Merry Christmas

sNoW DaY

The other day we got dumped with snow. This did NOT put a smile on my face as I forecasted the hassle the snow would bring us. So we shoveled our car out and made it safely to church with only a couple brodys in the parking lot....I still have my suspicions on how necessary these were. I envied our fellow church goers who were clad in snow boots under their dresses and over their suit pants as that cold water jumped right into my black wedges. I chased the 2 year old (who refuses to wear a coat) but couldn't stop him in time from stomping into the big piles of snow the snowplow left us. Somehow we got in the building and made it through the 3 hours. It was the same story on the way home..."Momma, I'm SO cold"...wet wet feet....shovel shovel....stomp stomp...wet carpet....coat, gloves, hats, bags, boots strewn all over the entry way. Don't we love snow?

But the next day baby number two was asleep and I had a burst of energy. Noah and I bundled up (snowpants, gloves, hat, snowboots, and YES! a coat) and went outside. We rode the sled down to the mail box, fell backwards into untouched snow to make angels, made a snowman and even rode the sled down the little hill a few times. This time when we were done the story went like this.... "Momma, will you help me take off my coat please?"....wet wet feet...stomp stomp stomp...wet carpet...coat, gloves, hats, boots strewn all over the entry way. But this time WE LOVE SNOW! It always amazes me that when I embrace something instead of gloomily anticipate something...I find joy. The snow is still snow, but I can love it.

"There seems to be magic in the very name of Christmas" ~Charles Dickens

Busy busy week. Lots of Christmas. Here's a peek at our Christmas fun....

Christmas tradition #1 We love fresh cut Christmas trees.

Christmas tradition #2 Creme Brulee with Cherice. There is one more sitting in my fridge and I'm thinking if my husband isn't home by the time I finish this post its all mine...

Christmas tradition #3 Treats treats and more treats. Kate M. taught me how to make these little guys. Perfect to make with kids. (Step 1 Place caramel hershey kisses on baking sheet. Step 2 Place round pretzel over top of kisses. Step 3 Bake at 200 for 2 min. Step 4 Squish melty kiss down with m&m. Done!)

Christmas tradition #4 Oh the advent calendar.... There's a really fun one I want to make out of burlap, twine, some red paint... but during my unambitious days I borrowed this idea from Mrs. S. A muffin tin filled with candy and wrapped with wrapping paper. Every day until Christmas Noah gets to punch through the paper and eat a candy. Today was the first day, he says "I want to poke holes, eat the candy all gone, and then it will be Christmas!" We might need to work on this advent concept a little more.

Christmas tradition #5 More Treats! For neighbors and friends. My VTs helped me do the tags today (and my dishes).

Christmas tradition #6 24 chapters in Luke, one for every day until Christmas.

Christmas tradition #7 Play Nativity

There have been other things and there will be more things. But I'm trying not to make it about things. It's about LOVE. Love for my friends and family. Love with my Noah. Love of, for and from the Savior. Do you feel it?

PS Dave is eating his creme brulee. Lucky man. He did let me have a bite though :)

Gagey has found his toes

Traditions

Every time a holiday comes around, it's so fun to decide how we're going to do it. What do we want to do for Easter? What does Thanksgiving look like to you? Sometimes we're preserving classic traditions, sometimes we're renovating them. And sometimes we're building new ones from the ground. We have a handful that I think will stick with us and we have another handful that need that big wrecking ball.

This Thanksgiving we started the morning with a 5K run, Dave played some football, we wrote down things we were thankful for, we cooked and then we had a BEAUTIFUL dinner with our family away from family. Kim's homemade rolls, Rebecca's yummy yams and apples with caramel sauce, and of course the apple crumb pie were my favorites.

The 5 K was a new addition this year. We thought "Wouldn't this be a great Thanksgiving tradition to do as a whole family?" And it was great. My running Rebecca friend ran with me and Dave pushed the jogging stroller with the babies all bundled up. (And yes, he still beat us.) We felt great, we had fun. But then it started snowing wet wet snow, babies' hands were frozen and mascara was coming off in frozen clumps. As soon as those stroller wheels stopped, the kids were done. The freezing trek back to the car with the screaming babies pretty much decided against this tradition for the whole family....we'll just stick with the apple crumb pie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Let the season begin!!!

This weekend we went to Silver Bells in the City. Big light parade, marching bands, loud sirens. Boy number 1 was excited and hyped, boy number 2 was startled and confused. We missed the lighting of the huge Christmas tree in front of the capitol building and the fireworks due to our predictable and consistent melt down time, but we enjoyed our hot chocolate and cookies and made it home with no traffic! It was a great kick off to this fun season, I just wish they would have included Thanksgiving - at least one cornucopia....or a turkey....maybe just a buckle shoe? Seriously, what about the pilgrims?

Tagged

Amanda tagged me. So here are my 6 facts/habits about myself and the 6 people we get to learn more about. :)

1. I'm an Office fan. Can't miss an episode. Jim, Pam and Dwight make me laugh every time.

2. I'm trying to be more green - unplugging appliances, recycling, not using a bag at the grocery store when I only buy one item, supporting green businesses - there's a lot more I can do though. I want to be that girl in the grocery line who is taking forever because she's got all those canvas bags. I want to buy more organic foods. I want to buy a cow for Christmas instead of all that wrapping paper and plastic www.heifer.org. I just read a great post about doing a "financial fast" on Segullah. They had some great ideas.

3. I can't turn off my analytical SLP ear. I'm cursed by my speech language pathology training. I can't listen to the Diane Rehms show (most npr shows actually) without analyzing vocal tremor and aphonic breaks or watch a movie with Reese Witherspoon without analyzing lip movement and tongue placement. When a bunch of kids run by while I'm sitting in the park, I'm not thinking "oh what cute boys, they're probably about 8 or 9 years old" instead I'm thinking "oh, the tall one has a dentalized /s/ and the blond one has a misarticulated /r/, I wonder what school district they're in." I'm not going to go into how distracting church is...

4. My husband scoops a bowl of ice cream for me every night.

5. I love to read. This didn't really start until grad school. Jane Austen helped me to stop grinding my teeth at night. I just finished Chaim Potok's The Promise today. Loved it! Anyone got any good recommendations?

6. In college I went on a date to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. During a trip to the restroom my glove fell out of my pocket and into the toilet. That's right...into the toilet. The rest of the night I only wore one glove, tried desperately to keep my gloveless hand in my peacoat pocket and was grateful that no one asked any questions.

I tag my Dave, lovely Lindsay, Gina Pina, Leslie W, Kadee and Miss Mauss.
I know some of you guys have already done this, but I want to see it again!

Quotable Noah

"Thomas is not a boy, he's a train."

"You're wearing a skirt, that means you're pretty."

"My grandpa's not an elephant, he's a grandpa."

"Grandma and Grandpa Wagner aren't in chili. Chili's a food, they're in Chile [chee lay]"

"See me not crying? That means I'm not tired."

"Put Gagey in his carseat, then buckle him, then you open the door, then walk outside, then walk to the car, then put the key in, then open the door, then put Gagey in the car, then put me in the carseat, then buckle, then turn the car on, then go to Walmart. Does that sound good?"

One courageous Lion and his Fireman brother

Local fire station trick or treating, church Halloween carnival, carving jack o' lanterns out of our cider mill pumpkins, booing neighbors, and coloring pictures of Frankie, all precursors to the sweet filled night. Halloween.

We packed up our fireman and our Lion and met up with our friends and their Scarlett O'Hara, Batman/monkey. We ate chili and Knox sandwiches, and drank homemade root beer (I have to include a picture, I was so proud!).

Then we headed out the door for trick or treating. Fireman was awake for about 2 minutes of the fun. One Highlight: a man with bad teeth sitting on his porch offered the kids a trick or treating choice "Play dough or a golf club?" The lion took the play dough and Scarlett chose the golf club to her father's glee who then carried it around all night. Another highlight: its getting late, its raining, the minivan goes out to pick up the trick or treaters. Dave doesn't want to stop, but the Lion says "Dad, I have enough candy. I'm done." Dave is sad but proud of his son's self control.

Back to the house for more treats, old movie, and a call to our Jensen friends. We're all missing their Colorado selves this year. We hope they had a spooky night in their new home and we hope you all had enough spooks to carry you to the weekend. Happy Halloween!

What does a lion say?

More Halloween pics to come!

A walk in the park?

Thursday. Wow, can I tell you about my day on Thursday? It started out pretty simple, we ran a couple errands in the morning, ate lunch and then as I was gearing up for nap time it was like a bomb went off. Or the sirens before the bombs. Or a full on attack where they storm the beaches and everything. Out of nowhere. Both babies had complete meltdowns. I tried all my mommy tricks. I would get one settled down and then the other would start again. I felt like I lost my super powers for the afternoon, they were nowhere to be found. Nothing was working. Absolutely nothing. For an extremely long 2 hours. So I decided we are just getting in the car and going for a walk. The ten minutes it took me to load up the car was the height of the disaster...so I thought. They both screamed for the entire 5 minute drive, the entire unloading of carseats and the loading of the stroller. What was I thinking? Why were we out there?
But then miracle of miracles right after we went up the hill and over the bridge they both surrendered and drifted off to sleep.
I walked the rest of the 2 mile loop in silence and enjoyed every minute of it. They were still asleep when we finished the trail , so I had my water break and watched the Williamston cross country team too. The crazies were great for the rest of the day. The afternoon started off as one of the hardest days of my life (this might sound dramatic but I am so serious!) and ended up one of my favorites.

Uncle John's

We hit Uncle John's Cider Mill again this week. So fun. We watched the big mill squish and squoosh the apples into cider, rode in the red tractor trailer, played on the hay bale maze, picked pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, and of course had donuts and cider. My favorite is still the cinnamon sugar donut while Dave's remains the cider donut. Noah's favorite is the one that is deep fried and has sugar. He could eat a dozen. And Gage, he's still a milkbreath.

Happy Fall!

The Sleepy Hollow Loop

I love to run. I'd forgotten this. In between prego bellies and newborn dazes I remember. I love to run. My favorite right now, the Sleepy Hollow Loop. It's a short run. Through Brattin Woods, down Lake Lansing Rd through the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood and back.


I didn't even want to go tonight. What I wanted to do was finish making dinner, get my kitchen in order and clean the whirlwind that is my living room at the end of the day. Just settle my house. Settle my day. Settle my mind.
But my sweet sweet David insisted. He took the measuring cup from my hand mid scoop and the baby from my hip mid wail and shooed me out the door. My husband is a stud. (...and in his head I know he's figuring out how this can be a one to one trade for fantasy football, intramural soccer and early morning basketball).
So I knotted up my asics and I was off. After two breaths of misty Michigan air and four tromps of sneaker on pavement I remembered. Again. I love to run. I love to be by myself for a minute. Hear my breath. I love to think about the day, the boys, the leaves. I love to not think. Let my head empty and slow down.
When I'm done I still need to settle my living room and kitchen but my mind and my day are settled.

What do you do to clear your head? snuggle you down? relax?

Last Lake Day

Our warm days are numbered. But yesterday was a nice 88 degrees with high humidity. Perfect for the lake. We packed up and met a few friends in Grand Haven. Noah loves Lake Michigan. On the drive over he said "I wish Grand Haven was closer" So do I Noah, So do I.
So we dug holes, chased the waves, ate grapes, ate some sand and enjoyed one of our last sunny days. Fall is coming...I can feel it.
Can you?

TIME OUT

Time Out started in Noah's chair.
Too many minutes of playing the game of down and up, up and down and too many giggles and squeals from Noah quickly stopped that version of Time Out.

Then we tried Time Out on the landing of the stairs.
He'd stay put, but started requesting to go to Time Out. "Mom, will you put me in Time Out?" Hmmm, not very effective.

So I started locking him in the bathroom. It's a half bath. No tub, no shower, not much in there really. This worked for awhile but when I had to spend a few minutes collecting all the soap, toilet paper, diapers before he spent his two minutes inside, I realized it wasn't working either.

Now I just distract, prevent and ignore.

I don't blame the dude for thinking Time Out is a fun game. I would LOVE to be locked in the bathroom, by myself. A minute for every year of age? Do you know what I could do in there for 26 minutes?! My hair could look amazing, my toenails could sparkle, my hands could be satin. Maybe a good book, or just sit there and be still.

What do you superparents do with an attention deprived two year old?

Baby Burrito

Cozy

Happy Anniversary

Dave and Jessie August 21, 2002

One of the first times I hung out with David T. Wagner was in a small apartment crowded with people. The apartment was inhabited by 6 college boys. So of course there was a pile of garbage in the kitchen next to the refrigerator, a pile of dishes in the sink, piles of textbooks, papers, cleats, socks, candy wrappers and basketballs throughout the living room. I’m not sure I want to try to remember more about WQ1. A big group of giddy, single undergrads were playing flirtatious games at the beginning of the semester. I noticed Dave. Of course I noticed Dave, how could you not notice Dave at a function like this? Later that night Jenn and I were recuperating and post-game talking in our upstairs nook of a bedroom at the Brick House.

She says, “There was definitely something between you and Dave Wagner.”

I sincerely respond, “No way! He is way too hyper!”

I must have been in denial, or maybe I was blind. Whatever it was Dave quickly chipped away at that idea until I was hopelessly in love. Now 6 years later we just celebrated our 5^th wedding anniversary. Six whole years since that silly night on 8^th North. We went to one of our favorite cozy little restaurants in small town Williamston and took a moment to ourselves. Just so you all know, he’s still hyper, and I’m still in love.

Happy Anniversary David.

SUPERDUDE

great lake, great trip

Singing songs in the car, counting the big red barns along the way, we drove our little family to Lake Michigan last weekend. After several u-turns and explained directions from innocent locals, Grand Haven state park we did find. Is it an ocean? Is it a lake? Well, you can’t see the other side, there are waves and a nice sandy beach with a pier. But its not salty and the sand is not grainy. Hmm…

We unloaded our castle making buckets and shovels, and our snacks and spent a nice afternoon beachside lakeside. We took a walk on the pier, took a look at all the big boats, ate a hot dog in town, did some tag team shopping at the boutiques, licked our ice cream cones and then piled our little brood back in the car. We did not however get in the water…
it was a frosty 52 degrees.

Happy trip.

Gage Gage Gage

This new little babe is now a month old. Didn’t I just introduce him to his Noah brother? Didn’t I just look at his face covered in baby slime for the first time? I could tell he was his own person. His own chin, his own nose. Now its been a month and 6 days. I’m wondering when I need to get the next set of clothes out as I tug his onsie down just a little bit more to snap it. I’m stretching his swaddle blankets just a little bit more to tuck it in. I’m loosening the straps in his carseat and waking up more in the night wondering why he’s still asleep. I’m catching more smiles and listening to him make happy noises. What’s a momma to do? Anyone know how to keep them tiny?