Christmas Morning

Ike woke up giggling at the site of Christmas presents under the tree. It didn't take him long to dig in to all the unwrapping there was to do.

Bill woke up at four on Christmas morning (due to the fact that he's not used to sleeping at night) and when I got up the house was sparkling clean! The furniture was polished and floors were slick! Not a crumb to be found in the place. I have to say that it was wonderful to wake up to.

Merry Christmas

Our activity of the day was building a fort. Ike loved it and spent hours in there playing with various toys and eating snacks. Now that the day is winding down, his anxious little hands were found gently tearing wrapping paper so he could have a peek inside. The sooner Christmas arrives the better! Fort building and other activities are no longer a very good distraction from all the presents that have been accumulating under the tree. He keeps asking with wide-eyed anticipation if each day is Christmas.


I bought a couple of presents for Ike to give to Bill and what a time we had wrapping them. They are covered in crumpled tape (most of which doesn't cover the seams in the paper). I also had him sign his name on the tags as well. Oh, yes, and lets not forget how much fun he had cutting the paper! After cutting all the thread in my sewing basket, tags off of the couch, and holes in our nice sheets, he knows he's really lucky to hold sissors at all. Just participating in ANY Christmas activity brings such a glow of joy to his face.

We hope everyone else is having as much fun as we are preparing for this wonderful holiday!

Kitchen is Complete

Backsplash

Bill chose the pattern layout for the backsplash in our kitchen. I love it and can't wait to see it finished.

Remodel

Disarray. This is how we've been living for the past three days. No sink. No stove. No washing dishes. We've been living on peanut butter and jelly and chicken nuggets, but soon we'll have a beautifully complete kitchen to cook fabulous meals (if a nicer kitchen means I'll somehow become a better cook). Anyway, tonight the tiles are laid out and ready to be put in place tomorrow. It's coming along just beautifully and I am eagerly anticipating the end result. Tomorrow I get to choose a backsplash and maybe a new faucet. We'll see how it goes.

Today we have reached week thirty in the progression of our girl baby. She's rumbling around a lot and seems to be having a great time in there.

Ike woke up with a nice fever and later on this afternoon we noticed his eye has caught a cold of its own. Nevertheless, he is still himself -- running and jumping and conquering.

Busy Little Boy

Bill bought me a new camera for Christmas, but I've been using it so I will have the thing figured out by the time Christmas comes. Tonight he's going to have to show me how to put pictures on the computer so I can put some on the blog. So far I've learned how to take a picture and how to zoom . . . there is so much more to learn.

The other day Bill took Ike to the police station to check his schedule. Ike was very polite and shook everyone's hand without being prompted to do so. He also made small talk with everyone and told each of them that Baby Jesus was born in a barn. I think he also made mention that there was a train there too:) We'll have to read the story a few times before everything gets straightened out and fully understood.

Yesterday I noticed that the bag of candy in the pantry was getting rather low. I'm pregnant and have cravings, but i just couldn't believe that I'd eaten so many. Truth revealed itself later on in the day when I noticed Ike had stuffed his Advent Calendar to the brink with chocolates. That boy knows how to stock the calendar better than I do.

On Thursday night Aunt Michelle invited Ike over to bake Christmas cookies with her other nieces and nephew. Ike jumped right into the decorating and poured the bowls of sprinkles on his cookies. There wasn't much left over for the other kids . . . .

Advent Activities

Yesterday Ike found Air Force One under the tree (among all the other presidential forms of transportation). Air Force One didn't leave his sight all day!
Bill preparing the gingerbread house so Ike could decorate it.

Ike LOVED it!

Life at the Parramore's

After a long weekend, we are highly anticipating Bill's return this evening! He flew to Philidelphia to visit his family for a few days and he went to the Philly vs. Seahawks game. Isaac sure did miss him! He would have to play wrestling by himself since he knows that I don't wrestle. He'd pretend to break his neck (with sound effects and all) and throw himself to the ground. Bill won't be home until late this evening, but Ike sure is going to be ready for a round of wrestling the moment he lays eyes on Daddy.

I've been putting Ike to sleep every night to Christmas stories. He loves to hear of presents, Santa, snow, and Christmas trees. When I read the stories about Jesus, he corrects me and says it's BABY Jesus. Anyway, these stories must make for great dreams 'cause he's been giggling in his sleep.

Funny story: Jordan asked Isaac who brings the Christmas presents. Ike put his finger on his chin, sighed a big "Uhhhhhhmmmm," and joyfully announced, "DADDY!" No one's going to fool him.

Baby Shower

The cutest little spit up cloths made by my Mom.
Her closet all organized.

The quilt my Mom made (it matches the spit up cloths:)
The quilt my friend Jordan made.

My friends unexpectedly threw me a baby shower yesterday morning. I thought I would post a few of their talented creations and a few other things. Hope you enjoy!

Daddy and Ike Wrestling

Snow Cones

Our snow lasted through the night so we made strawberry snow cones!

Eating Snow

As Bill was about to leave for work last night, he couldn't help but notice a nice inch of snow on the ground. He went and got Isaac up to share in his excitement of all the white stuff! Here is a picture of Ike eating the snow Daddy got for him. Snow makes a handy late night snack.

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In Praise of Mom

Today marks week 28 in the development of Girl Baby, who does have a name by the way, just no middle name as of yet. However, she does have lots of blankets lovingly made by my Mom. She is one lucky baby to be born in the winter! She'll have a blanket to match every outfit. Here is a picture of just a few of the blankets my Mom has made, but this doesn't include the yellow ones:)

Continuing the praise, yesterday my Mom watched Ike so Bill and I could play Santa and go visit toyshop Target. Bill and I sure did enjoy getting out and finishing our Christmas shopping together. Ike LOVES going to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They have a big, open house to run and play in. His favorite is the banister where he can look out over the great room and they have stairs. What kid doesn't like stairs! It's one big playground and Grandma seemed to enjoy the company while Grandpa was at work.

When Bill and I arrived back to Grandma and Grandpa's to pick Ike up, she had a nice hot dinner ready for us! What a nice surprise! Thanks for making such a wonderful and relaxing day for us, Mom!

First Snow

We had a slight hunch that it might snow (thanks to the weatherman) so we added strawberry syrup to our grocery list to make yummy snow cones. And sure enough! That night the snow transformed our part of the world into a winter wonderland. Okay, we really didn't get too much snow, but the beauty of childhood is that it doesn't take much snow to make a little fella happy.

Christmas Spirit

Our home has been buzzing with the Christmas spirit! We decorated our little tree (the same tree we've had since the first year we were married) with sentimental ornaments and some not so sentimental ornaments, but beautiful all the same. It's tradition here to put the ornament with a picture of my Dad in it on the tree first. His picture goes up high -- close to the ornate angel that a dear friend handmade for us. I put on golden ribbon and red bows and Ike had a blast placing ornaments on in clusters. It's amazing how many ornaments one branch can hold! He did a really good job and was a big helper.

Even attitudes around here have been loaded up with Christmas spirit. Yesterday Ike noticed I was slow getting out of the car so he came around to my door and reached out his hand. His sweet little voice said, "I'll help you, Mommy." *sigh* What a little gentleman. Looks like Daddy is wearing off on him!

The Advent calendar activities are set for each day of December. We just can't have a day go by around here without a load of that wonderful Christmas spirit! It's fun to gear Ike's excitement up for the day we celebrate Christ's birth. The anticipation for Christmas day will be great. Already it's a daily activity for Ike to peek into the Advent calendar doors hoping to find candy which we did last year. This year we'll have treats and activities -- mostly small and simple, but definitely exciting! Anyway, December 1st is highly anticipated in our home!

I hope you all are having a blast planning your Christmas activities! And may the spirit of the season be with you each day.

Morning Fun

'Tis the Season

The Most Wonderful Time

Nap time came to us around 2:00 this afternoon so I decided to take the opportunity to bring out the Christmas "magic." I set up the tree (but left it undecorated so Ike could help later), put out the manger scene (but left the baby Jesus on another table so Ike could have the honor), and I set out the Advent calendar, snow globe, and stocking.

Ike woke up around 4:30. He came out, saw the tree, smiled, and cuddled up on the couch and fell back into sweet slumber. While he slept, I sat in the rocking chair and worked on my redwork quilt while listening to Christmas tunes and admiring the newly transformed room.

Now that Ike's awake, the nativity scene has been transported to another area, he has peeked in every door of the Advent calendar hoping to find toys and candy, and "Oh, Little Town of Bethleham has played ten times (at least) on the snow globe. Oh, yes, and his little figure Diego has been added to the nativity scene. No one gets left out of seeing the baby Jesus around here!

Anyway, Joseph just lost a hand. Not to worry though, we've got a nice supply of super glue!

Bath Time

A Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk

After asking Grandma question after question about her childhood and what she remembers about the Depression, she handed me a book called "A Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk." It's a small book on what the author (Robert J. Hastings) remembers about his boyhood during the 1930's. It's a charming book that really changed my perspective on various things. For instance, we haven't been able to spend a lot of time with Bill the past few days due to all the overtime he has been assigned. Although we miss seeing him, I am now grateful for his job more than ever before. During the Depression men would have pounced on any chance to work and overtime just wasn't an option. There are also other small things, like how during the Depression families would gather around the fire to keep warm and made many memories there. Now that central heat and air is quite common in most homes around here, we have other ways to find our family time. To keep cool in the summer families would linger on the shaded porches. Let's just say there was ample family time. Anyway, for anyone interested in a good read or just overly interested in the Depression like me, this book is great.

Projects

I am making my own gift tags for Christmas this year.
This is a quilt I am in the process of making for Girl Baby. I will post a picture when it's finished.
The laundry room wall is coming along. We make progress slowly aroud here.

Sweet Dreams

Here is a picture of Ike sound asleep with his treasured rocketship. Ever since he and Daddy launched it in the park a couple days ago, it is all he can talk about. This picture was taken after Ike and I got back from dinner at Grandma's house tonight. He fell asleep in the car and woke up when I took the rocketship from his hand. He quickly inquired about the rocketship and as soon as it was safe and sound in his little hand again he fell back to sleep.

This evening Grandma had us over for dinner -- salisbury steak. It was a delightful dish from her Route 66 cookbook. She truly is a great cook! Bill wasn't able to join us for dinner this evening due to more overtime this morning (it was one of the busiest nights he's worked all year). He is in fact still sleeping and I won't wake him for another hour.

Sugar and Hormones

Since Bill works the night shift, he gets home from work around 7:30 each morning (except for lately due to all the gang related activity). Well, a couple days ago he brought home a coffee for me and doughnuts for Ike and I to share. It was not only a sweet gesture, but it was just what I needed (okay maybe not NEEDED, but craved). The extra sugar gave me a burst of energy and I cleaned our home and rearranged a few little things. The house hasn't stayed so clean lately due to the raging hormones. I guess the doughnuts were just what our home NEEDED.

Late Night Art Studio

Last night Bill got called into work early (four hours early) so right after crab cakes and potatoes he left. Since Ike took a four hour nap, I knew that we'd probably be up a little later than usual. So what is a mother to do when she's exhausted and sleep deprived . . . paint of course! Artwork to the rescue. Ike and I crammed ourselves into the cozy laundry room and he painted on his paper and I painted on the walls (probably not the best example for a three year old -- painting on the walls that is). He kept telling me what a good job I was doing, but couldn't figure out why i would rather paint flowers than a rocketship up high on the wall for him. Sorry, buddy. So after I was finished for the night Ike still wanted to paint. I let him finish up his art project in the kitchen then finally got that much needed sleep.

I'll post another picture of my laundry room garden when it is complete.