Cross Dresser

Rachelle gave me some hand-me-downs a few weeks ago and I recently went through the bag to sort. The bag contained 2 Halloween shirts...for girls. This purple shirt has a pumpkin on it that lights up when you touch it. This, of course, was very appealing to Anders. He insisted on wearing this shirt. It's at least 2 sizes too small, but he was able to squeeze into it. Holly was even mezmorized by it. He wore it a few hours and then I couldn't allow the girly shirt on him any more!

I Know An Old Lady...

I'm sure you all remember the song...I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. I was thinking that today as Holly disappeared behind the couch and then a few seconds later reappears with something in her mouth. I stick my finger in to swipe the mysterious item out. Out comes this slimy black thing and I realize it's a fly. GROSS! Why are there dead flies in my house in January????

Quick Updates from New Year's, etc.

I last left off with Christmas Day and the day after. On New Year's Eve we met up with Layne, Rich and kids at IHOP to celebrate Turner's 9th birthday. That's where he wanted to go and that was fine with us, because we recieve coupons in the mail that day...plus pancakes is something that Anders will eat. We had a lively dinner to say the least, but Charl enjoyed his chicken fajita omelette and enjoyed my crispy chicken salad. After dinner we went to Layne's house and put a movie on for the kids and we played Settler's of Catan. I usually do poorly at this game and Charl gets really excited to play this game. Two hours later and kids cruisin all around us...(I guess they weren't too interested in the movie) the game ended, and I WON! It was a close game, but right at the end the cards fell in my favor. We left for home around 11 pm and the kids fell asleep in the car. We put them to bed and we had 15 min. to spare for the New Year.

Then we had a relaxing morning. I did some house cleaning and then prepared the pizza sauce for our afternoon New Year's Day party. The Pews, Keith & Amber, and Granny & Teresa came over to watch football, play games, and EAT! The pizza turned out well...I'll definitely make it again. We had tons of snacks and Keith brought his PS2 (Playstation) so we ended the evening playing guitar hero. It was our first time playing it and Charl and I weren't too bad, though we only played the easy mode.

On Jan. 3, we went to Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch to celebrate Teresa's 40th birthday. (We left Anders at the Pews and we took Holly with us. She was a jewel in the restaurant...we knew Anders would NOT be a jewel, so that's why we left him with the Pew kids.) We got seated at the large round table in the back room, since we had 10 people. It was a good time. Afterward, we picked up Anders and took Rachelle and Gwen with us back to Granny's house to hang out while Tim and the rest of the gang went to BYU vs. Wake Forest. Wake is ranked #6 and won, but it was a close game. We had ice cream when they came back and Teresa opened some presents. It was fun day with family.

CHRISTMAS DAY

We got up around 7 am. (We actually got to bed at a decent hour since we had done all the wrapping a few days earlier and we didn't have any major assembling to do...the advantage of 2 year old and under toys.) We took the kids down to the basement. They didn't really know what to think. Andersen went straight to the tree and started pulling off his new snow globe ornament, oblivious to the presents under the tree. We had to encourage him to open his presents. The first one he opened was a set of "CARS" cars. He was so excited and he wanted them out of the box immediately. He would have been content with only getting that, but then we showed him his new landscaped carpet to drive the cars on and that's when he discovered his new train set (a hand-me-down from the Pews). He played with the cars and train for quite a while before he opened another gift, so that's when we had Holly open her gifts. (She just got to pull hers out of gift bags.) She got a pink Fisher Price phone, stacking cups (her favorite), a See and Say, and the Fisher Price boat. She was quite content and even a little overwhelmed since she had just opened a ton of presents a week earlier for her birthday. We got them both the Fisher Price Barn as their main Santa gift and they both liked it, but Holly played with it more because Andersen could NOT put down "Mater" and "Doc" the rest of the day. He was really cute...he got 6 cars in all and his 2 hands could only work 2 cars (Mater and Doc), so he made me play with "Sally" and "Chick" so all the cars could play together. Andersen also got a "Rocket" (from Little Einsteins) bath toy, some clothes, and some "hot wheels" but he didn't acknowledge the hot wheels so I'll save them for his Easter basket. I got some running shoes and a watch. Charl got some exercise equipment, a shirt, and a DVD (The Dark Knight). After all the new toy fun, we went upstairs and I made French Toast with berries and cream for breakfast. It was a great morning.

Andersen & Holly posing with Santa presents before they tear into them.

I love this picture of Anders. He is so happy with all his new toys.

Now I will know what time it is. I love my new watch!

Look at the funny looking man on the TV. When we first turned on this channel, it was just a picture of a log fire and Christmas music was playing...then some other random stuff came on. I have a few pictures with funny stuff on the TV screen.

The boys eating a great breakfast

We got a ton of snow on Christmas Eve, so Charl had to shovel while Holly took her morning nap. When she woke up, we went to Charl's parent and had "brunch" food and opened more presents. They gave us an HD video camera so now we can capture all our fun moments. We also got Kung Fu Panda, so we watched that later in the evening. The day after Christmas, we went shopping to find a new Christmas tree. (We figured we would get a better deal after Christmas than before). We ended up finding a 9' pre-lit tree from Tai Pan Trading. (The box was so big, that we barely fit in the car with the 2 car seats and a double stroller, but we managed.) We have a 9' ceiling, so I'm not sure what I'll do for a tree topper...I have a year to figure it out. I made Charl set it up because I had to see how it fit in the room and I am very happy with it. After we bought the tree, we went to spend the rest of the afternoon with Layne's family. We ate snacks and watched Kung Fu Panda (again) so their family could see it too. We had a wonderful Christmas and we feel so lucky to have so much family around. (Maybe someday soon we can get mom and dad to come back west so we can see more of them.)

Andersen getting a shoulder ride from Turner. I think Andersen is having more fun than Turner.

Our new tree. We will enjoy this next year and many years to come.

Sunday Before Christmas

December 21st: the Sunday before Christmas. The morning was a little hectic as always...trying to get ready for 11 am church. Charl had to be there early to practice with the choir, but he came back to help me load the kids in the car and get back to church (Advantages to living 100 yards from the church...and yes, we drive when there is snow.). I dressed the kids in their new outfits. Holly's new shirt had a hole in the sleeve...oh well, she wore it anyway! Andersen probably could have used a smaller sized sweater, but he'll be able to wear it next winter, too. I was worried about how well I'd be able to handle the kids while Charl was singing in the choir, but it actually went pretty well and the choir sounded great, too. We sat in the back overflow and I brought a "new" truck for Andersen to play with and that seemed to do the trick. After church and naps we headed to Granny & Grandpa Louw's house to celebrate Holly's birthday with everyone. Granny also pulled out the costume box and we acted out the Nativity. Here are some pictures from the day.

The birthday girl getting lots and lots of attention from her cousins (Zane, Micah, & Emily).

Anders with Zane and Izak.

Silly Boys!

The best dressed wise men you will ever see!

Big shepherd and Little shepherd.

A whole family of shepherds.

Holly's thinking "Another cake?" and "What a big candle!" Andersen just isn't sure he can wait for the Happy Birthday Song to end.

Holly finding and eating chocolate cake crumbs from the seat of the highchair.

Opening lots of fun presents from Granny & Grandpa, the Pews, and Aunt Teresa.

Holly and Zane playing with Holly's new toy...Clipo Table.

At the end of the night I tried to get a nice family picture taken so that I could use it in a Christmas card, but Anders never seems to cooperate in "nice" family pictures. Charl was tossing him up in the air and catching him...so we got a lot of pictures of him laughing, but we didn't get a picture of him smiling and sitting nicely. Someday I may get a "nice" family photo. For those reading this, you may be wondering where that Christmas card is...yeah, it never got made, but we still hope you had a very Merry Christmas and we wish you peace, love and happiness in the New Year.

Odds and Ends of Holiday Fun

These pictures are some odds and ends from Thanksgiving and the few weeks after.

1- TRAINS: Andersen loves trains. So he decided to make a train using my cake pans. He's so creative. Notice how the nut chopper is the "smokestack."

2- Granny Louw bought gingerbread kits for the kids to do after Thanksgiving dinner, but we never got around to doing them. So she gave our family one of the kits to do. We attempted to build our train last Friday night. Andersen soooooo loved the candy and frosting.






3 - Decorating the house and tree. This year I kept most of my decorations in the boxes. This is all I have decorated on the main level. We put our tree in the basement, so that it would remove some of the temptation. It's not a very sturdy tree and we were worried that it would fall over when little hands got a hold of it. We hope to buy a bigger, more sturdy tree for next year for our main family room. I miss looking at the tree and the lights, since we spend more time upstairs than down.


4- Thanksgiving Day. I really didn't take many pictures on this day, but I did get some "dessert" pictures. Gwen got to lick the beaters from the whipped cream and she was sharing with Holly. I got Andersen eating his pie which. by the way, was the only thing he ate that day. I also had to document Granny eating her "killer" pie. It had caramel, macadamia nuts, pumpkin, cream cheese and who know what else. The caramel set up too much and it was too hard to cut or put a fork through it, so you just had to pick it up and eat it.

Granny's "KILLER" pie.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!

Today was Holly's special day...she turned 1. Too bad we all have head colds that have been lingering for over a week. Charl and I went to the doctor to get antibiotics in hopes of speeding up the recovery. Granny Louw came over to sit with the kids while they were napping, but they were mostly awake during the hour that we were gone. Holly and Andersen can't really take any medicine so they just have to deal with me and the tissues! We got Chinese takeout, since I didn't feel up to cooking dinner. We had Crispy Beef and Sesame Chicken. Holly ate some of the rice and maybe a bite of chicken...but preferred her jar of sweet potatoes. Andersen, like usual, didn't eat any dinner. Here are some pictures from the evening.

Holly eating some Chinese food.

Holly posing with her first birthday cake. She could not wait to get her hands on that butterfly. The cake turned out cuter than I thought it would...I'm glad someone told me how make butterflies out of pretzels...they were the most sought after part.

Mommy and Holly.

Blowing out the candles. Anders was a big help with this.

Here we go...DIG IN! (Notice Holly's clothes have been removed.)

That was a YUMMY cake!

Mommy and Daddy gave Holly some jeans and beads. Andersen gave Holly a push toy that plays music, but Andersen thought all the toys were for him.

These are the 2 books that Granny Ann sent. The Gallop book is really cute. The animals "move" when you turn the page. Anders really liked this book. He pretended to be the animals.

Holly sporting her new bead necklace.

I can't believe that a year has passed since you were born. It's been fun reflecting on all the joy you bring us. You are such a sweet little girl. We love you a ton!