Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday Dear Mama!!!
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Happy birthday Mom, I love you so much!  You do so much for us all and we do appreciate it so much.  I hope you are having a marvelous time at the movies with Sean and Ba Ba.  Breakfast and shopping was fun this morning, btw, where are my things?  I'm waiting for them and my coffee.  Could you please bring me a coffee on your birthday?  I'd really appreciate it.  I mean come on, you are at the movies, and I'm stuck at home doing write up.  Pleeeease?????

Mom you are my best friend, my drug ;) - I wish I could hear you laughing at this right now!!  (Sorry guys, inside joke.)

Seriously though Mom, you are awesome.  I'm so lucky to have you as my Mom, and the girls are lucky to have you as a Gwamom.  And let's not forget to mention Tim, you are like the coolest mother in law ever, he kind of has it easy with you!!  Anyway, I think I'm rambling.  Happy birthday again and have fun tonight at your BFF's.  I'm sure you will have an awesome time!!  Love you Mom, thanks for always being there when I need you.  You rock and roll lady!


Sorry Mom, this is one of the only pictures I have of you right now on my computer.  Everything else is deleted, and on my hard drive.  I'd plug it in and search for the most beautiful picture of you, but I have to get back to work.  You are going to have to share your birthday post with Madi, hope you don't mind!!!  Love you, happy birthday!!!!!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

About That.

New Year's Resolution.

Don't have one.
Not going to have one.
I don't really care this next year if I have one or not.
Not going to pressure myself.
Not going to make myself worry about one more thing than I have to.
Seriously, I don't have the time to worry.

I'm tired.
This whole last year is now making me feel drained.
Cakes.
Cookies.
Orders (1-4 a week)
Ten months of this year has been spent not sleeping, seriously.
Working full time - for the folks, from home while watching the rug rats.
Cleaning my house.
Making my family breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Playing with my kids (I like this one.)
Making sure we have everything we need (not want)
Being a wife (btw, this list is in no particular order)
Making sure our bills get paid.
Mothering (this includes, as you all know, diapering, potty training, scolding, loving, kisses, hugs, screaming, crying, not sleeping ever, much coffee drinking, a few more nights than you'd like to admit of having a glass of wine, or two, wondering if you are ever going to, shower, go potty, or cook alone ever again, bedtime routines, story telling, time outs...)

I'm tired. 
I could barely wake up this morning.
My kids don't listen when I say just five more minutes.
I'm tired

2009 was a good year.
A tiring year, but a good one.
We moved into our first house.
Made it a home.
Had many visitors.
Tim and I both still have our jobs.
Our kids are healthy.
We have things that we need.
We have things that we want.
We still love each other (I think, at least I know it's one sided.  I love the Mr. at least, I'll have to ask him how he feels tonight.)

But, I'm still tired.
So, 2010, just come on over.
I have no expectations, just faith.
No resolutions, just faith that I'll do the best that I can.
That's all I can do right now.
No extra.
My extra is already filled.
If there were 5 more hours in a day, I'd throw out a resolution.
But there is not.
So.
That.
Is.
That.

To those of you that have your resolutions (which is all of America) good luck with those.  I will not be joining you.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Our Christmas Festivities

I hope everyone had a great Christmas full of love and joy!!  Here's what we were up to for the holidays...

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning, the boys left early to go play golf.  It is their tradition.  It is their tradition to play while us ladies get everything ready for our dinner and all of that.  I made a few batches of Bloody Mary's for the boys to take golfing, and a few for us ladies to sip on while we made our Christmas Eve dinner.  My Mom picked up some yummy breakfast burritos, and we had ourselves a jolly good time that morning, I prepared some really good enchiladas, and the other ladies got a lot done for dinner that night, and Christmas.

After I got the girls back home and in for naps, we got all dressed up and met back up at 5:00 pm, for a church service before dinner.  It was so nice.  With Tim working so many Sundays, and me sometimes, it's been hard for us to get out for church, and I've been longing for that.  We went to Crossroads, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  There is a feeling you get when walking into church, and I have been missing that feeling.  Now, I'm craving it again.  The girls did really good, Riley especially.  It felt good to start our celebrating out right.  It felt really good.

After church, we headed over to my Mom's for a great Mexican dinner.  Usually she does her fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, and the Mexican on Christmas, but she switched it for a favorite Uncle of ours.  Dinner was outstanding, and all three girls behaved themselves beautifully.  Riley and Bella loved each other.  Riley just wanted to hug Bella at first.  She could have hugged her to death!!  They were super cute, all three of them in their fancy dresses...


Some family pictures...








When dinner was over, Santa paid us a visit.  He always does on Christmas Eve.  He makes a special trip to our house to drop off some new PJs for everybody.  Riley went crazy.  I told her that Santa might come to drop off some presents and if she hears a big knock on the door, it's him.  About ten minutes after I told this to Riley, we heard the big, knock, knock, knock on the door.  I have never seen 3 kids more excited in my life!  Riley knew more about what was going on and she kept yelling, "Santa, it's Santa!!!!!!!!"  She could hardly contain herself.




Who is this guy?


We finished up our night with dessert and our $15.00 gift exchange.  The girls left some cookies and milk for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer, and us Rush's packed up one sleeping baby, and one puckered out little girl and went home to dream of sugar plums.

Something for me to remember...Riley had to make sure that we left some dip dip for the reindeer.  She didn't want them to just have plain carrots, so my Mom put a little ranch on the plate for her.  Funny stuff.

Christmas

Tim and I woke up the first time around 6:45 that morning, and Tim shot up out of bed and said, "Are we gonna do this or what?"  I replied with a, "Yeah, MmmHmm, sure."  We both laid back down for another fifteen minutes and Madi woke up.  Nana and Grand Dad were anxiously awaiting the girls that morning, so I put a new disk in the video camera, and Tim, Madi and I woke Riley up to tell her that Santa had come.  She was still a little sleepy but when she saw that Santa had left her some M&Ms, she was quite awake. 

We headed downstairs to open stockings and two gifts from Santa.  We also did gifts from Nana and Grand Dad, and then we were off to my Mom's for more presents from Santa, and us.




We got to my Mom's, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then the girls had at it. Riley loved every minute of it. Every single minute of it. She gets it. She just soaked it all in. It was perfect. Last year, we bought her all of these presents, including an easel that I went to 3 different stores to try to find, and she didn't open up one. The easel sat in my Mom and Dad's garage for a year, and we gave it to her this year. She loved it. She loved everything. It was so awesome, it really was.


Oh yeah, and Madi, she did good too.

Look at these two messing around in the car on the way to my Mom's. 







We ate some yummy breakfast casserole that my Mom made (you guys, it's the best casserole in the world, seriously), cinnamon rolls, rice pudding, doughnut holes, coffee, and OJ. 

Went home for naps.  I made some deviled eggs, and back to Grandma's house for dinner.  Great day.  Great holidays this year.  They couldn't have been better.





I wish I could say that I'm like all of you perfect people that have the decorations all put away and my house is clean and back to normal.  But, unfortunately it's not.  That is what this weekend is for, for me.  Yuck.  It's a good thing I don't have too many things, and I already have my boxes ready. 

Monday, December 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Riley Rose!!


Today is Riley's birthday!  She is 3 years old, and is so big!  I really can't believe how big she is getting.  I don't really buy clothes for her anymore in the toddler section, we shop in the big girl section.  Is that crazy, or what?  They grow way too fast.  She is such a great kid.  Her Daddy and I love her soo much and couldn't imagine our lives without her.  She is something that girl.  She's downstairs right now eating M&Ms and watching Sleeping Beauty.  She loves her princess movies.

We celebrated with the family the day after Christmas, and I realize that I haven't posted Christmas or Christmas Eve yet, so my blog is going to be a little out of order, but, oh well, I'm not too worried about it.

Everyone came over to our house Saturday evening to celebrate.  Riley wore a beautiful blue Cinderella gown and was so excited that it was her birthday.  She had requested a blue birthday party.  With a blue cake.  So, I never got around to making the blue cake, I wonder why, but I whipped up some box cupcakes, made them blue, and threw in some chocolate chips.  She helped.  She loves to help!  We had a few blue balloons and that was that.  Not much you can do the day after Christmas, unless you are crazy.

I'm going to share a few pictures from her party.  We didn't take much, we've been doing a lot of video lately.  Happy Birthday to my gorgeous little girl, I love you so much, more and more everyday!!!



I asked Riley to pose pretty for me, and this is what I got. The head tilt.


Opening gifts.  I promise you guys that her hair was really cute at one point, I had it in a little up-do.  It's almost like she puts her hair in her face on purpose.  It's classic Riley.




Mommy and Daddy bought Riley a bike and helmet for her birthday.  We got the best reaction out of her, a scream, a dance, and jumping up and down.  It was awesome.  She loves this thing!



Token pic of the sister.  There were other people at the party too.  Not just Riley.  I promise.



Happy Birthday again to my Riley.  This was a very quick post but I had to get it up for her on her birthday.  Love you Riley!  You made the prettiest Cinderella birthday girl I've ever seen!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Ho Ho Ho

Wow.  I haven't been on in a week.  Whoo, someone has been busy.  Yes, that someone is me, in case you care, or were wondering.

We have been doing a lot of things lately.  Cookies, cleaning, wrapping, shopping, shopping, shopping, hot cocoaing, shopping, and spending LOTS of money.  Does it ever end?  Yes, on the 26th it does.

I'm so excited that Christmas is right around the corner, but I still have some little things to do, like get a few last minute gift cards, and wrap some gifts, and put bows on all of my presents.  But, I love to wrap, so no big deal.

Stacy is coming soon, she will be here on the 24th, with James and Bella, can't wait to see them!

Nana and Grand Dad made it safely here Saturday night, right in time for dinner!

Everything is coming together nicely, and I've had the help of a certain bottle of wine to help me stay sane through it all.  Kids are crazy around the holidays.  I quickly found that out!

I wanted to do a few posts with all that we have been up too, but I'm way to tired for that, so here it is in one, big, fat post.  I'll try to keep it in order though, so that you can follow along.

The girls have really been enjoying Christmas, and it's been fun to see it through their eyes.  The magic is back in our Christmas, it was missing for a while.  Thank God for those little sticky fingers, and dirty faces that make life so much better and rewarding!!  Christmas is awesome again!!

We will start with....

Dinner With the Folks

My Mom informed me last Saturday, the 12th, that her and my Dad had a little something for me all of us Rush's.  I was making a new recipe that night, a butternut squash soup, and my salad that Tim always asks for and I knew that I would have a ton of food, so I invited, Mom, Dad, and BaBa over to join us.  It was the least I could do, they had gifts.

So I quickly set the table and made the food just in time for them to arrive.





Before we ate, I got to open the gift my parents brought for me us.  Look what I we got!!


So for dinner, we had a butternut squash soup, low fat by the way, if you don't add in whipping cream like I did, and you use olive oil instead of butter.  I, used butter.  It's Christmas.



Followed by my Cilantro lime chicken salad, it's a Nordstrom's recipe that my hubby loves.  So does everyone else.  It's always a hit, I can post recipes if anyone would like.


I even whipped together a "dessert".  This is considered an appetizer, but I made it for dessert.  It's a chocolate and Brie sour dough panini.  Sooooo yummy!!  And, sooooo easy!



We put the kids to bed before dinner, but, they had some fun with Pop Pop before settling in.


And to finish, here is my lit tree, doesn't it look pretty??  I love it!




a few days after we did some...

Cookie Decorating!!!



Gi Gi had all of us over to her house last week to decorate some yummy sugar cookies!  Riley had a blast, she loves to decorate cookies, and Gi Gi had some fun sprinkles and stuff to decorate with.  A few pictures...























































Next up....

Kristi Gets Her Hair Did, and "Finishes" Her Shopping.

Awe, got my hair done.  Finally.  It sooo needed it.  I have much more gray than I tell myself, I'm so glad that I don't have eyes in the back of my head, it would be very scary.  Thank God for my hair dresser, she rocks baby!!

So, I had my Mom watching the girls with Tim on his way home to relieve her, and I had plans to finish my shopping.  After I spent 40 minutes at Toys R Us to pick up Riley's birthday present, they told me that it hadn't been assembled yet.  Excuse me?  Not yet?  It was supposed to be ready for pick up on December 5th, hmmm, all I get is an, I'm sorry Ma'am.  First of all, don't call me Ma'am.  I'm not a Ma'am, I'm a young, hip, and with it 27 year old (enter laughter here).  I don't even know how to spell Ma'am.  Second of all, what do you mean, it's not ready, and why did you take up 40 minutes of my shopping time to tell me that???  I had so much shopping left to do, and they wasted it.  So after I ran to Sports Authority, and Kohls, with no luck of gifts, I said, screw it, I'm buying myself some clothes.  So I went to Dos Lagos to do that, found some cute tops, and earrings, got myself in a better mood, and then, ran to Walmart, because by that time, Walmart was the only store open.  What did I buy there?  No gifts, just stuff we needed, that costed me over $100.00.  Nice.  Merry Christmas.  So I just had an over $300.00 night, and I didn't buy gifts for anyone.  Oh yeah, except BaBa, I found her some Uggs.  Good, at least one person was off of my list.



Our next event....

Appetizers at Sean's House

My family has an entertaining problem.  I will give you one guess as to where we get that sickness from.  Oh, yes, you guessed it, my Mother.  We all wanted to have something at our homes to celebrate the season.   Sean hosted a lovely appetizer party at his house on Friday night.  I made stuffed mushrooms, and got tricked into making the meatballs, and Brie.  Mom, you are good.  She brought me a coffee and the ingredients and said, please????  So I did, and everything was yummy!

My Grandma brought some delicious guacamole and chips, and Gi Gi brought some really good scallops.  Mom brought over some dessert, and we had a great spread of yummy appetizers.  It was really good you guys.  Seriously, really good.  I'm still full from it!

I will post pictures of this later, my Mom is a slacker and has not uploaded pictures of this or my dinner party.


Oops, I forgot about...

Seeing Santa at Victoria Gardens

Which reminds me, Riley asked for a choo choo train from Santa, now I have 5 more things to buy.

We did this on Friday, before Sean's app party.  The girls did pretty good.

This is your chance to guess, I had one crying child and one happy child.  Who was my crier????

If you guessed Riley, than....

You Are Wrong.

Madi was my crier.  I was shocked.  I thought for sure, Riley would have a heart attack and pass out at Santa's feet, or scream hysterically and run away from everyone.  Nope.  She was a little unsure at first, but she saw other kids sitting on his lap, and I bribed her with a hot cocoa (that girl is a sucker for hot cocoa, let me tell you.)  So, we went in, I told my Mom to back Madison into Santa so that she wouldn't see him, but Madi has a mind of her own, and doesn't miss anything.  She went crazy.  The pictures prove it...






We enjoyed a "nice" lunch at CPK, the girls got a little tired and gave us a hard time torwards the end, but it was worth it!  Fun day.

Look at the sky that Friday morning when I woke up, gorgeous!





Saturday was....

Family Holiday Dinner at My House

The menu:

Chicken Kiev
Blue cheese salad with walnuts, red onion, and a balsamic vinaigrette
Ravioli with browned butter
Roasted asparagus
French bread.

For dessert,

an assortment of sweetness.

I invited my family over to our house for a little Christmas dinner on Saturday night.  We waited for Joy and Dave to arrive and then, we dug in!  We had twelve people and it was great fun. 

Pictures coming soon...


Yesterday we...

Decorated a Gingerbread House

I mean, just ate the candy, I mean licked all the frosting, I mean, licked the candy and then put it on the gingerbread house.




We saved this little event for Nana.  I thought she would enjoy watching Riley get "artistic".




There is no artistic with kids under 3. 

They put blobs of candy in one spot, and you watch as it all slides down the side of  their house.  So fun.  I decided we'll do artistic things later, and have sloppy fun now!




Riley's creation...




Gorgeous, I know.  We only decorated half.  Next year, I'm using my own frosting.  This frosting sucks, but it tasted good!



Last night we went to...

The Mission Inn to See the Lights


All I can say is Wow!  Gorgeous.  Love it.  So pretty.  Amazing.  I hope my pictures do it justice.

Mom and Dad were supposed to come with us, but decided that they should let us have a night alone with the in laws.  It was nice, and the girls really enjoyed it.

I took sooo many pictures, and to try to speed this post up, I quickly picked some.  In no particular order...

















Tonight....

Getting Baked

My Mom is already in a bad mood just thinking about it.  Baking.  She hates it.  I like it.  I like to eat the outcome.  I'm making snicker doodles, and a cake for Jesus, and maybe a new recipe of some sort.  We are doing it over here at my house.  Mom, what should we make pick up for dinner?  How about pizza double doubles from In-N-Out.  Man, I'm hungry now.  I still have to go pick up my ingredients.  Got to go...

 

Me

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I'm Kristi, the wife of one very lucky and handsome husband, and mother to two beautiful little girls. I'm honest and sarcastic, funny and easy going. I love to eat and love to hate that I love butter. And wine. And did I mention butter? I'm always learning new things, happy to lend a hand, and love my life. This is a blog of my family and the day to day crazy that we call Rush Hour. I hope while you are here that you enjoy yourself and come back often!

The Rush Family

The Rush Family

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