Another year gone by...Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe another year has gone by.  I am so lucky and so blessed to have Mike as my spouse.

To celebrate we did something a little different.  We went to Leo's and ordered our pizza.  While waiting, we played a game of laser tag.  It was only the two of us.  We paid for 10 minutes (which was super cheap...this would be a fun group date).  They let us play for longer since no one else was waiting.  We were so tired and worn out by the end. 

Well, we ate our pizza.  By the time we finished we had only been there for an hour.  We looked at each other and said, "Now what?!?"  We thought for some reason that Leo's would take longer.  We weren't planning on seeing a movie but thought we'd go look.

The movies we were interested in were playing at odd times.  Either we had missed the show, wasn't interested, or the movie was so long we would have gotten out late.  With our kids being so young we thought that it would be better to not be out all night.


We decided to rent a movie and get some treats.  We watched the movie kids free at our home.  To be honest, it was nice.  I didn't have to pause the tv a million times, change bums, get someone something to eat, deal with crying, etc.  I was able to actually sit back and relax...and enjoy the movie with my sweetheart.

Next year, we have planned to actually go somewhere.  Quinn and Paxton will both be old enough to leave.  I'm excited for my night get-away.

Overall, it was a good anniversary and am glad we were able to do something to celebrate.

My man's birthday

It's hard to come up with plans for Mike's birthday since it's so close to our anniversary. We thought we had it figured out. Then, we thought about it...and realized we don't have anything for our anniversary. We kept switching what we'll do on what day. Mike actually didn't want anything done for his birthday. I thought with it being so close to Christmas, our anniversary, and New Year's (Eve)that it does often get forgotten. I don't want that. I think he's used to it. It bothers me though.

I asked what he wanted.  He decided to spend the evening with friends.  He just wanted to hang out and watch a movie.  We ended up watching the second Lord of the Rings.  The other alternative was The new Batman show.

Here's the handsome fellow with his cake.  I made a strawberry shortcake.  I thought that since we were limited on strawberries, I'd make a cake with the strawberries already on it.

Quinn enjoying his cake.

Paxton with Elora.

Quinn and Paxton with Elora.

Christmas

Christmas was so much fun this year. I don't know who was more excited; me or Quinn. I admit I had a hard time going to sleep starting two nights before Christmas.  I knew what Quinn was getting and was so excited for him to have it.  He's been asking for a long time and finally the time has come that he can have it.  Honestly, I felt bad that he had to wait so long.  There were times I wanted to give his present to him early but I knew that would ruin Christmas.

Everytime someone would ask Quinn what he was getting he would quickly respond "trains."  He knew.  He didn't understand what was taking so long.  I tried to the Christmas ring countdown but that just got him more anxious.

We had a nice Christmas with family.  Christmas Eve was dedicated to Mike's family.  They have more of their family traditions Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas Day. 

This year was a little different.  We had our famous Christmas dinner made by Karen and others.  We visited and all of a sudden we had a special visitor.  Yep, It's Santa, It's Santa. 

Greg played Santa.  Geoffrey looked out the window and his immediate response was "Daddy."  There's no fooling that guy. 

Quinn was so excited but hesitant to sit on Santa's lap.  We had explained to Quinn about Santa.  He didn't want to chance not asking Santa for trains in fear of not getting any.  With the help of his dad he was able to sit on Santa's lap.

Christmas Day was so awesome.  I was the first one awake.  I'm so glad that Quinn got up minutes after.  Then we woke Dad and Paxton naturally woke with the commotion. 

 

I yelled to Quinn, "Santa came, Santa came! Let's go see what he brought."  Quinn said, "Train" and ran into the living room.  He was bummed when I told him he had to wait for Dad.  Quinn went and literally pounced on him.  Good thing because that got him moving.  

 

Quinn was so cute.  Every present he opened he hollared, "Choo, Choo."  He loved Christmas.

 

Let's go back to why I couldn't wait for Christmas.  Everything was about trains with Quinn.  He wanted one so bad and that is the only thing he ever thought about.  He wouldn't do something unless I involved  a train somehow.  For example, I'd ask Quinn to eat his sandwich.  He'd say no.  Then I'd say not even a train sandwich.  Then he'd proceed to eat. 

 

In the middle of the night he dreams about trains.  He has to...ise sleep talk is about trains.  He yells for trains.  If he can't find them he won't go back to sleep until he does.  Sometimes, those nights were so long.  I'd search for anything to replace his trains but nothing would do.  His trains were bath toys or things he turned into trains...not actual trains.  That's why I felt so bad making him wait for his present.  I first bought it in October.  That is a long time to wait.

 

As a reward, I would take Quinn to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table they have in the kids department.  He could stay there all day.  I would bring a book and just watch him.  I didn't really mind.  It was kind of relaxing..until another little kid would come.  Then it was a brawl match.  Quinn got pretty good at sharing (with some coaxing).  That's good for him especially since we were dealing with trains.

 

When we go the library, Quinn is like a hound.  He can sniff out those train books.  Every book was about trains or had a train in it.  i don't know how he did it.  The librians found him so cute that they helped him.  He fell in love right there.  Someone helping him with his quest to find trains...he'll take it.

 

There are hundreds of things like this.  Yes, Quinn is my little obsessed one.  I love it.  It's him.  Trains will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Now onto Paxton...Paxton was sick during Christmas and had a hard time sleeping at night.  When we went over to Gene and Karen's Christmas Eve, he fell asleep in the car.  I had tried all day to put him down and he wouldn't.  I was so excited and relieved for him to be sleeping that I didn't dare take him inside for all of the noise.  I stayed in the car and relaxed.  We were there for 45 minutes.  It was nice though.  I was so exhausted myself.  I almost wish I had stayed home becuase I felt bad for dragging Paxton out with him being sick.  I didn't want to miss out on the fun.  We stayed too late and Paxton was grumpy on the way home. 

 

For that reason, we stayed home all morning to rest.  We went to my mom's that night.  We didn't stay long there.  We wanted to make an appearance.  Since we went later we had missed some of the family.  Oh well, we can't win them all.

 

I think next year will be better just in the sense that Paxton and Quinn will be older.  Naps schedules will be different.  Hopefully no one will be sick.  It's a hard time of year for that reason.