Christmas 2009

I am so blessed!! We have truly had a magical Christmas this year. Ella is the perfect age for capturing the wonder and amazement of the Christmas spirit. And the fact it was the first Christmas with our beautiful baby boy, made it extra special. We feel like a complete family after all these years!

Our Christmas started yesterday afternoon with dinner and presents at Nana and Papa's in Nevada. Dinner was delicious, the kids were super good, presents were perfect and the time together was priceless! I love that Mom and Dad live so close so that the kids (and Chad and I) can spend such quality time with them!

After we got home and put lil' man to bed, Chad, Ella and I had movie night. Ella decided on the movie ELF. She loved it. She laughed through the whole thing. She was still talking about it today. After we got her into bed, we were able to "set the stage" for the big Christmas morning. Well, one of us anyway...Santa retired early and hit the sack. :-)

The kids actually slept in until about 7:00 this morning. But after they got up and saw the presents, it was happy chaos! Paper was flying, toys were torn open, smiles were all around! Chad and I just sat back and watched...what a true blessing our children are. Ella was so good with Avinn "helping" him with his presents and she was so thankful for all she received this year. She has such a beautiful soul!

After we wrapped up the festivities here at home, we piled in the truck and made the very snowy and slick drive to Grandma and Papa's...boy was it worth it!!! The kids had such a blast!! Because of the weather, it ended up being just Mom & Dad, the Mataya's, Dan and his kids and us. The food was beyond delicious!! OMG, they outdid themselves on the turkey and all the fixings! YUMMY!!! Avinn was digging the sweet potatoes and Chad was all over the oyster dressing! After we ate, we opened presents and sat and visited for the afternoon. It was a perfect day!

My house is trashed and the presents are strewn about, but the smiles on my kids' faces make it all worth it! I will say it again, we are blessed beyond words. Our kids are the light of our lives and every second with them is a treasure!

Merry Christmas!!!

The Stuffed Animal Brigade

The ones that got away...



I am super proud of our Ella Belle for making the wise decision to go through her stuffed animals. This has needed to be done for many many months! With Christmas right around the corner, I was able to convince her that there are so many little girls out there that don't have a stuffed animal to snuggle at night like she does and maybe it's time we pick a few out that someone else could love for their own. So she agreed...finally!

After going through her collection one by one, we were able to part with a HUGE garbage bag full of misc. animals - over 30 in all! Which, I was very happy with considering I told her initially she only had to get rid of 15. When we were done sorting, she proudly exclaimed, "it's okay to get rid of those because I still have SEVENTY left for my own!!!" That was a totally accurate statement. She did in fact have 70 left!!! Not only did she have a name for each of them, but she could tell you when she got each one and who gave it to her. Amazing! She really does love her stuffed animals. I have to admit that I was a little sad to see some of them go. There was a giraffe she got the day she was born, a dog she got when she was in the ER in Indianapolis as a baby, etc...

Even though we have 70 left, I am so proud of her for making the decision to give some away. They are obviously special to her and they each carry a different meaning in her heart! So letting go of some was a big step! :-) And even though it was difficult and she may miss a few, it needed to be done! We had over 100 stuffed animals!!! Crazy! Good job, Ella! Mommy and Daddy are proud of what a wonderful young lady you are becoming!

Snow Day

We had our first major snowstorm not just of this year, but the biggest one we've had in 10 years! 14" of snow and blizzard like conditions. Ella was out of school for two days and for the first day, we were literally "snowed in". We didn't get plowed out of our drive until about 10:00 Wednesday night. We spent some good family time while we were all holed up together.

After it calmed down a bit outside, Ella and I went out to take advantage of all the snow! First, we played in the front yard for a while. Pulling her around in the sled, playing King of the Mountain in the piles they plowed out of the cul de sac. After about 20 minutes of that, we decided to go hit the neighborhood sledding hill. This hill is in the neighbors side yard and a couple of years ago, he cleared several trees out of the way to make the perfect sledding path. We didn't get to go last year because I was pregnant and boy was I surprised this year when we went and saw what a great hill it is! It is the perfect size and it goes straight down to the ravine with nothing in your path! Ella had a ton of fun!!!

When we were ready to head home, Ella decided she wanted to walk the "back way", through the ravine. This is over 1/2 acre of hills/"ravine" territory. Lots of fallen trees, etc... It was quite the hike. Especially for a five year old and 14" of snow!! Some places were deep for even me. But I went first and kind of "cleared a path" for her and she followed along and did great! She made it about 3/4 way before she started complaining. HAHA! By the time we made it to our backyard, she wanted pulled in the sled. I don't blame her, that was quite the hike for a little girl! :-)

Basement

IT'S STARTED!!!! After 5 years of wishing our basement was done, we finally found the perfect person to do it! Tim started on Monday of this week, had a snow day in there and has made a ton of progress on the framing and it's only Saturday!! I hope his motivation lasts through the whole project. He anticipated it only taking 4-6 weeks and at this pace, I think he's spot on! The framing is almost done and it looks great!

We are so excited to be able to do this. It is going to add 2K sq. ft. to our home and provide a place for the kids and the adults to hang out! 1/2 will be a toy/game room and 1/2 will be a family room. I can't wait to spend family movie/game nights down there!!!

It's going to finally feel like our home is finished!

Movie Day

Today Ella gets to go see The Princess and the Frog with Nana. She is super excited. She has been waiting for the release date (yesterday) ever since she saw a preview about a month ago. I am going to meet Nana in Ames and they are going to the movie and then out to lunch together.

Hopefully, Chad and I can take the opportunity to get our Christmas shopping and basement shopping done!

Dad's 61st

Last night we celebrated Dad's 61st birthday at our house. Shera, Matt and the boys came to help us celebrate. We grilled steaks, had cake and ice cream, opened presents and then watched the Cyclones blow the Hawks away in basketball. It was a great night!

The boys wanted to spend the night, which I love!! I love the fact that they are 11 and still want to stay with us. We always have a good time. During dinner, Tyler told us that is science teacher had an experiment for him. If you mix shampoo and something acidic (he suggested lemon or orange juice), the mixture would taste like salt. I questioned his teacher's logic - she wants them to eat shampoo??? I asked Tyler, "that sounds a bit flaky to me, was your teacher a child of the 60's??" To which he responded very excitedly, "Yes. Oh my gosh, she even taught us the Macarena"!! HAHA! I know I'm old, but I'm not THAT old!!

Well, of course, I had to let them try the experiment. They were so excited to see if it would actually work. Hey, if you want to eat shampoo, that's your decision. HAHA. We modified it a bit and used Dawn dish soap. They mixed the concoction up and all three (including Ella) gave it a try. Before they tried it, Trevor said, "I bet it just tastes like sour shampoo". After trying it several times and adding more lemon juice hoping it would taste better each time, 3 out of 3 agreed...it tasted like soap. :-) Maybe it only works with shampoo.

Another new trick...

Aside from crawling, Avinn's other new trick this week is to pull himself up from a sitting position. He will do this with whatever is closest to him. The couch, his toys, my leg, the granite fireplace (my next post - his black eye), etc. He loves to do this and he's so proud of himself when he gets into a standing position. I have a feeling that cruising is only days away! He's growing up so fast!!

Crawling

The little man is a crawlin'!! How exciting! He started about 3 weeks ago, but he is 100% efficient at it now. He can even race the girls - and they usually let him win! He just loves that he's mobile now. He figured out pretty quickly that he can get from point A to point B with this new little trick. Watch out world, he's on his way....

We have a tooth!!!

About 2 days ago, Avinn sprouted his first tooth!! The bottom right one. Just today it actually started to surface above the gum line enough for him to feel it. Aunt Shera said he was fascinated with it today. Putting his finger in his mouth to feel it. :-)

I'm going to try to get a picture of it, but I'm not sure how cooperative he will be with that one!