Proud Moment

Yesterday, Sydney went all day in big girl panties without having an accidentand pottied in the toilet every time she needed to go!!!!!! She wore diapers at nap and bedtime, but we are making definite progress. Thats my big girl!

Art For Sale CHEAP!

Hi Friends,

I want to clear some space in my studio so I am letting everyone know that I am selling off my past artwork at below cost. If there are any paintings you have had your eye on or are the least bit interested in owning, please, let me know. Original art is always cooler than a print! If you haven't already checked it out my website is www.abstractinfusion.com (be patient it takes a while to load).

Hope to hear from you soon!

Lacey

Baby News

I had another doctors appointment today. The doc thinks my headaches are from muscle tension (imagine me stressed- hahaha). Hopefully I can relax and they will go away. Other than that eveything looks good. The baby's heartbeat is normal and I'm finally gaining weight. We have scheduled an ultrasound for the morning of February 5th. With any luck we can find out the gender and get down to some of the more exciting details!

Update

Well, since new years day things have definately calmed down here a bit.. Rob was sick for a couple of weeks (so of course we treated him like he had the plague) but he is feeling better now. My nausea has finally let up a bit; however the last few weeks I have been experiencing the worst headaches I have ever had in my life. I don't usually get headaches and didn't much in previous pregnancies so bad for me might not really be that bad - but hey it hurts! Zoe is back in school and the girls are up to their normal mischief.

Big Girl Potty-
I have been intermittently trying to interest Sydney in the potty and she seems excited about the idea. So one afternoon I put her in "big girl panties" and vowed to take her to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. Of course , 10 minutes later she says "Mommy, I'm peeing!" so i haul her to the bathroom as fast as I can and put her on the toilet so she can get the idea. We clean her up and put on a whole new outfit. 10 minutes later, it happened again, exactly the same as before. Trying to be patient and encouraging, I clean and change her again. A few minutes go by and nothing...nap time rolled around and we went back to the diaper for sleeping. We had one more accident around dinner time. I felt terrible the next two days and didnt even go there (way to be consistent I know). On the third day though she says, "Mommy I need to pee!" so I check to see if she has already gone. She had not. So I take her to the bathroom and walk out of the room to check on something. She screams "Mommy, I DID IT!" So I checked and she had. Small miracles. Of course, we haven't been that lucky again yet, but I'm feeling hopeful.

Traditions: part four

Every year, usually the weekend before Christmas (this year we waited until after) we go out to a fancy dinner. We all get very dressed up and it is usually a great time to get some pictures of everyone looking their best. This year we went to a place called Rococco's and had a great time. Even the kids had a good time and ended up with full bellies! Here are a few pictures we took before we left for dinner:

Rob, Lacey, Zoe, and Sydney


Sharlene and Troy

Sydney, Zoe, and Nanny

Sydney

Zoe

Traditions: part three

Christmas Morning. I already posted that day, but here is what happened after the silence was broken. I went to say good morning to Zoe and she bolted from her room and went through her stocking. Sydney followed shorty threafter and Zoe helped her do her stocking. I of course was up and so were Nanny and Auntie Shar, but Daddy caught a few more zzzzzz's. Then when the coffe was on and Rob came to the grown ups opened our stockings. We had a small break for food (chocolate peppermint scones and coffee and fruit) and showers, then we opened the rest of our gifts. We emerged about noon from a pile of wrapping paper and boxes (which this year we tried to contain as best we could). The women folk dispersed of the mess and put all the goodies in piles while Rob made brunch (sausage,egg muffin sandwiches, berry blintzes, fruit, more coffee....). We ate and played all day. Sharlene's boyfriend Troy came up around one and hung out for a while til they left for his families. A darn good day if you ask me. My camera just couldn't keep up but here are a couple I took before the chaos overtook me:

Traditions: part two

Also on Christmas eve, we do a "Secret Santa" gift exchange that is a different theme each year. We all try to get very creative with our gifts and it is always one of the most looked forward to parts of our Christmas celebration. This years theme was "Favorite Things" taken from the song from The Sound of Music.

Nanny Got Zoe an assortment of things (my little ponies, fairies, calico critters.....)

Shar got Nanny a tea themed gift.

Zoe picked out a guitar and Yo Gabba Gabba stuff for Sydney.

Sydney got CANDY (cocoa, art, nuts, drinks, and yumm) for me!

I rewrote the song for Rob including his favorite things in the lyrics, among which were several types of candy, poker chips and cards, a family game, a movie, a book, and a cookbook.

Rob took the prize for most creative this year. For Shar he took the song from The Sound of Music and adapted each lyric into something that she would like. He then put each item in a brown paper bag and tied on a label with the coresponding lyric with a piece of string ("brown paper packages tied up with string"). Pretty crafty for the only man in the house! Shar loved everything he picked out too! Go Rob!

After Secret Santa we set out milk and cookies and put the kiddos to bed. They went down really quickly because of all the excitement about the next day and the completely tiring day they had before.

Traditions: part one

On Christmas eve we have our big Christmas dinner (to save us from cooking all day on Christmas day). This years menu was seafood (an old family tradition on my side and something new for the Christiansens). Rob slaved away and made crabcakes, salmon bites, shrimp cocktail, fried shrimp, salad, and bread (storebought because there was no way I was gonna squeeze in amongst the chaos and try to make a fresh loaf). It was lovely. Here are a couple of pictures of the table (before we sat down) and of the nearly finished cooking and cleaning - Zoe is doing dishes and Syd is helping too.

Here is the apple pie I made for dessert and the cute snowman cupcakes that Nanny and the kids made (they were tastey too).

Graphic Material

On December 19th 2008, my husbands squadron held their annual holiday party. There was the usual social hour and dinner; however this years entertainment went far beyond slideshows and guest speakers. They held a rockband contest. Yes, thats right. So here is a little post holiday treat from me to you:

Rob and his work buddies as the Go-Gos coverband "Trainwreck" (because they are in the training division of the squadron) performing "We've got the beat". They won the contest by the way.