A...unique Christmas

It's not as though the barfing ruined Christmas.  It just made it unique.  But everyone has a sick Christmas or two in their lives.  Let's this chalk this one up as one of ours.

While we were all well, we had a wonderful Christmas party at church.  We had a beautiful dinner and show.  Abby and I got to sing "When Christmas Comes to Town" from The Polar Express.  It was such a treat to sing with Abby, I've just been waiting for the day she was ready!  And it came!  Here we are in our jammies, like in the movie.

Eliza missed the last week of school, as she was the first to get "the bug."  Poor thing was hit hard and puked, she counted and I confirm, 23 times.  After a several day recovery, she was ready for action.  Then, the 23rd, the bug hit me.  Ouch.  I was too weak (though feeling a bit better) for our trip to The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve.  Here are the attendants:  (One of whom would be getting sick later that evening...any predictions?)

Because of my illness, we had to cancel our fun dinner/game/nativity plans with our friends!  Ug!  We still managed to pull off a mini nativity at home.  Our photographer is not pictured, but neither is the next sickie.

Welcome to the club, Andrew.  And merry Christmas!  The girls gathered all his stuffed animals around his "sick bed" so he'd be most comfortable during the festivities.

 By Christmas morning Andrew was feeling weak, but no longer throwing up.  Luckily he could enjoy the gift-opening.  And yes, we opted to stay home from church hoping to spare another innocent family of the bug's misery.  Besides, who wants to split up the family on Christmas?  We did enjoy the Joy to the World video to keep us in the spirit of things. 

A little glimpse into gift time:  Abby was overjoyed that Santa brought her a BYU sweatshirt she'd longed for at the BYU bookstore that summer.  This is what she is hugging.

 Andrew gets a model SR-71 Bomber.  Happy building!

Eliza is pleased as punch to give me this cool black necklace that will go with some black sparkly earrings I have!  I adore watching how the kids love to give!  Andrew and Abby made some neat ornaments and a clay Christmas bowl at school.  I really appreciate teachers who take time to help kids give something special to their parents and families.  I think it's great.  Eliza started a gift at at school but wasn't there that last week to finish it, poor thing!  Perhaps in January. :)

 Bill (my OSU brother) stocks us up with this adorable OSU wear for our new baby!  We love it!!

Abby gets a new hat--she's been eyeing the ones with the ear flaps for a long time. Let's say it's gotten a lot of wear the past 2 days!

Daniel put together a tool box for Andrew, much like one he had growing up.  This one is special to me also because the tools are in the tool box my Dad gave us (that we've since grown out of) when we got married!

 A little Rock 'em Sock 'em anyone?

One of the highlights of the day was receiving a new pet!!  We are now proud owners of a hamster!  He's a Djungarian dwarf hamster and has proved to be quite friendly, despite many warnings that they can be biters.  So I guess we got a good one!  The kids have learned really quickly how to handle him--it's been a lot of fun!

I was a little worried about the naming process...would 3 kids ever agree?  Well, Abby has been wanting a pet hamster specifically named Periwinkle for many months.  When they saw the critter she told the kids this and offered Periwinkle as the name.  Quickly and excitedly, Andrew and Eliza both agreed!  Wow!  Done deal.  Periwinkle it is.

After a fun inside-day I needed a little fresh air so we went out for a short walk down the street at dusk.  Notice, no snow!  It's been an odd December!  Also notice who has his energy back!  (Though he was a little bushed when we got back in.)  In the brisk 32 degrees we wandered down the road and tried to not let the wind scare us away.

 But it was scary nonetheless!  (Peek-a-boo, there's the baby!)

Abby has us pose with the sign.  Keep smiling Daniel, cuz you get the pukes next.  (He's was really sick that night and has slept nearly aaalllll day today, the 26th.)

One of my favorite pictures, the last of the day.   Abby, may you have an unusually strong immune system. 

We had such a fun time with our surprises for each other, finding and making goodies for you, and loved everything you sent to us!  What a fun day!  Thank you for your friendship, and Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

When Sisters Come to Town

A December to Remember!

My li'l sister, Dorothy came all the way from Utah to Wisconsin just for fun!  Sans kids! 

We had a blast taking her from place to place and enjoying her company.  I was super spoiled to have a friend to hang out with all day every day!  I miss her!  Come back, Dorothy!

Here we are at the Christmas tree farm, just a mile or two from our house.  We loved how soft some of the trees were. The past 3 years we used an artificial tree because that was required in our apartment complex.  So this was an extra treat!

 Dorothy helps us decorate our new tree!  She liked our 5 minute method to putting up the lights.  Apparently the Winters method is 5 hours...but I bet it looks amazing.

I was completely surprised AGAIN when I had another family-baby shower!!  How cool are the people I'm related to!?  Dorothy brought games and gifts from the entire family.  They coordinated this all via email and she put it on!

For the entire shower we couldn't say "cute" or "baby".  I've been good at this game in the past, but not this time!  Abby won!

Then we all had to drink 4 oz. of pink lemonade as fast as we could.  Jeepers.  Babies have strong suckers! that was hard!  Andrew beat us all by a long shot.

 And the baby bottles became the kids' favorite party favor. 

One of the most fun parts of the shower was a quiz written up for me to fill out.  Everyone in my family had responded and emailed Dorothy their answers.  It was funny to read what they felt our favorite name was, what color shirt I was wearing, what my biggest pregnancy complaint was, how big my...circumference was...etc. 

And again, we loved being spoiled with such fun baby toys, clothes, blankies, and books!  

You guys are the best!

 Here we are playing the pickle game!  Every year, since receiving the pickle as a gift, we hide it on the tree as the last ornament.  Whoever finds it gets a prize!

 And Dorothy was addicted to the Christmas puzzle.  Admit it, girl!  She really wanted to finish it before she left, but I'd say she did a pretty darn good job!  We finished it way before Christmas thanks to her head start!

More highlights for me were having Dorothy's fresh eyes on my old Christmas decorations.  She had such fun ideas of places and ways to display my things!  I loved it!  Not to mention it's handy to have such a helpful friend around when you are 7 months pregnant...lifting, loading, bending, carrying...she was a fabulous personal assistant!!  We also made a really cute dot-garland out of wool felt circles (sewn in a row, next to each other, end to end).  It's very cool.

Monday we had a funny day.  I wanted to show Dorothy Lake Michigan and the city area.  She also wanted to get her a Wisconsin ornament for her tree.  Well...we stopped by a nearby German Christmas shop in the morning just to learn it didn't open until 11:00.  That's ok, we drove to the lake first instead.  It was COLD.  We enjoyed a little walk and view of the vast ocean-lake.  We walked through the windy sleeting weather to the Milwaukee Art Museum just to stop in at the gift shop (and the bathroom).  Too bad for us!  CLOSED Mondays!!  So we crossed the street and went over to a science museum to do the same thing.  CLOSED Mondays!!  AAAK!!  No gifts, no ornaments, no potty.  We went back to G-town and popped back in at our local authentic German Christmas Shop.  CLOSED still.  Looked 'em up, called the number.  CLOSED Mondays!!!  No way!!  Ahhh, we laughed, we cried, we went home to use the bathroom.  (Ok, we didn't really cry.)

But speaking of ornaments.  Dorothy and Kole's Christmas card features a shrinky-dink ornament that Dorothy made HERE, in Wisconsin while she watched our kids on our date night (which she made us go on so she could have "Auntie" time with the kids)!  Our kid were so excited to see it on her card.  They tell everyone that comes over that she made it here.  So I guess it is authentically handmade from Wisconsin after all!

Thanksgiving in AR

Here's a little rundown of our AWESOME Thanksgiving in Arkansas!

The Turkey Bowl!  What good is one with out an injury!?

Andrew got to play with the big guys and even scored a touchdown!

 Awww, we love Grandpa!

 A little family photo op.

 Sometimes I want to eat the strangest things.

 Dinner at Jared and Heidi's was DELICIOUS and BEAUTIFUL. They were so kind to have us!  We are so thankful for them!  And thankful we got to see Brian and Amanda's family and Grandma and Grandpa Stewart too!

 Grandma brought along Mousetrap.  We all had great memories playing that game when we were kids!  And I made memories made this time as I whooped everyone's little mousie out there!  (Sorry kids, I'll let you win next time.)

I was completely taken by surprise when the family threw me a baby shower!  You'd think I'd be onto them since we've done this for other preggies/birthdays, but I was oblivious!!  It was so fun!  Here, Grandma helps Bethany in a diaper the baby relay race!

 It was sooo fun to get cute cute cute baby stuff!!  Thanks so much for the fun and games and good times!!

 Love the cousins as they share jammies with Eliza (who enjoyed borrowing clothes all weekend).

Once we could officially listen to Christmas music Heidi and Amanda played lots of duets for us.  We loved it!!

Arkansas is one great place to have Thanksgiving!  Thanks everyone for making it so much fun!

Snow pants and stairs.

 
A winning combination!

Rainbow party!

Somebody turned six!!  Her name starts with an E and rhymes with LEE-PIE-ZAH!

Deciding on a theme for this party didn't come quickly.  Eliza wasn't really into a "thing" that screamed PARTY!  Until I realized that everything she comes home from school with is colored rainbow-style! So a rainbow party it was!

I saw this dot garland idea online--sewing paper dots together!  Really easy to do and really easy to adapt to a rainbow theme.  We also had rainbow patterned balloons and streamers.  So eye-catching!

 

 Among other surprises and  goodies, Eliza got her very own fuzzy chair on her birthday morning!

 Friends came over after school for games, dinner, and cake.

 Eliza requested a cake with rainbow stripes.  I added marshmallows for the "cloud" effect.  Also threw some food coloring in the cake batter for a multi-colored surprise inside!

 Eliza also helped plan her games...we had musical chairs, duck duck goose, unwrap the gift (whoever rolls doubles) game, sleeping fairies, and a rainbow treasure hunt.  For the treasure hunt we collected these candies one at a time at each clue.  Each girl filled her own rainbow jar. I thought they turned out so cute.  We also had a rainbow colored friendship bracelet for Eliza's friends.  Love that 6 year-old!  She's a sweetheart!

As usual the birthday party was a whirlwind of activity!  I gotta give credit to Daniel who got the girls going on painting rainbow pictures right off the bat and kept them busy with musical chairs and just kept things running smoothly (as I worked crazy behind the scenes with food and other stuff)!  He is the best party planning and executing partner ever!

Halloween and a birthday!

Trick or treat!!  Our three are here and in character!

My favorite annual Halloween picture has to be the jack-o-lanterns in the dark.  Which, might I say, with a "hi-how-ya-doin'" light (motion sensored) on the front porch, adds quite a challenge to getting a picture in the DARK!

And it's Daniel's birthday, just two days after Halloween!  I made a peanut butter cake and a French Silk Pie!  We were sort of symbolic with 3 candles in one and 5 in the other...that's like 35 right?

Of course opening presents is always good fun!  And this year, thanks to all you cool people, Daniel had a million cards to open!!!  It was the best!!  He loved them--THANK YOU!!!

Daniel had been on a 3+ day business trip, returning the evening of his birthday.  So it was EXTRA fun to have him home!

Lost tooth!

It's a real sign of growing up!  Eliza was determined to have me pull out her tooth despite her fear of pain!!  She went through with it and it was well worth it!  She was SUPER excited the rest of the evening.  I can tell the next one isn't too far behind...

Tidbits

I just got a call from a 1-800 number for "(hesitantly...er...)Donald Stowert."  I told them it was a wrong number.

Someday my kids will catch on...they can get away with delaying chores, homework, practicing piano, pretty much anything, when they play sweetly out in our yard together.  I just can't make them come in when they are raking paths and "homes" out of our newly fallen leaves to make a little town.  It's too good.

Several weeks ago Eliza saw a VERY pregnant woman (I swear she looked like she stuffed a basketball under her shirt) resting her hand on her tummy, like a shelf.  She didn't necessarily point her out, but she mentioned to me that someday I will do just that.  Then the other day I was resting my hand on my tummy and she had a great "I knew you would do that!" moment!

The day we made our "it's a girl" video at Target (ultrasound day), we let the kids each pick something little out for their new sister.  These were their finds:

 Andrew went out and took some pictures of the treasures in the yard this fall.  This is called a burning bush! You can see why!

 This is our ash tree--the leaves are completely gone now--and raked into a wee town.

 These mums were smooshed from a rainstorm.  I clipped a bunch of them and they are so gorgeous in our kitchen, dining room, and every bathroom (there were a lot)!

I borrowed an idea from BH&G and made these silhouettes for a little splash of fall/halloween on the wall.  Ummm, that squirrel on the top is a family joke and has found homes in some strange places.  Half the fun was making the entire thing from thrifted items!  (Except the rhinestones I stuck on the black plates.)

Eliza is finding new confidence in and new uses for writing, thanks to Kindergarten. She charmed us with this note for Abby:

 And this one for Andrew:

When she saw how much we loved it, she wrote him another: