A White Christmas for 2010!

We had Adley and Ani's family over a few days before Christmas for pizza and a movie- A Muppet Christmas Carol- that we watched by the fireplace while eating popcorn and other goodies. We had such a fun time!Our 3 lb mahi-mahi that was made into our Christmas Eve dinner of fish chowder in homemade bread bowls. Because I bought it two days early, the butcher gave me a big frozen fish instead of the normal smaller chunks so that the fish would be thawed at just the right time. I just liked carrying home a fish longer than Jacob and thought how fun it would be to catch one of these! For Christmas Eve, we read/acted out/sang hymns for the nativity. It was our first year really attempting it, and it went okay. At least Nicole could participate, but the boys didn't understand much. After that, the kids got to paint a scene of the nativity and that was a hit.We got the kids Christmas Eve pajamas, and they really felt like the pajamas were something special-it was so cute! Christmas morning was the most exciting we have had yet! We ate breakfast and had the kids get dressed. We told Nicole not to come downstairs and see the tree and presents until we came up to get her. That totally did not work- she came down twice, but didn't really realize that she could go look at the presents. Still, when we all walked into the family room the excitement level went through the roof! Michael started trying to open every present and it took a lot of work to calm them all down and let them take turns :-)

Jacob was in heaven with all sorts of containers, wrappers, and boxes!

Michael got the leftover train tracks from daddy's office set and Nicole got a castle set. I have never seen them so content for so long. Even now, they are totally engrossed in their toys. What I love is that it didn't take some big gift, just some toys that spark their imagination! Jim totally scored with a surprise gift to me (we usually just tell each other what we want since gift giving is not our forte). He got me a book I mentioned I didn't have by a favorite author of mine. I gave him a surprise gift of a kit where you put together these wooden carolers that play the tune of here comes santa claus. Unfortunately, two of the carolers are somehow off by a half note so the song sounds hilarious. So much for my surprise gift-giving!

Christmas night it began snowing and we woke up in the morning to this!

I could stare at this amazing accumulation of snow for a long time! The snow was sticky/heavy so you can see how it piled up on the branches. I wish I had the skill to paint a picture like this! I just feel lucky we have these trees in the backyard (so maybe raking all of those leaves was worth it!)

Nicole is reading a dictionary we received for Christmas. She literally looked at every page, and tried to read it. I was amazed that she had that much attention and patience, it was awesome!

Jim had to get something out of the shed and you can see the deep footprints he made. The kids can't wait to get out in the snow tomorrow! I ordered snowsuits that came on Christmas Eve and I'm SOOOO glad because the stores have been all sold out here for a while even though it only snows a few times a year here. Michael might have to wear pink boots, but at least he'll be warm :-)

We could measure the snowfall by the play table. The last measurement I took was 7 inches and it's still a flurry out there!

Church was cancelled, so we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional as a family. After spending all Sunday snowed in while other kids were sledding down our culdesac (which is perfectly inclined) the kids can't wait to go outside!! Me too!

Here's some video of the kids. We really missed seeing family this Christmas and hope to see everyone soon!!

Ho Ho Ho Little Jake-O

Jacob had his 9 month appointment this week! He is crawling, teething (3 teeth now and all he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth) and playing hide and seek with Nicole and Michael. He is by far the cuddliest baby, the kids care ladies at the gym say he is the cutest they've ever seen. I think it is because he is just so little and snuggly. He does need to be more beefy though...
Weight 15lbs 10oz (<3%)
Length 27.25in (25%)
Head 17in (3%)
Jacob has dropped down on the growth curves. The doctor told me to feed Jacob table foods since he is not a big fan of the puree stuff. The difference between Jacob and Michael is quite extreme in eating habits. Michael at this age would wolf down 2 of the Gerber puree and then go for whatever we put on his tray with vigor. Jacob will take a spoonful here and there and then pick at whatever we put on his tray. Watching Jacob casually pick up a Cheerio and maybe put it in his mouth can be so frustrating when I'm trying to beef him up. Jacob did have double ear infections a few weeks ago and that might have something to do with it, but anyways our goal is to fatten up our cute little Jake-Jake (as Michael calls him).

Let the holidays begin!

One evening we had Dustin over and made delicous completely homemade carmel white chocolate apples. We piled as much caramel and chocolate as we could and that was so tasty with the tartness of the green apples!

When I make dinner, I often see this accompanied by "hold me? hold me?"

After we finished off the whipped topping with our pumpkin pie, Nicole REALLY wanted to finish it off.

A very pleasant experience for her :-)

Our tree has only lost one ornament from Michael's attention! We blockade off the tree with a standup toy and bucket so Jacob can't reach it. The blockade has made this the easiest year ever for having a tree! We also didn't put on the too-tempting candy canes.

We visited the Apex Nativity this afternoon. There were about 700 nativities loaned by members of the stake and community. I let them use my Ecuador set, so it was fun to try and find ours. Nicole's favorite was the tiny nativity inside an egg from Mexico.

Last night Jim and I were Mary and Joseph in the live nativity. It was outdoors in 30-something degree weather or we would have brought Jacob to be the baby like we did with Michael a few years back. We've really enjoyed participating in such a special event each year. There is a children's room with activities and snacks. We played for an hour with the nativity sets, coloring pages, stickers, and Nativity books.

Michael probably wasn't reinacting the Nativity, but he was still enjoying all of the different sets.

T-Day!

Nicole has been in preschool for two weeks now, and feels so comfortable with her class and is excited to go! She has also learned many class members' names and when playing with her toys at home she will name her cars with their names. I can learn a lot by listening (for example, Aidan apparently runs down the hall and the teacher has to ask the kids to stand still and wait while she gets him :-)

Nicole showing us her cubby.

For Thanksgiving we went over to the house of some great friends who had us over for Tday our first year here too. We both moved to NC about the same time and they are also from AZ.

Michael's diet for Thanksgiving was appalling as you might have guessed. Probably half of what he ate was marshmallows (supposed to be for the fondue) and a fourth this punch and another fourth...oh actually he ate a ton of this...Crunch n Munch (caramel popcorn). He seriously did not eat another thing all afternoon and evening. Marshallows, punch, caramel popcorn.

Nicole was quickly best friends with their Nicole and they were playing "chase," baseball, soccer, gymnastics, and Lite Brite together. Their two dogs were at first sources of terror for my children, but by the time we left the dogs were terrified of my children. Especially Michael with a pot (don't ask). And no, of course no dogs were harmed by the visit of my children.

Their little puppy Mandy was just Jacob's size!

Jacob was the best baby and slept right through the Thanksgiving dinner!!

Proof that Nicole is not afraid of the "big" dog anymore!

THE real family pics of 2010

We braved the odds and took family pictures this year! One of the funny parts of this pic was that we had to take off our shoes for the white background and we discovered Michael had a huge hole in his sock and his big toe was sticking out! Luckily, Jacob's socks fit Michael and we left Jacob's feet out of the pic. Boys! Also for this pose, the photographer had me and Jim sit down first and of course Michael ran over to a fake tree and broke an ornament in .5 seconds. What else? Oh yes, can you see me restraining Michael from taking off? And trying to box Jacob in from crawling off? The funny part was trying to smile through it all so that camera could grab some pics!You know you have good pictures when the photographers burst out laughing while reviewing the pictures... I think Nicole got a few good laughs right there!Michael had this thing with being to close to Jacob (avoiding the hair grab) so we could only get a few shots of them together. All the while, the photographer's assistant was singing in this really high squeaky voice and waving around some stuffed animals trying to get them to LOOK. Crazy or not, it worked!It seems pretty crazy looking at this picture and realizing that yes, I have three children and we are a family of five. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was trying to get Nicole to crawl by making a Cheerio trail on the carpet? Each night I think about the craziness and stress of the day and how I could be better with each of them...and inevitably I turn to thinking about despite the difficult parts of the stages they are going through, each of them is so very precious and I am soooooo blesssed to have such sweet, loving, and energetic children in my life. This is the best kind of craziness :-) This was our first pose and I thought Jim's face looked slightly like a harassed father :-) Kind of like "help...me..." :-) But maybe that was due more to Michael's inability to even remotely sit still that made it take three minutes for the camera to even click once! I think his heart must pump blood faster than ours, he simply LOVES to move.

I love how sweet Nicole and Jacob are, while Michael is simply chillin'.Perhaps labeled "Personality never faileth"?

When Nicole saw this she asked, "Mommy, is that Santa holding my picture?"

Nicole's First Day of Preschool

Nicole started preschool today! Jim and I determined that Michael would really benefit from some good one-on-one time with me, so Nicole is going to do some growing of her own! She was lucky to get into a school with a long waiting list because they let her join the 4 year old class even though her bday misses the cutoff by a few weeks. She had the time of her life and her only complaint was that they didn't go to the playground. She mentioned this and that her teacher told her (no, they weren't going) several times. It makes me wonder how many times in those three hours she asked to go to the playground... I took video of the kids playing cars in the kitchen - so cute to see Jacob starting to join in and how the kids don't mind him. I also had Nicole tell me about her day at preschool. I think she was a bit tired. I also wonder if it will always be hard to have kids tell you about their day :-)

Halloween & the JUMPER

Well, we did it. For the first time in...as long as I can remember, Jim and I dressed up for Halloween!

Our church had a Trunk or Treat on Saturday which was actually a LOT easier than walking through neighborhoods with little ones. Michael's favorite part was sitting in the trunk helping Jim pass out candy.

Jim was such a star to wear his Mickey Mouse costume. Nicole was calling him Mickey by the end of the night ("Mickey can you buckle my seatbelt?" "Mickey where is my candy?")

We had so many trick or treaters that our two huge bags were gone within an hour. So much fun!

Nicole was an Eskimo Dinosaur rider (it was cold so we improvised) and Michael was a cowboy riding a horse. Jacob... was asleep (yet another perk of having a car he could sleep in while Jim passed out candy and I took the kids around)

We had a party earlier in the week and Jacob dressed up in my brother Caleb's old baby costume- a pumpkin! He wore it all day and is wearing it while jumping. he LOVES the jumper- I hope you enjoy the video!! www.delbifamily.blogspot.com

100% Wild Nicole-Caught Fish

Nicole did all the work to catch this guy! Last week Nicole and Jim went fishing on their daddy-daughter "adventure" as they call it. Jim baited the hook with whatever Nicole chose and cast the line, but Nicole did everything else. She caught at least three fish and Jim said that he would do anything to see her big smile and hear the giggles and laughter as she jumped around and excitedly reeled in each big, live fish! She definitely has Ostler blood in her veins!

Museum of Life and Science and the Chex Mix Football Party

Eve and Anna took us to a museum in Durham! The museum was so kid-friendly that Michael could roam around without me worrying. Priceless!

There was a little area Jacob played in for a while. He is finally crawling- very very slowly, but he is crawling the right way at least! Michael has taken this as a signal that now they can REALLY wrestle and play so I have to be more watchful with them.

This mini-playset was so fun for the kids!

There was a butterfly house and we got to see butterflies all around us! I tried getting a picture of the kids all together, but it was a joke to get them sitting still and looking at the camera all at once! There are a few butterflies in this picture, but it's hard to catch on camera.

Outside they had farm animals, a playground, old train, and a Dinosaur Trail!! All the dino names were wrong- I was sure that this was a triceratops but it has some other crazy name. I'm sticking with the easy name!

Anna and Nicole wanted a picture of them with the baby and the dino. They are really cute together!

The biggest hit of all is now my newest idea for backyard landscaping- a Fossil Dig! There were shovels (real metal and slightly hazardous), pails, and sifters. We must have sat for a half hour talking while the kids kept digging industriously. Even the lure of snacks didn't distract them for a long time. So I'm thinking this would be a fun setup in the backyard. Quite low maintenance, and a hundred times more agreeable than fescue grass!

Thanks to Chex Mix for sending me some food, we had a Chex Mix football party. We watched some games, ate all this food as well as chili and pumpkin pie, frosted sugar cookies, and carved pumpkins. I love eating food all afternoon long!

We were really missing our other couch- it doesn't fit and is currently waiting in Jim's office until we have a house that fits it. So sad! But it was fine and the weather was great outside so it felt just like a perfect fall day with football and friends.

The kids weren't sure if they wanted to really dig the guts out with their hands and asked for spoons. After a bit they finally gave in and scooped them out the real way!

This pumpkin was enormous! It was really hard to carve because it was so big and thick, I think next year we'll opt for a smaller/skinnier one!

Here is some video of getting the goop out of our pumpkin

www.delbifamily.blogspot.com