running a little behind?

i was browsing through one of my friend's paper sites and came across the card below:


a great alternative for those who can't get their holiday cards out before the new year. i thought it was such a clever and simple design.....listing all those things we hope and wish for in the new year. it's not too late if you haven't gotten around to wishing your friends and family warm holiday wishes!

a new tradition

all my life, christmas eve was spent at my grandparent's house with our large extended family. it was really my favorite part of christmas. since the family is getting so big and the grandchildren (me included) are growing up, getting married, and having children, it's becoming harder for everyone to make it. this year, our family has decided to move our holiday gathering to the sunday before christmas instead in hopes that it would be easier for everyone to attend. this change meant that we had christmas eve open for our little family to start our own holiday traditions.

after a little thought and discussion, we decided it would be our new christmas eve tradition to make home-made pizza, watch a holiday movie and drink egg nog. (or "ogg nag" as the little dude likes to call it!)

here are a few photos from our first christmas eve pizza making, movie watching, egg nog drinking night.


the little dude and daddy making the pizza.


a picture of all the boys with the finished pie!


the little dude enjoying his egg nog in his special holiday mug.


after our dinner and movie (the grinch who stole christmas), we set out some treats for santa and his reindeer.


the boys stockings filled after santa stopped by!


and the tree after santa left his goodies!

the return to pre-school

finally, after missing over a week of school, the little dude was well enough to go back on monday. i'm so glad because he loves it so much. it's so fun to watch him get excited about it. as soon as the doors open in the morning he says: "the doors are open!" and goes running for the classroom leaving me in a trail of dust! as nice as it is not to have a kid who clings to me and cries, a little "good-bye mom, i love you" would be nice!

he had his first christmas program on tuesday night. although he didn't participate in the song singing, (he only made it to one practice since he was out sick for so long) we did join in the gingerbread house making afterward. he had quite the time.


he made sure every square inch of it was covered and had a blast deciding which pieces would be included on the house.

and here's a photo of it later at home in better light.


on wednesday after pre-school we had to go check his bin. inside was a present all wrapped up for mommy and daddy. unfortunately i didn't think to take a picture of the wrapping before we tore it apart. anyway, inside was a precious little snow globe. i've seen these a million times but somehow, when it comes from your own child, it's the best thing on earth!

before shaking:


after shaking:


as you can see, they weren't stingy with the glitter! i think there's probably a tablespoon worth in this tiny little baby food jar! i actually waited for a little to settle before snapping the picture!

i think i've officially entered into the world of handmade gifts made of dried pasta and miscellaneous craft supplies! i gotta say: i LOVE it!

sleeping beauty

after a very, very, very rough week, my lovely little baby gave me a gift. the gift of sleep! last night, when least expected, our little rowan slept through the night. it doesn't get much better than that!

so much for pre-school!

** warning, this post may not be for those with a weak stomach **

the poor little dude has been very, very sick this past week. it started out last thursday with a runny nose. we treated him and kept him home for school on friday (which would have been his 3rd day) so as not to spread the cold around the class. friday, saturday, and sunday, the runny nose continued. not a big deal. it didn't really seem to be getting worse, so i wasn't worried.

sunday night at midnight i heard the little dude awake in his room which is unusual. i was just going to let him fall back to sleep on his own, but something told me to go in and check on him. the smell overwhelmed the room as i walked in. he had thrown-up all over his bed. and when i say all over, i mean every piece of bedding he owns.......the pillow case, the pillow, the top sheet, the fitted sheet, the comforter, his blankie, his clothes.....everything was covered.

i had been waiting for this day for a long time. i had heard horror stories from other mothers, but had been extremely lucky to have a healthy kid. we made it three years with no vomit. until sunday night, that is.

so i called the husband and he took the little dude and stripped him down and shoved him in the bathtub while i stripped down the bed. i re-made the bed and we got the little dude back in with a bucket by his side for any repeat performances.

long story short, we were up the rest of the night. it was like a vomit-a-thon. fun times.

so i called him in sick again on monday (what would have been his 4th day of school). at this point he had missed as many days as he had gone. poor guy. he was so excited about school and now here he was, finally able to go, and too sick to attend.

monday the hubby stayed home with me and the little dude because i don't think it would have been possible for me to take care of both boys, the business, and all the vomit. the little dude make it through most of the day without puking, but then it all started over again at 6:00 p.m. and lasted straight through the night again. another vomit-a-thon. so two straight nights with no sleep for mommy and daddy. at this point he had not eaten anything for a full 24 hours. he basically had only had a few sips of water.

tuesday seemed to be a little better. he made it all day again without much vomit. but then at 6:00 p.m. again, he started throwing-up again. at this point it was 2 1/2 days without eating anything. (only pedialyte) he was becoming lethargic and could hardly sit up on the couch by himself. he was whining and wouldn't speak. i said "enough is enough" and took him to the emergency room. i wasn't about to go through a third night of vomit.

it was the little dude's first trip to the er and they were great with him. they gave him little snowman stickers on his wristband as you can see below.


he got 3 big stickers from the x-ray technicians and the nurse gave him 2 little medicine cups that he was obsessed with. they ended up giving him some anti-nausea medicine and he seemed better almost instantly.

since he had thrown-up on tuesday night, i had to call him in sick to school again on wednesday. if you're keeping score, that's 2 days of school to 3 sick days.

so we stayed home on wednesday and he was doing much better. he was still exhausted from not sleeping much, but he was actually wanting to eat some crackers and cheerios. we thought the worst was behind us and were looking forward to school on friday (today). he took a nap from 12:30 until 5:15 p.m.!! he was worn out!

thursday was great. he ate cheerios, crackers, a little soup......he had energy and was seeming more like himself. still looking forward to school on friday.

then this morning, i went into his bedroom and was overwhelmed by another smell. it didn't look like he had thrown-up, but he was curled in the fetal position on his bed not facing me. i asked him if he wanted to get up and he said: "i can't i have a big mess over here". i flipped on the light and he had diarrhea all over the bed and his pajamas. (of course i hadn't put his mattress pad back on his bed because i had just washed it the night before.) so now we have diarrhea all in the mattress!! i yell down for the hubby and he comes up and takes the little dude, strips him down and throws him in the bathtub and i strip down the bed. a true repeat of several nights earlier.

so now here we are again. called him in sick to school. (that's 2 days to school, 4 sick days) below is a picture of what has been the norm in our house for the past week. poor guy.


an even sadder story is that his first christmas program is next tuesday and he won't be able to participate because he started school late and then missed all of their practices over the lat 2 weeks so he doesn't know any of the songs.

for kelli

christmas stuff

i'm a little behind on my family updates because i've been so busy with all the st. jude stuff and vomit (more on that tomorrow), but wanted to catch you up quick on a few holiday items.

here you can see my lame attempt at an "advent calendar". i didn't have any time to do anything special this year and didn't really like anything i saw in the store. so this year we have an advent bowl of ornaments! each morning when the little dude wakes up he gets to add an ornament to the tree until they're all gone on christmas morning. lame, but good enough for a 3 year old! i'll do better next year.


st. nick came to our house last week as is the tradition in our catholic family. we had the little dude set his shoes outside of his bedroom door before bed. i think he thought we were crazy when we told him what to do. below is a picture with his treats the next morning. (i heard a rumor that st. nick was very busy this year and didn't have time to go to a decent place to pick up good treats, so he had to settle for office max when he was there picking up a few things for his st. nick office. he told me there wasn't a whole lot to choose from.)


and here are our holiday cards. the front has a picture of the two boys:


and the back features a picture from each month of 2007 highlighting an important event that happened that month!

fifth project.....finished

so here is the corporate calendar for st. jude. it is officially for sale up on their website with the other two. it's all based on their corporate colors and logo. pretty straight forward.

front cover:


inside spread:

third & fourth projects.....finished

two more st. jude projects are out the door and in the st. jude warehouse ready to ship. if you need a new desk or pocket calendar for 2008, check them out here on the st. jude website and order some up today! (they're in limited quantities) we designed the calendars around patient artwork and they are adorable! (they're both based on the same artwork, just different sizes) i heard it through the grapevine that marlo thomas herself has requested one! here's a sneak peek:

desk calendar cover:


desk calendar inside spread: (click for big-ness)


pocket calendar cover:


pocket calendar inside spread: (click for big-ness)

3 years + 3 months

my boys both hit milestones this weekend. baby rowan turned 3 months old on friday and the little dude turned 3 on saturday. here are their milestone photos.

i think i may have actually gotten a good photo of them together for our holiday cards too! what a challenge.....a 3 year old who likes to make funny faces, and a colicky baby who rarely smiles at all! i'll reveal the holiday photo at a later date.

first day of pre-school

today was the first day of pre-school for the little dude. (who's showing off his new backpack above.

here is a list of things that he did and did not do at school (according to him):

he did not use the potty
he did wash his hands before snack time
he did play with bikes and balls
he did have juice with snack (although we don't know what the "snack" actually was)
he did not sing songs
he did bring home the book rollie pollie ollie (which he affectionately refers to as rollie tip-ollie)
he did paint
he did not learn any letters
he did play with a boy named tommy. (although i'm not sure that there's a tommy in his class)

he does want to go back on wednesday.

birthday+baptism+snowstorm weekend

wow what a weekend! we had planned the little dude's third birthday party for saturday the 1st....his actual birthday. we also planned for baby rowan to be baptized the same day to save an extra trip for the in-laws. just as last year, december 1st brought a huge snowstorm. last year we got 14 inches, this year, not quite as much, but horrible, horrible driving weather when all of our guests are from out of town. everyone made it here ok and we celebrated the little dude's birthday first at the house with lunch, presents and cake.


above is the little dude with his present from mom and dad. a new backpack for pre-school which starts on monday. it's cars which you can't tell since he's holding it backwards. he was pretty excited about it. inside was a new outfit for his first day of school and a real (kids) digital camera! he was taking pictures the rest of the day. (although i think they were mostly of his fingers covering the viewfinder!)


here's the little dude admiring his favorite present of the day. his new tractor from uncle tim and aunt missie! we actually had to force him to open his other presents......he wanted nothing to do with anything else after opening that one. i've never seen a kid pout about opening more presents!


and here he is with his tractor and his new mater truck (also from the movie cars).


after gifts, we enjoyed some baked alaska that the hubby made special just for the little dude. i've never seen him eat something so fast in my life!


after gifts, we headed out for baby rowan's baptism in the middle of a sleeting mess. it was like needles hitting your face when you walked outside. not fun at all. unfortunately this is the best picture i have on my camera. it was really dark in church so they all looked horrible. i'm hoping someone else got some good shots and will share them with me.


we headed out this morning for breakfast with the hubby's family before they made the trek back up north. i couldn't resist taking a shot of baby rowan in his cute little fuzzy coat. he was so happy, but of course refused to give us a smile once we got the camera out.


when we got back from breakfast we promised the little dude he could go out and play in the snow. (i think he thinks that it snowed just for his birthday because he's been waiting for it for so long!) here he is in his sled being pulled around the yard by daddy.


and finally, a snowman that the little dude and daddy built. quite the snowman if you ask me! they even came in to get a carrot for his little nose!

that's what he said : part 2

another installment of that's what he said. if you're new to the series, you can see where it all began right here.

[his pronunciation of the word jello] : "jetto"

[when asked why he was crying after waking up from his nap] : "i cry when i love you"

[when trying to tell us how funny he is] : "i'm cracking me-self out"

[his pronunciation of the word remote] : "re-mo-mote"

[when mommy asked why his eyes looked so sleepy after his nap] : "'cuz i never opened them before"

[his pronunciation of the word hamburger] : "bang-a-bur"

support st. jude

as you all know, i've been working with st. jude children's research hospital on some projects to help raise money for the hospital. two of the projects are done and in their warehouse ready to ship. if you're still looking for some stocking stuffers and want to support a great cause, consider purchasing from their online shop. (whether it's the items i helped with or not). here are links to the two projects i helped with.

children's artwork notecards
st. jude logo magnets

(probably not the best photos of the items, but i wasn't involved with that. if you'd like to see more detailed images of either product, check out here, or here.)

12 weeks

little rowan turned 12 weeks old on thanksgiving day. here he is at his first attempt in the play saucer. he was not enthused! he just kind of stared at me like "what the heck is this all about?" it's a huge contrast from his big brother who could never get enough of that thing!


here's a picture of the little dude in it almost 3 years ago.....just for some freaky comparison of just how much they look alike.

chopped liver

my boys love, love, love their grandma. as you can see, when she's around, i may as well be chopped liver! fine by me! gives me a well needed break! the little guy looks like such a butterball in this picture!


from this picture, you'd think he was a little angel that never cried. things seem to be getting worse with his colic. basically what it boils down to is: if he's awake, he's crying. thank god for these few precious minutes of sleep that remind me what a little bundle of joy he is. so sweet and innocent......but don't let it fool you!

that's what he said : part 1

i've been meaning to start this series for what seems like forever. there are so many funny things that come out of the little dude's mouth and i want to be able to remember them years from now. it probably won't be as funny written down to other people as it is to us here that know his personality, but it's more for me than anyone else. if it ends up being funny to others, all the better! so here's the beginning of the series i'm affectionately referring to as: that's what he said!

[his pronunciation of the word chocolate] : "cha-loc-it"

[when telling us he loves us] : "i love you with your heart"

[when he wants us to know how well behaved he's being] : "i'm such a being a good boy"

[when revealing himself after being hidden] : "here my am!"

[when trying to tell us he's forgotten something] : "i got-for my cup!"

[when watching the movie cars and referring to rear-view-mirrors]: "ears mirrors"

and my most recent favorite:

[when referring to having a wedgie] : "my undies are hanging out in my butt!"

there are a million more i'm forgetting, but will post as i think of them.

10 weeks

our little bugger is already 10 weeks old. here he is enjoying some tummy time on his play mat.

unfortunately, he's still not the best sleeper and the pediatrician thinks he may be colicy. i'm on a new dairy free diet for 2 weeks to see if he may have a dairy allergy. it's torture. i don't envy anyone who needs to live like this. i LOVE milk. not only that, but dairy is in EVERYTHING. things you wouldn't think have dairy in them, do. it's the hardest thing ever! we went out for the hubby's birthday on friday to our favorite restaurant and i couldn't order a single thing on the menu without having them alter it for me! thank goodness it's only for 2 weeks. if it turns out that he does have an allergy, i will probably be done breast feeding. (which is very disappointing for me) it's just so hard to cook for a family without dairy and i don't especially want to make two separate dinners every night. i have a hard enough time getting one meal on the table.

with all that said, i wouldn't trade him for the world. when he's happy, he's the sweetest baby who smiles and coos non-stop. i love mornings as that seems to be the only time you can count on him being happy for more than 2 minutes.

second project.....finished!

i just finished packing up my second project for st. jude children's research hospital. sets of 6 logo magnets here's a photo of one box. there are a total of 1500 magnet sets in all!


and here's a photo of one up close.


and a picture of all the boxes waiting to be picked up tomorrow!! it feels so good to send them on out the door!

chop, chop, snip, snip

i got my hair chopped off a few weeks ago. probably not the best picture of the haircut, but wanted to share nonetheless. we took at least 10 inches off! quite a change for me! i have to admit that i don't really miss it.....plus it's always nice to have a little change!