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!)