Christmas 2011

We made it to Michigan without any issues. First we visited my parents and then we visited John's parents. The kids have really enjoyed having three separate Christmas celebrations. Plus, Jonah and Sam have enjoyed birthday celebrations at each grandparents house in the last week. They are celebrating nonstop! It has been a whirlwind visit so far, but we have made some fun memories. I will share stories later!

The Show

Jonah and Samuel had their Christmas pageant at school today. They go to a Catholic preschool so they did a pre-K rendition of the birth of Jesus. They have been looking forward to it for weeks and talking about it constantly. So, when I found out the date of their performance and realized that it was the day before we left for Michigan we had to do some serious planning. John ended up taking the day off to see the boys' show and get packed, but Wyatt still had school today and was going to have to miss the performance. He was incredibly disappointed. So, I decided that we would pull Wyatt out of school for an hour or so to come see Jonah and Sam's pageant. How long are these boys going to be excited to attend each other's events anyways? Everybody was thrilled that we would attend the event together as a family!

After we arrived, Wyatt was worried that he wouldn't see the boys from our seats so I suggested that he climb on the bleachers and watch, so he watched the entire performance from the highest perch so that he didn't miss a thing! Too funny!



Jonah and Sam were donkeys. They did such a great job singing we were so proud. After the show the families all enjoyed cookies and milk together and had a visit from Santa! We all enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to sharing some more special times with family in Michigan tomorrow!

Here is a little bit of their show.......

Too Much Grinch???

Last weekend I unloaded the last of the boxes from our move. We had 4 LARGE boxes in the dining room full of all of our dishes, china, and crystal. We were going to keep them boxed up until after John painted the dining room (which is painted like a jungle since it was used as a nursery by the previous owners), but the project keeps getting moved to the back burner and we all got sick of walking around the boxes. So, I finally tackled it and spent the entire day last Sunday unwrapping and cleaning our dishes.

At one point Wyatt walked into the dining room and was fascinated by all of our "beautiful glasses and dishes" and I realized that he had never really seen our china before. We have always kept it packed up in the padded protectors safely tucked away in our hutch. We used to use our china and crystal all of the time before kids, but not so much lately.


So John and I talked about it and decided that we are going to make a big Sunday dinner each week (which we usually already do anyways) and eat in the dining room using our good dishes. We want to make it a special meal that the kids can look forward to each week and give us a nice family tradition as well.

I told the kids about the new plan and they were pumped. I even told them that we can have candles on the table while we eat and that idea was a big hit. They want to put 4 candles on the table and use my candle snuffer (which they found when I was unloading the dining room boxes) to put out the candles after dinner.


I am excited about trying this out with the boys. I can even see it evolving into something more down the road where somebody gets to make dessert or makes special place mats to eat or plans the menu. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Anyways back to the Grinch.... yesterday we started the ball rolling and John made a sirloin tip roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans for dinner. The kids kept commenting on how good the meat smelled cooking. They couldn't wait to eat. We are so hungry! Then when we finally sat down to eat Wyatt said, in his most polite voice, "thanks for making this... I really like roast BEAST"!

Fake Christmas

Fake Christmas went well. The kids got up cod (crack of dawn), but we didn't let them start opening until 7:30 am. Then we took a few breaks during opening to let everybody eat or play with their toys for a while. It was nice and relaxed and we ended up dragging it all out until 11 or so! Then we simply had to make lunch and send everybody down for a nap!
Wyatt really enjoyed his digital picture key chain that holds 60 pictures. We uploaded his favorites and he carries it everywhere! Who knew that Santa could score so big on $10?!?!?!?


The kids also liked their mini staplers and mini pillow pets. Small stuff seems so cute when you are part of a big family with big stuff! I remember those days myself!


Shane loved his alligator rocker from Grandma! He is quite the daredevil on it!

I still have lots of stories to share, but this Mommy is off to bed! Christmas is tiring for everybody...not just the kids!!!!

Fake Christmas eve

Here we are on fake Christmas eve 2011. It seems like yesterday that we were preparing for fake Christmas eve 2010! We had a nice day together. John had a vacation day and was able to pick up the kids from school with me...which they loved! We did a bit of shopping with Shane and enjoyed our time alone with our baby. He is such a fun happy little guy! I can't imagine how we ever got so lucky with him! I often say that if Shane was born first I would have sent all of our other kids back! I'm kidding sort of...

Anyways we took Shane to an old fashioned bulk candy store that I have been wanting to check out for a while and it was really fun! They had lots of different kinds of candy that I haven't seen in years including tons of gummies...they even had gummy fried eggs! We got some Amish popcorn and bulk oats and that was it, but it sure would be a fun place to visit with all of the kids! Shane ended up with a 10 cent price of laffy taffy and was happy for the rest of the day! Wyatt would have had the entire cart filled to the rim!

Later we took the kids out for pizza at our new favorite pizza joint. It's great pizza and loud so the kids blend right in. We ordered 2-14 inch pizzas for me John and the kids and there seriously wasn't a single piece left when we were done. The waiter was seriously shocked! Wow I haven't seen anyone eat that much pizza in a while. Yeah, you haven't met Sam then have you?

After we got home we sprinkled out our reindeer food out in the yard so that the reindeer would find our house. Then we showered and read the night before Christmas and the Christmas story (the golden book version of the gospel of Luke). Finally we set out cookies and milk for Santa and headed to bed.....the kids that is. John and I still have tons of work to do! Lets hope that we get to bed before the kids are up for the morning. Merry Christmas!

Teachers Galore

It is such a blessing that the kids are surrounded by fantastic teachers this school year. However, between the kids regular teachers, aides, and speech therapists we have 10 teachers that we are giving gifts to this year. Everyone is getting a jar of homemade jam and a loaf of bread and one of these little guys....


It's a good thing that I paid attention in grad school when John and I were living next door to Fred and living off the land or we would go broke this Christmas!

T Minus 5

Ok, we have truly been swamped here lately! Fake Christmas is in 5 days and we are racing to get everything done before then! Wyatt has actually figured out that our Christmas is not on Dec 25, but we told him that we asked Santa to come early so that we can go to Michigan and not miss anything. He seemed alright with that, and if he buys it the the other kids are sold!

He wore this to the grocery store for 1 week

We had 3 different Christmas programs last week and one more coming up next week! I have been practicing songs and hand movements with everybody so that they knew what to do at performance time. So far it went smoothly except at church. Jonah and Sam were up front singing their songs (which Shane has been practicing as well) and Shane decided to hop right up there along side his brothers and join them. The director didn't realize that he didn't belong and handed him some bells to ring and he was thrilled! It worked out fine and the boys couldn't stop talking about how Shane crashed their performance...they thought that it was hysterical!

Watching the Grinch

Today after picking everybody up from school the kids wanted to drive around the lake and see if there were any ice fisherman, so we checked it out. No ice yet, but the kids sure are looking forward to trying out some ice fishing this winter! That should make for some good stories!

Then on the way home from the lake I overheard the kids talking about next year. "What do you think that Mom is going to do next year when Shane is in school?" (2 hours 2 x per week...so much free time huh?)

Then I heard Sam say "Guys, I know, Mom is going to make cookies every day for us for when we get home from school!" What an idealist!

Early Riser

This has got to be one of our funniest pictures ever of potty training. I may have to bring this one along to his wedding reception some day!


Shane fell asleep while sitting on the potty this Thanksgiving. He might have been up just a little early that morning what do you think?