Christmas

Christmas was great. As much as I wish we could be with family, it's fun to have it just our somewhat-little family. M and P still don't fully get Santa, but they got that he brought presents and wouldn't come if they were naughty. Great motivation to be good...

It looked like Toys R Us threw up in our house in the morning, it was awesome. We ended up having to get P some plastic totes to put all his Thomas in because we have no more storage left. And I've stepped on quite a few sharp little trains already, and came very close to "accidentally" chucking them through a window. Good thing the shades were closed.

M got a kitchen and seeing her face when she saw it... it was so great. She got really shy as if she wasn't sure it was for her, and then was just SO excited. She loves it. ALL of them love it, actually.

J got some fun toys, but it's hard to find toys for his age that we don't already have in some way or another. Not the best picture, but you can see the load of Thomas crud everywhere.

And what did CJ and I get for Christmas? Tee hee hee hee.... one of the best presents I've ever gotten.

A new TV!!!!!! To sound like TAMN---Squeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Yep, we used CJ's bonus to get a new 42" HDTV. No, we're not being wasteful with money, we did need a new TV as our old one was starting to go, and watching movies with green corners just isn't as fun as on a new TV. We'd had that TV since we were newlyweds, and my parents had had it before us. I'm such a suck and teared up in the van as CJ was donating it to Salvation Army here. What a dork. Sucky thing is, our cable company doesn't have HD channels yet (bah) so we're switching to DirecTV. CJ's like a little kid on a sugar high, thinking about watching the Super Bowl in HD. And now you've also seen part of our house, aren't you all so excited? In all it's white walledness? I should take more pics of this room and have you guys tell me what to paint it, if even to paint it. It's so whacky shaped it's hard! Oops. There I go on a ramble again.

So Angie, Jesse and Staci will be proud, but I've been thinking about getting back into scrapping (both ways, digi and paper) again. I took a big fat break because I was just feeling.... overwhelmed I guess. I had other things going on IRL and in the online world, and I let it slip off my radar of things that relax me. But I'm like a fly drawn to a bug zapper with all the pretty doodads out there for both kinds of scrapping, and I've been collecting a bit here and there. I made a mini album for my friend Kim for her baby boy Spencer, turned out cute. Of course, forgot to take pics of it, durr.

J is finally standing with support!!! And he's figured out his feet and takes STEPS while holding onto our hands!! AND he's crawling on his hands and knees now!! Really, the amount of progress he's made in the last month just makes me burst with cheesy mummy pride. Shelley is so pleased she's letting us go to an appointment every two weeks instead of every week, which is very nice since our copays are going up to $50 a pop. J is also very proud of himself, and loves to show off his skillz anywhere. Little lovebug. He also has discovered that tipping the bowl straight into his mouth is mucho faster than bothering with silly things like spoons or fingers.

Another Fun Visitor!

From Wednesday until today, my mum came to town for a pre-Christmas visit, since she and Richard are ditching the States in favor of the beaches of Bermuda for Christmas. Color me jealous... but never mind. We had a BLAST.
The kids loved having her around.
We made gingerbread cookies.
We decorated gingerbread houses. {and made a huge mess doing so}
We went on drives to look at Christmas lights.
We ate at the peanut house. {Texas Roadhouse to those not speaking P-ese}
We shopped our feet off in Tucson.
We watched Mamma Mia! Over and over and over.
We hit up Target multiple times.
M sang Love Story for her.
P showed her his plethora of Thomas trains.
J charmed the senses out of her.

It was a great time!

I'll have to remember to upload the pics ASAP, which probably means I won't remember til new years.

Maybe that should be a new years resolution, to upload my pics faster....

Speaking of new years, one of my resolutions that I hope I'll actually *keep* this time is to restart my 365 project, but with a different spin. Instead of me being in all the pics, I'm going to try to take a pic of each child each day, and if I succeed, at the end of the year I'll print them in a hardbound book. Fingers crossed I can keep it up this time!

One out of three...

likes Santa.


























At least in our house.

Oh well. We'll try again at breakfast with Santa this weekend. Maybe I'll get two out of three this time.

Please, please PLEASE read this and sign!!

I'm a huge fan of mom and pop businesses. Like my favorite bowmaker, Karyn, who runs Little Pink Ladybug. But she's closing her business as of February 10, 2009. Not because she WANTS to, but because she HAS to. Likewise, many sellers on my favorite addiction, Etsy, will have to shut down. I love to get second-hand clothes at great deals, but I won't be able to anymore, from garage sales or consignment stores. And do you love going to the handmade crafts sections at fairs and such? Well, no more buying childrens products there, or selling them yourselves.

New Product Safety Legislation Needs Clarifications Now
Urge Your Members of Congress to Help Now

In August 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) (PL 110-787) was passed by Congress to strengthen product safety laws to ensure only safe and compliant products are sold to our nation's children. While well-intentioned, this legislation imposes several new and burdensome requirements that increase costs at a time of economic upheaval but that do not offer any improvement in the safety of children's clothing or footwear.
Urge your members of Congress today to work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop a pragmatic approach to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Strengthening our product safety system is an important goal, but this can only be achieved if there are predictable and commonsense regulations that address safety risks.

In "mom" words:

Congress passed an act called the CPSIA - its intent is to keep lead and phthalates out of childrens' products. Which is obviously great. HOWEVER, this act means that everyone who sells products intended for children will have to test each and every one of their products for lead/phthalates. If someone knits baby booties, they'll have to test each yarn they use, and each dye lot of that yarn. Each test costs upwards of $1k. In other words, as of 2/10/09, most small businesses dealing with childrens' products are going to be forced to close up shop.It's not just toys - it's clothing, cloth diapers, cribs, strollers, slings - EVERYTHING meant for children under 12. And it's not just businesses, large or small - consignment stores cannot sell untested/uncertified clothing. **You yourself cannot sell untested/uncertified clothing on eBay, message boards, or even in a garage sale.


Please, please, please take the small amount of time that it will take to email your Representatives and Senators to let them know of this huge problem. Whether you create things by hand yourself, or enjoy being able to buy something beautiful and support a fellow mom or dad. Even if you haven't ever bought something handmade, chances are you know or knew someone that this will affect.

Places to find out more information and to sign petitions/email your Reps:

Etsy's Open Letter
CapWiz - they'll email your Reps for you, with your info
Handmade Toy Alliance
National Bankruptcy Day - they have a petition to sign in the colum on the right, as well as updates.

Taggiola Time

Hilary tagged me a bit ago, and I kept meaning to do this, but then my computer got a virus and it took me forever and a day to get rid of it, blah blah blah. So here it is:

8 T.V. Shows I like to watch:
1. Psych (totally have a crush on Gus)
2. House
3. NCIS
4. Imagination Movers (it's the one kids show that I can really get into)
5. House Hunters
6. Numb3rs
7. The Hills (guilty pleasure)
8. Parking Wars

8 Places I like to eat:
1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Bushwhackers
3. Rodolphos
4. McDonalds (kid friendly. what can I say...)
5. Chilis
6. Olive Garden
7. Outback
8. Golden Dragon

8 Things I did today:
1. Went to M's IEP evaluation
2. Avoided going to the gym
3. Finished making the gingerbread cookies
4. Fixed the computer
5. Changed my kids diapers
6. Sent CJ off to work
7. Took M to dance class and chatted with the other moms
8. Watched J learn to get up on his feet!!!!!!!!!

8 Things I'm looking Forward to:
1. Mum coming to visit next week
2. My arms to stop hurting
3. To FINALLY see Twilight
4. Christmas
5. Shopping in Tucson this weekend (yesssss)
6. Sleep
7. Getting our new TV finally
8. Painting the kids room... eventually

8 Things I can't live without:
1. CJ
2. M
3. P
4. J
5. The Church
6. Extended family
7. The computer
8. Coke

Now... Tag 8 people

umm... really, whoever wants to do this. :) Amber? Shila? Staci? Bueller?

Oh owww...

We had a visitor this weekend. The kids loved her being around. I did too... as long as we weren't in the gym. Because she kicked my arse into gear, and oh good gravy, I'm SO FREAKING SORE now.

Yep, aunt Camille came to visit us for the first time in SoAZ! M and P loved it, they had such a blast playing with her and laughing hysterically. We took her to see the sights, which was basically just Tombstone and Bisbee... yeah. Not that thrilling when she was only down from Thursday until today. But it was fun! She helped me take the kids to the Christmas parade last night. OOOOOOOH my gosh, that sucker was long! It started at 5:30pm and we took the kids home at 7:30 because we were too cold to keep standing there, even though the parade was still going on!

Some pictures...