tis the season

With Christmas quickly approaching we have been making cookies way more often than normal.  Each time we make cookies Eli can’t wait for the part when he gets to lick the mixers.  And each time Lucy points and “asks” for a mixer, but when I hand it to her she is totally turned off and won’t eat it.  She prefers to wait till they are in cookie dough balls.  I guess it is a texture/visual thing.  Anyway, last night we were making a batch and when it came to mixer licking, she was ALL in.  It was cute and they had a blast.  What’s not to love, they get to “help” and eat sugary goodness 🙂  The other excitement during our cooking was that Eli decided to sample flour.  He is always wanting to taste the different ingredients and sometimes he doesn’t like to wait around for me to answer when he asks me “Can I have this?”  So, in a matter of seconds he grabbed a big handful of flour and shoved it in his mouth getting most of it on his face and everyway below his mouth.  Good times, great memories.

new found friend

Over the past few months there have been a few occasions when Eli and Lucy actually play together.  Not just next to each other, but both of them playing a game together.  It is fun for Lucy to reach an age where she can interact with Eli and to see Eli realize that he has someone to play with besides mommy and daddy.  On the day these pictures were taken they decided to clean out a cabinet and hide in it.

bath time

Our kiddos sure do know how to have fun in the bath.  It is fun to watch them most of the time, although I must admit I get a little annoyed with all the splashing coming out of the tub.  But anyway, the older Lucy gets the more fun they both have in the bath.  Here is just one night of many that I snapped a few pictures of.

ALL.THE.TIME

Okay, so not all the time, but a lot lately.  Lately Lucy has been at my feet whining way too often.  I will admit it has gotten better.  We assume it is because of the like 20 teeth she cut at one time, but I know it is also just her age to some extent and her personality, too, I suppose.  For whatever reason it makes me crazy.  And even though it makes me crazy, I know that one day I will miss her being this age and will miss the fun and not so fun moments.  I should feel blessed that she wants me to love on her so often, right?  Anyway, for memory sake I took a picture so I could document it. How am I suppose to resist this face!  

Christmas with the Abbotts

Sunday was our Christmas with my oldest brother and his family and my Aunt.  My middle brother was there, too, but we will see him again for the “real” Christmas. (whatever that means, I think you get my point)  We all get the little kids a present and then the adults bring one gift each and exchange them in a game of dirty Santa.  It was a good day, but you could tell the kiddos had eaten goodies, slept less than usual and gotten a few toys.  They gradually got a little whinier.  Eli had gone 2 days without a nap, by his own choosing we put him down both days and he just laid there, and I was determined to get him down for a nap that day and then put him to bed at 6:30 or 6:45ish to help him get caught up on sleep.  We have done bed early the past 2 nights and I think he has made up for lost sleep!  Yeah for sleep! Back to our gift exchange.  Lucy got a pack-n-play for her babies, a carrier and new baby doll.  She LOVED it.  She is all girl.  She immediately wanted the baby out of the package and once I had the pack-n-play set up she was all over that and the carrier. She also got pretend 4 scoop ice cream and a “little people” girl on a motorcycle.  Eli got a cool jeep, truck and a cool electronic game for learning the abcs, 123s and other things.  Thanks for a great weekend.  We love you all.

Sil-WEE

It’s funny how you can say something many times during the day and not even notice.  It’s funny how children can make it more obvious to you that you say certain things so often 🙂  Apparently we say silly all the time.  Example:  Eli might try and use his spoon with his drink, instead of scolding we might say “Silly, we don’t use our spoons in our drinks!”  You get the picture.  Well, I guess it’s been a few weeks now, but he says it all the time.  He puts a big emphasis on the 2nd syllable, so it sounds like sil-WEE.  Precious……

practicing her skillz

So this picture took place yesterday morning.  I had just finished changing Lucy’s diaper and walked back to the kitchen.  I turned around and found Lucy sitting on the floor with a diaper and her baby trying to figure out how to get the dern thing on her baby.  It was really sweet.  And when she saw that I was taking her picture she made sure to ham it up a bit with a big grin.  

Sat at the Rivermarket

So I mentioned in the previous post that my brother was in town for our Christmas with Mema and such.  My brother, Todd, his wife, Kari and their 3 kids, Sydney, Will and Drew came in Friday night, as well as my other brother, Jeff.  So, Sat we hung out and went for a ride on the trolley from NLR over to the LR side.  All the guys headed to the cool play area and the girls went to the booths that are up on Saturdays.  Sydney and I got ourselves new rings and she surprised me with some earrings as a Christmas present.  She is very thoughtful.  We had a great time, but it was quite chilly, so there were no complaints when we headed back to our cars to head home for heat and naps!

Our first round of many Christmas celebrations!

We always celebrate Christmas early with my brother, his family, my Mema, aunt, cousins and their kiddos.  This way we can still be together and spend Christmas Eve and day with our little families and parents and in laws……..does that make sense?  We used to spend Christmas Day together, but since almost all of the cousins are married adding several more families to visit, we have moved it up a little to accommodate everyone.  Anyway, we have been meeting at my parents the past few years.  We have a potluck, sing karaoke, eat yummy sweets and finish off the night with a visit from Santa.  After he leaves we exchange a few gifts and then put our very tired children to bed!!!  It is always a good time.  I love hanging out with my cousins and we don’t get to do it very often these days.

Eli is 3!

Eli turned 3 on Nov 30.  We celebrated with a birthday party the next Sat, Dec 6.  Lucy was dedicated that morning, then we came home for lunch and naps.  After naps we switched in to party mode.  We had most of both sides of our immediate family here, a neighbor and our close friends Wilson and Campbell.  I so love going to parties for other kids, but I haven’t been brave enough to do a big one for Eli yet.  I figure I’ve got a few to go 🙂  Anyway, when I asked Eli what kind of party he would like he told me “wittle imsteims”.  With that being the theme we made conductor sticks like Leo and had little einstien cupcakes.  We colored, painted, ate hotdogs & cupcakes, played and played and then we all crashed.  It was lots of fun.  It went pretty darn smooth, there were no major meltdowns or fights, I never felt stressed or behind on what I wanted to be doing and there was plenty of food to go around.  Thank you to everyone for helping us celebrate and a special thank you to my sil Kari who helped keep me on schedule 🙂