Recovering from Christmas

So I really dropped off with the posts right around Christmas! Well were busy and having fun. Audrey received a Webkinz from Jason's cousins and we have become a little obsessed with webkinz world lately! We stayed home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was nice and relaxing. My parents came on the afternoon of the 24th to see go to church with us and see Audrey sing in the choir. We came home and had soup and sandwiches and then opened presents from each other. After we put the kids to bed we started the assembly of Santa gifts and didn't get batteries in and everything put together until well after midnight. It might have taken so long because we had to play with the toys to test them out :) Audrey left 3 cookies for Santa and hot cocoa instead of milk because she was sure he would be cold and need to warm up a little! Audrey and Henry were so excited when they came down the stairs and looked under the tree. Audrey said that she got everything that she wanted and that it was the best Christmas ever. My parents left after breakfast (Jason made waffles AND eggnog pancakes!!) and as they were walking out the door Jason's parents were arriving! The kids opened presents from that set of grandparents and then we had Christmas dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, and Hawaiian delight. I had a horrible sinus headache all day, so I just laid around on the couch in between getting stuff in and out of the oven. We all stayed in our pajamas all day and didn't clean up any of the Christmas mess until the next day. On Saturday we went to my parents to have Christmas with my sister and cousins. On the way there it stormed really bad and there were tornado warnings, and semi trucks blowing off of the interstate. We have had some weird weather here lately. It will be windy with a wind chill of -15 and then a couple of days later it is 65! Anyway, we had more Christmas fun at my parents house and finally finished up our celebrating and were home again on Sunday night. We have spent the last couple of days catching up on laundry and housework. I have a few pictures of Christmas festivities. I will try to post them this week.

School Christmas Program

Audrey had her school program this morning. Her dress was a big hit. Her Bitty Baby already had that dress from a couple of years ago. Last week I found the cape at a resale shop and Audrey was so excited. I happened to find the dress and hat on e-bay in her size and she couldn't wait to wear it all for her program! The girls in her class always are so excited to get dressed up for programs. She did a wonderful job singing as usual. She is done with school until January 6th. We had more snow yesterday and it is really cold. I haven't posted anything for awhile. We had an early Christmas with Jason's brothers and sister this past weekend. We had a good time visiting with everyone. The next thing I need to get ready for is the progressive dinner on Saturday. We are the first house and we will be serving appetizers. I don't know what I'm going to fix yet and I'm sure I will wait until Sat. morning to clean up the house. I took Henry to the doctor yesterday to get his ears checked. He was really grouchy and kept pulling on one ear. Well he does have an ear infection and is now on antibiotics. They must be working because he already seems a little better. I'm glad we caught it when we did and hopefully he will be back to normal by Christmas.

Christmas Giving Tree Program

Audrey did an awesome job in her choir performance on Sunday. She knew all the words and was so excited. I got it on video and we finally have the cable we need to upload from the video camera to the computer, but the files are too big to post on the blog :( I'm not sure if I can to something differently, I haven't figured it out yet. Tuesday we went to visit Hollis School. It is a small school not too far from us that accepts out of district students. The facility is really nice. There is only one class for each grade and the kindergarten class is capped at 18 students and has the teacher and a full time teachers aide. Audrey decided it would be a great place to go because they have an indoor pool and they swim twice a week in p.e. class! We are still trying to decided what to do about school next year. The public schools around here aren't very good, but the primary school Audrey would go to is one of the best ones in Peoria, but I'm still not completely comfortable with it. We have even considered homeschooling for Kindergarten, but I'm not sure it's what I want to do either. We still have a little time to decide. Last night I hosted book club. It went pretty well, but there weren't very many people here, and no one had finished the book. It was 600+ pages and I didn't get in until last week! While book club was going on Jason took the kids out to eat and then Christmas shopping.

Santa Breakfast

Both kids had a really good time at the Santa breakfast this morning. Henry enjoyed all of it except the sitting on Santa's lap part.And yes, Henry is wearing his Spider man slippers. He asks to wear them all of the time and I thought, what the heck, at least the colors match. I didn't get very many good pictures , but there was a photographer there taking pictures and we will get some tomorrow at church. I think he at least got some good ones of Audrey. On the way there she was telling me all of the things she was going to ask Santa for, but when she got on his lap she drew a blank and just asked for Barbie dolls. Later she was worried that she would only get 1 gift because she had only asked for 1 thing.

Home from school again!

Well Audrey is home from school again today. When she woke up this morning she said that her tummy and head hurt and she had a very slight fever again. I'm not sure she is really feeling that bad but I figured I would keep her home because we had a big day yesterday and I want her to be healthy for this weekend because we have a lot to do. Yesterday after school we went over to the Westbrooks to decorate Christmas cookies. Kristin and Jef were our first friends here in Peoria almost 8 years ago. Now they have 3 boys, Ashton 4 1/2, Logan 3, and Jett 5 mos. Poor Audrey is the lone girl in the bunch. Both Audrey and Henry have a great time with the boys and they are all really good friends! Audrey, Ashton, and Logan made a HUGE mess with the cookies, icing, and sprinkles, and I think they ate more cookies than they decorated, but they had fun. We didn't get home until around 4:30 and then after a gourmet supper of grilled cheese Audrey went to her first piano lesson. Karianne was impressed with Audrey's rhythm and said she thought it was going to be easy for her to learn. Audrey is very excited and is practicing right now. Henry is teething AGAIN, and is in a pretty foul mood lately. When we ask him if he has an ouch he nods his head yes and points to him mouth. Yesterday he brought me the Orajel and said "medicine, better". Poor little guy. Well, I should get busy. The 3 of us are supposed to go get our hair cut at noon. Tomorrow morning is the Santa Breakfast at our church. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post. I just hope everyone is feeling OK and that Henry isn't totally freaked out by Santa this year :)

Let it snow!

Audrey's fever finally broke last night and she was able to go to school on today. After I picked her up we got some lunch and then went to Sams. When we came out of the store it was snowing again. Audrey has really been wanting to play in the snow, but she was sick the first time it snowed and quite a bit of the snow melted. It is supposed to stay cold all week and there is a chance of more snow on Saturday. I have to say that as long as we can safely get out and about, I really enjoy the snow. It puts me in the Christmas spirit. If we could have snow on the ground from now until Christmas day and then no more snow the rest of the winter, it would be perfect! Audrey has been excited to watch the Christmas specials that are starting to be on. Tonight it was Rudolph. It is one of my favorites. For a while Henry sat on Audrey's lap and watched too. He really isn't into watching TV yet. It just doesn't seem to hold his attention. Henry loves to be read to before bed. We have been reading "Christmas In The Manger" and he has learned the names of all of the characters in the nativity story. It is adorable to hear his little voice say "wise men" and "baby Jesus". When he sees the page with Mary he says "Mary" and then "Christmas". He also said "Sean" when he saw the picture of Joseph, which made me and Jason crack up because the it did kind of resemble him.

Christmas Tree

Well we have again had a busy weekend. Friday we went to the Santa Claus Parade. It didn't seem all that cold until you stood there for an hour and a half! Then we went and got lunch a went to a couple of stores. Saturday we went and got our Christmas tree. It turned out to be a good day to go because it wasn't all that cold and now there is snow everywhere. We found a nice tree but we kind of misjudged the height of the tree. We (Jason) had to hack off quite a bit from the bottom of the tree to get it to fit in the house and we still can't fit our star on top. I think I am going to try to find a big star ornament that I can wire to the top branch of the tree instead :) We also had a light situation and ended up taking a trip to Target for new lights. The kids are super excited about the tree! Henry says "wow" or "ohhh" whenever we come down the stairs and see the tree. Audrey was a good helper and put on lots of ornaments. It snowed a heavy wet snow on Sunday morning. It was so fun to watch Audrey's excitement when she woke up and looked out the window. I heard her squeal and then she came running into our room to tell me to look outside. She stood at the window for 5 minutes just watching the snow fall. Sunday afternoon I finally finished getting out most of the Christmas decorations. Audrey developed a fever last night and is home from school today. We are enjoying staying in our jammies relaxing and listening to Christmas music. We plan on staying in today. Jason said the roads were really bad and it took him an hour to get to work (it usually only takes 20 min.) We are supposed to get more snow today too.

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving and I didn't even get all that terribly stressed out! Sean did a great job with the food prep and I got to just concentrate on getting the house ready and setting the table, which is the part that I really enjoy the most. I have really been enjoying our house the past couple of days. It is nice to have so much more space. I would have never been able to comfortably have that many people for a sit-down dinner at my old house. I love having a formal dining room and being able to have my grandma's dining table. I remember so many family dinners around it growing up. I also remember playing under it with my sister and cousins! As I was sitting here, I was thinking about holidays when I was little and how much my grandmothers would have enjoyed seeing Audrey and Henry yesterday. I guess I am getting a little nostalgic and missing them both tonight. It is also fun to see Audrey and Henry develop such great relationships with their grandparents. I know they are building those same kind of memories with them. My family has so much to be thankful for!

We have been really busy and been having a lot of fun the past couple of days. Friday was Audrey's last day of school before Thanksgiving break. They had a little performance and a
"feast" to celebrate. All the girls wore Indian shirts that they had decorated with fabric markers and beads. She had a head-dress with pink feathers and a pasta necklace. The teacher had chosen a name for each girl and wrote it on the back of their shirts. Audrey was Princess Wise Owl. Jason worked from home so that he could come with us. Saturday we stayed home the whole day and cleaned house. Sunday we got up and hurried around to get Audrey to church by 7:45 a.m. She did a great job singing the Thanksgiving song in the choir. It was her first official performance and she looked so cute in her tiny choir robe. She sang every word with a smile on her face and so much expression! She loves choir and LOVES being on stage. She was excited that she got to be front row center. Sometimes Jason and I wonder how two people like us got such a diva for a daughter :) Monday I had Mommy Moments at church and afterwards Karianne and Tristan brought McDonalds back to our house for lunch while we waited for the chimney sweep to show up. Karianne is very artistic and has a great eye for decorating. I was showing her my downstairs bathroom that I had started to work on and then kind of came to a stand-still because I didn't know if I would be able to do anything else before Thanksgiving. I was pretty bummed about it because I figured it was the bathroom that most people would be using on Thanksgiving and I had really wanted to finish. The problem was that I had started to tear down wallpaper and I got the first layer off pretty well but the layer underneath was original to the house and didn't seem like it was going to come down without tearing up the walls and there definitely wasn't time for plaster repair! I loved the original wall paper because I thought it looked a little bit gaudy but kinda cool, vintage gaudy. I mean we are working with pink tile from the 1940s here. Karianne had an idea to antique it with brown paint to make it look like it was supposed to be torn in places. She said that she had a little bottle of brown craft paint at home, and that we could put the kids down for naps and get this bathroom finished in a couple of hours. She came back with paint and brushes and we got to work. I ended up totally redoing my bathroom with things that she and I had lying around our houses and it got finished in 1 day!!! The only thing that was purchased was a couple of new hand towels. Here is a picture of the end result. The curtain is an vintage tablecloth and my grandmas china is on the shelf. I love that I found a place to display some of it. I'm not sure we will keep the bathroom like this forever but I think it is kind of a fun look for a little while. I had so much fun and this is totally unlike something I would have done on my own! Plus when I decided to change it there will be no guilt because it was all free. This Thanksgiving I am thankful God has given us awesome neighbors who have become our friends and make everyday life so much more fun!

Thanksgiving Countdown

Well, I'm starting to feel the pressure pretty heavily of the upcoming holiday season. Up until last week I have kind of been in denial about how close Thanksgiving is. Time has been flying. Now with it only 2 weeks away, I am going to have to get my act together to get everything done! And right after Thanksgiving we need to start Christmas preparations because I have foolishly volunteered to have a couple of Christmas functions at my house at the beginning of December. Audrey is already practicing Christmas songs for choir at church! I want to start things early because lately it seems to take me a long time to get things done.
This coming week I have a doctors appointment, Henry has his 18 mo. check-up, we have a Thanksgiving "feast" at Audrey's school and a Give Thanks Harvest Celebration at church. Audrey's choir is also singing at church next Sunday, which means that we have to get her there by 7:45 a.m. to get her robe on and to warm up. This will be her first official performance in choir. I can't wait. She is so excited and has been practicing with her CD quite a bit. Well, I need to get busy. There is a mountain of laundry in the basement and we need to go to the store to fill a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child. I am supposed to be coordinating it for our Sunday School class and they are due tomorrow!

Picture Day

Yesterday I took the kids to get pictures taken. I thought that I would try to beat the Christmas rush and could get 18 mo pictures taken of Henry at the same time. I found outfits for them that actually coordinated at Gymboree, much to my amazement and Jason dismay. I have been banned from the mall for the rest of this month. Yesterday morning Jason said "now don't get mad if Henry won't cooperate and you don't get any good pictures, just reschedule". When I took them for Henry's 12 mo pictures it didn't go so well, there was crying and screaming, begging and frustration! I told Jason that if Henry cried I was just going to have them take pictures anyway. Pictures are supposed to capture the moment so that we can remember what they really were like at each age, aren't they? Jason doesn't really understand what a pain it is to get them both dressed in matching clothes, and get them to the photo studio without someone spilling something on their clothes, or snot or droll ending up everywhere. Anyway, it was a really gross, cold and rainy day and we had to rush around and make a stop at Target (from which I am also banned for the rest of the month) before pictures. I came prepared with bribes, I mean incentives. I told Henry that I had m&ms for him and he could have some right after he got his picture taken. He said "OK" and plopped right down in front of the photographer and gave a cheesy smile. We had been practicing smiling for pictures for a couple of days and he was really hamming it up. Well, it went smoother and faster than pictures have ever gone. Even the photographers commented about how quick and easy it was. They did so well and we got so many good shots of them they I spent way too much money on pictures. It was impossible not to buy a lot when I looked at there chubby, happy little faces! I have plenty pictures to share and will be giving one to everybody, whether they want one or not :)

Update from this week

This week has gone by pretty quickly. Monday I had moms group where we had a speaker about recycling. She also talked about vermiculture to compost and now I'm inspired to give it a try. I thought Audrey would get a huge kick out of it. We are calling it a worm farm instead of vermiculture though. We haven't started our worm farm yet, we are still getting ready. It will consist of a Rubbermaid bin with holes drilled around the top, with moistened shredded newspaper, and a few worms. We will keep it in the unfinished room in the basement and it will have a lid on it. You feed them your vegetable and fruit food scraps. They also eat and break down the newspaper and reproduce to the right amount for the food that they are given. Now who is thinking I am completely crazy right now. A bucket of worms in the basement!?! It seems like a really fun project to me and I guess the by-product of the worm farm is really great fertilizer that is completely safe around children and pets. We will see how it goes. I'm not sure where I will find the worms this time of year.
I have been trying to sort through and organize the toys before the Christmas onslaught. I gave some girl toys that Audrey had outgrown to a friend of mine and she traded me a box full of trucks, action figures, boy stuff. Henry and Audrey have been having a good time with a bunch of little Bob the Builder tractors. Henry has been talking so much lately. Last night Audrey was talking about numbers and said the word seven, and Henry piped up "eight, nine, ten". We all stopped and looked at each other in amazement. I asked him what he said and he repeated "eight, nine, ten". We are trying to teach him the alphabet. He will repeat the letters after us and cheer for himself at the end. He is also getting pretty good at animals and the sounds they make. He is at such a fun stage. I can't wait for Christmas! It is going to be a blast. Well, all except trying to keep Henry from destroying the tree.

This Weekend

We were pretty busy this weekend. We spent most of Saturday catching up on some long overdue cleaning and organizing. We actually made it to early church (a few minutes late) and after Sunday School we went out for lunch with the Greens. They had never been to Kobe steakhouse so we wanted to introduce them to it. Our kids had seemed to like it and I thought theirs would too. Well, Emma is more timid than my daredevils and was pretty concerned about the fire and the noise. Audrey then felt the need to be afraid, since her best friend was. They spent most of the time with their hands over their ears and pushed back from the table so they wouldn't get burned!
Even Henry, who seemed to enjoy it last time, wasn't as thrilled today. In fact the only kid that did seem to enjoy it was Ethan, Brett and Ange's 2 year old. He pretended to chop and slice with this plastic toddler utensils. The hit of the restaurant was the giant fish in the lobby.

Leaves, leaves, everywhere!

Jason raked up our front yard this evening and Audrey took the opportunity to jump in the pile. We don't have a very big yard and it didn't look like there was that many leaves, until they all got in one pile. We ran out of lawn bags and we haven't even started the back yard. It was such a nice warm day. I can't believe it is November!

Audrey's Room

Well Audrey's room is basically done. We haven't really decided if we are going to refinish the floors or get new carpet (I'm leaning towards refinishing) but we aren't going to do anything until after the holidays. I need to hang a couple of things on the wall and put up her shelf, but other than that here it is.

Before

AfterThis wall was the compromise. It is light pink, even though you can't really tell in the picture.

Happy Halloween

We had a fun time yesterday. Audrey had a fall party at school. They didn't wear costumes they wore orange and black. She came home with orange and black fingernails, her face painted and tattoos on her hands. They played sweep the pumpkins with brooms, and for snack decorated their own pumpkin cookies. We then went and met Jason for lunch. After that we had to stop by Wal-Mart for some cookies to take to our Halloween get-together. When we got home Henry went right down for his nap, but Audrey was still on a sugar high and never went to sleep. I made cookies while they were napping (or pretending to nap) and when they got up it was time to start the transformation into witch and spider. Audrey really wanted to be green so we gave it a try. I wasn't crazy about the greasy green make-up but she got a kick out of it. It looked pretty good at first but after about an hour it was smeared and her hair was starting to stick to it. It was pretty hard to wash off too! Henry was pretty funny during trick-or-treating. He wanted to walk up to the houses himself, and would say "treat" and "thank you". He was pretty protective of his candy bag. After trick-or-treating our neighborhood we went over to the Green's to have mummy hot dogs and chili. It was a very late night last night and Henry is still sleeping! Today Audrey has already gone through her loot and we have sorted the candy into chocolate and non-chocolate. Audrey still insists that she doesn't like chocolate. It works out pretty good for me and Jason. Jason was standing behind Audrey during trick-or-treating telling her to pick a peanut butter cup (his favorite).

Earring Update

For those of you following the earring saga, as of last night they are back in. She decided I could give it a try and I was pretty surprised that they went back in. She was upset that she wouldn't be able to wear the turtle earrings that Aunt Sara had given her she let the holes close up. We are going to keep the starter earrings in for awhile and give them a chance to heal up again. We will see how it goes. I think she may have sensitive ears and that when she wore the cheap earrings for a few days it wasn't too good for her ears.

Pumpkin Patch

This morning we went to Apple Blossom Farm with Audrey's class. It was pretty cold at first but as the morning went on we warmed up. Here are a few pictures from the playground area. I don't have any at the actual pumpkin patch because keeping track of Audrey, carrying the pumpkins, trying to get Henry to hold my hand, and picking him up off of the ground at least a dozen times after he tripped on vines, proved to be no little task. I tried to get my phone out once to take a picture, but they were telling everyone to head back to the hay rack. I am going to try to carve my pumpkin tonight and will take pictures of Henry and Audrey's pumpkins and probably post them tomorrow.

Henry the goat, Eliza the sheep, Marilyn the horse, Meghan the cow, and Audrey the pig
Henry went right for the choo-choo
Audrey decided to skip the gunny sack and just slide down on her belly. Henry and I went down a couple of time, though not on our bellies. We didn't go very fast. We got stuck and had to walk the rest of the way down.
I'm not sure the new pink coat will ever be the same.