Our Best Christmas Yet

Christmas is always wonderful, but Jim and I agree that this year was the best so far. We had a goal to focus on the Savior, service, and family during the entire month; it made for some great experiences! Prior to the actual holiday we delivered "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to a family in our ward, plus cookies to several others. Logan loved watching Daddy run "fast", and really loved it when he got to help run (they were caught on each of those). We mainly gave homemade gifts this year which required a lot more thought and effort beforehand, but I felt like they were so much more meaningful. We never entered a shopping mall! We also had dozens of opportunities to talk to Logan about "baby Jesus" since we have a child's nativity that he's enjoyed playing with, and it was our family home evening lesson two weeks in a row. We were able to visit all of our family during the holiday, and had some of the best visits we've ever had.


Logan helped me make cookies and fudge to deliver. On this day we'd already made chocolate cookie dough (notice the chocolate on his face...this will be a perpetual thing throughout his holiday pictures), and were getting ready to make fudge. I had set a can of evaporated milk on the stove, and then went back to the bathroom. While I was away, I heard Logan moving his chair on the kitchen floor and wondered what he was up to. I came back to discover he had found the can opener and was attempting to open the evaporated milk. It was pretty cute. He sure is my good helper!




On Christmas Eve we went to Jim's family home during the day. We had a nice dinner, played a game, opened presents, made cookies, and even had a little devotional. It was a really great visit.

Annie was snuggling with Aunt Elisa, but looked up as soon as I got the camera.

Making cookies with Grandma Allison
After our visit with Jim's family, we headed over to my mom's house. We had another nice dinner (I guess the other one was actually lunch) and opened more presents. We read the Christmas story, accompanied by pictures, before attempting to put the kids to bed. We were going home for the night, but were planning to stay past bedtime to play games. Annie went to bed, but Logan put up a fight and won. He stayed up with all the grown-ups until 11:00pm when we packed up and headed home.

Sitting on his new throne. We had a time convincing him not to strip down to try it out right then.


This little pig sings "Old MacDonald" and Annie was dancing to the music; it was so cute!

This is the gift I made for my little sister. She's newly married, so I made her a sign with her new last name.
Logan decided to try on Jim's glasses while we were reading the Christmas story.

12:00 MIDNIGHT. Since he wouldn't go to sleep at my mom's house, this was one VERY tired boy. I carried him inside and laid him there when we initially walked in. He didn't move until we carried him to his room for bed...FINALLY.

Christmas morning was at home. We slept in until 9:00am (thanks to having the kids out so late), had pancakes, and enjoyed watching the kids play with their toys. (Jim and Annie also had a mid-morning nap.) We enacted the story of Christ's birth using the children's nativity set, and talked about how we were receiving presents because it was Jesus' birthday. I really think Logan understood to a degree since we had so many opportunities to talk about it during the month and the day before.

In front of our Christmas tree. I told him he had to finish his banana before he could touch his toys (the ones he'd opened the day before); I think it was the only good thing he ate all day.
Opening Mommy and Daddy's gift. I made him an apron and chef's hat because he LOVES to help me in the kitchen. He also received cookie cutters, and a cooking set that I'd had as a little girl (it has a rolling pin, mat, spatula, bowl with lid, and measuring cup).


Annie opening her gift and playing with the box from another. She enjoyed her new toys, but the bags, boxes, and paper were just as fun.

Logan received bubble bath and foam letters in his stocking. He was SO excited to try them out that night. Annie loved the bubbles as much as he did.



We went to my dad's house Christmas afternoon. We had another nice meal, more presents, and played a gift exchange game that was really fun. We also had a good time playing ping pong afterwards. It was another really good visit.

The gift that Logan received at my dad's house had enough little parts and assembly that we wouldn't let him open it over there. He stared longingly at the box during our visit and begged us many times to, "Open't!" So, after the kids were in bed last night I put it together and set it in front of the tree for him to discover this morning. His reaction was really funny. I heard him get up and come out of his room. Typically, he comes into my room right away to get me up, but he went into the living room first. I heard him gasp and say, "Oh boy!", then all was silent for several minutes. I decided to wait to see what he would do. Pretty soon I hear him coming down the hall, and I think he's coming to get me finally. Nope. He closes his bedroom door that he'd left open, so Annie would continue to sleep, and goes back to the living room. Several more minutes of silence pass, and then he comes yelling down the hallway, "Mamma! Toy!" He opens my door and says, "Crap." (A side note: we didn't realize we had been using this word, and have now decided to make sure it is deleted from our vocabulary because it doesn't sound very nice when a two year old says it.) I don't know why he said it, but I about lost it (I was still pretending to sleep); as not nice as it sounds coming from his mouth, it was really funny this morning. So I come out to the living room with him, and he hasn't touched the toy. Every little piece is EXACTLY where I set it the night before. I guess he thought he wasn't allowed to touch it because we hadn't let him have it yesterday. I gave him permission to play with it, and he played for an hour before we bothered with breakfast.
We are so blessed. Our holiday was wonderful, and I feel like we kept with the spirit of the season this year. In addition, we had our own personal miracle this month.

Heading into this Christmas season, we were worried because things have been tough for Jim at work, and they were requiring him to take four weeks off during a six week period. Three of those weeks were during his Christmas Break, and we'd been counting on him being able to work extra hours during those weeks especially. We NEEDED him to work at least his regular hours so we could pay rent. Part of our reason for homemade gifts was because we knew money was tight, and Jim was feeling really bad because he felt like he couldn't buy gifts for his children.

Then several miracles occured. Jim and one other intern received special permission to work during the mandatory break...all four weeks. At the same time we were realizing the scary position we were in, Jim's dad received phone calls for several jobs (he has a civil engineering business that has been really slow) that he paid Jim to do. On the two days we went to our families' homes, the kids received an abundance of clothes, toys, and books, and we were given lots of treats plus a box of food from my mom. I had given away ALL of the goodies I'd made except for about ten pieces of fudge, and had been really careful with my grocery shopping. When we unloaded everything and started putting it all away, we realized that it didn't all fit. Our pantry was so full with food, that we couldn't get it all in. We had bowls and bowls full of Christmas treats; not that we NEED to eat it, but we feel so blessed to have been given. Annie had almost no clothes in the size she is about to be in, and now has more than enough. The toys and books the kids received were very much according to their interests. Again, not that they didn't already have plenty of toys and books, but everyone put so much thought into giving them gifts that they'd really enjoy.

I know the Lord promises blessings when we pay our tithing and fast offerings. We had learned that we really can't afford not to. We have truly been blessed.

A Whole Lotta Fun

I've been having a lot of fun with the kids, and Logan has been really funny lately. Here are some photos of what we've been up to.

We made cookies with some friends, and she sent us home with a bunch. Logan helped decorate them the next day.

This was really funny. Jim and Logan were reading stories together one night, and Logan heard a fire truck. Pretty soon, Jim noticed the lights out in our parking lot. So, Jim opened the back door for Logan to see with the intention of looking from the doorway. Our barefooted, t-shirt clad little man was too excited to stand there and he ran out to the railing before we knew what had happened. It only took a minute for his excitement over the fire truck to fizzle once he realized he was standing in the snow!


I'll call Logan the "copy cat" for these next pictures. I took a picture of Annie holding her cup (because I was pleased she learned how to do it at a younger age than Logan), and Logan decided he needed his picture taken with his water bottle.


Later that day, I was folding laundry, and Annie was playing with a washcloth. I thought it was so cute that she was putting it on her head that I needed a picture. So, of course Logan decided he needed his picture taken with a washcloth on his head too!


Last night we went to the zoo to see their holiday lights. We have a zoo membership, and decided it would be a good free activity. It was very cold, so we bundled the kids up really well.

Logan decorated giraffe crackers (with spray on food coloring).

A VERY excited boy pointing at the giraffes.

EWWW! This was progress; usually he drops the cracker before the giraffe can get to it.

Santa Claus brought presents to the bears and said hello.

Happy Holidays

We took some fun pictures together last week. Happy holidays!

Christmas Creation

I am not crafty at all, but look what I made! We created centerpieces for a YW activity last week, and I was so pleased with how it turned out. I took a picture so I can make another one next year!

Annie

Jim has been laughing at me lately because I've been taking so many pictures of Annie. I guess it's true. She's just so sweet, and I have so much fun dressing her up. Then I look at her and think I need a picture.


We took her swimming for the first time last Friday. We thought she'd probably only last a few minutes, but she stayed in the whole time! The water was really warm, and she loved it! When we got out it was because Logan needed his diaper changed, not because Annie was done. Sorry, there are no pictures of her IN the pool because I was wet by then.


Now begin the pictures that I took just because I thought she was so cute.




It's hilarious what her big brother puts her through; she loves it too!

Feeling Good

In the last couple of weeks, I have had two very wonderful developments. The first one:

ANNIE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!

Which also means:

MOMMY IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!

Most of the time anyway. Logan still likes to get us up in the middle of the night occasionally and get me out of bed, and Annie sometimes wakes up briefly needing her pacifier. I don't have to get her out of bed, though. How did we do it, you ask? Well, when Logan was a baby our doctor gave us some information to help train him to sleep through the night, and it only took two nights. We did the same thing with Annie, and it took her about two weeks, BUT she only had a hard time the first two nights. (NO; I did NOT let my little girl scream her head off. She did have to fuss some, though.) Curious???

Here's a link to the method. I have absolute faith in it now that it's worked with two kids. (The links are slightly different; they are based on the reason the baby wakes up at night.)

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/pa/pa_nightfd_hhg.htm
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/pa/pa_nightcr_hhg.htm

Wonderful development number two:

I AM EXERCISING!

I feel great after I have a baby, absolutely wonderful, fantastic, and energetic. When Annie was born, I couldn't WAIT to start exercising. I was so motivated; I thought it would be easy. I was SO VERY WRONG. I ran into a LOT of problems like:

I ALWAYS have two kids in tow, and they aren't very tolerant for most exercise I've tried.
I don't live near a neighborhood, so I can't even go for walks.
I don't have much time.
It's BORING to exercise for the sake of exercising.
AND the biggest problem of all...I couldn't figure out what to do in a tiny little apartment. I tried jump roping, jogging the whole 20 feet back and forth across our living room and dining room, kicking a soccer ball against the couch, etc..

Almost two weeks ago, I borrowed a kid's dance CD from my mom, along with a Pilates DVD that I'd liked when we lived with her. Almost every day, I've danced to the CD, and I'm amazed! (I do the DVD on the rare occasion that Jim doesn't take the computer.) The kids like it because it's fun, and Mommy is being silly. Plus I can dance with them if they want attention (that's a REALLY good workout). I like it because it's only 25 min., it's fun, and all of the songs have particular movements that go with them. The CD is called "Disney's Dance Along", and there's songs like "The Chicken Dance", "YMCA", etc... By the time I've finished the CD, a few sit-ups don't seem like a big deal, so I do that for a few minutes too. The best part is that I feel wonderful! I've been feeling really blah lately, and even pretty grumpy at times; I know it was because I wasn't being very active. I can't get over how good I've been feeling since I started dancing to this CD. This is by far the most enjoyable home workout I've ever tried. Sorry for the book, but I'm done now.

These pictures are totally unrelated, but I wanted to post them anyway.