Home Sick

Sometimes it's fun to be home sick! Isabella has strep throat and she has to be home from school until she's been fever-free and on antibiotics for 24 hours. While Sienna was at school today, Isabella and I made a homemade bubble solution (with glycerin-thanks, Mom!) and we had fun blowing bubble castles!

Giving Back

In preparation for the onslaught of Christmas gifts, Mike suggested that the girls go through their own toys and give some away to children who don't have many toys at Christmastime. Both of the girls went through their bedrooms and found puzzles, games, toys and stuffed animals to give away. One needed a little more prodding and guidance than the other! I peeked at Isabella through the crack in her door as she sorted through her toys. She had no idea that I was watching her. She had a "give away" pile and a "keep" pile. She has quite a collection of toy horses, and I saw her holding one particular horse as she looked back and forth between her two piles and the horse. It seemed like she wanted to keep the horse, but I heard her say to herself, "Those kids are more important than this horse," as she placed the horse in the "give away" pile. I was so touched and proud of her!

Mike researched different charities in the area and decided to make a donation to Cradles to Crayons -a non-profit organization which "equips homeless and in-need children with the basic essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn and valued." He felt strongly that the girls should go with him to make the donation. He loaded up the car with the girls' toys, some baby gear and other items and they headed off this afternoon. We want our children to be kind and compassionate and to think of others. This is another new tradition that we would like to carry on year after year (and throughout the year)!

Puzzle Time!

Both of the girls loved doing puzzles when they were little. This is the first time that Elijah showed interest in putting the pieces into a puzzle rather than just dumping them out! It's very exciting for this puzzle-loving mom!!

More Christmas Traditions

Last night when we got home after being gone all day, we found The Elf on the Shelf sitting on our mantle! We learned from the book that this elf is one of Santa's special helpers who watches over our kiddos during the weeks leading up to Christmas. He travels to the North Pole every night to report to Santa on their behavior and then returns to another spot in our house the next day. The girls named him Ornament. Noone is allowed to touch him because he could lose his magic.
Somehow I figured out that Isabella touched him (she's just as curious as her dad was as a little boy!), so I told her that she shouldn't be surprised if she gets one less present than Sienna. When she seemed a bit sad about that, I suggested that she write Ornament a note.

This is what she wrote:

Ornament wrote her a note back!

Dear Isabella, Sienna and Elijah-

I really like visiting your home. Thanks for giving me such a great name!

Isabella-I told Santa that you kind of touched me. He said that it's okay that it happened accidentally one time, but please don't let it happen again. I wouldn't want you to lose one of your presents, and I don't want any of my magic to wear off! Thank you for your nice note. Actually, your Dada touched me by accident a tiny bit, too, when I first arrived at your house, but he apologized after you all went to bed. It must be exciting having an elf visit your house. I don't blame you for being curious!

My cousins (Jingle and Rudolph) and I had a good trip to the North Pole last night, but I am tired. I need to rest a lot today!

Be good!!

Love, Ornament

The girls enjoy another old tradition of ours. They take turns hanging a miniature ornament on the Christmas tree on our advent calendar each day. This is the same advent calendar that my sister and I filled up when we were little!

Good news!

Does this look like a boy who had major brain surgery 18 months ago?!? I don't think so!! We got another great early Christmas present today (as we did last year at this time). Elijah had a follow-up MRI today and everything looked great. There's still no sign of the tumor! His last MRI was in June, and now we won't have to go back again until next June. If everything looks good then, he'll have another follow-up in a year. Yeah!!! He's doing great, and we are so thankful! He's a mini version of his dad and as mischievous as ever!!

This was the smoothest visit we've had to Children's Hospital Boston. Aside from the two hour drive (through the snow) to the hospital, everything went very smoothly. I requested to have someone from the IV team start Elijah's IV for his sedation since it always takes several tries to get his IV started. This is the first time that they listened to me and actually called the IV team before one of the MRI nurses tried to start the IV. Even though Elijah was screaming and it took four of us to hold him down, the girl got the IV started within seconds. Yippee!!!! I thanked her profusely! It took a few minutes to draw blood and tape down the IV and wrap up Elijah's arm, so I kept telling him that he was almost done. Elijah kept crying and saying, "Done! Done!!" He woke up from the sedation easily and he had his shortest stay in the recovery room (only about 40 minutes) so we were able to get in to see the doctor early. That never happens!!

Elijah was in a great mood when we got home. Here the silly boy still has his ID bracelets from the hospital on his ankles.

Elijah likes to line up his cars ("cows") and trucks.
Who said that slides are just for sliding?!?

Our little dare devil waves from way up high!

Look Mama, no hands! Check out his look of pure joy. He's not even a tiny bit scared.

We are thankful and amazed every day that Elijah is happy and healthy!!

Gingerbread houses

This morning we made gingerbread houses at my friend, Kim's, house with our MOMS Club friends. Elijah was more interested in eating the graham crackers than trying to actually decorate a house.
Sienna and Lily worked hard on their creations!

The decorations were yummy-even the peppermint flavored candy corn. I've never seen those before!

A Weekend of Christmas Traditions-Old and New!

Some of the things I love about the holidays are the traditions that we have started as a family. After reading about my friend, Sarah's, great idea to do a different holiday activity every day in December, I was motivated to start some new traditions of our own. This weekend we enjoyed some old traditions as well as creating some new ones!

Old Tradition: Breakfast with Santa
Yesterday morning we enjoyed our annual pancake breakfast at Sienna's school. The girls were happy to see Santa, but Elijah had other ideas!
Elijah seemed to be intrigued by Santa once he was at a safe distance.
This picture has nothing to do with holiday traditions, but Isabella went to a birthday party this weekend and came home with this fancy hair-do (complete with a pink streak) and sparkly eyelids. I'm not sure that modeling is in her future! Old Tradition: Placing Wilma the Angel on top of our Christmas tree
This year Sienna had the honor of putting Wilma on top of our tree.It's getting harder for Mike to lift up the girls as they get bigger!A minor adjustment...Mission accomplished!

New Tradition: Family Christmas Movie Night

We started a tradition of Family Movie Nights complete with popcorn and a fire. We decided to watch Home Alone last night, but we were surprised by some of the language and all of the name calling!!! Is that really necessary in a kids' movie?!?! (I know, I'm such a mom...)

New Tradition: Holiday visit to Bass Pro Shops

Tons of people were waiting to see Santa, and we didn't want to wait around for several hours. Instead, we enjoyed checking out all of the animals (both live and stuffed); although, Sienna wouldn't go near this bear!

There was a pond with live fish and turtles that had a sign that warned people not to put their hands in the pond since all of the animals/fish could bite. Guess who stuck his finger in the pond to see if they'd actually bite? I'll give you a hint...it wasn't Elijah!

Elijah came up with some Christmas ideas for himself. He would either like this pink ATV...

...or this boat!

He likes anything with a steering wheel or handlebars! See?!?

Elijah, Sienna, Lauren (Sienna's friend) and I made a mid-week trip back to Bass Pro Shops and walked right up to see Santa!! As we learned with the Enchanted Village, mid-week visits are much better than weekend visits!

Old Tradition: Festival of Lights

Tonight we enjoyed the Festival of Lights on our town common.

Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived on a firetruck again this year!

Elijah enjoyed a free cookie!

Sienna posed in front of the lights.

Isabella, Sienna and Elijah

Elijah surveyed the lighting job.

Trying to keep warm!

We enjoyed our weekend of holiday family fun!!

The need for speed...

As far as Elijah is concerned, the faster and more dangerous the better!!! See what I mean?!?

Enchanted Village

The Enchanted Village has been in Boston for several years, but this year it was at Jordan's Furniture closer to our house. In order to avoid the crazy crowds on the weekends, I took the kiddos this afternoon since they had an early release day at school. We didn't have to wait in line at all, and we were able to zip right through.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

After Thanksgiving, I'm always anxious to get started on our holiday card. I figured that it wasn't realistic to get a great photo of all three of our kids looking at the camera (without taking 100 pictures), but I gave it a shot. We got everyone dressed up in their holiday outfits and gathered them in front of our Christmas tree. I should have saved some of the group shots, but I didn't get any that I really liked. I decided to crop out the photos that really captured their personalities.

This one depicts the little mischievous Elijah that we know and love!
I love this one of the girls, but Elijah wasn't in it.

I considered using separate pictures of each of them.

Again, Elijah looks mischievous and he's smiling, but he's not looking at the camera.

Here Elijah is about to throw the Curious George ornament.

This one captures Elijah's favorite game-peek a boo. "Boo!"Rather than torture everyone with an hour-long photo shoot, I used a combination of what I got in the first few minutes. This is our final product! Mike gave me a hard time about putting our picture on there, but it's not often that we have a decent picture of the two of us. It was taken at our friends' wedding in September.

Happy holidays!!