Christmas

It's so funny. It took about 2 months of shopping, three weeks of wrapping, 1 week of decorating and a full day of cooking. And now its all over. Just like that. It took about 23 seconds for all of the beautiful wrapping to be ripped through and a mess like none other to be created in our living room. It was quite a challenge keeping Ashley away from all the pieces of paper and tiny plastic choking hazards that come with every single toy.
This is what Caleb looked like when he realized we finally got him an IPod.

And then when he realized it was Jamie's old IPod he was suddenly a bit deflated, but still appreciative. (sweet boy) Then Jamie opened up the NEW IPod and Caleb was a bit disturbed but soon realized we were tricking him and then he did this.

This is a tight, genuine, full of appreciation and thankfulness, hug. It was nice. He was truly surprised. LOVE that part of Christmas.


Faith was so cute with everything. She was thrilled that Santa left her the dancing doll she asked for. (And every other doll sold in toys stores as well.)
This girl has so many dolls! Her favorite is this one...

This doll is really special. She says things like "I'm hungry, Mommy". Then you have to feed her (yes, actual food!). And she says "I'm thirsty, Mommy". And you have to give her water in her sippy cup. And she says "Did I make a stinky?".  And then you change her diaper. That's right, folks. I've said it would never happen but I have allowed another pooping, peeing object into my house. Let me tell you how gross this is too. I held her over the sink last night cleaning the green goo out of her mouth with water and vinegar. As I held the doll over the sink, a long, slimy, stringy green piece of loveliness fell from the hole in the bottom of the doll. I almost puked.
But Faith LOVES this doll. She feeds her and changes her like a crazy woman. She responds to the dolls every demand and just loves taking care of her. I had to laugh as she excitedly changed her 24th diaper. I hope I remember this to tell her about it when she has a baby of her own and has all those diapers full of real poo to tend too. I wonder if she will still be as eager.

Caleb also got a tablet and tablet accessories. And the usual basketball pants and shirts that he pretended were the best thing ever. But in reality, I just wrapped them so he'd have more to open since his Christmas was small with big ticket items.
Faith got dolls and more dolls. And a neat VTech electronic game system called a MobiGo. Really great! She hasn't played with it a ton but I'm hoping she will get into it during our 15 hour drive to Alabama.

For Christmas Eve, we had snacks galore! 

And Christmas Day, we had cornish hens.

The kids thought it was pretty neat having their own bird. I was really creeped out. I don't do well with meat on bones. Ick. Moments after this picture, I decided they weren't cooked enough and put them all back in the over. Well, except for Jamie's. He wouldn't have any part of over cooked chicken. I guess his was okay too since he didn't die. But I made the kids wait on theirs. We had it later in the day with other leftovers. I'll make chicken salad out of the rest. Everyone gets to pick a side for Christmas dinner. Caleb picked canned green beans, Faith chose macaroni, Jamie wanted sauteed mushrooms and I got corn casserole. Faith was unhappy that I didn't make boxed macaroni though. I decided to make homemade and she wasn't thrilled. We ate Jamie's mushrooms the night before at our Christmas eve feast so, Caleb and I were the only ones happy with the sides.
Oh well. We all spent the day in our pajamas and had a really fun day. It was a great Christmas. One of the best yet. All the kids are at such great ages! Next year will be even better since I won't be pulling paper out of Ashley's mouth every 30 seconds. Hopefully.

We leave on Friday for Alabama. Really looking forward to ringing in the New Years with Mimi and Pops! After we get home, we'll be doing final preparations for our baby turning ONE! Such fun things happening!

On a not so fun note, Faith will be having another heart catherization in February. Date still to be determined. More information to come on this later. Right now, we are still in the midst of our holiday cheer and I'm trying not to worry about this upcoming event quite yet. One day at a time.

Happy holidays to everyone!!!

More Faith

Today was a good day. A very good day. I love days that I look back on and just laugh. Most days are like this but some days, I rather not look back on at all.
We played hide and seek this morning. Faith runs to hide while I count. She told me to count to 11 though because she wanted more time. And then she told me not to look in her closet when I tried to find her.

After Ashley nap, we took her to get her first pair of shoes. It as quite the adventure. Faith and Caleb love this baby so much and really don't give her the space so desires. It was hard for her to walk around the store with them hovering on her examining her new shoes. And the fact that she hated them made the experience all that more funny. She's warmed up to them a bit more now. But she did act like a cat with tape on its paws at first. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you really should find a cat and a roll of tape. Funniest thing ever. And I'll attempt to video Ashley doing it just in case you don't have a cat handy.

This afternoon we went to see a movie. "Arthur Christmas".  Very cute movie, by the way. I decided it would be fun to take Faith, Braden and Nathan along too. (her BFF's from playgroup) We were missing one but Taylor had already seen the movie. So off we went.
On the way there, the conversation went like this:

Braden: "I'm going to sit next to Faith in the movie"
Nathan: "I want to sit next to Braden"
Faith: "I'm going to sit next to Braden:
Braden:"I'm going to sit by Faith"
Faith: "I want to sit by Braden"

Nathan starts to panic.

Nathan: "I want to sit by Nathan"

All the 4 year olds cracked up.

Then Faith says "I'm an ice princess."

Caleb looks at me and says "Random thoughts by Faith."


Once we were in the movie, the 4 year olds did great! They sat nicely in their seats and arranged their snack packs on their laps. Nathan suddenly realized that these theater chairs posed a serious threat and could possibly swallow him whole. So..... he sat on my lap during the movie. It was so incredibly hard not to laugh but he was so serious about this fear that I couldn't laugh at him. I love 4 year olds! Such a fun age. 

Faithisms

Stuff like this is said in my house all the time and cracks me up. At the time I always think, I need to write that down and most of the time, I forget.
So now I'm writing it down.

Tonight, Faith hugs me and squeezes some of my love handle. Sweet girl. I say "Faith, don't squeeze mommy's fat." She says "You're not fat, mommy. You're tall."
"Awww, Faith. You don't think I'm fat? I'm tall??"

"Well, you're kind of tall."

"Just kind of tall?"

"Yes. But not really tall at all. And a little fat."


Love. This. Girl.

And now I'm on a diet.

One year ago.....

I ordered Ashley's 1st birthday party invitations this evening. How in the world has an entire year gone by? One year ago I was on restricted activity trying to keep this baby in my belly for a few weeks longer. One year ago I cried because I wasn't able to make Christmas dinner for my family and we had to order it from a store. One year ago, I laid on my bed and felt my baby doing flip flops in my belly and cried knowing it was the last time I would ever feel a baby move and grow inside of me.

This baby is no longer a little baby.
She climbs, she screams, she walks. She walks! We have a walker. She took a few steps a couple of weeks ago and then slowly progressed. Now she walks like a pro. Well, like a pro after having a few cocktails. Its cute as heck though!
So now I'm planning her 1st birthday party. Faith is excited to know she will no longer be "nothing" but will now be one. Caleb is excited because he is just in love with her and loves every single thing to do with this baby. We are all in love with her.

On another note... we are planning our trek to Alabama to see Mimi and Pops. They are finally home again after a long 9 1/2 months in Houston. Jamie says we will leave at 4am on whatever day we decide to leave on. He said he wants to drive "until we can't drive anymore" and then stop to find a hotel. No planning ahead. No reservations. Then he said he was going to find something he could buy and have handy to pee in rather than stopping. And he tried to fist pump me and get me excited about this whole plan. But I have so many problems with this plan. First of all, we are traveling with three chlidren who complain on the 6 mile drive to Wal-mart. Driving until we can't drive anymore... we may make it to Missouri. Secondly, peeing into a container of some sort to avoid bathroom breaks. Well, this just is not going to happen. No fist pumping on this matter at all. Not happening.

We saw Santa last weekend.

 This was the picture where Ashley had her bottle and was happy.

This is the picture where she was not.

And this is when she thrashed around until she couldn't see and Caleb was beside himself cracking up.

And Faith was like a statue the entire time.


After seeing Santa, we went to Target and did some shopping. Faith had told Santa that she wanted a doll that you pushed her belly button and it danced. Since we had never heard about this, we were curious what she was talking about. We found the doll and Faith pointed out, kind of disappointedly, that it didn't look like the dolls belly button after all, it looked more like a penis. Caleb cracked up and said there should be a sign that said "Push penis to make doll dance". My kids.



Faith also had her Winter recital this past weekend. For the first time ever, she didn't want to leave me to go backstage. She never ever has any issues leaving me. But this time she did. I fought back my tears and the urge to just grab her and run. Thank goodness too. She did an amazing job and had a blast!
Can't wait for the Spring recital now.


But first, we have to get through my last baby turning one. The last time I will ever throw a first birthday party. Yes. You better bet I will cry. As a matter of fact, I might just cry now.

Whirlwind holidays

We are just weeks away from the fat mans arrival and I suddenly feel like this entire year just slipped right by. That overwhelming sensation of being unorganized, unprepared, and completely caught off guard by December took a tight hold of me this weekend. Luckily the kids don't know what plans I had to make this year spectacular so their expectations will remain low. Probably for the best.
We did make our chocolate covered pretzels this weekend.

We also made a gingerbread house.

And I played with my new camera some more.

Ashley learned to climb into her push toy.

And Ashley got a booster seat and now sits at the table with us.

Buster is most excited.

Yes... the dog is wearing a coat. And it has skulls on it. It's okay to laugh.

We will be visiting Santa on Sunday. Faith is beyond excited. I reminded her last week that she needed to behave because Santa was watching. This reminder actually came during one of her not so great 4 year old moments. And I'm pretty sure I said something more like "You better knock it off because you are not behaving and Santa is watching". And I'm sure it was in an angry, not very nice tone.
So she says "Yea, but God is watching YOU!".
Gulp.

God certainly trumps Santa.

Little stinker.

We are also preparing for a 15 hour car ride to see Mimi and Pops in Alabama. We are praying that Mimi gets released from MD Anderson and gets to head home for Christmas. If this happens, we hope to go see them at New Years. Fingers crossed! The idea of taking a 15 hour car ride with the children who ask 10 times "are we there yet" enroute to Walmart 6 miles away is a little less than appealing. But the idea of getting to see Mimi (Leukemia free!) and ring in the New Year with Mimi and Pops is incredibly exciting!

Time to get the girls in bed. We need to sprinkle our Elf with dust first. That silly elf has returned again this year and is doing all sorts of silly things! Nothing quite like waking up to Faith laughing about her Elf that she wishes was a girl. I love these kids.