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 :)