My secret projects-finished!

My Dad asked for a BYU scrub cap for Christmas.  While I was in Utah, I found a Ute one for him at the med school bookstore.  He loved it!  But BYU doesn't have a med school so they don't sell scrub caps! So I researched it online and used one of his favorites for a template and ta da!  It fit perfectly and I'm soooo stinkin' proud of myself! I also made some projects for Christmas for my Mom but don't have the pics yet.  check back later.  

You know, I fool myself into thinking this blog is a good substitute for journaling in my life until I have something personal to journal about.  There's so much I wanted to write during those last months in Utah but never did because I didn't want to air my dirty laundry or hurt anyone or protect the innocent.  So, in lieu of complaining (which is apparently what I really need a journal for) you get a cute picture of my girls!

5 years ago today

I was on my honeymoon! We were in St. Louis on our way to Arkansas for New Year's and a reception. I was having the time of my life with my sweetie! And while the actual day was last Saturday and I didn't blog about it, it was definitely not forgotten. We had a lovely day together topped off by a fabulous dinner and raspberry chocolate cheesecake. And if you know me, raspberry chocolate cheesecake is the best way to end any day! :)

(this is us two months after we got married, taken at a weird angle that makes me look a foot taller than him but hey, we look happy and the flowers are pretty! )

So, here's to my love! He is always there for me.  He picks me up when I am down. He takes amazing care of me.  He is my glass half full for this glass half empty kind of gal.   He loves me in spite of myself and I am so thankful he's mine.

A Fun and Fabulous Christmas Eve!

Jonas spilled breakfast on his shirt and I'm afraid we only have pink and purple at our house, so he got to spend the day in a girlie shirt.  So...of course he pulled on M's skirt to complete his ensemble...much to his father's dismay!

The kids made cookies for Santa and everyone got so into it!  They had fun decorating them and eating lots of frosting! 

Ruby {loves} LG! She loves to come up and touch and try to eat her while she's playing. 
We fed the kids first so they could go to bed on time.  We served an orange meal of chicken nuggets, mac 'n cheese, and clementines and bananas. It was a hit!!!

We then told the story of Christ's birth and all the grandkids participated.  Christian and Jonas were wise men with my brother, Sam.
Hazie was our pretty angel.
LG was the baby Jesus.  Ev and M were Joseph and Mary.  And Ruby was the sheep with her shepherd, Grace.  Ruby was the cutest one.  We put some quilt batting on her back and she just crawled around like a little sheep!
The next morning, M was totally ready in her new jammies to come down the stairs to see what Santa brought!
...or for her close up!!

Chocolate Trifle Time!

I made one of these last year.  It is oh so tasty!  Merry Christmas to my hips!

M was a very good helper and ended up with more chocolate on her apron than in her mouth I think!

Lizbif

So this morning I had already had enough whining at about 9 am.  Then this happened:

M: mama! mama! mama! i want you! mama! mama!  i want you! mama!

Me: I don't want my name to be Mama today.

M: i want you, Lizbif?

Out of the mouth of my babe...the Holiday edition

Me: what did you ask Santa to bring you? (after visiting with Santa at the church Christmas party where she did remarkably well sitting on his lap!)

M: a princess Christmas!

sung in key like a good Tobler

M: Princess Bells, Princess Bells, Jingle all the way!

(or if you like this version better, a few days later, this version showed up)

M: Tinker Bell, Tinker Bell, all the way!

Me: Who's Santa?

M: He brings me a pink Christmas!

Me: We have Christmas to remember baby Jesus being born.

M: and Mary and the princesses! (as she's lining the princesses up with Mary from the nativity joining in-later she had all her princesses gathering around the nativity with the wise men. Yes, even Sleeping Beauty and Ariel were in Bethlehem!)

Tradition Tag

Cousin Em tagged me to share some of our family traditions.  Since I'm at my Mom's, some of these are extended family traditions and some of them are pure WEHolman!

1. My Mom collects Santas.  Lots and lots of Santas by now.  Every year we help her decorate as soon as Thanksgiving is over and it's a several day process (see Tree trimming post below-that was something like day three!) 

2. We get jammies for Christmas Eve.  This started when we were young and Mom would make our jammies, and now we usually get jammie pants.  This year, just M and I get them in our little family because we're the ones who need them.  This is M last year is her new duds.
3. Mom also collects different Christmas plates. She wanted Christmas dishes but loved so many of them that it became a tradition to give her a place setting of different ones.  It's my job to set the holiday tables with my sister Grace's assistance, of course, and I won't lie, I get my favorite place setting every year because of it! (see bottom right place setting :)
4. Our Christmas Eve dinner is Crab! We always have shrimp tomato juice cocktail and shrimp cocktail and crab and artichokes.  We've strayed from the formula before but we always come back to the good stuff! yum!!!  (and no, this is not our dinner, this is someone else's I found on the web :)

5. She collects a lot of things. :)  Natvities are her other love.  She has nativities from all over the world now which is so cool. The next to bottom left one is from Bolivia from when her sister served a mission there with her family.  The Christus statue on the top right she brought home from a trip to Spain.
6. This is a WEHolman tradition.  We read a Christmas book every night for bedtime, that is when we remember!  We're getting better at it and M loves it!  We love reading to our girls and this is a great way that we talk about Christmas and try to refocus on Christ and the purpose of the season and less on Santa. 
Other favorite things: we get an ornament for our tree every year.  My parents used to get them for us but now it's something W and I do for our own tree. Usually it symbolizes a trip we went on or something that happened.  

Now that we have lots of grandkids, we're starting to act out the Nativity on Christmas Eve like we did when we were kids. I love it! 

I would love to hear your traditions! So tag yourself and let me know if you blog about what your family does for Christmas!!

Hankerin' for Meatloaf

I had a hankerin' for meatloaf.  So I made it on my day to cook.  This picture isn't very appetizing, but oh was it tasty!

The next night I made meatloaf sandwiches-my favorite meal at the Cheesecake Factory that they got rid of...I'm not bitter.  So yummy as leftovers!

You asked for snow

We don't really do snow here. The world is an icicle here today! It took W two tries to get to work this morning and my brother was saved from his finals with a snow day.  The world literally shuts down when there's an ice storm.  It is totally different driving on snow than driving on ice.  Ice is very unforgiving and very hard to drive on, especially in a hilly place like Little Rock.  But it sure is beautiful!

Tree Trimming 101 with M

1. Tinker Bell goes with the snowmen...obviously.

2. It's okay to crowd ornaments on one branch, say one or two max...or six.
3.  Every ornament MUST be touched, despite how many times Mom says to not touch the ornaments.
4. You can never have too many lights on the tree.  Colored lights! Sit back and relax because the other lights are more work!!

5. You have to weed all the dead from the front yard before you can string lights on the remaining bushes! :) ...or we'll start getting nasty letters from the POA about our "secret garden".

case in point. The big scary bush in front on the left? not a bush, it's my pile of trimmed bushes and weeds for the trash!

Yes, hopefully Etsy IS in my future

I have an etsy store.  It's not open yet.  Christmas has to come first. Then I will post things. That's backward, I know. I should have it open now for giving presents. Oh well.  Things have to calm down first so I can spend the time to make it cute!  

In the meantime, here's my shameless plug.
My sister in law has an etsy store! It's open and ready to sell and carries my favorite earrings! If you've seen me in the last year, I've probably been wearing her earrings! They're always beautiful and several of my other favorite people are getting them for presents this year!!

Working for Commission

While Grandma Betty was here, she asked me to make some of my bags for her sisters.  She wanted to give them holiday bags for Christmas.  I didn't quite get them finished by last Friday when she left, but I finished them yesterday and they're going in the mail today. I hope she likes them!

The Elephants in my Room

It usually starts with dreaming. It used to be I would be back in high school, failing a class that I'd never attended but expected to take the final for and would most certainly fail. I was always as I am now, a married woman with two kids and two college degrees under her belt. But that wouldn't matter and I'd still be expected to pass this test to get out of high school. It was awful. The dreams have morphed into making it to my plane on time. Everything goes wrong and I miss the flight and therefore the entire trip! Usually I have these dreams a few nights and then after some contemplation and admittance of my denial and avoidance, I start to face what I've been ignoring.
First, my "maternity leave" needs to come to an end. I don't want it to. I want to stay home with my babies. I always have. Yet, I've also always felt very strongly that I need to maintain my certification and continue to work at least a little bit. My dream job was in Utah. Saturdays only whenever I wanted. M would stay with her Daddy and I worked eight hours and got paid buku bucks for it. It was delightful and I loved the hospital. That job isn't available here yet, so I need to find something else. I know it. We can't live with my parents forever. I need to get a job. But I don't want to.
Second, my continuing ed for said working is due at the end of this month. So, of course I'm scrambling to get it done! :) I have to have thirty hours and honestly I thought I was way over what I needed. But this fall I sadly discovered that my continuing ed for 2005 doesn't count and so now I'm way under! Argh! Luckily, my dear old college friend, Jen, showed me some FREE online courses to take. So, I'm taking them all and praying I have the discipline to do them in the next twenty one days!!!
Third, and final, we need a stable job and home. I am trying to give W some leeway here. He hated his job in Utah for nine months. So I'm truly enjoying this temp job simply because he comes home happy everyday and I am not dreading the answer to "how was your day?" As much as I love living with my Mom (I truly do, it's fun being with her everyday, she's one of my best friends) I need my own home. It's been a long year! My kids need immunizations and well checks and AR Kids is still pending, my hubby and I need insurance, my Synthroid is going to run out soon. We need a good job. And it will come. I know it will. But until then, that elephant is going to sit right at the foot of my bed.

Admittance is the first step to recovery, right?

My girl

I love

big blue eyes

round cheeks

rosebud lips

milk breath

big smiles

"I want milk" cries

warm snuggles

I love my little girl

The Twelve Books of Christmas

I can't get it together soon enough to do the 24 books of Christmas, so we are doing the 12 books of Christmas again. I'm raiding my mom's wonderful collection of books so we have lots of new ones this year!! Do you have any favorites to add?