Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas with the Calls

This year our Christmas plans with the Call's got changed a bit with snow, a trip to North Carolina, and Phil being sick.  Phil's mom, Sarah, and Thomas decided to go visit Robert and Heather down in North Carolina for a couple days while his dad was on a trip for work.  It worked out well because Phil was burning up due to the fever from the flu.  It lasted for forever!  His fever didn't break until Thursday afternoon after starting on Sunday night!  So far I have gotten lucky and haven't gotten it so I'm hoping that my luck sticks and I can keep away from it for the rest of the season.  Southern Indiana also got a bunch of snow when we were supposed to being leaving for Batesville, they actually got significantly more than we did, which definitely wasn't fair, but it did make for some good sledding in their hilly backyard later on in the week!  We did eventually make it down on Friday afternoon and immediately had Christmas with everyone.  Santa even brought Sarah and Phil's mom some things they had forgotten at our house!  Pete got a choo-choo and a dump truck for his legos and a cute shirt, plus a stick tractor book from his cousin Eliza, since I didn't let him open it at our house and made him wait. (mean mommy!) I got tons of play-dough, containers and a super cute yellow scarf.  Phil got a yellow shirt to match my scarf and some Mr. Potato Heads.  We also got some family presents of food storage goodies so that is always exciting. 

We have been playing a ton and Pete is soaking up all the time he can with Popo.  Poor Popo hasn't even gotten much time to go and work on his plane because Pete won't let him out of sight!  Every time he has had to leave the house for something Pete wanders around the house yelling, "Popo! Popo! Pete Popo..." until he finds something interesting for awhile and then he will resume the search until finally he hears him come through the door.  Pete really does like grammy and Sarah and Thomas too but Popo's always seem to be the great prizes in the family in his eyes.  Before Christmas I asked Pete what he wanted for Christmas, I was expecting a "Mowie"  or Choo-choo for an answer but no it was a thought out response, Popo.  I am so glad to have a son that wants a person more than a thing, it takes most people years and years and many losses to truly realize what they really want in this world, only to have it be too late in this lifetime to really happen.  But I'm also glad to have wonderful men in my life that can be such great Popos!  We are truly blessed to have great Dads that have become amazing grandpas and grandpas that are super Great Grandpas! So thanks grandpas! Thanks for the hour long tractor rides, and airplane play and snuggles with a crazy toddler because that is what he truly wanted for Christmas was time with his Popos and boy did he get it in spades!

Also I just joined twitter so find me at @kimphilpluspete

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

First Christmas in Our House

This year I did something a bit different and had all of the presents for Pete bought way early, as in last year after the day after Christmas for the most part. It worked out well because I got everything for cheap and had it bought already, so when our car decided to die in the parking lot at 10.30 the other night, while it was snowing. I didn't have to worry when I had it towed to the shop and got the $256 bill. It still stunk but I was worrying about where the money would come from that close to Christmas. Disaster averted. Normally we don't do much for each other but get Pete a bit more though all he gets really are clothes for the summer time (that I bought on the clearance rack earlier in the year) and books plus some stuff that he generally needs. We were planning on doing homemade only gifts for the two of us, but Phil ran out of time so I picked myself up a new purse while at the outlet malls a couple weeks ago. I made Phil a super cool mug at Pottery Bayou. We are huge Star Wars geeks and I had to make this mug for Phil when I saw it on Pinterest. On the back it says, "You're the Obi Wan for Me!"  I then also found a coat to replace his 10 year old goodwill coat for him as well and he had time to work on my homemade presents as well so we ended up getting some other presents too! We still didn't even go over 40 bucks for total for our couple gifts! Pete had one special gift to open that didn't make it over to Great Grandma Horn's Christmas the other day because it had lots of little pieces we didn't want to get lost in the mayhem. He got a crop duster playset! It has a crop duster and playmat and truck with a trailer and barrels and a tractor and fake corn rows. He was so excited with it. I think he was thrilled with all of his presents this year. He didn't get a ton of toys but he did get what he enjoys farm stuff and trains!

Mom and Dad came over for fresh cinnamon rolls and to watch us open presents.  In the past we had done it on our own and it was kind of boring after having so many people around earlier on in the season to be just the three of us.  Maybe once Pete gets older and is really getting into it, we will like the just us time but for now it was so much more fun, plus I didn't have a ton of cinnamon rolls sitting around the house whispering my name to come and eat them...instead I dropped off the leftovers at a friends house so they could have a special treat!  

That is 3 of our Christmas' down and 2 more to go!  The joys of having lots of family and having them nearby!

Christmas with the Horn's

Monday we had Christmas with my parents and Matt and his family. The kids of course were ultra excited (okay the older ones that knew what was going on) Pete was almost the last one to get up, but he had stayed up late the night before at Great Grandma Horn's. Pete is about the slowest present opener of all time. He was the last one to finish! He is really good at appreciating each gift though, so that was nice. Each one got played with at least a bit before moving onto the next package to be opened. He got some Thomas the Train cars and a building and some new GeoTrax tracks and train car. He also got some clothes, every kid's worse nightmare. An unexpected coolness though (for him, I knew it was coming) was his tractor pillowcase. It matches his "mowie blanket" and his new tractor from Great Grandma Horn is on it! He was so excited when he realized what the chunk of fabric was, he even wanted to get in his crib for bed! Phil got some new sweaters, a little ladder (with a giftcard to buy a real ladder to get on our roof) and a new harmonica. The kids were mesmerized buy the little ladder that Dad had made and we had to take it away from them because they kept fighting over it, after they had all gotten cool stuff for presents! It was an interesting turn of events. I some pretty sweet stuff too. Mostly things for the kitchen but that is what I enjoy so it works out well, and Phil and Pete end up liking it too! I got a Yonanas machine (it makes ice cream out of frozen bananas), a tortilla press (I actually made pretty homemade tortillas for dinner tonight) and a tortilla bowl baking pan to make taco salads. I did get some non-kitchen stuff too, like my programmable thermostat, and some non-metallic jewelry.

Pete modeling his pillowcase and blanket tonight while sleeping
Phil also became officially sick in the morning as well. He started running a fever and it still has broken as of 9.30 on Tuesday night. So it kind of made it a bit sad but Pete and I had a fun time while Phil slept and tried fighting it in bed.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas with the Horn Grandparents

Today we had our first Christmas of the season. It was with my grandparents and family. We had it over at there house which was packed full with the 5 little kids and all the adults. We had a delicious dinner and dessert plus lots of wonderful presents! The last couple years grandma has wanted help getting the presents so enlists the parents to get the kids gifts so we get the money to buy what they need/want. We knew early on what Pete wanted-a "big" red tractor preferably one with some kind of implement or trailer to go along with it considering his obsession with hitching things together. Well I found the perfect one the other day at TSC and picked it up for him. It was a metal Farmall H, which personally doesn't mean anything to me all I know is that it was in our price range, metal (meaning harder for Pete to destroy), red, looks old, and it came with a wagon to hitch up! He also got some new shoes for the summer, pj's and some monster trucks. I'd even found some ridiculous tractor wrapping paper for it on super clearance. Phil got a case for his electronics and some shoes. I got a new pair of boots, yoga pants and a shirt and the big one was a new printer. The one we've been using is one I got for college so it is ready to be replaced and I'm super excited to have wireless and mobile printing!

First notices the present (see the paper?)
Most of paper removed

Sees what is in the big box, smile starts to appear

Sheer joy as he truly sees what is in the box
I stopped adding pictures here because I figured you'd see lots of pictures of Pete playing with it in the future!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas Time

Well 'tis the season.  We've had our tree up since the day after Thanksgiving, along with our beautiful homemade tree skirt.  I've had the scented pine cone garland up over the doorway to the  dining room.  The stockings are made and are ready to hang up on Christmas Eve.  All of the presents are wrapped and ready to go to the various houses for Christmas with the family.  Pretty much it's go time.

Last year I'll admit it I wasn't too into the "Christmas Spirit", no clue why but I just wasn't into it I barely got the tree up and Phil didn't want to do it either.  This year though is a whole other story.  We are super excited to see Pete do the Christmas thing.  He isn't getting a ton but what he is getting (okay from someone other than us, ours is mostly pretty lame) is perfect and he will love it.  He is already trying to attack the presents.  I decided not to use the bows because they always get yanked off first and make the wrapping ugly afterwards.

We have been doing our Advent calendars, Phil has the Star Wars Lego one from last year (thank you clearance) and Pete has a chocolate one along with me.  We aren't doing the Santa thing too much except for the stockings and we have one Santa decoration and only because Pete found it before the box of unused decorations made it back to the basement for storage.  I'm just not into it.  We always did it some but not a ton.  We are probably going to do the same thing.  I see how it can be fun but for us it is just more of a symbol of the consumerist spirit of the season and just another way to guilt people into buying more junk.

This year we are trying something  new for Christmas cards.  We are sending out e-cards from jibjab instead of the traditional ones.  Normally I drop a ton of money on the cards,stamps and pictures to go with them along with the time involved considering our extended family!

Well here is the end project, enjoy!


Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Christmas Crafting-Stockings

Another update for us is our stockings this year.  Normally I just use the 98 cent ones I picked up from Target when we got married but again new house I should probably stop making it look like a cheap apartment.  I couldn't decide what I really wanted so I went with some cute blue jean stockings for Pete and I and made Phil one from a sweater.  I wasn't a huge fan of the sweater stocking, but it was incredibly easy to make, which was also the point of making it.  Personally there is no point in putting tons of time and money into something to hang up for maybe a month of the year!

Blue Jean stockings
I made two stockings from one pair of my pants and no I'm not telling you the size.  I used the butt portion so I could get the pockets and use the to of the pants for the stocking and save myself a hem along the way.  I used our old stockings as a guide for the shape and just made them a bit bigger to allow for some seam allowance.  I just use the side of the foot for a guide since it won't be doing much "work" and I could save myself some space inside.  The back of the stocking I used the bottom leg portion again to save myself some hemming on denim. You should really use some WonderUnder on the toe and heel decorations but I didn't and think they turned out fine without it.

Sweater Stocking
I cut this one out a lot bigger than my previous ones because I was going to do French seams on it.  A French seam makes it so the ravelins stay inside of a pocket that you are making by sewing it twice.  It saves me from lining a ton of things that normally I would feel compelled to finish up more with linings. You sew it wrong sides together first. Then sew it again with right sides together keeping your first seams raw edges between the first and second sewn seams.  (To the right of your second seam.)  Or if you want a better explanation check out this tutorial.

Christmas Crafting- The Tree Skirt

My first Christmas crafting was a tree skirt.  For the last few years (okay since we've been married) we have used a tablecloth or chunk of material for a tree skirt.  Now that we have a house, I decided it was time to finally get a real tree skirt.  I looked into buying one and $30 was not a price I was willing to pay for material to cover up a tree stand and keep packages off the floor!  Maybe if it was cheaper I would have just bought one and been a lazy bum. The hardest part of this tree skirt is figuring out how to put the material together to get it reversible which is where I messed up on mine while making it at 11pm one night.  I could go through and fix it but I'll just make another if I want to change it up.  


Reversible Star Christmas Tree Skirt

Supplies:
4 Squares of cotton, main and contrasting colors- Your size will depend on the width of your tree I made my squares end right at the edge of my bottom branches for our house. 
Sewing machine
pins
scissors

With right sides together sew two of the same pieces (main with main color) of fabric together leaving a small opening to turn it right side out. This will give you a big square pillow case.  Do the same thing with the other 2 pieces of contrasting fabric. Next find the centers of your squares and pin together the squares forming a star shape.  You really will want to pin this part together because it will move like crazy on you.  Sew the squares together, Make sure your bobbin color will look good with the underside because it will be visible on the backside.  Now in between two points of your star cut to the center of the star/squares and make a circle for your tree trunk.  Pin both sides so you can zig zag over the edges of the new cuts to prevent fraying.

There is your new tree skirt! Super easy and a bit different than your basic circle or old tablecloth.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Family Pictures!

On Black Friday we went to Olan Mills and had our family pictures taken.  They had a deal going for an image cd with all your pictures for 39 bucks, which is a crazy good deal since normally it is around 150 for it. We finally got them back yesterday and today I'm going through the cd. 



Thursday, December 6, 2012

Hot Chocolate and Toast

 This is one of my favorite breakfasts of all time.  I've mentioned it to many people and just get blank stares until I explain its sheer deliciousness to them, which sometimes still give blank stares back, but oh well more for me!  The basics of it are hot cocoa (not instant, the good stuff made on the stove) and peanut butter toast.  You slather on the pb and then fold the toast in half then dip it in the hot cocoa.  It is a masterpiece of chocolate, peanut butter and bread.  A classic.  Today I made it for lunch because I felt bad feeding Pete his normal cheese fare, so I changed it up a bit.  Here is the evidence of the meal and pleasure that Pete got out of it.  Apparently he was a bit more interested in the hot chocolate than the toast today but I did give him a treat of marshmallow cream so it was to be expected.  I loved that he was licking the marshmallow cream instead of grabbing a spoon which he did eventually dig through the sliverware drawer to find.
Ummm...Can I help you?



Pete likes his pb toast open face style


Finally resorting to technology to eat the marshmallow cream

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Biggest Hick of the Year Award

So wondering how Pete and I earned this highest honor?  Well after grocery shopping around town we finally made it to Martin's Supermarket to get some lunch with Grandma Horn and finish up our expedition around town before Pete's nap.  I'd checked his diaper before putting him in his car seat to head to our final stop he was dry and ready to go and they weren't across town from each other pretty close really for Indiana.  We made it through the produce and I picked out my sushi, grandma her sandwich and Pete his muffin (real healthy lunch their mom, but in my defense it was pumpkin).  We paid for our lunch and sat down to eat.  I'd finished my sushi up and check out what Pete was doing and noticed his seat was soaked (non vinyl seats in an eating establishment, great idea) as were his pants.  He'd peed all the way through his diaper, flannel lined pants and the seat cushion!  I ran him to the bathroom and changed his diaper, but didn't have any extra pants since it hasn't been an issue for the last year!  So we continued our shopping trip (this is December mind you, though 65 degrees that day) with Pete in a diaper, shoes and socks and the kicker-a John Deere tractor shirt.  Isn't it the cherry on top of the story thereby qualifying us for the award?!

 ...But it sadly gets even worse...

 Pete had a container of chocolate milk he was drinking with a straw.  Well he got to the bottom of the container and tipped it back to get some more forgetting about the straw.  There was more than he thought left in there and dumped it all down his shirt, diaper and the floor.  So now I have to clean him up with the remaining dry part of his shirt, the back.  So now picture toddler/preschooler in the grocery cart in a cloth diaper and nothing else, but in December.

 Really I'm surprised CPS hasn't showed up on my doorstep demanding answer about that trip.  I mean really! It was insane and what kind of mother has her kid in just a diaper in December.  The looks I got were absolutely awful so I kept trying to explain to the poor cashier that just kept looking at me like I was insane.

Oh the joys of motherhood.  Please tell me you bad mommy moment so I don't feel so bad.  Please?!

Monday, December 3, 2012

A Video Post

Here are some videos that we'd taken with the camera awhile ago and just now took off.  One is from our trip to Five Oaks Dairy.  They have a big tour you can go on, the whole thing takes a good 3ish hours and we could have spent even more time there if we didn't have more plans for the day. They have a cow painted bus you ride on through the cow barns and then get to watch the miking carousel, there is also a birthing barn and some videos and a "moo-seum" to go through.  In the summer they have a playset, train rides and some other outdoor games to play.  They did have a giant trampoline/bounce house thing.  It was a mix of the and was so stinking awesome.  The adults kept playing after the kids got tired of it!  Pete had a blast as did Matt and Tashina's kiddos.  Pete really liked the idea of a cow bus, two favorite things in one.  Phil wasn't able to come with us because he was at a conference in Indy for Student Council.



The next video is of Pete working Great Grand Popo's puzzle.  He swiped his glasses and was wandering around their house with them on.  What a silly boy!