"I've Got To Blog About That"

So it never fails, the kids will be doing something funny or crazy one night and I'll turn to Chris and say, "I've got to blog about that." Then the next day or few days later, I'll forget what it was.  I've started writing it down on a piece of paper and keeping a list going until I have time to sit down and actually blog. And inevitably, I'll lose the list! Well I managed to find a partial list the other day and before I forget anymore...I'm going to forever record them in the blog-osphere!

• As I mentioned in the previous post, Maggie has really become quite adept at spotting Santa around town or in homes or stores or on the front of a card. For the entire Christmas season, she would excitedly say, "See Santa!".  The funny thing is, I think she may think his name is "SeeSanta". We may have mistakenly trained her to do this because we'd always say, "Hey Maggie, do you see Santa?" Whoops! Makes for a cute memory though. 
• Riley has picked up on some more of our sayings at home. We'll catch him sneaking out of bed at night or tell him not to jump on the couch and he'll respond, "Oh, Man!" To which, Maggie will then try to parrot as well!
• Since we got rid of cable TV to cut down on our bill, we supplemented with the much cheaper option of streaming Netflix videos.  Whenever the logo displays on the TV as we log on to access some shows, Riley always points his finger and spells out N-E-T-F-L-I-X    K-I-D-S and without fail will say, "Hey I'm a Netflix Kid!" Maggie, not to be outdone, now says "I-E-I-E...Yay!" which means the same thing in her language!
• Driving down the road the other day, Riley saw a machine on the back of the truck and asked me what it was. I said I couldn't think of the name. He responded by saying, "I think it's a fork lift, Mom." And you know what? He was right!! It's crazy what this kid knows!
• Several of my music lessons that did in the fall featured books by Eric Carle and Riley would listen to me read them aloud and before I begin I always introduce the title and author/illustrator. Shortly after these lessons, I'd pick up a book and read the title and before I could get any further Riley would interject..."By Eric Car-rul" (two syllable last name). 
• We have one book that Riley likes to read that talks about the first day of Kindergarten. One of the first times reading it, Riley got very excited and wanted to know when he was going to go to "Candy-garden!"
• Maggie sure has been working on developing her personality more and more everyday! She is quick to please big brother and give up whatever toy she has so that he can play with it. She can easily get upset when you don't want give her what she wants and will pitch a full-on fit complete with a face-plant on the floor and dramatic cries and tears. She loves to mimic everyone and is talking up a storm! She understands so much now. The other day, I accidentally burped and she looked at me and said, "Cuse me, Momma". She's an excellent helper and loves to sing the "Clean Up" song while she picks up toys. Her version is more like "me-muh, me-mup".  We'll ask her if a certain food is cold or if it's cold outside and she'll ball up her little fists and pretend to shiver as she repeats the word "cold." She is a snack-aholic and will eat everything on her plate that is fried or carb-heavy.  She still loves her crackers, O's (Cheerios), and pretzels (I can't figure out to type how she pronounces these, but it's really cute). She loves to brush her teeth and is extremely interested in watching people go "potty". She is a teaser too! I'll be reading her a book and she'll close it on purpose, so I can't see the words anymore and then open and close it about 6 more times. She'll pretend that she's going to give you a piece of food and then snatch it back.  On our long road trip to and from Indiana, she'd put her pacifier in backwards and look at Riley with a silly smile to make him laugh.  She has such a cute sense of humor--we love it! I had the hiccups the other night as I was rocking and singing "Mockingbird" to her and she kept making the hiccup sound right after me and laughing about it. I love her little dimples and how easy she smiles and laughs.  I hope she never loses any of that joy!

Glad Tidings of Comfort and Joy

 We had an amazing Christmas season together with lots of fun events and family time. Riley enjoyed helping decorate this gingerbread house and when we mentioned the idea of making a cake for Jesus' birthday--he jumped right on the idea! We asked him what kind of cake he thought we should make (expecting him to say something like chocolate or vanilla), and he adamantly stated he wanted to to make him a dinosaur cake. It just so happens that Riley also would like a dinosaur cake for his next birthday. :) Aunt Penny happened to have a dinosaur pan to lend us and though it turned out looking a little more like a scary zombie, I think Jesus still appreciated our effort. It the sweetest thing was listening to Riley sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas Day.

 I "Mustache" You A Question....Do we look funny or what???

 We began our Christmas journey on Thursday, Dec. 19th (Chris was able to leave school a little early to give us a head start on traffic). We made it to Charleston, WV and stayed the night before continuing on to Tim and Jen's house in Toledo, Ohio. We arrived around 2 and the rest of the gang trickled in later that same day. The kids had a great time playing together. Pap read them a cute Christmas story.

 Riley loved having his cousin AC to pal around with!

 We celebrated Tim and Lucy's birthday that weekend as well. The kids loved the cake and the adults loved going out that night to a local pub "just 800 feet away" while Nan and Pap held down the fort.

 On Saturday, we had our big Christmas gift-opening and various exchanges (local beers, homemade gifts, White Elephant).  We added a few new games to the mix--like the paper plate drawing on your head and Left-Right-Center. Despite Tim's best attempts to play the "Lucky Chicken" song each time he rolled the dice, Chris was the winner of the game and took home all the moo-lah! It was exciting to have Aunt Charla, Chelsea, Aunt Penny, and Emily join us for the evening festivities as well. Tim cooked up a scrumptious dinner of beef tenderloin, green beans, hashbrown casserole, salad, and rolls.

 This is the best I could do for getting a group shot. It was like trying to herd cats to get all the kids to stay near the tree much less look and smile in the same direction!

 On Sunday we packed up and road on down to Greenfield to visit Grandpa and Grandma Condra. Riley was ecstatic to get a Hot Wheels stunt loop and toy car and Maggie really liked taking care of her baby doll.

We had to make the long trek home on Monday and the kids truly did a wonderful job in the car for the 11 hours.  Tuesday was Christmas Eve and we were able to enjoy a special kid-friendly service at 4 pm that day at our church. Grandmama, Papa, Kelly, Joel, Mommaw, Poppaw, and Connie were able to join us for this as well.  Then we headed off to our traditional Asian meal at a nearby restaurant (Red Bowl this year, but Chris says it has to be Wan Fu next year because it's so much better). And afterwards, we drove around to look at the lights. This time both kiddos were awake enough to know what was going on. Maggie's favorite houses were anything with "Santa" on them (as that is the one item she figured out how to recognize this year). Riley liked anything with lots of colors! 

 This house in Stafford Park has won 1st place for several years in a row. We love going through this neighborhood and seeing all the many displays.

 Christmas morning Riley and Maggie woke about 6:30 and were delighted with the toys that Santa brought them. Riley has put his imagination to work as he rescues people in his "city" as he calls it. Maggie loves pushing her grocery cart and stroller around and playing with anything that makes music.

 Ready to go shopping? --Maggie is!

I'm the biggest sucker for traditions. We have a sausage and egg casserole and this candy cane pastry every year. Many thanks to my mom for making the pastry for us this year---it was delicious as always and brings back many childhood memories! 

 We headed over to Grandma and Papa's house for Christmas lunch with Kelly, Joel, and Connie. It was delicious medley of Beef Bourguignon, ham, mac and cheese, rolls, collards, 7 layer coconut cake (both vanilla AND chocolate), and lots of other tasty sweets and treats. We came back 2 days later to celebrate Christmas again with Edward and his family. We drew names this year and Chris was thrilled to receive his GPS running watch from his Secret Santa (Joel) and some help from the merry elves (Bonnie and Ed). I had a great time making traveling memory notebooks for both Joel and Edward and my Secret Santa (Amanda) surprised me with a beautiful turquoise Infinity scarf and ceramic coffee mug, several bottles of Bath & Body Works lotions and shower gels, and some exotic Chai-flavored marshmallows. We had a good time playing Reverse Charades together that evening and sitting out by the fire pit together.

 Kelly loved her Secret Santa's (Edward) gift to her of art supplies so that she can keep on creating!

 Amanda received some homemade clay family ornaments courtesy of Kelly.

The gifts were all wonderful, but the time spent laughing and being in each other's presence this holiday season is what I am glad about the most. It is of much comfort to me to be surrounded by so many loving people in our families and hear the house fill with sounds of joy!

Giving Thanks and Decking the Halls

 Here are a few projects we made for our November Thanksgiving decorations. I loved Riley's "Thankful Pumpkin". His list of what he was thankful for included all of our family members, Irving, God, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and YOU! This month we focused on gratefulness and each day at mealtime we'd talk about what we were thankful for. Riley would look around the table and start naming things (napkins, my fork, my juice, etc.). Pretty funny!

 This is Riley's self-portrait! I love that he includes eyes and a smile and arms and legs.

 For Thanksgiving this year, Aunt Renee and Uncle Cal hosted everyone at their home in Florence. We had an AMAZING meal of turkey, ham, and all the trimmings! Below are a few pictures from our time together.

 That same weekend, we decided to go ahead and get our Christmas tree from Penland. The weather was actually a little cold, so we had to bundle up for the first time in years! Riley LOVED being able to help Dad this year and even brought along his own "saw" (a.k.a. vacuum hose extension). We had a chance to pose with several photo ops, talk to the chickens in the coop, find the perfect Leyland Cypress tree, drink some hot chocolate, play in the mulch pile, eat some roasted marshmallows, go on a hayride, and get very sticky with free candy canes. We had a great time together! This is by far, one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Chris then had the really hard part of getting the tree stable in the stand (and after some chainsaw action, he was successful). We then decorated the tree and inside of the house. We eventually after 3 nights of trying to get all the lights to work, got the outside of our house lit and decorated as well!

 I love this picture of my little lumberjack!

 Chris loves that I turn this into a photo op every year! But putting the angel on the tree as the last decoration not only symbolizes a finished tree, but the beginning of a beautiful Christmas season to me! I love having the nativity scenes in our home and an angel on our tree to watch over us and help us remember to spread the good tidings to others!

Something new I decided to create this year was a countdown advent calendar. Inside each of the numbered pockets is an index card that has ideas for us do each day. They include church activities (like the Cantata, Children's Pageant, and Christmas Eve service), acts of kindness (like paying for the meal of the person in a drive-thru behind us, giving hugs while we carol at a nursing home, or buying an Angel Tree gift), community events (like Christmasville, McAdenville Lights, Billy Graham Library), and just for fun events (like visiting Santa, getting a snowman donut from Krispy Kreme, decorating a gingerbread house, and having a dance party). It's been fun moving the little clip each morning and having Riley get excited about the special event for the day!

We went last weekend as well to Portrait Innovations and got some Christmas pictures taken of the kids. Maggie was extremely fussy that day and we're surprised we were able to get even one good shot. Riley is looking down, but at least they both have a smile on their face. Here are the Christmas cards and photos we sent out to Tabitha and Kristin and Lonnie. 

Zippy, our Elf on the Shelf, arrived after naptime the day that we got our tree. He had a present on the front porch and somehow managed to ring the doorbell just as the kids were waking up for them to come to the door and find. Inside were 2 pairs of matching Christmas pajamas, a Josh Grogan Christmas CD for us to listen to on our drive to McAdenville one night, the Elf on the Shelf book, and some special candy. Zippy has been up to all kinds of crazy stuff these past few days (baking miniature pancakes, getting covered in stickers, taking marshmallow baths, and hanging upside down from the ceiling fan...just to name a few). Riley and Maggie both enjoy looking for this little guy each morning! 

It's now time for the update on funny/cute/crazy things are kids are up to these days. Riley loves going upstairs with me each morning to go get Maggie up. He likes to say "Hey, Sunshine, shine, shine" to her as he opens the door! He told me this morning that I didn't come and get him out of bed soon enough and he couldn't "stay in here forever!" He's been talking with a lot more advanced vocabulary lately. While working on a CD player that wasn't plugged in, we overheard Riley say "This is terrible! It isn't working at all." Today, Maggie had a major meltdown while we were at the Children's Museum. So we made our way back to the car and Riley announced that "Maggie is being a drama queen." Hmm...wonder where he may have heard that? :) Just the other day, he found an aardvark in a book he was reading and came to show me that it was just like the one he'd seen on the Wild Kratts show that he loves to watch each day. He told Chris all about a squid and its tentacles. It's amazing what he comprehends and retains! He's been quite into reading lately. His favorite thing to "read" this past month has been toy catalogs. They will keep him entertained for literally half an hour or more! He also enjoys reading High Five magazines in his bed now before he has to take a nap.

Maggie has also been talking up a storm lately! She now says the correct word for pacifier as "paci" not "pappy." She still calls a cracker a "dadu" though which we think is pretty cute! That used to be Riley's word for bubble. Speaking of bubbles, Maggie loves to take a bubble bath and even came up to me last night when I said it was time to go up for a bath and asked for it clear as day! She still gets VERY EXCITED about supper time and runs to her high chair just as fast as her little legs will carry her while shouting "eat eat time!" (except she leaves off the last letter of those three words). She just had her 18 month checkup yesterday and weighs 23 lbs. 8 oz. and is 31 inches tall. She's in the 30-35th percentile for both height and weight. She's been very affectionate lately and will now give unprompted kisses on the leg as I'm cooking in the kitchen and prompted kisses on the cheek! I love the little smacking sound she makes when she does it too!

We're looking forward to the next few weeks as we fill it with all kinds of fun activities and visits with family and friends. My prayer though is that I will help my children not lose sight of the real reason to celebrate--that we have a Savior who came to earth as a baby and lived in human "shoes" to bring a love and peace to us that can't be found anywhere else!