Sunday Dress.

I must say the Dille's look pretty good all dressed up. What do you think?

Getting a family picture these days is a whole different ball game. Carter never seems to want to take them and it's a battle. This is the best one of all four of us. At least three out of the four of us are looking at the camera. I know I'm cheesy, but I totally planned for us all to be in red. Mike got dressed and put on a yellow tie and I made him go change... hee, hee. We were going to be a coordinated family today for church and then we had to come home and take a few pictures of our Sunday dress on the Sunday before Christmas. I'm really enjoying being a family of four. Having two boys to dress up and match is way too much fun.

My mom has been staying with us for a few days about every other week to help with the boys. I love having her here and so do the boys. We tried to take a picture with Carter too, but like I mentioned above he was done. It's always so fun to be with her during the holidays. She makes the best cookies and pecan bars and she even helped me with a few sewing projects. Not to mention she is the best shopping partner and we both love the hustle and bustle of the mall during the holidays. Owen 10 weeks. Brotherly love. Carter giving Owen kisses. On a different note, we've had a few other exciting things happen with the boys this week. Carter learned how to lift the toilet lid and my hair brush was the first causality to his toddler fascination. I am keeping a much closer eye on him and making sure to shut the bathroom doors.

Exciting news for Owen... are you ready for this... after ten weeks I finally got a SMILE TODAY! Hurray! and Merry Christmas to me.

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Times.

We had a few friends over on Saturday night for some holiday cheer and white elephant exchange. Any excuse to get together with friends is a good one. Everyone brought a goodie or two to share and we spent a lot of time chatting it up and playing a few games. Oh, and at the end of the night we also spent sometime hanging out in the driveway and riding Katie and Dan's scooter. Good times were had by all... I hope. :) We feel very fortunate to have such wonderful friends here in Houston and we're grateful to celebrate the Christmas season with them. If you couldn't make it, we missed you too. Here are a few pictures from the night.

Dan, Katie, Josh and Marie.

Mike riding the scooter.

Dille three, Carter was upstairs sleeping during the party.

Kristy and Wade Marie, Me, Katie"woo" girls.

Opening white elephant gifts. Dan ended up with some sweet holiday undies. Here's Lindsay laughing as Dan opened up his present. Stacie and Tony.

Kristy and I.

*I just realized we didn't get any pictures with Scott, April or Dusty. Sorry guys. We wish we were more on top of our picture taking. Next time you'll be front and center.

PS No More.

That's right, I will no longer be a Shade Clothing Personal Shopper. Not by choice, Shade has decided to discontinue the Shade Personal Shopper program. The news came out Wednesday and on Saturday the program will be no more and at the end of the month my shade email address will be deactivated.

I've been a PS for three years now. I've always loved Shade Clothing and I loved sharing my passion for their products with other hip ladies who were looking for a way to stay with the trends and stay modest. I've been able to meet so many neat ladies through the company and have met some of my greatest friends through hosting showcases, this is a shout out to you Sarah!

I'm very sad to see this come to a close. I'm not sure if I'm sad because I'll miss working for Shade, or if I'm sad I'll no longer have this outlet and a "part-time" job. Now I'll officially just be a stay at home mom, although "just" doesn't really sum it up. Being a stay at home mom is the hardest job in the world, I just appreciated being a PS and being able to feel accomplished and getting a pay check. It's been a fun run and perhaps it was time to move on. I'll still be a loyal Shade Clothing shopper but now I can officially hunt the sales and check out the competition and not feel so bad about buying shirts from Down East too. :)

Top 6 Reasons to look on the bright side.

1. My dining room will no longer have to double as a boutique.
2. No more late night phone calls spanning over an hour to input orders.
3. I don't have to feel so bad about starting to wear my samples about a month ago.
4. I'll be able to sell all of my samples in January and have a large section of my closet back.
5. I can be completely selfish when it comes to sales--I get to keep the news all to myself!
6. Carter can now inherit all the catalogs, order forms, and business cards GALORE, perfect for playing pretend, or in his case destroying!

Here's the email I sent to my clients.

Hi Ladies,
I have some sad news to share. Shade has decided to discontinue the Shade Personal Shopper program. This announcement was unexpected and will happen very quickly. My personal shopper discount code will only be available until Sat. Dec. 20, at that time Shade will no longer offer the 5% PS discount. If you were planning to place an order be sure to place it today or tomorrow to receive a discount.

If you currently have hostess credit that you’ve earned from a past showcase, your credit will still be available to use when purchasing on line as normal at any time. A PS Code is not necessary to enter the hostess credit, and Shade does not foresee any problems with honoring these for hostesses as long as they need them. If you are unsure of what your hostess credit number is, you will need to contact me before Sunday, 12/21. After Sunday our internal network where this information is stored will be deactivated.

After December 31, please direct any questions regarding Shade Clothing to customer service.
I’ve been a personal shopper for three years now and I’m sad to this chapter in my life come to a close. I’ve enjoyed being your personal shopper and getting to know you. I wish you the best in all that you do and a very Merry Christmas. "

Growing.

Owen 9 weeks

I took both boys in for their well checks yesterday. Here are their stats.

Carter, 18 months

Weight 30 lbs. 95%

Height 35 1/4 inches 95%

FOC 50, 95%

Owen, 2 months
Weight 13.45 lbs. 90%
Height 24 3/4 inches 97%
FOC 40 1/2, 75%

As a side note, Owen weighed exactly the same as Carter at two months and both of their heads have the same FOC as well. The only difference was that Owen had an extra inch on Carter. I believe we are destined to have tall boys... hmm... could there by any Anderson basketball genes in there? What surprises me the most is that Owen was born at 36 weeks and Carter was born at 38, and still Owen is bigger. He's definitely catching up, which is good, he's going to need the extra pounds to protect himself from Carter when they both get bigger.

Carter still isn't talking, so we've been given a referral for a speech program that the school district has for toddlers. This is the only developmental thing he is lagging in. As for Owen, he's up to par, except for smiling. Any day now... please. Other than that, both boys are doing great.

December.

I realized this week that my last post was in November, and here it is December 14. Sorry about that family... I know you are most likely anxiously awaiting a few more pictures of our two growing little men.

Carter still loves the dogs. He drags them everywhere. Steiger was cold and for once didn't mind Carter sitting in his kennel with him.

Owen 8 weeks.
Trying out the baby sling. He looks a little cramped. Sleeping in our bed. He still has all of his hair and dark complexion.

Carter wearing my shoes and telling me about it.

Caught in the act. So much for my alphabeticalized dvd's. What you don't see here is the dog who then tracked mud all over the carpet and through the dvd pile.

The last two weeks have been action packed and I really feel like I haven't had a moment to myself. Both boys being so young are really giving me a run for my money and I have to admit I'm a little overwhelmed. For the most part Owen has been pretty happy, until the "bewitched" hours, between 5 and 7 pm, he cries and only wants to be held, while at the same time Carter goes from one melt down to another, also wanting to be held. If only I had another set of arms and some really good ear plugs. :) I keep telling myself things will get better. I'm really starved for a good routine. Not even a schedule, I would take a good routine. Just to have some sort of structure would help me make it through the day and night. The past two weeks I've been very grateful for playgroups. An excuse to leave the house and go somewhere for both Carter and I to do some socializing. So we're not just hanging out in the house all day. I even think Owen likes being out with new things to look at.

Owen still isn't smiling, and I have to keep reminding myself that he was four weeks early and therefore is four weeks behind on the "normal" development. But you always wonder and compare. All I want for Christmas right now is for Owen to look at me and smile. To some how acknowledge me as his mommy, as the person who stays up with him at night, changes his diapers, feeds him and holds him all day.

Carter is still getting into trouble and is a little more defiant each day testing his boundaries as always. But he still sleeps like a champ and this I am grateful for. I can always rely on a good afternoon nap and he's actually starting to sleep in a little, always a solid 10-12 hours each night. He's also been very flexible this past week. Between both Mike and I and trying to run last minute errands, including a 9:30 trip to Wmart after the ward Christmas party, he's hung in there with the best of us and has had a good time looking at all of the holiday decorations every where we go.

As for Mike and I. Mike is still working a lot, trying to cram everything in before taking a break for Christmas. He actually spent some time on Saturday laying carpet for a neighbor. I believe on Sunday morning when he woke up pretty sore, he was glad that he no longer lays carpet for a living, like in college, and appreciated his desk job a little more. :) Have I mentioned how handy he is? For me, I was able to make it to the gym twice last week, thanks Stacie! We both put up Christmas decorations, although with two babies, we only manged to put up about half of what we normally do. I finally finished my baby shower thank you cards over the weekend and was able to send out most of our Christmas/birth announcements. I also tackled the never ending laundry pile (thank you Mike for helping with this), changed sheets, cleaned bathrooms and the kitchen, and the good news is, I'll get to do it all over again in a few days. The never ending battle of being a mommy I assume. I had one of those weekends where everything just catches up with you and so do the post-partum hormones. Mike was wonderful this weekend, supportive, loving and attentive to both the kids and me. He even took us out for lunch to Chick-fil-a. What a great guy. Here's to another week of doing it all over again.