Christmas Ornaments

Every year at the Lamica house we each pick out and buy a new ornament for our tree. I love going through the ornaments every year and remembering why we bought what or who picked out which ornament. A few months ago I received the Hallmark catalog with all the new Christmas ornaments. I was ecstatic to see my favorite Christmas movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" have it's own Hallmark ornament. I knew right then that would be my ornament for 2010. Last week Kendra and I went out to Hallmark to buy my ornament. I was so disappointed to find out that the Christmas Vacation ones were all sold out. Even the display had already been spoken for. I asked the sweet Hallmark store girls if the other stores had any and they told me that last time they had checked even their ornaments were sold out. Bummer! I guess I would have to choose something else. Then Kendra being the sweet sister that she is, went out and searched another store and found my ornament!! She called to ask if I still wanted it and somehow I missed her call. She went ahead and forked out the $19 and got it for me. Yay! Thank you Kenny!

I got my cool ornament and hung it on my tree. It's so awesome. Here is a picture:

Notice Silas' little pudgy hand in the picture? Well that's where my story starts. The kids loved the fact that when you pressed a tiny button on the front of the house, the ornament plays "Hallelujah" and the house lights up with little tiny lights. The morning after I hung this baby on my tree I hear "Hallelujah" playing and knew someone was playing with it. Then Silas comes walking up and says "Here Mommy! I took this off for you!" - there lying in his little hand was none other that Clark W. Griswold, missing his shoes and holding a strand of lights! Waaaaahhhhh!! I wanted to cry. I took the little man and put the ornament and him back on the tree thinking I would glue it right away. Wrong. I somehow forgot and later that day when I went to glue Mr. Griswold back to the house much to my surprise he was MIA. I think he's lost somewhere in the tree. I have looked all in the tree, shook it, checked the floor, checked the tree skirt....everything. Nope. Still no tiny Clark. How sad. I guess the ornament will always have a special story for years to come...lol.

Here she is lit up! Beautiful.

And this is where he stood. Notice the little shoes still stuck in the snow. RIP Clark.

Oh those sweet children of mine!

S - I want my sippy cup!
JC - Here you go little buddy.
Me - JaneClaire, that was so sweet of you to get brother's cup for him, thank you!
JC - And I even got him a pop-tart out of the garbage can this morning when he was hungry!

Me - What did you learn in Bible class yesterday?
Silas - God made animals, the moon, stars and gingerbread houses.

JC - Mom, the computer games are not working!!
Me - Hmm. Oh the computer screen is frozen
JC - *reaches up and touches the screen* "Mom, it's not frozen, it's not even cold!!"

JaneClaire and Silas' Poppy and Mimi bought them an early Christmas present...The Elf on the Shelf (go here if you are not familiar with it. http://www.elfontheshelf.com/home.php )


Our Elf - who JC named Twirly Whirly, appeared on Dec 1st while JC was cleaning her room. She came into the living room and he was sitting on the entertainment center. Her eyes were huge and she asked how he got there. We told her we didn't see anything and she gasped and said "it's magic!". She was extra, extra kind that night. She even picked up Silas' toys for him. At bedtime she told everyone to keep quiet and whisper because Twirly Whirly would tell Santa if anyone was loud. The next morning she woke up while I was taking a shower and said she was going to check out the living room for a minute. She came back and said "You won't believe this!! TW is on the lamp looking at me!!" haha it was hilarious. She had to show me...when I went out to look I made the statement that TW was sooo silly. She said "Mom, he isn't silly, I love that little elf! She went over and said “Twirly Whirly you aren't silly. I love your big blue eyes!!" She's been talking non-stop about him. Silas on the other hand hasn't paid much attention to him. Twirly Whirly has been moving from place to place every morning...he's been in the Christmas tree, in the stockings, hanging on the door knob, hanging on the advent calendar, sitting in the hurricane globe on the mantel. That little elf sure gets around!!

And lastly.

This past week has been very tiring for me. Silas started running a fever on Wednesday night after church and lasted until Saturday morning. I am already having problems falling asleep and staying asleep due to a growing Rossin in my belly. Silas has been keeping me up all hours of the night tossing, crying and burning up. I swear I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep total the last week. It's miserable and needless to say, Mom here has been a little on the grumpy side. My patience has been wearing thin and I knew it when...

after about the nine hundredth time of hearing "Mom, Mom, Mommy, I need this, help, Mommy, Momma, would you do this, I'm hungry, please, Mommy, I'm thirsty, I want this, I want you, hold me, Mommmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyy, Silas hit me with his purse, Mommmm!

I came into the bedroom and plopped myself on the bed and shouted. "That's it! I'm changing my name!!" - at the same time thinking "Now I know what my mom meant all those times she threatened to change her name." Mom, I love you. Thank you for not changing your name even though you probably needed it. And I now know EXACTLY what you mean!!

JC heard me and came running. "Mommy, please don't change your name! I don't want another Mommy and I love your name. I don't know what I would call you if you weren't Mommy! Maybe I would call you Candy? But I don't like Candy, I like you as Mommy!"

hahaha

And I'm back to being Mommy.

6 Months

Here I am. 6 months pregnant with Rossin Dean. And this is when it starts getting uncomfortable...

Wonder what this little guy will look like. I'm guessing bald and blue eyed to start with. And later will come the curly locks of blond hair :)

Thanksgiving

This year just like every year, we went to celebrate Thanksgiving with my parents. We usually split the day up and do lunch with my family and dinner with Andrew's family. Unfortunately, Andrew's family are still in Mass and won't be home for another week or so.

We arrived around 11:30 to help with any last minute cooking. I brought my deviled eggs, green bean casserole and white chocolate, cranberry cookies (which were amazing I must say!). Most of the food was already cooked but I did help warm up a few things they had prepared the night before. There were sooo many yummy foods to choose from...turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, corn, pinto beans, pineapple casserole, mashed potatoes, pinto beans...
and then the desserts...coconut cake, pecan tassies, chocolate cake, pumpkin cheesecake pie.

This year before we blessed the food and ate my Mom asked everyone to go around and list something they were thankful for. My Mom started and of course broke down and cried some...poor Mom can't get through anything without crying now days. I'm sure I will be like that when I hit her age (love you Mom!). Most everyone said they were thankful for family, health, our homes, our salvation...and so on. But when we got to little Silas he had something else in mind. "Silas, what are you thankful for?" With his little head down and arms folded he looked up a little and in a tiny voice said, "I thankful for flowers and Kindergarten!" It was hilarious and of course no one had a straight face. I'm not sure where Kindergarten came from...totally threw me for a loop. I thought it was too cute and I plan on making it a tradition to asks my kids every year what they are thankful for.

Back to the food. I have been looking forward to pigging out on Turkey Day for quite a while now. The last few months of pregnancy have brought on the cravings...and those cravings have been Thanksgiving type foods (turkey, casseroles...etc) and party foods (like they serve at Christmas functions...dips and finger foods). I was ready to dive in! I got me a nice big plate loaded with food. I thought "this will be my first trip...I'll be back later". I sat down and started chowing. Sooooo good I must say. Sadly after about half the food was gone my stomach was full and I couldn't even finish my plate. Thanks Baby Rossin for taking up so much room that I could not enjoy a delicious, WHOLE plate of food. I've been looking to it for so long....what a let down :) haha. And I must mention I didn't even have room for dessert. And I always have room for some kind of chocolate. I did manage to eat some leftovers that night and the next day. I love holiday leftovers.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope you did too!!

And next is my favorite time of the year....Christmas!!! I have finished all my shopping (whoopee!), our tree is going up tonight, planning on sending Christmas cards out later this week and the Lamica calendar is already filling up with Christmas parties and Holiday functions. So exciting!!

JC being a teacher.

Last night on the car ride to church, JC was sitting in the backseat giving Silas a lesson on words. She would say a word and then ask Silas to repeat it.

"Say dog"
"Dog"
"Say moon"
"Noon"
"Say pool"
"Fool"
"Not fool, pool" - Silas has issues with his Ps

This went on for quite a while. I just smiled and listened.

"Say Chimpanee"
"Chimfanee"
"That's very good little buddy! A chimpanee is kind of like a gorilla and a monkey."
"Ohhh. That was easy"

:) I could listen to their little conversations all day. Never fails to entertain me.

Oh that Silas.

See this little guy? He's pretty cute isn't he?

But sometimes....sometimes he can wear his Momma out.

Last Sunday at church while the Lord's Supper tray was going around and there was silence.

In a very loud voice. "What's that Momma?"

Whispering. "It's a cracker....shhhh."

Loud. "MMmmmmm. That looks good!"

And here comes the juice tray.

Loud. "What's that Momma?"

Whispering. "It's juice....shhhh."

Loud. "MMmmmmm. That looks good!"

This Sunday. Same time. Lord's Supper. I'm thinking to myself..."here we go again"

Loud. "What's that smell?"

Whispering. "I don't know....shhhh."

Loud. "I smell dog poop! It's dog poop! Kia pooped!!" - Kia is Mimi's dog.

I wanted to crawl under the pew.

Join us at a nearby pew. You never know what you'll hear.

My little joys.

I bought the new baby a cradle this week. I find something like this in it almost every morning :)



JC asked me to wrap her up "like when you have a tiny baby and you wrap them tight in a blanket". Silas of course had to join in. He changed his mind quickly.




‎"Mommy, I picked this for you cause I know that the new baby is making you sick and I want you to feel better" - I want another one just like her :)




He was trying to get the last drop :)

Silas was helping me tag clothes for the kids sale. I thought he looked like a little hobo living in his box. haha. The hat was from last year and as you can tell his head is still growing. That boy has a big head!! And yes, I promise I dress my kids. Silas is going through this stage where he loves to be naked. It drives me crazy!

JC was at her soccer game and was sitting, waiting for the coach to put her in. I looked down to see her casually putting on my lipstick. She is such a girly girl! :)

Superman Silas

Superwoman JaneClaire