Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

12 dinner items
11 soupy spoonfuls
10 secret weapons
9 different cookies
8 Muppet carols
7 fresh tortillas
6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


Tonight was our Christmas feast.  And it was delicious!  The meal consisted of twelve different food items:

1). Cheese ball
2), 3), 4). Three kinds of crackers (Club, Ritz, and Wheat Thin)
5). Festive punch
6). Monterrey Jack potatoes
7). Butternut squash
8). Fresh pineapple
9). Oven-hot rolls
10). Stuffing
11). Spiral-cut ham
12). Cheesecake

I love Christmas Eve.  Every year I flip flop on which is my favorite day of the year: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  The Eve was pretty amazing this year, so the day is really going to have to bring it.

Merry Christmas, world!

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

11 soupy spoonfuls
10 secret weapons
9 different cookies
8 Muppet carols
7 fresh tortillas
6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


The eleventh day of Christmas was a group effort.  Lewis, his mom, and I were all searching for something that would work.  I thought we had it in the bag when I counted eleven ingredients on a scrumptious bag of pistachios - but I miscounted and there were only ten.  Because day eleven has practically just fallen into my hands the past two years, I took it for granted that I would be able to find something that I didn't even think about it until about seven o'clock tonight.

We were helping Lewis' parents with a project, so they provided dinner for us in the form of leftover taco soup.  I very carefully polished my portion off in eleven (rather large) spoonfuls.  Boo-ya.

Eleven is hard!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Tenth Day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

10 secret weapons
9 different cookies
8 Muppet carols
7 fresh tortillas
6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


All of my nieces, nephews, and brothers-in-law (ten people in total) on Lewis' side will be receiving the same gift for Christmas.  We made those gifts today...

And they are awesome.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Ninth Day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

9 different cookies
8 Muppet carols
7 fresh tortillas
6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!

The Geneva, the Pirouette, the Brussels (my favorite of the bunch), the Milano, the Orleans, the Lido, the Bordeaux (runner-up), the Chessmen (honorable mention), and the Lisbon.
It was eight o'clock at night, we were in Park City, and I had no idea of what to do for the ninth day of Christmas.  Lewis' parents needed to stop by Walmart to get some supplies for breakfast tomorrow, so we decided to see what we could see.

There are lots of food items that come in quantities of eight or twelve or even ten.  Tim Tams come in quantities of eleven (which you might already know, especially if you have followed my blog for an extended period of time).  But nine?  Not so much.

Thanks to my mother-in-law's keen eye, we discovered that Pepperidge Farm sells a box of cookies that includes nine different varieties.

Perfect!  Thanks, Pepperidge Farm.

Another day of Christmas fulfilled in the nick of time.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Eighth Day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

8 Muppet carols
7 fresh tortillas
6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


Lewis is so sweet.  He always makes sure I have my day of Christmas.

We had a plan for the eighth day, but after running around all over Utah county, we didn't get around to it.  On the way home from Orem, we were listening to the soundtrack from A Muppet Christmas Carol.  By the time we got home, we had listened to eleven of the songs on the CD: two instrumental, one sung by a human, and eight sung exclusively by Muppets.

Lewis had already done the math and shut off the music at strategic times during the last song to conversate with me, ensuring that we didn't get to track twelve and that I had my eighth day.

Love that guy.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Toofs

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you the following news.

Jack is something of a... chomper.  He chomps.  I have been so grateful that he's a little gummy newborn with no sharp ivories poking out of his precious drooly mouth.

Due to this bitey pastime of his, I felt confident that karma would smile down on me and he would be a late bloomer in the masticatory department.  I was sure the average tooth growing age of six months wouldn't even be in the question.

Instead of smiling karma, I got Murphy.

Jack is not quite three-and-a-half months of age and he is on the cusp of cutting his first teeth.  You can even see them.  And feel them.  They're are coming.

Ah, well.  And I had such high hopes that his daily soaking of the front of his onesies was just because he... well I don't know what I hoped, just not this.

Jack chews on his hands cause he hasn't figured out how to get a teething ring into his mouth every time.  Also he doesn't have any teething rings.
I don't want to get bit.

The Seventh Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

7 fresh tortillas
6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!

They may not be pretty, but they sure are tasty.

To be the trophy wife that I am, I've developed a fairly complex system of nightly dinners.  Each night has a theme that alliterates with the day of the week it is.  These themes change monthly.  You could say that I have too much time on my hands.

For the month of December, I have been making slow cooker meals on Mondays.  But I forgot to put the stuff in the slow cooker this morning, so we had to do something else.  I have been wanting to make my own tortillas for a while now, but have never gotten around to it.

Tonight was the perfect opportunity.

Let me break it down for you:

Regular store-bought tortillas - good.

Uncooked store-bought tortillas - better.  Since we discovered them we haven't bought the former.

Homemade tortillas - best.

It's always disappointing when a slow cooker meal day doesn't work out cause, well, I know my way around a crock pot.  But tonight's fajitas with these homemade tortillas were money.  The recipe I used made eight tortillas, but I only made seven.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Sixth Day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

6 chumps surviving
5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!

If I was still at BYU, I would take Dawn's class.
Survivor is one of our guilty pleasure shows.  I want to go on it only slightly less than I'd like to be on the Amazing Race.  I think that as a gimmick they should put both Lewis and me on the same season, but we will keep it a secret to everyone else on the show that we are married.  CBS and Survivor are obviously all about the gimmicks, so why not?

Anyway tonight is the finale.  (And don't worry, if you're a fan and you haven't seen it, I won't give anything away.)  I don't really know why I'm watching - I only liked one of the six remaining players, and I don't think that person has a chance.  But I'm watching it anyway.  Because it's the sixth day of Christmas.  And even if it wasn't... I'm hooked so it doesn't matter.

In other news, the sickness that hit the Youngs seems to be finally leaving us.  Jack has definitely been sick today, but he's a trooper and hasn't been too terribly extra fussy.  A little, but he's grinning and cooing at me right now, so any fussiness is forgiven.  Cause srsly.  He's adorable.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Fifth Day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

5 macaronis with cheese!
4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


Monopoly for iPad is available for free today so Lewis and I both got it.  Buuut it kept crashing every time we tried to play against each other over Wi-Fi.  Remembering that it was on sale at Walmart, I suggested that we just go buy the board game and play that.

So we did.  And after an epic, back-and-forth battle lasting a little over the length of the movie "Scrooged," I was victorious thanks to three lands on Free Parking and a well-timed trade.  I ended up with a net value of $20,290, all of the hotels, and all but two of the property sets.

It was awesome.

While we are Walmart we also bought five boxes of macaroni and cheese in preparation for lunches over Christmas break and also to fulfill today's requirement.

Friday, December 16, 2011

The Fourth Day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

4 extra lunch mates
3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


Every Friday Jack and I go and eat lunch with Lewis at his school.  Since today was the last day of school before Christmas break, we stuck around a little longer than usual to enjoy the Christmasy activities that were occurring.

But then my cold took a turn for the worse and we came home.  I've been pretty much worthless since then.  Thank goodness Lewis is home to take care of me now.

Anyway instead of just the three of us, we also had lunch with Lewis' team teacher and her fiance, plus two other teachers.  Merriment and fully bellies were had by all.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Third Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

3 loaves of pumpkin
2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


I made three loaves of pumpkin bread tonight.  I also made nineteen top-secret items for a total of thirty.

I also got a cold.  Imma go to bed.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Second Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

2 paid for dinners
And an off-limits box from Amazon!


Tonight was Lewis' school Christmas choir concert.  Before the concert I grabbed some Subway subs, paid for with a gift card, to be eaten after the concert.

Dinner number one.

Lewis' mom came to the concert.  When it was over she offered to take us to dinner.  Not wanting to deny her time with her cutest grandchild (sorry, Lorien and Monica), we accepted.

Dinner number two.

The subs went in the fridge and the fajitas to my belly.

Hooray for two free dinners!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The First Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

An off-limits box from Amazon!


Well it's that time of year again: The twelve days of Christmas!  I think I may be crazy for doing it again, but here we are.

One of my favorite things is opening packages.  Whenever I come home and see a box on my doorstep I get a little thrill of excitement.  I purposely bought some of Jack's Christmas presents online just so that I could open the packages when they arrived.

But then Lewis had to go and ruin it all by tacking all of my Christmas presents on to that order so that they were all eligible for free shipping.

And of course each of Jack's gifts was packaged with one of mine so I haven't been able to open any of them.

And of course since I work from the home, I've been the one to receive all of the packages.  All four of them that have arrived so far (with one more on the way).

In other news we had a mid-atlantic winter snow storm today (just like the first day of Christmas 2009) and I looked for the fifteen dollar ice cream gift card (from the first day 2010) because I'm not sure we ever spent it.  Connections!

Also to, are there really only twelve days until Christmas?  How did that happen?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

My Kid Could Beat Up Your Kid

My son is insanely talented.

Not only can he roll over in one direction at a mere three months of age, he is even close to mastering the other direction.  Plus he is already smart enough to identify that I am his mom and I am awesome.

Like I said, talented.

Above all that, however, Jack has some kind of sixth sense.  He can always tell when he is alone in a room.

This talent is particularly applicable at nap and bedtime.  We will go through our sleeping routine: Jack gets a story and a song while I rock him.  As he drifts off to sleep, I will place him down in his bassinet and then go about my business.  Sometimes my business keeps me in the room.  More often my business takes me elsewhere in the house.

When I stay in the room, all is well.  Jack sleeps peacefully.  When I leave, however - Jack's sixth sense kicks in and he wakes up and calls out frantically for his mommy-dear.  Usually within two minutes of me leaving.

I must say, this gift of his is severely detrimental to my ability to keep house.

Jack is asleep in this picture because someone is in the room with him taking the picture.
What's amazing to me is how deeply he falls asleep sometimes, but still manages to wake up when I leave.  Sometimes he will fall asleep on my arms when I'm singing to him, deep enough that I can move him all over the place - and not gently, I might add! - without him waking up.  I will even place him in his bassinet and watch him for several minutes to make sure he is really asleep.  Yet he still manages to wake up as soon as I decide it's safe to leave.

In other news, Lewis and I have been quite well-rested recently.  Going to bed at the same time as your three-month-old will do that to you.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Mean Mom

Jack is a mama's boy.

In many ways, I love this.  I adore being the only person he will calm down for when he is crabby.  I cherish the fact that he will fall asleep in my arms after screaming bloody murder for anyone else who comes near him.

Other times it is a little bit trying.  Sometimes it would be nice to get a break from the clinginess.  Also too, I feel bad when he wails and wails with Lewis, but the calms right down for me.  Jack loves his dad, but when he's upset, I am usually the only one that will do.

But with great power comes great responsibility.  Since I am the one who brings comfort to his blessed little heart, any time he gets hurt it is all my fault because I didn't prevent it.

Even if I am no where near him at the time.


Jack was being a sweetie this afternoon, but I was tired and wanted a nap and he was very much awake. So I handed him off to Lewis so that I could get some shut eye.  About fifteen minutes later I hear Jack being wailing and sit up to see Lewis wiping blood from his forehead.  Apparently Jack, who just had his nails trimmed the other day, had scratched himself bad enough to break the skin (I still can't figure out how this happened - none of his nails were nearly sharp enough).

We of course felt the need to cut his nails right away to make sure this wouldn't happen again.  This is a hard enough task when Jack is asleep.  It's near impossible when he is screaming and flailing and arching his back in an all-out melt down.

Eventually we succeeded and I gathered Jack into my arms and held him close, rocking back and forth.  When he's upset like that, I can normally calm him down in about thirty seconds.

Not today.

I spent the next hour rocking him, walking him, bouncing him, singing to him, rubbing his belly, and trying to feed him - a move that until today, always worked in calming him down.

Finally, frustrated, I deposited him into his father's arms with a, "You try something."  Lewis looked at me like I was crazy, but took up the charge with honor, starting by changing Jack's diaper.  After completing that task, the two of them settled down on the couch together.  Jack still had tears flowing, but he was no longer yelling and his breathing was slowing down.  He was finally relaxing after an hour of screaming.

As he calmed, Jack looked across to the other side of the couch, looked me straight in the eye, and glared  like I was the worst mother in the world, making occasional sobs and moans of distress.  He continued giving me this icy stare of betrayal until he fell asleep, hic-sobbing.  He has been sleeping/hic-sobbing ever since.

Luckily for me, Jack lacks a significant amount of long-term memory.

But maybe his dad will now be a suitable source of comfort for the little monkey.  One can only hope.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Jack's New Trick

In just the past few days, Jack has learned and perfected a new trick that I had hopes he would never learn. I knew it was probably inevitable, but I had hoped I might have a little but more time before he learned to do this.  Like was so much simpler without this little maneuver.

Jack has learned how to arch his back.

Technically he's been arching his back since birth, but only when you picked him up when he was asleep.  He would tuck his legs under his bum, pucker up his lips, and stretch his torso, resulting in an arched back. It was adorable.  His sleepy back arch meant that he would be willing to curl up right there in your arms if you let him.  I loved it.

Back before his back-arching days, tantrums were much simpler.

This new back arching?  Not so much.

Jack hates going into his car seat.  I hate it too, but it's a necessary evil.  He has discovered that if he arches his back, it's really hard for Lewis or me to buckle him in and tighten the straps.

After the great success he has had in arching his back while going in his car seat (and by great success, I mean making everyone involved annoyed, including himself), Jack has decided to apply back arching to other situations.  Like when we buckle him into his bouncy chair.  Or on the changing table - that's a particular fun one because he involves his legs.  While we change him, he will arch his back and push off with his feet, launching his head into the barrier at the top of his changing table.  He doesn't have enough power to hurt himself, just enough to make him mad.  He will also usually catch his new diaper with his heel (we've learned to get the dirty diaper out of there as quickly as possible), removing it from where it needs to be.

For Lewis and me, his back arching is mostly just irritating.  It makes seemingly simple tasks take longer, sure, but other than that it's not the end of the world.  For Jack himself, though, it is far worse.  He bumps his head on the changing table, he makes the car seat straps cut into his skin... He's actually mildly hurting himself with this little habit.

So Jack, I ask you... Why?
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