Christmas

As usually I'm back blogging.
So we started the season off a bit rocky. My Grandmother passed on Thanksgiving. She was 86 and had suffered from MS for most of her adult life. Although we were sad to see her go, she fought the disease until the end and lived a wonderful life. She was always an example of fighting the good fight, and endure to the end with a smile on your face. She just beamed happiness all the time. I loved her dearly. Holden and I went to Utah for a week for the funeral and were able to see family. While we were there Holden got some serious Ian time. It was fun to spend time with family!

We saw Santa





We went to Build A Bear


Decorated Gingerbread house (and had to do it fast or Megan would have ate all the candy). We also got to go to Cousin Sam's first birthday party! And have dinner with Grandma and pa Highbarger.

When we got back to Chicago I forgot my camera everywhere, so I have no good pictures. He spent the night in Chicago the week before and saw the Macy's windows and all that. We went to Lincoln Park Zoo and saw the animals, the lights were turned on just as we were leaving, we also saw the conservatory and looked and all kinds of plants and they had some trains also.

The next day we went to the Winterfest and the kids played there. There were more people there this year which was a bummer but no huge snow storm to worry about which was good. Bailey's shoes got taken outside of one of the bumper/slide things. She spent the last 2 hours without shoes and had to walk to the car in her socks! Christmas morning was great. I over did it again but everyone was basically happy.

This may be the last picture I get of them hugging.

Teck Deck is a must for 10 yr old boys

We're back to Hot Wheel tracks all over the place. Brayden had fun with this one.

Auntie Breanna send us some thing to shut Brayden up with. So sweet of her.

Grandma's Smith has such good taste. Bailey calls this her Paris outfit.

Hours after all the fun was over, Holden, without saying a word, climbed into the chair with me and started rubbing my arm and within 3 minutes he was out! One of the cutest moments EVER!

Christmas was great!

Bailey's a Poet

Here's a card Bailey made for me saturday.

Here's Brayden's:

People DO think he's awesome!

We love you do Bailey!

Potty Training Pt 2

What you are about to read is disturbing. If you have a weak stomach (Dusty) don't read on.

I knew Holden had to go potty but when I asked he said no. So I didn't push it (heaven knows why). He was really quiet, which was my first clue that something was wrong. I go to find him and I asked where he was and he answered, "I'm going poopies mom but don't come in, I'm fine". Clue two. So I go in of course and he had started pooping in his pants and then tried to make it to the toilet. So there was poop EVERYWHERE. He'd tried to "clean it up" himself. There was poop on the toilet (not in, ON), on the walls, on this clothes, legs, feet, hands. I mean EVERYWHERE. I've heard/experience this with younger children but never with a 4 1/2 year old! Blessings, Blessings!

Potty Training

It's amazing that anyone is peeing in a toilet these days. Holden is having an especially hard time with pooping and peeing. Today I smelt something not nice and checked him, yet again he start to poop in his pants. So I get time to the toilet to finish and all cleaned up and I'm trying to have a heart to heart with him about this issue (since he is 4 1/2) and after I talked he says, "Mommy, your eye's are small to me. They are this big and my eyes are this big (as he's measure our eyes with his little fingers)." And he continues on this track for another minute or two. I finally did get him focused in on the problem at hand but I don't know how much he cared in the end. He just wanted to talk about eyes. I guess we all learn to poop and pee in the potty eventually right???

Bailey's Bum

My wonderful friend Amy was babysitting last week for us and she told me a funny Bailey moment. I guess they were all going to bed and Parker smacked Bailey on the bum for fun. (this is something done often in our house because I do like to pinch my kids bums, they're just so cute!). I guess he did it a little to hard and she started crying and Amy went to hug her. And Bailey said, "I just wish I didn't have such a cute bum." Yes, we all wish we had this problem, huh girls.

Dreams

Tonight I was putting Holden to bed and he once again proved his sweetness. He said, "Mom, do you hope my dreams come true?" and I said, "Of course" and he says, "I hope your dreams come true too." and then he says, "remember to remember your dreams mom, okay?". He's really into telling us about his dreams and wanting to know what we dreamed in the mornings.