10 posts tagged “holidays”

*coughcoughcough*

I'm living on a strict diet of water and cough drops lately.  Not that tastey.

So, yesterday we took the boys to see Santa.  J played shy at first, but got over it pretty quick like.  Walmart took pictures, and then I took a couple of my own as well.  I planned on just taking my memory card back and printing them at the photo lab, but when I got back there and put it in the computer, all that came up was these little boxes of fuzz.  I started to freak out thinking something was wrong with my camera or card, but then I realized I'd taken the pictures in RAW and their computer doesn't read RAW.  Good job, Nicole.  I'll learn to look before I shoot one of these days.

After we got home I buzzed Tyler's head, but he wouldn't let me shave his beard off.  My husband officially looks like 'That Creepy Neighbor Guy' with a buzzed head and big bushy beard.  Don't ask me why.

Last night was Tyler's work Christmas party.  Boring as usual, but the place that caters is AWESOME.  Seriously, I eat so much that I'm stuffed, but I still want to go back for more because it is THAT good.  Tyler won a little Santa cookie jar during their little gift exchange thing.  It's actually kind of cute.

When his work party was over we picked the boys up and went over to a friend's house.  Several of the guys Tyler works get together and play poker.  Nothing too thrilling there either, but it was kind of nice to be out of the house for a bit.

My mom and sister watched P while I buzzed Tyler's head (J was sleeping) and when I went down to drop J off before the Christmas party, Mom told me she thinks P may be teething.  I'd noticed him drooling a lot, and she said he fussed the whole time he was there and the only thing that calmed him was chewing on his or my sister's fingers.  PLEASE DO NOT LET HIM BE TEETHING!  First of all, he's too young :( and second of all, I don't know if I could handle going straight from colic to teething.  I might just snap.

We found Santa.  Don't know why the picture of P is so blurry.

P turned 2 months last Wednesday.  I cannot believe how time has flown.  It seems like just yesterday I was heading through the hospital door with enough crap in my arms they thought I was permanently moving in.  And now he's all smiling and growing and ... *sigh*

Today he had his 2 month shots, and he handled them like a pro.  As with J before, I could not hold him during the actual process, Tyler had to.  J and I sat across the room, both of us fighting tears when P started screaming after the first shot.  J turned to me and said, "Hurts Peyton!" with tears in his eyes.  What a big bro!

His next appointment is the 29th at 3 months.  I'm curious about his weight gain.  The first month he was gaining about half a pound a week, but from week 4 to week 6 he only gained about 4 ounces, so I'm curious to see if he's continued with the slow weight gain or not.

The colic seems to be slowly getting better.  For the most part he sleeps decent at night, and has long content periods during the day.  Today I even had him cackling before his shots.  It's so nice to see him smiling and laughing after nearly two months of pure screaming.  He's even starting to let me cuddle him now.  I can't even begin to tell you how hard it is to cuddle a screaming, rigid-bodied baby.

I'm kind of sad that we haven't had any professional pictures of P done yet.  As much as I love taking pictures, I'd like to have at least one set of professionals to compare with J's.  But money is just so tight this time of year (whose idea was it to make property taxes due 5 days before Christmas?!) and so they'll have to wait a bit longer.  I feel bad because with J money was tight but I still managed to get pro pictures taken every few months the first year and every six months after that.  We haven't had any professional pictures done since April with my Smile Savers plan ran out at Sears.

In other news, J and I made a Christmas countdown chain yesterday.  I'm not sure how much he understands about Christmas, so I'm doing what I can to get him all excited about it.  We're going to make a tree topper and door hanging, too, as soon as I get some new markers and glue.  I thought I had all of this stuff hanging around, but apparently not.

I have so very little Christmas shopping done that it's not even funny.  I've got a V-Smile, Hot Wheels set, and Christmas jammies for J, a Bod body spray set for my cousin, and that's it.  Tyler's older two nephews are getting wood letters to paint, and other than that I don't even know what to get anyone.  Money is super tight, as mentioned, so no one is getting anything too spectacular.  I wanted to do homemade gifts, but I didn't get started as early as I wanted to.

Tyler missed work last night with the flu, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one else gets it.  J and I have both been sniffly for days, but that's as far as it has gone. 

Tyler has to make up the work he missed on Friday night, which sucks, but necessary.  His Christmas party at work is this weekend, and I'm actually excited.  Weird, I know, but the place they have cater is amazing.  I could care less about the rest of the party as long as they keep having the same place cater.  Tyler wants to go out to his buddy's afterwards to play cards, but I will probably end up back home with the boys.  I'm still not comfortable leaving P with anyone for too long, and since my sister will probably babysit and she's not too comfortable trying to take care of P during his fussy periods ... it is better that I skip the poker playing.

A P picture and then I'm out.  It is a lovely angle, I know, but I had to be fast to catch the smile.  He's a quick little bug.

Yesterday Santa was at Walmart.  I got the boys all dolled up, grabbed mom, and headed in that direction.  We stopped to have lunch with my grandma first, though.

We got to Walmart and, yes, missed Santa.  We arrived at 2:30 and he had left at 2.

He'll be there again next Saturday, and at a local kids' store next Sunday.  Two more chances to catch that fatso before Christmas. 

Wish me luck.

I'b sick.  Well, getting there anyway.  J's been sniffly for days and now all of a sudden I can't breathe and my throat hurts.  This will mark the second time since I had P that I've been sick.  What's up with that crap?

Yesterday J and I put up the Christmas tree.  It's pretty sad looking at the moment.  It's got lights and garland, but that's it.  Tyler and I never have bought any ornaments, just some glass balls that I don't want to put up and have J break.  I'm gonna have to get a few.  I figure I'll get four for J and one for P and from here on out get them each a new one every year.  And, of course, J and I need to make a few as well.  Growing up about 75% of the ornaments on our tree were made by my sisters and me and I think it made our tree feel more special because of it.

I'm not sure how much about Christmas and Santa J is understanding yet, but right after we got the tree all up and lit he looked at me and asked where the presents were.  I think I'll make a paper chain to help him count down the days left.  I can't believe it is that close already.  Where did the year go?!

One of these days I'll learn to trust my instincts.  I picked up the Impact 1GB SD card Walmart had on their Black Friday sales for $13.87.  Something told me to be careful and keep the packaging for it just in case it didn't work, especially since I'd never heard of the brand before.  Well, I ended up throwing the packing away before I tried it out and sure enough ... it doesn't work in my computer.  It works in my camera, but when I put it in my computer and click on the drive, it tells me to put a disk in.  I can hook my camera up to my computer and get the pictures, but I had my laptop special ordered with the SD drive so I wouldn't HAVE to do that.  Yes, I realize that I'm just a whiner.

On the other hand, my external hard drive seems to work so far *knock on wood*  My aunt's mom dropped it off this morning, so I haven't had a chance to do much tinkering around with it yet.  But it hooked up just fine and I haven't found any glitches or problems yet.

If possible, I think Peyton adores Jonathan already.  Tyler and I have to work to get him to smile, but J just has to be where he can see him and P starts smiling.  He will watch every move J makes.  I took some cute pictures of the two of them last night, but I forgot to reset my camera setting so they are all blurry/fuzzy.

Yes, I am alive.  Wednesday we had Thanksgiving with my parents, sisters, and grandmother.  My baby sister and I picked up Grandma around noon, and we all just hung out until about 4 when we ate.  I had originally planned on taking family pictures since everyone was home and it was nice out, but wouldn't you know that my dad "forgot" and showed up late.  Way to be supportive of my trying to become a photographer dad =\

Thursday was the big dinner at Grandpa's with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins on my dad's side.  There was only one person missing and she wasn't really 'missed' if you know what I mean.  I again ate too much and snapped a couple of pictures.

Black Friday ... yeah.  I got up about 4am with Peyton, and decided to head over to WalMart about 10 til 5 because they had a memory card for my camera cheap and I really didn't think the local one would be that busy.  I got there about 5:15 and the parking lot was FULL ... as in, if I hadn't lucked out and pulled as someone was pulling out, I would have been parking along the edge somewhere.  And there were already people on their way out with carts full.  That's true black Friday shoppers there.  In and out in 15 minutes. 

I am apparently too nice for BF shopping.  I don't push people out of my way and I don't grab things out of others' hands.  I did manage to get my memory card, and a V-Smile system for J for Christmas.  My aunt, who is a HUGE BF shopper, got me a 60GB external harddrive at Best Buy.  No way was I going to attempt to get it myself.  Now I can transfer all of my pictures/videos/Sims2 stuff over and maybe my computer will run a *little* faster (I'm only using about 27 of 30GB).

I'll do a better update later ... working on some website stuff right now.  I just needed a break from coding before I tore all of my hair out.

This next week, well really the next couple of months, is going to be busy.  I have a website to work on (no, not mine ... for a friend's band), Saturday I am doing a friend's family pictures, and Sunday I am supposed to go to a Passion Party.  That may not sound like much, but I also have to get J and P's Christmas pictures done so I can get cards printed (which, by the way, if you want to swap holiday cards private message/email me).  Add in the fact that I am trying to do all of this with a 3 year old and 1 month old ... trust me, it is a lot.

I know ... those of you who remember my web design "skills" are going "HUH?" to the website job, but I'm one of the very few people out here in the sticks that even knows what HTML/CSS/etc IS, let alone how to put a site together.  And, those who have seen the pictures I take are going "HUH?" again to the family pictures thing.  Me, too.  Don't know what that's all about, but it'll be fun to get the experience.

And really, this is just the beginning.  I mean, it is November (already!?) afterall, which means the beginning of the holiday season.  I'm so mixed on this.  I love holidays in that I love spending time with my family, eating way too much food, and just the overall feel of the holidays.  On the flipside, I hate my in-laws and their ability to completely RUIN the holiday season for me.  Luckily, I think my exposure to them this holiday season will be limited due to their recent "stunts", and the fact that Peyton is now over five weeks old and my father-in-law still hasn't been up to see him.  Pretty sad, really.

Anywho, it looks like I'll be on my toes for the next week or so.  As long as it keeps me busy so I can't sit around and get fat(ter) (like I've been doing for the last few weeks).

J had a blast trick-or-treating last night.  We left early, about six, and he was so efficient that we had hit the entire town, minus a few houses I refused to take him to, by seven.  And that was with half of the town inviting us into their houses to show J to their spouses, etc. 

I know I've posted his cowboy costume before, but we stepped it up slightly for last night since he had to have his winter coat on and we couldn't get too creative.

I loathe election time.  Seriously.  There's so many nasty campaign ads on the TV/radio right now, it's driving me nuts.  I'm a registered voter, so if these ads had any value, you know discussing what they are actually campaigning on, that'd be great.  But where all they do is put down the other candidate and talk about the 'bad things' the other candidates are about, and to me that does no good.

Anyway, so it is coming up on holiday season already, can you believe it?  I can't.  And honestly, I'm not too excited.  After the crap with the in-laws, I'm dreading any kind of family function.  If I'm lucky, Tyler will still be so upset with them that he won't want to do anything with them this year.  It'd serve them right if you ask me.

I started today trying to get the boys' Christmas card pictures taken, but no one/nothing wanted to cooperate.  J was just goofing off, P spit up on me everytime I turned around, and my "studio" fell over on me.  I'm going to try again in a little bit once the sun is coming in the windows so hopefully I won't have to use my flash as much (natural lighting looks so much better).

Yesterday Tyler and I took Jonathan to "SpookFest".  It is just a little thing in the park with a few games and rides.  Nothing too exciting, but he had fun.  He played "Wheel of Fortune", pumpkin bowling, got some cotton candy, and went to the petting zoo.  We entered him in the costume contest, too.  He wasn't too sure about standing up on their stage all by himself, but he was a little man and did it anyway.  (More pictures at FlickR.)