getting ready for Grandmama

My mom arrives late tonight. After 4 days flying solo with the kids, I'm not sure who is more excited about her arrival - the girls (who know that Grandmama = lots of hugs and crafts and reading books) or me (who is desperate for some adult company!)

This morning we worked on some decorations in preparation for her arrival.

Lydia gave a great demo of "what happens when mom leaves me unattended with the glue"....


Julianna is such a hard worker. Once she stopped to ask me for help and said, "Mom, I am trying my best".


And Isaac. He didn't create anything, but he had a grand time chewing on the kid scissors (don't worry, no sharp edges so he didn't get hurt!)


I expect her to call in a few hours and let me know she arrived in country - then one more (3 hour) flight and she's here!

Christmas Morning!

We had a wonderful Christmas morning! Here are a few highlights:

Isaac treated presents just like he treats everything else - he ate them!


The girls gave Matt this basketball hoop. Since we're moving out in 6 months, I gave the ok to stick it directly to the wall in the living room. Pretty classy, I know.

This is such a quintessential 4-year-old-picks-out-a-gift-for-mom kind of gift.... a heart shaped box covered in seashells. I love it!

We got the music table out of storage and gifted it to Isaac (it's very appropriate that all three kids are posing with it - it was a first birthday gift for both of the girls!)

Lydia's life is complete now that she owns this little zipper pouch with flavored lip smackers. Hands down, it was her favorite gift!


the whole scene.... Lydia still enthralled with her new chapstick!


Matt and I bought the girls shelves to go over their beds, complete with a little basket to store their "treasures". They run back and forth to get things from their shelves all day long! I'll have to do a post on what they keep on their shelves. It's pretty fun to see what all they have gathered and put in such a special place.

We are so very blessed! So many fun things to give and receive!

Christmas Eve at Julianna's school

I missed blogging about several really big holiday events, and I want to go back and record them, so the next few posts will be 'catch-up posts'.

On Christmas Eve we went to Julianna's school to share the Christmas story. It was very fun. I really wanted it to be a big success for Julianna and it totally was. She had a terrific time!


Matt used our advent calendar from home to help tell the Christmas story. The kids took turns taking things out of the pockets for each day, and it was fun to see them enjoy it so much. [The two blonds are both ours :) Lydia came with us, and she managed to mostly participate and not be a terribly huge distraction!]



After the story was over, Julianna passed out Christmas cookies to each of her classmates - we had made them together earlier in the week, and she was so proud to share with each of them.



All in all, it was a huge success. The teachers were so glad we could come, I think each child learned a little something about Christmas, and Julianna had a great time too.

Sometimes I wonder what it is like to be Julianna. She is doing something at age 4 that many people struggle with as adults.... trying to successfully bridge two cultures and blend into each one. Holidays are especially tricky. Her 'home' world is completely revolving around a huge holiday and her 'school' world barely acknowledges it. Hopefully events like this one will help her blend the two worlds together a bit :)

a very stomach flu Christmas

I'll spare you the details, but let's just say we've had a very stomach-flu-Christmas.

But I am so grateful that we are all together, that we had a wonderful Christmas Day, and God is giving abundant grace to each of us as we persevere.

And we did have a 24 hour chunk of time that was throw-up-free. It coordinated perfectly with Christmas Day.


The sad news is that Matt leaves on a two week trip tomorrow morning. But the glad news is that my mom comes Wednesday night - I will be READY for her to get here! And I'm hopeful that the stomach flu bug will be far far from our apartment by then!

I'll put up some photos and more stories soon -
Merry Christmas!

FOUR

The long awaited day finally arrived! Julianna is FOUR! We had so much fun celebrating her life today.

She chose the entire day's menu. Pancakes for breakfast, pizza for lunch, hotdogs for dinner. [Not what I would have chosen, but I guess that's the point.]



It brought me much delight to watch her enjoy this day so much. She was so excited all day long.

She wanted cake with strawberries (she loves that her birthday falls in the middle of strawberry season here).

Well, I'm certainly not one to decorate a fancy cake, but I figured I could handle a few strawberries. And all was going pretty smoothly until one chunk of the top layer started to break off and threaten to fall. Oh yikes. What to do now? I momentarily panicked but the extra strawberries came to the rescue.... and the strawberry border around the bottom of the cake (reinforced with a few toothpicks) saved the day. [That's the letter 'J' on the top of the cake - her request.]



But the day wasn't without a few wrinkles. Isaac picked up a stomach bug and is one sick little boy. Matt and I both have felt a little out of sorts, but managed to avoid most of the gunk that Isaac is dealing with. And, amazingly, so far the sisters seem to have been spared (I say this with fingers crossed..... I walk around waiting for one of them to tell me her tummy hurts as she throws up on my feet.)

Anyways, in the midst of all the birthday celebrating, I've been doing lots of laundry :) At about 7pm tonight I was beyond frustrated. But now I've showered and started yet another load of laundry, and just enjoyed looking through photos of the day. Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and a healthy family in the morning!

Four years ago tonight I met this sweet little girl for the first time! Oh how we LOVE you Julianna Faith!

in my free time

Because, you know, it's two days before my oldest daughter's 4th birthday and four days before Christmas, and I have gobs and gobs of free time.

So today we managed to squeeze in a little family photo session. It was surprisingly smooth. Really. I'm not kidding. Smooth. "Hey kids, look over there at the camera. Hold hands. Smile."


Leave me a comment and I'll make sure you are on our mailing list :)

little no longer

Julianna's 4th birthday is 4 days away. I can't believe she will be FOUR YEARS OLD!

Two weeks ago she spent the night with a friend for the first time. I was about 65% sure we would get a phone call at 8pm and Matt would have to go pick her up. But the phone didn't ring. Wow! Spending the night at a friend's seems really grown up to me.

She and Kayleigh had a grand time. Julianna raved and raved about how good Mrs. Alisa's sloppy joes were. [Can I tell you how many times I have fixed sloppy joes for our family and never gotten the rave reviews that Alisa did?]

She told Matt that the next time she goes to Kayleigh's she wants to stay two nights. WHAT???? Julianna's personality is NOT AT ALL the super adventurous, risk taking, try something new type. She sticks close to me. She (usually) sticks close to home. She doesn't respond to strangers when they ask questions. She likes to do the same things in the same way at the same time of day. STAY TWO NIGHTS??? What in the world? What happened to my little girl?

Anyways, the spend the night party was made even sweeter by the fact that the girls wore matching dresses to church the next morning.


Julianna burst into tears about 5 minutes after this photo was taken, when she realized that she was indeed going home with us and not out to lunch with Kayleigh's family. She cried for about ten minutes - down the elevator, through the lobby, into the car, and out of the parking lot.

Here I was thinking she would burst into tears when I wasn't there to kiss her goodnight. Silly me.

the tree story

So it's time for the tree story. Every year it's an adventure. And this year, for the first time, I found myself truly longing for a good 'ole Fraser Fir and the relative 'ease' of a trip down the street for a perfectly shaped tree, someone to toss the tree onto the roof of the minivan and a tree stand at home, waiting for Matt to fiddle with it til the tree trunk was perfectly perpendicular to the floor.

Next year :)

Anyways, in the meantime, there were no minivans, no Fraser Firs, no tree stands, and the tree certainly wasn't coming to us - so off we went.

In a strategic chaos-reduction move we left Isaac at home with Xiao Li, hopped into a driver friend's falling-apart-piece-of-junk-bread-loaf-van and promptly got caught in the world's most massive traffic jam.

After more than enough sitting and not nearly enough driving Matt got out of the van and went to go investigate the issue. Turns out that a bunch of cars in the far right hand lane were trying to turn left. Brilliant. Especially considering the road they were turning onto was backed up with construction issues. So Matt took matters into his own hands and started directing traffic.

At this point I could no longer see Matt, but I knew that all of a sudden traffic was really moving. Imagine my surprise when we approached the intersection and I saw my husband in the middle directing traffic! As our van drove by I opened the sliding door, Matt jumped in, and our Christmas tree expedition was underway once again.

It wasn't long before we located this tad-bit-too-tall cedar and decided she was perfect. The tree farm workers loaded it onto a wheelbarrow and we headed back towards the van.



Turns out the tree was a tad bit too big for the van too, but there was no stopping us at this point.


We got the tree home, and up the stairs, and into our living room with lots of hassle and plenty of spilled dirt.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely.

But that doesn't mean I won't enjoy next year's 5 minute drive to the tree lot and the simplicity of a pre-cut professionally shaped fir tree!

favorites, part two

Here are a few more of my favorite things about Christmas....

Wrapping gifts with LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of tape :)


Making salt dough hand print ornaments. The owner of the littlest hand print ate a big glob of salt dough. It wasn't nearly as tasty as he hoped it would be. Sad moment for the little man, but his hand print turned out really cute :)


Christmas pajamas! Grandma made these for the whole family last year and we were excited to get them out again. That's Isaac in the blue striped pjs on the far left of the photo -


We are eagerly counting down the days!

a passion for fashion

Yes, folks, she's going to turn the fashion world upside down...


Her entire outfit comes courtesy of her hand-me-down-cousin-queen Caroline, who is quite the fashion diva herself.

And yes, she is wearing white shoes. It's an unusual move for her - white is not normally high on her list of acceptable colors - but it seems she has made an exception in this case. White + patent leather + daisies on the straps = a set of shoes that is simply irresistible.

Perfect when paired with flowered sweats and a striped top. Just perfect.

twins and the bear upstairs

Julianna asked me if she could be twins with Lydia when she gets bigger.

I never know how to answer questions like that. With a dose of cold hard reality? ("Well honey, twins are twins when they are babies... either you are born with a twin or you aren't. So sorry, but you can never be Lydia's twin.") It seems so harsh. So un-imaginative. So 'real world'.

I want my children to be children. I want them to have imaginations that run wild, I want them to create and explore, I want them to dream of growing up and becoming twins with their little sister.

So I how did I respond to her question? I did what all parents do when they don't know how to answer a question. I stalled for time.... "Ask Lydia what she thinks, does she want to be your twin? I think you better check with her first." Not surprisingly, Lydia was all for it :)

And then I told her. She would never be Lydia's twin. She knew the answer anyways - her cousins are twins, there are twins in her class, and twin babies in our neighborhood. She knows what a twin is, and she knew she would never be Lydia's twin.

But I am so glad she wants to be twins with her sister. And that they are content to just be best sister friends. But a small part of me wishes they didn't know the truth, and that they were dreaming of future glorious twin-days.

Which partially explains the 'bear upstairs'.

Apartment living is noisy. And the girls love to ask "What's that?" when they hear a strange noise. I got tired of the boring, normal answers [Well, honey, sounds like someone is pounding on the wall.... sounds like someone slammed their front door... sounds like someone dropped something in the stairs.]

So I created the bear upstairs. Now we blame almost all the noises on him. When a big bumping and thumping noise interrupts our lunch I love to hear Lydia say "He's dancing, the bear upstairs is dancing again." (Lydia is really into rhyming words, so the bear upstairs is a big hit with her - she loves to make up words that rhyme and come tell me: "Mommy, Mommy, listen to this: hand buh-land, it rhymes!")

The bear upstairs knocks, he sneezes, he takes a bath. One night Matt told the girls he invited the bear upstairs to dinner and the girls just laughed and laughed. (He never showed up.)

So here we are. Twin-less. With a bear living upstairs. And hopefully nurturing wild imaginations, abundant creativity, and lots of fun memories!

favorites

Some of my favorite things about the Christmas season....

Little girls holding BIG presents :)



Decorating cut out sugar cookies with smudges of icing on our lips



and finding the baby Jesus snoozing in a pink butterfly slipper.


'Tis the season. Stay tuned for more favorites!

re-gifting

Re-gifting. I think it's a term that usually refers to wedding gifts that you didn't like... wrap them up and give them to someone else. Voila. You re-gifted.

In our house, re-gifting is a bit different. It's watching a younger child begin to enjoy something that our older ones have already been enjoying. I LOVE it!

My girls liked this swing. A lot. They still like it.... All three of our kids are in and out of the swing regularly.

But Isaac is my first who really loves this swing. I mean loves this swing. When I hang it up he squeals with delight. When I buckle him in he quivers with excitement. I give him a big push and he kicks and laughs. So fun.



Since we live in an apartment, the swing is hung inside. Not super typical, but it works great for us.

When 5pm rolls around and Isaac is getting fussy and dinner needs to be cooked, I get out the swing. I give him a big push and head to the kitchen. I chop the vegetables, start the water boiling, preheat the oven, and look over my shoulder at Isaac's big grin.

Depending on your perspective, Isaac's either in the worst position, or the best.

Sure, he gets lots of "previously enjoyed" stuff. But he also gets the best of the best. The toys that withstood the test of time. The ones that will probably never make it to our give-away pile. It's like having two big sister toy evaluators - and best of all, he gets to listen to their delight as he enjoys his 'new' stuff!

PS - We've got at least one more 'money in the bank he will definitely LOVE this' re-gift coming up this Christmas.... it was Julianna's 1st birthday present, and Lydia's first birthday present and this December it's got gift tag marked "ISAAC"! Perfect.

Any guesses as to what he's getting?

decorating for Christmas

The girls have been helping me decorate for Christmas. With three children under the age of 4, "Christmas decorating" takes on a whole new meaning. Christmas magazines talk about decorating themes - there's the nautical look, the Santa theme, trees decorated entirely in antique ornaments.

My Christmas decorating theme? Indestructible.

If it can't be chewed on, toted around, fought over or soaked in drool, it's not really an option :) [There are a few exceptions, and we're all working hard to establish good boundaries regarding how to enjoy certain decorations!]

This morning we decorated our front door. The front door is one of the prime locations for potential destruction. When I'm standing outside our door fumbling for the key Isaac lunges for and rips anything within reach. When Julianna beats me to the top of the stairs she plays with the door decorations. While Lydia waits for me to put on my shoes she fiddles with the door artwork.

Not exactly the place for a fancy wreath (if we even had one). Instead, we opted for a bit of preschool art.



It's entirely possible that we have the best Christmas door decorations in our entire stairwell.


Of course, no one else in the stairwell celebrates or decorates for Christmas, so the competition wasn't too tough!