Have You Ever Had One Of These Moments?

This photo was taken just prior to opening Christmas presents at home. (The first of our three Christmases.)

I LOVE this picture because it so accurately portrays our life. No matter what Mommy and Daddy smile! The boys may......have an explosive diaper, two year old tantrum, scream with belly aches, wake in the middle of the night for the 5th time, throw up all over the back seat, etc. AND STILL we SMILE!

This evening I had one of these moments. Lucky, Rolly and I were with a friend and her daughter at a hands-on toy boutique. It was time to go. Lucky did not want to go.

I said would you like Mommy to carry you or would you like to walk? *Mind you I was carrying 22 lb. Rolly in my arms too.*

Lucky cried and lay on the floor at this question.
So what did I do?
I posed the question 3 more times....and Lucky threw himself on the floor again and again.

Then I decided to tell him I was leaving. As I took my last step out of the store I looked at my friend and said "I hope this works." And guess what? It actually did!

We made it. No crazy outbursts (on mommy's end) and smile firmly, if not plastered, in place.

Ever have one of these moments?

Christmas At Home

"Merry Christmas to God!"

We want to be able to start Christmas traditions of our own, which isn't so easy while traveling. So today we celebrated Christmas at home. It was really nice. We ate breakfast together (something we almost never do on Sundays before church). We went to church together, came home to my first-ever, home-cooked Christmas meal (that I prepared with Pongo's help-It turned out really well!) Then everyone took a nap before we had "Kissmiss."

We read the Christmas story to the boys and talked about the reason we give gifts at Christmastime. Jesus was God's gift to the world, the best and most important gift. We give gifts to everyone we love, just like God gave his son, Jesus, as a gift to the whole world because He loves them. At this point in our talk, Lucky ran over to the tree and proclaimed "PRESENTS!" Pongo and I looked at each other and shrugged, we tried. So the boys opened gift after gift. When we were all done Pongo asked Lucky why we opened gifts and Lucky said "Because of Jesus!" So he really was listening.

At dinner later Lucky very sweetly began to tell everyone at the the table "Merry Kissmiss!" Pongo looked at Lucky and said, "Merry Christmas to you too!" Lucky said, "No! Merry Kissmiss to God!" Now if that isn't what Christmas is about I don't know what is. Merry Christmas to God-indeed.

So This Is Christmas

I can't get the lyrics, "So this is Christmas, What have you done? Another year over. And a new one just begun." out of my head. What have I done? Well.... I think the better question here is what have I not done? (except keep up with my blog) To say the LEAST we have been busy. Everyday is jam-packed with activity. So to get you up to speed...


Thanksgiving- We drove 7.5 hours to visit my mom and family (FYI: they only live 4.5 hours away-I suppose I don't have to tell you that driving with two little men is no fun at all). Then we went to see Pongo's parents. Thankfully they live sort-of on the way back home, which helped break up the trip some....still driving=no fun!

When we finally got home I had to marathon clean my house. Packing=disaster area. Unpacking=Even BIGGER disaster area.

The following weekend Pongo's parents visited. They helped fix problems with both our washer and dryer that we totally wouldn't have known how to fix otherwise. Poppy (Pongo's dad) helped put up the Christmas lights on the house too. Mimi (Pongo's mom) went to a Christmas Brunch with Rolly and me at the area country club. It was nice.

In our "spare" time Pongo and I have been members of a YFL team at the YMCA (get the "Y" part now? It's set up like football with professional football team names, playoffs, and super bowl). Anyway we competed and when I say competed I mean, we tried to completely obliterate the other teams. In fact, there was one team that was so completely die-hard that we had to stay at the gym until it closed on the last day to ensure victory during the playoffs. Come to find out, one of that team's members is actually handicapped. I felt bad about trying to annihilate them, but that didn't stop us. We made it to the super bowl, and WON! Not that I'm at all competitive. :)


We had to crazy rush around on Monday-driving at ridiculously high speeds (literally and figuratively) to make it to our Christmas Pictures appointment. We made it and successfully mailed cards out on Tuesday. Most of you should have received them by now.


Every weekend in December we've had a Christmas party/event to attend. So yes...we are busy.

The boys are doing well. Rolly is rolling all around, talking up a storm. At Rolly's 6 month check up on Tuesday we discovered that he is still in the 90th percentile for weight and 75%ile for height. So he's still a bit chunky for his height but not too disporportionately so. He says the following letter sounds: l, g, m, b and just today started with d. He also does this really funny thing when you ask him questions....he says "oh" real loud. It's pretty funny. Of course he's still teething. And since he's teething has a cold. His 3rd tooth is nearly, officially in. I'll keep you posted. (I know you'll be on the edge of your seat until that announcement!) He's sitting pretty well, but gets a little over excited still. He stands constantly holding on to my hands. Overall he's doing well.


Lucky is a ham-plain and simple. His vocabulary is off the charts. This week he used the following words correctly in sentences: underneath, backwards, upside down. Impressed? Me too! As far as Santa goes he has no idea what's up with the guy in red suit, he just says, "Mommy, Look at that man with the long hairs!" when we see him.

So this is Christmas-or rather this is the lead in to Christmas.


Here's a few pictures from lunch with Santa yesterday. It was fun, even though we don't know who Santa is.


This is the only shot that I got. Lucky very quickly decided holding his brother's hand was not worth being so close to the man with lots of hairs.

This is Lucky's first attempt to talk to Santa. He came up to Santa's leg then walked about 5 feet away from him and shouted. "I like toys, Santa!"

So Lucky decorated his cookie like he was supposed to, then proceeded to eat a spoonful of icing before I could snatch it away. He now thinks that all parties are excuses to eat cookies. He said tonight when we told him we were going to church for a Christmas party, "We go to church and eat cookies, Mommy?"

Not So Friendly Friendship Bread

So you all know that one of Lucky's favorite things to do with Mommy is cook. So to that end our friend Abby gave us a fabulous cooking project: Amish Friendship Bread. Sounds cool, doesn't it? Well it certainly is. It takes 10 days to make, in which you receive a starter batter kit from a friend, then proceed to squish the batter for several days, add random ingredients, and then make a huge batch to share and finally make bread with your left overs. Still sounds fun, right?

Well...my little Lucky was rather grumpy on bread making day. He repeatedly grumped, crying alternately about filling tablespoons to exactness, versus dumping ingredients in randomly. It was a challenge, but 2 loaves of friendship bread resulted. And it was quite tasty. So we have passed along the goods and hope that our friends enjoy it too, minus the grumps!

We did manage to have several happy moments as seen in this video that is taking way too long to load. (I'll try again tomorrow!)

Little Men in the Oldest City

In honor of Veteran's Day my friend Abby and I ventured out of our comfort zone with the two boys and into the Oldest City for some good old fashioned fun. We walked through the shops, ate a fabulous Cuban lunch, and toured the city by train.

"You mean trolly?"

"No! Train!"

"But there are no trains...."

"There are to a very determined 2 year old who so persistently, and sweetly asked to go on a train ride that Abby and I could do nothing, but comply even after we learned that the train ride was an hour and a half and cost $17 for adults!"

It made for an extra long day, but it was great fun. I'm so glad we went.

Lasagna!

Lucky has an aversion to textures and messy hands, so what better way to ease his discomfort than to dig our hands right in? We had a minor meltdown when Lucky learned he couldn't eat the cottage cheese mixture (because of the raw egg), but a quick snack of yogurt fixed that. The lasagna turned out great, my Lucky is one great cook.

Sweet Slinging!

See my sweet little Rolly? Well, a few minutes ago he did not look this sweet. This poor little guy has 2 teeth and is working on the 3rd and 4th! After quite a painful cry Rolly fell into a restful sleep on Mommy. Maybe he'll feel better after his nap. Regardless, tomorrow we will go to the doctor to see if all this teething has caused another ear infection. I sure hope not!

Orange You Glad It's Washable?

I've got to be honest-I've never really understood those "Orange you glad" jokes, but it seemed appropriate. What happened? Well.... This morning at bible study one of the women brought in oranges from her tree and Lucky got one to take home. I could see him picking at it in his car seat on the way home but didn't think he could really get to it. Umm...apparently I underestimated the abilities of a hungry 2 year old. Now I get to wash a car seat, shirt, pants, hands and face. :)

Eklekton Day!

In case anyone was wondering Eklekton Day is Lucky's version of Election Day. Does he have any idea of the ramifications of this day? Of course not! But he did make a cute little firecracker poster that says, "In God We Trust." That statement is never more true than when our country hangs in the balance. So let's all remember In God We Trust-yes we do!

What Lucky does know is how to play and play he did today. He played with friends while Mommy worked out, then played at the park with more friends, ate lunch at the park, played more at the park, and then proceeded to play in his bed for about an hour and a half, got out of bed (while Mommy showered) and played with his firetruck (when Mommy found him he said he had to go pee-pee on the potty), played in the bathroom while saying he needed to go stinky too (which he did not), played in bed for another 30 minutes before Mommy went in and declared naptime (I mean playtime) to be over. Tonight there will be no more playing in bed just sleeping-and sleeping at 7 pm at that!

Happy Halloween!

This week has been full of Halloween fun. We went to a Halloween party at the library on Monday, another one at the gym for preschoolers on Thursday, and finally our church’s trunk party on Friday. In the mean time I managed to squeeze in enough time to make Rolly’s costume (just barely.) As it turns out making a Dalmatian costume is not super fast since it is covered in spots, (Rolly’s took me about 8 hours), but isn’t he just the cutest! Catch a glimpse of little firefighter and dalmation pup.

Chomp, Chomp!

Earlier this week Rolly turned 5 months old. The time has flown by. He can sleep through the night, take long naps, sit up, roll over, smile and NOW chomp! He has 2 teeth. He got his first one October 23 and second one October 31. I am absolutely unable to picture these teeth since his hands are constantly in his mouth. Check out his super cuteness. We are so thankful for our Rolly boy!

What A Difference A Day Makes

Yesterday the boys played outside wearing this:





Today they wore this:





Despite the huge change in weather, we've been enjoying our outside playtime. Here's a few pictures of Rolly sitting up all by himself. It's not perfect, but pretty good for almost 5 months. What a big boy!

And here's Lucky being his cute, playful self. What's not to love about boys playing in the fall?

Firefighter Storytime

So after much searching we finally found a storytime in the community that we like. We went to 3 different locations before settling on the one we go to now, and I really like it, so do the boys. Firefighters come to read several stories, show their firetruck and equipment, and then the kids do a craft. The lady in charge is a hoot. She says it gets the week off to a great start with a little "firefighter eye-candy." (FYI: she's about 65 years old and these are mostly young, single firefighters! Too funny!)

Anyway...today we read some Halloween books, made a spider hat and a lantern, played pin the spider on the web, and went on a ghost hunt. It was great preschool fun! Lucky's still learning to sit rather than wander during reading time, but 3 books in a row is still kind of a lot for him at this point. He talked all about the stories on the way home, so apparently he listened as he wandered.

Pumpkin Party!

Yesterday we had some friends over to enjoy the season. We had fall pictures taken (coming soon!), painted and carved pumpkins, cooked out, and played. Lucky wore himself out with all the fun. He had no problem taking a nap today, neither did the rest of the family! :) Check out the video of Lucky's first pumpkin painting experience.

Here is the finished product! Ta-da!

Movin' and Shakin'

Here's our sweet Rolly playing with his new toy. Everytime he got his frog spinning we tried to film him, but missed it. It's cute to see him play all by himself.

Mommy, I Dressed!

When I went into Lucky's room this morning this is the sight that welcomed me! My sweet boy got dressed all by himself. Not too bad, huh?

Fall....Down on the Farm

This weekend has been picture perfect. Wonderful weather and lots of fall fun. We started a new fall tradition with the boys: going to the farm. We walked--er...got lost--in the cornfield, rode on the train (4 times), played with the tractors (for about an hour), went on a hayride to feed cows (dropped Rolly's only pacifier in a "cow patty") and looked for the perfect pumpkin!

It was truly a fabulous time! My favorite parts were seeing my boys take in all the sights (not so much smells) of the farm and enjoying God's workmanship. I think that's what makes me love fall so much, the harvest of God's provision. I'm so grateful for his abundant love for us and can't help but shower that love on my boys in return. What a wonderful Father we have.

There are so many fantastic pictures to share that I had a hard time choosing which ones to include, so these are some of my favorites. I'm uploading the rest to my Kodak gallery site though.

Big Boy Toy

Well we finally got one of Rolly's new big boy toys out. This Baby Einstein Jumper was a baby shower gift and as such was in the box until Wednesday. I kept thinking I needed to get the jumper out and put it together. I hadn't had the desire to do it when I had time, mostly because I thought it would take me forever to do, but that is not so it only took me 2 days to get it set up and batteries put in.

Rolly really seems to like it. He's going through his "I want to stand up all the time" phase. He has been standing and putting all his weight on his feet and wobbling around on my lap, so this jumper is just the thing for him. Look at him standing there with his big cheeks! Isn't he just the cutest thing?

On Top of Spaghetti

I guess we should have waited until after dinner for bath time but I thought, "Big boys don't need bibs, right?" Umm...well maybe they do. Even Lucky said, "I'm a mess, Mommy."