Maya's first birthday

Yep, we are that family now.  Didn't think it would ever happen, but it's time to accept reality...we celebrated our dog's birthday.  We really don't know when Maya's real birthday is, but when we got her in March, they said she was 4 months old, so we Alison chose December 1st as her birthday.  

Another reality is it gave the kids something to look forward to.  Eli made a blower for her party.  I felt like this was the first time he made a craft all on his own (like decided to do it, figured out how to make it and executed it).

In the afternoon, Alison and I were sitting, petting Maya and talking.  Alison said, "Sometimes I can't believe we actually have a dog.  But sometimes I wish we had a normal dog."  Oh, I laughed so hard.  It's true that Maya has quirks and Ben jokes that we always seem to get the special needs pets.  But for all her scaredy dog quirks, I am so thankful that she's here. 

The kids really wanted to take Maya to the dog park and to Pet's Mart on her birthday. They had been eyeing a birthday bone for months. You haven't lived until you've taken a scared dog to Pets Mart!
It made me laugh that she wasn't even excited about the treat. That completely sums up this dog...she is picky and unpredictable. But I love it that the kids sang to her and it was a special day for them.

My dad loves me

How do I know?

My doorstep was flooded with boxes and boxes of puzzles he sent me.

We lined them all up and tried to decide which one to start with.

(Maya's scratching in this picture if you were wondering why she looks so weird)

Eli lined them up in order that he wanted to do them.

 

And promptly got out the puzzle board

 

And got to work.  

Actually, this was the next day because he leaves the flipping and sorting to me and then he swoops in to do the border.  He chose the swan picture because we just finished 'The Trumpeter Swan' and he was convinced that Grandpa send us a picture of Louis.

It looked like an easy puzzle and I was sure we would fly through all of these puzzles in no time, but the sky has stumped us on this one and is taking more time that I thought!  I know I've said it a million times, but I love having puzzles out on the table.  I'm afraid it may be one thing our kids remember about childhood.  Hopefully they also remember us all sitting together working on it and eating something yummy.

My boys

Our kids love stories at bedtime, which is a challenge for me.  Hello!  I have a blog so I can remember things because that's how bad my memory is!  I don't have stories stored in this noggin!  But I try.  The last several nights I've been telling them about when Ben and I met and when I was pregnant with each of them.  I love seeing their little faces light up when I tell them about these things.  Tonight, I was telling Eli about when I found out he was in my tummy, which lead to one of my favorite comments.

Me to Eli: "Alison was 2 years old and I REALLY wanted another baby.  I just knew that you were supposed to be a part of our family and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed for you.  The day I found out you were in my tummy, I was so excited that I jumped on our bed and woke daddy up because I couldn't wait another second to tell him that you were coming."
Colin jumps in: "What about me?"
Me to Colin: "We did not know you were coming Colin.  You were a surprise but God had a special plan for you in our family."
Eli: "Well, I guess you just prayed a little too hard for me momma and you got TWO boys."

Lesson learned: Don't pray too hard or God will give you double.  Noted.

Not a day goes by that I don't praise the Lord for giving us the unexpected blessing of a brother for Eli.  Watching these two together is my favorite.

Here they are playing church (which is not uncommon).  I tried to be sneaky about the video:

Bike riding

We are soaking up all the outside time we can.  It's hard to make the kids come inside!   I'm super excited to redo this video in a couple of weeks after grandpa comes and fixes all our bike/bike riding problems!

Decorating

Eli went from always being in pajamas, to always being dressed up.  Perfect example was tonight; I told him to go get pajamas on and he comes back downstairs with his army uniform over his pj's.  Lately, it's been dress up clothes all over their bedroom floor instead of legos.

Elizabeth brought fun nail polish when she was here last week.  The kids asked if they could paint my nails:

Eli did a surprisingly good job.

We spent last weekend working on decorating the house.  Eli's favorite part of Christmas decoration is putting up these houses.  It cracks me up because they were given to us as hand-me-downs a few years ago.  It's a good thing I love the family that gave them to us because he acts like they're heirlooms.

Eli was dressed up as Maya for the tree decorating...because why not?

Maya's first Christmas meant that she was completely unsure about this whole tree in our house thing.

The kids were SO excited to decorate.  A hard thing about moving so much is not having set places for decorations, which made setting things up challenging.  I put up the nativity and Alison kept moving the pieces so that everything was facing baby Jesus.  Then I would move it back to look pretty and she would move it back so they were praising Jesus.  It was kinda cute until a sheep was broken...

I took a little video of putting ornaments on the tree for Ben, but unintentionally got a clip of normal deployment banter.  This is real life with a deployed daddy:

Thanksmas

I'll start taking clear pictures soon...I promise.

But documented, cuteness with Nana.

Kent and Jordan went to Arizona Donuts bright and early and picked up breakfast.  Noted: the glazed twist was heavenly.

I let Kent take all the pictures during presents and just enjoyed the excitement of the kids.  My favorite presents were little science kits.  They were perfect!  They were projects that we have talked about doing and have wanted to do, but just haven't actually been proactive in doing them.  Educational, fun and a project we could work on together; it was a huge win in my books.

Alison built a terrarium:

Eli's kit came with several projects to choose from.  He requested we start with making rock candy.

Alison and Nana having a deep discussion:

I would guess it was over sleeping, which has been a huge struggle for Alison in the last several months.

We took family pictures that afternoon down by the river.  Naturally Colin fell asleep on the way there.  He has been making up for Alison's lack of sleep lately...he's been napping so much I'm beginning to wonder if I should start adding it back into our routine.