10 Things You Should Know About Our Christmas

1. We started things off right by heading to church on Christmas Eve. Instead of going to the kids' room, Noah stayed with us during the whole service. He clapped to the music and listened so well during the sermon - it was very sweet. And then, in classic Noah fashion, almost had a panic attack when he realized he would have to hold a lit candle during the song Silent Night. I watched his face become awash with terror as Wes lit his candle and the wax started slowly dripping down the sides. Thankfully the song ended without any major mishaps and Noah breathed a sigh of relief.

2. Right before bed I let the boys open one present. It was their new PJ's. Blue with green Yoshi for Noah, and blue with red Lightening McQueen for Liam. That is kind of Christmas-y, right?

3. Christmas dawned bright and early - for the parents. We actually got up before the boys to finish making our Christmas breakfast.

That is my why the heck did I decide to make this stupid breakfast at 6 in the morning? face. It's pretty huh? And of course, we got up all early and that was the morning that both of my children slept until 7.

4. It was the usual excitement as the boys woke up and came down the stairs to see their gifts. It was really cute this year because now that Liam is older they came down together and Noah had someone to share all his glee with!

5. This year we did minimal Santa gifts - all the big things came from Mom and Dad - in an effort to focus more on what Christmas is really about. So, after Noah got his stuffed Yoshi and Liam got his Thomas bath toys, we headed to the kitchen to blow out the candles on Jesus' birthday cake. (Which was actually the monkey bread I made.) We even sang Happy Birthday to Him, and even though my sis was making fun of me the whole time, I am glad we did it.

6. Our tree was obnoxious. Seriously...did we need that many presents?!

Hey, don't get me wrong. I loved them all - my family was very good to me this year! (Wes got me a Kindle and tickets to see Wicked when it comes here in April!) And the boys got so many fun new toys that they are very excited about.

7. Noah's highlight? Anything having to do with Mario or Angry Birds. Liam's highlight? Hands down, it was the giant pop-up Thomas the Train tent from Aunt J.

He had already changed into his Thomas shirt - from me -and the minute that tent made its appearance the rest of his presents were irrelevant. The boys have been making good use of it ever since.

8. And do you want to know the highlight of my morning? Good, cause I'm going to tell you. It was when we unwrapped the a present to Liam from my mom. It was an Elmo shirt she had found for him at Old Navy, and she was very excited about it. He was too - enough that he immediately wanted to take off the Thomas shirt and put on Elmo. We obliged, but as soon as we slid it over his shoulders I realized something was wrong. Can you tell what it was?

Are you thinking that the shoulders of the shirt look weird? Well, that's because they do...on a boy! It was a little girl's shirt with puffiness at the shoulders. We all just died laughing, including my Mom who kept insisting she really had found it in the boy's section. The best part was that there was no way Liam was going to remove the shirt once it was on so he spent all morning wandering around in a girl's shirt! Classic.

9. When we invite people over for dinner they are required to pay for the food by entertaining my children. 

Poor Jamie may want to fake a back injury the next time she heads our way.

10. And the last thing you should know about our Christmas. It was so fun...but it made us really tired.

Here's to getting lots of rest between now and the new year!

Breathe

For the last 2 weeks I have felt like my life was spinning faster and faster out of control. Like I was on a ride at Disney World that was going way too fast and I didn't know how to get off. How in the world did we get so busy?!? I love the holidays, but the older my kids get the more we have going on, and the harder they are to get through.

Then, on Wednesday, my in laws took the boys to their house for 2 nights and I was able to sit down and breathe. And clean all my bathrooms, wrap the presents, organize my pantry, and drink wine with my husband. Oh, and thank you Lord, sleep until 9 in the morning one day. (When was the last time that happened?)

Now I feel like I have stepped off the crazy ride, calmed down a bit and am ready to enjoy Christmas. Here is what I am looking forward to,

~ Going to the Festival of Lights again.

~ Church on Christmas Eve. I don't know if the church we are going to now does it, but I love to sing Silent Night while everyone holds up their candle in the darkened room.

~ Reading the Christmas story with my boys and then waking up on Christmas and having Jesus' birthday cake. I am stealing this idea from some of my friends for this year. Hey, nothing says birthday to my 5 year old like a cake! And why not have one? It is a tangible reminder - especially to young children - of what we are actually celebrating.

~ The one present under the tree that I have been dying to unwrap. The one that Noah purchased and wrapped himself at his school's holiday store. The one that cost about $1.... Yes, if I had to only get one gift this Christmas, I would pick that one. For real.

~ Watching my boys get so excited. They are growing up very fast and I want to be intentional about enjoying every minute of special times like this.

I am throwing off all the things that were stressing me out - and there were a lot - and focusing on this truth....

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining. 'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth."

None of the rest of it matters. It's about God. Becoming man. Living a perfect life and dying as a sacrifice so that I - in all my UNperfectness - could be saved. It's about the wonderful grace of Jesus.

So. Merry Christmas friends. From our family to yours!

A Rant

This may be one of those posts that only my friends who have young children can relate to, but I am going to write it anyway.

So, let me set the scene. It is 6:30pm - the end of a long, busy day - and I am trying to get the kids dinner. Wes is eating Mexican somewhere at his office Christmas party, and I am just trying to make it until bedtime. Of course right about this time is when I realize that the next morning is Noah's last day of school before break, and I have forgotten to get his teacher's their Christmas gifts to send in with him. So, at nearly 7pm when I should be loading them into the bathtub, I am unloading the kids from the car in the Target parking lot. I grab Liam in my right arm and hoist him onto my hip - all 26 pounds of him - and grab Noah's hand with my left hand, and try to get us into the store without being run over by crazy suburbanites doing their last minute Christmas shopping. I notice Noah's untied shoe and tell him to be careful, we will tie it when we get inside and Liam is in the cart. Then I hear a voice behind me say, "Excuse me, ma'am?"

I turned around and saw a women walking up behind us. She pointed to Noah's foot and said, "Do you realize that his shoe is untied?"

I am sure I stared at her like she was a crazy person. (She probably was.) Do I realize his shoe is untied? Is she kidding? Did she really stop me - while I am wrangling 2 kids in a parking lot - to bug me about my son's untied shoe?! I took a deep breathe and replied, "I do actually realize that, but I am just waiting until my hands are free to tie it." I sort of gesture with Liam and my left hand clutching Noah as if to say, Hey crazy lady, my hands are a little full, what would you like me to do about it?

"Well, I can tie it for you right now if you want." (This women clearly thought that his untied shoelace was the end of the world. I had a sneaking suspicion that she had never actually had any children.)

Oh sure. Please. Let's stop in the middle of this dark parking lot so that we can squat down and tie the kid's shoe. What do you think will run us over first? A Honda Odyssey or GMC Yukon?

So I gathered myself and calmly replied, "Thank you for the offer, but I'll take care of it in a minute."

She looked very displeased but walked away.

When Noah was about 7 months old a similar thing happened to me at Publix. He was sitting in the cart - strapped in - and I was putting our groceries in the trunk. I had my foot on the cart as I turned my back to put the bags in the car. A women actually had the nerve to come up to me and nag me because what I was doing was "very dangerous". She informed I should always put my baby in the car first because if I turn my back on him while he sits in the cart someone could walk right up and grab him. At that time in my life I was still very unsure about myself as a Mom. I kind of felt like I had been offered the job on a probationary basis and that at any minute they would tell me I wasn't cut our for it, and should look for employment elsewhere. So, instead of telling her to stick it like I should have, I actually apologized for leaving him in the cart and thanked her for her advice. It wasn't until I started driving home that I felt my cheeks get hot and the blood rush to my head as I got really angry. Who was she to just come up and criticize what I was doing with my own child?! I wasn't being dangerous at all, and any Mom raising young kids would probably do it just like I was doing. I realized that just because a person is older than me, it does NOT mean that they are always right. Or that they necessarily know more about kids than I do. A light bulb went off at that moment when I realized that I had enough Mom experience to  be confident in my choices. I did not have to listen to "advice" from every person who wanted to offer it up. I vowed that I would never again let a stranger, posing as "helpful", berate my mothering skills. (If I am beating my child in the grocery store feel free to step in and stop me - otherwise keep your opinions to yourself. I am doing the best I can.)

So, this time, I was proud of the fact that I firmly, but not meanly, told this lady thanks but no thanks. I was thinking how patiently I had handled it, while still letting her know that she did not have the right to tell me what to do. Of course, that was all ruined by what I did next.

Because I am me, as soon as she walked away, I rolled my eyes, stuck out my tongue a little, and made an exasperated sound. And then Noah turned to me and said in his usual loud voice,

"Mama! Don't make that face at her. She was just trying to help."

Oh son. Your untied shoe is the least of your problems.

Holiday Lights

This is the scene in our downstairs these days.

(Actually a more accurate scene would include trains scattered throughout the picture but whatever.)

Amazingly enough Liam has not messed with the Christmas tree or the presents at all. The only thing he does is run over as soon as we walk in the door and step on the little button to turn on the lights. He prefers it all lit up, all day long.

As fun as our lights are though, we were hankering to see some lights on a big scale. So, when my friend Lisa suggested we take the big kids to the county park's festival of lights I jumped on board. Usually we would have been at least a few times by now, and I was really excited to do something with just Noah. (I love Liam, but sometimes I feel like poor Noah gets the shaft when we go places because my attention is so focused on making sure Liam doesn't run off into the crowd or throw a train at some one's head.)

On Wednesday we picked up Lisa and Hannah and headed over to enjoy the lights. It was a lot of fun and Noah loved seeing all his usual favorites. We also got to ride the train - although it was very crowded and he pouted a little cause we didn't get to sit next to Hannah. I forced him to pose for a picture with me though.

Things were made better after that when Noah and Hannah got to ride the carousel together.

We did not ride again - despite the fact that Noah had somehow obtained an extra ticket from a random stranger.

Noah: "I have an extra ticket. He gave it to me!"

Me: (suspiciously) "Who gave it to you?"

Noah: "A man."

Me: "What man?!?"

Noah: (shrugging) "I don't know. Just a man."

Me: (to myself, in my head) Was his last name Sandusky?

Lisa and I exchanged glances and we meandered over to another area. Not to sound like a paranoid mother but... really?! For some reason it just sounded like textbook stranger danger.

Other than that, we had a fabulous time! On the way out I tried to get a picture of Noah and Hannah together.

This was the result and after careful examination, Lisa and I determined that it looked a bit like a mug shot, so we had them go pose again. "Smile this time!" we said.

                                                                      Much better!

And, to prove how much fun was had, here is a picture of Noah on the way home.

The ride home became strangely quiet at one point and we turned around to discover that both kids were totally asleep. So cute!

What's Up With Liam

Can I just take a minute to show you something?

Whenever I sit down to blog or answer emails this is what Liam does. Grabs his "computer" and screams "Up, up, UP!!" until I put him on the couch next to me. Then he furiously bangs the keys on his computer while I type. It is too cute.

He does lots of cute things these days. As of tomorrow he is 20 months, and I am having a hard time believing that we are now closer to 2 than 1. So, in random order, here are some fun facts about Liam.

~ His favorite food is a Kashi breakfast bar (preferably strawberry flavored). We eat at least 3 a day. He has one with breakfast, and then sometime around mid morning he runs to the pantry and starts screaming, "Bar, bar, BAR!!" (are you sensing a pattern here?).  And then the same thing happens after  nap.

~ He is OBSESSED with Thomas the Train. This came out of nowhere several weeks ago. One day he just latched onto Thomas and now it is all we play with. Good thing he has an older brother who managed to collect every Thomas train known to man. There are 3 giant buckets that Liam regularly visits to gather new (to him) trains. My living room floor is covered. And I find them hiding in all sorts of strange places - behind curtains, under the pillows on my bed, in the pantry. And he loves all our Thomas books. When he doesn't have a string of five trains hooked together, he is carrying at least 2 Thomas books that he will stop and "read". By this I mean turn the pages while babbling nonsense to himself and occasionally inserting a "Peep-Peep".

~ He is fabulous at entertaining himself. He will invent games with just about anything. Like the other day, when he decided the high chair made a perfect ride on toy.

Yes, he did hold on like that while I pushed him around the downstairs. He was cackling with glee the whole time.

~ He is mostly a really happy kid. Always ready with a smile and a belly laugh. Unless you see him during the 10% of the time when he is not happy. Then you might want to head for the hills 'cause when that child is pissed...look out! You will see all manner of kicking and screaming and flopping on the ground dramatically while turning red in the face.

~ He wants to do EVERYTHING his brother does. Most of the time this is cute but sometimes it presents a problem. Like, for instance, when you visit the zoo at night and there are tons of people and he wants to walk like his brother. Except he doesn't walk like his brother - he tends to dart off in the other direction when you are least expecting it - so he gets strapped into the stroller against his will and ends up looking like this:

Yes, life with Liam is interesting. But so fun too. And I can see a big difference in things as we approach 2. He is communicating better and understanding better and every day he is growing up a little more.

Another Weekend Gone

This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. We headed back up to see Wes' family for another holiday get together. This time it was pre Christmas fun with a lot of extended family. As usual, the boys had a great time at the lake and went non-stop the whole time. Here are some pics to show what went down.

We finished the trip off with a stop at Riverbanks Zoo to see the lights. This is what Liam thought of walking through the zoo in 30 degree weather while being strapped into a stroller...

But I tried to ignore that and focus on Noah who was having a blast. He was so into it! We bought him one of those obnoxious light up wands and he waved it around as we walked through the zoo pretending to make people disappear. (For a little while he had it set on the "strobe light" setting but I promptly nixed that as I was afraid I was headed for a stroke.) He danced to the music and talked to the light displays and sang made up Christmas songs. (Here's a star for the tree, It's Jesus' tree!) And then, we passed a snow machine and he stopped to dance in the snow.

I loved watching the joy on his face as he danced around under fake snow, waving his magic wand. He is growing up so fast and I find myself trying to hold onto little moments like these as tightly as I can. I am thankful for such fun times with him!

Art

On Friday I went to Noah's school for his classroom's art auction. They were auctioning off pieces of their own art to raise money for a family in need this holiday season. Such a cute idea - and what parent won't shell out some cash for something like that?! Also, they were told they could price their paintings somewhere between $1 and $5. When I asked Noah how much his was he looked at me like I was an idiot before replying, "Uh, five dollars!"

Noah does not lack for confidence let's just say that.

When we got there, the class lined up and recited some facts about their art for us. Noah did very well speaking in front of all the parents.

And here he is holding up his masterpiece.

In case you are wondering that is a Santa on top of a sleigh delivering presents to a house in the snow.

PS... This weekend we were at my in laws' house again and I discovered where Noah's artistic talent came from. (Tee Hee... I am snickering sarcastically!) I am risking divorce putting this on here, but I think that it is totally worth it. Here is a picture of a piece of Wes' artwork that his Mom has sitting out in her house..............

I think he was in middle school when he did this (ha!) and he titled it "Good Day". I asked him why his good day involved a clown playing outside while crying. He informed me that it is NOT a clown, it is in fact him, and he is playing basketball, and those are not tears - it is sweat. By this point I was laughing hysterically and asking him why, if that is him, was his nose red?? And why was he dressed as a clown? He told me his nose was red cause he needed sunscreen or something like that - I don't know - by that point I wasn't really listening anymore, just pulling out my camera to document how awesome this painting was!

PPS.... Oh, and the only thing funnier than Wes' clown painting is this. A little peek at a drawing Noah did at school that came home in his folder a couple weeks ago.

Seriously? OK, you scan this picture and tell me what your first thought is. That blue "dinosaur".... does it look like anything else to you? Don't tell me I am the only one with a dirty mind folks!

Oh we are such good artists in my family!

Scenes From My Weekend

Please keep in mind that these scenes will all be presented in "word pictures" as I did not bust out my camera once this weekend. Sorry.

1. Friday night I went to yoga. (Wes had reserves this whole weekend and I think I knew that I needed a little zen to keep get me through.) Of course, like every other time in my life, I was late getting there. My friend Jess and I were not sure at all if we would make it in time, and we were terrified of having to put our mats inside the "Circle of Death". (We have bestowed that name on the inner portion of the yoga room where, when it is 105 degrees with 65% humidity, you feel like you are going to just boil alive. The worst class I ever had was in the circle of death and I have vowed never to go back.) Lucky for us, we made it just in time to place our mats in a primo spot at the front of the room. It was good juju all around cause I had a fantastic class. We even got complemented by the instructor at one point for doing one of the postures "perfectly synchronized". I almost replied sarcastically with, "Yeah, we practice at home" but I wasn't sure how sarcasm would be received at yoga.

2. Saturday Wes went to the base (at an ungodly early hour) and I began my weekend with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. Dumb has an ear infection and Dee has a cough so my plan was to lay low. Of course, that translated to a lot of TV. And video games. And then more TV. Well sorry, but I'm not sorry. We go hard all the time and if my boys spend one day completely vegging out I guess its not the end of the world. The only downside was that Noah discovered a really old school Super Mario Show on Netflix that he insists on watching all the time. It is terrible!!! So terrible I was actually begging them to watch Thomas the Train instead.

3. When Wes got home Saturday evening, we finally got around to putting up our outside lights. The boys and I helped Wes as he strung the lights. By "helped" I mean this: I watched Liam like a hawk to make sure he didn't run into the street and Noah pulled his pants all the way up his legs and ran around our front yard in circles screaming, "I have underwear pants, underwear pants!" My kids are so normal.

4. Sunday I went to a baby shower for my friend Joy. (Major shout out to our babysitter, Miss Kelly, who was at our house twice this weekend!) Of course, I was late getting all my stuff for the shower together and then almost late getting there, and once I finally stood still to relax I realized it was 2pm and I had forgotten to eat any lunch. So I had one of every cookie that was at the shower. That is a valid meal, right? It was a fun time with friends though and a I was glad I got to go!

5. Got home last night, was incredibly bothered that the bulb in one of our window candles had gone out, rendering our lighting scheme uneven, and couldn't wait a single second longer to fix that problem. (I am a little neurotic about things being symmetrical. Whatever, nobody's perfect.) I convinced Wes we had to go to Lowe's right away so we gathered Dee and Dumb and headed out. Then Noah suggested that because Lowe's rhymes with Moe's we should probably go eat at Moe's. And since my lunch was cookies, I didn't argue too hard.

6. Got bulbs at Lowe's and watched in horror as my night began to swiftly deteriorate. Liam stood in the cart and slammed the front part - the part with the seat that folds up - back and forth as hard as he could while screaming at the top of his lungs. Ten seconds later, Noah's fingers were in the wrong place at the wrong time and all hell broke loose. We paid as quickly as possible and ran to the car.

7. Picture this please.... Riding home in the car. It is dark. Noah is still whining about his finger. Liam is screaming at the top of his lungs in intervals. (SCREAM - breathe - SCREAM - breathe, etc.) Wes is trying to talk to me but I have no idea what he is saying even though he is a foot and a half away. Finally, I kind of lose my mind and turn around and SCREAM at the top of my lungs in Liam's face. He screams back. I scream again. Then him, then me. It is not productive I know, but I sure feel better. Then Noah starts wailing, "Stop it. Everybody stop, I can't take it anymore!" Then I hear the seat belt alarm go off and I look over to see that Wes has unbuckled and is making motions like he is going to open the door and jump out as we go down 17 south at 60mph.

8. Stuck in the house with my kids most of the weekend, plus that scene in the car, leads me to be very grateful that it is Sunday night and they are in bed and a new week is about to start. Oh, and for the bottle of Two Buck Chuck that my husband wisely opeded for me. Phew!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Well, kind of.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas anyway. A frozen windshield and 38 degree temperature this morning definitely felt more like the holidays than the 80 degree days we had been having. But as far as my house looking like Christmas? Well, I am on the way to an epic fail. We pulled all the decorations out last Sunday and my intention was to get them all up that day. Ha! Somewhere between my nervous break down about the state of my house, randomly deciding to clean out Liam's closet, and then escaping to 90 minutes of hot yoga, the decorations got pushed aside.

Over the course of this week I have made incremental progress. The stockings got hung. The wreath made it onto the door (no other outside lights are up yet - just the wreath. He looks kind of lonely.) And the fake tree we purchased last year remained in the giant box parked in front of my fireplace. Wes kept saying he was going to put it up - and in his defense he did give a few half-hearted offers one evening. But I didn't want him to have to spend all that time tediously unwrapping all the branches so I kept telling him not to worry about it. On Wednesday, I thought I would be super cool and surprise him by having it up when he got home from work. My sister was over, and said she would help. Of course, that was until she saw how heavy and awkward it was, and then she decided that a better use of her time would be to take embarrassing pictures of me wrestling the tree instead. Thanks Jess.

It took about a million years to put up. And Wes was not surprised at all, because he walked in right in the middle of me trying to secure the middle part and cursing the branches for not doing what I wanted them to do. I am proud to admit however, that about 2 hours after I started the tree was up. And lit.

But that was all I had in me that night. And alas, our tree is still lacking it's ornaments. Although, with Liam being the age that he is, I should probably just leave it like this anyway. I have a feeling that we may have lots of broken ornaments this year. But I will make Wes doing all the cleaning up - I did my part putting that mega-beeyatch of tree up all by myself!

And One More

Part 3: All The Rest Of It

Okay, I am starting to lose interest in Thanksgiving. So lets make this quick, ok?

We stayed at the lake all day Friday and half of Saturday. While we were there we did lots of fun things including: a zoo trip, exploring by the water, a chilly boat ride, and more hanging out with the family. Here is a photo montage to sum it all up.

Phew! I think that is all. It was a fun and busy holiday weekend. Which is why it is no wonder that this is the company that Wes kept on his drive home.

More Thanksgiving

Part 2: Lake Murray

Thursday afternoon we arrived at Wes' parents house on Lake Murray. They have just finished building a brand new house on their lake property and this was our first time seeing it.

It is a beautiful house with amazing views of the lake. Oh, and it has more than one bathroom and no creatures living in the floor. So it is definitely an upgrade from the old lake house!

We spent the afternoon finishing up all the food for thanksgiving and letting the kids play on the porch. Then everyone sat down for a delicious meal. Liam really loved Aunt Jean's sweet potato casserole (a child after my own heart - it is wonderful!) and gobbled it right up. along with some turkey and green beans. He did not, however, care for regular mashed potatoes. I think he was expecting them to taste like the sweet potatoes and when they didn't there was a lot of spitting and gagging and choking as he attempted to evict them from his mouth. Nice.

Oh, and Noah ate "chicken". (Psst! It was actually turkey but we told him it was chicken. Otherwise he would not have eaten it.) He did keep asking us, "Where is the turkey?" We kept pointing to the counter but he continued to look confused. Then a lightbulb went off in my head, and I realized he was looking for a live turkey. (Who knows why he thought Nana and Pops would have a live turkey wandering around their house.) I calmly said, "Noah, the turkey is on that plate over there. They cooked it." His eyes got as  big as saucers and he gasped. Yep, not what he was expecting. Good thing we told him he was eating chicken.

After dinner it was a free-for-all. All three cousins and Pops and Uncle Mike had a grand time being crazy.

And we attempted to take a family picture but it didn't go so well. Carissa tried her hardest to get a good one of us, but Liam makes it next to impossible. This was the best we could do.

Do you like how we gave him a phone to play with to get him to sit still? Good parenting 101.....

After a piece (or 2) of pumpkin pie it was time for my food coma. All in all, a very fun day!