Christmas 2012 Memories and Recap

There are fewer things a toddler loves more than opening presents, and A is no exception to that rule. I felt like we spent the whole month of December opening gifts and trying to find places to put the new toys. Fortunately, since she's mostly into puzzles, books and similar activities, those kind of toys don't take up much room. We did get her a trike, however, and that seems to be taking up a lot of room in the living room.  We started out our "Christmases" with J's family Christmas the Saturday before. A made out like a bandit, with such awesomeness as snow fort builders, Sesame Street memory games, the classic Fishing Game and her favorite - Violet from Leapfrog. I normally don't like talking and singing toys, because they're annoying, expensive and get neglected after a few days. This one is the exception. This little purple dog is A's new best friend - it even says her name! She knows her favorite food, color and animal and sings to her at night. A-bug sings along with all the songs and actually has mini conversations with her. She just loves that thing. It traveled with us all over the state of Virginia.

Which brings me to stage 2 of our family Christmas this year. On Sunday, we headed out to make the long journey to VA, where my mom grew up and where we have always gone for Christmas since I was a little girl. There's something magical about spending Christmas in the mountains, and it's always beautiful, even if there's no snow. My grandparents only get to see A and now K every 6 months, so it's very special to spend Christmas with them and all my cousins, aunts and uncles. We always have Christmas Eve dinner all together, eat brunch on Christmas morning and have my grandma's family's reunion on Christmas night. In case you didn't gather, there's a lot of eating :) A got a lot more adorable and fun gifts, including a totally cute winter parka from Emmy, coloring books from Uncle Trev and Mimi, and tons of clothes from Great-Grandma Moore, Uncle Trev and Uncle Zak. K also received lots of adorable clothes and some really sweet toys. A also received a little red trike from Great-Grandma Moore that she wanted to ride everywhere - we were more concerned about her running into the wood-burning stove, but she managed to avoid it the entire vacation *whew*.

Friday after Christmas, we headed over to the eastern part of the state to see my cousin get married. I could tell many stories about this leg of the vacation , but I'll summarize by saying that the hubster is even farther from letting me rent an RV someday to camp in than he was before this trip, and that's saying something lol. But we had a good time, got to see my dad's side of the family and a beautiful wedding. A fell in love with "the princess" who was actually my cousin's new wife, Kim. She loved the big, beautiful dress and veil, and wanted to take pictures with and talk to the princess all day. She was very sad when we had to leave the princess, but it was very sweet and adorable. We were also able to meet up with a friend of mine and meet her sweet family that night. Living 15 hours away makes the ability to visit few and far between, so we took advantage. She has a daughter close to A's age, so we had a great time and the girls loved playing together :)

Sunday we headed back to my grandparents for a few more days. Josh and I got to see Les Mis, without the company of any small children, which was very nice. We spent more time with family, which was lovely, and packed up to head back home on Wednesday morning. It was a long trip back, and we were very ready for our own bed, but all in all, it was a wonderful, family-filled Christmas.

Now it's time to put away the Christmas decorations, find homes for the new toys (and donate many of the old, but don't tell A-bug that!) and figure out what to do with all this candy, since we're trying to eat better in this new year. Today, I will try out one of my Christmas gifts, Zumba for the Wii, and later this month, I will most certainly enjoy my Spa Day from my lovely husband. My parents gave us extra cabinets for our kitchen which we are extremely grateful for, and will be installing shortly :) It was a great holiday season, but I'm glad to be back to our regular routine. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas break as well!

A with Gigi and Grandma

Playing with her snow fort builders :)

Opening up her new best friend - Violet :)

Playing with a new toy with Emmy

Reading a Christmas morning story with Mimi

Smiling big before family pictures at the wedding

A with her cousin Grace and Granny

A and "the princess," Kim and my cousin
Paul, who was the groom.

A with Uncle Zak and Tita

Making silly faces with uncles Trev and Zak

Kisses from daddy <3

Meeting Missy and her daughter :) A was all worn out lol

Great-Grandma Moore and my sumo baby boy

Mr. K and Papa Moore

Auntie Gail with K and A

Papa and A 

A-Bug's Christmas Program

I have been feeling so old. On Sunday night, A-Bug was in her first ever Children's Christmas program. The first of many. Unfortunately, the 2 minute video is too big to share on the blog, and all the still shots are on my hubby's iPhone (I'll try and fix that soon.) But she did adorably, if not fabuously :) She got a little "stage struck" when she walked out and saw all the lights and people, and didn't exactly sing like she normally does, but she did clap with her usual level of exuberance. She does love to clap. The adorableness was exacerbated by the bells they all had hanging on their arms. It was just too cute. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you should be able to view the video by clicking here.

After the program, the church had a Christmas Cookie Fellowship for everyone - nothing like adding sugar to the adrenaline rush all the kids already have lol. Here are some shots from that. A-bug loves being around people, and she was truly in her element here.

A and her friend, Baby B

Aria and her "Aunt" Kara

Family shot :)

Me and my baby girl <3

A with our pastor's wife - Joyce Hands

Playing ring-a-round-the-rosie :)

K sporting one of the leftover mustaches from the play lol

K and my sweet friend, Katie.

  

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS! Yes, it's here. Even though the snow is not, we must carry on and pretend that it's Christmas time. Well, I guess it is Christmas time, but it sure doesn't feel like it. We've had weather mostly sitting in the 40's, sometimes even warmer, and it just makes the Christmas lights feel premature. But alas, it is truly December.

Every Christmas, we go with my parents up to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland to take pictures, buy ornaments and get a picture with Santa. This year, we once again made the horrible mistake of going on  Saturday. We really gotta do something about that. It was incredibly packed out. I was shielding K's head from strangers elbows, and we definitely needed a leash of some sort for A-bug. It was just nuts. But we did get our ornaments and our pictures with Santa. A also discovered the Sesame Street display, which made the wait for Santa much more bearable.

So here are some shots of our annual Christmas weekend tradition. What are some annual traditions that you have with your kids?

Family Picture :)

Playing at the Sesame Street display

Had to give the giant Big Bird a hug :)

Every year, we gt a picture of A with these
ear warmers :)

Me and my baby girl

She was not so much thrilled with Santa

K was cool with him, though

It's all about balance

I'm not an all-natural and organic mom. I'm not gluten-free, dye free or anything else "free." We watch TV,  and my child loves Elmo, Clifford, Daniel Tiger and Arthur - all TV characters. We don't ban technology in our family; we play with iPhone game apps and the Wii. I don't have homemade meals on the table every night for dinner, and my dishes are not always done. Some days, we wear our pajamas all day long. I'm just not one of "those" moms.

But my child knows her ABC's - not just the song; she can identify all of her letters and words that represent each letter. She can count to 20. She can sing several songs word for word. She can identify almost every "main stream" animal that comes across a page in her books, on TV or in her puzzles. She will spend hours and hours a day reading books. She loves to play with shapes and puzzles and working them all out on her own. She can operate an iPhone better than I can. She absolutely loves being outside and kicking a ball around.

Our life isn't perfect, by any means. As I type this, I can still hear A crying in her room following the most recent temper tantrum. I'm no Pioneer Woman; 90% of my meals are "semi-homemade." But I have learned that it's not what you keep your children from watching, eating or doing. It's the balance you strike in your family. You obviously can't depend on PBS to teach your children everything they need to know in pre-school, but you can watch Sesame Street once a day and count with them, recite and sing the ABC's song, and point out various colors and shapes. You can't expect your children to get all their nutrients and vitamins from processed and fast food, but a happy meal for a special "date night" or a Jr. Frosty after a rough Dr's appointment demonstrates moderation, and teaches them that these things are special treats and not everyday events.

It's all about balance. You have to teach your children that learning is both important and fun, that food is for creating memories with family as well as making "big strong muscles," and that life is more enjoyable when you're not so much worried about what others will think.

One of life's simple pleasures - finding a good spot to read a good book :)

Settling in with Baby K

I have to admit, I have it relatively easy when it comes to settling in with a new baby. My wonderful mother has been keeping A-bug on and off since K was born, or has been staying at our house. J also took the entire week right after he was born off from work, so I had a TON of help the first week. Even this week, since A has been with her Mimi and K sleeps constantly, things haven't been bad. Tomorrow will be my first full day with both of them and just me. 2 against 1. We'll see how it goes. 

But even with all the help in the world, there are adjustments that any household has to make when a new baby comes along. We also had lots of little things to finish up after we got home from the hospital, since we weren't expecting our little man to come along for another couple of weeks. So J finished putting up his shelves, we finished unpacking his clothes, discovered we had no where near enough diapers for this little pooping machine, and bought some more warm sleepers. A was always such a hot baby that we never put her in fleece until it was the dead of winter. K gets cold much easier than she did, so we have to get him more warm clothes than we had realized. 

So far, he's been a much easier baby than A-bug was. Long-time readers may or may not remember the long-term battle we had with her severe acid reflux. She had a hard time relaxing, was a terrible eater, and couldn't ever calm herself down enough to sleep well. We mostly lost our sanity and knew that we couldn't handle something like that again. Fortunately, this little man is just an eating, sleeping and pooping machine. I kid you not, that's all he does. And he does all 3 frequently. He rarely cries, and only occasionally fusses when he's hungry. The only difficulty we've had so far is that his days and nights seem to be mixed up, especially the hours of midnight till 2-3am. None of us are getting much sleep during those hours. He has no issues sleeping all day long, however, and we're working hard to train him that light time = awake time, and vice versa. He is getting better, but I'm still looking forward to going to bed before 2am sometime in the near future. 

As I wrote in the previous post, A is just crazy about him. She loves kissing the top of his head and patting his hands. She's still confused as to why he doesn't talk back to her, but I think she'll get the point eventually. So far, her shrieks, squeals and cries haven't bothered him in the least - he can sleep right through them all. She's a little more wary of his fusses and cries, however. It makes  her very nervous when he cries, and sometimes she'll join in if the fussing goes on for an extended period of time. She also loves riding in the car with him because she can see his face, and he's a captive audience to her chatting and singing. 

Here are a couple more shots of life at home, Week 2 with Mr. K. 

All dressed up to go to Grandma's for the first time!

Sleeping...

more sleeping....

sleeping again....

Aria loving his "leetle lips" lol

Smiling in his sleep... check out those dimples :)

Hanging out with daddy

Great-papa Wardell, daddy and baby K

Wardell great-grandparents meeting their first Wardell GGson 

Time for a Boy! (Gender Reveal Party)

I realized that it's been so long since I updated, that I hadn't even posted that we are having a BOY in October! We found out right at 18 weeks, but held out on telling anyone till about a week later, when we told family and close friends at a small gender reveal party. I guess it wasn't a huge surprise, since everyone had been hoping for a boy and I had previously mentioned that my motherly instincts told me it was a boy. I don't think anyone was disappointed - I know Josh certainly isn't! :)

The blue cheesecake filling for the chocolate cupcakes
(recipe available for those who want it.)

My blue toenails :)

Party favors! Courtesy of  a Pinterest idea.

Can't wait to love on the little guy going to wear this onesie <3

Aria was more interested in her new sand box at Grandma's house

Pink and blue white-chocolate-covered strawberries :)

Pretty covered pretzels, thanks to my mom

Mimi and Grandma were very excited about having a grandson

Combating the Post-Christmas Crazies

You know the feeling - there's toys everywhere, random leftovers in your refrigerator that don't smell quite right anymore, and those tiny bits of glitter from cards, gift wrapping and ornaments are just finding their way into every crack and crevasse of your home. You may still feel the guilty bloat of one too many chocolate-covered-whatchajiggies or just the exhaustion of an over-active vacation. Oh yeah, I get it. As you've read, our family was everywhere for the Christmas season, and spread the joy of sickness everywhere we went. I'm also dealing with the overabundance of stuffed animals and other homeless toys in the living room, the kitchen, out bedroom and the bath tub. Yes, the bathub; don't ask.

While I have gotten almost all of our Christmas decorations put away (except for the stockings, which I totally forgot about and are still hanging on the bookcases precariously) and most of the remaining tree debris vacuumed up, I still feel a little overwhelmed at everything that must be done to put the apartment back together. I'm in denial about the fact that some of Aria's stuffed animals need to go, or they will begin to take over the world. I'm much too sentimental to get rid of these things, but I must. Just not right now.

For those with older kids, how do you start the post-holiday de-clutter? Do you have them help? Or do you secretly remove things while they're away in school? Do you donate your stuff, and if so, to who? Or do you simply hide it and "rotate" through their toys?

Aria's young enough that she won't really realize some of her stuffed animals are missing, and even if she does 4.5 seconds later she'll be distracted by a toy she forgot she had. I just dread that she'll get as attached to the many toys that circulate through our house and I do her adorable little clothes... 

Happy New Year!

I know, I  know, I kinda skipped over Christmas, and that's coming along with pictures and updates and all sorts of stuff I'm sure only family members will truly be interested in, but I didn't want to get too far into January without wishing all of you a very Happy New Year.
(Update: For some reason, Blogger decided to post my Christmas recap below. Apparently, it thought it knew better than to put Christmas after New Year's.)

We celebrated quietly this year because of the rabid sickness that had infested our home, the fact we returned from WV on New Year's Eve and due to my husband's distaste for large parties. Josh was finally recovering from his bout with the flu, so he was the designated "food finder." This involved him going to Meijer and splurging on a Bertolli frozen meal, some sparkling grape juice and a dozen roses for me *collective, romantic sigh* :) I have a goooood husband.

We watched, as per tradition, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and ate our shrimp. We made it to midnight to see the ball drop and clank our glasses of grape juice together and then promptly headed to bed. Such are the lives of exhausted parents.

What did your family do for New Year's? Did the kids stay up? Did you stay up, or did you find your bed to be the better alternative? :)

Christmas 2011 Recap

Well, it's over. Christmas has come and gone yet another year. I really can't believe it's 2012 already, and almost all my Christmas decorations are packed up and put away for another year. Crazy. Even though is seems like Christmas starts earlier every year (ornaments next to the labor day cook out gear, wha?!) everything seems to speed up once December hits. And what a crazy December it was.

This December I celebrated, either in spirit or in person, with several friends who got married. To Jared and Kara, Jeff and Kaitlyn, and Jon and Anna, I wish you all the best as you start your married lives together. Marriage rocks.

I mourned the loss of my Uncle Jim and former schoolmate, Jon. Your families will be constantly in my prayers as this new year starts. I pray for the grace of God to find you in new and miraculous ways, and that His love is evidenced in your lives and the lives of those around you.

Aria with Granny and Papa on
Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas was nothing if not memorable and crazy busy. We started out with Christmas Eve at Josh's grandparent's house. This annual tradition includes lots of food, very close bodily proximity to everyone else in the family and an over-abundance of useless wrapping paper at the end of the night. We all took turns getting family pictures in front of the tree and Mt.Christmas Present. We made it home around 10:30 with more toys than Aria will know what to do with and cookie cutters, with which I will have the same dilemma (Thanks, Shelby!)

Christmas Day started out with just our little family and Aria tearing into her gifts. Josh and I had done our 

Aria playing with Auntie Beth
at Granny and Papa's

 own "Christmases" a little earlier, so the whole morning could be spent with Aria. She most thoroughly enjoyed herself and added to the growing pile of toys that need a home. We then went to church for a short service with our wonderful church family. It was short and sweet and exactly what you'd expect for a Christmas service. The kids got involved and there was lots of singing. Perfect. That afternoon, we went to Josh's brother's apartment to celebrate Christmas with his family. More toys, more wrapping paper and more delicious food. :) Later, around 4:00pm, we headed out of MI to surprise my grandma in VA.

Aria with Papa Moore, after
giving them a Christmas surprise

11.5 hours, several mountains, many tears (from Aria) and much exhaustion later, we arrived at my  grandparents house. We crashed into bed at 2:30am only to be awoken by the sickening (literally...) sounds of Aria vomiting all over her porta-crib at around 6:30am. And thus began the saga now known as "The Christmas of the Flu." It circulated through almost the entire family (although I manged to miss that round) just in time for a respiratory flu to hit Josh, then me, and finally Aria. Despite the sickness, it was great to see my grandparents, whom we hadn't seen since last June, and hang out with cousins and - you guessed it - more food.

Jen (the baby sister;) ) and I at IHOP

Friday afternoon, we left VA, and headed to WV to hang out with my birth family. We spent Friday night in WV watching the "happy half" of the Sound of Music, opening more gifts and eating more delicious food (shoutout to Bree for that fabulous schnitzel with noodles!) The next morning, we feasted at IHOP and started the journey home, thankfully cut in half due to the WV stop-over. Aria may never get in her car seat ever again after this Christmas.

                                                    

And that was our Christmas. 

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!