Scary Thought

So the other night we were watching TV and a commercial came on for a show called Switched at Birth. We started talking about what we would do if that happened to us. I can't even imagine how painful that would be. I don't think I could let go of the baby I have. Then if you kept the baby you would always wonder how things would have been with the baby you were supposed to have. Anyways, normal people don't sit around and think about those things, but I guess I do. It gave me anxiety and I couldn't stop thinking about how horrible that would be.

I read a story just now about a lady who had a baby last month. I guess the hospital switched babies on accident and she was feeding and taking care of someoone's baby. It turns out the nurse didn't check the band on the baby and the beds were switched somehow in the nursery. When they finally made the connection and came in to make the switch the lady who had been breastfeeding someone's baby was mortified. They did test on both the baby and lady because they had swapped bodily fluids.

It reminds me of The Office episode where Michael is getting ready for Jan to have her baby and Dwight tells him he needs to mark the baby to make sure they aren't swapped. This is a totally random post but when we were talking about that show we said that would never happen. Then a few days later I read a story about it happening. Luckily they found the error and fixed it. Well now that we all feel enriched from this weird post we can get on with our day.....

Christmas Day

We did most of the preparations for food the day before so Christmas day would be relaxing. Since I have been married I have been looking for a good Christmas morning breakfast I can make every year. This year I think I found it. It is a french toast recipe that you can make the day before and then bake the morning of. My bundt pan was too small for the recipe so we had it spill over quite a bit. I think next year I will half the recipe so it all fits nicely. We can't wait to eat it next year, it was delicious.

When my daughter woke up we brought her into our room for a few minutes so I could get dressed. She saw the presents as she was walking by and was so upset she couldn't run out there. I thought we had them all pushed over so she couldn't see but she saw one gift and that made her so excited to go out there. My husband was watching her and she kept going really quiet and then she would make a break for the door. When we finally got out there she was so excited and opened the gifts for everyone. We played with her toys and enjoyed just being in our pajamas and relaxing.


My husbands work gave him a honey baked ham so we enjoyed that for our Christmas meal. The rest of the day was spent sleeping, eating and relaxing. We went on a walk in the afternoon and couldn't believe how relaxed we both felt. It has been a long time since we have taken a day just to rest. There is only so much relaxing I can do, so by the time the evening rolled around I was ready to put Christmas away. We only put up a small tree and lights around our door so we were cleaned up in no time. This year was so much fun now that our daughter is old enough to be excited about presents. We can't wait for next year.

Even the dog got a stocking from us filled with toys and some treats from my sister. It was a good year. :)

Christmas Eve

We had a busy Christmas Eve. We went to my husbands sister's house for lunch. There were lots of people there and lots of food. We had a good time visiting. They have a big fluffy cat and our toddler followed the cat around most of the time and tried to play with her. She called the cat Gilbert. That is the name of a cat in a cartoon she likes to watch.

After we ate there we headed over to my parent's house for a dinner. It was fun and of course we had good food. I don't think my family has ever been together without some kind of food involved and it is always delicious. My Dad usually reads out of the Bible but this year he showed us a couple videos of Jesus' birth. Then we went on to the talent portion of the night. Our little one started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but when she realized everyone was watching she stopped and ran out of the room. She is so loud at home but is pretty quiet in public.

It is tradition in my family to sing a couple Christmas songs. I was in another room feeding my baby and was listening to my family sing. It was fun to hear the laughing and how off key everyone was. I am so glad that my daughters get to make memories like I had growing up. I am glad we are still doing some of the same traditions and creating new ones of course. :) Someone brought in some musical instruments and the girls enjoyed making music and running around. We were so grateful we got to spend time with both sides of the family this year.

Family Night

We had a good night this last week visiting with family. My husbands little brother is in the military. He had a couple days of leave so he got to come and see us. We miss their family so much and wish they lived closer. They have a little girl the same age as our toddler. They ran around and screamed and laughed most of the night. Their little daughter was speaking Japanese and our little one kept looking at her funny and saying "what you saying?" It was fun to watch them play together. They also had a baby just a few months ago. Our kids are so lucky to have cousins the same age that they can play with. It was fun to eat and visit.

Christmas Week

It has been a long time since I posted something. A couple weeks ago I wrote a post and then tried to post it and my computer turned off. That is just my luck. We have been doing a lot of baking and eating lately. I made a couple batches of white chocolate popcorn for my neighborhood gifts. It turned out great but it super rich. I ate a little too much one night and had a stomach ache because it was so rich. Here is the recipe.......

2 bags of microwaved popcorn...popped

1 bag of white chocolate chips

handful of M & Ms

couple handfuls of pretzels (my favorite part, I love sweet and salty together)

a handful or two of mini marshmallows

pour a little bit of milk chocolate chips in a bowl for melting and drizzling.

I popped the popcorn and poured it into a bowl so I could scoop out the good stuff and leave the seeds. I melted the white chocolate and poured it into a bowl with the M & Ms, pretzels and marshmallows. Mix it up and dump it over the popcorn. Mix it up and dump it on a cookie sheet. Then I melted the milk chocolate and drizzled it over everything. Put it in the fridge for a few minutes so the chocolate hardens and then you are ready to go.

I have a few more recipes to post later. :)

I'm Back!

Its been a while since I have been on here. I finally had my baby. It feels so good to not be pregnant. Everything with the delivery went well and we are home safe and adjusting to life as a family of four. Our new baby is super sweet and the perfect addition to our family.

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is tomorrow. This is my first year cooking Thanksgiving dinner by myself. I am excited to see how it all turns out and I can't wait for the smells to fill the house tomorrow. I think the only bummer I have about this season is not being able to go shopping on Black Friday. My family lovingly named that day the Turkey Rumble. I love the shopping, waking up early, being with family, running to get the deal and sometimes fighting the crowd. Last year was a quiet year and we got all we wanted but the year before started out a little shaky. My nephew wanted to come with us so we let him come. We got to the two minute press and this lady shows up and cuts to the front. She just set a chair out and then went and sat in her warm car until they opened.

When the store employee comes to open the door the line always presses up against the door. The door opened and I went to start running and that same lady grabbed on to my coat and pushed me back. She wanted us all to walk calmly through the door (which takes all the fun out of it). She shoved me pretty hard so I said "let go of me hag." My nephews face went pale and he stood there because he is a good boy and thought we would be in trouble. I grabbed him and pulled him forward into a run. It felt good at the time but I felt bad later. Not only was I a bad example but I really hurt that ladies feelings. She recoiled and just stared at me. Hopefully I am better behaved next time.

I am excited to set Christmas decorations up this weekend. The holiday season feels like it is flying by.

Building

It has been a year now since we started building our home. Its amazing how excited you are in the beginning... discouraged, hopeless and tired in the middle and then numb at the end. I thought I would be doing back flips when we finished but I was so tired it took me the whole summer to recover and start feeling better again. Now that the house is built it feels so worth it but there were many times in the middle I wished we never signed up to build our own. But we love our home and it is kind of fun to know every inch of it because we did the work ourselves. I also picked up a lot of skills that will come in handy when it comes time to finish the basement. :)

I remember showing up for the first day of building with a skip in my step and so naive about how it was really going to be. After hauling wood for several hours by myself it soon hit me how terrible it was about it be. I think the only way I survived was having other people struggling there with me. I kind of feel bad for anyone that had to work with me, I am sure I complained way more than my share. But when the wind freezes your tears to your face its hard to keep positive. We liked to joke that we would have made terrible pioneers. We had gloves, hats, huge coats, warm boats and other luxurious the pioneers didn't. But I still felt so cold I could barely move. I think I would have been that pioneer that the group decides to tie to a tree and leave because I would have complained so much. :)

A couple who is about start the next group of winter building came over and talked to us a while ago. It was cute to see their excitement, I just didn't have the heart to tell them what they were really getting into. I think sometimes it is best just to let people get into things, struggle and then they will be happy with their house in the end. Any amount of hope you can hold on to during the process is needed. So they are heading into the storm with eager excitement.

One nice part about building our house was me having to face my fears. I was terrified to use a nail gun. When we did our safety training we got to hear all the horror stories of people being shot in the neck or nailing their hand to a wall. I remember shaking and holding it so gently in the beginning. I had to use it so much by the end I could have shot a apple off someones head. It was something I could use with my eyes closed. I never once got hurt by one either. I am also terrified of heights. We had to use ladders a lot and one day I guess I set it on a wall that still needed to be stabilized. When the ladder fell out from under me I reached up and grabbed on to one of the ceiling trusts just in time. I was hanging over the stair pit and could hardly breath (I also had a huge fear of falling in the stair pits). But I was able to swing over like a monkey to safety. The second time I fell off the ladder it had slipped on ice. Luckily I was able to jump away from the ladder so it didn't catch my legs on the way down. I think the two worst injuries I got was a black eye and I scalped my head once. I got the black eye from hitting out a piece of wood so hard it bounced out and hit me in the face. I should have had my hard hat on for the other injury (I learned fast after that one). I hit my head on some wood standing up and looked up and some of my hair and skin was on the wood. I had a little bald spot on the top of my head for a little while. The comb over hair do worked wonders. :)

I am looking forward to this winter. It will be nice to only have to go outside if I want to, not because I have to.