MERRY CHRISTMAS!

After all the Christmas talk, it's hard to believe it is finally Christmas! But make no mistake... the cookies left by the fireplace have been eaten and the stockings are full, so Santa must have come and gone. We went to the 7:30 Christmas Eve service and were in bed relatively early - ready for our early morning. I woke up earlier, of course, so I could hear Noah's door open because I wanted to catch him before he went downstairs. He was up about 6:45. We convinced him to come in to our room to go potty and sit with daddy while I got Abby around. Then we let him go in to get Benjamin. We posed at the top of the steps knowing that getting a shot of them together once they got downstairs would be impossible. For the record, Noah does NOT approve of our stalling tactics. He did humor us - this year anyway. Santa learned an important lesson, however, --> SAVE THE BIG PRESENT FOR LAST. While I thought they might be most excited about this gift, I forgot to take into consideration that it would bring about many chances for arguing which no parents should have to listen to the first 3 minutes of Christmas. Problem is, no one wants to play the guitar when drums are involved. So, once the drumsticks were put away, we were able to get on with our morning. Well, sort of... We started with our stockings and Benjamin made it to one present. He opened his toothbrush and headed upstairs. "Help! Help me! I need water! Brush teeth! Help me!" Eventually he made his way back downstairs with cup and toothbrush in hand. It took us awhile, but we did get all his presents open. (These are his presents left under the tree after every one else was all done and upstairs eating breakfast.) Noah, on the other hand, was all about it. He tore through his stuff but did take time to enjoy each one. I'll give you one guess what he was most excited about. (He actually wore this all morning, to grandma's, and through lunch, and more presents.) Benjamin got some too but thought they were "scary" so he didn't want to wear anything just yet. But his hooded towel from Uncle Joel? That was another story...We marked each gift with the letter of each name so Noah could pass them out. He was such an efficient elf that he also helped open most of the presents.The boys picked out their own presents for daddy. Benjamin (with a little help from mommy) chose a Star Wars Mr. Potato Head. Noah gave him soap. (You might be surprised as to how long we stood in the soap aisle so he could pick out just the right one. He finally narrowed it down to Tone coconut milk with a lovely brown flowered wrapping, in case you were wondering.) Around lunch time we headed to the grandparents'. After a yummy brunch, it was more presents. Noah got more costumes which meant we were changing clothes every 3 minutes. Benjamin was most excited about Abby's new gumball machine.We stayed and played all afternoon. Abby didn't want to miss anything so she didn't nap for long at any point. (Mommy did get about a half an hour out of her at one point.) But what was most impressive was what happened with Benjamin. What a special present for mommy - two baby naps in one day! All in all, it was a wonderful day. We hope yours was too.(Post script: Yes, these pictures were taken after Christmas but we were unable to capture the kiddos in their Christmas get-ups when they actually wore them out of the house, so we had a special posing party. And, for the record - the holding hands? NOT the parents' idea. The boys came up with that all on their own. How cute is that??)

Abby - 5 months?

Can it really be time for this again? Seems like we just did one of these... But, since we are celebrating Christmas, I guess the calendar cannot be wrong. Abby is now 5 months old. The month went so fast, she really doesn't have much in the way of updates. (Must have snuck up on her, too...) She's still just rolling back to tummy, although it is almost immediate now as she has to see what is going on around her. She'll stay that way for a good 10 minutes at times and then scream for someone to come roll her back over. While Noah loves to sit and play with her, he saves rolling her over for us, thank goodness. He'll come and say, "Mom, Abby is crying. I think she needs your help." (As if I couldn't hear her blood-curdling scream from the next room.) She continues to smile and laugh more each day although she is very solemn outside of the house. Strangers try to get her to smile and she will have nothing to do with it. Nor will she smile at us if she thinks a stranger is watching. (Must be her brothers told her about stranger danger...) She LOVES her jumper and will sit there for quite awhile just a-jumping and squealing. Her brothers are almost as excited about this past time as she is. Mommy shared some kiwi with her at lunch one afternoon and she loved that. Her little tongue was just a-goin'. She'd probably really like to be eating solid food but we are trying to hold off until after Disney so we don't have to carry all the extra stuff with us. She continues to sleep 10-12 hours a night. Still on her back, though. She has not made the switch to tummy sleeping. She's probably waiting until she can roll herself back over so she doesn't have to ask us for help. (Just like she has taken to her thumb because she wasn't very good at getting her pacifier back in.) Hopefully the coming months do not go quite as fast as we cross the six-month mark and start marching towards one year. Yikes!

Cookies for Santa

We spent our day inside yesterday making sugar cookies for Santa and his elves. Do you have any idea how big a mess two little boys can make rolling out, cutting, and decorating cookies? It actually went very well. Benjamin was NOT a fan of taking the cut cookies out of his dough for baking. (I think he thought it was like Play Doh and he was just going to keep cutting.) But they both did really well spreading out the flour and rolling the dough. I think their favorite part was definitely the decorating though. Noah's plate: Benjamin's plate: We got to sample some last night and Santa is going to be in for a treat when he gets to our house. They are yummy!!!

Move Over, Bacon!

Everyone has been graduated to a new chair to make room for baby girls at the dinner table. (Sorry for the picture quality. The bright snow out the window was helping that camera not cooperate but I wanted you to see all 3 munchkins at the table. I'll try again when it is dark outside.) Noah finally asked if he could sit in a regular chair - something we thought would never happen as he wasn't interested in letting Benjamin use his chair. BUT, he is ready now. So, Abby has taken her place at the table. She does well for about 10 minutes and then lets us know - in no uncertain terms - that she is done. I've given her a cup of water to play with while she is there. Her big brother is doing his best to help her learn how to use it.
She is really trying but mostly she just knocks it on to the floor. Luckily, Noah is more than happy to jump right up and get it for her - no matter how many times she does it. I think she is going to be a big fan of eating when she gets to that stage. And, just for fun, here is Benjamin drinking his LAST glass of whole milk.

Welcome, Winter - BAH!

Some people claim to really like winter. I've even been told that if I were to move to a place that does not have winter, I would miss it. While I am willing to bet big bucks on this, no one has taken me up on the offer to let me try it out. So we stay. In Kansas. Where it is FREEZING!!!!! Yesterday, the first day of winter, came with a high of 8 degrees. A HIGH! And that does not even begin to touch the wind chill, which was not pretty. We chose to go to church on Saturday night so we would not have to leave the house yesterday. And this is how we celebrate the first day of Winter? Oh, how I look forward to the next three months... I think Benjamin sums up my feelings the best.

A Living Nativity

Noah's class has been working on the nativity story all month. The teacher reads the story and the children act it out - complete with props. They have taken turns with the parts so each would be familiar with all aspects of the story. Today we got to go and watch. Noah was Joseph. The teacher reads the story but the kids had lines they were to say. Noah had to knock on the inn door and ask the innkeeper if he had any room. He did a wonderful job, unfortunately, it is on our video camera which we can't post here, so pictures will have to do.

Spidey

Yesterday the play center had a holiday party. Along with some extra special inflatables, they had a face painter. Incredible face painters. We saw lots of amazing faces including an adorable Rudolph that I could not convince Benjamin to try. Noah was all about it, though. Just not a holiday-themed face... Everyone was in such a good mood when we got home, I took advantage of the Kodak moment. And, Noah got to hold Abby for the first time. He claims she is too heavy. Hopefully that means he will not try it again any time soon.

PIRATES!

The calendar had me a little worried at first. I bought it thinking it would be something fun we could all do together but soon had my doubts. I was afraid I would have to put the whole thing away until next year because of all the arguing it caused. See, we take turns opening the box and then apparently whatever is in the box becomes "mine". "My tree." "My monkeys." And what Noah still doesn't understand is that Benjamin is really just in parrot-stage at this point so whatever Noah says, Benjamin repeats. Do you want to guess how long we fought over who the tree belonged to??? Luckily, that only lasted a few days. They are really doing well with it now and do not even complain when it is not their day to open a box. The boys finally found the pirates in their Advent calendar. I decided since they don't know their numbers that I wouldn't bother making them pick the boxes in order, they could just choose whichever one they wanted. And even though they only talked about opening the pirates, they always chose the tiniest boxes on the calendar. I didn't bother to point out that the pirates couldn't possibly fit in those boxes. But Benjamin finally chose one pirate and Noah was paying close enough attention that he took the matching box the next day. Now breakfast is filled with "Ar, matey's!", "SWORD FIGHT's!", and "Oh! You got me's!"The fun never stops! And as an added bonus, here is Noah with the Pirates of the Caribbean song. (His daddy loves the way he has made up words for the part he doesn't know.)

[As a little background - a long time ago Noah came up with a game that involves him standing behind the drapes in the front window. We are to introduce him (using the exact words he tells us and not changing even a pronunciation), then he runs out and performs something after which we clap and clap and he bows. It's actually a pretty fun game. The throat clearing before his performances is new, though.]

A-hunting We Did Go

The day after Thanksgiving found us out at yet another Christmas tree farm. This time it was Bierman's and, again, we feel like this one is a keeper. They had a nice big field for us to walk through and a lot more trees growing for future years. Again my only complaints were that the trees were all too perfectly shaped AND they were not grown in Michigan. Having the kiddie train parked right next to the check-out house was not a good idea, though. Noah decided every single tree we passed was "the perfect one". And I do mean every tree. Here is Benjamin examining one we vetoed. "Can we cut this one, dad? Let's go ride the train!" He didn't have a lot of patience for the search. Benjamin and Abby were game, though. We eventually found just what we were looking for and daddy had some help cutting it down. The farm help came and carried the tree back to the house for us so we didn't have to drag it this year. THEN they got to ride the train. They also had yummy cookies and hot chocolate. I do love Christmas tree day! We got the tree home and put it right up. It's a little crooked but, boy, is it pretty! Daddy had a new helper with the lights this year and I was happy to pass the job on. The tree is holding its needles well, too, which is nice for all the little feet that scurry past it. It took us a couple of weeks to get the actual ornaments on it but we got it done. Now we sit back and enjoy...

Thanksgiving

That's right - I'm going backwards again... As you might remember, Abby and I went to Las Vegas the week before Thanksgiving. My friend Cammie was welcoming baby #2 and as I wasn't able to meet baby #1 until this past August (when she was already 2), I had asked Christopher if I could PLEASE go help when the baby came. Originally I was planning to go in January when family left and hubby went back to work but it worked out better to go in November. AND I got to be there the day MILES XAVIER arrived which was a special treat for me. I stayed home with big sister Ella while mommy and daddy were at the hospital, although they almost didn't need me. They were home just 24 hours after his delivery - a c-section! Is Cammie a trooper, or what? I, of course, was very glad to have them home because it meant more time to hang out with all of them. I had hoped to do some work around the house but her 'silly' husband didn't really give me the chance as he was always picking up and doing the cooking. I did wash some towels, so at least I accomplished something. Cammie and I spent most of our time sitting on the couch feeding babies together. (It was my idea of a perfect vacation.) This was also a special treat for me as we have not spent that much time together in about 8 years - and that includes both of our wedding weekends! Abby and Miles have already been promised to one another (fathers completely left out of this decision) and we were able to get some embarressing pictures to share at their wedding. It was just so nice to sit and visit - as best we could with a 2.5 yr-old running around and Abby being more fussy than usual. They were managing very well with their new circumstances - especially considering their newest family member was choosing not to sleep at night, but I was still sorry to leave them without any in-home help for a few days. As this was all quite some time ago, I am happy to report they survived. (I guess my mothering-habits are kicking in for those outside my family now.) That said, I was also happy to be home. I didn't realize how much I missed my boys. But when I saw them at the airport with their bouquet of flowers, I started bawling. They were very concerned as to "why is mommy so sad?" and seemed pretty confused by my tears of joy explanation.

The next day was Thanksgiving and we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's. While I like to sing "Over the River and Through the Woods", we actually only had to go down the street and turn left. (I have to sing fast to get it all in...) Our job was mashed potatoes and I had a miniature helper. I think he was more interested in the potatoes than the helping, but the job was done. We also managed to watch a good share of the Macy's parade. We thought our boys would like seeing the bands and balloons but turns out they were more taken with the Broadway showtunes. I'm telling you, some one is going to end up in theater... But, I digress... Back to Thanksgiving. Cousin Erika had talked to the boys about the Pilgrams and the first Thanksgiving so she decided to craft some hats. Unfortunately, their heads were too big for the holes, but they were happy to sport them anyway. AND, Noah tried both turkey AND pumpkin bread and did not throw up at all. We were very proud of this accomplishment. We had a nice relaxing day with all of Christopher's family and it was a nice way to ease back in to being home and a great way to fully appreciate all we have to be thankful for.