worm...

Here I am again after a long hiatus due to an UGLY thing called a "worm" virus! Yep, our family computer caught some kind of japanese worm virus and it was shutting down the system little by little. My techno geek husband was luckily able to download some "band-aids" and get us up and running again today! One website that was mostly the cause of the spyware was cool savings dot com! So, all of you who have browsed for coupons and ended up there-beware! Anyway, now that I got that off of my chest...I sure do have a lot of catching up to do! Here is a quick daily log of our holiday season (be sure to read closely...it gets pretty exciting towards New Years)

Dec 21st:
Christmas cookie baking it was! We made lots and lots of peanut blossoms (daddy's favorite!) and some lemon bars and cranberry-apple oatmeal bars! We got a HUGE honey baked ham for Christmas eve dinner!

Dec 22nd:
Last day of work, then we settled down as a family with The Polar Express. It was nice to have a little calm before heading off to spend the weekend visiting family. Xander loved the movie and insisted on sitting by himself. He got really excited and laughed at all the right times!

Dec 23rd:
We woke up early and headed off to the east side of Cleveland. Our first stop was to see an old friend, Bart. She gave Xander a Santa Claus that blows bubbles and he just thought it was the most fun! We had a nice visit with her and then headed to Mamma and Poppa's house. After a short visit and a long nap, we left to go see our friends Jen and Tim and their family. We had a great time together and both Jen and I commented on how we wish we lived closer to each other-we just know that our children would be friends!

Dec 24th:
We had some excitement as we opened gifts with my brother, sister, BIL and SIL today. Just after my niece Chloe opened her first gift, Uncle Wick put her wrapping paper in the fireplace and WOOOSH! we heard a loud rumbling noise. We quickly figured out that the chimney was on fire! So, we ran out of the house grabbing kids and puppies (while the kids were frantically scrambling to get their unwrapped gifts!) and called 911. The firemen came and saved the day-however the chimney couldn't be saved! We were all very grateful and so, after a slight intermission, the present opening continued without another hitch!

After the festivities, we got ready for our annual Christmas eve party. There was seafood, pasta, and lots of goodies for everyone. The kids played their little hearts out while I shot tons of pics (including some of my sister's cute pregnant belly!) Once Xander was ready for bed, we changed into our jammies and made the trip back to Toledo to arrive in time for Santa!

Dec 25th:
We had a nice relaxing day, just the 3 of us...Xander was soo excited about ripping open all of his presents and absolutely loved all that Santa had brought! We spent the whole day in our PJ's (my favorite kind of day!) and snuggling on the couch! All in all it was a great Christmas!

Dec 28th:
I haven't been feeling right the past couple of days so I took a hpt and got a POSITIVE result! ( I told you it was going to get exciting)

Dec 31st:
Xander and I went to a birthday party for Jacob this afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese. Xander had a great time running like crazy everywhere and I caught him for a few good photo ops! Afterward, we rushed home because my in-laws were arriving for a get together! There was tons of snacks and my FIL's homemade wine toasts at midnight all around-except in my direction due to the positive test mentioned previously! Everyone had a great night and even little Xander made it to midnight-and boy was he POOPED the next day!

Jan 1st:
Breakfast at IHOP-Yummy country griddle pancakes!! Then we played with our new toys and all took a LONG nap. I cooked a nice pork loin and saurkraut (for good luck-even Xander tried it!) Mark and I laid in bed that night and talked about the new baby and how happy we are! But I am still a little nervous to get too excited as it is very new...btw, we think the due date is aug 30th (so that would make me in my 7th week)-keep us in your thoughts!

Jan 4th:
Xander finally went to bed without a fight tonight! We have been having the worst time with him and he has ended up in between me and daddy more than I would like...not that I don't LOVE to snuggle with him, but the middle of the night kicks in the gut aren't that snuggly! Plus, I like it that he is comfortable enough to sleep in his own bed like a big boy. So, anyway, I think the holidays just had him really screwed up and after many tortorous nights of him screaming until he got all snotty and coughing, he actually came to me at bedtime tonight and said "nigh nigh" and I picked him right up and placed him in his crib with a kiss and never heard another peep out of him! YEAH!

ps. i am having some difficulties uploading photos to go with this post! i'll try later!