Frazier's First Christmas...

...wasn't quite what I'd dreamed it would be. I shopped and planned and packed for days and it seemed that everything (with the exception of my parents and Ross's absence) was playing right into my Frazier's First Christmas Fantasy right down to the gingerbread men and fruitcake.

We had our little family Christmas at home on the 23rd then loaded up the car and drove to Ruston and had Christmas dinner at the Anderson's where Josh's grandparents, Nama and Papa, got to meet Frazier for the first time! Christmas Eve was a full day of visiting with family and friends, two Christmas Eve services and the annual soup supper courtesy of Jim and Debbie.

Then Christmas morning dawned sniffly...and only got worse. By Christmas night Frazier was just plain sick. The sickest he's ever been- coughing, sneezing, runny nose, congestion. Up all night. We finally got him to sleep about 4 in the morning by driving him down Hwy 167 and let him sleep the next couple of hours in his carseat in the bedroom. He's been sick ever since, but he is better every day. And really, Frazier's a pretty pleasant baby even sick.

So, naturally, the rest of our visit and most of our time home since has been spent tending to our sick baby...nursing him every chance I can to ensure he gets plenty of fluids, wiping his nose and wiping his nose and wiping his nose again. Running the humidifier, sucking out snot...all that stuff. Many thanks to Helen and Mark Boersma for checking him out to ensure his lungs were clear, etc. before we left Ruston. We were lucky to have a doctor who loved us enough to come over Christmas weekend. :)

Sick kid aside, however, we did have a really wonderful Christmas. Everyone was so good to us it was overwhelming as always. We're so very grateful. I have so many thank yous to write!

One of my favorite gifts was from Frazier (by way of his Dad)- a set of jewelry (two bracelets and a necklace) from Smart Mom Jewelry. It's called Teething Bling and it's jewelry made for your kid to chew on! We both love it. Bracelet shown in pic below.

And I don't know if you can tell but in the next picture he has both bracelets and the necklace all at once!

Here's a picture I took of my poor sick little buddy on Saturday, his worst sick day. :(

I can't say enough thank yous for all we received this Christmas.

We are so loved...and so blessed.

Christmas Morning A Couple Of Mornings Early

First things first: Us as gingerbread people. :)

Second: I made fruitcake! Not Collins Street...but not half bad.

And finally, we had a little Christmas morning here brcause I really wanted to do so just us at our house. We only opened a few gifts, which meant we had less to pack which was very helpful as our car is FULL!! Frazier did better "opening" gifts than I'd expected...it was really cute to watch. I took about a zillion pictures, but I'm just posting a few.*

Most exciting gift of all? My stand mixer!!! I've been wanting one for...well, a really long time and here it finally is! I was on my second hand mixer- so I'm really excited! Isn't she lovely? I also got the matching blender...because our other blender recently died. :( I can't wait to cook something!

Pictures might be a but out of order :/

Oh- And we all got passport covers in our stockings!! They're just one of several travel-related gifts I bought this year in preparation for visiting Mom and Dad! (We're missing you guys!)

And now we're off to Ruston! Josh's grandparents arrived yesterday and we're anxious to see them!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! :)

'Tis The Season- A Blogpost in 4 Parts

Part I- Let Them Eat Cookies

I was invited to a cookie exchange/tacky sweater party at my friend, Lindsey's house Saturday afternoon. I threw together this tacky sweater the morning of the party. Lindsey made hers too. We had a really great time...we didn't just have cookies we had an ornament exchange and played pictionary and of course there was the tackiest sweater contest! I baked chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies. Frazier hung out in the kitchen with me and had a great time with my 1/4c. measuring cup!

Part II- iChatting and other activities

We get to iChat with my parents quite often, which is really nice and Frazier really seems to like it. I took these pictures on Sunday. He sits and plays with the keyboard and watches the screen like he really knows what he's doing. He mutes the voices, makes the video screen big and small and moves it around...you may call it accidental; I call it genius. ;)

Excuse the piles of laundry. :)

I decided early in the Christmas season the my go-to for holiday treats was going to be almond bark. Every time I had to take goodies somewhere, I covered something in white chocolate. Ritz cracker and peanut butter sandwiches, pretzels, pretzels cranberries and cashews. I even made some peppermint bark. It's served me well. :)

Frazier spends a LOT of time playing on this Christmas blanket in the middle of the living room these days.

Part III- Yuletide Carols Being Sung By A Choir...

Josh joined the Christmas choir at church that did three songs for our Sunday-before-Christmas-Service. I thought they did a wonderful job! I tried to get a clip that showcased the male voices...and I tried to zoom in so you could see Josh, but it's kind of hard to do either while holding Frazier and a diaper bag! You can just imagine how harmonic they were in person. I was so proud. :)

Part IV- Santa

Well, I did it. I took Frazier to the mall this morning and paid $20 bucks for a picture of him in Santa's lap with his hat askew. He was perfect, of course. He slept the few minutes we had to wait in line and then woke up happy and smiled for the picture. I really must say...I'm pretty sure the Longview Mall has the actual Santa. Real beard, awesome suit, super nice. Worth a 20? Maybe.

5 months, 1 day

I didn't get to post yesterday, but it was Frazier's 5 month birthday!!

We celebrated by going to the post office and then to our weekly playdate with Audrie and Adalynn which was fun as always (and included taco salads this week courtesy of Lydia so that made it even better!) I forgot my camera, but I did find one of the pictures I'd taken of the kiddos last week (I'd uploaded it in the wrong folder). This week they all had on Christmas outfits, too. :(

Merry week before Christmas!!

A Week Called Wonderful

We truly have had the most wonderful week. We were having so much fun, in fact, that I haven't had time to take the pictures off my camera or post! Finally, today at long last I have a few minutes to do so! I suppose I will begin where I left off...with Tuesday which was a MOPS day (our last before Christmas and my planet's day for set up).

Wednesday we finally got to have our several-time-postponed second playdate with Audrie and Adalynn. I took a picture of the babies together, but I don't know what happened to it. :( We all went walking together (in very, very cold wind) and Lynzie made spaghetti for the mommies for lunch- yummy. Then Wednesday night the Lowerys came over for our annual joint viewing of Christmas Vacation. We made a fire and some wassail and I put out some of my homemade holiday goodies...it was a really nice holiday get-together I thought!

Thursday evening was the MOPS gift-wrapping party- we all brought snacks and all the gifts we had to wrap and all the stuff to wrap them then spread out on the floor at church and wrapped! There was cider and cocoa and we shared wrapping supplies...much fun!

Friday we ran some errands- which is always easier to do with Josh, and had our weekly meal out. Then Josh kept Frazier while I finished some Christmas shopping.

Saturday was a big day. I started at 7am cooking. Ross was coming on Sunday and I'd planned a big dinner, plus I had to take a veggie tray to a baby shower and something to a Christmas party that night. I managed to get plenty done before the baby shower at two which I had to leave early to come home, feed Frazier and get ready for a surprise 30th birthday party for one of our friends at 4:30. We were a little late, but didn't ruin the surprise. After the birthday party we came home to regroup (and feed Frazier again) before heading to the 5th annual Christmas party at the Scott's.

It was great fun as always and really good to see friends we don't see that often. A couple of friends who moved to Houston were back in Longview and it was wonderful to see them. The highlight of the Scott's party is always the Dirty Santa gift exchange. Someone always steals the gift I want, but both of the gifts Josh and I brought were big hits so that was fun!

I didn't have my camera ready for the girls' group picture, but I did get the guys.

Sunday was our big Christmas day with Ross since he's going to Belgium for Christmas this year. I went all out and cooked a big Christmas dinner- turkey breast, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, ambrosia, dumplings, rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. I even had a veggie and pickle tray with deviled eggs! And I made wassail again and chocolate covered pretzels and friendship bread.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

I have lots of pictures of Sunday:

We ichatted with Mom and Dad so it was almost like all being together! Josh took this family photo for us! :)

We rounded out last night with a family Christmas program at our church and fellowship afterwards.

And the fun hasn't stopped yet!! We were invited to a gingerbread decorating party at my friend Rebecca's (Frazier's friend Myles's) house this morning. There were lots of mommies and kiddos and we made these cute little graham cracker ginger bread houses and also the kids could make foam nativities. I was in charge of the house decorating table...a perfect job for me! I loved it!! Then we all had lunch (I made chicken salad- Rebecca made vegetable soup- and cute little cut out sandwiches for the kids...or the ones who could eat sandwiches anyway). I can't imagine how much time Rebecca put into everything, but it was really amazing...and brave...of her to have all of us over!

We really had a great time- though Frazier just hung out and watched everything. And I think it's good for me to be around kids older than Frazier with icing in their hair running circles around the living room. It reminds me of what I have to look forward to and helps me prepare. For instance, it occurred to me today as I was eating lunch on the floor and Frazier was sitting happily in Myles's bouncy seat chewing on his sweater sleeve that one day my little angel may be the one crawling around under someone else's coffee table barking like a dog.

And it'll still all be ok.

So there is our week in short...or not so short, really. We still have lots to do, but I'm thinking we might could slip in a nap...

Happy Merry!

I Have A Dream...

...that one day I will sit Frazier down for a photoshoot and the process will be easy. I will put him in one place and he will stay there. He won't whine or squirm or blow bubbles. He won't suck on his fingers or stick out his tongue or drool on his clothes or pull them off.

He will look at the camera and smile.

But I suppose on that day picture taking will cease to be a challenge. It won't be any fun. And the results, now that I think of it, will be terribly boring.

*Yes, there's a duplicate. No, I couldn't delete it.

A Lovely Little Weekend

We really did have a lovely little weekend complete with the first fires in the fireplace of the season (and plenty of camping out and playing games in front of it!), lots of spiced tea and a visit with Mae Mae and Pop!
We also finished the lights outside....a bit haphazard as always...but sweet, I think. :) And Frazier likes them.

It was red day, apparently! (Josh and Pop missed the memo). So we three red-clad folks posed in front of the red door for a pic!

P.S. That green blanket in the fire picture was a happy from Debbie. Tres cute, n'est pas?

It's a favorite Debbie, thanks!!