Week 52

Week 52...  one year of weekly posts!  It was a lot.  I'm going to shoot for monthly or bi-monthly posts for 2016.  Sorry to all three of you who read this. 

Christmas was really good this year.  We stuck to many of our same traditions and I LOVE that.  Christmas Eve morning we spend together as our family of four.  We opened our presents and saw what Santa brought.  Derek made bacon and caramel rolls from scratch.  Punky actually tried the caramel rolls this year- maybe when the kids are teenagers they will enjoy them like we do. 

I bought matching Christmas PJs for the kids this year.  We are never not having matching Christmas PJs ever again.

We headed to Maynard that afternoon for church and dinner at Great-Grandma Margene's.  She serves lutefisk and Swedish meatballs.  The kids didn't try that.  They load up on bread and the relish tray.  While the ladies are cleaning up and doing dishes, Grandpa Scott takes everyone to school across the street and the boys (young and old) and kids play basketball and other gym activities.  This year was smaller as most of Derek's cousins are now married and have kids, so the gift giving didn't last until midnight like I remember it did when the kids were littler.  We were back to Grandma's in bed by 10. 

Matching church clothes too!

We spent Christmas Day at Grandma Trudi and Grandpa Scott's.  We ate turnovers for breakfast and spaghetti for lunch.  Once all the cousins got to town, we opened presents.  The kids were spoiled but a good amount.  They were really happy with their gifts and didn't get to the "I can't open another present" stage or the "I wanted more!" stage. 

Cousins!

One Week Old

Babies' First Christmas

The forecast was calling for 10 inches of snow and 40 mile an hour wind, so we left that night instead of the next morning like we had planned.  Six years ago, there was a terrible blizzard that prevented us from getting to my parent's house for Christmas and I did not handle it well.  Yes, I was pregnant (and didn't know it at the time) but I think I would've been super sad without the crazy hormones.  The three hour car ride took us closer to five, but we made it. 

We spent the weekend with Grandpa Max and Grandma Debbie.  Auntie Shannon, Nate and Leah were there for the majority of our time too.  We missed Abby this year.  She is growing up and has to work a real job and all that business.  (She gave the kids amazing gifts- Buddy got a remote control dinosaur like he had been asking for!  And Punky got makeup and nail stuff and a stuffed animal.  She was really generous and we sure missed her). We all learned that a five year old boy and a beagle aren't a good mix- it got a little crazy at times.  But it was a nice weekend filled with good food, games, movies and relaxing.  Apparently, too relaxing because I came home with no pictures taken!  (except this one of Leah doing Punky's makeup)

We were able to get outside and play in the snow which felt really good considering how many Christmas cookies I ate. 

We got back home at a decent time today.  The house is a disaster and I don't know where we are going to put everything yet.  That's part of the fun though.  :)

 

Week 51

A quick post tonight so I can keep up with Christmas preparations...

We visited our new nephew/cousin today!  Baby G is 3 days old!  

I didn't get a picture of just Punky holding the baby- glad we get to spend Christmas Day with him soon!

Week 50

Both kiddos had super great weeks!

Punky passed Level 2 Ice Skating.  She's getting pretty good.  She can skate forwards, backwards, stop and glide on one leg.  She's come a long way from her first lesson where she basically skate-walked or fell.  We are super proud of her hard work!

Buddy earned his yellow belt in Taekwondo.  He and Derek had been working hard for the last few weeks and were practicing his form for 5 minutes nearly every day.  The form "Chun Ji" was 19 moves.  He not only had to know which way to face but also which way to turn.  It was a lot for a 5 year old!  And he did it!  He came a long way from one of his first lessons when the instructor asked the class what the name of the form was and Buddy answered "uniform" instead of "Chun Ji".  

 In addition to the form, he also had to know the meaning of respect, the three areas of concentration and a self defense move.  At the end of the exam, Buddy was so excited to get to break a board!  

We also got to visit both kids at school this week.  Buddy's preschool sang songs and had snacks on Thursday.  Buddy is one of the tallest and oldest in his class.  He looked giant standing next to the littlest girl in the class!  

Sometimes when the kids aren't too excited to take a photo for me, I agree to let them do one silly photo after I get a good shot of them smiling.  This is what Buddy did for his silly photo.  Boys!

On Friday, Punky's class performed a play for the parents.  The play was "The Gingerbread Girl" and wouldn't you know our little girl was the gingerbread girl!  (The class did another play about a month ago "The Three Little Pigs" and Punky was the Big Bad Wolf.  She told me, "every play we do, I get eaten!"  Hahaha). She did a great job in the play and has such good expression in her voice- I am so proud of her!

On Saturday we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for our first Christmas celebration.  

We spent the rest of the weekend baking Christmas cookies with Grandma Trudi and Great Aunt Traci.  Punky was a big helper while Buddy floated in and out.

Week 49

I ended up with strep throat.  It was a pretty bad case as I had to get a shot of antibiotics right in the ol rump at Urgent Care.  Buddy thought that was pretty funny!  I'm still not 100% but am doing better every day.  Friday and Saturday I was not able to open my mouth more than an inch or two.  Today, I am worried about an ear infection.  Hopefully the 10 day course of antibiotics works.

Other than that, we spent the week decorating for Christmas.

Today Punky performed in the Christmas program at church.  It was cute!  They sang lots of songs that will be stuck in our heads for weeks.  

She wore cousin Leah's Christmas dress from when she was Punky's age!