New Years Eve

Sammy's birthday was New Years Eve. Kinda a cool day to have a birthday....except this year he and I had a wedding to go to, so we couldn't do anything special for him on his actual birthday. I tried to arrange a huge surprise b-day dinner gathering for the 29th and at first it was looking promising, but turns out I'm either not as good at planning as I thought I was or people just didn't realize it was his Golden Birthday (turning 31 on the 31st) and so it was suppose to be a big deal. *sigh* Regardless we had a few people show up to the dinner and it turned out nice and quaint. I had a delicious caesar salad and finished with the most decedent chocolate mouse like dessert. The kids and I had made him a "coupon book" that turned out super cute and I printed off a boudoir type preggo belly photo of myself for him. All in all the birthday dinner was a success.

New Years Eve started out mellow. We just hung around all day lounging until it was time to go to the wedding. Getting dressed up was torture for me. I'd much rather stay in my p.j.'s and slippers, but I'd have to say the end results wasn't all that bad. And Grandma Hauck watched the kids for us so Sam and I tried to treat going to the wedding as a birthday/New Years dinner date for the two of us.

The wedding was pretty darn cute. Short ceremony, good food, delicious cake, open bar (ginger-ale for me....), cool D.J. and an awesome dance done by the bride and groom. At one point they had all the guys in the room come up and sing "Lost That Loving Feeling" to the bride as she sat on the piano. Hilarious. 

Definitely a good time except the stare down I received by a hand full of party going gals while I waited in line for the bathroom. The wedding festivities were upstairs in this massive building we were at, the girls must have been from the bar/restaurant/party area of the building. I like to think they were jealous of my good preggo looks....though I have a feeling that wasn't the case.

We decided to hit the road at 10pm and forgo the rest of the wedding festivities as it was a little over a 2 hour drive for us to get home and I was the driver. Being pregnant SHOULD NOT automatically make you a DD, though unfortunately that always seems to be the case. Why? Boo. It was dark, insanely windy, and I was exhausted. I'm surprised I didn't get pulled over by a cop thinking I was a drunk, haha.

Anyway, a few cute pics!

Happy New Year!!

With love,

Mama Hauck

Christmas Day on the Hauck Homstead 2011

Christmas morning I got up early to shower and make sure everything was set up (ie: Santa had come). ;) The kids woke up and we dressed them in their nice Christmas picture taking clothes, lol, then they ran out to check on Santa's milk and cookies. They were happy to see Santa enjoyed his snack and also wrote a note back! hehehe It's so incredibly fun watching the kids have a good time.

Opening presents was a whirlwind! We all got some good loot. Anthony got pretty much everything he had wanted....a HUGE wooden train set, remote helicopter, more cars to play with (two of them being a cool Hess Truck and Cat that light up and make noise!), hot wheels track, legos, castle building blocks.....plus a few that weren't on his list but was super stoked to get. Mols didn't have a list, lol, but from what I can tell she was pleased with what she got.....hair clips, bracelets, a doctor set, books, some horsies, a cool kids camera, a few clothing items, and a Fur Real Friends doggie (which was a score for me and her favorite gift!) just to name a few. Papa got a new pin up girl calendar, small air hockey table, some great cologne, summer sausage and cheese gift pack, and a gift card for Sorrel boots. Grandma got a 2-go coffee mug, a home-made-by-us mason jar soap pump (really cool if I do say so myself!) and some perfume. I got all my free Victoria Secret stuff, hahaha, including a cute pair of pink and black pokadot p.j.'s and a set of perfumes, some home made soap and bath fizzies, a gift card to JCPenny, a mini pie maker (YAY!!), more of my favorite spruce bath oil, and a box full of Vermont made stuff like maple syrup, honey, crackers, mints, and a cook book....thanks to my brother and his girlfriend! 

After that big shabang, we looked up at the tree at the little envelope we had waited ohhhhh so patiently to open and decided it was now the time! SURPRISE! BOY!! :) Timothy Thomas Hauck.

We saved stockings for later in the day. I needed to get something to eat and change into scrumpies. I also couldn't fight the urge to pick up all the trash from opening presents and toys and start putting all the new toys in their rightful place RIGHT AWAY. *sigh* I'm a neat freak like that. But when we did get around to stocking it was super extra fun because the kids had forgotten all about them and were glad to have a few more things to open! Both Anth and Mols got undies....new Spongebob ones for Anth and Hello Kitty for Mols; her first ever undies! Yay! A set of new toothbrushes and character toothpaste helped balanced the tons of candy they got. And Molly was especially excited to get a hair brush and some chap stick while Anthony was excited to get his own pack of gum, haha. 

The rest of Christmas day was spent relaxing and playing with all the toys. I went and changed out of my old scrumpies and into my new ones to try them out. LOVE THEM! :) The kids ran to the bedrooms to play with all the toys. Anthony and Molly built a castle with new castle blocks and then they dug right in to Anthony's train set he had just been DYING for after first seeing one at the dentist office. Mols had a good time playing with her Fur Real Friend doggie that barks, whines, and moves it's head when you pet it. It's super cute. Poor Sam was sick. Super sick. He did ok in the morning opening presents, but after that he took up residence on the couch and proceeded to sweat, cough, hack, sneeze, and sleep the day away. Boo.

We were going to have a nice ham dinner, but Sam was so sick we decided to take it easy and eat left over clam chowder from Christmas Eve instead. Not a big deal to me as the soup was delicious and I snacked so much during the day I had no room left for a large meal. 

All in all it was another successful Christmas! The kids had a great time, it was nice to have Grandma Hauck here enjoying it with us, we all got a ton of good loot, and we found out Baby is a Timothy! That was indeed the best Christmas gift of all. :)

With love,

Mama Hauck

Christmas Eve on the Hauck Homestead 2011

It's always a bummer when the holidays are over, vacations end, and life returns to normal. But to me this just means I'm a little bit closer to Spring....and Spring for me means baby time! So I don't mind seeing the end of Christmas all that much. :)

Grandma Hauck has flown home, the Christmas decorations are down and boxed up for next year, Anthony returned back to school today, and routines are getting back to normal. So I suppose it's time for me to play catch up on ya'lls blogs as well as my own!

Every Christmas Eve we allow the kiddos to open one gift each. Molly opened one from her Grandpa and squealed with delight when she saw it was bracelets and hair clips. She walked around the rest of the evening with all the bracelets on, lol. Anthony opened up one from Papa....a hot wheels track! Whoop!  He was stoked as he's been wanting one FOREVER and the two of them set it up right away and played for a long while.

After opening up a present, we all headed outside to leave special food out (oatmeal with sparkles, lol, along with a few carrots) for the reindeer. Anthony got a kick out of running around the yard with a flashlight trying to pick that perfect spot to leave the reindeer food.

We then headed inside for bath time. I told them they had to be all cleaned up for when Santa came, haha, but really I just wanted clean looking kids for photos the next morning. ;) After the bath Sammy wrote the kids' letter to Santa, as dictated by Anthony. Then they picked out the cookies they wanted to leave Santa as I got a glass of milk out. I bet Santa enjoyed his snack later that night. ;)

I love all the preparations we do on Christmas Eve! It builds up the excitement for the next morning and it's so fun to see that excitement reflected on the kids' faces.

With love,

Mama Hauck