Christmas

With all the Christmas craziness I had no chance to blog until now, sorry I’m a bad blogger. We had several Christmas parties to go to this month, which kept our weekends fun and sometimes intense. But I am thankful to have some much of our family and friends so close, and that we all could share the holiday season together. Aynsley was a little more excited about Christmas this year; I think she got the concept of Santa but not completely. She knew what he looked like, and would say his name whenever she saw a picture of him. By Christmas Aynsley could sing jingle bells, so cute to hear!
Christmas Eve we always eat dinner with Jeff’s side of the family. This year Diane made a yummy prime rib roast: so needless to say all the guys were very happy. After we finished stuffing ourselves with as much food as we could eat we all exchanged gifts. Of course grandma and grandpa Blanda spoiled the grandkids, they all got little cd players with a karaoke microphone. Big thanks to Grandma on that one. Grandma had them all ready to go with batteries and a Chipmunk Christmas cd. So Hunter, Fisher, Brady, Aynsley, and Lilly all sang a song for us. It was sooooo cute!!!
On Christmas morning we went to Ihop with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and my brothers. My mom and dad have been doing this for about 5 or 6 years now. I prefer it this way, and then no one is stuck in the kitchen cooking all morning. After breakfast was over we went home to open presents. This year Jeff and I agreed to no presents for each other, our cruise that is coming up here soon was our present. Aynsley made out like a bandit though. Santa brought her a really cute pink mermaid fish tank. Then Jeff and I got her a trunk full of princess dresses and jewelry. We got her a few more princesses’ dresses (I got them at a great price the day after Halloween). We got her more but I would say the princess dresses were the big winner. For dinner we went to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson’s for dinner. For dinner my mom had a honey baked ham and the worlds best funeral potatoes! I could make myself fat off them I swear! After dinner we opened more presents. And once again Aynsley’s grandparents spoiled her, they got her matching princess shoes for her dresses and a super cute crown. Her aunt Belinda and uncle Jeremiah gave her a cute baby Cinderella, which she know sleep with. Christmas was awesome this year. I am really looking forward to what the new year will bring our family.

No mom?!?

So I found out something about myself in the last two weeks. I really hate it when my mom is out of town. She went to Ohio to visit her parents and stay with them for two weeks. I really wanted to go with her and take Aynsley to meet more of her great grandparents. So of course I think it’s a wonderful thing for her to go and see them, but I as super glad she is coming home today! While she was gone the whole house got sick. And when it was my turn and I woke up at 2am sick as a dog one of my thoughts was “I want my mommy and she’s not even in the same state, she would have something to help me feel better.” She always brings me up stuff like sprit or Gatorade, soup, and some stuff to settle the tummy. My super sweet husband stayed home from work to take care of me, and my awesome mother and father in-law brought down some soup, sprite, and Gatorade.
My mother is also my inspiration to bake and make yummy stuff during the holidays. Well last week was the kick off for Christmas baking, and guess how much I got done. None, zip, zero, notta! My inspiration was out of town! And I’m always calling her with questions about random stuff. It was weird not getting to talk to her for so long. Aynsley missed her to, last week we had the Vintage Oak company dinner. We asked my dad if he wouldn’t mind watching Aynsley for us, and of course he didn’t. As soon as she walked into the house she gave her pop pop a hug and then called for her grandma. “Grandma I’m here”. My dad said the managed ok without grandma and that scooter (Aynsley) feel asleep snuggling him. Also Sundays aren’t the same without mom’s cooking! So like I said we are all super glad she is coming home today.

Funny!

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The zoo in November?

One day last week Aynsley woke up and really, really, really wanted to “ go see the monkeys, alligators, and giraffes. I thought to myself why not?? The weather was perfect for it, not a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining. I wasn’t even sure if the zoo was open this time of year so I checked online and they were!!! So I packed up the car and we went! It was PERFECT!!! I would say there was ¼ the amount of people there, which made it so much better to be able to walk right up and see the animals and stay as long as we wanted to without feeling bad about hogging the front. All of the animals were out sun bathing so we got to see them all. And the icing on the cake was that everyone in the zoo was pretty much mom’s with 1-4 year olds. We rode the carousal and it took Aynsley a good minute to decide which animal she wanted to ride on, she finally choose an elephant. Then we rode the train, Aynsley LOVES trains so she was laughing and giggling the whole time. And before we left she played in the zoo park with all the kids that where there. She had so much fun that when we got in the car to go home she was asleep before we even pulled out of the parking lot.