Christmas Time

I love the Christmas season.  The smells, the sights, the sounds.  Each Christmas brings special memories as our kids grow.  We do our best to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas in all of our Christmas traditions and activities.  The birth of Christ, loving others, the joy of giving.  I pray that these memories will hold a special place in their hearts. 

Lance and I enjoy thinking back to last Christmas remembering all of the things that brought smiles to our faces.  One of my favorite memories from last year was Mara saying "kitmus ights!"  This year our lights have been on since Thanksgiving.  But every night when they turn on, Mara acts as if she can't believe her eyes!  She can't contain her excitement as she runs through the house dragging me to the window to look.  These little moments sometimes make me sad because I know she probably won't do that next year. 

 

Each year we get the kids a new ornament to put on the tree.  I write their names and year on them, and I plan to give them to them when they get married.  Micah has been digging tractors lately, so Lance got him a tractor ornament.  He wanted to play with it instead of hanging it on the tree, so it already has two glued tires. 

One of our Christmas traditions is to participate in Operation Christmas Child.  We went shopping and filled boxes with presents for kids across the world. 

Our paper chain count down to Jesus' birthday.

This girl LOVES Christmas cards.  She'll bundle up and head to the mailbox in the freezing cold to check for cards.  She about tackled the mailman today when we were outside playing.

After she sorts out the Christmas cards, she rounds up Micah.  They usually sit on the couch, and she divides up the cards.  This keeps them entertained for quite awhile!  The cards are displayed on ribbon on our kitchen cabinets, and they both enjoy pointing out friends and family throughout the day.

So far Micah isn't a big fan of bundling up and playing in the snow.  If he reaches down for anything, he falls forward onto his hands and gets stuck because of the bulking clothing and boots.  After watching Mara scoop the drive with Lance, he decided he wanted to head out and help.  He got stuck, bent over, hands down on the cement.  I was in the house and heard him crying, so I went to the door to see what was a matter.  Lance was running the snow blower and didn't hear him.  I don't know how long he had been like that.  Poor thing.

Sled rides!

These two have both really enjoyed helping me wrap presents this year.  I wasn't sure if we'd be able to have presents under the tree without someone unwrapping them, but so far so good.  They have helped me wrap all of them, so maybe they aren't curious as to what's in them.

We love Christmas crafts around here!  Of course they love to have their work displayed.  Our front window is currently covered in decorations!

Each day the kids have an Advent calendar box to open.  Inside the box is the next piece of the story of the birth of Christ along with materials to complete an activity.  I love to hear them retell the story in their own words.  They got into an argument the other day because Micah said that the angel was going to get married.  Of course Mara corrected him.  He took it well.   

This year, we'll advise our family to "eat at their own risk" with our Christmas goodies.  These two couldn't help but take nibbles and lick utensils the entire time we were baking. 

I obviously wasn't paying attention.  Micah informed me that he was making a pile.

 

 Our neighbors don't have to worry about their goodies.  I baked the bread, and Mara helped package the loaves.  No tongues allowed.

Of course we picked the coldest day to deliver to our neighbors.  This is something Mara really enjoys.  She asks quite often if we can bake something and go knock on doors.  I love to see the joy she gets from giving. 

 

I hope the Christmas season is bringing a smile to your face and joy to your heart!

 

 

 

 

 

Daddy Micah

 

 For whatever reason one day, Micah became attached to a baby.  That baby went EVERYWHERE with him!  He was always bringing the baby to me to hold or feed.  The cutest thing is when he puts the baby on his shoulder, gently pats the baby's back, and says, "Shhh, shhh, shhh."  Sometimes the baby is a boy and other times a girl, but it's name is always Kyler (just like his baby cousin!). 

This baby attachment went on for several days. 

Baby even had to sleep with him.  A couple of times, he'd yelled, "Uh oh!  Help!"  When I went to his room, he asked me to get the bottle that had fallen out of his crib.  He's such a lover and nurturer.  He definitely make a great daddy someday!

Jingle Bell Event

We headed to Iowa City for Mara's 4 month check up, and everything looked great!  It has been a bit uneasy taking things day by day, waiting for her to complain about pain and periodically checking for inflammation in her joints.  We were very thankful to hear that everything looked great!  We haven't been going to physical therapy for a couple of months since I didn't feel like it was necessarily helping, and our rheumatologist agreed that it isn't needed anymore.  We head back to Iowa City in 3 months for another check up. 

We participated in the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis.  Thanks to family and friends, we were the top individual fundraiser with over $1,000! 

We made some jingle bell reindeer necklaces, and Grandma J got the kids these Santa hats. 

Great Grandpa was getting decked with shoelace jingle bells.

 

 All bundled up and ready to ride!

Cousin G's family was busy with a wedding, so he got to come with Grandpa and Grandma.

 

 

I haven't run in about a month, and Lance pushed the stroller the entire way.  Needless to say, we did struggle a bit.  We had to top several times to adjust blankets, and Mara wasn't real happy about riding in the stroller and being cold the last half of the race.  But we made it!

 Waiting in the warm car for the rest of our team to finish.

 

 Mara thought it was pretty special to run across the finish line when Grandpa arrived.

 

 

Thanks so much to all our friends and family for donating to and participating in the Jingle Bell race.  We really appreciate your thoughtfulness and support.   

 

 

 

Winter Wiggles

Not being able to get outside because of the cold weather is enough to make this guy dress up like this.....

No, actually we're just really lacking in boy dress up clothes around here, so he doesn't have much to choose from.  Plus, Big Sis looks pretty cool when she wears this stuff!

I posted awhile back about how we've already started to get the winter wiggles in our house.  And that means all of us.  Even if it's cold, we still try to get out.  Even if it's only for 10 minutes.  Fresh air just does a body good. 

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I just can't stand the cold as much as I used to.  So this is me.  Sitting inside the door on a chair watching my kiddos playing in the driveway.  Standing outside in the cold reminds me of how I hated winter recess duty when I was teaching.  That was until it was cold enough to wear snow pants without getting made fun of.  When it's that cold, I'm all about bundling up and hitting the sledding hill.  I just don't like standing around in the cold.

Our neighbor stopped over about a month ago curious as to why I had the pool out scrubbing it down in the driveway.  I explained to him what we were going to use it for inside, and he said I was doing way more work that he'd do.  I asked him if he's ever been a stay-at-home dad with two kiddos in the winter.  He laughed. 

Oh the games Lance comes up with to play in the pool.  He never ceases to amaze me with his creative play. 

We had lost the pens to the Aquadoodle, so we haven't had this out in like a year.  I finally found them when doing some deep cleaning, and they played with it almost non-stop for an entire day.

This little girl's imagination is really starting to take off.  I knew it would, so I've been patiently waiting.  Of course Micah's is taking off at about the same rate because he has a good teacher.  Maybe being inside more has encouraged her to be more creative in her play.  Dress up has become a favorite activity.  They're usually princesses or cowboys since those things make up most of our dress up clothes at this point.  They're often reporting to me that there's an alligator in my closet or a lion under the sheets.  Of course they require that I go check it out every time. 

 I do quite a bit of online shopping, especially this time of year.  So they've been enjoying empty boxes.  I forget how entertaining they can be. 

 She made several attempts at this but was never successful :-)

Box rides were definitely the most fun.  They giggled and giggled.  I was out of breath. 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

Lance's parents are currently living in an apartment, so his brother and sister-in-law hosted Thanksgiving at their house.  My mother-in-law got up really early to start the turkey.  She is an amazing cook!  Everything was delicious!

 watching the Thanksgiving day parade with cousins E and S

 Aunt K made homemade play dough, so when the kids got hungry a bit too early, she handed them some play dough!

 Uncle D wins the strongest uncle award for the 4 cousin push up.  None of the other uncles even attempted this.

 decorating sugar cone trees

 

 

Black Friday shopping (or Black Thursday now) is a tradition my family started several years ago.  It was just my mom and I for the first couple of years, but my sister has joined us for the last couple.  My dad went this year which makes him a two-timer now.  He is very helpful!  He dropped us off at the door while he spent a long time looking for a parking spot.  Then, he guarded our overflowing cart in the one aisle that wasn't packed with people while we made our way through the crowds for the rest of the items on our list.  He did get a big frustrated in one store and told me he was about to ditch the cart and run for the car.  Oh Dad.  I quickly went to his rescue.  For me, Black Friday shopping isn't really about the deals.  It's about spending time with my family - minus the little ones who demand our attention most of the time.  This is the only time of year we really get 6+ straight hours of time together without our kids.  If we have to do it at midnight, then that's what we do.  So for us, 6:00 PM actually works out really well because we get out of the bedtime routine at home, and we're not so sleepy the next day!  We even ended up clothes shopping in the mall at midnight - for some stuff that wasn't even on sale!  Yes, a bit crazy.  But that's what it's all about.  Spending time together, laughing and making memories.  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

Micah was enjoying some popcorn, watching a movie in bed at the hotel.  We headed to Kansas City for the weekend to see some of my mom's family who met us there.  It was a good reminder to us that we shouldn't plan a family vacation any time soon.  Mara is still a horrible rider in the car, and Micah didn't sleep well in the hotel.  Counting my nephews, we had 5 kids ages 3 and under, so we were all pretty busy.  I guess this is why I only took one picture the entire time we were there.  We did some shopping, and the kids enjoyed the pool at the hotel.  Lance fell asleep with the kids in our room, so I enjoyed some adult time with my family.  I'm not sure if I laughed more that night or on Black Friday.  Either way, it was good for my soul.  Thanks family!