A quick update

I have so many pictures to show and stories to tell from Christmas, but today will be spent packing for our family beach trip. We leave this evening to be gone for nearly a week. I'm hoping it will be incredibly relaxing. John's mom always picks the most beautiful beach houses right on the beach, and they always have a hot tub! I'm really looking forward to the hot tub part of the trip! Although I'm not too excited to put a bikini on for the first time since having a baby. Oh well, everyone can close their eyes until I get into the water!

Some end of the year tidbits:

We were very blessed this Christmas. I am very aware that certain things we received were huge blessings and I'm incredibly thankful.

Nathan is fully walking. He gets better at it each day and it's just amazing. He walked from our TV to our front door this morning, which are about 12 feet apart. I love his smile and his pure love for everything around him. He is affectionate beyond description.

Aiden's vocabulary continues to take leaps and bounds. Everything has jumped into full sentences instead of various single words here and there. He is clear about things that he wants and needs. It's hard to believe that my first little baby has grown up so much. We will be choosing a class for his 2nd year of preschool around the middle of January. He will most likely jump up to three times a week instead of two.

To end on a few prayer points, for those of you who pray, we'd be most grateful:

I seem to be in a slight depression over Nathan's upcoming first birthday. While I remember being so excited for Aiden to turn one, I can't seem to find happiness in Nathan reaching that milestone. I'm not sure if it's just a big reminder as to how draining and awful the labor with him was, or if I'm upset that he may be our last and I'll no longer have a little baby.

My father finds himself in an upcoming legal battle with my mother around the 6th of January. He has gotten himself a lawyer and I believe it will help him immensely. However, my mother will not be pleased over this and she will be even less pleased when she gets nothing from this court battle.

One last thing - I'm beginning the process of looking for some part time employment. We've just reached the point where it will be necessary for some extra income and while I'd prefer to be home at all times with my children, I knew it wouldn't last forever. I'm not rushing into things though and I'm keeping in mind that it will happen when it's meant to. I tend to get discouraged when things don't happen immediately (like I'm doing something wrong), but I need to remember that God is in control.

I hope everyone has a very happy New Year. We've really enjoyed seeing various parts of the extended family over the past few months - up in Seattle, at Twin Rocks, and other family get-togethers. It's been a great reminder that we have such a large and loving family and we feel very blessed. We love you all!

It's Christmas time

Little Aiden with his red, red cheeks and what he calls his "snow stick". He's really had a lot of fun playing in the snow over the past week and a half. It's certainly been interesting having this kind of weather. We currently have between 16-18 inches on the ground and I guess a little more is expected today and tomorrow. The stuff that's on the ground is strange though, as there was a bunch of snowfall, then ice covered it, and then more snow fell on top of that. So you've got this weird ice layer somewhere in the middle. Aiden is light enough that he can stand on top of the snow for a minute before he cracks through the ice layer. We had a fun adventure on Monday, when we walked to the store. It takes a lot of energy to walk through this much snow and even though the store is only 1-2 blocks away, we were exhausted by the time we got home. I ended up with very sore arms as I had Nathan in the front carrier and he fell asleep on the way home. So I was holding his sleeping head in one hand while I had a fairly heavy grocery bag in the other. It was still nice to get out and experience our winter wonderland.

After some snow fall - about 7 inches.

Add another 8-10 on top of that!

I've been keeping my toes very warm - knee socks, fuzzy socks, and slippers. Putting my yoga ball to good use too (as a foot rest!).

When I said it was icy, I wasn't kidding. This was going down the side of our building right out our front door. We're on the 2nd floor and it was like this from the roof, all the way to the walkway below.

Snow fall at night. It's really amazing how bright everything is with any light reflecting off the snow and the clouds. It's been so beautiful.

Nathan didn't like this very much, so we coordinated by John setting him in the snow and me snapping the picture quickly. I felt bad, but it had to be done. Who knows how long it will be before we get this much snow again?

Aiden's been loving this! We don't have gloves in his size, so he's been wearing a pair of mine. This picture was in between big snow falls. This is around 7 inches. The following day, he would step into the snow and it would be up to his knees.

The courtyard outside our apartment. It makes for a great photo background and many people have been coming by and taking pictures in this area.

I am happy that we will get a rare white Christmas, but I can't say that I'm looking forward to chaining up to make our way over to John's parents' house. For a drive that would normally take us 20 minutes, I think we'll need to give ourselves twice that much time, if not more. I suppose it depends on the road conditions tomorrow morning.
For now though, I'm looking forward to tonight (even though our church canceled the Christmas Eve service!). After we put the boys to bed, John will get to join me in a Christmas tradition that I've personally had for many years: wrapping presents by the tree while watching A Christmas Story. I finally bought the DVD this year and so I'll be able to start my tradition up again after a few years of not being able to watch it (we've not had the DVD and we only have basic cable, so no 24 hours of a Christmas Story on TBS for us). It's my favorite Christmas movie and I'm so excited to finally watch it with my husband.

Tomorrow morning, I get to wake my children up and open presents with my family in our own home for the very first time. This may sound strange, but oddly enough, we've never spent Christmas morning at our own place. We've always just gathered up the gifts and opened them with John's family. Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed it, but there's something about being here with just us on Christmas morning that I've been missing. I will be armed with the video camera first thing tomorrow morning!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. And for those of you traveling, I hope you have a safe journey - snow or not! Merry Christmas!

Still going strong

The snow, that is. I am currently watching the news at noon (thank goodness for laptops) and I can only shake my head in disbelief. We have at least a foot on the ground, covered in ice (making it very crunchy!), and they are expecting another 4 inches by this evening. We should get a mild break tomorrow, but another storm is heading in for Wednesday and Thursday. We may top 20 inches. This really isn't Northwest weather!

John called his boss this morning to see what he wanted him to do. He offered to put on chains and get going, but his boss informed him that no one in the company was going into work today and to not even bother. Even his boss was checking his messages from home and was still in his pjs! One of the co-owners of the company had tried to head into work earlier, but his SUV got stuck at the bottom of a hill and was currently getting yelled at by some firefighters, as he was blocking the path for the firetruck. So John is enjoying a snow day today.

I began to get a little bit of cabin fever yesterday and I think the boys are as well, so our plan for this afternoon is to bundle up the kiddos and take a walk over to Rite-Aid about two blocks away. I know Aiden will love it!

I took some photos yesterday and hopefully I'll get them on here today. They are definitely interesting to see. We are expecting to have a very, VERY white Christmas.

A few snowy day thoughts

I'm having a day where I'm really enjoying my family. I feel so blessed to have my children and a husband who truly loves me. I'm doing a lot of cleaning around the apartment, but as I'm doing so, I'm watching my boys have so much playing with each other. Watching them connect is so amazing. Aiden asked to watch Jungle Book, so I put it in for him and he and Nathan have been dancing to the songs and crawling around like the animals. As they've been doing so together, they have been laughing and laughing. It really puts a smile on my face.

John and I took the boys on a trip to the store last night while it was still clear to gather some snowy weekend foods. After the boys went to bed, we watched a movie and snacked on some imported French cheese and crackers. We spent a long time talking and had a great evening to reconnect. As we prepare to be fully snowed in for the weekend, I look forward to spending another evening like that again. Maybe another movie, some Saturday Night Live, or another game of Monopoly (we've been enjoying it a lot lately).

As of right now, we have quite a few inches of snow and the heavy part of the storm hasn't even started yet. The snow is deep enough that we can't see where the grass on the lawn ends and the walkway begins. It's just all a thick white blanket. I really do need to get some pictures of this later, as this really isn't typical Oregon weather and we may not get this again for a few years. It's so beautiful and looks very Christmas-like. I have yet to tire of watching the snow fall.

As the snow continues to cover us, there is a lady who lives across the courtyard in another building and she is apparently very concerned with keeping her stairs and walkway clear of all snow. In the past 2 1/2 hours, she has been out there 3-4 times, madly sweeping it away. John and I can't help but wonder what she hopes to accomplish, as her stairs and walkway become completely covered 15 minutes after she finishes. I'm not exaggerating when I say she sweeps as though her life depends on it. As someone who has mild OCD, I have to say that she seems to have the worst case of it that I've ever personally witnessed. The first time she was out there, it was a little funny, but now I just feel very badly for her. She is seeming to become increasingly agitated with each trip out to sweep the snow away. I think I feel so badly for her because I can understand the feeling the urgency she must feel each time, even though I probably don't experience it to the same extent. Either that or she just really hates snow!

Well, it's time for Nathan to have a nap, so I must return to my children. I look forward to getting some very snowy pictures to show you all later!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Aiden sings a lot. As he plays with his toys, he's either reciting a Thomas the Tank Engine story or he's singing something. Lately, he's been singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The other day, I was singing along with him and would start up the song. "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy...." and Aiden would end it with "....new grear". For some reason, he can't manage to say "year" in the song, but can say it alone as a word.
We had repeated this a few times throughout the day and Nathan had been paying close attention. As I repeated it yet again and was ending with "and a happy....", before Aiden could get any words out, Nathan pipes in with "BABY!". After a good laugh, we decided that wishing someone a happy baby was a pretty good thing to wish for!

This IS Oregon, right?

We've ended up with some strange, very winter-y weather here. Early Sunday morning, it snowed. Not too weird and the news had been talking about it for nearly a week, so it was expected. But everything froze, too. Our church services and afternoon activities were canceled, since it wasn't safe to drive. As the day progressed, it kept snowing and the wind was howling along, causing blizzard conditions throughout the day (Portland?). Aiden wanted so badly to go outside and kept talking about snowmen since the moment he looked out the window, so we bundled the kiddos up and went outside. Nathan handled it for about 3 minutes before he began screaming and I had to bring him in. It was so blustery out there, that we were able to take exactly three pictures before our camera was covered in snow. Not wanting to completely ruin our digital camera, we put it away. I wanted to take some video of Aiden playing in the snow, but had to do so from our living room windows. He was out there for about an hour and when John finally decided he couldn't take anymore, he had to carry Aiden kicking and screaming back inside.
We got the information that the Beaverton School District had canceled classes for Monday, so that meant Aiden's private preschool would be closed. He had his first snow day! However, he enjoys school so much, he wasn't very pleased. He would frown and say, "No school tomoyo" (his version of "tomorrow").

Overnight, it all froze again. We'd ended up with some moisture in our windows, so I went around to wipe them down. I went into the boys room to find that the moisture was ice. INSIDE our windows! Completely frozen. (Have we ended up in Canada?) It made me think of winters in Philadelphia, but was informed by some of my Philadelphia friends that it was in fact 66 degrees there and one of my friends was warm enough that she needed to open her house's windows. While I sat in Oregon, heaters blowing, clutching my hot cider, wearing two pairs of socks WITH fuzzy slippers, jeans with fuzzy PJ pants over them, and four layers of long sleeved shirts. And I was still cold.

It's continued to be pretty much just as cold, though it has warmed to nearly 30 today. The roads are basically clear for now and so John and I will be taking to boys on a trip to the store this evening in an attempt to avoid cabin fever. We need to take the opportunity while it's available, as our next snow storm is supposed to start around 7am tomorrow morning. Snow, then freezing rain, which will turn to ice on contact since it will be below freezing, and then snow some more through Thursday. We're supposed to get a short break until Sunday, when it's all supposed to start again and continue at least through Monday. Isn't this Minnesota weather??
It looks like Aiden will most likely get another snow day tomorrow, which means he just got an extra week for his Christmas break! He won't return to school again until January 7.

For now, we are just attempting to stay warm. The boys and I are wearing multiple layers throughout the day, even with our heaters going. I had to pin up a thick blanket to cover the boys' bedroom window to try to keep the heat in and the cold out. I checked behind the blanket this morning and the inside of their window was completely covered with ice AND frost. But they did sleep much better last night after we ran their heater for a while, so I think they were finally able to get warm.

We may have a white Christmas, but at that point, I don't know if it will be wanted!

Getting ready for Christmas

My pictures ended up in the opposite order that I wanted them in, but I don't feel like trying to switch them all around, so you're going to get our Christmas tree pics in reverse. Above is our finished product along with some wall decor.

We went out on December 7 to have a fun family afternoon getting our tree. Last year, we began our day with a lunch out and we decided to do that again. I think this is maybe the 2nd time we've taken the kids out to eat at an actual restaurant. When you've got two little ones, it just doesn't happen and when it does, you're usually going through the drive-thru.
It was a horrible rainy day (as it was last year on our tree day) and John cracked a few jokes about how I can just pick the best days for tree hunting. Our pumpkin patch trips always end up on great days and we live in Oregon....you can't have it both ways!
Since it was raining and we were starving, we just popped over to the Shari's that's basically across the street from us. Aiden has been obsessed with cheeseburgers lately and they offer a kid's meal with little tiny cheeseburgers, so he was very happy! John had a pancake platter and I went with the french toast platter. Nathan was the lucky one and got to sample something from everyone's plate.
When we left the restaurant, it was pouring and was looking like we'd end up soaked and covered in mud like last year. But we had about a 25 minute drive to our favorite tree farm (off Roy Rogers road for those of you in the area) and by the time we arrived it was foggy, but no longer raining.

We like this tree farm because it's a flat price for ANY tree, no matter the size. it's also a U-Cut place, which gives us the experience of really getting our own tree. Last year, the price was $15 (great, considering we had just left a place that tried to charge us $35 for a 3 foot tree), but it had been upped to $20 this year. Not a problem and still great, especially if you're taking home a huge tree. We tend to stick with the trees that can fit in our trunk for now. We are waiting on a large tree until we own a home, even though we have the vaulted ceilings now and could easily fit a 10 foot tree in our apartment. It's just a fun thing to look forward to. For now, we like our little 4 foot tree and we have the peace of mind that if one of the boys pulls the tree down onto himself, he won't be horribly injured.

So we brought our little tree home and spent the afternoon decorating while listening to classic Christmas tunes. The boys had fun with the Santa hats and Aiden enjoyed helping to decorate. We added a new ornament this year - a Baby's First Christmas 2008 for Nathan. It turns out that I unknowingly stuck with the sleeping baby theme for our baby's first Christmas ornaments. Aiden's is a sleeping baby in a cradle and Nathan's is a sleeping baby on a rocking horse. I write the name and birth date of the child on the back of the ornament and it will be a fun thing to pass along to our boys once they have homes and Christmas trees of their own.

Speaking

We marvel every day at Aiden's ever-growing vocabulary. He can speak in full, complex sentences. He can tell us stories. He asks questions. He makes observations. Watching the process of him learning to speak is an amazing thing. However, he stills has trouble with various words and phrases. And oh, is it cute!

On Sunday, we bought our tree and decorated it (pictures will be up soon, hopefully). Going through the box of decorations, he found a Santa hat and shoved it on his head. And I say "shoved" because it is slightly too small for his head and needs to be squeezed on there. I asked him who he was and he responded with, "Santa Clog". John said that it sounded like the less popular Santa who sneaks into your home in the middle of the night and uses the toilet. One we will always remember, I'm sure.

Here are some other Aiden words that we love so much:
Misagetti = Spaghetti
Po-grilla = Gorilla
Washpoo = Shampoo
And a new one, which he doesn't really mess up, but is a little strange...chocolate is now "fine chocolates". He's gone all upper class on us, I guess! There are more, but my mind has gone blank (of course). Aiden certainly brings a lot of laughter into our lives and I'm happy I get to share his little quirks with everyone!

NATHAN!

Nathan just walked halfway across our living room by himself!!!!! WAHOO!!!! He took a few steps on his own in the kitchen this morning (which he does every now and then when he thinks I'm not watching), but apparently, he's feeling a lot more inclined to actually begin walking! I've got a feeling we may have a walkin' boy by Christmas! Oh, I could cry, I'm so proud of him!

Aiden the Artist

Aiden's preschool recently had their annual auction to raise money for the school, which is a big part of how they can keep the cost of tuition so low (they were able to raise $21,000 in one evening). We pay as much for his tuition per month as others charge per week.
Anyway, Aiden's class created a Jackson Pollock painting and donated it to the auction. I was able to help in the class on two of the days that they were working on the painting and it was so adorable to see these 2 and 3 year olds create this painting. The painting sold for $175. I thought it would be fun to have, but then I thought that it would be cheaper for us for me to purchase some blank canvases myself and have Aiden do some paintings on his own. That way, it's all him and I could choose the colors that I wanted.

So on Wednesday, I took a trip to the art store after I dropped Aiden off at school and spent a total of $15 on everything we needed. Much better than $175! Then yesterday, once Nathan went down for his nap, I got everything out and Aiden spent a little over an hour making me a wonderful painting that I am so happy to be able to put up on our very large walls. John was skeptical about this idea at first, but now we're both excited to have Aiden paint some more!

I bought two medium canvases and pushed them together during painting, so that they flow, but they will be two different paintings when placed slightly apart on the wall.

Taking a break to let the black dry. No, that's not paint on his mouth. We snacked on Oreos while waiting. :^)

Moving on to the red and white.

Having SO much fun!!

And this is our finished product! John and I were joking last night that we need to have Aiden do more and then we can open an eBay store and call it 'Aiden's Abstracts'. Hey, it could pay for his college education!

Hooray for Thanksgiving grazing

Most people probably wouldn't be pleased about this, but I am happy to say that I gained two pounds over the Thanksgiving weekend!! WOOHOO!!! I'm very thankful that I've been able to keep myself at a healthier weight than I did while nursing Aiden. And I'm thankful for family who completely supports my constant snacking and cheers me on when I take a 2nd piece of pumpkin pie with so much whipped cream on it that you can't even see the pie anymore. I'm now confident that as Nathan stops nursing sometime early next year, I'll be able to pop back up to a "normal" weight very quickly.

What is that feeling?

That feeling was relaxation. I'm not joking when I say we returned home and said to each other, "I feel different. What am I feeling?". It took about 20 minutes to realize that we were, in all it's glory, relaxed. Things have been so overwhelming lately that we had forgotten how to let it all go for a while. We escaped to the coast to spend time with family who we very much miss throughout the year and we were able to forget about everything to do with daily life at home.

We started Thanksgiving close to home with John's Martin grandparents. I think we all felt especially thankful this year after John's grandfather had such a rough summer with his health. John's Uncle Dan was able to join us from Florida this year and it's always nice to see him, since he rarely gets out this way.

Friday morning, we packed up and headed towards Tillamook. We were joining John's Minthorne side of the family at Twin Rocks. Everyone had gathered there for Thanksgiving, so we were latecomers, but I am so happy we made the decision to join everyone. We took Aiden down to the beach as soon as we arrived, as he had his rain boots and had spent the whole drive talking about the beach. Friday was spent chatting, eating, and playing games. John's cousin Jeff works at the camp there and was able to let us in to the shelter game area, where the kids could run freely inside and everyone could play whatever they wanted in terms of pingpong, air hockey, foosball, basketball...you get the idea. John and I got fairly competitive over air hockey and I walked away with three bruised knuckles, a dented fingernail, and a very sore right shoulder.

Saturday brought my 25th birthday and much more time with family. A little before noon, we all decided to take a trip to the Tillamook cheese factory. Aiden loved watching the packaged boxes of cheese go up, up, up the conveyor to get shipped to stores. We had some yummy samples and bought ourselves some "squeaky cheese". We also had some Tillamook ice cream and while Aiden's ended up in his lap on the way back to the beach house, I think it was worth it.
We played more games that afternoon, gave Aiden some more beach time, and I got in a little bit of reading while Nathan napped. We had a very delicious dinner of ham and potatoes, which both boys LOVED. But little Grace seemed to want tacos instead. :^) I was treated to a yummy birthday cake and had to take three breaths to blow out all my candles.
Later that evening, we played some new games and had an absolute blast with the last game of the evening after the kids went to bed. It was just a very good day.

Saturday morning was a little less relaxed as everyone was packing up to go home, but we got some fun family time down on the beach before we all left. It was sad to leave, but I left with the hope that this will become a regular Thanksgiving tradition. There were many who couldn't join us over the weekend, so maybe next year.

The highlight from the weekend that I will not soon forget are....shoes of peace, what pomegranates REALLY symbolized, Scotland Yard (we totally bought it online last night, by the way!), Hannah taking the role of Mr X very seriously, Grace wanting tacos, Nathan walking when my back was turned, and Aiden's connection with sneaker waves.

Here are some photos from our weekend. They are in no particular order and the link to this post will take you to an online photo album with MANY more pictures. Click on any photo to enlarge. Enjoy!