Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was a little more exciting than usual. We had so much snow, so instead of hanging out inside, we spent most of the day playing outside in it. It was a welcomed change of pace. The day started off by Jeremy doing something that desperately needed done...shoveling. We hadn't done any shoveling of the sidewalks or driveway, but the snow was piling up like crazy. After that, and Jeremy battling the roads to go the the grocery store, we went out to do some sledding and igloo making. The kids love sledding, so we met up with our friends, the Gumms, at the park to play in the snow. We walked to the park that is just down the street from us, but it took much longer than usual, with the snow almost up to our knees in some places. It was crazy! We then came back to our house, where Jeremy decided an igloo was appropriate to make in our wintry wonderland of a yard. The kid in him came out and he finished a great looking igloo for the kids to play in. After a fun, and cold day in the snow we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Klein's for pizza, Home Alone, games, and cookie decorating. We also got to open one gift. We were pretty convinced we weren't going to make it to their house though, with all the snow. Jeremy's trip to the store was very eventful, with lots of spinning, sliding, and stress. We ended up putting the chains on and that made a world of difference. The day turned out to be really nice and relaxing overall. It was a fun way to start the big Christmas day!

Jer doing some shoveling.

Parker, surprisingly, loves to sled!

Sam decided to try it out herself! She did great!

Parker and Natalie eating snow...yum!

Jeremy working on the igloo. Looks good!

Sam testing it out.

Sam wanted Jer to join in the fun!

The older kids decorating their sugar cookies. Silly Tay!

Presents! Thanks Jess for the My Little Pony toys!

Parker loved his gift from Aunt Jessi too!

Emily helping Parker play some music.

Santa Party

Jeremy's work, Allyis, had it's annual "Santa Party" for all the kids on December 13th. I'm a little behind, but I thought I'd blog this anyways...This year they had the party at a children's museum, which they rented out. They had LOTS to do, including pictures with Santa, Build A Bear Workshop came, crafts, treats, and the whole museum to ourselves! It was a blast! The first thing we did was visit Santa. Of course Samantha had to put up a fight, not wanting to sit on his lap. We got one complimentary 5 by 7 photo, so I REALLY wanted the kids to sit on his lap and get a good picture, but it wasn't so easy. Parker sat on his lap wonderfully, but Sam refused. But then, right after we got the picture taken of Parker and Santa , Samantha decided she wanted a try at it. By then I was annoyed at the fact that she wouldn't do it the first time, so we told her it was too late. There was a long line and we were done, at least in my eyes. Well, when we told her it was too late, she freaked out and threw one of the biggest tantrums she's probably ever thrown! We were so embarrassed! Well, Jer took her straight to the car and she had a LONG timeout. When she got a grip of herself they came back in, but because of her horrible fit, we decided that definitely she shouldn't be able to sit on his lap. Mean? Probably, but her behavior was terrible! As you can see in pictures though, Santa befriended her while he was walking around and I got a quick snapshot of them together in his chair. By then they were done with pictures, so they let me take one with mine. I justified her being able to hang out with Santa by telling Jeremy that it was Santa, not me, who did it!!! So, that's the story behind the Santa picture. Parker got a really cute one with him too, but I'm too lazy to scan it and my camera keeps being fuzzy when I take a picture of the picture. Make sense??? Well, other than the major fit, the party was really fun! The kids built a moose thanks to Build A Bear who came. Each kid got one moose and an outfit. It was great :) The museum was a fabulous one, with a ton to do. It was really nice. Everyone had so much fun. Thanks, Allyis! We love this company!

Merry Christmas!

The woods in our backyard

Well, it's 1:00 am...Trust me, I haven't been waiting up all night to write a post to say the official "Merry Christmas." No, I'm wide awake after wrapping presents and watching season 4 of The Office for the past three hours! Actually, I like staying up late with Jeremy watching a movie or tv, getting ready for the big day! It's fun, just tiring. Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas Eve today playing in the snow (I'll be posting some fun pictures of that soon!), spending time with some friends, and enjoying an evening with family. It was a great day. I know tomorrow will be even better! I know it will be full of presents and food and fun, but let us all remember what Christmas really is about and who we are celebrating. I know I will be. I love Christmas and the spirit of it. I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow and is able to enjoy a special day with friends and family. Have a Merry Christmas!

We have a white Christmas this year! Yeah! (this almost NEVER happens!)

Kidney Stones...Round 2!

Caution...this may be a little graphic for some!

So, just to update you on the title of this post...I woke up the tuesday before Thanksgiving with horrible back and side pain.  After some pretty intense pain and 6 or 7 throw-up sessions I finally made it to the hospital.  I had a feeling I had a kidney stone, because I've had them a few times before.  Well, it turns out that I did.  I was at the hospital for the day and was sent home with pain killers and some anti-nausia pills.  Well, three weeks later, to the day (this past tuesday) I woke up around 8 o'clock with horrible pain on the same side as my kidney stones last time.  I automatically knew what was going on.  I thought for sure I could deal with it at home, since I had the pain meds from last time.  The first few hours were ok.  I just slept and the pain meds worked ok.  Well, as the meds wore off I decided it was time for more but the pain came so quickly and it was so intense that I got sick.  You see, when I have pain like that, I get very sick and throw up a lot.  SO, that's what happened.  I kept trying to take pain killers and my anti-nausia meds but I couldn't keep them down.  So, after HOURS of this horrible cycle I finally decided it was time to head to the hospital.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a hold of my mom and Jer's mom was at work, so I had to wait until we could get a hold of somebody to watch the kids.  Finally, at 5 o'clock in the evening I made my way to the hospital, thanks to Jeremy's dad who made it over to the house.  I wasn't sure exactly what would happen this time, being it was my 2nd time in less than a month.  To make a longer story shorter, I ended up staying the night in the hospital in the maternity ward, so they could monitor the baby at the same time.  Around 4:30 yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) I went in for surgery where they put a stent in (it's like a tube that they put in your urethra/urinary tract to open it up to allow stones or whatever to come out on it's own easily).  While they were in there they did find the stone that was causing so much trouble and they got it out.  They opted to keep the stent in though, just in case I had more than one.  They can't do a CT scan, which would tell them a lot, because I'm pregnant, so the stent is more of a precaution.  Luckily, I get this stent out on Monday.  I guess it's a quick procedure, but painful.  Yeah, more pain!  To get an idea of what will happen... I have this string hanging out of me right now, attached to the stent.  When I get it out they'll just pull on it I guess, to get it out.  Fun stuff.  Anyways, I made it home (which is a miracle!)  last night around midnight.  I say it's a miracle because usually after I get out of general anesthesia I'm very groggy and I throw up a lot.  It usually takes me hours and hours to snap out of it, but this time I was up and ready within a couple hours.  They made me stay a little longer than normal though to monitor me for contractions with the baby.  I guess "going under" can cause preterm labor sometimes.  Anyway, I'm home now and feeling much better as far as the pain goes.  I'm a little sore from the surgery, but nothing like before.  I'm just glad to get this over with before Christmas.  Of course, that's what I said last time, except last time it was Thanksgiving! 

I hope that didn't gross anyone out too much!  Sorry if it's too detailed!

First Snowfall of the Season

It's finally snowing! I really love the snow! I think it's so pretty, and fun to play in. I still feel like a little kid sometimes when I hear it's gonna snow. We woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of snow. We got a couple inches, which isn't a ton, but enough for us Seattle folk. Here's a glance of the fun we had in it today!

Clam Lights & Snowflake Lane!

This past weekend and family night we were able to get into the Christmas spirit by going to two fun, local events that go on every year. On Saturday night we took a little drive to Lake Washington to see, what they call, Clam Lights. It's sponsored by Ivar's, a local seafood restaurant, so I suppose that's where they got the name...Anyway, they have an area by the lake which is decorated with tons of lights. The lights go out onto the dock and they have an area with a fire to get warm by. It's just really relaxing (and cold!) to walk by the lake at night and enjoy the lights. If you're hungry, they also have a couple restaurants that are open year round that you can go to. One of them being Ivar's, of course.

(I hate this pic of myself.  I look really WIDE!  Jer looks good though, so I added it anyways...)

We also made it to Snowflake Lane on Monday night. This has become one of our family traditions. One of our big malls, in Bellevue, does a great show outside on the main street that runs in front of it. It consists of a huge line of drummers who are dressed up in "toy soldier" outfits who play and dance for you. There's music, lights, and fun characters to meet also. You watch the light show on the mall and buildings that run along the street. And to top it off, they blow "snow" on you from the rooftops of the buildings. It's really fun! The kids really enjoyed getting suckers from one of the toy soldiers who was walking around on stilts. It was pretty neat looking! It was a really great family night!

And the baby is a...

We went for our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and we found out the baby is a boy!!! It was really no surprise to me. I've been thinking is was a boy from the very beginning. Anyway, everything is great. Baby looks good and healthy. I've been feeling really good too. I haven't been sick at all, except for a few weeks in the beginning. I never threw up, just felt icky, but food usually helped. That's probably why I started gaining weight so quickly! I'm not as tired as I was the first trimester, which is great. I hate being exhausted all the time and having kids to deal with and all the other everyday things. Samantha was a little bummed about the whole "boy" thing happening again. She was all about having a little sister. Oh well. I just reminded her of one of her best little friends, Megan, who has two little brothers, just like she'll have. That made it better. So, we are very excited to have another little boy in the house! Parker has been such a snugly little guy, so I hope our next is so lovable too! I hope he's not as cranky as Parker though, in the beginning. We'll see! I hope April comes QUICKLY!!!

Here's my belly at 20 weeks, 5 days. I couldn't decide which one was a better picture, so I posted both :) Really, I just hate pictures of myself when I'm pregnant. So, neither is great...at all.

Girls' night out!

On Saturday night I had a fabulous girls' night out with two of my best friends, Heidi and Wendy. And what better to do, but go see TWILIGHT?! Yes, we are part of the crazy Twilight fan club. Heidi even got us some shirts to sport at the movies! We purposely waited until this weekend to watch it, waiting for the crowds to die down a bit. We started the night off by shopping, then we headed over to Red Robin to get dinner. After a relaxing dinner we did more shopping! That's what girls do best! Finally it was movie time and I loved it! I thought it was a great movie. I think if you hadn't read the book it may not have been as good, but since I did I really enjoyed it. I may have been hoping for a little more. I don't know what, but it wasn't AS awesome as I thought it would be. I still really liked it though! It was a great night out. Thanks girls for being such wonderful friends! I love being around you two!!!

Christmas Prep

This weekend we got out our Christmas decorations. It's so fun to do, but at the same time it's such a pain! Once it's done though, I'm so pleased and it looks so nice. It totally gets me into the Christmas spirit. I love it! While others were out battling the BLACK FRIDAY rush, I was in my pj's looking through my Christmas totes. Jeremy started off by putting up our lights outside. Of course, it was raining...I mean, it is Seattle. So, with boots and raincoat on, he climbed the ladder and got them up. We also put garland and lights and a big old bow on our lamp post and some in our bushes. I think it looks great!

Next was the tree. It is a new tree. Fake, but new. So, it took a little longer to get up. The branches were flat as can be and making it actually look like a tree took some time. Once that was done, we decorated the tree, only to realize we were at least two stands of lights short! SO, we did battle the crowd a bit and headed to Target to get more lights. Of course the lights we had bought a week earlier were on sale, which meant they were out of stock. We then headed to another Target and low and behold they had only two boxes left! Score! We also realized after we got home that our star for the top doesn't fit. We'll be back to Target soon for that. And I think one of these days we'll make a paper chain or something cute (popcorn string?) for garland too. Anyways, we finally got it up and got the other decorations out. Our village looks nice with the train. The kids were obsessing over it for a while, but the newness, luckily, has worn off.

It was fun getting everything out and getting ready for the holidays. It's just the start of all the hustle and bustle of Christmas! Fun, but tiring! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

The Klein Family

This Thanksgiving was much like most Thanksgivings...We spent the day with Jeremy's family, which has become tradition. But, before we could make our way to their house Jeremy had his Turkey Bowl to play. He plays football every Saturday anyways, but on Thanksgiving they beef it up, adding many more players and make a whole tournament out of it. Jer's team came in 3rd, out of 4 teams. He was just happy they didn't come in last! He was a little bummed when he got home because I never showed up to watch the big game. I suppose there was some miscommunication...I didn't realize I was definitely supposed to go and that he was going to be looking for me. Sorry, Jer! I bet you looked great out there and you know I love you! While he was gone I was actually doing a little baking. I made some yummy pumpkin bread and my "famous" bean dip for appetizers. The dip is not really famous, just well liked by the family :)

All the guys at football

(I stole this from you, Em)

We finally went over to Jeremy's parents' house after I got Parker to take a little nap and started off by eating till we were sick. It wasn't even turkey time yet, but Sharon has a delicious spread of snacks to munch on until dinner. Everything from crackers and cheese to meatballs and lil' smokies. While the guys (and Jess) played the Wii, the girls relaxed, ate, and slept. The kids played nicely together downstairs. It was a very relaxing few hours before the big dinner.

Jake and Emily invited their good friends, Clark and Lisa and their two kids for dinner. It was great having lots of people around to spend the holidays with! A little crowded, but the more the merrier, right? Parker barely ate anything for dinner and I suspect it's because he ate almost every single candy cane off the Christmas tree throughout the afternoon. It was really amazing how obsessed he was with the candy canes. I decided right then that we were NOT having them on our tree this year. Crazy kid!

We did have one mishap towards our turkey dinner. Jer and I offered to get us a smoked turkey, which we had last year and seemed to be a hit. Well, we followed the instructions perfectly on how to reheat it, but as dinner approached we checked on it and it was a bust...the turkey was still cold!!! How can a turkey be in a oven for 4 hours and still be cold??? Well, it seemed the temperature in the instructions HAD to be wrong. So, at 10:00 p.m. the turkey was finally done :( Luckily, Sharon had made a small turkey the night before to use for gravy, so we were able to warm that up and at least have SOME turkey. What a disappointment though! We brought some home and it's great leftovers. We had turkey sandwiches today and it was very good!

Overall, it was a great day. Lots of food, family, and fun! I'm so thankful for everything I have in my life and days like yesterday always make me more aware of all my blessings.

Chips and crackers...yum. Fake smiles? I think so!

Parker had to join in the fun too in his little chair.

The kids playing in Grandma's Christmas decorations. Funny kids!

Parker, with all his food on his plate still. Too many candy canes!

Gathering around the table for dinner.