It's feeling a lot like Christmas

It has been snowing for days now. The kids love it. I am thankful for our Jeep Wrangler, my car is not made to drive in the snow. Yesterday we had Christmas at Mana and Papa's house. Not everyone could make it because of weather but we still had a good time. We ate good food and the kids enjoyed their stockings and gifts.

We also had Dominick's work Christmas party last night. We ate more good food, did an elephant gift exchange and played a good ol' Christmas game of Texas Holdem' Poker.

I had to drive to work today in the snow covered in ice. I took the jeep and didn't have much of a problem. I could not see the lines on the road but there was not much traffic so I guess it didn't matter.

Cookie Day

We have cookie once a year just before Christmas. We get together and make goodies for Christmas and let the kids decorate sugar cookies. Things seem to get a little loud when you get 11 kids together under one roof =)

The kids enjoy it! It is all about creating memories anyway isn't it. I remember how fun it was when I was a child. We would go to Grandma and Grandpa Well's house and with our aunts and cousins and make cookies. I always looked forward to Cookie Day and I am hope my kids will do the same.

All the creations the kids made...

my little sister's daughter

my older sister's older son

my older sister's daughter

one of my older sister's twins

one of my older brother's son

my older sister's other twin

my Trinity

my tired boy

another older brother's son

my older sister's youngest

After the party I took 2 of my older sister's kids home with me for the night. Dominick's brother and his 2 kids were already at my house staying the night so I thought why not add some more noise?

We had fun playing video games and eating pizza. At bedtime Nicholas was more than ready for bed after not having a nap and going all day. I put him in bed went to my room to get his inhaler and went straight back to his room... he was already out. The 4 girls all went to sleep pretty fast after they laid down. Cody however stayed up late playing games. I don't know what time he went to sleep but at 5:50 am (I had to work) when I woke him up to take him back home he didn't want to get up.

not working with me

We got our Christmas tree last night. This morning while Dominick was at work the kids and I decorated it. I thought it would be cute to get a picture of the kids together in their Christmas clothes in front of the tree.

LOL! Apparently my children had other plans.

They didn't want to hold still, smile or be in the picture together.

So, here is what we got out of our little photo session...

(hand on the hip with that look on her face)

(not sure what they were trying to accomplish)

(pouty lip)

(he was flinging his head back and forth)
(done with the pictures)
(I finally we got this one)

The individual pictures were just as bad. Trinity was dancing the whole time and Nicholas wanted to flap his arms like a bird. We still have time to try again another day. Maybe I will have Dominick help me next time.

I'm a little behind

Ok it's been a few days since I posted anything.

We had Thanksgiving at my house with Dominick's family. We had a total of 9 adults and 5 kids. It was fun! I cooked the turkey and mashed potatoes (the best mashed potatoes ever). We spent a couple hours eating and visiting. After everyone left we cleaned up a little bit and headed to Emily's house. By the time we got there everyone had left. We hung out with Emily, Jeremy and the kids for a while. We are fudge and played Mario Cart on the Wii.

(dining room table)

(kids table)

The day after Thanksgiving I worked a 10 hour shift. It was busy and crazy at times but the time went by fast. We had some pretty good sales but I thought the sales we had from Sunday through Wednesday earlier in the week had some better stuff.

Saturday we went up to the mountains with the jeep to get a Christmas tree. It was a good day. It was a bit foggy but we found some mud to drive through. The jeep is now brown instead of blue. We couldn't find a Christmas tree so we are going to buy one from the Christmas tree lot down the street from our house.

On Saturday Nicholas was our navagator. He had the map and looked at it for an hour while we were driving. It was funny. He kept saying "yup, we are going the right way Dad."

Making Tornadoes

I ordered some books from scholastic books through Trinity's school a few weeks ago. We got the books a few days ago. One of the books I ordered was all about tornadoes and hurricanes. It came with a little plastic thing that connects two 2 liter bottles together to make tornadoes.

I read the book to the kids and then we made our own tornadoes. The kids had fun playing with it.

While the kids took turns sharing and watching the swirling tornado go I got some more stuff done to get ready for tomorrows Thanksgiving. I love cheap entertainment.

Brining a Turkey is fun to do....

So this year we are having Thanksgiving at my house for Dominick's family. Dominick bought a 21-1/2 pound turkey to feed maybe 10 adults and possibly 6 little kids. Dominick and I have been watching food network because they have been talking about different ways to cook a turkey.

Well, we decided we (and by we I mean I) were going to Brine the Turkey for a day then put a rub on the turkey for a day before we cooked it.

Today I decided it was time to brine the turkey. I prepared the water, salt, honey and a few spices in a large pot. I got the turkey all ready and placed it in the brining bag. I cooled the liquid with ice before pouring it over the turkey. This is where the fun began. I began pouring the liquid into the bag and the pot slipped. I poured a large amount of the is honey water all over the counter and floor. I got the rest of the liquid in the bag which thankfully was just enough to cover the turkey.

The next fun part was lifting this 21-1/2 pound turkey with the bag full of liquid in a stoneware roasting pan into the refrigerator. We have a side by side pretty nice and big but not all that wide. So I have this very heavy roasting pan in my arms trying to wiggle it just right to get it into the refrigerator. This whole time I am praying that this brining bag doesn't burst all over me and the refrigerator.

This Turkey better be the best Turkey I have ever tasted or I am going to be very upset!!

I still have to get it back out of the fridge and empty the bag hopefully without making a huge mess again.

It's been a LONG week

I was hoping for a stress free week to get ready for Thanksgiving. We are having all of Dominick's family over at our house on Thanksgiving. Dominick started out on Sunday with a what we think is a sinus infection. The pain in his head is so bad (on the floor crying in pain) they put him on percocet (sp?). The other day Dominick wanted me to put my ear on his forehead to see if I could hear what he was hearing inside his head. I could hear gurgling sounds like you would hear if you put your ear up to a stomach after eating or drinking something.

Wednesday Dominick was still not doing any better. The Dr ordered a CAT scan. Thursday the results show nothing wrong in the CAT scan (which is good). Today he seems to be doing ok but if the pain medicine starts wearing off he can feel that the pain is not gone. I have never had a bad sinus infection so I don't know if this is normal or if it takes time for the pain to go away. The Dr referred Dominick to an ear, nose and throat specialist so now we wait for them to call.

Nicholas is getting over his ear infections but he was very clingy and cried over everything all week but seems to be doing better today. Before getting sick Nicholas had been doing better at talking about what is making him angry or sad instead of just crying and making me figure out what is wrong. Let's hope he gets back to that soon.

I think today is a good day to start getting ready for Thanksgiving... I have today and tomorrow off and then this week I work everyday except Thanksgiving. Holidays in retail. I am part time and I have 34 hours this week. I have a 10 hour shift on the day after Thanksgiving.

Trinity's art projects that seem to explode all over the house. I try to get her to stay at the kitchen counter so the mess is all in one spot. But then she takes them to her room and leaves them in my room as gifts. Trinity has a whole cabinet for all of her papers, crayons and stuff she collects to make things out of. I have not figured out how to make her keep everything in that cabinet though.

Time to crank the music and starting getting the house ready for the holidays.

Poor Little Guy

Nicholas was sick with a cold for almost 2 weeks. It would seem as though it was getting better and then just come back. I finally took him to the Dr and he has 2 ear infections. He didn't complain at all about his ears hurting. This is his second ear infection in his 3 years of life. The first one was just in 1 of his ears. Dominick gets ear infections still as an adult so I would say it's genetics. The shape of the ear or sinus area. I breastfed for almost a year before he stopped, he liked feeding himself and sippy cups.

Also, when Nicholas gets a cold it triggers asthma symptoms. So when we were at the Dr they they tested his breathing, oxygen levels and all of that pretty intensely. Nicholas has never been around cigarette smoke EVER (I am very picky about that one). Again Dominick gets asthma symptoms when he has a cold too. Basically we have to keep inhalers on hand at all times, just in case.

Pretty much we can blame all of this on Dominick ... just kidding.

On a positive note, Nicholas is already sleeping better and not coughing as much. He has been taking his medicine very nicely. He even holds the mask on his face by himself for the inhaler.


Also, after about 9 hours of work between Dominick and I ... Dominick's computer game is fixed and running just fine.

Oops!!

Dominick is VERY into playing World of Warcraft again (he stopped playing for about a year). Well I am also going to start my own account again. I was trying to do a network transfer with the game and ended up deleting World of Warcraft off his computer. That sucks because when the game is all installed and all the patches are updated it's about 7 gigs.

Now I have to reinstall the game on his computer. It's about 9 CD's (I can't find our DVD's) to install and a bunch of patches... My goal is to have it all fixed before I have to go to work at about 3:30pm.

Dominick called right after I realized I broke it and said he was on his way home from work early because he is sick. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

It's a good thing it Tuesday and World of Warcraft does their patches on Tuesdays. All of the realms are down otherwise I am sure he would have played right when he got home. He knows that I did something but has no idea that I deleted the whole game.

All because I wanted to play an stupid computer game... hours of my life are now being wasted trying to fix my mistake =(

She's only in preschool!

Ok so Trinity had some questions for me today. Thanks to "Google" I could answer her correctly in a way she could understand.

Where does wind come from? Now I knew this one but I wanted to double check with Google and show some pictures to Trinity. I explained it was warm air and cool air and air pressure. I did a few examples for her with a lap and talcum powder.

She wanted to know "how can fish breathe in water?" This one I know too but I wanted to explain it to her in a way she would understand with pictures. We went over how a fish has gills and it takes the oxygen out of the water. We went over a little how water is made of H2O hydrogen and oxygen.

If she is already almost stumping me on questions now, what is it going to be like in a few years?? I really hope Google is not going anywhere and stays consistent with correct answers.

This summer Trinity was watching some butterflies in the backyard. I went to Google and found some really good pictures of the life cycle of a butterfly. I was like "Trinity come here I want to show you something..." She looked at my life cycle and was like "Mom that is the life cycle of a butterfly. They start out as an egg, which hatches into a caterpillar, then they make a chrysalis and then the butterfly come out." So my fun little science project was not so fun because she already knew all about it.

No more chubby baby cheeks =(

(Nicholas at about 5 months)

As we were driving to Trinity's school today the kids were talking in the back seat. Trinity said "Mom, we can't call Nicholas, 'Chubby Cheeks' anymore." I haven't called him that in a long time but Trinity does every now and then.

It made me a little sad to think that my chubby baby is no longer a baby and not really chubby anymore. He's a big boy and likes to do things by himself. Although, when he gets tired he still grabs his blanket (that is now falling apart) sucks his fingers and wants to cuddle.

I can buy his shirts in the 'boys' sections of the store now instead of the baby/toddler section. He can get himself dressed. It's good that he is getting more independent because he has to learn to do things on his own. Next year he will be in preschool. It's just bitter sweet.

(Nicholas at about 3 months)

Halloween!!

I should start off by saying Nicholas was not happy about dressing up. He didn't want to be anything because he is Nicholas. We talked him into wearing a costume finally but he would not wear the mask.

We had plans to go out Trick or Treating with Dominick's brother Justin, his 2 kids, Dominick's cousin Blake, his 2 kids and our kids for like 3 weeks. We were in the car going to Justin's house as planned. Justin called and said he and his wife had gotten into a fight and the plans were off.

Awesome!

We had to stop by my Mom's and Dominick's Grandma's house anyway which are in the same area as Justin.

So, we called Blake and told him plans had changed and we were now meeting at our house. Justin was not coming so it was just us, Blake and the 4 kids. Which worked out because our Neighborhood goes all out for every holiday. We went around the block and the kids (ages 2, 3, 4 and 5) had more than enough candy. Plus the last 3 houses we went to scared all of the kids and Blake. They all had fog machines and went all out on decorations. I didn't bring the camera of course. They had a guy in the front yard with a chainsaw, a huge flashing devil guy and a bunch of other scary stuff.

We went back to our house and the kids ate candy and played. Dominick, Blake and I just hung out talking and stuff. The kids were all passed out by 10:30 (which is very late for our kids). We would have rented movies or had something planned if we knew we were going to end up at our house. Oh Well! It was still fun and the kids had a blast playing and waking up in the morning and playing some more.

It would have been nice to see Justin and the kids but what can you do.

Fall Party at Preschool

I went to preschool with Trinity today. It was their Fall Party and the kids all dressed up. They trick or treated to the other classrooms and played a bunch of fall games. They ate a nice fall harvest snack.

I didn't dress up or even wear anything related to halloween. I realized today that I don't have anything that would have been appropriate for a preschool class. One of the other Mom's didn't dress up either so I guess it was ok.

Trinity was the weather girl today at circle time. Her teacher Miss Miki was a cat.

the boys playing bingo

playing pin the nose on the pumpkin

Trinity had to wear a nice costume to school. The preschool asked that no child wear scary or mean costumes. They also could not bring fake weapons. Trinity finally decided on a ballerina after going through several other ideas. Her first idea was to be Word Girl but when I told her she could not wear a jet pack and fly she changed her mind.

For Halloween Trinity is wearing this costume...


thanks to Aunt Emily for giving my kids your kids old costumes =)

Pumpkins

Trinity went to the pumpkin patch with her preschool. One of the Mom's that went gave me a picture of Trinity at the pumpkin patch. That is the only one I have of her on her first trip to the pumpkin patch.


Nicholas went to the pumpkin patch with Emily. I got some of the pictures from her myspace.


I "helped" Trinity with her pumpkin while Nicholas was taking a nap last week. I cut the top off and told Trinity she had to pull the seeds out. She looked inside and said "no thanks. You can do that part." Trinity picked out a stencil from the internet. I traced a Cinderella face onto her pumpkin. She helped cut it out. I didn't take any pictures because my hands were messy.

The next day when Trinity was at school Nicholas and I did his pumpkin. I had to pull all the seeds and stuff out because Nicholas wouldn't touch it. I couldn't find a boy stencil that he wanted. He didn't want a normal pumpkin face. I thought I could just take a picture of Nicholas and make that into a stencil. It worked. I photo shopped his face into a stencil and traced it onto his pumpkin. It was cute. Again I didn't take any pictures because my hands were dirty. I also accidentally erased the stencil off my computer.

I was going to take pictures of the pumpkins the other day and the faces have already started drooping and didn't look good anymore. =(

Pictures

This is Trinity's preschool/5 year old picture. She has a fake smile but I thought it was good for being a school picture.

This is Nicholas' 3 year old picture. I took him to the park and took over 100 pictures. I think I need a polarizer lens for the camera. I think more of the pictures would have turned out better if I had one.

New Jeep

A few weeks ago we sold the Jeep Cherokee and bought a Jeep Wrangler. It's a long story about saving gas that doesn't make since but oh well.

Anyway, we took the Jeep up to the mountains on Saturday. We had a lot of fun. It was just Dominick, Trinity and I. Nicholas went to the Pumpkin Patch with Auntie Em and cousin Rachael. The Jeep did very well considering it's not nearly as beefed up as the cherokee was.

It was very foggy that day but we managed to finally get above it. Trinity did some climbing and we even got the binoculars out. At one the stopping points we had a great view of the tops of Mt St Helens and Mt Adams peaking out of the fog. Trinity used the binoculars to see that Mt St Helen's had hardly any snow and Mt Adams was still covered in snow.

Rock Band fun

Trinity loved rocking out with Rock Band. She can't read the song lyrics but she enjoyed hearing herself sing on the TV. She loves to put on a show in front of whoever is watching.


The drums are hard. I didn't even do that well on the drums. I could do the pads with the drumsticks but the foot pedal was not easy. I guess I am not that coordinated. Trinity passed the tutorial but that was just doing one thing at a time.


The singing was fun for me but I think the kids are a little young for this game. I am glad we borrowed it from a friend instead of buying it.

New Shirt

I hate clothes shopping but I received a gift card for JC Penney for my birthday. I found this shirt and had to get it. It's an 'Adventures of Super Grover' long sleeved T. Trinity loved it and wants one too. I didn't even go over to the kids area because I would have been too tempted to spend my gift card on the kids.


We had open house at Trinity's school last night. It was pretty fun. All the kids got up in front of the parents and sang a new fall/Halloween song for us.

I found my video camera charger. It's been lost for awhile now. Dominick cleaned out his jeep (he sold it) and found the charger in his glove box. I am very excited. We didn't have it for 4th of July, family reunion and kids birthdays. We did get a lot of pictures on those days though.