Christmas at home

 A family picture on Christmas Eve.  (Missing Troy of course who was busy preparing for the many Christmas eve services.)   We just spent the day playing at home while Troy worked.  We attended the 4:00 church service and Timothy had so much energy.  I was so glad to make it through the hour!  Troy made it home by 7:30 to help with bed time and then enjoy a late dinner together.

 Timothy and Teresa both woke up about 7am on Christmas morning.  They were excited to see some presents in their stockings.

 After a yummy breakfast of bagels and omelets made by Troy, we opened our other gifts.  We had a lazy family day at home.  The kids stayed in jammies all day.  Troy took Timothy sledding in the afternoon despite the really cold temps.

Teresa opening her Dora DVD

Timothy excited bout Captain America

It was a wonderful day.  We had a nice dinner and then celebrated Advent one last time.  The kids like to blow out the candles, so they love Advent time!  We also took a family tour of Christmas lights and finished up the night with a Christmas show.  Our Christmas was low key and laid back.  The simplicity and time together as a family are what make it beautiful.

Celebrating Christmas

We began our Christmas celebration with Troy's mom.  We had a great dinner, and fun opening presents and being together.  Timothy and Teresa helped Grandma Judy decorate her window with snowflakes and nativity characters.  When they were done, it had quite the artistic look!

We snapped a few family pictures before dinner.  It takes quite a few pictures to get everyone looking and almost smiling, but what a great picture.

An focused and excited boy starts the opening of presents.  He was pretty happy with all the nice new things from Grandma.

Teresa takes a turn at a gift.  She had the most memorable moments.  When she opened a baby doll and realized what it was, she said, "I don't like babies!" Then she proceeded to throw it over her shoulder.  Earlier in the evening Teresa had a huge fit about her cookie.  When she bit it, it broke into pieces.  She started crying saying she did not want it broken.  What makes this so funny is that almost every other food she wants broken into tiny pieces.  She even woke up in the night crying about her broken cookie.

A favorite gift of Timothy's was his new scooter.  And since it is too cold outside, he got to ride it around Grandma's kitchen and I even let him bring it our house.

5 Years old!

The 5 year old!

Timothy is now a whole hand old...5 years.  And he has learned that it's 'his day' and he can use that to his advantage.  (i.e. "Mom can I have more pancake, it is my birthday?  Mom and dad can you read stories, it is my birthday?")

We had his friend party today, hoping that a few friends would still stay in town. We ended up with two friends able to come which made for a great party! It was a bit of a superhero theme with activities that would train some great super heroes. The kids made masks, practiced jumping, worked on shooting silly string at bad guys and a few other fun games. We finished the party with lunch and chocolate chip ice cream cake.

Decorating masks

Musical presents game

Opening gifts

Angry birds/super hero Chocolate chip ice cream cake

Yummy cake!

Despite some pretty cold weather, Troy took Timothy out sledding since his big gift was a new tube sled.  Timothy proved to be quite hardy in the cold and the stayed out nearly 45 minutes.  I had to keep our sprinkle pancake dinner warm while awaiting their return.  The only bummer was a hole in the sled already.  Hopefully a patch job will keep it going for the winter.

The new snow tube

Timmy's dinner choice...sprinkle pancakes.  With a candle to blow out of course.

I am pretty sure Timothy had a great day.  He wanted to know if he could have a candle in his leftover scone again tomorrow, and maybe two candles.

The new jumpy to keep an active boy busy!

We feel so blessed to have our five year old boy. His interests right now are super heroes and good and bad guys.  He continues to love the outside...which is why he loves to sled.  He is quiet and serious at times, but he can get pretty loud and silly with certain people.  We see that most when he and Teresa play.  He is a little prayer warrior.  He often leads our family table prayer and is quick to pray for friends or family.  He does well with routine which is probably why he enjoys preschool.  He is a very active boy and likes to run, jump, dance, and wiggle at any chance he can get.  And he's got a heart full of love to share.

Santa Village and 1st Christmas program

We had a wonderful and full family weekend.  From sledding, to bowling, to Christmas crafts, to riding horses, to a Christmas program, we had it all. 

This was Timothy's first program at church as we were out of town last year.  Along with his class he sang a few songs as a part of the worship service.  Here are some pictures and video.

 Santa's village was at a golf course clubhouse.  There were lots of decorated trees, cocoa & cider, crafts galore.  Santa was there too, but we did not make a point to visit him.  An 'elf' did ask Timothy what he wanted for Christmas.  He was quick to say Ironman. (Which he did get as an early birthday gift from Grandma Judy!)  Teresa wanted neigh-neighs.  (That seems to be her answer for everything.  She always prays for neigh-neighs too!)

 Outside of Santa's Village there was a sleigh (wagon ride) and horse rides.  Teresa was excited to see the horses and kept commenting that the horses pulling the wagon were "bigger than her head."  Funny expression, but true indeed--they were big!  Both Timothy and Teresa got to go for a ride on a horse.  That was a definite highlight.  Lots of special memories made from fun times.

Cookie baking & Santa Pancakes

Cookie baking and decorating has always been a fun holiday memory of mine.  This year I got to share that with my kids.  Timothy and I were going to make some snowman cookies to go with our current snowman obsession!  He was really interested in making some cutout cookies, so we did a little of both.    He was a great helper!

Concentrating hard on cutting out the cookies.

When Teresa was up from nap, we attempted some decorating.  The kids did very good.  I put the frosting on and they added a variety of candies.  Timothy had a few that were quite heavy on the red hots and Teresa made a very chocolate angel.  They had fun and even waited until the very end to sample some of their products.

Teresa wonders how to get the sticky sprinkles off of her fingers without licking them.

Deciding what decorations to use on the next cookie.

The finished products.  Timothy's on the left.  Teresa's on the right.

And this morning we had our annual Santa pancakes.  Timothy was happy to pose for a photo before digging in.

Teresa not so happy about the picture and not so sure about this stuff on her plate staring back at her.

After a few bites, Teresa is much happier with this Santa pancake idea!

Superheros!

Evidence of Timothy's love of superheros...he and I wearing the masks I made.  And Teresa putting a mask on Peef!

A bit of live action

Here are a couple of videos just for fun. We did a little bell ringing this past weekend. It went okay. The kids helped a little and then spent some time at the mall playground. The other video is of Teresa and Peef the bear. Troy and I think it is cute how she says "peef the bear!"

(Sorry I don't know how to flip the videos the right way.)

"I lonely," Dora, and other Teresa updates

Teresa had only a handful of words about 6 months ago.  That has sure changed!  Troy and I joke that she never stops talking.  Even in her crib before naps and bed she chatters to herself for a good while.  Having an older brother it is funny to hear that things she has learned.  We often hear her say "I shoot my web" while playing with Timothy's spiderman.  Another favorite is "I lonely" which means no one is playing with her and she doesn't like that.  I leave her for a moment to walk in the kitchen to help Timothy and she immediately pipes up "I lonely!" 

She has also discovered her first passion that is truly her own and not a hand me down from Timothy.  DORA!  It started with a Dora book at home.  Then there was a Dora puzzle at my parents that she did constantly during our Thanksgiving visit.  Last Sunday we borrowed a Dora DVD from the church library.  And now she loves Boots and Tico and walks around hugging her DVD.  It is sort of fun to see her come to like something on her own.

Teresa continues to be on the shorter side.  I had her in a 12 month onsie the other day.  It was indeed too small, as it looked more like a 3/4 sleeve, but it was a cute Christmas one that she had not worn much.  But most of her pants are 18-24 months.  It works great that much of last years clothes still fit this year.

Timothy has taken to sledding this year.  And as much as Timothy loves the outdoors, Teresa can't stand it.  After about 2 minutes outside she is begging to go inside.  She takes about one ride in the sled and then opts to sit in the snow.  I think part of the problem is the difficulty in moving in winter gear.  She has a bit of trouble walking and doesn't like the big mittens.

We often refer to Teresa by various nicknames, but she only likes one...Tootsie-pop.  If we call her something else, she will correct and say she is Tootsie-pop Teresa.  She is a hard one not to laugh at and it takes some serious concentration not to smile at her when setting the rules.

A week in the cities

We had a great Thanksgiving week in the cities with family. Troy had a conference the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we tagged along for an extra long visit!  With the extra few days I was able to arrange a few visits with good friends that I don't get to see often enough.  My mom and I also squeezed in some shopping as did Troy and I--date night at Target--can't beat that!

The weather was great, so we had some fun trips to playgrounds and time outdoors.  We also had a morning play date with 'the cousins' which is always fun.  When Troy got back, we made a trip downtown to see the Macy's Christmas display.  I got us there a bit early, so we had a snack break in a nearby building.  Although the kids saw the display last year, they were just as intrigued by it this year.

Enjoying snack with Grandma downtown.

Taking in the Christmas display with wonder.

Some of Teresa and Timothy's favorite activities for the week were doing puzzles, playing Angry birds and playing with Star Wars toys.  Teresa could do the Dora puzzle over and over for hours.  And Timothy had his set times to play Angry birds after breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We had a great Thanksgiving day with my family, and we spent the day after with Troy's family.  Not being much a photographer, I hve no photos of those gatherings.  But they were good days for all of us.

Going home is never fun, but this time we had the joy of putting up the Christmas tree to look forward to.  The kids were good travelers and once we arrived home they could hardly wait to get at the tree.

One extra photo of the kids and I in our new clothes.  Timmy and I got new sweaters and Teresa got a 'new' dress from her cousins.  (I got the idea of Sunday morning timer photos from my sister-in-law.  A way to make the morning fun when daddy is gone!)

And for some live action, below is a video af the tree decorating.  Not too exciting, but fun for those of you who live far away. :-)

 

A taste of winter fun!

We had a few inches of snow yesterday.  (Perfectly timed after Troy got all the raking done!)  Not a lot, but just enough to play in and with mild temps it was ideal.  Yesterday Troy pulled the kids around the front yard.  Timothy would have loved to go to a sledding hill today, but it was so sloppy that I guessed most of the snow on the hill would be gone.  Instead we built a little ramp to sled on in our front yard.  It was indeed very little, but still big enough to bring some delight to Timothy!

Happy Halloween

We have been busy carving pumpkins for the last two weeks.   Timothy and Teresa each had pumpkins from church.  Then Timothy brought one home from school and finally he won one at our church Halloween party.  The first one we carved, Timothy chose to do with the pumpkin prayer.  So his pumpkin has heart eyes, a cross nose and a fish mouth.  He did it at school and wanted to do that at home too.

We carved pumpkins as a family on Saturday morning.  Teresa wasn't not too interested, which was good.  It meant she wasn't too sad when we threw out her pumpkin upon discovering it had rotted from the bottom.  (Lesson learned...don't keep pumpkins inside for a month next to a heater and let your children continually climb on it. Opps!) 

Timothy kindly let Teresa use one of his pumpkins.  I helped Teresa carve a cat face in her pumpkin.  Timothy spotted a pumpkin in the newspaper and requested that Troy carve his like that.  Troy and I had to do the scooping out, but Timothy attentively watched and waited for a turn to help with the carving.

Teresa sat with me briefly while I worked on hers and then wandered away.  Probably off reading a book!

Here is Timothy's finished pumpkin.  Three happy faces and one very sad face.  I don't remember what Teresa was so terribly upset about, but clearly it was something awful!

I was part of a team to plan a fall festival at our church.  We had great turn out and the kids had fun playing different games and activities.  Troy dressed up as a cowboy and helped make the picture with a pastor photo booth happen.  Timothy's favorite game was the cereal walk (think cake walk).  When the cereal ran out it became a pumpkin and bowl walk.  Timothy was persistent enough to win both a pumpkin and a bowl!

I think our pumpkins look pretty good this year.  Here is one cool dude posing with our pumpkins!

 

 Teresa was new to this whole trick or treating event and thought that she would get her treats right after dinner.  She ate cantaloupe and pumpkin seeds and upon hearing Timothy ask about treats, declared she was done and moved her plate away.  The last ten minutes of dinner she just kept asking for her treats.  And I  kept telling her she had to go out trick or treating to get them. Finally dinner ended and we got the trick or treaters on their way.  They had a great time.  

 



 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Preview and fall fun

The kids tried on their Halloween costumes today, so I thought I would post a little preview.  Teresa is a cat and Timothy a great white shark.  We have been reading a few Halloween books--Morris and Borris Halloween, and Minerva Louise Halloween the last few days.  I think Timothy is getting excited to go trick or treating.  I have been planting the idea of sharing some of our candy with the mission downtown too.  Timothy seems open to the idea as long as he doesn't have to share it all!

Kitty's tail

 

Great white with fins and tail.

Teresa's huge pumpkin and Timothy's 3 pumpkins!

A fall family pose.

Who loves leaf piles?!