December - Photos of Kids

Here are some photos of the kids from this past month.

Angela:

Helping decorate the Christmas tree.

Guitar from Santa Clause.

Boxing on the Wii.Connor:

Playing in the snow.
After decorating his cut out cookie.

Christmas orange anyone?

Emeric:

Chilling on the couch.Showing off a new outfit.Christmas was just too much for him.Happy New Year!

Emeric at 3 Months

Time is flying by so quickly, Emeric is three months old now. He won't get another wight/length check until his four month appointment in January. He is currently wearing 3-6 month and 6 month outfits.
It has been so much fun playing with him and watching him learn to smile.Last night we moved him out of our bedroom and into his crib in his own room. I almost brought him back in but I knew it was good for him since he was almost too big for the bassenette.

Million Pound Challenge

I have been thinking about New Years Resolutions. For the year of 2009 I decided to read my Bible from cover to cover. I am a little behind in my reading therefore stay tuned to see if I get it completed. With New Years at the end of this week I have been wondering what I could do for 2010. I do not like to do weight loss/get in shape resolutions because they seem to be something that does not work out. Maybe it is because they are not detailed enough and they leave lots of wiggle room. Well I just signed up for something that I think will work really well, the Million Pound Challenge. They advertised it as a weight loss program but after a bit of research I found out it is also an exercise program. It is also set up to help the needy. This is how it works: for every pound you lose or for every hour you exercise the sponsoring group will donate 10 pounds of food to the Second Harvest food bank. This challenge runs from the beginning of January to the end of May. Today I signed up for the weekly exercising and I am so excited for it. I am making it pretty easy on myself. I teach water aerobics 2 hours per week and then I will add in 1 other hour of exercise. Not only will I have a set goal working out 3 hours per week, which will help my fitness, I will also be helping out others in need - I love it.  Here is the link for those interested: www.princetonclub.net/mpc/.

Christmas Day

WOW - we wait for months upon months for this day to come and then it is gone in the blink of an eye. Angela had to go and wake up Connor so that they could come downstairs and see what Santa had brought them. Angela received a guitar, Connor got a duck hunter toy and Emeric got an inchworm toy. They were all very happy. We had a good time opening stockings and playing with the big Santa gifts. After that we enjoyed a yummy breakfast casserole and some fruit. The kids really wanted to open presents, but mean mom said we had to clean up breakfast and get dressed first. We did a really good job cluttering up the living room with all sorts of wrapping paper. We all got some wonderful gifts. It was really funny to hear Brian say before he opened a present, "I hope they are socks" and sure enough they were. Angela was opening hers so fast that I had to keep reminding her to read the gift tags. Connor didn't quite get that he needed to open them all and he just wanted to play with the toy that was right in front of him. And Emeric, well he will be into it a lot more next year. We really missed everyone that was not here with us. I made some good use out of my Christmas Card Tree to remind us off all the family and friends that were far away. We spent the afternoon playing with all of our fun new things, the highlight of my day was setting up the starting of my (Willow Tree) Nativity Set. We also got to have some fun playing on my brother's Wii. This year we opted out of a traditional turkey/ham dinner and enjoyed seafood alfredo instead. It was a very yummy treat full of fish, crab, shrimp and scallops. By time we all fell into bed that night we were very exhausted, but we did have a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Eve

In years previous Christmas Eve has been a whorl wind day and before you know it, it is evening time and we're having dinner and opening our Christmas Eve presents. This year was not going to be that way. What should we do to pass the time, go to the Wisconsin Dells and visit a water park. We spent a little over five hours playing a having a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures of our day.

Once we got home, the evening did turn into the normal whorl wind. We had dinner, showered up the kids and opened a few presents. Here are the kids in their very nice, very fun Christmas jammies.

We can't wait until tomorrow morning!

Santa

Culver's (one of the local fast food restaurants) sponsored "Breakfast with Santa" last weekend. With a donation of food for the food bank we got to enjoy a breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes and milk or juice. It was a very yummy spread. The fun of the morning was not breakfast but Santa. We went to get the kids' photo with him and Connor made sure to tell him that it was Jesus' Birthday. Santa took a pause and then said, "You're right that is the reason for the season." As Brian puts it, nothing like a three year-old putting you in your place, but Santa was really good about it. This came on the tail of something similar earlier in the week. Since we have lived here the kids have gotten used to birthday boxes with presents. We got two boxes one day and when Angela got home from school Connor told her, "Birthday birthday" while pointing at them. She said, "No, it's not your birthday." To which he responded, "NO! Jesus' Birthday." Now don't get me wrong, he is not a complete saint. He has opened our Tree of Sharing gifts three time now and that is why there are no presents under our tree yet.

First Ever Swap FUN!

I recently participated in my first ever swap. It was a lot of fun. I got to get to know a woman from Louisiana and send her a fun little Christmas present. She in turn learned that I love snowmen and she sent me a wonderful package. The show piece of the package was a hand-made snowman ornament. The best part of swapping is getting something in the mail. I absolutely love "mail time". It is so much fun to see what the mail lady will bring me. It's kind of like in the play the Music Man, "O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin' down the street, Oh please let it be for me! O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin' down the street, I wish, I wish I knew what it could be!" Except I sing "O-ho the mail lady is a-comin' down the street....." So on Saturday when Angela went to get the mail she said, "There's a package here. Mom, were you expecting something?" Yes, Yes, Yes! So here is a picture of my goodies. Thanks Val from LA!

Christmas Cards

Okay, I am a little behind for my preference, but I finally got all the Christmas cards sealed and stamped this morning. They will be heading out into the mail this afternoon. I put the photos in at about 5:30 AM, so if you normally receive a photo from us and it's not in there, please forgive me.

I recently participated in a swap, which was a lot of fun. You sign up online through people's personal blogs. Then you get assigned a partner and you swap an item(s) that are with in the swaps criteria. Very fun like I said. I sent my box off to Louisiana and it got me thinking, where do I send all my mail. This is where all my Christmas cards went: Washington, Idaho, Wisconsin, Arizona, Utah, Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota, New York and Japan.

Where did your cards go to?

Emeric at 2 Months

I know they say as a parent you should not compare your children as they are each their own person. But, this past Monday I couldn't help it. Emeric had his 2 month appointment and all is well with him. Once they weighed and measured him I thought, "your dad is right, you are a chunk." He was 12 pounds 8 ounces and 23 1/2 inches long. This is where I started comparing. I wanted to see where he was in comparison to Connor. He didn't come close to those numbers until 4 months (12 pounds 6 ounces and 25.8 inches). It will be interesting to see how they both keep growing.