All I Want for Christmas...

Yes, I said "Christmas". I've been meaning to post this for awhile now. It's amazing how quickly time gets away from me!

Not too long after Christmas, Amy finally grew in her two front teeth. She is so cute with these huge (for her little mouth), slightly crooked front teeth. She's been fussing a lot lately and I believe she may have another one coming in right along side the top two. I can't tell if anything is coming in (or has already come in) the bottom or not. When she smiles, you can't see the lower gums and she won't let you use your fingers to check. So I guess someday we'll luck out and catch a view of those lower gums and may be surprised to see a whole row of lovely white teeth.

Amy changes so much, almost on a daily basis it seems. She can say just about anything, and not always as an echo of what she's just heard. Her vocabulary is amazing. Right off the top of my head, she can say the following: Mommy, Daddy, Alex, Nathan, Paw-Paw, Granny, baby, puppy, kitty, water, bye-bye, hi, hello, yes (more like yeah), no, mine, night-night, jacket, ball, eat, teeth, hold me, help me, thank you, more, nurse, there-it-is, here-you-go, and Caillou. That covers the majority of her regularly used words. I'm sure there are other words I've heard her say, but I can't think of any right now. We are in constant amazement at all of the words coming out of her mouth. She learns a lot from her brothers. I especially notice similarities between her and Nathan. She mimics Nathan quite a bit, perhaps because her personality is a lot like his. They both seem to feel the need to constantly entertain, whether by acting silly or teasing/aggravating others to get a response. With Nathan and Amy, you never know what's going to happen next!

Oh, and as you can see in the pictures, Amy's hair has reached a length that I can now pull it up. She looks so cute with her little pigtails!

Daddy Time

I don't think I expressed in my Christmas/New Year Update post how much the kids enjoyed having their daddy home. The first couple of days, they would say to him, "Daddy, you don't have to go to work anymore?" They wanted him to play with them constantly, and wonderful daddy that he is, he would often comply.

Bill got a daily workout playing games with the kids. Climbing all over and riding on Daddy is one of Alex and Nathan's favorite games.

What fun Amy had sliding down the slide with Daddy at the park!

Bill even took the boys camping in our backyard. They'd tried it once before but had to bail out when a thunderstorm rolled through. But this time they made it all night and now the boys can't wait until their next campout adventure!

I miss Bill now that he's gone back to work, but I think his return to work was hardest on the kids. They are back to greeting him with excited squeals and hugs when he walks in at the end of the day. Even Amy comes practically running up to him, saying repeatedly, "Daddy!" I think Bill missed that during his time at home. Now he can look forward to coming home each day to an enthusiastic welcoming by his wife and kids!

Christmas/New Year Update

Whew! The holidays flew by once again and here we are in 2007. I don't think I ever got used to writing "2006"! It was a busy and productive break. Bill finished working the flight on December 19th and didn't go back to work until yesterday, January 2nd. That was so nice! Alex's holiday from school also began on the 20th, so we were able to begin our family time all on the same day. Late one evening Bill and I put the kids in their pajamas, prepared coffee in our Starbuck's insulated mugs, and then all piled into the van to go look at lights. We looked and looked until all children were asleep and then drove home to transfer them into their beds. Despite the thunderstorm that had begun around us, it was a very pleasant outing.

We spent the days leading up to Christmas finalizing shopping, baking cookies and wrapping presents. Then Christmas Eve after church we spent the day at my parents house and had an early Christmas with my brother and sister-in-law. It was wonderful as always. The traditional luminarias and light-looking did not pan out this year due to rain. In my parents' neighborhood, white bags and small candles are sold and are supposed to be set out along the sidewalks on Christmas Eve night and lit at a specified time (these are the luminarias). When enough people participate, it is quite the site. We have made a tradition out of climbing into the back of my dad's pickup truck and driving around the neighborhood to look at all the lit up luminarias and Christmas decorations. This year was the first time I ever remember not being able to do this exciting activity. Sadly, Bill and my dad had just finished setting them out when it started raining, destroying all of the bags such that they could not be lit on Christmas night, the appointed rain date. But even without this fun tradition, we still had an enjoyable Christmas Eve. Having not gone on our "Bubba Truck Ride" as my cousin once called it, we were able to get the kids home at a more reasonable hour, which meant our getting to bed at a more reasonable hour - if you can call 2 am reasonable. Christmas morning we thought the kids would never wake up. My parents came over at 6:30 in the morning so that they could be there when the kids came down the stairs to their Santa gifts, but it was probably 7:30 before the kids woke up. At least we had some quiet time to enjoy our coffee. :) When they did come down they were so excited to see what Santa had brought them. Among other things, Nathan got the main item on his wish list - a new vacuum cleaner. And Alex got lots of new superheroes to play with. Bill and I let them play with their new toys for a little while before doing our gift exchange with each other. My favorite gift - the amazing cell phone holder my dear husband made for me so that my cell phone would not just have to lie on the kitchen counter. He's quite the craftsman! We gave the kids the morning to play with all their new treasures at home and then went back to my parents' house for a delicious lunch and Christmas with my sister and brother-in-law.

The boys decorating their Christmas sugar cookies

Christmas Eve at Granny and Paw-Paw's

Christmas morning

My very special cell phone holder (and really neat cell phone cross charm given to me by my sister)

We tried to use the rest of Bill's time off to accomplish a few jobs around the house. The biggest of these was painting Amy's room. It's a lovely shade of purple that compliments her new bedding perfectly. I'll post pictures soon!

New Year's Eve and Day were spent at my parents' indulging in way too much delicious food, as we did throughout the holidays. Now that the holidays are over, we are working to get back onto a healthy diet and exercise program. The diet part is going better, but the exercise... Well, maybe we'll get that going someday, as it is one of my New Year's Resolutions. :) I have lots of New Year's Resolutions I'd love to share, but I'll save them for another post.

Random Photos

Amy riding on her brother's car.

Alex and Nathan playing in the leaves.

Nathan and Amy playing together.

Alex, Nathan and Amy.... Daddy's boys and girl, every one.

Holiday Craze

Posting has been difficult lately because of the many holiday activities that seem to be taking up most of my spare time. For several days there I was just on robot mode. My house was cluttered with craft supplies, gift wrapping and greeting card necessities, and recipe ingredients. I would literally be working on one project and would happen to pass another project in the works and would pause to work on it, forgetting the other project I was supposed to be doing. I felt like I was constantly on the go and half the time found myself with only enough time for a Clif Bar (something my husband introduced me to) for dinner. Bill has been working the current shuttle flight and has had to work every afternoon/evening for 9 straight days, thus we've all been a little off without our regular routine. Thankfully, today, Bill's 10th day on console, is the last time he has to work this year.

The first big event was in my Mission Friends class Wednesday evening. We had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party for our 3 year olds. I cut out ornament shapes from poster board and brought glitter glue in various colors for the kids to use on the ornaments. Sparkly pipe cleaners attached at the top for hanging provided the final touch. The kids had fun with it, though it did get a tad messy. And I was able to let my own kids make ornaments with the leftovers, which came in handy one difficult evening when the kids were in desperate need of direction for their endless energy. They did a fabulous job!

Then Friday afternoon was Alex's preschool "Holiday Party". It was really a Christmas party, but we are not allowed to call it that since it is a public school. How sad is that? Thankfully, the party was ran as a Christmas party. They sang Christmas carols and everyone wished everybody else a "Merry Christmas". As room mom, I had to bring all of the party essentials, and I made these cute santa and snowman cookies for the kids. The recipes were from the 2006 Taste of Home Best Holiday Recipes cookbook. I was going to take a picture of the ones I made, but I forgot. So I've included pictures from the actual cookbook, which are probably cuter anyway.

Saturday we went to Jacob's Birthday party. The kids had so much fun at the party. I don't think my kids are destined to be cowboys, though. I think that's perfectly fine with Bill, who is somewhat anti-country. There goes my dreams of ever living on a horse ranch. ;)

Sunday I had to teach (my co-teacher and I alternate weeks), so I was up late the night before preparing my crafts and Bible lesson. And in addition to our regular class, we had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party, too. It was right in between the 9:30 and 11am Sunday school classes, so we had the 11 o'clock teachers helping with the party as well. The kids had a great time singing happy birthday to Jesus and then decorating and eating star shaped sugar cookies. We also let them have ice cream, a special treat for them. Alex, Nathan and I had another birthday party to attend at 12:30, so we had to rush off after church.

Now things are almost back to normal. I can focus my attention on my own family's holiday activities. I still need to bake Christmas cookies and wrap presents for family and friends, but I can do that at my own leisure. We're also planning to go look at Christmas lights one evening this week. Alex and Nathan are old enough to enjoy it this year. Of course, I think even Amy will get a kick out of it. I'm just looking forward to days spent playing with the kids and evenings spent watching Christmas movies by the fireplace with Bill. There is even a forecast for some cooler weather by the end of the week, so the fireplace may even be lit!

New Look

I decided to follow Celeste's advice and go to the new Beta format. And as long as I was doing that, I went with an all new look. What do you think? I thought it added more color than the old one. :)

Birthday Meme

I'm finally getting around to doing this fun birthday meme that Celeste tagged me to do - sorry Celeste!

Here's how you play:

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays and one death
5) One holiday or observance (if any)

My birthday is April 12th.

3 events:

1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space
1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.

2 important birthdays:

1947 - Tom Clancy, American author
1957 - Vince Gill, American musician

1 death:

1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Holiday/Observance:

Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space; in Russia, the Cosmonautics Day

Boys Will Be Boys

Last Sunday after church we spent the day at my parents house, relaxing and enjoying their Christmas decorations. Alex and Nathan had a great time helping their Paw-Paw with the outside decorations. I think Nathan especially got a kick out of getting to use a real hammer. And ever since, he has been running around beating everything with his play hammer! He also had fun with the ladder. That has been Nathan's big obsession lately. Everytime we leave to go somewhere, he tells me about how Daddy used the big ladder to get onto the house and hang lights. And when we were at Wal-Mart the other day, he had to tell me about how the people use ladders to put the stuff up really high. It seems that every other sentence coming from his mouth is on the subject of ladders. He LOVES ladders! He wants one from Santa, but we've told him that he can't have a ladder until he is big like Daddy. Maybe Santa can bring him a fire engine with a ladder...

Holiday Photos

Now that I'm finally getting another moment, I thought I'd post those holiday pictures.

Eating turkey cookies on Thanksgiving...

Helping put together the Christmas tree...

Helping decorate the Christmas tree...

Helping put out the outside decorations...

I just realized after I uploaded all of the pictures that Amy is not in any of them. It's not because she wasn't present, but I guess because she wasn't actually involved in any of the activities. We usually kept her distracted while decorating was occurring. :)

A Moment to Post

I have so enjoyed reading about everyone's Thankgsiving experiences and Christmas preparations. I feel bad that I have not posted in so long.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. The day before, I made sugar cookies cut out in the shape of turkeys. It was fun decorating them in all colors for the kids to enjoy. Thankgsiving morning I made Pistachio Salad (also called Watergate Salad) and Ambrosia to take to the Thanksgiving Feast, which took place at my parent's house. We went before mealtime so I could prepare my green bean dish and help my mom finish up the other sides. It was a delicious meal, as always. My mom tried a new stuffing recipe this year - it was a sausage stuffing and it was amazing! Her stuffing has always been delicious, but she would spend so many hours in the kitchen preparing it, and though I've enjoyed it every year, she hasn't been as pleased with it the past few years. This new recipe is far easier for her to make, though you'd never know it by how it tastes. It's wonderful! Of course, one of the greatest aspects to Thanksgiving day at my parents' is watching the kids play with their cousins. They have so much fun each time they are together.

The weekend following Thanksgiving we jumped right into Christmas mode. I decorated some on Friday and then that evening the boys helped their daddy sort all of the tree branches and then they somewhat helped us shape them to assemble the tree. Then Bill put the lights on the tree, with a little help from Alex. The kids were so excited to see the tree all lit up! But by this point, it was late and past time for the kids to go to bed. So we let them hang their new ornaments before taking them up for bed. Bill and I then hung all of the ornaments that we do not let the kids hang, leaving plenty of room on the lower branches for the kids to hang the remainder of their ornaments, which they did Saturday night. With the help of Celeste's husband Brian, Bill put up the icicle lights high up on the house Saturday morning before we headed out for my nephew's birthday party across town; he completed the outside lights and decorations on Sunday afternoon. So after a very busy weekend, we were able to finish most all of our Christmas decorating, though I still have my garland to hang over the front door, Christmas wreath to hang, and Christmas mugs to pull out. But for the most part, we're done. I wish I could say the same about my Christmas shopping! Thankfully, even that is nearing completion. Then we can sit back and enjoy everything as we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior on Christmas Day.

I plan to post some pictures from Thanksgiving Day and of Christmas decorating, but I'm afraid if I take the time to try and select pictures and upload them now, I'll never finish this post. So pictures to come!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

The month of November is a month of many blessings. Two of my three children were born this month, and two of my brother's three children were also born this month. It is truly a month for thanksgiving!

Today is Nathan's 3rd birthday. We had such a fun morning going to Build-A-Bear at the mall where Nathan got to pick out which furry animal he wanted and watch it be stuffed, and then pick out its attire and give it a name. Nathan had a little trouble with the concept of what he was doing, so with a little direction from Mommy and Daddy, he went with a white and brown dog. Then, despite Daddy's efforts to convince him he needed a soccer uniform and big brother Alex's recommendation of a superhero costume, Nathan stuck with his own choice and went with the doctor scrubs. Then, upon Nathan's complete lack of interest in naming his new friend, Bill suggested the name "Doc" and that was that. Nathan's white and brown doctor dog named Doc was completed. Alex is already anxious for his birthday so that he can go to Build-A-Bear, too, and make a superhero animal! After Build-A-Bear we had lunch at Chick-fil-A at the mall and then went home for leftover birthday cake and ice cream, then presents. Bill had to leave for work shortly after presents, so the remainder of today we have been relaxing at home.



Last Saturday was the big party. Nathan loves Blues Clues, so that became the theme for the party. For the last couple weeks I had been using construction paper to create the various Blues Clues characters. I tried to make enough of Blue to put her in most rooms downstairs. Bill printed out pawprints and the night before the party he taped them in a long path along the walls and ceiling. Then he taped smaller paws in other areas around the house, including around the front door outside. For the cake, I baked three boxes of cake mix so that I had six 9-inch round cakes from which to cut out a large paw print. It wasn't hard to cut out, but it was definitely hard to decorate! At the party we served hot dogs (what else) with chips, cheese cubes and fruit. We played two games: the first was a bean bag toss game where the kids used a shovel (made to look like "Shovel") and tossed the bean bags into a pail (made to look like "Pail"); the second was a game of Blues Clues. Bill, being the sweetie and great father that he is, dressed the part of "Steve" for the party and led the game of Blues Clues. The kids had to look for the clues to find out what Blue wanted to give Nathan for his birthday. We gave each child a notebook and crayon in which to draw their clues. From the three clues of musical notes, string, and the letter "G", and with some help from the parents, the kids figured out that Blue wanted to give Nathan a guitar for his birthday. Then "Steve" had them follow the path of pawprints to where Blue hid Nathan's present, which happend to be the garage. And sure enough, it was a guitar! And oh, how Nathan loves his guitar!!! He plays it all the time while he sings the "ABC song". So cute! For party favors, I found these cute little wooden mailboxes at Michael's all ready to be painted. So I painted them to look like "Mailbox" and had one for each family. I put their party favors inside their mailbox and they took the whole thing home with them.



It was such a fun party to put together. Nathan seemed to really enjoy himself and his cousin Caden stayed the night with us that night, making the whole day even more special. I'm finished with planning birthday parties until May, and though that is somewhat a relief because I'm really tired, it's also a little disappointing. I love to plan their parties and look forward to seeing what Alex wants to do for his 5th birthday so I can start planning away!