No More Crib

Over the weekend Grace made one or two escapes from her crib and one half hour tanturm at bedtime. We thought it was just part of returning home and an after holiday crash. We were wrong. She is a two-year old with her own mind and she was not going to stay in that crib. On Monday she got out every time we put her in, this after Jim lowered it to the toddler bed height and left the railing on.

So she spent the night on the crib mattress on the floor in her room. That was only after a lot of screaming and returning her to her room at bedtime. But today was better, she still wined and said no. Although she never came out of her room.

The next question is what are we going to do? Turn the crib into a toddler day bed, which by the way the instructions to do so appear to make no sense at all, take the crib down all together and let her continue sleeping on the mattress on the floor or get her a real bed. We have yet to make a decision.

It has all happened so fast. With the boys we had moved them to regular beds by this time because there was another baby on the way. There was never a question of what to do with the crib or how to keep the child in a bed in their room. This was the first child we ever had get out of the crib by their own means.

Grace from the start has proven she is an individual and not a wimpy girl. She is mighty in her will and determination and once again she has put us to the test.

The tooth is out

I am excited to announce the first baby tooth to come out in our home. It has been loose since Thanksgiving and we can even see the new tooth coming up already. So after so wrangling Jim and I were finally able to convince Samuel to get that baby tooth out.

You may not be able to tell from the picture but it is his bottom left front tooth that is the first to come out.

Now I am left with the question of what to do with it? Besides the obvious throw it out or save it in a box, has anyone heard other more creative ways to remember this ocassion?

Merry Christmas!

It feels like days since I have been on the computer and I guess that would be true. We have had a wonderful week filled with Christmas celebration. Our trip to Wausau for the Breeden Christmas started early. Due the impending snowstorm we left on Thursday Dec 18. It was a rush to get everything packed and out the door, but well worth it to arrive safely ahead of the storm. While in Wausau we enjoyed lots of time with Jim's brother and sisters and their families. We went to a living nativity and got to feed camels, went sledding with all the cousins and ran bells for the Salvation Army at a local grocery store on Monday.
We arrived back home on Tuesday afternoon and found mountains of snow on our driveway. What a blessing that a friend with his truck and snowplow was passing by just at the same time. He plowed most of the driveway for us! Thank you Brian!!
Christmas Eve we went to church with my family at Big Papa's church for their candle light service. This is something I have done for my entire life and my kids are already recognizing it as a celebration of Christmas. Grace was so excited about the candles and Samuel held his own candle without any extra parent hands!
Christmas Day we went to the church service at our own church and then to my aunt's house and finally to my mom's house. It was a full day, but wonderful to spend with family.
We are now enjoying new toys to play with, both young and old and trying to get back to a normal schedule.
We hope that everyone reading had a joyous holiday too and we wish you great times and many blessings in the new year.

An E-Christmas card

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Candy barns (Nativities)

We spent the morning with my mom making candy nativities. Growing up I always remember making gingerbread houses and last year a friend suggested making nativities instead. So we tried it last year and had a lot of fun, so we had to do it again. Who wouldn't have fun playing with, eating and creating with candy and cookies?

Here are the completed candy barns (that's what the boys call them).

Isaak and his nativity.

Samuel with his nativity and Grace.

A close-up of Isaak's.

And a close-up of Samuel's.


Finally, get a camera out and Grace is ready to pose. Here Grandma told her to hug Isaak and isn't this the cutest!

Santa and Chuck E. Cheese

Over dinner last night Jim and I were trying to explain to the boys how the Santa thing works for some families. We have decided to not include this tradition on our holiday celebration and until this year we have had little issue with the kids concerning Santa.
At the library, Miss Dahle had hid candy canes and pencils for each of the kids at storytime. She told them that Santa came earlier and they should go looking for their things. Walking back to the story spot, Isaak said to me, "When is Santa going to come to our house?"
So I brought it up at supper so Jim could help me out. We learned that the boys believed that a man dressed as Santa came to the library and hid all the things for the children. How adorable that they believed Miss Dahle that Santa had really come to the library. They know that Santa is not a real person, but only someone dressed up, so they figured Miss Dahle knew what she was saying and Santa had really come to the library.
We tried to explain that some parents give gifts to their kids but tell them that Santa brought them and that is okay, but we shouldn't make those kids sad by telling them Santa is pretend. Anyway Jim asked the kids who was someone real (not pretend like Santa)?
After a pause Isaak says "Well, Chuck E Cheese . . . . (very long pause) . . . is pretend."
Jim and I laughed heartily over this because it almost sounded like he was going to answer that Chuck E Cheese was real.

Grace is two!

We celebrated Grace's 2nd birthday yesterday (Sunday), her real birthday was today. I posted some pictures of her with her doggie cake. She seems to love her stuffed dogs so much, I thought she would love a dog cake. It was the first time I made a sculpted cake. I learned that I need to put more support in a cake like this. The first picture is Friday night at home just after I finished, but soon after he lost his hat and an ear and by Sunday was leaning heavily. But in the end Grace was so pleased to have a doggie cake and it tasted great, those are the two important things in the end. The boys too thought it was great!

It seems so hard to believe that Grace is two already. I still remember that Christmas when she was so very new and tiny. That year the celebration of Jesus' birth was so real as I held my own tiny baby.

But what a blessing to watch our children grow up. I have been trying to post a video of Grace playing with her dogs, but it isn't working. She has them all lined up and is singing and dancing for them. Towards the end she says the doggies need to pray and she folds her hands and jabbers something no one understands. It ends with her Amen and clapping hands. It is perfectly adorable and captures so much of Grace and her personality.

We love you baby girl, Happy Birthday!

A cow and a donkey

Today was the children's Christmas progam at church. The preschoolers sang a song about the sheep, cows and donkeys at Jesus birth. They all got to wear little ears for the animals. Isaak was a cow and Samuel a donkey. Unfortunately in a church our size that many kids on a stage left our two unable to be seen or photographed. This is the one picture I captured of Isaak walking in. The program was very cute and the boys were very pleased that so many of their family members were there to see them sing. All afternoon they kept asking if we saw them sing and if we liked the music.

Family photo

How hard is it to get 5 people to all smile at the same time? Pretty difficult if some of those are kids!!
We haven't done a family photo since Grace was born, so Jim asked that I get this organized this year. Thursday was our appointment at the mall. All was set and we were on our way into Appleton, when I heard that dreaded sound of a child throwing up!
Yuk!!!
Grace had apparently put her hand to far into her mouth and there was breakfast all over her red sweater. After a quick stop at the gas station, I figured out what had happened and that she was not sick. We continued onto the mall. Jim waited at Picture People while I ran to Target to buy a new sweater.
So here is what we ended up with . . .

Not too bad considering the circumstances :-)

Snowstorm Carter

Our first really large snow of the season started Monday evening and continued through most of Tuesday. By Tuesday morning there were many, many inches of snow on our driveway. So after breakfast and a little Christmas baking the kids and I headed outside. The boys just love the snow and by the time I was dressed and out, they had already cleaned off most of Jim's car and were shoveling the driveway. We had fun watching Noodles dash through the snow because it was much deeper than he is tall, so he really had to jump to keep from getting stuck. Jim joined us after awhile with the snowblower, which was exciting for the kids since they usually are only allowed to watch from the window, not stand outside to observe. Grace discovered the art of shoveling small amounts of snow with a sand shovel and proceeded to fill sand pails and recover the driveway. The boys tried sledding off the drifts that were as tall as our retaining walls, but ended up getting stuck. So we started making a fort by digging into the top of the drift to make a fox hole sort of fort. I even added a small tunnel door. It was eventually broken when the boys were walking on top of it like a bridge, now it is just a door to walk through.
Lots of fun in the snow!!

Fun with Grandpa Breeden

Grandma and Grandpa Breeden came for a visit on Friday afternoon and to go to the church play with Jim and I. The kids enjoyed some fun time with Grandpa.

Time for the snow blower

This winter is starting out snowy. Jim was only home from hunting a few days, but was already working to get the snowblower on the lawn tractor. Good thing he worked on it right away because it snowed again and this time it was more than could be shoveled. The kids were so excited!! After they finished breakfast they all ran to get their lawn tractors and begin snowblowing our living room.