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.

Shouldn't It Be Either Jose Pimientos or Joe Peppers?

Because we didn't have to pick up the kids until 12:30 today, we took advantage of the time to go to lunch (after sleeping in, of course!).  We wanted Mexican, so we went to Jose Peppers.  Here we are in front of a mural of a different type of Jose.

The Winery and the Colorful Moose

We rarely get a true date night, but tonight was one of those nights.  We dropped the kids off at Mom and Ron's (Joanna was there too) for an overnight stay, and we then went to a restaurant that we like that we can't normally go to because it isn't very kid-friendly: La Bodega, which is a tapas restaurant.  We had a 45-minute wait when we arrived, so we milled about in the nearby Crate & Barrel admiring the nice furniture that would be appropriate in a house without small children.  When it was time to eat, we chose several of the available tapas, including the best one on the menu, the Solomillo Con Cabrales, which is grilled beef tenderloin crusted with Spanish bleu cheese.  It was a very cold night, so after that we decided to go to the Blue Moose and have a few drinks by the fireplace inside the restaurant.  It was a really nice night out to ourselves, and we really appreciated having family who was so willing to help make it possible.

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.

A Partially Handmade Christmas

Every Christmas, I like to give the kids something I make. I know I can't really compete with toys and I really don't try and consider my gifts more like stocking-stuffers, but I enjoy it and I also hope that as they get older, the kids also enjoy making gifts. This year I made satchels (which I mostly made from a pair of my old jeans, which means I am totally trendy because I "upcycle") and car wallets for the older two kids, booties for Hannah, and am now working on carseat ponchos. There is always a learning curve for any project and these are no exception, but everything is turning out reasonably well except the booties were too small so aren't usable. I had hoped to have all the ponchos done by Christmas, but my new goal is New Year's. However, I will finish Hannah's today. As the first one, hers is the prototype so will be the least good one, but I bought enough fabric to make her another one if it's too imperfect. I like working on my projects and creating stuff that actually gets used. I am pretty excited about having the ponchos done. It's been cold and current carseat safety rules say no jackets in carseats so the ponchos will be a way to keep them warm without having to do the jacket shuffling we currently do.

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.

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.

LBC Christmas

We are in the process of finding a new church.  One of the ones we're considering is a church that Nate and Carla attend.  Today their church is having their Christmas program, and we were originally going to go with Nate and Carla, but they had something else come up.  Childcare was provided, which was convenient, though we kept Hannah with us.  The program was nice, though we would've liked to have heard more traditional familiar Christmas songs.  One weird thing was the incorporation of some odd humor by the conductor, including some awkward family Christmas photos and some video clips.  They even had a free "dessert buffet", including Sheridan's Custard, but we decided Joshua didn't need to have ice cream so close to bedtime, though he disagreed.  But overall it was an enjoyable time, and we'll likely try to go back next year.                                                                                                                                                 

"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. 

Red+Blue=Purple

The project I did with Joshua today was originally going to be just water transfer with an eye dropper, but then I decided it would be more fun with colored water. I was nervous about staining from any spills, but he did really well. He only got the concept of how to use the eye dropper a little, so he did it for awhile and then switched to pouring. He is doing really well with pouring carefully now, which is great.

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.

A Williams Dinner

Michelle and Sam came into town yesterday and are here to visit and enjoy Thanksgiving with us. Since it is rare that all three of us are in the same place, and will get rarer once Christine moves to Vegas in the near future, we decided to have a dinner out with all three of us as well as Sam and Jason. We had a very nice evening with good food and it was nice to catch up on what everyone is up to.

A Happy Reunion

Today we, along with Ron and Peg, went to to see the firefighters and paramedics who helped with Hannah's birth. They were really sweet and answered all our questions on what it is like to be an emergency responder and also showed us their vehicles and gear. Here is Clara sitting in the fire truck and Joshua "driving" the ambulance.

Here is our family with the firefighter crew who was working that night. Also pictured in the white shirt is the paramedic who drove the ambulance. The other paramedic was not available today so he isn't in the photo.

Besides the two paramedics, Kevin the firefighter is the main person I remember from that night because, since he is the only firefighter who is cross-trained as a paramedic, he was more heavily involved in our care and he rode in the back of the ambulance with me. He also is super nice and facilitated our visit tonight. Here he is with Hannah.

A Wizard of Oz Halloween

For Halloween, we wanted the kids to have outfits to wear during the day before wearing their costumes at night. Meghan found matching dresses for Clara and Hannah, and I picked out a cool skeleton shirt for Joshua.

After dinner, we changed them into their costumes (the same ones they wore for Night of the Living Farm). Joshua is old enough to go trick-or-treating this year, so the plan was for all of us to be at our house for awhile during the initial burst of trick-or-treaters, and then Joshua and I would head out later. While we waited, our little Dorothy liked to look out the door, watching for new arrivals. When the time came for Joshua and I to leave, we practiced with him so he would know what to expect.  Our cowardly lion (I'd prefer to think of him as a timid lion) seemed to grasp the concept quickly, which is understandable, since the incentive is strong: You go up to people, say a particular phrase, and they give you candy. What a deal.

When it was time to go, we decided I might as well take Clara too. She can walk, but it would be too far for her to walk all the way, so I brought her in the stroller.  Joshua held my hand and walked everywhere, although we only barely went beyond our street.  At each house, I would say "Say 'trick or treat'" and in his cute little voice, he would say it. After receiving the candy from adults who were all too happy to give the little lion a sugary treat, I told him to say thank you, and he did. Clara happily rode along, largely indifferent to the transactions that were occurring. The whole thing went really well. Here we are upon our return. Our tiny flying monkey stayed home this year, but next year she might get to join in the fun.

Bonefishing

Meghan's parents are in town and offered to watch the kids tonight so we could go out for a dinner by ourselves for the first time since Hannah was born.  We went to Bonefish Grill not too long ago (when Meghan was still pregnant) and had a good experience, so we decided to go back.  We again had the outstanding Bang Bang Shrimp and tried two new entrees, though Meghan didn't like hers as much as I liked mine.  It was a good night overall, though, and it was great for us to get out and have a nice dinner just by ourselves.

Mama and Baby

As any parent knows, having a new baby is tiring.  We're getting by okay, but there are still times where we are tired.  After I put Joshua and Clara to bed tonight, I came downstairs to find Meghan and Hannah asleep.  It was really a picture of beauty to see my beautiful wife and our beautiful newborn baby asleep together.  Sorry to use "beauty" and "beautiful" so much in that sentence, but there are no better words to describe it.

Night of the Living Farm

Tonight we went to the Night of the Living Farm Halloween event at Deanna Rose. Peg, Ron, and Joanna also came with us. We had a lot of fun and, besides seeing the animals, we went on a non-scary hayride and enjoyed the decorations and trick or treating. The kids wore their costumes. Clara is Dorothy, Joshua is a lion, and Hannah is a flying monkey. Hannah actually had to be a regular monkey after we left the house since her carseat doesn't really support the wearing of wings.

Forever Feeding

One thing that has been hard is that Hannah just does not want to eat. We have recently been able to get her to gain some weight, which is good since that is imperative at her age, but we are really fighting for every ounce. She has recently shown a bit more interest in it, so we are hoping that lasts and her finishing a feeding in thirty minutes or so is a new trend, but in the meantime this is how we are spending a very large percentage of our time.