Have I mentioned that Paul refuses to smile nicely in any photo of just he and I. I'm pretty sure he does it becaues he knows it makes me insane. It's become a game and I can hardly hold a straight face because I keep averting my eyes to see if he is doing something strage. This is the "Christmas Collage" version of Paul being a dork. Click on the photo for a bigger version to get the full effect!

Leah Laughs!

Holiday card Outakes

So I'd like just ONE nice photo of the two of them together in their Christmas gear. I did pick one that a few lucky people will receive in thier mailboxes sometime over the holiday season. (No they haven't been mailed yet!) Seriously, for these photos, if it wasn't one crying or making a wierd face, it was the other!! And these are just a sampling of the 40 or so photos I snapped! It was much easier last year when Jonah wasn't mobile!

Bird Watchers

Now that the weather is cold, I have been doing my best to come up with projects to keep Leah busy in the late afternoon. Birdfeeders were on the list for last week and boy are the birds happy! We made two differnt versions and already out deck is covered with a variety of birds. Honestly, I'm amazed! We've seen mourning doves, titmice, cardinals, chickadees, bluejays, downy woodpeckers, junco & a few more that we haven't looked up in our birdbook! The kids like to push thier chairs up to the windows and watch. We got the binoculars out for Leah too but no pics of that. Leah insists that all the birds make a "caw caw" sound!

This is the face Jonah makes when I open the fridge right now. It's accompanied by a loud "Ahhhhh" sound. Why you ask?? It's because he wants this.

Yup. Canned whipped cream. I made the mistake of letting him try it and now he's like a little monster with his open mouth and "ahhh". Seriously cracks me up! Leah loves it too!

Puke

Jonah,

Thank you for maintaining your generally good mood despite puking your breakfast all over the nursery at the YMCA and your entire lunch all over the tray of your highchair. It's gross but it'd be worse if you threw a fit about it. Hope you feel better soon. Love you,

Mommy

Tired

Dear Jonah,

Mommy is very tired. Tired of getting up at 5am. Tired of you throwing a fit about taking naps. Seriously, you are 15 months old, it's time for a new schedule. So how about a Christmas surprise for mommy?? Start sleeeping till at least six! Or maybe even seven!! Love you

Mommy

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Take A Walk Through Bethlehem

We did. Take a visit to Bethlehem that is. Thanks to the church we have been attending, Leah visited the carpentry, metal, leather, stonecarving & bakery shops. We gave money to the beggars & tax collectors & had a photo op with some Christmas celebrities!




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She's Not That Into You

Poor Jonah, his friend Ellie was not near as happy to see him as he was to see her!


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Sibling Wars: The Brother Strikes Back

So it finally happened, Jonah fought back. For 15 months Leah has been poking, prodding, pulling, pestering, and just plain bossing her baby brother around. Well Tuesday night he had enough. He was NOT cool with sharing the piano bench with her and reached over and bit her. I know this is not behavior I should encourage but I had to try hard not to laugh and be proud of Jonah for sticking up for himself.

Of course Leah screamed over the bite and was horrified that he left his teeth marks on her arm. That and "he doesn't like me anymore!!!!" After everyone was calmed down and in their own corner they did hug and make up.

I'm sure this is just the beginning of the Sibling Wars saga.

Holiday Dancing

So these kids LOVE to dance. Love it!! Leah begs to have the music louder (her father's child)! We have been rocking out to quite the range of holiday tunes thanks to Pandora. Poor Jonah get's dizzy with all the turning about. Have to make sure he doesn't crack his head on the fireplace!

Stylish Hairdo

Leah requested a "stylish hairdo" this morning and demanded that it include my huge scarf. This was the result. Hope her friends & teachers like it! Oh and now she's off putting makeup on. This could be bad. If she's like this at three what will she be like at 13???



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Other Items of Interest

- Leah's Native American name is "Blooming Flower". Many thanks to her preschool teachers for that one. She no longer wishes to be called Leah. Just Blooming Flower and don't you forget it!!

- Jonah points. At everything. He has very few words but has pointing and grunting and whining down. Baby boy knows what he wants!

-Who ever said the twos were terrible did not have a verbal three year old. Holy Sassy Pants!! Seriously, I thought the attitude was supposed to wait until she was a teenager. I have startted calling it her "Rude 'Tude!"

- Jonah seems to be prone to bloody noses just like his daddy. A few weeks ago his crib looked like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre!! Scarey stuff. He's had 3 bloody nose bumps since then. One frightened the neighbors and had the lady next door scrubbing the concrete with Clorox and another made the childwatch people at the YMCA have to file an incident report!

-I think I am going to spend all of December redecorating my Christmas tree thanks to a small boy who insists on taking all the ornaments off the bottom third of the tree. Many thanks to the inventor of shatterproof ornaments!

-This morning LEah said "Let's have a naked dance party!" Classy, huh?? But we did. I was clothed but the kids were in panties & a diaper and we rocked the Christmas Music. Yeah for Pandora!

=We also keep it real by doing silly things like wearing goggles in the bathtub!

What We've Been Up TO

MOre Blog neglect. I wish I was better at keeping up but it's tough. I really enjoy reading other people's blogs and get annoyed when they never update so I should be better at it here!!

So the big news for this past week is that the kids were sick. Nothing major just temperatures & snotty noses and then an ear infection for Jonah. Made life rough for thier momma since Leah had to miss two days of school and we couldn't go to the YMCA either. We entertained ourselves by getting out all of the Christmas stuff, starting on our Christmas baking & doing some Christmas projects. Fun stuff!

Hmm before that we had two busy weekends of company. First a visit from Grandma Sally & Grandpa Gene on a GORGEOUS weekend. Seriously, almost 80 in November!! We spent some nice time outdoors and had a fire including smores!! The next weekend Grandma Helen & Grandpa Lee came down and spent ANOTHER gorgeous weekend with us. November has had better weather than OCtober!! Paul and my dad hit Cabelas and Bass Pro Shop and mom and I took the kids to the Wildlife Preserve for hike. Lots of walking in the sun!

This weekend we had visitors again. Aunt Laura, Uncle Jim, cousin Brian, & our friend Dave came down to attend the IA State vs Mizzou football game. The kids and I did NOT go along. We tackeled some Christmas shopping!

So yeah, that's what we've been doing.

Good Friends

Fall Fun

So who doesn't love a good leaf pile?? There is something about the smell and the crunch and crisp air! Leah has been begging to make a leaf pile since the first leaf fell from the tree! Little man was in heaven and I was lost in memories of leaf piles from my youth.

Halloween!

I sadly way behind on blogging as usual. The week of Halloween was pretty crazy since Paul came down with the dreaded swine flu on Tuesday of that week. We quarantined him to the bedroom and spent hours keep the kids away from him. We were pretty cute wearing our masks all week too!

Due to the germs our Halloween plans got stirred up a bit since Grandma Sally & Grandpa Gene decided to postpone thier visit. Our friends Troy and Jen still came over to share the festivities with us though!

Jonah was the cutest little fire man in the neighborhood. I had to trick him into wearing the fireman hat by putting a winter hat on underneath it so he couldn't feel the fire hat!

"Uncle" Troy was in charge of handing out candy. Between his scarey set up and the creepy music Paul blasted out the upstairs window we had the creepiest house in the cul de sac!

Leah said "let's take a laughing picture mom!"

Dr. Mom and her swine flu patient!

Bat Girl

 

So about two months ago we started talking about what the kids would dress up as for Halloween. I picked out a cute fireman costume for Jonah at a rummage sale over the summer and Leah was perfectly happy dressing up in her princess gear. That last quite awhile until I recieved a magazine with a boy with a bat hat on the cover. Leah thought it was cool and switched her tune. SHe over and over requested a bat costume instead! Well, I tapped the internet for some ideas and came up with a pretty easy one. We cut an umbrella in half and sewed it to a sweatshirt! I picked up the ears at Walgreens. The combination made for one VERY happy little girl.

Oh and she was the only kid at her school in a homemade costume and the only girl who was not dressed as a princess!

Grand Parents

The first weekend in October Paul had to be out of town for business meeting. Usually when that happens I pack the kids up and head to my parents to hangout. This time though, I found out that my mom was headed up to north west IOwa for teacher meetings. Since my Grandma & aunt, uncle & cousins live there we decided to go along for the ride. . . . . . and it was a LONG ride. (Kitty corner across IA! Keokuk to almost Sioux Falls, SD in one day!) The kids were troopers and I was VERY thankful for the DVD player in the car. Makes me wonder how my parents traveled long distances with four kids in the car.

Anyway, we were hoping to get a taste of the farm while in IOwa but the weather did give us much opportunity for that. Leah did get to see her cousin's bottle calves, market steers & bunnies and we made a fun trip to the Washington Pavillion in Sioux Falls, SD. It was great to see family and I think our visit really made Great-Grandma's day.

We broke up the trip home by spending a night in Pella. Grandma Helen & Grandpa Lee squeezed in a trip to the park and a walk in the prairie even though it was chilly!

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