Merry Christmas!

Tonight we celebrated "our" family Christmas -- and had told Joshua that after dinner we would open presents. Thus . . . the clearing of the table (by Joshua), and wiping of the table (by Joshua), etc. Wow -- I wish there was this much help all the time!!!!

Getting ready to read the Christmas story!

I'll let you guess . . .do you think this was Kayla's present or Joshua's present????

Some explanation . . .I had read an idea somewhere that for young kids, take them to the dollar store and let them "select" any present for the parents. So -- Daddy received a very nice bow and arrow from Joshua and Mommy received a Spiderman missle launcher from Joshua. We were thrilled with "our" gifts!


Very excited about our "family" gift -- planning on watching it on our way to WI tomorrow!

Kayla and her nesting dolls. Can't believe this is the fourth Christmas now we've had with kids -- wow! It certainly makes the season come alive!

Christmas at M/D V's

We celebrated Christmas at my parents last weekend -- had a very fun evening! (Steve and Freya -- we missed you!) We opened stockings before dinner -- and Kayla had quite the time "modeling" her sunglasses while singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" . . . she KNEW she was the center of attention, too!

Two very happy, excited kids!

Our fam -- yes, that was the best pic of Joshua I had!

Aunt Bem & Uncle Steve

"The Boys" -- I wish they would just lighten up!

Ma & Pa

All of us minus Steve V.

It was really, really chilly on the way home! Holy Cow!

Trying to get caught up . . .

Somehow, blogging just doesn't seem to get done . . . so here's a quick snapshot! I just couldn't refuse taking a picture of the kids after church on Sunday. I played, so we were out the door by 6:45 -- they were pooped!


A family in the church gave us tickets to a KU game -- it was AWESOME! We weren't sure how the kids were going to do -- but they loved it! Kayla is still imitating how "Baby Jay" dances!

Wow!

First snow of the season -- Joshua just insisted that we needed to get the snow off of the driveway -- aka -- he wanted to play in the snow!

Not sure that the shovel was the most efficient choice . . .

Happy Birthday Joshua

OUR BABY TURNED FOUR!

I can't believe I'm just now blogging this -- it's been a little nutso around here. Anyway, earlier this month, our Joshua turned four. He wanted a "Cars" cake -- funny thing is, I don't think he ever had any of the cake . . . he only wanted the ice cream that came with it!


This was "THE" gift of the evening -- this super mega, rocket launcher from his aunt and uncle -- good thing we have high ceilings so we could test it out!

Reminds me of a good joke . . . "How many pollocks does it take . . .?" "The Men" did figure it out . . .eventually!

Uncle Ryan and Joshua

We got him a new bike . . . kind of a bummer in December, I know . . . but we did have one nice day to ride it!

Thanksgiving 08

OK . . . I just realized as I was looking at these pics, that I didn't get a single decent picture of the actual "dinner" -- so instead you get to see everything BUT the dinner!!!! Since my family wasn't getting together until Friday, the four of us spent THE ENTIRE DAY (except for my 8am CVS run) at home -- it was great!

Kayla -- always our comedian!

We got most of the Christmas decorations up -- nice to have that done!

Funny how the tree always ends up a little "bottom heavy" with ornaments . . .!

The FAVORITE thing to get out of the Christmas tubs was this house thing plays music and has blinking lights . . .
. . so most of the day, we heard the same 30-second sound byte being played! I should mentioned that about 30 seconds after this picture, Kayla totally WIPED OUT on the ceramic tiles with her socks on -- and got a super fat lip. Bummer. Now she specifically asks to take her socks off before playing the blinking light house!


I made the rolls for our family Thanksgiving -- Joshua told Bryan "Man . . . there's like hundreds of rolls!" (For the record, I think there were about 8 left after the meal was over -- big dinner!)

Since my brother and his wife were in town, we all headed to a very "family-friendly" eating establishment -- the kids loved it!

Aunt Bem and "Hen-ee" (pronunciation according to Kayla!)

Steve and Freya

Keepin' it real

Just thought I'd share a few pics from the last week or so -- just everyday, routine things . . .yet things that I hope I never forget!

I looked in the bathroom this morning to see Kayla brushing her baby's "teeth" -- toothpaste and all!


Yesterday, Joshua was coloring with stencils at the table while I was picking up in the living room. He called to me "Mom, look at my picture. It's the Christmas light show!" Holy cow -- for those of you have seen the light layout, the stars along the top are where the colored snowflakes are. And, Joshua informed me that the banners are supposed to be the rolling snowscapes -- can you tell our family has been eating, thinking, breathing Christmas light show??? Joshua is SOOO pumped!


Disclaimer: I do not normally have dumped out suitcases on the floor . . . I guess the kids felt the need to "unpack" from Grandma and Grandpa's before the suitcase made it upstairs.

Anyway, on Sat. night, the Lawrence Welk show was on (hey, when you don't have cable, options are a little limited!!!!) and Joshua was imitating the tap dancer -- cracked me up!


Earlier in the day on Saturday was homemade pizza -- this is what you get when you say "Say Cheese!"

I wanted to make an advent calendar with activity pockets for the kids, so when I saw this canvas on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $1, I decided the kids would have fun painting it. Joshua claimed it would be eaiser to go "shirtless" than to put on a scrappy big T-shirt . . . ok, whatever!


Kayla thought it was great -- and yes, she got more on her sleeve, than on the canvas! Fun times!

Happy B-day, Kayla!!!!

Yesterday we celebrated Kayla's b-day! I think Joshua was just as or more excited than Kayla . . partly because he knows this HIS birthday is 3 weeks after Kayla's! He insisted on "helping" with her cake, so he was the "official" ladybug spot "putter-onner!"

As you can see Joshua was right ready to help "guide" Kayla in all of the birthday proceedings!

She really gave it her all when she was blowing out the candles --so much so that half of the cake was designated as "Kayla's" due to the excessive saliva on the cake!

She actually wasn't all that interested in opening gifts -- when she had the first one unwrapped, she said, "All Done" and took off for the playroom! Joshua convinced her otherwise, though!

Opening the "Kayla-sized" chairs from G/G Nelson.

This was the baby (pretend, not real!) from Mommy and Daddy -- she actually played with it that evening and today it has been THE ONLY THING she wants!


Feeding the baby in the crib. This was actually MY crib when I was growing up -- so fun! Happy Birthday, Kayla! So much has happened in the last two years -- can't believe how time has flown!

This week . . .

Let's see . . . Kayla got her first haircut last weekend. I actually took her to my stylist to see how "a professional" does it! She did GREAT! This was pretty much her expression the entire cut, but hey . . . she tolerated everything just fine . . . so we weren't complaining!


We had a stretch of BEAUTIFUL weather the last couple of days, so we tried to take advantage of it! Joshua on his bike . . . SHHH . . .don' tell him, but this will probably be one of his last rides on this bike . . .he's getting one for his birthday in December!

Some sibling bonding in the sandbox . . . trust me, they only peacefully coincide for about 3 minutes and then it becomes "MY SAND" and "YOUR SAND" and woe to the person who takes the other's sand!

What a look of childhood fun!

Last weekend, we celebrated Uncle Brian's birthday and Joshua insisted on not only having a balloon for him, but also wrapping him a present! Happy Birthday, Brian! Oh -- BTW, count 'em . . . do you see the 3 purchased soft drinks??? Guess my family doesn't like our caffeine free diet Pepsi!!!


Check this out . .. NO SPOTS ON THE CARPET! Got it cleaned today, and the kids loved having all of the extra room!

They also loved getting to go through the "tunnel" on the way upstairs. Their 5-month pregnant mama, on the other hand, carefully calculated each and every trip upstairs, deeming it absolutely necessary before proceeding!



. . . and this here would be our baby in his new "Cubbies" uniform! He is LOVING Cubbies so far . . . one of the highlights of his week!