Baby Steps

Jude started walking about a little over a month ago, but up until this point would drop to the floor as soon as the camera was out. So here's the proof - this kid is on the move.

A Christmas Story

It was one heck of a holiday around the Wilson home. We were able to bask in the abundance of gifts, family and food. Santa was generous, and brought us some pretty exciting gifts. Rob received some Wii games, a golf towel, a new swiss army knife, a super hot dress coat, and many a best-buy gift card. Maddie and Jude (although Santa brought them individual presents) shared a unicorn, cars, a microphone/piano, a Sesame Street Pop up thingy,a singing tool bench, a sled, and some clothes. By shared, I mean anything that said "To:Jude" had to also be "To: Maddie." Of all the kid's gifts, Maddie seems to love the Sesame Street toy the most...go figure. Rob got me some boots that I've been eyeing, Moody Blues and America guitar books, and perfume. Santa also brought the family a portable DVD player and a 4 gig memory card for the camera! I'm still trying to figure out what I want to buy with my mom's present, but with my Dad's - I bought one of these - I can't WAIT to use it!

Another big event...I made my first turkey for Christmas dinner at Ross and Tammy's. And, for a first attempt, I think I did pretty well. I made sure to document it - if only for insurance purposes.



A special shout out goes to all of those family members and friends that helped to make our Christmas so special. But OBIVOUSLY - it's better to give than to receive, so I give you all the gift of my blog, and I've also donated a large sum of money to the "Human Fund" in all of your names - no need to thank me, it's just my generous nature. Merry Christmas.

Santa...sort of

Madelyn has racked up a fairly impressive count of Santa visits this month. By age two she's become an old pro. The only thing that's missing is the yada-yada of sitting on Santa's lap, the typical freaked-out-child picture, and the actual "what do you want for Christmas" part. Yep - she's seen him ten to twelve times this year, but only from a distance. Rather than standing in a long line of screaming kids, we decided to let Maddie give Santa a big holler and wave from behind the gate. Best of all - she's been THRILLED about it. There were a few close encounters, and Maddie was not a big fan, so this way - we all win. Here are a few pictures of our most recent encouter, which involved a pretty rockin train ride for the kids. I'll probably post Christmas day, so I can show off our awesome day - but until then - may your days be merry and bright! Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Party

Here are some of the top picks from Rob's company party last night. As always, great times were had. Seeing as how no one at our table won anything - I will present my own awards.


Derrick and Ashlee, get the hottest cousin couple award (left)
Matt and Kathy, the cutest expecting couple award (right)


Brandon and Zach (left) Brandon gets the "most ditched by his date" award while Zach gets the "best job using someone from Xango to get a free dinner from the company he just quit" award.
Nate and Stef (right) get the "cutest butter loving couple" award.
I think Rob and I get the "most failed couple photos" award. Thanks, honey, and Zach.


Here's a picture of the party. It really is HUGE. Last night they gave away a car, four HD flatscreens, two laptops, an IMac, and lots and lots of cash.

And last, but obviously not least, is the traditional (three years running) picture of Ashlee, Stefanie and yours truly.

Ode to Derek and Jessica

Rob and I went away this weekend for, YES, the first time since Madelyn was born. I know it sounds crazy that it's been so long - but I've always been fairly nervous about leaving my kids with someone else. Not necessarily for my kids' sake, but mostly for the people that I leave them with. Oh my...I fear NO MORE! What an amazing getaway! Thanks Derek and Jessica for being SO great to my kids...Madelyn is still asking if she can go back. Here's a quick video of Derek and Jessica's kids (the first kids I fell in love with) playing the Wii. No - they're not synchronized swimming.

I also need to give a special thanks to our Green Bay friends for the AMAZING gift. Rob and I loved the bed and breakfast so much that we're hoping to make it an annual tradition.

American am I in Honor of Having Been Born

Every once in a while I find something so off that I decide to blog about it. Perhaps it is the dry comedian that lives within, or perhaps it is the lack of other blogging ideas. Either way, I made a small purchase for Madelyn the other night at the grocery store. I was checking out, and it was next to the candy in the things-you-don't-really-need section. Being the queen of impulse buys - I grabbed a pack of "Fun Punching Balloons."

I pulled them out of thier packages, and began reading the instructions on how to inflate. (I know what some of you are thinking...but yes, there WAS more to it than just blowing up the balloon.) Here are the directions - word for word:
1. Inflate the balloon by hold as the picture
2. Hidden the end by roll or tie it and insert into the balloon
3. Overturn the balloon and use the rubber stripe to play as your lifestyle
Thank you Babel Fish Translation for making it so easy to translate words. Now factories in Malaysia can save money on interpreters.

Another Hidden Talent

For some reason I am overflowing with holiday cheer. The house is decorated, (with the exception of the outdoor lights that we'll do tonight) the air smells like sweet pine from last night's Christmas tree purchase, I recieved and wrapped two of my friend's gifts today - with several more arriving tomorrow - and to add to that, Madelyn and I made our first gingerbread house this afternoon. It was an adorable little kit from Target, that I was at first a bit weary of. It looked like a lot of hard work from a very talented gingerbread architect. But, who knew - it really wasn't that hard! To the prefessionals it may seem a bit entry-level-ish, but to the untrained eye, I think it's a pretty good match. See if you can tell wich one is the "demo" and which one is ours.

The Loo

As you can see, people are lined up to use Maddie's potty. Some so eager that they decided to sit on laps and/or jump in head first while the potty was in use. If only my daughter shared in their ambition.

A Whirl-Wind Week

My living room is covered in luggage and laundry, Madelyn is eating cheese for breakfast, and my first inclination is to write on my blog. What's wrong with me? Rob and I returned last night from our eight day venture to Chicago. I didn't take a ton of pictures this time, and the ones I did take are a bit random - so I will try to connect this post as well as I possibly can. As many of you remember - most pictures from my parent's house involve animals.



We didn't do any bowling this year, BUT there is a brand new GORGEOUS Resort about twenty five minutes away that we hit twice while we were there. They have an all-you-can-eat snow crab buffet for $12 that Rob and my brothers went nuts over. I'd HONESTLY say that about 30 lbs of crab were consumed by them between the two visits. We were also able to see Rob's cousin Tom and his adorable family. We're adding them to our blog links for all family members that are interested.
We had a really great week that invloved over-eating, hot-tubbing, lots of Wii for the boys, Jude's first words ("ready-go") and improved walking, Maddie animal chasing, seeing Mary's new house and meeting Clark, plenty of Maddie and Jude and grandparents time, and of course, the wild turkeys that were blocking my parent's driveway.


We made it back safely last night only to find that our carseats didn't make the "checked luggage" cut, and were left at O'Hare Airport. Of ALL the things. Delta was very nice about it and sent us home with two loaner carseats, and explained that they'd deliver them to us, and then we'd swap our carseats for the loaners. They did not, however, mention that they'd probably ring our doorbell three times and bang on our door at 4am to make the swap. Who does that?!

Hooray for Greg and Mandy!!

Yet another (half) post about Greg and Mandy. They took our family pictures while they were here, and now my living room wall is no longer empty! We ordered about a gazillion (maybe more) of the pictures they took - and they wanted to see what we had done with them. Here's what we've got so-far:



Now to the not so fabulous part of this post. Many of you may recall my post called "Quarantined" where I posted the pictures of a pink-eyed Maddie. That was October 14th, and here we are, over a month later - still dealing with sickness. Here's a run-down: Maddie gets pink eye-spends a week recovering. Two days after it's gone, Jude get's double pink-eye as well. Just as he's finishing up the nastiness, Maddie starts with a cough/runny nose - two days later Jude is getting the same thing. As they start to get better, Rob's throat begins to hurt along with cold symptoms. Rob starts feeling better, and my throat swells up and my stomach is sick. On top of all that what happens?? I GET PINK EYE.

This picture is from yesterday - and today I look so horrid that I wouldn't even take a picture. My eye is almost completely closed, and tomato red. So annoying. Luckily I got into the "open on sunday" doctor, and he let me know that my throat and my pink eye were related through some bacterial infection - which is GREAT news, because he was able to put me on an antibiotic. Hopefully this will all be cleared up by Tuesday when we fly to Chicago. Nothing says "I love you" quite like the gift of pink eye.

Spanglish

I had a miniature melt down last Wednesday, and just couldn't hold it together. So many factors all hitting me at once. To make me feel a bit better my sweet husband ordered my FAVORITE salad from Cafe Rio. Rob dropped me at the door to run in and grab the take-out. The pick-up conversation went like this...keep in mind, I was already in a bad mood.

Me: "Hi, I have a take-out order under the name of Rob."

Him (in thickest Spanish accent POSSIBLE): "Okay, Order for Robby?"

Me: "Yeah." (didn't I just say that?)

Him: (HUGE GRIN) "Robby-dobby-doo?"

Me: (courtesy laugh) "That's funny."

Him: (Bigger grin) "Yes? Robby-dobby-do?"

Me: (fake laugh, small eye roll, thinking - REALLY? JUST GIVE ME MY FREAKING FOOD!)"Yes, Robby-dobby-do."

Him: (suddenly very serious) "No...Robby W?"

Me: "Oh yes. Um, Robby W."

Five Weeks Later

My friend Kat tagged me, again, and even though it was weeks ago - it gave me an excuse to (yes) four and a half years later, put my wedding photos on my computer. They were so unbelievably horrid, that I up until this point have had no desire to. I guess the tag is about Rob and I. Here we go:

Where did you meet your husband?
This may sound odd, but I met him while I was pretending to work at the UVSC paid-parking toll booth. My friend Stefanie (who REALLY worked at the toll booth) was sick of me rambling on and on about my ex, and literally said, "It's time I set you up with someone. Oh, wait - here he comes now." So, I jumped in to the cash register seat, and told Rob, (in my best flirting) that he didn't have to pay. I thought he was ADORABLE, and said to Stef, "okay - set me up!"

Where was the first date, first kiss?
In some mass confusion, I ended up going out twice with Rob's roommate. I spent all that time flirting with Rob - and his roommate eventually said, "yeah, I don't think she likes me," and gave Rob my number. Because of that, I was already hanging out at his apartment a lot. I think the first time he actually called me was to go see the Christmas lights at Temple Square, but the weather was bad. We ended eating out at Mi Ranchito, watching a movie and snuggling on the couch. When he walked me to my car, he kissed me - so I guess first date and first kiss were one and the same.

Long or short engagement?
We dated for 14 months before getting engaged (with 3 break-ups). We got engaged Feb 17, 2003 - and married May 23, 2003.

How did you get engaged?
This story is pretty horrible - but I was TOTALLY expecting the engagement, so Rob decided to work up a plan that would surprise me. When he didn't propose on Valentine's Day, I was really bummed. But we went and got massages the following Monday. After the massage, Rob and I were headed to his parent's house - when I got pulled over for speeding. The cop was SUPER nice, but he let me know that because of an unpaid ticket, there was a warrant out for my arrest. (Which I HAD taken care of, but he said that the warrant hadn't been suspended). He hand cuffed me - and put me in the back seat of his car. I was LITERALLY sobbing - when Rob got in with me, and proposed. I think that the first word out of my mouth was actually a swear (but seeing as how my blog is PG - I will not repeat that). I then said yes. The whole thing was caught on tape - Thanks Jared and Scott.

Where did you get married?
In the Mount Timponogos Temple

How did the reception go?
I had two. One in Utah, and one a week later in Chicago. The reception here was nice, but really hot. I don't remember a lot about that one...just that I spent a lot of time meeting people I didn't know. The reception in Chicago was at my parent's house was freezing - but a lot of fun. Like I said in an earlier post - I made sure that the DJ only played 70s love songs. One of my favorite memories was my dad sitting us all down before the reception, giving us our assignments: Rob and Melissa - talk to people, Derek: Watch the fire pit - add wood when needed, Dan: keep an eye on the video and make sure it rewinds, Greg: you watch the photo montage, Johnny: you're in charge of the valet, and Sarah: you watch the pets. I think we all even put our hands together and said, "break" after he was done.

How was the Honeymoon?
My (very generous) father sent us on an all-expenses-paid trip to Maui. We stayed at the Westin, and it was UNBELIEVABLE! We snorkeled, sailed, para-sailed, and tanned to our heart's content. Best week EVER!

Pictures From Home

My mom sent me a few pictures of the house - it's unbelievable how many leaves you get when you live in the woods.

All Apologies

While talking to my friend Kat today, she mentioned that she once again had internet service. My response was, "well then update your blog dork!" To which she replied, "I've updated since you have." This totally threw me for a loop, because as far as I knew - she hadn't posted since September - along with half of the other blogs that I follow. For some reason for the past month and a half, one half of all the blogs I follow had not been displaying new posts. I was baffled by the fact that almost all of my friends had given up blogging at the exact same time. Today I learned that my computer was just being dumb. So to all of you that thought I was no longer following - I apologize. I will do my best to catch up over the next few days. Here is a list of where my computer was stuck with my friends (just so they understand).
Kat - Darling Cash - September 30
Mary - Even Superman Sleeps - September 14
Kris - Backstreet Boy - Septeber 30
Stefanie - Top 10 Reasons to see Barry Manilow Live in Vegas - September 25
Kim - Why I Love my Husband - Sept 25

Friendly Little Visit

As I mentioned in the pumpkin carving post - my brother, Greg, and his wife, Mandy, came out to visit us two weeks ago. We had a WONDERFUL time with them here. Greg used to live here, so he had a fairly long list of "musts" on his restaurant list - so I think I only cooked once in the week they were here. Here are a few pictures from MY point of view, but I must also direct you to Greg and Mandy's blog. They are photographers by profession - and documented the trip in a much more aesthetically pleasing fashion. Some highlights of the trip included Gardener Village, Cafe Rio (three times), the worst-rip-off-ever pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, playing in the leaves, Mandy's caramel apple, Greg's salsa, Maddie's mall freak-out, Mandy's hair cut and lots and lots of Nintendo Wii. Enjoy!