The travel gods

Yes they have it out for us....those darn travel gods. Either that or someone has a travel voodoo curse out on us. I'm just sure of it.

If you're not convinced, here's a few to persuade you:

1. Bandit running away when we went to Europe (Summer 2004)

2. Bandit running away when we took him to Kentucky (Dec. 2004)

3. Running into ice on our first road trip to Kentucky...took 3 days instead of 2 and missed Christmas Eve with the family (Dec. 2004)

4. Missed our flight cut off time at the curb side check-in by 5 minutes and they wouldn't let us check in even though the flight hadn't left (and we waited over an hour) and stuck in the airport with a 15 mo. old (Nolan) for 12 hours (Dec. 2006)

5. Flight canceled coming back from Folly Beach, SC and had to stay an extra night and leave at 4 a.m. and missed a day of mandatory training for my work.

And, that's just a few...not all of them!  This year, we had the bags packed, ate a leisurely breakfast - it was wonderful! Campbell wouldn't touch his banana which he usually eats in .95 seconds on any other normal day. Then he wouldn't stop drinking his milk...I means two cups of milk. That should have been my first clue but I was just in my 'let's make sure we catch the plane' mode so I just gave him a huge bowl of blueberries. Our neighbor graciously drove us to the airport in our van so we wouldn't have to worry about parking, etc. We left three hours early (lesson learned from Christmas 2006). We're about 3/4 of the way there when Campbell spits up a little bit...weird since he's outgrown that stage, but no big deal. Well, moments later it's followed by a huge finale of breakfast...blueberries and all! We pull into the closest gas station and strip him in the parking lot.

Pop Quiz: Who are you feeling most sorry for now? 

A. Me as I'm the one cleaning down the screaming toddler in the filthy bathroom with no soap or paper towels after carrying him in the freezing cold to the bathroom in just his diaper.

B. Justin as he's the one trying to hose down the car seat in the gas station parking lot only to find out that the hose is frozen and has to walk down to a tire and lube station to use their hose while it splatters all over his shoes and pants.

C. Our neighbor who is completely second-guessing his choice to be neighborly and give us a "quick" ride to the airport?

D. All of the above

If you answered "D"...all of the above, you passed the quiz. Thank goodness we had a suitcase full of spare clothes and changed him in a jiffy. Since the car seat was soaked and had seen better days we had to get the airport fast but couldn't put him back in the drenched seat. So Justin drove super cautiously as I buckled both of us in...it's not like we carry a spare car seat! It was only about a 5-10 minute drive but a very nervous and windy one since the windows were down.

Thankfully that was the most eventful thing that happened. I think I might have prayed, "Please God don't let him throw up on the plane," at least 50 times before we boarded. Apparently, it worked! Every gurgle and cough made me a nervous wreck though. When we arrived, we definitely gave everyone a hug from a distance.

I feel just awful that our neighbor had to endure not only that but then DRIVE our car home! He was so nice and he's a marine and said that he's seen worse but I'm not so sure...

God is great

I wish that I could just put him in a bottle and save him at this stage (well most of the time). Look at those chubby little "pray hands." God is truly great!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I told Nolan the other day that we get to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus soon and he said ever so excited, "Is He going to be at our house?" Then I came with my head full of wisdom (or so I thought) and said, "No honey, he's in heaven but He's going to be in our hearts." Nolan responds and says, "He already is, mommy." Who's supposed to be teaching who again?

Then he proceeded to tell me how Jesus is in the bones of his heart. That made me feel a little better.

Family photo shoot

Usually when I have a brilliant idea to take family pictures or even pictures of the boys, it involves taking about least 30-50 photos (possibly more) to get a decent one of all of us. Couple weeks back I wanted to get a family photo of all of us to put in our Christmas card. I was preparing mentally for the beat down that was about to begin but as I've learned in the past, beat downs are just part of this stage with young kiddos.

We get the tripod set up and for the first time in history, we got "the" shot on the first try! Justin and I couldn't believe it. What are the chances? Campbell's not smiling but who cares...everyone is looking at the camera! Do you know how hard that is? Last year Justin had to photoshop Nolan's head from another photo because we just couldn't get everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

Then Campbell started having a ball with the camera...he's discovered the digital camera. He would pose and then run to the camera to see his picture and it worked! He kept wanting to take more pictures! So just for fun (really it was fun!) we took some more photos of the boys. These are a few of my favorites. Nolan is really into this photography stage now and took a lot of these shots. Not too bad for a 4 year old. He's getting a kid camera this Christmas and we can't wait for him to play with it.

Nolan took this one!

We are Santa's Elves

Ho ho ho
Ho ho ho
We are Santa's elves.

We are Santa's elves
Filling Santa's shelves
With a toy
For each girl and boy.

I could recite the entire song for you maybe even when a little dance but I'll spare you the agony. If you're a parent of a 4 year old you know this song by heart. I'm referring to the soundtrack from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer...you know the claymation from 1964? What a classic. It's one of the many movies in our holiday collection.

Let's back up...so I must admit that I've begun a little obsession in our son. I'm not sure if it was when we elfed ourselves or if it was Pickles from Elf on the Shelf but something definitely started Nolan's love with elves this year. He kept telling me that he wanted to be an elf for Christmas but I just shrugged it off kind of when he said he wanted to be Wolverine for the Christmas pageant, but this time he wouldn't let it go. So I casually mentioned it to my mom. Well when it comes to costumes, nothing is casual in conversation with my mother. She loves any opportunity to work on a costume for the kids. I mean look at their costumes from the Christmas pageant! She ran all over town and pieced together this costume. Nolan went nuts for it and I mean literally he went a little crazy. So far we've worn it for 5 days straight. Don't worry, I got a washing in there somewhere when he spilled yogurt on it (with a little meltdown, of course). As soon as he put it on we were in the car and he started making DJ requests immediately for We are Santa's Elves and he was singing that and Have a Holly Jolly Christmas at the top of his lungs. It was really hard for me not to die laughing. He is #1 when it comes to having Christmas spirit.

He even wore it to church on Sunday after he swore he would be so good in it. Everyone asked if there was a Christmas program at church that morning. Nope, he just likes to dress up like an elf!

We went to visit Justin at lunch today and he said on the way, "I think Daddy's friends are going like my costume." Well they loved it. All these people at Alcon were stopping and taking his picture. It reminded me of the movie Elf when Will Ferrell visits his dad at work and he thinks he's there to give him a Christmas gram.

But the ultimate is when he said with such sincerity, "I've always wanted to be an elf for Christmas. I love Grandma." Now if we can only get him to put it away after Christmas...

Rudolph cupcakes

es, We're on a roll...a cupcake roll that is. Minus the baseball birthday cupcakes, I'm on my way to redeem myself with the past two attempts to make adorable cupcakes (spider cupcakes at Halloween). These are the recent ones we made for Nolan's Christmas party at school. Almost too cute to eat, right? Almost.

They call me the fireman