Making a List...Checking it Twice...

Time to see the roly poly jolly ol' Santa this past Sunday at our small downtown mall. Dylan's only relief from the terror of it all was a candy cane that he knawed to pieces :) Phew...thank goodness for candy!
Here is Shelby telling Santa how badly she wants some Dora Dress-up clothes! Does anyone know a store that carries them? I only know Lilly Kids has them in a dress-up box but I don't know if it's worth the money to order them?!
Here is Dylan waving to Santa from afar :) I think he ended up liking the jolly guy...but he much preferred NOT sitting on his lap and just gazing with a smile from distance :)
Here are the girls digging in to their free M&M choc. chip cookies...always a highlight of seeing Santa (and the Easter bunny) :)
Even Dylan enjoyed a cookie this time around...yes, he can eat cookies, but nothing else normal :)
Another failed attempt at a Christmas card picture...do you see what we're dealing with here, people?! Help!
The silly kiddos in the old phone booth in the mall :) And below, the girls had to of course pose with a big ol' Nutcracker that was sitting out...our lil' mall is decorated so pretty this time of year...it'd be a great picture place if only our kids were more photogenic this time of year :( Bah Humbug! :)

Ok, I know that's a song about Santa...but it fits the post today as I'm sitting here surrounded by ALL my lists of "stuff to do". Yes, I'm a chronic list-maker. Don't know if that's good or bad...but right now I feel like I'm swimming in lists so it's a tad bit overwhelming to say the least :) :) And, I've made no secret that this time of year can be a bit stressful for me...I know that's sad to say, but as busy as our schedule is normally; to add to that extra holiday hustle and bustle...well, it leaves little time to sit and chill and just enjoy things. Sigh :( All that being said I am doing my best to try to get in the holiday mood....we've had our lovely tree up for weeks now (still w/o a star on top due to height issues and laziness)....the house is semi-decorated, the lights outside are semi-up, the gifts are semi-bought, the Christmas cards are semi-done....ok, so you see my frustration...we can't seem to get anything completely done and it's driving me bonkers. Things getting "semi-done" generally means I can't check anything off my list cuz it's only half done. Not cool! But, that just seems to be the season of life we are in right now....doing 1/2 of everything :( Not a nice feeling for a perfectionist like me. Ok...so I'm really not trying to be downer...I'm just admitting that December is not all holly and jolly for us over here in the Steg family.....and I imagine other households are the same though they might not admit it :) Anyway with that happy thought I want to turn to a few bullet points. Nothing too exciting's been going on since the big "N" performance...but life still has had it's crazy moments :)

• Well, the first illness of the holiday season has crept into our humble abode. Poor Dylan came down with some virus (most like church-related) yesterday....I knew he was being too clingy all day so I shouldn't have been surprised by late afternoon when he fell asleep in my arms (a rarity) and then wound up with a temp and vomited all over in his crib. Poor guy. Crossing our fingers and praying that the rest of us stay healthy....not a good time of year to be held up in the house puking :( (and now that I type this I realize that the poor boy is again asleep in my lap all slumped over and feeling very warm again...poor baby)
  
• The week of Christmas programs has begun. Shelby has two dance programs this week....one at a nursing home on Friday and one at her dance studio on Sunday....both should be cute and she gets to strut her ballerina stuff and have her sister watch (which is a nice change)....it should be humorous :) Both girls also have their big Christmas program (singing) this Sunday at church so this Wed, Sat, and Sun will be very busy with extra practices and me trying to lend a hand with the program too. Also, Shelby's preschool class is visiting a nursing home on Thursday to sing carols and bring cheer, so Dylan and I will tag along with that. All such fun things...I'm really looking forward to all of these...I think this is what the season is about...sharing the joy with others...and I always love watching my kids do things special :)
  
• This past weekend was semi-relaxing/semi-busy. I over extended us a bit on Friday cuz I committed us to a little get-together with church friends, but at the same time I had forgotten I didn't want to miss a special evening sale that this little store was having (the one that sold at the Nutcracker)....anyway...so long story short, but we were about an hour late to our get-together cuz we got lost trying to find this cute little store in the middle of no where in the pouring rain. But, I did get the lovely blue angel ornament for Hailey that I had missed buying at the performance...and I did find Shelby the cutest lil' mouse king ornament....not to mention I splurged and got myself the same fancy Nutcracker ornament that my mom bought :) So I was happy with my purchases and happy we also made it to the get-together. It was fun to hang with old and new friends and I even sucked it up and played some cards (to know me is to know I DO NOT like to play card games :)) And try as I might to lose the whole game I actually didn't :) Go figure :) So, Friday was a busy, but fun night...
• Saturday Hailey had her last dance class of the year (yay!) and Kev was sweet enough to take her to that. I actually don't think I left the house all day long...awesome! I love being a homebody! We just tried to get more Christmas stuff out and get organized a bit....it didn't really happen, but we tried....it was lovely to spend a whole day at home....even if we didn't get much accomplished....that will probably be the last day we get to just veg for awhile :( But, we did get Hailey and Shelba's trees all situated in their rooms (Dylan has yet to do his :))....and Kev put a few lights outside after we realized that half our lights are dead this year :( But, some is better than none I guess :( Oh...and the most fun we had on Sat. was watching the DVD of Angel Hailey....it was first time Hailey got to watch herself :) And Shelby had to watch the mouse king scene over and over again :) Oh the fun!
  
• Sunday...well, we made it to the 10am church service...ok, that's a joke that most of you won't get....there is no 10am service at our church...but we were so late for the 9:30 that to make ourselves feel better we named a new service for ourselves. Don't ask why we were late....ok, I'll hint at it...we were trying to get a pic of the kids for our Christmas card....well, needless to say after weeks of trying we still don't have one (yes, getting a pic of three kids looking semi-normal and not crying or rolling their eyes...well, it's one of the toughest jobs lately :))....so we still have no picture and we were embarrassingly late for church...not to mention Dylan now has a black eye thanks to a juice cup he rammed into his face...so our Christmas cards might become New Year's or Valentine's cards with our luck :( Which, also means that I can't/won't be reading any Christmas letters for a bit....I know it's silly...but last year I decided that until our cards were out I wouldn't read anyone else's. Don't worry...I still look at the lovely pics that come in mail (cuz I LOVE pics!) but I make myself wait to read all the lovely letters :) It's my way of getting a fire under my rear to maybe get our cards out! Yes, I am crazy with a capital C! :)
• We did indeed see the big ol' jolly man himself, Santa, on Sunday after church and our lil' local mall...that was a fun little outing. Dylan wasn't so sure of the big man in red....he preferred to wave at him from afar (like from the upstairs balcony looking down on him :)) and give him high fives. He only warmed up to Santa when he gave him a candy cane...yes, Dylan loves candy lately...he won't eat normal food, but he loves his sugar! I think Hailey ask Santa for some Webkinz and clothes for them...and Shelby asked for Dora dress-up clothes...hmmm...Santa better get working on that! I think Dylan was just happy with his candy cane and free M&M cookie and if I had to guess Dylan probably would ask Santa for a new ball or two or three or more :) And on a funny side note I have to tell you that we are inheriting a lovely red and white suit ourselves...so watch out...there maybe be a Santa in our family at some point in the near future :)
  
• Hailey had a lovely time on Sunday night with her 2BMe church girlfriends :) They had a fun party-game night get-together at one of the girl's houses....I know Hailey enjoyed it. We tried to go see our church's Christmas light show (an outside show of lights they have put to music on the radio)...but I think half the light's were out so we only saw a partial show....again that sticks well with my "semi" doing things theme :) Go figure :)
  
• Is anyone else out there struggling with shopping this season?! I just can't get in the mood to do it and I hate crowds so I just get frustrated. So far we have about 1/4 of our shopping done...not good odds since I'm realizing Christmas is like 2 weeks away :( Not to mention our weekend coming up is crazy with Hailey's school's Secret Santa Shop that I'm helping at, a fun trip the the Children's Museum for a special Christmas thing with Kev's parents....and then all the programs/practices I just talked about...it's gonna be nuts, so I have no idea how we will find time to shop and do the other holiday things we'd hoped to do.
• It's that time of year again, folks, "Girl Scout Cookie Time"...starting officially on Jan. 1 we can sell these yummy lil' things...oh joy! I love cookies...anyone who knows me knows I love them...and girl scout ones are the best...especially the Tagalogs (yumm!)...and they even have some new lemon creme ones that sound very yummy this year...so all that to say the it's that crazy cookie time of year. Now I am not a big seller...or I guess I should say Hailey is not a big seller...that comes partly from "no soliciting" allowed in our neighborhood and Kev only working with one fellow employee...and well....we don't have very many family members in town....so that leaves Hailey usually as a bottom seller actually...not to mention that fact that we sell things all year long and we participate in all those things....plus I'm just not a salesperson and as chatty as Hailey is she is not into selling anything either....so we won't be selling like some "go getters" who sell 1,000's. But, I'm excited to finally have some good cookies in the house again and if anyone out there needs a stash of them let us know :) We'll be selling til Jan. 14 and the cookies will be delivered the 2nd week in Feb. And all hail "Miss Vonna" who works so hard in all things girl scout related in our area (and who is the best leader)...she is #1 in my books and if I could sell a million cookies I would....but be rest-assured we'll do our best to sell, sell, sell this next month and beyond so our troop can continue to do all the fun things we do! :) Go Girl Scouts! :)
  
• And lastly, Dylan can now say Shelby's name :) It's actually quite funny...I think I was yelling her name last week (not unusual :)) and all of a sudden he yelled "BELBY!" He was so proud of himself that he's been saying it ever since. He's been saying Hailey "HAY" for a long time...but I can't blame him for not trying Shelby's name...it's a toughie for our not so verbose boy :) Not to mention he now calls most women "mama"...nice, huh?! I'm not sure how I feel about this, but he goes up to lady strangers now and calls them mama :) Silly boy. And also another cute thing that he did in the midst of his sick day today...he handed me his baby Bible and said clear as day "Bible"...I was blown away cuz honestly we have just started reading his Bible to him and I'm not sure I've ever said the actual word Bible to him...maybe we have a future preacher on our hands who just loves his Bible?! :)
  

Well, that's all I have time for today...gotta get my rear in gear and get caught up on laundry, cleaning and dishes....oh the excitement this mom leads :) And can I just say it is insanely foggy out today. I am baffled by it....it's been so rainy the last few days (the only snow we've seen is a sad little dusting that made Shelby go nuts....she had to kick it around and play in it for awhile last Friday :))....but today it's supposed to get very warm (60's)...craziness....so the fog is amazing. Ok...I know weather related info is so stimulating....but with that I must go. Hope this all finds you doing well and staying warm and having a stress-free holiday like me :) Don't get me wrong people...I love Christmas...and I know I need to take it all in stride and focus on the "reason for the season"....and I plan to do that this week.....finally I am feeling better after a 4-5 month rampage of feeling crappy (and last week being especially rough)...so that is a praise for today! :) Happy Holidays to everyone out there! And hope you all have a great week...especially to our friends Nate and Laura who I believe are welcoming their second child (and first son) into the world via c-sect. on Friday. You go, Laura! Can't wait to hear the news! Love ya'll!