Santa Cookies

Since Santa is coming early so that Dylan could be here to open his presents, we HAD to make his cookies tonight. It couldn't wait a minute longer... at least according to my children. I know I should have made the cookies from scratch like Tammy... but I'm not nearly the mom that she is. I used a box. Such shame.....

Anyway, we did roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, cook, and iced the cookies, so I guess that I'm not all that bad. After I iced them (I learned my lesson with letting them have frosting last night), Brennan and Dylan decorated them with sprinkles and sugar. All the while, Nolan ate cookie after cookie while watching them decorate theirs. I think that he thought he was getting the better end of the deal.

The Grinch ICE!

One nice thing about Nashville is that the Grand Ole Opry is only about 15 minutes away and they have some of the coolest things in their theaters. When Tammy and I went to the Grand Ole Opry, they had some advertisements for ICE! Now, I didn't know exactly what it was other than the Grinch and that LOTS of kids at Brennan's school had gone. Going on that information, Don and I decided to surprise the kids by taking them to see the Grinch.

ICE is exactly what it says it is... Everything is made out of ICE! In order to keep the ice from melting, it was only 9 degrees inside the building... Brrrrrrrr.... I can't say that it was what I expected or we would've worn more winter clothes. As it was, the boys just had their coats on, I had a light jacket, and Don didn't have anything. Luckily, they plan on it being much colder than the outdoor temperature, so they have heavy coats to put on over your coat. THANK HEAVENS! There was so much cool (punny....) stuff to see inside. Who-ville, Cindy Lou Who, the Grinch.... there was even the roast beast. The best part of the ice land were the slides made out of ice. The boys just loved them... though they only got to go down a couple of times because of the lines and how cold it was.

At the very end, they had the real nativity carved out of ice with a gigantic angel watching over the baby Jesus. Now that was really cool!

After nearly freezing to death, we went to meet the Grinch. Luckily, he was in a warm building just up the street. When we walked in, Brennan and Dylan both knew who he was and gave him hugs and high fives. Nolan, not knowing anything about him, thought he was the neatest thing he'd ever seen. I expected him to run away screaming, but Nolan kept running up to him, laughing and smiling, then running back to us. Back and Forth, back and forth. Such a crazy kid! We had the Grinch all to ourselves for about ten minutes to take pictures and be silly. The Grinch even danced with Brennan and Dylan.

You'll notice in the pictures that Nolan is holding an ICE sippy cup that has hot chocolate in it... bad idea when you want to take a cute picture. He would not let that cup go!

Although it was a little expensive, I'm glad that we took the boys out to have some fun. It's times like this that they'll remember and want to show their kids.

Gingerbread Trains

Yesterday, Don flew in from Tulsa with Dylan. The boys were so happy to see each other... they played for hours. It's good to have our complete family here!

To celebrate Christmas, we decided to decorate Gingerbread Houses... but Target was out of the houses, so instead of driving around hoping to find houses, we bought what they did have... TRAINS!

Decorating Gingerbread Trains turned out to be just as fun the boys as decorating houses... and just as MESSY! And just in case you're curious... they are missing the shirts because of the messy they kept making.

73 Degrees in December?

On Friday December 19th, Nashville recorded a record high of 73. Unbelievable! It's the middle of December.... you know, that month that is supposed to be insanely cold... and wet... and white. Well, we have NONE of that going on here. In fact, Friday was so nice, the boys played outside until it got dark... and even then, it was only in the 50's. Crazy!

I've come to the conclusion that I have the clumsiest boys in the world. Brennan can barely walk 50 feet without tripping all over his two left feet and I fear that Nolan has inherited the same trait. While we were outside, Nolan constantly kept falling down and hitting his head... so when you see pictures of the following days, he has this huge goose egg from falling and hitting it a dozen or so times in the same place. I promise I'm not beating my baby!

Brennan Update

This past month and a half has been a zoo! Constantly coming and going... not necessarily knowing exactly where... I feel like my head is about to explode! While it has been a lot of running around, it has done wonders for Brennan, so I am glad that he is getting something out of my insanity!



Karate Update: Brennan has earned his white belt and has earned a strip toward his gold belt. His Seance (teacher) called me yesterday to let me know how well Brennan is doing. He said that Brennan was a very polite boy (I was shocked!) who was taking his lessons very seriously and that he was proud of what he had accomplished.


Swimming Update: Brennan has completed his swimming lessons for the quarter. He has passed his minnow test, so now he can start taking the next level, though that won't be until the spring when Basketball is over.


Basketball Update: Brennan continues to practice with his team. While basketball may not quite be his thing (he doesn't really understand the game) he is enjoying playing with the other boys. Brennan's first game is the second Saturday in January. Pictures will follow!


Boy Scout Update: Brennan has come quite a long way in Tiger Scouts. This past pack meeting, he was awarded his swimming belt loop (he was the 1st in his pack to earn a belt loop) and a popcorn sale patch. He only has 2 beads left to complete with his den to finish his Tiger Badge. The picture is Brennan with his den leader Ms. Amy.


On a side note, I was also presented with an award at the last pack meeting. I was awarded a Cub Scout key chain and a ribbon to wear to meetings for being such an involved parent (I got it because I was the parent who logged on to the scouting website the most and logged all of Brennan's requirements/electives). So Yippee to Me!


This is a picture of Brennan performing "I caught a baby bumble bee" at their pack meeting. The scouts LOVE that song!

Update on the Elves

Last night, Brennan and I were picking up the house when Brennan asked me about elves again.

Brennan: How can Santa be everywhere at once?
Me: He isn't... he has elves watching you wherever you go.
Brennan: Someone in my class said that elves live in the cupboards. Is that true?
Me: Well, they have to live somewhere...closets, cupboards, under beds.
Brennan: Well, I don't think they live in our cupboards... there is too much stuff in them for the elves to fit too!

Just as a side note: Brennan has been ACTIVELY looking for elves everywhere we are/go. I'm thinking of leaving "elf scraps/poop" somewhere for him to find. Any ideas/suggestions for what to leave?

Santa's Little Helper

Nolan helping to put out Christmas Decorations.

Projects

So usually I post about my super (crazy) kids or my hubby, but this post is going to be about me (and my projects). I rarely get to toot my own horn, but I think that the projects I've been working on for Christmas are super good~ at least for me. They would probably drive my mother crazy because they aren't perfectly square or centered, but I think that for doing them all by myself, they turned out pretty well!

Over the last couple of weeks I have embroidered 58 kitchen towels (for Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), 19 bathroom towels, 7 winter hats, 3 white Dr. coats, and 2 baby blankets along with sewing 5 baby blankets, a soft baby book, and a big Razorback blanket for Don.

Here are a few of my favorite:

These are Stephanie's Christmas present (and yes she's seen them). I really like the way the colors go together and how everything lined up so well.

These are the Halloween Towels~ Super cute!

These are Nolan's new blankets for his new toddler bed. They were supposed to be one blanket, but they wouldn't sew together straight, so they became two instead!

"I want to be an Elf"

Interesting morning we've had here...

Brennan was full of questions about Santa~ how old is he? is he magic? how do you get to go work for him?

That led to his new fascination- ELVES! Are they real? Why are they so little? Are the my age? How can they be so old and so small?

I answered the best I could based on the movies (sad, I know) that I know he's seen and could compare them to. I think he seemed content with the answers I gave.

Then, as I was making him put on his coat, hat and gloves to catch the bus, he said the funniest thing..."I want to be an Elf." He walks over to me with his beanie tucked behind his ears, making his ears all pointy! "I'm going to be an Elf today." He was so proud that he'd figured out how to make himself look like an elf that I just smiled and nodded and sent him on his way.

Such sweet childlike faith...I want to be an Elf too!!!

I'm A Big Kid Now!

This past weekend, we purchased Nolan a toddler bed to try and transition him from the crib before the new baby (still un-named) arrives. When we were setting it up, Nolan was having a blast climbing all over it. You could tell that he was loving the fact that there was actually a bed in the house that he could get on himself! We found a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bed set (his absolute favorite thing in the world...it's ever surpassed Baby Mozart!) to put on his bed and I even finished the blankets that I bought to make for him months ago. We assumed that everything was ready....

I know, I know... don't assume anything. The first night was insane. He cried for over an hour! Eventually, he figured out that we weren't coming in to play with him and he fell asleep on the floor next to the bed. So Close! Nap time the next day was worse. Since there was light, he could play with the few items we left in the room (blankets, diapers, wipes, books, the garbage). When I went to check on him after about 15 minutes, he had dumped out the garbage, knocked over the lamp, pulled out all of the blankets, opened all of the dresser drawers and tipped over the dresser. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, although he did manage to get out all the creams that were in his top drawers and line them up on the end of his bed. I should have taken a picture of his face when I walked in and found him in such a state. He looked at me and looked around and said (in the sweetest little voice) "Uh, oh." After a quick clean-up, Nolan spent the rest of his nap time in the crib.

The last three nights have been good though- After Don fixed the dresser by adding the drawer stops/latches, Nolan really hasn't done any damage to anything. When we put him to bed, he cries for about 5-10 minutes in front of the gate by his door and then crawls back into his bed and goes to sleep. It's been kind of nice- the only new issue is that Brennan isn't getting as much sleep as he should, but hopefully, the worst is over.

I had to throw in this other picture of Nolan. He is really into stacking and lining things up lately. Usually, it's the biggest on the bottom, but lately he's figured out that you can stack them from smallest to largest. I think he's getting too smart~ If only he would start really talking!

Them Crazy Cousins!

Brennan and Nolan loved having their cousins come to visit for Thanksgiving.

While Nolan was a little reserved at first, he soon took to Marissa and would follow her around the house playing. Nolan was even affectionate with Marissa, giving her hugs and kisses and just sitting with her watching TV~ not acting at all like my little stinker! It took a couple of days, but he also took to playing with Micaela.

Back in the day, many moons ago, Brennan and Marissa used to fight like cats and dogs over everything. I'm extremely grateful that they have both outgrown that stage of their lives, because now they play like best friends! They spent the weekend playing on the play set, shooting hoops, playing air-hockey, playing boardgames and just messing around. One of their favorite games was to pull each other around the house on a blanket. This game eventually evolved into wrapping each other up like a mummy- doesn't Brennan look so silly?

While we may not live close, it is wonderful to have such fun cousins!

Happy Thanksgiving!

or should I say "over-abundance of turkey" day?

This year, instead of driving to Little Rock or farther beyond, we decided that we were going to host dinner at our house, so we invited Heidi and her family to come to visit and eat, and eat, and eat! When she arrived Wednesday night, we got right to work making pies- 1 apple, 1 cherry, and 4 pumpkin pies. It was VERY reminiscent of growing up.... except that I was missing about 10 more pies! After having a few issues with the apple pie (too much filling) and the cherry pie (not enough filling) and a few trips to Kroger, we finally got everything figured out.

Thursday morning went great... I've decided that I love my double oven! The turkey went in at 8, the homemade rolls went in at 11, followed by the ham at noon. The mashed potatoes, cranberries, salad, and sweet potatoes were done at 1- the only issue came when we were trying to make the glaze for the ham and the gravy at the same time. It took about 15 minutes longer than anticipated, but dinner was ready and on the table by 1:30. All of that work for 20 minutes of eating! But it was really, really good!

The funny thing is, I cook like my mother... way too much food for one meal! We had leftovers Thursday night, Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Even as I am writing this, there is still a bag of Turkey and 2 Pumpkin pies sitting in my fridge right now! Oh well, as my mother used to say "Better to have too much than not to have enough!"

So, I would have to say that for my fist attempt at cooking a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, it was quite successful!

Brennan's Advancements

Brennan has some great news this week- He's earned two advancements!!!

Monday, Brennan earned his white belt in karate. He had to pass off some basic moves (kicks, punches, blocks) that he's been practicing all week. He was so proud of himself! He also earned a red star for his uniform from getting all A's on his report card.

Last night, Brennan earned his Bobcat from Cub Scouts. The scouts had a fun ceremony where they had the parents present the patch to the scout. During this ceremony, the scout's face was painted to match the standards of the Bobcat. Doesn't Brennan look so cute with his face painted like a Bobcat? He also earned more beads toward his Tiger Cub~ He only has 5 more to earn until he gets his next advancement!

We are extremely proud of Brennan for all of the hard work he's put into his advancements- Way to Go Brennan!

My Sweet Hubby

Don, you may not want to read this entry because it is entirely about you. But for everyone else, I need to let you know what a sweet and caring husband I have. I know that it is so much easier to complain about what isn't right (and I know that I'm good at it too!), but I just wanted to let everyone know how great it is to be married to Don.

Last week, Don sent me some very beautiful fall flowers for no reason at all. I think that he knew what a crazy time I've been having with the boys and thought that they might cheer me up, which they did! Every time I look at them, I smile :)

This past week, Don has gotten up in the morning with Nolan and Brennan so that I could get a few extra minutes of sleep. I know it doesn't seem like such a big deal, but if you've ever been prego, you know that five minutes of sleep could be the difference of feeling tired all day and getting your "to do" list done. Much appreciated!

Then yesterday, Don watched the boys while I went to the spa for a package that Don had scheduled for me. It included a facial, an hour-long prenatal massage, and a pedicure. It was 3 hours of heaven! I even came home to fed children playing quietly and even was able to take a nap. Yesterday was the best day I've had in a while. Everything at home was calm and peaceful!

I know I don't say it often enough, but I really love my wonderful husband! He's definitely the best thing that has even happened to me!

Thanksgiving @ Station Camp

Daddy, Nolan, and Brennan in his Indian Vest (complete with hieroglyphics)

Brennan goes to such a great school that makes sure to involve the parents in nearly every activity. Thanksgiving was no exception. Yes, I know Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet, but his school celebrated it on Friday and invited the parents to come eat lunch with their student. Brennan was so excited when we said that we would go... and the only reason we went was for him. It wasn't for the overpriced cafeteria food (we spent more on lunch at his school than we would have at Chick-Fil-A). It was solely for the fact that Brennan will know that we would do anything for him, anything to make him happy and proud to have us as parents. So, the food wasn't all that great, but the company was AWESOME!

Baby Update

Time for another baby update:

Baby Borchert (still un-named) will be delivered Thursday January 22nd at 8 am.

Nolan's 1st Haircut

Yesterday morning, Don and I decided that it was finally time for Nolan to get his first haircut. Actually, all of the boys needed their hair cut, so we figured that now was better than later. That being said, there were some fatal flaws to our idea: 1st- It was Nolan's nap time. 2nd- Nolan doesn't really like new people. 3rd- Nolan hates to sit still and hates it even more when he's being held down. Not yet realizing our mistakes, we took him to get his hair cut anyway.

For the first 5 minutes, he was fussy but not too bad. The next 5 minutes were a little worse, until I found the orange tic-tacs that he loves. The 5 minutes after that, we ran out of tic-tacs and then all bets were off. Nolan screamed worse than when he had his shots! We decided to let him take a break while Brennan got his hair cut. After Nolan had calmed down a bit, we got most of his hair cut before he started crying again. It was good enough for me! Not the best hair cut, but Nolan no longer has a mullet in the back and hair sticking up on the crown of his head.

What made me the most upset about this experience wasn't Nolan's crying or him losing his baby hair, it was the rudeness of another patron. So I need to vent here: If you don't have something nice to say to someone you don't know- KEEP YOUR OPINIONS TO YOURSELF!!! This older lady (in her 70's) was just getting finished with her cut when Nolan was almost finished with his cut. She came over to me and said that I was scaring my child for life and I shouldn't be doing this to such a little kid. Then she said that I should be ashamed of myself for putting my child through such a traumatic experience. WTH?!?!?!?! What was I supposed to say to that? I just looked at her while Nolan cried and the stylist tried to finish as quickly as possible. What I wanted to say was that you don't know my child- she didn't know if he was always like this or not- and it was none of her business if I wanted his hair cut or not. Now I know it wasn't the right time to take him, we should have waited until later, but it was something that needed to get done (his hair was in his eyes!).

So now I'm a bad parent and have scared my child for life! He's not even talking (but he wasn't talking before) and he is just like his normal self. All I have to say is that Brennan's 1st haircut went much better than Nolan's. We'll have to see with the next one and then compare the battle scars!

After the haircut

Boy Scouts, Basketball, Karate and Swimming

Am I crazy?!?! I think we all know that the answer to that is "YES!" I don't know what I'm doing getting Brennan into all of these activities, but I know that he's going to enjoy them. It's been very hard on him moving here because there aren't any little boys in the neighborhood to play with, so I think that's why we are signing up for each one.

Brennan started Cub Scouts about a month ago and he just loves it! He has already done enough to earn his Bobcat Badge. He looks so grown up in his uniform that I cried the first night he went because he wasn't my little boy anymore.

Basketball came out of nowhere. First Brennan said that he wanted to do Baseball, but he changed his mind. Then he said he wanted to play football, but the season was almost over. Then at Cub Scouts, they were talking about Basketball sign-ups for Hendersonville (which we missed a month ago) and Brennan mentioned he'd like to play. Randomly enough, Goodlettsville (where Don works) lets people from out of town play in their league and they were just finishing sign-ups, so now Brennan is playing.

Karate is a funny story. On Halloween, we went to the Goodlettsville Park Trick-or-Treat where each booth was sponsored by a company. The last booth we went to was a karate booth where you could register to win a months worth of free karate lessons. Luck must be on his side...Brennan won! So he starts tonight... should be fun!

Which brings us to swimming lessons: I've got to tell a back story here. We belonged to the YMCA in Illinois where Brennan took swimming lessons and really enjoyed it. We also went to the pool as a family on the weekends, which was really good bonding time for all of us. Anyway... when I went to my Ob-gyn this week, I told her about some pains that I'd been having down the back of my legs and she suggested physical therapy and to spend some time in the pool. So this morning I went to see the physical therapist (interesting experience). She suggested working the muscle at both the office and pool, and since they didn't have a pool on site, they use the YMCA pool. My major hurdle was what to do with Nolan while I had physical therapy for an hour? Then it dawned on me... YMCA... babysitting! The only catch was that you have to be a member to have them watch your child while you are on site, so we joined the YMCA of Tennessee. As it turns out, they have a swimming class for both Brennan and Nolan on Saturday mornings that start next week. The main reason for getting him into swimming is to get him past he fear of the water. Hopefully, this will help.


Anyway, about the physical therapy: I go twice a week for stretching and water therapy for the next couple of months. After working with Miller (kind of a cool/different name for a girl) today, I can already feel some of the pain lessening.

Halloween in Nashville

Happy Halloween!!

This Halloween was so much fun!! When Brennan got home from school, the boys changed into their costumes: Brennan was a Skeleton Pirate and Nolan was a Dragon. I can't believe how stinkin' cute they both were. After taking some pictures, we loaded the boys into the car to go to the Goodlettsville Trick-or-Treat in the park. When we got there, we were amazed at the number of people!! It was only 5:15 and had just started, but the line to visit all of the booths was already 4-5 blocks long!!! Nolan was getting upset with all of the standing around, so Don took him on a walk across the open park. He was so cute walking around in his dragon costume!! He even started waving at people (which he never does). After waiting in line for 15 min. Brennan was getting anxious too, so we decided to skip the trick-or-treating part and just go to the end where there were jump houses. Jump houses are Brennan's favorite! We played for a while, cut in at the very end of the line, and got candy from the last 5 or so booths. Just enough to make the kids happy. Nolan didn't really get the concept of taking candy, but he totally got the concept of eating the candy. And Brennan was really good about making sure that Nolan got his fair share of candy too!

After the park, we came back home and went around our neighborhood (to all of 10 houses). It was fun to take Brennan around~ he was surprisingly polite and said thank you to all of our neighbors. We finally came home when it started to get too cold. The boys got enough candy and we still had plenty because we only had 5 trick-or-treaters all night. It kind of made me feel like I did when I lived with my mom and no one would come to our house because it was really scary. After sitting up for another hour without any more candy-getter's, we turned off the lights at 9 and were in bed by 9:30. We are getting so old!!!

Daddy and Nolan the Dragon

Brennan the Pirate- Rrrrrr!

Nolan the Dragon walking around the park- isn't he super cute?!?
Brennan in one of the many jump houses~ getting him out of there is like pulling teeth!