Christmas

to whomever is handing out the 'mother-of-the-year' award for 2007, i respectfully remove my name from the running. christmas day was SO insane i actually forgot to take a photo of either one of my children. mind you, we have a digital, 35mm AND a video camera... all were charged and ready to go. talk about feeling horrible. i mean what mother doesn't photograph her child's first christmas? ugh! perhaps this weekend i'll dress them both up in their christmas outfits they didn't get to wear and i'll photograph them. i'm hoping in 10 years i'll look back and actually forget they were taken on dec. 29 :)

since i was to work the day before & after christmas, we decided to host a luncheon at our home and all who were able were invited to attend. the plan, at first, was to welcome ryan's grandparents, aunt & cousin, my parents (if barry didn't have a baby by then), and our good friends here in town. i should learn by now NOT to make plans :)

after whining about not being able to see my siblings during the holidays, i was amazed how fate intervenes. jessie called and decided to leave columbia early on their way to alabama and stopped by fri. evening to stay over. i must say that girl has the best babies ever! josie was a delight as an infant and jack is just as content! i don't know how she does it, but she is definitely blessed. josie is talking so much and tried her best to keep up with warren. jack is really tall, has adorable dark hair, is babbling non-stop and has a smile that will melt your heart. we had a great visit and i decided the plan would be for me to take family photos of everyone who comes over in front of our tree. yep, you guess it... only one i took was of jessie's.



they left sat. morning to visit friends and go to mom & dad's. we relaxed, started preparations for our christmas and napped! i dearly love taking naps!

we then heard from carrie. she thought she would be able to come down christmas day and stay the night! i was elated! i called mom & dad and the plans changed again: lunch with ryan's family - dinner and drinks with mine and our friends. so far... so good!

sat. night we traveled to mom & dad's to celebrate dad's 60th birthday. barry had come up with a brilliant idea to buy replacement parts for the folk's pool table for christmas. therefore, ryan and jason worked on that table all night. they actually did a fantastic job (the store owner barry purchased the parts from recommended a professional - not a do-it-yourselfer!) and mom & dad are like little kids on christmas - literally :D

sun. we headed home and worked on more christmas preparations. we cleaned a bit, napped and enjoyed our day. then carrie called...
kelly had too much work to finish up before year's end, so she thought it would be easier if they came down christmas eve and stayed the night. okay, i can handle that - sounds good. called mom & dad and the new plan was....
breakfast with my family - lunch with ryan's - dinner with our friends. you feeling as crazy as i was? :)

mon. ryan went shopping for our feasts. i ended up not having to work, so i baked homemade bread, made an amazing trifle and kept the kids entertained. we decided that evening to attend a last-minute dinner party we were invited to. while upstairs getting ready i noticed a sharpie in the bathroom. i don't know about you, but a permanent marker is something we normally don't keep in our bathroom. i knew without even having to look that warren was in deep trouble. i opened the door to my office (where the sharpies are kept high up on a shelf) and my wonderful son had colored EVERY key on my computer keyboard a different color. he told me he thought i would think it was pretty. last week he spent an hour scrubbing crayon off of the hardwood floors - when do they learn?! needless to say, nothing is worse than giving your child a spanking on christmas eve - thankfully ryan had to do it... and if i were a betting person - warren won't write on anything ever again :D

we had planned to visit our friends for an hour - stayed 2.5. the kids were wonderful and we made it home in time to make dinner, breakfast to freeze until morning and get the kids to bed. ryan was able to get all of the presents out of hiding and place under the tree before carrie's arrived after 10. i didn't stay up much later, for i was exhausted.

christmas morning at 6 i put breakfast in the oven, made coffee and warren tumbled down the stairs. he couldn't believe santa came! i had him wake up ryan and ellie and the christmas wrapping paper destruction began! then carrie's kids appeared and chaos ensued. it was wonderful. mom & dad finally arrived, more paper everywhere, breakfast was eaten, kids destroyed the house and i already needed a nap. the 'plan' was for my family to leave at 1030, ryan's to arrive at 1230. they came a little after 11 :) after rushing around like headless chickens, we had a fantastic meal and a good visit. unfortunately i never had time to change. i donned my pajamas all day. was totally embarrassing - but at least i had time to brush my teeth :) they left at 2 - we took a long nap and welcomed our friends around 5.

overall it was a glorious day and we are still so thankful we had loving family to share it with. i think our plan is to sleep all weekend! :)
then we can remove all of the decorations and start all over again for mom's, ellie's, ryan's and warren's birthdays in january. great planning, huh?

have a wonderful new year!
and no, barry & brittany still haven't had their baby. :(

oh, and congrats to whoever wins that 'bleeping' award!

I PROMISE I've Been Good...

From Us... To You

for those of you i forgot to send cards to this year - or ran out of time :) ... merry christmas! (you should be able to click to enlarge)

Winter Wonderland

Let It Snow...

we awoke this morning to our first snowfall of the year. wasn't much - perhaps 3 inches - and over half has already melted; yet what a gorgeous site from inside our warm and toasty home! warren was able to play almost 30 minutes outside this afternoon and as soon as he came in said he HAD to have hot cocoa. sometimes it's not so bad growing up to be just like your mom.
ice arrived yesterday early morning and by the time we awoke the rain had turned it to slush. at 10am warren and i decided to travel so he could see santa (photo to follow later this week). he was a perfect gentleman even giving santa a hug before he left. i wanted to take ellie but fri. she was diagnosed with an ear infection, plus the weather, made it wise for us to keep her home. perhaps next year she will get to meet the big guy.
although i am a full-time employee at the paper, i have wed. off. couldn't be better. i'm quite lucky. this wed. mom and her new neighbor came down to tour our home and see the sights our small town has to offer. even though the pop. is around 4400, it's a pretty amazing town being the first settlement west of the mississippi. interesting architecture, ancient buildings, 6+ wineries, award-winning bed & breakfasts and unique shops bring the tourists in like you couldn't imagine. but hey, the locals can't afford the goods most shops offer - they need the tourists! at least if any of you out-of-towners decided to come enjoy ste. gen, the "counts' bed & breakfast" is always free :)
ellie and i took mom and sandy to my new fave restaurant and then the girls dropped us off at home while they galivanted around town. they went junkin' (my mom's term), then to the local meat shoppe and on the way home stopped at our favorite winery [www.chaumette.com].
sandy had her digital camera with her that day and took some shots i thought you would enjoy.
aren't the girls just darling?

Photos Below

I forgot... the one on the top right is Carrie :)

Memorable Photographs

my mother has never been one to organize photos. seriously - she has an old steamer-like trunk suitcase filled with loose pictures. every other year or so she tries to convince one of her daughters to help her organize them. we may have a pile of 'barry', another of 'family', etc. but none are ever placed in an album. everytime i see that suitcase it reminds me to put my own photos in albums! genetics...
this summer, for some strange reason, mom had a stack of old 8x10 pictures handy and i asked if i could have them to scan in and print out. took me 6 months, but i finally finished it this week. since my siblings never see this blog (brittany don't say anything to barry), i decided to order prints online of all the photos and give them to my sisters and brother for christmas. cost me only $2.67 for 24 4x6's thanks to snapfish.com. i'm telling you, it's a wonderful site!
i believe some of my family members may enjoy the following images. we have mom & dad as children, group photos and of course me. it's pretty amazing how one looks just like ellie.
enjoy and laugh out loud.

Over the river and through the woods...

holidays are always hectic in our family. honestly, it's hectic for any married couple with children. who do you go visit? when do you travel? what will the weather allow? etc.
with the arrival of barry's baby, Christmas falling on a tues., and jessie's traveling to alabama; i think it's the first year i won't be with my siblings at least some time during december. it hasn't hit me yet... but i'm certain come that tues. morning i'll be a babbling mess :)
to help ease my misery i worked diligently to find perfect gifts for the nieces and nephews. had planned to send the gifts via snail mail but my parents reminded me that the minute brittany's water breaks - they are north-bound.
this morning we decided to make the jaunt through the nastiest winter thunderstorm i've seen and headed to grandma & grandpa's. they provided an amazing meal - as always - and we had a good visit while constantly keeping ellie away from the wood stove and fireplace. we were able to drop our gifts off for them to distribute. worked out nicely.
grandma tried to soothe ellie's crabbiness so i had to take a picture of that.
and here is the watson's home decorated for the holidays...

The Coalier Kids

thought i would upload pics of carrie's darlings...
this is gram's preschool photo and the other is of georgia taken in november.

Only 21 days left! Ugh!

about my last positng...
first off, aunt sherri - we love your 'noisy' holiday decorations! i didn't want you to think we were complaining. :) keep them coming!
secondly, yes, my son wears his spiderman costume almost every weekend. no, he won't take it off and the only way we can touch it is if we unzip the back 20 times a day so he can go potty. ah, the joys of raising a dork...

the weather took a nasty turn over the weekend as i'm sure many of you tolerated as well. ellie had a fever/upset stomach from thurs. evening until sat. night, so we appreciated being kept indoors. grandma & grandpa came over sat. morning and grandma babysat so warren, ryan, grandpa and myself could enjoy the local Christmas Walk parade held downtown each year. was our first to witness and even though we froze our you-know-whats off, it was delightful. i thought i would take some photos the newspaper could possibly use but from where we stood EVERY photo has a sign in the back ground stating "missouri wine & beer!". was pretty humorous once you saw that sign above st. nick's head!

for example... here is the mayor and his wife (she owns the daycare our kids attend). needless to say - not one of my photos printed in this week's issue :)



we did have some excitement saturday evening. barry and brittany went to the hospital for she was having contractions. for 2 hours - while enduring the sad mizzou game - we were on pins and needles just watching the phone hoping it would ring. sure enough... false alarm. only a few more weeks left until baby grace makes her debut. i'm certain she will be beautiful!

dad had minor surgery yesterday morning for a hernia. all is well and he is being pampered by mom non-stop. if he is smart, he'll take advantage of it and prolong his recovery :)

and now for a little laughter to brighten your day...
yesterday i reminded warren's school to submit the children's 'letters to santa' so they could publish in the newspaper. when the family picked me up from work at 5, i asked warren if he told his teacher what he wanted from santa. he told me he wanted spiderman and some other toys i've never heard of. i asked if he wanted to santa to bring anything else for his family and he said he told his teacher ellie needed some 'little balls' (take that however you wish). i knew i set myself up for the next quesion... i asked what santa should bring mom & dad. he said, in all seriousness, "he can bring you a yo-yo, like me... and for dad, some garbage". :) what a kid.