5-4-3-2-1: Happy 8:30!!!

This year, for the first time, we decided to stay home for New Year's Eve. I prefer going out, but it was fun to be at home too. We wanted to do something fun with the kids, but obviously there is no way they are making it to midnight without becoming total nightmares. So we decided to celebrate with them at 8:30. I saw an idea with bags on Pinterest so we did that. There was activity in each bag. (Jason made fun of my not-very-accurate clocks. Whatever. In elementary school I remember thinking telling time was a complete waste of my time given all the digital clocks around)

We ate fondue and had a dinner of various appetizers.
We played with glowing jewelry
We also watched a Veggie Tales movie starring Minnesota Cuke, played a game, and ate dessert. But soon it was 8:30 and, after practicing with Joshua how to count backwards from 5, we rang in the "new year"

After we put the kids to bed, Jason and I celebrated again at midnight. This has been an amazing year and we can't wait to see what 2013 has in store.

Everyone Gets an Upgrade!

One of Clara's gifts for Christmas was a booster seat. She really had enjoyed sitting in Joshua's at times so we decided to upgrade her to sitting at the table. She is doing pretty well with it so far, though it has prompted her to start sharing with the pugs, which I really wasn't going for two kids feeding the dogs at mealtimes so that's been a bit disappointing. Besides that, she is doing very well in her big-girl chair and Hannah now has a place to sit at the table too. She is sitting in Clara's old highchair seat. We reclined it and added the cushion back on (my kids are too messy to have a cushion once they start eating real food. I don't have the time or inclination to wash it all the time) and she has been joining us for mealtimes, though she isn't pictured here because she was being fed at the time.

Merry Christmas!

Today we had a very nice Christmas. We woke up, read the Christmas story, and then did presents. Joshua was a little excited this year, but not too much. Terrence still was the most excited one in the house. Joshua did really like taking off the wrapping paper though and he was not really worried about only unwrapping the ones that were his. Jason and I had fun giving the kids the gifts we made, as well as the ones we bought. This is Hannah in her carseat poncho and Joshua with the helping tower. Later, we had our traditional dinner of sauerbraten. We really enjoyed spending the day with the kids and each other.

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve. Our normal tradition involves Jason shopping until dinner time, but this year he was ahead of the game and finished shopping yesterday. But he had to work so we didn't really gain too much, though I guess he had the satisfaction of feeling ready for Christmas a day early. Regardless, we had our traditional dinner of shrimp bisque and rolls (lots and lots of rolls for the under-three set). This year Peg and Ron joined us for dinner and they, as well as Julie and Andrew, went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service with us. We have always gone to the 11pm service, but this year we just didn't think Clara could deal with it so we went to the 7pm service and used childcare for both Clara and Joshua. Though I love having communion in the service and also leaving church and having it be Christmas morning, the earlier service was still very nice and we enjoyed it. Unfortunately I was losing my voice so I couldn't sing any carols, but I know Jason really enjoyed singing and it was nice to hear them even if I couldn't participate. Here is our family after the service. Clara really enjoyed the large atrium of the church and was just delighted with her ability to run free (not too free, but I think it seemed free to her). Hannah stayed with us for the service and she slept through the entire thing, but we did give her a candle so she could participate too.

Tripping the Lights Fantastic

It may not be the most original idea we've ever had, but last year we decided that a family tradition of ours will be to drive around and look at Christmas lights on a night near Christmas.  This year's event took place tonight.  We decided to put the kids in their jammies so it would be easy to go to bed when we got home.  We drove through Christmas Card Lane and other random neighborhoods.  Hannah was either silent or asleep, and Clara didn't seem all that interested, but Joshua would repeatedly alert us by saying "Lights" and then when we drove through a Scroogy street, he'd say "More!"

I've seen some elaborate lighting displays on houses in my day, but usually they involve every single edge of the house lined with lights and lots of lighted yard ornaments.  But tonight we saw a house that was over the top, but in a different way than you normally see.  It's in the background of the picture above, but I had to take a separate picture to fully capture its, uh, grandeur.  Here it is:

 

I admire this family, because they only had so much surface area to work with, and they maximized it like no one has before, covering every single square foot of the front wall of their house with lights, including even covering their entire master bedroom window!  And then as a bonus, they covered much of their yard as well.  That's some serious dedication.

Christmas Movie Night

One of the activities on the advent calendar was to watch a Christmas movie.  We chose the same movie we watched last year: Veggie Tales: The Little Drummer Boy.  Joshua was quite interested in it and could barely turn away from it long enough for this picture.  Clara was somewhat interested in it, but it didn't really keep her attention.  Hannah might have an extreme interest in computer-animated vegetables, or she might not.  It's a little too early to tell.

How We Roll

Now that I have three kids under three, I have a triple stroller. I feel like if you have an almost-three-year-old, you can make do with a double because the only time you truly need a third seat in that case are big things like the zoo or something where you are likely to have another adult. But with a younger two-year-old, you really need the triple if you go out on a regular basis. If I let Joshua walk, which I do sometimes, it takes us at least 30-45 min to go around the block because he's so interested in everything. I love that, and I try not to rush him because I want to encourage his love of nature, but sometimes I actually want to burn a couple of calories, so a triple stroller is necessary for those times. I love this stroller, though it is not exactly compact. It steers like a dream and is perfect for either "Irish triplets" or twins and a toddler. It is super expensive new but I found it on Craigslist for half-price, which was very exciting. However, I bought it before my 20 week ultrasound and it is pink, so I was glad when Hannah was a girl since I was going to use it either way. I try to go outside with the kids every single day unless we have an appointment or it's raining, or frigidly cold. Sometimes we play in the backyard, sometimes Joshua walks and I carry Hannah and Clara rides the bike (which she loves), but we most often take the triple stroller out and everyone seems to enjoy it.

Christmas Weekend Part 2: Nicholl Edition

Yesterday we had Christmas with my siblings and my dad and their significant others.  Today we went to Mom and Ron's house to have Christmas with Mom's side and Ron's side.  Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Brent drove in from their respective homes, and Matt and Abby and David were there, and again the same crew from yesterday minus Dad and Deb.  Ron works with a guy who is a photographer, Nick, and hired him to stop by and take some pictures, so we got some great pictures of the various family groups in attendance.

Later some of us played Oxford Dilemma, a board game that mixes Scrabble with Monopoly with a spelling bee.  It's one of my favorite games even though I'd only played it twice and not in the past five or six years.  We learned the spelling of everything from obscure French philosophers to Chinese rivers. 

There was the normal extensive supply of shrimp cocktail, which we made short work of, and a double batch of Grandma's Christmas cookies, thanks to Guest Chef Brent Hall, which allowed me to indulge early and often.  I don't think I ate more than a dozen, but it's possible I did.

It was a fun day, as it always is, and we're thankful we have some great photographs from it.  (By the way, the picture above of everyone around the tree was one I took, so please don't blame Nick for my mediocre photography.)

Christmas Weekend Part 1: Leach Edition

This weekend is a busy weekend, as we have our Christmas with both sides of my family.  Today Dad and Deb are in town, and tomorrow is Christmas at Mom and Ron's house.  We had two different sets of Christmas outfits for the kids, one for each day.  For today Joshua wore a cute little airplane sweater vest, and Clara and Hannah wore matching Santa dresses with striped leggings.  We actually managed to get a decent picture of the three of them, although Clara is attempting to eat an ornament, and Hannah's dress is pulled up a little bit, but all in all, it's about as good as we can expect.

In the early afternoon, Dad, Deb, Julie, Andrew, Joanna, and Kirk all arrived at our house.  We had some tasty appetizers and then played Wavelength, in which Julie and Andrew had a comeback win, much to the chagrin of the hosts.  We would have won, but when I think of prisons, I think of Alcatraz, but Meghan thinks I think of Lansing and/or Leavenworth.  We weren't on the same "wavelength" on that one, and thus Andrew and Julie's Kate Middleton (Duchess of Whatever) answer won the game for them.

Later we had pizza for dinner, but our strategy of cooking two Papa Murphy's pizzas at once by alternating which one was on top in the oven failed, as both burned on the bottom.  Next time we'll cook them sequentially instead of in parallel.  They also failed to put pineapple on our Hawaiian and green pepper pizza, so they gave us a replacement for free, which we happily accepted since it meant we would have a non-burned pizza.  For dessert we had baklava, which Dad had the good idea to get.

Later we gave Deb a gift, but it was more of a joke gift.  Dad historically has wanted nothing but underwear for Christmas, so as a joking jab at him, we gave her some bright pink underwear, since that's all our father has taught us to give as gifts.  But we then gave her (and Dad) an actual gift, which was a framed photo of all of us in the big colorful glasses that was taken when she and Dad announced they had gotten married.  This represented all of us as a family and our excitement of having her as part of our family.

Finally, since that picture didn't have Clara in it, and because Hannah was still in the womb, we took a new picture that has all of us in it.  No silly glasses this time, but it's a nice family picture that is the first one that has all of us including all of our kids.

Pigtail Bed Head

We've recently switched Clara from a ponytail to pigtails.  We use small rubber bands to keep them in place during the day, and then we take them out at night.  Last night I took them out right before bed, and when I got her up this morning, she had a unique hairstyle caused by the combination of having worn the pigtails yesterday along with having slept on them overnight.

Gingerbread Fun

Tonight our advent activity was to decorate a gingerbread house (well we actually did a train since Joshua loves trains). This was a fun activity that involved both the eating of delicious things and art, so you can't really go wrong with that combination.

Hannah was definitely too young to participate, so she offered moral support from her high chair.

Clara wasn't that into decorating this year. I think she will enjoy it more next year. But she greatly enjoyed eating the gingerbread and candy. In fact, we didn't even decorate the boxcar because her main activity during decorating time was disassembling that, eating some of the gingerbread, and feeding the rest to the dogs. It was a very festive night for the pugs too. They got a lot of treats.

Joshua definitely was the most involved. He enjoyed sticking the candy on the frosting to make the train pretty, but not as much as he enjoyed eating the candy and gingerbread. It was a really fun night for all of us.I was a little hesitant to do this activity with the kids because it seemed like the potential for chaos was high, but I am very glad I took the chance. I did pre-assemble the train during their nap so they didn't have to wait while I did that before decorating and it also made the train a bit sturdier since the icing had time to set up before we decorated, but it went very well. 

It reminded me of the last time we did a gingerbread house which was the Christmas of 2001(!) when we had large blocks of free time, creativity that allowed us to say, "Why not make a gingerbread house from scratch" and youthful naivete that deluded us into thinking, "Yeah we can probably make that in a couple hours". You know it was a long time ago because I did scrapbooks by hand with the photos I took on actual film.

Away in a Very Sturdy Manger

Today our advent activity was to get out the kid-friendly manger scene.  We also read one of our Christmas books that talks about how the shepherds and wise men followed the star to Bethlehem to worship Jesus. I don't think they really understand all that much, but Joshua really enjoyed alternating the angel with the other characters on the top of the manger and Clara liked holding all the figures. I guess we are moving up from when the manger was brought out at Grandma's and Joshua tried to feed baby Jesus to the sheep.

Multi-Kid Blockfest

I took Joshua to this spring's Olathe School District Blockfest. It's held twice a year, and for the fall session I decided to take Clara too.  Julie went with us, and she did a great job helping with the kids, especially working with Clara.  She didn't have as much interest in the blocks as Joshua did, but given her age, that's to be expected.  Much like in the spring, Joshua was mostly interested in destroying towers that I built for him.  This time, though, he did a better job of actually cleaning up at the end, which was more than pretty much any other kid was willing to do.

"Sleigh" Ride

Our neighborhood homes association announced this year they were sponsoring a free sleigh ride for the residents.  I wasn't sure what exactly a sleigh ride would entail, but we decided it would be worth trying.  Well, we weren't exactly dashing through the snow, but I suppose that was reasonable since the temperature was in the 50s.  Their formula for a sleigh ride: Take a hay ride, do it in December, and play some Christmas music from a small portable CD player.  Well, close enough.  It was really just a hay ride, but it was still fun.  We all piled on the trailer (there were multiple shifts to accommodate all the people), and it rode through the neighborhood while we looked at the lights on the houses and listened to the music.  Joshua loved it because of the hay and thought that was by far the best part.  It was a fun little family event, and we'll likely do it again next year if they offer it again. 

It Does a Body Good

Since Clara is now one, we are working on transitioning her to milk. Right now we are trying whole milk and I am hoping it works out. We really struggled with Joshua as he hated whole milk and barely tolerated 2% and soy for a long time. It has only been just recently that he really started to like milk, which of course conveniently corresponds with the time where it really isn't that important whether he drinks it anymore. So far it seems to be going well and Clara drinks it with just as much enthusiasm as she did her formula, so I am cautiously optimistic.

Happy Birthday Clara!

Today was Clara's actual birthday. We celebrated at home with a dinner for the birthday girl of rolls and mandarin oranges, which are her two favorite foods. We gave her our gifts and Aunt Josie also came over to give hers since she was out of town for the party. We had French Silk pie that was leftover from Thanksgiving that Clara enjoyed greatly and it was a very good day. I can't believe it's been a full year since Clara was born. In some ways it seems way longer, but when I think of getting the call from the adoption agency last Thanksgiving in the evening, it doesn't seem like so long.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we are celebrating Thanksgiving. I love pretty much everything about this holiday. I love the inclusiveness of it. I love the traditions. I love that it is uniquely American in many ways, but that many other countries have similar holidays. I love the food. This year we are lucky to be able to have it in our home again, which is my favorite way to celebrate it. It is a lot of work to cook all that food, but I really enjoy it and I love hosting. We are glad that Michelle and Sam could be with us this year. It has been really great to celebrate with them and spend some time together. We are also so thankful for what God has done in our lives, especially this past year. It is hard to believe that it was only last Thanksgiving that we only had one kid. It was the night of Thanksgiving that we got the call from the adoption agency about Clara since she was born last year on Thanksgiving morning. We feel so blessed to have had such an amazing year.

Where You Lead

Clara really likes holding hands with anyone, but especially Joshua. It's really cute to see them because normally Joshua will accommodate her, which is important, because she likes to lead. So she just toddles around, pulling Joshua behind her until he gets bored. It's really sweet to see them play and have fun together.

Climbing Mt. Table

Today Clara made the discovery that chairs just aren't for sitting in. You can also climb onto them and then climb onto the table. She was very proud of herself for figuring this out and was pretty irritated when, rather than giving her applause, I had her get down and moved the chair.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Today we had Clara's first birthday party. Her birthday isn't until next weekend, but it's hard to do a party on Thanksgiving weekend so we had it early. Her theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar since she really likes reading books and that is one we read a fair amount. She seemed to enjoy her day, especially the cake.