Final Days of 2009

This will probably be our last post of the year (unless something exciting happens tomorrow). These days we've just been hanging out-- mostly just relaxing. No real huge photo opportunities; just random shots here and there. We've been enjoying just being together while Connor's on vacation. While he has been enjoying his time off, I know he's dying to get back to school and his normal routine. I'm sure its going to be hard on Nicholas to re-adjust to the normal days of just me and him all day while we wait for Connor to be out of school for the day. I'm hoping there are no big tears like there were at the beginning of the school year, but two weeks is an awfully long time to get used to having his brother around again.

Here's wishing everyone out there a very Happy New Year.
May it bring you many blessings and much joy!

Bad Guy

The kids watch Dr. Who with us and they LOVE the show. You may recall we went to see David Tennant, who plays The Doctor, in San Diego earlier this year. Anyway, this weekend they played a Christmas special for the show. In the episode, the bad guy called The Master returned. After watching the episode tonight completely (they missed the last half on Saturday night), the boys both decided they wanted to be The Master. The episode ends with him throwing his hands up in the air and laughing maniacally, so that is exactly what we got till bedtime.

Merry Christmas

Connor woke up at 5 am! Luckily I convinced him that he should go back to sleep in case Santa hadn't arrived yet. He slept until 7:30. Nicholas woke up at 7 but because no one else was awake yet, he stayed in bed quietly (which is unusual for him because usually its like wake up everybody!) We pottied and went to investigate to see if we had been visited by Saint Nicholas or not. Connor was thrilled to announce that he had come! They were kind enough to pose for a picture before opening their gifts. Nicholas raced through his, while Connor took his time with each one. They were very excited with all their gifts.


After breakfast, we sang 'Happy Birthday' to Baby Jesus and had cupcakes. I'm so grateful for my wonderful family and all of our blessings. :) It is truly a very Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to all! We miss each of you that is miles away on this Blessed Holiday!

I thought it was sweet that before eating their cupcakes, both Connor and Nicholas decided to hug the statue of the Holy Family and say 'Happy Birthday' to and kiss Baby Jesus directly. :)

Merry Christmas Eve

The kids got ready for bed quickly today because they knew time was of the essence. Saint Nicholas is coming afterall, and he will skip our house if they aren't asleep when he drops by! :)
We got our milk and cookies ready. We left our milk chilling in a bowl of ice so Santa could enjoy his cool milk no matter what time he got in.

And this is the remnants of Santa's cookie and milk treat.

Early Christmas

Last night we celebrated Christmas a little early with Grandpa Jim, Grandma Connie, Auntie Molly, and Uncle Phill. Grandma Connie made a delicious dinner as usual. Nicholas, our big meat eater, thoroughly enjoyed the Pot Roast; Connor had to be coaxed but did eat all his dinner in the end. I didn't really take that many pictures but it was a really fun evening. We got home at 10 pm, so the kids were pretty much wiped out. They were both awake when we arrived at home but Connor decided he needed to be carried inside so he pretended to be fast asleep. (I used to do the same thing to my Dad when I was little! hee hee)



Nicholas enjoyed pointing out all the Santa's around the house, and they are EVERYWHERE. :)

And Now I Know

This morning when we were waking up, Nicholas was talking to Connor.
Nicholas: Connor, I love you.
Connor: Oh, I love you too.
Nicholas: You are so handsome.
Connor: Thanks, Brother!
Nicholas then went over to hug Connor and I couldn't help but think 'how sweet'. And then....
Nicholas: Now give me a dollar, Connor.

This is what you get when you take too long to serve the Breakfast Cereal.

First Kiss

I found this picture and thought it was cute. I know I'm at someone's shower at Lada's house, but I fail to remember who we were celebrating. I also failed to date the picture, so I have to guess that Nicholas is about 4 months and Haley is like 6 months. Anyway, weren't they both so adorable? Given that it was his first kiss from a girl, that may be why Nicholas is so adamant that he is going to marry her one day.

School Pictures

Okay, so I'm not too thrilled with the company who did Connor's school pictures. First off, they had us pre-pay before the pictures were even taken. Then I found out that the pictures were being taken of the oldest kids in the morning, youngest kids in the afternoon. In every school I have ever worked, it was the opposite because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the littles will not hold up as well throughout the school day. I felt bad for all the Kindergarten Moms who spent all morning doing up curls and other fancy hair-dos on their little girls because there's no way those were going to look like that by afternoon. Anyway, so knowing all of this, I was not expecting the greatest pictures, but still something halfway decent.
So after three weeks of waiting, this was what we received.
He's making a weird face! So anyway, the pictures were followed by a note saying if you are displeased with your picture you can take a re-take. Of course I signed up for the re-take thinking they had to be capable of getting a better picture of him the second time around. The day of the re-takes, I found out that they were not coming in until after lunch to do the pictures, despite the smaller group. So much for wishing they would get him while he was fresh in the morning, right? We just got back the new photos on Friday and all I can say is- wow.
Much better you might say, and I would agree. This particular picture IS better, but what you fail to see is that this picture has been doctored by Charlie in Photoshop. You see, apparently that day some of Connor's lunch ended up on his forehead somehow; hence he had a huge white stain of something or other smack dab in the middle of his forehead!! You'd think that as a photographer, especially during re-takes, would stop and say, "Perhaps I should get someone to wipe off this child's forehead before I take this picture." That did not happen. Thank you so much to my darling husband who worked hard to try to salvage these photos which I wanted to bury and forget they even existed.

On Friday, we also received a cute framed photo of Connor from his teacher. These are photos she took over several days, a few kids each day, with her own personal camera. She got each student a cute frame and wrapped it as a gift for them. She also got them each 2 books, but this picture really stood out in our minds. When we saw this picture, we thought the same thing-- Ms. Eisenberg should be the official school photographer. Ha ha... seriously though, we are so happy with this picture. It captures Connor quite well.

School

Tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break. Nicholas decided today that he wanted to go to school also. He found himself a small backpack and asked me to get him a lunchbox. Well, of course he didn't go to school, but we stayed and played on the structure after school with Connor. Since Connor took a flower to Ms. Eisenberg this morning, Nicholas decided he needed to take one to her this afternoon. Very sweet.

When we got home, I began wrapping a present for Ms. Eisenberg while Connor got to work on a card for her. He wanted to make a card with him and her and it but was afraid he'd get the faces all wrong; to alleviate this problem, I printed out pictures I had of him with her and cut out the heads for him to glue on his card. He decided to make his card of them playing a game they play at school where they try to step on each other's shadow. It came out super cute, at least I think so.


And this last picture the boys asked me to take since I had my camera on hand. It is one of the frogs on the wall of the school. This particular frog amuses them because it is so huge compared to the lily pad it is jumping to and they laugh because they say he's just going to fall in and get all wet.

Gingerbread House

Connor was soooo excited today because he knew they were going to build a gingerbread house at school in the afternoon. It is all he could talk about! When we picked him up from school, he was excited to show us his creation. I told him he couldn't eat any of it until I had take a picture of it. :P He was fine with that agreement thankfully! I had to get a plate with some treats for Nicholas of course, but that was okay as well.
They used an empty pint of milk carton for added stability to their creations. I am amused because initially she had asked for half gallon cartons so the houses were going to be HUGE. Ha ha... but his teacher said that the other teachers convinced her smaller is better.

Melt Downs

Around here, we are very prone to melt downs the closer it gets to bedtime. Take Friday night for instance. Nicholas was being undecided about what he wanted to drink; would it be apple juice or milk? He decided apple juice and so I poured him a cup. As I turned to walk away, he said, "Not apple juice!" and proceeded to throw his cup to the ground. I was furious and told him that he was not to throw his cups down for any reason and that if he didn't want the juice to put it in the fridge because I was not going to give him a new cup with milk. He broke down into tears and stayed in the kitchen crying. I went back to the things I was organizing in the living room. Connor had only heard the tail end of the incident, so he went into the kitchen to investigate. He asked Nicholas what was wrong, and all Nicholas could say was, "Mommy told me..... Mommy told me... " So after a few minutes of trying to console Nicholas, Connor came out to find me. He got me by the hand and looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Mom, I think you and Nicholas need to talk this out." He proceeded to lead me to the kitchen. Once there, Nicholas looked up at me and said, "Sorry, Mommy." We hugged and then he took his apple juice and went back to watching Transformers with Daddy and Connor as if nothing had happened.
It was 7:20 when the last episode of Transformers was about five minutes shy of being done, so we let the kids keep watching even though they are usually getting ready for bed by then; it was also Friday so there was no reason to get up on time for anything in the morning. Anyway, in one scene Optimus Prime appears to get caught in an explosion. This brought Connor to near tears as he said, "OH NO! He can't be killed!" Nicholas happened to be sitting next to Connor and reached over to hug him and pat him on the back. He told him, "Its okay, Connor. He'll be fine. Its okay, Connor. He'll be fine." Sure enough, he was fine and Connor was relieved. It was just strange watching them be so caring and gentle with each other when they are usually so rough and crazy together.
Then there is today. On Sundays when Charlie works at the comic shop, we usually get frozen yogurt at the end of the day as a treat. The kids know this and relish this little ritual. So when we got to the yogurt shop to find it closed, I was full on expecting a total melt down on both sides of me. To my happy surprise, there was none. Connor and Nicholas just stared at the darkened store and Connor said, "Oh well, I guess we have to have ice cream at home then." They didn't end up having ice cream at home though, as they opted for a drinkable yogurt instead.

One final thing from today. The boys have been reliving lots of Charlie's favorite cartoons from when he was a child with him. They also watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle this week. Connor has been obsessed with the Technodrome, which is the headquarters on wheels for the bad guys in the show. Anyway, I realized how obsessed he is when we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond today. He fully expected this store to carry the 'beyond' part of their name. When a sales clerk asked us if we needed help finding something, he said, "Yes, can you please tell me where you have the buttons and switches so I can build my own Technodrome?" The lady stood there like she was honestly thinking about it for a second, and then she finally said, "Hmm.. I don't think we have them here, but I'm sure your Mommy knows where they do have them." Connor thanked her and as we were leaving the store he muttered, "I knew this was the wrong store."

Read-In

Last night, Connor's school had a read-in. It is an event held in the library. The kids get to come in their pj's and listen to stories read aloud by some of the teachers at school. The book fair is also open at the same time so you can purchase some books. It started at 6:30 and the kids listened to stories for half an hour. The most excitement came when the school principal, Mr. Funcheon came up to read his story. Then there was an intermission where the kids were escorted to the cafeteria for cookies and hot chocolate. We visited the book fair and Connor used his allowance to buy 6 books. At 7:30, there was another half hour of reading, but we had left at this point. I love these events, but usually my kids are asleep at 8 pm, not hurrying to get ready for bed. :P Anyway, we made it to sleep by 8:20 and so I let Connor sleep in a little this morning to make up for it. Either way, I'm glad they had fun last night.


Connor was annoyed with me for taking pictures. He just wanted me to leave him alone so he could listen to the stories. Oh well!


And this last picture was actually from Sunday, but I neglected to put it up then. It was when the kids were talking to Santa while the photographer got ready. Connor was telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas and Nicholas was busy looking for where the candy canes were hiding.

Santa

Today we went to visit Santa. Thankfully, Nicholas was not nervous at all this year about sitting on Santa's lap. The kids were both super excited and Santa was actually quite patient and willing to spend lots of time listening to their requests. Santa even convinced Charlie and I to get in the pictures, too. I was so unprepared for the idea of taking pictures myself that I forgot to take off my gloves. Ooops, but hey, if Santa can wear his, so can I!



When Nicholas realized that Charlie and I were getting in the picture as well, he ditched Santa and came and sat in my lap at the last second. They moved Connor over to the other side of Santa's lap for the next picture so Charlie wasn't so lonely on his side.

Now to decorate the front of the house and put up our Christmas tree!

Saturday

Today we attended Michael's first birthday party. It was so fun and the kids got some great animal masks in their treat box. They both have been wearing them since the drive home from the party.

I got a letter from the courts today, although it was not the angry letter for not showing up to jury duty I was expecting. It was a letter telling me that they had received my original documentation that I sent back in the beginning of November when I was first received my jury duty notice. It is dated December 3rd and tells me I am excused from attending jury duty for the week of November 30th. This means that neither the second or third forms I had to get to them mattered, because they had the first. Its all so crazy! Either way, I'm just glad to have a form that officially excuses me. :)

Art and life in general

Last night, Connor went to an "Art Explosion" at his school. It was from 6-8 and it was set up in the cafeteria. It was a chance for the kids to make cool art projects to give to people in their lives for Christmas. :) Connor LOVED it! He had so much fun and he was so proud of all his pieces; I'm not sure he's going to be willing to part with any of them though.

Connor got to paint the ornament below with glitter paint. He loves green and glittery things (he has an obsession with glitter crayons at the moment), so he LOVED painting the silver ornament with the glittery green paint. The glass is a candle holder. It was clear and they put glue all over the glass to give it a frosted look and then applied little tissue paper shapes all over to decorate it. It has a green votive inside. The little rectangle is a shrinky dink. He made a picture on a clear piece of material that was about 3 inches by 5 inches, they baked it, and it shrank to ornament size. It is supposed to be a happy face, but it lost some of its integrity in the shrinking process. :P

This one below is string art. This one required more help than the previous art projects because it involved tying tiny ends of string to nails.

There was also rock painting. I think he is most proud of this project. He chose to make a happy face on this rock, I guess because he is always so happy. :)This is an ornament I guess. He colored on a clear sheet that was taped to this shape. Then they taped foil in the back for him.

So I stayed out of jail this week. Although, I had to end up faxing over documents to the court since they still have not received my original mailed documentation. Its so crazy!

Also, we finally got an apology from the little boy's parents. The Dad walked up to me at morning drop-off and said he was sorry for having approached it as he did. He said in a big way he was really glad it was just a fib. He said they ended up taking the boy to the doctor and he had a really bad chest cold, which is why he was having so much trouble breathing and such. I'm just glad that's all behind us. It is nice though that at bedtime prayer sometimes, Connor still prays for the boy to not tell any more lies.

This last picture is kind of embarrassing. I was feeling under the weather this week, so Nicholas and Connor were both concerned. In an attempt to help me feel better, Nicholas got me a band-aid one day and put it on my forehead. I thought it was sweet. When Charlie saw me though, he asked me if this meant that Nicholas thought that my illness was 'all in my head'.
Ha ha Charlie......
Thankfully he has more than made up for the comment by taking good care of me all week.

Jail

So I got a notice for jury duty for the week of November 30th. I filled out the form to be excused on account that I'm a stay-at-home Mom and I take care of Nicholas all day. On Saturday, November 21st, I received a letter from the court saying that I needed to send them a letter stating how old my child was and the days and hours I had to care for him or her; granted all of this was in the first form, but whatever. I wrote out the letter and signed it, racing to get it to the post office before pick-up. I was afraid it would get there late and the holidays would throw everything off. So I waited. I heard nothing back, so the letter had said to assume I still had jury duty if I had not heard from them. So Charlie had to take a day off of work to watch Nicholas. I called the court jury people when they opened at 9 am this morning. I explained my situation and asked if they could tell me if I was released from jury duty or not. She said that it said my case was still pending a letter from me and asked when I mailed it out. I told her I mailed it out as soon as I got it and she said that it just takes about 10 days for them to get the mail to the right office there, so she was not surprised my letter had not made it them yet. She asked me what my excuse was and I told her. She said that she had on there that I was a teacher and I explained that I was not anymore. She said that is an approved excuse and I would be fine. I asked her if I needed to show up or not, and she said not to show up. She told me to call back on Wednesday to make sure they got my letter. She said worst case scenario I would probably just receive an angry letter from the court about my failure to appear for jury duty; in which case, I would just need to call back and they would fix it and have me send in a new letter. I got the woman's name down and such, but I can't help but be freaked out. I keep imagining that a deputy of the court is going to come over and arrest me! :P Charlie promised that he will bail me out. :)