Continuation of Christmas Festivities!

Thursday I took Ben to his very first movie in a theater. We went and saw Arthur Christmas, which was very cute. He was amazed with the big screen and the food and all the different theater rooms... and he enjoyed the movie. He had to get up a lot because he was too little for his seat, but I expected that. He is 3 after all. That night we hung out with the Kranendonks. We went out to eat (very cautiously since there were bad storms and tornado watches in affect... 3 days before Christmas for Pete's sake!) and then they came over to our house. The kids decorated some sugar cookies and we watched Elf as well. At the place where we ate, just as we were leaving Ben asked me quietly "Mommy, can I hold Aubrey's hand?" (eek! So cute!) and I said "well, you need to ask Aubrey!" So he did, and she said "SURE!" So they held hands. I didn't get a picture, but it was sure adorable. Especially since she's a bit taller than he is! Those two have a lot of fun together and they are great buddies, they play so well together.
We spent Christmas Eve-Eve with our friends which was lovely. Actually we went to lunch with Delinda and Jen that afternoon and hung out with them for a little while. Then the Elton's, Ashley (no Jacob or Savannah because Savannah was sick) and Martha came, Taylor wasn't feeling too good, came over. We ate pizza and talked and then showed them our now annual Friend Yearbook DVD that Ryan and I started last year. Since we are the picture junkies of the friends, we like to make a chronological photo DVD put to music of all our fun adventures with our friends. They look forward to it too. It's kind of the equivalent of a slide show we make them watch, which is so 70's of us, but we all enjoy it. It's fun to see how the kids have changed! We exchanged presents and hung out which I always love. Christmas Eve I started cooking about 11am after washing some dishes and getting prepared for the day. Delinda came over around 2 and she helped me finish up our traditional Collier Family Christmas meal. We usually eat this meal Christmas day, but since DJ could only spend Eve with us and we were going to Ryan's parents we decided to do it then. So we made Roast Beef, Roast Potatoes, Yorkshire Pudding, Cream Corn, Mac & Cheese, and I also had made a cheesecake earlier in the day. It was mine and Delinda's first time really making the roast and pudding, and I'd say it turned out pretty good. I've made roast in the crock pot, but we make this one in the oven. It was a little chewy but the flavor was good. I was pretty proud of us! Then afterwards we went to Jen's parents house for dessert and headed home and called Grandma and Grandpa in St George on iChat to do our Christmas Eve "cuddle". This entails everyone sitting by the light of the Christmas tree on the couch ALLLLLL squished together under a blanket and we read "The Christmas Whale" which is a story of Santa's reindeer all getting sick and not being able to deliver the Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, so the animals recruit the friendly whale to help. She takes Santa all around the world and they deliver the presents. We grew up reading that story and it was always our favorite when dad read from the book "it's a catastrophe!" in the words of Santa! Then after we read the Christ Child, which I don't have so we read a preschool version of the birth of Christ for Ben. I am so grateful for technology like that that we were able to "cuddle" with my parents even from so far away! It was great to have Delinda to cuddle with too and it was fun to giggle and everything like we used to when we were kids. Mom and I even took turns reading. After we said goodnight to my parents, we exchanged gifts with DJ and then put Ben to bed so he could prepare for his big Christmas day. DJ stuck around for a bit, and then left and Ryan and I got ready for "Santa to come". 
I actually woke up first Christmas Day (I realize this will not always be the case) but got Ryan up so we could get up before Ben so he wouldn't go in to the family room with out us videoing his reaction. We got him up and let him know we had a visitor and showed him the cookies and milk on the table and then his stocking! He opened his stocking and then we had him go in to the living room where we spent the majority of the rest of the morning opening gifts! I got a waffle maker for Christmas, so I made waffles for breakfast and we had eggs and bacon too. We got ready and went to our [noisy] Sacrament meeting. We were in the back, so it was a little... uh... "busy" back there. But the music was pretty and the Spirit was still there. After church we went to Nana and Poppy's house and waited for Ryan's sisters family to get there. We ate and then opened presents. Ben even got his very own (first) remote control car! It's Mater and it's super cute. The kids had fun opening and playing with their gifts and us adults got spoiled too!
When we got home we chatted with my parents again, only this time my brother John and his family were all there. His son JC is leaving for his mission and so we got to give him virtual hugs and wish him lots of luck! What an amazing young guy... I almost said "young man" and had to catch myself from sounding like an old fart. HA! I have to admit, after we got done chatting... I cried. I miss my family combined with pregnancy hormones. It's been a long time since I've spent a Christmas with them and seeing them once a year is kind of hard. I mean, we are where we're supposed to be and I'm SO grateful for our friends and family we have here. I just miss my little chaotic Collier family sometimes! Ben came to me while I was crying and asked what was wrong, I told him I missed my family to which he replied while hugging me "It's okay mommy. Can you stop crying now?" He doesn't like to see either of us sad. He's a sensitive little dude. It was a wonderful Christmas, BUSY, but good! Ben had so much fun and he scored! He kept saying "Mommy! Santa is so cool!"

Monday, we went to see The Muppets with Ashley and Martha and it too was cute. After that we hung out at Ashley's for a bit then went to IKEA. That place wears me out. After we ate there we came home and thus ended our Christmas vacation. I had a total of 10 days off including the weekends, and it was busy, but so nice. I missed my little squirt today. Hugging him when I picked him up was awesome and so sweet.
That's Christmas 2011 summed up, so Happy New Year! (I could only upload one photo, so I'll have to do the rest another time... stupid blogger)

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock.

 

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! I am enjoying my 5th day off at home writing you a blog post. Not sure if anyone really reads these much anymore, Facebook seems to be where it's at. But again, this is for journaling purposes. So far this month, we got our lovely little squatty tree and decorated it. It took me like two days to do that because I get worn out pretty fast. Ben got to put the first ornament on the tree (family tradition now) and that started our night of tree decorating off.

Ben got to put the first ornament on the tree, one he picked out at the store.

He enjoyed helping decorate the tree, but I'm a little particular about how and where things go so I might've moved some stuff after he put it up... teehee.  I never got around to putting up quite a bit of my decorations which kind of depressed me, but I got enough up that the house looks festive enough. I JUST put up the nativity yesterday, whoops! Seriously, I'm just tired. 

We also have enjoyed our friend Ashley and Jacob's little girl's first birthday! Time flies! I can't believe little Savannah is already a year old! We also went to another friends Christmas Dessert get-together. Which was fun! Ever since that one time a secret Santa from the ward dropped those reindeer brownies off a few years ago, it's become a tradition for us (mostly Ryan) to make them every year- so that's what we took to the party.

Reindeer Brownies

We've also enjoyed finding pretty light displays at houses and found one in a neighborhood not too far from here where the owner of the home synced music to the display. Pretty cool! Lots of work, but super enjoyable. We've had other birthday parties, work parties, horrible traffic jams (the worst I've ever been in coming out of the parking garage where I work), dog training, shopping with Nana and Merry-go-Round at the mall, Christmas Cards... very busy!

Oh and my oldest nephew JC turned 19 this past weekend and had his farewell in UT over the weekend. He leaves for his mission next week (the 28th)! He's off to Colombia, and we are so proud of him. I can't believe he's so old, and will be gone for 2 years! He's super excited and is such a good kid. 

Ben and I drove up to Knoxville, TN to visit my cousin Laura and her family over this weekend. It's only a 3 hour drive, and TN really has some beautiful scenery. Plus it's always good to be with family during the holidays! Although I enjoyed my time there, Ryan stayed home and I missed him terribly. Being pregnant and away from my husband is not allowed apparently. :) Ben was a little bit naughty because he just wanted to do everything against my will, was tired, was hungry and well... I am tired and cranky too and so we didn't get along very well. HOWEVER, we did have fun going to a Hibachi grill, Ben's first time. He was pretty entertained by the fire and the onion volcano and even ate Miso soup! (not all Miso is created equally though, this one was good, some taste like dirty sock...)  

Sunday we went to church and Ben decided that the nursery there was NOT for him there, he kept getting it confused with Primary which we've told him he's going to be in next month. SO... he and I stuck it out the last hour in the foyer. Oh well... it's a little weird going to another ward, I get it. People there were super friendly though, so that was nice. We came home Monday morning, and then stopped for lunch with Ryan on the way home. It was good to see him and you could tell the way Ben was clinging on to him how much he had missed him too.

Baby boy #2

Yesterday I had my 24 week appt, and because we didn't get a couple of important views of the baby last time we had to have another ultra sound (darn it). Ryan couldn't be there, so I asked Ashley if she could come to mostly help with Ben but to also get to see little guy. We got a few good shots of him! It was fun to see him again, but even better to see him moving and feel it at the same time. He's about 1 lb 7 oz and is in the 90th percentile for his head size! Haha! I laugh, because this is not surprising since Ben's head was a little on the large side too. He yawned for us again, which was fun to see and he has cute little feet. Ryan said you can already tell he's going to be cute! haha Which, we've talked about before because we're afraid Ben's taken all the cute genes!

Ben had me in stitches a lot yesterday, which was refreshing since we've been fighting a lot lately. First funny one was at the store, I told him I needed to get some cracker and he said "oh and mommy we need cheese!" I told him we already had some, I had bought some yesterday. He stopped the cart and looked up at me with a very serious face "mommy, let's talk about this for a second" which I laughed at and he smiled because he thought he was funny, but then quickly got back to the business of being serious and proceeded to tell me we didn't have the orange kind. I reassured him I'd bought some and we had some already and then he went on his merry way. Later in the day, I told him I was excited because I had put a treat in the mailbox for the mailman and I was impatiently waiting for him to come because I wanted to see his reaction. He was confused at first, so I told him I put a present in the mailbox for him to say thank you for all his hard work. He got really elated and said "ooooh! Mommy! Good for you!!!" and he gave me a really big hug and said "thank you for giving a present to the Mailman!!!" It was adorable. He said a lot of other really funny things but I can't remember them all. He's a little character that kid. Pretty soon we'll be moving him out of his bedroom in to the other one so we can start making room for Baby Boy. We hope to get him a big boy bed soon and get him excited about having a more "grown up" room. That will all be done after the holidays though!

Well, I should get back at the duty of wrapping gifts, I've got to make some cookies, we have to take treats to Ben's teachers, still have some shopping to do, cleaning and dishes (which I guess are the same thing), shower, ugh... so much for a week off! Delinda and Jen are coming over for Christmas Eve which I'm super excited about. We're doing the traditional Collier Christmas dinner because I'm incredibly home sick for my family. We realized that it has been since Ryan and I were engaged (2006) since we've spent a Christmas in UT with them. We of course can't afford to fly out West more than once a year because now there's 3 of us we have to pay for. Plus we are hoping to fly my parents out for the baby's birth in April. So we will try for Thanksgiving maybe next year. Anyway, I leave you with photos (if Blogger lets me) and a wish for you all to have a VERY MERRY Christmas and a wonderful and Happy New Year in 2012! If you didn't get a Christmas card... I apologize, we'll see how next year goes with two little ones!

Ben and Ally

okay okay, I know I'm a terrible blogger now.

I guess life just has caught up with me and I just don't have as much time as I used to. BUT I'm going to keep trying at least. So... what happened in November. Well a lot, but it's a matter of remembering it all!

We started some dog training classes with our dog Ally in November. A friend of ours from church is doing an apprenticeship and needed some guinea pigs and we decided why not give it a try! We also got to go to the cabin with Geoff, Martha, Jen, and the Terry's. This time we brought Ally, we usually leave her with Ryan's parents. She did surprisingly well, and we had a wonderful time there. It was low key and quiet and restful. I didn't really take very many pictures though, sorry. :)

Then the Tuesday after that, the 22nd, we went for our ultrasound and found out we're having another BOY! We are super excited! Ryan, Ben and Nana were all there and it was really fun to see our new little guy moving around and yawning and kicking my bladder... hehe. Ben was a little weirded out by the situation, I think mostly because I was crying from excitement at one point and he associates crying with sadness or pain and thought maybe I was being hurt and was worried about his mama. He asked me after the ultrasound if that lady was hurting me! ha! He wanted a baby brother, and he's getting him! I assumed the whole experience would be a little strange for him, but I wanted us all to be there no matter what. I think he was also bummed because he thought the baby was actually coming out that day! Boy, does he have an awakening coming... ha ha!  It will be fun and interesting having two boys, plus a big daddy boy. I told Ryan the other night that because I will be out numbered I see myself having to put the toilet seat down a lot in the near future! We are grateful that we do not need to buy anything really since they will have birthdays around the same time and season, so it's nice to know when I'm buying Ben new clothes- I'm also buy his little brother clothes too since he will wear them someday. :) Everyone keeps asking me if I was a little sad it wasn't a girl, and I say not at all. It would've been fun too, but I was happy either way- and really the savings we'll have over time will be awesome. Little girl clothes are fun to look at but I have lots of friends to buy them for. :) We think we have a name for the little guy, but I want to wait before I "officially" announce it until we've decided we like it well enough to just go for it. This little "Peanut" is a very wiggly little one, and he particularly likes my bladder for some reason. Yesterday he was very active for about 4-5 hours in the morning which surprised me because he even woke me up doing it. I don't remember if Ben was this active or not, but I don't remember ever being woken up. BUT these two are different little people and I can't wait to see what he looks like and what his own little personality is! So fun!

Smith Family

So after that fun day, we spent Thanksgiving with Ryan's family. It is always good to see the relatives we only get to really see around the holidays. We took some family photos, ate a lot of good food, and Ben had a blast playing with his cousins! They played football, and cars and he even had fun on his trike even though he crashed and hurt his hand. He was fine, but he got a lot of attention from everyone and he sucked it all up. For a minute there I thought his hand was broken because he was acting like it was hurting him so bad. It wasn't though, and luckily Ryan's cousin who was there is a doctor so he "checked" him out and he was fine.

 

The day after Thanksgiving, I had to work but got to leave early and we drove ourselves up to Chicago. Well, we stayed in a NICE hotel in Indiana on the way and then got there Saturday morning. That day we had a little "Thanksgiving" Dinner with Delinda and Jen. We made Cornish Game Hens and stuffing and some other sides, and well as my double layer pumpkin pie cheesecake. Both Ryan and Delinda LOVE it, so it's kind of a requirement. Sunday it was rainy and miserable out, but we managed to run some errands which included buying a Christmas tree and then later when it cleared up we went to Gino's East where one of our favorite shows "Man VS. Food" went. The food and atmosphere were super! It was super cute. Afterwards we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and saw the Zoo Lights (for free! yay!) and froze our bums off. Actually, it wasn't that bad... Ben was super bundled up but I wasn't that cold.

Lincoln Park Zoo Lights

I couldn't walk around a lot because this little Peanut I'm growing is really hanging out in my very front and makes my stomach stretch when I stand or walk for too long... and I'm only 5 months! ACK! What's it going to be in like 3? ugh... anyway, when we were done we went back to their place and Ben helped decorate their tree.  Monday DJ had to teach so the 3 of us went on a ride up to Northwestern U to a playground we took Ben to last year. It's at a really cool old Art building with a lighthouse and it's RIGHT on Lake Michigan (which makes it uber freezing). There are some AMAZING beautiful homes up in that area. We couldn't stay for very long, much to Ben's utter dismay because we were all very cold... but we had at least brought his bike and he was able to ride it around a bit and play on the playground parts that weren't wet from the rain.

We went to get Delinda afterwards and then walked around some of the exhibits again at the Art Institute of Chicago (free again!). Ben was being a little... bit... um... ahem, bratty... so we didn't stay long. We went to The Bean for traditions sake and because it's literally across the street and then went back to DJ's to eat lunch. That night we just went out for dinner, oh and before that DJ and I went to get some yummy cupcakes at their fav bakery. Then Tuesday we took the long drive home. It was a fun but VERY short trip, and I wish it would've been even just a day longer. Luckily we get to see them at Christmas time though. So now... back to life. I have only had to work 2 days this week which has been nice. Today Ben and I ran around a bit, and I'm all worn out. I consider it to be a succesful day though because I managed to keep no dishes in the sink, took a short little nap at the same time Ben did and made delicious Manicotti for dinner for the first time.

So happy December! We are going to get our tree tomorrow and the house all decorated and I'm so excited. I honestly don't have a lot of motivation for shopping, nor do I have any good ideas... but I'm sure gonna try! That is all for now. :)