Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Oh, where to start?  Where to start?  Okay.  Get comfy.  This is probably going to be a little long-winded. 

We have had a wonderful, magnificent, amazing Christmas!  My family was all healthy and happy.  The girls had such a great time everywhere we went and they loved their presents.

On Christmas Eve we went to the Coopers.  We had supper with Grandma Sherrel, Grandpa Clarence, and Uncle Craig and Aunt LuAnn.  It was a good meal and then we had birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  The girls thought that was especially exciting and Maleah was thrilled that she got to blow out the candles again this year.  I have a feeling that next year her sister might give her a run for her money on that one.  But we'll see.

After supper we opened gifts.  Maleah had been asking "how much longer 'til we open gifts?" and "can we open presents now?" for like two hours so we finally quit torturing her and started opening all of the gifts that had piled up in the living room.  Maleah got a really cool Tinkerbell video game (sort of like a wii) that Aunt Kay had sent to her.  She loves it!  She got new camouflage hunting clothes from Craig and LuAnn.  She had asked for those because she really wants to go hunting with her Dad and learn to shoot her gun.  So, needless to say, she was excited.  From Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence she got a rubber stamp set that she really loves too.  She walked away with a ton of other stuff from her grandparents and her aunt and uncle.  But I think these things were her faves.

Carissa got a tea set and a sit n' spin from Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence that she really likes.  Aunt Kay sent her a very cute little baby doll.  And Craig and LuAnn got her a Moon in My Room.  That girl is crazy about the moon.  Maleah always was too and when she was that age Craig got her a Moon in My Room too.  It was a hit with both girls.  It is a moon that hangs on their bedroom walls and lights up and actually goes through the moon cycle.  So sometimes it's a full moon, other times it's not.  Very cool gift.    She also got lots of other things from Grandma and Grandpa and Craig and LuAnn but I think these things are her favorites so far.

So that brings us to Christmas morning.  I think it was probably the most anticipated and the most exciting Christmas morning that this house has ever seen.  Maleah was so so so excited!  She woke up at 7:10 and came in my room to inform me that Santa had indeed been there and left her a scooter!  The one she really wanted! (whew!)  She needed me to get up right away so she could show me.  Well, me being the incredibly vain mother that I am was not going into the living room, in front of the video camera, until I put my makeup on and a bra on.  So, I got up, put my makeup on, got dressed for the day, etc and Jason showered and got ready as well.  This was probably the longest twenty minutes of Maleah's little life.  But she didn't complain.  She was all smiles and was talking a mile a minute.  I had to wake poor little Carissa up.  She didn't understand the excitement and was a little aggravated that her sleep was cut short (like mother, like daughter, huh?).  All she wanted was a cup of chocolate milk and to watch Dora for the next 20 minutes.  All of the stuff sitting in the living room floor did not even faze her.  She could've cared less that there was an Elmo doll and a Dora chair sitting right in front of her.  She wanted her milk and she wanted to watch tv!  No ifs, ands, or buts!  She eventually woke up a little and got happy.  She decided that as a matter of fact she would like to open some presents.  Maleah loved her pink scooter that Santa brought her!  He had a really really hard time finding that after Walmart.com lost the one that had been ordered in November.  With only a few days left 'til Christmas he had to hustle to find it but thankfully his supplier (known as the Fairview Heights K-Mart to us) had it in stock.  She also loved the cardboard playhouse that you can color on that Santa brought.  And he also brought her a Hello Kitty Build-A-Bear.  Carissa decided that she loved that Dora chair and Elmo doll from Santa.  She loves Melmo (Elmo).  Santa also brought her a Little People ride-on car.  It's pretty cute.

Maleah's other favorites on Christmas morning were a Hello Kitty water dispenser for her room and a Hello Kitty Nintendo DS.  Carissa's other favorites were her very own remote control (she loves remotes!) and a stuffed Boots doll.  They got a lot of stuff but these were the ones their faces really lit up over.

After we opened up all of the presents, we loaded up the car and went to Grandma Debby and Grandpa David's for breakfast.  It was delicious, as always.  The girls got tons of gifts there too and got to see their cousin Chloey.  I think Maleah's favorite thing there was the pink mp3 player that Grandpa pre-loaded all of her favorite songs onto.  Her playlist includes Justin Bieber (Oh Baby, Baby!), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Dance Little Jean), Johnny Cash, Beach Boys, and many more.  It's a real variety.  She hasn't hardly taken that thing out of her ears in the past few days.  Carissa's favorite thing there was probably a Dora book that came with little tiny Dora characters to play with.  Now we have mini Boots, mini Dora, mini Benny, etc, all over the house.  Carissa loves them so if I step on one I will try to remember that.   We had a really nice time at Mom and Dad's.  We all got really nice gifts but the girls were getting tired so we headed home.

Carissa went back to bed.  Jason took a nap on the couch.  Maleah "just rested" because "I AM NOT going to go to sleep".  And I put everything away and took down the Christmas trees and Christmas decorations.  I can not stand my house being that cluttered and with all of the gifts being opened it was extremely cluttered.  Our living room really isn't that big.  We had the tree up, a four foot by four foot playhouse in the middle of the room, a stack of boxes, two trash bags full of paper, a scooter, a ride-on car, an extra chair, and a partridge in a pear tree in our living room.  Mama had a lot of work ahead of her.  So I cleaned.  I felt much better when everything was put away.  So our Christmas tree was down by 2 p.m. on Christmas Day and I couldn't have been any happier.  I also made about three dozen deviled eggs during that time.  By the time our four o'clock Oestreich Christmas rolled around I was starting to feel slightly exhausted.

The Oestreich Christmas was fun and the food was delicious.  My cousin Amanda gave the five girl cousins a nice picture frame that said "cousins" on it to each one of us and in it was a picture of the five of us with Grandma Rose on her 80th birthday last year.  We all decided that we didn't like that old picture that much so we decided to take a new one to put in the frame.  It turned out pretty good.  My Mom and her three sisters decided to have their picture taken with Grandma too.  My Mom has four brothers as well but we didn't do a group shot of all of them.  My Uncle Randy is in China right now and couldn't be there with us.  We all really missed him. 

Front L to R:  Hillary Halsey, Grandma Rose Oestreich, Andrea Rinehart

Back L to R:  Abby Kitley, Me, and Amanda Oestreich

Front L to R:  My mom, Debby Devore, Grandma Rose, Angie Connell

Back L to R:  Lori VanDyke, Patty Loehr

On Sunday morning we all went to church and the girls got to wear their Christmas dresses.  I did not get a good picture of them together but they looked beautiful.  Here is Carissa in her's.

On Sunday afternoon we went over to Craig and LuAnn's to play their new Wii.  We had a great time!  The funny thing was that there was a ton of static electricity in the room and Carissa's hair was a wild mess.  We all got a good laugh at Rissy's funny hair.

It was a super fun weekend.  Jason was able to be off of work on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so that was a nice treat too.  I don't know if that's ever happened at Christmas before.  We are still having a clutter problem here at the house.  I keep putting toys away but they keep reappearing.  Is it possible that they are multiplying??  I don't know but I wish Maleah would leave for a few hours so I could throw a bunch of the old stuff out.  We have too many toys.  That is for sure. 

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's!!!

Colds, Cookies, and Big Girl Beds

I mentioned the other day that Jason and Carissa had colds.  Well, Jason is doing a lot better but Carissa is not.  She is still sick and runs a fever off and on, has a major runny nose, and watery eyes.  She was doing better for a couple of days but now she is as bad as ever again.  What is up with that?  I think I am taking her to the doctor tomorrow.  Maleah is getting it now too.  She is coughing and has complained about her throat hurting.  And the icing on the cake is that I have it as well.  When I get a cold though it doesn't affect me the same as the others.  When they get runny noses and coughs, I lose my voice.  It happens every single time!  Errrr! Right now I can only whisper.  No one can hear me and it is majorally annoying.  I really feel pretty good, I just can't talk.  I really really really really really don't want any of us to be sick at Christmas.  I hope this is all gone by then!  Say a prayer for us please.

Yesterday was a fun day.  I spent the day helping at the Feed 500 Project at our church.  Shani and Morgan VanHyning had been challenged to organize a big meal and feed 500 people and they did it!  These two high school girls were in charge of the whole thing and they did an amazing job!  It required lots of planning and lots of work but they did it.  I volunteered to help in the kitchen and I spent the day making mashed potatoes.  Lots and lots of mashed potatoes!  It was fun and I had a good time serving with the other women in the kitchen.  It was great to see so many people pull together and do something for the community.  (I still had my voice yesterday, so that was good.)

What else is new with us? Well, a certain present for a certain someone in our family has still not been delivered to our Walmart and I am starting to freak out about that. I still have tons of presents to wrap. Jason has a few things to put together. I have thought of a few things that I still need to go buy. I hope I can get all of this done in the next week!

The big news for the week is that Carissa is now in a big girl bed. She figured out how to crawl out of crib. She actually half-crawled out, half fell out. She hit the floor HARD, flat on her back, and scared me half to death. So, that was the end of the crib. She cried when her daddy took it apart and moved it out of her room the next day. I think she was confused, plus she just didn't feel good. We moved in the twin bed and she loves it! She was so very very excited that she has Dora sheets on her bed now and she cried when I covered them up with the comforter. So, for now she is sleeping with Dora sheets and a Dora blanket and that is it. No pretty comforter but that's okay. She loves it. And if she's happy and sleepin', I'm happy and sleepin'.

Carissa before she realized that the crib was leaving for good.

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Carissa in her new big girl bed!!!!

We had two snow days this past week and on Thursday our friends Bethany, Belle, and London came over to spend the day with us.  We made Christmas cookies and had lots of fun.  Maleah and Belle are the same age and have a great time together.  Carissa and London are the same age and they have fun too.  It was a fun day.  Here are some pics of the girls decorating their cookies.

Have a great week-before-Christmas everybody!!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas...

Christmas is getting close!  Can you feel the excitement??  Get within a ten foot radius of my family and you will!

Last night we began wrapping presents.  Maleah had been begging and I mean begging to start wrapping presents.  I finally gave in.  I thought I wanted to wrap alone, in a quiet house, without helpers, while some Christmas carols played in the background.  I had been putting off the wrapping because I wasn't getting any quiet time to do it in.  I also thought that I wanted my wrapped gifts to look like professionally wrapped gifts that came from Oprah and were all wrapped in coordinating paper.  It turned out that we wrapped in my slightly chaotic kitchen, with two helpers, while Dora played on the television.  It also turned out that my gifts looked less like they were from Oprah and more like they were wrapped with love by someone very very eager to do her best taping and best handwriting on very small tags.  I actually liked this look better than the whole Oprah look anyway.  And if you receive a gift from us this year and it's not the most neatly wrapped gift, please know that it was wrapped with the most love and excitement that you can ever imagine.  I hadn't realized that letting the girls help with the wrapping would help teach them the lesson of giving.  Maleah is so truly excited about giving gifts this year.  Maybe not as excited as she is about receiving them, but close.  And that, my friends, is progress.  It's good for Carissa too.  She may be a little too young to "get it" but she understands way more than I give her credit for.  Maleah's excitement is contagious, so if Maleah is excited about giving someone a very special gift, Carissa is too.

So now we have a few gifts under our tree.  Carissa is doing a magnificent job of leaving them alone.  I am so proud of her.  Maybe she overheard me telling someone that I didn't trust her and didn't feel like I could put any presents under the tree until Christmas Eve.  She probably heard me and was wishing I would put some out early just so she could prove me wrong.  That would be my girl.  I am like that myself.  I should have worried more about her older sister than her.  The first present was only under our tree for about 20 minutes before Maleah stepped on it and completely smashed one side of the box.  "Don't worry Mom!  Don't panic!  I popped it back into place!", she hollered at me.  I laughed and told her not to stand so close to the tree.  She just can't help it I guess.  That tree is like a magnet to both of my kids. 

Jason has had a horrible cold and now poor little Rissa has it too.  It is so sad when she is sick.  She just has the saddest face in the world.  She doesn't like me to wipe her nose, but if I ask her to do it, she will.  She does a really good job of it too for a one and a half year old.  She hasn't been sleeping good so therefore neither have I.  I sure wish there was something I could give her to make her feel better.  It's not fair when babies are sick!!  I sure hope we are all well for Christmas.

Maleah is still having trouble with the boy at school who calls her slow.  This week he told her that her name and her necklace was ugly.  She was so insulted.  She couldn't believe he would say that to her.  I told her to ignore him and don't talk to him.  I also told her that "your name is ugly" translates to "I love you and I think you're great" in boynese.  It's a hard language to learn.  Mannish is a little easier, but not much.

On Sunday we trekked through blizzard conditions and slick roads to celebrate Christmas with the Weavers.  It was our first family Christmas celebration of the season.  I kind of liked having it a couple of weeks early.  It makes the season a little less hectic when things are nicely spaced out on my calendar (and everyone else's too, I'm sure).  We had a great meal complete with Grandma Sherrel's rolls.  Carissa could not help herself and grabbed one of them off of the buffet table long before the prayer was said or anyone else lined up.  I sat her down and let her eat it.  I'm sure no one wanted to hear her scream if I took it away.  She is just a baby and too little to understand waiting on the blessing ("the BLESSSINGGG!!!"). 

After the meal we spent some time celebrating Jesus' birthday, complete with song singing, a skit, and a birthday cake with candles.  Grandma Sherrel sang a very pretty song and asked Maleah and Carissa on stage with her while she sang it.  I told Jason that I sure hoped Carissa didn't spot the baby Jesus in the manger.  This baby Jesus was a very cute little baby doll that was a prop for the song "Mary, Did You Know?".  I knew if Carissa spotted it, that baby Jesus would be toted around and not left to rest in his manger.  So after Grandma sat Carissa on her lap to sing to her a song about a baby's first Christmas, Carissa hollers out "BABY!  BABY!".  She hops right off of Grandma's lap and grabs up Baby Jesus quicker than you can say Buddy the Elf.  This got several chuckles out of the crowd.  Luckily, "Mary, Did You Know?" was already over.  She didn't put baby Jesus back into his manger until it was time to go see Santa.  Here's a picture of Grandma, Maleah, Carissa, and baby Jesus. 

Santa made his usual appearance at the Weaver Family Christmas.  He brought Maleah a writing pad and pen that has magic ink in it that appears in different colors on the pages.  He also brought her some books and a puzzle.  She didn't hesitate and hopped right up on his lap to get her gifts.  Carissa, on the other hand, was scared out of her mind.  She clung to me.  She gave Santa dirty looks.  So he handed me a couple of gifts for her and she sat down and began tearing at the paper.  She was thrilled to discover that he had given her a brand new baby doll, a Dora book, and a tea set.  It was the baby doll that really got her attention though.  While her Dad was desperately trying to free the newborn plastic doll from her many cables, ties, and other theft-proof, parent-hating contraptions that kept her tied down so tightly, Carissa had turned around and was now almost lovingly admiring Santa from afar.  She didn't want to get any closer to him but I'm pretty sure she shot him a genuine smile of thanks. 

I think she is starting to look more like me.  What do you think?

The younger kids with baby Jesus

Maleah and Santa

Carissa after getting her new baby doll from Santa.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus and their son Seth

Okay, you guys know that my blog posts get really long at Christmastime.  Sorry.  But here are some cute pictures that I took of the girls playing in the snow.  They had a great time and spent about 20 minutes outside.  It took us about 40 minutes to get ready to go outside and play.  And it took me at least 15 minutes to get everyone undressed afterwards and to hang up all the wet clothes to dry.  It was quite the workout, let me tell ya...

Yum, snow!

Have a great week everybody!

My Two Funny Kids

The Christmas Season is upon us.  That is for sure.  It is a busy time of year for us and I feel like I've got a lot to do in the next two weeks.  I like to have a stress-free holiday.  Each year I take on less and less responsibility in December.  I don't want to be all worried about what I need to get done and so stressed out that I can't enjoy the season.  A few years ago I quit sending Christmas cards (did you really miss them?).  I had three reasons for doing so:  1. It took a lot of time. 2.  It stressed me out to get them done on time, and 3.  It was expensive.  I figured it was just one expense for the month of December that I could cut out.  I wish I could cut out the house insurance just as easily but I can't.  (Note to self:  Do not ever buy a house in December again.)  I also sign up for very little (none) extra stuff in December.  I offered to help with Maleah's Halloween and Valentine's parties in her classroom this year, but not the Christmas party.  I don't need to be worrying about planning games for 19 five-year olds right now.  This year I have already baked our Christmas cookies and won't be baking any again this year.  So, the next two weeks are reserved for some last minute shopping for a few small items, wrapping gifts, and just enjoying the season with my family.  I look forward to things like looking at the Christmas lights and singing Christmas carols in the car.  I want the next two weeks to be as stress-free as possible. 

This past week Maleah had her Christmas program at her school.  All of the kindergarten classes performed songs and recited poems.  Maleah did great!  She is a natural in front of an audience and I don't think I have ever seen anyone enjoy her Christmas program more than that girl did.  She loved it!  She smiled, she danced, and just really got into it.  Plus she looked adorable doing it.  But all of the little boys and girls did a good job.  It was a really nice program.  They all sang so well and looked so cute!  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone enjoyed it but Carissa.  Unfortunately, the program was scheduled for the same time as nap time and Little Miss Riss watched about two minutes of it before she conked out on my lap, sound asleep, completely oblivious to the sound of a hundred little voices singing Christmas carols.

On a side note about the Christmas program, there will probably never be a year that Maleah will be in the front row of a Christmas program in her life.  I have some good shots of her friend Erica on the front row and we can all see how pretty her dress is.  But Maleah's pretty dress is hidden back there on the second row (and behind the songbook).  I know not everybody can be in the front row so that's why I told Maleah to offer her teacher 20 bucks for a place in the front.  I don't know if Maleah didn't ask or if the teacher just didn't go for that idea.  Oh well.
In other news, Maleah has been telling me that a certain boy in her class calls her names and is mean to her.  When asked what he calls her, she says that he always calls her slow.  He tells her that she can't run as fast as him.  I am sure this is true.  She is probably slower than him.  No big deal.  But it bugs her.  He is also always trying to get her attention and basically just drives her crazy at school.  Personally, I think he has a crush on her.  I told her that boys don't know what to do when they like a girl so they are sometimes mean and do really dumb stuff because they are terrible communicators.  We talked about different ways to handle the problem and what she could say back to him.  This is a recent conversation between the two of them:
Boy:  "You're so slow!"
Maleah:  "My legs might be slower but my mind is faster!"
Hahahaha!!!  I love it!  That's my girl!  He probably had no idea what to say back to her.  I asked her what he said and I think she said that he just walked off.  It's been a few days ago and so far, no other complaints about this certain boy.  There are lots of boys in her classroom and some of them are very nice and she talks very highly of some of them.  She even told me that one boy in the class was smarter than she was.  Whoa!  All year she has been telling me that she is the smartest one.  Unfortunately, the girls are way outnumbered in her class.  She has some really nice girls in there with her but for some reason she talks more about the boys.

In Carissa news, she is getting another tooth in and then I think she will be done for awhile.  She now has all of the ones in front in.  I am relieved about that.  It hurts to get teeth in and I'm glad that she's going to have a little break from that.  She is still fascinated with the Christmas tree and we are currently missing several ornaments.  I have found two of them inside some Christmas votive holders.  The other day I said to her "Are you my buddy?"  She said "no" in a very matter of fact voice.  Later that day when we went to the store I told her that she could be my helper, she said "no" again in the same voice.  No is her favorite word right now.  Another example:
Carissa:  "Baa-uhl?"  (She's looking for her sippy cup.)
Me:  "Is it in the living room?"
Carissa:  "No."
Me:  "Is it in your room?"
Carissa:  "No."
Me:  "Is it in the kitchen?"
Carissa:  "No."
Me: "Did you actually look in any of these places?"
Carissa:  "No."
The cup was later found in her bedroom.  And for the record, she can say "yeah" so it's not like she doesn't know how to answer correctly.  She won't say "yes" but she will say "yeah" and can use it correctly.  She is just stuck on "no" right now.  Oh well.  She's so cute that it doesn't really matter.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is only two and a half weeks away!  I hope that you guys are all having a wonderful Christmas season!!