Our first two five year olds

1. Nadia was a social butterfly and loved to carry on conversations with strangers. Ian has gotten a lot less shy, but he's not at all a "social butterfly."

2. Both kids LOVED wearing costumes at this age. Nadia loved princess costumes, and Ian likes superhero, Star Wars, and Monsters, Inc. costumes. This month he'll be receiving two costumes as gifts from us - Mike (from Monsters, Inc) and Captain America.

3. Nadia's favorite color was pink (second favorite was purple), and Ian's favorite is green (second favorite is orange).

4. Nadia's soothing habit was sucking her thumb, and Ian's is touching his belly button. Neither had given up their habit even though I had tried to help them with that.

5. Both were sporadically taking naps at this age. Ian gets up earlier in the morning (usually between 6:00-6:30 am) than Nadia did.

7. Nadia loved playing with a Leapster at this age (we didn't

have an iPad yet), and Ian loves playing with the iPad. Nadia spent far more time playing in her bedroom than Ian ever has. She was great at having "quiet time" and often listened to books on CD from the library. Ian hasn't learned how to have a quiet time in his room. He usually stays down with me while Oliver naps and Nadia is in her room.

8. Both could do 100 piece puzzles independently and bigger puzzles (up to 300 pieces) with assistance.

9. Nadia was braver at the playground and at amusement parks than Ian is, but he has come a long way and does ride most rides that he's tall enough to ride. Both of them LOVED the whip and the kiddie roller coaster at this age!

10. Nadia could write all the uppercase and lowercase letters and the numbers 0-9. Ian can write all the uppercase letters.

11. Both of them LOVE being read to (picture books and chapter books) and also watching tv. Both of them loved Little Critter, Froggy, and Berenstain Bear books. Ian's favorite dvds are the ones with Larry Boy (from Veggies Tales) and his favorite show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

12. They both always include Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Maurice in their prayers.

13. They both were walking with me while I pushed the stroller to the playground at this age.

14. They both loved to drink skim milk; Ian drinks far more water than Nadia did at this age. They both loved eating pizza, bagels, crackers, pretzels, chips, yogurt (just vanilla for Ian), grilled cheese sandwiches, various kinds of cold cereal, chicken nuggets (Ian needs honey), hot dogs (Ian needs mustard), pancakes, bananas, fish sticks, macaroni and cheese, brownies, cookies, fruit snacks, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and chocolate frosted donuts. Nadia needed raisins to eat vegetables when she was five. She ate much faster than Ian does.

15. Nadia was better at counting from 1-100 by ones and tens than Ian is, but I haven't worked with him much on it yet.

16. They both easily learned Bible verses. Ian can recite more books of the Bible than Nadia could at this age.

17. Nadia loved to jump off the diving board (with arm floats) and would swim without floats in the area of the pool that was two feet deep. Ian has never had an interest in coming near a diving board. He prefers to stay in the baby pool.

We love both of our five year olds very much, and in three years we'll have our third five-year-old! Thank you, Lord!

Our FIVE year old!

12/12/09 right before he was whisked to the NICU

Ian Alexander was born on 12/12/09 weighing 6 pounds 1 ounce, which was rather big considering he came 6 weeks early. He was born with brown hair, but within a few months he had light blonde hair. Considering he came prematurely, the first things he had to learn were how to breathe without a CPAP, how to maintain his body temperature, and how to nurse (at first he was on a feeding tube). My favorite Christmas gift that year was the fact he was discharged from the NICU in time for us to all be at home on Christmas Day!

6 months old (June 2010)

He weighed only 9 pounds when he was 4 months old, but he gained more than 6 pounds during the next two months, which put him at 15.75 pounds when he turned 6 months old. At 6 months old he wasn't sleeping through the night yet, didn't have any teeth, and hadn't yet learned to sit independently.

First birthday (December 2010)

By the time he turned 1 year old Ian had learned how to sit, to crawl and to sleep through the night. His naps were still VERY short (20-30 minutes), and he was not eating much at all by spoon. He could drink out of a sippy cup or bottle, and I was still nursing him 1-2 times a day. He had two teeth when he turned one year old. He had his first urological surgery before he turned one.

18 months old (June 2011)

At age 18 months he had four teeth and was mostly living off of EleCare, as he had been diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis. He weaned himself at 14 months. He wasn't allowed to have any eggs, nuts, soy, or milk. He had his second urological surgery and his first endoscopy surgery shortly before he turned 18 months old. He was running all over the place at this age!

2nd Birthday (December 2011)

At 2 years old, Ian had 12 teeth that had at least partially broken through! He had one more endoscopy, but thankfully since that surgery (August 2011) he hasn't had any more operations (even though the Allergist wanted him to have MANY more endoscopies). He hadn't learned how to take a nice nap, but he was still sleeping through the night. Around 20 months old his expressive vocabulary really took off! He had learned some of his shapes (oval, circle, triangle, square, diamond, and rectangle), could count to 13, could do peg puzzles on his own, could identify a few letters of the alphabet correctly, and knew some colors. He still wasn't really eating solid foods yet aside from coconut milk yogurt.

2 1/2 years old (June 2012)

A few weeks after he turned two, Ian was easily daytime potty trained. When Ian was 28 months old he spent four weeks in an intensive feeding program in Hershey, and through this he chewed and swallowed for the first time in his life, and they also helped him transition from his FAVORITE sippy cup to an open cup (a small shot glass at first). The first food he fell in love with was an Oreo cookie. He was promoted from a crib to a twin size bed before he turned 2.5 years old. He knew the names of an incredible amount of animals.

Third Birthday (December 2012)

At 3 years old Ian really loved pirates and trains. He was night time potty trained before he turned three, and he also learned how to go up and down the stairs independently. He had weekly OT for almost two full years, and this came to an end right before he turned three. His third birthday was the first one in which he ate CAKE! Before he turned three, he became a big brother! He adored Oliver and liked to "pet" Oliver's head. His favorite cereal was Cocoa Puffs, and that is still true today! For the first time in his life, he started taking nice naps (meaning longer than 30 minutes) in his bed shortly after he turned 2 1/2. What a relief that was!

3 1/2 years old (June 2013)

At 3 1/2 years old he could do 24 piece jigsaw puzzles by himself and would work on 100 piece ones with others.  Milk, soy, peanuts, eggs, cinnamon, and oats were back in his diet, although he wasn't allowed to drink milk yet. He was still drinking warm EleCare. He participated in the summer musical and VBS and took swimming lessons for the first time!

Fourth Birthday (December 2013)

At 4 years old still loved pirates, but his newest fascination was Monsters Inc. He was drinking milk and getting himself dressed and undressed. Even though he wasn't a fan of cold food, he had started eating soft ice cream. To this day he still won't eat hard ice cream or popsicles. He LOVES using the iPad. The app "Endless Alphabet" was his favorite at this age. He was completely independent with going to the bathroom. He took a t-ball class before he turned four and he also started participating in Cubbies. He could do 50-100 piece jigsaw puzzles all by himself. He had made a LOT of progress with eating, but he still wasn't feeding himself very much. He was beginning to read the first book of the level one reading program and also some BOB books. He could write the letter "I".

4 1/2 years old (June 2014)

At 4.5 years old Ian was definitely into superheroes. The kids had watched all the episodes from Spiderman and his Amazing Friends (from 1981) at least once. He also was very interested in Star Wars, even though we said he has to wait until he's six to watch the first Star Wars movie. He made a LOT of progress with feeding himself! The two vegetables he would eat without a fuss were carrots and green beans. At this point he could write all the uppercase letters of the alphabet and had learned to enjoy playing games with rules (like Candyland, UNO, Bingo, and Sorry). He wasn't taking a regular nap any longer although to this day he is very prone to fall asleep in the van. He was sitting with Nadia and I through the entire worship service on Sunday mornings. He became a Christian a month after he turned four years old! He was finally tall enough to reach all the light switches in the house, and he loved to use this skill.

At 5 years old he's still loving superheroes and Star Wars, and his newest fixation is playing with Legos many, many hours a day. He's feeding himself, but the next thing I want him to accomplish is to learn to eat a meal in 45 minutes or less. Each meal typically takes him 1-2 hours to eat. The list of foods he likes to eat has continued to grow and now includes things like tuna noodle casserole, macaroni and cheese, and pulled pork. His favorite food is pizza! He can now read most of the stories in the second book of the first grade reading program. He played on a soccer team for the first time this fall. He no longer rides in the stroller; he has walked a distance as long as three miles with Nadia and I! He has gotten braver at the playground, but he still isn't as brave as his two-year-old brother. He won't walk across the rope, for example, but now he enjoys jumping on our trampoline! He also is doing much better at riding a two wheeled bike with training wheels. He is no longer sitting on a booster seat at the kitchen table. We love this little guy SO much and are so thankful that God gave him to us! We're looking forward to seeing all the ways he will grow and change in the coming year! Happy 5th Birthday, Ian!

Thankful Thursday

1. I love Christmas music!!! On Sunday morning we sang one of my most favorite carols, "The First Noel."

2. We had a great time at the vaudeville show and the "Christmas Post" musical on Saturday. I greatly appreciated that the church provided childcare on Saturday night!

3. Nadia and Ian enjoyed going to Home Depot with Paul on Saturday morning.

4. It was a delight to go Christmas caroling at the nursing home with the kids' choir on Friday night.

5. All of the kids like pulled pork. It's a VERY good thing when we can add one more food to the list, and it was a relief to me as Nadia and Ian weren't too keen on the shepherd's pie or chili I made last week. Of course Oliver asked for seconds of the chili! All three kids loved the cornbread.

6. Nadia had her first basketball practice this evening. We are thankful she can participate in this Upward program again this year!

7. The kids and I are going over to Nikki's house later this morning! I am so thankful that we are starting to form a friendship.

8. I'm thankful for Legos. It's rare for my kids to play with ONE thing for at least four hours a day many days in a row. They tell me they're putting on shows. I love how nicely the two of them are playing together and how creative they are being with those bricks!

9. The kids are having fun finding Blitz every morning. Oliver has been the first one to spot him more than once! Hopefully we won't run out of ideas of where to put him between now and the 24th.

10. Sometimes Nadia buckles Oliver in his car seat, which means I am not buckling any children some days. Big sisters can be a big help!

11. I'm thankful that Crayola invented Color Wonder markers. They are such a blessing for Oliver to use during home schooling. I bought him more Color Wonder coloring pads for Christmas. It's so nice to be able to hand him markers and not worry that he will be coloring his face or the furniture!

12. All my Christmas and birthday shopping was completed a few days ago, except I need to get Paul something else for his birthday (January 3). I am also all caught up with wrapping although a few more things haven't  been delivered to our house yet. Also, the first 30 Christmas cards and letters have been mailed. I'm waiting for the last shipment from Shutterfly to finish that project.

13. I'm still thankful for the library! This week we got a lot of  books, a few Christmas dvds, and several books on CD for Nadia to listen to in her room during Oliver's nap.

14. My parents are planning to arrive at our house this evening, and they'll leave tomorrow afternoon. They came up to celebrate Ian's birthday!

15. Paul's last class for the semester was on Monday! He's giving a final exam next Wednesday. We will see him a little more over the next 5 weeks!

16. Nadia has started filling in the blanks in the notes during the sermons on Sunday morning. Sometimes she guesses at the spelling, and sometimes she looks up at the screen to see how a word is spelled. Sometimes it's hard for her to keep up because she writes more slowly than an adult would, but she is getting better at keeping up (and sometimes I help her get caught up if she gets behind). She has been asking me to teach her cursive, but I said she needs to show me she has really mastered manuscript (she still write some letters backwards) before we can do that although I do briefly show her how to write her name in cursive.

17. My kids all like getting dressed up on Sundays. Oliver was VERY distressed last Sunday that he wasn't wearing a tie. He kept asking for a tie and went to the drawer where I keep them and pulled one out, but none of his ties matched the dress shirt (the green plaid above that he wore with the Christmas sweater vest). I was happy though that he likes wearing a tie!

Vacation Plans!

I have been in vacation planning mode for 2015 lately. I recently made reservations for one week in the Poconos in early January. Part of that time will be a getaway for Paul and I. Not counting hospital stays, it will be the first time Paul and I have had a night without kids in 6 1/2 years. We love our kids dearly, but we are really looking forward to our getaway! We have been talking about doing something like this since 2011 (for our 10th anniversary), and we actually made reservations once (but had to cancel them due to illness on the part of those who were going to take care of our kids), but hopefully it will really happen this time! We also will take the kids up there for a few days to enjoy the indoor swimming pool and also we're going to spend one day at an indoor water park because I found a deal where we can buy 4 tickets for $79 (Oliver will be free) which is much cheaper than the usual admission prices. We haven't been to that water park since 2009 when I was pregnant with Ian, and Nadia was only 13 months old so she wasn't able to do much that time. We might go skiing one day. We shall see.

For a couple of months I've been looking into different options for our summer vacation. First I was leaning toward southern California, but Paul felt it wasn't a good idea due to #1 Oliver probably wouldn't fare well on that long of a flight and #2 Ian wouldn't adjust well to the 3 hour time change. Then I had settled on a resort in Puerto Rico and had done research on a rain forest and two forts to visit, but Paul said he thought we should just return to Orlando again because that was probably what the kids would like best at this age. Hopefully some day we'll make it to California and Puerto Rico, but for now it seems like we'll be making our fifth trip to Florida in five years. We went to the beach once with my parents when Ian was an infant and have been to Orlando the past three years.

Last night I paid for a week in Orlando at the same resort we went to the past two summers. I looked into several other options, including the resort we stayed at in 2011 with my parents and Wendy's family, but in the end we decided the kids would probably be happiest at the same one. I got a 2 bedroom unit for us and an efficiency for Paul's parents. Ian told me that he wanted to drive down with Grandma and Pop Pop so it looks like Paul and I will have a very easy flight as we'll only have Oliver with us! I am going to use credit card points to buy our three airline tickets so those will be free, and Paul's parents will drive our van down so we won't need to pay for a rental car. We buy groceries once we're down there so that we only need to buy food from a restaurant once a day. Since Paul won't be teaching this summer, we decided to stay down there longer, and so this morning I booked 2 two bedroom units (one for Paul's parents and one for us) on New Smyrna Beach (Daytona Beach area). Before we buy the airline tickets we'll have to decide exactly how long we're going to stay down there, but we could stay up to 14 nights total if we wanted to between the two resorts. I am sure Paul will want to take the kids to the Kennedy Space Center during our beach week. Boy was I shocked when I saw the admission prices to that place!

Part of the reason I made the reservations this week is because this week in December every year they do a special where you get an extra week for "free" when you buy a getaway. Since I bought four getaways this week, it means we received four "free" weeks. The weeks really aren't free, but they cost at the most $30 a night, which is very reasonable! I would like to use one of the weeks to spend a week in Williamsburg, VA. We've been studying Jamestown and Williamsburg and such this year, and I think Nadia and Ian would really enjoy touring those sites. Plus we could spend a day at Virginia Beach or visit some other sights while we were down there in addition to enjoying the swimming pool at the resort. With these "free" weeks you can't make your reservations more than 59 days in advance, but we are thinking we'd probably go in June or August. We'll drive down and buy groceries so we can eat two meals a day in our unit; it will be a very inexpensive vacation! I know some are very critical about time shares, but I absolutely love mine! I also am thinking that to break up our drive down there we could stop and tour Luray Caverns, which would be a very new experience for the kids.

To be honest, I am more excited about that week in Virginia than I am Disney World again, but I know the kids love going to Disney. We went to Sea World in 2011 and 2013, but we didn't go there this past summer so I want to go there again. They are doing some special things this summer to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The first two times we went we used free tickets from credit card points so I am hoping to have enough points to get those tickets again in addition to using the points for the airfare. I don't know a way to get free tickets to Disney though. We haven't been to Epcot or Animal Kingdom yet. In 2011 we only did Sea World. In 2013 we spent a day at Sea World and a day at Magic Kingdom. Last summer we spent a day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The kids are already lobbying to do both of those parks again in 2015. We shall see if I think we adults have the energy to spend three days at amusement parks with a 2, 5, and 6 year old. At least Oliver will still be young enough that we won't have to buy him any tickets!

The first 10 years of marriage Paul and I never vacationed in the same place twice. We went to Mexico, St. Lucia, Aruba, St. Maarten, France, England, China, Spain, Italy, St. Thomas, Antigua, etc. There are SO many places I want to take the kids eventually (Boston, Niagra Falls, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Mexico, Puerto Rico, California, England, Canada, etc.) so it feels strange to keep returning to Florida so many times in a row, but they certainly do love it at this age, and we hopefully will be able to take them to many other different places in the future. Some people have teased me that I should have been a travel agent, and I will say I do enjoy planning vacations! It's also a delight to be able to take vacations with our parents. It gives the kids a lot more time with them than they typically get. We've invited my parents to join us in Williamsburg, if they would like, and Paul's parents are planning on coming to Florida again.

Lego MANIA!

Nadia and Ian have been spending HOURS every day at the dining room table playing with legos. Sometimes Paul joins them and builds Ian something related to Star Wars. I love that they are being creative and building their own creations rather than just following instructions from a kit. Owning some kits is helpful because then we have some more unique pieces in our collection rather than just the standard bricks.

My hobby has never been building anything, but as you know, I do love taking pictures. I have a thing for kids in Christmas clothes so I've really been interested in taking their photos lately. I took a ton of pictures yesterday of the kids wearing their Sunday clothes sitting on a rocking chair that was mine when I was a child in front of our Christmas tree. The kids had some great smiles, but I didn't like the final products because the lighting required me to shoot in ISO 6400, and the results were just too grainy for my liking. I was determined to find a way to get some good pictures and was hoping to avoid using the flash or having the ceiling light fixture turned on. I solved the problem today by (temporarily) moving the Christmas tree. I got an

extension cord so the lights could still be plugged in, and I was able to sit in front of a window to get better pictures. YAHOO! I have a feeling I will be moving that tree many times over the next two weeks. I'm so glad it's on wood laminate rather than carpet as it's not very hard to slide the tree around. Paul thinks I've gone off the deep end, but light is VERY important for taking pictures! Nadia was happy that I wanted to try again with the pictures today because it meant I let her pick out one of her Christmas dresses to wear that I usually only let her wear on Sundays. She'll have to change clothes before going to gymnastics tonight!

Oliver likes to walk around the house singing with a pretend microphone. Here is a short video of him singing part of "Let it Go" and part of "Jingle Bells," which are two of his three favorite songs (his most favorite is still "Row, row, row your boat").

Vaudeville and Newsies

Yesterday we had three special things on our schedule. First, Paul took the kids to Home Depot for the 9:00 workshop where they each nailed, glued, and painted three lawn ornaments. Once they were home they put stickers on them to finish decorating them. Paul said that Ian is making a lot of progress with his hammering skills! After eating lunch at home, the five of us headed to Bucknell for a free show by Parallel Exit. Five men put on an hour long vaudeville show that included tap dancing, slapstick comedy, etc. Ian laughed his sweet little head off for the majority of the show. Oliver even paid attention to the whole thing! We thought for sure he wouldn't last through the whole thing, but he did! After that we drove to Harrisburg. We stopped at a Toys R Us so the kids could buy their Christmas gifts for each other. I took Ian shopping for Oliver and Nadia, and Paul took Nadia shopping for Oliver and Ian. Oliver was with me so he saw what Ian picked, but I put it away in the closet, and we'll still wrap it up and let him open it in a couple of weeks.

After eating dinner in the mall's food court, we headed to Christian Life Assembly for their production of the musical, The Christmas Post. The band, singing, sets, acting, etc. were all excellent. I would definitely return there again. The tickets were very reasonably priced, and for two of the nine performances they offer free childcare for kids ages five and under (they sold over 15,000 tickets altogether and their average church attendance is "only" 2,800). Before the show started the kids enjoyed seeing a live nativity (the baby playing the role of Baby Jesus was such a happy little one in the manger) because they had doves, sheep, donkeys, and llamas in the foyer. Oliver was in a room for two year olds, and it looked like he had a lot of fun playing with balls.

Christmas Caroling

Last year Oliver and I joined the AWANA group when they went caroling at the nursing home in our town one Wednesday night in December. This evening we went caroling the four of us went caroling for a little more than an hour at a different nursing home with the kids' choir that Nadia and I are in now. What a delight! In some parts of the building we sang as we walked through the halls, and in other places we sang a few carols in a dining room or common area. Sometimes Oliver stood up with the kids although the only song he sang with them was Jingle Bells. In the first dining room one man asked Oliver to shake his hand. Oliver walked over to him and put his arm up on the arm of the wheelchair. The man put his arm around Oliver's waist, and they stood like that for about 10 minutes. The man started telling those around him - this (Oliver) is my buddy. Then he got a clean fork and gave Oliver two bites of his carrot cake. It was so sweet. In another spot one woman kept telling Oliver "I love you. I love you so much" and told me she really wanted to give him a penny, but she didn't have any with her. Aw.... What a delight to bring some joy to these residents. We should do this more often! I didn't take any pictures. It was one of those moments I wished I had a smartphone because I was holding four winter coats for an hour so I was glad I hadn't brought my DSLR camera with me, but a picture or two would have been nice. Maybe some other parents will post some on Facebook. :)

Thankful Thursday

1. The kids are enjoying wearing Christmas clothes. Nadia had been waiting and waiting to start wearing her Christmas dresses.

2. Oliver slept past 7:00am on Tuesday and Wednesday! To bad he didn't do that last week when we had company. Unfortunately Ian was up at 4am and again at 5:50 yesterday morning and Nadia was up at 5:00 (very unusual for her) so Oliver's sleeping in didn't actually translate to more sleep for Paul or I. Thankfully he was the first one up this morning at 6:40am. Thank you, kids!!!

3. I did some research and finally selected a new vacuum cleaner to buy (a lot cheaper than a Dyson but supposed to be just about as good). I am looking forward to that package arriving at our house!

4. Oliver didn't have any accidents yesterday! I'd be able to say this more often if he would learn to tell me when he has to go #2. The only ways he has an accident free day are if he doesn't go #2 that day OR if I happen to tell that he's starting to push and get him on the potty on time (which is what happened yesterday). Thankfully he has started telling me (sometimes) when he has to pee. I have stopped taking a spare pair of underwear and pants to church.

 5. Nadia finished the 2nd Sparks book last night! She went through this book much faster than she went through the 1st book last year. She'll start an extra credit book soon and also go through the book a second time.

6. The choir sang an acapella arrangement of O Come O Come Emmanuel on Sunday morning. It was GORGEOUS. The women were singing four part harmony at times.

7. Nadia was assigned a small duet in the musical on Sunday night. They will be performing it in both services on the 21st.

8. Nadia has learned to eat what she's served even if she doesn't like it. YAY! Ian has not learned this lesson so he often sees the same plate reappearing at breakfast and sometimes lunch until he finally eats the food. The last week has been rough because the kids aren't big fans of anything served for Thanksgiving (except Nadia loves cranberry sauce) and we had LOTS of leftovers. I made shepherd's pie with the leftover mashed potatoes yesterday, and they aren't keen on that either.

9. Paul took Nadia and Ian to see "The Night Before Christmas" at the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble this morning. I stayed home with Oliver. Their matinee performances for school groups are far more affordable than their tickets for evening performances.

10. As usual, we have been enjoying books, CDs, and DVDs from the library. This week I particularly enjoyed The Taxing Case of the Cows (true story about woman's suffrage) and Molly Bannaky (and now we are reading a biography about her grandson, Benjamin Banneker).

11. We had some water in our basement yesterday, but it was from an overflowing toilet in the main floor. This reminded us to be grateful that our basement has not flooded lately. PTL!

12. Paul's mom has stayed healthy after her last three chemo treatments! She was VERY sick after her first one (in August) so we are not taking this for granted. Hoping for good results from her scan this month and her bone marrow biopsy next month.

Nadia's Top Ten

In September 2013 I wrote a list of the top ten reasons why I love homeschooling. I have to say that if I had to pick Paul's two best ideas that he's had over the past 13 years, I would pick #1 that he kept suggesting that we try ivf (if I could go back in time I would have agreed to try ivf in 2004 instead of waiting until 2007) and #2 that he suggested we home school our children. I've been thinking about my list lately because several people I follow on Facebook have posted links to a list of 50 reasons kids love being homeschooled. We don't do everything that is on the list. For example, we get dressed before doing homeschooling (i.e. the kids aren't wearing pajamas), but they might be wearing a costume over their clothes! This morning I asked Nadia what were her top ten reasons why she likes being homeschooled, and this is what she told me in the order she said them.

1. I get hugs and kisses during school.

2. I get to play a lot more than kids who go to school.

3. I get more time with my brothers than I would if I went to school.

4. I get an iPad turn.

5. I get to call you Mommy not teacher.

6. I get to have lunch at home.

7. There are no bullies.

8. I get up later (than she would if she was taking the bus to school).

9. I can wear different things (costumes, etc.).

10. I get more time with Mommy.

Nadia is supposed to say the books of the Old Testament at AWANA tomorrow night. Yesterday I took this video, which shows she is very close to being able to say all 66 books (if she remembers to include Zechariah). Way to go, Nadia!

Christmas festivities

There are SO many ways to celebrate Christmas. Although the lights are pretty and the cookies are yummy, I hope we keep our eyes fixed on the reason for the season - the birth of our Lord and Savior! It is easy to feel overwhelmed in terms of buying and wrapping gifts or any other aspect of the holiday or to compare your family's celebration to someone else's and feel like you haven't done quite enough whether it's baking cookies, doing crafts, or decorating the house.

My discomfort with clutter definitely limits my desire to go "all out" with decorating. Before we had kids and when Nadia was very young, we got a real Christmas tree every year. The last 11 years we've lived very near a Christmas tree farm (our previous house plus this one), but we bought a fake tree a few years ago in light of #1 how expensive real trees have gotten and #2 how many needles I thought I'd be cleaning up around the house due to little kids having more contact with the tree than Paul or I ever did. We have definitely saved money by reusing an artificial tree, but there are moments (like when

others are posting pics of their kids at a Christmas tree farm on Facebook) when I wish we were still buying a real tree. The kids certainly don't care whether it's real or artificial. Having young kids means I am very thoughtful about what ornaments are placed near the bottom of the tree (within Oliver's reach). Last year many ornaments came off the tree every day, but it seems (so far) this year that I won't be redecorating the tree as often. The last couple of years we didn't put any lights up outside the house, but Paul did put up some icicle lights yesterday.

The last three years Nadia did her shopping for the family at AWANA, and Ian did that as well last year. It was nice as the kids would pick out gifts, and they would come home wrapped for each family member. I doubt our new church does this so this year I need to start a tradition of taking the kids shopping. They don't have enough money to actually pay for gifts for everyone unless they bought us each one thing from Dollar Tree (where everything costs $1) so I need to figure out an appropriate dollar amount, but I want them to go shopping and pick out gifts for their parents and siblings and wrap those gifts. When they are older and have more money at their disposal, I want them to pay for the gifts themselves.

For years I have been wanting to do an Advent calendar, and I finally bought one this fall. If I could do it over again, I would have bought a fabric one that was more expensive than the felt one I got, but this one will do the trick. Today was our first day of adding one item to the nativity scene, and we will do so every day until Christmas Eve. I am hoping this will be a Christmas tradition they will enjoy each year.  Speaking of a daily advent activity, I bought the Truth in the Tinsel pdf a couple of years ago, but I never did any of it, and frankly I have decided I don't want to because I don't want to do a daily craft. If one of my blog readers would enjoy this pdf, I would happily send it your way if you could use it with your kids. It looks great but just isn't my cup of tea. I will do some Christmas crafts with the kids, but  I am not interested in doing one a day.

The Elf on the shelf has also been very popular the last few years. I wasn't tempted at first because we don't promote the Santa side of Christmas and also because some very creative people have set the bar really high for what to do with that

little elf each day. Last year when it was on sale for 90% off at Target I bought the kit. I saw one website that suggested making it a kindness elf and every day have a different kind deed written down (ex. give homemade cookies to your neighbor or go caroling at a nursing home). I like that idea, but I think I'll wait until they're a bit older. I decided this year just to hide the elf each night, and I don't plan on doing anything that takes a lot of time on my part. The kids love hide and seek so it was fun to look for the elf this morning. It was very hard for them to agree on a name for the elf, but they finally settled on Blitz. Oliver was the first one to spot Blitz this morning. It took the other two a lot longer to find him up in the chandelier over the kitchen table.

I have ordered my photo Christmas cards, and today I've been working on the letter. My goal is to get those out in the mail in the next week. I am trying to whittle down my Christmas to do list so I won't feel overwhelmed.