Christmas Morning!

It was VERY difficult to get a certain four-year-old to sleep on Christmas night. Matter of fact, I do believe Santa may have come even before he fell asleep...risky business, let me tell you! :)

Luckily, both boys slept in until about 7:30am (I dread the year, they fly out of bed at the crack of dawn just to rip into their Santa gifts). This year ET asked for a Packers jersey (Aaron Rodgers #12), and thankfully Santa did not disappoint.

You can see in this pic, that Nate thought it was way too early for taking pictures.




The boys also received lighted Star Wars swords and shields.

Two typical boys in action...


NO!!! Don't get your Mommy!!!!

The little brother runs away...defeated! :)

Christmas Eve!

We arrived home from Wisconsin around 9:30am. We spent the morning and afternoon unpacking, and preparing our home for Jay's parents, and Mary's family to come over for dinner. I made Caesar salad, homemade breadsticks, and two types of lasagna (taco, and chicken). This was the least traditional Christmas dinner we have ever had, but suitable since we had already eaten the more traditional meals the previous two days.





ET took this picture of me and Jay. :)

Nate received a big rig full of Hot Wheel cars, and a Little People Christmas train from Grandma and Grandpa. He loved them both!

ET received a transforming garbage truck, and a remote control fire truck from Grandma and Grandpa...another big hit!


For dessert we had Christmas goodies, and a craft/treat for the kids. We baked sugared tortilla snowflakes in the oven and served them with ice cream! :)




Towards the end of our get together we watched a portion of the movie, "A Christmas Story" on TV. We watched the segment where the boy gets his tongue stuck to the flag pole outside. ET has not stopped talking about it since. He definitely won't be licking anything outside after seeing that. :)

We had a nice time together one last night, and look forward to seeing Mary and the girls again in July.

Christmas at Uncle Scott & Auntie Tammy's!

On Friday morning, we headed over to Thorp, Wisconsin for our second Christmas celebration. We stayed the whole day and evening at Scott and Tammy's, and didn't leave for the hotel until around 9pm. Scott and Tammy had a traditional turkey meal planned for us right away, and then also threw together an amazing ham dinner as well! Every bit of the meal and the day was absolutely wonderful! We were so happy to be able to unwind and not worry about having to head back home at a descent hour. The cousins all had time to play, and spend some quality time together. The adults played card games and had many good laughs together. :) Nate went the whole day without a nap, and was smiling ear to ear through the evening. The kids did not end up falling asleep until close to 10pm, and we were just thrilled to see how happy they were despite their lack of sleep.

This was the first year yet, where I saw all the kids playing a card game when we arrived. Normally they are all playing toys together. They grow up fast!


Of course our boys still reach for the toys.

Nate found Jacob's cars right away...this was a good ice-breaker for him.

Scott and Tammy...THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! It is one thing to host a get together for a few hours. It is a whole other thing to host a get together for 18 people ALL DAY and serve TWO feasts! WOW!

Grandma Mavis making her gravy...always with a smile on her face! Love this pic!

Grandma Daryln, and Papa Bob...what a sweet photo!

Happy couple; Mary and George...











Every year Uncle Dick gives some type of gift as a practical joke to one lucky person in the family (usually being Papa Bob). This year Dick tried to pass off his old watch in his new watch case! Ha! After discovering the truth, Papa Bob gave the watch to ET. Uncle Dick would have had better luck giving the watch to ET to start with...he was ecstatic! He truly thought this was a NICE watch (just like the grown-ups wear)!

It didn't fit him very well, so Auntie Mary convinced him to just hold his arm up. :) When we got home, he said he was going to save it for when he becomes a Daddy.


Nate never whined a bit the whole day, but was stuck to either Jay or myself nearly the whole time. He did manage to find his way into a few other laps occasionally though. One person he warmed up quickly to was Uncle Scott. :)



Here is a picture of the boys watching a movie the next morning in the hotel room. The boys only slept until 6am (kind of hard to sleep in, while in a hotel room). We showered, ate breakfast and were on the road by 7:30am. I love this picture of them in their Christmas jammies.

Daycare Christmas Pajama Party!

Thursday, December 22, was the last day of daycare for the remainder of the year. I am off of work now until the third of January!

On Thursday we decided to have a fun pajama/movie day! We made ornaments, Christmas bells, and musical shakers. We also opened up new gifts for the daycare (an electric drum set, and a keyboard) and watched Christmas movies.

It was a very fun day, and hopefully memorable for all the kids. :)

Ten kids, all in their jammies! It doesn't get much cuter than this...

The start of Christmas break...

I have many, MANY new posts...a bit overwhelming, but I will try to get to all of them within the next couple of days.

The first thing I would like to write about is our new escape artist; Nate. Yes, on Wednesday of last week, Nate managed to escape from his crib for the first time. He woke from his nap screaming and crying (clearly not really ready to wake up). After a few minutes I went and got him, but he threw the biggest temper tantrum. He was kicking and screaming at me, and I could not calm him down. I figured he just needed more sleep, so for the first time ever, I told him he was going back to bed. I placed him in his crib and walked away. Within seconds, he jumped the side rail and was pounding at the door. I opened the door and we both stood staring at each other with a pretty shocked look. WOW! You should have seen the look on his face. We both could not believe what he had just done!

That night Jay put him to bed, and he was just fine for him. Then the next day (which was Thursday), was a whole other story. I laid Nate down for nap, and he immediately resisted. He jumped from his crib THREE times! Then I held him and rocked him to see if I could get him sleepy enough to not want to jump out. I was able to get him sleepy, but that didn't stop him from wanting to escape. I stood at his door with the monitor in my hand, and opened the door to tell him to "stay" each time he would put his foot over the side rail. After FOUR more attempts, I finally put his mattress on the floor. I laid him down on the mattress, and hoped for the best. He proceeded to scream like a wild animal and completely terrorize his room. He moved a bucket over to his door and stood on it to reach the door handle. I stood holding his door handle, so he couldn't open it. After he started to get into the diapers and wipes, I decided to clear out his bedroom. I moved everything but his rocking chair, dresser, crib, and mattress out of his room. It had been over a half hour at this point, and so I was exhausted and completely unaware of what to do next. I laid him down again on his mattress and left the room. He got up from his mattress right away, but after a few minutes he finally became silent and I knew he must of fallen asleep. The monitor was pointed towards his mattress, and so I could not see where he was exactly in his room. I checked on him and saw that he ended up falling asleep standing up with his torso resting on his rocking chair. Every few seconds, his knees would give out on him, and he would stand up again. I carefully moved him to his mattress and he slept for over an hour. WOW! What a day!

That evening we went to Jay's parents home for our traditional Christmas meatball dinner (I'm super bummed I did not take any pictures of this). We had such a nice time, and of course, Darlyn's cooking was marvelous! When we got home Jay insisted that we try laying Nate down in his crib for the night. After the afternoon I had I thought he was crazy, but I let him try. Of course, the little bugger did just fine for him and slept all night without making a peep. What a stinker!

The next morning we headed to Wisconsin for our Christmas celebration with Jay's side of the family. We planned on staying the night at the hotel in town, so we hoped that the crib problems could just be put on hold for a while. We planned on shopping for a new big-boy-bed on Monday.

Further updates to come...

Oh, one more thing! Nate has learned how to undress himself! His jammies and a few shirts that is. In less than a month, he will be two years old! He is growing up fast!

Macy's Display & The Holidazzle Parade!

On Saturday we took the train down to see the Macy's display ("A Day in the Life of an Elf" - a repeat from last year), and the Holidazzle parade. We woke the boys from their nap and left the house at 3pm. We did not get back to our truck until 7:30pm. It took us 4 1/2 hours to do two twenty minutes activities! The amount of people downtown was CRAZY!!! The line to get into the Macy's display was three floors! We waited for over an hour! Then we waited in the cold for another 30 minutes for the parade to start. The parade lasted no longer than twenty minutes and then we were literally running to get a spot on the train to head back. We were front in line, and there was so many people I worried about being pushed onto the tracks. Once the train arrived, I held on to ET with all my might as we were literally pushed into the train. The train was so jam-packed with people there was not one inch of room to spare. At this point I looked at Jay and asked, "Do you think all this was worth it?" He replied, "You're asking ME?!" Ha!
It was worth it, but I just made a mental note to never go again on a Saturday. Luckily, both boys never fussed a bit. It was A LOT to expect of them to wait in all the lines and then wait more on the train ride home. The lady next to us had a toddler screaming the whole way home, and I felt my heart break for her. We got back to the truck at 7:30pm. None of us had eaten dinner, so we headed over to the 5-8 club, where we had to wait even longer for a table. We finally made it home around 9:30pm.







The whole time we were out I kept telling ET that if he was good he could open an early Christmas present when we got home. He was so excited for this, and like I said, both boys were excellent the whole time we were out. When we got home, I hadn't even walked to the door yet, and ET had unbuckled himself, took his shoes off and ran into the house. I thought it was kind of strange how fast he was moving until I realized he must have ran inside to open his gift. I walked inside and called his name, but it was too late, he had already opened it. I was so sad, but understood that I didn't exactly explain to him that he should maybe wait for his brother and for his mom to take pictures first. He felt bad, so he just covered his gift up with the wrapping paper and said his sorry. So as you can see in the picture here, ET's gift is already ripped open. It didn't bother me too much because I was just happy to see his excitement.
The boys both got a pair of Christmas jammies (we are having a pajama party with the daycare kids on Thursday), and their own stuffed Santa. They absolutely LOVED their gifts and have been playing with their Santa's all week.