Lazy Saturday ramblings....

It's been a long while since I had a somewhat rambling post about nothing specific......

Thankfully, we have a lazy Saturday afternoon and evening on our agenda. Adam's watching a movie, but I zoned out a LONG time ago and have been catching up on my facebook and blog reading instead. Out of the 5 movies I picked out at the library, he picked the one that I least wanted to watch. Of course. :)

Attended our church's annual Ladies Game Night last night. Adam's had a lot on his plate lately in the evenings and was gone last weekend at a Men's Retreat. It felt good to finally get out and do some socializing on my own without having to worry about wiping drippy noses, feeding kids, or seeing if my son just ran into the women's bathroom. So fun to play some games and chat it up! A small handful of us staked it out until after 1:30.

So, Adam and I are going to do some travelling....together. Been awhile since we've been able to do that! We skipped any sort of vacations this past summer...we were plenty busy moving, having a baby, ya know, things like that. Adam went on a backpacking trip, but I chose not to go since I was 9 months pregnant at the time. And the summer before that, I took Landon on vacation with my family, but Adam had a mission trip to Mexico at the same time (already on the calendar before he started the position at the church). So, in May we will be visiting our friends, Marv and Lindsay, who have been teaching in the Dominican Republic for the past year. We're leaving the boys at home (not by themselves of course). I'm trying not to think about having to leave them. I won't be a weepy mess, but it will still be tough. I've only spent 1 night at a time away from Landon on a handful of occasions and I have yet to be away from Tate. But I know it will do us good to get away together and have fun with our friends. Can't wait!

The Super Bowl is tomorrow night. I don't really care all that much about football, but I suppose I'll be rooting for the Colts. I have to, I'm an Indiana-grown girl! We're hosting our Flock group for a party (that's what our church calls the Sunday School classes.....Flocks.....Took me awhile to get used to that).

Adam and both boys have had colds this past week. Someone needs to come up with a better way to suck snot out of babies noses. Nobody likes that thing.

I can't wait until it's warm again and my babies can run around with less clothes on. They have such cute round tummies, chubby legs, and precious little piggy toes...can't wait to see them again! Also can't wait to run around with sandals on again. My toenails are painted a brilliant, bright red right now. I actually didn't have socks on the other day and Landon thought I had ketchup on my toes.

Adam has a devotional challenge in place for the youth at church: Do devotions 5x a week. It's been good for me to have something to strive for, otherwise, I find lame-0 excuses for not spending time with God as often as I should.

Anyways. The movie is over. I have no idea how it ended. That's all for this edition of my lazy Saturday afternoon ramblings.

Landon is 2!

We officially have a 2-year old in our house! Hard to believe Landon is already 2, but on the other hand, I can hardly remember what life was like without him.

We celebrated with a little party at home with just the 4 of us. I blew the candles out on Landon's birthday cupcake 4 times trying to teach him how to do it. He didn't catch on, but he liked watching me do it. (And the day after his birthday he's still talking about his birthday cupcake....that's my boy!) We spent some time opening a few little gifts that we had gotten him plus the handful of cards that were sent. Great-grandma Willis had stopped by the day before and gave him a gift (which is where he got his birthday outfit that he's wearing). And Poppy (Grandpa Willis) stopped by in the evening to share a gift with Landon also.

Here's what Landon is like at 2:

*Sleeps like a champ. Goes to bed at around 8:30 and will often sleep in until as late as 9. Very rarely does he wake before 8. And he still takes a 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon.
*He also still sleeps with a pacifier. We only allow him to have it at sleeping times.
*He's still in a crib.
*We've attempted to try to use a potty a few times. Totally not ready yet. Showing no signs of being ready. We won't think about it again until the summer probably.
*He's quite verbal for his age. He talks in broken sentences and babbles a lot as though he has something incredibly important to tell you.
*He's happy most of the time.
*He does throw fits though, but so far, they've been pretty easy to weather through.
*He loves going for car rides.
*He likes going to church. (Yes, I know he only plays in the nursery at this point, but still, he likes going to church).
*He's never dealt with any separation anxiety from Adam and I. He barely pays attention to us leaving him.
*He's good at handing out hugs when he's asked to.
*It's incredibly difficult to take a picture of him. He's always on the move!
*He loves anything with wheels.
*And most importantly, he's a very loved little boy and he knows it!

Tate @ 6 months

Tate had his 6 month check-up this morning. He's growing just fine. 27 1/2 inches long. 18 lbs 12oz. His size seeems to be tapering down a bit. He's closer to the 75th percentile rather than the 95th like when he was born. Still a big, sturdy guy for his age though. Just not ginormous.

He likes to put everything into his mouth. Everything.

We think he's quite cute and wonderful. We feel so very blessed to be parents to our two boys. Lately, we're aware of numerous instances in which people have lost their little ones or their babies have serious health issues. We feel so fortunate that we have been chosen to love these two little guys. Out of all of the people in the world, God chose us to bring them into our home and care for and nurture them.

In the Kitchen

Our neighbor likes to pheasant hunt and recently shared a couple of pheasants with us. I'm up for new things. Pheasant doesn't scare me. Adam likes to bowhunt deer, so I've had to get used to coming up with ways to eat venison. I think you could call me an experimentive cook. I like to try new things. I usually stray when using recipes. I couldn't repeat what I do or give you the exact recipe. I like to cook, but I wouldn't say I'm great. We're not going hungry though, so I think I'm doing fine.
Anyways. Below is what I did with our pheasants. I did a little online research before I decided what to do with them. It's creamed pheasant served on a bed of wild rice. I served it with some sauteed green beans. Pheasant tastes very similar to chicken, and honestly, I think I'd have trouble telling the difference, especially in this recipe. It was very tasty.

Bathroom Fix-Up

Nothing like doing a house project just days before you host a bunch of people for the holidays! I decided to give our upstairs bathroom a face-lift the week or so before Christmas. I really wish I would have snapped some before shots, but I didn't. The color of the walls was a very bright yellow....hurt your eyes yellow. Plus, there were brightly colored clown-fish stickers (think Nemo) all over the walls. Plus, they had done some splatter painting with bright colors over the sink area. They had a coordinating light switch plate cover that went with the brightly colored fish shower curtain as well (I had left the fabric shower curtain up for quite awhile that they had left behind).

So, I had to peel all of the fish off the walls, which of course, took the layer of paint off as well. Then I had to patch all the walls (nail holes, spots where the fish had been pulled off, and a few areas where the drywall was deteriorating). Then, I had to wait 24 hours and then sand these areas. Then, patch some of them further. And then wait and sand them again. (I HATE the dust from patching/sanding walls...makes me cringe just thinking about it getting on my hands and feeling all dry and icky). Then I primed the walls. Then I painted. I used the shower curtain that we used to have in our Rockford house, along with the dark blue bathmats we had from there as well.

Although, hard to tell much in a small snapshot, here's my product. I did nearly everything on my own, with only a few pointers and tips from Adam. I'm very happy with the results.

Whew!

We had a wonderful Christmas season so far....not done yet! We get together with Becca's family next weekend still.

We had the Willis side over on Christmas Eve for a fun gathering. Tate got a super cool Radio Flyer Fire engine. Landon liked that gift a lot too! We only had 1 crisis - a glass pan shattered in our oven. Thankfully, I was in the kitchen and heard it happen and we got it cleaned up as quickly as possible!

After the gathering, I took the boys to our church's Christmas Eve Service at church. WAAAAYY past their bedtimes, but they did OK. It was a nice service, although hard to fully enjoy it with an antsy toddler and the fear that the baby is going to wake up and start to wail any moment. (I'm a BIG fan of using the nursery at our church..but they don't always have it for special services).

We were pretty low-key on Christmas day. Mom Vig and Kevin arrived at our place in time for dinner, as did Adam's sister. We opened presents with them that night. Then the next morning we had our traditional Christmas breakfast of pigs in a blanket. Landon helped grandma this year.

On Saturday evening, we had the Curtis Christmas gathering at our church. Not sure how many were there, but it's obviously a good-sized crowd since we decided to have it in a church!

On Sunday, we had Adam's dad, Maria, Ty, and Grandma June over for lunch. We had a cozy time exchanging gifts and enjoying one another's company.

And then on Sunday evening, we had a houseful of friends from church over to get together in honor of our friends Marv and Lindsey being in town (they are teaching in the Dominican Republic and were home for the holidays....they have a blog link on our page).

Whew, it feels good to have a few somewhat slower days, although this week is still filled with multiple gatherings with friends and neighbors.

Christmas Cards

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's the picture that we used for our Christmas card this year:I included the following quote on it as well:

"As we seek Christ,

as we find Him,

as we follow Him,
we shall have the Christmas spirit,
not for one fleeting day each year,

but as a companion always."

-Thomas S. Monson

I wanted to include something meaningful on the card. Sure, a pic of us all smiling and looking happy is nice in itself, but I wanted it to also share where we find our source of joy and identify the hope and peace that we've found through choosing to have a relationship with Christ. Christmas is a wonderful time of the year, but the reason we have this holiday (whether we realize it or not) is because of a Savior who came to this earth in the form of a baby over 2,000 years ago. When we make an effort to seek after Him and let him have control of our lives, He will give us a immeasurably more than what we could ever ask for.

I found a GREAT deal on photocards this year. I had several promotional codes to use that enabled me to get an order of 50 cards for FREE. I did 3 separate orders and only had to pay shipping for 2 of them (a little over $6 - one code included free shipping). Yes, I once again think that I'm pretty cool (either that, or a big dork). Being able to get cards so cheap, we feel like we can share them with many more people. We plan to use it as a way to introduce ourselves to everyone on our street and court area that we didn't have the chance to meet when we moved in this summer (around 35 houses). Our church also has a card exchange program to share cards with those within the church. Plus, we still sent out cards to our family and friends.

Update

We have a really big slider in our family room. This was the morning after we got dumped with snow (lots more is predicted in the next day or so). Landon was a bit mesmerized by looking at it from inside. I bundled him up and took him out in it, but it was rather windy and he wasn't a big fan of it. We'll work on that. (Sorry, the picture is sideways. I pulled it straight from my camera without rotating it at all. You get the idea though) Landon likes to help with things a lot these days. He loves standing on a chair next to me when I'm cooking or baking. We made a double batch of fudge this morning...yummmm. He also likes to help with laundry and most other things that you ask him to help with. Help might be a bit of an overstatement in many cases, but I try to include him in my activities when I can. He's also starting to say more phrases and put multiple words together frequently. We continue to laugh at him a lot. He is still a very social, outgoing, and happy boy.

Tate is working on becoming a professional sitter-upper. My goal was to have him sitting by Christmas and I think we'll make it. He's already an established professional drooler. He soaks through multiple bibs throughout the day (I took it off for the photo). I think we'll be introducing him to rice cereal in the next week or so - as soon as I manage to get to the store to buy some.

Winter has arrived in Michigan!

Here's a look out our front door this morning. We got slammed with snow overnight. Many schools are closed. The weather lady said some areas have 8-12 inches already. And it's still snowing. Winter is not my favorite season, but I'll admit it is rather pretty outside.

Thanksgiving Festivities

We had a great Thanksgiving! We were gone for several days outside of Michigan, but it was a good time of seeing family.

First, we headed to IL on Wednesday evening to Adam's mom's house.

Here, the boys are with their Aunt Jaime. Too bad she can never keep her eyes open for a picture. ;)

Turns out my camera battery died last week. And we were in a quandry of whether to just buy a new battery ($20-30) or just get a new camera. Having little ones with the holidays coming up is not a good time to be without a camera! Well, while in IL, we got up early and hit some Black Friday sales and got a new camera. :) Nothing too fancy, but it takes pictures. Good enough for me.

Then on Friday, we headed over to IN for my family thanksigiving with my siblings. Adam's mom's house was quiet and cozy and peaceful. We get to my mom's house and there are kids running around everywhere and it's quite a bit more chaotic. Both are nice. :)
This is me with my 3 brothers. We're lined up from youngest to oldest (left to right) (not like you couldn't tell).

And this is Grandma and Grandpa Strahm with all of the grandkids.

So thankful that we got to see so many family members over the holiday!

Some new furniture for the house...

We got some "new" furniture for the house recently. Adam's Aunt Leigh is moving out of the state and so we've acquired a few items from them. This is a lovely dark purple couch and loveseat. Right now, it's in our family room, and the picture doesn't show it, but so is our old furniture. We can easily seat 12 people on couch space right now. It's kinda funny to see so many furniture items in one room even though it's a good sized room. Although, I don't think it will stay this way forever. We're just not quite sure what to do with our old couch set yet (which was also used furniture when we got it over 6 years ago). We'll probably graduate it down to the basement eventually.

We also acquired a piano that has been in the family for awhile. It's out of tune and missing some black keys, but after the holidays, we'll look into how we can give it a bit of a facelift. I'm kinda excited to tinker around on a piano again (not sure when I realistically have the time to do so!). I took lessons for 9 years or so when I was young. I'm certain I've considerably digressed in skill level since then. Which I wasn't all that great back then. For taking lessons for so long, I shoud be much better than what I am! Some people got it, and some just don't.....I think I was somewhere in between the "got it" and "don't."

And we actually purchased some new furniture also. We got these several weeks ago. I had been picturing a black leather set for our living room (That's how I decorate - I "picture" something in my head and then try to find those items...I'm weird, I know). We went to the store to check out a set we had looked at online and they didn't have that one in stock, but they had this one on a ridiculous sale. It had a bit more of a "modern" look to it than what I was going for, but it was a great price for a couch, loveseat, and chair. It's not real leather, but a leather/vinyl combo, which is probably better for having small kids and teenagers using them. And eventually, the rest of the room will be decorated. I'm picturing some lovely black and white prints on the walls. And an area rug with red/tan/black accents. And some throw pillows with red/tan/black accents (I already have deep red curtains in this room). Someday.

Tate @ 4 months old

Tate had his 4-month check-up today. He's growing like a weed (well, except that we like him...and we don't really like weeds). He weighs in at 16lbs. 14.5oz. and is 26 3/4 inches long (for a frame of reference, Landon was 15lbs. 5oz. and 26 inches long at 4 months old- however you look at it, we grow big boys). He's strong and has great muscle tone for his age. He's rolling over both ways. He sleeps pretty well at night. He has his 2 bottom teeth already (Landon didn't get his until he was 8 1/2 months). And he's talking in complete sentences. Ok, maybe not that last one yet.

Halloween Fun

We went to trunk-or-treat at our church for halloween. Yes, I know this was over 2 weeks ago...sorry, I'm a little slow. I was a zookeeper and both boys were monkeys. Kinda how I feel some days. :)

It was a cold night, so they were bundled up very well. Plus, their costumes were great deals. I paid $2 for Landon's at a garage sale. And I found Tate's on Craigslist for $7.

Adam never seems to get the memo to coordinate his costume with the rest of the family. Last year, Landon was a chicken (or rooster...I'm not sure) and I was a farm girl. Adam dressed up as a hunter. This year, he dressed as Clark Kent, as a teenager.

We're taking suggestions for next year's costumes. Maybe if we plan enough in advance we can get Adam to coordinate with us.