This is how much Carma loves Santa!

This was taken last year, and her love hasn't grown much fonder this year.

Merry Stinkin' Christmas

We have a family tradition, with Michaels side of the family, that all the families write a Christmas letter and everyone gets one. I finally completed ours! Grandma and Grandpa have 69 grandchildren and 67 great grandchildren. Only the married couples are "required" to do a letter. Not all of the grandchildren are married, so we end up making and receiving about 40 copies. I am not going to lie, I usually whine, moan and stress about about writing it (even though once I am working on it I enjoy it). Michael and I take turns doing it every other year. This year was so my turn and to my surprise much easier than I anticipated. I just took excerpts from my blog throughout the year and turned it into a calendar. It was so fun to go and read my blog throughout the year, I forgot how much fun we had this year and how fast Judson and Carma are growing up. And my little Wyatt was only the size of a bean 11 months ago and now he is a chubby bubbers.

The WORST part of the letter is taking the family picture. I don't know why I get in the worst mood and want to smack my entire family before family pictures, but HOLY COW! I almost backed out and said, "We just wont have a family picture this year!". But Michael liked that idea too much so I made him do it anyway. Carma is the only one in our family who enjoys taking pictures. I wanted to smack Judson, we didn't know he was making faces in EVERY SINGLE picture until we got them back. So here was the best one, glad I can laugh about it now. Oh, a funny part of the picture taking story: picture this, we were stressed out, the kids were tired and whiny and Michael and I are fussing at the kids and feeling crazy. When we were done I realized that we left "Dumbo" playing in the background and it was on the Main Menu playing that LOUD crazy Circus Music. When I turned it off it was instant relief and Michael said, "No wonder we felt like we were at the crazy circus! That music is crazy!". It was so funny and true. So MERRY STINKIN' CHRISTMAS!!

"It's not Christmas unless somebody pukes" says Michael. Well, it is Christmas at our house then. Carma woke us up puking at 4:15am as Michael was cleaning her off Judson woke up. We said "Do you feel sick" , he said "I don't think so".. not even a minute later he is puking down the stairs. Judson puked 3 times.. Michael said if they made it in the puke bowl or toilet he would pay them $5.00.. hahaha Judson made 10 bucks last night. Carma zero. The funny thing about this story is that I was enjoying the moment.. you may thing "WHAT?!". But hear me out. As the kids were at the bottom of our bed on the floor sleeping I thought it is only a few years that we will have kids to take care of. A few years that they will want to sleep in our room and love having the opportunity to sleep on our floor. A few years for us to take make them feel safe. Admittedly it was MUCH easier for me to think this since I didn't have to clean up one puke mess, I got to nurse and take care of the baby:) Thanks Michael for being so WONDERFUL and cleaning up the rotten egg smelly puke.

We have been Elved

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/HtKjvoGERRYl0zcljNlh

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Michael actually snuck a picture of me, (thanks hon!) and I thought it only fair to add one of me I didn't like since I put one of him that he doesn't like. So there, all fair.

We decorated for Christmas last Friday. It was fun to do it as a family since Judson and I (meaning Judson skips out after about 5 minutes) usually decorate it. Michael even put some lights on outside this year. GO HON!! It is much more fun decorating as a family. For some reason Christmas lights make me cuss every year, and this year was no different. This hasn't changed even from my child hood. I remember my dad getting so mad about Christmas lights, I inherited the curse from him I am sure of it. I HATE Christmas lights! This is even a pre-lit tree and not one single one worked this year. SO, we topped them with more lights so now we have a big mess of wires under the tree. NICE!


My Juddy butters! Isn't he so dang CUTE!!

Carma CRACKS me up. She begged and begged for us to put these stockings on. I kept saying "No, we hang them not wear them." But after about 200 times I caved and she won. Judson was annoyed and I had to remind him that he did the same exact thing. I don't know I didn't let her wear them in the first place b/c look how cute it is!!

She is just the sweetest little princess!! She was determined to put the star on top, but it was too heavy... sad.. but it all worked out with a bow on top instead.
Wyatt was no help at all in decorating the tree, but he IS SUPER FREAKIN CUTE!!!!! He is really a sweet baby and getting cuter by the minute!

Thanksgiving

Natalie, Liberty and Nathan...it is so nice that they live close enough to visit more often! Everyone was running around too much to get the entire family. Which reminds me, Natalie if you are reading this will you email me family picture if you have one?

Wyatt loves to snuggle up with Aunt Sylvia... so sweet!! I love this picture!
Carma only has 2 girl cousins here (and one is only 2 months old) and 7 boy cousins. So she LOVES to play with Liberty. I love that they are both at an age to enjoy each other, I hope they will always remain close. I was never close to my cousins which makes me sad.

Judson and Carma loved that we were at a church and they could actually run around and play. I love to see them playing together! It is so cute when they do.

Anyway, we had fun with Natalie and Kenn in for the week (we actually got to play some games this visit) and Thanksgiving was nice and low stress. The most fun was that I got to cook again, I really missed cooking while on bedrest and recovery. I cooked Peach Almond Pie, White Chocolate Carmel Apple Pie (this one was a TOTAL flop... but sounds good huh). Funny story; I actually didn't recognize the pie on the table for some reason. So I took a piece and tasted it I thought "who made this nasty pie".hahahaha I realized later that I in fact I made that "NASTY pie". hahaha I also made 2 Tassin family traditions that I can't do without: Artichoke Casserole and 4 Cheese Macaroni. YUMMY! I LOVE FOOD! WAY TOO MUCH!! dang it!

Adjustments

OK, three kids has been a HUGE adjustment for us. Having a new baby and no sleep is harder than I remembered, but I guess that is the plan. Make us forget what NO sleep feels like so we will do it again. I THOUGHT I remembered, but I was way off... this is harder. I am finally getting more used to it and trying to learn how to juggle kids and household stuff, which leaves no time for things like... ME! What is a shower? or working out? Oh, well, there will be time for that soon enough.. I HOPE. The 3 hours of sleep a night is getting easier too. So all is good. But the hard thing is that I FINALLY feel alive and can do things now, but I can't. All I can do is sit and hold him, so he better be glad he is adorable!!

The reason I never post anymore is that I have to choose between posting and cleaning during the minutes he isn't demanding to be held. I always choose cleaning since my house is a good 5 months behind on cleaning. Soooo... I will try to post more often and I have a million blogs to read. Hopefully I will get to your blogs soon.... I miss reading them.

Wyatt Update:
He had breastfeeding jaundice... yes my breast milk caused his jaundice to get worse, so I quit nursing for 3 days and only did formula... it got better and now I am back to nursing. HURRAY! He seems to be doing much better. He is 5 weeks and already 12 lbs. That went by SO fast. He is starting to smile and coo and I am reading his cries a little better. The smiles make everything SO worth it. He is SOOOOOO CUTE!!! You know you are in love when totally sleep deprived and you have to stay up to make sure you don't miss a singe smile or coo at 2:00 am. Michael and I just melt.

The kids are getting used to him too. Carma seems to be a tiny bit less sensitive and understands that I can't jump up at every request. She is more sincere at her affections toward him, it is pretty cute. It is SOOO hard to give what I feel is adequate attention for Judson and Carma. Also a challagne to have energy to feel and give the love that I want and feel I need to. That is so hard and the guilt is almost overwhelming at times. I wish I were more patient and less high strung. Talk about refiners fire... too bad that I just feel the burn... burnt actually. I hope to get better at this.

OHHHHH, I wanted to say thank you to Yolanda Gripe Water and Thank you to the Makers of Gripe Water!! This stuff is AMAZING!!! Totally different baby. He has been so much better, still wants to be held ALL DAY and night, but it is better and he sleeps for 2 hours at a time now. I swear to not eat beans for at least 2 months after last night, even though I am sure it would have been worse with out GW... I LOVE beans and will miss them...sniff sniff.

OK, now I am just rambling....

Halloween

Halloween!
It was interesting having a baby so close to Halloween. I LOVE Halloween... not any of the scary stuff.. (I avoid TV during Octover b/c I can't find the remote fast enough to change the scary movie adds even). But I love all the dress up stuff and chocolate and especially fall! This year was an especially beautiful season. But we had to miss several of the Halloween festivities. I had the baby on the School's Spootacular night .. so sad to miss that. It is the cutest tradition the PTA puts on. Maw-maw and Aunt Nikki were sweet enough to take Juddy for me. And I was in the ER the night of the ward Trunk or Treat... sniff sniff. But I DID make it to Cynthia's for our Halloween tradition. Here is a pic of our family. Carma looks hilarious in this picture...it is So difficult to get a picture of her... she IS a cutie though.. and she was SO excited for Halloween. She kept asking us everyday what we were going to be for at least a week. And she would end saying "And I am going to be Cinder-RELLA" (stresses the rella part everytime).


So, Judson originally wanted to be Iron Man. We looked up on the net and the costume was
$40.00. What the heck. I was going to buy it for him and let him pay for half.. but dad said "NO". Good thing b/c 2 weeks ago he said that he is growing out of Super Heroes and that he wanted to spend his money on cool toys instead. Phew.. thanks hon for stopping that purchase. $40.00 on a costume.. outrageous! Aunt April saved the day with his homemade Jack Sparrow Costume!!




Maw-maw took Judson trick-or-treating since I could only walk so far... Thanks maw-maw. Judson loved it!

So, this is Carma's first trick or treating. She honestly has had an ear infection the past 3 years.... I hope the ear infections are far behind us now. So this is the first one she has been well enough to go. We went around to a couple of houses.. she got scared at the third house and saw Michael on our porch and said "I want to go home now and see daddy". She is SO my daughter and scared of her own shadow!!! Poor thing.. it isn't fun being a scardiy cat, but it is just our nature. She was so stinking cute saying "trick or treat". She used to say "trick or treak" .. so cute! They grow up way too fast.

This is actually Michael's costume on Wyatt. Istn' it SO cute! Dana do you recognize this? It is the bicycle helmet cover you won for Judson... keep eatin those pop tarts:)
Our little Squirt!! Thanks Ashley for this SUPER cute costume. He looks so dang cute!! He was only 8 days old for Halloween! So tiny! I swear he is bigger already.
Here are some of the cousins at Aunt Cynthia's house. It is tradition for the family to go to their house and have Soup and bread. I love that tradition.. what a cute one. April made these Three Musketeer costumes and the baby is Puss in boots. SO CUTE HUH! I wish I could have gotten Rachelle's kiddies too, they were ADORABLE too. Can I say that it is pretty much impossible to get a decent picture of Carma. These are the best ones .. sad huh.