Mom for the Weekend

In spite of the chaos reigning in our house right now (boxes, boxes, boxes as we shuffle things around), Mom came out to visit for the weekend.  Such fun!  We shopped, ate out, went to Jason's hockey game, and sat in the living room with chocolate croissants while it snowed.  A very nice way to spend the weekend.

Mom and I also ventured out to BabiesRUs, a daunting outing but made much better by her company!  It is strange to think that the next time she comes to our house, we will be three instead of two!

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

In case our hints have been more subtle than we intended, we want you to be the first to know--we are having a BOY in May!  Casey is convinced that this means that he will only have girls.  When he does, his sisters will shower those girls in dresses and bows.

It turns out, though, that boy clothes are pretty cute, too--I mean, after five nephews I know this, but look how darling this outfit is that Jenny and Chad got our boy!  And Grandma Small has already started sending cute things.  He came away with loads of stuff at Christmas.  Not only did Shaanti and Adam give him another adorable outfit AND he now has a BSU onesie and competing U of I bib (thanks, Auntie Kim and Uncle Casey!), but we also filled a duffel bag with hand-me-down clothes from the Bucher boys.  I tell you what, this kid is going to love going to visit his cousins.

Breakfast for Dinner

In spite of the fact that the I'm-in-control January menu suggest that I was going to have this tonight for dinner, since about 2 pm today, nothing has sounded better than waffles.  Jason (sadly) is not really a fan of breakfast for dinner--it's an, indication of grocery desperation in our house--but he's in Germany this week, so I got home and ate two whole waffles, complete with melted blackberries and a side of eggs with leftover salmon.  Soooo good.

Turns out waffles are a popular idea tonight.  I was talking to my mom on the way home from a haircut, and my sisters and their families were all over for dinner so that they could have waffles.  With blackberries.  So even 3,000 miles away, we all sat down to breakfast for dinner.  I wonder what Kim and Casey ate?

It makes me happy and a little sad to think about.  After ten years, I've gotten used to living here--and the past few years have been infinitely better than the previous several.  I would actually miss the DC area if I left at this point, and I know that we are blooming where God has planted us.  Still.  Home with family and waffles still sounds as nice as it did to a most homesick me ten or so years ago.

2012 has been a very to-do-list oriented year so far, and on every weekend list the word "blog!!!" has appeared...and subsequently been the only unfinished task by Sunday night.  It is ridiculously unacceptable that, according to this blog, the first day of the year is January 18, Christmas did not happen, and no one knows what type of baby we are having.  I will do my best to catch up over the next week or so, but FOR THE LOVE. 

For now, it's another picture-less entry about waffles.  And flannel sheets, which are on the bed because Jason (who rates flannel sheets lower than breakfast for dinner) is gone.  And Five Mile Creek, which I have been watching every night because Jason is gone.  And oh, I'm looking forward to him coming home tomorrow...

New Years Party

So, in spite of my end-of-year hesitations, we had a slam dunk of a New Years party to ring in 2012.  Not so much a party as a low-key impromptu end-of-year get together, I guess.  Not only was everyone willing to come with less than 24 hours notice, but they brought food and put their babies to bed at our place.  The house was bursting with pack n' plays, and we laughed wondering where we would put the ADDITIONAL three babies next year!

Happy 2012!

A Cabiny Christmas

It may seem like months ago now, but our Christmas at the cabin was utterly delightful, as usual.  Our full house gets fuller every year, and having four boys running around (and one toddling between aunts and uncles) made things even more fun...and maybe just a tad more chaotic!  I will confess to a moment or two of panic that the next time we have Christmas together, Jason and I will be the ones chasing down a toddler and trying to keep him from climbing the stairs, climbing into the fire, eating candy off the counter by the handfuls, etc.

Cooper gets ready for some Rock Band.

Inches of snow is no problem for sledding!

People are always saying Christmas is better with kids (usually it goes something like, "Christmas is only for kids," which I think is ridiculous, but whatever), and this Christmas WAS better with kids.  Mason and Troy have joined Cole in being old enough to gleefully open stockings and get excited about every gift they opened.  The extended grabbers (which Cole named "gribby grabbers," I think) were the kids favorite...and the adults least favorite.

Heavy load, Cole?

 

Best buds Troy and Mason

  We spent the whole week before Christmas in Idaho, most of it in the mountains.  We did have a big ol' family breakfast with the Grahams Wednesday morning, which was as fun as it has been for the past thirty-some years.

Fightin' words.

Snow angels with Granny

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of snow in McCall this year--usually we have a couple of feet, this time we had a couple of inches.  Made for a rough sledding hill (just ask Kim!), but we made the best of it.

Piles of pah-resants!

Christmas morning

Kade in a bucket

It was Christmas as usual--The Littlest Angel, the seafood feast, the Lord of the Rings viewing.  All wonderful.  And then we headed down the mountain to catch our plane...which was delayed so badly that we would have missed our connecting flight.  So we rebooked for a little later...and then had another delay.  It gave us an extra night with my parents, and when we left the next morning, we were bumped up all the way to DC!  The plane from Chicago to Dulles had those fantastic seats that lay almost all the way back...mmm...best hour and a half flight ever.  I almost wanted to go all the way to Moscow just because I was so comfy...

End of Year Thoughts

My hair is standing up on end.  I've finished a book (good riddance) and drunk tea but am still in pajamas (don't tell Jason--he should think I've been very productive this morning).  I've "cleaned the library," which apparently means that bins of sewing projects, fabric, and piles of DVDs to rip down are all over the floor and desk.  And so is brown sugar, which is clearly what I was doing before I got distracted by all the blog posts I haven't read since we left for Idaho.

It is clearly that weird week between Christmas and New Year's.

Here are a few of the things going through my head:
*  I love having friends over for New Year's, but I am balking at the idea of hosting a party.  Or making a big dinner.  Or staying up until midnight.  Yikes.  What to do.

*  We are packing up our entire upstairs for a vicious construction project (which is why Jason needs to think I've been productive), and it is very, very weird to pack up all my suits with February still a'comin.  It's not like they fit (this week, NOTHING fits--I so wanted to be that cute pregnant woman with the little round belly and adorable attire, but instead I already waddle and have fallen irrevocably in love with my sweats), but it is still weird.

*  In the mornings, the Spare Oom is my favorite place in the house--all clean and white and yellow and sunshiny, with its east-facing window.

*  Have you ever gone to rip down your own DVDs (or maybe one you borrowed from your mom) so that you can eventually watch them on your iPad, but before you can stop it the first thing that pops up is the FBI warning that you are breaking the law nine ways to Sunday, and you suddenly feel guilty?  Yeah, me neither.

*  I bought a paper planner this year.  It seems like a weird thing to do, what with google calendar and the iPhone and what have you.  We'll see how it goes.

*  In spite of the five fantastic nephews, every once in a while I am caught by panic that I don't know what to do with boys.  Like when I read about this.  Or when, say, I look in my lovely, clean, white covered spare room and think that life will never be the same.  Last week I had to remind myself a lot that I am starting with a teeny baby and not a three-year-old-boy.

*  Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies really are a healthy, perfect post-Christmas-binging breakfast.  Really.

*  When I typed www. into the whachamacallit field where you type the site name, our blog immediately popped up.  Apparently the world wide web thinks I don't blog enough.  And clearly, since I have not told you about our construction project, our ultrasound, or, for the love, a lick about Christmas 2011, it's probably right.  More to come, as soon as my hair is no longer standing up on end, I have found a pair of jeans to wear, and I can prove to Jason that I have done more than finish a library book and eat cookies this morning while he is working.

December Calendar

Apart from having fun company and a bad head cold (which I blame for the fact that I'm just now posting these pictures), here are a few of the things we did in December:

Right off the Bat:  Twinkled
It has been a really mild winter so far (with a few abruptly cold 30 degree swings), so we took advantage of a 65 degree day to put up twinkle lights.  Such fun to come home to, as always.  I made the mistake of telling Jason that you are supposed to leave the lights up until Epiphany, not realizing that Epiphany is January 6th and not late January like I thought.  The lights came down on the next 65 degree Saturday, but so worth it in the meantime.

Also, this was my favorite Christmas decoration of the year, which Jason brought back from Germany last spring.  (Somehow he keeps going to Germany without me, and yet I'm the one who speaks German, what?)  

December 4th:  Much a'did
Embracing what may be our last chance ever to go to the theatre, we hit DC's wonderful Shakespeare Theatre in early December for a showing of Much Ado about Nothing, my all-time favorite play.

December 5th:  Visited the White House
I'd never actually been to the White House at Christmas, so MJ took me as her guest of honor.  So fun to see it all decorated.  And for the record, since I'm posting this more than a month later, it is weird how not-pregnant I look in these pictures.  No wonder the security lady wasn't sympathetic enough to let me use the bathroom.

December 9th:  Decorated our own tree
Our poor tree stood in our living room in nothing but lights for two weeks.  I pretended it was because Hudson and Carter were coming over to play and I didn't want to tempt them with our not-child-friendly ornaments.  That only made me feel better for a week, though.  Our tree was the perfect size this year.  So nice, in fact, that I was actually a little sad to take it down after New Years.

December 17th:  Christmas Caroled
We actually did go Christmas caroling with friends this year (no pictures, sad), which was so fun.  I love that our friends want to make these things a part of their children's lives and they let us tag along.  But we also went to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre with Kevin and Missy.  As usual, it put us in the perfect Christmassy mood.

We also, you know, passed a federal budget right in the nick of time, wrapped Christmas gifts just before we headed out of town for the holidays, and lit the Advent candle in church...which required just one too many dress-up maternity outfits for the week.  December absolutely FLEW by, but what a fun whirlwind of celebrating family, goodwill, and, most of all, our Savior's birth!

Three Bumps

Steven, Amy, and Hudson came "back home" to visit this weekend and stayed with us--fun, lazyish weekend of basically eating and then sitting in our living room and talking until way too late in the evening (that's why I look gross in this picture).  To our eternal enjoyment, it turns out that Tilly, Amy, and I are all pregnant AND all due in May 2012.  Ridiculous. 

A Virginia Thanksgiving

We had a really nice time hosting Thanksgiving for the whole Small family this year and were glad to take some of the load off of Lynda, who is working her way back to full health after finishing six months of chemo (yay!).  We particularly enjoyed having Justin and his girlfriend April stay with us--I think I've said before how much fun it is to have our siblings stay with us, now that we are all grown up.  Fun fun.

We spent the weeks before the meal planning menus and buying groceries and prepping ingredients, so it was super fun that the food all turned out just right--Jason's cider-brined turkey was seriously the best I've ever eaten...in spite of the raw meaty brine spilling all over the counter and floor at just the wrong time the night before!

"These mashed potatoes are so creamy!"

Cider-brined turkey, golden and delicious!

We ate:

• Cider-brined turkey with cider gravy
• Sausage, apple, and sage stuffing
• Garlic-thyme mashed potatoes
• Roasted Brussels sprouts with grapes
• Green bean casserole
• Tapioca Salad
• Pies and sugar-free chocolate trifle

Gathered around the table

We spent the rest of the weekend doing a variety of things, including visiting the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum and trying to find a solution to our major Thanksgiving Day plumbing situation--thank goodness for Justin and George!  Fun visit and great people with whom to celebrate all we're thankful for!

At the Air and Space Museum