Big girl things

I know I probably say it all the time, but the kids are just growing up too fast.  I'm so proud of all Kaelyn is learning and can do now, but it also makes me a little sad knowing that she will never be my tiny little girl again.

Just look at all the big girl things she has been doing lately:

Riding her "big" girl bike.

Cleaning her room and making her bed all by herself (ok, this only lasted 3 days but I thought it was huge that she wanted to do this and she even had me make a little clean-up chart for her).

 Signing all her valentines AND writing her friends names. She did everyone single one herself.

My fancy Valentine girl. :)

She loves writing all the time now. She is constantly asking me how to spell things so she can write them down.

Reading. Like for real. Not just memorizing which she's been doing since she was two.

Coloring (and painting) in the lines. Some days she will sit at the table for hours coloring in her books with the greatest detail.

Oh yeah, and she's no longer oblivious to things that we say or are said on the tv. We can't spell things in front of her because even if she can't figure out she'll ask over and over what it spells until we tell her. She now knows what Disney World is (thank you Disney Channel commercials) and has been asking on a regular basis when we can go. She really wants to go "when I'm this age, because I really like princesses." It was even what she put in her dream cloud for Martin Luther King Jr. day at school.

And her imagination is just taking off. From making up games (which we don't always quite understand) to drawing pictures to making up and singing her own songs to go along with whatever she's doing.

I know I'm her mom and I'm a little biased, but I have been so impressed with her lately.

And speaking of growing up, I can't believe our baby boy is almost 2! There is entirely too much growing up going on in this house.

Sweet Rudy

Or, Rudymans as we sometimes like to call him. But whatever you call him our sweet little boy gave us quite a scare over the weekend.  We had been concerned about him last week, but were thinking he was just getting older and then maybe he had an ear infection or a little stomach bug. On Friday we had decided to call the vet on Monday to get him checked out. Saturday went from concerned to worried and then overnight to thinking we might have some very difficult explaining to do to the kids. He hadn't eaten anything since Thursday and wasn't really even interested in treats. In the middle of the night he started throwing up and couldn't even keep water down.

6:30 Sunday morning Matt ended up at the emergency animal hospital with him barely moving.  We tried to distract ourselves all morning while waiting to hear some news but I'd be lying if I said we weren't biting our nails a little bit with the "C" word crossing our minds.  The phone call from the vet finally brought us some relief. He likely has Addison's Disease. Which is serious. Left untreated it is fatal. I hate to think what might have happened if we had waited much  longer to bring him in. But it is treatable. And Rudy should be back to a normal life and live for quite a few more years.

Sleepy but doing much better.

Rudy is definitely a big part of our family. He was our first child. And the kids are crazy about him. As much as his barking and incessant scratching at the door to go out can get on my nerves, it really was strange not having him around for the past day and a half.


A few pictures of our little boy right after we got him (look how tiny he was!):

Snoozing at his first tailgate

Cuddling with cousin Tate.

Chasing golf balls as a puppy - his favorite activity still.

We are so glad to have him home and have our family complete again.  We love you Rudy and can't imagine life without you!

Cheep thrills

Here's proof that hours of fun doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.  All you need is a table and a marker, crayon, pencil or anything that's light and can roll and you have yourself a great winter (or rainy) day activity.  We have Maya to thank for getting us started on this while she was visiting last week.

Who knew that blowing a marker across the table could be so much fun? It kept them entertained for at least an hour and they were giggling wildly. Granted after the first half hour Bren resorted to sitting on the table and just throwing the marker off the edge, but he was happy so I won't complain.

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Banana?

Banana who?

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Because I've heard it least a million times in the last 3 months..

Kaelyn's been fascinated by knock, knock jokes for awhile now.  And back in November Brennan started copying her banana joke. His is a condensed version, which might make some people happy. Oh, and it starts out more like "Gaaahhck, Gaaahhck!"

And here some of Kaelyn's other favorites.  The salad one is my favorite. I actually think it's funnier the way she tells it. But the bunny one is sweet too. Especially since she made it up all by herself.

Everyone's a comedian.

Snow Babies

When it was snowing here the day after Christmas we were busy doing this:

Running on the beach, flying a kite and splashing in the water with Auntie Care-Care and Uncle Jay was a lot of fun. But, believe it or not, we did actually miss the snow a little. I think it would actually be fun to be snowed in with the family and no place to go. And of course the kids (mostly Kaelyn) were dying to play in the snow. Especially since we didn't really get any snow to speak of last year.

So, the day after we got back from Savannah we bundled up as best we could and headed out in the snow.

It actually took me awhile to convince Bren to put on all his snow clothes and go outside. But once he did he did not want to come in.

While I was busy shoveling the kids were having a blast playing "snowball party," Queen and King of the snow party and making snow angels.  There were a few brief pulls in the sled mixed in too. It didn't seem like they'd ever get cold or tire of the snow.

And then for a good half hour after we finally came in with wet mittens and socks, this is what Brennan did:

 

I didn't think he'd ever stop crying. Even the promise of the iPad and watching a show did not calm him down.

And now, the snow is completely gone and our grass is green. What?!  Kaelyn is still holding out hope for another snow but is also already asking if she can play in the snow more next Christmas.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

As soon as I told her she should dress fancy for church tonight, she tore off her "plain" clothes and went straight to her dress up box to put on her "Irish Princess" crown (and of course we had to add a necklace and bracelet).

Making "Elf treats" for Santa's elves

Sprinking Reindeer food on the lawn.

It would probably look prettier on top of snow, but most of it melted.

Christmas Eve tradition

Milk and cookies for Santa (and snacks for the elves).

Christmas-y things

Even though I have a list of at least ten different things I want to write about here, I just realized that it's less than a week until Christmas and I haven't said a thing about the 856 Christmas activities we've done. And since it is the season I feel obligated to share at least a few of the things we've done relating to the holiday. Because we have been having fun getting ready for the big day.

Kaelyn talked to Santa for the first time ever. I'm not one to take my kids to the mall and pay $50 for a picture of my kids screaming and crying with a fake Santa.  And any time we've had the opportunity to see Santa for free in the past 4 years Kaelyn has not at all been interested. I don't blame her. In fact, I've always been a little glad that she doesn't happily go running into a strange man's lap.  However, when the opportunity came after her preschool Christmas program I thought we'd give it a shot. She was still a little nervous and hesitant.  At first she wouldn't get closer than a foot away and would only whisper.

But with a little encouragement she finally sat on his lap and told him what she wanted this year. A bike, by the way. And I've been coaching her on that for the past four months so she wouldn't expect anything more. (And Brennan is asking for tricycle since he always wants to ride Kaelyn's but Mama and Dada aren't so sure we want him riding only a pink trike for the next couple years. He does deserve to have a few things that aren't girly hand-me-downs.)

Brennan had no interest in seeing Santa so we didn't push it. But he does respond with a big "Ho! Ho! Ho!" every time he sees a picture of Santa, toy Santa or Santa on tv.

He does however, have a lot of interest in a certain little thing under the tree. And it's not any of the pretty packages waiting to be opened.

He could seriously watch the "choo-choo" for hours and still be happy. The expression on his face when Dada first set it up was priceless. Makes me glad I told Maya to pick up that train set for him at IKEA a couple months ago. It could very likely be his favorite thing about Christmas.

He's had a fascination with trains for awhile. We usually hang out around downtown Franklin when Kaelyn is in school and he loves when we are near the tracks at about 10:45 when the train comes by. Luckily we can see it from the community center track where we like to go walking on chilly days. We can even faintly hear the train from our house if it's quiet enough inside. He still gets excited every time he hears it even though he can't see it. He loves this "choo-choo" so much we have resorted to using it as a bribe to get him to do things. In fact, that's how I got him in his pajamas tonight.

Whatever are we going to do when Christmas is over and we have to pack the train up for next year?