Afterwards....

The day after Christmas the boys were up and ready to go early.  We had found these shirts on clearance earlier in the week and they were quick to put them on and be superheros.  Too cute!

Part of what encouraged the cleaning spree on Christmas Eve was the plan to move both boys into the same room on the 26th.  So Reid spent a part of the day moving Finn's bed out of the "nursery" and into the "boys' room".  We called our home teachers to help out with putting the beds on top of each other and once it was done the boys were super excited.  Kai has done quite well sleeping on the top bunk and he is working hard on taking the big brother role and trying to make Finn more comfortable.  Finn isn't sleeping any worse than before, but he isn't sleeping better either.  That means I still get up with him at least once a night, so we've got some things to work on.  But it's fun to have them enjoying being together so much.

Also that night Reid got out the telescope so the boys could test it out.  Here it's aimed out our front window at the moon.

Reid was trying to help them see out of the eye piece

Waiting his turn

He really tried!  And he's convinced he saw it!

Christmas 2012

We were happy to have Reid home with us for Christmas.  In fact, he's still home with us!  We both think this is the most amount of time that Reid has had off in 5 years when we haven't had a trip planned.  It's been nice to be home and just get some things done.  And Christmas Eve was no exception.  We spent the day cleaning and organizing.  It started as a simple project and then of course we stumbled on more to do.  While I was doing dishes in the afternoon this was the view from the sink.  I LOVED it!  The boys were cleaning out the closet and had found Elmo slippers and DU horns (I think??  We got them when Finn was in the hospital from some girls on the volleyball team that were visiting patients) and Finn decided to put them on.  It was funny to watch him and fun to see them have so much fun with toys that they had forgotten about.

Notice the letters above the bedroom door?  That's for another post, but suffice it to say that Reid and I have realized that baby girl's name can NOT begin with a "C".

 I've mentioned before that Finn is in the weird drop-the-nap, don't drop-the-nap phase and I wasn't sure what to do on Christmas Eve.  If he takes a nap he's up until 9pm at least.  But if he doesn't, it could get dicey.  Well, we decided to skip the nap (too much cleaning going on) and at the dinner table the poor kid's eyes started rolling in his head and he was just about to fall out of his chair.  I put him on my lap hoping to keep up a bit and instead he passed out--it was only 5:30pm.  We decided to finish dinner, have Kai open his Christmas jammies and present from Great-Grandma, get Finn dressed and put him to bed.  He slept through all of it and was in his bed before 6:30pm.  So, we enjoyed a quiet evening with Kai and put out milk and cookies for Santa.  Kai was very excited for Santa to come and kept asking what time it would be.

With Finn's early bedtime I thought for sure I would be up at the crack of dawn--or really earlier, but would you believe that he slept until nearly 5:30am and then went back to sleep when I snuggled up with him.  I ended up talking him out of his bed at 7am, as I was afraid that Kai would be waiting for us.  (He wasn't by the way.  Drats, we should of just let everyone keep sleeping!)

Anyway, the boys got lots of neat gifts and seem to love every single one.  After we had opened all of the presents except for a few labeled for the family we asked Kai what he thought.  He said he had gotten everything he wanted except for one--a telescope.  We told him maybe next year, and then pointed out that we had one box left.  He was so happy to see a telescope in that box!

Leaving cookies for Santa

Legos from his Aunt and Uncle

The castle that Finn had been wanting

This present (in the snowflake paper) remained wrapped until the very end because Reid made the mistake of saying that it was Finn's present from Santa.  After that he wanted nothing to do with it!  We ended up having him use his battering ram from his Aunt and Uncle (shown below) to punch holes into the paper so he could see what it was and feel ok opening it.

Opening....

A battering ram to go with his castle

A fun, creative gift from brother and sister-in-law

The Imaginext Space Shuttle from Grammy and Papa

Sometimes opening presents is just too hard and you need to take a break!

Another creative gift from my brother.  The boys enjoy stretching these bands into the shapes that came on the cards.  

A telescope!

And then begins the process of putting things together

Finn's loot--Notice Jake's ship Bucky, the castle and many accessories including that awesome dragon!

Kai's loot

Playing together

I was pleased with the boys and the way they shared all of their new toys.  In the hours following the opening of gifts the boys played just about everything together--Angry Birds, Superheros, Space Shuttles, Castles, and more.  They were doing so well together that I thought we could have gotten away with half of the presents and just given them to both boys.....oh well, next year?!

Winter Party

Last year I volunteered to be Kai's Pre-K classroom room mom.  It was a LOT of work and I wore myself out.  While I really wanted to be involved this year, I made a promise to myself that I would not be room mom.  I had a hard time not volunteering for the position, but I was happy to find out that a couple of other moms had stepped up.  Sheww!  Instead of being room mom this year, I am making sure to volunteer in the classroom at least once a month, sign-up for Playdough Club, and volunteer to help at the parties.  We were at Disney World for the fall party, so the Winter Party was my first chance.  The party was held on the last day of school before winter break, Thursday December 21st.  Our babysitter was taking final exams and so was getting out of school early, which worked out perfect.  Finn got to play with Megan while I had fun with Kai.  I was put in charge of the donut on a string game.  It was funny to watch the kids struggle with it, and some kids decided just not to struggle.  But it was fun to be in class with Kai (as always) and to see so many parents turn out to support their kids.

Kai was moving so fast it was hard to catch a good picture.

Kai and one of his friends trying to eat donuts.  This little guy is one of a set of identical twins in Kai's class and they are adorable!

He gave up and opted for the easy method.

Kai enjoying his snacks with his elf hat on.  Funny story, when Kai saw that there was milk to go with snack he got SO excited.  He even asked his teacher if they could have milk every day.  He went through 3 glasses of it!  And then he came up and said he had a new idea for a birthday party--a DRINK party!  The cake could even been in the shape of a milk jug.  One of the other moms overheard, laughed, and asked what we did at our house.  Ahhhhhh......the innocence of a 5 year old.  But he has now developed a new motto:  You can't keep a Kai from his milk.

Kai's kindergarten class--all 14 of them!  One is moving soon and so they will be down to 13 kids in his class.  Yes, this is public school, we just got super lucky!  Oh, and Kai's being a goof because his teacher tossed out the idea of having a silly picture once the serious picture was done.  Apparently Kai didn't hear that last part and couldn't wait to be silly.

Snow Day

Wednesday December 20th saw our first snow day from school!  While Finn took a nap, Kai and I did some fun crafts.  It was fun to have some "us" time.  We don't get too much of that these days.

A Glimpse into Dinner

Over the last two months or so the boys have discovered a new game, Minecraft.  They LOVE it and they loved it even more when their dad showed them that they could actually play together.  One boy on the iPhone, and one on the iPad, and then they enter the same world and play together.  Sometimes it's just so much fun that there's no need to stop for dinner.

20 Week Ultrasound

At 16 weeks pregnant, I decided to switch OBs.  It turned into some serious drama and caused me some serious stress.  But as a result, I went into an appointment at 16 weeks and 3 days and the new doctor wanted an ultrasound to confirm dates.  It was 2 days before Thanksgiving and the baby was far enough along that we were able to get a look at gender.  I didn't want to find out, though, without Reid, so I had the technician put the information in an envelope.  After our pizza dinner that night we opened the envelope to find out we are having a little GIRL!!  Kai is super excited to have a sister, and I don't think I need to explain how excited I am to buy some pink and purple.

I will admit that I was skeptical.  I didn't want to get my hopes up, and the technician did tell me that the biggest mistake made is saying that it's a girl when it really is a boy.  So, I was looking forward to our 20 week ultrasound this week so that I could see for myself.  We had a different tech this time and she agrees that it is indeed a girl.  Little girl is growing right on schedule and looks healthy (well, as much as they can tell from an ultrasound).  I have now had three ultrasounds in the last 10 weeks and all three of them have indicated that baby is three days ahead of her estimated due date of May 4th.  The tech this week told me that is really unusual to have three different ultrasounds by three different techs at three different times and all come up with a due date of May 1st.  (Have you noticed a common thread?  This is baby number three!)

Anyway, we did get some pictures from our ultrasound, but none of them are that great.  Baby girl was fine with us looking at other parts of her, but when it came time to look at her face she wanted nothing to do with it.  She had her hands by her hand with elbows up so we couldn't see.  Honestly, it reminded me a bit of Finn who liked to do that too, and to this days falls asleep with his hands by his face.  He was even born with scratches on his head from having his hands up there!  Hopefully baby girl doesn't scratch herself! 

See both elbows up?  I think I see a nose behind the front elbow, but I'm not so sure.

More elbows

Other randomness

A few more shots from this fall.  I haven't taken too many pictures lately because I've been still trying to figure out how to do this cell phone camera thing.  I think I've got it and I'm hoping to get some more pictures.  I just have to remember to take them!

Finn was acting up in the tub (in October, and I can't remember what he did) so bathtime ended early.  This is his sad face while he sits in a completely empty tub crying about it.  He sat there for a good 10 minutes.  Poor thing must have been super cold!

Ipad time.  Seriously, I have to make Reid take this to work sometimes just so I can say we don't have it, you can't play it.

Kai with chocolate on his face!

Sleeping in the cart at Wal-Mart.  Sometimes being a kid and playing at the park can wear you out!

For school Kai had to decorate a turkey in a disguise so he could avoid getting eaten.  Kai and  Daddy worked for a while to make this just right.

Finn loves to be outside and even after everyone else had given up on raking the leaves Finn was still going strong.  He had a blast having me rake them into a pile that he could jump in, even if it was little.

Ok, so maybe I haven't figured out the cell phone camera thing, as I can see I have other pictures on my camera but they aren't showing up on the computer.  So, I guess I will need Reid's technical help when he gets home!

Pine Cones and Lakes

Somehow, at the beginning of the school year, Finn got it into his head that when Kai goes to school he gets to go to the park.  It's become a near daily request for a trip to the park.  At first I was using it as an excuse to go for a nice long drive until Finn fell asleep in his car seat and then we would just head home.  After a while, though, he caught on to this and would cry when he woke up in the garage and insist on heading to the park.  He is still in the dropping his nap phase and there are times he does better than others.  I have found that if we go to the park he does great but then he'll crash in the car on the way home (too late for a nap).  Anyway, long story short, I try to pick our park days as best as I can. And lately, even more than the playground, he has asked to go to the park just so he can throw pine cones into the lake.  It's become one of our favorite things to do.  It's normally just us sitting on the rocks by the lake.  Finn started by throwing pine cones but it has turned into sticks, rocks, and pine needles, too.  When it is warmer, and sometimes not so warmer, he will occasionally try to get in himself.  I keep taking him back because I know this warm weather won't last for long, and to be honest, these as some fun memories for just the two of us.  (I also have a video from November, but apparently I recorded it upside down.  One of these days I'll figure out how to work this cell phone!)

Wading in the stream in October.  This was a super fun afternoon.  Perfect weather and Finn got soaked!

Later in October.  Not exactly a wading day, but definitely great for pinecone throwing.