Christmas Festivities

We had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this year.   We used our Family Home Evening Nights to talk about the real reason for Christmas.  One night we set up our little Nativity under the tree, and the boys had fun "playing away in a manger" as they called it.  The little figures were rearranged on a daily basis.  We also set up a "treasure box" under the tree and each  night (when we remembered) we would talk about kind things they had done for others that day, which is like giving a gift to Jesus.  They would then get coins to represent their good deeds and put them in the box. 

 
 

We also re-enacted the Nativity; a tradition from my childhood that I love carrying out with my kids!  They voted for me to be Mary, Eli was Joseph, Owen the Shepherd, and Brad got to be the donkey AND the angel.  Lucky guy!  The boys took their roles seriously and called me Mary for the rest of the night!  They took great care in watching over baby Jesus, making sure he was swaddled, and bringing him to me if they felt he was hungry or needed a snuggle. 

And of course we love to play along with the Santa Myth too.  He's definitely not the focus of our Christmas traditions, but we don't see any harm in pretending.  We tell the boys that the reason Santa does "good deeds" of bringing gifts to children is to remind us all of the most special gift of Christmas.  They seem to understand the concept just fine.  We had a fun time at Bass Pro shops visiting Santa this year.  Eli and Owen were both so brave and walked right on up to sit with him and request "A Polar Express that moves by itself!"  Santa was a little thrown since he'd already prepared their gifts for Christmas, so there were some last minute returns and quick Amazon orders to get it right, haha. 

A favorite at Bass Pro is watching the Christmas train they have set up every year.

Earlier in the month of December, just days before Eli's birthday, we ended up with a Winter Wonderland for a few days!  I was glad I actually bought snow gear this year, because the boys were finally able to get out and experience the magic of winter.  In fact, they like playing outside in the snow more than in nice weather I think!  The snow has since melted and we've had a lot of warmer sunny days, and it's like pulling teeth to get them outside!  Here they are catching snowflakes with their tongues.

We also got a basic sled this year - we have the perfect little bunny hill in our backyard for sledding.  I told the boys I wasn't going to be hauling it up and down the hill for them, so they could play with it however they choose.... well I was surprised and proud when they figured out how to hold it for each other and take turns pushing each other down the hill!  It was so fun!

Another of our FHE nights is a Columbia, MO tradition - a visit to the Magic Tree.  One man has taken it on himself to spread Christmas cheer by decorating this tree top to bottom every year... actually it used to be a tree at his home, but traffic got so heavy over the years that it is now a tree in a shopping area that he uses... the lights slowly morph and change color as you watch.  The kids LOVE running around under it and trying to touch the lights.

 Brad had to work all day Christmas Eve (even though it was Saturday), so the boys and I made sure to fill the day with fun.  The boys donned their hats and took their jingle bells outside... I told them they had to run around and ring the bells and sing as loud as they could so Santa would know how to find our house... they took this job very seriously!

Then we did some Yoga ABC's (really so fun - check it out from your library!) to re focus. 

Our house on Christmas Eve.... I made the stockings last year - they are burlap and muslin with distressed black wood letters for our initials... the tree is wrapped in burlap at the bottom with a burlap "garland" tucked in. 

Cookie making actually took place the day before Christmas Eve.  This is the first time I've really had the boys get down and dirty with cookies, and it was so much fun!  We made a modified ginger bread cookie recipe, and they got to help mix, and then roll it out and cut the shapes!  They really did a great job! It reminds me of so many fun Christmases from my childhood, making cookies with my mom and sister.  I think we usually got just as messy! 

A little dry-erase snowman art while the cookies were baking (these have been so fun - just print various mazes/drawing/writing activities from online and laminate them - dry erase is super fun with kids, especially perfectionistic ones who don't like to mess up!)

Finally, icing the cookies!  By far the boys' favorite part!  I got colored icing in little squeeze tubes which worked out perfectly for their little hands to be able to control and draw designs with. 

Santa was so lucky to get a plate of designer cookies this year!

When Brad got home Christmas Eve, we made sure to put out a plate of cookies for Santa (of course after the boys and Daddy had some too - poor Mommy is on a restricted gestational diabetes diet so NO COOKIES) and the boys insisted we put carrots out on the lawn for the reindeer.  We read some Christmas stories and put them to bed ... but funny enough they both had trouble falling asleep they were listening so hard for the reindeer to land on our roof.  Poor Santa had to pull a really late night to surprise these guys! 

The BIG 5!

Five years ago, when I held my first baby for the first time, and my world turned upside down, I could not have imagined how fast time would fly!  From those early days of just trying to figure out how to breastfeed, how to shower and feed myself with a newborn around, to watching him learn to walk and talk and feed himself, to potty training, sleeping the night in his own room, and everything in between... to now waking up one morning to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the birth of this beautiful boy!  He has been the one I've had to learn the most on so far, and he has been such a trooper.  What a sweet and joyful boy to have in our home!

On his actual birthday, Owen and I were able to come to preschool and bring treats - we had pudding cups and graham cracker sticks.  Eli even got a candle in his pudding, and was tickled that his class sang Happy Birthday to him.  Owen was THRILLED to get to spend a day at Eli's school, and I think Eli was just as thrilled to have us there. 

 

After Brad got home we had dinner and "birthday cookies" aka. Oreos.  Eli got to open his joint gift from us, Grandma and Grandpa K. and Great Grandma K.  It turned out to be a Playdoh tool kit, and a super fun and challenging Marble Run game called Quadrilla!  Brad set it up for him and he and Owen were transfixed by rolling marbles for a good hour straight.  We had to force them to get their PJ's on, then we watched home movies from Eli's newborn days before bed.  It's really funny to watch those old videos - especially just noticing how novice Brad and I both seemed as parents - just trying to figure out how to dress and bathe a baby!  Eli got phone calls from Kramer and Benson grandparents before bed... it was a lovely day!  He got his gifts from Grandpa and Grandma B. a few days later (though no pictures - a "rescue hero" action figure with helicopter, and "spy plane" from Cars 2 that opens and closes with room for a race car inside). 

Eli had a snowman themed birthday party the next weekend.  I managed to pull it together in a few days - including informal email invites to friends - I've been flying by the seat of my pants lately with all these bdays and holidays at once!  Anyway, here is the (very simple) Snowman cake!  Eli was tickled with it.  

Of course the boys helped clean the frosting off the spatulas.  Yummm.... coolwhip!

For games we played "cold snowball" which is basically like "hot potato."  The kids sat in a circle and passed around a styrofoam ball that looks like a snowball while "Frosty the Snowman" song played.  Whenever I would randomly pause the music, whoever was holding the snowball was out and had to leave the circle, but that just meant they got to come and get a candy cane =).  After that, we sat around the table and assembled giant marshmallow snowmen!

Then of course was cake and ice cream time.  Eli has trouble keeping his eyes open in pictures with a flash, so this is the best shot I got of him with his cake! 

 A great big breath!

All the little kiddos who celebrated with us!  We had 3 boys and 1 girl from Primary class, and Eli's best girlfriend and her big brother from playgroup.  In the back are Lydia and Grant; front is Jay, Owen, Andrew, Eli, Ali, Brayden.  It was sure a lively and fun group! So lively in fact that I sent them outside for balloon wars the last half hour of the party.  It was a little cold, but the snow had melted so it wasn't too bad (other than muddy!).   

Eli LOVED his party.  But the fun didn't end there.  The minute the last two kids were picked up, we had to jump in the van and head over to Barnes and Noble for Eli to sing Christmas songs with his Pre-school class. 

 

Lydia (who was at the party) was there too since they now go to school together.  They are bestest pals.  Eli describes her as his "really, really, really, really best friend."  She's a cutie for sure!

And a shot with his fun teacher, Ms. Garrett.  She has been THE teacher at Eli's school for 25 years!  She's pretty good at it!

After the singing, we were off again - this time to our ward Christmas party!  We had a lovely dinner, a singing program, then the kids got to walk down "candyland lane" for a surprise visit with the big guy in red!  And I promise, Owen is not picking his nose even though it looks like it in the picture. What a fun-filled day of celebration!  It must be interesting to have your birthday all wrapped up with Christmas excitement!  

The Basics at Five:
Height: 43.75 inches - 68th percentile
Weight: 43.6 pounds (hey, a pound an inch!) -70th percentile
Clothes:  Size 4/5 kids shirts and 5T pants with the adjustable waist - long but skinny torso!  12-13 Shoe.
 
Favorite Foods:  Eli is still pretty particular about what he will eat.  This summer he was evaluated for sensory processing issues, and is currently in occupational therapy to help with his eating, as well as some mild motor incoordination.  Some "new" foods this year are chicken nuggets, fish sticks (super skinny french fry kind) and only cut up in small bites and dipped in honey, Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese Bunnies (never thought I'd see the day!), String Cheese, smooth creamy yogurts with no fruit chunks, juice (any color) and egg nog!  That's quite a list of new things!  His favorites are still cheese "rollups" (melted cheese in tortilla rolled up) and peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch, toast with chocolate almond butter for breakfast.  We've cut way back on goldfish crackers, but they continue to be a special treat.  He also has a sweet tooth and will accept a lot more new "candy" type items than other things.  Marshmallows are also a new thing this year.  The only vegetable is still raw carrots, and fruits are apples or dried mango.  He's been very willing to earn stickers for his chart by allowing new foods to at least be on his dinner plate without complaining.  He gets different numbers of stickers for being able to either smell, touch, lick, or bite the new foods.  So far he has gotten brave about licking, but biting is still a challenge with most things - even familiar foods that are just on his "yuck" list.  We are really proud of him for trying and think he's doing great at trying to understand being healthy and working up the courage to try new things.  

Favorite Activities: 
Eli still loves trains, and has been asking Santa for a "real one" for two years now... we'll see if he delivers this time around.  He also loves racing cars with Owen, and playing all kinds of pretend scenarios with their animals.  He has discovered the joy of Hide and Seek, and loves riding his new "Big Trike" from Harbor Freight - the thing has monstrous inflated tires!  He has LOVED attending pre-school three mornings a week this year - much to my surprise and delight.  He also enjoys gymnastics, and has been making great strides in his upper body strength and balance.  He's been in occupational therapy for a few months and while he really enjoys the "gym" toys at the clinic, he has not been very excited about the fact that he has to try touching/smelling new foods when he is there sometimes.  He is making progress though!  Along with strength and balance, his fine motor with writing and cutting is coming along so well with practice too!  He recently got some dry erase books with mazes in them and can sit for an hour straight doing 30 or so mazes in a row!  He loves to think and figure things out.  He is often so lost in thought I can find him at the breakfast table 20 minutes after it's served with no bites taken, because he is busy "thinking."  He LOVES to ask "WHY" about everything, and is usually truly seeking an explanation for the world, not just asking for the heck of it. He has become a great helper, and is so excited about having a baby sister.  He explains to everyone that we already have 3 kids in our family - one is just in my tummy... he tells them she can't come out yet because her lungs are not ready.  Eli also loves reading books and is interested in letters and sounds.  He has picked up all on his own recently what letters make what sounds, what letters start words, and is also practicing basic math!  I don't know where he picked up the addition concept (probably preschool) but he is always telling me what number plus what number equals what.  He is a super smart, loveable cutie pie, and we are lucky to have him in our family!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home again this year.  This late in pregnancy, traveling 20+ hours in a car was not really feasible, and saving Brad's vacay time for the birth is top priority!  This year we were able to host 3 other families at our house - The Hamptons, The Daltons, and The Whitakers ... it turned out to be so much fun!  Here's the table... hard to see in the pic but my "fancy" table runner is a long strip of burlap, and the napkins are tied with twine.  It was nice to have an excuse to unpack the nice dishes I've had in boxes since we left AZ 31/2 years ago.

The boys were so excited about the day that they were bouncing off the walls.  Brad settled down to read with them to keep them from tearing up the house. 

 Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of everyone together, but I at least got all the kids!  We had four 4-5 year olds, three 2-3 year olds, and 3 babies 6-9 months.  It was the perfect party!  Thankfully we had a break from the cold and the weather was GORGEOUS.  The kids spent a couple hours between dinner and dessert playing outside.  We had SO MUCH good food and the best part was that I didn't have to do much cooking at all thanks to our talented guests =). 

 I at least remembered to have someone snap a picture of the four of us before everyone was gone.  And there must be some magic trick to this photo - you can hardly see my belly, but believe me it is HUGE.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Owen's Three!

Mr. Owen turned the big 3 last month!  I don't know how the last 3 years have whizzed by so quickly, but I'm sure a lot of it has to do with how busy this little guy and his big brother keep me!

On his actual birthday, we watched some home movies from his newborn days, had some birthday cookies, and a special package arrived from Grandma and Grandpa B.  Wouldn't you know it contained Cars character race cars, a Cars launcher and a movie (though the Cars 2 movie has since been banned at our house - what was Disney THINKING?  That's a whole other post though).   He and Eli spent the rest of the evening having car races across the kitchen floor. 

My big boy still loves to get his snuggles in though, and talked me into wrapping him up on his special day.  It was kind of hard to do with the rather large BUMP on my front at the moment, but he had some fun taking pictures of ourselves.

Owen's party was an intimate affair with a few good friends from the weekly playgroup we've been a part of for the past couple of years.  Owen was thrilled to have Grant, Lydia, and Iris Mueller, as well as Emory Tilghman come and celebrate with him. 

 

 He was particularly over the moon about his racetrack birthday cake... complete with a green race car with the #3 on it!  He'd been asking for a race car cake, and this was the simple alternative that his non-gifted-baker mama came up with.  In case you can't tell, the top is covered in crushed cookie so it looked a little bit like blacktop.

 

He definitely knows what to do about presents at this age! He ended up with Bendaroos (waxy craft building sticks) from his friends, and  Playdoh kit, Hotwheels cars, a Hotwheels launcher, and a jumping frog game from a combination of Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa K and Great Grandma K. 

It was a fun night playing with all the toys!  The friends all pitched in with the toy testing, and after they went home, the boys and Daddy got to stay up late putting together hotwheels track and launching cars through a loop de loop. 

We sure love our "Little Big Boy!"  He is very excited that he is going to be a BIG BROTHER now, and he loves to look at my growing belly and try to feel the baby kick. Owen is quite  a hoot to have in our family.  He's been very verbal from an early age, and is already mastering the art of sarcasm and cracking jokes.  He loves to tease and be funny, and definitely has his own strong opinion on just about everything.  Some of the things he comes up with to say lately have had us laughing our pants off... I'll have to write some down and get them posted up here!

He is Mr. Independent as well and is never afraid to try new things.  He managed to potty train before his 3rd birthday as well, much to my relief!  He learned how to potty #1 in just about a day over the summer, but potty #2 was pretty stressful.  I remember one day after multiple trips to the potty over a several hour period, and lots of crying, and finally a potty mess on the floor thinking he was never going to get it.  Less than a month after that, he was taking himself completely independently to the potty, using toilet paper, and washing his hands afterwards all by himself!  I am still kind of shocked, but that's Owen.  Once he gets it, he goes forward full steam.

Owen's latest accomplishment is being able to say family and meal prayers all by himself.  He offers the sweetest prayers, and loves to be the one to do it at dinner and bedtime - he also likes every person to take a turn saying one.  He has also transitioned to being able to fall asleep at night without Mom or Dad snuggling him (though he still gets to sleep next to Eli in their big bed).  He is "mostly" off his binky, though still goes searching for it in times of distress or nightmare waking (of which he has had a few lately - must be that three year old imagination!).  He had his first dentist appointment and was brave enough to go through a real cleaning!

In general he is just a fun loving and sweet kid.  It has been a little tough on him that Eli gets to go to pre-school 3 mornings a week this year, but it has also been nice for us to have some one on one time as well.  He has become quite the little grocery shopping helper, and we make regular trips to the library together where we get to snuggle and read one on one, and pick out special things to bring home.  I know that I will probably look to him to be even more "grown up" in the coming months when our new addition arrives, so I am trying to cherish every moment left of his time as the youngest "baby" in the family.  I sure do love my Owen and can't say enough good about him!


The Basics at Three:
Height: 40 inches - 93rd Percentile
Weight: 38.4 pounds -94th Percentile
Clothes: In size 4T to 5T shirts and 4T pants - Eli's clothes from just last season!  Catching up fast!  10-11 shoe.

Favorite Foods:  Owen does not suffer from the picky eating syndrome like his brother.  He is not afraid of strong flavors, and I think has inherited my tastebuds.  He can down 3-4 pickles in a row and ask for more.  He is not afraid of vegetables, and would often eat them raw out of the garden this summer.  He loves steamed broccoli with feta cheese on top, salmon, and all the basics like pizza and burgers and chicken nuggets.  In fact, I'm not sure I can pinpoint a favorite food because he just enjoys eating, and always seems to have room for more!

Favorite Activities: As evidenced by his birthday gifts, Owen enjoys playing race cars a lot right now, though it's not his single passion.  He also enjoys trains, and in general loves to run and play with his brother.  His imagination has kicked into full gear, and he and Eli can cook up some interesting and often mischevious plans (most recently - flushing toys down the toilet and clogging it to the point we had to buy a snake). He upgraded to Eli's old tricycle this summer and enjoys strapping on his helmet and going for a ride around our circle.  He loves digging in the garden, playing in the kitchen and bathroom sinks (plenty of mischief there!), playing playdoh, reading books, and going to gymnastics.  His favorite time of day is when DADDY comes home!  He loves to wrestle and rough house with his Dad, but he also loves to snuggle and read with him in the evenings.  He brightens up our lives so much - we LOVE you Owen!

Birthday in Hannibal

For my birthday this year, we took a little family day trip to Hannibal, Mo - hometown of Mark Twain.  We got to ride on the "Mark Twain" riverboat and soak up the gorgeous fall scenery!

We played for a while at the park while waiting for the boat, and Eli and Owen thought they were in HEAVEN to get an up close view of a real train going by!

The views from the river were stunning... and the weather was perfect!  I can't say enough how much I LOVE THE FALL!

Owen cried most of the boat ride unfortunately... best we can figure is that he was just overtired.  Both boys were fighting over sitting on Dad's lap by the end. 

We had a really nice captain to saved the day by letting Eli and Owen have turns "steering" the boat once it was docked. 

Oh, the views in Hannibal!  It wound up being such a beautiful place!  We've been meaning to visit for a while, and I'm glad it ended up being this time of year.

What's even better than a playground?  A LEAF FIGHT at sunset!