My Birthday Weekend

Whew - it flew by and is over already!

Thursday, my mom got into town mid-afternoon. We celebrated Christmas with her and had delicious chili that night (if I may say so!)

Friday, we went to Coldstone Creamery to get my cake (cookie dough!) and run a couple errands. Later that evening, we went to Michael's and stocked up on Christmas items!

Saturday we celebrated my birthday and his dad's birthday. I got lots of goodies! :) Sat. night, after Keaton was in bed, my mom stayed and entertained Benjamin while Zach and I had a much-overdue date at Kanki - we absolutely stuffed ourselves with yummy food!

Today (Sunday), was church, lunch and a quick Target run (including stocking up on more Christmas!)

Let's just say, our trees (yes, Trees!) will be fully decorated! :)

It was a fun birthday :)

Now, it's loads and loads of laundry!

And for the record, I'm 27 :)

((Pictures to be posted later))

Christmas #2

We were able to head to VA earlier than planned on Friday. Zach got off work and we were on the road to VA about 5pm.

The boys napped most of the way there so we let them play for a bit before getting them ready for bed.

Benjamin woke about 20 mins after falling asleep - super congested. Long story short, we were up just about the entire night with him.

Saturday night - repeat of Friday with about 1 hour more of sleep.

The boys got spoiled rotten and got lots of fun stuff.

Our Christmas Morning

I started off the morning making a cheater's version of these. I didn't make them from scratch, I used canned bread sticks....sue me ;-) I did make the drizzle for it...fo rizzle.

Ok, so daddy got K dressed...he's in a Halloween shirt...on Christmas morning...That's what you have to do to keep up with the Jones'!

Keaton woke up very early (I'll explain in a minute) and by 7am, had played with "All" his gifts. By 8am, he had a CD punched into his face trying to grab it out of Zach's hands and by 11 had run into a wall or door...I forget how many times. Poor kid. We had to start breathing treatments last night and he was awake most of the night with a wheezy-cough. I'll be taking him in first thing tomorrow morning before we head out of town.

K digging into his stocking - Teething biscuts and lots of Mega Blocks (don't tell him it was only half the pack - he gets the rest for his birthday!) :)

Clipo, Clipo, Clipo...He got SO excited every time this commercial came on TV...

Today consists of cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning for me. I refuse to come home to a dirty house Sunday night!

I made out like a bandit this Christmas :) I got a craft mat and rotary cutter, as well as a paper cutter. I got a Sugarland CD, $20 in iTunes cards, a cookbook, some yummies from Bath & Body Works and 2 wristlet keychains from JimmyPickles. Yes, it was a fun morning... (and I'm probably forgetting something, sorry honey!)

Here's B enjoying his Christmas toy - the ONLY toy for his age left at Target by yesterday afternoon....(well, that he didn't have... there were 2 others, but no sense in having duplicates...) Look at the pudgy hands...agggh, I'll eat him :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas!

Our Weekend in Pictures

Why is Keaton so excited???
Paul Bunyan visited our home this weekend!!! Ok not really, we got a tree though! A really, really ridiculously short tree!

Keaton enjoyed eating sand tarts, the best cookies ever.

Here are the Peppermint Marshmallows.

It wasn't all fun and games this weekend though. Keaton normally takes off for the apartment after getting out of the van. My mom said, "Should he hold your hand?" I said, "He normally doesn't." He plopped on the ground. He hopped up. Fell right back down...Now he looks like he visited Fight Club. (Dr. Davis, I'll have him in to see you soon, haha!)

Fun night! (& weekend!)

Bebe was in town again! She made a semi-last minute trip so we could do some "baking." We actually made Peppermint Marshmallows*. The original plan was to make them for us and maybe give some out, but at the last minute, I decided to take them to the worship teams' Christmas party tonight.

But, a tragedy happened in the midst of the baking (no real BAKING was involved with the marshmallows)...my stand mixer died :( It was a sweet and generous wedding gift from my co-teachers when I was teaching at a pre-school in Roanoke when Zach and I got married. (What a sweet surprise that shower was...They tricked me into thinking it was an end of the year picnic...and it was really a kitchen shower for me...love those ladies!) Anywho. Long story short (b/c I'm VERY tired) my mixer started smelling bad...and then got really hot...and then...that's all she wrote :( My mom felt really bad and even bought me a new one today. It's one that I've been eyeing for a VERY long time because you can get awesome attachments for it to make pasta and to grind food, among other things! I'm excited to find a reason to use it! :-D Shouldn't be too hard!

We did a teeny bit of shopping at Archiver's. I have a special project up my sleeve that I plan on showing off here soon!

And tomorrow, I hope to show off the new addition to our apartment!!! It was a hard find, but so fun!

Tonight, we had the Christmas party at the church for the worship team. So I took the Peppermint Marshmallows and a yummy dessert. Both were a hit (and of course, my dessert making ego has been stroked once again as everyone gah-gahed over my treats!)

We had a friend from church stay here at the apt. with Keaton (since he goes to bed at 6 and the Christmas party didn't start until 7 - he is NOT pleasant when he doesn't get his sleep!) and we took Benjamin with us. Shanna, who was one of our doulas, was thrilled to see and hold Benjamin the majority of the time (and I of course, didn't mind the extra hands!) I got to talk with other adults (gasp!) and get to know a couple of people that I didn't really know before (even though we're "friends" on Facebook! haha!)

Well, this is one tired mama. I must go get some sleep! I need to start on some more Christmas gifts tomorrow!

*Checck back for the Peppermint Marshmallow recipe