morning at the museum

We should be well rested and recovered from our Christmas-craziness  . . . Braden and I have enjoyed getting out of bed no earlier than 9 each morning this week (yes, he's a late sleeper like his mama)! 

It's been a week of relaxation: lazy mornings in PJ's, lunch with friends, afternoon naps, playtime with new toys, as well as some shopping (I think I've actually ended up at the mall 4/5 days this week for one thing or another).  And though I know B has plenty to play with at our house (just call our family room Toys R Us II), I thought it would be fun to visit the Children's Museum on Wednesday for a change of scenery.  I've been there several times with kiddos from school for field trips, but we've not taken Braden yet.  

Just as I thought he would, B loved it (and we only visited the first floor - at lunchtime we headed to the food court, planning to return to the museum after eating, but someone was getting very sleeeeepy, so we opted to call the morning a success and head home for nap).

Braden is always excited to see fish - we have to stop at the fish tank at church on the way to Sunday school to see them too.  Little guy would have been happy to stand and watch the fish all morning, but we encouraged him to check out some of the other attractions . . .

 . . . like the grocery store! Mom (Grandma Jane came with us) and I found it very amusing that Braden immediately got into the cart upon entering the store (like he is used to doing in real life!)

 We did eventually convince him that he could push the cart and gather groceries himself, but he did seem pretty content in the cart (with his o-gurt!).

B also liked "driving" the ambulance . . .

 . . . and (just like at home) he loved playing with the trains (serious business!), as well as the cars and balls in the Notion of Motion room. (And yes, we wore our black and gold in celebration of the Hawkeye win on the previous night.)

I think Braden's favorite room was the new(ish) flight exhibit - he had a great time "flying" the airplanes!

Checking out the planes flying near the ceiling

I'm already looking forward to the next time we have a chance to go - it is so much fun to watch B get excited and experience something new.  Only next time we won't go on a vacation day when everyone else has the same idea and the place is packed!

PS - Happy New Year's Eve!

1, 2, 3

Tuesday night we were settled in at home cheering on the Hawkeyes in the Insight Bowl.  Braden was puttering around (I know, it was late - it's vacation, don't judge!), playing with some of his new trucks and cars, driving them all over and lining them up on the couch while chattering away.  We didn't realize at first what he was saying/doing, but then were surprised to discover that B was counting the vehicles! (Since when does he count all by himself?!)  

I grabbed the camera and had him count for me (turn up your volume - his voice is very soft at the beginning, and he gets the numbers a little out of order, but he's counting!) :)

I especially love the "all done" at the end . . . poor kid was probably so tired of counting for mommy! ;)

PS - Way to go Hawkeyes!  Billy was ready to turn off the game and go to sleep in the 3rd quarter, but we're sooooo glad we stuck it out and got to see the glorious end!

lots of Christmas fun

We're finally recovering from the whirlwind of Christmas 2010!  What a jam packed adventure filled with family, food, and fun . . . we are blessed!

I haven't done a very good job of posting pictures lately, so hang on to your hats - this post is packed!

Pre-Christmas

We tried to get a family photo before church one Sunday, but didn't have much luck getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

Braden loves pickles, and will eat 4-5 of them in one sitting if we'd let him.  To commemorate his love of pickles, I got him a pickle ornament, which he was thrilled about.  B did a super job again this year with not touching the tree/leaving the ornaments alone.  We use the "1 finger" rule, and allow him to touch the tree with only one finger, which has worked very well.  However, we made an exception to the rule with the pickle, and he loved to carry his beloved pickle around the house,

This is our ornament for 2010 - Go Cubs, Go!  My parents have a tradition that they add an ornament signifying a special event/trip for each year to their tree, and we've adopted the same tradition, although I've decided to have our ornaments all be photo ornaments with a picture of us. This year's picture was taken at Wrigley.

Let the Celebrating Begin!
Celebration #1:  Christmas Eve morning at Grandma and Grandpa Miller's house
B was very excited to open gifts this year . . .

 . . . and was also excited about the bows . . .

 . . . and was more than willing to help everyone unwrap!

 When B opened his Little People Noah's Ark, he exclaimed, "Oooohhhhh!" - it was so fun to see the joy on his face!

Celebration #2: Christmas Eve night at Great Grandma Boese's house

Celebration #3: Christmas morning at home:

We slept in (yay!), then read the Christmas story and opened gifts.  Braden opened some new tractors first, and wasn't very interested in anything else that followed . . .

We enjoyed baked stuffed french toast for our Christmas breakfast - yum!

Celebration #4: Christmas day at Phil & Judy's for the Miller family gathering
We enjoyed a fabulous Christmas dinner, then as is our tradition (loved by some, not-so-loved by others), we sang The 12 Days of Christmas according to our assigned glassware.

 Dad is always "5 Gold Rings"


It gets a little silly . . .

Dinner was followed by the opening of gifts . . .

 . . . and family photo taking (Ethan wasn't diggin it this year) - this is the 3rd generation (2nd cousins) .

 The whole gang! (Minus Aubree's fiance, John, represented by the traditional paper plate stand in)


And, last but certainly not least,
Celebration #5: Sunday at Grandpa & Grandma Hartsock's
We again ate a tasty meal . . .

  . . . followed by even more presents!

Look who got a tractor!

We played (and tackled) . . .

 . . . tried out the Kinect (I will refrain from posting videos) ;) . . .



  . . . and cuddled the puppies

Braden even got to sample some cake Addie made in her new easy bake oven (note chocolate-y face), and then crashed for a nap (note sleeeepy eyes).  He finally laid down for a nap while we played games, but unfortunately woke up crying (and probably in pain) - we found out after a trip to see Dr. Miller that B had developed an ear infection. :(

Whew!  What a crazy fun few days.  Now we're trying to figure out where to put all B's loot (I purchased some new bins/baskets to attempt to organize all the toys), and are recovering and relaxing and enjoying sleeping in and spending time at home.

Merry Christmas!

morning rituals

Each morning for the past few weeks (well, ever since I've finally managed to wrap just a few gifts to put under our Christmas tree), Braden comes downstairs and we have this conversation:


B (points excitedly) : Tree!

Me: Yes, it's our Christmas tree.

B (walks over to tree and inspects gifts under tree): Boxes?

Me:  Yes, those are presents.

B: Open?

Me: Not yet, on Christmas.

Repeat every morning.  But so far he has not every actually tried to open a gift yet.

o-gurt

1.  Braden LOVES yogurt (which he affectionately and with great gusto calls o-gurt).  He LOVES loves loves it, and would eat it for every meal.  Especially plain vanilla yogurt (he does not care for chunks of fruit in his o-gurt).

2.  Several days ago I tracked in some snow that B discovered on the carpet.  He bent down to inspect it, and exclaimed, "o-gurt!" in an accusatory tone.  (We sometimes have to reprimand him when he gets a little crazy with his spoon and o-gurt ends up on the floor under his chair - so he knows that ogurt does not belong on the floor/carpet).  I tried to explain to him that it was snow, not yogurt, that was on the floor.  We looked out side, and I showed him the snow and told him that it came inside on my shoe.

3.  Ever since then, every day when we leave the house, Braden looks at the snow outside and shouts,"o-gurt!!!!."

deliberation and decorating cookies

Although almost half of December has passed, I sort feel like I've missed out on some of the "pre-Christmas fun.  Yes, we did get our tree and other indoor decor up at home over Thanksgiving weekend, and I have been enjoying the twinkling lights on the tree in the evening.  And I did get in on "black Friday" shopping, as well as quite a bit of online shopping this year (but have a lot of wrapping to do!)  I guess what I have really been missing is the fun of celebrating the season in my elementary school classroom. There's nothing like hanging out with excited kiddos at this time of year.

I've been missed out on 10 days of the fun.  Yep, 10 days.  I've been serving on jury duty.

Deliberation

I have never even been summoned to report for jury duty, and was asked to report on Nov. 29. (Luckily, since the judge was sick (sorry Judge!), the date got pushed back a day to the 30th and I did get to enjoy our comp/vacation day off of school).  Little did I know at that time how much school I would really be missing!   Long story short, I (ironically, along with several co-workers) was selected to serve on the jury.  The whole process has actually been very interesting, and I learned a lot about the judicial system and how unique our system of government is (and how fortunate we are to have the system we have).  

However, the case involved criminal charges regarding dependent adult abuse, and involved many days of testimony that was both difficult and exhausting to hear and process.  

So that's why I've spent 10 school days in the courtroom rather than my classroom. (To put that into perspective, I have not taught since prior to Thanksgiving, barring one afternoon when court was released early due to the witness schedule and my sub needed to be gone herself - so I did get to see my kiddos for a few hours one Friday). Whew! That is 2 days longer than our Christmas vacation will be!

We just delivered the verdict today, so tomorrow will be my first day back at school.  I am super excited to see my kids, but wonder how I will make it through the day!? I am sure they will have lots of questions for me (they did last week when I was in for those few hours, and at that time I could tell them that I wasn't allowed to talk about it, which is true).  I am sure I won't share with them these things necessarily, but a few things I've learned through jury duty:

• I am not good at not talking to others about what I see/hear - the admonishment was very difficult for me.

• I am also not good a compartmentalizing . . . this case haunted me every night and made it difficult to sleep.  I am hoping now that the verdict is in, that will change.

•  It is a good thing to try to see a situation from many points of view.

• It is a hard thing to decide the guilt or innocence of another, and a burden not to be thought of lightly.

• I don't understand how a person can harm another person, especially when he/she is unable to defend for his/herself.

• I can also tell you the best/worst places to eat lunch in Washington, Iowa!

Decorating Cookies

Thankfully I have gotten to do a few fun Christmas-y things (although most nights I was just mentally and emotionally spent, and eventually physically too after all those sleepless/sleep little nights  . . . seriously, ask Billy).

A couple of Sundays ago, Allie, Mom, and I did our traditional sugar cookie baking/frosting.  B was happy to look on and to hope for a bite!

This past weekend we did some baking at our house too . . . B's favorite job seems to be quality control (aka taste tester)

And who knew? Billy is a fabulous froster!

I'm waaaayyyy behind on my usual number of completed cookie batches for this time of the month, but have hopes of catching up!  Bring on the holiday fun!

look alikes?

The countdown is on . . . only 19 days till Christmas!  We've got our decorations displayed and it's been fun to watch Braden "figure" everything out.  He's way pumped to see lights (preeettty!) everywhere - especially outside at night, and loves all the "balls" (otherwise known as ornaments) on our tree.   One decoration that we have at our house I inherited from my mom.  It's a Santa, that I think my aunt actually made for mom one year (I always liked it, and when I had my first place to decorate for Christmas,  somehow I got Santa.)  

The other night B was checking out Santa (they're about the same size!) and Billy and I chuckled at the "resemblance."

 Can you see it? The football slippers sort of resemble Santa's chunky brown shoes, and B and Santa both have skinny legs (B's look more so in person in those jammie pants) and rounded bellies.  :)

A few other shots on my camera:


Are they done yet?