Happy Birthday Hunter

As hard as it is to believe, Hunter just turned 3.

He has been asking since early October how much longer until his birthday. On several occasions he has told people in the grocery store that it was his birthday and proceeded to sing to himself.

Knowing his birthday was today made sleeping very difficult for him last night. He told Pete, "I can't sleep. I so 'cited about my birthday." He did eventually fall asleep. We have already had two smaller celebrations with family - one with Pete's parents in mid-November and one with my family on Christmas - but today was the real deal; I couldn't wait to tell him it was finally his big day. When he woke up this morning, I sang Happy Birthday to which he responded by saying, "Where is it?" - something I wasn't quite expecting. Apparently we need a little more pomp and circumstance next year- note to self! We did put candles in his blueberry muffins and that seemed to brighten his mood.

Celebration #1 - Grandma's House - Before our trip to Missouri, Hunter requested birthday cake from Grandma. She willingly complied- what a good grandma!



Celebration #2 - Dee Dee's House - Since the whole family was already gathered together, we took the opportunity to celebrate birthdays as well as Christmas.


Celebration #3 - Our House - We celebrated at breakfast with muffins, at lunch with cake and presents, and at dinner with pizza at Chuck E. Cheese's. It's been quite the celebration!













Thanks for all my birthday calls!

Happy Birthday Little Man! We Love You! - Stay tuned for celebration #4 at preschool when classes resume in January!


By the way, Hannah had fun too!

Can We Build It? Hmmm...

Pete decided to use his leave to complete a few "small" projects around the house. For those of you who know Pete - small rarely means small - and he (or we) doesn't rest until the project is done. He wanted shelves in the playroom to help with organization, so off the boys went to cut, measure, and create. Within hours, we had new shelves. Thanks boys - the shelves are perfect!!

Since he was in the mood to organize, I made a simple, innocent comment that he should think about organizing our closet. In just a few short hours, our closet was bare - not even a shelf remained. Several trips to Lowes later, we now have a very wonderful, extremely organized closet. Now, what should I ask for next?

The final stamp of approval!

Presents and More Presents

Christmas Eve at Dee Dee's

Just a few more minutes of playtime before church - please!

Cookies don't taste quite right without the sprinkles.

Our very own nativity - do we really have to share baby Jesus?

Christmas at Home

Since we were going to be traveling for Christmas, Pete convinced me to let the kids open the presents already at the house early so that we could celebrate at home too! It sounded like a quaint idea to me, so I agreed. In hindsight, I know now that it wasn't so much the celebrating at home that he was wanting as it was the chance to play with new toys sooner vice later - Lesson Learned! I guess Pete needs to start developing his rationale for next year. Either way, the kids were more than happy to have new toys!

Hannah's stuffed animals to match her room.

The latest addition to Hunter's Superman collection.

She loves her stuffed animals!

New lions for the jungle set and Superman again!

Precious Moments

Angel Babies

Both Hunter and Hannah enjoyed holiday parties at their preschool today with lots of yummy treats and WAY too much sugar! Hunter played "Pin the Nose on Rudolph" in his class. He was in the general vicinity of the face, but not quite close enough. Hannah had fun dancing to the Christmas music.

They also brought home all of their art projects from the last few weeks. I tried to get them to pose for a picture holding their creations, but that just wasn't happening. So, here are a few of their creations minus the kids. We have lots more hanging on our tree. They've been busy little angels lately!

Thanks Aunt Dana

Dear Aunt Dana,

Daddy thought a special surprise might help curb my grumpiness over the weekend, so he decided to give me that new Big Bird that you sent for me. It didn't help with my grumpiness, but I sure do LOVE it. I can't help being grumpy - my nose is running; I am sprouting two new teeth, and I'm not sleeping well these days - it's a rough life!

Big Bird goes everywhere I go; he's even taking a nap with me right now. When mommy and daddy couldn't find him anywhere, I just knew I could count on you to find him. After all, birthday girls have to stick together. Tell my cousins and Uncle Marc hello.

Love, Hannah

Our Ducks

Well, they aren't really our ducks! They do live on the golf course in our neighborhood, and Hunter truly believes that they are his. On occasion he will concede to sharing (a rare but welcome event) them with Sissy; however, he claims the white duck all to himself! Hannah's sweet, chubby little fingers have been mistaken for bread a couple of times, so she's a little leery of the ducks. She has now learned how to throw the bread which seems to be helping her warm-up to them again.

We generally go on a walk each day, weather permitting. We went yesterday but not today; the temps dropped almost 30 degrees here overnight. It's a little chilly for us right now! Not to worry though, we should be back in the 70's by mid-week.

Art Project

Last year, a friend and I took the kids to a pottery store so that they could paint their own ceramic ornaments. Hannah was too young to paint then, but Hunter loved it. I was planning on letting both kids do the same thing this year, but the store closed a few months ago. So when I saw these little ceramic holiday figurines at the store the other day, I thought they were a must have. I envisioned a mess, which is why they are outside in their diapers (thank goodness for 80 degree weather), but I wasn't quite prepared for so much chaos. Hannah only tried to eat the paint twice. Chaos aside, we had a very fun morning.

After a morning of painting, I now have a new appreciation for the kids' preschool teachers. I had my hands full with two; I don't know how they do it with 8-12. Needless to say, I'll be putting a little something extra in their Christmas baskets this year.

Hunter's all ready for his next project; he keeps asking to paint outside. I think I may have started something!

Santa's Little Surprise

We had a surprise visit from Santa last night (aka UPS), and we can proudly say that we have now joined the digital age! We are the proud owners of a new digital camera! Santa was certainly quite generous this year. Once I figure out this whole process, adding pictures should be much simpler. Thank you Santa - We love you!! With any luck, I'll post new pics tomorrow.

Today's humor: We were outside playing this afternoon as the jets were practicing whatever they practice. They were a bit noisier than usual. Hunter looked at me, gently covered his ears, and said, "Mom, my ears are too loud!" What a funny little fellow!

Blessings!

The Blessing of Boring

As I was talking with one of our friends in Sunday School today, she said something that really made me think. Her husband is deployed to Iraq right now; she is also in the military, and they have three young girls - she's a busy lady! When I asked her how things were going, she simply said, "Things are going well. To be honest, our lives are pretty boring!" I couldn't help but giggle at her response; with all that she has going on, boring hardly seems an accurate representation of her life. Yet, she didn't mean boring in the sense that nothing is going on, rather she meant boring in the sense that things are going well and there hasn't been anything too dramatic or difficult to handle.

I have thought about that comment all day and boring is exactly how I can thankfully describe our lives right now too - not that we don't have some crazy days (in all senses of the word crazy!). We stay busy and always seem to have something going on, but in reality our lives are pretty boring. Boring really is wonderful!

A recap of last week in pictures:

Breaking the RulesCatching up on our Reading
Self-Defense or Conflict Resolution??

Still Learning

Hunter's turn NOW!! (his favorite phrase)

Blessings to all!