Christmas 2010!

Here are my favorite shots of Christmas Eve and Day 2010, hope everyone had a magical Christmas!

Merry Merry!

The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY

Last night was our Crossfit Basic Ugly Sweater Christmas party! So fun to see everyone in their ugly Cosby Christmas sweaters. Have to post three things:
1. Casey should have won...no doubt right? (oh and don't worry: that red eyelet collar WAS attached).
2. I actually saw with my own two eyes our crossfit-crazy, gluten-free trainer EAT a plate full of Andi's mac n' cheese. And yes, it was my favorite thing all night and a bonafide Christmas miracle.
3. Both Ty and my sweaters were women's. I let him choose which one he wanted; he chose birds of a feather...
Fun to hang out with our CFB community!

Snowflake Lane 2010!

This tradition was lots of fun this year especially with Pearson! She LOVED the Snow Princess, Rudolph, and Frosty! Oh, and the drums. She's very into drumming these days so it was a big hit. Harper did not really know what to make of the whole outing. First she was strapped on me and the loud drum beats made her blink a thousand times. No crying though so it must have been tolerable! Here's to next year and a fun time with family (and friends!)

A(u)nte Up

You will NOT believe what just happened to me at lunch today...

Stop reading if you're still eating. Fair warning.

I had my niece Heidi this morning as Andi was at a doctor appointment for Bell Babe #3. She didn't really eat the breakfast given to me for her, BUT she did eat a massive sugar cookie at my girl Katie's house. We were all invited for a play date/cookie decorating session this AM. After some fun at Katie's place we headed to McDonald's for lunch. Let me clearly state after subsequent events I am NOT, repeat NOT going back there for a while. What prompted my hasty departure and possible banishment? Oh, get ready.
After refusing to eat anything (if you know Heidi, you know this is a red flag) I made her take a bite of hamburger. Mistake. Of EPIC proportions. She had the bite in her mouth for maybe two seconds and gives me this look and I think I knew what was about to happen.
Vomit. Projectile. Everywhere.
On Babe H, on the table, all over Heidi, Pea's rain boots, my pants. You name it. I sprang into action like a ninja. I had to ask myself, why are there NO wet naps at McDonald's? An establishment basically catering to children?
I started cleaning frantically. Pea is gagging non-stop. Harper is bewildered. Heidi is crying. Just when I think I know what I'm dealing with. More; one last massive spill of sugar cookies and stomach acid and any surface thinking it was spared was then covered. I can't really explain the mayhem which followed, but it involved:
-Helplessly "wiping" up the girls, collecting stained clothes, calming crying and gagging...
-A kind woman to watch my girls for me while I ran to the bathroom.
-Carrying out three basically naked kids from McDonald's.
-Glares from the poor 16 girl who had to clean this mess.
Sufficed to say, I A(u)nted UP today. Oh, and I think I might crack open the wine Andi got me as a gift...
Heidi, here's to hoping you feel a bit better this afternoon!

Red Cowboy Boots & Cinnamon Ice Cream

You will want BOTH after this post. Brace yourselves. Andi gave me all the wonderful pictures she took of the Holiday festivities this weekend so there will be quite a few! Let's start with Saturday eve's progressive dinner.
It started out at our place with Christmas Martinis & Prociutto Pops!



Then we went to Joe & Taryn's for this AMAZING soup. As stated here, his work is intimidating to say the least, BUT wow was it worth it!

Then on to Andi's for the main course: braised short ribs & goat cheese polenta. Umm, SO good. And I am not a rib eater. Magnific!

Last stop? Shannon and Tim's (in combination with Melissa and Zack) for bread pudding and homemade Cinnamon ice cream. To die, seriously. Little known secret; bread pudding is just about Ty's favorite dessert of all time. He was happy about this!

After a rousing edition of the newlywed game where I had a couple pretty awkward insert-foot-in-mouth moments, we went our separate ways only to meet up again on Sunday at...
The Lang family Christmas! It's quite the affair; complete with skits (our little belles did Rudolph Ella style), prayer, jokes (some inappropriate of course), the Christmas story, and family gift exchange/shouting match. Here are some of my favorite pictures from this year! Can you fathom the little cousin picture next year with 5 new faces? So fun...





P.s. as promised Ty made up for himself this year and having Harp here was the best gift we could have received...

Dropped like a Bad Habit

We have developed a bad habit. Harper will NOT sleep. So I kept feeding her at night whenever she wanted. Remember this? What was I thinking? UGH, I curse myself every time on this blog! Anyway, it is pretty much how you think: horrible ear piercing screams during the dead of night for a WHILE now. Ty said this morning, he thinks he's losing his mind. I concur. Vehemently. She had an ear infection last week; it's all cleared and still.
So tonight is night three of letting her cry it out. I am hoping against hope the screaming sticks to under an hour. That would be a treat.

Speaking of bad habits...Do you have any? I certainly do. One of my worst is that I use my bathroom sink as a literal trash can...it drives the hub completely insane. He has staged a hostile take over of his own sink and really, who can blame him? I CAN blame him for his bad habits, but so as not to air his dirty laundry I'll just say they mostly involve leaving EVERYTHING he uses out or UP if you know what I mean.

Also on my list? Coconut M&M's (they are still amazing and every time I think I love them more), never repeat NEVER emptying the lint trap in my dryer (I get a stern warning of impending fiery doom from Mr. B nearly every time he does laundry, which is often since he doesn't let me do his anymore...that is a WHOLE other post and I'm not saying I don't deserve it), and finally pluck, pluck, plucking away at my eye brows. In recent years I've gotten this habit down to a manageable time limit and brow thickness for which I could not be prouder.

Hmm, two things of note: I wrote almost a whole paragraph in one sentence. So wrong, but who's checking except maybe my mom AND also I NEED some coconut M&M's.
Now.