Christmas Cheer...and A Lot of Other Christmas Stuff {Part Deux}

 

Alright, now onto the good stuff - the Christmas celebrations. As per our usual, we had four Christmases in four days. While it can be a bit hectic only getting to spend a day in each location, I can tell you we've done it this way for so long that we wouldn't know any different. Plus, I love being able to see ALL of our family over the actual Christmas holiday itself and not in the weekends before and after.

{If you are dying to read more about our early December happenings, you can find part one here.}

Here goes....

Christmas Eve3 (Sunday before - Christmas on the farm)
Sunday morning was spent on the farm in northeast Nebraska at Nick's grandpa's house. Per our norm, we had a day full of eating, drinking and playing cards. Cruz had a great time opening presents, not just his own, but helping everyone else there since he was the only one under age 26. He loved the black cat grandpa picked up for him in a gas station and did not like the Sully monster that came with his Monster's University movie. To be exact, I believe he said "Sully needs to go back in the box" no fewer than five times. That didn't stop uncle Mook from torturing him with it. Afterwards, we had to go check out the cows in the field and the masses of cats that have shown up to help grandpa "mouse" on the farm.

 

 

Christmas Eve Eve (Monday)
This was a relaxed day at Nick's mom's place which also included more eating, drinking and some Cards Against Humanity. Prior to all that nonsense, we made a trip to the movies - the guys went to Anchorman 2 and the ladies & Cruz hit up Frozen. This was the first time we've taken Cruz to a movie in a theater since he was still an infant and he was so good! I'm sure it didn't hurt that we had the biggest bucket of popcorn ever to occupy him.



 

 

 





Christmas Eve
The morning of Christmas Eve we headed to my parent's house and were the first to arrive so Cruz had lots of time to himself with Grandma and Papa. As soon as my brother showed up, he immediately took off my niece's jacket and revealed a "big sister" tee - ahhh, so excited they are finally expecting again as they have been trying for some time. This time next year we will have a little baby at Christmas!





Santa brought him the truck he wanted...a John Deere pick-up of course!

Christmas
After filling up with twelve three helpings of mom's egg casserole (seriously the stuff is bomb), we got on the road for Omaha to see Nick's dad's side. And as you can guess we had one last day full of food, cocktails and fun just relaxing with the fam and watching the kiddos open mountains of presents.

Ahh, my heart is just so full of love for our families after the holidays! We are very fortunate to have some of the best family to celebrate with and love every minute with them all.

Hope you all had the best holiday season ever. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

 

 

Christmas Cheer...and A Lot of Other Christmas Stuff {Part One}

I realize that I've missed the boat as far as Christmas recaps are concerned, but let's be honest, it wouldn't be me if I wasn't a little late to the party. Therefore, our 2013 recap will have to wait while I entertain you with all of our holiday details! =)

*****
I have to say, I really impressed myself with my Christmas cheer this year. I mean going from bah hum bug last year and not even having a tree to all-out decorating the house and just really embracing this jolly season.

Now don't go getting too excited, it's not like I hung a wreath from the grill of my car and blared Christmas music non-stop at any point over the holidays...that's just not me. Buuuuut we did go and get ourselves a real tree (even if I only half-assed decorated it), introduced C-man to Buddy the Elf & his friend Alpine the Reindeer, wrapped our hearts out while watching as many Christmas movies as possible, lumped four Christmases in four days, watched Cruz's first holiday program at school (little man rocked it!), took in a movie on Christmas Eve Eve (wouldn't mind making that a new tradition), adopted not only one but TWO families from Angels Among Us, wore our matching "Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals" shirts and found out we will have a new little Fuchser babe this time next year care of my brother and his wifey.

Phew. I'm tired just typing all of that.

Without further adieu, I figure this is as good a time as any to recap this past little holiday of ours. Let's get started with part one.


Cutting Down Our Tree (first real tree for the Mango family)
Ok, so we didn't get all Griswold and trek deep into the woods, selecting our tree straight from the ground or anything. But we did make our way to the local nursery to pick out a tree that was freshly chopped from their tree farm just that morning. Basically the same thing, right? Right. Little man had a blast with the large train and decor. We couldn't catch up with him darting all over the place as he just had to check everything out. 

Aftewards, at the gas station, he decided to sneak the biggest piece of jerky ever and it was out of the container and in his mouth before I could even swipe my card for his Gatorade.

Introducing Buddy the Elf (and his pal Alpine the Reindeer)
We had a great time introducing the elf to our little guy this year. While he wouldn't understand all of the crazy, fun Elf of the Shelf concepts you see plastered all over Pinterest, he did enjoy waking up and looking for his "elfie" every morning....and his mama had fun picking out locations for it. That is, when I remembered and wasn't left scrambling to throw a bag of marshmallows into a bowl for its make-believe bath. (Man, I had big plans for those marshmallows...)

 

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (school program)
His daycare concert was just about the cutest thing ever. I doubt I have to tell you that little man stole the show and sang louder and prouder than the rest of the kiddos. Just look at him belting it out next to the little dude with his finger up his nose. Future JT? ... Maybe.

 

Santa...I Know Him!  (first time seeing Santa)
Call me the worst mama ever, but this year - yes my boy's third Christmas - was the first year we brought Cruz to see Santa.  In my defense, the first year he was like a month old, so that just seemed silly. And last year, we tried, I promise we did. But after waiting in line for a half hour we finally got close enough for C to see Santa and he was not having it. At that point, I didn't even want to try and risk a full-on meltdown.  Therefore, when we were invited to brunch at my sister & BIL's country club, we jumped at the chance to get Cruz on the old man's lap. And he loved it.  Plus he actually told Santa that he wanted a "big truck" for Christmas - prior to the exact minute he was on Santa's lap all he would tell us is that he wanted "presents", but once he was put on the spot, I tell you the boy delivered and knew he had to let the big guy know what he wanted. Smart kid.

Holiday Angels (adopting an Angels Family)
One of the traditions our little family has been doing for the past four years is adopting an Angels Among Us family for the holidays. I just love getting my spirit on and heading to the shops to pick out some clothes, toys and much needed supplies for these families. This year, not only did we adopt within our family of three, but the brothers/sisters/in laws on my husband's side decided to forego buying silly gifts for each other for a white elephant and instead put that money to adopting another family AND my parents adopted another family as well. Seriously love them all for doing this! If you've been reading for some time, you know that Angels is near and dear to my heart and I've love being involved with this organization for the past five+ years.  And I cannot tell you how special it felt to deliver the gifts to these families and hear how excited they were to receive them and be able to provide a better holiday for their kiddos. Tis the reason for the season.


*****

At risk of this being an even longer post than it already is, I will stop there and continue on with more holiday festivities manana.

Hope you all had an amazing holiday season...just typing this all out makes me want to go back and relive it all again!

 

Let The Holidays Begin!

All packed up and ready to head to Papa's!

We had the best weekend. I took Saturday off for our Fuchser family Christmas which meant I got to leave work after a long workday on Friday, say sayonara to work and hola to cocktails, loads of food, awesome family and Cards Against Humanity. If you haven’t played CAH, I definitely recommend you check it out. Well, that is if you have a good sense of humor and don’t mind a little dirty, nasty awesomeness all rolled into a party game.

Fortunately my dad’s side of the family are drinkers and fun-havers so it was a good night. Well, my husband had a much “cooler” night than I because he, my dad and my brother-in-law didn’t make it to bed until 5:45am. (What normal adults actually stay out that late anymore? Oh yeah, our guys.)

After a fun Saturday we were ready to meet up with Nick’s side of the fam to visit his Grandpa on Sunday. Unfortunately we got loads of snow on Saturday night/Sunday and didn’t feel it was smart to make the trip to the country so we swung by my cutie niece’s birthday party and then took off back for Omaha. DeLaney has to be the sweetest little almost three year old…love her and as much as I can’t believe C-man is two, I also can’t believe Laney is going to be three on Tuesday. And the party? Loads of fun...just check out her birthday tree!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Love Lately {December 6, 2013}

Happy Friday, lovely ladies! (And men. If there are any of you reading this. I highly doubt it, but you never know.) =)

I will just welcome myself back to the blogging world and jump right into some of my favorite things as of late. So, heeeeeere goes......

{one}
'Tis the season. I've officially jumped on the bandwagon and, yep, I'm all over this Christmas thing. Well, by "all over" I mean I'm actually decorating the house for Christmas this year which did not happen last year (big scrooge) AND we've adopted this little guy to help us get into the holiday mood.

Granted, Cruz doesn't entirely understand that he needs to be good or the elf will tell the big guy, but it's still fun to watch him look for Buddy (lame name, I know, but my choice Guacamole was veto'd) in the mornings.

{two}
Speaking of holidays, we not only are decking the house in holiday cheer this year BUT we also decided to keep our old fake tree in storage and got all fancy with a real tree. An actual real Christmas tree. I can remember my mom talking about wanting a real tree when we were younger, but back then she and my dad had like seven mouths to feed and we couldn't afford one. However, Nick and I decided if we were going to do this Christmas decorating thing, then we were going to do it right, so we loaded up our little lumberjack, Cruz, and headed to the tree farm. And let me tell you, the evergreen smell floating through the entire house? Totally worth every penny.

{three}
Million Dollar Shoppers (Lifetime). My absolute favorite show right now. Personal shoppers in NYC paired with rich, snobby women looking for clothes = great TV. Check it out.

{four}
Julie Ann Art. I absolutely love sending/getting snail mail. And I love sending cards that are sarcastic, snarky and awesome. This gal offers just that (not to mention some that are a bit risque, which is even more awesome) and I couldn't wait to personalize these two cards with a fun, little message from me and send them to the hubs (when he was away for the past four weeks in training) and my bestie (who just got engaged not too long ago).

{five}
Online shopping and specifically Ebates. As many of you know, I'm an online shopping fanatic, well I'm an all over shopping fanatic, but shopping online is just absolute perfection. I just love coming home to packages on the porch. Speaking of packages on the porch - I was introduced to Ebates by a friend and I'm kicking myself for not trying it out sooner.  Long story short, you sign up (for free, obvi), search the website you are looking for, then link directly to your fave major websites from Ebates (Amazon, Gap Kids, Zulily, Ruum, Vickies, Target...you name it, most are on it), shop from the site like normal, purchase and voila! you get an email from Ebates shortly after letting you know how much cash back you received just from linking to your fave shopping sites through Ebates.

Let me be honest here, you're not going to become a millionaire overnight using Ebates, BUT you will get cash back for doing what you already do, which by this I mean shopping. Now that my friends makes complete sense to me.


That's all for now! Have a great weekend and remember, only three more until Christmas!

Our Favorite Things: Twelve to Fifteen Months

I've really enjoyed looking back on the lists of our favorite things. Every item brings back good memories or our little man and makes me thankful for the happy boy we have been blessed with.

Without any further adieu... here is another edition of our Monthly Favorites.

12 - 15 Month Favorites:

• Playtex Sippy Cups - the best sippys we've found by far and we still continue to use these. They are easy to clean and best of all as long as you have them put together correctly and tightened (which I generally don't), they are virtually spill-proof.
• Safety 1st Baby Proof - we loved this entire line, however, were most impressed with this one for the toilet. It may not look the fanciest, but it really saved us from fingers slammed in the toilet seat, many different types of toys and other items being dropped into the toilet water as well as keeping little man from sticking his hand in that grossness. Definitely a must have.
• Munchkin Snack Containers - we tried out quite a few different containers and found these to be the best. The lid is soft on little hands, but they keep snacks contained the best as well. We use these for dry foods, cut-up turkey dogs on the go and grapes or blueberries can oftentimes be found in ours.
• Plum Fruit Shredz - can you say yum? Not only did Cruz gobble these up, but I loved them as well and if there happened to be a random package in my bag, you can guarantee I ate them. Plus, they are from our fave brand, Plum. Loved virtually all of their foods.
• Welsh's Fruit Snacks - these were the best "oh shit I forgot to pack a snack and need to stop at the gas station" go-tos.  Not that this happened to me (only like once a week), but little man loved them and they weren't greasy like I found some other fruit snacks to be. Plus, the package is big enough to share with mama.
• Cloud B Twilight Turtle - this is a great nightlight and noisemaker/sound machine for Cruz's nursery. The light can be adjusted to different levels of brightness, it has music & relaxing noises and a timer, which shuts off after a certain amount of time. He loves to look up from his crib and see the lights dancing on the ceiling, I really think it's soothing to him and he has to tell me as soon as I lay him down, "mama, turn turtle on!" It's super cute and we obviously use it still to this day.
• First 100 Words Book - little man loves this board book. Bright colors and great pictures. We started using this to learn colors and animals and now it's gotten to the point where he can go through each page and essentially "reads" the book to us, because he knows what each item is on every page.
• Safety First Convertible Car Seat - we moved Cruz to this seat right around one year because his legs were dangling over the edge of his other one. We had narrowed our research down to this one and the Britax, but after speaking to our daycare's owner (at the time) who is a well-known pediatrician in our area and who has also done a lot of car seat research, she told us that one of the engineers from Britax went to Safety First with the goal of recreating the popular Britax model, but making it more affordable. Even knowing that we did not want to skimp on safety just for a lower price item, she still recommended this one. We love it and have one in each car. 
• Mickey Mouse Plane Ride-On Toy - Cruz got this as a gift and it was one of the best presents ever. He still uses it to this day and he's almost two. It had so many awesome features: very colorful, moved easily when pushed or ridden, the seat lifts and stores four shape blocks and the propeller moves with the push of a button and lights up while Mickey talks. Plus, the propeller is made of foam, so it's very soft to the touch. Very cool toy.

Well, there you have it, another edition of our favorites - 12 months to 15 months. What were some of your favorite things during this time?

Linking up with Kristin and her adorable new blog. =)

Love Lately {November 8, 2013}

Well hello there. My name is Katie or better known as MIA. As in I've been MIA from this little ol' blog for much longer than I would care to admit lately. While I miss it, I have been very busy single parenting and planning the biggest 2 year old bash imaginable (ok, the biggest two year old bash I've ever thrown, how about that?)

Let's get on with it, shall we?

{one}
My 'almost' two year old!  As Cruz's 2nd birthday is almost officially upon us (next week to be exact), I can't help but get a little sappy looking back on his pics from the past two years and how much he has changed and captured our hearts. Check out this adorable little dude!

You can also find his monthly updates here.

{two}
The bash. Tomorrow we have approximately three thousand people (or at least it feels like it) coming to our house to celebrate Cruz man. I've been working on decor all week, we get our new sectional delivered today and will put the finishing touches on everything tonight. I love this part of being a mama.

{three}
My man. I'm picking up Nick from the airport today and we are going to surprise Cruz at daycare this afternoon.  I don't think Cruz or I could be more excited to see him! This is week two of him being gone for training for his new job and it's easy to say we are missing him something fierce. But we made sure to stick in his mind with fun little pics and videos like this all week:

{four}
Sweets and treats. I fully intend on gorging myself on cupcakes (thanks to auntie Morgan), Nothing Bundt Cake and candy all weekend long and I'm not even sorry about it. I mean, I've basically been doing this since Halloween last week, so why stop now?

{five}
The freakin' weekend. My weekend officially starts on Friday like the rest of you all for once and I'm loving it! I get to skirt out of work a tad bit early too. Can't beat that!


Hope you all have as much fun as I know I will this weekend!