Merry Christmas 2009

The best picture of the morning, both kids in their new wagon from Grandpa.

Caroline surrounded by her new monogrammed towel from Nana and some of her other presents. She got a shape sorter, some large pop beads, a Melissa and Doug birthday cake set, a purse with accessories, books, a necklace and bracelet from her cousin, some cute ballerina socks, and one of those bead-on-a-wire maze toys.

Caroline's big present was this stroller for her doll. I am still trying to convince her it is designed for her baby doll, because every time I put the baby in the stroller, Caroline quickly tossed her back out. At this rate, her future mothering skills are looking pretty scary. Thankfully we have many more years to practice!

Rylan and his dinosaur from Grammy. Rylan was awake bright and early at 6am and the combination of lack of sleep and the excitement of Christmas made him a little cranky and definitely not in the mood for pictures.

Rylan and his Buzz Lightyer, whose wings really do pop out just like the real Buzz!
Thanks to our family for getting both kids so many great toys. Rylan also really liked his Woody doll from Toy Story, his "band in a box", his firetruck puzzle and gear building toy from Nana and Papa, his Batman figure passed down from when Charlton was a little boy, his "Monsters vs. Aliens" movie, and his small cars.

Charlton gave me a DVD of home movies from when Rylan was a baby. Our camcorder broke, so I had never actually been able to watch the movies, and have hinted (once or twice :-) how badly I wanted to be able to have a copy of them. They included some priceless clips of Rylan's first bath at home, his first Christmas, and early baby days. Thanks honey, for that wonderful gift!
We had one of the best Christmases I can remember in a long time. I was able to spend time with my family last weekend for the first time near Christmas in years. We had snow, a fire in the fireplace, stockings hanging from our new mantle, a tree with twinkling lights, homemade cookies.. what more need I say? We started some new family traditions that made each day of the Advent season memorable. Charlton had some time off work, so we were able to enjoy his company at home. The joy and excitement of the kids at this age is just priceless. I love being able to teach Rylan the true meaning of Christmas while still anticipating Santa Claus's visit. Caroline doesn't quite understand everything yet, but she is walking and curious and much more able to participate than last year. Even though parenthood can be exhausting and tests our patience, I kept thinking these are truly some of the best years of our lives and I am so thankful. Thankful for my husband, for the babies that fill my arms, and for the gift of the Baby who came to earth so long ago to bring us joy and life.

Christmas Eve 2009

We ate a delicious dinner of oven-fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and biscuits, then the kids took baths and changed into PJ's early. We watched the "Polar Express" a present from Grammy, ate cookies and snuggled on the couch. It was such a fun, relaxing family time to spend together and just anticipate the joy of Christmas coming.

Our elf on the shelf's final resting place before Christmas.


The stockings were hung by the fireplace with care.

When the kids went to bed, Santa's elves got very busy. They didn't realized assembling the wagon would be so loud and make it hard for the kiddos to fall asleep. Finally, the wagon was built, stockings filled, and presents arranged under the tree. Charlton and I stayed up later and watched the Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, a first for me, and a movie with lots of childhood memories for Charlton.

Caroline says "ho,ho,ho"

Playing in the tent

While I worked Tuesday afternoon, Charlton set up the tent for the kids and got some fun videos of them enjoying it. I love how Caroline is thrilled to just "wallow" on the floor, with some interesting results to her hair.

More Caroline pigtails

The pigtails keep getting longer and cuter!

We played at Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday and a lady made balloon creature for the kids. Caroline got a pink and purple horse, and Rylan asked for an airplane. They had a lot of fun playing with their new "toys."

What a great smile!

Sadly, my best attempt to get a picture of Caroline in front of the Christmas tree. She moves soooo fast, tht my other attempts just showed a blurry small part of her. I am not sure what she is saying here, but I think she is trying to tell me this photo session is done! div>

Bethany's graduation

On Thursday, I flew up to Kentucky for my sister Bethany's graduation from nursing school. She has persevered through many challenges and obstacles to reach her goal and I am so proud of her. I am probably biased, but nursing graduations are a little more special than just your average end of school celebrations. One of the unique aspects of the ceremony includes the pinning, where a friend, family member, or other nurse presents you with your school's pin. Bethany gave me the honor of pinning her and I was very pleased that I didn't trip or stab her with the pin! Now she just needs to pass her nursing boards in the next month, and then she can start her new job. She actually has several job offers and will probably accept one in an adult ICU. We are excited to have another nurse in the family.

My kids were acting like the sweetest angels the few days before I left for my trip. They certainly weren't acting like that when I booked my tickets, the little tricksters! That made it hard to leave them, but I thoroughly enjoyed my short vacation. I haven't been able to sleep in, just relax with no responsibilities, and have un-interrupted conversations like that in years. I also haven't been home at Christmas time since Rylan was a baby, three years ago, so that was also very fun and brought back memories.

I had a great time, but was glad to see my husband and babies on Sunday. They did very well in Daddy day care, even Caroline didn't act that interested in seeing me. Later in the day, she called me "mama" for the first time, so I forgave her. I had to go to work on Sunday night and sleep most of the day Monday, so I am just now starting to get back into the routines of being home. We are all ready for Christmas now and just hoping for some snow to make it even more perfect.

On Friday, we enjoyed a ladies day out with lunch at Applebees. It was a special treat for all of us sisters and Grandma to spend some time together.

Bethany and my proud parents.

Three sisters.

All five siblings together. That doesn't happen often, so I'm glad we got the picture to prove it!

Martha, if you read this blog, I'm sorry I included this picture with your eyes closed. I just had to share this picture of the three nurses in the family. I was so bummed I didn't think to bring my nursing pin, so we could all truly match.

On Saturday the weather was was drizzling and barely above freezing. That didn't stop Bethany from "retiring" her nursing school clinical apron in a special ceremony, involving a shotgun. I think it is time to call the code on that garment.

Christmas tea.....and more

On Saturday, we had my MOPS care group Christmas tea. Our group mentor mom, Tricia, hosted at her home with all her lovely Christmas dishes and linens. I was very careful to take all these "before" pictures of the lovely table setting, but could of kicked myself for forgetting to get any shots of all of us ladies. Only the most important part... Good grief! My excuse is that we were just having too much fun laughing and telling stories and enjoying a relaxing time without kids that it completely slipped my mind.

Just some of the delicious food, pumpkin scones, cranberry white chocolate bread, chocolate dipped orange cookies, and snowflake sugar cookies. We also had a scrumptious quiche and jellow salad.

I got the idea for these cute ornaments from someone else's blog. They were fun to make and pretty cheap, too. I made one for each of the women who came to our tea. I bought plain, clear glass ornaments, shredded my own construction paper to stuff the balls, added the letter sticker and topped it off with a coordinating bow. The letters were a little thinner than I had expected them to be and so were kind of hard to see. Also, I didn't realize until too late that the red of the paper didn't quite match the red of the bows. Bummer. I imagine it bothered me more than anyone else, but I will be more careful about that next time.

No, Caroline did not get to go to the Christmas tea. Naptime and all.. But she sure did look like a pretty little lady on her way to church the next day. This girl does not stay still for a moment, hence the blur of her head. I didn't want to post a blurry picture, but this may be the best we ever get of her in her dressy red coat.

Here I was experimenting with camera angles to make the shot more interesting. Don't Caroline's pigtails look adorable? Her hair is really getting long. The even more amazing part is that Charlton fixed her hair all by himself. We had to redo them several times during the day, because Caroline newest habit is wanting to play with a strand of hair while she sucks her thumb. So after each nap, she had worked a huge piece of hair loose and it was hanging wildly in her face. I would love to fix her hair like this more often, if I just didn't have to re-do it all day long!

Tomorrow I am excited to be flying home for my sister Bethany's graduation from nursing school. Originally, I didn't think I would be able to go, but I am so thankful everything worked out about a month ago. I am so proud of all of Bethany's hard work and am honored to be able to pin her in the special ceremony. This is my first overnight trip away from Caroline, and although I have been away from Rylan for a few nights, I know I will miss them both and their daddy like crazy. So if you think about it, please pray that everyone will stay happy and healthy for Dad and he will have a really great, low-stress time with the kids. I am looking forward to having some fun and relaxing time with my family near Christmas and a little break from being in "mommy mode." I'll be home Sunday, but have to work Sunday night, so I'll probably post more near the middle of next week. Have a great weekend!