Christmas!!

Christmas morning Isak woke up around 7 and we let him open his stocking. We woke Lucy up around 730 and started opening presents. Isak had a scuba mask and his specified nerf gun waiting for him from Santa while Lucy was elated to find her angry birds and pigs set up for her under the tree. She refused to let go of said angry bird and opened the rest of her gifts with one hand, for fear we would take it away as we had every other time we had been at the store.
Isak also got some more robots, legos and games and Lucy got some other toys that she didn't care about because well she already had her angry bird. My sister made this really awesome bird costumes for my kids which they LOVED and Lucy thought they were angry bird costumes and was really excited. Thanks Valerie for the Halloween costumes for this year!

The great thing about having Christmas near all our family is that we really had 3 Christmases...one by ourselves, one with Kevin's family, then one with my family. And Isak and Lucy really loved opening gifts three times!
Before church we went over to Kevin's family to open presents. Isak got another Nerf gun and more legos and well he was just as excited as could be. Lucy continued to refuse to let go of her angry bird and happily settled in watching "Wonderpets Mistmas!" It was fun having Kevin's Aunt Colleen up for Christmas as well as his grandma to visit with.
My parents came over for dinner along with Aaron. Isak got an awesome sled and Tinker toys while Lucy got a tea set and a new doll that has a motion activated laugh. It sounds slightly demonic.
Aaron made Isak an awesome ferris wheel out of his tinker toys and played nerf guns with him all night. Isak is still asking me when we can move to Texas or when it would be possible for Uncle Aaron to move to Othello.
She has been having tea parties with "Gatorade!" and her angry birds ever since. She is very polite and makes sure everyone says "please" and "thank you" before receiving more in their cups.
We had a wonderful Christmas and it was so nice to be able to stay home and be with family. We were so blessed and our kids were spoiled rotten by everyone. Now, if we could just add another baby here in a few weeks everything would be perfect!

Christmas Eve

On Friday before Christmas, we made gingerbread houses at my parents' house. My brother Aaron is here visiting from Texas for Christmas and Isak absolutely loves and idolizes him. Apparently he wants to be an engineer just like Uncle Aaron because he is "so smart". Anyway, we do graham cracker houses and Isak was very specific that he wanted to make a "spooky gingerbread house". He let me know which decorations were spooky and which ones were not. He also really wanted to decorate for Christmas eve with our Halloween decorations but fortunately I couldn't get to them.
Notice the spooky candy corn on the house? As well as the broken house and hole in the gumdrop window...

On Christmas Eve, my parents and brother came to our house and we acted out the nativity. Here is Isak being a wiseman and bringing his "treasure" to the baby Jesus. I was Mary and Lucy was suppose to be the angel but not surprisingly, she was not cooperating. My brother Aaron was nice enough to be a Shepard and wiseman with Isak.

My dad read us The Grinch who stole Christmas, which has been a christmas tradition in our family since I can remember. He does the best actions and voice to the grinch and Isak was quite enthralled.

Lucy was determined to keep sticking stuffed animals in the tree despite numerous reminders and warnings not too, which led to this....

Followed by timeout in her crib. Did I mention she is getting to be super fun lately?

And the kids were less than excited to pose for me with their pajamas in front of the tree. Stinkers. We put out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.

Stoneridge

The weekend before Christmas Kevin and I took the kids up to Stoneridge, a resort north of Spokane. His parents have a timeshare up there and no one has used it for a while so we decided to take advantage of a cheap vacation and spend a few nights there. The room had a small kitchen with a fridge so we brought our food and cooked it as we went.
The rec center area has a salt water pool, hot tub, racquet ball courts, gym and areas for crafts and even a WII game room. The first night we spent playing in the hot tub and then had a movie night with the kids, complete with popcorn and Gatorade. They were in seventh heaven.
There was a light dusting of snow and the lake was frozen over. We took the kids for a walk and Kevin and Isak walked out onto the lake and threw rocks. We found all sorts of animal prints everywhere and Lucy found sticks to draw in the snow with.
Kevin took Isak sledding while Lucy was napping and he had a great time. There is a golf course there and it had perfect hills for sledding.
There was an ice cream social one night we were there at the rec center and Isak found some boys to play with. There was also Santa there, which neither of kids were that excited to see but Isak flat our refused to sit by him or talk to him. No amount of bribing was working. It was a good 15 minutes and finally he gave in as long as he could sit with Kevin. So this is our Santa picture this year, kind of funny. Isak asked for a nerf gun and a scuba mask. Lucy was just happy with the candy cane she got out of the whole deal.
We had fun and I learned why we don't go on "vacation" with our kids more often...its a whole lot of work with a 2 and 4 year old! By the time we got home, I told Kevin I needed my own vacation by myself...but Isak had so much fun and keeps asking when we get to go again. And Lucy keeps looking at videos on my phone of her swimming and wants to put her swimsuit on over and over and doesn't understand why she can't go to the pool. I am glad we got to do something fun with just the two of them before our family expands to five!

Lucy doing her yoga pose with Kevin. That girl is incredibly flexible, its amazing. We have been so busy the past few weeks with Christmas approaching as I am sure everyone is. I just got our Christmas cards sent out today and mailed the last few packages. The kids are so excited for Christmas and Lucy loves our "mistmis tree!". I showed them the new bible videos on lds.org and Lucy LOVES them and keeps asking to "watch baby Jesus!". I guess there are worse things she could watch. Isak especially seems to get it this year and asked to make sure I get his letter to Santa so he knows exactly what he wants. The other day he told Kevin and I he wanted an RPN. We asked him what that was and he said, "a rocket propelled nerf gun!". I guess he is starting to understand acronyms!.
My young women and I made gingerbread houses last week at my house and my kids were pretty impressed. Actually I only had one girl, poor thing, and she was stuck with me the whole time. She was nice enough to gift her house to my kids and Lucy promptly named it "lucy's house" and told me, "its so nice!". She loves to sit by it and talk about it and actually has eaten very little off of it, just wants to admire it. We are making ours next week and Isak keeps telling me he needs one his army guys can live in.
Isak has been asking to make a fruit rainbow, for some reason, so today I obliged and we created this. Isak has been telling everyone that he has a cat named Carro that lives in our attic and is very nice. Everyone once in a while he has kevin lift him up there and let him look around. He even told his whole preschool class about this as well as the snow leopard that lives in our yard. The kids comes up with some impressive stories. Last week he told me that blue otter pops have more fiber than the other colors. I don't know what he knows about fiber but he has a memory like no other so I'm sure he heard it from somewhere.

I have about 5 weeks of this pregnancy left and have started to get pretty uncomfortable. Sleep is getting harder, as well as moving in general and I have been pretty cranky. Poor Kevin and my kids. This combined with Christmas just has been a lot to deal with. I am working on being more agreeable and trying to save my patience for my children. My mom and I went shopping on Saturday and I got everything I need for this baby, either boy or girl, and I am all set. Just trying to wrap my head around the idea of a third kiddo around here but we are so excited!

Thanksgiving!

The Wednesday before Thanksgving Isak had his cousin Grady over to play. These two play so great together, I hardly see either one of them all day. Isak loves having a constant playmate and I love having someone to entertain him so I can get something cleaned!
They were even pretty good about playing with Lucy, who ran around for an hour with the fireman hat on her head and packing around this blue case.
For Thanksgiving this year, Kevin's family came up to Othello to celebrate and attend his cousin's wedding in Spokane. My brother Mark and his wife Jen came up to Moses Lake as well for Thanksgiving and for their wedding reception on Saturday. So we were very busy with family!
Stephanie, Whitney and I made about 3 batches of rolls and I made 3 pies for dinner. The rolls were so yummy! We had a wonderful dinner and visit with family right up until Friday when some horrible virus started to run through Kevin's family. It was super contagious and volatile but short lived. Isak got sick, then me, then Lucy threw up all over my brother's reception and then Kevin missed work the next week. It was horrible. I think Sunday night was the only night we actually got to visit with everyone and no one was actively sick.

Since we were sick most of the time, I completely forgot to pull out my camera. These are 3 of the grandkids post sickness. They had a lot of fun playing with their cousins!

We enjoyed the last of the snow on Sunday and kevin pulled the kids around in the sled. They LOVED it and I think Kevin got a great workout! My large pregnant self was inside the warm house in a chair I think at the time they were freezing outside......

The snow was quickly was melting by Monday but Isak was desperate to make a snowman. So I helped him scrape him up the last of the snow and we built a sad little snowman that the kids loved.
When Kevin came home from lunch he made him a second snowman which Isak promptly destroyed. His favorite part of building snowmen is jumping on them.
I attempted foam curlers in Lucy's hair the other night as well without a lot of hope. She really dislikes having her hair touched, brushed,braided or anything else that would make it super cute. She let me put in a few curlers which I tried to tie some fabric around for the night.
When she woke up, most of them had made it through the night and at least some of her hair was curly.
It turned out pretty cute! Now if only she would let me do this more often.....

First Snow!

It snowed today and the kids were super excited. Isak kept running out into the snow in his socks and telling me he needed to clear the driveway. Then he found, his water bottle and wanted to stick it outside so the water would freeze. He was also very insistent all afternoon that he go out in play in it but I told him he had to wait till Kevin came home. It was freezing outside and I knew he would be outside for a while and well, my coat barely zips up so right now and being outside in freezing weather isn't super appealing. I'm a great mom right now, I know. When the snow stopped, Isak started crying and telling me to bring the snow back and it took me forever to get him to understand that it would stop and start for a while. And no, despite being super mom, I do not control the weather. Anyway, I was VERY excited when Kevin came home from work and took crazy 1 and crazy 2 outside in the snow. I won't even go into the theatrics that came when Isak realized his mittens didn't exactly match.But they did love the snow. Even Lucy is much more adventurous than last winter and was very insistent on making a "dowball!. I can't wait till there is enough for sledding! Although I probably won't be doing any of that for a while...

Kevin and I had a pretty productive weekend last week. My parents were gracious enough to take our kids Friday night and Saturday so we could get some projects done and so I could sleep since I worked night shift.We got our front room painted on Friday night and then Kevin got his floor put in for our shed on Saturday with the help of some great friends. I was able to start sewing the squares for Isak's quilt which I'm realizing is going to take me forever to finish. Its suppose to be a christmas present so hopefully I can finish in time. Anyway, it was fantastic to be able to get so much done! This is what people must be able to accomplish all the time who don't have kids!Our kids were so tired when my parents dropped them off, Isak fell asleep on the recliner and slept for an hour. I don't know if its nesting or what but all the half finished projects we have around our house are driving my absolutely crazy. That and I feel like the walls are closing in on me in our house and we really need that shed before the baby comes so I have a place to put everything! I don't even have room for its cradle right now and haven't been able to dig out any of my boy baby clothes because I can't find them. I have a couple months..I can do it, right??

Speaking of babies, Lucy really likes to sit in the bumbo chair and say, "I'm a baby". Its fairly awesome, especially when she's in her raincoat and blanket sleeper.

Isak loves me to play war with his army guys and the playdough with him. He takes his colored pencils and uses them as missles and they fire them at each other from their mounds of dough. I love him but oh my goodness he is so demanding. He gets upset whenever I talk on the phone with him there because I am not paying 100% attention to him all the time. Its exhausting. I love spending time with him but it would be nice if he would play be himself for 10 mins during the day! He's going through a phase where he loves to tell jokes that he's made up and he thinks they are hilarious. Its pretty funny. He says the funniest things. Tonight he was in bed yelling at Kevin and I because we couldn't find a stuffed animal of is and I heard him yell "why is no one paying attention to all the feelings I am having?!" He loves feeling the baby move and talks about it frequently, I just hope he loves it as much when he/she shows up and starts taking a lot of my time!

Halloween!!

We had our ward's trunk or treat on Saturday night which was pretty small affair. Isak was a leopard and Lucy was a ladybug, both costumes we were gifted to us by my sister in the past year so I had to do absolutely nothing! Thanks Valerie! The kids got some candy and Lucy quickly figured out that if she put her bucket back up towards people and the candy bag, she would get more candy. Somehow she ended up with twice as much candy as Isak.

On the actual day, Isak had a Halloween party at preschool that I got to go help at. He wore his costume and was extremely excited to go show all his friends and see their costumes. Spending 2 hours with several hopped up 4 and 5 year olds in costumes was definitely an experience.

Kevin was also out of town all day Halloween so I got the lovely job of getting the kids ready for trick or treating. As you can tell, Lucy was just so excited. But this picture pretty much explains her personality the last 3 days, apparently puberty hits at 2. Who knew? She is impossible to reason with and will throw giant tantrums over anything, like green watercolors or not holding owl puppet. She can communicate when she wants too, she just would rather scream and be completely irrational. I love her, yes I do, but when I got pregnant I purposely put 3 years between my kids in a hope that Lucy would be more independent since Isak was so little when Lucy was born. I didn't realize I would still have 2 babies! She has no desire at all to leave her crib, to be potty trained, to try and dress herself, or well do anything that requires any effort at her part. Isak was so completely opposite at this age, wanting as much independence as we allowed, that I have no idea what to do with her. Anyway, this is about Halloween so I shall continue.

Lucy eventually obliged to go outside when she realized she got to bring her candy bucket with her and fill it with more candy. My nice friend and her family offered to go with us so I wouldn't have to drag the kids around by myself.Isak as a leopard and his flashlight/sucker that I'm pretty sure he doesn't know is candy yet and just likes the face reflection that the laser puts off. Notice the new door in the back? We put it in on Saturday and I love it! It lets so much more light in our house and looks so much better. We trick or treated down our street towards Kevin's mom's house and the kids did pretty well. Lucy rode in the stroller and hopped out for every door. It was pretty cold but their costumes were very warm. They both got a decent amount of candy that has been relegated to the top of the fridge and I am attempting to control their daily intake.

Lucy apparently got a little too much candy and needed her glasses back on, as you can tell. She was sitting in the chair and noticed me reaching into her candy bucket. She yelled at me, "Hey! dats mine! top it!" (stop it). Then proceeded to go grab her bucket while giving me the stink eye. I guess I should know better than to try and take Lucy's candy. The kids had a great time and even Kevin got home in time to join us for a few houses. Speaking of Halloween, look at the giant pumpkin shaped baby in this picture....

Alright, I know you have all been dying to see this. Take a good look, the next time you see this baby it will be outside in a blanket :). I am about 28 weeks in this picture, not sure how I can get bigger, but I'm sure I will. Isak loves feeling the baby move and will often come up to me during the day and put his hands on my stomach. If he can't feel anything, he will say, "Mom, wake the baby up so he can kick me!". I am glad he is so excited, especially since Lucy will probably be having a much harder time with the baby and relegating her status of "the baby". I have awesome heartburn, upper right rib and back pain, but otherwise feel pretty good and have been able to keep running. I have done absolutely nothing yet in preparation, I should probably figure that out soon, like buy some diapers or something :).