Pics to come!
We had a great Christmas day at Mimi's house. We left home Wednesday morning (Christmas Eve) and arrived here in the early afternoon. We unpacked and then headed out for the 5 o' clock Candlelight service at church. Of course I spent the entire service chasing Olivia, and then Olivia and Sam in the vestibule, but the boys absolutely LOVE doing the candle thing.
They were so excited waiting for Santa, and Jackson had a hard time falling asleep. But once they were out, Santa did indeed come and left them quite a haul!
The next morning they were VERY patient and waited until Mimi and Grandma came downstairs to watch them open their presents.
The rest of the day was eating, spending time with their cousins, and opening the rest of their presents.
Today I was savoring my last day with Sam being two. Tomorrow he will turn three and I simply can't fathom where the minutes, hours, days, and years are going. Must.slow.down.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Olivia whispers sweet nothings...
The other night we had manwiches for dinner. They are a superyummy homemade recipe (we can't even eat the canned stuff anymore!) and Olivia loves them. I cut one sandwich into fourths and after Olivia ate two of them, she was still clamoring for more. Jackson didn't like his so he gave his fourth to her, and she began devouring it, stopping only long enough to shove some pears into her mouth. Once the pears were gone, she picked up her manwich (which looked just like plain bread), turned it over, and upon finding some manwich stuck on the bottom of the bread, whispered "Day doo" (thank you) softly into the air before cramming the whole thing in her mouth. Such appreciation for the lost manwich meat! That girl LOOOOOVES to eat!
Her other thing right now is saying, in a very indignant voice, "HEEEEEEY! Das MIYNE!" It cracks me up every time.
Her other thing right now is saying, in a very indignant voice, "HEEEEEEY! Das MIYNE!" It cracks me up every time.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Yeah, he likes it
I picked up a "Cookies for Santa" plate and cup at Target today and when I brought it home, Jackson said "I am going to hold it up in the sky for Santa to see it." He was clad in his underwear and dress shirt ala "Risky Business", and he headed to the back sliding glass doors and held the plate up while looking up into the gray clouds. He turned back to me with a nod and said, "Yeah, he likes it."
Jack's Christmas concert
This morning was a whirlwind as I delivered the teacher gifts, ran errands, and had to be back at the school by 11 to help set up the cookies for the reception after the 3 year old Christmas concert. My friend Emily saved me a front row seat, and I got out my trusty camera and set Ryan on the job of camcording. For weeks Jack has been singing his little songs and doing the motions, sometimes for us and sometimes just when he's by himself. I wasn't really sure how he would do once he was in front of a crowd, but my fears were confirmed. He smiled shyly as he marched in with the others.
He didn't sing the first song, but dutifully rang his bells, and then when the applause began... he crumpled. At first you could see the tears welling up and his face beginning to struggle to maintain composure. I know that feeling SOOO well, having had it myself many times as a child. I have never been particularly shy, but when I get embarrassed, I can feel my face start to burn, and then the tears come. The more I try to push them away, or if anyone notices and tries to comfort me, I lose it completely. Apparently so does Jack. He tried to hide behind his friend Charlie, but then when Charlie hugged him, he was already too far gone. The teachers let him sit on their lap for the remainder of the program, and I cried too. Seeing him struggle in the limelight like that was so very hard for me. Harder than I expected. Whew, this parenting thing is so tough!
He didn't sing the first song, but dutifully rang his bells, and then when the applause began... he crumpled. At first you could see the tears welling up and his face beginning to struggle to maintain composure. I know that feeling SOOO well, having had it myself many times as a child. I have never been particularly shy, but when I get embarrassed, I can feel my face start to burn, and then the tears come. The more I try to push them away, or if anyone notices and tries to comfort me, I lose it completely. Apparently so does Jack. He tried to hide behind his friend Charlie, but then when Charlie hugged him, he was already too far gone. The teachers let him sit on their lap for the remainder of the program, and I cried too. Seeing him struggle in the limelight like that was so very hard for me. Harder than I expected. Whew, this parenting thing is so tough!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Olivia IS my girly girl!
The love affair she has with shoes just keeps getting worse and worse. Then, Friday afternoon I decided to paint my finger and toenails in preparation for our weekend plans. She went over to the cabinet, selected the color she wanted (a very tasteful mauve, might I add!) and then sidled next to me on the floor, sticking out her feet and her hands. I painted her little toenails for the first time and she actually sat still and blew on them until they dried. Sigh. They are just TOO cute.
The latest Jackisms and other business
Tonight Jack is EXHAUSTED and lost the privelege of his bedtime story because he was misbehaving. Then, when I was reading Sammy's, he kept asking a million questions and I kept saying if he would listen and stop talking he would hear the answer. Finally, the answer to his biggest question was coming on that page and I could tell he wasn't listening. When I said "Are you listening, Jack?" he stuck his tongue out at me and so I sent him to bed without hearing the rest of Sam's story. He immediately went into his usual dramatics, crying and writhing on the bed, but instead of going directly into the "Everybody hates me," routine he said "I'm a stupid little boy." We have a rule in our family that we don't say the word stupid, and it's about as close to a swear as our kids have ever really gotten. My sister's kids, however, aged 9, 7, and 2, say it a million times a day. I can only imagine that since they spent the night last night, he heard it a bunch of times. For some reason it cracked Ryan and me up!
Yesterday morning I got up early and baked pans of homemade cinnamon rolls to take to all the neighbors. When I got home from my delivery route, we started to eat the pan I kept for us, and Jack took a bite and said "Oh, Mom, these taste DELIGHTFUL!" Heehee! Ryan nearly fainted! I guess it's not enough that he loves pink!!!
In other news, things are plugging right along towards the holidays! I think I'm just about done with everything, and we only have one more holiday dinner to attend before we head to my mom's on Christmas Eve. Last night my sister came to spend the night and babysit so we could attend Ryan's work party and then a fabulous catered party that some friends host each year. I think for posterity I should say that Ryan was pulled over on the parkway on our way from party 1 downtown to party 2 on the southside. I had JUST said to slow down, and our Garmin GPS was showing that the speed limit was 55 and Ryan was going 75. So after I nagged for a second he slowed his pace. Then, there's a split in the highway where an exit takes two lanes, and he had to make a sorta quick lane change to keep from taking the exit we didn't want, and the blue lights began flashing behind us. When the cop (from the unmarked car- ugh) came up the window he said he had pulled us for 2 reasons, but first, did we know what the speed limit was? Ryan said "Yes, 55." He said that no, actually there is a brief period where it drops to 45. I said "REALLY? Cause our Garmin said it was 55 and I had just told him it was 55 and that's REALLY tricky" in a pleading, semi-whiney voice. He then said Ryan had also made an unsafe lane change and failed to use a signal. Right before he left, I pleaded with him again and said "Is there ANY way you can give us a warning? We NEVER get out of the house and we have a sitter tonight and that was really tricky and we would just REALLY appreciate it..." He looked torn but then just said "I'm going back to write your summons. I'll be back in a minute."
When he came back he said "Well, you should thank your wife because I can relate to the never getting out thing and I decided to let you go with a warning for the speeding and the lane change. I'm just writing a ticket for the failure to use a signal, and that's a very minor infraction." I was SOOO happy and immediately said "Oh, thank you SOOO much! We have three kids and our oldest is four, so we really never get to do anything!"
He was really nice and I can't help but feel it was a little something of a Christmas miracle! Heehee!
We spent the morning playing with their cousins, and I made some hairbows for the girls, did makeup and gave them haircuts, complete with a blowout and rollers. They were some stylin' cuties! After they left, the boys and I did some online games to decorate Christmas trees and Gingerbread men, watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special, and made a few crafts: paper snowflakes, glitter paint window snowflakes that should be window clings when they dry, and styrofoam (recycled take out container) airplanes to fly off our balcony.
Then this evening, we went to our friend Ainsley's fourth birthday party today which was a really cute Gingerbread house decorating party. There were whole houses for the 4 year olds, and large Gingerbread men for the younger siblings like Sam and Liv. The decorations were adorable, as were the chocolate Gingerbread man-shaped cake, the homemade apron the mother and two daughters were wearing, and the stenciled Gingerbread shirt on her teenager. Too cute, and the kids had a ball! Then we grabbed a fast food dinner on the road so we could take the kids to see some more of the great Christmas lights in our area. The "dancing" lights that are set to certain radio stations are still their absolute fav, but we saw some other doozies!
All in all, it was a great weekend. Packed, but so much fun and definitely memorable. I love that.
Yesterday morning I got up early and baked pans of homemade cinnamon rolls to take to all the neighbors. When I got home from my delivery route, we started to eat the pan I kept for us, and Jack took a bite and said "Oh, Mom, these taste DELIGHTFUL!" Heehee! Ryan nearly fainted! I guess it's not enough that he loves pink!!!
In other news, things are plugging right along towards the holidays! I think I'm just about done with everything, and we only have one more holiday dinner to attend before we head to my mom's on Christmas Eve. Last night my sister came to spend the night and babysit so we could attend Ryan's work party and then a fabulous catered party that some friends host each year. I think for posterity I should say that Ryan was pulled over on the parkway on our way from party 1 downtown to party 2 on the southside. I had JUST said to slow down, and our Garmin GPS was showing that the speed limit was 55 and Ryan was going 75. So after I nagged for a second he slowed his pace. Then, there's a split in the highway where an exit takes two lanes, and he had to make a sorta quick lane change to keep from taking the exit we didn't want, and the blue lights began flashing behind us. When the cop (from the unmarked car- ugh) came up the window he said he had pulled us for 2 reasons, but first, did we know what the speed limit was? Ryan said "Yes, 55." He said that no, actually there is a brief period where it drops to 45. I said "REALLY? Cause our Garmin said it was 55 and I had just told him it was 55 and that's REALLY tricky" in a pleading, semi-whiney voice. He then said Ryan had also made an unsafe lane change and failed to use a signal. Right before he left, I pleaded with him again and said "Is there ANY way you can give us a warning? We NEVER get out of the house and we have a sitter tonight and that was really tricky and we would just REALLY appreciate it..." He looked torn but then just said "I'm going back to write your summons. I'll be back in a minute."
When he came back he said "Well, you should thank your wife because I can relate to the never getting out thing and I decided to let you go with a warning for the speeding and the lane change. I'm just writing a ticket for the failure to use a signal, and that's a very minor infraction." I was SOOO happy and immediately said "Oh, thank you SOOO much! We have three kids and our oldest is four, so we really never get to do anything!"
He was really nice and I can't help but feel it was a little something of a Christmas miracle! Heehee!
We spent the morning playing with their cousins, and I made some hairbows for the girls, did makeup and gave them haircuts, complete with a blowout and rollers. They were some stylin' cuties! After they left, the boys and I did some online games to decorate Christmas trees and Gingerbread men, watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special, and made a few crafts: paper snowflakes, glitter paint window snowflakes that should be window clings when they dry, and styrofoam (recycled take out container) airplanes to fly off our balcony.
Then this evening, we went to our friend Ainsley's fourth birthday party today which was a really cute Gingerbread house decorating party. There were whole houses for the 4 year olds, and large Gingerbread men for the younger siblings like Sam and Liv. The decorations were adorable, as were the chocolate Gingerbread man-shaped cake, the homemade apron the mother and two daughters were wearing, and the stenciled Gingerbread shirt on her teenager. Too cute, and the kids had a ball! Then we grabbed a fast food dinner on the road so we could take the kids to see some more of the great Christmas lights in our area. The "dancing" lights that are set to certain radio stations are still their absolute fav, but we saw some other doozies!
All in all, it was a great weekend. Packed, but so much fun and definitely memorable. I love that.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Christmastime! Yay!
Yesterday I attempted the ever elusive Christmas card picture. Luckily I got a decent one of each of the kids separately, but definitely NOT one of the three together! Maybe someday! The kids are so excited about Christmas, and we've been doing some Christmas activities, reading lots of Christmas books, driving around to see some great Christmas lights, and watching "The Polar Express" pretty much every day!
Yesterday after baking 6 dozen cookies for our annual cookie exchange, I went upstairs to wrap some presents. I brought them down and put them under the tree and the kids went crazy! They sorted and resorted them about a million times and it was adorable to hear their little voices saying "Oh, here's a J, this one's yours Jack" and "Here you go, Sammybear. Merry Christmas, this one is for you!" I had very few things for Olivia so the boys were letting her play with their wrapped gifts and saying, "Here Olivia, we don't mind!"
And after the way they behaved during the morning and early afternoon yesterday, I'm tellin' ya it was DEFINITELY a Christmas miracle!
Friday night Jackson went to Jacob's house to spend the night, and I was a little worried about how the boys would do being separated. To be honest, it was GREAT! There was no fighting, no competing, no arguing, and very little vying for attention because with 2 kids and 2 parents, there was plenty of attention to go around. Jack had a great time and came home with yummy sugar cookies he had made and decorated. Jacob came back with him so we could do our annual holiday fondue dinner with his parents, so the kiddos were all up really late two nights in a row. But I'm not complaining cause we didn't get up until 8 this morning, and Olivia is still in bed now at 9:30. Yep, we had some TIRED kids. I did have to laugh when the boys got out of the bathtub on Saturday night and the scene went like this:
Sam- "Heehee, Jacob has a siwwy (silly) penis. A curwy (curly)one!"
Missy (Jacob's mom) - "Did he just say a GIRLY one?"
Me, laughing - "NO, he said a CURLY one!"
I'm still waiting for our new laptop to arrive and am hoping to pick up the pace with the blogging then. It should be here any day! Yay!
My current quirky laptop decided to recognize my camera cord yesterday (it knows it's days are numbered!) so I can finally post a few pictures on the old posts. Hurray for Christmas miracles!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)