Christmas Lessons

Lesson #1 PVC Pipe is fun
The kids got a bunch of PVC pipe and a variety of connectors to build houses and tents and whatever with. They think it's super fun.

Lesson #2 Jonah likes to get dressed first thing in the morning.
The kids all got Christmas pajamas, but Jonah insisted on changing out of them as soon as he woke up! I was not pleased as that somewhat defeats the purpose and I never got a picture of all three of them in their new jammies (and slippers for the older two)

Lesson #3 Jonah and the FedEx guy are apparently best buds.
Jonah asked Santa for a rocking horse. Considering this was a very last minute request, I wasn't sure that Santa's elves could whip one up in time. But I was pretty sure Amazon.com could. So, I ordered one. It came via FedEx and the delivery guy, unbeknown to me until it was too late, were greeted at the door by Skyler and Jonah. The stupid box had a a picture of the rocking horse on it. On the bright side, Jonah announced that it was just the one he wanted. If you ask him, he'll tell you it's from the FedEx guy. This lesson could also be re-titled "take your kids to talk to Santa the second he hits the malls (even if it's in October) so Santa has plenty of time to build rocking horses." or "ship all packages to your husband's work instead of home"

Lesson #4 Rocking Horses are super cool.
Why did we not have one of these before? All the boys think it's so much fun and Ollie looks so cute on it while shouting out his rendition of "yee-haw"

Lesson #5 So are "Susan Pets".
My mom got each boy a Zhu Zhu Pet for Christmas and can I just say that I understand why they were all the rage last year? They are pretty much lots of fun, though Oliver may or may not agree. I can't decide if he thinks they are cool or scary.

Lesson #6 Skyler prefers a scooter to a bike.
Long ago, Skyler asked for a scooter. Jordan told him he couldn't have one until he learned to ride his bike and that was the end of that. He was so excited to get one for Christmas! Apparently "scootering" is much more fun for him than biking.

Lesson #7 Weight Limit of 100 lbs. means nothing

Merry Christmas everyone! We've been truly blessed this year and Christmas was somewhat like the icing on the cake. Thanks for being a wonderful friend/family member. We love you all.

Snow

Last week, we woke up to quite a bit of snow! It had been raining all afternoon the day before and Skyler was very afraid that it would turn to snow and result in school being canceled and missing his Christmas party! Jordan was vocal about his desire for snow, which made Skyler mad.

We ended up with the best of both worlds, snow but only a two-hour school delay (thus we didn't have a grumpy Skyler!)

Half a Birthday To You

Oliver and Jonah recently celebrated half birthdays, celebrated in style with a half birthday cake.

At 18 months, Oliver likes cars, balls and blocks. He likes reading books, especially Stuck in Muck. He has finally perfected that walking thing and is starting to run. He likes to wear socks on his hands, hats on his head and other people's shoes on his feet (though not at the same time, but I wouldn't put it past him). He doesn't say much - he mostly points and whines and nods and shakes his head. Dad and book and ball and bottle (baba) are about the only words he uses consistently.

At 3 1/2, Jonah loves puzzles and building things with K'nex and Duplos. He loves playing Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart on the Wii. He also likes to build "Bowser castles" with the couch cushions.  Everyday for lunch, he requests a cheese sandwich shaped like a triangle.

Christmas Clothes

The Sunday before Christmas is one of the two Sundays out of the year that I force my children to wear to church the clothes that I specify (though I did not authorize Skyler's tie). Some are more agreeable to this than others. Then I take pictures. Again, some are more agreeable to this requirement than others.

The Boss

Apparently the assignment was, after reading a book about a play, to write about what they would like to do in a play. Skyler wrote:

I want to the director because I get to be the boss and being the boss is fun. It's fun to be the boss because I boss people.

Anyone surprised by this, anyone?

Pictures They Took

Our camera is currently holding our pictures hostage (and there's a lot on there!). This means Jordan will have to take the camera to work so that the card reader there can do some negotiations and release the hostages to a CD which Jordan will then bring home.

In the meantime, the kids' camera is full of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Jonah is very into playing Mario Bros. on the Wii lately. Thus an awful lot of pictures look like this

And here's one of the photos I have hanging up. It's been on the camera awhile, I guess, since you can see a bit of a Halloween decoration. And those have been taken down, really I have.

The Christmas Tree

Someone's feet (I think Jonah)

Cleaning up

Our Moravian Star

Skyler

Oliver

Pink Water Bottles, Presents, and Hand Washing, Oh My!

I wanted to pick up another water bottle in preparation for our Thanksgiving trip. Considering I have three boys, I was a little frustrated by the fact that the style I wanted was only available in pink. Skyler told me that he didn't mind having a pink water bottle and then Jonah piped up saying that pink was his favorite color. They then proceeded to argue over who would get to use the pink water bottle! I went ahead and grabbed another to solve that problem, and then picked up another one for good measure. In a house full of boys, it's kind of fun to have three pink water bottles lying around!

We brought home gifts for the boys from their cousins. Jonah was very concerned that there was no gift for me or Jordan. I told him we'd get some from other people. That night, when he said the prayer at dinner, he added in "please bless Santa to bring presents for mom and dad". I love it when they pray about Santa Claus.

Oliver is currently very obsessed with washing his hands. But only when they are already clean. If they are dirty, he pitches a fit if I try and wash his hands.

Oliver Looks Like His Dad

When Skyler was a year old, we decided to try and replicate a picture of Jordan when he was about the same age. So, we dressed Skyler up in overalls and a red shirt and, well, not so much a match.





Sorry, dad, one year old Skyler looks not so much like you.


Fast forward to now. Oliver looks an awful lot like his dad.

Visiting the Birds

These are some pictures of our trip to Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge. It's supposed to home to like billions of birds (especially this time of year) but I guess they heard we were coming and left perhaps. We still had a great time and saw a good amount of wildlife (including some deer that were very, very close to us).

They were doing different things and watching how it affected their shadows

He Walks!

Ollie has finally got this walking thing down. He took his first steps shortly after he turned 16 months old, but it took him almost six more weeks to figure it and actually prefer walking over crawling.

Now that he walks, he thinks he owns the place. He's drawing on the walls, climbing on the table and throwing much more tantrums. Yippee!

Not Too Cold For Flip Flops

I normally don't condone such wardrobe choices (yet apparently I take pictures of them?), but Jonah is in incredible denial that it is cold outside and socks under flip flops is sometimes the best compromise that the two of us can make. Earlier, he tried to go outside with just his t-shirt and shorts and quickly came back in to put on pants (over his shorts) and add a jacket. It was maybe 50 degrees outside, if that. The kid just does not like pants or jackets and will only wear them if completely necessary. He used to tell me that since it's cold outside, he just wouldn't go outside. Now he'll at least put pants on while he's outside. Last week we went to the aquarium and the botanic gardens (they are right by each other - they share a parking lot and an entrance area). He insisted we bring a pair of pants for him to put on after we were done with the inside portion of our outing (the aquarium). Eventually he'll give in and wear warmer clothing, right?

I Tried Out for Wheel of Fortune and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

A few weeks ago, Jordan and I abandoned the children for half a day to drive to the Wheel of Fortune auditions. If you ever have a chance to go, I'd highly recommend it - it was really a lot of fun! The way it works is everyone there fills out a brief application form. All of those application forms go into a big box and several of them are drawn during the one-hour "show" that you get to watch. It is somewhat like Wheel meets Price is Right in the sense that five names were drawn, those people went to the front and played a quick round of the game. Then five more names were chosen. Neither one of us got chosen, but not all is lost, they will choose some names of those who were in attendance to come back for a second round of auditions early next year. Plus, we got a fabulous T-shirt!

Finding Nemo

Nemo is lost! We must find him! Super Guy is on the job.

Here's Nemo! Oh, wait, no that's a frog.

A frog that likes lollipops

A frog that wants another lollipop.

Okay, back to Super Guy - I think he's found Nemo!

Yup, there's Nemo

And he's over there!

And there!

And there!

What about me, you say? Well, someone had to find Nemo once Super Guy was off duty.

I'll save you all the comment - I did not make the costume, my sister-in-law did for her daughter several years ago. We were glad to re-use it!

How's Oliver Doing?

This is a question I get a lot, and one that I certainly don't mind answering! However, Jordan and I have put together a blog to answer just this question. We will keep it updated with how he is doing and also what we know about his disease (eosinophilic esophagitis).

http://hehaseoe.blogspot.com/

Oh Yeah, We Went to See Balloons

While taking pictures at this year's Balloon Fiesta, I realized that pictures (especially the ones I take) just don't do the event justice. And at nearly that moment, the battery in our camera died. Both Jordan and I thought the previous night that we should put in a back-up charged battery, but we didn't. Here are some pictures though. So as amazing as you may think this is, in reality, it's so much more so. We were so lucky to have Jordan's sister and her family with us this year - they can tell you how cool it is!

The special shapes balloon glow. We tried to go on Thursday night, but it was cancelled, we made it to Friday night's.

This is the pre-ascension glow and the Dawn Patrol. A few balloons launch while it's still dark to test out the weather conditions.

See! We were there!