Christmas

This year Christmas was very laid back!  We enjoyed spending time together as a family, going to church, and doing skype calls with our family.

Here are our Christmas activities in pictures...

Putting up the tree...

We put the tree up high so Bridger couldn't reach it.

We made paper bird ornaments...

Gracen decided it would be fun to taste flour and got it all over his face...

Cute boy!

We made sugar cookies...

Jammies for Christmas eve.

Christmas Morning came a little too slowly for the kids!   I told Brynlee and Gracen they weren't allowed to wake anyone up too early.  I heard Brynlee in her room crying around 6:30 a.m. and went in to see what was wrong, she said, "This night is taking too long!"  

We were up not long after that!

Bridger's first Christmas.  He enjoyed opening some of his gifts and just ran around picking up things and playing with paper and boxes.  

Gracen's Christmas list had to of been 10 miles long this year.  I think he was quite pleased with what he got.

Santa mistakenly switched the DVD's he got for Brynlee and Gracen.  Gracen was a bit confused while opening it, but kinda laughed it off.

Brynlee, on the other hand, was not having it!  She didn't want to open a BOY movie!  

She was pretty happy with her gifts as well!

With each of our children we have made them a first Christmas ornament with their hand print on it.  Bridger's is the biggest hand print since he is nearly a year old.  It was fun comparing the size of all of their hands.  Brynlee was about 8 months her first Christmas and Gracen was 2 months.  Even with that age difference Brynlee's hand print is the smallest.  

Skating

A couple of weeks ago Brynlee finished up her first ice skating class.  It was just an intro class that lasted for 5 weeks.  

This poor girl was as tense as can be during her lessons.  She was nervous about falling.  She has no padding, so when she did fall it hurt.  She ended up getting a headache after the first couple of classes.

I talked with her coach about it and they worked with her to see what was going on.  The headaches were likely because of a few hard falls.  So the next week we came with some knee pads to see if that would help her feel more comfortable.  It worked!

She is doing much better and wants to try another class.  

On her last class, she took another really hard fall.  I was watching and could see that she was crying.  When the coach asked her if she wanted to go off the ice for a minute she told her no.  She stayed and kept going, even though she was upset and hurt.  I was so proud of her for being strong and sticking with it!

Brynlee

It comes to a surprise to some people when I tell them that my Brynlee, sweet, quiet little Brynlee, was the naughty child in nursery.  She was a feisty little thing!  Her way of keeping other kids out of her space was to pull out the finger nails and just pinch or claw.  It took a lot to break her of the habit.

She is my sweet, quiet girl.  But...she still has quite a temper!

Yesterday, Brynlee wanted to make muffins for breakfast. I left the kitchen for something and when I walked back into the kitchen I found her kneeling down on the floor.  I asked her what she was doing.  She waved her hand up me to tell me just a second.  After a few seconds she got up and told me she was praying that she could be a peacemaker and let Gracen help her with the muffins.  

I loved that.  I loved that she knew she could pray for help with something she has been struggling with.  That she has been listening when I talk to her about being a peacemaker, and that she is willing to find ways to get along with her brother.

Mini Chefs

Crazy night, no dinner planned.
On nights like that, Brynlee and Gracen usually get a say in what we have.  They chose breakfast dinner!
This time, they wanted to help...

Brynlee made the muffins with little help from me.

Gracen helped season the potatoes.

Bridger helped with the music.

He also helped get things out of the drawers.

We had fun working together to make dinner!  Brynlee especially loved that I allowed her to make the muffins mostly on her own!  They turned out pretty good too!

Gracen's Surgery

Back on November 18th, Gracen had surgery.  It was a minor surgery, but I was more nervous than I think I have ever been in my life.  The days leading up to it, I would look and him and just start to tear up thinking about it.  I wasn't really worried about the surgery itself, more the anesthesia.  It's not likely that something would go wrong, but what if we were that one in however many.  

The day really was uneventful.  We arrived.  I cried.  We checked him in.  I cried some more.  We were taken to a room where he got dressed and watched cartoons until it was time to go.  I had off and on moments of tears.  Somehow, I don't think he noticed.  I was trying not to let him see how nervous I was.  

He wasn't nervous at all.  He just wanted to go home so he could have some popsicles.  When it got closer to the time he was scheduled, his doctor and the anesthesiologist came in and talked with us.  My heart started to race.  Nate got dressed so he could walk back with him, and I said goodbye.  I was able to control my emotions just long enough to let him get out of my site.  

I walked down to the waiting room and felt so sick.  It didn't take long for Nate to get there.  We ordered some lunch and waited.

Once the doctor came in and told us that he did great, I felt so completely relieved of all that stress I had been carrying.  He told us that he was coming out of the anesthesia nicely and that he was pretty entertaining for everyone before the surgery.  He had slippers on that looked like dinosaur feet.  Whenever someone saw them and commented on them he would say something like "They're just dino slippers."  

I got down to the room, and to see him laying there sleeping was such a happy moment for me.  Knowing that he was okay was the best feeling.  I waited with him and it didn't take long for him to wake up.  After 20 mins or so they moved him to another room to monitor him.  We waited for an hour or two and then he was ready to go.  

Once we got him home, Nate laid in bed with him to help him fall asleep.  He napped for about 2 hours.  When he woke up he was pretty much good to go.  He kept telling us it didn't hurt.  We had to keep telling him to take it easy.  He only needed to take his pain meds once or twice.  It still amazes me how quickly kids can bounce back from something like that.

I am so grateful that things went well.  That there were no complications, and that Gracen was back to himself quicker than we could have imagined!  

It was hard coming up with ways to keep him from being too crazy.  Riding bikes was one thing I figured he could do without doing too much damage.  This boy has so much energy that it was incredibly hard to keep him quiet for the recommended 2 weeks.  I decided that as long as he wasn't rough housing and jumping around we were okay. 

Little Moments

I've been trying to recognize, and pay more attention to the little every day moments that I have with my children.  There are so many times that I feel like I am just constantly battling with them.  Mostly over the silliest things.  I don't want that to be the biggest, most remembered part of my day.  So, in an effort to remember some of the fun things they do or say I am going to start recording them here on my blog.  

I'll start off with a conversation with Gracen yesterday.

We were at Old Navy and he was insisting that I buy him something.  He could NOT believe that I wasn't going to buy him something.  "You never buy me anything!"  he stated in the whiniest voice he could find.   

After a mild tantrum we were out the door, in the car, and heading down the road.  

Our conversation went something like this:

Me:  "Gracen, your behavior in there was unacceptable.  It is not okay to behave like that.  In fact, I should probably call Santa and tell him how naughty you were being."

Gracen:  "Do you know Santa's phone number?"

Me:  "No, but I could figure it out pretty easy!"

Gracen:  "Mom?  When I get bigger and have kids of my own, will you teach me Santa's phone number so I can call him and tell him when they are being naughty?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that.  I thought he was going to tell me that when he got older and had his own kids he'd be nicer than me and buy them stuff.  Just those simple words, and knowing that he understood helped me feel much better about the little incident we just had at Old Navy. 

How interesting that just a few words can completely change how we feel.

I went from frustrated and upset, to that happy mom I'd rather be.  

October

October came and went all too quickly!  We had a busy and fun month!

Here are some highlights of the month...

First snowfall of the year.  October 7th.  A little too early.  My poor trees still had green leaves on them!

 Gracen's first field trip to Venetucci farms.  I even got to go.  We had fun!

Gracen and his best friend from preschool, Alden.  

We went for a weekend out to Arizona to visit my grandparents and my dad.  I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few at a playground we went to... 

The kids with grandpa Gary.  He has been sick.  It was hard to see him that way, but things seem to be getting better for him now.  

Wishing Star Farms.  We went with our friends, the Solomons.  It was a fun little place with plenty for the kids to do!

Then it snowed again!  My poor trees STILL hadn't lost their leaves and were getting so weighed down that Nate had to go out with a broom to lighten the load.

Trunk 'R Treat.  Violet the rainbow fairy, Peter Pan, and Green Lantern.  I was planning to put Bridger in our little cow costume that Brynlee wore her first Halloween.  Searched high and low for that thing and could't find it.  So last minute he became Peter Pan (Gracen's old costume).

 HALLOWEEN...

I found the cow costume!!  Isn't he adorable??

I went to both kids parties at school, then we went home and carved our pumpkins.

They actually got into it this year, other years it's been hard to convince them to pull out the pumpkin guts!

 Green Lantern, cute lil' cow, and Violet the rainbow fairy (which she had actually decided that she was some other fairy at school that day, but I can't remember what it was.) 

  

And of course we also celebrated Gracen's birthday in there too, but he got his own post for that one!  Busy, busy, busy, and it doesn't look like things are going to slow down any time soon!