Pretty in Pink

I made a very yummy, very large double batch of sugar cookies for Christmas this year.  Sadly, they were the death of my red Sunbeam mixer.  Tonight at Bed Bath and Beyond it did not take C and I long at all to choose our new mixer.  I think both of our faces lit up when we saw that they had the pink one!  I'm sure it wasn't hubby's first pick, but as long as there are cookies being made, he doesn't really care one way or another.  The price tag was a little painful, but hey, $50 of our purchase went straight to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  I felt good about that...and about how pretty it is...seriously...look...

...So pretty...and just in case you were wondering, it not only looks great, it works great too.  C and I tested it out and whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies tonight.  Yum! 

Holiday festivities!

We have had several holiday celebrations already...and still have one more to come this weekend.  I thought I would pick my favorite photo from each gathering and share it!  It has been nice to spread out all the fun, but that also meant spreading out all of C's presents...he has now come to the conclusion that he should get a present any time we go to Grandma's or Nana's or the store or the living room...you get the idea.  It has become my new favorite thing to start singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year" during C's tantrums.  Ok, onto the pictures!

The weekend before Christmas we went out to hubby's grandparents' house to celebrate with his family.  I love this dinosaur bank that Uncle Tom and Aunt Viki got for C.  And I love this picture even more..it's so sweet how they are both watching him with big smiles on their faces.  These two will make terrific grandparents when their kids start having babies. :)

On Christmas Eve after our church service was called off because of the nasty weather, my parents and brother's family came over to our house.  I almost picked the picture of my brother and sister-in-law sitting on the kitchen floor trying to fix the car launcher toy they had given C.  This was right after my brother used it to shoot the car under our oven!  I picked this picture instead...it was after everyone left and C and I were having a sweet, quiet moment together.

On Christmas morning the first thing we did was tell C the Christmas story.  I thought instead of reading the story straight from the bible that this year we would just tell him a "toddler friendly version."  Hubby suggested using C's nativity and it was so much fun acting out the story together.  I was glad that C was so interested.  It was fun to have him help...even if baby Jesus did fly away and hide after I put him in the manger.

We went to the in-laws house for Christmas dinner.  C was quite content to spend the whole evening playing with train world (as we've started referring to Grandpa's collection!)  He stopped just long enough to eat a few bites of dinner and open some presents.

The morning after Christmas we headed over to my parents' house for some of my Dad's famous french toast.  Yum!  C received lots of fun gifts from Nana and Papa, but one of his favorites was this dinosaur.  It has since been sleeping next to his pillow at night.  When you push a button it walks and roars.  The day after he got it I was in the shower and he sent it in after me and then ran away laughing.  He likes to start it up and then run and hide from it. 

We still have one more celebration this weekend with hubby's family.  His sister and her family will be in town so we are going to hang out with them.  I'll be sure to post my favorite photo from that gathering too!

Crazy Love

I remember talking with a friend not long after C's birth.  Telling him that having a child of my own had brought with it a whole new perspective on God's love.  I had so much love for this little baby that it was just bubbling up and over (all over...including down my face in the form of tears very often just from looking at his sweet face).  Once you experience that kind of love for your own child, I think you get a little closer to knowing what God's love for his children is really like.  I told this friend that I was floored by the fact that God actually loved me more than I loved C.  That, to me, was crazy.

This Christmas season, I have slowly been gaining yet another new perspective on God's love.  I have always known the Christmas story.  The immaculate conception, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of Christ, the shepherds, the wise men...and I've always known that the essence of that story is this..."For God so loved the world, that he have his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

But, this year, it is really sinking in.  It is with a heavy heart that I celebrate Christmas this year.  My eyes have welled up with tears on more than one occasion...as I stuff the stockings and wish there were one more, as I think about the joy with which my sister's family is celebrating her baby boy's first Christmas, and honestly, as I write this post...I am still just so sad...my heart aches with the loss of my baby boy.  Anyone who has lost a child, no matter how much time they spent on earth with you, has felt just how heavy empty arms can be. 

It is this reality that is bringing about my new thought process when it comes to "the reason for the season."  I wanted Wesley with me...and yet God...willingly sent his son to earth as a baby so he could grow into a man and then die...to save my life.  His only son.  C is very often like breath to me...I can't imagine having lost the only child I have.  How did he do it?  How could he have sent his son, his only son...for someone like me?  Someone like you?  Each and every someone who may or may not even accept his radical gift.  Can you imagine the heartache?  And I think I know what sadness feels like.  God, I don't understand why you did this...to me, it's just crazy...it's just crazy love...that you have an abundance of for me...and I have too little of for others...it's crazy love that has saved me...over and over again...it's crazy love that this Christmas is my greatest gift.

White Christmas

We are enjoying a white Christmas today...both outside and in...

Hog tied!

Seriously?!?  Who does this?

Christmas Eve cookies!

On C's first Christmas I wanted to start a special tradition.  Every year since I've been a mom I have spent a part of Christmas Eve baking cookies with my baby.  Here we are with our eggnog star cookies on C's first Christmas.  C helped by being a content little baby in his swing while I baked!  Please excuse the quality of this one, it's a picture of a picture...from the time before we had a digital camera!!

The next year since C was able to "help" me we went with traditional sugar cookies...very hands on!

Last year we went with the sugar cookies again.  You'll notice that there is no "Mommy and C" shot from this year.  He was no longer contained in a highchair and I couldn't get him to hold still! :)

And today, we continued our tradition!  C has been wanting to make these reindeer cookies from his National Geographic Little Kids magazine since we first looked at the recipe. 

What a good little helper!

His favorite part...munching on the m&m's.

Ah, sweet tradition.

So in love...still.

Disclaimer

For those of you who read my Santa post and saw this....C knows who Santa is...and as he gets older we hope to teach him that Santa is a fun thing to pretend...like dragons and dinosaurs...and that it's ok to do that...I just want to clarify that I actually do know that dinosaurs are (or rather) were real.  I just meant that we obviously pretend to play dinosaurs because they no longer exist...not that they never did.  My husband told me I sounded like a moron.  Since when does he read my blog?!?

#3

I convinced my Mom to take me to get my first tattoo when I was only 17.  You just ask her to explain that one...she will claim that one of the reasons she agreed was my promise that this would be my first and only tattoo...silly Mom...you can't trust a teenager.  In my defense, I did wait about 7 years to get my next one.  And last month, I got my third.  They are all butterflies.  I love butterflies.  And I love the bible verse 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.  The old has gone the new has come."  (Kindof like the caterpillar that becomes a butterfly...get it?) ;)  Anyway, Mom was there when I got my first tattoo..a blue butterfly between my shoulder blades.  #2 is on the top of my right foot.  Another butterfly...orange...with C's initials woven into the design.  After that hubby joked that I was going to be covered in butterflies if I got them for every kid.  Which if you didn't know...is my plan.  So, when I got pregnant with Wesley I knew that eventually I would add another butterfly to my collection.  After we lost him, it became even more important for me...another way to make sure he is always remembered as having been with me...even for such a short amount of time.  I knew this tattoo needed to be very special.  And for that, I enlisted the help of my Aunt Viki (technically she is Clint's aunt..but I love her so much I'm claiming her!)  She is an incredible artist and took great care designing a butterfly for Wesley.  I absolutely love it!  I went to a tattoo artist in Westport on the recommendation of a friend and he did a fabulous job!

Talking out the details with Stormy (who I may or may not have the tiniest crush on)

You'd think after 2 I wouldn't be nervous...I was...I had butterflies in my stomach.  Ha, ha.

Ouchie!  Thankfully this one hurt the least out of the three...geez it was like paradise compared to what they did to my foot!

C was very excited to see Mommy's new butterfly.  As soon as he saw it he said, "Can I have a butterfly tattoo like you?"  We scrounged up a temporary Thomas and that seemed to satisfy him.  Now we are "tattoo buddies" which he thinks is super cool.  Will I let him get one when he is 17?  Hmm...if I don't I'm sure he could convince Nana...she's got the track record for it.

Aunt Viki's first time to see the finished product.

#3

Dancing Raisins!

Last week we had our first science experiment at our house.  Thanks to a subscription to National Geographic Little Kids from Nana and Papa, C has been learning lots of fun new things.  Each issue comes with a science experiment and C really wanted to try this one out.  He LOVED it!  We did it three times in one day...the time it held his attention dropped each time, but even on the third time he still enjoyed it.  If you have an older toddler/preschooler  you should try this out!  (B is almost 2 and she was less than thrilled about the whole thing...she just wanted to dump the cup all over the table.  :) )

What you need: half glass of water, vinegar, baking soda, raisins

What you do: Add four tablespoons of vinegar to half glass of water.  Now add three teaspoons of baking soda.  The mixture will fizz (your kid will love this part!)  Drop five or so raisins into the glass one at a time.  At first they sink. Soon the raisins start rising and sinking in a slow dance.

Why it works: When you mix vinegar and baking soda, you create carbon dioxide.  That is the gas found in sodas.  It makes bubbles collect on the raisins, lifting them up so they float.  At the surface, the bubbles escape and the raisins sink.  When more bubbles collect on the raisins, up they go again!

Let me know if you try it with your kiddos and what they think of it!  I know mine loved it!

Santa

This evening we made an impromptu stop at the Bass Pro Shop.  It was 9 pm and the winter wonderland was nearly deserted.  Santa was still there, and while C would've been happy just to look at the train that was set up, we did convince him to go see Santa.

Santa is not a big deal in our house.  We don't really do the whole Santa thing.  We talk about how the wise men brought presents to baby Jesus and that's where we got the tradition of giving each other gifts for Christmas.  C's presents come from Mommy and Daddy and not Santa.  But, we are not anti-Santa.  C knows who Santa is...and as he gets older we hope to teach him that Santa is a fun thing to pretend...like dragons and dinosaurs...and that it's ok to do that...and hopefully (fingers crossed) he will not be the kid who shatters some child's belief in the jolly old fellow who brings them presents each Christmas.  But, hey, at least C won't be the one that comes home crying and calling me a liar.  Right?

The elves asked C if he was a police man and he replied, "No, not today."  We captured this face when they told him to give them his best police man smile...

I love my little cheeseball!

All you need is love...

How sweet are they?  Although B does look prepared to whack him in the face with that Thomas train if C's hand moves even an inch closer to grabbing it from her.  But, seriously?  How sweet are they?!?

Field Trip Friday

Union Station Edition

This week we headed to Union Station to check out their model train display.  C loved it, of course!  After C and B checked out the trains, we crossed the walkway from Union Station over to Crown Center.  There was a lot to see there...holiday gingerbread village, the Crayola Land play ground, and the crayola store.  With the exception of the last five minutes, which were filled with a tantrum over wanting to buy a train, we all had a good time.  Both of the kids were worn out!  Napping a respective 3 and 4 hours that afternoon.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Just in case you think it was all fun and games...

C making a valiant effort to hurl B into the water as she plots her eventual revenge lovingly hugging his cousin. ;)

Gingerbread Village

Crayola Land!

The best part of this trip was that it was all free!  With the exception of the mini Tinker Bell (C's choice) suitcases that hubby bought for the kids at the Crayola Store.  The checkout lady even said, "You know, they have Cars cases over there."  Yes, we know.  And we're not worried...trust me, this kid knows more than enough about being a boy.  (Maybe a post on some of the recent discussions going on in our house is in order soon.) 

Tinker Bell in hand, we headed home after another successful field trip.