Miss you already

My hardworking husband went into work this morning and assuming all goes well he will be home tonight around 10pm. Nothing seems to have gone well all week long so he's due for a smooth night tonight. The poor guy has to get up early again tomorrow and do it all over again. He is guessing he'll work at least 26hours over the next two days. If that weren't enough, he has to work Saturday. We're hoping it will all be done so he doesn't have to go in on Sunday too. Thanks for working so hard to support your family. We miss you and love you big time!

New blog

I wanted to let everyone know I have started a second blog. It is strictly about the adoption process. We will take you on the adoption journey with us and give you more information than you'll probably ever want to know about the process. You can check it out at www.anotherpurdum.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas, part 2

After having our family Christmas at home on Wednesday, we headed to Jons parents house for 5 days of relaxation. Unfortunately for Gram, mom and dad only get to relax because Ben becomes attached to her hip the whole time we are there! We headed to church for the Christmas Eve service. Ben did great. He loved all the singing and tried to sneak up on stage with a microphone so he could join in.

Sam revisited one of his favorite games with mom and dad, fetch. We give him a toy to keep him quiet, he plays for 5 minutes then throws it on the floor repeatedly until mom or dad get the hint that he doesn't want to play with it anymore. We actually did ok, until his bag of goldfish exploded all over his lap and the floor---sorry Pap. After church, we got into our pj's, put the kids to bed and enjoyed another tradition of watching The Christmas Story while waiting for Pap to come home and read The Night Before Christmas.

The boys modeling their Christmas jammies.

We actually slept until 8:30Christmas morning. As expected, Ben was all about opening every gift whether it was for him or not. He eventually made a nice compromise of letting everyone open their own gift, but he took the bows off for us. Sam opened one or two, but mostly wanted to play with the paper and bows. It was definitely the year of the books. Both boys got several new books and some had a stuffed animal or finger puppet to go with them. Both boys love story time and I think Sam will get a little more into it when we use the puppets.

Ben and Sam got hats from aunt Corrie and Ben got a matching scarf. Not to worry, Sam pulled his hat off as soon as the camera flashed and then giggled!

After presents, the cooking began. One of the best parts of Christmas morning is breakfast. The amount (and variety) of food is ridiculous and wonderful all at the same time. It was delicious! After letting breakfast settle, we headed to my parents house for another Christmas. My step dads extended family was there as well as both my brothers and their wife/girlfriend. It was a nice treat since we all haven't been together like that in a long while. Once again, the boys were spoiled with toys and books and everything in between.

Ben chillin' with uncle Tony

We had some more good food and then headed back to Ravenna for another tradition--White Christmas. I think that (along with Elf) is my favorite Christmas movie. We had a lazy weekend and then headed home Sunday afternoon. We're trying to get back into our normal routine while enjoying our dad time. Jon has to work New Years Eve, Day and the weekend from early morning until it gets done. Just make sure you're home for your kiss on New Years!

Sam wishing he could keep up with his big brother.

The piano was the place to be this week!

Thanks everyone, once again, for spoiling our boys. We had a great time.

Cross Point babies round 2

Cross Point church had 8 babies born between July 2008 and July 2009. We joked about how we were growing the church from the inside out and thought it was funny to look around such a small church and see so many pregnant women. When all the babies were born, we wondered who would start the next round of pregnancies and how many more babies we could have in another year. Well, round 2 has begun, but a little more unconventional this time. While the first pregnancy has been announced, 2 families have decided adoption was the way to go. Jon and I are one of those families. We decided last week, after months of debating, that we would like to add a little girl to our family and are going to start the process in the next week. Adoption is something we've talked about off and on over the years, but it was never a serious topic of discussion since we knew we wanted to have our own kids first. After a complicated pregnancy with Sam, we've decided not to try for any more kids (however, if God has a different plan for us, we will happily go along with it). We have found a local, Christian agency we want to work with and I think we have decided on a country. Once we get a few basic questions answered next week, we will confirm our country choice and get an application out. Depending on a lot of factors the process could take anywhere from 9months to a few years. We will definitely keep you posted on our progress.

In Ben news, that in no way reflects our parenting skills, he had his first major head wound today. He fell through the back of a folding chair and hit his head on a hutch. Luckily, the cut was relatively small and the bleeding stopped pretty quickly. We cleaned him up and had him checked out by a doctor. He has definitely milked his "big boo boo" today. He's had lots of kisses and a few more treats than normal. I think he's going to be just fine!

Merry Christmas, part 1

Jon and I celebrated Christmas with the kids this morning. I think we've started a new tradition by having a small family Christmas before heading to the grandparents houses. We've added a few new traditions, but are keeping the old ones too. Just like Pap does, Jon read The Night Before Christmas to the boys last night:

We woke up this morning to a tree full of presents:

Then the fun began. Wrapping paper went flying, Ben was so excited to see all the Cars themed stuff he got. I don't think Sam could keep up. Both boys got a suitcase for all of our adventures:

Its good being the big brother. Even when its not your present, it somehow becomes yours!

Mom and dad got good stuff too.

Sam being cute...nothing new.

Since we'll be traveling for the next few days, we finished our Jesse tree a couple days early. I think it was a hit.

I had to throw in a non Christmas picture. We rearranged the living room for the tree. Ben and Sam now have a little space between the furniture that Ben calls the airplane. Dad was able to sneak a picture during some brotherly airplane time.

Merry Christmas!

Cookies everywhere

Monday was cookie day. Its a Purdum women tradition to get together one day in December and bake cookies all day long. It was a slow start for the boys and I. They are both battling a runny nose and were a bit cranky when they woke up. Once we got to Prastis and they saw everyone, things got a lot better. We toned down cookie day this year. We only made 3 different kinds, but focused on sugar cookies since that is a majority favorite. Ben wanted to help cook and was extra excited to see an airplane cookie cutter.

Sam spent the day looking cute:

The beginning of the frosting process:

Too many cookies!

Drum practice during our lunch break:

We left at nap time, but I think we were off to a great start:

Kids say the best stuff, part 2

While fighting with pap over a hat:

Ben: "Thats my hat"

Pap: "No, thats my hat"

Ben: "Its my hat"

Pap: "Its my hat"

Ben: "You're killing me pap!"

Ben loves cookies and candy canes. While I was eating a cookie decorated like a candy cane:

Ben: "Is that a candy cane"

me: "Yes"

Ben: "Thats too bad"

me: "Why?"

Ben: "Its too bad for me!"

A portion of Bens prayer:

"God thank you for my bike and my bike helmet. Thank you for my butt that goes on my bike."

Game night

Saturday night was our churches annual 1 church, 3 houses game night. We headed over to Phils (now known as the other Martha) house and had a great time. We spent the majority of the night playing Family Feud and Catch Phrase. Team Purdum crushed team Calaway in Family Feud (the rest is not important)! As always, it was a blast. We can't wait for next year.

One step closer

One of our Christmas traditions is to head out to Strongsville for some dinner, get bundled up to see Santa then we drive around aimlessly looking at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. The past two years, Ben has not wanted anything to do with Santa. He's talked a good talk, but when it came time to go up and see him, Ben chickened out. We did a little better this year. It took a little bit of prodding, but Ben went up to see Santa and told him what he wants for Christmas. Of course, sitting on his lap was out of the question, but this was definitely an improvement over last year. Sam seemed intrigued by Santa, but I think it would have been pushing it if dad handed him over to Santa.

Sam didn't know what to think of all those lights!

Good morning sunshine

When ever we get Sam up in the morning, he is always happy to see us. It doesn't matter if we wake him up or if he is already awake. It could be 6am or 10am, we are always greeted with a smile.

Sam discovered he could get up on Bens bed yesterday. Its his new favorite place to be!

Worth the miss

After running the 5k in October and coming so close to my original goal of under 30minutes, I decided to run another 5k. I picked the Reindeer Run which was last Saturday. I ran with 3 other girls (one of them had never run 3 straight miles before)! I was a little worried about this race. I wasn't sure how to balance wanting to hit my goal with wanting to make sure we hit the finish line together. I've been working on my distance running and have done a few 5k's on my own and have beat my 30minute goal. As Jon said, "its one thing to know you can do it, but its another to see it in black and white" especially when you're a bit competitive!

The more I thought about it the more I wanted to focus on staying together. I told Jon on Friday night I'll be ok if I don't finish under 30minutes. I just hope we don't miss it by like 15seconds. I'd rather it be a big miss.

On race day we FROZE--BIG TIME! It was so cold and seeing people in short shorts and tank tops made us feel that much colder. They had a record number of people participate (almost 800). We started slow and stayed together. We picked up the pace with each mile and by the end, I was so glad we stayed together. There was so much encouragement between the four of us, I would have missed out on so much if I attempted to break away. Unfortunately, race results were posted today. Here was my result:

                      Over      Chip           

Name         Bib No   all      Time       Pace

Jenna Purdum   3900    531    30:15.09     9:45/M

Yep, missed it by 15seconds!

The 15seconds stings a little bit, but looking back, I think it would have been so lonely to cross the finish line with out the entire team. I'll take 15seconds any day.

Oh Jesse Tree

This year, Jon and I are really making an effort to take some of the commercialism out of Christmas for the boys. We want them to know who Santa is, and of course, Santa will leave a gift for them. More importantly, we want them to know why we celebrate Christmas. One of the ways we are doing that is with the Jesse tree. If you aren't familiar with it, its basically a countdown to Christmas, but with scriptures. Each night we read a couple Bible verses, talk about them and then Ben gets to color a corresponding ornament and "hang" it on the tree. The scriptures go through the Bible ending with the birth of Jesus on the 25th. So far Ben loves it. We do it before bed time and I think Ben made sure to ask when we are going to hang the ornament at least 20 times between dinner and bed time last night.

I love that he is getting so excited about it. Some of the other ways we are shifting our focus from presents to Jesus are reading the story of Jesus' birth over and over, we are having a family Christmas before the 25th and cutting back on the number of toys the boys get so they don't get confused when the grandparents spoil them (yes grandparents, even when you think you've toned it down, you still end up spoiling them), we are making a Birthday cake for Jesus (that worked out nicely since the letter for this month is 'B'), I haven't talked to Jon yet, but I think Ben will go to The City Mission or somewhere along those lines and make a donation for a needy kid and we just came across www.worldvisiongifts.org. World Vision is a Christian organization that tells you exactly what is needed around the world and lets you put your money to what ever use you decide. You can buy a family a goat so they can have milk, you can buy medicine, clean water, shelter, job training etc etc. I hope that Ben will understand the significance of picking out a small gift that will change someones life. I hope that we have found a happy medium between the magic (toys) of Christmas and the true meaning of Christmas.

In the mean time, we are still having lots of fun in the Purdum house:

Katie is thrilled to have found the one warm spot in the house.

Sam just can't resist the sparkle!

Brotherly love.

Big cheese.

Copy cats, part A

Prasti has been doing something with Emma for months that I love. I've been a bit intimidated by the creativity to do it with Ben. Each month I feel a little bit more like a slacker, so I sucked it up and we headed to the craft store to get some basic supplies.

Prasti and Emma take a different letter each month and do different things with it like cook something, make a diorama, go somewhere that starts with that letter etc. We started with letter A and heres what we came up with:

Ben put on his Alligator pajamas and we learned a few facts about them like they live in swamps in the south, they have claws and they use their tails to protect themselves.

Ben put on his Apron and made Apple crisp. Unfortunately, we used the wrong kind of apples and it was terrible!

We thought about people with A names like miss Ami or Mr. Alan. We also remembered that aunt starts with A and Ben has an Aunt Corrie and Aunt Prasti (I know that ones a slight stretch).

We found stickers of Air planes, Arrows, an Ax, Anchors, an Ambulance and an Arc.

We talked about the Army and the Air Force. I told him that people in the military protect our country (among other things). Ben asked me to go to the military with him. Ben learned that uncle A and Papa were in the Air Force.

We went to Applebees and had Appetizers.

We did some Arts and crafts and made an Air plane sun catcher.

We checked out several books with an A title from the library.

We learned a french word, Au revoir.

We told a modified story of Abraham and Isaac. We also learned about Akron, where mom went to school.

I think Ben had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure we'll slowly evolve on the crafts, but I think we had a good start. Thanks for the great idea Prasti!

Oh Christmas tree

We put up our Christmas tree today. Ben was really excited about putting on ornaments this year. Sam just wanted to eat them!

Remember in the last post when I said we had no intentions of going out on black Friday? Imagine my surprise when my husband suggested that we go shopping. We didn't get up at the crack of dawn and we avoided the mall so it actually wasn't too bad. We ended up finding a deal on a tv that we couldn't pass up. While we were there, channel 3 news pulled up and put Jon on the evening news. Unfortunately, we missed it, but we heard Jon looked great!

Heading out:

It was a long morning: