Christmas and New Year’s

Jackson and the tepee

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year. Ethan’s brother and his family came down, and our boys had a great time playing with their two kids who are very close in age to Ryan and Jackson. We went bowling, made pizzas, had a sleepover party (Ryan’s first), and generally spent lots of time indoors playing with their new toys.

We did the usual Christmas Eve church service and then dinner at Ethan’s parents’ house. Fortunately, most of Santa’s presents were ready to go, so we spent some time preparing for him that evening, but got to bed at a decent hour. The boys were excited about Christmas, but are still too young to jump out of bed at 5am and want to rush downstairs. Ryan needed to be prompted that Santa came and brought presents, but was excited by what he received. The big presents this year from Santa: pretend lawn tools (weed whacker, lawn mower, leaf blower, saw), big wooden castle with knights, princes and princesses (Mommy’s favorite), and a fun pirate ship. Jackson got a cozy coupe car, but wasn’t that excited about it. Fortunately, he’s too young to know the difference.

We had everyone over for lunch/brunch later that morning which was very nice. Ethan and I had made several casseroles the day before in disposable tin containers, so clean up was a breeze. The frigid temperatures and snow also worked well, serving as additional refrigerator space for everything!

Christmas afternoon, my mom and sister drove up. We opened presents with them and had a really nice meal with them that evening…all my favorites: beef tenderloin, cheesy potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. Yum!

My sister was in town all the following week which was really nice. We didn’t do much all week, but really enjoyed relaxing and hanging out with her and with the kids. Usually we go stir crazy if we can’t get outside much during the day, but this week went by quickly and we enjoyed being home-bodies. I’d love to say I got a lot of home projects done, but that didn’t happen.

New Year’s was spent the usual way- dinner and watching the ball drop before crashing to bed. We enjoyed New Year’s Day, however. My Dad and his wife, Sandy, came up and we hung out with them, did presents again, and took them to the Udvar-Hazy Aeronautical Museum by us.

In all, it was a family oriented, low-key, fun-filled week! Now if only I could win the lottery so we could have this all the time!

Winter Storm 2009

We had our second snowfall in December this past weekend- forecasters were calling it the biggest snowfall of the century. All that hype certainly meant that we’d get a little dusting and nothing more, right? Wrong…17inches wrong to be precise.

Ryan’s birthday party was scheduled for 10am on Saturday morning. Snow was supposed to start Friday night and we were supposed to get a couple of inches overnight with the heavy snow coming on Saturday. I picked up the sheetcake on Friday night, and let everyone know the party was still on. Well, by Saturday morning, we had about 9 inches already on the ground and it was coming down fast and furiously. I had to cancel the party, much to my disappointment. Ryan, surprisingly, took it very well. He was too excited to play in the snow to mind. We had the family party that weekend and Ryan still had a great time. I enjoyed spending the weekend taking the kids on sleigh rides, sledding, decorating a gingerbread house and celebrating his birthday. It was a fun way to kick off the holidays and get us into the Christmas spirit.

A few pictures of our recent goings-on this month.

Fun weekend!

We had a great weekend aside from one major fall.

Friday was Jackson’s daycare Christmas party. Mimi is his wonderful daycare lady, along with her two helpers, Veronica and Diana. She always invites us over for a potluck dinner party. She hires Santa to come and distributes presents that she buys for all of the kids. It’s very sweet and the kids just love seeing Santa. We get some cute pictures each year with Santa and can avoid the lines at the mall.

Saturday afternoon we drove down to see the National Christmas tree in DC with our friends, Randy, Kirsten, and their two kids. That was a zoo, but Ryan loved looking at the tree, and especially the various trains that were set up around the tree. The best part of the night was a great dinner afterwards with them. Both boys were absolute angels because they had two other kids to entertain them. Jackson usually squirms, throws food, etc and he was such a perfect angel, quietly eating his dinner. I actually got to enjoy my food and carry on a conversation with the other adults for a change!

Sunday I had a fun cookie exchange party with my moms group – got to see some friends I hadn’t seen in a while which was nice. We also ran around buying fun toys for ourselves. Ethan and I bought a nice Nikon camera for ourselves, as well as looked around for a sectional sofa for the basement.

Camera is so great- it has different lenses and can take such fast/high quality pictures. I know we’ll really enjoy it and get a lot of use out of it, especially with the kids. Our older camera just couldn’t take pictures fast enough to capture the right pictures of them.

So, fun weekend all in all and we’re all getting excited for Christmas. I feel really good about the presents I got for everybody and am hoping the recipients are just as excited as I think they’ll be.

This weekend is Ryan’s birthday party at the firestation again, so we’re gearing up for that before we can hit Christmas. January will sure be a let down when all of these activities die down!

Too busy

It has been a whirlwind few weeks around here. The holidays are always a busy time for us because of all the family birthdays- my husband, Ryan, his grandfather, and his aunt all have birthdays in the Thanksgiving/Christmas timeframe. Not to mention, Ryan has a number of friends with December birthdays…just came back from the third birthday party for Ryan’s friends in a two-week period. One more to go before Ryan’s party…yes, that would be 5 parties in about 6 weeks.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family this year. It’s always nice to go home to visit family, but always too short as we jet around from one house to the next. Jackson was especially challenging, being more fussy and clingy to me than he usually is. I don’t know what I do, but he will cry and want me to pick him up or hold him 24/7. If I’m not around, he’s a complete angel, doesn’t need to be held, plays quietly with his brother, etc. With me nearby, it becomes all about being held by “Mama”. I get so frustrated with his clinginess sometimes, but know the days are coming when he’ll be too big for me to hold.

Here are a couple of pictures of me and my boys, along with Jackson enjoying some of Aunt Meredith’s birthday cake.

We drove back home on Saturday this year so we could host my father in law’s surprise 60th birthday party. The party was a huge success. We had 60 people for a lasagna dinner, and everyone seemed to have a great time. More importantly, my father-in-law was completely surprised.

We’re off to find a Christmas tree today. I like to get decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving to really take advantage of them, but with the party, that didn’t happen. The house is otherwise close to being decorated. I’m wondering how Jackson will do with the tree this year. He’s into everything these days…I can just see him pulling all the ornaments off the tree or shaking the tree.

Spooky Jack O’Lanterns and Superheroes

Halloween was a fun time. We kicked off the season earlier in the month with a trip to Cox Farms. Always a good time- hay rides, kettle corn, cider, big slides, climbing on hay bales, etc. Ryan had a blast and went down every big slide they had. Jackson wasn’t as interested as he was a little sleepy since we skipped out on his nap to go. He was a good trooper though and didn’t crash until we’d already had our fill.

We expanded our Halloween decorations of the house exponentially complete with spider webs, snakes, bats and two bloody hands that we put in the bushes. Ryan had a blast decorating the house and putting the bats and spiders into the spider web. For the jack o’lanterns, Ryan requested a “spooky” pumpkin and a silly pumpkin. He was interested in watching, but neither boy wanted to touch the pumpkin glop when we started carving them.

Halloween was great. The previous day at his daycare, he was supposed to dress up for a parade. He had wanted to be Spiderman for months, but the day of the parade, wanted nothing to do with the costume. The best we could do was a police officer’s jacket. I guess seeing all of the other kids in their full ensembles changed his mind, because on Halloween, he had no problem with the costume. Jackson had no problem with his own costume (Superman), but was not too sure about anyone else’s costume. He was a little freaked out seeing Ryan in a mask and seeing others dressed up. He did really well though, even walking up to houses by himself. We hit two streets and that was about enough for both boys. It was a fun night.

Ryan’s favorite book…the Bible?

Religion is something I have struggled to introduce to my kids. The times Ethan and I have taken Ryan (and now Jackson) to church, we’ve spent the service entertaining them and trying to keep them quiet and occupied. We don’t get anything out of it and they are certainly too young to understand it. I refuse to put them in the nursery since I work full time and the weekends are the only times I spend with them. It’s not fair to them. So…I’m embarrassed to admit, Ethan and I really only get to church a few times a year. I have struggled with how and when and where to introduce religion to them. It seems God is either telling us something, or He has given us a temporary answer to these questions.

Ryan received a children’s Bible when he was much younger. Over the past few months, however, this book has become the favorite of all of his other books. It’s interesting how he finds this book superior to all of the other books we get from the library about firefighters, dinosaurs, motorcylces- all his favorite things. We have a whole pile of library books that go unread as he chooses to read from his children’s Bible every night before bedtime. His favorite stories are the ones about Jonah and the whale, Joseph and the multi-colored coat, Samson and his long hair, and David and Goliath. Definitely favors the old Testament, but loves to look through the book and pick out ones to read each night. Makes me feel good knowing that, despite not attending church regularly, he’s getting some religious education.

Ryan understands that God is everywhere, He is up in the sky, and God made all of us….and, straight from the horse’s mouth, “God is nice.”

September = Apple Picking

17lbs worth to be precise. A good time was had by all…now I just have to figure out what to do with them all!

Good Weekend

We had a fun weekend with my dad and his wife who came up to visit us. My dad is a workaholic to say the least, so it was so nice to spend the whole weekend with them. We did lots of playing, lots of eating and lots of drinking. Saturday morning, my dad, Ryan and Ethan played 9 holes of golf. Ryan had the best time riding in the cart with them and brought his golf bag along. He was so happy- I loved seeing the excitement in his eyes to be going off with his Daddy and his “Daddy Bobby” out to play a big boy sport.

That afternoon, we took Ryan to the local zoo. It’s interesting how he has changed developmentally over the past year since we last went to the zoo. This zoo has a feeding barn where he could feed the goats and sheep. In years past, he’s gotten the biggest kick of out it, but this year, wanted nothing to do with feeding the animals. Same with the tractor ride they give the kids around the park-the docile animals will come up looking for food, but Ryan was very scared of them and wanted me to hold him away from the animals. He still had a good time, but enjoyed the animals safely behind their cages the most.

Time Outs

Jackson is at a tough stage right now. He is both independent and high maintenance simultaneously. He also does not understand punishment nor can he communicate with us. Makes for some trying days all around. One minute he’s Mr. Independent, running all over, not wanting to be held, and generally getting himself into mischief. The next minute, he only wants me to carry him around…usually right when I’m trying to make dinner.

He has recently started the game of let’s throw our food off the tray and onto the floor. I give him stern reprimands, and then ultimately pull the food away. We have also tried a quicky 1 minute or so “baby time out” which is not effective b/c he simply doesn’t get it. Tonight during one of these, we put him in a chair facing away from the dinner table as we ate, next to the kitchen counter. Well, there was a box of kleenex there, and next thing I know, he deliberately plucked out a kleenex, gave it a quick exam and then tossed it to the floor. He watched it fall, then repeated the process. Yes, that time out sure did the trick!

What’s New

Jackson- Mr. Independent these days. Somehow he can get through a week of daycare without any bumps and bruises, but he always gets some injury with us. Maybe it’s the parenting. Hmm…or maybe his brother. A little of both probably. In any event, he has a huge purple knot on his forhead from where I presume he either a) ran into the door,  b) was trying to get away from his older brother swinging a pillow at him and hit the door or c) was pushed and fell into the door by said brother. I missed it, but he’s got quite the shiner. Despite all that, he loves nothing more than to wake his brother up in the morning with big bear hugs and sloppy open-mouthed kisses.

He is very stubborn and has mastered the throw-himself-on-the-ground-screaming-fit routine when he doesn’t get his way. Alternatively, he likes to do the arched back/squirm routine if you try to take him somewhere or put him somewhere he doesn’t want to be. He gets so mad. Definitely less easy-going than his brother, but still so darn cute, it’s hard to be mad at him.

Speaking of which, I took the boys to a stream about a half mile away. Ryan had a tough time coming back…it was a little too long for his little legs to ride on his bike, but he made it. He still likes to pretend his bike is his motorcycle. A new thing Ryan has started watching on TV is Scooby Doo. I think we rented it at the library one time, but it comes on an old-school cartoon channel and he’s fascinated with it recently. He calls Scooby “Scoody Ba Doo”. Pretty funny.