Christmas 2014

I can't believe another Christmas has come and gone...Even with how busy we were, I really feel like we soaked in every minute of the season.  I don't think there is a Christmas movie we haven't watched!  I have thoroughly enjoyed every movie, song, craft, goodies and cocktails to the fullest!  I also would have to say that we really enjoyed our nightly devotionals with the girls too.  I have a great book called The ADVENTure of Christmas.  Each devotional talks about a different Christmas tradition and how we can relate it to Christ's birth.  It's really quite interesting, and the girls look forward to it. We also read a few sentences every night from Mathew that talks about Jesus' birth.  We may not be a weekly church going family, but we try to incorporate family devotions every night.

We did lots of entertaining this year, which I love!  We were supposed to have Brad's family over for Christmas Eve, but mousey had gotten a stomach bug last weekend, and with our nephew having heart surgery a couple weeks ago, we decided not to take a chance and spread the germs, so we had it at his mom and dads.  It all worked out!

Christmas Eve morning was a bit of a disaster...I could not find the gift I had gotten Brad from the girls.  I STILL cannot figure out where I hid that damn thing...So naturally I was in tears.  THEN, Brad proceeds to tell me that he cannot remember where he put Emma's big gift from Santa, a phone.  UGH!  We spent about 3 hours searching for that, and thankfully found it!  Stressful, I tell ya...

We headed over to the farm at around 1:00.  I brought my sweet and sour meatballs that I bring every year.  Everybody brings some sort of an appetizer, works out great!  This year instead of drawing adult names, we decided to do white elephant gifts.  Not stupid, crappy gifts though, something you would want to get.  For my girl gift I bought a Bath and Body works foaming soap, a car freshener clip with an air freshener, a cinnamon scented candle and some body wash.  Brad gave a package of beef sticks/summer sausage and a couple lottery tickets.  We did the dice game to see who got what gifts and it was a blast!  I ended up with 2 wine glasses and a bottle of wine, and Brad got a bottle of Captain Morgan and a Tervis Twins glass, perfect!

We got home around 7 and then opened our gifts with the girls.  We got them each a pair of jammies and a shirt or outfit.  Everything else comes the next morning from Santa.  The girls exchanged gifts too, lots of fun!  Then we watched part of Christmas Vacation and the girls headed to bed.  They all sleep in the same room and load up with movies, toys and books for when they get up early.  Our rule is that you cannot come downstairs until 6:00!

I think everyone was happy with what they got!  Emma got a phone, Rachel got an Iphone and Alayna's favorite gift was with this mixing stand that you can make real food with, or her Fur Real Panda.

Rachel and her Iphone.  She was overjoyed with that damn thing...

I didn't get a pic of Emma, I am always SO bad with taking pics Christmas morning.

I got an Erin Condren Planner, and LOOOOOOVE it!  I especially love the quote Brad put on it.  :)

I also got a Ninja blender and a running tank that says, "I Don't Sweat, I Sparkle"!

Brad got two Tervis cups from the girls, and then a weather station that has not been found yet...

We did manage to get a quick pic of them Christmas morning though!  And I had to get a pic of the last day of Billy the elf...he wrapped up the tree, and was found hanging over the curtain rod.  Crazy elf! 

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Christmas Goodies

Sunday was our day to get everything done and cleaned for Christmas.  The girls had gifts to make for their friends, so we spent the afternoon crafting and watching The Wizard of Oz!

Rachel made peppermint bath salts and letter ornaments for her friends.  

Emma made ornaments and gave each of her friends a candy cane M&M.

We decorated some sugar cookies...

And mousey (or rather mom)  made letter ornaments too.

 

Our house is spotless (for at least a day) and laundry is done, now to make jello and meatballs (what a combo) for Christmas Eve and I'm done!  At least until Friday....:)

Our Weekend

We had another great but busy weekend.  Thursday night Rachel and Emma had orchestra concerts.  My nephew Sam was with us too, as his brother had surgery.  They sounded amazing, I love listening to orchestra!  I really wish my Grandma Omi was here, she would be thrilled with hearing them.

My grown up girl...

Brad and I are having way too much fun with our elf on a shelf this year.  He was found "pooping" Hershey Kisses, and then yesterday he made mustaches on their school picture frames in the entryway.  Hilarious.

Friday night we had a Christmas get together with the Rothsteins and had a BLAST!  They made ribs and crab legs and we played games with the kids all night.  We started out with a ping pong tournament, then had a spelling bee (I came in 2nd!).  It really was so much fun!  They got us the sweet Christmas Vacation glasses (if you know anything about our family, its that we are OBSESSED with Christmas Vacation!).

Our sweet kiddos.

Saturday was just a chill day, we all napped and mousey didn't feel well all day.  That night she threw up once, and then again the next morning, but felt great the rest of the day, weird.  Sunday was power cleaning all day as we are having Christmas Eve at our house (provided everyone is healthy).  I also helped the girls with their friend and teacher gifts, and we also made more cookies.  Busy busy!

The Making of a Christmas Card

I had originally planned on having family pictures taken this fall and using that for our Christmas card.  However, the weather never cooperated when we (or her) were available, and then when it did I ended up with an eye infection, and then when that cleared, ms. mouse scratched the heck our of her face sledding.  So, we decided to just do a quick picture in front of the tree.  Quick.  Key word is quick.  What ensued was an hour of trying to get the lighting right, animals to sit still and kids to smile nice.

I'm not sure which is harder, getting the animals to sit still or getting the girls to not have a cheesy smile.

 

The cat and the dog kept trying to attack each other.

Which then made Maci (the cat) dig her hind paws into Alayna's back.

So, needless to say, after an hour of taking at least 100 pictures, we did get ONE good one.  I don't think Brad will ever do that again...

Holiday Train

What a fantastic but BUSY weekend we had!  Friday night we had my company Christmas party.  Lots of fun, but very tired the next day, yowsa....Brad and the girls were making sausage at the farm, so this mama got a nap in!

Saturday night the girls were supposed to make their First Reconciliation at 4:00, but the lady gave us the wrong time, it was actually at 3, so we missed it.  We were planning on surprising the girls by taking them to the holiday train in Annandale at 7:15.  We ended up going out to eat at a local truck stop before heading to Annadale.  The food was SO good!

The girls had no idea what we were doing, haha!  The train was pretty cool, it was too bad that we couldn't hardly see anything because everybody had their kids sitting on their shoulders.  Bummer.  We ended up leaving early, because nobody could see and the amount of smokers out there was crazy!

It was still a super fun night hanging with these three, well, until Alayna had a meltdown when we got home...she was sleeping, yikes.  You know the saying, don't wake a sleeping bear...

Weekend

Last weekend was a busy busy weekend!  It started out on Friday night coming home from work and seeing this little cutie patootie all sprawled out, looking exhausted...

Then walking into the living room and seeing WHY she was so exhausted.  Yes, an entire canister of oatmeal was now imbedded in my carpeting....*sigh*

I think her bowels will be normal for awhile.

Saturday consisted of getting ready for our 2nd annual RTZmas get together with 2 of my classmates and their families.  We exchange gifts, but it has to be something you already have.  Last year we were all lame and everyone else was SUPER creative!  So this year we had to amp it up.  Brad decided to donate one of his mounted ducks that is old and looks really crappy.  I decided to give him a little makeover and make him our mascot!

Needless to say everyone was fighting over him!

The kids had a blast sledding and playing ping pong while the adults enjoy candy cane martinis and some amazing ping pong tournaments!

It's funny how I didn't really hang out with either of these 2 (Michael is first on the left and Ann is 3rd from the right) but now we hang out quite a bit.  I did daycare for their kids and we just started doing more things as families.  They are all a TON of fun, and Michael is like a brother to me...Love these peeps.

 

Sunday was spent getting some cleaning done and napping.  Our first holiday party for the season in the books....Only 3 more to go!

Marathon Training So Far

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Ours was fantastic and laid back, love that.  Friday I worked 10-4 which was awesome.  Brad actually takes the girls Black Friday shopping every year, and this year did it again.  He took the older two and they shopped all.day.long!  They got some great deals on clothes, which was pretty much all they were looking for.

Now we are ready for all the Christmas festivities!  Yippee!!

I am continuing my marathon training, but I know this month I probably won't get as much mileage as I did last month (November I ran 70.5 miles!).  Once January rolls around, it's crunch time!

This seriously makes me laugh out loud!  It is so true though.

Training is going really well so far.  I have upped my mileage, last week I ended it with a 10 mile run on Saturday which left me with 22 miles for the week! This last week was a lower mileage week, and that's ok.  I don't need to get any injuries!

I have decided to hire a running coach to help me reach my goal.  I was talking with her about my food intake, and realized I was not getting enough calories or nutrients.  I eat a very healthy diet, but was still eating as though I only run a couple days a week.  I have since upped my intake and noticed a huuuuuge difference!

This is my daily intake:
Breakfast: Half a cup of oatmeal mixed with milk and a big ole dollop of sunbutter.  Around 9:00 I eat a banana and a handful of almonds

Lunch:  I love salads, so I add different mixed greens, some sort of protein like turkey or grilled chicken, cheese chunks, tomatoes and a vinaigrette.  I also have grapes and cut up veggies with either salsa, hummus or guacamole.

Afternoon snack:  Chobani Greek Yogurt, an apple and some dark chocolate chips.

Supper consists of whatever I'm making.  I don't like to eat at night, but if I do, it's homemade popcorn made with coconut oil, my FAVORITE!

My biggest issue right now are my calves.  They always feel tight and sore, I need to look into foam rolling and maybe getting a massage...I'm also having some pain in my heel and achilles which should be remedied by my chiro.  Most days I feel confident, but there are those down days when I feel that 26.2 miles will never happen.  I know I can do this, I just need to get my head to agree!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone!  Linking up with these ladies for Friday Favorites!

1.  Donuts.  I may or may not have enjoyed a wee bit 'o wine last night at a wine tasting, so I thought it a great idea to stop and b a bunch of donuts for the office, oh my word, how I love donuts.  The sugar coma will begin promptly at noon. 

2. I cannot WAIT to put up our Christmas stuff!  I plan on getting the family decorated on my day off Tuesday and am so freaken excited!

3. Sunday we will have to sell a child to pay for Rachel's volleyball season.  She's lucky she's a good kid and that I love volleyball, haha!!!

4.  Also on Sunday we get to celebrate this beautiful lady's birthday!  Looking forward to eating and celebrating!

 

5.   This says it all!  We have been binge watching Hallmark movies for the last 2 weeks.  I'm not even kidding.  My girls are just as addicted as I am.  We will hurry up and get our chores done just so we can watch another movie.  It's sickening.

6.  I am very grateful I don't live in New York.  Yowsa.

 

The end.  Happy Friday!

 

Life Lately...

It's been a while since I've posted, you know how that goes.  Here's what we've been up to....

Miss mouse got the chance to dance with her cousin Madalyn and had such a blast doing it!

My little squirt is quite the dancer!

Gettin her groove on...

Rachel had volleyball tryouts on Sunday for JO volleyball.  I stress SO bad every year (her first year she didn't make the team and all her friends did), but once again she made the A team, and all her besties are on it too!  I am SO excited to watch them play, they are going to have an amazing year!

We got a ginormous snow storm last week (ok, not like NY, but close...) and my drive home was absolutely horrific.  I tried not to cry and prayed the entire drive home.  I then got home and promptly made hot cocoa and filled half the mug with Rumchata.  Uh huh.

 

This little shit is going through withdrawals not being able to go outside.  I think she has become certifiably insane.  She also thinks its super fun to wake us up at 3 am.  Although in her defense she's hungry, because the damn dog eats her food (and her cat litter, but that's a whole nuther story...) in the middle of the night. 

 

 Oh, and Emma Jo got contacts on Tuesday.  Have you ever worked with your kid trying to get those damn things in?  Ridiculous.

Honestly, she is always so worried they are inside out, or not in.  And watching them put the contacts in???  Good grief, she gets about 2 inches away from her eye and then stops, but can't figure out why they won't go in.  YOU'RE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO YOUR EYE!!!!!!!

 It's been a test of my patience, I tell ya.  And if you know me at all, I'm not a super patient person...(thanks Dad!).

So that's been us in a nutshell, I'm Christmas shopping like a mad woman, and trying not to stress over the mundane things in life.  JUST KIDDING!  I'm already stressed.....

Halloween 2014

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!  Our weekend was pretty packed, but lots of fun!

Friday night we went over to my brother and sister in laws for supper and then took the girls trick or treating in their neighborhood.  It was COLD!

Here is out little grandma.  The wig and scarf were my Grandma Omi's and the cane is Brad's grandfathers.

Emma dressed up as Katniss from the Hunger Games.  I didn't get a pic of Rachel because she went trick or treating with her group of friends.  They actually go trick or treating for food instead of candy.  All the food gets donated to our local food shelf, it's part of We Scare Hunger.

Saturday night we went on a Halloween bus with a whole bunch of peeps.  It was a blast!  A big bunch of us dressed up as the characters from Austin Powers.

I think we had all characters covered!

It was such a fun time, and I was very thankful for gaining an extra hour of sleep, haha!

 

I got a ton of stuff done on Saturday before our festivities began.  I got a 5 mile run in Saturday morning,   and then made Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls.

They were SO delicious!  I will absolutely be making these again.  (this is her photo, btw:)

 

 

I also made a homemade pizza so we had something to stuff our bellies with when we got home from the bus.  And then of course the usual cleaning/laundry.  I was glad to get all of that stuff done Saturday so I could relax (and nap!) Sunday.  And relax and nap is exactly what we did.  I didn't overdue it Saturday night, so it was nice to feel good!  The girls and I watched a Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel and just vegged all day.  I made a beef roast so we could have sandwiches for supper along with cheesy potatoes, yum!

Alayna made a fall tree craft and then we all made a "thankful" pumpkin.  I cut strips of orange paper and had the girls write down 4-5 things they are grateful for.  I made a hole in each end and then used a brad to attach and shaped it into a pumpkin.  Loved seeing everyone's responses!

Have a great week everyone...It's a big day in the Zimmer house tomorrow!  Rachel gets her braces off!

Five on Friday

Linking up this week for Five on Friday

1.  It's HALLOWEEN!  We are heading over to friends to eat pizza, trick or treat and hang out for a bit.  It's gonna be cold, but lots o fun!

2. The 2 little's and I made monster cupcakes.  Scary stuff.

 

Can you even imagine sitting like Alayna?  Makes me knees quiver...

 

3.  Tomorrow night we have our annual Halloween bus with a ton of our friends.  It's a BLAST and this year we have a whole crew dressing up in Austin Powers characters.  

 Melissa and I are going to be the Japanese twins, and Mr. Zimmer is Austin Powers.  Oh my word, I CAN'T WAIT!

4.  I got a 6 mile run in last night which felt AWESOME!  Hoping to get a 5 miler in sometimes tomorrow.

5.  Is it sad that I am most looking forward to crappy Halloween candy???  Why do you think I got in a long run last night????

Have a fantastic (and safe) Halloween!