The Igloo

Though my children got some wonderful Christmas gifts, the older ones soon forgot all about them when their daddy built them this:

That is a little snow fort made from packed 5-gallon buckets. Late Christmas morning, Tony headed out to shovel the driveway. (It was the first of many times that we would have to do that.) I soon sent our older two kiddos out after him.

Later as I peeked out the window, I noticed that Tony had abandoned his mostly finished shoveling job in favor of building a snow fort. I also observed that Ann and Chris were not paying much attention to the fort. Instead, they were sledding down the "mountains" created by the snow Tony had shoveled. I smiled at my husband as I leaned out the door and asked if he was making the fort for himself or the kids. He laughed.

Eventually, the fort began to take shape and the kids started to take more interest. Soon they were making windows by adding flattened boxes to the top of the fort. At one point there was even a large blue toy truck on top of one of the walls. I'm not exactly sure what its function was but it seemed to make them happy.

After lunch and naps, the kids headed back out with Tony where they put the finished touches on the fort. The kids had asked all month to put Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Well, for one reason or another, we never got around to decorating the outside of the house. So, you can imagine their delight when their amazing daddy put Christmas lights on their "igloo."

The cheesy smiles don't do their delight justice.

Watching my little ones play with their daddy just might have been my favorite Christmas present.

A White Christmas

As we finished up playing Santa and Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve, my husband commented that he thought it was cute that I was so excited. I assumed that he was talking about how excited I was about giving the kids their new presents. It turns out he thought it was cute that I was so excited about all the snow. Well, he was right.

Two days before Christmas we were getting rain. Sure, it was rather warm, but still, rain! On Christmas! Of course, Tony and I started singing "I'm dreaming of a rainy Christmas." It just doesn't work!

Fortunately, on Christmas Eve it started to snow. Now two days later, it hasn't really stopped! I guess that's why they say "be careful what you wish for." By the time we made our way home from church on Christmas Eve, the roads were getting quite slick and the ground was covered with snow.

I honestly don't remember a time in my life where the ground was bare and then it started snowing on Christmas Eve. Sure, I've had my share of white Christmases, but never quite like this one!

We managed to get our kiddos to bed at a reasonable hour. Then, we began bringing the presents up from the basement. We stuffed the stockings and put the Santa gifts just under their stockings. I even remembered to take a bite out of one of the cookies we left out for Santa. Oh the sacrifices parents have to make!

Amazingly, the children slept until nearly seven on Christmas morning. I couldn't believe it!

I made them all wait to come down together so that I could snap a few pictures. They were so excited.

The big surprise we had for them was a play kitchen. Two days earlier, we'd made a last run to Sam's to get some things for our holiday meals. While we were there I noticed the kitchen back in the markdown corner. We made the last minute decision to buy it for the kids. They were quite surprised to find out that Tony went back to pick it up after I bought it right under their noses.

Anyways, little Jane was absolutely delighted with the kitchen. She stood and played with it the entire time we opened gifts. Chris and Ann helped open her gifts because all of her attention was on the new kitchen.

Before we opened the gifts, we added Baby Jesus to our nativity scene. Fortunately I remembered where I'd hidden him for the past month!

At our house, our children get three gifts from us for Christmas and one from Santa. Though I grew up with amazing Christmases and piles of gifts, we thought it would be important to limit what our children get in order to keep the focus on the real meaning of the season. It is surprisingly hard to decide on just three (well, I guess technically four) gifts to buy for my little ones. In fact, I cheated a bit this year by giving them the kitchen as a joint gift. I also put a few nicer little things in their stockings. I couldn't help it. Sometimes it's just fun to spoil them!

Since we knew it would take Ann and Chris all of three seconds to open their gifts if left to their own devices, we decided to slow things down a bit. We opened gifts one person at a time. That included Tony and me.

Tony opened a large collection of piano classic CDs that he'd been eyeing at the bookstore. He also opened some new workout/lounge pants and an electric fondue pot. (We're guessing we'll soon learn why dinner at The Melting Pot costs so much!)

I opened a wonderful Lisa Leonard necklace. I had suggested it to Tony and I love, love, love it! I've got it on right now. I also got a small hand vac and a larger corded hand vac. Yes, I actually wanted these, and yes, I realize I'm quite lame. He also got me a Jillian Michaels workout DVD since he knows I've been enjoying The 30-Day Shred so much. My stocking was stuffed with a Starbucks gift card and some gum. (If only it would stop snowing, I could go get a yummy coffee drink!)

Ann, who was quite possibly the most excited about the whole present thing, opened some new Little Pet Shop toys, a slumber party set for her 18-inch doll and a little cooking set. Her Santa gift was a the Klutz Tea Party book. Santa was even thoughtful to include extra tea sets so she could have parties with her friends and their dolls. (She is already planning her first party.)

Chris was beyond delighted to open a nerf-like bow and arrow from my dad and stepmom. We gave him a new View Master with some slides, Trio Blocks, and a new plastic piggy (technically a robot) bank. We learned the hard way that his piggy band should not be breakable! His Santa gift was the Klutz Superhero book. It came with a wonderful red superhero cape and the book has masks and wrist guards to punch out and use.

As I mentioned, little Jane was delighted with the kitchen. However, she also opened some new board books, a Little People set, and a new stainless steel water bottle with her name on it. Her Santa gift was a little baby doll that came with a binky, bottle, tiny bear, and a toy rattle. She is sleeping with it as I type.

After we opened gifts, we enjoyed cinnamon bagels from Panera. That is the kids favorite breakfast treat right now, so I figured why not. We spent the rest of the day enjoying our new gifts, watching movies and playing in the snow. We made cookies to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

It was a wonderful Christmas.

I remember as I grew upI was a bit sad that Christmas would never have the same magic as it did when I was young. It turns out it only gets better when you see it through the eyes of your children.

Merry Late Christmas!

Sweet Sisters

So I figured if I'm not going to get my act together enough to write a post right now, I might as well at least post a picture!

I love this picture of a recent morning at our house. Ann is doing Jane's hair while Chris stands in the background trying to join in the fun. Jane looks a bit concerned, but she really wasn't. She enjoyed every minute of her big sister's attention.

As I look at this picture, it is so easy to imagine them ten years from now doing the same thing! Oh how I pray that they would be good friends!

Still Blogging

I just happen to be blogging over here...

An External Hard Drive is a Fine Thing

About a month ago, our computer started acting funny. Not much later, it didn't act at all.

The same thing happened three years ago. Only three years ago we didn't actually back up our computer on an external hard drive. (I know!) That is the reason why my son's first year scrap book has a page that says "Technical Difficulties." We are missing pictures from two months of his first year.

Now, fortunately we learned from that little episode. So, when a virus recently attacked our computer, our only worry was whether or not we'd have to replace the computer. We knew our pictures and other documents were safe on the external hard drive.

Otherwise I would have lost pictures like this:

It might not look like much to you, but it means a lot to me. That is a picture of my youngest getting her first hair cut. I'm holding her and my step mom is cutting her hair. My oldest, Ann is behind us.

As I opened the computer today, I realized my husband had loaded all of our old info back onto our computer. It was like magic! Not having pictures forever lost due to a computer's untimely illness is a fine thing indeed!

See what others are finding to be fine on this beautiful Friday morning over at The Finer Things in Life.

Let's Pretend It's October!

Why October? Well, because my computer was sick for most of the month of October. Maybe it was the cyber-version of the piggy flu. Who knows. The important thing is our kind friend fixed it and I have a computer once more!!! Woohoo!

However, if I'd had a working computer back in October, I would have posted some of these pumpkin painting pictures.

Why use a paint brush when you have hands?!!

I'm pretty sure Chris was the one who decided to ditch the paint brushes.

Little Jane had a lot of fun. Some of the paint actually made it onto the pumpkin. I promise!

Now, I could have taken a picture of the finished product, but I'm sure you can imagine what they looked like. The color on their hands was smeared all over the pumpkins. I proudly plopped them on the mantle. We all know the finished product wasn't the point. Good thing too since they looked much better unpainted!

Happy Pretend October!

That Was Fun...or Not

We just got back from picking up pictures of my little ones. I've never had professional pictures taken of all three of them. (Well, truth be told I hadn't had professional pictures taken since Ann was one, but whatever.) I used the Target Portrait Studios and was pleased. That is all beside the point.

The point is that we were at Target, the same Target we visit at least once a week. Before I headed to pick up my pictures and do a little shopping, I did what we always do...I took the kids to the bathroom and then bought some popcorn. A dollar or so is a very small price to pay for peace while shopping. Anyways, Ann did something she has never done.

As we all headed into the women's restroom, she stopped in her tracks and insisted that I was heading into the "boys' restroom." I insisted that it was the women's restroom as indicated by the sign. She still wouldn't enter through the door.

I was about to grab her hand to coax her into the restroom when I noticed someone was holding the door open for us. As I turned, I knew, I just knew what was going to happen and I wanted to crawl into a hole.

You see the woman holding the door for us had short gray hair. She was a store employee and was therefore dressed in a red top and tan pants. I could easily tell that she was indeed female, however, I could see how a little girl who thinks all females wear all things girly, might think it was a man at first glance. That is why I panicked.

Since my hands were on a stroller and I was keeping an eye on my son who'd already entered the bathroom, I didn't have time to clap a hand over my daughter's mouth.

Instead, I started talking very loudly hoping to distract Ann from saying what was on her mind. I said something like, "No honey, this is the girls' bathroom. See, there are all girls in here."

That was the wrong thing to say because that simply opened the door for what she wanted to say. She stuck her little finger in the air and said, "But look..." and pointed at the sweet woman holding the door for us.

I looked at her like I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about and said something like, "I only see girls sweetie." I'm pretty sure I grabbed her at that point and nudged her toward a stall.

I gave her a mini lecture about not calling people boys or girls when we aren't absolutely certain. I really really hope that information sunk in that sweet little head.

Oh, aren't kids the best!