The rest of our Christmas vacation

Aunt Jamie helped him open some presents (he loved his talking Dora book!)

He entertained our Sunday School class.

Relaxing with Nanny after church

Hanging out

haha...snacking...

WW: Christmas recap

Jackson's new car. He beeps the horn if Jason doesn't push him fast enough!!

Reading with Nanny

Watching TV in his new Toy Story chair

Christmas Eve

Jackson & Nana in their matching PJ's

 

He needed a nap after opening all of those presents!

FMM: New Year's Resolutions

I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions, mostly because I know that I probably won't keep them so I don't even bother.  However, this year is different.  I am tired of feeling disgusted with myself, tired of feeling self-conscious, tired of hiding on the other side of the camera.

My resolution this year is to lose 30 pounds.

Of course that one resolution will require a lot of smaller changes, so I'm resolving to eat healthier, cook at home more often, drink more water, remember to take my vitamins, and work out 5 days a week.

I know it won't be easy.  This past year, I was all over the place with different diets and going back and forth between hard core diet & exercise to being completely lazy and eating everything in sight.  I would lose weight just to turn around and gain it all back again.  It's going to take a lot of motivation and determination, but hopefully this time next year I'll be back to a healthy weight.

What are your New Year's resolutions? Do you have any diet/workout tips for me?

Check out more resolutions through Friend Makin' Monday.

WW: Family Christmas Portraits

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

From our family to yours!

Tot School: Christmas edition

Jackson is 18 months old.

Our special books this week were If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, Merry Christmas, Curious George!, and Jackson's favorite Where Is Baby's Christmas Present?: A Lift-the-Flap Book

We did a couple of Christmas tree crafts this week.  Jackson put ornament stickers on a Christmas tree, gift bows on a Christmas tree, and made a handprint Christmas tree (that really looks nothing like a Christmas tree haha).

And we did an Elf rhyme: 

This little elf went to the workshop (point to thumb)

This little elf stayed home (point to index finger)

This little elf ate a candy cane (point to middle finger)

This little elf ate none (point to ring finger)

and this little elf cried "Ho, ho, ho" (point to little finger) 

all the way home. 

Other than that, we didn't do too much because Jackson spent two days with a stomach bug! 

Date night

As a mom, I feel like my husband and I rarely have a chance to go out together (alone, I mean!) He's so busy with work, and we always have to worry about someone watching Jackson. But now that the holidays are coming up, and we are going home to visit family, I think we might actually get a chance to go out a time or two! I know Jackson will be safe in the hands of his grandparents, so Jason and I will be able to go out on a date without having to worry or hurry home.

To make it even better, the JuiceBox widget on my sidebar is featuring coupons from Restaurant.com! So not only will we not have to worry about Jackson, but we won't have to worry about messing up our budget either. We had a date night not too long ago, and it made me feel like we're a young couple again for a few hours, almost without worry or responsibilities. I can't wait to go on another one!

When was the last time you got to go on a date with your significant other? What are your favorite things to do when you do get a date night?

*This post is sponsored by Restaurant.com

WW: My Sister's Wedding

The beautiful bride

Jamie & me

Jackson & Jamie

the centerpieces

"If you smash that cake in my face,
we are getting an annulment." LOL

Go to Jamie's blog to see more wedding pics and congratulate her!

Christmas Post Link UP!

I know you all probably have tons of Christmas related posts to share! Come link up your handmade gift & decor ideas, crafts, recipes, or even pictures of your kids with Santa or in front of the Christmas tree! Then we can all browse through the list for any last minute ideas!

Handmade Gift Ideas for Toddlers:

Personalized ABC Book

Quiet Book

ABC Bean Bags


Recipes & Crafts:

12 layer chocolate cake recipe

Reindeer crafts & snacks

This linky will be open throughout December, so feel free to come back and add more as you post them!

Tot School: Reindeer theme

Jackson is 18 months old.

My sisters wedding was this past weekend, so we only had a few days of Tot School.

We read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and I made us some blueberry muffins for a snack. I used a snowman head muffin pan, but they didnt really come out looking like snowmen!

We also read Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and sang the song to go with it. I made reindeer cookies, and Jackson made a reindeer with his hands and feet.

We also spent one day at the Hands on Childrens Museum with some friends of ours and had one day of speech therapy.

TMI Thurs: A nice topic for Thanksgiving dinner

A friend of mine told me about how wonderfully his Thanksgiving dinner went this year. He was having dinner with his very conservative family: his mom, his 9 year old sister, and his grandparents. His grandmother is our Sunday School teacher when we are home and his grandfather is a deacon. In fact his grandfather once tried to convince me that I needed to quit my teaching job, drop out of Grad school, and move home so that I could attend their church every single Sunday.

Anyway, his great great Aunt Bobbi Anne, who is 86, was also there. They were all dressed up in their Sunday best, everything was decorated perfectly, candles were lit, and a big dinner was on the table. It was like a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting, I'm sure.

Then Bobbi Anne started talking.

"I really like that show The Doctors. I watch it all the time. But the other day they were talking about sex! So I had to turn it. Because I'm too old for all of that."

Of course she got blank stares from everyone at the table. They stuffed more food into their mouths as they tried to ignore her. But she continued.

"But they were showing these toys! Have you seen them? They have all kinds of things these days! They even had a rubber ducky. A rubber ducky! Like the ones you put in the bath tub with a kid! Now someone tell me where the hell you're supposed to put that!?"

Grandfather: "Bobbi Anne, don't you think we should talk about something a little more Christian at the dinner table?"

Bobbi Anne: "Oh please! Nowadays they are saying that masturbation is perfectly natural! Doctors are even saying its healthy. In fact, I'm thinking about changing my primary care physician."

*more blank stares*

Bobbi Anne: "But I had to turn the channel, or I was gonna have to order me one of them ducks! You know how I like to order stuff off the TV."

There's nothing like an 86 year old woman talking about masturbating with a vibrating rubber ducky to make you want to vomit up your pumpkin pie.

WW: The Grinch

Merry SITSmas!

Happy Holidays to all my SITSas and other bloggy buddies!!

This was our Christmas card from last year, when Jackson was only 6 months old. Hopefully I'll get his portraits from this year back soon and will be able to share them with you all.


Visit SITS for more Holiday cheer and to win some great prizes!

Tot School: Wintery activities

Jackson is 17 months old.

We were ridiculously busy this week (I know, isn't everyone?). We had speech therapy two days and a play date at Pump It Up (bouncy place) one day. Jackson got his Christmas portraits taken and we had family portraits taken.

Our special books this week: Counting Christmas, Gingerbread Jimmi, and Mary Engelbreit's A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z

We sang Jingle Bells a lot. It's pretty much the only Christmas song that I can remember all of the words to. We're working on the sign for "all done."

We did a stamping activity with snowflakes and a snowman, but apparently the snowman offended Jackson somehow. He wanted nothing to do with him! But he loved the snowflakes!A few weeks ago, I found a kid's baking kit in Target's dollar section. It had a little rolling pin and several small cookie cutters in the shapes of a Christmas tree, snowflake, star, snowman, etc. We used this set with playdough.I found a Gingerbread Man puppet for a buck at Michaels, and I used him to sing songs and tell the Gingerbread Jimmi story to Jackson.

And since it has gotten pretty cold and windy here lately, we havent had a chance to go to the playground as much, so we have been playing a lot of indoor soccer instead :)
And he did silly things, like try to stack his rings on his dad's nose!

Jackson makes out with himself in the mirror

Really NY?

I rarely write controversial posts, because I'm not here for drama. But this is probably going to be one, so if you want to skip it, please do.


My best friend is a gay man. On the surface, it would appear that we have nothing in common. He lives in a big city, is in Law School, and has a side business selling beautiful jewelery. I'm a stay-at-home mom, changing diapers and wrestling a toddler all day, married to a ridiculously conservative military man. We haven't lived in the same city in 8 years now. We only see each other a few times a year.

And yet? We talk on the phone for at least an hour almost every single day. I talk to him more than I talk to almost any other friend that I have. I care about him more than anyone else outside my family. Scratch that-he IS family to me.

One day he is going to want to get married. I want to be there beside him-his matron of honor or best woman or whatever you want to call it. Hell, if his family doesn't want to be there, I will walk him down the aisle myself, and give him away to whatever ridiculously lucky man that he has found.

So I can't tell you how sad I am that the gay marriage bill failed in New York yesterday. There are only 5 states that allow same-sex marriage. And my question is: Why?

I've heard plenty of reasons for banning gay marriage, and I don't understand any of them. Maybe it's because I believe that you are born gay and because I don't think that there is anything wrong with it. I understand that everyone has different opinions and beliefs. I understand that many people believe that being gay is wrong or just think that it's gross. And that's your opinion, your belief. It's different than mine, but that shouldn't matter. I thought that in this country we weren't supposed to be able to impose our beliefs on others (through the law anyway)? That we aren't supposed to deny people rights because they are different. That all people are created equal. That there is a separation of church and state.

Who are we to tell gay couples that they can't get married?

I don't know how anyone can look at the situation and NOT see the unfairness of it. Anyone can get married as long as they are adults of the opposite sex. Why can't we just change that statement to "any 2 consenting adults"? People from different religions, different races, have a 30 year age gap, or whatever, can get married. We don't care. We did away with all of those restrictions years ago. When it comes to marriage, homosexuals are the only ones that we discriminate against anymore.

People keep saying that they are worried about "the sanctity of marriage" (i.e. the holiness of matrimony) but most straight people these days don't even treat marriage as a holy institution. The divorce rate is through the roof. People are free to get divorced and then remarried as many times as they wish. They don't have to have a religious ceremony, they don't even have to believe in God (yours or anyone else's). Hell, they don't even have to be sober during the ceremony! But no one is taking their marriage licenses away. No one is making them fill out a form to make sure they are good enough, religious enough, holy enough to get married. No one is making laws banning these things from happening in order to keep marriage a sacred act.

As long as they're heterosexual.

But if they're gay? Then the rest of us get to tell them "No, sorry. We don't care how much you love each other, it's against our religion for you to get married."

If gay people get married, does that really hurt your marriage at all? Does it somehow diminish the love that you feel for your husband? Unless you're married to a closeted gay person who is planning on divorcing you and marrying their secret lover, then I seriously doubt it.

When Proposition 8 was going on in California, it seemed like everyone wanted to know, "Do you want your children to think it's okay to be gay?" Yes, actually, I do. I want my son to know that I don't care who he is in love with. I don't care what race or religion or sex that person is. I don't want him to ever have to hide or lie about such a big part of himself. I want to experience true love. I want him to be happy. I want him to marry whoever he wants to marry.

Do you not want that for your children? Do you want them to hide the best parts of their lives from you? Would you want them to marry someone they don't really love because it is more socially acceptable? Would you disown them? Would you be hurtful or hateful to them?

I hope not. Because I have to tell you, it doesn't matter if you don't approve or if they have to lie to you or hide from you. It doesn't matter if you won't speak to them. It doesn't matter how many times you tell them they are wrong or gross or sinful. They will still be gay. and they will still be your child.

Just like banning gay marriage is not going to keep people from being gay.

I had several other points but I think this sums it up pretty nicely:

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
(text shamelessly stolen from Sean Dickson of UChicago)


I'm leaving the comments open because I honestly want to know if you have a (good) reason for thinking that gay marriage should be banned. Just please don't be hateful.

WW: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

The one good picture that I got of Jackson in front of the tree:

and the outtakes:

12 layer chocolate cake recipe

I love to make this cake. It is absolutely delicious because the layers are so thin that the chocolate just seeps through...yum! I made one for the Thanksgiving potluck for my husband's crew and it went over so well that I didn't even get a piece! It was gone so fast.

12 layer chocolate cake

BATTER:
1 cup peanut oil
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup milk
3 cups self-rising flour
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix ingredients. Put 1/2 cup of batter to a layer. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 6 minutes.

I find that the exact amount of baking time depends on the oven you use but it is usually somewhere between 4-6 minutes. I use 4 cake pans to reduce the amount of time I spend standing in the kitchen :)


ICING:
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup evaporated milk
9 teaspoons cocoa
1.5 sticks butter/margarine

Mix ingredients (in a pot). Bring to a rolling boil at medium heat, then continue heating on low heat. Spread between layers and on top of cake.

TIP: The layers are so thin that they break really easily. Make sure you let the layers completely cool before attempting to take them out of the pan. BUT sometimes they still break. I like to turn this into what I call a cake bowl. I just put the broken layer into a bowl and pour some icing on top. It's delicious!

For more great recipes, check out:

“Homemaker Mondays”

“Mouth Watering Mondays”

“Tempt My Tummy Tuesday“,

“Tasty Tuesday”

“Tuesday at the Table”

Mom Trends, “Friday Feasts”

Designs by Gollum “Foodie Friday”

Our Krazy Kitchen, ‘What did you bake today”

“Ann Kroeker “Food on Fridays”

A Handmade Christmas