What A Christmas!

So just a quick post this time to catch up....
Christmas Eve we awoke to a very sick little boy. Poor Max was the sickest ANY of our kids has ever been and after running a high fever for the better part of two days (which we were unable to bring down with over the counter meds) ended up in the ER on Christmas Day. Luckily they were able to bring his fever under control as well as stop the vomiting but we then moved on to a couple more DR visits over the next few days which confirmed a severe ear and throat (sinus) infection. Our poor little Max was in so much pain and on so much medication that he alternated between screaming and then sleeping for what seemed like the whole week. Happily he seems to be making the corner today and we pray that it's the end of this TERRIBLE bug for our family. Needless to say it wasn't the Christmas we envisioned but it was still wonderful to spend time with family that we don't see everyday. (THANKS MOM AND DAD.. WE COULDN'T HAVE MADE IT THROUGH THE WEEK WITHOUT YOU!!!)

Here's the picture we used on our Christmas cards this year.


The Familia on Christmas Day (sick baby and all!)

Little Cookie

Big Thanks to Kurt and Amy for having us over at their Christmas Cookie Party! Sophia had so much sugar  fun decorating her  very own little cookies and loved tagging around behind Amber and all the other kids. Thanks guys!

The boys try and  make a grab for dem' yummy cookies!

Her technique was a combination of mixing colors and globbing as much frosting onto one cookies as possible. Looks like she succeeded! 

Makes My Monday: Siblings At Play

First Alex and Sophia took a turn pushing Max on the little pink car. 

Then Max took a turn pushing Sophia.

 

He actually had way more fun being able to push "big sis".  Life with three little ones is so much fun when they are old enough to play together!

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Thanks to Cheryl at Twinfatuation for hosting "Makes My Monday!"

Way Back When-esday

Dateline: Sept 25th 2006 (The date counter is right!)

Age: 10 Months

Thought I'd play along again with everyone at Twinfatuation and dug through some of our "aged" pictures to find this one of Sophia at 10 months (same age as boys now). I love looking at past pics of her, specifically at this age, because it is a great reminder that she was, and is now, also our baby. As the older sibling I often have higher expectations of her and want her to act like "big sister", perhaps unfairly at times. It's important for me to take a step back and see her not just as the oldest but as our baby still.

Makes My Monday: Good Friends

As part of the "Makes My Monday" Theme over at Twinfatuation I thought I'd play along with this pic of the kids and our good friends Ali and Tyler. Having them as friends over the last year has been such a blessing. Sophia loves to spend time with them and we will all miss them as they move on to their next adventure in Colorado!

Christmas: Round 1

This weekend we kicked off the first round of Christmas parties with a family dinner party and gift opening extravaganza at Aunt Irene's  (yes, of the legendary Chocolate Cake and other tasty treats.) Unfortunately the baby boys were under the weather (Again! It seems those two are on a mission to beef up their immune systems and fast!) so we called it an early night and had everyone in bed and asleep (parents included) by 8pm. Who says we don't know how to party!! 

Alex and Max thought Sophia was the most interesting thing in the room.  We told her to say "Cheese" but she kept shouting out other strange things instead like "squirrel!". The boys loved it! 

 



Anyone else notice Alex's precarious position? Yea.. Nelson was definitely in trouble when I saw my baby hanging upside down in the playback.  Only a Daddy!

From Bethlehem to The North Pole

The Christmas tree is up, the stockings are decorated and hung, and the first Christmas card has arrived (thanks Shannon!). We've even had a little eggnog (sans the rum) and watched more than one primetime TV Christmas show

[On a side note, the 70s were seriously a very strange time for cartoons. Check out Santa Claus is Coming to Town to see what I mean. The warlock and Burgermiester Miesterburger  were a much needed addition to Sophia's fright arsenal. She didn't want to sleep that night for fear the regime would burst through the door and confiscate all her beloved toys. Nice.]

 Despite that little hiccup this is the first year lil' Miss is old enough to really understand and participate in Christmas. She wakes up every morning proclaiming "Today is Christmas Day, YAY, YAY, YAY!!", which while exciting for her, is not as fun for the person who must always play the part of the grinch.  

GRINCHIE MOM: "Actually Love we still have a couple more weeks to go".

The Lil' Miss : "Oh... (sad down turned little face) So tommorrow then????"

GRINCHIE MOM:  Sigh "Yes, tomorrow."

When you're 3 everything in the future i.e. not happening on that very day is "tomorrow" , likewise anything that happened in the past is "yesterday". Makes life easier in some ways.

Anyhow the one thing I have been bumping up against is conveying to her the true meaning behind Christmas. We've read the Nativity Story and talked about it as much complexity as you can with a three year old.  She seems to understand that we're celebrating  the birth of Jesus but beyond that it gets way confusing. 

Sample Questions:  So when is Jesus arriving for his big birthday party? Does he tell Santa to bring me the gifts or does Santa tell Jesus what I want and somehow they work together on Christmas Eve? Does Rudolph help the star lead the three kings to the baby Jesus?  When did Jesus become a baby?

I'm thinking we'll do a reading of the Nativity Story on Christmas Day and have some cake and ice scream along with a "Happy Birthday To Jesus" carol or two. We're also planning to attend a "Live Christmas Tree" performance tomorrow so that may help. Any other thoughts on how to bring the meaning of Christmas back to basics?

While you ponder that question, here's a glimpse of our lovely tree.

Foodie Friday

I finally found a food that is easy to make, healthy and pleasing to even my hardest critic (yes you, Sophia!) The clean up wasn't as fun (think crumbly chocolate muffins) but it was well worth seeing all three kids inhaling every last crumb!  Here's the recipe and pics of my chocolate covered babies.

Make a Smilebox recipe

You know you live in NM when...

rather than winter snow to shovel, you get a monster sized tumbleweed in your driveway!

Way Back When-esday

A few blogs I visit do a fun weekly posting on Wed to revisit old pics. Thought I'd play along with a pic of Sophia in 2005 (at just seven weeks old) v. today.

Shenanigans!!!

Pancho Villa Santa

This weekend was NMSU's annual Noche De Luminarias. We enjoyed a ride in a trolley car around campus viewing the beautiful luminarias, Christmas cookies, hot cocoa and other goodies and the kids were able to sit for awhile with Santa. This was also the first year Sophia was not terrified at the prospect of going near a real "live" Santa. She even waited in line multiple times so she could sit with him again. Maybe it had something to do with Santa looking so similiar to other family members or maybe it was the candy canes he was handing out, hmmm ......

And Finally Just For Fun Our Pic From Last Year's Noche!

Reason #126 to Get Out of Work

People make up all kinds of excuses to get out of work.  Illness, death of second cousins best friend cat, court summons, religious restrictions from working past 2pm on a Friday. The list could go on. But not many  people get to use the "My daughter is stuck in a chair and I must go home to help extract her "excuse but a few weeks ago Patrick was lucky enough to have just that opportunity. 

During lunch that day Sophia somehow managed to wedge her leg backwards into a chair and very quickly discovered that she was stuck into position. Despite thirty minutes and my best efforts (including holding her upside down in the air and trying to shake the chair in the opposite direction) I was not able to pull her from the chair or it from her. It was at this point that it became evident to us both that it was either her knee cap or the chair  but one was not going to walk away intact. This was the point at which she became hysterical and left me with no other option than to call Patrick  at work and plead for his assistance. I can only imagine the looks from his boss and coworkers as he explained the reason he was rushing home.

*Despite being pretty wedged in there she was still able to hobble around and take toys away from the boys while waiting for Daddy to arrive and rescue her.

*Just as a quick note: Sophia is now free from the chair, an effort that did not require a trip to the ER or a chain saw. It took Patrick all of a couple minutes to maneuver her out of it.  He said it was all about the angles. I KNEW I should have paid more attention in Geometry!!!

Still here

It's been some time since our last post. Between a long visit from our good friend the flu (who made sure that every member of the family felt it's wrath) and trying to continuously keep up with everything (and everyone! We officially have a 'walker' but more on that later) computer time has been sadly neglected. So a quick recap:

Thankgiving Day: Patrick and I spent the day (and majority of the weekend) on clean up duty. One child after another, after another, alternatively vomiting is not the way we envisioned the holiday but we got through it and as of two days ago everyone is back to feeling great. Big thanks to Grandma Nelson, Tia Irene and Tia Sonia for all the yummy leftovers! It got us through a otherwise unpleasant few days.

In honor of "National Day of Listening" we interviewed Sophia on our DVD Cam.  We hope to continue the tradition and interview all the kids each year the day after Thanksgiving to document the changes through the years. It'll be interesting to see if next year she's as excited about The Backyardigans andWOW! WOW! WUBBZY as she is this year.  The boys even managed a few "MA MA MAs" and "DA DA DAs" on camera.  

Christmas Project: Through all the muck of last weekend we did attempt our Christmas pic and decorating for the holidays around the house. Sophia was very proud to help with the tree this year  and although it turned out beautiful we've had to enclose it behind a fortress of baby gates to prevent the boys from bringing it down or eating the ornaments.  Despite our best efforts they have managed to work as a team a couple of times to bring down the gates and grab a few goodies of the tree before being caught. Luckily they haven't managed to knock the whole thing down but it's only been up a few days. I give them till the end of the week.  

 The family Christmas pic was an adventure all on it's own.  We had honestly been avoiding it because of the work that we knew getting the kids into their "christmas outfits" and in front of the camera would be. Unfortunately getting three kids SICK with a stomach flu dressed and in front of the camera is much worse but we needed to get the cards ordered by early this week. Needless to say just minutes before we took the pic all three kids were crying and screaming and Patrick and I were not too far behind them. We managed one good shot with all five of us looking in the same direction and semi smiling.  When you get this year's card excuse the greenish tint of our skin. We were all nauseous that day.

Ten Month Birthday:

Alex and Max turn ten months today! Life is so much better than it was 9 1/2 months ago!! They are both such wonderful, fun little guys. Alex officially took his first couple of independent steps yesterday (Patrick joked that he wanted to go on the record as having walked at nine months) and Max is not far behind him. Max is the climber of the family and has now scaled much of the furniture in our house including the kitchen table.  I expect he'll be found on top of the refrigerator next. The both LOVE to chase after and tackle Sophia and have discovered it works much better when they team up to bring her down. Poor little girl doesn't stand a chance! 

Finally a pic! Patrick recently devised this makeshift train out of diaper boxes (something we have more than enough of at our house.)  Who needs battery operated toys when you have a talented Daddy?