A New Year!

What a great year it's already shaping up to be!  It seems like Christmas was ages ago and we are totally back in our winter/school routine with Peanut two weeks in and Sister starting her classes back up yesterday.  I was so excited that she had a full class this session.  She LOVES school and her friends and was so happy to see everyone.  She insisted on wearing her big girl panties to school and told me "I tell Jodi (her teacher) poo-potty."  So I let her and she did!  She started up with the whole potty thing a few months ago and I knew it was early but I didn't want to discourage her so we just went with it.  I'm glad I did because the whole experience has really been positive and she is so proud.   Here she is receiving a homemade gummy worm for dry panties and a successful potty trip!  Peanut is making out like a bandit (as Papa would say) on this whole deal because each time she gets a gummy he also gets one for his role as "encourager".  It's so sweet because she is as excited to share with him as she is to get the treat herself and his words of encouragement mean so much to her.

  

She also makes a pretty cute mail lady.  Peanut is usually zipping around in one of the cars in his Policeman's outfit while she tends to her babies, delivers mail, or chooses another costume from the collection.  We now have Policeman, Fireman, Construction worker, Mailman, and Hockey Player to name a few.  Maybe I should get a pint sized pair of yoga pants for a "Mom" costume... smile. 

 Peanut has moved into Best's office to work on his little Legos.  He has a few on his high shelf in his bedroom but this space works well for him to be able to leave out his work in progress and have it safe from Sissy's little hands.  He really gets into his work and I love to see his imagination and concentration. 

I just had to include this one because I love how she's looking up at him.  Peanut told me that he was going to make up his own song and asked if I would right it down for him.  Of course I obliged and got a paper and pen.  When I asked him to give me the lyrics to his song he said, "Do you know Jingle Bells?  Ok, just write that down."  Ha! 

I will admit that Best does most of the outdoor entertaining and I appreciate it so much.  I have gotten out a couple of times though and here is the shot to prove it!  Sissy is like me, she likes to go out for a bit but is always ready to head in for a warm bath or a snack and cocoa when I offer. 

When we moved the Christmas tree we were left with a little nook just right for this table.  We call it the reading table...well, actually I call it the reading table and the kids call it the snack table.  Each afternoon after nap they get their little bowls and choose a snack and read together and I read out loud to them.  They are always switching around their chairs and sharing their snacks (which is humorous because it's the exact same thing).  We usually have our "morning stories" under a blanket on the sofa while I finish my coffee.  These times of the day are my favorite and as I like to say "A good reader is never bored!"

I promised myself that I'd get in the photos more with the kids this year and not worry about what I look like when I do.  This particular day we were having fun at Jumps and Downs.  Peanut and I enjoyed the big slides and Sister loves the ball pit!  We were the only ones there so I actually got in all the jumpers with the kids and got some good exercise! 

One of our other favorite places in that area is this library with a really awesome children's section.  A whole little pretend town, a canoe, a pretend garden and a tree with lots of animal puppets inside are just some of the fun things there.

Sister is usually always the first one up in the mornings and always hungry!  It makes sense because she sleeps for about 12 hours so she needs to eat breakfast right away.  Here she is helping to make pancakes with a homemade mix from our sweet friend Star.  Yum!

We seem to make a lot of things at home in the winter.  I guess it's because we are at home more and the thought of going out in the cold to buy playdoh when you can just make it yourself seems like a no brainer.  Besides, the kids like to help and I always feel like they learn something in the process. 

 

  

We do sometimes bundle up and get out in the cold though when we get cabin fever and this day we went to Mall of America to Toddler Tuesdays.  We had snack and storytime in the Rotunda with a couple of our favorite Ezra Jack Keats books and then visited the Lego Store. Here is Peanut trying out a new piece of technology where you hold a Lego box up to the screen in the store and the contents of the box comes to life!  

Sissy was pretty excited about this lego girl and her dog.  She kissed it several times.  I'm sure it's been touched by lots of germy kids but trust me she's kissed worse...much worse.  Smile.

 I'm excited about this year.  Sister is a full fledged kid now and I realize our baby days are over but I'm totally ok with that.  Every age has it's challenges but this almost two stage is one of the funniest, cutest and most lovable there is!  And Peanut just continues to amaze me with his imagination and how he is making sense of his place in this world.  I have some incredible conversations with him and I'm so thankful for the amount of time we have together.   And of course my Best continues to be the best.  The best husband and father who selflessly works day in and out to give us this wonderful life and supports me while I take this time of life to invest my whole heart and soul into raising these precious children.  I am so thankful for it all.

Hope you are starting 2016 with feelings of hope, joy and love as well.  Have a great year friends and family!

Christmas Day 2015

 

Once again, a magical Christmas.  Simple, quiet, with my loves at home in our jammies.  My absolute favorite way to spend any day actually.  I loved our tree this year.  After wrestling tangled, non working lights and getting this 8 foot baby straight in it's stand we were dead set on going artificial for the new year...but now that I look at it...a fake could never be this majestic...our house has the perfect spot for the Christmas tree and it's stunning from inside and out.

So the night before we have a little tradition of making cookies, writing a note to Santa, and leaving them for him right before we go to bed.  We also always watch the same movie.  I love it.  This year Peanut was so anxious for Santa to come we could hardly keep him up til his bedtime.  I think he was asleep before 7:30!  On Christmas morning we came down to find that Santa had eaten a few cookies, left a few, drank most of his milk and left letters for the kids.  In Peanut's letter he explained that although he wasn't in the habit of giving coal to such nice little boys, this time he would make an exception since there was a special request.  You see, Peanut had asked Santa for coal because he was curious to see what it looked like and sure enough there was some in his stocking!  Bree's letter said that he knew it was hard to share the cookies because our elf Jack had told him he saw her crying when she had to leave them...so Santa left some to share with her.  This made our sweet girl so very happy.

 

Then we got to our stockings.  The first thing Peanut noticed was that Best's stocking had a bag behind it.  That's right folks, he was that good.  Smile. 

Santa left Peanut some chocolate in the shape of rebar!

Not sure what was in this particular package but some of Sister's stocking gifts included: an animal projector flashlight, a pretend princess phone, and a Little Mermaid electric toothbrush!

Peanut got more legos of course, an animal projector flashlight, and a school bus model he'd been eyeing for quite some time at the local hardware store. 

My two greatest gifts every year. 

 

 

Our tradition of orange sweet rolls.  So easy and so delicious.  A perfect Christmas breakfast and we snack on the leftovers all morning.

 

Sister trying out her flashlight projector.  "Hey, there's a hippo on the ceiling!"  We've had so much fun with these things.

When we asked Sister what she wanted Santa to bring her the only thing she would say was "shoes".   Well she must have been a good little girl because the first package she opened had some new sparkly shoes in it!

Peanut was so happy with his transformer set from Aunt Mimi's family.  The pained looks on his face in the pictures are just because I had to ask him to be still for a second.  He's used to it but it's hard when your holding a new toy...

Sissy loves her Elmo from the Georgia bunch too.  She loves to snuggle with and read to him.

Santa was thinking Peanut might get a kick out of this old fashioned Rubik's cube.  So far it's solution has eluded us.  Unfortunately with the new version I can't resort to my old "peel and switch the stickers" method. 

Thanks Bill and Char for the new stand mixer.  As I write this on January 7th, it's already made 4 loaves of white bread, 2 loaves of wheat bread, artisan style jalapeno cheese bread, lemon brioche rolls, and tomorrow it's taking a crack at homemade vanilla ice cream! 

Peanut gave Best a gummy candy maker.  Best loves this kind of candy and we thought it might be fun to make our own.  We're using our own recipes with real fruit juice and the results have been delicious.  Sister gave Daddy a new phone case and a book to learn all about his fancy new IPhone. 

Santa gave Sister a new baby with it's own nuk.  It's so cute.  The nuk is on a little ribbon attached to the clothes and it's magnetic so it sticks to the mouth. 

And with new baby came a new bed, high chair, wrap carrier, diaper bag and diapers, milk and juice bottles, bouncy carrier and car seat!  I think that baby has more stuff than Sissy did when she was a baby.  She loves those babies as you can see here.  Aunt Krissy also gave her the cutest cabbage patch with red hair and a baby bed so those babies can choose which floor to sleep on.  Maybe Sister will open up her own daycare!  Her favorite is to play "fussy baby" and the more you make the babies squirm and cry the more delighted she is.  So funny.

OK, another "When can I start playing again?" look... sigh... but if you could have seen him 2 seconds after I took this you would have seen a boy over the moon about playing camping with the RV Santa brought him.  I will tell you that the poor family that owns that camper doesn't have many relaxing vacations though.  It seems that they always park their camper close to a police station where there is inevitably a "break out" and a high speed police chase right through their campsite!  A few times the "bad guy" even stole the camper with them in it!   It's a dangerous world in Peanut's room with multiple police chases and 4 alarm fires each day.

Speaking of fires...Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Peanut now had a fire station complete with a slide for the firemen to use to get to the blazes quickly.  Thank you, he loves it. And the latch puzzle is a hit with Sis.  She likes to work them with her hands and with her feet!  Big Brother likes to help her with the one's she's still learning. 

My little loves got me this candle set that I love so much!  It has timers and we have fun watching the candles come on each day at 4:45 exactly!  I've requested more for my birthday.  Best played Santa as usual and got us some nice family gifts like universal remotes and a new pizza oven. We also got a good laugh when we opened up our gifts to each other that were both computer desks!  Great minds they say...

After we opened the presents under the tree we noticed that the door to the basement was open a crack.  We knew we had shut it the night before so we thought we'd better go investigate.  How surprised and excited we were to find that Santa had left us a new play structure for climbing on during the cold days of winter!  There are rock walls on either side that you can climb up and a steering wheel and a nice little fort underneath.  One of the gifts from Best and I to Peanut was a Policeman's costume with a whistle, radio, and handcuffs.  We've had so much fun playing car chase  and I've spent quite a bit of time inside that little fort that doubles as our jail.  The good news is that I usually have a cute little cellmate and we are allowed to read books while we wait out our sentence. 

I know there was so much more...it's hard to remember it all but I'm glad I have this little blog to help with that.   I want to thank Aunt Krissy and her kids for the great presents for both kids and also Mom, Dad, and Grandma Gene for the Christmas checks.  That money is going towards our new king sized bed and linens.  Merry Christmas to us!  We were blessed with so many material things this year but we know it's just having each other that matters.  And last but not least, if you look in the very first picture you will see an envelope on our tree.  That was a letter that Peanut discovered Christmas evening right before dinner.  It was a letter from Santa.  He wished us a Merry Christmas and told us about one last gift.  It seems that the trip he sent us on last year was such a hit he wanted to do it again and this year we are going to Mount Rushmore! What a fun place to learn a little, laugh a lot, and just enjoy making memories as a family.  Thanks Santa, I love you very much! Wink, wink,