Its almost Christmastime!!!

And Jaina is so excited! Not so much for the baby... he has no idea what is going on. He just likes to take ornaments off the tree :) We started decorating immediately after Thanksgiving, much to Brian's dismay. Poor Brian, he still pretends to hate Christmas, but secretly I think he likes celebrating this holiday with his family :)

I am running ragged. You know the saying, "Jack of all trades, but master of none?" That's how I feel. I'm trying to be mommy, wife, housekeeper, photographer, MOMS Club president, doctor, babysitter, and ME all at the same time. I'm giving small percentages to each job just to slide by. Not good. I really need to do some soul searching in January to figure out how to balance my life a little better.

One thing that I tried to be prepared for was Christmas cards. I had all my return address labels ready. I had all my contact information in my outlook program. All I needed was a cute picture to order cards with. I tried for FIVE days to get a picture of my children together in front of the tree. All I wanted was for them to be looking and smiling. I didn't realize it was such a tall order! I finally got one, but upon examining it on my computer, I realized it was blurry. The tree was in focus, not the kids. Damn my automatic focus on my powershot! I should have taken it with my 35mm Rebel, like I do every year. Or else get a decent digital camera! So, I finally just swiped a picture of our family from the Picture People (shhh!!) and ran to Walmart. Unfortunately, then my outlook decided it wasn't going to export my contact files into my hallmark program. UGH!!! I just now got my 100 Christmas cards out a few days ago. So much for being on time, or even early this year!

Jaina is doing well. I got to attend her Christmas program at Covenant last week. She played the handbells with her class very well! Singing, she wasn't as interested in. I have lots of video tape of her being a goof and singing to the ceiling of the chapel. Oh, and bouncing up and down. And twirling. And scratching her itchy tights. And jumping down from the risers.*sigh* But it was fun to hear all the kids sing and the handbells were a beautiful touch. I got to attend her Christmas party as well. We ate chips and cookies, sang songs, played games, and her teacher read us The Polar Express. Anyway, she has asked Santa for three presents: A bike, a barbie laptop, and big pink doggie. I am hoping she won't be disappointed with her laptop when it doesn't look exactly like daddy's from work!

Jayce.... wow, is he a topic all on his own! Before today, I would have said that he was getting better and his screaming was lessening. But I can't say that after today! He's gone to time-out like 5 or 6 times this morning! And I can't blame his vocabulary. Just in the past week, he's learned to say the following words: help, mad, slow down, stop, outside. I am sure there are more, but I can't think of any right now. He is slowly learning patience and phrases like, "not right now" or "jaina's turn" or "mommy does it first, THEN Jayce can". What can I say, he's not even two yet! I just could handle everything without his volume! Since he didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, Jaina made sure Santa knew that he wanted a train. "But," she said, "Just only bring him ONE present. I get THREE". lol