Our Christmas -

One reason we were excited to move to Boise was to be only a 6 hour drive from my parents home. Unfortunately, this 6 hours turned into an 11 hour ordeal. Two hours of which was being stuck in the middle of the Blue Mountains behind a terrible wreck. The kids did great, but I have to say, I'm rethinking the whole minivan thing. It would have made for a much more comfortable ride.

See photos of our Christmas morning on my family blog.

Other than that, Christmas was wonderful. We didn't get out much due to sick babies, but that was okay. We had everything we needed at home. 

There is something so magical about coming to your childhood home for Christmas.

And taking your turn playing Santa.

Showing your children the decorations you grew up with.

And watching their memories being made.

Magical is the best word to describe it. 

From My Family to Yours.

Wishing you a wonderful season filled with family, friends and rejoicing in the gift of our Savior.

Christmas Lovelies

Next year I think I will do all my wrapping like Martha.

And my cooking like Ina. 

Just green. What a perfect holiday theme. And you can keep it up all Winter and into early Spring.

Though a pop of yellow really makes the holidays sparkle. But I'm biased. 

Why didn't I think of this. Powdered doughnuts are so snowy delightful.

But I would be the coolest mom on the block if I had this on display. 

What am I talking about? I am the coolest mom on the block! (At least I think so. I've never met any of the other ones.)

Liquid chocolate. This should be way more popular than coffee. +

Maybe by next Christmas I can get a place that doesn't have a dang TV over the mantel so I can decorate it properly. 

Lydia is playing a mouse in the Nutcracker Ballet. If I had my stuff together, I would totally throw her this Nutcracker Suite Ballet Party. Darling!

Sweet Paul is my creative idol.

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And lastly, CONGRATS to my baby sister who just gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Samuel Lee. What a wonderful Christmas gift for our family. Molly, you will be a wonderful mother. And Sam, I will never wrap your birthday gift in Christmas paper. I promise.

Preparing for the big day

The countdown is on! Less than a week til Christmas! We are busy busy busy. I spoke at a Christmas dinner a couple days ago, and now that that's over, I feel totally relaxed and ready get these holidays on.

Lydia and I have spent a few afternoons baking and packaging up goodies. There's nothing like the smell of baking cookies to get you in the spirit.

My favorite recipes that found their way into the treat box:

Mace Bundt Cake.  (DO NOT over cook! It dries it right out)
Sugar Cookies.  This is one thing I make really well. Again, better to slightly undercook.
Fudge.  My first time making it, but this recipe is golden.
Lace Cookies.  Pretty and yummy.

I could eat these all day.

Christmas goodies are nice, but the sweetest things at my house are my cutie pies. 

Note to self. Take Sunday photos before Church. Lydia's hair was originally in a french twist. Though I kind of like it this way.

Collin has a propensity of rearranging the ornaments. Note to self. Take photo of Christmas tree before toddler wrecking ball gets to it.

Merry Merry Christmas Week!

Holiday Bed

Only seems fitting to dress up our new bed for the holidays. Especially since, other than a tiny side table, it's the only thing in the master bedroom. 

I save all my Christmas cards. I think I like cards more than gifts. This Santa card is my favorite of all time. It's from some old co-worker I hardly knew, but it's awesome. You can't tell, but it's all sparkly. 

I think this bed is magic. I'm secretly hoping for the flu so Shane will have to stay home to take care of the kids while I stay in bed all day.

LET IT SNOW

I love the snow. I love walking in it, playing in it and kissing in it. There has been an obscenely large amount of snow for Boise this season. That would be due to my "snow power". Tennessee also is aware of my strange power over the winter weather. That's why they kicked me out. Bunch of wussies. 

Now the snow has suddenly vanished. I'm putting all my superhero power towards bringing a Christmas blizzard this way. Less power than a couple years ago though. My powers worked a little too well then.

Let me know if there's a city you want me to focus my powers on and I will see what I can do.

One perfect morning.

We woke up to 6 inches of glorious snow. It was chilly so I lit a fire and went to make a warm breakfast. How grateful I was that I had my camera next to me. 

These are the moments that make me remember why I stay home with them.

I wouldn't miss mornings like this for the world.

Isn't Christmas lovely?

more snow fun here. 

By the way.  Regarding Friday's super depressing post, Shane did make it up to me. He brought me flowers and we went out the next night. We were going to go to the Cheesecake Factory, but when we were almost there he looked at me and said "you don't want to go to the Cheesecake Factory". He got back on the freeway and we drove downtown to a restaurant that was just so me. Authentic Italian food with low lights and exposed brick. My meal was filled with non kid elements like homemade spinach fettucini, artichokes, capers, wine reductions and olive tapenade. And a chocolate torte with Peppermint tea for good measure. It was very nice and tearless. Thanks for your sweet comments. They made me feel much better. Even better than the chocolate torte.

Crying my eyes out and ruining my satin shoes.

So I'm a stay at home mom. If you are one of these yourself, you probably don't need any further explanation. But if not, here goes. I stay home. ALL DAY LONG. My errands are pre-school drop off and library hour. Grocery store trips and visits to the pediatrician. I could spend my entire life in yoga pants and, except for church, I don't think anyone would notice.

Now I'm immensely grateful I am able to stay home with my kids. I love experiencing their young lives. But let me tell you, it's a sacrifice. The total loss of real income for one. Exiting the career world completely. The mind numbing monotony of it all. I've mentioned in previous posts that this field of mommy-hood isn't exactly my style. I love it and I think I'm good at it, but it isn't my natural element.

Getting back to tonight. Tonight is Shane's company Christmas party. When we got the invite and I saw it was semi-formal at a beautiful hotel I was ecstatic. I love dressing up and going out. Love love love it. I love wearing my highest heels without worrying about tripping while holding a child. I love to wear my nicest clothes without worrying about sticky hands and snot. I like carrying a tiny clutch with only the barest necessities. All of it reminds me about who I was before I was "mom".

So here I am. Dressed to the nine, hair in a up-do that required about 50 bobbypins and half a bottle of hairspray. My nails are manicured with a soft silver paint and I pulled out the "good jewelry". I look seriously great. Except for the fact that my carefully shadowed eyes are blood shot from crying. I just got off the phone with the babysitter letting her know we would not be needing her after all.

Shane's flight from Portland was delayed and won't be home until after the party is over. I didn't notice I was crying until I saw the drip marks on my gorgeous new shoes.

I'm going to bed. When I wake up, I have several pairs of yoga pants in the dryer to choose from.

Sneak Peak.

First Snow

It would seem that snow is not very popular in Boise, but in our family it's always welcome. 

(And it makes the mountains here truly beautiful.)

 We were up and taking advantage of the inch or so before breakfast. 

MA MA!! BAAAAALL!!!

Shane added to the celebration with some homemade hot chocolate and, of course, his famous pancakes.

Ah, so cute. And by the way. There is a lot more than an inch of snow right now.

What I'm thankful for today.

(I'm also thankful for the fact that we've already had two Thanksgiving dinners. Thus while you are slaving over a hot stove, I'm watching the Macy's Day Parade in my PJs and having pancakes for our big meal of the day.  Shane's famous Turkey Pancakes of course.)

An Early Thanksgiving

Had our Thanksgiving a bit early this year. It was the only time when we could all get together. Love it because it extends this cozy happy holiday. The plan was that my parents, sister Abby, and her baby would head down to Boise for the weekend. My mom almost had a heartattack when she opened my pantry and found my sister Molly and her husband in the pantry. Eating chips.

Photos of the couples. And sad Abby missing her husband. But where is baby Paige? 

She's eating on the floor under the table of course. Wait? You mean that isn't how you feed your baby? Weird. 

Dinner turned out great. Shane is the master carver. Look at that platter. My dad asked why there were "weeds" on the plate. I said it was thyme. "Yea. Time to get the weeds off the turkey". 

Nice one dad.

One more "room" done!

There's nothing like family coming into town that makes you get stuff done. We're having our Thanksgiving early this year. Like this weekend. Shane and I have been working every night getting things taken care of. A barstool or two so everyone will have a place to sit, shower curtains (got this yellow lovely) so that people can have a bit of modesty, and the master bedroom so that the guest room will be available for use. (By the way, the master is no longer a playroom. Just couldn't do it.) My family will arrive soon, but I wanted to first post a shot of the hall wall I was working on. I did go with the table you guys advised me on and it's perfect. I thought for the price it would be a temporary piece, but it is actually really well built so I think it's going to go the distance. And it supplies a place for my purse, Shane's laptop bag and Lydia's backpack which is fantastic. 

So glad this house is starting to look like a home. I can't wait to decorate this baby for Christmas.  And I will soon be replacing a few photos with some from our latest family photo shoot. 

Now I'm off to do a little baking before the relatives arrive. Let's get our entertaining on!

FOOD ALLERGY VENT!!!!!

I am so frustrated with my kid's food allergies! I've been on a bit of a cooking strike because I just cannot figure out what to make for dinner.

First I have to deal with Lydia's peanut allergy. Of course, that's a terrifying allergy in itself. Just head to your pantry and check out your food for peanut warnings and you will see how much it limits my choices. And don't get me started about how dangerous it is to go out to eat at restaurants.

THEN....I have to deal with Collin's MILK ALLERGY! It didn't used to be so bad as I would just feed him baby food. Now he wants what we have and is heartbroken when he doesn't get it. And I don't want to make two separate meals anyway.

Imagine. Nothing made with milk, CHEESE of any kind, butter, cream of anything soup, sour cream, or yogurt. No pizza, no mac and cheese, no lasagna, no grilled cheese sandwiches, no parmesan roasted veggies (our favorite.) No chocolate, no peanut butter, no ice cream. No Mexican restaurants, no Asian restaurants. Flying is terrifying. Imagine taking your child in a huge metal trap filled with anthrax. For us it's tiny peanut packages. (Even smelling peanut can be fatal.)

80% of the food I like to make is now off limits between the two allergies. Shane mentioned once he thought we should try being vegetarians for a while. I could scarce catch my breath I laughed so hard. Sure. Let's cut out wheat too. Just for kicks. I'll just serve you guys huge plates of unsalted broccoli with some gum on the side.

I'm trying to make this work. I've been trying to feed Collin soy cheese, but it smells like a dirty diaper and tastes about the same. I've gone through my cook books and found lot's of recipes that will work. The problem is, they all take a lot of effort. I'm a busy mom with two little kids. I want some of the easy stuff! (Though I still refuse to make frozen chicken nuggets. The thought makes me gag.)

Sorry. I just needed to get that out. I think I'll go eat a coconut milk ice cream bar to cheer me up. Or the stack of 25 chocolate bars taken from Lydia's halloween sack because they were "processed on equipment that also processes peanuts." ARGH!!!!

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Now- I thought I would answer the three questions everyone asks when food allergies are brought up.

1. Does anyone else in your family have allergies? 

               *** No. Neither Shane nor I nor anyone in our immediate families have food allergies.

2.  How did you find out about Lydia's allergy?

               *** When Lydia was 6 months old I was eating peanuts. She was crawling around in a diaper and I went to pick her up. Almost immediately her skin broke out into horrible hives. We took her to an allergist the next day and was diagnosed. We feel very blessed it happened this way as she is so allergic, she probably would not have survived her first contact with ingesting peanut. 

3. Will they out-grown them?

               *** Collin has a good chance of outgrowing his in the next few years. Lydia does not. Neither my allergist or my pediatrician have ever heard of someone out-growing their peanut allergy when it was as severe as Lydia's when diagnosed. They gave me about a 2% chance. Still praying for it though. Everyday.

The (Second) Best Holiday

Collin is the "Saggy Baggy Elephant" this year. It's from the old Golden book of the same name.

Something you don't see everyday....

Shane and I reused last year's vampire costumes. That's the beauty of moving. No one has seen your wares.

Technically, Lydia was a witch for Halloween. You can see photos of that costume here. 

However, there were so many Halloween functions, we switched between the witch costume and last year's southern belle costume. I know I took her on a little photo shoot last year, but I just used my point and shoot camera. This year I have a snazzy new camera to experiment with. AND a lawn full of leaves!

My, she is lovely.

Yawn. Done editing photos. Now it's time to dig into the candy bag!