Bringing in the New Year

I can't believe the month of January is already half over and this is the first chance I've had to write in my blog for the month. Here are a few highlights from the past couple weeks.

Rollerblades:
A couple months back Jerod started playing in a roller hockey league on Monday nights. Since then the whole family has gotten excited about it and I have thought about joining Jerod (need to work on getting a baby sitter) and the sports complex also has classes for kids on Saturday mornings. So, we decided to use some of Elijah's Christmas money and buy him a set of roller blades and pads. Here he is on New Year's Day trying them out for the first time.

 Here Jerod is coaching him on how to skate (he's such a fabulous teacher)

 All on his own. I remember having such a sore bottom and scraped up hands when I first tried skating for the first time. Now kids are all decked out with pads and helmet and Elijah is learning to fall on his knee pads instead of his bottom so as to avoid a sore tail bone.

A Common Site:

I know many parents don't allow their children to ever play in the driver seat so as to avoid the radio stations being changed or the volume blaring or the wind shield wipers and turn signals going on when the car starts up. I, however, have found it quite useful to let Megan slobber all over my steering wheel while I load up the car for wherever we might be heading for the day. So as you can imagine, below is a common site in our household and one that just brings delight to my heart as I watch brother and sister play and have fun together.

 Megan just loves pretending to drive the car.

Megan Turns 9 Months Old:
This year on 1-9-13 Megan turned 9 months and Jerod and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. It was fun to have two special moments on the same day. Jerod and I went to dinner at a new place, thanks to a gift card from Jerod's parents. It was great to get out and have a yummy dinner together and just spend time talking and having an uninterrupted conversation.
But of course, you're probably wanting to see some pictures of my 9 month old (at least I want to show her off, so here goes ;-)
She now weighs in at 18 pounds 4 ounces and is 26.8 inches tall which puts her in about the 50th percentile. We have a tradition in our family to take pictures of the kids by Jerod's hockey stick so we can watch them grow over the months and years. Here are a few pictures of Megan next to the stick.

 One of her many accomplishments of late is that she loves to stand on her own (I think she started this in December but has also been taking steps on her own too).

 She continues to love having her fingers in her mouth but is at a standstill for now with 8 teeth. Every once in awhile we think she might have some new ones coming through, but let me tell you, 8 is enough for now...I'm thankful for the break in teething ;-)

 She is such a happy girl and such a delight. Her laugh just warms my heart.

Some of the other fun things that she enjoys doing these days are playing peek-a-boo, giving high fives, and she started clapping on her own for the first time on the day she turned 9 months - that was fun. Here are a couple videos of her showing off her new skills.

Playing Peek-a-bo

Playing the piano

Walking with a walker toy

Clapping

Christmas

Every Christmas I am reminded of just how blessed we are as a family. I love spending the holidays with family and friends, I love focusing on the precious gift of our Lord and Savior, and I love the sparkle in my children's eyes as we play and laugh together. Here are a few snapshots of our time together during Christmas.
This is our family picture on Christmas Eve as we got ready to go to the Candle Light Service.

Elijah and his friend Evelyn holding their candles for our Christmas Eve service at church

 Elijah was very fascinated with the light but was also okay with blowing it out after a couple minutes. I suppose the "pyro" gene that most boys seem to possess kicks in at a later age ;-)

 Jumping for joy while sporting his new Christmas pajamas (Angry Birds in Space are his favorite)

 Playing with his toys alongside daddy (I just love watching them be creative...they have such great imaginations).

 Gotta love the Buzz

 My happy baby girl in new clothes from Grandma Lupe and wearing a tutu from Grandma Dorothy (not shown in this picture but she got a blanket from her Grandma Glenda which was my blanket as a child...hand stitched and everything). What a lucky girl to be doted on by not one but 3 grandmas!

Right after Christmas we went to visit my parents and my grandma. Below is a picture with 4 generations: my kids, me, my dad, and his mom - so cool!

 My parents with Megan

 My parents with Elijah

Here is our cute little Christmas bundle

Here is Megan in a Christmas stocking. We did the same thing with Elijah for his first Christmas, but he was only 3 months old at the time and Megan was 8 1/2 months old. The stocking barely fits her.

 This is Elijah in the same stocking at his first Christmas.

Hand and Footprint Art

Why would I paint my son's feet like this?

 Because our activity today was to make a fun picture with our feet or hands. I found this design online and thought it was a must for us to try today.

Another cute one with hand prints was this Santa Claus (Elijah wanted to do two).

And because Megan cannot hold her own picture without putting in her mouth, I had to position it as such.

Library

We try to go to the library every Thursday after Bible study since the library is fairly close to our church where the study is located. Sadly, this week Bible study was on break but we decided a trip to the library was still in order.

Our library is quite amazing. Not only do they have an amazing selection of children's books and wonderful staff who are so friendly, but they also have puzzles, a puppet stage with a box full of puppets so you can put on your own performance, and several of those bead and wire toys that you generally see in a doctor's office waiting room. There are definitely plenty of diversions to make a trip to the library loads of fun.

Recently we have a new tradition and that is a visit to the library's book store  In the past, I had avoided the book store because there are a bunch of toys that are always so alluring and I did not want to be pestered to buy a bunch of unnecessary toys every time we would come to the library. But recently I discovered that they have a very fun selection of used books on sale for only 1 or 2 dollars. I must admit, I am a sucker for books, especially when they are on sale and in good condition. Now, we always go to the book store and check out what new books are being sold and we inevitably buy one or two. This is a fairly new tradition but already  I'm sensing that I'm going to need to exhibit a bit more self control so as not to get into a habit of buying books every time. Books are great and I know there are worse things I could spend a buck or two on, but I also realize kids are so impressionable and I want to set a good example that we don't always get what we want, and that anything taken to the extreme (even something as good as books) can be detrimental if not given some boundaries.

All that aside, the book store volunteer has gotten used to our weekly visits and just loves watching us come in and read books as a family. This week she asked if she could take our picture since we were all reading a different book (she seemed very amazed that Megan was also just as interested in books as Elijah and I were...coming from our household, I think it would be odd if she didn't like books). So here we are, sitting on the floor, having a good read.

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Ok, honesty time. I have been super excited for our countdown to Christmas for about a year when I first learned about it from a friend at church. For months in advance I had planned and purchased a few items ahead of time. Both Elijah and I started out eagerly awaking each morning to discover what our activity for the day would be, and I would happily stay up after the kids were in bed to record the day's events on my blog. However, the newness and excitement started to wear off around day 14. Even Elijah started to loose a bit of his enthusiasm. I have to admit I was beginning to feel like I had become a slave to something I had originally hoped would be lots of fun. Don't get me wrong, I have definitely loved each activity that we have done and having something to look forward to each night has been helpful, but I was also beginning to realize I needed some balance to the whole ordeal and needed to cut myself some slack. When you find yourself getting a little snarky with your son while making a Christmas chain, or when you want nothing more than to just go to bed instead of spending time together, then you know something's gotta give.

So, I have decided we will do an activity when we feel like it and I will record it in my blog when I have the time and energy for it. Hopefully this will help bring a bit more balance to everything.

So, to catch you up on Monday through Wednesday...on Monday our activity was to "Go out for dessert." This was perfect because Daddy really wanted some frozen yogurt and was so sweet he treated us to dessert with some of his Christmas money (an early gift). We really went to town on the yogurt and toppings and I must admit, I am ashamed at how much money we spent on only 3 servings of froyo. However, I forgot my camera so we don't have any pictures of our time there.

All day Tuesday I was feeling sick so I went to bed early and we didn't do any activity.

Last night we might not have done something again, but some very close friends had an opening in their schedule and I was feeling much better having rested all day Tuesday (thank you Jerod for stepping in and helping take care of me :-) So last night we decorated Christmas cookies with Justin and Jessica Fraser. We had decorated cookies a couple years back and really enjoyed it so we thought we would try again. Megan was only able to stay up for about 5 minutes of the cookie making and then had to go to bed.

 Elijah had fun making designs in the flour.

Rolling out the dough with his great grandma's rolling pin

 Justin and Jerod talking about stuff on their phones

We had about 40 different cookie cutters but tried to limit ourselves to only half that ;-)

Everyone got in on the decorating after the cookies had been baked.

Here is a train Elijah made for me (the blue frosting is even peppermint flavored)

This originally started out as a rocket, then when it wasn't working out, we convinced Justin to turn it into a fish. It definitely works better as a fish.

Auntie Jessica made a beautiful flower design with the holly leaves.

Cookies from our family (Elijah made the candy cane, I attempted to make a snowflake, and Jerod likes to make unique cookies...his is a clown that was made out of a snowman cookie cutter...can you see both?)

 Uncle Justin made matching girl and boy bears...so adorable!

A few more cookies (the one on the far left is another of Jerod's creations...an arrowhead made from a lightbulb cookie cutter)

 A Christmas bomb (again, Jerod ;-)

 Stars and Christmas wreaths.

Christmas Chain

Today's activity was to make a Christmas chain. We made one long chain and then I found a fun design to make a tree out of the loops. It was fun to do something old and something new.

Elijah also made an arm band out of one of his loops.

Pin the Nose on Frosty

So today we got to do two activities since last night we decided not to do one and just took the night off. We made the craft this morning and then this evening we "pinned the nose on Frosty." It only lasted for about 3 minutes, but it was still fun. Elijah won.

 Elijah went first and got his basically right on the money (he wasn't peeking here, I just wasn't fast enough for the camera and he was already ready to take off the blind fold).

Here he is checking out his results.

 He tried to get a picture of me. I am wearing a blindfold but you just can't see it.

We even let Megan have a turn.