Christmas 2021

            Ahhhh, Christmas and dancing Santa.  Nothing says its Christmas like Santa, with broken arms and doesn't dance, but still stays music.  This poor thing gets worse every year but this is, in fact, the last year we will have him.  

                                                     

Our Christmas Eve traditions filled the evening up.  We went to mass and then drove thru the holiday nights and lights in our PJ's.

                                        

And we opened one gift Christmas eve night.  I opened the gift the kids gave me.  It was a bike bag and lots of homemade crafts, drawings and candy from the kiddos.  It was THE BEST gift! I love how they are so excited to watch me open it. 

And Santa did make his arrival.  Of course, the kids went to bed full of excitement and LATE.  Josie told me she woke up at 3am and her and Ella went to check to see if Santa had come and then had trouble falling back to sleep.  But eventually did and then woke again at 6am. 

Eli got a Yoda squishmallow!

Santa did not disappoint.

Don't shoot ELI! 

Smiles all around!!!

Both the girls got new desks and their AWESOME dad put them together later that morning.  They were upstairs organizing and putting all their stuff in their desks all day!  Those were the favorites for them!  The next day it was off to Ohio where Covid made it's impact and Christmas looked different for us, again.  

 

And lets not forget what the real reason of the season is!  The birth of the son of God,  Jesus Christ! Praying that I am teaching this enough in my children's lives.  

December Happenings

December is always so busy it's hard to catch it in just one post.  At the beginning of the December is the fest of St. Nick.  Eli got this train craft that he loved doing and was very proud when it was complete.  The girls received diamond dot stocking craft that they never got completed...maybe next year.

We finally recieved our school pictures since we had to do the re-take day.  This year Eli showed the most growth and change.  He is so handsome and getting so big.  I love how his pictures turned out!

And the girls didn't disappoint either.  They are so grown and pretty and those pink dresses really bring the red out in their hair.  I love how their pictures turned out too.  

And the kids received their first dose of the Covid -19 Vaccine.  Doing our part during this pandemic.  

And in some other news, ELI LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH!!!  This kid was so PUMPED UP when his tooth came out.  It was barely hanging on and he wouldn't let me just pull it out.  But it finally came out when he was eating.  

I can't get over his smile with that hole in it! 

The tooth fairy did make it to our house and gave him some money and gum.  However, he was not the only one who lost a tooth this month.  Josie lost #13(I think) Christmas day and Ella lost one as well on the 31st.  I bet the tooth fairy was tired of visiting our house, especially on new years eve!!

We did another away swim meet and ran into some friends, the Peters, that used to be in Ottumwa.  It was fun to catch up with them and made the swim meet go faster!

And lets not forget about the Christmas concert at school.  All 3 performing songs they had been working on in music class.  This was the night I realized I had a STAR! Eli sang his little heart out and was clearly heard well above everyone else boasting his self confidence and love of singing! It was so cute and funny I couldn't help but laugh. 

Just look at him! GAH! I just love him so much!

Busy busy as usual for December!  Next up... Christmas

Ella: age 9

 

Ella at 9 is sweet, quiet, creative and sensitive.  Ella is still the peanut of the girls and rounds out the personalities in this house.  She is sooo sweet and lovable.  She loves her brother and sister a lot.  She is our animal lover and art lover.  She wants to be an art teacher/teacher or artist when she grows up.  Her favorite subjects is school is art, math science and "all of them."  She is more of the quieter one lets Josie do most of the talking.  She tries to be shy, but I don't think she is.  She also loves her friends and gets along with everyone.  I love her little personality and her sensitiveness.  But don't let this peanut fool you, she is tough.  Ella can handle pain like a boss.  I don't know if it's from her surgery on her feet or what, but she does not complain much and can handle things way more than Josie.  She is not quite growing at the same pace as Josie and is still in a size 13 shoe.  She has had a pair of shoes for 2 years now.  I bet she skips some sizes when her feet decide to grow.  

I can't imagine our family with out our Ella Bella.  She is ready for life in a sweet way and we are ready to see her take it on!  Always stay sweet and thinking about others like you do! 

Josie: age 9

Josie at age 9..

This girl at 9 is KIND, social, sass and fierce.  She will tell how she feels, what she thinks and her opinion on anything and everything, asked or not.  She loves her friends and wants to be around them a lot. She is all about socializing, we call her our social butterfly.  She does not like to do any projects or crafts that take awhile because she finds them boring.  Josie is becoming quite sassy and has recently started rolling her eyes.  You can imagine how mom likes that....

She likes to organize and yells at her sister to keep their room clean. We call it leadership in her bossing of her sister. :) She does very well at school and doing her homework.  Her favorite class is recess ;)  She can be competitive but has not quite grown into that as sports have not really sparked to much of interest.  Babies are her thing!  She loves all babies, loves to "babysit," hold and care for them.  Our good friends kid Ellie is getting just a little too big for her and wants her to stop growing. 

But most of all she cares about others feelings, making sure they are included and just KIND.  She loves her sister but finds her brother annoying.   She just recently told me she loves clothes and shoes. Josie is growing up into a young lady right before eyes. In her eyes she is ready to take on the world and we can't wait to see her do it!   

 

On Cloud 9

The girls were on cloud 9 because they turned 9!  I made them a special "cloud 9" breakfast of doughnuts in the shape of a 9 on top of cool whip.  Of course, that went over well.  How can this be?  If feels like just a few years ago we were bringing them home from the NICU.  We usually don't have any birthday plans for their birthday besides treats for school.  And this year we did, but Ella woke up with pink eye and had to miss school on her birthday so they did their cookies treats on Monday.  Ella actually didn't seem that bummed.  

The size difference is getting pretty big.  

This year we went ahead and got their ears pierced on their birthdays.  They were excited, nervous, happy, and all other sorts of emotions leading up to this.  It was cute to hear them talk about who was going to go first and how they thought it was going to feel.  The decision was that Josie was going first! 

She did great!  I held her hand and in no time she was a pierced girl! 

You can see the half smile after the first one.  No backing out and ready to get the second one done!  Josie chose little cross earrings.  She has done very well with cleaning them and taking care of them.

Ella was next.  She was ready to go after watching Josie.  I also held her hand.  She chose little pink hearts for her earrings.  She did great too!  They both could NOT stop looking in the mirror at their ears!  Ella, as well, has been very responsible with taking care of them.  

Checking out her ears!  They were both so HAPPY!!!

Happy Happy birthday girls!!  We hope this was a birthday to remember.  We love you, we like you and can't wait to see what you do this year!