Movies and shades

Lately Rylan has been asking me in the afternoons if I have to work that night. It kind of hurts my feelings, because I know he wants the answer to be yes. You see, this is what Rylan and Caroline get to do when I am working and Dad is taking care of them: watching moves, snuggling with their blankets, pillows and favorite toys, and eating popcorn. I can't really blame them. What a fun dad they have!The kids have been really into wearing their sunglasses lately. Even in the house.
Caroline literally wears them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and to bed! When she rested her head on the pillow and I covered her with blankets last night, she quickly slipped her sunglasses on!

Why I haven't been blogging much

I have been baking....

White chocolate cranberry bread....

Triple chocolate cookies with Andes mint toppings...

Peanut butter cup cookies....

Hidden mint morsels.... and I forgot to take a picture of the fudge and the delicious cranberry, almond chocolate chip biscotti Bethany and I made . Yummm. I have enjoyed trying out some new recipes this year and most have turned out really well.

Can't wait for the grandparents to arrive to celebrate Christmas and help us eat all this delicious food.

Almost- pictureless visit with Santa

We have never taken our kids to meet Santa, until this year. Mostly because I never went as a little girl, so it wasn't something high on my priority list of all possible Christmas activities. Charlton, who did sit on Santa's lap as a child, remembers being scared when he was very young. This year, Rylan has been asking more questions about Santa, and when I heard about our hospital having a special breakfast with the big guy in red, I thought we could try. Rylan wanted to know all about Santa's reindeer and had a list of presents he was going to ask for. Caroline had been practicing her "Ho,ho,ho, Merry Christmases." I dressed both kids in their cute Christmas outfits and we headed out the door early on a Saturday morning.
The first clue that our morning might not turn out as we had hoped was the breakfast. Thawed out previously frozen fruit and....drumroll please... pancakes wrapped around sausage on a stick. Caroline was the only one excited about her breakfast, and I did catch a cute picture of her with my phone.
The 20-minute line went by faster than I had expected, and it was finally Rylan and Caroline's turn to sit on Santa's lap. Suddenly Rylan melted into a silent puddle of lead on the floor and wouldn't budge. Caroline clung to me like a baby monkey and the closer I walked to Santa, the tighter she held on to me! And it was all over just like that. Now, Caroline, whose previous greatest fear was car washes, says, "Santa scary!"
Well, there's always next year.

Here is the only picture I managed to take that morning. The kids wouldn't even cooperate and look at the camera at this point, so I just caught their backs as they admired this very pretty nativity scene in the hospital.

Caroline was actually willing to cooperate for a picture on Thursday. I thought she looked so cute in her Christmas overalls.




Pure mischief!

Cookie time

We have had another busy and mostly fun (for the kids) week. Birthday parties, Little Gym activities, baking cookies, etc... Rylan ran errands and ate lunch with Dad on Thursday, while Caroline and I met a friend and her baby at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I really enjoyed having some one-on-one time with my sweet girl and it always seems like a nice break to only have to keep track of one child.
I got a bad GI bug on Tuesday night, so that is why this week was not as much fun for me. I actually had to leave work early because I was so sick, and that hasn't happened to me in all my six years of being a nurse. I am finally feeling better and tackled a lot of holiday baking today. The big accomplishment was that I actually felt like sampling what I made. We are having a cookie exchange at MOPS on Tuesday and I tried out a few new recipes.

My hospital is having a Breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning, so if we are all feeling up for it, we may try to go. I think Rylan especially is at an age where he would be excited about meeting Santa instead of scared. I'm not sure how Caroline will react, but I will be sure to let you know.

My kitchen helpers.

I was so focused on getting a decent picture, I didn't realize Rylan was licking the sprinkles off his cookie. Nice! Guess we won't be sharing that batch with anyone. Caroline is also busy eating the sprinkles out of the bowl instead of putting them on her cookies.

Rylan loves helping me in the kitchen. He was content for at least an hour just playing with a ball of cookie dough.

Kings, croup, and big shoes

In MOPS on Tuesday, the kids learned about King Josiah. His teacher asked one child to volunteer to be the "king" and let the teacher trace his outline so the kids could color it. I was shocked when I picked Rylan up and learned he had volunteered to be the model. As his reward, he got to keep the drawing. This will surely go in his tub of memories.

Since Rylan also isn't known for being particularly craftsy, I wasn't sure how interested he would be in helping me make some paper Christmas chains. I cut out all the paper strips and asked him to help me form the loops and tape them in place (sooo much easier and less messy than glue!) I couldn't believe how much he loved it. He kept giving me hugs and exclaiming, "This is so much fun! This is the best Christmas ever! Thanks for letting me help, and I love you, Mom!" You would have thought I had taken him to Disney, not let him play with paper and tape. It made me almost feel bad, but I know this child is not deprived of fun in his life. This one must have just hit all the right buttons for him. I meant to take a picture of him and our lovely creations, but totally forgot until I had already hung them up.

Poor Caroline is still recovering from the croup. She isn't running a fever anymore, but both kids still have a bad cough. They do pretty well until they get a burst of the crazies and start chasing each other around the house. After a few minutes, they are both coughing like lifetime smokers. It is pretty pitiful. Here Caroline nearly fell asleep in her chair waiting for lunch.

Sweet Caroline, I hope you don't ever grow into size 13 shoes! You did amaze us with actually being able to walk a little bit in Daddy's dress shoes. I think I have a picture of Rylan doing the same thing when he was your age.