We have all learned to share this Christmas season.

Our Christmas was interesting, to say the least. It was as if God was testing me, saying, "You say it's all about me, let's see if that's really the case."

On Christmas morning we all woke up, ate a yummy breakfast and headed out to L.A. to serve with Faith In Christ Ministries. We helped organize packages containing blankets, hats, socks and toiletries and then just hung out with the people. I painted a few faces and Nathaniel played with the other kids and Sam and Aaron just hung around mingling.

Right as lunch was served we were talking with a friend and Aaron projectile vomited all over Sam. Twice.

Awesome.

So, we packed up and headed home. As we headed home Sam started to feel queasy, but he thought that it was because he had just been vomited on.

Nope, after we got home and got Aaron down for a nap, Sam began to feel worse. We managed to open presents (poor Sam was out on the couch barely able to sit up at this point) and then Sam lost it as well. So, Christmas day was spent with Sam in bed and me picking up the aftermath of Christmas presents.

Poor Sam was so sick. At one point Aaron and Nathaniel were both pulling at my legs and Sam was calling to me from the bedroom. Yikes!

Luckily, Sam got over his illness in about a day.

But, the flu is the gift that just keeps on giving. The night of the 26th I started not feeling so hot. I thought it was all in my head though, but when Nathaniel woke up vomiting in his bed I knew I wouldn't be far behind. Sure enough, not 30 minutes later I was joining the ranks. Poor Sam, dealing with sick wife and sick kiddo.

All day yesterday all Nathaniel and I could do was lay on the couch and sleep/watch movies. It was nice for Sam because he got to watch Return of the Jedi, but I was miserable.

As of today we all seem to be pretty recovered. We all have congestion and coughs, but at least we are past the pukes.

Merry Christmas to us! Hope everyone else stayed healthy this season!

On the bright side, at least being sick keeps those extra holiday pounds off!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Here's a glimpse of what we did today on our Christmas Eve (Aaron's first Christmas!).

I built a fort for them, only for Nathaniel to kick me out and say, "No girls allowed!!" But brother was allowed, so it was all good.

We went to Christmas Eve service. I think that my boys are the most handsome things ever.

Here's a family shot. Not that great of a shot, but what do you expect for a timer and a propped camera?

And, here is a video from Sunday of Sam playing with the boys. The boys have discovered Star Wars...heaven help me!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

The Happy Baby is Realizing His Own Will

I feel very blessed by my children's temperaments. Overall, I have had some extremely easy going babies. Of course, Nathaniel hit his terrible twos where his first phrase was, "No! Mine!!", but overall he is a very good kid.

Aaron is even more easy going than Nathaniel was. When I think back on his short little life I realize that the only time he ever really cries is when he is in pain, sick or EXTREMELY tired (or hungry). Most of the time Aaron is content to crawl around wherever we are (or be held) and just smile at everyone and everything.

Of course, he is super goal oriented though. He practices whatever skill he's working on until he has it mastered. That's how he managed to learn how to crawl and move himself from the crawling position to the sitting position by the time he was just under 6 months old. And that's why he doesn't fall over when he pulls himself up to stand, because he practiced squatting and sitting. He is very determined to do whatever it is he wants to do.

That personality trait will serve him very well in the future. I see this kid doing great things by sheer grit and determination. However, right now it's driving me CRAZY!

Yesterday we were visiting some friends and their house happened to have stairs. When I put Aaron down to play he immediately headed for the stairs so he could climb them. Having no desire to play "chase the baby up the stairs" I thwarted his plans and blocked him from getting to the stairs. Instead of turning his attention elsewhere, he kept crawling towards the stairs and began to pitch a fit when I wouldn't let him get to the stairs. He whined and cried and kicked. Yup, it was AWESOME.

Tonight Sam was cooking dinner and I was in the living room with the boys. Aaron really really wanted to go touch the oven (which was on). I kept pulling him out of the kitchen and he would head for the Christmas tree. Over and over and over he kept going towards these things, and every time I pulled him away he would scream and cry and then head straight back to the forbidden area. We finally went into the boys' room to play where I could shut the door and not have to play the game again.

Nathaniel didn't hit this stage until he was about 18 months old. Heaven help us!

But, he's still quite the charmer (recent pics of the boys to come this week).

I blinked.

Something has happened in the past few months and I completely missed it.

Somewhere along the line my baby has turned into a functioning, communicating little boy.

Sure, he still crawls everywhere and babbles mostly, but I can see the look of concentration on his face as he tries so hard to make words come out of his cute little mouth.

Aaron has started signing more and more. He is up to "bye bye", "more", "all done" and "milk". Yesterday he was sitting in his high chair dropping cheerios over the edge one by one and then waving at them as they hit the floor.

He has also discovered his nose. Last night at dinner he had a pea on the tip of his finger and he was slowly putting it on his nose. I thought it was random until the pea fell off of his finger and he stopped doing it. And, of course, with the discovery of the nose comes the discovery that his finger fits perfectly into the nose. Oh the look of sheer delight that comes onto his face as he crams that little finger straight up his nostril.

This morning at breakfast Aaron was staring at Nathaniel going, "Bruh...bruh...bruh..." trying so hard to get out "brother". He also says, "Mama" and "dada". And although he has no words for it yet, he is always super excited to see the cats. That usually gets a yell out of him.

He also has discovered his own will, and that it is separate from his brother's will. They were playing with light sabers the other morning and Nathaniel tried taking Aaron's away from him. All of a sudden I heard a new sound out of Aaron. It was a territorial, "Stop it!!" yell. I was so proud of him for standing his ground.

He has also realized cause and effect. Last night he ripped out a good fart and it surprised him. Sam and I laughed at him and he immediately kept trying to do it again. That was amusing.

Overall, he is 100% boy. He dives into life head first (sometimes literally) and is always trying to go places. He tries to walk, but then dives to the floor in a bear crawl (hands and feet) because it gets him to where he's going faster. I'm amazed.

It seems like just yesterday he was a little baby, content to simply sleep in his sling as Nathaniel and I walked around and played. Now, I can barely wear him anywhere anymore because he is so eager to interact with his world.

It's going too fast.

Highlight of our week.

Sam and I saw Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live in Las Vegas on Thursday night. It was an amazing show. Very well done. Will update more later when I have time. Just wanted to post the picture I got.

We're still here.

Life has been pretty crazy around here. I started my new job last week and between that and life in general I haven't been able to come up with much for the blog.

Not that the kids don't keep me filled with stories to share, it's just finding the time and the energy to actually record them. Then, when I have the time, I find that I'm drawing a giant blank when it comes to sharing them on here!!

Aaron is about to walk. He's in the "I'm so excited to get to where I'm going that I tumble headfirst to the ground before my bottom half can catch up!" stage. He is also into playing little games that make him laugh. He loves it when I wear hoodies with strings because he likes to feed me the strings. It makes him laugh. He's also loving having daddy home. It's like he never left (Sam, not Aaron).

Nathaniel is in this new stage of something. He has this attitude that is driving us up the wall. He back talks big time and we are trying to stop it before it really starts. He yells at us and refuses to do things. It has taken a lot of us getting down to his level and telling him out right, "Your behavior is unacceptable and you will stop right now or (fill in the blank with whatever punishment fits the crime)." It's kind of working, but Sam and Nathaniel have had more battles. I can definitely tell that Nathaniel is trying to test the boundaries more with Sam. Sigh.

Our latest adventure (aside from Disneyland in the cold rain today) was to the La Brea Tar Pits up in L.A. It was really cool! I think I can say that it was really cool because we got in for free with the military i.d.s so anything is cool if it's free. But, to see all of the fossils that came out of the ground right in that area was pretty neat. Plus, they are still digging in the area and we could see that happening along with the old pits that are no longer being excavated. Although, it did stink pretty badly.

Not too much else going on here. We are looking forward to doing some fun family stuff and creating more memories. It's so good to have my other half back. I forgot what it was like to have someone who knows what I'm going to say before I say it, or who finishes the thought I'm having. It's great. I feel complete.

Ciao!!