Gone Fishin'

Eric, our elf, has been so naughty this year.  The kids had a hard time finding him this morning.  They finally found him in the bathroom.....fishing.  They thought it was pretty funny.

Let me guess.....you're suddenly craving goldfish?  Ha!  We're really excited to have both sets of grandparents in town right now.  We've got a crazy busy weekend with not a single spare second.  It'll be nuts but we are all looking very forward to it. 

Raaaaaaaaalph

So, in addition to allowing Talan to eat marshmallows for breakfast yesterday morning, I also let him eat somewhere around 5 cookies last night (at least it was after dinner!).  I know, I know....not smart.  But he was so excited and if you've never met him you can't possibly understand how hard it is to say no to him!  If you have, you're probably not surprised that I gave in.  Anyway, I digress....

So after our fun evening of cookies and decorating we took the kids upstairs to tuck them in.  Before making it to bed, Talan puked.  Nothing major; I'm not talking projectile or pounds of it.  In fact, the best way to describe it is to say that it was cookie sized pile.  It barely phased him and he was soon after fast asleep. 

Eric the Elf found the cookies while we were sleeping.  I guess he overate, too, because we woke up to this:

The note was accompanied by elf puke.  The regurgitated cookie Eric left us was so gross that it literally made me gag when I cleaned it up.  Therefore, I spared you all a picture of it.  You're welcome. 

Decked Out

After an extremely busy Saturday morning (voice lesson, guitar lesson, basketball game, grocery shopping) we came home and spent the afternoon and evening as a family and had a fantastic time.  We started out with our pre-Christmas tree decorating tradition of baking cookies.  The kids had a blast decorating them.

And eating them......

And Talan was very sweet in wanting to share all of his with Daddy. 

After quite a bit of preparation (carrying up all of the boxes from the basement, stringing lights on the tree, organizing the hundreds of contents from inside of said boxes) we were finally ready to get started.  But not before we posed for a family picture.

We had two serious photos and the other 20 we took turned out a lot like this one:

And this one:

Time to pop bottles.....of sparkling apple cider, that is:

After the quick break for refreshments, it was time for ornaments:

Previous to this year, Reese has always put the tree topper on.  We figured since Talan is still young, he probably wouldn't know the difference so it can be Reese's job one last year.  Next year we'll start alternating.

Uh, he noticed.  And he wanted to put a snowflake on top of the tree, too.  Good thing he settled for his own special snowflake (aka an ornament).

The kids did a great job.  Normally I'm so OCD about the tree and placement of the ornaments that I go back and move things around once the kids have gone to bed (I know people....it's a sickness!).  But this year I'm so content and happy with the fabulous job they did that I didn't have to move a thing. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Eric vs. Barbies

This is what we woke up to this morning:

We tried to figure out who won the battle but it looked pretty fair judging by where the marshmallow "snowballs" were.  About ten minutes after this photo was taken there were half as many.  Talan didn't waste any time shoveling them down his throat.  Yes it was 8 in the morning and yes he was eating them off of the floor (that I haven't cleaned in a couple of weeks).  Pick and choose, people...pick and choose.  I'll leave the battling to Eric and the Barbie for now. 

My Reason for Running

Between email, social networking, and my blog, some of you are going to be reading this same message over and over again.  I can't take any chances though.  I need to make sure I reach out to as many people as I can.  This past October, Kevin and I volunteered at a Comfort Zone Camp, a place grieving children can go to work through their pain and heal their hearts.  If you missed it, you can read all about our experience here.  I haven't stopped thinking about camp and those kids since then.  Fortunately we'll have the opportunity to volunteer again because they are planning camps in 2012, but I feel a strong need to do something else in the meantime.

One of the camp counselors I met has become a great friend.  She called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I'd head up a team to raise money for the camp.  When she said I'd have to participate in a ten mile run I felt a little sick to my stomach but I couldn't help but jump at the chance to help.  I really don't like to run and I'm not at all good at it.  At a mile I feel like I'm going to die.  At two miles I'm sweating like a pig.  By mile three I can barely breath and my knees are giving out.  And mile four is the farthest I've ever made it and that was on one of my very best days.  But I figure that if these young kids can work through their grief, the least I can do is make it through ten miles in their honor, and in the honor of the loved ones I've lost.  I'm normally very uncomfortable asking people for money.  We're struggling just like the rest of the world so I squirm every time someone asks me, too.  But because it's so near and dear to my heart, I have to.  If you have anything to give, even a couple of dollars, please consider doing so.  Visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/staciebranton/2012soldierfield 

Say WHAT?

Some days Talan asks to go down for a nap.  Other days, like today, it's nearly impossible to get him to go to sleep.  It's not unusual for him to talk to himself which is what he did for at least an hour today.  About 45 minutes in, I went upstairs and put my ear to the door to listen in.  I was shocked at what I heard.  It went a little like this:

"Hi Sexy, come over here and look at this.  Okay Dappy, I'm coming over right now to look.  Sexy, did you see where Dalma went?  No.  Okay.  Let's get Dalma and Dappy and tell them to come play at Sexy's house."

Uh, come again?  What the heck?  So into his room I went to ask him what he was talking about.  When I walked in I noticed that he was in bed with a book in hand.  It was Scooby.  I told him to tell me the story and when he did I was relieved to know that Sexy was actually Shaggy, Dappy was Daphnie, and Dalma was Velma.  Innocent mistake.  I was happy to keep him up for another 15 minutes, reading the story, and making sure to say each name with exaggeration in hopes that he'll catch on. 

Snow...Flippin...Way!

Eric is definitely at it again this year.  Reese has written him a letter every night since his arrival.  She remembered that last year he made it "snow" in the house and asked if he could do that again.  He assured her that it was coming.  Last night she asked again for him to "do something funny".  His response?  "Reese, I did it!  Your Mom is going to freak out!  Love, Eric".  She couldn't get down the stairs fast enough. 

 "Let it Snow!"

The night before last he surprised the kids.  Fortunately there wasn't any clean up with this one:

We finally went out and got our tree last night.  We went to the first lot and didn't find anything that we liked.  We moved on to the second lot and within a few minutes found the perfect tree.  We turned our backs for one second and a couple walked up and claimed the tree we found.  The woman went as far as wrapping her hand around the trunk to make sure no one could take it.  We're obviously not going to fight that battle.  It is Christmas, after all.  So off we went to search again.  After at least ten laps around the lot (and I'll admit, a few tears shed) we finally found one.  It's in the stand now, warming up, and ready for decorating.  We probably won't get to it until this weekend but we're one step closer.