Holiday prep and packing, we're getting closer!!

Our days are getting packed full of things we are trying to do before we leave for Maryland.

I have finally detoxed a good portion of the house and got rid of three lawn bags full of clothes. They were mostly mine and Hubby's because I had gone through X's last year so there wasn't really any need to get rid of any more. I really need the supply for Baby A. So I feel pretty good about what we have left. We are still getting rid of our couch, we bought it when we first got married and it's been well and fully loved. We are also getting rid of a small TV stand and our Christmas tree. We might get rid of the lights too... I haven't decided yet. If you know of anyone who would want these things around December 27th let me know! In order to get rid of the excess I held a Swap at my house, but, alas, no one came. So instead someone from the ward came and picked up the clothes for those in need and the rest of the items went to DI.

I've been trying to make Christmas treats this year for us to munch on before and during the trip. These include some cookies I grew up eating. Every year for Christmas, my grandmother- Gommy- would send a box of treats and each of us kids got a gallon sized ziplock bag full of our very own treats. These cookies and treats just scream Christmas time for me. Candy cane shaped cookies, honey almond powdered balls, peanut brittle and homemade almond rocca. I'm going to do the rocca with walnuts though because I have SO MANY WALNUTS!!! I'm constantly looking for ways to use them. Hopeful it ends up being delicious.

On Monday we were supposed to have dinner with another family in the ward, but on Sunday evening she texted me and told me that she was going to have to cancel because her littlest one had goopies all day and they were getting worse and she didn't want any goops to spread to our family. Well, I felt kind of bad that she'd have to throw something together when I had enough chicken to feed  both families in my fridge marinating so Hubby and I decided that we would still provide them with a main dish (Chicken Coconut Kurma) and a spinach salad. We were going to drop it off but she decided to come over and pick it up instead. While she came over and spent some time with us, her husband called and told her to come home because, "The kitchen broke". We sent her home and didn't think anything of it until she posted on her Facebook that her kitchen cabinets had broken off the wall and 50lbs of cabinet and food landed where she and her kids would have been standing to make dinner. I'm really grateful that she still took our dinner that we provided and decided to come get it instead of waiting for us to drop it off! Because she came over her little family was playing in the living room waiting for her to come home. It's really amazing how God works in little ways, slight shifts in one person's schedule helped keep her whole family safe.

X is rarely throwing tantrums about us not understanding his needs, he's getting more patience with us and also becoming more understandable. It was really entertaining one of the mornings this week because he woke up, very concerned and looked at Hubby and said, "Baby A, a fish...". He also uses one word to describe multiple things, right now "Treat" is a treat or a tree. So on the way to his Grandparents' house he saw a Christmas tree and I did not. He starts saying, "A treat! A treat!" and then I tell him, "When we go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, we'll eat dinner first and then you can have a treat." There was a pause and X says slowly, "Ooookay?" The hubby pointed out the tree and I felt very silly.

A has slept at least 8 hours every night all week long!!! Hallelujah! He's also very smiley and giggles a lot. He's enjoying being played with more and more and loves to flirt with any one who has the potential to pick him up and love him. I actually got Hubby to record a really cute video of A and me with X giving commentary in the background.  A loves to rough house and I recently found the "Pow pow"s are the best way to get him to smile and giggle.

Because A's been sleeping so well I've been able to squeeze in a very short work out in the mornings. I'm mostly doing it to help my back so the progress in regards to weight loss is very slim. I'm only doing yoga right now but I would love to start doing my running again when I get the chance and my hip allows me to.

Hubby is almost done with school and work! He has one project to do for each and then he's all done and can help me more with packing. I'm glad we're going to be able to have a better life for our small family soon.

Until next time,
The Broadway Chick

P.S. Christmas update letters are being created soon, please message me of Facebook or send me an email if you want to make sure I'll send one to you. I don't want to accidentally forget anyone and with the current mile long to-do list in my head, I might! So yeah, let me know!!

Much more busy and fun filled!

I apologize for the lateness in posting, it's been a very busy day!!! I'll get to that in a moment though.

This week we've have a lot of adventures and craziness, much more exciting than the majority of last week.

Hubby and I got to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I liked it if I didn't compare it to Harry Potter. I'm not saying that the Harry Potter movies were necessarily better but the feel from the Harry Potter movies was different than Fantastic Beasts and if I keep trying to get that same feel then I get disappointed. I really enjoyed the mating dance that gets performed at one part. That had Hubby laughing heartily and loudly. It was really entertaining. Apparently, (according to an interview) the actor read that he had to do a mating dance and he looked up videos of mating dances performed by birds and other animals and sent himself doing a few of them to the director. The director then had him do a combination of what he saw. So, the outcome was quite hilarious.

We also got to see Santa Claus on Thursday when we visited my Mom's book fair. I've been prepping X to not freak out when he sees Santa by watching Christmas movies that feature him in some way and reading stories. We aren't really emphasizing Santa but more of what Santa stands for, I just wanted him to not scream when we took pictures with Santa. When we got there X went right up to Santa, climbed and his lap and even sort of smiled for a picture.

We also looked around a little bit before leaving and found an amazing book called "King Baby", it's hilarious and very accurate of how babies act. We've always called our babies, "Your highness" or "Your Poopiness" so we found extra joy because it applies to a family joke (? probably not the best word but all I could think of).

My in-laws were so kind to buy us tickets to see BYU's Christmas Around the World and provided us with babysitting. It was really fun to see the different dances but what blew our minds the most was the work and effort that the people exerted to give a beautiful performance. I also saw someone I knew when I did theater dancing. I checked out the program and confirmed it, he's always been a superb dancer and his performance was flawless! It was good to see someone I knew still doing something they love and excelling at it in every way.

Yesterday I spent a good part of my day baking/cooking and cleaning. I made brownies, rolls, corn chowder, cracked up TONS of walnuts, and packed up more of the living room breakable decorations. The walnuts came from my Dad who has a coworker or boss(?I can't remember which) who has a walnut tree and gave him a huge bag full, my mom can't eat them so he gave them to me to use up and I've been finding ways to incorporate them into dishes. So by the end of the day, my hand was pretty red from using the nut cracker so much and my hands were a darker shade because of the dirty shells. But all done, no more shell cracking for me for a good long while.

We also went to a Christmas party that night that was put on by my parent's ward. The theme was "A Night In Bethlehem". The meal was catered by a Mediterranean restaurant called Galilee. They  were pretty good, they had some chicken that seemed like it was marinated in a yogurt sauce and they had delicious rice and grilled veggies. They had this interesting garlic type of sauce but it was really over powering if you weren't careful. They had a cute little slideshow of the Nativity story that was done by the Primary kids and it was pretty cute. While I was there though I needed to feed Baby A and so I walked into the Mother's Lounge and while I was there I got walked in on twice... I thought people knew that it's not a hang out spot it's for nursing mothers to use. Oh well... I guess the teenaged girl got an education? Sort of?

Today was a very special day and was the reason for all my baking/cooking yesterday. Baby A got blessed today!!!! Hubby did a very short and powerful blessing introducing him to the church. It was nice having all the people we love come to a special event like this. It'll be harder for them to come to baptisms and future blessings so it's nice that we could at least do this. Baby A wore the same outfit X wore for his blessing. X was only a month and a half old when he wore it so it was a lot more snug on Baby A, when X wore it it was kind of large. He still looked cute though, here's some proof:

We are so incredibly blessed to have our family around for this event and that they've all been so willing to help us and take care of our little family.

This morning X was pretty cute when Hubby went to go get him, he was pretty groggy and a little concerned and told Hubby, "Baby A.... a fish" apparently A was in his dream and it had something to do with fish... it was pretty cute. X is getting so good a praying, he's catching on to the fact that when you pray you need to pay attention to the prayer and not do other things during it (like eating or looking at books). He's becoming more and more understandable. He tries to have conversations with him and we're getting better at actually being able understand what he's expressing and can respond most of the time with a response he wants/ was expecting to receive.

Baby A's personality is starting to really come through, he's super smiley and it's infectious. He's also kind of ticklish and does a really cute laugh when you get him going. He loves to play with X and Hubby on his toy mat and loves being held and bounced. He's also discovered his thumb and loves to self soothe himself to sleep that way.

I'm still working my way through with the packing slowly but surely. Hubby finished school this week and when that happens we'll start packing a little quicker and continue to deep clean the apartment so we can get as much of our deposit back as possible. So far it's going pretty well, I've been able to get into all the little crevices and remove lots of stains.

Until next time,
TBC