'twas the week before christmas...

happy new year!!! i am really ready to write about the new year and the last (few??) weeks before amelia's birth, but i must finish up my christmas posting first. so this is my attempt to consolidate our various christmas celebrations with family into two posts.... we'll see how i do!

the week or so before christmas, the kids awoke from their nap one day to find a package delivered from my uncle lloyd and aunt susan. though we rarely get to see them, they love to send the kids presents... and their gifts are always great! caroline loved her sandwich making set and other food for her kitchen! my favorite was the very realistic-looking peanut butter and jelly slabs for the bread! :) i tried to get our little cook to look at the camera, but she was too busy slicing that bread just right! ethan was overjoyed by the set of wooden trains he opened. i honestly was a little worried that he wouldn't care about them after grandma's amazing gift the week before, but ethan immediately asked me to set up his wooden track, and this was where he could be found for the next few days...


my boy is definitely a lover of all things train! thank you, uncle lloyd and aunt susan, for all the fun things you sent the kids!

*******

the saturday before christmas, we celebrated with my dad, joy, and grandma since my dad & joy would be out of town on christmas. as soon as we arrived at their house, caroline became enamored with joy's "hallmark happy tappers", these cute little snow globe-like things connect together and dance to various christmas songs. i can't believe she didn't run the batteries down! joy sent us home with our very own set of happy tappers, and ethan has since figured out that you can press all four buttons at the same time, and they all sing their own songs simultanously.... not sure if that counts as a joyful noise, but it is definitely noise!

we enjoyed some wonderful time with my family, and joy experimented with a bison roast for lunch. have you ever tried bison? it had a great flavor! (sorry, fellow harding alums!!!) after lunch, we began the avalanche of presents. ethan enjoyed handing out our presents, as you can see below.


caroline loved her baby doll from my grandma that came with 4,000 outfits, a baby carrier, and backpack. and grandma attests to the fact that she didn't know the baby was electronic... it's nifty alright. when you feed her the bottle, she shakes her head and cries... then you put her teddy bear on her chest, and she laughs. THEN she will take the bottle. brian's reaction was, "great! something else in our house that cries!" :) my strategy would be to give her the teddy bear first and then give her the bottle, but sweet mommy caroline really insists on giving her that bottle (with no teddy bear) over and over and over. so we hear crying over and over and over. and if the doll doesn't have clearance to move her head back and forth, her neck makes this horribly painful-sounding clicking noise. poor doll. she's gonna need physical therapy soon. i know, i should have never put in the batteries. but it was christmas! so when the batteries die, i think we'll just be out of batteries. and then my sweet step-mom made the innocent comment, "that baby needs a pocket for her bottle!" because caroline was looking for a place to put her bottle. well, caroline just figured out that the bottle fits perfectly down the baby's pants, pocket or no pocket. so i have yet to see that doll with its pants pulled up. and as you can see to the right, a clicking neck is the least of this doll's worries... don't worry. we will practice how you hold a baby before she gets her hands on real baby amelia. i think we'll start that tomorrow! the baby doll really is a cute one, and caroline loves it. unfortunately, we have somehow already misplaced the bottle. oops! :)

the kids' big surprise of the day were their BIKES! ethan has been talking about wanting a bike for so long, and we have never even had a tricycle for him to ride. so you can imagine how excited he was to see the garage door open and to find a bike with a big red bow on it! i was really expecting some shrieks and squeals, and maybe even some jumping up and down, but he actually just stared at the garage until we said, "look, ethan! someone left a bike for you in papa's garage!" and in the persona of a 78 year old man who just heard the news that his neighbor was moving to alaska, ethan said, "hmm!" i was shocked. :) don't get me wrong, he was excited. brian's take on it is that he was really intrigued by the garage door opening automatically. (ours doesn't do that, nor do we really open the door much in the first place.) so the garage door kind of momentarily stole the show from the big unveiling of the bikes. but he still was excited and thankful. as we expected, it's going to take some time for him to get used to riding a "big boy bike". he can do pretty well on caroline's (adorable!!) tricycle, but he has a hard time getting started with his pedals. he will try it for a few minutes and has really shown improvement on doing it himself, but he gets frustrated pretty easily with it. any tips on teaching a child to pedal the right way?? caroline's little tricycle is just the cutest thing. she likes to ride it fred flintstone style, but i think she'll eventually get the hang of the pedals too. you can see her sporting the extra helmet in papa's garage. i think it's 55 sizes too big, and she was pretty top heavy with it on (even with her big noggin!), but since ethan had on a helmet, she needed one too. and she was so funny this day. everytime ethan got off his bike, she got off hers. and everytime he got back on, she started riding again too. ethan has no idea how much she watches his every move. and here are papa and grandma joy with the happy bikers! (sorry for the funky flash effects... i just loved the kids' faces on this one and had to include it.)


we had a wonderful christmas before christmas with my dad. we are thankful to live in the same town with them. we always say that we need to get together more, so i really hope that happens in 2009!!

*******
three days later, we all loaded in the van for a day trip to see brian's aunts, uncles, & grandparents. we began doing a day trip last year vs. spending christmas with them due to a few reasons, one being that we were growing out of places to stay with all the kids! so it was a quick but wonderful visit with all the crazy family. the kids were wonderful despite the busyness of the day, and all three cousins took a nice long nap while we were there!!! (which meant that kristie and i got to have some sister-time shopping!!) karina gave all the dogs a run for their money, and ethan was content to play with his cars the majority of the time (thank you, hot wheels!!!). i don't really know what caroline was up to during a lot of our visit, but she wasn't fussing or getting into things, so that's enough for me. :) here's a "girl picture" minus grandmommy (affectionately known as "queenie"!). brian's aunts are so precious and hilarious. we all find ourselves laughing the entire time we're there, and i am so thankful to have married into this family.


though we don't see them too often, ethan warms up quickly to everyone each time we visit. he especially loves uncle tom's teasing (which is a good thing because it's what uncle tom does best!).


i love this picture of brian with his aunt pam.


when i took that picture, i remembered a picture from our wedding slideshow of a very much younger brian and pam... and i just have to throw it in here for nostalgia's sake...


ok... i think caroline's ready to open some more presents! (she's gettin' the hang of this, don'tcha think?)


the aunts and uncles had way too much fun shopping for the kids this year!! ethan loved his new guitar & police car, and caroline knew just what to do with her aquadoodle and cash register. the kids also got a HUGE playhouse that you build and then color! we are saving that one for a cold, rainy, post-amelia's birth, daddy's home kind of day. brian was so wonderful to be down on the floor with the kids, opening up all the crazy packages, while i sat comfortably on the couch snapping pictures.



our kids usually end up LOVING each others' presents, which is a plus to having children close together! ethan has had just as much fun scanning items and ringing up groceries on caroline's cash register as she has had jamming with his guitar. you'd think this would mean that we could cut down on toys at our house since they can share them all........... but ummmmm, we haven't even made it to christmas morning yet!

here is brian's grandmommy with her photo clock that i put together. i found these clocks back in october and snatched them up for all the great-grandparents. they were all so thrilled to see those cute little faces in place of all the numbers! :) i think the clocks were a hit!


and i have to include this picture... brian's grandmother has suffered a few falls from bending over, so her daughters have placed signs around her house to remind her to not bend over. this one especially made me smile, considering that i do everything i can to avoid bending over these days!


it was a huge blessing to spend the day with brian's family. i'm guessing we'll be making another trip over there sometime in february, Lord-willing, so they can meet baby amelia.

alrighty, more christmas fun to come!!