When Christmas Doesn't Go as Planned

It's Christmas night, 7:30 pm, and I have enough time to sit down and write a blog post.  Something is wrong with this picture.  After all the planning for a magical Christmas day, I am currently sitting on the couch by myself watching lifetime movies.  This year Christmas did not go as planned.

Apparently even though I shopped months in advance, I got all the best gifts, wrapped them in color coordinated piles for each kid, prepped lots of food, coordinated plans with all of our family... that didn't stop the flu from hitting our house.  Patrick started with the high fever on Tuesday and it has not gone away.  He is miserable and lethargic and is on day 4 of this nasty virus (to the doctor we go tomorrow).  Then just to make things even better, it hit Mike yesterday.  He is out for the count with the same high fever, body aches, and misery.

So this morning Ryan jumped out of bed with excited that it was Christmas morning, but we had to drag Patrick and Mike down to join in the excitement.  Patrick cried through most of present, he had no interest at all, and Mike was barely awake to watch the kids open Santa's surprised before he went back to bed for the rest of the day.

Mid-day I realized that neither Patrick or Mike could attend our family Christmas dinner, and Mike was in no shape to take care of Patrick.... sooooo that meant I had to stay home also to take care of them both.  I didn't want to ruin the day for Ryan, so I sent him up with my parents.

So here I sit, Patrick is in bed, Mike never left bed, and Ryan is out with my family.  I will admit I am a bit lonely, this is definitely not how I pictured Christmas.  I am missing my kids and husband and my cousins and extended family,  BUT I am sipping champagne, enjoying the quiet and thinking about how even though this was not our perfect Christmas, we are still such a fortunate family with so much to be thankful for.

Christmas can be overwhelming and stressful for parents, but that is not the point and life happens anyway.  I am making this a glass half full moment and enjoying whats left of this holiday, and praying that our family is healthy soon so we can enjoy all of Santa's goodies and the plans we have all week.

Anyway- Merry Christmas to all, and hopefully next Christmas we will be able to all celebrate!

Here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get today:

Thankful at Thanksgiving

Both the boys are sleeping (that is officially the first thing on my "Thankful list") and I just sat down to start making Black Friday Christmas shopping lists.  Then the sentimental part of me got to thinking about the actual holiday of Thanksgiving and what its all about.  So instead of writing my shopping list, I am going to write out my thankful list.

Thanksgiving 2015 I am thankful for (in no particular order):

1.  Sleeping children (see above)
2.  Target- I could literally shop their daily.  The store makes me happy, has everything, and the cartwheel app is just amazing.  Love it!
3.  My hardworking husband.  He works his butt of at his job and works his butt off at home.  And manages to be a pretty awesome father and husband in between it all.
4. My mom, who is superwoman and my Dad, who is so strong in recovering from his surgery
5.  My healthy, growing, adorable boys, Ryan and Patrick
6.  Coombs Chiropractic, where I have a great flexible job that I enjoy and a place that keeps my whole family healthy
7.  Disney World!  We are going again in April and any time I am planning a Disney vacation I am a happy girl.
8.  Christmas- I love the whole Christmas spirit and getting to spend it with my kids is so magical.
9.  Adele.  Her songs get me!
10.  Peppermint Mocha season
11. Red wine- lots of red wine
12.  Having best friends that have been my best friends for more than my half my life!  I would not survive without having my girls to fall back on.
13.  Finally making some new adult friends now that my besties have moved so far.  I have said it before, finding adult friends is like dating, so I am happy to finally feel confident in a few new friendships.
14.  Our new house is slowly coming along and feeling like home.
15.  My new juicer that I got for my birthday.  Having lots of fun playing around with new juice recipes.
16.  My crunchy moms facebook group- its my first place I go with any natural/holistic/health related questions.
17.  Amazon Prime- Free two day shipping, enough said!
18.  Cheesy chick novels. I have been on a reading kick recently and only want to read light hearted books.  I am loving my easy reads.
19.   God-  I am not overly religious, but I find myself being drawn more and more towards the Bible and prayer and I am thankful for feeling comfort in prayer.  Next step, finding a church I love.
20.  Date nights-  I don't get them enough, but very thankful for when we do.
21.  Ryan's teacher Mrs. Cappello.  He has had a rough start to the school year, and she has been wonderful with helping us through the transition.  In the same thought, we are also thankful for his new amazing OT, Alex.
22.  Car ride naps-  Patrick is on a nap strike, so thank goodness for the car!
23.  Cheap flights to North Carolina.
24.  Family time.  In our busy life, I look forward to and appreciate time when just the four of us get to just chill out and be together.
25. Chocolate- I am obsessed these days.


Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!!

DIY Ninja Turtle Halloween Costumes

This year I decided to do something I have never done before.  I made the boys their Halloween costumes!  And I learned how to do some basic sewing in the process.

Ryan declared very early on that he wanted to be Leonardo (because he is the leader) and that Patrick had to be Raphael (because Red is one of his favorite colors).  Ninja turtles are super popular right now, so I had plenty of options for buying one, but I decided to make it myself for the following reasons:

1.  The store bought ones were a little cheesy.
2.  Knowing how popular the turtles are, I also knew that there would be a million little boys in the same costume.  So I wanted them to be a little bit different.
3.  Ryan is in big kid sizes and Patrick is in young toddler sizes, so even if I did buy them at the store they would be in different costumes.  I could not find a costume in a size 24 mo and size 6 that were matching, and appropriately Leo and Raph.
4.  My mom use to make our costumes when we were kids, I wanted to continue that tradition.

Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I was able to search TMNT costumes and found many bloggers with step by step directions.  I needed all the help I could get.  I picked this particular tutorial because it was very detailed and I felt like I could actually do it.

I did need to employee the help of my mother.  I can not sew, haven't done it since 8th grade home-ec, and this costume required a decent amount of sewing.  I pretty much following the bloggers directions step by step.  I also bought white sweat pants and shirts from Amazon and then used  RIT fabric dye to get them green.  I mixed the Kelly Green and the Dark Green color to try to get a little bit darker and more turtle like then the one in the tutorial.  At first I was afraid the color came out too dark, but once it was put together I think it was perfect.

I also decided to buy the boys turtle shells off of Amazon instead of making the shells because I wanted something a little more sturdy.  Dress up clothes go well beyond Halloween in our house, so it was worth the money to have turtle shells they can play with all year round.

I was able to buy all of the supplies at AC Moore or on Amazon.  Once I had everything together, the work did not take long.  One evening I dyed the sweats and washed/dried them to be ready for the the next evening.  I decided to use the stove top method for dying the clothes.  I thought it was the quickest and the cleanest way to do it.  I was nervous to put the dye through my brand new washing machine.  I was happy with the stove top results.  Then it took my mom and I a few hours the second night to cut the fabrics, pin everything in place, stuff the chest, and sew on all the pieces.

The costume turned out perfect.  I was happy and the boys were even happier!  They looked adorable and we now have a simple turtle costume in our dress up box for playtime.  Thanks again The Scrap Shoppe Blog for the inspiration and tutorial on a great boys Halloween costume.

Tons of pictures coming soon!

2014 Year in Review

2014 was a year of change. In under one year Mike got a new job, we had a new baby and became a family of 4, and we bought a new home. In the process, it became a year of planning and "figuring things out" and adjusting to all the change.

This year I want to focus on some more personal goals. I am currently reading "The Happiness Project" now and with each chapter I keep adding new things to my list of goals for the year. But for now this is my list (off the top of my head):

1. Go to bed earlier
2. Drink more water- like way more water
3. Run my second 1/2 marathon- I have officially registered for May and on a training schedule
4. Work out efficiently
5. Spend much less time on social media
6. Don't ever attempt to "keep up with the Jones"- stop comparing myself/our family to others
7. De-clutter my brain by tackling unfinished tasks and by not putting things off than can be completed immediately
8. Pray and/or meditate more
9. Be a better wife to my husband
10. Make sure the time I am spending with the boys is quality interactions. Get on the floor and play instead of trying to tackle the laundry and dishes and emails when I'm with them
11. More date nights
12. Work to keep friendships strong
13. Eat more plants/less sugar
14. Every night before bed, recognize something I am grateful for

That's a hefty list, but I am gonna make it a year of self growth and relationships to help recover from our year of change! Happy 2015!


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Location:2015 Resolutions