Our Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas.

We had a close call with the stomach bug, but by Christmas Eve everyone was happy and healthy which is all I really wanted.

 

Owen looks 10 in this picture

Christmas Eve we opened gifts at my parent's house and then headed over to the Simmermon's house to celebrate with aunts, uncles, and cousins.

 

Adam loves Beatrice (or Baby trice as he calls her).  He was so sweet- constantly holding her hand, helping her open gifts, and getting her whatever she wanted.

 

Beth and Eric revealed to everyone that they are having a BOY!!!
The kids opened a big box filled with blue balloons.  I was wrong all along.  I was sure she was having a girl.  We are so excited and can't wait to meet and hold him in April.  Adam is the only one that isn't as thrilled with the news.

Even after finding out they are having a boys, Adam insisted it was a girl.  He still calls it a "her", but he's beginning to accept it.  I think Maddie was using her counseling skills with Adam in this picture...

Another special memory I hope to never forget was this...

We got home late Christmas Eve, set cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer, sprinkled magical reindeer food on our deck and out Owen's window onto the roof, and cleared the fireplace for Santa.

Mike had this great idea to set up his game camera in our living room to see if we could capture a picture of Santa. Owen and Mike had it all ready to go.  Once the boys were in bed, we got to work on our special project.  I guess I should say, Mike got to work.  I won't go into much detail because a certain 6 year old loves to read this blog.  The boys checked the camera the next morning before even opening gifts and their reaction was priceless.  So magical. 

We had to have a little talk with Adam on Christmas night about kissing Ella and Sam.  He's very affectionate, but he had taken it a little too far.  When Mike was talking to him he started to cry and said, "But I just wuv them."

Another favorite memory was Paige eating an entire container of orange Jello mold in two minutes for $20.  It's a tradition and she didn't disappoint.  It made for a good laugh.

 

One of the best parts of our Christmas vacation was waking up to a couple inches on snow the day after Christmas.  Paige and I had plans to take the kids to Chocolate World, but I didn't feel comfortable driving all that precious cargo in my minivan.  So we opted to go sledding instead.  It was perfect for sledding and the kids had the best time.  It brought back many memories of all the times Paige, Beth and I spent sledding down the hills in Paige's yard.

Owen said yesterday that he really missed Christmas, but it wasn't because of all the presents.  He said he had such a good time with all our family being here.  Paige, Barry, and the girls and Beth and Eric are now back home and we miss them.  The boys have been keeping busy playing with all their new toys.  We are so blessed to have such loving, caring, and generous parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and friends. 

It was definitely a very merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours

R.A.C.K

One of my favorite traditions that we started last year is doing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  Last month I showed the list we made of 7 random acts of kindness that we wanted to complete before Christmas.

The first thing we did was leave five $1 bills scattered at different spots in the kids' section at our local Dollar Store.  We left a Random Acts of Christmas Kindness card with each dollar.

I was trying to be a little sneaky about it because I didn't want anyone to see us.  Owen took it as we were doing something wrong.  I'm so thankful for his always-obey-the-rules attitude.  I explained to him over and over that we weren't doing anything wrong leaving dollar bills.  Some little boy or girl would be very excited!

This past week we left lottery tickets for our mail carrier and garbage guys.  We got a nice thank you note from our mail lady.

The boys sat with us at church this past Sunday and we went to the early service so they didn't get to give their teachers a gift, but I have them all ready.

And today we crossed the rest of our items off...

Nana Way, Mike, and the boys took a tin of popcorn to the police station.  They also left over $7 in quarters at the laundromat along with a R.A.C.K tag.

And tonight, we drove through the McDonalds drive thru and paid for the person's meal behind us.

I LOVE this tradition we've started.  We really want our boys to understand the importance of giving to others and know what it feels like to give and not only receive.

Back in Action

I'm finally back and feeling much better.  Still don't have my appetite completely back, but maybe that's a good thing, especially with all these Christmas cookies around the house.  And so far I've kept my germs to myself and haven't shared them with my family.  Really hoping we don't have a repeat of Christmas Eve 2011 when Owen threw up on my head at midnight.  Poor thing.  He still talks about that.

We had a very Christmassy weekend (until I got sick).  Saturday morning we went to the American Music Theater's Christmas Show.  It was aaaaaaaamazing.  Over two hours of all my favorite Christmas songs.

The snow we were supposed to get that morning thankfully held off and arrived that afternoon.  Then we all headed outside to play in the snow.  The rest of the weekend is history for me, but not for my boys.  Nana Way was very brave and had both boys over Sunday morning to bake Christmas cookies.  Owen made his favorite- chocolate chip.  Adam made his favorite- sugar cookies with icing and a sprinkles (quarter inch of sprinkles).

The boys have been enjoying holiday festivities at daycare and school.

We're so fortunate that even though Mike and I are both working, I know the boys are enjoying lots of Christmas fun.

They are making gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, homemade gifts for parents, gift and cookie exchanges, pj parties, a real visit from Santa!!!  Linda also teaches the kids the real meaning of Christmas.  Today they had a little pageant and Adam was one of the three wisemen.  All while we are at work.  Definitely a blessing.

Owen had his appointment with the pediatric cardiologist at Hershey yesterday.  Despite waiting 1.5 hours until we were seen by the doctor, everyone at Children's Heart Group is incredibly friendly and helpful.  Owen has premature atrial contractions (PAC) which is a big word for an abnormal/irregular heart rhythm.  And while his is a little more irregular than most irregular heartbeats (if that makes sense), we're told it's nothing to be worried about.  The only time it would become a big deal is if he complains of his heart beating very fast.  If this happens, he may be nauseous and look pasty.  We would be able to hear it rapidly beating by putting our ear to his chest.  Then we need to get him to the ER right away.  That would mean that his heart has gone into SVT which is life threatening.  The chance of that happening is very rare so I'm not concerned.  I write all this because I know some of our family and close friends read this blog and I'd want them to know and it's easier to write it once than wonder who I told and who I didn't.  He will go back in a year for another 24 hour Holter monitor check and if nothing has changed he won't need to be seen again.

It was so nice to spend the day with Owen.  He's a lot of fun and such a sweetheart.  We had a lunch date after his appointment and made a few stops for some last minutes Christmas gifts.  He asks some very interesting questions and I don't always know the answers.  Such as, "What happens if a bee stings your belly button?", "Did you know that Rudolph is Donnor's son?"  "Then who is Rudolph's mom?"  and those are just a few.  Never a lag in conversation when you're with him :)

Today we crossed two more things off our Random Acts of Kindness list.  We left a little gift for the trash guys and mail carrier.  I'll write more about our RAK experiences once we are finished.

Lastly, Mike is at the basketball game tonight and just sent me this picture...

 That's our school district's mascot- Rudy (a Cedar tree).  Last year during our PSSA pep rally Rudy made a special appearance along with a ton of camera men that clearly weren't from this area. They looked Hollywoodish, if you know what I mean.  I didn't know what they were doing, but later found out they were doing a documentary on three mascots.  One high school, one semi-pro, and one professional mascot.  Out of all the mascots throughout the country that applied, our mascot in little old Lebanon was chosen.  I've watched the documentary on Hulu and it's really interesting.  I'm not sure if I'd find it as interesting if it weren't filmed in our school district or town, but it's neat to watch.  You can see it on Hulu.com  It's called Behind the Mask. 

 Oh, and I can't leave without documenting this...

Mr. Owen is now a yellow/white belt!!!  He's also the proud owner of sparing gear, which should come with a sample of anxiety meds for the moms.  Just kidding.  Sort of. 

Happy Hump Day!

Yuck!

I wish I could post pictures of our weekend or at least write about it, but I came down with the stomach bug last night.  I'm praying no one else here gets it, but if they are going to get it, I really hope they get it before next weekend when family comes in to town and we begin our Christmas festivities.  Off to rest.

Always an adventure

When I got to school Friday morning I realized I had forgotten my purse and cell phone at home.  It was the first time all year this happened.  I get nervous when I don't have my phone in case our daycare or school tries to contact me (or anyone really), but I figured one day without it would be fine.  Well, I was wrong.  That was the one day Owen's school needed to reach me.

Owen was playing Lego's during indoor recess and told his teacher his chest hurt.  He said it felt like something was pushing on it.  When he went to the nurse and she listened to his heart it was beating very irregular and all over the place.  Thankfully they were able to get in touch with Mike and he picked him up right away.  Our pediatrician recommended going straight to the ER.  Thankfully, Mike was able to get in touch with me and I was able to leave school and be there too.

Owen had an EKG, echocardiogram, and blood work.  He was hooked up to all sorts of wire.  They were noticing an irregular beat and the ER cardiologist didn't feel comfortable dealing with it so she called in the Chief of Pediatric Cardiology. 

Six hours later we were free to go, however Owen had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours which we will drop off today for them to scan.  We have a follow up appointment later in the month.

I wasn't really freaking out or that nervous mainly because he wasn't in any pain.  Seeing your child in pain is a totally different ball game.  Other than the chest pains he had in his classroom, he was feeling perfectly fine.  We watched cartoons, ate snacks, and played a lot of "I Spy".  They also had a fun game on the wall in the room.

When Owen was 2 years old I insisted he have his heart checked.  Funky heart conditions run in my family and I thought, at times, that his lips had a tint of blue.  He had  an echocardiogram then and so I had piece of mind that his heart had developed correctly.  It was also good to have because on Friday they were able to refer back to that original echo.

Saturday morning we went to the annual Breakfast with Santa at the church behind our house.  The police department puts on his fun event for kids every year and it's become one of the traditions we really look forward to.

Thankfully, we were able to remove Owen's monitor right before his very first karate tournament on Saturday afternoon.  He was so excited and we were all very nervous for him.

This is our favorite move.  He looks so darn cute doing his routines.

He was in two events and competed against 3 other kids.  Owen won first place in both events and got two huge trophies.

The trophies have not left his side since he got them.  They were with us at dinner. 

They were with him while he took a bath. 

And this morning as I was finishing up this post he walked down the stairs with one in each hand and a huge grin on his face.  Then he put them in front of him while he ate.

 Bless his heart.  We were all so proud of him!

Camera Practice

Owen learned a really cool jumping kick at karate camp (maybe it's called a Roundhouse kick?) and wanted to show Mike and I.  I wasn't really practicing for these pictures.  In fact, they got pretty blurry.

Tonight I was experimenting/practicing shooting in Manuel while taking pictures of our tree.  Tricky stuff I tell ya...

eating fruit snacks

Let the Magic Begin

Our Christmas traditions have started.  This morning, our elf, Sam, made his first visit.

After breakfast, the boys got to open their first drawer in their advent calendar.  Nana Way does this for the boys every year and it's very special.  Some days they get a piece of chocolate, other days they might get a dollar and a few days a week they will get to open a gift.  Today, both boys got to open one gift.

We also started our Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  While Adam napped, Owen and I chose 7 acts of kindness that we will do together as a family before Christmas.

We have a few other special things to look forward to as well.  It's hard to believe we only have 3 weeks until Christmas!

Enjoying our time off

The night before Thanksgiving, our friends invited us to a Hershey Bears game.  They have spoiled us with box seats.  The kids enjoyed taking turns hiding Easter eggs and hunting for them for at least an hour.  Who ever said Easter egg hunts were only for Easter time?  Owen ate wings for the first time and really liked them (except for the getting dirty part). 

There was a sweet little 5 year old girl there.  I think she thought Owen was super cool, and I'm sure Adam thought she was super cool, so there was a little love triangle going on.

The day after Thanksgiving Owen went to a "Breaking Boards Camp" at karate.  That boy definitely needed something to get out his energy and excitement from Thanksgiving so 4 hours of karate chopping, kicking, and punching was perfect! 

These are all the boards he broke.

While he was at camp, I decided to brave the crowds and go to the Hershey outlets before my hair appointment.  I usually stay far away from any shopping area on Black Friday, but I was mentally prepared for standing in long lines and people watching.  It ended up being just the opposite.  The parking lot looked like any other shopping day with lots of open spaces.  I didn't wait in one line!

Aunt Beth and Eric spent some time with Adam while Owen and I were gone all day. Here are a few pictures she sent me...

Adam has a thing about coloring his nose.  Not sure why, but lately, anytime he's alone with markers he colors his nose.

Owen was a little tired when I picked him up, but that didn't stop him from taking Finney up on her offer for a sleepover.  Adam insisted on going too which meant Mike and I had an impromptu night alone!  Mike wasn't feeling that great, but he mustered up enough energy to go to Lowe's (hot date night) so we could pick out things for our bathroom.  We are redoing our downstairs bathroom and wanted to take advantage of Black Friday sales.  On our way home we stopped at the Blue Bird for something to eat.  Mike went to bed as soon as we got home and I spent the entire evening taking down our Thanksgiving decorations and getting out all of our Christmas things.  I put up the tree and had everything ready for the boys to help decorate.  I wanted to surprise them when they came home the next day and Adam's face was priceless when he saw our house looking all Christmasy. 

Today, my mom and I took the boys to see Frozen.  I accidentally had the times mixed up and we had to see the 3D movie and I'm so glad we did.  It was incredible and I think we (the adults) enjoyed the movie as much as Owen and Adam.