Christmas festivities

We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of love, fun, and family togetherness. Here are some snapshots...

Party at BB"s house with extended family on the 23rd...


Christmas Eve, we stayed home, but Caroline still got dressed up in red bows.


Christmas morning at our house...
Caroline got a "baby doll bjorn"

and some dress-up clothes


Clayton was able to partially open a few of his presents...


Then we headed off to Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Ray's house...



Then we went to Grandma BB and Papa's house.


We had so much fun all day, but by the time it hit bedtime, both kids were ready to head home.

Happy again and playing dress up with her new dress up clothes.

Clayton is baptized

On Saturday, Clayton Matthew was baptized at Kenilworth Union Church.

Growing with Mr. Bear

Growing with Mr. Bear - 41/2 months

Growing with Mr. Bear - 22 months

Growing with Mr. Bear - together!

Quick update - the garage door is being replaced tomorrow, so we'll be able to finally get out (just in time for Clayton's Christening on Saturday!) And Kevin, my superman, fixed the furnace! Things are definitely looking up.

When it rains, it pours.

So last week, the spring on our garage door broke and the door is now permanently stuck down.
Luckily, Kevin was at work so his car was not in the garage. Not-so-luckily, my car WAS in the garage. Our door is solid wood and is extra heavy, so we can't open it manually - even with multiple people. I am currently trapped and am unable to go anywhere. Ugh! It's not like it's Christmastime or anything when you have lots of errands that you need to do. It's also a little bit scary because if something happened to me or to one of the kids, I can't take them anywhere. Plus, since Kevin's car is a stick-shift, I can't even take his car out when he gets home. Luckily, the grocery store is only a few blocks away. Not-so-luckily, it is freezing out and we have 5+ inches of snow on the ground - so that rules out taking 2 babies in the stroller (or in the cold for that long for that matter). We ended up ordering a new garage door (we needed to anyway), but they can't install it until Friday. I am PRAYING that nothing goes wrong and they are able to install it on Friday.
To make things even better, tonight, our furnace stopped working. Luckily, it stopped working in the early evening so we only had to hang out a few hours before Kevin got home (with a car that can actually transport us all out of here if need be.) The temperature is starting to drop, but it hasn't gotten too low yet. Not-so-luckily, the heating company that services our furnace is closed for the night, so we're out of luck unless we call (and pay for) their emergency service.
UGH! The outdoor temperature right now is 20 degrees, with a windchill that makes it feel like 7 degrees. This could get ugly.

Christmas activities...

The Christmas card photo shoot...


Getting our face painted with a Christmas tree...

Decorating the Christmas tree...

Dressing up in Santa hats...

And a cookie-decorating party we hosted for 11 children & babies.

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the event. I had my hands full supervising 11 children with frosting and sprinkles!

Snow and snowmen

The first big December snow! It snowed several inches, so Caroline got to play in the snow for the first time this winter. She actually really liked it!

Clayton is a little too young to be out in the snow, so we just put him in snowmen jammies instead.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Baby, it's cold outside...

We got all bundled up...

and took a stroll in our town square where we saw santa's sleigh and the nativity scene.

Caroline was fascinated by the little patches of snow and wanted to step on each one. Just wait until it REALLY snows, Caroline!

Piano girl

Caroline took a whirl at singing her favorite, Do a deer, while playing the piano. Hmmm..maybe singing and piano lessons are in her future.

Visit from the Godparents & Godsisters

Tia Erica, Uncle Rick, and Godsisters Eva & Sofia braved the ice and snow to come visit us!

Making faces

How to take a picture...

"Okay, baby Clayton. Mama is going to take our picture. "

"Here is what you need to do."

"Smile, like this. "

"I said smile, and instead you try to eat Mr. Bear!?"

"Oh brother. This is NOT going well."

Growing with Mr. Bear

Growing with Mr. Bear - 3 1/2 months

Growing with Mr. Bear - 21 months

This too shall pass...

The past few nights have been a little interesting. Clayton has reverted to bouts of fitful sleep and seems to wake every 20 - 60 minutes throughout the night. Needless to say, when baby doesn't sleep, Mama doesn't sleep. Let's hope this will pass soon and he'll go back to sleeping longer stretches. This morning, I was up trying to put Clayton back to sleep for his morning nap for the nth time, when from the kitchen, I heard "That's neat!" from Caroline. I didn't think anything of it. When I went downstairs a minute later, I quickly found out what she found so "neat". We have a rule "only draw on the paper". If you ask her, she will even tell you where she is allowed to draw. This morning, she seemed to have temporarily forgotten that rule and had taken her red crayon and drawn all over the white wall in the kitchen. I mean ALL over. She had also continued her artistic expression all over the wood floor. Thank God for washable crayons. I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone with a toddler.

The Lord is Good to Me!

Here is our latest song. This is what we sing when we "say" grace at dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hosted Kim, Jim, and nieces Sarah & Alyssa for our first Thanksgiving at our house.

Everyone wanted to hold baby Clayton.

Clayton & Caroline

"This is the Day!"

The past few days...

With big sister Caroline always singing, Clayton has decided to start "singing" too. He does little octave leaps while he's cooing!

Doing tummy time together...

Riding on her toy leopard

Smiling man

Family picture

Playdough and spitting up

So - what have we been up to this week? Caroline got to play with playdough for the first time. It's nice because you can make it yourself using baking ingredients so that you don't have to worry if your kid eats it by mistake.

Clayton is smiling more and more, but also spitting up a LOT. Ugh! I will change him into new clothes, look away for a second, and then look back and he is soaking wet already.

Do-Re-Mi

De Re Mi

The laws of toddlers....

- When you try to pick up and put away a toy that has been untouched for the last 30 minutes, that is the toy that your toddler all of a sudden wants to play with.
- When your toddler asks for eggs for breakfast and you make them, the second they are put on the tray, you hear "I want pancakes."
- When your toddler says "I want up" and they are not picked up, they proceed to say "I want up. I want up. I want up. I want up" continuously until they are picked up. Of course, when they are picked up, you instantly hear "I want down."

Yes, they can be exasperating, but then they smile or laugh or give you a hug and you fall in love with them all over again.

The ABCs...almost

First attempt at a video...