Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We had a lot of opportunities to do things for others which was my favorite part, and the kids enjoyed making cookie deliveries. Logan really was happy to have his little gifts to give to so many people as well.

This first picture is out of order, but I can't seem to get it moved down... Anyway, this is what Annie found when she opened her gift from us. I decided to take the doll of out of the box so she could immediately play with it. She's been totally obsessed ever since. I can't believe how nurturing she is! She feeds her baby, reads to her baby, kisses her baby, and tucks her baby in bed.

Our Christmas celebrations started early, and quite by surprise! On Tuesday evening, my dad had asked if he could stop by to give the kids their presents from him, but he said he could only stay for a few minutes. When he showed up, his wife, Drenda, was with him and they had a bunch of food. Not long after, Josh and Sarah (my in-town siblings) and Dave (Sarah's husband) showed up too! We were having a party! I'd wanted to get together with my Dad and siblings sometime after Christmas so I could give my dad his Christmas gift, but we hadn't been able to set a date. My dad had been putting me off about it, and I was getting worried it wasn't going to happen! So their surprise really made me happy. I was feeling very loved that night. It was probably my favorite Christmas gift!

I largely forgot about my camera that night so these were the only two pictures I took. After we opened the gifts my dad brought, I gave him, Josh, and Sarah my gift. I can't deny that this gift was a really big deal to me. Back in March, my dad had mentioned a wish to have all of our old home videos on DVD. It took me about two seconds to decide that would be my family's Christmas gift this year. I "borrowed" (it's still borrowing even if the lender doesn't know about it right?) the old VHS tapes in April, and then wasn't able to get the project started until November...but I was planning. I had to pay someone to convert them to DVD, then Jim had to rip them onto our computer so I could edit them with some free software he'd downloaded. We ran into some difficulties, and I had only finished the videos on Monday. It was just in time! I was so glad they were finished and wrapped when my family surprised me that night! We even watched some of the eight hours worth of footage that evening, and enjoyed laughing at ourselves together!

On Christmas Eve we went to my mom's house; my in-town siblings were also there.

Josh was displaying his festive outfit.

Annie received a bag of dress up hats from my mom, and we had WAY to much fun with those that evening.

This one isn't really a hat...

The kids also received mini-brooms from my mom. When Logan pulled his out of the bag, it stayed in his hand while he opened the rest of his gifts. Loving the broom grandma!

I have no words to describe...

We put the kids to bed (even though we weren't staying the night) and stayed up playing games.

On Christmas day, we spent the day with Jim's family at their house.

Once again, I largely forgot about my camera, so I only took two pictures. The kids both fell asleep while we watched a slide show of their old family photos. Jim had "borrowed" (we do plan to return them I promise!) all of his family's old photo slides, and had spent hours and hours scanning them to create digital copies.

We returned home that evening for our last round of gift opening. We'd saved our gifts to each other for then, as well as the family devotional that we like to end our holiday with.

The kids received bubble bath in their stockings, and we had to let them use it that night. I accidentally poured a LOT of it in the water, though, so in addition to being the first bubble bath in months it was also the most bubbles they've ever enjoyed at one time.

The water was so soapy already, that I really had to wonder why I was scrubbing them with more soap when I got down there to help them wash.

The next day I had fun playing with Annie's new hair barrettes and bands. She had her very first pigtails! So cute! They even stayed in thanks to teeny tiny rubber bands.

The Other Big Deal

I don't want to take away from the next post, so this one will be really short. For the big deal this week, read below...this is the other big deal! Yesterday we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary! I am so happy to be married to my wonderful Jim. Our eternity together has really only begun, and what a happy eternity it is has been so far! Happy Anniversary sweetheart!

GRADUATION!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I am near tears with joy at being able to share this news. JIM HAS GRADUATED! He took his last test on Thursday and we attended commencement on Friday. Then we had a party for him and two of his best friends (who also graduated) on Saturday. I am SO HAPPY! Even though I wasn't the one taking classes, I'm convinced his classes were harder on me than my own were (and equally hard on him).

We have a wonderful zoom on our camera...

This is how far away I was actually sitting.

The happy graduate. Hooray!

The equally (or more) happy wife with the happy graduate!

The kids don't know it yet, but this day means they will get a lot more Daddy time!

Jim Sr. with Jim Jr....there is officially another engineer in the family!

Jim's family who were able to be there...

Jim and Ben

The big joke at school with Jim's classmates this semester was that he had two kids and one on the way...very few of them are even married. I think that made him a super-student!

Congratulations Jim! You are WONDERFUL!

Christmas Fun

This year, I've been doing an advent calendar with the kids so we have been doing something a little extra fun each day of December. One of our activities was gingerbread (okay graham cracker) houses. This was probably the biggest hit.

Logan was obsessing about keeping his hands clean...seriously. Otherwise he would have been less inclined to lick and lick and lick.


Still keeping those hands clean...

That is a well-disguised cheerio.

I finally convinced him to stop licking all the frosting off of his hands.

Okay so this picture is not Christmas related...but she's so darn cute!

Logan helped wrap all of his ornaments (see earlier post) and they fit perfectly under our tree. (We don't have room for a big tree this year.)

Body Language

If it weren't for that countdown on the side of my blog here, I probably wouldn't know how many weeks pregnant I am...usually. This week, though, I think my body is trying to send me a message. The message: Welcome to the third trimester! Ow!

Sunrise

This morning Logan got up when it was still dark, but the sunrise was just beginning. The sky was black, but there was a brilliant orange glow on the horizon. He looked out the window to see if "the sun is awake" and then proclaimed, "Mom! There is a big fire over there!"

Shhh...

Logan: "Mom, the bears are asleep!"

Me: "What bears?"

Logan: "Just the regular bears."

A couple minutes later...

Logan: "You have to be quiet, the bears are napping!"

(I'm not sure what the 'regular' bears are, but apparently they are napping in the kids' room...)

Snow Days

It started snowing on Sunday, and didn't really stop until some point yesterday, so we've had several cold days.

Monday...we played in the snow. I even brought the sled out and found a few teeny tiny hills to let the kids go down within our complex. They had a blast.

She was mad because I'd left the sled outside the front door and because I wouldn't let her come onto the carpet until I'd removed her snow clothes.

All better...still have pink cheeks, but warming up.


Tuesday...the weather was worse and we were NOT going to play in the snow. It was just too cold. In Logan's bedroom I discovered this. Hmmm...where are all the books and why is he on the bookshelf?

There are the books! He worked very diligently for five minutes to get them all out here.

After tripping over those books all morning, I put my foot down and told him he had to clean them up. Three hours later, he'd put away five of them. After one final hour of diligence he put EVERY SINGLE ONE away ALL BY HIMSELF. He was pleased about that, and I'm hoping it will cure him of wanting to unload them all in the hallway. (The process certainly wasn't fun for him.)

Wednesday (today)... we played in the snow again. Annie put her hat and gloves on all by herself in preparation. Look at that sweet face!


Ready to sled! Unfortunately it was much colder than the sunshine led me to believe and we didn't last long today. We had fun though!

Ornaments

During our snow days this week, we used some of our indoor time to make Christmas ornaments.

Monday...

Annie was tempted to eat the dough, but I managed to convince her not to.


Washing up afterwards; I felt like this was THE calm point of my day because the kids were so occupied at the sink.

Tuesday...Logan painted ornaments while Annie napped.

He chose all of his own colors, with one exception. I insisted that three of the snowmen needed to be white instead of green. I must say I was impressed with how often my boy wiped his hands on his shirt. You can't tell in the picture, but that shirt had a LOT of streaks on it after he was through. Perhaps I should watch him more closely when he's eating...

Wednesday...He drew faces on the snowmen, and then put a piece of ribbon through each of them.