You know what?

This morning once again, I found myself the outsider looking in on their relationship.  It was another one of these moments...

It went something like this...

Cohen started to fuss in his walker while I was preparing breakfast.  Without prompting, Addy ran to him and tried to pry his hand open to hold it while saying in her little mama voice, "It's okay, Brother.  It's okaaaaaay."  When he didn't seem completely satisfied, she started wheeling him around the kitchen.  Which, of course, he loved.  My ears perked up when she stopped abruptly and ran around to face him.  She looked at him and said, "You know what, Brother?.......I love you."  Be still, my heart.  She smiled and went right back to carting him around while I cried and spread jelly on her toast.  I know it goes without saying, but I love them so much it hurts.  Like physically hurts.  That is all. 

6 Months!

Brother hit the six month mark yesterday (I swear I took these photos yesterday - with my new lens - thanks Santa...I just didn't get to upload them until today)!  Half a year old...how is that even already possible??

Merry Christmas Eve!

Peter Potter had his final hurrah (he goes back to the North Pole with Santa tonight)...

The trees are trimmed (thanks to Addy and help from her Mimi and her Gigi)...

Addy dumped sprinkled reindeer food on the front walk.  We made a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for Santa.  The bedtime story of choice was, of course, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  We've settled in and I'm even more giddy than Addy at what awaits our little ones in the morning.  Seriously.  I'm crazy for Christmas.  I hope you all have wonderful holiday weekends with your families!

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This year's Christmas card (Shauna Welch rocked the pic, but more on that later)...



 

Nitey-nite!

Auntie Lauren

Soooo...I'm off work for the next 10 days.  I plan to blog, blog, blog about all of the things I've been wanting to for the last month.  Between Christmas preparations, a crazy work schedule, and sick kiddos, I've been falling severely behind. 

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One of the things I had to share is what I'm hoping will become another holiday tradition.  Last weekend we went over to "Auntie Lauren's" to make Christmas cookies.  Lauren let us make a complete mess of her kitchen.  Poor Lola, the black dachshund, was sprinkled with flour.  Lauren didn't even flinch when brother tossed his cookies on her living room floor or when Addy touched every single one of her Christmas decorations.  She's going to make an awesome mama (hopefully someday soon...hint, hint).

Stevy (Lauren's sister) was there to join the fun, which means brother's girl, Brenleigh was there too.  Miss Brenleigh is exactly one month younger than him.  Seriously, you can't deny this is one CUTE couple...

I don't know if it's the girlfriend or what, but brother is getting pretty big for his britches lately.  He's devoured all of the stage one baby foods.  He frequently gets up off his belly and on to his hands and knees and grins at us as if to say, "yep.  look at me now, fools."  He doesn't want baby toys, he wants the things sister plays with.  If she's singing to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the car, you know brother is doing his best to harmonize.  He's too smart for peek-a-boo, meaning, he doesn't think we're disappearing..he'll try to reach and crane his neck to the direction you went.  Sometimes, the expression on his face almost seems like he's almost bored with being a baby, like it's really starting to cramp his style.  He's devastatingly close to being half a year old, people.  Anyway, that's a post for another day.

It was another one of those times where I'm taken with how great it feels to watch our best friends love our littles.  Stevy had brother belly laughing while Troy let Addy use him as a jungle gym.  Lauren laughed as Addy ate cookie dough and fistfuls of flour.  She smiled as Addy went crazy with the sprinkles (even when they ended up primarily on the floor). 

I couldn't be any more thankful for friends like them and an afternoon like that.  All that fun really takes it out of them...

   
Hope everyone's as ready and excited for Christmas as we are (case in point, we spent an hour tonight singing and dancing to Christmas Kidz Bop songs, and I caught Addy standing in front of our fireplace yelling, "Hurry up and come down my chimney, Santa!")!  More tomorrow...

Peter Potter

mis·chie·vous: causing or showing a fondness for causing trouble in a playful way

 

Traditions

Even before we had kids, stringing cranberries was an every-single-Christmas sort of thing.  I had no idea how much more fun it would be do this with Addy this year.  She handed me every single cranberry to pierce with the needle, narrating as she went, "This one is the HUUUGEST!" or in a squeaky voice, "This one is teeny tiny!"  

At Christmastime last year, she was only about a year and a half old, so frankly, most of our Christmas activities were probably mostly for this mama's benefit.  Sister gets it this year, and it's AH-MAZING.  I'm so excited to write the the stories that will define Christmas for our littles.  New jam-jam's on Christmas Eve, Reindeer Food sprinkled in the driveway, buying presents off an Angel tree, decorated cookies for Santa Claus, snowy footprints on the fireplace hearth, and....

This guy!  Yup.  We're in.  We've adopted ourselves an Elf on a Shelf.  For those of you who aren't familiar, here's the deal...This little elf comes with a cute book to explain to the kids how it all works.  

Each time the holidays roll around, Santa sends his elf to live with our family.  The elf watches and reports to Santa on everything the kids do.  The book explains that the first time the elf comes to your house, you have to be sure to name him to make him feel welcome.  Addy promptly named our elf Pete.  A few hours later, at the dinner table, when I asked her to take a bite of her dinner, she turned to the elf and said, "Look, Peter Potter, I'm eating my dinner."  So apparently, Pete is short for Peter Potter.  Moving on.  Every night, when the kids go to sleep, Peter Potter will fly to the North Pole using Christmas magic to laugh and play with the other elves and to report to Santa.  He'll let him know if the kids have been good or bad, what they would like for Christmas-all the important stuff.  He then will fly back and find a new spot in our house before the kids wake up.  Elves are pretty mischievous, so it will be a lot of fun for them to wake up and find out what he's been up to (we've he's got big plans).  The book also explains that if you touch the elf, he might lose his magic and that Santa says he can't talk to us, but he will listen and watch everything.  Addy has already pointed out to Peter Potter that she helped her dad put a fire in the fireplace (she carried a log) and that she picked up her toys.  She's also told him, "I think Brother Cohen is a good baby." 

So yes, we're encouraging the Santa thing, hopefully in ways that will make them feel excited and curious.  I want them to know the magic that is Christmas.  Years from now, when Peter Potter has taken up permanent residence in a red and green storage tote, I hope they find magic in giving to others.  And I hope that they know how much we're thankful that we get to make Christmas memories with them every single year.

I'm feeling really in-the-spirit.  I'm off to bed...ready for visions of sugarplums to dance in my head. 

Another DIY

So you may recall my concern over Cohen having nothing to look at while in his crib sleeping.  This situation has officially been remedied.  A few weeks ago I started sewing and stuffing scrap fabric to make little birds for a mobile I had in mind.  Once I had finished the birds.  I cut a few willow branches and painted them, all the while thinking how smoothly this was coming together.  What was left to do but attach the birds to the branches and hang the branches with fishing line?  I didn't realize how difficult it would be to perfectly balance these birds...I believe the picture below is from the second night we worked on hanging these and gave up...

After some patience and hard work from much more mechanically inclined husband, the stuffed birds have finally left their pile on our kitchen counter (where they could taunt me daily).  They're watching over our sweet sleeping baby, who I'm proud to report, spends the better part of every night in his crib.

Mid-spin...Cohen's eye view :)

Nitey-Nite.

Thanksgiving

So here it is…I’m finally finishing something I started a week ago.  I’m not going to lie, this is pretty much par for the course right now. 

Our Thanksgiving holiday started the way every good holiday should, with some homemade Bailey’s (I made this as a hostess gift and just couldn’t quite fit it all into the 2 Mason jars, so I was practically forced to keep some for myself…yeah…forced…).

On Thursday we celebrated the holiday with Jason's family at "Mimi and Cwint's house."  Addy sported her turkey hat and showed off the Turkey Hop (she'd been practicing at Mimi's house every day...I love the awesome stuff that Mimi comes up with, but more on that another time).  Who can say no when this cutie asks you to gobble, hop, and flap?

I’m bummed that I don’t have more pictures from Thursday because it was an afternoon/evening I don’t want to forget.  Jason is always at his finest around his family, and by finest I mean most hilarious.  I love his interactions with his mom and sisters.  I’m so thankful these beautiful women have embraced me the way they have.  I love that his entire family stays seated for hours after dinner to just be with each other.  What would we do without Oma to keep us on our toes and Opa to keep her in line?  And Clint’s awesome fried turkey is just icing on the cake.

On Friday we got out all of our Christmas decorations, and I was struck by how much more exciting Christmas is going to be this year.  I get to experience the magic of Christmas through Addy’s sweet little eyes.  I can’t wait to make Christmas cookies and reindeer food and fill her with Christmas wonder.  She’s loving our “pretty lights” and trees and stockings (and we haven’t even strung cranberries yet)!  Pictures to come…

Saturday was Thanksgiving with my family.

 

There was the traditional euchre game (during which, as usual, you could find my Papaw sleeping on the couch). 

Addy made her own Thanksgiving dinner (play-doh berries). 

And of course a princess needs a lip gloss touch up after grueling hours over a play stove.

My favorite part of every Thanksgiving meal…

That’s right, the crispy oh-so-delicious skin.  Yep.  I took a picture of turkey skin.  Freakshow.

Sunday I took the kids over to visit one of my besties, who was home from Portland for the holiday.  I was taken with the beautiful relationship between her, her sisters, and her mother.  It made me feel excited, yet again, that we’ve given our children each a sibling.  I was in awe of how easy it felt for Addy, Cohen, and I to jump right in with them.  I also snuck away with my Aunt Debbie to watch the latest Twilight movie (yep…another guilty pleasure.  I’ve read all the books.  Twice).  Jason hates going to the movies so I took the opportunity to eat salty popcorn until my lips were dried and shriveled.  We worked on a project that I’ll hopefully get to show off soon (why don’t any of my hair-brained DIY’s come together easily?).  We played and recuperated.  Addy insisted on a fire in the fireplace.  It was just nice.  One of those weekends that you don’t want to end…I can only hope it was a teaser of the Christmas holiday to come.  

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All weekend long we tried to get Addy to understand the concept of being thankful.  In the end, when we asked her what she was thankful for, she would inevitably name off all of the people in the room.  I’m realizing now, even if she didn’t complete understand the concept, she couldn’t be any more right.  I’m so thankful for all of the beautiful people in my life.