Growing Up

I can tell Kellyn is growing up from a toddler into a little girl.  The signs are not only evident in the way she is physically changing but in the way her room is changing.  On Christmas day Ryan rearranged her furniture to make enough room to move in her new dollhouse.  We moved things around her walls and put in some bins to organize her toys.  I moved her butterfly hooks and made a little dress up area for her.  I love sitting in her room now and playing; it brings back fond memories of the hours spent dressing up and playing with dolls when I was growing up.

I was scared to have a little girl, but truthfully I'm loving every moment.

Christmas

This year Christmas was relaxing.  We weren't painting and moving; enough said.  While we did use the Elf on a Shelf and visited Santa, we really wanted to teach Aric and Kellyn about the reason for Christmas.  When we purchased, wrapped and mailed gifts we talked to the kids about Jesus' birthday and why we give everyone gifts.  They were pretty excited to give and receive gifts this year.  They were so excited about receiving gifts that by the 24th our tree looked like this:

Kellyn initially only pulled the bows off the packages, but by the end she was unwrapping my gifts; not hers, just mine.  I think she was being devious and getting the both of best worlds: the pleasure of unwrapping presents while leaving all of hers alone.

We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.  Both Ryan and I grew up celebrating on Christmas Eve.  After dinner and baths we sat down to read the birth of Jesus in the kid's bible.  Then we prayed and lit our German pyramid while discussing the figures in the Nativity.

After a quick picture it was time to open presents.

The kids had fun opening their gifts and playing with some of the toys.

The next day, on Christmas, we did some rearranging in the kid's bedrooms.  They both needed areas opened up for their toys.  We also spent the day breaking up fights over the new toys.  That is the not so fun part of Christmas that Ryan and I don't remember from childhood.

Aric's favorite toys are his new V-Reader, dinosaurs and remote control Mater car.

Kellyn's favorite toys are her dress up clothes, computer, doll house, and the fuchsia jacket that she always wants to wear now.  I might have some problems on laundry day.

We hope your Christmas was as good and relaxing as ours without the fights over toys.

Things Heard Around Here

Heave pull.

Translation:
Kellyn says this when tugging or pulling on something.  I assume she is trying to say "heave ho".  As to why she thinks she's a pirate... I guess she has a very vivid imagination.

Attachment

I have decided Kellyn has a weird attachment to oversized stuffed animals:

And her daddy has a weak spot when it comes to making her extremely happy.

Christmas Time

We are definitely in full Christmas mode around here.  Most of my gifts are complete.  I have one last gift left to purchase and just a few more to wrap then I'm done.  What a relief.  Our Christmas traditions are well under way.

One of the traditions I brought with me, and Ryan gladly embraced, is making Cherry Candy Crackles.  They are my favorite Christmas cookie.  We joke about Christmas not coming until we make them.  Sure enough every year they get made.  Some years they may be the only cookie we ever get around to making.  They are a lot of work, but so worth it.

Every year I dig out the candy thermometer to use.  These cookies are the only reason I even own a candy thermometer.

My dad hand chops the cherries and mixes the dough by hand.  I cheat and use a food processor and mixer.

Yummy pink goodness.  It gets chilled overnight before it can be rolled into balls and baked.  I usually stick it outside or in the garage.  It works just as well.

These cookies go fast.

 As soon as I saw it, I had no trouble picking out Aric's ornament this year.  Aric loves dinosaurs.  He likes to watch TV shows and movies about them, play with them and he is quite knowledgeable about their names.



I had a bit more trouble deciding on an ornament for Kellyn.  I was looking for something to encompass her likes of: babies, princesses, dress-up, butterflies, Mickey Mouse, penguins, elephants, puppies, horses, and cars.  Since that ornament was a bit hard to come by I let Kellyn pick out her own ornament.  She was quite fond of this elephant. 

I didn't really decorate our basement much for Christmas.  I did, however, put up a small three foot Christmas tree on top of our cat scratching post.  Classy, I know.  It it our White House Christmas tree.  I wonder how many people googling that phrase will end up here.  I have eight years worth of White House Christmas ornaments given to us by my parents.  It is fun to pull them out each year and compare them.  I look forward to the new ornament every year.

I haven't ever purchased a nativity set.  I'm still looking for that one special set, the one I will know when I see it.  Last year Kellyn was given a nativity set. 

Kellyn frequently sits in front of it playing with the people and animals.  She thinks the angel is a butterfly.  Aric on the other hand likes to mess with it and change out which character is standing on top of the barn. Mary was up there one day.

This Christmas we have been intentional about explaining to the kids the meaning of Christmas and why we give gifts.  I asked my parents to pass along a manger that we used as kids.

When the kids do a good deed or a task without complaining they get to put a piece of straw in the manger.  The manger gets filled and on Christmas morning baby Jesus is placed in the manger.  It is a good way to remind the kids daily of the reason for Christmas.

And this one is still making an appearance around the house every day:



Some days I feel like I'm racking my brain trying to find a new place to put him.

A Visit with Santa

On Monday I took the kids to the mall to get us out of the house to preserve some sanity to see Santa.  Aric asked Santa for a "monster truck" and told Santa he loved him.  Kellyn was more interested in the paper reindeer antlers Santa was giving away.  Me, well I was just thankful no one was screaming this year.

Things Heard Around Here

Me three.

Example:
Aric: I miss Pam.
Mommy: Me too.
Kellyn: Me three.

I'm not sure where Kellyn picked up "me three", but she has used it accurately several times over the past week.  It makes me laugh to hear a two year old sound so eloquent.

Naming Things

We have some difficulty when it comes to naming things.  The kids haven't caught on that they are allowed to bestow any name that they would like on their animals, fish, babies, you get the point.

Awhile ago we let the kids each pick out a fish at the pet store.  Aric wanted a black fish and Kellyn picked an orange fish with three black circles on its tail fin that look like a Mickey Mouse head.  Kellyn likes Mickey Mouse.  When we asked the kids what they wanted to name their fish Kellyn quickly gravitated towards the obvious choice of "Mickey Mouse".  Aric was a bit coy about naming his fish.  We went through lists of names with Aric from favorite movies, cartoons, books, toys, family member names, and random names trying to get him to pick one.  Aric always said, "later".  Eventually "Later" stuck either that or we realized that he had originally wanted to name the fish "Later".

It comes as no surprise, then, that this year when we, as a family, sat down to name our Elf on a Shelf, he was given the moniker "Scout".  He is a scout elf for Santa after all.  Yeah, we're pretty original around here.

Decorating for Christmas

This past weekend we decorated the house for Christmas.  It was fun to decorate the house this year, especially since Christmas last year consisted of painting, moving, and an empty house.  The kids were pretty excited to be decorating for Christmas and to see their ornaments.  While I helped the kids decorate the tree, Ryan documented everything with our camera.

Note: The following photos are unedited other than shrinking them to upload them:

We decided to put the tree upstairs this year so we can keep an eye on it.

I like how easy pre-lit trees are.  At least until the lights stop working.

Note the tree skirt in the box.  One of Ryan's aunts made it and sent it to us a few years ago.

It really was a mess and we discovered mouse nests in some of our boxes from being stored in the shed at the farm.

Cleaned up and decorated for Christmas.

Cute photo.  Too bad it's blurry.

No one wanted to smile at the camera anymore.

Aric is still cooperating and Kellyn is slowly sneaking away. 

Our tree skirt: Ryan's old Army poncho liner.  It's a tradition that we started in early marriage because we didn't have a tree skirt and couldn't afford to get one.

After these photos were taken I realized my camera really did need to go back in to be fixed.  It hasn't been the same since it was "fixed" this summer.  It isn't able to focus clearly and most of my pictures are blurry and very out of focus.  I'm hoping they get it fixed and back to me in time for Christmas.  Though, I'm not holding my breath that it will be fixed or back in time.

Change

I said "change is coming".  The change is here:

Aric's room before.

Aric's room after with a new chalkboard wall.

There are two shades of green in his room now.

Aric quit sleeping in his room.  For weeks he climbed into our bed in the middle of the night.  Even with a king size bed, Ryan and I were no longer getting enough rest.  When we began questioning Aric about why he would not stay in his room he told us he was scared of his room and wanted it to be green.  While everyone said they loved the shade of blue in Aric's room the paint was dark and I had used a flat; both of which sucked the light out of the room.

We took Aric to Home Depot and had him help us pick out some different samples of green, brought them home and had Aric pick one out that he liked.  He picked two.  We used Aric's two choices and painted an accent wall to add some depth to the room.  I knew the color of green would brighten the room considerably, but as an extra precaution I made sure the finish we bought was satin to help reflect light.  We had just enough left over chalkboard paint from downstairs to paint a small chalkboard wall in his bedroom.

In addition to the paint we ordered Aric a bookshelf like Kellyn's to replace the cheap particle board bookshelf he was currently using.  Aric's room is much brighter and he has, for the most part, spent the whole night sleeping in his own bed.  Ryan and I are very thankful for that.

ABC's

We have worked hard with Aric to teach him his ABC's; not only to sing them but to recognize the letters too.  He is quite proficient at singing the song and arranging the letters in order.  In the next step of learning to read, we began teaching him how to write letters.  I think he did pretty well on his first attempt:

Teaching him to spell will be high on my priority list.  I wouldn't want to be the mother of this person:

The one who couldn't spell funny and had it printed all over a bolt of fleece. 

Hopefully they caught the mistake somewhere along the line.

Things Heard Around Here

Mommy, gwamma me.

Translation:
Mommy, grab my feet and let go.

Every day since the swing set was installed the kids have wanted to be outside playing on it.  Kellyn, in particular, spends her time swinging.  That's all she wants to do.  She really likes it when whomever is pushing her stands in front of her, grabs her feet, pulls her forward up high and lets go.  She's a little daredevil and shrieks with delight when swinging up high.

Cookies

While Grandma was here the kids decorated Christmas sugar cookies.  I have never made or decorated sugar cookies before.  After helping and observing, I now know why.  They are tons of work, messy and don't taste that great.  If I'm going to put forth the effort to make cookies they are going to be a cookie I or someone in my family enjoys eating.

If you look closely you'll notice the bite missing from Kellyn's cookie.  Several cookies were harmed in a similar manner during the process of decorating

Aric had the most fun decorating cookies and stuck it out with Grandma until all of the cookies were decorated.

Nothing says Christmas like neon food coloring.

Definitely not magazine quality decorating, but the kids had fun.  Hopefully they realize that mommy won't be doing this again and they will have to wait on Grandma to return before they'll get to decorate cookies again.

An Early Christmas Gift

Ryan's parents came to visit last week to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  While they were here they gave the kids an early Christmas present.  It was a huge hit and I have a feeling we will be bundled up outside playing on it as much as possible.