Christmas 2011

This year was the first time we haven't been home for Christmas. There's some great things about both but I really missed not seeing family. But we still had a great time! Christmas Eve we had lasagna and then opened up our traditional Christmas Eve gift:Chris read the Twas the Night Before Christmas and I read the Nativity story from the Bible while Chris and the kids acted it out with the nativity I'd made with my mom.
Then we wrote letters to Santa and sent them off to bed. Miles was insistent on sitting on the couch while his brothers wrote theirs at the table.
After Santa came and before the boys woke up:
I was worse than the kids that night. I couldn't sleep very well and then woke up at five and struggled to get back to sleep. Finally at six I got up to go feed our neighbors cats. While I was gone the kids woke up and around 6:15 we headed out to the living room.
Everyone loved what Santa brought. Jared got a DS that he's been asking for for two years. Spencer a leapster, and Miles a train set. Oh and I got a HD camcorder and Chris got a framed world map which we took back. At least I scored with his birthday...
In their stockings they each got their own jar of pickles. Love it! That's how I know they're my boys:)With Christmas being on Sunday this year we got to go to Church too. The question was do we open everything up before going? We decided to drag it out and see if we could only open up a few. Somehow we did just that. We Played with Santa gifts, ate breakfast, required them to be dressed and ready for church, and opened a few gifts each and then played with those. I really liked it because we were able to focus on just a few gifts without being overwhelmed with all the gifts. This Sunday Christmas may have given us a new tradition for our family of prolonging Christmas by opening gifts up slowly. We'll see if our kids let us...
Church was all singing and nice. The boys loved that it was only an hour and not the usual 3. After getting home Jared immediately got his pajamas back on along with everyone else besides Spencer.
Jared said his head and eyes were hurting him so I whipped out his glasses (this was the first time he'd worn them in a long time and hasn't worn them since.)
Miles was wiped out. We were dancing to a new wii game and playing a new wii game, Skylander, and he slept through it all.
It was a wonderful Christmas and for the next few days we continued to stay in pajamas and play with our new things.
Now that month has past the most popular items are Super hero capes (thanks grandma M!), Just Dance Kids wii game, Light sabers, and Miles LOVES his little lego ninjago. Miles carries his ninja everywhere:) It's currently lost and keeps asking, "where guy at?" and when you ask him where he put it he blames everyone by saying, "daddy put it" or whoever he feels like saying. He tries to play with his brothers ninjas but every once in awhile they say no:( so he gets really sad. We need to find his soon!

This January we've continued singing Christmas songs and thinking of ways to give and serve. I love this time of year and already look forward to next Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Swim Training

So today was my first morning at lap swimming and it rocked me! I thought my lung capacity would be better seeing I run long distance, apparently not. I was surprised at how winded I got after a few laps. I only swam for 20 mins with several breaks in there and lots of breast stroke instead of freestyle. Here's to improvement! (This morning I also saw Rahm Emanuel and said Good Morning to him before he began his morning swim:)

Please Stop

These are two words I hear often from two of my children when I either tickle or sing. From Miles when I am tickling him. I want to keep going but the way in which he pleads I concede to his politeness.

And from Jared. When we're in the car and I start singing along with the radio he politely asks me to stop. Last night he asked twice. The second time he said, "I said PLEASE." I asked him, "Don't you like my voice?" He replied, "I just want to listen to the radio." I guess I won't be trying out for American Idol soon.

Chris is 30!!!

Chris is like a Scrooge when it comes to his own birthday. He doesn't like it at all and this year was the big 3-0. All year I've been fretting over what to give him to make it special and memorable. I mentioned to my mom that the thing he'd like most would be a get away with me but I wasn't sure who I could get to watch my kids. She volunteered to come out and make a visit to us around that time, perfect! Now work... Who would I talk to? Ideally I'd like to take him away and fly somewhere warm. I'd been feeling him out for awhile trying to see how much time he could take off from work and it wasn't looking good so I opted to stay local and do a one night escape.

I had everything set for a Friday. I'd go into his work around 2 or 3:00 and steal him away for a romantic dinner and night:). Well, the day before he started feeling sick with chills and sore throat. It reminded me of my strep throat I'd had earlier in November so I immediately insisted on taking him in to be checked. Sure enough it was strep. We got him on antibiotics and he should be feeling better and not contagious within 24 hours. Bummer, I couldn't surprise him from work but at least we caught it in time.

All day Friday he looked and felt horrible. I kept waiting for him to turn a corner but he never did. I called the place we were staying at to see if we could move our reservations to Saturday instead and they said yes. So I left it up to Chris. Said, "surprise" told him my initial plans and asked him his preference. He chose to defer to Saturday.

By then he still wasn't feeling the greatest. His throat still hurt so he didn't really enjoy dinner but we still had a wonderful night and slept til our natural alarm clocks woke us up (8:00).

For his actual birthday it started with gifts then off to work.

At work I had a surprise lunch party set up for him and some of his closer co-workers. Chris was surprised and didn't suspect it at all. Our getaway distracted any thought he may have had towards a "party". His reaction wasn't big and I only got a little clip before the camera died, but here's what I got

I had 30 pictures up of him where people could guess his age in each picture. It was fun to see Chris through the years.

Michelle, Jason, and Landon (Goose Island root beers:)

Omar, Angela, and Anne

Keith

Last year Chris requested Boston Cream Pie and he seemed to like it so I made it again this year.

Later that night he wanted to go to Zoo Lights. It was a beautiful evening and we all enjoyed.

You've still got it at 30 Babe! I love you!

Grandma and Grandpa B Visit:)

My folks came out for two weeks in December and it was awesome. I feel like I/we were running almost the whole time. I thought I had most of my Christmas done but after changing my mind on several gifts it was apparent I wasn't as close to done as I had hoped. While they were here the kids helped papa with puzzles, my mom helped me finish my Christmas cooking, went shopping, hung interior doors (thanks dad:), made a cloth nativity set(my favorite), went to a play, picked kids up from school and more!

It was awesome having my mom's eager, helping hands.

Going to A Christmas Carol. Amazing! We were three or fours from the front so we didn't miss any facial detail. It was great! And the best part was leaning over and seeing a huge grin on my dad's face. It was a little too scary for Spencer, especially when Marley visited, but he made it through unscathed.

Breakfast at Bongo Room:

Zoo Lights:

Dolphin Show at the Shedd:

The Wise men from the nativity we made.

I grew up with this same nativity and loved it as a child. Last year my mom brought out the material she had bought for each of us to one day make our own. I've been wanting to make it sense then but I've been afraid to attempt it in fear I would ruin it. (I also didn't have a sewing machine until this Christmas where I used some of the money my mom gave me for it, thanks mom!) This was my chance to knock it out with my mom's help! And we did too. We whipped it out in all but a night and day with exception to the wise men and camel that took a lot longer because of the bead work. I love how it turned out and I already can't wait for next Christmas.

Thanks mom and dad for coming. I thoroughly enjoyed it and we all went through withdrawals after you guys left. My mom played so hard with the kids, especially Spencer, that we all missed that special interaction. And I missed my dad when I had to finish hanging the doors by myself (Chris would've helped if I would've waited for him). We love you guys, can't wait till you come back!!!

Jared Turned Six!

This little/big guy is six!!!

His birthday was at the beginning of December and he was so excited. So excited that he ran right past his presents and didn't notice them at all.

When riding his bike this summer it was apparent that he needed a new bike. Whenever we went on family bike rides he would be pedaling quickly non stop just to keep up to Chris and my coasting speed. Now instead of his little 12" bike he now has a 20" bike. We've taken it out a few times and it's a little big making it difficult to start and stop but he'll figure out soon...hopefully:). He wasn't as excited about the bike as I thought he'd be, he was much more into his legos and dagedar stuff.

At school I was excited to bring in his treat. His teacher said I could make the treat as long as it didn't have peanuts. I knew immediately what I wanted to make and it didn't take too much convincing to get Jared on board. My favorite birthday treat that my mom made as a child was her carmel popcorn around a sucker. We arrived at Jared's school just as they were coming in from recess.

For the most part it was well liked, but I may need to reconsider what age is appropriate to serve this dessert to. It took the kids a long time to eat and it was really sticky.

After school we came home to get ready for his party. Over two months before his party Jared knew he wanted a rock and roll party. I really liked how Spencer's homemade invites had turned out and wanted to do something "homemade" as well. As I was trying to figure it out Chris was totally instrumental in helping my pull it off. He gave me the idea of making a backstage pass and then as I was making it he pretty much told me what graphic and font to use. I got so many compliments from them to which I took no credit and gave it all to Chris.

For his cake I made a guitar cake... twice. I was just finishing up the guitar strings when I hit the corner of the pan and it flipped right on the floor.

The kids were in bed, I screamed felt like crying but what do you do... Make another one. I was crunched for time so Chris suggested I buy a cake to which I immediately refused (you can't buy a guitar cake!)

We invited only the boys from his class. I thought this would help on the numbers game. We still had 10 boys show up. Crazy? Um... Yes! But they all had a blast and it was a success. They went crazy when the pinata broke, they ate lots of pizza, and danced and rocked out with their inflatable guitars.

Right after the pinata broke. No picture of the pinata, it was boring and not cool at all.

The completed guitar cake second round.
Then after everyone had left we headed over to our neighbor's house to trim her tree. What a fun filled day. Success? You bet!
Jared's favorite things these days are video games, Captain Underpants, and legos. He loves sports and dancing. I love how he interacts with his siblings. Little Miles mimics everything he does and looks up to him so much. I love his energy, laugh, smile, hugs, and love for little children. He loves babies and wouldn't mind another sibling, as many or more than his cousin scottie (7 kids), but I've informed him that's not happening any time soon. He's a good first child... forgiving and full of love:) Love you J-Rod!