Christmas and before

I am finally getting a chance to update the blog about all the Christmas activities we did.
Every year we go to Dan and Chrisy's and make gingerbread houses. It is so fun and one of my favorite holiday traditions. Here is the result of this years "competition."

Charity's gingerbread house

my dad's

this ones maker will go down unnamed. LOL

Bobby

Rachel

Chrisy decorated cookies

Dave did the Grinch

Gavyn

Nate

Dan

Nick

Who do you think won?? I voted Nick but Dave was a close runner up. And I convinced Kate mine was the best :)

I thought i had more people pics but i can't find them...
When I got mastitis Nick took the day off work to hang out with Wills. They headed up to the snow to have some fun. It was very very fresh and they had a good time playing together. Nick came back and told me stories and I was not to excited to hear them! Maybe next time mommy will go along just to babysit, not William, Nick! Lets just say he threw William into a big pile of snow and he sank right in. I am sure Wills was fine and Nick was somewhat careful with him.

There snow man that Nick said was almost a desecration of property it was so ugly.

Well you are going to have to figure out the rest of the pictures out on your own for now because I have two crying children and a frustrated mother on my hands! When I get the chance I will try to edit it.

our injury list

we had a busy couple weeks before Christmas. As I mentioned Allie had two well baby Dr's appointments. She has congenital ptosis in her left eye. This is basically a sagging eye lid. Allie's is really mild and the eye Dr. said that is should be fine but they want to keep an eye on it (no pun intended.) Infant vision is developing in the early months of life so if there was a problem it could permanently impair her vision but fortunately it looks ok, plus it has gotten a lot better in the last month. Oddly enough Wills had the same thing as an infant just not as prominent. The other appointment was for her finger. She has this weird extra cartilage in the bottom of her pinkie finger on her right hand. You can only feel it if her pinkie is all the way extended. The Dr. (her regular pediatrician) said that it could be just a part of her hand or it could be something that will go away while she grows. I was pretty sure they were going to say that but you always want to get those things checked. I am glad that she is a healthy little girl. Those two minor things make me thankful that we don't have to deal with any serious illnesses. It would break my heart!

So after that I got sick. I got mastitis on Saturday antibiotics on Sunday and still felt sick on Friday. It was a long week and I didn't get accomplished nearly what I had hoped to...Anyway...

Tuesday William slipped on some wet leaves getting out of the car and hit a cement parking block. He cracked his head open but we decided not to go to the Dr. for stitches or anything (That seemed like it would be a long long 6 hours for them possible to tell us that they were just going to put a band-aid on it.) He handled his cut really well. He cried and wanted to be held but he did SO well. I was really surprised. The worst part, by far, was, and has been, putting on a band-aid. For some reason he thinks it hurts. I have no idea why. It appears though that his cut is healing nicely which I am so thankful for. So that was the drama in our lives and if i really wanted to be dramatic I would add Nick slicing his finger open with his ring while climbing a fence and us getting head colds, but I won't go into details on those points. So we are recovering from everything and so thankful for the blessing of good health. Fortunately non of our ailments kept us from having a wonderful Christmas.
Nick left his boots out and William decided he needed to wear them. When I tried to take a picture he took them off and laughed at me.

I was laying on the ground trying to get a pictures and he charged me.

I don't know why he wouldn't let me take a picture. Something about being two I think.

He looked so cute with just his little diaper on and his big boots. Such a goof. He loves to take all his clothes off when we are home. He takes them off and then wraps himself in a blanket.

so this is a little gross because there is extra blood. If you have a two year old however, you know how much it wasn't worth waking him up to try to keep it clean or making him scream to put a band-aid on it. We cleaned it up and put a band-aid on it when Nick got back home from work. He did scream but at least he got a snooze first.

Williams cut

a picture of his cut 1 minute ago

oh the other huge William news it that we kicked the pacifier. He has bit through 3 or 4 of them and he is just to big for one anyway. Every time that it would be broken or something would be in the middle of the night which is not a good time to take a pacifier from a child. About three weeks ago Wills lost his pacifier, which he had chewed practically all the way through, Nick convinced him it was ok that he lost it and even though he woke up and cried for it a couple times that was practically it. He has asked for it several times but we just tell him it is gone and he does alright. Unfortunately naps seems nearly impossible now. I make him at least sit in his room but he doesn't really sleep that often. I am very scared that he may have decided that he doesn't need any more naps. What are you gonna do? He seems to do ok most days without them. My mom laughs because I decided the same thing when I was Williams age. Now that I am on the flip side I am truly sorry mom!

so there is a lot more for me to post but I just don't have more time right now so I will have to get to it later. I will try to get Christmas posted before New Years

Sorry

well I don't have time to post today but I know it has been awhile since I last got the chance, I'm sorry. I have been sick the last two week or so with Mastitis, I am feeling better this week so that is encouraging. Allie had two well baby Dr's appointments and Wills split his head open yesterday. So we have been busy. It is far harder to clean a dirty house then a clean one so I am waiting to have a few hours to really get in and scrub. Mommy has been on survival mode with getting sick, getting ready for Christmas, and trying to finish up a big history project. So all those little things you put off are starting to pile up, such as scrubbing the bath tub... You get the picture. Anyway I will try to squeeze in sometime when I get the chance. Until then I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas. I am very excited to watch Wills this year since he is fully aware of the gifts that are for him.

Christmas Tree

We went out and got our Christmas Tree last Saturday. We were planning on heading up to Tahoe and cutting it down in the forest (the legal way) but Nick was on call so we decided to stay locally. After looking through many "backyard" Christmas tree farms we finally found one in Auburn. It was such a cute little place and Wills really enjoyed running around trying to find our tree.


When we got home William helped mommy decorate the tree as daddy made fudge and Allie hung out and gave her smiles of approval. I love Christmas time! William enjoyed putting the "balls" on the Christmas tree. I bought him a tonka tractor ornament this year and he loves it, just not on the tree. He is so cute. Every day he plugs the lights in for us. He loves to have the Christmas tree in our house.

Can we cut this one down?

William loves to hold Allie my babies


I was trying to get Allie to look at the camera so I was clapping and William decided he needed to clap with me. It was funny.

me and my buddy

Wills hanging the "balls"

Allie watching intently

Daddy taking care of the lights for me.

Although it come significantly short in comparison with grandeur that was our tree last year, here is the one we picked. I don't believe Nick will even have a tree that he loved as much as last years.

The big girl

We call Precious little Allie a number of nicknames but among them is the "big girl." We also call her princess and all kinds of other sweet little names. Well our little princess has been rolling over for weeks probably almost two months really. She is so cute! She loves to grab her feet and and her toys. She enjoys her toys a lot and puts them all in her mouth. She is so fascinated by her big brother and daddy. William loves her so much. He pulls her bouncy seat over to where ever we are so she can be a part of the action. He has picked her up several times and I am so thankful she hasn't been hurt. We are very careful with her but he has tried moving her several times. He does a pretty good job but it still scares me a lot when I find him moving her. Nick doesn't seem to mind but I let him know that I do NOT approve. Every morning when Wills first sees her he says GOOD MORNING PRINCESS. It is so sweet. They are a lot of work but also a lot of fun.

The other night Allie didn't sleep well at all! She talked for an hour before we went to sleep and then she woke up in the middle of the night to nurse and did it again. It is pretty funny to think back on because it was totally dark and she was just talking her little heart out. I did not think it was funny in the middle of the night or the next morning however. She still wakes up to eat at least once a night, which I can handle, but the every two hours thing kills me! Speaking of eating she eye balls food like non other! She watches everything we eat go from our hands to our mouths. Nick likes to sneak contraband to her when I am not looking, such as ice cream. She was so mad at him one night because he wasn't sharing it fast enough with her. It was so funny! She yelled at him! It made us all laugh how intense she was. We haven't started cereal with her yet but I think she is going to really like to eat. She even imitates us and gums when she sees us eating (or maybe she is feeling her little teeth that I think are coming in?). My sister can't handle it and hands her over when she is eating anything because it makes her sad not to share a bite with Allie.

She is such a sweet good tempered little girl most of the time and we really enjoy our sweet baby.

sweet smiles while playing on her play mat

She loves to grab her little animals and put them in her mouth. She also takes her pacifier in and out.

Thanksgiving Day

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house and we had a nice time. There were a lot of loud people in a small space so it kind of overwhelmed me with the two kids. I enjoyed the next few days with just a smaller group of people hanging out. I especially enjoyed having Nick home for those extra days.

One of the highlights of Thanksgiving weekend was all the sports we got to play. Thursday we had a family kickball game. Friday we had flag football and Saturday Nick got to play ultimate. I had to pass because the kids needed to sleep in. Late nights and early mornings don't make for happy children, or mommies :)

Dan and Becca
these two pictures crack me up! James is running after the ball and oops he missed it so then my mom is running after it. Hahaha LOL.

Joe up to "bat" for our team.

Wills hanging out with Dave as he "coaches" first base. Wills was so excited and kept telling me the day before thanksgiving "dave coming home from college" and "Bobby (rachel's bf) coming home from college." It was very cute and the little guy sure enjoyed hanging out with Dave.

Here are Daddy and Allie catching the end of the football game.

Dave and Nick taking non tryptophan induced nap. This was before we even ate but after a long day of exercise and not eating. We eat late for some bizarre reason (5pm) and the boys didn't eat lunch.

That was our Thanksgiving. It came and went in a flash and I can't believe we only have a couple weeks until Christmas. I guess I better start my shopping...