My original Santa "baby"

Well shoot, I was gonna post this before Family Home Evening night, for all my Lethbridge friends.

You've probably all heard of it anyway. When Ben came hoe wanted to go see the house with lights set to music I admit, I wondered if a few youtube videos of the same concept might be just as good. But it was super fun to see live!

I get a tad excited (trying to get the kids into it, ya know)

 I didn't realize Ben was doing a video...haha.

And to make it even better... look who the proceeds go to:

It was SUCH a nice outing with the kiddos. And it got even better when my friend introduced me to the new love of my life: Candy cane white hot chocolate!

How come candy canes are so gross, until they get smashed up and sprinkled on top of stuff, then they're just delicious!?!

Then on Sunday we had a beautiful all music Christmas Sacrament meeting at church. 

I somehow neglected to grab a program and had no idea when the three numbers I was participating in were...oppsies. Between that and trying to hand off kids, it's was a little christmas miracle I managed to stay on beat to conduct one number and remembered what the piano accompaniment sounded like for another.  My favoriste was singing with Benny though. They were looking for people who sing, and I tattled on him. I could listen to him sing forever...my eternal bonus! We were in a quartet of O Holy Night.  (Which is the song my sister-in-law just happens to sing like an absolute angel...so it was nice to get a chance at it.) Thanks Benny.

My favorite line? (that almost got me emotional every time we practiced)

"In all out trials, born to be our Friend."

Then we whisked off to the Chinook Autism Society Christmas Party 

and Sensory-Sensitive Santa.

It took me a moment when I saw "Santa" to realize it was my friend Desiree, who's little boy Cameron is also in Aaron's class and on the spectrum too. I love her. And I love that she loves Aaron. Just like I love Cam.  A "get it" friend.

 Such a blessing.

Been a while since I sat on Santa's lap.

Christina Spooner, our CAS president,
& amazing advocate mom!

Seeing how BIG Aaron was on Santa's lap made me thing back to his first Christmas. My little Aaron.

So from the ol' Bretzke scrapbooks (back from the days when I actually scrapbooked) here's soem gooders...

 

That tubby-tub and BIG hands, reminds me so much of Levi right now!

Can't believe my baby is my kindergartener! 

You'll never guess what time it is...

Ok I'll try and convince myself I'm happy I'm up ( again) at 4 am, 
some extra time to blog right?


Ugh.


Aaron is happily (and repeatedly) jumping off his dresser, the resulting thud is surprisingly loud echoing through our sleeping household (well, mostly sleeping). He may be loosing that dresser pretty quick. Either that, or I'll be loosing my mind.


Quick random updates from my random posts.


No more flute playing...kinda disappointed actually.


And no run tomorrow. Considering the 4 hours of sleep I may be forced to do this saturday on, it's probably all for the best.


Instead I went out with the girls and ate these:

5k run OR ...an obscene amount of donuts, covered in icing sugar, dipped in three equally delicious choices of bavarian cream, raspberry sauce and fancy chocolate?

Was there really a choice???

Not getting eye surgery. Classic Chelsea back out. Maybe later. 

Oh have a mentioned I'm so bad at making decisions? 

Choices, as in choose the right VS wrong, those aren't so bad, but when it just doesn't matter either way and it's just my choice...yikes. Apparently figuring out what I want is hard for me.

I was obsessing over the eye surgery thing with a friend, who I really ought to start sending checks to for her "therapy sessions", because she is so good at helping me get to the"real issues" behind my general stressing. One thing we distilled was woman (or maybe it's just me) take EVERYTHING painstakingly into account. 

We've lovingly deemed it the "shower principle". Let me explain.

Man thinks "I should shower."

Man showers.

Woman think, huh, I haven't showered in a few days. "Oh but there's the baby, if I nurse first, but then I'll still need to exercise, but I won't have time to blow dry til the toddler goes down for a nap because right now he's whining for cereal, which I could read my scriptures while I eat with him"... but the phone rings and then the freshly showered husband comes down and by the time you see him lovingly out the door, you sit down to another morning of soggy cornflakes, which your forced to scarf down because the two year old now is begging you for a show. When he finally goes down for a nap 5 non-stop hours later, you think I'll quickly put on a load of laundry, but by then the baby wakes up, he could go in the shower with you, but you'll still never get blow dried...in the end, maybe you'll just shower tomorrow.


Maybe I should shower at 4 am...but then I still couldn't blow dry could I.


At this point in the post I'm suppose to post some lovely encouraging quote from Julie B Beck about mothering and sacrifice, but my lap top is dying and those donuts are not apparently the breakfast of champions. 


Hopefully I've tired myself out enough to tune out the incessant thuding.


Goodnight.  
Ah, can't do it, too depressing, I need to redeem this post from it's whiny "woe is me tone"...so for those of you who missed this link a few days back:

No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard

 or as responsible 

as the work of a woman 

who is bringing up a family of small children; 

for upon her time and strength demands

 are made not only every hour of the day 

but often every hour of the night.

--Theodore Roosevelt

I was going to write something cute, like 

"I guess Mrs. Roosevelt saw her share of 4 am's too"

Then, out of curiosity, I went to look up how many kids he had and read this

In 1880, Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee (July 29, 1861 – February 14, 1884) of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She died young of an undiagnosed case of kidney failure two days after their infant Alice was born. Her pregnancy had masked the illness. Theodore Roosevelt's mother Mittie died of typhoid fever on the same day, at 3 am, some eleven hours earlier, in the same house. After the nearly simultaneous deaths of his mother and wife, in his diary, he wrote a large 'X' on the page and then, "The light has gone out of my life." (See diary photo).

Diary Entry Feb 14, 1884

He re-married and had 5 more children.

5 am perspective. Aaron means " shining light".  

I need to remember and be grateful for my "little" trials...

that my "little light" is not out, just up.

Not my most spiritual Sunday post

An awesome friend of mine thanked me tonight for "keeping it real" on here.


So here it is...

This was me tonight. Drowning my "sorrows" in a jar of nutella. Don't worry nothing big. Nothing a little hazelnut-heaven on  spatula can't cure.

It was pretty cute this morning, when McKye , who we'd previously decided would be staying home from church (due to the volume of poopage in his diapers, and the VOLUME at which said poopage was being delivered there...nice right, diarrhea and chocolate, killer combo, ubber classy of me)

was soooo sad. 

As soon as he saw Aaron in his sunday cloths, he ran to the closet and got his sunday shoes and put them (with his pajamas) on calling out to everyone "Chur-ech, chuuuur-eh." And when he realized he wasn't going to church, he was so upset. 

The pew was eerily quiet with out him. 

Sacrament rather boring without the running commentary of:

"Prayer!" 

"Bread!!! (whisper McKye)

"Bread!"

"Prayers...Aaron Prayers!" 

"Water!!!" (whisper McKye!!!!)

"Water!"

"More!" (No, all done)

"Alllllll done! Nuersery now? (not yet)

(2 seconds)

"Nursery NOOW???!?!!"

(few more seconds)

"Nursery NOW!"

Must be doing something right (well at least his amazing nursery teachers are!)