Our Gingerbread House

Finally, I am showing off our gingerbread house!

No, this is not it. This is Kyle and Evan circa 1989ish. They are posing next to the gingerbread house that Jana had made of the house they live in. Not only is it freaking fabulous, but look at how much Julia looks like Evan!!!!

Evan has been helping his mom make gingerbread house since he was Julia's age. He's helped her bake, cut, ice and decorate. So, when it occurred to us that we'd have to make our own this year, Evan wasn't worried at all. He's old hat when it comes to gingerbread construction. That's why I keep him around, people.


Okay, now on to our house this year, first I want to show you this picture.

This is a picture of Evan's grandpa in front of the family's grocery store around 1941. It's a well known picture in the family and I stinking love it since it has Grandpa in his Army uniform. We decided that this was the house we wanted to make as a gingerbread house after I found some plans for a country store online. We modified the plans (and by we, I mean Evan) and started baking the gingerbread.

First we started by putting the sides of the house together. (This picture courtesy of Miss Elisabeth)

Evan did most of the constructing. I was very frustrated with this part, but he didn't mind it at all, due to the years of expertise.


My little Star Wars helper. She'll be able to build her own three dimensional houses by like next year.

Evan is now constructing the posts to hold the porch roof up. It was his idea. I didn't even think about that. I either would have let the roof fall or not put one up. I'm going to keep him. I like him.


We let the sides dry overnight, and then Evan started putting the roof on. I took pictures and yapped his ears off. I was super helpful.



The posts. Okay, see how important they are? Evan is a smarty pants.



Here's where I become important!!! I am icing the roof so that I can start decorating the house. This is not Evan's part. He just eats candy and bugs me.


I decided to crush candy canes and use them as my roof decoration. Elisabeth helped me sprinkle them on. She also requested a gingerbread girl be next to the stack of fire wood so it'd look like she needed some for the fire inside.



And here's Gingerbread Grandpa. Sitting on the front porch just like in the original picture.


We were very pleased with our first house. We decided that as long as we make them together as a team we will continue to make them since the parts I hate he doesn't mind doing and vice versa.

It's all about compromise. We will stay married forever because we compromise on gingerbread house construction.

Surprise!!!

We had a surprise for Elisabeth. A kind of early Christmas present. Last night, Evan went to go pick it up.
This was Elisabeth's face when she saw what it was. She was beyond surprised.

For you see, Evan had gone to the airport to pick up his mom.

She'd decided to come visit us before Christmas. She will staying with us until Christmas Eve morning. Unfortunately, Keith could not make it.

Julia was asleep last night when Jana got in, so she was surprised this morning. Her face was not exactly happy, because she's a baby Scrooge, but she definitely warmed up to her Nina in no time flat.

Oh, and her are her baby toenails that I painted and that she cried about. Such a baby.

Seeing Santa

Last Sunday we went to see Santa. We decided to go visit the Santa at the mall,put on our Christmas best and ventured out. There wasn't too much of a line--I'd say we were in and out in 40 minutes, tops--so Evan and I took turns standing in line and following Julia as she wandered the mall.

Elisabeth takes seeing Santa very seriously. She has always loved the man, and this year, she had some questions for him. The two most consistent questions that she kept coming up with were: 1.Was she on the nice list? and 2.Is Rudolph real?

Now, I know that we don't have very many years left where she believes. I know that soon, she'll outgrow her undoubting ability to "know" that all things mythical are real. And I dread that day. You see, Elisabeth makes all this fun. She does. She is so sweet in her love of Santa that I don't want her to ever stop believing. One year, she decided that Santa might be tired of having just cookies, so we left him some veggies too (along with the carrots we must ALWAYS leave for the reindeer). Sometimes she'll write him letters and always asks how he is doing. One year she gave him some ideas so he could pick the presents that would be easier for him to make. This year she was concerned about how Santa was getting paid. She's asked him before about his elves and if they get days off. The girl is a Santa advocate, I tell you!

This week, Elisabeth came home from school very troubled. You see, there is a girl in her class who doesn't believe in Santa, and two of Elisabeth's friends were giving this girl a hard time and telling her she had to believe in Santa. This really bothered Elisabeth. We have told her that not everyone celebrates Christmas, so those people don't believe in Santa. Or that some people have different holidays and so Santa doesn't visit them because they have different traditions and customs. She is very interested in Hanukkah and we will probably have to study up on it since she asked if next year we can play the dreidel game and have those pretty candles. I said sure, and now I'm going to have to take a crash course in Judaism so that I can answer all of her millions of questions. (She has also asked when it'll be our turn to be Jewish!) Anyway, Elisabeth went up to her non-believing friend and told her that it was okay that she didn't believe because everyone believes in different things. She felt proud that she helped her friend feel better. As Evan pointed out, it probably didn't occur to Elisabeth that her friend had just outgrown believing in Santa, she probably thinks that her friend has a different religion or tradition. I just love that girl.

So, here we are waiting for Santa.

Here Elisabeth is asking me questions.

I caught her talking on her "phone". I swear my children spend more time on their fake phones then I do on my real one.

Julia in her gingerbread dress.

Julia was shaking this gate like a prisoner in jail.

After she delicately put her foot between the posts, she put her hand in and ate some of the fake snow. It super grossed out the photographer.





Getting bored.

She loves to share her pacifier.

We're next!!!!

She's so excited.

They would not allow us to take any personal camera pictures of the kids with Santa. I almost rebelled, but didn't want to spoil my kids' Santa visit by having their mom hauled off by security. Plus, the "elf" and the photographer were totally eyeballing me to see if I put my camera away since I was taking millions of pictures while we waited.

Needless to say, Julia freaked the eff out when we put her down on Santa's lap. She did not want anything to do with that. Once we gave her back her pacifier, she quit crying but was giving Santa the stink eye, so we took her away so Ebeth could have some alone time with Mr. Claus. She asked him about Rudolph and that Santa was so flipping fantastic. He sat and talked to her about it and told her that the song about Rudolph was written in the 1940s when someone finally spotted him and found out about his story. Elisabeth was beaming when she walked away from Santa. It made my heart sing.

Broken.

One of Evan's friends commented on his wall on Facebook, that it seems like we've had a lot of hardships these past few days.

Um...no crap.

Let's start with Friday.

Friday, at around 2:45, I am sitting on the couch crocheting, with my lovely cat Roosevelt sitting next to me, wondering when my baby is going to wake up. We're supposed to leave in 15 minutes to pick Elisabeth up from school. Roosevelt, who'd been in a deep, kitty cat sleep, suddenly bolts upright and starts looking around like he can hear something. I listen, and hear something that sounds like my washer. Stupid cat, I'm just doing laundry. Then I remember--I haven't touched the laundry at all that day. Then I think, hm...must be a street cleaner. But that's dumb, because they don't clean the streets with water. So, I start to go to the dining room window to see where the noise is coming from outside. As I pass the open basement door, I realize that noise is much louder IN THE BASEMENT. I run downstairs to see what can only be described as an indoor waterfall that has sprouted from the corner of my basement's ceiling. I say a few choice swear words and frantically look around to see how deep the water is and what it's going to ruin. I start pushing boxes as far from the water as possible and fly upstairs to call Evan while screaming at the cats to quit trying to kill me by running in front of my feet.

I call Evan and start yelling insanely into the phone that there's a flood in our basement, that a pipe has burst, that the water is going to ruin my things, etc., etc. Evan asks if I've turned off the water. No. That would be smart. I am not smart, I am frantic. He tells me to look for a red knob and to turn it off. I walk over to Basement Falls and cry out, "There are no red knobs. Just yellow ones!!" Evan tells me it doesn't matter what color they are, turn them off. (Remember, not smart, just frantic). I turn both knobs and the water magically stops gushing. There is much happiness. Evan tells me he is on his way home, to call our landlord and let him know what's up, and to make sure everything important is out of the water's way.

I call the lovely parents of one of Ebeth's friends to ask them to bring her home from school for me and start making phone calls. I go to wash my hands and realize that we have no water. (Duh. I know. I turned it off. Not smart.) So, I start calling plumbers. Did you know plumbers are expensive? Did you know that plumbers charge overtime when you have an emergency that takes place on a Friday afternoon? Yeah, well, I sure didn't and about crapped my pants when I heard some of their hourly charges for coming to my house to give me water. Holy cow. So, I book an appointment with one of them (who said they wouldn't be there till midnight. Ugh.) and I accost Evan as soon as he walks in the door about what the bill will be. He grumbles and makes his way into the basement. I am bemoaning the fact that I can't wash my hands, use the toilet or shower, when Evan asks if I turned both knobs off in the basement. Yes! Of course. Well, you see, I only needed to turn off the one connected to the burst pipe. Which happened to be the sprinkler system's pipe. Which means I did not need to turn off the water to the house. Listen, I am no plumber. If I were, we'd have nicer things because I would be making TONS OF MONEY ON OVERTIME. So, I call the emergency plumbers and cancel my expensive appointment. We no longer have an emergency.

Evan begins cleaning up the mess in the basement and I start trying to find someone with a shopvac so we can clean up the puddles as to avoid our house smelling of mold. That's when I hear yelling and lots of bad words. I immediately think that Evan has been attacked by some evil monster (still in flight or fight mode, people) and run to the basement. Evan is all sorts of red in the face from anger. "What's wrong?" He dropped his phone. Face first. Into the puddle of water. His phone is a blackberry. Awesome. Evan never drops his phone. That's usually something that I excel in.

So, we rush to take his phone apart and start blow drying it. Poor Elisabeth and Julia are fending for themselves with Sesame Street playing in the background and crackers being thrown to them to keep them quiet. We read on line that Evan should put the pieces of his phone in rice to dry it out. Evan does so and declares it will sit there for 48 hours. So be it.

We end up finding someone with a shopvac (the same people who picked Ebeth up from school) (they are totally getting a thank you note with a tin of cookies) and get the mess cleaned up.

Saturday and Sunday are spent with little to no drama. I am sick out of my mind on Sunday and we also end up visiting Santa. Nothing too drastic.

Monday, Evan is sick. Sorry, Evan.

Yesterday. Oh, yesterday. It started off normal. Julia and I ran errands all day. We picked Ebeth up from school. We came home and the girls were watching tv and playing with the cats. I called Evan to find out when he's coming home so I can start supper. I am putting away the clean dishes, when I hear a THUD and Julia starts crying. Ebeth says she rolled off the couch. I go to pick her up and Julia is hysterical. She's crying much harder than normal. I check her over and see nothing out of place. I cuddle her on the couch and she starts making these weird crying sounds whenever I touch her right forearm. I call Evan. I tell him I think something is wrong with Julia's arm, that she won't stop crying and that her cry isn't the normal "Julia-is-a-whiny-baby" cry. He tells me if I'm worried to take her to the ER. I give it a few more minutes, but then Julia is holding her right arm to her. I decide to take her in.

So, we travel to the ER, and Elisabeth is quizzing me on if she gets to sign Julia's cast if her arm is broken. I tell Elisabeth not to broadcast to the whole waiting room that Julia may have broken her arm. Seriously, the girl did not look like it was broken. She was moving it just fine and was running around the waiting room giggling. Nice.

We get her in, Julia screams and cries whenever a nurse comes anywhere near her, and finally the doctor looks her over. She says that Julia seems to be okay, but because she's so young and can't talk, she wants Julia to get some x-rays. Evan goes with her to get the x-rays (which Julia did NOT enjoy, in case you were wondering) and the doctor comes back to say that, yes, Julia did break her arm. Right above her wrist. They tell us she'll need to get a cast at the orthopedic office the next day, but they'll put her in a splint for now.

And here she is last night...




The poor, poor baby. :(

I took her in today, and they did more x-rays (still didn't like them). Instead of a cast, they gave her a brace to wear for 3 weeks. She should heal just fine, since she's just a baby and their bones are better at healing. She's doing much, much better than we thought she would be. She slept well last night and is currently taking her long afternoon nap.

If things could stop breaking until after Christmas, that would be fabulous. Thanks.

Saucy Mommies

Remember when I first moved out here to Colorado and I was so sad and lonely?

Well, that is no more! I would now like to rant and rave about the mommy group I found. We have been living out here for 7 months now and I have to tell you, without this group, I would have run away a long time ago.

The group of moms is very diverse, but most of us are military wives. Not something that the group set out looking for, but we've all seemed to find each other. Some of the moms are new to the military (like yours truly) and others are old hat. We've all got kids around Julia's age (I have the oldest kid in the group, even though there are moms 10 years older then me!). And I just love them. I've been to new places because of this group (Lil' Biggs, Fargo Pizza Factory, Little Monkey Bizness, Rock Bottom!) and have made friends in my neighborhood. Ugh, I just stinking love the group!

Last week we went to Lil Biggs again. It's so nice going as soon as they open, because there are no grade school kids, so the babies can just roam as much as they want.
Julia enjoys anything that has a steering wheel.


She also loves the slide.







Again with the steering wheels. This is also the first time she ever said Beep!Beep! Most exciting.


She was a fan of the grocery cart.

And the girl LOVES LOVES LOVES to play basketball.



Today we went over to one of the other mom's houses for a cookie exchange. Yummers!
This is Julia's "I don't know where it is" face. It's one of my favorite faces.

Whatever she was looking for she found, and bossily pointed for me to get it.

I told her to get down and do it.


The best part of the group is that Julia gets to play with other kids.




Even though she outweighs every one by 1,000 pounds.

It's a tradition!

It all started with Elisabeth and these jammies.

She received them as a present from Evan's best friend, Andy, when Elisabeth was fresh from the hospital. I'm sure he wasn't thinking about starting a new holiday tradition for my child. I'm sure he was thinking that he shouldn't show up to see the new baby without a gift. He knows proper etiquette. So, he picked up some Christmas jammies and came to visit.

Well, I decided that she should have new Christmas Eve pajamas every year. So, I'd go out and purchase some new ones and make a giant deal about how she couldn't wear them until Christmas Eve. I have a habit of making big deals about silly things. Remind me to tell you about St. Patrick's Day some time. (Ugh.)

So, Elisabeth has been bugging me about when I'll be buying her Christmas Eve jammies. She's concerned that I'll forget. Or the stores will run out. And don't forget that Julia needs them too. (See? You make a few forgetful mistakes, and all of a sudden your 7 year old becomes worried you'll forget other things.) (Oh, and I totally remembered to take the trash to the curb today. Please hold your applause).

Well, no worries, Ebeth! Julia and I ventured out to Old Navy today and I bought Christmas Eve pajamas! So, now the girls will be ready to leave out milk and cookies for Santa in the newest of new nighttime apparel!

Here are some pictures of Christmas Eve pajamas from years past!

Elisabeth 2005

Elisabeth 2006

Elisabeth 2007

Elisabeth and Julia 2008