Christmas 2009

Christmas was a busy one for us this year. Craig had the 23rd-28th off of work, which was awesome. Allison had school on the 23rd, so we decided to send her and run a few errands. We made cookies in the afternoon and prepared for Santa's arrival. After talking to Clyde, or elf, we were notified that Santa could come early to our house since we would be traveling to Grand Haven. Lucky us! So, we made cookies and set out milk and carrots too. In return, Santa left some great gifts for the kids. Connor was happy with his M&Ms and his match box cars. He really didn't want anything else at the moment. It could have been a really cheap Christmas for us:) Allison loved her new Samantha doll (a total surprise since it is retired. I have had it for a year) and bed. Ella just hung out with us and enjoyed the chaos.

Allison with the cookies for Santa

Letter for Santa, cookies, and carrots for the reindeer

Ella with her new gifts

Allison with Samantha

Connor with his new ball toy

After getting the house somewhat cleaned up we packed up and headed to Grand Haven. We drove right to Aunt Amy and Uncle John's house to decorate cookies and hang out. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Alguire's house for the night. We tried to go to church, but were stuck inside after some terrible ice formed and we were unable to get down the driveway. Christmas morning we opened gifts with grandma and grandpa Alguire and then were off to GG and Papa's house to open gifts. From there we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Constant's house for lunch and presents. Then at 4:00 we went to the Alguire Christmas at John and Amy's. The kids were exhausted, but it was a lot of fun and great food too!

Allison and grandma on Christmas morning

GG and Ella

Allison and Mama

GG and Allison

Connor shooting hoops

Connor and Allison decorating cookies

Sat. we headed to my parents house and stayed there for the afternoon and overnight. Allison and I went to Alivn and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquil with her cousins and then to Clover Bar with GG and Papa for dinner. Yummy!

Sunday we had one more Christmas party and a birthday party. We celebrated with the Jonas's at Nunica Hall. Then we were back to Grandma and Grandpa Alguire's for Uncle Jim's 70th birthday party. More gifts for the kids, might I add!

Monday we stopped in Rockford on our way back home to see Courtney, Max, Ryan and their new house!

Courtney, Ella, Ryan and Staci

Finally, we arrived home around 5:00 on Monday night. We had more "stuff" then I can describe and it took me the rest of the night and the entire next day to put everything away. We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. We are very thankful for all of the wonderful people in our lives. When we asked Allison what her favorite part of Christmas was, she said,"Decorating cookies with my cousins". That just warms my heart:)

Allison is 5

It is hard to believe that Allison is 5 years old. It seems like just yesterday we took her home from the hospital. We were so proud of our little bundle of joy. The last year has been a big one. We have seen some major growing up over the last year. First of all, she is growing like a weed. None of her size 4s fit anymore and even some of her 5s are too small. Secondly, she became a big sister for the second time. She is a great one too. Some of the things that come to mind are how much of a help she has become with Connor. She holds his hand going into young 5's and coming out. She helps him all time, whether it is getting into the car, getting into a chair (which he likes to do himself), or climbing at the local indoor play spaces. Allison constantly impresses my friends with how good she is to Connor. Yes, she has her moments, but overall I couldn't ask for a better little girl. Allison loves to hold Ella and when she talks to her a HUGE smile appears. She loves her big sis. She is really into doing crafts. Pretty much anything that she can cut, color, glue, or paint and she is a happy girl. She LOVES ballet and has become quite good at it. One of her favorite things to do is to play the Wii with her dad and they spend a lot of time reading books together too. This year has been the animal year. For several months all she wanted to check out from the library were animal books. We all learned a lot about animals. Allison started young 5's in September and made a very easy transition to it. She made friends easily and loves her teachers, Alisa and Courtney. We are so proud of the progress she has made this year and we are really looking forward to the coming year. Being a 5 year old means starting kindergarten and start of the rest of her life. We love you, Allison!

Allison with her new American Girl Doll, Julie

Allison with Owen, Charlotte and Madeline

Allison turns 5!

Allison with her new Liv doll

Clyde arrives

As December 1st grew closer, Allison started getting more and more excited to welcome back Clyde, our elf. Clyde joined our family two years ago and has been a source of great fun and entertainment for Allison. This year Connor is even joining in on the fun. Clyde hangs around the house all day and then flies off at night to visit Santa Claus and report on good and bad behavior. He returns each morning to a new spot in the house and the kids have to find him. Allison usually finds him first and then Connor yells "YEA Clyde!" Very fun!

Allison and Connor with their new little people Nativity set from Clyde the elf

Clyde hiding on top of the window

Thanksgiving Weekend in Grand Haven

We had a busy and fun Thanksgiving weekend. We started it off by celebrating Thanksgiving at Craig's sister, Katie's house. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and had a great time with friends and family. After going to our first Thanksgiving dinner we went to the Jonas family Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house. Allison and Connor had a great time playing with all of my cousins.

Rosalee, Allison, Ella and Mary Violet in their coordinating outfits

Rosalee, Allison, Ella, Mary Violet and Genevieve

On Friday we celebrated Allison's 5th birthday two weeks early so that she could have a party in Grand Haven with all of her cousins and her grandparents. This year she wanted a princess party. She celebrated in style with a tiara and a princess cake. The girls colored angel ornaments, got princess wands, ate pizza, watched Allison's year 4 video, and opened presents.

Our birthday princess

Connor enjoyed the cake and ice cream

Allison's piece of cake

Birthday cake

Look at all the great presents Allison received

Cousins celebrating Allison's 5th birthday

The birthday princess waiting for her guests

sisters

On Saturday Craig and I got to go out "kidless" with some childhood friends. It was wonderful to spend time with them. On Sunday we went to an open house for my good friend Mia to celebrate her recent marriage. Again, it was great to catch up with old friends. What a wonderful weekend spent with friends and family. We have a lot to be thankful for.

We gathered all the kids for a Christmas card picture.

Not bad considering we had 9 kids to keep from crying!

Staci, Craig, Mia, Tai, and Janelle

Turkey Time

Doing his "freeze" and showing off his messy hands/face/everything!

Allison frosting cookies

Tasting time!

Here is a look at the cookies!

Allison has bee asking me for the last two weeks to make turkey cookies with her hands. So, I decided it would be a good afternoon craft while Connor was down for his nap and the baby was resting. So I told her we would do it on Monday after I picked her up from school and Connor was sleeping. The day got sort of mixed up since Connor was not feeling well and fell asleep in the jogger at 10:15. I decided to let him sleep and he slept until 12:30 when I had to leave to go get Allison. So, needless to say, Connor was up for our turkey cookies. He was quite the helper and had a ton of fun making an enormous mess and eating a ton of frosting and cookies. Allison had fun decorating the cookies. It was a lot of fun, but a huge mess:)

Ella is 8 weeks old

Ella at 8 weeks old

Ella at 7 weeks old

Time is flying by and our little bundle of joy is getting big! She is already 8 weeks old and quickly growing out of all of her clothes. I took out all the newborn stuff and much of the 0-3 month clothing is going to be too small in the next couple of weeks. She is really smiling a lot these days and cooing a lot too, making life much more enjoyable for us. Ella sleep from about 10:15-2:30 in her cradle and then she eats and is back to sleep for three hours, eats again and back for another 2 or so. I have been able to get a solid 3-4 hours stretch at the beginning and that helps. Hard to believe that 3-4 hours sounds like a decent amount of sleep. She continues to sleep most of the day, but is up for an hour or so in between eating and sleeping. She just goes with the flow. With two older siblings, this is the way it is going to be.

Connor is 18 months

It is hard to believe that Connor is already 18 months old. He was actually 19 months at his visit with Dr. Sandvig and he was a champ. He played peek a boo with her, copied me showing her how he copied and told her lots of his words. He ended up getting 4 shots, which was not fun at all, but he bounced back quickly.

At 18 months here are some things he can do:

-Feeds himself entirely. He loves to eat pizza, boca chicken, apples, tacos, and his favorite of all GUMMIES! He continues to say more and do the sign for it hoping to get at least two or three packs of those things. I am happy to have something to keep him happy in the jogger while I get my exercise in!

-Copies EVERYTHING that Allison does. He marches to the U of M fight song with "knees high" just as she does, sings songs, plays with dolls, whatever she does, he does.

-His favorite songs are The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and ABC's.

-He loves to take a bath and go swimming. In fact he is known to splash around in the water long after Allison is out of the tub.

Loves reading books about airplanes and cars. He is such a boy.

Here are his stats:

Weight: 27.09 lbs (63%ile)

Height:33.86 inches (84%ile)

Head: 19.88 (97%ile) Yes he has a big head!

Connor has just gotten into throwing some temper tantrums and has had several time outs for hitting Allison. He hates sitting in time out, so at least that is working. He also loves to sit in the rocking chair with me at night and read books. I have to say that I too savor this time alone with him. With a baby sister just 18 months younger, his alone time with me is limited.

Overall Connor is thriving. He is a ton of fun and we are excited to see the little boy he is turning into.

Fall Vacation

Last Friday we loaded up the van and headed to Grand Haven for 7 days. Packing for 5 proved to be quite the undertaking! Ella went on her first trip to Grand Haven last week. We took off on Friday so that Craig could head to Chicago on Sat. to run the Chicago Marathon. He finished the race in 3 hours and 26 minutes! The kids and I stayed in Spring Lake with my parents and it was great to have the extra help. Ella met her aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents, Courtney, and grandpa for the first time. We celebrated two of our nieces' birthdays at the GH aquatic center and dinner at the Ackerman's house. Allison spent a lot of time with her cousins and we enjoyed seeing friends and family.

Connor and Ella in GH

All the girls at at the pool

Rocking Ella

Papa and Allison

Great grandma Constant meets Ella

Allison and Ella

Ella 3 weeks

Kathryn and Ella

The girls

MV and Ella

Anna and Ella

Wasem Fruit Farm

Ella is officially two weeks old and this week I have been flying solo. I was a bit nervous about venturing out with three kids, two under two. The first task was getting Allison to school by 8:30 on Monday morning with all three kids. Things went smoothly and I had her there about 8:35, not bad for the first time. Come winter, things may get interesting since I have to put Connor and Ella in the jogger just to drop her off. I guess I will pray for a close parking spot:) After dropping off Allison, we went to Target to get a few things and then home to unload. Then back out again to the downtown baby story time. Connor loves to go and listen to the music and stories and I feel like Connor needs some one on one time too. Today, we ventured out to Waseum Fruit Farm with the Resident Playgroup. The kids had a great time picking and eating apples. Connor particularly enjoyed the eating part. After walking the orchard we stopped and ate doughnuts and cider. The kids ran around and had a lot of fun. Luckily, Ella slept most of the morning in the stroller. She woke at the end to eat, and then fell back to sleep. My biggest fear was keeping Connor close to me while dealing with Ella too, but he was a trooper. He stayed right with us, pointed out all the airplanes "pains" as he calls them and enjoyed his apples. What a fun morning.

Connor enjoying the fish at the Library

Connor riding the eggplant at storytime/playtime

So proud that he picked an apple

yum yum!

picking apples

Allison and Connor

Climbing the tree

Eating doughnuts