Merry Christmas!

Huston and Arden had a great Christmas and we all had fun celebrating Christ's birth with our families. One of my favorite parts of this holiday season was hearing Huston sing the songs he learned in preschool around the house. He sang "Children Go Where I Send Thee" almost constantly the past few weeks (along with Rudolph, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and a few others), and it was so cute. Of course, when it came time for his little Christmas program, he clammed up and refused to sing a word. He just covered his eyes and made weird faces the whole time. Typical Huston.

Huston got a tricycle on Christmas morning, which intrigued him for awhile (and he even got on it and rode it a little bit), but then he insisted we keep it out in the garage. I brought it back in the house against his wishes and he hasn't played with it much since then. He is so funny about gifts and toys. He did better about opening his presents this year, but at my parents' house I had to bribe him with a cookie to open his last three gifts. He just doesn't care that much about presents. His obsession for at least the last two months has been eyeglasses, and he did get some of those for Christmas. He has quite a collection and just likes to wear them and play with them. Every time his Mimi comes over he collects all of her reading glasses from her purse and won't let them out of his sweaty little hands until it's time for her to leave.

Arden loved opening her gifts this year! She got a darling zebra raincoat from her Mimi and Grandpa, and some dolls and a baby stroller, among other things. She is such a girlie girl and loves to wear accessories of all kinds. Every time she sees a necklace it has to go around her neck, and she loves to walk around the house with daddy's belt wrapped around her waist twice and buckled, or with a hat on her head. Such a contrast to Huston, who, within the span of just a few hours on Christmas Eve, refused to wear the button down shirt I wanted him to wear to church, his jacket, and then the pajamas I bought him that matched Arden's. I gave in to him on all three because he can put up quite the protest when it comes to clothes. At least I have Arden to pretty up!

We took the kids to the Christmas Eve service at our church and I loved having them with us in the sanctuary as we sang Christmas carols. Christmas day was spent at my parents' house and the kids had fun running around and playing with their cousins, eating too many sweets, and opening a mountain of gifts. Fun times all around!

Away in a Manger

I was cleaning the house when I got home from school this week, and I really wanted to take this ENORMOUS box out to the trash in the garage, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. My plans changed, however, when Huston woke up from his nap and almost immediately wrapped Bear Bear up in Blankie (swaddled him, if you will) and put him in the box and said, "Look, Mommy! Bear Bear's sleeping in a manger, just like Baby Jesus!" The rest of the afternoon and this week, he has continued to pretend that the box is a manger, and will say things like, "Do you want to come see Bear Bear sleeping in a manger?" and "Bear Bear's just a tiny baby." Yesterday Bear Bear was crying, and Huston sang him "Away in a Manger" to get him back to sleep.

So if you come to my house and trip over this giant box when you walk in the door, please forgive me. Now, at least, you'll know why it's there.

ardenthanks

Shutterfly is doing another great promotion for bloggers. Click here to learn more. I love using Shutterfly for all of my invitations and thank you cards. Here's the thank you card I made for Arden's first birthday:

Hello There Thank You 3x5 folded card

Create custom thank you cards at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Arden's Thank You

Okay, even though I haven't even posted about Arden's birthday part yet, not to mention Halloween or Thanksgiving or anything else that's been happening lately, I have to post this link to a thank you card I made for Arden's birthday. Shutterfly is doing another great promotion for bloggers where you can receive a $25 gift certificate for posting a link to your card project. So here it is!

Shutterfly Cards!

We interrupt this program...

for a friendly little promotion! I read on my friend Ashlee's blog (thanks Ashlee!) about how Shutterfly is giving bloggers 50 free Christmas cards. Go here to find out more! It's an awesome deal if you're a blogger, and was too good for me to pass up, considering how much I love Shutterfly! I have made countless photo books through their site, including one a year each for Huston and Arden to keep track of all of their milestones. Since Arden's birthday is coming up next week, I need to start working on her one-year book soon! I've also made tons of gifts through their site, including wall calendars with pictures of the kids for the grandparents and great-grandparents and personalized stationary cards for friends and family.

They have a great selection of Christmas cards - I always spend hours pouring over all the choices and almost as much time trying to pick out the perfect pictures to send to our family and friends. I almost always choose a design that allows me to use more than one picture, because I can never narrow it down to just one!

Here's a sweet one that let's you use lots of pictures. You gotta love a card that let's you include a monogram, too!

Here's another one that I like that let's you highlight your kiddos:

I also like these for something funky and fun or these for something more traditional and classic or these for something a little vintage-y.

Go here to check out Shutterfly's selection of Christmas and holiday cards:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

Go here to check out their wall calendars:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

and go here to check out some cool options for canvas art:

http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art

So Big!

Arden is a little over 11 months now. That big first birthday is coming up fast (and Mommy is not ready for it - emotionally or actually). Here's a quick update on her sweet personality.

Arden is walking around like an adorable little toddler now. She had a slower transition to walking than Huston did, taking her first steps on August 26th, then having a big walking breakthrough on grandparent's day (September 12th), then continuing to do a mix of walking and crawling until about three weeks ago when she decided that she preferred walking and would purposefully get back up into a walking position anytime she fell down, instead of continuing her journey by crawling, which is what she did before. So now she is toddling all over the place, and I just can't get enough of her little tiny self step, step, stepping all over the house.

She loves stuffed animals right now, especially Huston's giant dog that Mimi got him from Ikea. It is enormous compared to her, but she gets so happy when she sees it and will carry it all over the house and talk to it and lie down on it. She snuggles and squeals with almost any stuffed animal you hand her, but that's her favorite by far.

She is soooo much more verbal than Huston was at this stage, jabbering to herself all the time, pointing at things and making sounds, and saying things that sound like "Hi," when she waves. She still loves dogs (and most animals) and makes the most adorable "woofing" sound. She raises her hands over her head when you ask, "How big is Arden?" and she LOVES reading books. Just in the past two weeks or so this has become an obsession with her. Her favorite is Pat the Bunny, and she does everything the book says. She pats the bunny, feels daddy's scratchy face, smells the flowers, looks in the mirror - it is so cute!

She loves pointing to things and making little noises to indicate her wants. She likes all kinds of drinks and always wants to taste what you have in your glass. She thinks whatever Huston is playing with must be cool, and always tries to play with his toys. She is determined and can really show her temper when she doesn't get her way, but is overall pretty laid back and calm. She likes playing with car keys, splashing in the bathtub, running around outside, swinging at the park, and just exploring the world.

She's my little sweetie pie.

Potties and other Huston things

I have no time for cleverly composed posts these days, so this will just be a brain dump of Huston-related things. Enjoy!

We discovered black mold under our kitchen sink this weekend. It seems to have been due to a leak in our sink, so we headed to Lowe's after church on Sunday to buy a new sink. Huston was delighted that he got to play with the "potties" at Lowe's, which is one of his favorite things to do at this playground of a store. They have six potties in a row and he just walks around pretending to flush them and saying, "Huston just made pee pee in the potty." Then he'll walk around to the sink that's on display and pretend to wash his hands.

Huston has also been lately obsessed with a flashing strobe light down our street that someone has out as a part of their Halloween decorations. He can't stop talking about it, and makes his hand open and close and says, "Huston has a flashing light. For it was daytime you just turn your flashing light off for it won't waste electricity. Your flashing light is red." He was talking like this on our way home from Clarke's parents's house Sunday night. Clarke asked, "Did you buy your flashing light at Lowe's?" (because Huston had previously said that) and Huston said seamlessly, "Oh no. You just bought it at Tops." (get it? Lows? Tops? He created his own store with the opposite name.)

I thought that was pretty creative. Then yesterday he was walking around the house with a clothespin stuck to his shirt (because it looked cool), and I said "I like your clothespin." He replied, "Oh, it's an open pin." (get it? close? open?) I don't know where he's coming up with all these opposites, but I like it.

I also love how he says the following things:

starter up: meaning to start up, as in, "I have to starter up the car."

the earlier: meaning anything in the past, from earlier the same day to a few days ago to a year ago, as in, "The earlier you went to Mimi's house."

picked: meaning picked up, as in, "I just picked Bear Bear," or "Cranky picked Thomas," (from a favorite Thomas episode where Cranky the Crane picks Thomas up off the tracks).

drop down: meaning dropped off, as in, "Grandma just dropped me down at preschool."

Swinging - A Video Debut!

We went to the park by our house late this afternoon to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Here are some videos of the swinging action that went down. (In case you're wondering after viewing the first video, Huston did not, in fact, poop in his underwear at the park. Thankfully.)

Blossoming

Here's my hilarious boy playing in a big tub of dirt, enjoying this fall weather that's letting him play outside more often. Huston has truly been blossoming lately and becoming more outgoing and less afraid. I think a big part of that is due to preschool, which he has been loving more than I could have ever dreamed. Tonight, while Clarke and I were at a new Bible study, we dropped him off at a house with two baby sitters and the other kids from the small group. The old Huston would never have allowed such a thing, but the new Huston didn't even blink. I mean, not even a whimper when I left him there. And before we left the house to go, he was saying "You're ready to go to that house now. You're ready to go play with the boys and girls." I could hardly believe it. When we picked him up, he was happy as a lark, talking about how they had a playground with rocks in it and how his "teachers" told him it was time to go upstairs (he seems to see everything through his school vocabulary). He just seems so grown up.

Clarke and I went through the drive through to pick up dinner after Bible study, and while Clarke was ordering, Huston rolled down his window (which he can reach with his foot) and started ordering out of it, saying, "Umm... you just want a chicken plate..." It was pretty hilarious.

One final Huston moment from today. Clarke came home and was asking Huston how his day was, and Huston was being stubborn and not responding. Clarke threatened to take away the ipod that he had let him hold if Huston couldn't be polite and respond to him, and Huston starts holding back sobs and in a weepy, quavering voice, says, "You just had a great day!"

He's a little character.

The Dress my Mommy Made...

Since who knows when I'll sew again, I made Clarke take a picture of me with Arden in this little dress I made for her. I don't even really feel like I can say I made it, since I needed step by step help from my mom, but I did do all the actual sewing, so I guess it's okay.

Isn't this just the cutest picture of Clarke with Arden?

We were on our way to our friends' Zeb and Ally's house to hang out when we took these pictures. Huston got to hang out with all of our friends' kids, and had the best time following Enoch around the house. He thinks anything that Enoch does is awesome, and at one point during the party Huston came up to me and said, "Enoch said 'I'm Spiderman!', I'm going to be Spiderman, too!" He then started singing, very seriously, "The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...."

Sound Theology

Before I forget this hilarious tidbit, I better write it down. This past week Huston has started talking more about Jesus being in his heart. One night at bed he said, "Bear Bear has Jesus in his heart," and I said, "Oh really? Do you know that you can ask Jesus into your heart and he'll come in and stay there forever?" Huston then squinched his eyes shut and said, "Please, Jesus, will you come into my heart?" This was immediately followed, however, by, "No, Jesus! No! You don't want Jesus in your heart." I didn't push him because it was obvious he was looking to pick a fight.

The next day we were outside playing and he just randomly started running around saying, "No, Jesus! Go away! You don't want Jesus in your heart!" Again, since he was just trying to get a reaction out of me, I just ignored him.

But later that same day we came into the house and he had Bear Bear and Blankie on the couch, and he said, "Bear Bear has Jesus in his heart." We talked about it a little bit and then he said,

"For Bear Bear take a bath, Jesus just got all wet! For Jesus come out of his heart he got all wet!"

Now that is some sound theology.

Preschool Man

Here's my big man eating breakfast before his first day of preschool yesterday (September 8th). My mom took him to school and they managed to get out of the car and into the school during a lull in the torrential downpour that lasted almost all morning. Huston didn't seem all that nervous leading up to school starting. I expected him to be saying "No, Mommy, Huston doesn't want to go to preschool," but every time we talked about it, he would just say, "You're going to preschool. Grandma's going to take you." He didn't cry when Grandma dropped him off. She said he just walked in nervously, kind of chewing his shirt. But when she picked him up the teachers did suggest that he bring something special next time because he was kind of whimpering for awhile. So Bear Bear might get to go to school next week.

Here he is standing in front of the door to Saint Stephen's. I loved the little snippets I got from him about school. He has a cubby hole with his name on it. I asked him what he put in his cubby hole and he said, "Oh, your backpack." (Almost every sentences starts with "oh" these days). He said, "Did they turn the lights off," and indeed they did turn the lights off for nap time and my mom said Huston was still sleeping when she came to pick him up (he was one of three kids still dead asleep on the floor while they other kids played). Never would I have expected that!

He came home with a heart sticker on his hand and based on the little "recipe" cooking activity he brought home, I deduced that they read The Kissing Hand, a sweet story about starting school. The little heart sticker is supposed to represent a mom's kiss that stays with you all day at school. He got really upset when his heart sticker fell off at home, and this from a kid that never wants to wear stickers for more than 3 seconds.

He told me they had circle time and he also told us "The music didn't work. Did it go 'mmmmmmmm'," so there must have been some kind of technological mishap that made an impression on him. And then late last night he suddenly bust out with, "At your preschool did they sing 'Days of the Week, Days of the Week.'" I found the Dr. Jean song on my ipod that I think they might have sung and he got really happy listening to it.

So, a fortuitous start to the school year. I hope he loves school and I can't wait to go up there and meet his teachers and see his little class.

Random Updates

I just had to record, so I don't forget, that Arden waved for the first time yesterday, September 4th. Clarke and I took the kids to the park because the weather was so nice in the morning and Arden saw a lady walking three dogs and she got so excited. (Her first real interaction with a dog was at Huston's birthday party with my brother's dog, Pup. She loved Pup and followed her around making happy sounds during the whole party). Anyway, she stretched out her little hand and started waving it up and down while she kicked her legs and strained to go see the little doggies. The rest of the day she would occasionally move her hand up and down or open and close it while she watched it, as if she was thinking, "Oh, so that's how you do it."

Although she's not walking yet, she took her first steps about a week ago, on August 26th. It is so fun to set her a few feet away from me and let her toddle over. She looks just like Frankenstein with her arms outstretched and her lurching, lunging motions. She can easily take 5 or 6 steps in a row, but usually lunges towards you at the end and still doesn't really try to walk by herself.

Huston and Arden both had check ups last week (Arden's 9 month and Huston's 3 year). Arden is now 29 inches tall, which is 90th percentile, and 18 pounds, 12 ounces, which is 50th percentile. Huston is 38 and a half inches tall, which is in the 75th percentile, and he weighed 31 pounds, which I think is 50th percentile.

Okay, that's all the updates for now.

THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday, my sweet boy! I can't believe you're already three! You're an adorable, hilarious mess of a kid. You love windshield wipers and garage doors and are never happier than when you're allowed to push all of the buttons in a car or open and close a garage door. Today at your party you got to play with lots of windshield wipers and you told me, "Did you get to do Grandpa's wipers and Mimi's wipers and Uncle Jay's wipers!" You were not interested in opening your presents and, in fact, only opened them all because you were told you could play with windshield wipers after you opened gifts. You're so silly! Everything in the world is either a garage door or a windshield wiper to you. You use combs and straws from Chick-Fil-A as wipers, and the little "roll-top-esque" door on our hutch as a garage door.

You are afraid of the "knobs" on the end of your bed and always have to be reassured at night that they won't do anything to you. We cover all four of the posts up with blankets and you say, "The knobs don't have faces. The knobs can't talk to you. Bear Bear will help you. Jesus will not let the knobs talk to you." You sleep with Bear Bear, Blankie, and three real windshield wipers (two front and one back) every night.

Your favorite book of late is "Blue Goes to School" (as in Blue's Clues). You'll be starting preschool in two weeks and Mimi bought it for you to help you get ready. You have the whole thing memorized and can recite it.

You love the video "It's a Dad's Life" on You Tube and always ask to watch it on my ipod. You can sing almost the whole thing from memory and Daddy just told me today that when he gets you down out of your car seat you start to sing the part that says "my whole entourage hops out the minivan." You are fascinated by minivans and think that the dryer lint trap is just like a minivan door. I think you wish we had one so you could push the button to open and close the door. You love the way it slides closed.

You are completely dependent upon your little white chair that you push around the house that allows you to reach all the switches for the lights and the fans. The other day you turned our thermostat up into the 80's and almost sweat Grandma out of the house while she was watching you. You also knocked over our new computer while you were trying to "plug it in" as you said. You're a little more mischievous lately.

Here's some pictures from your party today. Happy birthday, Huston!

You had a great time at your party and loved the train cake Grandma made for you. You only freaked out when we sang the first few words of "happy birthday" and then you started screaming and crying so we had to stop. Still hate that song, I guess. Maybe next year...

You parked yourself by the Chick-Fil-A nugget tray and helped yourself to them. You had fun seeing all of our sweet friends and family and playing with everyone.

Comic Relief

Some days are just harder than others. On those days when I want to simultaneously pull my hair out and hide under the bed, I am grateful for the little things that make me laugh. These adorable pictures of Huston and Arden playing the piano provided me with just such relief the day they were taken (this past week). They are both without clothes in these pictures because during the course of the day, Huston had peed in his underwear while sitting in time out for pushing Arden and taken his pullup off during nap time and peed on the floor. Arden, in turn, had peed and pooped all over herself and the floor while sitting in her high chair because (it turns out) her diaper wasn't fastened well and had come undone. Huston clued me into this catastrophe by yelling, "Mommy! Is there water on the floor!" Unfortunately, it was not water.

I had about had it with poop and pee by the time the day was over.

The pictures below were taken Sunday, after our sweet friends, the Browns, came over to spend the afternoon with us. During the course of playing with Ezra, Enoch, and Marta in his room, Huston pooped (and peed) in his underwear twice. He broke the lightbulb in our new lamp after having been told two times not to touch it. And he took his pullup off again during nap time and peed on the floor again.

Thank goodness these kids are hilarious and I love them so much, or some days I really might buy a one way ticket to a deserted tropical island.

Arden at 8 months

My sweet little Arden is 8 months old now. Here's what she's been up to lately:

Her two favorite toys in the house are this piano that Huston got from his Great-Granny and Papaw and the "Elmo's Restaurant" play kitchen that Huston got for Christmas one year. The piano is a recent discovery, and she gets practically giddy with excitement when she crawls over and starts banging the keys and singing along with her high-pitched squeals. Other than these two things, no other toy can really hold her interest for long. She'd much rather be crawling around, pulling up on things, looking for scraps of paper or crumbs on the floor to eat, trying to crawl into toilets or rummage through garbage cans, or otherwise get into mischief. She is a little explorer.

Arden is eating Gerber puffs and cheerios, along with baby food. She gets pretty mad when I feed her baby food, though, and tries to grab the spoon out of my hand with every bite I give her. This makes for some incredibly messy meal times. It's obvious she'd much rather be feeding herself, but so far she hasn't liked the bananas and avocados I've offered her. I'll have to get more creative with the food choices soon. She started formula at her 11 o'clock feeding (in preparation for me returning to teaching this fall - a post for another day) and has taken to it beautifully. I am so grateful that she has not refused the bottle or formula.

She continues to think her big brother is awesome, and no one can amuse her more than he can. By far the sweetest sound I have ever heard is the two of them playing in the back seat of the car. Huston will do something silly and she will crack up with the most adorable laugh, and then Huston will laugh and do it again. It is precious and wonderful.

Arden loves splashing in the bathtub with Huston, playing in Huston's room, roaming around and exploring, playing peek-a-boo, snuggling stuffed animals (like her stuffed lamb and the stuffed monkeys and big dog in Huston's room), and grabbing her daddy's nose so he'll make a funny sound. She hates having scraps of paper and other forbidden things taken away from her, and will sometimes throw herself backwards onto the floor with her maddest scream when you take some such thing away from her. She uses her pacifier at naptime and bedtime, but doesn't love it like Huston loved his. She still only has her two lower front teeth and she still has the beginnings of some curls in her hair. In general she is an incredibly easy going baby and not hard to keep happy - just hard to keep out of trouble. :)