MERRY CHRISTMAS

It is Christmas Eve! I am so excited to sit back and watch my beautiful kids enjoy the magic of Christmas this year. I used to dream of having Christmases full of lots of noise and squeals and little kid sounds, so I am going to try and soak it up as much as possible. I know these special Christmases when the kids are small are going to go by so fast! I wish I could save some of it up and use it later (like when all three of them are teenagers).

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

NOT So Merry.....

Yesterday I was at work sitting in a nice quiet office watching the snow out the window and listening to Christmas music (while diligently working, of course) and feeling pretty good. I was planning on dragging the fam to see some Christmas lights when I got home...then my phone rang. I saw that it was Preston calling and I immediately got a sick feeling in my stomach. I am only at work for half a day a week, so he doesn't usually call me at work (other than at the end of the day to ask me if I am coming home yet). He told me that Corbie had jumped off of our ottoman and hurt her foot. She didn't want to walk anywhere and kept saying "Ow," and "Hurt." He said he was going to put her down for her nap and hope she was magically better by the time I got home.

Unfortunately, she wasn't.

It was just after 5:00 p.m. when Cora woke up and still didn't want to walk, so I ran her down to Instacare (not my favorite place), where they did x-rays and all the usual stuff. Corbie was very brave and did just great, and only cried a little during the x-rays. She was excited to get stickers and suckers from all of the nurses who thought she was the cutest thing ever. Every time one of them left our little room, she would give them a big wave and say "Deek oo! Bye! (Thank you, Bye!") The doctor couldn't find a fracture anywhere on the x-rays, but said that she might have a "toddlers fracture," which are hard to see on x-rays. So, in usual Instacare style, they put a great big splint on Cora's whole entire leg and told me to check with a specialist today.

Unfortunately, it seems that all orthopedic specialists in a 50-mile radius are out of the office until after Christmas. Even Primary Childrens said they couldn't see Cora until next Wednesday at the earliest, and that we should just keep her in the splint "just in case" until then. So broken foot or not, my sweet Corbie is stuck in this monstrosity for Christmas:

She can't bend her leg at all, and is back to crawling around the house, poor thing. It breaks my heart! Why do I keep breaking my babies???!?? **sniff***

To make matters worse, Dax seems to have caught Preston's cold and is feeling pretty miserable today, too. I have been carrying them both around all day, trying to sanitize everything in sight to keep the cold away from the rest of us and wondering how on earth I am going to finish the zillion things I need to do to get ready for Christmas and the six houseguests that are arriving on Friday to stay with us for a week.

Now it is foggy and rainy and I must admit it matches my mood.

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I think I need some cookies!

Christmastime Sunset

Can I just tell you how much I have been loving the sunshine/snow combination we have been having these last couple of days? I just smile every time I am outside or look out the window.

One of my favorite things in winter are those sunsets that turn all of the snow pink. There was one today at my house. I was a little too slow to capture it on camera, but here are the leftovers (which aren't too bad).

Winter Gymnastics Show

(Doesn't she look grown up???)

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Arden is still loving the gymnastics thing. She goes once a week for an hour. Sometime I use that time to run errands with the little kids, but I usually drag Corbie and Dax along for the ride. Luckily for us, they have a viewing area that is kind of enclosed and has some books that Dax and Cora can read while I watch Arden. Dax has found a dinosaur book there, so of course he is in heaven and looks forward to reading the book every week. The kids do pretty good unless some other kids Daxton's age show up in there too. Dax loves other kids....HOWEVER, he usually shows his love by running right up to them and roaring like a dinosaur in their faces. Then, if they smile at him or roar back, he sometimes shows his increasing affection for them by trying to wrestle them to the ground. Luckily, he only tackles other little boys, but most little boys still don't enjoy being tackled onto a tile floor by a dinosaur for some reason. Good thing he is so dang cute!

I am rambling...sorry. Back to what I meant to be posting about: Flips does "shows" twice a year, and Arden's winter show was this week. This is her first show in the "big gym," where she has got to show off her stuff on a real balance beam and real bars, etc. Preston is out of town again this week, and my wonderful parents came down to help me wrestle the little kids so I could record some of the show on video for him (THANK YOU!!)

Here is Arden (the little purple one) doing her "floor routine"

At the end of the show the kids all get to stand up on a podium three at a time and have everyone clap for them.

And then she got a CANDY CANE, which was her favorite part of the evening. (Arden loves candy canes so much she can't bear to eat them. She just saves them up in a paper stocking she made at preschool...it will be a sad day when one of the little kids gets their hands on her stash, which they are bound to do). Rambling again.....sorry. Great job, Arden!

The NO!s and the ABCs

Cora is entering her "terrible two's" a little early. At least the "No" part. Everything for the last week or so gets a great big "NNNO!" from Cora. Here is a conversation we had this morning.

Me: Corbie, do you want some breakfast?
Cora: NO!
Me: No? How about some cereal?
Cora: NO!
Me: Oatmeal?
Cora: NO!
Me: How about some juice?
Cora: NO! Juice?
Me: Do you want juice?
Cora: NO!
Me: Oh, so you don't need a drink?
Cora: NO! Juice Peez!
Me: You want juice?
Cora: NO!
Me: ***sigh***

It is like that all. Day. Long.

Even if she really wants something, she still says NO. I guess she just does it to prove that she can. Dax went through this too, so I know that it will pass someday. I still think of Cora as a baby, so it is sad for me that she is already trying to be so independent! She has to choose what shirt she wears every morning, too. If I try to just grab a shirt for her, she always notices and doesn't let me get away with it.

One of Cora's favorite "movies" (and I use this term very loosely) is the "Letter Factory" DVD from LeapFrog. I got it a few months ago to help Arden with learning to read, but Dax and Corbie love it more than Arden. I let them watch it when we are driving around in the car. Even though it keeps them quiet, I must admit it that listening to that show over and over is pretty painful for me. It is brutally repetitive and pretty dang cheesy, but the twibs LOVE IT. And look at Cora go (sorry for the background noise...that is just how it is around here):

Cora is 19 months old already, and has been doing great in her nursery class. Her nursery leaders told me this on Sunday: "Oh, Cora is doing so great! She is much more well behaved than her big brother!"

Hmmmmmm....Thanks?

Zaugg Mountain

So the big blizzard they were expecting last Tuesday was kind of a let-down. It snowed a little, but the huge white-out wind conditions never materialized up where we live. HOWEVER, it snowed a little bit on Sunday. Like a foot. Or two. Getting all of that snow off of our driveway created a LARGE mountain of snow next to the driveway. The kids wanted to climb it a few days ago. Here is Arden near the summit, and Cora giving up right after leaving base camp:

Arden is our sole summiteer! She conquered Zaugg Mountain!

The kids decided to go where the snow "wasn't as deep," meaning away from the huge piles around the driveway. So, we took a walk down the sidewalk a little, and then Arden went jumping through the snow like a little deer. Dax and Cora couldn't wait to follow. Unfortunately, the snow was still too deep for poor Daxton to move faster than a turtle's pace. His legs were just too short to lift up and over the snow, and he was pushing quite a big pile around after a few steps:

He kept falling over and just laying in the snow yelling "MOM! I FAW DOWN! COME GET ME!" until I would trudge over and pick him up and put him back on his feet:

The snow was almost as high as Corbie's shoulders. Poor Cora couldn't even figure out how to get off the sidewalk and on top of the snow so she could try to follow Dax and Arden. She was not happy:

I know I said that we liked to play in the snow, but this is a little much.

Also, I am almost ready to order my Christmas Cards (see post below....what this girl won't do for some free stuff). If you want to get one, be sure to leave me a comment and I will make sure you are on my list!