Christmas Eve.

I was off work starting on Thursday and that night we got to go on our helicopter Christmas lights tour! Kaden had even more fun than I'd hoped and if he was afraid (tight grip and all), he never showed it one bit. He was so brave and climbed right up in that seat and got his headset on without a single problem. He held my hand (quite tightly) the entire ride, but was chatting and excited the entire trip. Sadly, we thought we got the whole thing on video, but when we got back to the car, Stu realized he had it on standby and not on record, so we only got a little like ten second clip. But we have the memories and a single great pic of Kaden ready to take off with his headset on, so that will do! :) He keeps asking if he can go back on the helicopter, so hopefully we will be able to do it again... maybe next year, :)

Tonight, we took the kids out to dinner at Red Lobster and they were little angels. Jackson busied himself with his book and laying on the seat beside me to eat his bottle, and Kaden colored and read the appetizer menu. I love that I feel comfortable and confident taking my kids out in public because I know they will almost always be so good. We had planned it perfectly for right after nap for both of them, so Jackson didn't even get grumpy until we were on the way home from a Wal-Mart stop after we ate. It was great!

We are just so thrilled for Santa to come tonight! Kaden is at the perfect age for wonder and amazement and his questions just thrill me to the core. I love sharing his glee and reliving my own excitement I felt as a child for Santa's impending arrival. Even thought he's been in bed for over an hour, if he's anything like me, he is still awake thinking about Santa and if the reindeer will like the carrots we left for them. My sweet little guys.

Tomorrow we will begin our day with gifts and a breakfast casserole I put together tonight (WAY easier than making breakfast! :)) and then we will end it at Aunt Marcia and Uncle Deven's for dinner and presents. I never thought I could love Christmas anymore... then suddenly I found myself the parent of a 3-year-old.

May your Christmas be as full as ours!

20 Years.

What a great day yesterday was! I got to go to a surprise party for my former boss, who has been with the AG's office for 20 years now! I think it is awesome that such a dedicated attorney would stay for so many years in civil service, when he could easily go off and make 3 or 4 (or more) times what he makes at the state if he went with a private firm. But that's just the kind of guy he is, moral to the core. It was so nice to get to see all of my old coworkers and get a tour of their new office, which is so much newer and cleaner feeling than the basement we used to be stuffed into. I also got a chance to catch up with my favorite people from that office and exchanged promises to get together. :)

Then, when I got home from that, I made breakfast sandwiches for dinner (take THAT McDonald's!) and then we all got bundled up and headed out for a drive to look at Christmas lights. Last year Kaden was pretty confused and was mostly just tired, but this year he was so excited and kept saying, "On my side now!"... "Now on Mom's side!" when we would pass good houses. It was a blast. Jackson snoozed for most of it and then woke up just in time to go home, without too much fussing. So all-in-all, a very successful lights-seeing night. :)


Because it isn't a secret anymore (thanks, Deven's drugs! lol), I might as well divulge that one of Stu and Kaden's presents this year from Mommy is a helicopter Christmas lights tour! We are going tomorrow night and I am so excited to take my little buddy on his first (and Mommy and Daddy's first also) helicopter ride! I am really hoping he doesn't freak out and that we all have a great time, because it sounds so freaking cool! Lol.


After Christmas lights we finished our evening cuddling for a bit on the couch, me indulging in some gifted homemade Kahlua and milk. Yummmm.



Tonight is the MAACO bowl and I am so excited to watch my Broncos take on the Utes! Go! Orange! Go Big Blue! Fight! Fight! B-S-U!

Weekend Bliss!

WHAT an amazing weekend we had! Mimi and Papa surprised us by flying into town without notice so we got to spend the whole weekend with them and Marcia and Deven (and Company) making cookies, eating, hanging out and laughing. It was great, and definitely worth the surprise!

Saturday morning I woke up to Stu telling me Marcia wanted us to head over the make cookies before it got too late and Kaden needed to nap and that she was going to make breakfast items, so I got up and got dressed and we headed over. Marcia told Kaden that there was a surprise upstairs and that he should go get it and bring it down to us. He readily agreed and I guessed that they had gotten us something Christmas-y, like one of those blow-up lawn ornaments or something and his squeal of delight made me imagine they had already blown it up upstairs. Instead, down he comes with Mimi and Papa in tow! I was so excited and felt instant relief because I'd been fretting over the fact that we wouldn't be able to see them for several more months and Jackson and Kaden just keep growing so fast, so I did the only rational thing... I cried like a baby! :)

We spent the whole weekend just having so much fun that of course it went by WAY too fast, but was so nice. Kaden found out that his great grandpa is SANTA and he was soooo excited! We got to take pictures with a Santa that they know and love, so we didn't get any of those terrified kid pics, which is nice. Haha.

I also got to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend with Marcia and Mimi which is infinitely better than alone, though the crowds were nuts and exhausting. It was too bad they had to leave so quickly, but I am so glad they came! Here are some pics from the weekend.

Jackson showing off Grandad's skillz in the crib he made for Kaden.

Papa and Jackson looking at each other during meal time.

Kisses for Papa! Sweet baby.

Kaden and Jackson on the only REAL Santa's lap.

Jackson and Mimi share a sweet moment together.

Working..... out.

I have had a really hard time losing the baby weight this time around and I think that is partly because it has only been 4 months and partly because I. HAVE. NO. TIME.

The last 4 months have consisted of me working full time, going to school, and then rushing home to eat and hang out with my kids for a little while before they have to go to bed, and then the next day we did it all over again. Now that school is officially over as of Tuesday, I am able to come home right from work and not have to worry about homework deadlines or upcoming tests, so I can just be with my boys. But that also means that I have no more excuses to avoid working out...

...That STILL doesn't mean that I have any motivation to. I got on the elliptical last night and after about 5 minutes I thought I might actually have a heart attack and die in my kids' playroom. But, alas, I survived and today, I feel sore, but good. So maybe I can put this into my routine without too much grief. :) Still doesn't mean I WANT to.

I mean, let's be honest, would YOU want to waste your time working out if you had these faces to play with as an alternative???

I didn't think so.

Damn you, Facebook!

Ok, so I have recently gotten back in touch with a few people I haven't talked to in years and one of them mentioned that they "still read your blog" and I felt so bad! What a horrible blogger I have become! So I am going to try to blog every day for a while (we'll see how it goes). Even if it is just something simple, because the reason I stopped blogging is both that I post everything anyone would ever want to know on Facebook (and the photo upload time is shorter) and because I always feel like I don't have enough to say to warrant opening up a whole new blog. So I just don't. And that makes me lame. SO I am really going to try to get better again! So daily blogging until I can get back into the hang of it again!

Today I have my math final and I am terrified. Suddenly my math teacher completely changed the way he was grading (as evidenced by my test scores going from a 91 and 100%s to 60 and 65s). My final is worth 20% of my grade and this should be the last math class I ever have to take (provided that I don't change my major again). I have to score above a 50% to pass the class, but after the last two tests, that seems up in the air. I have no idea what the test will cover because he refused to go over it with us. I just feel like my hands are really tied AND I am pissed that my GPA is going to be affected because some douchebag* with tenure is having an end-life crisis (it can't be mid-life unless he's an elf because he is like 400 years old).

I am also turning in my Ed-CIFS final today (my teacher was MIA yesterday, even though I've had it done for days) so after 3 PM I am DONE with this semester! (And will have no real reason NOT to blog then, see??? :))

Anyway, Jackson is growing like a weed and is a big boy 4-month-old now and just cut his first tooth this past weekend. Kaden is my little intuitive genius and has a huge heart. I just love watching him grow and develop. We ALL can't wait for Christmas... stay tuned for some surprises coming up soon!



*(And no, spellchecker, douchebag is spelled correctly.)