Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

May you all enjoy good family time, quiet time in front of the tree, sweet memories with your children, good food, laughs over Christmas movie classics, and most importantly, reflection on why we truly celebrate this holiday....Christ's birth. "Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). I thank God that He humbled Himself by coming in the form of a baby so that we could truly know how much He loves us.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Singing Bears

Late this afternoon, after a Christmas brunch with some neighbors, we headed uptown to see the Singing Bears in Founders Hall, which is in the Bank of America tower. The singing bears are a symphony of bears, essentially, that "perform" Christmas songs. Cate thought this was very cool! She danced and danced. This is a beautiful place decorated at Christmas, but my favorite thing about Founders Hall is the lights that they have hanging down from the ceiling. It fascinated Drew as well...he was mesmerized. The picture I took doesn't do the lights justice, but it was worth a shot.

A dream come true

Last night the Hwangs spent the night with us and we had our present exchange! They gave Cate what any little girl would dream of....6 pairs of princess shoes! She was thrilled and not only to have 6 new pairs of dress up shoes, but to have a "home" for each of them in the fancy little box they came in! Her first words this morning when she woke up were, "Can we play dress up shoes!" We gave Noah a tray that he can use in the car since Cate loves the one that her Gran gave her and sweet Joshua got a little Elmo!! Drew got his very first Spiderman ball which he played with this afternoon with Cate and his daddy!

After the kiddos were all in bed, Jeff, Stacy, Jacob and I hung out eating Christmas cookies and chatting. Then we turned on the TV and watched Saturday Night Live reruns and laughed and laughed and laughed. It was delightful:) It was a brief, but fun visit with our dear friends!

Oh, and if you are wondering why Cate looks so red faced and puffy eyed in the first picture, it is because of the hour and 1/2 long temper tantrum she threw about eating shrimp at dinner! She once really liked shrimp but now seems to have a complete aversion to it. These kids are hard to figure out some times:) At least the shoes cheered her up....

6 months

Drew is 6 months old! I can hardly believe it. At 6 months, Drew is now 20 lbs and 28 1/4 inches in length (90% and 95%, respectively). All I can say is at least he is proportional!! He is starting to sit up, is rolling both ways, has 1 tooth and is cutting his second, and is greatly enjoying a "breakfast" and "supper" of cereal and a fruit or vegetable. He has had bananas, carrots, and pears. This week we'll start on green peas. So far, he as loved all of it! He is very social and can melt your heart with a smile or laugh. He's yet to sleep through the night at 6 months and I eagerly await the night he decides to! The past few nights have actually been pretty rough but I think it may be due to his teething! He's certainly got me wrapped around this little finger, though...he's mama's little boy:)

Gingerbread House

Last night a valiant attempt to make a gingerbread house was made! Cate was super excited about making it and asked all day long if it was time to make it. So, we hurried through dinner so we could get started. Jacob read the directions and proceeded to put the house together. Everything seemed to be coming together beautifully and as soon as the house was built, Cate started to decorate and very meticulously!

After Cate had placed some gumballs around the edges of the roof, they started to slide off as you can see below. Then the peak of the roof where we put the peppermints began to separate. I asked Jacob if he read the directions and he said that he had. I looked at them myself and the last lines read, wait 15 minutes before decorating! Oops. Well, depite efforts to hold it together, our house failed.



I couldn't help but laugh at our failed attempt to make a gingerbread house which helped lighten the hubby's frustration and Cate's disappointment. So, I suggested eating it instead (not really) but I do believe some candies were eaten and frosting consumed:)

Jacob was determined, however, to have a gingerbread house and so he clipped the tips of the roof and made a flat topped gingerbread abode! It is proudly displayed in our kitchen now and we definitely created memories for years to come. Plus, we learned from our mistakes and will know better next year in case we want to stick with the more traditional looking gingerbread house!

He can smile for the camera!

I have this wonderfully smiley baby but you all probably think I'm crazy because his precious smile is never in the pictures I post. Whenever he was smiling and I'd try to take his picture, he would get serious, trying to figure out what I was doing with a big silver thing in front of his face!
Well, I finally captured one this afternoon and you can see his newest trick....sitting up. But, his sitting up is very much in the early stages and falls over quickly without support:) At least he thinks it's funny!


He'll be 6 months old Thursday!!! I'll post his new stats then.

Ornaments

I'm definitely not the craftiest person on the planet, but Cate and I did a fun Christmas craft this week. I had to make some playdough for her preschool class and on the same recipe was a recipe for making tree ornaments. It consisted of about 3 ingredients, all of which we had at home, so we made some star and stocking ornaments for her friends at school! Yes, they look like cookies, but there is no sugar in them so I don't think they'd taste too good:) After they cooled, Cate painted them. I have some final touchs to do...I think I'll personalize them all and then add the string, but overall, I think they turned out well!

O Christmas Tree

O, here is our Christmas tree from start to finish (well, not from its very beginnings as a seedling, but from our finding it at the Christmas tree lot)!

Cate delighted in running between and through all the trees!
Loaded up on the trusty ol' van (did I ever mention that I swore I'd never drive a mini-van, but in fact love it???).
And the final product!
I think it's a beautiful tree and find myself gazing at it often. I just LOVE the Christmas season. I am trying to enjoy every day of it but have felt busy since it began after Thanksgiving. I want to make time to sit by the tree, drink some coffee with my peppermint mocha creamer, and read a book but I haven't found the time yet. Maybe it is due to feeling the demands of having 2 children now more than ever or just everyday happenings but I do know that we are really trying to keep our focus on Christ this holiday.

Cate is more animated than ever. She is beside herself with excitement whenever we pass anything that has Christmas lights, those snow globes, or inflated characters. She will continue to point it out to us, very loudly I may add, until we acknowledge that we've seen it too! Last night we ventured over to McAdenville, NC to view the town which is known for their Christmas lights. It was a fun time!

Scrabble

I told you Cate was into games. Well, one day this week she pulled out the Scrabble game from this cubby we keep games in. Jacob and I are known to challenge each other to a game or two every now and then. She asked what it was and I told her it was a game she could play when she was a bit older. She has also been into spelling lately, wanting to type words (with help) on the computer and asking what words start with. So, it occurred to me that maybe she could spell some words with the Scrabble pieces. We worked on it together and you can see what we came up with below!

Time to climb

It is fun to me that Cate is just about big enough to climb trees, small ones at least. Growing up, we used to climb up in the neighbor's tree and it was so much fun. There is a tree in our front yard that is just about right for her so we tried it out this week! She thought it was great.

Candy Land

Cate has become quite the game player and Candy Land is her favorite. She has quite a knack for the game because she seems to win almost every time! I'll be SO close to winning and then I'll get Plumpy or Mr. Mint in Peppermint Forest and have to go back to almost the beginning of the game. You'll notice, though, in the second picture that the yellow gingerbread man made it to Kandy Kastle first! Yep, that's me...I won:) I had to document it since it doesn't happen very often!

The gator

Saturday we took the trails on Jacob's uncle's property in the gator and ATV! Except for an incident running out of gas on the yellow ATV (Jacob driving), it was so much fun:)

The Zoo

Friday we bundled up and headed to the Columbus zoo in the 37 degree weather! After being there about 30 minutes we realized why they sold discounted tickets in the winter after not seeing any animals! But, our luck soon changed. We happened upon the manitees, gorillas, bonobos (a monkey like a chimpanzee), cheetah, elephants and rhino who were all indoors. Because they were indoors, we got some great views of these animals...better than we'd probably seen them outdoors. It was a lot of fun!

Reason for thanks

There were so many reasons to give thanks this Thanksgiving. I'm overwhelmed with thanks for my family, especially with the addition of Drew this year. It is a blessing to be able to spend time with family each year as well. This Thanksgiving, Drew met his Aunt Faith and Uncle Sasha for the first time as well has his great grandmother! I think Drew is the 11th great grandchild for her!!