Christmas 2009

I tagged a post for Christmas right away, but somehow a month has gone by and I still haven't gotten around to posting pictures, etc. Oh well, better late than never!

On Christmas Eve we headed to Mike's parents to celebrate with Chris and Alicia.

Christmas morning the kids found that Santa had come. Brooke was insistant that we leave the fireplace doors open (since this was our first Christmas with a fireplace.) We then exchanged gifts with my family and had a fun day playing with new toys.

The day after Christmas my Grandpa Ted, Aunt Jeanne and her two girls, Amanda and Steph arrived. We had a great visit and my kids were excited for all the extra attention. Our big turkey dinner was 2 days after Christmas with our guests and Mike's side of the family. It was a great week of celebration.

Grandpa with the grandkids







Taking down the tree a few weeks after Christmas...I think this picture gives perspective on how honk'n big the tree was.

Supporting the North Pole

I know how Santa generates enough money each year to support his shop in the North Pole - mall pictures! Year after year I overpay for a picture that never seems to qualify as "good" and this year was no exception. Although, there was a great picture of all the kids but Santa's eyes were closed! How dare he...(Mike said he would have bought that one anyway.) Oh well - there's always next year!

In the spirit of giving...

This Christmas Mike and I have tried to form some traditions that will help the kids truly understand that the season of Christmas is about giving, and not just receiving. I'm really proud of both Brooke and Clayton...

For the kids' preschool classes we bought presents for the classroom (toys, supplies, etc.). Clayton could not wait to get to school on Thursday in anticipation of presenting his gifts to his teachers. He was so excited that he proclaimed on the way to school "I love school! It's my favorite." (Definitely never heard those words before.) As soon as he entered the classroom he was trying to open the gifts to show the teachers what was inside. The teacher asked him to put them in the circle for group time and they would open them then...Clayton's response "I can't - they go under the Christmas tree!"

Today Brooke and Mike did bell ringing for the Salvation Army at a local grocery store. It was a great opportunity to explain to Brooke that there are people who don't have food, shelter, etc. like she does. A woman came from the Salvation Army to empty their bucket and also had an opportunity to share with Brooke what they would use the money for. Daddy said she did a great job of saying Merry Christmas and Thank You. She lasted for 2 of the 3 hrs with Mike - definitely a father/daughter tradition that we'll keep...(I wish I had gotten a picture!)

Christmas 2009 pictures

With the help of my mom we took all 3 kids to have Christmas pictures taken. I wasn't anticipating getting a picture of all 3 of them together - it would be near miracle for them to even all look the same direction at the same time. So I really just wanted individual pictures of them in their Christmas outfits. I did leave with a picture of all 3 of them and they are all looking the same direction - it just doesn't happen to be the direction of the camera! Oh well...maybe next year! I love Lincoln's picture and I am amazed at how much he's changed in just the 2 weeks since I had his 3 mo pictures taken! Clayton refused to smile, but his smirk is totally him at this age. Brooke picked out her favorite pose and liked that you could see her whole dress.

Missing Grandma Millie

Grandma would have been 85 on December 9th. This Christmas season has been filled with many memories of her and I'm so thankful to be able to share those memories with Brooke. We've made Christmas cookies that were grandma's recipe and talk about the different ornaments on the tree that she made through the years. It did make me sad when Brooke and I had to go buy a stocking for Lincoln that didn't match our handknit "Grandma Millie stockings." She is dearly missed and I can't believe she's been gone for over year and a half. I found these pictures the other day of my childhood Christmases and memories...I'm not usually very sentimental but I cried as I scanned them in to share...I miss her so.

3 months

I took Lincoln to get his three month pictures...I had to make sure to since I did for the other two kids and who knows the long-term psychological effects if I didn't...(just kidding.) Considering they can't do a whole lot at this age, I thought they turned out pretty well. I can't believe he's already 3 months - time seems to go exponentially faster with each child.

O Christmas Tree

We took our 4th annual trip to the tree farm to pick out and cut down our own Christmas tree. The weather was perfect, although a bit un-Christmaslike without any snow...oh well, we quickly got over that. With the higher ceilings in our house, Mike determined that a 12' tree would be a good size AND it would still fit on the top of the van. The original plan was to put it right in front of our windows in the center of the great room....after getting it home and unbundling it, we went with plan B and put it in the corner so that it only took up a quarter of the room and not the entire thing.

I included this one even though Clayton's eyes are closed because I spent so long envisioning what a great picture this would be if they had been open!

Not so big all bundled up!

But HUGE in the living room!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we were so fortunate to have my Grandpa Ted here from Florida and my sister and her husband up from Texas. Mike and I hosted in our new home - I loved it. I had commented to my mom on how all of the food that we had set out wouldn't have even fit in my old kitchen (even without any people there!) For dinner Mike's parents came over as well as Eric's dad. Brooke worked very hard on placecards for everyone and decorating leaves for our kitchen window of all the things she was thankful for...family, loving Jesus, warm bed, new house, computers, jumping & sliding, crafts, friends, rain, sunshine, animals, and leaves.





This was Grandpa's first time meeting Lincoln.



And mom even managed to corral us all into a picture (after a few whines and complaints) for her Christmas card.

Brothers

Clayton LOVES holding baby Lincoln. My favorite picture is the last one - I'm sure it's an accurate depiction of how Lincoln feels about the whole experience.

Visiting the Seiler's - FINALLY!!

We left Thursday for a long awaited trip to see our dear friends, the Seiler's, in their new home in Indiana. The trip was delayed multiple times over the past several months with my pregnancy, bedrest, schedule conflicts, etc...but finally we made it! The kids did great in the car and Chicago traffic posed no problems at all - thank goodness. Their home and community are beautiful, and of course the kids romped together as though no time had passed - I love that! Here's some pictures from the weekend:

The weather was gorgeous - here's Clayton and Miss Karen at a neighborhood park.

Tommy has been doing really well with his allergy challenges - we were so excited to be able to participate in his first McD's picnic!

Indiana has an AWESOME Monkey Joe's that the kids had a ball at!

I love that Tommy & Clayton and Brooke & Sammie enjoy each other so much!

Happy Birthday Clayton!

Clayton turned 3 years old today. Last night we gave him some Buzz Lightyear pajamas so that he could eat his birthday breakfast cake in them...oh, the excitement. He's been working for weeks now on mastering holding down that tricky little pinky so that he can show everyone how old he is. (Many times though he'll still tell you he's 5. Brooke's 5 and it makes for a much better argument at the breakfast table that when Brooke says she's 5, he can yell back, "NO - I'm 5!" Not quite the same effect with the number 3 I guess.)

He had a great day at school wearing his birthday crown and got to pick his favorite song at music time for the whole school to sing (he picked the firetruck song of course.) We had lunch at McD's (where else?) and a great evening with daddy doing puzzles, games and even went swimming in the jacuzzi tub. (He wanted to go to the Y to go swimming, but it got a little late and he was okay with plan B.)

I just love his smile, sense of humor, his energy and how sensitive he tries to be. I love that he tries to be so strong-willed and set in his decisions but is so easily distracted that he can't remember what his decision was! I think it's funny that he likes to "cuddle" at night with a blue lunch box full of toys or sleep with matchbox cars next to him on his pillow. He's been through so much with my pregnancy, bedrest, new sibling, moving and starting school....yesterday he went with me to the old house and went room by room telling me that his bed was at the new house, my table is at the new house, his clothes are at the new house, the tv that I broke with the green cup is at the new house. All that to say it was a good reminder to me that he's my child who needs time to process things and I can't rush him to do things my way immediately (all the time anyhow.) I need to remember that he really tries to do the right thing but doesn't always know what that is....he's 3 and needs to be taught.

Mornings with Brooke

This week I had two mornings that I was able to spend with Brooke (and Lincoln, but he slept 95% of the time.) On Monday, Clayton went to play at Grandma Denyse's for the morning and Brooke and I headed off to run some errands. I love our conversations and I think anyone that overheard us couldn't help but smile.

• At Sam's I was picking up English muffins and I chose the cinnamon raisin flavor. Brooke wanted to know why I didn't pick the "double fiber" option. I replied that they didn't have as much flavor as the cinnamon kind. "How much flavor do they have mom?" after a brief pause, "Probably none." The man standing next to us laughed as he knew she had great wisdom for such a little girl.


• In the Kohl's restroom we had quite the conversation over manual vs. automatic flushes and what a lever is and does on the back of the toilet. My answers may have been as entertaining has her questions...she is so curious about EVERYTHING!

Then on Thursday I kept Brooke home from preschool because she was a little under the weather. We took a meal out to some friends that recently had a baby and most of the conversation on the way there was about our friends Jodi, Marlaina and Baby Paeton - that family has quite the little fan club with Brooke. She speculated how they were spending their day and wanted to know several times how to spell their last name (watch out Ulrich's - I feel some artwork coming your way.)

On the way home we drove past Lowe's and she explained to me that the store belongs to someone named Lowe. I asked how she knew that and she quickly replied with a little bit of inpatience "because of the equal sign and the s." She meant apostraphe "s" but I was still very impressed. It must have been several weeks ago that she had asked me why Kohl's had a mark before the "s." I explained to her that it showed ownership and that a person named Kohl owned that store. She has a better memory that mine for sure!

Oh, she also let me know that the other day too... she wanted a grapefruit for breakfast but we were short on time so I told her to remind me for lunch and that I would peel one then. I reiterated that she'd have to let me know because I might not remember (and heaven forbid the meltdown as she's heading down for nap and then realizes I didn't make good on my promise.) Her response, "Is that cause you're old and can't remember things?"

I love the 1-1 time I get with my kids and how their personalities shine through when they aren't in competition for my attention.

A year in waiting

Wisconsin car seat laws changed shortly after Brooke was born and requires that children be in a full 5-point harness seat until they are 4 years old AND 40 lbs. At 4 years of age Brooke was still well under that 40 lbs mark and because Mike and I both are huge sticklers (some may call it anal) about our carseats - how they are installed, following the rules associated with them, etc. we have made her sit in the 5-point harness for the past year. (Really, I just have this nagging thought in the back of my head that I would never want to be in an accident and have to wonder if I had followed the carseat laws/recommendations more closely could I have protected my child better.) Anyhow - Brooke went for her 5 year old check-up and weighed 37.5 lbs. OH, the devastation that the scale still was not yet to 40 lbs! I also forgot to mention that when she did turn 4 and wasn't 40 lbs yet I did a bunch of research on why the laws had changed, etc and really the new recommendations should have been off of height, but easier for parents to gauge weight so they went with that instead...dumb, I know. I had even e-mailed the Department of Transportation about the issue (I know...dork.) and received a response listing the 2 car seats that fit her height. So back to the appointment - Brooke's Dr and I had a discussion that her having add'l "meat" on her thighs, arms, etc to bring her up to 40 lbs would not in fact keep her any safer and we talked through exactly how the seatbelt should fit her to ensure her safety. ALL that to say, here is one VERY proud Brooke as she sports her booster - after a full year in waiting. She is just ecstatic that she can buckle and unbuckle herself as well as let herself out of the car (mom, really likes that too!)

Moving Day!!

Two men and a truck arrived this morning to bring all the "big" stuff over to the new house today. Mike was very quick to realize that it was his best investment of $500 through this entire process! The 2 men that came definitely earned their paycheck today - we didn't have anything for them to lift that wasn't at least 75 lbs....and hearing that Mike's toolchest had to go down into the basement caused quite the groan.

So we're in and I'm starting to feel a little settled. Mike has even been great to hang some of our pictures. We've felt very blessed (not lucky) that our furniture, pictures, etc. all match the colors and spacing within the house really well. The kids are loving the new space and fighting substantially less since they now have more than enough room to spread out. Tomorrow Mike is hooking up the washer and dryer - fun stuff!

FIVE!!

Brooke turns 5 years old today - WOW! We started the day with dessert as is tradition in our family. (All my kids had morning deliveries, so we start the day with a mini party and load up on the sugar.) Everyone had picked out their dessert from the Sendik's bakery the day before, so we were set. Clayton insisted that he have a candle to blow out too, but agreed that we could sing to just Brooke. It was a school day, so Brooke took in treats for her class to help celebrate and she got to wear a super-cool birthday hat all morning. For lunch, daddy took us all to Tazino's (one of Brooke's favorite pizza places.) We opened a few presents from Aunt Laura and from Mike and I - we're having a joint birthday party for Brooke and Clayton in a little over a week. And I think Brooke's favorite part of the day was that she was put to bed in her new room as our first "official" day sleeping at the new house. I cannot believe that my little preemie baby has grown up to be such a big girl. I love her imagination and stories. She has such a love of learning and can even read already...I'm continually amazed at how much she knows already. This definitely was a milestone that hit me as realizing how little time I do have with her before she'll be all grown up and no longer my little girl that I put to bed at night.

Blink and it's gone - he's 2 months old!

I can't believe that my baby is two months old today - WOW! He is such a good baby...which has been a huge blessing because the older two have definitely kept me on my toes. It is rare that Lincoln cries and usually if he does it's because I can't pick him up right away. As soon as he's held the crying stops. While we've been packing up the house and making many trips back and forth he'll either sleep or just sit in the swing and watch the action. I can't imagine what this move would have been like with a colicky or even average tempered baby. I'm curious to see how his Dr appt goes tomorrow - mostly I'm curious to know how much this kiddo weighs. He's the first of the three to have "thunder thighs" and is definitely a good eater.

Clayton vs. 58" Plasma TV

And the winner is....Clayton! This morning the kids were watching Jungle Book while I finished getting ready and packing up a few things to head over to the new house. Brooke announces "Mom, the picture on the TV went away." So I walked in there (the DVD had skipped a few times that morning and I figured it was a similar situation.) After examing the DVD player for a moment, Brooke then says, "Mom, it's cause he bammed it." I then looked more closely to see that the screen of the TV was damaged - that also explains why the room smelled a bit like smoke. After inquiring from the 3 and 5 year old exactly what happened here's what I gathered - mind you I was standing about 5 feet away in the bathroom with the door open as all this was happening and it wasn't dramatic enough to have caught my attention. Clayton's rendition "I hit the tiger with the green cup." Brooke's rendition, "He got upset because the tiger was being mean to Mowgli, so he bammed the tiger." I think Mike might cry as he hauls his TV (that happens to be less than 6 months old) out to the curb for the garbage men to put to rest....although I must say he did handle the phone call from me this morning better than I had expected. And of course about 10 minutes after the incident Clayton wanted to know if we could watch a different movie.

Baby Lincoln - smiling

Baby Lincoln has started smiling - I haven't been able to capture a good one on film, but I liked this picture too.

Too much McDonalds?

With living between the two houses and the new house not having appliances, we have gone through the McDonald's drive-though MUCH more than I would like to admit over the past month. And there have been a few signs from Clayton that have made that evident.

• It was a warmer day and Lincoln was sleeping in his carseat, so the old two kids and I decided to draw with sidewalk chalk when we got home. The kids are both excited about upcoming birthdays and we drew balloons and birthday cakes. I had drawn a cake and on one side written a 5 for Brooke and on the other I wrote a 3. Clayton was standing at a 90 degree angle to me and exclaims, "MOM - you drew McDonald's!" (the 3 looked like McD's arches to him...)


• As we were heading through the drive-thru I asked the kids what they wanted to eat for lunch. Clayton's response, "I want the grocery store."

I can't say that we've avoided McD's as a much more disciplined friend of mine has done (the convenience is too great on the really crazy days) but we have been there MUCH less recently.

UGH - add it to the list!

Apparently I thought our "to-do" list wasn't quite long enough - add fix cars (yes, plural) to the list. Mike had parked the cars in the driveway with his car right behind my dad's van and then I pulled in and up next to my dad's van. WELL - when I went to back out I forgot Mike's car was back there and when I went to straighten the wheel so that I didn't run over the landscaping rocks I backed into his car. Oops! Basically I scraped both cars together - minor dents, but still! Mike has already buffed out what he could and is debating on if they are worth fixing. His point is that between the Walmart parking lot and the kids - what's a few more dents!

I am hoping the neighbors weren't watching while this happened, but again, if we can't provide at least a bit of good entertainment for the neighbors, why be there!

THESE are the days I'm going to miss!

It's been rainy and cold the past few days...yet today was so different then my crazy day a few weeks ago. Brooke was the first one up this morning - I had already showered so we were able to enjoy breakfast and conversation together. Clayton slept until almost 8:30 (unheard of - he's usually up at 6:30 at the latest!) He started crying in the kitchen before we left for school because he needed a kiss and a hug from me...oh, melt my heart. I hold those moments close knowing that there will be a day that my little boy won't desire a kiss and hug to start off his day. They had a great morning at school and then we played at the new house with our friends Miss Joy, Casey and Caleb. The afternoon was still dreary, rainy and cold so we all took a nap - very rare that all 3 kids are asleep at the same time and Brooke asked if she could snuggle with me during nap in my bed...how could I say no.

Everyone still had their "moments" today of whining and arguing, but overall it's days like these that I truly will miss and look back at fondly.

SOLD!

Our "little house" as Brooke has affectionately called it for years has sold. We substantially lowered the price so that we didn't have to keep up two houses for the winter and it sold within a couple days of doing so (there were 15 families that came through the open house.) This house holds a lot of great memories and will be missed, but God has been gracious to give us many indications that the time had come to say goodbye to our first home. We close on November 13th but hope to have most everything moved over to the new house by the end of the month.