It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Auntie Crystal brought over some fun things for the kids to where for Christmas....Harrison and Addison look so cute as little reindeer.

Here's our little Santa...he's definitely chunky enough to be!!!

An Early Christmas Present

Remember my stroller drama? Well, Kevin worked on the people at American Airlines enough that they finally agreed to give us money towards a new stroller - a whole $300. Then Kevin told the airport reps that the equivalent stroller we had would cost twice that. While we waited to hear from the General Manager we went ahead and ordered a less model from Target. Kevin sent the GM an email showing the cost of what an equivalent stroller would cost and surprisingly he agreed to purchase us the same stroller we had, so we went ahead and ordered it. The stroller from Target arrived at my parents while we were in Peoria, but the "good" one arrived at my mom's work because the UPS driver didn't want to head out on the gravel roads where my parents lived...must be nice to know your delivery people that well!  While Kevin was working on the airport I sent a complaint to AA on their website.  They said they were sorry but had to stand by the airport's decision, but to keep me a satisfied AA customer they gave me 10,000 miles on my account....that's one and a half round trips home and back again.

I helped Kevin put it together when he got back from Peoria Friday night and it is soooo sweet...so much better than the used one we got on eBay. The best part is that Addison actually likes sitting in this one, I think that is what makes Kevin and I like it more. This time around we were smart though and purchased the travel bag to keep it safe from careless baggage handlers.

Grandma Sally got to break it in for us by pushing the kids around on a walk while we were in Arizona.

It's Grillin' Time (in the Winter)

One of the wonderful things about being back in the States is that we get to eat REAL beef!!!! Tonight Dad grilled up some awesome T-bone steaks. I was almost salivating while watching them defrost in the microwave. And it was true love of my father to meet my "being home" requests of grilling out in the middle of the winter. I had to take a picture of this so that our English friends can see that we Americans will barbecue any time of the year.

One of my dad's favorite things to do while waiting for food to cook on the grill is to shoot at things...he's a true outdoorsman and mulitasker. Addison wanted to help "Pa-pa" while he was grilling our steaks and she found this wild hog 3-D target of my dad's out in the yard. So to amuse her, my dad brought it inside and let her sit on it and "kiss the piggy."
 

Hangin' Out with Grandma Sue

The end of the year is pretty busy for car salespeople and my mom is no exception and I think she' even busier than most because she always puts in that extra effort for people. So I brought the kids into town to hang out with grandma for a while during her "down" time. The Capper's (owners of the dealership) have been like family to my brother, sister and I, and have been so kind when it comes to my mom and her kids and grandkids, so they don't mind too much when we show up while mom is at work.
Actually John Capper gets so excited for us to come now that this year he bought a huge candy cane sucker for Addison to have when she came in. She sure liked it!

One day I left Addison with mom while I ran to Iowa City to go to Hobby Lobby. I enjoyed my little "break" and she loved hanging out with Grandma. She said "ello" to everyone who came in and even went out on the lot with Grandma to show a car. She loved chasing around all the cars in the show room and I saw little hand prints on a few of them. That same day, Uncle Thom, married to my mom's sister Julie, stopped by on his way back to Wisconsin and we got to hang out with him for a while.

Meeting Grandma Lynn and Aunt Linda

Today the kids' Great-Grandma Lynn stopped by with their Great-Great Aunt Linda. This was both of their first time to meet Harrison and they got some great cuddles.

Addison had to get some cuddles from Grandma Lynn as well.

Off to Peoria

For the past few days we visited friends in the Peoria area. Sunday night we hung out with Mark and Amity and got to eat Monical's pizza - awesome. It was great catching up with them and Addison had fun wrestling their black lab - Stella. The next morning went to our consultation with Dr. Reid, the pediatric urologist, who was going to do Harrison's circumcision on Tuesday.  The weather was absolutely frigid and it was so much work to jump around from office to office to get ready for his surgery.  I was so thankful that I don't have to tote kids around in that kind of weather for the next couple of years.

Monday night we went to the Hopkins' - these two cats got married shortly after we left the States and it is so fun to see them together and now they have a kitten which Addison befriended quite quickly. We had a short night since we had to be at the hospital by 6AM the next morning.

On Tuesday morning both kids were great sports about being in the hospital. I was so nervous about handing over my little baby, but Dr. Reid, the anesthesiologist, and all the nurses were really nice. Harrison look so cute in his little hospital gown. I couldn't help but sit there and wonder what all these other little children were going to have done to them while my little guy was getting what my dad called "getting his pencil sharpened." They actually put Harrison under anesthetic and gave him a breathing tube to keep him from exerting too much energy during the surgery. It seemed like a lot to do but it was very humane to do it that way. The whole process lasted about 45 minutes. On my way down to recovery, I was so nervous about the thought of seeing my little baby laying on a hospital bed with tubes coming out of him, but to my happy surprise the nurse was actually holding him when I got back there and they let me sit in a rocking chair and feed him when he woke. They showed me how things looked which looked pretty bad and I felt horrible about making him go through this. I have to say though that my son is so laid back and easy going because he never fussed at all.


The rest of the day we spent it at my friend Tara Scrivner's house and had a play date with Kelly and Carol. It was wonderful and great getting caught up with them. All their kids have grown up so much and I was worried they wouldn't remember us because they were so young when we left, but they keep up on the blog and watch the videos of Addison.

Tuesday night left a whole ton of snow and ice on the ground and that got me really nervous to drive down to Bloomington to see Stacey, so we ended up staying in P-town. I at least got to have a great visit with her on the phone. Love you Stacey.  Both kids were pretty warn out after some pretty long days so they laid down for naps. After about 2 1/2 hours of sleeping they finally woke up and we could leave the hotel for lunch. I thought I was confined to my house in England at times, but a hotel room with subzero temps outside is kind of tough with two kids. We did end up venturing out to the new TGI Friday's in East Peoria for lunch...yummy! While we were waiting for our food, an interesting looking fella dressed in a Santa hat had gotten up from his seat, left and came back right up to our table. He pulled out a $10 bill and said to me "Santa thinks you should have a little something to enjoy for Christmas"...I told him we couldn't accept the money but he insisted. It totally creeped me out and we waited a long while before we left. That night my dad met us in the Quad Cities to take me and the kids back to their house for the next few days.

Where did that come from???

I didn't understand one day at my mom and dad's house that the VCR wouldn't work. I know that Casey and Kevin messed around with everything to get Mom and Dad's new TV set up with the crazy 100+ multi-functional remote, but putting a tape in the VCR shouldn't be affected by any of their tom-foolery, right?







Okay so it seemed like something was stuck and after using a butter knife to pry open the little door I saw something unusal....a DVD!!!!


After I got it pulled out I knew instantly what had happened. Addison must have really wanted to watch Shrek and tried putting it in something to play. I would have loved to see her reaction when it didn't play.

How Things Change in a Year...

Here are Harrison and Bo inside their mommies tummies about two weeks before little was born in June.



Here are the little guys finally together again...6 months later!!! Both are about the same size but little Bo is already rolling around and eating cereal. They were due only 3 weeks apart in August, but Bo needed to come a little early and Harry waited an extra week. They had so much fun exploring each other. Auntie Crystal and I can tell that these two are going to be quite a pair as they grow up.

Uncle Casey loves hanging out with his "boys." Last year he was just elated to have a niece and finally be an uncle, but this year his has two nephews. He can't wait to take them fishing and hunting and teach them how to wrestle. For now he'll just hang out on the floor with them.

We can't forget about Addison Marie. She loves her brother and her cousin Bo (who she calls "bone" right now). Last year she was the center of everyone's attention but now she's sharing the spotlight and is doing great. She's pretty hands on with the two boys and we are pretty sure she'll be leading the pack into mischief during family get-togethers. She's already letting them both know who is boss. Not really...these boys are both wiggly and she was trying to hold them up.

Addie has been quite a good helper at home and she really wanted to help Grandpa Jeff get wood ready for the fireplace because it was really, really cold in the States compared to what we had been having in the UK. She's a good little helper.
After her fire building chores, Addie really enjoyed playing with all the toys and new things she could find at my parents. She really liked Grandma Sue's Crocs. Our little girl has transformed so much over the past year. She's running around, carrying on conversations, playing pretend, and she has a little bit more hair than she did a year ago, but one thing that hasn't changed is that beautiful smile and peachy personality.Addison at Christmas time 2007.

Hang On It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride...

Our trip back to the States started out in fine fashion as Addison sensed that we were going to be doing something big because she woke up at 3AM Friday morning ready to go.  I should have known that this would be a precursor for how the day was going to be.  Upon our arrival to Heathrow, Addison decided that it was dire to carry her blankie into the terminal and after 3.2 seconds it was on the ground soaking up mud.  We started to feel a little lucky when we went to check in because there was hardly any line, but that was short lived when we got the bad news that our flight was being delayed about 1 1/2 hours due to fog.  Luckily we were able to get our hands on some vouchers to the AA "Admiral's Club" so we did our time there - it didn't seem to be the most family friendly place because we got some interesting looks from all the "business-class" travelers.  I did take this time to clean up what I could of Addison's blankie in the lounge bathroom since I knew it was an essential travel tool for her. For the most part our long flight home went pretty well, both kids traveled pretty well and Addison watched "The Bee Movie" about 5 times without any sound because she didn't want to put on the head phones.  

Once in Chicago, we got excited again because their weren't near the lines and confusion through immigration that we dealt with last year.  We got to go through the "family" line at security and were followed up by our ISE friends the Tranel's who were on the same flight as us.  I know that security is a "good thing" but it is not family friendly AT ALL!!!  You have to take off your own bags, coats, shoes along with your kids and for a 2 year old who is love with her new boots and it isn't fun stripping her down when she clearly doesn't understand why.  We also had our two car seats with us to run through and after Kevin went through with Addie to start collecting all of our stuff on the other end, I was left behind with Harrison and the stroller.  Now at Heathrow they just let us push the stroller through the metal detector, but in Chicago they expected me to collapse it with a 4 month old in my hands and plop it up on the conveyor.  There were 3 TSA agents just looking at me and waiting.  Thankfully Amber Tranel was right behind me so I could hand Harrison to her while the TSA agents watched me fold down the stroller and mumbled mean words under my breath.

We rushed off to catch our connection to Cedar Rapids.  We got loaded up on the plane with two kiddos that were clearly sick of traveling, but we assured them both that we were going to see momma and papa soon.  At the time we should have been pushing off the pilot announces that we needed to wait on some paper work to be filled out so it will be a few minutes before we can take off.  Then a few minutes later he comes on and says well, folks we think it is going to be faster to get to Cedar Rapids if we get off this plane and get loaded on the one just next to us. Okay...we just got the kids strapped in their car seats and calmed their crying down...now we have to unload the plane.  As we are getting off the plane the pilot makes another announcement that the plane we are supposed to be moving to actually hasn't landed yet and should be arriving in 20 minutes.  After 30 minutes we reloaded the new plane.  At this point we had been traveling 20 hours and we were so tired and ready to be home.  Once we got to CR, Addison was in melt down mode and just wanted to sleep.  I brought her and Harrison up to the gate and waited for Kevin.  I waited a long while and then slipped back to see what the hold up was and saw a horrible sight.  Kevin was holding on a piece of our stroller and frantically trying to open the main part. Our stroller was in pieces...the doubles kit was broken off and the back axle was bent really bad.  We popped Addie in the stroller the best we could and cautiously wheeled her down the terminal.  The greatest part of the day was about to happen as our family anxiously waiting for us, but our blood was boiling at what put the cherry on top of our "perfect" day.  Kevin headed to the AA desk and got a huge run around from them about their policy not covering damage to strollers, even checked gate side.  

In the end, even though we had a rough day it was great getting to see my mom and dad, my sister, her husband, and my little nephew that I had been dying to see.  My brother was waiting at the house for us.  It is great to be home!!!! More to come as we find out about our stroller....

SWEET Breakfast

This morning Addison and sat down to enjoy some cereal for breakfast.  A friend of mine was able to pick me up a box of Kix cereal which is my absolute favorite and the only cereal that I will eat with milk.  Well of course I have to had on my happy portion of sugar to sweeten things up a bit.  I succeeded for the most part to not let Addison see the sugar I added to my bowl (I've found it's pretty sad now that I have to hide my bad habits from my kids).  Addie was still finishing up her cereal as I got up to get Harrison from the living room.  When I got back in the kitchen I found Addison scooping up sugar from the pile on the table into her bowl.  I told her that it was bad to waste on that sugar and made her sit on the couch for a minute while I "cleaned" up, but I really ran to get the camera to capture this moment.  I didn't know whether to discipline her or laugh.  After I took the picture I had her come back to the table and help clean up the mess.  The thing is that there as a little bit of milk and cereal left in the bowl that got soaked up by the sugar so I had to throw half of it out.  Maybe this is a sign that I'm not supposed to add sugar to my cereal anymore???

A Very English Christmas (Early)

Today we celebrated Christmas a little early and in true English form - how fun! Some how Simon and Sarah were able to find a turkey this early so they took on the task of preparing all the food for our event. A traditional English Christmas meal includes turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, parsnips, stuffing, bacon wrapped sausages, carrots, brussels sprouts, and cranberry sauce - very similar to an American Thanksgiving dinner with a few different twists.

The next tradition is Christmas Crackers!!! No, you don't eat these. They are little tube like things that you pull apart with someone and they pop (they have a tiny explosive in them). Inside the crackers are usually some type of gift or party favor depending on how much you want to spend on them. We had really nice ones that had paper crowns in them which everyone had to wear at dinner, also a riddle and a little something else. I got a top and Danny Wong got a pink bath sponge!!! Check out everyone in their party hats....

Addison enjoyed a Flake ice cream cone for dessert....

The adults got to enjoy a traditional Christmas pudding drenched in rum, lit on fire and then served with custard - yummy!!!!!

After dinner and pudding, we retired in the living room where we happily exchanged some very fun gifts. We got our friends the Breast Cancer Awareness Better Homes and Gardens Cookbooks brought all the way here from the US via my mom and dad. Both families have lost friends and loved ones to Breast Cancer so we wanted to show our support for them. We also gave them both a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese which some of you may think is really corny but they don't have this wonderful American food here and they have been quite curious to why we like it so much, so we had to let them try for themselves.

The Gorman/ Claytons got us a wonderful array of English goodies including biscuits, cheese, a bottle of port, lemon curd and jam. We also got a family organizer calendar to keep our busy schedules straight - it is just like the one that Simon comes around with about once a month to sort out our schedules with theirs. The Wong's gave me a new wok so I can make proper Chinese food now that I have the right recipes from Min. Addison got Shrek ears and Shrek the Halls DVD from the Wong's which suited her very well. Harrison got Christmasy outfits from both families which I can't wait to have him wear.

After fighting with a dry erase marker, Addison entertained us all with some singing in Yi Xuen's new High School Musical microphone. She had a ball!!!

The final treat of the evening were some very nice mince pies from Waitrose!!! Sarah and Min cut open the tops so we could lather the insides with butter and eat them up. Mince pies are actually very, very good. They are loaded with raisans, sultanas, and other dried fruits with a great short crust pastry!!!

English Christmas's are very fun and I can't wait to carry on some of these traditions in our family throughout the years!!!

British-Born Baby Boys

Tonight we got to enjoy some holiday cheer with our fellow ISE's at the home of Jerome and Ahdonna Guilford. We had a great spread of goodies (as always) and some wonderful conversations with our ISE friends.  Kevin and I brought along our little guy, Harrison, since I haven't successfully been able to get him to take a bottle yet. It was fun though because we weren't alone. Jen and Merritt Callaghan brought along little Finnely as well. The boys were the center of attention most of the night as most babies do in a group of adults. Finnley was born exactly a month after Harrison, so these little British born buddies will have loads to talk about when they get older since their mommies have some pretty interesting stories about how they were born in the UK!!!

An English "Cookie" Exchange

Tonight I hosted a cookie exchange for some of my English friends and what a hoot!  I got the idea to host such an event after my friend Sarah insisted we take part in this American tradition after she heard about our ISE cookie exchange last year. What made this all so fun and interesting was that I had now idea what to expect...you see for each person I invited...none of them knew what a cookie exhange even was. And even after I explained it, they either got really excited or really nervous. They would tell me that most Christmas cookies and sweets are purchased at Marks and Spencers or other nice shops. I then went on to explain that it was very much tradition for at least my family to make 7-8 different types of Christmas cookies each year at the beginning of December. We would keep them all in tupperware containers out in the front porch where it stayed as cold as a freezer and the cookies would stay fresh for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. I just wanted to share with them a fun tradition and help us all get into the Christmas spirit.

Well I made up my most favorite Peanut Butter Blossom cookies with real Brach's chocolate stars that my mom brought over from the States for me - thanks Mommy!!!! I set up the dining room table with pretty plates and platters for everyone to set out their creations and by the time everyone showed up and put out their cookies it was an amazing sight (pictures to come soon!!!) I had my friend Laurie (the semi-professional photographer) take pictures of all the cookies because someday I would like to make up a recipe book with all the things I have learned how to make while living in the UK and include loads of my own family recipes. Laurie is going to teach me how to take nice pictures of "food" so I can make it look nice, but tonight I let her work her magic.

To get the evening started out right we all got served up champagne with mango sorbet scooped on top - it was lovely!!! I got this great idea from my friend Amity who invited me to my very first cookie exchange a couple of years ago. The British ladies were so amazed at how creative American's were to drink such things. After the cookies were all set out I had everyone get up and introduce themselves and shared what kind of cookie they brought, why they selected that recipe, where they got the recipe and share any changes they made. Common responses were that they searched long and hard in their cookery books and online for "Christmasy" cookies and they often changed things up to "Americanize" the cookies by adding loads of icing and decorations. One friend explained that the English are very plain and make ordinary things and they don't go all out for holidays like the American's do...my mission is to change all this by exposing them to how much fun it can be to go all out!!!! Our next activity was lovely because I asked them all to share a favorite Christmas tradition. I heard heart felt stories of Christmas pasts with tales of grandmothers' gifts to those who would wait all the way until lunch time to open Christmas gifts. At the end we all grabbed up a few of each kind of cookie to take home and recipes to match.

It was a great evening and I have to thank Kevin for putting up with two very upset children upstairs all evening as I hosted my Christmasy event!!!