Christmas Highlights

We had a beautiful Christmas. It was disappointing not having the girls with us,and my being sick caused us to cancel much of what we had planned, but it was still a fun day for our little family. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures to go with this post. Most of the pictures were taken on Stuart's work camera that I have been using since Jack broke ours last year. Because I got a new one for Christmas, Stuart took his back to work before I got a chance to download the pics from it. Oh well. Here are some highlights.

1. Jack was very excited to make a gingerbread train this year. He was even more excited when he realized it was decorated with candy. He ate almost as much as we used for decoration.
2. He loves Christmas carols at bedtime. Currently, Silent Night is his favorite. The smile on his face when I start to sing it is priceless. He always request that I sing "Night." If I try any other song, he puts his hand over my mouth and says "no no."
3. On Christmas Eve we followed our usual tradition of opening 1 present. We told Jack it was time to finally open one and he excitedly ran to the tree. I told him to wait because first we were going to talk about the reason we give presents to loved ones at Christmas and I started to explain the spiritual significance of exchanging gifts. Jack immediately dropped his head forward and put a huge scowl on his face. It was hysterical. I wish we had video of his reaction. He definitely didn't want to be deterred from opening his gift.
4. This year we again wrapped the entry to the Christmas tree, so Jack had to tear through it to get to the presents. He LOVED it. He ran around the tree in circles. It was an effort to get him to sit down and open gifts.
5. We started with his stocking. With each item he pulled out, he was thrilled and wanted to stop and play. He didn't see a need to look inside for anything else.
6. It took us ALL day to open gifts. We really did try to keep spending in check this year. We had a $100 limit for Jack and in retrospect, it should have been half that amount. He had so much fun with his toys that most of the presents went unopened. Finally, just before lunch, we convinced him to put his new toys away and open everything else.

Some of his favorite gifts?

• He loves his cardboard house. He plays in it constantly.
• He loves his tools. (We got him a tool set and grammie and papa got him a workbench.) He immediately tried to put his hammer in his pants of course...


• He loves his little "baby penguin" from his stocking. He kisses him all the time and takes him for rides on his bike. (Note, the penguin is helping him with his tools in the above picture.)
• He loves shaving with his new shave kit. He is very thorough when he uses it.

He really does love all the gifts picked out for him by his family. Everyone knows him well! I especially love the gift from his aunt Alicia. A toy donated to a needy child on his behalf! Now that is the way to do it right!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I will try to post more in the new year!

Fun in the Snow

A couple of weeks ago, our community had a winter festival for the kids. It was the day after I found out I had pneumonia, but I didn't want Jack to miss out on playing in snow for the first time, so we went. We were only there 45 minutes, but I paid for it, spending the rest of the day in bed. It was worth it. Jack had a blast.

He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, but he did get close enough to get a present.


The minute he saw the snow, he took off running.


There wasn't a lot of it, but enough for sledding. A friend of ours was gracious enough to let Jack borrow one of their sleds to use.


Gotta love this. It was 74 degrees out so we could enjoy the snow without being too cold.

I just love the look on his face here. I'm not sure what the attitude was all about...

He was fearless and even went down the hill by himself.

I thought we would have to drag him out of there, but we bribed him with hot chocolate...which worked.

Stay Tuned...

I know I haven't posted anything new in awhile. I have a good excuse. For those who don't know, I have pneumonia. It sucks. I have never felt this bad...ever. I got sick a week before Christmas. I am feeling a little better, but am still having trouble breathing. At least the worst of it seems to be over and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Luckily, I was well enough to get through Christmas, although I wasn't able to complete my shopping and it was Stuart that was impacted by that. I'm trying to be patient as the doctor said it takes a few weeks to recover.

Stuart took good care of me when he wasn't working. He has done all the shopping, cooking, and caring for Jack. On days he was at the office, it was a big struggle. Many times, I just cried because I didn't think I could handle another second. Jack was so sweet. He would see me crying and come grab both sides of my face while he looked at me with concern. He would then give me a hug and pat my back, saying repeatedly, "what happened? what happened?" (I do that when he comes to me crying.) I just love this kid! He is so loving.

Anyway, I have lots of new Jack stuff to share and will try to get caught up as I am feeling up to it. Stay tuned for more info...

Bad Mom

About a week ago, I pulled out the directions to Jack's train set to try to put the tracks back together after he had demolished it. Apparently, I was frustrated about something and said the word "crap" repeatedly while holding the instructions. Now, whenever Jack finds the instructions, he says "crap" over and over again.

Yup, I am officially on the naughty list this year.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 14

This is likely the last Christmas that Jack will not be asking for specific items for gifts, so we are taking advantage of it. Also, we are buying very little this year because we are determined to help Jack understand that the holiday is about giving, not getting. As a result, it has been fun planning for Christmas and trying to come up with small gifts that we think Jack will love. Since Jack isn't asking for anything, I thought I would help Santa out by sharing some of his current interests...

• He LOVES Lightening McQueen. We watch the Cars movie at least 5 times a week.
• He is very partial to the color red.
• He loves tools. He loves fixing things and helping around the house with various projects.
• He really doesn't care much for coloring...except on himself.
• He loves robots. Unfortunately, his mom broke his baby robot that he slept with on occasion. Jack wasn't listening to me, so I told him he couldn't have it and tossed it out the door of his room, breaking off both it's legs in the process. (Unrepairable...HUGE guilt over this one.)
• He still loves cats and dogs best, but now he also gets excited about birds and always tries to chase them around the neighborhood. He gets sad when they fly away.
• Calliou is his all time favorite cartoon. It is the first thing he asks for every morning. (Probably because it comes on at 7:30am, not long after he wakes up each day.) We started using the DVR to record them in case he sleeps through it...boy, is that ever handy.
• He still loves his train set and plays with it every day.
• He loves chocolate. Especially hot chocolate. Mmmmm.
• He still hates clothes and jammies, but loves socks and shoes. We have to be very tricky if we want to get him dressed. He will wear a jacket, provided it is a zip up, not a pull-over. Yes, he is that particular. It's exhausting, but he knows what he likes.
• He loves other people. When we walk through our neighborhood, if he sees someone at a distance, he takes off running for them, screaming "hello, hello!" He just can't wait to greet everyone he sees.
• He loves riding in the car with mom. He looks out for school buses and big trucks and points them out to me each time he sees one. He does not, however, like to get out of the car when I stop to run errands.
• He loves balloons. Living where we do, there are frequent hot air balloons out on the weekend and he gets so excited when he sees them. Dad thought it would be a good idea to buy him the movie "Up" because it had balloons in it, but it was a bit too much for him. We had to fast forward through several scary scenes.

Jack loves all things Christmas. He loves the trees, the lights, the baking, and the presents. We have several presents under the tree from Grammie and Papa. Jack is very interested in the bows and keeps bringing me the gifts while saying, "Surprise!" So far, however, he hasn't opened them. I am just loving this holiday with Jack and Stuart. It is low key this year and that is a nice change.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 10

One of Jack's favorite Christmas activities is the Advent Calendar. Every night we read a Christmas story and then Jack gets to take a treat from his Advent Calendar, or as he calls it, his "Christmas Calendar." He is so excited about this that he is even willing to put on his jammies if he knows the calendar is the next activity. (Otherwise, I don't think he would be willing to get dressed for bed.)

We tried to capture his excitement on video, but he was a bit distracted by the camera. (Try not to look at me, I don't think I had time to shower all day and it shows!)

Yes, he is wearing his Lightening McQueen underwear over his jammies. He insisted on this and by the end of the day I don't feel like arguing.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 7

We are living in a Christmas wonderland...all the trees in our house make me overlook those boring white walls that need to be painted. Yes, we really do have 9 trees. (2 are full size and the rest vary.) I like the ability to create different styles and 99% of the trees/ornaments have been purchased during after Christmas clearance sales, so it hasn't been too expensive to do. Here is a look at our mini forest.

Jack's personal tree. Each year it changes based on his interests. This year, we decorated it with his cars. He likes parking them on the little tree in his playroom.


This one is in mine and Stuart's bedroom. Jack keeps pointing to one of the butterflies and saying, "butterfly hurt." I'm not sure why.


My mini silver snowflake trees.


My purple trees.

This one is my favorite. Stuart bought me the tree while we were dating (sometimes he enables my crazy.) I love all the white and gold ornaments.

Our main tree. Note, Jack is about to take a hammer to it to fix something or other...that boy is trouble.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 6

This year, I am determined to have a stress-free Christmas...ok, maybe not totally free, but at least minimized. We are really cutting back on spending because we are tired of the commercialism. It's amazing how much more time you have to spend together as a family when you aren't out shopping all the time. Here are a few of the ways we spent our weekend:

Jack loved helping hang Christmas lights outside.


Driving around to look at Christmas lights with a cup of hot chocolate. Mmmmm. Even better in your jammies while snuggled under your favorite blanket.

Sometimes the best thing is to snuggle in bed and watch Christmas movies.

Yeah, this is the life.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 5

I was a bit nervous to get out the nativity scene this year. I love the one I have and I was more than a little fearful that Jack would break it, but so far, he has been great. I explained it to him and he had fun helping me set it up. Every time I tried to take his picture, however, Jack kept holding up the baby Jesus for me instead, so most of my photos are a bit blurry.

For the most part, he leaves it alone, but every once in awhile, I find the angel missing because Jack has decided to play with it.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 4

Overall, Jack is doing well with the trees, but he has his moments where he just needs to test his limits.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 3

Although Jack has a bit of a cold, we decided to take him out last night for some Christmas festivities. It was awesome. Desert Ridge is doing Holiday story time for the kids every Wednesday night. We got there too late for the free cookies and hot chocolate, but Jack still had a great time.

He didn't care one bit about the holiday stories and singing...completely ignored it. But, one of his favorite characters made an appearance...Clifford the Big Red Dog. He was insanely excited. He knocked over other kids running to see him. It was hard to convince him to wait his turn; he kept crying out for Clifford. Jack was super excited and anxious, until it was our turn, then he got a little shy. He desperately wanted to see Clifford, but would only do it with me by his side. He kept pushing me to get closer. He did finally give him a high five.

We took a quick hot chocolate break.

Then we returned just in time for story time to turn into dancing time. It was hysterical.

Finally, at 7pm each night, there is snow fall for all of the kids. Jack was in heaven.

It didn't take him long to figure it out...he kept telling us it was bubbles. Jack kept trying to pick the bubbles out of the hair of the other kids.

It was so much fun. We will have to try it again next week when Curious George will be there.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 2

Christmas greetings from Jack:

Jack is talking up a storm these days. Some of my recent favorite dialog includes:

• Last week he started calling me "Teresa" or "honey." So funny!
• His favorite phrase, by far, is "I do it."
• He loves to play hide and seek and call out, "Mommy, where are you?"
• His favorite computer videos are of himself. He often asks to watch "Jack video."
• We visited the big outdoor Christmas tree at the Anthem outlet stores. Jack kept running around it saying, "It's huge!"
• He loves to point out clocks when he sees them. However, he leave the "l" out when he says clock. This is very embarrassing when we are at the grocery story and he points out a "big clock."
• And the best of all? He now says "I love you" without prompting from me. These spontaneous declarations are my favorite.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 1

We LOVE Christmas. We have been busy decorating the new house in preparation. Jack has been very helpful this year. Here are some highlights.

Holiday baking is a must for me. Jack was very helpful with baking the chocolate hazelnut pound cake. Quality control at it's finest.


He loves the advent calendar, or as he calls it, "Christmas house." It's a great place to park his cars. He has broken the Santa on it twice already. It also took some effort to convince him that the glittery snow on the roof was not frosting and shouldn't be eaten.


Didn't you know it's easier to assemble a Christmas tree naked? No pesky clothes to get in your way.



I finally realized I had to wait until he was asleep to put the lights on the tree. He really likes a lot of lights. It's hard to stop him when he is just so freakin' proud of his work.


He loved the strands of beads and dragged them all over the house.


He helped decorate the tree for the first time and did an awesome job!


He gets one new ornament each year. This year he picked out a dog one from Walmart. He loves it. He slept with it during his nap the day we got it. He has already broken both of it's front legs off of it. I really don't care. They glue back on easily and I have broken just as many ornaments as he has so it is unavoidable.


He helped me make snowflakes. His preferred method is to jab a hole in the middle of the paper with the scissors. Man, he loves scissors. He was very sad when they ran away and we couldn't find them again. I helped him look, but they must have hid themselves very well.


My two cheese balls by the big tree.


I'll post more pics when the decorating is completed.