Something to hold you over....

This will have to do until I have the time or energy to post a full Christmas update.

Mommy and Nylin


Letter to the man himself....



BUSTED stealing one of Santa's cookies!

Typical Male

Jace and I got up bright and early and headed to the audiologist.

We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally we hear "JACE". So we head to the registration counter and sit down. The nurse looks at us and starts verifying information

Nurse: J-A-C-E is the correct spelling?
Me: Yes Ma'am
Nurse: S-P-I-L-L-E-R is the correct spelling?
Me: Yes, I mean no, no his last name is Webb.

I guess I stopped paying attention somewhere between yes and ma'am.

Then I hear a lady pipe up a few feet away. She says her sons name is Jace Spiller. Interesting! I have never met another Jace. After she registered she came and talked to me, it turns out that her brother’s name was Jason and he died at a very young age she decided to name her son after him. Her son is now 10 years old. Interesting!

Ok, back to waiting.

We finally get called up to registration and then things went super fast. The audiologist came to get us and brought us back to a room within minutes. We get back there and she starts asking questions, this time I paid attention.

They did all the hearing tests that they can do for a toddler and HE PASSED!
She looked at his ears and said that there was very little fluid in there and his ear drums were moving nicely. I told her about the allergist and how they put him on daily Claritin to dry up the snot and to help with the ear issue. She went on to explain to me that many kids are "saved" from getting tubed because of Claritin. It helps to dry things out and it is working with Jace.

She said the speech thing could just be him not ready or not wanting to talk yet. If at any time he is acting like he cannot hear he is just ignoring us, typical male.

Basically we do nothing but wait now. We wait and see if he starts talking more (he has already picked up 4 words since the allergist appointment thus doubling his vocabulary!)if he is behind at 2 years old then we will move forward with speech therapy or whatever.

SO YAY for Jace being able to hear!
I will try and update soon with Christmas stuff, we had an awesome Christmas and an even better holiday weekend.

Too much baking!

I am not sure if people really enjoy getting baked goods for Christmas anymore. "Merry Christmas, here is 5 pounds to add to your hiney and hips."
However, it is an age old tradition in many families, which I am passing down to my children.

Soooooooooo Nylin and I have been baking for the last 2 days. Well, what I should say is that I have been baking for 2 days. Nylin will come in, dump all the ingredients in the bowl, mix it up and put the first batch on the pan. I do not see or hear from her again until she hears the kitchen timer go off. She runs in and grabs a cookie and off to play again, I do not see her until the timer goes off again. The child is addicted to warm cookies. She wants them straight out of the oven. She is quick to remind me that baking all this was my idea and not hers so I should be the one watching over it. Nice.

I have come to the conclusion that I need an apron. A few weeks ago Kristal mentioned that she needed one and it would help her to bake. She was right. She has been a baking fool since she received her apron. Jason thinks that me baking 3 times a year does not qualify me for an apron. (the three times a year being, Jace's birthday, Nylin's birthday and Christmas) Apparently I am no Betty Crocker to him, I could be though, if I had an apron.

Look what happens when I do not have an apron on....terrible picture of me but you get the drift!



SO Nylin has the bright idea that I can wear her apron, uh it was a little small but I made it work, somewhat.
The little number she has on is a dress that was made for her when she was a little baby. It still fits, just a little short. She calls it her Christmas apron. Whatever works, right?



Small apron or not, we had baking to do!
First up? Irish Friendship bread,



Looks better when all mixed up, YUM-O!



We started with loaves, then I got smart. It would be much easier and cuter to have little Irish Friendship bread muffins. They will actually fit nicely into the way cheap baskets we bought too. AND the batter goes a lot further when you are making muffins. Instead of getting 2 loaves of bread (for only 2 people) you get 4 pans of muffins that can be split up between many people. DUH, why did I not think of this sooner?





Since we moved onto muffins Nylin and Jason decided they needed to "taste test" one of the loaves. So much for giving that as a gift.



Ok, that was enough for one night. Cookies had to wait till the next day.
Like I said, Nylin did a lot of dumping, mixing and scooping. She just decided not to stick around and wait to do the next pan...





More on the cookies later...hopefully before Christmas, who knows though, I just realized today that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. WOW, it snuck up on me! If I do not make it back here before the holiday, Merry Christmas to all of you!

On this day 5 years ago.....

.....my little girl was born. In honor of her birthday, here is a look back....

Her very first pictures, if you look closely you can see in the second one that they typed "could be a girl". They told me not to paint the room pink just yet :)



Here is Momma about 2 days before the big day (my actual due date!)



It was not easy getting her to come and meet us! The cord was wrapped around her neck so everything was VERY slow and cautious! (not to mention I had to wear that stupid mask and a stupid blood pressure cuff the whole time)



It was all worth it in the end....






and here she is today, happy and healthy! (the little booger would not take her coat or her backpack off for the picture--I said she was happy and healthy, not well behaved ;) )



HAPPY BIRTHDAY NYLIN! I love you little (I mean big) girl.

My baby is getting old....

We had Nylin's birthday party on Sunday. We had a blast.

We had her party at a local skating rink. It was a great turn out and I think everyone had a really good time. It was funny to see a bunch of kids with spaghetti legs falling all over the place, holding onto walls and laughing really hard. More than a few adults got up on skates too. I was surprised at that! I think some of the adults enjoyed it more than the kids ::cough:: ::cough:: Jason S. ::cough:: ::cough::

I think some of the adult may have fallen a few more times than the kids ::cough:: ::cough:: Jason W. ::cough:: ::cough:: All in all we had a great time and plan to go back to the skating rink soon. Who knew you could burn so many calories having such a good time???

Everyone singing Happy Birthday to Nylin



Nana and Nylin TRYING to skate



Nylin with her little boyfriend Jacob



Never too far away from each other



Jacob trying to help his best girl with her skates.



And even Bubba got up on skates! (he may have done better than daddy!)



Kara too!



Even Papa gave it a whirl! (You would think he skated everyday, till he woke up sore the next day)



Mommy and Daddy stopping to pose...although stopping was no easy feat!



JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN, My mom said the KIIIIIIIIIIIIIDS!



Cupcake time!



JUST A FEW MORE, I SWEAR!!!

Ok Everybody, it's time for the Cha Cha Slide! This time we're gonna get funky (funky).


Everybody clap your hands. Clap clap clap clap your hands ...



EVERYBODY FREEZE!
Who said you could do the cha cha slide without me??



Here I come...



Ok now you can go...

3 hops now....



And last but not least,

Attack of the Killer Kousins!

Reason enough for me not to be a carpenter.....

Nylin and I built and decorated a gingerbread house over the weekend.
I will leave the carpentry to Jason from now on, or at least read the directions. The roof slid off twice and the side wall fell once. The "glue" was supposed to dry for 2-3 hours before decorating, oops.


Here are some highlights.

Just before the build


We have walls....


...and a roof....


...with snow....


....and a wreath...


Nylin's decorating skills at work


Nylin's backyard snowman.


The finished product


So proud....


It looks so good I could eat it mommy!