TTT: Season 2, Episode 50

1. Man, oh, man! What a week! A really good week though. Just still trying to process it all. The kind of week where last Thursday feels like a lifetime ago.  Here's a quick list:
- hosted our little prayer/book group
- made a day trip to College Station with the boys to watch my cousin play rugby for Air Force
- attended a fun Christmas party with my prayer/book group
- sent the boys off on a guy's trip
- finished nine orders for my shop
- wrapped almost all of the Christmas presents
- ran multiple errands
- attended mass and spent an evening with my cousins that I haven't seen in roughly twelve years
- worked on a Christmas gift that unfortunately didn't get finished...fabric order better arrive soon!!!
- did one million loads of laundry
- tracked down new tires for Mark's car
- got haircuts for the boys
- took a trip downtown to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences
And, of course, all of the other "basics" of life. You know, like feeding the baby, changing diapers, reading books, breaking up squabbles...a busy week, I say. But a fun one. I like when the last few days before Christmas are fun and not stressful. Definitely enjoying it!

2. And let me just narrow in on roughly twenty-seven or so hours of this past week. The twenty-seven or so hours when Mark took the two older boys to Dallas for an over-night at Uncle Brian and Aunt Cristi's house. *ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!* (yes, that's a chorus of angels you hear singing and a beaming light from heaven above shining down on me!) Though it had been in the talks for weeks, I refrained from mentioning it on here for fear that it might fall through due to my loose lips. Mark loves to take the boys to high school football games, so the original plan was for him to take the boys to the state championship game this past Saturday at "Jerry World." (Cowboys Stadium) Once we realized that the tickets were $20 per person and that  both Kolbe and Rudy would need their own tickets, we started debating whether it was worth it or not. At the local high school games, the boys get in for free and Mark is something like $6. Sixty is a far cry from six. Plus $10 for parking. Not to mention all the gas money! So in the back of my mind I had a sad feeling it was going to fall through, but at the last minute, Mark decided to go for it anyway and head to Dallas just to spend some time with Brian and Cristi and get the boys out of my hair. I certainly love all three of those guys dearly, but man, there's just so much you can get done with minimal interruptions! As I mentioned earlier, my sewing machine was on fire as I cranked out my last get-it-to-you-by-Christmas orders. I even got to work on a big Christmas gift that I hope to finish in time for the Asmussen Christmas party up in Lubbock. (pictures to come later...don't want to give it away!) And got all the gift wrapping done. And several short errands run...you know, the ones where you only need to "run in" somewhere and taking all three kids is next to impossible. I stayed up till after midnight and got up with Grant at 6:45, but it was well worth it to get so much done in such a short period of time! It has made the rest of the week feel like a breeze, not having to stress about everything I would still be needing to get done. And Grant was such a trooper. Since he's not mobile just yet, he was happy to sit and watch me work away most of the time. World's Best Baby, I tell ya. And World's Best Hubby Too! That's all the Christmas present I need! Now if we could just arrange for this trip to happen at roughly the same time every year, we'll be in good shape!

3. Boy, oh boy, have I got a story for you. Perfect for the holiday season! One of those "I can't believe my kid just did that" or "Wow, I seriously dropped the ball on that one" scenarios. Take a look at this picture:

My dear, dear precious little Grandma. She's adorable and such a gem! When we were little, she always used to send us little Life Savers "books" that opened and were filled with rolls of life savers. It's her special tradition. But as the years have gone by, she's added many more treats to her yearly shipments. And this was the loot that arrived on our doorstep this year. A fun plethora of all kinds of stuff to make your teeth ache! After surveying the goodies, I stashed most of it away in our pantry. The bag of Reese's managed to make it to the counter top and each of us ate one for dessert that night. Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon. Though Kolbe was in desperate need of a nap from staying up way too late the night before, he was putting up a massive front and fighting as hard as possible not to give in. I finally went to my last resort and told him I'd let him watch one of his little Mickey Mouse episodes for quiet time, but only if he laid on the couch with his blankies. He agreed, and I snuck back upstairs to work on that Christmas gift I've already mentioned. At first it was so quiet that I was convinced he had fallen asleep. But then I heard the trash can pedal and though Well, guess he didn't fall asleep. A few minutes later I heard it again. I wonder what he's doing down there? And then a few minutes later...Ok, what is he throwing away? A whole episode of Mickey lasts roughly twenty minutes, so when the Hot Dog song came on, I ventured down stairs to see what was going on. As soon as I spotted the stool pushed up beside the counter where the Reese's had been hiding at the back, I knew exactly what had happened. I opened the trash can to find this:

Not two or three candy wrappers. Not seven or eight either. Sixteen Reese's peanut butter cup wrappers. Sixteen!!! I didn't know whether to laugh, scream, cry, gag...and remarkably, he didn't have a speck of chocolate on his face, fingers, clothes, anywhere! He seriously thought he had concealed the evidence! I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Well good! I hope you get a stomach ache! didn't cross my mind. And no, he never got a stomachache and never had diarrhea. Somehow his thirty-one pound little body did just fine with sixteen Reese's peanut butter cups. I feel sick just thinking about it. Needless to say, he's been banned from goodies all together until Christmas. He's definitely already had his fair share. Mom of the Week on that one, I tell ya!


Sorry for the over-abundance of pictures...again! It's hard to narrow them down when so much is going on!

In College Station to cheer on Air Force rugby with their big cousins Reed and Kristen (my cousins on my dad's side) I hate that they live so far away! The boys love them...and I'm pretty sure they don't mind the boys much either!

Posing in front of Uncle Brian's tree with his new puppy, Ellie!

Aunt Cristi helped the boys make awesome snowmen out of yummy pantry items! You'd never guess that she's a kindergarten teacher!

And I spent the weekend with my little guy. He's adorable, I know...

The boys were thrilled to finally get to light the fourth candle on the Advent wreath! Christmas is almost here!

I finally found a Santy face for my front door wreath. And on half price clearance at Hobby Lobby! Been looking for one for a long time!

Uncle Dave made it in to town...the boys are ecstatic! Now we're just waiting for Uncle Pat to arrive tomorrow night!

The Butterfly Conservatory at the Houston Museum of Natural Science was amazing. I bought tickets to it through Groupon on a whim a while back. Way cooler than I expected, and none of our pictures do it any justice! Well worth the trip downtown! The boys, Pinkie, and I had a blast! And I finally got a good picture of me with my three.

The park that houses the museum has a kids' train that runs around it. The zoo is also in the same park. Pinkie has wanted to take the boys on that train probably since Kolbe was born, so we finally did it! They loved it!

Long running family joke (the very first guy I dated in high school called my dad "Big Guy" the day he met him...bad idea...) so we always tease my dad about it. When Kolbe was a baby we bought them matching Big Guy/Little Guy sweatshirts. Kolbe wore it Christmas 2008 at 13 months, Rudy wore it Christmas 2009 at 10 months, and here's Grant wearing it Christmas 2011 at 5 months!

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Hope your weekend is blessed with much love, laughter, and joy as we celebrate the birth of Christ!...now go enjoy a Reese's peanut butter cup or two!!! (but no more than two...that's all we've got left.)