Christmas Eve part 2: Baking Cookies

This month has been crazy at work, and just about the time things finally started to slow down a bit, I got sick. Nothing serious, but I felt pretty rotten all the same. So it wasn't until Christmas Eve that I was finally feeling up to baking some Christmas cookies.I had hoped to watch the Polar Express like we usually do on Christmas Eve, but Bitty had other plans and Cuddlebug...

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Christmas Eve part 1: The Christmas Story

I have long wanted to start a tradition of reading the Christmas story with the boys on Christmas Eve, but so far they just haven't had the attention span. Sometimes we read one verse of the story from the Bible, but we've never been able to actually read the whole thing.One year, the boys got upset when I tried to *tell* them the story, so I ended up working it into a Thomas...

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Negotiations

Cuddlebug and Bearhug were arguing over which video game to play. I suggested they take turns and play one now and the other one after that.CB: (sighs) Ok, we can do one race on Monster Trucks.BH: ok, then we're only doing one race on Mario Kart.CB: (bigger sigh) Okaaaay! We can do ten races on Monster Trucks.BH: Ok!CB: But I'm NOT gonna have FUN.lol :)Of course once they got started, he DID have fun ;).And they even managed to switch back and forth between games without any further disputes.Disagreements...

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Blessings

(Taken about a week before Christmas)Bearhug sat quietly in front of the tree and his brothers joined him. If anyone started to talk, he gave them a quiet "shhh." Dh and I were rather amazed to see the three of them sitting so calmly together, we stood behind them just watching (and obviously I grabbed my camera). After a minute or so, Bearhug got up and said he just wanted...

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Merry Christmas!

(painting by Simon Dewey)"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.And she brought...

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Send thanks to our troops

My MIL sent this link to me, Xerox has set up a website where you can choose a thank you card and they will print it and send to our troops stationed overseas. The designs are all from artwork submitted by children around the country, and they have some really cute and patriotic ones over there :).Just wanted to pass this along, it only takes a minute and it's free! And you can...

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Random Christmas Joy

This is beautiful. I love the reactions of the shoppers :). Merry Christmas all!From the description on YouTube: "Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ - the world's largest pipe organ - the OCP (Opera Company of Philadelphia) Chorus and throngs of singers from the community infiltrated the store (Macy's) as shoppers, and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah" at 12 noon, to the delight of surprised shoppers."If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email...

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Shutterfly Christmas cards!

I have seen these on a couple of my friends' blogs and they are super cute.So when I saw that Shutterfly was offering free cards to bloggers for spreading the word, I had to go check it out! (and barely made the deadline, eek)I'm still trying to decide which is harder - choosing from the huge selection of cards or getting my three rowdy boys to sit together long enough for me...

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TTTS Awareness: What you need to know

December is TTTS (Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome) Awareness month, and today is World TTTS Awareness Day. TTTS is a disease of the placenta that can affect identical twins who share one placenta. The babies themselves are healthy, the issue is with the placenta and the circulation of blood between the babies and the placenta. (More about TTTS at the bottom of the post). ...

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The gift of voice

I've been thinking a lot lately about how far my boys have come in terms of their ability to communicate. Not just speech, but communication. As many of you know, having speech isn't necessarily the same as being able to communicate. I am so grateful for every word, every thought expressed that I don't have to guess. And I'm grateful for any clues our boys can give when the messages they're trying to convey are hard for me to understand. The ability to communicate their needs, wants, and ideas...

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Spoiled kitteh

Had the sewing machine out and came across a little scrap of soft fabric that was too small to use for what I was working on but just the right size to make a little pillow for the cat. So I did. I think he likes it :)If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or R...

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and your family a beautiful day filled with happiness and gratitude. ♥If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or R...

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Overheard...

Cuddlebug: "You know what my problem is?"Me: "you have a problem?"CB: "yeah, I can't find my DS charger." (for his Nintendo DS)Me: "isn't it supposed to be in your DS case?"CB: "Some FOOL took it out!!"I actually burst out laughing at that one, the way he says things cracks me up :).~~~~~~~~~~~~~Whenever I take Bitty to the bathroom (in public) he comments on the sign that says,...

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To my angel... I love you

Today is six years since my baby angel's due date... it was two days before Thanksgiving that year too. We nicknamed him "Baby Turkey" because of the date. I call him a "he" but we really don't know for sure, as he was only 8 weeks along when he returned to heaven.I came across this song and it says so perfectly what is on my mind (with the exception of "maybe there's a heaven"... I KNOW there is, and that I'll see my baby again). Until then, sweet angel, know that you are deeply loved and missed....

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Magic Marker Monday: Thankful

From Bearhug:I know what you're thinking, I had the same question."Chicks?"Bearhug smiled when I asked him. "Yeah, they're so cute!"me: "ummm... you mean girls?"(confused expression)me: "you mean baby chickens?"(the smile is back)"yeah!"(whew, what a relief! I'm so not ready for that!)From Cuddlebug:He really liked that pumpkin bread. He's right about the Kit Kats too, hehe...

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Battle of the pants

A cold front came in a couple of weeks ago, bringing with it the annual "battle of the pants."It is the daily struggle to convince a certain boy that shorts are not appropriate for 30-40 degree weather and that coats are highly recommended for such weather conditions, especially when one insists on short-sleeved shirts. ack.At least the resident 9-yr-olds keep any complaints to a minimum as long as I quantify it for them:NOT effective: "dress warm, it's cold outside."Effective: "wear pants, it's...

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Communication tip #318: Expressing displeasure

Let's say your mom buys you a new package of underwear. She was careful to buy Thomas ones (and was happy to find them in your size). Unfortunately the only ones available have a different design than the ones you currently have, rendering them UNACCEPTABLE.How do you convey your displeasure to your mom so that she thoroughly understands, with no room for doubt, just how unacceptable said underwear are?Do you:(a) toss the entire package out the front door and slam the door shut(b) throw the package...

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1 in 8 babies is born too soon...

Today is Prematurity Awareness Day.To learn more, visit the March of Dimes by clicking the banner below.Click here to read our NICU story (Cuddlebug and Bearhug were born 6 1/2 weeks early due to severe pre-eclampsia).Here's a repost of my earlier prematurity awareness post:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Did you know that 1 in 8 babies is born prematurely in the U.S.? In approximately 40% of cases,...

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Improvising

I was reading part of Cuddlebug's draft book report, in which he was supposed to list the main characters and write a sentence about each of them:me: "Cuddlebug, this says, 'Nora is Linda's son'"(having flashbacks to the days when he and Bearhug used to get "he" and "she" mixed up, wondering if we're somehow having the same issue with "son" and "daughter")CB: "yeah"me: "Linda's son?"CB: "yeah"me: "Nora's a girl, right? So shouldn't she be a daughter?"CB: "I don't know how to spell 'daughter'"LOL,...

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Still the one

Today marks twenty years since our first date ...

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Things I want to remember about this week

Bitty is really into shapes lately. So ice cream sandwiches are "rectangles," hot dogs are "cylinders" and the new block toy he found at a yard sale yesterday is a "cube." :)~~~~~~~~~Cuddlebug and Bearhug are into old-school video games ("into" is putting it way too mildly, lol). They've been obsessing over the dates various systems and old games were first published and they are constantly asking me questions about which video games I played as a kid (umm, I didn't have any video games when...

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First trick-or-treat :)

First for Bitty, that is.[Warning: this post contains images of extreme cuteness]Cuddlebug and Bearhug were anxiously awaiting sunset, since we told them they had to wait until it was at least getting dark to go trick-or-treating. They weren't much into costumes this year. I kind of suspect they wanted the black capes (which I made for them, pretty easy compared to Bitty's costume)...

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Happy dance!

Bitty wore his costume today (yay!) and he was soooo adorable :). Maybe he was just waiting for the actual day to arrive? He actually went trick-or-treating for the first time ever. We went to about five or six houses and then he was ready to come home. He scored some M&M's so he was excited about that. :) Cuddlebug and Bearhug took off ahead of us and made the rounds of the whole neighborhood along with their friend and his parents. Pictures coming soon! :)Published with Blogger-droid...

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Pilchard costume

In years past Bitty really hasn't shown any interest in Halloween. I love Halloween, so I was pretty excited when I asked him what he wanted to dress up as this year instead of saying "no" or ignoring me, he said, "you want to wear Pilchard." Pilchard is, of course, Bob the Builder's cat.I asked him several times for a couple of weeks to make sure he really wanted to be Pilchard...

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Pumpkin patch!

Last weekend we took the boys to visit a local farm to find pumpkins :). It was Bitty's first visit (I've taken Cuddlebug and Bearhug before). We ended up coming home with some yummy pumpkin bread, apple bread, and honey in addition to the pumpkins :).Checking out the pumpkins:Pulling a wagon full of pumpkins is good "heavy work."These caught Bitty's attention - Pokemon pumpkins,...

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