Presents

Buddy wanted train stuff. Railroad crossings, a railroad signal, etc.


The top of Princess Sparkley's Christmas list was a Barbie. We told her she could have them once she was five, but it didn't come up at her birthday in August. So it became the most important Christmas present on her list.


Hugging their stockings.

Santa

Buddy has been really into Santa lately, especially dressing up like him. I think he likes the whole, delivering packages aspect. UPS man, mailman, FedEx man... all people he likes to pretend to be. Santa goes right along with that. So, we got the kids Santa hats as part of Christmas.

Christmas Morning

I love that my kids still sleep in on Christmas morning. We were up late the past few nights, so they didn't wake up until after nine this morning. Woo hoo.

Here they are drinking orange juice (B's tradition) before coming downstairs.








First presents Christmas AM.

More Christmas Eve

Princess Sparkley with a Polly Pocket and Little Pet Shop from her cousin A.



Princess Sparkley and Buddy holding up clothes for Baby X. Daddy bought him a Jayhawk onesie and Grandma and Grandpa L bought him a tiny Red Sox outfit.

Buddy's Presents

We open family presents on Christmas Eve. Here is Buddy with some of his presents:


On my side of the family the grandkids drew names out of a hat. My 9 month old nephew drew Buddy's name and got him this fun truck/tractor set. As you can tell from the smile, he loves it.


Since Buddy continues to insist upon wearing his Red Sox uniform almost daily (short sleeved shirt and shorts) my parents supplied him with a warmer alternative... a Red Sox jacket. Which he tried to convince us to let him sleep in last night, and he wore it all Christmas day.


Holding the coat up for all to see.


Proudly wearing it.


He lost his Red Sox hat about a month ago, it was quite devastating, so Grandma and Grandpa L got him a new Red Sox hat for Christmas. This picture is Christmas Eve, Christmas Day while I was taking a nap Princess Sparkley lost a tiny Polly Pocket part next to the couch, Daddy moved the couch to get it and there was Buddy's old Red Sox hat under the couch. The irony. So now he has two, but the new one fits better, and has a little tag in back (that he calls a flag) with red socks on it.

Christmas Eve

Opening PJs Christmas Eve.

Early Christmas in St. Louis

We like to be home for Christmas, so we went to B's parents' in St. Louis the weekend before Christmas and drove back home Christmas Eve day. It was fun spending an early Christmas with grandparents, aunts, uncles and lots of cousins.


Princess Sparkley with some cousins and a giant pile of presents from Grandma and Grandpa.


Buddy cuddling on Daddy's lap.


Grandma and Grandpa got all the boys John Deere hats. Buddy LOVES his.


Princess Sparkley got a Jasmine costume.


This is our family picture with our traditionally opened, Christmas Eve Eve ornaments. You'd think this picture was taken after two of the ornaments broke (thanks Hallmark) by the looks on our faces, but this is actually moments before. (Thank you superglue.)

Laundry Basket Sledding

We did this last year as well. There's a little hill in front of our house so we took advantage of a snowstorm and used our laundry baskets as sleds.

Gingerbread Houses

Each year before Christmas our church music classes makes gingerbread houses. Or I guess, more accurately, tiny graham cracker cottages. The kids love it. Here are pictures from this year:

Ice Storm

These are pictures I took of the ice storm a few weeks ago. B ran off to New Mexico for work and took the camera, so I haven't been able to post the pictures until now. It's pretty cool looking. Everything was so sparkley and beautiful with a thick coating of ice, way more so than when it's just snow covered. The pictures don't do it justice.

Where's the camera when you need it?

My son is obsessed with Santa. Sort of. Not the "real" Santa. He doesn't want to go near anyone dressed in a jolly red suit. He's obsessed with being Santa. The other day he took his shirt of and got it stuck on his head and it was his Santa hat. Today he was wearing a red shirt, so he talked me into turning it backwards so there was no writing on the front. Then he and Princess Sparkley decided the only red pants they own are her corduroy, girlie red pants. So he's wearing his red shirt, tucked into red corduroy pants that make him sort of look like pictures I imagine exist of my brother in the 70s. And he has a belt, with a yellow rubberband wrapped around it to be the big golden buckle. And he's wearing red Lightening McQueen slippers. All of this, and the camera is out of town with my husband. Ahhh... but I've just remembered we have a webcam that may just be able to capture this hilarious picture.

And as soon as I mentioned the webcam, Princess Sparkley went and got herself dressed as Santa's wife.

Comparing our two boys

Baby X's 3D Ultrasound

Buddy at 2 days old

Buddy's Name Picks

These are the top boy names Buddy has picked for his baby brother:

his own name
Thomas the Tank Engine
(as well as all other names from the Thomas Railway - James, Percy, Edward, Diesel 10, etc.)
Iggy (because for awhile B was pushing for Ignatius as a middle name)
Esee (pronounced like the letters S-E)
Zero
Hadey/Hatey

It's a Boy!

We finally had an ultrasound today. It's a boy. Princess Sparkley took the news pretty well. She was a little sad and wanted to hide her head for awhile at the doctor's office, but has warmed up to the idea. Daddy had us all pick a consolation prize the other day if the baby wasn't what we wanted it to be. She picked that she got to go shopping with Mommy for an outfit for the baby if it was a boy. And on the way home from the doctor's she also said she wanted to help me buy a blessing outfit for him. Buddy was really cute, after Princess Sparkley said an outfit, he picked that if it was a girl he wanted to buy her a shirt with flowers on it like Princess Sparkley's has.

Here are some images from the ultrasound:

Profile of the baby.

A foot.

3D of the baby's face. After the ultrasound the technician turned the lights on and looked at Buddy and said, "Oh, this baby looks just like him."

32 weeks and a little bit, I think

I knew how many weeks and days pregnant I was with Princess Sparkley. I'm pretty sure I was 32 weeks this Monday, but without looking at my calendar where I've written each week down, it's mainly just a pretty good guess.

B says I look drunk. It's because he was cracking me up trying to take this picture. First my sweater wasn't tight enough to show the actual size of my belly. So I was pulling it back with one hand. Then he was complaining that he could see the hand. This was already after having me move forward, backwards, sideways, etc. so that his bike, the tv, and a picture frame wouldn't be in the picture. Which I guess he succeeded at. So, don't mind the cracking up weird face.

Trains

*I will from now on refer to Boy as Buddy since we call him that 70% of the time anyway, and Boy isn't the best online nickname for him.

Have I mentioned that Buddy loves trains? I mean LOVES TRAINS. We always have to check out from the library the I Love Toy Trains dvds. Jeff, from said videos is Buddy's favorite actor. He has the song memorized, etc. There was a period of time where I had to rearrange his train tracks twice a day because the track was "weird" the old way. We used to watch the Thomas videos everyday, but they started to scare him (thank goodness). And every night he and daddy read a Thomas story from our giant Thomas story collection book I got at a garage sale for $4.

So Thanksgiving was like heaven for him, aside from being sick. Grandma and Grandpa M took him to a train show/expo in St. Louis.

This "train" you could ride was fun for Buddy to watch, but to scary for him to try. Princess Sparkley wanted desperately to ride it, got in line, chickened out and then decided she really did want to do it. Daddy had to go along for the ride since it was powered by a little wheel you had to turn with your hands and we were pretty sure she'd barely move if it was all her powering it.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show it, but according to Dad, this is what Princess Sparkley told him. "Do you know why I was like this [sticks her tongue out the side of her mouth]?" "No, I didn't see you. Why were you like that?" She said, "So I could go faster than you." Because you know, when you are going faster, your tongue hangs out of your mouth.



Then, Grandpa M, knowing how much we love trains, had his Christmas trains already set up when we showed up for Thanksgiving. Buddy spent most of his time in the living room, laying on the floor, watching the trains. Even when they weren't moving.