Christmas Eve/Morning- 2010

This year we had a nice, low-key Christmas.  I had to work for a few hours on Christmas eve.  By the time I got home and Noah had developed a fever and an upset stomach.  Needless to say, we didn't make it to church, but he was feeling well enough to put out some cookies for Santa.  Basically everyone has been sick with some degree of fever, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. for over a week, but I think we are all finally on the mend.  Christmas morning was very exciting this year.   Noah really understood and was genuinely excited for Santa coming and Baby Jesus's birthday... James was just excited b/c Noah was:)  Santa brought a drum with a drum stick and a cooking set for the boys.  James may have been most excited about sneaking the left over cookies from Santa's plate.  As you can see, they were both very spoiled with lots of wonderful gifts. 

First Snowman of the Season!

The kids and I had a very fun "snow day" on Tuesday.  It is days like this that I really wish I could be home with them everyday.  We went outside and had perfect "snowman snow".  Noah was really good at rolling the snowman and James was good at being patient and packing the snow down.  The snowman only lasted for a few hours before the rain caused it to fall over, but fun none the less.  James was so excited about looking at it out the window that even now when we ask him to show us the snowman he gets very excited and runs over to the window pointing and making an "ohohohoh" sound. We came back in for lunch and had a fun time vacuuming/playing on the couch. They love playing together, especially things where they get to jump on the furniture... 

Oh, Pelkey family... thank you so much for the Buzz and Woody figurines.  They play with them CONTINUOUSLY... James has even figured out how to push both buttons at once so we hear all of the sayings in rapid fire and simultaneously... over and over and over:)

Pre-Christmas Trip North

Christmas never seems to work out for us being up north for the holiday.  This year Gabe has 5 days off during Christmas, but I have to work 3 of those 5 days.  So, we made a pre-christmas trip north last weekend and had a great time visiting friends and family.  It was a full weekend, and it took us a few days to recover, but it was well worth it!  On the first day we stayed at Grammie & Grampie Civiello's where Noah and James really enjoyed playing with Stella (the dog) and "ice skating". The next day with spent at Nanny & Grampa's house and got to visit with lots of family, including baby Dennis, aka Trey, who is VERY CUTE in his Santa outfit!  We also played a very fun game similar to 20 questions where you had to ask questions to guess what was on your headband... Noah kept giving the answers away (which is why everyone is laughing in this last picture.  The highlights of both days were probably the good food and both kids loved all of the Christmas tree ornaments!  Thanks to all of our family who made the trip and effort to see us!!

Noah's Christmas Sing-A-Long- 2010

Last Friday Noah had his Christmas sing-a-long at preschool.  He was very excited to sing on the stage and did a great job singing loudly.  He favorite part though, was the "picnic" we had afterwards of fruit punch, brownies, cookies, "roll-ups", and the "veggie tray with tomatoes" that he brought.

James Turns Eighteen Months!

James is now officially 18 months!  He continues to be a relatively happy and very fun kid.  He is walking well, trying hard to jump (which already surpasses his brother:)), and can now climb onto the couch and chairs (as demonstrated in the picture above).  He loves to play silly games, laugh and play with anything Noah is playing with, especially cars.  His language has changed in the last few months.  He now has conversations with you, and himself, which are mostly jibberish, but he has such a cute little voice and he is very animated when he talks.  He still mainly uses signs to communicate, which has, once again, saved us from many frustrating moments.  He finally started to say "mama", he also says "dada, uh-oh, hi/bye".  He is a very good little brother and is learning to share, and to do so willingly, with Noah as well as showing some self restraint when he knows he shouldn't be doing something;) As you can see, he too has become a finger sucker... One day, just after Thanksgiving, he started and has been continuous with it since.  He likes his right first finger only, then he rubs/pulls on his left ear...who knows why, but I do know that he is getting an impressive sucking blister on that finger... we are keeping our fingers crossed that it gets calloused up soon!

Christmas Preparations- 2010

Unfortunately for us, Gabe is working a lot at the beginning of this month.  Last weekend the kids and I got to attend a Chris Van Dusen book reading and signing.  Of his new book, of course, so Noah and James got a Christmas gift early.  It was so neat to meet him in person and to hear the background story on some of his books, and did you know that he designed the Lobster license plate?  The kids did so well and really enjoyed it.  On our way home we picked up our Christmas tree at a local farmstand we love to frequent.  To our luck, it was also their open house day which means- santa with free trinkets, and lots of free food, to which Noah took full advantage of- whoopie pies, blueberry pie, apple pie, pink cheese on crackers, and the list goes on... we had a great day and I even got the tree in, set up and un-netted before Gabe got up the next day. On Sunday we got to see Gabe for a few hours before he had to go back to work- working nights (14+ hour shifts) for the next 2 weeks. During that time Gabe, Noah and I got to get all of the decorations up outside.  I have been plugging away at the inside decorations since the Friday after Thanksgiving, but more so than not, I take something out, the kids play with it or throw it and it goes back into the box.  We are very much downsized this year to books and kids decorations, save for a few things on the mantle... I am really liking the limited clutter at this point:)  We will see how far we get decorating the tree.  Currently it has lights and is tucked in the corner which seems to be working well.  The kids do drive the baby stroller into it, or James will fall/trip/be pushed into the bottom branches occasionally... we will see which ornaments make the cut this year... or maybe the tree with only lights looks nice. Thankfully the kids are both old enough now that they love to help with "jobs" around the house, so they are perfectly content to help out/play on their own while the other things get done.  Oh, and to our UVP friends... Noah LOVES his t-shirt:)

In my constant desire/need to multi-task, things sometimes work out really well.  After getting James's 18 month pictures taken (yes, he is almost 18 months old already) we were window shopping in the mall and happened to walk by Santa's station just as he was arriving.  We were the 3rd people in line, so we jumped on the opportunity, and now I can check this off my list:)