Day thirty one.

-We spent New Year's Eve at home.  Just as we do every year.  I don't think that will ever change.  Too many crazies out there.
-We had a yummy, super-unhealthy-fattening dinner.  Perfect way to end 2010 :)

-This video of Jared was shot around 11:30 or so.  He was a jabber jaws that night.  I think he was worried he might fall asleep!  Crappy quality...the room was kinda dark and I had to zoom in. (sorry!)

-For the last few days during Christmas and the end of the year I found myself reflecting on 2009. By far, the roughest year our family will ever have. I hope. Jason had been unemployed for over a year and half. NEVER did we think it would've come even close to that long. But, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The lessons we learned during that time are priceless. Having not a penny in the bank or a drop in savings left, really teaches you what's important. We got through it, together. With the help of family, friends, and even complete strangers. So, on Day 31 of 2010, I'm thankful. Thankful for my home that's full of love and laughter. Thankful for the food in my refrigerator and pantry. Thankful for my husband being employed again. With a job he likes and people he enjoys working with.  I couldn't have asked for the year to end any better :)

A few pics...

 Jared putting the "Happy New Year Stars" on Michael

 He thought it was the FUNNIEST thing ever

 Such a good sport.  He'll do anything to make Jared happy.

 Most of our day looked pretty much like this.  Video games.  More video games.  And then even more video games.

♥ my hunny :)

-Happy New Year!!!

Days 26,27,28,29, and 30!

twenty six.

-Jacob, Jared and I headed up to Ma & Mio's house for the night.  We stopped at Starbuck's before we got on the freeway.  Yum.  The boys were quiet and content for the entire hour and a half drive!  About half way there Jared fell asleep and Jakie played his PSPgo.  Score!

-We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon/evening at Ma's.  We watched a couple of movies, the boys ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, we had Baker's for dinner, and I got to wrestle with the boys for almost an hour.  Talk about a workout.  Wrestling with boys is definitely a Daddy kind of thing.  Especially with Jared.  That boy shows no mercy! 

twenty seven.

-Got up, got ready, and headed to Target for a few things.  Well, what was supposed to be for a few things.  I had to go and grab a couple of things so I left the boys and the cart behind with Ma for five minutes.  I came back and the cart was full!  Why oh why did I leave my Mother alone in the toy section with my boys?  The instant she hears "Ooooooh that's cool!" or "Whath?!  Thath amazzzthing!" Her response is, "Well then get it!  Ma will buy it for you." 

-$400+ later, we left Target.  Geez-o! 

 Ma, Jared, Jacob

-And so, since Daddy and Michael were the lucky ones that got to stay home, guess who got to put together a Lego toy with pieces that were smaller than the size of a pea?!  You guessed it.  ME!  This stinkin' toy took me about an hour to put together.  I didn't want to let Jared play with it.  I wanted Ma to go back to Target and buy a case for it so it could be displayed in all it's glory.  Apparently I was the only one who thought that was a great idea.  Five minutes later, Jared had it tore apart.  "Mommy, look ah happen.  It broked again.  You fixth it Mommy?  Kweeeeeeeaaatttthhhe."  Surrrrrrre sweetcheeks.  It was a cinch to put together :)



twenty eight.

-Michael stayed the night at his friend Paul's house.  That's all I remember about that day.  That's what I get for not writing it down and lagging on blogging.

twenty nine.

-Paul came home with Michael and stayed the night.  There was a whole lot of XBOX playing going on till the wee-hours of the morning. 

thirty.

-Spent the afternoon shopping with my Sister.  Oh how I needed the break away from home.  A houseful of boys on Christmas vacation was getting a bit overwhelming.  Along with non-stop XBOX play.  My nerves were a bit frazzled.  I needed the few hours away. 

-I met Sister a few miles away from the mall and then she followed behind me in her car.  Two miles down the freeway, she got pulled over by a CHP.  1/4 of a mile before our exit!  No bueno.  She got a ticket for dark tint on her front windows.  ...And I'll bet you're thinking, no she didn't take a picture of her sister getting a ticket?!  Um, hello, this is me we're talking about.  Of course I took a picture of that!  I won't tell you what she called me when I showed it to her though :)) Love you Sister! 

-We finally got to the mall.  Walked around for a few hours.  Guess what I walked out with?  A six pack of Cinnabons.  That's it.  Didn't find a darn thing for myself!  Never again will I go to that mall!  How do you walk into Macy's and walk out empty handed when you had intentions of not walking out empty handed?    I was not pleased.  Did I mention I'll never be going back to that mall again?  I should've known better.  Oh well, that just means another shopping trip is soon to follow :)

Day twenty three. twenty four. AND twenty five.

twenty three.

-Finished the last bit of Christmas shopping!  And the best part is it wasn't crazy at all.  It did start to get a little nuts when we were on our way out though.  So glad we got up and out of the house early.

-We went to a Holiday Cookie Exchange.  Super cute and super fun!  Lots of yummy treats!  Good lookin' bunch, right?

twenty four.

-Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Nagle!  Yummy dinner, church, presents, and dessert.  Does it get any better?  Oh, and the best part...My camera lens didn't break when I took a picture of my father-in-law.  Whew!  Close one ;)

 Grandpa Nagle & Dom

 ♥ Jared, Jacob, & Michael ♥

twenty five.

-Christmas day has arrived!  Normally I would say finally.  But, this year it was here before I knew it.  It doesn't even seem like it came and went already. 

-The house was a DISASTER.  Actually a time that I didn't mind it.  I was thankful for it.  Thankful for what the mess represented.  That we had answered prayers of Jason being back to work.  Thankful that we were actually able to buy presents this year.  Thankful for the love and laughter that filled our home with family.  Now, would Christmas would have been just as awesome without the presents?  Of course!  It was great last year.  It's just nice to be able to add all the little extras.  So, yes.  My house was a mess.  Tissue paper, wrapping paper, boxes, clothes, and toys covered the floor all throughout the day.  I call that a blessed mess!

Day twenty two.

Jason got a phone call at five this morning from his boss telling him he could stay home today because the weather was crazy and his work was already done anyway.  WHAT?!  Nice!  Love her :) And guess what else?  He got a text this afternoon saying no one has to come in tomorrow either!  (Love her some more!) Score!  Two extra days of vacation.  Now he's off till January 3rd.  Good stuff.

We went and picked up Michael today.  I missed him :) BUT, he's gone already.  Out to dinner with his friends for his best friend's birthday.  I vote for the hubby to wait up for him tonight.  {Hint, hint Babe ;)}

The rain really came down when we left Sister's house.  That was just fantastic.  Twenty minutes to move a quarter of a mile.  Now that's progress!  Not.

We stopped by Grandpa Darrell and Grandma Aracely's house this evening.  For those of you wondering how that went...It went great!  The boys of course had fun.  Presents are always fun!

We watched the Karate Kid tonight.  Jakie loved it.  Jared was in and out.

With our movie we had Hot Chocolate.  From scratch.  Oh. my. heavens. Ah-mazing!  Totally worth the work. 

I feel pretty much back to myself.  Maybe I wasn't catching anything after all.  Got news from the doc that my thyroid is all bananas again.  Maybe that's what it is.  And, NO WONDER my hair has been falling out by the handfuls!  Grrrrrrrr!! 

All of our baseball activities have been cancelled until January.  Sah-weeeet!!  That makes me happy.  Don't get me wrong.  I love the baseball stuff.  But, it seems to be a little much with the holidays, ya know?  Glad that's one thing checked off my list.

I've been sitting in total silence for the past ten minutes.  I just realized that.  Kinda nice :)

TTFN!

Day twenty one.

-I woke up feeling pretty YUCK this morning.  Not quite sick but like something was coming on.  Still feeling the same.  No worse, no better.  I'll take that!

-We ate cupcakes for breakfast :)

-I did nothing but laundry today.  And when I say "nothing but laundry", I mean nothing. but. laundry.  I just love watching the pile dwindle down.  But I hate how the rest of the house looks crazy because of it.

-My to-do list for the rest of the week is kinda like, WHOA. 

• Wednesday: TONS to do around the house, finish up a few projects, wrap more presents and Jakie's baseball practice.
• Thursday: Finish up the last of my shopping, baking, cookie exchange, and practice.  Again.
• Friday: More baking and Christmas with the in-laws. 
• Saturday: CHRISTMAS at home.  Helllllooooo happy dance! 
• Sunday: Jakie's tournament in La Puente...the day after Christmas!  Argh.

-It's been raining for so many days that I've lost count.

-I didn't take not one. single. picture. today.  That's rare for me.  My laptop is probably thanking me.

-Jared went to the naughty spot this evening.  It wasn't pretty. 

-Jakie has been singing Christmas carols allllll dayyyy loooonnnng.  "Deck the halls with folly jolly! Fa la la la la la la la la!" Yes, folly jolly.  And, he has no interest in correcting it :)

-Blogging without pictures is boring.

Day twenty.

Happy Birthday to ME!  One of the reasons why December is my favorite month :) Here's to the last year in  my twenties!

The highlight of our day was the buckets of rain that fell from the sky and the delivery truck getting stuck in the neighbors yard and having to have a tow truck come and rescue him.  Yep, that's it.  Good stuff, right?  It's OK, don't be jealous.  I know it's hard though.

Jakie came to me today and said, "You know what Mommy?  I would bake you a cake, but then we would have the call it the disaster cake!" Oh sweet boy, it's the thought that counts.  So, instead, we skipped the cake and made cupcakes.  Which is way more dangerous for me because one is never enough.  He frosted them himself and topped mine with my *current* favorite candy :) the last of my favorite candy!  Boo.

Jason shoved a cupcake in my face.  Not cool Babe.  Even though it made me laugh really hard, you had better sleep with one eye open :) I may or may not have shoved one in Jakie's face.  Alright, alright, I did!  I think he still has frosting in his nose!  Good times :)

Jared was the winner this morning and found Julio first.  He made sure to rub that one in Jakie's face for a minute or two.

Tonight both boys read their Christmas wish lists to Julio.  This was list number 345,876 it seems like.  This one, however, is THE FINAL LIST.  Until they remember something else tomorrow :)

See the photo of Jason and I?  That was taken at Jason's company Christmas party before we had kids.  Wow, that. seems. forEVER. ago.  Life is so much sweeter now :)

Day nineteen.

Yesterday:

-I had a super-healthy breakfast.  Not :) It was tasty though.  Jason got a box of See's candy from a co-worker on Friday.  She really got it for me.  She just didn't know it.  Thanks Yolanda :)

-Jason and I had some time out last night at one of his friends house for dinner with a few co-workers.  I missed the boys.  I talked a bit about that here.

Today:

-Jakie noticed there was something different about our calendar today.  "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there are some changes on that calendar that I need to see!"  That boy notices everything.  Nothing gets passed him.

-The weather was fantastic today!  So glad I didn't have to go out in it though.  Perfect staying-at-home kind of weather.

-We stayed in our jammies all day.  That was nice.  A much needed day of absolutely nothing.

-Jared skipped his nap today.  I took one for him instead :)

-Jakie keeps reminding me what Christmas is all about.  I love that.  Jakie and Jared had a conversation about it today.  Went something like this:

Jakie: Why do we celebrate Christmas Jared?  

Jared: for uth and Thantha and trethenth!  ...In Jared language that would be, for us and Santa and presents.

Jakie: Noooooooooo.  There's a reason for Christmas.

Jared: For uth Cake!  

Jakie: No, it's Jesus' birthday!

Jared: Jethuth bir-day?  Ohhhhhh.  Happy bir-day to hiiiiim???

Jakie: Yes!  So, why do we celebrate Christmas?

Jared: Jethuth.  (five seconds later)....And Thantha.

Haha!  No way was Jared going to forget about Santa.  Not a chance.


These darn things are down right heavenly!  Yummy.

-Michael has been at his Mama's house since Thursday.  I might be looking forward to having him come home on the 23rd.  I might miss him.  Just a little :)

-We had Hot Cocoa tonight...minus the marshmallows for Jared.  He no likey.  And, we watched The Flight Before Christmas.

-The best part about tomorrow?  It's Monday and there's no school!  I love vacation.  Sorry Babe, you're almost done though! :) xoxo

Day fifteen.

-My mornings seem to be flying by way too fast.  Before I know it, it's twelve o'clock and time to leave to pick up Michael from school.  I don't so much enjoy finals week.  A week full of minimum days isn't my favorite.  Tomorrow's his last day of school and he'll be off for three weeks.  Lucky, lucky boy.  Jakie only gets two weeks.  But, Jakie will also get two weeks for Spring Break when Michael will only get one.  I prefer Jakie's schedule :)

-I picked up Jakie all by my lonesome today while Jared stayed home with Michael.  He always prefers to stay home if he has the option.  When Jakie and I got back in the car he read me a Christmas Riddles paper that he did for math today.  He's granted me permission to share what they were.

1.Why does Santa Claus have three gardens?
  So he can Ho-Ho-Ho!
2. What does a cat on a beach have in common with Christmas?
  Sandy Claws!
3. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
  Frostbite!
4. What does Santa clean his sleigh with?
  Comet of course!

Funny huh?!  Well, we both laughed pretty hard :)

-And just as I thought as soon as we got home he ate his snack and got busy on his "craft project", as he calls it.  He still has a lot more to do but plenty of time to get it done. 

-Michael and Jared had an ear pulling contest to see who could last the longest.  Michael won because Jared got so distracted with the pain he forgot to keep pulling Michael's ear! 

Jason did the Wii Fit Plus tonight and Jared was his biggest fan.  Wasn't long before Jason was kicked off and Jacob and Jared hopped on.  Usually the way it goes.  Jason finished his workout after the boys went to bed.

-Michael's newest thing is speaking in Chewbaca's language from Star Wars.  I laughed so hard tonight I cried! 

-Michael also shared with us that he plans on waking up every morning at five o'clock during Christmas Break to go for a run.  That boy is just full of funnies tonight!

Day fourteen.

Is it really already December 14th?  For real?!  December needs to slow. his. roll.  Going much too fast!

Jared and I went to Wal-Mart today after we dropped off Jakie. I asked him if he wanted to walk or get in the cart.  He chose to walk.  I usually always give him the option since he's a pretty good listener.  He had the cutest little older Asian couple oogling over him in the parking lot.  They couldn't get enough of him and didn't want him to go.  It was the cutest thing.  I wanted to bring them home with me :) And even though most of the time Jared acts shy, he loves it.  
Then, we got in the store and there was more oogling by random shoppers.  I'm not sure what it is about this boy but everyone seems to be so smitten with him.  Including us :)
We walked down every toy aisle and he pushed as many buttons as he could.  Trying to make everything go off simultaneously.  He got a real kick out of himself when he had four trucks going off at once.

We left the toys to head to the "bideo gameth" (video games) but there was only one console that had a game that you could actually play and it was being hogged up used by a boy that wasn't about to walk away anytime soon.  So, we carried on with our shopping. 

Tonight I worked on (homemade) Christmas gifts and Jakie asked if he could help.  Certainly!  Love that he likes to get crafty with me :)

Helping me got his "creative juices" flowing and he ended up ditching my project and started one of his own.  I'm thinking he'll be right back in the same spot tomorrow afternoon when he gets home from school to finish up.

Michael had finals today and he didn't do so well.  We had a chat at the kitchen table tonight.  Don't think he enjoyed it but I think he's starting to get something out of them now.  He's no longer shutting down when Jason and I get "that tone" in our voice.  I think he's had enough time to adjust to life with the Adams Family.  Next semester will be different.  He won't have a choice.  His adjustment period has come to an end.  Time to make it happen!  It's a tough situation to be in.  Switching from the Aunt and Uncle role to the parent role.  It's just as hard for him as it is for us, I know.  But, as hard as it is for us I know it's even harder for Monica.  She did the right thing.  I pray, that deep down in her soul, she knows that.  And most nights, I'm praying for the same exact thing for myself and Jason.

It's 10:28p I need to get myself in bed!

busy days.

I'm not really sure why I opened my big mouth about blogging everyday in December.  Clearly, it's not going to happen.  Between baseball practice, scrimmages, making dinner, homework, & lunch making all in the evening hours, it's been next to impossible to find the time to sit and blog.  By nine o'clock I'm ready for bed.  And nothing else. 

So, a recap from the last few days will have to do:

Someone was very upset with me because he was being super-naughty in the Post Office and when we got in the car Mommy told him, "No video games for you today!" He wasn't pleased.  Ten minutes into the car ride home he said, "Shorry Mommy.  I be happy again." Telling me that he'll be "happy" again means he won't be naughty anymore.  And, if you're wondering, I didn't give in.  There were no video games.  Not even after the sweet apology.

SO NOT my favorite place to be.  We waited in the car while Jason went in.  Auto parts stores stink and make my nose burn.  Egh.

Jason, Jared, and I took a trip to Toys R Us last night while Michael and Jakie stayed home.  We bought a few things (gifts) and Jared left with nothing in hand and no fits.  He's usually quite content with "just looking".  I taught that early on :)

Michael and Jakie are officially checked off of my Christmas list.  Jared on the other hand has a lot of catching up to do.  So, all that's left to buy is a few things for Jared and a few gift cards.  Easy peasy! 

Jakie is dealing with kids at school telling him that, "Santa isn't real."  My response, "Sure stinks to be them!  They'll only be getting presents from their Mom's and Dad's this year.  What a shame."

TODAY:

Jared and I baked Banana Bread :)

Jared fell asleep on the way to Jakie's practice.  He woke up half way through and decided he wanted me to hold him so he could go back to sleep.  He obviously has no idea how hard it is to hold a forty-four pound three year old while sitting on metal bleachers.  I won't be able to do that much longer with the way he's growing.  That's for sure!

We went to McDonald's for a snack size McFlurry after practice.  That made Jakie happy.  Because if anyone knows Jakie, they know that boy has a thing for dessert like his Mommy.  If he had it his way, he'd have dessert every. single. night. after dinner.  Yep, that boy is all me :)

Michael made it through a full day of school.  I had to pick him up early yesterday from the nurse's office.  But, he managed to make it through the day today.  Thank goodness. 

All the boys are watching Radio.  Love that movie.

I am very ready for bed!

So, I'm a little late.

In November I had plans of blogging every single day in December.  It's now December 5th.  What happened to that, self?!  Oh, right.  That little thing called "life".  But, today I thought to myself...Who cares if I didn't do it the way I was supposed to.  Does that mean I can't do it at all now?  NO!  So, I'm late.  Better late than never right?  Now, don't get crazy with me if I miss a day.  Or two :) later in the month.  As for now, I have high hopes :)

This weekend we:

Decorated our tree on Michael's birthday :)

Jared was all about the ornaments that Jakie has made in school previous years...particularly the ones with Jakie's picture on them.  "That's Cake!  That's my brudder.  He my fren."

Found Julio in the kitchen on a wreath on Saturday, and then in the family room on a shelf on Sunday.  The boys love searching for him every morning.  I love reminding them that Julio is watching them when they're being naughty or nice.  (still can't believe they named him Julio)

Auntie and AJ came over today and brought dinner for Michael's birthday.  Too bad Michael is sick as a dog and couldn't even eat the Enchilada's his Mom made.  Dang that sore throat!  I ate enough for both of us :) I stuffed myself.  He did manage to eat a piece of cake though.  Poor guy.  Hopefully his 18th will be better than his 17th!

It's raining.  I so very much love the rain when I can stay indoors :)