Matchy Matchy

 McKenna wanted to dress like Will yesterday. She sure does love him. He's not so sure about her sometimes. That look on his face is pretty typical anytime she has her hands on him. She's usually just loving away on him and he's fussing up a storm just trying to get away from all her "love."

He also thinks she's pretty hiliarious and he does love to play with her. His favorite spot in our house is McKenna's room.

Doesn't Will look so big standing there? He's getting steadier and steadier every day. We've even seen some cruising. He'll be walking before long and that tiny little guy has a big birthday coming up in just a little over a month. Hard to believe.

Norwalk

I wish I was talking about something pleasant, like a trip to Norwalk Connecticut, but no. I'm talking about the virus. You know the Norwalk Virus that you always hear about people getting on cruise ships?? Well, that's what we've got running through our family right now. Apparently there has been a little outbreak in our area. Will started it all on Monday. I'm convinced that he must have caught it from the nursery at church. It's the only place he had been. You know he puts everything in his mouth and unfortunatley he likes to put his hands in my mouth too. Oh that slobbery little boy. Then Wednesday night around midnight I called my mom to come to our rescue. Ryan and I were both vomitting like it was our job and both Will and McKenna were too. Oh the misery.  By some miracle of God, Christian and my mom have been spared. But the rest of us are continuing to feel not quite right.

What a winter we've had. The last 6 weeks have been some of the most unpleasant of my life. And yet there have been lots of good things going on too. Right now I can hear a little girl giggling with her daddy while they're playing the basement. Christian brought home a stellar report card yesterday. Will is talking more and more. Christian's dear little thumb sucking ways are almost a thing of the past...we're making huge progress (don't worry I'll blog all about what's worked and what hasn't when I'm sure we're successful...it's a hard, hard habit to break). And we've all had a LOT of time together.

Christian enjoyed his very first snow day off from school.

Christian & McKenna made a huge snowball that they were so proud of. They also made some pretty decent looking snowmen and they played school (on Christian's day off). McKenna's favorite part was when I let them pack their lunches in lunchboxes. We had to put her lunch in a lunchbox pretty much every day this week.

So pray that our little visit from Mr. Norwalk is over quickly. I think we're wrapping it up around here, but boy am I exhausted and I can't wait until Spring!

A Snowy Day!

Still here.....

I've got so much to say but there just hasn't been any time lately.

Life has been a tad bit crazy lately. 

Some good, some bad, some just life.

I've barely taken any pictures lately, but I did snap this cute one on Sunday.

Here's a quick update on everyone:

Will is 10 months old. It deserves it's own post, but that probably won't happen. He ate real mac & cheese for dinner tonight and said "dada" for the first time. The word"Dada" was not connected to anything. It had nothing to do with his real "dada" since daddy is out of town right now. But it was cute none the less and he'll figure out soon enough that his first word really does have meaning :)

Christian hates school. He tells me everyday. This situation also deserves it's own post. So I'll have to get back to it later.  It makes me sad, but honestly doesn't surprise me in the least. We're dealing with it. The thumb fairy is coming to our house tomorrow night. Bet you didn't know there was a "thumb fairy." But there is in fact one that watches you at night to see if you suck your thumb. We have a thumb sucking situation that we're going to tackle this weekend. I'm praying about it already because it's going to get ugly before it gets better! You can't take a thumb away and we've previously tried lots of different tactics but the thumb HAS GOT TO GO! Christian is about to get is front top tooth, so it's now or ....buck teeth will be in our future. I've been a little soft on this situation since I happen to have sucked my own thumb until I was ((gasp)) eight years old. I made the very, very poor parenting mistake of telling Christian that one time.

McKenna is just wild. Seriously...loud, funny, sneaky and smart. She sort of reminds me of Curious George these days with some of her antics. She can make a mess faster than anyone I know and now that she's into spelling she likes to practice her spelling on the walls or on toys or on any available flat surface. Her grandparents think she's brilliant but her mother is not impressed.

Big Sister

 

I looked across the room and spotted this sweet scene the other day.

Seriously, how cute are they??

It's taken McKenna a little while to figure out this whole big sister thing. She's been pretty loud, wild and rough with Will from the start, but she's starting to calm down and really be responsible with him. She ran to me sobbing the other day because she thought Will was choking. He did have something in his mouth that he shouldn't have (that happens about 20 times a day) but he wasn't choking. I was pleased with how she handled it. She made the right choice to recognize that it was a serious situation. I'm proud of the big sister she's become.

He LOVES playing air hockey with his dad!

Football

I am not a huge football fan. In fact, I guess you could say I'm not a football fan at all considering I've never watched an entire game from start to finish. But lately I've had a reason to start paying attention. It's interesting that the media doesn't seem to have any problem with a player having multiple drug convictions or with having spent some time in jail, but they're all over a guy who prays. What a ridiculous double standard. So I don't know what team you're rooting for, but I have loved seeing Tim Tebow defy the odds over and over again. I wish there were more players like him!!! And I love it that I can show this video to Christian and show him how tough guys can love Jesus too!

Seventeen

I have been with my 3 kids 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...every single moment since December 22nd. I'll spare you the trouble of looking at the calendar....that's 17 days!!! Over half a month!! More than 2 weeks!! That might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I'm the kind of girl who just needs some space, some quiet, a few moments alone every now and then. I love to be alone. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be more thankful for my kids. But in the last 17 days we've dealt with strep throat, pink eye, RSV, bronchitis, a stomach bug three separate trips to the doctor and of course Christmas and New Years was squeezed in there too. And for the past 6.5 days Ryan has been out of town for work. So basically, I've been barely hanging on.

There was the sweet friend who made me cry when she surprised me and brought homemade soup to my little sickies. She refused to hug me when I started to cry and quickly backed off the porch and headed to the safety of her car...away from all our germs. I don't blame her. It was actually rather comical.

 And then there were the giant get well cards that some of our neighbors worked very hard on for each of the kids.

The cards were delivered to our front porch early one morning along with some yummy doughnuts. So even though life hasn't been very pleasant, I have felt loved and supported. The texts, the emails, the Facebook comments, the blog comments letting me know that people are praying for us has been a great source of encouragement. It's just been one of those times where it all comes crashing down at once. And in hindsight..it could have been much, much worse.

But guess what??? Right now I'm sitting on my couch and it's completely quiet. Will is sleeping and Ryan got home this afternoon and he took the big kids to the park (because it's 55 degrees! WooHoo!) I survived. Yippeee! Let's not do that again! My kids are almost healthy (not so sure if I should put Will in the nursery at church tomorrow). The hubs is home (at least for a day) and all my Christmas stuff is finally put away and I am reclaiming my house! Life is good.

Speaking of Ryan....he's going through some major job changes. As most of you know he runs a distribution center for the largest fireworks company in the world. This past week he packed up 180,000 sq feet of warehouse space and moved it all one hour North of here. He's going to have a pretty decent commute to work now, which stinks for us, but it's a good move for the company.

We went and visited Ryan one evening earlier this week.

Here's a little peek at his new office. It's going to be a nice place to work, it's just too bad it isn't a little closer. I'm thankful I have a husband who works so hard to provide for our family. We certainly have missed him this past week, but we are also thankful that he works for a great company that has been a blessing to our family.

Happy Boy

I'm not quite sure how we got so blessed, but Will is the most delightful baby! McKenna took this picture of him today. Look at the smile. He still has the worst cold & today we went back to the doctor because he has pink eye.

Blogging from my phone

I'm trying something new..... So bare with me. I'm attempting to blog from my phone. Lets see how this turns out.

I thought these 2 pictures of McKenna were cute! Now if only I knew how to arrange them in this post.

I'm about to hit "publish" so we'll see how it looks.

December 25th - Christmas Night

We were planning on going to my parent's house on Christmas night for Christmas dinner, but my kids were so sick. So my mom graciously packed up dinner and brought it to our house. They also brought gifts for our family. 

Every year my mom gives Christian a nutcracker. He loves growing his collection. And this year she gave him baseball bases and the best DS game ever (more about that in a minute). McKenna loved her new Barbie car that she can park in the garage of her doll house. And her favorite gift was a CD player with 2 microphones and some music CDs. She and Christian have been having the best time carrying that thing around the house singing at the top of their lungs.

Okay, back to the DS game. If your kid (boy or girl) has a DS...listen up! 

First of all, I have a confession to make: Over Christian break I didn't make Christian read one book. Not one. And the packet of practice work his teacher sent home to work on over break got lost somewhere and we didn't do it. Ahhh...that is so not like me AT ALL!! But you know, people were throwing up and I barely slept and there were fevers and lots of other great excuses.

So when Christian went back to school and all the sudden moved up a reading group I was a little mystified until I remember this game. 

He loves this game. He spent hours playing this game. Yup hours. Like hours and hours, remember all the excuses I listed above....well that's also why he got to sit around and play video games for hours :) Anyway, this game is an interactive game where you have to help the little boy, Maxwell, complete challenges and you help Maxwell by adding your own ideas to the game. If you write the word "hammer" all the sudden Maxwell will have a hammer that he can use. Or if you write the word "snowmobile" Maxwell can then ride on a snowmobile over a snow covered mountain. So the entire game is based on the fact that you can spell words. So Christian was using his "stretch spelling" to try and sound out words that he wanted to use and whenever he would write a word it would come to life on the screen. And if he didn't spell it perfectly the game would give him a list of words to choose from that sound like the word he was trying to spell. It's a pretty amazing game and Christian was having such a good time he had no idea that he was practicing spelling and reading while he was playing. This game doesn't challenge your "video gaming skills" it challenges your creativity, imagination and reading/writing skills. And the best part is that it's one of Christian's favorite games. So check out ScribbleNauts if you got a little DSer in your house!

Words for Wednesday

Highlights of my day....

• I was rocking Will to sleep and he picked his head up off my shoulder, looked at me and leaned his forehead in, as if he was asking for a kiss. He got a few. He is such a good baby. He barely fusses and is pretty much content to play on his own. I love him to pieces. Thankfully he's feeling much much better. He still has a bad cough, but he's on the mend.

• Listening to McKenna sing and "read" books to herself. She can tell a pretty good story.

• Christian cried this morning when I woke him up. He did NOT want to go back to school. But when he got off the bus today he couldn't wait to tell me what a great day he had. He listed all these great things like....he got a new seat and he sits next to Connor now (in his mind this is very huge news)! And he got his card punched twice (that means he did something good but he couldn't remember what). And....this is my personal favorite...... he had to move to a new reading group. When he said that my heart kind-of stopped for a second. I have a distinct memory of being in first grade and my teacher moving me "down" a reading group and she did it in front of the whole class. Guess what I remember about first grade? Yup, that's about it. So I was preparing to give Christian a pep talk, but then he continued to tell me that he used to be on level four books but they were too easy and his teacher said level five was too easy too, so he is on level six books. And he's in Reagan's group and she's really smart and a really good reader. So I asked who else was in his group and he said is was just Reagan and him. And no kids in the class are on level seven yet, which means he's in the "top" reading group. What???? I screamed I was so excited!!!! This is the boy who didn't even say "mama" until he was 2 1/2. This is the boy who had to be resuscitated at birth and I worried for years and years that something might be wrong.  I am honestly not trying to be a bragging...look how awesome my kid is...kind-of mom. I am just simply rejoicing. A little shocked and so, so thrilled. He has worked hard. His teacher is awesome!!! And there are lots of "step" teachers in his class who make a huge contribution to his education.

"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!!!"

December 25th - Christmas Morning

 Christian woke us up at 7:30am to tell us it was Christmas!! He was so excited. We weren't sure what to do because we didn't want McKenna to miss Christmas morning, but she was sound asleep burning up with a fever and Will was still sound asleep (I should have known something was wrong with him). We decided to let Christian have a fun morning and not worry about waiting for the other kids. Christian loved the attention of PopPop, Grandmom, Mommy and Daddy while he opened his presents.

 

It was a very calm and quiet Christmas morning.

 McKenna got up around 9:30am. She wanted to stay in bed but she also wanted to enjoy Christmas. She looked rough when Ryan carried her downstairs. She started to perk up once her Tylenol started kicking in. And the precious girl smiled every time I took her picture. But as soon as the picture was over her sad, exhausted face showed back up.

 Will also woke up around 9am and seemed to be fine, but that changed a few hours later. He enjoyed watching all the Christmas commotion. Remember how I couldn't decide what to get him for Christmas?? Well, we ended up getting him a nice toy box, because it's something I would want him to have later on down the road and it's not a "fun" toy! I also got him a new cover for McKenna's old chair. The cover says "Will" but I bought it off of ebay for next to nothing and the monogram is crooked, so I'm disappointed. I might just take the name off and keep the cover. Christian gave Will a toy dinosaur and McKenna gave him my favorite gift...which was the "cruise around lion." It's so cute and perfect for Will at this age.

 McKenna opened all her doll house people first and then I asked her what she was going to do with those people. She said "I don't know, put them in a box?"  So I asked a few more questions and then it dawned on her that she had asked for a doll house. She hopped off the couch and started looking around. She found what she was looking for waiting for her in the playroom. It was a very subdued reaction, not the fun I had in mind, but she loved it and has played with it every day since! Then Christian headed down to the basement and was THRILLED to find an air hockey table. I was so relieved that he loved it. I wasn't sure since he didn't ask for it. He loves playing it and beats me every time and I don't go easy on him. He's just actually that good or maybe I'm just that bad!!

That was our Christmas morning. Definitely not the perfect morning I had planned. But I was still so thankful to spend it with my precious family in our home that God has blessed us with.

December 24th - Christmas Eve - Getting Ready

I love setting up Christmas morning. It's one of my favorite parts of the entire holiday season. Ryan put the finishing touches on McKenna's doll house (that my parent's had already spent 4 hours assembling).  Ryan and my dad put together Christian's new air hockey table and I got all the gifts out of hiding and arranged them around the tree.

Christian just about gave me a heart attack when he got out of bed and came downstairs around 11pm. He was crying and felt awful and thankfully didn't see any surprises. Then around 2am McKenna got up and said she needed daddy. Ryan went into her room and a few minutes later she started throwing up. It was so sad and disappointing. She had been so excited about Christmas.

December 24th - Christmas Eve

 Our Christmas Eve was pretty perfect. Only Christian was feeling a little rough, but even he had a great day.

 Our church had lots of Christmas Eve services, so we went to one in the afternoon so we could have a leisurely evening.

We did something new this year.  We had a shepherd's dinner (thanks for the idea Becki!!!). We all dressed up like shepherds and ate dinner. The whole point was to really impress upon the kids what this night was really about. Christian was so excited about being a shepherd.

 While we were eating dinner an "angel" named McKenna came and told us some great news....that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and we should go and see him. We all went to the manger scene and put baby Jesus in the manger and sang "Away in a Manger."  Isn't Christian so sweet standing there with his shepherd's staff.

 Then everyone opened one present. Both the kids got Lego sets.

And then it was time for bed. We have never made much of a big deal about Santa. In fact we have flat out told the kids that St. Nicholas was a real man, but that "Santa" isn't real. They know that lots of families like to play the "Santa" game, but we don't make a big deal out of it one way or the other. We have Santa stuff out and read Santa books and sing Santa songs, but we don't write letters to Santa. You get the idea. So earlier in the day on Christmas Eve I was putting a roast in the crock pot and I was cutting up some carrots. McKenna asked me if she could have one. I thought she wanted to take a bite but she took it and headed out the front door and put it on the porch for the reindeer. That was a first. Later that night she asked me if she could have a cookie. I told her she could have one, until she said "Well, I bet Santa wants more than one and he's going to want some milk too." So she sat out milk and cookies and much to all of our surprise the next morning we found that the cookies were eaten and the carrot had a big bit taken out of it. Hmmm...wonder how that happened? Maybe we do play that game after all!

Oh Great! ha!

Just guess what the name of the new 2012 American Girl doll is???

Any guesses??

I got two emails about it already this morning.

I'll give you a hint. We happen to have someone by the same name in our house!

You guessed it....MCKENNA!!!

Until I saw this I was perfectly content to never own an American Girl doll. The knock-off dolls that Target sells for 1/5 of the price sounded good to me.  And they're super cute and come with adorable accessories. But "McKenna" is only available for one year, then she'll be discontinued, so I should at least buy the books...right? Oh geez...you know we're going to have to get her. Do you think McKenna is too young for a real doll?  She still plays with baby dolls and is loving her doll house right now. Maybe it's a purchase that needs to be made for Christmas next year.

Maybe my mom will read this and feel inspired to splurge on McKenna :)