Roommates

We've gone back-and-forth about how to rearrange rooms with the baby soon arriving.  We bought bunk beds last year, but have kept them unbunked, so our options have been:

1. Keep the kids in their separate rooms and just keep the baby in our room;
2. Put the kids in one room and bunk their beds,
OR
3. Put the kids in one room and don't bunk their beds.

There were pros and cons to both, which made it tough.  I have learned that for me it's best to move the baby into his/her own room after a few weeks, otherwise I hear every little peep and squeak it makes, which not only wakes me up, but I in turn tend to then wake the baby up.  So we ruled out the first option.

We strongly considered moving the kids into one room and bunking their beds; however, with Jenna just having turned four-years old, we were still wary of having her on a top bunk.  Plus, we just knew despite our best efforts, Grant would climb to the top and that all spells DISASTER.  So no bunked beds...yet.

So we landed on putting the kids in one room and keeping their beds unbunked.  Of course it really takes up quite a bit of space, but at least we got everything to fit!  We were really concerned with how the transition to sharing a room would go, especially come nap time and bedtime.  Plus I wondered if Grant would feel like he was "kicked out" of his room or that Jenna lost her room, but both were really excited to become roommates.  I think it will create a special bond between them. 

We've had to make some adjustments to our nap time and bedtime routine in the process and we're still trying to work out some issues, such as whether to drop Jenna's nap, but we'll get it figured out.  Hopefully we can establish a good routine before the baby arrives.  Although, then we'll probably have to adjust that routine some to make way for a new routine with the baby.  Ha! 

Since we decided not to find out the gender of the baby, I'm in limbo with painting any rooms.  With Grant being in Jenna's room, I'd like to paint over the pink; however, if we have a girl we might decide to move the baby in Jenna's room once she's a little older.  And I'd hate to paint over the blue in Grant's room and take down the airplanes in case we do have a boy.  So in the meantime Grant gets to enjoy the pink.  :)

The view from the doorway

We moved Grant's bookcase in Jenna's room so we could have more room for storage.  It works great!

We're happy with the current set-up and ready to meet baby #3!!  Now if we could only figure out a boy and girl name....maybe we should start working on that.  ;) 

Snow Much Fun!!

We were so happy to get snow this year!!  Last year it only snowed once, but it barely even covered the grass, so we weren't able to do much with it. This year we've already gotten a decent amount, so we've been able to get in all our fun, snow activities - snow angels, snowman, sledding, eating (clean) snow, etc.  So here are some snapshots of our fun in the snow!

I think I actually took this picture when the kids were done playing and ready to come inside...hence the awkward smiles.  Jenna's face is saying, "Hurry Mom, I'm cold!"

A bowl-full of snow to play with in the bathtub.  I soooo wish we were able to upload videos on here (still haven't figured out why we can't).  We have a hilarious video of the kids (mainly Grant) throwing "snowballs" against the back of the tub.  Each time he threw one, he would crack up laughing!  Jenna enjoyed eating her snow and also dropping it in the water and watching it disappear.

Drew captured this picture of Jenna starting to fall backwards to make her snow angel.

Plop...now what do I do??  :) 

Being pulled around in the sled in the backyard.  Jenna enjoyed this more than Grant.  Obviously neither of them know how to "lean" into the turns, so they took a few gentle tumbles, which Grant did not particularly enjoy.  Also with the heavier weight in the back, and the fact that a very tall Daddy was pulling them, the front of the sled was pulled upward, making Grant a little uneasy.  But Jenna LOVED it!

Going down the slide into a pile of snow at the bottom is SO MUCH FUN!

Throwing snowballs

Love this shot of the snowball airborne.  You can see it to the right of Grant's hat.

Jenna enjoying a snowy snack.

The kids each have small shovels so they can "help" us shovel the driveway and sidewalk.  Really they just shovel some snow and throw it somewhere around them, but at least they feel like they're helping.

Jenna really got into shoveling this year and was doing a decent job of helping for the few minutes that it interested her.  :)

Sledding:
Two winters ago we took Jenna sledding for the first time.  She was 2 years old and Grant was just a baby at 6 months old.  Jenna would sit on Daddy or Paw-Paw's lap and go down the hill with them.  Grant was snuggled in his car seat with a cover over him.  He only stayed out in the cold for a little bit before my mom sat with him in the car.

Jenna remembers that first sledding experience - whether it's from her actual memory or from the pictures she's seen, I don't know, but she has been anxious to go sledding again.  Since we couldn't go last year, she was thrilled to get to go this year and now Grant was able to join us as well for his first sledding experience.

Paw-Paw and Maw-Maw were able to join us again this time.  In fact, all the sleds are theirs.  I believe the wooden one was from my Dad's childhood, the orange sled to the right of the picture was my sister and mine from our childhood, and the blue one my mom picked up at a garage sale this summer.

And a pre-sledding family picture...

Grant helping us pull the sled to the right spot on the levy.

Grant only went down the hill a few times.  He wasn't too sure of it this year, but maybe next year it will be a little more fun for him.  At least he had a smile on his face before they went down the hill.

My dad doing some serious sledding!  ;)

Jenna did a great job sledding and even went down the hill on her own, which actually surprised me.  She wasn't a fan of snow getting in her face, and the zipper on one of her boots broke halfway through, but she was a trooper.  The boot stayed on her foot for the most part, she would just have to readjust it every so often.  I'm glad she enjoyed her time out there!

Done sledding, cold, and ready for some hot chocolate!!

Rosy cheeks and crazy hat hair

Snowman:

Two years ago, my Uncle Keith and Aunt Mary got Jenna a Christmas book written by a local author - The Magic Snowflake by Scott Foster.  It is SUCH  cute story! 

Then last year they got Jenna and Grant the 2nd book in the series, The Magic Sled.  Scott Foster has such a great imagination and is a wonderful storyteller.  I just love these books!  My uncle and aunt informed me that we can submit a picture of a snowman we've created and send it in to the author for possible use in his future books.  I LOVE the idea and was thrilled that we actually got some snow this season.

We got a LOT of snow; however, the snow was not good packing snow and no matter how hard we tried, we weren't able to build a snowman with it.  We tried a few different times, but each time the snow would just crumble in our hands.  Then we had a warm front coming and temps were supposed to get in the lower 60s along with some rain, which meant the end of the snow.  I was sad that we possibly wouldn't be able to to build a snowman this year.  Then one evening around 5pm I went out with the kids (Drew was traveling with work) and discovered that the snow was PERFECT packing snow!!  So I quickly had Jenna help me roll the snow into balls.  I had to remember back to my childhood of how to actually build a snowman.  At first I tried rolling the middle ball and then lifting it onto the bottom ball, but soon realized how incredibly heavy the snow is.  So we started over and made a small ball and then packed the snow around it while it was on the bottom ball.  We quickly put the snowman together and then rushed to dress her and add all the pieces.  The outfit we figured out pretty quickly, but I was stumped over the buttons, mouth, nose, and eyes, so I had to get creative.  The eyes are rolled-up balls of homemade cinnamon playdough; the nose is a milk straw courtesy of "B"; and the mouth and buttons are Whopper candies from last Easter that I found in the bottom of our candy bin.  We finally got the snowman complete and I rushed the kids over so we could snap a picture before the sun was completely down!  Whew!  We barely made it in time.  Jenna loved the outcome of her snow-woman.  Now to come up with a name for her so we can submit the picture to Scott Foster.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll be seeing her in a future publication!  ;)  Either way, it was a lot of fun!

Jenna was thrilled with her snow-woman while Grant was trying to put on a happy face even though he was beyond done playing in the snow.

Such a pretty snow-woman.  Maybe she's more of a snow princess...

Christmas Celebrations

We decided to celebrate Christmas a few days early this year.  With other Christmas celebrations going on, we didn't want to cram too much into our days, so we had our Christmas on Sunday, December 23rd in the evening.  We continued the tradition from Drew's childhood of having a Christmas breakfast meal.  We had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, a fruit tray, monkey bread, and, of course, Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider (can you tell that's a favorite of ours?). 

When we told Jenna we were going to celebrate Christmas, she wanted to wear her Christmas dress.  That girl LOVES dressing up!

We're amazed that we actually got a good family picture with eyes on the camera, smiles on the faces, and hands at their sides.  And it only took a few tries!  ;)

Before we opened presents we did our advent activity for the day and read the Christmas nativity story and reenacted it with the Little People Nativity set.  We wanted to make sure that the kids understood that even though gift giving and receiving is exciting, we still want to remember what Christmas is all about - the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Stockings came first - we just let the kids rip into them.  Some things Grant got were candy, watercolor paints, a Matchbox car, and Cars Band-aids (it's amazing how exciting Band-aids are at this age).  Some things Jenna got were candy, watercolor paints, a Tinkerbell watch, and Princess Band-aids.

I got some peanut butter M&Ms in my stocking...note the excitement on my face!  GREAT job Drew!!  They're definitely a favorite of mine.  :)

Jenna is able to recognize her name this year, so she enjoyed digging through all the presents to find hers.  Plus it probably helped that hers were wrapped in pink princess paper.  ;)

Let the gift opening begin...

We got Jenna a kid's digital camera because she's always wanting to take pictures with ours.  Plus we thought she might enjoy having it once the baby arrives.

Some Princess Little People!

Grant got a race track!

Both of a the kids got a View Master along with some reels that I had picked up at a garage sale a few years back.  I remember loving these as a kid.

Okay, I wasn't going to include this picture because it's obviously not the best picture of moi.  However, I just had to include the gift my amazing husband got me - an iPad!!!!  I LOVE it!!!  :) 

Drew also had a big present this year - a new mountain bike.  It's a hobby he's taken up recently with a good friend of his, and what's nice, is he can go mountain biking one day after work for a few hours instead of having to set aside an entire day like he does for dirt biking.  I'm happy he has a hobby that gets him outside and away from the stress of the day.  :)   And the best thing is that I was able to purchase the bike using my Scentsy money I've saved up!  With not having a regular income, I didn't want to have to dig into our savings to buy his present and it felt good that it was truly from me.  :)

Obviously the bike is behind me, as I was trying to get a picture of his reaction.  We then completely forgot to actually take a picture of him with his bike!  Oops!

Christmas with Kristin's Family

Jenna and Grant with their cousins, Bentley and Aiden - are they not the CUTEST little boys you've ever seen?!  Just love them!

Brian, Kelley, and the boys

Grant got a fireman costume  - how cute is that?!

Jenna was thrilled to get her Little People Princess castle from Paw-Paw, Maw-Maw, Uncle Brian, and Aunt Kelley.  That's all she wanted for Christmas was the castle and princess people.  :)

Paw-Paw and Maw-Maw with their grandkids

Jenna and Paw-Paw playing with my iPad

The annual grandkids Shutterfly book

Christmas at Grandma Jones's:

Family picture

We tried to take a picture with everyone, but some melt-downs were beginning...and Bentley decided to hide behind Drew's head.  :)

Jenna got some dress-up things from Uncle Keith and Aunt Mary - yay!!

Don't you love that?!  Uncle Keith and Aunt Mary got this Goofy hat for Brian and a Donald Duck one for Drew.  Somehow Drew escaped without any pictures.

Round two of the group shot

Keith and Mary with the adorable boys!

Gram-Gram with all her great-grandkids

Jenna and Grant just love their cousins and enjoy holding them when they can, even if it doesn't last long.  Next Christmas will be even more interesting - the boys will be 1 1/2 years old and we'll also have a 10 month old!