Birthday girl

Our baby girl turned 2 today.  She's so little so its hard to think of her as a big girl.  Especially since half her closet is full of 12 month clothes!  

We had a quiet celebration.  We had sloppy joes for lunch, one of her many favorites.  Ben and I made a chocolate cake.  The kids also got a cupcake baking kit for Christmas (that they have been asking to use about every 5 minutes) so we had some mini cupcakes too.  Ellie sampled both and gave her approval.  

Our big girl blew out the candle all by herself!

A new skirt from aunt Corrie and shoes from Gram.  Both had to be tried on the minute they were opened!

Ellie pushing her new baby in her new shopping cart wearing some new (girly) clothes.  I think she had a good birthday.

Happy birthday baby girl!  And I have to mention Jon who did her hair all by himself for the first time ever.  Great job baby!

Christmas +

We've had a mostly relaxing couple days.  Zach recovered beautifully from his eye surgery. All the wrapping and shopping was done a week before Christmas. Gram and Jon got the grocery shopping done early.  That left us to relax at home and enjoy each other.  

After a long break from the Wii, Sam got to play a game and Ellie "helped."

Dad got to practice his drumming:

Jon kept the reading tradition alive on Christmas Eve and read, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the kids (in their Christmas jammies).  He also read the story of Jesus' birth.  

Ellie got a sneak peak at the story:

After lots of presents, our monster breakfast and some family time, Sam surprised us by writing his name for us for the first time and confirmed he was a lefty.  

We are slowly getting back to normal.  Ellie had her check up today.  She has officially broke the 20lb mark.  She weighed in at 21lbs 11oz.  She still isn't back on the chart, but she's moved a little closer to it, so the doctor isn't worried.  She is 31.5" (5th %).  Aside from her speech, she is right where she needs to be.  We are still working with Help Me Grow and are seeing some progress.  She'll be chatting up her brothers in no time!

Christmas Sunday

The kids did their Christmas program at church today.  No one put their finger up their nose (Sam) so it was a success.  Here are a couple of the songs:

We attempted a photo shoot after church.  It could have gone better.

This was the highlight of the group shots.  Not terrible, but we had the potential for several great shots.  Its usually one of the older kids (that know better) that look away at the last second.  Merry Christmas!

Big, brave boy

Zach had his surgery this morning to pop open his tear duct.  He did amazing!  Not only am I impressed with him, but I'm really impressed with the Cleveland Clinic.  We met a lot of really nice and helpful people today.  They were all wonderful with Zach and did a great job of answering our questions.  At one point we had his doctor, nurse, surgical nurse and anesthesiologist in his room going over the game plan right in front of us so we were confident everyone was on the same page and could get any last minute questions answered.   

He was given some "happy juice" by the anesthesiologist which helped relax him.  I was next to him on the bed and could see it kick in.  His eyes drooped, his tongue was hanging out (kind of limp and drooling, not fun hanging like in these pictures!).  He couldn't sit up straight and he was very giggly.  It was hilarious.  I feel kind of bad I found "drunk" Zach so funny!

I got to walk him (and his giraffe) back to the surgical room, put him on the bed and stay with him until he fell asleep.  They checked both eyes.  The right was clear, but the left was very blocked.  He had a lot of congestion in his nose so they had to leave a stent in his duct which will stay there for about 2 months--assuming it doesn't pop out on its own!  The procedure only took about 5 minutes.  He was away from us for about a half hour.

We were in recovery with him before he woke up.  He did not wake up happy.  We were warned that he could experience screaming, tremors, confusion and some other random symptoms until he completely woke up.  He wasn't that bad, but he was clearly upset and did a little screaming.  They got him some juice and graham crackers which helped calm him down.  It took close to 2 hours (and lunch) for him to get back to his sweet self.  He might have some bloody tears for a day or two and his nose has been pretty consistently bleeding.  Other than that you would never know he had surgery this morning.

Singing time

Sams school had a Christmas party/concert over the weekend.  When Ben was in school, they had the program during the school day so I got to see it.  This time, since babies would be sleeping, Jon got to go and video tape the performance for me.  Sam did a great job.  He made it through all seven songs without putting his finger up his nose---thats a first!  See the girl crying on the right?  She cried through all. 7. songs.

Sam stayed focused for the first 3 or 4 songs.  Then Sam and his friend Sammy (in the blue stripes) entertained each other with their antlers, spinning around and anything else they could think of...except singing!

All the extra fun wore them out.

In each concert they host, they ask all alum to come up and sing the last song.  Ben did a great job up there as did Hannah (the girl in the green) aka Sams dream girl!

"Wordless" Wednesday: Wrapping for mental health services

2hrs, 40ish presents wrapped, lots of chocolate consumed!

Standing

Yep...hes standing!

Santa

Saturday night was Santa night.  Just like every year (for the past 11 years), we went out to dinner, walked the lights at my old development and ooed and ahhed over other Christmas lights.  

When it came time to see Santa, Sam didn't seem too excited to talk to him.  However, the minute we got up there he started telling him what was on his wish list.  He wasn't even on his lap yet.  Ben also did a great job telling him what he wanted. Ellie just stared and Zach wasn't overly thrilled.  The best part was when we left, Santa told the boys that the best gift of all is Jesus.  I'm so excited he said that and so impressed he had the guts to say it.  I can imagine it not going over well with some parents. 

Of course, the minute I started taking pictures the battery light started flashing.  I took what I could get and didn't spend a lot of time trying to get that one great shot. Heres what we got:

After

After Ballet class (see last post) we got down to business finishing the great room swap.  The kids have been in their new room for 7 nights.  The first night Zach cried for 45 minutes, 30 minutes the second night and maybe a minute the third night.  Ellie didn't have any negative reactions to the swap.  She is thrilled to have a bunch of toys in the room.  Three nights, Zach has slept through the night.  The nights that he woke up, I nursed him and he went right back to sleep.  Well, their was the one night that he and Ellie had a dada war for 10 minutes before falling back asleep.  Zach says dada then Ellie says dada.  They go back and forth getting louder and louder until one gives up. Its extra cute at 3am!

We decided on a neutral color for the room.  I was originally thinking green, but Corrie reminded me that soon enough we'll have a pink and blue comforter, toys etc and it might be nice to have something basic on the walls.   Jon did a great job getting things hung.  The room is done and I think it looks great.    

Ben and Sam won the train table and the shelving unit that we previously had in the play room.  This is their new corner.

We turned Ellies old room into the guest/play room.  Along with a bed, the kids have their table, easel and play kitchen in there.  We need to touch up some paint in the boys room and play room, but other than that, I think we are finally done remodeling the second floor.  Thank goodness!

Ballerina

I've done a terrible job on the blog this past week so I hope to do some catching up today.  The past few weeks have flown by.  Between Bible study, cub scouts, "man dates", room changing, Christmas shopping, girls nights, Santa etc. It feels like we haven't had much time to just sit down and relax.  You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to Friday aka the start of Jons vacation.  

Prasti is someone else who knows what its like to not sit down.  With Aarons crazy December work schedule, she is left with no car and 4 kids by herself the majority of the day.  I took Emma to her ballet class yesterday.  Can you imagine a class full of little 1st graders in tights, buns and ballet shoes bouncing around a room?  Talk about cute overload!  Emma was awesome.  She was very focused on her moves, but looked like she was having a great time.  As cool as it was to see her dance, it was great to have a few minutes to chat with her in the car.  I got an earful about how she is going to live in the rain forest someday and help the animals, what Ty is getting her for Christmas, dancing with her best buddy, Layla, her favorite colors (sorry Prasti, brown is still on the list), her bag that her mom made and on and on.  You would never know class was less than a 5 minute away drive based on all the topics we covered.  I had a great time with my beautiful niece and can't wait for Ellie to be old enough to start ballet!

Could've been worse

Jon spent Saturday painting the new nursery and we spent Sunday rearranging furniture in 3 rooms, cleaning dust from the drywall repair, mopping, building shelves, rearranging closets and getting 2 babies ready for a new room.  They both seemed to like the room.  We all played in there, listened to music and spent plenty of time exploring.  When it was time for bed, I was expecting a complete melt down from both babies.  Ellie went in her crib and said, "night night".  Zach started screaming and continued to scream for 45minutes.  Ellie never made a peep.  
Zach still wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse. He woke up at 2am.  Ellie woke up when I walked in.  She stood up to see what was happening, but laid back down after a minute or two.  She didn't go back to sleep, but she was quiet.  When I put Zach back down, he cried for about 5-10minutes, but was back asleep until 7:55am!!!  You have no idea how amazing that is.  The main reason I was so worried about this arrangement is because Ellie is such a lite sleeper.  She wakes up when Jon is getting ready for work at the crack of dawn (like 6am).  Every now and then she'll fall back asleep, but it usually ends up with her screaming bloody murder until we get her up.  Jon made a white noise cd and put that on repeat all night for them.  I think that made the difference for Ellie.  That is my new favorite cd!  
We still have a few things to hang and an extra bar to put up in the closet.  Once that stuff is done, I'll post some pictures. 
It was nice to be able to talk normally in our room and not have to watch out for creaky floor boards, but it was kind of sad to see an empty pack and play in our room.  We are keeping one in our room for afternoon naps.  Ellie will only sleep for an hour or two, but Zach will sleep for 3+hours. Until they even out a bit, I think that will be a good plan.
Those first 45minutes were awful, but overall, I think they did a great job!

Before

Way back when we hung a picture on the wall in what was our bedroom.  One day it fell off and left a hole slightly bigger than what was originally there.  I put a new hole in the wall, hung the picture back up and went on our way. Then one day, not too long ago, the picture fell again. This time it left a slightly larger hole and I was instructed not to hang the picture back up again.  

We (Jon) are talking about finally getting Zach out of our room and into a room with Ellie.  I didn't want to move them until the walls were fixed and painted.  That was all it took to motivate Jon.  He got his dad to come over on Saturday and lend some expertise in drywall.  Ben was the official photographer and has been waiting for the pictures he took to be put on the blog.  Even though the room isn't done, I'll at least do the before pictures:

Making the hole and a lot of dust:

Realizing we need to insulate the wall because we could see through the chimney bricks to the outside--probably why the wall wasn't holding up in the first place:

 The finished hole:

The hole is patched and has been sanded and repatched a few times.  We are going to get some paint and hopefully finish the room this weekend.  It will be nice to have our room to ourselves, but the thought of Ellie and Zach in a room together scares me just a bit!  After pics to come...

Play time

Ben: Mommy, I love Zach and Ellie so much.  

Me: What about Sam?

Ben: He's ok too.

Reindeer run

We spent Saturday morning running around Lakewood for our 3rd Reindeer run.  Corrie was sick this year, but Jon was nice enough to fill in and be a walker with mom.  

Ben has been wanting to run a race (he just wants a medal).  He was willing to settle for a t shirt instead.  We figured this would be a good race for him.  This is considered a fun run by about 90% of the runners.  We took him out running several times.  He was up to 2 miles walking and running and knew the race would be a little longer, but he said he was ready for the challenge....He was wrong!  Ben and I were running with a friend and his kids.  Jon, Gram and the rest of the kids were walking.  We weren't even half mile in when Ben pooped out.  I was practically dragging him.  He wanted to walk (slowly), he was holding his side and complaining.  I knew this wouldn't work so I called Gram and sent Ben to be a walker with them.

I lost part of the group and ended up finishing the race with an 11 year old.  He wanted to do some walking so we were a bit slower than I expected, but I had a lot of fun seeing what I have to look forward to with Ben.  He and Tyler are a lot alike.  He did manage to sprint over the finish line:

That wore him out though:

Gram got antlers for her and the boys.  Ellie wanted a turn with them:

Everyone crossed the finish line and had a good time.  Only 360 days until next years run!