MeRrY ChRiStMaS!

What an amazing day! Our littlest monster woke us up at 7:15am and the kids ran downstairs to see what Santa had left. Santa left lots of great stuff but the greatest thing we were all happy to see was the Wii Fit! Thanks Santa! Some of the big gifts this year were the Ipod Touch that both the older boys got, Ali got a digital camera and some "7" jeans, and Jack got a workbench, a hockey stick and hockey gloves. I forgot how cool it is to watch a toddler play with the simpliest toy as opposed to the biggest or most expensive. Jack spent most of the day playing with a tiger that when it's mouth opens, it's a flashlight....oh, and it growls or he'd switch off and put his hockey gloves on and run around with his new stick. We lost the older two boys to the upstairs where they programmed their Ipods and played the Wii and Xbox. Ali also disappeared and was reorganizing her room to accomodate her new I-home and everything else.

Tradition: Doug makes breakfast Christmas morning. It was soooo good! He always does such a great job at making yummy blueberry pancakes and eggs and hashbrowns.

Tradition: Go ice skating at Aliso Viejo Ice Palace and having the whole rink to ourselves. Except for this year a few other families caught onto our tradition and joined us. We bring hot chocolate and goodies and the kids free skate and play 3-on-3 hockey. This year was extra special because Jack was going on the ice for the first time....that is a big deal in the Sheridan family. He LOVED it! He loved it so much that when I tried to take his skates off, he freaked and I had to put them back on. It was so much fun to watch and visit with our friends. It may not have been the white Christmas I have been hearing about all week from friends and family up north, but at least it was cold this year and not 85 degrees! It rained most of the day which made for perfect napping weather......and at the end of the day, Doug made a yummy prime rib with garlic mashies and veggies and for the first time in I don't know how long, we actually had 2 meals at our dining room table as a family in 1 day! A Christmas miracle! :-)

Random pics of the week

This week we had a housefull. Mark and Stacie and the kids came to visit. Saturday night was the Xmas parade which is a bunch of neighbors that get together and decorate their cars and throw candy out the windows as they drive down each street. This year Ryan helped decorate a friend's car and they threw us candy. Next year I am making the boys help me decorate MY car so we can participate. Sunday Adam and Jenn came over with the girls and we had brunch and opened up the gifts the kids got each other. I think the definate big hit was the walkie talkies that Aunt Jenn got Austyn....Adam and Mark were wishing THEY had some. :-O On Monday we loaded up the kids to see Santa at the mall. Now MY kids had already seen Santa twice but we went anyway to just hang out and yes, Ryan finally got a picture with Santa. Ali was at a party and AJ had hockey so no teenagers. The mall was a mad house which was to be expected I guess but we still got to see Santa and everyone but the little ones did great! Ok, so this kid I just had to get his pic! At first we thought he was working there....but then we realized he was there to see Santa just like us. I would guess he was around Ryan's age.

And last but not least, do you feel like this sometimes? This is Jack a few days ago. I was cleaning up his room, getting it all ready for him to go to bed, when it suddenly got quiet and I walked out into the hallway and this is what I saw......

Check us out!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/0fA6erpgzYsCtlSXSUo1

Never a dull moment

Leave it to Ryan to give me something to blog about. Yesterday I am totally in my zone. House cleaned, I actually got a shower in, and I made homemade chili that was cooking away in the crock pot. It was about 2:30 and I get the call from Ryan's cell phone but it was Ryan's friend, Evan telling me that Ryan got hurt and I hear Ryan screaming in the background. Now my gut told me to get in the car and go get him immediately BUT Jack was sleeping and hadn't been sleeping that long so I called Doug and he left his office which is only 5 mintues from the house....to go get Ryan. Apparently Ryan and his buddies were running home from school and Ryan tripped and face planted it in the street....ouch! Anyway, it really could have been alot worse but here's the pic from today....I'm sure it will look even better as it bruises.

And then Jack had to get in on the action with his "chees"y grin. Look at all those teeth!

Where's Ryan?

So, seeing Santa this year was quite the experience. First off we went as a family to the mall to see what is usually an amazing Santa. The line was suprisingly short but when we got up to Santa, they totally rushed us which is why Jack looks like a deer in the headlights. I was thrilled that he wasn't screaming but would have really liked to have him smiling and when I saked if they could take just one more picture, they said no and asked me what package I would like. At that point I just walked away and let Doug decide. He ended up getting the CD of this picture which was the best one of the 4. Ryan did not want his picture taken because after all, he is almost 10 and if word got around at school, he'd be toast. (this is what he said to me) So, long story short, I get home to post this on here and the disc is BLANK. What an ordeal! So today I thought, well, I wasn't too excited about the picture anyway so maybe this is a good thing. We got to the mall and there was a different Santa which was fine, lines were a little longer which was still ok, but when we got up to Santa....guess who freaked out? Jack totally wigged out to the point where I just said forget it and "can I please have the picture that we took last night?" They said sure and then gave us this one of the twins free for the inconvenience. AJ told Santa he wanted a football.....good one AJ.

What have we been up to?

Well, I am really on a picture taking funk and thus the reason for no blogging for about 2 weeks now. I would much rather blog with a cute pic to go or something great to talk about but quite honestly, it's been pretty "same old, same old". Ali is doing great with managing her new allergy to dairy....we made a trip to Trader Joe's and got all kinds of soy stuff....soy cheese slices, soy ice cream, yum! And I think she was missing the hospital because Monday she went to open gym and collided with another cheerleader from her school. The other girl ended up with a black eye and Ali ended up flat on her back and couldn't get up. It was pretty scary and I ended up taking her to Mission Hospital where we might as well have a wing named after us by now with all the money we've dropped there this year. Thank goodness for health insurance because I know it would be alot more. Anyway, no broken bones just a really sore back and neck. They gave her a prescription for vicadin and so that's helped....both of us....just kidding! We also have a very good friend that is a chiropractor and so he fit us in on Tuesday and then also came by our house on his way home to check on her....thank you Dr. Gooing! So, I'm keeping her home from school and she's doing her work online which is so great that they can do. Hopefully by next week she will be feeling better and we won't be seeing the inside of the ER for a while.

As far as the rest of our lives goes, we are just muttling along. Rates are getting better so Doug is getting busier, AJ and Ryan are keeping busy with hockey as usual, and Jack is now sitting proud at the kitchen table....no more high chair! As much as I hate the idea of him getting older, I have to say I LOVED taking that high chair out to the garage! ........just in time to make way for the tool bench Jack will be getting for Xmas. :-) Why are little kids toys so big and bulky?
As for me, I am desperately trying to finish shopping even though we have gone WAY light this year. The kids have had such a great attitude about knowing we are NOT doing a big Christmas and I have to say that I think this is a new trend for us. Doug and I gave up gifts for ourselves a few years back because really it's all about the kids anyway. Ali even made a comment to me the other day about maybe not getting gifts and using that money to give to a charity which I thought was awesome. But when I pursued it with her she said, "Oh no mom, I meant NEXT year we should do that!" Oh well, baby steps right?

Tomorrow we are going to see Santa so I will most likely post tomorrow but here's a blast from the past until then......is it me or does this Santa look like he should be on the Megans Law website????

Laura, Mark, and Adam Rummel - 1983??

Thanx and Baking Craze

This was our "adult" table. AJ and Ali had to toast and have this pic taken for extra credit in Spanish. (I have no idea) Uncle Adam trying to make Jack pee his pants which is ok when you wear a diaper And our baking frenzie started Friday night. AJ and Ali helped.....well, Ali helped while AJ provided humor




These are peanut butter mini ritz dipped in chocolate with an m-n-m...yummmmm

Peanut Butter Balls which are my personal weakness so we made lots!

This was an experiment this year...I think it was called mocha- something erather...I dunno but it had coffee in it .
Speaking of experiments...this was an experiment gone very bad. I had this great idea of making homemade candy canes this year and giving them out to neighbors but it was harder than I thought. Between my carpul tunnel and the candy just being hard to work with in general...they turned out like this. I haven't tried one yet so we'll see.
Peppermint Bark
Almond RochaWe also did peanut brittle and cinnamon ornaments but for some reason I didn't take a picture of those. Our two days of baking...now let's see how long it lasts! :-)