What a Christmas!

Well we had a great Christmas. Again the kids were spoiled as ever, but I guess we were as well. We started out on Christmas Eve celebrating at my Dad's in Adams. He made the traditional oyster stew and chili (for those non-oyster eating folks) for lunch and then chow mien for supper. We watched a movie, opened gifts, and relaxed until 8pm or so.

From there we headed back to Rochester in time for Christmas mass with Dave's family. It was a beautiful mass with lots of Christmas music! We were home close to 11:30pm and decided we wanted to open gifts. Everyone was wide awake and looking forward to see what was under the tree. In addition to opening our Christmas presents, Dave's Mom and sister surprised me with a little baby shower. It was such a fun surprise! I had went to change into my pj's before opening gifts and when I returned to the living room to find baby shower decorations, a cake, and baby gifts. Apparently they had planned to surprise me with the shower at Dave's Mom's family Christmas the weekend before, but we had to cancel and reschedule due to the weather. Since they already had the cake, they didn't want to see it go to waste so they decided to surprise me with it then instead. It was so fun! We even played a couple games. The highlight was guessing the size of my belly. Dave's Dad won with an exact guess of (shhhh....a whopping 45 in). He even won a prize, which was a tape measure. We ended up staying up until close to 3am, by the time all the gifts were opened and everyone was ready to head to bed.

In the morning, the kids were up by 8:30 to see what Santa had brought them. I was surprised they were up that early given how late we went to bed. Dave's parents and sister also came over to see what the kids had gotten and brought some delicious breakfast. Before we knew it, it was time for us to leave. The kids had their bags packed for their Dad's and we were off to volunteer at the Salvation Army Christmas meal. It was such a great experience. The kids really enjoyed spending part of their Christmas giving to those less fortunate. I think it will be a new tradition at our house. As you may have noticed from my previous post...Kyle was interviewed by the TV station. He did such a great job with the interview....we were so proud of him.

From there we took the kids down to Dexter to spend the rest of Christmas Day through Saturday with their Dad, and Dave and I returned to his parents in Rochester. We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening, relaxing, watching TV/movies in front of the fireplace, playing cards and enjoying an amazing supper.....steak and lobster! It was SO good!

Friday and Saturday were spent working on projects around the house and getting our wardrobe from IKEA setup in our bedroom. Dave's parents gave us this as our Christmas present (big thanks to John and Nancy for this!). It looks amazing....now baby Ava will have her bedroom all to herself and won't have to share her closet with mommy!

Saturday evening after the wardrobe was all put together, we headed to Adams to pick up the kids from there Dad and then went to visit my Grandpa Dick and Grandma Shirley. We took down KFC chicken for supper and enjoyed visiting and seeing them for the evening.

Sunday, Dave and Kyle went to the Vikings game (which was one of Kyle's X-mas presents) and Allicia and I stayed home to continue working on projects around the house.....number one being getting baby Ava's room and closet organized, in addition to washing up her clothes, packing our bag for the hospital, etc. We are now officially ready for her whenever she decides to arrive. As we were working around the house we were also watching the amazing game on TV. Kyle and Dave had a blast a the game! To Kyle's surprise....following the game Dave's sister Jen, had arranged for Kyle and Dave to meet up with Matt Birk's(Viking Center) wife, for her to get them into the Vikings family locker room. This was the highlight of Kyle and Dave's day! They met many of the Vikings players and were even able to get their autographs. On the top of Kyle's list was Addrian Peterson! As you can imagine, Kyle was on cloud nine. I don't think he will ever forget that experience.....I'm sure it will be a day he will tell his kids about someday.

Look for another post very soon with pictures from our all of the events above!

News Clip

Check out the Ch. 6 KAAL website and look for the Salvation Army video clip. Kyle was interviewed when we volunteered at the Salvation Army Christmas meal on Christmas Day. It was a great way to spend part of our day as a family giving to those in need. http://kaaltv.com/.

Very Odd Cravings

Ok, so I have been meaning to post about this for a while, but just hadn't gotten around to it. As all of you know, pregnant women often have strange or unusual cravings. Well, I may be on the top of the list of women with very unusual cravings. I'm not sure if any of you know or remember, I had one very odd craving when I was pregnant with Allicia. Well with this pregnancy I really didn't have cravings until just recently, but I have to admit, my very odd craving has come back. You may be curious by now to know what this craving is...well brace yourself, because it is an odd one. Are you ready??? Ok...the craving I have is dryer sheets. Yes, you heard me correctly...dryer sheets! When I was pregnant with Allicia, it was really bad. I will even admit to you that I would carry them in my bra strap or shirt pocket if I had one. I
absolutely LOVED them...the smell would just make my mouth water. Yes....I did just say that.

Anyway, recently I realized my odd craving has returned. Until not so long ago, I was using un-scented dryer sheets because Allicia has sensitive skin. I hadn't been exposed to them because we were seeing if un-scented dryer sheets and detergent helped her. When we recently ran out of dryer sheets and detergent I went to the grocery store, but they were out of the brands I had been using. Since I didn't want to make an extra trip to another store I just picked up what they had. The smell immediately consumed me. I didn't think much of it, because I have always liked the clean smell, but I should have realized what was happening. Anyway...I bought the dryer sheets and detergent home thinking we would use these and see how Allicia's skin reacts. Well, after putting the groceries and the dryer sheets away, I immediately found myself thinking about that smell and wanting to do laundry. A HUGE red flag went up, because I don't EVER want to do laundry. Now, whenever I go into my basement, I can smell the dryer sheets in our laundry room (even if the door is shut) and yes, my mouth begins to water just as it did when I was pregnant with Allicia. I have yet to wear them around like I did when I was pregnant with her, but I have to admit I want to. And although I hadn't let myself get to that level...I will admit, only to those reading this post, that I have taken the dryer sheet and rubbed them on the inside of my shirt, so I can smell it throughout the day. SHHHHH....it is our little secret! ;) So, now that you're thinking I'm really odd, I will end my post with the list of cravings I have had with each of my pregnancies.

Kyle - Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Spirals (not the regular ones only the spirals), really big pickles (that I would get at the concession stand at wrestling tournaments), and the idea of Tuna Hotdish (as soon as it was made and in front of me....it just wasn't that great, but I always thought I wanted it).

Allicia - One the top of the list....dryer sheets (specifically Snuggle brand), Corn (which I hated and would not eat as a child, but now love), the skin off of fryed chicken (especially from the Adams Chicken Fry), and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (again specifically spirals).

Ava- Ice chips (Dave gets annoyed with me crunching ice all the time...and I love the small pellet ice from the cafeteria at work), really cold water, Country Crock Macaroni and Cheese in the microwaveable tub (although Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Spirals would work too), and last but not least....dryer sheets!

Several New Posts!

As you will notice, there are several new posts below. Enjoy reading them!

Rock Band!

Thanks to my Mom, our family has become addicted to our new favorite game for PS 2...Rock Band. Believe it or not, it even kept me up past 8:30pm last night....and not much can keep me up these days. Here we are jamming away! BTW....Maddie, our dog, was not the biggest fan and either was Ava. Ava kept kicking at the guitar I was playing, which was not to easy given I have a very large belly at the moment, and Maddie became fed up with trying to fall asleep on the couch. She eventually headed down to sleep with Allicia, who had already went to bed.

Christmas Cookies

This weekend we made our Christmas cookies and decorated them. It ended up being a two day process....Saturday mixing up the batter and decorating on Sunday. Decorating cookies has always been a favorite activity for my kids, especially Kyle.

Kyle

Allicia

Dave's Dad John and Kyle's friend Johnny (our neighbor).

The finished product!

Enjoying the Snow!

Kyle, Alex and Allicia playing away in the many inches of snow. Oh how I remember doing the same thing as a kid.

Maddie wanting to play too.
Kyle in his fort.

Here is Allicia in hers.

And last but not least....this is Alex in his fort.

They were very ready for the hot chocolate I had ready for them when the finally came in.

Watch out Alex....it's really hot!