'Tis the Season for Tradition

Each year we start the Christmas season off by preparing our home for the holidays, no sooner (or later) than the day after Thanksgiving. One part of this ritual is setting up the LGB train set that was given to Ashton on the year he was born. We started a new tradition this year...watching "The Polar Express" as we create a little boy's toy-train dream! Tradition is a enormous part of the holidays, and being a mother who has come from a family of tradition, it is crucial that such methods be passed on...as well as new ones!

It is also no urban legend that one year, while watching the movie "Elf" at home, I caught on to the Elf-ish spirit and created many snowflakes by hand. Then, after IRONING each one and sprinkling them with magic snow glitter, I hung them all throughout my home. This is something special to me that makes the holidays at our home ever since.

The next best tradition that I will never give up, by promise to the matriarch of our Lodder family, is our Christmas Eve Lodder Family Christmas Party. This promise is not so easily kept once married and in-laws to appease, but since the day I was adopted into this family I have missed but only 2 of these celebrations. My absence was excused, however, for #1- being sick with bronchitis and strep throat, and #2- having a baby the same week as Christmas...which was certainly no excuse to stay away, but I did.

At our family party, we dine on our grandpa's home-cooked prime rib dinner, visit with family from both local and out of town, share stories of the happenings of our lives, entertain one another with our talents..."the Lodder talent (or lack there of) show", and exchange and open gifts.

I have heard and know of many people who share a similar tradition, but I have always liked to believe that during this one night only we participate in such things that other people only dream about! I am THAT lucky!

Following our Christmas Eve party, the festivities continue at my parent's home where we receive our long-awaited Christmas pajamas! I just KNOW that we are the only ones to do this as well! Watching a holiday movie before retiring to bed is something also included in this night.

Shortly after this photo was taken, Ashton noticed that Emma's sweater from grandma had a hood attached to it... We immediately had to locate some sort of "hood" for him to not be so as upset that his did not.

No...as cute as it seems...they did not get to spend the night and Christmas morning together. Emma and her parents went home, while Ashton and I stayed the night to spend ALL of Christmas with Nanny, Poppy, G, Chase and Buddy!

Who doesn't have vivid memories of themselves WAITING to open presents after seeing them and then being told to wait??? Why wait? Pictures are good, but why should one have to pose or wait any amount of time before tearing into those nicely wrapped gifts?

My priceless moment...there are no words.

Following the exciting eventful morning, we finish Christmas day with yet another gathering. This time those included are from the Van Tassell family. We spend the time with more food, more conversation, exchanging more gifts, playing with our toys, and this year a new tradition of decorating sugar cookies! We love spending the holidays with our family...traditions would cease to exist with out the ones we love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Aye! It's Me Birthday P-ARRR-ty!

For Ashton's third Birthday he celebrated Pirate-style with his matey's over to help him collect his Birthday Booty!

He started the day before with his best-matey, Emma, by watching a movie in mom's bed... and not without Birthday Balloons!

Momma's lil' Buccaneer...

The Booty...

'Aint it a Beauty?

Avast!

Our Buxom BLIND Lass....

Well, blow me down!! Even some top-notch entertainin' were to be had!

Let it Snow

We can count on Aunt Kimmy to come over and take
Ashton out for his first play date in the snow!

This was taken while sitting, since Ash could barely stand...

"Help me Kimmy! I'm stuck!... and my mom is inside
behind the glass door laughing at me."

Their 8" tall snowman...

The girl needs a pair of new gloves that
don't keep falling off... or at least some duct tape.

In the meantime, Ash is waiting again for help,
while mom is inside laughing.

...and he's spent!
Winning the prize for the best rosy cheeks :)

Where a Kid can be a Kid, and mom's hide from ex-cons...

Ashton, Kimberly, Emma and I ventured to the long-forgotten Chuck E Cheese on a cold day hoping for some indoor fun with the kids.

We were enthusiastically greeted at the front door by the man who stamps hands and lets people in and out to make sure children are leaving with the adults they came with. We were even more enthusiastically greeted by the cashier girl who told me she hated me because she loved my teeth and that I looked like little Barbie. Shortly after we had roamed around some, and enjoyed the kids having so much fun together on the rides, the male workers started to randomly approach my sister and I to sneak us stacks of tickets and tokens...as well as slipping tokens in the rides Emma and Ashton were in to let them keep riding. This went on for hours. The front door man was in love with the kids...almost a little too much, which worried us a tiny, and one of the older "creeper" guys secretly followed my sister and I around while sneaking us more and more tickets.

We decided this would never stop until we cashed in our tickets, picked out toys and left...which is what we started to do. We ended up picking out toys for the kids on 4 different occasions before we actually got out of there because as we were picking out toys the men were still coming up to us giving us more and more stacks of tickets! What there in Chuck E Cheese's would we ever want or use that many tickets on? At one point the "creeper" was assisting us at the toy counter and pulled out a few "extras" that he'd just "throw in"....including some fizzing tabs for the tub that he told us we could take a "warm bath" with one night... not kidding. He also helped me wondering what the kids would want, and after me telling him there wasn't much else to get, (since we had one or three of everything), he said to me, "Well, what do YOU want???" with a sneaky grin. We busted our A's out of there ASAP and promised we wouldn't visit there again anytime soon and when we do we will donate all the free hand outs to the other mom's.







We were appreciative of the freebies....but not so much of the uncomfortable kindness. Nonetheless, Emma and Ashton were clueless to all this and had a fan-tabulous time which was our end goal! Good job moms!

"Big Poppy"

We were so excited we got to go to Aunt LuAnn's for dessert after our Thanksgiving dinner this year! Ashton LOVES everyone he knows, but his relatives more so. "Big Poppy" Lodder was his special friend this day. They played catch with a mangled stuffed animal dog toy, and both guys had a blast! We are so lucky to have "Big Poppy" here in our lives! We love him so! I am thrilled that I was able to catch a photo of them together on my cell phone...

Potty

After the influence of other little boys throughout Ashton's life so far, he's finally started trying to "go" in the potty, but only at times when he is naked. He also uses the potty vocabulary to announce his trying, but has them a bit mixed up. "Pee-pee" is referring to other actions, and needs to be taken into account while assisting him at the potty...Ashton's dad learned this first hand and I'm not sure his shoes lived to tell the tale ;)

A Cousin's Halloween!

Ashton LOVES Buzz. Ashton was super excited to be Buzz for Halloween... especially once he had the inflatable wings to display. Ashton LOVES airplanes. Ashton's holiday was complete because he not only was Buzz, but felt like he could fly with those wings. He still wears the wings daily.


Halloween wouldn't have been as great if we didn't have our cousin's to trick-or-treat with! Yes, Ashton is the only boy, but he also LOVES pink princesses and mermaids...especially when their names are Emma and Paige!

Why so Sick?

Ever since Ashton recovered from his trauma at 4 months old, he has had a rough time with respiratory illnesses. It seems that with each sniffle and cold there is asthma, pending pneumonia, RSV, Bronchitis, or something else involved! Who contracts upper respiratory illnesses in the summer???? Ashton. We are so blessed to have medicines like Albuterol and antibiotics.

Aside from respiratory issues, this October Ashton contracted hand-foot-mouth disease. It sucks. I learned that this disease can be mild to severe, but if you know my son he always seems to get everything full force! After 2 days of no food or water, with extreme pain and irritability, a trip to Primary Children's for some IV fluids and pain medication seemed to do the trick. My advice to mom's in similar circumstances... Ashton did not seem dehydrated, and was even still urinating, but his labs came back that he was. Do not wait if your mommy-instinct tells you to take action. Sometimes administered fluids make all the difference in the world!

Vegas

This September I decided I needed to use my airline credit and get myself down to Vegas! I hadn't been for a year or so and I missed my sisters (cousins). There weren't any big plans made, just me going down at the last minute to relax, and spend some quality time with my family. The down side was that half of my family was gone that particular week. We were bummed about that, but still managed to have a great time!

Mindie and I were invited by her mom and Jim to tag along to dinner at Cafe Rio and a movie. I really enjoyed spending time, laughing and crying at the movie, with them! We really had a great time despite our inability to focus at the beginning of the movie because of certain "scents"...

Dinner at the Barlow's is always a special treat because Jared really knows his stuff and therefore a mean chef! The chicken marsala was delicious!

The only part of my short trip that was actually caught on camera was when we went out on the strip. This is something that isn't done often when visiting, because for one reason or another we keep ourselves busy and do things mostly outside the strip. My uncle Jamie, and cousin's Jill, Kirk, Mindie and her family, met up at the Bellagio. There is always a themed area there that is decorated differently every month out of the year. There were talking trees with faces, and trees with bodies... I was a bit slow picking up on it all. It smelled like a spiced harvest through out the entire area and was fun for the kids. It was worth checking out...

Then, down around the corner was a chocolate "factory" that Jill took us to called Jean Philippe Patisserie. Oh my goodness! Check out the chocolate fountain! I was IMPRESSED!...and not because I'm a girl with dark chocolate running through my veins!

Uncle Jamie loves to get us special treats...so Jill and I each picked out one of their desserts to share. I obviously picked out a chocolate cake/truffle piece which was exquisite to even look at let alone taste. While Jill decided on a strawberry-kiwi concoction, that was equally, if not better than, the chocolate fantasy I picked out! Definitely visit there when touring the strip!

I decided I wanted to bring home souvenirs for the kiddos, and thought that the Coca-Cola and M&M factory were the just the place to find some. While at Coca-Cola, everyone got something to drink...root beer floats, coke...but Jill and I decided to try their 7 dollar special...multi-drinks from around the world! We were all over it! We took turns being the first to taste each one, and were pleasantly surprised by some! There were others that I'd rather not remember...including one that tasted like hair spray and another like fingernail polish remover! Those never entered my belly because they were IMMEDIATELY, but with class of course, spat back into the cup. Too much fun!

Thanks Barlow, Bryan, Batt, and Mohler families for always taking care of me and being available for me to come visit! Can't wait to do it again soon! Love you guys!