Annual Mardis Pics

As I sift through all of our holiday pictures and reflect on the treasured memories, I thought I would at least share the most recent pictures that Jon so wonderfully agreed to take back in November.  Many of you saw a glimpse of these on the annual Mardis Christmas card.  It is a shame that I couldn't fit more on the card because there are some really cute ones of the kids.  I think these pictures are as close as you get to professional pictures from someone who claims he is not a professional. What a good friend we have indeed.

Jake was not in the best of mood this chilly day as you can tell in some of the pictures. He didn't want to let go of his sippy cup and a CARS theme was not really what I was going for this year. Kate on the otherhand could not be more of a camera hog, which is really cute at 5 :)  As physically exhausting as this age can be, I will always cherish these sweet faces and the genuine look of happiness.  There were so many looks similar to this over the holidays and I treasure each and every moment. 

Thank you again Jon for taking the time to take our pictures! We truly appreciate your ability to capture our kids in the moment. All of your pictures will be treasured forever.

I told you Jake didn't want to let go of his sippy

Steve gets more and more clever each day

I am so bummed that I forgot to capture Steve in his clever hiding spots this week. I at least had to share his overnight spot...I thought Kate was going to explode this morning with excitement! Nice job, Steve!!!  In addition to snacking on peanut butter pretzels, he has been busy reading books, hanging from our lights, and perched high above the room in the most out of reach positions.  Again...nice job little man :)  You bring a smile to our faces every morning.

Sometimes it just isn't in the cards

Ryan and I have been planning our "Date Monday" for several weeks.  We did this several years ago and it was so nice that we decided to make it a yearly event.  Works seems to sometimes get in the way so we haven't had our "Date Monday" for several years but such is life.

This year we were ready.  We both had a scheduled vacation day for the 12th and the kiddos would be in school as planned.  We went to bed Sunday night anticipating our fun date planned for the next day.  I, much more that Ryan, was looking forward to checking many things off my "To Do" list, which seems never ending from October to December.

After a long day at my mom's on Sunday, Kate started to complain that her belly hurt on the way home.  I shrugged this off as her usual tummy ache, which is her ammo to get out of ANYTHING she doesn't want to do.  She says her belly hurts at least 5 times a day...seriously, 5 times a day.  And trust me, we have told the Boy Who Cried Wolf story hundreds of times.  It is a work in progress.

Well, unfortunately, this time the belly ache was the real deal.  The poor girl threw up every 30 minutes from 1:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday.  After the 1st time I thought she may have just had 1 too many cookies...but 15 hours later I knew it was more than a little too much sugar.  I was just extremely thankful that I had made all the cookies myself on Saturday night so none of the nasty germs were spread to my cookie dough.  Needless to say, our "Date Monday" turned into a tag team of running to the bathroom every 30 minutes.  We didn't get to enjoy a long, lingering lunch or the completion of our Christmas shopping as planned, but we still had a nice day.  Jake went to school as planned and the 3 of us hung out on the couch between bathroom sessions.  So far, all is good with the rest of us.  My belly ache can be directly tied to the overindulgence in buckeyes...welcome back Weight Watchers!

I guess this is a lesson learned to get started on the shopping even earlier next year.  Cheers to a household that is filled with energy and laughter again.  Also, thank goodness that the nasty bugs are usually only 24 hours.  I am guessing that I will never get used to the sight of one of your children throwing up.  It is the most pitiful and heartbreaking thing to ever witness.  After a 2 days off school today, she stated, "I have been off so long I don't even know what day it is."  With the return of feeling better is the return of her sense of humor :)  Have a great week.

Annual cookie exchange

After several weeks of searching through my favorite cooking blogs, I found the perfect candy/cookie recipes to take to my moms for the annual cookie exchange. This was always one of my favorite holiday events growing up. I remember gathering at one of my mom's friends house with all the kids and icing hundreds of sugar cookies and rolling thousands of buckeyes.

The event was tiny this year due to so many of the family members being pulled in all directions this holiday season. Regardless of it just being my mom, me and the kids, we still found a way to have fun. The kids and I ventured down to the lake to share in some sweets and nice glass of wine. We rolled buckeyes, smashed toasted pecans in caramels and served up some chocolatey and lemony cookies. My main mission was accomplished...gifts!!!

Here are a handful of pics:

Jake trying to see how many rolos he can fit into his mouth:

Jake and Kate trying to find as many "boo buds" as possible:

Kate relaxing with Meg on the couch:

1/2 way through the project at hand:

Some great packaging I found:

The finished project for the kids teachers/schools. The main gift is the donation but the sweet treats are nice too :)

Ahh...it is starting to come together.  It seems like once I hit my breaking point of stress during the holidays, it starts to come together.  That is exactly where I am now...I hit my breaking point Monday and now it seems to be coming together.

It is starting to look a lot like Christmas

I have so many thoughts I would love to put into words on the blog but I have a work assignment due at 9:00 a.m. and a Pure Barre class at 6:00 a.m. That leaves me very little time for blogging as I need to try and get a little bit of sleep before the busy week ahead. We successfully purchased and decorated the tree this weekend. We capitalized on the beautiful weather Saturday and accomplished a ton of the "to-do's" on our (or mostly my) list. I have been busy organizing the gift giving process and making a few lists on the last few things to buy. The end of the quarter brings a lot of hecticness to my schedule so I try and fit what I can in on the weekend.

Here are some great pics from the weekend. We are finally in the Christmas spirit with our tree fully decorated! There is nothing like the glow ofa Christmas tree to light the house on a dark night! I love this time of year!

Yes, it is 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and Jake is still in his pj's...that makes for a good day :)

Yes...they are kissing the sign.  The happy trees brought out the best in both of them!

He may just be one of the funniest kids alive.  He is all about the reaction as you can tell in the look on his face below.

One of the objectives during this session of Jake's speech therapy is imitation - I think he has that down pat.

One of my favorite pictures of all time.  I love Kate's face...

Can you tell which one just got up from nap?  It wasn't Ryan or Kate.

Where oh where could that silly Steve be?

Steve has been quite the active little elf this past week. He has found his way to the following few places...

1) Penthouse of Kate's doll house

2) Reading a pop-up book or 2 in Jake's room with Slappy the gorilla

3) Caught in the act of toilet papering the tree in our office/living room

4) Enjoying a little gossip time at a midnight tea with a few of his girlfriends. He even got dressed up for the tea party.

5) Enjoying a view from the top of the tree

Kate continues to enjoy every minute of it! She has been amazed at some of his acts, especially getting dressed up. We can't wait to see what he gets in to this week.

Teaching gratefulness and being grateful

Over the weekend I read a hundred different blogs, outlining so much of what other people are grateful for at this time of Thanksgiving.  I had plenty of time to blog myself over the weekend; however, I could never seem to find the right words to express my gratitude for all the good in my life.  What I came to realize after a very fulfilling weekend is that sometimes you have to take a step back and look in the mirror and "really" reflect.  I could have posted a very loving blog entry, outlining all the good; however, truth be told, I have actually been in quite the "funk" lately.  I am not sure where it is stemming from other than the fact that at times, having a high maintenance 5 year old and a 20 month old that is expressing his feelings in every way but words, can be very challenging and quite exhausting.  Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it and cherish the chaos, but I am also human and reflecting back, I just hit the point that I needed a break and haven't had the courage to ask for it.  

In this time of self pity (I promise it was only 2 weeks), I had a hysterical conversation with one of my best friends, Sarah.  We spent 15 minutes during her planning hour (good use of a planning hour if you ask me) sharing the similarities in our challenges (our kiddos are the exact same ages) and laughing at our desire to do it all despite knowing our limitations.  That is quite the combination that makes us who we are...successful professionals who try their hardest to balance the life of a working mom.  90% of the time is a GREAT...the other 10%...exhausting; I mean, tear producing exhaustion.  Having just gone through this mentally tough few weeks, I came out of it being even more grateful than ever before.
Having the extra time to reflect this past week allowed me to come full circle on my funk.  Per Sarah's recommendation, I am taking 10 minutes every day to write down all that I am grateful for - with the kicker being that it has to be something new each day.  Needless to say, I am extremely grateful for everything and I have several little note pads to prove it.  In place of writing it all down again, I will highlight just a few of my most grateful things captured in the pictures below.

1) A little girl who lights up at any moment her mommy walks into the room (we are going through an extreme phase of mommy's girl and daddy's boy...big time)

2) A mother-in-law who was sweet enough to save some of Ryan's favorite things as a kid - a Pulaski County t-shirt with "RYAN" on the back and a sticker book that still smells tops the list

3) A little boy who now understands the word "cheese" as in take a picture, "cheese".  This is his new camera face and it makes me smile just thinking about it.

4) A family who doesn't require fancy china at the non-traditional Thanksgiving lunch of country ham, rolls, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, broccoli casserole, apple pie and banana pudding

5) Playmates...ahh...15 minutes of peace to get the casseroles in the oven on Thanksgiving morning

6) My kitchen helper; really, there is nothing better than her sitting on the counter keeping me company

7) Our sweet boys doing what they do best at 12 years old

 8) 3+ hours worth of screaming and laughter from 4 beautiful cousins

9) A date with my husband to the UK vs UT football game on Saturday (and a mother-in-law nice enough to make a day trip in).  A few beers during tailgating, a bourbon drink during the game, 2 free seats in the upper section of Commonwealth Stadium, 64 degrees and sunny on a beautiful November day, 5 peaceful hours with only my husband...and a 26 year losing streak finally broken!  Go CATS!

10) My family.  As exhausting as it can be, there is no better words than "my family".  Ryan, Kate, and Jake - I love you all more than you will ever know! 
P.S. - A lazy Sunday morning in our pj's until noon to show off a pair of fat baby legs in a diaper.

So with all this said, we have had a handful of lessons on what it means to be grateful this week.  The best full circle moment of parenthood has been the following:

In order to teach a life lesson, you must first understand and exhibit the qualities yourself.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and thank you Sarah for our brief but impactful conversation!