Decorating cookies

I have many, many pictures to update you on so I'll try to start at the beginning. My Mom just left this morning, Eric drove up to MD to take care of some of the stuff on the house, but I am getting ahead of myself. My Mom arrived from FL last week. I thought this would be a good time to decorate cookies, our family's tradition. I haven't had such a good luck getting the cookies to work out right, so I was glad that Mom was coming so I could watch and learn. Watch and learn I did! Now I hope I can remember to next year. Here are the pictures:

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas eve, the presents are wrapped and under the tree, stuffing made, cake made, ready to go, I suppose. Now all we need to do is go to bed early, there is much un-wrapping to do tomorrow. I forgot to remind Gwen that she is not to get up and un-wrap presents tomorrow until everyone gets up! I hope she just doesn't get up and start un-wrapping. We went to Church today, the children's Mass, had our tradition, close your arteries shrimp. Currently Eric and my Mother are discussing www.noradsanta.org it is a pretty intense conversation. I am beginning to wonder if they are going to stay up and watch the whole thing.
I have realized yet again, I have a backlog of pictures to post. So here are some from our "Christmas photo shoot". We tried to take pictures on the campus, but it the kids were not super co-operative and this picture, I wish I was better positioned for and I wish I would have gotten the sweet one right after it where Gwen kissed Nate, but alas, I didn't! :( This picture actually made the Christmas card, I think. It was I think the cutest where we could see there faces.

I loved this picture, but I didn't feel like it would work on the card. And really, can't see Gwen's face.

I also wanted to include these pictures of the kids "helping" us put up the tree.

Well, goodnight everyone. Merry Christmas! I hope you have a happy and blessed holiday surrounded by friends and family.

Its not real snow

We have been kind of busy around here, I have been scouring to do the last minute Christmas things and making caramels. I have delivered candy to all of our neighbors. I've been busy, I tell you.

Today we went to a little shopping center with the kids, we didn't know anything about it, but we thought we'd give it a go because it was decorated pretty. It was a little hoity-toity for us, and mostly had place to eat and no shops. I tried to get pictures of the kids in front of the tacky decorations.

Well, Gwen cooperated for like a minute.

You might notice in those pictures there is snow. Apparently, if we wouldn't have moved from MD we would have gotten snowed in. Yesterday when it started snowing, I showed Gwen that it was snowing and she said "Mom its not real snow, it isn't on the ground and we can't play in it". So, last night we got some snow, that stuck to the ground, we bundled the kids up and took them outside to play.

You can see Nate really enjoyed himself, well I don't know if he really cared so much about it, he was trying to sneak around the car.

We could make snow balls, and then I tried to make a snow man, well, I succeeded in making a snow man, but then it was crushed by the children, who probably wouldn't have crushed it until Eric said something like Nate-chop! Which is Nate's newest trick, he loves to walk around and say "chop, chop" and then knock stuff over or hit things, great, thanks Eric!

A good time was had by all, we had hot chocolate after we came in and then I made caramel, which takes forever! It was a lot of stirring...

Dr. appt

Here are the vital statistics:
He is 25lb 4oz (50%)
32in (50%)
It seems he grew about a pound (15oz) and 1 inch. Also his head is at 50%, so he is all around average! Everything went well, he got all the shots, and now is done with shots until preK! YAY! Also, he has a bump on his wrist, which is apparently a cyst, that is often hereditary. She said that it probably will not be a problem for him ever, but we will keep an eye on it, and if it does cause problems (like when he is weightlifting!) or get bigger it can be drained. All-in-all good visit, on schedule, back in 6 months!

Gwen

My almost 3.5 year old is going through a rather trying time, apparently. Eric says that he kind of feels like she has PMS. She is quite the emotional one these days. Some days I get this, where she is cooperative and sweet and will do what I ask with very little questioning...other days I get this, where she won't even turn around for the camera....I had to get the picture following this one on the fly, which is why it is so dark.

She is a study in contrasts, some times she's up, sometimes she's down. You never know which one you are going to get. Many things I wonder about...why is she sleeping on the floor?

Why does she refuse to nap, but anytime she sits still between 3-4 she falls asleep, like in my car, in the stroller, or next to me on the couch this afternoon. She is a mystery. It makes me think of a silly little movie that I saw where the character says "I love you, but I don't really like you very much right now". I love her dearly, but she makes me question my sanity.

Here she is climbing the rock wall at the local museum.

We have had some issue with Gwen and her peeing. Not really a problem so much, she just won't go as often as I should think she should, like 1-3 times a day, usually she doesn't pee until mid-afternoon. I had discussed it with the Dr at her 3yr appointment and she told me I should make a routine out of it, and I've tried, seriously, I've tried, but its been 6 months and I have to beg and plead with her to go, not worth it to me. I feel like at this point, I am just training her to go when I tell her, and not actually go when she needs to, so then if I forget one day to remind her she is going to have an accident, which I don't want to happen. So, I'm going to let her be for a while and go when she needs to, and see how it goes. Today she went during quiet time and she didn't flush "because it is so loud and she didn't want to wake anybody up"! She is so considerate. We have tried to night train, but we are staying up too late (E & I) so we aren't getting up the instant she gets up, which I think we are going to have to do to night train her. So as soon as we quit being lazy, that will go well, I am sure.

FYI-that little boy in the picture is not Nate! I took the kids to the Museum the other day on a Mom's group thing, they had enough members that we could get in for free. I haven't done anything else with these Moms because their activities are not convenient for me, and then Friday I hardly got to talk to any of them, but the kids had a super fun time, and that is all that matters!

Busy Evenings

The last couple evenings I have been super busy, I have been busily writing my Christmas cards. I have other things to do, after the cards, but wanted to get them out, so I could cross them off my todo list.
Gwen has started to take over some of my responsibilities around here, finally. She has started reading Nate's books before nap time (this is news to Eric, who still reads the stories before bedtime, sucker!) She demands that he sits next to her and she "reads" to him. Of course, she is almost 3.5 and she is not actually reading to him, she has just memorized the books. And sometimes needs help remembering how to start the page, but usually does all the words, as written.

Ah, 1 less chore for me! Now if I could just get her to keep her clothes on all day and clean up after herself, I would be set!

Sunday-update!

Well, sadly I forgot to mention a couple things in my Sunday post from yesterday. After Nate's nap we couldn't decide what to do, and Gwen was uncooperative, so I suggested we clean out their room. Eric and I went in there with a trash bag and removed baby toys, toys they don't touch and books. We actually probably pulled 2 garbage bags worth of stuff out of there. Nate has a tendency to tear books, so we have to figure out what to do about that. I have started throwing some of those books away, since he is tearing them beyond repair, in my opinion. We now have only 1 "cube" that has toys in it and a half filled toy box! AWESOME. I kind of wish Christmas wasn't coming, because I think this will make our lives a lot easier and now they have 1/3 the toys they used to have in there, which looking at it, seems to be a more reasonable number. Now if we could just get Gwen to get rid of some of her "babies" (stuffed animals and dolls) we would be in much better shape, because her "babies" bassinet is overflowing.
I also attempted peppermint bark. We LOVE the stuff from W-S. But we've always thought it was too expensive and I have been wanting a recipe to make it at home. The recipe I made yesterday was a fail! :( It mostly tastes like chocolate, the ratio seems off and well, it is just not right. I am just going to have to try again... Find a different recipe, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, it is edible, that's not the problem, the problem is too much chocolate, not enough peppermint.
I've also realized it is time to make candy, we have our last music class next week and I'd like to make candy to take to the class. So I've got to get on that. I also had a chat with our neighbor the cop and his wife. Man are they nice people, they are definitely getting some of our candy! He gave me the low-down on the high-speed chase and the catching of the criminals! He told me I could come over any time I had a question or problem and he will let me know what is going on. (Since I said I wanted to come over and find out what happened but had seen it on the news and so I didn't need to know). I am glad that conversation is over with, now I won't feel so weird going over and finding out stuff about police activity. It was funny though, because he didn't realize that it was Eric he saw on the trail, it was, after all a rather unusual coincidence!

Sunday

The last couple of nights, maybe a week or so, we have found Gwen sleeping on the floor in front of the door. We don't know why, I suspect it is so she can listen to the TV and sneak peeks, but I think Eric and I have found a temporary solution that we haven't implemented yet, maybe soon. One of these days we found Gwen like this. Sitting in front of the night light, I should think if she didn't sit in front of the light, she wouldn't need the glasses, but what do I know! Nate has taken a particular liking to laying on his belly to look at things. He also loves to sit in people's laps and have them read to him. Sadly he will have you read the same story over and over again. I think Eric was tired of it and tried to get away, Nate wasn't bothered by this, he just laid down next to him and said "read, read". Eric, obviously obliged! We decided this year to celebrate the feast of St. Nick, sadly we were a day off, but the kids don't know that. We decided to stuff their stockings instead of socks or shoes and the kids really enjoyed it. We took some of the stocking stuffer like presents out of the already piled up gift stash in the garage and gave them some...Gwen got these PJs seen here! As you can see, still a ham and wearing Daddy's slippers...I should think she would be warmer if she wore the PJ bottoms, but again, what do I know! Nate got a truck, a fire truck to be specific, randomly throughout the day he would say "TRUCK, TRUCK" with some urgency, and then have to find it immediately. I would say it was a hit! They got a couple other things, but not so exciting as those 2 presents. Gwen loves her stocking so much she brought it with her to Church and she took it up to Communion!
We also put up more Christmas lights. We figured out what was causing the lights on the house not to light, and when we'd fix the issue on the strand we'd accidentally blow a fuse. It was fun! So we think we have finally figured out our lighting scheme, but we are figured out that we should do some diagramming or something before we just start throwing up lights, oh well, next year! Here is the rest of the scheme with the new lights from Dad's stash. You'll just have to look back at the other picture and pretend it is 1 picture! Maybe soon we will have all the lights working at the same time and we can get a picture, just maybe.

Craziness

Today was a rather busy day for us...despite the rain, we decided to go for a run. It is a little chilly here and it is possible we should have brought more clothes/brought gloves or something. But whatever, no one seems the worse for the wear. I like these Sat runs, I don't have to push the stroller, which is AWESOME! This run was filled with high adrenaline craziness. It all happened 3/4 of the way through our run, Eric had paused to take care of the kids and I hear some sirens...I can see the road from the trail and I see this car that was sliding across the road and I hear a crash. (by now I had stopped running and was just staring) I yell to Eric, who apparently can't hear me, as I see some police cars pull up and all of a sudden between us runs a man followed by 2 policemen, 1 of whom Eric says is our neighbor! Eric catches up to me and we just stand there staring as we see more police cars pull up and then we see 4 or 5 cops and a canine come onto the trail. We also see a runner get turned around by the cops. They asked him to turn around he tells us. The rest of the day we have wondered what was going on, I thought I was going to have to bang on the neighbor's door and find out what was going on, but then I finally found the news article...if you click on the word article, it shows a picture of the car wrapped around the tree! I have to say, I am thankful that guy lives here, he is a pretty nice guy, we've talked to him a couple times he's a newlywed. We also found out that when I talked about being awakened by the police lights, here, that the neighbors actually had a break-in and the police neighbor came out in his uniform to go to work and saw some strange guy standing in his neighbor's yard going through a purse and he apparently chased after the guy. I don't think he caught him, but still, I'm thinking I am going to have to make that man some Christmas candy and take it over there, because he definitely deserves some treats!
We then braved the crowds at Toys R US and learning express. I have to say I am rather disappointed with the gifts for Nate. I would really like to get Nate some kind of push toy, he really likes the little shopping cart we have (that is not really for kids) and Gwen's stroller. There are huge markets of toys for the 3+ girl crowd, I can't even decide what to get her, there are so many options! But, I am going to head out to the store, we are going to celebrate St. Nick's day this year, a day late, but whatever. They don't know the difference!

Leftovers

As I said after my November posting, I have been pretty busy with Christmas stuff. I received our Christmas cards and I now have them all addressed, well I have 2 people I don't have addresses for, so they might not get cards, now I just have to write out the notes and wait for Eric to come home with the stamps. I already have 8 done, now 50 more to go! I know that many people still send out the "Christmas letter", but I just can't do that I like sending notes, the personal-ness of that and not having to write something that I can send to everyone. Don't get me wrong, I love getting the Christmas letter and reading what is going on in people's lives, it just doesn't work for me!

I haven't posted pictures in a while, so I thought I should post our "leftover" Thanksgiving pictures. Here is Nate with one of the dogs. I can't remember which dog this is, but Nate has his beloved toy, so he kept a keen eye on Nate.

Nate would try to give the dog the toy, we couldn't really figure it out, whether he wanted to give up the toy or not, he would kind of hold out his hand a say "doggie". The dog would take it from him, but I think that freaked out Nate also...poor guy wasn't quite sure!

I snuck upstairs to take this shot of the girls. I think Angela might have been reading to her, I don't know...

Angela also brought down some castle stuff the girls played with right before we left.

As I said before, all-in-all a good day!