Joynt Madness

Maddie Mads had a birthday.

He is all grown up.

Apparently four is totally a BIG deal.

On the way home from work, he let me know he had a couple of new requests…

‘Cause you know, he’s a whole year older and therefore much more mature….
1) Don’t call me Maddie, my name is Maddox
2) I’m four now Mommy, but I want you to know I am still your baby
3) Is it ok if I still call you Mommy. Do you like Mom, instead?
4) I’m a big boy now, so I don’t need to suck my thumb anymore
5) This is the best day ever. Can I turn four again tomorrow?
Seriously LOVE this kid….and our commutes together.  We have THE. BEST. Conversations. The Best.

Today my oldest and greatest friend joins me at 35! How in the world did we get so old?! Beyond crazy!

Happy *HAPPY* Birthday Absigail!

I so wish I could fly out to see you… Miss you tons and feel so very lucky to have enjoyed your friendship for the past 25 years! Love you…

Centennial High School Graduation ~ June 1997

Brian is on the verge of the BIG 4-0! It’s kind of a big deal… So, I decided to ‘surprise’ him with a trip to Vegas! ( I say ‘surprise’ because it’s super difficult to keep things from that guy…)

It was fun trip for a number of reasons… Obviously, it’s always fun to escape life, work, kiddos and just be US. But it was also fun because ten years ago, for Brian’s 30th birthday, his parents surprised us with a trip to Vegas. It was fun and interesting to reminisce about where we were then and where we are now.

Ten years ago Brian was in school… Still about two years away from his doctorate. I had been working for a graphic design company that had just gone out of business a month before, so I was recently unemployed and planning our wedding!

Now, Brian and I own our own Chiropractic clinic and get to go to work together everyday!

Ten years ago, I was living with my parents to save money for the wedding and Brian had just moved into what was about to be our first apartment together!

Now we are in a home we both love and in a few months we will have been here five years, by far the longest we have ever lived anywhere.

Ten years ago we had no responsibilities, total freedom and a whole heck of a lot of sleep!

Now we have three kiddos, what sometimes feels like an overwhelming amount of responsibility, zero freedom… Unless we want to pay for a babysitter ;)… And absolutely no sleep!

There are countless other changes to our previous ten year old selves… Like gray hair… But you know what?! I wouldn’t change it. It’s crazy to think about how far we’ve come in just ten short years. How much we’ve grown up, changed and improved. I am having so much fun in this world Brian and I created for ourselves and I am super excited for the next TEN!

Although, that would make Brian 50! Wow… Maybe I’m not quite so ready…

Ten Years Ago… January 2004

Now… January 2014
(The pic turned out kinda dark… But it’s still a fun comparison!)

New Year’s Eve 2013 started on December 30th this year… We were super determined to finally make it all the way to 101… ;). We got in about four or five games before the kids went to bed that night and then started up again after breakfast on the 31st! We played one right after the other and as we kept checking them off, I couldn’t believe the progress we were making!

At 7 pm… We played Lego Champion… Game #101! We did it… It started off as a goal for Carson and it only took three years to accomplish! 😉

Since we finished AND finished early… We headed to our neighbors house to celebrate. We ate, played a fun version of Minute To Win It, celebrated New York New Years with fireworks, then danced! It was fun… The best New Year’s celebration we’ve had yet!

I was so very excited about this Christmas… Even with Carson calling us out on Santa (a friend of his told him that Santa was really just mom and dad and we had to sit him down and try to explain who Santa really was and why ‘he’ is so important to the magic of Christmas)… It was definitely lining up to be one of those perfect years. The kids are at such fun ages.  All the build up before was so much fun…. We were so ready and excited for their excitement.

Then on Christmas Eve Brian hit the wall. Dude was so sick. I don’t think he remembers much about Christmas morning/day at all. He completely slept through Christmas night at his moms and was down for a week after. So sad. But…

I had a blast!

Christmas morning was so much fun! Carson woke up TWO HOURS before the other two. He could hardly sit still. We sat in front of the Christmas tree together and discussed the possibilities of what was under all that wrapping. It’s debatable who enjoyed those moments together more… And honestly I think he might be more than a little confused about Santa.  😉

The rest of the morning, minus Brian being super sick, was great! We didn’t have dinner until late, do we didn’t feel the normal rush to get out of the house. We played, and played and played. The kids got along… No one was crabby. It was perfect.

After the kids and I enjoyed Christmas night at the Joynt house… I put Maddie to bed and stayed up late building Legos with Carson and Taylor. It was perfection. I love to watch the kids follow along to the little Lego directions and slowly build these amazing creations.

The only thing that could have been better, was Brian.  I feel so bad that he missed out on everything.  But….

Next year is going to be awesome!

Happy Christmas Eve! Today we headed to work, with the kids in tow, fora few patients who needed to get in.

Then we headed to Portland for Christmas Eve dinner!

When we got back home, we did our annual Prepare for Santa routine…

Cookies and cocoa … Check!

Carrots … Check!

Christmas Dust … Check!

Decked out in our Christmas Jammie’s … Check!
(Can you tell Mads doesn’t feel so hot?)

A toast to a job well done and a fabulous Christmas morning … Check!

I’ll leave you with a super cute photo of my favorite three year, who is *oh so excited* for Santa… May you always believe in the spirit of Christmas!

Today I baked. All. Freakin’. Day. I’m exhausted. But, Maddie totally rallied in time to take part in the eleventh Day of Christmas!

We rolled and cut out cookie dough, then while the cookies were baking… The kids had Grinch punch and watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

When the show was over, we decorated cookies for Santa!!

I was recently inspired to make my own Ugly Christmas Sweater, after never finding what I was looking for in one already put together.

I really wanted to be a Christmas Tree and Brian wanted to be an elf.  The first place I headed to for inspiration was the Dollar Tree.  Seriously.  That store has the most gloriously awful things…. I got so many ideas.

After the Christmas Party last night, I started working on putting the ideas together.  It was about 9:00 pm.  Brian headed upstairs to watch TV and left me to it….

I finished both sweaters about 11:30 pm. Aren’t they wonderful?!

Brian is wearing an Elf hat with his and I have a Christmas Tree Skirt that I have made into a wrap skirt for me, with Christmas Presents!  I am SO. Stinkin’. Excited. They will be debuted at Christmas Dinner with my family!  (Mom, if you’re reading this…don’t be mad!  We have a tradition to uphold…and we’ll change for the family photo.)

After cleaning everything up, my book was calling to me.  So, I finished a chapter…ok…maybe it was two.  Or three.  I have a really hard time putting books down.  Let’s just say, a little after midnight I headed to bed and fell into the deepest sleep ever.

What felt like HOURS later, I was startled awake by Taylor…who said her blankets fell off her bed and she was cold.  I had been in such a deep sleep, I seriously thought it was morning time and told her to climb in bed with me.

I was really confused.  It was actually about 12:30 and I NEVER would have brought Tay in at that hour had I known.  Tay is a leach in bed.  She snuggles hard.  So hard, you usually can’t get comfortable or sleep. So I laid there…wrapped up in a Taylor sandwich…in a semi sleep state…not able to move and definitely not comfortable. I must have been in and out of dreams because I couldn’t remember who was in bed with me or why?  I thought it was Carson…then I remembered it was Taylor…then I looked at the clock.  1:00 AM.  Seriously?!  What was I thinking?  At this point, I was about to take her back to her own bed, when Maddie started screaming… MOM!  MOM!  HURRY! MOM!

Ugh.

( So, a little back story.  Maddie Mads fell asleep in the car on the way home from the party and stayed asleep during the transfer from car to bed.  At the time I thought, ‘Wow, what a Christmas Miracle!’ Ha!)

I ran to his room.  He was sitting up in bed, his eyes a little crazed…and shouted, ‘Mom!  Someone put me in my bed! Mom! Someone put me in my bed!  And they are down there. (pointing under his bed)  I’m so scared.’

Poor guy.  He was so confused and delirious.  I leaned in to comfort him and realized how incredibly hot he was.  Dude was seriously on fire.  Totally explained the delirium.  So, I got in bed with him and we snuggled in while I explained that I was the one who had put him to bed and I would stay there with him and everything was ok.

We settled into a restless sleep, where he woke me up twice to ask for water and three more times asking if he could go to sleep in my bed.  Finally I got up in search of Tylenol.

When he was medicated, I left him to get Tays back in her own bed, so I could bring him back to my room, where it is more comfortable and cooler.  (I was still thinking I was about to get some sleep…Ha!)

Poor Maddie tossed and turned and tossed and turned.  Poor Mommy tried her hardest to shut it out and get some sleep….  At about 3:00, I gave up.  We headed downstairs and turned on a movie.

He settled in for Camp Scare…a Scooby Classic…and I browsed Facebook.  Ugh.

I think I may have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember was Maddie saying the movie was over.  It was after 4 AM.  I told Mads it was time to try sleeping again.  He agreed and we both passed out on the couch.

That’s when I was awakened….AGAIN….by a tap on the shoulder.

It was 4:45.

It was Carson.

Bet you were wondering if he would make a debut in my sleepless night, huh?!  What I really want to know is, how did he find me, all the way downstairs?  And does no one understand that there is a Dad upstairs perfectly capable of handing things too?  My goodness.

Back to Carson… He said, ‘Mom. Mom.  Are you ok?’  (probably wondering why I was downstairs)  I told him I was and asked what was wrong. Apparently he had a bloody nose, but wanted to let me know that he had it under control.

Great.

*sigh*

And that pretty much wraps it up.  Today, I am one exhausted Mommy…but thankfully I already had the day off….and hopefully Maddie’s fever is short lived and we all get some much needed sleep.

Wish us luck.

Today we didn’t plan any crafty activities because we had the big Joynt Christmas Extravaganza! We played Bingo… We had a gift exchange… Brian’s cousin brought a couple of coolers full of snow and we had a snow fight… We ate tons of food… We had a good time.

Snow fight!

Distant cousins! My kids were in Heaven!

Presents!

White Elephant at its finest…

I have this memory of these ornaments that my mom used to make. They smelled like heaven.

I wanted to make them this year with the kids but didn’t know what they were. I searched Pinterest and found an applesauce cinnamon recipe. But I thought that was super strange, so I called my mom.

My mom said it was weird but totally correct… So I got the cinnamon and applesauce, mixed them together and it did in fact make a dough-like ball. Super cool.

The kids loved it and it made the house smell absolutely amazing!

Fabulous fun…

My kids are silly… 😉