X-mas Blogging Vacation

I took a little time off of blogging to relax during Christmas break and relax I did! I have officially taken more naps then my kids combined- seriously. We came home from my parents house on Sunday after my 10 year high school class reunion on Saturday night (whooo-hooo night out without the kids!) We've pretty much been relaxing around the house with two trips to the children's museum and swimming at the Y sprinkled in. Tomorrow we are headed to Nick's brothers house to celebrate Christmas with his side of the family. I put my kids in bed early to ring in the New Year. Nick and I are going to celebrate with 2-litters of A&W Root beer, 3lbs of kiwi and Dill-Pickle Chips, this is sure to be a wild night!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Well Christmas was a success this year. All the fun started Christmas Eve with church, a fabulous spread of food, dancing, singing, accordian playing and Santa showing up to hand out a few gifts to wet our taste buds for the morning.

Here my mother is with the newest member of our family- Andrew.

A traditon that started well before I was even a twinkle in my parents eyes.

Squeeze box playing, singing, dancing and Santa...

The boys announcing to Santa what they really want (Geremu kept his distance).

Apparently this year Cullen really wanted a candle stick.

Opening the gifts Santa brought them.

Every family gets a picture with Santa.

Christmas morning, coming down the stairs to check out the goods left by Santa while we slept. Cullen keeps asking me if I heard Santa last night, because he didn't.

The hit of the morning was the trampoline Santa left for Cullen.

And the wood guns Pop made for the boys.

Geremu, working it on his new set of wheels.

This afternoon after nap time we went sledding at the base of the bluff. Cullen and Dad stayed home because Cullen doesn't like to sled (or slides of any sort).

Some things never change...

Seriously, never change...

Christmas Prep

Our weekend was BUSY and there is no way I could have gotten everything done without Nick's help around here. Preparing for Christmas is always so much work. I'm a little behind schedule but I felt it necessary to fit in a little swim time with the boys and a nap today.

These two are really starting to play together so well.

Cullen helped me bake while Dad took Geremu away from the house.

Since I wouldn't share the treats, Geremu found his own little way to get what he wanted.

A preview of the goodies for x-mas eve and x-mas day (everything contains chocolate).

Wrapped gifts and did wash, when I'm done writing this I hope to get the bags packed.

Cullen fell off the bathroom stool tonight and spilled a cup of water, Cullen didn't get hurt but he cried because there was water everywhere. Geremu being the protective brother he is helped Cullen out by putting the stool in a time out.

Lastly, I will end tonight with a video of Cullen writing to my parents. I asked him to read to me what he wrote- I wish I had started the video earlier, he started out tell me that Grandma wants to go to Menard's and Pop doesn't want to go then this is the rest of what I caught...

Spooning

The first month that Geremu came home he was an pretty good sleeper considering all the changes and then things took a turn. He woke-up every 15-20 minutes starting at 11pm and this would continue all night unless we brought him into our bed. I'm not so sure we should use the word woke-up because he was never totally awake just crying out in his sleep. When we brought him in our bed he slept so restless that we wouldn't fall into a deep sleep. We tried several different sleeping arrangement with the exception of putting the boys in the same bed. We were worried that Geremu's restless sleeping would bother Cullen's sleep. Nick was the one that decided to move a full bed into the boys room about mid-November and this seems to be our big break though. The boys love sleeping together and they both get good night sleeps. Geremu still seems to wake up on most nights (not every night) but now it's between 4ish and 5ish, sometimes Cullen wakes up but mostly he sleeps though it.

Here are some pictures of my world class spooners... Cullen found ear plugs and wanted to try them out. I have since hid them because he talks so much louder (if that's possible) with the ear plugs in.

Guess what we did today...

Answer: Got fingerprinted

Santa Comes to Town

Santa rides through our neighborhood every year on a float pulled behind a truck. We always hear him coming before he gets to our house. Leading his small caravan is a police car and fire truck with the sirens going and horns beeping!

Here we are all ready to run outside! We had to waited by our the front windows to see the caravan round the corner to our block because it's a bit cold outside.

Santa tossed us some goods, yummo! Looks like Mama is more excited then the boys:)
Here is a picture from earlier in the day, we decided now would be a good time to bring the porch furniture into the basement. Geremu of course was a BIG help, he loves to help around the house and no job is too big for him.

The boys went outside today to build a snow fort- Dad ended up doing most of the work.

We're Expecting

Today I started having these really weird cravings.

Perhaps it's because as of today we are now "officially waiting"!

Train Tickets???

Recently I've been finding pantiliner wrappers in random places in our house. I've just been throwing them away not really thinking about it. I've been wondering where they are coming from since I am the only girl in the house, so I decided to ask the boys about it. When I held one up to ask the boys Cullen yells, "You got a train ticket!" Like I had won something. What??? A train ticket? Needless to say Cullen has been playing with the "train tickets", decorating them with crayons, etc... Encyclopedia Brown cracks the case again, the new mystery is; What is happening to the actual pantiliner?

We brought Geremu and Cullen to the mall to see Santa. Geremu apparently is all talk. He talks big about Santa and chases any man or child with a red hat yelling, "Santa", but didn't want to talk to Santa himself. Cullen went running right up to Santa (there was no line). Geremu on the other hand ran after Cullen but as soon as Cullen jumped into his Santa's arms and Geremu got a good look at what he was running towards he stopped and started backing up. We did get one good picture of the boys and Santa. Geremu kept looking out of the corner of his eye at Santa, it was like he didn't want to turn his face to see how close he was. At one point Geremu even, "Ho, ho, ho" in Santa's face when Santa asked him what he wanted. Cullen informed Santa that he really wants a "marble race track" for Christmas. Santa told him he didn't think it was a very good idea because his little brother would put the marbles in his mouth. Cullen then replied with "I promise I will only play with it after Geremu is in bed." They go to bed at the same time. That Cullen sure is a quick little thinker, making promises to Santa.

Here is Geremu practicing his Santa act on his favorite "moose".

A few more pictures of the boys outside. Nick runs around the yard with the boys on the sled trying to get them to slide/fall off. It's all fun and games until someone ends up with a face wash!

Today was Carson's birthday so the boys had a chance to go to Chucky E. Cheese and then swimming afterwards. It was a fun day for them but they were pooped out at bed time. Here is a link to Carson's family blog to check out party pictures: http://billkateplustwo.blogspot.com/2008/12/birthday-boy_11.html

Snow Day!!!

I know a lot of people that like snow days but I honestly think teachers LOVE them more than anyone (I love my job too)! Here we are enjoying our first (and hopefully not the last) snow day of the year!

I Need Africa More than Africa Needs Me...

Tree Cutting and Candy House Decorating

So today we went to cut our own tree down, it didn't go so well. It was actually really very fun but we never found a tree we liked. They were mostly under 4' tall or they were HUGE on top and small on the bottom. It was a place we had never been before. So after looking around we packed ourselves up and went to our usual place and had immediate success.

Here are a few pictures:
When we got home we put the tree up in our house to let it thaw out. Our biggest tree mistake so far has been allowing Geremu to watch Nick water the tree. After lunch I noticed that Geremu has cleared the table, emptying two cups with a bit of juice left in them and one half full cup of milk into the tree stand, we have one well feed tree!Tonight the boys decorate the gingerbread house they got from St. Nick (We figured out that Geremu thinks Nick is St. Nick- he thanked him today for his stuff. We think it's because of the name, Geremu is pretty confused about the Santa/St. Nick thing). For those of you that have never made one of these gingerbread houses from a box kit, they are not as easy as the directions make them sound. I ended up hot gluing the gingerbread together because the frosting is not like "toothpaste consistency" as the directions describe. It seemed to take on a Tootsie Roll consistency, making it nearly impossible to spread. Good thing I had canned frosting to finish the decorating with. It will probably all be cracked and broken off by the end of the week.

Cullen was really good at decorating...

Geremu was excellent at eating the decorations...

A Visit from St. Nick

St. Nick came to our house last night and today Cullen kept asking Geremu and me if we heard St. Nick sneaking around the house because he didn't. I don't think any of us heard him, we were all so tired last night. The boys must be pretty good because St. Nick sure treated them good!

Here's a little sample of what I got to listen to all day today, (including when they were taking a bath):

Two Peas in a Pod

December 13th will mark our 6 month anniversary as a family. I can't believe that Geremu has only been with us for 6 months. I love to sit in the boys bedroom at night as they are falling asleep and listen to what they are talking and/or yelling about. Over Thanksgiving while we were at my cousins house Geremu and Cullen were sleeping in the same room but I didn't put them in the same bed. Cullen on a twin mattress on the floor and Geremu on the queen sized bed, I had planned to sleep with him when I went to bed. (At home they share a full size bed, it's a long story but this has improved all of our sleep.) I stayed in the room reading while they were falling asleep and I could hear Geremu whimpering. Before I had a chance to get up to check him Cullen had crawled out of his bed and crawled in with Geremu. I could hear Cullen whispering, "It's okay Geremu." I didn't have the heart to separate them after that so I took the mattress on the floor when I went to bed.

Here are some recent pictures of my two cuddle bugs.

On another note Cullen and Geremu could be in charge of the neighborhood watch program. They love to check out the neighbors yards and tell me what is new in them. Today they found a cage and wanted to go ask the neighbor what kind of pet he has, I actually think it was a trap not a cage.
When Dad is away the boys and me like to play a game we call Hot Dog. This is where someone is the hot dog and they wrap up in a blanket better known as the bun and I drag them around the house. It provides hours of entertainment. Here the boys are preparing to be the hot dogs (sometimes there are multiple hot dogs in a bun).

Here the boys are pulling or attempting to pull Mama Hot Dog.