Thankful Thursday...a day late

I have so much I could write about how wonderful our Christmases were but I'll just leave it at that and post a few pictures.  We really had a great time this year- we spent Christmas Eve with Kent's family and Christmas day with mine (after Santa had come to our house).



I'm thankful no one fell off the couch during this photo shoot. :)









Is it a bucket? A helmet? It's a Bilibo!

 

Rock Star Kylee.



Kael's "perfect turkey dinner".

 I'm thankful for time spent with a long-time friend yesterday.  We could go months without seeing each other and pick right back up where we left off.  I don't see her nearly often enough and it was awesome to hang out with her all day.

I'm thankful my Christmas tree is down and most of the decorations are put away.  It's a big job, and it's one I'm glad to have done.

I'm thankful we have no New Year's Eve plans.  This preg-o is so looking forward to chilling at home with my hubby and kids.

I'm so so so thankful for Winter Break.  The kids and I have had the best time just being home and digging into all their new Christmas stuff. Today they busted out some stuff called Flarp. Back in our day, I think it was called Gak and the kids have been playing with it for no less than two full hours today. I remember feeling the same amount of excitement the year I got green Gak for Christmas. :)

I'm thankful for such beautiful weather.  I would have loved a white Christmas but it's awfully nice that the kids can spend plenty of time outside burning off energy.

I'm thankful for all the name suggestions people are sending my way.  This one is going to be tricky you guys!

Baby reveal part 2

Yes, I'm blogging about this again because it was just so darn fun. :)

My mom had some pictures from her camera that I hadn't seen yet so I thought I'd post.

My mom gave me some adorable mini plates and forks at Christmas time that she knew would be perfect for the party!



The anticipation was killing me!




I was getting kind of anxious....




Blue!!!





Lastly, I have to share one funny story.  I think everyone was surprised that Kylee joined Team Blue at the last second and later I was talking to her about it. 

She said, "Mom, I was just so happy when you opened it, and it was blue!"

"Really, Kylee? I thought you wanted a sister?"

"Well, I did want a sister, but I just had a feeling it was a boy and mostly, I just wanted to be right."

Oh, Kylee.  She shares my intuition and my desire to always be right.  And there's Kael, who shares my joy of eating chips. :) He was so happy and a little bit shocked about the sheer quantity of chips I allowed at the party.

Gender Reveal Party

I'm skipping around a bit here on the order of posting...I haven't posted about Christmas with my parents, my in-laws, or Santa yet but I am excited to write about the party today so I'm going to do it while it's all fresh in my mind.

A year or two ago, a friend told me how her friend had a "reveal party" to tell everyone the gender of their baby.  I had never heard of this and instantly thought it was BRILLIANT! How fun to find out in front of those closest to you if you will be having a boy or a girl! I put this idea in the back of my mind and today I finally got to use it!

So, I had been giving Kent a hard time about being a Scrooge about this party, but it turns out he was totally right.  We included only our immediate families and having a nice, small group made it more special.  I did a bit of searching to find some ideas of what all to do at such a party and threw it all together a couple days before Christmas. Thankfully my mom and mother-in-law provided lots of food (Christmas leftovers!) so I didn't have to do much to prepare for the party.



I had seen a cute idea to serve "Mom's Cravings" for food at the party! I also served pink lemonade with blueberries floating in it. Get it? :)



My sister helped me make poffertjes (baby-sized Dutch pancakes).  Maybe you remember my obsession with them when I posted about Tulip Time? I had just gotten this poffertje pan for Christmas and was so anxious to use it.


I sent an e-mail to everyone asking them to wear something either pink or blue to "cast their vote" as to which gender they thought the baby would be.  I was so happy that everyone got really into this! My mom even showed up in a pink feather boa and a pink clip in her hair! Even the brother-in-laws all complied and wore their colors proudly, some even added a pink or blue lei to their ensembles.  You guys all rock for participating in this crazy pregnant lady's wishes!! Earlier in the day I had even let Kylee "dye" her hair pink with some hair stuff she had gotten for Christmas. We ended up washing it out because it was just really sticky and at the last minute she changed her vote anyways and wanted to wear blue to the party. I wore both pink and blue because I had a pretty strong feeling if it was a boy or a girl and I didn't want to give it away by the outfit. We took pictures of Team Pink and Team Blue.



6 pinks

 

7 blues

 When everyone got here I asked they make 2 nametags- one with a girl name suggestion and one with a boy name suggestion.  Girls name went on their backs and boys name went on the front...then everyone mingled, checked out everyone's suggestions, and cast a vote for the Best Name Suggestion of the day.  I tallied up the votes and made sure there was a prize for whoever's name suggestion got the most votes. You will never guess whose suggestions won!! There was a tie with the names Karina (suggested by Kylee) and Luley (suggested by Kael).  How perfect. :)




Prizes and and name suggestions



I am going to love having these for the baby book!





I had a bunch of "baby"-sized prizes.  Mini Oreos, Mini Chips Ahoy, little Diet Pepsis, a Baby Ruth, Babybel cheese and Baby Teddy Grahams to go with our baby theme.

Lastly we played an Old Wives Tale game that I found here. It was really fun to see how the questions panned out and going into the last question we were tied 6-6 between boy/girl.  The last question indicated girl!

So, up to this point, we had more "votes" from family that it would be a boy, but the Old Wives Tales seemed to say we would be having a girl.

It was time to find out! You might remember that Kent couldn't make it to the ultrasound. Well, I had the ultrasound tech put the gender in an envelope, then I delivered that envelope to CJ's (a bagel shop in town). I talked with the owner and she said she would make some bagel bites for me and frost them either pink or blue.  I stood there in front of her to make sure she could clearly see what was in the envelope, and she verified that yes, she knew which color to use. :) I picked them up at noon today and I can honestly say the box stayed shut with NO PEEKING!

Once all the votes had been cast and games had been played, we gathered all our family in the kitchen and opened the box...




Blue frosting on the bagel bites!


There was such excitement around here when we opened the box! My father-in-law couldn't be here today so he was on the phone while this all happened and I think all he heard for awhile was screams. :)

We are so happy to be adding to our family and are anxious to begin the name hunt! You guys, this party was so much fun.  I was begging my sisters to let me throw them a gender reveal party for them whenever they have a baby.  Feel free to share any K name suggestions for a boy that you have!

Our Christmas

This year I wanted to do something different for our little family of four Christmas.  Since Santa brings the bulk of the presents, the kids each open a few gifts from us and a gift from each other. In other words, there are only a few gifts to be unwrapped this night. :)

Doing anything "new" can always be a touchy subject around here so I casually approached the kids with the idea of a Scavenger Hunt.  My, oh my, were they excited.  (I love when I get unanticipated excitement like this!) Kael started making Gift Hunt signs to hang up around the house so that Kent would know what was going on when he got home from work.  The kids helped me write a clue for Kent and hide his presents.

When Kent got home, he was carrying a box full of mysterious gifts, like a sly Santa Claus but the kids didn't even pay any notice. "Dad, Dad!!! We're doing a gift hunt!!!" they exclaimed.  And so began our evening.  The kids were so excited for Kent to find his gifts and kept asking him over and over all night, "Did you like what we got you?" There is no joy greater than the joy of giving at Christmastime.

Kylee went next, then Kael and doing our gifts Scavenger Hunt- style made them anticipate and appreciate each gift more than you can imagine.  Part of it is their age, but I have memories of Christmases past when they simultaneously ripped open their gifts in two minutes and the evening's excitement was over.  It was just really special this year and I know the kids will always remember doing Gift Hunt 2011. :)

Dad found his gifts!

Soon it was my turn for gifts.  Kent and I had promised not to get each other anything but I had a couple gifts from the kids.  When all was said and done, there were still several brightly wrapped packages under our tree.  And they were for me. To say I was surprised would be such an understatement.  Kent got me this wonderful camera and even as I type this I am a bit speechless (which never happens). I am just so thankful for him...I am far too practical to go out and buy big gifts and he outdoes me every.single.year. Now I just have to learn how to use it. :)

Oops, there's three smiley faces I've used so far...I allow myself a three smiley face limit per post so I'd better wrap this up.

After presents we went to church- it was really neat because this year the kids were old enough to each hold their own candle at the end of the service.  I have such powerful memories of candlelight Christmas Eve service from when I was little and I could tell by the look on my kids' faces that they felt the same.  They started intently at the flame, their beautiful faces shining softly in the candlelight.

We came home for our traditional pancakes and sausage.  Kent always makes fun shapes out of the pancakes and the kids decorate them.  This year has to be our best effort to date.  Kylee made an adorable Santa pancake; Kael designed a cute Mickey Mouse one, and after several years of trying we finally perfected the snowman.  We wrapped up our little Christmas by playing Kael's new Uno Roboto game (if you don't have it for your kids, get it! It's so fun!) by the Christmas tree then tucked the kids in bed. 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Fun Bully strikes again

We were about twenty minutes into Christmas break and judging by other comments I saw on Facebook, our story is not an unfamiliar one. 

"I wanna play Wii." Kael said.

"Mom can I watch TV or something?" Kylee added.

It was 3:45 on Thursday afternoon and my babysitting kids had all gone home so it was officially Winter Break for us.  I was so excited- "Let's go to the mall or Bass Pro or something! Or, we could bake Christmas cookies.  What do you guys want to do?" And I was met with the above responses.  I texted Kent.  "Want to go to Jolly Holiday Lights tonight?" I receieved a less than enthusiastic response.  "Um, I guess I'd rather go to Bass Pro if we're going to do anything."

So, I figured, what the heck, it's Winter Break, right? If Kael wants to play Wii and Kylee wanted to watch him, then fine.  Not five minutes later they were arguing so I pulled the plug.  "We're not sitting here the rest of the night staring at the TV and arguing." Fun Bully Laura said. "Let's get out of the house and do something fun."

Finally Kylee showed some enthusiasm about going to Bass Pro, so I figured with her all in and Kent half in, that was probably our best bet.  "Actually I don't really want to go there," Kael said as he teared up. I was hoping for some cute pictures with Santa and he was NOT happy about the idea of changing out of his brown slicks and skateboarding shirt.  I think I pretended not to hear him. 

We picked up Kent from work and he noticed that a headlight was out on our Acadia and that the electical stuff (I'm pretty sure that's the technical term) was not working on the driver's side.  Mostly, from what I could understand, that meant my heated seat would not work.  Awesome.  We pressed on.

We made it to Bass Pro and like a light switch, all of the sudden everyone was in a good mood.  Santa's Wonderland was truly a wonderland. The kids had fun playing with all the remote control cars, watching the trains, decorating gingerbread cookies, and chasing the giant catfish in the aquarium from side to side.  Soon they called our time slot to line up to see Santa and somehow, we were the last ones to see Santa before he took a break.  (I think God knew I might have lost it if the people in front of us would have been last to see Santa before a break.)

The kids were adorable sitting on Santa's lap.  We got a couple of good pictures then headed for home.  Kent picked up Outback take away for me on the way home because sometimes, when you're pregnant and sick, and a teeny bit crabby your husband will do anything to make you happy.  Turns out $20 at Outback can make this lady pretty darn happy. 



"Can I eat both cookies right now?" Kylee asked. 



So happy about the amount of green sprinkles he was allowed to put on his cookie. 

Kael found this $200 train set he is now really hoping Santa will bring.  Wish Santa had known about it more than two days before Christmas. :)

Well, once again, a Winter Break schedule is different than a normal school day schedule and I anticipate that things will not go as perfectly as I have them planned in my head.  But I'm happy with the way our evening turned out, very happy with the cute picture the Bass Pro lady got of the kids, and very very happy there are Outback leftovers sitting in my fridge right now.

Winter Break!

I am so ready for Winter Break this year and so is Kael.  11 full days with no school! I spent this afternoon at his school helping out at his Winter Party which I am always thankful to be a part of.  He has worked so hard this semester and now I am looking forward to long, lazy days in our jammies and playing out in the snow! (If we ever get any!)



Off to school in his Santa hat




Christmas gift exchange with friends at our house yesterday




Snack time at the Winter Party



Merry Christmas everyone!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for a fun after school snack. Christmas tree graham crackers decorated with M & M "ornaments".  The kids had so much fun making them.

I'm thankful Kent's Scrooge-y attitude has worn off a little. The effort he puts forth in preparing for Christmas is equivalent to the amount of effort I put forth in listening when he's talking to me about wrestling.  As Christmas is drawing near, he appears to be getting a little more "in the spirit" of things. I'll keep you posted.

I'm thankful Kael participated in Ankeny Wrestling Club night at the wrestling meet the other night.  The loud music, dimming lights and all the noise was a bit overwhelming but he hung out with his club and got to give high fives to all the varsity wrestlers as they entered the gym. He's growing up.

I'm thankful our ultrasound on Friday revealed a beautiful, healthy baby.  It was just so wonderful to see all those tiny little baby parts up on that screen.  Baby was flipping and rolling all around but we still managed to get a few good pictures.


I'm thankful I have successfully hidden the gender envelope without Kent finding it yet.  He would totally crack and open it if he found it. Speaking of gender and speaking of Scrooge...I've been toying around with the idea of a Gender Reveal get together and Kent is hating on it a little bit.  "Do people really do that?" he asked.  Then when I told him about how we could do the reveal (for example, blue or pink frosting in the middle of cupcakes) and all he said was, "I don't really like cupcakes." Do you see what I have to put up with around here, people? ;)

I'm thankful for a completely unexpected, "Can I pump your gas for you, ma'am?" from the sweet gas station attendant in a Santa hat yesterday.  Honestly, I didn't even know people still did that?

I'm thankful that I FINALLY got around to ordering Christmas cards.  You guys I am not one of those people who tends to get a deal...I always end up needing something the day after the sale expires, or I fall just short of the free shipping required amount, or I forget to use coupons that I have. But not this time.  I ordered off of Shutterfly and the style I ordered was 40% off! Not to mention that they had e-mailed me a 50% off code to use if I ordered by December 18 AND when I ordered Kael's school pictures they included a free $20 Shutterfly voucher with my purchase.  I also got free shipping so my Christmas cards this year ended up costing me a whopping $8! Can you believe it? I know my deal-snagging friend Dawn will be so proud of me. :)

I'm thankful, once again, for our pediatrician.  Forgive me if I've written about this before, but once she offered some very sound advice about Kylee that I often hear running through my head.  During Kylee's 4 year old well child visit, my pediatrician confirmed that yes, Kylee is tall for her age and yes, she is very mature for her age.  "Be mindful, Laura, of what you and others expect of Kylee.  People will assume that she's much older than she is and will expect her to act as such.  Remind them, and yourself, that she's still just a 4 year old girl, even though she is capable of so much."  That's just good advice. 

I'm thankful for all of our Christmases.  When people hear that we celebrate eight Christmases, there is an overwhelming reaction of pity/disbelief: "You poor thing!"  It would be so easy to feel that way and it would be so easy not to go to all of them.  But we are so so blessed by the fact that so many of my kids' great-grandparents and grandparents are alive and well enough to host a Christmas get together.  Not to mention that they all live less than an hour and a half away from us, so I just can't imagine not making it.  Two down, six to go, and we wouldn't have it any other way. 

I'm thankful for the Christmas gift I bought myself.  Before Christmas.  I sort of have a thing about planners and lists.  I think I may have just found the perfect one! Detachable shopping lists, pockets, stickers- you name it, this thing has got it.  It's the little things, ya know?

I'm thankful for "good kids".  At one of our Christmas celebrations my grandpa came up to me and said, "Laura, your kids are so good, so well-behaved.  Really, I mean it.  You're so lucky." I'm a tiny bit ashamed to admit that my first thought was, "Lucky? Yeah, like I don't work my tail off every single day to raise well-mannered, good-hearted, kind, generous, loving, well-behaved kids? Luck has really nothing to do with it...." I didn't say that out loud.  Rather, I glanced over at my kids who, really had been very good that day; I smiled and said, "Yeah, we're pretty lucky."