Party-lag

Everyone has heard of jet lag. And most of you have probably experienced it. I am currently experiencing party lag! And maybe you will too after my quick update of events in the last month and a bit!

The early part of December was spent participating in Christmas concerts and food drives for the school. We had planned on going to the Creche but it was too COLD! Zane did a fantastic job in his "choir" for the school Christmas play and it was a bit of a jolt to realize that next year Zane will be IN the play and Rhett will be in the choir. Wow. I'm feeling slightly old. We also went as a family and took part in a performance at an old folk home. Zane and I did some piano duets and the boys dressed up like shepherds for the nativity song.

I also finally made it to see a doctor who believes in removing tonsils (harder to find then you may expect). After hearing my sob story (8 strep throats in 18 months) he looked at me and told me it's not IF they should come out but WHEN they should come out. Much rejoicing on my part. I'm not excited about the pain after wards - it's supposed to be pretty brutal, but looking forward to reducing sickness by a lot!

Later that same day (the 17th) Robison's came from Eckville and we partied it up with homemade pizza, and Wii entertainment for the kids and dads while Leslie and I visited. We're good at it :) They stayed late and about 15 minutes after they left Mom and Dad J, Auntie Kristie and Uncle Jamie were here to start our first Christmas celebration!

We had lots of fun hanging out on Saturday playing games and watching movies. Cliff and Jamie took Zane and Rhett sledding while Brock had a nap and mom and Kristie iced my sugar cookies! Good deal all around I think! After a yummy roast beef meal we exchanged gifts and were royally spoiled! The kids were so excited and had a lot of fun the whole weekend.

Monday brought reality back a little as Zane still had 2 days of school and I had seminary to teach. The girls came here and I made them breakfast...we were going to watch a movie as well but that didn't work out. Oh, well.

School was finally out and I was frantically trying to finish shopping (one of Cliff's gifts didn't arrive like it was supposed to - grrrr!), clean my house, drop off goodies to friends, finish off teaching piano and the last minute baking and grocery shopping that needed to get done. Why do you ask? Because we were hosting Christmas! That's right! For the very first time in our married life we were not the ones doing the travelling! No packing up kids and presents and driving....just a whole new set of things to get done in a time crunch! But it was so fun!
Mom and Dad R and Auntie Kizzy got here Thursday night in time for supper and were royally entertained by my children. Especially Brock. He has Papa wrapped pretty tight and those two were thick as thieves almost the whole time they were here. Over the course of the weekend he beat Papa up with a pillow (randomly walked up and started beating him), danced all over Auntie's quilt that she was sewing the binding on (broke it good for her) and learned how to touch the ceiling from Zane's bed and throw pillows off the bed to much adoring laughter!

Christmas Eve we played and ate and played some more. We bundled everyone up and went sledding behind the high school. Zane LOVES sledding, Rhett prefers to watch (you're shocked I know) and Brock was fascinated by his boots leaving prints in the snow. We did take him down the hill a couple of times but he was underwhelmed so he and Papa walked around the bottom of hills and the school just being busy. I tried to knock myself out when I took a jump on one of our tubes and bashed my head on the ground after landing. And as I lay at the bottom of the hill seeing stars Zane's at the top yelling for me to move so he can come down. All in all a lot of fun had by all of us!

After a supper of home made pizza, we watched Mr Kruger's Christmas, opened the boys' Christmas jammies and got them ready for bed. Stockings were hung, cookies were left out and the boys were off to bed! We all stayed up and played cards until Santa showed up and helped him fill the stockings before heading to bed.

Christmas morning the first thing the boys saw was the HUGE hockey table Mr. Claus had left for them AGAINST the advice of Mrs. Claus. (She would be happier about it if we had a basement - but we don't and it now resides in front of my window, Grrr.) Of course the boys and Cliff love it. Once again, I am out voted. Stockings and presents were opened, and we commenced in making our breakfast waffles - waffles with all the ooey, gooey, sugary toppings you want. By the time we finished that we decided to officially move our turkey dinner to the evening so we could actually enjoy it! The rest of the day we spent playing new games, watching new movies, and doing the small things to have the dinner ready. Turkey dinner was a smashing success and I was glad for the help of everyone - either in prep or keeping the kids entertained and out of my small kitchen!

Our family left early the next morning so they could get to Alisha and Jays and we set off for church without Cliff as he had to work. Zane and I played Silent Night as a duet and then I continued with a medley of Silent Night and Sleep, Sleep, Sleep. BEST mom moment ever I think. Zane hit every single note and played perfectly! So many people stopped to tell me how much they enjoyed it and some even called to tell him themselves. It was awesome to sit there with him while he preformed and think "wow. I taught him how to do this!"

The next week was filled with some piano lessons, reading, playing and getting ready for New Years. We went to a great party at the Piersons, played and ate too much, stayed out late and had a great time. Grammie S arrived the next day to spend some time with us - Grandpa Dooley was coming too but his truck broke down in Idaho :(. But we had lots of fun with Grammie. We hibernated and the boys and grammie played games all day. At least between the times they were fighting and trying to kill each other. Cold, cold weather and couped up all the time is not a good mix for Zane and Rhett. But we made it through!

Zane started school on the 5th and I turned 30! Yep, I finally made it to 30! I was really excited to get here and had a great day. Slept in, had a lazy day at home, taught lessons and hustled the kids into Red Deer to meet Cliff for supper. It was great. That Saturday (the 9th) we had a grown up party to celebrate my oldness. Again, so much fun with great friends and I laughed so much! What a great way to celebrate :)

After another week flying by it was Friday night and me and my best girl friends went out for our once-a-month girls night. Since it is my birthday month we used that as our excuse and off we went. The weather prevented us from heading to Red Deer as originally planned but we improvised and hit a great restaurant here in town. We started a tradition a couple of birthdays ago of the birthday girl wearing a tiara and the last birthday guest didn't forget. So, despite a few glances, I wore the tiara proudly as we laughed and talked and had a great time. We went to Kathleen's house for a movie and there they surprised me with a DQ cake! I have the very best friends in the whole wide world! And they bless my life so much! After lots of cake, laughs, a horrible movie, and more talking, it was 1:00 before I got home and 2:00 before I un-wound enough to sleep.

And now you're caught up on all my partying. No wonder I have party lag! But I wouldn't have traded it for anything! What a great month and half it has been! And I'm looking forward to the rest of 2011!

2 Months - Part one

It's almost been 2 months since I last posted....and this bugs me. So I've been trying to figure out the last couple of days what happened? Why haven't I been writing? I think there might be a few others who have been wondering the same thing.

I didn't come up with anything concrete. I have a few legit excuses - sickness - me and the kids, painting the bathroom, getting ready to host Christmas, and oh yeah, my destructive toddler. But mostly, I think they just all boil down into one category - I've been doing other things! So if you care, stick around for the next little while and I'll try and rewind a bit and catch up.

First off, Brock. I'm sure if you looked up BUSY, DESTRUCTIVE, CONSTANT MOVEMENT, or other such acronyms you would find his picture. To prove my point, here are some pictures of some of his latest handy work :

This is a pan of banana bread that Brock "helped" himself to while I was changing laundry around!

Basically, he would pull a piece off, take a bite and put it on the counter, than start over. We ate a lot of banana bread that afternoon!The next morning, I took a shower. (I know, totally irresponsible!) Came out to find the older two totally engrossed in their video game while Brock was destroying the kitchen. First he pushed a chair over to the counter and started throwing the pens and stuff on the floor....Then he knocked over a full cup of juice that an older brother kindly left in his reach....And then he climbed on the counter, opened the cupboard, and started emptying it onto the floor. That's when I showed up.But I held it together. Took a big breath, sent him packing to another room and started cleaning up. I headed back to the bathroom to dry my hair and found Mr. Busy with his hand in the toilet, a bottle of shampoo open and dripping in the linen closet, and the bath toys dumped in a huge puddle of water. I washed his hands, kicked him out of the bathroom, closed the door and sat down on the floor and cried! I was so frustrated!

I'm not laughing yet. I know you're rolling around on the floor holding your ribs....but I'm not there...yet. And that's because this is a fairly typical example of what most of my days are - minus the breakdown. I usually don't do that. But the cleaning up after my little tornado - yes. He is allergic to order and LOVES nothing better than to dump the bucket of hot wheels, the two buckets of Lego, the bucket of balls and the tote of trains. And he can do that in 2 minutes flat. Once all dumping is accomplished he looks around with a satisfied look, and then walks away. When I catch him in the act I get him to help clean up, but lots of times I come upon a mess and he's no where to be found....moved onto the next mess! He also has figured out how to take off the heat vents and stuff things down there. So I am routinely pulling toys out of my heat vents!

He's not all trouble...he's also very energetic, fun and learning new things at an astonishing rate! He's very physical - at not quite two he's doing a two-footed jump, ball handling and slap-shooting with mini sticks and balls, (with a golf-swing follow through!) and can jump shot a full size basketball! He climbs everything, rarely walks, jumps on the ottoman and my bed like it's a trampoline and can go from jumping to doing a bumsy like he's lived on a trampoline his whole life! He still loves to play the piano whenever he can - especially when Zane is trying to practice, and is learning new words all the time. He speaks in complete sentences...in his own little language and I've been joking that I need a translator collar like the dogs have in the movie UP. He LOVES nursery, is starting to do actions to some songs, hates to sit still -ever - and is fascinated by his boot prints in the snow. And he refuses to sit in a booster seat or wear a bib when eating. Needless to say meals are slightly messy when he is involved. And he's a mooch. He likes lots of different food but mostly when it comes off of someone's plate!

Grandpa Dooley calls in frequently for his update on "Calvin" (Calvin and Hobbs) as we have nicknamed Brock in his "busy" moments, and has started referring to Brock as his client and himself as Brock's lawyer as I complain about the latest thing he has destroyed or done. We're working on probation terms.

I know it's a stage. And chanting that little mantra gets me through most days...and I'm trying to laugh and document so I will remember that it was only a stage. I'm also trying to enjoy the snuggles, and the little mom moments I still have with him. He's rapidly growing up - can't believe he's almost 2! And I know my days are numbered with someone this little around. But I'm also LOVING that he's growing up to. It's sometimes an odd conflict for me. Mostly I'm trying to enjoy him now...and buying stock in paper towel!