Mason’s Year in Review

 
Mason turned three, ditched naps, gained "big brother” status, and became roommates with his brother this year. He revs his engine (clears his throat), turns his propeller (windmills his arms), and shakes his “blades” (a bizarre shaking movement with his hands) the entire day. Seriously. At any given time he will announce that he has a flat tire or is leaking oil. He might actually believe he is a race car. His legs are constantly moving. His body is constantly dancing. And he is constantly making us laugh. This kid is a character, which explains the crazy faces he makes in pictures. He is a techy, and would play on phones and tablets all day if we let him. Some days I do. He picks and eats—ick!—his boogers, but milk and mashed potatoes make him gag. Go figure. He loves to ride his bike, but is not an outdoor kid when the weather isn’t perfect. He started a new preschool where he is clearly the teacher’s favorite. I think it’s adorable. Mason does everything his older brother does, both good and bad. He loves to have his back rubbed and armpits tickled and can cuddle like no one’s business. There is no sound worse than his whining screeching moans when his brother is bothering him, but his laugh is music to my ears. He is incredibly dramatic, and earns my Oscar vote on a daily basis. Next year I hope he will play a sport or two, realize that his sister is not trying to steal his toys, and stop announcing to the world “I tooted” every time he passes gas. Only time will tell!

Jacob’s Year in Review

  

This year Jacob turned five. He had four immunizations, and didn’t cry or flinch. At all. It makes me wonder how he can scream bloody murder when his brother walks past a little too close. Jacob is as crazy as his hair. He races around the house like a madman, has impromptu marching band parades, and never is low on energy. He loves his sister, fights with his brother every two minutes or so, and calls me “the meanest mom in the whole wide world” at least twice a day. He knows what he wants, and never backs down. Ever. My mom calls it strong-willed, I call it a pain in the ass. His attitude has cost him several hours spent sitting in time out this year. He played tee-ball, saw a handful of movies in the theater, and paddled away his summer in the pool. His favorite color is red, he might actually think that he is a Ninja Turtle, and you will never catch him not requesting to drink apple juice. He went to a new preschool this year, which he loves. Jacob’s teachers are impressed with how well behaved he is. This makes me wonder if they know which child is Jacob. He is very artistic, loves to color, and can put together puzzles in no time flat. He sits in the back of the minivan, is able to strap and unstrap his seatbelts, help his brother out, and keeps a watchful eye on his sister. When he is by himself with me, he is hands down the sweetest boy I have ever met. He gives the best hugs and melts my heart with the unprompted “I love you”s. His contagious smile is one of the best around, and I look forward to another new year full of firsts with this guy!

Breaking News!

It took 293 days, but this chick finally has her first tooth!

Christmas. Unwrapped. (Ha!)

Santa Claus came despite Jacob being on the naughty list. And Jacob has been telling everyone—including the dentist—that he still got presents even though he was on the naughty list. Total backfire.

[The boys wrote letters to Santa and left them on the tree. Cookies were placed on the floor. And reindeer food was sprinkled in the yard. It must have been the right combination, because those kids scored some serious loot. That Santa is one big sucker.]

[“Cool!” Said Jacob about his Ninja Turtle Shellraiser car. Best toy ever!]

[Mason’s big score was a Dusty Crophopper plane. Both boys opened up their presents in record speed. It was a mass chaos of flying paper and squeals!]

[Camryn with her new dolly. I do believe that if you look closely you will see all of her gifts: a dolly, some cheap toy, and a pair of shoes. The third child—and, really, the best behaved of the amigos—got the shaft. Big time. We will make up for it on her wedding day, I am sure.]

[Everyone in their Christmas pajamas. The boys lived in those for two days straight. And so did Camryn. Whether she wanted to or not.]

Clown car

A quick reminder why people with three kids don't drive compact cars.


Holy smokes, it was more work than it was worth to cram the amigos into the back of our vintage Civic (and quite possibly borderline illegal), but when the hubs is tailgating at the Bears game with the mom mobile, it's either this or pull a wagon behind the bike and we all know this lady doesn't do bikes!

Before-Christmas-Christmas

We headed out to Iowa to celebrate Christmas a weekend early with Grandma and Papa.

[Camryn’s first go-round with opening presents. Moving at a snail’s pace.]

[This girl loves to talk with anyone who will listen! (I’m talking about Camryn, not Grandma Joan!)]

[The problem with being so social is that it just wipes you out. So why not nap at the counter?!]

[When we weren’t stuffing ourselves miserably full of great food, we were being caught with our hands in the cookie jar. Yes, Caleb is wearing an apron.]

[And then the storm blew through and dumped several inches of snow on the ground, which made sledding a no-brainer!]  

I think the boys are still detoxing from all of the fun they had last weekend!

To One and All

Happy Holidays from this side of the nut house!

Snow Day!

The boys bought their dad this Santa thing for Christmas, but we decided to surprise him by setting it up in the yard today.

[This beast stands 7-feet tall. Hopefully after being this close to the thorny rose bushes, it will still stand 7-feet tall…]

[Then we built a snowman. Snowman guy is lying down because he is tired. (So is the lady who constructed snowman guy!)

 

[Then we had a snowball fight. Any guesses where Mason was smoked?]

[And then we made snow angels.]

…And then Mason peed his pants, Camryn woke up from her nap, and Jacob was banished from the outdoors after eating some very questionable snow….

9 Months Already?

 
Camryn has been out as long as she was in, which just blows my mind. Time is flying and this chick is getting so big! She laughs, she squeals, she claps, she’s starting to wave, and she lights up when she is around her brothers (until, of course, they smother her). She doesn’t crawl. Instead, she rolls. It’s not the most efficient way to get from here to there, but I think she feels safer closer to the ground, and rightfully so—she knows what her older brothers are capable of doing! She went from sleeping through the night at 2 months, to not ever sleeping through the night. Ever. That cute face is the only reason why she gets away with it! Still no teeth, and we are wondering at what point we need to consider baby dentures. Finger foods are her new best friends. She loves to use her hands to pick up her food. Now if we could just get a little more precise at putting it in the mouth we would be on to something! She loves being held by her Mommy and Mimi, could do without her father most of the time, and definitely shows stranger danger. She’s racked up another movie, a stay in a hotel, and witnessed her first snow fall from the comfort of the indoors. More firsts are on the way as we count down the days to Christmas, and this baby is certainly on Santa’s good list!

Action-Packed 24 Hours

Caleb attended a course at the University of Iowa, which gave the amigos and me a chance to catch up with the cousins in their neck of the woods.

[We stayed at a hotel because it had a pool. Not because we thought that we would get a good night’s sleep. (Never mind that story.) The kids loved the “hot pool.” Mostly because the actual pool was cold. At what age do hotel pools stop being so much fun?]

[Then we went to the rec center with the kiddos where they could burn off some energy. The gym is set up with tons of various kiddo equipment for everyone to fight over. Mason had his eye on Lightning McQueen. No surprise there!]

  

[And then Papa Jake and I took the oldest two skating. Mason had plans to hit the rink with us until we rented his skates. No bother, these old bones could hardly handle two tots on the ice. I love that Jacob went from not being able to stand up on his skates off the ice to being brave enough to skate away from the boards to me without any assistance. Perhaps a natural like his momma. But since I know just how expensive skating is, we will be sticking to cheaper sports…]

After riding the mall carousel, playing in the mall kiddie corral, and eating too much unhealthy food, we went to see Frozen. LOVED IT! Mason did OK in the movie, Jacob was sucked in, and Camryn slept. I couldn’t have asked for a better combo. And it wouldn’t be an Iowa family get-together without a drive home in crazy snowy weather. Thank goodness for a cocky husband who thinks he is the best snowy road driver ever. Seriously. Because ain’t know way I was going to drive in that!

A Complete Set

My brother and sister-in-law welcomed the fourth generation of Joe into the world a couple of weeks ago. Mason calls his new cousin “Baby Uncle Joey.” Love it!

All of the cousins corralled for a brief moment.

The two babies. One slightly bigger than the other…

Jacob was over the moon when he finally got to hold his baby cousin. This kid loves babies!

Jacob is five. Five!

Jacob’s birthday was today, and my goodness did we have a packed day!

It was Jacob’s special day at school, which means that Caleb and I were both invited to be Jacob’s guests in his classroom. We spent the morning doing all things preschool. Exhausting!

After school we went to Chuck E. Cheese’s. Way cooler when I was a kid, but the boys loved it! And after dropping $25 on tokens, the boys cashed in on a couple packages of Smarties and a fake spider. Money well spent?!

Then we had to hurry home so that Jacob could play with his new toys, eat his favorite dinner, and gobble up another round of cake and ice cream. We are currently in a sugar coma and detoxing from Ninja Turtle overload. Five is awesome!

Full House

Birthday parties mean out-of-town guests, which mean lots of people in not a lot of space. Surprisingly, everyone got along, everyone slept well, and everyone had a blast.

[Grandma and Papa with their gaggle of kiddos. About as good a picture as any when you are trying to coordinate 7 sets of eyes and smiles!]

[Our traditional trek to the North Pole (aka house around the corner).]

[A picture with Santa and a side of me!]

Jacob is unofficially five!

Jacob kicked off his birthday countdown with a Ninja Turtle themed birthday party.

 

[Complete with a Raphael cake, a pepperoni pizza cake, and ninja turtle cupcakes.]

[Raph with his lady ninja friend, Donna(tello).]

[Turtles, turtles, and more turtles. Our house has been taken over by these creatures, and Jacob couldn’t be loving it more!]

Just because.

I don't think a cuter pink teddy bear has ever existed. Ever. Winter-weather ready. And in need of a nose wipe...

Clean bill of health.

A trip to the pediatric dermatologist today put my worried little mind to rest. The bump on the side of Camryn’s temple is, in fact, a dermoid cyst. The doctor confirmed it within about half a second of feeling it, declined to order any additional tests to rule out any other possibilities, and downright refused to surgically remove it. All of which I am perfectly OK with. She said she sees these things all the time, it is exactly what she expects it to feel like, and it will potentially stop growing (if we would just stop poking at it!). At this point, it is a purely cosmetic flaw (that really no one can see except for me). Thrilled with this diagnosis. And now I can move on to other things to worry about, like why in the world my nearly-nine-month-old doesn’t have any teeth…

Santa Claus. At a hardware store.

Caleb and the boys happened upon Santa at the local hardware store on Sunday. Looks like this employee drew the short straw. Doesn't he look thrilled? And loving the dead poinsettias to the left. Way to kick off the season, Home Depot! Never mind that. The boys were over the moon when they got home. Jacob told me all about seeing Santa and how he told Santa that he wanted an inflatable Christmas tree (lame) and that Mason wanted a life size Buzz Lightyear.

Then Jacob went on to tell me that there were a few things that he forgot to talk to Santa about:
1. Are you the real Santa?
2. How can you see what we are doing all the way from the North Pole?
And just as I did to Santa many years ago, I expect that someday Jacob will be grilling Santa 20-questions style in a note left next to the cookies and milk. I just hope I can disguise my handwritten responses better than my dad did...

Christmas is Coming!

Russ and Clarke spent the weekend stringing Christmas lights.


This kid has no fear. I'm beginning to question whether that is a good thing. He climbed ladders to bring Caleb the supplies he needed.

 
Jacob even climbed up on the roof. He told me he could see the whole entire city. I'm assuming not Chicago, though I will not be fact checking this statement. Again, this kid has no fear!


Their hard work paid off. House looks great and breakers only trip when we are vacuuming or opening the garage door...


But, really, when your neighbor's house looks like this, is it really worth trying? Yes, yes, it is.