A Week in the Life (v.2015.15)

School Daze 9.1 (Pajama Day!)

Fun with face stickers

School Daze 9.2

Lookin' like a stylish New Yorker

Dinner with my hands full!

School Daze 10.1

Fish is an Angry Elf!

Which part do you think the kids decorated?

I love you!

School Daze 10.2

School Daze 10.3

Finn came home as a pilgrim from her Thanksgiving feast!

Celebrating Munk's 10th birthday with a doggie donut and candle

Granny sent them Advent Calendars -- they were over the moon!

School Daze 11.1

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Mimi

All is quiet in the kitchen

Kids run amok when football is on!

School Daze 12.1

Baby it's cold outside (not really)

School Daze 12.2

School Daze 12.3

Funny faces

Running in our undies

It's like his part mountain goat

Art therapy (and wine therapy)

I made this on the Friday night before we were selected for the Rose Bowl -- it's like the universe was trying to tell me something.

Someone fell asleep with a lolly in her mouth!

School Daze 13.1

Holiday card drinking

School Daze 13.2

Polar opposites

Someone's donut turned her into Rudolph the red-sprinkle nose!

E's work holiday party was at the Jersey shore

The kids really enjoyed themselves on the beach because the weather was great!

Not a bad view for a holiday work party!

The kiddie table

School Daze 14.1

Gingerbread beer and reindeer

School Daze 14.2

The sass is strong in this one

Lovin' on Lucy

My finished reindeer

School daze 14.3 (Holiday concert)

We got some musical holiday cards from Mimi -- the kids enjoyed them.

School Daze 15.1

Someone was upset that she had to go to school even though her cousins were staying with us (but the teachers need their holiday present, Finn!  You are the sacrificial lamb to get them their gifts!)

What the World Needs Now

Finn had her school holiday concert last week on Friday.  It was filled with cuteness overload.  We apparently weren't in on the memo that you had to be there 20 minutes before the concert began in order to get good seats.  But you can see her through the other parents' heads.  She was pretty darn cute.  Our neighbor girls who are in the class older than Finn were also a part of the concert (they are the twins who you see in some of the videos).

Here Comes Suzy Snowflake

Must Be Santa

Fish was pretty excited to see Sister sitting up there singing her little heart out.

What the World Needs Now

After all the singing was done, there was a Santa sighting!  He even stayed to let the kids sit on his lap. 

Everyone was excited to be seeing Santa while we were waiting in line.  But the story took a disastrous turn once it was our turn to sit on his lap.  Finn instantly ran away and behind strangers to hide.  Fish was thrown on his lap and tears were instant.  E grabbed Finn and threw her on Santa's lap and these two were the only shots I got before Fish made a break for it.

Once Fish got his candy cane, he was having nothing to do with Santa!

Once Fish exited stage right, Finn wouldn't utter a peep.  Even at the prodding of myself to at least tell Santa what she DIDN'T want.  Of course, Finn still didn't tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas.  She might end up with trucks.

Happy holidays!!!!

Happy holidays from our family to yours!!!! 

Years of Christmas Pasts...
2014 -- A Very Murphy Christmas
2013 -- I Triple-Dog Dare Ya!
2012 -- Dear Santa

Our letters to Santa

After the Santa debacle on the North Pole Express and because girlfriend really doesn't want trucks for Christmas, E sat down with her a couple of nights ago to write her letter to Santa.  And then once she was finished with her letter, she dictated Fish's letter as (being that he doesn't speak well enough to write a letter).  Hilarity ensued...

 

Dear Santa,                                  

I have been good.  I am sorry for

being sad and not talking to you when we

were on the train.  I do have some questions.

I help with chores and I clean up with Mom & Dad.

I don't cry when I go to school.  I always help put

decorations on the tree.  I don't eat everything on my

plate and I am sorry.  When we got to the grocery

store I know what to buy.  I need a lot of presents

for a girl so I am going to fill up the whole bottom of

this letter.  I don't drink beer.  I always take care

of the pets and I am nice to them and I pet them.

I drink my milk.  I like apples with peanut butter.  I

like to play on swings if your mom says ok but if she

says no, I am fine with that.  My brother is named

Fish.  I play with him nice sometimes.  I'm sorry

for not getting along with Fish.  It's my fault (do I still

get presents?).  I am going to try to eat better.  I

share my little ponies with Fish because I have a lot

of them.  I also wake up in the mornings.  I like

to watch TV and watch the Iowa Hawkeyes.  If I am

bad do I still get presents?  I like yellow,

pink, blue, white, purple, red, & black colors.  I

ate all of my chicken nuggets on my plate today.

Please, Santa, can I please have all

the My Little Ponies (the sparkly ones) like

Princess Celestia, Princess Selena, and Princess Cadence.

(I already have Twilight Sparkle so I don't need her), Barbie

Princess dolls, Magic Clip dolls, My Little Pony Castle,

real live chickens, I do not want trucks,

My Little Pony Pops, My Little Pony bags.  No

beer because I don't like beer.  My Little Pony books

because I don't have any of them.  Training wheels

for my bicycle, lipstick, fingernail polish (red, black,

white, yellow), suckers (lollipops), coloring books.  Toy

reindeer, princess play-doh, a playground for me to play in,

fruit snacks.  Thank you, have a safe trip.

Finn

(This letter is from Fish as told by Finn)

Dear Santa,

My name is Fish.  I am Finn's brother.

I am 1.  I bite Finn.  I like to color with

my sister Finn using crayons.  I eat all of my

food.  I steal toys from my sister.  I sometimes

pull the cats' hair, but my sister pets them.  I like

trucks, my sister does not like trucks.  I am

cute.  I am loud.  I promise to start not being

bad.  I will start to be nice to Finn.  She is nice.

I will be nicer and stop biting and pulling Mom's hair.

For Christmas, I would like more blankies,

trucks, dogs that are stuffed like a

teddy bear, my own Little Ponies (if not Finn

can give me her old ones and she can get new

sparkly ones), Christmas ornaments, and more trucks.

Fish

North Pole Express

Last night, the family headed over to New Hope and we were able to ride on the North Pole Express!  With this being our first winter out on the East Coast again, I knew that I wanted to ride the North Pole Express out of New Hope!  When we lived in Princeton 7+ years ago, we had been on the New Hope Ivyland Railroad once.  We had a friend visiting and we headed over there and took a ride on the rail.  The movie Polar Express had come out a couple of years before and so the whole "Polar Express"-type train ride was a big deal around the holidays.  And I had always wanted to take the North Pole Express but with no kids, I knew that I would NEVER be able to get E on that train.  But I had envisioned my kids riding it, never realizing that it would actually come to fruition years later.

Fish is big into big trucks and such.  He doesn't watch train videos as much, probably because we don't have a railroad that goes near our house, like we did on Lloyd.  Finn was a huge train fan in her younger days because we would wait on so many trains.  In fact, before Fish was born and when I was still working, she was in daycare and we had to wait for a train daily after picking her up.  On the days where we missed the train, she would be inconsolable and when I knew that we weren't at our regular pick up time, I would drive super duper slow to see if I could catch a train for her.

So I knew that Finn would be really excited about the train.  With Fish, I was hoping that the obsessions with big trucks was with big moving things -- not necessarily things with four rubber wheels.  I was right!  I tried to talk up the train ride for a couple of days before and we watched some train videos.  He was definitely excited about going on a train while we were driving there.  And when we arrived, his excitement couldn't be contained and E couldn't get him out of his carseat fast enough.  The train conductor was standing outside the front of the train and we talked to him for a moment.  I was pleasantly surprised that both kids went with him for a photo.  I thought that our Santa experience was going to be amazing this year.  I mean, if the kids will go to a complete stranger in a train conductor's uniform, surely they will go to Santa, right?

Upon sitting down on the train, Fish found a candy cane.  I figured it was left over from the previous train ride as they go every hour & fifteen minutes.  So E opened up the candy cane and the kids were munching away.  The Christmas music was playing through the speakers above us.  Felix the Cookie Man came around the minute the train pulled out of the station and started passing out cookies & hot cocoa.  I was immediately in Christmas heaven.  When they give you your tickets, they also pass out a piece of paper that contains a Christmas I-Spy list.  I thought that it was things outside the train car to keep the kids occupied on enjoying the scenery.  But when I read up on the list, one item was "5 candy canes".  E & I looked around and realized that all the I-Spy items were hanging from the lighted garland that was above our head.  We started laughing and we quickly tried to hide the evidence and for the rest of the ride, our car only contained five candy canes.

Santa came to our car first since we were the furthest back, we were the second ones that he and Mrs. Claus spoke to.  As you see above, Fish was quiet, curious, but not overly frightened.  Finn, on the other hand, was beside herself with fear.  I tried to get her to sit on the outside of the seat so I could get a photo with her and Santa.  She refused.  I tried to tell her that I could even hold her hand the entire time.  She refused.  So in the chaos of Santa and Mrs. Claus turning our way, I hoisted her over my head and plopped her down on the aisle seat.  She was amazingly funny.  She refused to look anywhere but my eyes.  And she didn't blink the ENTIRE TIME that Santa was standing there (which was at least 2-3 minutes).  She had her "deer-in-headlights" face going on.  It was quite comical.  I've never seen her not blink for that long -- I think she was trying to super-mind-trick Santa into going away.  But Santa gave each of the kids a bell (i.e. the Polar Express book) -- it was cute.

So we got a family photo with Santa & Mrs. Claus and we had to pay up the wazoo for it (of course).  When I got it home to look at it, I started laughing hysterically.  Santa & Mrs. look like they have spent some time in Florida.  E looks like he has a sunburn on his face, but his hands look like they have no blood in them.  And me & the kids look like we are on our last legs out in an ice storm.  I immediately started singing "I'm Mr.White Christmas, I'm Mr. Snow.  I'm Mr. Icicle, I'm Mr. Ten Below!".  Their camera settings weren't quite right.

Once Santa & Mrs. Claus left our car, the Christmas caroler came in.  He was a hit with the kids.  Fish was quite enamored with him.  But while on the last part of our train ride, I started discussing with Finn that we might have to see if Santa is going to be coming to our town before Christmas.  I explained to her that she didn't talk to Santa, so how was he supposed to know what she wanted for Christmas.  Her response and I quote "He can just get me whatever he wants."  Belly laughs all around.  Later in the evening, we were walking around New Hope and she began to complain to E about Santa's choice of gifts for her.  "Now he is going to get me a big truck."  So we will see if we can get her on Santa's lap for a semi-decent photo this year.  We'll just see...

Life Lately

Being that I did developmental updates on both kids, I figured I might as well complete the circle and do some updates on us as a family, us individually, the pets, the new & old house, and such.

In the past month, we have had E's birthday, Munk's birthday, and Thanksgiving.  E's birthday fell on a Sunday.  We didn't go much for it as he had an important meeting to prepare for the following day.  So the kids and I went out to grab some dinner to bring in to him.  One the way in, we stopped at the grocery store and bought some little cupcakes.  Once we got to his building, the kids & I had a fun time trying to "sneak up" to the building as his window in his office faces the parking lot.  And once we were at the door of the building (it's secured so we have to call him to gain entry), the sun had already set & I gave each kid a cupcake with a candle in it and lit them.  So when he turned the corner, all he saw was his two kids standing outside in the dark each with little cupcakes & candles.  It was really sweet.

Munk also had a birthday this month.  He turned the big 1-0.  It's hard to believe that he is that old already, but it's also hard to remember life without him.  We have recently switched his food to a food specifically designed for older dogs to help them "brighten their minds".  E thinks that it's all a bunch of hocus pocus.  But I think that I see him being more social with us and laying downstairs by us more.  The quality of the food isn't the greatest, but if I see improvement, I'll probably continue it for the time being.  He is getting more noise phobic in his older age and spends a lot of times upstairs on his dog bed (which is in our bedroom) because the kids are too noisy for it and it frightens him.  There are some days that he doesn't want to come inside (and you can tell it's because he is scared) after being out first thing in the morning.  So we let him sit outside and check on him regularly.  He usually stays in the same place and just lays outside.  Our new place has an underground system, but the driveway isn't included and he has always been really sensitive to that kind of training that we are just trusting him outside.

Thanksgiving came and went as well.  We had E's parents down for Thanksgiving as well as having one of the guys that works for him over.  It was a nice quiet Thanksgiving and it was wonderful getting to spend time with E's parents.  We didn't do any Black Friday shopping, but spent the evening before scoping out the ads and discussing the fall of TV prices.

Some upcoming things that we are excited about are taking a trip on the North Pole Express to see Santa, visiting the Macy's windows and Rockefeller tree, E & my 11th anniversary, spending Christmas with E's family at our place and visiting Iowa for Christmas.

Roaring like a lion!

The new house is all decked out for Christmas.  I was actually done decking before Thanksgiving.  I'm hopeful that I'll get either a little video tour done or some photos taken and have a holiday update of our new place.  The longer that we are here, the more that I get comfortable in this house.  And it looks quite beautiful with all it's Christmas bling up and on.

Speaking of holidays, our Christmas cards are finished and were ordered this morning.  So they should be on their way out on Monday morning (I'm hoping).  I had high hopes and high expectations from a lot of sources.  In the middle of the process of this year's card, I thought that I wasn't going to meet expectations.  But in seeing the finished product yesterday, I can finally pat myself on the back and say that I think they are pretty amazing.

We had to officially register Finn for next year at school and in doing so, we also enrolled Fish for school.  How is this even happening?!!?!?  Granted he is only 2.5, but we began Finn in a school setting when she turned 3.  He will be starting in their Step 1 program and going Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the next school year (i.e. fall) while Finn will be going Monday, Wednesday, & Friday to pre-K.  I'm not sure how he is going to do.  At the beginning of this school year, he was desperate to go to school with Finn.  But now, he doesn't even cry when she leaves.  He is perfectly fine being home with me and I love our mornings together.

Just a little nail update -- if any of you remember, when Fish was a wee one, he had issues with his big toenail.  It looked like the whole toenail was going to be an ingrown nail because his toes came up over his nail on every side.  He even went to an orthopedist who tried to stick cotton underneath his toenail to raise it up over the skin and ended up bending back his entire nail (needless to say, we didn't go back to that dude EVER -- even upon the suggestion of our old pediatrician when the ingrown-like nail came back).  Eventually, it worked itself out and the skin around his toe settled down and the nail started to strengthen up.  Well, the poor kid has just bad old luck with nails.  While at a Halloween party, he fell off a push scooter and his fingernail blackened immediately (and he screamed for about 3 minutes).  Just last week, his poor fingernail started to fall off.  I started freaking out -- but found it to be normal with severe nail trauma.  Well, today, the whole thing fell off.  Now the poor kid doesn't have a nail on his index finger of his left hand -- you can see if in the cat-hat photos (his fingernail is really red, that's because there is no nail there, only skin).  I read that 85% of the time, it grows back completely normal (I don't think he is going to have the luck on his side due to his previous experience with nails, but we'll see).

As you can see by the last three photos, we put on Fish in her old hat and put her new hat on her.  The results were too adorable not to share.