A very homemade Christmas

I am so impressed by my sister in law Jen's craftiness. She made all homemade gifts for Xander this year and I couldn't be more thrilled with each of them! Some people would think - ugh, homemade gifts are so boring. Not true! The things she made are so awesome and I am very thankful for each of them!

Here are the pictures of the things she made.

Curious George blanket
I realize this isn't as hard to make as some things- she just sewed down the edges of fleece fabric. But it was still such a kind thought because we like Curious George stuff for Xander since he loves his stuffed George so much. Plus it was homemade and a better deal than buying a blanket pre-made. I just love it and Xander is already sleeping with it at night!




Adorable little brown shoes
These are similar to Robeez but with the benefit of not being so expensive! I guess in my case they were free but she has told me they don't cost much to make either - just time!

Homemade letter book

This is seriously one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. It is a beautiful book and has the letters a-z with something representing each letter on each page. This had to have been so time consuming! It is something I know we will treasure forever!

This adorable long sleeved shirt with a sewn on fabric tie

Jen's son Sam was wearing one of these on Christmas and I thought it was so cute and then we opened Xander's gifts and there was one for Xander! So cute!

How fun are these gifts? I am so thankful for each and every one! What fun gifts to get!

Let it snow....again!!!

Oh man. My last post was about the ridiculous amount of snow we got and here I am again writing about the snow! We were so lucky to come home to all of this snow on Christmas day. When we came home the snow was so deep in our driveway that we wouldn't have even made it in with the Jeep! We had to park in our neighbors driveway until we could scoop out the driveway enough to get the car in the garage. When we knocked on our neighbors door to ask if it was ok to park there, he offered to help us clear our driveway with his snowblower. We would have spent hours scooping but were able to avoid it because of our neighbors generosity! Here are some more pictures of what we were dealing with!

Let it snow!

This last week, we got about 10 inches here in Omaha. Some areas got a little more around here but needless to say we were up to our ears in snow! We also had some huge drifts as you can see in some of the pictures. Also, check out our crazy dog loving the snow in some of the pictures.

I didn't go to work on Wednesday so we had a family day and Todd and I spent a good part of the day shoveling snow. It was pretty but a pain to deal with! I had to leave super early for work the next two days after it snowed because the driving was so slow!

We took lots of pictures of the snow and here they are!

Cousins

Last week for Thanksgiving, we went to my mom's house in Lincoln where we had the whole family together. My mom wanted a picture of her 4 grandchildren for her Christmas card so we took a few. Here are a few of the ones that turned out ok. None of them are great, but that is what happens when you have 4 little kids, all under 2 1/2. Enjoy!

living the dream.....or not

Oh man. I have no free time anymore since I started my job and it totally sucks! I used to have all the time in the world every day and loved it. I could do what I wanted when I wanted and had no one to answer to but my husband. And even then, he wasn't very demanding.

Now, I live and die by the clock and a very strict schedule. I hate it. I hate working and there is no nice way to say it. It is probably because of the type of job I am doing. I know I enjoy working in the financial industry, even if the stock market tanked last year and everybody is mad they lost so much money. I love the technical aspect of it and the numbers and rules and such.

I know already that the job I am doing right now is something I won't last long in. If I have to stay in the position I am in now, I will quit or get fired. I am going to do my best in the job I am in and try to get promoted to a different job within the company. I think I am going to try to get more licenses so I look more attractive to other departments so they will hire me. Or, heaven forbid, I could end up looking elsewhere for a job once I get my Series 24. I am just certain that if I have to do this job any longer than 5-6 months, I am literally going to go crazy.

I'll be honest. Customer service type jobs are just not my thing. Too bad the last few years that I have worked have ALL been in a customer service job in one form or another. I am done with it. I just can't handle it anymore. I know I shouldn't complain because I just spent the last 11 months not working and staying home with my son. But unfortunately for me, 11 months was not long enough of a break!

It is so odd to me because I have read several random blogs where the women talk about how boring their job is - how they never have anything to do or nothing worthwhile and they get bored so easily. If only I had that type of job! I am the kind of girl that could fill a lot of free time. I can waste time with the best of them and I would always find something to do. I wish I had that kind of time on my hands! I just wonder how much these women get paid. Surely it can not be that much to literally do nothing all day. I have so much to do each day that I can barely get it all done! I would kill to have a job where I had the chance to get bored!

It is just strange to me how people end up in the jobs they do. Obviously, a lot of people end up in a job because that is what they went to school for. But sometimes, people who have a college degree don't even do a job in the field they have a degree in. Also, people like me who don't have a degree just find whatever they can that pays decent and try to build on that. I got into the financial industry just by luck at the beginning and I realized I liked it ended up being good at it too. If I had gone to college, I doubt finance would have been what I wanted to major in. I think it would have been something more like the medical field. Too bad I made the poor choice of not going to college. Although I will say one last thing. Even without a college degree, I was making more at my age then my husband who has a college degree was at the same age. And I am even a female and females tend to get paid less! My last job before having Xander spoiled me in the salary field because anything less than what I made there seems like nothing.

Whatever.