Christmas with big pop and grandma

we waited to do presents to/from big pop and grandma for until they were here. they had shipped the larger items to us when they ordered them and then (somehow) managed to bring more with them! we had a few for them too.

madelyn could hardly wait for them to get inside so that she could give them the gifts she picked out, wrapped and labeled all by herself. in fact, she didn't wait and met them at the door with their gifts. and then requested that they open them right then.  we convinced her to wait until after dinner for presents.

maddux checking out his spinning lights wand

more gift opening

the best part was that i had jokingly considered letting big pop and grandma assemble the gifts they got the kids when they got here.  and then i talked to my brothers who had to assemble the same toys for their kids (the words "crazy" and "bleeding" were used).  we were definitely going to let them assemble!  so matt and grandma had a race to see who could get theirs together the fastest.  matt won.  and i was crying from laughing so hard!  i was also texting grandma's comments to my brothers so that they could share in my joy (and they did).  big pop thought that it was all pretty funny too.  matt finally helped grandma finish up so that we could go to bed.

we were lucky to get to extend Christmas another week.  love.

pro football hall of fame

we won (bought) four tickets to the pro football hall of fame at a charity auction. unfortunately, they expire today.  and big pop and grandma won't get here in time to go with us.  we only needed two tickets for our family so we figured we would pick someone at random to get our other two.

we weren't sure how it would be for the kids, but it turned out to be a pretty fun outing.  madelyn and mason both said that it was a lot of fun and wanted to go back some time. madelyn was particularly fond of the rings and trophies.  mason liked all of the touch screens and buttons at the displays. 

madelyn was full of poses today

there was a hologram of the hall of fame ring that you could sort of 'try on' if you could keep up with the rotation.  you can sort of see that it is 3D with matt's finger.

i found all of the exhibits to be very interesting.  i did laugh at faith hill's dress because there was no plaque with explanation - just a black dress and a picture of her face.  and then i liked this sign next to dick butkus' helmet that merely said, "played angry."

the kids spent a lot of time 'listening' to the recordings on the 'phones'.  i am not sure that they really listened to very much but they had a lot of fun.

maddux spent almost the entire time in his stroller chowing on cheerios.  i did let him out for a little while at the end where he tried to 'kiss' all of the exhibits.  (maybe he was just that excited about football history...)

we thought that the board displaying every team's record since 1920 was pretty interesting too.

of course the room for the lombardi trophy was a good photo too. and it was the only picture i was in thanks to all of the mirrors (otherwise i wouldn't have been in any of them).  you have to look in the mirrors to see mason too.  maddux is 'kissing' the trophy case - of course.

and how is this for a pose from madelyn?

and this might be our favorite picture from the day.  i told them to pretend someone was pouring water on them and they did a great job!  i particularly liked mason's expression.

we had a good time and will probably go back again sometime.  it was amazing how busy it was!  and the tickets aren't cheap so it might be a while or when we have company.  love.

curls

maddux' hair is very curly.  well, what i would call very curly.  but he sleeps on his forehead at night and pulls food through it during the day to straighten it out so i tried to get some pictures of the ringlets on his forehead after his bath tonight since they are the first to get pulled straight.  the pictures do not do justice to how much curl there actually is in the front.  it looks like he might actually keep it; at least there seem to be more curls as his hair grows instead of less. we will find out if i would ever get his one-year pictures taken so that he can have a haircut!  i think now that we are past the holidays i might have to time to take him...

both sides of the family have lots of curls (dark on big pop's side and light on both grandma and papa's) and everyone takes credit.  i think that he is pretty cute either way.  love.

the new couch

we went shopping the day after Christmas.  we had so much luck last year with very little crowd that we decided to try again this year.  plus, we were hoping to get a deal on a couch.  we have not owned a couch since we left wisconsin.  and we missed it.  very much.

even though we haven't had one, we have not been in a hurry to buy one either.  we have been watching for a deal on the right couch and hoping to get one in january. with our ever expanding family, we thought that a sectional was the way to go and matt talked me into leather (because it is the easiest to keep clean with small children).

we were so excited to find a sectional that easily fit our whole family, fit into our living room (it is probably a little large for most people, but it works for us) and was the right price!  and they delivered it today.  the kids have been ecstatic about the new couch.  maddux in particular.  and then it occurred to me that he has never had a couch or ever sat on one outside of a furniture store.  he thinks that it is so neat to crawl down the length of it and try each 'seat'.  we are really looking forward to our first 'movie night' on the new couch!  it has been hard to snuggle up with three kids in the chairs.

all three of them were climbing all over it and laughing and sliding off as soon as the delivery guys closed the door, but i wasn't fast enough to get the camera. i am sure that there will be lots more couch fun. love.

birthday cake

it took us a few days, but we finally made our baby jesus birthday cookie cake.  madelyn wanted to sing the version of happy birthday, jesus from her school concert.

taking out the trash

mason has taken up his first "chore" (other than generally cleaning up their toys) - taking out the trash.  it started with him helping me bring in the empty trash cans and recycling containers but a few weeks ago he bundled up to help daddy carry boxes out to the curb on 'trash night'.

there was a lot of trash the day after Christmas so madelyn and mason helped daddy get it ready for pick-up.  only madelyn and mason wanted to work faster than daddy and just carried the cardboard out to the curb without breaking it down or stacking it. 

it is very dark, but you can see mason's light up shoes and here him dragging the shovel on his return trip.

 

mason loves his 'chore' so much that when i asked him to take a box out to the garage last week, he came back to ask me to open the garage door.  he thought i wanted him to take it out to the curb!  so sweet of him to offer.  love.

24, 17, 19

these are the number of months between our children.  and for you that might struggle with math, you need four children to have three gaps.  and number four is coming in (wait for it...) june!  yes, we are having a third june baby!  at least this time it should be early june (i say "should" because we have had no problem with going 40+ weeks).

we had a 10 week ultrasound at this doctor's office so here are some profile pictures.  you can see the head on the left and a foot/leg on the right.  you can also see an arm/hand near the neck area.  baby looks great so far and has a very good heart rate. 

i have had maybe four or five appointments (there seem to be a lot at this practice).  i have already had my glucose test because maddux was 11 lbs. they want to test me earlier to make sure diabetes isn't an issue (that generally leads to babies over 10 lbs.).  and i will have a second blood/glucose test at 28 weeks.  i didn't get a phone call, so i am guessing that i am in the clear on the blood work (they only call if something is wrong).  i have another check-up in a few weeks so i guess i will get a definite negative at that time.

i am guessing that we will find out boy or girl at the end of january because that is when i will be 20 weeks (i am 16 right now).  and we will be finding out.  either way the baby will sleep in madelyn's room because she is the heaviest sleeper and then we will arrange things for gender appropriateness (if needed) when the baby is ready to leave the crib (some time after turning one).

we just told family on Christmas because we wanted to hold the grandparents off on presents for the new baby.  our house just can't take any more toys! :)  it was a fairly easy secret to keep since we hardly know anyone here and it is winter (lots of layers and bulky clothes).  i did have some trouble dressing for matt's office Christmas party because i was 14 weeks and he hadn't told his boss yet - who was going to be there.  thankfully, i have not shown quite as early with this one as i did with maddux (or i just didn't lose as much weight between kids...).

mainly i have had aversions to sweets (and really most food doesn't taste great), teeth brushing makes me dry heave and i am exhausted.  this is all similar to my other pregnancies, but the sweets aversion was only with madelyn so i am thinking that it is a girl.  we are hoping for a girl to even things out but will be happy either way.

the next six months are going to be busy!  my main goal is to have mason potty trained before the baby gets here because i don't want three in diapers!  love.

happy birthday to Jesus!

i wasn't expecting the kids to get up all that early.  ever since we have gotten settled into our house, the kids have been sleeping to 7, 8 or even later!  it has always been a struggle to get madelyn to stay in her room until 7am and mason and maddux have been pre-7 risers too.  anyway, i woke up Christmas morning to the sound of quiet playing - i knew that it was mason (madelyn would have come to get us and maddux is still in a crib).

last shot of the tree Christmas eve (most of the presents are not from matt and me).

we got the boys a firehouse/police station playset and that is where mason was when i came out into the living room.  he was so excited!

mason and maddux were so cute playing with their firehouse/police station all day. (notice that they are still in their church clothes - mason was even still wearing his name tag on his back!)  at one point they were playing peek-a-boo through the windows (maddux was on the outside and mason was inside) just laughing hysterically; i just couldn't get the camera fast enough.

it was really nice to have mason to help open presents this year - things went a lot faster.  maddux has been open presents for weeks (and i have been re-wrapping) but today - nothing.  we could not get him to open a single present.  once they were open though he was excited.  he would even cry when we would try to take the box to open it; he didn't want to give it up for even a moment.

madelyn was going to get a doll house, but ultimately, she likes little things and loved her castle.

madelyn asked "santa" for a pink train with pink tracks; she got a pink conductors hat and two pink trains.  mason asked for a green truck book so he got a green dump truck and several truck books (some with green trucks).  maddux got a blue step stool for the bathroom from "santa".

because daddy was getting cabin fever because i wouldn't let him do any 'work' around the house, he took mason out to use the newest baseball tee.  as you can see, it was fun for all!  madelyn and i were bummed not to have a white Christmas, but i think it worked out for the best.

we hope that you had a wonderful day celebrating Christ's birth!  i know we did (even though we never got around to making his birthday cake - oops - it's the first year we didn't make one).  my favorite thing about Christmas this year is that the kids said "baby jesus" about a hundred more times than "santa"!  we are really working on keeping the focus in the right place.  love.

Christmas eve

Christmas eve was a quiet day at home.  i did all of the food preparations for Christmas so that i wouldn't have to do any cooking tomorrow.  mason discovered how to button his jammies and must have unbuttoned and buttoned his shirt a hundred times over the course of the day!  they were all sitting at the table waiting for their next meal/snack so matt tried to get a picture with all three smiling - it didn't happen - but i thought that some of these were cute.

we went to a Christmas eve church service with plans to look at lights afterwards.  i wanted to get a family picture, but it didn't happen.  i should have at least taken a picture of madelyn because she wore her velvet and sequin dress from her school concert with knee high "joy" socks (red and grey with green letters) and pink glitter tennis shoes!  she got a lot of comments on how nice her outfit was - which she loved!

there were several houses with lights set to music near us so we went to see a few.  mason fell asleep a few moments after we left the church parking lot but maddux and madelyn stayed awake for the first house.  matt did get in the back of the van to wake mason up so that he could see the disney portion of the show (they had a projection screen showing movie clips while the lights danced to the soundtrack).  mason went right back to sleep as we drove away and maddux wasn't far behind.

here is a video of the second house (which was actually two houses).  the music is black eyed peas which is funny because the song before was i want a hippopotomus for Christmas and the next song was silent night!

we didn't get home until after 9 - way past bedtime.  normally we would have gotten the boys into their jammies but we couldn't risk them waking and being up for a few hours so we just put them down in their church clothes.  madelyn woke up when we got home because of a promise to let her open some new Christmas jammies from under the tree.  but she could barely stay awake.  i had to put out the santa cookies, etc. myself.  next year we will go see lights earlier in the week so that Christmas eve can be less rushed.

matt did a lot of assembly and i did some wrapping and stocking stuffing before calling it a night.  love.

Christmas cookies

i should have taken pictures of us out on delivery - or even of the cookies the kids helped make - but i didn't.  we put together a few plates of cookies and fudge to give to our immediate neighbors for Christmas.  we loaded the plates into the wagon after daddy got home (he was home just after lunch) and maddux was sleeping.  the kids were so excited to give out the cookies they had worked so hard on.  we made sugar cookies that were sugar with a capital "s"!  and the kids decorated them with an assortment of sprinkles. we also gave chocolate fudge and iced pumpkin spice cookies.

it was much colder out than it had been earlier in the day and madelyn in particular was not dressed warmly enough (by choice, i tried to get her to wear a hat).  after our deliveries, we came home and had hot chocolate and watched a Christmas movie (i think it was the veggietales version of it's a wonderful life).  i did take pictures of them with their hot chocolate, but madelyn would not look away from the movie long enough for a picture.  i did like mason's attempt though.

next year we will make cookies again and deliver them a little earlier in the week.  love.

p.s. one of the reasons i wasn't thinking of pictures is that i was in a hurry to get the cookies out.  i had also spent the morning in my pjs and robe expecting to take a shower and get cleaned up after matt came home - which i did.  but not before maggie ran away and i had to chase her in my robe in front of a stranger and a neighbor i hadn't met yet who were trying to help me.  did i mention that it was 11am?!  no more late showers for me.

half birthday

madelyn's school does "half birthdays" for all of the summer birthdays.  madelyn's day was the last day of school before Christmas break.  she chose funfetti cupcakes with strawberry icing.  i had picked up some papers with red flowers for her too.   thankfully, this time i was able to find strawberry icing and didn't have to make my own again.  i have been baking up a storm for other Christmas treats.

madelyn wore her Christmas best to school and they gave her a crown and a cake sign, but she would not let me take her picture.  instead she posed for this one several days later (and, yes, her mouth is full of food but i take what i can get). love.

little things

when we were leaving the zoo one time recently, madelyn started telling me a "at my house with the red door..." story.  and then mason started to tell me a similar story that started "at my house with the blue door."   they were each telling a story at the same time and it was a little difficult to follow both detailed plots, but mason's "blue door" made me laugh.  oh and madelyn's story had a sister where mason's had a brother.

maddux has started "brooming" and "vrooming" cars when playing.

just didn't want to miss these.  love.

gingerbread house

i have never made a gingerbread house - which madelyn was shocked to hear.  so i thought that we should give it a try.  i picked up a kit at bjs and was pretty impressed at what all it came with, except any clear picture of what the finished project should look like.  it didn't matter.  we all had fun trying to figure it out from a very small picture on the box.

the kids were very pleased with our finished product and can not wait to eat it!  there have been quite a few 'tracks' in the snow/sugar.  then i caught madelyn sticking her finger in it and solved the mystery.  love.

day out for daddy

daddy had a lot of "work" work to get done this weekend, so i offered to take the kids out and give him a few hours by himself at home to work without interruption.

but first i started the day with letting daddy sleep in.  he has left the house at or before 6am all week and the kids and i discussed letting him sleep in.  they didn't get up super early which was nice.  we had some breakfast and then i made up our lunch to take out.

daddy woke up shortly before we left which made it a lot easier for me to get myself ready to go.  our first stop was lowe's to make the second part of the christmas train - the coal car.  both kids opted for the candy stickers in the holiday theme instead of the 'realistic' coal car versions (they each got both to choose from in their kits).  the place was packed and we had to sit on the floor with several other families.

we browsed around for a little bit to check out the christmas selection.  i hadn't realized how late it had gotten and we had to hustle over to the zoo so that we could eat our lunch before the 'story hour' at 1pm.  apparently, this is the first year they have offered a 'cabin fever' series of stories and craft events every saturday.  all i can say is that we will be back.

they put out carpet squares for the kids to sit on and then gave each of them their own box of popcorn.  i think they read 4 books and it was very interactive.  they even brought out a groundhog and told the kids about hibernation.  did you know that the groundhog is the largest mammal (maybe just in north america) that hibernates - not the grizzly bear?

i tried to get a picture before it started but mason didn't look at the right time

so a few minutes later he called me back up to take his picture!  he really hates to miss out on a photo.

i was surprised that the lady reading the stories was in costume.  it was really very nice.

the kids both got cards to hold up during a 12 days of christmas-esqe story.  madelyn had the first one and mason had the ninth.  he was so focused on holding it up at the right time and kept checking what the picture was that when his turn came, he missed it!  at the end they had all of the kids line up in order for the last reading of the list.  mason is supposed to be in the gap on the right side of the picture but was heading towards madelyn.  until he saw me holding the camera and stopped where he was to give a smile pose.

madelyn is on the left and mason is in an orange/brown shirt in front of one of the taller boys towards the left.

we returned home about 5 hours after we had left.  it seemed like daddy was able to get a lot of work done (he said so too).  the good part is that he can do the exact same outing with the kids next week and i can stay home!  love.

a night in bethlehem

the church where the kids go to school had a free "night in bethlehem" this weekend.  i wasn't really sure what to expect, but i wasn't expecting much.  the flier said live animals, snacks and crafts, so i figured it would be worth checking out.  it was amazing!!

i could not believe how much they did from the time we picked madelyn up at school on friday to saturday afternoon.  i had a difficult time figuring out where we were in the building because it was so transformed.  matt said that he didn't think i should take any pictures in the market place.  there were 'local' snacks (mason ate an entire fig - and liked it), crafts for the kids, 'taxes' to be paid with the 'coin' (large washer) we were given when we entered the building and a 'jail' for those who had given their 'coin' to a beggar.  madelyn started crying when the jailer asked her if she had been good (he was in roman soldier costume and had just put an older kid in the 'jail').  

after the market place we heard about Jesus' birth and life from some 'shepards' and 'prophets' before making our way to the manger where they had a live baby boy as Jesus!

then we went out to see the animals in the stable and matt said i could take pictures (no one else was taking pictures any where - which shocked me because it all looked so amazing).   there were all sorts of animals but the kids were really excited about the donkey/mule (i think the other one was a pony but don't know for sure).

maddux slept through the entire thing.  maybe next year he will get to take part. love.