Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day started bright and early when Eli woke up with an ear infection.  I didn't think those suckers were contagious, but apparently my kids know how to spread them.  Eli and I spent the morning in prompt care and Rite Aid.  Not exactly how I planned the day to go, but I can't say it was all that bad.  We spent a lot of time snuggling and he really seemed fine, other than saying his ear hurt.  I let him pick out a treat at Rite Aid and he chose a giant box of angry bird fruit snacks.

 Christmas Eve, Alison and Eliot got to open one gift...this year it was new coats. 

And this was our attempt for a Christmas picture.

This time it was Colin who wanted no part in the pictures.

 

But Eli was in a great mood thanks to antibiotics and lots of sugar.

We went to Hope's service at St. Luke's.  This was a very special year for us; it was the first Christmas Eve we've all gone to church together.  

Last year I was alone with 3 small kids in this small church, but this year there was one adult for each kid...guess I forgot to mention that Poppy was here visiting.

I loved worshiping together and the kids did great...except for when Eli suddenly shouted "I have to go poopy!" and Ben had to rush him out of the church.  St. Luke's is an old, historic church, with NO bathroom.  So Ben had to sprint him up the hill to the gift shop to find a bathroom.  Good times.  But, I'm am so, so, so thankful Ben was sitting with me and could whisk him out.

After the service, and several bathroom trips (guess the antibiotics where kicking in) we came home and had a nice dinner; ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, zwiebach and pumpkin pie.

It was great having Poppy's extra hands around this week.  He did a great job keeping Colin entertained and let him help with whatever he was doing.  I love this picture because Rick is helping Colin sit at the big-kid-tall-chairs, but you can see Alison tying Eli up with her dress in the background.  I think they were pretending to be a train...just realizing he's already in pj's!  That boy and his pj's; it's crazy.

Christmas Baking

First day of Christmas break we baked gingerbread men.  We've read the gingerbread man story several times this past month and the kids were excited to make their own cookies.

 

I thought I would take the easy road and bought pretty icing in a tube...thought they could just squeeze it onto the cookie.  Turns out to be not the best idea and they quickly got frustrated with it.  So I whipped up a simple icing and they painted it on with brushes.  It was really messy, but they had fun.

Alison asked if we could pretend Ben was Santa and wanted to leave milk and cookies out for him...so we did.  She was excited to see a couple of bites taken in the morning, along with all of their presents.

Sunday...4 days until Christmas!

Quote from Alison this morning...

"Wouldn't it be awesome if nothing bad ever happened to us?"

She woke up in the middle of the night crying because her ear hurt.  She's a tough cookie when it comes to pain, so I knew she must really be hurting.

She made it through the night and in the morning Ben and I were discussing whether or not we should go to church.  In the middle of our conversation Eli threw up.  Well, that certainly made the decision.

Ben took Alison to prompt care where an ear infection was confirmed and she was given medicine. 
Eli threw up one more time and then was back to his "normal" and was starving the rest of the day.
I'm thankful that there were no fevers and a morning of watching Christmas movies seemed to get everyone back up to healthy.

That afternoon the house got so hot we all had to go outside to play.  The past few days it's been in the 70's!  We swung, jumped in piles of leaves and soaked up the fresh air...you would have never known how the morning began.

I agree with Alison...I feel like we're always fighting some bug...sure we be nice to always be healthy.

His favorite mode

Eli is happiest when he's in pj's holding his blankie. 

Colin-18 Months

Colin is 18 months!

Here's his stats:

Height: 32.5 inches (58%)

Weight: 21.3 lbs (3%)

 

His doctor diagnosed him as "underweight" and would like him to be above the 5th percentile by the time he's 2.  He feels confident that Colin is healthy (praise the Lord!), just burning too many calories and the danger of him being underweight is sickness.  Going into flu season, Colin really can't afford to have a stomach bug-he just has no reserves to live off of.  So we have been prescribed to give him a pediasure a day and are headed to a pediatric nutritionist next month to get him on a set high calorie meal plan.  I'm assuming they'll tell us to feed him lots of avocados, eggs, peanut butter and whole milk, but we'll see :)

Colin is still quite the little stinker.  He still screams when you put him the car and will throw himself to the ground if he doesn't get his way.  Doesn't sound so bad?  Well, if you make him really mad, he'll scream and find anything he can to throw.  Sometimes I'm thankful he's so small, so it's easy to contain him when he's not happy.  He's also become a runner.  If the gate in the child watch opens and no one is watching, Colin will run right out of the Y.

 

Quiet, calm moments with Colin are few and far between, but I'm thankful for his spunk and energy.  He's started saying a few more words, adding mama, sissy, bubby, stinky, baba(for bottle) and blankie to his vocabulary of "dadda".

 

We love you Colin!

Now it's time to chunk you up!

Family photos 2013

Last weekend, we went to a friend's Christmas party.  We got dressed up and I thought I would attempt some cute kid pictures by the tree.  Alison and Colin were ready...

Eli was not...

 

Christmas Time!

It's a wonderful time of year!

We've already completed one puzzle.  There's nothing better than spending a Saturday morning, in PJ's, working on a puzzle.  Forget long runs, we've got a puzzle to master!

I got a little carried away and finished it in 2 days...and yes, I let the kids watch extra TV just so I could work on it in quiet (just don't tell them my secret).

The kids have been playing "Christmas morning" with boxes I put under the tree.

I love the look on Colin's face; he's saying, "Cheer up, Eli!  I'm reading you the gingerbread man story!"

We've been playing a lot of music.

We bought Alison a Christmas music piano book and have taken turns helping her learn songs.  Some times she'll ask to just sing, but hasn't picked up on the concept of following the music (i.e. she sings the song as fast as she can and is finished before you finish playing the first line).

Thought my parents would be proud that 8 years of piano is paying off some 20 years later.  Thanks to those lessons many moons ago I can now teach my kids some songs.  It's been fun to pick it back up and remember how much joy music brought me.

 

Ben and I have worked on a couple of songs of him playing guitar and me on flute.  The kids will ring some bells or sing while we play.  The other day I was playing before Ben got home and Eli just laid on the floor and listened.  I got up to check on dinner and Eli told me to come back and play it again.  When I was done playing the song he said, "Nope.  Play it again, mommy.  It still wasn't good."  Hmmm, I think someone may have gotten the perfectionist musician gene.

Speaking of Eli, Ben and I think he may really be Buddy the Elf.  He asks to snuggle all.day.long.  This picture is photo bombed by Alison, but Eli asked Ben to snuggle and is rubbing his head while they watch a movie.  Sometimes 3 year old little boys can be simply the best.

Ben just finished baking his 3rd batch of molasses cookies and the 2nd puzzle is halfway done.  I guess we're well on our way to being lazy and fat.

Oh well, tis the season, right?

Decorating the tree

I'm realizing this year that not very many people decorate their tree with only sentimental ornaments.  Maybe we should start coordinating the ornaments we give the kids...

We also hung the stockings, but the only place that was out of Colin's reach, was at the top of the stairs.  Alison is very concerned how she is going to get it down on Christmas morning.

1st Navy party

Our first Navy Christmas Party was on a boat!  We had dinner with the Master Chief and his wife and even danced a little.  I kinda felt like I was in high school again.  Guess it's a good thing I still have my high school sweetheart with me!

The presents will be hidden

And this is why:
I turned on some Christmas music and was decorating the house.  I had an empty wrapped box that I hung on our wall last year and decided it would look pretty under the tree.
It lasted all of 5 minutes.  We affectionately call this being "Colinized".  He tore that thing to shreds, but to his credit, he did throw away all the little pieces for me.

He's started mimicking everything.  He'll laugh when we laugh and he'll try to say whatever we say.

This is great for his vocabulary (he's FINALLY started saying mama!) and is great entertainment for us.  Last night, Ben was calling for Alison and Eliot to get into the bath.  We were in a hurry because we had a fancy Christmas party to go to, so he hollered, "Chop, chop!" and Colin was right behind him yelling "chop chop!" at them.

Life would be so boring without my Colin.

Thanksmas

Aka. celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.

Friday morning I still had to teach my class, but Elizabeth came with me, which by the way, meant a lot to me.  When we got home, we all had tea pastries and opened presents.

The kids were bursting at the seams since I made them wait all the way until 9:30!

Colin got this adorable hat and we were all laughing...guess he got embarrassed and ran into Uncle Jordan's arms for comfort.

The kids made Nana a picture of a tree.  I thought it looked so cool, I'm considering having them make another one for us too.

Alison has been saving her tooth fairy money to buy a bean bag.  Nana and Granddaddy surprised her with one and she hasn't stopped beaming.

The kids also got their own coffee mugs and some yummy hot chocolate mix.

We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies and playing.  I cooked Christmas dinner and we took family pictures. 

Putting up the tree

Right after our Thanksgiving feast, we broke open the Christmas tree.

I'm pretty sure the last 4 years we've said this is the last year the tree will make it...don't know how I'll part with it though because it was a wonderful wedding present 10 years ago.  Hopefully next year we can get a real tree :)

We turned on some Christmas music and all helped assemble the tree.

I told Eli to pretend to be Thomas and the branches were his load.  He was pretty stinkin' cute cho-choing across the living room.

Colin thought it would be extra fun to sneak some of the branches away and use them as brooms.

 

I love how excited the kids get when the tree goes up.

Eli kept shouting, "It's Christmas!" and gave some sweet hugs.

 

 For some reason a dance party usually breaks out after the tree is complete...not sure why, but it's kinda become a tradition.

We still haven't put anything on the tree besides lights...Ben and I are still trying to figure out the best way to Colin-proof it.