Christmas Eve/Day

This post was to come before the one after this to be in chronological order, but I'm only off by a few days.  Be grateful you're reading this post at all, as I'm amazed that I survived Christmas this year.  I took pictures to keep my mind occupied.  With Connor being gone for 7 of the longest days ever and now trying to stay afloat in our house as I gut our 'old' things to make room for all our new things, I've just been in a fog with it all.  I am extremely grateful for all that we've received, but I'm seriously trying to develop a plan to help simplify the holiday season with kids for the upcoming years.

Christmas Eve- we spent at Debbie's house.  We had our challenging moments trying to keep Noah from gripping onto any and all things breakable, but overall, he did great. 

Poppy scooped the Noah Monster up for some story time.

The stinker face running all over.

 

I love the tradition of singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.  Plus, Noah thoroughly enjoys the "Happy Birthday" song, so it was great.  It grabs his attention every time.

I think the 'baby' faze starts to really fade when all the teeth start to come in.  Noah's cute little teeth in the front are my favorite.  Unfortunately, he has about 6 teeth plowing through now.  We will have to bid farewell to his beaver grin soon.

Noah crashed in the car on the ride home from Deb's, so once he was transferred to bed, it was time to get ready for Christmas morning.  It was an empty feeling without Connor home.  Literally, like a hole in my heart that night.  My thrill for Christmas morning was counting down until noon, when I could pick him up.

I didn't think Noah would care too much about Christmas morning, but he was pretty thrilled.  He jumped right down to play with his new goodies (and maybe snatch Connor's new basketball out of his Santa pile).

Sidenote:  Noah was in his precious Christmas jammies, but woke in the morning good & wet down the front of them.  He had a quick wardrobe change before exploring his Santa goodies.

We let Noah open his gifts from us.  He was happy just to shred one tiny piece of wrapping paper into teeny tiny bits.  The actual gifts were more fun for us, really.

Our little Christmas model.

When my phone alarm chimed at 11:15am, I was a flash out the door.  As I drove to pick him up, I just bawled my eyes out.  I literally could not wait to pick him up.  7 long days away from him.  It was Christmas day & I needed my sweet boy home.

He got in the car as we loaded to come back home & he said, "Mom, when we get home, can I just hug you for a while?"  

Instant tears at this point.  I reminded him about what happy tears were.

He could not wait to see Noah too.  Even Noah seemed happier with Connor home now. 

While it still was a strange Christmas, breaking our tradition of the last 6 years, it was still thrilling to just have my boy home.  Nana & Papa came by.  Life was complete again.

Connor's big gift from Nana & Papa was a fun, "Fliker" scooter.  Without a better explanation, the scooter gains its speed as he wiggles his hiney from side to side.  It took some coordination, but by day 2, he was pretty impressive on it!

After gifts, Michael was itching to have Connor over after their week break from one another.  There were so many big boy giggles.  There's no question where home is to C.  He was in his element & loving every second of it. 

Of all the big gifts that day, C loved his $10 Avengers sticker activity book the most.

And this little guy just made his rounds from new toy to new toy.  He was in Heaven.

We spent the evening at Grandma Lori's house, where C was happy to hang with Austin & Noah was happy to have so many snacks.  Uncle Mitch & Aunt Michelle gifted all the tiny Phins' fans some Dolphins' gear.  Uncle Mitch was glowing :). 

Big, big, big thank you to all that contributed to our family Christmas this year.  Its hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone already.

Now its a countdown until I'm 3-0. Woo. Hoo.

Winter Break

Now that Connor is home, my winter break is officially happy.

Noah has shown zero interest in TV at all (thought he might be all about TV after being exposed to it with whatever Connor likes to watch).  That was all until we discovered a video on YouTube.  If you search "Kid Videos," its the very first video that comes up.  It's a good 50 minutes of ABCs and has about 50 million views.  Pretty sure Noah is responsible for 1 million of those views at this point.

He will actually toddle into our room, hunt for the remote, and hold it up to the TV in attempt to turn it on.  He bobs back and forth as he dances to it.  

Oh & for anyone that says kids don't learn anything from TV, he can say "Gorilla" now.  

Yep, doesn't say "Mama" consistently yet, but can say "Gorilla!"

We take our wagon walks almost every morning.  This wagon was one of the best things I ever saved since having Connor.  It serves as our stroller.  I think Noah likes it more than a stroller since he can see me in front of him.  He just rides and waves to those that pass by or random dogs.  Noah will be my 'I do it myself' child though!  He likes to push the wagon now (for about 200 feet), then decides its too much work & opts to ride the rest of the way.

We had a playdate with a neighbor boy that just a few months younger than Noah.  Noah paid no attention to the kid, but instead, made best buds with his dog the whole time we were there.  They played fetch for about a half an hour.  Noah just wanted to throw and throw and throw.

Is it inappropriate to schedule dog playdates from now on?

With the weather warm, we loaded up Connor, Connor's neighbor buddy (Michael), and the Noah Monster & headed to the pool/fountains.

This was his first trip there since he's been walking well.  Pretty sure he liked it.

The big boys played and the littlest guy enjoyed watching them run around.

Noah wasn't big on walking through the chilly misting fountains, but found one fountain in the area that lightly sprinkled water.  I think he lost his breath every time he walked through the cold water, but was all smiles.

This little fish was happy to be back in the pool after a break for a few months.

Gosh, I love that sweet face.

Happy.as.a.clam.

Matt took the boys in the big pool & I got to sit on the side.  It was nice to not have to hop in and yet, still observe the boys at play.

Noah didn't care much for his baby tube the last time we went to the pool, so opted to not take it this time around.  Once he saw Connor using his tube, Noah decided he liked the idea of having a tube.  The 'watch big brother and want to do it' trend is becoming more frequent :).

We're contemplating a trip to the zoo tomorrow.  We'll see how we feel in the morning! 

Sherman-Whitaker-Andreasen Christmas

Each year our Christmas Eve gathering gets a little harder to coordinate, as everyone is growing up, moving away, having babies, juggling work, etc.  This year, we all gathered at Holly & Doug's house in Hobe Sound for our Christmas celebration.  Matt was fighting off a bad cold, so we made the last minute choice for him to stay back at home to not risk spreading germies to the 4 babies in attendance.  Noah & I tagged along with Nana & Papa for the 3 hour drive.  Noah had his tears in the car for a short while, but slept the majority of the trip.  With a snippet of Noah's morning nap and him not feeling 100%, he was tough to keep happy that day.  He was happy about 25% of the time.  It was kinda brutal, but we made the best of it!

Holly's house was beautiful & it was neat to see of the babies under one roof.

Noah hanging with Papa

Bennett & Auntie K

Brooks chatting away with Nana

Our annual gift exchange

Brother-sister-brother

The Fiances :)

A tiny moment of smiles

Noah's little buddy for the day, Zuma

Holly & Doug put on a beautiful family get together & the food was yummy!  Big big thank you for having us over. 

Three days until Christmas (when my sweet boy is home with me again!!!!)

December Festivities!

I've been excited for the holidays with my boys, but secretly dreading it at the same time.  This is the first time that Connor will be gone for a week (at his Dad's), as he's to be there the first half of Christmas break.  SEVEN days feels like an eternity.  I've been openly talking about it with C for a while to help relieve any anxiety he'll have for being gone that long.  He came home from school the other day and asked for paper and a pencil to write me a note.  He wrote this:

(It reads: "I miss my mom when I am gone.  I wish my mom could visit.")

He drew a picture of us talking on the phone and another picture of him crying.  A few random hearts are on there too.

I was proud of him for expressing his feelings, yet my heart broke in a million pieces knowing he felt this way.  It's so hard explaining to him that he "has to go," and that I'm not allowed to come visit.  If he only knew how much it kills me to have him gone this long.  If he only knew the anxiety I have worrying about where he is, what he's doing, if he's homesick, if he's able to express how he's feeling or if he's harboring his feelings, if he's brushing his teeth every day, etc etc etc. Praying I can keep busy and that my C is happy. 

So as I sit and pray for the next 7 days to fly by faster than ever (he'll be home to me on Christmas day at noon), I am glad we got to enjoy some fun activities/holiday fun before he left.  Here's a little recap:

Some of our faves (Danielle and her family) were in town from PA & we got to visit her family's new property in Alva.  Lots of friends, fire, cows, motorized vehicles, and food made for such a great night!

I love how Ryder, Sophia, and Connor can always pick up from where they left off every time we get together (maybe once or twice a year).  They had fun collecting sticks for the fire and helping with tossing them all in.  It's crazy how big they are now.

Noah thought the cows were big dogs!  These cows were a hoot!  They came running when they saw giant marshmallows.  The saliva that oozed from their jowls was pretty gross, but still super cool to watch.

While the big kids played, the Noah Monster explored as well!

The three musketeers!

We played a lot outside, then took a break from chasing Noah to check out the fish tank inside.

I'm so grateful I've met these girls!  It's so nice to have such sweet friends and that our kids are sweet friends too!

The December fun continued when C and I had a special date at Lowes to build a Christmas train.  I warned him I wasn't the handiest, but we rocked it.  The train was perfection!  We had fun scoping out the holiday blowups on display in Lowes then stopped at the Dollar Store on the way home, so C could pick out some gifts for some of his fave people, special just from him.  While I was encouraging the theme of "giving" for Christmas, I still couldn't say no to C as he kindly asked to buy the Avengers and Spiderman Chistmas wrapping paper at checkout.  Little things thrill him :).

The Noah Monster has discovered the fun he can have on the playground.  Our neighborhood playground is one of his favorite places.  Matt & I took turns chasing after him!

Sidenote: Matt always participates in the "No shave November."  By the end of the month, I'm excited to see his beard gone.  He's grown a liking to it, so it has hung around for December.  Connor and I agree Matt looks a lot like Yukon from the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer movie. :)

Last weekend was our neighborhood Christmas party.  We had to make a reservation for the carriage ride & we came to find out the carriage ride was running a little off schedule, so our ride time was delayed an hour.  Matt & I made the executive decision to nix Noah riding at 7:00pm since he was ready for bed and there was a good chance he wouldn't want to sit still on it anyway.  I decided to stay with Connor (and his buddy, Michael) and sent Matt (and Michael's dad) home with the little kids (3 of them).  The wait was well worth it, since the big boys were able to ride in the special seats up front, overlooking the horses.  I'm so grateful we live in such a great neighborhood for the kids.

We decided last minute to try out the Lake Park Christmas activities.  Nana met us for supper beforehand, then we rallied together to give Connor and Noah proper attention.  C went all the way across the monkey bars on the playground for the first time (C was SO proud), while Noah ran all over like he owned the place.  We ended the exciting outing with a family ride on the train.  Matt & I were not sure if we should have Noah ride it or not, since its a very slow moving 2 mile ride on a teeny train.  We were not allowed to get off at any time, so I just pictured my squirmy boy squawking & having no where to go.  My mom (aka Super Nana) was pretty confident she could keep him interested on the train, so we went ahead & held her to her word!  Noah didn't make a peep the entire time and I got to sit with my Connor.  While the lights/ride are a snoozefest for the adults, the kids love it!  So glad we did it!

This photo just makes me laugh.  Noah picks up on stuff so quickly by watching us, especially while watching Connor.  He shoots hoops after watching Connor and Michael.  He dribbles a soccer ball after watching them too. He knows to grab a remote and hold it up toward the TV (in attempt to turn it on).  He loves to hold a controller while C plays his video game, sit by C, and hold it up, all while babbling to C as if he's playing right along with him.

Now, hurry up Christmas!!!