Christmas 2009

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. It's a pretty long post, but there were so many things that I wanted to make sure I recorded them. Christmas this year was extra special for so many reasons, among them included the arrival of our precious little girl and seeing Nicholas fully taking in the Christmas experience. He had a good time w/ opening his gifts last year, but this year, he was filled w/ anticipation about everything. It was awesome to witness. I daresay Scott was even more excited than Nick was. He wanted to make sure Nick's "first" Christmas was one to remember and thus look forward to every year. I believe he accomplished his goal.

It was a busy week leading up to Christmas. Scott's family came in the week before and my family came up the week of. It was a week long extravaganza of festivities that culminated w/ us being at home for Christmas morning for the first time ever. Before I get to that, I just wanted to highlight a few things along the way.

**Elf Stays on the Shelf**
This tradition lasted all of 4 days, and said elf sat in the same spot until we packed him away for next year. Nick really didn't want anything to do w/ him. The only reason he even acknowledged it was his concern w/ what this guy was going to tell Santa. I was able to threaten him w/ the elf a few times, but even that didn't last long. He didn't even bother to name him. I must admit, it's a bit creepy looking to me. Oh well, maybe next year.

**Caroling Caroling**
Nick loved Christmas music. He would ask me every night to sing him Christmas carols instead of lullabies. I love it, too, but he has an innate ability to take something you love and drive you crazy w/ it. His two favorites... Joy to the World and the 12 Days of Christmas. He sang and listened to those songs incessantly. Incessantly. "Mommy, can you play that again?" "Again, Mommy." "One more time."

**Serious Business**
He took the business of being Naughty or Nice very seriously. We couldn't watch a Christmas show w/out him pointing out the ENTIRE time who wasn't being very nice. You can imagine how this played out during the Grinch and Home Alone.

**Christmas w/ the Robinsons**
Scott's family came to celebrate w/ us the week before Christmas. Nick absolutely loves seeing Scott's parents and his Aunt Jill and Uncle Denis. He knew they were coming in on his last day of school and he could talk of nothing else. He got to visit Santa, go bowling, pick out toys and eat endless amounts of cookies and candy. That was just on the first day!

One of the things Scott and I started this year was letting Nick pick out presents for everyone. He loved doing this ,and we loved taking him and seeing what he would come up with. He picked out a mini globe for his Grandad, a pair of candlesticks for his Magi, an eye pillow for Jill and Grinch boxer shorts for Denis. Not too shabby for his first excursion.

One of his favorite things in his stocking was the big calculator.

Scott's mom got Abby this Madame Alexander doll. She's going to love playing w/ it when she older.

**Christmas w/ the Trans**
My family broke w/ tradition this year and celebrated Christmas up here. We didn't change it too much as we still had our festivities on Christmas eve. My brother, Steve, was kind enough to host. It was such a fun time, especially since Huy and Shannon were able to spend it w/ us. We didn't last until midnight, there was the weather to contend w/ and getting a certain little boy to bed before Santa arrived. So we have our tasty dinner and proceeded to let Nick open his presents. It looked like so much fun that everyone ended up opening theirs as well.

My favorite part of the night was when Nick handed out the presents he picked out. You should have seen how proud he was of himself. We were pretty proud, too. He's a special little guy. He picked out for my dad a silver decorative piece that spelled out peace. For my mom, a silver ring holder in the shape of an elephant. For Steve, he picked out a big green ornament. For Huy, a baby plaque like thing. I'm still not sure what the heck that was. For Shannon, Disney princess playing cards. And for Nghia, a driftwood sign that said, "don't feed the sharks."

**Christmas Day**
Before turning in for the night, he left out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and oats for the reindeer outside. After making sure he was out, Scott proceeded to get all the toys from Santa put together and out on display. I helped by dozing on the couch. We got ourselves up fairly early Christmas morning as we wanted to catch his reaction. Of course he decided to sleep in. He woke up to find a stocking in his bed. He would have been content to play w/ what he had then. But he had to check if to see if Santa ate his cookies. I think he was more than satisfied when he found the note left by Santa. We let him open his presents at his pace. He would open a present, play w/ it for a while and then moved on. Don't worry, Abby was not forgotten, although she spent most of the day snoozing and watching her big brother. Scott told Nick that today he could eat all the candy and cookies he wanted and could stay up as late as he wanted. He took us up on the offer. He said he was going to stay up until 9 o'clock. My absolute favorite part was snuggling w/ him on the couch watching a movie at the end of the day. He was clearly exhausted, but determined to stay up. As soon as the clock said 9, he was out.

He picked out this green polo for his Daddy all by himself.

My gift was a black "russian" hat and a big black ring. I love it!

I made this xmas tutu for Abby.

The end of a long, but blissful day.

It was just a fantastic Christmas. We had so many things to be thankful for this year. Thanks to Scott's family for traveling the long distance to be with us. We loved every minute of it. Thanks to my family for traveling to be with us, as well as the free babysitting. I would never have gotten any shopping done! Thank you all so much for loving and spoiling our kids. They are truly blessed. And last but not least, thank you to my sweet hubby. Nicholas would not have had the best Christmas ever! had it not been for your endless effort and enthusiasm.

Here Comes Santa Claus

We took Nick and Abby for photos w/ Santa over the weekend, and Nick was a kid on a mission. There was no way he was going to leave w/out letting the ol' fellow know what he wanted for Christmas. Surprisingly, he hasn't been all that stoked about writing a letter to Santa. He probably wanted to make sure the letter didn't get lost in the shuffle. He did really well, not shy at all about telling Santa what he wanted. You could tell he had it memorized. He rattled his list (of which included Super Why toys and a camera) and topped it off by saying he wanted a ride on the carousel. You could tell he was pretty pleased w/ himself. He was feeling so magnanimous that he allowed his little sister to be in the same photo with him. My favorite part was when he told us that the food court was the north pole and was a little confused when we told him it wasn't. We said that Santa makes special visits so that kids can tell him what they want. That seemed to satisfy him because he didn't argue after that.

Here are pictures w/ Santa from years past.

10mos

My favorite. 22mos

Last year, almost 3 years

This year... Abby, 2mos and Nick, 3 years old

2 Months

Our sweet, sweet baby girl is 2 months today. I can't believe how quickly it has gone by. She has her 2mos checkup on Wed. so I will report back to the grandparents. She's getting her shots. :( So let's hope it goes smoothly and as painlessly as possible. It's usually more difficult for the parents than it is for the kids. I'm hoping anyway. I'm attaching a video of Abby. Just ignore my annoying voice in the background.

Blogger Stuff...

Looking for a new background or blogger template w/ all the bells and whistle? Well, you won't find it here, but I recently stumbled upon an awesome website (Butterflygirlms) that provided these templates for free. You'll also find there a huge list of designers that provide free backgrounds. She has now merged w/ Leelou blogs and is sharing her free stuff there. It's pretty cool, so I wanted to share.

A Real Update This Time. Seriously.

For real. I'm never going to promise ever again that I'll post something within a certain amount of time. I swear. I had envisioned timely updates that were lively and witty. But a certain infant and her 3 year old brother had other plans. Mainly driving me up the wall and depriving me of sleep. Just kidding. Kind of.

So here we are, Abigail is 8 weeks today! Time really does fly by. Instead of going back and trying to catch up on posts, I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures and some commentary. One of these days, I'll go back and add them just b/c I do want to keep a record, but I'm doing good just doing this post. I'll try to keep the picture and thoughts in chronological order, but you'll forgive me if they're not won't you?

**ABBY **

Here is a picture from my baby shower. I am determined to do a separate post just on the amazing stuff my friends made for Abby. I've got some talented friends!

Me waiting for my c-section. My doctor said it was a good thing we scheduled when we did, as she was probably coming that day after looking at my contractions. I didn't notice a difference. Felt like I'd been having contractions for 2 straight months.

Proud Daddy. He wasn't as nervous this time around as he was w/ Nicholas.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital. Seriously, I don't think Nick will take a normal picture. Ever.

She's less than a week old here.

Going back and looking at old pictures, I'm amazed at how much they look alike at this age. Just in case you couldn't tell, Abby is the 1st and 3rd.

Here are the most recent pictures of my little princess. My friend, Heidi, got her this cute outfit. Isn't she so sweet looking in it?


Overall, Abby's doing well. She's a good little baby, just so sweet. She's pretty much on a regular schedule now and sleeps a good 7-8 hrs at night before wanting to eat again (I hope I haven't jinxed that.) We love her so much and are truly blessed.

**NICK**
The novelty of having a baby sister wore off fairly quickly for him. After giving her a few cursory pats and kisses, he has avoided her like the plague, unless of course he's getting some attention for doing it. After the 1st week, he suggested we take her back to the hospital. I think he kind of threw it out there just to see if it would fly. He dropped the subject after I nixed the idea. Here are a few things he's had to say about his baby sister.

"She sounds like a dog" referring to the little whimpers all sweet babies make.
"Biscuit is stinky" referring to her fragrance of formula/sour milk.
"Biscuit doesn't love me" during times I tell him to keep it down so she can nap.

Nick has adjusted for the most part to his baby sister, which essentially means he ignores her most of the time. It was kinda rough there for a few weeks, esp. after the lightning strike, but he is resilient. And he only complains about school on school days. In an effort to distract him from school itself, I taught him the months and days of the year and how to read a calendar. He will look on a calendar now and count down the days till school is out and Christmas arrives.

He brought this home from school the day after our little lesson. He attempted to spell out October and February 8th, his birthday.

If you know Nick, you know he loves to read and write. Lately, he's been making up "stories" and typing them out on the computer. I'm a bit biased, but I find it simply amazing that he attempts to spell out words he has never seen before. We think he's a smart little cookie. I took a few pictures of his work in case they got deleted, which of course they did. Don't you love how he spelled Santa Claus?



I thought I'd also capture some of the things he's said lately...

"jacket lantern" - jack o lantern
"The lightning boomed our house" referring to the lightning strike.
"I'm gonna count to 100 and then it's going to be Christmas, okay?" after Scott had gotten him all jazzed about Christmas.

Nick: "Mommy, will you tell me about Christmas."
Me: "Well, Christmas is baby Jesus' birthday."
Nick: "No, tell me about the other Christmas. The one where Santa brings you toys."

Lightning Quick Update

So I know I'm long overdue for a new post, especially w/ an update on Abby. But we were struck by lightning. Literally. I'll post more about this later, but our house took a direct hit over a week ago. I know, it's crazy. We finally got back in our house just a few days ago. We were out of the house for over a week! Needless to say, blogging was the last thing on my list. With a 3 year old, an almost 4wk old (can you believe?) and firemen/repairmen traipsing through our house, the place actually looks more like a tornado hit. Look for a new post later this week.

Introducing...

Abigail Mai

October 14th
7:53am
6lbs 15oz

19.5 inches

Full head of hair and pretty darn cute if we say so ourselves!

(photo courtesy of my friend, Christina)

More to come soon...

Quick Update

I will try to get a real post up soon. Been a bit busy in case you haven't heard. :)

In the meantime, please check out the photo session Nick and Abby had yesterday w/ my friend Dawn. Also, I have updated our Phanfare gallery.

Pictures of the Nursery

Well, the nursery is finally done. Actually, it's been done for a couple of weeks now, just needed a couple of finishing touches. I initially started out saying I didn't want to do something overtly pink. Yeah, right. The room's about as pink as it gets. I did throw in some white and chocolate to break things up. Overall, we are pretty happy w/ how it turned out. Scott did a fantastic job w/ the painting and installing the chair rail. He's worked really hard the past few weeks on Abby's room and updating Nick's room (we didn't want him to feel left out). I appreciate all his hard work and putting up w/ my bossing him around (more than usual).

He's just getting started


Helping daddy out


Half way there!


Many thanks to Heidi for helping me w/ these letters and the shelf.


These are some of the crafts I've been working on for the nursery. Not the piggy, my friend, Thao, got me that. Isn't it cute?


The room has sort of a "Sweets" theme. This is a painting my friend, Christina, is working on. It's not quite finished yet, but isn't it fabulous?

Lord of the Rings

My little brother, Huy, got married a couple weeks back and Nick was one of the ring bearers. You should have seen him at the rehearsal. On his first attempt, he went stomping down the aisle, pleased as pie w/ himself. The good mood was dampened only because someone dare suggest that he stand in line w/ the groomsmen once he reached the alter. In case you didn't know, he has an aversion to standing in line. His second march down the aisle was more of a mad shuffling. Pretty funny, wish I had taken a video of both.

How did he do? Not too shabby considering he was up really late the night before, was up early, did not get to eat lunch and had to wear a monkey suit. Trust us, he complained loudly and often. But when the big moment came, he was clutch. He took his time strolling down the aisle, soaking in the fact that everyone was looking at him. We were pretty proud of our little man. His cousin, also named Nicholas, was a ring bearer too, but walked w/ older his sister, Megan. Check out in the video how he's trying to hold her hand, and she keeps slapping it away. Cracked me up!

The ceremony was beautiful and the reception lots of fun. Nick had his eyes on the groom's cake the entire time. It was a Transformer cake surrounded by cupcakes. He was half asleep, but somehow managed to down 2 cupcakes. With the sugar rush, he shook it on the dance floor. I wish had a video of it. When I get it, I'll post it.


Congratulations to Huy and his beautiful new bride, Shannon! We love you guys and will miss you!

Boys Trip

Did I promise I'd post in a couple of days? I meant at least a couple of weeks. I've got a good excuse and she's coming this week. Anyway, thanks for being patient. You'll need it in the next few weeks. Although I'm going to have Scott post a few entries for me just to satisfy the natives.

A few weeks back, Scott and Nick took a road trip to TX to see his parents. I was too far along for a 9hr trip. Doc said not a good idea, so I was left at home all by my little lonesome. The boys have been on a few road trips before, but none this long. It started off well. Twenty minutes into the trip, I received a call from Scott. In the background I could hear Nick arguing about something (his all time fave thing to do right now). An apparent misunderstanding. His daddy was trying to teach him all the major towns they'd be going through on their way to Magi/Grandad. He was not having it. They were just going to "Amawillwoe" and that was that. Scott also thought it was a good idea to give Nick some chocolate. A glance in the rearview a few minutes later revealed a chocolate covered mess. Of course they had to pull over to clean up. I think they pulled over twice in the first 20 minutes. They made it just fine w/ just a few additional roadside pit stops, if you get my drift. Nick likes to wait until the very last possible second to announce he needs to go potty.

I had 4 whole days to rest and relax before hitting the homestretch. It was nice, but the evenings were awful lonely w/out them. I did want to thank my brothers, who were kind enough to feed, entertain, and tote me around. I especially appreciate the feeding part. And thanks to Heidi and her husband, Jason, for taking pity on me and letting me hang out w/ them. They were sweet enough to help me w/ my nursery crafts, too.

Overall, a great trip for everyone. I was bummed I couldn't make the trip to see Scott's family (miss you guys!), but I got some much needed rest. I was more than ready to see my boys when Sunday rolled around. I told Scott no more road trips w/out me. He said no problem.

Promise...

I will have an update in the next couple of days of Scott and Nick's trip to Hereford and his stint as a ring bearer (Nick's that is). Oooh, and the nursery is almost done, too!

First Day of Preschool

Today was our little man's first day of preschool. He has been pretty excited about it since orientation last week. We found out this morning the reason he was so stoked was because they had ice cream during orientation and he assumed he'd be getting more ice cream today, naturally. We had to break the news to him that there wouldn't be any ice cream and it was downhill from there. Just kidding, sort of. The complaining stopped once we actually arrived. He didn't even say bye to us really.

The only iffy moment came when we went to pick him up. We made the mistake of sticking our heads in for him to see us, but then we had to wait for each kid to leave one at a time. He would walk over to the half door with quivery lips and welled up eyes calling out for us. It was pretty pitiful. When we got in the car, I asked if he wanted a Happy Meal, and he said, "no, I want a sad meal." Cue the violins.

Based on what he told us in the car, he had fun but the one thing he did not like... standing in line. Apparently the teacher had to gently nudge him along after recess. He did not appreciate that and told us that he was going to argue tomorrow. Other than the standing in line issue (which he stated clear over and over), he enjoyed himself, especially painting. He told us he wore a blue jacket to paint which I'm assuming is a smock. We'll see how tomorrow goes. One day down, 15 more years to go. Keep your fingers crossed.