the 3 B's

binkie, blankie, bed. that's about all my little sicky girl is wanting these days. unfortunately the "bed" portion of the trio has been more of a napping situation during the day and a whining and wanting me to hold her situation at night. can't blame her, i guess. double ear infections (that i SWEAR never went away since she had them around halloween... could explain her severe attitude problem the last month). she is usually a dream sleeper though, so i am struggling to say the least. maybe she is just giving me practice for baby. WOW. how quickly we forget....

as for the blankie thing. she has always preferred this particular blanket, but only if she happened to see it around or whatever. and if she had a different one in her crib to go to sleep, no big deal. well in the past week, it's been insane. all the sudden she is addicted to it. she hardly wants to put it down (i have to sneak it away to throw it back in her crib for a break or to wash it) and the ultimate proof came the other night when, in the dark, she saw me give her an alternative blanket. she shoved it off of her and stood up, looking down in to the basket by her crib where other blankets are. the beloved one was not in there, though. cue the crying. it was going to be washed after a day of literally being dragged around town...but no such luck. i had to sneak it away from her to wash it after she fell asleep! i'm all about having something that can get her to calm down in an instant, but i'm kind of of worried about it getting out of control. i'm not interested in washing it 4x a week, yet i HATE dirty blankets and clothes, etc. i'm also not interested in dragging it everywhere we go and fearing that we might leave it somewhere. talk about drama. any thoughts??

in other news, our weatherman keeps faking us out with wintery forecasts. they are only accurate until about 11:00am, at which point it shoots up to 70 and we're all sweating in our sweaters.

stuffed into her winter best for some playtime outside!

clearly annoyed that it's a little warm under that jacket and hat...

2009

this may still be on its way to some of you...but for those of you we might've missed altogether....happy holidays! even though christmas is over, i kind of like this little in between week where you can start winding down but know at least the fun (and excessive amount of food) is not totally over... new year's is the last hoorah, right?!

picking out the christmas tree & a breakfast with santa

we got our christmas tree a few weeks back and this year, olivia was all about roaming the lot. of course, she much preferred playing with rusty ladders and trailers vs. helping to pick out a tree...

this was was called "big mama." we opted for something a little smaller....

here she is! since it's been up we've both noticed that our selection skills are improving. this one is a much better shaped one that last year. it's finally completely decorated and looking pretty good! i'll try and take a picture of that later but i'm not so good with cameras+flash+tree lights+bright ornaments.... the pictures always look bad.

they had to take out a chainsaw and trim our tree up a little bit and you know this little scaredy cat was headed straight for the car. she freaked.

around the same time, we got an invite from olivia's cousin coleman to come to a breakfast with santa at his preschool. chick-fil-a and a chance to see our kids melt down in santa's lap?? we'll be there! sure enough, it did not disappoint...

i love this one because coleman and mckinley have already spotted the monster (those are colemans hands reaching for his dad) and olivia hasn't noticed yet...

starting to panic...

done

and done.

safe and sound with mom. so sad!

much happier taking ornaments off the trees with no shoes on.

THE END

catch up #1

i'll probably cram all my other catching up into one post but here's our first item of business...thanksgiving in montreal! it was great to catch up with adam's parents and feel like we were in europe at the same time. montreal was much more foreign than we thought it would be. olivia was thoroughly rude most of the trip...she is in a funk lately... drama mama. anyway. here are the pics...most of which are extremely bad quality for some reason.

olivia's cousins brought her this cute dress and headband as an early christmas present so they could match perfectly for advent dinner. as you can tell by these photos, she was very unappreciative and would not respect the need for us to take a cute picture.

ready to bite someone's head off...

surprise! looks who's mad? (an unfortunate theme for miss priss this trip)

BIODOME:

loving the penguins. she was in the zone.

if only i could get a little closer.....

there! i think she half expected to be able to jump in the water. that clear glass will get ya.

off to the next exhibit...

catching a ride with dad

HOCKEY GAME:

THANKSGIVING DAY:

looking suspicious in the basement before dinner. trying to act like she wasn't going to take the remote and change the channel, maybe?

about to pounce. busted.

wade and olivia might've been a little on edge around each other because they were competing for the spot as the the one and only baby. clearly there could not be room for two. not room for two on this chair either. look who's mad again!!

trying to get a piece of the action a little early....

our canadian hosts!

luckily this little monster was restrained with an appetizer...

lucky big kids waiting for dinner....

olivia's toy of choice that day

storming around the mission home in her thanksgiving sweater

a nice moment. turkey day hugs for dad.

she loved these gingersnap cookies that were a part of the massive dessert buffet.

a few goodbye pics with the kiddies....

warming up post-bath (with dora)

getting ready to leave for the airport! clearly she is thrilled....

the end! adam's parents will be back in july after 3 years. hard to believe we'll have a 2 year old and a 6 month old....ahh.

this & that

what we have been up to:

thanksgiving in montreal

breakfast with santa

picking out a christmas tree

setting up christmas tree and putting lights on it

buying many presents

spending time with family

celebrating the life of adam's grandmother who passed away last week

eating WAY too much

catching up on the DVR list

(most recently) being sick

what we have NOT been up to:

putting ornaments on the tree that has been up for over a week

wrapping and shipping those many presents

finishing christmas shopping without breaking the bank

preparing for baby #2 who arrives in just over 4 weeks

picking out a name for baby #2

list #1 provides many pictures that i should take the time to blog but list #2 makes me feel like i have other things i should be doing first. right now i could fall asleep in this chair if i let myself but instead i think i'll go downstairs and see what is in the christmas tin someone dropped off on the porch. yum.

christmas card photo shoot gone bad...very bad

i'm blogging very out of order these days but i thought i'd throw this up on the blog for a good laugh. we have an official grouch on our hands lately so here's how our photo shoot went down this morning....

"mom, it's fine. no one will see my diaper and no one will know i'm eating cheetos."

her filthy dress post-session.

i got a FEW potentials so we'll see.....