The Nudist and the Underpants Queen

As the title suggests,we have some new characters at our house. Suddenly, Andrew has decided he likes to take all his clothes of at random times throughout the day...so far only at time when it's just us here (thankfully!). Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago while cleaning the table after breakfast I hear Andrew yell, "I'm silly cakes," and run by fully undressed! I had a good laugh.

Olivia has become quite interested in the whole potty process and specifically, underwear. She gets ahold of a pair of Andrew's whenever I'm doing laundry or he's left them on the floor and tries to put them on. Usually, I end up having to put them on her over her pants or she gets very upset. A purchase of little girl underwear is in my immediate future. Meanwhile, I just have to hope I can get Andrew dressed again in time to leave for my class at the gym!

Christmas Extravaganza

A week ago, we started our 3 day Christmas celebration extravaganza. It was 3 days full of family, food, and plenty of presents! We drove up to Dad and Susan's on Sunday to celebrate with them and my siblings' families. Olivia and Logan got reacquainted quickly with hugs and kisses. Andrew had a good time watching the floating train around the middle of their tree. The grown up boys all received cool helicopters and got a little flying practice in before dinner. As usual, there was no shortage of food on the dinner table and the same went for after dinner treats. We got the kids jammied up and after a little extra playtime with Papa John and Maga Suzi, we were on our way to spend the night at the Bingham's.

Christmas Eve started with Carl taking a little outing with Logan so that Logan would get to nap in the car before the festivities began. As everyone arrived, there was an air of anticipation, knowing that Santa was scheduled to make a visit. It was so fun to see Andrew's face light up as he heard Santa's bells and saw him coming down the stairs. He didn't want to give hugs at first, but was happy to sit on Santa's lap to get a present. Logan had a taste of Santa's beard and Olivia seemed to give Santa the once over before deciding he was ok. Nicky and Ken's other 2 nephews were there as well and while Alex played along (he's 10), Shawn (3) wasn't too sure of that Santa fellow. Probably the most memorable moment of Santa's visit was when he got up to leave and Andrew said to me, "Is that not Uncle Bubba?" I froze for a second, and Andrew said, "his shoes are the same as Uncle Bubba's." I assured Andrew that they had the same kind of shoes and it was not Uncle Bubba. Darn those boot covers for not completely covering the wearers shoes! As Auntie Amy said, I think some costume upgrades are in order before next year!

Present opening was pretty chaotic and I ended up opening several of Andrew's gifts as I think he was overwhelmed and also distracted once he opened a few really fun things. Olivia helped open some of her gifts, but was also distracted by the first couple of gifts. Highlights included a big fire truck and a big police car (the police car's lights kept flashing on the way home, freaking Carl out numerous times while he drove) for Andrew and a shopping cart and baby stroller for Olivia. We were all wiped out by the time we headed for home and thankfully, it was a pretty quiet ride.

We were happy to spend Christmas morning at home. We opened out gifts when Andrew and Olivia were both up and then Mimi arrived for breakfast and another round of presents. She worked really hard to put together the workbench she got for Andrew and shopping cart she got for Olivia. After some fun playtime, Mimi had to head home and we had a little downtime before going to Papa and Mamoo's for our final Christmas celebration. Olivia took to the stairs and I got a little exercise chasing her up, then helping her down. She also had fun chasing Ben the cat. Andrew wanted Papa to put together his new construction site toy right away.

After lots of package opening, tag removing, old toy purging, and organizing, we're finally settled back into our normal routine. I'm left feeling incredibly thankful for the close relationships we have with our family and friends and that our children are so well loved by so many.

House Tour

We visited our new home again today and I decided it was time to do a video tour since you can go in and out of rooms and all now. Part one shows the main floor and part 2 shows the basement. Still lots to do, but loving the progress!

We have rooms!

The kids and I visited our new home yesterday to see the progress from the last few weeks. With much of the interior framing done on the main floor, it really feels like its coming together now. You can get a good sense of space in all the bedrooms and the 2 bathrooms. Carl is putting lofts in the kids' rooms and in the master above the closets. The floor of the master loft is on so we climbed up to check it out. It will be a lot of fun having these "secret" spaces!

Family Weekend

The first weekend of October was full of family visits and fun. The kids and I headed north Saturday morning to spend a few hours with Mimi. Her birthday was earlier in the week and she didn't know that we had arranged a little surprise birthday gathering with my siblings and their families. We arrived at her house and started playing. When everyone else arrived. I went outside to "get something I forgot in the car" and came back in with Nicky, Ken, Logan, and John in tow. She appreciated the surprise and was happy to have our company to keep her mind off the marathon she was running the next day.

After Mimi's surprise, we continued our journey north to spend the night at Nicky and Ken's. We ate a little dinner and got ready for bed then Dad and Susan arrived. They were staying there after the sale of their old home while waiting to close on their new place. I tried to settle Andrew into his own room, but after I left him to get Olivia to bed, he got up and asked Papa John and Maga Suzi if he could come in their room. So Andrew ended up spending the night with them.

We were all up fairly early in preparation of Logan's baptism on Sunday. Olivia and Andrew splashed around in the tub together (this was exciting for them since we only have a shower at our house and they have to use the baby tub.). I have the honor of being Logan's godmother and was excited to participate in the ceremony. Of course the timing worked out just perfect that Olivia was ready to nurse during the ceremony and Maga Suzi did her best to try to keep her calm so I wouldn't miss out on anything.

Another special aspect of the day was that Logan's birth parents joined us. I wasn't sure what it would be like or feel like meeting them. They were very friendly and it was obvious that they love Logan very much and were happy to be included in such a special occasion. It was nice to see that it felt comfortable having them there, mingling with the rest of the family.

Andrew had a blast running around and playing with everyone as usual. Olivia was excited to play with (scream at/pull hair/touch face of) my cousin's daughter, Tera, who is about six months older but not much bigger than Olivia. They seemed to have a good time.

After all the excitement, we set out for home early in the evening. Olivia was so worn out that she slept pretty much the whole way home and all through the night. Andrew slept part of the way and fell right to sleep once we got home. It was a very busy weekend, but I'm happy we are able to spend so much time with our extended family.

Fall Fun

We've been able to get out and enjoy a few nice days lately. Andrew loves running and jumping around the playground. Olivia is quite the daredevil and tries to climb all of the slides and of course the stairs. This means I have to keep a very close eye since she has no sense of safety or danger! I'll be doing a lot of close chasing at playgrounds with her in the coming year!

Pumpkin Chunkin'

The weather was perfect last Sunday for a little fall party out at the shop/our future home. Carl got the pumpkin cannon he built a few years ago out and we launched some pumpkins far out into the field...I think they measured the pumpkins about 1850 feet. Good, clean, country fun!

Several families from Andrew's preschool class were able to join us, as well as a number of our other friends. The food everyone brought to share was great and we all enjoyed some s'mores too! All of the kids loved getting dirty in the dirt mound near the house. Andrew even took off his shoes to get in a mud puddle. I made Carl take care of cleaning him up :)

We look forward to having more gatherings like this once our house is finished sometime next year...we hope!