Bad Old Santa

Well, Santa came to our house. It was pretty surprising given Sullivan's nice, nasty four year old attitude lately. There were days when I honestly thought Santa might skip our house altogether! Sullivan had so much fun though. We went to look at Christmas lights, then came home, got the cookies (Chips a hoy, per Sullivan's instructions, 5 of them) and a mug of milk, then went and threw crackers and dog food on the roof for the reindeer. When Sullivan woke up in the morning, he was so mad that "Bad Old Santa" would leave snow all over my floor again this year after I had asked him not to. But, he got over it real fast when he saw all of the presents. His favorite thing was his Leapster, an educational video game system for kids. He LOVES it, and will play it as long as we let him (honestly). He also got the movie Underdog, which he has probably watched 10 times since we opened it. He runs around saying that he is "thunder dog to the rescue- here to save the day." Sophie loved this zoo circus train thing that she got. Aaron and I got a Wii, and have played it NONSTOP! It is so fun, and so addicting. Probably the best gift that we have gotten this year though, has been Aaron having 6 days off in a row. Its the longest we have had him in forever, and we have just enjoyed hanging out doing nothing. It's been so nice. He works so much ,that we never get to relax with him. We have been going for walks in the new red wagon that Santa left to the park, and having fun. Sophie is walking all over the place, she is still a much faster crawler, and will get down to crawl if she has a long distance or a fast place to go. Its really funny to watch her wobbly legs take steps. Her new favorite word is "see". She picks something up, shows it to you, and says "see." (over and over and over). That's about it for this update, I hope your Christmas has been as wonderful as ours. I can't believe its over already, but I guess we have to get back to real life sooner or later :)

My Love

I can not believe it has now been a year since I first met you in that delivery room. Your scream upon entering this world brought tears to your mommy and daddy's eyes. You have been quite a blessing from day one. I have had more fun playing dress up with you- putting large enough bows in your hair for a child ten years older than you. When I see you smile, hear you laugh, know that you are happy, I feel complete. I have loved cuddling you, loving on you, holding you tight. When your tummy hurt in the night, I stayed up comforting you and loved every minute of it. Your little cries hurt worse than the screams of a grown man. You have taught me so much in this last year- more than I think I have learned in a lifetime. I have never had such a roller coaster of emotions in just one year. When you scared us with how sick you got in September, had me fly with you on a helicopter, I have never known I could love something or someone that much. Don't ever do that to me again Sophie Lynn! I can not wait to watch you grow into a young lady and see your little personality develop. You are such a blessing my love, you have made your mommy happier than you will ever know! Happy First Birthday my love. We love you more than you will ever know!

Life's a Buzz

To all of my friends that think I have fallen off of the face of the planet, I assure you I have not. Life is crazy around here (as usual). Tomorrow at 7 am, Sophie goes for surgery to have tubes put in and bloodwork drawn to test her immune system. She is a little girl, everywhere I go people say, "Is she really almost one?" YES YES YES! She is growing so much lately, and talking up a storm, she will repeat almost anything we say- here she is saying "jump jumpy jumpy" after Sullivan was jumping on the bed. I swear, she is getting so big! We are hoping once the tubes drain the fluid that she will be able to walk again.

And Sullivan, what is he up to? He had a dance performance at an alzheimers retirement center this past weekend. He did his ballet routine great, then for tap, he did a solo dance. It was the cutest thing ever! I know I am prejudice, but man, he had all the ladies there after him! It was wonderful- he stood up there in front of all of those people, smiling away, and did his dance great! He is getting really good at tap. Its getting pretty amazing. He had his school performance this week, so I thought I would share a video of him singing.

Sullivan at tap:

Sullivan and Sophie in robes they got for Christmas. Sullivan thinks it makes him a superhero!

Sullivan and Mrs. Weber, his pre-k teacher. He is in love with her! She made him the necklace he is wearing for Christmas.

More Birthday Pictures

Look at all of the girls admiring him!

Everyone likes pictures right? Here are some more from the party.

Is this a monkey? I am confused?

Trinity and Brooke painting ornaments. Brooke took it VERY seriously, and came out with some beautiful RED work. Trinity even managed to paint a star!

Sophie's best bud checking out her toys and showing her how its done!
Sullivan and Uncle Charlie decorating ornaments (Charlie's was of course the best!)
I can wear a Santa hat if I want at my party! Now, let me keep stealing these kids' food!
What? you don't put toys in your mouth so you can crawl?

Sullivan's future wife (Lauren), and Sophie's future husband (Thomas).

In other news, both kids went to the ENT yesterday. Sullivan was having some hearing issues, and basically has about 30 percent of his hearing right now. He has alot of fluid on his eardrums and really needs a set of tubes to drain it all and to have his enormous tonsils taken out. But, we are going to try a long round of antibiotics first to see if it will clear up. Sophie is having a set of tubes put in on Friday to hopefully drain all of this gunk that seems to be hanging around in her ears and prevent her from needing any more antibiotics. Please pray for them as they both try to heal!

Birthday girl

Well, So Sophie had her party this weekend. We had a few close friends over and some family, and celebrated in style. Sophie had a bit of an ear infection hanging around, so she wasn't the happiest camper at first. But, once the big kids got here, she truly enjoyed herself. I think the most fun for her was getting to sit at the big kid table and steal food off of their plates. She carried on a full conversation with them. She LOVED eating cake, and LOVED playing with the balloons. I honestly can not believe the child will be one Saturday. It blows my mind! Anyway, I will post more pictures later with her friends in them, I just thought you might enjoy a few of the birthday girl alone :)

And the best for last: the anatomy of eating cake:

Another ear infection

Well, yesterday, I decided to put Sophie in the ergo carrier while I mowed the yard- I really needed to pick up the leaves, and the girl would not let me out of her sight, much less let me put her down. She was having a grand old time when I realized that she had been quiet for a few seconds. I called Aaron over to ask if she had fallen asleep, and this is what he saw. Man, she was OUT! It was also her first dose ever of robitussin, so I guess that had something to do with the 4 hour nap that proceeded. (Yes I know not to give my kids cough syrup, I also have sense enough to put my kids out of their misery). Anyway, last night she burned 103 fever all night, today she screamed basically non stop from 8 am on. So, off to the doctor we went. $75 later and one much needed antibiotic shot, we realized she has another ear infection. We will be seeing the ENT next week to get tubes put in so that she doesn't have to go through this again. She seems to be feeling ok tonight, but I am hoping she wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning for her big party.

On a side note, we got a High def tv this week. Man, I feel like I am seeing tv for the first time. Its absolutely incredible. I mean, honestly I can not imagine anything more clear or crisp. It feels like you are looking out the window. I guess being married to Mr. TV engineer has its perks, I am sure he wired it some special way or something. I am sure he will get mad that I am not describing it any better, but I am telling you, I almost refuse to watch shows now unless they are in HD. Now, talk about spoiled! And, I complain about my kids being spoiled, listen to me!

Tired

Have you ever been so tired you couldn't even take another bite? Sophie was having a good old time eating, when all of a sudden, she stopped talking. We looked over, and found her VERY asleep! It was crazy. She is a swing, pat, love, sing, etc. to sleep baby, so we definitely didn't see that coming!

In other news, can you believe Christmas is less than two weeks away? I can not!!! I really can not believe that my baby is going to be one in just more than a week! We are having her first bithday party on Saturday, and I can't wait. I got her some super cute little pink tights with flowers all over them, and her first mini skirt, and a cute birthday shirt. Ugggh she is gonna look so big!!! I have finished all of my holiday shopping, and have everything wrapped! I can not believe it. I am on top of it this year. Its so fun though, because Sullivan REALLY gets it this year. We are having a blast every night looking at lights and just talking about Christmas with him. I set up the Christmas village on his eye level last night, and turned on all of the lights, "Its just gorgeous mom! I can't wait to see my friend's faces when they see this!" We read Christmas books every night, he just loves it! Tonight is Aaron's work Christmas party, so that should be fun.

And the best, Sullivan is learning about "Mrs. O" this week. Apparently, she is optimistic- try explaining that word to a four year old. Or better yet, try getting them to pronounce it right!

A little funny story to make you remember why you don't have ten kids. Last week, I told Sullivan to get his shoes on so we could go play with Thomas and Lauren. He has spent the night before at their house- Aaron and I had a fancy, schmancy date night. Anyway, He says "Damn it, I can't find them."
I said, "Sullivan, you can't say that, its a bad word!"
"Well shit!"
"Sullivan, that's a bad word too!!! You can't say that either!"
"Well, what can I say?"
"You can say darnit I guess, but you can't say those other bad words."
"If you think those are bad words, you should hear what Miss Tiffini said last night!"
"What did she say?" (fearing he has learned the "f" word)
"She said stupid, and I told her the police were gonna take her to jail if she talks like that!"

Christian Education Part Two

So, apparently he does learn something good in school! Here is a conversation we had in the car this morning on the way to a birthday party:

Sullivan: "Mom, Christmas is a magical time."
Me: "Yep, sure is. What is so magical about it?"
Sullivan: "You know, reindeer flying, Jesus flying, stuff like that."
Me: "Jesus flying? Where does he fly?"
Sullivan:" You know mom!"
Me: "No, are you talking about after he died when he rose into heaven?"
Sullivan: "Not flowers mom (I am assuming from the rose), I am talking about he flied into my heart and lives there. He lives there forever now that he flied there- right into my heart."
Me: "That is magical Sullivan. Isn't it wonderful that Jesus can live in your heart and be with you all of the time? I am so glad he lives in my heart too."
Sullivan: "He can only live in one of our hearts, and he picked mine. He doesn't know how to fly into yours mom."
Me: "Ok, well, are we gonna have a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas day since its His birthday?"
Sullivan: "I like that plan mom, we can make a cake!"
Me: "Mmm a cake, that sounds great."
Sullivan: "But since he is in my heart, I will probably have to eat his cake and open his presents."
Me: "I am sure he won't mind."

Christian Education

(Sophie as I found her after her brother decided she needed spiky hair)

Wow, seriously. I tell you this story not to make you question anything but your own life. I mean, seriously. Surely you have gone through your day thinking you had a sense of humor. Perhaps you heard a funny joke, laughed a little. Well, today as I picked Sullivan up from school, I got a lesson all of my own that I think I should share. Just to give you something to fill your evening with laughter. He is in preschool and they learn a new letter each week. The letter is a person, "Mr. A" "Mrs. L". The person has a personality, for instance, Mrs. L likes licking lemon lollipops. So, each Monday, when I pick him up, he excitedly tells me about the new person and the interesting fact about them. Today, was the same. It is a preschool at a church, perhaps I should pre empt the story with that tid bit of information.

"We learned about Mr. N today mommy!" (lots of enthusiasm)

"You did? What does Mr. N do?"

"Well, Mr. N is horny."

(choked up, surely I did not just hear that, what do I say? How do I respond?) "What?"

"Yeah, Mr. N is horny, he has a noisy nose that is a horn and makes noise."

"Oh, wow, he is NOISY. Not horny."

"Right, mom, of course."

And you thought your kid was getting a good education!

Sullivan is REALLY into Christmas this year. He told us exactly how to decorate the yard, and the tree, and is very into putting a piece of the advent up each day. He can not understand why there are huge socks with his name on them that would never fit him but we hang on the fireplace. Anyway, here is our tree, that he decorated quite well! Of course it has to have a train around it!

DVRs

So, we have had a DVR now for about two months. Apparently I am seriously addicted to it. I love it so much that we had to get one for our bedroom too because I now refuse to watch "live" tv. Last weekend, something happened with our satellite, and I was forced to watch "regular live cable." Oh the travesty. I was devastated. A whole weekend of no rewinding, watching all of the commercials, no pausing when children were jumping on me, screaming, or pooping, just go with the flow, and watch it as it happened. I guess I got used to it, but it stunk! So, it got me thinking how much I would love a DVR for life. Seriously. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Last night, I was putting up clothes in my room, Sullivan was taking a bath in my bathroom, and Sophie was crawling all around. She was having a pretty serious conversation with Sullivan when she started to scream. I look to see her head soaking wet, obviously full of soap, and her hair sticking straight up. "Why did you do that to your sister Sullivan?" "She asked me to make her hair spikey, I had to listen to her, I have to do what she says!" PAUSE. No unpausing until daddy comes home. Record to the hard drive to have proof later.

Wednesday night, Sullivan was at his ballet class (that's right, he takes tap and ballet, and he is still a manly boy who likes playing with superheroes!!!). They had a contest to see who could sing the loudest. The teacher had to call all of the parents in because Sullivan was definitely winning the contest. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. He was so serious, singing, could hardly take breaths, he was turning red. But, he was not gonna let some girl beat him at this contest! PAUSE, wait for daddy to come, record to the hard drive.

The other day, we were playing with best friends Thomas and Lauren, when Sullivan informs Lauren very seriously (she is 7), "Warren, I am gonna marry you."

Lauren: "No Sullivan, I am gonna marry someone in California."

Sullivan (very emotional, almost to tears): "No Warren you ARE going to marry me and we are going to have 100 babies."

Thomas (also 4, and in tears): "Well then who am I going to marwe, I was supposed to marwe Lauren?"

PAUSE, record to the hard drive so we can always remember how wonderful and sweet they really were when they are 15 and we are being called by the principal because a mysterious stink bomb was found in their lockers!

See how nice a DVR would be for life? So, if you are a tech geek, can you get on that for me? Just start designing it. BTW- the pictures above are from our time with Santa, my kids definitely had reactions to him! Well, I must go, Sophie is biting my leg, and unfortunately, I can't rewind to before it hurt!