Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas.....

Other than me getting up at two am to take care of a sick, messy lil Wyatt (poor guy!) and a fussy Jacob, Christmas morning didn't dawn all that early. The kids slept in til 8:00 am, when Jesse came in to excitedly tell me Santa had come!! I’m a sucker for Christmas morning (in previous years I have actually woken kids up-LOL!), so I got up with him so he could show me. Then Wyatt got up, and I came to try and wake Leroy up by telling him “there’s two kids up now!!” He groaned and said “who? You and Jesse?” LOL!! Ok, well in that case, make it three!! By the time 9:00 rolled around, Tabitha, who likes her sleep like Daddy, finally got up. I let the kids open their stockings while they waited for Daddy. He still wasn’t getting up. Finally I let them open their presents from Grandma Julie, and went and pushed Leroy out of bed.










After gift opening and some time spent playing with some toys at our house, we went to visit Leroy’s parents and grandparents (who thoroughly spoiled them all!!), and then home so I could hurriedly finish rolling a roaster full of sour cabbage rolls, and then to the hall close to our house where my Mom’s side was having their Christmas get together (my Mom’s side gathers every 2nd year). Nearly everyone was there. It was so neat to see how much the younger people were growing and changing, and to catch up, here and there, on everyone's lives!
My Grandma said one of the neatest things to me-she said she enjoyed watching all the people there, knowing that she and Grandpa (who sadly passed away 10 days before Christmas 2 yrs ago) and their love for each other, started all of this (meaning the seven children they had and who now gathered with all their spouses, and children and grandchildren…). I just thought it was such a beautiful sentiment.

My sweet little 2 yr old cousin Callie was fascinated with Jacob in his little suit, declaring that "Santa shrunk!!

A wise lady (Stephanie! :) ) told me that after the fourth child, people begin to expect the next one, rather than asking when you’ll stop. LOL! There was evidence of this, when I admired my sister’s cute top and she said, just off the cuff, “yeah, I’ll have to give it to you when you have your next baby, for a maternity top” (it was kind of a flowy shirt). LOL! Then my brother in law, who had earlier teasingly threatened to start a rumour that we were expecting another already, inadvertently? did so! ACK!! So I had to explain to several aunties that no, not yet, and try and laugh it off-I was wearing fairly tight fitting clothes too..hmmm…

Poor Wyatt was soo sick, and his rashy tush was soo sore-he wasn’t himself, and just did lots of cuddling, and even slept at one point.
Santa even made a special trip to visit the Bailey Grandkids/Great Grandkids (and even an Auntie!!) When someone announced that Santa was coming Tabby told them "no he's not! He already came to my house last night!"
The food, of course, was terrific-all the Bailey women are awesome cooks (and they always cook for an army!!) also-my one cousin has married a Filipino man, and he brought his own version of potstickers, which were soo yummy!! Because everyone brought so much, there were tons of leftovers, even after everyone took some, so I was given the excess! I forsee no real cooking duties for me for the next few days! Bonus!!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I spent the majority of the day wrapping gifts!! You see, while I had done good buying all the gifts before Dec 1, they somehow didn’t manage to wrap themselves, and with all the other stress and drama-it hadn’t happened. Then, in the midst of my mad wrapping spree (Leroy said I had too many gifts up there-but really when you think about it-4 kids +1 hubby X a few gifts each-it adds up!!) I realized that supper needed to be made, and that there were no cookies for Santa (very important in our house!)-another thing that I had wanted soo bad for this year was to spend the month of Dec baking and doing crafts with the kids-didn’t happen-too much stress and mess-and-the cabbage rolls weren’t done yet (I’d done up a bunch with Gramma Ulmer, so I'd be ready-but then used them in “emergencies” such as a church potluck, and a nite when I was too tired to cook much). So I got supper started, (minute steak parmesan and mashed potatoes) as well as the makings for the cabbage rolls (fried the bacon, cooked the rice and grated the potato into the rice while it was cooking) and got the kids set up to make the cookies (soo glad my patience in cooking with them is paying off-I measured the ingredients for whipped shortbread into a bowl, handed Jesse the mixer, and then cut up the cherries for the top, and did the oven thing-kids did all the rolling, and cherry adding!). The kids said the cookies looked like “red nosed reindeer!”




We also tracked Santa using the Norad Santa tracker site-the kids got quite a kick out of it!!

Then the old dog had a sequence of accidents on the carpets that I had *just* cleaned the day before and then Wyatt, who had had a sick tummy all week, added to the disaster by upchucking all over it (maraschino cherry juice colour, naturally!) so I spot cleaned all that, had supper, made sure everyone layed out their stockings before tucking the kids into bed, and heading out to do chores (I do like doing chores a bit later on Christmas eve-there's a tale that the animals can talk at midnight, and, while I haven't caught any gabby gatherings yet, it's a neat feeling watching them chew their feed peacefully, and thinking back to that first Christmas night). Now it's back into the house to finish wrapping presents and arrange them under the tree, feed Daddy the shortbread cookies the kids had laid out, and have him drink the big glass of egg nog they'd filled for him! (Good thing Daddy/Santa likes eggnog!)


Crazy day and crazy night! But it's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Baa baa black sheep....



We have added a black sheep to our crew!! A friend called me up and asked if we had any sheep on our farm. I replied "nooo..." She then replied "Do ya want one?" Well-why not??!! LOL! Her mom had been feeding this lil guy, but they needed to find him a new home. She kindly sent him with a bottle and milk replacer too!! It was too cold outside for him to go out, so we are keeping him in the house. The kids are thrilled!! Sandy the old dog-well-not so much!! He thinks she is a playmate for him-and she disagrees!! He keeps chasing her around the house, trying to jump on her (Leroy says the lamb might need some therapy-either that or the dog.... :) ) They can't quite agree on a name for him so he is Bully (as in Wooly Bully)/Cardigan/whatever they decide to call him that day....

One of his favourite pastimes is butting the baby swing (empty, of course!). And this morning he decided to jump in the bathtub with me while I was washing my hair! Nothing like washing your hair, hearing a splash and thinking one of the kids has hopped in-to find a little black lamb instead!! He didn't seem to upset though!! He was probably coming to complain about the lateness of his breakfast.... Anyways, it's fun to have a lamb in the house (you should see the looks on people's faces when they bend down to pet the little black dog-and realize that it's a lamb!!!

Bully's favourite game!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Polka Dot....

Bum!!
Ok-I keep having the tune "The polka dot door" run through my head everytime I think about this...!
I walked into the living room to find Jesse closely examining one of the baby goat's bottoms...Concerned that the little baby was sick, or there was something wrong, I asked Jesse what he was doing! He said "this goat has polka dots on his bum!! Why does he have polka dots on his bum?"
And so he does!!


So we had a discussion about pigmentation, which led to a discussion about the colour of horses' hooves with Tabitha-and then we all went and washed our hands! :)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Gingerbread Girl!

Tabitha's dance class were gingerbread girls for their Christmas recital this year!! It was held at Horizon stage on Dec 13th (like-the coldest day of the year!!). They ended up having 3 shows, in order to try and accomodate all the people who wanted to come see!! On top of that, Tabitha also played Mary in their Sunday school's little skit that morning, and we ALSO had the annual Christmas party at the local community hall that evening!! I did A LOT of running around on that very very frigid day!! I'm so thankful my van didn't let me down, and that we were kept safe through all that driving!!


I and another mom who is very creative, talented and brave! did the costumes for the dance recital! I did the sewing, and the other mom added the decorations! We had a baker's dozen girls to outfit!!


I think all were pleased with the results!! :)

(No, I don't usually put so much makeup on my daughter! But it needs to be done so her little face doesn't wash out like a ghost's under the stage lighting!)

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Out of the Mouths of Babes.....

We had waffles the other morning. Wyatt wanted some more for a snack, later on. He said "Mommy-more 'Awfuls' pease...."

Tabitha was chattering away to me in the van as we were driving, when, out of the blue, she said "Mommy-I want to ride a horse with a bare bum!" (I think she meant, she wanted to ride bareback, not do the Lady Godiva thing.....)

We were sitting at the bank, waiting for Grandma and Grandpa Ulmer to get done their banking, when a large group of people walked by. Jesse looked out the window and said "Holy Cow Mom!! Look at that herd of people!!"