Christmas Eve 2013

We spent Christmas Eve at our house this year. We had a fun day opening presents, finishing last minute shopping, & cooking. We are so thankful for all we have to celebrate this Christmas - my 16th Christmas with James, two kids that are a joy that we waited a long time for, and birth of our Forgiveness, Love Himself, The Lion of Judah that became The Sacrifice.

James laughed at some of the items I stuffed the kid's stocking with, but it was stuff that Samuel picked out. I took him to the dollar store with me one day & I bought most of what he picked out - except for the six packets of Kleenex that he tossed in the shopping cart.  They both got shampoo with Elmo on the bottle, bubble bath, toothbrushes,  puffs & Gerber Yogurt Melts along some clothes that I embroderied for them.

The gift that Samuel liked best was his bottle of Mr. Bubbles. He recognized the bottle, and exclaimed "Bubble, bubble!"  He wanted to take it upstairs right away and take a bath. We convinced him to finish opening his gifts though.

I have to give a shout out to the esty shop BuellsBeauties, where James bought my gift. It is a wooden growth chart with the children's names and our last name painted in it. I love it & the work is beautiful.  Here is the link to the shop: www.etsy.com/shop/BuellsBeauties

Eva loved the wrapping paper most of all.

I gave James a Van De Graff Generator. You know, that thing at the science museum that you touch & it makes your hair stand up. He had asked for one & he was happy to receive it. He had a little fun with yesterday.  There is a photo below where you can see the arcing occuring.

Samuel with my new "mittens"as he called them. They are cycling gloves for the winter.

Christmas Decorating 2013

We put our Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Samuel was interested in participating.

This Little People Nativity set was his Christmas gift from us last year. He likes to play with it, and it hasn't looked that tidy since this photo was taken.

I set up the Advent boxes for him. There is one piece of candy inside each one, and he loves to open his box for the day and retrieve his treat. He quickly learned how to climb up in the chair so he could reach them

He wanted to help set the Christmas Village up. 

I finished most of the decorating on the Christmas tree while he napped, but I left a few ornaments out for him so he could put them on the tree. The trains were James' ornaments when he was a boy, and his mom passed them on to us. Samuel is fascinated with them. He walks around the tree looking for them, and he says "choo-choo" when he finds them.

He's not sure about our inflatable bear. He likes to look at it, but he doesn't want to get very close to it. We usually turn it off in the daytime. If he notices that it isn't inflated, he will point to it and say "ah oh" until we turn it back it back on.

Thanksgiving 2013

 We celebrated Thanksgiving a few days early this year so my parents could be with us. James fried a turkey, which came out great. The kids' favorite part of dinner was the Sweet Potato Brulee. Samuel asked for it for dinner every night until it had all been eaten.

 Cute outfits from James' parents. Thanks, Mawmaw and D!

 Samuel chose those pumpkins when we took him to the pumpkin patch in October. He had fun playing with them.

 My mom gave Samuel a roll-up pouch for his crayons. He likes to use it.

 Samuel's craft from day care.

 Mom made those cute hats for Eva, but Samuel wanted to wear one too. He's learned how to say "hat" & I likes to wear them. Eva wore her Christmas hat to church last Sunday.  Thanks, Nana!

We had a great visit, and we are so thankful for the time we had together!

Halloween Fun

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch at Rombachs Farm yesterday. Samuel had fun looking at the pumpkins, and he chose a few small ones to bring home.

 My mom made that orange hat for Samuel last year, and it still fits him. He wore it for while, but he took it off. It fit Eva as well. She got sleepy while we were there.

I think this tunnel was his favorite thing there.

We dressed up as a family and went to Grant's Farm last night. We enjoyed it. The place was decorated for Halloween & they had a DJ there. We saw some of the animals too.

The Mad Hatter, Red Queen, White Rabbit, and a "Talking" Flower.

I tried to get Samuel to dance with me, but he was too busy people watching.

Eva's first Cardinals Game

On Sunday 9/15, we took the kids to see the Cardinal's play the Mariners. This was our first time to take both of them. It was an afternoon game, which interfered with Samuel's nap. I didn't know how they would do, so we got cheap seats so it wouldn't be a big loss if we had to leave early.  The bleachers are a nice place to sit if you have kids with you. They offer a little more leg room, and there is more space underneath the seats to tuck your belongings away than in the regular seats.

As for finding healthy food at the ballpark - there is one vendor that sells fresh deli sandwiches and fruit, but it wasn't close at all to our seats. I've found that it is simpler to pack my own food. I took apple and an orange for a snack. I took bottled Diet Lipton Tea to drink.  I'm glad that the fan are allowed to bring their own food inside the stadium. It makes a trip to the ballpark more affordable, and it keeps me from stressing over finding something that I won't regret eating.

A worried little Cardinal's fan. He was getting tired. Just one more out and then we can go home with a win! The Cardinals won 12-2.

Samuel's First Haircut

I had been putting this off, but we're going to a family get together this weekend and it had to be done.  Samuel needed a haircut. I was off yesterday, and I started to take him to a children's hair salon. Then I found out that they charged $20 for a child's haircut. I thought that was a bit much, so I made other plans. There's a walk-in hair salon very close to our house, so we took the kids there after I got off work today. They had a 40 minute wait, so on to plan C - me and James cutting Samuel's hair at home. I put two large garage bags on the floor in the living room in front of the TV, put Samuel's high chair on top of them & strapped him into the chair.  I turned the TV on to PBS. James got his hair clippers and scissors out, and away we went.

I showed him the comb, scissors, and trimmer before I used them. I rubbed the electric trimmer over the skin on my hand and then over his hand to show him that it would not hurt. James used the electric trimmer to give his neckline a straight edge.  Samuel didn't fuss about the ordeal too much. James helped me keep the little dude still, and we did a decent job cutting his hair. We'll get better with practice.