Christmas Day!

(I’m putting up a post on Dasha's blog also!)

Ah, it was a good day.  I got a Dashlyn charm for my necklace with charms on it of the other kids.  (I had hoped to get it last year after coming home with our Ukrainian princess but this year isn’t too late I think ;). )Allan got his new planner pages and a couple of pizza baking stones (he asked for them, I swear!).

Jack started out the morning finding a package of oreo cookies.  They were minding their own business sitting meekly on the counter.  He insisted on having one then ran over to stand in front of the cabinets and said “camera”.  Of course, I ran to find the camera faster than the speed of light and took this photo.  (Catch that??  He SAID camera!  Woo hoo!!)

Soon after that, it was present time!

Andrew opened a gift that he then shared with his siblings:

 

Everyone got something they liked.  Dasha decided she likes opening presents :). 

 

Daddy got a new phone (with a teeny little short cord).  Okay maybe he was just borrowing Dasha’s!

After present time, we ate brunch, played with our new stuff, took naps, went out after dark to see pretty lights, ate late dinner pizza (remember the stones??), and watched the entire season 4 of Big Bang Theory (another gift)!  We stayed in our jammies ALL DAY!  It was a great day!

Hope you all had a terrific day too!  Happy Birthday Jesus!

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

And 2 little kids were ready for Santa to come!  The basement was picked up and they were dressed in cute and cozy sleepers.  First we set out cookies and milk.  (Dasha’s signing cookie!)

And now Jack is signing cookie.  (It was really hard to convince them to NOT eat the cookies!  I still don’t think they have a clue why they were on the table haha.)

I think Jack is thinking if he just gets a little closer, maybe no one will notice if some of the cookies go missing…..

And then D decided to watch Andrew play some last minute video games:

And back to Christmas prep….

The traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas (right after Dasha checked her phone one last time before bed, while Jack loses patience!)

And finally, the usual Christmas tree pics, one after everyone goes to bed (Mom and Dad got the little kids a kitchen!  I can’t wait to play to watch the littles play with it)and one after Santa visits!

(I love our tree.  Nothing formal or decorator about it, just every ornament we’ve collected or the kids have made on it with tons of colored lights!  Love, love, love!)

Next post – Christmas day!

Andrew & I had an Adventure……

Brag alert –> (I don’t think I do this often, but this story, I think, needed a little background.)  Andrew has always been an advanced reader.  By the time he was in the 4th grade he was reading at a 12th grade level and we started to have problems finding stuff for him to read that was reading level AND age appropriate.  I started finding some series books that worked great.  A few years later, we (I always read what the kids are reading) found a series called "Ranger's Apprentice" by John Flanagan.  We LOVE it!  I’m very thankful that Andrew and Madelyn both share my love of reading.  It’s a great way to connect with my kids, spawning many informative conversations.  After many years and 10 books, we found out the awesome Mr. Flanagan was going to speak at a library near us!!!!

We were so excited!  We had never been to a real author’s book signing before.  He spoke for about an hour and I swear Andrew and I both could have listened to him for a couple more :).  Afterwards we stood in line to get some books autographed and actually get to say hello and thank you.  What a nice man!  Of course I forgot my camera but Andrew’s phone take decent pics so we used that!

 

It was one of the best evenings of my life, and one I hope Andrew thinks of that way too.

A giveaway!!

Okay, this is really cool.  Go here, to Robyn’s World, a blog written by a mom I know irl.  She’s hosting a giveaway of a neat set of custom flashcards from Goosie.  Go check them out!  I think they would be awesome for helping Jack and Dasha with their communication skills.  Jack’s ST mentioned last week that it would be great if I could bring in some photos of things around the house and family members that he is familiar with, for use in matching games and identifying.  These would be perfect!  Good luck (but I really hope I win!)

Yesterday was the official start date of the Angel Tree!

And of course, I was not efficient enough to make a post yet!

But the good news is we have Daniel’s button installed so you can click on his pic which will take you to the Angel Tree page of Reece’s Rainbow.  Just click on the link to see the Angels, scroll down to Daniel’s picture, and you can use the “donate” box to send him a tax deductible donation!  If your donation is $35 or more, you will be able to receive a beautiful Reece’s Rainbow ornament with Daniel’s picture on it for your tree.  Or you can decline the ornament (but I am totally getting one!).  ANY donation is greatly appreciated!

There are other ways to donate as well:

1. Send a check to Reece’s Rainbow (also tax deductible)

Reece's Rainbow
PO Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885

(Please make sure you mark the check for Daniel 2H)

2. Send cash or a check to me and I PROMISE to get it to Daniels’ account.  (I have the comments on moderate so leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will send you my address.)  The only drawback to this plan is that your donation will not be tax deductible.  But the money will still go to a WONDERFUL cause :).

Any way you’re able to donate, please let me know (leave me a comment or send me an e-mail) so I can give you a reward!  I’m trying to figure out how to do a give-a-way (hints are appreciated).

Thank You!!

Jack’s 5th Birthday

It was kind of a low key day.  Jack doesn’t quite “get” the concept of a birthday and we didn’t have a big party (maybe this weekend).  He did go to school where they sang him the “Happy Birthday” song.  Then we got lunch out with our 2 favorite playmates, Braska and Kinlee at a playplace.  Seemed like a good idea but Jack pooped, Braska went up and didn’t want to come down, Dasha couldn’t go up except for trying to climb up the slide, and Kiki was a generally unhappy camper most of the time.  Okay now it sounds kinda funny but at the time RK and I could not get out of there fast enough :(.

We went home and both littles went down for a nap which Jack never ended up taking which is a bummer because he was cranky all evening when we tried to go to dinner with Grandma Judy.  We didn’t even get to sample the yummy cupcakes our awesome neighbor Linda made.  Or open any presents.

Oh well.  This just prolonges the birthday celebrations!  We got a few cute pics though -

The traditional Jack and Braska birthday photo (clearly neither kid was thrilled).

My view at dinner most of the time :(

Thank goodness he cheered up a little after we got home and pj’d and ready for bed!!

I can’t even believe how much I love this little boy.  I also can’t believe it’s been FIVE years since his birth!  I can remember nearly every minute of that day like yesterday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAP’N JACK!!!!!

Halloween Preview

My sweet little preschoolers had their Halloween parties (or what ever we’re supposed to be calling it now) today.  So last weekend I began to seriously look for costumes.  Every year Jack is something that has “Jack” in it – Jack-o-lantern, jack hammer, etc.  But this year I wanted to do something with the 2 of them together and couldn’t think of ANYTHING.  (If you do, please let me know for the future!)  So I went through the costume box downstairs and found the cow costume that fit Miss D :).  I did buy a new hat to go with it since the one that came with it was horrible.  So for Jack?  Easy.  The farmer!  My uncle sent him a hat a couple of years ago after Jack loved his (he’s a real farmer donchakno?) so I bought overalls and a plaid shirt (which I love on him btw so he’ll wear it lots) and voila – a farmer and cow.

And they seem okay with them.  It’s always tricky to find a costume your kid will wear and can be adapted to this crazy weather we’re having.  Halloween could be 30 degrees or 80 here!  So at Jack’s party they did some face painting; or in Jack’s case, hand painting.

After I took the pic of them together Jack insisted I take this one of his painted hands (and he had to be looking at them too apparently).  What a precious little boy.  How did I get to be so lucky to be mommy to these 2 precious sweethearts?!