Christmas 2010

Christmas was a busy day for us this year. We played white elephant at my side of the family in the morning then went to Elaine's for dinner. We got up early and went to bed late but it was worth it. We had good food and was around family all day long.

Lynne hosted this year with pancakes, bacon, and Joanne's amazingly delicious orange breakfast rolls. The kids then opened up gifts from each other then on to white elephant, the main attraction. With 23 people in the game and nobody scared to steal, steal, steal, the game takes awhile. I had a really nice crockpot at one point, had a wool lined blanket, then I had my final present, a set of white baking dishes. We don't really have that many nice serving dishes or baking dishes so it was a pretty good gift to end with. Dave decided to not steal even though there were a few good things on the table. He opened up a nice hunting brand of pocket knife that came with a lighted hat. That was stolen a few turns later, he then opened up the white baking dishes, which then I stole from him, then he stole yaktracks which was his final gift. After an hour and half long game I think we did pretty good!

Addison picked out a shirt for her dad for christmas and he was required to wear it Christmas morning. She was thrilled, he was well... not as thrilled.. 

 

 The glasses look a little better on Miss Addison then they do on her dad

At Elaine's all the gifts had a name on them and everyone brought a few which quickly piled up to take over the entire living room nearly. It was a relaxing dinner and then a frenzy of flying wrapping paper. I received all things photography, including a new camera bag which I needed really bad. It is great because it can fit all THREE of my lenses now since Dave got me the 50mm prime lens I wanted! Jaxson was inundated with all things Toy Story, which he loved. He was so worn out and finally headed home for him to fall asleep for the first time in his toy story bedroom.

Bedtime with Buzz

Santa this year came in and decorated Jaxson's new bedroom and left behind a big buzz lightyear to play with. Jaxson was a little confused when we kept calling this new blue Buzz room his room but seemed to get excited about it after not too long. He was ecstatic once he opened up his toy and after an hour I got him unwrangled from the box. (Gees... could those Disney toys be tied into those darn boxes any more??!!) After our long day of family and unwrapping gifts we came home and Jaxson went to lay down in his new bed. After two hours, and me almost giving in and putting him in his original room and let him warm up to the idea rather than doing cold turkey, he finally went to sleep. It was about midnight that he let his heavy eyes rest and woke up pretty happy in his buzz surrounded room.

Fun in the Tub

Jaxson in the tub is pretty tame. He plays with the squirter toys alot and boats a little bit. He likes to draw with the tub crayons once in awhile. When he is in the bath he pretty much sits in the same spot and very cautiously will scoot around on his knees to change toys if he wants. We have been talking about swimming and today he really went for it. He laid down on his tummy with his legs stretched out. He kicked his feet and moved back and forth using his arms. He even at one point tried to put his face underwater, although he didn't like it much, he didn't cry at all. This makes me look forward to spring swimming lessons. I was too late getting in last spring so this year I am going to get on top of it right away. I didn't get any pictures of his swimming extravaganza but I assure you, he was pretty cute "swimming" around in there. If he is anything like his mother he will love to swim in pools, tubs, rivers, lakes, or oceans.

What Happened??

Everyone always told me how lucky I am to have such a well behaved child. I always thanked them, knowing they were right, and hoping it lasted forever. I guess I didn't cross my fingers tight enough because as of last week Jaxson has been a terror! And terror for him is probably still fairly good if compared to kids with a real wild streak but not what I am used to. I think it mainly revolves around him not wanting to take naps. He usually does 3 hour naps each afternoon but lately has gotten up to play instead. I have done some reading and found that it is common for kids around 3 to start transitioning out of afternoon naps. Ugh... He clearly still needs a nap as he defiantly runs around the house doing anything he is not supposed to be doing. Thursday was the worst of them all... It will be easier for me to just list them all.

1. It started at lunch time. I was washing dishes as he was finishing his lunch, so I thought. I turned around and he was smearing it all in his hair. I know I sound ridiculous but he has never done this before, not even as a baby. He then required a bath before naptime.

2. Then came nap time. I went to check on him and he had found a bottle of glycerin suppositories we used when he was having issues. They were put up in a drawer that he can apparently easily move furniture to get into nowadays. I freaked out and asked him if he had eaten them. He of course said YES! I asked him a few more questions until he said they were yucky so he probably tasted it and quickly realized they were NOT for eating. Thank goodness! I then scoured his room to make sure there was nothing he could eat, or attempt to eat that would be dangerous.


3. Went to check on him again. This time he had dumped out his baby bag and found a nearly empty bottle of hyland teething tablets. He clearly ate some of them with the white powder around his lips. I then started to look harder for anything that could be ingested. I couldn't find anything, but I also don't think like a two year old apparently. And he had to be getting tired, I was sure of it..

4. Went to check.. again. This time he had thrown every diaper out his drawer, and every wipe out of the container. Yay! At least he didn't try to eat something..

5. I heard a loud noise and went to check. I was crossing my fingers he had fallen out of bed in a deep, deep sleep. I was wrong. He was "fixing" his night light. He had taken it out of the wall, taken it apart, and was trying to fix it. So no more nightlight, and now gets a outlet cover. Oh well...

I decided at this point I just had to either stay in there with him or give up on the nap. I just gave up on the nap since I was about to start to pull out my hair. I need to do some research on what this new stage will bring and how I handle it. And.. how I am going to handle it with two kids. :/

Gamble Wedding

One of Dave's friends that he has known since elementary school got married last night. I was looking forward to the winter wedding even though I had to try to find something to stick my 7mo pregnant belly into. Gamble went to law school at Drake so many of the people at the wedding we didn't know but there were a few people Dave knew from all the way back to elementary school that he hadn't seen in a long time. After dinner and some time socializing we headed home, which luckily was only about half mile away. It was nice to have a short trip home with very sore, tired feet from wearing heals.

Dave with the groom

Me with the bride, who very smartly changed into a reception dress. I should have thought of that.. 

Little Baker Man

I along with every mom in the area apparently, decided to decorate holiday cookies with Jaxson. I took what I thought would be a 30 minute max trip before dinner to Walmart to grab some sprinkles, cookie cutters, etc. I ended up walking around that darn store for what seemed like forever. I got some of what I needed, the cookie mix and frosting, along with one thing of green, red, and white sprinkles. But no cookie cutters or anything else somewhat fun to decorate with. I was so frustrated but decided to make one more stop at Target to see about cutouts and some other fun things. Obviously I wasn't the only one with the idea because these were my options:

 

One of the people working mentioned they have a few cookie cutters in the dollar section. (which I liked better anyway) and luckily they still had a few. They also had sprinkles and other fun decorating things in the dollar section. woohoo! Finally headed home, I was annoyed but at least stocked with cookie decorating materials. 

And it was so worth my hour and half trip because he LOVED it and was so cute rolling the dough, cutting out the shapes, and decorating, decorating, decorating. He was really excited about the green sprinkles and the mini M&M's. 

He was also a fan of eating one of his masterpieces!

Belly Update Week 27

We are 67% there and I am definitely feeling it. I still feel great but am just feeling pregnant, which is to be expected I guess. Next week is my 28 week appointment then I start going every 2 weeks. My mind reminds me regularly that it is coming up quickly, but with my due date in March and spring feeling like years away, sometimes I still feel like I have all the time in the world.

Week 24

Week 20

Week 16

Have you been a good boy?

 We went to lunch with Elaine today and then off to meet Santa. Last year we went to Carol's friend's house to meet Santa and Jaxson was not a fan. This time he was a little unsure but Santa got a smile out of him when he gave him crayons and wanted to read him a story. He didn't shed a tear and even looked at the camera once. We may be going again though because when we arrived the "helper" asked me if I wanted to have a picture taken or take my own. Take my own?!?!?! Really?!?! Yes please! But I didn't realize they would allow that so I just popped my point and shoot in my pocket and didn't bring my big boy camera. (I feel I should name my cameras or something because I hate calling my DSLR my "good" camera, because they are both great cameras, just serve different purposes) But if we have a free day we will stop back over and grab another picture with the other camera. And maybe next time we will even get a smile.

Jaxson's Favorite Things List

I should do this more often but it is always fun to put together a list of Jaxson's favorite things. Now I am sure it will be a lot less exciting than Oprah's favorite things, and no, everyone doesn't get one of each either. But it will be fun for me to go back and look at what got Jaxson so excited at 2 1/2.

Thomas and Friends. He still loves to build the tracks, and watch the trains crash into each other.

Toy Story. Anything toy story he is in love with but in particular Buzz Lightyear. To Infinity and Beyond!

Monsters Inc. He loves this movie. He would watch it in a marathon straight if he could. I thought it would scare him but I think it did the opposite since he loves monsters now so much.

Dino Dan. This is a recent favorite thing. He has watched this show a few times and is now always asking to watch Dino Dan.

Roars. Aka Dinosaurs. Because of Dino Dan he loves to play with dinosaurs at Mels and might have a few under the christmas tree this year.


Football. Thanks to Dave Jaxson will for sure grow up to be a football fan. He already watches any game and spontaneous yells out YES! when it seems like a big play happened.

Hawkeyes. He loves to play with the football with the Tigerhawk on it, or drink out of the cups that have hawkeyes on it. He has no choice but to be a Hawkeye fan at this point, he is completely brainwashed. (In a good way)

Mimi and Jess. He is obsessed with Mimi and particular Uncle Jess. Nobody is really surprised since Jesse lets him play with his Iphone and plays fun games with him constantly when they are here.

Books. This favorite thing has yet to change and I love it. At night he is now wanting to read us the books. It is so cute.

Aubrey. Or Bobbi as he calls her. She is still his best friend, two years going strong.

Deviled Eggs. I know this seems strange but Thanksgiving was a turning point and he will eat deviled eggs like he has been starved for two years. I wish it was something more healthy he was loving. Luckily it is a treat that doesn't happen often.

Over

We had our last photo class last night. I am somewhat relieved to not have projects piling up like that had been, but also a little sad because now I won't have those projects pushing me to use my camera for creative things every week. I guess it will be up to me to find my own projects. Easier said than done I am sure. These are the last few projects we had in class. Some I love, some are not my favorite but done for a project. 

Project called Pinocchio. The idea was to photograph someone being something they wished they could be. Dave, of course, wanted to be a professional poker player. 

Unusual Angles. We had to take a photo of something from a different point of view. I am not sure how "unusual" this is but it worked. :) 

Still Life. Our teacher set up studio lights one night and we had to bring fruit to photograph. 

 Picture page. We had to take 5 photos that were then mounted. We could do either bicycles or cemetary. Only because I didn't have a bicycle I used the creepiest cementary in Des Moines, just before dark, and on a windy, slightly overcast, very creepy day. Alone. This was my favorite picture that came out of that day. 

Faces. We had to find 7 faces in ordinary objects. I stuggled with this project but finally found seven. This is Dave's electric razor that looks like some type of bug face. :)

Selective Focus. we had to shoot something so only a small part was in focus. I used Jaxson's little fingers playing the piano but I had this one as well that I liked. I was intending to use this for unusual angle but decided it fit for this project better. It is the inside of a piano if you were wondering.

Friendsgiving

Thanksgiving seems to be only for family traditionally and our families are no different. But we do get the luxury of having great friends who put on Friendsgiving each year, either a week or two after or before, Thanksgiving day. It is such a great event that we have been able to go to now for four years. The first year of Friendsgiving was the first year they were married and still living in Marty's "bachelor pad" with two of his roommates that still lived there. Boy has it changed! It is now 25+ people and a ton of kids. They provide all the staples and guests arrive with various other dishes to enjoy. I brought deviled eggs of course and I also cut up the rest of my brownie peanut butter crunch bars and was very thankful those delicious little things were leaving the house. They were also a big hit, although I wasn't surprised. I didn't take many pictures but will share the few I did get. 

 Somehow Tyler got the entire turkey leg. And he actually was able to do some damage on it. Pretty good for 9yr old.

 Just some of the kids

Miss Aubrey asked me to take a picture, so I of course obliged. 

Last Minute Art Event

I got a message on facebook from Maryann about the Art Center having what they call Reindeer Round Up. It was a free event that had reindeer outside you could visit along with live festive music inside. They had cookies and juice and two crafts to choose from. I got the message about about 1240 and it started at 1. Somehow Dave and I both got showered (it's Sunday, don't judge us for not being showered yet at 1240!) and ready and Jaxson dressed as well as some lunch and were out the door by 1:12. I don't know how it happened but it did. We got to the art center to see it surprisingly very busy.

First we met Dancer and Prancer outside.

We listened to the music while eating out cookie then off to the craft area. We found ourselves at the end of a very long craft line. We contemplated ditching it but felt like it would be a waste of Jaxson didn't get to do something artsy. The line seemed to be going quickly so we waited it out and were at our table in only 5 minutes or so. We followed the "model" for the most part and Jaxson had fun doing the confetti part. This made me feel like we should do more crafts at home. Ugh... why can't I just be more crafty?

The finished product. :) 

Ready for the Mailman

I struggled with this year's christmas card. The last two years seemed to work out perfectly from the idea to finding the right card layout. For some reason this year I struggled with everything from the idea, to the "photo shoot", to finding the right card layout, and so on and so on. I thought two years ago when I did it that it was going to get a little easier and I could get him to look at me better or smile. Uhhh... I couldn't have been more wrong. A baby can't move.. a two year old can. A baby can't choose to be difficult, a two year definitely can. I am just unsure how I am going to do this next year with a 10month old and a three year old. I told Dave that next year he may be in charge of the christmas photo. He thought that was about as good of an idea as converting to cyclone fans. And they probably have the same chance of happening, zero!

But in the end I finally have a card that I am proud of and makes me smile when I see it, as I hope it does for you too. Be sure to check your mailboxes soon. :)

Dangerously Delicious

I came across a recipe on a blog I check out once in awhile, kevinandamanda.com, that took two of my favorite sweet treats and put them together. It is like Dave passing up bacon wrapped pork chop stuffed with sausage or something. How do you pass it up? I had to give it a try. Could you pass up fudge brownies topped with peanut butter rice crispy treats? Me either! And unfortunately for my daily growing waistline they were very simple to make, and not at all healthy. Now that I have indulged, and will continue to do so if they are sitting on my counter, I am thinking I will cut them in small squares and take to our Friendsgiving we have tomorrow night. They are just too good to keep in this house.

Here is a link to the recipe if you are feeling like a sweat treat that will make your mouth water

Christmas Tradition

 Something I wanted to start doing when he was first born but never did, was get him a christmas ornament each year. I was out christmas shopping and spotted the perfect ornament for this year, a sock monkey! I thought that it was better to start my tradition now then never and picked it up. I brought it home and when he saw it he quickly ran to his room and got his big sock monkey and he pointed out that it is monkey, and baby monkey. (He is always talking about babies now that it is a frequent topic around the Barry household.)

When we showed him that it is to be hung on the tree he took this job very seriously as he had done with each ornament the night before. Quite daintily he placed it on the perfect limb of the tree. Once it was hung he got his big sock monkey who then gave the "baby" a kiss. It was so cute and I am always happy when he seems like he is adjusting well to the baby idea. I just hope he doesn't think he can hang his baby brother on a tree. Although, I am sure a time will come when they will give it a try.