Merry Christmas!

I am finally getting around to posting our Christmas pictures. This year we stayed home and had a nice quiet Christmas with just the four of us. It was so much fun watching the kids be so excited about everything.

We had a Christmas Eve service at our church and it was lovely. I wish would have taken a picture of Andrew holding the candle during the candlelight service. He was so in awe of everything. Following the service a bunch of us went caroling to a couple in our church family. The wife just had surgery and was very disappointed that her doctor told her to stay home and recuperate. She was shocked and thrilled when 25 people from her church family showed up at her house on Christmas Eve night to sing carols to her. We also brought a birthday cake for Jesus, which we all shared together. It was a special time for everyone there.

This is Carole all dressed up and ready to go to our Christmas Eve service at the church.

And here is Andrew all dressed up and ready to go as well.

The princess had to make a pit stop on her throne before we vacated the castle. Potty training is going so much better! She takes herself to the potty now and has very few accidents.

I captured this moment on camera a few days before Christmas. They both snuggled up together to watch "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Many of you know that we had limited space in our moving truck when we moved here. I had to leave my couch and love seat behind. I had no problem with this because they were very uncomfortable to sit in and were used when we got them. Also, our new living room here is much smaller and they would not have fit. Thanks to my Grandpa and Grandma, I have a new couch! They gave us money for Christmas and we used it to buy our very first BRAND NEW couch. Phil was able to pick it up before Christmas too!

Christmas day was a lot of fun. Andrew got up first. He was more concerned about whether Santa had found the cookies he left out for him than he was about opening presents. He was happy that Santa had indeed found them and even left a note for him. While the kids were waiting for breakfast they got to peek into their stockings. Carole loved getting her new tiara. Andrew got several things he liked, but was concerned because it was not what he had asked Santa for. He said, "Mom, I told Santa that I wanted a batman!" He proceeded to shake everything out of his stocking and said, "It's not here! Santa messed up!" I started laughing. Phil calmly told him not to worry because there were still presents under the tree. Andrew replied, "I know, Dad, but those are from YOU not Santa and I told HIM I wanted a Batman!" LOL!

Santa brought our princess her very first tiara and earring set.

Here is Andrew opening his present from Uncle Chris and Aunt Susanna. It was a Batmobile! It turned out to be his favorite gift of the day!

Andrew enjoying his new batmobile.

Here is Carole opening her favorite present of the day. A new princess quilt for her bed!

As soon as it was opened she dove under! She LOVES her new "pincess" bed.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It has been awhile since I've posted so on this very cold day I thought it was time to update you on this family of four. We have been experiencing some VERY cold temps here so in return the kids are getting a touch of cabin fever. And you all know that when a kid gets bored they tend to do things they know they shouldn't. Enough said. Pray for us! :o) It was -12 here today with 30-40 below wind chills!

Here are some pictures of them killing the time but not getting into trouble. They sure can be creative.

Carole has been into princesses lately. So in turn, she thinks she is a princess. Daddy and Mommy think so too. Well, most of the time. LOL! Andrew is always running around declaring, "I'm batman!" One day out of the blue Carole replied, "I'm Kitty Princess!"

Here is the princess trying to get her royal dollar store shoes on.

There was one day when the temperature actually made it into the 20's. So we bundled the kids up and let them play in the snow. We got 10 inches one night, so there was plenty to play in.

Here are a couple of box heads. In a moment of boredom, they raided my recycling pile a found a couple of kleenex boxes that made some nice hats. Creative, huh? And yes, those are my slippers Carole is wearing. ;o)

Last week Andrew had his Christmas program at preschool. It was hard to get good pictures as the lighting was not that good. So this picture is a frame I froze from a video clip I took. He was a VERY good shepherd. He had a hard time standing where his teacher wanted him to, but he sang so well!! His voice over powered the other children, not in a bad way, but more so because he actually knew all the words. He was so proud of himself and so were we!

And what does a 4.5 year old do to keep himself busy in church? Put stickers on his eyes! His Nana got him a dinosaur sticker book for his birthday this past year and today he found the eye stickers. And of course, Mommy had her camera with her! ;o)

I Have Been Tagged!

I have been tagged by my old college friend, Ann-Marie, and I have to follow the rules.
Here they are...

Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as links to their blog. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have never been tagged before. After Ann-Marie tagged me, I was tagged on facebook by someone else. All in the same day!

2. Ann-Marie and I met when we were seniors in high school. We were both visiting Moody Bible Institute for the weekend. During our college years I set her up on a blind date. She was a champ to go through with it. She is now married to the guy! ;o)

3. I love living in a really small town.

4. I am in the middle of potty training my 2.5 year old, strong-willed daughter. It is going well except for the fact that she has poop phobia.

5. My favorite saying is "this too shall pass."

6. God is not through with me yet. I still have so much to learn about relying on Him and being patient.

7. I love rubber stamping. My favorite thing to do is to lock myself in my craft room and create greeting cards for others.

I tag:

Mandy S.
Ruthie
Sarah
Mandy C.
Laura
Sabrina
Linda

I Spy With My Little Eye

While we were eating supper tonight Andrew asked if we could play "I spy with my little eye." I said okay and he began the game.
Andrew: I spy with my wittle eye someting gween!
Phil: Your peas!
Andrew: Ya! Your turn, Daddy!
and the game went on, then suddenly Carole interrupted.
Carole: My turn, my turn!
Me: Okay, let's let Carole have a turn. Go ahead, Carole.
Carole: (beaming ear to ear) I spy with my wittle eye sumting iceceam!
Phil: Is it icecream, Carole?
Carole: Yay! Daddy got it. Your turn, Daddy!

LOL!!!!!!

O Christmas Tree

Tonight we put up our Christmas tree. I had bought the kids matching pajamas for Christmas a few weeks ago. I thought it would be cute to get some pictures of them decorating the tree together in their new pj's. They sure had a lot of fun. We are having a hard time getting Carole to realize that once you put the ornament on you are to leave it on. I think I may have all of my hair pulled out by Christmas. ;o)

This picture was taken right after they put their new pajamas on. They never hug each other like this!

Here they are digging in the ornament box trying to find just the right one to hang up next.

Carole took this decorating business very seriously. Everything had to be just right. Well, for a few seconds anyway. Then she would take it back off and put it somewhere else.

Andrew had a great time! He took his job very seriously too.

Here they are posing in front of their work with great pride.

Singing, Giggling Andrew

Andrew will be in a Christmas program at his new preschool on the 17th. For this he has to learn several Christmas songs. One of them is "Away in a Manger." Enjoy!

Carole's Favorite Christmas Carol

Her is a short video clip of Carole singing her favorite Christmas song. This is her version of the chorus. :)

New Picture

Yesterday, to my great surprise, I was able to get a good picture of the kids before church. I have always tried to take their picture every Sunday, and lo and behold I finally got a good one. I decided to use it for my Christmas card picture this year. I sent it to my mom and she doctored it up and gave it a nice snowy background. Believe it or not, but the background is a picture she took of their yard last year.
Thanks Mom!! ;o)

Kleenex Disaster

So I went in to go to the bathroom. I came out and noticed that Carole was unusually quiet. I went to investigate and this is what I found.

I said, "Carole, what are you doing?"
She said, "I have boogers mommy. Baby has boogers too."

She emptied a box of 250 kleenexes!!!

When I'm a Man

I realize it has been a LONG time since I have updated this blog. In the last entry you may have seen boxes behind Carole. You guessed it. We moved. The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity for us. We found out we were moving to a new field the end of September. On October 28th we arrived at our new home in IA and have been busy settling in and getting to know our new church family.

Since then Andrew thinks he has grown up and become a man. That is his new favorite thing to talk about. It seems like all I hear is ... "Mom, when I grow up and become a man..." Today he was hilarious! Very serious, but hilarious! We were all sitting around the table for lunch and the conversation went something like this...

Andrew: Dad, when I am a man will I still live with you?

Phil: No, you will move out and get your own place.

Andrew: Will someone give me a car?

Phil: No, you will buy your own car with the money you earn from working at your job. You might also be going to college. Maybe you will fall in love with a pretty girl and get married.

At this point in the conversation I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher and I happened to look up and notice Andrew had tears forming in his eyes and his lower lip was quivering.

Andrew quietly answered: I will miss you, daddy.

Me: Andrew you don't have to move out now. You aren't a man yet. You get to live with mommy and daddy for a long time.

Andrew: Okay. Mommy, where do you buy cars at.

Me: At a store that sells them.

Phil: Or you can buy someone's old one that they don't want anymore.

Andrew: Can I buy your green car, Dad?

My handsome little man!

I Yuv You, Barney!

Today Carole got a new Barney. She has been singing his praises since. Here is a video of her singing to him. Enjoy!

Andrew's injury

Friday Andrew had his first dental appointment. We found out that he has a cavity. Phil and I are both shocked at this news because he never drinks juice and he doesn't care for sweet things. Wierd. I am 30 yrs old, LOVE sweet things, and still have no cavities. Strange.

Anyway, after his appointment we went to Mitchell to do some shopping. We stopped at our first store and Andrew fell out of the van on his head. We have no clue how it happened and neither of us saw it. He always gets out by himself. When I first saw his head I freaked out. It LITERALLY looked like someone inserted a golf ball in the side of his head. I quickly ran into the store and received an icepack from the first aid kit at the service desk. The poor kid screamed for nearly 20 minutes. For Andrew, that is very rare. I then decided we had better get him to the doctor to check of a concussion. It looked SO BAD! I seriously thought they would admit him and do a CAT scan on him. When we arrived at the doctor's office he was starting to perk up. By the time we saw the doctor, the swelling had gone down considerably. I was so relieved. He checked out fine and the doctored instructed us to wake him up in the middle of the night to make sure he was okay. She wanted us to ask him questions to see if his brain was still working. Andrew is a hard sleeper so this was especially funny. Here is how the conversation went...
Me: Andrew, wake up. Mommy needs to talk to you.
Him: Hmmm.
Me: What is your name?
Him: Andrew
Me: How old are you?
Him: 4 (at this point he was getting annoyed)
Me: Who am I? Who is holding you?
Him: (confused look) Carole?
Me: Open your eyes Andrew. Who is holding you?
Him: Groan. Mommy?
Me: Can I look at your eyes?
Him: No (he wouldn't even crack them a centimeter)
Me: Andrew I need to see if your eyes are sick.
Him: I wanna sleep

LOL! It was easy to tell that he was fine. He was instantly back to sleep when I quit talking and the next morning he remembered nothing.

So he made it through his major head injury. As if the poor kid had not already had enough head trauma, the following day the neighbor kid hit a dirt clod with a bat and hit Andrew right in the forehead. I think he needs a helmet. ;o) Here are some pictures I took of his head Friday night. The swelling had gone down a lot. The golf ball was no longer visible.

Carole LOVES kitties!

Carole loves kitties a lot. I guess she is a little like her mommy used to be. This picture was a special one for me to be able to capture. Buster is an old kitty who does not normally tolerate Carole's cuddles. My brother gave us Buster when we got married in 2000. He was already 6 years old then. So now he is 14 yrs old. In human years, Buster is 72 years old. I don't think he has very many years left. I will always treasure this picture.

This is Carole dressed and ready to go to church this past Sunday. I found that jumper at a Goodwill in Michigan. It is a size 5. *shock* She really is a big 2 year old. ;o)

Saturday we had a Garage Sale (in our case it was a slab sale). It was very difficult to manage a sale and keep an eye on Carole. She surprised us though. For about an hour in the morning she sat on the couch and colored and watched TV and never moved. That was very rare for her. Lately she is in to coloring every single page of her kitty notebook. She scribbles, turns the page, and scribbles some more. I will buy her 100 more notebooks if that means it will keep her out of trouble! ;o) LOL

Back to Stamping

When I was in Michigan, my parents took us down to Shipshewana, IN. My Mom wanted to take me to this great stamp store that is there. I purchased some new stamps at an awesome price, and so far I have had lots of fun playing with them. Here are a few cards I made with the new stamps.

I am sure you are wondering how in the world I find time to stamp. ANDREW IS IN SCHOOL AND LITTLE SIS PLAYS SO GOOD BY HERSELF! Yep, mommy hides in the den at her craft desk. ;o) It feels so good to get back at my hobby.

I'm not so sure I like the color combo on this one, but it was sure fun watercoloring the little boy.

For this card, I folded the front flap in half so the boy could be looking back at the tree. This layout was purely experimental, but I like how it turned out.

This one is my favorite. It was hard cutting the pieces to fit just right, but it turned out okay. This was also an experimental layout.

Where's Carole?

I had to laugh at this sight when I went in to check on Carole one night. It reminded me of the ET movie when ET was hiding in a closet full of stuffed animals. Carole LOVES her stuffed friends. She has to have all of them before she'll go to sleep. Believe it or not, she actually does a little roll call before lights out. She knows when one is missing.

Sunday Morning With Carole

This morning with Carole was a huge challenge. First of all, it took me 15 minutes just to put a dress on her. She wanted to wear her pajamas all day. Secondly, she has officially entered the "I do it myself" stage (or in her case, the "Cawole do it" stage). My mom just laughs when I tell her of Carole's antics. She said I was the same way at her age and my favorite sentence was... "I do it, I do it myself." ;o) Like mother, like daughter. This morning Carole wanted to put her church shoes on all by herself. She looked at me while grabbing the shoes out of my hands and said, "Cawole do it. It's Cawole's turn, Mommy. Cawole do it." I gave in and let her do it herself. She struggled at first and I reached out to help. She looked at me with evil eyes, began to scoot away, and said, "MOMMY! It's Cawole's turn!" After ten minutes of struggling, she finally was successful! She was very proud of herself until I told her it wasn't time to leave for church yet. That is why she is crying in the last picture of her and that is why she refused to smile when I tried to get her picture with Andrew. *sigh* Life with a two year old is always interesting.

Dear Sweet Carole

I had to post some pictures of our blue eyed sweetheart (aka monster). You may remember me posting awhile back that Carole was out of the "terrible two's." That was wishful thinking on my part. The tantrums have returned in full force! She is definitely strong willed and Phil and I both agree she is more difficult than Andrew was at this age. But one thing can still be said... she sure is a cutie!

First Day of School

As promised, here are the pictures of Andrew getting ready for his first day of school. He was none too happy when mommy made him pose for the camera but he gave me smiles anyway.





I walked him out to his bus and noticed he was getting nervous. Last year for 3 year old preschool his teacher and assistant came and picked him up in a passenger van. For 4 year old preschool things changed. So I think when he saw the big yellow school bus and his teacher and assistant were nowhere to be see, he started to get scared. The bus driver's helper had to get out and coax him to get in the bus. I got on with him and saw him get all buckled up. He was brave and smiling big when they drove away. No tears from him, but mommy was fighting tears. ;o) He said there was a boy who cried a lot for his mommy and he had to go home. "But I didn't cry mommy. I didn't really miss you." *sniff, sniff*

Andrew Learns to Ride Bike!

Today was a big day for Andrew. First of all, he started preschool. I will write more about that later and post some pictures. But the second big thing of his day was that he learned to ride his bike without the training wheels! Our neighbor girl (7 years old) apparently told Andrew that he was ready to take the training wheels off. Well, tonight at supper he asked if his Daddy would take them off after supper. Phil explained to him that it might not be easy and he might fall a lot at first. Andrew didn't care, he wanted to try it anyway. Lo and behold, he took right off riding like he has known how for years! Enjoy this video clip!

Our Blued Eyed Doll

Carole keeps getting cuter! Check out those baby blues!

Carole has officially gotten over her TERRIBLE TWO's (knock on wood) and we are still alive! She is still 2 years old, but these last few weeks she has been much easier to live with. The tantrums are not as often and they don't last near as long.