25th

So, I just celebrated my 25th birthday.  It's the best birthday I've ever had.  Easy.  My parents drove all the way up from Georgia to celebrate.  As if that wasn't enough, they also arranged a hotel stay for Adam and I so we could get away while they watched the kids.  I haven't spoken much about how hard December and January were, but it was HARD.  Adam was on call for those two months, and we hardly saw each other at all.  Adam hardly had time to sleep or eat.  We were tired.  Emotions ran strong.  Patience ran thin.  I do have to say that despite everything we had going on, we did a pretty good job of keeping our heads afloat.  The day before my parents let us know they were planning on coming up I had told Adam, "All I want for my birthday is to stay in bed in while you get up with the kids, make them breakfast and clean the kitchen."  Well, instead the hubby and I got to sleep in and go out to breakfast while my mom and dad made the kids breakfast and cleaned the kitchen.  It gets even better than that...my mom also made lunch and dinner and a snicker doodle birthday cake! 
Their trip up here also made it possible for us to go to the temple in Columbus which was a huge blessing...it had been a while since we've been able to go due to externships, nursing a baby, and the insane residency schedule.  It was nice to go to the temple and refocus on what is important eternally.  It was also nice having 4 hours in the car together to just talk and be "us."

I have to say that I really missed the kids though.  After being with them almost constantly for the past two months, I kind of felt like I was missing a limb (or two) being without them.  However, I am fairly certain they did not feel the same way about me.  My mom said the only time either of them made mention of me was when C took a bathroom break in the middle of the night.  They had so much fun with Mita and Papitito!

My brothers Dario and Dallen also came up for the weekend.  It was great to have some time to hang out with them. 

The only unfavorable thing about this visit was the length.  Two days just isn't long enough...especially when I was gone for one of them.  I am so, so grateful for my parents making my 25th so memorable!

Cassie and Kids Came for a Visit

I have four brothers.  None of them are married yet.  I have no sisters.  Luckily, Adam does have two sisters.  It was nice to automatically inherit sisters when I married Adam.  We tend to run pretty parallel lives with his sister Cassie and her family.  We married within a year of each other, had our first babies (girls) within 6 weeks of each other, and our second babies (boys) within months of each other.  It's really fun.  She came up to visit at the end of January with her two kids (we're sad her hubby had to stay home to play video games and golf, work).  It was a really neat trip too because Adam and I hadn't met our only nephew yet.  He's so dang cute!  He started walking while he was here...I think he wanted to keep up with the bigger kids.

Their first full day together the girls picked out their outfits.  Mimi gave them both shirts a few months ago and they insisted on wearing them the same day.  It was really cute.  They were really silly together!

We had lots of fun while they were here.  We visited the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center.  Jonas and Hailey loved it.  Charlotte wanted nothing to do with the reptiles.

Hailey got to play in snow for the first time.

Jonas and Emmett reorganized my pantry daily.

Right before Hailey was about to leave I found the girls upstairs with these on their heads pretending to be robots.

It was so enjoyable to have them visit for a week!

#1 Reason...

why I hate where I live: the snow drifts.

Right now I am coveting my neighbor.  The wind that blows through our complex blows all the snow onto my porch and sidewalk.  So while you can still see the grass poking through the snow in front of our neighbor's town home, it looks like we built an igloo to live in during the winter months.  Here's a picture of a view of our front porch and the neighbor's (across from us)  place from my front door.

Luckily I enjoy what (or whom) is inside my house.  These are some pics from before church on Sunday.  I was pretty excited when I found the maroon dress shirt for J at a thrift store because Daddy already had one.  Love my matching boys!

 C didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot.



Babies, it's cold outside

So we had a small blizzard the beginning of last week.  C had been begging me to go out and play in it.  I hate being cold...it makes me grumpy and irrational.  Finally after two days of her asking to go play in it, I decided to bundle up with the kids and take them out.  They were so excited as we put our many layers on, but the thrill of it all quickly vanished (for everyone) as we stepped out into the 20 degree weather.  The snow was a little too deep for Jonas to walk in it.

What the?  Why won't my legs move?

Charlie wanted to make a snow angel, but you can tell by the look on her face that it just wasn't as fun as she imagined it'd be.

I ended up pulling out the sled and pulled them around on it for a while.

I, however, was certain that my cold fingers that were pulling the rope were going to fall off any minute.  I pasted a fake smile to my face in hopes that I wouldn't completely dash my children's snow experience.  Luckily, C's nose started running from all the cold and that was the breaking point for her.  I wiped it a few times, but it just wouldn't stop running so she insisted we go inside.  I wasn't very hard to convince! :) 

Christmas Day

Not only was this our first Christmas away from family, but Adam also had to work on Christmas Day.  He had to be in by 7:30am so that meant some schedule adjustments to the way we usually celebrate Christmas.  We got the kids up at 6:30am to see what Santa brought.

 C really wanted a keyboard from Santa.  She loves music and plays with it all the time. She also wanted a jingle bell and panties for her Barbies (Santa didn't deliver, but she didn't notice).

This Snow White doll was in C's stocking, and I just love her face in this picture.  She had no idea that Santa could bring things we didn't ask for.  She was so excited that he knew her favorite princess.

After that our little family broke up for a while.  Adam went to work.  The kids and I got ready for and went to church.  When we all were home again that afternoon we opened the rest of our gifts. C insisted upon wearing her Christmas dress to open presents since it was Christmas.

These cute magnetic dolls from Mimi and Poppie have been so fun.  These have to be one of her favorite toys now.  She likes to play with them up on my bed where Jonas can't reach them because he likes to throw the magnets everywhere.

Mita made the cute purse for C (and a matching one for Mommy).  Charlotte's was filled with lip gloss which is a dream gift to C.  She glops that stuff on her lips till it's dripping off.  Then I tell her to go kiss Daddy!

Jonas was trickier to get pictures of.  He had a pretty good Christmas...lots of cars which is his most recent obsession.

My parents also made this ABC book that I need to take a picture of.  It is full of pictures of our family and things that my kids are familiar with for each letter of the alphabet.  For example, J is for Jonas and Josh with pictures of both of them.  My kids adore this book.  We read it multiple times each day, and Jonas has a favorite page.  It's S is for sleep and Sheila (my parent's dog).  The sleeping picture is of him and Adam napping together and there are a few pictures of Sheila on the next page.  He gets so excited every time we get to this page and very upset if we don't spend enough time on it.  So cute!

Later that night we had some friends join us for appetizers and games.  It was so fun!  And we were super lucky because Adam didn't get any emergency call the entire weekend.  I consider that a huge blessing!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is when our family does the special dinner.  I love a ham at Christmas, but Adam's Christmas "bonus" was a turkey this year so that's what we had instead.  I'm assuming it's what we'll be having for the remainder of residency as well. The menu also included hot potato casserole, cheesy broccoli, dinner rolls, and sparkling cider. We always have a candlelight dinner on Christmas Eve.  I completely forgot to get candle holders so I floated tealights in our glasses instead.  We're all about high class in our home!  :)

So, I really wanted a cute picture of Charlotte and Jonas together by the Christmas tree.  Charlotte loved the idea, and Jonas hated it.  He gets really bugged these days if C tries to hug him or hold his hand.

I had to bribe them by letting them hold presents.

After that we acted out the Nativity and then opened some presents.  New jammies!

 This hugging scene keeps repeating itself!

We give the kids a new Christmas book to open and read on Christmas Eve each year right before we send them off to bed!  We tucked them in tight, and they were out much quicker than I thought they would be.

Home for the Holidays (or not)

This was our first Christmas without family.  All season long I had been so busy that I hadn't really had a chance to think about it.  I was sad that we weren't going to be with family, but still upbeat about this time of year and all the merriment in brings.  Then came the time to pick up a few last minute items from the grocery store.  I got there at 9am on Christmas Eve day and the parking lot was already packed.  I pulled the kids out of the car (Adam was working) and made my way into the store.  I go to the grocery store all the time.  Because I'm a stay at home mom, and I make my trips during the day it's always the same type of people there...elderly men who pull coins out of Charlotte's ear or other moms with kids wearing construction paper and feather hats on their heads.  These people are not at the store on Christmas Eve day, and I was not prepared.  I saw grown men there with their teenage sons,  moms with their children that must be home from college, grandpas and grandmas with their preschool aged grandchildren, brothers and sisters who ran to the store for mom to grab some last minute forgotten item.  All of a sudden, will all these people around me I realized I was very alone.  My family that I usually spend Christmas with was in Georgia and Texas (and California and Nevada).  I quickly ran my items through the self-check line.  I fought back tears as I loaded my car with kids and food and felt quite successful for keeping my emotions in check.  Unfortunately music got the best of me.  "I'll be home for Christmas" started playing on the radio on the drive home, and I couldn't hold the tears back any longer.  Upon arrive home, I thought about how even though I'm not with all of my family for Christmas, I'm at least not completely alone either.  My hubby and children are lots of fun.  Then my thoughts turned to those who are alone, and I immediately panicked as I wondered if the missionaries in our ward had a place to go.  So I called them to invite them over.  They informed me that they already had plans that evening to go caroling, but would love to stop by our place.  Around five that evening, eight missionaries showed up at our door.  We invited them in to hear them sing.  I was not prepared as they began to sing, "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed."  These eight boys away from their families at this Christmas season sang with power and love.  Their voices blended perfectly as they sang 2 or 3 different parts, and I felt as though I was listening to an ensemble that diligently practices.  Most importantly though, they filled our home with the spirit of Christ!  It was all there...love, peace, joy!  It was a Christmas Eve tradition growing up in my family to sing Christmas hymns by the light of the Christmas tree.  I always cherished that time with my family.  As the missionaries closed with singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" we joined in. Although I wasn't singing with my parents and brothers, the light and warmth of Christ filled my heart and eased my loneliness.  I'm so grateful for those young men and the sacrifice that they're making in spending the holidays away from their families, and the service they were able to provide to me by doing so.

Gingerbread and Houses

I attempted to make gingerbread this year.  It was a complete failure.  I don't know if gingerbread is even considered to be difficult to make or if I was just too impatient with it's very sticky dough.  I'm beginning to think it was more of the latter.  I made six cookies.  The rest of the dough went into the trash wrapped up in the wax paper it instisted upon being stuck to.  I don't know how people are patient enough to make houses out of this stuff!

We did make graham cracker houses this year though.  Here's a picture of Charlotte and her little friend Kassidy with their decorated houses.

I'm pretty sure C licked every piece of candy before sticking it on her house.  Jonas made a little hut, but didn't want to decorate it.  Typical guy.  Then he ate the graham crackers...