TTT: Season 3, Episode 3

1. This past weekend Mark took the boys on their long promised fishing trip to the pond by my parents' house. Ever since they got their fishing poles for Christmas, they've been itching to go "real fishing" as opposed to simply casting and realin in the attached practice fish around the house. As I sent them off on Saturday morning I thought they'd either be back within an hour or gone for a long time. Lucky me, it was the later! Despite the fact that the first pond they went to had no fish to be found, they stuck with it and went to another pond and had much more success. My dad met up with them along the way and from all of the stories I've heard, they had a blast. What little boy doesn't love to fish!?! And all I've heard since then has been "Mama, when is Dada taking us fishing again?" Guess we'll have to make it a more frequent occurrence. And considering I got a lot of work, a fair amount of cleaning, and a tiny bit of rest in while they were gone, I know I certainly won't be complaining!

2. If you happened to look over my bucket list for 2012, you might have noticed that I aspire to make curtains for several rooms in our house by the end of the year. As of this week, I may have already cheated just a bit on that one. How could I help myself when Pottery Barn sent me an email on Monday saying everything on their site for that one day would ship for free? It just begged for me to at least check out what I could find on there. Especially since my house in my dreams looks similar to every picture from the pages of the Pottery Barn catalogs. Sure enough, the drapes I had previously pinned on pinterest were not only still there and available, but on sale as well. Like more-than-half-off sale. Really, I could make drapes at that level of quality for the price. After debating for a while, I ran up to our local Pottery Barn to see if they had a sample of the drapes available. (Thanks, Mom, for meeting me there so I didn't have to take all three boys in alone! I'm sure we would have walked out with a purchase of some sort of broken item had I attempted that feat.) We'll see how the drapes they look when the show up. And if I don't like them, I guess that's just a sign that I need to suck it up and actually make them! I'll keep you posted.

3. I'm pretty sure that Grant is teething. No festering blistered gums just yet. Only a randomly fussy, constantly waking, chewing on everything little guy. Why is it so easy to forget the tough aspects of raising little ones sometimes? I've been thinking back to when Kolbe and Reagan were teething and it made me realize that we pretty much went through a good year or more straight with teething in our house. It started around the time Kolbe was seven months old and since Reagan was born when Kolbe was just fifteen months, his started before Kolbe's was totally finished. We've had a nice solid break for a good year and in that time I managed to forget the woes that accompany the event. And I suppose I had also gotten spoiled by Grant sleeping so well at night. Now that he's up several times, wailing...and not due to hunger, and struggling to fall back to sleep, I'm one tired mama a lot of the time. I'm not a coffee drinker. Maybe I should abandon "drink more water" on my list and add "learn to enjoy coffee."

Two handsome brothers getting ready for their fishing trip!

They've got all their gear packed up...

After a successful day of fishing, every good fisherman needs his rest.

Mama and her big boys

Pinkie and Kolbe (outside of Pottery Barn)

Sitting up all on his own!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 2

1. We got a new fridge this week! Toot, toot! We've been (very unsuccessfully) trying to set aside money to get a new one for a while and after receiving a few generous monetary Christmas gifts, finally had enough to splurge and go get one. Our existing fridge was still working, it just was doing a very bad job of meeting our wishes. Those wishes being to have enough room to store our food and to make ice. When we sold our house back in Lubbock, the buyer requested our kitchen fridge as part of the deal. We gave in and just took our garage fridge with us, which is what we have been using ever since. While it's not a bad fridge, it's a small, very basic model with a broken ice maker. After seven months of filling ice trays and cramming food in, we're happy to have a new, big, ice-making fridge in the kitchen! And it dispenses water to boot! That little feature will definitely come in handy with one of my goals for the following year: drink more water. I'm horrible about it. But now with cold water right at my finger tips, I'm sure I'll get better. Maybe. Hopefully.

2. I think I've got a little case of the winter-time blues. All of the hustle and bustle and excitement of the holidays has ended and it's back to boring normal life. I strike at 'boring' because it doesn't seem quite the right word. 'Cause really, how could a life taking care of three boys be 'boring?' It almost seems like an oxymoron to be both 'bored' and 'busy,' but I guess that's kind of how it feels. Lord knows I'm busy all. the. time. Heck, there's more that I need to get done than I could possibly do in an entire week's time. With no kids to 'make it interesting!' But it kind of just feels like I've become bored with the mundane-ness of this whole existence. Can you blame me for being tired of nursing the baby....again? Making lunches....again? Reading that same book....again? Attempting to discipline the boys for the same issue...again? I do realize that in days to come I'll long for the boys simply to come home and share a lunch with me or want my advice on things they should or shouldn't do. I realize that. But right now, I'm not ashamed to admit that this work is exhausting. I often feel disconnected from them solely based on the fact that I've somehow entered a zombie mode of existence. I've felt this way before. And I know I'll feel it again, too. It comes and goes, as does most things with parenting. And like I said, most of it now is just a let down from the 'seasons' changing. Gotta get reality back to being an enjoyable place to be.

3. Speaking of returning to real life, I feel like we've kind of hit somewhat of a lull in our learning endeavors at home. Could it be possible that the boys want...or even need a break from learning? Granted, I remember plenty of times growing up when I was burnt out with school. Or just did whatever it took to get by and really was uninterested in what I was actually learning. I think most kids feel that way a lot of the time. The boys used to get excited about our little learning activities and now it's more like pulling teeth. They've reached a point where they really don't want to participate and it's frustrating for me. To the point where they intentionally respond incorrectly to get me going. Like "Ok, Kolbe spell out these letters for me." And he intentionally says the wrong letters when I know good and well that he knows his alphabet. So then it becomes disciplining over education. And I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to be that way! Which leaves me realizing that I need to probably give it a little rest or do things in disguise for a while and then try some different strategies with these yahoos. One in particular would be doing some type of physical activity before sit-down learning activities. Their stir-craziness just compounds the issue!

Ugh! Sorry to be a downer this week! Guess some just go that way. It really wasn't a bad one, I swear! On another note, I've done another post below with my 2012 bucket list! Instead of resolutions, I've got quite the hefty to-do list for the year. Things I'd like to make happen in the next three-hundred-and-fifty-some-odd days! And here's our pics from the week, too.

fascinated by the fridge installers...please pay no attention to our counters! We had to empty the old fridge!

Working on math problems with his new street signs that he got for Christmas

Trying on brother's helmet...he's ready to be a big boy too!

My favorite comfort food this winter...baked potato soup!

Pa's birthday was yesterday and the boys had a blast spending the whole day hanging out with Pa, making his cake, and making homemade pizza for dinner. The cutest chefs around!

Make a wish!

2012 Bucket List

Mark asked me a few days ago if I had any new year's resolutions. Typically, I do try to come up with one or two things that I'd like to improve upon or change in the coming year. This year, I was having a hard time nailing down anything I really wanted to change. (you know, since I've practically reached perfection and all...bah!) Instead, I just kept thinking of things I'd like to do. Some just for fun, some to make me a better person, some to help out our family, some to help others, and on and on. So I thought I'd come up with a like "bucket list" of sorts for 2012. A compilation of things I'd like to do or achieve before the year comes to a close. And just for fun, I'll keep up of things on here--give a little background as to why it's important to me, how my progress is going, and when I eventually get to cross it off the list. So here goes!

1. Drink more water.
2. Try new foods. Get Thai food with Mark at least once.
3. Follow the two daily devotionals that I received for Christmas for a full year.
4. Read our Dave Ramsey book and fine tune our budget.
5. Make at least one thing for our home each month.
6. Make curtains for our family room, rec room, and kitchen, and the boys' room.
7. Blog more often.
8. Develop and maintain a house cleaning schedule.
9. Take a weekend trip with just Mark.
10. Teach Kolbe how to read.
11. Teach Reagan his full alphabet and numbers.
12. Develop and implement a manageable discipline system.
13. Pray the rosary more.
14. Find a way to volunteer with the children.
15. Actively listen more.
16. Less cell phone.
17. Purge our house and donate items at least six times.
18. Take a mini family (overnight) vacation.
19. Write and send a meaningful letter once a month.
20. Treat myself to a spa day- hair, pedicure and manicure.
21. Meet my yearly business goal for my shop.

Ahhh! When looking at it all typed out, it sure does seem like a lot. And Lord knows if I tried to achieve this all in say, one month, it would be a lost cause. Thank goodness there are twelve!  Annnnnnnnnd we're off!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 1

1.Welcome to the new year and a new season of Three Thought Thursday! We're finally back to the Asmussen Abode and in major recovery mode. This time last week we were frantically packing for our Christmas trip to Lubbock. And today it's much of the opposite. Staring at piles of clothes that need to be returned to their rightful places, attempting to find new homes for oodles of Christmas presents we brought back, realizing the whole house is still decked out for Christmas, and too tired to want to mess with any of it. Is it just me or is it so much fun to decorate for Christmas and no fun at all to take it all down!?! Just about the only part I enjoy is making notes of what I'd like to add or change next year. And while we were gone my little business had quite a boom. Not that I'm complaining, just that I'm also staring at that to-do list and kind of wanting to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb until it all just goes away. Ha! Really, I'm thankful for it all. The business, the decorations, the un-packing, the gifts...it all adds up to wonderful memories, feelings and more for our whole family. Let's just hope that this time next week I'll be proudly exclaiming that it all got completed and not that I'm still staring at a fully lit Christmas tree.

2. On the good stuff...
Our trip to Lubbock was fantastic! In a story that's too long tell, we ended up flying up Lubbock and driving back. (My parents took our van up a few days earlier for my niece's baptism and flew back.) We were slightly apprehensive about flying with all three but it went so well. The only bad part was waking up at 3:30am in order to get to the airport that's an hour away and catch our super early flight. That aside, the boys did great and we arrived in Lubbock early enough to actually enjoy the day! That evening we spent time with Hefferly clan, as it was the last day my brother Mike's family would be in town. We were so excited to meet our one and only niece, Kennedy for the first time! And we had a blast spending time with everyone else as well. The only one missing was my dad. Saturday and Sunday were filled with lots of time with G-ma and Papa Jeep, Uncle Brian and Aunt Cristi, and the rest of the local Asmussen/Ramirez family. We also had several chances to see our Lubbock friends, eat lots of good food, and even sneak in a few naps. Of course the boys had a blast! It's always fun at G-ma's! And no trip would be complete without a visit to their favorite "castle park." Of course crazy sleep patterns and lots of traveling have gotten us all out of whack, but we'd all quickly admit that it's totally worth it to get to escape the real world for a few days and spend time with people that we love. It was a perfect end to our Christmas season and we definitely look forward to our next trip to Lubbock.

3. Apparently little Grant just needed one chaotic week of traveling to debut some of his new skills. Seriously, just in this past week he's managed to start eating solid food and develop a modified crawling motion as well. I mentioned last week that he was chomping at the bit to start crawling...while we were in Lubbock he finally figured out how to get that big belly off the floor and get his knees under him. He rocks back and forth and then eventually just dives for it. So cute! And in just the past few days, he's managed to figure out the legs and is just waiting for those arms to get the message to move forward. For now it's just a series of dives, but he still manages to get across the room when he wants to! He also started productively eating real food this week. He's been very intrigued by it for a while and would even grab things off of our plate or reach for things headed to our mouths while we're eating. But every time we'd let him try a dab of something on his tongue, he'd totally spaz out, gag several times, and end up barfing. I guess he was totally thrown off by the texture. He managed to make a spectacle of himself at G-ma's when I let him try a little dab of my sweet potatoes. But all of a sudden, he's seemed to figure it out. And he's even very active in the process. He wants to hold the spoon or try to put the food in his mouth. Granted, his eating motion is still a work in progress (he's still attempting to suck instead of chew, thus leaving quite the messy bib!) he's definitely taking a liking to eating. (as if we'd ever doubted that he'd eventually love food! Kid doesn't miss a meal!) Is it just me, or is this baby growing up way too fast!?!

Here's one of our first little clips of his attempts at  crawling. He's gotten much better since!

 

Mmmmm...oatmeal!

 And here are some shots from the rest of our week:

Our plane had to stop in Dallas and they made an announcement that it would be about twenty minutes before they loaded the remaining passengers (a flight running early!?! Rare!!!) To avoid getting stir crazy, we let the boys roam around the empty plane and had a little fun with our carry-on luggage, Grant.

All of the Hefferly Cousins! (John was hilarious...he was bound and determined to escape the picture!!!)

Cousins and Uncles...just missing a Mikey and a Grant!

Isn't she a doll!?! Me with my little niece, Kennedy. I tried to sneak her in my purse but...

A rare shot of all five Hefferly kids...these are way too few and far between

G-ma and her boys

Uncle Brian and Grant were matching! ...Hey, Uncle Brian, shouldn't the baby be the bald one!?! :)

Chillin' in the mini-papasan at G-ma's

Good ol' family Christmas pic. Merry Christmas from the Asmussens!

TTT: Season 2, Episode 51

1. Did you have a wonderful Christmas? We sure did! Despite being fraught with the ever-unpleasant cold, it was totally delightful. And by 'cold,' I'm not referring to the weather. More on that later. We had an enjoyable few days with our own little family, as well as some time with my parents and two of my brothers (Pat and Dave). My two married brothers (Mike and Andy) and I have every-other-year Christmas schedules with our family and our spouses' families. This is an 'in-laws' Christmas year, so we were supposed to be in Lubbock for Christmas with the Asmussens. Unfortunately, Mark, being the low man on the totem pole at work, had to be on-call through today so we didn't get to travel (yet). I am very happy that at least we live in a place were we have some form of family so that we weren't totally alone! It was so much fun watching the boys experience Christmas this year! There's nothing quite like seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. While yes, it does get overly emotional at times, the amount of joy they experience and the love that I know they feel makes it all totally worth it. I'm sure these next few Christmases with them will be the best ones in our future memories. I feel so blessed to get to be a part of them.

2. Back to the aforementioned 'cold.' While yes, it was chilly by Houston standards, we weren't cold in the white Christmas sort of way. (Though if we had been in Lubbock where we were supposed to be, we would have! Darn!) No, ours was more like the runny nose, constant cough, here-and-there fever kind of 'cold.' Kolbe had it first and the worst. Then Reagan picked it up and actually had a fever with it, too. Now Grant as well is battling the congestion. Try nursing a baby who can't breathe through his nose! And the booger sucker evokes the same response as six-month-check-up shots. Which we also got this week. The little bruiser now weighs a little over twenty pounds and is 27.5 inches long. That still puts him in the higher percentiles of size with his contemporaries. He wants to crawl so badly! He does a great job of getting up on his arms but the second he gets those knees tucked under, it's a face plant. It won't be long though. He's quite the ticklish little fella and loves interacting with his big brothers. His only vice? The spit up. No joke, I think he's right up there with Kolbe at this point. At least one spit up every single time he eats. Honestly, can't wait till he grows out of that one! And can't wait for these colds to end either. While my mom and at least one of my brothers picked it up, Mark and I are still fine as of now. I'm sure we'll get it just as soon as we arrive in Lubbock tomorrow for our vacation. Let's pray not!

3. We've officially reached the end of Season Two of Three Thought Thursday! Fifty-one weeks. Yes, I did skip a week after Grant was born and am completely unapologetic for it! It's been fun keeping track of life on here. Mark and I had a conversation a while back about keeping up with the whole blogging thing. While I'll admit that there are some weeks where I struggle to get my post done, I continue to have the desire to do it and love what it's creating for our family. Like Mark put it, what if this is meant to be a portion of my life's work? I always thought I'd be a writer...what if the story I am meant to write is the story of my family? I picture us sitting on the couch together some day reading through the tales of our younger years. Or the boys in tears over some of the shenanigans I documented from years gone by. While it may never be read by millions or hit the top of the New York Times Bestsellers List, it very well could be the most wonderful story a certain five (and maybe someday more) people ever read. I sure hope so. And with that, I'll definitely be back next year. Next week.

It's beginning to look a lot like...October? Oh wait. That's January in Houston.

So great to see Uncle Pat! We haven't seen this guy since last Christmas!

Opening gifts! A real bat from Dada! (And Kolbe is modeling his chef hat and apron from Mama)

One of the favorite gifts for both of the boys were their play shaving kits. I remember my brothers having these when we were little and I happened to stumble upon them on a Target clearance rack a few days before Christmas. They were definitely a hit!

Rudy getting ready for his first shave.

One of my favorite gifts...Mark got me this print to hang upstairs in our rec room where we do most of our book reading, puzzle making, attempts-at-learning activities. When I'm getting frustrated, it's the best little reminder of the most important thing of all for these boys. Love! If they learn that and nothing else, I'll certainly be proud.

6 months old!

TTT: Season 2, Episode 50

1. Man, oh, man! What a week! A really good week though. Just still trying to process it all. The kind of week where last Thursday feels like a lifetime ago.  Here's a quick list:
- hosted our little prayer/book group
- made a day trip to College Station with the boys to watch my cousin play rugby for Air Force
- attended a fun Christmas party with my prayer/book group
- sent the boys off on a guy's trip
- finished nine orders for my shop
- wrapped almost all of the Christmas presents
- ran multiple errands
- attended mass and spent an evening with my cousins that I haven't seen in roughly twelve years
- worked on a Christmas gift that unfortunately didn't get finished...fabric order better arrive soon!!!
- did one million loads of laundry
- tracked down new tires for Mark's car
- got haircuts for the boys
- took a trip downtown to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences
And, of course, all of the other "basics" of life. You know, like feeding the baby, changing diapers, reading books, breaking up squabbles...a busy week, I say. But a fun one. I like when the last few days before Christmas are fun and not stressful. Definitely enjoying it!

2. And let me just narrow in on roughly twenty-seven or so hours of this past week. The twenty-seven or so hours when Mark took the two older boys to Dallas for an over-night at Uncle Brian and Aunt Cristi's house. *ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!* (yes, that's a chorus of angels you hear singing and a beaming light from heaven above shining down on me!) Though it had been in the talks for weeks, I refrained from mentioning it on here for fear that it might fall through due to my loose lips. Mark loves to take the boys to high school football games, so the original plan was for him to take the boys to the state championship game this past Saturday at "Jerry World." (Cowboys Stadium) Once we realized that the tickets were $20 per person and that  both Kolbe and Rudy would need their own tickets, we started debating whether it was worth it or not. At the local high school games, the boys get in for free and Mark is something like $6. Sixty is a far cry from six. Plus $10 for parking. Not to mention all the gas money! So in the back of my mind I had a sad feeling it was going to fall through, but at the last minute, Mark decided to go for it anyway and head to Dallas just to spend some time with Brian and Cristi and get the boys out of my hair. I certainly love all three of those guys dearly, but man, there's just so much you can get done with minimal interruptions! As I mentioned earlier, my sewing machine was on fire as I cranked out my last get-it-to-you-by-Christmas orders. I even got to work on a big Christmas gift that I hope to finish in time for the Asmussen Christmas party up in Lubbock. (pictures to come later...don't want to give it away!) And got all the gift wrapping done. And several short errands run...you know, the ones where you only need to "run in" somewhere and taking all three kids is next to impossible. I stayed up till after midnight and got up with Grant at 6:45, but it was well worth it to get so much done in such a short period of time! It has made the rest of the week feel like a breeze, not having to stress about everything I would still be needing to get done. And Grant was such a trooper. Since he's not mobile just yet, he was happy to sit and watch me work away most of the time. World's Best Baby, I tell ya. And World's Best Hubby Too! That's all the Christmas present I need! Now if we could just arrange for this trip to happen at roughly the same time every year, we'll be in good shape!

3. Boy, oh boy, have I got a story for you. Perfect for the holiday season! One of those "I can't believe my kid just did that" or "Wow, I seriously dropped the ball on that one" scenarios. Take a look at this picture:

My dear, dear precious little Grandma. She's adorable and such a gem! When we were little, she always used to send us little Life Savers "books" that opened and were filled with rolls of life savers. It's her special tradition. But as the years have gone by, she's added many more treats to her yearly shipments. And this was the loot that arrived on our doorstep this year. A fun plethora of all kinds of stuff to make your teeth ache! After surveying the goodies, I stashed most of it away in our pantry. The bag of Reese's managed to make it to the counter top and each of us ate one for dessert that night. Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon. Though Kolbe was in desperate need of a nap from staying up way too late the night before, he was putting up a massive front and fighting as hard as possible not to give in. I finally went to my last resort and told him I'd let him watch one of his little Mickey Mouse episodes for quiet time, but only if he laid on the couch with his blankies. He agreed, and I snuck back upstairs to work on that Christmas gift I've already mentioned. At first it was so quiet that I was convinced he had fallen asleep. But then I heard the trash can pedal and though Well, guess he didn't fall asleep. A few minutes later I heard it again. I wonder what he's doing down there? And then a few minutes later...Ok, what is he throwing away? A whole episode of Mickey lasts roughly twenty minutes, so when the Hot Dog song came on, I ventured down stairs to see what was going on. As soon as I spotted the stool pushed up beside the counter where the Reese's had been hiding at the back, I knew exactly what had happened. I opened the trash can to find this:

Not two or three candy wrappers. Not seven or eight either. Sixteen Reese's peanut butter cup wrappers. Sixteen!!! I didn't know whether to laugh, scream, cry, gag...and remarkably, he didn't have a speck of chocolate on his face, fingers, clothes, anywhere! He seriously thought he had concealed the evidence! I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Well good! I hope you get a stomach ache! didn't cross my mind. And no, he never got a stomachache and never had diarrhea. Somehow his thirty-one pound little body did just fine with sixteen Reese's peanut butter cups. I feel sick just thinking about it. Needless to say, he's been banned from goodies all together until Christmas. He's definitely already had his fair share. Mom of the Week on that one, I tell ya!


Sorry for the over-abundance of pictures...again! It's hard to narrow them down when so much is going on!

In College Station to cheer on Air Force rugby with their big cousins Reed and Kristen (my cousins on my dad's side) I hate that they live so far away! The boys love them...and I'm pretty sure they don't mind the boys much either!

Posing in front of Uncle Brian's tree with his new puppy, Ellie!

Aunt Cristi helped the boys make awesome snowmen out of yummy pantry items! You'd never guess that she's a kindergarten teacher!

And I spent the weekend with my little guy. He's adorable, I know...

The boys were thrilled to finally get to light the fourth candle on the Advent wreath! Christmas is almost here!

I finally found a Santy face for my front door wreath. And on half price clearance at Hobby Lobby! Been looking for one for a long time!

Uncle Dave made it in to town...the boys are ecstatic! Now we're just waiting for Uncle Pat to arrive tomorrow night!

The Butterfly Conservatory at the Houston Museum of Natural Science was amazing. I bought tickets to it through Groupon on a whim a while back. Way cooler than I expected, and none of our pictures do it any justice! Well worth the trip downtown! The boys, Pinkie, and I had a blast! And I finally got a good picture of me with my three.

The park that houses the museum has a kids' train that runs around it. The zoo is also in the same park. Pinkie has wanted to take the boys on that train probably since Kolbe was born, so we finally did it! They loved it!

Long running family joke (the very first guy I dated in high school called my dad "Big Guy" the day he met him...bad idea...) so we always tease my dad about it. When Kolbe was a baby we bought them matching Big Guy/Little Guy sweatshirts. Kolbe wore it Christmas 2008 at 13 months, Rudy wore it Christmas 2009 at 10 months, and here's Grant wearing it Christmas 2011 at 5 months!

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Hope your weekend is blessed with much love, laughter, and joy as we celebrate the birth of Christ!...now go enjoy a Reese's peanut butter cup or two!!! (but no more than two...that's all we've got left.)

TTT: Season 2, Episode 49

1. Ah, what a week. Full of the unexpected. Some truly wonderful, some truly awful, and some a little bit of both. Since I'm sure you're wondering how something unexpected could be both wonderful and awful at the same time, I'll divulge. I should have seen the omen last week when my beloved sewing machine "crossed the line" and stabbed me through the finger. Maybe her wayward behavior was a sign of her advanced-stage aging process. Like her sewing machine dementia had caught up to her and she forgot how to stay in line. Or maybe her feelings were hurt by the one several mean words I flung her way while removing the needle from my finger. (quite similar to a knife-in-the-back in a person-to-person relationship) Either way, she decided to call it quits on me. Just up and stopped running all together. I tried everything in my power to remove something in the neighborhood of seventy-eight screws in search of the problem, but it was no use. Yes, there are places that fix sewing machines. But they tend to run at a rate of at least $60-$70 per repair. And that's just if it's something simple. No replacement parts needed. Like for the diagnostic portion. Sadly, this is where I admit that I've been running a small business on a sewing machine that my mother purchased for me for only $85. On sale. She was the absolute basic of the basic sewing machine. Nothing  fancy. Not computerized. Just a basic, standard machine. My mom had no idea if I was going to actually like sewing and of course, had no idea I'd start a small business doing it, so she figured she'd start me at the bottom. Anyway, paying for her to get fixed would have been pointless. So that's the awful: my sweet, first sewing machine being laid to rest. R.I.P., my friend. I'll always have fond memories of our times together and how you helped create my love for sewing. So I'm assuming you know what the wonderful is, right? Did you guess  "a new sewing machine sitting smack in the middle of Laura's sewing table"??? If so, you're correct. I have to admit, that because this was a completely unexpected occurrence, I didn't quite have the time or the money to do the research I wanted to do, shop around, or really invest in my "dream machine." I had to get something good and get something quickly. (I have a good fifteen get-it-to-you-by-Christmas orders sitting on my desk!) I've always had that thought/dream in the back of my mind of getting a new, awesome sewing machine...and I still do...but for now, the new one I got is quite fancy compared to the one I had, didn't break the bank, and totally gets the job done in a much quieter manner! (my old one was a clanker!!!)

2. If only our second topic for discussion could have been solved with a few hundred dollars. Instead, it was solved with nearly a couple thousand. Mark's car, Mark's car, Mark's car. If we didn't need to trade it in for something better soon, I'd probably go outside and throw rocks at it. Several months ago we sank about $350 into repairs on it. Repairs that my dad did for us. We knew that there were a few other small issues going on...like needing two new tires and some sort of a belt, but that was about it. Until Monday. When it completely died on Mark outside of Joann Fabrics. (why was he at Joann? you ask? Yes, Christmas shopping for me. What a great husband!) Never did I think I'd get a call from Mark Asmussen saying, "Can you come pick me up? I'm outside of Joann's!" Ha! Anyway, the tow truck came, hauled off our gem of a car, and left us anticipating the worst. Which we received the next morning from the repair shop in the form of $1,500 in needed repairs. Geez. Merry Christmas to you, too! New belt, new alternator, and new brakes later, we're still in need of two new tires in order to pass the inspection that's expired. Guess that's what you get when you drive back and forth from Lubbock to Midland every week for a year and a half and then at least for an hour a day between multiple hospitals in start/stop traffic in Houston. Needless to say, our hunt for a nicer/newer/used vehicle begins now...before something else goes wrong with this thing! At least we should get a pretty good trade in value on it since we've invested so much in the repairs! Ugh!

3. December 15th. Ten more days until Christmas. And (I think) I'm officially done with Christmas shopping! I'll admit: I think I only actually went out and purchased one item. Everything else was ordered. Online shopping is just so much easier. Less stressful. And often times, more affordable. If all of the wrapping was also done, then I'd really be tooting my own horn, but right now it's all piled up in my bedroom, waiting for a massive wrapping session this weekend. After all, Lord knows the sooner I wrap them, the sooner little fingers are going to start poking and prodding at what's inside. Mark and I keep joking about how we're going to be having a Gift of the Magi Christmas for each other. Have you ever read that Christmas story by O.Henry? It's my favorite. It's the one where the young married couple doesn't have much money but wants desperately to buy gifts for each other. The wife cuts off her beautiful, long hair and sells it to buy her husband a chain for his pocket watch. And the husband sells his pocket watch to buy his bride a pair of beautiful combs for her hair. Sacrificing their most valued treasure for each other, and in the end, realizing that having each other is all they really want or need. It seems like every Christmas we have situations pop up (like Mark's car!) that help us to remember this very important message and just how true it is for our little family.

She's definitely reached the "December" of her existence...

Why does my baby not look like a newborn any more!?! (this is him hanging out with Pa...my parents watched the boys on Friday night so Mark and I could go to a little Christmas party for his office. Our first time out at night sans kids since Grant was born!!!)

Casa de Asmussen at night...we finally finished putting up lights...at least for this year. Mark has grand aspirations of doing the whole house next year. And thanks to my dad donating a long strand of old lights from his house, we just might be able to make it happen if we can get a good 200 light bulbs before they sell out next year! For now it will just have to be the tree bottoms, garden border, and door way.

Dada and Kolbe hanging out in Pa's garage attic.

My boys have been on a major fruit kick lately. At home, I normally cut apples up for them so they're easier to eat. But our church had Santa Claus available for visitors after mass this past weekend, so we had to stop in for a visit. Each boy walked away with some fresh fruit and Kolbs decided he wanted to try to eat the apple on the core. He was successful! (kind of)

While Mark's car was in the shop he had to take my van to work. So for two days, these babies were our only form of transportation! (also known as something-to-keep-us-from-going-stir-crazy!)

Grant. Barfs. All. the. Time. Behind Kolbe (which was understandable because of his cleft), he's the spittiest baby I've ever seen!!! Never cries. Never pouts. Just barfs at random times. At least he aimed well with this one and it landed on the floor. Instead of my hair or neck where it tends to go.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...my little Rudy is definitely our clever, creative one. The other day I was standing facing the couch (back to the boys) and folding laundry. Rudy grabbed his blanket and started finding objects in the room to wrap up in it. He would wrap an item and then bring it to me: "Mom! Here's your present! Open it!" I'd un-fold the blanket to find a book or a snow globe or shoe. After several "gifts," he returned and said, "Mom! I have a present for you!" When he didn't reach up to hand me anything, I kept right on folding clothes. "Mom! Come open your present!!!" I turned around to find the item pictured above. That's an exersaucer with a baby in it. After busting out laughing, his response was: "Mom! I got you a new brother! Don't you like it!?!"