We wanted to have this one look like Katherine was opening the present but she was not very cooperative.
She did decide though that she wanted to get in the box too. Funny girl.
Thanks for voting for us. Don't forget to go to this link.
Friday, December 26, 2008
The Best Present Ever
No doubt our best present this year was Caroline. What a gift of a baby she has been. She is so easy and so full of smiles (though difficult to catch on film). I thought these photos were cute and I even entered the first one on a contest. If you could take a moment, would you go to this link and vote for Caroline and "The Best Present Ever"? If I win, our family gets a free photo session and we will be needing one soon. The photographer is a parent of one of Katherine's classmates. She is really good and very reasonable so check her out if you need a session for your family any time soon.
We wanted to have this one look like Katherine was opening the present but she was not very cooperative.
She did decide though that she wanted to get in the box too. Funny girl.
Thanks for voting for us. Don't forget to go to this link.
We wanted to have this one look like Katherine was opening the present but she was not very cooperative.She did decide though that she wanted to get in the box too. Funny girl.Thanks for voting for us. Don't forget to go to this link.
34 months
Katherine, you are 34 months old now. The biggest change this month is an exploding imagination and the love of playing pretend. You have previously played pretend when you had the appropriate props such as your toy kitchen or a baby doll. Now you are doing more roll play and pretend play where you have to use your imagination. You like to pretend to take a nap or for your friend or daddy to take a nap. You tuck them in, read a story, turn out the light and tell them to stay in the room. It is really funny. You then told daddy that you would be watching him on the tv (video monitor) in the office so he should not be scared. You love to pretend to make a picnic, go to school, go to the doctor, drive a car, etc. You will do this for over an hour where you role play with us. The oddest one is playing "baked potato" with your dad where you pretend to be a baked potato. He butters you, wraps you in foil, puts you in the oven and then eats you. I think it is weird but you have fun. One of the fun things about this pretend and roll playing fun is that I can see how you perceive me by what things you repeat.
You continue to love Caroline. The other day she was fussing and I overheard you drag your stool to the side of her crib so you could talk to her. I heard, "It's ok baby sister. Don't be scared. I right here. Mommy is coming." It was so sweet. Every time you are in her room and you sit together in her chair you want me to take your picture. As she gets better at sitting up they are getting easier to take. In these pictures you are wearing a Santa suit that you wore for your first Christmas 2 years ago. I pulled it out to put on Caroline but it was a 9 month size and too big for her. It was too small for you but you squeezed in somehow.
You are having more fears lately. You talk a lot about monsters and things that are "scary" and "spooky". Sometimes you are scared of the dark or certain lights or reflections. It is so hard to know how to handle these things because even though I know there is nothing to be scared of, these fears are very real for you.
You had a lot of fun learning about and celebrating Christmas. I tried to have a balance between celebrating Jesus' Birthday and all of the other fun stuff that happens at Christmas. That was a much harder task than I imagined and we will continue to work on it each year. At the end of this year though I think you have a pretty good grasp of the Biblical Christmas story as well as Santa, the reindeer and Frosty. We went to lots of parties and made lots of crafts. Here you are working on your foam "gingerbread house". I was pretty glad I did it with a foam kit rather than a cookie kit because your attention span was not long enough to finish the project and I think you would have eaten all of the candy.
We have been having some issues in the area of sleep. You really want to give up your nap. You tell me that you are not sleepy and don't need to sleep any more. Some days you claim to be scared because it is too dark and other days because it is too light. You will do anything to stall. I know you are not ready to give up your nap because even though it is getting harder to get you down, you usually do end up taking a 2 hour nap. I wish you would realize that and just stop wasting our time. When we are laying down to read books and go to bed you love to play with my hair. What a girl thing to love.
You are becoming so independent. I think we finally can say you are potty trained. You occasionally have an accident but not often. I think that Caroline came right at the time when it was crucial for me to stay on top of you and I didn't so you had a bit of a regression. Even though it took quite a while for you to go from the point where we gave up diapers to the point where we had no accidents, I am glad that I never put you back in diapers. If you had one accident a day that meant that you still had many more successes. You can also fully feed yourself, dress yourself and do most things without my help. It sure is nice to have you so capable when I am needing to take care of Caroline.
Of course with a baby around it is also fun to pretend to be a baby. You have been caught with a pacifier in your mouth and you try to play with all of Caroline's toys, including the exersaucer. It is a good thing you are petite because you are technically within the weight limit of all of her baby toys.
You love to sing. You have started making up your own songs and it is so cute. Whatever you are talking about becomes a song. You have also become OBSESSED with princesses. It is amazing how fast that took over. You talk about the princesses all the time. If we are shopping and you see anything with a princess on it you say you want it. You point out anything that is pink or purple and say they are your favorite color. I think this is something in the DNA of all preschool girls because we have really done nothing to encourage or even expose you to the princesses until you were interested. We were trying to avoid it for as long as possible but I think we are now at the point where we are needing to embrace it.
Discipline is not fun right now. You are basically a very good child but we are working on improving our first time obedience. It means a lot of tears by you as you are disciplined but hopefully we will start seeing some results. Our biggest areas of frustration are mealtimes. bedtimes and getting ready. You want to do things on your own slow time schedule. We are now setting a timer and that helps some. It is a constant power struggle.
One night you said you wanted more to eat. It was one of those crazy evenings where you were eating dinner while I was scurrying around. I noticed you did not have your plate of pot roast and carrots. I asked where they went and you said you threw them away. Sure enough, not only did you throw away the food but also the plate and fork. I put you in time out and then talked to you about it. You said that they were yucky. The carrots had germs on them. To you they looked dirty because they had been cooked in the crock pot with the roast and there were flecks of meat and onion on them. You thought it was germs and I had given you icky food so it made sense to you to throw it all away. We had to discuss the proper way to handle this.
You love to help out by getting Hooligan's food. The problem is that sometimes you feed her when it is not time to get food and sometimes you spill. This was a time that you spilled. You told me, "it's ok mommy, I get the broom and dust pan." You did not do a great job cleaning it up and I had to help you but I did appreciate that you knew you had to clean up your messes.
You are learning the meaning of prayer. We have always prayed with you every day before nap and bed. We are trying to pray more though out the day. You are learning what kinds of things we pray for and that God answers prayer. Right now you still like me to say the prayer and you will tell me what to pray for. We have a standard set of requests which include, "pray that I not get any boo-boos, that I not cry, that Caroline not cry, that Daddy's tummy feel better and mommy's back feel better". Even when mommy and daddy feel 100% we pray for these things.
You love to dress yourself. You say, "I do it all my byself". The other day you were all ready for church, including a very cute hair do and bow. Then you saw your bike helmet and decided that was what you needed to wear. It messed up your hair and you would not let me redo it. I think that the turquoise Dora helmet looks great with your Christmas dress.
You are a little confused on Jesus. One thing you are not allowed to do is put your feet on the table. I know, we are mean. Anyway, one night you tried to put your foot on the table and told you that Jesus told you to. I guess it is kind of like saying "the devil made me do it" but you know that Jesus is the good buy and what He says goes. You have several other times blamed your disobedience on God or Jesus. It is an issue we will have to work on.
A new phrase that I love is "a hug and a kiss". When we put you to bed or say goodbye, you always ask for "a hug and a kiss." It is so cute and so sweet.
You are so much fun. Daddy and I love the stories you tell, the songs you sing, your imagination and your love.
You continue to love Caroline. The other day she was fussing and I overheard you drag your stool to the side of her crib so you could talk to her. I heard, "It's ok baby sister. Don't be scared. I right here. Mommy is coming." It was so sweet. Every time you are in her room and you sit together in her chair you want me to take your picture. As she gets better at sitting up they are getting easier to take. In these pictures you are wearing a Santa suit that you wore for your first Christmas 2 years ago. I pulled it out to put on Caroline but it was a 9 month size and too big for her. It was too small for you but you squeezed in somehow.
You are having more fears lately. You talk a lot about monsters and things that are "scary" and "spooky". Sometimes you are scared of the dark or certain lights or reflections. It is so hard to know how to handle these things because even though I know there is nothing to be scared of, these fears are very real for you.You had a lot of fun learning about and celebrating Christmas. I tried to have a balance between celebrating Jesus' Birthday and all of the other fun stuff that happens at Christmas. That was a much harder task than I imagined and we will continue to work on it each year. At the end of this year though I think you have a pretty good grasp of the Biblical Christmas story as well as Santa, the reindeer and Frosty. We went to lots of parties and made lots of crafts. Here you are working on your foam "gingerbread house". I was pretty glad I did it with a foam kit rather than a cookie kit because your attention span was not long enough to finish the project and I think you would have eaten all of the candy.
We have been having some issues in the area of sleep. You really want to give up your nap. You tell me that you are not sleepy and don't need to sleep any more. Some days you claim to be scared because it is too dark and other days because it is too light. You will do anything to stall. I know you are not ready to give up your nap because even though it is getting harder to get you down, you usually do end up taking a 2 hour nap. I wish you would realize that and just stop wasting our time. When we are laying down to read books and go to bed you love to play with my hair. What a girl thing to love.You are becoming so independent. I think we finally can say you are potty trained. You occasionally have an accident but not often. I think that Caroline came right at the time when it was crucial for me to stay on top of you and I didn't so you had a bit of a regression. Even though it took quite a while for you to go from the point where we gave up diapers to the point where we had no accidents, I am glad that I never put you back in diapers. If you had one accident a day that meant that you still had many more successes. You can also fully feed yourself, dress yourself and do most things without my help. It sure is nice to have you so capable when I am needing to take care of Caroline.
Of course with a baby around it is also fun to pretend to be a baby. You have been caught with a pacifier in your mouth and you try to play with all of Caroline's toys, including the exersaucer. It is a good thing you are petite because you are technically within the weight limit of all of her baby toys.
You love to sing. You have started making up your own songs and it is so cute. Whatever you are talking about becomes a song. You have also become OBSESSED with princesses. It is amazing how fast that took over. You talk about the princesses all the time. If we are shopping and you see anything with a princess on it you say you want it. You point out anything that is pink or purple and say they are your favorite color. I think this is something in the DNA of all preschool girls because we have really done nothing to encourage or even expose you to the princesses until you were interested. We were trying to avoid it for as long as possible but I think we are now at the point where we are needing to embrace it.
Discipline is not fun right now. You are basically a very good child but we are working on improving our first time obedience. It means a lot of tears by you as you are disciplined but hopefully we will start seeing some results. Our biggest areas of frustration are mealtimes. bedtimes and getting ready. You want to do things on your own slow time schedule. We are now setting a timer and that helps some. It is a constant power struggle.One night you said you wanted more to eat. It was one of those crazy evenings where you were eating dinner while I was scurrying around. I noticed you did not have your plate of pot roast and carrots. I asked where they went and you said you threw them away. Sure enough, not only did you throw away the food but also the plate and fork. I put you in time out and then talked to you about it. You said that they were yucky. The carrots had germs on them. To you they looked dirty because they had been cooked in the crock pot with the roast and there were flecks of meat and onion on them. You thought it was germs and I had given you icky food so it made sense to you to throw it all away. We had to discuss the proper way to handle this.
You love to help out by getting Hooligan's food. The problem is that sometimes you feed her when it is not time to get food and sometimes you spill. This was a time that you spilled. You told me, "it's ok mommy, I get the broom and dust pan." You did not do a great job cleaning it up and I had to help you but I did appreciate that you knew you had to clean up your messes.You are learning the meaning of prayer. We have always prayed with you every day before nap and bed. We are trying to pray more though out the day. You are learning what kinds of things we pray for and that God answers prayer. Right now you still like me to say the prayer and you will tell me what to pray for. We have a standard set of requests which include, "pray that I not get any boo-boos, that I not cry, that Caroline not cry, that Daddy's tummy feel better and mommy's back feel better". Even when mommy and daddy feel 100% we pray for these things.
You love to dress yourself. You say, "I do it all my byself". The other day you were all ready for church, including a very cute hair do and bow. Then you saw your bike helmet and decided that was what you needed to wear. It messed up your hair and you would not let me redo it. I think that the turquoise Dora helmet looks great with your Christmas dress.
You are a little confused on Jesus. One thing you are not allowed to do is put your feet on the table. I know, we are mean. Anyway, one night you tried to put your foot on the table and told you that Jesus told you to. I guess it is kind of like saying "the devil made me do it" but you know that Jesus is the good buy and what He says goes. You have several other times blamed your disobedience on God or Jesus. It is an issue we will have to work on.A new phrase that I love is "a hug and a kiss". When we put you to bed or say goodbye, you always ask for "a hug and a kiss." It is so cute and so sweet.
You are so much fun. Daddy and I love the stories you tell, the songs you sing, your imagination and your love.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating the birth of Christ.This is our Christmas card. Almost all of them are out. There are a few that were returned, a few addresses I finally gathered and a few that I need to take to the post office for international postage. I love receiving Christmas cards and photos of our friends and family. Yesterday we even received a card from a total stranger. I did not recognize the name or the photos and neither did Sam. I found the person on facebook (I love that place) and sent them a message asking who they were. I thought that maybe they had used a service who had put the wrong cards in the wrong address list. As it turns out she has a cousin with Sam's same first and last name who married a girl named Christina and she found our address online. Random.
This year it seems that most cards have arrived in the past few days and I have noticed that not many people are doing a Christmas letter anymore. I have always done one but this may be my last year. It is hard to think of things to write when most of those who receive a letter have been reading my blog and already know what we are up to. Regardless, here is the card and letter that we sent out this year.
Greetings! We hope that you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season, celebrating the birth of our Lord. This year as Katherine is older and more aware of the holidays we are even more aware of how we celebrate and are trying to keep our focus on Christ amidst the busyness. It is so fun to celebrate the Christmas season with children in the house.
2008 has been a great year and has brought about much change for our family. The first big change was in January when Sam started a new job. He left a job where he had worked for 8 years, for a much smaller company. It has been a wonderful job change. He is enjoying his job so much more as he is using programs that interest him as well as his skills. Having Sam happy at work has made a huge impact in the stress level of our family.
Our second big change was the birth of Caroline in July. She arrived just 45 minutes past her due date in a very fast and easy (though not painless) delivery. She has been a very easy baby and a total joy. We are much more relaxed as parents this time around and it has helped that she is such an easy and content baby. We are having a ball.
Christy is still staying home with the girls and has fun keeping all three of them busy. There is rarely a day where they stay home between playgroups, playdates, shopping and going to the park.
Katherine will be 3 in February. The “terrible two’s” are almost over though they really have not been so bad. She is so much fun and we have enjoyed having a very talkative preschooler. We love that we can now have a real conversation. We are also enjoying that she is potty trained and sleeping in her big girl bed. She absolutely loves her baby sister and has adjusted very easily to sharing mom and dad’s attention. Her favorite things are pink, Cinderella, bagels, lollipops and the ABC’s. She goes to Mother’s Day Out two days a week and is doing really well and learning a lot.
This year we did not travel much with being pregnant and having a new baby. We did manage to make it out to California for Sophia’s first birthday and we met Christy’s family in Tennessee to celebrate her parent’s 40th wedding anniversary at a B&B that used to be a family home. We also went to San Antonio and Sea World with friends. As a girl who loves to travel, Christy is starting to get anxious to take a family vacation so we will see where it leads us.
Merry Christmas,
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Catch Up
The month of December has been full of activities and Christmas festivities. I have blogged most of them but there are some photos that never made it so this is my post to catch up and make sure all of those cute pictures are posted.
Every year our church has a holiday display in the courtyard. Last year it was a large Christmas tree and this year it was a nativity scene.
It is so challenging to get a good family photo these days. I am trying to embrace the random "outtakes" as our photos.
Katherine enjoyed holding baby Caroline next to baby Jesus, Mary and "Dofeth" (Joseph)
I love holiday clothes and since I shop at consignment sales we have a lot of them. I counted that between fancy church dresses, casual outfits and t-shirts, Katherine had twelve holiday outfits! Caroline only had 5. They are so cute but I don't think I actually took pictures of all of them.
I decorated the tree as normal, even with breakable ornaments within Katherine's reach. If they were special they were high up. I wrapped the presents early and put them all under the tree. She did great. Only one ornament was broken and that was when she intentionally ripped the arms off a nutcracker since the other one was already broken. Katherine would sometimes bring us a present to open but we would always tell her who it was for and that we would open it later. She ripped one bow off of one present and other than that they were all safe.
This is my present!
Here you go mommy.
Please can I open it?
This year I am doing MOPS again at our church. Our discussion group got together for a cookie exchange at our mentor mom's house. It was a wonderful evening. At 10 pm we realized that how late it was and the fact that we had not even started sharing cookies yet. Here is our group.
Every year our church has a holiday display in the courtyard. Last year it was a large Christmas tree and this year it was a nativity scene.
It is so challenging to get a good family photo these days. I am trying to embrace the random "outtakes" as our photos.
Katherine enjoyed holding baby Caroline next to baby Jesus, Mary and "Dofeth" (Joseph)
I love holiday clothes and since I shop at consignment sales we have a lot of them. I counted that between fancy church dresses, casual outfits and t-shirts, Katherine had twelve holiday outfits! Caroline only had 5. They are so cute but I don't think I actually took pictures of all of them.
I decorated the tree as normal, even with breakable ornaments within Katherine's reach. If they were special they were high up. I wrapped the presents early and put them all under the tree. She did great. Only one ornament was broken and that was when she intentionally ripped the arms off a nutcracker since the other one was already broken. Katherine would sometimes bring us a present to open but we would always tell her who it was for and that we would open it later. She ripped one bow off of one present and other than that they were all safe.
This is my present!
Here you go mommy.
Please can I open it?
This year I am doing MOPS again at our church. Our discussion group got together for a cookie exchange at our mentor mom's house. It was a wonderful evening. At 10 pm we realized that how late it was and the fact that we had not even started sharing cookies yet. Here is our group.
Happy Birthday Jesus
When we were getting ready to go to the Nativity, I was scurrying about and got frustrated at Katherine because she was getting the wrapping paper out of my closet. Then she said she wanted it to wrap a present for baby Jesus since we were going to his party. So cute!
So, we decided that we would have a birthday party for Jesus. Katherine loves birthday parties and that is what we are celebrating this week!
We invited our playgroup and a few other friends over and had a pretty large group. The kids had fun playing, we did a craft, ate lunch, decorated cookies, read the Christmas story, sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cupcakes.
Jen reads the Christmas story
Decorating cookies
The kids love the piano. They are attempting to carol.
Lunchtime
Our craft was made by squeezing acrylic paint into glass ornaments for a colorful swirly look.
So, we decided that we would have a birthday party for Jesus. Katherine loves birthday parties and that is what we are celebrating this week!
We invited our playgroup and a few other friends over and had a pretty large group. The kids had fun playing, we did a craft, ate lunch, decorated cookies, read the Christmas story, sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cupcakes.
Jen reads the Christmas story
Decorating cookies
The kids love the piano. They are attempting to carol.
Lunchtime
Our craft was made by squeezing acrylic paint into glass ornaments for a colorful swirly look.
Nativity
We met some friends at a church to participate in their walk through Bethlehem and live nativity. It was a wonderful way for Katherine to experience the true meaning of Christmas. 
Along with the nativity, they had a petting zoo. Katherine was very brave and tried to feed the goats and small ponies. I don't really like petting zoos too much. They are dirty and I think it goes back to my childhood when a llama ate my hair bow.
Caroline tried to ride on a small mule.
We walked through several scenes where people in costume told the Christmas story. Here Katherine (in the black coat) is listening to Mary and "Dofeth" talk about baby Jesus.
It was a great evening and a wonderful way for Katherine to understand more clearly what Christmas is celebrating.
Along with the nativity, they had a petting zoo. Katherine was very brave and tried to feed the goats and small ponies. I don't really like petting zoos too much. They are dirty and I think it goes back to my childhood when a llama ate my hair bow.
Caroline tried to ride on a small mule.
We walked through several scenes where people in costume told the Christmas story. Here Katherine (in the black coat) is listening to Mary and "Dofeth" talk about baby Jesus.
It was a great evening and a wonderful way for Katherine to understand more clearly what Christmas is celebrating.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
5 Months (part 2)
I feel like a dork, or at least a very forgetful, scattered mom. On Friday, Caroline's 5 month "birthday", I took her photos in the chair like I do every month. But somehow, when I posted her 5 month update, I forgot to put those photos on that post. Tonight when I was going through photos I groaned. So, here are some adorably cute photos of Caroline in her chair. You can see how well she is able to sit (while supported) and also how she is now very curious about the paper, grabbing it and trying to eat it as well as grabbing the Hooligan stuffed animal. 
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