Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Pictures from the holidays

This year the holiday season was so much fun.  Samuel was really into putting up the Christmas Tree/Hanukkah Bush.  He loved looking at all the ornaments and figuring out which ones were his.  He was really excited about lighting the Hanukkah candles too.  By the end of the 8 days, he pretty much had the prayer memorized.  Joseph also picked up on the prayer too and tried to say it along with us as well.  

On Christmas Eve, Samuel was so excited to make cookies for Santa (he requested snowball looking cookies) and he wanted to leave carrots for the reindeer and chocolate milk for Santa because that was his favorite.  You can see pictures below of all the excitement.  

The boys did really well this year with gifts.  Their grandparents and Jonathan and Laura spoiled them.  They got most of their gifts from them.  We gave them one gift on the first night of Hanukkah and then a dollar each additional day.  Then on Christmas, we put stuff in their stockings and they had a few really small gifts.  

Although I really love Christmas and Hanukkah and know how excited the kids are for those holidays, I decided after this year that we are only going to give them a few gifts for each Hanukkah and Christmas.  Their birthdays are in February and March and I think birthdays are much more important then Hanukkah and Christmas.  I would rather give them more gifts on their birthday.  I think that holiday is much more important.  

My parents came in town for the last night of Hanukkah and we had a big feast.  Jonathan, Laura and Haidyn came over and we celebrated by eating, lighting candles and opening more gifts.  It was a great way to end all the celebration.  

Then several days later, we celebrated New Years.  Justin, Charisa, Vance and Vaughn came over.  The kids played so hard.  Joseph was worn out by 8:30 and then Samuel couldn't make it past 10:15.  They played and the adults were able to relax and have some adult time, which we don't get very often.  It was a wonderful way to bring in the new year.  I feel like 2012 is going to be a great year for us.

I have signed up for two half-marathons already.  I am doing one in April in St. Louis with my mom.  Then I am doing a second one in October in Detroit with my mom and Dave's mom.  I am so excited that we can do it all together. 

Here are some pictures:


The kids on Christmas Eve.

Samuel sitting with the chocolate milk, cookies and carrots.  He was SOOO excited.

As you can tell, he was going crazy.  Joseph was trying to steal the food.

So nice to have a little family time!

It snowed while my parents were here and my mom made the fist snowman of the season with the boys.  They loved it and so did George.  She ate the carrots off of the snowman's face.

Another picture with the snowman and Samuel

Last night of Hanukkah

Another attempt at a family picture

All the kids freaking out about opening gifts.

Samuel and Joseph sitting on their new big pull out chair from Savta and Papa.  This has been a wonderful gift.  Samuel has even had one sleep over on it already.  

Samuel got a drum set from my parents.  The kids are actually really good at playing.  I'm impressed.

The kids with Savta on her birthday.  

My parents with the kids.  

All the kids on New Years Eve

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Updates



Wow.  The days just fly by.  This is the first time I have had a moment to myself all week.  I am writing this blog and watching the finale of X-Factor, which by the way has turned out to be a great show.  

We have been so busy the past few weeks. We had Oma and Opa in town this past weekend and celebrated an early Christmas.  The boys got lots of wonderful gifts, which I have tons of pictures below.  We also went to breakfast with Santa at the Missouri Athletic Club.  It was our first experience and it was clear that this is a big traditional breakfast with a lot of families.  I know we will go back for many years because it was a lot of fun, but  I was a little stressed out because I never know how long the boys will behave themselves.  This year Samuel was so excited to see Santa and tell him what he wanted.  Joseph on the other hand, freak the f-out.  He screamed so much and would not let go of me.  We weren't planning on having a family picture, but that is what we got.  There was no way Joseph was letting me put him down, plus Simone was fast asleep.  Oh well, maybe next year.  

Not only did we have a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with Oma and Opa, but they were also so amazingly helpful in watching the kids that I got to go to Bikrum Yoga twice and Dave went with me one time.  I think I am obsessed.  I love the way it makes me feel.  I sweat like crazy and I smell so absolutely disgusting afterwards, but it is such an awesome workout.  Since I started last Wednesday night, I have lost 3 pounds.  I thought at first it was water weight, but it hasn't come back.  I am just feeling great and Dave loves it too.  

Simone is getting so big.  She is smiling all the time and is such a happy baby.  Today when we went over to Justin and Charisa's new house we were walking down into their basement and Simone laughed out loud for the first time.  I have no idea what she found funny, but it was so cute to hear.  Then I put her down on the floor to change her diaper and she started to roll over from her back to her stomach.  She almost made it completely over, but her left arm got stuck underneath her and she couldn't figure out how to kick herself over.  Anyway, I could not believe it.  She must love the McFarland's new house because she had two huge milestones over there.  

On Tuesday morning Samuel woke up and his eyes were super red and crusty.  I thought for sure he had pink eye in both of his eyes, so I put drops in them and kept him home from school.  In the afternoon, I put Joseph in the tub and Samuel in the shower.  After Samuel got out of the shower he started complaining that his ear was killing him.  He got a really high fever and was grabbing his right ear.  I called the doctor and luckily they had late office hours that night, so Dave was able to take him in.  It turns out, he had a double ear infection and his right ear was super infected.  The infection caused his red blood shot eyes.  As soon as he had one dose of the medicine his eyes completely cleared up.  I have never heard of such a thing, but thank goodness he didn't have pink eye.  I hate having to hold him down to put the drops in.  

This morning Samuel woke up and had splotches all over his body.  I thought for sure he had an allergic reaction to the medicine, but within 30 minutes the spots went away, so then I thought it was just a heat rash or something.  It was gone all day until about 2:30 in the afternoon and then all of the sudden it came back again.  I called the doctor and he wanted to see us right away to see what was going one.  Turns out he really is allergic to the medication.  His ears had completely cleared up, so the doctor said to not give him anymore medicine and see what happens.  Samuel has never had a reaction to any medicine so this was a whole new experience for me.  He is feeling fine now and hopefully our house is done with sickness.

Tuesday night was the beginning of Hanukkah.  Since Samuel felt terrible he wasn't in a great mood.  We lit the candles and didn't do much else.  On Wednesday night we lit the candles and the boys got rain boots.  Samuel was so excited about his Batman boots, but Joseph was freaking out about putting on his Thomas the Train boots.  He wants nothing to do with them and screams anytime we try to put them on his feet.  I hope he gets over that soon, but that will be a waste of money if he won't wear them.  Tonight I made a nice dinner and the boys each got a dollar.  It has been such a nice holiday season so far.  I am looking forward to having a nice family weekend with all the kids and Dave.  

More pictures to come, but for now here you go:

Making the gingerbread house.  Joseph wasn't too happy that he wasn't able to help out with the frosting.

Simone starting to smile

Another smiling picture

The other night the boys put their shirts over their heads and ran around, they were having so much fun.  I love to hear their laughter together.

Just look at the Samuel's face, pure joy.  I love it!

Another funny picture

Oma holding Simone in the back in her cute dress.  She is looking at her big brother.  

My handsome Joseph.  Such a cutie pie.

This is such a great picture of Oma and Opa with the kids.  The kids did such a great job of sitting for the picture.  

Here we are with Santa.  You can see how absolutely crazy it was.  Simone sleeping, Samuel smiling and so happy and Joseph screaming.  It was quite a scene. 

Samuel enjoying the cool airplane that Opa made for him.  That plane is made completely by hand out of wood.  It is really cool.  Obviously you can tell, Samuel loved it.  

Whatever Samuel has, Joseph has to have too.  Luckily Oma and Opa were smart enough to get Joseph a plane too.  

The boys got flashlights to play in their new tents.  Joseph is imitating the Statue of Liberty here.

Opa made Joseph handmade block to build with.  

Here is Samuel playing in his new tent. 

A rare photo of me with Oma and Simone.  

Simone in her holiday dress with Opa.

I just love this picture because every time I look at it I laugh because Simone's face just cracks me up.  Hilarious.

This is a much better picture of them all.  Love it.

Fist night of Hanukkah.  

Although Samuel felt terrible, he still smiled for the camera.






Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas fun

We had a very Merry Christmas this year.  Oma and Opa came in town on Wednesday afternoon and we celebrated and ate wonderful food all weekend.  The boys made out great with fun toys, clothes, ornaments, pajamas and more.  To make Christmas even more wonderful it snowed like crazy on Christmas Eve and we had a white and beautiful Christmas Day.

For me the holidays are just getting better and better because it is so much fun to see and enjoy it through the eyes of Samuel and Joseph.  Samuel was really excited about Christmas this year.  I wanted to bake cookies and leave them out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, but I think Samuel was so exhausted from all the activities that he said he didn't want to make cookies on Christmas Eve.  Oh well, maybe next year.  On Christmas Eve morning, Samuel woke up early and asked if he could open his gifts.  We knew it was a little early, but we ended up letting him open gifts so he could actually enjoy them during the day.  We tried to go see Santa Claus but the wait for pictures was about 2 and a half hours and there was no way we were going to stay in line that long.  We did end up getting a really good picture of the four of us with Santa in the background.  I thought that was good enough.

Samuel built his first snowman with Oma and Opa and he loved every minute of it.  It was so much fun to see how excited he was.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner, ate waaaay too much but had wonderful company.  On Christmas morning Samuel and Joseph got a few more gifts from Santa.

Dave and I kept up our tradition of going to the Casino on Christmas Day.  We think it has almost been 8 years that we have been going.  Originally we went because we were in town and there was no other place to eat, so we would go to the Casino and gamble and eat.  Luckily since Oma and Opa were in town for this Christmas we were able to go again.  It was so much fun.

Here are some great pictures from the weekend.


Samuel and Joseph opening their gifts.  Joseph's first Christmas!

More gifts!

Our attempt to see Santa.  Turned out to be a good picture.

Joseph and Opa

Oma, Opa and Joseph

Oma and Joseph

Samuel getting ready to play in the snow.

Building his first snowman.

He was pretty excited!

The finished product.

Christmas dinner

Samuel enjoying his delicious black olives.

Joseph's first Christmas dinner

Samuel playing with his finger puppets, one was obviously attacking me.

Joseph with his new name stool

Samuel loving his new kitchen.  He has been cooking up a storm.