So, pictures to come soon!

couple of christmas tags

Made these for the template challenge here . The tag templates are by Kim Johnson, and the kits that I used are Rockadoodle Christmas by Faith True (for the round Tag) and Holly Jolly Christmas by Kim Johnson (for the other tag, LOL).