Oregon Christmas

If you follow my blog you know that I typically update on Sundays.  You also may have noticed that last Sunday came and went without an update.  If I am honest today almost came and went without an update as well.  The reason?  Well, last Saturday we left for AZ and our flight was delayed so we did not arrive until 4am and that Sunday flew by in a blur.  Yesterday, Carrigan came down with a fever and we had a really bad night.  All in all we only got a couple hours of sleep.  I was really wanting to blog about Christmas, but have been so exhausted that I felt like that whatever I did, I would be mailing it in and I did not want to mail in my Christmas update.  My solution up until now has been to do nothing, but it is time to step up so I will try to tackle at least a piece of the Christmas update, Oregon Christmas.

Since we were going to be spending Christmas in Arizona and had to tote all of our presents along with us, we decided to have an Oregon Christmas before we left and open the gift we had for each other.  This way we would have a few less things to drag along.  The only problem is that we did not have a Christmas tree so we had to get creative (yeah, that is our iPad with an image of Christmas tree).

The day was just about perfect.  We got up and opened gifts, played and spent time together, and went out to lunch.  It was really nice just to be together since things had been so crazy with Jeremy's finals.  Really, that was it, nothing elaborate or out of the ordinary, just time together.

My Semi-Annual Post About Stress

Lately I have noticed a tendency for Merrick to want to climb into things.  He has been climbing into laundry baskets, decorative baskets around the house, his toy box, and this cupboard (this day he had an accomplice, his cousin Lincoln).  I really don't think there is any deep meaning behind it, other than when you are a kid it is fun to climb into things and an empty laundry basket makes a pretty cool pretend race car.  But sometimes I wish I too could climb into something and shut out the world, and there is deeper meaning behind it.

The past few weeks I have felt like my life is like a run away freight train.  I feel like I run as hard and as fast as I possibly can from the moment I get up in the morning until the moment I finally crash out at night.  And, despite the fact that I am getting significantly less sleep than is healthy, I still feel like there are not enough hours in the day.

The other day I thought to myself, "ok, you just need to make a 'to do' list and then you can work through it".  Well I did that and I got a few things crossed off, but then the most annoying thing happened.  I realized that there was a whole list of things that I needed to get done before I could work on my "to do" list.  So I did the only logical thing, I made another list.  So now I have lists on top of lists and still have not accomplished nearly enough.

I am sure you are probably thinking that if I have so much to do I should just stop wasting time writing about it and get to work.  Well, writing on the blog was on my "to do" list and besides, sometimes a girl just needs to vent.  I guess my question for all you out there in blog land is, do you ever feel this way?  Do you feel like no matter what you do or how hard you try, you always come up short?  If not, please don't tell me and if so, just hang in there and if you figure out the key to getting it all done please let me know.

In the meantime, if you need me I will be hiding in my closet.

Cutie Pie Kids

This week Carrigan turned 7-months-old and so I got out my trusty camera and sticky bellies to capture the moment.  In all honesty Carrigan was not really in the mood for a photo op, but Merrick really wanted his picture taken.  In the process of all the photo snapping I was reminded just how adorable my children are.  See for yourself...

Since this blog is technically supposed to be about Carrigan turning 7-months let me brag for just a few seconds about some of her new skills this month. She has become a good little sitter.  Sitting is still not her preferred position, but she is getting good none the less.  She has also become very mobile.  While I would say she is not officially crawling, she can scoot herself just about anywhere she wants to go.

I am continually floored by how big my kids are getting and how much they change everyday, but what never changes is just how adorable they are.

Thanksgiving 2013

This year the word I would use to describe our Thanksgiving is a word I seldom use to describe our family functions, quiet.  Jeremy's family and Emily stayed in Arizona, this was my parents first Thanksgiving in India, and Ben and Becca went to Utah so that just left Brendon and Rachel's family and our family.  Despite Lauren's fear that without Nana here we would end up eating chicken and Jeremy's fear that it would be a "Charlie Brown" Thanksgiving, it was actually a nice day.

Jeremy and Merrick started the day playing football in the backyard while Carrigan and I stayed warm inside and worked on dinner.

In the evening we went to Brendon and Rachel's house to eat.  Rachel and I split the cooking duty and everything turned out so yummy.  We think we all ate until we were sick.

Despite my love for a good deal, I did my black Friday shopping online this year and did not partake in the crazy.  Instead, after dinner we put the kids to bed and had a nice relaxing evening at home.

In hindsight, I am really glad we did stay in because I am not sure the next time I will be able to use the word relaxing to describe our life.  Jeremy's last day of classes is Tuesday and he has already started "finals mode".  He studies like a madman and when he does take a break so we can do something as a family it is fast and frantic so we can squeeze in some fun before he has to get back to work.

Friday, for example, Jeremy studied all morning long.  After lunch we rushed to Bullwinkle's to let Merrick ride go karts and play a few games.  Then we rushed home and Jeremy was studying again within minutes of walking in the door and studied until about 9pm.  So is life these days; rush, rush, rush.

It is a crazy life, but a good life and I guess we will rest when we are dead.