merry christmas and all that jazz....

let's start by saying i hope you and your family are enjoying a merry christmas......we have had a wonderful morning and are now sitting here in front of the tv watching madagascar (oh, this was fun, izzy brought me the movie this morning in the moment before my "small" cup of caffeine had kicked in and i am desperately trying to change diapers, spread cream cheese on bagels and corral the troops. anyhoo, i set the movie down...now fast forward three and half hours to thirty minutes ago when izzy wanted to lay down in her i opened four dozen presents and spent all my energy already state to watch her new movie. aaaugghhh, with all of us, dadda, mommy and babci looking for the movie. all i can think is great where in the hell did i set it down that damn movie....

"no, jeff i know i did not lose it.....i did have it this morning...i will dig through the trash.....why would it be in the closet....yes, i looked in the giant pile of toys taking over the living room"....and so on.

and of course, dadda found it in our bathroom in my sink under a stack of my clothes! oh, well...

so, christmas started last night with my family coming over for dinner and presents. i worked all day on a pot of chili a hundred plus ready to have heartburn and gas the next 24hr people could eat on for a week. and yes, i make a damn good pot of chili! i also threw together mini lemon/cherry cheesecakes and the oreo truffles (i can not get enough of these). so add to all this the tamales, dip and chips i picked up earlier in the day and well, our fridge is overflowing with leftovers. (no comments from anyone about there being nothing to eat in this house, PLEASE) the girls made out like bandits, i think i was successful in picking out gifts that were totally loved and my mother finally got the hint i like gift cards because i received one to williams sonoma this year! once our over tired girls were snoring and in their beds (izzy ours)....i started whipping together the breakfast casserole and laying out santa's bounty. jeff is not so much into the christmas hoop-la i am and therefore did not get my need to unwrap all the food and pots and pans for the new kitchen set. however, i went forth and set up the kitchen for play plus wrapped it because i knew izzy would not touch another present once it was opened. finally, at 2 am i laid down and caught a few minutes of sleep.

fast forward to today and well, all went well.....again jeff is not so into the production of christmas as i am and did not understand why all things have an order. but, i must pat him on the back because he did step in line and proceed with my grand production giving me a little satisfaction for all of the many hours i slaved rehearsing for my, oh i mean our big day. i may not have hit it off with his gifts so much as i did everyone else...same goes for babci....but hey, who can nail them all. (well, me usually, but i will blame this one on the pregnancy hormones:)

santa did leave a special gift for dadda today.....last night when i went into the garage i found baby blazer asleep on a pile of blankets. for the first time in over six months he jumped down and came to see fandango and me. i kept him in the garage because well, he has been wild for a while and may have had bugs....this morning i told jeff santa left something special in the garage....i think jeff has not put him down yet. jeff fed blazer ham from the breakfast table (poor fandango), has been rubbing on him and well, if this cat disappears again for 1/2 a year without showing his face his is just plain dumb. really, makes you wonder....why of all the days did blazer come home on christmas day????

so, anyhoo, before i hit the kitchen prepping the beef tenderloin for our christmas lunch/dinner meal i am going to put my feet up and maybe shut my eyes for a minute. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ENJOY EACH OTHER TODAY....

oh, i am in such a good mood i guess i could go on and announce the sex of baby #3......i am only up 1/2 a pound in 17 weeks so this is good news for me...i vow to be back down that 1/2 by next month. pre-note** the past few days before our sonogram i had some crazy thoughts rolling around in my head....like, "i am sure i felt annie by this point" so i did some research on the Internet and learned little boys are not as active as little girls....uhm, maybe there is a slim chance we are having a son. see i have not had much hope to longspaugh #3 being a boy because well, the first two are girls and i am one of 3 girls while jeff is one of 3 boys...seems like a slam dunk to me. anyhoo.....as i said before my doctor moved offices and with it came a new sono machine, totally amazing, we watched baby ??? play with its feet and open and close it hands. and while i was truly enjoying a very long sono the tech was saving the best for last. it turns out we are having another girl! so there it is....jeff has decided we need give up the plumbing business and open a flower shop. and now i get to start with the whole name game....do we have another "bel"???? or venture off in another direction???? this just may be god's way of protecting the fine residents in lake country of another generation of longspaugh boys or he just may be worn out himself from the first crew, however, i am not naive enough to not think we will have our hands full....they are longspaughs after all!