special day

One year ago today our sweet nephew and godson, Tyson, was welcomed into this world. Since then he has blossomed into a bubbly, happy, busy little boy who graces our lives with smiles and love. Anna and Emmett love their cousin and talk about him whenever we see him, are about to see him, or have just seen him.

This past weekend, amidst the chaos that the encompass the holidays, we were able to enjoy a wonderful, relaxing and FUN 1st birthday party for this sweet little boy. He greeted us with HUGE smiles and while all the kids played, the adults talked and Tyson relished in the attention...we were reminded once again of how quickly time flies. He is already ONE, and will become a big brother early this summer. On his special day we were so happy to spend time with him and with all of the people who shower him with so much love and attention. Happy Birthday sweet Tyson!!!

P.S. Need a cake decorator? Tanya made AND decorated these gorgeous cakes! She even made the animals. SO CUTE!!

'tis the season

While we are enjoying this first week of winter vacation from school - playing the snow, shoveling, going to open gym at the gymnastics center down the road, playing with friends, and more - we have fond memories of Anna's preschool Christmas program from last Friday. Steve and I were thrilled to watch a very proud Anna perform with her classmates and enjoy cookies and milk afterwards. Uncle Patrick, Granka and Grandma Penny were all there to cheer Anna on, which made Anna so very proud and excited! Thank you for coming and showering her with love.

I wish I had some videos of the cute songs they performed but unfortunately I did not record properly and instead have a bunch of gibberish. Next year! But, I do have a few pictures of the morning...

christmas program

This morning Anna had her first Sunday school Christmas program at church. She, along with the other members of the 3 and 4 yr old classes, sang two songs as part of the larger program...There Was a Little Baby and Away in a Manger. Not too thrilled to venture out in the blowing blizzard yesterday for practice, we weren't sure how Anna would feel about her program this morning.

Once she put on her fancy dress and handband, she was ready to pose for pictures, sing and dance. It was a cute and brief program, and we are so proud of our big girl!

Anna and her neighbor friend Lily

Lindsey (our friend), Anna, and Lily walking in to their seats

Anna & Lindsey

christmases past

Anna's first Christmas - 2006, age 3 months

Anna's 2nd Christmas - 2007, age 15 months

Anna's 3rd Christmas - 2008, age 2.5 (almost) - anxiously awaiting the arrival of her little brother

Anna's 4th Christmas - 2009, age 3.5 (almost) and Emmett's 1st Christmas - age 11 months

How can it be that we will be celebrating Christmas #5 with Anna? Can that be right? Christmas cards arrive in our mailbox and I look at the pictures of the beautiful children and families and I think to myself - wow, the kids look so old! And yet they are the same ages as our own two wonderful babies.

It feels like just yesterday I was as big as a house waiting for baby #2 to arrive. I remember sitting in church in Wisconsin on that Christmas Eve 2008 with braxton hicks contractions thinking...is the baby coming?

Now what was a peanut inside me is a bubbling, noisy, silly, lovable little boy who pulls on my heartstrings, (and my arms and legs and my nose and my face!) every single day.

And our sweet teeny tiny little girl who's no longer teeny tiny. She's a big ball of fire that shrieks with joy each morning when she finds Sparkle the elf and counts the days down until Christmas on her Advent calendar and sounds out words on the walls and in books and who today asked me what a boyfriend was and told me she had a beer. (Um, yeah, let's just not even think about where she heard that and what the context of that conversation was because I am not altogether sure I want to know).

During the holidays I can't help but be constantly reminded of our sweet blessings - the two little people who bring so much happiness into our lives - and of how quickly these precious young years of magic, believing in the make-believe, wonder, awe and pure joy and excitement pass by.

sparkle

It's not just our tree that's "sparkling" these days.

Sparkle is also the name of our Christmas elf. Can you find him?

See him there nestled in the tree?

Sparkle (Our Elf on the Shelf) arrived yesterday. Anna found him hanging from the light over our kitchen table. "What's that mommy? Why did you hang that there?"

"Anna, I didn't do that! That must be an ELF! Oh my goodness. Hmmm, here's a book he left, should we read it?"

Read it we did...several times. If you are not familiar with The Elf on the Shelf, it is a Christmas Tradition I highly recommend. In the book it talks about the Elf and how he comes to visit your family each Christmas season. Your first assignment is to name your Christmas Elf. Once named the magic will begin. Each night he flies back to Santa to report on the children's behavior, shares Christmas wishes and more. He returns in the morning in a new hiding spot....ready to be found by eager children. But he does have ONE rule. You may not touch him. If indeed you do, the magic may end. On Christmas Eve when he hears Santa's bells he returns to the North Pole until next year.

Anna was up at 5:15 this morning speculating on whether or not Sparkle was going to return. "Do you think Emmett touched him mommy?" When she spotted him she exclaimed..."I KNEW he'd be in the tree!" Since then I have heard her telling him her Christmas wishes, asking about his trip back to Santa last night and talking about her good deeds.

But SHHHHHH! Don't tell. Sparkle and the Christmas Elves are a secret...so you mustn't let on that you know!

thanksgiving

On the heels of a big snowstorm at home, we headed out to Nana and Papa's house to spend Thanksgiving with Steve's family. It was an extended weekend filled with fun! We spent time playing around Nana and Papa's house, eating delicious food, visiting with relatives, going shopping, to a movie, to see the Christmas lights display and more.

Anna and Emmett loved tormenting Kiah, monkeying around with Uncle Nate and tearing up Nana & Papa's house. This visit we decided to have the 2 kids share a room so that Steve and I could try to get a full night's sleep (both Anna & Emmett are loud sleepers!). The first night they had trouble settling down to sleep, there was just too much fun to be had. So finally we had Anna go to sleep in our bed and then we transferred her to hers in the other room when we went up to bed. This worked well and also provided us with some early morning entertainment. At 5am one morning Steve heard some monkey business and went in to find Anna in Emmett's crib with him, bedroom light shining brightly. At 5:30 another morning Emmett was loudly whispering "Annnnnnaaaaaa! Annnnnnaaaa!" trying to wake her for some early playtime. The giggles and fun were well worth the early mornings.

Anna and Nana took a special trip to see the movie Tangled, and in 3D no less. We've heard lots about the movie over the past several days and the 3D glasses have provided hours of entertainment for both kids.

The turkey wishbone also provided for some laughs as Nana and Anna pulled on opposite ends, each hoping for their wish to come true. Crestfallen, Anna pulled the shorter end of the stick - but easily took the bigger piece from Nana and announced that her wish would come true.

Anna: "I'm wishing for something but I can't tell you what it is or it won't come true. I'll give you ONE hint. It starts with American....and ends in Doll."

Cryptic, real cryptic. I sure hope Santa can figure that one out! :)

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Upon our return home we spent Sunday morning putting up our Christmas tree, much to the delight of our 2 little munchkins. Emmett is obsessed with turning the lights on and off, and Anna is in love with the icicle ornaments on our all silver and white tree this year.

To end our weekend we headed to Granka and Grandma Penny's house for another Thanksgiving celebration. More good food, good company and laughs. Emmett and Anna enjoyed bossing Tyson around and "showing him" how to do things. Anna brought out my Grandpa's hat from the dress-up chest and would pose for pictures only if she could wear the hat (thank you Penny for the pics!!). We enjoyed delicious beef stew as a post-Thanksgiving treat and went home stuffed and happy once again.

As each year passes it seems we have more and more to be thankful for. Among our many blessings are the family and friends that surround us, and envelope us with their love, support, attention, time and so much more. Spending time with all of these wonderful people is what the holidays are really all about.