After dinner and presents it was time to go home and get ready for Santa! We put food out for the reindeer then opened our family pajamas. I seriously love this tradition! They don't match exactly, but they are well coordinated!


Christmas morning was wonderful. Danny's new fire chief offered to work for him that morning to give him some extra time at home. His shift normally starts at 7am, but that morning he didn't have to be there until 10am. We opened presents and stockings from Santa. Tucker's favorite Santa gift was a puppy carrier with 2 puppies inside. Mommy's favorite gift was new diamond earrings :)

After presents, I started our monkey bread and about burnt the house down. We also showed Tucker his present from us, which was a ride-on tractor. It didn't take him long to get it figured out and he rode it every chance he got Christmas Day!

My mom stopped by to see us and Tucker's presents before she headed home. It worked out well that she did so I could get ready, deal with my sister-in-law catching my stomach bug, and we could get a family pj picture. 

Next was Christmas at Danny's dads. I ate way too much. Like so much I didn't eat again until the next morning. We ate at 1:30 haha. After presents there, we hung out for a bit then headed home so we could load up again and go see Danny at work, where he and Tucker played with Tucker's new remote control fire truck. 

As soon as we got home, it was back to the garage for more tractor riding. We literally didn't go in the house, just straight to the garage. 

Christmas was exhausting but so much fun once I felt better! I can't wait to experience the madness next year with a  4 year old and 9 month old! That will be something!

Danny got home and we left soon after to drop Tucker off at my mom's so they could have a sleepover and we could finish our shopping for the boy. Target. Was. Packed! Seriously, parking lot was full all the way to the back. By some miracle we got a spot right in the first row. Danny only glared at a few people during our short trip so I call it a win. After a yummy (and fat) dinner at Chili's we headed home. I made my nephews' Christmas gifts. They are 16 and 13 so money is the most wanted gift. I don't like to just give them cash though. Last year I did money mazes that I found on Amazon. This year I did money trees and I love how they turned out. 

I started a new tradition this year after a cousin shared a picture of my dad on Facebook. This time of year he would tip big for pizza delivery guys. Like order 1 or 2 pizzas, give them a $100 bill and tell them to keep the change. A bartender in town commented on the picture and said she didn't see him often but when she did it was always around Christmas and he would do what I just explained. I had no idea this was something he did throughout town. And I love it. That was my dad. He was very quiet when he did things like that. I've decided that every Christmas season, I am going to do the same thing and it was the Chili's waitress's lucky night. It felt really good.

I was up early on Sunday despite the human alarm clock being gone. I watched Gilmore Girls, wrapped some presents, ate 1st breakfast, and wrapped more presents. Danny and I went to breakfast before he headed down to get the child. Once they were home we lounged, made our desserts, and headed to Danny's mom's for Christmas with her. Tucker was a grouch so Danny's grandpa started messing with him. It's so nice to watch the 2 of them interact. Danny's grandpa just turned 92 in October so every holiday with him is extra special. 

Now for the bumpdate!






Baby size: cauliflower
Any symptoms?  Heartburn after every single meal. I don't care what it is. Sore back. Tired. Nausea was back but is giving me a break so that's wonderful!
Favorite part this week? I can SEE her kicking and moving. Same as last week but still just as awesome!
Least favorite part this week? I've been kind of emotional.
Boy or Girl? GIRL!
Names? Charlee Danielle. Or Chuck as Tucker likes to call her.







It's been a pretty calm week pregnancy wise. I have an appointment with my OB in an hour. I could tell she was on the verge of talking to me about my weight gain last appointment, but since it was the day before Thanksgiving I think she held off. I have a feeling I'll get lectured today. And I deserve it. I have been eating very badly and have not been exercising the way I had planned on. This pregnancy has been much more difficult emotions wise than with Tucker, so I've been focused more on that. Having a toddler that wakes up at least once per night and a dog that does the same but at a different time has also led to broken sleep, so the energy needed to function and exercise just isn't there. I will say the lack of exercise and eating right has me pretty motivated to get it together once Charlee is here and we get our bearings. I am planning on cleaning my eating up a bit after the holidays, whether I get told too or not.

Now, I am off to my appointment then to a lunch Christmas party with the agency I sell insurance for but don't own.

Tucker and I went to my great aunt's to visit with family and eat. And since it is the month that Tucker opens presents every week, he got his birthday present from my aunt and uncle. Their children are grown and they don't have any grandchildren in the near future (well, planned ones anyways) so they LOVE when they get the opportunity to shop for Tucker. And since they have 2 girls, my uncle jumps at the chance to play with "boy" toys.

We left the gathering and Tucker left to go to a basketball game and his mamaw's with the babysitter and his cousins. Then it was party time! This sign was also purchased at Meijer and perfect for our party.

It never got rowdy, which is how I like it haha. I ate way too much and stayed up way too late. I also made too much food. But, a group that showed up went to dinner before so I blame them.

Aren't our matching ties cute?

Sunday was my sick day. I was on the couch, in bed, or in the recliner, with the exception of when I had to pee and get sick, from 7am-8pm. It wasn't until 4pm that I determined I was sick sick and not just pregnancy sick. Its hard to tell these days.


Now for the bumpdate: 26 freaking weeks. Unbelievable. If she is like her brother, I have 10 weeks left. 10 WEEKS! And her room looks like this.




Baby size: hothouse cucumber... now what that is, I have no idea.
Any symptoms?  Nausea is here again. Heartburn is here. My whole body is sore all the time. I get out of breath easily.
Favorite part this week? I can SEE her kicking and moving.
Least favorite part this week? Being sick
Boy or Girl? GIRL!
Names? Charlee Danielle. Or Chuck as Tucker likes to call her.









As I've mentioned I was sick with a  stomach bug on Sunday and yesterday. I was able to keep water down the entire time, but never able to eat. With pregnancy nausea I can usually force myself to eat because lack of food is either the cause or it will help. That wasn't happening on Sunday. In the time I was awake I had a dinner roll, an apple, a bagel, and 5 bites of pasta. That's not much for me who eats like 5 meals a day. Yesterday I was able to eat more, but it was mostly bread or pasta still. Today I was able to eat an egg sandwich and drink some coffee, so I am on the upswing. Charlee has been moving around like normal the entire time since I started getting sick on Sunday so I've known she was okay and never got worried about her.

Not much else is happening right now. Just trying to get through this week since I have a class tomorrow and meetings the next 2 days. Our first Christmas celebration is on Sunday. I still have one more 2 more gifts to put together and wrapping to do. It'll be fine.

MATCHING CHRISTMAS JAMMIES!!!!!

They weren't mad once they realized how cute they were.

After snapping a few pictures of those two, I snuck off to "go to the bathroom" aka put on my set of pj's! And like what happens to most moms of young children, my kid barged in on me. And I kid you not, when he saw that I was putting on matching pj's, he started laughing! Which made me laugh too. There was already a chance of me laughing as I walked back into the main area of the house where Danny was, but now that the 2 year old acknowledged how funny I am, all bets were off. So, Tuck and I start walking out there and half way there, Danny starts telling a story. Not wanting his story to take away from the awesomeness of the pj's, I stop in the play room, go in Tuck's room and yell "I'm listening" so he can get his story over with. Once I realize its not going to be a quick 2 minute story, I decide to say hell with it and just go plop my Christmas jammie self on the couch to see what kind of reaction I get. Danny keeps telling his story while I'm holding back the laughter. His story ends with "You think you're so funny don't you?" Yes, honey, yes I do.

Once Tuck was in bed, I still had work to do. I had to make and roll noodles and finish wrapping presents. Tucker LOVES opening presents so I decided it was best to wait and wrap everything I needed the night  before I would need it. It just seemed easier. Well, I couldn't get started on noodles because we were out of pepper in the house, but we had some in the camper. I went out to open the outdoor kitchen but couldn't. Two things I discovered that I can't do: boil an egg and open our outdoor kitchen on the camper. I tried for 10 minutes and quit for fear that I would break the key and we'd be screwed. Once Tucker was in bed and Danny could get the pepper, at 9:30, I finally got to start making noodles. After I slaved over the kitchen counter rolling and cutting homemade noodles, it was time to wrap gifts. Santa only got Tucker 3 gifts so that was nice. I was done wrapping presents and in bed around 12.

We got to sleep until 7:45. Thank you Tuck! We opened presents and thankfully Danny's stepdad stopped by unexpectedly so we could get a picture of us in our pj's. It took him a good 5 minutes to realize we were matching.

After he left, we ate monkey bread and got ready for church. Tucker LOVED the monkey bread. The whole morning he kept asking for more "muffins" and then shoveling it in his mouth.

This was the first time I'd been to church on Christmas Day. Ever. It felt right. Tucker was extremely pleasant too so that was helpful. He offered Peace to anyone possible, during the designated time and he tried too while everyone was walking by for Communion. After Mass he went to check out the sheep in the nativity scene. 

I quickly made my dirt pudding then peeled potatoes for our Christmas with my mom, brother and his girlfriend. Off to Danny's dad's we went. I was practically greeted with a pretty blue drink and that's when I knew it would be a good day. We ate, sampled wine (sample sizes were practically a full glass), then opened presents. Our wine buffet left the 4 out of 5 women half popped by the time gift opening rolled around. We giggled, cracked jokes and had the best time. I had tears in my eyes at one point and it was over some smart ass comment from my mother-in-law about a dish towel. Tucker got a very cool gift from Danny's dad. 

He is getting rid of his firefighter stuff and he gave Tucker this sweet fire truck that you can actually ride. Thankfully it was unseasonably warm on Christmas Day and we got to test it out on the patio.


Next up was Christmas with my family. We headed home so I could start cooking the noodles. Once they were done we ate and opened presents. I got an Ulta gift card, Piyo, my favorite Express shirts, some other clothes, a Target gift card and a selfie stick!!

My mom got the best gift from my brother though. He converted all of our old home videos so that we could watch them on DVD or on the computer. We were able to set it up so we could watch on the tv through the computer. It was awesome. Danny got to see what a brat I was, Megan could see how chunky and goofy Drew was and we all got to hear my dad laugh and play with us. Seriously the best!

Drew and Megan left around 10 and we all went to bed shortly after. This was easily the best Christmas of my adult life. I may have lost sleep because of all of the prep work, but it was 100% worth it.

Today I'm just going to go through Christmas with Danny's mom and Christmas Eve with Danny's extra family.

Last Sunday we had Christmas with Danny's mom. This included Danny's brother and his family, Danny's sister and her girls, and Danny's grandpa. I was in charge of dessert and I made Mix & Match Mama's Peppermint Brownie Trifle. It made a HUGE bowl and only about 4 people ate out of it. I left some for my mother-in-law and niece to eat for breakfast and took the rest home. I proceeded to eat that for breakfast for the next 3 days. Whoops. Danny's mom didn't disappoint on the gifts. I got Tom's Wedges (sooo comfy!), cutting boards (I forgot I asked for these), some fun yogas, and a $25 Ulta gift card. Tucker got some clothes from Aunt D and a fire and police station lego set, a train book and some tractors from Mamaw. I'm not entirely what all Danny got. I think he got some gun cleaning stuff and some DVD documentary set.


Christmas Eve was spent with the family that babysat Danny. I went simple with the gifts for these kids. Really all kids in our life, but mostly these. There are 9 of them, so spending any amount of money on them can add up. I did Movie Night baskets for those over 5 years old. The 5 year old got a Mickey book and the 2 year old got a Mickey tool set. Side note: I originally ordered these for Tuck but after his birthday and the amount toys that he got, I talked to Santa and we decided to give them to these kids instead.  

Food was soup, sandwiches and a snack. I had told one of the brothers about my dad's ham salad before and its a cheap thing to make considering the correct name is "Poor Man's Ham Salad" as it is made with bologna and not ham. 

Funny story about this ham salad. I cannot boil eggs. I can make homemade noodles from scratch, make a boxed cake taste like a bakery cake (thank you Pinterest) and can pretty much work my way around a kitchen. But I cannot boil an egg. If my life depended on boiling an egg, I would probably die. I tried too on Christmas Eve Eve and even asked Danny's co-worker how he does it since he never messes up. Yeah, it didn't work for me. So, at 7:30 pm on Christmas Eve Eve the Summers Family loaded up in the truck on the hunt for hard boiled eggs. Even Diesel went. I didn't want to risk another 8 eggs because eggs cost money, I needed 10 for noodles for Christmas Day and I needed perfect eggs for ham salad. 

So back to Christmas Eve. I was up until 12:30 Tuesday night assembling gifts and 12:30 again on Christmas Eve Eve making ham salad, drinking wine, and cleaning up. THEN on Christmas Eve, we freaking painted! My mom came up to entertain Tucker. I didn't even want to attempt to paint without him being completely occupied. Danny got the ceiling done and while I was doing the trim, we realized one gallon wasn't going to cut it. Danny went to Menards while I kept on painting. Our Christmas Eve as at 2pm and at 1pm I threw my roller down and sprinted to the bathroom. I was a sweaty paint covered mess. I was cleaned up, showered, hair and make up done, and we were loaded in the car and there by 2:15. Everyone is always late so I didn't feel bad.

We ate at 2, waited around for 3.5 HOURS for one of the siblings to get done Christmas shopping and wrap the presents she just purchased, to open gifts for 10 minutes. Everyone had a good time just hanging out so it was worth the wait I suppose.

We left Christmas Eve at 6:30 or 7 to go home and get ready for Santa. That is where I'll stop and hopefully pick up tomorrow!

Portofino Shirts from Express - I bought 3 of these shirts on my girls weekend to help me start rebuilding my work wardrobe. They are PERFECT for what I'm going for. They look great with jeans for when I'm meeting with my farmers or with black skinnies when I'm meeting with just about any other customer.

PiYo! - I need this in my life. It's a great workout and my physical therapist confirmed it yesterday. I have too much mobility in my back because my core is weak (not a surprise) and he said yoga and pilates would be extremely beneficial to my back. Not a fix, but beneficial. Sign. Me. Up!

Ulta giftcard - I'm in the market for a new curling iron. Or two. I think I need a 1" and maybe a 1.5". I don't know exactly what kind I want so I couldn't tell my mom or mother-in-law a brand, but I know I'll be going to Ulta to make my purchase and probably blow the money I get from my father-in-law.

Fun yoga pants - I put these on my mother-in-laws list. My mom would play it too safe because her style is more bold than mine. I wanted to see what my mother-in-law thought I would like. I left my list on her desk when I dropped Tucker off one day and she wasn't home (no worries, Danny's stepdad was there so Tucker wasn't left alone). The next day when I dropped him off with her, as I was leaving, she said "How crazy am I allowed to get with these yoga pants?" She had a smirk on her face and I could tell she was excited. I'm guessing I'll end  up with pants like this. Something a little more fun than what I would pick for myself.
There were a few other things, but those are the items that I can really remember.

I usually don't give Danny a list. He usually has to fend for himself. This year I gave him a little help because he kind of dropped the ball on my birthday and I didn't want to be disappointed again. I asked for him to pick out an outfit for me. I didn't set him up for complete failure. I gave him a list of stores that I shop at (because I really don't think he had a clue) with a list of sizes for each. He's only ever bought me t-shirts from trips he's been on without me and never any REAL clothes. Like what I did with his mom, I want to see what he thinks I would like.

I'm really excited about this Christmas. Who else likes making Christmas lists for all of the Santas in your life?

Tucker did a pretty good job riding shot gun in the parade. He did his fair share of waving until about half way through, then I had to start waving and being real animated about it so he would start up again. So, about half the town saw me waving like a fool. They also might have seen Tuck digging for gold. 

Once the parade was over, we went home so Tuck could go to bed and I could start the party prep. I also got our Christmas cards addressed, sealed and stamped. I had a fear that I would die like George's fiancé on Seinfeld when she licked all of the envelopes for their wedding invitations.

Saturday was party day. We were supposed to do Tucker's birthday breakfast at one of the diners in town, but when I tried to start laundry the washer wouldn't turn on. Which made me think the outlet in the island not working the night before was a bigger deal than I originally thought. Pair those with the fact that the outlets where Danny charges his page and I charge my wine opener (you know, our important things), you might have a real issue. A couple of hours later, my jack of all trades hubby had it fixed and we enjoyed take out breakfast. Danny took Tucker to pick up the keg so he would nap and I could focus on getting shit done. Once they got home, Tucker and I went to my great aunt's house to visit with my dad's sister and her husband. Other cousins and my brother and his fiancé were there too. We couldn't stay long, but Tucker had fun playing and he got spoiled with some more birthday presents.

Seriously, how am I so short?

Tuck and I rushed home so I could finish making the party food and be there when our BFF's who just moved to Ohio this year got there. They came over a couple hours early so we could actually visit with them. Again, more presents for Tucker (a 48-piece Mickey Mouse tool set... making a mental note for when they have a 2 year old). The kid is going to think he opens presents every weekend in December. They also brought me a festive wine glass and my own bottle of wine. They get me.


Food was prepped, wine was drank and then it was party time. Here is the menu:
Danny's chili
Spinach and Artichoke Dip - its got a bit of a kick too it. Soooo good!
Ro-tel cups - I doubled this finally. I usually make one batch and everyone always asks if there are more. I got asked anyways.
Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pinwheels
Peppermint Cookies and Cream popcorn - this was delicious. I may make a batch to take with me when I visit customers in the next couple of weeks!

I don't have a picture with just Danny, but we didn't do anything extravagant for our outfits this year. I had an awesome Buddy the Elf shirt (found at Walmart) and his sweater had Santa wearing camo pants drinking a beer. Here we are with my people. My brother, my future sister-in-law and my mom.

Annual prom picture with my senior year prom date.

He is my BFF's little brother. We made a deal when I was a sophomore, and he was in 7th grade, that if I wasn't dating anyone by prom time my senior year that he was going with me since he would be a freshman. No real boyfriend (Danny and I were on and off and I thought we were done for good when it came time to start figuring dates out.. what did I know?!) so I followed through. We do this every year, except the year the Extravaganza was combined with a diaper party for Danny. A prom pose picture at 9 months pregnant would have been awesome though.


My "little" cousin who is 5 years younger than I am, 8 inches taller and looks like she's the older one.

We love having this party. I'm hoping next year I'll be more on top of my game and have a better planned outfit!