SOCK CRAZE AND SMOKE HAZE. THE HOLIDAYS ARE UPON US!

Christmas time- LOVE IT! I think it's no secret that our family loves loves loves this time of year! Kaelyn has been going around the house singing Jingle Bells. However, she doesn't know the words so she sings "Jingy balls, jingy balls, Santas on his way!" She is so proud of herself that I don't have the heart to correct her just yet. Plus, it provides a great laugh! The day after Thanksgiving is the day we usually get our tree and decorate. It was raining cats and dogs so we decided to skip the tree. Aaron was going to put up the lights and I would decorate the inside. A nice relaxing day.

I woke up super early (not on purpose) and decided to head to Fred Meyer to see what all the 1/2 price sock hype on Black Friday was about. Ladies were getting crazy over socks like it was the last time socks would EVER be sold! I'm all for a good deal but sheesh people RELAX! Everyone was going nuts so I tried cracking a joke to the lady next to me. Nothing. I know she heard me but she was in such a sock trance she wouldn't break that for anything!I grabbed two packs for Kaelyn and said screw it for the rest of my family. I snagged a few more items and came home. I had strict instructions from Sir Griswold to be home by first light so he could start on the lights.

I get out the decorations and think how nice it would be to start a fire since it was so gloomy out. I have started many fires in my day but never one in our fireplace. I gather some wood, I saw like 5 spiders and tried not to freak out! I start my fire and walked off to get Kaelyn dressed for the day feeling mighty proud of myself for my fire starting skills. I walk back down the hall and there is smoke EVERYWHERE!!! The smoke alarms start going off, Kaelyn is screaming, and Prince is freaking out! Leah was laying on the floor (in another room) and Prince kinda tripped over her during his freak out. Now everyone is crying and I run outside shouting Aaron's name. He is up on the roof, in the POURING rain and I am just yelling about smoke in the house. He comes in and sees the mass meltdown going on with the girls, Prince flipping out and the smoke alarms going off with the faint sound of Christmas music playing in the background. He fixes the issue in 2.5 seconds.

I forgot to open the flue. Whoops.

Every door and window in the house was open trying to air it out. My cozy Christmas decorating environment was now ruined by smoke and cold air coming in! I was finally able to decorate and Aaron was outside hanging lights all day in the pouring rain!

In other news everyone seems to be doing great. We have all been kinda sick for about a month but finally think we've kicked it. Kaelyn is still loving school. She had her first accident the other week. She went all out and pooped in her Minnie's! Seriously? It's all or nothing with that kid! I asked her why she did it and she just said "It's ok Mom __________ just cleaned it up!" Her poor teacher!I was mortified. Shit happens. Literally.

There was a baby shower here for my BFF a little over a week ago and we somehow crammed 30 something ladies in my living room! It was crowded! After the shower all the husbands and kids came over to finish off the food and watch some soccer. 4 days later we hosted Thanksgiving. It wasn't the entire Pingul pack but there was at least 20.Everyone brought something and my Father-in-law made an awesome turkey! Everything was delicious. I was so amazed that with all these people in our house over the four days other than a little cranberry sauce on the playroom floor, there were no major spills on our white, or what should be white carpet. Well  that was until late on Thanksgiving night when Aaron's red wine glass leaped off where it was sitting and went all over our light colored couch, Aaron and my sister! I don't know how, but we got it all out!




The best picture i could get. You can't even see all of the lights!




This is totally Aaron. He would add more lights if our breaker box could handle it!



The Great Fall of 2012

Halloween was kind of a bust for the Pinguls this year. For some reason Kaelyn decided she was terrified of her costume. She was a cupcake. Not sure what is so scary about that! She would cry whenever I tried to get her to put it on. I decided to ignore that and try again later.We head to Fred Meyer for some candy and she starts freaking out when she sees the Halloween masks on a rack. I tried to tell her they were fake and went to show her by slapping one of the masks. I must have put a tad too much force behind my slap because I knocked them all over!!! Pig faces, ghouls, goblins, the creepy scream face...knocked em all off the rack!! What!!! Well now she was totally freaked out and as we rounded the corner to grab the candy there was a 5ft tall monster in the aisle that just sent her over the edge! I got the candy and some pumpkin ice cream I had been eyeing and got outta there!

Later in the day I was making a soup to bring over to the Halloween potluck we have with some people in the Grandview West "hood." Leah was screaming so loud that I couldn't concentrate on what I was making. Since it was the first time I had made this soup I was trying my best to pay attention to the recipe but the constant screaming was making my eyes start to twitch and my underarms sweat. We finally get Kaelyn excited enough to put her costume on and we head over to the neighbors. We are all enjoying multiple soups and adult beverages before heading out. I was so happy Kaelyn was excited to trick or treat. The first house we went to was one of our awesome neighbors Bron. Well his name is Ron but Kaelyn calls him Bron. He gave all the kids candy and then after he gave Kaelyn her candy he also gave her her own special glow stick. Score! I thought it was going to be such an awesome night for Kaelyn. We hit up another house and as she is going down the driveway Aaron notices her rain boots were on the wrong feet. Kaelyn goes to the next house and a man with a mask was giving out candy. Shockingly she wasn't scared. Well she turns around to head down the somewhat steep driveway, slips and hits her head on the concrete! My back was to her but I could hear her head hitting the ground. She instantly had a huge Goose egg on her head and was of course crying her eyes out. After we checked her out for a minute she said she wanted to keep going. At that point someone handed me one of Leah's little sock boot things she was wearing that had fallen off into a mud puddle. Great, one kid whacks her head on the ground and my other one is barefoot in the cold. Trick or treat fun was O-V-E-R.

We came home and iced Kaelyns head. This was our first kid injury as parents and I know that there will be more as they grow but I did learn something last night..... Aaron is for sure the softy when it comes to his girls! Of course I felt awful for Kaelyn when she fell but I had Leah strapped to my chest so Aaron was the one checking her out and carrying her home, etc. I looked at her when we were at the house and she seemed ok. Aaron may have acted like she lost a limb for a few minutes. (im not making fun of him, it was just really cute!) He gave her a sucker and when she was done she asked for more. Before Aaron could answer I told him to not let her have anymore candy. She asked him again and he just looked up at me and said "You need to ask Mommy baby." Way to make me the bad cop Aaron! The joys of having girls, totally wrapped around dad's finger!


The cupcake. Explain to me what's so scary about this?!

                                            


Putting Ice on the boo-boo.




Not liking the ice on her head :( Poor girl.