Christmas!

We had such a wonderful, busy day!  So much to write about but it's time for me to go to  bed (work in the morning).  I just wanted to take a minute to post how thankful I am for our families and how blessed we are.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!  Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Santa's Elf

Christmas cards finally picked up today, and only spent about 2 hours at our house before being cheerily stuffed and merrily mailed!  Andrew helped, too!  Very happy to have that part done since we're getting really close to Christmas.  You don't want people thinking you forgot!

Santa's Elf came tonight and wrapped all of the kids' presents.  Now I just have to find our wrapping paper and finish everyone else's.  I've been so excited about Christmas this year! 

I hope it's wonderful for Andrew and we do a good job keeping the magic in it as much as remembering Jesus.  I'm challenged by both.  Maybe I'll have it down by the end, but will I forget how by next year?  Always the challenge with annual celebrations; like how the timing goes for all of the sides baking on Thanksgiving ;)


FOUR MORE DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Sing along

So I forgot my camera for Andrew's preschool Christmas sing-a-long Thursday.  The saddest thing I could think of was Ken coming home from work and asking to see pictures/video of it, but Thursday nights we don't see each other between shifts, so I didn't have to tell him (or see his face) that I didn't have it.  He did look on the camera when he got home, so I had to confirm that there were in fact no pictures or videos....  Hopefully I can get copies from someone else in his class.  I feel like such a bad mom and wife for that one :(
The kids were adorable singing and doing little hand motions to a couple songs.  You could tell they practiced and were so excited to sing with us!  Amber cooed at her big brother and clapped and bopped to the songs- super cute, too!
Oh, and they both have a snotty cold now... hoping that's gone by Christmas and Ken and I (or anyone else) don't get it.
ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Decorating the Tree

Ken and Andrew braved the chilly air last Sunday to pick out our Christmas tree!  It's a beautiful 8 ft Douglas Fir (thank you 9 ft ceilings) and it is about as wide as it is tall  haha!  Ken said it's equilateral; I said it's chubby :)  Whatever it is, it's lovely and we had fun decorating it that night.  We put the Christmas music station on the TV (stop and think that we used to put records and 8 tracks on when we were kids...), told Andrew a million times to stop getting the ornaments out that we weren't putting on/use a hook/put it on a strong branch not on the tip of branch, and the whole time Amber could have cared less.  I subjected the family to a little video-recording while the TV played the most obscure songs it could find.  After I turned off the video, decorating went a little better and so did the music.  I'm a ginx, at least with the camera.
So, here are some photos (and yes I set up the timer for some family shots :p I like everyone to be there).

Amber helped unload the bin (she's in the fill & dump stage hehe)



We need one up dair, Dad.

First Turkey Day

Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun with 2 babies running around (well crawling, but fast crawling!) and the third one being extra cute and smiley!  Andrew was very cute, too, and so excited to have everyone over that he got crazy.  It could have been the brownies he heisted and ate under the table with Buttercup or it could have been the lack of a nap or it could have been that he's 3!  My mom got the babes "1st" bibs and we got pics of those in our traditional 3 moms with 3 babies group.  Rosemary's grandmother found some very cute bibs which she thought were 1st birthday bibs (a chuckle when she spelled the word on them that she wasn't familiar with to Rosie and it turned out it was Chanukah!).  Everyone's dishes were awesome and the babies tried some, too!  Really great time with all of my family-  I'm so thankful for them!



Did anyone else get snow?!



In his slippers catching snowflakes

Prepping the pie with help from my crew, and chatting with my mom

Sarah & Jack  Heather & Amber  Rosemary & Claire
My 1st Gobble bibs

pretty little cousins

    

Funny comment from Sarah...





Marathon day

Andrew and I had quite a day last Saturday...
We started out having breakfast with our house guests and seeing them off.  Then we made a last minute decision to get a haircut before our Romp n Roll class.  He was pretty agreeable so it worked out.  I had hoped we would have enough time to stop at home to bathe first, but we had to go right to Chef Rompy after the hair cut.  He made hummus and pita chips there for snack and then we had some PBnJ when he got home.  I gave him a quick bath to wash off the cut hair and peanut butter and then we were off to a 3rd birthday party in Cherry Hill, NJ.  My co-worker had her son's birthday party at the Garden State Discovery Museum and it was great!  Thanks for having us Theresa and Jared!

Andrew and his cupcake

Jared and his cupcake



the giant light brite board



Veterinary clinic- checking the kitty's ear

Gone Fishin'

the bubble table

mini hockey rink (got a cute video, too)

After the party we went straight to Gram and Grandpop's house, had Arby's for dinner and lots of play time with the wee ones!

House Guests

I finally got to meet Amber's birthday twin, David!  David Michael Schlesser decided he was ready 6 weeks early and on the same day Amber decided to join us :)  I checked my cell for messages a little while after giving birth and found a message from Kristen's mom... after I had a little mental/emotional freak out I called back and got Kristen on the phone.  "Hey Heather, what are you up to?"  "Well, I just had my baby."  "Wow, I just had my baby, too."  WHAT?!?!?!   So, my friend brought her hubby and little man up to PA for a visit and spent the night last Friday.  We all enjoyed some cheesesteaks for dinner and playing with the kids.  Good times; it was hard to say goodnight, but we're all happily sleep deprived so it had to happen (10:30ish I think it was).  Up the next morning at 6:30 had breakfast together and then a whirl-wind of a day... next post :)  Please meet David!


Aside from their eye shape, couldn't they be siblings? :)





reading Brown Bear Brown Bear









Amber stands alone

Cousin Jack came over the first weekend of November and showed Amber how to stand without holding on to anything ;-)  She duplicated it about a week later :)

Look, Aunt Heather, no hands!

I hear he's walking now!  I don't know that Amber has that much interest in it, but it probably won't be too far off. <3

With a little help

Took us a few tries to get this one with three squirmy little ones but it's GREAT!

Did I tell you?

... Amber understands when I say, "give me a kiss" - she leans in, with her mouth open of course, and she giggles.
She likes to push various mobile items around that support her as she walks (the walker, the step stool, a box) but she won't use the walker toy invented for that ;)  I will post a cute video of her at our friend Kierney's house using a doll stroller- very cute!.
Andrew has been a little crazy again lately and I feel like I've been yelling at him a lot.  We just keep apologizing to each other (him for being naughty/not listening; me for yelling) and we keep trying to do better.  It's true that you just keep getting tested over and over again when you pray for patience...  He's going to win....
He made the cutest "piece of pie" at school on Tuesday.  They painted a "wedge" of a traditional fluted paper plate orange and stuck a big cotton ball in the middle.  Adorable!
Wait till you see his school picture.   I got to sneak a peek on their website and he is absolutely precious!  Great job Buddy!