KerryAndGabe.com

Something that makes me happy: The kids had a great time at their joint Lego-themed party. I was glad that my hard work paid off and that they were excited about my efforts. Maddie told me that the cupcakes were beautiful and delicious.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking that a Sunday party allowed me to prepare for the party all day on Saturday, but it did not account for recovery time from the party. I should have taken a vacation day to compensate for that! Of course, we also went to a Super Bowl party at the last minute.

Something I’m hoping: I hope we can finish up the thank you notes before too long…but I think we still have a few from Christmas. I’m sure the notes will be appreciated when people get them, right??

Something happening around the house: We had a small joint birthday party for Maddie and Cullen…which reminds me why I didn’t really want to have another home party. It turned out well, but home parties are definitely more stressful than the alternatives!

Something I’m reading: I finished City of Bones (and plan on reading more in that series). Book 8 of the Wool series (Third Shift – Pact) came out this week, so I started and finished it. I am looking forward to others finishing it so I can discuss it! I started Nurture Shock, which I have been planning to read for years.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished book 7 of the Wool series and started on Book 8.

Something I’m watching: We went to a Super Bowl party this year, but I can’t say I really watched much of the Super Bowl itself.

Something I’m creating: I created cupcakes for the party. I went through several iterations of “the plan,” but it all worked out great. I was very happy with how they turned out in the end. We’ve also been putting together lego kits and puzzles with the kids.

Something about both kiddos: The kids enjoyed their birthday party! They were excited about the cupcakes and decided that we should have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry cupcakes. Maddie insisted on chocolate for herself and vanilla for at least one friend. Cullen insisted on strawberry, and I’m not even sure he’s ever had strawberry cake. Maybe he thought that’s what Maddie’s new Strawberry Shortcake underwear is all about? One of the games that they like to play in the car is “Rapunzel.” They put their scarves on their head (hanging down like long hair) and secure them with a knit cap. Then they take turns saying “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair” while the other flops their hair over the edge of the car seat. Hilarious. One of the gifts that they received for their birthday was a Wii Fit game for kiddos with Nick Jr characters. They look adorable while they try it, and they have been loving it so far. I think it will come in handy on rainy or cold days, too!

Something Maddie is doing (4.5 years old): Maddie orchestrated her first practical joke. I’m so proud (and a little scared). She came up with the idea on her own and got Daddy, Nana, and me with it. She put a path of paper on the floor and asked us to walk on the path. She had coated one of the pieces of paper with glue from her glue stick. So we’d walk on it and then the paper would be completely stuck to our foot. Pretty clever (and hilarious). I’m impressed she came up with it on her own! She continues to read to us every night, and we continue to be surprised at what she can read on her own. Maddie had her first incident report at school this week with an injury to her lip after falling off of playground equipment. Maddie did great at the rollerblading lesson last Saturday and was picking up her feet and gaining speed and confidence.

Something Cullen is doing (3 years old): We now know which teachers Cullen will have and that his move up date is on February 19th. He’s excited, and I’m sad about leaving the daycare building after almost 5 years. I can’t believe it’s time. I will enjoy being able to drop both kids off at the same location for the next 6 months. We had Cullen’s 3-year old check up. He was a little over 31 pounds (46th percentile) and a little over 39 inches tall (86th percentile). Cullen definitely took a little more time to adjust to the rollerblades after missing a week due to the ice day. He was doing pretty well towards the end and even skated a little on his own.

Something I am struggling with: Dry, itchy skin.

Something I’m looking forward to: This week, I have lunch with a friend, dinner and games with friends, ballet, rollerblading, orientation with Cullen’s new classroom, and games night. Whew.

Something captured: The party table and kiddos

Since we had the PhotoPass+, we took advantage of as many photo opportunities as we could. My favorite of the opportunities are “magic shots.” These are included with the PhotoPass, and you just need to know where to look for them. I found several sites that detailed the spots to get the shots. In addition to the special ghost ones that we did at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (only available at the party), we did some other fun ones. Sometimes, they offered it without us asking, but most of the time we asked, “do you have any pixie dust?” or “do you have any magic shots?” Only certain spots are allowed to do certain shots, and usually they could tell us who to find if they couldn’t do it. Note that it is a good idea to periodically check your photopass photos at a kiosk. If you note that something is missing, then you can usually get them to find it if you can tell them where the photographer was and what time it was taken. Sometimes the magic shots don’t work, so be sure to follow the instructions of the photographer!

Our first magic shots were offered to us at Animal Kingdom, and we didn’t even have to ask. I already knew that I was going to ask for the Simba shots. The same photographer offered us the Stitch and Simba shots without prompting. We had the Stitch shot taken at the beginning of the day, and again (unprompted) at the end of the day on our way out of the park.

Shot: Stitch coming out of the ground
Location: Animal Kingdom, near the Tree of Life / Animal Kingdom, near the entrance
Other Locations Available: Hollywood Studios (Sunset & Hollywood Boulevards)

Baby Simba was one of my favorite magic shots and one that I definitely wanted to do on this trip. We did it once as a family where both kids had the opportunity to hold Simba. Cullen’s arm wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t too bad for a 2-year old. I later had a few photos taken just of me on my way back from getting the PhotoPass+ card.

Shot: Baby Simba
Location: Animal Kingdom, near the Tree of Life
Other Locations Available: Only at Animal Kingdom, also in Asia shots with Everest in the background

I asked the photographer if he had any other magic shots, like the balloons, on our way out of the park. He was able to do the balloons, and it turned out pretty well. I think this one can be done at a lot of places, but it seems like not all of the photographers are trained to do it.

Shot: Holding Mickey Balloons
Location: Animal Kingdom, near the entrance
Other Locations Available: Epcot (near the entrance), Magic Kingdom (Mainstreet and entrance to Tomorrowland)

I knew I wanted to get the Tinkerbell shot, one that I got by chance in April with Audrey. There is a similar shot of Tinkerbell sitting in your hand, which is available at different spots. Cullen and I did this shot our first day at Magic Kingdom, and I made Michelle do it with me on our last day at Magic Kingdom.

Shot: Tinkerbell standing in your hand
Location: Magic Kingdom on Main Street
Other Locations Available: Magic Kingdom (Town Square), Epcot (entrance)

The next set of shots were totally by luck. It’s hard to find them, and I’m not sure you can even seek them out on a normal day. I had seen them before, but I didn’t know how to find them. The photographer who did them for us was in a random place that we stumbled upon on the way to something else. She said that the shots were rare these days. We had one pose where we were looking at Stitch like we were disgusted, but somehow that didn’t make it. It’s too bad, I’m sure it would have been more interesting than the one of us just smiling next to him.

Shots: Mickey, Minnie, and Stitch with ice cream “bench” shots
Location: Hollywood Studios (near Hollywood Boulevard)
Other Locations Available: Hollywood Studios (other locations?), Magic Kingdom (Main Street?)

I had to hunt a bit to get this last one, and we finally got it on our last day. I had wanted to get Earl and Michelle to do this one, too, but they weren’t with us when we found the photographer. The photographer disappeared by the time we regrouped. It didn’t turn out as well as some of the others. I think that they could have given better direction. Maddie wasn’t really in the mood for photos. We had Gabe and Maddie do the photo since they are the ones who rode Soarin’.

Shots: Soarin’
Location: Epcot (between the Fountain of Nations and the entrance to World Showcase)
Other Locations Available: It’s only available at Epcot, not sure if it is available at other spots than the one mentioned

Something that makes me happy: Our monthly craft subscription to Kiwi Crates. The crafts are high quality, and all of them have been functional so far (board game, instrument, postcard, etc). The kids love them! Thanks, Nana and Papa!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about what needs to be done for their joint birthday party next weekend.

Something I’m hoping: I’m sorta hoping that a local bakery can make the cake. It would take a lot of pressure off of me if I could get someone else to handle that detail…

Something happening around the house: I’m constantly amazed at how quickly my kids can trash a clean house.

Something I’m reading: I finished Pandemonium, the sequel to Delirium. I’ll have to wait for the 3rd book to come out later this year. I did see that she has released a few companion books that show the perspectives or backgrounds of some of the secondary characters. I was able to get Hana from the library, but the other two don’t seem to be available. They seem a little pricey considering they are only about 40 pages each. I’ll probably want to read them eventually. I did start reading City of Bones from The Mortal Instruments series. I’ve been wanting to read this since I knew it was going to be a movie (this year?).

Something Gabe is reading: Gabe finished book 6 of the Wool series and is starting book 7.

Something I’m creating and playing: The kids and I made their games this weekend in this month’s craft crate. We had fun making and playing the board game. Cute craft!

Something Maddie is doing (4.5 years old): Maddie is very interested in reading right now! We have been reading every night (though of course she wants us to read to her, too!). She read one of her picture books this week and was so proud that she read a “real book.” Ha! It wasn’t really more difficult than the Level 1 readers that she has been reading. She wants to get some Level 2 readers now, but I think it might be too overwhelming to have too many words on each page. We still read some of the easier phonics readers, too, as it helps build her confidence. I’ve also been making sure that she rereads ones that she has already read. She likes to read new stuff, but it’s good for her to practice the same patterns over and over. Of course, she ends up memorizing parts, but that’s all part of reading. She sometimes anticipates the wrong word, and a lot of times she ends up laughing and correcting herself. She is very proud of herself. She’s had some bad nights this week, but she had a couple of good ones, too. I guess that’s progress? It’s been frustrating. She may be getting sick. We’ll see how she is over the next few days. She had the sniffles last week along with Cullen, but tonight she was not feeling quite herself, it seemed.

Something Cullen is doing (3 years old): Cullen woke up on his birthday and said, “I’m 3 already!” He also spent the day before saying, “Today is the last day that I’m 2!” We had a cupcake party in his classroom on Wednesday (the day after his birthday). We went out to dinner the evening of his birthday. He requested fried pickles and a hot dog for his birthday dinner. Fortunately, we actually do have a place around here that has both. He had so much fun at his birthday dinner. He was in a wonderful mood and ate quite a bit. He didn’t end up eating too many fried pickles, but he discovered the wonders of fried cheese curds. They were quite yummy! He had a bit of a cold this week, but it didn’t seem to go much beyond sniffles and a little extra crankiness. We are still waiting to hear which classroom he will be moving to (and when he will be moving).

Something I’m looking forward to: This week, I have a couple of lunches with friends, Cullen’s 3-year old check up, and ballet and rollerblading for the kids. Next weekend, we have a combined birthday party for the two of them. I also have book club!

Something captured: Gabe loves his new office! More pictures coming soon…

Now that we’re well into 2013, it’s time to reflect on 2012, right? It’s a challenge to even remember last week much less all of last year, but I’m going to give it a try…

Best Restaurant: Considering how little we go out to interesting restaurants these days, this is always a tough category for me. We make sure to go out each year to somewhere new and fancy on our anniversary, but most of the rest of our meals tend to be at boring kid friendly places. I’m going to pick Draft. Sadly, it closed at the end of the year for reasons unrelated to its popularity. We went with friends before a concert in February and again with Gabe’s parents just before they closed their doors. YUM!

Best Book: I actually read quite a few great books this year. The candidates for the “best” of the year were Ready Player One, The Kingkiller Chronicles, and the Wool series. It’s hard to compare the three because they were different, but since I’m forcing myself to pick one “best,” I’d have to pick The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. I highly recommend all of the finalists from this year, though! And I can’t wait to read the next one in The Kingkiller Chronicles as well as the Wool series (by Hugh Howey). I really did have a tough time choosing between the two.

Best Vacation: I might as well rename this category to “the major vacation that we took this year.” Of course, our best vacation this year was our big trip to Disney World! We had been looking forward to it for a long time, and it was great (though exhausting). We’ll do it again in a couple years! We did have a good number of wonderful shorter vacations this year, too.

Best Movie: This one is difficult for me because when I look at the list of movies that we saw in the theater, nothing stands out clearly above the rest. I guess I would pick The Avengers.

Best TV Show: My favorite show this year was Hart of Dixie.

Best Music: I don’t pay attention to the newest music these days, but we went to a fantastic concert in July with Kristin and Chad. We saw Roger Waters perform The Wall in its entirety. That was quite an experience! I wish we had had better seats, but it was still great to be there.

Best Board Game: Our favorite new game this year was Village. We need to add this one to our collection!

Best Lighter Game: I really enjoyed Riff Raff which I played at TBGT. I haven’t been able to find it for sale anywhere.

Best Party Game: We have had Cranium Hoopla for years, but I finally played it at TBGT. It was a perfect game to play with family and friends! We had fun with it on Thanksgiving with Gabe’s family, with my family at Christmas, and with friends at New Year’s. Fun game!

Best Video Game: I guess this one has to go to NintendoLand since it’s one of the only video games that we played this year. I look forward to playing more of the Wii U. With all that free time that I don’t have…

Best iPad Game: Gabe and I both spent quite a bit of time playing Mystery Manor on our iPads at the beginning of the year. It was fun while it was lasted!

Best Kids’ Game: We played a lot of kids’ games in 2012, and my favorite of those is Catan Junior. It plays somewhat similarly to the real game, and I love this intro to Eurogames for the kids. They are loving it. The kids ask to play “the pirate game” often.

Best Toy (for Maddie): My favorite toy of the year for Maddie is her Olivia’s House Friends Lego set. It’s awesome! It’s a dollhouse made of Legos. FUN!

Best Toy (for Cullen): Cullen was very into the wooden trains this year, and we all enjoyed them. We had fun making huge layouts, and they got some motorized trains for Christmas. Good times!

Best Maddie Moment: My favorite Maddie moment was riding in the front car of Goofy’s Barnstormer when she put her hands way up in the air. She was so happy. It was a wonderful experience! Loved it!

Best Cullen Moment: Cullen and I spend quite a bit of time together, and we have so many special moments together. He’s so sweet, especially every night when we go through his bedtime routine. We had a lot of great moments at Disney, too. I think that my favorite may have been when Cullen told Rapunzel that he would protect me from the dragon. He was so sweet with Minnie Mouse and the princesses!

Best Reunion: I didn’t think I’d be able to think of one this year for “best reunion,” but then I realized that Audrey and I reunited our travel relationship! We had a wonderful time at Disney in April. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take some more trips together in the future.

Somehow, I’ve managed to finish Cullen’s letter the same week as his birthday. Woohoo! (more…)

Something that makes me happy: The tradition that we started last year of having a “special day” for the kids near their birthdays. Today was Cullen Special Day! We had a wonderful time as a family (but we’re all exhausted!).

Something I’m thinking: I can’t believe that my little boy will be 3 in two days.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we will continue our tradition and that the kids will have fond memories of it. I know we will.

Something happening around the house: We still need to purge a bunch of things that we started to organize last year. I’m thinking we should probably do this before my parents come to visit in a couple of weeks. Right now, we don’t have a good place for them to sleep.

Something I’m reading: I finished Delirium and started the sequel. I’ll probably have that finished tonight. I’m enjoying it well enough, but it’s not as good as other dystopian series that I have read.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished the first 5 books in the Wool series and started on book 6! I learned that book 8 should be out by the end of the month, so I’m looking forward to that.

Something I’m watching: We went to see Wreck It Ralph for Cullen’s special day today. It was cute!

Something I’m playing: We played Kids of Carcassonne tonight before bed.

Something I’m creating: I sorted through my 2011 photos for the general photobook. I haven’t started on it yet, but I think I’ll be able to fit it all into one volume (which is my goal now with the yearbooks. 2010 was 3 volumes, and that is just too many.).

Something tasty: Gingerbread pancakes at breakfast this morning and Cullen’s birthday cake this evening.

Something about both kiddos: Sleep was a big issue when I wrote the last report, and it seems to be getting better. We separated the kids, and that was like hitting a reset button for them. We have changed up the routine a little (with a little more swapping of parents here and there), and I’ve been going back after a short time to praise them for staying in bed and being quiet. I have been doing this several times, and they love when I come back to “check on them” and love the praise and extra attention. Both kids actually slept through the night TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW. I know I probably shouldn’t speak or type that or I’ll probably jinx it all. It’s a miracle, that’s for sure. I can’t even tell you the last time we had two nights of uninterrupted sleep. Possibly never (well, not since Cullen was born). They both had rollerblading yesterday, and they did fairly well. Maddie is getting more confidence and skating a little faster. She’s still one of the slowest kids in the class (well, apart from Cullen, of course). She does a lot better when she isn’t trying to look out for her brother. We are signing them up for another session, and I’m glad that the kids will be in different levels. That should help Maddie, anyway. We took them both for haircuts yesterday as well. Maddie’s is super short. It’s cute on her, but I think it’s a little shorter than I had wanted it! She loves it. Cullen’s is fine, but nobody can seem to get his bangs straight. They tried to compensate this time, but it’s still not quite right. Maybe we’ll have to try something different. He did love going through the day yesterday with “spiky hair.” Today we had “Cullen Special Day” and went out to our favorite breakfast place, Toys R Us where Cullen could pick out any toy he wanted, the dinner theater for lunch and a movie, a park we hadn’t explored before, and Cullen’s choice of dinner and cake at home with friends. What a wonderful day!

Something Maddie is doing (4.5 years old): She’s bringing home lots of readers from school, and the ones that she is bringing home are super easy for her. They are mostly short vowel readers, and she has progressed into more complicated readers. She did a great job with a long Amelia Bedelia Level 1 reader. We read it over several nights, and I was impressed sometimes at how much she could read without help. I had to help her a few times for each new type of word, and she started to learn many patterns on her own. She’s very interested in practicing right now, so that is exciting! She finally earned her butterfly and flower lights that we told her she could have when she had a good night (no getting out of the room or screaming for us until 7am). She now has had two good nights in a row, so let’s hope it’s a new pattern… I know better than to believe that it is a new habit after two days, but I can still hope. She still loves to create artwork and gets creative with her art projects and cutting. She has been getting more creative with Legos and making her own models. Yesterday morning, Maddie said to Cullen in the car, “Hey, Cullen! Let’s pretend we’re dorks! Haha! Cullen, I’m a dork! Are you a dork?” Gabe and I thought this was hilarious.

Something Cullen is doing (2.5 years old): Cullen will be THREE this week. I can’t believe it! He’s been such a funny boy this week. One night, he created and sang the following song to Puff the Magic Dragon: Puff the Magic Spider, lived in a web, and when he was hanging, he pooped on Daddy’s head. He loves to sing, and we all love to make up silly lyrics. I cracked up when he did this one. He’s very good at the iPad and iPhone. One morning, Gabe came out into the living room to find Cullen sitting on the couch playing Angry Birds with Gabe’s iPad. He loves eating veggies. This weekend when we went to PF Changs, he kept asking for more tomatoes and cucumbers. He also likes the crab wontons from there. He turned in his papers for Children’s House, so we should be hearing news of him moving up any day now. I can’t believe that the kids will both be out of the daycare building. It’s bittersweet. Today, when we took him to Toys R Us, he started with a large stuffed dog as his first selection and kept trading until he ended up with a Cars racetrack with microcars. He did say that he wanted to get some kind of race car, so I guess he ended up with what thought he wanted! In between, he had a Minnie Mouse pillow pet, different Lego sets, and some other race car sets.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We booked two trips…NYC in the spring and a Disney cruise next year. I can’t wait! The kids are excited, too, but they have no idea what to expect, of course.

Something I learned: My point and shoot camera has been set to a lower exposure for more than a year. I wish I had realized this before now! Oh well. A similar thing happened with our SLR for the first year that we owned it. We had some funky custom white balance setting that screwed up the majority of our photos.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to Cullen’s 3rd birthday and a dinner date with a friend. We also have a games day with friends, ballet, and rollerblading. Busy week!

Something random: I don’t write anything for this most weeks. That’s pretty random, right?

Something captured: Putting the finishing touches on Cullen’s birthday cake…sprinkles!

Something that makes me happy: Sleep would make me happy, but that’s more theoretical right now than actual.

Something I’m thinking: I didn’t feel like writing this week’s Sunday Somethings either, but I figured if I didn’t I might drop the habit. I don’t want to do that. It’s the only way I can remember things.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that we can get the kids sleeping reliably again. We’ve had a terrible time with both kids in the past two weeks. Our latest solution is to try to get them to share a room. So far, that has been rough, too. (and between writing this and getting ready to publish, we declared it a failure and moved Maddie’s bed back to her room)

Something happening around the house: We’ve been getting rid of baby clothes and paper lately. We have been giving outgrown clothes to friends and scanning, shredding, and recycling paper. It is great to get these things out of the house, but we have a long way to go.

Something I’m reading: I finished Valley of the Horses, and I didn’t feel like the second book was as good as the first. I don’t think I’ll continue the series. I started reading Delirium.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s almost finished with the first 5 books of the Wool/Silo series.

Something I’m creating: Last Sunday, we did two of the Kiwi Crate crafts – penguin bowling and aurora australis postcards. Fun! I also finished the first draft of our cruise photobook (yeah, from 2011). I’m so happy to have that done! I ordered it Monday and got it a couple days later. Gabe finished his fancy Lego firehouse.

Something tasty: I made my grandma’s chicken divan recipe for the first time in a while (last week). We always enjoy that!

Something about both kiddos: The kids have been absolutely terrible with sleep. For almost a week, we’ve been trying to get them to sleep in the same room. That has helped in some ways, but it is a disaster in most other ways. We just don’t know what to do or how to get them the sleep that they (and we) so desperately need. When they are awake and happy, they continue to be best buddies. They have a few new games that they play. One is “dark” or “light” monster where they go around the house turning off all of the lights. This is both amusing and inconvenient (like if we’re trying to do something that requires a light). They dress up and pretend they are going to New York City (Maddie especially asks frequently when we are going to go there). They have been playing an entertaining yet slightly disturbing game of “Titanic” since we read the Titanic book in the Magic Treehouse series. This involves a variety of play including Maddie determining who has a “life belt” and who doesn’t (“you’re dead”) and various versions of jumping to the life boats. Sometimes Cullen puts a blue blanket over his head and declares that he is the iceberg. It’s their favorite game when Sophie comes over. They love building forts out of the furniture and blankets. Both had a great week at rollerblading. We had them practice in the bonus room on the carpet the night before their lesson, and that seemed to make a very big difference. I think we’ll sign them up for another session after this one. Cullen and Maddie are both taking the pre-ballet class that my work offers for preschoolers. I was impressed with how much Cullen followed along.

Something Maddie is doing (4.5 years old): For breakfast every morning, she has Kix cereal and orange juice. She typically eats the Kix dry, but sometimes she has it with milk. We toured another school, and we registered her for kindergarten. After a ton of research and analyzing and thinking about schools, I think we have a plan. We are probably going to be trying for a year round school. We hear that the chances are very good that we’ll be able to get in. We won’t know for another month. If she gets into the year round school, then she will start kindergarten in early July. Yikes!

Something Cullen is doing (2.5 years old): Cullen’s daily breakfast consists of “breakfast toast” and milk. I’m not sure why organic toaster pastries are known as “breakfast toast” in our house. I love how Cullen says some things, and one of my favorites is how he says “alright” – it sounds more like “oh-right.” He’s been doing a little better lately with potty training and had no accidents at school last week. I am not sure whether he might have had one or two at home, but he’s been doing well at home, too.

Something I am struggling with: I’m struggling with the same thing I do every January…I’m resisting adding too many plans to our calendar since we already seem to be quite busy! At the same time, I am itching to plan a few things here and there. Some vacation plans are in the works at the moment.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I decided in December to start scanning all the paper that comes into the house (and then to shred it). I’m so excited to eliminate stacks and stacks of paper and hanging folders of filed mortgage statements and such. I know there will be a few important pieces of paper that need to be kept, but the majority of it can be digitally stored and shredded. I plan to do this with a lot of the artwork that comes into the house from the kids.

Something I’m looking forward to: We don’t have too many plans this week. Both kids have pre-ballet and rollerblading as well will for the next several weeks, at least. Next weekend, we’ll have a “special Cullen day” like we did for each kid last year. We are all excited about the “special Cullen day” with Cullen’s birthday coming up fast!

Something captured: The kiddos were cute at the first ballet lesson. I was glad that Melisa was taking pictures and caught this one of the kids.

Something that makes me happy: Naps and pajama days. Happy new year for us!

Something I’m thinking: I didn’t feel like writing this for the past couple of days. Our break hasn’t been very restful, but we’ve had a nice time with family and friends. We also had a wonderful Christmas! The kids enjoyed their gifts from Santa, and Maddie and I put together the big Olivia’s house set.

Something happening around the house: We had our annual New Year’s Eve games night last night! We also managed to get Cullen’s room mostly finished, so he has a room again! The office is in disarray, so we have a lot of work to be done there.

Something I’m reading: I decided to continue the Earth’s Children series with The Valley of the Horses.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s reading the Wool Omnibus, and I think he’s on book 3.

Something I’m playing: We played Phoenicia on Sunday. The kids have played some games with us in the past week. We played some NintendoLand on the Wii U this week, and several people tried it last night. At games night, I played Wits and Wagers Family, Cranium Hoopla, Telestrations, Password, and Trivial Pursuit Genus 6. We went out while Gabe’s parents were in town and played Photo Hunt and NTN trivia.

Something I’m creating: I started on the Allure of the Seas cruise photobook from 2011! It feels great to get started on that one, especially since we promised it to family as gifts over a year ago. Better late than never? I’ve also been creating lots of Legos. Our family has been Lego crazy over the break, and we’ve almost built every model that we have (displayed proudly on our shelves in the living room). Gabe and I even bought a few sets that are decidedly more for ourselves than the kids.

Something tasty: A friend made a tasty s’mores no bake treat for New Year’s Eve games night last night. I think I might have eaten half the tray. Ooh, and we took Gabe’s parents to Draft. That was tasty, and we’re sad that they are now permanently closed.

Something about both kiddos: The kids were excited about Christmas and Santa’s visit. They have been playing together so well lately (for the most part). Of course, they still fight at times, but they can play together for hours. They are sad when they can’t play with each other. Maddie complains that she has “nobody to play with.” I hope that they will continue to be buddies throughout their lives (though I do realize it will have ups and downs through the years). They are incredibly cute together much of the time. This week, they have started putting on “magic shows.” We aren’t sure where they got that idea, but they insist that it has to be done in Cullen’s new room without the lights. I guess the glow in the dark stars add to the ambiance of their show. Their signature trick involves showing us some balls and then throwing them under the bed or on the floor or in the closet as they “disappear.” They were having slumber parties in Maddie’s room with Cullen’s crib mattress on Maddie’s floor. They have slept in separate rooms a few times, but they are still having slumber parties but now in Cullen’s room. Once, they even slept in the same bed all night. We are trying to get them to sleep in their own rooms, but sometimes it’s just easier for everyone to let them have their slumber parties! Both kids have been playing the Wii U a little bit, and they are starting to get the hang of some of the games in NintendoLand (especially the ghost one and the Mario running one).

Something Maddie is doing (4.5 years old): Maddie and I put together Olivia’s House on Christmas Day. We actually managed to put together the entire house in one day. I love all the details! Maddie managed to put it all together by herself with the exception of the last portion of the yard. She ran out of steam but wanted to finish it “all in one day,” so I helped her finish it up. She was so sweet while we were working on the project. She kept saying things like “I really love you, Mommy” and “I’m so happy!” and “I’m so happy to be doing Legos with you, Mommy.” Maddie got a bunch of new readers for Christmas, and she has been interested in reading them to us. Most of them are phonics readers (some of those are focused on sight words). She’s been making a lot of progress! She’s jealous of Cullen’s new room and says that she also wants a “space room.” Maddie helped us apply the decals around the room.

Something Cullen is doing (2.5 years old): Cullen is very excited about his new room, and it looks great! We still need to put some finishing touches on the room, but we were very happy with how it turned out. Cullen has had a lot of accidents in the past couple of weeks, but we are making some progress. He has gotten to the point where he has no interest in starting to poop on the potty (but will finish if we are able to catch him in the act or see signs that he needs to before he starts). It’s a bit frustrating. He’s had a few wet accidents, but we have gone back to reminding him to use the potty a bit more frequently and making him take potty breaks regularly. Cullen really has gotten great at knowing his way around the iPhone or iPad. He knows how to go back to the home screen, choose new apps, go to a different screen, open folders, and play a variety of games. Cullen is still making a lot of train layouts with the wooden train set. Santa brought both kids a motorized train, so they have had a good time setting up huge layouts in the living room and running the trains.

Something I am struggling with: Clutter, clutter, clutter. We have been organizing and purging in our house. We did manage to take a van load to Goodwill with more to come soon.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m finally making progress on my photobooks. I’m also pretty much caught up on my photos. I have a few more to sort from December, and I’ll be caught up! It has been a long time since I have been caught up like that. Now I just have a bunch of photobooks to create…

Something I’m looking forward to: We don’t have too many plans for the rest of this week, though I am looking forward to the kids using their new rollerblades for the first time on Saturday morning! Santa brought both kids rollerblades for Christmas.

Something random: I read 42 books in 2012!

Something captured: It was a full week, and I’m posting two pictures from this week.

Cullen in his new room.

A proud Maddie with the completed Olivia’s House.

Today:

2011:

2010:

2009:

2008:

2007:

2006:

Something that makes me happy: Christmas traditions! I can’t believe it’s already Christmas Eve. We had a great time visiting with family and friends so far and have fun gatherings yet to come.

Something I’m thinking: Christmas arrived so fast this year, and I feel a bit disorganized with our house in disarray (see “something happening around the house”). I’ve reached a breaking point with clutter, and I’m ready to get rid of stuff.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we will have a wonderful Christmas morning. I love our tradition of Christmas morning with just our little family (while visiting with family and friends in the days surrounding it).

Something happening around the house: Gabe and I are doing a lot of purging. We are putting Gabe’s office in the nursery (Cullen’s current room), and we’ll be making the office into Cullen’s new big boy space-themed room. We decided it was time to get rid of outgrown kid clothes (keeping a few sentimental pieces). We boxed up more than 7 boxes of boy clothes for a couple of friends, and we’ll have more girl clothes soon. We also have a lot of other stuff that we are going to donate, sell, or give away. Currently, Gabe’s new office is full of piles of stuff, and Cullen and Maddie are having nightly slumber parties until Cullen’s room is finished.

Something I’m reading: I couldn’t resist and finished books 6 and 7 of the Wool series. Now I’m forced to wait to read more until they get published. Great series! If you’re a fan of the dystopian genre, you need to read it. Just be patient with the first two books and trust me that it gets better and better. I want to learn more about this world!

Something Gabe is reading: He started reading the Wool series. Yay!

Something I’m watching: We watched Love Actually last night (instead of writing my somethings). I love that movie!!!

Something I’m playing: We played Cranium Hoopla and a little NintendoLand with my family. Gabe and I played a little of the new Super Mario for the Wii U, I think (was that this week? It’s all blurring together now).

Something I’m creating: I sorted through some photos, and I’m getting close to having the Disney photos organized…finally! I still need to get rid of a few, but I’ve been making a lot of progress. Otherwise, I’ve been creating crafts and putting together Legos with the kids. It’s our goal to assemble all of the models that we have collected so far and creating a Lego village over the break.

Something tasty: Oh, man, we’ve had too many tasty things…cookies, fudge, Dad’s meatloaf, Chex mix, etc, etc.

Something about both kiddos: They are excited about getting presents from family members and friends (and especially Santa!). They have both been enjoying putting together lego kits. They had fun making sugar cookies this afternoon. We are not afraid of icing and sprinkles in this house. Most cookies looked like someone dumped a bowl of sprinkles onto them, and that’s pretty much how they were created. The kids have been having daily slumber parties since we’re transitioning Cullen’s room and the office. We are hoping to make progress on putting his room together this week.

Something Maddie is doing (4.5 years old): Maddie is on her best behavior, and I think she really is concerned that Santa is keeping an eye on her. She spent an hour in her room this morning and was very quiet. When we checked on her, we discovered that she was cleaning. She wasn’t doing her usual cleaning which consists of piling everything from the floor onto other surfaces (at random). She had put things away properly and even made her bed. It’s a Christmas miracle! This week when I asked Maddie whether she thought that Santa would bring her presents, she said, “Yes, I don’t see why not!” Maddie is getting really good at Angry Birds and prefers the Star Wars version these days. She will quit the level if she knows she’s not going to get 3 stars, and she says, “It’s not just about winning, is it Mommy?” (meaning it’s also about getting the best score).

Something Cullen is doing (2.5 years old): He’s been having a good number of accidents. I guess we should go back to Disney World which apparently inspired him because “Mickey wouldn’t want poop on his table.” Santa doesn’t appear to have the same effect. Oh well. This week he had an accident in his underwear at school and told his teachers that another kid at school did it. Today, when I asked whether he had poop in his underwear, he told me that he didn’t do it and that somehow *I* had put poop in his underwear. He also told his teachers that he had a secret hiding place in our living room and that he was “very sneaky.” When I picked him up from school that day, I said, “Cullen, what am I going to do with you?” He said, “Eat me” and I asked if that’s what his teacher said (she says, “I could just eat him/you up!” sometimes). He said, “yeah, because I’m a turkey!” The other day when he was playing Fruit Ninja on Daddy’s iPhone, he said, “I’m GREAT at this fruit engine!” He’s getting pretty good at angry birds, too. He was defiant today and wasn’t listening very well. At some point, he told me that he wanted me to email Santa because he was sure family or a friend would bring him a LeapPad.

Something I’m looking forward to: Christmas!!!

Something captured: Sweet kids on Christmas Eve!