A Christmas to Remember: Finale

In honor of the fact that March starts in two days, we thought we'd wrap up Christmas around the Doolittle Gambit.  This is our last Christmas post, although not our final post about our adventures at home over the holidays.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

We celebrated Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa DeShon and Josh, Tami, Nick & Emma on New Year's Day.  Christmas started a bit rocky as Grandpa ran out of gas on the way to Uncle Josh's house.  After we shook our heads and laughed at him we had a great day together.

  

There were lots of presents to open,

with teasing provided by Uncle Josh.

There was lots of excitement from the kids as they finally opened the presents they'd been eyeing all week at Grandma's house.

Well, most of the kids were excited.  Some played it cool.

 One unique and fun gift was that Aunt Tami found Auntie shirts for all of our kids.

The girls like to wear them and they always talk about her when they put them on in the morning, or afternoon, or evening, depending on which time during the day they're getting dressed.

Even Joey got one.

Joey missed all of the present fun early in the day while he was napping.  When he got up he and Aunt Tami had their own unwrapping session.

In addition to the Auntie shirts, Aunt Tami also got all of the kids these Sing-a-ma Jigs, (more on them in a later post) which the kids, even Joey, really enjoy. 

We played some board games, bowled on the Wii, ate a lot of yummy food, and ended the day with a concert by Nick.

He's been learning the guitar for about a year and he's shown lots of improvement in that year.  He played an entire song for us.  Quite impressive!

Children At Play

While in Lincoln we ventured back to the Children's Museum for a morning of fun with the crew at Grandma D's.  We even talked Aunt Tami into coming with us.  Having Tami along turned out even better than we originally thought since the girls nominated her to be the face painter for the morning.  They wanted butterflies and puppy dog faces.

She didn't just paint their cheek, she did their WHOLE face.  The girls thought this was soooo great.

Joe wasn't too excited about the face painting, so he entertained himself with this  rubberband board while the kids had their faces transformed.

Can you tell what he made?  Can you tell what the girls below were transformed into?

One of the favorite stops last time was the water works area.  This time was no different.

The kids spent a long time playing and exploring with the water.

Theia took Nick for a boat ride and from the looks of it, she needs some work on her driving.

The big  jars filled with colored water were equipped with a mallet so you could play "music" with them.  They even had songs typed out on paper which told you what jar to hit to create the indicated song.

Aliyah was wet from head to toe, but she didn't care at all.

She happily played at this sailboat for a long time.  Last time we visited she wasn't tall enough to see over the edge on her own.

Nick and Joe also spent a long time tormenting Grandma DeShon, who likes roosters, by trying to get her picture with one of the fowl.  She was annoyed and they were having a grand old time.

Unbeknowst to her, they finally succeeded.

There was also a special exhibit all about the jungle.  Joe convinced Theia to check it out with him.  They both got dressed up for their safari.

Xandra, who was playing dress up with Emma, could not be convinced to participate in the safari.

After awhile, Theia grew tired of the safari and Joe was left to explore on his own.  He made a friend a long the way who to whom he bore a great resemblance.

Then he tried to convince Aliyah to wrestle alligators (or is it a crocodile?) with him.

She just walked by, uninterested,

and continued on her journey.

Later, he was obsessed with capturing this picture for our friend, David.

David, if you read this blog, could you please explain my husband's insistence that we take this picture for you?

After a few hours, dead camera batteries, hungry tummies, and tired kids, we ended our adventure with lunch next door at Noodles & Co. and a much needed nap back at Grandma's house.

Everything Else Was Dirty

That's the only possible explanation why our son would be found wearing Minnesota Viking socks

and a Washington Redskins outift, right?

Joe actually had me dress Joey in this outfit on the first Sunday of the playoffs in Januray and upon arriving at church he inquired with our friend, Colin, when the Redskins would be playing.  Colin's reaction was to imitate a knife being stabbed into his heart and twisted.  Joe's full of kindness, isn't he?

Westward Ho

After a few days of visiting Grandma DeShon's house, it was obvious that it was going to be tough to beat the excitement of her new washer and dryer.  Despite this, we set off to North Platte, Nebraska.  Definitely not the most exciting place we could vacation, unless you know that Uncle Andy and Auntie Lisa live in North Platte.  They moved there last fall when Uncle Andy was hired as the youth pastor at a local church.  Andy and Lisa were expecting the arrival of Ingrid, their first daughter, around Christmas, so travelling to North Dakota, or even Lincoln (3.5 hours away), was completely out of the question for them this year.  Thankfully, us travelling to see them was not out of the question, and we ventured to their new house for a fun day together between Christmas and New Year's Day. 

They know how to start things off right, so after a quick tour of their new abode, we got right into present opening. 

Although they had yet to actually see their little girl, Andy and Lisa already knew that Princess games and dollies are the way to little girls' hearts.  We're still playing Princess Bingo, Princess Old Maid (Xandra informs us every time that she doesn't like the Old Maid aka Ursula the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid), and Princess Go Fish many nights before bed.  They also gave them Christmas Ring Pops.  The girls thought this was spectacular, especially since they hadn't even had lunch yet.

Uncle Andy and Joe exchanged gifts, too.  Uncle Andy got two hoodies, a new KU Jayhawks hoodie and a Nebraska Huskers hoodie.  He opted to wear the KU hoodie and muttered something about using the Huskers one for an oil rag.  At least it won't go completely to waste.

Among other, more practical gifts, Joe got a double barrel shotgun that even ejects the used shells when you open it up.  All I'd like to know is, where's mine?  Thanks for leaving me defenseless guys! 

Aliyah worked so hard to be able to load the shells, but it was a little beyond her.

It seems as though firing the gun properly was also a little beyond Theia.

Definitely a commercial for the merits of training on gun safety, don't you think?

The rest of the day was filled with chatting and playing.  The adults even got a few rounds of the game "A Ticket to Ride" in while the kids were napping.

At dinner time, Aliyah wasn't interested in eating her taco soup.

She thought it much more fun to feed Uncle Andy.

They did a pretty good job.  I thought Andy's shirt looked cleaner than it usually is when he's done eating.

After a full day, we piled back in the car and drove home to Grandma DeShon's.  The older girls played in the dark with their Christmas flashlights and travel kits (a Christmas gift I put together for them with our many travels in mind), Aliyah and Joey slept, and Joe and I drank soda and chewed on candy in an effort to keep our eyes open.

A few days later, Andy and Lisa welcomed Ingrid into their home, and while we were sad to not be there meet her, we were glad to share a special day with Andy and Lisa beforehand.  Our only mistake was forgetting to leave that pesky shotgun at their house. 

Tumbling

Aliyah spent some time in great fascination over Grandma DeShon's washing machine.

I think it's cool because it's shiny red.

She thinks it's cool because she can see inside. 

In the following video, I think, along with a lot of gibberish I can't understand, she says "Mama" and "Mine," as she sees the her and my clothes tumble by inside the machine.

She looks so little and cute standing next to those tall machines.   Somedays, like today, I wish she'd stay that way forever!

Shredded

Before Joey was born, on inspiration from watching a friend, I ordered a copy of "The 30 Day Shredd" by Jillian Michaels with intentions to get back into shape and lose some weight after he came along.  Every since mid-October Jillian has been kicking my hind end, repeatedly, and it's been painful.  Because I'm a glutton for punishment and because I like when people point, laugh, stare and shake their heads, I decided that Christmas was no excuse for a break from my exercise routine and just kept plugging away while we were home.  In an uncharacteristic show of restraint, I opted to leave my six pounds (3 lbs./weight) of exercise weights at home and just wing it with whatever I could find to suit my purposes while we were on the road. 

Turns out canned yams work very well as weights.  As an added bonus, they look ridiculous.  Just one more reason to point and laugh.

I had no idea how ridiculous I look until I saw these pictures my lovely husband took of me.  They probably look a lot less ridiculous if the insecure person having their picture taken would not make strange faces.

Just so you don't think it's all smiles and laughs, here's a picture of what I usually look like when Jillian is doing her job.

After watching me sweat, whine, complain and grimace for several months, the girls decided that they would join the "fun" in January.  They're strange girls.  They get it from their mother.  Here are my two best girls (if you do the Shredd, you know why that's a funny statement):

They even pick out their own workout attire.  Lovely isn't it?  (Notice Theia's new shoes Grandma D?  She loves them!)

They also randomly walk around the house doing arm crosses and other "Shredd" moves.  Occasionally, in the middle of other normal play, they'll lay on one of the carpets in the kitchen, put their legs in the air and announce that they are working out.

And here they are working out before I've even started the video on a recent morning.  Now that's dedication!

Actually, maybe they're not working out.  Maybe Xandra is just showing Jillian her pipes.

On mornings when I don't exercise before they wake, they really do stand beside me and attempt various portions of the workout. Here's a little footage I snapped one morning when they weren't watching.

They each get into it in their own little way. And this is the best part: knee circles.



Next goal: An April 9, 5K run with friends, Anna & Julie. I'm up to 2.5 very slow miles.

The girls are training, too. This morning after they ran about 10 laps around the island in the kitchen. They both stopped, informed me that they were sweating, and that they had just run 6 miles. If only it were that easy!

The First Snip

Grandma Mary's kitchen was the site of Xandra and Theia's, long awaited and much dreaded (by their mother) first haircut.  After four years, Xandra's ends were in need of a trim and Theia's hair, which has only existed for about a year, was in need of a different shape to it (read: no mullet).

I promised a special treat if they sat very still and did everything we asked them to do.

Then I made about five snips with the scissors and handed them over to Bethany, Joe's sister, and let her do the rest.  She's much braver than I and has more experience cutting hair, too.

Xandra did very well and Auntie Beth did a great job trimming up her hair.  She was off the chair, eating her sucker and playing in no time.

Theia, on the other hand, is a squirrely two year old and cutting her hair was much more difficult.  It was simply impossible for that child to sit still long enough to make even one snip with the scissors, that is, until we gave her a lollipop to eat WHILE we were cutting her haircut.  Then she sat quiet and mostly still while Auntie Beth trimmed as fast as she could manage.

The first haircut experience wasn't as dreadful as I imagined, and having their hair nicely trimmed is rewarding, even if I only did about 10% of the actual trimming.