Merry Christmas To All

Merry Christmas to all!!!

We had such a wonderful day yesterday. Of course I took way too many pictures (especially given I got a new camera from someone special). The kids we totally into it and had a real blast all day, even though they are both feeling under the weather.

We had a nice Christmas Eve together at the house. Since we had gone to church earlier in the morning, we didn't go back for the evening service. We cooked a pork tenderloin and got some other yummies together. Then the kids each got to eat a cookie they had made Saturday with Tom. Since Jeffrey decided to wipe his hands through his hair a short bath was required after that. When both were dry and in PJs we gathered up some Christmas stories and went downstairs to read together. Erin chose Clown of God (which is this beautiful Italian Christmas story)first. Then Jeffrey had me read a mitten book. Lastly we decided to read The Night Before Christmas together. By the 3rd page of the book Erin was fast asleep in Tom's arms. I carried her up to bed before she even got a chance to leave goodies for Santa (we'll do that next year). One last story and Jeffrey headed to bed too. Tom and I turned out the lights and listened to the Nutcracker on the radio and looked at the tree.

In all honesty I was probably more excited than the kids were about Christmas morning. Erin knew that when she finished her calendar that Santa would be there, but I'm not sure she really comprehended it. I actually had to get up and start moving around about 8:30 so they would begin to rouse. Noni had sent them Christmas morning outfits and "Santa" hung them on their doorknobs after they had gone to bed. Erin woke up thrilled to see her little dress and to show Jeffrey his.

We got dressed and moved the kids downstairs to take some pictures in front of the tree. Oh the excitement!!! So many presents under the tree. This is the first year Erin has really gotten excited. Jeffrey just feeds off her energy. Santa left them great stockings full of new stuff for the kitchen for both, Little Pets for Erin and trucks for Jeffrey. It took at least 30 minutes for them to get through their stockings.

Then we made special eggs and bacon for breakfast. The kids ate a little but were too excited to really focus on eating. A few encouraging words like "Erin if you eat all your eggs we can open presents from under the tree" got them eating.

Several hours later we were swimming in piles of paper, boxes, clothing and toys (including a new camera for me and an Ipod for Tom). The biggest hits seem to be these little phones from Target that work like real cel-phones. Both of them got one and they make real ringing sounds and talk to you. Best of all - if you set them down closed....they call you back. A plethora of Little People invaded the house also including a plane, firetruck, zoo and, best of all, a pirate ship. Nearly everything Jeffrey received had wheels on it and he pushed it all around the living room. And of course being Jeffrey, the first thing he did with his new dump truck was sit in it. Erin also got a bunch of dress-up clothes from Grandma W. She spent most of the evening sitting around playing pirate ship, saying "arghhh" while wearing a purple feather boa, big pink hat, and fuzzy purple high heels. Quite a site to see.

So the living room is still filled with boxes and paper, toys, games and clothes. But it's just thrilling to see the kids have such an exciting time playing with everything. We hope you all had equally exciting and fulfilling Christmases.

Oh Christmas Tree...

We decided to tempt fate and get the Christmas tree more than a week before Christmas this year. With Jeffrey, Erin and 2 cats poking around the tree we'll see if we decide to do the same thing next year. We picked it out in town yesterday and got it put up and decorated last night. We started at the Boy Scout set-up in town. Although they had a fairly nice selection of trees it was a "self-serve" operation. Meaning there were no scouts there and a sign reading measure your tree here and put a check in the slot. Although I'm in favor of buying from the Boy Scouts I prefer if there are actual Boy Scouts on the premises. So...there was another nursery selling trees in the same shopping center. We headed over to look at them. Gorgeous trees, displayed well ---- WAY out of our price range unless we wanted a white pine that had be wrapped up or tossed on the ground. Needless to say we continued our search for the perfect Christmas Tree. We moved further north to someone who had a sign "8 Foot Trees $25". When we got there there were lights and an older woman coming out of a camper. As we looked around I realized that most of the trees were white pines, but at least these had been standing up and had a nice shape. We walked around for 10 minutes or so letting the kids, well mostly Erin we didn't trust Jeff enough to really put him down, to run around. We eventually stumbled upon a great tree for our corner. Tom shoved it into the trunk of the Intrepid, packed up the kids and headed home while I went to Target to get a couple strings of lights.

After staring at an empty shelf where lights used to be, I finally found some that would work grabbed a couple stocking stuffers for the kids and headed to meet Tom and the kids. I entertained the kids while Tom got the tree ready to come into the house. You know how they always look so much smaller standing outside? Well Tom's first attempt to bring the tree in revealed we needed to cut at least 18" off the bottom. Even then it was still a little tall and the angle almost didn't fit on top.

After a short pizza break we got to decorating the tree. Erin got all the ornaments ready and handed them to mommy and daddy to put on. She tried a few on her own, but white pines can be tricky and she got frustrated. Jeffrey tried his best also - mostly by throwing ornaments at the tree hoping they'd just stick there. No matter, they both had lots of fun getting all the ornaments out and up onto the tree. Erin's favorites are the few bells we have. Jeffrey likes the mesh balls that we sit over the lights (sadly this might be the last year for those as they are looking pretty smushed these days). After we had properly adorned our tree, Jeffrey got a quick bedtime story and headed off to sleepy land while Erin, Tom and I sat in the dark living room looking at the lights and just relaxing.

So we'll see how long it takes Jeffrey to knock the whole thing down. Certainly I'm going to be receiving ornaments from the tree as little gifts all through the day for the next couple of weeks. No matter it looks beautiful and the kids really had a blast this year getting it all ready for Christmas.

Getting into the Spirit

We spent some time getting into the holiday spirit this morning. We've already got the advent calendars and some Christmas lights up. This morning we decided to make some Christmas cards. Noni brought us so really cool stamping blocks when she was here in November and we used those. Getting Jeffrey to use paint without getting paint everywhere is a little bit of a challenge (to say the least). After several struggles and a bit of time letting him just play on the floor with his trucks he joined in the fun. Erin had a blast and stamped every last card and gift box that we had. Thought I'd share some pictures of our projects. Enjoy :)

Erin beginning to get the idea of what to do

Showing off her work

Jeffrey decides to give it a try

Getting into it now - look out mom

A Sign of What's to Come?

Clearly I'm just in big trouble with our little man. We've known this for a while. But this morning I got another sign of what's to come.

While lazing around in bed I could hear Jeffrey waking up. He seemed happy enough so I didn't stress about hopping up to get him. I let him play in the crib for a bit. Eventually Erin came in to get me and the two of us went downstairs to get some milk and start breakfast.

Hearing people up and moving, Jeffrey got a bit more agitated. I went upstairs and opened his door. I immediately called Tom to come upstairs and see the sight that was greeting me.

You see, when Jeffrey went to bed he was snuggled tight in his footie PJs with his assortment of blankets (including the ever important "blankie"). Letting him play around in his crib when he wakes up is not an unusual occurrence. So what I saw when I opened his door was quite a surprise.

There was Jeffrey standing naked in his crib swinging his PJs around his head like a lasso. Thankfully he hadn't gotten the diaper off yet as it was loaded with quite a stinky. All of his other blankets were thrown on the floor about the crib. I was totally surprised that he'd managed to unzip the PJs and get them completely off. Imagine how much more astounded I was when I wrestled them away from him and realized that they were still mostly zipped up. Either he had wriggled out of them without unzipping them, or he zipped them back up after getting out of them and turning them into a lasso. Either way it was quite a feat.

Sadly the camera was all the way in the basement so I didn't get a photo of Jeffrey in all his glory so proud of his accomplishment. Hopefully there won't be many more chances to capture one but with my little wild man, you never know.

Happy Turkey Day

What a fun time we spent with our family. Everyone but Uncle Jonathan and Oma were here to relax and have fun with us. Although we missed them, we still managed to have a good time. There was lots of running and playing and climbing and picture taking. Uncle Bill seems to be the object of Erin's affection these days as I even found her curled up on a couch in the living room because "Uncle Bill" was taking a nap on the other couch. A voluntary nap? You've got to be kidding me.

Dinner was great as Tom smoked the turkey outside and I baked a ham inside. We had all the regular sides and plenty of desserts. It worked out well as there are a little bit of everyone's favorites available.

Erin got to go to her second movie in a big theater. We took her to see "Santa Clause 3". Although it wasn't the best movie ever made (very far from) it was cute enough to be entertaining. And Erin had a blast.

The best time was just spent hanging around the house with family. We played cards and Erin's games. There was lots of story reading and snuggling. Aunt Katie had her camera so there were tons of pictures taken. Cousin Rylie loved playing with Erin and Jeffrey in Erin's room and Erin LOVED sharing that time with Rylie. Seeing the kids play together with each other and all the adults was great.

It was just such a great few days filled with fun and family. Thanks everyone for coming down and playing with us.

The Star of the Show

Well, at least in mommy's eyes. Erin had her first real role in a play this weekend. The fall show was Tom Sawyer. Like most of the fall shows recently it was a musical with lots of great songs and just a bunch of fun. Erin started out as "Girl Number 5" and even had 2 lines. By performance time she'd lost the lines (which is really OK, we couldn't count on her to say them) but gotten a name in the program.

"Lucy White - Erin Wallace"

She had such a fun time with the shows. Her group had parts of 3 songs to learn with little dance moves involved. They also had a little part where they got to play "Ring Around the Rosie". Erin will tell you her favorite part was playing "Ring around the Rosie" or singing the "Ring that Bell" song or the "Part of Being a Kid" song -- especially the frog in a box line. She had an adorable orange costume with a bonnet that just made you want to eat her up. She was clearly the smallest and youngest one on stage and sometimes got a little lost among the bigger kids (I mean, wow, 5-year olds these days seem soooo big). Still she had a blast with it.

Of course every 3-year old has their on-stage moments. The first show she saw her Noni and Oma and when Erin first came on stage she gave them a little wave. OK - that was cute. Apparently she wasn't sure that they saw her, because for her second scene she shouted "Oma, Noni, Jeffrey - Hi". I was standing next to her and must have turned a lovely shade of purple to match my own orange costume. If she got bored or a little lost she always resorted to putting her thumb in her mouth, but would take it out when she was supposed to sing her songs at least.

I'm so glad she enjoyed it. If you look closely in the pictures here she's the bright orange one. Thank goodness she looked like a little pumpkin because it certainly made her stand out on stage and much easier to get pictures of. I think Erin really got a lot out of being in the show. We had to learn new songs and dances together. It was a good experience for her to sit and listen to instruction from someone other than me. She made some great friends too. So the spring show is Bye Bye Birdie - we'll see if she decides she wants to do that. I certainly hope so, because she was just so darn cute in this part.

18 Months Ago

18 Months ago Jeffrey was this adorable and cuddly tiny baby. The spitting up was still a few days to come. He was simply precious. Today....

...he is a complete and total WILD MAN. Jeffrey is now officially 18 months old. He had his Pediatritians appointment yesterday and came away with a great report. Dr. says he looks great, loves how verbal he seems (although he didn't want to talk to her much) and how clearly physical he was. She says he's long and lean (which we had figured out already). He's 33 3/4"tall (90%) and 25 lbs (30%). That may actually put him above his sister in weight. I haven't thrown her on a scale recently.

He is still into absolutely everything. Loves to Eat. Goes up and down the stairs without thought. Sings his ABC's (kind of). Talks back to Dora and Little Einsteins. Climbs on top of the couch. Helps empty the dishwasher. Jumps off the bottom step. Reads stories. Builds towers and so much more.

Here are some pictures to show how big our little man is getting.

6 Months Old


1 Year Old


18 Months!!

We're off to See the Wizard

Well, Dorothy and the Scarecrow took center stage yesterday. Erin wanted to be Dorothy for Halloween (Ruby Slippers and all) and decided that Jeffrey was going to be the Scarecrow. Noni made their costumes and they came out simply adorable. Erin was so excited all day yesterday to be dressed up as Dorothy. Jeffrey less enthused about the Scarecrow, but he did well and really didn't fuss unless you were in the process of putting the costume on him.

Last Thursday was the Halloween Party at one of our shopping centers. They had Trick-or-Treating at the stores and a costume contest. The kids wore their costumes and walked hand-in-hand to the stores. Erin even sang her "Off to See the Wizard" song a couple of times. Jeffrey did a really good job of staying with us too, which amazed me. They were adorable at the costume contest putting on their biggest smiles for the judges (and Jeffrey being his usual hammy self tried to throw Toto into the fountain right in the middle of it). Erin was so excited when they announced that they had won Best Team Costume. They each got a goody bag full of games and toys. Thankfully it all ended when it did because Jeffrey only went downhill from nearly throwing Toto into the fountain and ended the morning collapsed in a heap perfectly befitting the Scarecrow he was.

Tom took part of the day off on Halloween and we went for a drive up in the mountains. A lot of the color has passed but there are still some patches of beautiful color. The kids wore their Halloween T-shirts. Erin's said "Ghoul Power" and Jeffrey's, "Little Wild Man". Alas, Jeffrey spent the entire drive sleeping in his seat, but since we had a busy night ahead we let him sleep. Erin enjoyed getting out and walking around and climbing on some of the rocks. I'm so glad that she loves to be outside as much as she does.

We decided, because it was so beautiful, that we'd take kids to the University Lawn for Trick-or-Treating. Apparently, so did every other family in town. It was completely mobbed. Erin did good, but Jeffrey got a little overwhelmed. He spent most of the time obsessed with his candy bucket and getting as much candy into his mouth as he could without us noticing. Such a major difference between the two of them. Erin's first real Halloween, when she was Jeffrey's age she didn't know what to do with the candy and was just as interested in giving it to other people as eating it for herself. Not little crazy man, he figured out what to do right away.

So many people commented on their costumes and how cute they were. Even complete strangers were asking to take their picture and the media that was there also seemed to find them. One of the students who was dressed as Dorothy came up and asked Erin if she could get their picture together and Erin was so excited. The comments about how cute they were just kept coming - Great costumes Noni.

The kids has the best time when they found a corner with a big pile of leaves and just started playing in them. Erin would throw them up to the sky and Jeffrey would run around and fall down - just like the Scarecrow should. It was a priceless moment to realize how fun a pile of leaves can really be. Then Erin decided she wanted to Trick-or-Treat a little more. She took Aunt Margaret (who ventured out to come see the cutie-pies) to a couple of stops along the Lawn. Erin ended up with quite a haul of candy.

We ended the evening and the same place we spent last Halloween. Sid had a Haunted Maze set up in his back yard. Erin was hesitant at first, but decided it was pretty cool and even took daddy for a tour of it. We let her Trick-or-Treat a little along the street. She would walk up to a house and knock quietly on the door. Then she'd should "Trick-or-Treat" and hold out her basket. Most of the time she'd remember to say thank you. Then she'd say "Happy Halloween" and turn to look at Tom and I and say -- "Next House Now". HAHA she had it down to a pattern -- "Thank You. Happy Halloween. Next House Now." Jeff walked for a little with us but mostly got carried. Not because he was too tired to walk, but because he was trying to grab handfuls of candy from the bowl and was simply being his crazy self.

Back at Sid's the kids played around outside some more. Erin danced around the lawn in her Ruby Slippers. They snacked on some candy and junk food until Jeffrey crashed. We all had such an awesome time just out having fun and being kids.

The Pictures Say it All

I couldn't resist picking up this shirt for Jeffrey at the store the other day. Can you guess why?




"I tried to be good but I got bored."



Perfect. Simply describes my little "Jack Jack" to a "T". The wild and crazy man who tries to be good but it just gets boring sometimes.

Gymnastics Class

Today was the last morning for this session of Gymnastics. It's been great, and Erin really still loves it. The class is much smaller, only about 7 regular kids there. Erin's friend Julianna signed up with us and they love to play together at class. Since the class is smaller they made it more structured -- which I love. There are two instructors - the same coach from the spring and Miss Kimmie who I suspect is a college student and is more of an assistant.


They begin the classes with a little free play in the big gym while everyone get there. Then they head back to the smaller room with all the equipment. Miss Kimmie leads the stretching exercises. Erin's got better each week about following what she was doing - stretching just doesn't have the flair that the bar does, so Erin found it a little boring.

Then they'd sit and work on skills on equipment. They'd walk on the beam forwards, sideways and even backwards. Erin LOVES the beam. The low one she'll do all by herself and she's getting more and more comfortable on the higher beam. High bar is still her favorite part - they do pull-ups and some swinging and what they call monkey walking down the bar (hanging straight and moving down the bar by sliding hands). Erin keeps really good form on the bar generally and is even supporting her own weight most of the time. She does have trouble with the monkey walking because her hands are still a little small I think.

Erin also loves to do the mat exercises. She works with coach really hard on her handstands (but with feet against the wall). She'll hold up for a solid 10-count. Making tables is still fun as well as back rolls, log rolls and forward rolls down the incline mat.

So we now have a two week break before the next class and then another 6-week session. I love to see her having so much fun and learning to listen to instruction and work on skills at the same time.

Pumpkin and Apple Weekend with Grandma W.

Grandma W. came down for a weekend visit and we decided to take her to one of our favorite places. It's an apple orchard on the top of a nearby mountain that has the best apples, apple donuts, apple cider and pumpkin selection around. We met some other frinds there and had a fun-filled morning.

While Erin and Tom went apple-picking with our friends, Grandma, Jeff and I played in the pumpkins. Sadly I didn't realize that the camera was not working very well and most of the pictures ended up pretty poor quality. Still Jeffrey had a BLAST climbing among the pumpkins, sitting on them, tryin to pick up ones that were heavier than he was. He just ran around like the wild man he usually is.

When Erin came back she played around looking for the perfect pumpkin while Tom got some snacks - Apple Pie for mommy, apple donuts for everyone else. Yummmy. Erin also enjoyed the fruits of her apple picking labors and munched down on a fresh juicy apple.

Afterwards we decided it would be fun if we all took a hayride. This was a blast. The view from the mountain is awesome. The day was soo clear we could see for miles and miles. And the hayride went some close to some of the trees we could almost pick the apples from the ride (but decided against it). The kids had fun throwing the hay around and filling Grandma's purse with hay. I think she's going to find bits of hay in her bag for a long time to come, but it was soo much fun she probably won't mind too much.

After the hayride we picked out some more apples. I got my favorites, Pink Ladies, for the kids and I to snack on. Tom got 2 big bags of Macs for making applesauce and 5 gallons of cider to try and make some "hard" cider at home with the beer-making supplies. we then spent the rest of the afternoon with our friends eating lots of great food while the kids played together.

Sunday continued the apple theme with Erin, Tom and Grandma making applesauce. Erin had lots of fun working the food mill to smush the apples into sauce. And of course she LOVES the results of her labor as does Jeffrey.

So we had a really fun weekend with Grandma and look forward to her next visit. Thanks for coming to play Grandma.

Compassion

So...this isn't as much about "the" kids as just some thoughts I've had recently and relating them to the kiddos. We were having a meeting at church the other night and decided that a good topic for Advent wreaths would be circling around compassion. We tossed around a few ideas, and someone said hey, Meghan can talk about what it's like to teach compassion to kids. I thought and thought about that. And as I was driving home I realized that I think there's no teaching involved in this.

Have you ever been in a room with several toddlers and preschoolers and one of them falls down and gets a bump. He/she starts crying and nearly every child in the room will run over to the other with hugs or whatever. That's compassion and nothing I've ever consciously taught Erin or Jeff. Even kids Jeff's age will do this. It's a beautiful thing to see.

And when did a simple kiss stop making it "all better?" The other day when I had a headache Erin came into the room, climbed up into the bed and kissed my forehead. She said, "I can make it all better mommy. Here let me kiss it." And you know what? My headache got better. Not totally gone, but certainly better. Because of the kiss and because of the compassion that was behind it.

And those little moments when mommy gets a peck on the cheek and an "I love you mommy," or a snuggle on the shoulder from Jeffrey. That's true compassion. It doesn't have to be given out only when someone is crying or in pain.

I don't know if I'm making any sense here but it's just been something on my mind. Of course I've always given hugs and kissed boo boos. I let them know I love them, but I've never "taught" them to act compassionately. I seems to just be in the blood of my simply beautiful children.

Look Out World

So Jeffrey's always been my wild man. He has very little common sense when it comes to dangerous feats of daring. He'll climb with Erin to the top of the slides that are meant for 5-year olds. He'll try to climb up the back of the couch. He'll stand on his riding toys because it's fun when they shift and he falls off. He'll climb ladders in order to get to a slide. He'll jump off the bottom step and sometimes think about it from the second one. And most recently, he'll come walking down the stairs, snack in hand, without a care in the world. What else is his big sister gonna teach him? And most of all, where has my little baby gone? He's been replaced by a wild man toddler. So, look out world here he comes.

From the Ocean to the Mountains

It was just the most beautiful September morning when we woke up today. We had to run into town to pick some things up and driving back I noticed how clear the mountains were. So I stopped at the house, picked up our park pass and the camera and took the kids up the mountain. It is simply gorgeous up there right now. Leaves aren't turning yet, but the way the sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds was amazing. The light also made for some perfect photo-taking opportunities. Hope you enjoy them.

Beaching Around... (warning picture overload)

Woah - That's Cool


It's official - we're a family of beach bums. We got another chance to spend a week at the beach with my family last week (unfortunately Tom was on travel and couldn't come along). We rented a cottage about 100 yards from the beach down on Emerald Isle in NC. Someone had recommended it to mom as a great beach for kids and I'm very familiar with that area as Tom and I honeymooned there and made it our special getaway place each year after that (although we hadn't been back since Erin was born.)

The cottage was adorable with a big porch with rocking chairs, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen and dining/living area. And best of all it was right across the street from the public beach access at the point of Emerald Isle. The beach was wonderful - the water in the 80s. During high tide the waves crashed all the way against the bluffs leaving very little beach but low tide made for a great wide beach with gently rolling waves and the ability to walk out pretty far into the surf if you wanted. Both Erin and Jeff fell in love with the ocean pretty quickly. Jeffrey ran right into it the first he saw it. He made little games out of throwing shells (and buckets and his hat...) into the surf. Erin preferred to stand in the waves with a firm grip on Oma's hand or to sit on the sand and let the waves come up over her lap. Every morning Erin would wake up and ask when we were going to go play in the ocean. We took a special trip one day out to Bear Island and pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves. There were tons of shells that made for great shelling (we even found one 'almost' whole sand dollar).

We did some other things besides playing at the beach. One afternoon the ladies all went mini-golfing. It was Erin's first time mini-golfing and she had an absolute blast. Another day we took a trip to the NC Aquarium on the island. It recently re-opened and is amazing. There are some huge tanks and several touch tanks. Erin sat through a presentation on alligators and even volunteered to help out by pulling a measuring tape to represent how long a crocodile can be. When it was all over she even got to pet a live alligator. After the aquarium we all went to Ft. Macon, a Civil War era fort at the tip of the isle. Jeffrey loved running around the interior of the fort and exploring the cannons and empty rooms. Erin thought it made a great place to play hide-and-seek.

But mostly we spent our days playing in the ocean. Picking up seashells. Digging in the sand. Making dribble castles. Getting pink cheeks and brown backs. And most of all spending time with family (but sad to miss daddy) just having fun.


Turner's Corner - Our Home for the Week


Scooping the Waves


Bucket Brigade


Splash Splash


Sleepy Boy


Hello in There


Mini-Golfing Pro