Christmas with B's side of the family.
Have you put any thought into your New Year's Resolutions for the New Year that is a little over 24 hours away? Yeah, me neither. I can hardly believe we're approaching a new decade...or that I can't remember where exactly I spent NYE2000. Do you remember? I think we were all waiting for the world to end. Or our computers to crash, at least.

Gosh, that's totally going to perplex me until I remember. I was a junior in high school, I can tell you that. And I'm sure I was with B somewhere, since we were high school sweathearts and all. I probably wasn't at a party, since my mom and dad were pretty stringent about curfew and making sure they called the parents of the party-thrower to ensure supervision and such. Our church always hosted an all-nighter for the youth group, but I don't really remember going. But maybe I did? Hmmmmm......

Sorry, enough internal dialogue.

We have no NYE plans here that don't involve staying home and hanging out with family. We might order Chinese take-out and pop open a bottle of champagne, if we really want to get crazy. Seeing as I've never popped open a bottle of champagne in my entire life though, I really doubt it. But it sounds like fun. We'll likely watch Seventeen Again, since it arrived from Netflix yesterday, and that will round out our night where we'll struggle to stay open to watch the ball drop. Is it ironic that I actually was 17 as the year 2000 began? {FYI: Zac Efron was 12. Ha!}


I've always thought that NYE was such a let-down. Sure, it warrants an extra day off work and a reason to buy a sequined dress (though I actually bought a sequined dress the other day for everyday-wear), but my past NYEs have always been very lackluster. Thus, this will be the third year that we've stayed home with no extravagant plans. And I'm entirely okay with that.

However, let it be known, that B and I do have New Year's Day plans that involve a travel, a babysitter, and an occasion to wear a sequined dress ;)

Happy 2010, BFFs!

Checkin' in...

Hey y'all. I am exhausted. The holidays have completely wiped me out. Becks has a terrible cold and has been in bed with us for the past three nights, entertaining us with his midnight acrobatics. I barely slept last night. Thus, I have about this much energy for which to blog about Christmas. So, you'll have to settle for the few images that I managed to capture. There are many more pics on the grandparents' cameras, and I will post a more detailed holiday wrap-up sometime this week where I'll tell you about how excited we are to be Netflix members again and how no Christmas morning is complete without scooter races. Enticing, isn't it?

Who needs "the poof" when you wake up with hair looking like this? Completely natural, snazzy hairspray not needed. Becks is eating at one of his Christmas presents. I go weak in the knees at the amount of coloring and crafts and lego monuments that this table will witness over the next several years.

This was the little peanut butter on Christmas Eve doing a jig to some Hallmark toy that plays Charlie Brown's Christmas. Looooove it.

Hope your holiday was merry and bright!

A Blessed Christmas.

This Christmas was truly amazing.  Even though it didn't really "feel" like Christmas because we stayed home and didn't get to travel to family's houses, we had some really amazing people who made Christmas extra special for us.  Our families came to us this year, which made it so much easier on us.. (we will make up for it one day, I promise.)  Having family here made it feel a little more like Christmas.  Thank you to our extra special, wonderful, amazing families.  Like I said in an earlier blog, the North Oaks Maternal Units sent us a really special basket for Christmas, and the North Oaks Medical Center Pharmacy personally delivered us Christmas dinner to our house.  Pretty awesome, right?  Thank you again!  

THEN, my Dad's side of the family (the Hotard's) decided not to play the "exchange game" this Christmas, but instead buy gifts for Tripp and I.  I just wanted to break down in tears.  What a wonderful, wonderful thing to do.  They sent blankets and toys for Tripp and they sent pajamas (which is pretty much the only thing I wear these days), pedicure sets, shampoo, razors, bath products, crest white-strips, sunless tanner, camera cards.... pretty much anything I could want and everything I use, they bought for me.  It was truly touching and soooo very thoughtful.  What they did made my Christmas a little  LOT brighter.  Thank you Hotard family- last night, I took a shower, used my new shampoo, my new face scrub, my new razors, my new foot scrubber, and slipped into my new PJs.  I felt like a new woman.  Thanks to you guys.  That was really really special to me.  It made me realize what family is all about and how important family really is.  

There were so many people who sent us cards for Christmas and who did really really nice things for us. It really makes you feel like the world isn't such a bad place after all.  There are some really great and really special people out there.  Thank you to all the people who helped make Tripp's first Christmas and Randy and I's Christmas a great one.  We love you.  

Tripp really enjoyed his first Christmas.  I know he doesn't understand, but Randy and I had fun getting ready for Santa.  I know one day I will look back and be glad I have all these cheesy pictures.  

Randy and I decided to exchange our gifts Christmas Eve night so that we could focus on Tripp Christmas morning.  And we decided to let Tripp open ONE present on Christmas Eve.  It took him a little while to warm up to his first present... it was my favortie.... a Handy Manny Tool Set!!!

Tripp wrote to Santa, saying: "Dear Santa, please save some cookies for Mommy and Daddy.  Aren't I "Nice"?  I told him he was already on the nice list, but I guess he just wanted to make sure.  

Santa left 2 cookies for Mommy and 2 for Daddy, and a whole bunch of presents for Tripp...

Daddy helped Tripp open his presents and he sat up like a big boy the WHOLE time!!  It took him a little while to give out the smiles, though.

But his favorite present of all.... his swing!!  He was totally at peace in his swing.  I think we will be spending a lot more time outside now.  Thank you God.

He was awake ALLLLL day today.  I don't know if it was the excitement of Christmas (ha) or the visitors we had, or what?  But this was the ONLY 10 minutes he slept all day... (and today was bath day, so he was NOT a happy camper for bath!) Whew, Christmas will wear you out!

The past 3-4 days have been REALLY great.  Thank you, thank you GOD.  I know it's the steroids, but hey... we will take whatever we can get.  The steroids are making his mouth look AWESOME.  You can actually SEE all his teeth now that the sores have shrunk a little. Boy I am going to miss seeing those precious little teeth!  He is still in pain because he has some molars that are still coming in, but the Motrin helps him with that.  I thank God for everyday that I get to see him happy and feeling better.  Does this make your heart melt??? Does mine!

Can you believe that is actually his mouth looking GOOD?  Anyway, I haven't posted in a while, so I have some more random pictures... Hope you enjoy and I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a very Happy New Year!!  Please pray that everything goes well with Tripp's surgery on the 31st!  Thank you!  God Bless!!

Such a big boy!

Yes, this is a smile!!  I could pee on myself laughing at this picture.

 It totally brightens my day!!

Just eatin' crab.... you know he's from Louisiana.

Nilli Vanilli.... Yes Sir.

My cute little toes...

Three years away from the big 3-0

Today I celebrate birthday #27. B and I went to dinner last night at Bonefish. I had sangria in my birthday wine glass {given to me by my dad} and it was yum.
Additionally, I attempted the poof as detailed in the post found here. It is life changing and you should watch the 12 minute video so that you, too, can poof your hair with such pizazz. Fortunately, it doesn't require a claw clip as rocked out by Snooki in Jersey Shores. These girls teach you to do it with class, and I promise you won't look like a guidette when you're through. It should be noted that I only had Aqua Net on hand, which seemed to work just as well for $1.92. I will, however, be in search of the spray spoken of in the post. My poof seems to look better from the side than it does head-on, as seen in pictures of me and B out to dinner. Will go for more height next time. Lastly, I have a cute boy child. He is watching Sesame Street for the 407th time and eating a pretzel rod with G on the floor. He is also cute, if I haven't mentioned that before.

Happy Birthday to me!

A Very Merry Christmas Card Blog

Wishing all of you a very 

Merry Christmas 

and a

 Happy New Year.

Love and Thanks,

The Roth Family

Randy, Courtney, and Tripp