Look Who's 3!!!

My little boy turned 3 today. It's true what they say...Time really does fly. We've got some exciting plans this year for Logan. We may enroll him in a gymnastics/preschool class and of course, there's potty training. I'm excited to watch him grow this year. It's fun to learn things all over again from the perspective of your kids.

We had a little party for him this morning. It wasn't anything too spectacular, but it was fun. He got lots of presents. His favorite was the computer his grandma and grandpa H gave him. Once he saw that, he didn't want to open any of the other presents. We had to hide it and tell him he could have it once everything else was opened.



He loved being sung to. I've never seen him so excited before.


And of course, his cake was a big hit too.




Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was awesome this year. We started Christmas Eve by going to Buca Di Beppo for dinner with Sam's family. Afterwards, we went to his parents house where we had the kids (and Sam) participate in the Nativity. I have to admit, I've not seen a cuter Mary or shephard. Joseph was pretty good looking too. ;)


After the nativity, we opened some presents. Logan was thrilled with the thought of opening presents and wanted to open all of them. It took awhile to get the kids to settle down when we got home. Bedtime was later than usual, which made for a later morning. We had a good time opening the presents that Santa left behind at our house. He brought Livi a ginormous doll house that both kids fell in love with. They even tried climbing into it themselves. (Good call on the doll house Santa!)




I'm not sure how it happened, but Logan sure did get a lot of good stuff this year!
You can't tell from her expression, but she was so excited to get this from Grandma and Grandpa H. She absolutely loves it! Coloring and music are 2 of her favorite things, so it only makes sense that she would love the Crayola color wonders toy.


Once our presents were opened, we drove back up to Sam's parents house to visit for a bit and open more presents. (The kids were pretty spoiled this year.) One of my favorite gifts that Logan got from his Grandma B was a photo book of his "Awesome Summer". It's something that he can keep for years to come and one day show his kids. It was brilliant!

We travelled to my parents house later in the day where we enjoyed a delicious dinner, time with family, and yes, more presents! I really wanted to not have the focus of Christmas this year be on presents, but it was worth it to see their faces. We had some fights over toys, and a few tantrums, but overall, I think it went pretty well.

Merry Christmas!

A Goodnight Story

Last night, Olivia was having a hard time going to bed. I would hold her, she would scream. I would put her in her crib, she would scream even louder. Finally, I gave up and let her go into Logan's room to try to sleep in the toddler bed. Logan was thrilled to have his sister in his room. She just wanted to play. She jumped on the bed, laughed, held teddy bears...finally she got into bed with Logan. They seemed content, so Sam and I left them. I was standing outside the door for a few minutes when I heard Logan ask Livi a question. "Do you want to read 'Goodnight Moon', sweetheart?" And then I heard him "read" the book to her. (He has it memorized.) It was such a touching moment. I was so proud of my little boy. Such a wonderful big brother!

Logan, I love you so much!!!

The night didn't go that smoothly for much longer. Soon, Olivia wanted out of the room and eventually went to sleep in her own bed. Logan was very upset that she left. He kept crying for "Eeya" to come back to bed with him. I'm so glad that he wants to share his room with her. One day it will happen. But for now, I'm not ready for her to sleep in a toddler bed. I'm just fine with her being in the crib.

Here comes Santa Claus

Today we had our church Christmas party. We had breakfast, enjoyed looking at displays of different countries and their Christmas traditions, and even got to visit with Santa. Santa, of course, was the highlight for Logan. It's all he talked about on the way there. He just wanted to see Santa. But when we pulled into our church parking lot, we had to wrestle with Logan to get him out of the car. He was determined that we had tricked him into going to church. We had to reassure him over and over again that, yes, Santa would be coming by. When Santa made his grand entrance, both of my kids were in complete awe. Olivia started laughing and ran right for him...Logan wasn't far behind. However once they got closer to him, they both froze. I should be more sympathetic to my kids. Afterall, a guy wearing a big red suit with a white beard can be intimidating. But I just thought it was hilarious to watch them react in such a way. We had to force them into the picture. Olivia screamed her loudest scream and Logan clung onto Sam for dear life. Maybe next year it will work better.

12 days of cookies, not so much

The 12 days of Christmas cookies hasn't gone over very well. Here's a rundown of what's happened so far.

Day 2... we just put frozen cookie dough on a cookie sheet. Still yummy, but not as fun.

Day 3... we decorated Nabisco Nilla Wafers with red and green frosting. This, the kids did enjoy. It was a fun time and maybe something we will do again. It was easy and didn't require baking any cookies.




Day 4... we didn't do anything. But some friends of ours came by and delivered a plate of cookies. Does that count?

Day 5...nothing. :( It's sad but true. We just weren't home enough to do anything. But that's okay by me.

I'm not sure anything will get baked tomorrow either. Honestly, if it wasn't for this nasty headache I've had for almost 2 weeks, I might be in more of a baking mood. But really, I'm just trying to survive hour by hour. We have enjoyed other Christmas activities though. We have looked at neighborhood Christmas lights, decorated some ornaments and colored lots of coloring pages of Christmas stuff. We've had fun so far with Christmas activities, cookies or no cookies. :)

12 Days of Christmas...Cookies

It's a lot of cookies, but I found this idea in a magazine and thought it sounded fun. My kids aren't quite old enough to enjoy the making cookies part, but they sure do enjoy eating them. Today was Day 1. We made "Twinkly Trees". I don't think they turned out quite as well as I would've liked, but they look cute enough.

Logan did his own tree. It's the top left.

Garden d'Lights

We went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens tonight to look at their light display that they have each year. 5 years ago, Sam and I went to the garden to look at the Christmas lights, and it was here 5 years ago that he almost proposed. (He chickened out though and didn't propose until much later that night.) We had a great time. The kids absolutely loved the lights. One thing I should mention about our venture was that it was raining. It wasn't your typical Seattle drizzle/rain, no it was downpouring rain. We were soaked after just a few minutes. Still we had fun and the kids enjoyed jumping in the puddles while we waited for Sam to bring the car up. We may make this an annual event...then again, we might look for other light displays closer to home.

I don't have many pictures of me and the kids, and tonight I remembered why. I had to hold them tight just to stay in the picture. And of course they wouldn't look at the camera, that's just not near as fun as running around in the rain.

He only thinks he's ready

Logan wants to go to school. The past couple of days he has put on his backpack and shoes, yelled out "good bye" to me and gone to the front door to leave. Today he even grabbed a book (a cook book, but still a book). Only he's stopped because we have the doorknob childproofed and he can't open it. He begs me to let him go to school. I think it's great that he wants to go and learn. He understands that at school you learn things and get to play with friends. I feel bad, I would like to enroll him in preschool, but he refuses to be potty trained. I've told him that if he learns to use the potty then he can go to school. He told me "I have to think about it." I think it's pretty straightforward, but apparently, he needs to mull it over.

How my almost 3 year old thinks...

One of my black friday deals was a dual DVD player for the car. It's nice, it's portable, and the screens fit on the back of the driver and passenger head rests. We tried it out for the first time last Tuesday when we had to pick up Sam from work and head to a doctor appointment for Logan. The kids enjoyed every minute of being able to watch a movie while sitting in the car. And honestly, it was the best drive I've had in a long time. No screaming, crying, hitting, whining...it was great! Today Logan was begging to go to his "carseat". Here's the conversation that followed:

Me: "Why do you want to go in the car so bad?"

Logan: "Want to watch Cars in my carseat." (Cars is what I had playing on Tuesday)

Me: "I'm sorry bud, but we can only watch movies in the car on long road trips, like to daddy's work or Grandma and Grandpa H's house."

Logan: (a long pause as he looks on thoughtfully) "Logan wants to go see grandma and the kitty cat" (my parents house)

Me: "Are you sure you want to see grandma? Or do you just want to watch the movie in the car?"

Logan: (Another thoughtul pause) "Nope, want to see grandma....and watch Cars"

I love how he thinks. He took his time in answering my question, as if getting the right answer would allow him to ride in the car. Needless to say, we didn't go to my parents house today, but I did cave and took them with me to donate some unwanted items that we had lying around. We took our time, and I let him watch his movie while we did so.

Baking Cookies

I know, I know...shocking! To think I actually had time to have the kids help me bake cookies! It was fun. Okay, in all honesty though, it was frozen cookie dough that I bought from a school fundraiser, already shaped and ready to be placed on the cookie sheet. So that's what we did. I opened the box and the kids put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet. Once it was in the oven, the kids just sat and watched them bake.



The excitement was too much for Livi, she just had to dance and hop around. At one point she even demanded for me to open the oven door and get the cookies out.



You would think that once they were done that she would want to eat one, but she didn't. She just wanted to look at them. Logan on the other hand, couldn't wait to devour them. :)