Back to reality

In less than 3 weeks Chris will be turning the big 3-0!  In order to ease the pain of the aging process I (we) decided to take a trip to Mexico to celebrate.  Really the planets just aligned in such a way that we couldn't pass up the opportunity: baby-sitting was available, the funds were available, we had an occasion to celebrate, I'm not pregnant or nursing, the kids are at easy-ish stages... We left for Cancun last Friday and got back last night.  It was wonderful!  I'll post more pictures later, after I get our 35mm underwater camera developed.  Apparently facilities for developing 35mm film are not in high demand these days, so I had to turn it in and have it sent away to be developed, like back in the day.  It makes me feel kind of old to think that things have changed so much! 

Anyway, while I'm waiting to get all my pictures in one place I'm also trying to get back to reality.  It's been almost 4 weeks since I've had anything resembling a normal schedule.  I loved Christmas break and family time and sister time and of course a vacation with my hubby.  Now I'm trying to figure out where 2012 will take us.... and I'm kind of coming up empty.  So my goal this week is to think about what my goals for 2012 should be.  Ya gotta start somewhere, right?!

After school started again my siblings all left, all except Danielle, that is, because she's graduated!  She got to stick around for an extra 10 days to play with me and play mom to my kids.  I've gotta hand it to her, she's a really great sister.  She's super cute, fashionable, in shape, smart, fun, I could go on.   Also I spilled diet coke on her at chick-fil-a and she didn't get mad, so that makes her a pretty awesome, forgiving person!

It was also super fun to have a full week of sister time!  Sister time infused with kid time, obviously, because those kids of mine never, ever stop talking.  We didn't do anything super out of the ordinary, but it was fun to get to talk and hang out all day and have adult company with my normal routine.

Colton has also reached a huge milestone: we moved him into a real crib in a real room this afternoon.  No more closets and pack-n-plays for this kid!  The verdict so far is that he hates it.  He's been upstairs screaming his head off for 1.5 hours now, but I will not give in.  He simply cannot spent his life sleeping in closets.  Plus, he was teething while we were out of town, which means he was puking in his crib every time he slept because that's what my kids do when the are teething, and I just cannot in good conscience let him sleep in that puke scented pack-n-play again until I can give it a good scrubbing, which will not happen today because it's freezing outside!

And finally, just for laughs, I thought I'd share the most amazing white elephant gift ever!  I found these beauties at a thrift store.  They won first place at the Porter family white elephant party: 

I'm thinking of submitting the idea for a RS activity.  Or maybe posting them on pinterest. Whoever came up with the idea of gluing doll heads to mens' ties and then adding angel wings is a crafting genius!