Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas Tree Decorating

Hello and happy almost-New Year!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas last week and is getting ready to have a fun night tonight. Our Christmas was wonderful even though it involved a little more vomit than I would have liked ('cause everyone likes a little vomit, amirite??...no? Ok.). I ended up catching the stomach bug that Patrick and Angie had and spent the night before Christmas Eve pretty sick. Luckily, I was able to rest all Christmas Eve and Christmas day went off without a hitch. I even felt well enough Christmas night to eat the great dinner Grandma and Grandpa Flowers cooked for everyone. We're still getting all the pictures together from the day's festivities but we'll put those here as soon as we have them.

Our dilemma right now is what to do when we have to get rid of the tree - Patrick LOVES it. He un-decorates and re-decorates the bottom half of it at least once a day. And he has to show everyone who comes in the house how the lights plug in to make it pretty. Which usually means he looks at me and says "Daddy, plug it!" then once I've 'plugged it' he says "Preeeeettty." I've posted a video below of him decorating it when we first put it up. He didn't really like to hang the ornaments on the branches so much as just shove the ornaments into the tree. He also likes to put just about everything in the tree as an "ornament." Over the last few weeks we've found random Christmas decorations, books, the TV remote, his toys and more in the tree.

The last part of this video is a segment we like to call "How Not To Parent" in which we miserably fail at disciplining Patrick for throwing a couple ornaments (he was apparently bored after an hour of decorating) by laughing at his ridiculous faces, head movements and goofy walking. Enjoy :)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

"...And Threw up the Sash."

This last weekend was round one of Christmas. We got to spend it up at the Suskay Cabin celebrating with the whole family. As a special treat, Mandie and Tim (along with Baby Garity!) flew in from Idaho.


Christmas time is full of traditions. One of the many Christmas traditions my family has had for as long as I can remember was that my Dad would read 'The Night Before Christmas' every Christmas Eve. There was another tradition that went along with the story though, which was this: at the point when it said "Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash", all the kids in the family would make the loudest and most awful vomiting noise they could muster, as if they were "throwing up" the sash. This simultaneously ruined the moment and, in a strange way, somehow made it all the more endearing. Year after year we do this, no matter how old we all are.

Patrick, not wanting to be outdone by his old man, decided that this year he would literally throw up for the duration of Christmas Weekend Part I. He apparently doesn't get that you're supposed to save it for that very specific part in the story. He started about an hour before we were planning on leaving the house for the cabin then kept it coming every 20 minutes or so for the next several hours. Still confused on the timing of it all, he acted fine the entire next day until about 6 PM when he gave it another try. I kept telling him "Not yet! Wait for me to read the story at least!" but the kid refused to listen. In fact, after that night, he stayed cool for the rest of the weekend until this morning when I went to get him up for school and found him and his bed covered in...well, we'll just call it "the sash." And I don't know if it was just motherly empathizing, or confusion over the tradition as well*, but Angie joined in on the fun Saturday night too. Way to give 110% to the spirit of Christmas Tradition, honey!

Despite all the sash expulsion, we still managed to have a great time, tons of good food, and Patrick got even more spoiled than he already was. We also had a mini baby shower for Mandie and Tim. They just found out last week that they're going to have a little boy!


I've put a slideshow from the weekend below and a direct link to the entire gallery right here. You'll also see some pictures from St. Nick's Day which is one of Angie's family traditions we're carrying on. For Patrick, it's just a good reason to not have to wait till Christmas for all the presents.


We hope everyone has a great Christmas week! We'll update after the festivities with more pictures and how Patrick is feeling.

*It could also be that stomach viruses are pretty highly contagious. But, I'm not a doctor so I don't pretend to know those kinds of things.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Thanksgiving Pictures and Updates

We had a great turkey day. We spent the morning relaxing at home making food and having Patrick paint hand-print-turkeys. Then we spent the afternoon and evening with the Flowers over at the Hopkins' house where we ate a great Thanksgiving dinner. Patrick had a fun time terrorizing the dog (mostly on accident), pointing at and naming everything in their house and just being loud and silly with his aunts and uncles.

The next morning we packed up and headed to the Suskay Cabin. We spent Friday and Saturday there doing a lot more relaxing and eating. Patrick got his first flashlight, helped plant a tree, raked a lot of leaves and learned about the Buckeyes (thanks Matt - "go go go!").

Here's a slideshow from November. If you want to see all the pictures at once though, you can visit the picture gallery.


As for the rest of life, things have been very busy but very good. Patrick turned 17 months old today which is kind of insane. I can't believe he's almost 1 1/2. We took him to the pediatrician a couple weeks ago for his H1N1 follow-up and he had gained two pounds in the month since he had last been in! He's also about 31 inches now.

New things he's doing...there are a lot. He's talking non-stop now and repeats everything we say. When he gets bored playing with toys or reading books he just walks around the house naming things and telling us the story of what last happened there. Which is another cool thing he's started doing lately. He's made the jump from just saying words to actually trying to put the narrative together around his day using the words he knows. So, he'll walk on the front porch where I just recently put our garland and lights up and say "Daddy...garland...lights...up high...plug it in...turn on...preeeetty." It's so fun listening to him recount his whole day and see what he remembers from it. We'll try to get some video of him chatting and post it.

Angie has officially entered the third trimester which is very exciting. Madelyn's doing well and growing right on track. They actually said our due date may be about six days off which would put her being born in early March. We'll be painting her room this weekend and then finally getting her furniture out of our dining room and up into her room.

And finally, Patrick got to meet his brand new cousin, Carson Bean last weekend. We took a trip over to the Bean's house to visit with them and let Patrick meet Carson for the first time. He did really well with her actually and was very sweet and gentle. He had a few seconds of jealousy/weirdness the first time he saw me holding her but once he got to look at her up close and touch her he was fine with it. The rest of the time we were there he alternated between being very cuddly with her and us and completely ignoring her and trying to play with the dogs and fish.

Now...DANCE BREAK!...


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Carson Danielle Bean is Here!

Just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know that Katie and Brandon (who announced they were pregnant on Easter earlier this year) had their beautiful baby girl, Carson Danielle Bean, this morning. Here are the details:

Born at 10:50 AM
Weighs 6 lbs 5.4 oz
Length is 19.25 inches long
Curly brown hair
VERY CUTE.

Here are a few pictures from the day:





Everyone is doing great. Carson and Katie are both healthy and seemed to be getting the rest they need and Brandon has finally stopped shaking with excitement.

Congratulations again Brandon and Katie. We're so excited for the two of you and your beautiful daughter and so happy that Carson has such wonderful people as parents.