"Raising a kid is part joy and part guerrilla warfare."
~Ed Asner

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Laughter is the best Medicine.

Last week on Tuesday I headed to the west side with my babies in tow.  The trip itself was longer than usual due to construction and fender bender gawkers.  I'm sure the people who were involved in hitting each other's rear ends appreciated everyone on the road slowing down to stare at them.  I did not appreciate it, especially when I had to pee.  Don't laugh, this was a very serious matter.  Never in my life, did I have to pee as bad as I did when we were stuck in traffic on the highway.  I was actually having visions of showing up at mom and dad's feeling embarrassed because I peed my pants.  I tried to stay focused and mediate while I was driving.  It wasn't working.  Finally, I saw an exit with a gas station on the horizon and made it just in time.  So did Izzie, because all of a sudden she had to use the bathroom as well.  Whew!

The gang started arriving Tuesday night and while some couldn't make it until Saturday, the house was full of family and laughter.  We had three parties.  It's hard enough trying to get everyone together so we might as well jam as many festivities as we can into the holidays.  We had a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and everything was so delicious.  My mushrooms almost smoked everyone out of the house, but it was so worth it once they tasted my roasted mushrooms in the stuffing I made.  The turkey was tender and probably the best my dad's ever made.  Mashed potatoes, rolls, cream corn, and loads of other yummy food filled our bellies.  Then there were the desserts.  Is this boring.  Maybe I'll just show you a picture.  


  Hello Lover...Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake.  I make this every year.  It's decadent, thick, creamy and all sorts of yumminess.  I could eat a slice of this and die a happy woman, which I might if I eat too much.  I'm sort of allergic to dairy. 

Amber made two glorious pies.  First up was apple and raspberry pie with a fancy crust.  She hand cut all the leaves herself.  You should have seen it in person.  It was almost too pretty to eat.  But not really, we devoured it. 

      She also made a pecan pie which was scrumptious.  I would have been just as happy eating all the crust.  It was coated with sweet goodness.

On Friday, James and Lynnsy came over for Mexican food.  We ate and played an endless game of Apples to Apples.  Izzie and Noah played with Austin who is so freaking adorable, I wanted to take him home with me.    At this point I'm not exactly sure of what we were doing or eating.  My lack of sleep and furry of baking must be clouding my thoughts.  The bottom line is, we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good food.  The End.  Oh, wait.  We had one more party.  We celebrated Habegger Christmas on Saturday and almost everyone in the family was there, minus Seth and Melody.  Josh, Darla, Marlene, Grandpa, Aunt Diane, and Cousin Doug arrived in the morning.  We ate ham, cheesy potatoes (holla) and other goodies for our Christmas feast.  Marlene made this wonderful dish that had grapes, chocolate (butterfingers I think), cream cheese and other stuff in it.  I'm rambling, I know.  I can't remember everything that was in it, but it was so different and so good.  I made a another dessert, surprise, surprise and mom made several pies.  We played our gift game in the afternoon and Izzie and Noah opened their present from Grandpa and Grandma Marlene.  We topped off the night with wine, cheese and MadGab.  What could be better than that?  I know...Being on the winning team.  Hillary, Grace, Darla, and I were team one and we rocked it.  We were just so in sync with each other and practically shouted off the answer before the phrase was even read.  That's how good we are.   

I slept in on Sunday, except that I didn't go to bed until two in the morning so I don't know if that would count as sleeping in.  My parents made breakfast for everyone and I found a cozy spot on the couch to hibernate until it was time to leave.  The babies and I were the last to head home.  I was strapping Noah into his seat when Jordan came out with a teary eyed Izzie and two small bowls of ice cream.  Apparently Izzie wasn't ready to go home.  My mom dished up some ice cream so she would let Uncle Jo Jo carry her to the truck.  We sang Christmas songs on the way home:)  

As you can probably tell, I'm not really in a mood to write.  I did want to sum up our holiday weekend, especially for those of you who couldn't be there:)  Now I'll leave you with some pictures from our fun filled, eating and playing extravaganza.  

Just an ordinary scene from Mom and Pop's living room

Noah is still afraid to fly in the air like Travis does with Izzie...

But he loved flying like this.  Nice tongue Travis.  You are not Michael Jordan and Noah is not a basketball.

If you look closely you can see Noah excitement.

While Noah was flying high...

Izzie was taking a rest.

Uncle Travis joined her.

Pretty much everyone but Noah was running low at this point.

Even Mom and Pop's took a rest. 

present from Grandpa and Grandma H.

A Barbie dress and shoes!!!

 
 Thank You!

 Auntie Amber helped her put it on.

What a beautiful Barbie princess

Noah got a truck and track type thing.  Sorry, I don't know exactly what it's called:)

 Daddy helped him put it together and Noah loved it.

 He especially loves his truck.

 This should be framed and hung above a fireplace.

 Izzie loved, loved playing with Anna:)

The following pictures are not of the greatest quality as the night was beginning to show it's true colors, but I had to share these with you.  We played MadGab.  I think I enjoyed it even more than Apples to Apples.  We drank wine.  We ate cheese.  We shouted things like, 'Miley Cyrus has hips' and 'The pirates must pay' (I think), both of which weren't even close to what the actual phrase was.  Each team had one minute to get as many phrases as they could.  There were some close calls where a phrase was solved a split second before or after the time keeper shouted 'TIME'.   

 
Mom: "We got that point."

 I think the game has pushed Grace to her breaking point.

 Trust, if Alex's eyes had been open you may have seen fire shooting from them.  He is in the middle of fighting for that point and said, "Let's take it outside."

If you asked Izzie what she was going to eat for Thanksgiving she would have told you turkey.  You may have felt a surge of excitement at the thought of my daughter eating anything that at one point was alive, but she wasn't talking about that kind of turkey.  She was talking about turkey cookies.  Turkey cookies are made of Oreo cookies, Reese's peanut butter cups, malted milk balls, candy corn, and frosting.  She loved everything except the malted milk ball.  They were so much fun to make even Travis and Jordan made one.    


 Jordan's ghetto turkey

Travis's straight chillin' turkey

An army of turkey's, nom nom  

Kris had already been out for hours.  Darla dressed him up and an hour later, when the dress was still there, I couldn't resist snapping a picture.

 About to enjoy the fruits of their labor

"I love my turkey cookie."

 Now that Noah sleeps in a big boy bed at home, we thought we would try letting him sleep in a sleeping bag like his big sister.  He did great.

Izzie loves camping out in Nana and Papa's room.

 I wrote most of this post when the babies were down for a nap, and I'm finishing it up now.  Now is 7:30 and my babies are 'playing?' wrestle mania in the living room.





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