Christmas 2012

The excitement level about Christmas was very high.  We went to my parent's house for Christmas Eve dinner.  It was fairly quiet since it was just us and my parents.  We hurried home so that we could get pajamas on and get the plate ready for Santa.  We put out cookies and milk along with carrots for the reindeer.  Grant and Claire went to sleep fairly quickly, but Andrew was restless for a while.  We learned that we have to wait until he is for sure asleep before starting any Christmas activities.

 

Andrew woke up first, about 7:15 am, on Christmas Day followed by Claire and Grant.  I wouldn't be surprised if Andrew has actually woken them up.   I couldn't get Grant to pose for a picture in the morning, but Andrew and Claire would have done just about anything as if it got them to open presents faster.

 

Grant was very into opening his gifts this year.  He got some pieces to his Thomas train set.

 

Andrew got the new bat that he had been wanting. 

 

 

 Grant got both a Thomas and Chuggington dvd.

 

 

The number one thing on Andrew's list was a Playstation 3.  He was so excited to open this.  Don't mind the box, it comes with a non-child friendly game.  He only wanted Madden 13 to play.

 

Claire got an Easy Bake oven.  We made some brownies this week. The pans and the amount it makes is really tiny, but she still loved it.

 

 

 

My parents came over to join in the gift opening fun. 

 

Claire got an American Girl doll from Grandma Kiehn.  She has barely put it down since she got it. 

 

 

Grant has also had a lot of fun playing with his Chuggington train set. 

 

 

Andrew went to visit his cousin Landon just after Christmas, so we have been playing games and doing things that Claire wants to do.  Grant was into Candyland for a while, but then he started causing havoc with the cards.

 

It has been so nice to have a week and a half off work to do Christmas things and enjoy time together.  We have been able to clean out and organize lots of things including the garage. 

The long goodbye



Back in the fall of 2008 Claire was about 16 months and Andrew was 4 years old.  My babysitter at the time was moving out of the area.  Natalie had planned to go back to teaching that fall, but found out that she was pregnant with Chris, so a match was made.  We did it on a trial basis at first just to make sure that things would work for both of us.  Four years and three MORE kids later it was more than I could have asked for.  About a year and half or so ago, Natalie called me at work to tell me that they were moving.  I was shocked (and horrified and sad) to say the least!  She said that it was a very early notification and that they probably wouldn't leave for two years.  They needed to move out of the area in order for Pete to finish school.  This picture was taken in the first month of Natalie watching the kids.  I can't believe how little Claire and Elaina look!  That has been one of the great things about Natalie watching them - the pictures.  She took lots of pictures that we wouldn't otherwise have.  So, we have been trying to stop time and doing our best with the long, slow goodbye.

 

My mom made them matching capes that they loved to wear.  They were a bit large to start out.

 

And look at them now!  They are both 5.5 years old and in Kindergarten. People tell Natalie all the time that they look like sisters or twins.  I think they look like relatives, but not sisters.

 

 

The week before Christmas things became really real - they were going to leave!  My friend Britney organized a mommy/daughter date night.  Claire and Elaina both love their friend Ava and they especially love going to her house for play dates.  They were able to get in one last play date last week plus this outing for ice cream.  They all ended up in different Kindergarten classes, but they still played together at recess.  They were super silly at dinner, but had a wonderful time.

 

 

In an effort to afford Natalie time to pack, I watched the kids on Friday after school and Saturday.  Chris and Grant played trains.

 

Danny said yes to play dough (Natalie let the kids play this as well, it is not my favorite thing).  Many creations were made.

 

I believe this was a snowman that Elaina made.

 

 

Then Sunday night we did a sleep over.  The anticipation for this was huge!  Claire could not wait.  She had slept over at Elaina's house before but not vice versa.  They both slept in sleeping bags on the floor and were asleep by 10:30, which was earlier than I would have thought. 

 

The day of the move, Christmas Eve, there were many activities still to fit in.  Natalie and Pete were headed to Las Vegas for Christmas with his family.  We started out with some Wii.

 

 

And then onto bike riding.  All of the kids have a love of bike riding due to Pete and Natalie's influence.  Grant joined in the fun.  Note to Natalie - I know he needs a helmet!  You need to tell me which one to get!

 

The girls played camping.  My kids LOVE to go camping and talk about it all of the time.  They spend a lot of time packing up things for imaginary camp outs.

 

 

Time out for a snack.

 

And, like old times, a picnic in the back of Grandpa's truck.

 

And then finally, the time had arrived for the actual goodbye.  Silly hugs first.

 

A family picture out front.

 

Grant saying goodbye to Mateo.  I think they will be good play mates in a few years.  It is hard to believe by looking at them that they are only a little over a year apart in age.

 

Pete giving Claire a big squeeze.

 

Pete giving Grant a big squeeze.  Grant was afraid of Pete for a really long time and used to cry when he saw him.  He was actually afraid of his brother Rui as well because they looked so much alike. 

 

 

And then they left....van fully loaded

 

 

Claire thinks that Idaho is near where her other cousins live in Southern California.  She is not aware that it is 15 hours away.  Our plan is to try to get up there next summer for a visit as well as a visit to Yellowstone.  That is, if, they don't freeze first.  We are very sad to see them leave, but excited for their new adventures.  Claire told me that we can Skype so that we can still see them.  She already wrote a note for us to mail.  I think that it would be really hard to suddenly be missing your other half.  They have been together almost daily for four years.  I am so, so grateful for the wonderful babysitting and chauffeuring that Natalie did for my family.  Over the years many people have told me how lucky I was to have my sister watch my kids and I couldn't agree more!  We'll miss you Martins family!!!  We love you.

Getting ready for Christmas



As usual, Christmas came too fast this year.  Andrew and Claire really wanted to decorate the Christmas tree this year, so we let them!  It wasn't how I would have done it, but they did a good job.  They made sure to get all of the decorations that they made right in the front.

 

Deciding which ornaments to use and where to put them was a tough decision.  The tree was a bit bottom heavy with ornaments, so we did move a few around after they were done.

 

Next up was the Christmas party at church.  In Primary they had practiced some songs and parts for a short nativity play.  Claire was a shepherd, although she looks a bit like a pioneer.  Elaina is next to her and they sang the songs, but didn't have speaking parts.

 

 

Andrew was a wise man and had a speaking part which he was very excited about.  The problem was that he insisted on wearing part of the costume that he wore two years ago.  Needless to say, it was a bit small.  He also didn't wear all of it, hence the hockey shirt underneath.

 

Andrew giving gifts to baby Jesus. 

 

They also had a Santa at the party.  Claire and Grant totally freaked out when we walked into the room.  Andrew wanted to be sure to tell Santa that he wanted a PS3.  Funny story - I was at the mall with Claire the week before this and we walked past the line of kids waiting to see Santa.  I asked her if we should come back with Andrew and Grant so that they could all sit on Santa's lap.  Claire looked at me with a horrified face and said, "NO!  I won't sit on Santa's lap.  I will only sit on the Easter Bunny's lap!"  Well, good to know!

 

Of course there were also crafts, so Claire and Elaina were in heaven.  Many things were made and had to be carefully transported home.

 

We also decorated gingerbread houses at home.  I didn't get any pictures of that.  I was not feeling well and it took all the energy I had to help glue candy on.  Luckily, Danny's parents were here and Jan was able to help the kids finish the houses.  The Kindergarten classes at Claire's school do a winter concert.  I suppose that concert is the right word, there are four Kinder classes and they all sang Christmas/winter songs.  Apparently this is the type of event that we should have arrived at hours ahead of time.  We were in the very last row, so my pictures didn't turn out so hot.  Luckily my friend Sara sent me these cute ones of Claire (Thank you!).

 

Claire's class sang Jingle Bells, Up on the House Top and Feliz Navidad.  All of the classes were so cute.  The kids did such a good job singing and doing motions for some of the songs.  They got lots of clapping and cheering when they were done. 

 

After church last Sunday I had the kids pose in front of the tree.  Claire would not wear the Christmas dress I got for this year, so she wore the one from last year.  Luckily, it matched Andrew and Grant perfectly.  I cannot believe I got a picture with all three of them smiling!

 

 

It didn't last long though...

 

 

The kids got more and more excited about Christmas.  Claire was keeping track of who was on the naughty list and who was on the nice list. At one point, Mateo was on the naughty list because he likes to climb up the stairs at Grandma's house.   We were happy to have Danny's parents visit and help us out with babysitting for two weeks.  It was nice to see them before Christmas. 

Cake pops

A while back I had a coupon for Michael's burning a hole in my pocket.  I saw this cake pop maker and decided to give it a try.  I have never made cake pops the "real" way where you take baked cake and combine it with frosting.  This is the short cut way to still make cake pops.  On a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago we decided to give it a try.

 

Of course, Claire was very excited to help.  We used a regular cake mix for our trial run.  This was also the first time that Claire was able to use the hand mixer.

 

 

Whenever Claire helps, Grant also likes to "help".  Mostly he plays in the sink with the water and makes a big mess.

 

We baked 12 at a time and had to figure out just the right amount of batter to put into each hole.  One side always turns out darker than the other.  This was a yellow cake mix.  We had to do several rounds of cooking to use all of the batter.

 

 

Next was the fun part - decorating.  I decided to dip them in chocolate Candymelt and then put sprinkles on them.  Claire got a head start by sampling the sprinkles.

 

I didn't dip the whole pop in the chocolate and I didn't actually make them into pops because I didn't have any sticks.  The kids didn't seem to mind at all.  It was quite fast to get them all decorated.

 

 

We even had leftovers so that Grant could have some for breakfast.  I know - bad mom.