First Christmas Baby!

Here are some pics of the outfit Garrett is wearing, He had a great First Christmas!

Santa Has Arrived!

Santa has arrived and Madison was so excited (I will try to post the video of her when she first came out of her room). We were lucky this year and probably will be one of the last years that our kids slept in. In fact we had to wake Madison up! Garrett wasn't real sure about the whole thing but once he saw the toys he was game for what was going on now! Garrett got a walk behind toy, piano and train and numerous other toys from all the family. Madison got a kitchen and a baby stroller and crib. One of her favorite presents was from her daddy a canopy for over her bed, she has wanted one and has asked and asked for it! Dave got a little remote control car from the kids, which had to be used inside because of all the snow...the kids loved it Garrett loved chasing after it and than Dave would move it just in time! Dave got various other things, XBox games and a board game called Ticket to Ride which we can't wait to play.....it is so much fun! Diantha got a Kitchen Aid Mixer and she is excited every time we make something with the mixer we wait for our hand held mixer to blow up cause it smells like it is going to burst into flames at any moment! This will be a fun addition to our kitchen! She also got some silicone flexible baking pans.

This Christmas Day we were able to relax a lot more and take time and play with the kids. We were amazed by the love of our families. Because we didn't get to go home all the presents made it to our house this year and the kids had more than enough to open. They loved it and the highlight of the day is when Madison said, "We need to go through my toys and give some away to kids who don't have any, I have too many toys now!" We must be doing something right, it made us proud to know even on such an exciting day she takes time to think of others and she is only 3. We should all learn from her.

Well this was our exciting day and I look forward too reading about others in their post.

PS Madison also said this morning the 26th, its time to take the tree down Christmas is over!

Christmas Dinner

This year we had Christmas Eve Dinner and on Christmas Day we had the leftovers. We had a family over in our ward that was not going to be able to go home for the holidays. So we set the table all nice and pretty and cooked up a ham with all the trimmings. It was really fun to be able to cook dinner for others too.

And I got some pretty Christmas Flowers, they smell really good too!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we always get new pajamas, it is the one and only present they get to open on Christmas Eve! Madison can't wait to open more, she has had her eye on the presents that have come in the mail that are now under the tree. And of course we can't forget to leave out the cookies and milk for Santa and some yummy carrots for the reindeer, they get hungry too!

Have A Wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Love, Dave, Diantha, Madison and Garrett

Just in Time For Christmas

When all was lost and it looked like we would look out of windows on Christmas Morning and see nothing but grass, well Friday it snowed and snowed and snowed some more! Madison and her friend Sydney went out to enjoy it after the 20 minutes it takes to get all the gear on they play outside, they play for what feels like 10 minutes! It was enjoyable, they wanted to make a snow man but the snow was so fluffy and soft it wouldn't stick together, they opted for a little sledding instead. Madison wouldn't get on it with out Sydney, I tried and she screamed and screamed and screamed. She said it was too scary the sad thing was I was walking and pulling the sled, but she has always been one who is scared of EVERYTHING! Garrett had to stay inside I am sure he would have enjoyed the snow but the little guy has to get better first!

I especially love to look outside and see the untouched snow I think it is the most beautiful.

Poor Garrett

Before getting sick on the 12th
Being Sick Is NO Fun 12/20!!!!

So it has been awhile since I have posted anything on our website, so tonight I have decided to show you what has been going on in our house..... we have had one sick little boy. Garrett started coming down with something on the 14th and we thought it was a little cold. Spoke too soon, the poor little started throwing up (both ends!) and wouldn't eat or keep anything down. On top of that we got some kind of infection in his eye which we thought was pink eye but it was just some infection, that was the easy part to get rid of. So here we are a week later and we still haven't recovered. He isn't eating really well (won't even eat solid food) and he has been laying around and wow the whine that has come with it. Everyone who has been around him knows that Garrett is all smiles and is always on the go......no for the past week we have a hard time even getting a smile out. Things are a little better than when this first started we don't have to feed the poor guy with a syringe every 10-15 minutes and only a few tablespoons at a time, that was frustrating and time consuming. We aren't throwing up anymore but we still have issues with the other end, which is the hardest to get out of clothes......even if you wash right after it happens.

I feel like I have done a million loads of laundry and Madison has been a little neglected because we had to watch Garrett so he wouldn't throw up all over the place and he just wants to be held. I will probably regret this but for now no one else has caught it and we are a week into the contamination, so tomorrow is my cleaning day, to really clean.

Garrett I think is over the major part and I think now he is just trying to get his poor little body to recover and get his strength back for now he is still laying on the floor or in my arms and doesn't really care what is going on around him. I hope he gets better and our happy little boy is back before Christmas!

Christmas Tree TAKE 2

We have had an interesting few days. Yesterday Madison was playing around in the living room and I had warned her 2 times that she needed to settle down around the tree but being the 3 year old that she is she kept being absolutely crazy(must be the time of year). Not two moments later she ran into some boxes which fell on the Christmas Tree knocking it over, thank goodness Garrett was out of the way. The star on the top broke and she even managed to break the base of the tree. It was an artificial tree so it was plastic and it didn't stand up to a 3 year old. Madison was so upset. She asked, "Is Santa still going to come, we don't have a tree it's broken." We had a long talk about being careful around the tree. We tried to fix it but it wouldn't even stand up straight. So last night we went and bought a new tree. This time we went with a pre-lite tree....no more hanging up strings of lights, Dave was pretty happy about that. So now we have a funny story and a new tree to enjoy this holiday season even more.

THE JOY OF HAVING LITTLE CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE! But we sure do love them!

Little Santas

Today Madison's friend Sydney is with us again for the day. So we made little Santa's. The girls seemed to have a lot of fun although this activity they needed more help than I would have thought. The felt was really hard for them to cut out with safety kid scissors. The part they loved the most was the glitter and the wiggly eyes.

So Garrett got the run of the house. I found him in his room in the basket that had books in it, he decided he wanted to get in instead and read some books. He was awfully cute and very proud of himself and his accomplishment.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Madison and Garrett went to visit Santa Claus. Madison got right up there and told him what she wanted for Christmas, I was really surprised that she even went up and got on his lap. Garrett didn't really care he just smiled away! She let Santa know she wants a kitchen and a baby stroller and baby crib. It was a fun experience and she is already asking to go again.

Gingerbread Houses

Last night for Family Night we made a gingerbread house. It was a lot of fun and Madison had a blast putting on the candies, although many of the candies made their way to her little mouth instead. Madison has already inspected her house this morning, I guess making sure it is still there. It was a fun little holiday activity and a great way to have a Christmas decoration and to spend time together as a family in our face pace world, makes you slow down and enjoy the little moments.

Pictures

We got pictures taken on Saturday and I will post the ones of the kids on here. I am working on a Christmas card we can post on our blog(Save money on stamps!) using our family picture. Enjoy the kids pictures.

Dance Baby Dance

So we finally got Madison to make a video, you get a dancing video but hey she did it. Dave and I could believe she could shake her little hips like that! She is really proud of her video and has watched it over and over.

Making Christmas Special

I have been tagged by my Aunt Kristeen to tell what we do as a family to make Christmas special and traditions we have with our little family.
Since we have been married every year we pick a family that might not have as much as we have(which isn't much anyway) and we do the twelve days of Christmas. It is a lot of fun to do and this year I think Madison will have a lot of fun. The past years she hasn't really gotten what we are doing. Also on Christmas Eve we get the kids new pajamas. Last year for months afterwards Madison called them her "Santa Pajamas"
This year we are going to attempt to make Gingerbread House and we will make that a new tradition. Also this year we are going to have Madison go through her toys and give away some of them to kids that need some and hopefully teach her young about giving to others in need.
We drive around and look at the Christmas lights that everyone has put up. We listen to Christmas music constantly, there is a radio station that has played Christmas music nonstop since Nov. 1. Also we do a lot of baking and and giving away of all the treats that we back because we are not going to keep all the treats in our house.
And of course we always put the tree up together and decorate it.
So I guess that is what we do for Christmas we are still making memories and as our kids get a little older we will do more.

Imaginary Friends

I know this is a perfectly normal stage for kids to go through but it is starting to get really hard to not step, sit or shut the door on Madison's imaginary friend Lilly. Yes, she even has a name, one day she just showed up and Madison insisted that we take her everywhere, she even insist on buckling Lily into the van too. Examples of why it has gone to far are : Yesterday when we went to leave Madison insisted on holding the front door open until Lily and her friends got outside (Meanwhile letting all the heat out) Dave walked out the door and she exclaimed that he had stepped on Lily, and she wouldn't come down the stairs so Dave picked up Madison and carried her down, the whole time she is shouting very loudly, "Don't leave my Girls!!!!" over and over again.
Another example, a friend of ours Bryan one night Madison showed Lily to him and he pretended to eat Lily, bad idea! Madison came unglued dropped to the floor and started crying. She wouldn't go near Bryan and since them when we see them she usually hides Lily in her pocket(Yes, Lily is also only the size of Madison's hand.)
So this is our new stage in life, a very interesting one. We have tried to explain that she is a special friend only Madison can see so that she won't come unglued every time you sit or step on Lily.
So our adventures with Lily continue, any ideas, I read it is healthy to play along to some extent. I would have thought Lily would be gone by now(has been about a month.)

Growing up

Well today we worked on writing Madison's name, we needed a change from learning the alphabet. I would tell her the letter in her name(we are still working on spelling it on our own) and write it on my paper and she wrote it out on her paper. This is the first time she has written her name and she did a great job.

She has been obsessed with zero and one lately, so we get a lot of this on her papers too.

To bad her name can't have a bunch of 1 and 0 in it she would have it mastered. She is always telling me she has 100 of something (I think she got the 100 off Curious George where he orders 100 dozen doughnuts!)

Playing Around

So we were just playing around with the camera, getting the kids ready and in the mood for the family pictures we will take tomorrow. Just thought I would share a few of them with you.
It is very rare to get a picture where Garrett will let Madison hold him he is just way to busy for that kind of picture. On the other hand if he is in the picture by himself he will pose for you and let you capture that moment.

And Madison well she has the picture taking process down! I love this picture I think it really captures her personality.

As for our past few days, I haven't posted because we really haven't done much of anything. It is too cold to go outside and enjoy the snow we have on the ground. Our high yesterday I believe was 20 degrees the overnight low closer to 0 degrees.

Last night we did venture out and we and say a nativity display, it has over 700 different nativity sets on display. It was really neat to see all the different styles and from the different countries. They were beautiful to look at and it was a nice family outing after being inside for a few days now.

Christmas Window

Since we live in an apartment we really are limited on the number of outside decorations we can have. Okay so we really can't have many at all we have is a little deck. So solution is paint something in the window. So this year we put Santa riding a train. Madison is really into the whole train thing with Polar Express and well Santa that is just a given put them together and you have window decorations. Just like they paint in the shops and stores! Madison helped paint the colors in and she was real proud of herself.

We did one for Thanksgiving but I forgot to take a picture.

Something New I can Do!

Tree Time

Our Christmas tree is officially up! and for the 2 days that it has been up Madison has went out in the living room in the morning and than comes in our room and says, "I just checked no presents yet, I guess Santa hasn't been here yet." I have tried countless times to explain it too her, but it is not really working so I think we are going to make a Christmas countdown chart of some sorts. It was a lot of fun putting on the ornaments and telling Madison about her ornaments on the tree.

Thanksgiving x2

This year we are so blessed to be able to have 2 Thanksgiving Dinners. The second was not planned all that well but still successful. On Thanksgiving Day we went over to a friends house for dinner which was so fun and so tasty. On Friday we had our own Thanksgiving. Unplanned of course. Dave's work gave him a Turkey and he decided that he wanted to cook it on Friday. So I proceeded to make the dinner pumpkin pie and all. Garrett stared at the uncooked turkey, I pretty sure he was trying to figure out what that thing was. It was a 18 pound turkey so basically the same size. The finished product turned out really well and was really juicy inside. When Dave was carving the turkey Madison decided to take a chunk out of the turkey leg! She didn't really eat it she just pretended. Madison has decided that she really likes pumpkin pie, one of the few things she likes. Garrett got to experience real mashed potatoes, at first he wasn't so sure and than he decided to just dig in. He sure was a mess after dinner, into the bath he went. Both days were wonderful and full of fun and new experiences and a day full a gratefulness for the things that we have and all the wonderful people we have in our lives.