Christmas Day

Despite that "all closed up" gas fireplace, I guess Santa found his way in!

Justin's parents joined us for Christmas morning at our house. We started out by finding the Christmas Pickle. Logan found it this year. A few days earlier Justin and I were talking about it and said that if Logan found it, he would probably choose someone else to open the first gift & if Tolan found it he would choose himself to open the first gift. The next day we explained the Christmas Pickle to them and then asked what they would do. Logan said, "ummm, I think I would choose Ella to open a present." Tolan scrunched up his face and in a funny little voice followed by a crazy little laugh, he said, "I would pick MEEE!" We thought that was very funny.

But in the excitement of Christmas morning and all those presents in front of him, Logan ended up choosing to open the first gift himself & that's fine b/c he's 4!

Ella investigating her stocking

This was Ella's first Christmas & she just took it all in, playing with all the paper & ribbons & a few toys that she got. She kept busy just hanging out on the floor!

Grandma & Grandpa Shook got the boys Paper Jamz guitars & amps. They are pretty cool for cardboard! The boys love them.

We also got the boys 4 or 5 dress up costumes. They love dressing up so I just stocked up after Halloween when they were all on clearance!

I think the highlight of the morning was when Tolan wore this spiderman costume & rocked out on his guitar. It was hilarious. I will have to try and post the video.

Christmas afternoon we headed up to my parents' house to stay for a few days. The whole family was home - all 5 of us kids! I think this was the first time we were ALL together in about 10 years. The last time was when Neal left for his mission. 2002? So not quite 10 years, but still a LONG time! We managed to snap a picture. It's nothing fancy, but it's all of us! Neal & Kelli, Nate & Kelly, Pete, Jared. We are in front there, then Annabelle (Kelly's daughter), Tolan & my mom & dad and of course Chico down in front!

Christmas Eve 2010

Evidence of Santa:
Every year Justin's family gets together on Christmas Eve. I knew it was an old tradition, but apparently it is a 40-year-old tradition! We have lots of yummy food, including a variety of fish which is the Italian tradition. We also have a gift exchange. Here is Ella in front of the tree with all the gifts.

our kids

Justin's grandparents have both passed away, but these are their great-grandchildren that were there this Christmas Eve. Hailey, Madison, Tolan, Logan & Ella.

And here are our kids at home, all ready to go to bed so Santa could come!

Logan and Tolan were very excited for Christmas this year and were very interested and curious about Santa. They both had lots of questions about Santa this year. One day Tolan was kneeling in front of our gas fireplace for a few minutes just staring at it. I had no idea what he was doing. I thought he was going to take some of the rocks out of the bottom or something. But after a couple minutes he put on his confused face and asked me how Santa was going to get in through our fireplace b/c it's all closed up. He was very confused and concerned. A couple days later in the car they were pointing out all the houses that didn't have chimneys.

Christmas Activities

A couple of days before Christmas we went to the Carnegie Science Center with my family. Tolan has been very obsessed with Star Wars lately. They have a special robot exhibit and as much as T loves Star Wars he was afraid to get close to R2D2. (He was afraid of the other robots too) So this is the best we could get out of him. Speaking of Star Wars, he calls R2D2 "R D dootoo" and he calls Obi Wan Kenobi "O B commodey"

Logan, Tolan & Justin at the big train display

Logan played the part of Joseph in his preschool Christmas Program. He did a very good job, but when his part finally came the little girl who was playing Mary stood right in front of him so we couldn't see him or get a picture. Oh well. He did a pretty good job. His line was "We must find a room that will be best. We have come from afar and we need to rest."

(Logan is in the blue)

Here is Tolan waiting (semi)patiently for the program to begin

We went to a Christmas-themed playgroup and made these reindeer hats. Yes, Tolan picked the pink paper for his hat all on his own & loved having his red Rudolph nose.

Ella eating some puffs at my parents' after Christmas

and here she is playing with a light saber

A few days after Christmas we all went to dinner at the Villa. You can kind of see, there's me, Ella, then Tolan, Pete & Jared. Across the table my dad & my mom.( Justin, Nate & Annabelle were there too)

Ella loved the bread!

Tolan loved his "child's size" spaghetti. Yes, that child-sized portion could have fed 3 adults!

Benihana

April, a friend of mine since 7th grade, also turned 30 recently and a group of us went to Benihana to celebrate. Our chef was not quite as entertaining as you expect there, but the food was still good and we enjoyed the night out.

Justin's 30th Birthday

I have some catching up to do. Facebook makes me a bad blogger. It's just a lot faster and easier to post on there, especially now that I have a smartphone. (So if you'd like more updates friend me on Facebook!) I REALLY wish Google would make an app for Blogger!! And speaking of my new smartphone, it has also made me a lazy photographer. I always have it handy & use it to take pictures most of the time instead of getting out the real camera, so I apologize for the lesser-quality pictures.

Justin turned 30 in November. We had just gotten a new computer (and some dental work) so he wanted to keep things simple (i.e. inexpensive). We had dinner with his family on Sunday, the day before his birthday. And then on Monday the kids and I took these balloons and surprised him at work.

Logan has preschool on Mondays at 12:30 so I wanted to hurry up and do it before then so Logan could come with us. I thought that was very do-able, but it turned out not to be! I got the kids all ready to go and loaded up in the car. And then the car wouldn't start. I knew it was just the battery b/c it had died a couple of weeks before when I thought I was going to be early to church, but then the car wouldn't start. So here it was, dead again. I ended up having my neighbor, Amanda, come over and jump the car. Luckily she knew how! I had the cables, but I didn't know how to do it. So once we got the car running I hurried to Giant Eagle to get the balloons. Of course when we get to the desk at the floral dept they have a sign up that they will be back in 15 minutes. So while we waited we decided what we wanted to get. (There was a bit of a decision for the boys to make between Iron Man and Lightning McQueen). After a while no one had come, so I hauled all the kids over to customer service where they finally got someone to help. Once we got our balloons we headed out. It was a very windy day to have 3 kids & a balloon bouquet in tow! However, we made it and Justin was glad that we had made the effort!

Potty Training

It's that time again. Potty training. One of those times that no one ever told you about before you had kids. We are persevering though. I tried it with Tolan a few months ago & it went about as I expected it to. He did ok, but after a couple days it was screaming, kicking, tantrum, "I don't want to go to the potty!" So we let it go. I knew that Tolan & his personality would not use the potty until he wanted to do it. I knew he COULD do it. He just didn't WANT to. So I let it go & waited. I thought I would be changing his diapers for forever.

I tried making a deal with him and Logan. (Logan still wears a diaper at night) If we get rid of ALL the diapers, we will move the toys up to their room and put up their bunk beds. Tolan didn't care. "I don't want bunk beds!" Alright, I guess I'll wait a little longer. But I got sick of the tornado of toys and moved all the toys up to their room anyway. Right around the same time that I moved the toys upstairs they played at a friend's house. All of a sudden Tolan wanted to use the potty and wear underwear. He really wanted to & was doing it all by himself! He was asking if we could put up the bunk beds yet. I didn't get why all of a sudden he wanted to do it b/c a few days earlier he couldn't have cared less about the bunk beds. Then he said it in passing one day, something about Ryder's bunkbeds..... and that was it! He had been at his friend's house and seen HIS bunk beds & now he wanted them too. Following the crowd is great at 3, but maybe not so much when he's a teenager! I'll take it for now though!

So he has been doing really great. He's been going all on his own. One day we went up to my parents' house, which is an hour drive, and stayed there all day & went to a restaurant for dinner. He had absolutely insisted on wearing underpants that day & I thought we were going to have wet pants b/c there is no little potty at my parents or at a restaurant or on a long drive in the car. He stayed dry all day! He used the bathroom at my parents' and the restaurant. So those were both HUGE steps! I thought we had it made. But no. The next day he wet his pants like twice and pooped in them once. Oh well. We are back on track though. He even wore his underpants to church yesterday and kept them dry. We did take him to the bathroom seven times during church.....he went about 5 drops each time, but he told us he needed to go, he told his teacher he needed to go & he stayed dry so I don't care how many times we had to take him. We are still "training," but we've made REAL progress!

No bunk beds yet though. He has to keep them dry 7 days in a row and Logan needs to get on board with his nighttime diaper.

Preschool

Logan started preschool this fall. He's going to "Rainbowland." It's just a preschool at a church here in Canonsburg. He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 1/2 hours. So far he is really liking it!

Ready to go on his first day!

He was very excited. Justin came home from work for lunch and took him for the first day. Tolan wanted to be in a picture too. (I love how they are both dressed for completely different seasons!)
One of the first things they did was a fall field trip to Simmons Farm. (Actually, the first thing they did was a fundraiser. Yeah. I know.) Thanks to Grandma Shook for babysitting Tolan & Ella - I got to go with him. We went on a hayride, then we went out in the pumpkin patch & each picked a pumpkin, then we went into the cornfield to pick Indian Corn. After that they got to play in a hay maze, 100 ft. slide, and an old firetruck. Then we took the hayride back & got to choose an apple & sample some cider.

He spent most of the time playing on the firetruck.

The weather was really nice that day & I think everyone had a good time. This is where we took the hayride to:

The next big activity they had was a bowling party. The parents are asked to sign up to help at 2 parties & I signed up for this one. Here's an action shot:

Really, with preschoolers bowling there is not a lot of action. They can barely get the ball down the lane! The most action is the employees going up & down the lanes to fetch the bowling balls that don't make it! But they had a good time

Logan told me later that it was "fun except for when it wasn't my turn." There was a lot of waiting around involved for the little kids. But bowling alleys always have lots of loud music so they spent most of that down time dancing to the music from the 50's that was playing. You can see Logan in the background there gettin' down with his friend Ella.

And of course, it's not preschool without snacktime!

It was fun to see Logan interacting with the other kids in his class and having a good time. He's getting to be so grown up!
Here is a picture of his class:

(and I'm still trying to figure out why I have to bring 10 snacks when there are only 7 kids in his class...)

Halloween

Even though we did not trick-or-treat on Sunday, we had no shortage of candy or costume-wearing activities! The first was the Halloween Walk at the Canonsburg Hospital. They have a fitness trail around the hospital that goes through the woods & all along the trail are different businesses, etc dressed in costume and handing out candy. We went with a few people from church and the boys had a great time. Grandma & Grandpa Shook came along too. Here are all the kids ready to go:

Logan was Ironman, Tolan was Buzz Lightyear and Ella was a dinosaur (I took Logan's old costume from when he was a baby, stuck a pink bow on it & called it good).

Waiting in line for it to get started
The fire dept was at the very end of the trail with candy & the firetruck all open for the kids to see

I think the boys really liked it. As we were walking back to the car they both, separately, said,
"Thanks mom! That was fun!" I guess we will have to go back next year!

They also got to wear their costumes to their class at the library & got candy there too. Logan got some at preschool and then we also had the ward trunk-or-treat on Wednesday.

Our trunk this year:

Ella was ready for bed I think

The boys would rather be eating candy than looking at the camera

After the boys were in bed, Justin and I were checking out their candy (aka, stealing) and Justin found this gummy severed finger in Tolan's bag.....I'm glad we found it first. I don't think he would have liked that.

But it was a good Halloween - they got lots of candy & they really loved their costumes which they have already been wearing for weeks and I don't think they are getting tired of them yet!

This Post Brought to You By....

Our new computer! I know, it's been a while & this is why!

Our old laptop was a dinosaur of a laptop. It was 6 or 7 years old and huge and SLOW and weighed a ton. The battery no longer worked, so it had to be plugged in all the time. The frame was cracked and broken off around the screen. The screen didn't even stand up anymore - you had to prop it up. Did I mention how SLOOOW it was?? And the last straw was that if you put it on standby and then went to turn it back on, the screen wouldn't come on so you would have to shut it down. But restarting it didn't bring the screen back on either. It took about 6 or 7 tries before the screen would come on. And if you did get it turned on, it was really slow. Really slow. I think I already mentioned that...

So it was time. Here is the difference a few years can make in a laptop. New one on left, dinosaur on right:

Now that I have a computer that works properly, I will be getting all caught up and up-to-date on here!