The Day After...

My parents hosted my side of the family's Christmas on Friday. Xavier was so excited to receive a bunch of Power Rangers, including the huge Megazord(whatever) and a full Power Ranger outfit, down to the underwear. Brooklyn received her favorite gift; sewing lessons from Grandma. My mom bought her a mini sewing machine and promised to show her all she knows. I didn't inherit the sewing gene so I'm glad someone can show Brooklyn the ropes. My mom sent her home with homework...sewing buttons. That I can do! Brooklyn drove me crazy for the next 12 hours, begging to learn how to sew on those buttons. She did a great job! She worked really hard and only got mildly frustrated. I can't count the number of times she said "ouch!" as she poked herself with the needle!
Isaac received some very practical gifts including formula and diapers, but they were much needed items. He loves his new Mr. Potato Head. Not 30 minutes after we arrived, he hit his eye on a subwoofer and split his eyelid open. He was so tired, and being a new walker, kept falling over. For a little while, I thought we were headed to the Urgent Care. Thankfully, it has healed very quickly.

Christmas Day

It already seems like Christmas was decades ago. We had a fun Christmas day. Isaac only opened one gift, then tried to climb the rest. At least he had fun! Xavier was thrilled with his new DS games and lots and lots of Legos! He is able to put the kits together with minimal help. He amazes me sometimes! Brooklyn loved her Nellie American Girl, but I think she was trumped by the pink Nintendo DS! I can't believe it, my girlie girl is a video game junkie! After a peaceful morning, we headed to Andy's parents' house. We had a tasty meal, then spent the rest of the evening playing games.

This was Andy's favorite gift. Yet, he's not in the picture??? He's not the gamer, but loves Rockband! Xavier is nuts for the drums and Brooklyn fights for the mike. I just don't know how I feel about my six year old singing Weezer, Bon Jovi, and Nirvana.




Aren't the Christmas convicts cute?

The Best Laid Plans

Christmas Eve is always an eventful day for us. We bake our Happy Birthday, Jesus cake, I cook a fairly involved meal, we head to church, and come home in time to munch on some cake and head to bed. Everything started off as usual. Brooklyn and Xavier got to work on the cake. Isaac kept us from getting a good night's rest the night before and I was exhausted. I fell asleep on the couch and Xavier crashed on the floor. By the time I awoke, the cake was in pieces(Andy tried to remove it from the pan too early, too late, I'm not sure...) and it was two hours until we had to be at church. We'd planned on getting Brooklyn some petit fours from the local bakery for Christmas so I rushed out to purchase them. On the way, Andy ordered pizza. I picked up our hot, delicious, meal and headed home. Andy bathed the kids while I set the table. We scarfed down our pizza(and carrots) and zipped off to church. We dressed the kids in their PJs(It was a tradition in Andy's church growing up) so they'd be ready for bed when we got home. We got a few looks, but mostly compliments on our children's attire for the evening. I'm curious to see how many other kids show up in their PJs next year. After church, we headed home. We used Brooklyn's petit fours as a substitute for our sad cake. They looked really funny with a candle stuck in each little cake. Isaac had a candle stuck in a piece of rice cake, poor kid! But, all he wanted to do was touch the flame. Bad idea, kiddo! After a bite of cake, the kids headed off to dream land. Xavier was so excited for the next morning, he could barely stand still!

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Painting a Masterpiece

We love cookie painting with the Bautsch family! Every year, Julie's mom makes the yummiest crispy sugar cookies that the kids decorate with icing and sprinkles. Julie and I dip the broken ones in the paint and munch away while the kids work hard on their masterpieces. After the kids are on a nice sugar high we let them do pose for goofy pictures by the tree.

Ewwww!

Why are boys so gross? I am constantly telling Xavier to not pick his nose and not eat the treasures he finds inside. Yuck! Recently, for the tenth time that day, I told him to stop picking his nose. He turns to me with a straight face and says, "Mommy, I'm not picking my nose. I'm just feeling the boogers." Is he for real? Andy couldn't stop laughing and even wrote down the quote so he wouldn't forget. Like father, like son.

Squirrel Stand-Off

Not the world's greatest photo, but Ellie and a squirrel had a duel that lasted at least a half an hour. Our dog watches this squirrel out the back door every day. Every time she spots it, she goes tearing out the back door and chases it up a tree. The squirrel then spends the next 10 minutes "yelling" at the dog. EVERY day. On this particular day, Ellie chased the squirrel up the shed. They stood, as still as stone, for what seemed like hours! Occasionally, the squirrel would flick its tail or Ellie would wag hers. Otherwise, they just stared at each other. Then, a guy came to measure our windows. As he's standing in our bathtub with his tape measure, he turns to me and says, "Have you seen your dog?" She was still standing in the same spot! I have no idea how long she stood there, or who won the duel. Crazy mutt!

Shameless Plug

We had our family photos taken in October by a really talented lady. I was thrilled with the results! It was SO much easier than waiting in line at JC Penney. Plus, she captured my all time favorite photo of Xavier.




The photographer has had a contest every week on her blog for the month of December for various themes. My kiddos are up for this week under "My Favorite Things." While the photo is far from my favorite, I'd really like the prize! So, if anyone wants to vote for my kiddos, please copy and paste the link below. If you leave a comment, you get credit for an extra five votes. Can you help me, please? Voting ends Saturday.

http://blog.everydaybabystudios.com/

P.S. I PROMISE I'll update the Christmas festivities soon. My computer is having some memory issues and I can't upload photos. What good are posts without pictures?

Success!

I completed my first attempt at a triathlon this weekend at the Honda Wellness Center. They held an indoor, timed, event on Saturday. We were given 10 minutes in the pool, 10 minutes transition, 30 minutes on a stationery bike, 5 minutes transition, and 20 minutes on the treadmill. The final standings were based on total distance covered. After the pool, I stood in second place. Yee-haw! Unfortunately, I got destroyed on the bike. That is obviously where you can gain the most distance. I hadn't been on a bike since Spring 2007! It was so hard! After 30 minutes of pushing myself to the limit, I thought I was going to lose my breakfast. For those of you who know me, I haven't thrown up in almost 20 years and it is my biggest fear! Thankfully, I pulled myself together and finished out my 20 minutes on the treadmill. Final standing: Number Nine...out of 10 women. The lady that won only completed 10 laps in the pool and I did 23. She was a biker and a runner. Oh well, I feel great for completing the event and learned so much from the experience. If I'm planning on doing a real sprint event this summer, I need to get my rear on the bike!

Our Little Singer

Brooklyn was asked to do a solo for the children's Christmas program at church. She was paired with another boy to sing "Happy Birthday Jesus." She practiced for weeks, sometimes not so joyfully, before singing for both services yesterday. She was afraid she'd forget her words or that she'd get a frog in her throat. It was amazing, as soon as the spotlight hit her, she lit up! The first performance, she got the dreaded frog. I told her how to gently clear her throat before the next performance and she did great! I was so proud of her!

After church, we had lunch, then hurried off to Brooklyn's school's Christmas program. I've never been so bored at a school production! With the entire school on stage, it was like playing "where's Waldo?" to find Brooklyn. The only time I saw her was when they sat down between scenes. Otherwise, I could only see the little red bow sticking up on top of her head. The things we parents sit through for the love of our children...

Xavier's Christmas Program

Xavier's preschool had their Christmas program on Thursday. I wasn't sure how he'd do since he's always in his sister's shadow. I was pleasantly surprised! He paid attention, sang every word, and did the motions! I wish I had the video, but it is too big to post. I'll see what I can do.


Xavier was so happy he got to stand near his buddies Whitney and Jack.

Gee, can you tell they're up to something. Jack would poke Xavier and he'd dissolve into giggles.

Aww, Mom! Not another picture!

Doesn't she look innocent?

Warning: This post is not for children!


Last week, Brooklyn's teacher pulled me aside after school to ask me a question. "Does Brooklyn believe in Santa?" is what she asked. It seems that she announced to the entire first grade classroom that Santa does not exist. Yeesh.

Andy and I decided, before our kids were born, that we would not have Santa as the focus of our Christmas celebrations. We are not scrooges, nor anti-Santa. I don't look down on every other family that celebrates Santa, it is their choice! Our kids still receive plenty of gifts(it's amazing what people ask) and have lots of Christmas fun. We are merely trying to steer the kids away from the materialism of the Christmas season and focus on the birth of Christ. By the reaction of a lot of people, you would think we've chosen to dye our kids' hair blue and worship our dog.(sorry, I'm a little frustrated)
We've lived happily in our little bubble until this year. We've given our kids the canned answer of "my Mommy and Daddy give us gifts and we celebrate Jesus' birth" to the questions of "are you excited to have Santa come to your house," etc. Brooklyn has really struggled this year because it seems her entire first grade class can think of nothing but Santa. She feels left out. She WANTS to believe and WANTS Santa to be real. We've had endless conversations on the topic. We told her who St. Nicholas was and how he is represented in Santa, etc. Finally, Andy got frustrated with the situation and laid it out in this way. Brooklyn, we don't want to lie to you. We don't want to spend all our energy trying to make you believe in something that is not real. If we convince you Santa is real, then you find out he's not, what are you going to think when we tell you Jesus is real? That seemed to shut her up...until the next day. As they sit at the table, Brooklyn turns to my mother-in-law and says "Oma, why did you lie to Daddy?" Moments like that you just want to crawl under the table and melt into the floor!
Andy and I still feel we made the right choice for our family, but had no idea it would be this hard!
For the moment, Brooklyn seems to be silent on the subject. But, beware of the spoiler!

The Stockings Were Hung...

Saturday morning the kids were able to open their stockings. Brooklyn was about to explode, but I made them stop and pose with their socks. They were all standing together(including Isaac!) and looking adorable when I snapped the picture. When I looked on my preview screen Xavier had put his stocking in front of his face. Arg! Anyways, it was a fun event and nice that Andy was home. Onward to Christmas!

Franken-Baby

He's walking!
Isaac has been toddling a few steps at a time for about a month. In the past few days, he's really taken off! He walks for about ten feet before he loses his balance and plops down on his diaper butt. I think goose egg season has arrived in our house. The funniest thing is that when Brookln started to walk, she held her hands out to the side as if she were on a balance beam. Xavier had his arms straight over his head. Isaac is balancing by doing his best imitation of Frankenstein. Three kids, so amazingly different.

Santa Baby

Marysville held their annual Christmas Walk on Monday. As with each year prior, the weather was terrible! It rained and/or snowed the entire day. We bundled up and headed uptown to watch Brooklyn dance to "Santa Baby" with her class. It was cute, as always.

Here is the video, per my mom's request. The quality is terrible!



Xavier and his friend Jack were good sports while waiting for their sisters to perform.

All the tinsel and lights

Per tradition(and the begging of two children) we put up our Christmas decorations on Saturday. The kids were really into it this year! They blew through the boxes of ornaments and had them on the tree in no time. Unfortunately, the boxes were all strewn across the floor and the breakable ornaments were all on the bottom two branches. After a few adjustments, the tree looked marvelous! Brooklyn put the angel on top of the tree with some help from Daddy and Xavier threw the switch to turn on the lights. Isaac stood by in his reindeer antlers and looked cute.

I love how he's standing on his tiptoes to get to the perfect spot.

Oh, so not obviously posed!

Isn't he just the cutest reindeer you've ever seen?

This was his first touch of the Christmas tree. It's fake, so no injuries.

Mommy's New Toy

I've been wanting to take a photography class for a while. I love taking pictures of my kids and wish I had a better eye. While perusing the ads for Black Friday, Andy confessed that he wanted to get me a camera for Christmas, my birthday, Mothers' Day, and any other holiday that falls in the next calendar year. We ended up purchasing a Nikon D60 during our shopping trip on Friday. Over the past few days I have taken (literally) hundreds of pictures. Now I really need the photography class! Please bear with me as I get used to the new camera and learn all of its really cool functions. These are a few of the shots I took over the weekend.

The Feast

Xavier's preschool class had their Thanksgiving Feast with the Pre-K class on the Monday before Thanksgiving. His class dressed as pilgrims and the pre-k class dressed as Indians. They traveled to each classroom to learn about the first Thanksgiving. Afterward they went to the cafeteria to have a feast together. It was adorable! All the kids were very well behaved and very hungry! They scarfed down their food like they hadn't eaten in days!

A Bunch of Turkeys

I committed the ultimate error for all bloggers and scrapbookers on Thanksgiving Day. I FORGOT MY CAMERA! It was left on the dining room table in our mad dash out the door to Cincinnati. Thankfully(ha!) my mom let me borrow hers, but I have to get the photos off her camera.
The day began with a fabulous breakfast of Maple French Toast(I love Cooking Light!)
We stopped to see my Grandma in Kettering. We hadn't seen her since Isaac was a newborn! We stopped in Springboro to drop off the dog and Sea Doo. Andy's parents are storing it for the winter. Finally, we headed toward my cousin's house in Cincinnati. We arrived just in time for supper. The kiddos did very well, although Xavier wasn't a huge fan of the five dogs that all weighed almost twice as much as he does! The food was tasty and there was way too much, as usual. My cousin baked the turkeys(yes, there were two!) and ham in a pizza oven in the backyard. What an awesome idea! They were yummy! My only complaint is that Xavier now wants to eat ketchup on his rolls. Thanks alot, Ethan!

Grandma was busy again. The kids love their toasty new shirts!