Christmas Day

We ended our 48 hours of Christmas with Christmas dinner and presents at our house with my parents, siblings and mother in law.  We made our tradition fest of ham, cheesy potatoes, veggies, dinner rolls, salads, wine and pies for dessert!  After eating until we all hurt it was time to open presents!  The boys were more than spoiled once again, I truly don't know where to put all the toys we have gained this Christmas - might be time for a larger house just to accommodate my boys and their toys!!  We were very blessed this Christmas to spend so much time surrounded by the ones who love us.  We still have one more Christmas celebration in early January with my mom's side of the family and then we can say that another Christmas Season is officially complete!  Hope everyone else had a great Christmas as well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Did I forget to mention that my sister got Mason a drum set?  Yes I will get her back someday for that one but I do have to admit that he loves it so much and is so animated when he plays that is can be quite entertaining!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning through the eyes of children is what it is all about.  Christmas Eve we set out cookies and milk for Santa and then put the boys to bed just before 9pm - bedtime was so easy being as Santa was coming and we needed to hurry up and get to sleep - and then once they were fast asleep Frankie and I got to work.  My dad brought over the awesome train table he built for the boys, we set up the train set, stuffed the stockings and unloaded the presents in front of the fireplace. Then it was off to dreamland as we knew someone would be up nice and early.  At 7:15am Christmas Morning I could hear the footsteps of our oldest, I woke up Frankie and said I hope you are ready cause here he comes.  About a minute later he come running through our bedroom door grabbed my and arm attempted to pull me out of bed while saying "Santa was here and I think he was playing"! We all went out in the family to find the gifts Santa left for us.  Of course we couldn't start opening presents until Mason was awake so Colton ran upstairs to wake up his little brother.  Daddy followed close behind him to help get Mason out of his crib and I went to grab the boys glasses of juice.  Once everyone was back to the family room we ripped through presents, played with the new train table and simply enjoyed a family fun Christmas Morning!  

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Frankie's side of the family! It is always fun to get everyone together especially the five little Berberena's boys, ages 6, 5, 4, 2 (close enough) and 6 months!  We all started out by going to the Children's Service together at church, then we enjoyed a very traditional Christmas Feast of tacos (ha, so simple and the boys love them) and then we moved on presents.  The boys were so excited and ooohing and aaaahing about every one that they opened.  Grandma Yvonne nailed it year for each of them, they all seem very excited about their gifts.   Another great Christmas Eve has come and gone but at least I have plenty of pictures to remember the good times!

Welcome to the Family!

My cousin Kayla delivered identical twins on December 14th at 33 weeks 5 days gestational age.  They weren't sure what to expect once the boys were born but they went into it hoping for the best case scenario and I think that is exactly what they have received.  Both boys are healthy and doing great.  Isaac (baby A) was born at 4 pounds 6.5 ounces and Andrew (baby B) was 3 pounds 2 ounces.  Kayla and her husband found out around 20 weeks that their twins were monochorionic twins.  This means that they shared one placenta.  In about 10% of monochorionic twins, they also develop Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction (SIUGR) which they were informed their twins had developed.  With this you can encounter problems because the common placenta is not shared evenly, which can result in one twin not getting enough nourishment.   They knew early on that Isaac was getting most of the nourishment and becuase of this Andrew was considerably smaller.  They were just taking it week by week hoping to carry them for as long as possible... so making it to 33 weeks and 2 days was quite the accomplishment.  I am pretty sure my cousin is some kind of super hero mom... oh did I mention that she has a two year old at home (and by two year old I mean her daughter turned 2 just two days after the twins were born - yup, for two days they had 3 kids under the age of two)!

Anyways, they had an opening for visitors this afternoon (they can only have 4 visitors a day) so my mom and I jumped at the opportunity to meet the newest members of our family!  I couldn't believe how perfect these little guys were, so dang cute and fighters through and through.  It sounds like Isaac may get to go home in the next couple days which is wonderful.  Hopefully Andrew won't be far behind either, he just needs to master his feedings!  I snapped a few pictures but didn't want to go overboard (okay I wanted to but I decided not to) - maybe once they are at home with both boys I can make a trip to their home to do a little newborn photo shoot!  Here are some pictures of the little snuggle bugs.

Hmmm.... future hoop star?

So Colton is about half way through his basketball season and while he shows a lot of interest in the sport and shows potential to be a good player he is still a 6 year old who can't stay focused for me than about 45 seconds on the court!  He had two games this week and he did great... and by great I mean he didn't cry and played some great defense!  Now when it comes to offense he seems very confused, he makes sure the person defending him never loses sight of him even though the point is to move around and get open so your teammate can pass to you and you can maybe even take a shot at putting some points on the board.  Several times he started just running circles around another one of his teammates... as if him and the guy defending him were playing tag.  It was so painful to watch even though I know he is only six I still just wanted him to focus and play the game... actually try to play the game the way it was intended to be played!  Oh well, I am sure that will all come with time.  For now he is having fun so I guess that is all we can ask for.  Starting in January he will have basketball practice/games three nights a week which I am hoping doesn't make him hate it cause that is quite the commitment for a first grader and hopefully it helps teach him a thing or two about the concept of basketball!

 More than anything Colton loves the sport because his Uncle Brad played basketball and he wants to be just like his uncle!  Maybe my brother can help teach him a few things about the game!

 

Snowy Wonderland

Last weekend, I got Mason out of the bath and realized some of the biggest flakes I had ever seen were falling so we took a little break from our Sunday morning routine, wrapped him in his towel and went to the kitchen table... he sat and watched out the window as it snowed.  He was just mesmerized by the snowfall and also a little confused as to what was going on.  This picture was too cute not to share.

Cookies!!

My weekend was full of cookie baking with friends and family!  Friday night I had a cookie exchange with my girlfriends.  Each of us brought a batch of already baked cookies to share with everyone and then we spent Friday evening enjoying pizza, wine and laughs while making one batch of cookies together.  We made some fun snowman and reindeer cookies from Nutter Butter... no baking involved which was awesome. After a week of being a single parent while Frankie was out of town a night with some of the best friends I could ask for was exactly what I needed and I got to go home with some delicious cookies which made my boys very happy as well!  Here are the awesome cookies we made together, aren't we talented?!

Today we had our Annual Cookie Bake with Frankie's mom and his brother and family.  Our first Cookie Baking day was 5 years ago... only 3 kids involved - Eva who as 8 I do believe, Colton was only 18 months and his little cousin was 9 months... today we had 6 kids helping us (well the younger two didn't help much as Mason napped through most of it and the newest member of the crew is only 6 months).  It was so much fun to watch the kids cut out cookies, add sprinkles (pretty much drown the cookies in sprinkles) and then then run off and play together while we were left to do all the hard work and clean up!  We made Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, Sugar Cookies and of course Chocolate Covered Pretzels.  This is such a fun tradition and I hope it continues for many years to come!

And a bonus perk to our cookie baking day... I got to enjoy lots of snuggles from my youngest nephew!  He is quite possibly the happiest baby ever and the perfect little guy to help me get my baby fix,  Love him!

Unlimited Double Day - Bring it on!

So I think we all know that I love coupons and I really love Double Coupon day.... but what about unlimited double coupon day?  I was seriously planning my trip for days prior to double coupon day when I heard it was unlimited double coupon day.  Rainbow does double coupon day on every Wednesday and Saturday but you can only double 5 (or 10 on Double Double Days) coupons in one trip.  It still saves money but it forces you to do several transactions if you have quite a few coupons you want to use.  Well this last Saturday was the first time they did Unlimited Double Coupon day and I was so excited.  I filled my cart with all kinds of coupon items and of course some that I didn't have coupons for like meat (never seem to get coupons for that stuff) and then made my way to the checkout.  I handed over my stack of coupons and watched my total go down, yup after sale prices and coupons I save over $51.  That is quite the haul if you ask me.  I took home a cart full of groceries for only $119 which we all know now days doesn't get you much but with coupons it can get you a lot more.   I hear there is another unlimited double coupon day in the near future, I am already clipping, printing and collecting coupons in hopes of beating my savings from this trip!  I LOVE COUPONS!

It's Wrestle Time!

My boys love their Pop Pop more than anything and their favorite thing to do with him is wrestle.  My dad is no spring chicken anymore but he still gets down on the floor and wrestles with my boys and they LOVE it. I am so happy that my dad is a such a big part of my their lives and watching them all play together is something I will cherish forever.  I love my dad and my boys love him too!

Daily Dose of Smiles

So after my stressful day yesterday and another nightmare day on the roads today I couldn't wait to get home and just relax with my boys and soak in my daily dose of cuteness from my youngest!  Mason always has a way of making me smile and forget about all the stresses of daily life!  Here are just a few pictures from Saturday night... we were up late cause I was enjoying the company of my boys.  It was about 10:30, I had just updated my blog and Colton was laying on the couch next to me watching cartoons and I looked over to see Mason standing next to me with his big brothers T-Ball hat on just smiling away at me! I luckily had my camera sitting next to me so I could capture the small things that I just can't get enough of! 

As soon as Colton saw me snapping pictures of his brother he wanted in on the fun too!  He decided to have a dance off with his brother... seriously, I love these two kids!!  They know exactly how to melt away the worries of everyday life and make me live in the moment!

Stress and a Sassy Six Year Old = Disaster!

So Colton has turned into one sassy six year old lately.  There are days when we he is perfect - very helpful and polite and caring and a joy to be around.  And then there are the other days and today was one of them.  We have been really on the go lately with sports and activities and family get together's and now with Frankie out of town on business things have been even further off our regular schedule.  This past weekend we crammed in probably more than we should have and we weren't at home much which I know can be very hard on kids (as well as adults).   I did let Colton sleep in my bed with me both nights just because I thought he would enjoy a "slumber party" with Mommy and I knew I haven't been spending enough one on one time with him.  Last night the boys spent the night at my parents house so I could get up and go to work early while my parents got Colton off to school and watched Mason for the day (Frankie is usually the one who does morning drop offs at school and daycare so we had to make some adjustments to accommodate his work travels).   When I started packing up to leave Colton started to cry cause he said he just didn't feel right not being at home with me on a school night.  I finally got him settled and in bed and grabbed my coat to leave while my dad was rocking Mason to sleep and before I knew Mason was saying bye bye and crying cause he wanted to go with me.  Now I am already a little stressed playing the single parent role (so much harder than I imagined, not sure how people do it all the time) and my anxiety levels have been higher than normal for some reason so both my kids crying as I leave them really wasn't going to help.  Finally got both boys calmed down and I was on my home, kid less.  I was up early today to deal with the nightmare of traffic... worked a 10.5 hour day and then dealt with that same nightmare of traffic on the way home.  I have been more than stressed at work lately and I am sure it shows at home.  I went to my parents immediately after work and all I wanted to do was pick up my boys and go home and get dinner going and get the dog outside (poor thing has been neglected lately).  Well Colton apparently had other plans cause as soon as I said let's go home he turned into the sassiest kid I have ever seen.  He was saying things like "you tricked me", "you aren't even gonna feed me dinner", "you said I have to go right to bed, wow, without even eating", "I don't care just throw away my video games, I don't even care".  At one point I yelled and told him to shut his mouth, get his coat on and get in the van cause we were leaving.  I know I shouldn't have yelled but seriously I was at the end of my rope and he was making me crazier by the second.  He continued to yell things that weren't true, continued to sass to my mom and dad as well as to me.  I again snapped at him and he just didn't care one bit, I felt like I had completely lost control of my own child.  And then all of a sudden I lost it, I looked at him with a sense of hopelessness, my own child had no respect for anyone at that moment and I just burst into tears right there in my parents entry way.  I just starred at Colton and bawled... seriously, I even said, I can't take you anymore Colton I don't understand why you are doing this.  As soon as he saw me crying he started crying.  It was a mess.  It never should have even gotten to that point but I think I was so stressed and he was just needing some one on one attention from me and I wasn't giving it to him.  I feel so bad for the way things turned out and if I could go back and change things I would but I know that can't be done.  I finally got the kids into the van and I gave Colton a hug and told him I loved him so much but I just don't know why he talks to me like that.  He repeatedly said he was sorry and even called my parents on the way home to tell them both that he was sorry for the way he acted.  Once home we had a much better night, I think maybe we just needed some time at home together.  I still don't feel like I have control over my six year old and I am hoping it is just a phase where he is pushing the limits to see how much he can control.  I am going to do my best to handle these situations differently and hopefully it will never get to this point again.  I know I need to not put so much pressure on myself to do everything but that is just my personality and it will be hard to change.  I need to not let work get in the way of my family time, no matter how busy we are at work and how far behind I may be!  I need to spend more time with my six year old without baby brother interrupting us and I need to realize that sometimes he is just looking for attention when he acts like this but it is so hard when I  can't seem to get through to him.  Colton is my little buddy and when we have days like this these hit me really hard, here's to hoping tomorrow is a much better day for both of us!