Our State of Affairs, the Holidays, and her Royal Ellie-ness

In true Anxious Anna form, I started to feel the time crunch about the 2nd  1st week of December. I tend to live in a perpetual state of stress, but like so many others, the Holidays do me in. I then did the unthinkable.   I wrote an email to my family explaining the State of Affairs in the Theurer Household.  It looked like this:

Hi everyone!

First off, we are super excited that the family will be together this Holiday season!  Our tree is up and only the bottom half of the lights are working.  I am hounding Andrew to remedy this catastrophe as soon as possible.  I have our snowman mugs out and ready for coffee and tea.  And hot chocolate!  Today I will be wrapping the gifts.  Do not be alarmed by the shoddy wrapping job.  I am using real tape this year and not packing tape.  You all should be relieved that pocket knives will not be required to open gifts this year :)  

Now onto the important matter. . . the house will not be clean.  I have 5 excuses:

I have 2 cats, a long-haired border collie, a rambunctious preschooler named Ellie, and a husband.  

The husband is the problem.  He doesn't put anything away.  He also brings in stuff from the garage.  Things that I don't even know the name of.  The dog herds the vacuum.  This means that as I vacuum, more hair is being shed.  It is a no-win situation.  (yes, I have tons of allergy medications on hand). The cats are relatively clean unless they are leaving me presents in the form of dead woodland creatures, but those tend to stay outside.  The preschooler. . . well, her playroom is also the guest bedroom.  Mom and Dad, not to worry, there will at least be clean sheets and the Little People shall be corralled into IKEA bins.  As for the guest bath. . . well, it seems to be the bathroom that everyone uses.  Including the dog.  And the cats.  You see, when ever Ellie and I enter the bathroom, the fur babies seem to think they need to follow us in there.  I suppose they are supervising Ellie's potty training efforts.  I am cleaning today.  The house will probably remain clean for about 3 hours.  I am apologizing in advance for the hurricane that has gone through the bathroom.  The important thing is that there will be toilet paper and clean towels.  And hot water.

M and A, you get the best deal of all. . . your own SOUND PROOF space.  In fact, I may be joining you during your stay to escape the madness.  Just kidding!  The chairs in the room recline so if you want to sleep on those, Matt, that would be fine or we can lay out my sleeping bag.  Think of it as camping! Please ignore the dining room/office/storage facility that you see when you first walk into the "in-law" suite.  It is a multipurpose room and it is best to just ignore it.  

......... [a bunch of private stuff not for blogging eyes]...........

We are going to X prior to everyone's visit.  This is why I am cleaning now.  We do not drive back until Christmas Day.  This is a 4 hour drive.  It isn't horrendous, but I will not be cleaning on Christmas Day.  So, this is why I am cleaning now! This also leads me to. . . 

. . . our lack of groceries!  If we buy them before our X trip, they will go bad.  The stores are closed on Christmas Day.  This means I will be out scavenging for food on the 26th.  I know that it will be your first full day in town, M and A.  It also means that we will be feasting on donuts that morning for breakfast.  Yum!  

I think that I covered everything.  Hopefully, you all will enjoy your visit.  I know that we are very happy to have everyone under one roof :)

Love you all,

Anna

--

I confessed my shortcomings and the thing is, I actually followed what I wrote.  I didn't clean.  Sure I laid out clean sheets and towels. Yes, the bathrooms got a quick swipe, but that was it.  I didn't even try to be superwoman. I let it all go. Instead, I focused on the important things like this:

My Snuggle-licious Husband

Check out Sophie Dog photobombing on the left.  See those fangs?  The Princess Puppy brought that frisbee through the dog door.  Apparently opening gifts = fetch time

Family Traditions

Left: Ellie with Grandma Dunja.  Yes, she is wielding a heavy meat mallet to make schnitzel
Right: Ellie with Awa Grandma helping herself to the flour for our annual sugar cookie baking.

I enjoy building up Ellie's immunity against salmonella

Prime Rib

Isn't it beautiful?  It was quite delicious.

Presents. . . just kidding!  It isn't about the presents, but I did enjoy watching Ellie's little face light up.

Did I mention Family?

My brother Matt who is Ellie's most favorite person.  She said "Un-Cah" [uncle].  Amber is my future SIL!  She is fabulous, but I forgot to ask permission to share her photo with the world.  She is as friendly as she is gorgeous.  Matt is very lucky :)

Ellie, Papa C, and my beautiful niece H

The Christmas cards are still sitting on my desk.  I actually ordered them on-time and then ran into a stamp problem.  As in I didn't buy enough stamps.  Seeing as the post office in December elicits panic attacks from me, I never rectified the problem. I apologize to you all who didn't get an actual card from us this year!  The laundry is threatening to take over the master bedroom and little pieces of wrapping paper are still littering the already dusty, fur-covered floor.  Yet, I am going to sit down with a cup of coffee, a little bit of Christmas chocolate, and snuggle with my loved ones . . . while staring at a half-lit Christmas tree.  

Three Generations of love.

My 4 legged children--Sophie, Tama, and Amelie

We are wishing you all a very happy, safe, productive, healthy 2014!

Happy Holidays with a little bit of icing.

I had this amazing plan that Ellie Bear and I would decorate Christmas cookies.  It was foul proof.  I say this because I bought a kit from Target.  I didn't attempt to bake and the kit came with icing and sprinkles.

As with most things when a preschooler is involved, it did not go as planned.  First off, Bear pitched a fit because she did not want the star cookie.  She wanted the snowman.  Mom, read my mind!

Then she pitched a fit when I put a little bit of fluffy white icing onto the snowman cookie.  NOOOO!

Then she pitched an even bigger fit when I added the rainbow-colored sprinkles  Clearly the world was ending.  

Chunk-A-Love grabbed the plastic knife and the icing container and went to town.

Apparently, I was doing it all wrong.  Of course one is meant to consume the icing directly from the container with a knife.  My child is a genius.

The Sweet Potato Casserole

Since I have lived in Austin, Andrew and I have attended a somewhat pot-luck Thanksgiving gathering and R and M's house.  This tradition started way before I was even in the picture.  It was famous and yummy. Andrew's parents would even trek down from Plano to attend this delicious event.  There were sides galore, deep-fried turkey, smoked turkey, and even slow smoked brisket.  Oh and the desserts!  A foodie's dream.  Then we learned that R and M were going to New Mexico this year.  (As well they should! They should see family and get a Thanksgiving off once in a while!)  This was catastrophic you see . . . it is well known that I do. not. cook.

First off, I have set a microwave on fire.  I kid you not.  And it was recently.  As in the past 3 years.  The stench was so toxic and horrible that my perplexed hubby had to toss the exploded microwave to the curb immediately.  What was I microwaving?  A waffle.  Yes, I managed to catch a waffle on fire.  I blame the chocolate chips.  While the kitchen is still standing, I typically do not exercise my lack of culinary skills, but we had to have Thanksgiving.

So here I am hosting our first Thanksgiving ever.  Andrew is smoking a brisket.  He is a pro at smoking. . . Yes, we do smoke. A lot.

Imagine my relief when I discovered that Pok-E-Jo's BBQ would sell Thanksgiving sides for a very reasonable price.  I may have screamed an orgasmic "yes yes yes" when I placed our Thanksgiving order over the phone.

Andrew's beautiful 14-hour smoked brisket.
The angels are singing.

There was just one little problem.  They did not have a sweet potato casserole.  It is not Thanksgiving without a sweet potato casserole.  Especially the one with the tiny toasted marshmallows on top.  I, of course, did the most logical thing.  I consulted Pinterest.  Then I talked to friends.  I got similar, but different advice from everyone.

Here is what I did:

Bake 7 large sweet potatoes on a foil-line cookie sheet for 1 hour at 350 degrees
Allow to cool and remove the skins
Add to a mixing bowl the:
-potatoes
-5 TBSP of butter
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mash mash mash. Mix. I was going to add some milk or whipping cream if it got to thick or stiff, but I think I used enough butter to keep it moist.

Spread into 9x13 baking dish.
I made mine the day before so I covered them with foil and chilled them.

Day of:
Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.
Change oven to Broil.
Sprinkle top of sweet potatoes with marshmallows.
Place back in oven and allow to lightly brown on top.  This will happen FAST so don't turn your back.

And it was delicious and scrumptious and most importantly, NO ONE WAS POISONED.  Everyone who dined on my sweet potato casserole is still alive and well.  In fact, they are healthy!  It is those antioxidants in the sweet potatoes, you know.  I would like to say that no one was injured, but alas, my oven attacked me and my forearm is now sporting a nice 2nd degree burn.  Eh, just another reminder as to why I shouldn't cook :-)

What did Ellie think of my sweet potatoes?  She refused to try them.  She even refused to have them on her plate.  Chick-A-Boom chowed down on brisket and bread instead.  

How I got here: from combat shoes to cowgirl boots

Once upon a time I was born here:

Huh, you don't know where here is?  It is kind of hard to tell with all that muddy Mississippi River water.   krlr, you should know!  Hint: the year was 1993 and sandbags were involved.  A lot of sandbags.  How about now?

Photo courtesy of wikipedia
St. Louis, Missouri

Where I lived with my adorable baby brother

I was looking pretty cute, but I am rather certain my brother had some serious gas when this pic was taken.  Oops, did I just type that for all the world to see?  Scratch that!  Check out that totally stylish rainbow turtleneck I was wearing!  

Moving on! I dressed like this when not primly and properly clad in my little Catholic School Girl uniform:

My poor parents.

These combat boots were steel-toed and red because even a goth girl needs a splash of color:

Sadly these are not my babies, but something similar.  My babies no longer fit me (thank you past pregnancy).
I used to set off the airport metal detector back in the day were you could wear shoes during airport screening.

Then I went off to college here:

Guess where I was?  Let's go Fighting Quakers (guess which college)?  Yeah, I didn't know either until I already donned my red and blue.  Let's go Flyers! Let's go Eagles!  Let's go get a cheese steak!

Where I studied nursing (wearing all white of course, including my ever-so fashionable squeaky white, lace-up shoes) and dressed like this when not in the hospital clinicals:

Do you notice a theme?
This time I added facial piercings and a few tattoos
No, you do not get to see my tattoos.

Eventually, I wondered off to here:

This one is difficult.  Portland, Oregon

And dressed like this:

And worked night shift in a PICU and became involved with the under ground heavy metal band scene.  I made a great roady, especially after I changed out of my Hello Kitty and Teddy Bear scrubs!  

Evilness in the form of a not-so-nice-ex stalked me and I ended back on the East coast to escape his evil clutches in:

The Armpit of America

courtesy of : www.enchantedlearning.com

Oh wait, I mean New Jersey.  Camden County to be exact.  I dare you to look up the crime statistics.  Again, my poor poor parents.  Where I studied more nursing, worked at CHOP (goodness, what a horrible acronym for a pedi hospital!) and dressed as a respectable adult and lost the eyebrow ring:

BONDAGE PANTS!  Oh I miss these bad boys.  Comfy, but not practical at all.  The zippers got caught on everything! (I have a story involving my wicked bondage pants the PATCO subway turn still.  Let's just say it is imperative to be careful with all of those "suspenders" and zippers)

Then this joyful event occurred:

Gorgeous, right?  Tall, blonde, blue eyed AND she is nice.
It was at their wedding that I met my hot and sexy Drew.

There is a soap opera here but to make it a long story short--Canadian-Texan boy meets Jersey girl at St. Louis wedding.  Texan boy thinks Jersey girl is hot (humor me here).  Texan boy says only 4 sentences to "shy" girl.  One year later, girl visits friend in Texas and reunites with boy.  Girl pursues boy, ignoring all possible signs of "he's just not that into you".  Now boy will not leave girl alone. Boy gleefully stalks girl by visiting her in Philly/Jersey every few weeks.  Girl moves to . . . 

You would never guess where I live from this pic.  It was a fluke.  I was fooled!  I actually live in the desert.  As I write this it is 70 degrees. . . in February.  

Which led to a honking, large, double cab, crew max Tundra which was both designed and made in the great Country state of Texas because bigger is indeed better.  Who on earth owns a dinky little sedan or compact car out here?  You can't see a thing between all these trucks!

I promptly traded in my little compact Corolla for this monster truck.
Do you know how hard it was to climb into this bad boy with a wedding dress (and flip flops) on???

Serving BBQ at my wedding because ribs, brisket, and creamed corn are so romantic, clean, traditional, tasty!  

Eventually this she rocketed into our lives--our born and made in Texas baby where BBQ "sause" is mother's milk and ribs serve as teething rings.

After six years of living here, I now have these (and good extra 25 pounds thanks to the delicious Mexican food and BBQ food, and driving everywhere [did you know they have parking lots here?], oh and growing a baby back in 2009):

Of course I had to get red. . . with little metal studs.

There you have it.  I has taken me 32 years, but I am fully Texi-fied, ya'all!

Besides, all that eye liner would have melted off and I would have cook to death in those combat boots and bondage pants!

Looks like Bear needs her own boots.

Our Texan Christmas

Nothing screams Christmas in Texas like Prime Rib.  That's right.  A nice, plump, juicy, bloody slab of meat lightly seasoned with garlic salt and pepper and then smoked to perfection.  All served with baked beans, green beans, and a chocolate indulgence cake.

Most importantly, nothing screams Best Husband Ever like a hot, sexy blond with meat brander and wooden spoon over a hot smoker and a hot stove.  Yum! Sigh.  Oops, this is supposed to be a family post.

My parents drove down to Austin from St. Louis, Missouri while my brother flew down from Madison, Wisconsin.  My brother got to experience what it was like to not wear a jacket in December.  I think he enjoyed it.  My parents go to see all the glories I-35 has to offer--absolutely nothing but concrete and traffic. Our visit was lovely and all together too short.

We tried to keep up with the tradition of baking sugar cookies.  By making sugar cookies, I mean purchasing a tube of pre-made dough by Pillsbury and then adding a bit of flour to stiffen it up.  Adding too much flour, thus making the dough crumbly and then whacking it with a rolling pin and hoping the bear and snowman shapes maintain themselves long enough to reach the cookie sheet.  So worn out by the endeavor of cutting them out and then not burning them that we completely forget about the whole decorating part.  And the eating part.  That is what chocolate cake is for.

Bear was still getting into the hang of the whole present thing.  As in, they are for her. Nearly all of them.   She surveyed the lot and then carefully removed all the bows and placed them in her special stash of things she believes she is not supposed to have.

After much coaxing, we got her to open a present.  It was a toy broom.  It was all over after that.  Who needs presents when you can clean!?  After much more coaxing, we got her to open another gift. . . the Dream Lite.  I am saving those photos for another post.  That's right, a post just about the Dream Lite.

The innocence at this age is so beautiful.  She isn't at the stage of I want x,y,z and then tearing through all of the presents only to careless discard ones she doesn't care for or to complain that so-and-so got more presents than her.  She is at the stage where she cannot believe she gets the bow.  She cannot believe she gets to tear paper.  In fact, that paper ripping is expected of her.  The toy is just a bonus.  It is beautiful and I want to bottle it up and hold onto it forever.

My family's visit was over too fast and dampened by the death of my beloved Aunt Aunt Peg in the middle of it all.  We celebrated and honored her spirit by recalling her many antics.

Christmas Day was chaotic as always.  We make the 4 hour trek to Plano in the pouring rain.  Then miracle upon miracle, there was SNOW!!!!!  Yes, snow.  In Dallas.  Don't believe me?



See!  My gorgeous niece and nephew were having a blast pelting Mama Dunja with snowballs.

Christmas Day is wild.  I love it.  With Andrew's brothers and step brothers and all their wives and children it is complete and utter chaos.  Kids every where.  Lots of talking, laughing, and the occasional heated conversation.  The food.  Mama Dunja is an amazing cook.  I ask her for a recipe and she says thing like "add some flour.  add an egg or two.  butter. lots of butter.  some milk.  I don't know how much.".  Yes, she makes everything from scratch and doesn't measure a thing.  Amazing.  Also, she could teach Martha Stewart a thing or two about decorating.

Chunky Love had a little too much egg nog and conked out during the gift exchange.  Funny what no nap will do to you.  Poor mommy had to open Bear's gifts.




Here are a few more pictures that I thought I would include in a slide show.

Christmas 2012 - slideshow with music

I made the same old mistake that I always do. . . I am not in any of these pictures since I never let anyone else touch my baby camera.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us Turkeys!

May your stuffing be tasty

 May your turkey (or ribs if you are Texan) be plump (deep-fried),

May your potatoes and gravy (creamed corn & BBQ sauce)

 Have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious 

 And your pies (4-way pie that is) take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner 

 Stay off your THIGHS!

~Author Unknown

Just another typical mother-daughter photo.
One of these days we will get it right!

That's better!

Look at Ellie's stink eye in the right-hand picture.

Why yes, my husband is indeed wearing shorts.  It was 80 degrees today.  Yes, I over-dressed my daughter because this mama bear is in complete denial about having Thanksgiving outside in warm weather.  I expect snow.  Or at least a coat.  Or at the very least long-sleeves and socks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. I am thankful for my husband's awesome smoked ribs and Rico's deep-fried turkey.

12 Kids Plus Cupcakes equals The Wild Zoo Birthday

This past weekend Andrew and I threw one ginormous party for the Princess Bear.  There were supposed to be 17 children between 1-5 years of age attending, plus their parents.  That would be SEVENTEEN children and Ellie.  (although in the end it was 12 children due to illness and school functions).

Yes, it was entirely my fault.

No, I was not insane.  Well, perhaps, temporarily.

Yes, I had big plans of hiding out at our neighbor's house until the party was over.

Birthdays are a time for family.  A time for friends.  A time to feed young children tons of sugar-laden cupcakes and to allow them to run wild while the adults sip on beer and coffee.  A time to celebrate life.

Ellie turned 3 years-old this past weekend and we have never thrown a party for the Bear.  Yes, we had cupcakes at age 1 and age 2.  I hosted a mini playgroup last year, but never a party.  Never anything were there was presents and decorations and party favors and dads.  Never anything that required planning.

Then, tragedy and grief battered our tight-knit Down syndrome community.  A little boy around Ellie's age passed away.  Two other young boys from a cardiac defects.  A few of Ellie's friends with Ds became very sick with life threatening illnesses.  I also witnessed amazing miracles.  It was a huge wake up call. Our children are fragile, but they are fighters.  Life is a gift and as such, we must celebrate it to its fullest.

Hence, the rather large birthday party.  If we were going to celebrate, we were going to do it Texas-style.

Of course it was at our house.  We had the backyard all spruced up.  You know, with grass.   That green stuff that grows from the dirt in the ground.  This is the first year we have had grass (okay, we had sod installed) since I lived here. The sandbox was ready.  The mini playscape was ready.

It rained.  There was mud.

Eh, what is 12 kids plus 20 or so adults crammed into a kitchen and living room?

A GIANT playdate!










Ellie Bear loves Signing Time!.  Loves it, but you know that there are positively no decorations or party-theme Signing Time! products?  I decided to go with theme Zoo-Train, an episode from Signing Time!  Lions and Tigers and Bears and a train!  Whoo hoo hoo hoo.  Choo choo choo chooo.  Here it comes, all aboard.  Let's watch the Zoo Train!

Confession time: yes, I did coordinate everything to Ellie's dress.
At the beginning of Summer, my mother-in-law bought Ellie this fabulous dress with bright pink, green, and blue flowers.  Yes, the dress in all of the pictures.  I fell in love and decided that those colors must be incorporated into her birthday party.  Hence the cupcakes, the little banners, and her make-shift zoo train being bright pink, green, and blue.  This was a relatively cheap party--I used mostly left over fabric for the little banners, but bought a few quilters squares and bias tape at Hancock Fabrics.  Forty-eight feet of banner!  Do you know how many craft stores I had to go to to get enough Lime Green and Berry Sorbet bias tape?

I really want to scrapbook.  I really do but I never seem to get around to it.  Therefore I had tons of fancy, colorful paper piled up in my little sewing corners.  These pieces of paper were used to make each kiddo a placemat.  I went to www.babysignlanguage.com and printed out the flashcards (at 75% size) for the various animals.  Sadly, I only have a black and white printer so the placemats were were rather boring.  I used a mini laminator that I bought at Costco a while back for $30.  It even came with several 8x10 plastic sleeves. This is how I tied in the Signing Time! Zoo Train.  It was such a treat to watch the kids at the party (and their parents) try to sign the various animals.  I felt like for a moment, they were in Ellie's world of communication!

Ah, the cupcakes.  Some of you know this already.  When I had the final headcount, I realized that if each person wanted a cupcake, I would need to make 36 cupcakes.  What if people wanted extras?  I made 48 cupcakes.  Andrew came home after an afternoon of my baking and just couldn't help himself.  By that evening, I had 47 cupcakes to make icing for and decorate.  My baking is from scratch, but it is not pretty.  I cannot make those really exciting elaborate cakes that look like Rapunzel (Tangled) is in a tower or a cake that is shaped like a train.  I just do not have that talent.  Sigh.  I did however make sure that there was as much sugar and food dye as possible in these little balls of sweetness.

I believe the party went well.  No one was injured.  There were no ambulances or fire trucks called to our address.  The house is still standing and many of the children didn't want to leave.  Ellie was very overwhelmed though.  She does really well with one to two other children, but more than that can be a bit much for her.  Ellie spent a huge portion of the party, when not stealing other children's pink cupcakes, playing quietly with her toys in the corner.  Once her buddy Jack arrived, she was happy and up to her usual antics.

Sorry this pic is so dark.

My floors are sticky and covered with icing.  I still have 3 packages of hot dogs and an entire bag of animal crackers left.  Plus there are a few rhino-shaped watermelon slices hanging out in the fridge, but my girl had a great time and that is what counts. Oh and we still have 1 dozen cupcakes left.  Any takers?

Cupcakes from the past: