Wednesday Randoms

I have had a migraine for 2 days straight. Nothing, no NOTHING, will kill it. . . so I'm posting a Wednesday randoms instead of the well thought out post I intended.

1- It's swap time again on the mommy board. . . and this time, it's a doozie! We're doing a 13 days of Christmas swap (there were 28 of us who wanted to participate, so we broke down into groups of 14) We each sent presents to the other 13 girls in the group, were each assigned a day, and are now in the process of opening them, one December day at a time.

I can't tell you how much fun we're having!

If you want to check it out, we've got a blog going. . .

I'm on the green team.

2- It has been snowing on and off for 4 days now. There is a LOT of snow on the ground. . .

This was the view out the front doors of our building on Monday at lunch time. This was during a lull in the actual snow fall, and obviously the sidewalks had been shoveled . . . but it gives you an idea. We've had many more inches since. Not to mention, it was literally 0 degrees when I left the house this morning.

My car was not pleased.

But at least the roads were clear for the commute.

3- BEFORE it started snowing, Nolan went with Tamera up to her house and spent some time chatting with Anabelle the cow.

And then he kissed her.

Which is seriously gross, but also kind of cute.

4- I saw something crazy on the way to work today. . . And I had to take a picture, even though it probably wasn't the SMART thing to do while driving. . .
What's up with that? Are they carrying a giant bag of dirt along with the coffin and the contraption to lower it into the ground? I must admit to being a bit creeped out at this. . .


5- We celebrated our dear friend Marcie's birthday this past weekend with a brunch up at Sundance. At one point I noticed that Ben, Kevin, and Juan were all wearing high collared sweaters, so I made them pose for me. :) And they had to know I was going to blog it, right?

Right.

Friday Randoms

1- I am THIS CLOSE to being done with my Christmas shopping. I am determined to be completely finished by Monday. Just a few more little things yet to do. But we leave for AZ in 2 weeks, so it doesn't feel as ahead of schedule as it sounds . . .

But saying I'm done with the shopping also doesn't account for all that still needs to be done. There is some making involved in the Christmas presents too. . .

2- We got a new baby at our house. A brand new 27" iMac to help us with our budding new business. To say that's a really big screen is HUGELY understating things. To say I love it? ALSO hugely understating.

3- I am currently dumping ALL of the video from our camera, that has not been uploaded in MONTHS to said new computer. Here is a little preview of Nolan's current trickery. It's a clip of his 2nd birthday. And keep in mind that this starts on about the 15th time I'd lit the candle. His signs are for More and Please, in case you don't speak toddler sign.



4- One of the projects I have going on right now is editing a video for Christmas for my grandparents. (It's safe to announce that here as they don't have the internet, so they'll never read this) My mom and her 5 sisters have compiled a huge stack of photos and a few video clips to present to them for Christmas, and I have to admit. . . putting it together is making me tear up a bit. First, because I'm used to putting these kinds of things together for funerals, but in this case, it's not like that at all. They are both alive and kickin' (in the way people in their late 70s kick at least) And second, because how FUN is it to go back and look at your history in such a concrete way? I love it! I love that I get to see pictures of my grandparents on their wedding day. . . of my aunts and mom as kids. . . of myself and the other grandchildren, and now great grandchildren. SUCH a cool legacy.

5- Does anyone have a favorite new Christmas album they can suggest? I always make a little mix of Christmas songs each year, and I need some new stuff. . .

Thanksgiving

So, Thanksgiving happened. . .

Honestly, the actual day OF Thanksgiving, I spent a good portion of the day sleeping, or slightly loopy. I had an AWFUL migraine that WOULD NOT DIE, and after every possible option was exhausted, including a 2 hour nap, during which Ben completed the task of cooking ALL of our dinner contributions with NO help from me, we went for the big guns. (wow that was a run on sentence)

I took two of my mom's Fiorecet. And boy HOWDY, did that work.
It also made me really out of it for several hours. And I honestly can't remember much of that day. . . except that it was a delicious meal, and that the kids were really well behaved and it was pretty serene (with the exception of my special child, who only wanted rolls and to get DOWN from the table).

But, Nolan had a great time playing with his cousins.

And making use of all of Logan's baby gear. . . Apparently he needed a seat a little lower to the ground.

We were very lucky to have Jeremy and Emily in town for the whole week, which gave us an excuse to throw a party for them and their wee girl that will be making an appearance in February. Here are a few outtakes from the shower (I really didn't take many photos. duh)

(The guest of honor is on the right)

Their nursery is going to have orange as it's accent color, so I went with that. . .

candy sticks with cute tags. . . one of my favorite favors for showers

We packed a LOT into a short weekend (Nathan, Jenny & Tanner didn't get in until Saturday morning) and had so much fun. I wish my brothers and their families didn't have to leave. We miss having them around so much! But we all had something to be thankful for, in having the whole clan together again.

More to come very soon on family photos and our trip to the children's museum.