Merry Christmas!!!

I should be taking a nap right now. Last night I went to do one of my transcripts and got a bit drowsy, so Tim got me a Starbucks to jolt me awake for the 3 hours needed to do my transcript. It was supposed to be done today, not started today. At 10pm I had a Triple Grande Vanilla Latte and 8 hours later I went to bed. Tim was going to have me sleep in today anyways, but little did he know. The "Triple" did it's job, but down at 6am and up by 9:30 makes for a very tired mama, ya think? But the post must go on!

Here goes...Christmas Eve is always spent at Grandpa's house. This year aunt Barbara, uncle Jim and Jimmy came up from Florida to visit.
***TANGENT***The night before Christmas Eve (I think) we were all at my parents house and we ended up playing a dice game called Farkle. If you find it on the shelves, you might not be too impressed, and I don't think it thrilled poor aunt Barbara who couldn't score to save her life, but it's a pretty fun game. If you can believe it, we even got grandpa to play. You tell your grandpa that you have never played a game with him and he tends to get a little soft. I'll bet none of you Rebers knew that your papa had hot hands for throwing dice. At the set out of the game, he was having unbelievable beginner's luck. He even started snapping his fingers and pointing at the dice and then calling his numbers. It was fun and funny! Thank you again, grandpa.
Back to grandpa's house. I am not sure how I missed it, but I didn't get a picture of grandpa at his post on the piano bench, but rest assured that he was there handing out presents in true grandpa fashion. "To the gift giver!!!"
Here we are in the back room waiting for Santa to come. I think there are try-outs for the role of Santa. John Paul tried it last year and I think Joel got roped into doing it this year. Eventually someone will fill the belt.
Titus isn't sure whether he is to be scared or bold enough to march right into the living room to see what all the commotion was, which he about did.

Just before we began the Christmas story, we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Levi who turned 6 this day. He air guitarred the whole song. Yep, he's 6 alright. (That's Suzanna's boyfriend, Jeff, on the left.)

These are my precious pumpkins during the Scripture reading. Are they il-mannered or what? Eden has half stripped off her clothes making her look like a raggamuffin and Titus is stealing Eden's dolly and making her fly into the presents. Would someone please take control of these kids?!! Wait! That's my job. (That's Joanna's boyfriend, Nathan, on the right.)

***

On Christmas morning we got up, got ready to go to Tim's parent's house for the day and then sat under our one-presented tree to see what we got. The boys were shocked and quite thrilled to see a Wii under the wrapping paper. I wonder where my camera was for all that? Oops.

We got to grandma and grandpa's house for a wonderful brunch cooked up by Shelley and assisted by Phil. Regardless of what Shelley might say or think, it was delicious and great of her to do it all for us. Thank you!

When present time came, the kids all planted themselves one of the couches while I managed the cameras from the other end of the living room.

Micah thinks she is so big now that she can climb into this chair all by herself. Now, can she get down? I think she is asking grandpa for help.

Nadia Renee's first Christmas. I can't speak for everyone, but I am thrilled to have her in our family and am glad that we get to see them a bit more regularly for a while before they head out to Indonesia. She is learning to sit up by herself and I got a kick out of the head-to-head she had with this dog of hers, so I started snapping pictures.

Her dress was so cute. After the second kid, I don't think I remembered to get "First Christmas" outfits. Certainly nothing cute like this doll is wearing!

That night we played games and ended up staying the night because I didn't want to load everyone up in the cold to go home, plus I was tired. The next morning we got out the door fairly quickly (the kids insisted on eating breakfast...what's up with that?!?) and found that all surfaces in NW Indiana were covered in at least 1/4" of ice, if not more. It took us almost 1 hour and 20 minutes to go what normally takes around 20 minutes to drive. It was insane how often we ourselves almost crashed into other cars. The highways were closed and we were plain nuts for being out in that weather, but we needed to get home.

***
Mema's house is where we went Friday night.

Friday night we all spent the night at mom and dad's so we could have our Christmas breakfast nice and early to get a start on opening the mound of gifts under the tree downstairs. This was the best shot of the kids we could muster. Levi and Eden had me cracking up with their sibling pose. Elijah was all about anything Chicago Bears. He was thrilled to get this football because besides it being the right colors, it was just his size so he could actually hold it and throw it right.

Levi was all about his buddy Toby, or as Titus calls him, "Toby tobe." Levi wants a dog so badly, but mommy's not ready for another kid right now, let alone one that poops and pees on the floor. Do they think functions like that take care of themselves??? I don't think so.

Eden got a Madame Alexander doll (much like the American Girl Dolls) and she named her Rebekah. You wouldn't tell it to look at her, but she is our girly girl princess. So NOT me in that respect.

Titus was just about tearing stuff up. Everything. Everywhere. Tear, tear, tear. At least this time he is tearing open his own present. His "bestest" toy was his planet hero figures. He loves them!
Micah was oblivious to what was going on, naturally. She did manage to find Eden's necklaces and bracelets and rings and put them on herself so elegantly. She was a natural. Uh-oh, 2 princesses in the house? Can we handle that?

After yesterday's freeze, you can imagine what our weather was like today. Or can you?



It was a high of 67, I think, so these crazy guys took advantage and played outside. Aren't they hot? No, literally!



The boys thought this was so fun, and yes, that's dad on a lawn chair.



Even the dogs got out on the ice for a little romp. All the girls were too chicken.
That evening the worst wind storm passed through bringing on old man winter again. There was a wind advisory and you'd have though the house was not going to make it, it was so bad. When we got home, this is what we found.



I couldn't believe it. I think we managed to salvage most of it, but that could have done some damage to people's property and boy are we lucky it didn't!!!

I don't know about you but I think that's about all the crazy weather I can handle for one holiday, but there's more to come, I'm sure! Stay tuned.

Elijah's Christmas Program

I love my kids' school. It's a private school and I love pretty much everything about it...except for these goofy Christmas programs. You remember how Levi's was just way too late at night? Well, this one was supposed to start at 7pm on a Tuesday night. Despite the blizzard we had to drive through to get to the program, we had school the next day and 7pm is too late, on a school night, to start an elementary Christmas program. It was a disaster waiting to happen. I think a lack of planning and strong directing was part of the problem. Here we are packed like sardines in the hallway of the local public High School, an apparent last minute change of venue, waiting to go into the auditorium as the kids inside are practicing a couple of the numbers. Titus just wanted daddy and he was fine.

The program itself could have been cute, but as is the case with most private schools that aren't rolling in the dough, it wasn't equipped with all the proper tools. The music was played from a boom box through the auditorium speakers. Tim, being a sound professional, was going nuts! The kids with speaking parts spoke too fast and not into the mics, so we couldn't hear anything they were saying. The songs were great. That was the best part of it all, but the speaking parts, the parts that contained the bulk of the message, was just background noise. Oh well, the kids looked rather cute and were singing their hearts out!

The kids were all asked to make their own shirts. Of course, I waited until the last minute and 4 hours before the program I made Elijah's, but it was fun and he really liked it! It almost made me want to make all the kids a shirt of some kind, but I didn't want to waste all the white shirts.

Getting the tree up...finally

Ok, first of all, I know it is December 29th and I'm just now posting about our Christmas tree...but sometimes I can tend to be a bit anal about things that don't matter; Having my blog show ALL photographed events in chronological order is one of them. I am going to spend the next few posts catching up on my blog. Fun, I know. So, the tree. Well due to who knows what, we didn't get a tree up until the 15th, but fear not, I will have it up until at least January 15th to make up for lost time. We managed to get the tree up, but that was just about it. Once it's the middle of December, it seems to be too late to drag it all out. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't desire to do it all. Here, the kids are all helping to fluff those lovely branches on the artificial tree. (I only went back to re-fluff a few)

In the Svoboda house, whatever night is chosen to put up the Christmas tree is also a night that we will get Dairy Queen. It's a bit of an odd tradition, but it's our tradition you could say. The kid's loved it and I will have to say that my Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard didn't disappoint!

Once I finally drudged through the lights, and the ones that all of a sudden don't work and the half lit strands and all that rigmarole, we put the ornaments on. I am lucky that none of the ornaments got broken the way these sugar infused maniacs were going through my box and in the end, it was a very cozy looking tree! I love a dressed Christmas tree!

There are no presents yet, but that's mostly because we only got one thing for the kids and us and that was a Wii. Everything else that we got for everyone else I am taking to mom's for a wrapping party as it will all be opened there. Besides, with Titus around, do you think it wise to wrap a bunch of presents and leave them enticingly under the tree??? No, I didn't think so either.

Levi front and center

Last night was the Kindergarten Christmas program at school. For some reason the evening started at 7pm, but the program didn't actually start until 7:45; 15 minutes after my kids go to bed. That could have turned out worse for us. This is Levi's favorite [boy] friend, Josiah. They met this year and it turns out that Josiah's parents went to Moody with Tim. Small world. They have really clicked well together and it's probably because both of them like to fool around...a lot!

Here is a very handsome and somewhat nervous Levi getting ready to do the opening lines of the program. Every kid was given 2 lines to memorize, but Levi's part was 8 lines long. I'm beginning to see that Levi is, perhaps, the teacher's pet. He had a rough start to the year with getting in trouble a lot, but has really turned his behavior around and is excelling at all his work above most all the other kids and has become the teacher's little helper. She even has him "teach" some concepts when he gets them before the others. It's k5, how tough can it be? They are learning to read, so who knows.

Not only did he have the opening paragraph, but his favorite girl friend, Grace, went home sick, so his teacher asked him to do her lines as well since he basically knew everyone's part anyways.
He did a great job. He has the Olsen tendency to talk really fast, but he did his best to slow down tonight.

I don't remember what song this was, but it obviously involved bells. Levi and the other boy, Peter, got a little carried away with the shaking of these bells...it could have stolen the show if it went on much longer; they were having too much fun.

Ok, remember the whole bit about this part of the night starting 15 minutes after bedtime? Well, that wasn't talking about Micah's bedtime. She goes to bed closer to 7:00 and now here it is after 8:00 and she is not thrilled. She was hopping back and forth between grandma and grandpa and me and my mom, but not my dad. He is growing a beard for the time being, and she was just plain scared of him. She is beyond wasted and we haven't even had cookies and punch yet.

Titus began feeling better today. I looked at Tim and said, "Of all times for him to be feeling better, it would have to be tonight." He was all over the place, true to Titus' nature. We did manage to bring in a few things to keep him occupied, but it was almost like he was putting on a program of his own back there he was so loud and animated with his guys. Fortunately most of Titus' program was during the music portion of Levi's program. We were in the very front so the poor people behind us didn't know whether to watch the kindergartners or the crazy family with the rowdy kids that can't be still or quiet or respectful of other people's desire to see and hear their own kids. Sorry people! (It wasn't that bad, but as the parent, I sure felt like it was!)

These pictures are just for fun. There's always gotta be a kid who's making faces and having fun.

Josiah's mom and dad didn't seem to think it all that funny, though.

We got done with the program, HAD to have cookies and punch and then went home to make it to bed by 9pm. Ugh. It's always rougher in the morning when I have to wake them all up because they are zonked. Wowzers what a morning I had...I'll tell you about that tomorrow. Goodnight!

When sick, for pete's sake, STAY HOME!!!

Close your eyes (figuratively speaking, of course) and picture with me my morning as only a video could truly do justice to what a time I had. This may not interest you, but for me, it's therapy. Where do I begin???

Ok, let's set the stage for today. Titus is still running a fever and his nose is dripping like an Olsen who's been out in the cold too long (that means dripping like a faucet). This nose issue has him frustrated. It drips, he sniffs, he cries. He sneezes then he sniffs and cries because the sneeze hurt. He's tired and crabby because we haven't slept much since Saturday night, he and I, and I'm feeling it too.

Well, we managed to get the boys off to school, but since we were running late, Levi, Titus and Micah didn't have time to eat. Titus wouldn't have anyways. After I drop the boys off, I call to make an appointment to take Titus to the Doc because while a fever doesn't get me huffing off to the doctor, the goopy eyes do and I'm supposed to clean today which means my kids have to go to Erin's house and I need to know what's going on before then. I really can't cancel on cleaning again. The only appointment I could get was at 10am, smack in the middle of Micah's morning nap. We can do without. This is more important, right (trying to convince myself)?!?

I certainly wasn't going to go home for an hour and then go back out, so what would any good mom do? Go to Walmart, of course. Micah was wearing her last diaper and I had to exchange a movie anyways, so off we went to use up our hour and a half.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Tim's grandparents gave the kids money to spend when we went shopping, so I got movies for them. Alvin and the Chipmunks was among them. I didn't take the receipt because I didn't need it, but when we got home and we finally saw the movie, the audio cuts out after 30 minutes. So I call Wally World and explain to them that I need to exchange it but they said I'd need the receipt. Well, for ME to ask for a receipt back is not a good thing. Their family has some sort of stigma about returning things in the first place and then an even bigger issue concerning ME and returns. I guess you return one thing and they assume you return EVERYTHING, so I didn't want to ask for it back. It's a touchy subject. Call it my pride, whatever.

Instead, I decided I'd go get another movie because by now we are sick and doing movie days back to back and I kinda wanted it for our marathon, as it has become. All Walmart said was that I'd need a receipt and I'd be ok. I had to drive in to Hobart to go to Sam's club Monday to get the Christmas cards I committed to sending out this year and to make a return and so I thought I'd stop by Walmart to take care of this too. ***precursor***if you ever get the feeling you shouldn't go out because your kid's a little sick...just don't go. It won't be worth it!!!

I made my return at Office Max and we managed to get out of there unscathed so we went on to Sam's club where I was just going to pick up my cards and then eat lunch and then go to Walmart and go home for naps before getting back up to pick up the boys.

i feel like i haven't even begun this story yet...hang on...the fun is yet to come

Ok, so we get into Sam's club and imagine this, I can't find my card. No big deal, I'm just picking up pictures and eating lunch; I should be ok. I go to the photo counter and get my cards only to find out that they aren't the 4x8 size I thought I ordered, but 4x6 regular photo size. I told the counter clerk that I didn't find many selections online, let alone the cute one that I was looking at on display at the counter. The lady behind me said she just ordered that cute one. So, I'm an idiot who can't find Christmas cards on the Sam's club website. Nice to know. But now I have 4x6 cards and that's not what I wanted, not to mention they don't come with envelopes and I didn't want to go hunt those down, so I wanted to reorder them the right way right away.

Well, since I did them online, they didn't have my picture file and couldn't do them there while I waited. Frustrating that this is happening in the first place, but what can I do. Apparently I messed up. Well, I needed to pay for them since they were my error but, wait, I guess I do need my card to buy them since I didn't pay for them online like I thought I did. The kids are getting hungry and remember, Titus is sick. I look over at the line for customer service to get a temporary card and there were 8-10 people in line and I wasn't waiting. I went to get lunch instead. Forgetting completely about the cards, we finished lunch to go to Walmart to take care of the movie and then go home for naps...much needed naps!

We were in Walmart for over an hour waiting in the customer service line, trying to find the movie-which they didn't have-and then waiting to get my copy of the Chipmunks back just to get out of there and back on the road having accomplished nothing except to find out that I'm and Internet idiot. Now it's 1:35, I'm 25 minutes from home and school gets out at 3:00. There is no practicality in going home for a 45 minute, just make the kids more cranky nap, so I guess today is an early day for the boys. I got them out of school early. Problem solved.

My movie still isn't taken care of and that brings us to this morning. I go in, get the video and take it to customer service only to find out that they open the wrapping on the exchange, so I am not able to return it to get my money back. I am not one to get overheated at these people but I did politely ask to talk to the manager. Keep in mind I haven't had a full night's rest since last Friday night, so I am tired!!! By the time a manager finally shows up, the kids are crying (because they're tired and hungry) and I was making small talk with the ladies about this stupid movie and I end up so frustrated about the whole thing, I start crying. How embarrassing!!!

So now, here I am, 2 crying children, 1 teary mother and I'm trying to explain to the male manager what's going on, but to no avail. I am now the proud owner of not one, but two copies of Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'm too nice. I should have gotten all "NW Indiana" on them. Ok, maybe not.

It's only 9:30 but I'm not going anywhere else before the doctor, so I go early and get in right away. I told them it may be a noisy room, so beware. How right I was. Titus doesn't want to be there so he starts crying. Then he sneezes and since that hurts, he cries even more. I let Micah out of her seat because I had no idea how long we'd be there and I didn't need her crying to get out of there. Big mistake!

The doctor comes in right away (had I only known) and automatically Micah thinks it's for her and she starts into a full on scream. Well, Titus is still crying -just because- and it's starting to get really loud in there. I put Micah in my lap to get her to calm down, but that only confirmed to her that the doctor was indeed there for her. I put her in the stroller but couldn't get to her to buckle her because I am now holding Titus for his exam. Micah is writhing in her seat, still screaming, and so I go to pull her up, Titus still in my lap, only Micah's feet get caught in the foot rest of the stroller and I can't get her out. I put her back down only to have to get her again.

The doctor is kindly trying to look at Titus while I take care of Micah, only they are both screaming and fighting the adult who is taking care of them. I get Micah out of her seat only to have the stroller fall backwards because I have my purse and the diaper bag on the handle. I know better than that...I reached around to put her back by Eden (who is sitting in the corner with her fingers in her ears) and Micah falls over. More crying.

I am about to crawl under the bench out of sheer desperation for a moment to myself, not to mention to get away from the humiliation I am feeling at this moment. Boy am I thankful right about now that I knew when I got dressed this morning that I wasn't going to the gym or I'd totally look like the stay-at-home mom who took her kids to the doctor in her pajamas, disheveled hair and all. I did look decent.

I get Micah situated, although she is still screaming and then I have to literally pin Titus' arms down with one arm and hold his head still with the other so the doctor can look in his ears.

We're done.

The Doctor backs away, Titus climbs in my lap the way HE wants, Micah climbs in my lap, their thumbs are in their mouths and it's like nothing ever happened. One second a flippin' hurricane; the next second, nothing.

I'm worn out and dog gone it, it's not even 10am and I'm supposed to go to Linda's house to clean today??? Boy do I need the break more than ever! I would count down the minutes, but I can't in good conscience leave Titus with Erin today. She doesn't need to go through a day like this. So, my reprieve has been cancelled. Drat! I think I will just stay in and make some Christmas gifts.

This looks like the beginning of a LONG winter season for the Svoboda home.

If you imagined all that with me and now need a nap, then I did good telling the story. If not, it really was a nut job type of day. What I need is a glass of wine (except for that thing about I don't really drink), a good book and my whirlpool. Perhaps a Pepsi, my Bible and a whirlpool. Not as poetic, but what I need right now is not poetry, that's for sure!!!

Sick days on the couch

We've all had them, right? We even looked forward to them and quite possibly when we got older, tried our best to get them as often as possible. A sick day on the couch watching videos. Titus has been sick since Saturday night with fever and "huwrt belly" and "legs huwrts" and all. Today he's watching "Koofa Pandabeawr" or Kungfu Panda, as we know it. Another totally great video for young kid and older kid alike! I laughed so hard at this one. It's also full of some good one-liners that I'll be sure to be using in the near future!

Did you know...?

Did you know that 500Q-tips don't go back in the box the same way twice? I do!Courtesy of Titus, of course. He has been running a high fever since Saturday night and has just been lying around, quite lethargic, but when the Tylenol kicks in, so does he.

Winter Swap

I Decided to participate in a Winter Swap that my cousin was hosting and for some reason I was nervous...sort of meeting new people and then getting a gift for them...that's not easy!!! Well, nonetheless, I did it and I mailed off the gift I made (I totally forgot to take a picture of it...rats!) and then my gift came in the mail. In anticipation I yanked and pulled and wiggled and tore the package out of my mailbox that the mailman crammed in as hard as he could. I guess the 20 step walk to my door was too much for him! At anyrate, this was what I got for me and the girls.These are 2 handmade dresses that I Noe Design made (Imogene Noe) and I believe that's what's called a Tea Towel (sorry for my towel illiteracy!) I love them. The dress on the left is sized for Micah, though she will probably have to wear it next year, hopefully. I love the fact that it says Joy all over it. Joy is Micah's middle name. The other one is a vintage fabric that I think is very pretty. That one was for Eden, but sadly is too short, so Micah will be the proud wearer of that one as well. Actually, perhaps leggings will do the trick. I will have to see before doing it as leggings don't work for everything. Thank you so much for your wonderful swap gifts!!! Imogene makes these and many other gifts and you can read more about them on her site, inoedesign.com. Thank you, Imogene! I look forward to the next one!