December 27, 2007 - Our First Christmas Together as a Family

We have had a splendid Christmas season this year. On Christmas Eve, we went to my brother's house, along with all of our relatives. We had quite a house full and my sister-in-law went all out on a buffet style meal. There was so much food and such a large variety of food that it was hard to sample it all. It was wonderful seeing all of the family and the boys had a great time.

My sister-in-law had planned a very nice and touching toast, before which she read from the Bible. My niece read the story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible and then it was time to open gifts. Our two sons received so many more gifts than we had ever imagined. They barely all fit in the car but the dad was creative and was able to fit it all in.

We stayed home on Christmas day. The boys took their time opening their gifts and they played with each one as long as they wanted before we moved on to the next one. This first Christmas together as a family was a very sweet time for us all.

Each day, at different times, I would start thinking back to what we were all doing last year. It warmed my heart to see where we all are this year. This truly has been the best Christmas ever for me. I think it is the first Christmas that I really did not have anything on my list, other than wanting to have a special first Christmas with the boys and my husband. My Christmas wish came true and I am very blessed:).

The boys received so many lovely gifts and they have been having a wonderful time with them since Christmas. They really received a very nice variety of things; some things for now, some for summer and some when they are a bit older, later in 2008. So, although they received a lot of gifts, it doesn't seem that they were inundated, since several of them cannot be used right away.

Two of my nieces came to visit for a few days. One was here from Thursday evening through Saturday evening and the other from Friday morning through this morning. The boys really enjoyed the time spent with their cousins and my husband and I even got out alone to go to a movie one afternoon. The girls were a big help to us and it was nice having them here. They are both seniors in high school, so they are staying very very busy this year.

Hopefully I can get back into the groove and start posting regularly again. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

December 24, 2007 - A Magical Christmas Eve

Things here are going very well. All shopping was completed a couple of days ago. Lots of wrapping was underway yesterday and is almost completed. Today we will head out to my brother's house to celebrate Christmas with my family. Tomorrow we will stay home and enjoy our first Christmas as a family.

Yesterday evening we decided to open our stockings, since there will be lots of presents today and tomorrow. The boys were so excited, as the dad got the stockings down. Nick was almost jumping up and down. We all sat on the floor and the boys had a great time dumping their stockings, opening a couple of small wrapped gifts and playing with the little toys (matchbox trucks, dollar store cell phone-big hit, dollar store tops for spinning, small wooden puzzles, a few pieces of candy and a candy cane). I almost cried at the beginning of all of this, thinking about what we were all doing last year.

Soon after, I went back to my baking in the kitchen and the dad played with the boys in the living room floor in front of the beautiful Christmas tree, while the Christmas music played in the background. I looked out over the living room from my baking in the kitchen and was overwhelmed with the blessings God has given us. It was truly a blessed and magical evening for me.

I have everything I could ever want for Christmas.

December 20, 2007 - Christmas Preparations

I was visiting with a young mom of twins today though and she told me that she is very tired at the end of the day also. That made me feel much better, as I had always kind of chalked it up to fact that I am an older mom (I'm 44, going on 45 in Feb.). So, I am glad to know that it is fairly normal for other mom's too, especially those with multiple toddlers.

All in all, things are very happy around here these days. I enjoy my time with the boys and relish each day, as I am often thinking ahead and knowing that these times when they are little are so short....especially short for those of us who adopted our children and did not have the first year or more with them. They are incredible little people and I am truly blessed to have them in my life, as well as my wonderful, thoughtful husband.

In other news, I actually finished decorating our house and tree today:). Surprise surprise! I had previously decided that I was perfectly happy to leave it partially decorated, as there would be less for the boys to take apart:). But, for some reason, I was feeling very festive today. I guess the Christmas spirit has caught up with me, now that the hubbub of the ice storm is over.

My mom went back to her house yesterday. They finally fix her power line and restored her power on Tuesday. I was sad to see her leave and I know the boys have missed her.

My sister came to get her yesterday and, after the boys went to bed, she and I went to out to do a bit of Christmas shopping. While we were shopping, my sister picked up a very pretty tray with roses all over it and said, "Oh how pretty. I think I'll get this for mom". Our mom loves roses. I picked one up just like it, looked at it and said, with a very straight face, "This IS very pretty. I think I will get one for her too". My sister gave me the funniest 'are you nuts!?' look that I have ever seen and I busted out laughing. She is such a kidder and practical joker. I couldn't resist. We both laughed about it for a while and then laughed about it again today when I told her that I told my husband about it last night. Her son heard her laughing and wanted to know what was so funny. She told him and he didn't think it was very funny so maybe it was one of those things that you just had to be there. We thought it was pretty funny.

Today we also had a play date with my friend Gail's twin girls who are close to the boys' age. We met them recently at the mall play area and they live nearby. It has been nice to have some company over though and we really need to do it more often. The boys clearly enjoy it.

On Saturday we are planning to meet others at mom's house and start cleaning up the mess of very large branches and mangled trees in her yard. I have heard that it will be cold and we have a 40% chance of rain so we may have to reschedule, although I hate to leave her yard looking like this for very long.

Tomorrow is the husband's last day of work for a couple of weeks:). That will be nice for all of us. I need to buy some hot chocolate and pick up some fire wood.

I still have not finished my Christmas shopping and I have yet to wrap one present. So much for being done before Thanksgiving:). You know what I'll be doing over the next few days.

December 17, 2007 - MaMa's Ice Storm Visit

My mom's house is still without power and she has been staying with us since Friday. My sister is coming to get her tomorrow, since she has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and we are really hoping her power will be back on sometime tomorrow. We are planning to gather at her house on Saturday for Project Clean-Up-Mom's-Yard, from all of the branches and ruined trees that now litter her yard.

I am going to be sad to see her leave tomorrow. I have so enjoyed having her here and the boys have really enjoyed it too. I hope she will come and stay more often in the future. We all really got on well together and she is just so easy to be with. She loves to read (as do I) and she also enjoys watching and hearing about the news and the elections so we have had a lot to discuss. We have also discussed the boys, of course, and I have enjoyed seeing her interact with them so much over the past couple of days. I think she has enjoyed her time with them too.

As they were preparing to go up to bed tonight, Nick quickly ran over to "MaMa" to give her a good night kiss. Ben followed close behind. As they walked up the stairs, they were saying "night night MaMa", over and over. It was very sweet. They really enjoy her and she loves to read to them, talk to them and play with them. She is also very good at distracting them, when they have a bee in their bonnet about something they cannot have or do, and she is good about redirecting them and helping them find interest in other things, when needed. I know she is anxious to get back to her own house but I really wish she could stay longer. I am so very thankful to have her for my mom and the boys are blessed to have her as their grandmother.

Oh yes. One other thing to note before I sign off. Nick said his first full sentence the other day. It was, "Zoe, get down." (Zoe is the cat and she was on the table.) He said it several times and he also has said "kitty, get down" several times. He seems to enjoy telling the cats what to do these days. It is cute.

December 13, 2007 - Ice Tornado

This has to be a quickie but I did want to give a quick update on what's going on here in Oklahoma. I took a drive out the other day to go to an appointment and, had I known how bad the situation was in that part of town, I would not have gone.

It really looks like a tornado came through, at least from the perspective of seeing all of the tree limbs, some very large, and some trees down all over the place. It is really hard to believe your eyes and the pictures on the news do not do it justice....not even close.

My mom got tired of being cold and finally went to my sister's house on Tuesday. I was not able to reach anyone yesterday so I don't know if her power is back on yet or not. As of Tuesday, the assisted living home where my grandmother lives was without power so she was at my uncle's house and my dad and brothers were still without power also. I have heard on the news that the number without power today is much lower so hopefully I will hear something from my family today.

For a couple of days, we had to throw together whatever hodge podge of food we happened to have in the house for meals, as the grocery stores near us were without power. We have since found stores that never lost power and still have a good selection of everything, so the only current impact to us remains the stop lights that are still not working, although they are slowly getting those back up and working also.

During one of our hodge podge meals, we were eating some hot dogs, green beans and brown beans and ham (doesn't that sound just yummy:)!. I am not a fan of mustard but my husband is and, when the boys saw him eating it, they wanted some too. They are amazing. The assume that anything we eat MUST be good and they want to try everything. Much to my surprise, they loved the mustard and kept wanting "more, more". I have yet to find anything they won't eat...they seem to like anything and everything, although there are a few things they like more than others.

December 11, 2007 - Oh Shoot

I was working in the kitchen on Saturday and the dad was working in his home office, as the boys played in his office. I overheard the dad say "oh shoot", soon followed by the boys saying "oh, shoot", "daddy?, oh, shoot", "daddy, oh, shoot" and the dad laughing in the background. They were both saying it repeatedly. I smiled and *again* thought of how children are so easily influenced by what we do and say.

Yesterday, Nick said "more milk please" without prompting. I think that was our first three word sentence without prompting.

The boys will now say "me?, me?", when they see (for instance) that I am getting ready to go upstairs for something and they want to go with me. Yesterday I started telling them to say "I go?" instead of me?. They repeated it over and over, as they are apt to do now days to learn.

After we put the boys in their cribs for the night, we normally rub their backs for a short time and talk softly to them, before we leave their room. Nick has started saying "back, back", anytime he wants us to rub his back...and also when he puts a book or toy back on the shelf, but that's another story. He also likes to rub his Ya Ya's back, which is cute. Last night they were taking turns lying on the floor on a little blanket and rubbing each other's back. It was very cute. They have now gotten to where they like having a small blanket in their crib when they go to sleep. They especially like it when we put Ya Ya and Bear under the blanket and they will say (Nick) "night night Ya Ya", (Ben) "night night Bear", over and over.

One of their favorite things to say now is "oatmeal?". They say it all the time. They used to say it more like "meetmo" but have recently learned to say it correctly. Their pronunciation is improving rapidly these days.

And in other news, Ben is getting his 2 year molars in now...all four of them. Nick does not seem to be getting his yet, although I am sure we will start to see signs of them soon.

We took a short drive yesterday, late afternoon, with the intention of going out for some groceries. There were so many traffic lights out, causing the traffic to back up considerably, that we changed our destination and headed to a closer grocery store. It was closed due to lack of power so we headed home but then ended up going to one that is even closer. It was open but was running on generators. They had put all of their meat away, probably in a cooler that ran on the generator. There was hardly any milk left and it was not very cold, so we did not buy it. We ended up buying a few things and then heading back home.

On our drive, we saw many tree limbs down and some trees split in half or completely fallen over due to the ice, even though we live further south of the really bad icing. We also noticed many neighborhoods very close to us where people are without power. We heard on the news last night that the power company spent yesterday trying to get power back up to the water treatment plant and the hospitals. We had been asked to conserve on water but I did not find this out until last night and had already done several loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher yesterday. Fortunately, we also heard this morning that they had the water treatment plant and hospitals back up and were going to start working on neighborhoods today. My husband's place of employment is still without power so he is home again today.

My mom, dad and two brothers' homes are still without power, although my dad and one of my brothers heat with propane so they still have heat. My mom's house does not have heat but she and my other brother, who lives with her, are staying there under lots of covers for now. My sister lives close to them so they can go to her house if they want but they have chosen to stay for now.

The temperature has warmed up a bit and it is raining today. I think the majority of the ice is suppose to melt pretty fast today so hopefully things will improve rapidly, although we have heard on the news that some people may be without power for at week. My dad's house was without power for two weeks during the bad ice storm last year. I think we were in Russia during that one but our house still had power. Those underground power lines are a good thing.

We took the boys outside for a short walk around yesterday morning. They enjoyed it and probably would have stayed out much longer, had we let them. Unfortunately, we don't have mittens that fit them and their little hands were wet and turning red quickly so we didn't stay out for very long, much to their dismay. They cried when we made them come inside. We are all getting a bit tired of being housebound for so long....but we are very very thankful that we have a warm house to be bound into:).

Gotta go, the munchkins are awake and chatting with each other:).

December 10, 2007 - Icy Trees & Preschool Activities

Yep, we have ice...and lots of it. But we don't have nearly as much as the folks northeast of us have. At my mom's house, my dad's house, my sister's house and my two brothers' houses they do not have electricity. My mom said that they could hear the large branches on the trees cracking during the night and there are large branches down all over her yard. She said it looks like a tornado went through her yard. So far, we don't have any branches down at our house, although the trees are really being pulled downward by all of that ice.










This is a Japanese Maple tree that sits just outside of our living room window.  Over the past week or so, I have been admiring the beautiful red leaves.  They have a very unique, but still very pretty, look now.  It is a beautiful tree.  I am hoping it is not damaged by all of the ice.

Here are the boys, doing some of the activities from one of the books I'm reading:

playing with buttons and sorting them into ice trays, playing with colored water and moving it from one side of the dish to the other with sponges and medicine droppers. They have so much fun with these activities.

December 8, 2007 - The Things Kids Say

I need to start writing down the cute things the boys are saying again. There are more and more of them each day and they are so cute.

Ben's favorite thing to say now is "oooowwww" (like you might say if you just hurt yourself). He says this all the time with great feeling, even if he is not hurt. I even hear him saying it over the baby monitor, when he is trying to fall asleep in his crib.

Nick still talks all the time. I was in the laundry room, while the boys were having their snack, and I overheard Nick saying to Ben, "brother, big truck!, brother, big truck!". He had heard a big truck driving by and I wasn't in the room but he had to tell someone about it. Ben did not seem to acknowledge this news though.

I was kind of tired the other afternoon and, without thinking about it, I took a deep breath and let it out noticeably. Nick was sitting at the kitchen island, eating a snack and he immediately copied my deep breath. When I laughed, he had to do it a couple more times.

Other things they are saying lately are:

"milk please" and "more milk please"
"read please"
"very big truck!"
"Christmas tree!" (every time we see anything remotely resembling pine needles, including hanging decorations in stores)
"there!" (something I say at times, when I finish a task with them)
"now!" (also something I say at times, when I finish a task...they are quite the mimics)
If Nick is the one saying these things, every thing he says is preceded by "mommy?". He'll say "mommy?, there!" and then give me a big smile. So cute. He talks ALL the time....quite the chatter box.

A favorite book of our sons' is a large book containing multiple Golden Book classics. One story is about how Martha and Bobby help Mommy around the house. It has a picture of the two children, taking off their pajamas. When the boys see this, they say "uh oh" because I am always telling them not to take their pajamas off, since I don't want them to get cold during the night.

And, did I mention that I found a football, baseball (the soft, little kid kind) and a tractor stuffed into the back of the tree the other day? I don't know how they did that but I think they were throwing things at the tree at one point. Ben was hitting it with his hammer yesterday. There are just all kinds of things to do to a tree that are all good fun and fair game for two little two year old boys.