{Ouch}

This poor little girl has had a rough few days. On Monday she walked into a flying toy microwave and got nailed right in the face . Her dear little brother who is in the habit of throwing things down the stairs just to see them bounce threw it down the stairs and she turned the corner to go up the stairs at just the right time. Honestly we couldn't have timed it any better. For a moment I thought her nose was broken. Then yesterday morning she and Ayden were playing a new game they got for Christmas at the table. All of the sudden she starts screaming and comes running to me with an indent clear down to her skull. She said she tripped getting onto the chair. She had a massive headache as you can imagine all day and was a little more subdued. I am thankful this is all happening on winter break so she doesn't have to go to school with all these battle wounds. Somebody might start asking questions.

Christmas Time

We had some special visitors for Christmas this year, and no it wasn't Santa. Ryan's Dad and step-mom came to spend Christmas with us and boy did we have fun. So much fun I think we plum wore them out. They came Tuesday afternoon and bright and early Wednesday we were off doing a whole list of things. In no particular order this is what we got done in the five days they were here. We started with last minute Christmas shopping, went to "The Princess and the Frog", built an exceptional gingerbread house, made too much good food for any one person to eat and still live to tell about it, played game after game of Connect Four, stuffed ourselves on chocolate fondue, watched "It's a Wonderful Life", wrapped presents, went to the park to play, made and decorated sugar cookies for Santa, read the Christmas story from the scriptures, watched the "Joy to the World" dvd, took much needed naps, watched Christmas movies, had a slight mishap with the ceramic wise man and a ball (he will need plastic surgery to reattach his head but his prognosis is good), had a wonderful Christmas with many more gifts than we deserve and of course spending lots of quality time making memories. I didn't get pictures of the whole list of things, just some of them. We are very grateful that we had family near and could share this holiday with them. We even got to see Ryan's brother and his wife and Ryan's Mom and step-dad. It was a full few days.
One tradition we have is making homemade sugar cookies to leave out for Santa. This recipe is my Great Grandma Brown's and it is beyond good. The kids and Grandma Faith had a wonderful time frosting and decorating the cookies. The theme this year was LOTS and LOTS of sprinkles!!



Another one of our Christmas Eve traditions is having homemade pizza and chocolate fondue. The kids love both and we usually stuff ourselves to the point of no return with both.


Yet another tradition is getting pajamas on Christmas eve. This year Grandma Faith had a fun scavenger hunt set up for the kids to find their pj's. They thought that was fun. After they changed into brand new jammies it was time to read the Christmas story and then leave cookies out for Santa with their letters. Then time for bed, finally!!



This Christmas morning was the longest we have ever experienced. Only because we had to wait for Ryan to get home before the kids could open up the rest of their presents. They played with what Santa brought them and they were actually somewhat content to wait for Dad. Once Dad got home it was truly a free for all though. I guess we needed to have enjoyed the quiet while we had it.

It was a wonderful Christmas with many memories made. We are grateful for this time of year when we can stop and ponder the real reason for the season. We hope you and yours had a great Christmas too.

{Night Float}

Has anyone who reads my blog(all three of you) ever worked nights? If you have you know how it messes up your body!! Ryan is on the rotation that people "lovingly" call night float. Five nights a week he works from 7pm to 7am. When he gets off on the last night of the week, which happens to be in the morning, he stays at the hospital until noon for his clinic. He then comes home and "tries" to stay up or maybe just have a little cat nap so he can try and sleep like a normal human at night. Then on his one day/night of normalcy he tries to engage in conversation, play with the kids and function like a real dad. You may have noticed I have used the word try/tries a lot. The reason is the poor guy just can't keep his eyes open when the sun is up. He looks like a walking zombie!! This week is his 6th and final week of nights, at least until he does another 7 weeks in the Spring. I am so glad that Ryan's class decided to split this rotation into two. Three months of nights would pretty near kill anyone. Ryan gets to work Christmas Eve again this year, it should be interesting to see how long he stays awake on Christmas morning.

The other downside to Ryan working nights is trying to keep the heathens quiet during the day. I probably sound like a broken record to my kids as I am constantly telling them to be quiet, stop running, your daddy's sleeping, talk quieter, ect. Especially with all the kids being home for Christmas break. It rained today, most of the day and so I couldn't send the kids out to play at all. They of course were wanting to act out battles of all kinds and fight, and scream, and cry. It is really a wonder that Ryan gets any kind of sleep at all around here. Tonight when he woke up he looked so haggard. Thankfully he has a whole week off after Christmas so maybe his poor body can get back to it's previously scheduled sleep pattern. I don't {heart} Night Float!!!

{Color}

(It is always better to watch TV with a weapon. The kid slept with that thing last night!!)

About a year and a half ago we got rid of our direct tv. Our year long introductory price has expired and we really didn't feel like paying 70 bucks for a ton of channels that we didn't even watch. So right after Wyatt was born we canceled it. The kids were a little heartbroken at first but honestly after a week or so it seemed like they didn't even miss it. Occasionally Ayden would ask if we could get the color back on our TV, meaning actual channels. A few people thought his terminology for cable was pretty funny. I had someone even ask us if we indeed had a black and white TV. Really?!! My kids have done really well without tv, they have played more, read more and got along sorta ok at times!! I have at times missed being able to watch my cooking shows or other things of that nature but I have so many other things to do that I really liked not having it. I also really liked not having the smut that is so readily available on tv now days in my home. Well we (meaning Ryan) decided that they had missed out on enough sports programming and we got our "COLOR" back about a week ago. When the kids got home from school they were really excited. Adyen exclaimed, "Thanks Mom for getting channels back on our TV. You are the best!!" They have been good about not watching TV all the time, and actually play/pretend more than they watch TV. Ayden's favorite thing to watch recently is sports, especially football. He almost had a meltdown the other night when I sent him to bed before the Colts/Jaguar game was over because he didn't get to see the final score. This morning he woke up and quickly checked to see if there were any football games on today. He was bummed when he had to miss one because we had to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Last night he watched Sports Center so he could get the final scores for basketball, hockey and football games. He stated that he wanted all the ferocious teams to win. For example in the hockey match between the Maple Leafs and the Sabers he sided with the Sabers. Maple leafs don't really strike fear into...well anything. He likes to make a little score card for each game and write down the final score. It is comical to listen to him watching the game. He cheers when someone, anyone scores. He has also decided that he wants to play football this next year instead of baseball. He said he wants to try other sports to see which one fits him the best. It will be fun to watch him decide which one he likes best. As for Ryan, he loves having a partner in crime when it comes to watching sports now!!

{Santa}

Santa made his annual stop at the OB/GYN office party again this year. The kids of course were excited as usual and couldn't wait for him to come. They raced through their lunch and then pestered us about Santa's location for the next 30 minutes. Wyatt passed out from lack of a nap so Ryan got to accept his present. This little party has been a fun tradition for the last few years. And the added bonus is we don't have to wait in line at a crazy mall or store in order for our kids to see the Big Red guy!!!